The one with the wedding. Or one of the ones with a wedding. I mean, let's not forget that several different parents get remarried at some point. So, the first BSC wedding, anyway...
So we are in June of 7th grade, in the last couple of weeks of school, and Kristy's mom, Elizabeth, has announced that she and Watson have finally set a date for their wedding, in the third week of September (from personal experience, September is a marvelous month in which to get married. Just sayin'). Kristy is a little freaked out that this is last summer of normalcy on Bradford Court, but she plans to relish her last summer of living next door to MA. Plus, Elizabeth asks Kristy to be a bridesmaid, and tells Kristy that she can get her first pair of heeled dress shoes for the wedding, about which Kristy is super excited. Really? Never pictured Special K as the type to get excited over heels - I do admit, though, I like how the earlier books show a somewhat girlier side of Kristy, that seemed to disappear when she becomes our favorite (or least favorite) 8th grade tomboy. Charlie is so excited by the wedding news that he asks if he can have a glass of wine with the adults, because, after all, he will be in college next year. Props to Charlie for trying, but Momma Thomas does not go for that - sorry, Charlie.
However, a few days later, crisis hits the 'Brook. Kristy comes home from school to find her mother all in a tizzy, frantically making phone call after phone call (previously, this scenario resulted in a great idea). Apparently, the perfect storm of bad timing has come to Stoneybrook. First of all, Elizabeth finds out that someone has made an offer on their house, but the prospective buyer has to be able to move into the house by mid-July (by the way, if you remember from other books, the Perkins family, including Myriah and Gabby, is the one that moves into Kristy's house). Which would mean the Thomas family would have to find somewhere to live in the meantime before the wedding in September. Then, Elizabeth's company wants to send her on a business trip to Europe in, you guessed it, the third week in September. So Elizabeth and Watson decide to move the wedding up to the end of June - in just 2 and a half weeks, to be exact.
Ok, let's analyze this for a moment. I understand the desire the accept an offer on your house, especially if they are going to give full asking price, and even if it means you have an expedited closing (by the way, we find out that Deadbeat Dad, the phantom Mr. Thomas, gets half of the proceeds from the sale of the house, which struck me as odd, considering he did the abandoning and all. You need a better divorce attorney, Elizabeth). And while some people may suggest that the Thomas family can move into the mansion before the wedding, I'm all about family values, and I appreciate that they want to set a good example for the kids and not move in together until it's official. However, isn't Watson basically Daddy Warbucks? If you can't find a short term rental property, why can't they stay in one of those extended stay hotels for a couple of months? Granted, I know that would be crazy with four kids, but it would give you time to plan your wedding. Just a thought.
Now on to the business trip. For one thing, I'm sure your company would understand if you want to opt out, since it is the week of your wedding, after all. However, if this is the opportunity of a lifetime that you just don't want to pass up, adjust your wedding date by just a week or two. Again, that would give you a little more time to plan for the glorious event (although only 3 months to plan a wedding scares the crap out of me, holy schnikes, having flashbacks to the 9 months of crazy I endured). Better yet, get married at city hall at the end of June, then after the big Europe trip, plan to have the actual ceremony where you can have the dress, the family and friends, and the party. Have your cake, and eat it, too. It just seemed like a very illogical set of circumstances to lead up to the shotgun wedding (ok, not a true "shotgun wedding," but still). But I'll say it again, this is Stoneybrook, so we'll roll with it, no matter how absurd.
After all the mayhem, Kristy rushes over to the meeting, and she arrives at *gasp* 5:36. I wonder if that is grounds for presidential impeachment in the BSC. Special K still needs time to process, so she doesn't mention the wedding snafu to the girls yet, rather, the big topic of conversation is the Final Fling dance, which is the last day of school, which happens to be on June 19th. What the...? We might have gone to school past Memorial Day once or twice, but usually that was because we needed to make up some weather days or something. June 19th just seems really late. Sucks to be a 'Brookie, I guess. The girls ask Claudia if she is going to the dance with Trevor Sandbourne, but she said that she was over the T-man because he was more in love with his poetry than her, and is instead going with Austin Bentley (Stacey's future frequent date). Gretchen Weiners would not approve.
Kristy is going with Alan Gray again, and Stacey with Pete Black (before he went gaga over Laine). Dawn and Mary Anne decide to ditch the dance and go on a pizza date with their parents instead. Good times, girls.
After the meeting, Kristy finds out that her mom and Watson have several friends and family members coming to the 'Brook a week early to help get the wedding together, and since there will be a total of 13 kids running around, Elizabeth and Watson offer the BSC $1,000 total to watch the kids for the whole week (daytime only), which comes down to $200 each (This is pre-Mal and Jessi. Stacey is not the only math whiz, yo). Score!! That would have seemed like winning the lottery at that age (oh wait, they did that, too). Kristy calls an emergency meeting, of course, and the girls all agree after checking the record book. Kristy has to leave the job a couple of times during the week, because apparently Nannie volunteered to make the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. Elizabeth lets Kristy pick the color of the dresses, and after she picks yellow (I wonder if she wore the dress for Class Color Day?), Nannie gets to sewing. Umm...2 weeks to make 2 dresses from scratch? I'm not a seamstress, but that seems awfully quick, especially since Nannie is likely trying to visit with out of town family and helping with other wedding details as well. Maybe these two weeks were part of the warped Stoneybrook space-time continuum, so it actually gave her, like, several months of real time to complete them. Anyway, the girls survive the week-long mega-sit with few mishaps (the biggest crisis comes when one of the kids mixes up all the rehearsal dinner outfits, and the girls frantically have to sort them out).
