LS #67, Karen's Turkey Day

As you may have noticed I've been doing a lot of Little Sister books with Seth's parents in them because I was wondering about them and wondering, like, if Seth is close to them and if he's an only child and whether they were disappointed when he left the farm. Naturally these questions are not fully answered in books aimed at 6 year olds, which is cool with me, because I can try to read between the lines and make up my own little back story for Seth and his parents.

Karen arrives at the Little House for November and is told that Mommy and Seth have made reservations to stay at a hotel in New York City for Thanksgiving, and they will be able to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from their hotel windows. Karen is like OH SHIT YES THIS IS AWESOME and I'm like "You've got to be kidding me, this shit again??"

Here's the cover. There's a scene in this book that wasn't even interesting enough to make it into my recap where Karen's class at school makes decorations for the old folks' home. This is Karen and Ricky with their decorations. I kind of dig Karen's vest.

Seth has been working late a lot and he has also been getting a lot of calls from his parents. Grandad can't work because of the heart attack he had in book 63 and he and Granny are bored and lonely. Mommy and Seth try hard to convince Granny and Grandad to come for a visit, but Granny and Grandad are resistant. They don't know anyone in Stoneybrook, after all, and as Seth points out they've lived on their farm for four decades. I wonder how old Seth is. I wonder if the farm is not the first place Granny and Grandad lived after they got married, because they seem older than early/mid 60s to me.

Finally, Seth convinces his parents to come visit, not just for Thanksgiving but to stay until the beginning of January. Karen is very excited for this visit. She helps Mommy transform the den into a guest bedroom for Granny and Grandad. They stayed in the upstairs guest room last time but Mommy says Grandad isn't well enough to climb the stairs this time. I think this is the first mention ever of the Little House having a guest bedroom. That makes four bedrooms upstairs, and downstairs has the den/office space. That's really not what I picture when I think of a little house, although I suppose Karen is comparing it to Watson's Real! Live! Mansion! At any rate, they continue to prep the den to be the guest room. Seth gives their old sofa to the Salvation Army and gets a used sofa bed from somewhere. I don't know why, if they already had a guest room, they didn't just move the bed downstairs for the month and a half Granny and Grandad would be there. I just called and asked and my mom said there was no way she would sleep on a sofa bed for six weeks, and she is not as old as Seth's parents, either. Seth brings two tables from work to put in the room, and Andrew draws a turkey and glues it to a popsicle stick for decor. Karen adds a string of construction paper pumpkins.

The family picks up Granny and Grandad at the airport. It looks like Granny cut her hair dramatically shorter than last time we saw her, but no mention of it is made in the text. I looked at the picture of her from #10 and I guess her hair is under a handkerchief, so it could have already been short. I don't know why I thought it was in a bun. Maybe it was an illustration I didn't scan. Grandad looks older and more frail than Karen remembers, and Granny and Grandad announce that they will not be going to New York City with the family. They will for some reason, having flown halfway across the country, make themselves Thanksgiving dinner in their son's home while he is out of town. Lisa and Seth are like "Suit yourselves."

One day Karen comes home from school and shows Grandad her schoolwork and they go for a walk around the neighborhood and it's nice, but the next day, when Karen comes home from school, Grandad yells at her not to brag about her schoolwork and not to run around in the house. Karen goes in her room and cries and Granny comes and explains that Grandad is sick and not used to children and didn't mean to hurt her feelings. Karen understands.

Seth keeps having late nights and after some discussion, Lisa decides she will go to work helping him out in his shop. Granny will take care of the house. Grandad will help where he can, considering he's still weak and sick. Ha ha, just kidding, nobody gives a shit how he feels, he's in charge of watching the children.

Grandad watches Karen and Andrew because Granny is soooo busy all the time running errands. I don't understand how this can be because it's not like Lisa had to leave the kids with a babysitter every night to run the trillions of errands that keep the little house running smoothly. I think it's mostly for plot purposes so that Karen and Andrew can spend some time with Grandad. He plays quiet games with them and makes them chips and cheese in the microwave.

Two days before Thanksgiving, Lisa and Seth decide that they are going to cancel their plans and stay home with Granny and Grandad. Karen is bitterly disappointed. I'm like "Yup, this shit again." I added a tag for the parade because this has to be at least the fourth time we've seen this exact plot and I know of at least two more upcoming.

