What do you think?
Rate this book
The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #11
The Baby-Sitters Remember
Each of the members of the Baby-sitters Club recall memorable events in their lives, from Claudia's first-grade discovery of her art talent to Mary Anne's childhood prank on her own sitter. Original.
242 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1994
88 people are currently reading
527 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,112 books3,055 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...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
January 31, 2017
this is my first time reading this book!
in spite of its dedication to "jahnna and malcolm" (presumably Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner, the ghostwriting team responsible for such crappy books as Mallory and the Dream Horse and Dawn Saves the Planet), this book appears to have been written by ann. it would make sense -- it's the first book in ages that SOUNDS like early bsc books.
anyway, the premise of this book is that the babysitters have a sleepover in which jessi asks them each what their most vivid memory is. they mull it over and each of them (including logan and dawn, who were not at the sleepover but heard about it from the others) tells the story. it's an unusual format for a super special. usually super specials bounce back and forth from character to character, with a framing device at the beginning and end. this one features the framing device (kristy, FYI, is the framing device narrator) but then gives each character 2-3 chapters to tell their story. once a character's story is done, it doesn't come back to them. before we get to highlights and lowlights/nitpicks, here are each of the characters' stories (in chronological order), in short. if it says (NEW) after a character's name, it means we haven't heard this story. otherwise, we have heard the story before, but in less detail (e.g. stacey wetting the bed at a slumber party is mentioned in The Truth About Stacey).
kristy - 10 years old (NEW): the first time she babysat (it was for david michael) and she did a good enough job that her mom fired the irresponsible babysitter and allowed kristy to help out with the sitting more
stacey - 11 years old: stacey obviously has diabetes but doesn't know it, and she wets the bed she is sharing with laine at a slumber party. laine and others bully her. stacey's diabetes is diagnosed and she moves to stoneybrook after having a crappy 6th grade experience.
claud - six years old (NEW): had to make a self-portrait for art class. drew an elaborate butterfly. the teacher didn't get it and berated her for not understanding the assignment. mimi went to defend her, saying that claud understood the assignment better than any of the other kids since she drew herself how she saw herself: a free spirit/butterfly. and then I cried.
jessi - nine years old (NEW): squirt is borned. jessi and becca hadn't wanted a new baby, and then once he comes home he is colicky and miserable. at one point jessi sings tomorrow from annie to him to keep him from crying and from then on is super bonded to him.
logan - thirteen years old: Logan Likes Mary Anne!, from the other side. he moves to stoneybrook and meets mary anne and joins the bsc.
mal - ten years old (NEW): goes to see her favorite author. rehearses what she'll say to make an impression, picks out a perfect outfit, picks her flowers, etc. but when she gets to the author she can't remember what she was going to say and just bursts into tears.
shannon - thirteen years old (NEW): there's a new girl in school, sally, who keeps choosing ONE girl to be friends with and make her feel really cool. she chooses shannon for a second and then unchooses her when shannon prefers astronomy to sitting around a pool and looking like a cool kid. shannon determines that all new girls are jerks (don't ask me to explain that) so she is mean to kristy, the new girl in the neighborhood. but then they become friends.
dawn - twelve years old: parents get divorced. moves to stoneybrook. just the story we already know but getting to see it/dawn and jeff's reactions.
mary anne - eight years old (NEW): mrs. tate (a babysitter) stays for the weekend while mary anne's dad is out of town. she has a slumber party w/ kristy and claud and they try to prank mrs. tate but she likes the pranks and plays along, pranking them playfully in the end too.
favorite to least favorite ranking: claud, kristy, mary anne, mal, jessi, dawn, stacey, shannon, logan
highlights:
-claud's teacher was mean. she yelled a lot, which "made [claud] scared. it made mary anne cry. it made kristy fight." this is such a perfect short description of these characters' personalities.
-claud loves her crayola 64 pack, with the crayon sharpener in the back. I loved those! and also of COURSE claud had one.
-claud's story in general. goddamn, a good mimi anecdote always makes me sob.
-jessi backstory makes her sound more like a real person than she usually does. we knew squirt was born premature, but we didn't know her parents had tried and miscarried twice before him. jessi and becca not wanting squirt is sort of mean, which is refreshing, since jessi is usually depicted as completely perfect.
-also I relate to jessi's story a little bit. when my dad and stepmom told me they were having a baby (I was 13) I was mortified. I didn't think I could possibly want a sibling that was the product of my stepmom, who I had many many problems with. but the second I met my little sister, I was totally in love and everything turned around completely.
-this is like a proto-portrait collection book (which might be why the first portrait collection book, Stacey's Book, came out a few months after this one).
-one of mary anne's babysitters, mrs. mills, smells like ivory soap and eats dill pickles all day long. I definitely chuckled at this description. this is the kind of funny detail I miss about Ann M. Martin-penned books.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-I feel like stacey's story mostly just served to retroactively show us how much laine was a jerk, so that we feel better about stacey breaking up their friendship in Stacey's Ex-Best Friend. but I've seen laine NOT be a jerk, so I feel kind of like ann is trying to gaslight me.
-claud mentions the thomases' "brand new collie puppy" about louie, but he is elderly only six years later.
-logan's family, in the move, goes through 5 states in 5 days (kentucky-> ohio-> west virginia-> pennsylvania-> new york-> connecticut). logan's dad had wanted to show his kids the country, but there is no mention of them doing a bunch of American Gods-style cheesy tourist things, so how in the world could it take them 5 whole days to make this trip? did they exclusively take country roads/no interstates? I need more information.
-logan's backstory SUCKS. we find out that he had wanted to get to know mary anne and it wasn't a coincidence that he heard them talking about babysitting and offered his services. it's basically rewriting their entire relationship. I HATE when people do this. it's like when we see drusilla sire spike after we have already been told that angel sired him. or like the end of scream 3 (sorry guys, but I will always believe that billy killed sydney's mom, not this retroactive story change crap).
-they try to make shannon (the only bsc member more annoyingly perfect than jessi) seem like a real person by mentioning that her parents don't really get along. weird. also, shannon's story is almost the same as stacey's, since stacey's involves a new girl coming to the school and ending up being a jerk.
-mary anne's story is funny but is kind of too reminiscent of the aunt cecilia story in Jessi's Baby-sitter
some outfits:
mary anne:
-"She was wearing a simple jumper over a white T-shirt with kneesocks and docksiders." (from logan's perspective, first day of 8th grade)
mal:
-"...this was a flowered vest over a pink turtleneck with a navy skirt, navy tights, and slip-on shoes." (what she wears to see amelia moody, her favorite author)
no snacks in claudia's room.
in spite of its dedication to "jahnna and malcolm" (presumably Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner, the ghostwriting team responsible for such crappy books as Mallory and the Dream Horse and Dawn Saves the Planet), this book appears to have been written by ann. it would make sense -- it's the first book in ages that SOUNDS like early bsc books.
anyway, the premise of this book is that the babysitters have a sleepover in which jessi asks them each what their most vivid memory is. they mull it over and each of them (including logan and dawn, who were not at the sleepover but heard about it from the others) tells the story. it's an unusual format for a super special. usually super specials bounce back and forth from character to character, with a framing device at the beginning and end. this one features the framing device (kristy, FYI, is the framing device narrator) but then gives each character 2-3 chapters to tell their story. once a character's story is done, it doesn't come back to them. before we get to highlights and lowlights/nitpicks, here are each of the characters' stories (in chronological order), in short. if it says (NEW) after a character's name, it means we haven't heard this story. otherwise, we have heard the story before, but in less detail (e.g. stacey wetting the bed at a slumber party is mentioned in The Truth About Stacey).
kristy - 10 years old (NEW): the first time she babysat (it was for david michael) and she did a good enough job that her mom fired the irresponsible babysitter and allowed kristy to help out with the sitting more
stacey - 11 years old: stacey obviously has diabetes but doesn't know it, and she wets the bed she is sharing with laine at a slumber party. laine and others bully her. stacey's diabetes is diagnosed and she moves to stoneybrook after having a crappy 6th grade experience.
claud - six years old (NEW): had to make a self-portrait for art class. drew an elaborate butterfly. the teacher didn't get it and berated her for not understanding the assignment. mimi went to defend her, saying that claud understood the assignment better than any of the other kids since she drew herself how she saw herself: a free spirit/butterfly. and then I cried.
jessi - nine years old (NEW): squirt is borned. jessi and becca hadn't wanted a new baby, and then once he comes home he is colicky and miserable. at one point jessi sings tomorrow from annie to him to keep him from crying and from then on is super bonded to him.
logan - thirteen years old: Logan Likes Mary Anne!, from the other side. he moves to stoneybrook and meets mary anne and joins the bsc.
mal - ten years old (NEW): goes to see her favorite author. rehearses what she'll say to make an impression, picks out a perfect outfit, picks her flowers, etc. but when she gets to the author she can't remember what she was going to say and just bursts into tears.
shannon - thirteen years old (NEW): there's a new girl in school, sally, who keeps choosing ONE girl to be friends with and make her feel really cool. she chooses shannon for a second and then unchooses her when shannon prefers astronomy to sitting around a pool and looking like a cool kid. shannon determines that all new girls are jerks (don't ask me to explain that) so she is mean to kristy, the new girl in the neighborhood. but then they become friends.
dawn - twelve years old: parents get divorced. moves to stoneybrook. just the story we already know but getting to see it/dawn and jeff's reactions.
mary anne - eight years old (NEW): mrs. tate (a babysitter) stays for the weekend while mary anne's dad is out of town. she has a slumber party w/ kristy and claud and they try to prank mrs. tate but she likes the pranks and plays along, pranking them playfully in the end too.
favorite to least favorite ranking: claud, kristy, mary anne, mal, jessi, dawn, stacey, shannon, logan
highlights:
-claud's teacher was mean. she yelled a lot, which "made [claud] scared. it made mary anne cry. it made kristy fight." this is such a perfect short description of these characters' personalities.
