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??

BSC #55: Jessi's Gold Medal

Tagline: Go for it, Jessi!

Jessi is honored - and surprised - when she's asked to participate in a synchronized swimming competition. Sure Jessi knows ballet. But waterballet is a different story. All that swimming is hard work!

Jessi and her partner practice their routines over and over again. Everyone - especially the Baby-sitters - is expecting them to win the gold. But Jessi's not so sure...

Can she do it?

Although it's only spring, it's super hot already, and Jessi can't wait to get out of ballet class. She loves ballet, but it's just too hot, and Jessi gets the brilliant idea of suggesting to her parents to get a swimming pool for the summer. Her parents are receptive to the idea, and have confessed to having discussed it, but alas they don't have enough money for it. However, they do point out that the community centre nearby doesn't have just one, but rather three pools, and suggests that maybe the family can get a membership. Jessi realizes that she'll be able to take lessons and is all pumped up for a summer of swimming.

Also happening are the Summer Olympics, and so sports fever is in the air. At SMS, they're celebrating by having a Sports Festival. Claudia's creating a logo for it, and considers entering in an event. Stacey decides she's going to swim, while Dawn wants to do something really different like shot put or pole vaulting. Kristy's signed up for several track events. With swimming on her mind, Jessi considers signing up for a swimming event as well. Everyone's pretty excited, except for Mary Anne and Mallory, both of whom hate gym. Kristy deflects the conversation, by announcing that Alan Gray has challenged her to a race, getting the girls all excited about what Kristy will make him do when she beats him.

Coincidentally, the grade 6 gym class has just switched over the swimming for their next unit. Mallory is incredibly pessimistic about the whole thing, citing that the only good thing will be that there will be less time for actual gym class, as they have to walk to community centre. Jessi points out that since Mallory already knows how to swim, she might get put in an advanced class, but Mallory doesn't want to have anything to do with it - or the Sports Festival.

Unfortunately for Mallory, gym class gets worse: they're forced to share pool time with the boys' class, and Mallory has a very very old and childish bathing suit. She tries to hide behind Jessi, but that just calls more attention to her. Eventually, they get in the pool and do a basic swim test to check their levels and abilities. Mallory does pretty well on the swim test, but we never get to hear about her and swimming again, because Jessi does even better: in fact, Jessi's been tapped to join the school's synchronized swim team, which means switching her gym class with her lunch so that she can practice with them!

Jessi excitedly goes to her first practice, where she meets the rest of the team. The team is all excited because up until this point, they've been an odd number, which has made routines difficult. One girl, Elise, has just been partnering with everyone, so she'll now be Jessi's permanent partner. Ms Cox, the synchro coach, has Elise work with Jessi to get her up to snuff. Elise explains that she swims competitively, so she's all strength, but no style, while Jessi, with her ballet training, is all style and no strength. They hope that this will mean that they will be able to complement each other and raise each other up. Jessi has fun, but is also incredibly exhausted by the end of her first hour.

The fun doesn't end there though: Ms Cox explains that the whole team will do a routine for the Sports Festival, and then that each pair will be competing against each other. Each pair will have to choreograph and perform a routine for ranking. Jessi starts to feel over her head, but Elise is convinced that Jessi will be great in no time!

Jessi continues to go to practice, and with each practice, she feels worse and worse. She's exhausted and her and Elise can't seem to get the choreography right for their routine. They both excel in their other athletic pursuits, and are just discouraged by their lack of synchro ability. Jessi really enjoys spending time with Elise, so together they resolve to practice and never give up, encouraging each other to do their best.

Making things worse is all the pressure Jessi feels she has. She puts a lot of pressure on herself, since she never had problems like this with ballet. But she also feels pressure from all the encouragement and support her friends and family give her. They're all convinced that she must be great, and Jessi doesn't want to let them down. Jessi decides to keep her troubles to herself.

Meanwhile, the rest of the girls are very excited about the Sports Festival. Dawn has decided to do the javelin throw, and Kristy is competing against Alan in an obstacle course. It's the talk of the school! It's an event especially for the two of them with the loser owing the winner a week of personal service. Mary Anne still doesn't want to do an event, but clearly wants to be involved somehow. Mallory on the other hand...

While helping their sitting charges practice for the Club's Mini-Olympics (more on that later), Mallory sprains her ankle. It's super suspicious, and even Claudia (who was baby-sitting with her at the time) doesn't quite understand it. Mallory ends up on crutches with her ankle wrapped, told to keep off her feet for several days, until the pain goes away. Coincidentally, this ends up overlapping with the Sports Festival, giving her an excuse to back out. Mallory later confesses that she was just going to pretend that she hurt herself, but in all her gusto, she actually ended up hurting herself, and then carried on with the crutches a little longer than necessary.

It's finally the day of the Sports Festival, and Jessi is super nervous. So nervous in fact, that she doesn't want to get out of bed, which is very unusual for her. Her mother, all concerned, asks what's wrong, and Jessi confesses that she's not good at synchronized swimming, not like she is at ballet, and she worries that watching won't be enjoyable for her family and that she'll let them down. Jessi cries and talks it out with her mom, and eventually leaves for the festival feeling better.

The swimming events are last (since they'll involve everyone having to move to the community centre), so Jessi spends the whole day watching the other events. Kristy comes in second in the hundred-yard dash (and first out of the girls). Claudia participates in a backwards race. Dawn does the javelin throw and doesn't win, but does throw a really nice throw. Jessi runs into Mary Anne running the concessions stand: MA says that she realized that while she didn't want to participate in an event, she did still want to participate, and realized that there were plenty of non-event roles to fill.
The last event before the swimming is the big obstacle course. It's almost an entire chapter to itself, with Kristy and Alan taking turns in the lead. The end result is Kristy, just by a hair.

Finally it's the swimming events. We don't get to hear how Stacey does, because Jessi is too nervous and focused on the two synchro events. The first one is the group event, which Jessi says goes well, with the audience ooohing and ahhing at the appropriate intervals. Jessi and Elise are second to go in the pairs competition. It all goes in a blur, and when it's over, Jessi just sorta feels numb. She can't wait to get home and forget all about it. But first, there's the awards. To no one's surprise, except maybe her own, Jessi and Elise get the gold medal! Elise and Jessi celebrate, but ultimately decide that synchro is not for them: it felt too much like work, and not enough like fun, and it was starting to detract from their preferred activities. Instead, they just go get ice cream and decide to remain friends.

