52: Karen's Mermaid

[tiff85]

This was one of my favorites as well. Margo was mean in this one.

[Kylie90210]

I thought the Pikes were quite mean also. Refresh my memory, why was Karen at Sea City? With the BH or LH family? Were Mothers helpers there?

[sparklymouse]

I just remember looking at this cover and thinking "Ew. I can see Karen's belly button."

Margo and Karen were probably very similar when you think about it. I can see a rivalry if they ended up in high school together.

[anzuhana]

I thought that it was interesting Margo was in a little sister book. I'm not surprised that she and Karen didn't get along since they’re so similar. I felt bad for Karen when everyone laughed at her in the store.

[Lila]

i never liked the Pike kids and the kids in this book just solidifies my hate for the Pike children.
The Pikes are rotten, mean spirited children.
Can't say i blame them, when their parents don't do diddly squat to discipline them and they just seem to run amuck half the time.
Mallory is the only decent Pike of the family, I can see her as an older kid, angry, angsty with an emo hair cut, punk clothes and a "No one understands my angst" kind of personality.
She's probably the voice of reason in the family while everyone else ignores her and prances around saing "Mallory you suck" and she's like "you guys! thats not right" i imagine she's llike Lisa Simpson in the family of failures

[lilafowler]

^LOL at Mallory being the Lisa Simpson of the Pikes.

This is one of the last LS books I read when it was new, it came out well after I had decided I was too old to read about second graders ( at 8-year-old me) and I remember finding it at the library and sneaking it into the adult section to read it. I LOVED mermaids when I was a kid so I was willing to risk my coolness for this one book.

I think it's pretty much the epitome of Karen seeming bratty in books narrated by others but not so bad in her own books. If this was a regular BSC book, maybe narrated by Mallory or Jessi, we'd only hear about Karen and Margo fighting and then being little mermaids in the parade, and I know I probably would have read that and thought, "God, Karen sucks, I bet she tried to force Margo to play Lovely Ladies. And then she got to be in the parade? Why does Karen get everything she wants?" But since Karen narrates this book you really feel sorry for her when she's being laughed at in the store, and even before that, she's just so earnest when she tries to help Neptuna.

The Pikes do kind of suck in this book, though. Margo, Nicky, and Vanessa are conspiring to humiliate Karen, and then when Karen insists that Margo and Nicky not be part of the skim board races, it's implied that the Pike triplets don't even care and just go along with it. Unless they knew why (which we have no reason to believe), that's pretty crappy of them, and it looks especially bad right after Karen handed Nicky's ass to him for calling Andrew a scaredy cat.

[virgoscorpio]

I liked this book. It was one of the first LS books I picked up recently because it features mermaids (and who doesn't love mermaids?!) I loved how Margo was featured heavily in this book. I also liked the mention of other BSC members -- Jessi and Mallory -- because, so far, I have only heard of Mary Anne and Stacey being mentioned in the LS books.

I thought it was pretty obvious from the beginning that Neptuna was Margo & Co.

[wenonah4th]

And yet Vanessa went along with it.

[virgoscorpio]

^ I can see that because it was probably playful and imaginative - and involved writing - all things that Vanessa would be into. She is only 9, after all!

[booboobrewer]

I just remember looking at this cover and thinking "Ew. I can see Karen's belly button."

It's an awful cover. Karen was so much prettier on her earlier covers.

I did like this book...Ann wrote it herself. It was fun reading about Karen's little house family in Sea City, and I thought Seth was so nice in this book, too. Margo, ugh. I don't think she ever actually apologized for her behavior.

[msstock87]

This was one of my favorite Little Sister books. I loved reading about Karen in Sea City. It was fun seeing Sea City from her perspective and the Pike kids from her perspective.

[zoar3]

Boo Boo, this is a strange cover. I know Karen is supposed to be standing on rocks but they could also pass for chunks of ice or maybe melting snow (behind Karen) and rocks. I also think in early LS covers Karen (to me) looked more like a real little girl than perhaps a drawing of one. I think I actually remember having pants like Karen's shorts way back in the 80's. Margo, Nicky, and especially Vanessa were just horrible in this book. ITA with both Afton and also MsStock posts that if this had been my first Pike book my opinion on them would be much different! Vanessa is one of my favorite characters, love most of her funny poems. Margo outside of Baby-sitters On Board, I never felt I knew as well as the other Pikes but I never thought of her or Nicky as kids to purposely play a mean trick. I still love most anything Sea City and even wish there had been more books there. I absolutely loved when Andrew was able to show (not show off, go Andrew) that he could indeed skim board. Seth is just such a great guy and stepfather. I loved how he told Karen that everyone is different and some people such as Andrew (and probably me at that age, too) when trying something bigger and new, prefer to practice more privately. P.S. "Mermaid, my mermaid, green and bright, appear from the water. Come to the light!" ;D (Page 57). P.S.S. Did anyone ever watch the Disney Channel Movie "The Thirteenth Year?" For some reason I liked it, probably because I do enjoy being at the ocean.

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

I really loved the book! Margo was really mean though and I felt bad for Karen. For some bizarre reason when I read this book when I was little I though she would see a real mermaid at the end. Or at least something fishy in the water.

[booboobrewer]

I don't really see early LS Karen getting tricked as easily.

[supprazz]

I would have thought Karen would have brought back her pen pal approach and made up something better than a mermaid