Dawn's Wicked Stepsister

The Baby-Sitters Club #31

by Ann M. Martin

After Dawn's mom marries Mary Ann's dad, the two friends, suddenly sisters, find their home sweet home turned into a battle front until Dawn realizes that her new stepsister only needs some room in which to breathe

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

146 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reviews

[Alison Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am really tempted to give this 1 star.

So I'm gonna.

Generally even with the BSC books I have had issues with on reread, I've felt like a 1-star rating is pretty harsh for a decades-old middle grade book. But YIKES, there is just so much wrong and nearly nothing right with this one. The only somewhat positive thing I could say is that I appreciate the story exploring the difficulties of blending families. My parents are not divorced so it's not my experience, but I had a lot of friends who went through it, and I'm sure it might be helpful for kids to see that reflected in the stories they read.

Except it's done so badly here! For one thing, it continues to confound me how and why Mary Anne has morphed into such a bitch. In the early books, she's this sweet, kind, quiet girl. But lately she's just a snotty brat, and in this one, she's flat out nasty at times. She mocks Dawn for not having a date to the dance, she calls her fat, etc. Both she and Dawn act incredibly immaturely for 13-year-olds. I found it so bizarre that they insisted on sharing a room when Mary Anne and her dad moved in, even after they realized how cramped the room was with two beds, two desks, etc. Like, you're not 6, you're fucking 13, and you have to share a room? Living in the same house isn't enough? And then instead of using her words and just having a discussion with Mary Anne about the obvious issues, Dawn continues to act like a dumb child and decides to pretend to be a ghost in the stupid secret passage that connects to their room, so that she can scare Mary Anne into wanting her own room. WUT. Good lord. How are they 13 and yet they still believe in ghosts? And if you did, wouldn't you want to leave the whole house? What, is there a forcefield that means the ghost can't leave the passage, so it's only scary if you're in that room? And then Dawn later has the audacity to call for a family chat where she tells everyone they need to be more honest with each other. What a mendacious little twit. I just don't think either girl was modeling anything close to good behavior for the young readers at whom the series is aimed.

Their parents aren't much better, to be honest. Richard's clean-freak shit is honestly pathological, and it's not like he didn't know Sharon was a slob in her home. Why would you marry someone you detested? Also, the whole food thing was so odd. Previously, Dawn and her mom have always been called "health nuts" and all that, and I think the word "vegetarian" had been used on occasion, but it always struck me that Dawn wasn't actually veggie, she just mostly avoided meat. But in this book, they're called vegetarian multiple times, and one of the conflicts is that Mary Anne and Richard are apparently cavemen and need MEAT MEAT MEAT at every meal…to the point of Richard cooking and serving bacon to Sharon every morning. Like, why such a dick, bro? I'm a vegetarian, and if someone kept serving me meat, I'd be like "What exactly is your fucking problem" before dumping the whole plate in the trash. Dawn mentions that it bugs her because Richard knows her mom "hates bacon" but like…being vegetarian doesn't mean you just don't like the taste of meat or something. It's not like someone giving you grapefruit juice but you've tried it and don't like it. Is Richard too stupid to understand what vegetarianism is? (This is possible, trust me, I've had people assume I could eat soup made with chicken broth. Like…bitch, where do you think the broth comes from?) Or is he being a passive aggressive asshole to try to force her to eat meat? Either way, it was handled so weirdly and badly.

I was also bored with the Pike family subplot of everyone being sick or injured. Who cares? Those kids are all annoying as hell, maybe some injuries would be warranted. (I promise I don't actually want to cause injury to young kids. I'm not Republicans talking about a 10-year-old rape victim.)

JFC I've rambled about this enough. Basically, this is definitely the worst of the series so far, and I don't think it's a good one for kids to read, and so I'm glad that probably 99% of people reading the books now are old fucks like me revisiting their childhood to try to remember what life was like when it didn't massively suck every day. 1 star to reality and 1 star to this book.

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

this is my first time reading this book!

in part two of Mary Anne and the Great Romance, mary anne and richard move into the schafer house and no one can get along. the spiers are too omnivorous, and the schafers are too messy, and mary anne and dawn hate sharing a room because they were stupid to think it was a good idea in the first place (after seeing marilyn and carolyn's fighting resolved once they stopped sharing a room). then dawn plays a horrible prank on mary anne, unbeknownst to mary anne, and everything is resolved, because dawn is a jerk. meanwhile all the pikes get sick with the "pike plague" (i.e. everyone in the family is out of commission, though not all for the same reason; the triplets have pneumonia, mallory has chicken pox, vanessa gets in a bike wreck [no lie, I actually wrote pike wreck at first by accident], nicky breaks some of his fingers, margo and claire get bad colds, mrs. pike hurts her knee, and mr. pike burns his hand) and need a lot of help from the baby-sitters.

highlights:
-finally we have a resolution to the cliffhanger: WHO CATCHES THE BOUQUET?! the answer? mary anne. dawn is resentful because she thinks she should have because it was her mother who threw it.
-apparently dawn likes 50s music. she is stoked about a song that she thinks is by buddy holly coming on the radio. I find this conceivable because I loved 50s pop rock songs when I was 13.
-nicky makes the "doctor, will I ever play the violin again?" "I don't see why not." "well I couldn't before!" joke
-at one point claudia is standing on her head. she says she thinks it will make her smart because blood is rushing to her head. kristy says that since she's been sitting all day, "you can imagine where my blood has settled. I must have the smartest--" and everyone cuts her off before she can finish her butt joke. but I appreciate your butt joke, kristy.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-according to bsc lore, mary anne went to live with her maternal grandparents after her mom died. this says both her maternal and paternal grandparents are dead. but she hangs out with her grandmother in later books. huh?
-they move into the schafers' on sunday, but then dawn says that by the next day, sunday, mary anne is doing better. the day after sunday is monday. we don't get two sundays in a row.
-mary anne says to dawn re: getting dressed for the dance, "when you have a boyfriend, you want to look good for him." seriously I want to murder her when she says that. at least dawn responds, "maybe you do, but I would rather find a guy I could be a slob around." heck yes dawn!
-mary anne says to dawn, "don't think of yourself as someone who can't get a date, okay? it isn't healthy." WHAT A SMUG JERK. I HATE MARY ANNE SO MUCH.

no outfits.

snacks in claudia's room:
-pretzels in her closet
-tootsie rolls (n.s.)
-pretzel sticks (n.s.)

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

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

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

the exciting conclusion of mary anne & the great romance! the book opens with all the babysitters, plus logan, hanging out at mary anne's half-packed house, discussing the wedding. eventually everyone leaves, until dawn & mary anne remain alone to spend the night for the last time at mary anne's place.

the next morning is moving day. mary anne cries over every person that stops by with a casserole or a platter of brownies, she cries over every stick of furniture as it is shifted into the moving vans, she is a human hosepipe, as it were. this starts to grate on dawn's nerves. has she never met mary anne before?

at the farmhouse, tigger is confused & wanders the halls crying for six hours. dawn makes a fuss about how much tigger's meowing annoys her mother, but...i have a cat & it's not annoying when she meows. if i'm two rooms away, i can't even here her. get over it, sharon. mary anne also annoys the movers by jumping around, telling them not to step on tigger. that would be really frustrating.

dawn & mary anne's room is really crowded. even though they tried to make space, there's just not enough room for all of mary anne's stuff. her dresser is in the guest room. "whoever heard of sleeping in a different room from your stuff?" mary anne asks. uh...me. at my last place in boston, we had a couch, some shelving, & a bed in the bedroom. our clothes were all in what we called "the dressing room" down the hall. it was kind of awesome. anyway.

things are just not working out for the schafer-spier gang. every morning, richard serves sharon bacon, even though she doesn't like it. when they have a cleaning day, mary anne follows sharon around with a dustbuster because she thinks sharon isn't cleaning properly. mary anne & richard refuse to even try any of the schafers' health food meals. at one point, mary anne looks in the fridge & screams at some sprouts. she thinks something is growing in the fridge. dawn laughs at her, but i would have been pissed. these girls really do not have any respect for other people's diets & i find it really intolerant. i am not vegan, & find most vegans obnoxious, but i'm not going to categorically state that the food they eat is gross.

jeff takes dawn aside before he goes back to california & tells her that he thinks the new family is going to have "trouble" & that he won't be coming back to visit any time soon.