The subplot in this one is super closely related to the main plot. The charges are all super-excited about the Summer Olympics and the SMS Sports Festival, so Jessi gets the great idea to have the Club put on their own Mini-Olympics. Everyone thinks it's a great idea and soon get on board with planning all sorts of events. They have a few traditional events, such as races and obstacle courses, but they also do all sorts of silly events so that they can get the less athletically-inclined charges participating, such as three-legged races and silly face races (whatever the fuck that is? they never explain it haha).

But of course, like with every contest/competition, they run into problems. Some of the kids get super competitive, but the main issues are two charges in particular: Andrew Brewer and Charlotte Johanson.

Andrew really wants to participate and win. But he's only 4 years old. So a lot of the other competitors and the events are too old for him. He gets really frustrated at the practices and is really sad. However, on the day of the event, Andrew shows up more determined than ever. He enters every single event. The last event, a cross-country running type event (they have to do two laps around the entire Schafer/Spier property), things start out promising for Andrew. He quickly gets into the lead and stays there for most of the race. However, he doesn't pace himself properly, and sure enough, by the last lap, he's in last place. He runs into his father's arms, devastated. However, the girls have made sure that there are ribbons for everyone, and Andrew wins "Most Determined". This makes him feel better.

Charlotte's issue is that like MA and Mallory, she's not athletic and is also really shy. She doesn't want to participate at all. Stacey tries to talk her into it, but Charlotte sets her straight. However, Charlotte still wants to be a part of the festivities somehow, so she comes up with the idea to create signs for the event. Charlotte proves that she doesn't have to be athletic to participate and have fun.

Random Thoughts:

• I have actually never read this one at all! I'm kinda super excited to read it now!
• This one takes leading up to the Summer Olympics 1992. It's actually really confusing, because they reference a real event, and apparently the Olympics are definitely happening during the course of the novel, as Becca repeatedly watches events and gets excited, but the novel definitely takes place during the school year. In fact, it takes place in the spring. The Summer Olympics didn't take place until July that year!
• I think it's kinda weak that Jessi and Elise get first place. I think it would have been more poignant if they had come in second: they weren't nearly as bad as they thought they were, but they also weren't suddenly super amazing out of nowhere. It's very cliche to have them win the gold.
• I like that Jessi is more assertive in this one. It almost makes me hate that she gets lumped with Mallory so much. Jessi has a great idea and brings it to the Club. She also hears about this opportunity to do a new sport and dives right in (lolz pun). She doesn't let anything stop her or hold her back, despite her own insecurities and the new territory she's treading.
• A lot of Andrew Brewer's problems could have been alleviated by having age categories for the events. I mean, he comes in last place in a race that was mostly other little kids, so obviously it's not a guarantee that he would have won. But they could have avoided a lot of the drama by not having him initially go up against much larger kids. At least that would have saved him from prolonged stress.
• Mallory is super pathetic in this one. I feel bad for hating on Mallory, but after reading the last one, and now this one, it's really hard to sympathise with her. I mean, I suppose I'm supposed to sympathise with her and identify with her as an insecure preteen who is a klutz, as opposed to all the other girls who are written as extremely excellent in everything they do, but she's just so whiny! She should have just been like, "I don't want to participate, and that's fine!" I mean, Mary Anne doesn't participate in the Sports Festival as an athlete, but she still gets involved and has a great time!
• Although, I totes sympathize with Mallory and bathing suit dramas. I never had a really juvenile suit like hers (with the ruffles and what not), but buying a bathing suit is pretty much the worse thing ever. And then having to be around the boys? Yep, that is definitely the worst. I still hate bathing suit shopping, but I do now own a bathing suit that I don't mind wearing.
• I'm guessing we never hear from Elise again? It makes me sad that there aren't more Jessi books. I feel like Jessi without the Club would be super cool.
• I love when the non-athletic members of the Club get in on athletic fun. Like how Stacey gets Kristy to give her some pointers on how to swim and Dawn decides to just do something completely random, figuring no one will know wtf it is, and thus she can't embarrass herself in front of her peers
• This is actually one of the few concrete examples of Dawn "being an individual" as the books tout so much.
• I like how Jessi invited Elise to help out with the Mini-Olympics. You never heard of rand-os helping out with Club events, unless they're very special guests, like Abby's twin Anna, and even then, it's only because the Club is in a pinch, or because the guest is dying or has some sort of serious problem/ailment haha

BSC Super Special #7: Snowbound

Tagline: All the Baby-sitters wanted was a little snow - not a national disaster!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

The weather forecasters keep promising snow, but what a joke that is. Not a single flake has fallen on Stoneybrook this winter. How can SMS hold a Winter Wonderland Dance when it's warm enough to go to the beach?

Finally, it does snow - like crazy - and no one's prepared. Jessi gets stranded overnight at her dance school. Mallory and Mary Anne are snowed in with the Pike kids. But Stacey's in real trouble. She and her mom were driving back from the mall when the blizzard hit. And none of the Baby-sittesr have heard from her yet.

First they couldn't wait for it to snow. Now they can't for it to stop. Where could Stacey be?

Super Special Gimmick: Kristy thinks that while the newspaper coverage of the snow storm is very informative, it is also super dry, so she gets her friends to write up about their adventures to send to the newspaper as a people interest story.

The book starts off with everyone super excited about the Winter Wonderland dance. Everyone has a date and the girls are all looking forward to dressing up and having a good time together. For days and days, the weather forecasters have been talking about a massive snowfall, but there hasn't even been a single flake. It becomes a huge joke to everyone. At their Monday meeting that week, they reflect that since they're all going to be busy and scattered on Wednesday evening (Mallory and Mary Anne sitting for the Pikes, Jessi at an extra-long dance rehearsal and picking up her date Quint, Dawn getting Jeff at the airport), they should just cancel their meeting that day. Of course, Wednesday is the day of the giant snowstorm, and the power goes out and the phone lines go down, and everyone is all separated, with no way of getting in touch with each other.

Kristy has the most mundane story, but it's pretty cute. She's sitting at home Wednesday afternoon, and she's pretty bored. She’s thinking about the winter dance and how excited she is to be bringing Bart. She then decides that now would be a good time to hang out with him. They've never really hung out on the week day before, so Bart's a little confused, but agrees. Kristy rents movies, and her mom invites Bart to stay over for dinner. This is pretty intense, and it makes Kristy all nervous. She likes Bart, but doesn't really know what to think. Is he her boyfriend? Is she ready? Is he ready? Can he handle her family? The kids spend most of the evening pestering them and totally embarrassing Kristy. Dinner isn't much better. It starts snowing at dinner time, and although Watson agreed to drive Bart home, he wants to wait until it stops snowing so hard. So Bart stays for dessert. After awhile, Bart says he really has to get going, and that he doesn't mind walking (he literally lives just down the street). However, when they try to open up the storm door (or screen door, as my folks always called it), they discover that they're snowed in! The snowfall has been super heavy, plus it has blown up against the house. So Bart spends the night. Kristy is super embarrassed and nervous about Bart seeing her in the morning, so she sets her alarm extra early and actually goes into the bathroom and tries to primp. She shaves her legs for the first time, puts on some make-up and even tries to curl her hair! Aside from her hair, Kristy is pretty happy with the results. Of course, her siblings all make fun of her for it, but Bart says she looks beautiful.

Claudia has the next most mundane story. She spends the afternoon taking calls for the Club, then runs across the street to sit for the Perkins. Just before all the power and phones go out, the Perkins call to say that they can't drive back home, so Claudia will have to stay the night with the girls. As Claudia's putting the girls to sleep, she realizes that she can't find Chewy, the dog, and starts to panic. Claudia's mother comes across the street, and helps Claudia look for a bit, before deciding that nothing more can be done in the weather and in the dark. Mrs Kishi then offers to spend the night on the couch, but Claudia insists that she can look after the girls herself, and that if anything were to happen, Mrs Kishi is just across the street anyways. Claudia soon goes to bed, but is woken by Gabbie, who hears something. They go and investigate, and find that Chewy's been locked in the corner of the basement this whole time! Everything is fine, and the next morning they have breakfast and build a snow family.

Dawn and her mom are headed to the airport to pick up Jeff. For some reason, even though he's flown a bajillion times before, Jeff's been nervous about this time. Dawn wants to make sure they get to the airport with plenty of time to greet him. However, the snow has already started to fall when they leave, and Sharon isn't the most confident snow driver. She goes slowly, and despite having left early, they only get to the airport just in time. Of course, that doesn't matter because with the snowstorm, Jeff's plane hasn't arrived yet. Dawn is worried about how Jeff is handling things, but Sharon figures everything will be alright. They spend the evening hanging out in the airport, waiting to hear about Jeff's plane. Finally, word gets to them that the snow is so bad, Jeff's plane has been rerouted to Washington DC for the evening. Just as they're about to call Jeff to see how he's doing, the power and phone lines go out. They're advised not to leave the airport to go driving, so Dawn and her mom are stuck there overnight. They mostly walk around, buy a couple of books to read, try to get some sleep. Dawn has a creepy encounter with a wandering toddler ending up in her face, but that's about it. The morning comes, and though feeling grody, Dawn and her mom are extremely happy to see Jeff again.

Jessi is at a super long dance rehearsal. They're putting on a production of The Nutcracker. Anyways, no one can concentrate cuz the kids all want snow, and Jessi wants Quint and the dance. About an hour before rehearsal is due to end, some parents start calling in, saying that they'll be late picking up the kids. As time goes on, Jessi realizes that there's no one waiting around to pick them up (usually the parents of the younger kids will watch the last 15-30 minutes of rehearsal). Finally, sensing that she's lost their attention, Mme Noelle calls an end to rehearsal. Once everyone finishes changing, Mme Noelle and the other teachers have bad news: the snowstorm is too bad, and the parents can't come to pick them up. Everyone is stuck overnight at the dance school. Luckily the dance school has a cafeteria that had recently been stocked with dried fruit and nuts and instant soup, so they're not going to starve. In fact, it's pretty much like a giant sleepover adventure. Except all the little kids are upset, and in typical Jessi-fashion, she decides to help the adults comfort the children and keep them busy. At some point, Quint shows up! He had arrived at the train station just before the snow got really bad, and after awhile, he realized that Jessi and her father weren't going to be able to drive and pick him up. So he asked for directions and walked to the dance school! He also helps get the little kids settled. Eventually Jessi and Quint are able to retreat to the classroom where the older students are, and they sit around and gossip and have a grand ol' time. The next morning, the storm is over, the roads are plowed, and while waiting for their parents to pick them up, they're treated to a feast from the coffee shop across the street.

Stacey decides that with the Club meeting cancelled, now would be a perfect opportunity to go get her hair permed, so that it's perfect for the dance. She and her mom leave well before the storm hits (not even a flake in sight!) and get to the mall. However, while there, the storm hits. Stacey's mom hates driving in snow, but thinks that if they hurry, they can somehow beat it and get home before it gets too too bad. Mrs McGill decides to bypass the highway, figuring it'll be congested from everyone attempting to get home. Instead, she takes the back roads. This doesn't work well, as they aren't plowed and have very little traffic to push away the snow as it falls. Eventually, she decides to pull over and try to wait things out a bit. This normally wouldn't be too bad, except that Stacey has diabetes and needs to eat soon. She has her injection kit with her, but very little food. Mrs McGill decides to try driving again, only to find out that they're out of gas. So now Stacey's got her diabetes, and they have to worry about freezing to death. At that point, a man drives up and asks if they need help. He says he lives just down the street, with his wife and baby. Stacey's worried that he might be a killer, trying to lure them in so that he can kill them, but Mrs McGill decides to trust him. Turns out to be a great idea, and Stacey and her mom pass the evening having a great dinner, playing with the baby and making friends. They're even almost sad to leave the next day. They're completely surprised when they come home and realize that everyone is worried about them and had no idea that they were missed!

Mary Anne and Mallory are sitting for the Pikes. MA's spent Tuesday night there, since the Pikes left for NYC early in the morning. They have enough food for the day, plus some emergency money, but Mrs Pike points out that she'll have to go grocery shopping Thursday morning ASAP. Tuesday night, the kids are bonkers, expecting snow. Of course, there's no snow, and they all go to school fine. Wednesday evening, and it's still business as usual. The kids are still hoping for snow, with the triplets teasing Claire about the Abominable Snowman, and MA and Mallory prepare sloppy joes for dinner. However, the snowstorm hits, and soon the power goes out. The kids are simultaneously excited and creeped out. Of course, the Pikes can't come home like they wanted to, so MA and Mallory are on their own til the next day at least. MA calls her dad to let him know what's going on, but he wants to stay home for Dawn and Sharon. MA points out that they'll be okay anyways. Then the phone lines go down, and Mallory points out that they're running out of food. They decide to eat the ice cream and anything that might go bad without power, but come the next morning, it doesn't leave them with much. They try calling for pizza and other take-out items, but of course, no one is open. MA calls Logan, just wanting to hear his voice. She explains how they're okay, but they're hungry. The next thing they know, Logan shows up on cross-country skis with a backpack full of bread, crackers, peanut butter and a few other things. The day is saved and now the Pikes can enjoy the snow!

So everyone's survived the massive snowstorm. They later learn that they had a record snowfall of about 2 feet. The dance doesn't get cancelled, and everyone goes and has a great time. Yay!


Random Thoughts: 

• This is my favourite Super Special ever. I must have read this one a million times as a child. I think it's because we always have huge snowstorms up here... but snow is just kinda a thing that happens, so it's almost never an actual event. I still fantasize about getting snowed in and losing power for several hours, if not days. Aside from the massive Northeastern blackout in 2003 (which only affected my area for that first evening; a very short time compared to some people), the power in my area rarely ever goes out, and when it does, it's for like, an hour at most. Boring haha
• This one has the illustrations in it! This is probably why I remember those illustrations so vividly and always thought they were in every single Super Special haha
• I always loved the cover on this one, but Mallory looks a bajillion years old! Definitely older than Mary Anne. And then the Pike boy has to be one of the triplets, since Nicky is always described as having glasses and curly hair like Mallory's, but that kid is not one year younger than Mallory! haha
• Stacey goes into more detail in this one about the Washington Mall, which leads me to think that Stoneybrook isn't a town or city so much as a small municipality/neighbourhood. I grew up in Ottawa. Now what is called "Ottawa" is technically the "greater Ottawa area" or the "amalgamated city of Ottawa". When I was younger, I grew up in what is technically called Orleans, which is now an area in the east end of Ottawa. Since it is generally assumed that everyone lives in "Ottawa", which is a pretty big city (can take an hour to get from Rockland in the east end to Kanata in the west end), most people will still refer to their individual areas/neighbourhoods. So if you send mail to my parents, you can either address it "Orleans, Ontario" or "Ottawa, Ontario", and it'll still be there on time with no confusion. Unlike if you wrote "Kingston, Ontario" or "Toronto, Ontario", which are very very clearly different cities from Ottawa and not even close haha
• Anyways, Stacey says it takes about half an hour to get to Washington Mall, and it's in the next town over. This reminds me of how when I was younger, it was a super big deal for my parents to drive me 30 minutes to Kanata, where Bayshore Shopping Centre was, which was a much bigger and more upscale mall than the one that was within walking distance of our house in the east end haha
• You can tell that AMM wrote this one, because Kristy is totally likeable, easy to relate to, and well-rounded. She's excited for the dance, and while she expresses a general dislike of dresses, she likes the one she's going to wear to the dance and points out that it's only for a couple of hours. She's also excited about seeing Bart, although she's not too sure how much he means to her. Furthermore, she owns a bit of make-up and puts it on for Bart. This is a great call-back to Super Special #2.
• You know it's a Super Special because Claudia is dating an Asian guy haha Here, her date for the dance is a guy in her grade named Iri Mitsuhashi. And we never see or hear from him again... at least, I don't think so! haha
• Part of me can't believe that the Pikes would leave Mallory and Mary Anne in charge for almost 24 hours... but then another part of me is like, "No... this kinda makes sense..." They leave at 6am, and from there, there's only 2 hours or so until the kids are at school. No sense in making a neighbour spend the night for that. (Although I probably would have had a neighbour stop by at 7:30 or 8am to make sure that everyone was alive and indeed going to school haha) Then they're at school, and come home. It's not unusual for the girls to baby-sit after school or prepare dinner or baby-sit after dinner. It's just weird for them to be doing it all for one job. Again, I might have had a neighbour over for dinner or for a few hours in the evening. I definitely would have arranged for someone to check up on everyone at 9pm. And then the Pikes were supposed to be back at 1am or so. So yeahhhh... Barring the snowstorm, everything would have been okay. But I'm still surprised the Pikes were simply like, "Okay, the neighbours know we're gone, so give them a shout if you need them!" instead of being like, "Okay, the neighbours know we're gone. Mrs Barrett will check in on you in the morning and Mrs McGill will be by in the evening, and you have all the phone numbers, etc etc etc". 
• Stacey particularly wants to go to the Washington Mall, because otherwise, she might end up at the salon downtown, Gloriana's House of Hair. That salon was first featured Little Sister #8, Karen's Haircut. I remember reading that one as a child. It traumatized me. I was forced to have a bowl cut for most of my childhood, so when I could finally grow my hair out, the idea of it getting cut too short again and having to wait for it to grow out was my biggest fear. But yeah. I will never forget Gloriana's House of Horror haha
• There's an illustration of Bart in this one, and he does not look at all how I picture him (totes not my kind of guy! how he's pictured on the cover of #95 is more my style haha) but he does look like he could have been the older sibling of the kids I went to elementary school with (when this book was published)!
• This one also mentions Mallory's sleeping habits again
• The Pikes apparently wake up to an oldies radio station. The first song they wake up to is "Do Wah Diddy Diddy". I remember hearing this song randomly when my parents were watching Beverly Hills, 90210 (Brenda and her friends were dancing and singing it in the Peach Pit??). I became obsessed with that song, but of course, this was before the internet, so I had no idea what it was or who sang it or how to listen to it again. So this kinda became a "one that got away" type obsession. Whenever I hear it today, I'm still like, "OMG THIS SONG!!!" haha
• On a side note: I just found out that that show lasted until the year 2000! THE FREAKING YEAR 2000 WTF!!! I thought this show was long over by 1997. I mean, the high school they used is also the same high school they used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I didn't think that the two shows overlapped. Man, I know they say that Beverly Hills, 90210 is like, THE quintessential '90s show, but I had no idea that it was literally on for the entire decade. It ran from 1990 to 2000. It did not miss a single year of the '90s!
• They also mention that a snowfall this big could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, what with global warming and all. It's strange to think that even as far back as 1991, they were referencing global warming in kids' books. And we've still done very little about it =/
• I have no idea wtf "snow cream" is that Claudia makes for the Perkins girls (sounds like they're eating the fresh snow with maple syrup?) but if they were to have used fresh thick pure maple syrup, and not eaten the snow, they would have almost ended up with maple taffy haha
• I never go anywhere without a travel-sized toothbrush, at minimum 2 books, some granola bars, extra socks, extra underwear, a shawl, a flashlight and a lighter, and a bajillion other things, so if I had been in Dawn or Stacey's shoes, I would have been great haha
• Quint is crazy. Wtf. Even now I'd be hard pressed to try to find directions to walk somewhere in a new town during a snowstorm, let alone at age 11! I'm dying to know how far the dance school was from the train station. If it's anything like my city, Quint could have been walking for a good 30 minutes! If not more!
• Unless the coffee shop owner lived above the coffee shop, and unless the power was still out and milk and things were on the verge of spoiling, why the fuck would he open up the shop and give away a feast of free foods? How did he know that there were people stranded at the dance school? No one would have blamed him if he had just ignored them and gone on his way!
• I don't know if I would have trusted Mr Schiavone. I mean, I don't have to worry about diabetes, so it would just be a matter of staying warm for me. But yeahhhhh... just because he said he had a family in a house just up the street didn't mean he necessarily did. I remember being really scared for Stacey the first time I read this book, even though I knew that 1) these books would never get that dark (at the time, I hadn't read the one about drunk driving or child abuse or depression or anything) and that 2) the only ones that would potentially go that way would be the Mystery ones, so yeahhhh....
• Now, maybe it's because my house doesn't have 9 people in it... but even when I "really need" to go grocery shopping, I still have plenty of food in my house. I mean, nothing I could make a meal out of or that I would particularly want to live on, but definitely enough so I'm not starving. Boxes and boxes of crackers, a few cans of vegetables, soup and tuna (actually, I could live on soup), rice cakes... even without the staples like bread, eggs and milk, I'd be okay!

BSC #48: Jessi's Wish

Tagline: Do wishes really come true?

When Jessi volunteers to help supervise the Kids Can Do Anything Club, she meets nine-year-old Danielle. Danielle has a beautiful smile and a great sense of humor. But Danielle is no ordinary little girl. She has cancer.

Jessi never met anyone like Danielle before. Even though she is very sick, Danielle is courageous and hopeful. She even has two wishes. The first is to go to Disney World. The second is to graduate from elementary school. Jessi knows she has to be strong for Danielle, and so she makes a very special wish of her own.

Jessi's chilling at home, watching her brother Squirt, when Becca comes home from school. She's super sad because one of the teachers who helps to run the Kids Can Do Anything Club (Kids Club) at school is going away for a bit, and the other teacher doesn't think he can run the club alone. That means that the club will have to disband until further notice. Jessi knows how much the club means to Becca, as well as a few other kids, and decides that she wants to help out. She decides to propose to the Club that they should spend the month volunteering on various projects. The girls agree, and with their blessing, Jessi goes and talks to Mr Katz (the remaining teacher) about helping out with the Kids Club.

At her first meeting, Jessi learns that the kids have just finished up organizing a toy drive for the local hospital. That day, Mr Katz shows them all the letters the kids from the hospital have written to them, thanking them for the donations. One of the letters turns out to be a from a girl named Danielle Roberts, who used to be in the club, but has been spending that school year in the hospital fighting cancer. Danielle writes that she's coming back soon, and although she's bald and looks different, she's excited to see everyone again. The kids are excited, and reasonably subdued, and decide to spend the afternoon writing back to the kids in the hospital.

Danielle comes back for the next Kids Club meeting. Everyone's excited, but something seems a little off. As Danielle stars talking to them, and telling them what she's been up to, Jessi realizes that it's mostly the third graders hanging around Danielle. Eventually Jessi comes to the conclusion that the older kids, who knew and remember Danielle before the cancer, are frightened of her and for her, seeing her look so radically different from before. But Danielle is just happy to be out of the hospital and keeps her hopes up. As the kids continue to write letters to the hospital, Jessi gets to know Danielle, and wants nothing more than to help her and for her to get better.

The girls have an informal Club meeting, to catch up with each other on their volunteer work. There, Jessi tells everyone about Danielle, and how Danielle wishes she could go to Disney World. Mary Anne tells Jessi of an organization called Your Wish Is My Command, that works to grant wishes of sick children. Jessi thinks it's a great idea, and looks into it for the Roberts' and lets them know about it.

Over the next little while, Jessi gets to know Danielle better, especially through Becca, who has quickly become one of Danielle's closest friends. The other 4th and 5th graders are still being weird about Danielle, so she mostly hangs out with Becca and Charlotte (who are 3rd graders). Danielle comes over to play and the girls have all sorts of fun, although Danielle does tire easily and has to take things slow. Jessi and the girls also go to Danielle's place for a BBQ, where Jessi meets Danielle's little brother Greg, who is clearly having a hard time dealing with his sister's illness. It makes Jessi want to send their family to Disney World even more.

Finally one day, at Kids Club, Danielle gets the news that her wish has been granted, and that her family will be going to Disney World! She'll be missing 3 days of school, and they'll take a plane, and everything will be covered. The kids are so excited that they stop being weird and careful around Danielle. That's when they notice that Danielle's hair is starting to grow back! Everyone is so happy and excited that they neglect the popcorn machine, and a big mess is made. But Jessi and Mr Katz don't care, because again, HAPPY!!!

We're then treated to a chapter of Becca and Jessi helping Danielle pack, followed by several postcards from Disney World. It seems like everything is working out for the best. The other teacher is due back any day, and Jessi, although excited to get back to baby-sitting, will miss working with the Kids Club.

However, things take a turn for the worse: one day, Danielle's not in school. She's had a relapse in her recovery, and is in the hospital again. The kids are all upset, and decide to write Danielle letters. Jessi writes her one too, and soon gets a reply. Danielle isn't sure when she can leave the hospital again, but she's hopeful: after all, she got to go to Disney World, so wishes really do come true.

The subplot in this one is that the girls decide to spend the month doing volunteer work, inspired by Jessi's work. They decide that whoever is free will go to meetings, and they'll just have to be extra careful of scheduling jobs and rely on Logan and Shannon more. For some of the girls, their volunteer work is only mentioned in passing, but others have entire chapters (instead of baby-sitting ones):

Claudia volunteers to help out with an after-school art class at a community centre. As luck would have it, several of their baby-sitting charges are in the class, including Jackie Rodowsky, Margo Pike and Karen Brewer. The chapter we're treated to is them in the middle of a ceramics lesson. The kids are making sculpture out of clay, which will then be glazed and fired. Karen is making a forest with animals and stuff, and somehow she manages to convince everyone that her sculpture is alive, getting the kids all riled up and stuff. Claudia manages to get her to stop by "expressing sadness" that Karen's sculpture will never be finished, since obviously you can't glaze and fire something that's alive. So Karen quickly retracts her comments and insists that her sculpture is just a sculpture.

Kristy decides to volunteer at a daycare centre that David Michael used to go to. It runs all day, with an after-school program for older kids. Her chapter is her first day there, where she wanders from room to room, helping out where needed. She helps some of the older kids with their homework, she helps the little kids with some finger painting and snacks, but eventually she ends up with the wee little babies. They're short-staffed, and Kristy finds herself saddled with one baby in particular, Joy. Apparently Joy is very fussy and never settles or likes anyone, so obviously she's in love with Kristy and everyone is in awe of Kristy's baby-powers. Kristy then decides that she'll spend the remainder of the month volunteering in that room, and we hear more about how much she loves Joy.

Dawn volunteers at the Baker Institute, which is in Stamford. They provide after-school activities, as well as physical therapy, for children with physical disabilities. Dawn rides on the van with other Stoneybrook kids after school. There, she meets a girl named Kendra, who is wheelchair bound because of cerebral palsy. Kendra wants to be a writer, and we're treated to an afternoon of her writing, along with other kids. When Dawn tells Jessi about Kendra, Jessi reflects on how Kendra is completely wheelchair bound and will never get better, but she thinks about what she wants to be when she grows up and long-term goals; whereas Danielle has a chance to make a full recovery and be completely healthy again, but only thinks about making it through elementary school.

Mary Anne volunteers to help out with some friends of her father's. They have a little boy named Frankie, who has brain damage. Mary Anne helps his parents and his therapists do exercises with him, as well as just generally helping out around the house and with his two siblings.

Stacey volunteers to mentor kids who are recently diagnosed with diabetes. She's paired up with two kids, an 8-year-old boy named Gordon and a 10-year-old girl named Charmaine. Gordon asks all sorts of questions and is handling things really well, but Charmaine is in total denial. At first, Stacey tries to be a perfect role model for her, but eventually decides to come clean and admit how hard it is for her to follow her diet as well. That changes everything with Charmaine, and she starts taking things more seriously.

Mallory volunteers with an after-school park program, where the counselors hang out in the park and organize games and activities for the kids.

Random Thoughts:

• I love how this is another example of Jessi just doing something because she wants to, and having her own ideas. Yeah, she wants to run it by Kristy and the girls to see what they think, but I get the feeling she would have done something even without their approval. I mean, really, the only thing she's running by them is the idea that they all do some volunteer work. I think if they had said no, she still would have done her own thing.
• Kristy in the later books would never suggest that the girls take an entire month to do some volunteering! haha
• Fun fact: sometimes I end up covering for the visual arts teacher at school, and for some reason, I've ended up covering several lessons during the ceramics unit over the years, so I've actually become decently versed in how to do ceramics. The school even has a small kiln, so the students' work gets glazed and fired too! My first year there, I made a small sculpture from some leftover clay. I then missed the end of the unit, but the students glazed my sculpture for me. Sadly, it never got in the kiln. Probably for better: I didn't crosshatch one section when attaching it to the main part, so it didn't end up sticking so well, so it kinda fell apart after some time =( haha
• Even with getting to skip the line, there is no way they were able to do Disney World in just 2 days. Then again, it's better than nothing. I wonder what they saw. They probably just went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and had like, a special meet-and-greet dinner. Fuck, now I want to go back to Disney and eat their food. They've got awesome food. (Mostly because I don't have to prepare it haha)
• I know Danielle is the focus of another book later in the series, but between this one and that one, do we ever hear about her again? Is she mentioned in passing in any of the other Jessi books? I really want to re-read the other Danielle book now, just to see what Jessi has to say. You'd think with Danielle being such great friends with Becca, we'd hear about her more.
• The volunteering thing was only supposed to be a month, with Jessi herself doing Kids Club for like... 6 weeks? AMM keeps starting chapters with "one day" or "later that week" and other vague things, so it makes it feel like so much time passes!

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 #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.

BSC Super Special #5: California Girls!

Tagline: They wish they all could be...

California, here they come!

Who would believe it - the Baby-sitters have won the loterry! And with their winning money, the girls are all going with Dawn to... California!

What adventures they have. Jessi lands a (tiny) part in a TV show, Kristy gets into a kind-of fight with Dawn's We ♥ Kids Club, and Stacey turns into a surfer girl! And in between all that excitement, they still have time for baby-sitting, sight-seeing, and the beach.

How can they go back to Stoneybrook now that they've turned into California girls?

Super Special Gimmick: There actually doesn't seem to be one this time. Dawn starts off the book, talking about the lottery, plus you know, it's her house they're staying at. But there's no gimmick as to why the girls are taking turns chronicling their trip haha

Alright, so apparently Claudia has been getting her father to buy her lottery tickets for years now, and the Club has always made fun of her for it. Well, now the lottery jackpot is at an all-time high, so the girls decide to pitch in and each get their own lottery ticket, and then split the prize if they win. Dawn comes close, with 5 out of 6 numbers right, which means they win a consolation prize. Each girl gets just over a thousand dollars. It's then decided that they'll use the money and an upcoming two-week vacation to go to California and stay with Dawn's dad.

They take an airplane down, which lasts about 5 hours, but due to the timezones, only 2 hours have passed. They're all pretty out of it and jet-lagged, and have a quiet evening at the Schafer's, joined by Mr Schafer's girlfriend Carol, much to Dawn's dismay. The next morning, the girls still aren't feeling up to doing much, so Carol takes them all to the beach for a day of sun and relaxation. There, the girls start taking up different interests, which leads to them spending most of the two weeks pursuing their own adventures:

Stacey decides to take a beginner surfing lesson that first day. She instantly falls in love with it, and Dawn decides to introduce her to some kids she used to school with that are at the beach. They're all super into surfing, so despite being a few years older than Stacey, they hit it off. The next day, they pick her up and take her back to the beach for more surfing. They drive pretty recklessly, but Stacey doesn't think much about it. She's all excited about surfing, and takes risks, like riding waves she's not quite ready for. One day, her new surfer friends pick her up, and it's a new guy at the wheel. He's even crazier than the others at driving, but Stacey loves it. Mostly, she doesn't want to seem like a wetblanket, since the rest of the kids don't seem to mind. Dawn and everyone warns her to be careful. Anyways, several days go by, including some group activities with the girls (which I'll detail later), and eventually it's the middle of their second week. Mr Super Reckless (whose name is Beau) can't wait to get home after a day of surfing, and speeds away faster than usual. Fast enough for another one of the group to actually remark on it. Then they get stuck in traffic behind a slow truck driver. Instead of signalling and being a responsible driver, Beau just lane changes, and ends up causing a huge car accident. Despite it involving multiple cars and the truck, no one is seriously injured. Stacey is shaken up. Carol comes to pick her up, and together, they tell Mr Schafer what happened. Mr Schafer bans Stacey from ever seeing those friends again (not a big deal, since she's leaving soon and by her own admission doesn't particularly want to see them again either), and Stacey spends the rest of the week with the girls.

Dawn's storyline is mostly her conflict with Carol, her dad's new girlfriend. She doesn't like how Carol is always around, as if she had already inserted herself into the family. Furthermore, Dawn doesn't like how "cool" Carol acts, trying to be their friend and what not. Everything turns around though when Dawn sees how Carol acts in an emergency situation: Stacey's car accident. She and Stacey expected Carol to be all winks and like, "This is our little secret", but instead she immediately takes charge and tells them that they need to tell Mr Schafer. This earns Dawn's respect, and she sees that while Carol is cool and fun and young, she is also an adult and can be trusted to do the right and responsible thing when the time comes. Dawn decides to give Carol and a chance, and stops acting so bratty to her. They have a very pleasant last few days together.

Jessi decides to visit Derek Masters, who's in LA filming his TV show. Like what always happens when dealing with Derek, Jessi thinks maybe she should get an agent and start modelling or acting. This is further compounded by the fact that she gets chosen by the director to be an extra in one of the scenes. Jessi also fights with Mallory, who is busy trying to be a "California Girl" and essentially just being a giant brat. It's the first time they've ever fought over the course of their friendship. Of course, in the end Jessi decides to forget about all this Hollywood nonsense and stick with ballet. And she and Mallory make up.

Mallory has what I think the most annoying plot in the book. Going to the beach, she looks around and sees all these hot blonde girls, and decides that she wants to look like that. She convinces Carol to drive her to the Max Factor Museum of Make-Up, and then spends another day at the mall. It's on her trip to the mall that decides to get all this fancy high-end make-up, and blows all of her spending money. She buys wash-out hair dye and dies her hair blonde, and spends forever playing with make-up. Because she has no money, she has to borrow from Jessi. When she finds out that Jessi is going to visit Derek, she gets all obssessed with getting noticed and being on TV. When Jessi brings her (in an attempt to connect with Mallory and try to understand her obsession with being something she's not), Mallory gets rejected by the director to be an extra, saying she doesn't have the "right look". This leads to Mallory being all mopey and depressed and avoiding everyone for a full 24 hours, before Kristy puts her foot down and tells Mallory to get over it. Mallory sells her make-up to Stacey and Claudia, dyes her hair red again, and goes back to normal.

Claudia meets a boy on the beach. His name is Terry and he's Asian, and he's super intelligent. Claudia keeps bringing herself down, saying that she's not smart enough to be with Terry, and keeps dreading spending time with him. However, he seems to be really into her, and keeps asking her out, to which she keeps saying yes. He takes her to a fancy Italian restaurant, and then to an Italian film with subtitles. Claudia did alright with the food, but couldn't understand the movie nor read the subtitles fast enough, so she just mostly smiles and nods. Then he takes her to a fancy French restaurant, where she orders escargots, not realizing that they were snails. She tries to keep up in conversation with him, but really can't, and just goes home feeling humiliated. She even calls Janine, trying to get some intelligent world issues talking points. Janine tells her to just be herself, and to invite Terry somewhere with her instead. Claudia takes the advice, and ends up having a great time. They part ways, and promise to write, with Claudia talking of visiting again sometime.

