Review: Karen's Prize by Shauna J Grant

Oh Karen Brewer, why are you being such a pain, P-A-I-N, pain?

Karen's Prize, the tenth Baby-Sitter's Little Sister graphic novel takes us into the exciting world of competitive spelling. Well, at least Karen is excited about it. When her class has a spelling bee, she declared the winner (though her friend Nancy came close) and now she gets to compete with the winners in the other first, second and third grade classes. Karen senses victory in the air, especially when she discovers that the winner will get to compete in a district spelling bee. She practices and practices, and begins to annoy and alienate everyone around her with her constant spelling. Then she keeps on winning spelling bees. Everyone should be happy for her right? Well, not when Karen's ego keeps getting in the way of things. And now the state championship is coming up, it is being televised live and Karen is absolutely certain that she is going to win. 

This was an entertaining read. It sticks very close to the original. Karen's imagination and constant bragging are a lot of fun to read about--this kid absolutely wants to be a star. Fortunately the author is quick to show the down sides of bragging and showing off--Karen's friends aren't so much jealous of her achievements as they are sick of hearing about them and the story works all the better for it. The illustrations are a lot of fun. 

A great reimagining of a classic BSC Little Sister story, that will no doubt appeal equally to new readers as it does to the generation who grew up with the originals.

Recommended.

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