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.
No comments:
Post a Comment