lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,163
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Post by lilafowler on Jun 21, 2011 22:12:48 GMT -5
A robin nestling fell from the nest in my backyard over the weekend, and after putting it back, I feel like Karen. I know birds are wild animals and I need to leave the little birdie family alone but I can't stop peeking out at the nest and checking the ground around it to make sure none of the little babies have fallen out of the nest again. My heart seriously grows a couple of sizes each time I see the mama bird fly back to the nest. I have baby fever, except for birds instead of humans. No wonder Karen fell in love with Magic Tastee.
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Post by Honeybee on Sept 16, 2011 22:22:28 GMT -5
One of my favorite books, when I was child. Still is. The front cover is cute. Poor Emily Michelle. getting a tube in her ears. i sued to get ear infection. But, didn't have to get tubes in my ears. I wouldn't have a rat for pet. Looking at the pictures of Emily. Adorable.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Apr 14, 2012 20:22:22 GMT -5
I loooove Magic Tastee. Seth and Lisa are good people. I think it was sweet of them to also accept responsibility for the bird. I loved how Magic Tastee also stayed by the house when he became wild. I wonder if he eventually flew to other areas, or if he stayed around his entire life (as if he thought the gardens of the Little House was his home). I didn't really care for the parts with Emily Michelle as much as Magic Tastee.
Magic Tastee > Emily Michelle.
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Post by sparklymouse on Apr 14, 2012 20:45:21 GMT -5
I've heard of people raising baby squirrels and having them stick around after they've been let go...and then meeting unfortunate doom with stray cats because they were tamed enough to not be afraid of things. Magic Tastee, the bird with an uncertain future.
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Post by anzuhana on Dec 11, 2012 20:40:42 GMT -5
I loved the picture of Rocky with a doll's bonnet tied to his hat. It was cute. I did feel sorry for Karen when no one paid attention to her at the big house when Emily Michelle was sick. I understand their concern for Emily Michelle, I'm sure someone could have paid attention to Karen, considering how many people live there.
As for the pet subplot... When Karen didn't want to touch Magic Tastee at first because the mother will then abandon it because he will have human scent on him, all I could think of was that it's probably not going to happen since I'm pretty sure birds generally have a bad sense of smell.
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Post by sparklymouse on Dec 11, 2012 21:20:05 GMT -5
^Probably, but I remember hearing the thing about birds and human scents myself at that age.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Dec 11, 2012 21:20:24 GMT -5
^ I remember, as an adult, reading the part where it says Magic Tastee's mom would abandon him/her if she touches him/her. That's quite said if you think about it {from a human perspective}.
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Post by anzuhana on Dec 12, 2012 9:41:16 GMT -5
I remember hearing about how animals will abandon their babies if they have a human scent as well. It was only when I was older did I hear about birds generally having a bad sense of smell.
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Post by zoar3 on Nov 28, 2013 16:02:37 GMT -5
I just read this and thought it was so sweet how Karen arranged for Emily to meet Mr. Tastee. I loved that Kristy, Charlie and Emily took a trip to the Little House to visit with Karen and meet the sparrow. Outside of Karen's Treasure when Charlie comes inside for a few minutes when picking up Kristy and he helps with one of the code words (treasure map)I don't recall any Big House family (outside of Kristy) ever coming to Lisa's. I also thought the three T's were adorable and thoughts Kristy was awesome when she helped Karen to feel better by telling her that she (Karen) is a middle sister and how special that is. Often times in the BSC books, Karen annoys me (through no fault of her own outside of Camp BSC) because of how the BSC react to her. Martian stories or being rude to Jenny are two examples. Or when Kristy (basically) ignores Andrew for Karen. It was very nice in this book to read about Karen and Kristy having some sisterly moments, talking on the phone and just spending a little extra time together and where no one else is being left out. As a p.s. Kristy, Charlie, and Emily went to the Little House on a Monday at 4:30. The first thought I had when I read that was I sure hope Kristy made it to the BSC meeting on time, that might have been cutting it close!
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Post by wenonah4th on Dec 10, 2013 14:40:12 GMT -5
Smell certainly isn't the first thing that jumps to one's mind when considering birds!
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mallorypike
Sitting For The Papadakis's
If I were thirteen instead of eleven, life would be a picnic...
