Logan Likes Mary Anne! (RS#10)

Original Publication Date: 1988

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

It's the start of eighth grade, and there's a new boy from Kentucky, Logan. Mary Anne has a crush on him, and he on her. They start hanging out: he attends a BSC meeting to see if he might join, they babysit Jackie Rowdowsky together, go to a dance, and a party...which turns out the be a birthday party for Mary Anne. She's so stunned when a cake is brought out that she runs out. But things are okay pretty quickly. Logan ends up an associate sitter and Mary Anne adopts Tigger.


Established or continued in this book:


The Girls:

Claudia candy: gumdrops and pretzels in her pillowcase, Doritos

Mary Anne and Mimi are close enough that they kiss in greeting, which further confuses me on Mary Anne's claim in RS#4 that Kristy' mom has been like a mother to her.

Stacey can imitate Porky Pig.


Their Families:

Louie is starting to look unhealthy.


The Club:

New clients: Mr. Ohdner (two daughters), the Rodowskys (mom is Mariel, kids Jackie, Shea, and Archie, "pet" grasshopper Elizabeth; Logan likes to sit for them)

First associate member!


SMS:

Students: Logan Bruno (8th), Erica Blumberg (8th), Shawna Riverson (8th), Kara Mauricio (8th grade), Bruce Schermerhorn (8th grade), Justin Forbes (8th grade)

Staff: Mr. Peters (8th grade homeroom), Mrs. Rosenauer (8th grade gym), Mr. Kingbridge (vice-principal)


PSA time:

Ugh. When you want to use a collective pronoun as the subject of a sentence, use "we." If you mean it to be an object, use "us." E.g.; "We babysitters stick together." Not "Us babysitters stick together."


Misc:

Fail. Stacey supposedly finds out in this book that Cam Geary dates Corry Lalique but that was mentioned in RS#9 when they had a sleepover at Dawn's house. Or maybe her diabetes makes her prone to memory problems.

I think it's fitting that while I type about the book in which Mary Anne gets Tigger, my husband's cat, Eddie) is sleeping on my lap.

Ha, I put stickers all up my door like Gabbie Perkins when I was a kid.


The numbers:

BSC Fights: 2

SMS Staff: 7 (3 7th grade, 2 8th grade, 1 elective, 1 vice-principal)

Students: twenty-three 8th graders

Clients: 12

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 20 (bubble gum, butterscotch candy, a chocolate bar, cupcakes, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, gumdrops, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, peanut M&Ms, regular M$Ms, pretzels, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, Twinkies, Lifesavers)

Crushes: Claudia-1 (Trevor Sandbourne), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-4 (Toby, Pete Black, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas)

The Ghost at Dawn's House (RS#9)

Original Publication Date: 1988

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

Dawn is convinced her old house has a secret passage somewhere, and ends up finding one that leads from the barn to the wall between her room and her mothers, opening up into the former. Since this is Dawn we're talking about, she's convinced it's haunted by one Jared Mullray, about whom she reads in an history of Stoneybrook.

At the same time, Nicky and the Pike Triplets are continuing to spar. Nicky ends up hiding in the secret passage from time to time, which accounts for the noises and strange things Dawn found in the passage. Except that he never hid there at night...

This book has a few distinct memories for me. I remember getting really scared when I read it. I'm not sure what age I was, but the youngest would be six and a half. I was probably older than that. I hid it under my bed for a while, until my older brother read it and told me the ending wasn't scary. I also remember the Trip Man, and thinking that balancing a checkbook was meant to be taken literally: that people balanced checkbooks on their fingers.


Established or continued in this book:


The Girls:

Claudia candy: Hershey's kisses in a hollow book

Dawn mentions having more than one light in her room and implies that they're bright, which is consistent with RS#4.

Kristy appears to not believe in ghosts, which is revisited in at least RS#29.

Mary Anne gushes over Cam Geary for the first time.

Dawn has a white bedspread.

Kristy loves to stay up late, which fits in with her liking to sleep in.


Their Families:

Jeff has a weakness for chocolate cake.


The Club:

New clients: the Perkins-Gabbie calls people by their full names, as I did with my older brother's friends; Myriah is a genius; the cat is named R. C. (Rat Catcher); the dog is named Chewy, short for Chewbacca. My parents took in a stray black lab mix in 1980 and almost named her Yoda, since they found her after seeing The Empire Strikes Back (but named her Shadow instead).


SMS: Summer vacation!


PSA time: Nothing stood out.

Misc:

Dawn sat for Clover and Daffodil in CA.

Know how they knock on the walls to check for hollow spots? My older brother and I did that when were maybe four and seven at my great-grandparents and found a hollow spot. Turns out it was where they kept a safe deposit key or valuable documents or something.

"It was a statement, not a question." That's the second time Dawn has narrated that sentence, the first in her first BSC book.

