61: Karen's Tattletale

I didn't feel too bad for Karen in this book. It was Andrew's first big punishment, by a teacher he loved, he feels really bad about it, and he gets belittled by Karen. Maybe it's because I sympathize with Andrew because he's the baby of his family, I was too--and being the baby isn't just always about being the spoiled one. You have to accept that your older siblings' news takes precedence and is usually more interesting/exciting to parents, while your problems are viewed as not much...even if you think they're real, true problems. So, yeah. I didn't care much that Karen didn't get her way with the Wizard of Oz solo at school or whatever it was. She gets her way practically all the time!

I felt more sorry for Karen than Andrew. Sure, Karen shouldn't have laughed at Andrew's punishment but the way he kept tattling on Karen and blaming her for letting Midgie escape made me more sympathic towards Karen and not very sympathic towards Andrew. I think he should have gotten a more serious punishment than thinking about what he has done in his room for an hour and no tv for a week.

I just read this one for the first time, and surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. Karen is frequently bratty, so it always makes me feel good when she does something nice and generous instead, like at the end of this book where she shares the solo with Pamela. That was really the right thing for her to do. I also liked when she and Pamela got tangled up during the sack race and they just laughed instead of getting mad at one another, and when Karen discovers that Pamela is actually a good teacher-for-a-day. All very nice moments.

Regarding Karen and Andrew, yeah, Karen was a jerk to laugh at Andrew -- I would have thought not being allowed to use the paints for half an hour was a bad punishment when I was four, especially considering Andrew didn't deserve to be punished at all. But after that, I did feel sorry for Karen, because Andrew was awful to her for a long time afterward. I call B.S. on a four-year-old have the attention span to hold a grudge against someone for days. The four-year-olds that I know would have forgotten within minutes that they were mad at someone. I just mean the few days that they're already fighting before Andrew lets Karen be punished for letting Midgie out when he was the one who did it -- that's a big deal, and I would expect he'd remember that.

It was mean of Karen to laugh at Andrew but when he started tattling on her and then got her in trouble for something HE did was beyond atrocious..as if giving her the silent treatment wasn't enough, he had to go and do the one thing he is against his classmates doing..I am sure if she tattled on him, her parents wouldn't be having it..

This book was dedicated to "a very special baby" named Hannah Vera Natasha Janette. Those are a lot of very random names thrown together for one little girl.

I liked the bit where Karen said that Ms. Colman was T.H.E. B.E.S.T. and was then like "I do not know why I put those periods in there, but Hannie does it when she wants to make things look important." It's the kid equivalent of clapping between syllables.

They always give funny ideas for their class projects and then pick the most boring one. (A Wizard of Oz medley in this case.) Ideas:
Bobby: a skit about the King of Canada and his stolen underpants (I'd watch this nonsense.)
Nancy: a real play like Little Red Riding Hood
Karen: sing The Big Rock Candy Mountain song (Look it up on YouTube. It is weird and outdated, so right up Ann's alley.  Bobby wouldn't sing it because it had the gross word cigarette in it.)
Pamela: she sings a song while the rest of the class stands behind her and hums. Lol.
Natalie: put on a play about little woodland creatures (What 7 year old talks like that?)
Hank: write a skit about teachers (A roast? That could have been cute.)
Hannie: write their own song (All the boys said no, too much work.)
Ms. Noonan the music teacher: sing a medley (This is what they did. It kinda bugs me that she was even involved in the decision.)

Seth the carpenter made a door rather than buy a professional one. Then it was defective and wouldn't close. Then he didn't fix it for weeks and told his young children to just slam it shut whenever they went in or out of the house. Then he got angry every time his animals escaped. Then someone almost ran over his dog. Then the door was fixed immediately.  I usually like Seth, but he just struck me as lazy and procrastinating in this.  I've never seen a house only having a screen door, anyway.  Even if it wasn't closing there should be a solid door behind it that did.

I hate Lisa's punishments for Karen!  They always affect other people.  She should not be messing with anything school oriented.

The school was celebrating its 25th anniversary.  That doesn't seem very old for a private school on the East coast.

I always enjoyed field days at school.  They were at the end of the year.  We'd tie dye t-shirts, do water ballon throws, all the fun stuff.

I liked how Hannie wanted to be "something fun like the janitor."  She was a cafeteria worker.  Janitors and lunch ladies work super hard but hear a ton of gossip that the teachers don't get to, lol.

The neighbor guy Mr. Drucker sounded like a headache.  Someone drove on his lawn.  He blamed Andrew and his little toy tractor.  Karen said no, the garbage truck was just there and must have done it.  How big were these tracks?! I've never seen a big-ass garbage truck up on someone's lawn.  I'm going to say that Mr. Drucker was senile and did it himself when he pulled into his driveway.