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Baby-Sitters Little Sister Graphic Novels #11
Karen's Ghost: A Graphic Novel (Baby-sitters Little Sister #11)
Another graphic novel in this fun series spin-off from The Baby-sitters Club, adapted and illustrated by DK Yingst!
Karen thinks there's a ghost in her house! But she has never really seen the ghost of Old Ben Brewer... until now.
Karen and her stepsister, Kristy, have found out that Ben Brewer and his spooky friends are going to have a birthday party in their attic on Halloween night! It used to be fun having a ghost around. But now Karen isn't so sure!
Karen thinks there's a ghost in her house! But she has never really seen the ghost of Old Ben Brewer... until now.
Karen and her stepsister, Kristy, have found out that Ben Brewer and his spooky friends are going to have a birthday party in their attic on Halloween night! It used to be fun having a ghost around. But now Karen isn't so sure!
144 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 2025
430 people are currently reading
403 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,098 books3,046 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 - 28 of 28 reviews
August 5, 2025
A fun and cute addition to this adaptation/series :) Karen didn't even annoy me much in this one! lol
August 10, 2025
After reading ‘Karen’s Prize’, I decided to read this one, as I wanted to see how the series continued on from the last one. Would her friends forgive her? Would she finally give a proper apology? I read this book to see those things happen….
…But none of them did.
I have no clue why they did this. I checked the ‘Babysitter’s Little Sister’ novels, and they didn’t skip over one to get here- this was the next in the series. So why does it not resolve the issue? I suppose they were thinking children reading the series would just figure they would make up and stop fighting, and didn’t think anyone would care that they skipped around like that, but… it makes the story really confusing. In the last one, Pamela was possibly going to take Karen’s spot as one of the ‘Three Musketeers’ (Karen’s friend group.) In this one, Karen and the girls are just back to hating Pamela, after her other two friends were briefly besties with the girl. What happened? Why did they turn on her? It might seem like a useless thing to complain about to some readers, but it really drives me sort of crazy. It gives a sense that things don’t need to be resolved or explained- things don’t feel as canon when you can just skip around however you like. But, let’s talk about what ACTUALLY happened in the book- not what didn’t.
In this installment, Karen starts to believe the story of Old Ben Brewer a little more then ever… and that’s where our story gets it’s start. When she decides she needs to tell the scariest story at her class, she enlists the help of Kristy to get more info about Old Ben. Kristy also seems quite scared of ghosts, which kind of confused me. Am I missing something? Before, she seemed to not believe the Ben stories at all, so I’m not sure why she suddenly changed her mind, but anyway-
Then they find an old diary. This REALLY starts Karen’s fear of ghosts, especially when she learns that the ghosts are going to have a birthday party. I’m not going to spoil everything, but let’s just say that it ended as if the ghost stories might… or might not… be real. To be fair, most ghost or magic themed children’s stories always end that way, so I can’t really fault it.
As for Karen’s character itself, she was less of a brat and a little more likable than she recently has been. I was happy to see her finally treating Emily kindly, as it seems that she more often then not ignores her, if she’s not just simply being mean to her. However, you win some, you lose some- instead of treating Emily rudely, she was teasing Andrew about ghosts. At least she got in trouble for this, but after getting out of trouble, she holds a grudge on Andrew for crying when she told him about the ghosts, and wants to make him upset again. So, she sings a scary song- but he doesn’t pay any mind to her, so it quickly blows over. I didn’t like that she did that, but at least it seemed like much more realistic behavior for a child.
To sum up my overly long review, this book was just fine. It wasn’t terrible, or particularly interesting- but I think most kids would enjoy it.
(This book contains ghosts, talk of eyeballs falling out (done decently jokingly, not in a gruesome way) talk of death, drowning and Karen acting like a slight brat. I’d give it an age rating of like 6+, but if your child is easily scared, maybe read this first to make sure this is suited for them. It’s pretty short, so you could probably finish quite quickly.)
…But none of them did.
I have no clue why they did this. I checked the ‘Babysitter’s Little Sister’ novels, and they didn’t skip over one to get here- this was the next in the series. So why does it not resolve the issue? I suppose they were thinking children reading the series would just figure they would make up and stop fighting, and didn’t think anyone would care that they skipped around like that, but… it makes the story really confusing. In the last one, Pamela was possibly going to take Karen’s spot as one of the ‘Three Musketeers’ (Karen’s friend group.) In this one, Karen and the girls are just back to hating Pamela, after her other two friends were briefly besties with the girl. What happened? Why did they turn on her? It might seem like a useless thing to complain about to some readers, but it really drives me sort of crazy. It gives a sense that things don’t need to be resolved or explained- things don’t feel as canon when you can just skip around however you like. But, let’s talk about what ACTUALLY happened in the book- not what didn’t.
In this installment, Karen starts to believe the story of Old Ben Brewer a little more then ever… and that’s where our story gets it’s start. When she decides she needs to tell the scariest story at her class, she enlists the help of Kristy to get more info about Old Ben. Kristy also seems quite scared of ghosts, which kind of confused me. Am I missing something? Before, she seemed to not believe the Ben stories at all, so I’m not sure why she suddenly changed her mind, but anyway-
Then they find an old diary. This REALLY starts Karen’s fear of ghosts, especially when she learns that the ghosts are going to have a birthday party. I’m not going to spoil everything, but let’s just say that it ended as if the ghost stories might… or might not… be real. To be fair, most ghost or magic themed children’s stories always end that way, so I can’t really fault it.
