#84 Dawn and the School Spirit War

Summary

The SMS baseball team has been winning big time, and in honor of the occasion, April has been named Spirit Month. Each day is going to have some special theme or activity. Dawn likes some of them (Clean Up Your School Day, and Garden Day), but she's not so thrilled about some of the others, like Pajama Day. She just doesn't see how stuff like that will prove that a person has school spirit. Dawn's also not the only one who's unhappy; Mary Anne is practically hyperventilating over the thought of having everyone in school see her pajamas. Mallory isn't thrilled with all the Spirit Month stuff, either, but all the rest of the BSC members are pretty into it. *cue foreboding music*

When Class Color Day rolls around, Dawn totally forgets that all the 8th graders are supposed to wear yellow. She scrambles around at the last minute to find something, but only comes up with a pair of yellow socks. When Dawn gets to school, she gets one crack after another from the other students about her lack of yellow. The local news is even there, and THEY single her out for her lack of spirit. Sharon ends up calling the station to complain about the way they treated her daughter,and she encourages Dawn and Mary Anne to write a petition protesting Spirit Month. Plenty of kids are ready and willing to sign it, but there are just as many who aren't too thriled with what Dawn and Mary Anne are doing. One of them writes a mean message on Dawn's locker, and later, Alan Gray throws a water balloon at the girls. Then, a few days later, and actual food fight breaks out in the cafeteria. As a result, the school holds a meeting for anyone who has anything to say about Spirit Month, but everyone who's against it just gets harrassed.

From then on, things go from bad to worse. A mural of Claudia's is destroyed, kick me signs are being taped to people's backs, and lockers are being glued shut. The members of the BSC are at each other's throats; no one who's against Spirit Month (Dawn, Mal, and Mary Anne) wants to work with anyone who's for it (Kristy, Claudia, and Jessi). There's a town meeting that parents are invited to, and it gets even uglier than the one that was just students. Finally, the school administration cancels Spirit Month. Dawn is surprised that she isn't happier about the new turn of events. So, Dawn and Mary Anne go back to the drawing board and come up with a proposal: Spirit Month should be strictly voluntary, and no one should be made to feel bad for not participating. The principal allows her to read it over the loudspeaker at school, and the new and improved Spirit Month is reinstated.

In other news, the Barrett-DeWitt house is way too small for all those people. The kids have overheard their parents talking, and they're convinced that they'll have to move out of Stoneybrook after all. Nope; they're just going to be building an addition onto the house.

Rating: 0

Thoughts and Things

• This book is crap. It's only the second time I've read it, and there's a very good chance that it'll be the last.
• It's funny that two out of my three favorite books in the series (#9 and #50) and my two LEAST favorites (this one and #57) are all Dawn books.
• Dawn and Mary Anne eventually get 300 signatures for their petition. In Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation, it states that there are 382 students in the school. If that were true, the vast majority of students hated Spirit Month and there shouldn't have been much of a fight.
• I can't freaking believe that it took them until the end of this stupid book to just make the Spirit activities optional. Geez!
  

#83 Stacey vs. the BSC

Summary

Things with Stacey and the BSC haven't exactly been fantastic lately. She's been spending so much time with Robert that she's coming late to meetings and (as we saw in the last book) getting substitutes for her sitting jobs. She's also noticing things about the other BSC members and their behavior that she doesn't exactly like. They're starting to seem awfully silly and immature, especially when compared to Robert's friends. One night, Stacey gets Mary Anne to substitute for her at the Pikes' so she can go out for pizza with Robert and his crew. Who should show up there, hiding behind a juke box and spying, but Dawn. Stacey is totally embarrassed...and a little scared. She has no idea how the BSC is going to react when Dawn tells them that it was no emergency that kept her from her sitting job....

