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Baby-Sitters Little Sister #11
Karen's Prize
From the bestselling author of the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club comes a series for a new generation!
A difficult guestKaren’s favorite cousin is coming to visit. Karen will bring her to an Easter egg hunt and even to the Easter parade! She plans to be the best host ever. But it is not so easy. Diana wants to do things that will get Karen in trouble. Karen wants to stop her. But can she do it without ruining their visit -- or ruining Easter?
A difficult guestKaren’s favorite cousin is coming to visit. Karen will bring her to an Easter egg hunt and even to the Easter parade! She plans to be the best host ever. But it is not so easy. Diana wants to do things that will get Karen in trouble. Karen wants to stop her. But can she do it without ruining their visit -- or ruining Easter?
115 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,150 books3,162 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 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 15, 2012
The blurb of this book proudly states Karen is a P-A-I-N. Good to know we're starting with some home truths here, Martin. In this round of BSLS, Karen discovers a new way to annoy her classmates- she's good at spelling! Except that all the words she got her actually kind of age-appropriate, and not things like syzygy or chauvinistic or xylocarp. No, we're talking things here like igloo and proudly and gasoline. Karen ain't going to be on Spellbound any time soon, guys.
Anyway, Karen is a massive brat to her friends and family. She lets it all go to her head, like she normally does. At the end, it's implied that she's learnt her lessons... but she also says that her friends have to forgive her.
Have. To. Forgive. Her.
If they don't, they're on the chopping block. Literally.
Far out, guys, Karen's pretty intense.
Anyway, Karen is a massive brat to her friends and family. She lets it all go to her head, like she normally does. At the end, it's implied that she's learnt her lessons... but she also says that her friends have to forgive her.
Have. To. Forgive. Her.
If they don't, they're on the chopping block. Literally.
Far out, guys, Karen's pretty intense.
November 1, 2022
Cute! This is about Karen competing in various spelling bees as she advances from classroom level to state level. She gets cocky and upsets her friends. I thought this was really relatable and cute.
January 15, 2021
I like the book and I finished reading it Karen's friends Hannie and Nancy they are the three musketeers and Hannie and Nancy kicked Karen out. And then hannie and Nancy were just too musketeers. Her friends tried to warn her that she was a sore winner but she didn't listen.
December 27, 2018
Fuckin sucks lol
Read
January 8, 2023We finished reading Karen’s Prize last night, the last released of the newly republished Baby-Sitter’s Club Little Sister books.
Though I spent far more time with the BSC itself, getting to read Karen’s stories is still full of so much nostalgia. Even 30 years later they stand up. Yes, some of the pop culture references are older (but some like The Wizard of Oz or The Phantom Tollbooth were old for the 90s), and the technology is different (lots of reference to calling house phones), but a lot of the themes like family or friend drama or going to school and playing on the playground feel timeless.
For this book in particular Karen wins her class spelling bee, then goes on to win several more. She’s so excited about winning, that takes over a lot of relationships with her friends. My daughter even predicted when she would finally loose (of course in the last couple of chapters) and then couldn’t wait to hear Karen apologize to her friends. I really love how Karen and her friends have fights like normal little girls, but still manage to move forward together and forgive.
Now to decide if we wait for the next one to be reissued (looks like one is due in April and then October) or try to find a bunch secondhand.
Although we moved on to her next pick immediately after (Tales of a Forth Grade Nothing), so I might wait since we most definitely don’t have a shortage of books to choose from!
Though I spent far more time with the BSC itself, getting to read Karen’s stories is still full of so much nostalgia. Even 30 years later they stand up. Yes, some of the pop culture references are older (but some like The Wizard of Oz or The Phantom Tollbooth were old for the 90s), and the technology is different (lots of reference to calling house phones), but a lot of the themes like family or friend drama or going to school and playing on the playground feel timeless.
For this book in particular Karen wins her class spelling bee, then goes on to win several more. She’s so excited about winning, that takes over a lot of relationships with her friends. My daughter even predicted when she would finally loose (of course in the last couple of chapters) and then couldn’t wait to hear Karen apologize to her friends. I really love how Karen and her friends have fights like normal little girls, but still manage to move forward together and forgive.
Now to decide if we wait for the next one to be reissued (looks like one is due in April and then October) or try to find a bunch secondhand.
Although we moved on to her next pick immediately after (Tales of a Forth Grade Nothing), so I might wait since we most definitely don’t have a shortage of books to choose from!
September 28, 2023
Karen wins a spelling bee and, no surprise, is a total sore winner.
She keeps boasting about being the Queen Bee, and also spelling random words in conversations with friends. At one point, she has to solve a math problem and the answer is 10, but t-e-n isn't on her vocabulary list, so she says something like "t-w-e-l-v-e minus two makes ten!" just so she can squeeze some spelling in. She's also mean to Andrew for not knowing how to spell words, and bugs her family members to test her on spelling at all times.
