Publication date: 2024
Ghostwriter? No, the text copyright is for Ann M. Martin
Illustrators: D.Y. Yingst, with color by Braden Lamb
Synopsis:
Karen's class is participating in an "adopt a grandparent" program, pairing the students with residents at a nearby nursing home. Karen's excited, figuring she'll set a record for number of grandmothers, since she already has four: her parents' two mothers and her stepparents' two mothers. But why is Nancy so reluctant? She has such a small family--just her and her parents. Surely she'd want a grandparent, right?
Turns out, Nancy is afraid of old people. She says sometimes she wishes she had grandparents, but she also worries she'd be afraid of them, too. Determined to help her friend, Karen writes to her granny (her stepdad's mother, in Nebraska), describing Nancy and asking if Granny would like to be a penpal grandmother. That would help feel connected to someone and gradually get used to older people.
Meanwhile, Karen gets to know Grandma B, her adopted grandmother at the nursing home. When she returns home one day, there's a letter from Granny--she's agreed to be Nancy's penpal grandmother, and sent her a letter! Full of pictures... Karen didn't get a nice long letter with pictures from Grandma B. And Granny sends Nancy personalized mittens that she knit. Grandma B just talks about her other grandchildren (who live in another state). But Nancy is excited, so Karen tries not to feel jealous.
A solution presents itself when Karen's class visits the nursing home to put on a play for the residents. Though nervous, Nancy soldiers on, even meeting Grandma B--who, it turns out, is Jewish, just like Nancy and her family. They actually have quite a bit in common, far more than Karen did, and they get along really well. It doesn't take long for Grandma B to be invited to temple with the Dawes family, and when Karen starts a different extracurricular activity, Nancy has officially adopted Grandma B, and Karen's back to four grandmothers.
Continuity related to BSC books: nothing stood out beyond the description of the family dynamics of the Brewer household.
Misc:
Martin dedicates this book to Bethany Buck, "who helps make Karen come alive." Yingst dedicates it to "my mom and dad. Congratulations on the birth of your first grandchild, my niece, Eloise Rose."
Karen may have five grandmothers, but I've had six with an argument to be made for seven. Not all at once though: my paternal grandfather survived his first two wives, marrying again after they died. My maternal grandparents divorced and both remarried. My maternal grandfather married a third time after his second wife died, and my mom's stepdad also remarried after her mom died. Her stepdad and his second wife don't have a traditional grandparent relationship with me, but they are definitely part of the family as well as very nice people.
I do love that Karen thinks of her stepgrandparents as family, and vice versa. While my household is the "traditional" nuclear family, my parents grew up in blended families (their siblings include full, half, step, and adopted siblings). But beyond it being a trivia point, it's never mattered to use whether we're related by blood, and I love seeing that attitude presented so casually. (One of them went by Granny to pretty everyone who wasn't her child, so it's funny to me that Nancy feels like she should come up with her own name for Karen's granny, calling her "Big Mama" instead.)
 |
| Grandma B |
 |
| The Three Musketeers |
