“And that’s how I ended up with my own Secret Service agent”…..BSC FF # 9: Kristy and the Kidnapper

Recap

This book starts with Kristy and Abby packing for a school trip to Washington DC.  The trip’s to some national debate competition for middle schools. Even though SMS didn’t have a debate team, some teachers decided to start one for the competition.  Kristy and Abby were both picked for the team because they’d done well with some debate unit they did in English. After this I was totally prepared to hate the book because we were going to have to watch Kristy completely isolated from the rest of the BSC (again).  But I ended up liking it because it was so ridiculous.

 

Anyway, Kristy’s rooming with Abby and this girl Melissa, who annoyed Claudia and Abby on a trip to Philadelphia.  I totally remember that happening, but I’m not sure which book it was.  When they get to the hotel they “run into” this guy Melissa dated at summer camp, and they’re all lovey-dovey with each other. And by run into, I mean got on the debate team specifically so she could see him on this trip. That parts annoying.  But the interesting part is that the guy’s friend is Terry Hoyt.  Only he tells Kristy that his name’s David Hawthorne and he never lived in Stoneybrook.  Which makes sense, because his dad’s in the Secret Service and they were using aliases back then.  But Kristy doesn’t know this, so she’s confused and weirded out at how much they look alike.

 

Amazingly, Kristy ends up assigned to the same debate team as David/Terry.  They are walking through the hotel together when David notices someone following them.  They start to run and this guy runs after them.  He tells David how he’s going to get payback for something his father did, grabs him, and starts dragging him to the parking garage.  Kristy manages to run and get a security guard to help and they get David back (but don’t catch the guy).  David tells Kristy that he really is/was Terry and explains why he lied.  He also asks her not to tell the police about the kidnapper’s payback comment.  Kristy agrees, because she always trusts people who just admitted to lying to her.   David’s living in DC now, so his father does show up and he hears the whole story about the kidnapping.  He wants David to come home, but David refuses to abandon his debate team. His dad agrees to let him stay, but assigns a Secret Service agent to keep an eye on him AND one to watch Kristy (since she was a witness).

Kristy and David’s team does well in the debate and their team moves on to the final round (coincidentally against Abby’s team).  The finals are at the Lincoln Memorial so it’s open to the public.  After the debate, but before the winners are announced, the kidnapper shows up and seems to go after David again.   Mr. Hawthorne’s there and he and this other Secret Service guy catch him.  Then we find out Kristy’s team won the debate.  Before they leave DC, David takes Kristy and Abby on a tour of his father’s office, which is….the White House.  They don’t meet the president or anything though, so it’s not totally ridiculous. 

There’s sort of a subplot about Kristy and Abby fighting the whole time, because they were assigned opposite sides of the debate topic (even though they didn’t actually debate each other officially until the end).  The topic is the beginning level, so it’s whether cats are better than dogs.  In their off time, they keep bickering about it and annoying everyone around them.  When they have to debate each other, they each get a bit personal/emotional in their arguments, but get talked down by their teammates between rounds.  After that, they talk and Abby admits she’d been feeling left out because Kristy was hanging out with David and their other debate teammate.  She had been hoping to spend more time with Kristy.  And Kristy apologizes.  Then they laugh because they realize even though they’d been arguing pretty passionately about the cats vs. dog thing, they both thought the other person had the better side. For the record Kristy was assigned cats, and Abby was assigned dogs.

High/Lowlights

• Terry’s one of Stacey’s exes who I totally forgot about when I said almost all her exes were at the party a couple books ago.

• Kristy says that Stacey was closer to Terry than she was and that she thought she had a crush on him.  But they were actually dating, so that seems like a weird thing to say.

• Terry gets to use his real name these days because his father has a “regular” post.  But he’s still supposed to keep all their family’s’ past identities a secret. And Terry/David tells Kristy his father may not want people knowing some dude is out to get revenge on him.  But having the Secret Service watch David after the kidnapping attempt kind of ruins any secrecy there.

• Also, his dad is in the Secret Service, not the CIA.  And if it’s now public knowledge that he’s Secret Service, saying someone is looking for revenge isn’t going to give anything away.  David wouldn’t have to reveal any past identities.

• The cop who interviews Kristy and David is Officer Michaels.  What’s with using that name for cops in these books?  That was the same last name as their cop friend in all the mystery books.

• The advanced debate topic is: “U.S. immigration policies contradict American ideals,” and the intermediate is: “Journalists have a right to protect confidential sources of information.”  Kristy thinks they both sound hard, but I think they’re a lot easier to debate than whether cats are better than dogs, there’s so much more to say about each side.  But I’m not 13.  And I don’t like either animal.

• Kristy calls Stacey to ask if she remembers Terry, and Stacey’s all, “oh, yeah, I remember Terry.  No idea where he moved to though….”  Because she did end up knowing the truth about Terry, but wasn’t allowed to tell anyone.

• So, on this trip the girls are allowed to have boys their hotel room as long as it was before lights out (10:00).  It seems like an odd rule, since they could fool around in the day time just as easily as they could in the night time.  I would think they wouldn’t allow that at all.  But maybe I’m getting old and strict.

• Kristy offers David a drink out of their room’s mini-fridge and makes a comment about how Watson warned her to not eat stuff out of the fridge cause it’s so expensive.  Which is like what he said on their trip to Disney World.  But I guess this means Watson gets the bill for the school trip?  Aren’t those things usually pre-paid? My school never had overnight field trips like that so I don’t know how it works.  I’m assuming they at least removed the alcohol from all the kids’ fridges though.

• So, Melissa’s in a debate category called “extemporaneous speaking,” where the kids are given a statement and have to defend it by speaking for ten minutes on the spot.  Kristy and Abby are both surprised that she’s really good, because they previously thought she was the type of person who said anything to go along with a crowd.  I actually think that would make her a good debater, she can go with the flow.  Kristy thinks that she and Abby are good debaters because they’re opinionated, but I think that’s only part of being good at debate.  In a competition like this, they’re assigned things to argue.  Being opinionated can hurt you if your opinion doesn’t line up with what you’re assigned.

• The statement Melissa has to defend is “The chicken came first” (as in, did they chicken or the egg come first).  Which made me think of a comic similar to this one that I first saw when I was in college. 

• Also, dinosaurs were laying eggs millions of years before chickens existed, so I don't know how anyone could argue that chickens were first.  But whatever.

• Kristy and Abby both assume Melissa’s going to throw her debate when she has to go up against her boyfriend, and when they say something to her she’s all offended that they would think that.  And she wins, so good for her. 

• One night Melissa sneaks her boyfriend in to their hotel room after hours and they all play Scrabble.   When their teacher knocks on the door, he hides in a closet and they get away with it.  Kristy’s relieved and a little surprised that the Secret Service guy watching her doesn’t tell on them.  But hey, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from movies/TV it’s that Secret Service agents cover for Presidents’ affairs.  So, I wasn’t really surprised.

• A bunch of middle school kids compete in a debate at the Lincoln Memorial?  And tourists stop to watch? Really?

• I can’t believe that an incident happens that leads to Kristy having a Secret Service person watch her and no one bothers to call her parents.  They barely take time to tell her teacher. WTF?

