BSC TV Series Episode # 1: Mary Anne and the Brunettes

Recap

I only saw some of the TV episodes/videos as a kid and this wasn't one of them.  But from what I can recall, they were usually original plots that seemed like they could have taken place in a book.   But this first episode has a plot that seemed similar to a combination of books, but with the characters acting less likable.  

This girl at school, Marcy, who’s basically Cokie with a different name, is into Logan even though he and Mary Anne are already dating.  Marcy flirts with Logan in the store and says they should go to a party together.  Logan doesn’t say yes, but he doesn’t really give a firm no either, so Marcy thinks she has a chance.  Kristy witnesses this and tells Mary Anne to watch out and talk to Logan.  Mary Anne says she trusts Logan and doesn’t need to ask him.

Marcy continues to flirt with Logan and taunt Mary Anne about it, and Mary Anne keeps telling the BSC girls she trusts him.  They finally talk her into talking to him, and she practices doing this in the mirror, but thinks that she sounds dumb (and she’s right).   The next day they’re at a fair at school and Logan asks Mary Anne about details for a baby-sitting job they were supposed to be doing together that afternoon.  Mary Anne’s all, “If you’d rather go to the party that’s fine with me.” And Logan’s all, “WTF?” and totally doesn’t know how to answer her.  Then inside the fair, Marcy makes some snarky comment to Mary Anne about how Logan’s a good kisser.  Mary Anne throws a pie in her face, it’s kind of awesome. She just happened to have a pie in her hand because there was some kind of pie throwing booth.

Later Mary Anne’s sitting for the Rodowsky’s (at the job Logan was supposed to help with) and he shows up.  Mary Anne’s kind of rude to him, but when he asks what’s wrong she says nothing, instead of asking if he really kissed Marcy.  So Logan leaves, but then Jackie talks some sense into her.  That’s right the “Walking Disaster” talks sense into Mary Anne.  Maybe because he’s played by Little Pete he has more wisdom?

Anyway, I guess Mary Anne goes to find him to talk about it (after Mrs. Rodowsky is home), and while she’s doing that Logan comes back to look for her.  But they ultimately find each other and talk and work things out.  Meanwhile, Kristy and Marcy argue at the party and Kristy ends up squirting Marcy with a hose.  Then Kristy and the other girls go to look for Mary Anne to tell her Logan’s a jerk, but find her already made up with Logan who has proven himself to not be a jerk afterall.  So all is well.

High/Lowlights

• I really like that when they show a BSC meeting, all the girls are sitting exactly how they are described in the books.  Kristy’s in the director’s chair, Stacey’s backwards in the desk chair, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Claudia are on the bed, and poor Jessi and Mallory are on the floor.  Here we see Jessi and Mal on big pillows on the floor, which is not how I pictured it.   But still, it’s really accurate.

• At the beginning of the episode we get a little introduction to the girls by hearing Kristy talk about a crazy sitting job they’ve had recently.  Mallory’s job involved sitting for someone named Christopher, and I honestly can’t think of any kid they sat for that was ever named Christopher.  The other names mentioned are all very specifically people from the books.

• Kristy’s intro has her being surprised to find out she had to watch a pig.  Literally, a pig.  But I don’t buy that because after the first book where she accidentally had to watch dogs, didn’t she always insist on getting lots of information from the parents?

• Mary Anne’s super-wimpy in this episode.  In the books she was always shy but not really wimpy.  And she usually didn’t have an issue telling people why she was angry, but I guess that was more with the girls than Logan.  It did take her an entire book to break up with him.

• Mary Anne’s also weirdly passive aggressive, I wouldn’t have blamed Logan if he dumped her.  She says she doesn’t want to ask Logan about Marcy, but then acts all snippy with him and says he should go to the party if he wants.  When Logan asks what’s wrong she won’t even tell him.  Sigh. 13-year-olds.

• While Mary Anne’s wimpy and passive aggressive, Logan still shouldn’t let other girls be so flirty with him.

• The party Marcy wants Logan to be her date for is a costume party.  She and her friends dress as hippies and the BSC dresses as football players.  I can see Kristy dressing like a football player, but not the rest of the girls.  Especially not Claudia and Stacey.  Claudia would dress like children’s book characters as part of her daily routine, there’s no way she would wear a costume as mundane as a football player.

• It’s very convenient that Mary Anne happened to have a pie in her hand when Marcy taunted her.  I have never been that lucky.  But this also brings me to a very important lesson, which is never insult a person who’s holding a weapon (or something that could get used as a weapon).

• Speaking of that, there are two incidents of physical attacks in this episode that happen on school property.  Mary Anne throwing the pie and Kristy using the hose.  In re-reading some childhood books as an adult I have seen lots of incidents where the main characters actually do pretty crappy things to the so-called villains.  Marcy was a bitch, and it’s fun seeing her get comeuppance, but objectively, the attacks seem kind of over the top, and I’m sure if they happened in real life both girls would get in trouble. God, I’m getting old.

• For a TV show, I think the casting here is generally pretty good.  Most people look how I pictured them.  However, it really bothers me that the girl who plays Mary Anne is so tall.  I think she’s one of the tallest of the girls on the show, which is just not right.  She otherwise does seem to look like I pictured Mary Anne.  But I don’t get why they couldn’t find someone who looked similar and was shorter.  It’s the first episode so it’s not like the cast a short girl and she grew.  And I can’t believe this girl was so much better as an actor than everyone else who auditioned.  She’s not bad, but she’s nothing fantastic either.

• Also, the girl who plays Claudia doesn’t look at all Asian.  I know there’s not just one way to look Asian, but the way Claudia’s described in the books, it is as looking pretty traditional Japanese-American.

• Logan also says he was only doing a science project with Marcy and never said he was into her.  But he could have been less hesitant.  And he said he never agreed to go.  So that means either he just never answered her at all and/or Marcy’s just delusional.

• Marcy has two mean girl underlings, and all three have brown hair.  Hence the stupid title of this episode.

“It was as if I’d finally found the ruby slippers and clicked my heels”…..BSC FF # 11: Welcome Home, Mary Anne

Recap

Mary Anne’s family’s all set to move into their new house, which is really their old barn.  When I heard they were renovating the barn, I thought they were using it as a base and adding sections to it.  I always pictured the barn to be the size of a 2-4 car garage.  But apparently, the barn was always big enough to just be turned into a 4-bedroom house.  The downstairs is an open-space floor plan, with bedrooms added upstairs (in what used to be the hayloft I guess).  It actually sounds like a pretty decent place, if we accept that it was always supposed to be that big.  Their property must be pretty big too, if it fit their original house and a barn as big as a house..  They kept the old barn door that slides off the wall as a sliding door, so basically the whole kitchen wall can just be opened up.  It sounds like it could get drafty in the winter, but there are only two more books in these series, so I guess we’ll never see winter.  That’s kind of sad.

Anyway, they move into the house and Mary Anne feels kind of weird about it and isn’t sure if it feels like home.   But luckily, Dawn and Jeff are coming home for the summer to distract her.  Sunny’s coming with them for a month, since her mom just died and she’s having trouble adjusting.  Sunny’s method of dealing is basically to avoid talking about the whole thing, and she doesn’t stop moving/doing things so she doesn’t have to think about her mom.  This includes trying to hook Mary Anne up with a high school guy (but abandoning the plan when the friends he brings for Sunny and Dawn are dorks), going overboard trying to decorate Dawn, Jeff, and Mary Anne’s bedrooms, and making Mary Anne and Dawn take her to NYC (alone, without parental approval) to walk around the Village all day. On this trip to New York, Sunny decides she wants to go to some club, but Dawn and Mary Anne say they have to get home to avoid getting killed by their parents.  Dawn tells her she’s been getting her way since her mom died and it has to stop.  Sunny doesn’t take this well, but she listens.  So, they go home and don’t get caught or in any trouble for the little adventure. But Sunny and Dawn aren’t talking to each other.

