“I wish there was something we could do”…..BSC #44: Dawn and the Big Sleepover

Memory Reaction

I never understood this book. I don’t mean I had trouble reading it; I just never bought the premise and would get annoyed with it. The set up has something to do with Dawn and the BSC organizing a fundraiser with the elementary school. But it doesn’t make sense that a group of 13-year-old girls would tell some schoolteachers an idea for a fundraiser, and then essentially be in charge of the project. I can see the school being happy to have someone volunteer to help out, but not just letting the girls run things.

Revisited Reaction

Right at the beginning of this book, we hear about how the elementary school kids are in a pen-pal program with a Zuni school in New Mexico. They are all pretty excited about this, and when Dawns hears she starts to wish she were involved. Fairly soon after that, the news breaks that there was a fire on the Zuni reservation and the school, plus some houses, were destroyed.

Dawn decides she has to get involved and comes up with an idea for a food/clothing drive and fundraiser. Then the BSC works up a whole plan to implement it, including having a sleepover in the school gym as a reward for the kids. Now, I am not saying it is bad to try and help people, I just think Dawn tries to make it all about her. Anyway, she calls her brother’s old teacher (at home) and tells her the idea. That teacher tells the school and the idea gets approved. Then, Dawn and the rest of the BSC get to be the ones to give an assembly announcing the plan. But again, why would they do this? If the school is approving the idea, why not have the teachers all announce it? The BSC doesn’t need to be there. They also help out at some of the fundraiser events, and hold onto the donations. The drop off center is even in Dawn’s barn. I would think that the school would be location to drop off stuff, since all the kids have to go there anyway. THEN, the BSC basically runs this reward sleepover. Again, I don’t buy it.

But in the end, all goes well. They have some issues with kids donating things their parents want to keep (to get prizes for the most donations), but that gets sorted out. They send the money to the pen pals, who are touched by their effort. Then we don’t hear about these pen pals again….until a later Super Special (I think).

High/Lowlights

• Byron Pike is upset because Adam told his pen-pal how to speak Pig Latin. Does anyone really believe Pig Latin is a secret language?

• Dawn claims she is turned off by cliques…Just because the girls in the BSC don’t dress alike doesn’t mean they are not a clique.

• Is it really fair to say Mary Anne is the only one to ever have a steady boyfriend? Maybe I am mixing up time lines, but I know Stacey went out with Sam Thomas for a long time, then a couple other people.

• Claud clothes: “She walked into school wearing a bright yellow, oversize man’s jacket with rolled-up sleeves; a wide paisley tie right out of the nineteen sixties; orange stirrup pants; ankle boots; and huge hoop earrings – and you know what? It looked cool.” I will never believe someone can look cool in orange stirrup pants.

• Another Claud outfit: “Her hair [was] in a ponytail on top of her head, held up by a huge barrette in the shape of a bone, like Pebbles in The Flintstones…..She was even wearing a Pebbles-type outfit – a pink, off the shoulder blouse with huge polka dots and a ragged bottom over black tights.” Because dressing like a cartoon baby is the cutting edge of coolness.

• Mary Anne is too busy reading to listen to Dawn’s big idea, so Dawn starts to tell her the end of the book to force her to stop. That is really obnoxious.

• Dawn just calls up this woman who used to teach Jeff. At home. On a Saturday. Then she gets insulted because the woman’s husband answers, and he thinks she is a fifth grader.

• Dawn hopes Kristy won’t try to take credit for her idea. Isn’t the point to help people, not to get credit? This is just like when she stopped helping at the recycling center because she wasn’t elected head of a committee.

• Why would SMS let the girls out of class to give the assembly at the elementary school? Seriously, it is not no one else could do it.

• Awe, the BSC gets applause at the assembly. Because, you know they are awesome baby-sitters and their “charges” love them.

• The triplets set up a free throw contest as part of a carnival the Pikes are having. Dawn asks why it is called a free throw when people have to pay, and they totally make fun of her. I want to laugh, but I am sure I could end up in that situation for other sports…I just happen to know basketball best.

• Why would Maria Kilbourne and Max Delany be working as part of the fundraiser? Both of them go to private school and wouldn’t have pen pals.

• Only four teachers go to the sleepover that one hundred kids are attending.

• They don’t tell us how much money the kids made, just that it was a lot. Lame.

• The guy donating pizza to the sleepover almost has to cancel because he didn’t get a flour deliver. Dawn makes him feel guilty enough to track down whole-wheat flour.

• Awe, they get a sweet letter from the principal of the school that burned down.