BSC Mystery #4: Kristy and the Missing Child

Tagline: Everyone in Stoneybrook is shocked. Jake is gone - for real

Kristy can hardly believe it when little Jake Kuhn is reported missing. Jake is one of the kids on her softball team. And Kristy was the last person to see Jake before he disappeared.

Even though the Baby-sitters and all Jake's friends are helping look for him, Kristy still feels horrible. And when the police can't find Jake after almost two days, things look really serious.

Kristy knows she's just a kid, but she's determined to find Jake. Wherever he is...

The book starts off with Kristy baby-sitting for the Kuhns. Even though they're all members of her softball team, the Krushers, she's never actually baby-sat for them. They're going through a rough time because Mr Kuhn has recently left and finalized his divorce to Mrs Kuhn. The kids all miss him very much, but Patsy in particular is convinced that she's seen her father around, despite Laurel insisting that he's in Texas. Jake is particularly upset because his birthday is coming up, and it looks like Mr Kuhn won't be able to make the party. Furthermore, Mr Kuhn invited Jake to join him on a two-week business trip to Europe, but Mrs Kuhn said no, saying that Jake would miss too much school. Kristy soon cheers him up with talk of the party and distracts him with some softball practice. She even tells him that he might be good enough to become a relief pitcher!

Later that week, the Krushers have a game against the Bashers. They lose, but it's okay because everyone played particularly well. Jake doesn't get to pitch, but Kristy promises him that his time will come soon. They're getting ready to head home, when Kristy notices that no one has arrived to pick up Jake. Jake tells her that Mrs Kuhn has gone to the dentist with the girls, and that he has permission to head home alone. Bart and Kristy tell him to hurry, because it looks like it's going to rain. Sure enough, Bart, Kristy and David Michael are caught in a deluge on their way home, having been distracted by work going on at a construction site.

Shortly after arriving home, Kristy gets a phone call from Mrs Kuhn. She wants to know if Kristy has seen Jake. Kristy lets her know that she let Jake walk home alone, worried that she had made a mistake, but Mrs Kuhn quickly confirms that she did give permission for Jake to walk alone. Mrs Kuhn isn't too worried, figuring that Jake probably got stuck somewhere because of the rain. Kristy doesn't think much more about it.

However later that evening, Mrs Kuhn calls again. She still hasn't seen Jake. However, instead of being worried, Mrs Kuhn is more angry: she's convinced that Mr Kuhn must have kidnapped Jake out of spite for her having said no to the Europe trip. At this point, Mrs Kuhn is not too too worried, but she is starting to get really emotional and worked up. Patsy and Laurel spend the night with Stacey, to keep them out of her hair.

Kristy, on the other hand, isn't so convinced that Mr Kuhn took Jake, and is convinced that something horrible must have happened to him. She calls an emergency Club meeting, trying to figure out if there's anything she or the girls can do. They don't come up with any solutions, and before they know it, it's time to leave. Kristy is briefly interviewed by cops, and then her mom picks her and Shannon up. Along the way, they stop by the Kuhns to see if they can offer any help. Kristy is feeling pretty guilty, and doesn't really want to see Mrs Kuhn, but Mrs Kuhn quickly reassures Kristy that she doesn't blame her in any way, and that she's even more convinced that her ex-husband must have taken Jake. Patsy keeps insisting that she's seen his car.

The next day, Kristy gets the bright idea of rounding up everyone she can think of to do a neighbourhood search/canvas. She gets to school and makes an announcement, recruiting some of the older kids to help lead the search. They decide to meet up at the elementary school with Jake's friends and classmates, and then divide up and search. They search everywhere, with Matt Braddock taking the lead in Kristy's group, checking all of Jake's favourite places. They don't find him though. Kristy goes home feeling sick to her stomach about it all, but puts up a brave face since Laurel and Patsy are with her family that night.

Later that evening, Bart's keeping Kristy company, and she tells him about how guilty she feels about everything. They then see a news report about Jake's absence, and it really gets Kristy emotional. Mrs Kuhn keeps calling all night to update Kristy's mom on the situation (they're friends from aerobics class btw). With each lack of concrete news, Kristy doubles down on her resolve to find Jake.

