Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles
Synopsis:
The BSC gets a string of unusual jobs sitting for two sets of cousins in the same house, often at the same times, but separately. Their mothers are sisters who are in town to settle their late father's estate, and they don't get along, so they don't let their children get along either. There's also something odd about their father's will: he's given his three living children (a son had previously died) individual clues to figure out a riddle, and the "winner" gets the inheritance. He used to pit his children against each other when he was alive, and his will continues this. The BSC lets the cousins play together, and the sisters eventually drop enough of their feud to work together on solving the riddle (naturally, Dawn is the one who actually gets it, because the BSC is made up of the smartest people ever). Oh, and it turns out the affable butler is actually the brother, who was only metaphorically "dead" to his father. So now it's all one big, happy family.
Dawn is also finding herself struggling to fit in her goodbyes before heading back to California. After talking with Mary Anne, she sets aside a few days to have get-togethers with different groups of people all at once: school friends, BSC clients, and family.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: Dots, Tootsie Roll Pops
Dawn gets presents every time she leaves for California, and when she comes back too. Maybe that's why she likes to go back and forth so much.
Dawn's favorite animal is the dolphin.
Their Families:
The re-tellling of how Mary Anne's dad and Dawn's mom rekindled their romance is off. In this version, the discovery that they'd been high school sweethearts takes place after Tigger and Logan entered the picture.
The Club (and clients): nothing new.
SMS: nothing new.
PSA Time:
If for some reason you find yourself inheriting all of an estate when you feel it should have been divided between you and others, there's nothing to stop you from simply giving part of your inheritance away after you accept it. It doesn't have to be a complicated legal thing.
Misc:
This is Dawn's last mystery book.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 9
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 56
Students (other than the BSC): 183: 118 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 120
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
10/11/12
Aloha, Baby-sitters! (SS#13)
Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis
Synopsis:
Most of the BSC is on a school-sponsored trip to Hawaii (Mallory has other commitments and it's too expensive anyway; Kristy's family is going later in the summer already; Shannon's at summer camp).
Jessi spends so much time trying to capture memories for Mallory that she almost forgets to have a fun time herself.
Mary Anne and Logan are trying to spend more time with their friends and less time with each other, since their friends have been complaining about not seeing them. Mary Anne also ends up getting a sitting job, of course.
Claudia has a crisis of conscience when she visits Pearl Harbor and is overcome with guilt for being of Japanese descent. At Mary Anne's suggestion, she meets the family Mary Anne is sitting for. The grandfather was in World War II and he reassures Claudia that she needn't feel guilty for what other people have done. (There's also "Well, the a-bombs were evil" which massively oversimplifies things, but that's another story.)
Abby ends up cast in a TV commercial for sunscreen (she lies about her age to avoid needing her mom's permission, and a teacher agrees to hang out nearby to surreptiously supervise). The sunscreen isn't quite as advertised: she comes home with a sunburn.
Stacey is dealing with some concerns about how friendly Robert's being with other girls. She gains some perspective when the helicopter she's in (without Robert) crashes. She ends up in the hospital briefly after having a diabetic reaction following too much exertion and not enough food.
Dawn organizes a beach clean up with the locals.
On the home front, Mallory helps with a day camp at Mrs. Stone's farm and deals with Jenny Prezzioso, who is recently being introduced to discipline and more annoyingling, another mother at a park who thinks she knows better despite having never met Jenny (and of course Mallory's wearing a BSC shirt that day). Mallory takes her little sisters to the same park later and sees the woman struggling with her own son throwing a horrific tantrum. It's fun to see the mom get her comeuppance.
Kristy also helps with the day camp. She also gets a call from the irate mother in Mallory's story (before the second meeting) and does a good job of both sticking up for Mallory and reassuring Mallory that she did the right thing.
Robert also gets a brief chapter, detailing his confusion about Stacey's jealousy. In his mind, he's just being friendly. So does Logan, in which he and Mary Anne decide that taking time for their friends doesn't have to mean they ignore each other.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: Mallomars
Kristy thinks Logan spends too much time with Mary Anne. Not "they spend too much time with each other" mind you; she places the blame on Logan.
I guess Abby eats dry cereal, since she pours herself some Chex despite her milk allergy. I'd probably go for eggs myself (Abby's not allergic to eggs), but I don't much like cereal anyway.
Their Families:
Mimi lived in Japan during World War II. But I doubt she was much older than a teenager; twenties at the oldest (my grandfather was in his twenties in World War II, and my oldest cousin--his oldest grandchild--is almost 40).
The Club (and clients):
The Prezziosos have decided to stop giving in Jenny's tantrums (which are played up more in this book than usual to make the point). Thank goodness. I've seen families that don't figure this out until years later and it's not pretty.
SMS:
It's summer vacation, although this is a school-sponsored trip (Dawn can come because they needed a minimum amount of people for the group discount). Several teachers and students have "cameos." There is one newly-mentioned student, Troy Parker.
SMS doesn't have a volleyball team? Really?
PSA Time:
There is no such thing as a seagull. They're just gulls. Or California gulls or herring gulls or glaucous wing gulls or [other name] gulls. No decent bird guide will list seagulls.
If you need to get a hot, spicy taste out of your mouth, milk and white bread are both better options than water. Water just moves the taste around your mouth while the others will work to neutralize it.
President Truman had only a middle initial, not a full middle name. His parents didn't want to pick between his two grandfather's names which both started with S (or one's first name and one's last name, something like that.) So it's Harry S Truman, not Harry S. Truman.
Misc:
I've never been to Hawaii, so I don't know how accurate the descriptions are. But the next Super Special is a road trip across the contiguous US, and I've been to all 48 of those. That will be fun.
Aww. One of the kids Mary Anne sits for is a toddler and "this" was one of his first words. "This" and "cat" are my toddler daughter's favorite words.
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? Well, Japan wanted to inflict damage on the US, and in an effort to demonstrate certain strategic weaknesses, a US general orchestrated a fake attack that basically showed Japan what to do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell_(general). The weaknesses weren't really addressed.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 9
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 56
Students (other than the BSC): 183: 118 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 119
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis
Synopsis:
Most of the BSC is on a school-sponsored trip to Hawaii (Mallory has other commitments and it's too expensive anyway; Kristy's family is going later in the summer already; Shannon's at summer camp).
