Baby-sitters Little Sister 49 – Karen’s Stepmother

Ann M. Martin's Karen's Stepmother is a story about two homes, written for 7 year olds who have a lot of opinions.

What happens

Karen Brewer is seven and has two of most things. Two houses, two families, two best friends, two pairs of glasses. This month is the first time she and her little brother have stayed at the big house for a whole month instead of a weekend.

She asked for this. She wanted more time with her dad. So she is absolutely determined to be cheerful about it.

Then Elizabeth, her stepmother, explains the chores. Make your bed. Keep your room tidy. Look after your pet rat. Sort the recycling so Charlie can drive it to the centre. No chores, no allowance.

Karen forgets. Twice. And by the second time she has decided that Elizabeth is mean, that Elizabeth thinks nothing she does is quite right, and that she'd rather spend the real Mother's Day with her real mother.

What makes it work is how completely you're inside Karen's head. She tells you she's being cheerful while she's stomping up the stairs. She explains that feeding her rat definitely counts as a chore, because she'd do it anyway. She gives herself a stern talking-to and then interrupts Elizabeth on the phone about ten minutes later.

Grown-ups keep asking her to use her indoor voice. You'll know the tone.

Underneath the bed-making there's a real worry, and the book doesn't dodge it. Mother's Day falls in a big-house month. Father's Day falls in a little-house month. Karen works out in about four seconds that the arrangement she asked for has a hole in it, and that nobody had thought about birthdays or Christmas either. Her dad admits it. That's a good moment.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The divorce is explained plainly early on, including that her parents stopped loving each other but never stopped loving the children. If your reader lives between two houses this could be the exact book they want, or it could sit rather close. It's very gentle about it either way, and the shouting is all about chores rather than about anybody leaving.

The sentences are short and Karen narrates every single one of them at full volume.

What to read next

If they enjoy a girl with strong feelings about small injustices, Judy Moody is in the library too. Judy starts third grade in a spectacular mood, largely because her new desk won't have an armadillo sticker on it, and takes most of it out on her little brother Stink.