BSC AG

Everything Changes (FFSS#1)

2013-05-24T01:04:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? No. Ann dedicates to honor the birth of her goddaughter, Harmoni.

Synopsis:

This book starts the short-lived Friend Forever series of the BSC. As the title indicates, the members are dealing with some significant changes.

Kristy has recently decided to start keeping a journal, inspired by Mary Anne (who lost all but one of hers in the fire). We get to read a lot about her concerns that the BSC isn't going to fare well over the summer, when she, Mary Anne, Claudia, Stacey, and Abby will be away (Kristy, Abby, and Mary Anne at Camp Mohawk, Claudia on a family vacation, Stacey in New York with her dad). She's not sure that Mallory and Jessi can run it alone, especially since Logan and Shannon have been even less available than usual and Dawn will be in California until August. Then Logan calls to drop out of the BSC, citing sports commitments. Then Jessi calls to tell Kristy about a new ballet school opening in Stamford which will be on the same level as the one she attended in New York...and will meet six days a week, which doesn't really leave time for the BSC. She is accepted, and quits. Then Abby quits. Remember how she'd been feeling burnt out? She just has too much on her plate and the BSC has to go. Finally, Shannon tells Kristy that she won't have time to even be an associate member once school starts.

Mary Anne is worried that her dad will accept the job offer in Philadelphia. She's still suffering from a lot of turmoil after the fire, and elects to skip Camp Mohawk. She's also feeling smothered by Logan, who is trying to help but not actually helping. Her grandmother comes to visit, and brings some things that belonged to Mary Anne's mother. She also gives Mary Anne an heirloom ring that she never had a change to give her mother. It's a pretty sweet moment when she shares the things, and it helps Mary Anne heal a bit from the fire. Her dad also decides he'd rather not take the job in Philadelphia, which makes things yet easier. Even better: the family is able to rent out the house next-door to Claudia (the Goldmans') for a year while they renovate the barn to be a house.

Stacey is mostly enjoying her stay in New York, as she gets to spend lots of time with both her dad and with Ethan. However, her dad is concerned that Ethan might be too old for her (he sees him late one night outside a club "for adults"?). He limits Stacey to only spending fourteen hours a week with Ethan. A few days later, he tells Stacey that he is seriously considering asking his girlfriend, Samantha, to move in (without being married! Shock! Horror!). Stacey's not happy with the idea, but some encouragement from Claudia and a talk with Ethan go a long way in convincing her to not hate Samantha just because she's newer in Stacey's life. Stacey's dad is also more willing to give Ethan a chance after hearing that he helped Stacey look at the other side of issue.

Claudia is not looking forward to her family vacation to small, isolated island off the coast of Maine. Her parents want the family to embrace a simpler lifestyle during their stay: no internet, no TV, no dishwasher (that last one is too much for me; my husband and I had no dishwasher for the first two years of our marriage and I like to bake from scratch). It's not long before she catches Janine with her laptop and internet cord, her mom reading a trashy romance novel, and her dad watching a baseball game on the neighbors' TV (with the neighbors' permission). She and Janine take an art class together (apparently the island is a popular destination for artists) and they have a great time together with it. Claudia ends up loving the stay, and wanting to go back a lot in the future.

When they meet up again after the vacations, Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Claudia admit to each other that they enjoyed the free time they had over the last month. They decide that since the BSC is down to its four original members, they'll cut back on meetings--maybe just once a week--and not try to recruit any more clients. It's still important to them, but it won't be the main focus of their lives anymore.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned since she's not at home, but the descriptions of all the lobster are making me hungry

Claudia likes lobster, so she is happy about that part of the trip.

Stacey decides to take up needlepoint...despite already knowing how to do it.

According to Kristy, Abby likes the chicken tetrazzini at camp. Interesting, since it calls for butter, cream, and cheese, and Abby's allergic to dairy.

Jessi, Mallory, and Shannon come up with a thoughtful gift for Mary Anne: supplies to make a scrapbook.

Claudia likes Salvador Dali. He's my favorite painter.

Their Families:

Mary Anne's family is renting a house in Stoneybrook for now.

This is not the first family vacation for the Kishis, nor the first one during the summer. They went to New Hampshire during the events of Boy-Crazy Stacey.

Given Stacey's experience with a "back-to-nature" vacation (written about in her Portrait Collection), I'm surprised she didn't have tips for Claudia.

Abby's mom cries when she leaves on the bus for camp. Didn't really expect that.

Stacey's dad has a fax machine in his apartment. Guess that's fitting for a workaholic.

Mary Anne's grandmother describes her mementos as some of "what remains of Alma," which makes me think of her physical remains. Which would probably be not in the best condition.

The Club (and clients): aside from what's mentioned in the summary, nothing new.

SMS: summer vacation.

PSA Time:

Did you know that whole lobster comes with the intestines still in it? Because I didn't when I ordered it a few years ago. Fun surprise, that. Ever since then when I've had lobster I just get lobster tail.

Misc:

One of the campers at Camp Mohawk is named Harmoni, presumably for Ann M. Martin's goddaughter. She's written to be a nice girl who everyone likes.

Kristy and Mary Anne are amused by an eight-year-old who brings eyebrow tweezers to camp. Thing is...I'd probably do that. I have brown eyebrows and the stragglers show a little too well against my skin. Probably wouldn't have done that at eight years old though.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 5

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 12

BSC Fights: 13

SMS Staff and Faculty: 68

Students (other than the BSC): 213: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 16 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 149

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

The Fire at Mary Anne's House (RS#131)

2013-05-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles. I'm a little disappointed there's a ghost writer for the last book of the series.

Synopsis:

The BSC decides to enter itself into a Best Sitter contest sponsored by a teen magazine. This allows them to reminisce about a lot of the adventures they've had. This plot hums along merrily until the main one comes along: Mary Anne wakes up to Tigger panicking and her dad calling for her as their house burns around them. Mary Anne, Richard, Sharon, and Tigger make it out safely, but the house is completely destroyed. (Dawn and Jeff were in California at the time; Dawn flies to Connecticut as soon as she can after hearing the news.)

The town rallies around Mary Anne's family, who will stay with Kristy's family for at least the meantime. While Mary Anne is grateful no one was hurt, it's so much to take in with everything being destroyed (like her mother's things). She feels mostly just numb, probably from such an overwhelming experience. She doesn't cry during the fire or when she's picking through the charred remains of the house, which confuses her a bit, and she's been having nightmares. Logan wisely suggests she consider talking to Dr. Reese, the therapist she's seen in the past. But Mary Anne just wants to be left alone, a difficult thing in Kristy's house. Further complicating things, Richard was recently offered a job in Philadelphia, and he and Sharon are thinking maybe they should just start over. Finally, one night Mary Anne can't sleep, and rides Kristy's bike over to the burned house, where she finally grieves for what happened. Dawn, who had followed, helps Mary Anne finally let out the emotions she didn't know she had.

The book--the series--ends without finding out if Mary Anne's family will move and without knowing who wins the best sitter contest.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: brownies and nachos (for Stacey) that she made herself, Twizzlers, Reese's peanut butter cups, Frookwiches

I disagree, Mary Anne. I'd be very surprised to see Abby in the Olympics running the 100 yard dash. It's the 100 meter dash, and when the US still used the Imperial system for track and field, the race was the 110 yard dash. I know Mary Anne's not an athlete, but with Logan on the track team and US schools using the metric system for track races when this was written, I find it funny.

Their Families:

Tigger (you know Mary Anne considers him family) keeps jumping on the pages of the magazine Mary Anne's trying to read. This is very accurate cat behavior. If you put any sheet of paper on the ground and tell my husband's cat, "This is very important," he'll come sit on it. However, Tigger likes having his belly rubbed, which, in my admittedly limited experience with cats, I find odd.

Sharon works for a small accounting business.

Stacey's mom makes a stack of sandwiches for Mary Anner's family and the firefighters while the house burns. That's very thoughtful of her.

Again, David Michael is very sweet: he offers all his bubble bath to Mary Anne when she heads to take a shower after shoveling through the debris. He also helps Emily Michelle draw a picture and learn a song to cheer up Mary Anne's family.

The Club (and clients):

Mrs. Prezzioso lends Sharon and Richard her cell phone in the aftermath of the fire so they call the insurance agent and so on.

SMS:

It's summer again. Mallory's still at boarding school, though.

PSA Time:

There's good fire safety information in this book, like touching the back of your hand to a closed door to see if it's hot before opening it, staying low to the ground to avoid smoke, not dawdling to grab things (like Mary Anne, I'd grab pets if they were in the room with me) as you escape the fire, regularly checking your smoke detectors, and continuing to move away from the fire itself until you're sure you're far enough from it.

Misc:

This is Mary Anne's last regular series book, and the last book period of the regular series.

The Prezziosos, Pikes, Braddocks, and McGills apparently live close enough to Mary Anne to wake up from the fire and come over in the middle of the night to offer help and comfort.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 5

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 12

BSC Fights: 13

SMS Staff and Faculty: 68

Students (other than the BSC): 213: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 16 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 149

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Stacey's Movie (RS#130)

2013-05-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn.

Synopsis:

It's time for yet another round of Short Takes. This time, the classes will be taught by professionals in various fields. Stacey takes a class from a documentary filmmaker (Kristy and Logan are in it, too). The class is split up into groups of four, each of which will make a movie. Stacey's group, which also includes Pete Black, Erica Blumberg, and Emily Bernstein, decide to make a documentary after their attempts at a horror movie don't go so well. Kristy's in a group with Logan, Anna Stevenson, and Alan Gray. They make a documentary about the funny things BSC clients do or say. But Kristy causes troubles by following around Jackie Rodowsky, waiting for him to slip up. She's not subtle about it either and he ends up feeling pretty hurt. Kristy also steps all over Alan's assigned role as director. Stacey talks to Kristy, and she begrudingly lets Alan be in charge, only to discover that he's really good at it.

Meanwhile, Stacey's team is doing well getting a lot of information from different students at SMS. Interesting revelations including Abby's epiphany that she's a lot like her mother (trying to do too much at once), Jessi admitting that she feels out of place at SMS because with Mallory gone there's no one left that she has much in common with which emphasizes how different she is from most of the students in terms of both race and her love of dance, Cokie pointing out that the BSC can be just as exclusionary and stuck-up as any group, Claudia reacting to the pressure on her to do really, really well in school despite how hard it is for her (as in, not just pass but get great grades), Alan Gray wanting to be taken seriously, and most relevant to the plot, Mary Anne exploding that she gets angry with her mother for dying. Mary Anne really wants to remove her interview from the film, but the rest of Stacey's group think it's such a great one that they refuse. They do let Mary Anne have a moment to speak about how she really feels, which is also in the film after her interview.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: carrots (for Stacey)

Good continuity with Stacey liking Cinderella as a young child.

Abby's seeming sort of burnt out and stretched very thin between her various commitments.

Their Families:

Mary Anne considers Sharon a mother figure but not her mother, which I think is totally reasonable. My mom has a very nice stepmother who her father married when my mom was an adult (right around the time of my own parents' wedding) and Mom calls her by her first name, but my aunt who was still a minor at the time calls the same step-mother "Mom." It's all about what you're comfortable with and mutual respect.

The Club (and clients):

When BSC members are interviewed, they slip in references to the club. It's funny to me that they're so indoctrinated, but it also makes sense because it's a big part of their lives.

SMS:

This time students can sign up for what Short Takes classes they prefer.

Shouldn't the Short Takes teacher have told her class to secure written permission from anyone appearing in the films?

Alan Gray calls Kristy "Darth Vader" which amuses me more than it should.

New-to-us student: Sarah Gerstenkorn (probably 8th grade)

PSA Time: nothing stood out.

Misc:

This is Stacey's last regular series book.

My copy of this book was sold at a used bookstore for fifty cents.

"[The documentary film maker] told us how she had gone into the Australian outback and spent time with a group of aboriginal people until they trusted her enough to talk about their beliefs..." There has GOT to be a better way to phrase that so it doesn't sound like she gained the trust of a group of animals.

Stacey mentions getting inspiration from an old Twilight Zone episode. From how she describes it--an upopular school-girl wishes everyone would leave her alone and her classmates disappear, only to return as zombies--I don't think she watched a real episode. I'm pretty familar with the Rod Serling era and since she specifies old, I'm pretty sure it's made up. It also doesn't sound like a Twilight Zone episode, which are, frankly, better written.

"You can't make math a career"? What nonsense. Math is intergral so many fields of study! I'm not a huge fan of it and I can admit that. Beyond the obvious like physics, medicine, and engineering, math is important in a ton of things like baking (if you want to halve a recipe for example), travel planning, budgeting...I've even used algebra to write knitting patterns.

Part of the book touches on something that annoys me, which is the insistence some people have to know EVERYTHING. Some things are okay to keep private, in my opinion, and not everything needs to be made public all at once.

Alan's interview raises a good question: would you rather be hated or ignored?

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 5

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 13

SMS Staff and Faculty: 68

Students (other than the BSC): 213: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 16 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 144

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Kristy at Bat (RS#129)

2013-05-15T10:35:00.003-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles

Synopsis:

Kristy and Watson are attending a weeklong father-daughter baseball camp in Delware run by a former MLB star who happens to be one of Watson's favorite players, Bill Bain. Kristy's excitement is overshadowed by learning that she's going to be on the second-string SMS softball team instead of first-string as she'd anticipated (and was...last year...which was still eighth grade...). She's put out in left field too, which is either a sign that Coach Wu doesn't have a lot of confidence in Kristy or does, since outfield positions see less action than infield positions and left fielders don't need to have as good throwing arms as other spots, but outfielders also need to be able to pay attention to everything and react quickly to make good catches and left fielders are more likely to get the ball than right fielders.

Anyway. Kristy still wants to make the best of camp, especially since Watson's so excited. And she does get into it for a while and has a fun time. She does have some trouble shaking the thought of having to play second-string, and is also dealing with conflicting thoughts wondering what her father would think of her sports talents now but feeling disloyal to Watson for it. Watson himself has a bit of a let-down when his sports hero turns out to not be very involved in the camp and rarely makes an appearance. But he's still enamored with the man enough that when Kristy calls Bain out on his neglect of the camp he gets angry with Kristy for being rude. He doesn't hold a grudge though, and is even more over it the next day when Bain shows up for the big game between the campers and admits Kristy was right. Kristy and Watson both do really well, including sharing a double play. After the game, Bain makes himself available for autographs. There's an awards ceremony and one of the several given out is to Best Coach, to Kristy for her help with organizing things when Bain was absent, which helps her realize that enjoying baseball and softball is more important than being the best at it. She and Watson end up with some really good bonding time out of the camp, too.

Back in the 'brook, David Michael gets seriously into collecting baseball cards and spends a few afternoons trading cards. But since he doesn't know the value of all of them, he find himself taken advantage of by a more knowledgeable kid. Abby steps in to show that a card's worth isn't limited to monetary terms, and that some might have sentimental value or other attributes. David Michael continues trading, but with a more relaxed group of kids.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Doritos

Foul: Chapter Two claims Anna's hair is longer than Abby's.

The cover correctly depicts Kristy in a left-handed batting stance.

Abby talks more about her dad in this book than any other (well, during a conversation; obviously he was mentioned in her Portrait Collection book). She has a rare baseball card that he gave her shortly before he died, of his favorite player.

Their Families:

According to Kristy, Emily Michelle doesn't talk as well as most two-and-a-half-year-olds, but she talks better than my two-and-a-half-year-old. My daughter understands most of what's said to her, but just doesn't seem too interested in talking. She picks up sign language really well though, and is starting to say the words as she signs them. Kids develop at different rates; one of my uncles didn't talk until he was three (probably couldn't get a word in edgewise being the youngest of four born in under than five years). My daughter can communicate, which is what matters.

David Michael gives Andrew a few of his baseball cards that he has doubles of. At some point Andrew needs to learn that life isn't fair, but he's only four now and this was very kind of David Michael. He's a good big brother. And really, since Andrew ends with only five cards to David Michael's dozens and he's appropriately grateful, he probably gets it on some level that he doesn't need everything of his to be the same as everyone else's and he can be happy with what he does have.

Wow, Watson hits a triple. That's really hard to do, because you have to hit the ball far enough to run three bases while the other team is trying to get you out, whereas with a home run the ball goes out of the field and you don't have to run as fast to make it to home plate (there are in-the-park home runs, but they're rare; Kristy also hits a triple during practice but she's younger and faster).

The Club (and clients):

Abby is president while Kristy is away. Considering how well that went last time, I wonder why no one suggested Claudia, as vice-president, take over, perhaps under the guise of being fair and sharing.

SMS:

The SMS softball team only practices a couple days a week. When I coached cross country, I handled the middle school and high school programs at the same time. High school practiced Monday through Friday and middle school practiced Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, with the option to come on Wednesday. Saturdays were optional practices if we didn't have a meet (middle school races were held at the same locations about an hour before high school races so this was feasible). We also did four days a week when I myself was on the middle school soccer and track teams.

PSA Time:

I do think it's great to play through the pain, but listen to your body if the pain is bad. Not that I played soccer on a torn meniscus long enough to ensure I'd earn a varsity letter or pole vaulted with a probably broken wrist for a few weeks and still have a sore knee or occasionally drop things randomly from that hand or anything...

Misc:

This is Kristy's last regular series book.

My copy of this book appears to have once been sold at a used bookstore for $2.25.

Back to coaching...I am so glad I coached cross country and track and field rather than other sports (well, I did help with a third-grade soccer team once, but just to train goalies). I would have a tough time deciding who was varsity and who wasn't. With the sports I dealt with, it's obvious, because you can clearly see who runs faster, throws farther, or jumps higher. I admire coaches of more subjective sports who work hard to make those tough calls.

That "'Put Me In, Coach' song" is called "Centerfield" and it's by John Fogerty; Kristy should know the title if not the artist. It's a very fun song to listen to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04KQydlJ-qc

Yay! My Seattle Mariners get a mention! It's brief but I'll take it.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 5

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 13

SMS Staff and Faculty: 68

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 144

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Dawn Diary 3 (CD#11)

2013-05-12T00:24:00.001-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? No. The books is dedicated to Betsy Howie. Betsy is Mrs. Winslow's first name.

Synopsis:

Dawn is adjusting to having a baby in the house. She's bonded with Gracie, but of course a teething baby can get on anyone's nerves. She's craving something new and exciting, and feeling like she has far less to do in California than she would in Stoneybrook, where she had more close friends. So she's pretty thrilled when her favorite band announces it'll be playing nearby. Ducky scores four tickets to a special function with the concert that will allow him, Dawn, Amalia, and Sunny to meet the members of the band (Maggie doesn't care about the band). Dawn obtains permission from her dad and Carol to go with Ducky driving, and is willing to put up with Sunny for the privilege. She's been trying to reignite her friendship with Sunny lately, but it's not going so well. They put up with each other okay at the concert, until Ducky has a few drinks at the insistence of Sunny and a friend they meet up with, and then Sunny tries to convince him to drive anyway and Dawn intervenes and takes Ducky's keys (and rightly so). Dawn's dad and Carol are pretty upset with the situation, but do give Dawn credit for calling. Dawn's dad drives Ducky home too (Sunny was too angry and took the bus; Amalia went with her so she wouldn't be alone) and gives him a bit of fatherly advice, since Ducky's parents aren't around to dispense it.

While Sunny was absolutely in the wrong about the drinking, one can hardly blame her for being out of sorts. Her mother has come home...permanently. The chemotherapy is doing more harm than good, and she's receiving pallative care only. She's come home to die. The finality of this reality finally spurs Dawn and Sunny to restart their friendship, albeit with a heavy pallor cast over it.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Ducky):

Dawn's pretty opionated and pushy. Not only does she try to force Sunny to handle her mother's health problems the way Dawn thinks is right, she tries to force any conversation with Maggie to food and weight.

Mary Anne might visit over spring break.

Dawn's had tequila.

Ducky quit his job at Sunny's dad's bookstore in January or February.

Their Families:

Dawn's dad pays her to watch Gracie and Jeff, which I think is appropriate. I got money sometimes for watching my younger brother, although not every time. It was more that once in a while Dad would give me some cash because I'd watched him a few times.

Carol nurses Gracie in front of Dawn and Ducky, and it bugs Dawn even though she tries to tell herself it's natural. I know that a lot of mothers will nurse anywhere with varying layers of clothing, but being a pretty private person I prefer to have a light blanket covering myself and if I can, will go to a different room or less crowded area. But when the baby's hungry, the baby's got to eat! However, I can cut Dawn some slack because Gracie is old enough that a little extra time to sit at on the couch instead of across the table from Dawn's friends wouldn't hurt Gracie.

Gracie takes a bottle sometimes. It's not specified whether it has expressed milk or formula. Since she was born in June, she's eight months old. My daughter was eating a few foods by then; rice cereal and bananas and that sort of thing. I nursed her until she was 15 months old, though she was down to just once a day, at bedtime, by then.

Wow, Carol's been able to take this much time off work and doesn't have to go back for two or three months! Combined with her bedrest before Gracie was born, that's about a year off from work. Good for her that she was able to do that.

I have to say, I'm pretty annoyed that Sunny's mom used to smoke. It reads like the cancer is her fault. I'm not saying that people who smoke deserve cancer (because I would love for my grandmother to still be alive), but I really hate how it comes off as blaming the victim. While you can do things to mitigate your risk factors, when it comes down to it, diseases don't really care whether you've been a good person or not, and people will or won't get cancer regardless of how they've lived their lives.

