Karen's Christmas Tree

Baby-Sitters Little Sister #80

by Ann M. Martin, Susan Tang (Illustrator)

Wanting to do something special to help a child and an ailing neighbor, Karen and her friends decide to surprise them with a Christmas tree, but a terrible fight has the girls refusing to speak to one another. Original.

Genres: Christmas, Childrens, Middle Grade, Collections, Realistic Fiction, Fiction

95 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I started to feel sad. I have friends who have gone into the hospital. Nancy. Bobby. They came out just fine. But the last old person I knew who went into the hospital was my grandad. And he died." Poignant words, Karen. Well said.

Amazingly, this is the second time Karen behaves in a manner which is typical of a normal seven year old, but not complete riddled with her usual ass-hattery. Congratulations Karen! She is actually quite thoughtful in this book, and I'm finding myself becoming somewhat fond of her.

[Breanna Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every time I think Karen is going to make me proud by acting like a normal kid and a nice person, I’m almost immediately reminded of the fact that she’s a brat and has never faced any consequences for it. Okay okay... that’s an exaggeration. For the most part, lol. Anyways, the story is overall pretty sweet though... and Karen is actually not at her worst here, so I didn’t mind it too much. I did have to deduct a star for the stilted writing style of most oh the Little Sister books because it drove me crazy even as a child.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that Karen and her friends gave to others during the holiday season. I did not like their fight. Karen told Nancy she couldn't go to see Annie because she was busy, but was mad when Nancy invited Hannie instead. Karen had gotten her dates messed up and wasn't busy after all, but failed to communicate this to Nancy.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet Xmas story. The three musketeers band together to get a toy for an underprivileged kid and a tree for an injured neighbour. There's a fight but of course it's Xmas so all ends happily and heartwarmingly.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short sweet book about friendship and community at the holidays. Had to laugh when I saw the publication date. The book reads like it was written in 86 not 96.

[Em's Adventures · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and fun!

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the Christmas season brings out the best in Karen. In this book, she and the musketeers are doing something generous for Christmas, raising money to donate a fire truck toy to a child, and to buy a new Christmas tree for an ill neighbour. However, she still acted like a brat in the middle of the story when starting a fight with Nancy and hannie, but they eventually make up