BSC #45: Kristy and the Baby Parade

Tagline: Babies on board!

The Baby-sitters just love little babies. So of course Kristy has the great idea of entering a float in the Stoneybrook Baby Parade.

All the girls have to do is round up a bunch of adorable babies like Squirt and Emily, dress them in costumes, and plop them on a float. Easy, right?

Wrong. The float looks like a big orange blob, the costumes are hideous, and the babies won't stop crying!

S.O.S. - the Baby-sitters' float is about to sink!

This book doesn't have a whole lot of plot to it. Despite it being the title, the Baby Parade isn't even a focus for awhile. The book starts off with Kristy baby-sitting for her siblings and seeing the ad about the Parade in the newspaper. She looks over at her adopted sister, Emily Michelle, and decides the Emily is just super cute and that Kristy should enter her. She doesn't get any further into that idea though.

Instead, we're fast-forwarded to the Club meeting, where the girls' field a phone call from Mrs Prezzioso. Mrs P says that now that Andrea is becoming more roly-poly and active, she wants to start leaving her home with a baby-sitter. The catch? She wants the girls to take an infant care course before they can start sitting for her. The girls all think it's a great idea, and immediately sign up for it at the community centre.

The girls then spend the next four weeks taking this infant care class. It's all pregnant women with their husbands, so it's kinda weird for the girls to be there, but everyone agrees that it never hurts to know more about babies. The girls of course prove their worth, Kristy being one of only two people in the class to get a perfect score. Even though Kristy has been certified as an expert, she's still not too sure if she's ready to handle the real deal.

So it's now a month after the novel began, and Kristy has a regular job sitting for the Prezziosos. She's to sit for two afternoons a week for about a month. It's here where the Baby Parade finally comes up again. Mrs P has decided that she wants to enter Andrea in the individual stroller division, and she wants Kristy's help with it. Kristy isn't sure she'll have time, plus she still wants to enter Emily, and worries it'll be a conflict of interest. At a Club meeting, Kristy brings it up with the other girls, and the other girls get all excited about all the babies they could enter. That's when Kristy gets her brilliant idea: the Club should enter a float, and then that way all the babies could participate. Kristy could even help and still have time to help Mrs P, without feeling conflicted.

Right away, they're hit with snags. The girls can't decide on a float theme! Each girl has a terrible idea, and the rest of the Club tears each idea down. Eventually they decide to do "Old Woman in a Shoe". However, after that, no one really talks to each other. They each go their separate ways. Mallory is in charge of costumes and gets a great deal on some cheap fabric. The problem is, it's bright pink. Which wouldn't be too bad, except that Stacey has decided to mix up an orangey-red colour for the shoe. Claudia is building the shoe out of chicken wire, and is having problems putting it all together. Come the day of the parade, the float is a disaster: it's not very shoe-shaped, Stacey didn't mix enough paint, so not only is it a clashing orangey-red, but it's also very splotchy, and then Mallory has only just been able to make all the costumes on time, but they're hideous and look like clown suits.

Meanwhile, Kristy's got her hands full with Andrea and Jenny P. She's put together a "royal carriage" out of Andrea's stroller, since Mrs P decided that the theme would be "Queen Andrea". However, Jenny is super-jealous and wants to be in the parade herself, even though she's too old. Kristy is stressed, and worried that if Andrea doesn't win, Mrs P will blame her.

The day of the parade doesn't go much better for the Club. The float is a disaster, Kristy is dressed as the old woman and is embarrassed, Charlie Thomas is mortified to be driving the float around, the rest of the girls (who were supposed to be dressed like children) don't match, and the babies are crying. The Club ends up getting mad at each other, and storming off in a huff. At least for Kristy, Mrs P and Andrea win first prize in their division!

Kristy later thinks back on the experience, and realizes that instead of working together, each girl had their own idea of how the parade and float should go, and forged ahead without consulting each other. They all meet up and apologize, citing the parade as a good learning experience.

There really isn't much of a subplot in this one. I suppose Kristy helping Mrs P was supposed to be a subplot, but it really tied in well with the main plot, so yeah.

Random Thoughts:

• I don't remember particularly liking this one. I know I definitely owned it when I was younger, and read it a bunch of times, but yeah. I feel like I was rather indifferent. Doing my read-through now, I definitely was not looking forward to it. Why waste my time with it when I could be reading more interesting ones?? The story in this one was really basic and boring, so I decided to nitpick it and write about the random details.
• Why wouldn't the girls have taken an infant/baby care class before now? Won't Mrs Newton be like, "OH I SEE, I GUESS YOU JUST DIDN'T CARE ABOUT LUCY!"? haha
• I love how the Baby-Parade is only held every two years. It explains why we haven't heard of it before, and why we'll never hear about it again haha
• I also love how Kristy starts off dismissing the Baby Parade as silly and stupid... but then ends up going totally crazy for it. It's like seeing Kristy's character progression from the start of the series to the end, all wrapped up in one paragraph haha
• I love how Dawn's technique for dealing with temper tantrums is to tuck the child into bed and then talk to them quietly until they're calmer. I'd like to see how well that would actually go over. Granted, I could see it working in a few scenarios or with a few children, but I'm seeing it fail far more than succeeding haha
• Nice bit of foreshadowing in this one. Since I didn't particularly read the books in chronological order as a child, I never realized that we're introduced to the Salem twins in this one, who Mary Anne deals with in #52.
• I always find it weird when Kristy notices guys, but I like it. Here, she becomes briefly smitten with the infant class's instructor's partner. Kristy notes how handsome he is, and how she tries not to stare. She even admits that after four weeks of the class, she still had a crush on him. That is, until she meets his kid. Suddenly, he's firmly in the "father" category, and that makes Kristy's crush on him disappear. I'm with you there, Kristy haha
• There's a continuity error here: Jessi doesn't know what "colicky" means, but later on (like, three years later), there's Super Special #11 has an entire chapter with Jessi and how Squirt was a colicky baby.
• Haha I just realized that I'd been skimming past the pages describing the Club members, and for the first time, my attention was called to it: Kristy mentions that it was nice seeing Mary Anne and Logan together again, and I was like, "Whoa, wait, aren't they broken up??" Turns out Kristy had detailed that whole saga during both the description of the members and the Club itself haha Kristy just liked seeing them get along.
• lol there's a chapter with Jessi baby-sitting for her siblings, and she says that Squirt loves Sesame Street, especially "this little guy Elmo, who isn't on very often." Oh how the times have changed haha

BSC Super Special #6: New York, New York!