PSA Time:

Just to echo Dawn's dad's instructions: never get in a car driven by someone who's impaired. It's simply not worth the risk. Get the person's keys if you can, too.

It's just a bad idea to not get your own drink at a party or concert. If you get it yourself, you can be sure of what's in it more easily.

Misc:

This book takes place from early February to mid March, although it wasn't published until April. Valentine's Day is on a Sunday in this book, although it was a Saturday in Abby's Un-Valentine. But it was a Sunday in 1999, and in Ducky's first diary.

This is the last book narrated by Dawn.

Whoever owned this book before me wrote "Drohan" on the inside front cover. I'm assuming it's someone's last name, and from the handwriting could be either a child or an adult, maybe a teacher who had BSC books in the classroom. One of my cousins who teaches grade school keeps BSC books on her shelves.

In general, I try not to call people before 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning and not after 9:00 at night. A few people, like my grandparents who stay up late, I know I can call later, but generally people are up for phone-answering between 9:00 and 9:00.

Most juice isn't all that healthy. It's not really a good substitute for a piece of fruit. If you compare sugar contents on a lot of it, you may as well have pop.

Dawn mentions a restaurant called the Tea Shop, at which "you can buy an awful lot more than tea there, and I don't just mean food." Curious.

Speaking of babies, I was going to put this post up on Thursday, but I had a baby instead. She was a week early like her older sister and is doing well!

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 9

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-3, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-2

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 209: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 26 7th graders, 47 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 130

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-10
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Claudia and the Little Liar (RS#128)

2013-05-06T00:33:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn

Synopsis:

Claudia and the rest of the BSC are helping out with a basketball team aimed at elementary aged girls. Haley Braddock is one of the girls on the team, but Claudia's been having some trouble with her lately. Haley has been avoiding her homework and lying about whether it's done. She blames Claudia for "telling on her" when Claudia does her job and tells the Braddock parents what their daughter is doing. For example, Claudia mentions that Haley finished a specific book report and her parents recognize it as last month's assignment. Haley starts spreading the word that the BSC exists solely to tattle on the kids, and makes quite a few of the charges very wary of the sitters. She also tries repeatedly to get Claudia in trouble by lying to her parents about what Claudia does while sitting. Mary Anne suggests role playing, and it finally comes out that Haley's been avoiding homework because she's having trouble understanding certain concepts in school. Once the problem is out in the open, the Braddocks can work on solving that. Haley apologizes to Claudia for trying to get her in trouble.

Manwhile, Claudia's also finding that she and Josh don't seem to have much together, and they're drifiting apart. They agree to go back to being friends.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: carrots and celery (for Stacey), Ring Dings behind her dresser, Chhez Doodles under her bed

Stacey's still in the Math Club.

Their Families:

Claudia's dad celebrates his birthday in this book.

I guess Janine doesn't have a driver's license despite being 16, because Claudia indicates that she can't drive some art supplies over. Although she might have meant that there's no car available for her to drive.

The Club (and clients):

Ooh, good continuity: the Segers are still the Rodowskys' next-door neighbors.

But then all of a sudden the Braddocks aren't walking distance from the Kishis...

SMS: nothing new.

PSA Time:

Guess what a Deaf seven-year-old can do to communicate with someone who doesn't sign? WRITE. Claudia could have avoided a difficulty if she or Matt had thought to communicate through writing. Even with the spelling issues.

Misc:

This is Claudia's last regular series book.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 5

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 13

SMS Staff and Faculty: 68

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 144

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Abby's Un-Valentine (RS#127)

2013-05-04T16:52:00.001-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker

Synopsis:

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and Abby couldn't care less. She's just not interested in romance. At thirteen, that's pretty realistic. Not everyone cares about Valentine's Day even as adults. But in BSC Land, this makes her an outcast. How dare she not like Valentine's Day! I'll be she doesn't celebrate Christmas, either--wait. (No, no one says that in the book; they just react over-the-top. Interestingly, no one cares that Shannon doesn't want to set up a date for Valentine's Day.)

Compounding things is the fact that Ross Brown--who Stacey once had a crush on--has a crush on Abby and wants to be valentines with her. If you look toward the bottom of my post, you'll see that Abby hasn't had a crush on anyone since her introduction, and she doesn't start now. She catches a lot of flack for it, and finds herself receiving unwanted advice about how to land a guy. Abby does bring some of it on herself, though: she's frankly pretty rude to people who are enjoying the Valentine festivities as SMS prepares for yet another holiday dance. Although I will give her points for trying to not lead Ross on and being honest with him without being a jerk, at least at first. She does have to be more abrupt when he refuses to take "no" for an answer, and evenutally realizes that Anna would actually be a really good fit for him. She tries to set them up, but Ross thinks that the twins are playing a prank on him by switching when it goes awry. The twins are able to apologize later, and Ross asks Anna out to a string quartet concert on Valentine's Day. Abby and Kristy (who is apparently still smarting over her past with Bart...or maybe missing Michel from Baby-sitters' European Vacation) go see a horror movie while the rest of the BSC is at the school dance.

Subplot: Kristy's family is just about finished training the guide dog, Scout. Poor Andrew seems to have never grasped the idea that they weren't keeping the dog, and has been thinking that since David Michael has Shannon and Karen has Pumpkin, he should get to have Scout. Since he's four, I can see that happening, especially since we know that the Brewer-Thomas household isn't one for explaining things as important as "we're adopting a little girl." Claudia makes some decent headway during a sitting job, and Kristy helps drive the point home. What really helps is David Michael stepping up and offering to share Shannon, since Shannon obviously loves Andrew. What a good brother.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: pretzels, Hershey's Kisses in Valentine wrapping, Snickers bars

Jessi prefers to wear pastels as they compliment her skin. Most women I've known with dark complexions prefer jewel tones for the same reason.

Shannon is the youngest member of her school's astronomy club (the only eighth grader) AND its president. Because that makes sense.

Shannon tans easily.

Their Families:

Okay, I had just decided that Abby comes from a Jewish family that doesn't keep kosher, but then she specifies that her mother gets takeout from a kosher deli. But then there's no description of what kosher means.

I need to add this to the list of things I'd punish Karen for that go unnoticed: when Scout is leaving for the final time, and Andrew is upset, she "h[olds] up her hands toward Andrew like a traffic cop. "Stop crying," she command[s]. "You'll upset Scout." I think the context around is suggesting that Karen's putting on a tough front because she'll miss Scout too, but geez. Andrew is four, and Karen needs to lay off and let him grieve the departure of a dog he very clearly loves deeply. No one even gives Karen a disapproving look or even suggests that Karen back off a little.

Kristy's family got Scout in early April, and was supposed to train her for ten months. Sure enough, Scout leaves on Valentine's Day.

The Club (and clients):

Mary Anne helps the Brewer-Thomas kids make pinecone bird-feeders, and a black-capped chickadee visits to eat. That strikes me as a surprisingly specific bird, but also accurate: it's a wide-spread bird that likes seeds, and is small enough to easily eat off a pinecone. My goddaughter likes them; I pointed out lots of birds to her when I watched her as a toddler and she started showing me the "chick-a-ees" after a while.

The tensions with the dance and whether Abby will have a date and some of the BSC trying to force a relationship between her and Ross lead to a short-lived BSC fight, number thirteen.

SMS:

New teacher: Ms. Colley, 8th grade English.

PSA Time:

Even if you're justing picking up fallen pinecones from neighborhood yards, you should ask permission before tromping around other people's properties.

Misc:

This is Abby's last book.

Valentine's Day is a Saturday in this book. It was a Friday in Stacey and the Stolen Hearts, which is the last time Valentine's Day was celebrated in Connecticut. However, it was a Saturday in California that year, according to that series. In 1999, Valentine's Day was a Sunday.

Valentine's Day was not created by Hallmark, although you could certainly say it's been taken over by the greeting card company. Same with Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Scout only gets fed once a day, at night. That seems like a really long time for any animal to wait for food. Anyone with experience in guide dogs have any insight?

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 5

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 13

SMS Staff and Faculty: 68

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 144

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

The All-New Mallory Pike (RS#126)

2013-04-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1999

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles.

Synopsis:

Mallory is off to Riverbend Hall, a boarding school in Massachusetts. She fits in very well there, surrounded by other girls who have similar interests to her and teachers who encourage the academic pursuits of their students. Unfortunately, the one person she doesn't click with is her roommate, Alexis. Alexis has been at Riverbend since the last school year started, and clearly wants to walk all over Mallory, smothering her with rules about how the roommate situation should work and not letting Mallory have any say in how they should share their space and time. She's really passive-agressive about it all, and even takes it so far as to snark to Mallory that she won't bother reading her journal again (without permission, of course; Mallory had made it clear that the journal is private) because it's boring. Mallory tries to deal with the issues on her own, and takes the advice of the senior girl who acts as a residence hall director, but she can't seem to resolve the tension between her and Alexis. It turns out that Alexis has already had two roommate who also didn't get along with her. The school thought that Mallory, being from a large family, would be able to room with her more easily. But Alexis takes things too far, trashing the room and defacing Mallory's pictures. The dean finally admits that the situation needs intervention. It turns out that one of Alexis's previous roommates is in a single rooom, and agrees to trade with Alexis. Frankly, I think the unstable behavior that Alexis displayed shouldn't have been rewarded with a single room and the school should have considered expelling her, but Mallory's happy with the solution.

In a subplot, the younger Pikes fight over what do with the room situation, now that Vanessa is on her own. Abby notices the Byron doesn't seem to care and just wants things to end, so suggests that he and Nicky share one room, Adam and Jordan share another, the three girls move in to the larger room that had been the boys' (and Mallory will join them there on school breaks). Problem solved!

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Hershey's Kisses under her pillow. She also makes chocolate chip cookies to put in a care package for Mallory.

I'd never noticed it until I saw their handwriting so close together, but Mary Anne and Jessi have very similar styles of writing. Jessi's is basically a stretched-out version of Mary Anne's.

Any time a BSC member is mentioned taking a language class, it's French. I know it's common middle school class in the US, but I'm surprised that no one takes Spanish, which is also very popular. In middle school, I took a quarter of French, and few quarters of Spanish, and a year of American Sign Language. My older brother took a quarter or two of Japanese in middle school.

The girls email each other. It's kinda weird to see modern technology in books that reference I Love Lucy so much.

Their Families:

This book implies a more reasonable explanation of the Pike parents' permissiveness: it's not that they have no rules, it's that they've realized certain battles, like insisting the kids all eat the same food at dinner, aren't worth the effort.

Apparently a record exists for the most strands of spaghetti sucked into a mouth consecutively; it's 27, set by Sam Thomas.

Mallory and Vanessa have had a morning tradition of Mallory telling Vanessa the weather in exchange for a poem. After Mallory leaves, Vanessa plans to pay Nicky a nickel a week for the weather report.

