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The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #9
Starring the Baby-sitters Club!
With Kristy in the title role in her school's production of "Peter Pan," the show is certain to be a hit--until Dawn interrupts rehearsals with the charge that the play is sexist
237 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1992
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649 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,101 books3,047 followersAnn 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...
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...
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June 15, 2016
this is my first time reading this book!
in this superspecial whose dedication says, "For Brian Selznick, a rising star," (FOR REAL!) jessi decides to write an article for the school newspaper giving a glimpse behind-the-scenes of the school play, peter pan. all of the bsc members (and some of their friends and charges -- since some kids from the high school and elementary school are in it) are involved in the play. see individual plotlines for more.
individual plotlines:
-jessi: wants to be peter pan (and assumes she will get cast because she's such a good dancer). once she gets a pirate role instead, she refuses to be in the play because she's a terrible baby. she becomes the choreographer for little kids and then is resentful when she doesn't feel appreciated enough. eventually, pete black gets hurt on the night of the play, so jessi takes over his roles of nana the dog and the crocodile, and she ends up thankful to be in the play (but she doesn't apologize profusely to everyone involved, so I am still mad at her at the end).
-kristy: wants to be nana the dog and the crocodile, but she gets the peter pan role. she is terrible at remembering her lines. right at the end of the book a somewhat interesting plotline is thrown in where kristy and dawn both wish their divorced dads were seeing them act in the play and stacey talks about how thankful she is that her divorced dad is there.
-dawn: wants to be tiger lily, but she gets the wendy role. in classic dawn soapbox hilarity, she is offended by some of the dialogue and tries to change it to reflect how she thinks women's roles SHOULD be (telling peter she will teach him how to sew instead of sewing the shadow for him, etc)
-stacey: wants to be cast in any small part, but she gets the mrs. darling role. sam thomas is mr. darling and annoys stacey by constantly calling her mrs. darling or mother, even when they're not doing the play. it turns out that he wants to show his friends it's okay that he's dating a middle schooler because they have fun together. stacey tells him to act normally and then he does.
-claudia: wants to paint sets, but she becomes the head set designer (which just makes her scared that her sets won't be good enough).
-mallory: wants to make costumes and gets to do just that (the ONLY one who gets the exact role she wanted). has to measure BOYS for costumes and is mortified by that. after the costumes are done she is bored so she keeps backseat-babysitting the kids when mary anne is around, and mary anne gets mad. at one point, the costumes are all in the wrong places, and mal is like, "oops, I should have been doing my job." but no, her job was to make the costumes, not to make sure that the cast members put the costumes back in their right places. see lowlights for my thoughts on making everyone involved in the play come to every rehearsal.
-mary anne: doesn't want a role at all but becomes jackie rodowsky's personal coach (because he has a big role and is impossible to control) and all the kids' backstage babysitter. she gets mad at mallory. at first I am more annoyed with mary anne but eventually I see what she's saying about mallory.
highlights:
-stacey's song audition is mack the knife. hahahahahaha
-dawn hates peter pan because she thinks he is trying to keep wendy down. when mary anne points out that peter promised wendy an adventure, dawn says "that's just like a man" to bribe a woman with an adventure and then force her to be a maid instead. sometimes I love stupid soapbox dawn so much.
-there's a cokie narrator chapter! at one point she talks about a girl who wants to hang out with her and grace, and how they will maybe let her once her complexion clears up. I love this mean girl juxtaposition against the irritatingly good-natured baby-sitters (except jessi who is obviously a dumb brat in this book).
-at one point cokie asks for a private dressing room. kristy suggests a mop closet as a joke, but cokie actually ends up getting it to be her dressing room. nice try, kristy!
-stacey makes a reference to dating sam being like dating jerry lewis. does she know who that is? this isn't an i love lucy reference, but it may as well be.
-claudia narration: "carob is just not necessary. if you want to enjoy the flavor of chocolate, then each chocolate." YES! thank you, claud! carob tastes fine, but it does NOT taste like chocolate. if you want chocolate, eat chocolate. if you want carob, eat carob.
-cokie tries to psych kristy out by saying she's going to forget her lines. to get back at her, during cokie's solo kristy continues to sing. BOOM.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-jessi assumes she will be cast as peter pan. what a jerk. she is such a stupid baby after she doesn't get picked. she also backseat drives their auditions (telling everyone what they did wrong). she is almost as terrible as dawn in Dawn Saves the Planet. her singing and acting are not that good anyway, so why would she be cast? she wasn't even gonna go to the play to support her friends but got asked to help out last minute. UGH.
-karen throws a tantrum about not getting to be tinkerbell (since tink is usually not an actual actor in the play, and is instead just twinkling lights and sounds). after the tantrum they let her be tinkerbell. UGH. STOP REWARDING KAREN'S TERRIBLE BEHAVIOR, EVERYONE.
-the pike triplets try to do a raindance and think it's not realistic enough so adam "turns on" the sprinklers. TURNS ON the sprinklers? those only go off if you hold a flame up to them -- did he start a fire?
-why do the costume designer and choreographer have to keep coming to rehearsals? why does every single person go to every single rehearsal? that's NOT HOW PLAYS WORK. there should be rehearsals that are just wendy and peter, or just the darlings, etc. why do the people who are already done making the costumes and done making the sets still come to every rehearsal?
no outfits.
kristy lunchroom comment:
-"what is this goo?" (it's something gray and stringy). "it looks like what watson's cat might bring in--"
snack in claudia's room:
-almond joy in her pillowcase
in this superspecial whose dedication says, "For Brian Selznick, a rising star," (FOR REAL!) jessi decides to write an article for the school newspaper giving a glimpse behind-the-scenes of the school play, peter pan. all of the bsc members (and some of their friends and charges -- since some kids from the high school and elementary school are in it) are involved in the play. see individual plotlines for more.
individual plotlines:
-jessi: wants to be peter pan (and assumes she will get cast because she's such a good dancer). once she gets a pirate role instead, she refuses to be in the play because she's a terrible baby. she becomes the choreographer for little kids and then is resentful when she doesn't feel appreciated enough. eventually, pete black gets hurt on the night of the play, so jessi takes over his roles of nana the dog and the crocodile, and she ends up thankful to be in the play (but she doesn't apologize profusely to everyone involved, so I am still mad at her at the end).
-kristy: wants to be nana the dog and the crocodile, but she gets the peter pan role. she is terrible at remembering her lines. right at the end of the book a somewhat interesting plotline is thrown in where kristy and dawn both wish their divorced dads were seeing them act in the play and stacey talks about how thankful she is that her divorced dad is there.
-dawn: wants to be tiger lily, but she gets the wendy role. in classic dawn soapbox hilarity, she is offended by some of the dialogue and tries to change it to reflect how she thinks women's roles SHOULD be (telling peter she will teach him how to sew instead of sewing the shadow for him, etc)
-stacey: wants to be cast in any small part, but she gets the mrs. darling role. sam thomas is mr. darling and annoys stacey by constantly calling her mrs. darling or mother, even when they're not doing the play. it turns out that he wants to show his friends it's okay that he's dating a middle schooler because they have fun together. stacey tells him to act normally and then he does.
-claudia: wants to paint sets, but she becomes the head set designer (which just makes her scared that her sets won't be good enough).
-mallory: wants to make costumes and gets to do just that (the ONLY one who gets the exact role she wanted). has to measure BOYS for costumes and is mortified by that. after the costumes are done she is bored so she keeps backseat-babysitting the kids when mary anne is around, and mary anne gets mad. at one point, the costumes are all in the wrong places, and mal is like, "oops, I should have been doing my job." but no, her job was to make the costumes, not to make sure that the cast members put the costumes back in their right places. see lowlights for my thoughts on making everyone involved in the play come to every rehearsal.
-mary anne: doesn't want a role at all but becomes jackie rodowsky's personal coach (because he has a big role and is impossible to control) and all the kids' backstage babysitter. she gets mad at mallory. at first I am more annoyed with mary anne but eventually I see what she's saying about mallory.
highlights:
-stacey's song audition is mack the knife. hahahahahaha
-dawn hates peter pan because she thinks he is trying to keep wendy down. when mary anne points out that peter promised wendy an adventure, dawn says "that's just like a man" to bribe a woman with an adventure and then force her to be a maid instead. sometimes I love stupid soapbox dawn so much.
-there's a cokie narrator chapter! at one point she talks about a girl who wants to hang out with her and grace, and how they will maybe let her once her complexion clears up. I love this mean girl juxtaposition against the irritatingly good-natured baby-sitters (except jessi who is obviously a dumb brat in this book).
-at one point cokie asks for a private dressing room. kristy suggests a mop closet as a joke, but cokie actually ends up getting it to be her dressing room. nice try, kristy!
-stacey makes a reference to dating sam being like dating jerry lewis. does she know who that is? this isn't an i love lucy reference, but it may as well be.
-claudia narration: "carob is just not necessary. if you want to enjoy the flavor of chocolate, then each chocolate." YES! thank you, claud! carob tastes fine, but it does NOT taste like chocolate. if you want chocolate, eat chocolate. if you want carob, eat carob.
-cokie tries to psych kristy out by saying she's going to forget her lines. to get back at her, during cokie's solo kristy continues to sing. BOOM.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-jessi assumes she will be cast as peter pan. what a jerk. she is such a stupid baby after she doesn't get picked. she also backseat drives their auditions (telling everyone what they did wrong). she is almost as terrible as dawn in Dawn Saves the Planet. her singing and acting are not that good anyway, so why would she be cast? she wasn't even gonna go to the play to support her friends but got asked to help out last minute. UGH.
