Karen's Paper Route

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #97

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

Wanting to buy Moonbeam, a great new video game system, Karen takes on a job helping out with a paper route to earn money but finds the work a lot harder than she expected. Original.

Genres: Middle Grade, Collections, Childrens

95 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

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

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lol poor Kristy. Karen convinces her to team up on a paper route coz Karen needs money, but then keeps flaking out on the job. There's also a nice subplot about a shy neighbour who leaves them gifts and whom they end up befriending. (Karen leaves her gifts also.) I feel like if I read this as a kid, it would make me want my own paper route.

Good lessons about accountability and following through on commitments, but meh on the deus ex machina ending. (Kristy and Karen decide they're tired of their paper route but luckily Sam just lost his job and needs a new one. Meh. I kinda wish Kristy and Karen had to own up and just quit the job.)

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even when I was Kristy's age (and I had my own paper route) I knew that my younger brothers simply couldn't be expected to commit to something like that, so I was surprised that so much responsibility was placed on a seven year old to get up at 5 in the morning and deliver papers. Even if it was her idea. I was surprised that no one warned her she would be getting up at 5:00.
Still it was an enjoyable read.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one made me laugh.