BSC Super Special #2: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation

Tagline: Good-bye, Stoneybrook... hello, Camp Mohawk!

What could be more fun than going to summer camp for two weeks with your best friends? Nothing!

This summer, the Baby-sitters and a whole bunch of the kids they sit for are going to Camp Mohawk! With the girls as counselors-in-training, and the kids as campers, it'll be just like baby-sitting - in the woods!

The Baby-sitters soon discover that camp isn't just nature walks and making lanyards. Dawn gets lost in the wilderness overnight. Kristy learns how to use mascara, and Mary Anne gets caught sneaking over to the boys' side of the camp. Stacey spends the two weeks weeks with poison ivy... and Claudia falls in LUV with a boy CIT.

This is one summer vacation the Baby-sitters will never forget!

Super Special Gimmick: It's Stacey's first time doing an extended stay in the great outdoors and camping, so she's decided to keep a notebook chronicling the two weeks, and is making everyone else write in it too.

Stacey spends the two weeks in the infirmary, as the description suggests. She wasn't originally planning on going to camp, but soon everyone talked her into it. Her parents were all worried about the diabetes (which to be fair, is actually a valid concern this time) and being able to adhere to her diet while eating a mass meal. She runs into a few problems at first, what with the cooks thinking she wants special foods cuz she's spoiled, but Mrs Means soon explains and Stacey is able to put together a meal she wants. Of course, that then leads the campers to complain about how she gets special foods. This doesn't end up being much of an issue in the end though, because Stacey does end up spending so much time away. It's probably for the best. She's in a 6 year old cabin, with Karen Brewer. Her cabin essentially seems like a nightmare, between Karen, a girl with a lisp, a girl with pink-eye and a girl with a sore throat. On Stacey's first night, during campfire time, she ends up sitting in poison ivy, which accounts for most of her two weeks. The next time we see her, she's headed to the infirmary, not only with poison ivy, but also with pink-eye, a cold, and impetigo. She doesn't mind too much though, once she starts getting treatment. She has a roommate who is at camp all summer with a broken leg, so Stacey does realize things could be worse. Eventually Stacey gets to go back to her cabin, where most of her time is uneventful. In fact, the only other thing that happens to Stacey is that her cabin gets "Christmas'd" by the other 6 year-old cabin. It's a good thing Stacey insisted on everyone else adding to her notebook, or else this would be a really really boring story! haha

Kristy is in a cabin with the 8 year olds, meaning she has Charlotte Johanssen and Becca Ramsey with her. That works out well, because Charlotte is super miserable and hating camp. Over the course of the next two weeks, Kristy wonders why Charlotte doesn't just go home, but no matter how much Kristy and her parents tell her it's okay to go home, Charlotte refuses to give up. Kristy's other plot is that her fellow CITs are all stereotypical fashionable boy-crazy 13 year old girls, who pick Kristy apart and criticize her and mentally make her over for being a tomboy and not into clothes and what not. Eventually they do actually physically make her over. In fact, they do it twice: once as a test-run and once on the night of the big dance. Kristy doesn't like it, but eventually just goes with it. She admits that she enjoyed looking different for a few hours, being a different Kristy, but that like a snake shedding her skin, she couldn't wait to go back to being regular Kristy.

Claudia has one of the 9 year old cabins, with Haley Braddock and Vanessa Pike. Not a whole lot happens to Claudia. Early in the first week, they get a visit from 3 boys, inviting the girls' side to their side for a movie night and a dance the second week. One of the boys is Japanese, and Claudia quickly develops a crush on him. The other girls see, and make it their mission to find out who he is. Eventually they do, telling Claudia that his name is Will. They all then squeal and live vicariously through Claudia as she goes to movie night and talks to him. They totally hit it off and spend the whole evening talking outside the cabin, instead of watching the movie. At the dance, they spend the whole evening gazing into each other's eyes longingly. When the evening is over, they decide not to exchange addresses, because there really wouldn't be a point, so they leave off with their good memories and leave it at that. Of course Haley and Vanessa, ever the romantic and sneaky girls they are, manage to get his address, so they give it to Claudia and she starts writing him when they get home.

Jessi and Mallory are pretty much together the whole time, so even though they're both narrators, I'll summarize their story together. They're together in one of the 11 year old cabins. As 11 year olds, they qualify as actual regular campers, unlike the older members of the Club, who get to be CITs. But since they're ~*~*special*~*~ they've been deemed Jr. CITs and have been given the task to help the 8 year old cabin prepare something special for Parents' Night. More on that in a minute. So because they're already total besties, and Mallory's a total dork for making them matching "Jr CIT" armbands, and because they brought their special status upon themselves, the rest of the girls in their cabin (Mary, Mary, Maureen and Mandy) pick on them and make fun of them. The girls don't really care though, because they have each other and their special project. Maureen does pull the race card though, and calls them "Oreos", which doesn't make sense in this scenario, but does get her a warning never to say anything racist ever again. Anyways, the girls do their special project with the 8 year olds, which if you've been keeping track involve Charlotte and Becca. Jessi teaches them a few simple dance moves, and Mallory crafts a narrative, and together they put on a play with dancing. Of course, being Jessi and Mallory, their play is so ham-fisted with morals and crap: it's about a pair of twins (Becca and Charlotte, who you know, are black and white) who move to a new neighbourhood where they aren't accepted. But through the power of dance and love, they all overcome their differences and prejudices, and everyone lives happily ever after. Of course, after seeing this, their cabin is a lot nicer to them. Except for Maureen. Because she's racist.

Mary Anne is in a cabin with 7 year olds, including Margo Pike. She spends the whole book trying to prove to the other CITs that she's just as sophisticated and as cool as they are. Her main selling point is that she's got a hot boyfriend named Logan, across the way. Of course, the girls don't believe her, so they dare her to write him a letter and then sneak to the other side to deliver it. She writes him the most ridiculous and over-the-top letter, and of course gets caught about halfway around the lake. This is enough to garner her some respect, but the other girls are still skeptical about this whole Logan business. They try to convince her to let them pierce her ears, to which finally she gives in, calling their bluff. It works, and Mary Anne gains a bit more respect and doesn't lose her ears. Eventually, they see Logan for themselves and are in awe that he actually exists. They end up being pretty good friends to Mary Anne for her duration at camp.

Logan is in a cabin with the 7 year olds, and has Matt Braddock, Buddy Barrett and Jackie Rodowsky with him. He's fitting in just well, and it's all really boring and dudebro-y. But then word gets around that Mary Anne tried to sneak over to visit him, and soon the guys start razzing him about his girlfriend, calling her a "feeb" for attempting to get across. They then read the super-flowery note, and tease him more for that. So logically, Logan starts a food fight. The next time we see Logan, it's the night of the dance. The boys continued to josh him about Mary Anne, especially when she didn't show up for movie night (more on that in a bit), but then when they see her at the dance, they decide she's alright. Anyways, Logan's story is pretty boring.

Dawn has the other cabin of 11 year olds (not Jessi and Mallory's cabin, thank god). She's generally having a great time and is an old pro at both actually camping and being at summer camps. Her main plot is that one of her cabin mates, Heather, doesn't seem to really want to be there. She's not miserable and homesick like Charlotte, she just can't be bothered to entertain the rest of the girls and give into their shenanigans. Heather spends most of the time off by herself, reading or writing. The other girls start teasing her, but eventually just decide to ignore her. Dawn pities the girl, saying that if she just tried, she could have friends! (Uh, maybe she's happy, Dawn? Maybe she doesn't want to be their friend??) Anyways, the night before their big overnight trip (they get to camping in the middle of the woods for realz), their counselor is called away, and the replacement counselor is really flaky: before they leave, Heather has to remind them of several things they need to bring. Debra (the replacement counselor) doesn't know how to read the map, and instead of stopping to think about it, or to ask the other girls what they think, just decides to follow her instincts and starts making random turns, eventually getting the girls super lost. Eventually Heather proposes that they just camp where they are, and try again in the morning. The next day, Debra leads them in circles and they end up right where they had spent the night. Heather finally steps in and asks to see the map. At this point, all the girls realize that with all the reading she's done, Heather is super-capable and has all these skills and relinquish all control to her. With Heather leading, they find their way back to camp, where everyone is understandably worried (this is why Mary Anne missed movie night).

