Yes, this is the real title....BSC # 89: Kristy and the Dirty Diapers

Memory Reaction

Okay, this book is one of the last ones I read – it was published in 1995, which means I was fourteen, and obviously WAY too old to still be reading. I mean, I thought THEN it was one of the dumbest books I had read and seriously predictable. I guess that is part of the reason I stopped reading soon after. The whole plot is that Kristy’s Krushers get a sponsorship from a diaper company and the team hates it. So, of course by the end they go back to just being the Krushers. I can tell you all this based on my memory from years ago, but even if I couldn’t I could probably have told you the end based on the back of the book summary.

It is also when Abby first shows up, and I remember how there was this cool stupid contest to name her and her twin. Which I entered. With multiple entries. I was sort of relieved when I didn’t win though. I think the prize was going with ten friends to have lunch with Ann M. Martin, and there was no way I would have admitted to any of my friends I still read BSC books. I just wanted to name them.

Revisited Reaction

The plot has every baseball cliché you could imagine. The gist of it is that Kristy gets the sponsorship for the team and the kids flip out because they have to wear uniforms that say “Diapers.” Then the guy who gave them the sponsorships shows up and tells them they suck, so they play worse then usual. Then after they go back to being Krushers, they win against the Bashers. Woo-hoo! Or whatever.

This book also introduces Abby. Dawn just moved back to California (again, some more) and the BSC is super busy. Coincidently, twin girls move in two doors down from Kristy. Only it is really dumb, because Kristy hates Abby at first, for no other reason then she is jealous of her being athletic and always being the center of attention. The ghostwriter tries to make it seem like Anna is going to join the BSC instead. But since they had announced the name of the new BSCer before the book came out, you knew what was going to happen. They actually do ask both girls to join, but Anna shocks them and turns them down. Because, who would turn DOWN the BSC? It is the best club ever!!! But, it all works out because they have a new member and are not too busy to go on long vacations to exotic locations in the near future.

The sub-subplot involves Morbidda Destiny’s granddaughter Drucsilla, who is staying with her, while her parents work out their divorce. Dru is sad because divorce sucks, so the BSC tries to cheer her up. Interestingly, they pretty much fail. Dru decides on her own to start a band and makes a few new friends, but the BSC had nothing to do with that. It is really….pointless.

High/Lowlights

• It is kind of wrong the way Kristy always describes Emily Michelle as her “adopted sister.” I had a friend who was adopted and she never went around saying “my adopted” in front of all her relatives names. Actually, I know several people who are adopted/have adopted and none of them do it. Kristy actually refers to Karen as her sister (which is fine), but she should really pay the same courtesy to Emily or the girl will get an inferiority complex.

• I can’t stand the way these books have people with allergies talk. Haven’t they ever heard of Claritin or something? I know a lot of people with allergies who don’t always sound sick

• Did you ever think about how many new kids showed up throughout the series? Stacey, Dawn, Logan, Jessi, Abby, Stacey again, Dawn again…..and those are just the new people who joined the BSC. There were other new people that they just had minor interaction with like Ashley Wyeth and Corey Retlin. There was like, one new person in my entire middle school career. Of course, it only took me one year to finish 8^th grade.

• I don’t know how things like this work, but if a business sponsors a baseball team, buys equipment and uniforms, can the team really just give it back? You would think there would be some type of contract for something like that. Not that a teenager could sign a contract, but still. It is not like the guy can return used uniforms he had ordered.

• Two-and-a-half is really, really, young to be playing on a softball team. Seriously young. So is four, for that matter. But Gabbie Perkins and Jamie Newton both play on the Krushers. And their parents don’t attend the practices. They just leave them in the hands of a thirteen-year-old who is watching twenty other kids at the same time.
  

• Morbidda Destiny’s (sorry, I can’t call her anything else), granddaughter is named Druscilla. No offense to anyone with that name, but what a mean thing to do to a kid.

• Kristy totally believes Linny when he tells her his dog crapped on his uniform.

• So this book takes place after Stacey quits to be a “bad girl” and then rejoins. Kristy makes her be on probation, and keeps reminding her about it. I can’t believe sophisticated Stacey would take it. Actually, I can’t believe anyone would take it. After a fight you either make up or you don’t, but you don’t put people on “probation.”

• Twin outfits: “The one with allergies wore glasses and had long, thick hair, so curly it was almost in ringlets. She was wearing baggy plaid shorts and a U4Me T-shirt…the other twin had no glasses, her hair was shorter, and she had bangs. She wore long khaki pants, sandals, and a short-sleeve button-down shirt.” They both sound so normal. I hope they run from the BSC fast.

• More twin outfits: “Abby entered the kitchen wearing a striped shirt and a paisley skirt. She looked shell-shocked. ‘What was I thinking when I packed these last night?’” I don’t know Abby, probably that you wanted to impress Claudia?

• Every time I type “shirt” I accidentally type “shit” first. Do you think that is some type of Freudian slip?

• Anna says how Abby likes sports but won’t join a team. But, in later books she talks non-stop about being on the soccer team. I HATE continuity errors like that because they are so easily avoidable.

• Wow, this is bitchy. Kristy realizes that Abby already became friendly with Trevor Sandbourne and Austin Bentley, so she thinks, “I guess baseball wasn’t Abby’s only skill.” Is she…saying what I think she is saying? I can’t even think of a way to read that sentence that doesn’t mean Kristy calling her a slut. I am surprised they would put it in a kid’s book.

• There is this weird exchange where Mary Anne asks Anna if she listens to some EZ Lite radio station that her dad likes (because Anna likes classical music). Anna has this really weird reaction to it, but it is never really explained. I just…totally don’t get it. I mean, Long Island probably would get the same radio stations as Connecticut, so it is not that weird to ask. Unless EZ Lite is just a lame station or something.

• Mal and Jessi have nothing to do in this book. I think it was around now they were sorta phased out and didn’t get as many of their own books as the older girls.