“I felt so stupid writing in the BSC journal”…..BSC Super Special # 15: Baby-sitters’ European Vacation

Memory Reaction

This was my first time reading this one.

Revisited Reaction

In the latest edition of completely unrealistic class trips, Jessi, Mallory, Stacey, Abby, and Kristy are off to London and Paris. SMS is traveling with a group from another middle school from Toronto.  I didn’t catch how or why this partnership happened, but I don’t think it really matters.  Anyway, the girls each have their own little adventure.

Jessi finds out that the group she danced with in NYis performing in London.  She gets tickets for herself and the BSC members.  While backstage saying hello, a dancer – who just happened to be dancing a part Jessi knows – injures herself.  Since her understudy’s also sick, they ask Jessi to fill in and perform.

Mallory has dinner with some second cousins that live in London.  They show her a family tree stating that William Shakespeare is a distant relative (great x17 grandfather).  I guess they thought this book wasn’t unrealistic enough.  Or maybe it’s not unrealistic, since great x17 works out to less than a hundredth of a percent.  Lots of people must be related to him that much. Anyway, Mal’s inspired and spends the rest of the trip working hard on some story, and doesn’t pay attention to what she’s actually seeing until Jessi points it out to her.

Stacey’s got a couple of things going on.  First, her mother’s a chaperone, which she finds super embarrassing.  Understandable for a 13-year-old. Then she picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport, which I feel like has been done before, but can’t think of when.  I may be thinking of Sleepover Friends.  This lets her whine about clothes a bit and go shopping.  But, then we get to the real point: The bag she grabs includes an urn with the ashes/remains of someone.  When they reach the owner of the bag, they find out he’s a WWII vet, and was traveling to Europe to spread his army friend’s ashes on the beach in Normandy.  Mrs. McGill tells the guy that she and Stacey will bring the ashes to him in person when they get to Paris, to make sure the airline doesn’t lose them again.  Stacey starts reading up on WWII and gets interested in it.  She ends up going with the guy (and her mother) when he spreads the ashes on the beach in Normandy.

Abby gets to be the focus of our interactions with Victoria. All of the BSC members go visit her, but Victoria only invites Abby to come along when she’s in some ceremony where she gives flowers to the Queen.  Abby thinks this means she will meet the Queen, and gets all nervous about it.  But really, she’s only in the back of the very large room.  Later, she manages to accidentally step on the feet of some prince.

Kristy gets the vacation romance story in this book, which I think is a first for her, at least in a Super Special. She meets this guy Michel, from the Toronto middle school, who she “hates” on site.  They spend the whole trip fighting and driving each other crazy.  Then when they get separated from their group in Paris, they decide to “pretend” to get along until they meet up with everyone else. They end up having a lot of fun and people they see on the street call them a cute couple. On the last night of the trip they kiss goodbye.

Back in Stoneybrook, the rest of the club’s working at a playground camp.  Cokie Mason’s also working there, trying to get her hands on Logan, who’s totally not interested. So, nothing new there. The head counselor at the camp’s Janine’s ex-boyfriend Jerry, who’s kind of a jerk to her.  This makes Janine take out her anger on Claud, making her miserable.  But in the end Janine tells off Jerry, and she and Claudia come to a bit of a truce.

High/Lowlights

• In the backstory chapter, Jessi says that Stacey has a normal life, other than having to give herself daily injections.  I have to say, that’s not exactly a minor detail.

• Someone mentions that Elvis was in the army and may have been “overseas.”  Then Abby guesses that it was for the Civil War.  Seriously?  Has Claudia been tutoring her or something?

• I’m guessing there was another book between the Playground fight one and the actual Super Special one, because they give no explanation whatsoever about how Stacey’s mom ended up as chaperone. I know I said I liked having a set up book, but having two seems to be pushing it.

• There’s this ongoing story surrounding the fact that the teacher chaperoning the trip (Mr. Dougherty – Mallory’s creative writing teacher) keeps disappearing on his own to look at things and always shows up late.  So, Mrs. McGill ends up having to cover for him.  Now, they don’t say how many kids are on this trip, but only two chaperones?  That seems seriously low.  There are teachers from the Canadian school, but they are watching their own kids.

