Karen's Big Weekend

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #44

by Ann M. Martin

With so much to do in New York City, and only three days to do it, Karen sees many sights but forgets entirely about buying Christmas gifts for her friends, Hannie and Nancy. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Christmas, Middle Grade, Juvenile

101 pages, Paperback

First published January 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

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen plus Eloise? Yes, please, disaster duo!

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen learns about the spirit of giving while having a lavish weekend in NY over Christmas.

[Teresa Granado-Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen in New York seeing all the major sites - even mentions Trump Tower

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was quite fun, I know I would've loved it when I was little! Karen is actually pretty kind and considerate in this one.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun touristy weekend in holiday time New York. Also includes a bit of an heavy-handed but still important lesson on helping the homeless, coz some kids' families are too poor to buy presents.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope Pokemon Go hurries up and announces Go Fest 2025, because I want to plan my trip to NYC.

[JH · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was like a lovely weekend trip to New York City. I love the city, so I love when the characters visit.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Karen and the little house family go to NYC for a weekend. She meets up with her pen pal Maxie, and she was going to buy gifts for her best friends, but donated it to charity there after Maxie and her family were donating gifts to a homeless shelter and she learned about the barriers they faced. I loved reading about the different places and plays all over New York City, and what the Christmas season was like for them. Some of those places included going ice skating, to see the big Christmas tree, Macy’s, a children’s bookstore, a candy store, a toy store etc. I wish I read this when it came out, but it was sold out, never too late I guess. One is never too old for books about New York City, one of my favourite places to visit

[Luna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Go away, Karen. Somehow I don't think your seven/eight-year-old friends will find you donating your gift money for them will be a really cool present. Maybe your hippie adult friend who loves the idea of buying a goat for a village in a poor African nation, but rich, hoity-toity eight-year-olds don't really think like that.

[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.