Karen, Hannie and Nancy: The Three Musketeers

Baby-Sitters Little Sister Super Special #4

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

With the whole summer ahead of them, Karen and her best friends, Hannie and Nancy, are excited about spending every moment together, but as the summer wears on, their patience with one another wears thin. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Friendship

137 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

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm waiting on Baby-sitters at Shadow Lake to become available on OpenLibrary, and since Karen, Hannie, and Nancy has a part that takes place during the BSC's vacation at Shadow Lake, I figured I'd give this a read while I wait. Not very much of the book takes place at Shadow Lake, though it's nice to see a couple BSC members make an appearance.

This was a good book, but any Super Special - especially a summer vacation one - automatically makes for a good read. I especially liked the conflict, that the Three Musketeers get a little burnt out of spending all their time together. Actually, I'm surprised that nobody called out Karen for being bossy during their fight, because she was pretty controlling about what they did and when.

Mostly, this book made me want to start my reread of the Little Sister series, with the mentions of the Doll Sisters, Nancy's yearning for a sibling, and even a quick name drop of Grandma B.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read, the three musketeers each tell their story. At the start of summer vacation, they met up everyday and did fun things like building a house for their “doll sisters” terry, merry and kerry, going to the playground, building things with popsicle sticks etc. They even go on a trip to shadow lake with the big house family, which also was the same timing as the baby sitters club super special #8 where the baby sitters were too. However, Nancy and hannie get tired of not having enough time for their own hobbies and families after the trip, and Karen took it so personally when Hannie refused to go over to make doll clothes. I think it’s important to have friends, but not keep them from their own seperate lives, so that was an important aspect of the story. Anyways, they all fought and then when they made up, I think they had a sleepover party and all was well in Karen’s world lol

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

At least this super special doesn't focus solely on Karen. And better still her friends find her just as annoying as I do. The book takes place or yet another summer vacation there's always vacations in Stoneybrook isn't there? Karen has big plans for her and her friends Nancy and Hannie. There's even a trip to Shadow Lake which is described in greater detail in the BSC super special. But after a while the two girls get sick of Karen demanding their time and as kids do they fight and don't talk for a week which is a long time in kid time. They eventually make up and spend time both together and with their other friends and Nancy finally gets a new sibling (in five months) I'll have to see if the kid is ever born during the series. An okay book mostly because it's not all Karen. She's still the worst.

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun reading from all three points of view of Karen and her two best friends. Karen comes off as quite bossy in this book, which surprised me a little. The book also includes a bunch of cute crafts and recipe ideas that kids will enjoy.

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always wondered if Hannie and Nancy ever got fed up with Karen's bossiness. It was funny though because they just went along with it most of the time. It was fun to read from Hannie and Nancy's point of view.

[Looney · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

[A]

Good for Hannie for standing up to Karen, who was unbearably ANNOYING in this book!

[Sue Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it
a great story about friendship
love all the series

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice to hear different voices in this book and it had a nice tie-in with Babysitters at Shadow Lake.

[Sanum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen,Hannie and Nancy are best friends, but what sucks is that since they are the 3 musketeers, there is bound to be jealousy. Karen gets really jealous , the other 2 musketeers are doing everything without her, but she doesn't realize that the only reason that this is happening is because she made her own plans without them and they felt the same. This is a good book, really easy though.

[Mellanie C]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13118575