Full
Text Review(s)
"Hermes
will leave thoughtful young readers mulling issues of trust and responsibility
with this tale of a large family beset with domestic minicrises. Beginning with
the night that Emma’s ferret escapes for the umpteenth time and takes
refuge in her parents’ bed, Hermes repeatedly puts Emma on the spot. Her
pet bites a classmate after she takes it to school without permission; she
accidentally burns the passport of the family’s newest nanny, Annie
O’Reilly; then she saves the lovable nanny from a dangerous fall but tries
to hide the incident from her overprotective parents. The tumult in a family
with five preteen children, several pets, and two working parents provides a
lively setting, and the author lightly but effectively conveys the ideas that
adults aren’t perfect and that admitting mistakes is often the first step
toward solutions that leave everyone pleased."
"Place one large
family with five children, one pet dog and one lovable ferret under the
direction of a liberal thinking new nanny and the stakes are high for both minor
disasters and uproarious mishaps leaving busy working parents on edge. Emma, one
of the elder siblings, is desperate to maintain control and responsibility in
order to prove she is capable of participating on a traveling soccer team. At
the same time, she feels she must protect Annie the Nanny from losing her new
job and following a long list of former nannies out the door. The ever-prolific
Hermes combines a dash of humor, a pinch of anxiety and a whole lot of warmth
and affection with real-life conflict to bring a busy hectic family together in
a satisfying conclusion. Short, easy chapters in an amusing and suspenseful text
provide intrigue and lots of amusement. Emma is a delightfully genuine young
heroine with whom young middle-grade readers will identify and look to for
future episodes."