 Tagline: They're not sleeping till they see all of it -

We ♥ NY!

The Baby-sitters have always wanted to be sophisticated New Yorkers like Stacey. Well, now here's their chance: Stacey has invited them all to the city for a vacation!

In between shopping and seeing the sights, the Baby-sitters manage to have plenty of excitement. Jessi meets a boy ballerina, Claudia and Mallory take fancy art lessons, and Kristy makes a special friend. Dawn eats her way through the city, and Stacey and Mary Anne have a baby-sitting mystery!

Is New York as good as they've always dreamed?

You bet!

Super Special Gimmick: Because Claudia's the catalyst for them all going to New York, she wants to keep a journal/record of their entire trip. She says she's going to illustrate it later.


The girls apparently have another two-week vacation, and Claudia has learned of some professional art classes that you can just sign up for and take whenever you want in New York City. She decides that she wants to spend her two weeks taking them, and stay with Stacey at her dad's place. Stacey's dad then says that any of Stacey's friends are welcomed, and the next thing you know, the whole Club is going!

Claudia is of course taking art classes. She's very excited, because she'll be studying with McKenzie Clarke, a real professional artist. This is the first time she's taking such a formal and serious art class, and one outside of Stoneybrooke. She's disappointed though, because Mac doesn't seem to like her, and only ever has criticisms for her work, such as telling her to slow down and stop being sloppy. Eventually, Claudia finds out that the reason why he was so critical of her work is because he can see that it's good; Claudia is clearly talented, but she needs to hone that talent with focus and discipline. Claudia ends up leaving feeling better about herself and everything.

Mallory, who has never taken an art class, decides to sign up with Claudia. She wants to draw cute round things and animals and become a children's book illustrator one day, and thinks maybe taking a few art classes and lessons might help. She's dismayed to find that she's out of her league, especially compared to Claudia, but Mac encourages her and is nice. Claudia of course, hates this, and is then angry with Mallory for most of the book. Mallory decides that she's not cut out to be an artist in the sense that Claudia is, but that she's happy with her art abilities and that it's good enough for what she does want in life. Mallory really doesn't get much of a plot, other than to highlight Claudia's.


Jessi meets Quint in this one! I have no idea why, but for some reason, I thought she had met him during the regular series, at a dance school or whatever. (Although now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure I'm thinking of #115 Jessi's Big Break, and I know for sure she met him long before that...) Anyways, Jessi spends a lot of time with the girls going around New York, but also gets an opportunity to watch a performance of ballet. There, she meets Quint Walker, a boy dancer. Quint is apparently pretty talented (despite only taking one class a week) and is interested in auditioning for Julliard. However, the boys in his neighbourhood are jerks and tease him, and Quint isn't sure if he can handle the pressure and taking more classes. He invites Jessi to his place to watch some movies and goes on another date with Jessi. Through her encouragement, he decides to audition after all. He gets in, of course. He also gives Jessi her first kiss!

Dawn is terrified of New York, even more so than last time, despite clearly having survived her last trip. She spends the first few days of the trip in Mr McGill's apartment, only leaving when the group is going out as a whole. At first, Kristy takes pity on her, but even that dries up fast. Then one day, Dawn is surprised by a knock on the door. It's a boy from the apartment below. His parents know Mr McGill, who had mentioned that his daughter would be in town. Obviously Dawn is not Stacey, but Richie doesn't seem to mind. Richie recently broke his foot and is bored out of his mind. For the first few days, he simply visits Dawn, and they sit on the fire escape and talk. Richie can't believe that Dawn is too scared to properly experience New York. That weekend, Richie gets his foot checked, and a walking cast put on. He then takes Dawn out for a day on the town, where they sample all sorts of authentic cuisine and check out the different neighbourhoods and cultures of the city. Dawn loosens up and realizes that despite the large crime rate, there's a lot of great things about New York too.

Kristy early in the week, finds a dog in Central Park. She sneaks it back into Laine's place (where she, Jessi, Mallory and Mary Anne are staying), and tries to keep it secret, convinced that she'll be able to keep him when she gets back home. Of course, she can't, and soon Mrs Cummings discovers Sonny. She says that Kristy has the rest of her trip to find Sonny a home, or else Mr and Mrs Cummings were going to take care of it. So Kristy puts up flyers, and eventually Sonny goes to a 9 year old boy and his family who promise to take really good care of him.

Stacey and Mary Anne land themselves a baby-sitting job, watching the two kids of British diplomats who were staying in Laine's building. At first, they have lots of fun taking Rowena and Alistair around the city, being completely charmed by their accents and demeanor. Eventually though, they start to notice that they're seemingly being followed by a man in a rain hat and sunglasses. Initially, Stacey and Mary Anne think they're going crazy, but eventually too many sightings lead them to believe that it's true. Since the children belong to diplomats, the girls then start to think that the kids are going to be kidnapped for ransom and all sorts of other theories. Eventually, the girls come clean to the Harringtons. The Harringtons laugh and confess that the children have a bodyguard, Bill, and that's who the girls have been seeing around. They wanted to give their children a break from constantly being under scrutiny, which was why they didn't tell Stacey and Mary Anne about him, and why he'd been wearing the hat and sunglasses.

Random Thoughts:

• This one was also one of my favourites as a kid. I read it over and over. The copy I now own comes from one of my best friends, who coincidentally was purging her room of belongings at the same time that I was trying to recollect the series.
• This one also does not have the illustrations I remember, instead having what looks like hand-drawn drawings. I could have sworn that all, if not most of the Super Specials had illustrations the way the Little Sister series did. Am I going crazy??
• Although this one has an explanation: they're supposed to be Claudia's illustrations
• Fun fact: they're actually provided by AMM's father!
• I'm sad that neither the Fine Arts League of New York, nor McKenzie Clarke, appear to be real. I always like it best when the Super Specials put in some real things into the details. Especially since, you know, it's NEW YORK CITY!!!
• I find it weird that Mr McGill is all, "Any of Stacey's friends are welcomed to come and stay!" but then they all let the entire Club come at once, housing half of the girls at Laine's, which is apparently on the other side of the city. This just sounds weird to me.
• The Cummings (including Laine) are pretty cool for putting up with 4 girls they don't even know. Laine has only met Kristy and Mary Anne like, twice. And I don't think she'd ever met Mallory or Jessi before. I can't see myself letting random people stay at my house for two weeks. AND THEN THEY BRING A DOG??? Clearly the Cummings are crazy.
• Stacey mentions that the petting zoo in Central Park only costs a dime per person, and that it always will haha I just looked it up. Unless I'm looking at the wrong thing, it costs 7$ for children and 12$ for adults now haha
• Longtime fans and readers will know that the BSC uses their own brand of lingo, dibble (short for "incredible", I believe) and variations of it being the most common one. This one had chilly. I know they've used it before, but omg, it's rampant in this book in particular. I don't ever want to read about something being "chilly" ever again. Unless they're talking about ice cream haha or the weather
• Oooooh embarrassing: I didn't realize how much this book affected me as a child. Whenever I sing "New York, New York!", I always sing "what a wonderful town!" because of Mary Anne in this book. Stacey interrupts her, and tries to correct her, but Mary Anne retorts that she'll sing it her way if she wants. If prompted and I thought about it, I would probably remember that the proper lyrics are "it's a helluva town!" I definitely don't gasp and do a double-take whenever I hear the song on the radio or TV or movies. But I also definitely by default sing it wrong now. Because of Mary Anne.
• Just how professional are these art classes Claudia and Mallory are taking? They sound pretty loosey-goosey to me, being all drop-in/drop-out, take what you want kind of thing. They just happen to be headed by a professional artist. He doesn't really seem to teach them anything though.
• Jessi watches a performance of Swan Lake and another one of Coppélia. She mentions having danced in the latter, but not the former.
• Of course Jessi would not only meet a male dancer, but an African-American one at that! Can't have inter-racial relations going on!
• It makes sense that Mac would be so nice to Mallory: she's just 11 years old and is clearly passionate and giving it her best shot! I'm super nice to students who try their hardest and I do everything I can to encourage them. Plus Mac has a daughter, so he probably figures, "Omg little girl alone in NYC for the first time, I better keep an eye on her!"
• I'm pretty sure Quint is too young for Julliard full-time, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had some sort of "casual" classes for younger people who are looking to get serious and go on to be professional. I think full-time Julliard students study there as post-secondary education (or as high school seniors, looking to complete their GED). Quint would be simply attending really hardcore classes, but still going to a regular middle school during the day.
• Man, I know I must have re-read this one at some point in high school (and thus after 9/11), but it was only this time that I noticed that they make reference to the World Trade Centre:

Mary Anne was giving herself her own tour. "World Trade Center," I heard her murmur. 'Two towers, one hundred and ten stories each..."

• You know, for someone who is always described as such an individual, Dawn sure changes quickly to impress a guy. Richie manages to convince her to eat a piece of chocolate! haha
• When Mary Anne is worried that someone is out to get the kids, she claims to have a hold on Rowena tighter than Arnold Schwarzenegger. I lol at the reference!
• Feeling really down about her apparent lack of artistic talent, Claudia refers to herself as an eighth grade failure. Oh Claudia... if you only knew... haha
• How come the British people in this series are always diplomats or pseudo-royalty? They're always very polite and posh and sophisticated and charming. Where are all the lower/middle-class folks? The wankers and the blokes and the chavs and the people you'd see going on a pub crawl? haha although I suppose as children, they wouldn't really be those things... but you know, children who aren't wearing matching little sailor suits and constantly polite. I want to see some British monsters! haha
• Stacey and Mary Anne wait too effing long to mention anything to the Harringtons. If I thought someone was following me and the kids around, I would have let it go one day... wait to see if it continued the second day... and then mentioned it on the third day. The girls ended up waiting til their last day to mention anything!
• On the flip side, the Harringtons are irresponsible for not mentioning anything at all in the first place.

BSC #44: Dawn and the Big Sleepover

Tagline: This was going to be one long night!

A bunch of kids at Stoneybrook Elementary have pen pals at a school in New Mexico. The Baby-sitters love hearing the letters that Charlotte, Becca, and the Pike children get from their new friends.

Then the bad news reaches Stoneybrook: their pen pals' school has been destroyed by a fire. Dawn is so upset that she organizes a fund-raiser for them. And as a reward to all the kids who help out, she is going to throw a gigantic sleepover!

A hundred kids, thirty pizzas - will Dawn survive her biggest baby-sitting job ever?

We're thrust into the middle of things, with Dawn baby-sitting the Pikes with Mallory, and all the kids wanting to be the first one to read their letter from their Zuni penpals. Everyone is really excited, and Dawn gets caught up in it. She laments to Mary Anne about how it's too bad that only the elementary school gets to participate in the penpal program, and Mary Anne suggests writing to the Zuni elementary school to inquire about getting a penpal from their middle school. Dawn thinks it's a great idea and can't wait!

Unfortunately, Dawn never gets to do that as a few days later, Mallory comes to their Friday meeting with bad news: a massive fire broke out at a gas station, and the entire Zuni elementary school got burned down, as well as a few neighbouring houses. Everyone feels horrible about it, but Dawn is particularly affected. She wants to do something, but she doesn't know what. She gets to thinking, and eventually decides to organize a huge 3-part event: a food drive, a clothing drive, and a fundraiser. Knowing she can't do it alone, she calls Jeff's old elementary school teacher from when he was still living in Stoneybrook. After an anxious few days of waiting, Dawn hears back from the elementary school: everyone is excited and it's all systems go!

At a planning meeting with the Club, the girls get everything organized. They decide that the kids can drop off their donated clothing and food at Dawn's barn. (I know it's technically Mary Anne's too, but I always think of it as Dawn's.) They decide that as a reward to anyone who has participated, they'll throw a huge sleepover party at the elementary school at the end of it all. Mallory suggests that for the fundraiser, they should just leave it up to the kids to decide what they want to do, reminding everyone of how innovative her siblings had been when their father got laid off. Now the only thing for the girls to figure out is how to let everyone know...