dawn & mary anne continue to fight. they argue over who will take a job with the perkins family, culminating in mary anne hilariously suggesting that dawn is fat. this scene also contains possibly the most famous BSC continuity error ever, when dawn narrates that she wants the job in order to buy mary anne a "now we're sisters present," since mary anne got on for her in the last book. even though it was actually dawn that got mary anne the "now we're sisters present" in the last book. fail!

mary anne & dawn fight over having music on when they're studying in their room. dawn gets mad because mary anne says a bunch of patronizing shit about dawn not having a boyfriend. dawn notices that richard tends to side with her & sharon tends to side with mary anne--their parents are trying to win the new stepkid's favor. finally dawn talks things out with kristy, & kristy is really helpful. dawn realizes that she needs mary anne to have her own room...but she doesn't want to admit that sharing a room was a bad idea.

so she conferences with jeff & ends up concocting a scheme using the secret passage to scare mary anne out of wanting to share dawn's room. it goes perfectly & mary anne moves out that night. problem solved. the whole family also has a talk about some of their differences. sharon suggests that they all make their own dinners since they can't compromise, dawn asks everyone to stop cleaning up after sharon, etc. everyone agrees. though i can't really imagine being in this family. the constant sense that i was disappointing or smothering someone would be too stressful for me.

also in this book, dawn states that all four of mary anne's grandparents are dead & mary anne & richard are alone in the world. even though later in the series, mary anne goes to iowa to stay with her mother's parents for a while. love the continuity errors!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Upon re-reading this book as an adult, I'm kind of WTF at the ending. I always thought despite her Soapbox Sadie tendencies, Dawn was a fairly sensible person, but instead of actually talking to Mary Anne about the problem with them sharing a room, she plays a trick to scare her into the guest room. And it works. And Mary Anne never finds out and she and Dawn start getting along much better and Dawn doesn't feel the least bit guilty for having manipulated one of her best friends.

I think the main reason I wanted to read this book again was the Pike Plague subplot. I have a stupid fascination with epidemic plots.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow half the issues here could've been resolved by a simple conversation. Exactly how rushed was this marriage? So picking up where the previous book left off Mary Anne is the catcher of the bouquet. This annoys Dawn because she's a little brat. Then Dawn gets annoyed with Mary Anne for crying about moving out of her childhood home. You'd think as someone who moved across the country Dawn would understand but no. Then the two families bicker constantly over cleaning and food. Dawn's mom is messy and scatterbrained Mary Anne's dad is neat to an annoying degree. Dawn and her mom are vegetarian, Mary Anne and her dad are not. The girls decide to share a room learning nothing from the Arnold twins in the last book and Dawn plays a horrible prank on Mary Anne to finally get her to leave. Neither girl comes out of this looking good and I hated both of them by the end. As someone who has small animals Mary Anne kept ticking me off when she got mad at Dawn for tripping over Tigger, or yelling at the movers. Tripping over small animals happens, it doesn't mean you hate them, it just happens and they really should've kept Tigger in a room with the door shut while the movers were there. Also Tigger is an amazing kitten since he apparently went to the bathroom outside and never used a litterbox but somehow was perfectly litter trained when he moved in? Didn't Mary Anne mention she cleaned his box in the last book? This confused me. The second storyline involves every member of the Pike family getting sick or injured staring with Mallory who gets a rare case of chicken pox for the second time. A highlight for me was anyone visiting the house wore a mask. Dr. Fauci would be so proud of them for being ahead of their time. The book was okay. It did show a more real side to what teenagers are like at least and not the usual rosy perfect portrayal the girls often get so that's something.

[Arushi Bhaskar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book basically confirms what I had suspected all along- Mary Anne is a big ol' bitch. This is why I've always been very wary of "nice" people. There is always a layer of darkness somewhere, and I personally don't want anything to do with that.

Out of all the BSC books I could have picked in quarantine season, I had to choose one with the "Pike plague". The universe does work in mysterious ways. Also, of course Kristy tries to get away from wearing a surgical mask while caring for pneumonia and bronchitis patients, because she is just that invincible. (She does though, in the end, AND YOU SHOULD TOO!)

The resolution was overly simplistic, and left me very... "eh?" Not that I'm complaining. This is what I signed up for, as a life-long BSC stan. Dawn rocks, as always. Wish we could have had a little more of Stacey though. And a little less of the routine "This is BSC, this is Claudia THE ARTIST, Kristy the LORD AND SAVIOUR, Mary Anne THE SENSITIVE, STACEY FROM NEW YORK, DAWN FROM CALIFORNIA, JESSI THE BLACK BALLERINA" etc etc. Please, I'm begging you. Please.

[aarya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read via audio (narrated by Stephanie Einstein).

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the bliss ends so quickly! Just after moving in with her best friend after their parents get hitched, Dawn is having issues with Mary Anne. Mary Anne is too neat and prissy and demands absolute silence while she does her homework. Also, according to the cover, Mary Anne wears mom jeans. Dawn can't handle that. Dawn is an individual! She's all rock and roll and messiness. So what's a best friend to do? That's right, sneak into your house's secret passageway and scare the crap out of your EX-best friend. That'll teach her!

[✨Jordan✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It finally happened! Mary Anne’s father and Dawns mother tied the knot! The two best friends now get the chance to be real sisters!!! Seems like the best thing ever right? Wrong! Both families have to get used to living together in the same house. Shared bedrooms, a new pet cat for dawn and her mom, a clean freak dad with a jumbled mess mom, vegans versus meat eaters. The list goes on and on. Can both families get over their differences and learn to become ONE united family? Read to find out

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

As it's slowly started to dawn on me (haha) that I don't like Mary Anne very much, this book also reminds me of how difficult some of the later books become--the timeline and details are all getting very fuzzy and weird. So many strange inconsistencies. That said, I do like Dawn a lot more than I did as a child. Her prank is super mean and immature, but otherwise her narration is a lot more bearable than some. (Still not enough Stacey or Claudia in this book, though.)

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dawn’s Wicked Stepsister
Sharon and Richard finally tie the knot and Maryanne catches the bouquet (which Dawn isn’t happy about). Now Maryanne and her Dad will be moving in with Dawn and Sharon. After spending the night in the Spiers old house and being spooked by the old house’s sounds it’s moving day. Dawn is excited and Maryanne is nostalgic and emotional from having to leave her own house. Her bad mood carries over to the new house and she’s bitchy all day about Tigger (who’s also having adjustment problems).

It gets a little better Dawn and Maryanne dress in each clothes the next day, but at the meeting Mal gets sick. It turns out she has chicken pox and they have to schedule her jobs out to the other members. Maryanne and Dawn argue over who gets to sit for the Perkins and Kristy makes them draw straws. Maryanne gets the job. Myriah, Gabbie, and Laura are so cute tho that all it takes is Maryanne telling about what the girls did and she and Dawn make up. BTW Dawn wanted the money to get Maryanne a special “now we’re sisters” present.

The Pike triplets also come down with pneumonia. Dawn is trying to get use to Richard’s rigid, routine also. Sharon is trying to convert him and Maryanne to get healthy. Richard announces a Spring-Cleaning Day and Sharon really isn’t good at cleaning so she kind of just moves stuff around. Maryanne follows behind her with the Dust buster which Dawn things is rude. So she rearranges Richard’s sock drawer and puts stray tissue on his bed. They’re all getting along until they’re watching a movie and don’t agree when to clean up.

Maryanne is about to leave and spend the night with Kristy but Tigger throws up all over the rug. This pisses off Sharon and Marynne just stays home. There’s a school dance and no one’s asked Dawn, but Maryanne throws it in her face and makes snide comments so Dawn calls Jeff only to find out a strange woman answers the phone. Jeff says it’s Carol their Dad’s new chick. Then they both vent about their new families. Dawn feels better and when Maryanne gets back they make up again.

When Stacey sits the Pikes, Vanessa falls off her bike and gets a sprained ankle. Now there are six injured and sick Pike kids. At the BSC meeting they find out Maryanne’s old house got sold and now Claire and Margo are sick (making it all eight),Maryanne and Dawn have another falling out when they’re trying to do homework and Maryanne needs total silence but Dawn can’t concentrate without music. Richard takes Dawn’s side and Sharon takes Maryanne’s. Maryanne ends up leaving and doing hers in the guest room,

Mr. and Mrs. Pike join the rest and get injuries. Dawn goes to Kristy and she gives her some helpful advice that all the adjustments she’s going through now are normal. Dawn decides that she and Maryanne need their own rooms, but to save face from admitting she was wrong because she suggested they share a room she’ll use the secret passage to scare Maryanne out of the room.
Dawn sneaks in and out the passage (ringing the doorbell so Maryanne will leave)leaving a silk rose and a chicken bone on Maryanne’s desk. This freaks Maryanne out and she thinks it’s the ghost of Jared Mulry This works like a charm and she helps Maryanne move to the guest room. Then she gives her a gift (a pin shaped like a cat).

