“Some bratty little kid is driving you nuts because she’s lying her head off”………BSC # 128: Claudia and the Little Liar

Memory Reaction

This is another one I never read as a kid….

Revisited Reaction

This is a sitting job-heavy plot, which is usually a bad sign. Claudia has a sitting job for the Braddocks, and when she got there, Mrs. Braddock says to make sure Haley does her homework. Haley shows Claudia some book report as proof that it’s done, and she’s allowed to watch TV. When the Braddocks get home, Claudia says, “Well, Haley finished her report on The Great Brain.” Only, Mrs. Braddock knows that the book report was from last month, and Haley ends up grounded.

Haley blames Claudia, and starts telling her friends that the BSC members are spies who report bad behavior to kids’ parents. At first, only some kids listen to her. Then, in an amazing coincidence, Claudia has several more sitting jobs for the Braddocks. Haley uses this to try to make Claudia look bad, and she ends up getting in more trouble. But this actually helps her convince other kids that the BSC is out to get them. At the time, Haley’s playing on a girls basketball team that Kristy’s coaching, and this turns into a forum to spread her complaints.

The BSC decides they need to solve the problem, and they call the Braddocks asking to do a "role play" with Haley. I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Braddock were glad to get that call, because otherwise they wouldn’t have had any idea how to help their daughter. Anyway, the role play gets Haley to admit that she lied about homework because she was having trouble in school, her parents decide to get her a tutor, blah, blah, blah. At the end, Haley tries to lie to a ref at the team’s first basketball game. But after a look from Kristy, she admits the truth. And the team wins! Happy endings all around.

The subplot’s somewhat more interesting than all the Haley drama. Claudia’s currently dating a guy named Josh, who she met while being temporarily sent back to seventh grade. Apparently she had been dating another seventh-grade guy, but dumped him for Josh. She has a lot in common with Josh, and he’s generally a nice guy – he even helps her design and sew uniforms that Claud’s making for Kristy’s basketball team. The problem’s that Claudia’s just not feeling the chemistry. While, they have kissed, Claudia just doesn’t have a huge desire to do it often.

Claud’s afraid to say anything, because she doesn’t want to ruin the friendship. But eventually they talk, and she finds out Josh feels the same way about her. They decide to try just being friends, and since they do hang out together at the end, it may actually happen.

High/Lowlights

• Now, I may be stating the obvious, but isn’t one of the reasons for having a baby-sitter so that the parents know the kid doesn’t get in trouble? I mean, the sitter doesn’t have to tell the parents everything, but she isn’t there on a play date.

• I’m guessing this isn’t the first time Claudia will meet a guy who can help her design clothes, but doesn’t want to kiss her. This is especially true if she gets a job in fashion. Of course, Claudia getting a job in fashion may be a sign of the apocalypse, so I try not to think about it too much.

• Claudia tells Josh that she can’t go out on Saturday because it’s her dad’s birthday. So, on Saturday she goes to wish him happy birthday, and he tells her it’s not for another week. That seems like a pretty hard mistake to make.

• I wouldn’t have expected Becca and Charlotte to join a basketball team, but they’re both players on Kristy’s team. So are Vanessa and Haley (who only wanted to be Krushers’ cheerleaders). I’m not saying that interest in softball has to equal interest in basketball, I was just surprised to see it.

• One of the jobs for Haley and Matt’s when Mr. and Mrs. Braddock go to the elementary school for a meeting about the spring dance. But since when do elementary schools have dances? And what other dance would they be planning? It just seems weird.

• While Abby’s sitting at the Rodowskis’, the kids make a reference to Noah Seger living next store, which is a reference to this lovely book. I was happy to see this, because if you’re going to have crazy-unrealistic books, you should at least have continuity.

• Claudia doesn’t know a lot of sign language, so Haley translates for Matt. She tells Claud that Matt needs poster paint for a school assignment, but doesn’t have any. Claudia says she has some at home, and she calls Stacey to get it for her. Mrs. McGill actually drives Stacey to Claudia’s house, waits while Stacey goes in and gets the paint, and then drives her to the Braddocks. It ends up being a fool’s errand, cause Haley was lying about it. But even if it wasn’t, this seems like a lot of effort for a second-grader’s homework.

• Also, taking advantage of your brother’s handicap to trick your baby-sitter seems a bit bitchy.

• I really want to get my hands on the books where Claudia’s temporarily sent back to seventh grade. They sound like they’d be fun to recap.

• Claudia calls the Pikes because Matt wants to borrow a book from Nicky (and can’t use the phone himself for obvious reasons). Mrs. Pike says Mr. Pike took the kids to a movie. Now, this is on a Wednesday night. It seems odd that elementary school kids would be going to the movie on a school night.

• I guess Haley’s rumors are effective, because Charlotte, who has shown Stacey her diary in the past, won’t show her a random school assignment.

• Stacey uses the word “composition” to describe something Charlotte was writing. Does anyone actually use that word? Especially kids?

• When did Mary Anne go to counseling? Because even though I didn’t read this book as a kid, I remember it being in referenced in other books I DID read. But I never read the book where it first happened.

• Of course, when Haley starts bitching to other kids in town, Kristy’s paranoid that the BSC’s doomed. She even worries that the Ramseys (who have a daughter IN the club) would stop using them. Her paranoia’s getting a bit old.

• Stacey says that she and Robert are friends now, even though it took a lot of time after their breakup to get to that point. I feel like that must have happened in a book I never read, and it makes me want to find it.

• Claudia says that Mary Anne has never gotten a complaint about scheduling jobs/her role as secretary. But, haven’t there been entire books about fights over jobs? Maybe the complaints weren’t specifically about Mary Anne, but they still happened.