Mary Anne and Sunny talk about what it’s like to lose a parent (even though Mary Anne admits she doesn’t remember the losing part) and Sunny seems to make a break through with things.  She also decides she misses her dad and should go back to LA.  She and Dawn talk and make up for their argument in New York.  Then they have a housewarming/going away party and we briefly get to see the rest of the BSC members….even the ones no longer in the club.  By the end, Mary Anne’s feeling more at home in the new house.

There’s a subplot that involves Jeff being miserable because the one thing he liked about Connecticut was the old house.  He also thinks his friends have moved on without him, but of course the triplets and Nicky are still happy to see Jeff.  With their help, Mary Anne gets Jeff excited about redecorating his new room, and doing wild things like painting it to look like a race track or hanging a basketball hoop inside. When Sunny gets onboard the ideas get even wilder, like making it into a haunted house or a jungle with vines to climb on.  Ultimately, they make it into a superhero themed room, so Jeff’s fairly happy by the end.  Considering he’s in lowly Connecticut and all.

High/Lowlights

• Mary Anne claims she broke up with Logan “not long ago.”  Well, it’s summer and she broke up with him back in early fall….that’s almost the full school year.  Practically a lifetime for teenagers.  Although, admittedly not a lifetime for someone who was 13 for a decade.  But still.  Stop whining about it.  I mean, she said she wanted her own identity, but she’s still basically describing herself as “Logan’s ex.”

• Mary Anne mentions how she didn’t have many clothes to fill her new closet.  But shouldn’t she have gathered some in the year since the fire?  She’s gone through all 4 seasons since the fire. What has she been wearing all this time?

• When they get their luggage at the airport, we hear that Sunny has a large duffel and Dawn has a backback.  That’s supposed to get them through an entire month/ summer?  It’s not like Dawn could claim to have left stuff in Connecticut.

• Awkward moment….Sunny tells Mary Anne to take off the hat when they’re in the sun, and Mary Anne says, “Haven’t you ever heard of skin cancer?”  And of course, Sunny’s mom just died of cancer.  Oops.

• To try and stay busy, Sunny decides to do all these chores, vacuuming/dusting/etc.  I’m not sure how dirty the house could have been after a few days of anyone living there.  But I guess it doesn’t matter if she’s just trying to stay busy.

• Since when is Nicky Pike friends with Jeff?  The triplets were always his friends, but not Nicky.  The triplets tried to avoid talking to him, why would they let him hang out with their friends?

• The girls ride their bikes to the pool.  Sunny rides Jeff’s.  I guess the bikes were in the barn during the fire, huh?  We never heard about whether they had a garage or anything, so I guess the barn actually made sense for that stuff.

• Mallory’s conveniently at a two-week writing camp so we can have Kristy and Mary Anne take a joint sitting job at the Pikes, but still be able to make an appearance at the party at the end.  Too bad, I kind of miss Mallory.

• Another suggestion Sunny makes for Jeff’s room….make it look like a surf shop.  Because we can’t not mention surfing in a book that features Dawn and Sunny.

• Dawn calls Stacey to tell them about their sneaking to NYC so someone will know what happened if they get kidnapped or something.  That’s actually a good idea.  And Stacey tells them she’s jealous.  Ha.

• Hey, what happened to Dawn being scared of the city?  She relaxed a bit by the end of that SuperSpecial, but she still didn’t seem super eager to spend much time there.

• Also, what happened to Mary Anne being a tour guide for everyplace she went?  She keeps asking all these questions about how they’ll get around in NYC.   Then Sunny keeps talking about this article she read about the Village and Soho, and Mary Anne doesn’t seem to know any of it.

• In New York, the girls see a stall selling mini-backpacks. Those were super popular back when I was in middle school. I wonder if I still have mine somewhere.  I take forever to get rid of stuff, there’s boxes of it at my mother’s house.

• Mary Anne mentions that the DJ on the local radio station’s annoying, but he plays decent music.  She also says there’s no real alternative.  But aren’t they only an hour or so away from NYC?  Why wouldn’t they get New York radio stations?

• I feel like I’m reading spoilers for the California Diaries books (which I’m going to TRY and recap), because we hear all about how Dawn and Sunny were fighting in California, but made up before her mom died.

• There’s this whole thing where Mary Anne tells us how lucky they were to get away with the NYC trip and that nothing bad happened.   It’s like a disclaimer or something….telling kids not to “try this at home.”

• Abby makes some really nice comments to Sunny about what she must be dealing with. She also says she wishes they’d gotten a chance to hang out, which makes sense cause she knows what Sunny’s going through more than anyone.  It’s just too bad it happens at her going away party.  I’m surprised that Sunny wouldn’t have spent any time with the BSC while she was in town.  Wouldn’t Dawn want to see them too?

• Also, it kind of sucks that in one of the last books of the series we don’t get a lot of the actual BSC members hanging out together.  Even the 4 who are still in the club.  I like the girls interacting.

“You just got the sweetest revenge of all”…….BSC FF # 8: Mary Anne’s Revenge

Recap

So, this book’s a lot of fun. 

Mary Anne’s on the yearbook staff, which means Cokie Mason is her editor.  (Technically, she’s a co-editor with Rick Chow, but he’s pretty irrelevant to the story).  Cokie wants to have “class bests” in the yearbook (most likely to succeed, funniest, etc.).  Mary Anne thinks they could use the space for something more original, but she gets out-voted.  Cokie makes some crack that Mary Anne must just be upset she and Logan won’t be able to get best couple.  Mary Anne can’t think of a good comeback at the time, and is annoyed at herself for that later. 

Cokie continues to be her bitchy self, and Mary Anne gets more upset about the whole thing and about feeling so meek.  Then Cokie starts a rumor that Mary Anne begged Logan to take her back and left so many messages on his answering machine his parents were thinking of changing their number.  And that he’s dating someone new.   Logan, makes a point of telling Mary Anne that he’s telling everyone it’s not true, but admits to Mary Anne that he’s sort of seeing someone new, Dorianne Wallingford.  We’ve heard her name before, but I can’t remember anything about her. 

Mary Anne and Kristy both are annoyed with Cokie and make lists of things to do for revenge.  Before they can implement any ideas, Cokie makes another crack at Mary Anne and tells her how she looks totally awful.  Mary Anne snaps at her and says how she must know what that’s like since she’s such an awful person.  Cokie just walks out of the room, cause she’s not used to people standing up to her.

Anyway, Mary Anne, Abby, and Austin Bentley are in charge of counting the votes for all the class bests.  They’re surprised when Cokie comes out the winner in multiple categories, but then Mary Anne realizes that her ballot isn’t in the pile.  Abby says the same thing, and they don’t see any ballots with Kristy or Claudia’s handwriting (which they both would recognize).  The teachers who collected the ballots recorded how many people were in class during the vote, and they count up the votes and discover they’re short over 20 ballots.  They tell their advisor who decides they need to have a revote.  Cokie’s obviously pissed off.

Mary Anne decides not to let Cokie walk all over her, so when people ask why there’s a revote she tells them the truth, that someone messed with the ballots and it was probably Cokie.  Everyone believes her over Cokie (who was telling people Mary Anne tried to fix the election).  Because clearly, the students at SMS have brains. Kristy suggests they consult Cary Retlin for advice on how to get revenge, since they still hadn’t gotten around to implementing their lists. 

The Cokie throws a party and invites the whole grade, even Mary Anne.  She obviously expects Mary Anne not to show, but Mary Anne says she’ll be there.  She starts revising her revenge plan to do something at the party.   She has dinner at Kristy’s house while they are plotting and forgets about her curfew.  She gets home late and then argues with her dad when he yells at her, so he grounds her for two weeks.  This sounds extreme, but Mary Anne had been acting moody lately and argued with him when they went on some house tour thing to get decorating ideas for their new place.  So, I think he was reacting to that.