It's now Saturday morning, and Jake has been missing for about 40 hours. Kristy's younger siblings are all worried about being kidnapped, and even Kristy herself wonders if her father would ever do such a thing to her or David Michael. The adults are all still convinced that Mr Kuhn has something to do with Jake's disappearance, especially since they can't find him. Bart comes over, and he and Kristy get organized to search again.

They spend the day searching, stopping by a convenience store that Jake goes to a lot. The man working hasn't seen Jake, but remembers him and wishes the kids luck. Matt Braddock wants to go searching the construction site, but Kristy points out that it's in the opposite direction from his house. Matt insists, telling Kristy about how they were going to find scraps to build a tree house this weekend. Kristy, remembering how enamored Bart and David Michael had been the other day, agrees. At first, it seems like a bust, but eventually Kristy hears a faint voice. Searching, they discover that Jake had fallen through a hole in the floor, and was trapped in an unfinished basement of a house. Bart runs back to the convenience store to get help, while Kristy stays and keeps Jake company. They rescue Jake, he's reunited with Mrs Kuhn, and everything works out in the end.

Turns out Mr Kuhn was on a business trip in Mexico, and hadn't been to Stoneybrook at all. Patsy was just young and confused and missing her dad.

The subplot in this one is that Mary Anne is failing Home Economics. Apparently she's not great at sewing or setting a table, but it all comes to a head when it comes to cooking, specifically Jell-O. Pete Black and other people in their class all tease her about it, particularly her rock hard Jell-O. She spends the whole book bemoaning the fact that she's failing Home Ec and doesn't know how to pass. Then while she's baby-sitting for the Barretts, they want to make Jell-O. As MA finds the Jell-O mix, she accidentally knocks over a bunch of cookie cutters. That gives her the idea to make Jell-O in a shallow pan, make it more solid than usual, and then cut it out with cookie cutters into fun shapes. It works! So MA decides to write down what she did and submit it to Home Ec. It does the trick, and gets her a passing grade. MA later finds out that there's a recipe on every box with instructions on how to do that anyways haha

Oh, and the middle school does some awards ceremony thing at the end, and Mary Anne wins Most Improved in Home Ec and Kristy gets a special award for her perseverance and subsequent rescue of Jake.

Random Thoughts:

• I really liked this one and was looking forward to reading it!
• I really like this one because it involves a very real fear (the disappearance of a child) and is realistic: Kristy and the Club didn't tackle a kidnapper or bust Jake out of a locked basement. They just simply found him.
• Looking at the cover, again Matt Braddock looks hispanic! But then Haley looks Californian blonde like Dawn and her brother! It's always confused me as to how those two are drawn haha
• For some reason, I always think that the "Mary Anne fails home ec" subplot happens in Mystery #5 Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic, even though logically, I know that that makes no sense. A Mary Anne book wouldn't have a Mary Anne subplot haha
• It also makes no sense that Mary Anne is failing home ec. I mean, I'm glad they didn't go with the stereotype of "Kristy is a tomboy and therefore can't do Home Ec!", but it really doesn't make sense for Mary Anne to be failing either. I think it would have been more realistic if she was good at it, but was so shy and her teacher so strict and overbearing, that Mary Anne kept getting flustered and being klutzy, thus messing up recipes and knocking things over when trying to set the table or something.
• To be fair: when I was her age, I fucked up Jell-O too. But that's because I didn't realize you weren't supposed to make it in a metal bowl. Metal bowls were the only bowls we had big enough for a single batch of Jell-O. When you make it in a metal bowl, it develops a hard crust along the curve of the bowl, and then the rest doesn't set well. This went on for a couple of years before I realized my mistake. To this day, I'm still surprised when my Jell-O actually turns out well, despite the fact that I know that that was my mistake, and obviously don't do it anymore.
• I like how Kristy says that now Mrs Kuhn has to get a job, because she's divorced and on her own. I guess Mrs Kuhn wasn't allowed to just simply have a job before now?? haha
• I like how they didn't repeat the whole "ex-husband takes kid to teach a lesson" story from BSC #5
• Although it's funny, because Buddy is the reason why the girls know Jake and the Kuhns haha
• This is the one where Stacey mentions popcorn picnics that she has with her mother, when entertaining the Kuhn girls. This actually stuck with me as a child, and now I occasionally like to experiment with seasonings when I eat popcorn. It also really makes me want to have popcorn haha
• I like how in this one, Kristy acts like a 13 year old, and is treated like a 13 year old. I mean, albeit a mature/responsible 13 year old (no one hides anything from her), but still a child. The cops and parents have quite a few conversations without Kristy. In the later ones, they have Sgt Johnson, who takes the girls super seriously and even treats them almost as equals. It always makes me think that he's a young cop, like 22 years old (despite the fact that his rank is Sergeant, so duh, he can't be that young!) and that the girls are like, 18.
• Like, to the point where sometimes I forget, and I kinda ship him and Abby together. Especially since one of Abby's reasons for not having a boyfriend in #127 is that she just doesn't find any of the boys at SMS mature/attractive and she just doesn't see a point in her dating any of them. So yeahhhhh... I always forget that he's probably like, 35 at least, and Abby is definitely not 18 haha
• I may also be projecting my feelings for Veronica Mars (17/18) and Deputy Leo (who's like, 22??) onto them haha
• I'm surprised the police were allowed to interview Kristy without a guardian present. Now obviously she's not a suspect: they just wanted to know when she last saw Jake, since she's apparently the last one to have seen him. But still. I was always lead to believe that the cops weren't allowed to talk to minors at all without a guardian present. Or is that just on TV?
• This book has a pretty tight timeframe: everything happens in about a week, with some wrap up stuff happening about a week later.

