Karen's Copycat

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #107

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

Karen is excited to prove that she can be as good as the older kids in the new nanny's pottery class, but when it turns out she cannot keep up, she decides to hand in another student's work as her own. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction

110 pages, Paperback

First published March 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

[Jackie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

What young girl did not love the Baby-Sitters Club and Karen, the Baby-Sitters Little Sister?

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually feel for Karen and Andrew in this one. Boo on the older kid being a tattletale.

Also, I don't understand why Karen and Andrew couldn't just sit in the corner doing other things while Merry was teaching the class? Karen is close in age to the actual student range but Andrew's much younger. Why couldn't Merry just set them up with colouring pages in the corner?

Also, that was like TTh x 4 weeks. You mean to say, across all the BSC members, none of them were available to do any of the shifts?! Or couldn't Mrs Dawes watch over Karen and Andrew on those afternoons? I get it's for plot but I find it hard to believe that literally the only solution is for Karen and Andrew to sign up for a pottery class both are too young for.

[Bethany]

Kids book-reading for my childhood wish of reading all the bsc books

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the first BBSLS books I read so it is very nostalgic. It is one of my favourites and I loved it when I was little.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a girl called Karen who joins the pottery club which is for older kids. She joins and have difficulties that she doesn't want to show others. She wants to prove to her nanny Merry, the teacher that she is a good artist.  Her problem is that she can't get the hang of getting organized. So she copies other kids and doesn't make an effort. The theme of this book is to try your best to make an effort. Karen should practice pottery or, at least try her best, instead of  copying.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this would be a good read cause I used to want to try pottery after making some pieces in elementary school, but I remember it being hard. Karen was finding it hard to keep up with the older kids in her pottery class taught by her new nanny, so she claimed someone else’s work as her own just to prove that she could keep up. I guess Karen is someone who’s always looking for validation lol maybe the book should have been called Karen the copycat!