• The guy who’s out to get Mr. Hawthorne was caught for computer hacking, but supposedly was freed on a technicality and never did time.  So, why the hell is he out for revenge?

• At one point, Kristy, Melissa, and Abby get back from some museum and an agent comes up to them asking if they know where David was.  Kristy says she has no idea.  But if David’s missing, why wouldn’t they radio the agent watching Kristy and get him to ask her.  It’s not the kind of thing that you should wait for.

• Kristy ends up finding David in the hotel lobby.  Apparently he just went for a walk and wanted to be alone.  Which seems incredibly stupid.  Also, kind of mean, since the agent watching him got pulled off duty (and maybe worse) after he lost David.  Of course, if a 13-year-old can outsmart a Secret Service guy, he probably SHOULD be taken off duty.  Supposedly David said he was taking a nap, and when he looked out the door he saw that the agent had stepped away. 

• As part of the trip they all go to some dance performance that gets us a mention of Jessi.  It’s a tap dancing performance that Kristy thinks is interesting because it’s athletic dancing and she talks about how Jessi would have loved it. It’s nice to hear her mentioned.  It’s also nice to see so much of Abby in this book.  I would have preferred more of the other girls too though.

• If the winner of each preliminary debate moves forward, how do they guarantee that the final debate will have one team from each side?  They should make the teams switch from one side to another.  It’s more challenging.

• I think one reason I enjoyed this book was that even though it has kidnappers in it, we don’t have Kristy actively trying to solve any mystery.  The only thing she does is try and look for David when he’s missing.  But even then, she’s not looking for the bad guy, she thinks David may have wandered all on his own.

• When they announce the debate winners, the moderator says how they were disappointed to see that Kristy/Abby were showing personal conflict in the debate, but was pleased to see they both calmed down.  But he also says this influenced their decision.  If both teams did it, how did that influence who won?

“My parents don’t tell me what to read and what not to read”…………BSC FF # 5: Kristy Power

Recap

The back of the book tries to make it sound like it’s about Kristy and Cary Retlin bickering with each other, but it’s really a PSA about why banning books is bad.  Which is really annoying, because I ALREADY think it’s bad and don’t need convoluted plots to convince me. 

Anyway, Kristy’s English teacher had a baby and while she’s on maternity leave her class has a new teacher, Mr. Morely.  Mr. Morley’s young and encourages everyone to call him “Ted.”  He gives the class two assignments.  The first is to pick a novel from a list he gives out and do a report on how it makes them feel, and the second is to write a biography on someone else in the class.  He assigns pairs for the biography part and Kristy and Cary get partnered up.  They try and say they can’t work together because it worked out badly last time, but Ted insists.

Now, it turns out that list of books Ted gave out was questioned by some parent who thinks the books on it contain filth and violence and all sorts of crap like that.  It also turns out that because Ted was new, he didn’t know he was supposed to run all assignments past the head of the English department.  I think this is to make it seem like Ted did something wrong even if you don’t care about banning books, and make the whole situation more dire. The head later says she would have approved the list, so I don’t know why they bother with that whole point.  But whatever.  

I guess the parents are putting a lot of pressure on the school, because Ted’s suspended, his job’s in danger, there’s a big meeting about it the whole town goes to, etc.  It seems like it should be the B plot, but it felt like we spent more time on it.   That may just be because it annoyed me so much.  Kristy ends up encouraging her class to support Ted, and she speaks at the meeting about it.  And ultimately he gets reinstated.  Obviously.

As for the Cary stuff: Kristy’s at his house to interview his siblings for the biography project and walks by his room after using the bathroom. She can’t resist taking a peak and looking around his room.  She sees a notebook that she thinks is his homework, but then she realizes it’s a journal.  (At least she thinks it’s a journal).  It’s talking about getting kicked out of school and loading things on a computer and hating people for being “phonies.”   Now, the use of the word “phony” made me think of Catcher in the Rye, because I remember Holden Caulfield using the word a lot.  I may only have thought of it because that was one of the first books mentioned on Ted’s list.  I thought Cary was doing his project on Catcher in the Rye and that we were going to find out the “journal” was just his version of notes about the book.  I figured Kristy would keep thinking it was his journal and somehow embarrass herself about the whole thing, but ultimately find out she was wrong.  I was only partially right. 

So, Kristy feels super guilty about it, and tries to forget what she saw/pretend it never happened.  But she lets it slip to Cary that she read it. Cary’s super pissed and barely talks to Kristy for days.  He supports her when she says they should defend Ted, but totally shuts down after that.  Then, at a meeting with Ted (after his job’s reinstated), Ted asks Cary how his novel’s coming and says how great it must be to be able to write by hand instead of needing a computer (like he does).  Kristy realizes it wasn’t a journal and is mad at Cary for letting her think she did something so wrong.  But Cary tells her it’s just as personal because he puts a lot of himself into his stories.  Kristy ultimately apologizes to him and they sorta make up.

High/Lowlights

• The two projects are each 50% of Kristy’s grade.  So, if this teacher came in the middle of the semester, how can his two projects be their entire grade? It’s kind of disrespectful to the teacher who started the year.

• Books on the offending list: Catcher and the Rye, A Separate Peace, Homecoming, The Outsiders, The Red Pony, and probably others.

• Kristy has a Christmas party that she describes as a “real party” not just girls sleeping over but with dancing and music and guys and all that. I guess it’s a sign she’s maturing, from her immature days years ago back in 8^th grade when she had sleepovers.

• We get a reference to another BSC book that talked about how much banning books suck.  I get the point already BSC!

• Kristy’s disappointed that Mary Anne isn’t excited about her party, but then she realizes it must be because she “just” broke up with her boyfriend.  But I think that’s about two months ago by this point.  Mary Anne needs to get over it.  She’s the one that ended it, and I get it would still be hard, but really.

• Kristy sees kids talking excitedly in the halls and wonders if it’s about the space shuttle or something.  Which just seems like a really random thing to reference.  But it turns out everyone is just talking about Ted.

• 8^th Grade seems kind of young to have kids calling the teacher by their first name.  Maybe I’m just getting old.

• Okay, Cary cracks me up.  Kristy asks what state he was born in and he says “a state of innocence.”  Then she asks about his first memory and he says he “can’t recall.”  I can see how that would annoy her, but I think it’s funny.  Especially the second one.

• Claudia and Jeremy were partners in the biography thing.  So, this causes a bit of angst with Stacey and Claudia.  I wish we’d seen more of it.  It causes tension because Claudia mentions a story that Jeremy hadn’t told Stacey yet, and says how Jeremy told her about his most meaningful experience.  That one scene alone was more interesting than the rest of the book put together.

• Logan’s partner in the biography thing is that Rachel girl.  It would have been really interesting to hear some of what went on between them, but sadly we don’t hear a thing.  This makes sense, since the book is from Kristy’s POV, but still.  Anytime we got to hear Logan’s voice over the course of the series it was with him and Mary Anne together and happy.

• We meet some girl named Merrie, whose mother’s the driving force behind the whole protest thing.  So the kids aren’t super nice to her, but she ends up defending Ted at the big meeting in front of her mother.  Brave move, but she’s going to have a hard time when she gets home after that. 