At the next BSC meeting, things are a little tense. Kristy is especially unhappy with Stacey, but Claudia smooths things over with snacks. Stacey keeps noticing all the silly, immature little things the BSC does, though. She doesn't want to be a snob, but but she's getting more and more annoyed with her supposed best friends. She runs into Kristy, Mary Anne, and Dawn when she's out at Burger Town with Robert and his friends, and she can't stop wishing they would just act their age. The other BSC members aren't the only ones who are screwing up, though. Stacey herself is letting Robert and her new friends get in the way of her BSC duties more and more. During a sitting job with Jamie Newton, Stacey ignores Jamie to talk on the phone to Robert....until Jamie throws up all over everything and Stacey FINALLY understands why he was so whiny all evening. She feels bad about it, but the Newtons are pretty nice about the whole thing. Mrs. Newton DOES call the BSC and ask them to limit phone calls to emergencies, leading to another Kristy lecture.

Things kind of come to a head not long after that. Stacey and Robert had been planning a party at his house for their friends, and the only BSC member that Stacey had invited was Claudia. Just before the party, though, Robert calls Stacey and tells her that they can't have it at his house. They decide to have it at the McGills' instead, leading to a dilemma for Stacey. It wasn't that big of a deal that the BSC wasn't invited when it was at Robert's; after all, it was more his party then and he doesn't really know the club members all that well. Now that it's at Stacey's, she almost feels as if she has to invite her BSC friends. She doesn't (other than Claudia), and Dawn and Mary Anne show up in the middle. of it. Stacey invites them in, but they know they're not really welcome and leave.

Things blow up at the next club meeting. Not only do the other sitters feel stupid for not being invited to Stacey's party, which the whole school knew about, but Stacey also forgot to show up to the BSC talent show. Charlotte, who was planning on playing the piano, was so upset that Stacey broke her promise to be there that she ran off stage without performing. There's lots of yelling, and Stacey quits the club just before Kristy fires her.

Subplot: talent show.

Rating: 3

Thoughts and Things

• I actually like the "Stacey is too mature for the club" story arc. When I was younger, I was never in favor of any of the club members leaving, but now, I'm not so against it. :)
• There was lots of foreshadowing in regards to Stacey missing meetings and sitting jobs because of Robert, but none when it comes to her thinking that the other BSC members are immature. With the exception of Kristy yelling about her sleepover in the middle of the school gym in Stacey and the Cheerleaders, it's like everyone in the BSC is suddenly annoying and immature.
• Why does Mallory look like she's about to vomit on the cover? Also, Kristy needs some longer pants.
• The whole "cool crowd" actually DOES sound more fun to hang out with than the BSC members in this book. In a way, I don't blame Stacey for wanting to hang out with them instead.
• Poor Jamie. I'm glad Stacey had to clean up after him....but that whole chapter makes mac and cheese slightly less appealing.

Claudia's Book

It's Claudia's turn....

Baby Days

The only actual Claudia memory from this section that doesn't come from interviewing other people happened when she was about four and a half or five. The Kishis were having a cement walk put in in their backyard, and Kristy, Claud, and Mary Anne were fascinated by the event. The three girls discovered pretty quickly that wet cement wasawfully fun to play in, but they were caught by Mimi. Mimi called the workmen, who came back and smoothed over the "art" that they had put into the walkway. Then, Mimi let them put their handprints in the cement.

Happy Birthday to Me

Claudia's 6th birthday happened not long after the end of the school year. She had this huge, circus-themed party planned, and her parents had given her permission to invite everyone in her class. Claudia forgot to give out the invitations until the very last day of school was ending, and when the day of the party arrived, Kristy and Mary Anne were the only ones who showed up. Claudia was crushed, and shut herself in her room, crying. Later, Mimi asked her to go over to Mary Anne's for a minute, and when they got there, all the Thomases, Spiers, and Kishis were there to help Claudia celebrate her birthday.

