Karen's Baby

Baby-Sitters Little Sister Super Special #5

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

At first Karen is envious of her friend, Nancy, when she learns that Nancy's mother is about to give Nancy a new baby sister, but her feelings are mollified when Nancy offers to share the baby with her. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Family, Fiction

138 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

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet, but also lol at poor Mrs. Dawes, I'd be so annoyed at Karen's constant "is the baby here yet???" questioning. But also I can see how that's realistic re: a kid's reaction to the whole thing.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good grief Karen is very annoying here. Her friend Nancy's mom is about to have a baby. Karen decides she wants a baby too. Her own mom and stepmother are like hell no. I mean seriously there are seven kids in the Brewer Thomas household and one Emily Michelle is a toddler which is really a more active and interesting baby. I mean babies are cute but they just lay there and cry or sleep and not much else for the first part if their lives. She also complains that she wants to be a big sister forgetting all about both Emily Michelle and Andrew her full brother no half or step. She annoys poor Mrs. Dawes calling constantly to see if the baby has come yet. Given how my friends and family were when they were pregnant with the hormones etc I commend her for not slapping the crap out of her. She and the girls make baby things Emily Michelle destroys some of it because that's what toddlers do and Karen and Nancy are convinced that the new baby will be perfect. The girls try selling their baby crafts to other kids and people who don't have babies. Then the baby Daniel is born. Karen again whines that the baby is taking too long to arrive then getting hurt when Nancy goes to meet her new brother and she doesn't get to go. Ugh Karen you are the worst. Then the baby gets sick, Nancy is worried because it's her brother and Karen continues to be very annoying to Nancy. The baby finally comes home and Karen is made a fairy godsister hey whatever works for you. But yeah I do not like Karen Brewer. She's truly the worst and this book again proves that.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so cute!!!

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy's baby brother is born, and she names him Daniel. (Good thing she decided on a normal name! Not sure what her parents were thinking when they said she could name the baby.)

Karen, Nancy, and Hannie spend the book waiting for the baby to be born, and then to come home once he was born (he had to stay at the hospital a few extra days because of jaundice. And Nancy's mom stayed a few extra days because of... being tired. Was healthcare really that affordable in the early 90s?). They make baby crafts and try to sell them to their friends and neighbors, which isn't really a success until Kristy tells them they should try to sell to people who have babies or who work with babies (i.e. the BSC).

It was a cute book, and I thought it handled well Nancy's shifting emotions around her new baby brother, as well as Karen's changing desires about desperately wanting a baby in her family. (The poop and the spit up ultimately changes her mind).

It was a little odd how quickly the baby grew up... a few weeks in and the baby is huge in the pictures, holding its head up while sitting on someone's lap, and the little girls are allowed to hold him on their own with no supervision.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the reasons I would hate being friends with Karen is that she would never be happy for me if I got something she did not have. Nancy probably felt like she had to share a doll or even her baby brother with Karen, so that Karen won't be envious of her. I appreciated the chapter on Daniel's mezuzah. I knew Nancy was Jewish, but it's not mentioned a lot in the books. I would like to see more of Nancy's faith in the series. I enjoyed seeing that my name (Christine) made Karen's shortlist of names she would consider naming her non-existent infant sister.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not here so much for the baby, but for all the Baby-sitters Club references. We got a lot of Kristy in this book!

Also why is Karen's mother letting Karen bug Mrs Dawes every couple of hours?! Let the woman be heavily pregnant in peace!

[Laura-Jane Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it as a kid! It was fun to revisit as an adult.

[Looney · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew! Just one more of these books to go and then I'm done. Boy am I tired of hearing grown ups tell Karen to use her indoor voice!

[JH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, kind of boring for a super special.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

For babysitter book fans, you will really like this book! A fun, slightly out-of-date story of friends growing up with different family dynamics.

I recommend this book to everyone, especially girls, ages 7+.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like that Karen was a fairy god sister to her friend's baby brother.