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

Tagline: She can't turn back now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




Random Thoughts:

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

BSC #56: Keep Out, Claudia!

Tagline: Who wouldn't want Claudia for a baby-sitter?

The Baby-sitters love getting new clients. So when the Lowells contact the club everyone is thrilled. For Mary Anne, sitting for the Lowells turns out to be a snap. The kids are adorable and obedient. But when Claudia meets the family, Mrs. Lowell will barely look her in the eye. And the kids are downright rude!

The next time Mrs. Lowell calls the BSC, she requests another sitter - anyone but Claudia. Claudia has no idea what she did wrong. But the BSC won't rest until they find out!

The book starts off with Claudia sitting for the Rodowskys. Shea is practicing for a piano recital, and Jackie and Archie both express a desire to perform too. This gets Claudia thinking about how maybe the Club should put together some sort of recital or show for their charges to be in. She brings it up at their meeting that evening, and the girls all agree that it's a great idea. Since none of them are particularly musically inclined, they figure they can just organize the children, and then let the children learn for themselves (since many of their charges DO know music). So there's our subplot right there!

Shortly after introducing this idea to the Club, the main plot starts: the girls receive a phone call from a new client, Mrs Lowell, who has seen their flyers and would like to hire a baby-sitter for her 3 children. Mary Anne ends up with the job.

Right away, we follow her to the job, where she meets Caitlin (8), Mackie (6) and Celeste (3). Mrs Lowell briefly gives Mary Anne a once-over, which unsettles her, before smiling and welcoming her into her home. Upon leaving, MA is inundated with questions from the children. They want to know all about her and her family. MA has to explain what step-siblings are, and how Dawn is another baby-sitter. This leads the kids to ask about the other sitters, and make awkward talk about religion (speculating that Mallory must be Catholic because of her family size, and wanting to know what religion MA is). She eventually gets them to play outside, and then finally settled in front of the TV. The kids can't find a show they like, but eventually come across something with two Asian kids. Caitlin and Mackie laugh about their eyes, but MA just remains oblivious and innocent. Soon after, Mrs Lowell returns, and MA goes to their Club meeting, forgetting all weirdness.

Next, we see Claudia baby-sitting for the Newtons. Jamie is bored, so Claudia calls up Dawn, who's sitting for the Perkins girls. The next thing Claudia knows, Stacey and Charlotte, and Mary Anne and the Hobarts have come over too. This gets Claudia to thinking, and the girls introduce their band idea to the group. The kids get excited, and soon invite more people over. Claudia is thrilled that her idea is taking off, as Mary Anne writes down the details and helps everyone get organized. Claudia decides that since she's sitting for the Lowells next, she'll invite them to the group too.

So it's finally Claudia's turn to baby-sit for the Lowells. Thanks to the cover synopsis, we know that it doesn't exactly go well. Mrs Lowell is all vague and curt with Claudia, while the kids keep trying to eat more food and won't obey her. Claudia thinks maybe it has to do with her wild outfit, since the kids and Mary Anne were dressed so neatly. Speaking of MA, she saves the day by calling Claudia up and inviting them all to the Hobarts for band practice. Things go well, until it's time to leave. Back at their place, the kids give Claudia a hard time and sneak food again. All in all, Claudia does not have a good time.

However, Claudia doesn't think much of it until their next Club meeting. Mrs Lowell calls, and asks to speak directly to Kristy. It's then that Kristy learns that Mrs Lowell wants any baby-sitter except for Claudia! Kristy then demands to know exactly what happened from Claudia. Claudia admits that it wasn't her best job, but that it wasn't a disaster. Everyone's confused, but eventually decide that maybe it was just a combination of small things, such as Claudia's outfit, her arriving too early (3:19 instead of 3:30), her having taken the kids out without permission. Jessi, who ends up with the job, decides to be on her best and most model behaviour, with the hopes of finding out more.

In preparation for her job, Jessi decides to update her Kid-Kit. She thinks specifically of what age and gender each of the Lowell children are, and adds things that she thinks will appeal to them: more books for Celeste, art supplies and matchbox cars for Mackie, and an office kit for Caitlin. Jessi then makes sure to show up exactly 5 minutes early. Upon opening the door, Mrs Lowell is immediately shocked. After staring at Jessi for several seconds, she finally says that she doesn't need a baby-sitter and that she forgot to say something and closes the door right on Jessi's face! No apology! Jessi goes to Mallory's house all upset, and later to the Club meeting. The girls can't figure out what went wrong. Mary Anne has another sitting job with the Lowells coming up, so she resolves to get to the bottom of things.

But before that, we're treated to a chapter with Claudia baby-sitting for the Rodowskys. Jackie decides that they need a name for their band. After some brainstorming, they come up with "All the Children", which would be short for "All the Children of the World", since everyone came from such multicultural background. This serves as really really awkward foreshadowing for what we eventually find out is Mrs Lowell's problem, but in the meantime, it's just silly. They rehearse songs from Annie, before going to rehearsal. They tell the other kids their great band name idea, and of course everyone loves it!

