BSC #19: Claudia and the Bad Joke

Tagline: This is one practical joke that really backfired!

Claudia's not worried when she hears her newest baby-sitting charge, Betsy Sobak, is a great practical joker. After all, how much harm can one little girl do?

Plenty. Clauda breaks her leg as a result of one of Betsy's mean jokes... and now she's talking about quitting the club. "Baby-sitting," she says, "is just too dangerous." Kristy thinks Betsy needs to be taught a lesson. She also thinks the Baby-sitters are just the ones to do it.

Watch out, Betsy Sobak! The joke war is on!

The book starts off with the girls going to see a comedy short film festival at the library. They think that the practical jokes and stunts in the film are hilarious, but are soon found regretting those thoughts when practical joke fever has hit their charges. Claudia soon finds herself with a new baby-sitting charge, Betsy Sobak, who is known to be the Queen of Practical Jokes.

Before her baby-sitting job, Claudia talks to some of Betsy's old baby-sitters. They tell her more about Betsy's jokes, and how they refuse to sit for her anymore. Claudia is suitably nervous, but is surprised when she meets Betsy. She's completely sweet looking! (And is wearing a really snazzy outfit: red pants with red suspenders, blue and white striped t-shirt, sneakers with purple laces, pigtails tied with blue ribbons.) Betsy's mom leaves (her name is Cookie btw; not to be confused with Cokie Mason, who for the longest time, I thought was named "Cookie") and Betsy quickly asks for a snack. Claudia, pleased to see things going well, agrees, even offering to help. However Betsy says that Claudia is her guest and insists on serving Claudia herself. Claudia soon realizes not to let Betsy out of her sight, because in her glass of juice, she finds a fake ice-cube with a fly in it. Worse still, she realizes that the glass is a dribble glass, when it leaks juice all over her outfit. After getting tricked by trick gum (Betsy had switched the wrappers, so Claudia thought she was out-thinking her, but she wasn't), finally Claudia suggests that they go play outside, since then Betsy wouldn't have access to her tricks and toys. Betsy eagerly asks to play on the swingset, and directs Claudia to a certain seat. Oh Claudia, why did you let your guard down? When nothing happens, Betsy frowns, but Claudia proposes a swinging contest. As they're swinging, Claudia hears a clunking sound, and suddenly finds herself flying through the air. The seat has snapped on her swing, and Claudia has landed on her leg and it's broken.

Claudia gets whisked away to the hospital where she learns her leg is BROKEN, no hairline fracture. She'll have to spend a week in the hospital, then several weeks at home, before she can even go back to school. Upon hearing that the healing process will take several months, Claudia gets to thinking: what if she had broken her right arm or hand? She is told that she'll be able to walk again, and with some physical therapy, she'll be good as new. But it could easily have gone otherwise. Claudia starts to wonder if she should be baby-sitting at all.

Claudia spends time in the hospital, where she's greeted by a steady stream of visitors, flowers, gifts and calls. Her roommate doesn't have any, and Claudia reflects how lucky she is. However, she still can't shake the feeling that something terrible could have happened while she was baby-sitting, and tearfully confesses to Stacey that she's seriously contemplating on dropping out of the club.

Finally Claudia gets to go home, but she can't go back to school yet. She spends some time with Mimi, where she admits to be having fun. They read and watch Wheel of Fortune, and Claudia does some of her homework. She also colours and draws on her cast, turning it into a work of art. At her first Club meeting back, Claudia tells the girls that she's considering dropping out. The girls aren't happy, but begrudgingly accept what she's saying. They decide that since Claudia can't baby-sit for awhile anyways, she take the time to really think about her decision. Claudia really struggles with the decision. She's too scared to baby-sit again, but she knows she'd miss if she didn't. What Claudia really wants is to not have to make a decision at all, but after a week, Kristy really starts to put the pressure on Claudia. If Claudia doesn't want to be in the Club, they'll have to find a new place to meet.

Meanwhile, the girls are facing troubles of their own, as all their charges seem to want to pull pranks and trick each other. Jessi and Mary Anne deal with the Pikes, while Mallory, Dawn and Kristy each have a turn with Betsy. The girls want to get back at Betsy, and show her that her games and tricks are just plain mean. Mallory tricks Betsy with some sneezing powder, but Betsy is able to counter every trick. Mallory admits that some of the tricks were funny and harmless. Dawn manages to get Betsy distracted for awhile, and enjoys some joke-free time. Betsy apologizes for all the jokes, and poor Dawn believes her, until Betsy makes her an ice cream sundae with shaving cream.

