#28 Welcome Back, Stacey!

Stoneybrook over

New York City? Stacey is

Full of surprises.

Summary

Stacey's mom and dad have been having a ton of marital issues lately, and they've decided to divorce. Stacey is surprised and angry at this news, although I'm not sure why, considering all the foreshadowing that's been done over the last few books. :) Once Stacey calms down enough to actually discuss the situation with her parents, they tell her that her dad will be staying in New York, and her mom will be moving somewhere quieter. What town happens to be at the top of Maureen's list? Stoneybrook, of course, and it'll be up to Stacey to decide where she lives, and who she wants to live with.

The decision proves to be a tough one. Stacey thinks that all her problems would be solved if she simply didn't have to make a choice in the first place. She goes all Parent Trap on her mom and dad, trying to get them together over romantic meals and carriage rides, to no avail. Both of her parents find new places to live, and Stacey finally realizes that she's going to join the ranks of divorced kids, like it or not. To help her choose where to live, Stacey uses the good old pros and cons list method. When she sees it all laid out on paper, the decision is clear: it's back to Stoneybrook for the Mc Gill women.

Thoughts and Things

• The plot of this book and Dawn on the Coast are awfully similar, minus the whole divorce aspect. Dawn identifies her self as a CA girl, and Stacey identifies herself as a New Yorker. Both feel connected to their native turfs, and both feel they belong in those places. Both make pros and cons lists, and both end up choosing Stoneybrook over their hometowns in the end. I can't believe they were recycling plots this early in the series...
• I was actually pretty bored with this book; I don't remember being bored by it in the past.
• The outfit that Claudia is wearing on the cover actually matches the one described in the book. Kudos, Hodges!
• Speaking of outfits, Mallory wears a sequined sweatshirt to a club meeting! Her sparkly clothing dreams came true. I don't know about the pink leggings that she's wearing with it, though. Pink clothes and red hair aren't exactly the cutest combination.
• I love the idea of living in an old house in New England. If I ever did get to do that, you better believe that I'm going to be looking for hidden diaries and secret passages and stuff!

#27 Jessi and the Superbrat

Karen Brewer is

A bigger Superbrat than

Derek Masters is.

Summary

Jessi is excited to discover that Stoneybrook is home (at least part-time) to a child star. Derek Masters went to Stoneybrook Elementary School until getting a role on P.S. 162, which took his family out to L.A. for a good chunk of the year. The Masters family is back in town for awhile, though, and who do they call to sit for Derek and his younger brother, Todd? Well, if the answer wasn't the BSC, this wouldn't be much of a book, would it? :) Jessi is pretty excited to get the first job at the Masters house. She actually approaches Mallory-like levels of dorkiness (love you, Mal!) by calling him by his character's name (Waldo) in her thoughts and getting starstruck at the idea of meeting a REAL TV CELEBRITY. She manages to reign it in once she actually meets Derek, and she finds out that he's just a typical 8 year old kid.

Derek is worried about readjusting to life in Stoneybrook, with good reason. The other kids won't stop treating him differently; the girls go all gooey, and the boys just make fun of him. One in particular (Derek calls him John) is especially bad. He does all sorts of awful stuff, like throwing Derek's lunch out the window and tying his sneakers together. The funny thing is that none of the other sitters know him, and neither do any of the other kids....

Jessi and the other sitters do their best to try and help Derek adjust, mostly by arranging playdates with fairly non-threatening kids like the Pikes. Things do get better for Derek eventually; he makes friends and, for the most part, people stop treating him so differently because he's on tv. When it comes time for the Masters family to go back to L.A., the sitters decide to throw them a good-bye party. That's when they find out the truth about "John;" Derek made him up, and it was Derek himself that did all those mean things, to try and get attention from the other kids. Not the best tactic for proving that you're not a typical celebrity, Derek!

While all this is going on, Jessi is busy auditioning for a semi-professional production of Swan Lake. She wants in badly, but can't admit it to herself. So, at Derek's suggestion, she throws herself into pursuing modeling and (possibly) acting by calling agents and gathering information. Jessi ends up getting a role as a swan maiden, and she realizes that her true love was ballet all along.

