BSC #15: Little Miss Stoneybrooke... and Dawn

Front Cover: Everybody in Stoneybrook has gone beauty-pageant crazy!

Back Cover: Dawn's a little jealous when there's a formal ceremony to welcome Jessi and Mallory into the Baby-sitters Club. Don't people know that Dawn's a special baby-sitter, too?

Then it's Dawn's turn to shine. Mrs Pike wants Dawn to help prepare Margo and Claire for the Little Miss Stoneybrookcontest. So what if Margo's only talent is peeling a banana with her feet? Dawn's going to help her charges win that contest any way she can.

The only trouble is... Kristy, Mary Anne, and Claudia are helping Karen, Myriah, and Charlotte enter the contest, too. And nobody's sure where the competition is fiercer: at the pageant - or at the Baby-sitters Club!

Although we never hear about Jessi's test baby-sitting job, it's assumed to have gone well because this book starts off with Mallory and Jessi being officially inducted into the BSC. Dawn is jealous because she didn't get a fancy ceremony, just a pizza toast. Further compounding Dawn's feelings of inadequacy is a special call that comes in from the Johanssen's, requesting that Claudia baby-sit for Charlotte, since Claudia was closest to Stacey and still calls Stacey all the time. Dawn isn't the only one feeling a little inadequate after that, it seems.

Dawn's feeling pretty down about stuff, including her home life and Jeff (more about that in a bit), so she goes to the next meeting early, where she learns about the Little Miss Stoneybrook beauty pageant that's being held. At first, all the girls in the club are in agreement that pageants are sexist, but Dawn's convinced that it could be fun to participate and dress-up. Kristy surprisingly agrees, and the rest of the girls concede that although sexist, they could see why a little girl might be into it. Jessi and Mallory remain firmly against the idea though. Which is ironic, because the next thing the girls know, Mrs Pike is calling requesting if Dawn would help them prepare for the pageant. Mrs Pike just started a new project at the library, and doesn't have the time for the additional prep and patience it would take to prepare two girls (Claire and Margo) for the pageant. She asks if Dawn will do it, because Dawn lives the closest and would be the most accessible. Dawn says yes, pleased that she finally has her own special job. The other 3 older girls are not pleased. Jessi and Mallory are too surprisingly too mature for such shenanigans.

Soon, the other girls start finding their own charges to prepare. Kristy, in an effort to cheer up Karen, mentions the pageant, and Karen's imagination runs away with her and is dead-set on being in it. Mary Anne sits for Myriah and Gabbie Perkins, sees Myriah fooling around, dancing and singing, and dressing up, and mentions the pagaent to her, since Myriah is actually talented and has taken all sorts of lessons. Lastly, Claudia cons Charlotte into entering. So it soon becomes a contest between each girl, with each one trying to prove that they're the best sitter. Because obviously, your child winning a pageant means you're the best baby-sitter.

Right away, it's a loss cause. Claire and Margo, although really excited, have no talent. It's decided that Claire is will "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man", and try to make it interesting, while Margo will peel a banana with her feet and then recite "This Is the House That Jack Built". Karen has even less talent, but infinitely more enthusiasm, and decides that she's going to sing "The Wheels on the Bus", but drag it out to infinity by adding all sorts of made-up verses, such as "The people on the bus are tired and hot!" and "The dog in the carrier says Let me out!". Charlotte knows she doesn't have talent, and the only thing she enjoys is reading, so it's decided that she'll do a dramatic reading of the blueberry scene from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Myriah is the only one who should actually entering such a contest, and she decides to sing "On the Good Ship Lollipop" while tap-dancing.

The girls soon start to get downright nasty in their competition, taking all the fun out for the little girls. The little girls are rightfully confused when all they want to do is tell their friends what they're doing, but the girls drag them away and pit them against each other. Things start to get serious, as the girls prep their charges and coach them on what to say, instead of letting them go with their instincts. Luckily, the pageant is being held soon, or else I'm sure an all-out war would have started.

The day of the pageant, things start off tense for the girls. But as things go on, and the girls realize how woefully unprepared their charges are, they start to loosen up. Besides, they're faced with Sabrina Bouvier, who is stereotypical contestant, who's been trained in the art of beauty pageanting. When the girls see how manicured and manufactured Sabrina is, and how much of a stage-mother her mom is, the girls realize how silly they were trying to take the contest so seriously, and how sad Sabrina's life must be.

