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The Baby-Sitters Club #110
Abby the Bad Sport
When soccer season comes to Stoneybrook, Abby joins a Special Olympics Unified Sports soccer team but develops a fierce rivalry with another player.
122 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 1997
57 people are currently reading
540 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,123 books3,085 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 13, 2018
this is my first time reading this book.
ghostwriter Nola Thacker writes what is one of the most miserable books I’ve ever read, baby-sitters club series or otherwise. abby is on a special olympics unified team, which essentially means that players with intellectual disabilities play alongside players without them. tough-as-nails coach wu from Kristy and the Copycat is the coach of abby’s team, and she challenges abby by placing her in a defensive position. abby is mad, especially when one of the players with intellectual disabilities, erin, gets to play forward, abby’s usual position. first, abby tries to play “total soccer” (this is apparently when every player moves around the field playing every position and other players fall into the vacated positions -- abby claims this is what “great” soccer teams do but I’m not convinced) but coach wu gets mad at her for repeatedly leaving a defensive gap and the other teams keep scoring. abby tells erin that she thinks they could be a truly great team if they played total soccer and when erin isn’t responsive abby tells her that she knows more about soccer than her. erin finally calls abby out for thinking she knows less about soccer because she has intellectual disabilities, and things escalate to the point that they won’t pass to each other and end up losing a game and fighting about it (and abby actually says, “what are you, stupid?” to erin. in my opinion, you call someone on a special olympics team stupid, you get banned from special olympics allyship stuff for life, but that’s just me). coach wu is understandably mad and benches both of them for two games. abby starts to see the defensive perspective while benched and ends up apologizing to erin and playing her actual position once she’s allowed back in. first subplot is that abby’s mom is trying to get abby and anna to see their paternal grandparents again and to visit abby’s dad’s gravesite, which abby freaks out about but eventually comes to terms with. second subplot is that the bsc and bsc kids form a booster club for abby’s team, raising money for them to have jerseys.
highlights:
-when reading bsc books I frequently go back and forth between the print books from when they were initially published and the modern ebook editions via overdrive. this was a particularly interesting one for that, since in the original print books they used the term “mental retardation” to describe the individuals on abby’s team, but in the ebook version they swapped it out with the term “intellectual disabilities.” most of the time I don’t like modern edits, since I like reading these as time capsules, but for language that has fallen out of use and is typically only seen as a pejorative now, I can see the benefit.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-abby is truly the worst in this book. she is maybe even worse than mary anne in Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation and dawn in Dawn Saves the Planet. keep reading for some examples (beyond what you saw in the summary blurb I wrote above).
-the team goes to the ice cream shop where erin works, and she says she wants big scoops for all her friends, and abby thinks she's being a showoff. how? huh? she’s just being nice, dude.
-I touched on this above, but this interaction: abby tells erin that she thinks they could be a great team if they played total soccer and tells erin she knows more about soccer than her. erin says "because I have intellectual disabilities? do you think I can't play as well as you because of that?" and she tells abby that she's better at soccer than her. abby says "that's what you think." UGH.
-shannon the puppy gets away from david michael at one of abby’s games and tries to play soccer. and everyone laughs like it's so cute. maybe it’s cute but it’s also really inappropriate and annoying to let your dog run onfield during a competitive sports event. I'd be like, "get out of here with that dog, you brat!"
-haley calls the other team the "lawrenceville footballers" and karen corrects her by saying they're playing soccer, not football. but football is soccer! we just went over this in Mary Anne and the Little Princess
-at one point instead of passing to erin who is open abby takes a shot and misses. erin does the same thing, and abby is mad about it (which I don’t understand why you’re mad, because she literally did the exact thing you had just done). then erin says abby should've passed to her, and abby responds, "and watch you blow the shot? what are you, stupid?" how is it even possible that they let abby on this team in the first place? how is it even possible that they don’t kick her off right then and there, for using that kind of oppressive language?
-abby says eggbeaters are fake eggs, but they're not. they're egg whites with thickeners and coloring put in.
-abby resents her mom and sister for going to long island without her even though she hadn't wanted to go.