Karen and Granny go to the supermarket but because it's two days before Thanksgiving, the store is sold out of almost everything. There isn't even a turkey they can buy. Granny decides to serve chicken wings instead. They also buy some canned goods and frozen pumpkin pies. I think this is probably the most disappointing part of the whole thing, because if Lisa and Seth had canceled their plans earlier instead of at the last minute, I bet Granny would have made an amazing dinner.

Nancy tells Karen that her family is not visiting their relatives after all so Lisa invites the Dawes family to eat chicken wings with them for Thanksgiving and they accept.

The day before Thanksgiving, Karen rounds up the neighborhood kids and makes them practice being in a parade. Thanksgiving morning, she watches the Macy's parade on TV, then goes outside and marches with her friends. Bobby's father videotapes it for all the parents.

Here is what I wore to lead the parade: red tights, blue shorts, white T-shirt, jean jacket, and a pair of Granny's white gloves. I put one of Nancy's party hats on my head. And ZI draped a banner over my shoulder. It said Happy Thanksgiving inside a beautiful glitter border.

I could totally picture Claudia wearing the exact same outfit. Here it is in all its glory:

Andrew is dressed up as a Pilgrim. Some other neighbor kid is dressed up as a pirate, which has nothing to do with Thanksgiving but the kids were trying to copy the Macy's parade which has a lot of characters unrelated to the holiday.

Karen's family and Nancy's family have a lovely and fun Thanksgiving day together. Grandad says he is glad to be with his family, even though he had to leave his farm, and Karen is glad that Granny and Grandad have come to visit her family.

This book has a couple of cute scenes but mostly it is boring and the recycling of the we're-going-to-see-the-parade-oh-wait-we-aren't plotline makes my score a 3/10.

Foods eaten in this book: hamburger, mashed potatoes, green beans, Krispy Krunchy cereal, peanut butter and jelly on crackers, crackers, cheese, sliced apples, grape juice, meatballs, spaghetti, corn chips with melted cheese, fresh squeezed lemonade, vegetable lasagna, salad, chicken wings, canned cranberry sauce, canned lima beans, canned sweet potatoes, stove top stuffing, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies, vegetable soup, leftovers.

LS SS #2, Karen's Plane Trip

I don't usually do the super specials because all the storylines make them a pain in the butt to recap, but the early Little Sister specials were pretty much slightly longer than usual regular books with activity pages at the end.

In this book, Karen is going to fly all by herself to Nebraska to visit Seth's parents on their farm. She is packing and Mommy asks if she needs help, but she wants to pack all by herself. For some reason Mommy just lets her and doesn't check her suitcase, which seems a little silly to me. As independent as Karen is, she's also only seven years old.

On the day of the plane trip, Karen gets dressed up in a party dress and all her plastic rings from the dentist and her family takes her to the airport. This is the scene depicted on the cover. Seth has made her a bag to take on the plane with coloring books and stuff, and Karen also has a flight attendant assigned to help her. The plane chapter is fairly boring. Karen sits by two adults who are working and actually has enough manners to leave them alone. She gets to see the cockpit and eats an in-flight meal.

When the plane lands in Nebraska, Karen is greeted by Granny and Grandad, who are driving an old green-and-white pickup truck. Karen is very judgmental of the pickup truck. She assumes that Granny and Grandad's car must have broken down, which is why they are driving it. But no, the truck is Granny and Grandad's. Later on, when Grandad has his heart attack in Karen's Movie, Mommy, Karen, and Andrew all ride in the truck with Seth. I did some research when I did that book, because I would not expect Granny and Grandad's old rusty pickup to be a crew cab. According to Wikipedia, "Through the 1980s, most crew cab pickup trucks were sold as heavy-duty (3/4 and 1 ton) models intended for commercial use, and custom vehicle builders such as Centurion built light-duty crew cabs for the personal-use market." So I'll stick with my assumption that it was a regular cab and continue picturing it as identical to my dad's pickup, Old Green, pictured above.

Karen is very judgmental of Granny and Grandad's house. She notices that it needs a new paint job and that the porch is sagging. She is crabby when she finds out there is no TV and no air conditioning. She convinces herself that there are probably snakes living under the porch. She is even judgmental that Granny and Grandad have the nerve to not own a cordless phone. She calls home and begs to go home, but Lisa and Seth tell her no. Then she gets sent to bed at 8:30 and bitches about that, even though Granny and Grandad are also going to bed and I don't know what the hell she was planning to do if she stayed up since she hates everything about the farmhouse.