The Truth About the Tooth Fairy

In Claudia's second grade class, losing teeth was a big deal. Claudia herself hadn't lost any yet, and she was pretty happy about that. She was terrified of the tooth fairy, who she saw as a complete monster, who yanked teeth from straight out of kids' mouths when they're sleeping. Then, disaster struck one day at recess. Claudia was playing tag when she tripped, fell, and knocked her mouth on the ground. One of her teeth really started to hurt after that, but she did her best not to let anyone find out about it. Her parents wormed the truth out of her, and Claud was taken to the dentist the next day. Claudia had the tooth pulled, and that night, Claudia decided to hide in the closet and wait for the tooth fairy that way. She was pretty surprised when her own mother turns out to be the one who took the tooth away and left a silver dollar in its place. Then, Claudia got to thinking; if the tooth fairy was fake, did that mean that Santa and the Easter Bunny were as well?

Boo for Fourth Grade

Claudia did so bad in 4th grade at SES that her parents sent her to an alternative school in Stamford for awhile. Claudia's grades improved, but her mood got worse. She was miserable. She started withdrawing from her friends and sleeping all the time. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Kishi put her back in SES and got her as much individual help there as they could.

The Sea Rose

When Claud was 11, the Thomases invited her on their beach vacation. Hammond Beach wasn't exactly what Claud had imagined it would be, but she liked it all the same. One day, she and Kristy were playing on the beach when David Michael asked to go get a hot dog. Kristy gave him 10 minutes to go and be back, but when he didn't turn up, the girls got worried. They look everywhere for him, and Kristy got pretty frantic. David Michael is found, playing on the beach with some other kids; he'd had no idea that his 10 minutes was up. Kristy freaked out on him, yelling at him not to say he's coming back and then not do it. Claudia realized that being Kristy, as tough as she is, probably wasn't the easiest job in the world.

Rating: 2.5

Thoughts and Things

• Claudia gets a B- on her project.
• There are all sorts of inconsistencies in this book: it says that Mr. Kishi is a lawyer, not an investment guy, David Michael is both 4.5 and 5 in the "Sea Rose" chapters, and Claudia says at different times that her butterfly self portrait was drawn in kindergarten AND first grade. Sheesh.
• Mimi is awesome!
• This might actually be my least favorite of the portrait books. That's odd, because Claudia was always one of my favorite sitters.
• One thing that this book DOES have going for it: most of the pictures of Claudia inside are actually pretty cute.

M#19 Kristy and the Missing Fortune

Summary


It's February, and everyone at Kristy's house has cabin fever. Karen suggests going into Watson's library to play, and the other kids are up for it. Kristy finds an old book there that not only has "diary entries" or sorts regarding things that happened in old Stoneybrook, but it also contains a list of residents. The kids ask Kristy to look up Thomas, and she's pretty surprised at what she finds: there was a Christina Thomas who was born in the 1840's who disappeared from Squirelot (her family's home) in 1863. Kristy can't let a mystery like that go, so she makes up her mind to solve it.


Kristy heads to the library that weekend to do some research on Christina's disappearance, even though none of her friends can join her. Kristy discovers that Christina's parents died in a carriage accident about two years before Christina left home, and that when she left, some gold and important documents relating to the Thomases' fortune left with her. Kristy is pretty excited about that; if she and Christina are related, then Kristy herself might end up rich...if the missing gold is ever found.

The Thomas/Brewer kids aren't the only ones feeling cabin feverish; it's become an epidemic in Stoneybrook. One thing the sitters have found to keep the kids busy is taking them to the arboretum. During their visits, the girls find out that the place is in trouble. It's located on a big estate, and even though the buildings belong to the town, the land doesn't. No one really knows who DOES own it, since a fire destroyed town records. There's a development company that's interested in building on the site, and if they buy the land, the arboretum will have to close. There's one chance for it: a wealthy woman is interested in buying the property, but it needs a LOT of fixing up before she can see it. It's the BSC to the rescue! Almost from the get-go, though, things go wrong. Jessi notices that the bucket she's been using goes missing, and there are footprints where none of the workers have been. There are alos pikes of weeds and things appearing in places that had already been cleared. Kristy thinks it's totally possible that DT Developers (she found their business card on the ground) are the ones looking to build on the property, and just might be sabotaging the efforts to clean up the place.

Kristy goes back the library for more Christina research, this time with backup. They do some genealogy, and figure out that Christina's great-grand niece, Mildred Abbott, is still alive and living in Stoneybrook. Kristy meets her for tea and (hopefully) information. Mrs. Abbott points out that Thomas is a fairly common last name, and that it's totally possible that Christina is no relation at all. Kristy doesn't care; she wants to find out what happened to Christina more than she wants to find the fortune at this point. Mrs. Abbott tells her that Christina's brother, Devon, was trying to get his sister to marry a friend of his. That way, this friend would take control of the money Christina inherited when her parents died, and could then invest it in Devon's business. Christina was in love with someone else, and she was planning to elope with him. Before they can run away, her fiancee is shipped off to fight in the Civil War. She ran away on her own to be with him, but he was killed in action. No one knows what happened to Christina after that, although her family did recieve a letter that she sent to Henry telling him what she was planning. His family had sent it back, thinking it might contain some clues to her disappearance. Mrs. Abbott lets Kristy make a copy of the letter.

Next, Kristy heads BACK to the library to try and figure out where Squirelot was located. She compares a map of Stoneybrook from back in the 1800s with a current one, and at least one piece of the mystery gets solved: Squirelot and the arboretum are the same place. The BSC discusses this new find, and decide (thanks to some clues in the letter) that Christina had a special hiding place at home. Since there were roses drawn on the letter she sent to Henry, the girls think that the rose garden might be a good place to start. They head over the arboretum and find out that Mrs. Goldsmith (manager of the place) is not happy about the mess that was left by the "helpers" the day before. Jessi promises that it will be cleaned up. The club members find some shovels, and start digging in the rose garden. They'd been working for half an hour when they're work is interrupted by Mrs. Goldsmith and Mrs. VanderBellen....the one who was thinking of buying the place. After seeing the mess, the girls are asked to leave. They find out later that Mrs. VanderBellen has decided NOT to buy the arboretum. The girls feel bad, but they STILL have Christina's mystery to solve. They do some more historical research and realize that the moon was full the day that Christina disappeared. There was a circle drawn around the roses on her letter, so the club thinks that the full moon might have some significance. Since there's a full moon in a few days, the girls decide to go and see what they find.

The big night arrives. The girls all tell their parents that they're having a slumber party, but they get Charlie to drive them to the arboretum instead (why does that sound so familiar?). As the girls are waiting for the moon to rise, they realize they're not alone. Someone is following them, and it's none other than Cokie Mason. Kristy and the others had noticed her hanging around when they were discussing the mystery, but hadn't thought anything of it. It turns out that Mildred Abbott is Cokie's grandmother, and so Cokie figures that she should get a share of whatever treasure is found. The girls are all waiting at the rose garden when they realize something important: the roses in the letter weren't red, like the ones in the garden, but brown, like the ones carved into the porch railing. The BSC members plus Cokie all race over there just as the moon is rising. There's a shadow from a tree that's cast right onto the carvings, so the girls start digging under that tree. They find a box containing a locket with a picture of a girl who looks like Kristy, another letter to Henry stating that Christina had all her gold with her, and the original Squirelot lease. Christina left the property to the town of Stoneybrook in the event of Henry's death, so the arboretum was saved. Kristy ends up getting to keep the locket, but she's not so excited about the possibility of being related to Christina. After all, that would mean that she's related to Cokie as well!

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• I don't buy that Watson the gardener had no idea that the arboretum existed.
• It's kind of cool that this mystery never got completely solved; we never DID find out what happened to Christina.
• I can't believe I'm on mystery #19 already!
• The girls didn't seem to think about the fact that they were tresspassing at the arboretum, not to mention vandalizing it after they'd already been thrown out once.
• I wish Cokie was on the cover of this book; I'm curious about how Hodges would draw her....
• For some reason, this book was just BRUTAL to recap. I don't know why it was so hard to get through.
  