• We keep hearing about how Haley’s “lies” include her using the phone when she’s supposed to be studying, and then pretending she was asking someone about homework. Now….didn't Mary Anne do this all the time in the early books? Because her dad wouldn’t let her use the phone otherwise, right? So, are they saying Mary Anne was “acting out” when she did that?

“It’s the BSC Across America”…..BSC Super Special # 14: BSC in the USA

Memory Reaction

This is another book I never read as a kid. I feel bad that this keeps messing up my format, but since I’ve covered most of the books I DID read as a kid, it’s going to start happening more and more.

Revisited Reaction

Dawn’s father volunteers to drive a friend’s RV from the east cost to California. His thinking is that since Dawn and Jeff need to get home from a summer visit to Stoneybrook, they should make a family trip out of it. Watson must be drunk when he hears about this, because he decides that putting his (big, and usually loud) family in one RV and driving it across the country is a great idea. He also invites any BSC members “who can fit” to come along, because we all know how much extra room RVs have.

Mr. Schafer gets competitive and decides that any BSC members who don’t fit in Watson’s RV should come along in his, and all the BSCers get permission to go. Each RV will be taking its own route – the Schafers take the northern route and the Thomas/Brewers take southern route. Each person gets to pick one place to stop for a visit. There is not a whole lot else in terms of plot.

The Thomas/Brewer RV’s supposed to have Watson, Mrs. Thomas, David Michael, Karen, Andrew, Kristy, Abby, Jessi, and Mal. However, this creates an uneven split and overcrowds Watson’s RV. Since Kristy’s destination choice is “as many baseball stadiums as possible,” she’s the only one who can switch to the northern route. Her family lets her get away with this, and the Schafer RV becomes Mr. Schafer, Dawn, Jeff, Claudia, Stacey, Mary Anne, and Kristy.

The northern route’s early stops include Cleveland (a baseball stadium and the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame), Chicago (Wrigley Field for Kristy and the Art Institute of Chicago for Claudia), and the Mall of America in MN (where they meet up with Mary Anne’s grandmother). Then they have an unscheduled stop in South Dakota, because Mr. Schafer ran out of gas in the middle of the Badlands. Jeff’s pick was Yellowstone National Park because he wanted to try rock climbing, but since you can’t actually rock climb there, they also stop in the Grand Tetons. Then they stop at a theme park in Idaho that Dawn thought was a real ghost town, in Seattle (so Stacey could hook up with her latest love interest), and in San Francisco (Mr. Schafer’s pick).

The southern RV visits Jessi’s family in NJ, Chincoteague Island (the location of some horse books Mal likes), Graceland (because Abby’s obsessed with Elvis), and a slave plantation in Mississippi where Jessi’s ancestors were slaves. After this, they visit Watson’s old college roommate in Oklahoma and get there just in time to see a tornado. But, they all make it out alive and go on to a rodeo in Texas (David Michael’s pick), Four Corners (Karen’s pick), the Grand Canyon (Mrs. Thomas’s pick), and the San Diego Zoo (Andrew’s pick). They also make an unscheduled stop in Zuni, NM, where they meet some of the pen pals that no one’s thought of for 60 books.

Anyway, at the end everyone meets up again at Dawn’s house in CA.

High/Lowlights

• Claudia refers to touchdowns when talking about baseball. Doesn’t even the most sports-ignorant person know that touchdowns are part of football?

• Sam and Charlie get out of the trip because they are at camp, and Nannie stays at home with Emily Michelle because she’s smarter than the rest of the family.

• When they stop at Jessi’s grandparents’ house, Jessi noticed that Mallory’s sort of hanging back and is a bit quiet, and she thinks it’s Mallory’s hidden racism coming into play. She mentions this to her grandmother, who says, “she’s just nervous about meeting your family. Don’t think such bad things about your best friend.”

• I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in an RV with 7-8 people. My family went on a trip in a motor home a couple times, and it felt crowded and small. And there were four of us.

• It hardly seems fair that they go to so many baseball games. I mean, Mary Anne has one afternoon with her grandmother, Claudia has one afternoon at the Art Institute, but Kristy gets to have multiple stops. And while Jeff and Mr. Schafer like baseball, none of the other girls really do.

• Dawn says her mother was pissed at Mr. Schafer for wanting to take the trip, because it meant Dawn and Jeff had to leave Stoneybrook two weeks earlier. I have to say, I see her point, and I’m surprised she agreed to it. Unless Dawn was just pissing her off.

• Claudia packs two down jackets for a trip in the middle of summer. Seriously, WTF?

• Jeff mentions how Old Faithful only goes off every seventy minutes, instead of every hour, and that Dawn says it’s because of what people have done to the environment. Then he says, “but Dawn says that about everything.”

• At Yellowstone, Jeff claims that a bear wanders into their picnic spot. But they just stay quiet and he walks away, so they are able to hike out in the opposite direction. For a bear encounter, it’s surprisingly boring.

• At a stop in South Dakota, Claudia spends a dollar on a sketch that she thinks is by a random artist. But later Mr. Schafer’s friend (an art dealer) looks at it and they realize it’s a Georgia O’Keeffe. He offers to buy it for $500, but Claud decides to keep it.

• One of the few continuing stories is that Mr. Schafer teases Mary Anne a little, and makes a few cracks about her father (his work habits, his diet, etc). Mary Anne’s tense about it the whole trip, but finally says something to him, and all is well.

• Abby tries to convince everyone that Elvis is still alive, and of course Karen gets all into her stories. By the time they get to Graceland, Watson and Mrs. Thomas drop everyone off and make Abby, Jessi, and Mal, take care of the little kids while they go off and do their own thing.

• Karen picks Four Corners, and David Michael keeps making fun of her because he thinks they won’t be able to tell where the borders actually are. When they get there they see it’s actually a major tourist stop, and the border’s marked. Which makes me laugh because when I went there as a kid, I thought it was going to just be dirt as well.

• Stacey’s pick for a stop seems sort of lame. The guy, Ethan, is someone she met in New York and has been writing to. He’s in Seattle on vacation with his family, and she wants to visit. But….he lives in NYC. Stacey visits her dad there all the time. Why not use the trip to go somewhere you normally wouldn’t get to go to, and see the guy next time you’re in NY?

• I guess this book’s recent enough that We Love Kids have meetings around a pool with a cell phone and Mr. Schafer wants to shake Bill Gates’s hand.

• However, the book’s old enough that Stacey has Mr. Schafer driving all over the city because she thinks she got the meeting spot wrong, and can’t contact Ethan. With cell phone, a problem like that would be pretty rare.

• Claudia mentions how the girls and Jeff play cards to kill time during the ride, but that everyone kept beating her.

• The southern group keeps running into this girl who is traveling on a similar roadtrip with her grandparents. Everyone’s annoyed by her, but then they get offended when they hear the girl complaining about them.

• Like most Super Specials, the book’s structured as journal entries that the girls are keeping. But in this one, there’s no real explanation for it – like, they are making a journal/photo album as a gift, or for a school project, or the school paper, etc. They’re just automatically doing a trip journal.

• When Jessi, Mallory, and Abby meet Watson’s old roommate, the first thing they ask is if they can hold the guy’s baby. I get that they like little kids, but it seems rude to just ask right away.

• Claudia and Stacey have this really random fight….Claudia accidentally picks up Stacey’s journal, and Stacey thinks she’s snooping. So, she snaps at Claud and they don’t speak for days. After Stacey has her visit with Ethan, she’s so excited (because he kissed her) that she just starts babbling to her, and all’s forgiven.

• Abby has a lot of issues with the Grand Canyon visit because her father loved the place, and she and her family were supposed to vacation there before he died. She describes his death, and her description’s pretty much identical to her autobiography. So, good for the continuity person.

• Another point for continuity – they mention several of the pen pals from that Sleepover book by name.

• Kristy spots her dad in the stands at a baseball game in San Francisco (via the video screen). Her friends are all, “let’s find him,” and when Kristy says no, they ask why. Really? They can’t think of a reason Kristy wouldn’t want to see the man that abandoned her twice?

• Of course, Kristy DOES agree to talk to her father, and they somehow manage to find where he’s sitting. She basically says she has to go, right after saying hello. Then her dad says he wishes he could see her brothers, and Kristy’s all, “You could. Just come to Stoneybrook.” Then she leaves.

• At the rodeo, some guy in the stands starts telling David Michael about what actually happens when you rope a calf. He gets freaked out, and everyone ends up leaving and spending the day at some rodeo-inspired carnival thing in the parking lot.

• One of Dawn’s California friends tells her that Stephie Roberts’s mom wants her to baby-sit “next Wednesday.” So, I guess Mrs. Roberts thinks Stephie and Dawn will both be in heaven by then? Or else Dawn’s friend has the ability to talk to the dead, and is wasting it lining up baby-sitting jobs.

• When they get to California, Dawn makes a few comments about how her friend Jill’s acting babyish. I never read the California Diaries books, but I know this is a nod to events in them.

• Dawn’s step-mother and housekeeper have a surprise party to welcome the two RVs. Watson didn’t know about this, so he picked up food at a deli (including cold cuts) to treat everyone to lunch. When Dawn sees them, she’s all, “ew, processed dead pig slabs!” Way to be grateful.

“Here’s the most exciting thing of all – Anna and I were invited to become members of the Baby-sitters club!”….BSC Portrait Collection: Abby’s Book

Memory Reaction

Once again, this is a book I never read as a kid, so I don’t have a memory of it and don’t have a lot to write in this section. Of course, it also means I’m looking forward to reading it. I don’t know Abby as well as all the other girls, so there may actually be new information in this book. With the rest of the BSC, there was pretty much no new knowledge gained from the autobiographies.

Revisited Reaction

Abby’s early years chapter is centered around being a twin. We hear all the stereotypical things that are usually in twin stories…she felt pain if Anna was hurt, they spoke in their own secret language, etc. Abby also thought it was normal to have a twin. On her first day of preschool she saw all the other kids without a twin, and thought Anna was going to be taken away from her. She also tells us how she and Anna used to pick out identical clothes, toys, etc. The first time they didn’t was when they were picking out backpacks for the start of first grade. They both ended up changing their minds, because they felt too weird otherwise.

When Abby and Anna started first grade, their teacher and classmates had trouble telling them apart. Most of the kids just started calling them both Abby-Anna, which they hated (understandably). It’s a lot like what happened to Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold, but that was almost a hundred books ago, so I won’t complain too much about a recycled storyline. Abby’s teacher sends a note home, telling the Stevensons to always dress one of the girls in blue and one in red, to help tell them apart. I can’t believe six-year-olds have enough clothing of any color to wear it every day, but Abby and Anna do, so they go along with it. This led to some kids calling them “red” and “blue,” which Abby and Anna also hate (again, understandably).

The twins switch colors for a day, to see if anyone notices. Their father sees them when he drops something off at the school, and refers to them by the wrong name. So, Abby and Anna are devastated for the afternoon, thinking their father can’t tell them apart. But, it turns out he was just kidding and playing along with their trick. Abby’s happy to hear this, but she and Anna tell their parents they’re sick of only wearing one color. Anna agrees to cut her hair shorter so that it would be easy to tell them apart. After this, the other kids started getting to know them, and they start developing their own hobbies. By their birthday, the kids all give them different gifts that actually fit their personalities. Abby and Anna still think of that as their favorite birthday. Which again, is just like the Arnold twins, and how their favorite birthday presents were the ones Mallory gave them (just because they were different).