The next morning Karen dresses up in another party dress because, like she told her mom on the phone, she packed mostly fancy clothes. This is why an adult should have supervised her packing. When Granny mentions that they won't have eggs and milk until after the eggs are collected and the cows milked, Karen bitches that Granny should just go to the 7-Eleven. She is aghast to find out there is not one within thirty miles. Granny asks Karen to take off her party dress and feed the chickens, which pisses Karen off even more. Karen gets a tour of the farm and is rude about that, too. Granny and Grandad's neighbors have a daughter named Tia, who is about Karen's age. She comes over to meet Karen, but Karen is a total cow to her because she has a boy's bike and short haircut and Karen thinks she looks like a boy.


By this point in the book, I just want to smack Karen. She knew full well she was going to visit a farm, because in Karen's Grandmothers, Granny wrote letters to Nancy and included photos of the tractor and the barn cat and Karen already knew about them, and that book was published a year earlier. So, for some reason, despite knowing that she was going to a farm, Karen packed a bunch of party dresses and judged the hell out of the truck, the farmhouse, the neighbors, and everything else. She deserved to be unhappy, because she was being a rude little brat.

The next morning Granny asks Karen to help her in the vegetable garden. She shows Karen the plants she is growing and helps Karen pick ingredients to make a salad to go with supper. Karen actually enjoys this and starts to enjoy the routine of the farm.

On a rainy day, Granny teaches Karen to knit and then Tia comes over. Probably because her parents made her, because I don't know why she would have wanted to see Karen again after what a jerk Karen was to her the first time they met. This time, though, Karen is bored because of the rain, and she greets Tia enthusiastically. She and Tia invent board games together. After Tia leaves, Karen asks if Granny can take her to buy some overalls. She is sick of being the only one in dresses or good pants.

The next day Granny takes Karen to town. It's a small town and Karen wonders where the video rental store, the toy store, the pet shop, and ice-cream parlor are. Karen, clearly, has grown up in Stoneybrook where every item has its own dedicated shop. She has not been introduced to the wonders of the small town gas station/convenience store/bait shop/tire and lube/liquor store/video rental. They go in the store and Granny finds overalls for Karen. Then they eat lunch at the diner in town.

Granny lets Karen invite Tia for a sleepover on Saturday night. The girls play together and sleep in hammocks on the front porch. The next day, Karen wants to pick a bunch of vegetables and set up a roadside stand. Granny agrees but tells her not to pick too many because most of the people who live nearby have their own gardens. Karen and Tia sit out in the sun all day and make $2.59.

A few days later, the chicks hatch. Tia comes over and the girls watch the hatching. Karen names the fluffiest chick after her new friend Tia. The day before Karen leaves, Tia comes over once again and they invent board games. Grandad gives her a ride on the tractor. Karen makes one last very special salad to eat with supper. Then she gives gifts to Granny and Grandad. She knitted Granny a whole scarf after the one knitting lesson Granny gave her. It's purple and pink stripes and she knitted it as a surprise. I don't know where she got the yarn without Granny suspecting anything. She's written an eight-stanza poem for Grandad.

On the flight home, Karen spends the whole time talking to the man sitting next to her, and introduces him to her family at the airport. Then she tells her family all about the trip.

Overall, I like this book, even though Karen is a giant brat for no reason in the beginning. Granny and Grandad seem like nice people and they enjoy having Karen visit them. My score: 7/10.

Here are some of the activity pages in the back of the book.  Luckily nobody wrote in my copy. The activity pages are stupid because they ruin the book if you do them and are a waste of space if you don't.

Foods eaten in this book: orange juice, toast, fruit, bacon, juice, salad, salad dressing, cookies, lollipop, corn on the cob, chicken, popcorn, cherry pie.

LS #10, Karen's Grandmothers

Ms. Colman announces to Karen's class that they have the opportunity to participate in the adopt-a-grandparent program at Stoneybrook Manor. Anyone who wants can sign up to be paired with a resident and they will visit twice a week after school apparently forever. That seems like a lot of visits to me, honestly. Eight times a month. Karen is massively excited though. Because of her parents' divorce, she has four grandmothers already: Grandma, Granny, Neena, and Nannie. If she has another from the adopt-a-grandparent program, she will have five, which she is sure will set some sort of record.