-karen throws a tantrum about not getting to be tinkerbell (since tink is usually not an actual actor in the play, and is instead just twinkling lights and sounds). after the tantrum they let her be tinkerbell. UGH. STOP REWARDING KAREN'S TERRIBLE BEHAVIOR, EVERYONE.
-the pike triplets try to do a raindance and think it's not realistic enough so adam "turns on" the sprinklers. TURNS ON the sprinklers? those only go off if you hold a flame up to them -- did he start a fire?
-why do the costume designer and choreographer have to keep coming to rehearsals? why does every single person go to every single rehearsal? that's NOT HOW PLAYS WORK. there should be rehearsals that are just wendy and peter, or just the darlings, etc. why do the people who are already done making the costumes and done making the sets still come to every rehearsal?
no outfits.
kristy lunchroom comment:
-"what is this goo?" (it's something gray and stringy). "it looks like what watson's cat might bring in--"
snack in claudia's room:
-almond joy in her pillowcase
March 29, 2022
I think this may have been the first Super Special I didn't read as a kid (I collected these books religiously as a kid, and then gave away my entire collection sometime in high school because I was too angsty and punk rock to have something so childish on my bookshelf. My teenaged self would be mortified that I now reread all these things as escapist fluff as the mom to a teenager now. But it's whimsical in a Gen X way, right? 😆), and I have to say that the BSC experiencing musical theatre ensemble work appealed to my inner drama club nerd in a big way. This book was fun. Egos, struggle with lines and choreography, boys who can't behave backstage, meltdowns for all as opening night draws closer. It was a fun read, and a nice departure from the recent Super Special books that have all been unrealistic ridiculousness. 3 stars.
November 1, 2013
In which the schools of the 'Brook perform Peter Pan. Jessi is an insufferable twat because she thinks she should play Peter Pan. It's okay, Jessi. The casting guy is probably racist. As usual, satan Karen is a jerk, demanding to play Tinkerbell. Naturally, K. Ron is Peter. I suspect she threatened casting guy. And STFU, Dawn.
February 28, 2017
Stoneybrook schools go all out to put on a "musical extravaganza" of Peter Pan, and of course, the BSC gets caught up in the action. They stress out over the auditions, the rehearsals and the performances while taking notes about the play's progress for Jessi to write a newspaper article.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I remember a lot of this book, since I loved it as a kid, and read it multiple times. I was very into theater when I was young, so I thought this was the most exciting Super Special of all, and as a kid it captured a lot of what I loved about performing: the ability to bring joy to an audience, the excitement and anticipation of a performance, the emotions that are brought up, even the anxiety that comes from waiting for these moments.
I remember Mallory being so scared of measuring high school boys for their costumes. I completely sympathized since nine-year old me would NEVER have had the nerve to even approach high school age boys, much less put my arms around their waist.
I learned what a "soapbox" was from reading this book when Logan mentions that Dawn was on her women's lib soapbox. I had no idea what that meant, and I couldn't find the term in my little dictionary, so I had to ask my mom what it meant. I also learned the word "mutiny" which I assumed must be a bad word of some kind, based on everyone's reaction when Logan says it. I could not understand why shouting "Mutiny!" would get you kicked off a play. It was so stupid to me. Also, I figured if I didn't know the word, then other elementary aged kids wouldn't know it, and therefore would not be shocked by Logan's so called bad example.
Cokie using the janitor's closet for a dressing room, which grossed me out. Why would you want to change your clothes in the same room where dirty mops and rags are kept?
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
As a kid Jessi's attitude bothered me because I was used to her always being awesome, and using her talents to help others be awesome too. However, as an adult, it's nice to see Jessi fail spectacularly. She's sure that since she's such a great dancer that acting and singing will come naturally to her, and even if they don't, well, her amazing dancing makes up for all that, right? She's too arrogant to even be called a prima donna. She's just a stupid preteen who's gotten everything so easily due to her dancing talent that she assumes she will never have to work for any part she wants. To go from confidently auditioning for the lead role of Peter Pan, to be cast as a random pirate? Ouch. The theater/dance nerd in me could hardly look fictional Jessi in the eye over that one. I understood why she turned down the pirate part then, and I understand it now. When I was sixteen I auditioned for a part in a huge play that I was completely, totally desperate for. I cried every night for weeks when I didn't get the lead I wanted, but a small role that was over in the first half of the play. I didn't really enjoy the experience (much like Jessi) because I was so upset, but today I'm proud that I contributed in a small way to the overall play (again much like Jessi realizes in the end). As an adult I think Jessi acted perfectly in character. She assumes the role of Peter Pan is hers, and when it's given to her good friend instead (one who has never showed any proclivity to performing at all) she sulks and has a terrible attitude for weeks. Jessi gets every freaking ballet role she auditions for, no matter that she can't be THAT strong a dancer (she's only eleven years old for god's sake!). She even gets to be a correspondent for The SMS Express, even though we've never heard a word about her writing ability. (That's supposed to be Mallory's thing! Why isn't she interested in this?) How does Jessi handle her disappointment when it comes to auditioning for something she really wants? Not well since she's never had to deal with it before. Of course she acts like a hot mess of diva. It was a little ridiculous that at the end of the book she ends up with the animal roles (which is a twist given away by anyone who saw the cover of this book, i.e. everyone who bought it). Jessi asks why can't one of the understudies do it (who were these mysterious understudies anyway, besides Jason Henderson?) and the director tells her that they're happy with the dinky pirate parts they've been given. Yeah . . . then why bother with understudies in the first place if all you're going to do is give parts to the assistant choreographer?
As an adult I think the baby sitters getting all the leads is completely stupid. Supposedly they have "raw talent", and are better than all the other students that tried out for the same roles. I don't buy it. While there's a lot written about the emotional highs and lows of performing a play, there's very little about the actual work and experiences of acting. Everyone seems to skate along, and then it's opening night, and the baby sitters are emotional, and then everything is over. The hardest things that are dealt with during the rehearsal process are short tempers, and Kristy's difficulty with memorizing her lines. Ann M Martin clearly knows and cares nothing about acting. Acting is more than memorizing lines. Rehearsing for a play is about more than reading from scripts and stressing out over little things. Finding raw talent is about more than the baby sitters being better at acting and singing than they thought they were. I would have liked to see inside some of the minor regular characters of the series more. Cokie being cast as Tiger Lily is a good example of this, as is Jackie Rodowsky's role as Michael Darling. We get tiny little glimmers of who these characters, usually designated to the background of the BSC canon, truly are, and how they came to their unexpectedly major roles. But then the door is slammed shut and these one dimensional characters are left in the dark again. Jackie goes back to being a klutz, and his obvious joy at being cast in a big play, and his charisma onstage is never mentioned again. Cokie goes back to being mean and haughty, and we never again hear about her singing and dancing talents, or if she had Broadway aspirations. It's a missed opportunity, and while I get that putting out so many books in this series meant that the quality had to suffer, I'm still a little sad about it.
The auditions, the rehearsals, and the play itself is held at the auditorium in SMS. Is their auditorium better than the one at the high school? It seems unlikely. However, in Dawn Saves the Planet much is made about the fact that SMS is so centrally located that it's within walking distance to most neighborhoods in Stoneybrook. So I'm choosing to say that's why they decided to hold the play there. Also, when I was a kid I assumed this was an all-out public school affair, with the elementary, middle school, and high school participating. Reading this as an adult, I realize that very, very few roles went to high school and elementary school kids. It looks like the only high schoolers in the play are Lucas Danver, who plays Captain Hook, Sam Thomas who plays Mr Darling, and Sam's random friend Brian, who does god knows what. And I'm guessing only about 15 or 20 elementary school kids were cast as Indians and Lost Boys. I don't understand why they bothered opening up auditions to high school and elementary school, if they were going to give the majority of the parts to middle school kids. Why not just cast middle school kids in the parts for Captain Hook, et al. Also, why did so many of the roles to go kids from the private schools of Stoneybrook? The Kormans, the Papadakisis, and Karen Brewer go to Stoneybrook Day School, and Stoneybrook Academy, expensive private schools, with their own activities going on. Why are they allowed to audition for this play? And Matt Braddock, who goes to special school in Stanford tries out also? I guess it's nice that everyone just accepts him, no questions asked, and that presumably, his parents and teachers are fine with him leaving school early for rehearsals, and performances. But it seems odd. It also seems mean that Karen throws a tantrum about wanting to be Tinker Bell and then gets the part, even though she doesn't go to Stoneybrook Elementary. I don't know why adults always give into Karen. No wonder she's a spoiled brat. Also, why did students from the private elementary schools of Stoneybrook nab all the parts for little kids, but Bart Taylor or Shannon Kilbourne didn't participate because they "don't go to SMS" as Kristy says?
I don't understand why Kristy was OK with taking a month off baby sitting so that the BSC could do a play. She throws fits all the time about the baby sitters making enough time for baby sitting. I sort of get that Dawn and Kristy are really the only ones who probably couldn't take on any baby sitting because their parts in the play are big, but the others could be available to pick up the slack . . . until Mary Anne agrees to be a "backstage baby sitter" and Mallory and Logan decide to hang around at every single rehearsal even though they're clearly not needed.
I love how immature Sam is in this book. As a kid, this went right over my head of course, but as an adult I just love how Sam is such a fifteen year old boy. It's so perfectly done. He has no idea how to handle his friends teasing him about dating eighth grade Stacey. He asks his older brother Charlie for advice, and Charlie gives perfectly sensible advice: show your friends that you have fun with Stacey even if she is younger than you. Duh. Of course, Charlie, being only a marginally less clueless teenage boy than Sam is, neglects to spell it out for him: JUST BE NORMAL ABOUT IT. It doesn't require Sam to go out of his way to make a fool of himself, but of course he does, which makes Stacey feel uncomfortable. So she tells him to cut it out, and his sensitive feelings are hurt. When he finally tells her that his friends have been making fun of him for dating an eighth grader Stacey is completely annoyed. She realizes that Sam's friends are just giving him a hard time like friends sometimes do, but that they are still his friends, and they don't really care if he goes out with Stacey or not. Of course a girl who is only thirteen is so much more mature than a fifteen year old boy. Of course she had to be the one to set him straight. I could almost envision the lightbulb going on in Sam's head.