Jessi spends so much time trying to capture memories for Mallory that she almost forgets to have a fun time herself.
Mary Anne and Logan are trying to spend more time with their friends and less time with each other, since their friends have been complaining about not seeing them. Mary Anne also ends up getting a sitting job, of course.
Claudia has a crisis of conscience when she visits Pearl Harbor and is overcome with guilt for being of Japanese descent. At Mary Anne's suggestion, she meets the family Mary Anne is sitting for. The grandfather was in World War II and he reassures Claudia that she needn't feel guilty for what other people have done. (There's also "Well, the a-bombs were evil" which massively oversimplifies things, but that's another story.)
Abby ends up cast in a TV commercial for sunscreen (she lies about her age to avoid needing her mom's permission, and a teacher agrees to hang out nearby to surreptiously supervise). The sunscreen isn't quite as advertised: she comes home with a sunburn.
Stacey is dealing with some concerns about how friendly Robert's being with other girls. She gains some perspective when the helicopter she's in (without Robert) crashes. She ends up in the hospital briefly after having a diabetic reaction following too much exertion and not enough food.
Dawn organizes a beach clean up with the locals.
On the home front, Mallory helps with a day camp at Mrs. Stone's farm and deals with Jenny Prezzioso, who is recently being introduced to discipline and more annoyingling, another mother at a park who thinks she knows better despite having never met Jenny (and of course Mallory's wearing a BSC shirt that day). Mallory takes her little sisters to the same park later and sees the woman struggling with her own son throwing a horrific tantrum. It's fun to see the mom get her comeuppance.
Kristy also helps with the day camp. She also gets a call from the irate mother in Mallory's story (before the second meeting) and does a good job of both sticking up for Mallory and reassuring Mallory that she did the right thing.
Robert also gets a brief chapter, detailing his confusion about Stacey's jealousy. In his mind, he's just being friendly. So does Logan, in which he and Mary Anne decide that taking time for their friends doesn't have to mean they ignore each other.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: Mallomars
Kristy thinks Logan spends too much time with Mary Anne. Not "they spend too much time with each other" mind you; she places the blame on Logan.
I guess Abby eats dry cereal, since she pours herself some Chex despite her milk allergy. I'd probably go for eggs myself (Abby's not allergic to eggs), but I don't much like cereal anyway.
Their Families:
Mimi lived in Japan during World War II. But I doubt she was much older than a teenager; twenties at the oldest (my grandfather was in his twenties in World War II, and my oldest cousin--his oldest grandchild--is almost 40).
The Club (and clients):
The Prezziosos have decided to stop giving in Jenny's tantrums (which are played up more in this book than usual to make the point). Thank goodness. I've seen families that don't figure this out until years later and it's not pretty.
SMS:
It's summer vacation, although this is a school-sponsored trip (Dawn can come because they needed a minimum amount of people for the group discount). Several teachers and students have "cameos." There is one newly-mentioned student, Troy Parker.
SMS doesn't have a volleyball team? Really?
PSA Time:
There is no such thing as a seagull. They're just gulls. Or California gulls or herring gulls or glaucous wing gulls or [other name] gulls. No decent bird guide will list seagulls.
If you need to get a hot, spicy taste out of your mouth, milk and white bread are both better options than water. Water just moves the taste around your mouth while the others will work to neutralize it.
President Truman had only a middle initial, not a full middle name. His parents didn't want to pick between his two grandfather's names which both started with S (or one's first name and one's last name, something like that.) So it's Harry S Truman, not Harry S. Truman.
Misc:
I've never been to Hawaii, so I don't know how accurate the descriptions are. But the next Super Special is a road trip across the contiguous US, and I've been to all 48 of those. That will be fun.
Aww. One of the kids Mary Anne sits for is a toddler and "this" was one of his first words. "This" and "cat" are my toddler daughter's favorite words.
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? Well, Japan wanted to inflict damage on the US, and in an effort to demonstrate certain strategic weaknesses, a US general orchestrated a fake attack that basically showed Japan what to do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell_(general). The weaknesses weren't really addressed.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 9
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 56
Students (other than the BSC): 183: 118 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 119
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
9/30/12
Dawn and Too Many Sitters (RS#98)
Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis
Synopsis:
Dawn is back in Stoneybrook for the summer, and for once Jeff is visiting too. He and the Pike triplets are itching to earn money, and ask to be made BSC members. They come along to some of the jobs with different members, and often cause more problems than they solve. Making things worse, most of the BSC is trying to raise money to earn a reserved spot on the SMS summer trip to Hawaii, and they're having to split their pay with the boys. Dawn's able to make it because the school needs at least 50 people so they're willing to take non-students after students sign up. The boys end up not enjoying sitting enough to join the club, but do learn enough about it that they're helpful around kids. And the sitters are able to earn enough cash to pay for the trip plus some spending money.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: Twinkies in her closet, mini Snickers under her bed, Nestle Crunch bars, Heath bars, Milky Way bars, Mallomars, Milk Duds, Ring Dings, and pretzels
Mary Anne has pierced ears? She's also apparently shrunk, since she had previously grown taller than Kristy and Mallory, at five-foot-one, is taller than Kristy, yet Mary Anne is described as just over five feet tall.
Oh, Shannon. No one cares that you can't come to the next Super Special because of summer camp. You barely count.
Their Families:
Dawn describes Richard Spier as "my stepdad" rather than "Mary Anne's dad," which implies that she feels part of the same family.
On the other hand, maybe she's trying to distance herself from her stepmother Carol, who offers cold cereal served over juice (I'm pretty sure she's serious). I once accidentally poured water on my cereal instead of milk and it was gross. It also wasn't my fault: I was around 8 and Dad would set out a bowl of cereal, a cup of milk on the left, and a cup of water on the right. I wasn't really awake one morning when they were switched.
The Club (and clients):
So honorary BSC members(who get sitting jobs) don't have to pay dues, but Claudia owed them for her time in the hospital, physically incapable of baby-sitting, recovering from the broken leg directly caused by baby-sitting. Nice.
At a meeting: "'Sit!' Kristy barked." My daughter, who will be two in late November, orders us to "SIT!" like that. Mostly when she wants us to sit next to her under a blanket, or across the room to play catch, or occasionally at the library so she can run away while we're sitting.
SMS:
School is out for the summer...for the ninth time.
PSA Time:
When changing a diaper, put the clean one under the dirty one. If there are any leaks, the new diaper will catch them.
Misc:
This is Dawn's last book of the regular series.
This is the first book that I didn't read as a kid. I remember seeing the preview blurb for it at the back of Claudia and the World's Cutest Baby and noticing that it had the F word. No, not that one. Fart. I was appalled and losing interest anyway, so I never bothered to read it or any others until I was finishing college, about a decade later.
I always, always, every time, without fail, read the word "matinee" (an afternoon showing of a movie) as "manatee" (an aquatic mammal).
On page 110 the first-person narration briefly switches from Dawn's perspective to Stacey's. And on page 130, Mathew Hobart's name is spelled wrong, becoming the more common Matthew.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 9
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 56
Students (other than the BSC): 183: 118 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 119
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis
Synopsis:
Dawn is back in Stoneybrook for the summer, and for once Jeff is visiting too. He and the Pike triplets are itching to earn money, and ask to be made BSC members. They come along to some of the jobs with different members, and often cause more problems than they solve. Making things worse, most of the BSC is trying to raise money to earn a reserved spot on the SMS summer trip to Hawaii, and they're having to split their pay with the boys. Dawn's able to make it because the school needs at least 50 people so they're willing to take non-students after students sign up. The boys end up not enjoying sitting enough to join the club, but do learn enough about it that they're helpful around kids. And the sitters are able to earn enough cash to pay for the trip plus some spending money.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: Twinkies in her closet, mini Snickers under her bed, Nestle Crunch bars, Heath bars, Milky Way bars, Mallomars, Milk Duds, Ring Dings, and pretzels
Mary Anne has pierced ears? She's also apparently shrunk, since she had previously grown taller than Kristy and Mallory, at five-foot-one, is taller than Kristy, yet Mary Anne is described as just over five feet tall.
Oh, Shannon. No one cares that you can't come to the next Super Special because of summer camp. You barely count.
Their Families:
Dawn describes Richard Spier as "my stepdad" rather than "Mary Anne's dad," which implies that she feels part of the same family.
On the other hand, maybe she's trying to distance herself from her stepmother Carol, who offers cold cereal served over juice (I'm pretty sure she's serious). I once accidentally poured water on my cereal instead of milk and it was gross. It also wasn't my fault: I was around 8 and Dad would set out a bowl of cereal, a cup of milk on the left, and a cup of water on the right. I wasn't really awake one morning when they were switched.
The Club (and clients):
So honorary BSC members(who get sitting jobs) don't have to pay dues, but Claudia owed them for her time in the hospital, physically incapable of baby-sitting, recovering from the broken leg directly caused by baby-sitting. Nice.
At a meeting: "'Sit!' Kristy barked." My daughter, who will be two in late November, orders us to "SIT!" like that. Mostly when she wants us to sit next to her under a blanket, or across the room to play catch, or occasionally at the library so she can run away while we're sitting.
SMS:
School is out for the summer...for the ninth time.
PSA Time:
When changing a diaper, put the clean one under the dirty one. If there are any leaks, the new diaper will catch them.
Misc:
This is Dawn's last book of the regular series.
This is the first book that I didn't read as a kid. I remember seeing the preview blurb for it at the back of Claudia and the World's Cutest Baby and noticing that it had the F word. No, not that one. Fart. I was appalled and losing interest anyway, so I never bothered to read it or any others until I was finishing college, about a decade later.
I always, always, every time, without fail, read the word "matinee" (an afternoon showing of a movie) as "manatee" (an aquatic mammal).
On page 110 the first-person narration briefly switches from Dawn's perspective to Stacey's. And on page 130, Mathew Hobart's name is spelled wrong, becoming the more common Matthew.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 9
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 56
Students (other than the BSC): 183: 118 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 119
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
9/15/12
Kristy and the Middle School Vandal (M#25)
Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker
Synopsis:
Cary Retlin challenges the BSC to a mystery war: he will leave a trail of eight clues that the BSC has six days to solve. If he wins, he gets Kristy's watch. If the BSC wins, he'll stop bugging them. It's actually pretty fun to try to figure out the clues before the BSC does.
That's the not the real mystery, of course. The Michief Knights have moved beyond simple pranks; SMS is actually being vandalized. But the trademark MK is written in green, not red like it has been in the past. This all comes at an especially bad time: the teachers are trying to negotiate a new contract and the school board is using the vandalism as proof that the teachers don't deserve a new contract. There might even be a strike. Conveniently, the last bit of the BSC's challenge is to find out who the fake Mischief Knight is, and when they do, the members of the school board who were using the vandalism as an excuse to avoid negotiations back down. The strike is averted, and so is the threat of school extending into the summer.
Subplot (or third plot?): the BSC arranges a scavenger hunt for the kids.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: mint chocolate M&Ms, all-natural potato chips
Kristy outright tells us that her bossiness is a way to be sure people don't ignore her, something she thinks would happen since she's so short.
Their Families:
Kristy's the only short one in her immediate biological family.
The Brewer-Thomas household has hamsters? Since when? No mention of Emily Jr; maybe that was supposed to be a rat. Or it's something that happened in a Little Sister book.
The Club (and clients): nothing new.
SMS:
Kristy's still the shortest student in her grade.
Claudia seems to be having more trouble with school than usual.
Despite having finished about zero chapter books back in Mary Anne Misses Logan, Cokie knows the difference between principle and principal.
New-to-us student: Troy Parker (8th)
New-to-us SMS staff: Mr. Milhaus, a janitor
PSA Time: nothing stood out.
Misc:
Page 86: "It's number is one sixty-nine." It's = it is; its = possesive. Bad editor, bad!
What sort of nonsense...? Kristy, describing things that go poorly together, uses the analogy of having both sugar and salt in a recipe. Hasn't she made cookies from scratch? Most baked goods have a few teaspoons of salt in them, and a few cups of sugar.
The book is only fourteen chapters long.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 56
Students (other than the BSC): 183: 118 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 119
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker
Synopsis:
Cary Retlin challenges the BSC to a mystery war: he will leave a trail of eight clues that the BSC has six days to solve. If he wins, he gets Kristy's watch. If the BSC wins, he'll stop bugging them. It's actually pretty fun to try to figure out the clues before the BSC does.
That's the not the real mystery, of course. The Michief Knights have moved beyond simple pranks; SMS is actually being vandalized. But the trademark MK is written in green, not red like it has been in the past. This all comes at an especially bad time: the teachers are trying to negotiate a new contract and the school board is using the vandalism as proof that the teachers don't deserve a new contract. There might even be a strike. Conveniently, the last bit of the BSC's challenge is to find out who the fake Mischief Knight is, and when they do, the members of the school board who were using the vandalism as an excuse to avoid negotiations back down. The strike is averted, and so is the threat of school extending into the summer.
Subplot (or third plot?): the BSC arranges a scavenger hunt for the kids.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: mint chocolate M&Ms, all-natural potato chips
Kristy outright tells us that her bossiness is a way to be sure people don't ignore her, something she thinks would happen since she's so short.
Their Families:
Kristy's the only short one in her immediate biological family.
The Brewer-Thomas household has hamsters? Since when? No mention of Emily Jr; maybe that was supposed to be a rat. Or it's something that happened in a Little Sister book.
The Club (and clients): nothing new.
SMS:
Kristy's still the shortest student in her grade.
Claudia seems to be having more trouble with school than usual.
Despite having finished about zero chapter books back in Mary Anne Misses Logan, Cokie knows the difference between principle and principal.
New-to-us student: Troy Parker (8th)
New-to-us SMS staff: Mr. Milhaus, a janitor
PSA Time: nothing stood out.
Misc:
Page 86: "It's number is one sixty-nine." It's = it is; its = possesive. Bad editor, bad!
What sort of nonsense...? Kristy, describing things that go poorly together, uses the analogy of having both sugar and salt in a recipe. Hasn't she made cookies from scratch? Most baked goods have a few teaspoons of salt in them, and a few cups of sugar.
The book is only fourteen chapters long.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 56
Students (other than the BSC): 183: 118 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 119
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
9/8/12
Claudia and the World's Cutest Baby (RS#97)
Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis
Synopsis:
Claudia's cousin is finally born! Her aunt and uncle, Peaches and Russ, name her Lynn for Claudia Lynn Kishi, and ask Claudia to be her godmother. Claudia is ecstatic about Lynn, and wants to spend time with her and help out however she can. Pretty quickly, she goes overboard. Peaches and Russ don't really know how to tell her that they need space. Tensions rise and all parties overreact. Conveniently, Claudia finds herself dealing with an overbearing classmate on a school trip to Philadelphia. Like in a sitcom, it helps her understand the situation and everyone gets along by the end of the book.
Subplot: Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold are getting terrified by illicitly watching horror movies, but are cured after seeing a making-of documentary and realizing it's fake.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: pretzels behind some shoe boxes in her closet
Shannon's on the debate team.
Claudia points out that while Logan teases Mary Anne for getting so emotional at movies, he actually likes it because the more she cries, the more she snuggles.
Stacey has injected herself with insulin in front of Claudia and Claudia says it's not gross. Good friend! The rest of the BSC is all "EW! Your necessary for living routines are disgusting!" Although, where does Stacey inject the insulin? I had a teacher with diabetes and he told us that the injections had to be in his backside (it was relevant).
Their Families:
Hmm...it's not entirely clear whether Lynn is breastfed, bottlefed, or a combination. And Claudia gives Peaches advice on feeding techniques.
The Club (and clients):
Quick way to convince eight-year-old kids a movie is fake (if that is indeed the only reason it scares them): ask if Jurassic Park was filmed with real dinosaurs. The end. And yes, the movie was out before this book was published.
SMS:
Ms. Bernhardt's a jerk. She calls on Claudia, who makes an honest attempt to answer the question, and LAUGHS at her when she gives the wrong answer. No wonder it's hard to motivate Claudia to try in school. Oh, and I mean "jerk" as in mean person, not as in fool like the BSC uses it.
New-to-us students: Melissa Banks and Lily Karp (8th)
PSA Time:
Any time you go to visit someone in the hospital, have a nurse check to see that the patient isn't asleep or having a procedure done or something. It's rude to just barge in.
If you or your significant other goes into labor and you don't want visitors, don't tell anyone. It's easier to keep people away when they don't know. It sounds obvious, but I made that mistake, and some people just won't understand "I don't want you there" because they think you're trying to accomodating of their schedules. On a related note, if someone you know is in labor and she says not to come, don't! You can meet the baby later when it's cleaned up and its mother isn't all tired and sweaty and stuff.
Lactose intolerance is more common in people (or peoples? Janine?) of Asian descent, so it wasn't totally unreasonable for Claudia to think of it. Just unreasonable of her to butt in so much.
Misc:
Claudia describes an ultrasound image of her cousin. It sounds like she might be describing a 3D ultrasound. The technology was developed in 1987, so maybe possible...
With my daughter, I had labor induced due to preeclampsia. It took a while for things to get started. I remember telling my parents at one point that it was fine if they headed home (no more than 10 minutes away) and my dad said, "But what if she's born right after we leave?" At this point, I had been at the hospital with a Pitocin drip for more than twelve hours. I told him, "Then go! If that's all that's holding her up."
A common question I've heard about this one is how Claudia can be a godmother so young. In the Catholic church, a godparent must be at least 16, not the child's parents, and a practicing Catholic. Also, godparents aren't also guardians in the case of the parents' deaths unless specified in the parents' wills. But the Kishis aren't Catholic, so whatever kind of church they attend (although this is the first time we've seen Claudia's family do so) obviously has different rules. Now, the real question: Lynn is baptized at a Congregational church. Anyone know their rules on godparents? Or if they even practice infant baptism?
Ms. Bernhardt, you jerk, the police probably WERE thrilled when you called back to say Claudia and Melissa had been found and were safe. Police tend to like it when missing people are safe and sound. (Page 127, she yells "I had just called the police! Then I had to call them back to say 'Never mind.' Do you think they appreciated that?")
