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Baby-Sitters Little Sister #32
Karen's Pumpkin Patch
Karen's daddy has given Karen a special job for Halloween. She is in charge of the pumpkin patch. And there are so many pumpkins! Karen chooses a gigundo one for herself, and then she has a pumpkin sale. Karen finds good homes for all her pumpkin babies.
But then, a pumpkin smasher comes through the neighborhood! Karen and all her friends are so worried. Will their pumpkins be safe until Halloween?
112 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1992
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,142 books3,112 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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September 12, 2019Right on, something bad actually happens to Karen for once! I'm so glad this 7-year-old kid's Halloween was ruined!
January 8, 2020
✔️ a book with a fruit or vegetable in the title 🎃
January 14, 2025
Sometimes there are beautiful characters doomed by the narrative. Karen's pumpkin, Kong, was one such soul.
May 12, 2021
I read this for Halloween vibes and nostalgia reasons.
This book is about as exciting as you’d imagine any story about a girl tending to a vegetable patch would be.
Written for second grade readers, and it reads as if written BY a second grader too!
And of course you have to have all the backstory about how the parents are divorced and how great it is to have two families...as if that would trick any child into believing divorce is enjoyable.
I was truly sad for Kong but I found the ending hilarious. Karen seems like such an annoying, spoiled child. One can’t help but delight in her despair. Kidding...but kinda not.
I liked the Halloween-ish elements and the memories this brought back, but none of the BSC books were well-written.
Why did I read this today? I was procrastinating on work I needed to do.
This book is about as exciting as you’d imagine any story about a girl tending to a vegetable patch would be.
Written for second grade readers, and it reads as if written BY a second grader too!
And of course you have to have all the backstory about how the parents are divorced and how great it is to have two families...as if that would trick any child into believing divorce is enjoyable.
I was truly sad for Kong but I found the ending hilarious. Karen seems like such an annoying, spoiled child. One can’t help but delight in her despair. Kidding...but kinda not.
I liked the Halloween-ish elements and the memories this brought back, but none of the BSC books were well-written.
Why did I read this today? I was procrastinating on work I needed to do.
October 2, 2024
Welcome to October, everyone. We finally get into some spooky season reads. Around here I’ll be doing the usual, hitting up a randomizer to pick out some Halloween books. I may be less strict this time, may not do one each week like I do with the camp stuff.
There’s somehow, as of now anyway, less options as far as this theme goes and it just feels like it wouldn’t take long to be forcing myself to keep up the same ‘format” as it were when it doesn’t quite fit as well. Might just end up being a scattered few as I try to fit in other possible reads too.
It’ll depend on how I feel but I will have a voted on book I read near the day itself, gotta keep up that tradition. That said, here’s something quick: Baby-Sitters Little Sister. I did a whole BSC thing earlier this year and one stone I left unturned is Karen Brewer herself.
The Little Sister spin off series focuses on Kristy’s step sister she gained at the start of the series, as she gets up to her own little kid adventures. Its for younger readers and despite some finding Karen to be a brat, the series had over 100 books. Plus its own spinoff series about other kids in Karen’s class. Yes, a spinoff to the spinoff!
Little Sister even has its own graphic novel series so maybe we’ll sample one of those someday. I said before I know I read some of these as a kid and strongly recall certain bits. I obviously got into it at the time but haven’t come back to these since. They had a few Halloween books and I picked the most fall looking cover. So let’s see how it holds up.
It’s almost Halloween and Karen is super excited. Dad has gotten a bunch of pumpkins and starts a pumpkin patch with Karen helping out. She plans to enter a local contest with one especially big pumpkin she names King Kong. She tries to protect it so it can get bigger by the time the contest comes. But naturally that may not be in the cards.
So this was fine. The writing felt a bit too stiff early as Ann M Martin tries a bit too hard to capture a kid’s style of writing sort of but it’s less of an issue later on. Karen is fine here, maybe getting a tiny bit out of line in protecting Kong but it’s not too bad, she doesn’t get out of control.
It’s basic kids stuff early but gets in some cute and amusing moments. There’s a thing with a smasher that is going after pumpkins and enters a bit too late, and we don’t even find out who is doing it. They kind of give us a suspect list but don’t act on it. It’s important to the Kong stuff at least. Her dedication to Kong is nice and there’s a nice little happy ending. It could have flowed a bit better early on but otherwise the story works for what it is.
It’s basic kids stuff basically, not trying to be too deep or clever or anything like that. It’s no Junie B Jones but for what it is it gets the job done. I can’t imagine how these read when they get to triple digits, there’s gotta be only so many low stakes kid plots at that point.
Halloween wise, it has pumpkins and costumes but doesn’t feel that spooky. It has some fall in there but it just doesn't quite embrace it. Maybe the likes of Karen’s Ghost or Karen’s Candy do it better but this early enough to maybe do more.
Overall, I enjoyed it well enough for what it is. Could do a bit more but otherwise there’s not much to object to, and clearly is mainly for kids so there ya go. It held up okay for a one off read but don’t expect me to come back to it to much, the main series has more to chew on honestly.