The day of the wedding arrives. The ceremony and reception are taking place at Watson's estate (ok, his backyard, but that's probably the size of a football field or something). Mary Anne comes over early to help Kristy get dressed for the wedding (sorry, have to reminisce a moment about getting ready with my bridesmaids, I think something is in my eye...). Watson's neighbor and Karen's favorite witch, Morbidda Destiny, I mean, Mrs. Porter, crashes the wedding, but she brings a gift and acts very gracious and nice. Karen has a major freakout when she sees ole' Morbidda, and I'm sure that Watson and Elizabeth were really happy about the tantrum over an imaginary fear on the wedding day. David Michael gets Watson and his mom a goldfish as a wedding gift (actually, that's kind of awesome, but Kristy thinks it's lame), while Kristy draws a joint family tree for the Brewers and Thomases, and gets Claudia to help her decorate and frame it. So much feels...
And they lived happily ever after...
Fashion!!!
What Claudia wore: "Claudia was wearing one of her usual outrageous outfits: a black leotard and skin tight red pants under a white shirt that was so big it looked like a lab coat. Claudia is a wonderful artist and she had decorated the shirt herself, covering it with designs painted in acrylic. She had her long black hair back at the sides with red clips."
What Kristy wore: "I wore a gigantic white sweater dress with silver designs woven into it; I felt very glamorous." A sweater dress in June is a bold choice, Kristy.
What happens when Dawn and Mary Anne decide to stage their own Occupy: SMS? An epic brouhaha, y'all...(that is one of my favorite words, just fun to say - try to use it in a sentence today :-).
So, SMS's baseball team is undefeated, and they have their big rivalry against the Pelham Panthers (wait, wrong rivalry...) approaching. To celebrate, Mr. Belding, I mean, Mr. Kingbridge, announces that the month of April will be School Spirit Month, with a different activity planned for every day of the month to show your school spirit. This just seemed like a major stretch to me, Spirit Month? We did Homecoming Week in high school (don't remember doing anything except pep rallies in middle school), but a whole month just seems...contrived or something. But this is Stoneybrook, so we'll roll with it. A schedule of the Spirit activities is released, with things like Class Color Day, Clean Up Your School Day, Wear Your Pajamas to School Day, and other random nonsense.
So everything kicks off with a pep rally (again, a pep rally for baseball? Seriously?), and Dawn, who had felt somewhat indifferent to the idea of Spirit Month, actually gets somewhat excited, and I don't know, peppy. However, the next day is Class Color Day, which Dawn forgets about until after she's already dressed. Apparently the eighth grade color is yellow (not sure what SMS's mascot is, it may be mentioned in another book, we'll see...). MA actually goes overload on the yellow (see the cover shot for proof), however Dawn realizes that she doesn't really own anything yellow (ok, didn't find this believable, I'm pretty sure that she has been described in yellow before, seems a prime "California Casual" color, plus she has a stepsister, go raid MA's closet already). Dawn finally finds a pair of yellow socks, and races to school so she won't be late. As she is walking in, a local reporter is there interviewing students, and harasses Dawn for not wearing yellow. Dawn gets all short with her and shows the reporter her socks (again, see the cover), then storms into school. All day, she also gets heckled by fellow students for being the School Spirit Grinch, but at least she is not alone, our old friend Shawna Riverson also hates spirit too, and also gets teased.
That night, after the local news runs and the reporter snarks on Dawn for being a stick in the mud, Dawn decides to start a petition to cancel School Spirit Month. Mary Anne willingly signs it (even though her boyfriend is on the baseball team), because she is literally terrified of wearing pajamas to school (seriously, girl has a complex about that). After she gets to school, several other students sign as well, including Trevor Sandbourne, Emily Bernstein, Shawna, and Stacey, who is currently not a part of the BSC (I so have to read that book, the fight sounds awesome). However, Dawn's petition splits the school, as well as the BSC, in half. Kristy accuses Dawn of "not being happy unless she has a crusade to campaign for" (aww...snap!! That made me laugh). It turns out that Dawn, Mary Anne, and Mallory are against Spirit Month, while Kristy, Claudia, and Jessi are for it (Jessi kind of shocked me, didn't expect her to be Miss SMS here).
While the BSC is still somewhat civil to each other, SMS turns into an all-out Civil War. Dawn has a water balloon tossed at her, a rubber band shot at her face, and has her locker graffiti'd with "Go back to Cali, you weirdo." Both Dawn and Mary Anne have their lockers glued shut with some industrial glue as well. The anti-Spirits stage a sit-in in the SMS lunchroom during the last period of the day. That day, Claudia and several art students had painted murals around the school for "Mural Day" (I just can't, y'all...), and after the sit-in, several murals, including Claud's, get defaced. Dawn had already left when that happened, but Claudia blames Dawn for inciting the mayhem. After a food fight breaks out during lunch one day, the school has an open meeting about School Spirit Month, with the pro-Spirits sitting on one side, and the anti-Spirits on the other. And this is not civil, y'all, full on shouting matches ensue. A few days later, the school system hosts a town hall that parents are invited to as well, and it gets all Jerry Springer in the 'Brook.
Seriously, parents go crazy. After the fracas, the paper runs several letters to the editor, where each side claims that the other kids will overthrow the government for either being anarchists or conformist sheep. It's pretty entertaining. In light of the high tensions, SMS decides to cancel School Spirit Month. And hell freezes over in the 'Brook. Finally, Dawn has this grand epiphany and realizes that no one won this battle. She proposes that School Spirit Month be reinstated on a voluntary basis, with no heckling or harassment on either side. Apparently this was way too logical to begin with (Homecoming Week activities at my school were never mandatory, half the students didn't care enough to participate, and it was fine, we survived without major psychological trauma). Everyone is happy again, and SMS baseball defeats whatever the rival school's name was (yeah, I didn't write it down, and don't care enough to Google it.) The End.
Dawn, meet your soul sister, Jane Lane.
Fashion in the house!!
What Claudia wore: "Her long black hair was tucked into a wide-brimmed purple rain hat with colorful Native American designs painted on the brim. She wore a matching purple slicker with identical designs along the hem. Even her umbrella matched!"
Queen Elizabeth likes all purple in the rain, too, Claudia...
What Dawn wore, Class Color Day: jean jacket, blue jeans, and yellow socks (see cover)
What Mary Anne wore, Class Color Day: "Mary Anne was wearing a yellow sweatshirt dress, yellow stockings, and black flats." (Again, see cover)
And this is where Mary Anne goes full on Crazy Cat lady. For reals. Oh, you can't really tell on this cover image, but the cat dish has Tigger's name in quotation marks, and that bugged me even as a kid. It's like Tigger is her imaginary kitten or something.
So this one opens up with Mary Anne riding downtown with Dawn to go shopping for Tigger toys. She tells Dawn that all of her babysitting money is spent on toys for Tigger. Umm...my cats go crazy over the plastic rings off of milk jugs and twisty ties from my loaves of bread, stop wasting your money, MA. Plus, as they are speeding back to Bradford Court for the BSC meeting, Mary Anne has to stop by her house first to give Tiggs his new toys. I'm not sure Kristy would consider that an acceptable excuse to be late, but fortunately MA makes it just in time.
While we got out standard Chapter 2 intro to the BSC, we find out that this one falls during the Mr. Spier dating Mrs. Schafer period, and the Stacey living in NYC period, so Dawn is acting as treasurer. We also find out Jessi wears reading glasses, and I've never heard that mentioned before. It seems that at one time or another, AMM is making all of the members have reading glasses for one book. Oh, and MA thinks that Logan is "incredibly incredible" (excuse me while I make retching noises for a moment - I don't remember being one of those girls at 13, thank goodness). Anyway, Logan calls the BSC meeting needing a sitter for his sister and brother, however AMM writes it as "Ah need a sittuh." Sigh...you're killing me, Smalls!!!
Later that week, Mary Anne and Logan are having one of their "dates," consisting of them sitting on her front porch watching Tigger frolic in the yard. Logan is not allowed in the house when her dad is not there, and this is portrayed as one of Mr. Spier's super strict rules, but that actually seems like a reasonable rule for a 13 year old girl, even Kristy's mom thinks so. Logan is trying to talk about baseball practice, and Mary Anne keeps interrupting whenever "Bigger Tigger" (her nickname) does something cute, which is probably pretty often, because he is a kitten after all (I'm a crazy cat lady too...). Logan starts getting all huffy every time MA mentions the kitten, so basically, he acts like a 13 year old boy for once. Even my husband, who is contractually obligated to put up with me, gives me the look if I talk about the cats too much.
Logan leaves MA alone to revel in her kitten raptures, but eventually 5:30 rolls around and she has to go to the BSC meeting. MA starts to take Tiggs inside, but he gives her the sad kitten eyes, so she decides to leave him outside playing while she is across the street at Claudia's.
Honestly, this seemed out of character for Mary Anne, but I guess she wouldn't have to search for the feline if he was inside all the time. Wait, did I just spoil the plot? Sorry, y'all... Of course, when she gets back home, she calls for Tigger, but he never comes trotting home. She even shakes the cat food container outside, and he doesn't appear either (umm...my cats could be sound asleep upstairs in the master bedroom, but if I even nudge the food container, they are right behind me in about 5 seconds, so MA should know something is wrong at this point.) Once her dad gets home, she rushes at him all panicky, but he rationally says to give it time. MA goes to bed, leaving her window open of course, but no Tigger.
The next morning, with no furry arrivals on the doorstep, even Mr. Spier acts concerned, but tells MA to give it the rest of the day. Mary Anne goes off for her sitting job with Logan's sister and brother, Kerry and Hunter. Hunter has bad allergies, and like Abby, AMM uses that annoying "let's replace this character's 'n's with 'd's to signify he is stopped up" dialogue thing, which I hate. Do people really say "Oh doe!!" instead of "oh no!!" when they are congested? And wasn't there some version of Claritin or Zyrtec in the 90s? Ugh... Anyway, poor MA can't focus because she is worried about Tiggs, and when he is still not home after her job, she calls Kristy, who of course calls for an emergency meeting of the club. Because that will solve everything in Stoneybrook.
At the Missing Cat Summit, Special K decides that they should offer a reward for Tigger. Everyone digs in their pockets, plus raid the treasury as well, and come up with $30.00. Really? All the babysitting they do, plus the weekly dues, and the best they can do is $30.00? Pfftt. After the meeting, MA calls Logan to inform him of Tiggergate, and all he says is "Gee, that's too bad" and then starts talking about baseball again. Then, the next day, the BSC, a bunch of neighborhood kids, and Logan get together to search the neighborhood for Tigger, and when MA starts to get emotional, Logan asks her is she isn't overreacting a little. Yeah...not smart, Logan.
But wait, there's more of Mr. Jerky McJerkwad. Mary Anne gets a ransom note for Tigger, so another emergency meeting, naturally, which Logan actually attends. When MA starts crying during the meeting, Logan tells her to stop being so sensitive and acting like a girl. The other girls give him death glares while they comfort MA. However, Logan does redeem himself by coming up with a plan to catch the ransom note author, who turns out just to be a kid wanting to scam the reward money. Another dead end...
The next day, MA sits for Hunter Bruno again, and he ends up admitting that his sister found a kitten and is keeping it in her room. Mary Anne rushes in and finds Tigger asleep in a cardboard box in the closet. It turns out that Kerry found Tigger hanging out by a storm drain and thought he was abandoned, so she rescued him and tried to hide him from her parents (this was the cause for Hunter's allergy attacks as well). MA assumes that Logan knew about it and blows up at him when he comes home. He denies it, and confesses that he has been distracted lately because his coach has been all over him at baseball practice - there's no crying in baseball, Logan, man up. All is forgiven, and MA and Logan resume being the 'Brook's young teen romance du jour.
Oh, and completely unrelated to the plot, but has to mentioned - at some point Claudia is sitting for the Perkins' girls, and they are singing "Blue Suede Shoes" for her, and she mentions how she always thought the singer's name was Elbow Presley. Really, Claud? It kind of bothers me how stupid AMM would make Claudia look sometimes. That is all.
Fashion in the house!!