Richard suggests they all have a chore chart, Sharon suggest they each have separate meals, and Dawn suggest they’re all more honest with each other. Sharon even starts to like Tigger and lets him sleep in her lap.

My Thoughts:
Even though Maryanne was *supposedly* the “Wicked Step sister” (which really was she?) Dawn was the one who irritated me mostly in this. 1) What did she need to catch her mother’s bouquet for? She doesn’t even have a boyfriend. And then if anything the events of this book should have shown her that maybe she shouldn’t even be *thinking* of being married at 13. Not wanting Maryanne to have it was just petty! Then how was Maryanne wicked for feeling emotional over moving? She’d lived in that house her whole life? Now she was a little bit bitchy for cleaning up behind Sharon and throwing up Logan in Dawn’s face (that REALLY wasn’t cool) But she was not wicked for wanting silence to concentrate. I’m kind of sensitive about this because I have misophonia and people do not take that serious and make you feel like just deal with it. Some people NEED quiet! Also, I thought that what Dawn did was a little immature instead of just talking to Maryanne. So if Maryanne *was* the problem. Dawn was equally a problem. She even immaturely to get back at Maryanne rearranges Richard’s socks. Which made NO SENSE AT ALL! Luckily I’ve never had to live with my sister. I’ve never even had to live with a roommate when I was in college. If they gave me one id switch and this is the reason. I learned a long time what it took Dawn the whole book to learn.

Rating: 5

[Emmaline Hirschten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED IT!!!!

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

First BSC book I ever read! I still remember being about seven or eight, and my mother bringing this home from her school's library (she taught high school at the time). It was the beginning of a great love affair, and my second obsession in life.

Looking back, this was an interesting book to be introduced to the series through. It's part two of Mary Anne and the Great Romance, and the book where the Schafer-Spier family first comes together. I think because this was the first BSC book I read, I am very critical of the cover and the contents. In the cover of this book, Mary Anne looks taller than Dawn, even though the book states that Mary Anne is short. Also, the book never describes Jeff being in the room the two girls share, but on the cover he's sitting on the bed. (Unless they have their backs turned to each other in Jeff's room?)

Things I remember from reading as a kid:
I learned the word dish means gossip. I think my seven year old self may have dreamed of the day when I would be thirteen, and say things like, "We sat around and dished about the wedding." To this day I have never had an opportunity to use it. I just can't pull it off.

I thought the Pikes were so annoying that I couldn't believe anyone would want to be their friends. I think because Mallory has a crabby moment with Claudia in the book that I thought she was the resident crabby character of the series. It took me a long to realize that she is considered to be patient and level-headed.

I made my mother read the cursive entries to me since I didn't feel confident reading cursive. Claudia's entry made her say, "Oh, this girl has a learning disability." Again, it was years before I realized that the series does not acknowledge Claudia's learning disability, just excuses her trouble in school as "not trying hard enough."

I hated Mary Anne for a long time (to this day she is still my least favorite baby sitter) because she was so horrible to Dawn to in this book. She calls her fat, gloats over taking a sitting job from Dawn and forces her to listen to her story about the job, and then she condescends to her because poor sad little Dawn doesn't have a boyfriend, or a date to the school dance. Even as a seven or eight year old, I thought Mary Anne was a massive bitch.

I LOVED Dawn's trick on Mary Anne, especially since Mary Anne was so mean to Dawn throughout the book. I thought Dawn was so clever for coming up with such an elaborate trick, and pulling it off without being caught. However. . .

Things I've considered since reading it as an adult:
I HATE Dawn's mean trick on Mary Anne, and I can't understand why she doesn't get caught. I would think the parents would give Dawn a stern talking to, even if she denies knowledge, because duh, who else would make Mary Anne a crazy, screaming mess over a ghost? Even if no one mentions it in this book, how did this prank and its consequences never come up in the rest of the series? Also, why doesn't Dawn just say to Mary Anne, "I thought it would be awesome to share a room with my best friend, but as a sister you suck, so move out of my room, now." Or, "Hey, it's not working, it's my fault that I forced you to move into my room, so I'll apologize by helping you move your stuff to the guest room."

