Little Sister #51: Karen's Big Top

Tagline: Karen is clowning around!

Cover: When I did Mary Anne and Camp BSC, I'd completely forgotten that I had Karen's Big Top, so I decided to do this as a companion to that book. Anyway, here is Karen, and she's dressed like a clown. There's a guy standing underneath the elephant in a way that looks totally unsafe, and the girl juggling rings is either on stilts or has a really short torso.

Plot!: Karen is at circus camp, and makes friends with the performers. She's loving it, or, as the back of the book says, she "has gigundo fun learning all the circus activities." But she can't make her mind up about the activity that she'll do. But then, at the end, she becomes the ringmaster, because she's just that special.

Points of Interest:

• Just so you know, the 'f' and 'w' keys aren't working on my keyboard (except now, amazingly enough), so if my phrasing sounds a bit...strange, it's because I'm going out of my way to avoid these letters.
  
• Karen tumbles out of bed, because she's going to Circus Camp in seven days (see my strange phrasing?). Apparently, Mr. Willie and his family are circus folk, and they travel all year but spend July in Stoneybrook.
  
• His real name is B. F. Willie, naturally.
  
• I think that Karen always describes Vietnam as "faraway." Maybe that's how Watson and Elizabeth explained it to her.
  
• Anyway, July is a Big House month. Karen says "Bye, Mommy! See you in August!" I've never really thought about this, but do Karen and Andrew really not see their mom for a whole month? Not even like, a visit, to have lunch or something? Is that more traumatic or something? It just seems like a really long time for a five and a seven year old to be away from their parents (and that goes the same for Watson on Little House months).
  
• For July 4th, Karen's family gets permission to close off their block on July 4th during their barbecue. That seems strange.
  
• After they get home from the fireworks, Kristy pulls all the kids aside and says that since Nannie's birthday is coming up at the end of the month, she thinks they should do something special. She probably counts that as one of her special Great IdeasTM.
  
• On the first day of Circus Camp, Karen meets Laura, Mr. Willie's niece, and Jillian, his granddaughter, and he says that everyone is part of the B.F. Willie family.
  
• Side note: would you let your child go to a circus camp, on the edge of town, with a man named Mr. Willie?
• Karen is happy that her pretend husband is in the same group as she is, because she thinks it's good when married people do interesting things together. No, really.
  
• Karen calls Lisa and Seth to tell them about Circus camp, so I guess it's not like she's shut away from them completely.
  
• Apparently David Michael was a Winkie in the "Wizard of Oz." What's that?
  
• Their big idea re: Nannie's birthday is to throw a surprise party. They stayed up all night, but it was worth it!
• Andrew's idea of how to surprise Nannie is to tell her to get all dressed up and come to the living room. Charlie thinks it needs to be trickier, so Karen comes up with a plan involving loose elephants. They eventually decide on a party at the bowling alley.
  
• Karen eavesdrops and overhears Nannie telling someone that she hates surprise parties and that the worst thing she can imagine is to have everyone yelling "Surprise!" at her. So Karen wants to tell someone, but she can't tell anyone because she'd get in trouble for eavesdropping.
  
• Karen realizes that she wants to do everything in the Circus, so she can't decide on the one thing that she'll do at the big show.
  
• Would the rest of the family really not know that Nannie doesn't like surprises? Actually, I'm not entirely sure that I buy that she doesn't like surprises.
  
• Karen talks to Nannie and tells her about the surprise, so they decide to fake it, like this is an original thought and not something that hasn't been done a thousand times on various TV shows.
  
• At the party, Karen's new friend Jillian calls Nannie, "Nannie." Would you really call someone else's grandmother by their familiar name, just like that? Maybe, if you're eight.
  
• Karen is sad because she wasted all the practice time dithering about what to do in the Circus. BUT at the last minute, the ringmaster is sick and can't do it, so - da da da DA! - Karen to the rescue! Barf.
  
• Karen realizes that she is really lucky because even though she has to move between the Little House and the Big House, her friend Jillian has to move from show to show, all over the country. Just in time for a sappy ending!

Final Thoughts: I don't think that the person who wrote Mary Anne and Camp BSC actually read this book, because in that one they say that Karen never really went on a REAL high wire, but in this one, yeah, she does. I hate to take Karen's side (and they are obnoxious in Mary Anne and Camp BSC), but this is a real circus camp, and if I went to the BSC Circus after going to Mr. Willie's camp, I'd be disappointed, too.