• I remember in the Hawaii Super Special, it was a big deal when Abby wanted to go to the beach to shoot that commercial, because people needed to stay in the group.  But in this one, all the girls have side trips on their own, and it doesn’t seem to be an issue. 

• Claudia says she’s never worked as a camp counselor before.  I guess technically that’s true, but what about when she was a CIT?

• Alan Gray purposely acts suspicious at the airport, because he thinks it’s funny.  It’s just a thing that jumps out at you reading, because the scene wouldn’t have played out that way in current times.

• I can’t believe everyone was cool with Mallory just going (alone) to the house of some people she’d never actually met, just because they’re related. 

• I’m surprised more teachers wouldn’t want to chaperone.  Yes, they’d be working on their vacation, but they’d be in Paris/London for crazy-cheap prices.

• When the SMS students meet the other school they are traveling with, their chaperones make them do this lame icebreaker where they all put one shoe in a pile, then take someone else’s and walk around trying to find the owner.  Kristy’s actually thinks this is a great idea and is all excited about doing it.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone excited about that kind of thing. 

• At camp, they have to move things inside because of a rain storm. Mary Anne ends up going back outside, because she’s looking for a camper that Cokie lost track of.  When she comes in soaking wet, Cokie says ”Is this a BSC wet T-shirt contest?…not that anyone would notice.”  Is she saying what I think she’s saying?

• At first, I thought the Jessi dancing thing was ridiculous, but they did give her a little time to practice at first, and she mentions not doing everything perfectly, so it’s somewhat realistic.  Especially since she was just one person in a group dance scene.

• The BSC all thought Victoria lived in a castle, just based on her telling them that back at home.  But I would think they knew Victoria well enough to know she exaggerates…she’s in a relatively normal house.

• Abby mentions how she and Mary Anne were the closest BSC members to Victoria. However, this isn’t really how I remember it, considering Mary Anne narrated the two books where Victoria was featured.  I bet Mary Anne would have known Victoria was lying about a castle.

• Robert gets a chapter because he’s contributing to the trip journal the BSC’s doing.  I’m not sure how Stacey convinced him to do this AFTER they stopped dating, but whatever. 
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• One day, Dawn ends up missing a day at the Playground Camp to fill in at this other camp for kids with disabilities. They should have had Dawn have reference her experience with cerebral palsy. I actually thought they would make a point of saying she was picked to fill in because of that experience, but I guess I was too optimistic. They do reference her experience with Down’s syndrome, so I’ll give them some credit.

• At the camp, we get a run in with Susan Felder, from way back.

• Dawn’s an idiot.  The camp head tells her about this machine Susan has, and says that kids with autism use because it comforts them physically without having to touch other people (which they usually don’t like).  Then, when Dawn brings Susan to the machine, and sees it “touching her,” she calls the person back all worried.  The councilor’s all, “I thought you got that it was a hugging machine.” Really I don’t know how Dawn could have thought something else.  I was surprised that she was confused, because it was so obvious what the councilor was saying.  It’s like in the second Twilight book, when I couldn’t understand how Bella didn’t get that Edward left to protect her.

• How come Mallory always writes stories where the main character is her?  Seriously, it’s annoying. 

• Abby thinking for even a second that she was going to meet the Queen was ridiculous.

• Every room in their Paris hotel has a balcony looking at the Eiffel tower.  Is that even possible?  Don’t some rooms need to be on the other side of the building?

• I understand Stacey getting interested in WWII based on what happened with the suitcases, but it seems a bit pushy when she asks to go with the guy to spread his friend’s ashes.

• In the Playground Fight book, they say that the Europe trip is in the middle of the camp session.  But in this book, the camp starts at the same time as the others leave for the trip.

• Kristy and Michel get separated when touring the Louvre with their group.  They say the backup plan for when this happens is to go to some group meeting place at the end of the day.  So, the two of them just go off on their own for the afternoon.  They leave a message at their hotel that this is what they are doing, and the teacher leaves them one back saying that it’s okay.  Now…what the hell kind of chaperone would be okay with that?  I can’t believe they would even leave the museum without doing a head count.

• Apparently, Janine broke up with Jerry, got back together with him, then dumped him again.  Which, leads to their tension at the camp.  I would like to know which book this happens in, cause I want the story about this breakup.