The Wandering Frog People have made their debut.

Jamie Newton's middle name is Anderson.


The numbers:

BSC Fights: 2

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

Students: seventeen 7th graders, four 8th graders

Clients: 10

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 18 (bubble gum, butterscotch candy, a chocolate bar, cupcakes, Ding-Dongs, gumdrops, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, peanut M&Ms, regular M$Ms, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, Twinkies, Lifesavers)

Crushes: Claudia-1 (Trevor Sandbourne), Mary Anne-1 (Alex), Stacey-4 (Toby, Pete Black, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas)

Boy-Crazy Stacey (RS#8)

Original Publication Date: 1987

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

Stacey and Mary Anne go on a trip to Sea City, New Jersey with the Pikes to act as mother's helpers. While there, Stacey falls in "luv" with an eighteen-year-old lifeguard who basically flatters her so she'll run errands for him. And Stacey thinks this is a privilege. Even after she spots him making out with (presumably) his girlfriend, she thinks that he did like her as a friend.

Mary Anne seems little more in touch; she knows right away that he's too old for Stacey, and resents Stacey leaving her with all the Pikes, and we get to see pissy Mary Anne for the first time. But it does give her a chance to get to know another mother's helper, Alex. Mary Anne and Alex pair up with Stacey and Toby (Alex's cousin) for a double date on the last night in Sea City, during which Stacey gets her first kiss.

There's also a chapter involving Kristy, who's the only one staying home during this time (Dawn's in California and Claudia is in New Hampshire). She's babysitting Karen and Andrew, who are washing Watson's old truck, when David Michael comes home with an injured Louie. While Kristy's trying to find someone to take them to the vet (and it's pretty serious, Louie needed three stitches in his paw), Karen grabs some steel wool and strips some of the paint off the car. Watson puts some blame on Kristy, which I know a lot of people disagree with, because she was dealing with a crisis. But she should have halted the car washing. After all, Karen can't be trusted.


Established or continued in this book:


The Girls:

Stacey has one hole pierced in each ear.

Stacey reads Agatha Christie...and does needlepoint.

Stacey can't stand people throwing up.

Stacey may be good at math, but she's not good at geography. Since when does a location having a bay mean it's an island? If it's a body of water that divides two land masses, it's a strait, Stacey.

Kristy has moved to Watson's mansion by this book.

Kristy reads People magazine...really? Not Sports Illustrated?

Mary Anne first has the idea for everyone to exchange postcards if they won't see each other for a brief time. It's her fault!

Well, maybe. Kristy turns the postcards into Club notebook entries.

Mary Anne still likes yellow.


Their Families: nothing new


The Club:

Stacey makes a point of clarifying that the parents calling the BSC reach five qualified sitters...possible reference to RS#3?

She briefly mentions the playgroup from RS#7 and gets the details right.


SMS: Summer vacation!


PSA time:

To quote Mrs. Pike: "As you know, Mr. Pike and I don't believe in making rules for the children or forcing them to do things they don't want to do." Of course, that's contradicted in a few pages when the parents tell their kids to do things. Which is good, because having no rules is dumb. Sure, let your kids make some mistakes so they don't make bigger ones later in life, but NO rules? What happens when Claire decides she doesn't want to have an adult with her to cross a busy street?

Don't put butter on burns; it seals in the heat. If you're clumsy in the kitchen like I am, keep an aloe vera plant on the counter.

There's no such thing as a seagull. It's just gull, or Heerman's Gull, California Gull, etc. You will not find "seagull" in any respectable field guide.


Misc:

The cover picture is really accurate. Stacey and the Pikes had put on sweatshirts by the time Claire cut her foot, and the Pikes' beach house in the background looks good.

I think this book is the first to contain the phrase "not too long ago..." Watch out, time warp's coming!

You know, instead of "un-inflated" you can say "deflated." It doesn't have to mean that the beach ball has a hole poked in it.

Byron loves to eat and is sensitive, Margo gets carsick, Claire is silly, Vanessa rhymes and is a slowpoke, Mallory is romantic, Nicky is overlooked, we already know Jordan plays piano (from RS#5), and Adam's only trait is that he's a triplet.

Does New Jersey have white sand beaches? The sand I saw in Maine and North Carolina was brown.

Will someone please explain about processed cheese to me? Stacey can't have pizza or omelets, but most pizza has mozzarella and I always make omelets with cheddar. Does Stacey mean things like Cheez Whiz, which in reality is not terribly different from regular cheese?


