LS #88, Karen's Puppet Show

Karen is going to art camp! The Baby-Sitters club is running an art camp during the month of August. I don't think this showed up in any of the regular series books, although they did enough camps that I may have just forgotten. Claudia is the art camp director, and Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, Jessi, and Mallory are the counselors. Then Karen lists off everyone who is attending Art Camp, which including Karen is ten kids, and does not include Andrew or David Michael. Nor is Jessi's sister Becca attending the camp. So, one counselor for every two kids. Also, the club has made T-shirts for all the campers, and Karen says that each camper got five shirts, plus, the club probably had to pay for all the art supplies and probably snacks too. This camp may not have made much profit, is what I'm getting at.

Karen is pissed because Hannie and Nancy don't want to come to Art Camp even though they'd signed up. Hannie's family is going out of state, which is a reasonable excuse, but Karen is still pissed at her. Nancy just decides that she would rather hang around the house with her parents and baby brother. Karen suggests that maybe this is because Nancy is also a baby. I think Nancy is kind of a baby, but I'm not allegedly her best friend, so it's less hurtful when I say it. And she'd already made the commitment, and then changed her mind. I hope the BSC charged a nonrefundable deposit.

For the first week of camp, the kids do various art projects. One day when it rains, they go in Mary Anne's barn (yes, of course the camp is held at the Spier-Schafer residence) and Karen and Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold make a huge long paper chain. It's not that I dislike paper chains. With Christmas coming up I may teach my little nieces to make them. It's just that if I was paying for my kid to go to Art Camp, I would probably prefer that they did actual art, and not just cut and taped strips of paper.

Claudia announces that the campers will hold an art show on the last day of camp. Each camper will make a special project of their choice to display. They'll sell dollar tickets, and the money raised will be used to purchase supplies for the next year. Now I am really, really thinking that the financial aspects of holding an art camp were not thought through. How much do you suppose each camper paid? It's five days a week, and probably at least 6 hours a day, since they eat lunch there. It appears to be about a four week camp.

Karen wants to put on a puppet show for her final art project. Here's a picture of her starting the writing for it. Clearly the illustrator doesn't read these books very closely or she'd know that Karen does not actually use lower case letter. Karen makes puppets that look like herself and Hannie and Nancy. She names them Sharon, Hannah, and Francy. Her show is going to be about the beautiful and lovely Mary Sue Sharon and her "meanie-mo deserter" friends, Hannah and Francy. This book uses the phrase "meanie-mo" a lot. Is this something actual children somewhere actually say? It always kind of confused me in these books, much like the "word" "gigundoly". Karen decides that her puppet show will be a musical, and she writes little songs about the puppets. I can't tell you what they say, as I skipped over them, like I do every poem in every book, even if it's only two lines long.

Nancy stops by Karen's house and gives her a gift (a mug with her name printed on it). Hannie sends Karen a postcard from wherever she is. But Karen's still pissed at them, so she ignores the gift and postcard, and when it's time to sell tickets to the art show, she does not sell any to Hannie or Nancy. But on the day of the show, Hannie and Nancy are in the audience. Karen's worried, because her show does not paint them in a particularly flattering light. But luckily, Hannie and Nancy just laugh it off and think the show is funny.

Karen, Hannie, and Nancy look at the other kids' art projects and are best friends again. The book says that the cardboard bouquet of flowers (on the left) was Natalie Springer's project. I don't know who made the others.

The subplot in this book is that all the grown-ups go away for a weekend and leave Sam and Charlie and Kristy in charge. Charlie orders pizza with toppings the kids don't like and makes them go to a scary movie at the drive-in. Sam feeds them toasted marshmallows late at night and lets them go to bed with sticky faces and they stick to their pillows. Kristy, Sam, and Charlie ruin the Saturday morning pancakes. I'm a little disappointed at how this plays out, because I would have liked to see Karen enjoying the weekend and having fun with the older kids, instead of reading about Karen, David Michael, and Andrew bitching the whole time about everything fun the bigger kids try to do.

LS #63, Karen's Movie

This book makes me hungry. At the beginning, Karen has breakfast, which includes Krispy Krunchy cereal (this is the made up brand that she always eats), blueberries, milk, juice, and a basket of tiny rolls. I'd eat that (minus the milk). Fresh blueberries are awesome. Then Karen and Andrew go out and play with some neighbor kids. The neighbor kids in Mommy's neighborhood are Nancy Dawes, Bobby and Alicia Gianelli, and Kathryn and Willie Barnes.Kathryn and Willie are in several of the Little Sister books. They have no defining characteristics. They are basically just filler for crowd scenes.

Sorry, where was I? Oh right, food. At dinner that night, they have watermelon, which is the second best summer fruit. (Cherries are the best.) Karen drips juice all over, and then she arranges the seeds on her plate to form a picture, but I like watermelon enough to not be grossed out by that. As they are finishing up dinner the phone rings. It is Seth's mother, calling to tell him that his father has had a heart attack and will need surgery. Seth immediately makes arrangements to fly to Nebraska in two days. Three weeks after that, Mommy, Karen, and Andrew will fly to Nebraska and visit and the whole family will come home together. Karen is very concerned about Grandad's heart attack.

She suggests that they can make get well cards for Grandad. Mommy thinks this is a good idea, and everyone makes a card. Note the bowl of scribbles on the counter behind them. I told you this book makes me hungry. Also, enlarge this picture and look at the scissors. Then imagine how you would have to contort your hand to cut anything at all with the scissors as they are shown. Karen's card with the cut-out heart looks a lot more impressive now, doesn't it?

The next morning, Seth announces that he has decided to buy a TV and VCR for his parents as a get well gift for his father. They do not have TV on their farm. Karen's a little worried because Granny had told her that television sets are a waste of money, but Seth thinks Grandad will like having the TV when he is in bed after the surgery. They still won't have cable or get any broadcast channels though, hence the VCR.

Kristy babysits Karen and Andrew while Mommy takes Seth to the airport. She helps them make a big pitcher of fresh lemonade. I hate lemonade, but I like the idea of making it fresh. I just never do it because I wouldn't want to drink it. Then Karen says she wants to give Grandad a present. Kristy helps her brainstorm, and Karen decides to ask to use Daddy's video camera. She will make Grandad a movie to watch on his shiny new VCR. Hannie and Nancy come over and help Karen write the script. Daddy says she can use the video camera and Sam promises to help with the editing. Because that is something Sam has ever shown an interest in before or since.

The next day, Karen gathers the neighbor kids plus Hannie and assigns them all parts in her movie. Then on another day she makes them all make their own costumes. I am sure that all of the costumes looked just as good as Nancy's on the cover, considering that they were made out of paper bags and old pillowcases. Karen has acquired a clapboard from somewhere. Maybe Sam had it, because he's into video editing.

Karen manages to force all the kids to rehearse for two days and shoot on another two. I don't know how she manages this. Again, this is the sort of thing I always tried to get the neighborhood kids to do when I was a kid, and nobody would show up for the second rehearsal, except my sister and brother and only because I made them.

Karen is really bossy (surprised face) and all the other kids quit, but she thinks there's enough film to make the movie. She and Sam watch it together and she tells him which takes to use and in which order. He is going to use the video editing equipment at the high school, but they are having a summer workshop so he will have to wait his turn. Also Sam asks her if he should leave in all the bits with Karen yelling at people. Karen doesn't think this is very funny, but she doesn't know how to edit movies so she can't fire Sam over it.

Soon, it's time for Karen, Andrew, and Mommy to travel to Nebraska. Andrew's never been to Granny and Grandad's farm before, so Karen tells him all about it. Somewhere in between making the get well cards for Grandad and getting on the plane, Mommy got way prettier. It's like magic. Seth meets them at the airport and they ride back to the farm in Granny and Grandad's rusty green and white pickup truck. Karen shows Andrew around but it's not as fun for her as it was the last time she was there, because Grandad isn't there to do things like give them rides on the tractor. They go visit Karen's friend Tia (defining characteristics: has short hair, wears overalls) and feed the chickens.

Finally Grandad is allowed to come home from the hospital. They have a small welcoming party for him and Seth presents him with the TV and VCR. The book makes me totally hungry again:

All the food was spread out in the kitchen. There was roast chicken, corn on the cob, cooked zucchini with onions and snow peas, and a gigundoly beautiful salad. (Guess who made it.) We could put anything we wanted on our plates.

They also have blueberry pie which Tia's mother has made for the family. Then Karen and Andrew watch the movie with Grandad. He says the movie must have taken a lot of cooperation, which is the sort of thing you say when you hated the movie and want to say something kind to a small child. Karen starts to feel guilty because she was so bossy, and the movie was not a cooperative work at all.

I love the framed artwork on the wall, particularly the duck. I also like Karen's sailor dress.

When they get back to Stoneybrook, Karen gets permission from Mommy to have a viewing party of the movie at her house. Seth makes brownies for the party, and there is punch to drink and popcorn to eat during the movie. Karen gives a little speech about how she is grateful for all of her friends' help, and gives everyone a souvenir movie poster (hand drawn by herself.) All of her friends decide not to be mad at her anymore. (All of Karen's friends are mad at her but she has a party to make it up to them is kind of a running joke between me and my sister in regards to the Little Sister series. I added a tag for it.)

#91, Claudia and the First Thanksgiving

This book starts out right. We get a description of Claudia's outfit on page four.

Now where was I? Oh. Right. My autumn fashion colors. I'd put on a pair of baggy pants, not blue, not black, but yellow. With these I was wearing my red Doc Martens, laced with orange and yellow laces, and this great, funky, enormous shirt that I found in a vintage clothes shop. It has a leaf pattern on it. The leaves are in a Hawaiian print design, and the colors are fabulous. Underneath I was wearing my red and yellow tie-dyed long underwear shirt. To complete the ensemble, I had on earrings that I'd made myself, shaped like pumpkins, and a fringed yellow-and-white scarf tied around my hair.

Claudia goes to school and finds out that her next Short Takes class is going to be a drama class. If you stopped reading before this point in the series, Short Takes classes were these special classes the middle school kids would take for six weeks at a time. I guess it was a way to work in more school related plots without having to worry about any previously established continuity with what the girls were studying. Because continuity was a huge concern in the series, right. Anyway, Claudia's class is assigned to write a play for the third graders at the elementary school to perform. The class decides to do a play about the first Thanksgiving.

All seven of Mallory's brothers and sisters decide to dress as Groucho Marx for Halloween. This seems like a very Stoneybrook thing to dress as. Mallory, naturally, is a giant party pooper who does not dress up while she and her father take the others trick-or-treating. Because Mallory is eleven, so she is far too mature to dress in a costume and get candy like her ten-year old brothers.

Claudia and her classmates decide they will make a Thanksgiving play that will highlight the differences between modern times and the Pilgrim era. The play sounds, honestly, pretty terrible, because in order to highlight the differences, the dialogue has to be really heavy-handed. But the third graders are excited about the play, because, well, they're in third grade. Don't worry, though. All of the speaking roles in the play go to kids the club sits for. Betsy Sobak gets the lead, and Jake Kuhn is Squanto, and Carolyn Arnold is Miles Standish.

In lieu of boring babysitting chapters, we get sitting jobs that just happen to take place at rehearsals. First, Mary Anne babysits for Laurel and Patsy Kuhn and decides to walk them over to watch the rehearsal. I always wonder how some of the names in this series were chosen. Because a five-year old named Patsy just seems anachronistic. Mary Anne watches as the kids rehearse the lines, which, again, are pretty terrible.

Here's the cover. Claudia is wearing one of the outfits she describes later on, well, almost. The skirt isn't rainbow colored but it's fairly close. The Pilgrim cooking the turkey looks about ten years older than the little kid pointing at her while she does it.

At the next rehearsal, Claudia and some kids are painting scenery, and she notices some parents watching the rehearsal. She mentions that a little girl named Susie is part of the scenery crew, which, again, how many 8-year olds were named Susie in 1995? Susie's mother is watching and making a bitchface while the kids rehearse. There are some other unhappy looking parents there too.

Jessi has a babysitting job which brings her to the next rehearsal, where there are a bunch of angry parents milling about. They are upset at the content of the play, because they don't want their kids talking about historical differences in women's rights and race relations. Some parents start to shout. Abby yells right back, because she is Passionate, but Claudia stays away from the main conflict.

The class is told that either they can put on the traditional Thanksgiving story with the kids, or the play will be canceled. They decide to go ahead and do the play because the little kids are excited about it, but the night of the play, they go around writing the word "CENSORED" in red on the posters and things.

I want to point out, though, that I was a very well dressed graffiti artist/protestor. [sic] Just for the occasion, I was wearing my rainbow colored crinkle gauze skirt, my crocheted vest with the matching hat, and my silver earrings (designed by me, of course). I felt that I looked artistic, yet responsible. And of course my button, with the bright red writing on it, added the finishing touch.

The next night, the original version of the play is performed at the middle school by a different Short Takes class. There are lines of protesters outside the school, some pro-play, some anti-. Some of the people in Stoneybrook really have too much free time on their hands. Don't worry, every single person the club sits for supports the 8th graders. It's only the non-recurring characters who feel that it is un-American to spit out lines of overwritten dialogue about women's rights as related to Thanksgiving. As Claudia watches the play, she realizes it  really isn't very good, but she is glad that the play went on anyway.

The subplot in this book is that everyone's plans for Thanksgiving fall through. Mallory's family was supposed to stay at a cousin's apartment in New York and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the windows but the apartment flooded and they will be unable to do so. Sound familiar? Jessi was supposed to visit relatives, but the relatives were wait listed for spots on a church retreat and spots open up so they can go. That's noteworthy because it's one of the few overt mentions of religion in the series.

The girls talk Kristy's parents into inviting everyone's families over and hosting Thanksgiving for 36 people (then Dawn shows up as a surprise so 37.). It sounds like fun but also like a lot of work. The adults all cook at Kristy's house the day before while the club sits for all the younger kids at the Pike house. Most of the kids get to help make cookies and decorations but the triplets have to clean their room before they can do any of that. Except don't the triplets share a room with Nicky? Nicky is baking cookies with the others, apparently he is immune to cleaning. Then after the triplets clean their room they play pin the feathers on the turkey and Claudia says that one wall of the Pike family room is covered in cork so it doesn't matter where the pushpins go in. Is that weird? I think it's weird. I can't imagine it looks very good.

The next day they all eat Thanksgiving together and I should probably say something snarky about it, but it's actually one of my favorite subplots. I like it when the girls' families spend time together.

LS #89, Karen's Unicorn

At the beginning of this book, Karen is reading a book about unicorns. She's recently become interested in them and has found out that unicorns are special, magical creatures. According to Karen, you have to be very, very good for a unicorn to befriend you. Also, if you get close to a unicorn, you can make a wish, and the unicorn will grant it. And unicorns are always pure white, and they can detoxify drinking water with their horns. Karen's been trying to tell her friends and family about unicorns, but nobody else believes in them.

Karen's unicorn daydreams are interrupted by Andrew, who is trying to learn to ride a two-wheeler and wants Karen to help him. Karen tries, but Andrew isn't having much luck. She tries to tell him he's too little to ride a bike but he is having none of it. Tricycles are for babies and he is going to learn to ride a bike, even though it is Karen's old bike that is too big for him. You would think Watson the Real Live Millionaire could buy his son an appropriately sized boy's bike, but I guess he probably wouldn't let him bring it to Mommy's house anyway.

I thought the illustration of it was really cute. Andrew is wearing knee and elbow pads. Apparently he was not scared enough by Karen's roller skating mishap to wear wrist guards as well. Karen is rocking her usual side ponytail. They go inside and eat dinner and find out that Seth is going to have to move his carpentry shop because the building he's in is being renovated and the rent increased.

The next day, on the bus ride to school, Karen and Nancy see a poster. The circus is coming to town. Not only is the circus coming to town, but it is going to feature a Real Live Unicorn. (No other animal acts, just the unicorn.)

All the kids are talking about the circus when they get to school, but Karen is the only one in her class who believes that unicorns are real. They get some more exciting news when they find out that the class will be taking a field trip to the circus and will get to take a special tour. Karen is absolutely positive that the unicorn will grant her wishes. She makes a list of the wishes she wants the unicorn to grant.

The thing I like about her unicorn wish list is that she adds the parenthetical aside about who Maxie is. Even though it's just her own list that she's writing for herself. You know, in case later on, she's reading the wishes and is like "Who the hell is Maxie? Why do I want a letter from her?"

On unicorn circus day, Karen gets up and dresses in her unicorn sweatshirt and thinks that she hopes the unicorn will like her shirt. My niece went through a phase where she would always tell us that the cat liked her shirt. She was four, though. It's not that the cat actively disliked the shirts or anything, but I secretly suspect she didn't care, much like I secretly suspect the unicorn won't care.

Here is the cover. I used to have three copies of this book for unknown reasons, so I'm not sure why the one I kept has a giant crease on the cover, but that's OK. You can see Nancy, Karen, and Hannie watching the circus together. Karen is enchanted by the unicorn. After the show, the class gets their special tour. Bobby makes some comments about how the unicorn's horn is probably glued on, but Karen is even more positive that it is a real unicorn. She thinks her wishes at him as hard as she can.

When Karen gets home, she thinks that maybe the unicorn is busy, and five wishes is a lot, so she'll help him out a little. She writes a postcard to Maxie, and studies for her math test. When the tests come back, she missed 3 answers and is quite pleased with herself. I would have been crushed to miss three answers on a test in elementary school, but Karen seems happy. I guess 50 books ago, she was copying answers off Ricky, so it's an improvement. She also gets a response from Maxie.

Watson has gotten tickets to the circus that he can't use, and he offers them to Lisa, so Karen gets to see the circus again, which is the third of her wishes.

Here is Karen and her family watching a scary clown. After the show, Karen sneaks underneath the tent where the unicorn is kept while Mommy is using the port-a-potty. She thinks she sees his horn wiggle, but then it seems steady, so she just isn't sure. She thinks her two remaining wishes at the unicorn as hard as she can.

The next day, Andrew finally gets the hang of riding his bike, but he doesn't know how to stop. Karen runs along with him and they cross one street and turn one corner and see a brand new mini-mall which Karen decides will be perfect for Seth's workshop. They go home and tell Seth about it. He calls, and it turns out the place is perfect. Either Seth or his realtor must be kind of slacking, to not know about a property three blocks from their house, but everything ends up happy.

Karen's friends still don't believe in unicorns. Nancy says she's happy that Karen's wishes came true, but she did a lot of work for them, like studying and helping Andrew. Karen is still convinced the unicorn granted the wishes.

They go over to look at the building where Seth's carpentry workshop will be, and Karen sees circus trucks pulling out of town. The last thing she sees is a horse trailer, and she is just sure the unicorn winks at her as he drives away.