As for Karen’s character itself, she was less of a brat and a little more likable than she recently has been. I was happy to see her finally treating Emily kindly, as it seems that she more often then not ignores her, if she’s not just simply being mean to her. However, you win some, you lose some- instead of treating Emily rudely, she was teasing Andrew about ghosts. At least she got in trouble for this, but after getting out of trouble, she holds a grudge on Andrew for crying when she told him about the ghosts, and wants to make him upset again. So, she sings a scary song- but he doesn’t pay any mind to her, so it quickly blows over. I didn’t like that she did that, but at least it seemed like much more realistic behavior for a child.
To sum up my overly long review, this book was just fine. It wasn’t terrible, or particularly interesting- but I think most kids would enjoy it.
(This book contains ghosts, talk of eyeballs falling out (done decently jokingly, not in a gruesome way) talk of death, drowning and Karen acting like a slight brat. I’d give it an age rating of like 6+, but if your child is easily scared, maybe read this first to make sure this is suited for them. It’s pretty short, so you could probably finish quite quickly.)
May 23, 2025
Karen’s Mom’s reactions whenever Karen mentions her dad make me so confused and annoyed. But this was cute as always. And continuously, screw Pamela.
August 10, 2025
Just as exiting as any other Babysitters Little Sister book. Filled with bravery, friendship, and a lot of Karen’s imagination.
June 26, 2025
This one is consistent in look and feel to all the other graphic novels in the series. it is definitely something that can stand alone but that is really how all of these books are set up.
Karen was less selfish in the book. She still has to learn lessons in kindness but she came across in a more favourable light than from some of the earlier books in the series.
All in all a good addition to the series.
Karen was less selfish in the book. She still has to learn lessons in kindness but she came across in a more favourable light than from some of the earlier books in the series.
All in all a good addition to the series.
June 17, 2025
This is probably more of a three and a half, and younger!me might've ranked it higher because look, ghosts and Halloween! And I suppose I should grant Karen extra stars for not really freaking out over Hannie not really getting how group costumes work, especially since there are plenty of books where that would absolutely tip Karen right over the edge, but something about this one didn't fill my Halloween loving heart with all the glee I wanted. Is it me? Perhaps. I might give this one another go when I'm more into my Hallo-hunting stage, or even wait for Halloween season to start for the normies.
I do appreciate that there are explanations for most of her apparition thoughts, but there is still enough wiggle room to think that Ben really does haunt the Brewer mansion.
I do appreciate that there are explanations for most of her apparition thoughts, but there is still enough wiggle room to think that Ben really does haunt the Brewer mansion.
September 11, 2025
Cute, fun Halloween ghost story that leaves you with more questions than answers. I thought that all of the spooky occurrences and family legends would be explained away at the end like in the Curious George Halloween Spooktacular (classic btw), but nope, it seems there might actually be a ghost in Karen's house. Also, how BIG is that house to be able to hold 7 kids, 3 grown ups and still have entire bedrooms that have been sitting untouched for decades? What does Karen's dad do for a living? Also, nice representation of mixed families.
June 23, 2025
I have already reviewed the original Karen's Ghost on Goodreads, so I won't recap much about the story here, but I will say that this was a sweet and lovingly illustrated adaptation of a favorite book from my childhood! Definitely enjoyed reading it.
August 6, 2025
Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a post-it note with the book.
Started August 2nd, 2025.
Finished August 2nd, 2025.
August 2nd, 2025: read entire book.
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a post-it note with the book.
Started August 2nd, 2025.
Finished August 2nd, 2025.
August 2nd, 2025: read entire book.
August 13, 2025
Karen is excited about Halloween and wants to tell the best ghost story to her class so she does research into Ben Brewer, the ghost living on the third floor of her house. With the help of Kristy, she finds a secret diary belonging to his son. Is there really a ghost? And will Karen really tell the scariest story? This was a cute Halloween themed iteration of this graphic novel series.
June 27, 2025
this is such a cute book I would definitely read this to your kids if you take them took a treating it'll be relatable for them and I love the diary entries in here I love the idea of a ghost being in the house
Read
June 16, 2025I loved this book as a kid so it was fun to read it in graphic novel form.
June 17, 2025
Not favorite from the series but still cute. A good book for fall as it takes place around Halloween.
Read
June 25, 2025Look, at this point the BSLS and BSC graphic novels are the only thing I'm living for. Dramatic? Maybe. But I'm just channeling my inner Karen Brewer. 10/10, no notes.
July 14, 2025
I related to kids having huge imaginations when it comes to ghost stories.
July 29, 2025
A really fun adaptation of one of the best of the Karen books. I loved this series as a kid and am so happy kids are into them again.
July 31, 2025
cute and actually kinda spooky, haha!
September 9, 2025
This one did not quite do it for me. I felt like the story was really all over the place and Karen’s mom’s reaction anytime her dad is mentioned is quite strange.
September 19, 2025
Charming and spooky.
September 21, 2025
loved it
October 21, 2025
What a fun Halloween read.
October 31, 2025
2.5/5 stars
November 17, 2025
Love these books …
December 10, 2025
I loved this book so much. It was about a ghost name Ben and a girl named Karen. This book is about Halloween and Halloween just passed. I love Elphaba and they mention her in this book.
December 10, 2025
Karen has a ghost who loves in her house. Ben Brewer is her great great grandfather. she uncovers his story as she prepares for Halloween.
October 21, 2025
MUST READ SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷
November 25, 2025
These graphic novel adaptations continue to be just absolutely adorable!
Someone needs to explain to Hannie what a group costume means, though.
Someone needs to explain to Hannie what a group costume means, though.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews