Tuesday, July 14, 2009

#4 Mary Anne Saves the Day



Summary
In this one, the BSC gets in what might be the mother of all club fights. First, Kristy accepts a sitting job for Jamie and Lucy Newton without offering it to anyone else. Claudia calls her a job hog, which reminds the others of all the times that Claudia herself took jobs without offering them around. Stacey reminds everyone that she's from New York and doesn't need shy little babies (Mary Anne), stuck-up job hogs (Claudia), and bossy know-it-alls (Kristy) as friends. Mary Anne flies off the handle, calls everyone names, and storms home. Then she cries (big shock).

The next day, Mary Anne realizes that she's all alone for lunch. Kristy's taken over their group of friends, and she never really hung out with Stacey and Claudia's other friends. So, she sits by herself and is approached by a new girl...Dawn Schafer. Mary Anne lets Dawn think that all her friends are absent. Really? Why not just be honest about that? Oh, yeah...then Mary Anne wouldn't have been able to use Dawn to make Kristy jealous. Which she does. Multiple times. Dawn eventually figures it out, though.

Claudia and Mary Anne make up temporarily, but that's over when Claudia overhears Mimi calling her "my Mary Anne." I think Claudia kind of overreacted to that. I mean, she really freaked out. I can understand being a little mad or jealous, but good grief, Claudia!

The fight lasts about a month, until all four girls help out at Jamie Newton's birthday party. It's a mess; they don't communicate about where to put the children, and get into a shoving match when Mrs. Newton asks for one of them to go check on Lucy. The worst of it happens at cake time: Mary Anne starts things by pouring punch on Kristy, and mass hysteria ensues. Mary Anne decides that enough is enough, and calls a meeting for after the party. No one can remember who's mad at whom or why, so they apologize in unison. I remember them demonstrating that for one of the newer members in a later book (Jessi?), and it's going to drive me crazy until I can remember which book it is. Anyway, Mary Anne gets to host her first BSC party + Dawn. By this time, Dawn and Mary Anne have discovered that their parents were hot and heavy in high school, and (ever so convieniently) they're reintroduced to each other when Sharon drops Dawn off for the party. They make a date for dinner, Dawn joins the club, and we get our very first BSC pizza toast.

In other news, Mary Anne is having daddy issues. She isn't terribly close to her father, and is starting to feel stifled by his strict rules. She doesn't really make any headway with him until the Jenny Prezzioso incident (Mary Anne had to get her to the hospital). The Prezzioso parents call Richard later and compliment Mary Anne on the responible way she handled the situation, which makes him see that she really is growing up.


Thoughts and Things


  • This book contains some of the only mentions of religion in the series, until Abby joins. Mary Anne talks about her father including her mother in their dinnertime prayer, and about her own bedtime prayers (Ishe thinks blessing her mother at bedtime should be enough).

  • The late Mrs. Spier's name is Abigail in this book. It's Alma everywhere else.

  • The BSC ran meetings one member at a time when they were mad at each other. I wonder what did the Kishis thought of that. Did they even notice?

  • Adam and Jordan Pike want to put on a play about Chuck Norris. Hee hee hee. :D

  • Mr. Prezzioso gives Dawn and Mary Anne TEN. WHOLE. DOLLARS. each as a thank you for getting Jenny to the hospital when she got sick. Sigh. I remember when ten dollars was a big deal.

  • Mary Anne uses the word "midget" twice in one chapter. That would never fly today.

23 comments:

  1. The Kishi's never seem to be home during meetings (except Mimi). Mimi knew about the fight and so she probably agreed that it was the best way to go until the girls were ready to apologize to each other. Since Mary Anne and Kristy were practically family I'm sure Mimi trusted them enough.

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  2. omg this was my favorite mary anne book back then. mary anne was so kick ass and the notes she wrote to her friends, in particular kristy, were hillarious.

    can't seem to hate richard here because i love richard spier, even if he acts a little weird to me. gotta love mimi in this book. its sad when mimi died in the middle of the series.

    good post by the way.

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  3. i think richard changes kind of suddenly in this book. m= i mean, no weird pics, no braids, and he agrees that sometimes she can buy her own clothes...
    this is also the only book i like dawn in.

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  4. what chapter is it in? lol:)

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  5. no... its alma. "at the end, just before the Amen, he asked God to watch over Alma. Alma is my mother.

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  6. personally i think claudia has a tendency to overreact to petty things and thats what started the whole fight in the first place

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  7. In my copy, which is an old one (it has contests for 1990 in the back of it) her mothers name is Abigail. I also think it's funny how she says her dad doesn't want her to use words like 'retarded'. She also says her favourite colours are yellow and navy, and it is interesting to note that in the BSC movie, in Mary Anne's first scene, she is wearing a yellow and navy dress.

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  8. I remembered that the book in which the girls demonstrate their group apology involved the BSC not getting many calls for some reason, so I went and checked the first book that popped into my mind and it's "Stacey and the Missing Ring," page 87.

    I love the books where the girls fight. This one was a decent fight, especially since the fight carried right over into meetings AND they almost ruined a four-year-old's birthday party. Even when I was young(er) I thought they were being incredibly irresponsible and petty.

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  9. There is another book, Keep out Claudia, where religion is mentioned. Caitlin asks Mary Anne what religion she is.
    P.S. Caitlin has the same name and spelling as me! Yay!

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  10. Everyone overreacted during the big fight and I felt it came out of nowhere when it happened in the very beginning.All the raspberries and mean faces they throw at each other felt really immature and perhaps dated.

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  11. Off topic question- do you think there is any 13 year old girl like Stacey, who cares about clothes and boys, these days that will want to join a babysitter's club??

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    1. If she can make money to buy clothes, maybe. But I think it's cool that Stacey is layered. You never know what those girls might do at home when not at school, drooling over boys and clothes.

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    2. If she can make money to buy clothes, maybe. But I think it's cool that Stacey is layered. You never know what those girls might do at home when not at school, drooling over boys and clothes.

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  12. In the graphic novel of this book Mr. Prezzioso actually gave them both $50. Probably because it was made in the modern days. :D

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  13. My friends and I STILL use the word midget...

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  14. Want to know...what season or date does this book take place? Was it in the fall or spring? Forgot...

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  15. Want to know...what season or date does this book take place? Was it in the fall or spring? Forgot...

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  16. In the graphic novel version, mary anm and dawn are given FIFTY DOLLARS. EACH.

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    1. I didn't see that and I read the graphic novel....

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    2. Yeah, I have the graphic novel and Mr.P give Dawn and Mary Anne fifty dollars and MA calls the colonists 'short'...

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  17. In the graphic novel, they call colonists 'short' and get 50 bucks from the Preziosos.

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  18. I always thought that their fight was kind of stupid... Like, in the last book didn't Stacey accidentally accept a (mother's helper) job for Lucy in front of Claud and she was all "it's ok, it was accident." So was it suddenly such a big deal?? This always bothered me...

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    Replies
    1. Hey, this is the same anon who wrote this but known as I'll be Rummy now. Thanks

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