-claud loves her crayola 64 pack, with the crayon sharpener in the back. I loved those! and also of COURSE claud had one.
-claud's story in general. goddamn, a good mimi anecdote always makes me sob.
-jessi backstory makes her sound more like a real person than she usually does. we knew squirt was born premature, but we didn't know her parents had tried and miscarried twice before him. jessi and becca not wanting squirt is sort of mean, which is refreshing, since jessi is usually depicted as completely perfect.
-also I relate to jessi's story a little bit. when my dad and stepmom told me they were having a baby (I was 13) I was mortified. I didn't think I could possibly want a sibling that was the product of my stepmom, who I had many many problems with. but the second I met my little sister, I was totally in love and everything turned around completely.
-this is like a proto-portrait collection book (which might be why the first portrait collection book, Stacey's Book, came out a few months after this one).
-one of mary anne's babysitters, mrs. mills, smells like ivory soap and eats dill pickles all day long. I definitely chuckled at this description. this is the kind of funny detail I miss about Ann M. Martin-penned books.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-I feel like stacey's story mostly just served to retroactively show us how much laine was a jerk, so that we feel better about stacey breaking up their friendship in Stacey's Ex-Best Friend. but I've seen laine NOT be a jerk, so I feel kind of like ann is trying to gaslight me.
-claud mentions the thomases' "brand new collie puppy" about louie, but he is elderly only six years later.
-logan's family, in the move, goes through 5 states in 5 days (kentucky-> ohio-> west virginia-> pennsylvania-> new york-> connecticut). logan's dad had wanted to show his kids the country, but there is no mention of them doing a bunch of American Gods-style cheesy tourist things, so how in the world could it take them 5 whole days to make this trip? did they exclusively take country roads/no interstates? I need more information.
-logan's backstory SUCKS. we find out that he had wanted to get to know mary anne and it wasn't a coincidence that he heard them talking about babysitting and offered his services. it's basically rewriting their entire relationship. I HATE when people do this. it's like when we see drusilla sire spike after we have already been told that angel sired him. or like the end of scream 3 (sorry guys, but I will always believe that billy killed sydney's mom, not this retroactive story change crap).
-they try to make shannon (the only bsc member more annoyingly perfect than jessi) seem like a real person by mentioning that her parents don't really get along. weird. also, shannon's story is almost the same as stacey's, since stacey's involves a new girl coming to the school and ending up being a jerk.
-mary anne's story is funny but is kind of too reminiscent of the aunt cecilia story in Jessi's Baby-sitter
some outfits:
mary anne:
-"She was wearing a simple jumper over a white T-shirt with kneesocks and docksiders." (from logan's perspective, first day of 8th grade)
mal:
-"...this was a flowered vest over a pink turtleneck with a navy skirt, navy tights, and slip-on shoes." (what she wears to see amelia moody, her favorite author)
no snacks in claudia's room.
January 11, 2013
Giving this four stars for nostalgia because I must have read it a hundred times as a kid.
February 8, 2011
it's the end of summer & all the students at stoneybrook middle school have a summer writing assignment. they have to write a two-page essay about what they did over their summer vacations. kristy is kind of enraged by this assigment. she feels that two pages isn't even enough to get into what happened in her big crazy family last night, let alone all summer. she is complaining about it at a babysitters club sleepover, & jessi asks everyone what they would write if they had to detail their most vivid memories instead. everyone feels that this is a very interesting & insightful question. i vehemently disagree, but before i can get any of the babysitters to come around to my way of thinking, we are off & running...
this super special is set up differently from the rest, because it doesn't have one main plot impacting all the characters. each member of the babysitters club (including dawn in california & both associate members) instead gets one brief section of about four chapters to share their most vivid memory.
kristy writes about the very first time she was ever allowed to babysit. she was ten, & she was sitting for david michael, who was four at the time. he was enrolled in pre-school & mrs. thomas hired an adult sitter to watch him after school, but the sitter was becoming increasingly unreliable, calling out mere hours before she was supposed to show up, leaving mrs. thomas scrambling for a replacement. one morning when this happens, kristy jumps in & volunteers to babysit. mrs. thomas is reluctant because, hello, kristy is only ten. in the world of stoneybrook, ten-year-olds still need babysitters. but she finally relents with the caveat that kristy & david michael aren't allowed to use the phone or do anything else potentially dangerous.
the job goes pretty well. kristy cottons on pretty quickly to the fact that mrs. thomas has put the whole neighborhood on alert concerning kristy's first babysitting job, because mrs. newton calls a few times to check in, mary anne's babysitter comes by to check things out, mimi stops by to make sure everything is going okay, etc etc etc. why one of these actual adults couldn't have volunteered to sit for david michael in kristy's stead is a question never asked or answered, for without this first triumphant experience, the babysitters club may have never happened. after seeing how capable kristy was, mrs. thomas fires her unreliable adult sitter & kristy, charlie, & sam start trading off afternoons babysitting. & scene.
claudia's most vivid memory is actually kind of mega-sad. it's about the time she decided that maybe someday she could be a real, professional artist. she was six years old, & already not to great at school. the only class she really enjoyed was art class, even though the art teacher blatantly played favorites & claudia was not one of the chosen children.
one day the class gets an art homework assignment. they are asked to draw a self-portrait representing the way they see themselves, using whatever medium they choose. claudia is SO EXCITED about this assignment. she rushes home to her treasured box of 64 crayons & labors for several hours over a colorful drawing of a butterfly, because that's how she sees herself--colorful & free & wild. she is bursting with excitement over the idea of having her drawing shown to the class & praised by the teacher.
but then the big reveal finally happens, the teacher does not praise the drawing. she frowns & calls claudia out in front of everyone for not following directions & failing to take the assignment seriously. all the other kids drew normal kid drawings with circles for faces & squiggles for hair. no one else went so impressionistic. when claudia gets home that afternoon, she bursts into tears & tells mimi what happened.
mimi gets PISSED. she takes claudia's hand & marches her right back to the elementary school & straight to the art teacher's office, where she says, "claudia is the ONLY student who followed the directions. you asked the children to draw themselves as they see themselves, & that's what claudia did--she sees herself as a colorful & free butterfly. how dare you disrespect claudia's creativity & intelligence." GO MIMI!
claudia feels much better when she realizes that mimi understood her creative vision & supported it. it makes her feel like she might actually have some talent & could be a real artist one day.
poor claudia. i don't know how someone who chose to work with children would think it was okay to stomp all over a little kid's creativity like that. & especially for a kid like claudia, who already sucks at school & only likes art...that could have been the end of the road for claudia making any effort at all in school. mimi saved the day.
mary anne's memory is about one weekend when she was seven or eight & her dad had to go out of town for the weekend. she petitioned to stay with a friend's family or someone she knew, but richard insisted on hiring a sitter from the agency he used for all of mary anne's sitters. & all of mary anne's sitters were old ladies that smelled weird, as far as mary anne was concerned. mary anne is not pleased. finally she asks to have a sleepover with kristy & claudia on the first night he is away, to spend time with friends so she won't miss him so much. he agrees.
the weekend sitter seems like all the rest. she won't let mary anne have a sugary after-school snack, which outrages kristy. kristy decides they need to prank the babysitter. first, they spike her salad with ground pepper, but she just dumps out the salad & makes another. then they nail her slippers to the floor, but she just smiles & un-nails them. then they hang a scary rubber mask inside the fridge, & the sitter actually laughs & congratulates them on their creativity. soon the girls & the sitter are pranking each other left & right & having a great time.
