Karen's Secret

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #33

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

Now that loudmouthed Karen has allowed Natalie's secret to pass her lips, not only will Natalie never speak to her again so long as she lives, but Miss Coleman's whole class has given her the cold shoulder. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Friendship, Juvenile, Fiction

84 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natalie is one of those characters I always vaguely felt sorry for, so this book made me sad.

[Annora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen, Hannie, and Nancy all should have known better and done better.

Karen begged Natalie to tell her the secret. And then Karen decided she couldn’t handle it and told Nancy. No wonder Natalie didn’t want to tell her!

Hannie should not have started blabbing. I usually really like her, but she shouldn’t have immediately done that.

Nancy’s family expecting a baby is one thing, but the way Nancy acted wasn’t okay.

And Ms. Colman shouldn’t have confirmed that Natalie was in speech. So much for privacy.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! Teaches ethics without the morality speech.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Natalie; Karen's such a blabbermouth. Ms Colman also shouldn't have confirmed that Natalie was going to speech therapy without Natalie's permission.

Still this is a good cautionary tale about how easy it is for secrets to spread and grow.

[Carlos Ceballos Méndez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely story about the importance of knowing when to keep a secret and when it's better to share them.
Ver y important for children especially.

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ending moral of this story was actually really quite beautiful!

[Elise · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book where Karen’s couldn’t keep classmate Natalies secret about going for speech therapy. Such a Karen!

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so everyone in Ms Colman's class sucks at keeping secrets, but also Natalie kept being called out of class so there was hardly a secret to begin with.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

To no one's surprise, Karen had trouble keeping secrets. I love how she owned up to her struggle though. When Leslie Morris asked her one morning if she had revealed anyone's secrets yet, Karen replied, "'No, but it’s still early.'" I did not like how Natalie having a speech impairment and needing speech therapy was treated like it was a big secret. It reminded me of how diabetes were discussed in The Truth About Stacey.

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13104073

[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.

[Melenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which Karen can't keep a secret... like you didn't already know that.