BSC #56: Keep Out, Claudia!

Tagline: Who wouldn't want Claudia for a baby-sitter?

The Baby-sitters love getting new clients. So when the Lowells contact the club everyone is thrilled. For Mary Anne, sitting for the Lowells turns out to be a snap. The kids are adorable and obedient. But when Claudia meets the family, Mrs. Lowell will barely look her in the eye. And the kids are downright rude!

The next time Mrs. Lowell calls the BSC, she requests another sitter - anyone but Claudia. Claudia has no idea what she did wrong. But the BSC won't rest until they find out!

The book starts off with Claudia sitting for the Rodowskys. Shea is practicing for a piano recital, and Jackie and Archie both express a desire to perform too. This gets Claudia thinking about how maybe the Club should put together some sort of recital or show for their charges to be in. She brings it up at their meeting that evening, and the girls all agree that it's a great idea. Since none of them are particularly musically inclined, they figure they can just organize the children, and then let the children learn for themselves (since many of their charges DO know music). So there's our subplot right there!

Shortly after introducing this idea to the Club, the main plot starts: the girls receive a phone call from a new client, Mrs Lowell, who has seen their flyers and would like to hire a baby-sitter for her 3 children. Mary Anne ends up with the job.

Right away, we follow her to the job, where she meets Caitlin (8), Mackie (6) and Celeste (3). Mrs Lowell briefly gives Mary Anne a once-over, which unsettles her, before smiling and welcoming her into her home. Upon leaving, MA is inundated with questions from the children. They want to know all about her and her family. MA has to explain what step-siblings are, and how Dawn is another baby-sitter. This leads the kids to ask about the other sitters, and make awkward talk about religion (speculating that Mallory must be Catholic because of her family size, and wanting to know what religion MA is). She eventually gets them to play outside, and then finally settled in front of the TV. The kids can't find a show they like, but eventually come across something with two Asian kids. Caitlin and Mackie laugh about their eyes, but MA just remains oblivious and innocent. Soon after, Mrs Lowell returns, and MA goes to their Club meeting, forgetting all weirdness.

Next, we see Claudia baby-sitting for the Newtons. Jamie is bored, so Claudia calls up Dawn, who's sitting for the Perkins girls. The next thing Claudia knows, Stacey and Charlotte, and Mary Anne and the Hobarts have come over too. This gets Claudia to thinking, and the girls introduce their band idea to the group. The kids get excited, and soon invite more people over. Claudia is thrilled that her idea is taking off, as Mary Anne writes down the details and helps everyone get organized. Claudia decides that since she's sitting for the Lowells next, she'll invite them to the group too.

So it's finally Claudia's turn to baby-sit for the Lowells. Thanks to the cover synopsis, we know that it doesn't exactly go well. Mrs Lowell is all vague and curt with Claudia, while the kids keep trying to eat more food and won't obey her. Claudia thinks maybe it has to do with her wild outfit, since the kids and Mary Anne were dressed so neatly. Speaking of MA, she saves the day by calling Claudia up and inviting them all to the Hobarts for band practice. Things go well, until it's time to leave. Back at their place, the kids give Claudia a hard time and sneak food again. All in all, Claudia does not have a good time.

However, Claudia doesn't think much of it until their next Club meeting. Mrs Lowell calls, and asks to speak directly to Kristy. It's then that Kristy learns that Mrs Lowell wants any baby-sitter except for Claudia! Kristy then demands to know exactly what happened from Claudia. Claudia admits that it wasn't her best job, but that it wasn't a disaster. Everyone's confused, but eventually decide that maybe it was just a combination of small things, such as Claudia's outfit, her arriving too early (3:19 instead of 3:30), her having taken the kids out without permission. Jessi, who ends up with the job, decides to be on her best and most model behaviour, with the hopes of finding out more.