The numbers:

BSC Fights: 2

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

Students: seventeen 7th graders, four 8th graders

Clients: 9

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 16 (bubble gum, butterscotch candy, a chocolate bar, Ding-Dongs, gumdrops, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, peanut M&Ms, regular M$Ms, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, Twinkies, Lifesavers)

Crushes: Claudia-1 (Trevor Sandbourne), Mary Anne-1 (Alex), Stacey-4 (Toby, Pete Black, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas)


Thanks to Emily at BSC Chronologically (http://bscchronologically.blogspot.com/) for the award! I'm supposed to first list ten things that make me happy, so...
1. Dinosaurs
2. The color blue
3. Pole vault
4. Eucharist
5. Learning about how different traditions came about (e.g.; why do we have Christmas trees?)
6. Proper grammar
7. Being warm
8. Knitting
9. Drawing and/or painting
10. Animals, except bears (too many are capable of eating me)

And list ten other blogs to receive the award:
1. Regretsy (http://www.regretsy.com/) finds the worst of the worst on Etsy
2. Cakewrecks http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/) finds the worst cakes
3. Dibbly Fresh (http://dibblyfresh1.blogspot.com/) is always hilarious
4. BSC Revisited (http://bscrevisited.blogspot.com/) is great nostalgia
5. Psyched on the Prairie (http://psychedontheprairie.blogspot.com/) is great because she's a good writer and I like seeing her reactions to reading through the Little House books for the first time
6. Stoneybrookite (http://blog.stoneybrookite.org/) has funny insights
7. Travel Rambling (http://mytravelrambling.blogspot.com/) goes fun places
8. Children of the 90s (http://childrenofthenineties.blogspot.com/) is always golden
9. Apostrophe Abuse (http://www.apostropheabuse.com/) makes me cringe, but I'm glad someone else notices the mistakes
10. Passive Aggressive Notes (http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/) is just plain funny

Claudia and Mean Janine (RS#7)

Original Publication Date: 1987

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

Claudia and Janine have a tense relationship. I think they're both intimidated by each other. Claudia is popular, Janine is brilliant. They're also very short with each other, somewhat watching for each other to screw up. After a particular fight, Mimi goes to bed early and has a stroke. Claudia blames herself, a theme that will recur with her story lines. Mimi starts a slow road to recovery, her right hand and leg partially paralyzed. There's a part I've always found sad, more since I learned (and love) to knit, where Claudia finds Mimi's knitting needles and yarn in a bag stashed in a closet.

Meanwhile, the BSC is hosting a summer play group, charging a whopping $3 per morning for each kid. Had I any kids, I'd take advantage of that steal for a morning or two.

Claudia and Janine do end talking about how they both feel like the other is the family's favorite. They are getting along by the end of the book, but don't expect their new-found understanding to last.


Established or continued in this book:


The Girls:

Claudia candy: cupcakes in her desk drawer, licorice in her pencil case, M&Ms in her jewelry box, gumdrops.

Claudia still seems insecure: she thinks her mom finds her difficult to deal with and describes herself as a pain when going over her family dynamic. She thinks she's a disappointment to her parents.

Claudia had an enemy in fourth grade named Beverly McManiman.

Mary Anne wants to be a teacher.


Their Families:

According to the book, Janine makes fun of Claudia for not being smart, but I don't think we actually read about particular instances very often. It seems more like both are impatient with each other: Claudia doesn't want to admit that doesn't understand what Janine says and will finally say something like "Speak English!" and Janine gets upset at Claudia's reaction. And Janine does come off sounding like a show off. I speak (and try to write) with proper grammar, but I also avoid purposely using words that people don't understand. It's important to remember that you should never use a large word when a diminutive one will suffice.

Claudia's grandfather still died before she was born; good continuity.

Claudia's father is a partner at an investment firm and her mother is the head librarian, but she doesn't like Claudia to read Nancy Drew. I like the theory that her parents let her think that so she would be more encouraged to read, for the thrill of sneaking it around, you know?

Aunt Peaches and Uncle Russ don't visit Mimi. I thought they lived close-ish? Close enough to visit if Peaches's mother is in a coma.


The Club: Nothing new


SMS: Summer vacation!


PSA time (yes, new category):

Very, very smart, Janine. It's a brilliant idea to send someone to wait for the ambulance. Even though it may be obvious which house, how will they know which room?


Misc:

They do a good job "introducing" us to the idea of Mallory being in the BSC. She helps with the playgroup in this book, and she'll also help in #8.

Is it accurate that Mimi would be "white as a sheet" after having a stroke? My dad said his mom was grey. This might sound racist, but I am curious, because Mimi is Japanese and my grandmother was Scots-Irish (like Stacey, if I recall).

The kids in the play group make get well cards for Mimi. I wonder if Claudia realizes how badly misspelled they are.


The numbers:

BSC Fights: 2

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

Students: seventeen 7th graders, four 8th graders

Clients: 9

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 17 (bubble gum, butterscotch candy, a chocolate bar, Ding-Dongs, cupcakes, gumdrops, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, peanut M&Ms, regular M$Ms, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, Twinkies, Lifesavers)

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