“Most kids want to keep a dog or cat. All you want is a bed sheet.” BSC #13: Goodbye Stacey, Goodbye (1988)

So, Stacey’s dad’s company is closing the Stamford branch of their business and transferring him back to New York. It’s apparently too far to commute (despite the fact that Abby’s mom does it later on), so they’re moving back to NYC. Stacey’s all conflicted; on one hand, she’s happy to be going back to The City, but on the other hand, she’s leaving behind Claudia, the club, Charlotte and a lot of other positives.

The BSC helps out by throwing the McGills’ yard sale and then using the proceeds to throw a large going-away party for Stacey…and inviting all their sitting charges.

Interesting Tidbits

I’ve never understood Ann M. Martin and her editors’ obsession with hyphens in words. Why is it baby-sitter? Also, why does good-bye have a hyphen on the cover?

That said, I always get the cover of this one confused with the cover of #28, which is basically the same thing happening in reverse. Same station wagon, awesomely colored harvest gold. (My friend Tracey’s parents used to have one just like it, only it was maroon with wood paneling. Like Stacey, Tracey moved away on me. Unlike Stacey, we did not make Tracey a banner.) This IS the one with the banner, though. It’s rather sloppily made and not up to usual BSC banner standards.

 

First mention of the Kristy uniform! Also, Kristy wears the visor for what I think is the first time ever.

Stacey wonders if her grandfather is sick. I remember a mention of her various aunts, uncles and cousins, but not grandparents. Most of these girls really don’t seem to have relatives unless it serves a storyline purpose. There’s Nannie, of course, and all of Kristy’s other relatives from the wedding. And Mimi and Peaches and Russ. Jessi has lots of close-knit relatives (including Aunt Cecelia). There’s Mal’s Uncle Joe, Dawn’s Granny and Pop-Pop and Mary Anne’s Grandma. Abby’s got a few relatives, too. Actually, I guess Stacey’s just about the only one without relatives most of the time. Never mind.

Stacey’s parents are trying to get her excited about the idea of moving back to NYC, so they basically bribe her with stuff like a larger apartment and tickets to “shows.” Stacey, for her part, is hoping that her parents will let her get charge cards. That…sounds like her.

Kids in books and on television are always suggesting that they stay in one place when their family moves away, by staying with a friend’s family. Stacey and Claudia suggest it here, and Brenda and Kelly suggest it on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210. They even actually do it on Glee (Sam moves in with Kurt and Finn.) I can’t even imagine suggesting this in real life because who would want to take on the legal, financial and parenting responsibilities of someone else’s kid?

Stacey actually thinks she will miss Kristy’s gross lunch comments after she leaves. I think that’s stretching things just a little too far.

The day Stacey and Claudia met, they pretty much ran into each other. They were both wearing off-the-shoulder (there’s those hyphens again) sweat shirts. I’ve always wondered about that. Flashdance, anyone? Do you wear something underneath, or just let your bra hang out?

Dawn is trying to be cool by wearing one earring. Keep trying, sweetie.

Oooh, Sharon’s being messy! There’s a can of creamed spinach on the couch and a doormat and screwdriver on the living room floor.

Mary Anne is spelled as Mary Ann at one point.

This cracked me up. Stacey’s mom can’t close a carton of books, so Stacey flings herself on top of it like it was a suitcase that wouldn’t zip.

Claudia spelling! Secrit, spys, Jordin, Byran, reglar, Malary, becuase, nieghbers, poeple, strang. (Can you tell it’s a job at the Pikes’?) Also, to for too, its for it’s, and there for they’re.

Ooh, another mistake. The Pikes are playing SAs (I always loved playing spy as a kid, too) and Claudia is hunting in the back yard, trying to find all the kids. She finds Claire and Margo behind a bush, for example. Jordan is up in the elm tree, while Adam and Byron are in the ash tree. Later, she says that Adam and Jordan in the ash tree can see into the neighbor’s bedroom window.

Mallory’s concerned about her brothers’ “inversion of privacy” of the neighbors, since they’re trespassing and setting up a tape recorder. Nicky records from the tree and only catches one thing: the neighbors saying they’re going to have ‘courgettes’ for dinner. Nicky suggests this means children, causing a Pike family panic (until Mal looks it up and learns it’s zucchini.)

Mistake #3! During the panic, someone refers to the neighbor’s accent: “‘That sounds like a regular old French accent,’ I said, but nobody heard me.” That’s probably because Stacey wasn’t actually there. Just Claudia and Mallory.

I don’t believe that people in California don’t have yard sales. That doesn’t sound right. I’m sure that someone, somewhere, in the history of the state of California, has had a yard sale.

This line is appropriate: “Kristy liked Boo-boo much better asleep than awake.” Boo-boo always reminds me of an extremely fat cat I used to know named Satan (yup.) He would sit on top of the fridge at my friend’s cousin’s house and swipe his claws at anyone who tried to open the fridge door.

Poor Mrs. Porter. She’s so lonely and desperate that she actually invites Kristy and seven bratty kids over to have lemonade with her. You’ve got to wonder if she knows about all the Morbidda Destiny stories. She cackles and winks at Kristy, so it’s almost as if she heard that Karen thinks she’s trying to get them to drink “witch potions.”

If you were moving to New York, supposedly never to move back to town again, would you want a going away party full of babysitting charges? Yeah. I didn’t think so.

Pun time! The BSC gets a special cake just for Stacey that is something she can eat because it’s sugar free. She replies, “That’s so sweet!”

“Good lick Stasy. Have fun in New Yurk.” It’s not Claudia spelling; it’s Margo.

Anastasia Elizabeth McGill and Dawn Read Schafer. ‘Nuff said.

The title quote is what Stacey’s dad says in response to the banner the BSC hangs on the house.

One last Claudia spelling. She writes Stacey a letter for the car ride that she hopes will keep her “amuzed.” Other spelling: wirth, freind (repeatedly), couldnt .

Wow, this is a short entry. Not too much snark involved. Sorry.

Outfits:

Kristy: jeans, turtleneck, sweater; jeans and blue sweatshirt; jeans, blue turtleneck, blue and white striped sweater

MA: oversized sweatshirt, jean skirt; navy minidress, pink sash, blue tights, black ballet flats

Stacey: blue stretch pants, white sweatshirt with stars and sequins; jeans and old gray sweatshirt

Claudia: purple and white striped body suit, gray “jumper-thing” (way to be specific), purple push-down socks, black ballet slippers; purple belt with telephone buckle (I would have LOVED to wear this outfit when I was a kid.)

Dawn: short kilt, large red sweater, red socks, yellow tights, red beret (I HAD this outfit when I was a kid, minus the beret.)

Next week: We skip forward ahead a little bit to #20, Kristy and the Walking Disaster, and the introduction of Kristy’s sorta-boyfriend, Bart.

“We are babysitters, not magical, flying boys.” BSC #12: Claudia and the New Girl (1988)

Why did I hate this one so much as a kid? I don’t think I ever made it past chapter five before. It’s really not so awful. Anyhoo, Claudia meets the titular new girl, Ashley Wyeth, who thinks art isn’t just a hobby—it’s a way of life! She compliments Claudia as an artist and Claud starts skipping BSC meetings and get even farther behind on her homework than normal. The BSC members, backing up what I said last week about them being a clique, get mad at her and behave in ways that seem out of character for them but that are realistic for thirteen year olds. Claudia tells Ashley she likes to live “big” and not have a narrow focus on her art. She gets an honorable mention in an art show for a half-finished sculpture of Jackie Rodowsky and seems to think she can keep Ashley as a friend (although I don’t think she’s mentioned again until book #85.)

Interesting tidbits

The Cover. I capitalized Cover because, the tag on the photo, it says Claudia might give up on the Club—and it’s all the new girl’s fault! I realize Club is capitalized in the name of the BSC, but when it’s by itself, I don’t think it deserves capitalization. This scene almost sorta happens in the book. (That’s Archie Rodowsky with the girls.) Also, regarding Ashley’s outfit…I went through a phase where I wanted to dress like that, but couldn’t afford to.

 

Aww, the book is dedicated to the readers! I feel loved!

Heh. I kinda like this part. Claudia’s not paying attention in English class. First she wonders about a fly, and then about fly family reunions. Her teacher catches her not paying attention, and Claudia says she feels powerful because she seems to have the power to ruin her teacher’s day.

Speaking of English class, it is full of Newbery winners—my favorites! Claudia said she read Sarah, Plain and Tall (which, it should be noted, is probably at a second grade reading level). Claudia hasn’t been keeping up with the reading because they’re discussing The Westing Game and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Honestly, she should LOVE those books! They’re mysteries, and excellent ones to boot.

Does Claudia ever spend time in the ‘resource room’ in other books? In my high school (and in most of the ones I’ve worked in) ‘resource room’ was code for ‘special education assistance.’

Mimi says the second she met her husband, she knew she would marry him. That’s really sweet.

Holy crap, there are a lot of outfits so far. I do find it sort of odd that Claudia and Ashley get dressed up to go to art class and sculpt, which tends to be a messy endeavor.

I can’t decide what’s so funny about Claudia psychoanalyzing people based upon their art portfolios, but I definitely see some humor in it. Maybe because it’s a complete counterpoint to the fact that she’s in remedial math and thinks pharaoh is spelled farrow?

Claudia makes fun of Archie’s name. Nice. Then she accidentally makes Shea cry. I want her to come babysit at my house!

More Kristy lunchtime grossness: apparently, this day’s school lunch looks like a squirrel that got run over. (Claudia refers to the lunches as revolt-o. I am going to start referring to all disgusting things by that term.)

I can almost understand Stacey getting jealous of Claudia spending all her time with Ashley. It’s very age-appropriate to worry that your best friend could get stolen by someone else, especially given that Stacey’s only lived in town for a year and kinda gave up all her other friends in favor of the BSC.

Myriah is six in this book. Later, she goes back to being five, which she remains for the rest of the books.

The Perkins girls have stuffed animals named Mrs. Xerox and Mrs. Refrigerator, which they have covered in makeup. Dawn has to drag the two of them—also covered in makeup—out to the elementary school because Jeff got in trouble. Myriah offers to give both Jeff’s teacher and Jeff himself makeovers while they are at the school.

Ashley decides to sculpt an inanimate object, which she explains to Claudia is something “not alive.” Claudia assumes this means she’ll sculpt dead things, which makes me think of animal carcass artwork…which I’ve seen before. (Really not attractive looking or smelling.) Instead she sculpts a ‘noble’ fire hydrant that wins first place.

Claudia doesn’t seem to be too astute. She can’t figure out her friends are mad at her, despite the fact that she’s stopped sitting with them at lunch and has missed 2 and ½ club meetings—until they start leaving her passive-aggressive notes all over her bedroom. And in the club notebook.

Stacey keeps making fun of Ashley’s bell-bottom jeans. As if they’re any worse than 99% of what Stacey wears. But then she cries over Claudia ditching her. Again, age-appropriate and semi-realistic, as is the passive-agressiveness.

The opening quote is something Kristy says—appropriate, given she’s the one to play Peter Pan later on. Mary Anne cries in sympathy to Stacey’s tears, then can’t stop crying. The others start suggesting happy thoughts for her to pull it together, which leads to the Peter Pan reference.

You know Dawn is mad at Claudia for missing meetings, not just because she makes up a childishly mean song about her, but because she volunteers to help eat all of Claud’s junk food.

I had to look up how to short sheet a bed. Despite the fact that it shows up all the time in books, I’ve never done it or had it done to me.

Finally! It’s a flippin’ Claudia book and we made it to chapter 13 without having any of her awesome misspellings (other than farrow.) Freinds, Aslhey (really?), explian, apologise, aplogise, (in the next sentence after the last one, too!), speling (ironic), abot, Ballons, Wrinkel, carfuly, scupture (twice), sclupture. She also spells her art teacher’s name, Baehr, as Bear, which is logical.

