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Baby-Sitters Little Sister #96
Karen's Big Move
Karen says good-bye to Ms. Colman's class and all of her friends before moving to Chicago, but after a week away, she misses Stoneybrook so much that she decides to move back. Original.
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
11 people are currently reading
211 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,101 books3,053 followersAnn 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 7, 2023
Karen Brewer's version of Dawn's flip flopping about whether to stay in California or Stoneybrook.
Though at least being 7, at least Karen talked to the adults and didn't run away cross country like Dawn did. Also unlike Dawn, both Karen's parents were okay with whatever decision Karen made coz there didn't seem to be a legal custody agreement over the six months Karen's mom and Seth would be in Chicago.
Actually, Karen didn't flip flop nearly as much as Dawn did, so I'm bumping this back up to 4 stars.
My only thing is, I know Karen clearly misses Stoneybrook but she was such a sulky brat in Chicago. She moved for Andrew but she legit didn't even give the city a chance. What kind of message is that for poor kid readers who have to move and unlike Karen, don't have a second house in their hometown to stay in? I wish the book at least showed Karen giving Chicago a legit chance. Even if it took her two or three books to decide to move back to Stoneybrook. Then at least she will have made an informed decision rather than just having her mind made up the whole time not to enjoy Chicago.
Actually, because she didn't give Chicago a fair shot, her poor mom and Seth had to spend on her airfare back. Which is fine if she'd genuinely tried but then missed Stoneybrook too much. Ok, bumping it back down to 3 stars coz that's annoying. Maybe not on Karen's part coz she's a kid, but I feel like this story arc deserved a bit more.
Though at least being 7, at least Karen talked to the adults and didn't run away cross country like Dawn did. Also unlike Dawn, both Karen's parents were okay with whatever decision Karen made coz there didn't seem to be a legal custody agreement over the six months Karen's mom and Seth would be in Chicago.
Actually, Karen didn't flip flop nearly as much as Dawn did, so I'm bumping this back up to 4 stars.
My only thing is, I know Karen clearly misses Stoneybrook but she was such a sulky brat in Chicago. She moved for Andrew but she legit didn't even give the city a chance. What kind of message is that for poor kid readers who have to move and unlike Karen, don't have a second house in their hometown to stay in? I wish the book at least showed Karen giving Chicago a legit chance. Even if it took her two or three books to decide to move back to Stoneybrook. Then at least she will have made an informed decision rather than just having her mind made up the whole time not to enjoy Chicago.
Actually, because she didn't give Chicago a fair shot, her poor mom and Seth had to spend on her airfare back. Which is fine if she'd genuinely tried but then missed Stoneybrook too much. Ok, bumping it back down to 3 stars coz that's annoying. Maybe not on Karen's part coz she's a kid, but I feel like this story arc deserved a bit more.
September 30, 2022
She moved long enough to get all of those goodbye presents. 🙄
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 18, 2025
I definitely don’t think Karen even tried to give Chicago a chance.
June 17, 2011
The real loser is good parenting.
First of all they make a seven year old choose which of her parents she wants to live with (or really which ones she doesn't want to see for six months), then they just allow everyone in her life to bug the crap out of her, and then finally when she decides she's made the wrong choice after living in the Windy City for less than a week they just agree.
But I do like how the cover makes it look like Karen and Kristy and strangling each other.
First of all they make a seven year old choose which of her parents she wants to live with (or really which ones she doesn't want to see for six months), then they just allow everyone in her life to bug the crap out of her, and then finally when she decides she's made the wrong choice after living in the Windy City for less than a week they just agree.
But I do like how the cover makes it look like Karen and Kristy and strangling each other.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2023
I do think that Karen had just made up her mind already to get homesick and not even try to enjoy it because she goes on so many holidays and trips in this series without batting an eyelid, but I can understand in a way. When you are seven everything seems a lot bigger and more worrying and six months does seem like a long time.
December 21, 2023
The worst LS.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews