“Get a life, Mom. That’s what I was saying”……..BSC Special Edition: Shannon’s Story

Memory Reaction

I HATED this book. Seriously hated it. I don’t remember reading it more than once, even though I owned it. In fact, once when I was a kid and re-read the whole series (up until that point), this was the only book I skipped. The reason I didn’t like it is because Shannon fails a test on purpose in this one. To my childhood self, that was one of the worst things that could happen. I think what made it worse was that Shannon was supposed to be a great student, and with an F, her record got a bit tarnished, even if she did well moving forward. It may have set off the perfectionist part of me.

I also remember how Shannon has to “take over” for her mother while she’s away, and the thing that stands out in my mind’s her being on a bus with her sisters going to the grocery store. The scene seemed a bit over-the-top to me, like she was taking herself so seriously. I could see her being asked to baby-sit, but not act like she’s in charge of the whole house (cause her father was home, albeit working, the whole time too).

Revisited Reaction

Shannon’s really excited because her French class is taking a trip to Paris right after school gets out for the summer. But while we’re waiting for that to arrive, we get to hear about all of Shannon’s family issues. You know her sisters, but now we meet her parents. First up is her dad….he works too much during the week and plays golf on the weekends. He basically has no idea what’s happening with Shannon and her sisters and hardly talks to her mom. This is pretty standard for rich girl father issues. Meanwhile, and more relevant to this book, is her mother. She doesn’t work and with the kids getting older, she has nothing to do with her time. So, she constantly asks Shannon about her schedule and criticizes what she eats/wears, etc. She also tries to hang out with her all the time and it drives Shannon crazy.

When Shannon finds out her mom’s going to chaperone the Paris trip, she loses it. She flunks her French final on purpose so that she isn’t eligible to go on the trip. Her mom still goes as chaperone and Shannon’s “in charge” while she’s gone. During that time Shannon has an epiphany about how hard her mother’s life is, how it must be tough to not have anything to do while her husband and children are busy, and blah, blah, blah. Shannon decides she’s going to start being nicer, starting with throwing a welcome home party for her. Somehow this makes her father try to be a better father/husband as well. And her mom might start working as well, so she has more to do.

Since the theme’s mother-related, the subplot is about the BSC doing something for mother’s day. The first part of this is that they have a “gift-a-thon,” where kids go to Mary Anne’s backyard to make presents. Jackie Rodowski causes a disaster involving the refreshment table, I’m sure you can picture it. The second part’s a mother-child softball game. It’s most of their regular clients playing their mothers (obviously). The mom team wins, which shouldn’t be a big surprise considering most of the kids are Krusher’s. I actually enjoyed this, because all the moms in town were talking to each other, which I don’t remember happening before. Unless the parent is also a BSCer’s parents (Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Brewer), they usually only appear long enough to give sitting directions or talk about how great the BSC is.

High/Lowlights

• This is taking place the first time Dawn’s in California, so Shannon’s attending regular BSC meetings. I guess that’s like how they had Logan “filling in” for Dawn in his first book. You can’t have a BSC book without BSC meetings!

• Shannon’s school lets students do independent studies on stuff they’re interested in, so she takes Astronomy and Psychology. Which I can see happening in a private high school, but not 8^th grade. I guess Shannon’s supposed to be advanced though. And does talk about being in the Astronomy Club in her section of the memory super special, so that’s some continuity.

• When Kristy and Shannon get to the Kishis’ for a club meeting, Janine lets them. It’s weird, because they’re always telling us how the girls go right in on meeting days. But it’s really just an excuse to remind us how smart Janine is…when Shannon greets her in French, Janine responds in kind.

• Stacey outfit: “Black leggings, a black sweater, a big black belt with an oversized buckle, black Doc Martens, and her hair pulled back with a black and gold scarf that picked up the gold of the gold chain earrings she was wearing.”

• Claudia outfit: “An enormous pair of pants held up with a man’s belt and a pair of neon purple suspenders, an enormous purple T-shirt over a tie-dyed long-underwear top, her long black hair pulled back into a braid clip at intervals with little-kid barrettes, and these dangly peace-sign earrings.” Is it weird that I want to know what earrings she wore in her third hole? I like when they specify.

• When planning their Mother’s Day event, they refer to the Mother’s Day Surprise book where Emily Michelle was adopted. But they want to do something different this time.

• This book really makes Shannon seem like a brat. She gives up a trip to Paris with her best friends that she was looking forward to all year because she doesn’t want to be around her mom? And she does it by flunking a test purposely? Seriously, an embarrassing mother isn’t the worst problem in the world.

• Mrs. Kilbourne buys matching Laura Ashley dresses for her and Shannon, which of course Shannon finds mortifying. And, yeah, I can understand that. I’m surprised her mother wouldn’t have gotten the matching dress for Tiffany or Maria who are both younger. But then again, they’re not narrating this book.

• Also, when her mom wants them to wear the dresses to dinner, Shannon tries to say it’s at the cleaners. But what 13-year-old takes their own clothes to the cleaners?

• I won’t talk about how going to Paris is a crazy unrealistic school trip because Shannon goes to a private school with all the rich kids in town, and it’s only her French class going. It makes a little more probable than SMS trips.

• When planning the softball game, one of the girls says they’ll provide sitting for kids who are too little to play. My reaction to this was to say that 2 ½ year-old Gabbie Perkins plays on the Krusher’s. Who are they thinking will be too little to play? But it turned out they meant actual babies.

• Shannon’s all embarrassed that her mom uses her childhood nickname, Shanny, in front of her friends. But that’s really not so bad as far as childhood nicknames go.

• The back of the book says “Shannon Kilbourne, Straight-A Student,” but her final grades are three As, 2 Bs and an F (which was intentional). No one comments on how her Bs are rare, so I’m thinking the back of the book thing was written by someone who didn’t actually read the book.

• I can’t tell if her mom knows what Shannon did with the test. Mrs. Kilbourne gives her this speech about how she’s surprised and it makes her think Shannon doesn’t want to go, but she knows Shannon would have said something if that was the case. It’s either some kind of guilt trip or she’s really clueless.

• Shannon’s teacher and guidance counselor do meet with her after her test score comes in to try and find out what happened. Because, it’s really weird for someone who’s gotten As all year to suddenly totally bomb a test in the same subject. But there’s nothing they can really do about it.

• When Mrs. Kilbourne’s leaving, Shannon reminds her not to worry because her dad will be there and he has a beeper, so they won’t have trouble getting in touch with him. I remember when beepers were popular. But it’s amazing how the existence of cell phones makes such a difference in life, because this whole conversation would have been different if it was written today.

• When Shannon goes grocery shopping with her sisters, she doesn’t let them buy any junk food that they ask for. Which seems a bit harsh. I mean, I was always a total goody-goody but I would have bought something sweet in those circumstances.

• The mothers who play in the mother-child softball game are Mrs. Barrett, Mrs. Papadakis, Dr. Johanssen (even though Charlotte a cheerleader, not a player) Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Rodowski, Mrs. Braddock, and Mrs. Brewer/Thomas. It’s kind of fun to see them all athletic and competent instead of people who need teenagers to tell them what’s happening with their kids.

• Shannon also plays on the mothers’ team because Maria wants to play and her mom’s in France, but we don’t get to hear whether she’s any good or not.

• It’s kind of weird…when planning the game, the girls say they’ll play on the mom team because there are fewer mothers than kids. But we don’t hear about any of them playing. Kristy coaches the kids (and I guess they needed one person to do that), and others are mentioned as selling refreshments, but that’s it.

• Shannon’s realization about what her mom’s dealing with is a bit too obvious for me. She’s in the kitchen thinking how she’s done whatever she had to do and maybe she should just go talk to her sister, and literally says to herself, “this must be what mom feels like.”

• It’s not clear if the grades Shannon gets are for her final exams, or actually her final course grades. If they’re her course grades, she really screwed herself because getting an F in French would mean she doesn’t move up to the next level with her friends, and wouldn’t get to go on next summer’s trip. But I guess it doesn’t matter since she’ll never get out of 8^th grade anyway.

• I’m guessing they are actually her test grades, because how big an impact could the test have had? She said that until the final, her French grade was higher than all her other grades. So, say she had a 95 average. If the test was 25% of her grade, she could have gotten a 0 on the test and still gotten a 71 in the class. But I’m probably putting more thought into this than the ghostwriter, so whatever.

• I’m not really sure what made her dad resolve to be around more and delay a business trip to be there when Mrs. Kilboure gets home. Because he sees his daughters making a welcome home cake for his wife? It seems a bit forced. I’m guessing they wanted to wrap up the conflict in this book since it’s a one-off and we won’t be going revisiting Shannon’s life the way we will with the other girls.

“I spend the other half feeling intimidated and stupid”……BSC # 108: Don’t Give Up, Mallory

Memory Reaction

This was just after I stopped reading.

Revisited Reaction

The book starts with Mallory getting her mid-term progress report and seeing she has all As. Unfortunately, her classmates also see this and start making fun of her for being a “brainiac.” She’s embarrassed, but still pleased about it. She’s also pleased with her new Short Takes class – it’s about children’s literature, which is obviously her thing. But, when the class starts, she finds out it’s all discussion. The dork in her is upset that they’ll be no writing, and she’s not a fan of having to talk in class a lot.

At first Mal tries to speak up, because the class is graded on participation. But she doesn’t get called on a lot, and then she loses confidence in her ideas. Part of the problem is that the teacher (a young, “cool” teacher) lets two of the obnoxious guys in the class call out their answers. He also seems to favor the boys when calling on students. The first couple of times he does call on Mal, she gets flustered and doesn’t speak up, she doesn’t even correct him when he calls her “Valerie.” It keeps happening, and eventually, she keeps looking away to avoid being called on.

Eventually, Mal gets courage to tell the teacher she thinks he’s favoring the guys. At first he tries to brush her off, but he still makes an effort to call on girls the next day. Then in class he suddenly realizes she’s right, and apologizes to the class as a whole (he doesn’t mention her accusation). That’s the part that totally lost me. I can’t see a teacher ever doing that, and it comes off as the book trying to make everyone learn a lesson or something. Anyway, Mal does a great job on the one paper they do have, so she gets a B+ in the class.

I expected to feel bad for Mallory based on the back of the book summary, but I really didn’t at all. First of all, since when is Mal shy? She’s quiet, but I don’t remember her being afraid to talk in class or stuttering when she’s called on. She’s not as outspoken as Kristy, but she’s not as shy as Mary Anne. Secondly, the whole thing’s really her fault. She stops raising her hand. She avoids getting called on. When I was in school, I was super-shy, but if a teacher told us we were graded on participation, I raised my hand and spoke up because I was a dork like Mal that wanted straight As. And yeah, the teacher’s favoring the guys, but that’s mostly because they jump in with answers all the time. In the real world, there are going to be people who are more outspoken, or people who might be favored, and you deal with it. Now, to be fair, Mal admits that it’s partially her fault. But she still annoyed me. Maybe I’m getting old and just can’t relate to middle school problems anymore.

Meanwhile, Mallory’s still Secretary of 6^th Grade, and is working with the other class officers on a fundraiser. Apparently, the sixth grade class always has a fundraiser, and then leaves the money to the school to do something special. I’m not sure why sixth graders would be gifting something to the school, it seems more like something the graduating class would do. But whatever. It’s not like anyone actually graduates from the place anyway. Mallory finds out that a few years ago, the class’s monetary gift of $1,000 got re-classed to pay for fixing pipes or something, instead of making a student lounge. Mallory encourages the other class officers to go with her to talk to the vice-principal about how unfair that was, and he agrees that if they raise $1,000 this year, the school will match the donation to make up for what they did a few years ago. And they not only make $1,000, they break the school’s record, thanks to all Mal’s work. So, she does get to be competent at something. This is nice, because while she’s always the butt of some jokes, I like Mal.

There’s also this silly subplot about how Buddy Barrett’s jealous that Lindsay (his step-sister) gets to march in the Memorial Day parade with her Brownie troop. Since only “groups” are allowed to march, he told the parade organizers that he has a marching band. I’m not sure why they took an eight-year-old’s word, but again, whatever. Buddy asks the BSC to help him form one. They jump into it like always, and soon all the regular clients want in. They help them make handmade instruments, but realize the kids sound horrible when they try to play. Mal gets the idea to give all the kids kazoos and hide them in the instruments. Then the day of the parade they get way more kids than they expected, because parents of their clients just drop off their kids, even though they hadn’t been involved in the preparation or talked to any of the BSCers about it. But it goes well enough in the end.

High/low

I know kids tease, but the making fun of Mal for having straight As seems a bit over the top.

There’s a subplot with a girl in Mal’s class trying to act dumb and agreeable so that boys like her, and Mallory telling her it’s not right to do that. It’s the feminist message of the book, and probably the whole reason for it existing.

Claud outfit: “She was wearing denim overall shorts, a short black T-shirt, red-and-white pin-striped stockings that came over the top of her knees, red thick-soled patent leather shoes, and a black felt derby.”

I love that they mention “All the Children of the World,” the band they started in that book with the racist client. (I’m being serious – I really like references to past books).

The teacher starts class by talking about how they’ll be no papers, and even tells Mallory to put her notebook away because he doesn’t want kids taking notes. But then he goes, “oh, wait there will be one essay.”

Since when do teachers give out progress reports in class? In my school they mailed them to our parents. If they’re giving them out in class, I would at least expect an envelope in order to avoid kids seeing other people’s grades.

Claud’s outfit for “building” instruments: “Shorts and a rainbow tie-dyed T-shirt. Her hair was pulled into a thick pony tail held by a matching tie-dyed scrunchie…she sported her favorite work shoes, red high-top sneakers.” That may be the tamest Claud outfit ever. How boring.

Stacey’s outfit for the same thing: “Jeans with rolled up cuffs, an oversized denim work shirt, and a painter’s cap turned backwards.” Also pretty tame.

When Claud and Stacey show up for a sitting job, Mr. and Mrs. DeWitt seem surprised to hear about the whole making instruments and forming a band thing. Shouldn’t the girls have cleared it with them before agreeing to help the kids?

In Mal’s class, the kids are talking about projects to “further the cause of children’s literature,” and her suggestion is to arrange to have SMS students read to little kids. The teacher is…surprisingly down on it. But he loves suggestions like making a poster or giving books to a library in underprivileged areas. This was the one time when I felt for Mallory in the whole thing, I thought her idea was better than the others. It also made me think of this book.

Mallory takes one of the class officers into the basement of the school to find evidence of what happened to the old donation, I think it’s the same place they snuck into in some other book (Maybe this one?). But that time, it was records from 20 + years ago. I can’t imagine records from only five years ago being stored in a basement.

The scene also dates the book, because today you’d have someone hacking into the school’s computer to “investigate.”

Some guy in Mal’s class makes a Jurassic Park reference, as though it’s current…but that movie came out way before 1997, when the book was published.

It’s kind of annoying that parents in town just drop their kids off at the beginning of the parade and expect the BSC watch them/let them join the “band.” BUT, can you really blame them? Look at everything else these girls do.

However, I don’t buy that Mrs. Newton would be one of the parents who did this. She just drops her 4-year-old off near the parade start, watches him walk over toward Kristy and wave good-bye? With no contact with Kristy first?

Also, Kristy was already planning to watch the Barrett-DeWitt and Papadakis kids by herself before the parade started…that’s way more than their usual limit. That’s why the other kids showing up is a big deal.

Mallory and the other class officers work on the fundraiser and talk about what to do with the money. It feels like there should be more people in on that decision, aren’t there members of student council that aren’t the officers? They should be involved.

Again, why are sixth graders talking about what people will remember them for?

“What’s the point of having a Queen and King?”…………BSC # 106: Claudia, Queen of the Seventh Grade

Memory Reaction

Nothing to say here…

Revisited Reaction

When we last left Claudia, she had been demoted back to seventh grade, and was miserable.  But now it’s a few months later and she’s much happier…she’s made some friends and is actually doing well in school.  One of her new friends nominates her for prom Queen, and at first Claud thinks she has no chance.  However, her friends introduce her to a lot of people and she ends up winning.    The prom King and Queen are supposed to help plan the prom, but they find out that it’s really teachers who do that.  The King and Queen just get to dance in front of everyone and try and get kids excited about it.

Claudia has a really ambitious plan to have students plan the whole prom.   The teacher adviser agrees to give it a try.  A lot of kids help out, but it’s still a lot of work, especially for Claud.  The King, Mark, ends up being less than helpful.  He seems to be one of those people who says they’ll do things, but doesn’t follow through.  He and Claudia spend most of the book bickering, but end up kissing at the end.  I think I would have seen this coming, even if I didn’t know he would become her boyfriend in later books.

Meanwhile, Claudia’s annoyed that Jessi and Mal are the only BSC members who seem interested in her being Queen and planning the dance.  The other girls also keep making fun of seventh-graders, especially the guys, including Claud’s friend Josh (who will also become her boyfriend in later books).  She finally tells them off and they sort of apologize, but don’t actually use the words “I’m sorry.”   I guess that’s typical of them.

Subplot:  The BSC gets hired to work a bunch of jobs at the Addisons.  Sean, who we last saw burning books, is upset about having a baby-sitter.  He thinks ten’s old enough to stay by himself and claims he’s getting teased at school over it.  The Addisons actually let him call himself an “assistant sitter” when Abby’s there sitting for his sister.  Then Sean tricks his parents into not using a baby-sitter, accidently overflows the dishwasher, and calls the BSC for help.  They then solve the problem by telling Sean that the kid making fun of him has his own sitter.  So, Sean blackmails the kid into being nice.  What a nice, happy solution, huh?

High/Lowlights

• Um, why have we never heard about a prom king and queen?  And who has a prom in middle school? 

• Also, Claudia says all the grades have them and yet we don’t hear about the 6^th or 8^th grade elections.

• Also, we’ve never heard of them having a prom. They’ve talked about a dance at the end of the year, but I remember them calling it the “final fling.” 

• Plus, when Claudia first went back to seventh grade, she couldn’t go to the Halloween dance because sixth and seventh graders weren’t allowed.  But now seventh graders get to have a prom? 

• Claudia also says the prom’s the biggest dance of the year, but it seems that there are separate ones for each grade.  How can a dance with one grade be bigger than the rest of the dances?  

• We don’t get a Claudia outfit in this book, but she has a dream where she switched clothes with Queen Elizabeth.  She just wore a subdued dress, but as for the Queen:  “Her hair was tied to one side with a scrunchie and she was dressed in Spandex pants, a Hawaiian shirt with ‘Ed’s Diner’ stenciled across the breast pocket, and a pair of Doc Martens.” 

• Was Sean always ten?  Because I could have sworn he was only eight in the book with the library read-a-thon.  I remember that the books being burned were on the third grade reading list (which was why they temporarily suspected Nicky).  And I thought Sean was picking books based on his reading list, but it could have been a coincidence.  Unfortunately, I can’t find my copy of the book to check it.

• Do people have prom king and queen in real life?  If we had them in my high school I can’t remember it.
• The kid making fun of Sean is Mel Tucker, who’s the same guy we’ve seen making trouble for kids in the past.  It’s like they have don’t want to have one of their regular clients do anything too mean, but are too lazy to invent a new character.

• Sean says that the Pike Triplets told him they were assistant sitters now, and Claudia tells us it’s an exaggeration.  But isn’t that the resolution of a recent book?

• I can’t be bothered to learn the name of Claudia’s friends, except for Josh.  The girls don’t seem to have different personalities and most of the names start with J.

• One of the ideas Claudia has to include a charity food drive at the prom. She thinks of it because a seventh grade friend’s mother had been pressuring the friend to organize one.  Now, I think it’s great of Claud to do this.  But doing it at prom?  Who wants to bring food to a dance?  Also, they’d get better results if they opened it up to other grades.

• Kristy keeps telling Claud she’s not really a seventh grader.  Does she not understand the concept of being left back?  I thought Claudia was the dumb one.

• Claudia references the book, My Side of the Mountain, which I remember reading as a kid.  For some reason I like seeing real books get mentioned in these books.  I also read the sequel as a kid, but I didn’t know there was a third one.  I kind of want to read it now.

• The teacher advisor for prom was almost laughing at Claudia and Mark arguing about organizing the dance.  I think it’s supposed to be one of those, “we fight cause we love each other” things.

• Claud laughs because Josh leaves prank messages on her answering machine, but we’ve seen the BSC get annoyed at Sam for pulling the same one on them.  It’s the one where she gets a bunch of calls for X, then someone calls saying they’re X and want to know if any calls for them have come in.

