So here we are. Deep, Dark, Confession Time.

I actually really like Dawn. If I were a lesbian, I believe Dawn would have been my first crush. (Well, her or Stacey. I waver back and forth over which blonde haired, blue-eyed baby-sitter is cooler.)

When I was growing up, I especially loved this book. Perhaps that’s why it has taken me an absurd amount of time to recap and revisit Dawn’s (and the reader’s) first experience with the Barretts. While this book wasn’t on my top five desert Island books (that would be #9 – The Ghost at Dawn’s House); it’s still up in the top 10 Baby-Sitter’s Club books of all time.

This book starts off with Dawn sharing with us that she didn’t start the BSC. Good plan Dawn. When in a new environment, please don’t try to take credit for someone else’s work. Dawn is also sad because she doesn’t have a title yet. Awww Kristy is still being a total bitch to Dawn for stealing her friend.

But Dawn makes adult me question how cool she really is – in the second paragraph. Really Dawn? Let’s take a look at this quote:

The club is the most important thing in my life. If it weren’t for the club, I wouldn’t be riding my bicycle off to another baby-sitting job at this very moment

Really?   Perhaps Ann really captured the melodrama of being thirteen.  Having a steady group of friends would be great when your life has been turned upside down and your parents divorced and moved you 3,000 miles from anyone that you know besides family members.  However, the most important thing?  Really?

I guess it’s not really something to obsess over.

Dawn gives us a little background on herself while she bikes over the Pikes.  She’s from California, doesn’t like the wet New England Snow (let me tell you, Dawn, I’d kill for a New England Winter right about now.  It doesn’t snow from early October until April there.  You want to complain about snow?  Come to Alaska.) However, I think she has fallen under the curse of the Californians.  Maybe it’s my own personal bias, but it seems that everyone I meet from California can’t stop talking about how wonderful it is.  Lately, it’s been kind of annoying.  No offense to anyone online, i’m talking about Real Life Californians.  My point?  Dawn goes off on a bit here about how it’s “summer year round.”  Now, I know for a fact that there is a rainy season.  Way to do some research Ann.  Couldn’t you have got Scholastic to fly you to California for a trip?  I know I would have tried to get them to pay travel expenses under the guise of “research”.

Oh, right.  Sorry.

So Dawn is upset because she doesn’t have a title in the club.  Yet.  I don’t really blame here here, I’d be slightly perturbed if my friends all had a club, gave themselves titles that don’t really mean anything and couldn’t be bothered to come up with anything for me.

She arrives at the Pikes, and I realize that I am being very verbose.  Mrs Pike is off to a meeting of the trustees of the public library, which is in the Prescott Room.  I’m glad that with eight kids, they can afford to be a trustee of the library, give Jordan piano lessons, Vanessa violin, and put two children in a beauty pageant, along with whatever else they do.

Eventually we meet the Barretts, when Nicky brings Buddy and Suzi home.  So that means that Dawn is currently watching Mallory (10), Nicky (7), Buddy (7), Margo (6), Suzi (4), and Claire (4).  I don’t know how I would feel about a twelve-year-old watching that many children alone.  She lets the littler ones watch Sesame Street.  No wonder Kristy doesn’t like her.

After sitting, Dawn goes to Mary Anne’s to pick her up for the BSC meeting.  There, we find out that Mrs. Schafer/Porter is seeing Richard Spier tonight, on a spur of the moment date! Squeee! Also, amazingly enough, Mary Anne is wearing her first pair of jeans!

At the meeting, we find out some really cool hair care tips.  I think I shall quote this passage, because it’s just so beautiful.

Claudia and Stacey have suddenly taken great interest in their hair. One night a week they muck it up with an egg rinse. On Wednesdays and Sundays they squeeze lemon juice on it – from real lemons. They keep telling me I should use eggs and lemons in my hair, too. I have long, 1-o-n-g hair (almost down to my bottom). It’s thin and fine, and so blonde it’s white. Mom says if s like cornsilk. Claudia says the egg would give it body. Stacey says the lemon would make it shiny. I say it’s my hair and what I do with it is my business. (I plan to try an avocado paste on it. If Claudia and Stacey and I put our heads together, we’d have a salad.)

At the meeting, they set up some jobs with people we will probably see later.  It’s the usual crowd of the Prezzioso’s, the Newtons, and the Brewers.  Then Mrs Barrett calls, and of course Dawn answers the phone and gets the job.  She finds out that the Barretts are also going through a divorce and that Mrs. Barrett isn’t very organized.  She feels close to the kids.

When Dawn gets home, Sharon is running out the door to her date, leaving her kids alone with some left over stew.  Since they are twelve and nine, they decide to put the stew back in the fridge and eat some pizza.  I really like these books where they act like normal teens.  Also, while Dawn makes the pizza, Jeff watches *gasp* television.  Then Mary Anne calls, and Dawn talks on the phone.  They discuss how they are going to redecorate Mary Anne’s room.  Dawn donates some of their old California stuff to the cause.  Do you see Kristy offering to help Mary Anne?  No.  You don’t.  Which is why Dawn is a way better friend.  Not to mention that she gets her mom to drive her over to Mary Anne’s, which serves several purposes; one of which involves the matchmaking scheme.  Because when Richard is preoccupied with women, he’s way less strict with Mary Anne.

But on decorating day, Kristy finds out and comes over to help… and take over.  How kind of her, to be so bossy to the new girl.  I was the new girl, several times, and I always hated those people who tried to defend their territory with their friends.  Especially when you are being perfectly nice and wanting to be friends with everyone.

At lunch the next day, Kristy makes snide comments at Dawn’s lunch.  Way to be twelve, Kristy.  Also, one of the Shillaber twins points out that if Richard and Sharon got married, Dawn and Mary Anne would be stepsisters.  How they hell they didn’t think of that on their own is beyond me, but I’m sure it’s just for the kids who are reading this book and didn’t quit get the whole “step sibling” thing yet.