Jordan's the oldest triplet.

The Club (and clients):

Kristy organizes a little ceremony during Mallory's last meeting to make her an official honorary member. Don't tell Dawn! It's like a repeat of when Kristy officially inducted Mallory and Jessi in the club, having never done that for Dawn. (There's also a going away party after the meeting; the one at the end of the last book wasn't the official party)

The BSC also sort of apologizes for how they treated Mallory when she first joined, with the stupid test and all. They don't actually say "I'm sorry" but they acknowledge that they were being jerks.

SMS:

I wonder how the sixth grade will go about replacing Mallory as treasurer.

A point in favor of Riverbend over SMS: Mallory has learned the difference between "us" and "we." She says "We Riverbend students..." correctly, since it's the subject of the sentence instead of the common error in this book "Us baby-sitters..." (it's fine to use "us" if it's the object of the sentence, but most of the time it pops up in these books it's used incorrectly)

PSA Time: nothing stood out.

Misc:

This is Mallory's last book. It takes place in January, at the start of the new school term in her boarding school.

Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa happened between this book and the last one (the last one mentioned the Winter Solstice too) but we saw no celebrations of them, so no change with the holiday counts.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 143

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Ducky Diary 2 (CD#10)

2013-04-27T10:41:00.001-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis.

Synopsis:

Ducky's parents are back from their latest trip, and Ducky realizes that he's more used to them being away than home. He doesn't know how to connect with them at all. He does connect a bit with his brother, who also feels awkward around their parents.

He also makes a bit of headway with Alex. There are some nice bonding moments between the friends, when it seems like Alex's depression might be lifting. But then there are more downs, like Ducky finding several empty and half empty bottles of alcohol in Alex's room, or the way that Alex keeps skipping school and just wants to sleep all day. Ducky feels responsible for Alex, although really, he's doing all a sixteen-year-old with no psychology training can do. And he feels like he can't talk to Dawn, Amalia, or Maggie about anything because they don't really know Alex, or Sunny because she's going through enough.

But then it seems like Alex's mood is turning up again. He seems less burdened, and Ducky even sees him cleaning out his locker which had been a pit--oh, crap. A chronically depressed person who suddenly seems like a weight's been lifted from him and is putting his life in order? That sometimes means he has a plan to make it all better, and that plan is suicide. Sure enough, as Ducky finds his way to Alex's house, needing to escape his own after his parents announce that they will return to Ghana before Christmas, he finds Alex in the garage with the car running. Ducky's able to get him out of the carbon monoxide and call 911 in time. Alex is released from the hospital the next day, and on a flight to a treatment program with his uncle in Chicago (he's a doctor at a recovery center) that evening. He and Ducky get to talk a bit before he goes, and Ducky finally understands that Alex couldn't just snap out of it or open up and talk. Ducky's parents offer to stay through Christmas but moronically put the decision on him--way to go, parents. Your son doesn't have enough on his plate, does he?

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Ducky):

Ducky appears to be one of those people who gets carsick while reading in the car.

Their Families:

Ducky's parents have been going on extended trips for work (in addition to being professors, they're also international business consultants) since he was a little kid, which often left him wondering what he'd done wrong that made them leave.

Sunny's mom has months, maybe only weeks left.

PSA Time:

If you're too busy to take care of kids, don't have them. I don't mean never hire a sitter; I mean if you need someone else to raise them, then maybe parenthood isn't for you. (For what it's worth, I realize that there are surprise babies; this is aimed at people purposely have kids then hand them off to someone else)

Misc:

This book takes place from early to mid December.

I think it's always a good idea to bring a book or something along when you might have to wait, like in a doctor's office or picking someone up at the airport. I usually go with knitting. Either I end up not waiting and go home faster or I get a little further on my project. In the time Ducky waits at the airport for his parents, I could have knitted a third of a baby blanket!

Speaking of airports, Ducky's parents' flight is scheduled to land at 5:37. Today my dad is coming home from a trip and his flight lands at 5:35. Funny coincidence. (The parents' flight is delayed though; my dad's was on time. And I didn't pick him up because he was only gone a week and left his car at a place near the airport.)

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 9

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-3, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-2

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 209: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 26 7th graders, 47 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 130

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-10
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Mary Anne in the Middle (RS#125)

2013-04-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn.

Synopsis:

This book is the one in which Mallory decides to attend a Massachusetts boarding school in response to the bullying at SMS and deals with the tensions between her and her friends, especially Jessi. For some reason, it's not told from Mallory's or Jessi's perspective, but Mary Anne's, because Mallory and Jessi have confided in her and she feels stuck in the middle of their argument. The main problem between Jessi and Mallory is that Jessi thinks Mallory is running away from her problems instead of trying to fix them (one point she has is that her family didn't run away from racism when they moved to Stoneybrook), while Mallory is upset that Jessi can't be happy for her to have been accepted--with a full scholarship--to an exclusive school. I'm willing to bet that part of Jessi is upset because if Mallory was going to up and leave for a boarding school, why did Jessi bother coming back from Dance New York? I can see why Jessi would feel hurt and abandoned, but she majorly crosses a line when she gets Mallory's siblings worked up about her leaving and turns them against her. Which honestly makes the scene in which Jessi's dance friends are excited for Mallory pretty funny. Mary Anne isn't laughing though; she's tired of being complained to all the time. She finally gets Jessi and Mallory to talk to each other and make up, just in time for the send-off party the BSC had arranged for Mallory.

Subplot: the BSC and several charges make new holiday decorations for the nursing home in which Mallory's great-uncle lives.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned

Abby complains briefly that BSC members should be allowed to have lives when Kristy angsts about a party meaning all the members will be unavailable. Potential foreshadowing for the first Friends Forever superspecial?

Their Families:

Mrs. Pike is still temping and has a job over the holiday season.

Boo-Boo the cat is no more. There's a new kitten named Pumpkin in his place, a plot I understand is covered in a Little Sister book.

Mary Anne describes the Schafer diet well: they're basically vegetarian, which is pretty accurate considering how often we've seen Dawn eat chicken or Sharon be fine with picking meat out of or off something. So it's more that they prefer to not eat meat rather than never eating meat.

The Club (and clients):

The BSC elects to not replace Mallory, as they can't think of anyone good enough.

SMS:

Although Mallory will be attending Riverside after the winter holiday break, my running total for SMS students will stay the same because it doesn't include the BSC.

PSA Time: nothing stood out.

Misc:

This book takes place in December and there are some holiday preparations happening, but none actually celebrated.

It strikes me as funny that the director of the nursing home describes some decorations as so ancient that, at thirty years old, they should be tossed. Because pretty much all of the residences are going to be at least twice that age! Of course I realize that people aren't things, but it's pretty funny to me all the same.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 143

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Stacey McGill...Matchmaker? (RS#124)

2013-04-21T10:15:00.002-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn. The book is dedicated to Ren Roome and Ann Ross Roome.

Synopsis:

Stacey has been musing lately about how her mom has lost touch with most of the friends she had before the divorce, doesn't seem to have much time or inclination to meet anyone new, and hasn't been on a date since splitting up, although her dad, who works more hours, has a steady girlfriend. So when Stacey gets a sitting job with the Brooke family, which is headed by a single dad, she schemes to set him up with her mom. Mr. Brooke is a writer, and Stacey's mom turns out to be a fan of his books. Stacey and the adults are excited about the possibility of a relationship, but the Brooke children aren't. Their parents' divorce is fairly recent; their mom left to pursue an acting career. They haven't had time to really process what's going on yet. The kindergarten-age son is more accepting, but the older daughter...

Things come to a head when the Brookes come over for Thanksgiving dinner, but Stacey manages to have a nice heart-to-heart with the daughter. Still, even after the rest of the evening goes well, her mom tells Stacey that things aren't going to work in the long term between her and Mr. Brooke. Stacey thinks her mom is just making up excuses, but eventually realizes that she needs to support her mother, who knows better than Stacey what's best for herself. Stacey talks to the kids after the breakup, and agrees to be their honorary big sister. Not that we really hear about them again except in passing...

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Mallomars in her dresser drawer, carrots (for Stacey)

Stacey's still in the math club at school.

Stacey checks an ingredient list for fructose, among other things. Had this been written today, I'm sure she would have been checking for high fructose corn syrup.

Mallory's troubles at school have escalated to the point that she and her parents take a weekend trip to check out a boarding school in Massachusetts. The BSC as a whole is shocked; Jessi is especially less than thrilled.

Their Families:

Mary Anne's dad dated other women before reconnecting with Sharon. Somehow I pictured him just withdrawing from romantic attachments until one fell into his lap.

Stacey's mom still likes Vivaldi, like she did in Snowbound!

The Club (and clients):

The Brooke family brings the BSC client total to 38.

SMS:

The SMS soccer team seems to still be in its regular season three weeks before Thanksgiving. Usually fall sports are starting playoffs then. But the passage isn't entirely clear, so it could be playoffs.

PSA Time:

"Spaz" is actually a slur against people with cerebal palsy and similar conditions. It refers to the spastic motions they might make, due to issues with muscle control. It's more commonly used that way in Europe than the US, so a lot of people in North America might be unaware of this.

Misc:

I hate terms like "reverse snobbery" and "reverse racism." In my mind, it just [whatever prejudice] from a different angle. An argument can be made for reverse racism, but reverse snobbery just sounds stupid.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 4

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 38 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 143

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Amalia Diary 2 (CD#9)

2013-04-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis. Stieg Retlin did the interior illustrations.

Synopsis:

Amalia's trouble with her ex are fading, although she's still rattled by the experience, and he occasionally tries to win her back by sending her unwanted notes and presents. She's also concerned about Maggie, who admits to Amalia that she has a problem. Amalia wants to help, but isn't sure how. Maggie talks to Dawn, and requests that she only discuss it with her and Amalia. While I understand that they're respecting her privacy, I wouldn't promise to NEVER tell about something that serious; there might be a real reason to go to a medical professional or responsible adult down the line. Amalia recommends a therapist, and Maggie agrees to see her, but Amalia wonders if she's done enough to help.

But some good things are happening too. Amalia gets the band Vanish a paying job at the school's homecoming dance--and the band performs amazingly well. Maggie continues seeing the therapist. And there's this new guy at the school, a pretty good-looking one...who seems to really listen to Amalia and wants to get to know her better. They talk after homecoming, and Amalia's not sure quite where things are headed, but she's game to see what will happen.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Ducky):

Sunny's been pushing her friends away.

Amalia has a mild crush on Ducky for part of the book.

Amalia is nervous of guys, even when they seem nice, because her ex seemed nice at first too. I know someone who was married to a "nice" guy who turned abusive, and now refuses to ever marry again, because of how bad the abuse was. It's really sad when someone's trust is so utterly betrayed like that.

