I guess I am just a California girl at heart.....BSC #23: Dawn on the Coast

Memory Reaction

HA, this is the book where Dawn thinks about moving back to California, then realizes Stoneybrook is her home now and she could never leave. We all know how well that turned out, don't we.

Actually, I have a lot of vivid memories of this book. It is where we find out about We (heart) Kids and how “laid back” and awesome they are - they are making healthy recipe books for kids and crap like that. I can almost picture the descriptions.

I also remember how on her flight to California, she has a really bitchy flight attendant that she claimed looked like a doll I had never heard of. She spends the whole flight talking to some dude next to her, which seems really creepy in retrospect.

Revisited Reaction

So, the basic set up of the book is that Dawn goes to visit her father and Jeff in her wonderful home state, California. She has tons of fun and thinks about staying, but decides to come home. There is really about as little to it as that. She hangs out with Sunny, who started her own baby-sitting club, goes to Dinsney Land, goes to the beach, eats healthy food, etc. We also hear about a couple baby-sitting jobs back in Stoneybrook, but none with a continuing plot like you sometimes see.

High/Lowlights

• According to this book, Dawn is not a strict vegetarian. Um, really? I mean, I knew she ate chicken and fish, but she seemed pretty militant about it in all the other books. But as someone who IS a vegetarian, it always bothered me that the BSC equated vegetarianism to health food. All the vegetarians I know love junk food.
  

• Dawn doesn’t like her mom’s boyfriend Trip-Man because he is conservative and wears glasses. I bet she is relieved her mom marries the super liberal and relaxed Richard then.

• “You can always count on Claudia to be wearing some really unusual outfit, like a white jumpsuit with a wide purple belt and purple high-top sneakers.”

• I never understood why they said Kristy wore jeans and a turtleneck because she liked sports. I think a turtleneck would be the last thing a tomboy would want to wear. It certainly is not conducive to always being on the go. Not to mention the fact, that liking sports doesn't equal lack of fashion. I knew girls in high school who were super athletic, but loved shopping/wearing trendy clothes.
  

• Who gets two-week spring vacations? We always had a week off in February and a week off in April. But never two weeks in a row.

• At Dawn's goodbye party, they order pizza and everyone hates anchovies. I remember other books where Kristy talks about loving them and it grossing everyone out. See, if I can remember this stuff years later, why couldn’t the ghostwriters?

• I don't know why ordering pizza was always such a big deal in these books. When I was in middle/high school, we would normally get all plain for parties. Everyone likes plain. Maybe one pepperoni and one plain. But anyone who really liked mushrooms or something dealt with the fact they would not have them that time.
  

• It must be nice to be Dawn. Every time she goes to visit her dad, the BSC throws her a good-bye party, and every time she goes back to Connecticut, people in California throw her a goodbye party or give gifts.

• So, it is a Kewpie doll. I still don’t know what that is. I had to look it up, and decided it is not like I was picturing. Regardless, that is what Dawn thinks her flight attendant looks like. Except, she calls her "stewardess. " Remember when you could call flight attendants that?

• Okay, the conversation on the plane with the old dude is not quite as creepy as I was recreating it in my head. She does talk to a man sitting next to her on the flight, but they only start talking because they are laughing at how their flight attendent keeps ignoring Dawn.

• Dawn signs her postcard to Kristy: “See you (too) soon!” I know what she means, but that is still sort of mean.

• These books really were not edited at all were they? It refers to Kristy’s brother as Sam Brewer. I really don’t think Sam changed his name when his mom got married.

• Does Watson really not use his entire 3^rd floor? The house is sooo big that ten people can sleep in their own rooms and still have guest rooms without leaving the 2^nd floor? And even if that was the case, you would think Sam or Charlie would want to spread out.

• Nicky Pike gets all upset because when he splurts his ravioli out (because he was laughing during dinner) one of the triplets says “say it don’t spray it.” I normally am sympathetic to teasing, but that really wasn’t a huge deal.

• Dawn’s mother sends her a postcard full of details about her dates with Trip-Man. I was surprised she would send details like that on a postcard going to her ex-husband’s house where he could read it, until I thought that might have been the point.

• Dawn makes a pro/con list to decide if she should move to California or not. Didn't Stacy do the same thing when her parents got divorced? Maybe this is where I get my list making obsession.

• At one point, Dawn talks to her mom, who tells her that Mary Anne called. Now...why would Mary Anne call Dawn's house when she knows Dawn is away? It is not like Mary Anne would forget her best friend left town.

• There is some foreshadowing here: Dawn’s father invites the whole BSC to come visit. I bet he didn’t think they would really take him up on that.