Karen's Monsters

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #66

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

Karen's stepbrother, Charlie, is building a very scary monster for the Halloween parade. Then the monster disappears, and Karen thinks he has come to life.

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Halloween, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

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

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun to see interaction between Karen and Charlie, who is such an underused character in the BSC universe. It was nice to see him have a personality!

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun story. Includes a Charlie-Karen heist to rescue Charlie's Frankenstein monster from a thief, and Emily Michelle acting up coz she wishes she could go to school like her older siblings.

One big snag for me, and likely noticed only coz I'm binging these books, is how the author gave Nancy stage fright in this book. Like Nancy's freaking out about reading a story out loud to the class and their families, until Karen comes up with the brilliant -- no shade, I mean it -- idea to have people look away while Nancy reads. But in multiple other books, it says Nancy wants to be an actress when she grows up, so why would she freak out over an activity like this? Boo continuity error.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the titular 'monsters' was Emily Michelle, Karen's two-year-old sister, who threw a temper tantrum every weekday morning. Toddlers throw temper tantrums because they are unable to express their feelings and needs, not because they're monsters. I wish the singular 'monster' had been used in the title to refer only to the monster that Charlie, Karen's stepbrother, made for a Halloween parade.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily was acting like a monster until they realized she wanted to go to school like the rest of the kids at the big house. Nancy struggles to present in front of the school and Karen helps her big brother find a stolen monster for the town parade.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awww, I love seeing Charlie's personality.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one that I couldn't remember the story of, it was an okay read. I was hoping for something a little more Halloweenie, but alas.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Michelle wanted to go to school so every single Monday, Tuesday, Wed., Thurs., and Friday she threw a temper tantrum. At the end of the book they figured out that she wanted to go to school.

[Mellanie C]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14534959