In preparation for her job, Jessi decides to update her Kid-Kit. She thinks specifically of what age and gender each of the Lowell children are, and adds things that she thinks will appeal to them: more books for Celeste, art supplies and matchbox cars for Mackie, and an office kit for Caitlin. Jessi then makes sure to show up exactly 5 minutes early. Upon opening the door, Mrs Lowell is immediately shocked. After staring at Jessi for several seconds, she finally says that she doesn't need a baby-sitter and that she forgot to say something and closes the door right on Jessi's face! No apology! Jessi goes to Mallory's house all upset, and later to the Club meeting. The girls can't figure out what went wrong. Mary Anne has another sitting job with the Lowells coming up, so she resolves to get to the bottom of things.

But before that, we're treated to a chapter with Claudia baby-sitting for the Rodowskys. Jackie decides that they need a name for their band. After some brainstorming, they come up with "All the Children", which would be short for "All the Children of the World", since everyone came from such multicultural background. This serves as really really awkward foreshadowing for what we eventually find out is Mrs Lowell's problem, but in the meantime, it's just silly. They rehearse songs from Annie, before going to rehearsal. They tell the other kids their great band name idea, and of course everyone loves it!

Finally, we get back to the Lowell plot, only instead of Mary Anne sitting, it's Kristy. Kristy decides to switch because as President, she thinks it's her responsibility to find out what's wrong. Mrs Lowell agrees to the switch, although Kristy can sense that there's something more. However, when Kristy shows up (exactly 5 minutes early, wearing a skirt and blouse), Mrs Lowell is warm and welcoming. This gives Kristy the confidence to ask Mrs Lowell how she's finding the Club's service. Mrs Lowell says she's happy, and before Kristy can grill her further, the children arrive home. Upon Mrs Lowell's absence, Kristy takes it upon herself to question the kids about their sitters. They love Mary Anne, but refer to Claudia as the "funny looking one". Thinking that they mean Claudia's eclectic fashion sense, Kristy moves on, referencing how they never even got to see Jessi. Caitlin insists that Kristy describe her, and when Kristy mentions Jessi's skin colour, she's convinced that she hears Caitlin snort, "I guess that's why mommy didn't like her."

Kristy, bothered by this, goes home and eventually talks to her mom, Nannie and Watson. She tells them her suspicions, that she thinks that the Lowells are racist, and hopes that they'll tell her that she's being over-dramatic. Sadly, they tell her that it could be true, that racism is still a prevalent problem. It makes Kristy sad, and she decides to go to the Club with her thoughts.

Immediately, Claudia is hurt and angry. She doesn't understand why Jessi isn't more upset (at least Claudia got to go inside the house!), but Jessi just explains that she's used to it. But Claudia's never experienced racism before, and feels all sorts of thoughts and emotions she's never felt before. She feels ashamed, and defensive, and worries that her friends feel sorry for her. Jessi and Mary Anne explain that prejudice isn't logical, and that it's the Lowells that Claudia should be angry at. Claudia knows this, but still can't help but lash out at her friends, since they're the ones present. Dawn points out that the Lowells probably don't like a whole lot of people for various reasons, which doesn't exactly make Claudia feel better, and they get into a discussion about how there is still lots of racism and hate groups around like the KKK. In the midst of this history lesson, Mrs Lowell calls, wanting to request the "blonde haired, blue-eyed sitter". After some deliberation, the girls decide that none of them want to sit for the Lowells anymore. Kristy eventually comes to the conclusion that none of them would fit Mrs Lowell's narrow-minded bigoted standards because of their divorced families and non-traditional ways. The girls end their meeting on a good note, but Claudia still feels unsettled by everything.

At the next band rehearsal, Jackie manages to convince everyone to change their entire repertoire to Fiddler on the Roof. Apparently there was a production in Stamford, so most of the kids had already seen it. Everyone's excited and get right down to rehearsal. That's when Mrs Lowell shows up with her kids. At first, she simply remarks on how "assorted" the rest of the children are, but upon hearing the choice of program, she grabs her kids and whisks them away. The girls momentarily panic, but realize that this is on Mrs Lowell, and that none of the other parents will object to their musical choices.

Claudia's still bummed about Mrs Lowell though! Eventually, the girls come to the conclusion that there's nothing to be done with Mrs Lowell. It's not their place and they're just kids themselves. Mrs Lowell will keep on hating, and all they can really do is set a good example for the kids they sit for.

The rest of the novel is dedicated to the band subplot, which also helps Claudia to escape her funk. The children decide that their band needs matching t-shirts, so they decide to set up donation baskets the day of their concert. As the concert grows nearer, Claudia starts panicking and worrying, but the day goes off without a hitch. At the end of the concert, Claudia and the girls notice Caitlin and Mackie Lowell seemed to have snuck out to watch them. It strikes Claudia that perhaps they were just repeating things they'd learned, and that maybe one day, they'd outgrow their racism. The rest of the girls hope so too.


Random Thoughts:

• This was definitely one of my favourite ones as a child. Like I've said before, I always greatly enjoyed the books where the girls had to deal with more serious issues in a realistic manner. I've read this one a million times, but not recently.
• I know I definitely have not read this in the past 15 years at least, because right away on the first page, Jackie Rodowsky makes a mistake that I never understood until now. Shea is practicing piano, and Claudia asks Jackie what he's playing, and Jackie replies, "A doggie-o". Now, after 15 years of studying music, I know that Jackie most likely meant "Adagio"!
• It just occurred to me that none of the girls take music lessons! Out of 7 girls, not a single one of them did piano?? Even for a couple of years? That seems crazy to me. More of my friends took piano as children than who didn't.
• I like the idea of this book being Claudia's book, since she apparently hasn't faced much racism or discrimination, but we barely hear from her! There's a lot of chapters dedicated to other sitters' encounters with the Lowells, and then the stupid subplot of the band.
• I find it weird that American-born Asians don't seem to be discriminated against nearly as often as American-born Africans or East Indians. I mean, maybe that's not true, but based on personal experiences and anecdotal evidence from my friends, that seems to be the case. None of us have accents, but most of us are second-generation immigrants, with our parents all having heavy accents. But the darker the skin, the more discrimination and racism my friends have felt. The worst the Asians have gotten is being stereotyped as geniuses. Oddly enough, one of my best friends is a first-generation immigrant (she only became an official citizen a couple of years ago!), but despite her prominent accent, she's never faced any hardships or racism or discrimination. Then again: she's white, blonde, blue-eyed and Australian. The worse she gets is being asked if she's related to Thor.
• Even as a child, I remember thinking that "All the Children" was the worst name for a band ever. It sounded to me like a soap opera or a charity cash-grab.
• I really liked the conversations Kristy and Claudia have with their families. I wished we got more of those in the series!
• I especially loved Janine's little bit about the American Japanese concentration camps. I can't believe I don't remember this being mentioned here! I remember learning about them in history, but it wasn't until I was in university, and super into George Takei that they really made an impact on me and were permanently etched into my brain.
• I've always wondered about Mr. Lowell, since we never see him in this book. Is he just as bad as Mrs Lowell? Worse??
• I can't believe that the kids know and like Fiddler on the Roof! I first heard of it by reading this book as a child, and to this day, I still haven't seen a production of it. The only songs I know off the top of my head are "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset". I still hear the kids singing "Tradition" the same way as I imagined it as a child!
• At one point, Claudia is sitting for Kristy's family, and among the activities the older crew are doing, it's mentioned that Sam was at a dress rehearsal for the drama club's latest play, which he helped to write. Uh, what?? What the fuck? Where's my story about this?? Why don't we know more about Sam??
• I feel like they've always depicted Charlie as the responsible, academic one, and Sam, while still doing well in school, as more of the goofball and extrovert. I know they mention that Sam is particularly good in math, to better pair him with Stacey, but other than that, I never pictured him as particularly academic. A solid A-/B+ kid. Good grades, but nothing spectacular. But now we find out that he writes and does drama club???

BSC Super Special #8: Baby-Sitters at Shadow Lake

Tagline: Campfires, ghost stories - summer vacations are the best!

Wish you were here!

Kristy's rich stepfather has invited all the Baby-sitters to his family's cabin on beautiful Shadow Lake.

What a way to start off the summer! At the lake there's water skiing, cute guys, plenty of kids to baby-sit for - and even a mystery.

The Baby-sitters don't know where to begin. The just hope the fun never ends!

Super Special Gimmick: Kristy wants to make sure that Watson decides to keep the cabin, so she keeps a diary (and of course, makes her friends join in) to show him how awesome the place is and all the great times they can have as a family.

Watson gets a letter from his aunt, saying that she and her husband are re-configuring their wills. Despite not having seen Watson in a bajillion years, they remember that he used to always have fun at their cabin on Shadow Lake every summer as a child, and want to know if he wants the cabin when they die. They invite Watson to come up to the cabin this summer with his family, so he can check out the property and make a better informed decision, and so they can have a chance to reconnect with him and meet his new extended family. Watson takes them up on their offer, and even extends the invitation to the friends of his kids. Sam and Charlie decide they're too old to invite friends over (they probably just didn't want to subject their friends to Kristy and all the little kids for 2 whole weeks!), and will instead "scope out the chicks at the lake" and make friends there, Andrew's and Emily Michelle's friends are all too young to be away from parents for 2 whole weeks, leaving Kristy to invite the whole Club, Karen to invite her two best friends, (Nancy Dawes and Hannie Papadakis) and David Michael to invite two of his friends (Linny Papadakis and Nicky Pike).

Kristy discovers a small motor boat under their dock and learns how to operate it. She gets really excited and decides to invite all her friends to come with her on an overnight trip to the tiny island on the other shore. Thanks to Dawn (more below), the girls are sufficiently freaked out, but ultimately decide to go. On the island, the girls girls make s'mores and tell stories and gossip and have a great time, however, in the middle of the night, they all get freaked out and try to convince Kristy to take them home. Kristy tells them how silly they're being, and they all stay until morning.

Dawn being obsessed with mysteries and ghost stories, of course decides that she must figure out the secret behind Shadow Lake's name. She soon finds out that not only is its name a mystery, but there's also a monster à la Loch Ness Monster. Dawn starts interviewing and questioning people at Shadow Lake, and she discovers that on the small island just off the shore, there used to be a family that lived there. They were very isolated, and never left the island, sending all their servants out instead. On the night when one of the townsfolk was going to marry the eldest daughter, the whole family disappeared without a trace! A year later, family home burned down! No one knows what really happened to them. On the island, the girls find the old burned down foundation of the house, where Dawn finds a locket with the daughter's initials in it. She takes the locket and returns it to the girl's fiancé. Dawn feels better, knowing that she helped put the girl's spirit at rest, but still wants to return to solve the mystery of Shadow Lake.

Claudia finds out about this boat show that's taking place on the shore. She then decides that she wants to submit Kristy's boat as an entry. After thinking about it all week, Claudia finally comes up with the idea of decorating the boat and turning it into the Lake Monster. Because she's working with limited time and resources, the results aren't great, but Claudia is fairly proud. The day of the boat show arrives though, and Claudia realizes that their little motor boat is up against all these yachts and houseboats and essentially REAL boats. She wants to back out, but goes through with it anyways. Of course, she wins a prize. They give out 1st place to 3rd place, and then Claudia wins a ribbon for "Most Spirit".


Jessi meets a cute African-American boy (because of course) and feels guilty because of her "relationship"with Quint Walker. She spends the first half of the book ogling him from a distance, before he finally notices her. Turns out his name is Daniel, and this is his family's first time up at the Lake. He sees her practicing ballet at the lodge's studio barre, and asks for lessons. It's here that Jessi discovers that as cute as he is, as nice as flirting with him is, they have nothing in common. Daniel loves sports and hates reading. While Jessi doesn't hate sports, she definitely doesn't have too much experience with them, and of course, she loves reading. However, she does enjoy the flirting and companionship, so she agrees to go with him to the dance at the end of their vacation. Jessi is then worried about how she's going to let Daniel down at the end of the two weeks, and is really awkward and nervous at the dance. Daniel surprises her, saying that he just wants to be friends and that he has a girlfriend back home! So Jessi feels better and immediately writes to Quint upon returning home.

Stacey spends the whole time being teased and pestered by Sam Thomas. He keeps complimenting her in an exaggerated British accent (calling her "dahhhhling!!") and poking at her perm. At first, she totally doesn't get it and is just annoyed with him, but eventually he tells her how he feels. Stacey's all confused, because while she did have a huge crush on him in grade 7, she hasn't really thought much about him lately, plus he's just been super annoying. Sam accepts that, and leaves her alone. At the big dance though, he asks her to dance, and she says yes. She realizes that she really does like him, and they end the vacation off together, holding hands and being really cute.

Sam gets a single chapter, where we see his side of things. He's all insecure about being 15 with no facial hair, looking up to Charlie and what not. He doesn't understand why Stacey is so annoyed with him, despite him paying so much attention to her. Charlie finally tells him to cut the crap and just TELL STACEY EXACTLY HOW HE FEELS. Which he does. Sam's disappointed to see that Stacey once liked him, but currently isn't on the same page. Of course, we see that eventually everything works out.

Mallory is devoured by mosquitoes and other bugs, and is just generally miserable the whole time. She starts covering up TO THE EXTREME, wearing all sorts of long-sleeved loose clothing, draping towels around her, big jungle hats, mosquito netting, and practically bathing in bug spray. It really annoys the other girls, while she's all hurt that they don't understand and that no one wants to hang around her like that. She doesn't have much of a plot other than just being miserable outside.

Mary Anne spends most of the time worrying and freaking people out about stuff (or just annoying them), much like she did in New York. She doesn't really get much of a plot in this book. She mostly baby-sits and just kinda hangs out in other people's plots.

Karen and her friends find a small shack behind their cabin and a garden. They decide they're going to clean it up themselves and make it their secret hiding place. The problem is, in keeping secret, they don't tell anyone where they're going (not even like, "Hey, we're gonna explore the woods behind the cabin!") so people keep panicking over losing them (well, mostly Mary Anne; everyone else is just annoyed but figures they couldn't have gone far). Mary Anne eventually finds them, and convinces them to just keep the place a secret from David Michael and his friends, but to tell all the adults about it. Eventually the boys do discover it, but the girls claim it as their own, and challenge the boys to make a fort that's better than theirs. Loser has to do all the chores. The girls obviously win, but decide to be nice and make the boys only shine their shoes for the big dance.

David Michael is frustrated because Nicky and Linny aren't getting along, and he doesn't understand why not. Obviously it's because they don't know each other and are competing for his affections, but he can't see that. Anyways, they eventually discover the girls' playhouse and decide to build their own fort. It goes disastrously, since the boys can't work together and agree on anything, plus they have zero architectural skills. What eventually brings them together is when Shannon (the dog, because yes, the family brought the dog AND the cat with them) disappears, and they all have to rally to find her. She's missing for all of like, 30 seconds, before they call out enough and find her again, but the experience bring Nicky and Linny together.

Random Thoughts:

• I am so super excited to read this one! I actually have never read it!! And I've managed to avoid reading most of the recaps and reviews of it over the years, so I really have no idea what it's about. All I know is that Sam and Stacey's romance really ramps up here. I'm excited to read this one because:
1. I'm obsessed with Sam and Stacey
2. My all-time favourite BSC book, Super Mystery #2 Baby-sitters Beware!, takes place here
3. I think a few others take place here? I seem to remember a lot about it, despite not having read this particular one?
• Yes! This one has the illustrations in it!! I guess starting from SS #7, they start having the illustrations that I always thought was super synonymous with the Super Specials. I always read #7, #10 and #11 the most, and have very strong memories of #9, so that's probably why I associate the illustrations so much with the books.
• I like how Watson's aunt and uncle apparently have not seen him in a long, long time, almost 20 years, and the last summer he spent at the cabin was at age 12, but they are like, "OMG LET'S GIVE WATSON THE CABIN."
• They haven't even met Karen and Andrew! Nor Elizabeth and the Thomas clan. Were they not invited to the wedding? Couldn't come? Didn't care??
• Damn. I do not remember any particular descriptions of the cabin. I knew it was huge, because they always take Watson's entire family, plus the Club, but apparently it can house 25 people?? And two of the rooms are dorm-style, with wall-to-wall bunk beds!
• Actually, now I'm just imagining the place having only 4 bedrooms: a master bedroom (2 people), a boys' dorm room (5 sets of bunk beds/10 boys), a girls' dorm room (5 sets of bunk beds/10 girls) and then two extra rooms that hold either 1 or 2 people. You could have a mini-camp there!
• Oooooh. Jessi included a floor plan. I was right! Only 4 bedrooms!
• Ooooooh. I think this is the first time they actually describe Mallory as having reddish hair!!
• This time around, it makes sense as to why they would give Karen and David Michael chapters: they're part of the family, and of course Kristy would want them to bolster her argument for keeping Shadow Lake. Charlie and Sam are too old to do a diary project (if they like the cabin, they're just going to beg and plead with Watson in person) and Andrew and Emily Michelle are too young. I may not like it when chapters are given to random people (especially Karen), but at least they didn't give chapters to like, Nicky or Nancy or something really random! haha
• Yep. AMM definitely hates Mallory haha
• There's some continuity, mentioning that Claudia sometimes tutors Emily Michelle! Yay!!
• I can't believe that Watson and Elizabeth would let Kristy take the boat out on her own. I love how their rule is that only people 12 and older can drive the boat, when there's no one there who is 12. Anyways, I'm not opposed to Kristy taking lessons to learn how to drive the boat. I'm just shocked that they'd immediately agree to let her take it out on her own and pretty much have free reign. You'd think it'd be like, "Sam and Charlie can have free reign, you can only drive if you stay by our dock for practicing purposes, or if you have someone older with you. Next time we come, we can see about you having free reign."
• Then again, considering the parents in these books, maybe I'm not that surprised haha
• Kristy spends an entire paragraph digressing about bikinis, saying that she'll never wear one, and that no one over thirty should wear one, but her mom looks pretty good all things considered, and how Kristy doesn't see the point in wearing a bikini when you don't have a chest to go with it, so at her rate, she probably won't wear one until she's 28 haha It's all very random and "out-of-character", except that AMM wrote this one, so it's perfectly in her character.
• Also: Kristy is convinced by the girls to get dressed up for dinner, so she borrows a dress from Mary Anne. I love AMM!Kristy.
• I can't believe that Watson and Elizabeth would allow Kristy and the girls to spend the night alone on the island. They don't know for sure it's uninhabited!! Or what if some other neighbour saw/heard them go over, and decided to go kill them??
• I think it's really sweet that at the end of the novel, when Watson is writing back to his aunt about keeping the cabin, he refers to Kristy as his daughter. I also really like that Kristy notices this and is thrilled. I wish we got to see more of Kristy and her relationship with Watson.
• I totally don't remember anything about Shadow Lake being haunted. Does this ever come up again? I know Dawn's not with them in SM #2. Do they return to Shadow Lake any other time??