• Claudia’s actually upset after the first time she and Mark kiss, because she’s still trying to hate him.  But they kiss again at the dance and she realizes she wants to date him.

• It’s totally obvious that Josh also into Claudia.  And I’m not just saying that because I read a later book when they’re together. Claudia’s in denial but I think she’s into him too, otherwise she wouldn’t have been too embarrassed to tell him she kissed Mark (she told all her other friends).  But I’m sure that’s a topic for a later book.

• Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Abby keep making fun of seventh graders and saying they’re immature.  They’re only one year older, how can there be such a big difference?  Maybe it’s because they’ve been in eighth grade for ten years and it seems like more?

“Those kids were so smart”….BSC # 105: Stacey the Math Whiz

Memory Reaction

I didn’t read this one until now, so no memory is applicable this time.

Revisited Reaction

Stacey gets asked to join the school “Mathletes” team because she’s just so smart and the head of the math department thinks she can help them win the state championship. At first she thinks it’s too dorky, but the rest of the BSC convinces her to join. Because all 13-year-old girls are accepting of everything their friends do. At this point, there’s only about a month left in the season, so she just has to go to some informal practice sessions and the meets, which are mostly on the weekends. For some reason, doing math on the weekends is a positive thing and it helps convince Stacey to join. And because these girls can never just be average at anything, Stacey becomes the star of the team and helps them win meet after meet. Woohoo!

Meanwhile, her workaholic father loses his job, or was “down-sized” as he puts it. So, he decides to start spending all his spare time with Stacey in Stoneybrook. At first Stacey’s excited about this, but she starts to feel a bit pressured to keep saying yes to whatever he asks her to do. And I apparently have a twisted, dirty mind because that sentence seems so wrong to me. But anyway, when he calls saying he has tickets to a U4Me concert, Stacey’s psyched, until she realizes it’s the same night as the state championship meet (or, part 1 of a series of 3 meets.) She can’t decide what to do, but decides to go with “family” over the team. Then she feels guilty, especially after another star player gets sick and can’t compete. She’s worried about telling her dad she can’t go to the concert. When she does, he totally understands, because he’s an adult and understands what a commitment is. He also had no idea it was the same night as the meet, which makes me question whether he was planning to attend like he told Stacey. But, she somehow doesn’t think of this.

After they win the first meet in the series, the math team plans to celebrate at the Rosebud Café in town. Stacey calls the BSC and invites them there as well, but I’m not really sure why. But she doesn’t end up going, because her father insists on taking Stacey and her mom out for dinner elsewhere so he can tell them the got a new job. Stacey thinks her friends are mad at her for not showing up at the café, especially since they can’t make the out-of-town meet). So, she’s off her game a bit for the second round of the series. It also doesn’t help that her father has to miss it due to his new job. But after the meet she finds out no one really was mad at her and that gets settled pretty quickly. At the last meet the BSC shows up and her father makes it there just in time to see Stacey figure out the final problem and win the championship! Like there was ever any doubt?

There’s a subplot about how Stacey was supposed to be tutoring Lindsey DeWitt in math, but she no longer has time because of the Mathletes. Claudia fills in, because who better to tutor someone? Especially since no one else in the BSC could do it. She’s supposedly using Stacey’s “lesson plans,” but still. However, it turns out, Claud can’t understand Stacey’s technical explanations about subtraction any more than Lindsey, so she breaks it down a bit simpler, and makes up some silly song about it. Lindsey starts to get excited about math, and even decides to complete in the Stoneybrook Elementary School math fair. We also get to hear about other charges preparing for and attending the math fair. It’s about as exciting as it sounds.

High/Lowlights

• As if this blog wasn’t enough evidence of my dorkiness, I will admit that for every problem they listed in the book, I stopped and tried to solve it before reading how Stacey managed to blow everyone else out of the water with her answer. They were puzzle like, kind of like these.

• The coach of the math team holds a practice at her house. I can’t image a teacher getting away with that these days.

• The last problem in the state championships was probably supposed to be tough and dramatic, but I thought it was the easiest one of all the examples listed.

• Before the final meet, Stacey’s told that she‘s tied for top individual scorer in the state. I’m wondering how she can do this when she joined the team a month before the end of the season. She had originally been asked back in September and turned it down. Unless the points only started with the competitive season or something?

• I’m not sure why Stacey’s father’s reaction to losing his job is to buy a car, get a hotel room in a place a couple hours from where he lives, and buy a lobster dinner for his ex-wife, but that’s what he does.

• My high school actually had a math team, but it was nothing like this book. Basically we got out of class once every month or so and were bussed to a neighboring school where we took a test. Most people joined to get out of class or get extra credit. In BSC-land, the competition is much more game show like. Where kids show up and cheer for their school’s team.

• Lindsey refers to her father and Mrs Barrett/DeWitt as “Mom and Dad,” which I find interesting. Did those kids always do that after the marriage? I only remember the Barrett kids calling Mr. DeWitt, “Franklin.”

• The head of the math department at SMS tells Stacey that she can’t tell her what her standardized test scores are, but they were some of the highest she’s ever seen (or something). Which is hard to believe. Plus, wouldn’t Stacey know her test scores? The range if not the exact numbers? Parents get that information, at the very least.

