88: Karen's Puppet Show

Karen was kind of mean to Hannie and Nancy in this book, but isn't she always? Lol at the cover.

Karen was a pain sillybillygoogoo, When Karen performed her play with Hannie and Nancy I thought that they would have a cow! I can also agree that Karen was always trying to be the center of attention, sometimes she could be a showoff.

Just realized that this book comes directly after Karen's Pony Camp. I used to think Nancy was kind of annoying for signing up for Art Camp and then deciding not to go after all, but when you realize she just spent an entire month being the worst pony rider at sleepaway camp, it makes more sense that she'd want to spend time at home with her mom and Danny.

I thought the subplot in this book was a letdown. The adults go away for a weekend and leave Kristy, Sam, and Charlie in charge of Karen, Andrew, and David Michael, but instead of having fun, the little kids have a terrible time and don't like any of the fun activities the big kids do. It's not very fun to read about.

The ending of the book feels really rushed, like all of a sudden there's just a few pages left so Karen and her friends have to make up and be best friends again.

Scrounge, ITA with everything you said. The puppets and also the camp should have been cute and fun to read about. I was surprised that both Omar and his younger brother Ebon attended (from Stoneybrook Academy) yet we never got to read much about them (certainly nothing on Ebon)or really any of the other campers. I did think it was funny how Karen made a clown that along with Natalie's pony took a ride in Omar's clown car, that was probably the highlight of this book. To me, it came across as though all day, every weekday the campers did some type of art project for most of the day and that was their camp. Maybe I'm not completely crafty but just am not seeing that keeping all the kids ranging in age from 4 (Jamie) to 9 (Vanessa) entertained. The weekend without grown ups was weird. And even in Stoneybrook why would a fifteen your old boy think one large pizza was enough food for him, his 17 year old brother and 4 other people?! It made me so angry how mean Sam was about the pizza to Andrew (A wanted plain) and then no one it sounded like enjoyed what they did get. I think Pizza Express needs to advertise individual pizzas (they could even come in two sizes, one for younger kids or folks not all that hungry and then a larger size)because it sure seems like sometimes between this and the BSC pizza calls that toppings can be more of a point of fighting than of enjoyment. I did love that it was Sam who took Karen collecting money for the arts show. In the LS books Sam and Charlie really are wonderful brothers to Karen--wish we had also seen them hang out more with Andrew. But I do enjoy getting to know them both better. Anyway, I did love the idea of the puppet show just think it could have been more entertaining and definitely a whole lot kinder. I know Karen is 7 and what she did was completely realistic, it just seemed off that she hold onto her big grudge for so long and even when she was starting to have doubts about the show went on with it as originally scripted anyway. From my vantage point outside the puppet theater , it wouldn't have been that hard for Karen to have added in some type of better puppet friend ending.

It also occurred to me that Nancy might have decided a while ago that she didn't want to go to Art Camp after all, but she put off telling Karen about it because she knew that Karen was completely insane and wouldn't take it well. And since until just then, Hannie was planning to go to Art Camp, too, Nancy could have been worried about disappointing both Hannie and Karen.

It is really not normal for a seven-year-old to hold a grudge like that for so long. Like, if you are looking for proof that Karen needs therapy, this would be would something to bring up. If I were Karen's age, I also would have been upset at Nancy -- for a day or two. I wouldn't have fixated on it for the next month while otherwise enjoying my time at day camp. And I would have understood that Hannie, also being a seven-year-old child, didn't have any choice about going to her aunt and uncle's. I probably would have understood her wanting to see their new boat and their new puppy much better than I would have understood Nancy wanting to just stay home, though. As a kid, I much would have preferred the excitement of day camp or visiting relatives to staying home in the summer.

The subplot in this book isn't fun to read about, and it's also pointless. It doesn't have anything to do with the main plot or anything in the rest of the series, and nobody learns anything from it. I don't think you always have to learn a lesson in a subplot, of course, but since it wasn't enjoyable to read and didn't advance the main plot of this book or any other events in the series, at least if someone learned something from it, it would have had some point to it!

The ending part was all pretty quick, but I didn't find it all that unrealistic. I thought the lyrics to Karen's "meanie-mo" song were actually quite funny. I kind of want to make up a tune for it and go around singing it. So I can believe that her puppet show entertained people. I think the fact that Karen was acting so deranged by being angry at her friends for an entire month and making up a whole puppet show about them out of spite resulted in the show being so over-the-top that Hannie and Nancy couldn't believe Karen had really been that mad at them and that the characters were really supposed to be them instead of just vaguely inspired by them. Karen's reaction was just so disproportionate that it didn't occur to them she was being serious.

One thing I did really like about this book was the cover illustration, because it's clear that care was taken to make Karen's puppet theater look exactly the way it was described in the story -- painted light blue, covered in glitter, with red curtains that do even appear to be held up by pipe cleaners if you look at them closely. The Hannie and Nancy puppets look like Hannie and Nancy, too, and are wearing green and purple like it says they are in the book. A+ cover!