The pageant goes about as well as can be expected. Claire is adorable but a joke. Her answer to "What do you hope for most of all?" was "Santa. I hope he's real." Margo probably suffers more because she isn't as adorable. Sabrina Bouvier used up the world peace answer right before her, so when she gets her question, "What do you most wish to happen in the year 2010?", she freezes and then gets escorted off stage without answering. Karen has a moral dilemma when asked, "If your house was on fire, what three things would you rescue?" and struggles with her real answer and the "right answer" as coached by Kristy, and eventually settles for her real answer, which is, "I'd rescue Moosie my stuffed cat, and Tickly my blanket, and as many toys as I could carry. Oh, could I rescue a fourth thing? If I could, it would be my brother Andrew. Or maybe my pen that writes in three colours." Charlotte never makes it to the question portion of the pageant, because she completely froze up during the talent portion and ran off the stage in tears. Myriah has the best answer to her question, "If you could change one thing about this world, what would it be?" "It would be wars. I would stop them. I would say to the people who were making the wars, 'Now you stop that. You setlle this problem yourselves like grown-ups. Our children want peace.' That's what I'd change."

In the end, first place goes to Sabrina Bouvier (who sang a horrible rendition of "Moon River", but did it smiling and covered in make-up), and third place goes to some girl we don't know. Myriah wins second place though, which is a shopping spree at the toy store, so that's pretty awesome. The other little girls are devastated and the girls feel bad that they didn't prep their charges in case of loss. In an awesome moment of parenting (which rarely seems to happen in these books), the parents all tell the little girls how winning isn't everything, and how proud they are of them for having just entered.

The girls debrief at their next meeting, each of them admitting that they only entered the contest and used their charges to prove what an awesome baby-sitter they were. They all reflect on how terrible they are, and how they shouldn't do that kind of thing again, because they are all great baby-sitters, and they don't need to prove anything to anyone.

The ongoing subplot with Jeff finally wraps up in this one: Jeff asks if he can return to California and makes a serious case for it. After many phone calls, his mom arranges it for him to go back for 6 months as a trial period. Dawn is furious of course, but eventually decides that it's better to let him go. He ends up leaving the night before the pageant.

Random Thoughts:

• I remember reading this book. A lot. This is definitely one of the ones I owned when I was younger and read and re-read a million times. I have no idea why I did. But I just did haha
• Mallory is still described as having dark hair. Not a red-head yet! I'm still keeping an eye out for that.
• On the back of my copy, it says "Jessica Ramsey" under the list of experienced baby-sitters.
• Even though it's Dawn narrating, Karen Brewer is described as being "funny, daring, imaginative and outspoken", citing "who wouldn't love her?" Karen mildly exasperates all the baby-sitters, especially Dawn. Interestingly, the next book published in the entire Baby-sittersverse is the start of the first spin-off series, Baby-Sitters Little Sister, which follows Karen's adventures. I actually own the first book in the series, since it came in a whole pile of BSC books that I mass-purchased last year, so yep, that's going to be next.
• I like how Mallory and Jessi are way more level-headed than the rest of the girls, being like, "Pageants are sexist and stupid." I somewhat agree. I think constantly entering your child into serious hardcore beauty pageants, where their whole life is nothing but preparing for the next one and being groomed and manicured and manufactured, is bad and detrimental to their mental health and self. However, it's obvious that the contest held in Stoneybrook is in no way that hardcore. I highly doubt any of the parents or kids would have been seriously affected if they had won. It was clear that the parents didn't care and just thought it was a great opportunity for the girls to dress-up and have fun. It was interesting that it was the Club that got all crazy and hardcore, pushing the kids.
• I also love that Jessi and Mallory don't get all petty and jealous over jobs and over who's the best baby-sitter. They don't seem crazy and cultish like the older girls do. Although, I suppose only time will tell if that'll last. 
• The descriptions of Dawn's family foods always makes me hungry. I always want to eat more healthy, but I don't know where to begin. I totes need to remember to start buying brown rice.
• Why the fuck would a professional beauty pageant contestant like Sabrina Bouvier be entered in such a small regional qualifier such as Little Miss Stoneybrook? It's clear that she's been trained and educated as a serious contestant by her mom. You'd think that this was too small potatoes for her. The only thing I can think of is that her mom knew that this one would be a joke and thus an easy win, and who says no to another crown?
• This book is how I discovered the song "Moon River", and to this day, I can't hear the song or the title without thinking of this book.
• I love how in this book, the girls are in the wrong, and the parents are responsible people. Usually it's portrayed that the parents are useless and that it takes the girls to fix anything and get anything done, and that they know what's best haha