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 #29: Mallory and the Mystery Diary

Tagline: A locked trunk and a secret diary all add up to... a mystery for the the Baby-sitters!

Mallory and Claudia are helping Stacey unpack from her move back to Stoneybrook when they find an antique trunk in the McGills' attic. Stacey doesn't want the dusty thing, so she gives the trunk to Mallory... who finds an old diary in the bottom of it.

The diary once belonged to Sophie, a girl who lived in Stacey's house in the 1890s. As Mallory reads deep into Sophie's diary, she discovers a mystery. There may be ghosts that haunt Stacey's house!

The Baby-sitters have one big mystery on their hands to solve. Because Stacey's house isn't big enough for her, her mom... and a family of ghosts!

This one starts off with Mallory writing in her journal. She calls it a journal because it's her personal feelings and opinions, not just her day-to-day stuffs, which she says would be in a diary. Anyways, her mom interrupts her to send her to Stacey's: Mrs Pike has made a casserole to help with the move. Upon delivering the casserole to Stacey, Mallory discovers Stacey and Claudia packing up the empty boxes, and helps them move it to the attic. There, they discover all sorts of random things that had been left behind by previous tenants. It's super fun, and in the end, Mallory discovers an old antique trunk and decides to keep it.

Once at home, she and her siblings can't figure out how to open it. After agonizing it over a few days, Mallory eventually breaks and agrees to let the triplets break the locks. Inside the trunk, she finds all sorts of old clothes and things, which she gives to Vanessa. But at the bottom, she also finds an old diary. It belongs to a 12 year old girl named Sophie, and the diary is dated in 1894.

Mallory reads the diary and quickly learns of a mystery in Stacey's house! Sophie's father Jared, was not respected or well-liked in the community. Her grandfather, Grandfather Hickman, believed that Jared only married Sophie's mother for the money. Anyways, despite the fact that Sophie is twelve, and her mother is therefore well past her prime, Jared encourages her to get pregnant again, hoping for a son. Well, he gets the son he wants, but two days later, Sophie's mother dies from complications. Soon, a painting of the mother goes missing, and Grandfather Hickman blames Jared for it, calling him a thief and implying that he sold it for money. The diary ends with the mystery unsolved and Sophie claiming that no one's souls will rest unless the painting has been found and that Jared's name been cleared.

Mallory brings the mystery to the Club's attention, and they decide to try to solve it. The first thing they figure out is whether or not Grandfather Hickman is the same as Old Hickory, of the town's folklore. Turns out that he is, so that gives the girls some place to start. However, after much searching and research, they find themselves coming up empty handed. They decide to hold a seance to try to contact the spirits, but it turns out to be a bust.

The girls continue to puzzle over it while they baby-sit. Charlotte shares with Stacey a story, telling Stacey that sometimes things are not what they seem and that there might be a clue hiding right under their noses. Then Buddy Barrett comes over and takes a crack at reading the diary and searching the trunk. In his search, he gets his hand stuck in a hidden pocket. There, he finds a confession from Grandfather Hickman, confessing to having gotten the portrait painted over, because he couldn't stand the sight of his dead daughter, but didn't want her to be far away either. Mallory and Buddy run over to Stacey's house, and together they search for a painting that could potentially be the portrait. Eventually, they come up with one that has some paint chipping away.

Mrs McGill takes it to get restored and sure enough, it's the missing portrait! Stacey and her mom decide to hang it in their house, and everything ends all happy.

The subplot in this one is that Buddy is having a hard time reading at school. He's reading way below grade level, and Mrs Barrett just doesn't have time for him. So she hires Mallory as a tutor for him. At first, Mallory wants to do all the stuff his teacher gave him, and is super-serious. But eventually she realizes that she has to make reading fun for Buddy, and that it doesn't matter what he's reading, so long as he's reading. So she has him read comic books and Encyclopedia Brown novels. Eventually, Buddy's reading improves and he gets moved up in reading groups at school. He now loves reading and Mallory is totally proud of herself for a job well done.

Random Thoughts:

• Mallory is pretty whiny in the beginning of this one. She talks about how being 11 sucks, and how she feels like she'll be 11 forever. If she only knew... haha
• I'm kinda sad we don't see more of Stacey and Mallory forming a friendship. Living so close to each other, it would have been kind of cool.
• Reading about Mallory tutoring Buddy was super fascinating now that I'm a teacher. The struggle to get kids to read is real.
• I love how apparently Dawn and Mary Anne's parents have only been on 25 dates so far in their adult life. That's not that many. I've been dating my boyfriend for about a year now, and we've probably gone on more dates. Or less, depending on how you count them. We don't really go out so much anymore. He'll come to my house and we'll make dinner together, and then go and watch TV or watch a movie or play video games for the evening. Then he'll spend the night. Obviously Dawn and Mary Anne's parents aren't spending the night at each other's places. And they probably aren't having that many nights together in either. So yeah. 25 dates, even if they see each other once a week, is only 6 months. That's not that long. Especially considering Dawn's mom was definitely still dating The Trip-Man for awhile during that time. Yet the next regular book has them engaged!
• I'm with Mallory: I would totes have claimed that trunk for myself. It's funny, cuz as a child, I thought like Mallory too: omg don't damage the locks; okay, damage them just a bit so that it doesn't look horrible. Now as an adult, I'm like, "Whatevs... obviously try to minimize the damage, but then I'm totes taking it to get fixed. Hmmm... maybe a locksmith first??" haha
• I would kill for some antique clothes. I have no idea where or when I'd wear them, but it'd be fucking awesome haha
• I love that Grandfather Hickman and Old Man Hickory ended up being the same person, but I am also glad that it didn't turn out that Dawn's Jared was the same Jared. That would have been too much of a coincidence!
• I learned the word "pine" from reading this book as a child! haha

BSC #28: Welcome Back, Stacey!

Tagline: She's home for good!

Stacey's parents have been fighting a lot lately. Even so, she's still not prepared for the terrible news: her parents are getting divorced.