What Claudia wore: "Claudia mixes and matches the weirdest stuff and comes up with the coolest outfits. Like a loose blouse with a fake coat of arms on it worn over a short black skirt. Around her waist, a scarf. On her feet, short black boots. Dangling from her ears, dinosaurs. And her hair might be piled on top of her head and held in place with hairpins that look like seahorses." I totally want some dinosaur earrings now. Clarissa thinks dinosaurs are trendy, too.
Hey, Mary Anne, my "Tigger" likes to hide in grocery bags...
So, Claudia is totally holding Kirsten Dunst on this cover.
It was a dark and stormy night in Stoneybrook (because AMM loves using this cliche whenever there is a mystery in town...or out of town). Claudia has finished her 7th grade homework (that's right, we haven't hit the neverending 8th grade year yet) and is trying to decide if she should paint or read a Nancy Drew book. Ok, rant time, AMM always goes on about how Claudia's parents don't approve of her Nancy Drew addiction, but really? Mrs. Kishi is a librarian, and the Nancy Drew series is considered classic, why would she have a problem with that? I mean, it's not To Kill a Mockingbird, but it's also not the Sweet Valley High series or Flowers in the Attic or anything, so why is that an issue? Plus, considering how indifferent Claudia is about school, you think they would be happy with her interest in reading anything. Rant over.
Oh, and we get told again that Janine's IQ is 196. Why the crap is she still in high school? She already takes college courses for fun, so it would seem that by the time she graduates high school she would have accrued enough college credits to start as a junior or senior (umm...totally had a friend in college that did that, got enough AP credits in high school to start college as a junior. Way to make me feel like an underachiever...). Just find it hard to believe that Janine's teachers never pushed for her to at least skip a grade or something.
Anyway, before Claudia can make up her mind on what leisure activity to start, Stacey calls to gossip about the upcoming Halloween Hop. Claudia tells Stacey about her crush on classmate Trevor Sandbourne (that totally sounds like a soap opera name), a boy that writes poetry for the SMS newspaper, and Stacey is still crushing on Sam Thomas. They gossip a little bit about Kristy and Mary Anne, because they still aren't really close to them yet, still eat lunch with other friends and think K and MA dress like little girls (pre-Kristy tomboy phase, apparently). This struck me as more believable with the BSC friend dynamic, because it is a little hard to believe that 7 girls who are so different can be so close without some snark/gossip. Yes, I know some of the later books have some fights in them, just seemed a little too Leave it to Beaver-ish to have these girls always be so buddy-buddy.
After Girl Talk is over, Claudia flips on the radio and hears a news flash about the latest burglary by the Phantom Phone Caller in a neighboring town. Apparently the Phantom Phone Caller will call a home and hang up if someone answers, just waiting for the homeowners to leave. As soon as he doesn't get an answer when he calls, he will break in and steal valuable jewelry. Claudia remembers that she had some hang ups when she sat for the Marshalls a few days ago and shivers, but then remembers that the PPC has never hit Stoneybrook, and feels better. However, a few days later, Claudia's next door neighbors, the Goldmans, are buglarized, and Mrs. Goldman mentions having a few hang ups earlier in the day. Let the panic begin...
At the next BSC meeting, the girls (Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey) get on the subject of the PPC, and how they can protect themselves on the off chance he tries to hit a home while they are there. They come up with an elaborate telephone code so that if they think there is a burglar in the house, they can call one of the other girls to let them know there is trouble without alerting the thief (and all I could think about here was that urban legend where the pyscho is calling the babysitter from inside the house, and we know how that ends...) The code is something along the lines of "Have you seen my red ribbon?" Kristy makes them practice this for a whole meeting so that they will have it down pat. They also devise some homemade burglar alarms that can be used, like stacking pots and pans by the front door and such, and the girls feel reassured that they will be ok if something happens. Plus, Kristy decides to take the club record book to school so that the girls can memorize where everyone is babysitting that day just in case something should happen.
Claudia sits for the Marshalls again, and gets a couple more hang up phone calls. She gets all freaked out, about jumps out of her skin when someone starts jiggling the garage door, but it turns out to be the Marshalls coming home. Plus, when Kristy is babysitting for Karen and Andrew (this is before Watson and her mom are married), she gets a few hang up calls too. Mary Anne gets so freaked out by this, that the next time she is sitting for David Michael, she decides to rig up some of the Home Alone style alarms, even though she hasn't gotten a call. She stacks canned goods up by the front door, pots and pans by the garage door, and rigs some redonkulous broomstick/tape deck contraption at the back door. She freaks out when the stereo starts blaring loud music, but it turns out Louie switched it on when he came through the dog door. Then she hears a loud crash, but it's just the Thomases coming home. Even though Kristy acted kind of like a baby when she was getting phone calls, she laughs at Mary Anne's burglar alarms (that's a great friend).
A few days later, Kristy and Claudia have a joint sitting job for Jamie Newton and some of his cousins, and the phone starts ringing. Then they hear something outside one of the windows, so Claudia calls the police. They show up, and catch Alan Gray, the resident prankster, lurking outside. Alan confesses to calling whatever home Kristy is at (which he knows because she brought the club notebook to school) because he wanted to ask her to the Halloween Hop. Surprisingly, Kristy immediately accepts, telling Claudia later that she was just excited that a boy liked her. Kristy, this can't have been that much of a shock, as much as Alan Gray has tormented you in the past, you had to know that he secretly liked you, that is middle school crush 101. After Claudia gets home, Trevor Sandbourne calls and asks her to the Hop, and admits that he had been calling her to try to get up the nerve to ask her out as well. He said that his buddy Alan Gray has been feeding him Claudia's babysitting schedule (umm...not sure if I can see Alan Gray being friends with someone who writes poetry, just sayin'...).
Oh, and the police catch the actual PPC a few days later, and Stoneybrook is safe again. Hooray. Janine tells to Claudia that she admired how brave Claudia was and how well she handled to situation at the Newton house. Plus, she admits to Claudia that she hides candy all over her room, too. Which, just seemed completely out of character for Janine, and I don't think that ever gets mentioned again. Nice to know that Janine is not some weird robot/Stepford child at least.
