Kristy and the Dirty Diapers (RS#89)

Original Publication Date: 1995

Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis

Synopsis:

With Dawn permanently in California, the BSC is busier than ever. Kristy is spread thin between her responsibilities there, the upcoming school year, and her Krushers softball team. She's also trying to help out Mrs. Porter's granddaughter (Kristy's next-door neighbor, AKA Mordbidda Destiny), whose parents are divorcing. When a businessman approached Kristy with an offer to sponsor her team, she jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, his business is a diaper service, and he expects the team to change its name to the Diapers. The kids are less than thrilled. Furthermore, he tries to take over the team, interrupting practices and games with unhelpful and discouraging advice. It isn't long before Kristy and the Krushers decide they don't need his sponsorship.

Meanwhile, a new family moves in two doors down from Kristy: a (widowed) mother and her twin daughters, the Stevensons. Kristy gets along better with the quieter twin, Anna, at first. She and the other twin, Abby, bond over the Krushers, Abby even becoming the assistant coach. The rest of the BSC likes Anna and Abby too, and invites the twins to join. Surprisingly, Anna declines, citing her music lessons. But Abby readily accepts, and becomes the newest full-time member.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: mini-Snickers and Candy Corn in her closet, Milk Duds

I keep forgetting that Logan plays volleyball too. In Washington (where I live), volleyball is only offered for girls.

Shannon is "energetic."

Abby's an inch and a half taller than I am (well, Anna too). Five-foot-seven.

One of the many things Abby's allergic to is tomatoes. My mom is allergic to them only when raw, but Abby can't eat the cooked ones either.


Their Families:

Emily Michelle's Engligh is improving.


The Club (and clients):

Abby is the new alternate officer. Stacey initially voices concern about the possibility of her having an asthma attack on the job, which Kristy dismisses by asking what if Stacey has a diabetic reaction. This will be important next book.

Kristy makes sure to explain the BSC rules to Abby and Anna when she invites them to join. Must have learned her lesson after the fiasco with Jessi's friend.


SMS:

School's back in session, for the eighth time. Abby and Anna attend SMS rather than Kelsey Middle School, which is the one in their district, because only SMS has a large enough orchestra for Anna.


PSA Time: nothing stood out.


Misc:

There are cicadas out. Yuck.

Abby and Anna were named by a reader in a contest, but I don't know if we ever find out who won.

For some reason I'm making a million typos. Apologies if I didn't catch any before publishing this.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 8

Halloweens in 8th grade: 4 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 1

Christmases in 8th grade: 1 (Hanukkah is also mentioned, but no one in the BSC celebrates it--yet)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 8

BSC Fights: 10

SMS Staff and Faculty: 48

Students (other than the BSC): 175; 111 8th graders, 6 7th graders, 42 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 33 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 114

Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1

Portrait Collection: Dawn's Book

Original Publication Date: 1995

Ghostwriter? Yes, Jeanne Betancourt

Synopsis:

Although Dawn has moved back to California, she still gets assigned an autobiography. Her strongest memories include:
West Coast Beginnings: Dawn is born, gets a baby brother when she's three, and attends nursery school, where she builds block towers with her friend Ruthie. But soon her family moves to Palo City.

The New Girl on the Block: Dawn has fun playing with Jill and Maggie at school but has no friends in her neighborhood. Until a hippie family moves in, that is (and gets Dawn started with environmentalism). At first Dawn finds them incredibly bizarre and a little judgemental, but she gets to know them better, and they calm down a bit too. Dawn and Sunny end up best friends.

The Golden Anniversary: Dawn's parents fly her grandparents to San Francisco so all six can celebrate Granny and Pop-pop's fiftieth wedding anniversary (I'd find it odd that my kid was planning my anniversary, but whatever). Because her grandparents don't seem to enjoy the same things or want to spend as much time together as her own parents, Dawn surmises that they don't love each other. But as the trip continues, she sees that they are truly in love.

Fire!: In the midst of her parents' marriage troubles, Dawn deals with a bit of a fire phobia. She gets pretty obsessed thinking about fires and the damage they can cause. She worries that if a fire happens, she won't know what to do, and so plan and plans and plans. Then one day at a sitting job, there is a fire--for real. Dawn is able to stay level-headed and gets her charges (Clover and Daffodil) safely out, and call 911. The fire is confined to the kitchen, fortunately. Dawn receives a medal from the mayor, and, having seen how things turned out, stops panicking about fire. But there's another reason fire no longer weighs so heavily on her mind: her parents divorce soon after.

