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.