BSC #38: Kristy's Mystery Admirer

Tagline: Who is sending Kristy love letters?

Of all the Baby-sitters, Kristy's the last one anyone would expect to have a secret admirer. But someone is sending her mushy notes with hearts all over them!

Kristy and Shannon are pretty sure the letters are from Bart, Kristy's rival softball coach. But then the notes Kristy receives from her mystery admirer start getting a little weird... and creepy.

Is Bart pulling a practical joke on Kristy? Or do the strange notes mean something more serious? Only the Baby-sitters can find out!

The Krushers are having a game against the Bashers, and actually end up winning the game. The kids are all super-excited about it, and Kristy's super-proud of them. As they're leaving to head home, Bart offers to walk Kristy. They're talking and it's clear that Bart's making an effort to get to know Kristy. He asks her about her life and all sorts of non-softball related things. Kristy's all mystified, as when Bart drops her off, he says they should see each other real soon, maybe even before their next game. Then he walks away, whistling.

A few days later, Shannon calls up Kristy, and insists on coming over immediately after dinner. Turns out someone has left a note for Kristy in Shannon's mailbox. Kristy wonders at how the mailman could have gotten their addresses mixed up, when Shannon reveals that it wasn't delivered by the mailman: it's handwritten and has no address. Shannon comes over, and she and Kristy soon discover that it's a love note from a mystery admirer! Shannon thinks that the note must be from Bart, but Kristy's not convinced. She calls Bart up that night, but neither of them say anything about the note, so Kristy just drops it.

Kristy receives another note, and Shannon and the rest of the Club are convinced it has to be Bart. He's the only guy who has shown a serious interest in Kristy, plus he lives in the neighbourhood for easy delivering. Kristy still isn't convinced though, because whenever she talks to Bart, he never gives anything away. Anyways, Kristy decides it doesn't matter, and invites Bart to the Halloween Hop at their school at the end of the month.

Anyways, Kristy keeps receiving notes. She likes them a lot, and keeps them on her at all times. After she gets the fourth one, she shows them all to her friends at lunchtime at school. Cokie Mason and her friends are nearby, attempting to eavesdrop and snickering. Kristy assumes they're making fun of her, and quickly hides the notes.

At this point, the notes take a sinister turn and Kristy starts freaking out. If they really are from Bart, does that mean he's a psycho? Does he have a split personality? Delusions? Is he a serial killer??  Then Kristy starts to think... maybe they're not from Bart at all. Maybe they're from some random psycho, who wants to kidnap Kristy for ransom, because Watson is a millionaire. This keeps Kristy up at night, and she starts getting stressed and paranoid.

Shannon and her friends point out that it's unlikely it's a random guy. If someone wanted to extort money from Watson, they'd probably take Andrew or Karen, since they're 1) his biological kids and 2) smaller and easier to take. Shannon thinks maybe it is Bart, and maybe he's trying to psych Kristy out so that she's not on top of her game when the Bashers play the Krushers again. Kristy can't believe he'd do something so lowly and cowardly, and stops talking to Bart. Shannon starts ignoring Bart too.