Near the end of the book, Abby asks "Are we in Hawaii yet?" Foreshadowing!
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 182 117 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
Ghostwriter? Yes, Peter Lerangis
Synopsis:
Claudia's cousin is finally born! Her aunt and uncle, Peaches and Russ, name her Lynn for Claudia Lynn Kishi, and ask Claudia to be her godmother. Claudia is ecstatic about Lynn, and wants to spend time with her and help out however she can. Pretty quickly, she goes overboard. Peaches and Russ don't really know how to tell her that they need space. Tensions rise and all parties overreact. Conveniently, Claudia finds herself dealing with an overbearing classmate on a school trip to Philadelphia. Like in a sitcom, it helps her understand the situation and everyone gets along by the end of the book.
Subplot: Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold are getting terrified by illicitly watching horror movies, but are cured after seeing a making-of documentary and realizing it's fake.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: pretzels behind some shoe boxes in her closet
Shannon's on the debate team.
Claudia points out that while Logan teases Mary Anne for getting so emotional at movies, he actually likes it because the more she cries, the more she snuggles.
Stacey has injected herself with insulin in front of Claudia and Claudia says it's not gross. Good friend! The rest of the BSC is all "EW! Your necessary for living routines are disgusting!" Although, where does Stacey inject the insulin? I had a teacher with diabetes and he told us that the injections had to be in his backside (it was relevant).
Their Families:
Hmm...it's not entirely clear whether Lynn is breastfed, bottlefed, or a combination. And Claudia gives Peaches advice on feeding techniques.
The Club (and clients):
Quick way to convince eight-year-old kids a movie is fake (if that is indeed the only reason it scares them): ask if Jurassic Park was filmed with real dinosaurs. The end. And yes, the movie was out before this book was published.
SMS:
Ms. Bernhardt's a jerk. She calls on Claudia, who makes an honest attempt to answer the question, and LAUGHS at her when she gives the wrong answer. No wonder it's hard to motivate Claudia to try in school. Oh, and I mean "jerk" as in mean person, not as in fool like the BSC uses it.
New-to-us students: Melissa Banks and Lily Karp (8th)
PSA Time:
Any time you go to visit someone in the hospital, have a nurse check to see that the patient isn't asleep or having a procedure done or something. It's rude to just barge in.
If you or your significant other goes into labor and you don't want visitors, don't tell anyone. It's easier to keep people away when they don't know. It sounds obvious, but I made that mistake, and some people just won't understand "I don't want you there" because they think you're trying to accomodating of their schedules. On a related note, if someone you know is in labor and she says not to come, don't! You can meet the baby later when it's cleaned up and its mother isn't all tired and sweaty and stuff.
Lactose intolerance is more common in people (or peoples? Janine?) of Asian descent, so it wasn't totally unreasonable for Claudia to think of it. Just unreasonable of her to butt in so much.
Misc:
Claudia describes an ultrasound image of her cousin. It sounds like she might be describing a 3D ultrasound. The technology was developed in 1987, so maybe possible...
With my daughter, I had labor induced due to preeclampsia. It took a while for things to get started. I remember telling my parents at one point that it was fine if they headed home (no more than 10 minutes away) and my dad said, "But what if she's born right after we leave?" At this point, I had been at the hospital with a Pitocin drip for more than twelve hours. I told him, "Then go! If that's all that's holding her up."
A common question I've heard about this one is how Claudia can be a godmother so young. In the Catholic church, a godparent must be at least 16, not the child's parents, and a practicing Catholic. Also, godparents aren't also guardians in the case of the parents' deaths unless specified in the parents' wills. But the Kishis aren't Catholic, so whatever kind of church they attend (although this is the first time we've seen Claudia's family do so) obviously has different rules. Now, the real question: Lynn is baptized at a Congregational church. Anyone know their rules on godparents? Or if they even practice infant baptism?
Ms. Bernhardt, you jerk, the police probably WERE thrilled when you called back to say Claudia and Melissa had been found and were safe. Police tend to like it when missing people are safe and sound. (Page 127, she yells "I had just called the police! Then I had to call them back to say 'Never mind.' Do you think they appreciated that?")
Near the end of the book, Abby asks "Are we in Hawaii yet?" Foreshadowing!
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 182 117 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
8/31/12
Abby's Lucky Thirteen (RS#96)
Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker
Synopsis:
Abby and Anna are preparing for the Bat Mitzvah, a ceremony which marks a Jewish woman's entry as an adult member of the faith. It's one of the few times that religion is mentioned in the BSC books, so it's an interesting read. I'm not Jewish so I don't know how accurate the book is, but there is an acknowledgement page that indicates some research was done. At any rate, it takes a lot of hard work and studying, which should precede any major decision.
Abby's worried that she hasn't devoted enough time to her Bat Mitzvah. She's spread pretty thin between school, the BSC, soccer, and her religious obligations. Math in particular has been giving her a hard time, so she's thrilled when a fellow student offers to sell her a study guide for the upcoming test, which counts for a quarter of her math grade. When the test is passed out, Abby realizes she actually bought a copy of the test. Panicking, she completes the test anyway, without telling the teacher what happened (she and the teacher aren't on good terms). Four other students are in the same situation, and all are suspended for three days. Feeling guily, embarassed, and indignant, Abby decides to hide her suspension from everyone but Anna. It almost works too, until her mom spots her out of school. She punishes Abby, but does believe her about the study guide. At school the next day, Abby sees Mary Anne buying one from the same student, and they go to the math teacher (Mary Anne takes math in a different class period) and things get sorted out. The Stevenson family has a huge party to celebrate the Bat Mitzvahs.
Subplot: the parents of several of the BSC charges ban television. The kids whine for a while, then use their imaginations to have fun and don't even miss TV.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: none mentioned
It's implied that Abby's birthday was recenly, which makes Abby the youngest of the eighth grade club members. Previously, Mary Anne had the latest birthday, mentioned in Logan Likes Mary Anne!
Abby's allergies would actually make keeping Kosher easier, if her family does that. She's allergic to shellfish, which aren't allowed. She's also allergic to milk and cheese, and under Kosher rules dairy can't be eaten with meat.