this taught mary anne that not everyone needs to be as stern & serious as richard, & that kids appreciate it when their babysitters can laugh at themselves--lessons she brought to her own babysitting when the time came.
stacey's most vivid memory concerns the year she was diagnosed with diabetes. she was eleven. she decided that sixth grade was going to be the best year ever. she was going to make new friends & go out for the soccer team. but she is hungry & thirsty all the time, & no matter how much she eats & drinks, she feels shaky & dizzy & tired a lot of the time.
there's a new girl at stacey's school & her name is allison. at first, laine (the leader of stacey's little clique) wants nothing to do with allison. one of the other members of the clique arranges a sleepover, & stacey pressures her to invite allison. everything is going pretty well at the party, aside from stacey feeling kind of shaky & thirsty. she & laine end up sharing a bed that night & laine wakes everyone up in the middle of the night with her screaming over how stacey wet the bed. stacey calls her parents to come get her.
they arrange for her to see a child psychiatrist (& stacey cracks me up a little by saying that she wishes child psychiatrists were actually children). he asks her a few questions & determines that she is probably diabetic. mrs. mcgill rushes stacey to her pediatrician, who runs some tests & confirms it. stacey spends the rest of the year in & out of the hospital, learning to treat her diabetes with insulin injections & dietary changes.
meanwhile, her ex-clique (which now includes allison, who turned against stacey immediately upon the whole bed-wetting issue) has spread the news of stacey's bed-wetting all over school. stacey has fewer friends than ever & was in the hospital during soccer try-outs. when her parents suggest moving to stoneybrook, stacey can't wait to leave new york & get a fresh start.
dawn's most vivid memory is a total snore. it's about how her parents fought a lot & then they decided to get divorced & then her mom moved dawn & jeff to stoneybrook. that's it. zzzzzz.
mallory's memory is about her erstwhile faorite author, amelia moody. after mary anne encouraged her to do so, she wrote amelia moody a fan letter. a month later, she got a form letter response with a handwritten PS about amelia doing a book signing at the washington mall in a few weeks. mrs. pike agrees to take mallory to the signing. mallory goes bananas planning for it. she agonizes over what to wear, & memorizes a speech about herself, & picks a bouquet to present to amelia. but once she is actually at the front of the line, all she can do is cry. mrs. pike has to tell amelia mallory's name so she can sign mallory's book. *sad trombone*
two interesting potential self-insertions: 1) mallory is not at all upset about receiving a form letter response because she thoughtfully acknowledges that amelia must get a metric shit town of fan mail. just like...ann m. martin? i'm sure ann (who wrote this one herself) threw that in there as a bit of an explanation for all the kids who wrote to her & received form letters in reply. 2) mary anne counsels mallory to make her fan letter personal because a lot of teachers make students write to teachers as class assignments. which means that authors receive a lot of boring fan letters that read like homework. i'm sure ann knows this from personal experience & was sending a subtle message to readers about writing her more interesting fan mail.
jessi's memory is about squirt's birth. she was not pumped about getting a new sibling. she felt that babies were smelly & disgusting. but she was reluctant to say so because mrs. ramsey suffered two miscarriages after becca was born, & jessi didn't want to wish ill on her unborn sibling only to have another miscarriage happen.
anyway, squirt gets born a month early, & jessi thinks he is hideously ugly & has a really stupid nickname. plus, when he comes home from the hospital, all he does is cry. he's the noisiest baby ever. it turns out he has colic. please note that in book #45, kristy & the baby parade, there is a scene in which jessi asks what colic is. really, book? she forgot what colic was in the year & a half since her brother had colic?
anyway, jessi sings squirt some songs from "annie" & he stops crying. they bond. she decides he is cute & his nickname suits him. bor-ring!
logan's most vivid memory is basically just a re-telling of book #10, logan likes mary anne! told from his perspective. it's kind of cool getting his take on familiar events, but i am not going to recap that shit twice.
shannon's memory is maybe my favorite. it describes the beginning of eighth grade. stoneybrook day school has a new student named molly or something. she is extremely cool & exotic. she has lived all over the world, her mother is a movie star, her house is full of expensive art, & she has her own horse. not that it matters to the plot, but i am also going to mention that she has a hairless cat named tallahassee. for some reason, i was really into that detail.
rather than trying to make a bunch of new friends, molly picks one girl at a time & focuses all of her friend powers on her, isolating the girl from her other friends. shannon calls the best friend du jour "the chosen one," & molly swiftly goes through shannon's entire close friend group. shannon tries not to feel weird about not being picked. she is busy preparing for the admittance test to the atsronomy club anyway.
one day, molly calls shannon & invites her over. shannon heard that molly has a telescope & she's excited to check it out. when shannon says she has to leave to get back to her studying, molly pressures her into staying. then she calls the next day to invite shannon over again. shannon demurs & by monday, molly is done with shannon & has moved on to someone else.
for a while, shannon is really angry, in a way that she can't really put into words. it was exciting to be picked & strangely devastating, yet, relieving, to be dropped again. she is shocked that she almost let molly pressure her into bombing the astronomy club exam, & she vows never to have a friend like that again. but her residual anger make it tough for her to accept kristy when she moves into shannon's neighborhood. eventually shannon gets a grip on herself & she & kristy become friends.
i liked this story a lot because it is far more true to the realities of junior high & girl friendships than anything else in the babysitters club books.
one annoying this about this book: it features almost no contractions. which means that every character sounds like karen brewer. NOOOO!
two hilarious things: in the preface, kristy makes big a deal over how she "will NEVER forget what happened at last night's sleepover." & she says that she generally "rushes her friends straight to her bedroom when they come over for sleepovers." i kind of "kristy is gay" meme is really tired, but...damn, she makes it too easy sometimes.
this super special is set up differently from the rest, because it doesn't have one main plot impacting all the characters. each member of the babysitters club (including dawn in california & both associate members) instead gets one brief section of about four chapters to share their most vivid memory.
kristy writes about the very first time she was ever allowed to babysit. she was ten, & she was sitting for david michael, who was four at the time. he was enrolled in pre-school & mrs. thomas hired an adult sitter to watch him after school, but the sitter was becoming increasingly unreliable, calling out mere hours before she was supposed to show up, leaving mrs. thomas scrambling for a replacement. one morning when this happens, kristy jumps in & volunteers to babysit. mrs. thomas is reluctant because, hello, kristy is only ten. in the world of stoneybrook, ten-year-olds still need babysitters. but she finally relents with the caveat that kristy & david michael aren't allowed to use the phone or do anything else potentially dangerous.
the job goes pretty well. kristy cottons on pretty quickly to the fact that mrs. thomas has put the whole neighborhood on alert concerning kristy's first babysitting job, because mrs. newton calls a few times to check in, mary anne's babysitter comes by to check things out, mimi stops by to make sure everything is going okay, etc etc etc. why one of these actual adults couldn't have volunteered to sit for david michael in kristy's stead is a question never asked or answered, for without this first triumphant experience, the babysitters club may have never happened. after seeing how capable kristy was, mrs. thomas fires her unreliable adult sitter & kristy, charlie, & sam start trading off afternoons babysitting. & scene.
claudia's most vivid memory is actually kind of mega-sad. it's about the time she decided that maybe someday she could be a real, professional artist. she was six years old, & already not to great at school. the only class she really enjoyed was art class, even though the art teacher blatantly played favorites & claudia was not one of the chosen children.
one day the class gets an art homework assignment. they are asked to draw a self-portrait representing the way they see themselves, using whatever medium they choose. claudia is SO EXCITED about this assignment. she rushes home to her treasured box of 64 crayons & labors for several hours over a colorful drawing of a butterfly, because that's how she sees herself--colorful & free & wild. she is bursting with excitement over the idea of having her drawing shown to the class & praised by the teacher.
but then the big reveal finally happens, the teacher does not praise the drawing. she frowns & calls claudia out in front of everyone for not following directions & failing to take the assignment seriously. all the other kids drew normal kid drawings with circles for faces & squiggles for hair. no one else went so impressionistic. when claudia gets home that afternoon, she bursts into tears & tells mimi what happened.
mimi gets PISSED. she takes claudia's hand & marches her right back to the elementary school & straight to the art teacher's office, where she says, "claudia is the ONLY student who followed the directions. you asked the children to draw themselves as they see themselves, & that's what claudia did--she sees herself as a colorful & free butterfly. how dare you disrespect claudia's creativity & intelligence." GO MIMI!
claudia feels much better when she realizes that mimi understood her creative vision & supported it. it makes her feel like she might actually have some talent & could be a real artist one day.
