Karen's Doll Hospital

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #35

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

When Hyacinthia, Karen's favorite baby doll, has to go to the toy shop for repairs, Karen decides to found her own hospital for dolls. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Collections, Chapter Books, Juvenile, Fiction

101 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

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 4 out of 5]

This was a nice whimsical take on repairing broken toys.

One snag for me is that I don't care how amazing a toymaker is, something like a grow-the-hair baby doll seems to require some kind of specialized/patented tech that someone like Mr Kelly is unlikely to replicate. Though of course I'm possibly overthinking. I just had the impression of this guy being like Geppetto and doing all this delicate hand work to repair toys, but it's possible that's just Karen's perspective filtered through me, and he's actually a super high tech guy who can replicate a grow-the-hair baby's follicles.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen befriended another random adult man she met in town. But it's okay because this random adult man, a toy repairer named Mr. Kelly, knew her dad. (Mr. Kelly fixed Watson's fire truck once when Watson was a child. I wouldn't exactly call them close.) Karen wanted to have a doll hospital, just like Mr. Kelly. Karen's doll hospital faced scrutiny when one of its patients, Natalie Springer's doll, mysteriously disappeared.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was never one of my favourite Little Sister books, it's actually kind of boring tbh. I enjoyed the drama with Natalie and Pudding, but that was short-lived. Even Nancy and Hannie didn't fight for very long!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen's friends break her fancy doll and her parents take it to a toy repairman who runs a repair shop out of his fancy house. Karen's friends pay for the repairs (which took weeks) but how did they afford it?

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so cute!

[Annora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet.

[Jennifer Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were my favorite books as an elementary schooler, and I will forever love reading through them once in a while again!

[koza · Rating 2 out of 5]

I KNOW Mr. Kelly isn't creepy; he's just an old man whose only friends are little girls, and who spends the rest of his time repairing dolls (sometimes without being asked). Don't be so cynical... Anyway, Karen treats Natalie like garbage and gets annoyed when she's expected to pay for something of Natalie's that she breaks AND loses.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the book was well written, though sort of unrealistic too. I find it hard to believe Karen's parents would take her multiple times to "visit" her doll at the repair shop, though she was intrigued by the concept, and started her own "doll hospital" with her and her friends dolls. On a side plot, she worked on a school project about May Day and they made a maypole for their class presentation. Karen also treated Natalie badly by ruining and losing her doll at one point

[Sayo -bibliotequeish- · Rating 4 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.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books about dolls. Even broken dolls.

[Hannah S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love dolls!

[Jada]

i love it

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen's china doll, Hyacynthia, suffers an accident when Karen's friends play with her.