Their Families:
Claire has almost grown out of her "nofe-air" tantrums.
A criticism of this book is that Abby gets off lightly when her mom punishes her. She's grounded for a month, but can still baby-sit, play soccer, and I think attend BSC meetings. She can't have friends over or go visit, and no phone calls. I can see that her mom didn't want to punish the soccer team or the BSC for Abby's mistakes, but I would have been a little stricter, like she can only do the sitting jobs that are already lined up, she can't go to meetings, and if there any optional soccer practices she can't go to them.
According to Abby, her mother is an only child.
The Club (and clients):
Jessi still keeps her kid-kit stocked with office supplies, which she started back in Keep Out, Claudia!.
SMS:
SMS has soccer in the spring (this book takes place in April). I'm used to fall soccer, but not all schools or districts do it that way. In fact, fall football (American football, that is) makes it more likely that at least boys' soccer will be in the spring, and we know from Logan's books that SMS has a football team.
Ms. Frost is still one of the SMS math teachers.
New-to-us 8th grader: Brad Simon
PSA Time: nothing stood out apart from the obvious moral.
Misc:
Abby says her rabbi calls the speech she will have to give a "sermon." Ann M. Martin and the ghostwriter, Nola Thacker, had help with the Bat Mitzvah descriptions from friends and colleagues who had had Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, so I guess that's accurate? I've just never heard "sermon" outside of the context of a Protestant church service.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 180; 115 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker
Synopsis:
Abby and Anna are preparing for the Bat Mitzvah, a ceremony which marks a Jewish woman's entry as an adult member of the faith. It's one of the few times that religion is mentioned in the BSC books, so it's an interesting read. I'm not Jewish so I don't know how accurate the book is, but there is an acknowledgement page that indicates some research was done. At any rate, it takes a lot of hard work and studying, which should precede any major decision.
Abby's worried that she hasn't devoted enough time to her Bat Mitzvah. She's spread pretty thin between school, the BSC, soccer, and her religious obligations. Math in particular has been giving her a hard time, so she's thrilled when a fellow student offers to sell her a study guide for the upcoming test, which counts for a quarter of her math grade. When the test is passed out, Abby realizes she actually bought a copy of the test. Panicking, she completes the test anyway, without telling the teacher what happened (she and the teacher aren't on good terms). Four other students are in the same situation, and all are suspended for three days. Feeling guily, embarassed, and indignant, Abby decides to hide her suspension from everyone but Anna. It almost works too, until her mom spots her out of school. She punishes Abby, but does believe her about the study guide. At school the next day, Abby sees Mary Anne buying one from the same student, and they go to the math teacher (Mary Anne takes math in a different class period) and things get sorted out. The Stevenson family has a huge party to celebrate the Bat Mitzvahs.
Subplot: the parents of several of the BSC charges ban television. The kids whine for a while, then use their imaginations to have fun and don't even miss TV.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: none mentioned
It's implied that Abby's birthday was recenly, which makes Abby the youngest of the eighth grade club members. Previously, Mary Anne had the latest birthday, mentioned in Logan Likes Mary Anne!
Abby's allergies would actually make keeping Kosher easier, if her family does that. She's allergic to shellfish, which aren't allowed. She's also allergic to milk and cheese, and under Kosher rules dairy can't be eaten with meat.
Their Families:
Claire has almost grown out of her "nofe-air" tantrums.
A criticism of this book is that Abby gets off lightly when her mom punishes her. She's grounded for a month, but can still baby-sit, play soccer, and I think attend BSC meetings. She can't have friends over or go visit, and no phone calls. I can see that her mom didn't want to punish the soccer team or the BSC for Abby's mistakes, but I would have been a little stricter, like she can only do the sitting jobs that are already lined up, she can't go to meetings, and if there any optional soccer practices she can't go to them.
According to Abby, her mother is an only child.
The Club (and clients):
Jessi still keeps her kid-kit stocked with office supplies, which she started back in Keep Out, Claudia!.
SMS:
SMS has soccer in the spring (this book takes place in April). I'm used to fall soccer, but not all schools or districts do it that way. In fact, fall football (American football, that is) makes it more likely that at least boys' soccer will be in the spring, and we know from Logan's books that SMS has a football team.
Ms. Frost is still one of the SMS math teachers.
New-to-us 8th grader: Brad Simon
PSA Time: nothing stood out apart from the obvious moral.
Misc:
Abby says her rabbi calls the speech she will have to give a "sermon." Ann M. Martin and the ghostwriter, Nola Thacker, had help with the Bat Mitzvah descriptions from friends and colleagues who had had Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, so I guess that's accurate? I've just never heard "sermon" outside of the context of a Protestant church service.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 180; 115 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
8/26/12
Mary Anne and the Silent Witness (M#24)
Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles
Synopsis:
The BSC gets a new client, the Martinez family, who live near a park that a local businessman wants to develop. The Martinez house has some fire damage, which might be the work of arsonist. Their house also happens to be in the way of the planned development. Hmm...
The Martinez children were home with their former sitter when the fire started, and Luke, the older one, still seems shaken up about it. He also starts getting what seem to be threats warning him not to talk about the fire. After some sleuthing, they discover that the girl who used to sit for the Martinez family had her boyfriend over briefly, and he tossed out his cigarette butt in the garage, which started the fire. Worried that Luke would tell, the boyfriend had been threatening him.
While Fowler wasn't behind the fire, the BSC still isn't happy with him. They start a grass-roots campaign to halt the development. They also investigate his past, suspicious of his intentions. They uncover hints that he's using an assumed name, and has an estranged twin brother. Plus, the twin saw the fire, and blackmailed the boyfriend into vandalizing property to try to stop the development project (which made the boyfriend more concerned about Luke telling about the fire). As this is revealed, Luke shows the town council blueprints he found which prove Fowler wants to industrialize all of Stoneybrook. The council halt the development of the park.
Then the BSC gets a letter from the Stoneybrook Parks Department: in honor of their efforts, an area of the park will be renamed Baby-sitters Walk. Except, as Janine, points out, there is no Stoneybrook Parks Department. Cary Retlin is at it again...