That being said, I'm not the biggest fan of Karen as a person, but I do think the book is a bit harsh on her here. Like, okay, I too would've been so sick of hanging out with someone who spelled every single random word. But young girls are so often taught by society to take up less space that do we really want to discourage one from taking up her full allocation? I don't know, I feel like if this were written today, there would've been a bit more nuance to how adults treat Karen's (admittedly obnoxious) behaviour.
She keeps boasting about being the Queen Bee, and also spelling random words in conversations with friends. At one point, she has to solve a math problem and the answer is 10, but t-e-n isn't on her vocabulary list, so she says something like "t-w-e-l-v-e minus two makes ten!" just so she can squeeze some spelling in. She's also mean to Andrew for not knowing how to spell words, and bugs her family members to test her on spelling at all times.
That being said, I'm not the biggest fan of Karen as a person, but I do think the book is a bit harsh on her here. Like, okay, I too would've been so sick of hanging out with someone who spelled every single random word. But young girls are so often taught by society to take up less space that do we really want to discourage one from taking up her full allocation? I don't know, I feel like if this were written today, there would've been a bit more nuance to how adults treat Karen's (admittedly obnoxious) behaviour.
June 1, 2024
Karen becomes increasingly conceited and self-satisfied as she wins her way to the state spelling championship, where she quickly learns a lesson about good sportsmanship.
LMAO WHO WROTE THAT SUMMARY? I mean, they're not wrong, but I thought the Goodreads summaries were supposed to be the blurb from the back of the book, and that sure ain't it. Haters will do anything to take my girl Karen down a peg.
LMAO WHO WROTE THAT SUMMARY? I mean, they're not wrong, but I thought the Goodreads summaries were supposed to be the blurb from the back of the book, and that sure ain't it. Haters will do anything to take my girl Karen down a peg.
December 8, 2022
Karen was a cocky brat. It was tedious to listen to words S-P-E-L-L-E-D out as Karen participated in five spelling competitions. Karen did not even make up with Hannie and Nancy at the end of the book, but said she knew they would forgive her because they were the Three Musketeers. Did Karen actually learn a lesson in humility, as the book's summary claimed?
October 20, 2023
Karen keeps winning spelling bees at school and then is competing with students at other schools and brags about winning and being the best speller wherever she goes. But in the end, she doesn’t win and is apologetic about her behaviour
July 15, 2025
I will not lie. I think the other books 📚 about Karen are better. It was a lot of the same things that kept happening. But it was still a nice read. (And a fast one) And it is a tipacal experience in life that you can relate to, maybe see persons and yourself doing what Karen did in this book 📖 😉.
August 20, 2022
I really hope I wasn’t this annoying as a child.
December 30, 2022
Loved it!
April 5, 2023
Karen is such a little shit.
May 3, 2023
I like the baby-sitters club shows.And that inspired me to read the books.This was a really good book.I really liked book 11.I suggest you to read this book because I rated it 5 stars!
September 24, 2023
Listened to this one.
Karen is completely insufferable in this book.
Karen is completely insufferable in this book.
Read
January 3, 2024Karen's Prize
September 20, 2026
This was a good book, although, Karen can be really whiny in the stories. I've read both the regular babysitters club and the little sisters version of them also ♥ Easily read it in 15 minutes :)
November 22, 2015
this girl named Karen won all the spelling bee contests in connectticut
but her friends think shes showing off so they join Pamela they left her because she spelled the difficult word example S-T-A-R thats why her friends
joined Pamela now she stopped spelling the words in sentences
so now they joined her back again
but her friends think shes showing off so they join Pamela they left her because she spelled the difficult word example S-T-A-R thats why her friends
joined Pamela now she stopped spelling the words in sentences
so now they joined her back again
July 29, 2020
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.
April 29, 2009
Karen IS a show-off and the cover picture here is hideous! Will always remind me of a horrible girl I went to primary school with, Kirsten Djuric.
February 6, 2011
In which Karen wins a spelling bee, and it all goes to her head.
July 24, 2011
What young girl did not love the Baby-Sitters Club and Karen, the Baby-Sitters Little Sister?
September 29, 2012
I am glad that Karen won four contests even if she didn't win the fifth.
January 6, 2013
Loved these books as a child
February 28, 2013
a classic children's novel I remember from middle school, this will always be one of my favorites
April 15, 2013
As a former spelling bee champ, I rate this book highly because I've totally been there. Also, I hate the word transfixed.
August 21, 2013
Karen won a lot of contests,so she got confident and became a show-off.
But in the end,she was able to accept that she was second place,and we leave her planning to apologize to her friends.
But in the end,she was able to accept that she was second place,and we leave her planning to apologize to her friends.
July 24, 2023
also read this for my class. it was actually the worst early chapter book I have ever read
Want to Read
June 11, 2017I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14585258
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14585258
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews