Karen's Haunted House

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #90

by Ann M. Martin

When her class gets to help decorate a haunted house for Halloween, Karen enjoys making things look scary, until she and her friends hear spooky noises and realize that someone is playing tricks. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Halloween, Fiction, Chapter Books, Juvenile

114 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

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

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inoffensive. Cutely seasonal. Karen is still kinda the worst.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

In her introduction, Karen described herself as "mild-mannered". Karen may not know what that phrase means because she is actually the opposite of mild-mannered.

I think the real mystery was how Karen, her classmates, her teacher, her stepbrothers, etc. had time to work on the haunted house for hours every day after school and on weekends for the entire month of October.

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love a good spooky mystery! I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween so it's fun for me to read about dressing up and going trick or treating.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to see Sam and Charlie goofing off with each other. Also lol at Karen describing herself as "mild-mannered" in her intro.

[V. Arrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how Karen's entire life vibe is "I WANT TO BE SCARED oh fuck now I'm scared?!" because girl, same.

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen's class help decorate a room for Stoneybrook's haunted house. Mysterious footprints, big brothers, and other surprises make it an exciting time for Karen.