Customer Reviews

Baby Sitter's Guide by Dennis the Menace

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Back in the late fifties/early sixties, my father had a couple of bookshelves in the basement where he kept his huge library of paperback books. For some reason or another I was attracted to this one. It might have been due to the fact that Dennis The Menace, was the star of a hit TV series that every cool kid in America watched with a bit of awe. This four year old was the kid that we were not allowed to be.

This guide to getting over on any babysitter was first published in 1954, and I do believe it did pretty darn well as my pop's edition is the 10th pocketbook printing from July 1959. Writen by Dennis with help from Hank Ketcham and Bob Harmon, this is a handy guide to keeping one step ahead of any babysitter that wants to spoil your good times. The text is snappy and full of many great tips to keep a rugrat in control of any grownup that dares to rule their world. Many classic early fifties comic strips about our hero are included here, as are many new illustrations done exclusively by Hank for this book that add to the sound advice from Dennis found on these pages.

This book did help more than a little bit to plant a serious reading bug in my lil' brain. The words of Dennis are here in this guide, and after fifty years of enjoying this book I'm still proud to have it in my collection of reading material.

This is real American history, Dennis was the Huck Finn for the weird children of my generation. This is an fine book that holds up because it's message of anti-authority hasn't gone away all these years later. Dennis The Menace, isn't Che in pajamas but he is a bright alpha toddler that showed more than a few kids that being perfect was out of the question.

This is a feel-good book that links another era to all of us, and doesn't display it from being that different from what is happening today in the 21st century.
A great book.
Four & half stars!