Stacey solves that problem the next day, by baby-sitting for Charlotte. Even though it isn't supposed to be announced yet, Stacey tells Charlotte what's going on. Charlotte instantly comes up with the idea to have an assembly. Dawn and the girls get special permission to miss an hour of class to go to the elementary school to do the announcement. Everyone is of course super excited.

Over the course of the next three weeks, Dawn is exhausted running around, trying to keep everything organized. She's organized it so that kids can drop off food and clothing donations at the barn during certain hours. Of course, the kids don't want to miss out on any possible prizes, so they insist on receipts so that they get credit. After awhile, Dawn and Mary Anne start to notice that some of the items arriving are a little strange, a little too nice. Eventually, they figure out that some of the kids had been pilfering their parents' things, taking stuff that according to the kids, they "don't need". So permission slips become a thing.

Finally, it comes down to the big day: the drive and fundraiser is over and it's time for the big sleepover. They manage to get a local pizza parlor and toy store to donate pizza for dinner, as well as prizes and games for the kids. The local grocery store also donates pancake mix and juice for breakfast the next morning. There's even going to be the local news station doing some coverage of the event, so everyone gets some good publicity! Immediately, Dawn runs into problems, the most pressing of which is the lack of pizza. About an hour or so before the event is to start, she gets a call from the pizza parlor, saying that they didn't get their usual order of flour on time, so they can't make the pizza. Eventually, they decide to get some flour from the grocery store, and go on with that.

The kids start arriving, and at first everyone's having fun, running around. A couple of hours into the evening, some of the little kids get overwhelmed, and two of them go home. Then the pizzas and toys arrive, and the handing out of them and distribution of everything takes up a good chunk of time. The girls then organize some gymnasium games for the kids to keep them busy, before getting them into PJs and winding down with story time.

When it comes time for bed, a few more kids get skittish, and another one leaves to go home. Everyone tries to settle in, but Dawn and the girls feel like they're constantly getting up for bathroom breaks and water. Finally, they all get to drift off to sleep. No sooner than Dawn falls asleep comes morning! Dawn's exhausted as she and the girls corral everyone into getting changed and eating breakfast, but finds she gets her second wind once the kids are picked up and everything's done. The sleepover is a complete success!

There isn't really a subplot in this one. We're just treated to a few chapters of the kids attempting to fundraise. The Pikes hold a carnival-type thing in their yard, with the Arnold twins, David Michael and Linny Papadakis participating. It goes pretty well until Chewy, the Perkins' dog, gets started by their hired entertainment, Goober Mansfield, and ends up running around and causing a scene. The Rodowsky boys organize a yard sale, with other friends participating. The only problem is, not everything donated had permission, leading to some parents getting really upset at seeing their items getting sold. Luckily they catch it early enough, and the parents decide to help out by "buying back" their stuff. Haley Braddock tells fortunes as Madame Leveaux. She makes a killing swindling Alan Gray and his friends.

Random Thoughts:

• This is the first one ghost-written by one of the most well-known and prolific of the BSC ghost-writers, Peter Lerangis!
• I remember this being one of my favourites as a child, but then for some reason not particularly wanting to read it now haha
• I love how the description on the back of the book mentions Becca, but we don't see her at all in this book. We do see Haley Braddock though.
• Dawn calls Mrs Besser at home, saying that because the middle school and elementary school have virtually the same hours, there's no way Dawn can see her in person. Most teachers don't leave school right away, and even so, Dawn could have left a message at the school to make a meeting with Mrs Besser. Obviously, it all works out, but it just strikes me as funny that Dawn figures calling her at home is the only option.
• Dawn gets insulted that Mr Besser thinks she sounds like a 4th grader. She probably does sound like a 4th grader! Even so, Mr Besser says, "it's one of your kids". It doesn't necessarily mean that he thinks that Dawn is one of her current students. My old high school teachers still refer to me as "one of their students". Yes, a lot of the time it's in the past tense, but a lot of the time it's in the present tense. I am clearly an adult (in fact, I'm a high school teacher myself!), but I'm never offended. Then again, I guess it's the attitude that children/teens always want to be seen as older and definitely never younger than what they are, so they're super sensitive about it.
• Also: I'm glad that my phone number will never be in a phone book. Nor my address. I don't want my high school students being able to call me in my off hours, or worse, come knocking on my door. You know it'd be a prank anyways haha
• I would have been surprised if the school wasn't already planning something. The high school I work at is always doing stuff for charity, but especially more so when the cause hits close to home. I love that they let Dawn do her thing and get the kids excited, but yeah, you totes know that the staff was already planning on doing something. This just meant they didn't have to do much of the planning or the thinking. Just the chaperoning and legal stuff haha
• They talk about how the girls were able to pile into the back of a station wagon. I remember when I was in kindergarten (which was two years after this book was published) being carpooled to a birthday party in the back of a station wagon. It's crazy, because that kind of thing would never happen now. I only ever got to do it once, but it definitely remains one of the highlights of my young 4 year old memory haha
• Betsy Sobak is mentioned in this one! I love how she'll get mentioned in passing every now and then in the background, but the girls definitely never seem to baby-sit for her ever again.
• I find it weird that Jamie Newton would be afraid of Chewy. I always thought he hung out with Myriah and Gabbie Perkins all the time, so he'd be used to Chewy. A big unfamiliar dog, definitely. But Chewy? No way!
• I keep thinking of how different this book would be now with internet. The kids would have found out THAT DAY about the fire, instead of several days later. I wonder if they would send more or less emails than they currently do letters. I know here in Canada, sending mail across the country only takes about 3 days, so you're looking at about a one week turnaround, meaning if you're diligent about it, you'll be writing a letter a week. That's actually a pretty good rate, especially for elementary students. 
• I like that this is a Dawn book. They always paint her to be such an activist in the later books, but we hardly ever see her do anything, other than just preach about the environment and vegetarianism to people. They could have easily made this a Kristy book, but I'm glad they gave Dawn a moment to shine. 
• I'm not a big fan of pancakes (I much much MUCH prefer waffles), but reading that list of available pancakes (plain, strawberry, blueberry and buttermilk) really made me want some. Or just any sort of big breakfast/brunch haha

I had a dream...

I woke up this morning from the weirdest dream. I don't remember much of it anymore, but the part that sticks out was about The Baby-Sitters Club, so I'mma gonna talk about it here.