poor claudia. i don't know how someone who chose to work with children would think it was okay to stomp all over a little kid's creativity like that. & especially for a kid like claudia, who already sucks at school & only likes art...that could have been the end of the road for claudia making any effort at all in school. mimi saved the day.
mary anne's memory is about one weekend when she was seven or eight & her dad had to go out of town for the weekend. she petitioned to stay with a friend's family or someone she knew, but richard insisted on hiring a sitter from the agency he used for all of mary anne's sitters. & all of mary anne's sitters were old ladies that smelled weird, as far as mary anne was concerned. mary anne is not pleased. finally she asks to have a sleepover with kristy & claudia on the first night he is away, to spend time with friends so she won't miss him so much. he agrees.
the weekend sitter seems like all the rest. she won't let mary anne have a sugary after-school snack, which outrages kristy. kristy decides they need to prank the babysitter. first, they spike her salad with ground pepper, but she just dumps out the salad & makes another. then they nail her slippers to the floor, but she just smiles & un-nails them. then they hang a scary rubber mask inside the fridge, & the sitter actually laughs & congratulates them on their creativity. soon the girls & the sitter are pranking each other left & right & having a great time.
this taught mary anne that not everyone needs to be as stern & serious as richard, & that kids appreciate it when their babysitters can laugh at themselves--lessons she brought to her own babysitting when the time came.
stacey's most vivid memory concerns the year she was diagnosed with diabetes. she was eleven. she decided that sixth grade was going to be the best year ever. she was going to make new friends & go out for the soccer team. but she is hungry & thirsty all the time, & no matter how much she eats & drinks, she feels shaky & dizzy & tired a lot of the time.
there's a new girl at stacey's school & her name is allison. at first, laine (the leader of stacey's little clique) wants nothing to do with allison. one of the other members of the clique arranges a sleepover, & stacey pressures her to invite allison. everything is going pretty well at the party, aside from stacey feeling kind of shaky & thirsty. she & laine end up sharing a bed that night & laine wakes everyone up in the middle of the night with her screaming over how stacey wet the bed. stacey calls her parents to come get her.
they arrange for her to see a child psychiatrist (& stacey cracks me up a little by saying that she wishes child psychiatrists were actually children). he asks her a few questions & determines that she is probably diabetic. mrs. mcgill rushes stacey to her pediatrician, who runs some tests & confirms it. stacey spends the rest of the year in & out of the hospital, learning to treat her diabetes with insulin injections & dietary changes.
meanwhile, her ex-clique (which now includes allison, who turned against stacey immediately upon the whole bed-wetting issue) has spread the news of stacey's bed-wetting all over school. stacey has fewer friends than ever & was in the hospital during soccer try-outs. when her parents suggest moving to stoneybrook, stacey can't wait to leave new york & get a fresh start.
dawn's most vivid memory is a total snore. it's about how her parents fought a lot & then they decided to get divorced & then her mom moved dawn & jeff to stoneybrook. that's it. zzzzzz.
mallory's memory is about her erstwhile faorite author, amelia moody. after mary anne encouraged her to do so, she wrote amelia moody a fan letter. a month later, she got a form letter response with a handwritten PS about amelia doing a book signing at the washington mall in a few weeks. mrs. pike agrees to take mallory to the signing. mallory goes bananas planning for it. she agonizes over what to wear, & memorizes a speech about herself, & picks a bouquet to present to amelia. but once she is actually at the front of the line, all she can do is cry. mrs. pike has to tell amelia mallory's name so she can sign mallory's book. *sad trombone*
two interesting potential self-insertions: 1) mallory is not at all upset about receiving a form letter response because she thoughtfully acknowledges that amelia must get a metric shit town of fan mail. just like...ann m. martin? i'm sure ann (who wrote this one herself) threw that in there as a bit of an explanation for all the kids who wrote to her & received form letters in reply. 2) mary anne counsels mallory to make her fan letter personal because a lot of teachers make students write to teachers as class assignments. which means that authors receive a lot of boring fan letters that read like homework. i'm sure ann knows this from personal experience & was sending a subtle message to readers about writing her more interesting fan mail.
jessi's memory is about squirt's birth. she was not pumped about getting a new sibling. she felt that babies were smelly & disgusting. but she was reluctant to say so because mrs. ramsey suffered two miscarriages after becca was born, & jessi didn't want to wish ill on her unborn sibling only to have another miscarriage happen.
anyway, squirt gets born a month early, & jessi thinks he is hideously ugly & has a really stupid nickname. plus, when he comes home from the hospital, all he does is cry. he's the noisiest baby ever. it turns out he has colic. please note that in book #45, kristy & the baby parade, there is a scene in which jessi asks what colic is. really, book? she forgot what colic was in the year & a half since her brother had colic?
anyway, jessi sings squirt some songs from "annie" & he stops crying. they bond. she decides he is cute & his nickname suits him. bor-ring!
logan's most vivid memory is basically just a re-telling of book #10, logan likes mary anne! told from his perspective. it's kind of cool getting his take on familiar events, but i am not going to recap that shit twice.
shannon's memory is maybe my favorite. it describes the beginning of eighth grade. stoneybrook day school has a new student named molly or something. she is extremely cool & exotic. she has lived all over the world, her mother is a movie star, her house is full of expensive art, & she has her own horse. not that it matters to the plot, but i am also going to mention that she has a hairless cat named tallahassee. for some reason, i was really into that detail.
rather than trying to make a bunch of new friends, molly picks one girl at a time & focuses all of her friend powers on her, isolating the girl from her other friends. shannon calls the best friend du jour "the chosen one," & molly swiftly goes through shannon's entire close friend group. shannon tries not to feel weird about not being picked. she is busy preparing for the admittance test to the atsronomy club anyway.
one day, molly calls shannon & invites her over. shannon heard that molly has a telescope & she's excited to check it out. when shannon says she has to leave to get back to her studying, molly pressures her into staying. then she calls the next day to invite shannon over again. shannon demurs & by monday, molly is done with shannon & has moved on to someone else.
for a while, shannon is really angry, in a way that she can't really put into words. it was exciting to be picked & strangely devastating, yet, relieving, to be dropped again. she is shocked that she almost let molly pressure her into bombing the astronomy club exam, & she vows never to have a friend like that again. but her residual anger make it tough for her to accept kristy when she moves into shannon's neighborhood. eventually shannon gets a grip on herself & she & kristy become friends.
i liked this story a lot because it is far more true to the realities of junior high & girl friendships than anything else in the babysitters club books.
one annoying this about this book: it features almost no contractions. which means that every character sounds like karen brewer. NOOOO!
two hilarious things: in the preface, kristy makes big a deal over how she "will NEVER forget what happened at last night's sleepover." & she says that she generally "rushes her friends straight to her bedroom when they come over for sleepovers." i kind of "kristy is gay" meme is really tired, but...damn, she makes it too easy sometimes.
April 23, 2022
nice to read about the characters past
May 31, 2024
Wanted to read one of these books to remember what it was like when I was 12, and it was a good time! Like 3.5 ⭐️
October 4, 2013
This book was great because it reminded me of all the happy, sad, exiting and fun times the BSC have had in all their years together!!
November 1, 2013
In which you discover why I call CK "Caludia." Other memories happen, too. And there's a Shannon chapter!
Read
June 23, 2024The Baby sitters Remember
Kristy is given a school assignment to write about what she did over the summer in two pages. She tells what happens at the slumber party she threw. They have a backyard picnic, watermelon seed spitting contest, roast marshmallows, and then have a firefly collecting contest When they all settle down, during the slumber party, they all start talking about the essay. A Mal says she doesn’t mind writing the essay but would have preferred a more creative topic. Then they all start throwing topics around (“most vivid memory”, “most humbling experience”, “happiest memory”0).
Kristy recalls a memory of when she’s 10. Her mother hired a housekeeper named Mrs. Cult, but Mrs. Cult turns out to be irresponsible cancels a lot the morning she’s supposed to be at work. One morning, she cancels and now there will be no one there to watch David Michael after school. Charlie and Sam can’t do it so Kristy volunteers. Her mother agrees after giving her a few rules.
Everything goes fine. Kristy has a snack waiting for David Micheal when he gets home. Maryanne wants to come by to get away from her own baby sitter but Kristy doesn’t want to mess anything up so she has to turn down her going to Maryanne’s or her coming by. David Michael wants to play outside, but Kristy is hesitant because they won’t be able to hear the phone. After this, a whole bunch of people come by to check on them (Mrs. Newton, Maryanne’s babysitter, Mrs.Pike). David Micheal falls and cuts his hand (but Kristy cleans him up good). When Mrs. Thomas gets back, her mom is impressed and tells Kristy she did good. The next day Mrs. Thomas fires Mrs. Cult. Charlie and Sam now have to do most of the sitting and they all have more housework (but they don’t mind this).
