Summary
Dawn's been in the BSC for a few months now, and things are, for the most part, hunky dory. Kristy is still jealous of Dawn's friendship with Mary Anne, and keeps picking fights and trying to make her feel like an outsider. What a refreshingly 12-year-old thing to do; in a later book, they probably would have just talked things out over coffee or something. Anyway, Dawn makes an effort with Kristy, and they finally bond over some rope-swinging in her hayloft. Kristy even gives Dawn her official "alternate officer" title.
When she's not trying to win Kristy's approval, Dawn is sitting for the Barretts. The Barrett parents have just gone through an ugly divorce, and things are tough. The house is a mess, Mrs. Barrett is disorganized, and the kids are wild. Dawn helps out as much as she can, but starts to feel a little put-upon. She considers saying something to Mrs. Barrett, but every time she's about to do it, Mrs. Barrett compliments her or tells her how much the kids love her, and Dawn just can't bring herself to say anything. She finally decides that she's had it when Buddy disappears on her watch one day. He was with his father and not in any danger, but the experience scares Dawn so much that she finally speaks up. Mrs. Barrett, thanks to the intervention of 12-year-old Dawn, promises to be more organized and responsible.
Thoughts and Things
- Dawn describes Claudia as "a little bit hard to get to know." Since when?
- Mallory takes a brownie away from Marnie Barrett because she's allergic. If she's allergic, why was she eating a package of MnMs earlier with no apparent side effects?
- Club dues are only 50 cents at the beginning of the book, and the whole club is planning to buy Kid-Kit supplies with the 10 dollars in the treasury. I don't ever remember things being that cheap...
- Claudia's handwriting is completely different in this book (all of the first ones, really) than it was later in the series. I think hers changed the most.
- Dawn says that her barn is small, but by the end of the Friends Forever series, it's big enough to renovate into a house. Maybe barns grow in Connecticut. :)
- Mary Anne is redecorating her room and puts up a poster of London at night. I'd be all over that....
- Speaking of Mary Anne, she's replaced her reading glasses with contacts. I'm a contact wearer, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be worth the time to have them for reading. You'd be taking them out and putting them back in all the time!
- I wasn't all that fond of this book growing up because of all the vomiting that happens in one chapter. I was a total Stacey about stuff like that.
"Dawn describes Claudia as "a little bit hard to get to know." Since when?"
ReplyDeleteI think Kristy says in Kristy's Great Idea that she still doesn't know Claudia all that well or something like that...
Good point!
ReplyDelete"Club dues are only 50 cents at the beginning of the book, and the whole club is planning to buy Kid-Kit supplies with the 10 dollars in the treasury. I don't ever remember things being that cheap..."
ReplyDeleteMaybe they shopped at the dollar store. lol!
OMG I always thought about the whole brownies =death, M&Ms=fine thing growing up. Good to know someone else did too!
ReplyDeletei like that book very much....and by the way as the customers begin to grow there is an automatic increase in pay too!
ReplyDeleteThey must have raised club dues to a dollar or something otherwise they would have been in debt! There's five of them, and when Kristy moves away they pay Charlie 50 cents each way to drive her to meetings. That's $3 a week for Kristy being driven around and only $2.50 in club dues...
ReplyDeleteI'm still a total Stacey when it comes to vomiting. I cannot stand to see, hear about, or read about it.
ReplyDeleteWhy did you write about it then?
DeleteWriting about it in general, without giving details, isn't the same as seeing it or reading/hearing details about it.
DeleteI don't know about the original poster or the blog writer, but if someone just says 'I threw up yesterday' without giving details, it doesn't make me feel grossed out. However, if they say what they ate, describe it, and give more details then I get totally grossed out and lose my appetite.
I love Dawn on the cover! :)
ReplyDeleteI know right?! She looks sooooo done!!
DeleteI thought Mr Barrett got off a little easy at the end since the police were called when Buddy went missing and never showed up. I mean there are court documents that would specify that kind of stuff and it would be deemed kidnapping.
ReplyDeleteI wondered about the same thing, but I'm pretty sure it was meant to be his day to have the kids? So, according to the court documents, they were meant to be with him anyway.
DeleteI was 10 when I read this and was babysitting two children (ages 1 and 4) at the time. The kids' parents were divorced too and I was apparently babysitting them one day while reading the part where Buddy went missing. I was scared to babysit the kids again for a whole week but luckily their father was nice.
ReplyDelete"Mallory takes a brownie away from Marnie Barrett because she's allergic. If she's allergic, why was she eating a package of MnMs earlier with no apparent side effects?"
ReplyDeleteI think maybe the brownie is made with different ingrediants
But I haven't read this book, So yeah
"Mallory takes a brownie away from Marnie Barrett because she's allergic. If she's allergic, why was she eating a package of MnMs earlier with no apparent side effects?"
ReplyDeleteI always thought about that, too.
I was the same way about this book when I was a kid because of the barfing. I think I still remember a quote, "throwing up is the worst when you're a kid."
ReplyDeleteNo... no, it's just the worst. But I remember that making me wonder if it wouldn't be as bad when I got older.