Not only is Stacey sad and angry, but now she has a big decision to make: Stacey must either stay in New York with her father, or move out with her mother... to Stoneybrooke.

Could Stacey really leave the city, her father, her best friend Laine, and all that great shopping? But then again, how could Stacey pass up going back to her old school, all the kids in the Stoneybrook... and the members of the Baby-sitters Club?

The book opens up with Stacey baby-sitting for Grace and Henry Walker, who live on the 18th floor of her apartment building (Stacey herself lives on the 12th floor). Right away, we're told that they're black, but that Stacey doesn't see them that way, because she doesn't see the world in colour like that haha Anyways, more importantly, we learn that Stacey's distracted. She's been thinking about her parents, who haven't seemed to be getting along so well lately.

Sure enough, when she heads back to her place, Stacey discovers that her parents are fighting yet again. Stacey wonders what her dad is doing home so early (it's only 5:30, and he usually works til 7:30 or so; her mom and her are getting used to eating alone), and stops to listen to the fight for a bit. Stacey finds that they're mostly fighting about money, and that it sounds serious. Scared, Stacey runs off to Laine's to cry and seek comfort. There, she also calls the Club in Stoneybrook, since they're just finishing up their meeting. Of course, nothing anyone says is really reassuring. Both Laine and Claudia don't know what to say, because their parents almost never fight. Dawn sympathized with Stacey about fighting parents, but I don't think that made Stacey feel much better considering Dawn's parents not only got divorced, but one of them also ended up moving to the other side of the country. Still, after talking to her friends, Stacey fee;s better and is calm enough to return home.

Upon her arrival, Stacey finds her parents are no longer fighting. In fact, they're sitting in the living room, talking, waiting for her to come home. Immediately, they drop the big one on her: they have decided to get a divorce.

Even though Stacey knows that they'd been fighting, and knows deep down inside that a divorce would be for the best, she's still in denial, and very very angry. She thinks about all her friends and classmates whose parents have divorced, and it just makes her feel worse. She wonders where her dad will go, how often she'd get to see him, and what to do if her parents started dating again. Her teachers are all sympathetic, and Stacey spends most of the first day just avoiding everyone and her feelings.

Everything starts to happen quickly: Stacey's mom immediately expresses her desire to move back to Stoneybrook. Immediately, Stacey realizes she'll need to choose between her parents. She won't be able to see them equally and flip-flop whenever she wants. She'll have to pick a city and a school to attend. She starts to think of how she can convince her parents to live closer together, to make the decision easier. Stacey then goes into full-blown denial mode, and tries to think of ways to set her parents back up again, and avoid the divorce. She spends the week trying to set them up, only to be foiled at every turn.

At the end of the week, Stacey and her mom head to Stoneybrook to go house-hunting. None of the houses are particularly attractive, but Stacey's mom is on a limited budget. She does find one house that she likes, but is on the fence about it, asking for another week to consider. Stacey then attends a sleepover with the girls, and reflects that while she misses them, New York City would always be home for her.

The following week is crazy for Stacey. Her father finds himself a new apartment, and starts slowly setting himself up there. Finally, Stacey realizes that the divorce is happening, and that she can't stop it. After some soul-searching, Stacey decides to go with her mom to Stoneybrook.

Stacey and her mom move, and soon things are back to normal. It's as if Stacey never left. She of course misses her father, but all in all, it's a pretty smooth transition for Stacey.

There's no subplot in this book, because duh, the divorce is a big deal haha

Random Thoughts:

• I always loved this book. In fact, I read it randomly before I was "supposed to" a few weeks ago when I wasn't feeling well. I don't know why, but I just had a mad craving for this one. I guess it's because most of the books tend to be frivolous or completely dramatic and unrealistic, so I like the few "issues" books that they do, where the characters actually have to face something serious. Stacey's parents getting divorced and how they handled everything was written very realistically.
• Looking back, this book is one huge "SPOILER ALERT!". I mean, the title and the picture give it all away: Stacey chooses her mom and Stoneybrook. Boom. Mystery solved. I guess I never realized that, since 1) I didn't read the books entirely in perfect order when I was younger and 2) since then, I've always known that she came back. But yeah. Even the back of the book gives it away, by saying "and reach seven experienced baby-sitters".
• I feel like the divorce came out of nowhere, even though I do know there was some foreshadowing. Still, it makes me wish we had had more books with Stacey in them. I know in BSC #24, Stacey mentions that they're now fighting and arguing more, and then in BSC #26, her father didn't come with them to Mimi's funeral, and Stacey again mentions them fighting. I would've been interested to see how things had progressed and developed. Because although they've been fighting, their bombshell that they're getting divorced seems to completely blindside Stacey. I know we don't see all of their latest fight, but it also seems weird to me that they would go from fighting and screaming, to calmly being like, "Yes, I think we should divorce. We should tell Stacey when she gets back from baby-sitting."
• Sometimes I think about how much fun it would be to live in an apartment. To have friends and people you know within minutes of your place. But then I realize I much prefer my house and being able to do my laundry whenever and to leave my clothes in the washer or dryer if need be and continue some other time, without worrying about my clothes going missing haha plus I probably wouldn't have room in an apartment for all my instruments and piano and treadmill and what not haha
• I'm kinda surprised at how fast everything goes down. I mean, I suppose the divorce papers and legal things don't get settled for awhile (and off-screen), but still, within a month, Stacey's entire life is changed, everyone's moving, and Stacey has to make a choice.
• Dawn's mom is still dating the Trip-Man. In fact, apparently Dawn's mom has been dating a lot of men. Which makes sense since it's been about two or three years since the divorce, but only a year in terms of story time

BSC #27: Jessi and the Superbrat

Tagline:There's trouble for everyone what a TV star comes to town!

Stoneybrook has gone star-crazy! Derek Masters, an eight-year-old regular on a hit TV sitcom, has moved to town. Everyone's wondering what a real-live TV star will be like - will he drive to school in a limo?

Jessi can't believe it, but even stars need baby-sitters, and she's the lucky club member to watch Derek Masters. Even though a lot of kids at school call Derek a spoiled brat, Jessi likes him immediately. He rides bikes and eats junk food like a normal kid, but he has exciting stories about Hollywood, too!