Stacy’s most vivid memory is about starting the sixth grade while she was still in NY. On the first day of school, her parents notice she drinks two glasses of juice and says she’s thirsty. The night night before she ate a whole bag of chips. Stacey has promised herself that she’s going to make this year the best one by making all A’s and getting on the soccer team. One of the girls in her clique (Marty) won’t be coming back and there’s a new girl named Allison (Layne doesn’t seem to care for her). That night when her mom measures her she’s gained an inch in height but lost 4lbs. Stacey decides to have a slumber party and wants to invite Allison (Layne doesn’t want this). Stacey gets to know Allison. At the same time, she’s eating like a horse and drinking like a fish but she’s not about to call off the party. Stacey rests up before the party but still has to get up to keep getting drinks of water. On the way there she feels shaky and dizzy.
Deirdre is having the party and the other girls are Sally, Lain, Val, and Stacey. They order pizza and watchan old movie. Later, Stacey wants more soda after having three pieces of pizza and two cans of soda. Stacey has to have a talk with Laine to stop making sarcastic comments about Allison. Later, that night Stacey wets the bed and has to call her mom to come pick her up. She’s not feeling so good (but her mom mistakes this as she doesn’t feel good about wetting the bed). This kind of shuts down Stacey’s best-year thing. She isn’t able to try out for the team because she’s in the hospital. Her friends drop her. Then she can’t make all A’s because she finds out she’s a brittle diabetic (which is what I am and it makes it damn near impossible to control). Stacey’s parents then tell her they need a change and they’re moving to Connecticut. Stacey’s eager to make the move. She then attends Stoneybrooke and makes friends with Claudia and the BSC. She gets her diabetes under control and manages to make good grades.
Stacey’s parents send her to a child psychiatrist. All her “friends” are now snubbing her. Stacey confesses to the psychiatrist that she’s wet the bed before. She tells the psychiatrist about the eating and drinking. She tells him she’s also been dizzy and feels weak. Afterward, he tells her and her mom he thinks she’s diabetic and suggests she call her pediatrician. She’s assigned to a specialist and told how to give herself injections. She then gets the spill of what diabetes is.
Claudia’s memory is when she was six (in the first grade) her teacher (Mrs. Packett) gives them their first homework assignment to do a self-portrait in whatever kind of medium they want (drawing, painting, crayon, etc) Claudia has one of those sixty-four boxes of crayons she loves to death. By the end of the day, she, Kristy, and Maryanne know what they’re portraits will be of.
Claurida’s portrait is of a butterfly. She uses a lot of her crayons on it. The next day, she rolls it up and takes it to school. Kristy and Maryanne wanna see it (on their way to school) but she doesn’t want to unroll it. On Friday, Claudia waits anxiously knowing Mrs. Packett will surely praise hers. But everyone has drawn their faces (and bodies). She finally gets to Claudia’s. She holds it up and the class begins to snicker. Claudia gets schooled for not taking the assignment seriously. She cries later to Mimi and Janine. Mimi tells her she understood better than anyone and marches her back to school. Mimi gets on the teacher and said the assignment to draw yourself as you see yourself and Claudia drew herself as a free spirit. The next day, the teacher apologizes but what’s important to her is that Mimi understood her picture. It’s after this Claudia decides to be an artist and she still has the picture of the butterfly after all these years.
Jessi and Becca have an idea to put together a time capsule for Squirt. As Becca gathers the items, Jessi thinks of when Squirt was about to be born. She had just completed the fourth grade and Becca the first. Their parents had tried twice before to have another baby but had miscarriages (girl and boy). Jessi has a secret. She didn’t want Squirt at first. Her mother was making Becca move into her room and the new baby would get Becca’s room. Their all preparing the baby's room when the baby starts to come. Becca and Jessi are left with Mrs. Jasper. Then Aunt Cecilia comes by and takes them shopping snf lsyrt vookd. Mt. Ramsey calls later and sayt they have a brother John Phillip Ramsey (the second). That night, they go to the hospital to see him. It’s not love at first sight. He’s ugly and tiny. They had the name the nurses call him (Squirt). On the day he arrives, the room is all ready for him. Squirt turns out to be a crier, They find out he has colic.
Logan’s memories are about how his family drove from Huntsville to Conneticut. His dad insisted on driving. Then it goes into Logan’s POV of “Logan Meets Maryanne”. Mal thinks about Amelia Moody a fmmous author who wrote “The Meatball Book” and a letter she wrote to her (inspired by Maryanne). Maryanne comes to sit for her one day (before she joined the club) and Mal and Maryanne find out they both love the Amelia Moody series. Mal says it’s sad she only has two more books in the series to go and Maryanne says she should write to the author. Because she’ll probably love compliments on her books. Maryanne once wrote to the author of “Little Woman” but found out she was dead. Mal finds out that the author she likes is alive and decides to write her. She receives a letter back and an invitation to come to a book signing, Mal decides to dress up (slightly) and wear what she wore in the picture she sent. Then she goes over what to say in her mind. She decides to give her a bouquet of flowers as a gift. On the day of Mal has butterflies.
When they get there, Mal sees that she has a new book and she gets a new book. When it’s Marllory’s turn she gets tongue-tied and burst out crying. After it’s over, Mal thinks about how she sees how authors impact readers and she knows that she‘ll be an author one day.
Shannon’s most vivid memory (memories) were when she turned 13. She remembers things being tense around her home. She also remembers a new girl that came to Stoneybrooke Day (Sally Wright). One of her friends started to shun her and the rest of her friends for Sally (Meg), Shannon gets invited to join the astronomy club. Meg gets invited to a concert by Sally but she tells Shannon she wasn’t cool enough for Sally and now she’s giving her the cold shoulder. She moves on to Grier (another of Shannon’s friends). It doesn’t take long to move on and now it’s Shannon’s turn to be “the chosen one”. She’s invited over to Sally’s place. Shannon is so blown away by all of Salkly’s “glamor” that she blows off a lot of times she should be studying to pass the astronomy test. Shannon tho turns her down for the next day because it’s the day of the test so she can’t hang out at Sally’s. Then she moves on to “Polly”. There’s a couple of new girls that follow. This is why Shannon isn’t nice to Kristy for a while when she meets her. She aces the test and gets in the club. Eventually, she and Kristy become friends (so she does make friends with another new girl even though she vowed not to).
Dawn remembers when her parents start falling out. At first, it starts with little things. Then one night he doesn’t come home. Then she overhears a fight. Her mom calls her dad a liar and kicks him out. Eventually, her father sits them down and tells Jeff and Dawn they’re separating and getting a divorce. Dawn blames her mother and tells her she accuses him of things and she doesn’t blame him for not wanting to be married to her anymore. Dad yanks her down and tells her it’s mutal (they both don’t want to be married to each other). Dawn tries to get them to agree to work it out, but they say they’ve tried. Jeff’s stomach is now hurting and they start to argue again. Dawn says she and Jeff fight too but they still love each other. Her dad says it’s a little different with husbands and wives. Dawn’s mom says she’ll have custody of them. Her dad says he’s moving out to a motel. Jeff wants to go with his dad to the hotel but he says no.
Three days later, Dawn’s mom tells them she’s moving back to Connecticut where her parents are. And they’ll be leaving in a few weeks. Their dad will be moving back into the house. Jeff jumps up and says he’s not moving. Dawn wants to know where they’ll live and her mom says Granny and Pop (Pop) will help them find a new house. So, now Dawn has to tell Sunny. She tells Sunny and they're both furious. Sunny decides to give her a party. It’s a sob feast. After that, they say goodbye and Mom, Jeff, and Dawn leave for Connecticut. Dawn likes the new house. They get settled in and then it’s Dawn’s POV about “Maryanne Saves the Day”.
Maryanne's memory is about her father going out of town and hiring a super strict babysitter named Mrs. Tate. Mr. Spier lets Maryanne have a sleepover to make it easier. Kristy decides they’ll get even with Mrs. Tate because she won’t let Maryanne have a brownie as a snack. So they first put pepper in his salad. But she takes a few bites and then just makes another salad. Then they tack her house slippers to the floor. B she just smiles and doesn’t say anything. Next Kristy hangs a scary mask in the refrigerator. She just tells them good one and says they’re very creative. They think of joke after joke. She even tells them about a practical joke she did. spreading saran wrap over a toilet. Maryanne learns to have a good sense of humor and not to judge people. The next morning they think she’s making breakfast, but inside the pot is old socks and tennis balls. They have another party and talk about how impactful it was to recall their memories and the importance of good and bad memories. Then Dawn calls and Jessi poses another question “What was the most exciting day of your life?”
