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The Baby-Sitters Club #92
Mallory's Christmas Wish
When her family wins a contest and agrees to have their holiday celebration captured on film, the old-fashioned Christmas Mallory longs for turns into chaos with lights, cameras, and too much action.
136 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1995
58 people are currently reading
655 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,098 books3,046 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 15, 2020
Reality TV, before reality TV was a thing! A fun Christmas story about the importance of a low-key, simple holiday with family. I liked that they went to the assisted living facility and brought cheer to the residents there.
December 27, 2024
Not my favorite of the BSC Christmas books but it does have a lot of holiday cheer. The b-plot with the babysitters helping at an elder care facility where Mallory's uncle lives was pretty sad but well done.
December 28, 2017
in this christmas story by peter lerangis, mallory’s family plans to have a nice old-fashioned christmas, complete with homemade cookies and wassail and DIY presents. what they don’t know is that vanessa has signed them up for a contest to have their family christmas filmed, which will be edited and shown as a tv special next christmas. when they end up winning the contest (unsurprisingly...I mean, they have eight kids ages 5-13 and are planning a charming old-fashioned christmas with DIY gifts, who wouldn’t want to watch that?) they agree to its terms, for which they will get paid a whopping $10,000. but being followed around like a kardashian isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and when they find that the camerapeople in their faces all the time interfere with the old-fashioned christmas, they kick them out, forfeiting the money. meanwhile, uncle joe (who we know from Mallory and the Ghost Cat) is grumpy and doesn’t want to go to the pikes’ christmas because of the camerapeople, but once the pikes kick them out he shows up and has a nice time. meanwhile meanwhile, the bsc volunteer helping out at the holiday bazaar at uncle joe’s retirement community.
highlights:
-interesting that the plot of this book, which came out in 1995, is essentially a reality show following a family around, which has since the publication of this book become one of the main premises for most television shows. it’s as though peter lerangis predicted the future.
-on the residents of uncle joe’s retirement community getting ready for the holiday bazaar, uncle joe says “they're running around like thirty-year-olds." claud looks confused and asks if that's young. mallory says, "to him." ah, thirteen-year-olds. so solipsistic.
-there's a bsc party at the pikes' but the camerapeople can't stay for it and kristy is mad because she thought she'd get free publicity out of them. when the main guy is leaving she says "mr. henry, you look like a guy who could use a good baby-sitter. we're running a special deal, two nights of free sitting for every ten minutes of filming..."
-the pike family approach to secret santas is so charming: you write your wish on a strip of paper and draw them out of a hat. then they do their best to actualize the wishes. vanessa for instance wanted to be rich and famous so adam got a fake newspaper made that had the headline that she was elected president and gave it to her along with fake money. mal asked for the greatest christmas book of all time, and vanessa got her a blank journal with a note about how it hadn't been written yet. awwww.
-it’s good that they portray being on tv as so miserable, what with having to repeat each line a million times, etc. so that kids reading these books won’t see being on television as such a glamorous dream.
-it’s cool how they kick the camerapeople out (though this is also a lowlight -- see below) and basically say that no money is worth having a miserable christmas. it’s cool particularly that this happened to the pikes who have struggled with money before (see Poor Mallory!) but still prioritize their family’s wellbeing over money.
-hodges soileau (the guy who has done the art for every bsc book cover since dawn and the impossible three) is in the cover! he's the guy in the green jacket!
lowlights/nitpicks:
-none of the bsc members know what tchotchkes are! abby moved to town just in time to educate them on all things jewish. no but really, why are there so few jews in stoneybrook that these goyim don't know that word? they live in connecticut, in nyc suburbs, so they should be surrounded by jews and the yiddish words they come with. like you’re about to be, dear reader.
-I just don’t buy the ending. like, I know that they’re so miserable schlepping these camerapeople and equipment around all the time, but they are literally ONE DAY from being done, and after suffering through ONE DAY they will get $10,000. if they were going to kick the camerapeople out, they should have done it earlier, since this way they suffered through the whole christmas season (up to but not including christmas day) and are getting bubkes for it. the whole pike mishpoche is meshuggah.
no outfit descriptions.
noshes in claudia’s room:
-milk duds (n.s.)
-heath bars between the boards of her easel
-chocolate coins (gelt, but they don't call it that -- seriously, what goyim!) in her pants pocket
-mini mars bars (n.s.)
highlights:
-interesting that the plot of this book, which came out in 1995, is essentially a reality show following a family around, which has since the publication of this book become one of the main premises for most television shows. it’s as though peter lerangis predicted the future.