Mary Anne decides to sneak out to go to the party because she can’t let Cokie think she won.  At the party her friends are suggesting they start one of their schemes, but Mary Anne says no.  But Cokie continues to be her pleasant self, so finally Mary Anne tells her off.  She says she’s a mean and petty person and everyone knows that, and she’ll never succeed because of that.  Kristy and Abby start to clap, as does Logan (and his new girlfriend), then the whole room.  And Cokie just yells at everyone that it’s her party so they can’t act like this.  Then stomps out of the room.  It made me wish this was a TV show cause I would love to see that.

Oh, and Mary Anne’s dad’s really angry when she gets home, but Sharon comes in and says the two of them have actually been fighting because they’re both still traumatized by the fire (Mary Anne had been having nightmares throughout the book).  And so they have a big talk about it.  And Mary Anne totally gets away with sneaking out. Richard says instead of being grounded for a full two weeks it’s just for one more day.  I think the two weeks was originally too harsh, but he basically rewards her for sneaking out.  I guess if your house burns down you can get away with crap like that.

High/Lowlights

• I was surprised that Abby was on yearbook, considering she quit the BSC to have more time for sports, but Mary Anne said she was surprised about it too. Apparently, Abby did it to make sure sports got enough coverage.  Sports were one thing that never had to worry about getting coverage in my yearbook, but at least they addressed it not seeming like Abby’s thing. And it was nice to see Abby.

• Mary Anne gets annoyed at her dad when he orders furniture for their new house without consulting her, but then gets annoyed again when he wants them to go on a house tour for decorating ideas.  Richard’s seemingly baffled by it, and Sharon tells him that she’s 13…of course she’s going to be moody.  You’d think Richard would have picked this up in the first few years he’s had a teenager, but I guess Mary Anne has usually been pretty good.

• This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen hints of Mary Anne not wanting to be so easy-going and meek.  I think it’s realistic, but wish we’d gotten to see some long term change in her after those books.

• When talking about movies and how they shouldn’t remake TV series as movies, they mention the Brady Bunch movies.  Kristy and Mary Anne liked them….me too.  But those were good because they weren’t remakes, they were spoofs.

• An old school Claudia outfit: “She was wearing wide-legged purple pants cut off at the ankle, flat black shoes, striped socks (purple and white), and a white cropped top over a purple camisole. She’d pulled her hair back with papier-mâché decorated combs that she’d created herself: two little figures were holding onto the combs as if they were being blown backward.”  Papier-mâché in her hair?  And she didn’t win Style Setter? 

• I do admire Logan for telling people Cokie was a liar and for giving Mary Anne a heads up about dating Dorianne, especially since Mary Anne’s the one who ended things.

• Why the hell do they keep using a cover picture of Mary Anne that looks nothing like how her hair is supposed to look?  Seriously, how hard is it to get right?

• Mary Anne’s votes: Claudia – Best Artist, Stacey – Class Style Setter, Abby and Logan as Best Athletes (female and male),  Cary Retlin as Most Likely to Travel to the Moon, Kristy as Most Likely to Succeed.  I don’t think that’s all the categories, because when we hear the winners later they don’t all line up.  Which is kind of annoying.

• Here’s the full text of Mary Anne’s first comeback to Cokie (after being told she looks awful): “Well, it takes one to know one, doesn’t it, Cokie? And you of all people ought to know about awful, because in my opinion, when they were handing out awful, you were first in line.”

• Ha, Abby knows her ballot isn’t there because she voted for herself six times.

• I bet the reason they would recognize Kristy and Claudia’s handwriting is the BSC notebook.  I guess it’s good for something.

• Cokie’s an idiot.  If the teachers record how many votes there were, why not replace ballots instead of stealing them?  Maybe she did both, but she really should have made sure the total worked out.  OR not replaced the votes of two people counting the votes.  They’re anonymous, but surely Cokie knows Mary Anne’s handwriting and could guess the only person who would vote for Abby six times is Abby.

• Mary Anne’s list of revenge ideas: Put glue in her locker lock, glue her books to her locker, put glue in her gym shoes, put a dead rat (or 2) in her pack, and give her laxative gum.  That last one is just about the only decent one.

• Kristy’s list for revenge: Convince her she’s won the lottery then let her make a fool out of herself, drop a snail in her drink at lunch, write fake letters to the love advice column of the paper signing her name, write fake letters from Logan to her, and hide her homework.  (As if Cokie ever does her homework). A little more complex than Mary Anne’s but none of them are really things she could accomplish.  These girls need to call Emily Thorne to get some real advice in this matter.

• Cary’s first idea for revenge? Signing Cokie up for multiple subscriptions to a ton of magazines.  He and Mary Anne fill in all these subscription cards. Then he says not to send them yet, just to hold onto them so she has confidence knowing that she can drop them in the mail whenever she wants.  I sort of get the confidence thing, but that’s not exactly a major prank.  Plus, they spent ages filling out the cards.

• Can you really subscribe to magazines like that?  After they send one or two they’ll send a bill and when Cokie doesn’t pay they won’t keep sending the magazines and it won’t affect her.  Although, they’ll probably send her weekly letters encouraging her to subscribe or saying they miss her or something.

• Kristy talks about sneaking out of the house when she did her softball initiation, but I thought she just lied about where she was going for that.  That’s not quite the same as sneaking out when your parents think you’re upstairs asleep.  Lying about where you’re going is WAY easier.

• All we hear about Alan and Claudia’s that they went to a dance together and the girls don’t know what will happen with them next.  But Claud does defend him when Kristy insults his prank style.

• It’s interesting that Kristy keeps suggesting Cary help them out with things.  In the last book it was about getting into Alan’s locker and this one it was to get revenge on Cokie.

• The back of the book says that even though Cokie’s never been nice, Mary Anne has always tried to be nice to Cokie.  But she wasn’t nice in books 17 or 46.  She set Cokie up to look like an idiot in agraveyard, and let Cokie look dumb giving a major presentation that didn’t match the group.  I’m not saying she didn’t deserve it, but it definitely wasn’t nice.

• Actually, Mary Anne can be quite bitchy when pushed.  She would get mean when she was mad at the other girls in the BSC too.

• The girls refer to the ORIGNAL Parent Trap.  Which means this is after the new one came out, which makes me feel old.  But it figures they would still talk about prank ideas from the original one, these girls loved old movies.  It’s clearly a plot device so Ann M. Martin could work in all HER favorite movies.

• Mary Anne’s awesome speech to Cokie at her party (this is right after Mary Anne hears Cokie referring to her as pathetic): “I’ll tell you the truth. You are mean. Why? Why do you work so hard at being nasty and saying horrible things about people? There’s no reason for it. Making fun of people and spreading rumors about them doesn’t make you look cool.  Do you think it does?….It doesn’t make people like you. It makes you look stupid and petty and mean.  And you know what? If you keep acting like this you will never be Most Likely to Succeed. You won’t be likely to succeed at all…because people will see the read Cokie. They’ll know you for what you really are.” 

• I don’t know if 13-year-olds would really applaud a speech like that, but I thought it was still pretty awesome.

• Cokie’s parents were around for the party, I’m surprised they wouldn’t step in when Mary Anne was talking to Cokie and everyone clapped.  But apparently everyone left after that.

• The actual winners of the vote.  Again, it’s annoying that we don’t get to hear all of them: Claudia – Best Artist, Abby/Logan – Best Athletes, Emily Bernstein – Most Likely to Succeed AND Most Intelligent,, Kristy – Most Likely to Get Elected President, Cary and Alan (tie) – Wittiest, and Stacey – Most Likely to be Seen in Beverly Hills.

“For some reason being part of a couple with Logan didn’t feel right”……..BSC FF # 3: Mary Anne’s Big Breakup

Recap

Lately, Mary Anne has just not been into things when it comes to Logan.  She doesn’t look forward to their dates and doesn’t even really enjoy them.  She’s also annoyed that he still tries to take control of things, like where they go on their dates/what they do.  So, she breaks up with him.  Logan’s surprised and upset about it, and tries to convince her to change her mind.  He tells her he only seems to make decisions for her because he knows her so well.  But Mary Anne’s firm and ends it.

