Ghostwriter? No, the text copyright is for Ann M. Martin
Illustrators: Katy Farina, with color by Braden Lamb
Synoposis:
Kristy's younger sister, Karen Brewer, is getting ready for a weekend at her father's house with her younger brother, Andrew. They usually live with their mother and step-father, but every other weekend they live with their dad, step-mother, three step-brothers, and step-sister. And when she's at her dad's, her next-door neighbor is a witch.
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| Karen and Andrew getting ready to go to their dad's |
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| The titular "witch" |
No one believes this but Karen, her (dad's house) best friend Hannie, Andrew, and her step-brother David Michael, but Karen is sure of it. So sure that when she and Hannie are spying (against the rules at her dad's house) on the neighbor (Mrs. Porter, supposedly AKA Morbidda Destiny) and hear her talking to her cat about some upcoming plans, Karen just knows there's a witch meeting in the near future. When Karen sees several people coming to the neighbor's house, she runs to get Hannie: they have to stop the witch meeting! The two six-year-olds knock on the door, ask to come in, and proceed to berate the group of mostly older adults about whatever witch plans they have for the neighborhood--until Karen's grandmother interrupts to ask what they think they're doing interrupting a meeting of the Stoneybrook Garden Club.
She makes Karen and Hannie apologize, and sends Hannie home. She takes Karen back, and tells her dad and step-mom what happened. Watson and Elizabeth are, of course, appalled. They concede that Karen thought she was protecting the neighborhood, and punish her only for spying. Even in the midst of that, Karen lies when she promises to not spy again--she'll still spy if she feels she really needs to.
Continuity related to the BSC books:
Elizabeth and Karen seem to have a really good relationship, with Elizabeth giving Karen a good morning kiss. The rest of the Brewers also treat Karen and Andrew like one of their own.
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| Karen's families |
Kristy is shown to enjoy baby-sitting, and Mary Anne makes a brief appearance when she and her dad pick Kristy up.
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| Oh right, the BSC exists |
In the graphic novel version of Kristy's Big Day, Watson's parents are said to be very religious, as part of the reasoning why Watson and Elizabeth want to marry before living in the same house. The grandmother at the garden club is Karen's maternal grandmother, which is too bad because it would have be hilarious to see the reaction if she were the ultra-religious (and presumably anti-witchcraft) grandmother.
Misc:
Ann M. Martin dedicates this to Laura Elizabeth, the newest Perkins; Katy Farina to Maddie, her little sister.
So, yes: I'm reviewing the Baby-sitters Little Sister graphic novels (Karen's Roller Skates will be up next month). However, I'm not committing to reviewing the entire chapter book series. There are 128 books, and I have all but... 128 of them. I read a few as a kid and never really liked them as much, so there's no nostalgia for me.
Like the other graphic novels, there are some changes and updates. The most obvious is that Hannie Papadakis and her family are mixed-race: Hannie's dad is Greek and her mom is black.
My middle kid read this too (she's read all the graphic novels and is working her way through the BSC chapter books; my oldest is reading the American Girl novels). She's a few months older than Karen is depicted in the book, and reassured me that she'll never go to our next-door neighbor's house (also an older widow) to accuse her of witchcraft.
This illustration of a waxing crescent moon indicates it's setting just before dawn. A waxing crescent sets before midnight--a full moon would set before dawn.
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| At least there are no stars in the part of the moon that's in shadow. |
I've never dealt with divorce first-hand, though my mom and some cousins and friends have. One thing I wonder about: with shared custody, do kids ever really feel like their "at home"? I really hope that more kids feel like Karen ("I have two homes!") than not. It must be hard going back and forth, but it would also be hard to not see one of your parents. If any of you have experience with divorce, I hope it ends/ended up overall a good one.
So... Karen. I don't like "Karen" as an insult, just as I don't like any name as an insult, or purposely mispronouncing names as insults. People can't help what they're named, and their names don't have a real impact on their personalities. I also think weaponizing names is a lazy way to insult people. That said, it's still kinda funny that of all the names that could be stereotyped as someone who butts in and causes problems by overreacting, it just had to be Karen. (But the three Karens I know in real life are exceptionally nice people, and would never do anything like that.)
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| How Karen thinks unveiling the witch meeting will go |
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| What actually happens |
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| The problem with Karen, in a nutshell |
