Mind Your Own Business, Kristy!

The Baby-Sitters Club #107

by Ann M. Martin

Kristy's big brother Charlie is a good guy, helping her with the Krusher's Softball Klinic and driving her to BSC meetings. Kristy and Charlie get along great--until Angelica shows up. Kristy can tell Angelica is Trouble with a capital "T." But Charlie doesn't mind. In fact, he thinks he's in love with her. Ew.

Charlie wants Kristy to mind her own business. But Kristy knows she has to do something before Angelica ruins the Krusher Klinic. . .and breaks Charlie's heart.

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult, Collections, Realistic Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

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

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book.
in this book by ghostwriter Peter Lerangis (five of the last eight bsc books I’ve read have been by him...they needed to diversify because I’m so damned sick of his writing style) kristy wins tickets to see blade, one of her favorite bands. it’s spring break, and she decides to have a krushers spring klinic but needs help and none of the bsc members can do it. her brother charlie offers, since he’s got plenty of time since he just broke up with his girlfriend sarah, and kristy happily accepts; after all, he will be graduating and going off to college soon, so she’ll miss him. the problem is the kids all like charlie better, partly because he’s better at softball than kristy (he can hit a pitch with a bat and actually aim it at specific people) and partly because he’s a dude and kids have internalized misogyny that they’ve yet to understand. but then the hsus come to the klinic with a hot babysitter and charlie spends all of his time flirting with her instead of helping kristy. kristy tries to get charlie back with sarah by telling sarah that charlie needs her help picking a college and then leaving once she has them both in the same place she leaves them alone. but of course it doesn’t work, and then charlie is just mad at kristy. kristy has also offered the extra tickets (after she and claudia each get one) to see blade to charlie and his friend travis. the day of the concert arrives and kristy is disappointed to discover that charlie has uninvited travis and has invited angelica, the hot babysitter, instead. charlie decides to drive watson’s car so as to impress angelica, because his car is the infamous junk bucket, but he finds that watson’s car drives really differently from what he’s used to, and he stops and starts suddenly and jerks around. angelica offers to drive, which kristy is not okay with, but charlie agrees and they swap spots. angelica drives really recklessly and the cops try to pull her over. she then asks charlie to switch seats with her while they’re driving, since she doesn’t have a license. in the chaos of the moment, their car hits the guardrail. later angelica ends things with charlie, saying that her parents said he was a bad influence on her since she never made bad decisions with her previous boyfriend but that charlie is immature which made her immature by proxy. charlie worries that he is turning out like their dad, but kristy reminds him of how responsible he was when their dad left, helping out their mom all the time.

highlights:
-soapbox feminist kristy: "when a boy is forceful and responsible, people say he's strong-willed or a born leader. but if you're a girl, you're bossy."
-mr. pike calls jessi "jesserina" because she's a ballerina, and kristy narrates that grown ups can be so corny. did peter lerangis just throw in a meta-joke?
-abby comes to the klinic once and makes it fun by physically stealing bases, because she’s the biggest goofball in the world. charlie gets mad because he's boring and has no joy in his heart.
-at one point when he’s being particularly obnoxious and only thinking with his penis kristy tells charlie he’s acting like their dad. BRUTAL. I love it.
-ann’s dear reader has nothing to do with this book, which always makes me laugh. this one is about how she used to take trips with her family for spring break and how she didn't get to go to disney world until she was an adult (because it didn't exist when she was a kid) but she got to go to do research for Baby-Sitters on Board!.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-kristy says that stacey is the top math student in the state, but she's actually just the top scoring mathlete
-kristy narrates that she didn't realize bigotry existed in stoneybrook when talking about jessi, but she was JUST bigoted about the whole kwanzaa celebration in Happy Holidays, Jessi. get it together, kristy.
-at one point nannie is putting emily to bed at 9:05pm. that’s way too late for a toddler to go to bed.
-abby says that what kristy did (manipulating charlie and sarah into being in the same place at the same time) was not exactly kosher. this is a little annoyingly on-the-nose. I don't call things like that kosher and I'm way more jewish than abby
-everybody's a jerk in this book. obviously charlie is but kristy is too.
-when they pick up angelica for the concert she seems annoyed that kristy is in the car (because charlie apparently didn’t tell her that it wasn’t just gonna be the two of them). kristy says she's the one who won the tickets and angelica says "no problem." what a jerk!
-angelica doesn't really apologize to kristy about making her miss the concert because the tickets were free so it's not like she lost any money. seriously, WHAT A JERK!
-angelica's parents say charlie was a bad influence on her because she never made bad decisions with her previous boyfriend. it’s so awful that they take away her agency in this. is she so spineless that she acts exactly like her current boyfriend at any given point in time?

claudia outfit:
-"That Friday, for instance, she was wearing an old fringed leather vest she'd found in a thrift shop; an oversize plaid shirt with a super-thick striped tie; and bell-bottomed pants with two different-color legs. Her hair was pulled back with a hairclip in the shape of a VCR."

snacks in claudia’s room:
-cheez doodles (n.s.)
-caramels (n.s.)
-milk duds behind her bed
-licorice strings (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)

[Rachel EC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously.. who would want Kristy as a sister?