-I know this is petty but I don’t like sports books in general. I don’t care about soccer, and I don’t find it interesting to read abby’s narration about soccer.
claudia outfit:
-"She was in a little crop-top muscle shirt that she had batikked green and blue. She'd sewed a bunch of buttons up the front as if it were a vest. She also had on skinny black shorts, one blue sock and one green sock, and black Doc Martens with one blue shoelace (on the foot with the green sock) and one green shoelace (on the foot with the blue sock). Her long black hair had been gathered into a single braid. A blue ribbon with more buttons attached to it was woven into the braid. Her earrings? Buttons, naturally."
jackie disaster:
-gets his foot stuck in a bucket at the car wash, stumbles, and crashes into mallory, who is holding a hose, so they fall down and water sprays everywhere
no snacks in claudias’ room.
ghostwriter Nola Thacker writes what is one of the most miserable books I’ve ever read, baby-sitters club series or otherwise. abby is on a special olympics unified team, which essentially means that players with intellectual disabilities play alongside players without them. tough-as-nails coach wu from Kristy and the Copycat is the coach of abby’s team, and she challenges abby by placing her in a defensive position. abby is mad, especially when one of the players with intellectual disabilities, erin, gets to play forward, abby’s usual position. first, abby tries to play “total soccer” (this is apparently when every player moves around the field playing every position and other players fall into the vacated positions -- abby claims this is what “great” soccer teams do but I’m not convinced) but coach wu gets mad at her for repeatedly leaving a defensive gap and the other teams keep scoring. abby tells erin that she thinks they could be a truly great team if they played total soccer and when erin isn’t responsive abby tells her that she knows more about soccer than her. erin finally calls abby out for thinking she knows less about soccer because she has intellectual disabilities, and things escalate to the point that they won’t pass to each other and end up losing a game and fighting about it (and abby actually says, “what are you, stupid?” to erin. in my opinion, you call someone on a special olympics team stupid, you get banned from special olympics allyship stuff for life, but that’s just me). coach wu is understandably mad and benches both of them for two games. abby starts to see the defensive perspective while benched and ends up apologizing to erin and playing her actual position once she’s allowed back in. first subplot is that abby’s mom is trying to get abby and anna to see their paternal grandparents again and to visit abby’s dad’s gravesite, which abby freaks out about but eventually comes to terms with. second subplot is that the bsc and bsc kids form a booster club for abby’s team, raising money for them to have jerseys.
highlights:
-when reading bsc books I frequently go back and forth between the print books from when they were initially published and the modern ebook editions via overdrive. this was a particularly interesting one for that, since in the original print books they used the term “mental retardation” to describe the individuals on abby’s team, but in the ebook version they swapped it out with the term “intellectual disabilities.” most of the time I don’t like modern edits, since I like reading these as time capsules, but for language that has fallen out of use and is typically only seen as a pejorative now, I can see the benefit.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-abby is truly the worst in this book. she is maybe even worse than mary anne in Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation and dawn in Dawn Saves the Planet. keep reading for some examples (beyond what you saw in the summary blurb I wrote above).
-the team goes to the ice cream shop where erin works, and she says she wants big scoops for all her friends, and abby thinks she's being a showoff. how? huh? she’s just being nice, dude.
-I touched on this above, but this interaction: abby tells erin that she thinks they could be a great team if they played total soccer and tells erin she knows more about soccer than her. erin says "because I have intellectual disabilities? do you think I can't play as well as you because of that?" and she tells abby that she's better at soccer than her. abby says "that's what you think." UGH.
-shannon the puppy gets away from david michael at one of abby’s games and tries to play soccer. and everyone laughs like it's so cute. maybe it’s cute but it’s also really inappropriate and annoying to let your dog run onfield during a competitive sports event. I'd be like, "get out of here with that dog, you brat!"
-haley calls the other team the "lawrenceville footballers" and karen corrects her by saying they're playing soccer, not football. but football is soccer! we just went over this in Mary Anne and the Little Princess
-at one point instead of passing to erin who is open abby takes a shot and misses. erin does the same thing, and abby is mad about it (which I don’t understand why you’re mad, because she literally did the exact thing you had just done). then erin says abby should've passed to her, and abby responds, "and watch you blow the shot? what are you, stupid?" how is it even possible that they let abby on this team in the first place? how is it even possible that they don’t kick her off right then and there, for using that kind of oppressive language?
