Mary Anne Saves the Day (RS#4)

I got a blog award! Thank you to Ali of Travel Rambling (http://mytravelrambling.blogspot.com). It's the beautiful blogger award. I'm probably going to screw up posting it but I'll try. Here are the rules that came with the award:

1) Thank the person who nominated me for this award.
Thank you, Ali!

2) Copy the award & place it on my blog.
This is the part I'm screwing up on. And I'm sure Janine would be upset that I just ending a sentence with a preposition. That is something up with which she will not put.

3) Link to the person who nominated me for this award.
Her blog (which I'm enjoying) is at
http://mytravelrambling.blogspot.com/

4) Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.
-I have a hedgehog named Jennifer.
-My favorite movie is the Shawshank Redemption. When it was re-released my husband took me to see it on the last day it was showing and I was able to get the movie poster that the janitor was taking down to throw in the trash.
-I have never read the Twilight or Harry Potter series, not because I hate them but because I don't care.
-I have a CDL (Commercial Driver's License) due to coaching high school sports (track and field and cross country) and needing to drive a school bus to meets and practices.
-I have autographs from two members of the band Jimmy Eat World, Joel McHale, Stacey Dragila (US record holder and 2000 Olympic gold medalist in women's pole vault), Tommie Smith (think Black Panthers at the 1968 Olympics), and Dave Johnson (world record holder in points for second day of decathlon and Olympic bronze medalist 1992).
-I know American Sign Language, so watch for my head to explode whenever the BSC sits for Matt Braddock.
-Like Ali who nominated me I've been every state except Alaska and Hawaii. I've also been to two Canadian provinces (British Columbia and Ontario).

5) Nominate 7 bloggers. & 6) Post links to the 7 blogs I nominate.
Regretsy: http://www.regretsy.com/
Cakewrecks: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Dibbly Fresh: http://dibblyfresh1.blogspot.com/
BSC Chronologically: http://bscchronologically.blogspot.com/
Baby-Sitters Club Revisited: http://bscrevisited.blogspot.com/
Psyched on the Prairie: http://psychedontheprairie.blogspot.com/
Children of the 90s: http://childrenofthenineties.blogspot.com/



And now, Mary Anne Saves the Day!

Original Publication Date: 1986

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

The BSC has its first major fight when everyone in it sort of blows up at each other at once. Members stop attending meetings and it gets to the point that just one person will man the phone, checking the schedule on her own and calling the others to fill jobs. Things come to a head when they are all working at Jamie Newton's birthday party and nearly ruin it. They have an emergency meeting (the third so far) and make up.

Mary Anne grows a bit of a backbone, showing her dad that she is starting to grow up and he loosens up a bit. Dawn also moves to Stoneybrook in this book.

This book is one of my favorites. It's also weird in that is has sixteen chapters instead of fifteen.



Established or continued in this book:


The Girls:

Mary Anne's room hasn't changed since she was three. I bet that has a lot to do with her dad putting up the stuff her mom had gotten and not wanting to take them down.

Claudia's junk food: Ring Dings in her pajama bag

Claudia still seems insecure in this book.

Kristy has been to Florida, and it was one of the six times Mary Anne had not walked to school with her. Another was when her dad left and the other four she was sick. Even assuming a few days for Mary Anne being gone, that's a great attendance record.

We are introduced to Dawn in this book. She's fancy like Stacey: her family has a VCR in its 1795 farm house.

Dawn hates dim rooms and has lots of lamps each with 100 watt bulbs. That seems odd for environmentally-conscious Dawn, but it sounds like her room has only one little porthole for a window. And maybe she's not so into protecting the environment yet, though she is already a healthy eater.

Dawn is neat, as in tidy. Let's see how that one pans out.

Claudia offers an olive branch to Mary Anne (by way of a smile). I like how she's the peacekeeper in these early books. Of course, Mary Anne is the main one here, but Claudia still gets a "part."


Their Families:

Mary Anne and her dad eat "a proper dinner" at 6:30 every night. Presumably, not when she has a babysitting job. They say grace before eating, which is one of the few times religion is mentioned with regard to the main characters.

Mary Anne's mother was named Abigail in the older versions of the book, but the newer ones are updated to have her named Alma. She also went to high school in Maryland...but Mary Anne's grandparents, we will learn live in Iowa. The new cover version also says she grew up in MD.

Mary Anne's dad tries so hard to raise her well. Too bad he goes overboard, but you can tell he really has her best interests in mind.

Mary Anne's paternal grandfather was a mailman.

Mrs. Thomas has been like a mother to Mary Anne. They never seemed that overly close, though. Maybe Mrs. Thomas was always the one Mary Anne felt she could ask about girl things or whatever but it's never showed.

Stacey can't eat the processed cheese that's on pizza. I thought it was just mozzarella?

Dawn's mom has short, curly, pale blonde hair. I think the cover of #64 (posted on BSC Chronologically) would beg to differ.

Dawn's maternal grandfather is a banker.

I'm sure I don't even need to mention it, but Mary Anne and Dawn find out in this book that their dad and mom dated in high school.


The Club:

Kristy misses another meeting. That's one in each of these last two books.

This is Jenny Prezzioso's first appearance. She is here described as NOT prim and fastidious. Rather, her mother, Madeline, is and she and her father, Nick, try to keep her happy.

I'm sure I'll get sick of the babysitting chapters as time goes by, but they're fun for now. All the girls really sound like responsible, fun sitters.

Finally, the original four all have permission to stay out until 9:30 on school nights and 10:00 on weekends.

First pizza toast!



SMS:


Teachers:

Students: Jo Deford (7th grade)



Misc:

Good continuity: Mary Anne is finishing the scarf she started for her father in #3.

Here's the first time a BSC member thinks long and hard about what she's going to say (in this case, Mary Anne confronting her dad about giving her more privileges), but instead just blurts things out and makes the situation worse.

I find this amusing: Mary Anne's teachers write on her report cards that she is a joy. That's what my teachers would often write, which was was great because my middle name is Joy.

Byron Pike is established as the foodbag in this book. And Mallory helps "write" a play for some of her siblings to perform, which will fit well with her desire to be a writer.

Mary Anne says something important here: "some twelve-year-olds are ready to date and some twelve-year-olds still need baby-sitters." I don't think this is ever brought up again, but it does help a little to explain why there will one day be eleven-year-olds in a club that sits for ten-year-olds.


The numbers:


BSC Fights: 2

Teachers: 4 (3 7th grade, 1 elective)

Students: sixteen 7th graders, four 8th graders

Clients: 8

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 12 (bubble gum, butterscotch candy, a chocolate bar, gumdrops, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, peanut M&Ms, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Twinkies, Lifesavers)

Crushes: Claudia-1 (Trevor Sandbourne), Stacey-2 (Pete Black, Sam Thomas)