Pretty soon baby-sitting and ballet start looking kind of boring next to TV scripts and cameras. Maybe Jessi would like to be a star, too!

As the synopsis indicates, Jessi (and subsequently the readers), are made aware of Derek Masters. He's apparently the breakout character in an ensemble sitcom called P.S. 162. He plays a nerdy kid who gets all the laughs. Coincidentally, just as Jessi is discovering his existence and that he in fact used to live in Stoneybrook before he left to be a star, his show goes on hiatus and his family comes back. Of course, they need a sitter, so Jessi gets to be the lucky one!

When Jessi first meets Derek, she gets all star-struck and is surprised to learn that Derek in fact is nothing like the character he plays on TV. Derek has normal hair, doesn't wear glasses, and hates science. Eventually Jessi gets over it, and starts to get to know Derek. As she does, she realizes that while he loves acting, when he's at home, he just wants to be treated like a normal every day kid.

Of course, everyone else is super star-struck, and acts like an idiot around him. Becca has a huge crush on his co-star and grills Derek about him. Mallory acts like she's meeting the queen, and the triplets expect him to be super snobby. Things don't get better as Derek goes back to school, and everyone treats him weirdly, from either worshipping him (the girls), to hating him (the boys), to making him talk all about Hollywood (the teachers). Eventually, Jessi discovers that a boy is bullying Derek far worse than everyone else. Jessi calls him the superbrat, and is determined to figure things out.

Eventually Derek starts connecting to his classmates, and the boys realize he's cool and normal, and Derek starts making friends. Soon all the stories about the superbrat go away, but Jessi still wants to know who the kid is. Just as things start looking up for everyone, Derek decides to head by to L.A. to do a TV movie. The girls decide to throw him a going away party, and invite everyone and their mom to it. It's there that the girls find out that the superbrat was really Derek, who couldn't cope with how his classmates were treating him and was retaliating.

The subplot in this one is that Jessi has some super hardcore auditions for the Stoneybrook Civic Centre's production of Swan Lake. She gets super nervous, and tries to downplay it. The more nervous she gets, the more she tries to convince herself that it doesn't really matter, and that maybe she should become a model and be on TV like Derek. Of course, she totally aces the auditions, gets one of the best roles a girl her age can get (one of the swan corps), and totally forgets all the modeling and TV shenanigans.

Random Thoughts:

• This is our second book with a ghostwriter! It's Jan Carr again
• Jessi's steady gig with the Braddocks is slowly being phased out. She mentions that others are starting to sit for them to give her more free time. Which of course she immediately fills with another regular job.
• I doubt that the Swan Lake production is anywhere near as big as Jessi makes it sound ("it's practically off-off-Broadway!"), but it's definitely a big deal, especially for someone Jessi's age. We have an arts centre/theatre here, where touring productions happen and our city's professional orchestra and theatre groups and dance groups perform. It's a big deal. The performers are often people from other cities, who came specifically to spend a season here to get experience. It's nowhere near as prestigious as any of the theatres in say, Toronto or Montreal, but it's a pretty big deal. Anyways, every year, they do a production of The Nutcracker, where they have open auditions for the younger/smaller roles. My best friend's sister got to be one of the mice when she was like, 12, and that was a huge deal for her. I'm imagining the same for Jessi.
• lolz when I was younger, I had no idea why the Derek's sitcom was called P.S. 162. As far as I knew, "P.S." was something you added to the end of letters. It was only near the end of high school that I learned that in the US, standard public schools are often just named "P.S." and then a number. Here, all the schools have names. Anyways, re-reading this now, everything makes a lot more sense haha
• I really like the triplets on the cover. Although they have ginger hair, and so far, I've yet to see a description of any of the Pikes with ginger hair. Usually no hair colour is mentioned (so the only thing we have is "dark brown, or chestnut" from Mallory's first book), and then it's either "curly" or "straight".
• A chapter with Kristy baby-sitting Karen. I don't remember being this annoyed by her in the past, but this time around, I just want to fucking kill Karen whenever she's around. And she's around a lot in this book, considering she does not go to school with Derek or anything.
• The title and description of this book is weird. They make it sound like Derek is the superbrat. Of course, by the end, you realize that he was, but until the last chapter or so, Jessi and everyone are under the impression that the superbrat was a kid in Derek's class who is bullying him.
• I didn't particularly like this book. There really wasn't much to it.

BSC #26: Claudia and the Sad Good-bye

Tagline: Claudia thought she'd never have to say good-bye

Claudia has a sad good-bye to make. Her grandmother, Mimi, has just died. Claudia understands that Mimi was sick for a long time, but she's still mad at her grandmother for leaving her. Who will help Claudia with her homework... and share "special tea" with her?

To keep from thinking about Mimi, Claudia spends all her free time painting and baby-sitting. She's even teaching an art class for some of the kids in the neighbourhood.

Claudia knows she has to let go of Mimi sometime. But how do you say good-bye to a special friend... forever?

As you can surmise from the title, Mimi dies in this one. I remember being really shocked when I read it the first time around as a kid. I mean, the title and synopsis gives it away, so I wasn't like, "Whaaaaat?" when I read it in the story. I just remember being shocked when I saw the book and was like, "Mimi dies?? Noooo!!!" In hindsight, it really shouldn't have been a surprise. They foreshadow it a lot in the books leading up to this one. But then again, as a kid, I read them out of order. I knew she was dead in the later ones, but it still surprised me when I saw this one on the shelves at the library, to see that she had died so soon.

But she doesn't die right away. The book starts out with lots of Claudia and Mimi time, with Mimi being even more forgetful and non-sequitur than usual. A few days pass of this, but Claudia doesn't seem any more worried than usual. Then one evening, as they're sitting down for dinner, Mimi collapses and has to be rushed to the hospital.

