supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on May 19, 2012 1:34:40 GMT -5
I read Karen's Little Witch before reading this one, so I enjoyed it, knowing what was to follow
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scrounge
Sitter-In-Training
Boo and bullfrogs!
Posts: 414
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Post by scrounge on Jan 29, 2013 1:54:34 GMT -5
I kept having "which book was that?" moments with Little Sister subplots so I've decided to do a complete Little Sister read-through. So here we are with book #1.
I thought the Karen/Hannie dynamic in this one was interesting. Karen is younger, but she is definitely the leader in their games. She even says that Hannie usually does what Karen wants. Also, she says that Hannie is her best friend when she's at Daddy's house, but Nancy is her best best friend. Later on, when the Three Musketeers stuff started, Karen would never have admitted to liking Nancy better than Hannie.
When Karen says that they have different rules at Mommy's and Daddy's, she says that the rules at Daddy's are: Turn off the TV if no one is watching it. Keep the closet doors shut. No spying on the neighbors. The closet door rule is funny to me. I get that the house will look neater if the closets aren't open, but it's probably the last thing I'd worry about if I had 6 kids living in my house (this book was written before Emily was written into the series.)
I feel bad for Watson when Karen won't stop spying on Mrs. Porter and especially when Karen bursts into the gardening club meeting with Hannie. I wonder whether there have been incidents before where Mrs. Porter has complained about Karen spying on her and that's why the rule was made in the first place. Watson wouldn't want to hurt Mrs. Porter's feelings by telling her why Karen is spying, because there's not a nice way to say "My daughter thinks you're a witch."
This book is better written than a lot of the later series ones but I'm glad they got away from the witch stuff for the most part later and did more plots with Karen's school or the kids in Mommy's neighborhood.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,257
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Post by oldhickory on Jan 29, 2013 13:40:55 GMT -5
I feel bad for Watson when Karen won't stop spying on Mrs. Porter and especially when Karen bursts into the gardening club meeting with Hannie. I wonder whether there have been incidents before where Mrs. Porter has complained about Karen spying on her and that's why the rule was made in the first place. Watson wouldn't want to hurt Mrs. Porter's feelings by telling her why Karen is spying, because there's not a nice way to say "My daughter thinks you're a witch." haha. i'm sure mrs porter knows exactly what the kids think about her though. she's been around long enough and has probably seen plenty of neighborhood kids spying on her over the years.
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Post by sparklymouse on Jan 29, 2013 18:13:12 GMT -5
I thought Mrs. Porter played along with it from time to time. Of course I can't think of any good examples right now. I know if my grandma or any of her sisters knew that the neighbor kids thought they were witches they would totally be like "Gonna leave my broom out on the front porch tonight" and have fun with it. Lol.
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Post by wenonah4th on Jan 30, 2013 17:47:32 GMT -5
I wonder if she was deliberately making Karen wonder!
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Post by wenonah4th on Feb 12, 2013 14:50:13 GMT -5
It'll be interesting to hear my 6yo dd's impression of this one. I just let her read it today.
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 12, 2013 22:15:36 GMT -5
Let us know what she thought of it! It will be interesting to hear what the intended audience likes.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Feb 13, 2013 0:26:21 GMT -5
Mrs. Porter actually plays along with them in Goodbye Stacey, Goodbye, when Kristy takes a bunch of the kids over for lemonade. She thinks she notices Mrs. Porter winking at her. Also, she tells the kids to drink the lemonade and not to worry, that it won't "kill" them
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 14, 2013 16:59:40 GMT -5
I remember instances where Karen said she could hear Morbidda cackling from her porch as Karen walked by or was in the Brewer yard playing. I just picture Mrs. Porter getting the giggles every time she saw Karen.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Feb 14, 2013 23:16:33 GMT -5
^ Bwahaha. Reading your comment made me laugh so I can see truth in that for sure. Karen would be a funny little girl to watch.
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Post by wenonah4th on Feb 19, 2013 17:07:28 GMT -5
Josie didn't say much of anything about it! a
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Post by zoar3 on May 19, 2013 15:49:54 GMT -5
Elizabeth really was a surprise to me in this story. I am not a fan of hers in the BSC books because it often sounds like she didn't treat her children very well when Patrick left. Now that her life and new marriage is much happier, we don't get to read all that much about her being a mom, but to be fair, I know that also applies to most all the other parents in Stoneybrook, too. I can imagine Karen sitting close to her, Elizabeth comforting her while explaining as Afton said, Karen's need to apologize to Mrs. Porter. IDK, I never had a "mom" moment like that so maybe it sounded extra sweet to me. MsStock, it is so hard keeping track of the grandparents. I admit to being happily shocked at least early on Karen had two Grandfathers, normally male characters have a way of being written off in BSC-Land. I also wish grandparents in general had played a bigger role in the series. Since this was the book that began LS series, I was surprised Karen never told "us" when Ms. Colman first read about the infamous Jacob Two-Two. Does she ever? I don't care so much about the story, just that since that sentence appears in every chapter to in LS and sometimes even in a BSC book about Karen, it might have been interesting to know. Also, is there a book when Karen, Andrew, and David Michael come up with their tooth brushing ritual or is that something we were simply shown in this book as a first time deal and then every now and then in others?
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Post by wenonah4th on May 19, 2013 16:12:56 GMT -5
No, the tooth brushing thing existed before Karen's Witch. It appears to have been their established tradition.
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Post by zoar3 on May 19, 2013 16:14:15 GMT -5
^Thanks, Wenonah. It was a different scene to read about between all three kids. No fighting just something fun they did together.
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supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on May 21, 2013 13:33:41 GMT -5
Mrs. Porter actually plays along with them in Goodbye Stacey, Goodbye, when Kristy takes a bunch of the kids over for lemonade. She thinks she notices Mrs. Porter winking at her. Also, she tells the kids to drink the lemonade and not to worry, that it won't "kill" them mrs. porter is the best
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