Karen's Ducklings

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #26

by Ann M. Martin

When Karen and her class find a duck outside her classroom, they get to witness the hatching of her eggs and to help take care of the ducklings. Original.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Animals, Fiction

101 pages, Paperback

First published March 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]

This was never a favourite of mine, and I had completely forgotten the B-plot about Karen and Andrew ordering the toy car off the TV. (I also forgot it when I went to write this review. Kind of a forgettable book, tbh.)

Another thing, I FREAKING HATE THE DUCKLING NAME OACK. Just more proof that Karen sucks at naming things. (Even though I know it's the fault of Make Way For Ducklings .)

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part of the spin off series of The Babysitters Club and is one I've never read before.

As the main character is only seven years old it's clear this series is for younger readers, but at only 101 pages it was a nice quick read and I found it to be a fun one for me.

In this book Karen is learning all about Spring at school. When a duck lays her nest on the school grounds the class start to keep a diary and wait for the ducklings to hatch.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story, about a mama duck who has her babies in the school playground. Karen and her classmates write a book about it for the school library, with each kid contributing a page each day. Karen is surprisingly not super obnoxious in this book about being the star of the book or deciding what to do with the ducklings.

TW: animal death (the smallest duckling)

[Looney · Rating 1 out of 5]

0.5/5

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ducklings are cute, but I can't get that excited about them. I hated the 'B' plot of this book, in which Karen and Andrew bought a toy car from a television ad using their mother's name and Lisa got sent to a collections agency.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute fun story. Karen’s class watches as a duck outside their classroom window raises her ducklings and then have to say goodbye. Got me in the spring mood. C

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was well written, but a little unrealistic. After finding a duck in the courtyard, the whole school got involved in trying to name it in a special assembly, and karen's class named the ducklings and wrote a book about them. In real life, I think they would have just called someone and left it at that to focus on actual school lessons.

The side plot: Karen was making a mosaic design one day when she and Andrew saw a commercial for cars with a remote control and ordered it under their moms name. The car came and malfunctioned and they weren’t telling their mom about it when she was getting letters to make the payment. When they finally confessed they were told to get permission next time and that they would have to do extra chores to pay mom back

Also, in the classroom, they were celebrating spring and writing poems about it

[The Moon Rider · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen was in school,looking out the windows. she was looking for signs of spring. They were also working on poems. Karen made that said,
"Spring, Spring,A Very Good Thing. It Makes Me Want To Sing And Sing."
They left school a few hours later. The next day, when Ms.Colman(their teacher)wasn't there, Karen went up to the windows and looked outside from one of the windows. The wind was blowing. When the wind blew, a bushes branch blew to the side, and Karen saw a duck for a second. "I saw a duck!" Karen shouted.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish- · Rating 3 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.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which I realize I read WAY too many of these books...

[Hannah S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a sad book.

[Mellanie C]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14615335