Mimi spends several days in the hospital, where the doctors run a million tests. However, all the tests come back inconclusive. All they can determine is that whatever's affecting Mimi, it has to do with her blood. But they can't quite figure out what it is yet. Eventually they decide to give Mimi a blood transfusion, and that does the trick. Mimi perks right up and gets to go home.

Of course, Mimi still isn't well, and since the doctors don't know what's wrong with her, she can't be left alone for too long. Claudia's parents take turns taking care of her during the day, but in the afternoons, it's up to Claudia to spend time with Mimi. Claudia soon starts to get frustrated, because Mimi can't communicate well and is confusing her. Claudia snaps at her several times, and then immediately feels bad because she realizes it's not Mimi's fault. It's really sad and hard to read.

Meanwhile, Claudia is also busy giving art classes to some of their charges, which leads to this book's subplot, which I'll get into later. Mary Anne helps Claudia out, and they're having a really good time with the kids, experimenting with paint and eventually doing paper-maché to make puppets. During one of the classes, Mimi starts to come downstairs to the basement (where they were working), and immediately Claudia goes to help her, since she's not supposed to be doing stairs alone anymore. Just as they get to the bottom of the stairs, Mimi collapses. The paramedics are called and Mimi is rushed to the hospital once more.

Since it worked last time, the doctors give Mimi more blood, and again, Mimi seems fine. (She makes a really cute joke about being a vampire, which I freaking loved.) But it's a series of roller-coasters. At first, Mimi is in intense pain, and it scares Claudia's family and confounds the doctors. Later, her body seems to be recovering, but her mind is going faster than ever. She starts making random comments, and telling Claudia and Janine to take things from her room and put them into their rooms. Mimi's in the hospital for several days, and the doctors still can't figure out what is wrong. At one point, Mimi gets upset at the hospital food, and even throws it against the wall, scaring Claudia. But then Mimi has a moment of clarity and tells Claudia, "My Claudia, never believe what other people say. About you. Never unless you believe it, too. I love you." Since the doctors can't figure out what's wrong with Mimi, and since she seemed to be doing better, they decide that she can go home the next day. That night Mimi calls Claudia on the phone, and they talk, before Mimi tells Claudia to get back to her art.

Of course, Mimi never gets to come home, because Claudia is woken up in the middle of the night by her parents. Mimi has just died, and they have to go to the hospital and start arranging things. Claudia's just a whole grab bag of emotions. At first she's in denial, then she's just kind of numb. The girls want to cancel their Club meeting, but Claudia asks them to come over anyways for moral support. Everyone just kinda sits in silence, not knowing what to say or do. Janine joins them too. None of their clients call, out of respect for the family. Their next meeting goes about the same way. Since it's Friday, and Claudia hasn't been to school all week, Mary Anne invites everyone over for an impromptu pizza party. The pizza reminds Kristy of the first time Mimi ever ate pizza, which then prompts everyone to share their favourite Mimi stories. Everyone's briefly cheered up.

The next day is the funeral, for which Stacey and her mom return. Claudia is all numb throughout the funeral, feeling guilty because everyone around her is crying. Claudia wonders why she isn't crying, since she was closer to Mimi than any of them were. After the funeral, everyone awkwardly makes small talk, before the girls start gossiping with Stacey. Essentially, everything except talk about Mimi.

Finally Claudia gets to go back to school, and for once she's glad. She just wants a sense of normalcy. Except when she gets to school, she finds anything but that. The other kids don't know what to say to her. People she normally talks to are avoiding her. People she barely ever talks to come up to her and say empty condolences. All throughout the week, Claudia keeps forgetting that Mimi is dead, only to be reminded of her and have to think about it again.

Things don't get much better. The following week, Mallory tries to bring up a Mimi memory again, and Claudia just shuts her down. Her grades start slipping even more, and Claudia is surprised to find that no one seems to care. Claudia is tired all the time, and can't quite figure out why her grades are so bad, since homework is the only thing she can do right now. She's not in the mood for art, and she's not baby-sitting. So she throws all her energy into attempting homework for a change. She starts getting angry at everyone. At her teachers for not caring, at her parents for not caring... at herself and Mimi too.

Things all come to a head when Janine finally takes it upon herself to start going through Mimi's things. Claudia starts yelling at her, and eventually their parents sit them all down to talk. Claudia tells them how she's so angry at everyone: angry at the doctors for not knowing what's going on, angry at Mimi for giving up, and angry at herself for having not treated Mimi better and causing her to die. Claudia's parents reassure Claudia that it's alright to feel angry, and that she did not cause Mimi to die. Janine then finds a makeshift will that Mimi had written, indicating her month and year when she was going to die. Mimi just knew her time was up.

Slowly but surely, Claudia moves on. She takes some of Mimi's things and helps her family to convert Mimi's room into a guest room.

The subplot in this one Corrie Addison. She's one of the kids in Claudia's art class. Apparently the Club has sat for the Addison's on occasion, but they seem to primarily use other baby-sitters. A lot of them. Because apparently Mr and Mrs Addison don't want to have anything to do with their children. They just shunt them from lesson to lesson and place to place, without being with them at all. They even arrange for the kids to go to an ice show with a baby-sitter! Mrs Addison consistently drops Corrie off before the classes start and usually at least almost an hour late picking her up each time. Eventually Claudia has words with Mrs Addison, and Mrs Addison sees the error of her ways, and decides to start spending more time with her children. Lame.