My Thoughts:
This one wasn’t *that* bad. Some were retellings (Logan and a little of Dawn’s). I thought she (the author) could have given us something different (for Logan). Something we didn’t already read about. I’m not so sure if we wanted Dawn’s parents fight. Kristy’s was predictable. Does any memory in her like not revolve around sports or baby-sitting? The most vivid memory she *should* have had was her father walking out? It felt like she didn’t know what do do with Maryanne. I was thinking wouldn’t her memory be of her mother? But then I think maybe it said she was a baby (or younger) when her mother passed. Then shouldn’t her most vivid memory be when her father let her have a little more independence? But I guess that would mean we’d get a repeat story. Not that Kristy’s wasn’t a revised repeat story.
I did like Claudia’s. I must have an artist's mind because I was thinking the exact same thing she was. I understood the assignment to draw the portrait any way you saw yourself. I was thinking GO MIMI! I liked how she stood up to that teacher. She didn’t even have to get loud.
I could relate to Stacey’s because a lot of what she described I went through when I found out I was diabetic. I remember the eating all the time like food was going out of style. I remember the intense thirst. Thank god I didn’t wet the bed at a slumber party (or ever). But what I found questionable was this. I’m also what’s described as a “brittle” diabetic and from what I’ve experienced NO “brittle” diabetics go through HELL because it’s impossible to get their numbers unders complete control. They bounce too erratically. I’m not sure if some do and some don’t but from talking to doctors and having it myself it doesn’t seem likely that after a short amount of time, Stacey just got hers under control with no problems with just injections.
I could also relate to Mallory’s story because I want to impact people as an author. When I read hers, I was thinking umm.. OK. If a fan came up to me and they burst into tears, I totally would have walked around the table and given them a hug, and a tissue, and asked them if they were alright. This author was way to impersonal. But that’s just me.
thoughts about. Other than girls like this in stories that just move on from person to person are WEIRD to me!, Shannon’s was just WRIED. I really don’t get girls like that in fictional stories. What do they get out of moving from person to person like this? Is this really a thing that teen girls do (or did)? At first I didn’t have anything for Jessi but it hit me. A memory came to mind of when Jake first say Renesme in Breaking Dawn. It happened to me recently, only I didn’t know this baby personally. But I took one look at this baby and just feel to pieces and it’s been that way since. I think if I heard this baby needed an operation and it was costly, I’d be the first to sign up to donate money. And let me tell you that to me is weird because of you know me I don’t usually get bitten by the baby bug but it *Can* happen.
Rating: 6
Rating: 6
Kristy is given a school assignment to write about what she did over the summer in two pages. She tells what happens at the slumber party she threw. They have a backyard picnic, watermelon seed spitting contest, roast marshmallows, and then have a firefly collecting contest When they all settle down, during the slumber party, they all start talking about the essay. A Mal says she doesn’t mind writing the essay but would have preferred a more creative topic. Then they all start throwing topics around (“most vivid memory”, “most humbling experience”, “happiest memory”0).
Kristy recalls a memory of when she’s 10. Her mother hired a housekeeper named Mrs. Cult, but Mrs. Cult turns out to be irresponsible cancels a lot the morning she’s supposed to be at work. One morning, she cancels and now there will be no one there to watch David Michael after school. Charlie and Sam can’t do it so Kristy volunteers. Her mother agrees after giving her a few rules.
Everything goes fine. Kristy has a snack waiting for David Micheal when he gets home. Maryanne wants to come by to get away from her own baby sitter but Kristy doesn’t want to mess anything up so she has to turn down her going to Maryanne’s or her coming by. David Michael wants to play outside, but Kristy is hesitant because they won’t be able to hear the phone. After this, a whole bunch of people come by to check on them (Mrs. Newton, Maryanne’s babysitter, Mrs.Pike). David Micheal falls and cuts his hand (but Kristy cleans him up good). When Mrs. Thomas gets back, her mom is impressed and tells Kristy she did good. The next day Mrs. Thomas fires Mrs. Cult. Charlie and Sam now have to do most of the sitting and they all have more housework (but they don’t mind this).
Stacy’s most vivid memory is about starting the sixth grade while she was still in NY. On the first day of school, her parents notice she drinks two glasses of juice and says she’s thirsty. The night night before she ate a whole bag of chips. Stacey has promised herself that she’s going to make this year the best one by making all A’s and getting on the soccer team. One of the girls in her clique (Marty) won’t be coming back and there’s a new girl named Allison (Layne doesn’t seem to care for her). That night when her mom measures her she’s gained an inch in height but lost 4lbs. Stacey decides to have a slumber party and wants to invite Allison (Layne doesn’t want this). Stacey gets to know Allison. At the same time, she’s eating like a horse and drinking like a fish but she’s not about to call off the party. Stacey rests up before the party but still has to get up to keep getting drinks of water. On the way there she feels shaky and dizzy.
Deirdre is having the party and the other girls are Sally, Lain, Val, and Stacey. They order pizza and watchan old movie. Later, Stacey wants more soda after having three pieces of pizza and two cans of soda. Stacey has to have a talk with Laine to stop making sarcastic comments about Allison. Later, that night Stacey wets the bed and has to call her mom to come pick her up. She’s not feeling so good (but her mom mistakes this as she doesn’t feel good about wetting the bed). This kind of shuts down Stacey’s best-year thing. She isn’t able to try out for the team because she’s in the hospital. Her friends drop her. Then she can’t make all A’s because she finds out she’s a brittle diabetic (which is what I am and it makes it damn near impossible to control). Stacey’s parents then tell her they need a change and they’re moving to Connecticut. Stacey’s eager to make the move. She then attends Stoneybrooke and makes friends with Claudia and the BSC. She gets her diabetes under control and manages to make good grades.
Stacey’s parents send her to a child psychiatrist. All her “friends” are now snubbing her. Stacey confesses to the psychiatrist that she’s wet the bed before. She tells the psychiatrist about the eating and drinking. She tells him she’s also been dizzy and feels weak. Afterward, he tells her and her mom he thinks she’s diabetic and suggests she call her pediatrician. She’s assigned to a specialist and told how to give herself injections. She then gets the spill of what diabetes is.
Claudia’s memory is when she was six (in the first grade) her teacher (Mrs. Packett) gives them their first homework assignment to do a self-portrait in whatever kind of medium they want (drawing, painting, crayon, etc) Claudia has one of those sixty-four boxes of crayons she loves to death. By the end of the day, she, Kristy, and Maryanne know what they’re portraits will be of.
Claurida’s portrait is of a butterfly. She uses a lot of her crayons on it. The next day, she rolls it up and takes it to school. Kristy and Maryanne wanna see it (on their way to school) but she doesn’t want to unroll it. On Friday, Claudia waits anxiously knowing Mrs. Packett will surely praise hers. But everyone has drawn their faces (and bodies). She finally gets to Claudia’s. She holds it up and the class begins to snicker. Claudia gets schooled for not taking the assignment seriously. She cries later to Mimi and Janine. Mimi tells her she understood better than anyone and marches her back to school. Mimi gets on the teacher and said the assignment to draw yourself as you see yourself and Claudia drew herself as a free spirit. The next day, the teacher apologizes but what’s important to her is that Mimi understood her picture. It’s after this Claudia decides to be an artist and she still has the picture of the butterfly after all these years.
Jessi and Becca have an idea to put together a time capsule for Squirt. As Becca gathers the items, Jessi thinks of when Squirt was about to be born. She had just completed the fourth grade and Becca the first. Their parents had tried twice before to have another baby but had miscarriages (girl and boy). Jessi has a secret. She didn’t want Squirt at first. Her mother was making Becca move into her room and the new baby would get Becca’s room. Their all preparing the baby's room when the baby starts to come. Becca and Jessi are left with Mrs. Jasper. Then Aunt Cecilia comes by and takes them shopping snf lsyrt vookd. Mt. Ramsey calls later and sayt they have a brother John Phillip Ramsey (the second). That night, they go to the hospital to see him. It’s not love at first sight. He’s ugly and tiny. They had the name the nurses call him (Squirt). On the day he arrives, the room is all ready for him. Squirt turns out to be a crier, They find out he has colic.
Logan’s memories are about how his family drove from Huntsville to Conneticut. His dad insisted on driving. Then it goes into Logan’s POV of “Logan Meets Maryanne”. Mal thinks about Amelia Moody a fmmous author who wrote “The Meatball Book” and a letter she wrote to her (inspired by Maryanne). Maryanne comes to sit for her one day (before she joined the club) and Mal and Maryanne find out they both love the Amelia Moody series. Mal says it’s sad she only has two more books in the series to go and Maryanne says she should write to the author. Because she’ll probably love compliments on her books. Maryanne once wrote to the author of “Little Woman” but found out she was dead. Mal finds out that the author she likes is alive and decides to write her. She receives a letter back and an invitation to come to a book signing, Mal decides to dress up (slightly) and wear what she wore in the picture she sent. Then she goes over what to say in her mind. She decides to give her a bouquet of flowers as a gift. On the day of Mal has butterflies.