Thoughts and Things

• Eeesh....the cover. Jessi is clearly 35, which is silly. She's only supposed to be ONE YEAR OLDER than the triplets, who are also on the cover. Maybe not even a full year, depending on when their birthdays are. I guess that's all part of 11 being the magical age of adulthood in the BSC; you instantly look decades older than other kids.
• I kind of like Derek and Todd Masters. I wish the BSC had gotten to sit for them a little more.
• Jessi mentions the Swan Lake auditions a couple of books ago, which would make for a nice bit of continuity...if she had even acknowledged that fact in this book. Instead, she's hearing about them for the first time.
• Unlike my recent experience with Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger, this one ended up being much better than I remember.
• I find it a little hard to believe that Stoneybrook's civic center would be that professional.
• Claudia is wearing a pink and red outfit at the beginning; pink and red is even worse than red and purple!

#26 Claudia and the Sad Good-bye

Sad days in the 'Brook.

Mimi is dead; how can Claud

Say good-bye for good?

Summary

It's been about a year since Mimi's stroke (I think....the timeline starts to get a little off around this time), and she's doing okay. Physically, she's still a little shaky, but her real problems seem to be in her mind. Mimi is doing and saying more crazy things than ever, and all the Kishis can really do is appreciate the good days, when they come. One night during dinner, Mimi faints and has to be taken to the hospital. No one can figure out what's wrong with her, although the doctors think it's blood-related. After some pints of fresh blood, Mimi improves and is allowed to go home. During the hospital stay and afterwards, Claudia once again feels like she's expected to give up her own activities and time to care for Mimi. I guess she didn't learn her lesson in book #7, because the Kishis didn't expect that of her then, and I don't think they did in this book, either (the issue isn't dealt with as much here).

Things seem to be par for the course, Mimi-wise, until one Saturday morning. Claudia is teaching an art class for some of the BSC's charges in her basement when Mimi comes down for a visit. She isn't even supposed to be out of bed, let alone taking on the stairs by herself, but Claudia decides to ler her stay. As she's sorting out a chair for Mimi to use, Mimi faints again. Claudia runs to get her father while Mary Anne (the class's co-teacher) stays with Mimi and eventually gets the children out and takes them home.

In the hospital, Mimi gets new blood right away, since that worked so well the last time. Her moods are kind of all over the place, though; one minute, she's making jokes about being a vampire, and the next, she's cranky and throwing her pudding at the wall. She's also started giving some of her things away; Claudia gets her plants, and Janine gets her diamond earrings. I always wondered why Claudia didn't get the earrings and Janine the plants, since Claudia's so into fashion and all. Anyway, Mimi improves enough again that the doctors are ready to release her. She even calls Claudia the night before sh'es due to come home, and they have a nice conversation about the painting Claudia is working on. Mimi's last words before they hang up? "Good-bye, My Claudia." (*sniff* *tear*)

The next morning, Claudia wakes up to the sound of her parents' voices. It's far too early for any of them to be up for work or school, so she goes to their bedroom to find out what's up. That's when she gets the bad news; Mimi died during the night. Claudia's in a state of disbelief; after all, wasn't Mimi well enough to come home? Her father explains that she wasn't okay, and that she just wore out. The Kishi parents head to the hospital to make arrangements, while Janine and Claudia stay home to start calling friends and relatives.

The funeral is three days later. Claudia feels really detached from the whole event; she even calls the burial "surreal," and can't believe that Mimi is really there, in the coffin. The club members (including Stacey, who came down with her mom for the day) get together afterwards and try to have a normal conversation in spite of everything that's happened.

Claudia's emotions and reactions to what's happened are kind of all over the place. She's sad, and angry, and numb, and tired. Her grades slip, no one at school seems to know how to react when they see her. She goes from wanting to talk about and remember Mimi to not wanting to talk about and remember Mimi. When she sees Janine in Mimi's room, going through her things, Claudia kind of explodes. That's when she really begins to heal; she even comes up with a tribute collage to hang in Mimi's room, once it becomes the guest room.

One of the students in Claudia's art class is Corrie Addison. Claudia really bonds with her during the whole Mimi situation; Corrie's parents tend to shuffle Corrie and her brother, Sean, from class and activity to class and activity so they can have time to themselves. Claudia, in true BSC fashion, eventually makes the Addison parents see the error of their ways, and she credits Mimi with giving her the love and strength to speak up on Corrie's behalf.

