Welcome Home, Mary Anne

The Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever #11

by Ann M. Martin

Mary Anne Spier's stepsister, Dawn, arrives for a visit, bringing along a friend, Sunny, who is trying to cope with her mother's death, a situation Mary Anne had once been through herself.

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Fiction, Collections, Friendship, Contemporary

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2000

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh lord I didn't expect to cry, or to feel gut punched at points but what a wild roller coaster of a book this was on my emotions. The new house is finally done and Mary Anne and family are moving in. Their moving day is also my birthday so cool. But also why haven't they graduated yet? My birthday was always either the last day of school or close to it. Small nitpick. Despite having some trouble getting used to the house which is described as bright and airy, Mary Anne feels like it's a bit more homey than the rented house at least. Dawn and Jeff arrive from California with Sunny in tow. I have just started reading California Diaries so I knew her mom was sick, but she seemed to be getting better in book one. Well apparently she got worse as she's now dead. Sunny in a move typical to people in mourning is almost manac. Keep busy and you won't think about it. I remember that phase of grief, it's why I went back to work too soon and nearly destroyed my mental health. Jeff is also moody, but it's because of all the changes at home. The Pike kids manage to turn his mood around and help him set up his room. Sunny meanwhile is running Dawn and Mary Anne ragged, going to the pool, mall, museum and a triple date to the movies with three guys she later labels as losers. She then convinces them to go to New York for a day without telling their parents, which results in a huge fight. Strangely enough they never get caught for this trip which is a first. The fight brings out the hidden, or rather buried grief in Sunny and she and Mary Anne talk about what it's like to be motherless and I bawled like a damn baby. I was much older than Sunny when my mom died, but I related so much to this. I see so many people rolling their eyes at things their moms say and do and would do anything to be able to do that again. I can't imagine being that young and watching my mom waste away from cancer. I was about the same age as the girls when my maternal grandmother died of cancer and have a few vivid memories of that time, some funny, but a few not pleasant including the heartbreak of my own mother. While others might be annoyed by Sunny I'd say they should consider themselves lucky they probably haven't known the deep dark grief that comes with losing a parent and with the immaturity of being a teen thrown in this was fairly well done. In fact to me the whole book was about grieving. Sunny for her mom, Jeff and Dawn over a beloved home, Mary Anne over the house and to a lesser extent the loss of her own mother or just the fact that she never got to know her. There's the usual insensitivity that comes along, people saying dumb things without thinking like Mary Anne's comment about skin cancer at the pool, I'm sure we've all said things we regret as soon as it's out of our mouths. This was a very touching book and so far the third time the BSC has made me cry, the other times being Louie and Mimi's deaths.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a huge California Diaries fan, so I always loved this book because Sunny has such a huge role in it. However, THIS Sunny bears almost no resemblance to the wild and depressed Sunny, and she's downright manic in some parts of this book. Since we never had another CD book narrated by Sunny after her mom died, it's not clear if she really was trying to stay busy so she wouldn't cry, or if she was just messing with Mary Anne. I guess we'll never know.

I'm still surprised that Mary Anne, Dawn and Sunny never got caught running off to New York. I can't think of any other BSC book where the girls get away with anything, usually because they end up confessing on their own. It's more realistic this way, of course, but it's just not the BSC and seems so strange to me.

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book.

in this last ever mary anne book (hallelujah!) by ghostwriter Ellen Miles, mary anne’s family’s new house is finally ready. as you may recall from Everything Changes, they were renovating the barn into a new house after their old house burned down in The Fire at Mary Anne's House. the new barnhouse is great (see highlights for a couple decorative touches that I enjoyed), but mary anne just can’t feel comfortable in it in spite of her new room being her favorite color scheme (yellow and blue - we know yellow and navy is her favorite color combo from Mary Anne Saves the Day). dawn and jeff come for the summer, and they bring sunny winslow, who we mostly know from the california diaries series, though she’s made occasional bsc appearances in Dawn on the Coast, Dawn and the We Love Kids Club, California Girls!, and a handful of others. her mom recently died of cancer (see Sunny: Diary 3) so she wants to get away across the country for a bit. at first, mary anne is jealous of dawn and sunny’s closeness; they’ve known each other since they were young (see Dawn's Book for their introduction) and have a way of communicating that mary anne doesn’t get. but eventually, she starts to realize that dawn is exasperated by sunny’s insistence on doing things all the time. she is high energy, living the shark life (keep moving forward - if you stop you’ll die). she tries to get mary anne a boyfriend, forces mary anne and dawn into home improvement projects, and even one day manipulates them into sneaking away to nyc for the day. after dawn says it’s time to go home and sunny tries to guilt her into staying in nyc for longer, dawn snaps at her. she calls her selfish and says she gets her way all the time ever since her mom died. that’s the breaking point, at which point sunny seems to realize she’s been running away from her problems and decides to go back to california, but not before bonding with mary anne over what it’s like to not have a mother. meanwhile, jeff is having trouble adjusting to the new house so the pike triplets help him make his new bedroom more his style (lots of action figures everywhere and such).

