In these two stories from award-winning educator and lecturer Steven L. Layne, Joey tries to convince the monsters to eat his brother, Dan, while the older brother has a hard time learning how to “love the baby.” Narrated by Layne himself, these stories cast a funny and fond glance at sibling relationships and include such valuable lessons as how to make a persuasive argument—as in the case of Joey and the monsters—and how to be patient and honest when a newborn joins the family.
In My Brother Dan’s Delicious, Joey’s parents finally understand that he’s old enough to be left at home alone while he waits for his older brother to come home. It doesn’t take long before Joey starts to see and hear things in the empty house and realizes that in addition to being smart and eight-and-a-half, he’s also a monster’s idea of the perfect meal. Fortunately, Joey has the quick wit to convince the monster that Dan would make a more suitable supper.
Love the Baby is the sweet story of how an older sibling comes to terms with a newborn in the house. The new baby is an annoying, loud nuisance who the big brother must “pretend” to love. When the baby needs a hero in the night, however, big brother comes to the rescue and discovers, to his great surprise, that he really does love the baby after all.