Even though she called it off, Mary Anne’s still upset about the breakup, and she doesn’t like that the kids at school are talking about it. Everyone is really surprised about the split, but most people are understanding and tell Mary Anne she did the right thing.

However, Logan’s friends take his side and keep giving Mary Anne dirty looks in the hall at school.  Mary Anne’s upset that they’re taking sides and says she wishes she could stay friendly with Logan’s friends herself, but it doesn’t seem like an option.  Meanwhile, Kristy says she still considers Logan a friend and Mary Anne feels all weird about that.  She even worries that Kristy and Logan are going to go to a dance together.  They don’t, but Kristy tries to suggest that Mary Anne shouldn’t mind if she did, which I don’t really agree with.  Later Kristy says she wouldn’t go even if Logan asked, so she was probably just annoyed at Mary Anne for suggesting it or something.

Pete Black and some guy named Dave that I don’t think existed before each ask Mary Anne to go to the upcoming school dance, but she says she’s not ready to go out with anyone else.  The night of the dance she wants to hang out with friends, but they all have other plans.  She ends up being home alone and when Logan calls, she invites him over to watch a movie.  He tries to tell her she may be upset about the fire and isn’t thinking straight.  He also says that he doesn’t really try to control her, that’s just how she sees things.  Mary Anne says she can only see things the way she can see them.  She’s upset again when Logan leaves, but she still knows the split is for the best and the end’s pretty optimistic.

High/Lowlights

• I really like that in this book the break up happens early on, and the rest of it is about the fallout.  Because when Mary Anne and Logan originally split up it happened at the end of the book, and we never saw anyone’s reaction to the whole thing.

• Mary Anne says she and Logan went to Renwicks (a café) on their first date, but I’m pretty sure a dance was their first date.  When she kicked her shoe across the room? Or maybe that party Stacey threw for Mary Anne’s birthday happened first. But the first date wasn’t at a restaurant.

• Mary Anne ‘s talking to Dawn about how she’s changed she they first met and since Mary Anne first met Logan.   They say how her hair was still in braids when she met Logan.  Except it totally wasn’t, she stopped wearing her hair in braids six whole booksbefore Logan came to Stoneybrook.  This is not a small detail ghostwriter.

• Logan lends Mary Anne a box he kept with everything she ever wrote to him in, so she can recreate her journal that was lost in the fire.  She finds this picture from when she cut her hair and says Kristy took it to use when she told Logan about the cut.  But again, that’s totally not what happened.  Logan saw her hair before Kristy did, and Kristy was all pissed off about it, so of course she didn’t take a photo.

• I know this is a new series, but you’d think they’d still pay some attention to continuity.

• One of the notes Mary Anne wrote was from when they got back together says how she felt like half a person without Logan.  Which her current self is kind of horrified about.

• There’s one Claudia outfit, but nothing too outrageous.  All we get to hear is that she wore painter’s coveralls with a daisy pattern she made herself on it.  I’m disappointed we don’t get to find out if she has a real daisy in her hair or shoes or something to tie it all together. Cause you know she would have.

• Kristy remembers this “together but independent” thing Mary Anne and Logan did in Hawaii, where they tried not to do everything together.  She says, “remember when we all went to Hawaii and….?”  Only Kristy didn’t go with them.  That error doesn’t bother me as much as the earlier ones, but it’s still annoying.

• We hear about how Logan’s teammates are taking his “side,” but isn’t Pete Black on one of those teams?  Cause asking Mary Anne out sure isn’t taking his side.

• It really annoys me that on the cover they show Mary Anne with her old haircut.  Especially when they say she has chin-length hair in the book.

• Stacey and Claudia are still barely speaking in this book.  It makes BSC meetings a little bit awkward.

• Stacey encourages Mary Anne to go out with Pete, saying how she got to know him when they did a movie project together. But I think Mary Anne already thought highly of Pete because of that young author project they did. She always defended him after that.  (And SMS sure had a lot of projects, didn't they)?

• Also, didn't Stacey sort of date Pete at one point?  It seems weird to try and set him and Mary Anne up after that.

• A sign that this book’s definitely different from the original series…..Mary Anne goes Apple/Pumpkin picking with Kristy’s family, and they make a point of saying it’s NOT a sitting  job. So, even though we hear that Karen got stuck in a tree, we don’t have to deal with getting her out.

• Mary Anne has a sitting job for Logan’s siblings after the breakup, and she’s worried it’s going to be awkward.  But Mrs. Bruno’s super nice to her while his brother and sister give her a hard time.  So, Mary Anne thinks Mrs. Bruno doesn’t know yet.  And I totally get a guy not telling his mother about getting dumped, but it seems weird to then tell your nine-year-old sister and five-year-old brother about it.

• Mary Anne’s really surprised when this Dave guy asks her out.  He asks if she’s going to the dance and she says, “why, do you want me to work on some committee?”  Then she thinks how it’s been so long since a guy asked her out.  But who ever asked her out besides Logan?  Alex in Sea City’s the only one I can think of.

• Everyone keeps pointing out that Mary Anne/Logan broke up before and got back together.  And Mary Anne points out how they thought they worked out their issues, but the same problems keep coming back.  So, she's convinced it’s for real this time.  I’m glad she stays firm about it.

• Dawn tells Mary Anne that Mary Anne always defined herself by her relationship to someone/something else (her dad, the BSC, Logan).  And she says Mary Anne should try to figure out what she really likes for herself.  Which I agree with in principle, but Dawn sounds rather bitchy when she says it. 

• At the end, Kristy, Claudia, and Stacey come by to see how Mary Anne’s doing (the morning after the dance).  They don’t plan this, they just all happen to show up at the same time, and go up to Mary Anne’s bedroom to see her. This seems unlikely, but I'll go with it. A few minutes later they go downstairs and see a note from Richard and Sharon that they went to the barn (where they’re starting construction on the new house).  But they must have been there to let the girls in, so why not just tell them, go up to see Mary Anne, we’re on our way out?

“Maybe this really is a chance for a new beginning”……BSC # 131: The Fire at Mary Anne’s House

Memory Reaction

I never read this one during the original series.  I do remember seeing it in a bookstore and being surprised that they would actually have Mary Anne’s house burn down….that’s more serious than the BSC usually got.  I read the author’s note in the end, so I knew they were relaunching the series and feeling a bit sad about it.  This must have been after it was out a while though, because the store also had the first Friends Forever book, which I flipped through and thought was very un-BSC like.

Revisited Reaction

The title of this book pretty much tells the plot.  There’s a fire at Mary Anne’s house.  It’s a major one that hits in the middle of the night.  Everyone (including Tigger) gets out okay, but the house is destroyed and they lose pretty much everything they own.   In the days that follow, Mary Anne, her dad, and Sharon stay with Kristy’s family and start going through the remains of the house to try and find anything salvageable.  Dawn also comes to town, because obviously that’s the thing to do when your mother’s home burns down, she’s forced to stay at someone else’s house, and she’s dealing with a ton of crap.

Anyway, Mary Anne doesn’t cry after the fire.  Everyone else is all teary, but Mary Anne just can’t cry and she feels weird about it.  Since, you know, she cries at TV commercials and everything. But she’s pretty numb about the whole thing.  After a couple days the Spier/Schafers have a family meeting.  We find out that Richard was offered a job in Philadelphia recently, which he wasn’t even thinking of taking.  But it’s a great offer and he thinks that with the fire it may be a reason to start over in a new city.  Also, Sharon hates her job and thinks she’d like to become either an architect or an interior designer.  If they moved, she’d be able to take classes to do that.