-on the residents of uncle joe’s retirement community getting ready for the holiday bazaar, uncle joe says “they're running around like thirty-year-olds." claud looks confused and asks if that's young. mallory says, "to him." ah, thirteen-year-olds. so solipsistic.
-there's a bsc party at the pikes' but the camerapeople can't stay for it and kristy is mad because she thought she'd get free publicity out of them. when the main guy is leaving she says "mr. henry, you look like a guy who could use a good baby-sitter. we're running a special deal, two nights of free sitting for every ten minutes of filming..."
-the pike family approach to secret santas is so charming: you write your wish on a strip of paper and draw them out of a hat. then they do their best to actualize the wishes. vanessa for instance wanted to be rich and famous so adam got a fake newspaper made that had the headline that she was elected president and gave it to her along with fake money. mal asked for the greatest christmas book of all time, and vanessa got her a blank journal with a note about how it hadn't been written yet. awwww.
-it’s good that they portray being on tv as so miserable, what with having to repeat each line a million times, etc. so that kids reading these books won’t see being on television as such a glamorous dream.
-it’s cool how they kick the camerapeople out (though this is also a lowlight -- see below) and basically say that no money is worth having a miserable christmas. it’s cool particularly that this happened to the pikes who have struggled with money before (see Poor Mallory!) but still prioritize their family’s wellbeing over money.
-hodges soileau (the guy who has done the art for every bsc book cover since dawn and the impossible three) is in the cover! he's the guy in the green jacket!
lowlights/nitpicks:
-none of the bsc members know what tchotchkes are! abby moved to town just in time to educate them on all things jewish. no but really, why are there so few jews in stoneybrook that these goyim don't know that word? they live in connecticut, in nyc suburbs, so they should be surrounded by jews and the yiddish words they come with. like you’re about to be, dear reader.
-I just don’t buy the ending. like, I know that they’re so miserable schlepping these camerapeople and equipment around all the time, but they are literally ONE DAY from being done, and after suffering through ONE DAY they will get $10,000. if they were going to kick the camerapeople out, they should have done it earlier, since this way they suffered through the whole christmas season (up to but not including christmas day) and are getting bubkes for it. the whole pike mishpoche is meshuggah.
no outfit descriptions.
noshes in claudia’s room:
-milk duds (n.s.)
-heath bars between the boards of her easel
-chocolate coins (gelt, but they don't call it that -- seriously, what goyim!) in her pants pocket
-mini mars bars (n.s.)
June 7, 2019
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April 5, 2011
while taking a walk downtown with jessi, pretending to be 17th century french aristocrats (i guess history is not their best subject), mallory hits on the incredibly original idea to have an old-fashioned family christmas with her family. they will decorate traditionally, with a great big tree trimmed with handmade ornaments, popcorn, & cranberries, they'll do all their baking from scratch, they will make all their gifts, & even make their own wrapping paper. she pitches it at the family meeting & everyone thinks it's brilliant.
a few days later, the pikes are hanging out, re-writing the words to christmas carols, when someone knocks on the door. his name is mr. henry & he's a producer for a regional TV channel. they ran a contest to find the family that was celebrating the holidays with the best traditional family values, & vanessa entered the pikes & their traditional old-fashioned christmas idea. the channel loved it & mr. henry is there with the contracts & a $10,000 check. he wants to film the pikes throughout their holiday preparations for a television special to run the following holiday season. this book came out in 1995, which pre-figured reality TV to a certain degree. "the real world" was already happening, but that was pretty much it. so i guess this plotline is both ahead of its time & now seems ridiculously dated in certain ways. dee & john plus eight!
the pike parents confer with the kids, who are ecstatic about the idea of being on TV, & about the money, which they think means they are rich. how quaint. mr. pike goes over the contract & basically re-writes the whole thing with his lawyer skills, but they agree to let the station make the program. when mallory shares the news with the babysitters club, all kristy can focus on is that the program could be great publicity for the club. the babysitters have been planning a small holiday party, just for themselves, & kristy demands that mallory ask to have it at her house so that the club can be on TV.
