There are only two Little Sister books that are not titled in the format of Karen's [Thing]. One of them is LS #14, Karen's in Love, which uses Karen's as a contraction and not a possessive, and the other is LS-SS #4, Karen, Hannie, and Nancy: The Three Musketeers. The latter, incidentally, is listed in the back of a lot of the books as Karen's Three Musketeers. So in tonight's book, Karen acquires a tattletale, namely her brother Andrew. This is more fun to read about than when she gets a pony or a tuba or an island vacation.
Anyway, Karen's Tattletale is set in the springtime, and Ms. Colman tells the class that the school will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in a month. I guess that first year they had a very short school year. Who knows how long it took through trial and error before they decided school should start in the fall. Karen's class needs to decide on something that they will do in the Jamboree. The kids are all supposed to think of things, but after the class gives their ideas, Ms. Colman and the music teacher strongarm them into singing a medley of songs from The Wizard of Oz. The good citizens of Stoneybrook are obsessed with that movie for unknown reasons. Karen tries out for a solo because she loves the sound of her own voice and figures everyone else will, too. She gets the part.
Meanwhile, Andrew is pissed at Karen for not being very sympathetic that his preschool teacher punished him by not letting him paint at the easels for half an hour. He doesn't speak to her for a while, and then he starts tattling on her for everything she does. Karen's mother, Lisa, tells Karen to try and be more sympathetic to Andrew because it is frustrating to be the youngest in the family. Seth, Karen's stepfather, has built a new screen door, but it sticks open a little, and he tells the kids to slam it so the pets won't get out and he'll get a new part for it in a few weeks. Before he can get the new part, the door gets left open, and his dog, Midgie, gets out and is almost hit by a car. Andrew tattles that Karen left the door open and Lisa punishes her by not letting her sing her solo at the Jamboree. This strikes me as a weird punishment but whatever. Karen's solo is given instead to her "best enemy" Pamela Harding. Pamela gloats about it. We're supposed to not like Pamela because she's mean to Karen and tries to act too grown-up, but I like her anyway. In this book Pamela beats Karen in the three-legged race on Field Day and gets tangled up with Karen in the sack race and they both lose. Karen doesn't win anything. This makes me happy. Much happier than the ending of the actual book Karen's Field Day.
Then because the book is almost over, Andrew admits that he lied and Karen wasn't the one who forgot to shut the door and nearly got poor Midgie killed. It was Andrew. He has to go to his room for an hour and not watch TV for a week. That is not such a bad thing in Stoneybrook, where the only shows on TV are ancient reruns apparently. Karen gets to sing her solo after all, but she feels bad for Pamela, who had been excited to sing the solo, so she and Pamela share the solo by singing alternating lines.
Unfortunately by the next book Andrew goes back to being a doormat, but it's pretty fun to read this one and see him fighting back against Karen.
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