Their Families:

Maggie's father is willing to pay for her to see a therapist, even though she doesn't tell him why (but I'm guessing he figures it's about her dieting; he mentioned it in Maggie's last diary).

PSA Time:

Not every promise or secret should be kept. Some information is dangerous if not brought to light. The best I've heard it phrased comes from a mom I know: Keep surprises, not secrets.

Misc:

This book takes place from late September to mid-October.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 9

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-3, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-2

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 209: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 26 7th graders, 47 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 130

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-10
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Claudia's Big Party (RS#123)

2013-04-15T14:22:00.003-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Vicki Berger Erwin.

Synopsis:

Claudia's parents are going out of town for the weekend, and Claudia decides to have a small party while they're gone. She's been feeling pulled between her obligations to her BSC friends, her seventh-grade friends, and her boyfriend, so is looking forward to having a chance for everyone to get to know each other and hang out with all of them. Janine's also been wanting to spend more time with Claudia, which Claudia thinks is nice, but she can only be so many places at once. Janine agrees to help with the party, so Claudia's thrilled that everyone who wants a piece of her can be involved. Predictably, more people come than planned (it seems that some guests invited other guests) and things get a bit out of hand. Of course, during the party, Claudia's aunt and uncle show up. In the ensuing awkwardness, Janine and Claudia fight, but patch things up the next morning as they're cleaning.

Subplot is about Melody and Bill Korman. They keep getting in fights with each other (Bill seems to get blamed for more than his fair share, which I'm sure is part of the problem, but it's oddly never brought up). Jessi suggests doing something to force the two to work together, so Mary Anne, who has the next sitting job with them, pretends to lose the house key while on a walk and they work together to retrace steps and actions until they find where Mary Anne hide it in their baby sister's stroller.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: M&Ms, Snickers, and pretzels in her desk drawer, more M&Ms under her bed, a Hershey bar in a purse in her closet. She also likens her feeling of being stretched different directions to being a piece of taffy pulled apart.

Mallory's still being teased at school, and it's affecting her sleep.

Their Families:

Okay, Claudia might have a point about Janine using big words to show off her intelligence. Janine says that her ex-boyfriend was taking up her time "geometrically instead of arithmetically" as a way to say he was taking up too much of her time. That just sounds like gibberish; if she wanted to make a math pun then she should have stuck with something more like "exponentially instead of linearly."

It's been mentioned that Janine also has a sweet tooth, and true to form, the first night the parents are out of town, Janine makes a dessert of blondies topped with ice cream and caramel sauce.

Janine and Claudia change in front of each other. I suppose Vanessa and Mallory do as well, since they share a room. Maybe that's normal though; I don't have any sisters.

The Club (and clients):

Abby sometimes runs from her house to BSC meetings instead of getting a ride with Kristy. Still don't get why they don't just hang out with another club member for a couple hours or study or something after school...

SMS: nothing new.

PSA Time:

While the Korman kids think they're locked out of the house, they wonder if they should break a window to get back in. My first thought was that one of them should wrap a hand in a shirt to protect the skin from broken glass, but Bill suggests a better idea: throw a rock or heavy shoe through the window. Far less chance of getting cut that way.

Misc:

So, at 13 and 16, Claudia and Janine have their first night at home without their parents. I've never spent the night at my parents' without them there, and I'm going to 29 this year. I went from home to the college dorms to an apartment with my husband (just before our senior year of college), and didn't even spend a night there alone until a while later when he worked an overnight shift. I was probably 22 or 23 before I was alone overnight. My older brother was probably 21ish, and my younger brother...I'm not sure he has yet! My parents did go out of town once when he was 18, and he had a small party with my parents' permission, but my husband hung out upstairs for the duration. My brother's quite a bit younger than I am, which is probably why my parents didn't do overnight trips when I was living at home.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 143

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Kristy in Charge (RS#122)

2013-04-12T00:34:00.002-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn.

Synopsis:

In an effort to encourage students to pursue teaching careers, SMS is putting on a three-day event in which students will take the places of their teachers for a class period, learning what it's like to organize lesson plans and be in charge of students and so on. Several BSC members do it: Kristy is assigned to seventh grade girls' gym, Stacey gets seventh grade math, Mary Anne gets seventh grade social studies, and in a confusing move, Mallory is assigned to eighth grade English. Since she's in charge of gym class, Kristy assumes she doesn't really need a lesson plan or much of a plan at all; she just knows that she'll do well. To make things even more interesting, Kristy will be working with Cary Retlin, who's assigned to seventh grade boys' gym. They let their animosity toward each other disrupt the (THREE DAYS) of gym, undermining each other and letting chaos reign. Someone gets a black eye, another person gets an adult tooth knocked out, and one student ends up with a broken arm (sort of reminds you of the Winter War in Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation, when Kristy is in charge of a team of competitors and a student she talks into joining the competition breaks his ankle). There's no good resolution; Kristy and Cary sort of learn to work together but not fantastically.

Mallory has a tough time of it, too. She's nervous about teaching students two years older than her, and a few mistakes, like dropping the stack of handouts, snowball when the class teases her. The regular teacher does what she can to keep the class in line, but the teasing spreads through the school. Even though she's able to get through to some students at the end of her final day, the teasing persists and is reaching levels that could be categorized as bullying.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: popcorn

Nothing really stood out.

Their Families:

There's a sub-subplot dealing with Vanessa bossing her younger siblings into playing school, with her as a poetry teacher.

The Club (and clients): nothing new.

SMS:

This is the eleventh time the same school year has started.

For some reason, there's no minimum grade requirement to do the teaching program, even though students will miss their own class periods while they're teaching.

New-to-us students: Anson (no last name given, 7th grade), Lane Reynolds (8th; a previous book introduced Jodi Reynolds who's also in 8th grade, but it's not mentioned whether they're related; he's referred as "Shane" by mistake once). There's a Parker mentioned, but it seems we're supposed to already know who he is, and given there's a male student with that last name, I'm going to assume it's him, especially since this is on the page following the Lane-Shane typo.

Will someone please tell me why SMS hasn't thought to divide gym classes into competitive and non-competitive teams for games? My tiny school (69 in my graduating class) always did this. If you knew how to play soccer or volleyball or basketball or whatever well, you went to one half of the gym or field, and if you didn't you went to the other half. The competitive students who knew the rules well could go all out, and the non-competitive students who were just learning could still get some exercise without being destroyed by better players.

PSA Time:

Get a good editor before you publish a book. The typos with the students' name are confusing.

Misc:

During the Chapter Two introductions, Kristy muses that Mary Anne could teach "secretarial sciences." Sounds like someone saw this short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoqtTrb3I0w

Curds and whey means cottage cheese.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 11

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 216: 122 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 30 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 143

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Maggie Diary 2 (CD#8)

2013-04-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Jeanne Betancourt.

Synopsis:

This diary is mainly about Maggie's dabbling in anorexia. I wouldn't go so far as to say that she has a full-blown case, because things get resolved too quickly for that, but she certainly shows a lot of alarming signs. Her goal weight is unhealthy for her height, and her obsession with food and fats goes beyond just wanting to eat healthy, and she quickly shows signs of the beginnings of malnurishment like headaches and exhaustion. There's also the fact that her dad is controlling while her mom is out of control, and it's common for people who have little say in other matters to develop eating disorders because eating is one thing they can be in charge of.

What finally gets through to Maggie is her mother's worsening alcoholism. The drinking is impacting more and more of her life, and almost messes up a charity benefit that Maggie had been helping her with (for an animal shelter Maggie helps at). She also disappears a few times overnight. Then she stumbles in drunk and shatters a crystal angel statue which had always been comforting to Maggie. Her mother declares that she doesn't have a problem, but her father counters that there are several problems in the family, and mentions Maggie's dieting. Maggie catches herself about to deny it exactly like her mother did. I wouldn't say the book ends on a happy note, because the problems are still there despite being brought to light, and others, like the way Maggie and her brother feel like they can never please their parents, are still hidden.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Ducky):

Dawn's in Connecticut for this book, which is consistent with the other books that take place around now.

Their Families:

There are some bittersweet moments between Maggie and her younger brother Zeke. Sweet in that they're bonding and supporting each other, bitter in that it's because of their father's controlling attitude and their mother's drinking. (Zeke is at a tennis camp for most of the diary)

PSA Time:

If you are concerned with your weight, it's best to discuss diet plans with a doctor or other medical professional.

Generally it's rude to comment on what someone is or isn't eating (for example, Justin made too big a deal of Maggie not wanting butter and salt on her popcorn; that could just be a taste issue), but if you have legitmate concerns about a person's health then it's worth it to have a talk.

Wash your hands after handling reptiles; some can carry salmonella.

Misc:

This book takes place in the second half of July.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 9

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-3, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-2

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 209: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 26 7th graders, 47 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 130

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-10
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Kristy and the Cat Burglar (M#36)

2013-04-06T09:28:00.002-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles.

Synopsis:

Kristy is watching some of her younger siblings play around the neighborhood when Cary Retlin stops by. As they banter, a shot rings out near one of the mansions just as the police are showing up, acting on an anonymous tip. The house belongs to one Reinhart Golem (what a name!), and his security guard was called away just before the gunshot. All the distractions appear to have been a ruse to get to the diamonds hidden in a vault in the mansion. Kristy notices a red cat stenciled on the mailbox, which turns out to be the calling card of a particular cat burglar. It also seems that a few of the Stoneybrook police officers are suspicious of Sgt Johnson, the one who's often involved in the mysteries the BSC solves. They think it's very odd that he got to the crime scene as quickly as he did. Even the BSC has to admit that some thing seem suspicious.

While the BSC and Cary are looking around the burgled property, the owner comes out and introduces himself, seemingly unaware of their poking around. He invites them in and discusses the case with them, even offering them a reward if they solve it. The BSC does find some interesting clues, but during the course of the crime scene investigation, Sgt Johnson ends up arrested. The BSC and Cary agree that something doesn't seem right, and pool resources to find out who really committed the crime. In a bizarre turn of events, Kristy, Mary Anne, Abby, and Cary end up being held prisoner briefly in the mansion: the owner is the cat burglar. Fortunately for them, the rest of the BSC realized the truth at the same time and sent the police over. Sgt Johnson is exonerated, and the BSC promises him that they'll stay out of the mystery-solving business...for now, anyway.

Subplot: Charlotte Johanssen, inspired by the Harriet the Spy book and movie, starts keeping notes on her friends. Predictably, it backfires and the BSC helps her deal with the fallout.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: caramel butter popcorn, chocolate wafer cookies, salsa-flavored corn chips, Butterfinger bars

There was no new information that jumped out at me.

Their Families: nothing stood out.

The Club (and clients):

Kristy says she never misses a BSC meeting, but in the last book she visited Abby's grandparents for the party (Anna had a friend come too) and missed a meeting, plus there were others in the early books. More accurate would be that she tries to never miss a meeting, because there have a been a few here and there.