When they get there, Mal sees that she has a new book and she gets a new book. When it’s Marllory’s turn she gets tongue-tied and burst out crying. After it’s over, Mal thinks about how she sees how authors impact readers and she knows that she‘ll be an author one day.
Shannon’s most vivid memory (memories) were when she turned 13. She remembers things being tense around her home. She also remembers a new girl that came to Stoneybrooke Day (Sally Wright). One of her friends started to shun her and the rest of her friends for Sally (Meg), Shannon gets invited to join the astronomy club. Meg gets invited to a concert by Sally but she tells Shannon she wasn’t cool enough for Sally and now she’s giving her the cold shoulder. She moves on to Grier (another of Shannon’s friends). It doesn’t take long to move on and now it’s Shannon’s turn to be “the chosen one”. She’s invited over to Sally’s place. Shannon is so blown away by all of Salkly’s “glamor” that she blows off a lot of times she should be studying to pass the astronomy test. Shannon tho turns her down for the next day because it’s the day of the test so she can’t hang out at Sally’s. Then she moves on to “Polly”. There’s a couple of new girls that follow. This is why Shannon isn’t nice to Kristy for a while when she meets her. She aces the test and gets in the club. Eventually, she and Kristy become friends (so she does make friends with another new girl even though she vowed not to).
Dawn remembers when her parents start falling out. At first, it starts with little things. Then one night he doesn’t come home. Then she overhears a fight. Her mom calls her dad a liar and kicks him out. Eventually, her father sits them down and tells Jeff and Dawn they’re separating and getting a divorce. Dawn blames her mother and tells her she accuses him of things and she doesn’t blame him for not wanting to be married to her anymore. Dad yanks her down and tells her it’s mutal (they both don’t want to be married to each other). Dawn tries to get them to agree to work it out, but they say they’ve tried. Jeff’s stomach is now hurting and they start to argue again. Dawn says she and Jeff fight too but they still love each other. Her dad says it’s a little different with husbands and wives. Dawn’s mom says she’ll have custody of them. Her dad says he’s moving out to a motel. Jeff wants to go with his dad to the hotel but he says no.
Three days later, Dawn’s mom tells them she’s moving back to Connecticut where her parents are. And they’ll be leaving in a few weeks. Their dad will be moving back into the house. Jeff jumps up and says he’s not moving. Dawn wants to know where they’ll live and her mom says Granny and Pop (Pop) will help them find a new house. So, now Dawn has to tell Sunny. She tells Sunny and they're both furious. Sunny decides to give her a party. It’s a sob feast. After that, they say goodbye and Mom, Jeff, and Dawn leave for Connecticut. Dawn likes the new house. They get settled in and then it’s Dawn’s POV about “Maryanne Saves the Day”.
Maryanne's memory is about her father going out of town and hiring a super strict babysitter named Mrs. Tate. Mr. Spier lets Maryanne have a sleepover to make it easier. Kristy decides they’ll get even with Mrs. Tate because she won’t let Maryanne have a brownie as a snack. So they first put pepper in his salad. But she takes a few bites and then just makes another salad. Then they tack her house slippers to the floor. B she just smiles and doesn’t say anything. Next Kristy hangs a scary mask in the refrigerator. She just tells them good one and says they’re very creative. They think of joke after joke. She even tells them about a practical joke she did. spreading saran wrap over a toilet. Maryanne learns to have a good sense of humor and not to judge people. The next morning they think she’s making breakfast, but inside the pot is old socks and tennis balls. They have another party and talk about how impactful it was to recall their memories and the importance of good and bad memories. Then Dawn calls and Jessi poses another question “What was the most exciting day of your life?”
My Thoughts:
This one wasn’t *that* bad. Some were retellings (Logan and a little of Dawn’s). I thought she (the author) could have given us something different (for Logan). Something we didn’t already read about. I’m not so sure if we wanted Dawn’s parents fight. Kristy’s was predictable. Does any memory in her like not revolve around sports or baby-sitting? The most vivid memory she *should* have had was her father walking out? It felt like she didn’t know what do do with Maryanne. I was thinking wouldn’t her memory be of her mother? But then I think maybe it said she was a baby (or younger) when her mother passed. Then shouldn’t her most vivid memory be when her father let her have a little more independence? But I guess that would mean we’d get a repeat story. Not that Kristy’s wasn’t a revised repeat story.
I did like Claudia’s. I must have an artist's mind because I was thinking the exact same thing she was. I understood the assignment to draw the portrait any way you saw yourself. I was thinking GO MIMI! I liked how she stood up to that teacher. She didn’t even have to get loud.
I could relate to Stacey’s because a lot of what she described I went through when I found out I was diabetic. I remember the eating all the time like food was going out of style. I remember the intense thirst. Thank god I didn’t wet the bed at a slumber party (or ever). But what I found questionable was this. I’m also what’s described as a “brittle” diabetic and from what I’ve experienced NO “brittle” diabetics go through HELL because it’s impossible to get their numbers unders complete control. They bounce too erratically. I’m not sure if some do and some don’t but from talking to doctors and having it myself it doesn’t seem likely that after a short amount of time, Stacey just got hers under control with no problems with just injections.
I could also relate to Mallory’s story because I want to impact people as an author. When I read hers, I was thinking umm.. OK. If a fan came up to me and they burst into tears, I totally would have walked around the table and given them a hug, and a tissue, and asked them if they were alright. This author was way to impersonal. But that’s just me.
thoughts about. Other than girls like this in stories that just move on from person to person are WEIRD to me!, Shannon’s was just WRIED. I really don’t get girls like that in fictional stories. What do they get out of moving from person to person like this? Is this really a thing that teen girls do (or did)? At first I didn’t have anything for Jessi but it hit me. A memory came to mind of when Jake first say Renesme in Breaking Dawn. It happened to me recently, only I didn’t know this baby personally. But I took one look at this baby and just feel to pieces and it’s been that way since. I think if I heard this baby needed an operation and it was costly, I’d be the first to sign up to donate money. And let me tell you that to me is weird because of you know me I don’t usually get bitten by the baby bug but it *Can* happen.
Rating: 6
Rating: 6
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2021
Truthfully, I wasn't overly looking forward to this one - I love Super Specials, but I prefer to have a single narrative to follow, not just random flashbacks. However I forgot how interesting it was to read a bit from each girls (and Logan)'s past. So this book was definitely better than I had remembered. (Side note: I could not for the life of me tell you what my most vivid memory is. Maybe it's easier at 13 than at 37, because I could barely tell you what I ate for supper two hours ago. Just joking, it was shepherd's pie.)
My favourite story was Claudia's, about drawing a butterfly as a self-portrait. It's a wonderful story because it really does show Claudia's creative brain, but also because Mimi comes in and kicks ass, and I love that even though we lost Mimi a million books ago, she's still ever-present. Also, I had a similar experience when I was in senior kindergarten: we were drawing trees, brown for the trunk and green for the leaves, and I added red apples and got yelled at and cried. Except that nobody came to my school to defend my artistic choices.
I also really liked Jessi's story, about Squirt being born. Her nor Becca wanted a new sibling, and Squirt was colicky, and Jessi was the only one who could really calm him. I cried. It was a sweet story.
I mean, truthfully, there weren't any overly bad stories (except maybe Logan's, about when he first saw Mary Anne and fell in love at first sight. Barf. It didn't bring anything to his character. Kristy's, about the first time she ever baby-sat, was kind of shallow. With how much that's gone on in her life, I would have expected something deeper.) I liked Shannon's story, not just for the content (a new, popular girl at her school choosing one person to be her best friend, until she drops that person for someone else - it was interesting, especially how it tied into Shannon meeting Kristy) but because it's the first time we've had Shannon narrate herself. ( Shannon's Story is still a couple months away, and though she's had baby-sitting chapters in some books, it's always told through the book's narrator.) Although Shannon has been around since book 11, I feel like we barely know her, aside from her ski-jump nose and private school. Considering she stepped in as alternate officer when Dawn moved temporarily, I would have liked to see a book or two narrated by her - especially since we got a couple Dawn books while she was gone.
So I'm not entirely sure why I wasn't looking forward to this book, because I do like learning more about the history of the best friends I'll ever have.
My favourite story was Claudia's, about drawing a butterfly as a self-portrait. It's a wonderful story because it really does show Claudia's creative brain, but also because Mimi comes in and kicks ass, and I love that even though we lost Mimi a million books ago, she's still ever-present. Also, I had a similar experience when I was in senior kindergarten: we were drawing trees, brown for the trunk and green for the leaves, and I added red apples and got yelled at and cried. Except that nobody came to my school to defend my artistic choices.
I also really liked Jessi's story, about Squirt being born. Her nor Becca wanted a new sibling, and Squirt was colicky, and Jessi was the only one who could really calm him. I cried. It was a sweet story.
I mean, truthfully, there weren't any overly bad stories (except maybe Logan's, about when he first saw Mary Anne and fell in love at first sight. Barf. It didn't bring anything to his character. Kristy's, about the first time she ever baby-sat, was kind of shallow. With how much that's gone on in her life, I would have expected something deeper.) I liked Shannon's story, not just for the content (a new, popular girl at her school choosing one person to be her best friend, until she drops that person for someone else - it was interesting, especially how it tied into Shannon meeting Kristy) but because it's the first time we've had Shannon narrate herself. ( Shannon's Story is still a couple months away, and though she's had baby-sitting chapters in some books, it's always told through the book's narrator.) Although Shannon has been around since book 11, I feel like we barely know her, aside from her ski-jump nose and private school. Considering she stepped in as alternate officer when Dawn moved temporarily, I would have liked to see a book or two narrated by her - especially since we got a couple Dawn books while she was gone.
So I'm not entirely sure why I wasn't looking forward to this book, because I do like learning more about the history of the best friends I'll ever have.
May 30, 2017
This was never my favorite super special. I think because I felt like I'd heard some of these stories before. Kristy's most vivid memory is, of course, about her first time baby-sitting. Not about her father walking out, not about a traumatic event or anything like that, but literally watching her kid brother for a couple of hours after school. Boring.
Stacey rehashed, in much more detail, what happened to her when she first was diagnosed with diabetes. More interesting, but still a sort of retelling. She'd talked about this in other books, so we already knew the basic premise.
Claudia told a sort of sweet story about an art project she did as a kid in school. The best part was Mimi. Now that's a character worth missing.
Marry Anne told a boring story about a weird sitter she had as a kid, and we had to hear AGAIN about when Logan met her. Seriously? That's your most vivid memory? Come ON. Dawn was also a snore fest, talking about her move to the east coast.
The most interesting story here belonged to Shannon, since it was a story we'd never heard before. I liked that one a lot, though the rest of this book could put a person to sleep. Like, seriously.
I even totally forgot completely about Mallory and Jessi, who were clearly so dull I couldn't even be bothered to remember.
Stacey rehashed, in much more detail, what happened to her when she first was diagnosed with diabetes. More interesting, but still a sort of retelling. She'd talked about this in other books, so we already knew the basic premise.
Claudia told a sort of sweet story about an art project she did as a kid in school. The best part was Mimi. Now that's a character worth missing.
Marry Anne told a boring story about a weird sitter she had as a kid, and we had to hear AGAIN about when Logan met her. Seriously? That's your most vivid memory? Come ON. Dawn was also a snore fest, talking about her move to the east coast.
The most interesting story here belonged to Shannon, since it was a story we'd never heard before. I liked that one a lot, though the rest of this book could put a person to sleep. Like, seriously.
I even totally forgot completely about Mallory and Jessi, who were clearly so dull I couldn't even be bothered to remember.
October 24, 2021
One of the better BSC books I've read lately (although Logan's story was something we've read before pretty much in entirety with a changed perspective) and I even somehow enjoyed Mary Anne's section.
The shining highlights, though, were Kristy's personality coming through so clearly in every single story she's mentioned in, and Mimi being the absolute best as per usual.
I love that this book takes the time to really entwine the characters in each other's stories (even the ones where they're absent, like Stacey's and Shannon's) and makes them actually seem like close friends. Plus, I'm a sucker for the BSC books that involve slumber parties and this book featured several.
The shining highlights, though, were Kristy's personality coming through so clearly in every single story she's mentioned in, and Mimi being the absolute best as per usual.
I love that this book takes the time to really entwine the characters in each other's stories (even the ones where they're absent, like Stacey's and Shannon's) and makes them actually seem like close friends. Plus, I'm a sucker for the BSC books that involve slumber parties and this book featured several.
August 9, 2024
I liked this one a lot as a kid, and i think i read it a few times. After reading it as an adult, it's actually really good. The character development and depth are more similar to the earliest books in the series, before a lot of them started being ghostwritten. And there are several small observations that are actually quite big, such as Claudia's comment about not liking Kristy's dad (who has left their family years before the first book in the series). Claudia's story, especially, is such a perfect depiction of a little girl with undiagnosed ADHD, at a time when it was diagnosed very infrequently in girls, and often treated as a behavioral and even moral deficiency, with kids being reprimanded, rather than helped.
December 18, 2018
This one is a collection of short stories that begins and ends with sleepovers at Kristy's house. Each member of the BSC tells the story of their most vivid memory.
Logan: Moving from Kentucky.
Kristy: Her first time babysitting.
Stacey: Being diagnosed with Diabetes.
Claudia: Mimi standing up for her and her artwork.
Mary Anne: A prank war with a baby-sitter.
Dawn: Her parents divorce.
Shannon: Being friends with a new girl in her class.
Jessi: The birth of her brother.
Mallory: Meeting her favorite author.
Logan: Moving from Kentucky.
Kristy: Her first time babysitting.
Stacey: Being diagnosed with Diabetes.
Claudia: Mimi standing up for her and her artwork.
Mary Anne: A prank war with a baby-sitter.
Dawn: Her parents divorce.
Shannon: Being friends with a new girl in her class.
Jessi: The birth of her brother.
Mallory: Meeting her favorite author.
Read
July 29, 2020Super Specials were daunting, they were thick books for a kid!
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.
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.
May 10, 2017
In this book, nine babysitters (Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, Jessi, Logan, Mallory, Shannon, Dawn, and Mary Anne) narrate the stories behind their most vivid memory. I really liked this book because we get to find out more about our favourite sitters. My favourite chapters were the ones featuring: Claudia, Logan, Mallory, Dawn and Mary Anne.
February 12, 2019
I think this is probably the best BSC book. In it, each member talks about their "most vivid memory." Although I was addicted to the whole series for a while, none of them really left an impact on me like this one. Even now, years later, I still like to think about how I would answer the question... what is my most vivid memory?
August 7, 2019
I really loved this one!
The BSC told their most vivid memories, which was a nice change from the usual "vacation" that takes place in a Super Special.
These were back stories that, for the most part, weren't told in the regular series. Or if they were, you were reading it from another POV this time.
The BSC told their most vivid memories, which was a nice change from the usual "vacation" that takes place in a Super Special.
These were back stories that, for the most part, weren't told in the regular series. Or if they were, you were reading it from another POV this time.
December 31, 2020
SUCH a nostalgic trip down memory lane. It was remembering this book that caused me to seriously look into purchasing BSC books again. We bought 8 and saved this one for last. Such a satisfying way to end the year. Claudia's chapters still resonate so strongly with me, and Mary Anne's were surprisingly enjoyable.
January 4, 2021
(LL)
The only redeeming stories in here are Claudia’s (because of Mimi and that 64 crayon pack WITH THE SHARPENER) and Logan’s (mostly about Mary Anne but it was very sweet).
The rest are stories we kind of already knew, however, it did show us how terrible Laine really was to Stacey. I’m glad Stacey finally got rid of Laine as a friend for good in the later books.
The only redeeming stories in here are Claudia’s (because of Mimi and that 64 crayon pack WITH THE SHARPENER) and Logan’s (mostly about Mary Anne but it was very sweet).
The rest are stories we kind of already knew, however, it did show us how terrible Laine really was to Stacey. I’m glad Stacey finally got rid of Laine as a friend for good in the later books.
August 15, 2022
My Favourite
This book is so great. It's different than the normal books. I loved learning about the Baby Sitters most vivid memories. I found Mallorys to be a bit boring. Jessi's was my favourite I was bawling my eyes out.
This book is so great. It's different than the normal books. I loved learning about the Baby Sitters most vivid memories. I found Mallorys to be a bit boring. Jessi's was my favourite I was bawling my eyes out.
April 16, 2018
For my written review, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
August 19, 2019
This book was all about the babysitters club reminiscing about a vivid memory they each have. Lots of downs and some ups.
February 13, 2020
3.5 maybe? This was definitely better than the last few Super Specials
July 10, 2020
BSC 4ever😍
August 10, 2020
Still a lovely read. Love the BSC
Read
October 20, 2020Fabulous
Read
October 25, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
December 8, 2021
Nostalgia at it's finest! As soon as I saw the cover, it immediately brought back to middle school. My friends & I discussing which member was our favorite!
January 7, 2022
Nice reminiscing
gave-up
January 11, 2022This was a total bore
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews