Friday, April 11, 2008

Yes, this is the real title....BSC # 89: Kristy and the Dirty Diapers

Memory Reaction

Okay, this book is one of the last ones I read – it was published in 1995, which means I was fourteen, and obviously WAY too old to still be reading. I mean, I thought THEN it was one of the dumbest books I had read and seriously predictable. I guess that is part of the reason I stopped reading soon after. The whole plot is that Kristy’s Krushers get a sponsorship from a diaper company and the team hates it. So, of course by the end they go back to just being the Krushers. I can tell you all this based on my memory from years ago, but even if I couldn’t I could probably have told you the end based on the back of the book summary.

It is also when Abby first shows up, and I remember how there was this cool stupid contest to name her and her twin. Which I entered. With multiple entries. I was sort of relieved when I didn’t win though. I think the prize was going with ten friends to have lunch with Ann M. Martin, and there was no way I would have admitted to any of my friends I still read BSC books. I just wanted to name them.

Revisited Reaction

The plot has every baseball cliché you could imagine. The gist of it is that Kristy gets the sponsorship for the team and the kids flip out because they have to wear uniforms that say “Diapers.” Then the guy who gave them the sponsorships shows up and tells them they suck, so they play worse then usual. Then after they go back to being Krushers, they win against the Bashers. Woo-hoo! Or whatever.

This book also introduces Abby. Dawn just moved back to California (again, some more) and the BSC is super busy. Coincidently, twin girls move in two doors down from Kristy. Only it is really dumb, because Kristy hates Abby at first, for no other reason then she is jealous of her being athletic and always being the center of attention. The ghostwriter tries to make it seem like Anna is going to join the BSC instead. But since they had announced the name of the new BSCer before the book came out, you knew what was going to happen. They actually do ask both girls to join, but Anna shocks them and turns them down. Because, who would turn DOWN the BSC? It is the best club ever!!! But, it all works out because they have a new member and are not too busy to go on long vacations to exotic locations in the near future.

The sub-subplot involves Morbidda Destiny’s granddaughter Drucsilla, who is staying with her, while her parents work out their divorce. Dru is sad because divorce sucks, so the BSC tries to cheer her up. Interestingly, they pretty much fail. Dru decides on her own to start a band and makes a few new friends, but the BSC had nothing to do with that. It is really….pointless.