While I completely understand Dawn's frustration with the sexism of the play, I didn't really like that the racism of the play is never addressed. I wouldn't have wanted a song and dance about it, since the writers and editors of the BSC books are clearly idiots when it comes to racial sensitivity, but a small mention would have been nice. Something like someone saying, "Hey, this play also portrays Native people really, really offensively. That's not cool either." Dawn clearly doesn't feel this way since she's dying to try out for the part of Tiger Lily, and sing the Ugg-a-Wugg song, but someone could have said just one quick thing about it. I feel like a lot of schools stay away from performing this musical exactly because its extreme views of roles of women and Indigenous people are considered in bad taste today. Mary Anne bothers me when she says, ". . . so what if they play's sexist? . . . everyone loves it and the story's a lot of fun." Yeah, the story's fun for white people who get to lord their power over a badly portrayed Native tribe. Or for white men to use as a weapon against women. So I kind of liked that Dawn thought about changing the play a little to recognize how the roles of women have changed in society since 1904. As she points out, Peter Pan wants someone to be his maid, not his mother. I was a little annoyed that everyone was so dismissive of this, when really all it would have taken was to change a few of the lines, or maybe take them out. Of course Dawn, who prides herself on being such an individual decides to go along with the crowd and say, "Fine, I won't change the play." She thinks that it's not her job to teach the children in the audience a lesson, hoping that they will learn somewhere else, and instead be soothed by the familiarity of the story. This is becoming a consistent problem with Dawn, who gets on her high horse about things like helping Zuni Pueblo rebuild their school, or wanting to show that women don't have to be relegated to the house while men go off on adventures. When it comes down to it though she chooses not to fight, or not to understand that her voice means something. She is simply another passive white person, who decides to leave the greater fight for someone else. It's her prerogative to raise money to save Native people who don't need (and didn't ask for) her help, but not to stand up to the Lowells when they treat her friends badly. It's her issue to kick and scream about women's roles in Peter Pan, but to say nothing about the racism of the play, or to really make a meaningful stand against the sexism. "I had to hope they would enjoy the magic . . . and learn from some other story that boys can cook and sew as well as girls, and that girls can have adventures as exciting as boys." And not one mention of the horrible, offensive portrayal of Native people, or the horrible, offensive portrayal of female rivalry. Typical, privileged white person: not my fight, there's not really a problem here.
I love it when Claudia says, "Carob is just not necessary. If you want to enjoy the flavor of chocolate, then EAT CHOCOLATE." Yay, Claudia! Take that, Dawn!
Reading parts of this book brought back some of magic I felt when performing in dances or plays as a kid. I really enjoyed dancing and acting when I was little, and I think what I liked so much about the book was that it talked about performing in a very rote way. As I got older, and kept trying to keep acting and dancing in my life I realized that most kids take these pursuits very seriously as they get older. It's not really a hobby for them, or even something they do just for fun, so they "go deeper" into their characters, and the roteness goes away. I stopped dancing when I wasn't willing to spend all my time in grueling classes, and I stopped acting when I didn't care about writing long papers discussing the motivations and decisions of my characters. I think acting and dancing become so serious and intense for teens, because it could encourage a "career" or at least extracurriculars for a college application. The kids who are interested in it just for fun (like me) get shunted off to the side because we aren't passionate about it. Because no one encourages us, we get bored, and leave. Which is not the end of the world (it didn't hurt my life in any way) but reading this book made me nostalgic for the joy and fun I used to have dancing and acting. Even as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the performance itself, how nervous everyone is, how upset Dawn and Kristy are that their fathers won't be there to see them in this unexpectedly big moment of their lives, how they realize how transformative acting can be. This is exactly what I loved about performing -- the rush of getting onstage, the thrill of doing something you had practiced to perfection, the way people saw you in whole new way, and the way you could see yourself in a whole new way too.
This book is dedicated to "Brian Selznick, a rising star". Brian Selznick would go on to write The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and illustrate some of the Dolls series that Ann M Martin wrote.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I remember a lot of this book, since I loved it as a kid, and read it multiple times. I was very into theater when I was young, so I thought this was the most exciting Super Special of all, and as a kid it captured a lot of what I loved about performing: the ability to bring joy to an audience, the excitement and anticipation of a performance, the emotions that are brought up, even the anxiety that comes from waiting for these moments.
I remember Mallory being so scared of measuring high school boys for their costumes. I completely sympathized since nine-year old me would NEVER have had the nerve to even approach high school age boys, much less put my arms around their waist.
I learned what a "soapbox" was from reading this book when Logan mentions that Dawn was on her women's lib soapbox. I had no idea what that meant, and I couldn't find the term in my little dictionary, so I had to ask my mom what it meant. I also learned the word "mutiny" which I assumed must be a bad word of some kind, based on everyone's reaction when Logan says it. I could not understand why shouting "Mutiny!" would get you kicked off a play. It was so stupid to me. Also, I figured if I didn't know the word, then other elementary aged kids wouldn't know it, and therefore would not be shocked by Logan's so called bad example.
Cokie using the janitor's closet for a dressing room, which grossed me out. Why would you want to change your clothes in the same room where dirty mops and rags are kept?
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
As a kid Jessi's attitude bothered me because I was used to her always being awesome, and using her talents to help others be awesome too. However, as an adult, it's nice to see Jessi fail spectacularly. She's sure that since she's such a great dancer that acting and singing will come naturally to her, and even if they don't, well, her amazing dancing makes up for all that, right? She's too arrogant to even be called a prima donna. She's just a stupid preteen who's gotten everything so easily due to her dancing talent that she assumes she will never have to work for any part she wants. To go from confidently auditioning for the lead role of Peter Pan, to be cast as a random pirate? Ouch. The theater/dance nerd in me could hardly look fictional Jessi in the eye over that one. I understood why she turned down the pirate part then, and I understand it now. When I was sixteen I auditioned for a part in a huge play that I was completely, totally desperate for. I cried every night for weeks when I didn't get the lead I wanted, but a small role that was over in the first half of the play. I didn't really enjoy the experience (much like Jessi) because I was so upset, but today I'm proud that I contributed in a small way to the overall play (again much like Jessi realizes in the end). As an adult I think Jessi acted perfectly in character. She assumes the role of Peter Pan is hers, and when it's given to her good friend instead (one who has never showed any proclivity to performing at all) she sulks and has a terrible attitude for weeks. Jessi gets every freaking ballet role she auditions for, no matter that she can't be THAT strong a dancer (she's only eleven years old for god's sake!). She even gets to be a correspondent for The SMS Express, even though we've never heard a word about her writing ability. (That's supposed to be Mallory's thing! Why isn't she interested in this?) How does Jessi handle her disappointment when it comes to auditioning for something she really wants? Not well since she's never had to deal with it before. Of course she acts like a hot mess of diva. It was a little ridiculous that at the end of the book she ends up with the animal roles (which is a twist given away by anyone who saw the cover of this book, i.e. everyone who bought it). Jessi asks why can't one of the understudies do it (who were these mysterious understudies anyway, besides Jason Henderson?) and the director tells her that they're happy with the dinky pirate parts they've been given. Yeah . . . then why bother with understudies in the first place if all you're going to do is give parts to the assistant choreographer?
As an adult I think the baby sitters getting all the leads is completely stupid. Supposedly they have "raw talent", and are better than all the other students that tried out for the same roles. I don't buy it. While there's a lot written about the emotional highs and lows of performing a play, there's very little about the actual work and experiences of acting. Everyone seems to skate along, and then it's opening night, and the baby sitters are emotional, and then everything is over. The hardest things that are dealt with during the rehearsal process are short tempers, and Kristy's difficulty with memorizing her lines. Ann M Martin clearly knows and cares nothing about acting. Acting is more than memorizing lines. Rehearsing for a play is about more than reading from scripts and stressing out over little things. Finding raw talent is about more than the baby sitters being better at acting and singing than they thought they were. I would have liked to see inside some of the minor regular characters of the series more. Cokie being cast as Tiger Lily is a good example of this, as is Jackie Rodowsky's role as Michael Darling. We get tiny little glimmers of who these characters, usually designated to the background of the BSC canon, truly are, and how they came to their unexpectedly major roles. But then the door is slammed shut and these one dimensional characters are left in the dark again. Jackie goes back to being a klutz, and his obvious joy at being cast in a big play, and his charisma onstage is never mentioned again. Cokie goes back to being mean and haughty, and we never again hear about her singing and dancing talents, or if she had Broadway aspirations. It's a missed opportunity, and while I get that putting out so many books in this series meant that the quality had to suffer, I'm still a little sad about it.