Kristy is all upset about moving and takes it out on Dawn.  Whatever stupid Kristy.  Most people would be grateful to move into a house.  I know I would, considering that I currently live in someone’s living room.  Hey, don’t judge, my rent is really cheap and I am barely there.   So she has to leave the house she always lived in.  Lots of people don’t stay in their houses forever.  Look at all the foreclosed homes in California.

They get into another fight after school, Dawn explains to Mary Anne that Kristy is jealous, and then we get to the sitting job with the Barretts.  I just noticed that there hasn’t been very much Stacy/Claudia interaction in this book.   Usually Dawn books have her hang out with both sets of BFFs.  Yes, I actually said BFFs.  I’m blogging about a children’s books series, so I’m assuming it will be okay.

The Barretts house is a disaster, of course.  While it is a disaster, Mrs Barrett looks and smells heavenly.  For some reason, the Barretts have never seen Mary Poppins, so Dawn has to resort to tricking the kids into cleaning a different way.  She decides on cleaning races, which seems like a neat idea, but I don’t know how well it would really work.  Dawn bonds with the kids over divorce, and Mrs Barrett is surprised and happy about the house being clean.

Kristy sits for Karen and Andrew at the Brewer Mansion in the next chapter.  They play “Let’s all Come In.” Mrs Porter (Morbidda Destiny) comes over to borrow herbs or something and scares everyone.  I don’t feel like writing about it because I’ve been working on this for way to long now.  It’s really just a nice throwaway chapter to give Kristy a sitting job and talk a little bit more about how the Brewers aren’t typical wealthy people, they let Karen and Andrew play in any room of the house and it’s not like a museum.

Then Dawn decides she is sick of Kristy being all cold to her, so she invites Kristy over.  They walk to Dawn’s house together.  Dawn makes small talk by describing her house and how the ceiling is super low. They discuss the barn and Dawn says she’s not really supposed to go in it.  Mary Anne is also apparently scared of the barn and hasn’t been in it yet.  Kristy and Dawn decide to play in the barn.  They have a rope swing and they bond over divorce.  Apparently, that is a theme in this book.

Finally, Kristy decides that Dawn can be the Official Alternate Officer.

Dawn sits for the Barretts again.  It’s an all day affair, and she plans out a schedule for them.  It sort of works out, and they end up having some sort of party at the Pikes.  With twelve children and three twelve year olds in charge.

Also, hilarious!  Mallory gives Byron the Bizzer sign.  He cries.  Mallory is way cooler when she is a charge.

Claudia sits for Dawn’s brother Jeff.  Claudia can’t spell, so her notebook entry is difficult to read.  Also, her handwriting looks a bit off.  The notebook is all there is about that job, probably because Jeff is easy to watch.  He just watches tv like a normal kid. But this notebook entry segues into how busy Dawn is with the Barretts, and how Dawn finally got around to having a chat with Mrs Barrett about Marnie’s allergies and how she really does need to know where Mrs Barrett is when Dawn sit’s for the children.

Mrs Barrett kind of dismisses this and then says, in a rather creepy fashion, to not let Mr. Barrett talk to the children if/when he calls.  Dawn stays late and cleans up another mess, it’s completely obvious to me that Mrs Barrett is suffering from some sort of depression from the divorce.  I’m going to say that he cheated on her, because it’s an awfully dirty, unhappy divorce.  I’m going with He’s A Dirty Cheater… or he’s abusive.  I don’t think the kids really show signs of abuse, so I’m going with cheating.  (Although Buddy DOES have a fascination with guns).

Dawn sits for the Barretts a lot after this, and apparently the club is upset when she is late to meetings.  But I don’t see how sitting during a meeting would be unexcusable.  This is probably the first sign of Kristy being a little bit uptight about meeting times.

And finally, in Chapter 10, Stacey gets to do something.  She sits for David Michael and they talk about moving.  David Michael is scared of moving and afraid that something will be broken or lost.  It’s a valid fear.  One time I moved and my favorite cereal bowl somehow was removed from the box I had packed it in and smashed to the ground.  That same move, the movers were leaving our stuff all over the yard and generally being rude, horrible people who took a lot longer than they needed to (to rack up their bill) and did a very poor job.  Never hire two men and a truck.  Seriously, worst move ever.

Anyway, so they discuss the problems at the meeting, and Kristy doesn’t know what to do about it.  Apparently, Watson and Elizabeth aren’t going to be married until the end of September.  There is seriously a lot of drama in these people’s lives.  I mean, we have divorce, diabetes, divorce, parents dating, diabetes, and moving.

There is a nice little scene where Kristy kind of breaks down and talks about how worried she is, what with not being near her friends anymore, and not being able to see into Mary Anne’s window, etc.  Personally, I’d be kind of excited to not have some friend staring into my window 24/7.  There is a reason I don’t make friends with my neighbors.

Anyway, so then Claudia points out that Kristy will still be their friends and she can babysit in her new neighborhood.  Kristy is still freaking out and starts to bitch about her new neighborhood, which is ridiculous.  Does she not want her mom to be happy?  God Kristy.  A little perspective.  Your mom has four kids and she met a guy who is willing to marry her and take on that responsibility.  You get to move into a nicer neighborhood and meet new people and have a hell of a lot more opportunity.  I think I just figured out why I haven’t liked Kristy very much since I became a grown up.  She’s freaking spoiled and whiny in the older books, and annoyingly bossy and obnoxious in the new books.  I would not want to be trapped on the Ocean Princess with her.

Anyway, so they realize that if Kristy can’t get across town, there might not be a club.  Sad, but seriously, you girls could just meet once a week.  I’m sure there could be a way to manage the club if it met once a week.

Then Dawn complains a bit about the weather, and seriously, I would kill for some 50 degree days right about now.  And also, it gets chilly in LA too.  Did Dawn never go outside at night?

They have a picnic and I’m kind of confused as to how Sharon grew up in Connecticut and doesn’t know what to serve at a picnic.  She must have volunteered to have medical tests run on her in college for some extra cash or something.  I get that she was raised upper east coast prep and ran off to california to be kind of granola… well, she was shipped off because she dated someone from the wrong side of the tracks and her parents are apparently the predecessors to Richard and Emily Gilmore.  Anyway, so I’m going to assume that Sharon never cooked for herself, and then went to California where she joined the free love and peace people.  But still, it’s weird that she doesn’t even remember what people serve at a picnic on the east coast.  Or a barbeque, whatever.   Richard sucks up to Sharon’s parents, it’s all weird and Dawn decides that grown up stuff is confusing.

Mary Anne sits for the Barretts next, and she has a horrible time.  I think she should just stick with sitting for the quiet kids, because her sitting experience doesnt’ sound THAT horrible.  It’s the one with the infamous “puddle walk” which is totally fun and I want to do it.  Except it’s not raining here, it’s snowing.  On October 7th.  Don’t try and tell me that Global Warming and Climate Change isn’t happening.  This is weird, even for Alaska.

Mary Anne’s sitting job ends and Mrs Barrett is upset because her ex husband called and because Buddy tormented Suzi with the Bizzer sign.  The Bizzer sign kind of reminds me of that TV show “Friends” where Monica and Ross give each other that weird gesture where they turned their hands out and hit them together.  It’s hard to explain and I want to find a video but I just spent 20 minutes looking to no avail.

Anyway, so back to the saga of Dawn and the Barretts.  It’s raining and they are all bored.  When it stops raining, they decide to go outside.  Dawn lets Buddy go out first, while she gets the girls dressed and ready or whatever.

Buddy disappears, and I think this next part is done really well.  Dawn freaks out, calls Mrs Pike, gets upset.  They look for Buddy in the neighborhood, until Jordan comes home and tells everyone he saw Buddy get into a car. The police come, and question everyone obnoxiously over and over and over again and people cry and get frustrated and there’s that sense of urgency but you don’t know what’s going on.  Plus Dawn cries, which is nice that the sitters aren’t always super stars.

But once the situation resolves itself, with Buddy’s father taking him, the story doens’t make a lot of sense anymore.  I mean, taking the boy but not the girls, not even checking in with Mrs Barrett or the sitter.  It’s just obnoxious.  I realize that divorce is hard, but do people really have to be rude about it?  I don’t know.  On one hand I feel kind of bad for Mr. Barrett.  But then again, that’s kind of an horrible thing to do, plus it’s possibly illegal.  It shouldn’t be, as they are his kids too, but that’s the whole reason that family lawyers make so much money.

Anyway, so that resolves itself, Kristy asks Charlie to drive her to meetings when they move, they raise the club dues, and everyone is happy.  Including Mary Anne, because Jeff came over and took a picture of all the club members for her wall.  The end is sappy and totally sugary sweet, but I love it.  It’s all tied up nicely , no lose ends.

Continuity Problems

Apparently, Jeff Schafer plays ice hockey with the Pike triplets.  Also, Vanessa takes violin lessons.  I’m not actually sure if that ever comes up again.

Claire is shy when she first meets Dawn.  That’s a far cry from her showing off and screaming silly-billy-goo-goo.  However, I will choose to explain that to myself by saying that Claire is only four here.

Dawn leads Claire down to the rec room, but in Poor Mallory, the rec room is upstairs.

Apparently, Dawn’s farmhouse has an outhouse.  I’m actually not sure if it’s ever mentioned again, but I don’t remember it at all.

There are nine bedrooms in Watson’s Mansion.  But later, we find out that no one uses the third floor, which is below the attic, and somehow everyone has their own room.  This is one of those things you get really annoyed at when trying to make sim houses based on the BSC.  Not that I have ever done that.  1 Master Bedroom + 4 Thomas kids + 2 Brewer kids + Nannie + Emily Michelle = nine… so do the bedrooms on the 3rd floor not count?  how many bathrooms are there?

Dawn mentions that she and Jeff aren’t supposed to go in the barn.  Her and Jeff play in it anyway, apparently. That’s weird, because don’t they end up living in the barn?  And having all sorts of crazy events there?  I guess they decided that it wasn’t dangerous?

Richard gets contacts in this book.  But later he’s back to the glasses, as demonstrated on the cover of #64, Dawn’s Family Feud.

Apparently, there are people who live in this neighborhood called the Spencers and the Murphys.  I don’t think we ever hear from them again.

Continuity does occasionally happen

Dawn listens to WSTO, which is 1313 on your dial.  I’m pretty sure this actually stays the same.

Dawn doesn’t let the Barretts play with guns.   Mrs. Barrett looks like a supermodel, but her house is a disaster.

Marnie Barrett is allergic to chocolate.

The Bizzer Sign!

Use of the Copy and Paste Function

I’m pretty sure that this sentence appears in most books:

There are eight Pike children — and three of them are triplets!

I’ve got to say, it’s the punctuation that makes it stick out.  The narrators of these books are always so excited about triplets and millionaires.  Speaking of millionaires, here we go again.

…sometime last year Mrs. Thomas started seeing this really rich man, Watson Brewer, who lives in a mansion (no kidding, a real mansion) across town.

Actual Pop Song Mentioned

Margo puts on a big floppy straw hat and a dress to lip synch to “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

Foreshadowing Alert

Dawn thinks her house has a secret passage somewhere.  Also, there is a lot of discussion of the rekindling of the Sharon / Richard romance.  These girls are actually WAY to into their parents dating.

Grammar Lesson of the Week

Janine (of course!) tells us that “Continue on” is redundant.  No one explains what redundant actually means, which I suppose could be a message to readers that redundancy doesn’t really matter.

Notable Dated Language

“Almost,” said Mary Anne.  She had found a whole bunch of thongs — all sizes — in the closet, and she handed them around.

“Oh, boy!” cried Buddy.