• Michael (Kristy’s love interest) plays a “prank” on her, that Kristy claims humiliated her.  Basically, he told the girl working at the counter of a café to pretend that she doesn’t speak English, so Kristy had trouble ordering. Then she’s embarrassed when she finds out the girl really spoke English. I don’t get what’s so humiliating about that.  Isn’t it sort of expected that communicating will be hard when you don’t speak the native language? The girl didn’t yell at her or anything. 

• Jessi convinces Mallory to stop working on her latest story and enjoy the trip.  You would think she would mention how she went through the same thing in Hawaii, but she makes no reference to it.  Maybe she was purposely avoiding it because she thought it would make Mal feel bad (since Mallory was the person Jessi was writing everything down for)?  Or maybe the ghostwriter completely forgot.  I’ll let you decide.

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

Memory Reaction

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

Revisited Reaction

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

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

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

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

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

High/Lowlights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m sure some people think I’m strange because of the way I dress”…..BSC # 111: Stacey’s Secret Friend

Memory Reaction

N/A

Revisited Reaction

There’s a new girl in school named Tess Swinhart.  Stacey meets her when Tess accidentally ruins a paper-mache jaguar that the School Pep Squad was making (and Stacey is apparently on the squad now).  Anyway, Tess is a bit awkward, wears dark rimmed glasses and tons of pink clothes.  Stacey thinks she totally lacks style.  Tess is apparently a bit of a klutz too, because she also spills some of the paper-mache on Alan Gray.  He decides to get revenge by calling her “swine-heart” behind her back.  In addition to her name and the all-pink thing, Tess’s nose is slightly upturned, so the whole thing picks up steam. Alan gets the whole school to start calling her a pig, makes “oink” noises around her, and starts a comic strip about a character that looks like Tess and is called “Swine-Heart the Destroyer.”  Lots of kids pass this around and add to it in various classes.  But Tess, seems to be oblivious to all of it.

Meanwhile, Stacey’s spending a lot of time with Tess because she’s helping the Pep Squad rebuild the jaguar and the two are working together on a school project.  Stacey decides to “help” Tess stop being made fun of.  She “casually” tries to drop hints about places to buy contacts, different clothes, etc.  She even offers to give Tess a makeover.  It’s pretty obvious what she’s doing, but since Tess doesn’t take any advice, Stacey thinks that she’s totally clueless.

At a football game, the Pep Squad is running a vote on whether they should switch to a new mascot.  This involves holding up signs with various suggested mascots, and seeing which one people cheer for the most.  Someone switched out a sign that Stacey holds up for a pig with a picture of Tess and the label “Swine-Heart the Destroyer.”  Tess sees it, hears everyone laughing, and finally realizes she’s been a joke.  While trying to leave, she falls off the bleachers and breaks her ankle and sprains her wrist.  When the ambulance comes, Stacey tries to talk to Tess, but Tess tells her she isn’t her friend and asks her to leave.  Stacey’s too nervous to call Tess herself for couple days, even after another girl on the Pep Squad told Stacey that Tess knows she wasn’t involved in the stunt. 

Eventually, Stacey does go to Tess’s house so they can talk about their school project.  She finds out that Tess is from Paris, which explains the way she dresses and talks, and why she misses a lot of pop culture references.  Stacey also sees pictures of Tess’s friends also wearing a lot of pink, and sees similar outfits in a French style magazine.  She expresses surprise, and Tess is all…..”you would have known I was French if you actually bothered to talk to me.”  Afterwards Stacey feels bad about the whole situation…as she should, because she was a bit of a bitch to Tess.

Other kids in school are still making fun of Tess, and Clarence King and Alan Gray are planning to play a prank on her.  The plan’s for Clarence to ask her out, take to her to a restaurant called “Hog Heaven,” then put pictures of her with mean captions into the school newspaper.  They think they can get these past Emily Bernstein (the editor), but she finds out about it and tells Stacey.  Stacey tells Tess, and she and the BSC help make Clarence and Alan look like idiots (they dump food on them and take pictures, but don’t publish them anywhere). And Tess becomes friends with another girl, so even though she and Stacey aren’t really friends, the fence is a bit mended and she’s happy.

High/Lowlights

• Has the SMS mascot always been a jaguar?