The auditions, the rehearsals, and the play itself is held at the auditorium in SMS. Is their auditorium better than the one at the high school? It seems unlikely. However, in Dawn Saves the Planet much is made about the fact that SMS is so centrally located that it's within walking distance to most neighborhoods in Stoneybrook. So I'm choosing to say that's why they decided to hold the play there. Also, when I was a kid I assumed this was an all-out public school affair, with the elementary, middle school, and high school participating. Reading this as an adult, I realize that very, very few roles went to high school and elementary school kids. It looks like the only high schoolers in the play are Lucas Danver, who plays Captain Hook, Sam Thomas who plays Mr Darling, and Sam's random friend Brian, who does god knows what. And I'm guessing only about 15 or 20 elementary school kids were cast as Indians and Lost Boys. I don't understand why they bothered opening up auditions to high school and elementary school, if they were going to give the majority of the parts to middle school kids. Why not just cast middle school kids in the parts for Captain Hook, et al. Also, why did so many of the roles to go kids from the private schools of Stoneybrook? The Kormans, the Papadakisis, and Karen Brewer go to Stoneybrook Day School, and Stoneybrook Academy, expensive private schools, with their own activities going on. Why are they allowed to audition for this play? And Matt Braddock, who goes to special school in Stanford tries out also? I guess it's nice that everyone just accepts him, no questions asked, and that presumably, his parents and teachers are fine with him leaving school early for rehearsals, and performances. But it seems odd. It also seems mean that Karen throws a tantrum about wanting to be Tinker Bell and then gets the part, even though she doesn't go to Stoneybrook Elementary. I don't know why adults always give into Karen. No wonder she's a spoiled brat. Also, why did students from the private elementary schools of Stoneybrook nab all the parts for little kids, but Bart Taylor or Shannon Kilbourne didn't participate because they "don't go to SMS" as Kristy says?
I don't understand why Kristy was OK with taking a month off baby sitting so that the BSC could do a play. She throws fits all the time about the baby sitters making enough time for baby sitting. I sort of get that Dawn and Kristy are really the only ones who probably couldn't take on any baby sitting because their parts in the play are big, but the others could be available to pick up the slack . . . until Mary Anne agrees to be a "backstage baby sitter" and Mallory and Logan decide to hang around at every single rehearsal even though they're clearly not needed.
I love how immature Sam is in this book. As a kid, this went right over my head of course, but as an adult I just love how Sam is such a fifteen year old boy. It's so perfectly done. He has no idea how to handle his friends teasing him about dating eighth grade Stacey. He asks his older brother Charlie for advice, and Charlie gives perfectly sensible advice: show your friends that you have fun with Stacey even if she is younger than you. Duh. Of course, Charlie, being only a marginally less clueless teenage boy than Sam is, neglects to spell it out for him: JUST BE NORMAL ABOUT IT. It doesn't require Sam to go out of his way to make a fool of himself, but of course he does, which makes Stacey feel uncomfortable. So she tells him to cut it out, and his sensitive feelings are hurt. When he finally tells her that his friends have been making fun of him for dating an eighth grader Stacey is completely annoyed. She realizes that Sam's friends are just giving him a hard time like friends sometimes do, but that they are still his friends, and they don't really care if he goes out with Stacey or not. Of course a girl who is only thirteen is so much more mature than a fifteen year old boy. Of course she had to be the one to set him straight. I could almost envision the lightbulb going on in Sam's head.
While I completely understand Dawn's frustration with the sexism of the play, I didn't really like that the racism of the play is never addressed. I wouldn't have wanted a song and dance about it, since the writers and editors of the BSC books are clearly idiots when it comes to racial sensitivity, but a small mention would have been nice. Something like someone saying, "Hey, this play also portrays Native people really, really offensively. That's not cool either." Dawn clearly doesn't feel this way since she's dying to try out for the part of Tiger Lily, and sing the Ugg-a-Wugg song, but someone could have said just one quick thing about it. I feel like a lot of schools stay away from performing this musical exactly because its extreme views of roles of women and Indigenous people are considered in bad taste today. Mary Anne bothers me when she says, ". . . so what if they play's sexist? . . . everyone loves it and the story's a lot of fun." Yeah, the story's fun for white people who get to lord their power over a badly portrayed Native tribe. Or for white men to use as a weapon against women. So I kind of liked that Dawn thought about changing the play a little to recognize how the roles of women have changed in society since 1904. As she points out, Peter Pan wants someone to be his maid, not his mother. I was a little annoyed that everyone was so dismissive of this, when really all it would have taken was to change a few of the lines, or maybe take them out. Of course Dawn, who prides herself on being such an individual decides to go along with the crowd and say, "Fine, I won't change the play." She thinks that it's not her job to teach the children in the audience a lesson, hoping that they will learn somewhere else, and instead be soothed by the familiarity of the story. This is becoming a consistent problem with Dawn, who gets on her high horse about things like helping Zuni Pueblo rebuild their school, or wanting to show that women don't have to be relegated to the house while men go off on adventures. When it comes down to it though she chooses not to fight, or not to understand that her voice means something. She is simply another passive white person, who decides to leave the greater fight for someone else. It's her prerogative to raise money to save Native people who don't need (and didn't ask for) her help, but not to stand up to the Lowells when they treat her friends badly. It's her issue to kick and scream about women's roles in Peter Pan, but to say nothing about the racism of the play, or to really make a meaningful stand against the sexism. "I had to hope they would enjoy the magic . . . and learn from some other story that boys can cook and sew as well as girls, and that girls can have adventures as exciting as boys." And not one mention of the horrible, offensive portrayal of Native people, or the horrible, offensive portrayal of female rivalry. Typical, privileged white person: not my fight, there's not really a problem here.
I love it when Claudia says, "Carob is just not necessary. If you want to enjoy the flavor of chocolate, then EAT CHOCOLATE." Yay, Claudia! Take that, Dawn!
Reading parts of this book brought back some of magic I felt when performing in dances or plays as a kid. I really enjoyed dancing and acting when I was little, and I think what I liked so much about the book was that it talked about performing in a very rote way. As I got older, and kept trying to keep acting and dancing in my life I realized that most kids take these pursuits very seriously as they get older. It's not really a hobby for them, or even something they do just for fun, so they "go deeper" into their characters, and the roteness goes away. I stopped dancing when I wasn't willing to spend all my time in grueling classes, and I stopped acting when I didn't care about writing long papers discussing the motivations and decisions of my characters. I think acting and dancing become so serious and intense for teens, because it could encourage a "career" or at least extracurriculars for a college application. The kids who are interested in it just for fun (like me) get shunted off to the side because we aren't passionate about it. Because no one encourages us, we get bored, and leave. Which is not the end of the world (it didn't hurt my life in any way) but reading this book made me nostalgic for the joy and fun I used to have dancing and acting. Even as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the performance itself, how nervous everyone is, how upset Dawn and Kristy are that their fathers won't be there to see them in this unexpectedly big moment of their lives, how they realize how transformative acting can be. This is exactly what I loved about performing -- the rush of getting onstage, the thrill of doing something you had practiced to perfection, the way people saw you in whole new way, and the way you could see yourself in a whole new way too.
This book is dedicated to "Brian Selznick, a rising star". Brian Selznick would go on to write The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and illustrate some of the Dolls series that Ann M Martin wrote.
December 3, 2010
jessi becomes the sixth-grade correspondent for the stoneybrook middle school newspaper on the same day that auditions are announced for the all-school all-ages play, "peter pan". jessi thinks she's a shoo-in for the role of peter pan, so she decides to write an article about it for the paper as an on-the-spot reporter. she shares her great idea with the other members of the babysitters club & everyone is excited. dawn wants to audition for tiger lily, kristy wants to be nana & the cocodile, claudia wants to work on the sets, mallory wants to do costumes, & stacey just wants any old role. mary anne wants nothing to do with the play--but she's excited for her friends anyway.
then jessi tells everyone about how she'll have tons to write about, since she'll be playing peter pan. everyone is like, "...". jessi explains that she has tons of performance experience & is a great dancer, so of course she'll get the part. she doesn't really seem to notice their confusion or take it seriously.
when try-outs roll around, half the kids in town are auditioning. dawn is pretty shaken up because cokie mason also wants the role of tiger lily. dawn doesn't relish the idea of competing with cokie. but they both try out & they're both really good. kristy is also good, stacey impresses everyone, & jessi's dancing is phenomenal, although her singing & dancing are just all right. jackie rodowsky does a great job with his line reads, even though he is predictably clumsy during the dancing. sam thomas is fantastic. when call-backs happen, everyone in the club who tried out is asked to stay...except for jessi. but she's not worried because she knows the director has already decided to cast her as peter pan, & doesn't need to see anything more.
a few days later, the cast & crew list is ready. cokie is pumped because she got the role of tiger lily, just like she wanted. she smirks about beating dawn out for the part...until she sees that dawn got the role of wendy, which is the female lead. kristy is crushed about losingthe role of nana & the crocodile to pete black...& dumbfounded over being cast as peter pan. jessi was cast as a pirate & she is VERY disappointed. stacey is playing mrs. darling...& sam is playing mr. darling. jackie rodowsky is playing michael darling. logan is a pirate. claudia is the set designer & mallory is the costume assistant.
at the club meeting that afternoon, everyone is marveling over their parts in the play. jessi just sits in the corner, huffing & puffing. finally she yells at them all & points out that they all got bigger & better parts than they wanted or expected, while she's supposed to play some dumb pirate. she decides not to be in the play at all. she breaks the news to the director at the first rehearsal, & he accepts her resignation, but asks her to stay on to help coach the little kids on their dance routines. he also explains that he chose not to give her the part because she's already had so much stage experience, & while her dancing was exceptional, she was no better than anyone else at acting or singing. jessi interprets this to mean that he just wanted to give someone else a shot.
as the rehearsals progress, everyone faces their various challenges (as this is a super special, after all). kristy is having a lot of trouble learning her lines & everyone is afraid she's going to bomb on opening night. claudia is concerned that one of her sets is going to come crashing down & kill someone. mary anne is recruited at the first rehearsal (which she attended with matt & haley braddock, as their babysitter) to be the backstage babysitter. she is also enlisted as jackie's personal coach, since he is kind of a handful. stacey is embarrassed by the way sam keeps calling her "mother" & "mrs. darling". she also wonders if he's acting a little funny since the play has thrust both stacey & his high school friends into each other's orbits. sam is indeed feeling weird about that. his high school friends tease him a lot for dating a girl in middle school, & he doesn't want stacey to know & have her feelings hurt. he jokes about their roles as mr. & mrs. darling to show his friends how much fun he's having with her, but it backfires when stacey loses her temper with him. dawn decides that the play is sexist & keeps trying to change the words to reflect more modern ideas about women. she offers to teach peter how to sew his shadow back on, & to show the lost boys how to cook. mallory is embarrassed by her responsibilities for measuring boys for their costumes. logan temporarily gets kicked out of the play when he makes a ruckus backstage & distracts everyone, but he talks to the director & is re-instated. & we've already established that jessi is grumpy about not getting the part she thought she deserved.
but everyone gets their shit together eventually. kristy learns her lines (though she blanks for a second on opening night & karen has to whisper her lines to her--oh, i forgot to mention that karen pitched an ever-loving fit over wanting to play tinkerbell, even though tinkerbell isn't played by a real person. she wanted to wear a fairy costume. & the director foolishly conceded, but four days before opening night, karen freaked out because she wanted fairy noises & flashing lights to accompany her on stage. karen is a grade-A brat. the scenery doesn't fall on anyone. there's some trouble between mary anne & mallory with the backstage babysitting. mallory is basically taking over mary anne's job & mary anne gets mad & tells mallory to back off. so mallory does so, & lets the kids run wild, thinking mary anne will regret not appreciating mallory's help. but she soon discovers that mary anne has everything well in hand after all, & that she's been falling down on her job of keeping track of costumes. somehow a bunch of tiger lily's & mrs. darlin's wardrobe items get swapped. not sure how you confuse pieces of an indian princess costume with pieces of a victorian housewife costume, but whatever.
stacey & sam talk things out & patch up their differences. dawn reads her lines as they are written. & at the last second, pete black breaks his nose & has to bow out of the play, so jessi fills in as nana & the crocodile, which works out well, because jackie had been scared of the crocodile & screamed every time he saw it. but he feels better once he knows it's jessi inside the costume. opening night goes off without a hitch, jessi feels better since she got to be in the play after all, & everyone is happy. i guess.
except for me, because i read this book. it wasn't as horrible as i remembered...but it's still a little bit horrible. all the crap about jackie being afraid of the crocodile gets old fast, i get sick of the babysitters club constantly bickering with cokie (at one point, dawn says she doesn't remember why they are feuding, but they are feuding nonetheless, which seems really childish to me), & all the crap about mallory being embarrassed to measure boys is totally ridiculous. how does she think costumes get made?
also, babysitters club meetings are suspended while everyone is working on the play. funny how kristy panics about canceling meetings in a host of other books, lest the club lose business, but when it's convenient for the plot, it's no big deal. i have also never heard of a school hosting a play in which the cast was not just comprised of its own students. there are kids from half the schools in town in this play. ridiculous.
then jessi tells everyone about how she'll have tons to write about, since she'll be playing peter pan. everyone is like, "...". jessi explains that she has tons of performance experience & is a great dancer, so of course she'll get the part. she doesn't really seem to notice their confusion or take it seriously.
when try-outs roll around, half the kids in town are auditioning. dawn is pretty shaken up because cokie mason also wants the role of tiger lily. dawn doesn't relish the idea of competing with cokie. but they both try out & they're both really good. kristy is also good, stacey impresses everyone, & jessi's dancing is phenomenal, although her singing & dancing are just all right. jackie rodowsky does a great job with his line reads, even though he is predictably clumsy during the dancing. sam thomas is fantastic. when call-backs happen, everyone in the club who tried out is asked to stay...except for jessi. but she's not worried because she knows the director has already decided to cast her as peter pan, & doesn't need to see anything more.
a few days later, the cast & crew list is ready. cokie is pumped because she got the role of tiger lily, just like she wanted. she smirks about beating dawn out for the part...until she sees that dawn got the role of wendy, which is the female lead. kristy is crushed about losingthe role of nana & the crocodile to pete black...& dumbfounded over being cast as peter pan. jessi was cast as a pirate & she is VERY disappointed. stacey is playing mrs. darling...& sam is playing mr. darling. jackie rodowsky is playing michael darling. logan is a pirate. claudia is the set designer & mallory is the costume assistant.
at the club meeting that afternoon, everyone is marveling over their parts in the play. jessi just sits in the corner, huffing & puffing. finally she yells at them all & points out that they all got bigger & better parts than they wanted or expected, while she's supposed to play some dumb pirate. she decides not to be in the play at all. she breaks the news to the director at the first rehearsal, & he accepts her resignation, but asks her to stay on to help coach the little kids on their dance routines. he also explains that he chose not to give her the part because she's already had so much stage experience, & while her dancing was exceptional, she was no better than anyone else at acting or singing. jessi interprets this to mean that he just wanted to give someone else a shot.
as the rehearsals progress, everyone faces their various challenges (as this is a super special, after all). kristy is having a lot of trouble learning her lines & everyone is afraid she's going to bomb on opening night. claudia is concerned that one of her sets is going to come crashing down & kill someone. mary anne is recruited at the first rehearsal (which she attended with matt & haley braddock, as their babysitter) to be the backstage babysitter. she is also enlisted as jackie's personal coach, since he is kind of a handful. stacey is embarrassed by the way sam keeps calling her "mother" & "mrs. darling". she also wonders if he's acting a little funny since the play has thrust both stacey & his high school friends into each other's orbits. sam is indeed feeling weird about that. his high school friends tease him a lot for dating a girl in middle school, & he doesn't want stacey to know & have her feelings hurt. he jokes about their roles as mr. & mrs. darling to show his friends how much fun he's having with her, but it backfires when stacey loses her temper with him. dawn decides that the play is sexist & keeps trying to change the words to reflect more modern ideas about women. she offers to teach peter how to sew his shadow back on, & to show the lost boys how to cook. mallory is embarrassed by her responsibilities for measuring boys for their costumes. logan temporarily gets kicked out of the play when he makes a ruckus backstage & distracts everyone, but he talks to the director & is re-instated. & we've already established that jessi is grumpy about not getting the part she thought she deserved.
but everyone gets their shit together eventually. kristy learns her lines (though she blanks for a second on opening night & karen has to whisper her lines to her--oh, i forgot to mention that karen pitched an ever-loving fit over wanting to play tinkerbell, even though tinkerbell isn't played by a real person. she wanted to wear a fairy costume. & the director foolishly conceded, but four days before opening night, karen freaked out because she wanted fairy noises & flashing lights to accompany her on stage. karen is a grade-A brat. the scenery doesn't fall on anyone. there's some trouble between mary anne & mallory with the backstage babysitting. mallory is basically taking over mary anne's job & mary anne gets mad & tells mallory to back off. so mallory does so, & lets the kids run wild, thinking mary anne will regret not appreciating mallory's help. but she soon discovers that mary anne has everything well in hand after all, & that she's been falling down on her job of keeping track of costumes. somehow a bunch of tiger lily's & mrs. darlin's wardrobe items get swapped. not sure how you confuse pieces of an indian princess costume with pieces of a victorian housewife costume, but whatever.
stacey & sam talk things out & patch up their differences. dawn reads her lines as they are written. & at the last second, pete black breaks his nose & has to bow out of the play, so jessi fills in as nana & the crocodile, which works out well, because jackie had been scared of the crocodile & screamed every time he saw it. but he feels better once he knows it's jessi inside the costume. opening night goes off without a hitch, jessi feels better since she got to be in the play after all, & everyone is happy. i guess.
except for me, because i read this book. it wasn't as horrible as i remembered...but it's still a little bit horrible. all the crap about jackie being afraid of the crocodile gets old fast, i get sick of the babysitters club constantly bickering with cokie (at one point, dawn says she doesn't remember why they are feuding, but they are feuding nonetheless, which seems really childish to me), & all the crap about mallory being embarrassed to measure boys is totally ridiculous. how does she think costumes get made?
also, babysitters club meetings are suspended while everyone is working on the play. funny how kristy panics about canceling meetings in a host of other books, lest the club lose business, but when it's convenient for the plot, it's no big deal. i have also never heard of a school hosting a play in which the cast was not just comprised of its own students. there are kids from half the schools in town in this play. ridiculous.
May 2, 2020
I reread this with my ten year old and it was nostalgia for days. I love Peter Pan and reading about the Babysitter's being a part of one of my favorite plays was great. Reading it with my daughter was fun. I was coming in with a mom's perspective this time and it was fun to compare our points of view and to share a book from my childhood is always a fun bonus.
July 22, 2020
This was a fun lowkey special. I also can only picture Richard as Marc Evan Jackson now and it is glorious.
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June 26, 2024Starring the Baby-sitters Club
Jessica has two good pieces of news. She’s going to be the correspondent of the SMS Express. She’ll be responsible for one article a month. Also, SMS is going to be putting on the musical after Pan. She Jessi decides to cover the musical in depth. She knows she has the role of Petter Pan in the bag! She’s female and she’s had tons of on-stage experience. (The paper is called the SMS Express). Jessi is eager to show the other kids what she can do and have them see her as more than “the new black girl”/
Jessi waits to tell her friends all together, but when they meet up Kristy announces that she might try out for the part of Peter Pan. Dawn says she might too. Claudia says that other kids can also try out and there will be some older kids trying out for parts. Jessi finally tells her friends her news and there’s silence. (They don’t think the role will go to a sixth grader). But Jessi is convinced because she’s a dancer she’ll get the part. Jessi tells them she’ll meet them at the meeting because she sees Emily and wants to talk to her. Again she tells her news to Emily and Emily tells her to go for it. Jessi decides to ask her friends to keep notes and she’ll use them to write her article.
At the meeting, Kristy says some of her brothers and sisters will probably audition. (Definitely Karen).Mal says some of hers will probably audition too. Claud thinks some of the other kids they sit for will also. Then they talk about which kids at the high school will try out and for what parts.
At lunch, Claudia says she wants to do the scenery. Kristy says she wants to try out for the part of Nana (the dog?). OH KAAY. Maryanne says the person who played Nana also played the crocodile. Kristy says that works for her. Stacey hasn’t decided what role she wants. She just wants to be in the play. They talk about the role of Peter Pan and how Jessi just *assumes* she’ll get the role and trying out is just a formality. Dawn says she’s decided to audition for the part of “Tiger Lily”. Logan is like Stacey. He doesn’t care what part he gets just as long as he’s in the play. They say Mal mentioned she wants to work on costumes. Logan says maybe he’ll try out to be a pirate. Kristy says that Cookie is also trying out for the part of Tiger Lily. Dawn is now hesitant but Kristy encourages her to not let Cookie stop her. Cookie who just so happens to be listening to them. Mary Anne says the Pike kids are definitely going to try out. Kristy says she wants to try out for Tinker Belle.
Sam is there. He tells Stacey he came because his friend is trying out for Captain Hook and some more of his friends are going to audition. Surprisingly Maryanne is there also (for moral support). The younger kids are called to audition first. Mr. Cheeney tells them he needs them to play the parts of (the lost boys, the Indians, and Micheal Darling). Karen calls out that she wants to play Tinker Belle. Mr. Cheeney tries to explain that she’s not really a character and they’ll just stimulate her but Karen is adamant. Kristy has to get up and calm her down. Matt is allowed to audition. Karen is next and shows him how she can be a fairy. Marl’s sister's action. Then Buddy. Then the Papadakis. Then the kids do dance routines. (Jackie stumbles through it). Then the little kids are dismissed.
Stacey is called to audition. She auditions for Peter and does a dance she choreographed. Stacey is very good. Kristy does even better, Sam and Logan audition for a pirate named Bill Jukes. Sam is better. Dawn’s audition is great as Tiger Lily's. But Cookie performs just as well as Dawn. Jessi does a decent read through , dance, and song. Among the people asked to stay are Stacey, Dawn, Sam, Kristy Gookie, Rick, and Allan Gray. Jessi's name isn’t called. Jessi thinks this is good thing because he’s already made up his mind about who’ll be Peter Pan.
At school, the parts are announced. Cookie gets the part of Tiger Lily. Kirsty gets the part of Peter Pan. Dawn is chosen to play Wendy. Logan gets picked as a pirate named Noodler. Sam and Stacey are chosen to play Mr and Mrs. Darling. Jessi gets a part as a pirate (to Cookie’s delight because she thinks il will start trouble in the club). Jacket gets the part of Michael and Karen got the part of Tinkerbelle. Pete Black got the part of the dog and Crocodile. David Micheal got the part of a Lost Boy. Alan Gray is Smee. Some of the other kids (Mariah Perkings and Matt) get to be Lost Boys. Matt gets to be an Indian. Claudia is a set designer. Mallory will be working on costumes. (Cookie warns Claudia and Mal they’d better do a good job).
At the next meeting, Jessi is a little salty as the other members ask Kristy about how she feels about getting the part. We find out that C laire is a lost boy. Nickey is an Indian. Claire tho refuses to be in it because she can’t dress up in a pretty costume and she doesn’t want to dress up like a boy. Shea is a lost boy. Linny Carolyn Arnold, Melody and Bill, Bobby and Natlie, are too. Dawn, Kristy, Claud, and Mal all admit they’re scared. So, Jessi dumps down their throats and basically tells them to greatful that they got what they wanted and in some cases better parts than what they went out for. Jessi says she told the directo she didn’t want to be the pirate and he gave her the role of the choreographer. Dawn asks Jessi why she didn’t get the lead role and he tells her because he wanted to give someone else a chance and she’d had too much experience. She says it was because she was *too good*. The other BSC feel kind of bad for Jessi but they also think she shouldn’t have been so cocky and told everyone she already had the role.
Maryanne goes to a rehersal and takes Matt and Heley. Mr. Cheeney sees Maryanne help Jackie down (he’s climbed up the ropes). During the rehearsals, kids keep coming to her for help (Karen loses a shoe). So, Mr. Cheeney makes her the babck stage babysitter and gives her a special assignment to help Jackie out as his personal coach.
Mal makes a big deal out of her first assignment (measuring boys around their waists). They’re starting with the ones with the biggest roles. It doesn’t make it any easier when she finds out she has to measure the guy playing Captain Hook (Lucas) is one of the most gorgeous guys at the high school. She starts with Dawn and finishes her. Then she moves on to Karen. Mal sees her brothers (the triplets) goofing off and tries to get them to stop (Which is Maryanne’s job and she isn’t happy with Mal). Savannah isn’t happy with Mal either because she’s taking to long to get the measurements. So she gives her the kids.
While trying to get her lines memorized, Dawn studies them with Maryanne. She realizes that she’s not cool with Peter Pan thinking of Wendy as the man. Maryanne says she thinks she’s making a big deal out of nothing. The play might be a little sexiest but it’s been around a long time. Besides is she saying she wnts to just drop out. Dawn says she doesn’t but she’ll think of something. So, what Dawn does is change her lines to *give suggestions* to Peter to do stuff himself. Mr. Cheeney isn’t so thrilled with Dawn’s updated versions. He tells her they’ll do the lines as they were originally written. He’s not happy with Dawn or Kristy’s performance. Dawn isn’t projecting and Kristy is looking at the script to much. Dawn is being stubborn about the line changes. Kristy tells her to just give it a rest. He tells them to just go through the rest of the scene without the scripts. (IT’s the scene where Wendy is showing on the shadow). Logan gets “fired” for fooling around with some of the other pirates out of boredom.
My Thoughts
This was kind of blah because let's go character by character. Let’s start with Jessi. Ok so let’s be honest. Jessi was never gonna get the lead role! I don’t care if she could act like Angela Bassett and sing like Chante Moore. And I don’t think I need to say why. But I will say why. She’s the only black girl in a predominately white school that up until this point has made no secrets whatsoever that she’s “the black girl”.
Mallory’s story just annoyed me. All I keep thinking was did she think she was going to brush up against something *else* while she was measuring them and then she spent the whole book just doing too much. Personally, I know a person like this and sometimes it’s very hard to put up with. Much like with this person I wanted to scream “MALLORY WILL YOU GO SOMEWHERE AND SIT DOWN!”
Kristy’s part was.. I think this was the second series book I read where the lead character doesn’t learn there lines (the other was Girl Talk Center Stage) and it’s like what. At least in that one, the main character (Sabrina) has a excuse. She takes on too much. Kristy doesn’t learn her lines because she wasn’t expecting the role and wants to play the dog and the crocodile. Since when do you need real people to play these parts? So you don’t need Tinkerbelle but you need the dog and the crocodile? Ok maybe the crocodile but the DOG? I know it said she was too focused on what other people were doing but what it looked like to be was Kristy really didn’t want the role (wasn’t interested in it) and thus didn’t try very hard to get into it.
Claudid didn’t really have a part so let’s skip to Dawn. Ok I get it. She made a VERY good point but I agreed with the director. This is NOT your play to change. Now if Dawn was a good writer she could do a spoof on the play. THEN she could express all the thoughts of how the play was sexist. Or she could write a book herself. But this was definitely NOT the time.
Maryanne didn’t really have much of a part either. She did what the series is good for babysit. I do give props to Mr. Cheeney. There is NO WAY I would have worked with all those kids! Stacey’s part there wasn’t much to say there either. It got resolved in a chapter. She and Sam talked about why he was acting immature and she set him straight.
Logan’s part was slightly out of character. I could see this coming from Alan (starting a sword fight and yelling MUTANY) but somehow I thought Logan was a bit more. I don’t know (seriously). But then again he did start a food fight in the book where they went to camp for the summer.
Did I miss anyone? There are some from the characters’ POV we don’t normally see, Sam, Cookie, Jackie. Cookie was a little awesome. She made the janitor’s closet her dressing room AND she had her own stylist. But I think she gave the best moment in the whole book with that. The rest.. lackluster.
Rating: 5 and a half (the half is for Cookie’s awesomeness)
Jessica has two good pieces of news. She’s going to be the correspondent of the SMS Express. She’ll be responsible for one article a month. Also, SMS is going to be putting on the musical after Pan. She Jessi decides to cover the musical in depth. She knows she has the role of Petter Pan in the bag! She’s female and she’s had tons of on-stage experience. (The paper is called the SMS Express). Jessi is eager to show the other kids what she can do and have them see her as more than “the new black girl”/
Jessi waits to tell her friends all together, but when they meet up Kristy announces that she might try out for the part of Peter Pan. Dawn says she might too. Claudia says that other kids can also try out and there will be some older kids trying out for parts. Jessi finally tells her friends her news and there’s silence. (They don’t think the role will go to a sixth grader). But Jessi is convinced because she’s a dancer she’ll get the part. Jessi tells them she’ll meet them at the meeting because she sees Emily and wants to talk to her. Again she tells her news to Emily and Emily tells her to go for it. Jessi decides to ask her friends to keep notes and she’ll use them to write her article.
At the meeting, Kristy says some of her brothers and sisters will probably audition. (Definitely Karen).Mal says some of hers will probably audition too. Claud thinks some of the other kids they sit for will also. Then they talk about which kids at the high school will try out and for what parts.