Finally, we get back to the Lowell plot, only instead of Mary Anne sitting, it's Kristy. Kristy decides to switch because as President, she thinks it's her responsibility to find out what's wrong. Mrs Lowell agrees to the switch, although Kristy can sense that there's something more. However, when Kristy shows up (exactly 5 minutes early, wearing a skirt and blouse), Mrs Lowell is warm and welcoming. This gives Kristy the confidence to ask Mrs Lowell how she's finding the Club's service. Mrs Lowell says she's happy, and before Kristy can grill her further, the children arrive home. Upon Mrs Lowell's absence, Kristy takes it upon herself to question the kids about their sitters. They love Mary Anne, but refer to Claudia as the "funny looking one". Thinking that they mean Claudia's eclectic fashion sense, Kristy moves on, referencing how they never even got to see Jessi. Caitlin insists that Kristy describe her, and when Kristy mentions Jessi's skin colour, she's convinced that she hears Caitlin snort, "I guess that's why mommy didn't like her."

Kristy, bothered by this, goes home and eventually talks to her mom, Nannie and Watson. She tells them her suspicions, that she thinks that the Lowells are racist, and hopes that they'll tell her that she's being over-dramatic. Sadly, they tell her that it could be true, that racism is still a prevalent problem. It makes Kristy sad, and she decides to go to the Club with her thoughts.

Immediately, Claudia is hurt and angry. She doesn't understand why Jessi isn't more upset (at least Claudia got to go inside the house!), but Jessi just explains that she's used to it. But Claudia's never experienced racism before, and feels all sorts of thoughts and emotions she's never felt before. She feels ashamed, and defensive, and worries that her friends feel sorry for her. Jessi and Mary Anne explain that prejudice isn't logical, and that it's the Lowells that Claudia should be angry at. Claudia knows this, but still can't help but lash out at her friends, since they're the ones present. Dawn points out that the Lowells probably don't like a whole lot of people for various reasons, which doesn't exactly make Claudia feel better, and they get into a discussion about how there is still lots of racism and hate groups around like the KKK. In the midst of this history lesson, Mrs Lowell calls, wanting to request the "blonde haired, blue-eyed sitter". After some deliberation, the girls decide that none of them want to sit for the Lowells anymore. Kristy eventually comes to the conclusion that none of them would fit Mrs Lowell's narrow-minded bigoted standards because of their divorced families and non-traditional ways. The girls end their meeting on a good note, but Claudia still feels unsettled by everything.

At the next band rehearsal, Jackie manages to convince everyone to change their entire repertoire to Fiddler on the Roof. Apparently there was a production in Stamford, so most of the kids had already seen it. Everyone's excited and get right down to rehearsal. That's when Mrs Lowell shows up with her kids. At first, she simply remarks on how "assorted" the rest of the children are, but upon hearing the choice of program, she grabs her kids and whisks them away. The girls momentarily panic, but realize that this is on Mrs Lowell, and that none of the other parents will object to their musical choices.

Claudia's still bummed about Mrs Lowell though! Eventually, the girls come to the conclusion that there's nothing to be done with Mrs Lowell. It's not their place and they're just kids themselves. Mrs Lowell will keep on hating, and all they can really do is set a good example for the kids they sit for.

The rest of the novel is dedicated to the band subplot, which also helps Claudia to escape her funk. The children decide that their band needs matching t-shirts, so they decide to set up donation baskets the day of their concert. As the concert grows nearer, Claudia starts panicking and worrying, but the day goes off without a hitch. At the end of the concert, Claudia and the girls notice Caitlin and Mackie Lowell seemed to have snuck out to watch them. It strikes Claudia that perhaps they were just repeating things they'd learned, and that maybe one day, they'd outgrow their racism. The rest of the girls hope so too.


Random Thoughts:

• This was definitely one of my favourite ones as a child. Like I've said before, I always greatly enjoyed the books where the girls had to deal with more serious issues in a realistic manner. I've read this one a million times, but not recently.
• I know I definitely have not read this in the past 15 years at least, because right away on the first page, Jackie Rodowsky makes a mistake that I never understood until now. Shea is practicing piano, and Claudia asks Jackie what he's playing, and Jackie replies, "A doggie-o". Now, after 15 years of studying music, I know that Jackie most likely meant "Adagio"!
• It just occurred to me that none of the girls take music lessons! Out of 7 girls, not a single one of them did piano?? Even for a couple of years? That seems crazy to me. More of my friends took piano as children than who didn't.
• I like the idea of this book being Claudia's book, since she apparently hasn't faced much racism or discrimination, but we barely hear from her! There's a lot of chapters dedicated to other sitters' encounters with the Lowells, and then the stupid subplot of the band.
• I find it weird that American-born Asians don't seem to be discriminated against nearly as often as American-born Africans or East Indians. I mean, maybe that's not true, but based on personal experiences and anecdotal evidence from my friends, that seems to be the case. None of us have accents, but most of us are second-generation immigrants, with our parents all having heavy accents. But the darker the skin, the more discrimination and racism my friends have felt. The worst the Asians have gotten is being stereotyped as geniuses. Oddly enough, one of my best friends is a first-generation immigrant (she only became an official citizen a couple of years ago!), but despite her prominent accent, she's never faced any hardships or racism or discrimination. Then again: she's white, blonde, blue-eyed and Australian. The worse she gets is being asked if she's related to Thor.
• Even as a child, I remember thinking that "All the Children" was the worst name for a band ever. It sounded to me like a soap opera or a charity cash-grab.
• I really liked the conversations Kristy and Claudia have with their families. I wished we got more of those in the series!
• I especially loved Janine's little bit about the American Japanese concentration camps. I can't believe I don't remember this being mentioned here! I remember learning about them in history, but it wasn't until I was in university, and super into George Takei that they really made an impact on me and were permanently etched into my brain.
• I've always wondered about Mr. Lowell, since we never see him in this book. Is he just as bad as Mrs Lowell? Worse??
• I can't believe that the kids know and like Fiddler on the Roof! I first heard of it by reading this book as a child, and to this day, I still haven't seen a production of it. The only songs I know off the top of my head are "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset". I still hear the kids singing "Tradition" the same way as I imagined it as a child!
• At one point, Claudia is sitting for Kristy's family, and among the activities the older crew are doing, it's mentioned that Sam was at a dress rehearsal for the drama club's latest play, which he helped to write. Uh, what?? What the fuck? Where's my story about this?? Why don't we know more about Sam??
• I feel like they've always depicted Charlie as the responsible, academic one, and Sam, while still doing well in school, as more of the goofball and extrovert. I know they mention that Sam is particularly good in math, to better pair him with Stacey, but other than that, I never pictured him as particularly academic. A solid A-/B+ kid. Good grades, but nothing spectacular. But now we find out that he writes and does drama club???