Kristy gets all competitive with the We ♥ Kids Club, insulted by how relaxed and informal they are. Kristy, wanting to prove that she's the best and that everything she does is best, takes a difficult job from the girls. She agrees to baby-sit for Erick and Ryan Dewitt, the We ♥ Kids Club's toughest clients. Apparently the boys are very rambunctious and spirited, and need a firm guiding hand, or else they take advantage of the situation and run nuts. Kristy's convinced she can handle it though. They soon realize that the sitting job is on the same day that Mr Schafer had planned to take everyone to Universal Studios. Kristy doesn't see what the big deal is, and simply gets permission to bring the boys along. Of course, it all goes to shit. The boys run around, keep standing up on the tram, ask to go to the bathroom and then get into a water fight while trying to stick pieces of paper towel to the ceiling... When the tour asks for a child volunteer to demonstrate some of the special effects, and Jeff gets picked instead of them, they're loud and rude and just a nuisance. However at some point, they get scared by the effects, and Kristy tells them that they have to stay with her and Stacey from now on. By Kristy being firm and telling them they have to stay close, they can make it seem like they're not scared and are just following rules. Kristy learns that maybe she doesn't know everything, and that sometimes, being firm is what's needed.

Mary Anne also snags a sitting job with the We ♥ Kids Club. She's sitting for Stephie Robertson, a little girl who is exactly like Mary Anne, only with asthma. Stephie's mother also died when she was a baby, leaving her father to raise her. Stephie is shy, sweet and sensitive. Anyways, she and Mary Anne hit it off, and Mary Anne sits for her a bunch of times. Even though Mary Anne is told that Stephie's asthma is brought on my emotional stress, MA freaks out every time Stephie wants to do something active or is surprised or startled: pretty much anything that would make you take a deep breath. MA also decides to bring Stephie to Universal Studios, figuring the outing would be good for her. When the outing goes off without a hitch, MA finally realizes that Stephie's asthma is not the end of the world, and clearly Stephie can handle it and be a normal kid. Of course, this is the moment where Stephie has an asthma attack. It's MA's last time sitting for her, and Stephie starts to get emotionally distraught by the idea of MA leaving, which gets her crying, which gets her sobbing, which triggers an asthma attack. MA handles it well though, and although she loves Stephie and clearly knows what to do in case of an asthma attack, MA is glad to be going back home and to not have to worry about it anymore.

Random Thoughts:

• For some reason, I always thought this one took place later in the series. I mean, I know there's still another 10 Super Specials and only another 100 books or so left, so it makes sense that every 10 books, there'd be a Super Special, meaning this one would have to happen sooner rather than later, but still! haha
• This one was always one of my favourites. I remember reading it constantly in the summer, along with Super Special #10, Sea City, Here We Come!
• Also: damn, there's a lot of Super Specials in a row! It's only been like, 4 books since the last one!!
• I should have realized that this was one of the earlier ones: Dawn eats chicken!! She's not a super-strict hardcore vegetarian!
• You totes know that if the books were written now, she'd be a hardcore vegan. Maybe even gluten-free haha
• You can tell that AMM wrote this one, because in addition to Dawn not being a super-strict hardcore flanderized vegetarian, Kristy goes to the mall with Dawn and Claudia, and comes away with a matching charm bracelet.
• I guess another reason why I always assumed that this book happened later rather than sooner was because of how prominent Carol is in it. Carol and Mr Schafer don't get married until Super Special #12. They dated for a really really effing long time! haha which is actually realistic.
• It sure is nice for Mr Schafer to let 6 random girls spend two weeks at his place. I hope they all gave him some money, considering how much food they must have eaten!
• How the fuck does Dawn know kids that are 3 or 4 years older than her. When you're a little kid, that is practically another decade... even generation! And this is before California Diaries, where knowing older kids makes sense. And even then, Dawn and her friends were all like, "WTF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS". Uh, wouldn't you know the kids in the grade above you? Anyways, it would've been interesting if Dawn's rand-o surfer friends came up during California Diaries, but nope!
• We find out that one of the kids lives down the street from Dawn, and that Mr Schafer knows all their parents, so maybe the kids live in the neighbourhood, and/or Dawn knew them because their parents all knew each other?
• More foreshadowing on Stacey's diabetes not being good and her health being wonky.
• Poor Carol. She never said that Claudia should change her personality to get a guy. All she started saying was that she knew people who did... but then Dawn cut her off and that was that. Dawn and Claudia then went back to Dawn's room, and acted like all Carol had said was, "People change to impress other people". You totes know Carol was going to say, "I know people who change to please other people... but it usually doesn't end up working and it's best to just be honest and be yourself." Of course, it's really realistic to have a bunch of 13 year old girls take advice wrongly haha
• As someone who is only really driving for the first time, reading of Stacey's car accident was not fun haha
• Dawn would hate me. I'm 27, and I'm fairly "cool". My students always can't believe how much of their stuff I know and like, and will often just enjoy talking to me. Of course, sometimes I'm a total adult, such as assigning homework and making sure everyone is seated and being civilized. But yeah. I don't try to be cool to impress my students. I just act how I always act. It would feel weird and disingenuous to be all like, "I AM AN ADULT! I READ LITERATURE AND DRINK WINE AND CREATE CULINARY CUISINE AND THE ONLY MOVIES I WATCH ARE FOREIGN INDIE FILMS WITH SUBTITLES." Mostly because I do none of that haha
• I also like how Dawn makes it seem like Carol is a bajillion years younger than her father. Yes, Carol is rather young (at age 32, she would have had Dawn at age 19 if she was Dawn's biological mother), but I bet she's probably roughly the same age difference (if not less!) than me and my boyfriend are haha
• Was the Grateful Dead really the kind of band that 10 year old boys listened to in the early 1990s? I always thought that it was weird that Jeff was a fan, and always assumed that nah, it must be a made-up band. It can't be that band!
• For some reason, Claudia always finds Asian boys while she's on vacation, but she never dates them at home haha
• I'm all for Claudia being herself, and I like the idea that Terry, while super intelligent and primarily into indie and niche interests, also enjoys regular every day teen stuffs. However, the moment Claudia writes to him, he's going to see how dumb she is =/
• I'm surprised Dawn didn't spend more time with Sunny and her California friends. Or at least talk about wanting to spend more time with them