When Abby was nine, her father was killed in a car accident. It’s all very sad, and I’m not saying that to be sarcastic, it really is….there’s not a lot to snark on. Unlike Mary Anne, who never knew her mom, Abby was close to her dad, and he seemed like a really good father. In the weeks after his death, Abby’s mom started working crazy long hours, gave up cooking (which she used to love), and let the housework go. At this point, Anna and Abby stop going to their respective after-school activities. Eventually, their mother realized this, and she gets it together enough to start grocery shopping again and make Abby and Anna rejoin their activities.

The next anecdote’s from a year later, when Mrs. Stevenson’s still spending most of her time at work. Abby and Anna are also spending a lot of time with friends and sports/music, but wish they spent more time together as a family. Mrs. Stevenson overhears them talking about this, and decides to take them on a vacation to Florida over the holidays. Abby’s excited, but once they get there, the three of them spend all their time apart…her mom works and plays golf, Anna hangs out with another girl staying near them, and Abby hangs out on the beach and plays various sports with other kids at the resort). But Abby does get them both to go with her to sign up for some family New Year’s Eve party the resort’s hosting. A person who works there sees them together, and expresses surprise that Mrs. Stevenson has kids, and that Abby and Anna are twins (he thought they were one person). Mrs. Stevenson realizes she’s still not really spending a lot of time with the girls, and they have a family talk about it. They agree to do their own thing for New Year’s Eve and start their own traditions.

When Abby’s twelve, the Stevensons are spending more time together, but her mother’s still depressed about Mr. Stevenson’s death. She makes a New Year’s Resolution to make a change in her life. Since we already know that the Stevensons move to Stoneybrook within the next year, it’s pretty obvious what the change is going to be. But we get to read a whole chapter building up to it, because the book has to have fifteen chapters to be a BSC book. Abby and Anna don’t want to move, but they deal with it (and really, what choice do they have?). Once they arrive in Stoneybrook, we get to see Abby's perspective of the end of the Kristy book that introduced the twins. Abby knew Kristy didn’t like her at first, but says she won her over, and was happy to join the BSC.

High/Lowlights

• Claudia barely gets mentioned in this book, but we still get an outfit. “She wore leopard-skin tights with a black velvet minidress to school. Here earrings were made of fake-fur buttons.”

• Abby says her parents knew they were having twins, but didn’t know they would be born early. Aren’t most twins born early? If I know that without ever being pregnant, someone who IS pregnant and preparing to give birth would probably have heard of it.

• Abby’s first grade teacher seems surprised to have identical twins in her class. But shouldn’t she have been somewhat prepared? Teachers usually have lists of their students before the first day of school. And two girls with the same name’s probably a big hint that they’re twins.

• Abby and Anna’s birthday is October 15th. I find it pretty unbelievable that between the start of school (usually early September in the northeast) and mid October, they could have went to school dressed alike, spent a few weeks with red and blue color coding, cut Anna’s hair, and then developed unique friendships enough to get separate gifts.

• One of Anna’s birthday presents (at age six) is a tape of classical music for her walkman. Do most six-year-olds have walkmans (or DID they, back when people still used walkmans)? And would someone that young listen to classical music?

• Abby’s dad tells her to be careful crossing the street because there are crazy drivers out there, and a couple hours later he’s killed in a car accident. That seems almost creepy. Or it would, if it happened in real life.

• We never really hear the details of what happened to her dad, just that it was a car accident (which isn’t really specific). I guess they didn’t think it was necessary in a kids’ book, but it feels like something is missing.

• Abby refers to her family life after her dad’s death as a “new kind of family.” Which feels sort of weird, because that’s what ABC Family uses in all those promotional spots. Not that I watch ABC Family.

• From the Abby books I did read, I thought I remembered that her mom only got a job at a publishing company after her dad died. But in her autobiography, that’s definitely not the case. I guess I like that….otherwise it’s too much like Kristy’s mom getting a job after Mr. Thomas left. And I kind of like showing a female workaholic, just in the interest of feminism.

• Abby’s mom decides to get rid of all her furniture and buy all new stuff when they move to the Stoneybrook. The girls convince her to keep some things, but she still gets a lot new. That actually seems like so much fun, although I guess I would save some things (like my collection of childhood books).

• Abby asks for (and gets) a convertible couch for her bedroom (so her friends from Long Island can visit). How big is her room that she can fit a couch and a bed?

• Also, Abby says her house is as big as all the other houses on the street. So, how come we always hear about Kristy living in a mansion, but nothing about Abby (or Shannon, for that matter) living in one?

• Abby says that if the BSC were around when she was leaving Long Island, she would have figured out from all the “clues” that her mom wanted to move. I guess because the BSC are such good “detectives?” But considering the clues included a real estate agent from Stoneybrook calling her mom, I don’t know how great a detective would be needed.

• And how come the Pike triplets never run into trouble with people mixing them up, but all the female twins we meet do?

• Anna already has her graded and returned to her before Abby turns hers in. But from reading all the other autobiographies, I had the sense that they were due at the same time.

• Also, Anna only turned it in a week earlier, and I can’t believe a teacher would grade a full class of autobiographies in less than a week. That is a hell of a lot of reading.

• Lastly, for anyone who cares, Abby got an A- on her autobiography.

Update

I just wanted to let everyone know I'm leaving for vacation today, so the next update will be in about two weeks.

I was hoping I'd get a chance to update again before I left, but I just didn't get to it (sorry about that). I'll make the next one really good to make up for it.

