BSC #41: Mary Anne vs Logan

Tagline:The Baby-sitters thought Mary Anne and Logan would be together forever...

Lately, Mary Anne's been feeling like she and Logan are spending too much time together. They fight over silly things. And Mary Anne never gets to do what she wants to - like read, and baby-sit, and be with her friends.

But when Mary Anne suggests that she and Logan see less of each other, Logan takes it all the wrong way.

Could this really be the end of Mary Anne and Logan?

Our story opens with Mary Anne getting read for a job at the Prezziosos. Just as she's about to head out the door, Logan calls her, wanting to go out with her. When MA tells him that she's got a sitting a job, he tells her to just get Dawn to cover. MA says no, which causes Logan to try to guilt-trip her into wanting to see him. MA puts her foot down, and heads off to her job. There, Logan calls several times, just to see if MA could leave early and/or somehow see him. Finally, Logan simply asks when MA is free. When she answers him, he makes plans for a date that night, not even asking for MA's input, and then hangs up the phone. This leaves MA feeling confused about her relationship with Logan, and wanting to have more of an identity.

That weekend, MA has a day off. It's Saturday, she has no homework, no plans, nothing that's demanding her attention. Dawn and Sharon are out of the house, and Richard is in his office doing work. MA sighs with relief, looking forward to a nice relaxing day with a book and her fireplace. Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. It's Logan, and he wants to take MA out for a day in the snow. MA hesitates, but Logan tugs on her heartstrings, citing that it'd be romantic and that he has the whole day planned out. They start by going ice-skating. MA starts to enjoy herself, but after awhile, gets too cold and wants to stop. Luckily for her, Logan agrees, and without another word, he whisks her off to his next planned activity. He spots some kids building a snowman, and drags MA over to help them out. MA's not getting any warmer, and is starting to seriously feel miserable. Logan's too busy to notice, and once the snowman is done, shuttles MA onward, further into the park. MA speaks up about feeling cold, so Logan buys her a hot chocolate. It helps, but quickly MA gets cold again. Logan dismisses her feelings, saying that she can't possibly be cold because he isn't cold! He wants to take MA out on the ice again for more ice skating. Finally, enough is enough: MA insists on going home, and so Logan takes her back, all in a huff.

A week later, MA comes home early from a date with Logan. They were supposed to go out for dinner and a movie. They did go out for dinner, where Logan ordered for both himself and MA. He orders MA's usual, which was not what MA had wanted that night, and the waiter leaves without letting MA have any input. MA's annoyed, but not willing to put up a fuss. However, after dinner, Logan and MA can't agree on a movie. Logan wants to see Halloween Pt 3 and MA wants to the Music Man. They can't agree, so finally MA asks to be taken home. Anyways, upon returning, MA and Richard have a talk. Richard's concerned because MA seems tired and not herself, getting an unusually low grade on a test. He thinks she should limit the time she spends with Logan. MA agrees. MA calls up Logan and asks him to cool their relationship for a few weeks. She doesn't want to break up, but she needs some time and space to think.

Upon returning to school, MA's depressed to see that Logan is ignoring her. She wanted to see him less, not cut him out of her life altogether. She spends the week crying and being down, before finally confessing to her friends that she maybe sorta apparently broke up with Logan. At their Club meeting, Logan calls, asking for MA to baby-sit his siblings, since they were missing her. The catch: he needs her to baby-sit on Valentine's Day, because he'll be busy. MA bravely accepts.

In the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day, Logan keeps his distance. MA starts going crazy, thinking about how he plans for the night. She starts imagining him going out with a new girl, a girl with an exotic name like Olivia, who is outgoing and essentially the exact opposite of MA. MA thinks about this so much, she starts to think Olivia is real, leading MA to actually mention her to the other girls. MA runs out of the meeting all embarrassed and confused.

That night, she heads to Logan's to baby-sit. There, Logan greets her in a tux, and she's even more hurt. Then Logan reveals that it was all just a ruse, and that he planned a romantic dinner for him and her together. MA reminds him that she wanted to cool things off between them, and Logan said that that was what he did: it's now time to heat things back up again. He gives her all these presents, and MA leaves feeling more confused.

Eventually MA realizes that while people can fight and not always agree, it's important that they try to learn from the fights and to be understanding. MA doesn't like that Logan planned a surprise for her (she hates surprises) and worse, she hates that he didn't talk to her at all about starting their relationship up again. In fact, he didn't talk to her at all about her feelings about anything over the course of the book. MA decides that enough is enough: she breaks up with Logan once and for all.

The subplot in this one is Jenny Prezzioso. Mrs Prezzioso is finally about to give birth, and Jenny is not pleased. She's used to being an only child, and resents how the baby will need so much attention. She acts super-bratty, but completely understandable throughout the entire book. The girls keep trying to convince Jenny that the baby will not be the end of the world, that her parents will still make time for her. Jenny's having none of it. Mr P asks for the girls to help him plan a surprise baby shower for Mrs P, and everything goes off without a hitch. Finally, Mrs P gives birth, and it's a baby girl named Andrea. When they bring her home, Jenny is so excited, that she forgets that she ever hated or dreaded her baby sister coming.

Oh, and there's a chapter of Kristy baby-sitting for her siblings, which of course includes Karen. Here, we learn that Karen is having a fight with her pretend-boyfriend Ricky. They were supposed to get pretend-married, but now she's not so sure...

Surprise: we'll find out in my next entry, because I happen to own Little Sister #15 Karen's in Love! haha

Random Thoughts:

• I have no idea why, but this was definitely one of my favourites as a child. I remember reading this one over and over and over again (like, not in a row, but just a lot). As an adult, I definitely still like it. I can relate to MA wanting time to herself. I would be super pissed if I was looking forward to a day off, and someone (whether it be my boyfriend or my friends) just showed up randomly on my doorstep being like, "HEY! I PLANNED A WHOLE AFTERNOON TOGETHER! LET'S GO!"
• I get that Jenny is young, and most likely misinterpreted her parents, and that her parents are super-stressed and excited for the new baby, but... I really feel bad for Jenny. Her parents should have totally handled her better. They get her a life-sized doll to show Jenny how to care for a baby, in order to help her understand her new sister and prepare her for it. But unless Jenny is exaggerating (and knowing what we know of Mrs P, probably not), they make her practice every single day. Poor Jenny is under the impression that she'll have to take care of this baby! They really needed to sit her down and talk to her some more and reassure her.
• If I lived with someone who did the exact same job as me (we worked retail together, or baby-sat, or whatever), depending on how much I needed the money, there's a pretty good chance I would ask to switch. As a general rule, I prefer not to work. However, MA is in no way obligated to do that, and I would most certainly be upset and incredulous at someone insisting that I do it.
• As someone who gets cold very easily, I sympathise with MA. I love ice skating, but eventually my toes get too cold as well
• I always love it when the books reference real movies and real books. I don't know if AMM meant for Logan to reference a real movie though. Halloween Pt 3 came out in October 1982. Logan mentions it had been out for "awhile", so it's somewhat maybe slightly plausible that it would still be playing in January... however this book came out in 1991, not 1982. Does that mean the story is taking place in 1982?? The first book in the series (back when the girls were in grade 7 and time was passing normally) didn't even come out until 1986. It's not like Music Man, which MA states is playing at the "oldies theatre".

BSC Super Special #3: Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation

Tagline: Ready, aim... fire! The Baby-sitters are off for a week of winter fun!

A week of skiing, skating, and snowball fights. Why can't homework always be like that?

Every year, Stoneybrook Middle School (the whole school!) gets invited to Leicester Lodge in Vermont for a week of winter adventure!

This trip sure isn't like any other! A busload of little kids unexpectedly needs baby-sitters. Mary Anne uncovers a ghost in the lodge. Claudia and Stacey both fall in love with handsome French skiers. Kristy is helping her team win the Winter War... while California Dawn can barely stand up in her skates. And if it doesn't stop snowing, SMS may be snowbound until spring!

Super Special Gimmick: Mary Anne is both the historian for the trip, as well as compiling a journal to give to Logan, since he couldn't come due to a pre-booked family vacation.

Alright, before I break things down into the individual girls' plots, I'll kinda give an overall recap, since everything is kinda centred on one thing.

As the description says, the girls (and their entire school) is headed off on their annual winter trip. This time around though, the weather is particularly bad. Even before they left, there were massive snowfalls and snowstorms being predicted. Everyone thought that the trip was going to be cancelled. But it doesn't, and everyone leaves anyways. On their way to the lodge, it starts snowing really heavily. The bus the girls was on skids off the road, but with some help from another bus, manages to get back on track. They arrive to the lodge way late (had to move super slowly on account of the weather), but otherwise in tact. However, shortly after they arrive, two adults stumble in. They're the chaperones for a group of elementary students who were supposed to be staying at the lodge. They got hit bad by the snow, and ended up crashing into a tree off the side of the road. Everyone is okay, but the adults (who were obviously sitting at the front of the bus) have various injuries. Rather than sending the kids home, the BSC volunteer to look out for the kids and watch them and help out the adults when they get back from the emergency room.

In addition to this, there's a Winter War going on. There's two teams: Red and Blue. Kristy is the captain of her team, and Claudia is on the other team. They're super competitive because they're the two best skiers of the school. Other events include ice skating, snow sculpting, downhill skiing and cross-country skiing. There's also going to be a talent show and a dance.

Also: students get extra credit for volunteering to help run and organize events and things.

Kristy is the captain of the Blue Team and is helping to organize all the events in general. Kristy ends up getting way way way competitive, to the point where it actually ruins people's lives. Her first chapter is about helping to rescue the elementary school kids, but then afterwards, it's all about the Winter War. When her team loses the first event (more on that later), Kristy doubles down. At first, she'd been encouraging everyone to participate, but then decides that she doesn't need anymore klutzes on her team. She worries about potential snowfall cancelling the snow sculpting competition, which she doesn't want because she thinks she has it in the bag: Ashley Wyeth is on her team, and Claudia is stuck judging, so she's out of the competition. When Claudia and the teacher award someone else from Claudia's team, Kristy gets really nasty to Claudia. Realizing that her team now needs to win the cross-country skiing portion, Kristy goes back to recruiting. She figures that by having sheer numbers, she can hedge her bets. She manages to convince a bunch of reluctant people into participating, including a seventh-grader named Jay. Of course, that fails miserably, and Jay ends up breaking his ankle. At first, Kristy just seems upset at having lost the entire Winter War, to which people are like, "wtf Kristy? priorities!", but then it turns out that she's also feeling super ridiculously guilty about having pushed Jay into participating. She ends up breaking down and crying to Mary Anne, but eventually moving on and apologizing to Jay.

Mary Anne is the trip historian, which means she needs to write a short report on the lodge's history, and chronicle how the week goes. However, she spends most of the time being mopey about Logan being in Aruba. She starts thinking he's going to leave her for some gorgeous outgoing girl he'll meet on the beach. She makes everything about her, and gets into a fight with Dawn (more on that in a minute), and doesn't even realize what she's doing. She also tries to avoid Mrs Halliday, the gym teacher, thinking that the teacher hated her from last year (Mary Anne's not exactly athletic). The gym teacher sets Mary Anne straight, and she starts feeling better. She interviews the workers at the lodge, and is convinced that there's a ghost. Eventually, she's set straight, and even better, Logan calls her and tells her that he misses her, so everything ends up alright. She finishes up her report, and even has time to write a whole new skit for Jessi to use in her Talent Show.