This book also uses the term “zooey” which I’ve only seen used in BSC books.  (well, I’ve seen it used as a name, like Zooey Dreschandal, who was named after Zooey Glass from J.D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey”.  But I digress.

Final Score

Well, this didn’t really hold up that well to the re-read.  I really did love this book a lot when I was little, but Kristy’s complaining and meanness about moving was really grating on me right now.  I did love the plot with the Barretts and how well Dawn related to them, and I think the divorce theme that ran through the book was done well, especially for the time period and age group.  So I give it an B+ because i think chapter seven was completely useless and irrelevant, and I wish Kristy would be a little less annoying.

]]> http://stoneybrooklibrary.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/dawn-and-the-impossible-three-2/feed/ 3 astrid kilbourne Dawn and the Impossible Three http://stoneybrooklibrary.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/sorry-it-won%e2%80%99t-be-long-now/ http://stoneybrooklibrary.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/sorry-it-won%e2%80%99t-be-long-now/#comments Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:07:56 +0000 astrid kilbourne http://stoneybrooklibrary.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/sorry-it-won%e2%80%99t-be-long-now/ ]]> I realize that it has been quite some time since our last chat. Much has happened in my personal life. I decided to take after my 2^nd favorite BSCer and hop some coasts. So I packed up my stuff, kissed my cats good bye, and moved 3,500 miles from my nice home in Michigan to the frozen tundra of Anchorage, Alaska. You know you are thrilled for me.

BUT… I did get Dawn and the Impossible Three from the Library last week (the same library where there was an anti-Palin rally. No,not everyone loves her. She kind of sucks.) But I digress. This is the BSC, safe from political opinions. Unless you are Dawn.

Anyway, so if you are still checking this blog, then know that there will be an update forthcoming. (Also, I figured out how to set up MS Word so I can just type stuff in here at work and look like I’m doing something important.) Good Night and Good Luck!

Well, on the most recently one, a two hour special, Niecy Nash and crew found a couple who had the worst home in the continental united states. That’s what they claimed, anyway. Normally they stay away from people who seem to have actual disorders, but these people were hoarders. Among the random stuff? A collection of Baby-Sitter’s Club books, referred to on the show as “Babysitting Books.” I’m going to reserve my commentary on the couple and their habits and stay focused on what happened to the books.

Now, I’m not a home organization expert or anything, but I would think that if a person is crying over books, that maybe, just maybe, we could work them into the design scheme somehow. It seems to be almost epidemic of the show — they get rid of books, movies, clothes, collections of things, and treasured family heirlooms. As someone who does collect books, I’m slightly offended by the fact that they can never work books into the design scheme. It’s as though reading is something to be done at night, in secret. Yet it’s as popular as ever.

But the real story comes when I went to read another websites comments. Yes, I occasionally look into what people have to say about TV shows. The general outcry, on at least one website, is that collecting BSC books as a grown up, is wrong.

Should I stop scouring bookstores in search of those elusive few books I’m missing? Should the hundreds of people who post on message boards and write BSC fanfiction suddenly stop?

No. I would like to point out, however, that if a TV show came to my house and asked me to give up my BSC books for a total redesign, I’d probably be okay with it. I’d try to bargain, save a few of my favorites. But I think I could part with them — as long as I wasn’t throwing them in the dumpster.

The first thing that I notice is the map. I loved books that gave me a map to look at. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe I was just a weird kid. But I really loved books that had a map in the front cover. I guess it gave me a feeling like I was really there.

This is a long book, 20 chapters, actually. So I don’t think I’ll be talking about all of them at once. Or maybe I’ll just write a succinct review and leave you to your own devices.

The Phantom Tollbooth is about a boy named Milo who does what many of us do; wishes he were doing the opposite of whatever he were doing. When he was in school, he wished to be out. He was very unhappy, and if he were around today, someone would probably diagnose him with clinical depression and give him some drugs. He doesn’t see the point in much of anything, which is a sentiment I can totally get. One day, a mysterious package shows up in his bedroom. Obviously, this package is a tollbooth. A cardboard tollbooth, used for make believe. Conveniently enough, Milo just happened to have a toy electric car in his room. He dusts it off and drives through the tollbooth, fully expecting to just stay in his bedroom.

Shockingly enough… he DOESN’T.

One of the things that I love about this book is the use of language. As he goes about his journey, his first stop is “Expectations.” He than has to travel beyond expectations, which is pretty cute. It is odd that only one person is trapped at “Expectations,” but I suppose the other side of the tollbooth would be all the people who don’t even meet expectations.

After that, Milo gets stuck in the Doldrums, which is where I am right now in my life. I have exceeded all expectations, earned several degrees, and can’t find a job so now I blog about children’s literature on a blog that gets less than a hundred hits a day. I’m not complaining though, the doldrums are kind of nice. I can get up, lay around, take a nap, sort of look for a job, lay around, gain some weight, hang out with people, sleep till noon. It’s rather … boring. And sad and lonely. I miss having a purpose.

It’s in the Doldrums that Milo meets his companion, the dog that only ticks and is called Tock. Tock is supposed to make sure that no one wastes or kills time. I wish I had a friend that would get on me about that. I feel like I waste an absurd amount of time. If I were a conspieracy theorist, I’d say it’s because the government invented the internet so everyone would be too busy pricing shoes to bother worrying about things like war and famine.

Milo and Tock then head off to Dictionopolis, which is the city of words. I loved the idea that you could eat words. Some of them sounded so delicious. The imagery of the spelling bee and the humbug and the feast with the words was just so exciting!

Anyway, I do not have the time or energy to bother recapping this entire book for you, nor do you really care. But seriously, this is one of the the best children’s books ever written. It’s clever and smart, and interesting. I am sure that there is something offensive about it — after all, it’s clever and uses the imagination — but I can’t see what. Some people will be offended about anything. I prefer to not be offended by imagination and magic. I’ll be back to finish do another section of The Phantom Tollbooth, and probably Dawn and the Impossible Three sometime in the next few days.