Thoughts and Things

• I really, really like the way that Claudia's emotions and reactions to Mimi's death are presented. Good one, AMM.
• Whenever I think about this book, I always think about Mimi throwing that pudding at the wall in the hospital. Sometimes, you just have to throw the pudding. :)
• Mr. Kishi's reaction to Mimi's death is pretty touching. You always hear/read about evil mother-in-laws, so it's nice that he was genuinely upset over what happened. I also liked seeing him show some emotion; I don't know why, but I always picture him as a little stern, and not given to emotional displays.
• There really isn't a whole lot I can pick at with this one. I think it's actually one of the best written in the series, mostly because of how Claudia's grief is dealt with.

SS #2 Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation

Want to get lost in

The woods or fall in LUV? Just

Go to Camp Mohawk!

Summary

The girls (and Logan) decide to go to camp for two weeks as CITs. Here's a rundown of who did what:

The sitters have to do some convincing to get Stacey to agree to go. She does (obviously, since she's the "main" narrator for this Super Special). She's assigned to a cabin of 6 year olds, including Karen Brewer, and she notices that they seem to be sick a lot. Stacey hates sickness, so it's only fitting that she's the one who ends up spending a good chunk of the camp session in the infirmary. Her laundry list of ailments include a cold, poison ivy, impetigo, pinkeye, and herpes. Just kidding about the last one. :)

Claudia falls in luv at first sight with a boy CIT. Her campers (9 year olds including Haley Braddock and Vanessa Pike) do some investigating, and find out that Drean Boy's name is Will Yamakawa. They don't officially meet until CIT Movie Night, where they actually have a pretty deep discussion about grandparents, heaven, and hell. They see each other again at the CIT Dance the next night, and decide that they need to end their relationship (which, I might add, is two days long at this point) since they live in different states and wouldn't be able to see each other. They don't even exchange addresses or phone numbers, but, once again, Claudia's campers come through. They get Will's address for her and give it to her after camp ends. I swear, those kids are future identity thieves; they sure seem to have a knack for getting information that they shouldn't have. Anyway, the lovebirds end up keeping in touch for awhile; Will is mentioned in the next Super Special.

Mary Anne's assigned to a cabin on 7 year olds, including Margo Pike. The other three CIT's in her cabin are, as she puts it, "into being totally cool." She tries to sound more awesome by telling them that she only came to camp to be near Logan, but it backfires; the other girls don't even believe that someone as lame as Mary Anne could actually have a boyfriend. Mary Anne is determined to prove her coolness (and Logan's existence) to her fellow CITs, so she writes what must be the most awful love letter in the history of love letters and leaves it on her bunk for them to find. They do, but once again, the idea backfires. The other CITs suggest she get the note to Logan by walking around the lake to him at night. To save face, Mary Anne agrees. One of her campers tattles, though, and Mary Anne only makes it about halfway around before being caught by her own counselor, Old Meanie (camp director), and two counselors from the boys' side. One of them takes the note from Mary Anne and assures her that Logan will, indeed, see it. The problem? Mary Anne never intended for Logan to see the note, and it's not the kind of thing she would ever send him. Back at the cabin, Mary Anne's earned a little more respect from her fellow CITs. Hardly anyone has tried to sneak around the lake, and Mary Anne made it further (farther?) than most. Even though things are a little friendlier now, the other girls still try to test M.A. They keep asking her for beauty advice, and she just makes stuff up and hopes it's what they want to hear. When one of the other CITs wants to pierce Mary Anne's ears for the CIT dance, she agrees. Both of them chicken out at the last minute, though.

Logan pretty much just gets made fun of for the whole Mary Anne debacle. The note is delivered at lunchtime, and one of his buddies entertains everyone with a dramatic reading. Logan then starts a food fight, which is actually pretty awesome.

Kristy's not loving the group living situation. She gets pretty tired of having so many people breathing down her neck, and never having any privacy. She doesn't get much of that at home, either, but whatever. Like Mary Anne, Kristy feels inferior to her co-CITs. The difference is that Kristy's "mean girls" are actually nice, they just want to change her entire appearance. After days of mentally and verbally trying to "fix" Kristy, they end up giving her a makeover for the CIT dance. Kristy isn't thrilled about that, but she lives to tell the tale. When she's not dodging the efforts of the Stacey London wannabes, Kristy is also dealing with a homesick Charlotte Johannssen. I don't envy Kristy; Charlotte basically spends the whole two weeks crying, which was pretty freaking annoying to read about. I can't even imagine what it would be like to actually deal with something like that.

