Titlebaum, Ellen

Personal

Female.

Addresses

Home—New York, NY.

Career

Writer.

Writings

I Love You, Winnie the Pooh, illustrated by Robbin Cuddy, Disney Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(Adaptor) Beauty and the Beast: A Read-aloud Storybook, Disney Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Sabrina Down Under (based on television movie written by Daniel Berendsen), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1999.

(Adaptor) The Tigger Movie: A Read-aloud Storybook, Mouse Works (New York, NY), 2000.

"STEP INTO READING" SERIES

(With Cathy Hapka) How Not to Babysit Your Brother, illustrated by Debbie Palen, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Cathy Hapka) How Not to Start Third Grade, illustrated by Debbie Palen, Random House (New York, NY), 2007.

Sidelights

Ellen Titlebaum has written a number of works based on Disney favorites, including I Love You, Winnie the Pooh and Beauty and the Beast: A Read-aloud Storybook. She is also the coauthor, with Cathy Hapka, of How Not to Babysit Your Brother and How Not to Start Third Grade, two works in the "Step into Reading" series. In the former, a youngster decides to take charge of his rambunctious little brother when their grandmother falls asleep while babysitting. After Will loses sight of unruly Steve, however, the preschooler wreaks havoc on their home. According to Lisa S. Schindler, writing in School Library Journal, the tale "is all in good fun and not to be taken too seriously."

Will and Steve return in How Not to Start Third Grade. Although Will looks forward to his first day as a third-grader, he is also wary of his brother's arrival in the kindergarten classroom. Sure enough, Steve romps through the hallways and starts a food fight in the cafeteria, and the family dog makes an equally wild appearance. "Simply constructed sentences and brisk dialogue make use of lively vocabulary," Gillian Engberg remarked in Booklist.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2007, Gillian Engberg, review of How Not to Start Third Grade, p. 126.

School Library Journal, August, 2005, Lisa S. Schindler, review of How Not to Babysit Your Brother, p. 96; July, 2007, Susan Lissim, review of How Not to Start Third Grade, p. 76.