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

Tagline: She can't turn back now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




Random Thoughts:

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

BSC #34: Mary Anne and Too Many Boys

Tagline: Two weeks of sun, fun - and boys galore!

It's Sea City Part II when Mary Anne and Stacey return there as mother's helpers for the Pike family. The girls can't wait to catch some rays, stroll along the boardwalk... and baby-sit, of course!

But neither of them expects to meet up with her boyfriend from last summer. And to further complicate things, little Vanessa Pike has a crush on the cashier at Ice-Cream Palace - only he has a crush on Mallory!

Will a summer romance come between Logan and Mary Anne? Will an older boy break Vanessa's heart? Only one thing's for certain: There are too many boys in Sea City!

Alrighty, so from the fuck out of nowhere, it's summer again. Which of course means another trip to Sea City. Even though Mallory is a sitter now, since it's technically a family vacation, the Pikes don't want Mallory working too hard, so they hire both Stacey and Mary Anne to come back.

The trip down to Sea City is fairly uneventful. Margo doesn't even throw up! The triplets (in a car with Mary Anne, Vanessa and Mrs Pike) taunt Nicky whenever the two cars pass each other. Claire briefly gets lost at a rest stop when she returns inside to get a new ice cream cone, and the rest of the family can't find her. All in all, they make it to Sea City in one piece.

After they arrive and unpack, they're able to spend some time on the beach before the lifeguards pack up. They're all set to hit the beach again the next day, only to discover that it's all cloudy and grey. The boys don't mind, so Stacey takes them while Mary Anne and Mallory take the girls to the boardwalk. They stop to get ice cream, which is where they meet the cashier mentioned in the book description. It's a pretty disastrous visit: Claire manages to dump her entire soda on herself and then the cashier, trying to impress Mallory, ends up getting whipped cream all over the place and making a mess.

The next day, they're all able to get to the beach. There, Mary Anne and Stacey run into Alex and Toby, the mother's helpers from before. Toby and Stacey are clearly all about rekindling their summer romance, while MA is all torn because of Logan. She's clearly into Alex, and he definitely is into her, but MA doesn't want to be disloyal to Logan. She figures she can see Alex as a friend, and never really have to tell either Logan nor Alex about the other.

Stacey ends up going on two dates with Toby, much to MA's displeasure. This year, the Pikes decide that MA and Stacey can have two nights off each, like last year, but that unlike last year, they have to take them separately. MA had planned on going out with Alex, only for Stacey to be a bitch and be like, "No, I'm going out tonight, you can go out tomorrow." But then the next night, Stacey's all, "We had so much fun, we're going out again!"

Eventually MA gets to go out with Alex. The first night, they have the time of their life, and MA starts to feel guilty. She thinks back to Logan, and how she really likes him, but how she barely thinks about him when Alex is around. MA greatly enjoys spending time with Alex. When they go out a second time, MA's expecting everything to be awesome, but instead things are awkward. Eventually they admit that they each have someone waiting for them back home. MA's relieved and doesn't feel so guilty anymore. Now that the ice has been broken and everything's laid out on the table, their date goes much more smoothly. They agree that they're great together at Sea City, but that's all they'll ever be. It's too much to expect that they'll keep it up during the school year.

Sadly, Toby's not as stoic or mature, and completely dumps Stacey and breaks her heart. Stacey apologizes to MA for being such a bitch, and all is forgiven. Sadly, it's time to head back to Stoneybrook, so the girls pack up and wave goodbye to Sea City.

There's not really much of a subplot in this one. Pretty much the girls are all scattered for the first few weeks of summer: Dawn's back in California, Claudia's family is going to Vermont, and then Stacey, Mary Anne and Mallory are in Sea City. That leaves Kristy and Jessi at home to do all of the baby-sitting. We're treated to a chapter of Kristy baby-sitting for the Rodowskys, where they go to the community pool. Dawn baby-sits for the children of Carol's friend, where we learn that Jeff is surprisingly good with kids. Jessi baby-sits for her siblings and Charlotte, where she learns that Squirt is perceptive and perhaps smarter than he seems.

I suppose the real subplot is Vanessa's crush on Chris, the Ice Cream Palace cashier. She decides to write him poems anonymously, leaving them out for him to find. He does find them, but ends up attributing them to Mallory, since Mallory is much closer to his age. At first Vanessa is absolutely crushed, but eventually handles it maturely. She decides to write one more poem saying good-bye, and never tells neither him nor Mallory the truth.
 
Random Thoughts:

• First time for ghostwriter Mary Lou Kennedy!
• I'm surprised we got another MA book so soon. It's only been 3 books since her last one. I think MA ends up with the most books in the entire series. This kinda makes sense, since AMM has always said that MA was kinda meant to represent her.
• lol I think this is my first time really re-reading the BSC since the Lord of the Rings movies came out. Plus usually when I read them, I skip the parts where they describe the club, the members and their families. Anyways, it just dawned on me that the Pikes named their hamster Frodo haha
• Even though I always think they sound gross, whenever they mention chocolate sodas in the BSC-verse, it makes me want one. Or at least some sort of milkshake. Or Starbucks frappaccino haha
• I know I've said it before, but my god, Jackie Rodowsky pisses me off
• Ah Mary Anne.... I've been there before too with the boys haha the fact that you'll never see them again outside of this two week period always makes things seem grey haha
• I love how judgemental and bitchy Mary Anne can be. It's funny, because she's always described as super sweet and sensitive, but it's always the quiet ones you need to look out for. She snarks about all the boys in Stacey's life, referencing both Scott and Pierre. MA notes that while Toby might be at the top of Stacey's list... for now... who knows how long he'll stay?
• We see Carol again. Even though she had no idea what Mr Schafer was planning, it still seems super flaky to me that Carol would just show up to his place with two random babies. If the person I was dating randomly showed up with little kids and was like, "Surprise! We're baby-sitting!", I would be seriously pissed.
• In this one, we learn that Mallory talks in her sleep. I have a friend who talks in their sleep vividly, like Mallory. He'll sit up, say something clear as day, and then fall back down, roll over, and continue sleeping. He'll have no recollection of anything the next day. It's creepy as fuck. I hope this gets mentioned again, but I have a feeling that it won't.
• I really liked Vanessa in this book. She's kinda annoying in a lot of the books, but mostly because we only ever see her from a little sister perspective, and they always focus on her incessant rhyming. Here, she's super mature and handles things well. I'd be interested in seeing what she was like when she was older.
• I also really like the poem she writes MA, thanking MA for her help with delivering the letters:

Love can hurt, love can sting,

A broken heart can never sing.

Boys will come, boys will go

but a friend is forever, this I know

A friend is rare and hard to find

everyone knows it's true

You helped me through a very bad time

I'll always be grateful to you.

• My favourite line is "a broken heart can never sing", even though I know that that's not true at all. I just really effing like how it sounds xD haha

BSC #7: Claudia and Mean Janine

Front Cover: Claudia's sister makes everything impossible - even baby-sitting!

Back Cover: Claudia's sister is mean! She's too busy being smart to be nice. Even Claudia's grandmother, Mimi, can't get close to Janine. Plus, Mean Janine puts down the Baby-sitters Club. And that makes Claudia MAD!

This summer the members of the Baby-sitters Club are starting a play group in the neighbourhood. Claudia can't wait for it to begin. But then Mimi has a stroke... and the whole summer changes.

Now Claudia has to spend her time "Mimi-sitting" instead of baby-sitting. And things with Janine are going from bad to worse. One of the Kishi sisters has to start being nicer. And it's sure not going to be Claudia!

So this book picks up right after the last book. It's still July, and the wedding has just happened. Kristy decides that since last week and the group baby-sitting went so well, they should hold a play-group for their charges. After some discussion, it's decided that they'll hold it at Stacey's house, because her mom will most likely be home most of the time.

The play-group is all subplot to what happens with Claudia and the Kishis: Mimi has a stroke. A few chapters of the book are dedicated to Mimi being in the hospital and the family not knowing what's going to happen, while the rest of the book is dedicated to Mimi now being home and starting her recovery.

Claudia thinks she's to blame for Mimi's stroke, since she had just been fighting with Mimi before it happened. Of course, that's not true; the book foreshadows Mimi's ill health for a couple of chapters. But still, Claudia feels guilty. So she quickly jumps up and volunteers to spend all this time with Mimi. Since she does, the Kishis decide that there's no reason to bother Janine and make her miss school, so that's that.

All throughout the book, Claudia is very bratty and petty towards Janine. She's resentful of the fact that Janine never helps out and gets to go about her life without any interruptions. It's very apparent though that Janine feels left out. Their parents keep pushing Janine towards her schoolwork, so no one ever wants to interrupt her to include her in things, such as making dinner or taking care of Mimi. Whenever Janine does try to converse with Claudia, Claudia just snaps at her and tells her to get back to her computer. So obviously, Janine does.

Eventually, Claudia and Janine have a discussion and they agree to try harder to relate to each other and to not ostracize Janine so much. Of course, this happens a bajillion times over the course of the series, and the two never seem to be any closer each time haha

The book ends off setting us up for the next one: Mrs Pike has called, requesting two sitters to come with the family for a two-week vacation to Sea City as mother's helpers. Stacey and Mary Anne are the only two who can go, so they're very excited. Sea City, here we come!