BSC Super Special #8: Baby-Sitters at Shadow Lake

Tagline: Campfires, ghost stories - summer vacations are the best!

Wish you were here!

Kristy's rich stepfather has invited all the Baby-sitters to his family's cabin on beautiful Shadow Lake.

What a way to start off the summer! At the lake there's water skiing, cute guys, plenty of kids to baby-sit for - and even a mystery.

The Baby-sitters don't know where to begin. The just hope the fun never ends!

Super Special Gimmick: Kristy wants to make sure that Watson decides to keep the cabin, so she keeps a diary (and of course, makes her friends join in) to show him how awesome the place is and all the great times they can have as a family.

Watson gets a letter from his aunt, saying that she and her husband are re-configuring their wills. Despite not having seen Watson in a bajillion years, they remember that he used to always have fun at their cabin on Shadow Lake every summer as a child, and want to know if he wants the cabin when they die. They invite Watson to come up to the cabin this summer with his family, so he can check out the property and make a better informed decision, and so they can have a chance to reconnect with him and meet his new extended family. Watson takes them up on their offer, and even extends the invitation to the friends of his kids. Sam and Charlie decide they're too old to invite friends over (they probably just didn't want to subject their friends to Kristy and all the little kids for 2 whole weeks!), and will instead "scope out the chicks at the lake" and make friends there, Andrew's and Emily Michelle's friends are all too young to be away from parents for 2 whole weeks, leaving Kristy to invite the whole Club, Karen to invite her two best friends, (Nancy Dawes and Hannie Papadakis) and David Michael to invite two of his friends (Linny Papadakis and Nicky Pike).

Kristy discovers a small motor boat under their dock and learns how to operate it. She gets really excited and decides to invite all her friends to come with her on an overnight trip to the tiny island on the other shore. Thanks to Dawn (more below), the girls are sufficiently freaked out, but ultimately decide to go. On the island, the girls girls make s'mores and tell stories and gossip and have a great time, however, in the middle of the night, they all get freaked out and try to convince Kristy to take them home. Kristy tells them how silly they're being, and they all stay until morning.

Dawn being obsessed with mysteries and ghost stories, of course decides that she must figure out the secret behind Shadow Lake's name. She soon finds out that not only is its name a mystery, but there's also a monster à la Loch Ness Monster. Dawn starts interviewing and questioning people at Shadow Lake, and she discovers that on the small island just off the shore, there used to be a family that lived there. They were very isolated, and never left the island, sending all their servants out instead. On the night when one of the townsfolk was going to marry the eldest daughter, the whole family disappeared without a trace! A year later, family home burned down! No one knows what really happened to them. On the island, the girls find the old burned down foundation of the house, where Dawn finds a locket with the daughter's initials in it. She takes the locket and returns it to the girl's fiancé. Dawn feels better, knowing that she helped put the girl's spirit at rest, but still wants to return to solve the mystery of Shadow Lake.

Claudia finds out about this boat show that's taking place on the shore. She then decides that she wants to submit Kristy's boat as an entry. After thinking about it all week, Claudia finally comes up with the idea of decorating the boat and turning it into the Lake Monster. Because she's working with limited time and resources, the results aren't great, but Claudia is fairly proud. The day of the boat show arrives though, and Claudia realizes that their little motor boat is up against all these yachts and houseboats and essentially REAL boats. She wants to back out, but goes through with it anyways. Of course, she wins a prize. They give out 1st place to 3rd place, and then Claudia wins a ribbon for "Most Spirit".