Fashion!!!
What Claudia Wore: "Today, for instance, I'm wearing purple pants that stop just below my knees and are held up with suspenders, white tights with clocks on them, a purple plaid shirt with a matching hat, my high-top sneakers, and lobster earrings."
I really hope these were her high-tops, that would be epic.
Claudia, take two: "I straightened my bow tie with the little Scottie dogs on it and patted my hair to see if any damage had been done. My hair is long, and I can do lots of things with it. That day I had fixed it in five slim braids and looped each one up on my head, holding them in place with beaded barrettes that had sparkly streamers attached to them."
Claudia and Stacey, dance outfits: baggy jeans and bulky sweaters
Kristy, dance outfit: red plaid jumper and red turtleneck
So, the only thing about this book I remember is some reference to Laine looking 18 or 19, but Claudia only looking 15, so I was interested to see what context this comparison came from.
Stacey is living in New York, pre-divorce, and her apartment building is having some big meeting about the homeless in the neighborhood, and all the parents are asking Stacey to babysit. She has the brilliant idea to invite the older BSC girls up for the weekend to help babysit plus visit the city. It turns out that SMS is conveniently out of school that Friday, so they can have an extended visit. Stacey is all excited, she plans to have a party at her place Friday night for her NYC friends to meet the 'Brookies. Stacey's parents give her permission to miss school on Friday to see her friends (yeah, pretty sure my parents would not have gone for that...).
Stacey meets the BSC at Grand Central Station, and they decide to go grab lunch out somewhere before the party that night. However, they have to drop off the luggage at Stacey's apartment beforehand, because apparently Claudia packed a full trunk for the weekend (Stacey acts all baffled by this, like she never overpacks or anything). Dawn acts all terrified of everything in the city, the taxis, the elevators, the potential muggings. This strikes me as out of character for Dawn, who is always portrayed as Miss Independent. However, she calms down when they get to the Hard Rock Cafe (I'm pretty sure that I thought the Hard Rock Cafe was the epitome of cool at 13, too). Dawn spots a "Save the Planet!" sign by their table and makes a joke about how 60's hippie that seems (apparently, she hadn't become an eco-nazi herself yet.) Stacey gets all embarrassed when Kristy orders filet mignon, because she pronounces it "fill-ut mig-nun." She gets further embarrassed when Mary Anne starts pulling out all of these tourist brochures for NYC at the table. She gets over herself, though, and the girls go to Bloomingdales after lunch (where MA manages to almost shoplift some makeup, good times.)
They get back to Stacey's apartment in one piece, and start getting ready for the party that night. Mary Anne makes this huge deal about having Stacey approve everyone's outfit, but doesn't wear what Stacey chooses for her, rather wears her own new outfit instead (which, of course, embarrasses Miss NYC as well.) Laine arrives about an hour before the party to help set up, and the claws come out. Claudia and Laine start trading barbs about who is Stace's actual best friend. Dawn gets mad at Mary Anne when she overhears MA telling the NYC kids how Dawn is terrified of the city. Kristy starts dancing with Cody, one of NYC boys, and then Claudia cuts in, so Kristy gets mad at Claudia. After the party, Laine decides to go home (to the Dakota, of course) instead of sleep over with the BSC girls.
The atmosphere is still frosty when the girls wake up on Saturday, however the put aside their differences since they have to collectively babysit 10 kids today. All the kids are dropped off at Stacey's apartment, and they decide to take the kids to the Museum of Natural History, then to the Children's Zoo at Central Park. They temporarily lose a kid at the museum, but quickly find him before any harm is done. The girls relax after that, and then go to Central Park, where they see an old guy with a long white beard riding a giant tricycle and towing a red wagon with 3 white Persian cats in it. That is too crazy not to be true, AMM. Stacey laughs, and Claudia says that is the first time Stacey has acted somewhat excited since they got there, that she acts all like a jaded snob who has seen it all before. She apologizes, and the BSC make up. Aww...
When they get back to the apartment, Laine, who acts like the bigger person, invites the whole group to a Broadway show. Apparently her dad is a big Broadway producer, and she got them all house seats to a show, plus they get to use her family's limousine (funny note: Mary Anne explains to Logan what a limo is in her postcard back home, umm...we have limos in the South, MA, not just pickup trucks and tractors). Stacey decides to act like a tourist that night so that she can have as much fun as the BSC. When the show is over, Claudia and Laine make up and even exchange addresses so they can be pen pals. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
Party Clothes!!
Kristy - a white turtleneck with a little red and blue hearts all over it, a red sweater, jeans, and sneakers. (Not sure if I can picture Kristy with wearing a shirt with hearts on it)
Claudia - a sleek black outfit covered with silver stars and sparkles, her hair simple for once, brushed back from her face and held in place by a white beaded headband. Stacey thought Claudia looked at least 15 years old in this outfit.
Dawn - an oversized peach-colored sweater dress, lacy white stockings, and black ballet slippers (I like this except for the color of the dress, peach, yikes)
Stacey - a short, short yellow dress that flared out just above her hips, white stockings, yellow push down socks, and these new shoes that her parents hated
Mary Anne - what Stacey calls "Little House on the Prairie," ruffly white blouse, long paisley skirt, and these little brown boots
Mary Anne was ahead of the boho trend.
Laine - a short black dress, black stockings, and simple black flats. On one wrist was a single silver bracelet, on her dress was on of those silver squiggle pins. Even though this outfit seems remarkably similar to Claudia's, Stacey thinks that Laine looks at least 19. Umm...no sweetie, 13 year old Laine doesn't look 19.
My first official Abby book!! I've actually grown to like Abby in the books that I've read with her so far, she has an oddball/pun-tastic sense of humor that I can appreciate. Hey, someone has to have a sense of humor in the BSC. Abby's cover outfit looks totally like Mrs. Claus, by the way, kind of awesome.
