it might be surprising to you how popular an opinion this is

I'm supposed to have thirty blog posts by next Friday, and I have seventeen. So that's a problem.

I read Baby-sitters at Shadow Lake (Super Special #8) last week. I had to give a presentation for the book collection contest--which, by the way, I am 90% sure I have not won--and they asked me to bring my favorite five books, and I totally thought that meant we would be discussing my five favorite BSC books but we didn't really at all.

It was somewhat of a disappointing read. Sure, I adored it when I was twelve but I'm twenty now. I mean, it's still pretty fun, and the parts at the ~*~haunted island~*~ in the middle of the lake are full of good moments, but Baby-sitters at Shadow Lake was my favorite as a kid because it was a super special that had Karen's point of view! Then I grew up and realized that Karen Brewer is the worst child to ever enter literature. Why do I hate Karen Brewer, you ask?

1) She skipped first grade because she is oh-so smart. What, exactly, does second grade offer that first grade does not? I don't get it.
2) She shouts all the time when she is in the classroom. She think her teacher Ms. Colman adores her but I am pretty sure Ms. Colman wants to strangle her.
3) She is a two-two which means she has two of everything because her parents are divorced.
4) She's the only child of Watson's who actually acts like she's the child of a multi-millionaire, i.e. really freaking spoiled.
5) She bosses everyone around, which causes all of her friends to hate her, and then she always wins them back by either buying them stuff or by throwing parties which are wholly too elaborate for a six-year-old.
6) She decided she hated some girl because she wears perfume.
7) There's this one book where she meets a really shy girl and upon realizing that the little girl is so shy and--gasp--has a heart defect, Karen decides she is going to make her "feel better," aka talk, by hanging around her constantly being really, really obnoxious and asking a million questions about whether she'll die if she swims. IT MAKES ME WANT TO PUNCH HER KNOW-IT-ALL FACE