Jessi meets a cute African-American boy (because of course) and feels guilty because of her "relationship"with Quint Walker. She spends the first half of the book ogling him from a distance, before he finally notices her. Turns out his name is Daniel, and this is his family's first time up at the Lake. He sees her practicing ballet at the lodge's studio barre, and asks for lessons. It's here that Jessi discovers that as cute as he is, as nice as flirting with him is, they have nothing in common. Daniel loves sports and hates reading. While Jessi doesn't hate sports, she definitely doesn't have too much experience with them, and of course, she loves reading. However, she does enjoy the flirting and companionship, so she agrees to go with him to the dance at the end of their vacation. Jessi is then worried about how she's going to let Daniel down at the end of the two weeks, and is really awkward and nervous at the dance. Daniel surprises her, saying that he just wants to be friends and that he has a girlfriend back home! So Jessi feels better and immediately writes to Quint upon returning home.

Stacey spends the whole time being teased and pestered by Sam Thomas. He keeps complimenting her in an exaggerated British accent (calling her "dahhhhling!!") and poking at her perm. At first, she totally doesn't get it and is just annoyed with him, but eventually he tells her how he feels. Stacey's all confused, because while she did have a huge crush on him in grade 7, she hasn't really thought much about him lately, plus he's just been super annoying. Sam accepts that, and leaves her alone. At the big dance though, he asks her to dance, and she says yes. She realizes that she really does like him, and they end the vacation off together, holding hands and being really cute.

Sam gets a single chapter, where we see his side of things. He's all insecure about being 15 with no facial hair, looking up to Charlie and what not. He doesn't understand why Stacey is so annoyed with him, despite him paying so much attention to her. Charlie finally tells him to cut the crap and just TELL STACEY EXACTLY HOW HE FEELS. Which he does. Sam's disappointed to see that Stacey once liked him, but currently isn't on the same page. Of course, we see that eventually everything works out.

Mallory is devoured by mosquitoes and other bugs, and is just generally miserable the whole time. She starts covering up TO THE EXTREME, wearing all sorts of long-sleeved loose clothing, draping towels around her, big jungle hats, mosquito netting, and practically bathing in bug spray. It really annoys the other girls, while she's all hurt that they don't understand and that no one wants to hang around her like that. She doesn't have much of a plot other than just being miserable outside.

Mary Anne spends most of the time worrying and freaking people out about stuff (or just annoying them), much like she did in New York. She doesn't really get much of a plot in this book. She mostly baby-sits and just kinda hangs out in other people's plots.

Karen and her friends find a small shack behind their cabin and a garden. They decide they're going to clean it up themselves and make it their secret hiding place. The problem is, in keeping secret, they don't tell anyone where they're going (not even like, "Hey, we're gonna explore the woods behind the cabin!") so people keep panicking over losing them (well, mostly Mary Anne; everyone else is just annoyed but figures they couldn't have gone far). Mary Anne eventually finds them, and convinces them to just keep the place a secret from David Michael and his friends, but to tell all the adults about it. Eventually the boys do discover it, but the girls claim it as their own, and challenge the boys to make a fort that's better than theirs. Loser has to do all the chores. The girls obviously win, but decide to be nice and make the boys only shine their shoes for the big dance.

David Michael is frustrated because Nicky and Linny aren't getting along, and he doesn't understand why not. Obviously it's because they don't know each other and are competing for his affections, but he can't see that. Anyways, they eventually discover the girls' playhouse and decide to build their own fort. It goes disastrously, since the boys can't work together and agree on anything, plus they have zero architectural skills. What eventually brings them together is when Shannon (the dog, because yes, the family brought the dog AND the cat with them) disappears, and they all have to rally to find her. She's missing for all of like, 30 seconds, before they call out enough and find her again, but the experience bring Nicky and Linny together.

Random Thoughts:

• I am so super excited to read this one! I actually have never read it!! And I've managed to avoid reading most of the recaps and reviews of it over the years, so I really have no idea what it's about. All I know is that Sam and Stacey's romance really ramps up here. I'm excited to read this one because:
1. I'm obsessed with Sam and Stacey
2. My all-time favourite BSC book, Super Mystery #2 Baby-sitters Beware!, takes place here
3. I think a few others take place here? I seem to remember a lot about it, despite not having read this particular one?
• Yes! This one has the illustrations in it!! I guess starting from SS #7, they start having the illustrations that I always thought was super synonymous with the Super Specials. I always read #7, #10 and #11 the most, and have very strong memories of #9, so that's probably why I associate the illustrations so much with the books.
• I like how Watson's aunt and uncle apparently have not seen him in a long, long time, almost 20 years, and the last summer he spent at the cabin was at age 12, but they are like, "OMG LET'S GIVE WATSON THE CABIN."
• They haven't even met Karen and Andrew! Nor Elizabeth and the Thomas clan. Were they not invited to the wedding? Couldn't come? Didn't care??
• Damn. I do not remember any particular descriptions of the cabin. I knew it was huge, because they always take Watson's entire family, plus the Club, but apparently it can house 25 people?? And two of the rooms are dorm-style, with wall-to-wall bunk beds!
• Actually, now I'm just imagining the place having only 4 bedrooms: a master bedroom (2 people), a boys' dorm room (5 sets of bunk beds/10 boys), a girls' dorm room (5 sets of bunk beds/10 girls) and then two extra rooms that hold either 1 or 2 people. You could have a mini-camp there!
• Oooooh. Jessi included a floor plan. I was right! Only 4 bedrooms!
• Ooooooh. I think this is the first time they actually describe Mallory as having reddish hair!!
• This time around, it makes sense as to why they would give Karen and David Michael chapters: they're part of the family, and of course Kristy would want them to bolster her argument for keeping Shadow Lake. Charlie and Sam are too old to do a diary project (if they like the cabin, they're just going to beg and plead with Watson in person) and Andrew and Emily Michelle are too young. I may not like it when chapters are given to random people (especially Karen), but at least they didn't give chapters to like, Nicky or Nancy or something really random! haha
• Yep. AMM definitely hates Mallory haha
• There's some continuity, mentioning that Claudia sometimes tutors Emily Michelle! Yay!!
• I can't believe that Watson and Elizabeth would let Kristy take the boat out on her own. I love how their rule is that only people 12 and older can drive the boat, when there's no one there who is 12. Anyways, I'm not opposed to Kristy taking lessons to learn how to drive the boat. I'm just shocked that they'd immediately agree to let her take it out on her own and pretty much have free reign. You'd think it'd be like, "Sam and Charlie can have free reign, you can only drive if you stay by our dock for practicing purposes, or if you have someone older with you. Next time we come, we can see about you having free reign."
• Then again, considering the parents in these books, maybe I'm not that surprised haha
• Kristy spends an entire paragraph digressing about bikinis, saying that she'll never wear one, and that no one over thirty should wear one, but her mom looks pretty good all things considered, and how Kristy doesn't see the point in wearing a bikini when you don't have a chest to go with it, so at her rate, she probably won't wear one until she's 28 haha It's all very random and "out-of-character", except that AMM wrote this one, so it's perfectly in her character.
• Also: Kristy is convinced by the girls to get dressed up for dinner, so she borrows a dress from Mary Anne. I love AMM!Kristy.
• I can't believe that Watson and Elizabeth would allow Kristy and the girls to spend the night alone on the island. They don't know for sure it's uninhabited!! Or what if some other neighbour saw/heard them go over, and decided to go kill them??
• I think it's really sweet that at the end of the novel, when Watson is writing back to his aunt about keeping the cabin, he refers to Kristy as his daughter. I also really like that Kristy notices this and is thrilled. I wish we got to see more of Kristy and her relationship with Watson.
• I totally don't remember anything about Shadow Lake being haunted. Does this ever come up again? I know Dawn's not with them in SM #2. Do they return to Shadow Lake any other time??

BSC Reader's Request: Logan's Story

Tagline: Nobody's going to call Logan a girl and get away with it!

It isn't easy being a boy baby-sitter.

Like lots of guys, Logan enjoys baby-sitting. And being an associate memeber of the BSC means he can sit when he wants to, and still have time for Mary Anne and sports.

But now the Baby-sitters really need Logan. Logan wouldn't mind taking on the extra baby-sitting jobs, but he's busy trying out for the track team. And the jocks are giving Logan a hard time about hanging out with girls and babies.

Logan doesn't want to let the Baby-sitters down. But he's tired of being picked on!

So we have our first Readers Request! This one is narrated by Logan, where we learn it's not easy to be a boy baby-sitter.

Logan's at football practice. The guys are being dude-broey, but it's not too bad. Logan reflects that he's not like other guys, in that while he enjoys sports, he also enjoys baby-sitting. He likes kids, and he's used to taking care of his younger brother and sister. He mentions that he's an associate member of the Baby-Sitters Club, which means that he gets to have jobs that work around his sports schedule and doesn't interfere with his life. The guys like to rib him gently about it, but for the most part it's not too big of an issue

All that changes though when Logan gets home from practice. He's about to help his parents prepare BBQ for dinner when he's summoned by Kristy to an emergency meeting of the BSC. Rushing over to Claudia's, he discovers everyone looking very tense and Mary Anne in tears. Turns out that Dawn just received bad news: her brother has a ruptured appendix and will have to have emergency surgery, followed by an extended stay in the hospital. She and her mother are rushing to California right away to be with him. The reason why the Club looks so tense is because business has been better than usual, and with Dawn gone, they'll be even more strapped and short-staffed than usual. The Club then decides to invite Logan to take Dawn's spot

Further complicating matters, Logan's got track tryouts soon. Not only is he on the football team with all their practices, but Logan has track to contend with. Between it all, Logan's pretty spread thin. But Logan's determined not to let anyone down!

Immediately though, he ends up with a job baby-sitting for the Hobarts, which results in him missing his first football practice ever. He's pretty salty about it, but Logan ends up bonding with the Hobart boys, who enjoy having a male baby-sitter. They're playing in the Hobarts' yard when a bunch of boys from school (Clarence King, Pete Black, and then two rand-o's we've never heard of: Irv Hirsch and Jim Poirier) see him. They tease him and make him feel really stupid, which of course upsets Logan. He tries to brush it off though, and continues playing with the Hobarts.

He ends up taking on more jobs with the Hobarts, and ends up having to miss his second football practice in a row. This also cuts into his time practicing for track tryouts. At a Club meeting, they call Dawn, who tells them that she'll be in California longer than expected. This means that Logan will have to continue doing more jobs. More than that, he'll have to go to the Health Fair (more on that later) with the Hobarts and help represent the Club. Logan worries about how public the event will be, and thinks of all the people from school he might run into.