Still, a safe and simple way to start us off. When we return, the wheel gave me something that’s been on my radar for a while and happens to be from someone we’ve met before, see ya then.
(Yes, there are chapter 2 recaps here as well but it's shorter at least)
There’s somehow, as of now anyway, less options as far as this theme goes and it just feels like it wouldn’t take long to be forcing myself to keep up the same ‘format” as it were when it doesn’t quite fit as well. Might just end up being a scattered few as I try to fit in other possible reads too.
It’ll depend on how I feel but I will have a voted on book I read near the day itself, gotta keep up that tradition. That said, here’s something quick: Baby-Sitters Little Sister. I did a whole BSC thing earlier this year and one stone I left unturned is Karen Brewer herself.
The Little Sister spin off series focuses on Kristy’s step sister she gained at the start of the series, as she gets up to her own little kid adventures. Its for younger readers and despite some finding Karen to be a brat, the series had over 100 books. Plus its own spinoff series about other kids in Karen’s class. Yes, a spinoff to the spinoff!
Little Sister even has its own graphic novel series so maybe we’ll sample one of those someday. I said before I know I read some of these as a kid and strongly recall certain bits. I obviously got into it at the time but haven’t come back to these since. They had a few Halloween books and I picked the most fall looking cover. So let’s see how it holds up.
It’s almost Halloween and Karen is super excited. Dad has gotten a bunch of pumpkins and starts a pumpkin patch with Karen helping out. She plans to enter a local contest with one especially big pumpkin she names King Kong. She tries to protect it so it can get bigger by the time the contest comes. But naturally that may not be in the cards.
So this was fine. The writing felt a bit too stiff early as Ann M Martin tries a bit too hard to capture a kid’s style of writing sort of but it’s less of an issue later on. Karen is fine here, maybe getting a tiny bit out of line in protecting Kong but it’s not too bad, she doesn’t get out of control.
It’s basic kids stuff early but gets in some cute and amusing moments. There’s a thing with a smasher that is going after pumpkins and enters a bit too late, and we don’t even find out who is doing it. They kind of give us a suspect list but don’t act on it. It’s important to the Kong stuff at least. Her dedication to Kong is nice and there’s a nice little happy ending. It could have flowed a bit better early on but otherwise the story works for what it is.
It’s basic kids stuff basically, not trying to be too deep or clever or anything like that. It’s no Junie B Jones but for what it is it gets the job done. I can’t imagine how these read when they get to triple digits, there’s gotta be only so many low stakes kid plots at that point.
Halloween wise, it has pumpkins and costumes but doesn’t feel that spooky. It has some fall in there but it just doesn't quite embrace it. Maybe the likes of Karen’s Ghost or Karen’s Candy do it better but this early enough to maybe do more.
Overall, I enjoyed it well enough for what it is. Could do a bit more but otherwise there’s not much to object to, and clearly is mainly for kids so there ya go. It held up okay for a one off read but don’t expect me to come back to it to much, the main series has more to chew on honestly.
Still, a safe and simple way to start us off. When we return, the wheel gave me something that’s been on my radar for a while and happens to be from someone we’ve met before, see ya then.
(Yes, there are chapter 2 recaps here as well but it's shorter at least)
October 15, 2023
I probably read this as a child, but I don't remember it. It was neat Karen helped care for her father's pumpkin patch, but I wished she would have asked for permission before deciding to sell pumpkins to her classmates and the general public. I also did not like the focus on Mischief Night, and was surprised Karen and her fellow second grade classmates were allowed to participate.
. . . We call that night [before Halloween] Mischief Night. It is the time when kids run around after dark and make mischief. They decorate people's trees and bushes with toilet paper. They scribble on their windows or their cars with soap. They spray a little shaving cream around. Mischief-makers have to be very careful, because they do not want anyone to catch them.
December 28, 2021
I thought Karen having a pumpkin patch was really cool and it was nice to see her focused on maintaining it and helping her classmates choose pumpkins instead of being obnoxious. I felt kind of sad when her big pumpkin was destroyed on mischief night, though it still had a happy ending and the small bumpy pumpkin she took to the halloween contest still won a prize.
July 26, 2024
This is a Little Sister book that I always thought of fondly, though I'm not really sure why; there's nothing outrageous or special about this book, but it just has always made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe the fall vibes, and the coziness of the season, and Halloween books are always fun.
October 29, 2024
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 28, 2025
This was very cute, but I’m surprised that “Mischief Night” was just something that everyone knew about it and expected.
April 10, 2025
When you were too old for childrens books, but too young for The Baby Sitters Club.
Ann M. Martin really is a genius to piggy back on the success of The Baby Sitters Club.
After reading the little sisters series I remember feeling like a real adult opening up that first BSC book.
Ann M. Martin really is a genius to piggy back on the success of The Baby Sitters Club.
After reading the little sisters series I remember feeling like a real adult opening up that first BSC book.
June 4, 2012
I read this book before I visited America, so I read the sections on Halloween like an anthropologist at a research site. A fun research site to boot!
Want to Read
July 31, 2016I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14130100
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14130100
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews