Kristy and the Secret of Susan

The Baby-Sitters Club #32

by Ann M. Martin

Kristy's newest baby-sitting charge is Susan Felder, who goes away to a special school. Susan isn't like most kids. While she can play the piano and sing beautifully... she can't talk to anyone. Susan is autistic. She lives locked inside her own secret world.

Kristy thinks it's unfair that Susan has to be sent off to school and is treated differently from everyone else. But Kristy's going to try to change that--by showing everyone that Susan's a "regular" kid, too. And then maybe Kristy's new friend can stay in Stoneybrook for good.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens, Juvenile, Contemporary, Friendship

145 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

The handling of autisum in this book is what really makes it show its age. You can tell it was written before doctors and other people knew about the spectrum. Susan, the autistic kid, is portrayed as totally mute and lost in her own little world, clicking her tongue and flapping her hands and her mother having to yell just to get her attention. At one point she even wets herself in public because she's so unable to function outside her home.

Susan's mother and Kristy's thoughts outline that Susan's future is "bleak". Granted, this CAN be true if a person is severely disabled and unable to adjust to everyday life despite therapy and medical treatments, but the way it's written it seems like she means ALL autistics have "bleak futures".

The portrayal of the handicapped class at SMS bugged me, too. I know disabled kids having meltdowns and tantrums IS truth in television, but there's DIFFERENT KINDS. Some might kick and scream like overgrown preschoolers, but others might just start crying or go totally quiet and withdraw in on themselves. Handicapped people are not a monolith. Also, they don't necessarily need to be treated like two-year-olds.

Kristy's caught some flack from other snarkers for being righteously pissed at the Feldmans and trying to change their minds, but if I were Kristy I'd feel the same way even if I WEREN'T on the spectrum. Susan's only eight, why are her parents giving up so early? Even if she needs more care than they can give her on their own (special schools) they could at least VISIT her. Treat her like she's their child and not a liability. Mrs. Feldman doesn't even care when Susan manages to make a friend, and in the end they send her away and hope the new baby they're going to have will be "normal". That's just terrible.

That said, I do agree that Kristy wasn't exactly within her rights to try to change things. Her heart was in the right place in trying to help Susan come out of her shell, but she handled it really badly. I couldn't help cringing at her trying to force Susan to make friends with kids who'd never met an autistic person before and wouldn't know how to act around one. While the kid who tried to exploit Susan's savant abilities was a dick and Kristy was right to tell him off, you can't help but think she should have seen it coming. Kids are assholes to anyone who's different.

Which brings me to the subplot involving the Australian Hobbart boys. The younger ones are bullied for their accents, but the focus is on James, who takes the brunt of the bullying from a particular boy named Zach. In the end, he befriends the bully and that seems to be the answer to his problems.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it's not that uncommon for people who initially dislike each other to warm up to each other and become friends. I actually adore this trope, especially when it involves a bully who's got a softer core than they let on. Bart Simpson and Nelson Muntz, Doug Funnie and Roger Klotz, Helga Pataki and Lila Sawyer, Rei Hino and Usagi Tsukino (in the first anime only, as Rei is a much different character in the other incarnations).

But it doesn't work in this book. James, who never did anything wrong, is bullied just for having an accent and the only solution is to make friends with the ringleader, who never suffers any kind of consequences for his behavior. It sends the message that all the bully needs is friendship and forgiveness and that makes everything okay when in truth, sometimes bullies are just horrible people who need to be punished and don't deserve forgiveness.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I actually started reading around age 3 (thank you, my Granny's Dick and Jane books!), this series is what I remember most about loving to read during my childhood. My sister and I drank these books up like they were oxygen. I truly think we owned just about every single one from every one of the series. We even got the privilege of meeting Ann M. Martin at a book signing, but of course little starstruck me froze and could not speak a word to my biggest hero at that time. Once in awhile if I come across these at a yard sale, I will pick them up for a couple hour trip down memory lane, and I declare nearly nothing centers and relaxes me more!

[Ciara · Rating 1 out of 5]

i was not looking forward to reading this book again, & it was actually even worse that i remembered. this is the one where kristy gets a month-long regular sitting job watching susan felder, an eight-year-old autistic girl who lives around the corner from claudia. the club has never sat for susan before because she attends a special school, a boarding school, where her developmental issues can be professionally addressed. but she's home for a little while in this book, awaiting transfer to a similar school with a really good music program. susan's mother describes her as a "savant". apparently she can listen to music once & re-create it on the piano, even if the original score wasn't played on the piano. she can also sing the words, in any language, after hearing them once, even though she doesn't actually talk. & she memorized a perpetual calendar & can tell you what day of the week any given date falls on.

kristy is very upset that the felders send susan to a special school. she seems to be convinced that susan could attend the special education classes in the stoneybrook public schools & do fine. kristy is really hung up on the idea that she can use her month with susan to help her make friends, & this will make the felders see that susan can be "normal" & go to regular school. like that's somehow something that the felders don't want for susan or something. like they never looked into the special education program in stoneybrook. kristy actually admits toward the end of the book that she thought the felders were "taking the easy way out" by sending susan to a special school--like it's easy for a parent to send their child to a school away from home. especially such a young child. especially an only child. especially a child with special needs. what the fuck, kristy?

i know this is ann's "special issues" book. ann is very passionate about raising awareness around disability issues, especially things like autism, down's syndrome, etc. she has written several books on these topics. & she needs kristy to have all these idealistic viewpoints to act as a contrast against the reality that susan will benefit the most at the special school & kristy isn't always right. but it's still kind of an insufferable story line.

kristy also puts susan into a position where she is teased & used by other kids in the neighborhood. kristy is so dead-set on susan making friends that she trots her out in the neighborhood & introduces her to strange kids that kristy hasn't met before & brags about susan's savant abilities. so surprise surprise when the kids think susan is weird, & they just want to see her do her "tricks". one kid is charging the other neighborhood kids $1 each to go to susan's house & ask her some dates & have her play a new piece of music. kristy catches them in the act & is really angry. even though she is kind of to blame for putting susan on display in the first place.

this plotline is connected to the B-plot, in which the hobarts move into mary anne's old house. you know, the house that was too small for mary anne, her dad, dawn, her mom, & jeff on a part-time basis. now it's hosting mr. & mrs. hobart & their four sons. o-kay. anyway, the hobarts are from australia & the kids in stoneybrook spend a lot of time teasing them about their accents & australian slang. one of the hobart boys becomes "friends" with susan...really just because he desperately needs a friend. even mrs. felder acknowledges that susan doesn't form attachments to people, not even her own mother. by the end of the book, the kids have stopped teasing the hobarts, the oldest hobart boy has asked mallory to the movies, & the younger boys are making friends.

ugh. hated this one.

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

this is my first time reading this book!

kristy starts a regular baby-sitting job with susan felder, a low-functioning autistic girl who is home from her specialized (boarding) school before starting at a new specialized (boarding) school. kristy doesn't know anything about autism -- she thinks she can get susan to make friends, and she thinks she can get her parents to keep her at home and send her to the public schools' special ed programs. meanwhile, the hobart family moves into the spiers' old house (from australia!) and everyone bullies them because they're different.

highlights:
-finally! a reference to mallory having red hair! we were told she has brown hair in Hello, Mallory, and though she has been depicted as having red hair on all book covers on which she appears, no subsequent reference to her hair color has been made.
-there is a moldy bag of food in kristy's locker, and she says she thought the smell was her gym suit. this is almost like a school lunch comment, so I love it.
-mallory starts dating ben hobart. gingers in LUV!
-"[mrs. felder] was on her way to the beauty parlor to have her hair col--I mean, cut (that was exactly what mrs. felder had said!)" - I love this goofy moment where old-fashioned mrs. felder is embarrassed to admit she gets her hair colored.
-mrs. felder asks kristy, "do I look any fatter to you?" after telling her she is pregnant. kristy says yes because that's the answer she knows mrs. felder wanted. I kind of appreciate that this old-fashioned woman who is embarrassed about dying her hair WANTS to be told she looks fat.
-claudia tries to pick her own lock with a bobby pin for fun. great moments in claudia-emulating-nancy drew history.
-kristy has a strong belief that she will be able to change susan's life drastically, and then she doesn't succeed. susan still goes off to school. this is a really important lesson; just because you think you're the unsinkable kristy thomas who can do literally anything doesn't mean that's true.
-that said, kristy decides she wants to be a teacher who works with kids like susan when she grows up. I doubt that (she is SUCH a future CEO), but I still think it's really sweet.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-kristy's understanding of down's syndrome: "down's syndrome people have sort of slanted eyes and fattish faces, and are usually docile, affectionate, and friendly." it sounds like she's talking about a breed of dog. UGH.
-mrs. felder says autism is rare. it's wild how much that's changed. autism is not so rare anymore.
-kristy likens susan to matt braddock (who is profoundly deaf). she is clueless. she even says that the kids in matt's neighborhood learned sign language, so he was able to have friends, comparing that to susan's parents not trying to help her make friends. as though being a deaf kid who is otherwise normal by mainstream standards is remotely similar to being an autistic kid who never exhibits meaningful speech. kristy is so naive.
-there is a scene where an awful neighborhood bully starts charging money to go see susan play the piano (she can play anything she's heard only once) or state the day of the week on which a certain date in history fell. kristy lets them all in the house, thinking they are trying to be friends with susan. to repeat, kristy is so naive.
-stacey says she isn't feeling well and that she's lost weight -- is this a foreshadow that I'm unaware of? Stacey's Emergency won't come out for over a year.

no outfits.

snacks in claudia's room:
-mentos in her dresser drawer

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has alot of backlash but what I think people are forgetting is that this book was written in the early 90s. Before people and doctor's really understood Autism. Therefore I really appreciated this book. Although Kristy may have not made the best decision with trying to get Susan to make friends, her heart and good intentions were there. Susan was portrayed correctly especially for the time period. This book really made me appreciate Kristy.

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kristy baby sits an autistic girl named Susan, and becomes determined to "fix" her. I read this book when I was about ten, and thought it was really boring, but it actually gave a lot of good information about autism that helped me later in life.

Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
Very little. I remember that Susan was amazing with dates, and music, and that some jerk tried to make money off her as a sideshow, like in a circus. I also remember reading the whole book, and still being very confused about autism, and its causes, and what exactly happened to the people who were diagnosed with it. By the time I graduated from high school there were more and more children being diagnosed with autism, and all of the so-called experts were just as mystified by the disease as I was. Remembering my impressions of this book helped put it in context for how the world feels about autism. Today we have several regular library patrons who are severely autistic, and remembering Susan in this book helps me keep in mind what their parents must be going through. Not everyone has eager Kristy to show up three times a week to watch their kids so they can get a break.

This is the first book with the Hobart boys, one of whom becomes Mallory's boyfriend. I remember that one of them calls Susan his "mate" which made me (as a kid) laugh as hard as the kids in the book. I was at least eighteen or nineteen years old before I realized that he just meant that he thought of Susan as being his friend.


Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
This book was clearly written by someone who has done a lot of work with autistic children -- who turns out to be Ann M Martin herself! She volunteered at a school for autistic children in her hometown of Princeton, New Jersey when she was in high school and college. She had already written a book about a family with an autistic child before she wrote the Baby Sitters Club books (a book called Inside Out) and her most recent book, Rain Reign is about a girl with autism. The pub date for this book was 1990, so the understanding of autism is sort of stuck in one place, but her sensitivity about the subject is evident in this book right from the beginning when Kristy tries to look up "autism" in the dictionary and only finds vague references to schizophrenia and withdrawal, which frustrates her. Mrs Felder, Susan's mother, explains to her that there is no way the definition of autism would ever fit in a dictionary, especially since it varies so much from person to person. Once Kristy learns about Susan's talents she is upset that her parents seem to want to just dump her at a school and be done with her. She gets quite prissy about it, saying things like "Home is where children belong" and that Susan should be allowed to learn in a familiar environment because she would clearly make more progress. These judgemental thoughts would be super annoying in an adult, but in a thirteen year old they are unbearable. But as Kristy works more with Susan, and realizes how truly inside herself she is, she knows that the best thing for Susan is to be a special school with people who can work with her, and supervise her 24 hours a day. There's a very sad moment when Kristy talks to Susan's father and she sees how much he loves Susan and how much he hopes for her to succeed at the one thing that brings her happiness (playing the piano). It is pretty sobering to realize that the Felders clearly have a lot of money, and clearly meant to give Susan the very best education and opportunities, but are now spending their money and influence on boarding schools for special needs children. And yet they dream of the great things Susan could still do, even with her handicap.

Poor Jessi has to explain to the stupid, dense Pikes that she's been called some terrible names, much worse than the nickname Spider, which they have all battled against (even though it sounds like a cute nickname to me). When they want to know what kinds of names Jessi's been called she won't tell them. "Nothing as cute as Spider, believe me," she says wearily, wondering why she has to be the token black kid in Stoneybrook, constantly explaining racism to self-centered white people who think they have real problems.

The way the rest of the special needs children in this book are described is awkward at best, offensive at worst. Ann M Martin clearly used up her sensitivity on autism because she describes the kids with Downs syndrome as "retarded" and "docile, affectionate, and friendly" in a broad sweeping statement. It was especially noticeable because in the very next chapter Kristy yells at a bunch of kids for calling Susan "retard" and "dumbo". Make up your mind, Ann M Martin. Is it OK to use "retarded" or not?

[Noëlle Alexandria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the most offensive BSC books, and it's one Ann herself wrote. Ann claims to have worked with autistic children, but I have a hard time believing that. Kristy's actions get a pass only because Ann thought Susan's treatment was appropriate. I'm raising an autistic child, so have a few things to say.

The Felders, a couple who are long-time Stoneybrook residents, bring their daughter home from an institution for a while. No one even remembered they had a daughter since she was thrown in a mental institution and left there, never brought home even for trips. The instantly foist her off onto a barely-teenaged babysitter who knew nothing about autism. What the hell, Ann? I'm raising a child who is mildly autistic, and I have NEVER left her with someone who was that young, and in fact, her only babysitters ever have been adults who met her at LEAST a dozen times with me so that they knew each other and were comfortable. I can't imaging dumping her on a 13-year-old who knew nothing about autism.

Kristy knows so little about autism that she attempts to "cure" Susan by forcing her to go out in the neighborhood where Susan isn't comfortable. Why did Ann think it was appropriate to have Susan paraded around like a dog?

Of all the things terrible about this book, the MOST OFFENSIVE is at the end when the Felders get Susan into another institution and announce they're pregnant again. But that's not the bad part. See, this new pregnancy is being hailed as a second chance. A second chance at what? Parenting? They should be parenting the daughter they have! A second chance at having a normal, non-retarded kid? That is the insinuation here, and yes I used the r-word because that is the CLEAR tone of what happens "Ewww, retarded kid is broken, so let's have a normie!" Horrible!!

The ONE thing I do feel I need to defend is a couple of the kids asking if autism is the same as retarded. When this book was written, that was a typical term, the same way "mentally challenged" is used today. For the most part, not offensive, but some people do use it as a pejorative. Give it another ten years, and "mentally challenged" will be seen only as an offensive phrase. So in the context of the time period, asking is autism meant Susan was retarded was not seen as offensive.

Edit on February 15, 2025: Well, it’s eleven years after I wrote this, and “mentally challenged” isn’t being used as an insult as much since teens are saying, “What you, autistic?” as an insult, including other autistic kids, which is now most kid. THAT is a twist I didn’t see coming when my daughter as four years old. Also, today’s teens don’t see “retarded” as offensive since, to them, they don’t have the same association with that term to disabilities the way that we, their parents, do.

[Alison Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so, I want to be generous here and note that since the author mentions having worked with autistic children when she was in college, her portrayal of Susan in this book was done in good faith and with compassion.

But it did also feel a little bit like "let's take all the stereotypes and put them together" or something.

To be clear, I am not on the autism spectrum and do not have any relatives who are (to my knowledge). I do have a few friends who are, though no one at the more extreme end like is represented in this book. I know that much of what we see in Susan are things that some people with autism do exhibit or experience, but it just felt a little heavy-handed. And while I appreciate the author for wanting to show how cruel it is to be hateful or mocking toward someone with a developmental difference, the fact that she seemed to be trying to draw a parallel between that and................teasing someone for being Australian was like, yikes.

I appreciated that Kristy wanted to try to help Susan and be a good caretaker for her, it bothered me immensely that she just immediately, when she barely even knew the girl, was like "I'm going to change everything about this girl and her brain and her life" and seemed to think she knew better than Susan's parents how to raise her and care for her. There was a moment where Susan was playing the piano (she's a savant) and a neighbor boy had come over to see if she could come out to play. Kristy tried to get Susan to get up from the piano, but she clearly didn't want to. So Kristy forced her to stop playing by gripping her hands and then all but dragged her out the door. When the other kid wondered if maybe Susan didn't want to stop, Kristy said she probably didn't but that it was more important for her to make friends.

Like, excuse me? Are you this girl's owner or something? And in Susan's case, "making friends" wasn't really possible, yet Kristy kept thinking all she had to do was put Susan in a yard with kids running around and she'd suddenly stop being autistic. Now, she does by the end realize what a dodo she's being, but it was frustrating to see how ableist Kristy was being while thinking she was going to be some kind of hero.

Again, I'm sure the author's heart was in the right place, but intent isn't magic.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't sleep last night, and I couldn't concentrate on any books or podcasts, so I decided to download a BSC book to my Kindle to pass the time.

I owned this book as a kid, I think it was the only BSC book in our house that was actually mine, and I remember really liking it....probably my second favorite, right after Claudia and the New Girl. It is primarily about Susan, a child with autism who Kristy starts babysitting. It is also the book where the Hobarts (the red headed Australians) appear for the first time.

Even as a kid, I realized BSC were incredibly formulaic, and they kind of had that "guilty pleasure" feel to them. I do have really good memories of getting stacks of them from the library or from my fourth grade teacher, and sitting with my sisters, reading them in one sitting, and passing them along when we were done.

Thinking of the books now, I realize that they did tackle some pretty real issues. Racism, divorce, illness, peer pressure,bullying etc. I probably learned a lot more than I realized from these books.

This book attempts to teach the reader about autism, and I appreciate the attempt, but parts of it were just a little iffy. Kristy, a thirteen year old girl, is babysitting Susan, who has severe autism and is non-verbal, three days a week after school after only meeting with the mother for about ten minutes. Sounds like a bad idea. I was also really bothered at the end, when Susan's mom becomes pregnant again, that this pregnancy is portrayed almost as a second chance to have a real child. I know this is a really tricky issue, and I think some it was handled very well, but other parts really just didn't sit well with me.

Really, though, it was mostly just fun to read this book. I forgot how casual the style is, and it was funny to read because it is exactly the style I used to write all the heavily plagiarized stories I wrote when I was a kid... a lot of describing people's outfits, putting things in parentheses, expository writing, even naming my characters after all the BSC members until one of my sisters explained plagiarism to me.

Overall, a fun reread.

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kristy and the Secret of Susan is Ann M. Martin's way of educating young readers about autism. When I read this in late elementary or early middle school, I didn't consider the way Martin went about educating her readers about the characteristics of autism. I thought it was simply a good book for teens.

As an adult with greater knowledge of autism, Asperger's syndrome, and other disorders on the spectrum, I realize the way Martin portrayed Susan is incorrect. She gave Susan every possible trait of autism when in fact individuals who carry this diagnosis do not show every trait of the condition.

As an adult, the other issue I see with this book is how Kristy thinks it's her mission to convince Susan's parents that she can thrive in Stoneybrook if only she attends the public school special education programs and makes friends in the neighborhood. Ann appeared not to have conducted very thorough research on autistic spectrum disorder because if she had, she would have learned that making friends can be very difficult for individuals on the spectrum. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's much more difficult for these individuals.

Kristy's method of "helping" Susan to make friends backfires when Mel Tucker and Zack Wolfson begin charging neighborhood kids to come over, give Susan a date, or song, and then leave. That's not the way to teach children about individulas with idsabilities. If anything, this will make the neurotypical children consider Susan a freak.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is well-intentioned but REALLY outdated and incorrect, to the point of being offensive if it was republished as is today. All the characters have an obsessive need to catalog, classify, and label people with disabilities, and Kristy’s entire attitude toward Susan is ableist, even if her intentions are kind and she does learn that autism can't be cured through the power of babysitting.

What I did like about this book is that it really endeared me to Kristy and showed me that she’s come a long way since the beginning of the series. Even though she makes a LOT of mistakes, she at least does it with the goal of trying to create a more inclusive environment for Susan.

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember when I first read this I was so disappointed that Kristy didn't solve everything as usual. Now that I'm rereading it, I'm glad she didn't, as it just wouldn't have been realistic. As it is, it's heartbreaking.

[✨Jordan✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this fun edition of the BSC , Kristy gets a month long sitting job for a little 8 year old girl with Autism. She learns about what Autism is and some of the differences they have from other children. This little girls name is Susan and she doesn’t communicate/talk much or listen that well but she is very talented at other things like playing the piano and memorizing dates and songs. While all this is going on a new family moves in Mary Anne’s old house and they are all the way from Australia! 4 boys and they all have that Australian accent which causes them to get made fun of from some of the neighborhood kids. Can they eventually fit in? Also Mallory might have her first real crush on one of the boys. I gave this book a 3 specifically because of how mental illness was talked about and explained in this book. I didn’t like it.

[aarya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read via audio (narrated by Brittany Pressley).

[Robin :] · Rating 1 out of 5]

the autism representation and the offhand description of down syndrome really makes this book show its age. all disabled people are not toddlers!!

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kristy had a long-term job babysitting Susan Felder, who was eight years old and autistic. Susan attended a residential school for autistic children, which the members of the BSC and Susan's parents simply referred to as a "special school". Kristy did not like that Susan attended a residential school and was treated differently than other children. She was determined to show the Felders that Susan was a "regular kid" who could make friends and thrive in the self-contained special education classroom at Stoneybrook Elementary, the Felders' neighborhood school.

In her Dear Reader Letter, Ann M. Martin stated that the book was partially based on her experiences working as a therapist with autistic children during the summers when she was in college. Ann M. Martin graduated from Smith College in 1977, thirteen years before this book was published. Even if the information she had on autism was current in the mid-1970s, it was surely outdated in 1990. I mean, Asperger Syndrome was a diagnosis only eight years ago, but it is outdated now.

This book is problematic in its depiction of autism. Autism is not synonymous with having an intellectual disability. I did not realize that doctors used to conflate these terms. In the 1980s, as many as 69% of autistic people also had an intellectual disability, according to Spectrum News. Maybe it's just me, but 69% commonality doesn't seem like enough for me to conflate the terms. However, the "R" word was used numerous times to describe autistic people. In fact, when Kristy first wondered aloud what "autistic" meant, Claudia suggested that it meant the "R" word. This was updated in a later version to Claudia wondering if autistic was like Down's syndrome, which also was problematic because Down's syndrome is not the definition of intellectual disability. While the updated version of the book did get rid of the offensive "R" word, it continued to use the outdated "handicapped".

Susan was an autistic savant. She had an amazing ability to tell you the day of the week on which any date occurred. She could also listen to a song once and then play the music on the piano and, although she could not speak, she could accompany herself by singing in any language. On Kristy's quest to get Susan to make new friends, she bragged to children she did not know about Susan's savant abilities. Children start showing up at Susan's house, wanting to see her perform her "tricks". One child was charging his peers $1 each to see Susan perform her savant abilities. Kristy was mad at the children, but did not take personal responsibility for putting Susan in that position to begin with.

Mrs. Felder announced that she was pregnant with her second child. She had a lot of tests done to determine whether the baby had any problems because, according to Mr. Felder, "'Mrs. Felder and I aren't taking any chances'". Um, what? I am glad that you cannot detect autism through amniocentesis. The Felders are naming the baby Hope. Maybe because they have hope for their second chance baby who appeared perfectly healthy. Kristy said that she just knew that Hope would be wonderful with the assumption being that Susan was not because she was autistic.

[Kristi Clemow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like kristys perspective even though she's a bit stubborn and bossy. It's a sad book though- mostly because of the bullying which no one seemed to stop ...just let it play out. Not a fan of that personally.
Personal summaty/spoilers in comments

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn't age well at all. I would say it was accurate for the time it was written especially from the perspective a teenager. We really knew next to nothing about autism back then, not like now and Kristy's attitude and thoughts were probably similar to mine when I first read this book. That being said we now know it's very inaccurate and cringey in parts. I actually remembered reading this years ago. Kristy takes on a job watching Susan Felder a severely autistic girl. She is unable to speak, but can sing and play the piano after hearing a song once and knows what day of the week it is when given a random date. She even includes skips in the records (way to age myself with that reference.) Kristy inadvertently turns Susan into a side show, as one of the bullies starts charging people to go see Susan. And they call the poor girl horrible names as Kristy chase's them away. She thinks Susan's parents are cruel by sending her away but eventually realizes that it's probably better for her. The b plot involves the arrival of the Aussie Hobart family in Mary Anne's old house, which as was pointed out, was too small for Dawn and her mother to move into after the wedding. They too are bullied for the accents because kids are assholes but eventually make some new friends as well. This was decent, but another one of those older books that truly didn't age well at all.

[Peacha · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my least favorite BSC books , fortunately it's a slim read. Ann M Martin attempts to tackle the issue of autism - but sabotages the seriousness of this by going the Hollywood route and making the child savant as well. Think Rain Man. Susan is a pianist who is able to play anything, even after only hearing it once. She is also described as being very beautiful. Kristy is given the job of babysitting her , and swells with self-righteous indignation that this girl is somehow being short changed by her parents - five mintues after meeting them. Kristy will help this child make friends - 'normal' friends , to show the parents she deserves to live at home. Every little nugget seems chosen to milk our sympathy - making Susan beautiful is suppoed to what - make us think, pity and she looked so normal? Even the side story borrows again from Hollywood this time from Crocodile Dundee when a family of Australians move in. Dreadful. If you want my full review - check it out on http://cliqueypizza.wordpress.com/

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book bothered me a lot as a kid, and it still bothers me now as an adult. First, and I know it was the 80s/early 90s, but the use of the word retarded more than once just grates on me. People say it, yes. I've said it once or twice and I'm not proud of that fact. Still, come on. It just felt so...unnecessarily redundant in this. Especially when Kristy associates retarded with the Downs Syndrome kids at the school assembly. Oi. Vey.

Kristy's insistence in this one just crossed a line. She couldn't seem to grasp why Susan's parents would need to send her to a special school, and was so convinced she was right and the parents were wrong that she put poor Susan into a horrible situation. Kids can be total shits, as was ultimately proven, and it just used to make me so mad that it took that happening for Kristy to learn a lesson.

I don't anticipate reading this again for a very, very long time.

[Rhiannon1220 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This whole series is great for girls between 11-15 years old. I read every last one of them as I was growing up.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the other baby-sitters have lives, Kristy is always all about the kiddos. Here it's no different, except she's dealing with an autistic kiddo.

[Kirstin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this once, and didn't understand it..But now I reread it, and I feel smphyathy(?) for Susan and her mother..I know kids w/ disorders like that.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Kristy and the Secret of Susan
Kristy is sitting David Micheal and Emily. Emly tries to get the remote from David Micheal and Kristy tells him to put it out of Emily’s reach. This only makes her bawl and David Micheal feel guilty. So Kristy has to explain to her she has to ask someone to change the channel. After this Nannie comes home, and Charlie takes her to the meeting of the BSC. Some Aussie boys have moved into Maryanne’s house. Dawn and Claudia are also there and have been watching them out the window. They also see that their neighboor (Mrs. Fielders) daughter is home. They say she’s been “away” which is why Kristy doesn’t remember her having a daughter. Kristy notices there’s something odd about the way she carries herself and Mrs. Fielder is practically dragging her down the street.

At the BSC meeting, Kristy is the only one available to take on a steady monthly job sitting on Mondays Wednesday, and Fridays for Mrs. Feltor for Susan. She warns Kristy she’s autistic and she might want to meet her first. None of the others are sure about what this means. When she goes for the job, Susan is making a clicking noise and wringing her hands. Her mother explains that sutism means that Susan is in her own world and not interested in leaving it. She doesn’t much like to be touched. Nor does she speak. She’s in between schools and there trying to get her into a special school because she’s a musical savant. She can play anything she hears on the piano (any genrea) and sing (memorize) the lyris (tho they don’t mean anything to her). Mrs. Felder lets Kristy take Susan outside and she sees some kids teasing the Hobart boys. She decides she’s going to stand up for them and show Mrs. Felder that Susan doesn’t have to be an outcast. She can lear, live, and have friends.

Mallory and Jessi sit for the Pikes. They don’t want to do anything Mal and Jessi suggests. They start talking about there new neighbors and how one of them is in Nicky’s class and they talk funny. Everyone alls them “Crocs”. Mallory explains they are from Australia and its rude to call them “Crocs”. She says they can go over and be neighborly but warns them not to call them “Crocs”. She reminds them of how when people use to call them “Spider” Jessi says there are worse names (but doesn’t tell them what she’d been called). The Hobort boys are James, Johnny, Matthew, and Ben. Ben and Mal are immediately attracted to each other. Jessi suggests they play together and they do while Ben and Mallory get to know each other. Some boys come by and start to tease the Hoborts, until Ben runs them off. The Pikes go home feeling embarrassed and yet proud that none of them said one out of place thing to the Hobarts.

At the next meeting, Kristy tells them a little bit more about Susan. I forgot to mention that she can do this thing where if you give her a date (any year) she can tell you what day it was on. Kristy compares her to a really slow two year old that can’t dress herself or communicate well. But then she doesn’t know many two years olds who posses her talent. A job call comes in to watch the Hoberts and Mal begs to take it. So then they all start to tease her about Ben. Stacey suggests she go after him after Mal admits she has a crush on him and she says she just might. Kristy has the idea that since the Hoberts are teased (except for Ben whose tall-thus intimidating to the other kids) and Susan is teased she’ll bring Susan over to the Hoberts and try to get them to make friends. Mal says she’ll bring Claire and Margo (who got along with the younger boys). It’s a rough day for Mrs. Felder the next time Kristy comes to sit. Susan doesn’t want to leave the piano and she won’t eat. Kristy has to put her hands over Susans and pick her up and take her away from the piano. She struggles a little but allows Kristy to give her some cookies on the way over to the Hobarts. The kids don’t seem to know how to take her at first. They try to talk to her but she doesn’t respond. They try to teach her to play tag but she wanders off under a tree and still is making that clicking noise, humming the song she was playing, and flapping her hands around.

The boys “Craig” and “Bob” that were teasing the Hobarts again come by. Kristy, Mal, and Ben decide to let the kids work it out. Surprisingly James hops to Susan’s defense and he calls her “his mate” to the boys. Kristy gets another idea to prove how smart Susan is she has her demonstrate her calender trick. Stacey sits for Emily, David Micheal, Andrew, and Karen and they play “Let’s All Come in”. When Kristy gets back from her job she tells Stacey she’s angry because Mrs. Felter didn’t care that Susan made a few friend with James. She’s still going to send her away to school. She says she wants her to stay aat home and is determined to show Mrs. Felder how normal Susan is. Still, Kristy can’t help but admit she’s one of the most handicapped kids she’s ever meet. She tried to get her pjs on and she just screamed. Stacey tells her just don’t go overboard.

Kristy is sitting for Susan again. She’s been playing the piano non stop again but since it’s been a good day and she’s eaten breakfast and lunch, Kristy doesn’t stop her. A boy named Mel stops by and is amazed by Susan’s playing. He gives her three songs to play “Way Down By Swarmy River” “Moster Mash” and a song about a librian in something called “The Music Man”. After he leaves Kristy excitedly she now has 3 friends. Speaking of, James stops by and they take Susan outside. James tells her he had friends in Australia and two pen pals. Now he only has two pen pals but it would be better to have a real friend. He puts his arm around Susan but Kristy senses something is wrong.

At a special assembly for “Kids Week” Kristy notices the school’s special students. One has cerebral palsy and is strapped into a wheel chiar. Another is blind and deaf. One in particular (Drew) reminds her of Susan. He can speak but speaks in nonsense sentences and he’s able to communicate that he wants to go home to his teacher. But then some of the sixth graders start to tease the special students and they aggravate one. Lucily he gets thrown out but this angers Kristy. She goes up to one of the teachers and asks if the boy (Drew) is autistic. The teacher asks how she knows and she tells her about Susan. The teacher asks if she’d like to sit in at a class during her study break and Kristy agrees.

Kirsty finds out after three kids show up to see Susan perform, that Mel was just using Susan to make money so he could charge them to see “the freak show” and Kristy feels like she should have known that they didn’t want to be Susan’s friends all of a sudden. Johnny isn’t happy about havin a new sitter (Claud). When she takes them out “Zack” comes by and James shows him how strong he is (with karate) and this scares Zack a little bit. After this he offers to show him how to do karate and then they start riding their bikes together. Kristy comes by with Susan and James doesn’t want to be impolite to her but he’s already found the right kind of friend in Zack. Kristy tells Claudia what Mel did and they both have to admit maybe she’d be better off some place else (through tears). Kristy helps Susan’s mother pack her bags and sew name tags on her clothes. She asks what Susan was like as a baby. Her mother says she was perfect. She did everything advanced. When she got to be three tho she just started to shut down. That’s when she taught her the piano -as the only way to reach her-. She picked up learning her father’s pertual clock but it became more an obsession than normal. After this Kristy takes Susan over to the Hobarts where Jaime, Johnny, Zack, and James are. One of them calls her wrird but James shoots him a look.

On the day Susan leaves, Kristy meets her dad Mr. Feltro who says it’s hard to send her away. Kristy confesses that she thought that if she could just make Susan normal maybe she’d stay and go to school there. Mr. Feltor -whose easy going- says when she was five they looked into it, but the class just wasn’t individualized enough- Susan needed more attention than they offered- and the school she attends now was better. He says he has high hopes for the new school and he was really impressed by the music program. He then gives the good news that he and his wife are expecting another baby. It’s a girl and her name will be Hope. So far, there’s no disngs of her having autism. James comes by and says good bye to Susan. When she leaves he tells Kristy he feels bad for her parents and then Kristy tells them the news they told her. He says he wishes Susan could say goodbye. Kristy says her too. Maybe after she’s at the school she can one day.

At the BSC meeting. Kristy tells the others about the Feltor’s news and Mal tells them Jaime invited Johnny over to play. Zack invited James to a bday party (his. Matthew was picked to be the lead in a school play and Ben asked her out. (Stracey says she’s more tired than normal possibly from all the back and forth’s between going from Stoney brook to the city).

My Thouoghts
While it was ambitious of Kristy to take on working with a child with such a severe disability there were things that Kristy did that just didn’t sit right with me for some reason. I’m not even sure why. It wasn’t that she was forceful for Susan but things like physically removing her from the piano clamping her hands down on hers to get her to stop playing. Tho I’m not quite sure what an alternative might have been. Then it was hard to believe that Kristy thought that she could do in a month what the Felders have probably been trying to do for YEARS. So Kristy slightly bothered me in this book. Then it took her working with a special needs child to even notice that the special needs kids in her own school were being bullied. I’m sure that assembly wasn’t the first time, Was she blind to the other times they did because it didn’t affect her personally? I did kind of want James to make some kind of break through but I think overall the point of this book was sometimes somethings are just bigger than us and you have to know when to let go and know when to give something over to someone else who is more capable of handling it than yourself.

Rating: 5

[Allison Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was in either third or fourth grade (memory doesn't serve), I was intrigued by "Kristy and the Secret of Susan." What is autism, I wondered? I didn't know anyone who lived with it (it isn't a curse, affliction, or epidemic - people do LIVE and THRIVE with it!), but the description on the back of the book made it something I wanted to read (plus, it was "The Baby-Sitters Club"!). I found the story fascinating as a kid, and I still find it interesting now, even knowing the progress that differently-abled individuals have made since this book was first published in early 1990.

Kristy takes on a month-long babysitting job for the Felder family's daughter, eight-year-old Susan, who lives with autism. Her talent for the piano, memorization of the calendar and music, and perfect pitch classify her as a savant. Susan is between schools, as her parents wait for her spot at a new residential school with a music program to open up. Kristy, always the determined sort, wants to prove to the Felders that Susan doesn't need to be away at a school, but at home, and that she could progress in the type of environment that includes her family.

In the "B-Side" story, new neighbors from Australia, The Hobarts, move in across the street from Claudia (and Mallory is smitten by the oldest brother, Ben), and face difficulties adjusting to life in the United States.

The lesson "Kristy and the Secret of Susan" aims for is acceptance and appreciation. Just because someone is different, whether it was in dress, culture, way of speaking, or doing a task, or even learning abilities, there is no need to make fun or take advantage of them. There was one particular part in the book where Kristy finds out that not everyone has the best intentions in regards to those who are different from them.

Some of the language used in the book is a tad offensive and dated, but in 1990, this was still commonplace. As a society, we've made progress with discussion on disabilities as a whole, but not everyone keeps up. Dialogue is always important, and despite those dated words, this book still teaches a valuable lesson.

April is Autism Appreciation Month, with April 2nd being Autism Appreciation Day. You're supposed to "Light it Blue," according to Autism Speaks. Unfortunately, I've heard more than a few disparaging things about Autism Speaks and their mission, so I've done "Red Instead" (thanks to a friend of mine) and taken to calling the month an "Appreciation" month, because it isn't about awareness anymore, it is about appreciation and understanding.

Autism is tricky - it runs the gamut of functioning levels, abilities, and inabilities. There's a reason it is called a "Spectrum Disorder" - there are people who are intellectually able (brilliant, even!), but can't express themselves in a way individuals who are neurotypical can. There are individuals who can't perform their normal activities of daily living, but have amazing talents that you or I don't have. There's speaking/expressive and sensory considerations as well. I've learned alot at my current job. If you'd asked me prior to 2010 to explain autism to you, I would have given a more general explanation. There is so much more. For instance, I had no idea that autism doesn't always mean intellectually disabled. They can run together, but that is not always the case.

My best friend's older brother (who passed away in 2016) was on the autism spectrum, but was not diagnosed until he was much older (he had an intellectual disability too). Unfortunately, because autism was not easily understood when I was coming of age (well, much less so than it is now, and it is still a mystery), it was easier to classify those with the traits of autism into a generalized group. I prefer not to use the word to describe it.

I highly recommend this book, especially when discussing disabilities (and all differences) to younger readers. This was the first time "The Baby-Sitters Club" tackled the topic of differently-abled individuals, but it wouldn't be the last - one of the later novels I read was about Dawn baby-sitting a young girl with Down Syndrome, and Claudia forming a bond with Shea Rodowsky, who has difficulty with learning before finding out he is dyslexic. I'm glad Ann M. Martin tackled these subjects in her stories - it is important to know that not everyone is cookie-cutter - we're all different, and those differences, talents, and abilities are to be celebrated.

I highly recommend this book!

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

All of the BSC books call back to what, at this point, feels like a totally different world, but this one in particular is really showing it's age.
That being said- and again considering when this was written as well as Ann M. Martin's own experience with Autistic children -it was as carefully written as it could have been.
Is it the best in the bunch? Not by a long shot. There's no harm in disliking this particular book- it's certainly not my favourite. But you gotta give it a touch more credit than absolutely none.
There was a lot more sensitivity and concern for differently abled people and their families shown between these pages than was actually present out in the real world during the 90s and even the 2000s. I can't speak for everyone, but as a millennial, I distinctly recall how fucking awful kids around me behaved when someone was even slightly different- forget about a kid with learning disabilities -and a lot of the adults were even worse. I am still, to this day, in the year of our lord 2025, trying to get my own parent to unlearn the casual use of the R slur.
This was probably one of the very few books in a popular fiction series that existed where the topic or any surrounding topics about children with learning disabilities were even discussed at all, let alone one that featured a plot that was centered around a child like Susan. And the BSC was everywhere. I don't know a reader my age that hasn't at least heard of it and even fewer who didn't read at least one book somewhere in the series.
So I say again; great? No. Nope. The knowledge doesn't hold up worth a damn, but I think Ann genuinely did her best to try and provide as accurate a picture for kids in the 90s as she was able to by touching on her own experiences and the information on Autism and learning disabilities that was available at that time. So I have to give it those two stars for that effort alone.
Who knows how many kids this spoke to back then, y'know?

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

As noted in a previous review of one of the BSC books, I didn't read any of these as a kid. Now that I'm reading them as an adult and a teacher, I'm so pleased with their content; I wish I'd read them when I was younger.

**Some spoilers follow, but I think everyone has already read this book except me....**

This book focuses on Kristy's babysitting experience with a girl who has autism. The whole time I was reading, I was waiting for the book to slip into stereotypes or traditional plot patterns. "Retarded" was a politically-correct word at this time, but other than that, the book surprised me with its sensitive handling of the topic. Susan is sent to a special boarding school because of her disability, and while now there are more local school options for students with her level of autism, there weren't in 1990. I was so worried that Kristy was going to magically "cure" Susan and have a breakthrough with her....that would've been right in line with feel-good young adult books...but she doesn't. Kristy initially felt that Susan's parents were sending her away because they'd given up somehow, and she was determined to "prove them wrong" and show them that Susan could make friends and "fit in" at Stoneybrook Middle School. By the end of the book, Kristy realizes that Susan's autism isn't something that can be "fixed" and she understands that Susan's parents are doing the best that they can for Susan.

Because the service delivery model for students with autism has changed a lot since 1990--as has our understanding of autism--this isn't a book I'd necessarily go out of my way to recommend to young readers, but it also isn't a book that I'd be upset to see them reading.

[Joey Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually a really sweet story, a good lesson in how to always treat people kindly even if they are slightly different to you and also that even though you may want to help and make someone better it isn’t always possible.

In this book Kristy gets a new client Susan and 8 year old girl, but she isn’t just any client the Susan is autistic and unresponsive, she doesn’t understand why her parents have to send her away and wants to do everything she can to keep her there, to have her in mainstream school but as time goes on she realises that moving really is the better option that the school that is specialised to help is best.

The side storyline was also about the new neighbours who had come from Australia and were being bullied not fitting in as they were unusual and different for the children in their small town,but eventually these children teach them all that in time things can change and they can fix it themselves and find a way to make friends, including accepting Susan and being her friend.

It was such a sweet story though and I enjoyed reading it, it was nice to see another client that was more of a challenge for them and a huge learning curve for the girls, making them have to really try and really learn in order to look after them correctly.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is so hard to rate and review, because it was written in 1990 and is completely outdated now. I probably read it for the first time only about 5 years or so after it was written, and even then it made me feel vaguely uncomfortable. For that reason, I almost never picked this one up to re-read throughout my childhood.

Honestly, I didn’t know how I was going to feel reading it now as an adult, but I actually liked it more than I was expecting to. Again, it’s completely outdated, and the “R” word is said more times than I can count, but for the times I feel like the plot was handled relatively well.

I remember that Susan appeared again many years later in (I think) the last Super Special, but I only remember the hug machine part of her story. I’d love to re-read just that chapter now and see if she’s portrayed any differently, since autism research was a lot better then. I’m sure it’s still horribly outdated compared to now, but I bet it’s still better than this book.

Side note: I didn’t realize that the foreshadowing of Stacey becoming extremely sick happened this early! I think we are still over 10 books away from her hospital emergency, and for some reason I thought she started complaining about being worn down only a few books beforehand, not ten!

[Jennifer Maloney · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75. Overall I liked this one. We meet the Hobarts in this book, a family from Australia who moved into Mary Anne’s old house. I’d forgotten how and when they arrived in this series, so that was a fun surprise.

The main storyline is about Susan, an autistic child, who Kristy babysits for while Susan is between boarding schools. I don’t know enough about autism to know if Susan was portrayed accurately, but she was still an interesting character to meet. Apparently Ann M Martin used to work with autistic children back in the day, so perhaps.

I didn’t like how everyone treated Susan like a circus monkey to do tricks for them, but that was dealt with by the end of the book. I also didn’t like how Kristy set off on a mighty mission to teach these parents how to parent better (she wished they’d keep Susan at home instead of sending her away to a special school). This point of view rears it’s ugly head every so often in this series and I always find it weird. What do 11-13 year olds know about parenting? But this too was thankfully nipped in the bud by the end of the book. So that’s fine.

Overall this book was a fairly wholesome look at treating people with respect, even when they’re different, which is always a good lesson to learn.