• The one issue I had with this book…..it takes place in Connecticut.  It’s a pretty liberal area.  So, while I believe that there may be a couple parents who would freak out about certain books, I don’t believe it would be enough to get a teacher to get suspended and cause a huge crowd at a school board meeting.  Especially if the teacher had the support of the head of his department and the principal.  AND if the books are all pretty much classics. They’d probably just talk to the teacher and make a new rule or something. That’s what they did in my school when someone’s parent complained that they showed us Heaven and Earth, which has a rape scene in it.  After that we had to get permission slips for any movie a teacher showed that wasn’t rated G.

• Cary has MC Escher drawings and Salvador Dali paintings (prints, I’m assuming) in his room.  And a bulletin board full of weird newspaper headlines.  I think he must be a really interesting guy.

• In class, Cokie Mason asks about their assignments and gets ready to take super-detailed notes about them.  But since when does Cokie even think about schoolwork?

• Kristy hears teachers in the hallway talking about how they support Ted because of the 1^st Amendment.  So, Kristy goes to the library to look up what that is.  And while I appreciate that she puts the effort in to do this, and that Ann M Martin’s trying to teach kids about free speech, it is really annoying to read about when I am very familiar with all that information.

• This thing about not turning in the list for approval is silly.  Ted says how his old school was a private school and lesson plans were at his discretion.  But if he came in the middle of the year, he would probably have notes from the teacher he was replacing about what she was teaching.  And I would expect him to do his own thing, but it shouldn’t seem like he was going totally from scratch.

• Plus, again, the head ends up saying she would have approved the list.  So it’s pointless.

• When Cary interviews Sam about Kristy, Sam tells him about the “Spaghetti Episode.”  Kristy’s all horrified that Sam would do this but then tells us she isn’t going to explain.  Totally unfair.  If they’re going to give us a super-boring book, they could at least give us an embarrassing story or two.

• So, Watson calls the school to give his support for Ted and Claudia’s mom speaks at the school board meeting (being a librarian and all).  The BSC parents sure are activist-y.  It must be where the girls get it.

• Kristy’s elected to speak on behalf of her class at the big school board meeting for Ted.  And she talks about being nervous about it.  Really?  Since when is Kristy nervous about speaking in public?

• Mallory, Jessi, Abby, and Shannon all show up for Kristy’s party. As does Dawn, who’s there for Christmas.  They barely get any screen time, but we see them all mentioned, which I think is a good thing.

• I can’t believe Kristy was my favorite character at one point, and I've liked her Friends Forever books the least.

• If Cary's writing a novel, he sort of sucks since what we saw was really a lot like Catcher in the Rye.  Just with the word computer thrown in.

• Ted shows up at Kristy's party. Which seems really inappropriate to me.  Even if her parents were home.

• At the party, Mary Anne keeps avoiding Logan.   Like, if she walks into a room and sees him she goes into another room.  I can understand how she’d feel, but it’s kind of annoying to hear about her being so awkward about the whole thing.

• Speaking of Logan at the party, he ends up chatting with Emily Bernstein.  Kristy doesn’t know if that means anything, but it’s mentioned like it could be. I don’t think they’d actually work as a couple.  Logan didn’t seem to like when Mary Anne managed to be a little assertive, and Emily’s much more assertive than Mary Anne.

• Kristy DOES ask Mary Anne if it’s okay to invite Logan to the party.  She thinks it would be weird not to ask him since all his friends would be there.  And Mary Anne says okay.   But like I said, she gets all awkward about it.

• What I like about Ted’s first assignment is that he tells them to do the report on a book they are passionate about.  So, if they don’t like the first one they start, pick another until they do.  Which seems like an interesting approach to get kids into reading.

• The problem with the biography part of the assignment is all the 8^th graders in this school already wrote their autobiographies, so the kids should just swap those as source material.

• Back when Kristy’s dog Louie died, didn’t we hear that he was named after the song Louie Louie?  Or did David Michael just like the song because of the name.  Cause Cary asks Kristy why they named him that she says, “it just came to us.”  I don’t have a copy of that book to check.

“He has some…some important news for you”…..BSC FF #1” Kristy’s Big News

Recap

One night Kristy’s dad (Patrick) calls and he asks to speak to Charlie, Sam, and Kristy.  He says he’s getting married and wants them to come to the wedding.  Charlie hangs up after Patrick asks if they’re going to congratulate him. (Cause it’s kinda a douchey thing to say to the kids you abandoned). Sam and Kristy feel a bit weird about the whole thing, but both agree to go. 

After they get off the call, Charlie says he’s not going.  David Michael (who Patrick didn’t even both to say hello to) WANTS to go, but Kristy’s mom tells him he’s too young.  What I think she really mean is, he’s too young to hear, “you’re father’s a dick who doesn’t care about you. “ Eventually Kristy’s mom tells Charlie that if he doesn’t go, Sam and Kristy can’t, so Charlie takes one for the team and goes. They get to California (Sausalito) where Patrick lives and find out that he and his fiancé (Zoey) live in some huge house and work together at a restaurant she owns. Apparently, Patrick gave up sports writing to become chef there.  This surprises Kristy and her brothers because they always thought his leaving had to do with him being so dedicated to his job as a sportswriter.

They’re there a few days before the wedding and things are kind of awkward.  Charlie keeps insulting Patrick, while Sam and Kristy try to be nicer.  Patrick asks Charlie and Sam to be his best men, but only Sam agrees to it.  Zoey tries to get them to do some family bonding, but Charlie keeps throwing out bitter-ish comments.  Kristy spends a lot of time with Zoey, who keeps thinking Kristy will be into fashion issues and other “girl” stuff, which is clearly not true.  But this it’s okay, because Kristy actually really likes Zoey – Sam and Charlie seem to as well. Kristy’s problem comes in when she hears that Patrick and Zoey are planning on having kids.  For obvious reasons, this upsets her, but she still tries to act like she’s okay with things.

The night of the rehearsal dinner, Patrick finally asks Charlie to stop insulting him and act like a “good son.”  Charlie sort of goes off about that and talks about how Patrick’s leaving impacted them.  When Patrick tries to defend himself, Kristy comes to Charlie’s defense.  Charlie says he isn’t going to the dinner and Sam and Kristy stay with him.  But after Patrick leaves they start talking about good memories from when they were kids and how when you grow up you lower your expectations, and they decide to go to the dinner after all.

The wedding goes well and I guess Kristy ends up happy for her dad.  Back in Stoneybrook, she tells her mom about the wedding, who says she wants the best for Patrick.  Which I guess is easy to do after you’ve married a really generous millionaire.  No matter how annoying his kid is.  Kristy also talks to Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne about her dad and how she doesn’t know how she really feels about him.

High/Lowlights

• In Stoneybrook, Kristy’s amused that Andrew made a nest for his peas out of mashed potatoes before eating them.  Apparently, Charlie taught him to do this.  She’s even more amused (as am I) when she sees Charlie still does the same thing. 

• The first time Kristy mentions the BSC is on page 20.  She’s like, “I have mentioned the BSC, right.”?  But she hadn’t.  It felt weird.