In this part of the dream, I was in a used bookstore. I still don't have the entire series (although I have more than enough to keep me going for about a year more before I'll start to have gaps in my read-through), so whenever I'm in a used bookstore, I'm always on the hunt for my missing books. Anyways, in a bin, I came across a whole bunch of Sweet Valley books and Baby-Sitters Club books and just everything I could ever hope for. At first, I found a bunch of books I had, and then eventually some that I was missing. But then I found a book I had never seen before!

It was called "Claudia the Potential Tutor?", and it was labelled as #7. Now, we all know that in the series, #7 is "Claudia and Mean Janine". Well, apparently in my dream, they had decided to re-release the series in 2016, and this was part of the re-release. In addition to updating the content of the original novels, they also scrapped some of the ones they didn't think worked, and replaced them with new stories, that they thought would be more relevant.

I didn't end up reading it in my dream, because my dream never got me to the checkout line and then subsequently home, but I did skim through it (the way I would immediately at a bookstore). From what I could see, it's the start of grade 8, and Claudia is struggling to keep up. In order to help her to gain confidence and retain the knowledge she already learned, the teachers recruit her for a new peer tutoring program. At first, Claudia doesn't think she's smart enough, but as she helps the 6th and 7th graders with their homework, she realizes that she's smarter than she thinks. She becomes more confident in her academic abilities, develops better study habits, and is even able to ask her peers for help when needed. In the end, while Claudia still struggles with school, she agrees that the program was a good idea and that she's learned a lot from it.

Things that stuck out to me in my dream (which I remember running around and pointing out to my friends) was just how... 2016 it was. Not only was the cover completely different than all the other books, but the way the girls spoke was very 2016. They said stuff like, "my bad" and "O-M-G" and "bae" and other things.

Anyways, it was a super weird dream and just really stuck out to me haha

Baby Sitters Little Sister #17: Karen's Brothers

Tagline: There are too many boys in Karen's family!

BOYS
A is for Awful
B is for Barf-breath
C is for Crazy

Karen has three older brothers, and sometimes they are a pain. They won't take Karen to the movies. And they don't let her play football with them.

Karen is so mad she decides not to talk to any boy -- not her daddy or even the boy pets in her family. And maybe then Karen's brothers will stop treating her like a girl!

Alright. I can't believe I read this. Another Karen book so soon? I was kinda hoping that there'd be more of Charlie and Sam in it, but there wasn't really =/

Anyways, this one opens with Karen at school. Her pretend-husband Ricky is busy playing with Bobby, and Karen is upset at being neglected. At recess, she decides to try to make things better by asking him if she can join in and play football with him and his friends. Ricky laughs and says no, because she is a girl. Girls can't play football. Karen gets mad, yells about how she plays football all the time with her brothers, and then stomps off.

That weekend, she's at the big house, meaning with Kristy and all her brothers. At first, everything goes well. Karen has a great time hanging out with her big family, playing dress up in Kristy's clothes, and even hanging out with Sam and Charlie and their big kid friends. However, it all changes when Sam and Charlie and their friends decide to go out to see a movie. Karen and David Michael immediately get up to go, but are quickly shut down. Karen assumes that it's because she's a girl, and decides not to talk to boys anymore.

She goes to school on Monday, and recruits Nancy and Hannie to join her in hating boys. They even make a "We Hate Boys" club. Nancy isn't mad at any boys, and Hannie's only mildly annoyed with some of them, but they decide to go through with it. Originally Karen tries to get them to stop talking to all boys ever, but eventually settles on letting them do whatever they want outside of school. But in the meantime, as long as they're in school, there will be no talking to boys at all.

At first, the boys don't really seem to care. Pamela, Karen's enemy, decides to take advantage of the situation and creates the "We ♥ Boys" club. She and her friends start talking to Ricky and the boys, being especially nice to them, giving them treats and what not. Ultimately, Pamela hopes to steal Ricky from Karen. Well, the boys start noticing the attention, and start liking it. Karen's not impressed.

Eventually two weeks go by, and Karen's at the big house again. There, her brothers invite her to play football. Karen's surprised, because she thinks she's been excluded this whole time because she's a girl, and is happy to hear that her brothers think she's great at football. She decides to stop hating boys. But the story's not over yet: Karen needs to apologize and win Ricky back!

As an apology, Karen decides to hold a Brother's Day party, and invite all her brothers and Ricky and her dad. She makes them presents, and bakes cookies and has punch. She then apologizes to everyone and everything is all well. Ricky is there too, and they make up and decide to try not to fight anymore. Ricky even says that Karen can play football with him at school.

At school, Karen and Pamela get into a fight, and Karen bets Pamela that she can't play football. Of course, Pamela makes a fool of herself. It doesn't matter though, because soon everyone is playing, and Karen and Ricky are stronger than ever!

Random Thoughts:

• The seriousness in which Ricky takes Karen and their pretend-marriage is frightening haha I don't know of any second graders who would take things that seriously. I could see Karen being all for it, but for Ricky to humor her this long? That boy is a saint!
• I had a pretend-boyfriend in kindergarten. We would pretend that we were cats and hang out on the play structure together. But I stopped having pretend-boyfriends by the time I entered grade 1.
• It's plain to see that Charlie and Sam don't want to take their little siblings out to the movies when they're hanging out with their friends. Even if they weren't going to be seeing anything inappropriate, it's a whole different scenario of actually being responsible for your younger siblings, rather than them just happening to be around.
• Charlie and Sam are pretty good sports about it all though. They make obligatory appearances to Karen's party, which is nice.
• Hannie and Nancy need to grow backbones. Seriously.
• I can't tell if the "romance" between Karen and Ricky make me take Mary Anne and Logan more seriously, or less seriously haha 

BSC #43: Stacey's Emergency

Tagline: Stacey just can't win.

Lately, the pressure's really on Stacey. She hasn't been feeling well. Her schoolwork and baby-sitting jobs are almost out of control. And Stacey's tired of being in the middle of her parents' fights.

Then it happens: Stacey ends up in the hospital because of her diabetes.

The Baby-sitters are so worried. So is Stacey.

Why does she always have it so hard?