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: jelly beans
The door to Dawn's room is closed. I hope it's not like that all the time, or it's going to smell pretty musty when she visits.
Mary Anne and her dad now keep a mostly vegetarian diet.
Their Families: nothing stood out
The Club (and clients):
New clients: the Martinez family, eight-year-old Luke and three-year-ol Amalia. Luke is friends with Cary Retlin's younger brothers, Steig and Benson.
SMS: nothing new.
PSA Time: nothing stood out.
Misc:
The Martinez family has a Lion King sing-a-long video. My younger brother had that!
Wow, the BSC mystery writers have never heard of Occam's Razor, huh?
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 179; 114 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.
Clients: 34 families
Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles
Synopsis:
The BSC gets a new client, the Martinez family, who live near a park that a local businessman wants to develop. The Martinez house has some fire damage, which might be the work of arsonist. Their house also happens to be in the way of the planned development. Hmm...
The Martinez children were home with their former sitter when the fire started, and Luke, the older one, still seems shaken up about it. He also starts getting what seem to be threats warning him not to talk about the fire. After some sleuthing, they discover that the girl who used to sit for the Martinez family had her boyfriend over briefly, and he tossed out his cigarette butt in the garage, which started the fire. Worried that Luke would tell, the boyfriend had been threatening him.
While Fowler wasn't behind the fire, the BSC still isn't happy with him. They start a grass-roots campaign to halt the development. They also investigate his past, suspicious of his intentions. They uncover hints that he's using an assumed name, and has an estranged twin brother. Plus, the twin saw the fire, and blackmailed the boyfriend into vandalizing property to try to stop the development project (which made the boyfriend more concerned about Luke telling about the fire). As this is revealed, Luke shows the town council blueprints he found which prove Fowler wants to industrialize all of Stoneybrook. The council halt the development of the park.
Then the BSC gets a letter from the Stoneybrook Parks Department: in honor of their efforts, an area of the park will be renamed Baby-sitters Walk. Except, as Janine, points out, there is no Stoneybrook Parks Department. Cary Retlin is at it again...
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: jelly beans
The door to Dawn's room is closed. I hope it's not like that all the time, or it's going to smell pretty musty when she visits.
Mary Anne and her dad now keep a mostly vegetarian diet.
Their Families: nothing stood out
The Club (and clients):
New clients: the Martinez family, eight-year-old Luke and three-year-ol Amalia. Luke is friends with Cary Retlin's younger brothers, Steig and Benson.
SMS: nothing new.
PSA Time: nothing stood out.
Misc:
The Martinez family has a Lion King sing-a-long video. My younger brother had that!
Wow, the BSC mystery writers have never heard of Occam's Razor, huh?
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 179; 114 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.
Clients: 34 families
Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
8/24/12
Portrait Collection: Mary Anne's Book
Original Publication Date: 1996
Ghostwriter? Yes, Jeanne Betancourt
Synopsis:
This is Mary Anne's autobiography. It's organized into chunks:
Birth to six years: Mary Anne briefly discusses her mom being ill, seemingly right from the start, and living with her grandparents for a while. She goes in to more details as she has more memories, like how her dad would take her out to restaurants to eat once a week, so Mary Anne would learn how to behave in public (love that idea, by the way). Mary Anne starts preschool with Kristy and Claudia, and they continue to kindergarten and first grade together. Mary Anne is close to them and Mimi from a young age.
The Tea Party: This may be Mary Anne's first crisis that could have been resolved by just talking to someone. Her first grade class is going to have a Mother's Day Tea. The teacher says if any student's mother can't come, another special person is welcome. But the other kids (except Kristy and Claudia) laugh at Mary Anne for planning to bring her father, so she invites Mimi. Both her dad and Mimi show up, but it works out. The teacher even says some really nice to Mary Anne about the important roles her dad fills. I remember my senior year of high school, when we had a Mother's Tea. One of my friend's mothers died when he was ten, and he brought along an aunt he's especially close to. We all read letters to our mothers, and he read one to his as well as to his aunt.
Stage Fright: During summer break, Mary Anne, Kristy, and Claudia take ballet at the YMCA. Mary Anne is nervous about performing in a recital that she throws up backstage. It's then that her dad realizes how much she hates it (she'd been hiding her fear), and lets her skip the recital since it's causing her too much stress.
E is for Eyeglasses: In fourth grade, Mary Anne makes friends with an April Livingston, who wears glasses. Mary Anne wants glasses too, and tries to fail an eye exam.
Exploring My Secret Past: This starts with a recap of Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic, the mystery book in which Mary Anne learns about her grandparents' raising her for a time. Then we get details about her visit with her grandmother in Iowa. She's clearly still very much in mourning for her husband, and spends a lot of time talking about Mary Anne's recently-deceased grandfather. She also shows Mary Anne things from her time there, thinking and hoping Mary Anne will remember, but no such luck. Finally, they have a talk and start getting to know each other as they are, rather than as they expect each other to be. They finish a quilt that was going to be a birthday present for Mary Anne's mother, and it wins a blue ribbon at the fair.
Mary Anne gets an A+.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy:
Stacey still feels torn between her parents. I wonder if they still put her in the middle.
Mary Anne seems to have been formula primarily or exclusively as an infant. I wonder if that's just Ann M. Martin's weirdness with not mentioning breastfeeding or due to the illness that killed Mary Anne's mother.
Mary Anne gets sick to her stomach when she's nervous.
You'd think Mary Anne, Kristy, and Claudia would have mentioned taking ballet to Jessi at some point, but you'd be wrong.
There are pictures in the Portrait Collection books, like in the Super Specials. Even at young ages, Kristy is shorter than Claudia and Mary Anne.
At first I was surprised by the last-minute travel arrangements for Mary Anne to visit her grandmother, but if Dawn can fly across the country on a whim, can't her step-sister go halfway?
Mary Anne loves sewing? I guess she's gotten over her home ec issues from Kristy and the Missing Child.
Their Families:
Spoiled kitten Tigger gets wet food for breakfast. Our two cats only get it for dinner.
Richard Spier loves organizing "even alphabetizes cereal boxes and the bottles on the herb and spice rack." Cereal boxes do seem a bit out there, but the spice rack is normal to me. It's easier to find things if you know the basil's near the top.