• When they are figuring out who can fill in for Stacey tutoring, Mary Anne says she can’t because she’s still busy with Victoria. Is that the first time someone has gotten a (temporary) regular job for a new client that’s mentioned again in the next book?

• I get Stacey wanting to go to a concert more than a math competition, but it kind of annoys me that she’s all, “oh, my dad went to a lot of trouble to get the tickets. I should go to the concert.” Just admit that you want to go.

• Stacey’s mom tells her that she’s been to a U4Me concert before, but I’m pretty sure that was the concert where she got in trouble with the “bad girls.” Probably not the best memory.

• Nothing dates a book more than characters having to leave messages on answer machines, and hoping the other person calls in to check messages.
• When Mr. DeWitt hears Claudia’s tutoring Lindsay he doesn’t seem happy about it. Ha.

• When Mr. McGill tells Stacey’s mom about losing her job, she’s all, “how could they do that to you?” But, you know she’s actually thinking, “I’ll still get alimony, right?

• I don’t totally get why Stacey invited the BSC to the celebration with the math team. These girls are way too codependent on each other if they can’t celebrate a win with their teammates without including other BSC members.

• SMS has much better clubs then my middle school did. They always seem more like high school level clubs/teams, but I guess that makes more interesting books.

• Has anyone even heard of a Math Fair? It sounds awful, especially since it’s a non-competitive one. At least make it interesting like when the BSC got all competitive about helping kids in that beauty pageant.

• I realized that almost all the kids we see preparing/entering the math fair are girls, and I’m wondering if that’s Ann Martin’s way of sending a message about girls being good at math.

• Stacey claims she can draw a subway map from memory. Does anyone buy that? It seems a bit much for me.

• I just love the contrast with Stacey’s father losing his job to Mallory’s dad losing his. Granted it’s more of a problem when you have eight kids, but Mallory was treated like an outcast at school over the whole thing.

• Not only is Stacey’s father hanging around Stacey, he’s making dinner in her house and forcing poor Mrs. McGill to be around him. He even has the nerve to invite his girlfriend along on one of these visits. That just seems awkward for everyone.

• Stacey always annoys me when she complains about family drama and how hard her life is. I mean, she has to choose between a rock concert and being a state champion? Or she’s tired because her father insists on taking her to Broadway plays? What a hard life. So, she feels in the middle sometimes, some people have it a lot worse.

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

Memory Reaction

This one was after my time.

Revisited Reaction

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

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

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

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

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

High/Lowlights

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

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

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

• Fun fact: Jamie Newton is left-handed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It had been a merry, scary season”….BSC Super Mystery # 4: Baby-sitters’ Christmas Chiller

Memory Reaction

This was after my time. The fact that I’ve already covered most of the books I actually read, is sort of messing up my format lately, but there’s not much I can do about that.

Revisited Reaction

This book really has three mysteries that only intertwine slightly. But they all take place in the days leading up to another Christmas in BSC-land.

First: Someone’s breaking into homes in Kristy’s neighborhood, trashing them, and leaving messages that say “naughty” painted on a wall somewhere. Someone also tries to break into Abby’s and Mrs. Porter’s houses, but just leaves a note saying “nice.” Of course, the BSC has to jump in and try to investigate. They even volunteer their baby-sitting services to the families who’ve been victimized as an excuse to poke around. They help figure out that it’s a gardener that several families in the area had recently dropped for a different company. And because it’s the BSC, they end up helping the police set the guy up, by having Watson fire the guy, then pretend to go out of town. So the police catch the guy and everyone (except the culprit) is happy.

Meanwhile: Mallory and Jessi are walking home from a rehearsal for their church Christmas pageant, and they find a woman on the street with no memory of how she got there, and no ID or belongings. She’s also pregnant, because regular amnesia isn’t dramatic enough for a Super Mystery. Anyway, this woman (who they’re calling Mary) ends up staying at the Pike’s for a few days. Then she goes into labor. During a snowstorm. The only surprise is that it happens the day before Christmas Eve and not midnight on Christmas. Anyway, Mallory helps track down the woman’s identity by tracing a label in her clothes and sending the picture of a ring to a jewelry store near it. Or something equally ridiculous. It turns out the woman was taking train to travel after visiting some friends in Boston, but before going home. Her husband was in Australia on business, so no one was really looking for her. She got off the train and was mugged or something. But giving birth started bringing her memory back, because otherwise it’d be too depressing for a Christmas story.

Lastly: Stacey and Claudia are visiting Mr. McGill in New York and are being harassed by someone. Weird things keep happening in the apartment building…the lights go out in the hallway outside their door, they get stuck in an elevator, someone dumps red paint in the elevator that looked like blood, etc. Also, someone leaves a creepy note on their door and a picture of Stacey that was taken by someone following her. The worst thing is that Stacey almost falls/maybe was pushed in front of a subway (but was fine, obviously). At first they think it may be Ethan, but they finally confront him. It turns out that his ex-girlfriend, Cybil, lives in Stacey’s building and has been stalking them. She leaves them a note to meet in the basement, and like idiots they go. There’s a whole dramatic confrontation, complete with a power failure, but at the end Ethan just brings her to her parents to get her help. It’s really anti-climactic.

High/Lowlights

• Claudia outfit: "She had braided her long jet-black into a single braid with narrow red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple ribbons woven in. Her short red turtleneck dress had a braided yellow belt, and she was wearing purple tights, yellow scrunch socks, and black Docs. Her earrings were in the shape of Christmas trees, but they were painted in rainbow colors, instead of just green. On some people this might have been too much, but on Claudia...it looked fabulous." - of course it did.

• The funniest part’s that when the police arrest the gardener, the BSC runs out of Abby’s house to watch, and Watson, Mrs. Brewer, and Mrs. Stevenson keep calling out telling to them to stop. As though they’ve finally decided to set limits with their children’s crime fighting.

• However, these same adults don’t have any issue with their kids helping to organize a neighborhood watch.

• Ethan tells Stacey her Dad’s apartment building was built over an old graveyard. Really? Why is everything always built over a graveyard?

• When Mal goes to the police station to give her statement about finding Mary, they tell her to bring her parents. And Mrs. Pike goes! Someone in the Stoneybrook police department actually treats the BSC members like the minors that they are. I’m shocked.

• Most of the BSC goes to Abby’s house for a Hanukkah party and after giving us all a lesson about the holiday, they hang out with Anna. But it seems weird that Anna wouldn’t also invite her own friends to it. I don’t think this is the first time this has happened with an Abby book.

• What’s worse is that when they hear that the Papadakises house was robbed, they all take off to “investigate” and just leave poor Anna behind.

• One weird thing’s that Kristy finds a note in her mailbox that says, “nice” and she writes it off as some girl who may have a crush on Sam or Charlie. But then later, the guy actually breaks into Abby’s house and Morbidda Destiny’s house to leave them “nice” notes. Why the switch?

• Stacey and Claudia go to a coffee bar in the city…they seem young for that, but maybe people do start drinking it at that age now.

• I don’t mean to judge, but what was Mary’s husband doing going to Australia when his wife was 9 months pregnant?

• Two of the homes that were broken into happened when the people were on vacation. Now, this is in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Do most people go out of town the week before Christmas, but come home before it? I usually hear about people leaving for the holiday itself.

• Who uses a gardener in December anyway?

• Apparently Mal and Jessi put random facts about horses in the club notebook, so Stacey and Claudia know that horses in harnesses only appear in Central Park. Or something like that. It makes Mallory and Jessi sound really lame, and maybe that’s the point. But seriously, they like horses so much they can’t do anything without mentioning them?

• A salesperson at Tiffany’s lets Stacey and Claud try on jewelry. That seems very kind of her. Oh, and of course Stacey’s dad has already promised her diamond earrings after she finishes high school. I wonder if he told her that before or after she asked for a diamond ring?

• Mallory mentions saying grace before eating dinner with her family. Now, I remember a lot of scenes with the Pikes eating meals, and I don’t think they’ve ever mentioned saying grace before them. I guess they did that to support this new backstory about the Pikes ALWAYS helping out with their church’s Christmas pageant. Because I don’t think we’ve ever heard them talk about church before.

• Dawn’s in this book, since she’s visiting for the holidays. She says she wants a "bi-coastal" sleepover with all her friends someday. Which has already happened.

• Also, does Dawn think the word “bi-coastal” sounds cooler than it is?

• The entire Prologue and Epilogue of this book is done as a notebook entry from Jessi. It’s really annoying, I hate her handwriting.

• Most of the girls are at a sleepover at Kristy’s when Mrs. Porter’s house is robbed. Watson and Kristy's mom don't let the girls run out and play detective when it happens (in the middle of the night). However, they do go the next day, and I think she’s amused by the girls’ detective act. She keeps smiling as they subtly try and ask questions. It makes me like her a little.

• It was really obvious that Ethan had an ex-girlfriend in the building, and that she was the one behind everything. I wish they had just made her bitchy, instead of out-and-out crazy.

• So apparently, Cybil tells the doorman in Stacey’s building that she’s friends with Stacey and they like to play jokes on each other. But I can’t believe that the doorman wouldn’t speak up when the “jokes” involve dumping paint all over the building’s elevator.

• If you’re wondering how the girls have so much time on their hands…SMS closed for winter break a few days sooner than expected because of issues with the heat. Only in BSC-land can they get extra days off and not have to make them up at some point down the line.

“Have you been reading Nancy Drew again?”…….Baby-sitters Club Mystery # 32: Claudia and the Mystery in the Painting

Memory Reaction

I didn’t read this as a kid.

Revisited Reaction

This somewhat convoluted, so bear with me….Claudia has a sitting job for the son of Rebecca Madden, a woman who’s grandmother was a slightly famous artist named Grandmother Madden. She signed all her work that way, so that’s how she’s known, even though it feels awkward to keep saying that. Anyway, Rebecca inherited her grandmother’s house and its contents after her death a few years ago. Her cousins had been fighting the will, but when they found out there were no remaining paintings as part of the inheritance, they (just recently) agreed to let her have it. Rebecca’s planning an estate sale of her grandmother’s possessions, and Claudia volunteers the BSC to help out. Rebecca’s hoping to make enough to go to art school.

Now, the backstory on Grandmother Madden’s that she was a known artist, but after a show in New York got terrible reviews, she gave up painting, and supposedly destroyed any work she hadn’t already sold/given to others. Then she became an art teacher. Claudia decides that since she can’t imagine destroying her own work as an artist, the same must be true about Grandmother Madden. Because all artists are exactly the same, right? She thinks/hopes she’ll find the paintings hidden in the house. The value of the paintings went up after Grandmother died, which was why the cousins had been fighting the will.

