Back Cover: Kristy's mom got married again last summer and now Kristy and her family live in a new neighbourhood. The kids there aren't very friendly. In fact, they're... well, snobs. They criticize Kristy's clothes. They make fun of the Baby-sitters Club. And worst of all, they laugh at Louie, Kristy's pet collie, who's going blind. Nobody does that and gets away with it!
Kristy's fighting mad - and she's not going to put up with it much longer. If anybody can beat a Snob Attack, it's the Baby-sitters Club. And that's just what they're going to do!
This is our first look at Kristy's life in her new house. We're still early in the school year, and despite having lived at Watson's now for a couple of months, Kristy has made zero effort to get to know her neighbours. Her brothers have all made friends, but Kristy's been avoiding everyone. She thinks they're all snobs!
One day, the school bus is running late, so Kristy actually sees some of her neighbours waiting for their own bus for their private school. Later, when she's taking Louie out for a walk, she actually runs into a few of them and words are exchanged. Things heat up, and a rivalry starts between Kristy and Shannon Kilbourne, the neighbour across the street who is Kristy's age. Shannon and her sister used to do all the baby-sitting, but now Kristy's around, and Kristy is in charge!
In the last book, Kristy had distributed fliers for the Baby-sitters Club, and so now she's getting calls. Among the new clients are the Delaneys, who Shannon usually baby-sits for. The Delaneys really are spoiled little snobs, but I think that's more because of their age and up-bringing than anything. It's definitely not indicative of the neighbourhood as a whole, but Kristy just sees it as further proof that she does not like or want anything to do with anyone over there.
The subplot in this book the deteriorating health of Louie, the old Thomas collie. He'd been slowing down a lot lately, but this book is when he starts to really have problems. He starts going blind and walking into things. His legs start to act up so he kinda limps or can't get up or walk around as fast as he used to. He seems slow and in pain, whining a lot and not getting up. It all culminates one day when they walk in on him to find his back legs seemingly paralyzed, and him in a panic. They decide that it'll be best for him if they just put him down.
During this, Kristy learns to deal with the Delaneys (thanks to Stacey's psychological tactics) and comes to terms with Shannon. It turns out that Shannon is just jealous of the Club and of Kristy coming in and trying to take all the baby-sitting jobs away. They talk it out, and come away as friends, with Shannon giving Kristy's family a new puppy to replace Louie. David Michael names the puppy Shannon.
A minor point in this one is that we start to see Jeff, Dawn's little brother, act out and express his desire to go back to California to live with their dad.
Random Thoughts
- I do not remember reading this book at all. Like, I must have. I know I have. But I'm guessing I've only read it once, because yeah... this book did elicit strong feelings or memories in me haha
- It's really Kristy's fault that this all started. I don't entirely blame her, but yeah. She had all these preconceived notions about her new neighbours and didn't think twice about how snobby she was being. If she had taken the time to introduce herself, she and Shannon probably could have sorted out the whole baby-sitting thing a lot sooner!
- Again, I hate Karen Brewer. Jfc that girl is annoying. I would not want to live with her. I like how Kristy describes her and her older brothers having enough of her antics when she gets dropped off
- It's nice to see Charlie and Sam playing with Andrew at the end of the book. We don't really see much of those two, so I always like the little snapshots of them being good brothers and spending time with Kristy and the kids
- The deterioration of Louie's health seems very sudden to me, but I've never had a pet before, so who knows? I know for a few books he's been getting slower and generally old, but in this one, it seems like he went from "slow and old" to "so much pain he needs to be put down" in two weeks
- Because I read a LOT of the Baby-Sitters Little Sister books before I ever started on reading the BSC when I was younger, I kinda always forget that Louie was a big deal. The Little Sister series starts up in like, another 10 books or so, so every time Karen describes her family, she always described Shannon
- I'll admit, I got a little misty-eyed when reading about Louie's deteriorating health. I was surprised at myself haha
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