Neena is Watson's mother and this is pretty much the only time she is mentioned in the series. It's been established that Watson lives in his ancestral home, because Ben Brewer's room is upstairs. I assume that his mother lives in a retirement community in Florida or something and gave/sold the house to him after his father died, or possibly around the time he married Lisa? I mean I guess there's nothing to say that Watson's father couldn't still be alive, but he's never mentioned even once. Anyway, Watson was probably older by the time he got married the first time, in which case he would be ready to settle in with the house and was probably already settled into his role as CEO of Stanford Unity Insurance (I think this is his job title.) Speaking of Watson and Lisa, I've always figured he was at least 10 years older than she is. He almost has to be, right? In Kristy's Great Idea, she says he's older than Elizabeth, and Elizabeth has high-school age kids.

Nancy does not want to have an adopted grandparent, even though she has no living grandparents. Nancy confesses to Karen that she is afraid of old people, especially really old people who use wheelchairs. Karen thinks that is stupid. She is certain that Nancy needs a grandparent, so she writes a letter to Granny, Seth's mother who lives in Nebraska, asking her to be Nancy's pen-pal grandmother. The letter spanned two pages, so I cut and pasted them together for you, sorry for the image quality. Note that Karen uses lower-case letters here. Later in the series she just prints in all caps all the time, which I don't really understand. By second grade, would a teacher allow someone to write in all capital letters? Karen skipped a grade (sometime I will post about that in particular) so her fine motor skills are probably a little behind her classmates but even so, you'd think the teacher would want her to at least attempt lower-case.

Karen's mother reminds Karen that she already has a lot of after school activities and twice a week is a pretty big time commitment for visiting the Manor, but signs the permission slip anyway. Karen's adopted grandmother turns out to be an old white-haired woman named Esther Barnard, who tells Karen to call her Grandma B. She likes to do things like play classical music and make Karen learn to dance the foxtrot. Karen starts to not look forward to their visits, because she thinks Grandma B is Grandma Boring. She misses a visit because of a Krushers practice, then another because she has an earache.

Meanwhile, Granny has enthusiastically answered Karen's request to be Nancy's pen-pal. She sends Nancy pictures of the farm and the tractor and the barn cat. Karen's a little jealous because Granny didn't send her any pictures. Then Granny sends Nancy some mittens with her name knitted into them. Karen is jealous of this too.

I couldn't believe it. Well, that just wasn't fair at all. Granny knitted me a pair of mittens with my name on them last year. I had thought that my Karen-mittens were very special. But I guess not. I guess Granny knits name-mittens for any girl who comes along.

Karen has a chat with Nannie and Nannie tells her that she loves all of her grandchildren the same amount, but for different reasons, and the reasons have nothing to do with whether they are biological grandchildren or not.  Karen feels better, and stops being jealous of Nancy's letters from Granny. This picture amuses me because Nannie is always described as not seeming very old. She wears pants! And goes bowling! So, in this picture, she is wearing the old woman-est shirt that ever was, with her hair in a bun, while knitting. Wow! She doesn't look old at all!

Karen's class at school is going to put on a program for the people at Stoneybrook Manor and also make them gifts. They cover soup cans with paper for the men and make macaroni necklaces for the women.  Those are terrible gifts, right? I don't just think so because I hate children? The macaroni necklaces all hit the trash can seconds after the kids left the manor, right?

Karen, Hannie, Nancy, and Ricky decide they will recite scary poems for the residents at the manor. Nancy is still terrified of going to the Manor, even though she wants to be an actress when she grows up. Her fear of old people overrides her desire to perform.

Here is a picture of the kids dressed up to recite their scary poems. I kind of love Hannie's dress. Nancy's dress is meh. Karen's dress is fug. Ricky has worn his suit, because in these books, little boys wear full suits or at least slacks and a blazer.

Karen introduces Nancy to Grandma B. They start to talk and Nancy invites Grandma B to come spend holidays at her house, because Grandma B, like Nancy, is Jewish. Nancy likes the classical music and dancing the foxtrot. She takes Karen's place in the adopt-a-grandparent program, and Karen signs up for gymnastics lessons instead. So now Nancy has a pen-pal grandma and an adopted grandma. Grandma B actually does show up later in the series and spends time with Nancy's family, which is nice.

This book is all right, if a little boring. My score: 6/10. Also, the only food consumed in this book was punch and cookies.