Richard also knows how to braid. The first time I really grasped that men and women were different was when I asked my dad to braid my hair for a preschool recital and he didn't know how. I ended up wearing a head band (Mom had been at work and met us there).
Janine can read and walk at the same time, which Mary Anne finds very impressive.
Claudia's mother's favorite color is purple, and Mimi's was blue.
Mary Anne's mom wasn't even 25 when she died. And Richard Spier was in middle school 28 years ago...let's say he was 12; that would make him 40, minus 13 is 27. So he was couple years older than Alma, but not a huge gap.
The Club (and clients):
Kristy starts fantasizing about being a baby-sitter just before fourth grade.
SMS: nothing new.
PSA Time:
Often, biological relation makes families. But not always. For example, there is sometimes a difference between a person's mother and a person's Mom.
Misc:
The eye test chart in the book is missing the numbers on the edge that tells you what line is 20/20 or 20/40 or 20/whatever vision.
Why do kids in books and TV shows so often act like glasses are a bad thing? Mary Anne is the only one excited about the idea, but only until she actually needs them. I got glasses in third grade and no one cared except for me and my parents. And I was thrilled. I had no idea you could see leaves on trees from the car! My parents only concern was that I take care of them properly.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 179; 114 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
Ghostwriter? Yes, Jeanne Betancourt
Synopsis:
This is Mary Anne's autobiography. It's organized into chunks:
Birth to six years: Mary Anne briefly discusses her mom being ill, seemingly right from the start, and living with her grandparents for a while. She goes in to more details as she has more memories, like how her dad would take her out to restaurants to eat once a week, so Mary Anne would learn how to behave in public (love that idea, by the way). Mary Anne starts preschool with Kristy and Claudia, and they continue to kindergarten and first grade together. Mary Anne is close to them and Mimi from a young age.
The Tea Party: This may be Mary Anne's first crisis that could have been resolved by just talking to someone. Her first grade class is going to have a Mother's Day Tea. The teacher says if any student's mother can't come, another special person is welcome. But the other kids (except Kristy and Claudia) laugh at Mary Anne for planning to bring her father, so she invites Mimi. Both her dad and Mimi show up, but it works out. The teacher even says some really nice to Mary Anne about the important roles her dad fills. I remember my senior year of high school, when we had a Mother's Tea. One of my friend's mothers died when he was ten, and he brought along an aunt he's especially close to. We all read letters to our mothers, and he read one to his as well as to his aunt.
Stage Fright: During summer break, Mary Anne, Kristy, and Claudia take ballet at the YMCA. Mary Anne is nervous about performing in a recital that she throws up backstage. It's then that her dad realizes how much she hates it (she'd been hiding her fear), and lets her skip the recital since it's causing her too much stress.
E is for Eyeglasses: In fourth grade, Mary Anne makes friends with an April Livingston, who wears glasses. Mary Anne wants glasses too, and tries to fail an eye exam.
Exploring My Secret Past: This starts with a recap of Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic, the mystery book in which Mary Anne learns about her grandparents' raising her for a time. Then we get details about her visit with her grandmother in Iowa. She's clearly still very much in mourning for her husband, and spends a lot of time talking about Mary Anne's recently-deceased grandfather. She also shows Mary Anne things from her time there, thinking and hoping Mary Anne will remember, but no such luck. Finally, they have a talk and start getting to know each other as they are, rather than as they expect each other to be. They finish a quilt that was going to be a birthday present for Mary Anne's mother, and it wins a blue ribbon at the fair.
Mary Anne gets an A+.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy:
Stacey still feels torn between her parents. I wonder if they still put her in the middle.
Mary Anne seems to have been formula primarily or exclusively as an infant. I wonder if that's just Ann M. Martin's weirdness with not mentioning breastfeeding or due to the illness that killed Mary Anne's mother.
Mary Anne gets sick to her stomach when she's nervous.
You'd think Mary Anne, Kristy, and Claudia would have mentioned taking ballet to Jessi at some point, but you'd be wrong.
There are pictures in the Portrait Collection books, like in the Super Specials. Even at young ages, Kristy is shorter than Claudia and Mary Anne.
At first I was surprised by the last-minute travel arrangements for Mary Anne to visit her grandmother, but if Dawn can fly across the country on a whim, can't her step-sister go halfway?
Mary Anne loves sewing? I guess she's gotten over her home ec issues from Kristy and the Missing Child.
Their Families:
Spoiled kitten Tigger gets wet food for breakfast. Our two cats only get it for dinner.
Richard Spier loves organizing "even alphabetizes cereal boxes and the bottles on the herb and spice rack." Cereal boxes do seem a bit out there, but the spice rack is normal to me. It's easier to find things if you know the basil's near the top.
Richard also knows how to braid. The first time I really grasped that men and women were different was when I asked my dad to braid my hair for a preschool recital and he didn't know how. I ended up wearing a head band (Mom had been at work and met us there).
Janine can read and walk at the same time, which Mary Anne finds very impressive.
Claudia's mother's favorite color is purple, and Mimi's was blue.
Mary Anne's mom wasn't even 25 when she died. And Richard Spier was in middle school 28 years ago...let's say he was 12; that would make him 40, minus 13 is 27. So he was couple years older than Alma, but not a huge gap.
The Club (and clients):
Kristy starts fantasizing about being a baby-sitter just before fourth grade.
SMS: nothing new.
PSA Time:
Often, biological relation makes families. But not always. For example, there is sometimes a difference between a person's mother and a person's Mom.
Misc:
The eye test chart in the book is missing the numbers on the edge that tells you what line is 20/20 or 20/40 or 20/whatever vision.
Why do kids in books and TV shows so often act like glasses are a bad thing? Mary Anne is the only one excited about the idea, but only until she actually needs them. I got glasses in third grade and no one cared except for me and my parents. And I was thrilled. I had no idea you could see leaves on trees from the car! My parents only concern was that I take care of them properly.
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 8
Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 3
Summers after 8th grade: 8
BSC Fights: 10
SMS Staff and Faculty: 55
Students (other than the BSC): 179; 114 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 6 7th graders, 43 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: 117
Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
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