Dawn is not having a good time. She was originally looking forward to the trip, because despite being a California Girl, she isn't completely horrible at winter sports (at least, considering she's not even remotely athletic like Kristy is). Dawn's even gone skiing a few times when she lived in California! But things go all wrong for Dawn in the Winter War. In the first event, ice skating, Dawn is a total klutz and falls down a million times, and even drops the baton during the relay. Everyone laughs at her, and she feels bad for letting Kristy down (they're on the same team). Determined not to have a repeat of that, Dawn goes to the practice for the snowball fight, but soon leaves after Alan Gray is a jerk to her. She then decides to practice skiing (something she likes and knows), but the fails at getting on the ski lift. Completely frustrated and discouraged, she retreats to the lodge, where she hopes to find a sympathetic ear in Mary Anne. Of course, Mary Anne is all caught up in her "troubles" with Logan, and dismisses Dawn's feelings, making Dawn feel worse. Dawn later bonds with Pinky, one of the elementary school kids, and Dawn realizes that she's been kind of apprehensive and tense about everything, because this is her first time being away with people she sees every day, and it's important to her not to make a fool of herself. Of course, this puts added pressure on her, which makes everything worse. So Dawn decides to stop being so hard on herself. And that's pretty much it for Dawn. She eventually makes up with Mary Anne, and yeah.

Stacey meets a boy named Pierre, who lives up by the border ("almost in Canada"). That's about it. They ski together lots. Stacey pines for him. She says that she's never met anyone like him, that all her past crushes have meant absolutely nothing. That's her first chapter. Her second and last chapter is their last night together, at the dance. They talk about how they have to say goodbye, but it'll be okay because they'll write each other lots. Pierre kisses Stacey and Stacey vows to never wash her hand again (it has Pierre's address on it). Boring.

Claudia also meets a French ski dude (because apparently all skiiers are French? All French guys ski??), only he's older. His name is Guy (rhymes with "ski") and he's like, 25. But it's okay, because Claudia knows that true love transcends age. Anyways, Claudia's a little bummed because she's agreed to be the judge of the snow sculpting contest, which means she can't participate. (But it also means she gets extra credit, which we all know she needs. Badly.) However, she's really excited for the downhill skiing contest, since Claudia is indubitably the best skiier in the entire school. Just to make sure though, she signs up for some lessons, which is where she meets Guy. Guy takes a shine to her, and offers her a private lesson. Claudia is all giddy, and Guy keeps giving her tips and pointers (most importantly reminding her to concentrate and to stop being distracted). Claudia of course tells everyone what's happening, so that what happens next is especially embarrassing. After the ski competition (which Claudia aces), Guy decides to introduce Claudia to... his family! Yes, not only is he 25 and married, not only does he have a baby, but he actually has a little girl as well! Poor Claudia is heart-broken, but reminds herself that she still has Will.

Jessi in charge of the Talent Night, as part of her role for extra credit. Her story is pretty boring. For Talent Night, she holds auditions, and the kids who actually have a good act are allowed to perform their individual acts, and everyone else, if they want to, can do a skit or group performance, as organized by her. Jessi also helps the elementary school kids put together a skit of their own. Of course, for Talent Night, Jessi does ballet, which is special for her, because it's the first time she's performed it in front of her classmates and she still feels a lot of prejudice from them. Jessi has a running subplot with one of the elementary school kids, Pinky, who Jessi thinks is racist against her. Turns out that Pinky is just incredibly homesick and is being nasty to everyone, which people point out to Jessi, but it takes Jessi awhile to realize it. She also helps Mallory build a snow sculpture as part of the Winter War.

Mallory apparently has learned nothing from SS1, and decides to try the whole spying thing again. She ends up failing even harder this time, and gets pretty much none of the facts right. (She even thnks Mrs Halliday, the gym teacher, is crying because of unrequited love and rejection from the vice principal.) Eventually, Mallory concludes that she doesn't need to hone her observation skills, she needs to acquire them. (She also needs to learn to be more objective and stop jumping to conclusions, but since she wants to be a fiction writer, it's not as important and her imagination will serve her well.) After she abandons her spy pursuits, she then spends the rest of the book freaking out about the dance. Apparently, she has never really danced before and is afraid of making a fool of herself. Mallory tries to find excuses to get out of the dance, but eventually goes and discovers that it's not that big of a deal after all. She even dances with a boy from her math class, named Justin Price.

Random Thoughts:

• Totes not my favourite Super Special. At all. Everyone has such stupid, petty problems, and pretty much everyone is super self-absorbed. The only mildly likeable character is Dawn, and we don't see nearly enough of her. Overall, this is just really boring.
• I'm surprised we got another Super Special so soon. Only 4 books have gone by since the last one!
• This trip sounds ridiculous. They just close up shop for the entire week and transport everyone over? Plus it seems crazy to expect parents to pay for 3 trips (assuming their child goes to SMS all three years). Yeah, I know there's fundraisers and apparently the Georges subsidize the trip... but wtf! I think this would be far more realistic if it was like, a grade 8 treat. Plus, it would still be a great opportunity for the sixth-graders and the seventh-graders back home. With all those available classrooms, they could maybe do a week of special interest courses and studies. And the 8th grade students who didn't want to or couldn't afford to go on the trip could shadow a teacher for the week, and be their helper and learn about school from the other side of the desk.
• There's some foreshadowing in this one about Mary Anne and Dawn preparing in case their parents get married and they get to share a room. However, they fail at being bunkmates.
• This one has those weird drawings again. I know the next one for sure has illustrations. I like the illustrations much better. 
• I love how Dawn is always described as an individual, but in this one, she outright admits to caring what others think of her.
• It's super weird for me, as a 27 year old who is more or less single (I mean, I'm in a relationship, but it's definitely not super-serious or marriage worthy anytime soon), to read about a 25 year old being married with TWO kids. Like, wtf! But this was like, 25 years ago, so you know, different times haha (and some people still get married young and start a family right away too)
• Mallory super annoys me in this one. I can see why people don't like her as much sometimes.

BSC #3: The Truth About Stacey

Front Cover: Stacey's different... and it's harder on her than anyone knows.

Back Cover: The truth about Stacey is that she has diabetes. Nobody knows... except her friends from the Baby-sitters Club.

But even they don't know the real truth about Stacey. Stacey's problem is her parents. They won't admit she has the disease, and they drag her to practically every doctor in America!

Seeing so many doctors made Stacey lose one friend, and she won't let it happen again. Especially now - when the Baby-sitters Club needs her more than ever!

Out of the first 4 books in the series, I've always liked this one best. I'm not entirely sure why. I think I've just always liked reading about Stacey and her parents and the divorce and the diabetes. It was different and interesting compare to the problems the other girls faced.

The main plot of this one is that Stacey's parents have gone overboard with trying to deal with her diabetes, and they keep dragging her to a million doctors. Each doctor tells them more of the same, but always suggests a slight variation on treatment, and it's stressing Stacey out. The latest doctor her parents have planned for her is a holistic doctor who essential swindles people into doing very expensive and unnecessary (but not harmful) treatments. Stacey's had enough, and with the help of Dr. Johanssen, she manages to convince her parents into easing up and letting her have more say in what goes on.

The subplot in this one is the new Baby-Sitters Agency that pops up. They're a bunch of older students who can baby-sit, and soon the BSC finds themselves out of jobs. After a few desperate ideas from Kristy (and a great one: the Kid-Kits!), the girls eventually realize that the Agency is full of subpar sitters and that all they can do is be the best that they can be, and hope that they bounce back. Things come to a head when one of the Agency sitters neglects Jamie Newton, and the girls find him playing too close to the street on a cold snowy day without his hat and mittens. The girls then decide to face Mrs Newton, who then calls the other parents and soon everything is back to normal.

Other things of note: Mrs Newton has Lucy, and Charlotte Johanssen is 7 years old and skips to the third grade. I can't wait for her to meet Becca and Hailey. I always thought a series about the three of them would have been interesting (for 8 year olds).

Random Thoughts:

• I was always really fascinated by this cover. I remember seeing it in the library at school when I was younger, back when I had just started reading chapter books. At the time, I was reading the Little Sister series. But I would always see this book alongside them, and would always pick it up. That being said, once I started reading BSC and really looked at the cover (especially compared to the covers from the 100+ books, written in the late 1990s), I realized how chubby Stacey and Charlotte looked. Adorable little chubsters. It didn't bother me before reading the series, because yeah, they look like normal '80s kids, but upon reading the series and seeing Stacey constantly (especially in this one) described as "thin" or even "underweight", the cover seems particularly jarring. Stacey definitely looks older than 12 here. I'd put her at maybe 14 or 15. She reminds me of Blair from The Facts of Life haha
• Oddly enough, it wasn't until recently (like the last year or so) that I realized just how terrible Stacey's outfit was. A green sweatshirt with a pink Hawaiian shirt over top?? Gross. It's still one of my favourite covers though.
• I know it's been brought up by lots of people in the fandom, but the whole "diabetes=AIDS" overtones are really apparent in this one. In later books, it's played down a bit, and it's all, "Stacey has diabetes; it sucks, but with diet and injections, she's okay! =D". I always remember being so confused as to why her having diabetes was such a horrible thing. I mean, yes, it does suck, but the way it's portrayed in some of the earlier books, this one in particular, made me terrified of diabetes for a few years when I was younger. I thought it was a death sentence!
• I always found it weird how secretive Stacey's parents were about her diabetes. Insisting that they tell absolutely no one? I mean, I don't expect them to be like, "Hi! We're Mr and Mrs McGill, and this is our daughter Stacey SHE HAS DIABETES!" upon meeting people, but yeah. It really should not have been such a big deal, especially to their closest friends and afterwards once they got it all under control. I know it's not the same as having life-threatening allergies, but I never feel embarrassed or secretive when I have to decline eating foods or giving my foods the third degree over allergens. I can understand the insulin injections being a thing, but that's not something you have to whip out and do in front of people. Just a simple, "Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom." takes care of it.
•  For the longest time, I used to pronounce the Johanssen's last name as "Johnson"
• This book also makes me want to throw Aero bars in the freezer. And then eat them. Except I'm usually too impatient to wait for them to freeze. God piss, now I want chocolate haha

[Although I read and reviewed one of the original copies of this book, I currently also own one of the updated copies, with the Notebook Pages in the back.]

Author's Note:
AMM writes about her decision to create a character with diabetes. In wanting to create a diverse group of girls, she decided that one should have a physical or medical problem. She chose diabetes because she knows it affects many children and people, including two of her friends. She thought it would be good for young readers to see someone dealing with it responsibly and positively, not ignoring it or being ashamed of it. She adds that she got lots of letters from readers thanking her, saying that the books have helped their friends to understand the condition.

Notebook Pages

When Stacey first met the members of the Baby-sitters Club she was afraid to tell them that she had diabetes. A secret I have is that I am absolutely crazy and have all these rules and guidelines and am wicked independent, to the point where I don't think I'll ever settle down with someone long-term. 

The person I would tell my secret to is my current boyfriend; maybe; he'd have to know eventually at any rate. 

I would never tell my secret to anyone else haha. 

Stacey has to control herself from eating sweets and snacks, and Kristy has to be careful of her big mouth. Something that I have to watch out for is my diet; like Stacey, I have dietary restrictions. 

Stacey got really good advice from Dr Johanssen. If I had a problem the adult I would talk to is honestly, I have no idea; probably no one. 

The Johanssen's are a big part of Stacey's life. Charlotte Johanssen is even like a sister to Stacey. Someone who is like a sister to me is no one; I am literally close to no one haha