• This book’s very light on any BSC members other than Kristy.  She talks to Mary Anne a bit before she leaves, and then mentions a BSC meeting at the end, but that’s about it.  I hope the other Friends Forever books aren’t the same, I like the girls interacting.

• Patrick and Zoey can’t pick the kids up from the airport, so they leave their car there and mail Charlie a key and directions to the house.  But how busy could they be, they both seem off work that week?

• I find it interesting, that they have Patrick and Zoey living together before they get married.  Now, I don’t have an issue with this, but it surprised me for a BSC book.

• I was happy to see that we do get some outfits in this book.  They’re not nearly as awful as some of the old-school ones though.

• Here’s Claudia: “Cutoff jeans over bicycle shorts, and suspenders she’d decorated with buttons.  Beneath that she was wearing a paint-splattered T-shirt, which she called her tribute to Jackson Pollock.”  It wouldn’t seem so bad if the book wasn’t taking place in 1999.

• So, the backstory chapter’s pretty much gone in this book.  Which I expected to be happy about, but it actually was a little disappointing. I guess I’m just not a big fan of change. We do get some background on all the members of Kristy’s family though.  And I didn’t notice this until after I finished, but the inside front cover has mini-bios of Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey.

• The back of the book refers to Kristy being a bridesmaid, but this is never actually mentioned in the book.

• Kristy does get a new dress for the wedding: “It was velvety…colored a deep burgundy…with [a] regular neckline, right at [her] collarbone, and short sleeves.”

• One thing I thought was weird was that the day after Patrick calls, Kristy goes to see Mary Anne because she “needs her friends.”  But in Everything Changes, Kristy kept talking about how close she and Abby were getting.  And now she has a crisis and doesn’t even mention her?  I mean, obviously, the series is now just concentrating on the original 4.  And maybe Kristy wanted to talk to someone who knew her when her dad was around.  But it still felt a bit odd.

• Kristy says that Charlie took care of David Michael most of the time when Patrick left, but doesn’t that contradict her autobiography?  It said David Michael was in day care and Charlie took care of Sam and Kristy.

• Patrick keeps trying to yell at Charlie for being rude.  That’s pretty nervy of him.  I can’t believe he doesn’t EXPECT all his kids to be a bit angry with him.

• When Zoey suggests Kristy get a slip dress, Kristy’s worried she’ll look like she’s going around in her underwear like “last year’s rock star.”  Do you think she was being specific?  I can’t remember a musician doing that in the late 90s.

• Kristy also gets caught in a dress when trying it on.  It would be really amusing if this was a TV show or movie and we actually got to see it, but here it fell a bit flat.

• Claudia supposedly calls Princess Diana, “The late fashion-great.”  It always feels weird to hear the BSC refer to things that happened after I stopped reading. 

• Maybe there’s a rule about ugly clothes showing up in every BSC book.  Because Patrick and Sam pick out AWFUL tuxedos for the wedding: “They were a sort of unnatural yellow-orange…and [had] ruffled shirts with matching yellow-orange edging.” Even Kristy can tell they’re ugly, and Charlie, Kristy, and Zoey make Patrick exchange them. 

• The night before the wedding, Zoey sleeps in the room Kristy’s staying in, because of the whole curse thing.  That’s when Kristy tells Zoey how things went down with Patrick leaving her mom.  Zoey admits she knows, partially from Patrick, but also based on the fact that he had no pictures of the kids or stories about them that weren’t at least six years old.  But she’s still in love with him.

• At the rehearsal dinner, Kristy stands in for Zoey because it’s apparently bad luck for the bride to participate in the rehearsal.  Has anyone heard that one before?

• Apparently Patrick had a falling out with his brother and hasn’t spoken to him since.  He wrote back to the wedding invitation with “best wishes, but no way.”  Patrick’s sounding more and more like a winner. 

• After Charlie tells Patrick he never acted like a good father, Patrick’s all, “Well, I didn’t have a chance, did I? You didn’t exactly stay in touch.”  That’s his actual quote.  Which…really? I don’t even know where to start with that.

• Zoey’s father has been married 4 times, so we have all these scenes that (I think) are supposed to be comic relief with them all at the wedding not getting along.

• At one point, Patrick says that one reason he didn’t visit was because of Kristy’s mom, and suggests she would have made things hard if he tried to visit.  Yes, I’m sure the single mother of 4 children would have hated if someone offered to take them off her hands for an afternoon.

• Now, I should clarify, I don’t have a problem with Patrick deciding he wanted a divorce.  I don’t even have a problem with him wanting to move to California.  But this guy just moved out and never even told his wife he was going.  I really can’t see any excuse for that.

• At the end, there’s a scene where Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne are looking at pictures of the wedding, and it reminded me of a scene at the end of the book where Kristy’s mom married Watson.  I doubt it was intentional, but it would be cool if it was.

• The other thing that bothers me about Patrick is how he tries to act like nothing happened.  Everyone makes mistakes in life, and I think they should be able to redeem themselves. However, they need to acknowledge that they did something wrong and apologize for it.

• Zoey says she knows Patrick has changed, but I would still have a hard time marrying (and having kids with) someone who had walked out on their family like that.

“The BSC members had done a lot of detective work, but that didn’t make us real detectives”…BSC Mystery # 36: Kristy and the Cat Burglar

Memory Reaction

Didn't read this as a kid.

Revisited Reaction

I actually really enjoyed this one, because it ended up being about how the BSC isn’t an actually detective agency and probably shouldn’t be chasing criminals around.  This is the last mystery book to come out, so I guess that’s a fitting end. 

It starts out with Kristy, David Michael, and Karen exploring the woods behind their house that leads to some big mansion on a private road.  While doing this they see the BSC’s cop friend Sergeant Johnson driving by (but he doesn’t see them), then hear a gun shot and an alarm going off.  Kristy and the kids run away, but then a cop tells them to stop.  It is, of course, Sergeant Johnson.  After he sees who it is, he has them wait in his car while a bunch of other cops show up and do their cop thing.

It turns out some rich loner guy, Reinhart Golem, owns the house but is currently out of the country.  Someone lured his security guard away and then stole a bunch of diamonds from the safe.  This person also left a picture of a cat, which is the calling card of some notorious “Cat Burglar” that’s wanted all over the place. We also find out that there’s some tension between Sergeant Johnson and a couple other cops.  According to him it’s because a new guy wants to take the current Chief’s job when he retires, and Johnson (I’m going to stop typing Sergeant every time I say his name, because it’s really annoying) is his biggest competition. Oh, and Cary Retlin apparently lives in the area, so he keeps showing up.

The BSC decides to investigate, because that’s what they do.  They show up at the mansion and find a bullet casing and a red marker (that was supposedly used for drawing the cat picture).  They get caught snooping by the owner, who just got back into town.  He encourages the girls and Cary to solve the crime and even offers up an award.  He keeps encouraging and complimenting them every time he sees them.