They introduce Janine as a genius fifteen year old who takes classes at Stoneybrook University. I don’t think it’s really important to the plot or to anyone’s characterization, but her presence fleshes out the characters of Stoneybrook, so I won’t complain. When Kristy and Mary Anne reach Claudia’s room, they see Claudia with her head in a pajama bag. I realized that I had no idea what a pajama bag was, so I googled it. Apparently they DO exist, but they seem to be sort of small. None of my results seem to tell me what the purpose is, but i would imagine that it’s a place to store pajamas? I wouldn’t want to eat ring dings that came out of Claudia’s laundry.

After a couple of routine calls, which introduce us to Kristy’s situation with Watson, Karen and Andrew, along with her younger brother David Michael, Mrs. Newton calls, needing a sitter for Jamie and Lucy. Kristy answered the phone and tells Mrs. Newton that she will sit. And that is when the BSC gets into a huge fight that ends when everyone storms out of Claudia’s room.

Mary Anne goes home first. She makes dinner for her father who sounds really distant (that’s in the “far away emotionally” way, not in the “so cool” way). They, and the reader, suffer through a dinner that is made up of small talk among two people who don’t have very much in common. After that, Mary Anne goes to her room which is decorated in pink and white (sounds okay to me!) and has framed pictures of Nursery Rhyme characters. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say that to me, I think that there are probably two reason why Mr Spier hasn’t allowed Mary Anne to redecorate.

1.) Alma, his deceased wife, probably decorated this room for Mary Anne all those years ago. He doesn’t want her to change it because he’s holding on to Alma and her desires.

2.) Mary Anne has not asked to redecorate.

I wasn’t allowed to put up posters either, at least not until I moved into my parents apartment in 6th grade and put them up anyway, so I can understand Richard’s thoughts on the holes in the walls. (However, I’m pretty sure that tape was invented)

The next day, Mary Anne wants to make up with her friends, bla bla bla. What is important here is that she writes two very passive aggressive notes that she does not send, and one nice note to Claudia. She tries to figure out how to give it to Claudia and where to sit at lunch, because she has no other friends. Claudia is sitting with Trevor Sandbourne, and Mary Anne claims they look very cozy. I went to a K-8 program where we just ate at our regular desks, so this is strange to me. High school was so crowded that I can’t imagine anyone having a cozy lunch.. but maybe that’s just me? (And the hundreds of kids who went to my school).

Oh, so Mary Anne sits alone, and Dawn Schafer, a new girl in town joins her. They make friends, and Dawn brags about her VCR and invites Mary Anne over. Mary Anne feels guilty about having new friends, which makes me really wonder about what kind of friend Kristy Thomas really is, and whatever happened to the Shillaber twins anyway?

The next day everyone is still fighting, but it’s Wednesday. When Mary Anne realizes that Kristy is still mad at her, she goes to Dawn’s house after school. They talk about divorces and their parents and The Parent Trap I really liked this part, because the Haley Mills version is one of my favorite movies of all time. So they watch it, then Mary Anne runs to Claudia’s house. After the meeting, Claudia and Mary Anne make up, sort of, and they decide that Mary Anne should talk to Kristy about the club.

The next day, Kristy decides that they will take turns hanging out in Claudia’s room answering the phones. I guess they don’t need to actually talk to Claudia about this. Jobs are taken by whomever is on duty, or offered around. Kristy tells Mary Anne that she can now stay out later. Mary Anne is sad because she’s still stuck coming home at 9 pm on weeknights, 9:30 on weekends. Hey, I didn’t even have a curfew. I had to ask permission and say where I was at all times, and it was decided on a case by case basis. I would have loved to have a curfew that let me go out and do stuff without having a whole big thing where someone would drop me off and pick me up at a designated time.

Sunday afternoon, Mary Anne sits for the Prezzioso family. It’s boring. Jenny spills some watercolors on her white dress and Mary Anne washes it out and dries it with a hairdryer. To this day, I still dry things with my hairdryer when I need it to be dried quickly.

Mary Anne decides to ask for a later curfew. She freaks out and calls her father her jailer, which probably didn’t help her case much. I feel for her, but it’s also hilarious. It kind of reminds me of this video that I saw a long time ago; which I can’t find right now.

So Mary Anne talks to Mimi about her problems, which is understandable because Mary Anne doesn’t have a mother and her best friend isn’t speaking to her. But Claudia sees Mary Anne and Mimi and freaks out because no one else in Claudia’s family actually likes Claudia. Yet Claudia still flips out on Mary Anne and now no one in the BSC is talking. This book is great. And very long.

At the next meeting, Mary Anne sets up some jobs, and Claudia is passive agressive. She plays the radio really loud and annoys the parents who call. Kristy says something else to Mary Anne which makes me like Kristy even less as a friend. She says “You know, Mary Anne, for someone so shy, you sure can be..” and then she gets cut off. But I think she was going to say stubborn or something. Like it was Mary Anne’s fault they were fighting, which is absolutely not true.

The next job Mary Anne goes on is at the Pikes, which she shares with Kristy. It doesn’t go very well, until they start playing telephone with the kids. Mallory is sat for, and they describe her as “a big help”. Mary Anne is late coming home from the Pikes because the Pikes were late. Mr Spier isn’t pleased. This causes Kristy, Mary Anne’s BEST FRIEND to call her a baby. Why are they friends again?

Dawn and Mary Anne discover that their parents did, in fact, know each other in high school. It looks a bit like they look like they knew all of each other, judging by the yearbook writing that Dawn and Mary Anne discover. Later, Mary Anne sits at the Prezzioso house, where Jenny is sick, yet her parents decide to go to a basketball game anyway. Mary Anne calls Dawn. Together, they call nine-one-one. (Actually, Dawn suggests it, despite the title of the book. I’m going to assume that the title assumes to her saving the day later, at the Newtons). Ambulance comes, Jenny is saved, in the physical sense, not the spiritual sense. Mr P pays Dawn and Mary Anne $10 and they go back to Mary Anne’s house. They then get into a fight because Dawn realizes that Mary Anne is using her to make Kristy jealous.