So this book is mainly Abby's introduction, with background info and personality reveals, with just a little bit of outside plot thrown in the mix. So let's meet Abby Stevenson, shall we? Abby is twelve years old, she is in 8th grade, just hasn't had her birthday yet, that is featured in a later book, I believe. She describes herself as outgoing, outspoken, and athletic, which almost seems like another Kristy, but she manages to speak her mind without coming across as bossy, which is refreshing. Plus, unlike Kristy, when Abby says "athletic," she means it literally, because she is on the SMS soccer team, even though she has asthma and suffers from severe allergies. And as mentioned above, she has a pretty good sense of humor, combination snarky/goofy.
Ab Fab has a twin sister named Anna, who was also invited to join the BSC after Dawn moved back to Cali (apparently this happened at the end of the previous book, which I haven't read yet, because what's the fun of reading in order?). However, Anna turned down the BSC invite, because she wanted to have enough time for her violin lessons, and apparently her "sorry, not sorry" shocked the BSC, because who would turn down the chance to join the Stoneybrook Mafia? I wonder if Anna would still be allowed to eat lunch at the BSC table... The Stevenson family (Abby, Anna, and Mrs. Stevenson, dad died in a car accident when they were 9) moved to the 'Brook from Long Island, and live in Kristy's neighborhood. Mamma S works in NYC and takes to train every day there and back (which just baffles me, why would they move that far away from her job, that's a two hour commute one way - and I thought my 40 minute bus ride to work was bad, sheesh...). Basically, Mrs. S is rarely home, plus Anna is wrapped up in music and Abby in sports, so the family isn't particularly close at this time. Oh, and they are Jewish, which I guess was AMM's way of adding another element of diversity to the BSC.
So, in BSC land, Abby goes to her first meeting, and feels very much like an outsider. She describes the BSC as three sets of best friends (Kristy-Mary Anne, Claudia-Stacey, and Jessi-Mallory), and she knows that even Dawn was BFFs with MA as well, so that makes her feel a little lonely. I never really gave that any thought, how hard it would be for a new person to try to join that group, but I give Abby credit, she seemed to hold her own. Dawn calls during a meeting at some point, and she talks to Abby for awhile, which made Abby feel like she was finally a part of the club. However, she still refers to Kristy, in her own internal monologue, as "the supposed Queen of Great Ideas." Love the snark, Ab Fab, and love that you aren't intimidated by Kristy.
Anyway, Abs takes a sitting job for the Papadikas kids, but has a severe asthma attack while there. Linny, the oldest, runs inside to call an ambulance, and Hannie runs across the street to Kristy's house. Kristy comes over to finish the sitting job while Abby goes to the ER. She recovers just fine, but the next time Kristy sees her, she grills Abby about her condition, and even though Abby assures her that attacks that severe are rare, Special K still questions if Abby can handle babysitting with her asthma (she seemed much more accepting of Stacey's diabetes...). The next several meetings, Kristy assigns jobs to other sitters, even giving some to the associate members over Abby. Ab Fab gets pissed off, but then all of a sudden Kristy apparently decides that Abby has passed whatever mental game K was throwing at her, and starts giving her jobs again, without giving an explanation.
And in the other subplot, SMS is talking about cutting the music and art programs, so the community bands together to throw a carnival to raise money. Of course, the BSC has a booth, the BSC charges have booths, and each BSC family has a booth, and enough money ends up getting raised. Abby's mom even promises to catch an early train home to help volunteer, but when Abby is at the carnival, word starts to spread that the train from New York has derailed. They try calling Mrs. Stevenson's cellphone (this is the early days of cellphones, wonder if she had a Zack Morris phone), but can't get any response. Finally, Abby and Anna catch a ride to the train station, but still can't find out any news. At last, a train pulls in, and Mrs. Stevenson gets off. It turns out that the train right before hers derailed, and they were stuck behind the wreck, and she had left her cellphone at work. They have a heart to heart, and even talk about their dad, and all is well in the Stevenson household again. So much feels...
BSC Fashion presents...nothing. Not one single outfit description. In the words of Regina George, "Boo, you whore." So since Abby represented the Claus look on the cover, here is the best I can do:
The little boy's sweatpants on the cover look like those crazy pants Justin Bieber has been sporting lately.
Am I right? By the way, if you need a laugh, google Justin Bieber fashion images, pretty entertaining.
So this is one of the Jessi ballet-centric books. I must confess, I think I learned how to pronounce most ballet terms from the Jessi books (I only took one year of ballet when I was four, with Mrs. Trotter, so I think that was a little too young to know how to pronouce arabesque and jete). Plus, this book is one of the "special episodes" of the BSC series, in which AMM addresses a touchy topic (like she did with Stacey and divorce).
So, one day, at the end of ballet class, Madame Noelle announces, in her exaggerated French accent (I get the feeling that AMM knows as much about French accents as she does about Southern accents), that the school will be hosting a six week ballet class for less privileged urban kids (Lebowski's Urban Achievers!!) and that they will be needing students to volunteer to help teach the class. Jessi immediately volunteers, as does another student in her class named Mary Bramstedt (Jessi has this total mean girl thought when Mary volunteers: "She dances like a robot." That was way harsh, Tai).
Anyway, after class that day, all the girls are in the locker room, and Mary starts complaining about how her jumps are too low. Another girl in the class, Mindy, suggests that Mary lose weight so that her jumps will be higher. Jessi is confused by this, because she thinks Mary is too skinny as it is, but thinks it's crap advice anyway, because the only way to jump higher is to practice, so she doesn't really give it too much thought.
In our Who's Who of the BSC, Jessi talks about her BFF Mallory and how great of a writer she is, that she even won a prize on Young Author's Day. She then gives her description of Mal (*cough*red hair, brown eyes*cough), and explains how Mallory doesn't think that she is pretty. Jessi then says that after you know Mal awhile, she starts to look pretty. Really? That's like describing how someone looks by saying "she has a good personality." And yes, I know that people's personalities can make them seem more attractive, just seemed out of place to see Jessi say that about Mallory. Plus, she mentions that Mallory regularly attends archery club meetings. Umm...what? We'll see if Katniss Pike is ever mentioned again...