• My main question from this one is, when the hell did Stacey join the Pep Squad?  And how’s that different than the cheerleading squad, which we know she wouldn’t be on?

• Claudia tries to defend Tess’s clothing, by saying some people say she dresses strange (if by some she means everyone in the world).  But then Abby says she looks like she knows what she’s doing.  That’s gotta be one of her weird jokes, right?

• Apparently, Mallory has said that when she’s a famous writer she won’t put her picture on the books, because she doesn’t like how she looks.  That’s….really sad, actually.

• But we do get to hear Stacey talk about how great Mal will look once she gets contacts and her braces off.  Then Barbara calls Mallory cute.  So, I think we’re supposed to be seeing Mal as someone who really has very little self-esteem in regards to her looks, not actually someone who’s ugly.

• People also call Tess, “Petunia,” which is apparently Porkey Pig’s girlfriend.  That’s a reference I would not have gotten, I didn’t even know Porky had a girlfriend.  The things you learn in these books are endless.

• That reminds me……didn’t Stacey have a stuffed pig collection at one point?

• At a sitting job for the Pikes, Jessi and Mallory are sitting for Claire, Margo, Nicky, and Vanessa.  They say the rule’s 2 sitters for 4 kids or more, but the way I remember it is 2 sitters when it’s OVER 4 kids.  I know there’s a book where Claudia sits for the triplets and Claire.  And jobs for Kristy’s 4 younger siblings never have more than one sitter.  I’m sure there are other examples too.  I think they just wanted to give both girls some screen time, since they had nothing else to do in this book.

• Emily tells Stacey about the prank when Stacey arrives in the cafeteria for lunch.  Stacey says she told all her friends about it…at the club meeting that evening.  Wouldn’t the natural thing to do be go right to their lunch table and tell them right away?  So what if not everyone in the club is there?

• In order to play their prank, Alan and Clarence would have had to switch out the copy of the paper that Emily approved with their own.  Which, Emily says wouldn’t have worked, and I’m sure she’s right.  It sure was tough to be an asshole before Facebook.

• Stacey also tries to get Tess to join the Pep Squad, even after Tess says it’s not her think.  She’s really pushy about it, actually.

• The thing that’s bothering me after reading this book is that we never find out if the students picked a new mascot or not.

• The girl Tess does becomes friends with is this girl Barbara, whose previous BFF was the girl who got killed in a car accident.  So, this was a bit of closure on that storyline, which is nice.

• Tess does try wearing makeup once after the makeover Stacey gave her, but says she doesn’t like how mascara feels.  Stacey thinks this is weird because she doesn’t think it’s possible to feel mascara.  I would have to disagree with her.  But I rarely wear mascara.

• So, Clarence King keeps talking to Tess and calling her “Babe.”  Tess doesn’t get the pig reference and thinks that Clarence likes her.  Stacey tries to tell her not to get involved, and Tess thinks that Stacey’s the one that likes him.  Stacey’s horrified, but the more she denies it, the more Tess is convinced.  It really made me laugh for some reason.  And if Stacey really wanted to help Tess she’d tell her the truth.

• There’s a subplot where Jackie Rodowsky and Nicky Pike are hanging out a lot acting secretive.  The BSC doesn’t know what’s going on, but we find out that some kid was bullying Jackie, so he asked Nicky to be his bodyguard.  But Abby convinces Jackie to talk out the problem.  And of course, that totally solves the problem.  I’d say mor.e, but writing about it would put me to sleep

• There’s a reference to the BSC notebook, because Abby figures out Jackie is hiding in the same place as when another sitter was there.  It’s minor, but I do like that they pointed out that can help.

• Stacey’s definitely bitchy in this one, but Tess does say things like, “I adore the middle ages.”  So, it’s realistic that 13-year-olds would find her strange.

• So, I love the color pink.  But I wouldn’t wear it every day.  Even if it is THE color of the year in the fashion world, wearing the same color every day seems a bit much.

• Maybe the all-pink thing is supposed to be like Stephanie Green wearing red, white, and black?

• Stacey kind of annoys me at the end.  Because after she finds out Tess lived in Paris, she thinks how some of what Tess wore may end up stylish soon.  Except, if Stacey didn’t like her outfits, she should really not like her outfits.  The fact that people in Paris wear pink doesn’t mean Stacey has to like that color too. 

• Here’s all of Tess’s “horrible” outfits….I’d bet anything that if Claudia wore one of these everyone would say she looked amazing:

• “She wore a short, pale pink cardigan buttoned up to the top.  It covered a white blouse with a lace-trimmed Peter Pan collar, which peaked over the cardigan. Her pants were loose-fitting brown corduroys.  And…she was wearing black boots.”

• “She was wearing a hot pink sweat outfit with frilly lace around the collar and sleeves.”

• “Her outfit that day might have been the worst one yet. She wore baggy pink overalls and a long-sleeved, satin shirt with a bright (and I mean bright) pattern of pink and green daisies all over it.”  She had also clipped a small (but bright) pink plastic barrette in her hair.”

• “Nice jeans and a dusty-blue sweater” but, she’d “spiked her hair and even put on pale, icy pink lipstick.”  I can’t really tell is the spikes are good or bad (according to Stacey), but this is what she wore after trying Stacey’s suggestion.

• “The outfit was the brightest pink yet, and the worst. Bright pink corduroy pants with a boxy, nubby, bright pink sweater. The pink plastic barrette was in her hair and she wasn’t wearing any makeup.”  I like how Stacey keeps calling them the worst one yet.

• “She was wearing a bright pink blouse with big puffed sleeves over a short black skirt.  The skirt was okay.  But the blouse!”

• What do you think would happen if I tried to send in the form for joining the BSC Fan Club that’s in the back of this book?

“Isn’t she supposed to pass it now?”……BSC # 110: Abby the Bad Sport

Memory Reaction

This is another one I first read as an adult, before doing this review.  And I thought it was the worst BSC book I’d ever read.  Abby drove me crazy though the whole thing.  But, I set out to do every book, so I am making a sacrifice for it.

Revisited Reaction

The copy of this book that I have goes from page 1 - 26, then repeats pages 1 – 26, then jumps to page 59.  And I no longer have access to the library I got the full book from the other time I read it. So, I missed a couple chapters, but since BSC books don’t exactly have a Lost-level of complexity, I think I got most of the plot.  But if the details seem light, that’s why.

Abby’s taking part in a Special Olympics soccer program, where kids with intellectual disabilities (“athletes”) play on a team alongside kids who don’t (“partners”).  Abby assumes she’ll be the star of the team, because she apparently has a super-high opinion of herself.  Or maybe she’s picked up on the rule about BSC members always being fabulous with their hobbies.  So, she’s surprised to find out that one of the athletes, Erin, is a really good player.  She’s also annoyed that her coach wants her to play a different position than she usually does.  This all makes Abby a bit competitive and she spends more time trying to make herself look good than helping the team win.  Erin ends up doing the same thing, and the team loses their first game.  Their coach benches them for the next two games. 

Meanwhile, the BSC and some of the kids they sit for start a booster club to support Abby and the team.  This means that not only do we see Abby acting like a total brat, we also have to hear the BSC sitting in the stands talking about how Abby’s hogging the ball and wondering why she isn’t passing.  Maybe this was to make it really obvious what Abby’s doing was wrong?   In case someone couldn’t tell from Abby’s inner monolouge?  They also have a car wash to raise money to surprise the team with uniforms or jerseys or something.  I don’t really get why the kids all care so much, but whatever.  There are worse ways to incorporate the kids into the book.

At the end of the second game where Abby’s benched, the coach puts her and Erin in the game for a few minutes.  Since she’s so happy to be playing, Abby manages to be a team player and the game ends in a tie. Afterwards, the rest of the team goes out for pizza, but Abby skips it to go for a run.  Because she’s a brat and doesn’t want to be around people when they have no reason to congratulate her.  Erin shows up to run as well, and after they sort of race, they talk and pretty much make up.  Abby also apologizes for acting like a “stupid jerk.”  In the next game, they both manage to work together and help the team win.  Thankfully, they don’t end up best friends or anything cliché like that.

The subplot’s that Abby’s mother’s planning to take her and Anna to Long Island to visit their grandparents and her father’s grave.  In the chapters I missed, we apparently hear about why this upsets Abby so much.  I’m going to assume it’s just her still dealing with grief over his death.  She convinces her mom to let her stay at Kristy’s, claiming she made a commitment to be on this team and needs to go to the game.  But when her mom and Anna come home, she’s upset about not being with them on the trip.  It makes her seem even more bratty, but I’ll give her some leeway here because a dead parent’s a bigger deal than not being a star soccer player.  But eventually, she tells her mom about how she’s feeling and they talk, blah, blah, blah.

High/Lowlights

• So, the book’s called “Abby the Bad Sport,” but I think “brat” is a better way to describe her.  In case you couldn’t tell from my recap.

• It seems weird for Abby to be giving us the club backstory, when she was hardly around for any of it.  How does she know the details of Dawn and Mary Anne’s parents getting married?  Or how hard it was for Claudia when her grandmother died?  Yeah, she’d hear about some of that stuff, but it comes off like too much of a checklist to be natural.  Unless all that stuff was in the wonderful club notebook.

• Abby makes an aside about how people who won’t be pushed around or bullied are always called “pushy” themselves.  She’s talking about Kristy at the time.  I think her point’s really that it’s okay for a person to be assertive, but it doesn’t really work, because sometimes Kristy’s beyond that and actually pushy herself.

• Claudia outfit:  “She was in a little crop-top muscle shirt that she had batikked green and blue.  She’d sewed a bunch of buttons up the front as if it were a vest. She also had on skinny black shorts, one blue sock and one green sock, and black Doc Martens with one blue shoelace (on the foot with the green sock) and one green shoelace (on the foot with the blue sock). Her long black hair had been gathered into a single braid.  A blue ribbon with more buttons attached to it was woven into the braid.  Her earrings? Buttons, naturally.” 

• Is it sad that I knew Claudia was going to do the reverse sock/shoelace color thing before I finished reading that description?

• Abby tells us that Karen’s a “stickler for the rules.”  Which is only sort of true.  Karen’s a stickler for everyone ELSE following the rules.  She likes to do whatever she wants.

• Even the kids notice that Abby’s being an annoying brat.  While they’re watching the game some of them say, “I’m never going to act like a bad sport like that.”  Which is actually really annoying as well.  But maybe it’s realistic that kids would say something like that, even if it isn’t really true.

• After seeing the soccer games, all the kids in town suddenly want to be soccer players too.  Kristy even jokes that they’ll need to make a soccer-version of the Krushers.  It just seems odd to me.  Have they never seen it played and now think it’s exciting? Or had they heard of it before but not realized how it could be fun? 

• I have to say, I don’t see how watching a soccer game could make it seem exciting.  But I hate sports and spent my childhood reading the same books over and over, so I guess I shouldn’t judge. 

• This must have been somewhere between pages 27 and 58, because I remember from the last time I read it and didn’t see it this time:  There’s an argument where Erin asks Abby if she doesn’t like her because she’s “retarded.”  (I use the quotes, cause I don’t really think that’s the politically correct term anymore, which made it seem jarring every time someone in this book used its.  The Special Olympics website uses “intellectual disabilities”).

• Sadly, I can’t remember Abby’s answer, which means it probably wasn’t very interesting, in either a good or bad way.

• This book seems like a PSA or something, but not about the existence of the Special Olympics, or intellectual disabilities in general.  It’s more about the importance of good sportsmanship behavior.  It made it really annoying to read as an adult.

• There are at least three times in this book where Abby (or someone) uses the word stupid to describe someone, then we have to hear someone (including Karen) say how you should never call anyone stupid.  It gets more obnoxious each time.  Not because I disagree, it’s just annoying to be preached at.

• For the trip to Long Island, Mrs. Stevenson drives home for her office (in NYC), picks up Anna, then drives out to Long Island.  That seems a bit crazy to me.  Why not have Anna take the train in to meet her mom there? 

• Not taking the train could be a safety issue, if it was one of the other BSC members.  But, Stacey takes the train alone in all the time, and HER mother can be over protective.  Mrs. Stevenson seems more relaxed, so I don’t think she’d have a problem with it.  It’s also summer, so Anna could have gone to work with her mom or something.

• I think I’m harping on this so much, because in the past couple of weeks I’ve had to deal with ridiculous traffic getting into NYC.

• Abby doesn’t tell anyone she was benched, but at half time of the game, Karen comes over to tell Abby she’s sure she’ll play later on.  Abby just nods and smiles, but then Karen walks over to tell Erin the same thing, who tells her about the benching. Karen of course tells Kristy.

• Kristy tells Abby she would probably have lied about being benched too….but then she proceeds to get into a fight with Abby for being such a “bad sport.”

• The game that Abby says she has to stay home for is the game where she’s benched.  Again, I’ll cut her some slack here because of the whole dead father issue.  But still.  Abby’s annoying.

• More proof that Abby’s a brat: Her team wins when she sits out….and all she thinks about is how they would have done even better if she’d been playing.

• The jerseys the team gets are all colored purple. If they explain why, I didn’t see it.  It was probably just the color randomly assigned to them, but it made me curious about something – In the town I grew up in, most of the little kid teams wore blue, which was the same color of the high school teams.  So, I was wondering what colors SMS uses.  There were a couple spirit week type things, where each grade dressed in a different color but I can’t remember a team color.  And sadly, this is the type of think I actually wonder about sometimes.

• So, maybe this did get an explanation and I missed it….but I really don’t get why anyone cares about Abby’s team enough to create a booster club supporting it.

• I’m guessing that one of the BSCers mentioned the team on a sitting job (for the Pikes maybe), and the kids got excited about the idea of it? It sounds typical for the BSC, but still a little unrealistic for so many of the kids to show up at all the games.  Maybe they heard about the Special Olympics tie-in and thought supporting it was important? And Abby did mention early on that they didn’t have a sponsor.  But still.  It seems weird.

• What’s really silly is that they seem to only get the uniforms in time for their last game.  Which seems like a bit of a waste.

“Where does she get her talent”………BSC # 115: Jessi’s Big Break

Memory Reaction 

I didn’t read this one before.

Revisited Reaction

Jessi gets accepted into a special dance program at Dance New York, which is some famous (fictional?) ballet company and school.  There’s a youth program where kids spend a few weeks at the school with guidance from famous instructors.  Since the school doesn’t have dorms, Jessi ends up staying with her cousin Michael (Aunt Cecilia’s son) and his wife in Brooklyn.  On the first day, she runs into Quint, who she’d apparently lost touch with after they decided to just be friends.  He’s over his embarrassment about being a male dancer, and is excited to be in the program.  He introduces Jessi to his friend Maritza, and they become fast friends.

Jessi loves the program and being in New York.  At first she thinks she’s doing horribly, because she gets a lot of corrections from the instructor.  But, of course, everyone does and she just didn’t realize it.  After a few days, the instructor tells her she’s totally the most awesome dancer ever, even though she’s one of the youngest in the program (it’s ages 11-13).  This makes sense since Jessi’s in the BSC, which means she has to be the best at whatever her hobby is, and win every contest/audition she enters. Outside of dancing, she hangs out a lot with Maritza and her friends (non-ballet ones) and has a lot of fun.  She ends up staying in NY on all her weekends because she’s got so much going on.

One minor complication is Quint.  At first Jessi thinks he and Maritza are a couple, but Maritza tells her they’re not, and that Quint still likes her.  Then Jessi’s worried that Quint wants them to be a couple again, but she’s still not ready for a boyfriend, even if it’s no longer long-distance.  She obsesses about how to tell him, but finally does and he’s cool with being friends and waiting for her. 

After three weeks, most of the other students have been asked to stay for another 3 weeks, but not Jessi.  She’s obviously disappointed about this.  Then after their final performance for their families, the main teacher tells Jessi’s parents that he wants her to audition for the school’s full-time dance program.  And by audition, he means she’s basically already in, but has to perform for other teachers to make it official.  She does and gets the invitation.  But, she decides she’s still young, and that she’s not really ready to leave home and lose her current friends.  But she’s told the invitation will still be there down the line.  Because that’s realistic.

The subplot’s about Becca and how she’s upset that Jessi left for so long.  So, she acts like a total brat when Mallory sits for her.  The day Jessi’s originally supposed to come home, Becca stays at the Pike’s while the Ramsey’s go to New York for the performance.  They decide to plan a welcome home party for Jessi.  Only Jessi doesn’t come home that night, because she’s staying an extra day for the audition, and the party is a bit of a bust. Aunt Cecelia had called the Pike’s to say they were arriving back in Stoneybrook late and without Jessi, but unfortunately she talked to Claire.  Who didn’t repeat this to anyone because she didn’t think it was news… everyone knew they were arriving in the evening, and that’s late.  This is why Aunt Cecelia should have asked to talk to someone over the age of 5.

