Karen's Big Lie

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #38

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

Karen's Big Lie. Scholastic printing.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Juvenile

112 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1993

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

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen becomes David Michael's secret keeper when he reveals to her he has a Dark Mark. Not wanting to get David Michael in trouble with their Dumbledore-worshiping parents, Karen agrees.

Meanwhile, her arithmancy scores are terrible and Ms Colman is threatening to sacrifice her to the goat god. In order to save her life, she begins to cheat off her child husband's test papers. Hannie catches her in the act, and tells her to fess up, or she'll push her into the eternal pit.

Should have pushed, Hannie. Should have pushed.

[koza]

The family actually PRACTICES 3-legged races and stuff for Elizabeth's company picnic because Brewer-Thomases have no chill.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Teaches about responsibility and honesty without preaching. If only I could write like this! Or parent like this! That would be even better! Thank God for books like this.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always loved this cover. I felt like Ms. Coleman was finally gonna lay the smack down on Karen.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Karen's struggling with math so she cheats off Ricky during the weekly timed surprise quizzes. Then she learns how hard it is to actually keep secrets like this, and how terrible it feels to lie to her teacher and her friends (Hannie catches her cheating, and Miss Coleman talks to both Karen and Ricky about the weird coincidence of their identical test scores and getting the same wrong answers). All's well that ends well; Karen eventually comes clean and apologizes to all involved, and gets two weeks of no TV at her mom's house + two weeks of no allowance at her dad's house.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book had an important lesson about how the more you lie, the harder it gets until you come clean. Karen had surprise math quizzes that were timed, and had issues with subtraction, but wasn't making the time to practice with her flash cards, so she copied Ricky's test. I think her parents should have tried helping her out. On a side plot, her stepbrother David Michael gets a tattoo and she's keeping that secret as well

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lmao the "David Michael gets a tattoo" subplot is so stupid.

[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.

[Melenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[Annora · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better ones, I reckon.

[Kristen EJ Lauderdale]

In which Karen is obnoxiously willing to do anything but study.