Little Sister #90: Karen's Haunted House

Tagline: It's not supposed to be this scary!

Cover: I should adopt that tagline for this blog. Meanwhile, can we talk about what Hannie's wearing? I don't know what's going on with her jeans. They are super baggy and her crotch is off to one side. And the way the shirt is drawn, it looks like she's pregnant but instead of wearing maternity pants she is just wearing really really big ones that don't fit at all and will likely fall down. Also, Nancy gets to hold on to Karen's hand, but Hannie has to hold on to Karen's coat. I guess we know who's higher up in the friend hierarchy (although, really, Karen has probably known Hannie her whole life and has only known Nancy for a year or two, in actual time).

Plot!: It's Halloween again, and Ms. Colman's class is making a haunted house in Karen's neighbourhood. It's a lot of fun for everyone until Karen starts hearing spooky noises, and that doesn't take much to get Karen's ghost-obsessed mind to run away with her and accuse Drucilla, Morbidda Destiny's granddaughter, of being behind the pranks. In the end, though, it turns out that the noises were made by Charlie and Sam...except one bucket of ashes that is unaccounted for! Spooky!

Points of interest:

• Whenever I hear the word spooky, I think of the X-Files. I loved that show.
  
• Karen and Hannie start out the book being Leaf Monsters. Karen points out that she is not normally a leaf monster, but a mild-mannered seven year old. I would never describe Karen as mild-mannered.
• Karen wants to be Cinderella for Halloween. Hannie wants to be a butterfly.
  
• Aw, their school has a Halloween parade. We had one of those at my elementary school and it really was a lot of fun. Looking back, it was one of the best educational time-wasters that also did not cost any money.
  
• Druscilla and her mom move back in with Morbidda Destiny, who I guess is Druscilla's mom's mom. Karen is convinced that Druscilla is a witch in training. I have a very clear memory of reading Karen's Little Witch (I think that's its name) at my Grandparents' house, lying in a bunk bed looking at the stickers that came with it.
  
• In one illustration of Hannie, she is wearing a hockey jersey in her classroom.
  For no reason at all.
  
• Anyway, conveniently the city owns a house on Karen and Hannie's street that Karen and Hannie already think is haunted, and Hannie's family is going to run a haunted house. Where is the BSC to butt their nose in?
  
• Karen's class signs up to make one of the rooms.
• Karen is convinced that Druscilla is a witch in training because she wears all black. Maybe that's just her personal style, like Stephanie from the Sleepover Friends series.
  
• When Karen tells Morbidda Destiny about the haunted house, Morbidda Destiny freaks out and starts yammering about the bats. Apparently that house is a haven for bats, and the haunted house will disturb them. Uh, what was she planning on doing if someone BOUGHT the house?
  
• Also, is Morbidda Destiny's house a mansion like all of the other ones on the block? If so, where did she get all her money?
  
• Charlie and Sam are going through this weird competitive phase where they argue all the time. It's so strange to see people acting like normal teenage siblings.
  
• Addie, who has cerebral palsy (if my memory is correct), is in a wheelchair, and some high school boys carried her wheelchair upstairs. Is that even safe? What if there's an emergency? Couldn't Karen's class get a room on the ground floor?
  
• Ms. Colman has a daughter, Jane, who she brought along to decorating the haunted house. In Karen's Snow Day, she was just getting engaged! Ms. Colman moves fast.
  
• Pest control has determined that the bats are free and full of disease. Well, that's a relief! And I guess they just poop outside, because isn't bat poop really dangerous? And icky?
• Watson and Elizabeth decide they will buy bat houses for their yard. Maybe they could get some bat mansions.
  
• Karen flies off the handle at Druscilla, who had the audacity to want to be Cinderella for Halloween, even though Karen ALREADY DECIDED to be Cinderella, and there can only be ONE CINDERELLA in the whole wide world, and Druscilla should have known that even though Karen didn't even TELL HER, EVERYONE should know what Karen is thinking.
  
• Karen becomes convinced that Druscilla is trying to scare her at the haunted house because of the whole costume thing, and because the world revolves around Karen.
  
• Hannie keeps pushing that the real culprit is a ghost.
  
• It turns out that Druscilla wasn't behind the haunting, because she was sick all weekend. Also because she's not really a witch.
  
• Kristy does Karen's hair for Halloween? I have a hard time picturing Kristy doing anyone's hair.
  
• It turns out that Karen is Cinderella AFTER her transformation and Druscilla is Cinderella BEFORE her transformation, so they're not the same after all. Wah-Waaah.
  
• Karen's mom only lets them eat two pieces of candy a day. That seems kind of strict, for Halloween.
  
• It turns out that Sam and Charlie were behind all of the weird noises and pranks at the Haunted House, because they had found hidden passageways and stuff. So it's a happy ending! And Halloween was not ruined for Karen, thank goodness.
  

Final thought: Halloween is not a holiday that I've ever really been a big fan of, candy and all.

Little Sister #116: Karen's Reindeer

Tagline: Karen, the Red-nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose...

Cover: It looks like Karen, Hannie and Nancy are in some kind of school performance. We never had matching outfits like that in any of my school shows, but I guess that's what makes Stoneybrook Academy different.

Plot!: Karen wants to be Rudolph in her school play, but it goes to Hannie instead, and she's jealous. She's trying to be extra good for Santa, but she steals Charlie's ornament and breaks Nannie's vase and then lies about it.

Points of Interest:

• Karen, in an attempt to be good, picks up someone else's gum and puts it in the garbage. Ew. I think Santa would understand if she left someone else's gum on the ground.
  
• Heh. Emily Michelle calls Karen a meanie-mo.
  
• Karen sees a reindeer in her yard. She immediately assumes it's Rudolph.
  
• Nancy is telling the class that they should do a Hannukah presentation, when Karen blurts out "Rudolph!" because she's thinking about the reindeer, but the rest of the class immediately decides to do a Rudolph number. Nancy is some pissed.
• The big house trims the tree and decorates the house with all of their big house decorations. I wonder if Karen ever thinks of Mom in the little house, decorating the house all by herself.
  
• So if Karen is here in December, she'd be there in December next year, right? Assuming the month-to-month thing doesn't change. Little House: Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept, Nov; Big House: Feb, April, June, August, October, December. I guess it's about even for holidays.
  
• Karen keeps claiming that she sees the Reindeer, but whenever Charlie looks, it's disappeared. He's being really nice about the whole thing, going along with the food in the backyard plan. He is a good big brother. More Charlie fanfic, please!
  
• Hannie gets to be Rudolph, while Karen is Elf #4. Heh. Of course, Karen starts pulling diva fits all over the place.
  
• Hannie gets wired up to some kind of harness so she can fly as Rudolph, but she's scared to do it. I'm so sure. First of all, what kind of school has harnesses so kids can fly? That just seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Also, I do not buy Hannie as being scared of heights or flying.
  
• Karen finally confesses that she broke the vase, and it turns out not to be a big deal, because she's Karen.
  
• In Karen's stocking is a note from Santa, thanking her for taking care of his reindeer, in what I imagine is Charlie's handwriting.
  
• At the end of the book is a weird little change "Carefully I folded the note and slipped it into my robe pocket. I would treasure it forever. But, as it turned out, I would never see my reindeer again." So...is Karen writing this from the future? An adult Karen telling stories about her younger days? What's going on here?!
  

Final thought: The other day I saw some Halloween decorations in a store, and I thought, "this is ridiculous! it's not even September!" but then I looked at the store's other wall and saw Christmas decorations, and thought "oh, I love Christmas, I can't wait!" So I'm a total holiday hypocrite.

Little Sister Super Special #5: Karen's Baby

Tagline: Karen's a fairy godsister!

Cover: That is a creepy looking baby. And that is a terrible pattern on the walls.

Plot!: Karen is excited about Nancy's soon-to-be-born little brother or sister. She's pestering the Dawses every chance to get. Finally little Daniel is born, but he's pretty little and kind of sick, and that freaks Nancy out. Eventually he can come home and Nancy calms down and everyone's happy. She makes Karen's Danny's fairy godsister, which doesn't happen until the end of the book even though it was included on the cover.

Points of Interest:

• When the book starts, Karen is pestering her mom for a little brother or sister. Her mom says it is out of the question. Maybe Seth is sterile? Also, she tells Karen that she already has a little brother, but doesn't say anything about a little sister (Emily Michelle). Is that weird, or would it be weirder for Lisa to mention her?
  
• Karen has taken to calling the Dawses' house all the time to see if Nancy's mom has gone into labour yet. And...the adults allow this? Karen seems weirdly overinvested in someone else's baby.
  
• BSC shoutout! They have a sleepover at Kristy's/Karen's, and the BSC gives Nancy advice on taking care of a baby.
  
• Someone in Stoneybrook goes into labour, and they DON'T call the BSC! Nancy goes to stay at Karen's Little House instead.
  
• Nancy names her little brother Daniel. I wonder if her parents were planning to use their veto power if they didn't like the name she chose.
  
• When Nancy sees her brother, she gets scared and starts crying because he's so little.
  
• We all get a Cultural Awareness lesson in what a Mezuzah is. Because Nancy's Jewish, remember.
  
• The Three Musketeers decide to sell the baby supplies that they made. Because people are dying to own mobiles and bottle warmers made by seven year olds.
  
• Nancy's mom spends about five days in the hospital.
  
• Daniel comes to school as a special show and share guest. He's a few weeks old. But in the accompanying illustration, he looks about six months old. I don't know a lot about babies, and I know they change pretty quickly, but still...something looks off.
  
• Nancy makes Karen Danny's fairy godsister in an elaborate ceremony that involves a crown with Karen's name on it. Karen loves it.
• In the back pages, there's a list of the most popular boys's and girls' names from 1950, 1980, and 1988. The 1988 girls names are: Jessica, Jennifer, Stephanie, Melissa, Nicole, Ashley, Tiffany, Amanda, Christina, and Samantha. That sounds about right.
  

Final Thought: I'd never really realized that a Little Sister Super Special is the same size (20 chapters) as a regular LS book, only with crafts and stuff at the end. Huh.

Little Sister #34: Karen's Snow Day

Tagline: Hurray! No school today!

Cover: Karen, Hannie and Nancy build a snowman, and pretend his name is Parson Brown.

Plot!: Karen is obsessed with having a snow day. She listens to the radio every morning and makes a list of the perfect snow day activities. Meanwhile, Karen's stepbrothers Charlie and Sam have started snowblowing driveways, and they enlist Karen to drum up business. She goes overboard, of course, and when she does get a snow day she has to spend it helping out Charlie and Sam because they are overbooked, and she is too tired to do her activities. But that's okay, because the next day her school boiler is broken and school is closed, so the Three Musketeers have their snow day after all.

Points of Interest:

• The book starts out with one of Kristy's Great IdeasTM: A reading party in the big house den. And all of the family shows up. Because Sam, Charlie, and even Nannie have nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon. Is this really how big families act?
  
• I think I might have mentioned this in the other Karen book that I blogged about, but I have no idea what the timeline is for when her parents split up. In this book, she says that she lived at the big house when she was younger than Andrew, who is four (in this book). Watson is already dating Elizabeth when Karen is six. Does she remember her parents together? Does Andrew?
  
• One of Karen's annoying habbits is saying "Guess what" before she says something that's supposed to shock you (like she has a pet rat, or she and Ricky are pretend married).
  
• Isn't Hannie pretend married, too? I thought something like that was mentioned once.
  
• Karen gets really excited about inviting her teacher to dinner. I don't remember inviting my teachers to dinner, but I know at least one of my sister's teachers did.
  
• So Charlie and Sam have a snowblower and want to start a snowclearing business, but they're nervous about calling up people and asking for work. And they agree to let Karen do it. Why wouldn't they ask Kristy, who has her own business? And is older than seven?
  
• Then when Karen finds them more clients, they are all booked. But they don't think to tell Karen this, so she keeps on finding customers for them. Charlie and Sam KNOW what Karen is like - why wouldn't they say "Karen, thanks, that's enough?" Why are these books full of dumb misunderstandings because people don't communicate with each other?
  
• The time span of Karen books can really vary, especially if it's a book with big-house weekends. In the early ones, a whole book could be about a day. This one spans about six weeks. Not like time matters anyway.
  
• Karen gets to choose what she wants for dinner with Ms. Colman. She chooses a salad with artichoke hearts. When I was seven, I would have chosen something like hot dogs.
  
• When they are expecting a blizzard, there's a mention of the events around Snowbound.
  
• Just on a general note, snow days were pretty awesome. So was getting to go home early because of the weather.
  
• When Charlie and Sam don't show up, the clients call Karen. I'm not sure why - why wouldn't they call Charlie and Sam? They're all practically neighbours of the Brewer/Thomas house. Also, even if they didn't know them, they would know she was Karen Brewer...did Karen give them her number?
  
• Oh yeah, Karen lined up all of these new clients...and then didn't tell Charlie and Sam. So they're pissed, and they make the Three Musketeers come over and help them out, which ruins their snow day. Also, I'm surprised that Karen's mom lets her go over to the big house on a little house day.
  
• Karen's snow day is ruined, and Ms. Colman has to cancel their dinner because of the snow. But then, because this is Karen and Karen always gets what she wants (including charging a manicure to her Dad's credit card in Baby-Sitters on Board), the next day her school is closed because of a boiler problem and Ms. Colman can come to dinner. Ugh.
  
• The snowman on the cover's name is actually Dudley.
  
• When she comes to dinner, Ms. Colman announces to these relative strangers that she is getting married: "That is why I have been so busy lately. The wedding will be several months from now. After the wedding I will go away for awhile for our honeymoon. But then I will come back to school. Oh, and my name will still be Ms. Colman." Well, thanks for clearing that up in the least realistic speaking manner possible.
  

Final Thought: Is it wrong that I was actually kind of disappointed when Karen got her snow day?

Bonus: Little Sister #4: Karen's Kittycat Club

Tagline: Karen has a club now, too!

Cover: I have a few Little Sister books around here, so I thought that I might as well blog those, too. I started out with the Little Sister books and then moved up to the BSC. I guess I just got used to Karen, because she doesn't annoy me as much as she does other readers of the series(es). But this book is pretty annoying. I'll get to that. The cover....the orange checkerboard is very overwhelming. I can barely even read "Little Sister." Hannie has red hair? And I think we need to stage a pigtail intervention for her. Amanda Delaney looks appropriately princessy, but no way is the cat that Karen's holding Boo Boo.

Plot!: Hannie's family gets a new pet, a cat...and Karen realizes that now she and Hannie and Amanda all have pets. So she decides to form the Kittycat Club, because....she wants a club. I guess? But they don't know what to do, so they decide to cat-sit, but they don't get a job, partly because no one needs a cat-sitter and also because no one needs a six year old cat-sitter. Karen's other friend, Nancy, is jealous because she can't join the club. It's pretty much a failure on all sides. So the club folds and Karen starts a Fun Club, and that's a success. For this one book, and then is never mentioned again.

Points of Interest:

• Hey, did you know that Karen is a Two-Two? She has two of everything!
  
• "Mommy and Seth's house is little." Yeah, because she's not a millionaire like Watson. I wonder though if it is really little or just little compared to a mansion. It's in the same neighbourhood as Nancy's house, and I never got the feeling that it was a shack, but the way that Karen describes it it kind of sounds like it.
  
• Karen rationalizes that Shannon (the dog) likes David Michael more than her because she sees David Michael more than her. Because NO ONE would ever not like Karen just because.
  
• Karen decides that The Kittycat Club is a purr-fect name for her lame club.
  
• Karen always has the same lunch: an apple, a celery stick with peanut butter, chips and milk. It feels like it's missing the main part.
  
• Hannie making fun of Amanda's four hundred dollar cat never gets old. Of all of the musketeers, I think Hannie has the most potential.
  
• Karen and Nancy fight a lot in these early books. This isn't as dumb as the Karen-Nancy sleepover fight, because Nancy has a point in this one at least, but it's still drawn-out.
  
• The club almost has a job...but it turns out that the woman who called them thought that Karen was actually Katie Bower, sixteen. If this woman can't even read a children's jumbo print flyer, how is she managing on her own? How does she read labels, on food or medication? Someone needs to be called about this.
  
• In Karen's Big House room, she has Moosie, Tickly nineteen stuffed animals, and seven dolls. And this is the room that she lives in for two days, every other week.
  
• Karen practically starts sobbing at the song 'Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?': "I was nearly in tears. Imagine losing the flavor of your chewing gum."
• Nancy got upset with Karen because Karen started the Kittycat Club with Hannie and left Nancy out of it. So when Karen wants to start the Fun Club, she goes to Nancy....and leaves Hannie out of it. I don't think she's actually learned anything from this.
  
• People who come to the Fun Club who we never hear from again: Heather, Nina, Kim, and Vicky. They're "girls from school."
• Karen decides that the Fun Club is a success. It kind of is a Kristy-like thing to do - take something ordinary like playing and turn it into a big giant deal.
  

Final thought: I wish there was a book about Watson and Lisa's marriage. I picture it as being like one of Judy Blume's adult books.