At lunch, Claudia says she wants to do the scenery. Kristy says she wants to try out for the part of Nana (the dog?). OH KAAY. Maryanne says the person who played Nana also played the crocodile. Kristy says that works for her. Stacey hasn’t decided what role she wants. She just wants to be in the play. They talk about the role of Peter Pan and how Jessi just *assumes* she’ll get the role and trying out is just a formality. Dawn says she’s decided to audition for the part of “Tiger Lily”. Logan is like Stacey. He doesn’t care what part he gets just as long as he’s in the play. They say Mal mentioned she wants to work on costumes. Logan says maybe he’ll try out to be a pirate. Kristy says that Cookie is also trying out for the part of Tiger Lily. Dawn is now hesitant but Kristy encourages her to not let Cookie stop her. Cookie who just so happens to be listening to them. Mary Anne says the Pike kids are definitely going to try out. Kristy says she wants to try out for Tinker Belle.
Sam is there. He tells Stacey he came because his friend is trying out for Captain Hook and some more of his friends are going to audition. Surprisingly Maryanne is there also (for moral support). The younger kids are called to audition first. Mr. Cheeney tells them he needs them to play the parts of (the lost boys, the Indians, and Micheal Darling). Karen calls out that she wants to play Tinker Belle. Mr. Cheeney tries to explain that she’s not really a character and they’ll just stimulate her but Karen is adamant. Kristy has to get up and calm her down. Matt is allowed to audition. Karen is next and shows him how she can be a fairy. Marl’s sister's action. Then Buddy. Then the Papadakis. Then the kids do dance routines. (Jackie stumbles through it). Then the little kids are dismissed.
Stacey is called to audition. She auditions for Peter and does a dance she choreographed. Stacey is very good. Kristy does even better, Sam and Logan audition for a pirate named Bill Jukes. Sam is better. Dawn’s audition is great as Tiger Lily's. But Cookie performs just as well as Dawn. Jessi does a decent read through , dance, and song. Among the people asked to stay are Stacey, Dawn, Sam, Kristy Gookie, Rick, and Allan Gray. Jessi's name isn’t called. Jessi thinks this is good thing because he’s already made up his mind about who’ll be Peter Pan.
At school, the parts are announced. Cookie gets the part of Tiger Lily. Kirsty gets the part of Peter Pan. Dawn is chosen to play Wendy. Logan gets picked as a pirate named Noodler. Sam and Stacey are chosen to play Mr and Mrs. Darling. Jessi gets a part as a pirate (to Cookie’s delight because she thinks il will start trouble in the club). Jacket gets the part of Michael and Karen got the part of Tinkerbelle. Pete Black got the part of the dog and Crocodile. David Micheal got the part of a Lost Boy. Alan Gray is Smee. Some of the other kids (Mariah Perkings and Matt) get to be Lost Boys. Matt gets to be an Indian. Claudia is a set designer. Mallory will be working on costumes. (Cookie warns Claudia and Mal they’d better do a good job).
At the next meeting, Jessi is a little salty as the other members ask Kristy about how she feels about getting the part. We find out that C laire is a lost boy. Nickey is an Indian. Claire tho refuses to be in it because she can’t dress up in a pretty costume and she doesn’t want to dress up like a boy. Shea is a lost boy. Linny Carolyn Arnold, Melody and Bill, Bobby and Natlie, are too. Dawn, Kristy, Claud, and Mal all admit they’re scared. So, Jessi dumps down their throats and basically tells them to greatful that they got what they wanted and in some cases better parts than what they went out for. Jessi says she told the directo she didn’t want to be the pirate and he gave her the role of the choreographer. Dawn asks Jessi why she didn’t get the lead role and he tells her because he wanted to give someone else a chance and she’d had too much experience. She says it was because she was *too good*. The other BSC feel kind of bad for Jessi but they also think she shouldn’t have been so cocky and told everyone she already had the role.
Maryanne goes to a rehersal and takes Matt and Heley. Mr. Cheeney sees Maryanne help Jackie down (he’s climbed up the ropes). During the rehearsals, kids keep coming to her for help (Karen loses a shoe). So, Mr. Cheeney makes her the babck stage babysitter and gives her a special assignment to help Jackie out as his personal coach.
Mal makes a big deal out of her first assignment (measuring boys around their waists). They’re starting with the ones with the biggest roles. It doesn’t make it any easier when she finds out she has to measure the guy playing Captain Hook (Lucas) is one of the most gorgeous guys at the high school. She starts with Dawn and finishes her. Then she moves on to Karen. Mal sees her brothers (the triplets) goofing off and tries to get them to stop (Which is Maryanne’s job and she isn’t happy with Mal). Savannah isn’t happy with Mal either because she’s taking to long to get the measurements. So she gives her the kids.
While trying to get her lines memorized, Dawn studies them with Maryanne. She realizes that she’s not cool with Peter Pan thinking of Wendy as the man. Maryanne says she thinks she’s making a big deal out of nothing. The play might be a little sexiest but it’s been around a long time. Besides is she saying she wnts to just drop out. Dawn says she doesn’t but she’ll think of something. So, what Dawn does is change her lines to *give suggestions* to Peter to do stuff himself. Mr. Cheeney isn’t so thrilled with Dawn’s updated versions. He tells her they’ll do the lines as they were originally written. He’s not happy with Dawn or Kristy’s performance. Dawn isn’t projecting and Kristy is looking at the script to much. Dawn is being stubborn about the line changes. Kristy tells her to just give it a rest. He tells them to just go through the rest of the scene without the scripts. (IT’s the scene where Wendy is showing on the shadow). Logan gets “fired” for fooling around with some of the other pirates out of boredom.
My Thoughts
This was kind of blah because let's go character by character. Let’s start with Jessi. Ok so let’s be honest. Jessi was never gonna get the lead role! I don’t care if she could act like Angela Bassett and sing like Chante Moore. And I don’t think I need to say why. But I will say why. She’s the only black girl in a predominately white school that up until this point has made no secrets whatsoever that she’s “the black girl”.
Mallory’s story just annoyed me. All I keep thinking was did she think she was going to brush up against something *else* while she was measuring them and then she spent the whole book just doing too much. Personally, I know a person like this and sometimes it’s very hard to put up with. Much like with this person I wanted to scream “MALLORY WILL YOU GO SOMEWHERE AND SIT DOWN!”
Kristy’s part was.. I think this was the second series book I read where the lead character doesn’t learn there lines (the other was Girl Talk Center Stage) and it’s like what. At least in that one, the main character (Sabrina) has a excuse. She takes on too much. Kristy doesn’t learn her lines because she wasn’t expecting the role and wants to play the dog and the crocodile. Since when do you need real people to play these parts? So you don’t need Tinkerbelle but you need the dog and the crocodile? Ok maybe the crocodile but the DOG? I know it said she was too focused on what other people were doing but what it looked like to be was Kristy really didn’t want the role (wasn’t interested in it) and thus didn’t try very hard to get into it.
Claudid didn’t really have a part so let’s skip to Dawn. Ok I get it. She made a VERY good point but I agreed with the director. This is NOT your play to change. Now if Dawn was a good writer she could do a spoof on the play. THEN she could express all the thoughts of how the play was sexist. Or she could write a book herself. But this was definitely NOT the time.
Maryanne didn’t really have much of a part either. She did what the series is good for babysit. I do give props to Mr. Cheeney. There is NO WAY I would have worked with all those kids! Stacey’s part there wasn’t much to say there either. It got resolved in a chapter. She and Sam talked about why he was acting immature and she set him straight.
Logan’s part was slightly out of character. I could see this coming from Alan (starting a sword fight and yelling MUTANY) but somehow I thought Logan was a bit more. I don’t know (seriously). But then again he did start a food fight in the book where they went to camp for the summer.
Did I miss anyone? There are some from the characters’ POV we don’t normally see, Sam, Cookie, Jackie. Cookie was a little awesome. She made the janitor’s closet her dressing room AND she had her own stylist. But I think she gave the best moment in the whole book with that. The rest.. lackluster.
Rating: 5 and a half (the half is for Cookie’s awesomeness)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2020
i have a feeling all of my bsc rereads will cause me to roll my eyes a bit but god help me, i love a super special. i remember loving this one in particular although i can’t remember why now. it was good, not great. the exercise in giving peripheral characters was fun (except for jackie rodowsky; call me a grump but i’ve never seen him as an adorable klutz, just a menace.) i’m sad claudia only got a couple of chapters but i guess that means i just need to read more claudia books!
May 28, 2020
As I seem to be completely incapable of picking up a 'real' book at the moment I'm just reading random stuff from my childhood instead. This is still an enjoyable read.
February 6, 2021
I read this book in a day because I couldn’t put it down. It’s so good and I definitely recommend for other people who like books that have drama.
December 9, 2009
AT LEAST the Super Specials stopped having a boatload of unsupervised teens go on exotic vacations. Somehow, almost all of the BSC get cast in the school's performance of "Peter Pan," with Kristy beating out all the boys as the lead. Naturally, there are also a bunch of little kids involved in the play.
April 29, 2009
Boy is Jessi full of herself. ;) Really not one of the better Super Specials - I liked it when they went places more than when they just did things in Stoneybrook that were apparently too big for a regular book.
December 10, 2021
I saw the title, I saw the cover, and I saw the prologue was a Jessi POV, and I thought I was going to hate every minute of reading this, and I didn't.
JESSI: At some point, Jessi went from being a sweet girl who learned sign language for a new kid and rushed a hamster into emergency vet care to a raging egomaniac. This book was embarrassing for her, and her takeaway from her terrible behavior was that she should have accepted a role that was beneath. Jessi, when you're making KRISTY look chill, you're in serious trouble.