Best moment of the whole book: Claudia calls to talk to Kristy and Karen answers. She starts blathering on about old Ben Brewer and Boo-Boo and ghost hypnosis. (I am NOT kidding. I wish I were.) Instead of listening to her, Claudia totally cuts her off.

More real Newbery winners: The Twenty-One Balloons, which I think I’ve read but can’t remember the plot of, and A Wrinkle in Time, an Ann M. Martin favorite, which Claudia actually enjoys.

Claudia makes friends with the BSC again by writing a really lame poem that makes Mary Anne cry. (There’s a shocker, right?) Stacey (again, when did she get to be funny? They must have dropped that in the later books) says, “Lunatics!...we have a club full of fools.”

How does Kristy not know what a mentor is when Ashley says she’s Claudia’s art mentor, yet she knows what apoplexy is?

Mistake! One of the BSC’s classmates is named Mari Drabek. She’s mentioned in several other books. This might be her first appearance; I’m not sure. In any case, when they say that she got third prize, her name is spelled Mary.

Outfits! Lots! Sorta!

Ashley: hiking boots, long pink-flowered skirt, loose blouse embroidered with flowers, silver bangles, braided hair not held in place by anything, six different earrings; puffy white blouse, long blue-jean skirt, hiking boots, beaded bracelets, denim headband; petticoat and work boots; bell-bottoms; long dress with ruffles at the bottom; long knitted vest over a long shirt and a long skirt that all clash

Claudia: short pink cotton dress, white tights, ballet slippers, side ponytail, palm tree earrings

 

New Characters

 

Shea and Archie Rodowsky (9 and 4)--35 and 30

Next week: We say au revoir Anastasia in #13 Goodbye, Stacey, Goodbye

P.S.: For those following my fanfiction, The Boys of Summer should be posted in its entirety by the end of the month! I’m already in the planning stages of my next work within the same universe.

“I was turning into a wonderful Mary Anne puddle.” BSC #10: Logan Likes Mary Anne (1988)

I would like to interrupt my regularly scheduled snark to bring you a link my sister shared with me on Facebook this weekend. I have nothing to do with it, but I absolutely love it: http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/the-definitive-ranking-of-baby-sitters-club-cover-outfit?s

Now, where were we? The title of this one makes the plot fairly obvious. Logan likes Mary Anne. He’s a new boy in town, from the South, and he’s a babysitter! Wow! Even more exclamation-pointy (not a phrase, but not going to stop me from using it) is the fact that Mary Anne likes him at least as much as he likes her!! They go on a sitting job together, but meetings are too awkward, so they invent the position of associate member for him.

Meanwhile, he actually gets Mary Anne to go to a dance, where she hots herself up in an extremely memorable fashion and accidentally tosses a shoe. Then she runs out of her own birthday party and gets a cat. This was one of my absolute favorites as a kid, despite how stupid this brief summary makes it sound.

Interesting tidbits

Let’s get this out of the way. For the longest time, I had a crush on Logan as he’s shown on the cover here. I think a lot of readers did.

 

Also, Jackie Rodowsky totally looks like a girl…and like he’s got as big of a crush on Logan as Mary Anne does.

Wisdom on boys from MA: “Obviously, with a boy, you can’t talk about bras or cute guys you see on TV.” Honestly, I’d think thirteen year old boys would like hearing about girls’ bras. And you never know…you might find a really good guy friend who likes hearing about cute guys on television. (*cough* Ducky *cough*)

First day of school, and Mary Anne is already bitching about gym class. This must be because Mallory hasn’t joined the club yet. She also complains about smelling like gym all day long because she has it in the morning. A) Better than having it right after lunch, like I did in eighth grade. One girl vomited during wind sprints one day. B) Take a shower, then!

Mary Anne suggests that Claudia and Stacey used to sit with a different group of kids during seventh grade lunch because Kristy is immature and likes to talk about how disgusting the lunches are. Mushroom and cream sauce resembles glue; macaroni and cheese smells like steamed rubber in Turtle Wax. You’d think sitting with a bunch of boys would mean more of that, not less.

That said, the joining of all the older babysitters into one lunch table officially makes this the book where the BSC becomes a clique, who must do everything together, have all the same friends and have all the same opinions.

You’d think Kristy’s mom would get in trouble for doing all the BSC’s copying for them on her work copier…something they acknowledge in an off-hand way by suggesting they should pay her.

Here’s what I always wondered when I was a kid. Did Logan actually do a lot of babysitting back in Louisville, or does he just make that up as an excuse to go sit with the BSC? I mean, he tells stories about sitting, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t just get roped into a few jobs here or there.

How exactly does MA wear hoop earrings? (She’s also wearing earrings on the cover of the book.) Maybe this is before it was decided that she didn’t have pierced ears.

The first appearance of the Ohdners! (Allegedly. Didn’t they show up in an earlier story? I’m going to have to go back and double check…)

Mrs. Rodowsky is named Mariel, and she wants Logan and Mary Anne to call her by her first name.

I’d forgotten about this part, but once I started reading it, I remembered it clear as day. Logan sees a picture on the wall—a piece of artwork Jackie did that his parents framed. It’s a pretty standard kiddy picture of a house. Logan’s like, “We have the same one in my house. I thought it was the original.”

Claudia spelling time! Hav, nise, siting (sitting), Gabie, comuty (community), droped, broght. She also uses bake for back.

I might have mentioned before that, when I read these books as a kid, I’d never seen Star Wars. I totally did not get the name Chewbacca or how appropriate it was for that dog.

I’m not usually much of one for shaggy dog stories, but there’s definitely some humor to Chewy (who got loose from Claudia and ran amok through the neighborhood) stealing traffic cone after traffic cone.

Okay, gang, let’s re-wind. (Sorry. Total Ghostwriter flashback.) Shy, quiet Charlotte Johanssen is seriously suggesting that shy, quiet Mary Anne would like a surprise party? Does she have no empathy?

