Karen's Wish Read online

  A Shimmering Snow Card

  You will need:

  salt

  crayons

  tempera paints

  paintbrushes

  construction paper

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Fold the paper like a card.

  2. Write a message on the inside of your card.

  3. Paint a snowy scene on the front of your card.

  4. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle salt wherever you want your picture to shimmer and shine.

  5. Let the paint dry. Then give the card to your favorite shining star.

  Great Gift Ideas

  Everyone will love these perfect presents. You can make them with things you find around the house!

  I’ll Do It for You IOU

  Does you dad hate doing the dishes? Is your mother tired of making the beds? Is your sister tired of taking out the trash? Then how about giving them the perfect gift — a day off from their chores?

  You will need:

  construction paper

  crayons

  gift box

  bow

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Copy the IOU certificate that Karen made.

  2. Write in your name, the name of the person you are giving the certificate to, the type of chore you are going to do, and how long you will do it for. Here are some ideas for your certificates.

  • do the dishes

  • make the beds

  • set the table

  • take out the garbage

  • play quiet games with your little brother or sister

  • fold the laundry

  • rake the leaves

  • help shovel snow

  3. Put the certificate in the gift box and finish it off with a pretty holiday bow.

  Everyone in Ms. Colman’s second-grade class knows how to make these necklace and pencil cup presents. They made them for their friends at Stoneybrook Manor for Grandparents’ Day.

  Very Merry Macaroni Necklaces

  You will need:

  macaroni (all shapes and sizes)

  yarn

  tempera paint

  paintbrushes

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Paint the macaroni any way you want. (Karen likes polka dots!) Make sure the macaroni is dry, not cooked. Cooked macaroni would be too slimy! Wait until the paint is dry, too.

  2. String the macaroni onto a long piece of yarn.

  3. Tie the ends of the yarn into a knot. Wow! What a pretty necklace!

  Orange-You-Glad Pencil Cups

  You will need:

  1 frozen orange juice or soup can (make sure it is clean and dry)

  holiday wrapping paper

  glue

  scissors

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Cut a sheet of wrapping paper. Make sure you cut it so that the paper is as tall as the can and long enough to wrap all the way around it.

  2. Spread glue on the back of the wrapping paper.

  3. Wrap the paper around the can so that the glue sticks to it.

  That’s the write way to make this pencil cup!

  That’s a Wrap!

  Everyone will notice your present when it’s wrapped up like a snowman.

  You will need:

  1 rectangular box

  white wrapping paper

  cotton balls

  black paint

  scissors

  glue

  2 cardboard tubes from paper-towel rolls

  orange construction paper

  crepe paper

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Put your gift in the box.

  2. Cover the box with white paper.

  3. Dip cotton balls in black paint.

  4. To make the eyes, mouth, and buttons, glue the black cotton balls onto the box as you see in the picture.

  5. Make an orange construction-paper cone. Glue the cone where the snowman’s nose should be.

  6. Cover the cardboard tubes with white paper. Glue them onto the box as you see in the picture.

  7. Make a red crepe-paper bow. Tie it around the snowman’s neck.

  Super Spinning Dreidel

  Nancy gave Karen a dreidel. Now you can have one, too!

  You will need:

  1 egg carton

  1 small pencil

  scissors

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Cut one egg section from the carton.

  2. Have a grown-up poke a hole right through the center of the egg section.

  3. Draw the Hebrew letters

  on the four sides of the egg section.

  4. Poke the pencil through the hole.

  5. Look in Chapter 12 to see how Nancy told Karen how to play dreidel.

  Hope you win the game!

  Holidays Around the World!

  In December, people all over the world celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. Not everyone celebrates holidays as we do in America.

  • In France and Spain, children put shoes by the fireplace and wait for Santa Claus to fill them with sweets and small toys.

  • Chinese children decorate their homes with paper lanterns for Christmas. They call Santa Dun Che Lao.

  • In December, the weather in Australia is warm and sunny. On Christmas day, Australian families have big picnics on the beach.

  • Mexican children play the piñata game on Christmas day. A piñata is an animal made of papiermâché. In the game, a piñata is filled with candy and toys. Children take turns putting on a blindfold and trying to break the piñata with a stick. Everyone gets a turn until the piñata is broken. Then there is a mad scramble to pick up the candy and toys!

  • In Israel, children eat sweet jelly-filled donuts on Hanukkah. The donuts are called soofganiyot.

  • All over the world, the letters on a dreidel mean “a great miracle happened there.” There means Israel. So in Israel, the last letter on a dreidel is different. The letters on Israeli dreidels stand for “a great miracle happened here.”

  Sweet-as-Sugar Sugar Cookies

  Christmastime means cookie time! Karen loves her mom’s holiday sugar cookies. This is how Mrs. Engle makes them. Ask your mom or dad to help you make cookies, too!

  You will need:

  1 cup butter

  ⅔ cup sugar

  1 egg

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  2½ cups sifted flour

  ½ teaspoon salt

  rolling pin

  2 mixing bowls: 1 large, 1 smaller

  cookie sheet

  Here’s what you do:

  1. Mix the butter and the sugar together.

  2. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

  3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt.

  4. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, and stir.

  5. Chill the dough for three hours.

  6. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

  7. On a flour-covered, clean, flat surface, roll out the dough to ⅛-inch thickness.

  8. Use cookie cutters to cut your cookies into holiday shapes.

  9. Bake cookies on a greased cookie sheet for about eight minutes.

  The Story of Befana

  Christmas is a time for telling Christmas stories. Karen and Andrew especially like this tale about a woman named Befana.

  Befana was very old and cranky. She lived in Italy a long time ago — around the time Jesus was born. Befana wasn’t kind to anyone. She would not ask tired travelers to rest in her home. She would not even give them a hot meal before they continued on their journey. Befana cared about only one thing — cleaning her house. She cleaned day and night, which is why she was always so cranky.

  One night three wise men came to Befana’s door. They told the old woman that they were headed for Bethlehem to greet the Baby Jesus. They had special gifts for Him. But the Wise Men were lost. They needed Befana to travel with them. They needed her to guide them to Bethlehem.

  As usual, Befana refused to help. She angrily told
the Wise Men that she would not leave her nice, warm house to travel all the way to Bethlehem. Then she asked them to leave right away!

  The next morning, Befana felt bad about the Wise Men. She remembered their kind faces, and how much they wanted to give gifts to Jesus. She decided she wanted to help the Wise Men. Befana put on her shoes and shawl. She gathered up some gifts for the Baby Jesus. Then she ran out after the Three Wise Men. But she could not find them. And to this day, Befana roams the earth, carrying gifts and searching for the Wise Men. And every year, on Christmas Eve, her gifts go to good boys and girls all over the world.

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1990 by Ann M. Martin

  Activities by Nancy E. Krulik

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, BABY-SITTERS LITTLE SISTER, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, 1990

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-09412-1