SMS: summer break.

PSA Time:

No matter how interesting clues found at a crime scene, don't touch them unless you're one of the official investigators. Just point them out the right people. The only time you should disturb a crime scene is if there's a victim still alive who needs help.

Misc:

Hooray! This is the last mystery book (and obviously the last one with Kristy).

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 143

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Abby in Wonderland (RS#121)

2013-04-03T11:17:00.002-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn.

Synopsis:

Abby and her family are headed to their grandparents' summer home in the Hamptons to help them prepare for the party they have every year to celebrate their wedding anniversary (the party is Alice in Wonderland themed this year, which inspires the book title). Although the party is shaping up to be fun, Abby's concerned about several family members who aren't able to come, since it seems to be bothering her grandmother more than Abby would expect. Something else is bothering her too, but Abby isn't sure what until she overhears a phone conversation and accidentally comes across some medical information while looking for something else for her grandfather. Abby's grandmother has either been diagnosed with breast cancer or is waiting for a definitive diagnosis. Neither grandparent is saying anything, but Abby wants to help without revealing what she knows. So she calls up the relatives who have declined invitations to convince them to come. The stress of keeping the secret gets to be too much for Abby, and she finally admits to grandmother that she knows. As it turns out, the biopsy results aren't back yet, and Abby's grandparents didn't want to worry everyone in case the lump in her breast turns out to be benign. The book ends before the results come in, but with Abby confident that her grandmother can handle what life throws at her.

The subplot is about the Pikes: they can't afford their usual summer trip to Sea City because of unexpected car repair cost. Dawn comes up with the idea to set up a beach in their backyard, using plastic pools for water and sand, decorations (including souvenirs from Sea City), and playing beach music and sounds.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned

Dawn is still in town for the summer (it's August).

Kristy visits Abby's family for the anniversary party, but really adds nothing to the plot.

Their Families:

A great-uncle of Abby's was killed in action during World War II. Abby's great-grandmother came to the United States from Germany in the 1920s; nine of her twelve siblings were murdered in the Holocaust.

Abby's maternal grandfather is a bit like mine: he loves electronics and computer stuff. My grandad was an electrical engineer, among other things (for example: doctor, flight surgeon, navigator, colonel in the Air Force, college professor, crew team member for a senior rowing team; he's been in three or four bands...).

One of the foods served at the anniversary party is crab legs, which aren't Kosher. Imitation crab made from certain kinds of fish would be okay, I think. I know that not all Jewish people keep kosher, but it still seems odd that a Jewish character created for the BSC wouldn't keep Kosher.

The Club (and clients):

The Pike experiment with having the triplets act as one of the extra sitters is over; the BSC is now back to sending two sitters again.

SMS: summer break.

PSA Time:

First thing to do when a toilet clogs: turn off the water to that specific toilet. Look near the wall under the tank; there will be a knob. Turn it to shut off the water, then mop up the mess.

You can do breast self-exams to look for lumps, and should monthly, in addition to getting mammograms when recommended based on your risk factors. Men can get breast cancer too, and can also do at-home checks and, if they meet certain risk factors, should also get mammograms.

Since formula-feeding seems to be the norm in BSC books, I think it's worth mentioning that breast-feeding reduces a woman's risk for breast cancer. So if you have the opportunity to breast-feed, it's another reason to do so. Also relevant to the BSC: having a baby before the age of thirty reduces breast cancer risk.

Misc:

There's no such thing as a seagull. They're just gulls. Herring gulls, California gulls, mew gulls, et. al.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 141

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Baby-sitters' European Vacation (SS#15)

2013-03-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis. Angelo Tillery provided the illustrations in the book.

Synopsis:

Kristy, Stacey, Abby, Jessi, and Mallory go on a school sponsored nine-day trip to London and Paris during the summer, There are SMS students as well as French-Canadian students from Toronto. Mary Anne, Claudia, Dawn, and Logan work at a playground camp. Shannon is away at camp, like most "other" summers that have taken place. Here's what happens to the girls:

Jessi goes to watch a Dance New York team coincidentally performing in London. She goes with a bit of mixed feelings, because if she had taken the offer to join the team, she would have been performing. Naturally, one of the dancers gets hurt before the performance, and Jessi fills in for her (a member of the corps; the understudy has food poisoning).

Abby apparently grew close to Vicki before she and her parents returned to England, and is the eyes through which we see the visit she, Stacey, Kristy, Jessi, and Mallory have with the Kents. It turns out that Vicki is supposed to be part of audience to greet the Queen, and needs someone to stand with her for it. She asks Abby since her parents and her nanny aren't able, and Abby readily accepts. She ends up accidentally stepping on the toes of a prince (I guess Charles, judging from when this was written?).

Stacey thinks the only wrinkle in her trip plans is that her mom is a chaperone. But something slightly bigger happens: her luggage gets mixed up with that of a WWII veteran...who brought an urn containing his friend's ashes to spread at Normandy (both were part of the Allied Forces on D-Day). While they wait for that mess to get sorted, Stacey's mom gets her two outfits to tide her over...from Harrod's. Stacey's mom is able to finally reach the suitcase's owner, who is staying in Paris, and arrange for them to deliver the urn personally when they arrive. Having learned some about World War II, Stacey asks if she and her mom can accompany the man on his journey, and he agrees. Stacey is very moved by the whole experience.

Kristy meets a Canadian student named Michel. At first they're acrimonious to each other, but before long they hit it off. Getting lost together in Paris helps, since it forces Kristy to rely on his knowledge of French. They even share a few kisses in Paris. They exchange addresses, and a letter or two.

Claudia "gets" to share her summer job with her sister. Janine was a last-minute fill in, suggested by her ex, Jerry. Janine is stressed with the suddeness of the job and with being around Jerry, and takes it out on Claudia. They finally have it out, and Janine reveals that Jerry's been hard on her, and that in turn has made her lash out at Claudia. Claudia advises Janine to ignore Jerry, and Janine promises to be fair to Claudia. Inspired by Claudia, Janine stands up to Jerry when he's being especially unreasonable, and Claudia backs her up.

Mallory meets up with her mother's cousin, who lives in England. Her first-cousin-once-removed is a writer as well, with a contract to have her manuscript published. Her cousin shows Mallory a family tree, which includes William Shakespeare (he's her great-times-seventeen grandfather).

Mary Anne doesn't see much action in this book, aside from Cokie trying to weasel her way into Logan's good graces. What finally helps is Janine listening to Claudia and standing up to Jerry, who had been letting Cokie do whatever she wanted.

Dawn ends up having to take the place of Janine's replacement at a different day camp briefly. This camp is for children with a variety of disabilities, mental and physical. One of the campers is Susan Felder, from Kristy and the Secret of Susan.

We also get a chapter from Robert, who's being annoyed by Jaqui until he finally tells her off.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned

Abby knows what champagne tastes like: she says sparkling cider tastes better. I agree with her myself, but I'm not a huge fan of alcohol. I have nothing against it morally for most people (some people can't handle alcohol and shouldn't drink it). I just think most of it tastes bad.

Jessi thinks Quebec is a city. It's actually Canada's largest province.

Their Families:

Mallory's mother's maiden name is Bennett. She's the second of five children.

The Club (and clients): nothing new.

SMS:

Cokie Mason's mom is on the Board of Education (which is how she got accepted as a playground camp counselor).

Jaqui Grant smokes.

There are only two chaperones for the 50 SMS students, Mrs. McGill and Mallory's writing teacher, Mr. Dougherty. The latter wanders off from time to time and doesn't really have any consideration for Mrs. McGill's time. Who at SMS thought it was a good idea to have fewer than five chaperones, and not more like 8-10?

PSA Time:

Should you wish to discuss a veteran's military service, DO NOT ASK IF THE VETERAN KILLED ANYONE. No one makes this mistake in the book, but I remember someone's grandfather coming to speak my first-grade class about World War II and someone asked him that. He started crying and had to leave the room, and the teacher told us that during war, there are unavoidable casualties and it will have an impact on everyone, and that we shouldn't pry.

Misc:

This is the last Super Special, not including two smaller pseudo versions of them in the Friends Forever series (which I will be getting to soon!).

Actually, yes, parts of Europe are older than parts of North America. Parts of the west coast didn't exist during the Mesozoic, which is why you won't find a lot of dinosaur fossils there. It was accreted later.

Alan Gray gets detained briefly at customs for purposely acting suspicious. Had this book taken place a few years later, I bet he'd have been held longer...

I've seen people get annoyed that we Americans call ourselves that sometimes, since "America" is also part of the name of two continents, and say we should have a name derived from United States. One suggestion is USian. I think this is nonsense for two reasons: one, I can call myself what I want to, thank you very much. I don't ask people from Germany to not call themselves Deutsch because it sounds like Dutch to me and it would be arrogant and rude of me to not let a country decide what to call itself. Two, practically no one insists that people from the United States of Mexico (its full name) stop calling themselves Mexican.

The D-Day invasion took place on five beaches, not just one as is implied at one point in the book (though it is clarified later). Fortunately the book gets it right that it was American, British, and Canadian forces; I think people tend to forget about the Canadian soldiers.

Kristy sarcastically suggests she can communicate with French speakers using sign language. Since American Sign Language is derived from French Sign Language, she might have had a bit of luck. Maybe as much as my dad who used his combined knowledge of Spanish and Latin...

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 141

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-2
Abby-0

Mary Anne and the Playground Fight (RS#121)

2013-03-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Dianne Molleson.

Synopsis:

Summer break is coming up, and that means another whirlwind trip sponsored by SMS. This time it's to London and Paris, a nine-day trip. Those nine days happen to fall in the middle of another summer event that catches the BSC's interest: working at a playground camp. A lot of the girls want to do both, despite the fact that they'd be missing a week of the camp, because they're the BSC and who wouldn't want them to work at the camp (which is a pretty entitled attitude). Add to that there's only six spots available, and a dozen other SMS students are also applying. Nine BSC members are applying; everyone but Shannon, because does Shannon even exist anymore? It's not long before they start sniping at each about who has a better chance or is more qualified, or whether those who want to go to Europe should be able to miss a week of work (Dawn, Mary Anne, and Logan have elected to stay in the USA for the summer). The eighth grade BSC members score job interviews, but Mary Anne and Dawn have legitmate concerns about whether the ones planning to do the Europe trip will be honest about their intentions. While they wait for the results of the interviews, they continue to steam at each other, and even start to reenact the fight they had at Jamie Newton's birthday party in Mary Anne Saves the Day at a goodbye party for Victoria Kent. They catch themselves before going too far, at least, and apologies are had all around. Then they find out who made the cut: Mary Anne, Dawn, Logan, and Claudia will be camp counselors. That leaves Kristy, Stacey, Abby, Jessi, and Mallory free to enjoy Europe.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: M&Ms, Ring Dings, sour cream and onion potato chips, salt and vinegar potato chips, Cheeze Doodles, tortilla chips

Mary Anne says she "always looks forward to summer because that's when...Dawn visits." But their parents got married during the eighth grade school year, and Dawn moved back to California in the fall of eighth grade, so Mary Anne shouldn't know that Dawn always visits in the summer. And this is why having the BSC repeat the same year over and over and over gets fun.