We also find out that these other cops are acting like Sergeant Johnson’s a suspect and the BSC has to admit they think he’s one too.  He was at the crime scene right before the alarm went off and has been acting “odd.”  Then Kristy sees a set of markers in his office that’s missing a red one, and look just like the one found at the crime scene.  We also hear that Johnson had investigated Golem about something before, and it didn’t go anywhere.  I guess we’re supposed to think he’s got something against the guy. More importantly, the cops finally find some diamonds in his desk, so they arrest him (in front of the BSC).  But he tells the girls he’s being framed

Kristy starts to believe him, and thinks the evidence is off somehow.  So they do some more investigating and come to the conclusion that the other cop’s framing Johnson.  It’s dinner time so half the girls go to Chez Maurice (the restaurant where Golem eats most of his meals) and Kristy, Abby, Mary Anne, and Cary go to Golem’s house.  It turns out he’s at home, so Kristy’s group starts telling him their theory about a frame up.  But then Cary and Kristy realize that Golem has a lamp that was stolen by the Cat Burglar previously, and figure out Golem is the real thief and was trying to get the insurance money for the diamonds. He was framing Johnson because he held a grudge from the previous investigation.  Golem tries to lock the girls in his house before they can stop him from getting on a plane to Europe, but Abby and Mary Anne manage to get out of the house. 

At the same time the rest of the BSC was looking for Golem at Chez Maurice and happen to see his name in the guest book on the day of the crime.  They realize he was lying about being out of town that day, so they go to the cops, who were already getting suspicious.  They all go to Golem’s and manage to save Kristy, Abby, Mary Anne, and Cary.  Anyway, Kristy feels really stupid for letting Golem manipulate her and the other girls agree, so they decide to stop looking into mysteries for a while.

The subplot’s all about how Charlotte Johanssen read Harriet the Spy and decided to spy on everyone she knows.  It turns out her friends are also spying on her, but they end up doing it together.  At one point Becca and Vanessa hear some negative things Charlotte said about them during one of her solo spy trips.  They fight, then they make up. It’s really thrilling stuff. And we get a little plug about how we should all read that great book.

High/Lowlights

• According to this book Kristy’s house ends with a wooded area that goes past Cary’s house.  I was going to say this didn't match the map, but I guess it could, depending on what else is off the edge on that side.

• At a meeting a job comes in for a Thursday.  Mary Anne looks at the book and says, “Stacey, Mal, or Abby.”  Then Mallory says how she has an eye doctor’s appointment and Abby says she has a special soccer practice.  But, shouldn't Mary Anne already know this? Isn't that the point of the appointment book? Unless maybe both of those things just came up.  But do they not tell Mary Anne about appointments until she asks who’s free that day? 

• During one of Charlotte’s spy missions, they look at the Ramsey’s house and she says that Aunt Cecilia always spends all afternoon cooking dinner for the family. That makes her sound like a maid or something. 

• Johnson brings Kristy in for questioning and takes her into his office where no one could overhear them to talk.  I’m not surprised his colleagues were suspicious of him.

• Cary gets called down to the police station for questioning (as a witness, not a suspect), because Kristy told the cops was in the area during the break in.  They make a point of showing that his father was with him for the questioning, which makes it look even weirder when Kristy goes in alone. Johnson said they don’t need her parents because it isn't an “official” questioning, just a “consultation.” Sure.  That sounds totally legit.

• Stacey warns Charlotte that spying on her friends could make them mad at her, like in the book.  But Charlotte says she’s recording everything instead of writing it down, so no one will ever know.  But of course, when she starts spying with Becca and Vanessa, she accidentally plays the wrong tape and they hear (and get pissed off).

• Charlotte’s bitchy comments about her friends – Becca’s a baby that’s spoiled by Aunt Cecelia, and Vanessa’s embarrassed that her father can’t afford to buy her a nicer bike.  Vanessa defends them both saying Cecelia’s actually strict and her dad offered her a new bike and she refused.  Becca doesn't defend herself, but I guess it’s kind of hard to say you’re not spoiled without sounding like you are.

• You can tell this is a later book, because when the girls are doing research on the Cat Burglar they talk about using the internet instead of just microfilm in the library. 

• After the girls found the marker and bullet casings, I was already to complain about how the hell the cops missed that stuff.  But, they actually reference how weird it’s that the cops didn’t find it.  AND it turns out that it was planted after the fact, so it’s not that ridiculous.  Other than the fact that they didn't know immediately it was a frame up.

• For anyone who cares, Sergeant Johnson’s first name’s James.

• I can’t believe this Golem guy was dumb enough to sign his real name to a guest book in a restaurant when he was pretending to be out of town.  He planned out an elaborate crime that involved tricking his security people and using kids to frame a police officer.  And he has been breaking into houses for years.  But he didn’t think to sign a fake name?  Or maybe eat in that once? He deserves to get caught for that.

• I find it funny that they’re giving the kids a plot that was Mallory’s storyline in TWO super specials.  Okay, Mal didn't get the fight part of the story.  But she did reference Harriet.

• Claudia outfit: “Purple painter’s pants with lots of loops and pockets for carrying tools, red high-tops with purple laces, and a red sweatshirt customized with purple embroidery.” It’s inspired by Harriet.

• Stacey outfit: “She [had] on khaki pants and a white button-down blouse. She [had] a dark blue ribbon in her hair…her shoes [were] brown lace-up boots.”  Pretty tame…I feel like Stacey’s clothes were more interesting in the early books.

• Cary keeps saying he was bird watching when the BSC bumps into him around the mansion.  They think he’s making that up, but apparently he’s actually a serious bird watcher.

• Kristy thinks about how rich Golem must be because he eats most of his meals at Chez Maurice, and she would need to save up for months to eat one meal there.  She does realize even non-rich adults make more than baby-sitters, right?

• Also, haven’t Logan and Mary Anne eaten at Chez Maurice?  They never mentioned up saving for months for that.

• They don’t really explain why the cops went from being convinced of Johnson’s guilt to thinking Golem was manipulating things, even before talking to the BSC.  But whatever.

• Sergeant Johnson shows up at Claudia’s house during a BSC meeting.  Janine comes and knocks on Claud’s door and tells them there’s a cop there to see them, and “if she didn't know better” she’d think they were in trouble.  Do they expect me to believe that the “genius” didn't think there was anything weird about a cop wanting to talk to teenage girls alone?

• While I do love the book ending with them deciding not to play detective anymore, it’s kind of silly that THIS case makes them think it’s too dangerous.  Having a criminal stalk you and try to kill you or having physical fights with thieves doesn't bother them. But almost getting trapped in a room does the job. Makes total sense.

“You just want to boss kids around”…….BSC # 122: Kristy in Charge

Memory Reaction

I first read this as an adult, but it was a few years ago.  I don’t really remember much, except that Kristy came off as really unlikeable. 

Revisited Reaction

SMS is having another school-wide project.  In this one, students can volunteer to be a “teacher of tomorrow” (TOT) and get to teach a class for 3 days (over a week).  Kristy thinks this is awesome, because she’ll get to prove to her teachers how she could do their jobs so much better than them. Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Mallory sign up for the program.  Kristy gets assigned to a girls’ gym class, Stacey to a Math class, Mary Anne to a Social Studies class, and Mallory to an 8^th grade English class.

