BSC #57: Dawn Saves the Planet

 Tagline: She baby-sits, she recycles - she's Super Dawn!

Dawn thinks studying ecology is so cool. For a science project, she and Stacey are even teaching an ecology class to some of their baby-sitting charges. It's fun to get kids excited about cleaning up the earth.

But Dawn isn't through yet. She wants to start a recycling center at SMS. The Baby-sitters and most of the students are all for it, but Dawn needs a lot of help. And lately she's been so busy lecturing people about being environmentally responsible that no one can stand being around her!

Poor Dawn. She's trying to do a good thing - but she's driving everyone crazy!

So we're in Dawn's science class, and her teacher, Mrs Gonzalez, asks if the students think they can save the planet. Dawn, of course, thinks that yes, they can.Their teacher agrees, and assigns them to do an independent study project, where they tackle some sort of global/environmental issue, and try to figure out ways to solve it. Dawn can't wait. She's got all sorts of ideas, and can't get settled on one topic/issue. Stacey, who's in a different science class with Mrs Gonzalez, unfortunately can't think of any. Dawn isn't too worried, saying that they have plenty of time to think of something.

The next day though, Dawn gets some inspiration while sitting for the Barretts. She had checked out some books about ecology and marine life from the library, and starts telling them about how they can save dolphins and other sea creatures. Seeing their enthusiasm, Dawn decides that maybe she could start an after-school ecology club/class for their sitting charges, and use that for her project. Dawn, realizing how big this might be, recruits Stacey, and they get permission from Mrs. Gonzalez to do their project together.

Things get off to a great start. Dawn and Stacey get together and start organizing and planning their curriculum. It's decided that they'll do 6 weeks of classes, and call a number of clients to get them involved. They even agree on a final task, which will be a Green Fair, where their clients will present their own ideas for saving the planet. All in all, Dawn and Stacey are pretty stoked.

Their first class is a success. They do a general overview of recycling and how the Earth isn't as shiny and as clean as it may seem. They teach the children that if they don't take care of the Earth, the Earth might not be around for much longer. They then conclude with an experiment, where they bury an apple core, a piece of lettuce, some Styrofoam and plastic packaging in Stacey's backyard. The girls tell the kids that they'll dig it all up in a few weeks to see what's "good garbage" and what's "bad garbage". They then take the kids home and consider everything to be a success.

Dawn really gets into things, and does all sorts of extra reading. With her mind full of ideas and facts and figures, she ends up going to the next Club meeting with only one thing on her mind: recycling. Turns out that Stoneybrook only has one giant central recycling bin, and it's next to the courthouse. She wants to make the middle school another drop-off location. Everywhere Dawn looks, she sees how wasteful things are and how many more things can be recycled. The Club members laugh it off and mock her a bit for being so dramatic. Dawn gets frustrated, and doubles down on her efforts to raise awareness.

We're then treated to a chapter of Jessi and Mallory baby-sitting for the Pikes. Despite only Vanessa and Nicky being enrolled in Dawn and Stacey's class, the rest of household (including the triplets!) really take the words to heart, and start a "Green Patrol", trying to enforce all sorts of good and ecologically friendly habits. Unfortunately, Jessi and Mallory don't learn fast enough, and are forced to go to "Green School", where they have to recite the rules for saving the planet over and over. This definitely sours them on Dawn and all things ecological.

Meanwhile, Dawn has come up with a complete and comprehensive plan on how to turn SMS into a neighbourhood recycling hub, that will then bring things down to the courthouse for everyone. She runs it by Mrs. Gonzalez, who is 100% supportive of Dawn. Dawn then has to run it by Mr. Kingbridge, the vice-principal. He's definitely interested in what Dawn has to say, and is very impressed by all her planning and foresight, but he's not ready to run with something until she has more support. He gives her a week and a half to get the support of the student body, before he'll agree to move forward with her project.

Dawn gets Mary Anne to help her make a sign and recruit students the next day. Things seem like they're going well. Dawn starts by talking to Erica Blumberg, who's a good student and heavily involved in extra-curriculars. Erica is open to the idea... until Dawn shouts at her for not recyling her soda can. The problem is, there's no place to recycle it! Dawn soon starts lecturing everyone over everything, and as MA points out, alienates people and turns them off from her cause. MA finally gets fed up, and leaves Dawn, citing homework to do. Dawn's all confused though. She doesn't understand how being passionate about something that's so important is a bad thing.

Dawn starts getting progressively more and more bossy. At one of the later eco-classes, Claudia attends with Charlotte, and Claudia sees first-hand how over-the-top Dawn is. Dawn barely lets Stacey get a word in, and kills the children's enthusiasm by chastising them for not spreading the word about recycling. Stacey and Dawn had originally planned on getting the kids to make the flyers, but since she's there, Dawn asks if Claudia can do it, citing that it's more important for the posters to look good. Later on, Stacey calls Claudia to complain. Claudia doesn't think it can be that bad; afterall, Dawn is passionate about such a good cause! However Stacey tells Claudia that if it weren't for the kids, she'd have quit the project a long time ago and have done something on her own. She worries that this project is killing her friendship with Dawn.

Meanwhile, Dawn continues her efforts to get the SMS recyling program going. She spends her week and a half grilling the entire student body, and finally it comes down to them filling out an anonymous survey about their interest. Not only will the survey greenlight the project, but it also asks them to name a person to run it all, with Dawn and Mrs Gonzalez listed (and then an "other" open for suggestions). At the end of the day, all the votes are tallied, and it turns out that yes, the students are definitely interested in recycling! However, to Dawn's dismay, they also voted Mrs Gonzalez, not her, to be head of it all. At first Dawn rationalizes that it's because they'd rather have an adult in charge, but eventually she overhears some of the students talking about how obnoxious she's been lately and how they can't stand her. This really hurts Dawn's feelings, and she breaks down in the bathroom and cries.

Dawn then completely retreats from the SMS recycling program. The day for the grand opening comes, and she hasn't helped at all, nor was she interviewed for the paper or given much credit. All in all, Dawn feels pretty crummy about everything. However, she doesn't fully learn her lesson, as she still bosses Stacey around about their ecology class and is completely overbearing with the Club, trying to get them involved in the Green Fair. Finally, the girls have had enough, and tell Dawn exactly what's going on. Dawn gets sad again, but the girls point out that she had good intentions and that they love that she's passionate: she just needs to tone it down a bit and stop making everyone feel like a criminal. Dawn agrees, and they all make up.

The final event of the story is the Green Fair. After a few hiccups (which really, when you involve that many kids, something's bound to go wrong; overall nothing disastrous), things start really picking up. All the parents are impressed by how enthusiastic the kids are, and how much they've learned. Mrs Gonzalez shows up to support Dawn and Stacey. The kids raise a lot of money and a lot of awareness. Dawn and Stacey decide to donate all the money raised to the new SMS recycling program.

Lastly, Dawn and Stacey turn in their final reports for their projects. To show their own individual work, they each wrote separate personal essays for their own reports, detailing what they learned from the project. Stacey writes about becoming more aware, and wanting to continue studying ecology in the future. Dawn writes about how while recycling is important, she learned even more about herself and how to deal with her passions and others. Mrs. Gonzalez is impressed, and tells Dawn that she knows that Dawn is disappointed by how the SMS recycling program all went down. She offers to let Dawn be co-leader, provided that the students agree with a vote. Dawn doesn't think they will, but Mrs Gonzalez says that Dawn's learned a lot over the past two months, and that she has no doubt that Dawn will be a better leader for it. Dawn walks away from the whole experience with an A, and a new outlook on life.


Random Thoughts:

• I have never read this one before! But I know that it generally involves Dawn starting with a good idea/intentions, but making a giant nuisance of herself haha
• Dawn looks sooooo snooty on the cover! Her nose is literally in the air!
• Huh. On the re-print editions (the ones with their faces going down the left-hand side of the book, the way all the later ones were published by default), they kept everything the same, EXCEPT Dawn. They put in a completely different Dawn. She's in front of the exact same kids, pointing to the exact same chart (looks like they kept her hands!) but they changed her. Now she's looking at the kids, and she's smiling, and she's in an outfit that I more associate with Dawn (still jeans, but now a sleeveless button-up tank in blue).
• Also: I never read the book synopsis on the back before I start reading these. I'm very glad I didn't this time! It really gives everything away!
• This one has TWO ghost writers!
• I love how even in the early '90s, climate change and how much we're fucking up the Earth was already a thing. It's been nearly 3 decades later, and we're still having these discussions and debates and assigning these projects to our kids. WHY HAVEN'T WE LEARNED FROM DAWN AND THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB???
• They write Dawn to be sooooooooooo smug even right from the get-go. I'm already not looking forward to reading this one.
• Whoa. Dawn describes Kristy as having chin-length hair in this one. Most of the books just mention the hair colour and that it's always in a ponytail. I was always under the impression that it was at least shoulder-length. Chin length seems super short!
• Dawn also describes Stacey as very thin, citing her diabetes as the reason for her thinness. Now, I'm not an expert, and I realize that there have been great medical advances in the past 20 years... but every teen I know who has diabetes (and who is treating it properly with diet and injections and/or whatever else their doctor prescribes) is pretty average. Some of them are heavier than others, some are thin, but they're generally no different than the other kids, other than that they seem unusually pale at times or tired. No one is ever "Omg you're sooooo skinny! Diabetes man!"
• Definitely a sign of the times: I'm not surprised that Stoneybrook only has one recycling facility, but I am surprised that people need to bring their recyclables there themselves. I was part of an ecology club in my elementary school when I was in grade 1, and I think that's when there was a big push for public recycling, which was 1995. I don't think I'd recycle, nor my parents would, if our recycling wasn't just automatically picked up by the city with the garbage. I'm all for sorting my own shit and separating the garbage from the green bin from the black bin from the blue bin. But if I had to drive to dispose of all of it? Yeahhhhh... that wouldn't be happening. 
• I feel a bit bad for Dawn, in that she's really passionate about this thing, and no one seems to care. Furthermore, it's not like she's being passionate over a boy band or a fad: taking care of the planet is important! For everyone! But at the same time, she goes about it the wrong way. However, she's 13, so this is fairly realistic.
• I can't believe the Pikes regularly and normally use paper cups and plates! Wtf!
• I have to admit, I'm really impressed with Dawn's plan. I don't think I could come up with something like that to implement in my school NOW, and I'm a TEACHER.
• Whoa. They just mentioned Amelia Freeman! I haven't read the book yet, but I know she's the student who dies in #93 from being hit by a drunk driver. I didn't realize she pops up this early! Damn!
• I just checked, and it's the same two ghostwriters. I wonder if they based Amelia on someone they knew? Or if they just thought, "Hey, for continuity, we should try to mention these 5 random students in the background at least once in our books!" and then when it came time to kill someone, they were like, "Ooooh! It can be one of the characters we mentioned, so it's not a complete rand-o!"?
• I think it's realistic, but completely crazy, that Dawn would think that the students would vote for her to be in charge of the SMS recyling initiative, instead of Mrs Gonzalez. 1) Mrs Gonzalez is a teacher, and therefore more likely to be able to keep up with doing stuff and the responsibilities and have some pull and sway with admin, and 2) Mrs Gonzalez hasn't been shouting at and lecturing students day and night about it!
• Wtf would Dawn and Stacey have to do to get an A+??? They taught a class, spread awareness, organized an educational fair with little kids, raised money, and then donated it to a good cause! That is going above and beyond. Furthermore, Mrs Gonzalez should have taken into account Dawn's extra planning and side project of the SMS recycling program, and at the very least boosted her mark to an A+ because of that. Like, omg!

BSC Mystery #5: Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic

Tagline: She can't turn back now.

Mary Anne's mother died when Mary Anne was just a baby. And since it makes Mr. Spier too sad to talk about her, Mary Anne hardly knows a thing about her mother. Mary Anne respects her father's feelings. But lately, she wants to know more. She has to find out about her mother.

So Mary Anne does something she knows is wrong. She goes up into the creepy, ghostly attic in her and Dawn's house to look for evidence.

And there Mary Anne finds something she wishes she never had...

The book starts off with Mary Anne waking up from an incredibly vivid dream. In it, there's a very very young girl, holding a kitten, crying out for her mother, while two older people stand nearby. Mary Anne kinda flip-flops on whether or not she thinks the girl is her, but she definitely doesn't recognize the old people nor her surroundings. She says she's been having the dream a couple of times now recently, and goes to tell Dawn while they get ready for school.

Mary Anne spends all day dwelling on her dream, and is even distracted through the Club meeting that evening. Mallory introduces the impetus for the main plot: Heritage Day. The elementary school is making a big deal of it, encouraging all the students (and thus, many of the clients of the Club) to create some sort of research project on their families, Stoneybrook, or how their families arrived in Stoneybrook. There will be a big celebration, where the students are going to present their findings and other community groups will have booths and everyone will celebrate! However, Mary Anne just cannot stop thinking about her dream...

Later, Mary Anne is baby-sitting for Charlotte, who is working on her family history for Heritage Day. Charlotte has all sorts of great things from her great-grandma, including old letters, photographs and a diary. It makes Mary Anne slightly envious, since as far as she knows, her family doesn't have any keepsakes like that. However, Charlotte's enthusiasm is warming, and Mary Anne listens as Charlotte prattles on about all the things she's learned. When Charlotte mentions her mother taking her to the Heritage Day picnic, Mary Anne again remembers how she's never done anything with her mother, and it makes her sad. Mary Anne realizes how little she knows about her mother and family history. She decides to go looking around her attic to see if maybe they do have pictures of her and her mother as a child. There, she discovers an old album. At first, there are pictures that she recognizes: wedding pictures of her mom and dad, pictures of her as a baby. But then she sees a series of photographs she doesn't know: her and an older couple, her on a farm. MA realizes that they're awfully similar to the ones from her dream, and that given how many wardrobe changes she has, she must have stayed with the couple for quite some time. Richard comes home, and instead of confronting him, MA hides in her room, confused as ever.

MA later decides to check out the Stoneybrook Cemetery, inspired by Stacey's baby-sitting adventures (more on that later), hoping to find her mother's gravestone and some of her mother's ancestor's. It takes her a week to work up the courage, but she finally goes. As MA wanders down the endless aisles, she sees many graves, but not her mother's. Frustrated, MA is about to give up when she finds Mimi's grave.

Overwrought with emotion, MA decides to go home and try searching the attic again. Upon searching, she finds a bundle of letters sent to her father from a Bill and Verna. Reading a bunch of them, MA discovers that they're her maternal grandparents. She had apparently stayed with them on their farm as a baby. MA is angered to realize that Richard had never mentioned them or this time to her, that these people who were so very important to her life were now complete strangers to her. Just before leaving the attic, she reads one last letter, in which her grandparents thank Richard for giving MA up to them. MA leaves the attic in a state of shock, thinking that her father never wanted her, and that her childhood was a lie.

That evening, MA is all full of emotion and turmoil. She can't figure out what to say to her family, so she suffers in silence. After waking up at 2am from her dream/childhood memory, she finally decides to go to the attic and read some more. There, she discovers that Richard did eventually want her back, but that her grandparents were reluctant to give her up. This gets MA thinking that maybe her grandparents did and still have some legal control over her. She gets worried about what might happen to her in the future. She's also upset, because if she was gone for so long (her dad missed her first birthday!), then the people she grew up with must have known. Feeling betrayed, MA ends up spending the night in the attic.

MA spends the whole day stewing and dodging questions from her friends. Just as she decides to finally open up to Logan about everything, her father gets a phone call. Coincidentally, it's Verna Baker, MA's grandmother, calling to tell Richard that Bill has died. MA continues to eavesdrop on the phone conversation, where she hears that Verna wants MA to go stay with her in Iowa. MA, upset, gets off the phone, and finally confesses to Dawn what's been going on. Dawn is shocked, but is adamant that no one will be sending MA anywhere.

Dawn eventually suggests that MA ask her father what's going on, but MA stubbornly refuses to talk to him about it. Eventually Dawn convinces MA to talk to someone, which leads to her asking Claudia and Kristy if they'd ever heard of anything, but they hadn't, so MA is back to square one.

MA continues to be paranoid and miserable. When the Club comes over to work on their own Heritage Day project (more on that later), things get out of control and lead to a paint fight and Logan takes his shirt off, and the girls decide to bake cookies, and it's just pandemonium. Of course, at that moment, MA gets a visitor. This lady with a clipboard asks if she's at the right residence (she is) and wants to ask some questions. MA assumes she's a social worker, checking in on her and her father. MA panics and breaks down, telling the whole Club what's going on. They all urge her to talk to her father.

Finally MA gets the courage to speak to her father. She explains what she's overheard and the conclusions that she's come to. At first, Richard is angry that she'd been snooping and eavesdropping, but when he realizes just how worked up she's gotten, he quickly forgives her and explains everything: when her mother died, Richard was just completely distraught and in no shape to take care of a newborn daughter. So he sent MA to live with her grandparents. They really enjoyed having her, but ultimately Richard wanted MA back and was ready to be a father. There were some words exchanged, but eventually Richard got MA back, and it was decided that it'd be best for everyone involved if the Bakers never saw MA again. However, now that Bill is dead, Verna regrets that they never reconnected with MA and wants MA back for a visit. MA isn't too sure how she feels about it, but agrees to consider it.

Eventually the actual Heritage Day happens, and MA and Richard talk again. Richard gives MA a letter that her mother that was intended for her 16th birthday. MA reads it and gets all choked up, and desires to be closer to her mom. She decides that she will visit her grandmother after all.

The last chapter is a series of letters written back and forth while MA is visiting her grandma. Everything is going well, and MA learns that she's essentially exactly like her mother. She also baby-sits for the neighbour's kids and goes out on a date with the grandson of her grandmother's friend, a boy named Bob. Bob apparently is super boring, so Logan doesn't have anything to worry about! Anyways, MA has a great time, and Richard eventually reaches out and apologizes for everything all these years. He invites Verna to join them at Christmas, and it looks like everything has worked out in the end!

The whole subplot in this one is just the Heritage Day fair. In addition to seeing Charlotte prepare for it, we're treated to all the Pikes preparing for it too. Stacey takes the Pike triplets to the library so they can do some research for their newspaper project. There, they find out that Old Hickory was actually a man called James Hickman, who is haunting his grave because his nephew commissioned it against his wishes. This spurs the triplets to go visit the grave with Stacey. Dawn ends up taking the Rodowskys to town hall so that Shea can look up things for his own project (because it's Jackie, it ends up a total disaster).

Eventually, it comes up that the Heritage Day fair is to help raise money for the Historical Society, and the Club decides that they want to help. After throwing some ideas around, they decide to do a photo booth with "famous" historical cut-outs that people can pose with. MA ends up escorting Charlotte to the fair, because an emergency has come up with Dr Johanssen, and Mr Johanssen was never able to take Charlotte. Both Charlotte and MA are a bit sad at not being able to do a mother-daughter thing, but in the end they have a good time.

At this point, I realized that the Heritage Day fair at the elementary school that the kids are all preparing for, and the actual Heritage Day thing that the Club was preparing for was separate things! Oops! Anyways, their booth is a hit, and everything goes well. So well in fact that the Club ended up making the most money of all the booths! (Of course haha)




Random Thoughts:

• I have always loved the way Mary Anne looked on this cover. This is my favourite Mary Anne cover. When I picture Mary Anne, this is how she looks to me. The only other cover I can think of off the top of my head that looks like the same model is Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies
• Mallory is once again mentioned as having red hair. She's officially a ginger! 
• When Mary Anne reflects on how little she knows about her family, she thinks about her own personal history, and references many things from the series: a ticket stub from the Remember September dance, a sand dollar from a trip to the shore, Mickey Mouse ears from Disneyland, and photos from New York.
• I love how one of the reasons why Mary Anne decides not to ask her father about things is because she doesn't want to jeopardize his happiness by bringing up the past. That's such a 13 year old thing to think!
• I find it weird/convenient that both Richard and Alma were both only children, giving MA very very little family in the world.
• Good ol' Old Hickory!
• Again, I'm reminded of how awesome Mimi was and how much I miss her!
• I can't believe Mallory's historical foods bake sale idea got shut down! I mean, I can, because it's Mallory, but yeah! That would definitely be the thing I'd want to do. Jessi says it'd be too much research, and I know they didn't have the internet back then (or at least, not a big enough and common enough internet), but I don't think it would be THAT much work. I doubt anyone would check if their recipes were 100% accurate haha
• I fucking hate Jackie Rodowsky. I know he's supposed to be cute and endearing but my god. You cannot take that kid anywhere.
• I love the idea of Kristy cat-calling Logan when he takes his shirt off. This is a Kristy I can get behind!
• We see the Crane girls with their Aunt Bud at the fair!
• This book feels like it should end after chapter 12, when MA finally talks to her dad about everything. But then we have a chapter with Kristy and Shannon where they talk about big blended families and knowing your roots, a chapter with the Club at the Heritage Day thing and MA receiving a letter from her mother, and then a chapter where everyone is writing letters back and forth while MA travels, visits, and then comes back from the farm.
• I still find it weird that Richard never mentioned this and that Verna never tried to write to MA or call, and that she just had zero idea that she still had grandparents who were alive. Had she never had to do a family tree assignment before?? Did Richard just lie and say everyone was dead??
• When I read MA's mother's letter, it read as super sappy and unrealistic. Then I was reminded of the letter that Meredith wrote Peter Quill in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film. Then I was reminded of how weird and melodramatic and strange in my diction I can be in my own journal, and I'm not even dying, so yeah haha
• It's also super weird that apparently Richard never took MA to visit her mother's grave before!
• When does this book take place?? It sounds like it's Spring, but it also seems like MA goes on her trip to her grandmother's right away. I guess it could be for spring break, but she's gone long enough to write several letters back and forth to Dawn, leading me to believe that she's gone for almost a month instead of only 2 weeks. So I'm guessing the Heritage Day thing was late late May or early June, and then the epilogue chapter with MA's visit took place in July