On the weekend, Logan decides to go to school and get some track practice in. Mary Anne is baby-sitting for Jenny and Andrea Prezzioso, and decides to go visit him to cheer him on. Logan's practicing with a bunch of guys (different ones from the footballers, but still rand-o's), and they immediately spot MA and the girls and start teasing him about it. Logan, already feeling kind of embarrassed and flustered due to his lack of exercise recently, smiles at them, but quickly tries to get back into focus. The guys decide to practice mile paces, and Jenny decides she wants to join. While the guys are running, she cuts across the track, and they manage to avoid her, but are all thoroughly annoyed. Logan feels bad, because he knows it wasn't MA's fault, but at the same time, he can't wait to get rid of the girls, so they all leave. The boys continue to tease Logan though.

Later that week, while baby-sitting for the Hobarts again, Logan tells them about trying out for track, and the boys immediately want to try it too. Knowing that the track should be empty (no football practice that day, so no one to avoid!), Logan takes them to SMS to play. The boys love it, and Logan admits that he's having fun, however it all comes to a crashing halt when some guys show up to practice on the track. They take their teasing up a notch, and start calling Logan "Lois". Logan takes the Hobarts home, and they all commiserate over how stupid people are and how teasing people is bad.

Logan finally gets his ass to a football practice, but it's pretty brutal. The guys all tease him (except for Austin Bentley, who unlike Pete Black, is maintaining his good guy persona this time around) and it's evident that Logan is very out of practice. The coach tells Logan that it'll be okay, just show up to Saturday's practice. Unfortunately, Saturday is when the Health Fair is. Logan doesn't tell his coach this though, and suffers through the rest of practice. Mary Anne shows up to walk Logan home, and he just stews and broods. His family is worried, but all Logan can think is how his double-life isn't working.

Things eventually come to a head at the Health Fair. Logan brings the Hobarts there, and quickly runs into the guys who've been teasing them. They see him with the Hobarts and at the Club booth and give him a hard time. Logan is fed-up and frustrated, but tries not to let it get to him and not to let it ruin the Hobarts' fun. Eventually Johnny asks to go to the bathroom, and King and the guys overhear, telling Logan he better take him to the potty. This upsets Johnny, and Logan, not wanting to get in the way of Johnny's independence, agrees to let Matthew and Johnny go to the bathroom without him. Matthew ends up getting distracted by the candy vending machine though, and Johnny ends up going through a different exit and getting all turned around. Logan and the Club frantically search for Johnny, before finding him back at the Club booth. King found him wandering, recognized him, and in a moment of decency, returned him to the Club.

Despite the girls all reassuring Logan that everything was fine, Logan realizes that he can't keep doing all these responsibilities. He quits the Club and re-dedicates himself to football and track. After a week or so, things start to settle with him and the guys, with only Irv and King continually razzing him. However, as happy as Logan is with sports, he's sad that things ended so badly with the Club. He misses baby-sitting and being able to sit with the girls every now and then.

Finally, the day of the track try-outs come. Irv and King are still harassing Logan, but he decides to just kill them with kindness. This catches them off-guard. As Logan prepares for his first event, he finds out that the Club, the Hobarts, and his siblings have come to cheer him on. At first, he gets given a hard time, but Logan doesn't even care. Bolstered by their support, Logan has a great try-out and makes the track team. Afterwards, some of the guys congratulate Logan, and even ask him about the girls, eying them and checking them out.

As things start to settle, Logan realizes how much he really misses the Club. He realizes that he needs balance in his life, and that includes baby-sitting. He goes to a meeting to apologize to the girls, asking if he could be an associate member again. They're happy to have him back, and as they leave, he and Mary Anne run into the Hobarts. Logan goes over to play with them, and of course King and the football guys show up. However, this time they don't tease him. Everything is back the way it should be in Logan's life.

There isn't really much of a subplot in this one. I think if this had been any other book, the subplot probably would have been the Health Fair and trying to get the charges involved and excited and all sorts of shenanigans haha as it is, it's just kind of mentioned in passing, and then it's where Logan takes the Hobarts and has his big showdown with Clarence King. The girls decide to have a booth at the Health Fair, and Logan suggests that it be about safe baby-sitting tips and tricks.

Random Thoughts:

• Sorry I've been gone for so long! I started a new full-time job last year, and then got completely swamped! I'm hoping I can get back to updating this blog on a regular basis (although it might not be super frequent). I actually started this recap last year, but then never got around to finishing it until now. I had to re-read the book!
• I have never read this one either! In fact, I have never even seen this one in person, until I acquired it! SO MUCH EXCITEMENT!
• Okay, this wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it'd be. In fact, I think I almost would have enjoyed this book more if it had been from a different sitter's perspective. Particularly Dawn haha
• I definitely would have liked to know more about Dawn's story in this one!
• Logan describes Claudia as sexy, which is weird. I don't think we've ever seen the word "sexy" in these books???
• I don't see why the dudes heckle Logan so much. I mean, sure, baby-sitting is traditionally mostly girls, but if I were Logan, I'd have been like, "Whatevs, I have a steady girlfriend and I have money to take her out!"
• I feel like it was incredibly out of character for Pete Black to be teasing Logan. Pete's pretty friendly with the girls!