while all this is going on, the sitters also learn the local old folks' home is hosting a holiday boutique. community members are invited to set up booths with things to sell or games to play, & to bring their families to shop & mingle. the babysitters call the organizers to see how they can help & get drafted into doing child care for the event. mallory is excited because her great-uncle joe lives at the home & she thinks this will be a good opportunity to spend more time with him.
to filming starts & it's kind of a mess. the crew comes over to film the pikes making holiday cookies. but the cameras are in the way, the kids fight with each other, pow eats a bunch of cookie dough & gets sick, & most of the kids lose interest in the cookie project before they are finished baking all the dough. a few days later, the crew accompanies the pikes to the mall, where they are going to visit north pole village to meet santa & pick up a few store-bought holiday items. but it's a total disaster. mr. henry asks the kids to repeat their little jokes & cute comments for the cameras, he tries to stage-manage their trip up the escelator, & claire throws a tantrum after mr. henry leads her to believe that being with a camera crew means she'll get to cut past all the other kids waiting to meet santa.
mallory's parents give the go-ahead for the babysitters club holiday party to happen at the pikes' house, but the crew isn't interested in filming it. they are just packing up to leave when kristy shows up. she openly begs mr. henry to film them. she tries to barter him three days of babysitting for five minutes of filming, but his children are grown, so he could not be tempted. the crew is interested in the old folks' christmas boutique though, & they accompany mallory to stoneybrook manor, where they completely disrupt everything. they scare the old people & start moving furniture around & it's a total disaster. one of the manor employees actually yells at mallory for bringing the camera crew, & great-uncle joe refuses to be on camera.
slowly, the pikes realize that having their every move filmed is really no fun. the crew accompanies them when they go shopping for a tree, & it's a disaster. the people who run the tree place get pissed because all the potential customers are gawking at the cameras instead of buying trees. mallory is forced to drink four cups of cocoa to get the perfect natural shot of her drinking cocoa. then the crew ties a camera to the roof of the pikes' car to get the "tree eye view" of the trip home from the tree lot. they crush some of the tree's branches in the process & piss off the kids.
finally, the pikes are being filmed doing their secret santa exchange on xmas eve. mr. henry keeps saying "cut" & re-arranging the cameras to get better shots, forcing the pikes to repeat their sentences over & over. byron (of all people) finally has a complete meltdown & mr. pike asks the crew to leave. after the secret santa is over (mallory gets a new blank journal from vanessa), they have a family meeting where they all vote to give the station back the $10,000 check & stop filming. when mr. henry shows up with the crew the next morning, mr. pike does just that. mr. henry thinks he's kidding, & is all, "without christmas morning, we have no program." mr. pike is all, "too bad, so sad," & sends him packing. & the pikes finally get to have their traditional family christmas, with no cameras. uncle joe even comes by & has a nice time with the kids.
the boutique happens too but it's so boring, i don't remember what happened, even though i just read the book yesterday.
a few days later, the pikes are hanging out, re-writing the words to christmas carols, when someone knocks on the door. his name is mr. henry & he's a producer for a regional TV channel. they ran a contest to find the family that was celebrating the holidays with the best traditional family values, & vanessa entered the pikes & their traditional old-fashioned christmas idea. the channel loved it & mr. henry is there with the contracts & a $10,000 check. he wants to film the pikes throughout their holiday preparations for a television special to run the following holiday season. this book came out in 1995, which pre-figured reality TV to a certain degree. "the real world" was already happening, but that was pretty much it. so i guess this plotline is both ahead of its time & now seems ridiculously dated in certain ways. dee & john plus eight!
the pike parents confer with the kids, who are ecstatic about the idea of being on TV, & about the money, which they think means they are rich. how quaint. mr. pike goes over the contract & basically re-writes the whole thing with his lawyer skills, but they agree to let the station make the program. when mallory shares the news with the babysitters club, all kristy can focus on is that the program could be great publicity for the club. the babysitters have been planning a small holiday party, just for themselves, & kristy demands that mallory ask to have it at her house so that the club can be on TV.
while all this is going on, the sitters also learn the local old folks' home is hosting a holiday boutique. community members are invited to set up booths with things to sell or games to play, & to bring their families to shop & mingle. the babysitters call the organizers to see how they can help & get drafted into doing child care for the event. mallory is excited because her great-uncle joe lives at the home & she thinks this will be a good opportunity to spend more time with him.