Stacey's baby-sitting for Charlotte, and reflecting on how things have been lately. Charlotte finds an article in the newspaper she's reading about diabetes, which prompts Stacey to think about how not only does she have diabetes, it seems to be worse than usual. She's been experiencing incredibly high readings when testing her blood sugar, plus she's been super hungry and thirsty all the time, as well as tired and getting sore throats. She hasn't mentioned anything to her parents yet though, because of how the divorce is going. Even though it's been months, and Stacey's gotten used to living in Stoneybrook with just her mom, things aren't getting any easier. Because Stacey hasn't been feeling well, she hasn't been seeing her father as often as he'd like. To make matters worse, Stacey feels like her parents are constantly putting her between them: they're always grilling her about the other parent's life.

Feeling bummed, Stacey goes to hang out with Claudia before the Club meeting. Everything goes well, and Stacey even lines up another job with Charlotte. However, she's hungry. Incredibly hungry. In a moment of weakness, when no one's looking, she sneaks one of Claudia's Ring Dings into her bag. That evening, her father calls her to remind her of their plans this weekend. Much to Stacey's dismay, every minute is scheduled, meaning she'll have no down time in the apartment to breathe and rest and do homework. He then asks about her mother, leaving Stacey to feel caught in the middle again. In her stress, she takes a chocolate bar out from her drawer and eats it.

Stacey is then baby-sitting for Charlotte again. Charlotte wants to make fudge, and asks if she can invite Becca over. Stacey really doesn't want to be tortured by the chocolate, but agrees. The girls have a grand time, and make a huge mess. While they go to watch TV, Stacey stays behind in the kitchen to help clean up. She guiltily sneaks a few pieces of fudge into her purse.

That night, Stacey eats the fudge. She also admits to having eaten another chocolate bar that day in school. She's tired and thirsty and can't focus on her homework. Suddenly, she remembers that she needs to pack for her visit with her father. As she's packing, her father calls and has another argument with her mother. Exhausted, Stacey gives up and goes to bed.

It's time for Stacey to head to New York, which is the last thing she wants to do. She's tired, she's stressed and she's falling further behind in school than ever. Her mom notices that she looks a little pale, and Stacey vows to rest on the train ride and get some homework done. However, she ends up falling asleep and doesn't wake up until halfway to New York. Upon waking, Stacey finds that she's incredibly thirsty. She ends up spending the rest of the train ride getting water and going to the bathroom. Upon arrival in New York, her dad can tell that something's wrong, and actually takes Stacey seriously when she asks for dinner at home. They end up having a nice relaxing evening in, getting a chance to actually talk and connect, which Stacey enjoys a lot. Unfortunately,by 9pm she's completely exhausted and goes to bed.

All night long, Stacey again keeps getting up for water and the bathroom. Her father is now completely worried and suggests that she test her blood sugar at that moment. Stacey, still exhausted, asks if it can wait til morning. When the morning comes though, her father doesn't hesitate: it's time to go to the hospital.

Stacey's admitted, and the doctors aren't too sure what's going on with her diabetes, so it's decided that she'll stay awhile in the hospital. Her mom immediately takes a train to New York and stays with the Cummings to be closer to Stacey. Stacey is aghast, as her parents can't stand to be in the same room for more than a few minutes. The moment one of them shows up, the other one immediately leaves. Finally Stacey asks for some time alone. She's about to start thinking about her parents and her situation, when she starts spiraling down into a pit of despair over hospitals and her diabetes. Just when she's almost too far gone, Laine shows up for a visit! Laine brings with her a few trinkets and news from Claudia and the girls to cheer Stacey up.

Stacey spends several days in the hospital. At her parents' suggestion, she tries to set up a routine for herself, so as to not go crazy. She wakes up, gets dressed and attempts homework. Of course, there's all sorts of interruptions from her parents visiting and doctors and nurses checking up on her. On Wednesday, just before the Club meeting, she gets a phone call from Claudia and everyone. Upon hanging up, she gets a care package from Charlotte. It cheers her up, and she decides to call Charlotte. Everything seems to be okay.

Friday though, Stacey has a setback. Although she was more-or-less fine all week, she wakes up to find she has zero energy again. A nurse looks at her, and Stacey almost immediately falls back to sleep. When she wakes up, her mom is there, and the doctors run a bunch of tests. Stacey confronts her mom about her father not visiting more during the day, and her mother confesses that the two of them agreed that they couldn't be in the same room together and that her mother would visit during the day and that her father would visit in the evening. This upsets Stacey, but she decides not to push it. Laine comes to visit with more treats, and after awhile Stacey starts to feel better emotionally. However, before going to sleep, her doctor comes to inform her that they're going to start her on a new treatment. It scares Stacey, and she starts to cry.

The next morning, Stacey wakes up and is surprised to find the entire Club there visiting her. She's really happy to see them, and everyone fills her in on what she's missed at school that week. Stacey's really not feeling well though, and as she's opening up the card they brought her, her room is suddenly flooded with doctors and nurses. Her blood sugar is dropping and they need to try something new. The girls are ushered out of the room, and Stacey is frightened. They start her on a new treatment though, and by the evening Stacey feels much better. Unfortunately, her friends are already gone. Her mom's visiting though, and since Stacey has all sorts of questions, she loses track of time, and the next thing they know, her father has shown up.

Stacey asks them if they could just please stay in the room at the same time for a little bit. They do so by essentially ignoring each other and speaking exclusively to Stacey. This goes well for about 10 minutes before they start sniping at each other. Finally, Stacey loses it, yells at them, and tells them not to come back for a while, because she needs time to think. Upset, Stacey decides that the best thing for her is her friends, so she calls Claudia to see if she and the girls could come back the next for their visit. They do, and Stacey opens up all the presents they brought for her. She has a great day, and forgets all about her troubles with her parents.

Finally, it's time for Stacey to go home. When she gets there, she's still super tired, but is able to visit with Claudia. After awhile, she finally confronts her mom. She tells her mom that she's tired of being put in the middle of her parents, and that she won't report back on them to each other anymore. Stacey's mom apologizes for having put Stacey through it all. Stacey then admits that she'd been cheating on her diet, and that she feels guilty. Stacey and her mother talk things out, and vow to make things better in the future.

There's really no subplot in this one. Charlotte's super-worried about Stacey being sick, and becomes a hypochondriac because of it. Mostly, she just wants to be sick like Stacey, and go to the hospital with Stacey and know that Stacey is alright. When it's discovered that Stacey will come back, Charlotte's ecstatic and decides to throw a small welcome party for her.