#82 Jessi and the Troublemaker

Summary

Danielle Roberts's leukemia is in remission, and she's been feeling really good. She's got tons of energy, and her family and friends couldn't be happier. The BSC is glad, too, but they can't help but wonder if Danielle might be going a little too far. Jessi is the first one to experience the new Danielle. She's reading to Danielle's brother, Greg, when they hear a big crash in the study. They race back there, and find Danielle sprawled on the floor, wearing her mother's Rollerblades next to a knocked-over bookcase. Danielle's not hurt, so Jessi doesn't say anything to her parents when they get home. After all, the fact that Danielle is feeling good enough to skate at all is a good thing.

Mary Anne is the next one to sit for Danielle and Greg. It SHOULD have been Stacey, but she called Mary Anne at the last minute ans asked her to sub. Charlotte Johanssen and Haley Braddock come over to play, and Mary Anne catches them sledding down the basement stairs on an old crib mattress. No one gets hurt, but they DO get plenty dirty before Mary Anne finds out what they're doing and puts a stop to it. The BSC members talk about Danielle's antics at their next meeting, but they agree not to say anything for the time being. If her parents aren't worried about her behavior, they figure they shouldn't be, either.

Kristy is next up at the Roberts' house. This time, Haley, Charlotte, Becca, and Vanessa all come to play with Danielle. Things are pretty quiet at first, but quiet doesn't necessarily mean that everyone is staying out of trouble, as Kristy finds out. She's busy reading to Greg (he's sick with a cold) when she realizes that she's been hearing running water for WAY too long. Since Greg has fallen asleep, Kristy investigates. She finds the girls in one of the bathrooms...building a swimming pool. They'd sealed up the shower and just let the water run. They'd even put Easter egg dye in the water. There's a flood, of course, but Kristy and the girls get it all cleaned up before Mrs. Roberts gets home. At the next meeting, the girls agree that Danielle is going way too far with her hijinks, so Kristy gives her mother a call. Mrs. Roberts basically just brushes it off as "high spirits," so the girls leave it at that.

Jessi sits for Danielle and Greg again not long after that. Once again, it was supposed to be Stacey, but she flaked out. Charlotte, Haley, Vanessa, and Becca are over again, and Danielle announces that they're going to play a game called "Going on a Car Trip." Jessi thinks it's totally innocent...until she peeks into the garage to check on them and finds the girls and the car missing. She runs outside just in time to see the car slowly turning the corner, with Danielle at the wheel. She makes it to the driveway, but then the car rolls backward and she can't stop it. It smashes into another car across the street. Jessi races over, and although the girls are scared silly, the only one who seems to be hurt is Vanessa. A neighbor calls 911, and while another neighbor watches the other girls, Jessi and Vanessa head to the hospital. Vanessa is fine (just a little cut on the head), but Jessi is a wreck. As soon as her dad picks her up, she basically loses it.

As soon as Jessi gets home, she takes a nap. Then, she calls the Roberts house to check on Danielle, and both Roberts parents apologize for letting their daughter get so out of control. There are other, lasting effects from the accident, though. None of Danielle's friends will speak to her because she got them in so much trouble. Stacey helps them work through it when she's sitting at the Robertes (yes, she actually shows up for a job) by helping them see that they were all at fault, too. It was their choice to get in that car, even though they knew it was wrong.

Subplot: Jessi and Becca over hear Aunt Cecelia talking about a wedding with a (male) friend of hers, and they're convinced that the two of them are planning on getting married. The fact that Aunt Cecelia says nothing about it to anyone doesn't stop them from making plans. On the day of the supposed wedding, the girls dress up, ready to go watch their aunt get married. Too bad she and Mr. Major are IN a wedding, not having one of their own. Jessi is really embarrassed, because she told the whole BSC about the wedding. She doesn't want to have to admit that she was wrong, so she and Becca figure that they should just convince Aunt Cecelia and Mr. Major that they DO want to get married. They cook a romantic dinner for the two of them, but the not-so-happy couple tell the girls that they're just friends, and have no intention of ever marrying each other.