Jessi and Mallory beg to be allowed to be CITs even though the minimum age is 13, but no dice. To make them feel better, Old Meanie names them Junior CITs. The title is basically meaningless, although they are asked to put together a dance performance for one of the cabins of 8 year olds (including Becca and Charlotte) for the Parent's Day program. It's a good thing they have that to keep the occupied, because cabin life is less than ideal. Talk about mean girls; from day one, the others in Jessi and Mal's cabin are awful to them. Nothing the girls say and do is right, and it isn't until their dance performance (which is about racism and friendship, and casts Becca and Charlotte as twins) that their cabinmates apologize.

Dawn is a CIT in the other cabin of 11 year olds. Their counselor has a family emergency and has to leave right before they're scheduled to go on an overnight hiking trip. The replacement counselor is only 15 and kind of a idiot, and they end up lost in the woods. They finally return two days later, thanks to the efforts of one of the campers. Heather is the quiet type, and only came to Camp Mohawk because her parents made her. She'd spent most of the sessing reading and not participating in camp stuff, and her bunkies weren't exactly fond of her. They change their tune, though, when she's the one who "rescues" them.

Thoughts and Things

• This book was published in July of 1989. That means that it's been a little over twenty years since the BSC first went to Camp Mohawk. Lord, I'm old.....
• If Will Yamakawa was from New York, did he ride the same bus as Stacey? If so, wouldn't she have given him Claudia's address? She was pretty quick to give out Claud's number to Terry, the guy in California Girls.
• I was a total Mary Anne about camp when I was younger. She watched camp movies and thought it would be the most awesome place in the world, and I read this book and thought that camp would be the most awesome place in the world. Lucky for me that it actually was pretty awesome. :)
• I love that Stacey ended up settling into a patch of poison ivy immediately after a lecture on avoiding it. Someone wasn't paying attention to Old Meanie.
• Speaking of the Meanies, do they live separately during camp sessions? Logan mentions people sneaking over to Mr. Meanie's cabin to spy on them when Mrs. Meanie comes to visit. That doesn't seem like an ideal arrangement...
• Lots of Mimi foreshadowing.....

Holy cow!!!!

I'm an adult...I shouldn't be so freaking excited about this:

http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Before-Babysitters-Club/dp/0545160936/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251990038&sr=1-2

That is totally going on my birthday list. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I asked for a freaking BABY SITTERS CLUB book for my birthday?!?! Guess I'll have something new to tack on to the end of my recap list. :)

#25 Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger

Tigger's "kidnapping"

Is not a Federal case.

Okay, Mary Anne?

Summary

Mary Anne leaves Tigger outside to play when she's at a BSC meeting, but when she gets home, she discovers he's missing. She doesn't worry too much, until he's gone without a trace for almost 24 hours. She calls Kristy, figuring that her penchant for ideas and love of animals would make her the best person to talk to. Kristy immediately calls an emergency meeting of the BSC, and the girls create a plan of action for finding Tigger. They pool their money for a reward, and make a flier. After the meeting, Mary Anne calls Logan and breaks the news to him, but to her dismay, he doesn't seem all that interested.

The next day, the BSC papers the neighborhood with as many fliers as they can. Some of the sitting charges even get involved in the hunt for Tigger, but to no avail; he's still missing. Mary Anne does get what she thinks is a clue when she checks the mail after passing out the fliers: a ransom note (cue scary music). The writer claims to have Tigger, and tells Mary Anne that she needs to leave $100 on the big rock in Brenner Field the next afternoon if she wants to see him alive again. At the BSC meeting that afternoon, Mary Anne tells the others what's going on. She even manages to talk Logan into being there, in spite of how little he seems to care about the whole situation. In fact, Logan is actually the one who comes up with the plan to hide in and around the park and wait for the "kidnapper." He figures that the note was sent by a kid, and that the seven of them can probably overpower him (or her, as Dawn reminds us).

As it turns out, Logan was right. The note was sent by a kid. He's awfully surprised when he shows up at Brenner Field and is not only surrounded by seven baby-sitters, but that his envelope full of cash contains only Monopoly money. So...no kidnapper, which is good, but Tigger is still missing, which is bad.