BSC #55: Jessi's Gold Medal

Tagline: Go for it, Jessi!

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

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

Can she do it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts:

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

BSC Mystery #4: Kristy and the Missing Child

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Thoughts:

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

BSC #54: Mallory's Dream Horse

Tagline: Mallory's gone horse crazy!

Mallory loves horses. She loves reading about them. She loves writing about them. And most of all, she loves daydreaming about them.

Then Mallory's parents agree to let her take professional riding lessons. It's a dream come true! Mallory is so excited she can hardly concentrate the the BSC meetings anymore. But then the lessons begin and Mallory discovers that dreaming about horses can be a lot more fun than actually riding them.

The book starts off with Jessi and Mallory hanging out at Mallory's house after school. They're reading horse books and talking about how much they love horses. Claire comes into the room, using a mop as a pretend-horse. The girls then decide to go downstairs and watch The Black Stallion, while continuing their conversation about horses. They talk about their dreams, and Mallory says she wishes she could ride a horse all the time.

A few days later, Mallory gets a chance. She's checking the mail, and apparently there's a stable just outside of Stoneybrook giving 8-week courses. Mallory takes the brochure to the Club meeting, and her and Jessi decide that they want to sign up for lessons together. Everything is perfect and Mallory can't wait. She rushes home and puts together a strategy to approach her parents. At first her parents are hesitant, but Mallory wears them down, promising them that it was just a temporary expense and that she'd pay for half. Finally, they agree, and Mallory excitedly goes to tell Jessi the good news.

Sadly, Jessi's parents decide that with all of Jessi's ballet lessons, she doesn't really have the time or money to also do horseback riding. Mallory feels bad for Jessi, but mostly she's disappointed because it means that she has to do the lessons alone. Jessi's definitely jealous and sad, but Mallory's too busy dreaming of riding to really notice.

Mallory's first class is not quite what she expected. Her instructor is very cool, has a British accent and looks like she's stepped off the cover of one of Mallory's horse novels. However, the rest of the class is less than welcoming. Mallory instantly feels left out, as everyone else has proper riding gear, and Mallory's wearing a hodgepodge of things. Everyone seems vaguely standoff-ish, and Mallory is very self-conscious. She does alright in the class, but still feels as though everyone is judging her. However, she survives and things are made better by the fact that she spots her dream horse. Turns out that all the horses in the class belong to the stable, which means Mallory will get to ride him if she wants. Mallory quickly forgets about all the bad stuff, and rushes home to gush to Jessi about her dream horse. She tells Jessi about how wonderful the class is, which of course makes Jessi feel terrible. Mallory can't figure it out though.

At Mallory's second lesson, she makes it a point to go up to as many people as she can and introduce herself. It's apparent to the reader that the other students are only being polite, but Mallory seems to think she's made friends and invites them all to phone her and/or hangout. She also gets to ride her dream horse, which makes things even better. She calls Jessi to tell her all about it, and again, completely alienates her. Mallory goes on and on about how this riding class is just the most important thing in her life right now, and about all the friends she made and how they'll be calling her soon. Jessi, understandably upset, makes excuses to get off the phone. Mallory can tell that something's wrong, but has no idea what it is. She tells herself that it doesn't matter, because she has all these fabulous new riding friends, only then she realizes that she has no way of contacting them. A week passes, and Mallory realizes that not only do she and Jessi not talk, but that none of her supposed new riding friends call her.

Mallory's third lesson is a disaster. Not only do none of the kids really acknowledge her, but she ends up with a nightmare of a horse, and gets bucked right off. Mallory's alright, but badly winded and shaken, so her mom picks her up and takes her to the ER, just in case. Of course, Mallory's crying because of the shock to her system, and the rest of the class is giggling at her. Poor Mallory!

Mallory's mom wants her to give up the lessons, but Mallory's dad says that it should be Mallory's choice. Mallory is feeling pretty embarrassed by the whole situation and doesn't want to compound things further by quitting, so she insists on seeing this through. Her parents agree, so long as she doesn't ride that same horse again. The horse gets replaced, but it doesn't matter: Mallory's confidence is shaken and she's now terrified of riding any horse. She's completely miserable and dreads lessons. Worse, she has to suffer alone, because she doesn't want to admit to her parents that after all the begging she did and the all the money she spent, she hates the lessons. Of course, Jessi still isn't talking to her, because last she heard, riding was the most amazing thing ever. Poor, poor Mallory!

Mallory continues to struggle in class, and the kids are pretty mean about it. However, Mallory thinks she's gotten her big break when one of the girls invites the whole class to her birthday party. Mallory is excited, and spends several days agonizing over what to wear. It becomes apparent that she was trying to dress to impress when she shows up all dressed up, and everyone else is wearing bright and funky teen clothes. Being a rich girl, the party is way out of Mallory's league: about 50 kids, a pool, large sound system with giant TV screens playing MTV. Mallory tries to introduce herself, but obviously no one wants to hang out with the shy awkward kid, so they all quickly make excuses to be elsewhere. Mallory spends the party awkwardly hanging out by the foods table, counting down the minutes til her mom gets her. Upon getting home, Mallory immediately calls Jessi, wanting to fix their friendship and tell her everything. Mallory flubs her words though, and it sounds like she's calling Jessi to humble-brag about the "awful cool kids party with all the music and pizza and stuff". Again, Jessi is all distant, and Mallory realizes that she wants to tell Jessi the truth about how awful riding has been, but that she can't seem to find the words. Instead, Mallory awkwardly ends the phone call, and goes to bed feeling worse than ever.