And anyway, because this book is really long, eventually everyone makes up, after they almost ruin Jamie’s birthday party. Mr Spier meets Dawn’s mom, and they oogle each other for awhile, and later Mr Spier decides that Mary Anne can stay out for that extra half hour, and she can redecorate her room and do her hair how she likes. Then the sitters decide to let Dawn into the Club.

History Lesson

I’m pretty sure that the vocabulary/ grammar lesson of the week has been replaced with a notice that people were shorter in 1795.

Literature that is mentioned

Mary Anne reads A Wrinkle In Time.

The Phantom Tollbooth, Peter Rabbit, and Pippi Longstocking are also mentioned.

Writing that will be re-hashed throughout the series

I may actually no longer blame Peter Lerangis for this particular quirk, which will be rehashed in various ways, throughout the next 127 books in various ways.

Janine is a genius. Honest.

Continuity Issues

I really didn’t think there were any until at least a few more books into the series, but Mary Anne mentions that she has only walked to school alone a few times, one of which was when Kristy and her family left for Florida before spring vacation. Later, in Super Special #1, which was published, I think 18 months later, Kristy claims that she has never left Connecticut.

Another one, that confuses me way too much is that Mary Anne claims her mother grew up in Maryland. Now, I’m pretty sure that later we find out that Alma is from Iowa…. So what gives? (And I’m really happy that I read this, because I didn’t think I’m so stupid to confuse Maryland with Iowa).

Before I went off on a tangent about brains and how they function, I was talking about an article I read a long time ago. For some reason, that specific article stayed with me all these years. That and how they predicted that Titanic could hit or miss but probably hit as it had Leo and was about this thing that everyone has been interested in. BTW, I hated that movie a lot. No offense. But it was Looooong and Leo is kind of annoying. Oh, right, so anyway, this article that I read talked about why people like TV so much, especially serial shows, like Frasier. Hey, it was the example in the article. Why I remember that, I have no idea. I’ve seen, like, two episodes of that show.

I think the reasons they gave are similar to why we love books like the Baby-Sitters Club or Sweet Valley, Saddle Club, The Gymnasts, Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, and whatever serials that people are reading now. I actually only know of one, that I really love. Sammy Keyes. The reasons that I can remember have to do with characterization, familiarity, the feeling that you “know” the people involved, etc. I offer up one other option. They lace the books with an airborne form of heroin so that children crave them. So maybe that’s not the real reason, but there has to be some sort of a reason, right? Millions of books aren’t sold without some sort of hook.

One of the things that Sweet Valley did that isn’t as obviously present in their books is the lead in to the next book. Sure the BSC has some subtle (and not so subtle) foreshadowing, but they never blatantly tried to sell more books by leaving us on a cliffhanger. I rather enjoy that the BSC wasn’t so blatant with their schemes to dominate the YA Level 4 serial novel market for girls. I don’t know why we first read the books as kids, but something made us start. And for most of us, something made us stop.

So, then why is it that we, as adults, are coming back to the BSC? Why is it that children today are swarming the internet looking for used bsc books? Is it the plots? (probably not) the locations? (judging by the diversity in fandom, probably not) The characters? Possibly. Everyone can identify with one or more of the characters. I personally can be bossy and overbearing like Kristy. (I hate to admit this to myself though). I played a lot of sports in school. (Because I was told thats what you did, not because I actually enjoyed them) Like Claudia, I have a tendency to procrastinate. I took a lot of art classes in hopes that one day I would be talented, like Claudia. I actually quite liked her when I was growing up. She had a happy family and liked mystery novels and junk food and she was excellent at something that I was simply awful at. Mary Anne was shy and studious, nothing like me really, but I liked her enough. SHe had a boyfriend. Stacey was the smart, popular, pretty, fashionable, mature sitter. The one we all wanted to be like. I think she might be the reason that I’ve wanted to move to New York City for as long as I can remember. Why I love cities and being around busy people so much more then anything else. Jessi was a ballerina which I thought was great fun. My mom pulled me out of ballet and stuck me in gymnastics when we discovered that I lack grace and elegance. And Mallory. Well, I never really liked Mallory, but I liked her family. I’m basically an only child, and having a bunch of siblings seemed like great fun when I was 7 through 12.

Was our generation just trained to read these books, which is why in turn we love our scripted dramas? Not that I dn’t veg out infront of a tv watching big brother once in a while (shhh, don’t tell), but it seems like both the decline of scripted dramas and serial printed novels is happening at the same time.

Well, that gives me something to think about.

• 131 Baby-Sitter’s Club books
• 122 Little Sister books
• 15 Baby-Sitter’s Club Super Specials
• 6 Little Sister Super Specials
• 36 Mysteries
• 4 Super Mysteries
• 3 Special Editions
• 15 California Diaries
• 2 Friends Forever Super Specials
• 12 Friends Forever novels
• Chain Letter
• Secret Santa
• 6 Portrait collection

That’s 354 days, if I read and write about one per day. That’s almost a year. And I forgot to mention the Ann M. Martin biography which I *have* to talk about one of these days.

I guess it’s a good thing I never really got into Sweet Valley then.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the comments situation.  I THINK I have it set up now so that I only have to approve your first comment.  No one should have to register or anything.  If you are finding out that that is not the case, than please email me at astrid dot kilbourne at gmail dot com.  If you have already commented on here once, you should not have to wait for approval ever again. (As long as you use the same email address).

Thanks, and have a dibbly-fresh day!

I might go so far to say that this is one of my favorite books in the series. No, my favorite sitter hasn’t been introduced yet, but this book does have a lot of what I like in a BSC book.

