Karen's Big Joke

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #27

by Ann M. Martin

At her worst on April Fools' Day, Karen concocts the best April Fools' trick she has ever concocted--one that she intends to play on her entire family--but this time she may be going too far. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ann 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...

Reviews

[Amber’s Book Nook 📚🖥️🐾 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like this book, but it wasn’t my favorite

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen behaved like an attention-seeking brat here. Although it was over-the-top, I liked when Karen's family played a practical joke on her (the self-proclaimed April Fools' Day queen).

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pranking is silly, LOL.

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

AMM, I am disappoint. This book is rather tame. Karen's big joke is that it turns on her and makes her seem like an idiot. It also seems like a rather large joke for a seven-year-old to really pull. Sure, I can see her trying to set it up, but it seems a little too elaborate.

The cover is also rather insane. Karen and Pamela (who look closer to ten than seven) are in detail, while their classmates appear to be a rather smudgy, painted mural. They don't have any outlining, either. Even when I was reading this as a six-year-old, I thought the cover was ridiculous.

But at least this was one of the few Baby-Sitters books actually written by Ann M. Martin.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay it had it's boring parts and it had its okay parts but it was nothing to special. I would not reread it, or really recommed it because it's not to memrebal. Again like I say in all my review's of the Baby-Sister Little Sister young girls would most likly enjoy this book.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish- · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

First she squirted Pamela with a camera that has water in it. Also, in Bobby's shoe she put a plastic cockroach. Also, she tried to play a trick on her family but they found out.