Random Thoughts:

• This is definitely one of my favourite books in the series.
• This is the one where they first mention the mark on the table that they could never get out. It's from Claudia setting a hot tureen of soup on the table when Mimi suddenly collapses. I have always found this to be one of the saddest things ever.
• I felt so bad for Claudia and Mimi in this one. It's not easy being a 13 year old and having someone you love and look up to suddenly need so much caring. But it also can't be easy for Mimi, who is used to being the caretaker now be so helpless. Now that I'm older (although in no way near Mimi's age haha), I relate to Mimi and know that that will be me one day, and it scares the shit out of me.
• They mention in this one that Claudia was starting to develop a special bond with Corrie, same as the one Stacey has with Charlotte. Except then we never hear of Corrie again. At least, I don't think so. I know there's some deal with her brother Sean becoming an arsonist in one of the mystery books, and it's their house that the family with the abusive father (#117) move into. But I think aside from a few books focused on them, they're never really mentioned again.
• We've got more foreshadowing about Stacey's parents in this one:
• Only Mrs McGill and Stacey come to Mimi's funeral
• Stacey admits that she heard her parents arguing pretty heavily the night before
• Stacey thinks that her parents need a day apart from each other
• They mention that Stacey's mom has always liked Stoneybrook more than her dad did
• There's a nice bit of continuity going on, with Claudia's neighbours still being the Goldmans which is mentioned when they show up to the funeral
• Updates on the Schafer/Spier front: according to Dawn, her mom's not seeing the Trip-Man as often, and according Mary Anne, her father is only exclusively dating Mrs Schafer. It makes me wonder: did Richard ever date anyone other than Mrs Schafer? It seems like we never really heard about him ever dating until he started dating her. Mary Anne doesn't even mention stuff like, "Yeah, she's way better than anyone else my dad has ever dated, and not because she's Dawn's mother either!" or anything like that.
• We get a bit of insight on Kristy when Kristy mentions Corrie getting too attached to Claudia, warning Claudia not to abandon her. Kristy mentions how hard it was when her father left their family. Kristy doesn't talk about it much, but when she does, it's sad.
• Once again, Janine is awesome. When Corrie is left behind at Claudia's for over two hours, Janine can instantly see that something is wrong, and swoops in to distract her. I fucking love Janine.
• Jessi mentions the Civic Centre putting on a production of Swan Lake soon, and since I literally just started reading the next book, that's a nice bit of continuity.

BSC Super Special #2: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation

Tagline: Good-bye, Stoneybrook... hello, Camp Mohawk!

What could be more fun than going to summer camp for two weeks with your best friends? Nothing!

This summer, the Baby-sitters and a whole bunch of the kids they sit for are going to Camp Mohawk! With the girls as counselors-in-training, and the kids as campers, it'll be just like baby-sitting - in the woods!

The Baby-sitters soon discover that camp isn't just nature walks and making lanyards. Dawn gets lost in the wilderness overnight. Kristy learns how to use mascara, and Mary Anne gets caught sneaking over to the boys' side of the camp. Stacey spends the two weeks weeks with poison ivy... and Claudia falls in LUV with a boy CIT.

This is one summer vacation the Baby-sitters will never forget!

Super Special Gimmick: It's Stacey's first time doing an extended stay in the great outdoors and camping, so she's decided to keep a notebook chronicling the two weeks, and is making everyone else write in it too.

Stacey spends the two weeks in the infirmary, as the description suggests. She wasn't originally planning on going to camp, but soon everyone talked her into it. Her parents were all worried about the diabetes (which to be fair, is actually a valid concern this time) and being able to adhere to her diet while eating a mass meal. She runs into a few problems at first, what with the cooks thinking she wants special foods cuz she's spoiled, but Mrs Means soon explains and Stacey is able to put together a meal she wants. Of course, that then leads the campers to complain about how she gets special foods. This doesn't end up being much of an issue in the end though, because Stacey does end up spending so much time away. It's probably for the best. She's in a 6 year old cabin, with Karen Brewer. Her cabin essentially seems like a nightmare, between Karen, a girl with a lisp, a girl with pink-eye and a girl with a sore throat. On Stacey's first night, during campfire time, she ends up sitting in poison ivy, which accounts for most of her two weeks. The next time we see her, she's headed to the infirmary, not only with poison ivy, but also with pink-eye, a cold, and impetigo. She doesn't mind too much though, once she starts getting treatment. She has a roommate who is at camp all summer with a broken leg, so Stacey does realize things could be worse. Eventually Stacey gets to go back to her cabin, where most of her time is uneventful. In fact, the only other thing that happens to Stacey is that her cabin gets "Christmas'd" by the other 6 year-old cabin. It's a good thing Stacey insisted on everyone else adding to her notebook, or else this would be a really really boring story! haha

Kristy is in a cabin with the 8 year olds, meaning she has Charlotte Johanssen and Becca Ramsey with her. That works out well, because Charlotte is super miserable and hating camp. Over the course of the next two weeks, Kristy wonders why Charlotte doesn't just go home, but no matter how much Kristy and her parents tell her it's okay to go home, Charlotte refuses to give up. Kristy's other plot is that her fellow CITs are all stereotypical fashionable boy-crazy 13 year old girls, who pick Kristy apart and criticize her and mentally make her over for being a tomboy and not into clothes and what not. Eventually they do actually physically make her over. In fact, they do it twice: once as a test-run and once on the night of the big dance. Kristy doesn't like it, but eventually just goes with it. She admits that she enjoyed looking different for a few hours, being a different Kristy, but that like a snake shedding her skin, she couldn't wait to go back to being regular Kristy.

Claudia has one of the 9 year old cabins, with Haley Braddock and Vanessa Pike. Not a whole lot happens to Claudia. Early in the first week, they get a visit from 3 boys, inviting the girls' side to their side for a movie night and a dance the second week. One of the boys is Japanese, and Claudia quickly develops a crush on him. The other girls see, and make it their mission to find out who he is. Eventually they do, telling Claudia that his name is Will. They all then squeal and live vicariously through Claudia as she goes to movie night and talks to him. They totally hit it off and spend the whole evening talking outside the cabin, instead of watching the movie. At the dance, they spend the whole evening gazing into each other's eyes longingly. When the evening is over, they decide not to exchange addresses, because there really wouldn't be a point, so they leave off with their good memories and leave it at that. Of course Haley and Vanessa, ever the romantic and sneaky girls they are, manage to get his address, so they give it to Claudia and she starts writing him when they get home.

Jessi and Mallory are pretty much together the whole time, so even though they're both narrators, I'll summarize their story together. They're together in one of the 11 year old cabins. As 11 year olds, they qualify as actual regular campers, unlike the older members of the Club, who get to be CITs. But since they're ~*~*special*~*~ they've been deemed Jr. CITs and have been given the task to help the 8 year old cabin prepare something special for Parents' Night. More on that in a minute. So because they're already total besties, and Mallory's a total dork for making them matching "Jr CIT" armbands, and because they brought their special status upon themselves, the rest of the girls in their cabin (Mary, Mary, Maureen and Mandy) pick on them and make fun of them. The girls don't really care though, because they have each other and their special project. Maureen does pull the race card though, and calls them "Oreos", which doesn't make sense in this scenario, but does get her a warning never to say anything racist ever again. Anyways, the girls do their special project with the 8 year olds, which if you've been keeping track involve Charlotte and Becca. Jessi teaches them a few simple dance moves, and Mallory crafts a narrative, and together they put on a play with dancing. Of course, being Jessi and Mallory, their play is so ham-fisted with morals and crap: it's about a pair of twins (Becca and Charlotte, who you know, are black and white) who move to a new neighbourhood where they aren't accepted. But through the power of dance and love, they all overcome their differences and prejudices, and everyone lives happily ever after. Of course, after seeing this, their cabin is a lot nicer to them. Except for Maureen. Because she's racist.

Mary Anne is in a cabin with 7 year olds, including Margo Pike. She spends the whole book trying to prove to the other CITs that she's just as sophisticated and as cool as they are. Her main selling point is that she's got a hot boyfriend named Logan, across the way. Of course, the girls don't believe her, so they dare her to write him a letter and then sneak to the other side to deliver it. She writes him the most ridiculous and over-the-top letter, and of course gets caught about halfway around the lake. This is enough to garner her some respect, but the other girls are still skeptical about this whole Logan business. They try to convince her to let them pierce her ears, to which finally she gives in, calling their bluff. It works, and Mary Anne gains a bit more respect and doesn't lose her ears. Eventually, they see Logan for themselves and are in awe that he actually exists. They end up being pretty good friends to Mary Anne for her duration at camp.

Logan is in a cabin with the 7 year olds, and has Matt Braddock, Buddy Barrett and Jackie Rodowsky with him. He's fitting in just well, and it's all really boring and dudebro-y. But then word gets around that Mary Anne tried to sneak over to visit him, and soon the guys start razzing him about his girlfriend, calling her a "feeb" for attempting to get across. They then read the super-flowery note, and tease him more for that. So logically, Logan starts a food fight. The next time we see Logan, it's the night of the dance. The boys continued to josh him about Mary Anne, especially when she didn't show up for movie night (more on that in a bit), but then when they see her at the dance, they decide she's alright. Anyways, Logan's story is pretty boring.

Dawn has the other cabin of 11 year olds (not Jessi and Mallory's cabin, thank god). She's generally having a great time and is an old pro at both actually camping and being at summer camps. Her main plot is that one of her cabin mates, Heather, doesn't seem to really want to be there. She's not miserable and homesick like Charlotte, she just can't be bothered to entertain the rest of the girls and give into their shenanigans. Heather spends most of the time off by herself, reading or writing. The other girls start teasing her, but eventually just decide to ignore her. Dawn pities the girl, saying that if she just tried, she could have friends! (Uh, maybe she's happy, Dawn? Maybe she doesn't want to be their friend??) Anyways, the night before their big overnight trip (they get to camping in the middle of the woods for realz), their counselor is called away, and the replacement counselor is really flaky: before they leave, Heather has to remind them of several things they need to bring. Debra (the replacement counselor) doesn't know how to read the map, and instead of stopping to think about it, or to ask the other girls what they think, just decides to follow her instincts and starts making random turns, eventually getting the girls super lost. Eventually Heather proposes that they just camp where they are, and try again in the morning. The next day, Debra leads them in circles and they end up right where they had spent the night. Heather finally steps in and asks to see the map. At this point, all the girls realize that with all the reading she's done, Heather is super-capable and has all these skills and relinquish all control to her. With Heather leading, they find their way back to camp, where everyone is understandably worried (this is why Mary Anne missed movie night).

Random Thoughts

• This isn't one of my favourite Super Specials. I barely remembered it from when I was a kid. My faves growing up were always 4, 5, 6, 7 and 11.
• This Super Special also doesn't quite fit in nicely with the timeline we've got going on. Unless the girls literally did nothing else this summer. The previous books were definitely late spring. The next book is during the school year. It could be summer... but it's just surprising that this would be the only book. Then again, we know that in a few books, Stacey comes back "during the 8th grade", so I guess everything's all effed up now haha still, I would like the books to make some sort of chronological sense (not have a book that takes place in spring, then the next one happens in the summer, then the next one is spring again, or whatever)
• There still aren't any illustrations in this one. This one doesn't even have the weird drawings that the first one had. This one just starts each chapter off with a postcard.
• What do 12 year olds do? It says that Camp Mohawk's oldest campers are 11 years old (lolz Mallory and Jessi) and that you can't be a CIT til you're 13 year olds. So where are all the 12 year olds? Are you just not allowed at Camp Mohawk for a summer? Not a big deal if you go to variety of camps every summer and change it up or only go sporadically. But what if you're a lifer? What if you've been going every summer since age 6, looking forward to the day when you can become a CIT, and then eventually a counselor?? I imagine your life pretty much ends when you turn 12 and realize you can't go to Camp Mohawk that summer haha
• What prompts the girls to want to go to camp is having watched The Parent Trap (among other movies). When I first read this book, it was probably only a year or two after the remake with Lindsay Lohan had come out, so I had always assumed that of course, that was the movie they were referring to. It wasn't until a few years (I think when I was 12 and started having more access to the internet at school [still no computer at home]), that I started becoming aware of movie remakes and music covers. So embarrassing!
• I'm very curious as to how Matt Braddock was able to go to camp. Yeah, sure, Haley is there, but she's on the other side of the lake with the girls. And yes, Matt is in the same cabin as Logan and Buddy, but just how much ASL do those two know? I'm just surprised he was able to go.
• This book is also chocked full of foreshadowing and references to Mimi not doing so well, hence my placing it here, before BSC #26 Claudia and the Sad Good-bye.
• When getting ready to leave, Claudia mentions being worried about Mimi, causing Kristy (that chapter's narrator) to reflect that Mimi isn't in such great shape.
• Then when Claudia and Stacey reunite, Claudia tells Stacey all about how Mimi seems to be improving in terms of her body, but that her mind seems to be getting worse, referencing all the weird and non-sequitur things Mimi now says.
• Finally, Claudia gets picked up by her parents, as Mimi isn't feeling well, so much so that Janine has to stay behind to take care of her.
• This one mentions Dawn looking forward to going boating. This ties in nicely with Super Special #4 Baby-sitters' Island Adventure, where we learn that Dawn's been taking boating lessons.
• As if Mallory and Jessi  are Jr. CITs. That doesn't make any sense. Essentially, it means that they miss out on some of their camp stuffs to have to teach a bunch of 8 year olds to put on a show and dance. They still don't get to do any of the things the CITs do. All they accomplished was giving themselves more responsibilities and ostracizing themselves from their cabin mates. If the rest of the Club hadn't been CITs, I bet Mallory and Jessi would've been totes fine just being regular campers and having regular 11 year old kid fun
• Stacey gets a body wave done, which I'm assuming is a type of perm. It's fun re-reading the series, now that I know what perms are. I remember when I was little, like around 1994 or so, my parents contemplated getting a body wave done to my hair, because my hair was so thin and straight and lifeless. They never did. Part of me is sad that they never did, but part of me is glad they didn't, because I'm terrified that all my hair would have fallen out. I was like, 5 years old and my hair is in such a precarious state of being already! hah
• I love how Claudia gets paired with a Japanese boy. I feel like all she dates in Stoneybrook are white dudes (perhaps she's the only Asian around?) but then in all the Super Specials, they pair her up with Japanese boys all the time.
• ...okay is "pretty much" as a descriptor really a thing?? Because now we have "pretty much sign language". I have never heard "pretty much" as a quantitative descriptor before. "I know sign language." "I know some sign language." "I know a fair amount of sign language." "I know a lot of sign language." But "I know pretty much sign language"?? Nope, does not compute
• If a bunch of girls tried to pin me down and forcibly apply make-up to me and pluck and shape my eyebrows, I would seriously kill them all. Especially the eyebrows thing. I never wear make-up, except for stage/theatre/costumes. That's fine. Make-up, you can take off. But I have also never ever ever plucked my eyebrows. Could my eyebrows be more shapely and neater? Yes, absolutely, of course. But naturally, they're by no means a disaster; I don't have ginormous bushy eyebrows, or a unibrow, or anything drastic like that. I have zero interest in having to regularly pluck my eyebrows, and I know that once you start plucking... you can't go back. You gotta maintain them. And that is absolutely something I have zero interest in. So yeah. Touch my eyebrows, prepare to die!
• I like how Kristy cuts in on Claudia dancing. It seems like a nice callback to when Claudia did the same to Kristy. Only this time, Kristy is way nicer about it.
• At the end, it mentions that Kristy pretty much went back to being her usual tomboy self, but that occasionally she would put on mascara if she was going to be running into Bart that day. I wish that trait had carried over. I get it, Kristy is a tomboy who doesn't care what clothes she wears... but eventually they take it to such an extreme that she just seems more like a caricature and completely unrealistic. 
• I really don't like Jessi and Mallory in this book. It reminds me of why I never particularly liked them/their books later on. Which is too bad, because up til this point, I had been enjoying them and was like, "wtf! why didn't I like them??"
• I would totes be Heather, the girl from Dawn's cabin. Like, that would totally be me, wanting to be left alone. As an adult, I eschew all social interactions. People are always trying to invite me out, or get me to talk and engage and socialize, and it's like, "No, I'm here because I have to work. Once I clock out and the day is done, I want to go home and be alone and not deal with people anymore." Eventually people stop asking me out, which is good, cuz that's what I want. It bothers me when people always say, "You know, people would like you more if you went out with them." Or "We'd invite you more, but you're always saying no. The reason why you're alone is your own fault." Uh, yes, yes it is. Exactly. That is exactly what I want. I want to be left alone. I am perfectly happy alone and with myself, without having to pretend to like other people and go through all the fake niceties for the sake of social conventions. Dawn essentially does the same for Heather.

BSC #25: Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger

Tagline: Tigger, come home!

Mary Anne just loves her little kitten, Tigger. So when he disappears one afternoon, Mary Anne is a little concerned. The next morning Tigger is still missing... and Mary Anne is frantic. It's time for an emergency meeting of the Baby-sitters Club.

The girls pool together a reward for the return of Tigger, and they search everywhere for him. But there's still no sign of him... until Mary Anne receives a frightening letter in the mail. Someone has taken Tigger, and Mary Anne must pay a hundred dollars to get him back.

Is this some mean practical joke... or has Tigger really been cat-napped?

This one starts off with Mary Anne being completely obsessed with Tigger. She's on her way downtown to buy more cat toys for her kitten. She rushes home to give the toys to Tigger, then runs to a Club meeting. Immediately after the Club meeting, she rushes home once more to play with Tigger. Next, we've got her hanging out with Logan on her porch (no boys allowed inside the house!), playing with Tigger. Everyone is all happy and yay Tigger. Apparently it's another Club day, because Mary Anne has to go to a meeting. Tigger doesn't want to go inside, so Mary Anne figures that he'll be fine outside for half an hour, and leaves for her meeting.

When the meeting is over, Mary Anne can't find Tigger. At first, it's no big deal, but as she starts making dinner and realizing there's still no sign of him, she starts to worry. Her dad gets home, and to his credit, he's pretty cool and agrees to help Mary Anne do a cursory search. Of course, they don't find him, and Mr Spier tries to reassure Mary Anne that cats like to wander and that he's sure he'll turn up soon enough.