Random Thoughts

• For some reason, this has become one of my favourites. I don't remember having too too much of an opinion of it from when I was younger, but I have to admit: I've re-read it at least 3 times already this year. I just keep finding myself picking it up from my shelves and skimming it. I've definitely been looking forward to blogging about it. I think it's because it's one of the books that centers around more serious things.
• This book always makes me want fudge. God piss haha
• I worked on this entry over a few different evenings, and every single time, I was reminded that I wanted fudge again haha
• I don't have any personal experience in divorce, having never been married and my parents are still together, but I know it's not easy. It's like a really bad break-up, only worse, because there are kids and legal things involved. Anyways. I feel really bad for Stacey when her parents not only put her in the middle, but can't even be in the same room together. DUDE, YOUR KID IS IN THE HOSPITAL. Can't you talk about the weather and maybe a movie you saw or a TV show you watched or something superficial? Just so you can be in the same room together for a few minutes? I dunno. Like I said, I know nothing of divorce.
• How close is Mrs McGill to the Cummings? We always hear about Laine from Stacey, but I still find it weird that their families are really close, despite all the drama of the diabetes, the move, the re-move and then the divorce.
• Where the fuck do the girls get the money to do TWO round trips to New York?? It takes me a good deal of planning just to afford one two-hour trip. I'm sure their parents helped pay for the first one (on account of their friend being in the hospital), but I can't believe they were able to do it a second time. Is it really not that big of a deal? I had lots of friends who had problems affording trains/busses home during university for the holidays, so they would usually skip Thanksgiving and wait until Christmas.
• Damn, it's a good thing Stacey has done the 8th grade so many times. At the start of the book, we know that Stacey has already fallen behind in her school work. Then she misses two weeks of school from being in the hospital in New York. Upon her return, she has to wait another week before she can go back to school. 3 weeks is a lot to catch up on. I know her teachers will make special circumstances for her, extend deadlines or even omit assignments altogether, but damn.

BSC #42: Jessi and the Dance School Phantom

Tagline: Someone - or something - is out to get Jessi!

Naturally, Jessi is thrilled when she earns the lead in her dance school's latest ballet. But someone in Jessi's class wants her out of the show.

First Jessi's toe shoes are stolen. Then she gets all kinds of threatening messages!

What kind of ballerina would want to scare Jessi? The Baby-sitters don't know, but they're not going to let anyone get away with it for long!

The book opens with the dance auditions. Jessi's school is putting on Sleeping Beauty, and of course everyone wants a good part in the show. The first chapter quickly sets up the dance class and the other girls and how things typically go. That's so we can know when things are wrong when shit goes down.

The main girls in Jessi's class are Mary Bramstedt, who has perfect form, but is too perfect to the point of being robotic; Carrie Steinfeld, who is one of the oldest girls in the class and really needs a good part in order to get accepted into another school for older dancers; Katie Beth Parsons, who readers may remember as being the next youngest in the class and having a deaf sister; Hilary Morgan, whose mother gave up a budding ballet career to have a family and is now living vicariously through Hilary; and finally Lisa Jones, who is nice, but always critical of herself.

The parts are quickly given out, with Carrie getting the Bluebird of Happiness, Lisa being the Lilac Fairy and of course, Jessi as Aurora. Everyone else in the class is relegated to the ensemble. Jessi is thrilled, but tries not to let it show. She's too nice and humble to rub it in everyone's faces. Even so, Jessi soon realizes that maybe not everyone is happy. At her first rehearsal, her toes shoes go missing while she changes. As the lead, there is no way she can rehearse at all without them. So the whole rehearsal is halted and the entire class is brought back into the change room to search. They can't find them, and eventually Mme Noelle decides to cancel class. Lisa asks if there's any way they can rehearse still, and Hilary insists that they search one more time. It's Katie Beth who finds them, in Jessi's bag. Jessi finds it weird, and is quite shaken and off her game for the rest of rehearsal. When it finally ends and she goes back to get changed, Jessi finds a note in her shoes telling her: BEWARE.

For her next rehearsal, Jessi doesn't take any chances: she brings her entire second spare outfit. She's determined not to let anything get in the way this time. However, she's in a sour mood still, after being reminded of the last rehearsal by Katie Beth. Then all throughout rehearsal, Carrie keeps purposely bumping into Jessi, making Jessi look like an uncoordinated lout! It's a pretty lousy rehearsal, and Jessi can't wait for it to end. When she gets back in the changeroom, she discovers that her entire second outfit is missing! Furthermore, there's another note, this time one written in red ink that looks like blood! It says: WATCH YOUR STEP.

For their next rehearsal, Jessi shows up with all new gear, including a new gym bag that can lock. While out on the dance floor however, Jessi's chain with the key comes loose and while she's able to pick it up, she misses a set of instructions. Carrie quickly tells Jessi what they were, but as Jessi dances, she slips on some water and hurts her ankle. While Mme Noelle attends to her, the teacher asks her why she was doing the wrong dance move. Carrie had lied to Jessi! Mme Noelle determines that Jessi better get her ankle looked at, just in case, and that in the meantime, Katie Beth will take over in rehearsals. Jessi is understandably upset, even more so when she returns to get her stuff and discovers another note: I TOLD YOU SO. FROM NOW ON WATCH OUT.

At the doctor's office, Jessi is told she simply has a bad strain, and that as long as she doesn't use her ankle in any way for a few days, she'll be ready to dance in no time. So Jessi attends the next rehearsal, but just watches on the sidelines. There, she's all suspicious of her classmates and second-guesses everything everyone says. She checks her locker, in case she forgot something the previous day in her rush, and discovers yet another note: IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE. TOO BAD IT WASN'T.

Jessi finally decides to bring all the drama to the attention of the Club. She'd been keeping it in because she didn't want to burden the girls, plus she still couldn't believe it was actually happening. The girls look at the notes, and then determine that they really need to see all the suspects for themselves. Jessi points out that their next rehearsal is on a Saturday, and in the public theatre that the performance will actually be on, so anyone who can come can sneak into the audience and watch. Jessi is actually disappointed when it's such a great rehearsal with no incidents - had she imagined it all? But no, her friends are convinced that something is going on, based on what they observe of Jessi's classmates and how they all interact with each other. With everyone's help, Jessi narrows her suspects down to three classmates: Carrie, Katie Beth and Hilary.