Later that week, Mary Anne is sitting for the Brunos. Little Hunter's allergies have been especially bad lately, and no one in the family can figure out why. Hunter knows; his sister Kerry is keeping a secret hidden in her closet, and when he takes Mary Anne in there to show her what it is, she gets a big surprise. Tigger is in there! When the Brunos get home, she tells them about the situation. Mary Anne thinks that Logan knew about Tigger all along, but didn't bother to tell her, so she runs off mad at him. They make up soon, and Logan blames his recent crankiness on some problems he's having on the baseball field.

Thoughts and Things

• Man...I can't believe how much this book annoyed me. I don't remember it being so ridiculous before! I mean, everyone is Stoneybrook pratically drops everything to find Tigger. Kristy's mom goes into her office...IN STAMFORD... ON A SATURDAY NIGHT...to copy the stupid fliers. Several BSC meetings are devoted to nothing but Tigger. Mary Anne makes everything all about her; she's mad that her dad isn't free to take a call from her in the middle of his work day, and even AFTER Dawn tells her about Logan's baseball problems, all she still thinks about is how his distance and bad attitude are affecting her. Good Lord, Mary Anne. You're supposed to be sensitive.
• I always thought Mary Anne looked good on this cover. The little girl in the pink sweatshirt, on the other hand....look at her eyes! They're crazy. You might have to get out your own copy and take a REALLY close look to get the full effect.
• Even though it was ridiculous for Mary Anne to expect her dad to drop everything to take a call about Tigger while he was in the middle of work, I have to hand it to her for actually trying to involve a parent. Logan, on the other hand, didn't want to call the police or tell any parents when they decided to ambush the kidnapper at Brenner Field. I think it would have served the kid right to have a police officer show up!
• Kerry doesn't really get in trouble for stealing Tigger. Instead, she gets some sort of light punishment (we don't really find out what) and is rewarded by getting a hair-free pet of her own, since she's proved that she's so responsible. Lesson NOT learned!

#24 Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise

It's carnival time,

And for once, the BSC

Isn't running it!

Summary

In honor of Mother's Day, Kristy decides to give the moms of some of their charges a day off. They're going to take the kids to a local carnival, feed them lunch, let them run around at the park, and then take them back to Claudia's house for crafts and stories. They even recruit Stacey's help for the weekend, since they're expecting 21 children total.

The outing goes pretty well. Margo Pike does manage to work in her requisite barfing episode on the merry-go-round, and Karen Brewer the Spook Lover gets so scared in the Haunted House that she has to be taken out. To make Karen feel better, one of the workers shares some of the tricks of the haunted house trade with her, and makes her promise not to tell. So (of course), Karen tells the other kids everything at the park later. I'm starting to see why so many people aren't Karen fans...

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Thomas-Brewer-whatever has been hinting about wanting another baby, and Kristy thinks that her mom and Watson want to get pregnant. Nope; they're adopting a little Vietnamese girl, and she's arriving on Mother's Day. Enter Emily Michelle Thomas Brewer, and (of course) the majority of the other Thomases and Brewers are thrilled, since all teenagers and children love having babies around the house. Heh. Kristy also invites the whole club over to welcome Emily Michelle home, since that kind of an occasion should no way be for family only.

Thoughts and Things

• Watson and Elizabeth pick Emily Michelle up at the airport. Don't prospective adoptive parents usually have to go to the child's home country to get them? I know she was adopted through an agency (at least, she was according to #33), but I wouldn't think that would make a difference, unless the agency was essentially buying children and bringing them over before placing them with families. So many issues with this adoption....
• I always picture Sudsy's Carnival as being sort of unsafe and temporary-looking. I mean, it's set up in a parking lot near a park in a small town; how high-quality could it really be?
• Mallory leads the kids in songs at one point during their outing. Isn't she supposed to be a terrible singer?
• Books that involve fairs and carnivals always make me want fair food: peanuts, popcorn, etc. Speaking of, I'm hungry. :)
• Claudia wears an outfit that involves blue, purple, and red. I hate purple and red together.
• This is the book where Dawn sings, "the girl with colitis goes by" instead of "the girl with kaleidescope eyes." :D Interesting that the CA hippie is the one singing the song about drugs...