Eventually, Mallory is down to her last lesson. She should be relieved, but the last lesson signifies a riding showcase. Mallory had hoped to skip the riding showcase, but her parents find out about it and are all excited. The Club finds out too, and they're happy for Mallory, asking her if she's ready for it. Mallory then breaks down and admits how miserable she's been. On the way home, Jessi confronts her about everything, and admits that she was jealous about how great Mallory made everything sound. Mallory realizes how ridiculous she had been and unfair to Jessi. They reconcile and everything is right again.

Finally it's the day of the showcase. Mallory gets to ride her dream horse, which is the only consolation for her. Her instructor lends her a proper riding habit, so Mallory doesn't stand out in the class. Jessi calls to wish her luck, and everything goes well. Mallory is extremely nervous at the show, but with her family and the Club to cheer her on, she gets through it. She even comes in 6th place in her class, exactly in the middle! Her parents are super proud of her, and even offer to pay for the next 8 weeks of lessons. Mallory then confesses to her parents that she hadn't really enjoyed herself much, and that she'd rather not continue. Her parents are surprised, and ask if she's sure. Mallory is: she'd much rather look at horses than ride them!

There's two subplots in this one. Cuz y'know, Mallory can't have a whole book to herself! haha

The main subplot is that Nina Marshall has just started preschool and is having a hard time. She's having separation anxiety and refuses to leave her blanket, Blankie, behind. The other kids notice, and it's really getting her down. The girls try to find ways to convince Nina that she doesn't need him, but Nina remains firm. Then one day, Dawn arrives to baby-sit, only to be told that Blankie is in the dryer. When the dryer is done, Dawn goes to take Blankie out. However, Blankie is so old and worn through that he starts tearing and disintegrating. Nina is, of course, completely devastated. With some quick thinking, Dawn is able to convince Nina that this is for the best: Blankie is now in small little travel-sized pieces. Dawn shows Nina how to hide Blankie so that he'll always be with her, but now he'll be her little secret. It all ends well!

The second subplot is that the younger Pikes decide to put on a talent show with the kids from the neighbourhood. It's super lame. Buddy gets Pow to do tricks, Sean Addison apparently can play the tuba, Nicky learns to walk on stilts, and a few other things.

Random Thoughts:

• I have always hated this book and was not looking forward to reading it. At all.
• And now that I have, I was right. I really did not like this book.
• It's funny, because what frustrates me so much is that Mallory is an oblivious little brat in this: but technically she's acting exactly like an 11 year old! A realistic 11 year old! I guess I got so used to these girls being mightier and holier than thou.
• But yeah. How could Mallory not realize that Jessi was upset at being left out of riding? It's super obvious to the readers, but yeah. I guess that's kinda realistic haha
• I really really really liked Mallory's outfit for the party: gold and brown kilt, matching gold cotton sweater, penny loafers. It's totes the exact kind of outfit I'd wear now as a teacher, when I'm trying to pretend to be a grown-up haha But yeahhhhh... definitely a faux pas for a cool kids party at age 11
• I love how Blankie is such a big deal, but we never ever heard of him before haha
• Why the fuck would Jessi and Mallory ever want to hang out at Mallory's house if they're not baby-sitting? Okay, maybe once or twice, but seriously? If I was Mallory, I'd be looking for every excuse I could find to get out of the house!
• I love how Mallory's parents are all like, "Ehhhh... we can't really a one-time 8-week course on horseback riding lessons..." when they've apparently been paying for Jordan to have piano lessons for quite some time!
• Now that I think of it: what the hell is up with that?? How come Jordan is the only kid who gets to take lessons? I mean, I imagine the rest aren't too keen on piano in particular, but are you saying none of the other kids have ever wanted to do lessons or a sport? I mean, I guess the triplets do Little League (wow! Jordan gets to do TWO things??), but the rest of the kids either do nothing, or do the Krushers, which is free. Mallory asks to do horseback riding lessons, and her parents are suddenly all quibbling. Granted, Mallory did mention that the full price is quite a bit, but that with her covering half, they would be less than Jordan's piano lessons, but still! Poor Mallory has to pay for 8 lousy lessons, and Jordan gets to do all the piano lessons he wants, not to mention him and the twins doing Little League! haha
• Man, in the past year or two, reading BSC blogs and other BSC fandom things, I read that apparently fans generally conclude that AMM must have hated Mallory, because she's either a total loser or just has the worse luck. I remember her not exactly being the coolest of the girls, but yeahhhhhh... Now that I'm re-reading the series, Mallory really does get the short end of the stick. She's written as a total dweeb in this one, socially awkward, trying to impress cool kids, and then gets thrown off her horse and is terrified of riding for the rest of the book!