It's Kristy who makes a breakthrough, by essentially be really really mean to Betsy. She takes Betsy to a movie, and while Betsy leaves to buy popcorn, Kristy switches seats, leaving Betsy feeling lost and bringing attention to herself in the theatre as she tries to search for Kristy. Her classmates see her, and start making fun of her (Betsy doesn't have a whole lot of fans). Then while they're watching the movie, Kristy tricks Betsy with a severed thumb at the bottom of the popcorn bag, again causing Betsy to embarrass herself as she shrieks. Finally, Betsy realizes that her tricks embarrass people, and that they might not all be just fun and games. Kristy takes Betsy to Claudia's to apologize in person. Betsy was unaware that Claudia had been missing school this whole time. Betsy and Claudia have a chat, and Claudia says she forgives Betsy, offering her some candy as a gesture of peace. When Betsy looks at it warily, Claudia points out that if Betsy didn't pull so many tricks, she wouldn't have to be so paranoid of others doing it on her. Betsy agrees, and Kristy takes her home.

Up until this point, Claudia had been struggling with her decision, talking things over with both Mimi and Stacey. She just couldn't come to the right conclusion! But through talking things over with Betsy, Claudia gains some closure, and is able to make her decision: she's going to stay in the Club. She celebrates by accepting a job at the Rodowsky's three weeks from now, when she'll be able to baby-sit again.

The book ends with Claudia getting her cast cut off after having had it for 3 months.

Random Thoughts:

• Mallory is still described as simply having curly hair. I'm wondering when it goes from chestnut to red! Does it ever??
• Dawn's mom is still dating the Trip-Man
• In what world is an 81% on a math quiz: 1) a disappointing grade and 2) a B-minus?? No wonder Claudia hates school so much! I know plenty of Asian families who believe that anything under a 90% is an failure (because here in Canada, 90% and higher is an A+), but an 81% up here is an A-minus, which is quite the respectable grade! Anything above 80% is generally very well regarded!
• This book is very heavy-handed. Every chapter seems to end with "the jokes were just beginning!", or "if only I knew then what I know now", or something of the sort haha
• Now that I'm older, I am flabbergasted at all the times the charges come to visit the sitters whenever the sitters are doing something. I had friends who stayed in the hospital when I was younger, my own FRIENDS, and I never visited them! The only person I remember visiting was when I was in high school, a classmate was in the hospital for a month because of severe pneumonia. I only went because a whole bunch of other people were going, and I thought it'd be fun to tag along. I wasn't particularly close to him or anything.
• Aside from how strict Claudia's parents are with her grades (I'm sorry, but an 81% is hella good!), I think they're my favourite of all the parents.
• I miss Mimi =(
• Most of the jokes in the book are just lame and annoying. Big elaborate pranks are the only thing I would really consider a prank
• As a musician, I understand Claudia's fears of damaging her hands. There have been a few times when I've been freaked out and paranoid about it happening. I even had a phase where I learned instruments that could specifically be played using only one hand, or one hand and a prosthetic, since my main instruments rely heavily on regular use of all 10 of my fingers.
• This book covers quite a lot of time, but I know that the next book will ignore that. The book itself covers a month, but then the last chapter is Claudia getting her cast taken off "two months later", meaning all in all, Claudia spent 3 months with a cast. That is a quarter of the year. But I bet you the next book will take place as if only one month had passed. At the time of publication, the books were being published fairly often, usually once a month. Like a tv series, the seasons/holidays in the books usually paralleled when they were released. Which means, I highly doubt three months' time will have passed by the next book.
• This is one of the few times the girls' acknowledge that other people baby-sit, and that's why they can sometimes have new charges. They even name and reference and refer back to the other baby-sitters.
• I hate how the girls never tell Betsy's mother what's going on. Does Cookie even realize that Claudia broke her leg because of Betsy, or does she truly believe that it was all just an accident??
• I would be super pissed if someone tricked me in a way that got me dirty, the way Claudia got apple juice all over her outfit because of Betsy. I hate being dirty and sticky and messy. The only time it's acceptable is on my own terms! Which usually means when I'm paintballing or running track haha
• How the fuck does Claudia not get held back at this point? I was a great student in HS, but I'd miss an entire week every year because of orchestra trips, and whenever I got back, I could never catch back up in math (for some reason, I always had math in second semester, when the trips were), and thus my math grade would always drop from the mid-80s (which, might I remind you, is a very good A-) to the mid-70s (a solid B). And that was from missing ONE WEEK of school, and with me already being an excellent student, and it was always just the ONE CLASS I couldn't catch back up in. Claudia is already apparently struggling in all her classes (although, I'm starting to wonder if I should take that with a grain of salt, if apparently 81% is "bad"), and she misses an entire month
• Claudia must have to go through a fair amount of physical therapy, I imagine, after not using her leg at all for 3 months. I wonder what the standard time is for a cast? I always thought it was closer to 1 or 2 months (hairline fracture), and that anything more was SERIOUS BUSINESS