At the end, Mary Anne can’t sleep one night and goes back to the site of her old house.  She’s in the barn looking at what little they’ve managed to save and Dawn shows up looking for her.  And this is when Mary Anne finally cries and they have a whole long talk about things.  Ultimately, we don’t hear whether they’re going to move or not.

Back before the fire, Mary Anne had seen an ad in some teen magazine about a contest for “Baby Sitter of the Year.”  Instead of fighting/competing about it, the club decides to enter as a group, and split up the various parts of the application.  But after the fire, Mary Anne and everyone else is a bit distracted.  They mention this to some of their charges, who voluteer to write up the actual history of the club and some testimonials in order to finish the application.   Kristy writes the last part – an essay about why she likes to baby-sit.  She has some trouble getting started, but eventually writes a piece about how much she loves the kids she sits for and how rewarding it can be.  She even talks about the fire and how all the kids came together to help with the application. We don’t find out if they win, but we aren’t supposed to care, since Kristy wrote about how it doesn’t matter if they win, since the fact that the kids cared so much was the most important thing.

High/Lowlights

• So, I may not be as snarky as usual, because this is the last book and it’s making me feel kind of sentimental.  But I’ll try.

• In the backstory chapter, Mary Anne calls Dawn relaxed, and claims she never judges anyone.  I kind of disagree.  She judges people who eat meat, who eat junk food, who don’t care obsessively about the environment, and even who have school spirit.

• Mary Anne says that she once found one of Sharon’s socks in the lettuce crisper in the refrigerator. Now….really? That’s beyond scatterbrained, IMO.  I can buy socks in the linen closet (another place mentioned) cause you could have been putting laundry away or something.  But the refrigerator?  How does that even happen?

• Mary Anne says she hates reading those embarrassing moments in teen magazines, because she always feels so badly for the person.  I feel the same way about people having embarrassing moments on TV shows or movies.  I have to look away from the screen sometimes. But I didn’t have an issue with the magazine ones, I actually loved reading them when I was 13. My friend and I once sent a made up one in to Seventeen, but it never got printed.

• The winner of the baby-sitter contest will be featured in the magazine’s back-to-school issue (this takes place right after school let out).  Which is ridiculous because most magazines would have their back-to-school issue final by June/July.  Possibly even in print. They tend to work in advance.

• Have we ever heard what Dawn’s mom does for a living?  She works for a woman who has her own accounting firm.  She kind of hates it and/or her boss, and she feels unappreciated.  I would feel bad for her, but if she’s half as scatterbrained at work as she’s at home, her boss shouldn’t appreciate her.

• Mary Anne doesn’t salvage much from the fire, but she does find the pearl necklace that used to be her mother.  Her dad had given this to her when he got married.

• The house was pretty much all destroyed and most of the second floor collapsed.  The part with the least damage was Dawn’s (old) room.  This annoyed me in two ways.  First, Mary Anne mentions that some of the secret passage might be intact, but then we never hear if it actually is.  It’s not super important, but details like that bother me. Second, why does Dawn’s room get the least damage?  That sucks for the people who live there all the time.   Granted, she did lose pretty much everything she kept there. But still.

• When she’s describing Kristy’s family, Mary Anne says how it sounds crazy and living in it would be overwhelming to her.  Then she ends up staying at Kristy’s and is totally overwhelmed.  Foreshadowing or coincidence (since I’m pretty sure they say something like that in every book)?

• The day before the fire, Mary Anne and Logan have a picnic in her barn (because it was raining).  After they eat, they jump from that rope in the hay loft that we haven’t heard about in ages. She claims it’s the first time she’s done it in “years.”  A statement like that makes the timeline issues jump out at you, doesn’t it?  If she just finished 8^th grade, it’s only been a year-and-a-half since she met Dawn. That’s without even getting into the fact that once upon a time Mary Anne was too scared to jump from the loft.

• Mary Anne references Titanic as one of the saddest movies.  It’s really weird to read that, because I was obsessed with that movie when it came out, but it was way after I stopped reading the BSC books.  Pop culture references like that always seem out of place in these later books.

• The only outfits we get in this, are the ones Mary Anne and her family had on when they ran out of the house during the fire.  Mary Anne had on “a pink nightgown printed with 50s-style illustrations of kittens playing with a ball of string.”  Sharon just had on shorts and a T-shirt and Richard had on matching plaid flannel pajamas (not surprising, I guess).

• The Pike kids are all worried about fires after hearing about the one at Mary Anne’s, so Abby and Claudia arrange to take them on a tour of the firehouse. I don’t know if that’s realistic, do they just give tours to random people like that?

• Also, at the firehouse they give Claud and Abby a pamphlet called “Fire Safety Tips for Baby-sitters.” Really?  There are enough dedicated baby-sitters that someone makes a pamphlet just for them?  Why not just have one for kids/families?

• I thought it was weird that Dawn comes to Stoneybrook as soon as she can after the fire, but Jeff’s told to stay home.  Mary Anne claims he’s too young (at 10) to see something this upsetting.  But apparently 13’s totally mature and adult and Dawn can handle it.  Never mind the practicality of coming to see people who are basically homeless.  I think they just wanted Dawn in the last book.

• They didn’t find a way to get Mallory in the book, but I think every single character made a point of saying how she would have been the perfect person to write up the history of the club.  Which is what I was thinking as soon as they mentioned it.

• So, Sharon wants to be either an interior decorator or an architect.  Those seemed like pretty different things to me at first, but I guess they’re related if you think about it.  They both involve creating spaces where people would live/work.

• I would recommend interior design for Sharon though.  Architecture takes a lot of school.  Not that she couldn’t go back to school, but that would be a lot of time and effort.  Also, would you want someone who can’t keep track of ANYTHING planning your house?  I mean, they claim the fire was from old wiring, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear about Sharon leaving the stove on overnight or candles burning or something.

• The Spier/Schafers can’t find anyplace alone to talk at the Brewers, so they go outside and into the new playhouse in the back.  This sounds really familiar to me, but I can’t think of which book it would have been in.  I just know that Karen always wanted to make playhouses for her and her friends.

• One of the firefighters we meet’s a woman, which is clearly Ann M. Martin getting in her feminist message for the book.  I always approve of that.

• The day after the fire, Richard and Sharon both call their bosses.  Which I thought made sense at first.  But then I remembered the fire was on a Friday night.  It isn’t like they were expected to show up at work. Why make that one of your first calls?  And would they even know their bosses’ home numbers?

• Richard also calls Mary Anne’s grandmother, who he’s apparently gotten closer to.  That’s nice for them, I think.

• The neighbors all come out during the fire to see what’s going on.  Which is only natural.  But I was surprised that Stacey was the first BSC member to show up.  I didn’t think her house was that close to Mary Anne’s, but according to this map, I guess she is.  (Mallory was in boarding school, so she doesn’t count).

• The girls are surprised that Matt Braddock (a 7-year-old) is so good with a computer.  Which is kind of dated, because now everyone assumes that kids are better at computers than adults.

• I’m wondering how big Kristy’s house really is.  I remember an early book where she said it had ten bedrooms.  But they have at least two guest rooms in this book (one for Sharon/Richard and one for Mary Anne/Dawn).  This  means there are at least 11 (Watson/Mrs. Brewer, Nannie, Charlie, Sam, Kristy, David Michael, Karen, Andrew, Emily, and 2+ guestrooms).  And I think that’s without expanding to the third floor.

• Apparently, Karen’s not just allowed to have a pet rat, she’s allowed to take him out of his cage and let him run around in the house for exercise.  She keeps him confined to one room, but that seems a bit freaky to me.

• A bunch of the kids the girls sit for gather at the Braddocks to work on the history of the club, and Haley says they can use their computer.  But then Mrs. Braddock offers to type up the final version.  If they’re writing it on the computer, what’s left to type?  Maybe she’s just editing for them?

• David Michael, Karen, and Andrew say they’re going to build a Lego house large enough for Mary Anne’s family to live in.  Which I would normally think’s a silly idea, except recently I read about this, which I think’s kind of cool.

• When Mary Anne bikes to the site of their house, she mentions passing various peoples’ houses and thinks about how well she knows this town.  The only weird part’s when she mentions the Hobarts’ house.   Because I’m pretty sure that’s where Mary Anne lived for 13 years.  If you’re reminiscing, wouldn’t you call it your old house.

• I’m sure it’s unrealistic to have a contest about baby-sitters in a teen magazine, I would think one for kids/parents would be more likely, if anyone was going to do it.  But I love the concept because it lets us get all sorts of references to past books.  If it was a TV show we’d be getting clips, but it’s a book, so the closest we get are snippets from the BSC notebook.  It looks like they’re actually taken word-for-word from the original books.  We get one about Jackie Rodowski being a walking disaster, one about the Barrett/DeWitt kids making up instruments, and one about Buddy Barrett making baskets for one of their Thanksgiving charity projects.

• We also get references to Fire Safety/Prevention Day, Charlotte spying, Mary Anne taking Jenny to the hospital, and Jake Kuhn going missing.

• If I didn’t know there was a Friends Forever series after this, I probably wouldn’t have liked that we didn’t find out if Mary Anne moved away.  I like closure.  But I definitely wouldn’t have liked finding out she was leaving.  I always hate when TV shows end with all the characters are separating.  Even if it’s done for a happy reason, or is about starting a new path or whatever, it still seems sad to me.

• In the final essay Kristy writes about how much they get back from baby-sitting, and how she doesn’t care if they win because they already have so much. It’s totally cheesy and sappy.  But I kind of like that.

So, I was originally saving this to be the last entry in the blog.  But, like I said last time I'm now going to do the Friends Forever books.  I can't not read them after I've gone back and read everything else I missed as a kid. Look for that soon, I am going to try and go in order with them.

“I mean so little to this club that you don’t even have to replace me?”….BSC # 125: Mary Anne in the Middle

Memory Reaction

So, I didn’t read this as a kid, but I do remember when I read the following book as an adult and was a little annoyed/surprised that we didn’t get the full story on Mal moving in that book.

Revisited Reaction

At the start of this book, Mallory’s waiting to hear back from the boarding school she applied to.  Mary Anne refers to Mal visiting the school, so I guess that happened in yet another previous book. They really let this storyline play out for a while, didn’t they?  Anyway, Mal keeps saying she’s not sure if she’ll go, but Mary Anne can tell she’s pretty much made up her mind.  Mallory keeps talking to Mary Anne about it because Jessi doesn’t have an open mind about Mal leaving, and she gets mad whenever Mal brings it up.  Also, Mary Anne’s narrating the book, so she has to know what’s going on.

Anyway, Mallory obviously gets in, and gets a full scholarship.  When Jessi hears this, she gets mad at Mallory for wanting to leave.  She keeps saying Mal’s running away from her problems. So, when Mallory decides to go, she tells Mary Anne first.  At a BSC meeting, Jessi demands Mallory tell the club her decision.  When Mal does, Jessi gets mad because she can tell Mary Anne already knew.  They bicker back and forth and both keep venting to Mary Anne.  This goes on for a while – Mary Anne tries to send them on a joint sitting job so they’ll have to talk, but that ends up making things worse.  Then, at a slumber party Jessi has, Mary Anne insists Mallory still come, but that doesn’t end well either.  Eventually, Mary Anne invites them both over and forces them to talk things out.  They do, and Mal tries to explain why she feels the need to go.  They basically make up, but we don’t really get to hear the bulk of the conversation, because it’s apparently not important enough to show.

Meanwhile, Mal’s siblings have decided they don’t want her to leave and are mad at her as well.  They act like annoying brats for a while, but Mary Anne convinces them that they should want Mallory to be happy and that she’ll still be part of the family.  And the BSC and Mal’s family put together some “We Love Mallory Day” to show her how much she means to them.  These girls are no where near as bitchy as people I went to middle school with.

The subplot is that Kristy wanted to put together a special holiday project (this takes place in December).  They decide they’re going to make holiday decorations that they’ll donate to the senior citizen home in town.  Apparently, the place has really old crappy decorations.  They end up having a bit of a party for the people there too.  These girls are WAY to goody-goody to be believable.  My high school had a community service club that did less volunteer work.

High/Lowlights

• Mrs. Pike has a temporary job working at Bellair’s for the holidays.  Mary Anne and Mal are sitting for the rest of the Pikes a lot, which is the explanation for Mary Anne ending up in the middle of the whole Jessi/Mal stuff. 

• Mary Anne says you can tell Claudia isn't a “student” by looking at her spelling.  But I have to say, I was always a good student and can’t spell very well either. I’m nowhere near as bad as Claud, but seriously, if not fore spel cheeck I’d bee screwed.

• Mary Anne and Mal are almost late for a BSC meeting, because Mrs. Pike got stuck in traffic on her way home from work.  But isn’t Belliar’s in downtown Stoneybrook?  The girls bike to it sometimes.  How much traffic can there be?

• Claire asks why Mrs. Pike needed to get a job, and she wonders why they need money when Santa’s the one who brings all the presents.  Mal just says they need money for other things.  Mary Anne’s thinking how Mallory must be thinking about the cost of her school, but I think Mallory was probably just saying what you say to kids who still believe in Santa Claus. If they had actually given us a Mallory book when she’s making a life altering decision, I would know for sure.  But whatever.  I’m not upset about that or anything.

• Claudia’s on a kick where she makes clay beads and incorporates them into her clothes.  For instance: “The shirt she was wearing that day was one she had tie-dyed and then cut into fringe around the bottom.  At the end of each fringe was a polymer clay bead she’d made.”  I think I had a shirt with beaded fringe when I was little, but it wasn’t something I made. I want to say it had pictures of Cabbage Patch Kids on it.   But that sounds like a really weird shirt, so maybe I’m mixing up my memories.

• Maybe I missed something, but why are 2 people needed for the Pikes again?  What happened to that whole thing about the Pikes not needing two sitters?  Did they undo that in another book?  Or are they just hoping we forget for plot purposes?

• So, Jessi’s having a party because her friends from Dance NY are visiting.  Kristy’s all worried about sitting jobs that night, and the others are like, “we’ll make sure Logan and Shannon are free that night.”  But isn’t it kind of mean to call them and say, “Hey, can you cover for us while we all have a party without you.”  I know Logan wouldn’t go to a slumber party, but it still seems rude.

• When they first mentioned the sleepover, I was thinking, how it’s so convenient that there are never baby-sitting jobs when big events/celebrations occur.  But then Kristy brought it up, so I guess I can’t really complain about that.

• Nicky gets Ranger Rick magazine in the mail.  I remember my aunt used to give me and all my cousins subscriptions to this for Christmas.  My brother and I got one we were supposed to share, but I didn’t read it that much.   Then she finally asked if people cared about it and stopped giving it out.

• Claire gets something called Ladybug Magazine, does anyone know if that’s a real one too?  I got a couple kid magazines when I was younger, but don’t remember one called Lady Bug.  But the Ranger Rick reference was real, so maybe this one was too.

• There’s an awkward moment when Jessi overhears one of her dance friends telling Mal that Jessi will get over her moving.

• Mallory seems surprised that her siblings are upset with the idea of her leaving home.  Which is kind of sad if you think about it.

• When Jessi and Mal are fighting, I wanted Jessi to tell Mallory how she turned down a chance to leave home with the Dance NY thing.  I’m not saying Mallory should have based her decision on what Jessi did, but it would have been interesting to see it come out.

• Mary Anne and Mallory keep leaving school and walking to the elementary school to pick up the younger Pikes and walk home with them.  But I don’t get this….don’t the kids normally walk home on their own?

• When they make holiday decorations, of course they are all politically correct and make decorations for Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, and the Winter Solstice.  I was expecting the first three, but the Winter Solstice?  Seriously?

• I get diversity, but it seems kind of weird to show up for a sitting job at someone’s house, and tell the kids they have to make decorations for a holiday they don’t celebrate.  There’s got to be a better way to do it.

• When Mal and Jessi went on their joint job, who did they think they were going to be sitting with? I know Mary Anne could easily just have said it was going to be her, but I wish they had just told us the lie that was used.  Especially since Mary Anne’s such a crappy liar.

• If you care, Mallory’s reasons for wanting to go to school are partially because of the Spaz Girl thing, but also because it’s a chance to be herself and not just “one of the Pike kids.”  She thinks she’ll find out who she is. It’s also a good writing school.

• One part of We Love Mallory Day’s a stop to see Henrietta Hayes, that writer Mal sort of worked for.  Henrietta gives Ma some kind of young author award, but I think it’s something she just made up. But I don’t get why they brought her back.  It’s not like we’ve seen Henrietta’s the past 40+ books.

• Ben Hobart does pop up in this one.  I guess he and Mallory hadn't talked a lot recently, but they do see each other in this one, and he gets to be a supportive friend. Which is nice, because he's a character that was around for a while and deserves some closure.  Unlike the random writer person.

• When talking about who to replace Mallory with, someone suggests Erica Blumberg, but the other girls shoot this down.  Claudia says she acts like she knows everything.  But isn’t Erica the one who called Claudia when she realized something was happening with the child abuse guy?  You think Claud would give her some credit.

• For the record, the BSC decides they just won’t replace Mallory at all, which has to kind of sting for her.

• This is kind of random, but after a BSC meeting, Mary Anne mentions that Mallory leaves Claud’s room, then stops to get her coat out of the front hall closet.  So do these girls really hang their coats up there for every meeting?  I always pictured them piled in a corner of Claudia’s room. 

“I guess we all have our own ways of dealing with emergencies”….BSC # 109: Mary Anne to the Rescue

Memory Reaction

I didn’t read this as a kid, but I did read it a few years ago…after I was inspired to re-read the series, but before I starting blogging about it.  That doesn’t totally count as a memory, but I miss writing this section, so I’m counting it.  I just remember thinking it was really obvious Mary Anne was going to save someone at the end.  Even more obvious than what’s typical with these books.

Revisited Reaction

This book starts with the BSC, Sharon, and Richard at the airport, waiting for Dawn and Jeff to fly in from California for the summer.  The plan’s delayed, so they go to the cafeteria to kill some time.  Some guy there starts choking and Sharon runs over, gives him the Heimlich, and saves his life.  Mary Anne feels bad because when the guy starting choking she was frozen and thinks she’d be useless in a crisis.   This is when you know that there will be a crisis by the end of the book, where Mary Anne saves the day.  If you didn’t already know that based on the title.   The incident leads to the whole club taking a first aid course for teens.  But, Mary Anne still thinks she’d fall apart in an emergency.

After a few sessions, Mary Anne and Dawn are sitting for the Hsus and the Kormans, at the Kormans’ pool.  Linnie and Hannie Papadakis show up at one point too.  Their (adult) next-store neighbor is around as well, because the Kormans only let the kids swim when an adult’s around.  But the neighbor, Mr. Sinclair, goes inside to get a drink, which gives Timmy Hsu time to wander into the deep end of the pool, despite not being able to swim.  Mary Anne gets to be all awesome…she jumps into the pool fully dressed, pulls Timmy out, and gives him CPR.  The other kids do help her pull Timmy out of the pool, after she has dragged him up from the bottom of the pool, but it’s still a cool moment for her. By this point, Dawn has called 911 and the neighbor has come back outside.  But, they say Mary Anne saved her life and everyone congratulates her.  And she gets over her fear.  At least somewhat.

Meanwhile, Logan tells Mary Anne that his father’s sending him to boarding school in New Hampshire.  Mr. Bruno went there as a kid and claims it “changed his life.”  He’s also sending Logan to a month-long survival camp for a month at the end of summer.  He doesn’t want to go, but says there’s nothing he can do about it.  Mary Anne’s upset (obviously) and keeps telling Logan to talk to his parents.  Logan says his dad won’t listen and his mother will just go along with whatever his dad says.  They keep arguing and Mary Anne keeps crying about it.  Eventually, after getting courage from her rescue, she convinces him to talk to his parents.  Logan tells them how he doesn’t want to go and that his life is already great in Stoneybrook.   He manages to convince his mother, who convinces his dad to let him stay.

High/Lowlights

• Claudia outfit: “She was wearing an old-fashioned felt hat, a billowy button-down white shirt, a super-wide tie hand-painted with a sunset, cuffed khaki shorts, and brown-and-white bucks with knee-high white socks.”

• I’m not a big fan of the implication that Mr. Bruno can decide to send Logan to boarding school, and his mother just has to go along with what he wants.  Granted, she ends up changing Mr. Bruno’s mind at the end, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

• When Logan’s dad says he already put a deposit down on the boarding school, his mom says, “we’ll I’ll pay for that with MY earnings.”  It comes off as a bit sexist too me, even if I don’t have an issue with married couples having separate bank accounts.

• The first-aid instructor’s named Shelley Golden.  So after her introduction, we get to hear the male students introduce themselves....Alan Gray, Pete Black…then Irv something who calls himself Little Boy Blue.  The BSC finds this really obnoxious, but I thought it was slightly amusing.  I guess I’m immature.

• Fun fact: Logan’s dad is named Lyman.

• During this book, the BSC goes to Stoneybrook’s Firefighters Fair, yet another annual event we haven’t heard of before.  I’m not 100% sure what the point of it is…normally I’d think something like that would be a fundraiser, but it seems to just be a carnival type event with a demonstration of putting a fire out.

• In addition to the Firefighters Fair, Stoneybrook has its first ever Safety Day in this book.  The kids taking the first aid class gets to be involved as victims in the staged first aid demonstration.  Dawn volunteers Mary Anne to play victim, after she said she didn’t want to do it multiple times.  Than later, when Mary Anne says she didn’t have a good time, Dawn’s all, “If you didn’t want to do it, why’d you volunteer?”  Then later Mary Anne apologizes for snapping at Dawn. 

• Okay, so Dawn says she’s sorry too, so it’s not quite as bad as it could be.  But Mary Anne apologizing unnecessarily is a definite trend with Mary Anne and Dawn fights.

• When Mary Anne voices her concern to Dawn about not being good in a crisis, Dawn reminds her how she “saved the day” with Jenny Prezzioso way back when.  I like that staying cool in a crisis seems to be something they’ve kept consistent for Mary Anne, even if it’s not how most people describe her.

• After the safety demo, Mary Anne’s takes a shower to wash all the fake blood off, then finds Dawn waiting in her room to see why she’s upset.  Mary Anne asks for privacy so she can change, and Dawn’s all, “I’m your sister.”  That seems a bit too comfortable for them.

• Jamie Newton cried at the Safety Festival because he saw Mary Anne lying in a pool of blood (as part of the demo) and thought she died.  And I guess afterwards they didn’t let him see that Mary Anne was okay?  Then Claudia sits for him the next day, and Mrs. Newton says that she’ll trust Claudia’s judgment about whether he should go to the Firefighters Fair as well?  I think it was pretty obvious he shouldn't have gone….Claudia had to take him home early because he couldn't stop crying.

• Do they always have to point out in the narrative text that Claudia can’t spell?  I think we all know that by now, just have her notebook pages have errors and don’t comment on it.

• On a baby-sitting job, Abby ends up having a bike-safety session.  When the kids tell her using hand signals is dorky, she asks them if wearing a helmet’s dorky.  When they say no, she tells them how people used to not want to wear helmets because they were worried about it.  This is when I feel old, because when I was a kid people hated when they suddenly starting making people wear helmets.

• At the Firefighters Fair, some woman criticizes Claud for having the Newton kids there.  Which, was a valid point, even if she was rude about it. And even if it was more Mrs. Newton’s fault that Claud’s.  But anyway, wouldn't a “fair” logically imply that it is a kid-friendly event?  So, why have a demo that isn’t something kids should see?