A New Life on the East Coast: Dawn relates some backstory about moving to Connecticut and joing the BSC. Then she talks about a client for whom she sat twice, and screwed up big time. She was sifting through some papers and saw that the daughter was going to have to be held back in school, and mentioned it to her. But her parents hadn't told her yet, and were going to wait until summer was ending so she wouldn't worry. They never call the BSC again, but in the summer rush, no one notices and Dawn has never told anyone until now.

Dawn ends on that note. She gets an A- for content and a B for presentation. The note her teacher writes doesn't mention that she did anything wrong, so her grade's a little confusing to me, but Dawn's happy with it.



Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned

Jill Henderson reminds Dawn of Mary Anne. Dawn soon outgrows Jill, and also somewhat outgrows Mary Anne.


Dawn was born 8 days after her due date. I'd cite this as evidence of her being mean, but I was 15 days late myself (sorry, Mom).


Their Families:

Dawn and Carol have close enough shoe sizes that they can share rollerblades. I think that was mentioned before, even.


There's a picture of Dawn with her parents and newborn Jeff. NO WAY her mom would look that thin right after having a baby. Even if you only gain the baby weight, you come home from the hospital looking seven months pregnant because you just had a human being inside you. Takes a bit for your body to get back to how it was (if it ever does. Sorry again, Mom?).


The Club (and clients): nothing new.


SMS:

There's some continuity weirdness here. Stacey and Claudia wrote their autobiographies "last" school year, and Dawn says that at her going-away party, the BSC was saying she decided to move to avoid the assignment. Dawn moved at the end of summer vacation, and her California school started one week before SMS. She was assigned the autobiography on the first day of school. I guess SMS let it be known about the assignment before school started back up?


PSA Time:

As a child, I was always told to not let callers know that there are no adults home. For example, if I were home alone with my younger brother and someone called asking for my mom or dad, I was supposed to say, "She's not available right. Can I take a message?" rather than, "She's not home right now." That way random callers don't know that the oldest person home is only 12.


Misc:

Interesting how few of the girls' most vivid memories from Super Special #11 make it in their autobiographies.


To this day, I can't figure out how to do Morse code with wooden blocks. What's the difference between a dot and a dash when banging blocks together?


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 7

Halloweens in 8th grade: 4 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 1

Christmases in 8th grade: 1 (Hanukkah is also mentioned, but no one in the BSC celebrates it)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 8

BSC Fights: 10

SMS Staff and Faculty: 48

Students (other than the BSC): 175; 111 8th graders, 6 7th graders, 42 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 33 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 112

Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1

Farewell, Dawn (RS#88)

Original Publication Date: 1995

Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn

Synopsis:

When Dawn learned that her best friend's mom had lung cancer, it got her thinking more about California. To the point that now, she's decided it's best to move back permanantly. She decides this pretty early on in the book, but before she thinks of a good way to tell Mary Anne without devastating her too much, the news gets leaked and Mary Anne is pissed. They have a big fight, but then Mary Anne just acts numb around Dawn. There's no huge resolution or explanation, but Mary Anne does start to act normal again before Dawn leaves and they're able to have a real goodbye.

Subplot, because we can't have a book without one: James Hobart breaks his leg and has to be stuck in a cast for the end of summer, so the BSC helps his friends do a Christmas in the summer for him. Of course, he gets confused because in the Southern Hemisphere Christmas is in the summer. Those wacky Australians!


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Cheez Doodles

With all the moral crusades Dawn goes on, I'm surprised she has yet to jump on Shannon's family for breeding their dog. Presumably they're responsible in doing so, but I could see Dawn going off about pet overpopulation.

Back in Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation, Mallory was described as someone who would eventually grow into her looks and become pretty (or something like that); here Dawn tells us that "if you really study Mallory you can tell she'll look just fine as she gets older."

Jessi cautions the kids against buying a little gun toy for James Hobart becase DAWN doesn't like toy guns (it just sparks, not even a cap gun). Guys! She's not even going to be in this time zone in two weeks! Let the kid with a broken leg have a fun toy if he wants it.

Dawns gets a really sweet letter from Jessi, who once described herself as a terrible letter writer but also resolved to change that. Looks like she's succeeded.


Their Families:

Karen and Andrew now live at the Brewers' house every other month, a development which happens in the Little Series (which I am NOT subjecting myself to).