While the girls are working in the house, they run into a couple weird things. First, Mr. Ogura, a guy who works for the company helping plan the estate sale, keeps turning up. The girls think he’s suspicious because more than once he showed up at the house looking for Rebecca at the same time that she has gone to his office to see him. He’s also around when a catalogue of Grandmother Madden’s paintings disappears.

The BSC also thinks Rebecca’s husband, Mr. Cook, is suspicious. Basically because he doesn’t think the baby-sitters are the greatest people around, which I actually found refreshing. He gets annoyed when he sees Claudia going through paintings and dropping something that may have been valuable. Plus, Rebecca’s son Jimmy keeps saying how his Dad doesn’t want Rebecca to go to art school, and doesn’t like him to paint, which does make the guy sound like jerk.

Anyway, it turns out there are actually two Mr. Ogura, a father and a son. Rebecca had been working with the senior, while the junior (that the BSC has been dealing with) is actually working with Rebecca’s cousin to try to find/steal some of Grandmother’s paintings. We find out that Grandmother Madden didn’t completely destroy her work, she just had her students paint over them. Mr. Oruga Jr. and the cousin try to leave with some of the painted over paintings. When Claudia tries to stop them, they lock her in a closet. Mr. Cook shows up and lets Claud out, then they call the police and find Mr. Ogura and the cousin with the paintings. And since Rebecca did so well with her estate sale, she decides she’ll still share the money from the paintings with her cousins.

Meanwhile…Remember how Claudia became an honorary trustee of the Stoneybrook Museum? Well, that plot gets brought back up after about 20 books. The museum’s opening a kids’ art room called the Kaleidoscope Room. It sounds like it’s basically a room where kids can go and try painting/drawing/etc on their own. The woman running it asks Claudia to bring some kids to try it out. She can’t make it, so some of the other BSC members go with some charges. Hijinks occur. This woman thinks the projects should be structured, so she gives them all pictures with the outline of a bear and only gives them brown paint. But Claud and the others get her to see that she should let kids be creative and have more open projects. So, the room opening’s a success

High/Lowlights

• Claudia outfit: “Navy blue pants with wide legs, red suspenders decorated with big sunbursts, a white T-shirt, and over it all, a huge red-and-white-checked shirt. [Her] earrings were also bright yellow sunbursts.”

• Claud’s doing research on Grandmother Madden and uses an electronic card catalogue at the library. I guess that’s a sign it’s a later book.

• They never really explain the deal with Mr. Cook not liking art. The little kid keeps talking about how his dad doesn’t want his mom to go to art school, and doesn’t like him painting. But at the end, the guy says he was just jealous that he didn’t know anything about art, and seems fine with everything. I feel like we missed a scene or something.

• Stacey outfit: “Short plaid [red and black] skirt, clunky [black] shoes, ribbed (black) turtleneck, and [red] vest.”

• Claud outfit: “Overalls and a long-sleeved green-and-blue striped shirt [and] a green-and-blue checked cap.”

• Charlie drives Claudia and Kristy over to the Madden house one day after school. A couple days later he’s giving them a ride home when they decide they want to go to the Madden house…and they make a point of saying they give him directions. Wouldn’t he remember how to get there?

• Rebecca tells Claudia where her key’s hidden so that the BSC can help with the sale one day when she won’t be there. Then a few days later, Claudia just shows up at the house and goes for the key. It seems a bit inappropriate, since she’d only really been given permission to use it that once. But since she saves the day, I guess all’s forgiven.

• The whole reveal about the paintings being painted over’s a rip off of that Mallory book with the diary. I actually specifically thought they wouldn’t do the painting over thing, because it was already done in that book. I guess I was giving them too much credit.

• There’s this other subplot about the kid finding a cat that looks like a cat the grandmother used to own, and it makes me think of another Mallory book. But it turns out that the cousin who was involved had lost her cat, which I guess the grandmother owned. I didn’t really pay that much attention because it wasn’t remotely interesting.

• Grandmother Madden would buy a new cat whenever one died on her, and get one that looks the same and name it the same thing. I’m not a pet-person, so I may be missing something, but that seems a bit weird.

• Claudia outfit: “[She] was wearing a long, full, black skirt with red, orange, pink, yellow, and turquoise flowers embroidered along the hem; a loose pink top; and a necklace [she’d] made out of papier-mâché beads painted to match the flowers on the skirt.”

• The woman running the Kaleidoscope Room’s a bit extreme…it really never occurred to her that kids would want to choose their own colors for painting? Especially since she gave them an outline of a bear, and not all bears are brown.

• When Claudia’s talking to her mother about how she can’t believe Grandmother Madden had destroyed her art, Mrs. Kishi’s all, “well the article says she did, so she must have. Have you been reading Nancy Drew again?” I’m not sure why but it made me laugh.

• Corrie Addision shows up as one of the kids trying the art room, which makes sense since she’s been known to like art and was in the original book about the museum. But I feel like she only shows up every twenty books. And her parents don’t show at the opening, so I guess they’re still missing out on key moments in their kids’ lives.