Dawn wonders why her mother, and Mary Anne's father didn't anticipate certain problems about merging families BEFORE they got married. It's because they refused to live together before marriage, thus helping their children transition to new family traditions before making it seem so permanent. As an adult, who would never dream of living with a man before marrying him, I feel bad for Dawn and Mary Anne that their parents are stuck in a Victorian England mindset, and therefore make life harder for their children.

I still think Mary Anne was a massive bitch to Dawn, and she totally deserved all her problems with Logan and Cokie down the road, Karma, baby.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book I loved it it’s really fun to see how the story unfolds!

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I read this book I was thinking that it was like a sequel to Mary Anne and the Great Romance but it hardly is. For example it focuses more on Mary Anne and Dawn having these silly fights. They have a fight over who gets a job with the Perkins family and Kristy makes them draw straws. Kristy says it is how mom settles fights between Karen and David Michael but I know PLENTY of six and seven year olds and they never would have to draw straws. Dawn and Sharon are SUPER disturbed by the fact that Richard “spring cleans”. At my house we clean every month. So Mary Anne is like really mean to Sharon in ways such as Dust busting everything Sharon cleans/touches/eats off of. How Mary Anne Dustbusted a plate is beyond me. And, Dawn nearly destroys Richard’s side of her parents room, but later Dawn and Richard are all buddy—buddy and MA and Sharon do the same thing. There’s another silly fight between MA and Dawn, whee Dawn wants to listen to Elvis (ha!) but MA needs “silence “. So Dawn ends up in the living room and MA in the guest room. Then Dawn calls Jeff and pranked MA. Afterward MA tells Dawn ,”I’m going to sleep in the guest bedroom” where she’s already been sleeping for quite a while.
Then eventually they make up and sleep in separate rooms. The subplot of Pike family members in distressing accidents is sooooo funny.
Mallory has chicken pox
Jordan has pneumonia
Byron has pneumonia
Adam has pneumonia
Vanessa broke her ankle— that’s what the book says but later it says it was a sprain. Consistency please!!
Nicky broke his fingers, including the broken finger from Hello, Mallory
Margo has bronchitis
Claire has bronchitis but calls it some weird name
Mr Pike burned his hand
Mrs Pike blows her knee

Overall this book was DEFINITELY one of the better BSC books. 😀😊

[Alyssa Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dawn’s mom got married to one of her friends dad. Dawn’s friends name is Mary Anne. Mary Anne caught Dawn’s moms flowers that she threw at her wedding. Dawn was a little mad/sad because she wanted to catch it because it was her moms wedding. But then she was fine because Mary Anne calls her sis. When she got called sis it made her happy. Her moms name is Sharon. Sharon’s new husbands name is Richard.

At first Dawn and Mary Anne liked being sisters. They even shared a room. After that they started not getting a long very well. Dawn wanted to mess with Richard. She un organizes his drawer. Sharon gets mad because Mary Anne’s cat threw up on the rug. So Dawn and Mary Anne got even more mad at each other.

Sharon and Robert don’t have a lot in common. Richard eats meat. Sharon eats tofu. She doesn’t eat meat. He doesn’t eat tofu. Richard is very clean. Sharon is very different. She is messy. Richard can’t stand messy things. At first Dawn and Mary Anne thought that it would be fun to be sisters. Boy were they wrong.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read about 20-25 of these books. I read them in fifth and sixth grade. I strongly remember wanting to read these because they seemed cool and my older sister read a few of them. I remember that our library had a little display of them and I also bought a lot of them through the book catalogs we got at school. I remember most strongly the set up of the books; each book started explaining the club and describing each of the members. I also strongly remember the covers.

I'm fairly certain that this one is about Mary Anne and Dawn driving each other nuts when there parents get married. I believe I made a shoebox diarama of this one for a project in the sixth grade. Mrs. Collins, who I hated, but now see the good in her practices now that I'm a teacher, only let students read one BSC book for credit a year.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the conclusion to Mary Anne and the Great Romance! This one sees Mary Anne and Richard moving out of their house and into Casa de Vegan Assholes. Things immediately start out weird when MA and Dawn decide to shove all their stuff into one room. When is that ever a good idea?