Claudia's favorite potato chip flavor is sour cream and onion. That's tied with sour cream and cheddar cheese for me.

Shannon loves to wear red.

Dawn's room has hardwood flooring. It's not specified if the rest of the house does.

Claudia and Stacey go with Mary Anne, Richard, and Sharon to pick up Dawn and Jeff at the airport. They stop at Dawn's favorite restaurant (Cabbages and Kings) to eat on the way home. Mary Anne narrates that Claudia doesn't like a lot of the food there, but she's polite enough to not say anything. Pay attention, Dawn. Claudia is also very honest and forthright in her application for the summer camp, which I like.

Shannon will be at camp all summer.

Dawn seems to have gotten over her resentment of and forced emotional distance from her little sister. Good.

Kristy hates to cook even more than Mary Anne does.

Abby's allergic to tomatoes, cooked or raw. I know people who are only allergic to raw ones. Cooking them changes their chemical properties enough that these people can be fine with tomato soup or tomato sauce, but will get hives from raw ones. Incidentally, that same change that comes with cooking makes the nutrients in tomatoes more easily accessible to the human body, so cooked tomatoes are healthier than raw (until you add a bunch of junk to make a sauce). Same with carrots.

Their Families:

No, Mary Anne's father relaxes his rules for her in seventh grade, not eighth grade.

Abby's mom did her junior year of college in England.

The Club (and clients):

Victoria Kent is about to go back to England. For her remaining time, she wants to be called Vicki, which the BSC does a lot of eye-rolling over behind her back (they do at least act decently in person). Rude. It's hard to remember when a person wants to be called by a different name, but it's only respectful to listen to a person's wishes about what name is preferred. Forgetting is one thing, being dismissive is another.

Hey, in this book, Jessi and Mallory bring some food a meeting (fancy hummus platter in honor of Dawn's return). Claudia's hospitatlity skills are rubbing off on the other members. They also use it as their "Welcome Back, Dawn" present, which is smart because of how often the BSC ends up giving Dawn presents.

Mary Anne kisses Vicki goodbye after a sitting job. Maybe it's because I'm all about personal space, but I've never kissed a sitting charge, not even when I watched my then-infant goddaughter. If the kid wants a hug, sure, but a kiss is waaay too familar for me.

SMS:

Dawn has sent Mary Anne pictures of Gracie, who was born June 17. Mary Anne is still going to school after having received them. SMS goes late into June! I'm used to public schools being done about the middle of the third week of June (I went to private school, and we'd usually be out by June 10 or so; we had fewer days off during the school year).

Abby and Mary Anne still have the same math teacher, which is consistent with Abby's Lucky Thirteen, but take it at the same time, which is inconsistent with the same book.

PSA Time: nothing stood out.

Misc:

The lighthouse from the twenty-seventh mystery book makes a brief cameo.

Vicki Kent buys some movies to take back to England with her. I'm assuming they're VHS copies, not DVDs. Although one is Toy Story, so who knows. I know that DVDs from one region of the world won't always work in another; I wonder if she'll be able to watch her movies in Europe.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 11

BSC Fights: 12

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 141

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Dawn Diary 2 (CD#7)

2013-03-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Jeanne Betancourt.

Synopsis:

Dawn and Sunny are still not speaking to each other after their fight that was covered in Sunny's second diary. Sunny still comes over a lot to spend time with Carol, time which Dawn thinks would be better spent with Sunny's own mother. Dawn doesn't understand that it's easier for Sunny to see life at its beginning--the nearly-due baby--than at its end. Of course, it can't be easy for Dawn to see her dad so excited about a new baby, and with all the care Carol needs, part of her must feel like he's more excited about this baby than he was about her. But Dawn's making it much harder than it has to be, by letting her resentment of Carol spill onto the baby and refusing to get excited about the idea of a brother or sister. She even gets in a funk that her dad is with Carol when she's in labor rather than sitting in the waiting room with her and Jeff.

On June 17, Carol goes into labor, and Elizabeth Grace is born. Seeing the baby helps Dawn connect. Which is good because I was getting pissed that she was always going "HALF-sibling" especially considering she doesn't qualify Mary Anne as her step-sister too often. Anyway, Carol and Gracie are fine. Sunny comes over to drop off some flowers for Carol, but no fences are mended between her and Dawn. Dawn heads back to Stoneybrook unsure whether she'll be friends with Sunny again or not.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Ducky):

Dawn's known Maggie longer than she's known Sunny.

Maggie thinks she's overweight, despite Dawn noting that she's very slender. Dawn and Amalia even talk about it a bit, concerned for their friend.

Dawn snarks inwardly about how Carol and her dad are waiting for the baby to be born to find out the sex and thinks it's stupid to wait. But when Jenny Prezzioso's mom was pregnant, she didn't want to know.

Their Families:

Holy crap, Carol's OB ordered bedrest so strict she can't even get up to use the bathroom. I've heard of bedrest where the woman can only get up to bathe once every ten days. I would go out of mind with boredom. I was on "modified rest" for about two and a half weeks with my first pregnacy (mild preeclampsia), meaning I was supposed to take it easy, not go to work, and not move around too much, but I could still get up to fix myself food and take short walks and go to church, and I was bored enough with that. But Carol...she should almost be hospitalized for the remainder of the pregnancy if it's that bad.

Sunny's mom's cancer has metastized to her bones. That's not good.

Maggie's mom asks the maid for ANOTHER pitcher of gin and tonic. Just for her.

Sunny's mom wanted more kids. She had a miscarriage after Sunny was born, and never got pregnant again.

Jeff gets his little sister an NBA poster which causes Carol to laugh (and say she loves it), and Dawn and her dad to exchange looks. Guess I was wrong to put up those MLB, MLS, NFL, and college football pictures in my daughter's room. (The only reason there are no NBA pictures is that Seattle doesn't have an NBA team)

PSA Time:

Shut up, Dawn. Just do so completely shut up. The baby will be "only" your half-sibling, and won't have a chance to get to know you? My mom is thirteen years older than her half-sister, and they are as close a full sisters. Because my mom is not horrible like you. Family doesn't have be constrained to biological relations. Between my parents, I have aunts and uncles are their full siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings, adopted siblings, and even an ex-sister-in-law (divorced from an uncle), but each as much my aunt or uncle as the other. Dawn's attitude pisses me off majorly.

Misc:

This book takes place in June. One entry is labeled June 7, and Dawn muses that the baby is due any day now. Back in Dawn's first diary, Carol was said to be three weeks pregnant at a date which would have put the due date about June 26, but with a rough pregnancy it's not crazy to assume the baby will come early or be induced, or even born via scheduled c-section. However...why would Dawn be leaving for Stoneybrook so close to the due date? Seems odd to schedule a flight when she could miss a fairly significant event.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 9

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-3, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-2

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 209: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 26 7th graders, 47 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 130

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-10
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Abby and the Notorious Neighbor (M#35)

2013-03-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles.

Synopsis:

Abby comes down with bronchitis and has to take several days off school. She gets bored pretty quickly and spends a lot of time channel surfing. One show she catches sounds like a knock off of America's Most Wanted, and she thinks she recognizes one of her neighbors on it! The BSC helps her do some sleuthing and with some information she gets from calling the show's tip line, they're able to gather enough information to prove that he's living under an assumed name and on the run. They call the cops, and he's arrested in short order, with the TV cameras there to film it.

Subplot: a go-cart race for kids. The Kormans win.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Hershey's Kisses, Ring Dings

The cover has Abby with short hair, consistent with her getting it cut when Anna was first diagnosed with scoliosis.

Either Kristy has a key to Abby's house, or Abby leaves the door unlocked when she's home. I wouldn't do that if I were too sick to stay awake, but I live in the real world whereas Stoneybrook seems to exist in the 1950s (I know some areas people still leave doors unlocked; but even then I wouldn't if I were sick).

Their Families:

Anna likes birdwatching.

Karen and Andrew's stepfather has an extended carpentry contract (six months, if I recall; a Little Sister book has more detail) in Chicago, and Andrew is staying there for the duration while Karen splits her time between her two parents.

Mrs. Stevenson breastfed Abby and Anna. Quite a feat, considering they're twins and everyone in the BSC-verse seems to use formula.

The Club (and clients):

Stacey says the club treasury has almost enough for a leather jacket she saw at the mall (embezzlement joke). Guess the strawberry festival last book really raked in the cash.

SMS:

Abby still calls the school bus "Wheeze Wagon."

PSA Time:

"Normal" looking people can still be criminals. It's not just the ones who look sketchy.

Misc:

This is Abby's last mystery book.

It's early June in this book, but it's dark--or at least the sun is set--by around 6:30 or 7:00 in the evening.

Kristy explains she hates the kind of prank calls that end up with an unsuspecting person getting a pizza. I would LOVE someone to randomly order me a pizza. I realize I'd still have to pay for it, but PIZZA. In fact, an hour ago I called my husband and asked him to pick up a pizza on his way home from work.

This book sadly fails to make a bird pun. Abby uses the binoculars her dad had for birdwatching to keep an eye on her neighbor, whose last name is Finch. A finch is also a type of bird, common in suburban yards. I kept expecting someone to ask Abby why she had the binoculars out and her to reply, "Birdwatching."

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 139

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Stacey's Ex-boyfriend (RS#119)

2013-03-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn.

Synopsis:

Stacey and other SMS students have been noticing that Robert is acting oddly. He's sort of in a perpetual fog, and losing interest in things he used to enjoy. At the urging of his younger sister, Stacey talks to him and soon it's clear that there's level of clinical depression going on. Stacey tries to pull him out of it, but fortunately realizes before too long that she's in over her head, and encourages Robert to talk to a trusted adult. The book ends without him being 100%, but feeling better about life in general.

There's a pointless subplot about picking strawberries and having a strawberry festival.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned

Stacey wishes she had Abby's hair.

Their Families:

Nicky Pike seems to sunburn easily.

Stacey gets along well with her dad's girlfriend.

The Club (and clients):

Abby brings snacks (strawberries) to a meeting! For once Claudia can relax a bit. However, I hope Abby didn't eat any, because as Anonymous pointed out in the comments section, Abby has been established in both Stacey the Math Whiz and Claudia, Queen of the Seventh Grade as being allergic to strawberries (thank you for catching that!).

