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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Sept 14, 2007 22:26:27 GMT -5
This is the one where Emily was able to understand Karen's whole farm animal story enough to say "goat" immediately after Karen stopped talking and have Karen go "Good girl Emily. You said 'ghost!'" Poor Emily's probably a genius and her family's too dense to notice. I agree, she probably is a genius. I thought it was ironic that Karen decided to dress up like a chicken for Halloween when she had the chicken pox lol.
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Post by aln1982 on Sept 14, 2007 23:31:45 GMT -5
^ She dressed like a chicken? Now I really have to reread ;D I guess I did know a girl who dressed like a duck when we were 5 but a chicken is certainly an unusual choice of a costume....
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Post by sparklymouse on Sept 15, 2007 17:24:10 GMT -5
She kinda looked like Big Bird in the picture. Sam told her to buy a handkerchief to wear around her neck. I don't know anyone who dresses up their pet chickens, but whatever.
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Sept 16, 2007 19:37:05 GMT -5
Yeah, I do remember Karen kind of looking like Big Bird on the cover lol. I remember that Hannie was a cow but what was Nancy? I forgot what her Halloween costume was.
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 26, 2007 16:07:13 GMT -5
Karen and Emily Michelle have both had the Chicken Pox vaccine (Varivax). Emily Michelle gets chicken pox and Karen points this out to Watson. Then Karen catches Chicken Pox which ruins her 10000th second grade Halloween with Hannie and Nancy. Karen and Emily are coated in spots from head to toe and the illustrations show this. Now I thought that it was rare to catch chicken pox if you'd had the shot so how realistic was it that both Karen and Emily had it and had it so badly that they resembled one of Claudia's polka dotted ensembles? Also Karen was downright mean to Emily in this book. Sure Karen was mad about halloween but it wasn't Emily's fault. I actually felt terrible for Karen in this one. Even though it wasn't really Emily's fault, I understand how it is to want someone to blame when you're sick. And Karen wasn't all that mean, in my opinion. She did try to be mean the one time and stayed away from Emily but I don't think the staying away is that big of deal. The rest of the family made me so mad - expecting Karen to help bathe Emily? To read her stories? To play with her? I just don't think that should be Karen's responsibility. I think she actually handled the situation a lot better than I would have. ;D The chicken costume did sound kind of cute. ;D The ghost would have been, too, if I wouldn't have had such negative feelings to Emily because of how the whole family was treating Karen (though I know that isn't Emily's fault - still, it made me mad at her.) I thought it was sweet how Hannie and Nancy entered Karen in the costume contest by drawing her picture.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on May 22, 2008 19:15:25 GMT -5
I actually felt terrible for Karen in this one. Even though it wasn't really Emily's fault, I understand how it is to want someone to blame when you're sick. And Karen wasn't all that mean, in my opinion. She did try to be mean the one time and stayed away from Emily but I don't think the staying away is that big of deal. The rest of the family made me so mad - expecting Karen to help bathe Emily? To read her stories? To play with her? I just don't think that should be Karen's responsibility. I think she actually handled the situation a lot better than I would have. ;D Yeah, I thought that was awful of her family. There were SEVEN PEOPLE in that house who a) were older than Karen and b) had had the chicken pox before. Surely they could have lasted for just a few days without forcing a seven-year-old to take any responsibility for a toddler. Aren't these SEVEN PEOPLE enough to take care of Emily for a few days?
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Post by greer on May 24, 2008 20:27:40 GMT -5
sometimes i think that the engles/brewers are terrible parents.
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Post by annieb on Dec 14, 2008 16:24:27 GMT -5
Poor Karen. I felt bad that she did not spend one of her many Halloweens trick or treating.
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tiff85
Junior Sitter
Posts: 583
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Post by tiff85 on Dec 19, 2008 20:51:02 GMT -5
Poor Karen and Emily. For the first time ever Karen misses trick or treating.
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Post by wenonah4th on Mar 16, 2010 16:11:11 GMT -5
She was being bratty about being away from Emily on purpose.
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Post by zoar3 on Mar 16, 2010 21:31:15 GMT -5
Was Karen supposed to take care of Emily because she (Karen) was always complaining about Emily--so as some sort of "punishment?" I never read this book but totally agree that yet again the Brewer/Engle Adults sure don't make much sense.
Aw, aln. :'/ Would make for a humorous fic using Afton's idea of having Kristy and DM need to stay over at the Little House.
As for the pox, I didn't get them until I was 12 and in 7th grade. No fun at all.
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supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on Mar 28, 2010 8:20:13 GMT -5
I never read this book though I used to wonder when the series was in the 20's and 30's if there would have been a chicken pox book. Now that I know what it 's about , it sounds kinda dumb.
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scrounge
Sitter-In-Training
Boo and bullfrogs!
Posts: 414
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Post by scrounge on Jan 19, 2011 4:04:26 GMT -5
Sam and Charlie are so nice in the Little Sister books. In this one Sam's running a bake sale and Karen offers to help with the baking (but then she doesn't get to because she's germy) and Sam, Charlie, and Karen go to the grocery store together. Sam and Charlie heap praise on Karen for her ideas of things to decorate their cupcakes with, and then they buy her a bandanna to wear with her chicken costume and a little bag of "chicken feed" to carry around. It's just a really cute chapter and they are a lot nicer to her than many teenage boys would be to their little stepsister. Then later in the book when Karen is sick, she is reading a joke book that Sam bought for her as a present. There are a lot of books where Charlie and Sam go out of their way to be nice to Karen but this one really stood out for me.
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Post by anzuhana on Mar 28, 2011 12:25:29 GMT -5
Yeah, I thought that it was ridiculous of her family to have her do that. I'm curious as to what the rest of the family was doing that they couldn't be bothered to do the same things that they had Karen do. And I agree that Karen wasn't all that mean to Emily.
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Post by zoar3 on Jun 1, 2013 22:20:58 GMT -5
Charlie and Sam are awesome big brothers to Karen in the LS. I wish we had gotten to read about them spending time with Andrew and for that matter David Michael! When I read through this thread before reading the book I thought it was Karen's job to give Emily a bath. Instead she was asked to help (I am guessing an older family member) help with Emily's bath? That is very strange, too unless Nannie or whoever thought having a "friend" (Karen) present might help Emily relax and/or like Mal when she wants to take a cornstarch or some type of powdery bath for the pox, stay in the tub longer. One thing I still can't get over is what a different character Emily is (some of the time) in the LS than in the BSC. In the BSC all she does is get carried around, want Nannie, and not do or say much of anything else. In the LS, she talks, she has personality. I liked in Karen's School, for example, when she played with Sari a lot. She sure barely was able to play ring around the Rosie with Sari in "Claudia and the Great Search." I did feel very badly for Karen and could understand her frustration. Especially at 7 it is easy to blame the closest and easiest person. ITA with Afton that I, too, would have been furious with my dad or whoever had they promised a shot would prevent something and it didn't. Did the book say whether Andrew had had the pox already? If not, he for sure should have stayed with his mom. That reminds me. I thought it was very strange, sad too, that neither Seth nor Lisa (to our knowledge) called Karen or vice versa during this time. I did think it was sweet how Nannie made a special treat plate of "bat" cakes for Karen and I loved how Watson went trick or treating for her (he carried a bag around when he took Emily out). The best part of this came from Afton. I still love her idea of David Michael and even Kristy possibly staying at the Little House to escape the Pox. Maybe one day some of us could write that fanfic and Afton can read it. I do truly believe she does "check in" here.
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