“If I was going to hand in the fascinating story of my life on time, I had to work on it all weekend”…….BSC Portrait Collection: Kristy’s Book

Memory Reaction

I never read this book when I was younger, so a memory doesn’t really apply. I do remember wanting to read Kristy’s autobiography, but by the time they got to Kristy I had given up the series. I think my reason for wanting to read Kristy’s was that I wanted it to talk more about when her father left. In the memory super special we saw Stacey getting diabetes and Dawn’s parents getting divorced, but nothing about Kristy’s dad.

Revisited Reaction

Kristy’s autobiography follows the same format as the others, but her early years summary has some more detailed stories than the others, starting with her birth: Kristy’s parents were at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium when her mom started having contractions. Her father tells Mrs. Thomas it will be awhile until they really have to go to the hospital, and they should stay and watch the game. Later in the game, he finally agrees. Kristy thinks this may have to do with her liking sports. I think it should have been a sign for Kristy’s mom that she married an asshole. But I guess both could apply.

When Kristy was five, she hated that her older brothers didn’t like to play with her, and that they were allowed to do things she wasn’t (walk to friends houses alone, stay up late, etc). One day, she finds out that Sam and Charlie are going to watch a baseball game at the park, and then go to the movies with some friends. She tells her mom she’s going to Claudia’s house, but actually walks to the park and tells the boys her mom said it was okay to go with them. When Mrs. Thomas finds out she’s not at Claud’s, she gets worried and finds out what happened from Mary Anne. She goes to the theater and actually gets the place to stop the movie, so she can go in and find Kristy. She takes her (and Sam and Charlie) home. Kristy’s brothers are furious with her, but they are allowed to go back and see the end of the movie. Kristy isn’t allowed to do this, but she convinces them to tell her everything that happens.

When Kristy was six, her father walked out, which we all know. He literally just left for work one day and never came back. Her mom called his boss, who said that Mr. Thomas quit and said he was moving west. Six months later, he’s still gone and Mrs. Thomas has found a job. She sends David Michael to day care, but decides that Charlie, Sam, and Kristy can handle being home alone after school (at ages 10, 8, and 6). But the Baby-Sitters Club didn’t exist then, so she really had no choice. For the first week, the kids eat junk food, have friends over, etc. Then Louie (the dog) gets sprayed by a skunk, and Kristy, her brothers, Mary Anne, and Claudia get locked in the bathroom when trying to clean him with tomato juice. They also make a huge mess, which is a predictable result of little kids using tomato juice. After Mrs. Thomas sees this, she decides the kids need some structure. She makes them each do certain chores every day, which they complain about at first, but ultimately decide isn’t so bad. Things go well for the next six or seven years, and Mrs. Thomas eventually finds a decent (and rich) guy.

When Kristy was ten she went to a sports-themed camp for girls. This is bullshit, because in Super Special 2, she said she hadn’t been to camp before. But whatever. Kristy’s in one of two softball cabins – they play each other for intra-camp games, but also come together to play other camps in the area. The two cabins have a bit of a rivalry and play pranks on each other, which get pretty bitter over the course of the summer. After awhile, the rivalry makes them lose games with other camps, their coach gets pissed and “quits,” which encourages the girls to make up. The coach agrees to come back and they all have fun for the rest of the camp session.

When Kristy was 13, her father reappeared in her life, which is what happened in the BSC movie. I can’t decide if I like that for continuity’s sake or think it’s lame for lack of originality. But it does make me a little curious about who owns the copyright of that story. The book keeps the general idea of the story the same, but change the details. Like the movie, she tells Mary Anne, but no one in her family, and her dad has no interest in seeing any of her brothers, which I think is a little weird. Also like the movie, Kristy tries to pretend that his asking her to keep his presence a secret isn’t a bad sign. Now, different from the movie, Watson realizes Kristy was lying about being on a baby-sitting job (so she could see her dad). He doesn’t know why Kristy lied, but he does keep it a secret. Then Kristy’s dad gives her a baseball glove to “make up for all the missed birthdays.” But it is a right-handed glove, and Kristy’s left-handed. Kristy’s upset, but rationalizes it by thinking he may have just not noticed. She decides to take it to a sporting goods store to try and exchange it. The store points out that the glove was personalized with a note revealing it was a gift at some sportswriters’ dinner. Then her dad just doesn’t show up the next time they are supposed to meet, and he has checked out of his hotel. Kristy finally tells her mom, who’s pretty sympathetic about it, but doesn’t seem to angry with her ex. I guess once you marry a millionaire, you lose some of the bitterness about your jerk of an ex-husband. Anyway, Watson gives Kristy a left-handed glove, because he’s actually a decent guy, so the story ends well.

High/Lowlights

• Isn’t Karen (and maybe Andrew) a Krusher? Kristy has Sam fill in for her at a Krusher practice so that she can work on her autobiography. But Karen is still around to annoy her.

• Kristy apparently ran her first step. She had pulled herself up with a bench while she was watching her brothers play catch. The ball rolled away from them, and she “ran” over to it and picked it up. I don’t know if it’s realistic for a baby to do that, but I think it’s kind of a cute story regardless.

• Kristy had her first great idea at age four. She, Mary Anne, and Claudia were building a snowman, when a neighbor complimented their work, and said how she misses having kids at home to do things like that. The girls decide to build one in her yard. The neighbor loves it and gives them each a dollar. Kristy says they should use it to give Mimi a birthday present and when the neighbor hears that, she gives them each another dollar. One thing leads to another, and the girls end up making snowmen for a bunch of other neighbors. They give Mimi a scarf that she wears ever winter until she dies.

• The movie Kristy tries to see as a kid is called “car man,” about a guy who can turn into cars to fight crime. That seems….really lame.

