Karen's Nanny

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #105

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

Mommy's going back to work, so the new year begins with big chances for Karen and her brother Andrew. Luckily, they find a nanny as perfect as Mary Poppins--even down to her name!

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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

[Annora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen was a child who responded in a developmentally appropriate fashion. However, it doesn’t change the fact that she needed to be accountable for her actions. Or the impact it had on her friends.

That said - for the target demographic, it’s a good book about how scary change is and how hard things are when we lose the ability to control our own situations. It’s a struggle we deal with as adults.

I can’t fault a kid who had a lot of change for a seven year old to try to cling to some kind of structure and routine.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awww to Karen being overwhelmed by change and making a resolution to never change anything again. Actually relatable.

And awww on the nanny search. I'm glad they found their Mary Poppins but I do kinda wish Karen changed her mind on the first nanny and they just went with her instead. The first nanny was nice and Karen would've liked her if not for the resolution.

[A]

Karen was so annoying in this book (I know, that’s redundant). But it was really frustrating how she kept making things way harder than they had to be. Girl, it’s not that deep lol. Like another reviewer mentioned, I wish Karen had just picked the first nanny instead of being so exasperating about her stupid NYE resolution and rigid schedule.

[Looney · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Em's Adventures · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen was weirdly pedantic in this one.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone needs to get Karen into counseling and quick. Her “change nothing” schedule was horrifying, and as per usual, no one in her life really notices.

[JH · Rating 3 out of 5]

King of silly because why would Lisa not just call the BabySitter’s club? What Nanny only wants to work every other month?