So, rehearsal begins for the Lebowski Urban Achievers' dance program, and several other teenage ballet students from other classes are helping as well. Jessi feels all important when the other teenagers invite her to go to Burger King with them after class (would 15 and 16 year olds invite an 11 year old to eat with them? I'm thinking not...) While there, Mary agonizes over what to order, doesn't want to get a salad because the dressing is loaded with fat (umm...dressing comes in packets on the side, Mary...), ends up ordering a small fry and a Coke. Jessi notices that she is only breaking the fries into little pieces and moving them around on her tray, not eating them. Jessi starts to say something, but Mr. Ramsey walks in and she gets all embarrassed that everyone sees her leaving with her dad like a little kid (Jessi, you are a little kid, relax), so she forgets about Mary for the time being.
Meanwhile, in BSC land, Shannon has cut back on her school activities and wants to hang out with Kristy more. However, Special K is crazy busy with softball and babysitting, and suggests that the other BSC members hang out with Shannon instead. Stacey, Claudia, Dawn, and Mary Anne start meeting Shannon at the mall, going to movies, and whatever else 13 year old girls do for fun. Kristy starts to get upset the more they hang out with Shannon, gets all testy with Shannon and the BSCers, and finally they realize that Kristy is afraid that she is getting replaced by Shannon in the group. Relax, sweetie, this did not start with "Shannon's Great Idea," so I'm sure this will work out in the end.
Back in Step Up!: Stoneybrook, Jessi gets more concerned about her classmate. Mary has lost several pounds, plus she has bouts of dizziness and even faints several times during rehearsals. Jessi writes Quint, her New York boy toy, for advice, plus brings it up at a BSC meeting (heaven forbid we speak to a responsible adult about this instead...). Stacey suggests that Mary may suffer from anorexia (remember when the BSC thought Stacy was anorexic?) The BSC members use some of Janine's psychology textbooks (because she is conveniently taking a psychology course that semester in her for-fun college courses...) to look up eating disorders, and Jessi decides to confront Mary at their next class. Of course, Mary doesn't react well to this accusation, gets defensive, and says she doesn't need advice from "a kid." And this is why we go to adults in these situations, Jessi. Finally, Jessi speaks to Madame Noelle, and Mary gets the help she needs, getting treatment from a doctor, a pyschologist, plus family counseling with her parents. Every after school special must have a happy ending, right?
Oh, and Daddy Watson Warbucks donates two scholarships to the dance school so that two of the Lebowksi Urban Achievers can continue to study ballet.
At the end of the book, AMM writes a letter to the readers about healthy weight, dieting, and body image. She mentions that she has received thousands of letters from readers about getting diet advice, which struck me as, well, odd. I get that many of her readers will be suffering from body image issues, I remember that age well, but just that thousands of readers actually wrote AMM about the topic? I don't think it ever occurred to me to actually write a letter to a celebrity, and if it did, it would be to ask Joey McIntyre to marry me, not asking about diet advice. I mean, regardless, good for AMM for addressing the topic, even if it came across as something fairly easy to fix in this story.
Let's get some fashion to cheer things back up in here:
What Claudia wore: "For example, today she was wearing a neon green tank top under a white oversized man's shirt and fuschia pink stirrup pants. The shirt was rolled at the sleeves and belted with a colorful woven belt. Claudia finished the outfit with dangly ceramic-bead earrings she'd made herself in pottery class." The color combo is very Katy Perry. Also, stirrup pants, wow, that brings back bad memories from elementary school. Not one of the 80s finest fashion moments...
Does anyone else picture this as an ABC Family original movie around Halloween? They need to jump on that one, pronto.
Oh, and Mallory and Stacey look weird on this cover. Like the illustrator never looked at any other BSC book before drawing the characters. Abby and Mary Anne look the same though. Weird. I have found out that the more books I read with Abby, the more I like her, she has a sense of humor, somewhat sarcastic/goofball, which isn't found elsewhere in the BSC.
Time Warp alert!! We are now celebrating Halloween in Stoneybrook, Halloween of the 8th grade year, and remember Dawn still lived in Stoneybrook that December and attended the Winter Wonderland Dance, but now we are back at Halloween, with Dawn living in Cali and Abby as a member of the BSC. You're making my head spin, AMM.
So SMS is taking another one of its fantastical field trips, this time to Salem, Mass, to research the history of the Salem Witch Trials (confession, I would have loved that trip in school, way to disappoint me again, TMS.) Students of all grades are attending, and they have to complete some type of research project about Salem while on the trip. Stacey's project is on the early economic history of Salem (yawn...). Anyway, Kristy, Abby, Stacey, Mary Anne, and Mallory are going - Claudia's parents won't let her go due to her bad grades, Logan has a football game, and Jessi is performing in Stoneybrook University's Halloween Dance performance. I'm imagining this:
Kristy gets all freaked out before they leave that there will be some babysitting crisis in the 'Brook over these four days and that Claudia, Logan, Shannon, and Jessi won't be able to handle it. Kristy makes them write down the number of the hotel in case they need to call her for, I don't know, a great idea or something. Special K is going to be a brutal micromanager whenever she migrates into the adult work force. Oh, and at this meeting, it is mentioned that Mallory carries a briefcase instead of a backpack. What the...? Isn't a sixth grader carrying around a briefcase at school just asking to be picked on? Why, AMM, why? And Mary Anne, in one of her chapters, says that Claudia's creativity is reflected in her spelling. MA, just say "Bless her heart," it sounds sweeter.
So, the SMS kids arrive at their hotel, the Salem Gables Inn, and Mallory immediately spots one of her favorite mystery authors (of course it's a mystery author...), Martha Kempner, who is conveniently staying at the hotel, too. Mal goes super fangirl, but suprisingly, Martha does not freak out or get a restraining order or anything, rather talks to Mallory about her new project, a mystery novel based on the Witch's Eye, a famous (and supposedly cursed) yellow egg-sized diamond on display at the local museum. I'm sure this won't be important to the story at all...
The next morning, the students break into groups to begin the first set of tours around Salem. Stacey and Mary Anne join the tour of the Trove House Museum, where the Witch's Eye is on display. While there, alarms go off, security guards and police converge, and chaos reigns. The Witch's Eye has been stolen. Stacey somehow wanders into the crime scene unnoticed, and finds a scrap of paper with a series of numbers written on it. She somehow manages to memorize the numbers because she's good at math (!?!), and then gives the slip of paper to the police. Meanwhile, Mary Anne and Abby discover a black wig, sunglasses, and a crumpled security guard uniform hidden in the bushes outside the inn. They go inside to report this to the front desk, and while they are waiting for the police, Abby goes into the gift shop, where she runs into Martha Kempner. Abby decides to buy an orange ceramic pumpkin, however there is no price tag, and the clerk doesn't recognize it (this isn't fishy at all, y'all...). Abby gives the clerk $2 for the pumpkin, and decides to name it Cornucopia and call it her pet.
Kristy immediately calls an emergency meeting of the Babysitters Club so that they can discuss the mystery the potential suspects (and Abby snarkily refers to K as "Agatha Kristy" - I like this girl):
Agatha Moorehouse - the rich old lady in a wheelchair who owns the diamond? Was she lying about not having insurance on the stone?
Harvey Hapgood - the man who attempted to buy the diamond from Mrs. Moorehouse before the theft, and who Stacey thinks is suspicious because he wore tennis shoes with his suit?
Martha Kempner - the author writing a novel based on the stone, wanting some publicity for her book, and was conveniently in the hotel gift shop steps away from where the disguise was located?
Sean Knowles - a guy who hid behind his newspaper at breakfast watching Mrs. Moorehouse, and who was at the museum at the time of the theft?
While they mull over the suspects, they continue to do tours of Salem, and attend the Halloween parade downtown. While there, someone dressed as a ghost steals Abby's "waist pack" in the midst of the crowd (hee, hee, Abby has a fanny pack.) When they get back to the hotel, Abby discovers that the room she shares with Stacey has been ransacked (the room key was in the fanny pack.) However, nothing was stolen (Stacey was frantic about her jewelry - would someone be that interested in a 13 year old girl's stash from Claire's?)
Mallory phones the 'Brook so that Jessi can send the mystery notebook up to Salem (there is this convoluted story where some teachers were coming to Salem a day or two later, really probable.) They run into Martha Kempner downstairs, and she tells the girls the history of the "curse" around the diamond and then offers to buy Abby's pumpkin, which is now on a keychain attached to her belt loop (again, not fishy at all, AMM). After they get the mystery notebook, they write down the history of the diamond and everything they have observed so far, and Stacey realizes that the numbers she found are the combo to one of the hotel room safes. And then the lights go out...
A bad storm hits, knocking out power to the inn, and the teachers hand out candles to the students (ummm...). The girls decide that since the hotel rooms are opened electronically, they can just walk into the rooms of the suspects and check to hotel safes (haven't these girls watched America's Most Wanted, or any Lifetime Original Movie - that is not a good idea.) They discover that the combo open's Martha Kempner's safe (alas, it is empty), and while in her room, Stacey declares that stiletto heels are "a bigger fashion bomb" than sneakers - oh, sweetie, wait about 5 years until you discover Sex & the City, then all your babysitting money will be going towards Mahnolos and Louboutins.
Once they leave her room, they realize that are being followed by a shadowy figure, and wander into a wing of the hotel under renovation. Abby gets into a physical altercation with Harvey Hapgood, and Martha Kempner shows up and tries to snatch her pumpkin pet, which had the diamond hidden inside. Yep, it was Harvey and Martha, in the east wing, with the pumpkin. Abby uses her soccer slide tackle to take them both out (that's realistic) and then the police show up and everyone is safe. It turns out that Sean Knowles was an insurance investigator working with the police to protect the diamond.
Oh, and subplot, Kristy got into a prank war with Alan Gray and Cary Retlin, with Kristy and Alan teaming up to get revenge on Cary. Plus, Cokie Mason and her henchmen bully the sixth grade girl named Eileen rooming with Mallory, but then the BSC stands up to Cokie, accusing her of being just like the witch hunters in Salem. Somehow that makes Cokie back off, which is not really believable, in my opinion. Oh, and the BSC members stuck in Stoneybrook throw a Halloween parade for the kids (yeah, if only 4 out of a possible 9 babysitters are available to chaperone, I would totally let my kids march down the street in costume...).
Halloween Costumes:
Kristy - Sherlock Bones, wearing her signature collie cap, necklace of dog biscuits, and carrying a magnifying glass
Mary Anne - dressed as Tigger. I swear she dresses up as a cat every time Halloween rolls around in 8th grade
Stacey - Mother Time, wearing all black, with her face painted like a white clock (sounds like one of those last minute, "oh, crap, this is a costume party" looks)
Abby - Women's World Cup, with her soccer jersey, a plastic gold cup on one shoulder, and an inflatable globe on the other shoulder (actually pretty clever)
Mallory - Pumpkin Patch, with an orange sweatshirt, paper pumpkins pinned all over it with green yarn or something, and Abby's pet ceramic pumpkin attached to her waist
Fashion!!
What Claudia wore: "Last year, it was Doc Martens with pumpkin stickers, a hand-batiked shirt in orange and black, plus one orange sock and one black sock."
What Stacey wore: "Stacey had gone for almost total black: black jeans, black boots, black turtleneck, silver cropped top over that, black boots with silver side buttons, and silver X earrings." Umm...why is Stacey wearing 2 pairs of boots?
What Eileen wore: "She was wearing a huge purple dress, a puffy orange windbreaker, and these really clunky shoes. Her hair stuck out in spikes beneath a wool hat that had a pattern of white snowflakes on a red background. She was fashion challenged." This description came courtesy of Stacey - if Claudia had worn this outfit, Stacey would think it was "genius" and "dibbly fresh."
Rihanna thinks mixing purple, orange, and red is ok, Stacey, live a little.