After days of Kristy evading Bart on the phone and on the softball field, Bart finally goes to Kristy's and confronts her. Kristy shows him all the notes and starts accusing him of writing them. Bart finally confesses that, yes, he wrote the notes. But only the nice ones, the first four ones. Not the later creepy, weird ones. They have a bit of a fight, but quickly reconcile. But that still leaves the question of who sent the notes? Shannon comes over to help them discuss it, and it's quickly determined that because Kristy brought the notes to school, a lot of people know about them. Still, they can't come up with any answers.

Finally it's the day of a big game between the Bashers and the Krushers. Kristy's all distracted and stressed because of everything, plus organizing the game and the refreshments. When she gets to the field, she's surprised to see Cokie Mason and her friends there. Cokie plays it off like she's just there to support Kristy and is interested in softball. She mentions that Kristy's seemed depressed, to which Kristy retorts that she's not, that she has a boyfriend, and that they're so happy they're going to be together forever. That's when Cokie lets slip something that was written in one of the creepy letters. Kristy puts two and two together, and realizes that Cokie was the one who sent the notes. Cokie reacts that she wouldn't have done it if it weren't for what the Club did to her and her friends "last Halloween", and if Kristy hadn't have made it so damn easy for her by flaunting those notes around. Kristy points out that they only pranked Cokie because she was so horrible to Mary Anne in the first place, trying to get Logan to break up with her. Kristy gets the last laugh though, because she says she'll make sure that everyone at SMS and at Bart's school know what Cokie did, so that no one will want to date her.

The game goes off without a hitch. The Krushers win again. Kristy and Bart decide to go to the Halloween Hop dressed as lobsters, which they win prizes for. All's well that end's well.

There isn't really much of a subplot in this one. The Krushers are doing really well, and in fact win their first game against the Bashers in this book, as previously noted. Bart and Kristy decide to up the stakes by having a World Series game. The Krushers don't do so well for a bit, but eventually come through and win the game. Shannon starts attending games, and Buddy Barrett accidentally beans her in the head with a softball and develops a crush on her. Sadly, that's just dropped out of nowhere.

Also: it is Halloween, and the Pikes decide to have a haunted house in their house, and charge admission. Only we never hear of this again haha

Random Thoughts

• Omg, Bart is totes my ideal boy: he plays guitar in a garage band! My 13 year old self would've gone nuts over him. And my high school self. Okay, and even my adult self, kinda haha How come I don't remember this?? Does this ever come up again??
• I find it weird that Bart would leave love notes for Kristy. What kind of 13 year old boy does that? I don't even think Logan would do that for Mary Anne. More proof that Bart is my man haha
• Haha Kristy compares Shannon's looks to Meryl Streep. It's hilarious, because the first time I read the book (and pretty much the entire 5 years or so that I was super-into the books), I had no idea who the eff Meryl Streep was, and probably glossed over it. Now I do know who Meryl Streep is. Omg this is amazing! Shannon is definitely officially my favourite baby-sitter now
• For the record, this is what Meryl Streep looked like in 1990, at the time of publication. She's a good looking woman now, but I always preface it with "for her age". Holy jesus murphy, she was GORGEOUS when she was younger! And yeah, definitely "interesting" looks, but still so so so attractive!

• I love how Kristy points out that the Bashers are pretty pointless. All the kids are big enough/good enough for Little League. So why aren't they on a real team? And since they're all kids from Bart's neighbourhood, they definitely have the money to afford being on a real team. So yeah.
• Even though Kristy and Shannon live across the street from each other, we don't hear more about Shannon. It never really seemed to me like they were super good friends. That's why it surprises me when Shannon calls Kristy out of the blue at the start of the book, just to chat. I definitely only called my very best friends on the phone when I was that age, and definitely no one who lived within eyesight of my house haha
• Kristy mentions that she's surprise that Shannon is so into the love notes. She figured a girl as popular and as pretty as Shannon would be like Stacey: guys lining up and out the door. She also mentions that Shannon "gets to wear that make-up", which strikes me as odd, because unlike MA, Kristy's never been explicitly told she can't wear make-up. She just chooses not to.
• This does make me wonder at that throwaway line from SS #2, where Kristy mentions that she'll occasionally put on some mascara if she knows she's going to see Bart. Makes me wonder if maybe there's not more to Kristy than what the characters usually describe. 
• When Kristy points out that the "i" in her name is dotted with a heart, and that the only person she knows who does that is Stacey, she thinks maybe the note came from a girl. Shannon scoffs and says, "A girl who wants to go steady with you? Kristy, grow up." I wonder how that would be written today. I wonder if they'd just take the line out altogether or what.
• Fans often think that Kristy might be gay, just because she's never really shown an interest in dating and clothes, the way her friends do. Plus she's an athletic tomboy. They often pair her up with Abby, because of that book where Abby insists that she's not going to date a guy simply because he likes her and simply because everyone thinks she has to have a date for Valentine's Day. While I'm not opposed to there being LGBT characters in the BSC, I don't like that people automatically go to Kristy and Abby for such obvious and superficial reasons. It's totally possible to simply not be interested in dating. My best friend wasn't interested in dating for the longest time. Not in middle school, not in high school... almost not even in university. She just thought all guys our age were dumb and that all the dating drama wasn't worth it for them. In her last year of university, she finally started dating this friend of hers from work. He was her first and only boyfriend ever, and they just got married. I've had a million boyfriends, and am in no way planning on getting married any time soon. Everyone feels differently about relationships and people, and lack of interest does not indicate sexual orientation.
• Unless of course, you have zero interest at all: then you might be asexual. But my best friend often talked about celebrities and fictional characters that she liked, and she always dreamed of getting married and having kids. She just didn't think anyone our age that we knew was worth her time for the longest time.
• That being said, I would love it if Shannon was gay. It would go against the stereotype of "athletic girls are essentially boys, and therefore lesbians".
• No wonder Bart doesn't say anything at first: he probably thinks that 1) it's working and 2) Kristy has probably already figured out that it's him. The day he sends the first note, Kristy calls him up that night to chat. The next time he sends a note, she asks him to the Halloween dance at her school! Everything's working out exactly how he wants. Then, just as he was probably going to say something, Kristy stops talking to him altogether! So of course, he realizes something is wrong and stops sending notes.
• Oh god, the BSC time-warp is in full effect here: they mention what Cokie and her friends pulled "last Halloween", and how Stacey wasn't around for it. It's true: that all happened when Stacey was back in New York. Which was during grade 8. But they're still in grade 8. OMG WTF IS HAPPENING???
• Stacey's health is still being a problem. She's not particularly sick, she's just not particularly well either.

BSC #20: Kristy and the Walking Disaster

Tagline: Guess which one's the walking disaster!

They're lean, mean, they're the pride of Stoneybrook. Who are they? They're Kristy's Krushers!

When Kristy sees how much her little brothers and sister want to play on a softball team, she starts a rag-tag team of her own. Maybe Kristy's Krushers aren't world champions (how could they be, with Jackie Rodowsky, walking disaster, playing for them?), but nobody beats them when it comes to team spirit.

Now Bart's Bashers have challenged the Krushers to a real live game. It's bad enough that the Bashers truly are lean and mean - but what's worse is that Kristy has a crush on the Bashers' coach. A crush with a capital C!

Kristy is watching her younger siblings and their friends, when they all lament that they can't play softball. Some of them are too young for Little League, and all of them are too bad and/or embarrassed to play. Amanda Delaney mentions that Bart Taylor, who lives in the neighbourhood, has a team of his own, and suggests that people could join. So Kristy heads on over to check this guy out.

And check him out she does! Because Bart Taylor is very cute! Kristy is immediately smitten. Through her conversation with Bart, she discovers that Bart doesn't have anymore room on his team for more than a kid or two, which leads to Kristy deciding that she would just start her own team. Kristy decides that she'll take anyone she can, regardless of how old they are or how skilled (or unskilled) they are. She'll even ask Watson for help organizing it all.

Kristy tells the girls about her team, and immediately they start asking around and keeping an eye open for any charges who seem like they might be interested. Soon Kristy has about twenty kids, including (but not limited to) Claire, Margo and Nicky Pike, Matt Braddock, Nina Marshall, Myriah and Gabbie Perkins, Jamie Newton, her own siblings, and of course, Jackie Rodowsky. Overall, she discovers that the average age of her team is 5.8 years old. Feeling overwhelmed, Kristy turns to Watson, who helps her figure out what she's doing. Together they find a place and time to meet, and what the purpose of the team would be and how to structure the practices. The other girls from the Club agree to help Kristy run the practices.

Kristy's first practice is a relative success. Dawn and Mallory help her to keep all the kids corralled and accounted for, and quite a few parents stick around to chill, so Kristy is not left on her own with 20 kids. She holds just a friendly game so she can evaluate what skills everyone has, since she hadn't seen most of them play at that point. The team also decides on a name and a uniform: plain white t-shirts with iron-on letters that spell out "Krushers".

Kristy holds a couple of more practices with her team, and sees that although they really suck, they have a lot of heart. She also starts to see improvement and can pick out which of her players might actually be on to something. Practice gets cut early because Jackie takes off his catcher's mask and finds himself getting beaned in the face with a ball, which knocks one of his teeth loose.

Bolstered by her success, Kristy decides to stop by Bart's again to talk to him. There we learn that Bart's team is mostly older kids (7-9) who just aren't ready for Little League yet. They get to chatting, and Kristy wanting to prove that her team wasn't full of babies, challenges Bart's Bashers to a game in two and a half weeks.

The news of the big game bolsters everyone's enthusiasm, and Kristy starts assigning permanent positions to certain people to get them practicing on certain skills. Haley, Vanessa and Charlotte decide to be cheerleaders (well, Charlotte doesn't want to cheer, she just wants to spend time with her friends). The team also decides to sell refreshments at the game, and to use the proceeds to get them all matching hats. Again, the Krushers are full of spirit, and never give up. The practice is yet again cut short because of Jackie, on this time it's because he hit a homerun and broke the principal's window (they're practicing at Stoneybrook Elementary's field). Kristy is excited for her team.

At the next practice, Bart and some of the Bashers show up. The Bashers essentially act like hoodlums, hassling and heckling the Krushers, all the while having two of them run interference with Bart so that he's too distracted to notice how mean they're being. They essentially make all the kids cry, but it's Jackie being upset that finally leads to Kristy calling short the practice. Kristy, despite her crush on Bart, is angry that he can't control his team and that he couldn't see what they were doing.

The day before the big game, Kristy has one last practice with the team. Here, they play out a full game, trying to get a feel of what tomorrow would be like. Everyone plays great, and Kristy is super proud. Charlotte even considers cheerleading, and Kristy realizes just how much the team means to everyone and how much everyone's confidence has been boosted by it. Bart shows up for the last little bit, and walks Kristy home. Kristy is excited, but also confused, because he's technically her rival coach. She decides to keep things civil and baseball-related, leaving them to have an awkward good-bye.

Finally, it's the big game. Things get off to a rough start. Nicky Pike, their best pitcher, is sick. Then when the Bashers arrive, we find out that they have not only more players than the Krushers and are older, but they're also all boys with matching hats and t-shirts. Plus they have four cheerleaders. They pretty much show-up the Krushers in all aspects. The Krushers started off at bat, and got a bajillion outs (okay, only two, cuz duh), before achieving three homeruns. Kristy is worried that the team will only see the outs and the Bashers jeering, but they instead take strength in their three runs.

The Bashers get 6 runs on their turn, and then it's time for the Krushers again. Jackie, being a disaster, somehow manages to throw a bat into the refreshment stands, killing a cake and half the lemonade. He then strikes out, but not before accidentally launching his bat again. Of course, everyone laughs at him. The next thing Kristy knows, Jackie is pretending to trip and hurt his ankle, telling her that he better now play anymore. Kristy talks him through it though, and convinces him to come back into the game.

Long story short: the Krushers never give up. Even when the Bashers are mean. In the end, they give the Bashers a run for their money and end the game 16-11 for the Bashers. Most importantly, Charlotte starts cheering and everyone's confidence is boosted. When the game is over, Kristy is super proud of them, saying that even though they technically lost, it was a huge win for them, as they surprised the Bashers with how good they could be.