Random Thoughts:

• I feel bad for Janine. Claudia is totally a brat to her.
• I would be all for a mini-series of companion books from Janine's perspective. And Charlie Thomas's perspective too, for that matter. Maybe throw Sam in there. But yeah. Definitely a series of books from Charlie and Janine's perspectives. But especially Janine. While I didn't LOVE her as a child, I never understood exactly why she was so hated by the girls in the story. Now that I'm older, I'm even more convinced that she's misunderstood and probably secretly the most awesome person in the series ever haha
• Kristy's play-group idea is reasonable. Again, we're still in reasonable territory, where the girls are realistic and aren't kid-obsessed. They only hold the play group for a few hours (not all day), only a couple of mornings a week (not every day), and only for two weeks (not the entire summer).
• I actually got confused and forgot that at this point in the series, Stacey's parents are still together haha I was wondering why Mrs McGill would be home during the day, thinking, "Shouldn't she be working? How does she support herself and Stacey??"
• Fun fact: Claudia is now thirteen. I think this is the first time a character is mentioned as no longer being twelve
• Mallory is also now 11
  

BSC #6: Kristy's Big Day

Front Cover: Kristy's a baby-sitter - and a bridesmaid, too!

Back Cover: Kristy's mom is getting married, and Kristy's a bridesmaid. The only trouble is, fourteen little kids are coming to the wedding, and they all need baby-sitters. Here comes the Baby-sitters Club!

Stacey, Claudia, Mary Anne, Dawn, and Kristy think they can handle fourteen kids. But that's before they spend five days changing diapers, stopping fights, solving mix-ups, righting wrongs... and getting sick and tired of baby-sitting!

One thing's for sure: This is a crazy way to have a wedding. But it's a great way to have a lot of fun!

So like I thought when I heard about the wedding in the last book, something happens to move up the wedding date. This book starts off with everything going well. Chapter 1 is all about the wedding being in September. There's a big family dinner, and Elizabeth and Watson tell the kids about their plans, offering each kid a role in the wedding. Everything is awesome and everyone is happy and excited.

Come chapter 2, everything goes to shit. Elizabeth is being sent on a business trip the day of the wedding, Watson's ex-wife wants to take the kids on some trip, a family has offered to buy the Thomas' house at full price, but they want it immediately... long story short: the wedding has now been bumped up and is happening in two weeks. Kristy is not amused. She was hoping to spend one last summer next to Mary Anne, and it's all very sudden.

Because everything is happening so fast, there's no time to really book all the usual wedding things. So the wedding is now taking place in Watson's yard, and while they found a caterer who can provide the main course on such short notice, everything else has to be done by the adults themselves. So to help out, all of Kristy's aunts and uncles come to town the week beforehand. Of course, they all have kids. And it being the '80s, they don't just have one kid, they don't just have two kids... each adult pair has 3-4 kids. As the book description tells us, all in all, it's 14 kids.

Originally, the adults figure that the kids can just run around Watson's while the adults worked, but even Elizabeth realizes that that won't really work and that it'll significantly slow down their progress. Kristy then gets one of her brilliant ideas and decides that the BSC can just watch all 14 kids at the Thomas' place. Elizabeth agrees, and says that if the girls would work from 9-5 for 5 days, she and Watson would pay the club 600$: 120$ each.

Kristy brings the idea to the girls, and at first they're not too responsive, but soon they get excited. The group crunches the numbers, and they realize that it works out to only 3 kids per girl, which they have all handled before. Plus, they'd be all together, so they could rely on each other for support. They decide to break the kids into groups, and assign a different sitter for each group, that way if they had to, they could do smaller activities based on age. They make nametags and all in all, get pretty well organized.

The rest of the book is dedicated to the week (probably making this the shortest time frame in the series so far), with each chapter saying what day it is and how many more days until the wedding. Each girl gets a chance to do a notebook entry, but only Dawn and Stacey really have their own separate adventures.

Kristy's chapter covers Monday, Day 1. The only real dilemma in this one was the start of everything. The girls weren't quite anticipating all the different instructions and parents and items coming with the kids, so there was a bit of organization and logistics to go on. And then all the kids were suffering separation anxiety at being dropped off at a new place full of unknown children and things. But the girls soon got everything under control, and halfway through the day, Kristy and Karen left to pick flowers. It was a pretty easy day.

Dawn's chapter covers Tuesday, Day 2. On this day, the girls decided to do separate activities for their groups in the morning, so as to give the kids a change of pace. Stacey took her group (the oldest kids) to the brook to catch minnows, Mary Anne's group (two babies) simply went for a walk, and Claudia and Kristy's groups (the next youngest kids) went to the library with Jamie Newton for story hour. Dawn's group was David Michael, Karen and Berk (a cousin). She took them to the playground. When she got there, she discovered that there were activities going on (I figure similar to the Parkticipate programs we have going on at playgrounds around the city here), so it should have been a fairly easy day. But no, she had Karen. Karen apparently got it into her head that Martians were going to land that night, and no matter what Dawn told her, she would not shut up. Not only does Karen scare David Michael and Berk, but she then goes on to scare the other children in the playground, and all but gets them banded!

Stacey's chapter covers Wednesday, Day 3. She tried taking her group (the 3 oldest kids) to the movies. Things get to a bad start when they're delayed (despite having arrived 40 minutes early), because Emma thinks she's lost her money. When they get seated in the theatre, the kids won't settle and won't shut up and they pretty much get kicked out.

Mary Anne's chapter covers Thursday, Day 4. To take a break from the babies, she and Kristy take all the boys to the barber shop so that they can get ready for the wedding. The boys are completely rude and unruly and unmanageable, and Kristy threatens to call Nannie (everyone's grandma) on them. Finally the boys stop fussing and just sit and get it over with.

Claudia gets Friday, Day 5. It's been raining all day, so the kids are going absolutely stir-crazy. In the end, they decide to put on a mock wedding to keep the kids organized. While this is going on, Emma decides to switch all the kids' clothing around (they're going to the rehearsal dinner right after), so the girls have to scramble and try to reassemble everything. They do in just the nick of time!

Saturday morning is the wedding, and it goes pretty well. Kristy loves her dress and shoes. Karen almost ruins everything when their neighbour, Mrs Porter, shows up, but Watson manages to clamp a hand on her mouth. Kristy's mom and Watson leave for their honeymoon, and Kristy finally manages to figure out what to give them as a wedding gift: a handmade family tree showing their new blended family.

Random Thoughts:

• I love this cover. Kristy looks so happy and pretty on it.
• Fun fact: the updated cover doesn't match the description in the books. In the book, Karen specifically states that her shoes are shiny and black. The updated cover has her in yellow shoes. Also, because I actually read and collected the Little Sister series for a few years when I was younger, I'm unfortunately an expert on Karen Brewer. She doesn't get her glasses until a few books into the Little Sister series (it's a big deal and the plot of an entire book), and the updated cover has her in glasses. She won't get glasses until at least another 20 BSC books.
• I love how Kristy is actually excited about getting a dress and heeled shoes in this book. You can tell that she still wouldn't want to wear dresses on a regular basis, but that since it's such a fancy and special occasion, she's kinda excited. I'm like that.
• Okay, Karen Brewer is super annoying. I never particularly thought so, because again, I started by reading the Little Sister series when I was 7, and continued reading them until I was 9 or 10, before I moved on to the BSC. So I was kind of used to her being the main character. Plus, you know, I was young and dumb haha But re-reading the BSC now, I'm starting to understand why people find Karen so annoying. Especially in this book. I get that she has an overactive imagination, and while imagination is good and you definitely want to foster creativity in children, someone needs to take Karen aside and put her in her place. She causes panic and mayhem with her stupid Martian stories at the playground, despite the fact that Dawn told her to stop. She also nearly causes a scene during her own father's wedding over her stupid next-door neighbour. It's only been 6 books, and I'm already sick and tired of hearing about Morbidda Destiny.
• I like how this book is called Kristy's Big Day, and it involves her mom re-marrying. Then the first book of the Friends Forever series is called Kristy's Big News, and it's about her dad re-marrying.
• I like the girls' reaction in this book when Kristy tells them the news of giving up an entire week towards baby-sitting: silence. It's not until she mentions how much money they'd make that they get excited. This is still early enough into the series that the girls' have lives and interests and aren't like CHILDREN! EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH MORE CHILDREN! HOW CAN WE TURN EVERYTHING INTO A BABY-SITTING EVENT???
• It's funny, because of all of their group events and group baby-sitting endeavors, this was the one that I could most relate to and the one that seemed the most feasible. Plus, I'd rather group baby-sit than solo baby-sit. Not so I could slack off or anything, but there's that freedom/convenience/security of knowing that if shit hit the fan, there'd be other responsible people around to help. Plus if you needed to, you could take a 5 minute breather and go to the bathroom and what not and not have to be like, "I hope the kids are alright..."
• I realized reading this one that I've stopped reading the notebook entries at the start of the chapters. I can't be bothered to try to decipher their handwriting, plus in these early books, their handwriting is kinda different from what I'm used to.