I've read a lot of criticisms about how the BSC takes over for parents. But I think they have to. Case in point, this sentence: "Parents had to ask Shannon and her sister to set a two-cake limit [at the strawberry festival] so that their kids wouldn't make themselves sick." Hey, parents? Take responsibility for your own kids and watch what they eat yourselves. When I took my toddler to a festival at my church that included lots of from various nations, I didn't expect anyone but me (my husband was at work, otherwise him, too) to keep an eye on how many cookies she had.

SMS:

The SMS baseball team is doing really well, and on its way to winning a regional championship.

A teacher who has previously only been seen teaching Short Takes classes, Mrs. Boyden, also teaches homeroom for some students (including Robert).

PSA Time:

Stacey claims "you can always use a plain white blouse." Just remember that white becomes see-through when wet. Figured that one out the hard way in a lake...

Assuming you have a car, keep an old towel in the trunk. You'll know why I say this when you need it.

Misc:

A bit of trivia inspired by Claudia painting black stripes on a white leotard to make zebra stripes: zebras are black with white stripes. You can tell because their noses are black.

Kristy uses the internet in this book. Weird!

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 139

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Kristy Thomas, Dog Trainer (RS#118)

2013-03-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker. Special thanks is also given to Michelle Saunders and Anne Aldrich.

Synopsis:

Kristy's family decides to raise a guide dog for the blind. The program has families take care of puppies for a year, getting the dogs used to people and different situations, then returning them to be trained. Kristy's family will actually only train their puppy for ten months, because they're stepping in to replace a different family who is suddenly moving out of the country. They all accept the responsibility happily, and learn a lot about guide dogs as they progress with the dog's training.

They're spurred to this because a seventh-grade student at Shannon's school named Deb Cooper has recently gone blind from glaucoma. The BSC sits for her younger brothers several times, and Deb is home while they do. Understandably, Deb is having a hard time adjusting and is pretty angry at the entire universe. Her brothers, eight and four, are confused too. Kristy is able to get through her facade a bit after Deb tries to walk to a nearby store on her own (she doesn't have a cane or other means of assistance, and is too young for a guide dog) and ends up in the middle of a fairly busy street. The situation gives Kristy the opportunity to tell Deb that yes, what she's going through sucks, but she's making it worse by lashing out and alienating everyone. By the end of the book, Deb is still frustrated with a lot of things, but more open to learning how to cope with her new world and the idea of still being part of her old world.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: home-made chocolate chip cookies (made by her mom's coworker), Cheez Doodles

Kristy is still the shortest person in eighth grade. She also mentions that Mallory is taller, which we knew, and also that Jessi is.

Their Families:

Watson is still watching his diet, to lower the risk of another heart attack.

Ah, Boo Boo is still alive. At least for now!

I like that Kristy and Watson are comfortable calling her his daughter, especially considering what an absymal job Kristy's biological father has done as a dad. It's nice to see the stepchild/stepparent relationship in such a positive light.

Claire seems to be maturing a bit. Both this book and the one before have moments during which a BSC member thinks she'll have a tantrum but instead Claire just accepts whatever frustration.

The Club (and clients): nothing new (the Coopers don't become long-term clients).

SMS: nothing new.

PSA Time:

The book has a brief PSA about getting your pets spayed or neutered.

I have to say I'm impressed with Deb's brothers. They don't try to do everything for their sister, but instead give her help by saying things like "Your plate is in front of you on the table," so that she can still do things for herself. A good thing to remember for dealing with anyone, especially those with physical limitations. (The BSC learns quickly, from a mistake, to announce that they're coming or going to someone who can't see that happening, another thing to keep in mind in the real world.) Her brothers want to save up money to buy Deb a guide dog, too; they later find out that they're free to those who need them. I'm sure part of this is the pregnancy hormones, but aww! They're so sweet!

Misc:

This book takes place in early April. I think Stacey's birthday is in April...I'd complain about how we almost never see birthdays in the books, but I guess they're avoided because of how many times the girls repeat the same school year.

I've "known" three guide dogs, and none of them have been for people with visual problems. One was a hearing dog, some sort of poodle mix, who could alert his Deaf owner to anything from the doorbell to a car honking to a baby crying (if she'd had a baby, but she didn't). Another was a black Lab and gave his owner stability, since he had ceberal palsy. Another black Lab aided her human with a variety of things, like switching the laundry, which was difficult for her do to with her severe fibromyalgia. The last dog could be "off-duty" sometimes and we could play with her then, but the other two were pretty much working all the time.

I realize this book was written fifteen years ago, but are people really that stupid about guide dogs as to demand someone with a guide be kicked out a grocery store and arrested? My faith in humanity is wavering...

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 139

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Mary Anne and the Haunted Bookstore (M#34)

2013-03-12T11:12:00.001-07:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Vicki Berger Erwin. And this copy reveals the new mystery cover artist: Ed Acuña.

Synopsis:

A new bookstore is opening in Stoneybrook, with an emphasis on Edgar Allen Poe and other mystery writers. Mary Anne ends up there a lot, taking care of the son and daughter of the owner while it's being set up. The kids are dealing with not only moving, but their parents' recent divorce. Their mother hasn't been in touch a whole lot, either, which makes things even more difficult for them. The bookstore is in the former house of one of Poe's (fictional) contemporaries, and there's some rivalry between the contemporary's descendants and the new owner. The bookstore is full of creepy ambience, and Mary Anne and the other members of the BSC, who are helping set it up, often find themselves on edge. Is the house haunted, is someone playing pranks, or is it just their imaginations? A lot of the odd things going have to do with Poe: the family's black cat (named after a cat in one of Poe's works) accidentally gets trapped behind some drywall, someone's pet raven flies in through an open window; there's even the possibility of a grave in the basement. After some inspiration from a line in a Poe book, Mary Anne and the BSC get down to some detective work, and find that the owner and his assistant have been faking most of the incidents (the cat really was stuck, though) to drum up publicity for the store. Just before the grand opening, Mary Anne discovers a small hidden room, with the desk of its former occupant containing letters Poe had send him. All the publicity from the events, real and fake, culminate in a successful grand opening to the bookstore.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: mini candy bars under her bed, popcorn in her desk drawer

Jessi's punny in this book. Looks like some ghostwriter read Jessi's first book and remembered she's supposed to be a joke-teller!

Kristy's able to use her experience with parental abandoment to help the bookstore owner's kids a bit.

Their Families:

It's hinted that Andrew and David Michael sometimes gang up against Karen.

The Club (and clients): nothing new (the Cates family--bookstore owners--don't become long-term clients; the son is almost old enough to watch his sister).

SMS:

One reason Mary Anne is excited to help out with the bookstore is that she's doing a report on Poe for school. Refreshingly, it's for her English class and not for a Short Takes class.

PSA Time: nothing stood out.

Misc:

This is Mary Anne's last mystery book.

This book used to belong to the L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eu Claire, WI.

Most non-Super Specials are around 150 pages. This book is just over 180.

To brush tangles out of hair with less pain, hold the hair between the scalp and the tangle. That way the brush won't pull the hair from the scalp so much. Also, start at the bottom of the tangle and comb and work through it bit by bit; don't just yank all the way through the hair. This message brought to by the owner of thick, wavy/curly hair and the mother of a curly-haired toddler.

Ooh, pet peeve of mine. Don't assume you can nickname a person. My name has many diminutives but I go by my full name and I don't like it when people assume they can call me by something cutesy. Especially when the person doesn't listen to me when I correct; it seems like some sort of power play to me (the recurrent "forgetting" of my real name has only happened with people older than I am). For example, if I were an Elizabeth, people trying to calling me Lizzie when I've introduced myself as Elizabeth would really annoy me. It's just rude to ignore what someone wants to be called. If you have trouble with names, be upfront with that so I don't seethe at you.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 10

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4

St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 139

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Sunny Diary 2 (CD#6)

2013-03-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

Original Publication Date: 1998

Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis.

Synopsis:

Sunny's mom is getting worse. A lot worse. Sunny's even realizing that all the treatments are just delaying the inevitable, and wonders if her mom wouldn't be better off just coming home and receiving pallative treatment to keep her comfortable until she dies. Of course, this sort of situation is causing the family no end of stress. Sunny's dad deals with it by burying himself in his work. He also has a short temper, and takes it out on Sunny from time to time. Sunny sometimes stays at Dawn's house, trying to escape the pain of it all (she's also still cutting classes). She grows close to Carol, but further from her dad and from Dawn, who aren't sure how to deal with Sunny during all the turmoil. Part of the problem with Dawn is probably some resentment, that Sunny is closer to her stepmother than Dawn is. In fact, Sunny is with Carol when Carol passes out and has to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. She's ordered to be on bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy (two more months; the baby would actually have a good chance of surviving if born that early, but would have an increased risk of birth defects and long-term problems; it's best to delay birth until at least 37 weeks when possible).

But Sunny has the same sort of thing; Dawn seems closer to Sunny's mom than Sunny does. Sunny's still chasing boy quite a bit too, which causes a problem when she's distracted by one while she's supposed to be staying with Carol. She's busy chatting when a small fire starts on the stove. Everything (and everyone) is fine, but Carol is pretty shaken up, and Sunny is mortified. The Schafers are pretty pissed, too, but accept Sunny's apology. The incident sparks a fight and a falling-out between Sunny and Dawn.

Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Ducky):

Dawn snores.

Amalia is still getting creepy phone calls from her ex. CALL THE POLICE.

Ducky's friend Alex is sinking deeper into depression.

Sunny gets Ducky a job at her father's bookstore, solving her problem of being relied on for free labor, her father's of dealing with high employee turnover, and Ducky's of his brother not paying him back after borrowing cash.

Their Families:

Carol is now about seven months pregnant. She and Jack are waiting for the baby to born to find out whether it's a boy or a girl.

Sunny's mom mistakes her daughter for her late sister, Robin, at one point.

Jeff tries awkwardly to comfort Sunny when she's upset about her mom. It's not terribly effective, but it's a nice thought.

PSA Time:

The whole "eating for two" during pregnancy? Just remember that the developing baby is tiny. I had an ultrasound at about 28 weeks and the estimate weight was just over two and a half pounds. And that's with only about three months left in the pregnancy.

Want to cook something for several hours with a low risk of fire? Get a Crock-Pot or other slow cooker. They're awesome. You'll use less energy, too.

Misc:

This book from mid-March to early April.

Sunny is disdainful of the acrylic yarn Carol is using to knit something for the baby. Yes, it's true that acrylic can melt if it catches fire, but it's also washer/dryer safe and there are many types of nice, soft acrylic. It's more likely that a baby will get something dirty than catch fire. Although considering Sunny was raised by hippies, I could see her preferring organic material, like cotton which is still washer/dryer safe. Some wools are okay for the washing machine too, but not all.

The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 9

Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-3, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-2

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3

Summers after 8th grade: 10

BSC Fights: 11

SMS Staff and Faculty: 67

Students (other than the BSC): 209: 119 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 26 7th graders, 47 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 37 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 130

Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-10
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0