Kate is having little sister problems. First she finds the pigtail on her favorite doll chopped in half, then she discovers that all the strawberries in the bowl on the table have had the good parts eaten off. Abby did this – Kate is sure of it! Off she goes to find Abby, but she’s not anywhere. Not under her bed, where she usually hides when she’s been up to little-sister-mischief. However, Kate did find her favorite coloring book under there, all scribbled up!
Then she finds her toothbrush all wet, when she’s not the one who used it. “Maybe it fell in the toilet,” comes a voice from the dirty clothes hamper.
Kate can hardly control her temper as she pulls her little sister out from the hamper. Why, she’d like to just wring her neck! But then a better idea comes to mind.
Kate goes out to the garage and digs through the piles of junk until she finds everything she needs. She pulls out her lemonade stand from last summer, and crosses out the word “lemonade.” Now the sign reads “Little Sister for Sale.” That ought to attract some customers.
But then she has another thought. What will she tell her parents when they discover Abby is missing? Should she tell them Abby ran away? Or pretend that she never had a little sister and doesn’t know what they’re talking about?
Mr. Stacey pulls up in his car, and Kate makes him the offer of a lifetime. For only $1.99, Abby is his! He doesn’t want Abby, though – he wants lemonade, and he’s disappointed to see a little sister stand and not a lemonade stand.
Finally after a long day, Nonna from next door comes outside and sees the stand. She agrees to buy Abby, for the bargain price of twenty-five cents. Kate finally makes the sale she’s been after all day. But there’s just one catch – Nonna says Kate can’t see Abby anymore. Abby belongs to her now.
Kate is delighted. She runs into the house, drags all Abby’s stuff out of her room and into the hall, and rejoices in how clean the room is now. But then she realizes that she’s lonely. Her dad is upstairs working, no one else is home, and there’s nothing for her to do.
Finally she realizes she’s made a terrible mistake and goes to buy Abby back from Nonna. She happily gives Nonna her quarter, and together they all make lemonade and sell it.
This was a funny book, pointing out that even though little sisters make us very mad sometimes, we’d still miss them if they weren’t around.
(This book was published in 1992 by Dutton Children’s Books and was illustrated by Gioia Fiammenghi.)
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Picture Books by Lynne Jonell and Petra Mathers
Sometimes They Don’t Even Know Why They Are Fighting
Promoting a Positive Sibling Adjustment