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

so, kristy has finally realized what the rest of us realized like one hundred books ago: the krushers totally suck. she decides that one way to remedy this is to hold a "krushers klinic" over spring break. like spring training, but for annoying children. & not in florida. unfortunately, she hatches this idea literally the day before spring break. she calls all the krushers to announce her plans, & THEN she calls bart to ask him to co-coach with her. he can't though, because he's doing a clinic with the bashers, & because the bashers & the krushers are rivals, it doesn't make sense for him to coach both teams & give away all his secrets. kristy tries to recruit a coach from within the babysitters club, & jessi offers to help out, but kristy still needs someone really sporty. (abby will be going on a family vacation & can't help.)

she shares her concerns with charlie, & he offers to coach with her. he sheepishly admits that he doesn't have anything else going on during spring break because he just broke up with his girlfriend, sarah. kristy is sorry to hear this, because she liked sarah & thought she was a good match for charlie, but she is happy to have charlie's help.

charlie is a huge hit with the kids. they do whatever he tells them to do...even when his directions conflict with kristy's. kristy is gateful for his help, but resentful that the kids are paying more attention to him than to her. charlie is also kind of gruff with the kids, in a way that kristy doesn't totally like. but all is forgiven when charlie tells kristy that he may be able to arrange a visit from jack brewster, who used to play for the mets. i don't think that's a real person. anyway, kristy is pumped. i guess the mets are the big team in stoneybrook & she knows a lot of her krushers will be really excited to meet jack brewster.

unfortunately, charlie is distracted from both the krushers & jack brewster by the hsus' new babysitter, angelica. she's a high school girl & she seems to be crushing on charlie. kristy overhears her asking mary anne or someone about him. & kristy also notices charlie showing off for angelica. he even wears cologne to a clinic.

kristy decides she needs to nip this in the bud, so she calls sarah, charlie's ex, & asks her to meet kristy the next day at the argo (have we ever heard of the place before? maybe mark jaffe's dad runs it). she claims that she wants some advice about colleges & stuff, to help charlie make a decision. then she tells charlie she wants to take him out for a thank you lunch the next day at the argo. charlie invites angelica along at the last minute, but kristy freaks & makes charlie disinvite her. when charlie & kristy arrive at the argo, sarah is waiting, & she is not too psyched about seeing charlie. kristy runs off to the bathroom to give them time to re-connect, but it doesn't work. when she emerges, charlie grabs her & takes her home. he is also convinced that the whole thing was sarah's idea.

charlie starts officially dating angelica. kristy is really mad about it. i think maybe kristy is in love with sarah herself, the way she's acting. charlie even wanders away in the middle or a krusher klinic & kristy has to go after him. he's all, "what's the big deal? jessi's helping you," & kristy says something about how charlie is just like their dad, running away from his responsibilities. too far, kristy. too far.

kristy has won tickets to see her favorite band, blade, in concert in stamford (some radio contest thing). charlie has offered to drive her. kristy decides to take claudia & charlie invites angelica. he also arranges to borrow one of watson's cars for the evening. unfortunately, he struggles with driving it & is lurching all over the road. angelica finally says that she is carsick & asks if she can drive. kristy is all, "NO!" but charlie lets her get behind the wheel. she drives a lot more smoothly than charlie...& a lot faster. & more recklessly. a cop tries to pull them over for speeding, & angelica winds up swerving into a divider by accident. everyone is okay, but everyone is also in BIG TROUBLE thanks to angelica, & no one is allowed to go to the concert.

somehow angelica gets a note to charlie the next day, explaining that she was attracted to him because he seemed like a big kid & he was fun, but she's decided he's too immature for her. charlie is pretty mirthless about all this. like it's not bad enough to get in big trouble thanks to your new girlfriend, but then she dumps you & calls you childish? man. he's kind of moping around & forgets all about his big promise re: jack brewster. kristy testily reminds him, & it turns out that jack brewster is sarah's uncle. charlie gives sarah a call, & she arranges for her uncle to drop by the klinic. the kids are pumped, the kids' fathers are pumped, & romance starts to brew again between sarah & charlie. the stupid klinic is a big success.

basically, this book was kind of dull. i actually like baseball, but i do not like descriptions of children playing softball. these kids fucking suck. there's also a weird moment when kristy observes that angelica's kiss off letter to charlie has been typed & printed out on a computer. she thinks to herself that doing that took a lot more effort than just handwriting a letter. fifteen years later, i don't think anyone on earth would agree with that assessment. no one handwrites anything anymore (except for me, in my journals).