• Mary Anne says that Wuthering Heights is her favorite book.  I could have sworn it was Little Women in earlier books.

• Dawn criticizes Mr. Sinclair for drinking soda, and when he switches to lemonade, she tells Mary Anne that’s probably still a mix and has too much sugar.  At least he’s trying, Dawn.  Relax a little.

• When Logan tells his parents he and Mary Anne have to talk to him, Mr. Bruno goes “you’re not getting married, are you?”  I would think his first guess would be a pregnancy, but they probably didn’t want to even suggest sex existed in these books. 

“We shouldn’t let things like this get in the way of our club – or our friendships – ever again”…….BSC # 120: Mary Anne and the Playground Fight

Memory Reaction

This was way after I stopped reading…

Revisited Reaction

We’re told on the cover that the “fight” is between the BSC members, not the kids, which I thought sounded good.  But the fight’s nowhere close to how bitchy other fight books have been. And I find it interesting that the biggest fights I can think of are all Mary Anne books.

Anyway, it’s the end of the school year and two announcements are made.  The first is that there’s going to be a trip to Europe at ridiculously discounted prices, just like the one to Hawaii “last year.”  This is all a set up for the next Super Special. The other announcement is that there’s going to be a “playground camp” at the elementary school over the summer, and they’re looking to hire six middle school students to work there.  All the regular BSC members apply, plus Logan and Dawn (who’s visiting for the summer).  There are also a lot of other applicants from non-BSCers, but they’re clearly irrelevant. This means the girls are competing with each other and things get a little tense as they work on their applications.

When Dawn gets to Stoneybrook, Mary Anne tells her about the Europe trip.  But Dawn surprises her by saying she doesn’t want to go since she’s not in Stoneybrook that much and wants to spend her time there.   Logan also decides not to go on the trip.  Then the extremely independent thinking Mary Anne decides she doesn’t want to go either. 

The girls realize that the trip is happening in the right in the middle of the camp session, and while they’re told they still have a shot, they’re not totally sure if they can do both.  Claudia decides she won’t go on the trip if she gets the camp job. Mallory and Jessi are cut from the application process because their books apparently don’t sell as well as the others, and they stopped getting screen time in the later books.  Or maybe it’s because of their age.  It’s not really important.  Anyway, Stacey, Kristy, and Abby are the only ones applying with a conflict.  The three of them try and downplay this in their interviews, but are apparently not very successful.  After the interview, the girls snap at each other a little bit, Kristy calls Claudia insecure and Claudia calls Kristy a bully. 

Meanwhile, Victoria, that princess from awhile back, is apparently still in town, but about to go back to London.  She’s not happy about that and we get a couple chapters of her “saying goodbye” to the town/her friends.  But the BSC makes plans to visit her when they’re in Europe.  At Victoria’s official going away party, the BSCers aren’t really talking to each other and argue once in front of Charlotte Johanssan.  But nothing too exciting, I think it was over who was scooping ice cream better. After that, they find out that Mary Anne, Dawn, Claudia, and Logan got jobs at the camp, and the others did not.  They decide it must have been because of the trip, and they all make up.

High/Lowlights

• Dawn’s stepmother just had a baby named Grace.  Mary Anne tells us they call her “Gracie” for short.  I know it’s an expression, but it made me laugh because Gracie’s actually longer than Grace.

• Mary Anne mentions hanging out near the beautiful lighthouse in Stoneybrook.  I guess that’s a reference to this? 

• Claudia outfit: “On this day she was wearing an oversized black jumpsuit over a white T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, plus white socks and black high-top sneakers with silver laces. The laces matched her silver nail polish, silver earrings, and the rings she wore on ever finger, even her thumb.”  I don’t have a real problem with the outfit, but who the hell says “on this day?”

• The trip to Europe (London and Paris) costs $400 a person.  It’s apparently less than the trip to Hawaii because the airfare’s lower.  Now, when I’ve gone to Europe my plane tickets were a lot more than when I went to Hawaii.  But, this book was written in 1998 and flying rates jump around a lot, so I’ll let that go.  But $400 for 9-10 days in Europe?  That’s crazy cheap, even back in the 90s. 

• Since Mary Anne was originally a regular sitter for Victoria, they’re close.  So, it’s not surprising that Victoria requests her on a sitting job.  But what is surprising is that this isn’t a big deal to any of the other girls.  That usually led to good fights.

• I actually think it’s mature of Dawn to not run off to Europe when she’s supposed to be visiting her mother.  However, Mary Anne not going because of that?  Is ridiculous.  Especially considering how excited she was when she first heard about the trip.  She can’t miss a week or so of time with Dawn?  It’s not like Dawn ever changes her travel plans to spend time with Mary Anne.

• One of the girls’ teachers (the school’s running the camp) calls the BSC at a meeting and tells them they should apply for the camp jobs.  But I don’t see why they bothered, considering how many people applied regardless.  Do they really think the BSC’s that much better with kids?

• The girls who are going to Europe need to raise the money to pay for half, the same deal as when they went to Hawaii.  They decide to have a “junk sale” to try and make money and sell a whole bunch of old stuffed animals/books/toys/etc.  It includes both their old stuff and things they get from others.  Which is a good idea, but I think it seems weird to make money off someone else’s stuff….they should give them a cut or something.

• They raise a total of $500 at their junk sale including refreshments and “donations” from parents.  But why would they be getting donations?  It’s not a charity or anything.

• It’s kind of confusing, because they talk about the whole trip being $400, but then they only refer to paying for half their airfare.  And they say this is the same as Hawaii, but in Super Special #13, they had to pay half the total price.

• This book has a very misleading title. The girls are competitive about the job, but it’s not like they stop speaking for weeks or anything like that.  

• I actually like that they have the girls planning for the Europe trip in this book.  It used to be that we’d just have these random stand-alone Super Specials and you couldn’t tell where in the lineup they fell.  Especially with the first one, where it basically established an additional summer between the 7^th grade books and the first 8^th grade book.  Having a lead in feels more natural.

• I’m actually glad that Kristy didn’t get the job.  Her whole attitude about it was a bit entitled, as though she thought she was automatically getting it and that no one would care if she needed to take a week off.  When Kristy heard Claudia say that she wouldn’t go on the trip if she got the job, she considered saying the same thing…even though in her case it would be a lie.  She figured she could just say she changed her mind later. Mary Anne talks her out of doing this.

• At the job Interviews, everyone who made the first cut gets called in at once, then they sit there while candidates are called into small rooms one-by-one.  That doesn’t seem like the best way to do things.  I can see how having multiple people come in at once would save time, especially if several people are doing the interviewing.  But it least split them into half hour groups or something.  Why have more teenagers than necessary hanging out making noise?

• Now that I think about it, Kristy considering lying on her application (about not going to Europe) seems a bit out of character.

• Victoria mentions that Toy Story is one of her favorite American movies.  Wow, these books lasted longer than I thought.  Or, I’m just getting old and Toy Story’s just that old of a movie.

• This is going to sound weird, but I noticed that this book had several references to people using the bathroom.  When Mary Anne arrives at a meeting, Claudia is out of the room in the bathroom, once Dawn leaves the meeting to use it, etc.  I just don’t remember them mentioning that in any other books.

• I don’t know if Victoria showed up in any books between her first appearance and here, but the whole thing is a set up for the BSC visiting her in London on their trip.  They do point out that Victoria stayed longer than originally planned, which makes sense, since it was supposed to be a few months, and this is the second summer vacation since her original book.

• They also make a point of saying Abby and Victoria started to bond at the going away party…I guess because Mary Anne isn’t going to London, and the ghostwriters wanted to set up another relationship for the Super Special.  But I always hated when they just changed who had “special relationships” with who.

• It seems like a cop out to have the decisions about who to hire come down to who’s going on vacation.