Dawn refers to Carol as her dad's new wife, rather than step-mother (and she really hasn't lived with Carol in the house, so understandable).


The Club (and clients):

Dawn sits for Sara and Norman Hill in the first chapter. Sara's still friends with Elizabeth, who had relentlessly tormented Norman for being overweight.

Stacey nixes the idea of inviting kids to Dawn's going away party, because it will feel like work if they have to keep an eye on them. And they let her back in the BSC?! (being facetious there)

Shannon agrees to take over as alternate officer, but once school starts up she probably won't be able to come to many meetings.


SMS:

I question the rigor of Stoneybrook's schools if kids make it to eighth grade without knowing that the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. Also, in Dawn's Wicked Stepsister, Dawn thinks that scientists invented time zones very recently, instead of the idea sort of occuring naturally because of Earth's revolving around the sun.


PSA Time:

Mary Anne tells Dawn she's being selfish for not thinking of how everyone in Stoneybrook feels. Here's the thing, though: while Dawn is thinking primarily of herself, sometimes you have to put yourself first.


Misc:

This book has a few examples of "I can't believe how dumb all the rest of America is--oh, I'm enlightened though!" which bug me. Like Dawn complaining about the diet of OTHER Americans or Mallory proclaiming that American football is stupid in name and practice. Girls, it's fine to not like something, but don't be holier-than-thou about it.

How healthy is tofu, anyway? I keep hearing things about eating too much soy and that increasing estrogen levels.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 7

Halloweens in 8th grade: 4 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 1

Christmases in 8th grade: 1 (Hanukkah is also mentioned, but no one in the BSC celebrates it)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 8

BSC Fights: 10

SMS Staff and Faculty: 48

Students (other than the BSC): 175; 111 8th graders, 6 7th graders, 42 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 33 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 112

Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1

BSC Movie Novelization

Original Publication Date: 1995

Written by A. L. Singer

Synopsis:

In August of 1995, The Baby-sitters Club was released in theatres. Its plot isn't exactly canon in my mind, but does have similarities to a few books, including Kristy's portrait collection. I won't be counting anything in this book toward my totals, but I'll note things that stand out.

The basic plot is that the BSC decides to run a summer camp (like in Mary Anne and Camp BSC). They have some issues with a neighbor, but she ends up helping them later on after talking to Dawn: the BSC restores an old greenhouse and the neighbor helps convinces the historical society to give it the BSC so they can use it as a clubhouse. But they decide to continue in Claudia's room as it's always been, and give the greenhouse to the neighbor. It's odd.

There's also some stuff that happens when Kristy's father (I'm not calling him her "dad" as he hasn't acted like a dad) shows up and he doesn't want her to reveal that he's in town. He stands her up on her birthday, but the BSC saves the day.

Subplots include Stacey having a crush on Rosie Wilder's seventeen-year-old Swiss cousin, Alan Gray having one on Dawn, Cokie Mason trying to steal Logan from Mary Anne again, and Claudia needing to pass summer school in order to remain in the BSC.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Hershey's kisses in her dresser and licorce in her nightstand. Also, Dawn brings some health-food chips

Mary Anne must have shrunk, because she and Kristy are the same height again and Kristy's still five feet tall.


Their Families:

Hunter Bruno is now allergic to wheat as well. Poor kid.

Patrick Thomas was married for a while after abandoning Kristy and her family.


The Club (and clients):

Dawn sits for a kid named Margie Klinger; Mallory sits for twins Terri and Tammy Barkan. The twins try to switch on Mallory but she's able to tell who is who because of having triplet brothers...funny, that didn't work with the Arnold twins.

No, Kristy's missed more than one meeting. She skipped a few during their fight in Mary Anne Saves the Day.

Oh, and Mallory? "We never fight"? Did you hit your head or something?


SMS: summer break.


PSA Time:

I hope it doesn't need to be said, but if the secret you're keeping could hurt someone it's a bad secret to keep.


Misc:

Despite being about 20 pages shorter than a regular BSC book, this has 22 chapters plus an epilogue like a Super Special. And it's written in third person.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 7

Halloweens in 8th grade: 4 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 1

Christmases in 8th grade: 1 (Hanukkah is also mentioned, but no one in the BSC celebrates it)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 8

BSC Fights: 10

SMS Staff and Faculty: 48

Students (other than the BSC): 175; 111 8th graders, 6 7th graders, 42 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 33 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 112

Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1