I’ve always had a hard time believing that Richard, who less than a year ago was a total parenting hard ass, would agree to let Mary Anne go on a date with a boy he’d never met. I even thought that when I was ten….

Oh, heck yes! When I think of BSC fashion, I think of two things. One is the awesome outfit Claudia wore back in #2 that had clocks all over the tights. The second one is Mary Anne’s dance outfit, described in full below. Just say the words “skirt with cities on it” to any BSC fan and they know exactly what you’re talking about.

I also have a hard time believing this one: Kristy says that all the girls should all go to Mary Anne’s to help her get ready for the dance. In the later books, if that has to happen, they let the answering machine get the calls, but this is 1988. Instead (and this is the part I have a hard time with) she pays Janine a couple dollars to answer the phone. A) Kristy is okay with this from a business perspective? B) Stacey is okay with that from a financial perspective? C) Claudia is okay with that from a sisterly perspective? And biggest of all D) Why would Janine agree to that? (I keep typing okay is oaky, which spell check tells me is actually a word.)

Dawn, spending the night at Kristy’s? I’m surprised Kristy actually called Dawn. I know MA was busy, but were Claudia and Stacey busy too? (Sorry, that’s actually kind of mean. But I think this is one of few times that we actually see just these two interacting.)

Okay, anyone here think that they need to explain how the game Memory is played? Does anyone in the universe NOT know how to play Memory? Raise your hand and I’ll stop. (I remember playing TONS of Memory when I was really super young, because it was one game all three of us kids could play together.)

Aww, foreshadowing to #11 and the death of Louie. Legitimately sad.

Logan likes Meatballs. And spends nearly ten minutes explaining the plot of it to Mary Anne. Does he maybe have Asperger’s too? (All the Aspies I know—myself included—can give you way more details on their favorite topics than you’d ever want to know.)

I don’t know why I found this humorous: When Mary Anne tries to convince her dad to let her get a cat, he asks what they would do if they went on vacation. She says, “Get Mallory Pike to come over and feed it?” Now, she could have said Claudia, or been vague and said a neighbor, but she singles Mallory out. Mallory Pike, Cat Sitter.

Dawn ate birthday cake! Shocking! (Of course, she then complains that about the sugar in it.)

Outfits

Dawn: hot pink shorts, white tank top, island print shirt (MA says it is “snappy”); green and white sweater, stretchy green pants

Mary Anne: bright vest over white blouse; white skirt with city names and sketches of landmarks on it in pink and blue; pink shirt and sweater; white shoes with matching pink and blue

Claudia: tight black pants; white shirt with BEPOP on it; floppy blue bow in her hair

Stacey: white t-shirt, hot pink jumpsuit

Kristy: white turtleneck, pink sweater (Kristy in pink = wrong), jeans

New characters

The Ohdners, no names or ages, but they have two girls

Jackie Rodowsky (seven)—33

Logan Bruno (thirteen)—39

The Morgans, no names or ages, but they have four boys

Next week: is going to be like pulling teeth. I don’t think I’ve EVER managed to read the entire book for next week’s story. I may have to break it up in to three chapter segments (instead of my usual five chapter segments) but I will finish #12 Claudia and the New Girl. It will happen.

“I bet his idea of an amusing afternoon is balancing his checkbook.” BSC #9: The Ghost at Dawn’s House (1988)

As I stated in one of the comments on an earlier post, I didn’t hate this one as much as I expected to do. I think I had just overdosed on the books the last time I read it, as I had literally blogged the first eight of them in two weeks. So, while I don’t give it two thumbs up, it doesn’t get the two thumbs way down it did the last time I tried to read it.

Dawn is convinced there must be a secret passageway in her house (for unexplained reasons.) The BSC all hunt for one but have no luck, but a short time later, Dawn literally falls into a passage between her bedroom and the barn. She convinces herself there’s a ghost living in it (because, likely.)

Meanwhile, Nicky Pike’s allowed to wander freely as long as he stays within two blocks of his house. The BSC decides to hunt him down anyway and discovers he’s the reason that things keep turning up in the secret passage, rather than a ghost. (Although Dawn still believes in the ghost. Because she’s that special.)

Interesting Tidbits

The cover: the passage goes from under the barn up into the house, so why does the passage on the cover lead up? (Dawn’s actually cute here though…I used to have a shirt just like hers.)

 

You’d think that since Dawn and Jeff’s dad is on the other side of the country and they don’t get to see him often, they’d spend more than two weeks of their summer with him. Especially since they haven’t seen him since January and they aren’t old enough for jobs to get in the way.

Dawn watched European Vacation on the plane to California.

Oh, so this is the book where Claudia’s hollow book first shows up! I always wanted one of those when I was a kid.

I’d forgotten how the plots in these early books flowed from one book into another.#8 features, among the other Pike-related plots, the introduction of the idea that Nicky doesn’t feel like he fits into his family because the triplets don’t want to play with him and everyone else is a girl. This, of course, is a major plot point in this book. (They tried that again leading up to a couple of the super specials later on in the series, but it wasn’t nearly as effective.)

I’m looking forward to recording all the stupid places Sharon puts stuff in this one. Chapter two starts us off well: hedge clippers in the living room and glasses in the butter dish. (Since when does Sharon wear glasses anyway?)

Somehow, I doubt Mary Anne would actually be interested in searching for a secret passage, especially since she finds the idea scary. (Sure enough, she’s actually scared of everything later.)

Even stranger, I can’t picture Stacey being scared of searching for a secret passage. Or storms. Or whatever. Isn’t she supposed to be all New York sophisticated?

Knowing that the Perkinses are real, it always annoys me how perfect and precocious they’re portrayed. They’re multitalented, never fight, argue or have tantrums, and are adorable. It makes me want to vomit.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I use a bit that Mary Anne uses when sitting for the Perkinses. Gabbie draws a picture and MA doesn’t know what it’s supposed to be, so she says, “Tell me about it.” I use that one on my niece and nephew all the time, because my nephew’s still in that scribbling stage where his whole picture is done in one macaroni-and-cheese colored crayon and is a blob. (My niece is six. Her pictures actually look like something, but I’ve still been wrong about them before.)