-abby says eggbeaters are fake eggs, but they're not. they're egg whites with thickeners and coloring put in.
-abby resents her mom and sister for going to long island without her even though she hadn't wanted to go.
-I know this is petty but I don’t like sports books in general. I don’t care about soccer, and I don’t find it interesting to read abby’s narration about soccer.
claudia outfit:
-"She was in a little crop-top muscle shirt that she had batikked green and blue. She'd sewed a bunch of buttons up the front as if it were a vest. She also had on skinny black shorts, one blue sock and one green sock, and black Doc Martens with one blue shoelace (on the foot with the green sock) and one green shoelace (on the foot with the blue sock). Her long black hair had been gathered into a single braid. A blue ribbon with more buttons attached to it was woven into the braid. Her earrings? Buttons, naturally."
jackie disaster:
-gets his foot stuck in a bucket at the car wash, stumbles, and crashes into mallory, who is holding a hose, so they fall down and water sprays everywhere
no snacks in claudias’ room.
October 10, 2024
Oh Abby. She let's her competitiveness take over in this one. Abby is invited to join a special soccer team. They are pairing with the special olympics and have people with intellectual disabilities also on the team. They are called Stoneybrook United you know like Manchester? Coach Wu who antagonized Kristy when she joined the softball team is the coach of this team. She switches everyone's regular positions Abby is moved to defense with Erin one of the kids with a disability taking her spot. They fight, Abby doesn't play her position both girls are benched for two games after almost coming to blows. I liked this part actually. It showed Abby treating Erin as her equal despite her disability and not giving her special treatment. But Abby was pretty terrible here. Again there are b and c plots. The b plot ties into the kids raising money to buy the team uniforms and forming a cheering squad for them. Too much Karen Brewer in that plot. The c plot has Abby's mom deciding to take the twins back to Long Island to visit the paternal grandparents and their father's grave. Abby refuses saying she has a game even though she's been benched. She really isn't ready to go and face what happened to her dad which I get. I lost a parent as an adult and there are still times when I hate going to visit her Grave mostly because it feels like I'm abandoning her there all alone. I can't imagine losing a parent right before you hit your teen years and your surviving parent shutting all talk of the dead parent or grief out. But things do turn out okay in the end as they always do so it wasn't terrible but Abby needs to chill out.
August 24, 2017
This book was really pretty boring, which is sad because I really do appreciate that it talks about Unified Sports and the Special Olympics. You don't see that enough in books for young kids, so kudos for that!
No kudos for Abby, who was a total douche in this book. Also it was just sort of dull. There was no real climax or anything fun going on. It was primarily just about soccer, the kids being the booster club for the team, and Abby being a jerk. Boo.
No kudos for Abby, who was a total douche in this book. Also it was just sort of dull. There was no real climax or anything fun going on. It was primarily just about soccer, the kids being the booster club for the team, and Abby being a jerk. Boo.
June 8, 2011
this one is a bit of a snore. abby joins an all-girl soccer team called stoneybrook united. the team is comprised of athletes associated with the special olympics & partner players like abby, who do not have mental or developmental delays. abby is accustomed to being the star on whatever soccer team she plays on. she is usually a forward & gets to score a lot of points. but coach wu assigns her the defensive position of fullback, & makes erin, one of the special olympics athletes, the forward. abby conceded that erin is a strong player, but her game plan is to basically abandon her defensive position & try to score a bunch of points anyway so coach wu will see that abby should be a forward instead.
this causes a lot of strife between abby & erin, as you may imagine. in one game, abby moves up to take a shot & is swarmed by the opposing defense. meanwhile, erin is wide open & gestures for abby to pass to her. abby doesn't want to relinquish the spotlight, so she takes the shot & misses. then erin gets the ball & is swarmed by the other team. abby is open & gestures for erin to pass so she can take the shot, but instead, erin goes for the goal & also misses. & then an opposing forward maneuvers through the gap in the defense where abby should be & scores a goal. abby's team loses the game.