Rating: 1.5

Thoughts and Things

• Lots of foreshadowing of Stacey's defection....
• I actually liked the subplot; reading about the Ramsey family is usually pretty entertaining.
• Danielle on the cover looks an awful lot like a young Scarlett Johansson. She would have been about 11 when this book was published...I wonder if there's any chance that she was the model???
  

#81 Kristy and Mr. Mom

Summary

Watson hasn't been doing too well lately, and Kristy has noticed. He's been keeping himself awfully busy with work, and he seems to be getting tired very quickly. When Kristy sees Watson trying to shovel the snow in the driveway, she quickly takes over and sends Watson into the house to rest. He only makes it as far as the porch before he collapses; he's having chest pains. Kristy rushes into the house and yells for her mom and Nannie. She calls 911, and the operator promises to send an ambulence and tells Kristy how to keep Watson comfortable. When the ambulence arrives, Elizabeth and Nannie go to the hospital, leaving Kristy with David Michael and Emily Michelle. The kids (including Kristy) are worried. Shannon, Mary Anne, and Dawn all come over to keep them company, and to help Kristy take care of everything that needs to be done (notifying Sam and Charlie, getting stuff ready for school the next day).

Nannie comes home that night with good news: Watson did have a heart attack, but it was mild. He's been ordered to make some changes, though: better diet, more excersise, less hours at work. Watson doesn't seem to have any trouble with those orders; all he wants to do is spend time with his family, and he's become awfully emotional about doing so. In fact, Watson makes a big announcement at dinner one night. He's decided to turn over most of the day-to-day operations of his business to one of his vice presidents, and become a stay at home dad. This decision goes over pretty well with everyone...except Nannie. She starts to feel like she's not needed anymore, and surprises the family with her own announcement. She's found her own apartment and will be moving out.

Things go okay at first without Nannie there. Everyone misses her, of course, but the household runs relatively smoothly. Then, February begins. That's one of Karen and Andrew's "big house" months, and adding two other people to the mix just makes everything fall apart at the seams. The place is a mess, things aren't getting done, the kids are running wild, and Emily Michelle is sick. Plus, Watson is finding that he can't just give up on work like he had planned; it keeps creeping back into his life. When Kristy goes to visit Nannie in her new place, she confesses how bad things have gotten, and asks Nannie to move back. Nannie had wanted that all along, but didn't want to be in Watson's way. In the end, it's decided that Nannie will take over her old role in the house, and Watson will work from home three hours every day.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Marshall has created a difficult situation for the BSC. Dawn is the first one to encounter it; she goes expecting to take care of only Nina and Eleanor, but finds three other children there as well. Their mother and Mrs. Marshall are taking an exercise class together, and Mrs. Marshall had told her it would be fine to leave all the kids together. Nothing really awful happens to Dawn, but Mallory's experience is a little different. One of the kids falls down the stairs and cuts his lip, and the others are running wild. Mal has to call Jessi for backup, but when Mrs. Marshall comes home, she refuses to pay Jessi for her time. Stacey is the the next one to get a job with the Marshalls, and she brings Claudia along right from the start. When Mrs. Marshall again refuses to pay for two sitters, they both walk out. Later, they realize that Mrs. Marshall probably didn't know that the club has a rule about two sitters being needed for more than four kids, so Kristy calls and explains it to her.

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• This book had an almost "early BSC" feel to it in some places, but I can't put my finger on why.
• The hot SMS gossip in this one is that Pete Black and Sabrina Bouvier went to the movies together. I have two things to say about that. First, I guess Pete must have run out of BSC members to date at this point. Second, I sincerely hope it's the 13 year old Sabrina he's dating, not the little pageant kid Sabrina.
• Why didn't the mother of the other kids offer to chip in for the sitter? Even though Mrs. Marshall was wrong to just expect the BSC to take care of all those kids for the same pay rate as taking care of just Nina and Eleanor, it was also wrong for Mrs. Phillips to just expect to leave her kids with a sitter for free. Some friend she is....