Dawn and I have something in common: the fear of a kid getting kidnapped.

Real book: The Tailor of Gloucester, by Beatrix Potter.

I love how Dawn finds a secret passage and automatically assumes the house must be haunted because of it.

Ever notice how often Watson and Elizabeth go out on the town when Karen and Andrew are visiting? I guess they can only take Karen in bite-sized morsels too.

Old Ben Brewer. Yawn…Why does Kristy a) let Karen tell crazy ghost stories when the kids are already worked up and b) let Karen scare HER with same crazy ghost stories? I can buy Andrew and even DM getting worked up over them, but Kristy’s about thirteen. She should not be scared by stories told by obnoxious six year olds.

Dawn and Jeff eat in front of the TV—a rerun of All in the Family, which they to hate. (I didn’t ‘get’ the show as a child, but I love it now). Neither one of them is sure why they’re watching it.

I love the conversation between Dawn and Jeff about ice cream cones when she finally shows him the secret passage. She’s like, “Remember when Dad took us to Dairy Queen that one time?” They don’t realize there are different kinds of cones because they don’t eat ice cream, so they assume the cone they found must be really old (or at least, old fashioned.) I know ice cream cones aren’t exactly “natural” but they would biodegrade. It’s not as if that cone could be there for 100 years. And I’m pretty sure ghosts don’t eat, so how does Dawn think it got there?

I love that Jeff, who is three and a half years younger than Dawn (nearly ten), keeps trying to talk her out of the idea that the passage is haunted. Like she’s six or something.

Enter the Trip-Man. I’d forgotten that he got that nickname because Dawn joked that’s what his friends call him. (The title quote is something else she says about him.)

Dawn manages to freak Jeff out and they stack furniture in front of the door to the passage. You know it’s really sad when Sharon of the glasses in the butter dish has to be the voice of reason. (Not only that, she points out that ghosts can supposedly float through walls—and furniture.)

A+ for consistency…whenever olden-days Stoneybrook comes up, it is always spelled Stoneybrooke.

One of the characters in the Jared Mullray legend is Mathias Bradford. This is actually clever, as we all know that Claudia (and at this point, Mary Anne) live on Bradford Ct.

Claudia spelling: th for the (seriously? She can’t even claim that’s a tyop…) nigt, siting (sitting), thats, porgram. She also uses diner for dinner, but this is my favorite line: “lucy [sic] was an angle.” Yes, but is she acute or obtuse?

Even funnier: Mrs. Newton spells to Claudia. I’m surprised Claudia was able to understand.

For some reason, Jamie wears pyjamas rather than pajamas. (I double checked. This is not a British edition.)

Jamie’s full name is James Anderson Newton, as we learn when Claudia gets very upset with him.

Ooh, foreshadowing! Mary Anne thinks a guy in a magazine is cute! And yes, ladies (and gentlemen, if any are reading), it’s your favorite hunk you’ve never seen…Cam Geary!

I have no idea why, but that reminds me of a line from one of the other books. I can’t remember which one it is, but it’s either a Mary Anne or a Dawn. They’re talking about names for some reason, and Dawn says, “For the longest time, I thought Logan Bruno was strange name.” Anyone know which book that is?!

Dawn calls Mary Anne a dope. After she (Dawn) scared the crap out of her (MA) in the secret passage.

You know Vanessa’s upset because she forgot to rhyme her words.

I like this: occasionally, Dawn can’t tell the triplets apart. She says things like “said one of the triplets.” If she’s only known them for a few months, babysitting them here or there, it would make sense that they’d occasionally blend together.

You’d think smorgasbord at the Pikes=gross food time, but they disappoint. Adam and Jordan have fried baloney while Byron eats fried PBJ and Nicky eats a potato chip and banana sandwich.

Someone needs to explain to Nicky that going into the Schafers’ barn—and the secret passage—without permission is trespassing.

This must have been before the map of Stoneybrook was created, because Dawn lives two blocks away from the Pikes.

The BSC is going to watch movies, and they all suggest REAL ones! I love it! Ghostbusters (Kristy), Sixteen Candles (Mary Anne), The Parent Trap (Dawn), Star Wars (Claudia) and Mary Poppins (Stacey). Dawn and Stacey are both already established as loving their choices, although it would have been funny for Dawn (the ghost fanatic) to want to watch Ghostbusters.

Wait a minute. Since when is Stacey funny? Stacey: “They’re the ones who are going to get pimples.” Dawn: “Let’s get them.” Stacey: “Pimples?”

There just was not enough of Sharon leaving stuff in random spots for my taste in this book.

La-la-la. Happy ending!

New Characters:

Myriah and Gabbie Perkins (5 and 2)—31 and

Next week: We get to meet Mary Anne’s lovah boy (why don’t these girls talk like New Englanders?! Their parents should be pahking cahs and whatnot. And I can say that because my relatives in Rhode Island—just a few hours from Stamford—talk that way), in #10, Logan Likes Mary Anne

"Only one of you can answer it. Trust me." BSC #16: Jessi's Secret Language (1988)

This is Jessi's first book, and it's packed with...um...something. Unrealisticness, maybe? Jessi gets a steady sitting job for the Braddocks, who have a son with hearing impairments. Jessi gets him and his sister to make friends by introducing the neighborhood kids to American Sign Language. 

Jessi has also won the lead role in the ballet Coppelia. Because being super sitter and super ballerina is not enough, she arranges for Matt Braddock and his classmates to come see the ballet and keeps it a secret from her friends. She also makes friends with one of the girls in her ballet class who also has a deaf sister.

Interesting Tidbits

This book is dedicated to Cary. Huh. (Added note: I found this article that explains the origin of the name Cary Retlin: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/08/scholastics-great-idea-legacy-baby-sitters-club/55900/ )

One of these days, I'm going to open up a package of cocoa and hold a Jessi book up to the contents, simply because they always describe her as having cocoa-colored skin.

Jessi wakes Becca up in the morning by putting Squirt down on top of her. She says there's no nicer way to wake up in the morning. I hope she changed his diaper first.

Jessi says that Claudia is the most sophisticated eighth grader she knows. Is this because she hasn't met Stacey yet?

Ohhh, so this is the book! A few months ago my friend Tessie was trying to touch her tongue to her nose, and I reminded her that there's a BSC book that said that if you could do it, you'd need a really big bra "eventually (like when you were eighteen)." Kristy is the only member of the club who can do it, and she's flat chested at thirteen, so I don't think that holds up. Not that I thought so before that, but, you know. Also, what if I guy can do it? Does that mean he'll need a really big jockstrap someday? (BTW, it's Dawn who brings up this particular piece of idiocy.)

Jenny P eats pudding from a goblet with a silver spoon, while all dressed up (natch.)

Heh heh heh. Mary Anne, while babysitting Jenny: "We're going to have fun if it kills us."

Jessi. Do not compare being black and being deaf. It just makes you look ignorant.

Real book: The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom. Jessi and Mal tell the neighborhood kids Matt knows a secret language so they'll be more accepting of them. Haley "helps" by teaching the kids all the insults she knows. This leads the Pike kids to make up their own insults.

Another great quote: "I was sure 'bathroom' was one of the most popular signs in sign language. It was probably the first one ever made up." This is in response to the fact that Katie Beth, one of Jessi's dance classmates and rivals, has a younger sister who is deaf. The sister goes to boarding school and Katie Beth and her family do not know how to sign at all. Jessi teaches her a few signs.

Claudia spelling: secrit, langage, babysiting, invinted, entirtane, Micheal, Kristys, baketball, borthers, siting, gost, dicided, litle. She also uses its for it's, scars for scares, and which for witch.

Stupid Karen is serving "ghost pate" at Old Ben Brewer's party. To distract her, Claudia teaches some sign language. So Karen...tells a ghost story in sign language.

When Jessi has news during club "new business," she raises her hand. (This is also before Mal and Jessi feel comfortable answering the phone at meetings.)

Heh heh again. Logan calls during a meeting and talks to MA, who ends the conversation red faced. Later, MA mentions that Tigger learned how to fetch. Dawn: "You're just trying to distract us from Logan." MA: "You're absolutely right."

Really long set up: Kristy's mom wishes she were pregnant, setting up #24.

Matt tells Jessi he loves her and she's his best grown-up friend. She can't decide what the bigger compliment is: love or grown up.

Not much to say about this stinker. Entire chapters go by, and there's just not anything to belittle or make fun of.

Mrs. Braddock's name is Carolyn.

Jessi's family, the Braddocks and the BSC all go to a restaurant/ice cream parlor called Good-Time Charley's (sounds like a strip club). Jessi's sure that Claudia will order a butterscotch sundae, and she does....and mushes it around so it looks like diarrhea. (The book never says diarrhea, but trust me.)

Outfits

Jessi: leotard and jeans

New Characters

Haley and Matt Braddock (9 and 7)--34 and 32

Next week: if I don't get to the library--and don't hold your breath--it will probably be #48, Jessi's Wish. We're going to go from the hearing impaired to a child with cancer. Why are so many Jessi stories "very special episodes?"

"Alan Gray is the Benny Ott of the eighth grade." BSC #14: Hello, Mallory (1988)

So. This is the first Mallory book. It is not, of course, the first book with Mallory in it--she was introduced in one of the original books written back in 1986--but it is the first mention of Jessi and her family, and the first whole book written from Mal's standpoint.

The story is pretty straightforward (but stupid.) Back in #13, which I have not yet chronicled, Stacey moved away and left an opening in the club. Since Mal was always a good help to the sitters, they invited her to "audition." But they must have decided they really didn't want her in the club for some reason, because they give her a ridiculously hard test that they don't even know they answers to (until they look them up) and take her on a trial sitting job, which she flunks. So she and her new friend Jessi start their own club and sit, two for the price of one. Since the BSC sees them as a threat, they invite both Mal and Jessi to join.

The subplot is all about the racism the Ramseys encounter--did you know they were black?--and how Becca is having a hard time making friends. But eventually, the good neighbors step forward, and Becca and Charlotte become BFFs.

Interesting Tidbits

The whole first paragraph is about how Mal has to wear glasses. Does she think she's the only one in the world or something? Just a couple pages later she mentions how Nicky and Vanessa both wear glasses also, so bad vision must run in the family and probably both of her parents have it, and most of her sibs will probably someday need glasses. I guess she just needed something to angst over, before AMM decided Mal needed a nose job.

Real book alert: Mal is reading Freaky Friday, The Incredible Journey, and Dr. Doolittle all at the same time. (Not simultaneously...she's not Dr. Reid.)

Nicky breaks his finger, so the Pikes leave Mallory in charge of her six other sibs while they take him to the ER. I get that it's an emergency, but please. It's a broken finger. There's not much that can be done for it but splint it. Why do both Pike parents need to go? One should be sufficient. (Plus, six kid in the care of an eleven year old? Really?)

The Pike rule is two sitters for more than five kids. Later, in #81, BSC rules would be two sitters for more than four kids. As a kid I'd always just assumed the BSC had kind of picked up the Pikes' rule and made it their own, so what's with the discrepancy?

Kristy writes a notebook entry about the meeting Mal attends. Why? It's not a sitting job. (BTW, Mal says the notebook is very fat, and this is only book 14. Can you imagine that notebook by the end of the series? It would probably be a whole pile of the extra thick notebooks.)

After all these years, I finally had to figure out what a squiggle pin is. I had to Google it, and it is not at all what I was expecting. I don't remember anyone ever wearing pins like that, and yet the BSC wore them all the time in the 80s. (On a side note, Google kept diverting me to squiggle pens, and I found a really humorous article about them.)

