Karen's Grandmothers

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #10

by Ann M. Martin

Karen eagerly signs up for a class project to "adopt" a grandmother, but her foster grandma, Mrs. Barnard, along with her real grandparents becomes too much to handle until Karen comes up with a great idea involving a lonely friend

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Juvenile

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1990

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

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I really like these books and reading them with my daughter is so fun, but this wasn't anything special. This book is about an Adopt a Grandparent extracurriculur so Karen and her friends go hang out at a senior center a couple days a week. Then the whole class is required to put on a presentation for them. Some of the things Karen says about her adopted grandma isn't very nice and the way no adult ever addressed Nancy's fear of old people rubbed me wrong. Overall, cute story.

[Brian Stout · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to it it was good and Karen adopts a grandmother I didn't didn't like any parts but I did like almost all of the parts maybe even all of the parts.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

It bothered me that the sole reason Karen decided to participate in her class's Adopt-a-Grandparent program (in which students visited a Stoneybrook Manor resident two afternoons a week) was because she wanted to win a record for having five grandmothers. Karen seemed to be collecting grandmothers like she collected shells. Karen quickly grew bored of her adopted grandmother, whom she called Grandma B, so skipped a few of her meetings with her. I wished Karen's mother had made her go to Stoneybrook Manor even when she did not want to, so Karen could honor her commitments.

Karen decided to pawn Grandma B off on Nancy because Nancy did not have a grandmother of her own. Luckily, Nancy and Grandma B got along well. Grandma B even celebrated the Jewish High Holy Days with Nancy and her family. Now that Karen no longer had to deal with boring Grandma B, she was free to move on to a new activity and enrolled in gymnastics class at the Y. I am not sure what lesson Karen learned from her Stoneybrook Manor experience though.

To end on a positive note, I loved what Nannie (Karen's step-grandmother) told Karen about loving her grandchildren.

"'You have lots of grandchildren,' I told [Nanny]. . . . 'That’s right,' said Nannie. 'And I love you all.' 'Just the same?' I asked. 'I love you the same amount, but for different reasons. And the reasons don’t have anything to do with whether you’re steps or adopted or ‘regular’ kids. Grandmothers have room in their lives for lots of different kinds of grandchildren.'"

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen's storyline in this is whatevs, except she sucks for consistently skipping out on meetups with Grandma B just coz she finds her boring. But I love Nancy's part of this story. Happy for her with her new pen pal grandma and her new IRL adopted grandma. And I'm especially happy that Grandma B bonded with Nancy over their shared Jewish traditions and interest in classical music, so Grandma B gets a good adopted grandkid after all.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

Karen and the case of too many grandmothers

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.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the more boring Little Sister books, tbh. Though it cracks me up when Karen says why she doesn't like visiting Grandma B. (I know the haters will call Karen a brat, but I like how candidly honest she is. She's 7! That's how kids are!)

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this one, and it was adorable. Karen is a lot easier to take in audio versions versus book versions.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen was less of a brat in this book than she was in the other book I read.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 3 stars until the last few chapters changed it to a 4. Nancy was afraid of the older people at the Manor but in the end bonds with one Karen had.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

funny

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a nice read, but Karen was kind of self-centered in it. She didn't care for her adoptive grandmother Esther, just wanted to break a record of having 5 grandmas, so annoying. Nancy was afraid of old people, so Karen asked her Granny to be a pen pal grandma to her, and would get jealous after it worked out. In the end, when the class
visited the seniors home to gift them with pencil cups and macaroni necklaces, Nancy and Esther got along and had religion in common, later she shows up in Karen's Wish when Nancy's family is celebrating Hannukah

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it really really cool how Karen gas 5 Grandmas. I thought it was nice how she adopted her fifth Grandma. I thought it was nice how she gave Grandma B to her friend Nancy because Nancy has no Grandparents.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which Karen spends time with old people.

[Jackie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

What young girl did not love the Baby-Sitters Club and Karen, the Baby-Sitters Little Sister?

[Melenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for S.S.R. time in 5th grade, I was a baby sitter's club fiend!

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK