I really like Karen. She’s the kind of girl I’d have liked to be friends with when I was 7!

and she’s portrayed very differently in the Little Sister books than she is in the regular series.

Kristy was very nice to Karen in Karen and the Kittycat Club, when she talked about the Babysitters club and how it worked, but not in Karen’s Worst Day, when I remember Kristy let Karen win a game of checkers. I felt that wasn’t nice because Kristy didn’t let her know that she was doing that.

Probably my own favourite Little Sister book is one of the first I read, Karen’s Haircut, about how she wants to change herself into someone much more glamourous.

I started to feel a bit uneasy about Karen the character when I read Karen’s Birthday (pretty late in my Little Sister reading) and also Karen’s Spelling Bee. It was probably the way she big-noted herself.

Karen is definitely spunky and sparkly, and probably one of my favourite modern heroines of childrens’ literature.

Probably another of my favourite books of the Little Sister series was Karen’s grandmothers. I especially like the books where they deal with Karen’s big family.

Good luck with the project!

I love Karen!! I always totally identified with her as a kid, so no Karen-hate from me. Her books are pretty amusing sometimes, too.

Oooo, *watching this space like woah*. I wonder what project it is..

I read LS before BSC as a kid, so I’ve always loved Karen…always enjoyed reading about her adventures.

The first BSC-related book I read was LS 12 and, even though I didn’t mind some of her books (I remember liking Karen’s Ghost, Karen’s in Love and Karen’s New Teacher while I was at school), I was never really all that fond of them. Even when I was only a year older than Karen myself I thought she seemed babyish, petty and a bit annoying. She’s forever arguing with her friends and doing too many stupid, nasty things for me to like her.
Fair enough, I’ve only read a few LS books (just over ten, I think), but I don’t think Karen is different enough for me to actually like her.

I really liked Karen when I read the LS books–although admittedly I haven’t read them since I was 11 or so. I honestly don’t have much memory of any storylines specifically involving her in BSC.

I didn’t really like Little Sister books that much. I read the BSC first, and I liked the LS books enough — they related to the BSC, after all.. but I guess I just always though they were written for “babies”… you know?

I’ve been reading the ones I find, and I don’t hate them. I do like Karen better when she is narrating though. I kind of wish they had done everyone’s little sister — Becca, and Vanessa, Margo and Claire, and even Charlotte could count as a Little Sister. I remember thinking that when I was younger too.

Penny: I totally like that idea about the other little sisters. Cute!
myu: I always disliked the friend fights, even thought they brought the drama…Karen was a bit too much “we should always do things my way” and that could get really annoying after awhile.

I never minded Karen, though now that i’m older I can definitely see her as annoying. I started reading the LS books first. (Karen’s Ducklings was the first one i read) , and I was definitely a lot like Karen when i was younger… I like to think i’ve mellowed out some Lol

I have to admit…I never liked Karen at all I only read the Little Sister books if there were no new BSC books at the library. However, they were probably aimed at a slightly younger audience. I guess it was more exciting reading about awesome grown-up thirteen year olds…

I agree — I reallllllly hate Karen. I don’t remember thinking that much about it at the time, but re-reading the books now… she’s pretty lucky Mrs. Thomas didn’t go bridezilla on her for screaming like that during the wedding. The whole Morbidda Destiny thing is super-obnoxious. And when Dawn takes them to the playground and she traumatizes all the kids there?! Seriously! It made me realize why I never did that much babysitting. (Not to belabor the obvious but I just re-read Kristy’s Big Day)

I read a lot of the LS books because I had a younger sister who liked them, but I honestly never liked Karen at all. I thought she was obnoxious and full of herself - everything had to be her way or it was “gigundoly awful.” I didn’t see a huge difference in the way she was portrayed in the LS books as opposed to the BSC books… we got a lot more of Karen’s point of view in the LS books, but it didn’t make me like her any better.

i actually don’t like karen thar much in LS… that’s just not MY karen. i guess i have a different vision on her.

I like the BSC books more than the LS books, even though karen is ok. I just like the original BSC books more. i’ve read alot of them from tmy school library.