The book ends with Bart walking Kristy home and apologizing for how mean the Bashers have been. He admits that he was worried about the Krushers and that they are a far better team than he gave them credit for. They arrange to have another game in two weeks' time, but in the meantime, he was hoping that Kristy would want to be his friend and maybe go out to ballgame sometime or something. Kristy, of course, says yes.

There was no real subplot in this one. Mostly just about how Jackie is a walking disaster, but almost never gives up, no matter what he does or what happens to him.

Random Thoughts:

• Jessi is mentioned as having a steady job! Yay continuity!
• Bart Taylor is very, very, very cute apparently. He has a "crooked smile", "deep, deep brown eyes", an "even, straight, perfect nose", and "hair that looked like it might have been styled at one of those hair places for guys" haha
• I really really don't like Jackie. He's annoying as fuck. I don't understand how he can break so many things and be allowed to get away with it all with a smile. Even his 4 year old brother Archie is allowed to take lessons and classes! I guess the Rodowskys are putting all of the money from what would be Jackie's classes into repairing and replacing everything he destroys.
• Kristy allows Mary Anne to bring Tigger to a meeting. Kristy of the later books would never allow that. But this is when Kristy was still allowed to be a person, and not a dictator, hence her mild interest in boys and relaxed rules.
• We get a small glimpse of Janine when Tigger gets loose during the Club meeting. This just further reminds me of how much I wish we had the series from Janine's perspective. I should totes do a fanfiction of that. Or find one. I'm sure one exists haha
• What the fuck is the point of Bart's team? Most of them are Little League age, and they don't seem to be horrible at the game. Who have they been playing this whole time? Or have they just been like the Krushers, and played practice games against themselves?
• I actually really like the breakdown of how Kristy runs the Krushers: they meet twice a week, where Kristy will coach and hold a workshop for them for half of the time, then they take a break, then since there's so many of them (and really no one else besides the Bashers to play against), they divide up in half and play practice games against themselves. It actually sounds like a fun and productive way to get kids more interested in baseball. If the kids ever aged, I could see many of them going on to join Little League and being better than their other teammates because of their experience on the Krushers.
• I love Kristy's assessment of guys her age: 50% of them are normal, and 50% of them are jerks. Furthermore, in her neighbourhood, 50% are plain, and then 50% are snobs. So that gives her a 25% chance of getting a plain jerk, a 25% chance of getting a snobby jerk, a 25% chance of getting a normal snob and a 25% chance of getting someone who was normal and plain.
• I think it's really sweet that Kristy immediately thinks of Watson when planning her team. She admits that Watson's not very athletic at all (which goes with all the descriptions/impressions we've seen of him thus far: he's older, balding, a slight paunch, and eventually **SPOILER ALERT** we'll discover that he has a bad heart), but she knows he's a huge baseball fan like she is, and that he's great at organizing things and managing things. 
• I love the Perkins girls, even though they're not realistic at all. They make such a big deal out of Gabbie being two and a half years old. Those extra 6 months must be like a lifetime, because they often include her with the older kids (albeit pointing out that she's the youngest), instead of roping her in with the babies. For instance, in this book they specifically mention Marnie Barrett, who is 2 years old, and Kristy mentions that "When you go places with a two-year-old, you have to bring along an awful lot of equipment - toys, munchies, baby wipes, extra clothes, you name it."
• Again, I can't stand Karen. As if she mispells the name of her team, just because it's not grammatically correct. I mean, I'm all for proper spelling, but in this case, she's the one making the mistake. I bet you she's the kind of person who'd tell a person with an unusual spelling of their own name that their name is spelled wrong.
• I love the continuity of bringing up Charlotte and the pageant again.
• Again, I wish we had had a series about Haley, Charlotte, Vanessa and Becca instead of one about Karen (if we had to have a series aimed at younger girls at all).
• We meet the Kuhns in this one. It's interesting, because I can't think of a time when we've met a family of kids when they weren't being baby-sat by the Club. Here, we meet the Kuhns because they're friends with the Barretts. We learn that Jake is apparently a bit overweight =/
• Ugh, they mentioned brownies in the book, and now I want brownies >_< haha I fail at making brownies. Best case scenario, they're more like cake squares. Worst case scenario, they're dry as fuck. I can never make moist fudgy brownies like I want haha
• Considering the Bashers are 1) older and 2) have been a team far longer, the fact that the Krushers only lost by 5 runs is a pretty big deal.