Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I usually have fun with the ‘Baby-sitters Little Sister’ graphic novels, although they’re short and fast enough reads that I usually don’t bother reviewing them; I finished Karen’s Prize over the weekend, however, and parts of it annoyed me so much that I decided I needed at least a short post to review it.

Here’s the thing. It’s completely within Karen’s character to get carried away with winning a spelling bee and then practicing more to win more and getting even more carried away; she’s the kind of big personality that doesn’t necessarily realize when it’s crossing the line into obnoxious and/or show-offy behavior. (Which is pretty much the plot right there, so my brief summary is taken care of!) What seriously annoyed me were the multiple scenes in which Karen is downright rude and the adult(s) in the room look at her or each other with distressed/sad faces–and say NOTHING. Sure, there are instances where the behavior is riding the line and interfering might be problematic, but there is more than one instance where it’s over the line and the adults are looking all sad about it, like there’s somehow nothing to be done when a mild mention of being gracious or not being a sore winner hasn’t sufficed. She’s in second grade, and she’s got 4 parents plus a teacher. It’s squarely the fault of the adults in her life that her behavior gets so bad and goes on for so long.

My other, smaller beef is the unevenness of her friends’ behavior. They’re so loyal at the beginning, and while it makes sense that Karen’s continued obnoxiousness wears on them, the shift to upset is very unevenly portrayed. I’m honestly not sure how my youngest is going to feel about this one, but it was a highly frustrating read for me.

In the meantime, it’s the last day of Christmas break and three of my children have plans with friends, which is going to involve some chauffeuring on my part; my hope is that they’ll have fun and get worn out enough that they’ll sleep early and well tonight. Cross your fingers for me!