KRISTY: Kristy is pretty much always a blast in the super specials, and this was no exception. Her utter devastation at being cast as the lead and not being able to wear the animal costumes is hilarious. I love Kristy.
DAWN: Dawn's rebrand as a social justice warrior continues in this book and becomes even more annoying considering she wanted to play Tiger Lily so she could wear the "exotic" costume.
STACEY: Stacey has been cool as fuck in the last few books. I like that she's always up for trying something new and doesn't turn it into the hugest drama on earth like Dawn.
COKIE: Unexpected POV that really added nothing to this story.
CLAUDIA: Claudia always fades to the background in Super Specials, and this was no exception.
MALLORY: Something about a Super Special turns Mallory into such a hormone monster. I also noticed how sloppily this book was written when Mallory introduces Ben and their relationship status twice in two different chapters.
LOGAN: god I was so happy when Logan got fired and then Mr. Cheney turned out to be a spineless coward.
JACKIE: I hate when they give the kids POVs, but at least it wasn't fucking Karen. Speaking of Karen, you know Watson the millionaire slipped the director a couple hundred bucks so that his precious princess could be cast as Tinkerbell.
SAM: Sam is the most obnoxious person on earth, and I truly don't know why Stacey would ever be interested him.
JESSI: At some point, Jessi went from being a sweet girl who learned sign language for a new kid and rushed a hamster into emergency vet care to a raging egomaniac. This book was embarrassing for her, and her takeaway from her terrible behavior was that she should have accepted a role that was beneath. Jessi, when you're making KRISTY look chill, you're in serious trouble.
KRISTY: Kristy is pretty much always a blast in the super specials, and this was no exception. Her utter devastation at being cast as the lead and not being able to wear the animal costumes is hilarious. I love Kristy.
DAWN: Dawn's rebrand as a social justice warrior continues in this book and becomes even more annoying considering she wanted to play Tiger Lily so she could wear the "exotic" costume.
STACEY: Stacey has been cool as fuck in the last few books. I like that she's always up for trying something new and doesn't turn it into the hugest drama on earth like Dawn.
COKIE: Unexpected POV that really added nothing to this story.
CLAUDIA: Claudia always fades to the background in Super Specials, and this was no exception.
MALLORY: Something about a Super Special turns Mallory into such a hormone monster. I also noticed how sloppily this book was written when Mallory introduces Ben and their relationship status twice in two different chapters.
LOGAN: god I was so happy when Logan got fired and then Mr. Cheney turned out to be a spineless coward.
JACKIE: I hate when they give the kids POVs, but at least it wasn't fucking Karen. Speaking of Karen, you know Watson the millionaire slipped the director a couple hundred bucks so that his precious princess could be cast as Tinkerbell.
SAM: Sam is the most obnoxious person on earth, and I truly don't know why Stacey would ever be interested him.
January 16, 2020
...in which Jessi is insufferable, Mallory has to deal with boys, Claudia worries about the scenery killing someone, Stacey and Sam try to figure out how to act around each other in front of their friends, Mary Anne helps Jackie Rodowsky, Kristy can't remember her lines, Dawn decides Peter Pan is unfeminist, and Logan gets kicked out of and rejoins the play in the same afternoon. Oh and Cokie gets her own dressing room.
Although of course everything works out in the end. No, seriously. This probably had the least amount of...conflict? drama? of any of the Super Specials so far. I mean, not that I expect that much more from a Baby-Sitter's Club book, but everything anyone, except for Jessi and maybe Kristy and Dawn, though that's a stretch, was dealing with was solved really quickly. And I mean quickly as in in one chapter or maybe two at most.
Also this was an unusual book because there wasn't really in baby-sitting in it. Even Mary Anne, who was the backstage baby-sitter, didn't do much. I mean not that that's a bad thing or a good thing, it's just not what I would have expected. I mean I thought the elementary school children were in the play as a plot device (aka they would need baby-sitting), but that wasn't really the case. Also I thought it was kind of unusual in the first place that at least four different schools were putting on the play, but maybe it wasn't.
Although of course everything works out in the end. No, seriously. This probably had the least amount of...conflict? drama? of any of the Super Specials so far. I mean, not that I expect that much more from a Baby-Sitter's Club book, but everything anyone, except for Jessi and maybe Kristy and Dawn, though that's a stretch, was dealing with was solved really quickly. And I mean quickly as in in one chapter or maybe two at most.
Also this was an unusual book because there wasn't really in baby-sitting in it. Even Mary Anne, who was the backstage baby-sitter, didn't do much. I mean not that that's a bad thing or a good thing, it's just not what I would have expected. I mean I thought the elementary school children were in the play as a plot device (aka they would need baby-sitting), but that wasn't really the case. Also I thought it was kind of unusual in the first place that at least four different schools were putting on the play, but maybe it wasn't.
December 13, 2023
This was the first bsc special that I bought from a scholastic book fair at school. I was just getting into the bsc and was a fan of Peter Pan, so thought it was the perfect combination, until I read the book. I didn’t really get into the plot then, but looking back, dawn was trying to assert being a feminist about her Wendy role and that’s pretty cool of her for once, though if they were going to do that, they should have called out the roles with stereotypes of indigenous populations, but I don’t remember if anyone played them. But that was another plot line in Claudia and the First Thanksgiving.
December 9, 2018
This one is almost entirely in the school theater. It's play auditions, rehearsals, and performances. All members of the BSC, except Shannon, were involved in the play. I liked the parts with Sam and Stacey the best. There weren't many of them, but they were cute. They played Mr. and Mrs. Darling. Logan was a pirate. Kristy was Peter Pan, and Dawn was Wendy, and both tried out for other parts. Also, they fought with Cokie. Mallory was the costume designer, Claudia was the set designer, and Jessi was the choreographer. Mary Anne was the backstage baby-sitter.
September 12, 2020
This was my single most re-read Super Special and probably my most re-read overall book too. I forgot that both Jessi AND Mallory are utterly insufferable. Mal I can understand, since she usually spends the specials doing something annoying or embarrassing, but Jessi's reaction to not being cast as Peter seemed really out of character. Shouldn't a kid with as much semi-professional stage experience as she has 1) understand the concept of auditions and that you don't always get the part you want, and 2) not be all that concerned about a dinky middle school production anyway?
December 30, 2020
(LL)
Yawn. This was extremely boring. The lessons are the same, since the regular series has plenty of plays in them as the subplots. Nothing new here.
Also, we get to see Dawn AGAIN try to change everything because she doesn’t like something. She really is not a good character, and trust me, I’ve tried to like her regardless of the dumb stuff she does. Jessi’s character gets thrown through a wood chipper just to add unnecessary drama, and we have Cokie narrate a chapter (jarring as hell) for no reason, as she doesn’t magically become a friend to the BSC at all in this book or the regular series.
Yawn. This was extremely boring. The lessons are the same, since the regular series has plenty of plays in them as the subplots. Nothing new here.
Also, we get to see Dawn AGAIN try to change everything because she doesn’t like something. She really is not a good character, and trust me, I’ve tried to like her regardless of the dumb stuff she does. Jessi’s character gets thrown through a wood chipper just to add unnecessary drama, and we have Cokie narrate a chapter (jarring as hell) for no reason, as she doesn’t magically become a friend to the BSC at all in this book or the regular series.
Read
July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
August 6, 2021
Oh god all of the girls are so annoying in this one but it was cute and light (except for that emotional bolt out of the blue at the end with Kristy and Dawn's dad's...ouch) and familiar because I was also part of a production of Peter Pan. So, that said, way better than most of the other Super Specials lately.
December 10, 2021
Between all the various series and spinoffs of The Babysitters Club, there have been 381 books published as of today. This was the 154th I have read in 2021.
It is definitely my favorite.
The nostalgia of high school theatre is enough to make me wish the BSC engaged in musical theatre more often.
It is definitely my favorite.
The nostalgia of high school theatre is enough to make me wish the BSC engaged in musical theatre more often.
Read
October 7, 2023This is the definition of a comfort book for me. I read so many of these back in the day (but was over them by the time this one came out), and it was fun to revisit all the characters AND relive my own history of doing “Peter Pan” in high school. (I was a pirate because all the tall kids were pirates.)
April 28, 2019
I really enjoyed this one. I like how Dawn and Kristy wanted their fathers to be there.
I like how MaryAnne's dad taped the play for Dawn to send to her dad. I know Richard has always had that "stick in the mud" rep, but he was always a great parent.
I like how MaryAnne's dad taped the play for Dawn to send to her dad. I know Richard has always had that "stick in the mud" rep, but he was always a great parent.
August 17, 2019
The whole school is excited for the production of Peter Pan. Jessie just knows she will play the lead of Peter Pan. So when she doesn’t get the part she becomes upset and angry. The babysitters club all end up playing vital roles in the play.
August 22, 2023
I read this over and over when I was a kid. But it's written so differently from pretty much all the other books. And several characters are sooo unlikable for most of the book, it's no wonder I didn't like some of them as a kid. But the story is still pretty fun.
September 20, 2023
4 stars. I love stories set around the theater so this was right up my alley. I adored this! Such a fun read. I loved watching the BSC and everyone else audition, rehearse, and go on to perform ‘Peter Pan’. I was thoroughly entertained and it was just a really cute read.
July 30, 2024
Omg Jessi and Karen were INSUFFERABLE in this one, yikes.
It was cool reading a Super Special focused on something more mundane like a school play than a crazy expensive random trip or something lol!
It was cool reading a Super Special focused on something more mundane like a school play than a crazy expensive random trip or something lol!
April 16, 2018
For my written review, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
June 23, 2018
I loved it when Dawn tried out for Tiger Lily but got Wendy instead!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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