Club-Read: Baby-Sitters Little Sister #01: Karen's Witch

It's really no surprise that Baby-sitters Club would do spinoffs. The massive success of the series in general sort of made it a given. But, in an attempt to sell more books and, I guess, market these books to an even younger demo than the mainline books, we would get the Baby-sitters Little Sister book series in August of 1988. These books are based around Karen Brewer, the stepsister of Kristy. A book series that would go on for a rather staggering 122 books. Nine less than the mainline BSC. It actually lasted longer than the original series, ending in 2000 along with the Friends Forever line. Yes, somehow the world asked for 122 books about Karen Brewer.

 Karen is a character that I have dubbed the Agent of Chaos as most of her appearances have led to some form of chaos. Be it the claims of a ghost in the third floor of her home, convincing kids in a park that Martians are real which causes hysteria, destroying her dad Watson's cars with wire sponges, trying to take away from someone's birthday at Disney World by lying that it is also her birthday. Oh and constantly accusing her next door neighbor Mrs. Porter of being the witch Morbidda Destiny. So, you can see why I give her that moniker. And it's the subject of the witch accusations that is the plot of the first book in the series. It's the witching hour (maybe, I don't know when you're reading this), so let's talk about Karen's Witch.

The original cover is decent. It works in selling the plot of the book. Karen would of course be a snoop who spies on people, that's pretty much on point with her. And we get our first actual look at Mrs. Porter and I can at least see why Karen would claim her to be a witch. Gives me a vibe of The Girl Who Cried Monster for Goosebumps in how its structured honestly, but at least Mrs. Porter isn't eating any flies, so point in this cover's favor.

And of course there's reprints for the Little Sister series as well to cover and the main one is just okay. It's sort of similar to the original, only we push Mrs. Porter way back. Still gives her the look of a witch, so it works fine. It's a cute little cover that again I think would interest readers to see just what's going on, but I think the first cover is stronger.

And to round this up, there's also a graphic novel of this book because of course there would be. There's still milk in those BSC udders. This cover isn't my favorite because I do feel like it doesn't do enough to sell the plot. We don't even see Mrs. Porter on the cover, so it makes the cover feel more like it could be for any plot, not one about a possible witch. Weakest of the three.

We open with Karen setting up the reader for the basics of her world. Her mother Ellie remarried a man named Seth and they live in a smaller house compared to her father Watson who remarried Elizabeth Thomas, who low lives in a bigger house with a bigger family. While living with Watson, he has several strict rules, but the biggest one is no spying. Which doesn't help when Karen is certain the woman next door, Mrs. Porter is actually Morbidda Destiny, a witch. After the preamble, we start the story with Karen and Andrew arriving at the Brewer/Thomas house, while noting how creepy Mrs. Porter's house is. Some time passes and Karen goes to the door to let their cat Boo Boo in, only for it to be a black cat. Mrs. Porter's cat Midnight, which, witch or no witch, is a pretty cool name for a cat. Or it could be Morbidda Destiny, trying to cast a spell. 

Despite, you know, Karen being all witch hyped, they read a story called the Tooth Witch before heading to bed, which doesn't quite help Karen's concerns. She looks at Mrs. Porter's house, thinking she'll see something and falls asleep, only to supposedly wake up and see what looks to be Mrs. Porter flying on a broom. She tries to tell Kristy about it, but of course Kristy doesn't full believe her about the whole "our next door neighbor is totally a witch" nonsense. The next day Karen notices that Mrs. Porter isn't home, so she assumes that she went to a witch's meeting and something big is about to happen. Her friend Hannie Papadakis shows up and the two play witches. You know, for someone supposedly scared of Morbidda Destiny, Karen sure likes witches. They then hear Mrs. Porter in her garden laughing, to which they suspect it's her cackling and getting herbs for her next spell. She talks to her cat Midnight about a company meeting that they have to prepare for, which makes Karen panic as she thinks that Mrs. Porter is planning a witch meeting at midnight. 122 books of this, huh?

That night, Karen looks out her window. She has a great plan if the witches do anything, and that's to wake up the whole neighborhood screaming about witches, which, isn't that what she already does? The next day, she spies on Mrs. Porter some more. Watson notices her doing so, but she manages to fool him by saying she's just looking for a ring she misplaced. Totally just that and not harassing the next door neighbor. She gets caught by Kristy, who doesn't have much of a chance to tell on her since she's off for the next BSC meeting. She sees Mrs. Porter with a broom... which she uses to sweep her porch. When other people start to arrive, she runs off to tell Hannie that they have to save their neighborhood. And maybe it'll mean they'll be heroes and have a parade thrown in their honor. Man Karen would have been a pain for people in Salem in the 1600s. 

So Karen's big plan is first to cast a protection spell using some leaves which, doesn't that technically make her a witch to be using the dark arts? Second, she and Hannie will ring Mrs. Porter's doorbell, rush into the house and tell the witches to vamoose. Because if there's one thing witches are afraid of, it's very loud six year olds. They go in and notice that nobody's really doing much evil. But Karen says that she knows everyone here are witches and warlocks. They try to cast their spell, only for Karen to be caught by her grandmother who's there as well. This isn't a witch's meeting, it's a meeting of the Stoneybrook Gardener's club. She brings Karen back to her parents who are obviously mad at all of this, but don't punish her too hard, which, I mean, that might explain why she keeps doing stuff like this. Karen writes an apology note to Mrs. Porter and heads home to her mother's house. Though she still can't explain the whole thing with seeing her on a broom.

This book is fine. Look, I'm not going to rip into a book intended for what is easily the youngest age bracket I've covered in this blog. I rip on Karen a lot, but as a lead she's fine. You do get why she's like this though as she has a very big imagination. That and a clear obsession with witches. Though again, if she seems to be cool with playing as a witch and all, why would she instantly think that Morbidda Destiny/Mrs. Porter would be a bad witch? And there is a fun bit of stuff with just how far her delusions are when it comes to thinking she's doing a service to the town by bothering an old lady that by all accounts doesn't come off as that horrible. The book is super short, so it's a very quick read, even for its intended audience. And it always focuses on the main plot's concept. Granted, to a point where you get annoyed by how deep Karen is into all of this, and more so that she really gets off easily after accusing a bunch of people as being witches and warlocks. Kind of gives me vibes of The Girl Who Cried Monster, only that book has monsters and a dark enough twist. This is more bratty kid bothers innocent people. So my assessment of her as the agent of chaos stands to even this book series. 

So, I guess it's a recommend? I can at least see from the get go that the series at least has ideas on what to do with Karen and how to give her wacky enough adventures to fill books. How it got to 122 books is still beyond me. It's wild enough that the main series went for so long, but this? But, as of now, unless my arm is absolutely twisted and people somehow have an interest in me covering these books, this is a one and done. They're quick reads and easy blog fodder, but perhaps a bit too quick and not meaty enough to really make for fun reads. Time will tell, but for now, it's back to focusing on mainline BSC. Karen's Witch gets a B. 

Next up, it's FINALLY time to get back to mainline BSC. And it's a Dawn book. Were these past two blogs a way for me to not do another Dawn book? Maaaaaybe. Hopefully it's finally the first Dawn book I praise. 

The Tooth Witch

Donald Duck

The Littlest Witch