highlights:
-their new house sounds great. the main floor is open concept (the only room on that floor with walls is the bathroom). they have curtains in the dining room that are gossamer and have small pockets in rows that can hold little items including dried flowers, leaves, etc. they plan to add new things each season. the living room sounds very jewel-tone-y and lovely, with a purple and scarlet rug.
-jeff says something about liking connecticut in summer "when my friends are on vacation and we can fool around all day." because he and byron are into fooling around with each other. I’m just saying. ;)
-this mary anne quote: 'I love my dad, but I have to say it can be downright embarrassing to see him mouthing words to some "groovy" tune.'
-mary anne admits that seitan sometimes tastes good. I call this a win for vegetarians everywhere!
-after seeing a mom wearing all black pushing a stroller with a baby wearing all black, mary anne notes "new yorkers like black." lol
-mary anne is blown away by seeing a guy wearing an off-the-shoulder sequined pink prom gown. she’s so precious.
-the parents never find out that mary anne, dawn, and sunny snuck away to nyc for the day. which is surprising; I feel like usually in these books when they have an opportunity to have a kid get busted and learn a lesson, they take it. it’s refreshing to have them be slightly bad and get away with it.
-speaking as someone who, like mary anne, grew up without a mother, I do think this is at least sort of accurate: "there's always this thing you come back to, this piece that's missing. this piece that almost everyone else seems to have and take for granted." I always felt like it was a given that everyone had a mom and felt like I was some kind of freak for not having one. nicely done, ellen miles!

lowlights/nitpicks:
-this book takes place in late june, so why haven’t they graduated from middle school yet? Graduation Day was released in december, after the summer friends forever books, which confuses the whole schedule.
-there’s a part where mary anne remembers things she lost in the fire, and one is a green velvet scrunchie. all I can think is how this is just a couple years before carrie made fun of berger for the scrunchie, and that plotline worked in satc because nobody wore scrunchies then. they came back around 2010, but from 1995-2009 or so they were a fashion no-no.
-was the barn really big enough to build such a big house? they have four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. that seems huge for a converted barn.
-sunny tries to get ma to take off her hat to show how pretty her hair is, and mary anne says "haven't you ever heard of skin cancer?" to a girl whose mom just died of cancer. woof.
-cole, a 9th grader sunny is trying to get mary anne to date, after being asked, "what's up?" replies "the sun." and we’re supposed to think he’s cool. shyeah, okay.
-sunny says to mary anne "your room could use a little more personality." and it's like, well yeah, but so could mary anne.
-to make sunny feel bad about making fun of someone’s appearance, dawn says, "what would ducky think if he heard you talking like that?" ducky hears her talking like that a lot and is still friends with her. also, is dawn mentioning this because we’re supposed to buy into the sunny x ducky ship that they tried to push in california diaries even though ducky is basically screaming throughout that series that he’s gay?
-in nyc they see "hip-hop guys in backward baseball caps and huge baggy jeans" and I’m genuinely not sure if this is ellen miles being square or her writing mary anne’s mindset accurately.
-mary anne finally feels at home in her new house as she listens to the sounds of it settling...and they don’t acknowledge that it might actually be the sounds of ghosts because we know there was a ghost in the secret passage between the barn and the house so why would the ghost not be in the barn?

outfits
mary anne:
-"Khakis and a white shirt."

dawn:
-"Long skirt, tank top."

sunny:
-"Sunny joined us then, wearing my [denim] skirt paired with a white baby-T."

gross things kristy says the pikes are having for dinner:
-spawned frogs
-monkey-brain pie
-booger pudding

no snacks in claudia’s room.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

in the final BSC regular series book, mary anne's house burnt down in a fire. her parents decide to re-construct the barn as a house & have spent the entire "friends forever" series working on this project, & now the house is finally done & everyone moves in, just in time for dawn & jeff (mary anne's stepmother's kids form her previous marriage) to come visit for the summer. dawn is bringing along her friend sunny, whose mom just died of lung cancer (as chronicled in the "california diaries" series).

the whole book is all about how sunny is a big ball of energy who just wants to hang out & have fun all the time, & how she exhausts everyone with her zany projects. she wants to go to the town pool everyday & flirts with dudes in an effort to find a replacement boyfriend for mary anne, since mary anne has split up with her long-time boyfriend, logan. she drinks fruit smoothies for breakfast & always wants to hit the mall & even go to museums & stuff. she even talks mary anne & dawn into sneaking out of the house & taking the train to new york city for the day, without permission for richard & sharon (the parents). that was a little shocking to me. i didn't really go to new york city for the first time until i was 24, & i was freaked out a little bit even then. i guess these kids are made of sterner stuff...as evidenced by the fact they haven't lost their minds yet, after being in middle school for eighteen years straight. magically, they get away with the new york sojourn, but it forces mary anne to realize that this is sunny's way of acting out in the wake of her mother's death. she wants to run around & be crazy all the time so she can constantly be distracted from having to think about her mother dying. once mary anne realizes this, she has a heart-to-heart with sunny, & sunny cries it out, & then packs her bags to go home & spend some quality time with her dad. o...kay?

the subplot is that jeff is freaking out about the new house. he misses the old house that burnt down & is pissed that he has to live in a barn now, even though the reconstruction makes the house sound like it is AWESOME--a million times better than some dreary cramped colonial farmhouse that may or may not be haunted by an angry widower. he cries & acts angry & refuses to decorate his new room, until mary anne convinces him that the pike triplets really want to help him. & weirdly, they do. because 10-year-old boys can't get enough "trading spaces," amirite? sunny pitches in with a bevy of ideas as well, before she goes back to california, & jeff adjusts to the new home, & everyone lives happily ever after.

i would have liked this book better if it was just a blueprint of the new house & a list of all the furniture & home furnishings in it, without all the ridiculous california drama. if i wanted to read "california diaries" & catch up on sunny sneaking out of the house to hobknob with creepy older boys who undoubtedly know that she is 13 & wants to bone her anyway, i'd read "california diaries". i read "friends forever" for awesome fights & discussion of mary anne & her family choosing curtains. hook me up, ann m.

[Liesl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but it REALLY bothers me that the cover model for Mary Anne doesn't have a short haircut.

Okay, review time. I loved all the different portrayals of grief in this story. You've got Sunny, who's deeply in denial about her grief and is trying to keep busy (recklessly so) in order to not think about her mother's death. Then you've got Jeff, who's having a delayed reaction to the fire, and he's ANGRY. And then of course there's Mary Anne, who has been essentially grieving for her entire life.

I will admit to not having read any of the California Diaries, so I have no idea of any of the Dawn/Sunny specific references, but that didn't matter much for me.

I'm so sad this is the last Mary Anne book I'll ever read!

[Aubree Bowling · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not appreciate this book, which is basically a Mary Anne narrated California Diaries book. I hated those and quit reading halfway through the series, and was greatly annoyed to see Sunny Winslow taking over the next - to - last BSC book ever written. I did not want that California drama bleeding into the last pages of this series.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

BSC meets California Diaries finally! If only Ducky had come along to Stoneybrook too! This is the last Mary Anne book in the series, and we see her off living in her new house starting a new chapter of her life. Very apropos. If only we could have just left Jeff behind in California. I hate that kid.

[Corinne Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sad, sweet story. It never ceases to amaze me just how beautiful Mary Anne's spirit really is. I love this character SO much. The character, Sunny is ALL over the place. All I could think about was "BOING, BOING, BOING!" whenever she was in a scene, because she LITERALLY went from one thing to another, just wanting to do EVERYTHING all at once.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to find myself on Mary Anne's side (and still have so much sympathy for the other character). I didn't even find myself that annoyed with Dawn in this book. Is this...character growth? I do love the symbolism of this new house and I love Mary Anne sort of sharing her grief about her mom with Sunny. Another bittersweet last character book.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really moving, about Sunny dealing with the loss of her mom and acting out quite a bit to avoid thinking about it. Having grown up without a mother herself, Mary Anne can relate, and there's a really sweet moment of connection between the two of them about it.

[Kristen]

I'm going to miss this series once it is over! This one was interesting with the inclusion of Sunny, from the "California Diaries" series (another one of my favorites, even though they were a bit dark).

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

*1.5

[Aaliyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a great book about not just finding were you belong it was a good book.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to see the barn-house irl.

[JH · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun because I liked seeing Sunny Winslow in Stoneybrook. The girls were living on the edge in the tiniest way. Good to see a different side of Mary-Anne.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book the Eleventh: In which Mary Anne moves into the renovated barn, Sunny comes for a visit, and Dawn needs to STFU. Sunny's mom died, so she comes to visit with Dawn. I guess her dad didn't want her hanging out in OMGCALIFORNIA getting drunk all the time. I guess Sunny stays sober, but I suspect meth. Wasn't she a meth-head? Or was that just oneoneohohone's awesome fanfic 'verse? I'm pretty sure it was just fanfic, but it fits, so yeah, I'm gonna pretend Sunny's on meth this whole visit, till she crashes at the end.

Anywho, Sunny hits on older guys and tries to set MA up. She fails. Then she decides they need to sneak off to OMGI<3NY!!! and MA and STFUDawn go along with it. WHAT? Ugh. I don't even...whatever.

STFUDawn yells at Sunny. When they get home, Sunny cries. MA basks in the glory of finally-shed tears. Sunny leaves. This book sucks.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.

I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.

The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.

Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunny, Dawn, and Jeff come visit Stoneybrook, and the effects of Sunny's mother's death are obvious in this book. She is not her usual vibrant self, and Mary Anne and Dawn try to make her happier, even going so far as to take the train to NYC for the day. Meanwhile, the Schafer-Spiers are moving into their new house (the barn from the old farmhouse that burnt to the ground) and everyone is having a hard time adjusting to that. Would have been a strong ending to the series.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book, thinking that I'd read it when I was a teen, but I apparently hadn't. I always enjoyed the BSC, but this one wasn't as good as the typical BSC books. That's not to say it wasn't good, but it was.

I need to go back and read more of the books I've missed out on over the years.