Posts: 1,636
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Post by mallorypike on Jul 30, 2017 17:05:54 GMT -5
really like this one as well. it seemed to focus more on the bird and the rat, though than Emily Michelle. once again, another misleading title! nonetheless, still an enjoyable read. I could emphasize with Karen about being jealous of EM. She DID acquire an older sister and a little sister in less than a year! Not to mention three brothers! that must've been really difficult and confusing for her still, I felt bad for EM and her ear problems did they mention that EM might have hearing loss in this one? if so, I don't believe it was ever mentioned again! I loved that Kristy, Karen, and EM had those T shirts - so cute! as for the subplot, Magic Tastee was a cute and funny name for a bird. And I would've never had a pet rat - not even now
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Post by Sideshowjazz1 on Jan 18, 2019 4:52:24 GMT -5
If we're talking about Magic Tastee, that actually reminds me of a real story about a baby bird. If you've read Adeline Yen Mah's biographical piece "Chinese Cinderella", you might recognize it:
The Yen family were visited by friends, who brought all seven children a duckling each. The two youngest children, since they were the children of the living female head of the family, got to choose first, followed by the oldest stepchild. Adeline was the youngest, and had the scrawniest, most bedraggled duckling, but she loved her and named her PLT, short for Precious Little Treasure. The duckling loved her back, and whenever Adeline went to feed her, she would always run towards her.
One day, Adeline's father wondered how their dog was getting on with his training. He turned to his eldest son and said "Get one of those ducklings you were given. We'll test the dog with that temptation!" The dog was brought in with a hand on his collar, to see if he could restrain himself. The oldest son went out, and like Adeline had feared, came back with PLT. She didn't move at first, and the dog stayed still. Then, PLT spotted Adeline and started towards her. With a moving target, the dog lunged for her, and by the time Adeline had gotten PLT out of his mouth, her leg was dangling and spurting blood, and there was no way she was going to live.
Later on, Adeline's brother explained that the reason he'd chosen PLT was nothing personal. He said that he figured Adeline would give him the least crap about choosing her duckling. Still, this was a huge blow for Adeline, since besides her aunt, PLT was the only creature who unconditionally loved her and didn't care that her mother died of fever after giving birth to her or that she'd once talked back to her stepmother (who hated her from then on).
Compare this to Karen. Not only did she have a wild bird who loved her hanging out in the garden, but she even got her own pet rat.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Dec 3, 2021 21:46:12 GMT -5
I got a copy of the reprint yesterday, and I like to see what changes they make to the text in the reprints. I like the changes I noticed in this in Chapter 1: It is important for Emily to learn about her birth culture, and it's so very Karen and very sweet for her to want to learn about it as well. I also like that now we know, canonically, what Emily's Vietnamese name is. Plus, when I was a kid/tween I had a Japanese friend named Ai, so that makes me happy. (It's pronounced with two syllables in Vietnamese, but in Japanese it's pronounced the same as "eye" or "I" ... and yes, there can be some funny misunderstandings when somebody's name sounds exactly like a pronoun!) Ai's family just came to Canada for three years for her father's job (they always knew it would be just three years) and although at the time she was more the target age for BSC than for LS, she read English books at more of an LS level. She was a Little Sister fan and I used to borrow LS books from her! This is from Chapter 13: I wonder how they can make changes to Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise to make the circumstances surrounding Emily's adoption less insanely unrealistic if/when that book is reprinted. Telling your six other kids, "Surprise! We're adopting a child from the other side of the world and she'll be here tomorrow!" is obviously not the way things work, and even if it were possible, it would be super unhealthy for everyone.
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Post by sparklymouse on Jul 4, 2022 14:40:32 GMT -5
This book was dedicated to (among others) a rat named Blaze Midnight. Karen treated her cats the same way that I did. She dressed Rocky up in baby clothes. She and Hannie dressed up Pat in dandelion jewelry. I'm kinda sad that they didn't let her get another cat. Two is not any more work than one. She said that fish were no fun when she was running through her pet options. Crystal Light II and Goldfishie would like a word with you, Karen. Imagine being Lisa, and your kid runs into the house holding a wild bird in your oven mitts. Karen's get well card sounded super fancy. A green glitter bird with a red wing and a blue beak. She was very proud that she signed her name in cursive. I didn't remember that Karen picked a rat because she loved Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. That book was my jam! I used to think that it was mean of Seth and Lisa to let the bird go while Karen was away. Rereading, she wasn't that traumatized. I'm glad that he stuck around at least initially so that she had the opportunity to get over him gradually. It would have been funny if "he" was a she who ended up building a nest near by.
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