The TOTs have to attend training where they learn about lesson plans, and curriculum that needs to be covered and all that.  Kristy thinks the idea of lesson plans are cool, but assumes she doesn’t need to do one for a gym class.  Then she finds out that she has to work with the TOT for a boys’ gym class, since the classes are currently doing a soccer unit together.  The TOT in question is Cary Retlin, who doesn’t plan to take the project seriously and doesn’t even doesn’t care about extra credit.  He and Kristy don’t really end up doing much planning to start.

In her first class, Kristy tries to get the kids to warm up to some “fun” music from the 1970s, but Cary laughs at her in front of the kids, so the class is a bit unproductive and out-of-control.  Afterwards, the actual teacher tells Kristy that she DOES need a lesson plan and that she needs to work with Cary. So for their second class, Kristy and Cary decide they will split the kids into two teams and will each lead one of them.  This is a huge disaster.  The other kids end up picking up on their competitiveness and basically start their own war.  It doesn’t help that most of the people on one team take karate together.  The actual teachers have to break up multiple physical fights, and Cary and Kristy end up having to explain to the Vice Principal why they totally screwed up.  Amazingly, they’re still allowed to teach their last class session.  Kristy comes up with the idea to do some kind of passing drill instead of a game.  In it, the person passes the ball to their partner.  If the partner misses, the original kicker’s out of the game.  It goes well, and Cary works with her, so they sort of redeem themselves.

We don’t hear much about Mary Anne or Stacey’s experiences, just that they generally go well.  But the 8^th grade class Mallory’s assigned to is a bit of a challenge.  First of all, Mal’s terrified of have to present in front of 8^th graders and thinks they won’t do anything they say.  And, apparently Mal’s pretty smart, because that’s exactly what happens.  The girl does know her weaknesses.  But her lack of confidence probably makes things worse. On her first day she keeps dropping things, and earns the nickname “Spaz Girl.”  She keeps trying to run the class and the kids just ignore her and interrupt.  Kristy and Mary Anne are in the class and try to help, but the other kids are louder and more successful.  The actual teacher has to step in and threaten the class with extra papers to write, and that doesn’t even help.  Mallory says that the nickname Spaz Girl has spread to other students in school, and she’s really upset about the whole thing.

As usual, some kids in Stoneybrook finds out about the cool middle school thing, and decides to do their own version of it.  In this case, Vanessa decides to start a poetry school and make all her younger siblings attend.  At first Claire and Margo like it, but get bored with it.  And Nicky was bored with it to begin with.  But Vanessa blackmails them into staying in the class by threatening to tell their parents about things the others did.  Eventually, Vanessa realizes this is wrong and manages to get everyone into poetry by making it seem fun, instead of demanding they write about what she wants.

High/Lowlights

• I can’t believe Mary Anne would sign up for the Teacher of Tomorrow.  Standing in front of a room talking for entire class periods?  Super shy Mary Anne? Seriously?  Was the ghostwriter for this book new or something?

• Claudia outfit:  “A long-sleeved white T-shirt on which she’d painted a bald man’s head from a side view.  All the lines were sharp, not natural at all. His nose was purple, his eyes were orange, and his skin was green.  Jagged yellow lines like lightning bolts sizzled around his head.”  Apparently, he’s a person having a great idea.

• On Kristy’s application for the TOT programs, she basically says how she wanted to prove that she could be better than all her teachers.  Then she sees Mal writing about how she wants to share her love of books/writing.  So she adds something like that about sports to hers.  I just think it’s sad that Mallory who was so into the idea of teaching was torn apart by the students.  For Kristy it was just a game.

• At this point in the series, Andrew’s in Chicago for a few months with his mom, while Karen’s living full time at the “Big House.”  Maybe that’s what makes Kristy so obnoxious in this one.

• Claudia’s sitting for the Pike’s and she compliments Claire for spelling house, H-O-S-E.  Oops.  It’s really sad when Margo corrects her.

• I don’t know why Kristy thinks the kids will like using music from the 1970s.  This book was published in 1998, so I can’t imagine any 12-year-olds being excited by it.

• Vanessa’s apparently a Claudia-in-training, because she says how spelling isn’t important (even for a writer?) because editors and secretaries can fix it.  Interesting that Vanessa, who’s supposed to be a book-lover and poet is saying this.  Also, notice how she doesn’t mention spell check on a computer?  These books can be so dated sometimes.  And this was a late book.

• I feel like the last few books I’ve written about have had the main character acting like a complete jerk.  Did the writers get tired of the series by the end and try to make everyone look bad? Or am I just getting less tolerant?

• At the second training session, Kristy says 50 teachers are waiting for them (to give one-on-one training for each class/TOT.  That seems like a really high number.  I can’t remember how many teachers there were in my middle school, but it doesn’t seem that high.  Plus, you would think that each teacher would need to train multiple TOTs, since they have multiple classes in a day.

• A Kristy outfit, for one of her teaching days: “I wore plaid pleated shorts and a white short-sleeved polo shirt.  Over the weekend I’d woven a blue-and-white lanyard and attached a whistle to it.  I wore it around my neck like the other gym teachers did. I’d even gone over my sneakers with some white shoe polish so that they’d be super-white.”

• Stacey tries to stop Vanessa from blackmailing her siblings by saying real teachers don’t do that.  But Vanessa just says, of course they do, they always threaten to call our parents about stuff.  Interesting point.

• Assigning Mallory to 8^th grade doesn’t make sense to me.  Not just because of the whole issue of authority over kids who are older than her, but because she hasn’t leaned the 8^th grade content yet.  The program would make more sense if it was just for 8^th graders.  Or 7^th and 8^th graders teaching 6^th and 7^th graders.  Mallory’s smart and likes English and all, but it doesn’t mean she’ll know 8^th grade curriculum two years early.

• When Kristy complains to the gym teacher that she can’t work with Cary, she’s surprised to hear the teacher say that many of the actual teachers dislike each other but still work together.

• The gym teacher Kristy’s working with is the one that gave Mal a hard time a while back.  And she coaches the archery team, in this land where middle schools have archery teams.  But that’s hardly the most unrealistic thing about SMS.  I was glad to see a reference to the earlier book, but I did notice the older book says SMS has gym twice a week, and in this one Kristy’s class meets three times in one week.  (I can't believe that information has stayed in my head.)

• Kristy rolls her eyes when a kid in her class refers to someone as her “sworn enemy.”  I guess she thinks that’s immature, but aren’t we always hearing about Alan being her sworn enemy?  Or Cokie Mason, depending on the book.

• There’s some serious damage after the fight.  One kid’s missing a tooth, one has a black eye, and one’s at the hospital with a possible broken arm.  I’m surprised they let Kristy and Cary teach the last class or get any extra credit.

• The kid who’s missing his tooth is keeping it in a glass of milk?  I had no idea that was a thing.

• Kristy’s trying to make Mal feel better about being called “Spaz Girl” and asks her if she’d be offended if a sitting charge called her “Poo-Poo Head.”  Mallory says no, because that would be “silly.”  Because Spaz Girl’s some sophisticated insult?  People in my middle school were much meaner.

• After the last class goes well, the gym teachers offer to let Cary and Kristy coach the game at the end of the unit.  Now….I have an issue with this.  Because they were able to come back and teach a class with no incidents after creating a complete disaster, they’re being rewarded? 

• When Mal’s teaching and getting ripped apart, Mary Anne actual jumps up and tells the other kids to stop giving her a hard time.  Mary Anne can be sort of awesome when a crisis comes up.

• And to close, here’s a limerick that kids in Mal’s class pass around while she’s teaching:  “There was a Spaz Girl named Mallory/ She taught, but not for salary/Her joy was to aim/Deadly chalk and maim/Her students, like ducks in a shooting gallery”……Mallory should be pleased, because she was teaching about limericks, and they seem to have grasped the concept. 

“That is a doggone shame”………BSC # 118: Kristy Thomas, Dog Trainer

Memory Reaction

Missed this one as a kid. But I’m comfortable saying that I probably would have liked it even less then.

Revisited Reaction

Kristy’s family has decided to become a “puppy walker” meaning they’ll raise a dog until it’s about a year old, and ready to go have regular training for becoming a guide dog. They’re inspired to do this by a co-worker of Watson’s, whose 12-year-old daughter just lost her eyesight to glaucoma. So, the dog they get is a chocolate Labrador retriever named Scout. We hear about Kristy going to pick up the dog and taking her to some obedience training class and other random places (including BSC meetings). There’s lots of talk about how cute the dog, is and what’s involved in training her. But honestly, it’s really boring, unless maybe you really love dogs or want to become a puppy walker yourself.

The only real plot is actually supposed to be the subplot. It centers on the girl who lost her sight and inspired the puppy walking. Her name’s Deb Cooper and all the BSC talks about her like they know her, but we’ve never heard about her before (unless she she’s mentioned in one of the books after #100 that I haven’t read). But, I guess they would have heard about what happened to her, since it’s a small town, so maybe that explains it. Anyway, she has two younger siblings and the BSC gets to sit for them. The two little boys are cute enough, and they feel bad for their sister, but don’t know how to act around her. Pretty realistic/typical I think.

Deb’s also at the house for a couple of the sitting jobs. She’s very bitter about the whole losing her vision thing, because that’s a pretty normal reaction. The whole thing’s very recent, so she hasn’t gone back to school yet and hasn’t let many people see her. She also hasn’t been given a cane or had much training in how to adapt. So, obviously, she’s not in a great place. The girls try to be nice to her, but don’t really know what to say and don’t get through to her. Then when Kristy’s at a sitting job, Deb says she wants to go to the video store (she likes listening to the movies). Kristy says they need to wait until Deb’s brothers are done with whatever game they’re playing. So, Deb tries walking there by herself and almost gets hit by a car. Kristy finds her and manages to talk her into being more open with people and letting them help her. But, they don’t make it seem like Deb is suddenly totally okay with being blind, which is surprisingly, but nice.

Meanwhile, one of Deb’s little brothers heard about Kristy being a “puppy walker” and wrote to the guide dog foundation about how to get a dog for Deb. They send back a pamphlet about the organization, and how Deb could get one when she turns 16. When he tells Deb about this, it seems to help make her feel better, but I’m not sure why her brother needed to be the one telling her about the idea of a guide dog. But whatever. At the end, the Cooper’s go with Kristy’s family to some celebration at the guide dog foundation.

High/Lowlights

• Shannon (the dog) is apparently still a puppy. Hasn’t it been like a hundred books since she was born?

• Kristy tries to close her eyes to see if she could tell the difference between different coins without looking. This totally made me think of a book I read in elementary school. It was about a boy who lost his sight while he and some other boys were playing with fireworks they found (it was around the 4^th of July). I can’t remember the name of it, but there was a scene where he’s on a train going to a school for the blind, and all these people offer to help him count his money while buying lunch. But, he lists out how to tell the difference between the coins by touch. Then everyone on the train tries testing this out themselves. I still remember how he described each coin.

• Stacey outfit: “She had on black jeans, a black cropped cotton sweater, and soft, scrunchy ankle boots. The color made her blue eyes look dramatic, and her earrings, which were tiny coils of gold braid, finished the outfit.” I actually really like the sound of that.

• Claudia outfit: “She was wearing spring on her sleeves, almost literally. Her ensemble included a giant Hawaiian print shirt worn over hot pink bicycle shorts, hot-pink-and-lime-green socks, and an ancient pair of formerly black Doc Martens that she had painted in swirls of electric color. She’d knotted a pink plastic flower into each shoelace and pulled her hair back with another plastic flower. Her earrings, which of course she made herself, were dangling sprays of tiny, pink, green, and yellow beads.” Kristy says it sounds blinding….she’s right. No way anyone could look stunning in that, not even Claud.

• How come Stacey’s wearing boots and a sweater on the same day Claudia’s wearing bicycle shorts and a Hawaiian shirt?

• Being a guide dog in training means Scout’s allowed to go anywhere a guide dog can (in stores, offices, restaurants, etc). Kristy brings her to the supermarket, and this one woman starts freaking out and talking about how disgusting it is for the dog to be there. When the manager says, yes, a guide dog can be there, she walks out of the store and says she won’t shop there again. Then other people clap (I guess because the rude woman was gone?). It seems really unrealistic. I know Ann M. Martin likes to show closed-minded people in a negative light, but he applause about it seems a bit over the top. I can see complaining about a dog before you know it’s a guide dog, but that’s it. And I say this as someone who’s about as far from an animal lover as you can get.

• I kept thinking of that other book about the blind boy while I was reading this one. There’s also a scene where he meets his roommate at the school for the blind, doesn’t realize the guy’s an adult, and ends up brushing his teeth with the guy’s shaving cream. And this is totally unrelated, but looking back I don’t see how he couldn’t have known based on the voice. Or that no one would tell them.

• Also, does anyone know what book I’m talking about? It’s driving me crazy.

• Kristy says we’d be amazed at how many people say ‘it’s okay’ when Scout tries to jump on them, and that she has to tell them it’s not, because Scout’s in training. I don’t find that surprising in the least. I’d expect a lot of people would be fine with a dog greeting them. I wouldn’t, but again, I’m not the norm in that regard.

• When Kristy tells the BSC that Scout can go anywhere a person can? And they’re all, “really, even McDonalds?” And…”really, like the Ballet?” Those questions came from Jessi and Claudia. Can anyone guess who asked which?

• Random fact: Kristy’s favorite book’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

• The girls come up with this idea to “help Deb.” The plan for Mary Anne and Claudia to just show up with the Hobarts and the Kuhns (their sitting charges that day) at the Cooper’s when Kristy’s sitting. The idea’s to try and get her to be around other people. They figure that if it doesn’t work they can just leave, which is what happens. But this is a bad idea in so many ways. First of all, why would Deb want to hang out with little kids? She’s 12. Secondly, if Deb’s not ready to be around other people, or doesn’t want them seeing her, I think it’s pretty terrible to surprise her with visitors. Maybe a surprise like that would have been helpful at some point, but it isn’t really the BSCs’ call to make. Losing your vision’s pretty traumatic, I think she’s allowed to take some time to deal with it.

• Ben Hobart goes along on this visit, and I guess he’s closer to Deb’s age. But that doesn’t even make sense because why would the Hobarts need a sitter if Ben was home and willing to hang out with his brothers This is the second book where Ben’s been categorized with kids they sit for and I find it really, really odd.

