Friday, April 26, 2013

Review - Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny

Title: Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny
Author: Patricia Hermes
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing; Reprint edition (April 1, 2010)
Format: Softcover; Pgs 106
Genre: Emerging Reader
Source: Amazon Vine Program
Ages: 7 and up

I am still not sure if I liked this book or not.

Emma Dilemma and the New Nanny is the first book in the series and we are introduced to Emma and her family. Five children, a pilot father, a mother that works from home and a brand new nanny.

Emma is working on her responsibility skills. Marmaduke the ferret has once again gone missing. The last time, Emma’s mother swore that the critter would go back to the pet store if it happened again, so Emma is trying to stealth-ily find the troublemakers before her parents do. Easier said than done when her mother wakes up screaming because something is in her mattress.

Marmaduke cannot be sent away, Emma has a report due for school and the ferret is the main attraction. Not only does she have the report riding on this, but also if Emma does not start showing more responsibility, she will not be able to join the soccer team.

Oh, what is she to do? In steps Annie the new nanny, and hopefully, Emma will learn her lessons and Annie will be able to survive the upheavals of this family and not be sent away like all the previous nannies.

As I said, I am not sure if I liked this book or not. I have to put my mind back into secondary type reading books and think like an advancing reader. For a third plus grade reader, this book was good. There were challenges and tricky sentences, but that is what is needed for budding readers. The message – still not so sure.

The story was a bit jumbled and erratic, but then again, maybe that is the feeling that Patricia Hermes was trying to put across. Raising a houseful of children can be crazy and sometimes the calming influence of an outsider is what is needed. Other than one conversation between Emma and her father, I did not see Emma’s parents playing a very instrumental role in their children’s lives and I think that is what is bothering me the most after finishing this book.

Maybe the future books will put the family in a different light, but for now, I am on the fence about this series.

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