Jessi tells awful jokes...or at least, the kind of joke that is only funny once. Most of the ones she tells in this story were the kind that are funny when you're in second grade or so.

The "test" the BSC gives Mal is ridiculous. First they ask "When does a baby cut its first tooth?" Mal answers eight months, because that's when Claire got her first tooth. Kristy says the "correct" answer is seven months, which is malarkey. I didn't get a tooth until I was closer to a year old, and one of my nieces cut a tooth at four months. Next they want to know the difference between creeping and crawling. How much you want to bet not a single one of the girls in that room knew the correct answer before they looked it up in a book? (Creeping is hands and knees; crawling is scooting on the belly. I've remembered that ever since I read this book the first time.) She's then asked what a tourniquet is and when you remove one. Finally, Mallory is asked to draw the digestive system. (Later, when they discuss the results of the test, Claudia calls it the divestive system, so you know how well SHE would have done on that test.)

Claudia spelling! Malory, experyence, Maria (twice), Gabie,aboat, grils, Elzabeth, Gaby, Melory (twice), yonger, exited, heres, whith, scemed, befor. She also uses to instead of too.

When Mal babysits for Gabbie and Myriah Perkins with Claudia, she makes a couple of small errors, like letting the dog in when they were told to leave him in the back yard, and asking the girls what they want to eat instead of looking in the kitchen and announcing a healthy snack. She also spills milk and drops a glass. But she cheers up Gabbie when she's sad with a creative pajama party idea, and the rest of the job goes well. Still, when asked to rate the job on a scale of one to ten, Claudia gives her a three.

Claudia mixes up soy sauce with soy formula. Idiot.

Humorous. Chapter 8 starts with the following sentence: "There are a lot of things I do well, and one of them is mope."

I love the "racism" in the Pike family. Mal is afraid to say the word black in front of Jessi. When Jessi comes over to the Pikes' for the first time, Claire asks if she's there to clean the house, because the only other black people she remembers were house cleaners.

Jessi makes fun of the BSC's name. She says it's like naming a restaurant "The Restaurant," which is sorta true. But then she and Mal name the competing club they start Kids Incorporated, which sounds way worse.

While Dawn is babysitting for her, Suzi Barrett uses all the disposable diapers in the house to fix her "horse," aka the table. Dawn makes her take them off the table leg and refold them. These days, Dawn would have lectured Mrs. Barrett about using disposable diapers instead of cloth diapers, to boot.

Mal breaks up an argument between Nicky and Margo by ordering them to go downstairs and catch a dinosaur.

When Jessi and Mal are sitting for Becca and Squirt, Becca is making gigantic bubbles with a special bubble wand. Another little girl across the street wants to come play, but her mother won't let her. Instead, Charlotte comes over, complete with banana bread and a dinner invitation from Dr. Johanssen, and says that her mother says there was a girl there who could be her friend. Do you think Dr. Johanssen was more concerned about Charlotte making friends, or with trying to make the neighbors feel welcome? It almost sounds like she ordered Charlotte to go be nice to Becca. Luckily, they get along well, so it works out for them.

Dawn and Claudia get pretty nasty when they squabble. Dawn lectures Claudia about eating Ring-dings and says she'll get fat and have pimples. Claudia turns around and says that if she'd ate health food, she'd turn into a pale, skinny rabbit...like Dawn. Kristy ends the argument by telling them to shut up. Nice, huh?

When deciding whether or not to join the BSC, Jessi mentions how the neighbors have treated her. She says that things are starting to settle down in school, and says that Benny Ott has stopped shooting rubber bands at her. The sixth graders ask if boys are still weird in eighth grade, which leads to these answers:

            "Definitely." (Kristy)
            "Sort of." (Dawn)
            "It depends." (Claudia)
            "Not really." (Mary Anne)

Mal gets a second chance to sit with Claudia, and this time, instead of shaming her in front of the children, Claudia sits back and lets her do the sitting.

Outfits

Mallory: red jumper with her name across the front (REALLY?), white blouse, and of course, tights with little hearts on them (I must admit that when this book first came out, I still loved tights with hearts. But I was seven, not eleven.); jeans, sweatshirt reading "I'd rather be writing my novel", sneakers

Kristy: sneakers, jeans, pink turtleneck, pink sweater

Claudia: short, tight pants, ballet slippers, t-shirts with sequins; overalls, hightops

Mary Anne: yellow sweater, squiggle pin (see above), short skirt of sweatshirt material, yellow tights, ballet slippers

Dawn: baggy jeans with the cuffs rolled up, shirts with the tails out, big belts

New Characters:

Jessi, Becca and Squirt Ramsey (11, 8 and 1)--36, 33 and 26

Laura Perkins (newborn)--25

"I loved it. It was too, too diveen." BSC #11 Kristy and the Snobs (1988)

Ugh. I had a small chunk of this written and it all got deleted. Sorry. Not sure what happened except to say that my computer is insane. I probably won't be as humorous the second time around. Plus this book depressed me to no end.

This is the book in which we first meet Shannon. She's one of Kristy's new neighbors, and she acts like a bitch to Kristy because she's stealing all Shannon's sitting jobs. Kristy and Shannon start a prank war. But when Kristy's dog Louie has to be put to sleep, Shannon mourns with her and even gives her a puppy. She becomes the second associate member of the club.

Subplot: The Delaneys, Shannon's neighbors, are royal brats. Stacey uses reverse psychology in an attempt to tame them.

Interesting tidbits

The cover amuses me. Shannon's wearing what is described in the text as the SDS uniform, or at least close to it. (see below). She looks a lot like Shelley Long when she was on Cheers. She's with who I assume is Amanda Delaney, because she's holding the $400 cat. Amanda's wearing a carbon copy of Shannon's outfit, only in different colors. I guess that was the 1988 version of Snooty Girl Wear. (This is an actual case where the cover photo is straight out of the book.)
 