As rehearsals continue, more things happen again. Jessi's stolen dance outfit is returned - only shredded to death. Someone pushes her into some wet scenery, ruining her clothes and causing rehearsal to end early. Jessi gets another creepy note, this time with a red rose, saying: WATCH OUT FOR THE THORNS. Jessi continues to watch her classmates, becoming more suspicious and confused than ever. The notes continue with GIVE UP THE ROLE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE and YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. It gets to a point where Jessi stops being scared, and is now just plain annoyed and more determined than ever to do this. One day, she gets a note that says TAKE A REST, SLEEPING BEAUTY, which just makes Jessi roll her eyes, until she realizes that Carrie's home sick that day. Another day, Katie Beth saves Jessi from some falling scenery. That leaves Jessi with only one person: Hilary.

The girls look over the notes again, and determine that Hilary must have written using a calligraphy pen. They decide that all Jessi really needs to do is get Hilary to write something in front of her using that pen, and then it'll be all over! So with that in mind, Jessi goes to her next rehearsal with a plan. She tells Hilary that Mme Noelle needs a sign to be made. Lo and behold, Hilary is caught in the act! Hilary is super apologetic, citing stress from her extremely pushy stage mom, and vows to pay Jessi back for all the ruined outfits and things. Jessi agrees not to tell anyone, and they part on good terms.

The night of the ballet, everything goes perfectly. Jessi dances magnificently and gets a standing ovation, plus some flowers from her sister. Hilary apologizes yet again for all the horrible things she did, and then confesses something to Jessi: she's quitting ballet. She knows her mom will be furious, but Hilary also knows that nothing she does will please her, so she might as well please herself.

The subplot in this one is that the Club decides to put on a Pet Show for their clients. At first it seems like a good idea, with all the kids getting excited. Soon though, the kids start getting very competitive over who will win first prize. Those with smaller pets get very upset over not being able to compete against cats and dogs, Becca, being one of these kids, because of their hamster. After many dramas and troubles, the girls decide to award each pet their own individual prize, like Nicest or Best Behaved. The Pike triplets end up entering themselves as a two-man horse.

Random Thoughts:

• This one is ghostwritten by Ellen Miles
• What kind of ballerina would want to scare Jessi? If I've learned anything from the bits of reality TV I've gleamed from living with my mom for so long: ANY BALLERINA??? Haha from what I gather, ballerinas are only next to beauty pageants in how crazy and vicious some girls can be when competing.
• Man, I had no idea how many mysteries we had gotten in the regular series before they officially introduced the Mystery series. I'm especially surprised, since this one comes so soon after the last one.
• This one mentions that Hannie is pretend-married to Scott Hsu! I honestly do not remember this detail at all, despite having read pretty much the entire Little Sister series as a child, and almost the entire Baby-sitters Club series as well!
• Oh the early '90s, where you could cram way more people than seatbelts into a car, and it not be an issue at all. I remember when I was younger, like age 4-6, my parents didn't make me wear a seatbelt cuz I didn't like it because it would choke me. I should have had a booster seat, but they weren't overly common at the time.
• Okay, this one actually made me look up on YouTube videos of 11-13 year olds dancing en pointe and Sleeping Beauty and what not. God damn, they must have ankles of steel. My own ankles hurt just watching! But yeah. I wanted to look it up, because this is the one-millionth book where Jessi has had the lead in a ballet production, and I was starting to feel jaded. No, 11 year olds really can be performing these things at ballet school. I guess now I need to know how common this is. Like, yes, it's possible for 11 year olds to perform at this level... BUT ONLY IF THEY STARTED AT AGE 3, DO NOTHING BUT BALLET, AND ARE TRAINING FOR LIKE, THE BALLET OLYMPICS AND BEING TOTES PRO BALLET IS THEIR LIFE? Or is it more like, yes, it's possible for an average 11 year old to perform at this level, as long as they're dedicated and really love ballet and practice a lot, but not to a crazy extent? I mean, for all I know, it could be like, uhhh... this is totes normal, if you've taken regular ballet lessons, you should be able to achieve this easily in like 4 years.
• I also wonder what it means to be dancing at this age, versus being an adult professional dancer. Jessi mentions that playing Aurora is the role of a lifetime. Obviously, being the lead in any production is a big deal, but I wonder if they simplify the choreography at this age. Or if this is it: now that Jessi's played Aurora, there's no reason for her to ever play her again as an adult. She can just go in to auditions and be like, "Pfft... I was dancing this part when I was 11 years old!" haha As a musician, I've played the theme song to Harry Potter a bajillion times, but each time has been different orchestrations, getting progressively harder and more intricate and complex. The version I played in grade 8 is completely different than the version I played in my final year of university. It was never just "Harry Potter again".
• Although having an individual award for each pet makes the most sense, I'm surprised the girls didn't briefly discuss or contemplate having different categories. Like, cats compete against each other, dogs in another category, rodents such as guinea pigs and hamsters in another, reptiles, etc etc
• Maybe it's because I already know French, but I would love this book (and any of the other Jessi-does-ballet books) more if they didn't add phonetic pronunciations of all the ballet terms.
• Actually, I feel this way about anytime a language is in a book. Except if it's an Asian language: obviously I need it to be written in English characters, not kanji or katakana or other Asian characters.
• Spoiler alert: I didn't realize that Mary Bramstedt was mentioned in this book. She's the one who eventually develops an eating disorder in another book. This actually makes sense, based on what we hear of her this time around.
• There are like, 6 roles in this ballet. The fact that Carrie got a named role at all is a big deal. Same with Lisa, especially after hearing that she's good, but overly critical of herself.
• Continuity with the Ramsey's and the Pike's hamsters having come from Jessi's crazy pet-sitting adventure.
• I had never realized how many times Dr Dellenkamp is referenced in the series. Here, she's Jessi's doctor as well.
• Man, Jessi could have been seriously hurt. She was lucky it was just a strain. What if she had broken her ankle, and had to give up dancing for a month or two? And that would just be the best case scenario in that one. She really should have told Mme Noelle what was going on.
• Charlie is a saint of a brother for always driving Kristy and her friends around.