Fourteen year old Enid Irene Crowley lives on Marlborough St. in Boston, MA, with her lawyer father, her radiologist mother, and the family’s somewhat eccentric live-in housekeeper Mrs. Kolodny. She goes to the Carstairs School where her best friends are Trina Bentley and Emily Wentworth but definitely not Seth Sandroff whose father owns a television station and whose mother is a famous child psychologist, though with her other friends away at their camps she starts hanging out with Seth. Named for her father’s very rich great aunt, she hates her name and calls herself Cynthia. For the summer she has enrolled in a morning art class at the Museum of Fine Arts but will be babysitting four year old, over-protected Joshua Warwick Cameron IV, who doesn’t like his name either and wants to be called Tom Terrific, in the afternoons, planning to take him with her to the Public Garden to play while she draws assignments for her class. In the Garden, Enid/Cynthia and Joshua/Tom make friends with a tall African-American saxophone player called Hawk and a bunch of old bag ladies. One day Tom counted 24 bag ladies in the park. After a successful adventure organizing a picket with the bag ladies to bring back root beer flavored popsicles, they concoct another adventure, with Seth’s help, to give the bag ladies a ride on the swan boats. The project is top secret, and they plan things very carefully so nothing can go wrong. Or can it? And what will Enid do when she is accused of kidnapping? There is actually a cute story somewhere in here, but author Lois Lowry, who has won two Newbery Medals for Number the Stars, which I liked, and The Giver, for which I personally didn’t care, has loaded it down with a lot of unnecessary baggage. The name of God is used as an exclamation, and the term “omigod” appears rather often, along with childish slang terms (crap, pee) and euphemisms (heck, darn). Perhaps worse than this, Enid signs a petition regarding transvestites, talks with Mrs. Kolodny about “preverts,” speaks of Mrs. Kolodny’s gothic romances as stories in which heroines are seduced by sinister men, has a discussion with Seth about heroin-using prostitutes, jumps to the conclusion that when Ms. Cameron says that she is going away on a business trip she is really going off on a weekend with her boyfriend (which seems to end up being true), talks with Mrs. Kolodny about one of her soap operas that involves a lot of immorality, says that a man looks as if he were stoned, and describes Ms. Cameron’s dress as “low necked with lots of cleavage.” Most godly parents would probably rather not have their pre-teen and middle-school children introduced to such sordid topics. In addition, Enid does some lying and breaks Ms. Cameron’s rules for Joshua, and their escapade in the Garden involves some actual criminal activity—but, of course, it’s all in the name of a good cause, which is simply saying that the end justifies the means. There are also references to drinking wine and beer and to slow dancing. I’m sorry, but I really can’t give this book a very good rating, especially for children.
It's summer, and Enid is planning to spend her summer taking art classes, when she is offered a baby-sitting job for an adorable, imaginative 4-year-old boy named Tom Terrific. She takes him a few times a week to her favorite spot in Boston, the Public Garden. They end up having adventures with some new friends, organizing the local bag ladies to picket the popsicle stand because of the lack of root beer popsicles and then sneaking out at night to liberate a Swan Boat and give the bag ladies a ride.This is one of those books that if I pick up, I cannot put down. Good thing it's short. I had to read this one after finishing Jane Eyre because there's this great exchange between Enid and the eccentric housekeeper, Grace, when Grace mentions that she's reading it and that she'd like to have an employer like Mr. Rochester. And Enid says to herself, wait until she finds out what Mr. Rochester is hiding in the attic. That's just one of the small scenes in this book that makes me giggle.
What do You think about Taking Care Of Terrific (1984)?
I read this book when I was 10 years old and already a big Anastasia Krupnik fan. I was not disappointed in this new character, and I would have liked to see a few more books about her.Enid Crowley lives in Boston and this summer she has decided to reinvent herself. A big part of that process is informally changing her name from the despised Enid to Cynthia. As Cynthia, she gets a summer job babysitting Joshua Cameron, a rich, sheltered four-year-old who is nevertheless a bright, well-behaved an
—Aimee
So I have this blog where I read books I read as an adolescent and review them from an adult perspective. I love doing it, though I'm generally derisive and snarky towards most of the books I chose to read back then. NOT THIS ONE!The protag Enid/Cynthia is a fantastic narrator. The characters are surprisingly deep and well-rounded for a YA novel. And it has a good message without being overly preachy. One point off for considering the popsicle man to be "The Man," if you know what I mean. He has no power! Don't protest him!
—Nikki Boisture
I love this book. I do not know why I love this book. Maybe it's Enid-- I mean Cynthia and I's shared love of words? Maybe it's the fact that I was laughing the whole way through? Maybe because I felt like I had the whole, not so well known book all to myself?Perhaps it was all those reasons.See this is the story of a 14 year old baby sitter who calls herself Cynthia. The little boy she watches looks up o her and decides to call himself Terrific hence the name, Taking Care of Terrific. The book is full of their hilarious misadventures. I have to hand it to the author, I really love the characters. There's the young adult protagonist who is starting to view the world differently. The adorable little boy she is taking care of. The angry friend. WAIT! Now I really did like Seth. It was a nice change to have a friend like him in a book, if you read it you'll see what I mean. The "nanny" who obsesses over soap opera's and bad romance novels. In the end the cast had me choking on water from laughter.In conclusion, I loved this book. I'm currently torn between sharing it with my friends and keeping it to myself. But since I don't know you, do yourself a favor and read this book. I think it's sad that my generation doesn't know it exists. I recommend this book to girls (though boys, if they give it a chance, might like it too) 12 and up.
—Isabella Sparrow