In later books, they always describe Louie as having joined the family when DM was born. In this one, he is about the same age as Kristy, which makes more sense. Louie's problems are due to old age, and 13 is "old" for dogs while most of the time, 7 is not.

When Kristy first meets Shannon, she calls her a snob right off the bat. Shannon calls her jerk-face in reply.

Kristy's already wearing a pencil behind her ear and sitting in the director's chair. (When did that start? Was it the start of eighth grade?) Stacey and Claud sit on the bed and MA and Dawn sit on the floor. In a later meeting, MA and Dawn are on the bed.

Amusing. Kristy lists each babysitter's likes and dislikes, as if it were a dating show. Babysitting is on everyone's like list, so I'll leave it out.

Kristy: likes: sports, TV; dislikes: snobs, cabbage, blood, people who chew with their mouths open and squirrels (she informed us of this on page 1)

Claudia: likes: art, mysteries, boys; dislikes: school

MA: likes: movie stars, animals; dislikes: crowds, being the center of attention

Stacey: likes: boys, clothes; dislikes: doctors

Dawn: likes: health food, sunshine, ghost stories; dislikes: junk food, cold weather

Stacey's list makes her sound especially shallow.

Ummm....if Kristy stayed after school, why didn't she just walk to Claudia's? Instead she took "the late bus" which just magically happened to take her to her house and then had Charlie take her back to Claud's. (We had those "late buses" at my middle-high school, but it just took us and dropped us off at various central locations, not to our houses. And we had to have special permission slips from our parents to ride them.)

Kristy likes the Papadakises because they give their pets stupid names, let their kids pick out their own clothes, and let them go barefoot all summer long. (In other words, they're not uppity) They sound a lot like my family (except instead of Noodle the Poodle and Myrtle the Turtle, we had a hamster named Raoul.)

Mr. Papadakis is named George.

The pranks Shannon and Kristy play on each other:

Shannon calls the Papadakises and tells Kristy the house is on fire.
Kristy gets a diaper service to deliver to the Kilbournes' house.
Shannon tells Kristy Sari P. won't stop crying to lure her over to the Papadakises house with the Delaney kids. (The Ps and Ds hate each other.)
Shannon orders a pizza to be delivered to the Delaneys when Kristy is sitting. (see below) Kristy tells the driver that he has the wrong address, and sends it to Shannon instead.

The baby that will eventually be Laura Perkins is nameless at this point, so everyone is suggesting names. Mr. and Mrs. Perkins like Sarah or Randi for a girl and John Eric or Randy for a boy. Myriah likes Laurie and Gabbie likes Beth. Jamie Newton suggests Stupid-head.

The first thread of Jeff going back to California is introduced in this one when Dawn babysits for him. (Sharon went on a date with the Trip-man.) Apparently, Dawn gets paid for babysitting Jeff. I don't know many families where that is the case. In any case, Dawn's idea of sitting for cranky Jeff involves squabbling with him and letting him do things she had told him not to do.

Dawn totally tries to eavesdrop on her parents' phone conversation. Yeah. And then she bursts into tears at a club meeting.

I'm not going to chronicle all the sad stuff with Louie. Not only is it too depressing, but it's too similar to my Mistletoe in her last days. If you must know, read the book. Or one of the other BSC blogs out there. Sorry.

Stacey "tames the snobs" by using reverse psychology on them. When they say they like their room messy, she makes it messier so they'll clean it; when they order her to do stuff, she goes overboard. By the end, the Delaneys are behaving themselves and having a good time with Stacey.

Max is singing My High Silk Hat, but he has misheard the lyrics and keeps saying, my hysle cat. Reminds me of when my sister was singing Pinky & the Brain's brain song and instead of left hemisphere, she'd always say west hemisphere.

Shannon shows up at Kristy's sitting job with the pizza and threatens to throw it at Kristy. Kristy says she'll throw it back at Astrid, making her a pepperoni mountain dog instead of a Bernese mountain dog. It works though, because Shannon and Tiffany wind up laughing, and the whole group shares the pizza.

Max tries to order Shannon around (and calls her Shannie) and all she has to do to put him off is raise an eyebrow at him. Kristy's impressed, but I bet that at this point Stacey would only have to do the same to get the same effect.

Claudia spellings galore! Pocks, apreciat, wright, rember, plesent, feever, Malory, Margoe. She also spells pox as pax and packs, and uses there for their and your for you're.

So the triplets, Margo and Claire all have the chicken pox, and they're no longer running fevers. For some reason, Mrs. Pike insists they stay in bed. When I had chicken pox, I spent time on the couch, in the basement, outside...where ever I wanted. (Of course, I seem to have had a mild case, despite having them at age 13.) They aren't contagious anymore, so there's no risk to Nicky or Vanessa, so why bother? Not that it matters anyway...as anyone could see coming a mile away, at the end of the chapter, Nicky and Vanessa are covered in pox themselves.

Shock! Kristy's so worried about Louie that she skips a club meeting.

Kristy actually gets into an argument with Karen over whether Louie's grave marker should say RIP or Rest in Peace. Kristy mentions that Karen's "been wanting to have her own way a lot."

I cried from the moment they decide to put Louie to sleep until they finish his funeral. I know I never found this book remotely this sad as a child.

How does Kristy know the word herpetologist? It's what she suggests "Old Ben Brewer" was.

New characters

Shannon, Tiffany and Maria Kilbourne (13, 11 and 8)--38, 36 and 33

Linny, Hannie and Sari Papadakis (8, 6 and 2)--33, 31 and 27 (later, Linny and Hannie morph to be 9 and 7.)

Amanda and Max Delaney (8 and 6)--33 and 31

Outfits
Shannon (and everyone else from SDS):  Blue plaid jumper and white shirt, stockings. (the cover shows her in a blue plaid "jumper" if you're British; sweater to the rest of us, and a red skirt.)

Amanda: blue corduroy jumper, white blouse, blue hair ribbon, shiny Mary Jane

Max: alligator shirt, corduroys, docksiders

Next month: Happy birthday, Stacey