SS#12 Here Come the Bridesmaids!

Jack Schafer and Carol are getting married in CA, and Mrs. Barrett and Mr. DeWitt are getting married in Stoneybrook. Most of the BSC members are involved in one way or another...

Dawn is, of course, going to be a bridesmaid at her dad's wedding. Since Mary Anne is too (or so she thinks), Dawn ends up buying the dresses for both of them before Mary Anne comes out to CA for the wedding, but Mary Anne is not exactly pleased with things when she does get there. She hates the dress, she hates the idea of a beach wedding, and she hates the idea of being a bridesmaid and having everyone look at her for the duration of the wedding. Just as she starts getting used to the idea, though, she and Dawn BOTH get a big surprise: Dawn is going to be the maid of honor, and there aren't going to be any additional bridesmaids at all. Mary Anne is almost as upset about this as she was about having to do it in the first place. She gets all mad at Dawn for not considering HER feelings and HER wishes, but they make up in time for the wedding. Mary Anne even wears the dress that Dawn bought her.

Claudia is in CA, working off the cost of her plane ticket there. She's sort of a wedding consultant, and she's running around doing last minute errands for the wedding party. She also gets to take candid pictures at the reception.

Kristy also goes to CA for Jack and Carol's wedding, and while she's there, she helps the We Love Kids Club organize a farewell party for Dawn. They'd kind of had one planned, but of course, no one in CA can plan anything without the help of Kristy Thomas. :)

Jeff is not looking forward to having all of Carol's ugly furniture move into his house after the wedding. He's also worried about what will happen to Mrs. Bruen once Carol's living there. Then, the van full of Carol's stuff gets stolen, and Mrs. Bruen tells Jeff that Mr. Schafer wants to double her hours.

Stacey has become the Barretts' new go-to girl. Since she's gotten so close the them, Mrs. Barrett asks her to take the place of a bridesmaid who dropped out. Stacey agrees.

Shannon is one of the sitters hired to look after the Barrett-DeWitt bunch during the wedding. She spends most of it in the church nursery with little Ryan DeWitt after he starts crying because of the noise and won't stop.

Mallory is the other sitter hired for the wedding. She's so excited about the job that she forgets she agreed to take some kids caroling with Ben Hobart the same day. When she calls Ben to cancel, he gets mad. They don't speak again until Mal gets home from working the wedding. They agree to reschedule, and have a good time.

Jessi plays Santa Claus at Bellair's after their orignal Santa is cast in a movie.

Logan helps the Barretts and DeWitts move into their new house.

Suzi Barrett is scared that Santa won't be able to find them in their new house. She tosses around a few ideas before deciding to leave a trail of cookie crumbs from the old house to the new.

Rating: 3.5

Thoughts and Things

• I'm surprised that I like this book as much as I do, considering how light on plot it is.
• Jeff's chapters are, hands down, the most entertaining in the book. :)
• On the other hand, I could have done without Suzi, and Logan's one chapter was totally unnecessary.
• There's a nice contrast between the two weddings. You've got the laid-back, non-traditional, CA beach wedding, and then you've got the formal, traditional, fancy church wedding.
• I had to laugh when one of the Barrett-DeWitt kids got caught drawing a dragon in the church hymnal, and he tried to excuse his behavior by saying that it was St. George's dragon! Peter L. comes up with some good ones sometimes.
• This was back in the day when only one movie was shown to everyone on the airplane. When I flew last year, everyone got their own little screen and choice of movies (or games), and the headphones were free.
• Claudia's outfit on the cover isn't half bad, although the pants look tapered in one of the inside illustrations. Kristy's dress, on the other hand, couldn't be uglier.
• The title of this book is actually kind of misleading. There's really only one bridesmaid, and that's Stacey. Dawn thought she was one, but ended up being the maid of honor.