LS #76, Karen's Magic Garden

This book has a plot that is really obviously something that is happening in a book. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's how it comes across. Sometimes Karen has realistic adventures, like breaking her wrist roller-skating, and sometimes, well, there are books like these.

It is an ex-library copy, but the front cover isn't in too bad of shape. There are due date stamps and random crap on the back cover though.

Mommy's family is totally having a family reunion, and they will be traveling to Maine, which is apparently where Lisa grew up. In this book we discover that Mommy's parents have moved to Maine. At least that explains why they never show up in any book after Karen's Witch (Grandma Packett is at the gardening club meeting that Karen and Hannie crash to accuse everyone of being witches). The family will be going up four days before the reunion and staying with Lisa's Aunt Carol and Uncle John, who of course have a big sprawling manor that can easily accommodate houseguests. Lots of Lisa's relatives will be there, most of them one-book characters whose names are unimportant. The ones who will show up again are Lisa's sister Ellen, her husband Mark, and their kids Diana and Kelsey, who are seven and four like Karen and Andrew. This book is the first time Karen and Diana ever meet. In fact, Karen is a little surprised that she even has a cousin her own age. I find this endlessly fascinating, because Lisa and Ellen seem to get along just fine once they're in the same room. I wonder if they had a falling out and that's why their kids have never met. Maybe they really don't get along, but since the book is from a kid's perspective you don't see it. Maybe life just carried them in different directions and before they knew what happened, seven years had passed. Lisa's parents used to live in Stoneybrook, remember. Did Ellen not get along with her parents, so that she never visited for any holidays or anything? I may end up writing some fanfiction about it, because there are so many possibilities.

Traveling to Maine by car takes up a chapter and a half where Karen whines about being bored and how it's annoying to have to use one's indoor voice in the car.  Also they stop for fast food and Andrew gets a "cool eraser" in his Junior Meal and Karen gets a ruler, and they amuse themselves with those for a while. And I mean I know you wouldn't want licensed characters or anything, and I should just be glad that they didn't get Wizard of Oz toys, but random school supplies sounds like the lamest kid meals ever.

When they arrive at Great-Aunt Carol and Great-Uncle John's house, Karen and Diana meet, and are instant besties, because Diana is also loud and full of energy. Andrew and Kelsey also hit it off when Kelsey reveals that she has a pet frog named Prince Caliber. The kids (there are like six more of varying ages but who cares) are going to sleep on a screened in porch in sleeping bags. This is the most exciting thing that ever happened. The next day Karen and Diana explore the grounds (and this place is freaking gigantic) and find a vegetable garden, a little gazebo, and more. The adults are all working on a big family tree and trying to fill in names and pictures on it. Then they all go out to eat and Andrew has fried clams which he loves but Karen doesn't like. The next morning when the kids wake up it is raining.

This right here is where the book goes from something that could happen into completely obviously something that would only happen in a book territory, FYI. The kids decide to explore the house, and one of the 12-year olds leads them up into the attic where there are trunks of old clothes and boxes of old toys, because that's what people in BSC books keep in their attics. Nobody just has holiday decorations and maybe some boxes of college memorabilia surrounded by itchy insulation. They have fully finished attics with old as hell clothing that their kids can just try on when it rains. And nobody in BSC land cares if kids unpack boxes and strew the contents about, either. Karen and Diana find some diaries and take them downstairs to read them. They were written by a long ago ancestor named Annemarie, who was nine years old in 1892. Her cousin Polly was visiting, and Annemarie showed Polly the "magic garden" and then Polly's mother died and they made memory boxes to open together the next summer. Karen and Diana are captivated because Annemarie and Polly were "twin cousins" just like them. They don't know what the hell the talk about the magic garden is, though. It doesn't mean the vegetable garden, because that is referenced elsewhere in these apparently quite detailed diaries.

When the rain stops Karen and Diana get permission to go outside again and look for the magic garden, and they find it. Karen says it's not big, but it's surrounded by brick walls and has at least three benches, a fountain, and two statues in it. They run to get the adults and show them, and Great-Aunt Carol announces that she never knew this was here.

HOW THE GODDAMN HELL DO YOU NOT KNOW THERE IS A WALLED IN GARDEN CONTAINING A FOUNTAIN, BENCHES, AND STATUARY ON YOUR PROPERTY?! HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?

I mean let's say that during the Great Depression, the gardener had to be let go because even such a grand estate couldn't afford to keep him on. There would still have to be someone maintaining the lawns at least a little bit, right? Because otherwise the whole property would be overgrown and probably filled with creepy critters, right? And the vegetable garden is still in use, and the gazebo. How did an entire walled in garden get forgotten?

Anyway the kids and adults work together to clean up the garden, which is overgrown, but clearly next spring/summer there will be roses and various other things that they see evidence of.  Karen and Diana make secret wishes, and Karen's comes true. She wished to have a picnic on the beach like Mommy used to when she was little, and that's exactly what they do. Then Aunt Ellen gives Diana a bracelet that was packed in the wrong suitcase by mistake, and it turns out that finding the bracelet was Diana's wish.

The next day there is work to be done with getting ready for the main part of the reunion, and the next day is the big family reunion. Tons more aunts, uncles, and cousins come, and they wear matching T-shirts and play games and eat. Karen and Diana both eat way too much and get stomachaches.

This makes sense because I know that I, too, am helpless to resist when faced with bowls heaped with delicious scribbles.  Heck sometimes I even go back for seconds on scribbles.

All the relatives who come have brought pictures to fill in the family tree the adults were working on, and after they all leave, there is only one blank spot, where Polly's mother's picture should be. The next day Karen and Diana go back into the attic and of course they find more journals. They were written by Annemarie again, ten years later. It turns out that she and Polly never saw each other again. Karen and Diana realize that the memory boxes may still be in the garden. Of course they find them behind some loose bricks. There are lockets and some other crap in the boxes, and in Polly's is a picture labeled "Mama". When the girls show the boxes to the adults, Great-Aunt Carol ceremoniously takes the ONLY DAMN SURVIVING PHOTOGRAPH OF POLLY'S MOTHER AND GLUES IT ONTO THE FAMILY TREE. The archivist in me cringes every time I read that paragraph. Then Karen and Diana get to keep the rest of the crap from the boxes, and they make new boxes and hide the to hopefully open the next summer when they hope to return to Maine, even though this is the first time either of their families have been there in at least seven years.

So yeah. That's this book. It is not very realistic. Thankfully the RNG realized I would need a break after this one, because it rolled up The Truth About Stacey next, and I love that book, so yay.