to filming starts & it's kind of a mess. the crew comes over to film the pikes making holiday cookies. but the cameras are in the way, the kids fight with each other, pow eats a bunch of cookie dough & gets sick, & most of the kids lose interest in the cookie project before they are finished baking all the dough. a few days later, the crew accompanies the pikes to the mall, where they are going to visit north pole village to meet santa & pick up a few store-bought holiday items. but it's a total disaster. mr. henry asks the kids to repeat their little jokes & cute comments for the cameras, he tries to stage-manage their trip up the escelator, & claire throws a tantrum after mr. henry leads her to believe that being with a camera crew means she'll get to cut past all the other kids waiting to meet santa.
mallory's parents give the go-ahead for the babysitters club holiday party to happen at the pikes' house, but the crew isn't interested in filming it. they are just packing up to leave when kristy shows up. she openly begs mr. henry to film them. she tries to barter him three days of babysitting for five minutes of filming, but his children are grown, so he could not be tempted. the crew is interested in the old folks' christmas boutique though, & they accompany mallory to stoneybrook manor, where they completely disrupt everything. they scare the old people & start moving furniture around & it's a total disaster. one of the manor employees actually yells at mallory for bringing the camera crew, & great-uncle joe refuses to be on camera.
slowly, the pikes realize that having their every move filmed is really no fun. the crew accompanies them when they go shopping for a tree, & it's a disaster. the people who run the tree place get pissed because all the potential customers are gawking at the cameras instead of buying trees. mallory is forced to drink four cups of cocoa to get the perfect natural shot of her drinking cocoa. then the crew ties a camera to the roof of the pikes' car to get the "tree eye view" of the trip home from the tree lot. they crush some of the tree's branches in the process & piss off the kids.
finally, the pikes are being filmed doing their secret santa exchange on xmas eve. mr. henry keeps saying "cut" & re-arranging the cameras to get better shots, forcing the pikes to repeat their sentences over & over. byron (of all people) finally has a complete meltdown & mr. pike asks the crew to leave. after the secret santa is over (mallory gets a new blank journal from vanessa), they have a family meeting where they all vote to give the station back the $10,000 check & stop filming. when mr. henry shows up with the crew the next morning, mr. pike does just that. mr. henry thinks he's kidding, & is all, "without christmas morning, we have no program." mr. pike is all, "too bad, so sad," & sends him packing. & the pikes finally get to have their traditional family christmas, with no cameras. uncle joe even comes by & has a nice time with the kids.
the boutique happens too but it's so boring, i don't remember what happened, even though i just read the book yesterday.
March 3, 2016
Ovviamente dopo trenta libri o poco più, tutti i libri della serie si concentrano su questioni sociali. Temi molto importanti e d'altronde questa è fondamentalmente una serie per bambini, quindi capisco lo scopo. Però sinceramente dopo un po' diventa tutto molto ripetitivo. Per fortuna in questo libro ci si concentra di più sulle famiglie e vicende personali, che era la cosa che a me piaceva di più all'epoca della mia infanzia. Anche se ogni volta qualcuno ha un'idea fantastica (o mille, a dire il vero) che incredibilmente viene sempre messa in pratica.
November 1, 2013
In which Vanessa enters a contest about an old-fashioned Christmas and - SURPRISE!!! - wins. Mallory is a nimrod, as usual, but I really like the old-fashioned Christmas thing. Super cool idea. Too bad it involves the Spikes.
April 14, 2009
This was the first BSC book I ever read! I still have vivid memories of it :)
December 11, 2015
It's time to re-read some BSC Christmas books again! :)
This one is so much fun, especially because this book pre-dated reality TV and yet somehow perfectly nailed the idea of it.
This one is so much fun, especially because this book pre-dated reality TV and yet somehow perfectly nailed the idea of it.
December 18, 2017
It's Christmas in Stoneybrook, and the Baby-Sitters Club is celebrating!
Not to sound like a broken record, but leaving off at book #88 and knowing that I never actually got to read a Christmas-centric BSC story during the three years I read this series bothers me just a little. And I come to find out I missed out on three (yes, three) novels that all revolved around the holiday. If these had come out prior to the summer of 1995, I would have had all of them on my Birthday/Christmas list (which was always the same list growing up, since my birthday is in October).
Anyway, this time around, Christmas comes to the Mallory and her family. When her sister Vanessa (the fourth of the eight Pike kids) submits a piece to the local television station about a good old-fashioned Christmas, as part of a contest for the family to be on television, the Pikes never suspect they would wind up winning.