High/Lowlights

  • It is kind of wrong the way Kristy always describes Emily Michelle as her “adopted sister.” I had a friend who was adopted and she never went around saying “my adopted” in front of all her relatives names. Actually, I know several people who are adopted/have adopted and none of them do it. Kristy actually refers to Karen as her sister (which is fine), but she should really pay the same courtesy to Emily or the girl will get an inferiority complex.
  • I can’t stand the way these books have people with allergies talk. Haven’t they ever heard of Claritin or something? I know a lot of people with allergies who don’t always sound sick
  • Did you ever think about how many new kids showed up throughout the series? Stacey, Dawn, Logan, Jessi, Abby, Stacey again, Dawn again…..and those are just the new people who joined the BSC. There were other new people that they just had minor interaction with like Ashley Wyeth and Corey Retlin. There was like, one new person in my entire middle school career. Of course, it only took me one year to finish 8th grade.
  • I don’t know how things like this work, but if a business sponsors a baseball team, buys equipment and uniforms, can the team really just give it back? You would think there would be some type of contract for something like that. Not that a teenager could sign a contract, but still. It is not like the guy can return used uniforms he had ordered.
  • Two-and-a-half is really, really, young to be playing on a softball team. Seriously young. So is four, for that matter. But Gabbie Perkins and Jamie Newton both play on the Krushers. And their parents don’t attend the practices. They just leave them in the hands of a thirteen-year-old who is watching twenty other kids at the same time.
  • Morbidda Destiny’s (sorry, I can’t call her anything else), granddaughter is named Druscilla. No offense to anyone with that name, but what a mean thing to do to a kid.
  • Kristy totally believes Linny when he tells her his dog crapped on his uniform.
  • So this book takes place after Stacey quits to be a “bad girl” and then rejoins. Kristy makes her be on probation, and keeps reminding her about it. I can’t believe sophisticated Stacey would take it. Actually, I can’t believe anyone would take it. After a fight you either make up or you don’t, but you don’t put people on “probation.”
  • Twin outfits: “The one with allergies wore glasses and had long, thick hair, so curly it was almost in ringlets. She was wearing baggy plaid shorts and a U4Me T-shirt…the other twin had no glasses, her hair was shorter, and she had bangs. She wore long khaki pants, sandals, and a short-sleeve button-down shirt.” They both sound so normal. I hope they run from the BSC fast.
  • More twin outfits: “Abby entered the kitchen wearing a striped shirt and a paisley skirt. She looked shell-shocked. ‘What was I thinking when I packed these last night?’” I don’t know Abby, probably that you wanted to impress Claudia?
  • Every time I type “shirt” I accidentally type “shit” first. Do you think that is some type of Freudian slip?
  • Anna says how Abby likes sports but won’t join a team. But, in later books she talks non-stop about being on the soccer team. I HATE continuity errors like that because they are so easily avoidable.
  • Wow, this is bitchy. Kristy realizes that Abby already became friendly with Trevor Sandbourne and Austin Bentley, so she thinks, “I guess baseball wasn’t Abby’s only skill.” Is she…saying what I think she is saying? I can’t even think of a way to read that sentence that doesn’t mean Kristy calling her a slut. I am surprised they would put it in a kid’s book.
  • There is this weird exchange where Mary Anne asks Anna if she listens to some EZ Lite radio station that her dad likes (because Anna likes classical music). Anna has this really weird reaction to it, but it is never really explained. I just…totally don’t get it. I mean, Long Island probably would get the same radio stations as Connecticut, so it is not that weird to ask. Unless EZ Lite is just a lame station or something.
  • Mal and Jessi have nothing to do in this book. I think it was around now they were sorta phased out and didn’t get as many of their own books as the older girls.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

omigod, I loved this book so much! Abby is my favorite. I totally remember that EZ Lite thing, and Anna's described as "looking like she'd swallowed a fly," right? Or something? Is she supposed to have a snobby taste in music?

Anyway, I'm totes a fan of anyone who loves to mock the BSC. Keep it up!

- kelsey

Mary Ann said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mary Ann said...

I don't think I read this one, but I totally remember the "name the new twin" contest! I'm pretty sure I didn't enter it, though. I just remember that I wanted to be Jewish after Abby and Anna made it cool, lol. And about Cary Retlin (I always wanted him and Kristy to date, lol)... what kind of last name is RETLIN? You know the ghostwriter probably couldn't think of anything, so he just turned "ritalin" into a last name. At least that's the first thing I think of when I read it.

BadKat said...

Yeah, this was beyond my BSC days also. I think we are the same age. I probably would not have read this anyway, strictly based on the title. Nasty!

I remember the "adopted sister" thing from both the BSC and Little-Sisters books. Why is she just an “adopted sister” and not a sister? I came from a family that included “half-siblings” and I never once have called them “half” outside of having to explain my family structure for some reason. The BSC books were really into the “step” and “adopted” sibling roles.

And I thought little kids played T-Ball. I sure as hell know that there was no one under the age of 6allowed in any baseball/softball program in my area. There is no way a 2, or even 4 year old would have the hand/eye coordination to play most sports.

This was really bad, huh?

Anonymous said...

mary ann - I totally wanted Kristy and Cary to date, too!!

I bought this book (and thee next one) when they came out, even though I was "too old" for the BSC then (at the ripe old age of 12, lol) because I was dying to know about the new BSC member. The baseball crap drives me crazy, but I love me some Abby!!

Neat tidbit: The UK version of this book is called "Kristy and the Nasty Nappies" and the company is named "Natt's Nappies" (the dude is named Neil Natt.) I love foreign BSC, haha.

MilkMan said...

"There was like, one new person in my entire middle school career. Of course, it only took me one year to finish 8th grade."

Bwah! Words cannot express the love I have for the snark in that sentiment!

I too have the problem of typing "shit" for "shirt" when I'm typing, so apparently we suffer from the same affliction. I believe the technical term is "Potty Mouth."

Re: Softball. I played almost my whole life, and in my town, You couldn't play T-Ball until you were I think 6 or 7, and then softball didn't begin until age 8 (or 3rd grade). We had leagues for 3rd and 4th grade, a league for 5th and 6th grade, and a 7th and 8th grade league.

There is NO way a 2 1/2 or 4 yr old would be able to play softball, and it goes back to that BSC mentality that I loathed, that "everyone can do anything." No. Some people can't do things because they lack the talent and abilities. Some people are better than others. Some people win and some people lose. It's called life.

Whoops, sorry for the rant. I used to be a camp counselor and the camp director always made us do the "everybody wins so nobody's feelings are hurt" and it always pissed me off because I think competition is healthy.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately Druscilla is getting to be a popular name among the hipster-parent set. *shudders*

This book is well after I stopped reading the BSC. I was graduating high school in 1995. I must have stopped around 1993, when my younger sister got to old for the books! I didn't know there even was an Abby until I discovered BSC snark on livejournal :)

BadKat said...

nhbsc, I totally did not know there was an Abby either! I found most of these BSC sites because one day I started wondering how many books the series actually went up to and looked it up on Google. Man, do I love Google!

Jess said...

OMG I remember this book! I have to admit, I really wanted to be Stacey. I used to even make my S's like hers!

Lauren said...

I've got a book with one of thoe contest entry forms in the back that someone actually filled out but never sent in.

Although seeing as how their votes were "Jennifer" and "Jemima", I doubt they missed their chance at winning.

I, for one, would've loved to have read "Welcome to the BSC, Jemima!"

Anonymous said...

mary ann - cary retlin is named after a real person, so the ghostwriters weren't grasping for a last name. in fact, he does amalia's journal illustrations in the california diaries series.

abby wears a u4me shirt in this book? you'd think that would be one more thing she and stacey could bond over - both from ny, both love u4me. yet it sort of seems that they don't like each other all that much. or at least, didn't hang out together, like, at all. but i guess you could say the same for abby and any other bsc member besides kristy.

Unknown said...

I think this was the last BSC book I read, too, until senior year of college, when I found a used bookstore with a ton of BSC books. It's been downhill since then. I do remember, though, that for years I wondered about Abby. I was psyched when I finally found #90.

Happy said...

I did not read this book, but I think that Abby gets upset when Mary Ann mentions the easy listening station that her DAD listens to because doesnt Abby not like to mention or talk about the death of her dad?

Devika said...

i was going to comment on the EZ Lite thing, but then I read the Jemima comment and almost lost it. Jemima!

Anonymous said...

I liked Abby in the beginning but she got annoying later. Ironically I almost had a niece named Abby or Anna (the baby ended up being a boy).

Anonymous said...

Fourteen and WAY too old to still be reading uh ? But 26 is okay ?

Anonymous said...

I'm fourteen and I still read the BSC books and love them! Of course I do realize how unrealistic some (most) of them are and stuff, but they are fun to read, so whatever. And I never realized that part about Kristy calling Abby a slut. But I laughed so hard when you said that because there really is no other interpretation....

Grace said...

Lol. I'm 13 yrs. old and I still love reading the BSC books somehow. But I really don't like the boyfriends. Anyway, my favorite part was "Kristy totally believed Linny when he said a dog crapped on his uniform". Oh, and when you said that Abby and Anna looked so normal and that you hope they run fast from the BSC.

Isabel Escalante said...

Oh, yes! I hate the "allergy voice" that some characters have in the books. I don't know any person with allergies who ALWAYS sounds congested and pronounce 'n's like 'd's and 'm's like 'b's.

metamorphstorm said...

I did have terrible allergies when I was younger, and I did sound a lot like Hunter Bruno. So usually I just didn't talk.

To the preteen commenters - it's not particularly amazing that you're 12 or 14 and "still" love the BSC. It's not even particularly amazing that those of us who were born before 1998 still reread the books and blogs like this sometime. What may count as amazing is that anyone under 50 still reads actual books, much less books from the 80s.

(I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, but nobody cares how old you are; it doesn't make you sound cool that you like stuff from before you were born or able to read.)