The whole thing goes south fast, with Sharon being a twat over Tigger and Richard constantly cleaning up after his slob of a wife. MA and Dawn are constantly bickering, and it finally escalates with a ridiculous homework debacle. Dawn finally decides that MA needs her own room if they will ever find peace, and instead of talking to her like a normal person she uses the secret passage to scare MA into wanting out of Dawn's room. It works, but it was very convoluted.

In the end things work out, but I sort of miss all the fighting. At least that made them a little more interesting than normal!

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never liked this one. For multiple reasons. It was the same drama that they were supposed to solve in the thirtieth book, Mary Anne seems a bit too OOC, Dawn is really the wicked stepsister, not excusing what Mary Anne did but there is no excuse for pranking your sister to the extent of hysteria just to get her to get her own room, they were talking about letting her have her own room in the thirtieth book, the Arnold twins had this same problem that Mary Anne helped with so she really should have known better!

Plus if two sides of the family have such differing diets you really should have planned it better than Sharon and Richars did. Sharon I can understand but Richard is the king of organizing, he should have planned better

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second part to Mary Anne & Dawn's Big Day, AKA when they become siiiiisters foreeeeeever. We open back up at the wedding and Mrs. Schafer-Spier tossing the wedding bouquet...which Mary Anne catches! Dawn is kind of pissed, because she thinks it should have been her, but she covers it up pretty well and hugs her new sis. And Mary Anne starts the crying that lasts approximately 4 chapters ugh. full review here.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of my first BSC books, and I read it before I read Mary Anne and the Great Romance. Because of how Mary Anne is portrayed here, I disliked her for quite awhile as a kid. Upon re-reading this, I understand why I felt that way, because she is truly awful in this book. Dawn's no angel herself here, but MA really takes the cake.

Oh, and the "now that we're sisters" continuity fail STILL bugs me to this day. Dawn gave Mary Anne that present in the last book, but suddenly here that's been reversed. I can't figure out how they messed that up so badly in just one book.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really brought out the ugliness in both Mary Anne and Dawn.

Whether she's doing it consciously or not, Mary Anne definitely uses her tears and sensitivity to get what she wants or deflect criticism. Mary Anne doesn't take any of the blame

And Dawn is such a confusing character. Ever since Stacey's Mistake, it seems like Ann M. Martin tries to tweak Dawn's personality just a little bit in all of her books: she's gone from neurotic to Malibu Barbie to outdoorswoman to outcast in like ten books.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. I liked that this was about Dawn and Mary Anne adjusting to living together and being stepsisters but man was this annoying to read. Mary Anne is just the whiniest little shit and these later books make her incredibly unlikable. She’s never been a favorite of mine but she was so much better in the earlier books. Dawn is great though, that’s my girl. They both had their petty moments but it ended well. This was fine for what it was.

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

How did I forget about the secret passage?
And Dawn's big speech about honesty after lying about the ghost in the passage?
I've never lived in California, but I'm not positive I'm buying the idea of a 13 year old who would rather eat tofu than a burger!
This cover is classic! Look at those soccer mom jeans!

[Cara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dawn is a stone-cold bitch. This one does NOT hold up well when read as an adult. I get that they are 13 and of course will be a little immature about suddenly having to share a space, but Dawn has zero compassion for Mary Anne and decides to solve the problem by turning into a sociopath. Not about it.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

In which Dawn and Mary Anne learned nothing from the Arnold twins' problems in the last book (but a good old-fashioned prank solves all their troubles.)

AND

In which Mary Anne makes out like a bandit and gets TWO now-we're-sisters presents (and poor Dawn gets none.)

[Gill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listening to the audiobooks with my daughter. Seeing which ones hold up.

My daughter thought this one was entertaining and got the message. What we didn’t like and talked about were name calling, fat shaming, not being body positive and dressing up for boys… also a character uses trickery to get what she wants … though the lesson of communication comes after.

[Dawn Aschberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

For obvious reasons, I had a deep afinity for Dawn.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeez, Mary Anne can be such an A hole sometimes. Dawn wasn't at her best either. The whole Sharon and Richard thing has been a bit of a debacle..