Actually, they didn't even know they were in the contest until the producer from the network arrives with the check and a contract. Here nor there.
The Pikes are surprised by their prize, and the opportunity to really enjoy a fun, very traditional, old-fashioned Christmas. What wears on them is the constant following around by camera crew, the staging, the public notice the Pikes get when they do something nearly as simple as pick out a Christmas tree or visit Santa. And when it adversely affects her Uncle Joe and his willingness to be involved in the Stoneybrook Manor Christmas Boutique (and possibly affecting the Baby-Sitters Club's involvement), Mallory begins to fall out of feeling festive. And this is not ok.
As I'm obviously partial to the stories of the ever-enterprising Baby-Sitters Club, this one hit a soft spot for me. I love Christmas, but it is a stressful time of year already. The extra stress Mallory has to endure is unnecessary, especially for an 11-year-old. No one, real world or world of literature, needs the added stress of anything that deviates from normal routine. I can understand (and feel for) Mallory when she doesn't feel the spirit anymore. I'm not sure anyone could relate to the fantastic opportunity to be on television for a whole news program on family Christmas (may someone can, but I can't), but everyone could relate to Mallory's resentment toward the holiday she loved, once it became too chaotic to celebrate.
As a Christmas story, this one is nice. It has a nice message, and definitely has all the appeal of "oooh, what if I had that opportunity?" feeling. Who wouldn't want their 15 minutes of fame (*raises hand from behind computer*)? But, are you willing to let it cost you all the patience and sanity you are entitled to have at any time of your life?
I'll make the recommendation - if you like Christmas, stories about Christmas, and the Baby-Sitters Club, this one is worth checking out.
So that's two out of three so far, on to the third BSC Christmas novel!
Not to sound like a broken record, but leaving off at book #88 and knowing that I never actually got to read a Christmas-centric BSC story during the three years I read this series bothers me just a little. And I come to find out I missed out on three (yes, three) novels that all revolved around the holiday. If these had come out prior to the summer of 1995, I would have had all of them on my Birthday/Christmas list (which was always the same list growing up, since my birthday is in October).
Anyway, this time around, Christmas comes to the Mallory and her family. When her sister Vanessa (the fourth of the eight Pike kids) submits a piece to the local television station about a good old-fashioned Christmas, as part of a contest for the family to be on television, the Pikes never suspect they would wind up winning.
Actually, they didn't even know they were in the contest until the producer from the network arrives with the check and a contract. Here nor there.
The Pikes are surprised by their prize, and the opportunity to really enjoy a fun, very traditional, old-fashioned Christmas. What wears on them is the constant following around by camera crew, the staging, the public notice the Pikes get when they do something nearly as simple as pick out a Christmas tree or visit Santa. And when it adversely affects her Uncle Joe and his willingness to be involved in the Stoneybrook Manor Christmas Boutique (and possibly affecting the Baby-Sitters Club's involvement), Mallory begins to fall out of feeling festive. And this is not ok.
As I'm obviously partial to the stories of the ever-enterprising Baby-Sitters Club, this one hit a soft spot for me. I love Christmas, but it is a stressful time of year already. The extra stress Mallory has to endure is unnecessary, especially for an 11-year-old. No one, real world or world of literature, needs the added stress of anything that deviates from normal routine. I can understand (and feel for) Mallory when she doesn't feel the spirit anymore. I'm not sure anyone could relate to the fantastic opportunity to be on television for a whole news program on family Christmas (may someone can, but I can't), but everyone could relate to Mallory's resentment toward the holiday she loved, once it became too chaotic to celebrate.
As a Christmas story, this one is nice. It has a nice message, and definitely has all the appeal of "oooh, what if I had that opportunity?" feeling. Who wouldn't want their 15 minutes of fame (*raises hand from behind computer*)? But, are you willing to let it cost you all the patience and sanity you are entitled to have at any time of your life?
I'll make the recommendation - if you like Christmas, stories about Christmas, and the Baby-Sitters Club, this one is worth checking out.
So that's two out of three so far, on to the third BSC Christmas novel!
May 31, 2022
I've picked Mallory's Christmas Wish out of a list of best BSC books but I must admit it's the first time I wasn't totally sold on one of them.
I don't know exactly why. Sure, Mallory is not one of my fave BSC members, she's no Mary Anne or Stacey but I don't mind her, she's also not Kristy, so it doesn't explain everything.
I guess I prefer when the girls are actually involved in baby-sitting (there was pretty much no interaction with little kids here) and I never warmed up to the whole "traditional Christmas" idea or even less to the TV show angle.
It's still perfectly readable and I suppose if you actually read it at Christmastime, it might be easier to get into the spirit of things.
I don't know exactly why. Sure, Mallory is not one of my fave BSC members, she's no Mary Anne or Stacey but I don't mind her, she's also not Kristy, so it doesn't explain everything.
I guess I prefer when the girls are actually involved in baby-sitting (there was pretty much no interaction with little kids here) and I never warmed up to the whole "traditional Christmas" idea or even less to the TV show angle.
It's still perfectly readable and I suppose if you actually read it at Christmastime, it might be easier to get into the spirit of things.
August 10, 2023
Nice Christmas story.
July 29, 2017
This particular book always felt like some strange episode of a late 80s/early 90s television show. It was totally something you would have seen on Growing Pains or Full House. I don't remember it ever happening on those shows, but it might have. I should do a Growing Pains rewatch, just to make sure. Any excuse for Mike Sever, for real.
Anyway, this was pretty standard. Nothing to interesting happened, although I did appreciate the nursing home b-plot. My granny was in the nursing home for several years, so we got very actively involved in things there. So yeah, thumbs up for that!
Anyway, this was pretty standard. Nothing to interesting happened, although I did appreciate the nursing home b-plot. My granny was in the nursing home for several years, so we got very actively involved in things there. So yeah, thumbs up for that!
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July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
December 10, 2021
You want drama, Turkey, Christmas gifts, and good old fashioned BSC?
Time to read this book. I've owned it since I was a child and never read it. I've only ever read baby sitters club the graphic novels and now I finally read one. Although it is book 92.
Loved it a lot, and glad to read something of my childhood years.
Time to read this book. I've owned it since I was a child and never read it. I've only ever read baby sitters club the graphic novels and now I finally read one. Although it is book 92.
Loved it a lot, and glad to read something of my childhood years.
June 26, 2022
Mallory and the Pike family are ecstatic when they find out they won a contest to be filmed for a Christmas-inspired reality TV show. Their plans for an idyllic, simple, old-style Christmas quickly fall away as they deal with camera crews and re-take after re-take. They finally choose to quit the TV show to focus on what is truly important: family.
March 5, 2023
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.
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.
December 26, 2020
(LL)
Decent storyline about how family is the important part of Christmas and not the money or the fame of being on TV. There were some good lessons in the book, but nothing the reader’s weren’t already told in previous books.
Decent storyline about how family is the important part of Christmas and not the money or the fame of being on TV. There were some good lessons in the book, but nothing the reader’s weren’t already told in previous books.
January 22, 2022
LOL I'm like a month late reading this one, oop. It's a fun one, full of chaos and puns. (Without even looking at the ghostwriter, I could tell it was Peter Lerangis.)
May 24, 2022
Not much babysitting at all in this one (only the Pike kids, but to be fair they're a handful) and not too much of the other girls except when they're being pretty annoying but I guess that tracks. Maybe if I read this closer to December I'd have been more charmed.
October 21, 2023
I liked this book cause it was Christmas themed, and those books are usually well written. But the filming of their upcoming old fashioned Christmas sounded so draining. This was at a time before reality tv, so it was ahead of its time, sort of
November 8, 2019
Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book
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November 30, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
December 15, 2020
Just did this as an in between read. I used to love the BSC books, and had three shelves packed with their books. This was a nice jaunt back into that portion of my tweens.
October 16, 2023
All in all, a very lovely Christmas story.
December 23, 2023
Really cute and cozy and I enjoyed the story alot 🎅🏻❄️🎄
May 20, 2024
The BSC meets reality TV. (Also the story starts with Vanessa's Christmas wish, but she's not a member, just a little sister.
November 29, 2025
When does Pow NOT have his own private water bowl?
Also, what is Nicky's "strange wood 'sculpture'"?
Also, what is Nicky's "strange wood 'sculpture'"?
December 8, 2025
Yeah, pretty good. I too can imagine how annoying a camera crew intruding on your holiday season would feel. Not sure I’d quit the contract on the 2nd to last day though.
December 22, 2025
A silly, but delightful BSC Christmas romp. I remember reading this one when I was a kid and thinking I’d never want to do reality TV!
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