However, come the next morning, there's still no signs of Tigger. Same thing when Mary Anne gets home from baby-sitting. At this point, Mr Spier concedes that maybe Tigger really is missing and that it might be time to start worrying. Mary Anne then calls up the Club to tell them the news. They immediately declare it an emergency, and together, the girls put together a missing poster and agree to start papering the neighbourhoods as soon as possible, which turns out to be the next day (Sunday). They also pool together their money and come up with a reward of 30$ for Tigger's safe return.

The girls get together and start passing posters around. They put them on signs and in people's mailboxes. Mr Spier even asks for a couple to put on the community bulletin boards while he's out getting groceries, something that surprises Mary Anne and makes her feel incredibly grateful. While she's out, she runs into a little boy, about 10 years old, who sees the posters and claims he's seen Tigger. Mary Anne quickly realizes it's a scam and is upset and tells the boy to go away.

The day after putting up the posters, Mary Anne finds a ransom note in her mailbox, demanding 100$ for Tigger's return. At that night's meeting, the girls (and Logan) discuss what to do. Based on the childish scrawl and the fact that the letter wasn't actual sent through the post, they figure that it's probably some kid who did, not hardened dangerous criminals. Either way, it's their only lead, so they decide to follow up on it. They organize a stakeout, where Mary Anne will leave the ransom (fake money) where the note says to, and then the rest of the girls will wait and watch to see what happens.

Of course, when the girls (and Logan) go through with it, they soon discover that it's the same boy from Sunday who tried to scam Mary Anne. They threaten and scare the boy, then send him on his way. The girls are no closer to finding Tigger than they were before, and Mary Anne is feeling even more discouraged.

The next day (Wednesday), Mary Anne is baby-sitting for Hunter, while Kerry and Logan go to the dentist. (Hunter was supposed to go, but with all his allergies, he's liable to accidentally bit off the dentist's fingers with a sneeze.) Eventually, Mary Anne goes sleuthing, trying to find the source of Hunter's allergies. Unable to find anything (without going through closets and doing a massive invasion of privacy), Mary Anne eventually concludes that the only safe place for Hunter is the kitchen. Hunter, upset at that, finally confesses to Mary Anne the source of his allergies: a kitten that Kerry has been hiding in her closet! Of course, the kitten turns out to be Tigger. Afterwards, Mary Anne confronts the Brunos. Kerry admits that although she didn't know who Tigger belonged to at first, she did know who he was now. Mary Anne thinks that Logan knew the whole time, since he'd been distant and kind of a jerk the whole book, and was covering up to protect Kerry, so she takes Tigger and leaves upset.

Eventually Mary Anne talks things out with Logan and finds out what's wrong with him (baseball stuffs). They kiss and make-up and everyone is happy. Mary Anne brings Tigger to another Club meeting. Yay!

The subplot in this one is that Logan's siblings are acting strangely. Kerry is being more helpful than usual, and Hunter is being more sneezy than usual. This of course is because Kerry has had Tigger and is attempting to prove that 1) she's responsible and 2) Hunter's allergies aren't that bad. She's wrong on both accounts. Also: Logan is on the verge of being kicked off the baseball team, so all in all, it's a pretty shitty month for the Brunos.

Random Thoughts:

• Again, we learn of Mary Anne's love of mail and getting mail. It's always her that seems to get the bad stuff! haha
• Dawn's mom and MA's dad go on a date again. A couple of dates in fact. But just two months ago she was dating the Trip-Man! haha
• There's more foreshadowing of Mimi in this one:
• As she's leaving a meeting, MA says by to Mimi, who replies, "I will take six, please."
• When the girls are making their posters for Tigger, Mimi wanders in and asks what they're for. When the girls tell her it's Tigger, she replies, "Eggplants", and then wanders out in confusion.
• At some point, Claudia is baby-sitting, and she thinks about how devastated MA would be if it turned out that Tigger had died. She reflects on the fact that although her mother had died, MA was too young to have any conscious memories or thoughts of it, and thus Tigger's death would be almost worse. Claudia further concludes that she wouldn't know what to say or do to help Mary Anne in that case: no one Claudia has ever known has died. Claudia specifically then mentions how Mimi had her stroke, and while it was scary, Mimi ultimately recovered.
• Logan really sucks in this one. We eventually find out that he's going through some shit of his own (he was the star baseball player at his old school, but here he's on the verge of getting kicked off the team), but he's still really shitty to MA. He's generally distracted and doesn't seem to care about what she's talking about or anything. Again, that's somewhat understandable. What really takes the cake for me though is that when MA gets the ransom note, and wonders what will happen if they don't get the money and is understandably upset, Logan says, "Mary Anne, would you calm down? You are being so... sensitive. You're acting like such a girl." To MA's credit, instead of breaking down further and crying more, she glares at Logan and replies, "There's nothing wrong with being sensitive, and besides, I am a girl." (you go girl!) 1) Her beloved pet is missing, 2) potentially being held ransom, 3) she's generally pretty sensitive to begin with and 4) she is a girl.
• I suppose this is fairly realistic though. 13 year olds aren't the most mature. It makes sense that Logan would fixate on his own problems and bottle it up, instead of being honest and talking it out with MA like a more mature couple would.
• I also hate how Logan is upset over Mr Spier's rule about no boys in the house when no one's home. I mean, sure, as the weather cools, it's pretty shitty and it sucks, but Logan glares at MA and acts all exasperated, as if it's her rule. Sure, she could break it, but that's not in her character, and not fair to expect that of her.
• In my re-read of the series though, Logan's really pissing me off. They always describe him as the perfect boyfriend, but I'm starting to think he's a bit of a jerk. MA could do way better! I think she just settles for him cuz 1) he's hot and 2) she has zero self-confidence.
• lolz when Dawn is baby-sitting for the Barretts, and the kids are worried about their own pets going missing, Buddy essentially outlines the entire premise of Mystery #7 Dawn and the Disappearing Dogs: sometimes people go around steal pets because it's easy to do with them being out in the yard, and then sell them to new unsuspecting owners. This really makes me want to re-read Mystery #7 now. It was always one of my favourites.
• Claudia baby-sits for the Perkins, and the girls want to play "Hawaii Private Eyes". Are they talking about the show Magnum P.I.??