No, it’s not the “Traditional” cover. But it’s the one I had scanned. I actually quite like it, however, I like the candy shop background on the original cover much more. Anyway, so Stacey has diabetes, and that’s the truth. But as I said, this book and Stacey’s problems, go much further than the diabetes; and this book has several good qualities, even if the title is not one of them.

The first thing I noticed about this book is the fact that Stacey explains the club in one paragraph. I believe that an excerpt is acceptable under the Fair Use Doctrine, so I’m going to type it up for you.

There are just the four of us in the Babysitters Club: Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne (she’s the secretary), and me, Stacey McGill. I’m the treasurer. We’ve been in business for about two months. Kristy thought up the club, which was why she got to be president. We meet three times a week from five-thirty to six o’clock in Claudia’s room (Claudia has a private phone), and our clients call then to line us up as sitters. The reason the club works so well is that with four baby-sitters there at the phone, each person who calls is pretty much guaranteed to get a sitter for whatever time he or she needs. Our clients like that. They say that having to make a whole bunch of calls just to line up one sitter is a waste of time. They like us, too. We’re good baby-sitters. And we worked hard to get our business going. We printed up fliers and distributed them in mailboxes, and even put an ad in The Stoneybrook News, the voice of Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

It’s such a change from the later editions of this series where it takes most of Chapter Two or Three to explain. The paragraph after that discusses each member succinctly. Kristy and Mary Anne are “less mature”, Stacey knows Claudia the best, and Mary Anne is unbelievably shy where as Kristy is outgoing and a tomboy. Simple, concise, quick. All anyone needs to know to understand these characters.

Now, for once the plot isn’t restricted to an A-plot and a baby-sitting adventure. Instead of the usual formula, we get the main plot of Stacey’s personal dilemma, which is her diabetes and how her life has changed since her diagnosis. It’s apparent from the beginning that Stacey, despite being the popular, pretty, mature, worldly sitter, is fighting some pretty intense stuff at home. She might appear to be tres sophisticated (as they say in Stoneybrook) to most of the SMS students and her friends; but once you put her back in the city, it’s apparent that she really isn’t. The subplot is concerned with how the club is growing together. To make the girls best friends forever, an outside force is introduced.

Yes, that’s right. The famous Baby-sitters Agency is active for one book only. Amazingly, the BSC doesn’t have a monopoly on babysitting yet. This group of girls is introduced to us by way of Janine Kishi, who is described by Stacey as “Dull as dishwater”. What a Park Avenue princess like Stacey McGill is doing with dishwater, I do not know. We may never know.

But one of the best parts of the first chapter is listening to Claudia’s description of the new sitters in town. She tell us that “[Liz Lewis and Michelle Patterson] have smart mouths, they sass the teachers, they hate school, they hang around at the mall. You know, that kind of kid.” I’m not even going to point out the irony of Claudia being the one to tell us how LL and MP hate school. However, I will say that it’s nice that despite the fact that Claudia isn’t really into the school thing, she does at least try. At least she does here, in the original four books.

Personally, I think the Baby-Sitters Agency has a pretty good idea. I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of the three times a week meetings are, and it doesn’t seem very convenient for anyone. I think there are several ways that would make more sense then having up to 7 people gather three times a week for 30 minutes.

Change Claudia’s answering machine message and let parents call whenever they feel like it. Tell them to leave a message and someone will get back to them. Check the messages twice a week during a club meeting.

1. Have people call during certain times three times a week, and take turns with the phones (like in #4)
2. What the Agency does. Call mary anne or claudia’s house, and they can call around and offer it to people.

Obviously, this means that they won’t have meetings three times a week to plan random events for children. This will give them more time to throw inpromtu Emergency Meetings though, because, guess what? This meeting of the BSC has turned into an EMERGENCY MEETING. That’s 2 out of three books that include Emergency Meetings, for those of you keeping track at home. (Interestingly enough, in Kristy’s Great Idea, there IS an Emergency Meeting of the Math Club. If anyone knows what kind of emergency a math club could have, please let me know).

The beginning of this book is all really well done, giving us the history of Stacey in New York, how she hated (yes, she wrote hated) Laine, but it’s broken up by the Emergency Meeting, so it doesn’t get boring. I really, really hate how later the books have a data dump chapter two.

Stacey has a sort of boyfriend in Pete Black. That’s nice. So far, it’s been three books and she has crushed on Sam and sort-of dated Pete.

Kristy makes everyone wear sandwich boards advertising the clubs. Stacey, the new kid, is actually okay with this, and with talking to potential members. I know I wouldn’t have been that self confident when I was twelve. I would have died. Not literally, but I would have been so embarrassed I probably would have embarrassed myself more trying to fight Kristy to NOT make me do such an awful, embarrassing thing.

This is the first book with Kid Kits. They are invented to help keep business. That is actually a very smart idea, Kristy. I will give you credit for that. That makes you even for the sandwich boards. I also think that her other idea, seeing if Sam or Charlie or Janine want to help out and take jobs that last longer, is a pretty good idea too. They can get more business if they can sit later. More sitter = more jobs. And no one says that they have to go to the meetings.

Oh yeah, and Mrs. Newton has Lucy. The girls all act crazy and jealous because apparently Mrs Newton plans to leave a newborn at home a lot while she goes out. And Mrs Newton is going to call the Baby-Sitters Agency. I don’t get it. Don’t most people not leave their newborn? I know things were different a long time ago, in the late 1980s, and I don’t really have an actual reference point in my own life, but from what I gather about the whole childcare thing, newborns kind of need to be around their parents most of the time. Not to mention that most people wouldn’t want to leave their newborn baby with a high school student or a junior high kid.But I really don’t know. I was raised by indifferent parents and an Emily Gilmore like grandmother, so I have no actual reference. I don’t even know the last time I’ve seen a newborn.

This is getting long again, so I’m going to cut it off and make it snappy. Stacey goes to the city. She spends a day getting tested by some new age doctor who she doesn’t know or trust. Her parents dont’ listen to her. She tricks them into talking to a different doctor who tells her that she is fine and her parents need to give her some stability. Her parents actually listen to this advice and all is well. Just like a sitcom, it’s all wrapped up neatly at the end.