• To get Sam and Charlie to tell her how the movie ends, Kristy gets Mary Anne and Claudia to play with some toy cars with her. When her brothers get home, the girls start acting out their own version of the movie, which gets Sam and Charlie to tell them what actually happened. I think that’s actually a pretty smart idea for a five-year-old.

• Another sign you’re married to an asshole: He thinks it’s funny that you spent part of the afternoon thinking your five-year-old was missing.

• How old was Louie? Cause Kristy says they got him when David Michael was born, but that means he would have only been about seven when he died. Which doesn’t seem too old for a dog. And since he died before Stoneybrook went into a time warp, it really was only seven years.

• Even at age six, Claudia had an “endless supply” of junk food. Now, really, how are we supposed to believe that? Where would a six-year-old with no money get access to so much candy?

• The camp Kristy goes to is in Connecticut, so at least that part is consistent with what she says in Super Special 1 about never being out of the state.

• Wouldn’t you wash off your skunk-sprayed dog outside?

• Didn’t Kristy say her most vivid memory was her first real sitting job? Which supposedly happened at age ten? But if Mrs. Thomas let Charlie be in charge of Sam and Kristy at age ten, why would she be so worried about Kristy doing the same thing?

• Kristy had to apply for a scholarship to go to this camp. She says she wrote about how much she liked baseball, plus how hard her mom has to work because her dad left. I’m still trying to decide if we’re supposed to think she ended up getting a scholarship out of sympathy.

• Kristy was the second string shortstop on the camp softball team. So, in the games against other camps, she only played in the outfield for a couple innings. This sort of surprises me. These are ten-year-old kids at a summer camp, who are paying to play softball. I would think they’d make a point of giving people equal time. When I was that age I played basketball in a recreation league, and the coaches made a point of letting everyone play. It wasn’t until high school, or maybe eighth grade that the competitive-ness started.

• So, of course, Kristy and the first-string shortstop have their own rivalry going on, and yet end up great friends by the end.

• I can’t decide what movie/book the summer camp plot sounds like, cause it sure as hell isn’t original. I’m thinking the beginning of The Parent Trap, before the twins find out they are related. The part about the coach quitting sounds familiar as well, but that must be from something else.

• The camp had a counselor-in-training. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of these outside the BSC, but I guess they exist. I went to camp once as a kid, but am certainly not an expert, so I really have no idea.

• Her dad signs his cards to Kristy with a “P” (for Patrick). That seems kind of weird, but probably in character for the guy.

• Did we know Kristy was left-handed? I feel like it must have been mentioned before, but I could be making that up.

• When Kristy’s father was younger (it doesn’t say how young), he put itching powder inside his friend’s pants before he went on a date. Classy.

• Kristy talks to her mom about her dad, and finds out that he used to say things like, “I’d be better off without you and the kids.” I think it’s pretty clear by this point that Kristy’s father’s an asshole.

“Dance mania at Stoneybrook Middle School was in full swing”…..BSC # 127: Abby’s Un-Valentine

Memory Reaction

I didn’t read this book as a kid, but I did read it a couple years ago, before I started this blog. My reaction at the time was, “so, I guess this is why there’s BSC fan fiction with Abby and Kristy as a lesbian couple.” Not because I think that a 13-year-old liking sports or not being interested in boys is gay. I just think others might use that as a basis for fan fiction. I actually think it’s good that the ghostwriters had characters not interested in dating – people develop at different rates, and it seems like a better example than having a character claim to not be interested in boys, only to reveal that she only says that because she thinks no one likes her.

Revisited Reaction

It's almost Valentine's Day in Stoneybrook (again). While Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne are all planning to go to the school dance with various dates, Abby couldn’t be less interested – she doesn’t like any boys at school and doesn't want a boyfriend period. Now unfortunately, a boy’s interested in her. Ross Brown, who I know has been mentioned before, but can't remember the context, has been hanging around Abby a lot and asks her to the dance.

Abby says no, and her friends and sister can’t believe it. Ross keeps persuing her, leaving flowers or other gifts by her locker, stopping at her house, etc. Claudia and Stacey think Abby’s just nervous because she hasn’t had a boyfriend before, and they encourage her to go to the dance with Ross. Abby tells them off about this, and it makes for a couple of tense BSC meetings. The only BSC member who sympathizes with Abby is Kristy (Mallory has left and poor Jessi just tries to play peacekeeper - she gets even less face time than usual).

It occurs to Abby that Anna (her sister) might like Ross, and that they seem to have similar interests. Abby invites Ross over, thinking she'll leave Anna and Ross alone, with the hope that things will progress naturally from there. When Ross gets there he confuses Anna for Abby. The girls aren't sure how to handle it, so they don’t say anything at first. However, their mother comes home and calls them by the correct names. Ross realizes his mistake and thinks the girls were tricking him. He leaves and refuses to talk to them the next day in school, so Abby and Anna go to his house to apologize and explain in person. He forgives them and asks Anna to go with him to a concert at the community center the next afternoon. That goes well enough for him to ask Anna to the dance that night. Meanwhile Abby and Kristy go to see some horror movies on Valentine's Day night.

Subplot: Apparently Kristy's family has been training a puppy to be a guide dog. However, now the dog has gotten old enough to go to guide dog school, so she’s leaving. This is a problem because Andrew, has grown particularly attached to the dog. He pouts about this a bunch and has a temper tantrum or two, but the dog still leaves, and it could not be more boring.

High/Lowlights

• Abby says her family moved to Connecticut because her mom couldn’t handle the long commute on the Long Island Railroad. It’s a good thing they found a place SO much closer to the city. I mean, commuting from Connecticut to NYC is MUCH more reasonable. It’s not like Stacey ever had to move to NYC because her father refused do such a long commute.