• At a Krusher’s practice, Kristy says when they got to the school playground they saw no one had “claimed the baseball diamond.” But doesn’t Kristy have, like, permission to use it? That was what they said in the book where she formed the team. I always assumed that meant she had it reserved or something.

“Spring training right here in Stoneybrook”……BSC # 107: Mind Your Own Business, Kristy!

Memory Reaction

This one was after my time.

Revisited Reaction

It’s spring break in Stoneybook, and since there are no unrealistic vacations planned, Kristy decides to run a Krusher’s Klinic for her softball team. For some reason she needs a second person to help, even though she normally handles practices by herself. Abby volunteers, but won’t be around every day, and the rest of the BSC isn’t interested. Kristy asks Bart to help, but he’s busy with his own team. But Charlie agrees to help out. He even offers to get some former Mets player, Jack Brewster, (who I’m assuming is not a real person) to come to a practice (he has a “connection”).

The kids all love Charlie, and at first Kristy’s jealous that she’s not “needed.” But then, Charlie starts paying attention to Angelica, this girl who’s at the clinic because she’s baby sitting the Hsus. Kristy’s not a fan, and is annoyed that Charlie isn’t helping as much as he was before. So, she tries to get Charlie back together with his ex-girlfriend Sara by setting them up to have lunch together. It doesn’t work and Charlie just gets annoyed at Kristy.

Meanwhile, Kristy won four tickets to some concert from a radio show, and since Charlie offered to drive, she lets him bring a friend (she gives the 4th to Claudia). But he ends up inviting Angelica. The night of the concert, Charlie asks to borrow Watson’s car, because he’s afraid his will break down on the highway. It’s also because if he was driving his own car, everything that happens next couldn’t have happened. Charlie’s having trouble with Watson’s car, I guess getting used to shifting gears. So, Angelica offers to drive. Charlie’s nervous about it, but agrees. The next thing you know, they’re getting pulled over, and end up crashing while trying to stop. When the cops talk to them, we find out Angelica doesn’t even have a license. The cops insist on bringing them to the station and calling their parents, who of course are pissed.

The next day, Charlie doesn’t show up at the clinic and Jack Brewster’s nowhere to be found, even though Charlie said he was coming. The kids are all disappointed. Kristy runs into Sara, and finds out Jack Brewster’s her uncle (and how Charlie was going to get him to come). Sara arranges for Jack to show up the next day. Then Angelica sends Charlie a note about how her parents won’t let him see her anymore because they think he’s the bad influence. But Watson and Kristy’s mom have already “suggested” Charlie stop seeing her, he’s not really interested anymore anyway, so he doesn’t care. Charlie and Kristy make up, and Charlie admits he’s been stressed thinking about picking a college to go to. He thinks he’s not mature enough, but Kristy says he is, and reminds him how much he helped their mom after their dad left.

On the last day of the clinic, Jack Brewster shows up and everyone is super excited. All the fathers of the kids on the team come to see him, so I guess he’s supposed to be pretty famous. I love how even when these kids don’t have crazy vacations, unrealistic stuff still happens. Also, Charlie and Sara seem on the road to getting back together.

High/Lowlights

• It’s kind of annoying that the girlfriend Kristy doesn’t like, actually turns out to be “bad.” It would be much more realistic if she just didn’t like the girl, but Charlie ended up dating her for awhile anyway.

• Claudia outfit: “She was wearing an old fringed leather vest she’d found in a thrift shop; an oversize plaid shirt with a super-thick striped tie; and bell-bottomed pants with two different colored legs. Her hair was pulled back with a hairclip in the shape of a VCR.”

• I hate how they always show the other BSCers as knowing nothing about sports. In this book, we have Claudia thinking the super-bowl is baseball, and Mary Anne not knowing what grounders are when Kristy makes her help at the clinic. Now, I am not into sports at all, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand simple terminology. Mary Anne’s best friend and boyfriend both play softball/baseball, she goes to lots of games, she’s probably forced to play in gym class, yet she understands nothing about it?

• Fun fact: Jamie Newton is left-handed.

• For some reason all the Pike kids go to the clinic (at least one day), even though Claire, Margo, and Nicky are the only people actually on the Krushers. I could almost buy the triplets going for extra practice, but even Vanessa is playing with them when she’s supposed to hate sports as much as Mallory.

• I find it out of character that when Angelica tells Kristy she’s baby-sitting for the Hsus, Kristy doesn’t freak out about someone else sitting for one of the BSC clients.

• Watson takes Kristy to the mall so she can get a new bat, and while she goes in the sports store, he goes to a gourmet food shop because he’s “not an athlete.” But isn’t Watson a huge sports fan? He helps Kristy get the Krushers started back in book 20. And in later books he’s shown as a baseball fan.

• Kristy tells Charlie he’s just like their father because he stops showing up at practices. Which is a pretty bitchy thing to say, but she does acknowledge that later on.

• Charlie mentions how he’s worried she’s right that he’s like their dad. He says how if their dad was a musician, he probably would have joined a band, if their dad was a writer, he’ I’d probably write for the school newspaper. But since their dad was a jerk, Charlie thinks he could be one to. My issue with this statement is that their father WAS a writer. He was a sports journalist.

• Apparently, Charlie invited Angelica to go to the concert without mentioning Kristy and Claudia were going along. That seems like a big thing to forget.

• When Angelica asks to drive the car, she tells Kristy insurance covers other drivers, and that’s how “it works.” Which made me roll my eyes because it totally isn’t. But it turns out that was just her lying, because insurance doesn’t cover the accident that you knew they were going to have. That’s explained later on.

• Originally, the cops want Charlie to follow them to the police station, but the car won’t start, so they leave it on the side of the road and go in the police car. But would they really just leave the car in the shoulder of a highway?

• When Angelica admits she doesn’t have a license, the cops note that she isn’t even 17. But based on earlier books, the driving age in Connecticut is 16, but some parents don’t let their kids drive until later. I have no idea if that’s really true, but it’s what they’ve said in at least one earlier book.

• Kristy tries to get the cops to drop her and Claudia off at the concert, since they weren’t doing anything wrong. It doesn’t work, but I thought it was funny.
• Is Charlie supposed to be a junior or a senior? I thought he was a senior, but his problem with colleges is about how to pick one out of all the information/brochures he’s getting. If he was a senior, I would have thought he picked a college by now, or at least applied.

• The whole Jack Brewster thing makes no sense. Because Charlie specifically says he’s coming on Saturday, but it turned out he never even called him. Why would he have specified a date before talking to the guy?

• Is it bad that when I read Charlie isn’t allowed to drive for two months (because of letting Angelica drive), all I could think about was how Kristy was going to get to BSC meetings?

• Kristy wins the concert tickets from some radio show, but when they call, she thinks it’s Alan Gray messing with her, because she couldn’t hear the same person talking to her from the radio (because there’s usually a few seconds of delay). So she’s on the air telling Alan to move to Antarctica, which I’d think would embarrass her, but it didn’t.

• I hate to say this, but I feel a bit like Karen. I’ve been spelling clinic with a C, but in the actual book they write it as “Klinic” every time