Random Thoughts

• This isn't one of my favourite Super Specials. I barely remembered it from when I was a kid. My faves growing up were always 4, 5, 6, 7 and 11.
• This Super Special also doesn't quite fit in nicely with the timeline we've got going on. Unless the girls literally did nothing else this summer. The previous books were definitely late spring. The next book is during the school year. It could be summer... but it's just surprising that this would be the only book. Then again, we know that in a few books, Stacey comes back "during the 8th grade", so I guess everything's all effed up now haha still, I would like the books to make some sort of chronological sense (not have a book that takes place in spring, then the next one happens in the summer, then the next one is spring again, or whatever)
• There still aren't any illustrations in this one. This one doesn't even have the weird drawings that the first one had. This one just starts each chapter off with a postcard.
• What do 12 year olds do? It says that Camp Mohawk's oldest campers are 11 years old (lolz Mallory and Jessi) and that you can't be a CIT til you're 13 year olds. So where are all the 12 year olds? Are you just not allowed at Camp Mohawk for a summer? Not a big deal if you go to variety of camps every summer and change it up or only go sporadically. But what if you're a lifer? What if you've been going every summer since age 6, looking forward to the day when you can become a CIT, and then eventually a counselor?? I imagine your life pretty much ends when you turn 12 and realize you can't go to Camp Mohawk that summer haha
• What prompts the girls to want to go to camp is having watched The Parent Trap (among other movies). When I first read this book, it was probably only a year or two after the remake with Lindsay Lohan had come out, so I had always assumed that of course, that was the movie they were referring to. It wasn't until a few years (I think when I was 12 and started having more access to the internet at school [still no computer at home]), that I started becoming aware of movie remakes and music covers. So embarrassing!
• I'm very curious as to how Matt Braddock was able to go to camp. Yeah, sure, Haley is there, but she's on the other side of the lake with the girls. And yes, Matt is in the same cabin as Logan and Buddy, but just how much ASL do those two know? I'm just surprised he was able to go.
• This book is also chocked full of foreshadowing and references to Mimi not doing so well, hence my placing it here, before BSC #26 Claudia and the Sad Good-bye.
• When getting ready to leave, Claudia mentions being worried about Mimi, causing Kristy (that chapter's narrator) to reflect that Mimi isn't in such great shape.
• Then when Claudia and Stacey reunite, Claudia tells Stacey all about how Mimi seems to be improving in terms of her body, but that her mind seems to be getting worse, referencing all the weird and non-sequitur things Mimi now says.
• Finally, Claudia gets picked up by her parents, as Mimi isn't feeling well, so much so that Janine has to stay behind to take care of her.
• This one mentions Dawn looking forward to going boating. This ties in nicely with Super Special #4 Baby-sitters' Island Adventure, where we learn that Dawn's been taking boating lessons.
• As if Mallory and Jessi  are Jr. CITs. That doesn't make any sense. Essentially, it means that they miss out on some of their camp stuffs to have to teach a bunch of 8 year olds to put on a show and dance. They still don't get to do any of the things the CITs do. All they accomplished was giving themselves more responsibilities and ostracizing themselves from their cabin mates. If the rest of the Club hadn't been CITs, I bet Mallory and Jessi would've been totes fine just being regular campers and having regular 11 year old kid fun
• Stacey gets a body wave done, which I'm assuming is a type of perm. It's fun re-reading the series, now that I know what perms are. I remember when I was little, like around 1994 or so, my parents contemplated getting a body wave done to my hair, because my hair was so thin and straight and lifeless. They never did. Part of me is sad that they never did, but part of me is glad they didn't, because I'm terrified that all my hair would have fallen out. I was like, 5 years old and my hair is in such a precarious state of being already! hah
• I love how Claudia gets paired with a Japanese boy. I feel like all she dates in Stoneybrook are white dudes (perhaps she's the only Asian around?) but then in all the Super Specials, they pair her up with Japanese boys all the time.
• ...okay is "pretty much" as a descriptor really a thing?? Because now we have "pretty much sign language". I have never heard "pretty much" as a quantitative descriptor before. "I know sign language." "I know some sign language." "I know a fair amount of sign language." "I know a lot of sign language." But "I know pretty much sign language"?? Nope, does not compute
• If a bunch of girls tried to pin me down and forcibly apply make-up to me and pluck and shape my eyebrows, I would seriously kill them all. Especially the eyebrows thing. I never wear make-up, except for stage/theatre/costumes. That's fine. Make-up, you can take off. But I have also never ever ever plucked my eyebrows. Could my eyebrows be more shapely and neater? Yes, absolutely, of course. But naturally, they're by no means a disaster; I don't have ginormous bushy eyebrows, or a unibrow, or anything drastic like that. I have zero interest in having to regularly pluck my eyebrows, and I know that once you start plucking... you can't go back. You gotta maintain them. And that is absolutely something I have zero interest in. So yeah. Touch my eyebrows, prepare to die!
• I like how Kristy cuts in on Claudia dancing. It seems like a nice callback to when Claudia did the same to Kristy. Only this time, Kristy is way nicer about it.
• At the end, it mentions that Kristy pretty much went back to being her usual tomboy self, but that occasionally she would put on mascara if she was going to be running into Bart that day. I wish that trait had carried over. I get it, Kristy is a tomboy who doesn't care what clothes she wears... but eventually they take it to such an extreme that she just seems more like a caricature and completely unrealistic. 
• I really don't like Jessi and Mallory in this book. It reminds me of why I never particularly liked them/their books later on. Which is too bad, because up til this point, I had been enjoying them and was like, "wtf! why didn't I like them??"
• I would totes be Heather, the girl from Dawn's cabin. Like, that would totally be me, wanting to be left alone. As an adult, I eschew all social interactions. People are always trying to invite me out, or get me to talk and engage and socialize, and it's like, "No, I'm here because I have to work. Once I clock out and the day is done, I want to go home and be alone and not deal with people anymore." Eventually people stop asking me out, which is good, cuz that's what I want. It bothers me when people always say, "You know, people would like you more if you went out with them." Or "We'd invite you more, but you're always saying no. The reason why you're alone is your own fault." Uh, yes, yes it is. Exactly. That is exactly what I want. I want to be left alone. I am perfectly happy alone and with myself, without having to pretend to like other people and go through all the fake niceties for the sake of social conventions. Dawn essentially does the same for Heather.