High/Lowlights

• Usually, Jessi’s ballet plots make me think of when I took ballet as a kid.  But this one reminded me of Center Stage. 

• When they first get to Michael’s apartment in the city, they have to park 3 blocks away.  Which, is typical.  But this means they have to walk all the way back with 2 suitcases. Why not double park for 30 seconds or something, then have someone get out and wait with suitcases while Mr. Ramsey parks?

• Claudia outfit: “She was wearing a leopard-skin jumpsuit with a black silk shirt tied at the waist with leather stripes; black, steel tipped combat boots; and rhinestone-studded cat’s eye-glasses perched on her head.”  Somehow on Claudia this looks, “right.”  Of course it did.

• Fun fact: Aunt Cecelia’s last name is Parker.

• Jessi invites Mallory to visit one weekend.  Except, she then invites all their new friends along.  Which, seems kind of annoying.  But, she and Mal do get some alone time to catch up later on.

• Jessi’s a little obnoxious when Mal visits as well.  When Michael orders food in, Mallory seems surprised at the selection that they have.  Jessi’s all “In New York, everyone delivers not just pizza places.”  Then when Mallory realizes she forgot her toothbrush (late at night), Jessi says how Michael will go to the store, because some “places are open 24 hours in NYC.”

• Becca’s miserable for 3 weeks while Jessi’s away.  So, why do her parents leave her at home when they go to the final performance?  I don’t think it would have been a big deal to take her out of school a little earlier if that was the issue.

• If you’re wondering how Jessi can skip school for 3 weeks, the program includes time with tutors to keep the kids up to date with school stuff.

• I’m trying to figure out how the BSC had time to plan their welcome home party.  They get the idea late in the afternoon, and talk about it at the club meeting.  After the meeting ends, they have time to go to the store, make a banner, make 2 batches of cookies, and get pizza delivered, and have it all done by 7:00.  That seems like it would take more than an hour, but I guess if they had enough people helping it’s possible.

• Other than the BSC and the Pikes (since it’s at their house) the girls invite Charlotte, Haley, and Natalie Springer to the party.  I get the first two cause they’re friends with Vanessa and Becca.  But Natalie?  Isn’t she from the Little Sister books?  How did she get into the mix?

• At a meeting, someone asks Jessi if she’s come home to visit on weekends, and Claudia’s all, “No, why would she? She’ll be going to clubs, parties, etc.”  And Jessi’s just thinking, WTF?  Although not in those words, cause this is the BSC.

• Jessi mentions how she likes Maritza’s friends, because it’s the first time in a while that she’s been in a room with all African American friends.  And that it’s “refreshing.”

• So, Cecelia and Michael don’t really get along.  The reason’s a bit surprising.  He used to be into art, but ended up getting a job in some financial-related field.  And Cecelia’s upset that he didn’t follow his dream.  Which is kind of sweet, because I would expect Cecilia to be all about having a backup career in mind to be practical.  But not sweet because she lets that ruin their relationship.

• Jessi somehow inspired Michael to start painting again, so maybe the riff will be cleared up.

• Cecelia’s also really supportive of Jessi’s dancing in this book (even though, she thinks Jessi’s too young to be going to NYC alone).

• Michael says that if Jessi did join the full time program, she could stay with him and his wife (who are in their late 20s).  Which is really, really nice of him.  Especially since he barely knew Jessi before and doesn’t seem to get along well with his mother.

• When Mallory arrives, Jessi realized she hadn’t even mentioned the BSC to any of her new dancer friends.  That’s a sign of her priorities.

• Maritza tells Jessi that she was “chewing the scenery” with her friends (she means this in a nice way though), and that she’s a born leader because she got the other kids to make a video of themselves performing various skits/jokes/whatever.   It reminds me of the Jessi we saw in that practical joke book. 

• This is the last Jessi book, even though there are a good 15 books written after it in the series.

• It kinds of sucks for Jessi, because after she chooses to stay in Stoneybrook because of her family and friends, her best friend leaves for boarding school.