• Claudia Outfit: “She was dressed in…a woolly sweater, long black tights with thick blue socks, and hiking boots…[Her] sweater was blue, white, and gray with a snowflake-patterned yoke. It was enormous, stretching almost to her knees.” That seems sort of un-Claudia to me.

• Stacey Outfit: “She was wearing a short, dark brown leather skirt over pale stockings. She had on these cool boots that came to just above her knees. Her sweater was the color of butter, and it looked unbelievably soft.” That actually sounds really nice.

• In this book, Abby describes Dawn's wardrobe as "beach casual" instead of "California casual." I’m still not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but it’s a nice change in pace.

• Stacey's boyfriend Ethan lives in New York, so he sent her a romantic email in days leading up to Valentine's Day. This leads Abby to say that email and romance don't belong in the same sentence. I feel the same way about the BSC and email. These girls should be frozen in the eighties/early nineties.

• Another thought: Why does Abby say that about email and romance? She has already said she hates romance and all that “mushy stuff.” So, does she like email and not want it tainted with romance?

• Mary Anne wants to make birdfeeders out of pinecones during a sitting job for Kristy's siblings, and she calls Mrs. Brewer to ask her to buy the right ingredients. It seems a bit rude to be hired to baby-sit, and then ask for the parents to go out of their way to help you.

• So, I guess Andrew spent the last few months living in Chicago with his mother and step-father, but it doesn’t mention Karen doing this. I suspect this was the plot of a Little Sister book, (and Wikipedia seems to confirm it).

• The book descriptions from that link make Karen sound like a really, really, annoying brat. Her bio page is way too nice, however. (And why does she get her own entry, when the members of the BSC are all combined in one general BSC entry.)

• Abby goes over to Kristy's house to hang out with a Valentine's Day hater, and the two of them decide to sit on the stairs because it’s away from the animals making Abby sneeze, but close enough to watch the kids in the other room. Now, they aren’t baby-sitting. They just decide to do this because they’re so responsible, they can’t help but watch children.

• Watson’s old cat, Boo-Boo died at some point, so the family has a new kitten named Pumpkin. According to David Michael and Andrew, Pumpkin likes Karen best, so she's “her cat.” This makes the Andrew problem and Karen’s brattiness worse.

• Kristy tells Abby she only ever went to dances with Bart was because it was easy, but she knew she wasn't really into him "that way." I wonder why she thought she was "in love" then? Granted, she ultimately changed her mind, but she did consider the possibility.

• Abby's English class is doing a whole study on romantic poems that lasts for over a week leading up to Valentine's Day. Which, really? The teacher has time to do a whole unit centered around one silly holiday?

• Abby tries to read an “unromantic” poem in her English class (to counter the “mushiness”). She says she got the idea from an episode of My So-Called Life. Is it wrong that I tried to figure out which episode she could be talking about?

• At this point, Nannie has her own catering business out of the house. I don’t know when that happened, but good for her.

• Stacey actually gives Ross tips on what to give Abby to win her over. Which is really kind of mean since she knew Abby wasn’t interested.

• Jessi announces that she’s going to the dance with a bunch of kids in her grade. I hope that means she has some other friends at school. I kind of felt bad for her when she stopped getting storylines/books and Mallory went off to boarding school. According to the list in the back of the book, Jessi had three books above # 80, and the series went to # 131.

• I have no idea if this is true to life, but supposedly the Brewer/Thomases will be able to visit Scout (the dog) in a year, after she’s finished guide dog school (assuming his owner agrees). Now, I am certainly not in a position of having a guide dog, but I don’t think I would want strangers coming to visit the dog that’s supposed to be helping me.

• Karen mentions that she would visit Scout (the dog) even if he ends up in Australia. And Nannie adds that she’d really like to go to Australia. I think I would go to Australia with Nannie, she seems like a fairly cool grandmother.

“By the time I’d finished writing that section of my autobiography I realized it was a funny story”…BSC Portrait Collection: Mary Anne’s Book

Memory Reaction

The main thing I remember about this one, is that I really liked how we got to see more about what happened when Mary Anne visited her grandmother in Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic. There was a whole chunk of time we only got to hear about through letters Mary Anne wrote during the trip. Here, we get the full story.

I also remember being a little surprised about the portrayal of Mary Anne’s father (and I know I made a similar comment about the Prequel). But in the early books, Mary Anne’s father was always portrayed as strict and (at least to me) a bit distant. But, based on her autobiography, he was very understanding and they had a close relationship.

Revisited Reaction

It’s Mary Anne’s turn for her autobiography. Like the others, hers is split into four mini-stories. The first is from when she was six, and her class was having a Mother’s Day Tea Party. The teacher tells the class that if someone doesn’t have a mother, or whose mother can’t come, they can invite another adult in their lives. So, Mary Anne invites her dad. However, when she tells the rest of the class this, they laugh at her for taking a man to a Mother’s Day tea party (they don’t realize her mother’s dead). So, Mary Anne invites Mimi, and thinks if she doesn’t mention it to her dad again, he’ll forget. But of course, this doesn’t happen. Richard and Mimi both show up, and Mary Anne’s afraid that her teacher will yell at her, and that her dad will be mad she asked Mimi. But, since most teachers won’t yell at a six-year-old with a dead parent, she’s nice about it, and Richard tells Mary Anne he doesn’t mind that she thought a woman should go.

Next, we jump to the summer after second grade. Kristy’s mom had signed her up for a camp-like thing for the summer, where the kids take swimming or art lessons every morning. Because there weren’t spots open in the “cool” classes, Kristy gets stuck in ballet. She talks Claudia into signing up as well, and gets Mrs. Thomas to call Richard and sign up Mary Anne. Mary Anne’s too shy to want to dance in front of other people, but she’s afraid to tell her dad, because he seemed happy that the classes helped with child care issues. So, Mary Anne’s miserable, but makes it through. But, at the end of the session, they have to put on a recital. Mary Anne totally freaks out. The morning of the recital she throws up because of how nervous she is. Her dad tells her that if she’s really that upset about dancing in front of people, she doesn’t have to do it.

In fourth grade, Mary Anne’s at least slightly less shy. She makes friends with a new girl in school named April. April wears red glasses that Mary Anne likes and thinks would look good on her. When the school gives a vision test, she fails on purpose, hoping they’ll give her a pair. However, her dad has to take her to the eye doctor first, and Mary Anne’s worried she won’t be able to fool him. Then when she looks at the glasses the doctor has on display, she decides she doesn’t want glasses after all, and plans to pass the test. But, it turns out she really did need glasses, but only for reading. She’s a little upset, but after everyone tells her she looks good in glasses, she decides she doesn’t mind much.

The last story’s sort of like a deleted scene from Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic. It starts out with a quick summary of that book, and then goes in-depth on what actually happened during Mary Anne’s visit with her grandmother. The first couple days were very awkward. Mary Anne’s grandmother kept talking about when Mary Anne was a baby, and asking her if she remembered her grandfather (who had just died). Mary Anne’s all, I was a year old, of course I don’t remember. Her grandmother also keeps making digs at Richard, and about how he “took” Mary Anne away from them. Mary Anne finally snaps and yells at her, which ultimately leads to them talking things through. They spend the rest of the trip bonding and talking about Mary Anne’s mother. When she gets home, Mary Anne tells her dad she loved her grandmother, but definitely wants to keep living with him.

High/Lowlights

• Mary Anne mentions being fascinated by Janine as a kid, because she could read while she was walking, just like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. I think she’s the wrong age to be referencing the most recent Disney movie, but I guess she heard the story elsewhere. I do think it’s cool to see the point of view of someone who doesn’t hate Janine.

• When Mary Anne first says she’s going to invite her dad to the tea party, Alan Gray’s the one leading the laughter. Kristy gets right up to punch him in the middle of class, but the teacher yells at them and is to distracted to tell Mary Anne it was okay to invite her dad.

• Now, I would think the teacher would know about Mary Anne’s mother (from parent-teacher conferences and all), so you would think she would make a point of reassuring Mary Anne about who to bring. And the fact that Kristy and Alan’s fight’s what distracted her doesn’t really make sense. The whole reason Kristy got up was because of Alan’s reaction to Mary Anne.

• When Mary Anne was younger, her father took her to a restaurant every Sunday night, to teach her how to “behave properly in public.” Which seems ambitious of him.

• When they’re kids, Mary Anne complains about her horrible baby-sitter, and she, Kristy, and Claudia say that someday they will baby-sit and be GREAT. Which seems a bit unrealistic. I mean, the only time I ever thought about baby-sitting at that age was when I wanted to be like the girls in the BSC.

• In the eyeglasses story, Mary Anne says fourth grade’s the first time she, Kristy, and Claudia aren’t in the same class. But in Claud’s autobiography, Claudia says fourth grade’s the first time since first grade that she’s been in the same class as Kristy.

• For someone usually so shy, Mary Anne made friends with April quickly.

• This book really shows the difference between Claudia and Mary Anne…When Mary Anne tried to fail the vision test, she made a point of finding out what the test was, and she came up with a system for getting it wrong, without looking obvious (such as saying an “E” is a “B” instead of “T” or something that looks nothing like an “E”). Meanwhile, when Claudia failed at trying to fail a test.

• I can identify with Mary Anne, because I always wanted glasses as a kid. I thought they would make me look older (I always looked young for my age).

• By the end of the eyeglass section, Mary Anne, Kristy, and Claudia all seem like pretty good friends with April. But, was there ever any reference to an SMS student named April? I know she could have moved again, and that people don’t always stay friends, but it would have been cooler if they made the character Emily Bernstein or someone else who isn’t in the BSC, but that we’ve seen.

• When Mary Anne goes to the eye doctor, she’s all worried that the doctor will find out she failed the school vision test on purpose and report her to “school authorities.”

• I probably said this back when I wrote about the original book, but it was really, really, crappy of Mary Anne’s grandparents to say that if Mary Anne didn’t live with them full time, they didn’t want to see her.

• We get to read a portion of a letter we only hear about in Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic, one that Mary Anne’s mother wrote her before she died. It goes on about how she hopes Mary Anne loves the farm her parents live on and how knowing Mary Anne will have them (as well as Richard) makes her feel better about dying. Which is kind of sad, and makes her grandparents look even worse.

• When Mary Anne asks her dad about visiting her grandmother, she says she wants to go soon, “before school starts.” And there’s a picture of a plane ticket dated in August. But, school was definitely in session in the book where this was supposed to have happened. The whole thing started because the kids of Stoneybrook were researching their backgrounds.

• Mary Anne’s plane ticket has her flying out of Stamford and into Des Moines. But would she have really flown out of there? I think I’ve mentioned this before, but it seems odd that with all the BSC travels, they wouldn’t be flying out of one of the big NY airports.

• Does Mary Anne’s grandmother really expect her to remember things that happened when she was a year old?

• Here’s what we learn about Mary Anne’s mom: She got straight A’s, hated cooking, but liked sewing, and attended a Rolling Stones concert.

• So, Mary Anne’s mother was almost twenty-five when she died….which seems really young and sad.

• Mary Anne gets an A+ on her project, which puts her above all the other BSC autobiographies (so far). She also turned in early, because she’s the type of person who would do something like that (and I don’t mean that in a bad way).