She even makes up with Laine. Popcorn and a soda costs, like, 1.90. The Agency goes out of business because they have hired irresponsibly sitters who smoke cigarettes in the house. Jamie Newton decides his sister doesn’t completely suck.

Interesting fact that I never noticed as a kid

Stacey’s parents couldn’t have any more kids after Stacey. I know I read this and knew this somewhere deep in my brain, but I don’t think I realized how that tiny little fact affects the characterization of Stacey’s parents. Suddenly, the divorce makes a lot more sense. The parental behavior, all the doctors, the way they acted in Stacey’s Choice and Stacey’s Emergency. She’s spoiled, and it seems as though Ed might blame Maureen. I can not wait until I get through this entire series so I can finally read about Samantha (Please, no “spoilers”).

Educational Moment of the week

Kristy calls up the agency and says she is dating Winston Churchill. The BSC members, who are smart and don’t fool around in school, get the joke. The Agency of Baby-Sitting slackers do not. My 7 year old self did not get the joke until after I saw Camp Nowhere which was my first actual exposure to Winston Churchill.

Vocabulary Lesson

Oddly enough, there doesn’t seem to be one. Sure there’s a lot of talk about insulin and glucose levels, but she never actually explains what those words mean. There is no “hey, isn’t that a great word? I learned it in ____ class. It means ________.” Strange.

Book Tie-In

The Cricket in Times Square, which, oddly enough, is NOT published by Scholastic. It’s a Yearling book, which I think is a division of Random House. Way to give free advertising to the competitor.

Seemingly Random Moment of Feminism

The closest thing I could find to a feminist comment in this one is the part where Kristy remarks that everyone will love the Baby-Sitters Agency, because they have boy sitters. (Obviously, the Lowells have yet to move to town and remind us all the boys don’t baby-sit)

In the first chapter, we start off with some obvious discussion of the weather. I know from reading Harry Potter that weather often symbolizes the “tone” of the book. Increasingly bad or dangerous weather will symbolize danger or something. I am not someone who paid a lot of attention in Literature Class, unless someone male and cute was talking. And even then, I still prefer to just read for the story and not worry so much about what every could mean. Isn’t the point of fiction to tell an entertaining story? It’s double fun if it works on several levels, but I’m not going to go out of my way to make it super complex. Just saying.

Anyway, so the title is “Phantom Phone Calls” (oooh, spooky!) and we start off with “The evening was gloomy and windy…” which does not sound like Claudia, especially later in the series. She wants to work on her still life, dream about Trevor Sandbourne, and read her new Nancy Drew. Sounds like a nice night to me. Much better than sitting here writing about a book that I read when I was 9. Oh, but I love you Baby-Sitters Club. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be rereading you extensively.

Here’s something weird. The first thing that the four BSC members do in Chapter 2 is read The Stoneybrook News. Because that is exactly what 13 year old girls do in their free time. Let me tell you, I can still remember eighth grade, and reading was not one of our hobbies. Of course, I had a friend who actually convinced me to:

1.) Meet her 21 year old “boyfriend”

2.) Ride in his car, even though he drove 80 miles an hour, at least. I couldn’t tell, his spedometer was broken. It was a black Camero

3.) Go into his studio apartment. It was creepy.

And the mystery is set up very nicely in this chapter. We are introduced to the PPP through the newspaper. (It could have been a less obvious plot device. But I suppose that since this is the 2nd book in the series, we don’t KNOW for sure that Claudia probably won’t be reading a newspaper anytime soon). We are also introduced to Alan Gray through the girls idle chatter about what to do and the upcoming dance. We are also told that Alan sits by Trevor Sandbourne. So it’s all laid out for you right in Chapter 2. Way to go Ann. It was so obvious!

And it’s the first EMERGENCY MEETING of the BSC. Claudia eats a candy bar to break the tension. And this is where these girls come up with their BRILLIANT phone conversation about ribbons. Never mind calling the police, let’s call each other and talk in code. To be a 13 year old girl again. Well, a Stoneybrook teenager would be much more fun than my 13 year old life of Cheerleading camps, nearly getting abducted and raped by my friend’s Way To Old boyfriend, and having to ask your parents to drive you on a “date” to see “Forrest Gump” at the dollar theatre.

Chapter Four is back to the boys and school life. Claudia runs into Trevor, then she has a daydream about their life together which sounds super romantic. I’m sure I had a few like this dream, only in mine I’m tall, like 5’9, and I drive a red sports car and my date is always a live version of a Ken Doll. If only my 13 year old daydreaming self could see what kind of guy I ended up dating.

I don’t particularly want to read any more. Just know that this is the book where Mary Anne booby traps the Thomas house, Alan Gray likes Kristy, Trevor DOES know that Claudia exists, and Stacey likes Sam (AWWWW). They go to a Halloween Hop at the school, and Stacey goes with Pete Black because Sam is dating a high school girl.

Lesson of the Day

Thank you Janine, for this Gem: “I find it fascinating that in our society we attempt to regulate the temperature of our environment rather than our bodies. It’s so much more difficult and it’s highly inefficient. Primitive people and people in various other societies existing today tend toward the mere addition or removal of clothing, while we invite the use of heating units and air conditioners.”

Vocabulary Lesson

There aren’t too many that jump out at me, beyond the use of the word “peoples” and Claudia’s subsequent comment about whether or not it is actually a word.

Random Moment of Feminism

“You know Kristy, the burglar could be a woman. It doesn’t have to be a man.”

Classic Literature Mentioned

Lots and Lots of Nancy Drew. I hope Carolyn Keene paid some sort of advertising fee for all the free tie ins that Ann sent her way. I know I read a few because Claudia liked them. I couldn’t get into them quite like Claudia could, no matter how hard I tried to like ND.

We also get some commentary on The Pond, which I have never read.