[gia (hiatus)]

── 3 stars ✶

⋆. ̊ hey!! quick question so ann m. martin how did you base a character off of me before i was born?
kristy is me i am her. anyways love reading these books in like one sitting idc if theyre way below my reading level and were written for 11 year olds. love babysitters club books. if u need me ill be watching 'babysitters club actors then and now' youtube videos from like 5 years ago. dont judge me for reading at a fifth grade lebvel while yall r over here reading six of crows and youve found sam. i swear all i read is babysitters club and horror books im on both sides of the spectrum 💔

[Carlyn Brody · Rating 2 out of 5]

My guilty pleasure reads are reading The Babysitters’ Club by Ann Martin. There are hundreds of books in the series, I’m not sure how many exactly. It’s a teen series from the late 80s to early 2000s about a group of girls who babysit in their neighbourhood. I started reading them in my teenage years and I still collect them to this day.

In this book, Kristy decides to host a softball clinic for her softball team, Kristy’s Krushers during spring break. The team consists of some of her babysitting charges who are too young to be in Little League. Kristy’s brother Charlie volunteers to help her out.

Kristy becomes envious of Charlie because he’s able to coach the children better than her. Her relationship is further strained when Charlie gets into a relationship with a new girl named Angelica and begins to shirk his responsibilities with the clinic. Kristy feels that Angelica is wrong for her brother and does what she can to break them up.

I wanted the story to go in a different direction than it did. Kristy took an instant dislike to Angelica without getting to know her. In every book, there’s some lesson that the reader can take away. I thought it was going to be that you shouldn’t be quick to judge other people. I thought that Kristy would learn to let her brother go and accept that he’s going to get into relationships. Kristy has abandonment issues after her father walked out on the family. It is a topic that is broached in this book.

I could see that Angelica was going to be the villain because she’s seventeen and smokes. In a wholesome books series like The Babysitters’ Club it means you’re a bad kid. I don’t approve of young people smoking but I don’t think that smoking means you are bad person.
I thought this book was a little bit more negative than the other books in the series but it’s obvious from the title. I find most of The Babysitters’ Clubs books in thrift stores, but you can now buy them new as they have reprinted them again in bookstores.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 1 out of 5]

(LL)
Horrible. Not only was this so beyond unrealistic, but the “consequences” these kids get for the illegal things they did was not right (talk about White Privilege). This did not teach kids what happens when you break the law and drive without a license and almost kill a lot of innocent people. Also, insurance covers other drivers listed on the insurance as other drivers; A random person doesn’t count even if they have a license. This was a train wreck of a book and I’m beyond disappointed. There was no reason to make that much stuff happen because of Angelica so she could be the bad guy.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

As 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

[Maeve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kristy has big plans for spring vacation: running a baseball clinic for the Krushers and seeing Blade in concert. She's excited to spend most of her vacation with older brother, Charlie...but when he meets a new, older babysitter, he focuses more on her than on Kristy. Kristy and Charlie have some fights, but in the end they are there for each other.

[Cassandra Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.

[Cloud · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Kristy's character has been very up and down in the later books, some ghost writers really overdoing her bossiness. But this was prime Kristy, just bossy enough, but still allows others to have input. I also really enjoyed learning more about Charlie and the Thomases life soon after their father left.

[Devon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The BSC writers have never cared if we cared about Charlie (or knew anything about him) but suddenly... we're supposed to see past his failings to the good brother he really is. Which is hard since we've seen almost no evidence of that in 100+ books.

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this so much! Great story about the relationship between Kristy and her brother Charlie. I feel for Charlie wanting so much to be childlike and carefree when he had to grow up so quickly after their dad left.

[Laura Rayner]

Kristy's big brother Charlie is a good guy, helping her with the Krusher's Softball Klinic and driving her to BSC meetings. Kristy and Charlie get along great--until Angelica shows up. Kristy can tell Angelica is Trouble with a capital "T." But Charlie doesn't mind. In fact, he thinks he's in love with her. Ew.

Charlie wants Kristy to mind her own business. But Kristy knows she has to do something before Angelica ruins the Krusher Klinic. . .and breaks Charlie's heart.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlie Thomas, you deserved better than this.

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on www.audible.com

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/mind-y...

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one! This was a better one of the Kristy books.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want books that feature the Baby-sitters' older siblings as main secondary characters, but not like this. Charlie, why you gotta suck?

[Ds · Rating 1 out of 5]

Decisamente TROPPO softball, a parte Kristy le altre baby Sitter sono inesistenti e tutti non fanno altro che giocare a softball tutto il tempo, col risultato di zero babysitting adventures. Bah.

[Marian · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be fair, this probably deserves an extra star, but I had high hopes for it and none of them were realized. Look! A book that deals with one of the older Thomas boys, and it happens to be Charlie no less! If ever there were underutilized characters in this series, it would be Sam and Charlie. So even with ample warning about how vexing the book could be, I still couldn't wait to finally read this one.

... Yeaaaaah. Let down. Charlie offers to help Kristy host a Krushers 'Klinic' over spring break after Kristy and Bart have broken up and Charlie has broken up with his girlfriend Sarah. Kristy is thrilled because, hello, she gets to spend time with her big brother before he heads off to college. Only problem is, Charlie is soon distracted by Angelica who comes by most days to keep an eye on her two babysitting charges.
I call BS on Kristy never once being miffed that the BSC wasn't called in to handle these kids. Not even semi relaxed early Kristy would have let this one slide, and certainly not ghostwriters only Kristy who is unusually power mad. Just... no. And yet she's not.

Kristy is also immediately jealous that her team is so enamored of Charlie that they ignore she exists. Yeah, well, they're kids, and to kids, 17 year olds are gods. But this at least is relatable. I don't mind the fact that Kristy spends so much of the book being jealous about her power being usurped by her brother without him trying. I don't mind that she's jealous that instead of spending time with her, Charlie is busy chasing some cigarette smoking 16 year old. Again, it makes sense given that Kristy was starting to panic about the thought of Charlie going off to college, so this week of hanging out would mean a lot to her.
And in theory, the thought of Kristy playing matchmaker probably isn't all that bad. Nor is the fact that she screws it up. It's just that the book never really gets off the ground. Maybe I just don't care enough about the Krushers or Angelica's evil not-speaking-to-Kristy self. Or maybe it's that the car accident Angelica causes was hyped and in reality is so not a life or death thing. I wish it had been. The one time in the history of the universe a BSC book doesn't go big and I wish that it had. The drama that could have ensued! But no.

Sigh.

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could barely pay attention to this story. It's spring yet again. And given the fact there's roughly 20 books left in the original series things are wrapping up slowly. This is shown by Charlie starting to look at colleges. He and his girlfriend Sarah have broken up so when Kristy decides to run a baseball clinic he agrees to help her. Until some of the kids show up with a hot new babysitter Angelica or Angelique as Claudia calls her which cracked me up a bit. Then suddenly he's spending time with her and ignoring Kristy and the clinic. Kristy tries to get Charlie and Sarah back together which back fires and gets Mary Anne to help her out one day which killed me. I am totally a Mary Anne well maybe slight better at sports but not much. Charlie continues to be late everyday causing Kristy to drag other sitters into her clinic as she gets more annoyed. Kristy even says he's acting like their dad. Ouch Kristy. That's mean. Kristy wins tickets to a Blade concert which I guess is the solo version of U4Me that Stacey loves. Charlie takes Angelica and Kristy goes with Claudia. Charlie not used to driving a newer car drives like my grandfather who gave his passengers whiplash and motion sickness according to family legend Angelica takes over gets pulled over for speeding and tries to switch drivers as she doesn't have a license. Instead they crash and the car won't start again and they are in big trouble. Well Charlie and Angelica are. Kristy and Claudia are innocent bystanders. Kristy is pissed she missed the concert. She's even more pissed when Charlie promises Jack Brewster a famous Mets player will come to the clinic and again doesn't show. It turns out Brewster is Sarah's relative a second cousin she calls uncle and she manages to arrange for him to come. Charlie and Kristy make up and there's hints he gets back together with Sarah. There's no real b plot. Both plot lines tie together so it's hard to decipher which is main which is a subplot. But it was boring. The car crash sort of livened things up a bit but not enough to be a great story.

[Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked this. The fact that Angelica's letter was typed meant that it did take some effort, however it also meant that it was cold and impersonal. I also liked this because it described Kristy's relationship with her brother--- how she looked up to Charlie despite his faults. All things considered Charlie was a good brother. That was touching. Also I liked how the Krusher clinic wasn't what Kristy expected---it somehow clashed with her typical bossy personality and she learned a lot from that too because Charlie had a different technique in teaching the kids---same with Sarah who also helped her toward the end. That Charlie and Angelica episode is also a nice addition to the book which is usually about kids and babysitting.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

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

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

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

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about softball and Kristy as a matchmaker... I'm not sure it gets much more boring than that. And what is it with the BSC girls missing out on concerts?! Does Ann M. Martin have a problem with them or something?

The end resolution was pretty unrealistic, but also to be expected for a BSC novel.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was cute and I relate to Kristy a bit! XP

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

In which Charlie wishes K. Ron would STFU and GTFO his bidnis. We all wish that, Chuck.

I love K. Ron's bitchface on the cover.

[Martine]

I've read nothing but preteen novels this year. It's my escape from the depressing news content I read online. I'm not proud.