abby & erin confront one another on the field after the game & almost come to blows. coach wu benches both of them for two games. abby is really embarrassed & pissed off, so she doesn't tell the babysitters club or the stoneybrook booster club (a whole bunch of babysitting charges that have decided it's fun to be a fan & are trying to raise money so stoneybrook united can buy real uniforms & new equipment--that's the B-plot) what happened.
meanwhile, mrs. stevenson has planned for the family to go up to long island for the weekend of mr. stevenson's birthday. they'll stay with abby & anna's paternal grandparents & visit mr. stevenson's grave for the first time. abby really, really, really doesn't want to go. so she tells her mom she has to stay in stoneybrook because she has a game that weekend. she doesn't tell her mom that's she's sitting out the game on the bench.
kristy cottons on to the fact that something is up, that abby is having some kind of problem with erin & it's affecting their teamwork. kristy starts giving abby the cold shoulder.
while abby & erin are sitting out the next game, karen (there's a lot of karen in this book, it's awful) comes over to tell them that hopefully they'll get to play during the second half. erin spills the beans & karen is horrified. she tattles to kristy, who confronts abby later that evening. kristy says she wouldn't want to tell anyone she'd been benched either, because being benched means you did something pretty fucked up & abby ought to be embarrassed about that. for some reason, this motivates abby to work on her teamwork skills.
at the next game, which abby & erin are also benched for, stoneybrook united is really struggling. abby surprises herself by watching their defensive moves & thinking about what she would do differently to prevent the other team from getting the ball or scoring. at the end of the second half, coach wu relents & puts abby & erin in the game. they don't win, but they come pretty close to tying it up.
afterward, the booster club takes the team out for pizza, but abby goes running at miller park instead. she is surprised to find that erin also skipped the post-game pizza party & is also running in the park. they race each other for a while, & then they both apologize for their behavior.
back home, abby tells her mom the truth about how she didn't want to see her dad's grave, & she lied about having to play soccer. mrs. stevenson is understanding & abby says she'd like to make another trip to long island to see her dad's grave, maybe for father's day.
*yawn*
this causes a lot of strife between abby & erin, as you may imagine. in one game, abby moves up to take a shot & is swarmed by the opposing defense. meanwhile, erin is wide open & gestures for abby to pass to her. abby doesn't want to relinquish the spotlight, so she takes the shot & misses. then erin gets the ball & is swarmed by the other team. abby is open & gestures for erin to pass so she can take the shot, but instead, erin goes for the goal & also misses. & then an opposing forward maneuvers through the gap in the defense where abby should be & scores a goal. abby's team loses the game.
abby & erin confront one another on the field after the game & almost come to blows. coach wu benches both of them for two games. abby is really embarrassed & pissed off, so she doesn't tell the babysitters club or the stoneybrook booster club (a whole bunch of babysitting charges that have decided it's fun to be a fan & are trying to raise money so stoneybrook united can buy real uniforms & new equipment--that's the B-plot) what happened.
meanwhile, mrs. stevenson has planned for the family to go up to long island for the weekend of mr. stevenson's birthday. they'll stay with abby & anna's paternal grandparents & visit mr. stevenson's grave for the first time. abby really, really, really doesn't want to go. so she tells her mom she has to stay in stoneybrook because she has a game that weekend. she doesn't tell her mom that's she's sitting out the game on the bench.
kristy cottons on to the fact that something is up, that abby is having some kind of problem with erin & it's affecting their teamwork. kristy starts giving abby the cold shoulder.
while abby & erin are sitting out the next game, karen (there's a lot of karen in this book, it's awful) comes over to tell them that hopefully they'll get to play during the second half. erin spills the beans & karen is horrified. she tattles to kristy, who confronts abby later that evening. kristy says she wouldn't want to tell anyone she'd been benched either, because being benched means you did something pretty fucked up & abby ought to be embarrassed about that. for some reason, this motivates abby to work on her teamwork skills.
at the next game, which abby & erin are also benched for, stoneybrook united is really struggling. abby surprises herself by watching their defensive moves & thinking about what she would do differently to prevent the other team from getting the ball or scoring. at the end of the second half, coach wu relents & puts abby & erin in the game. they don't win, but they come pretty close to tying it up.
afterward, the booster club takes the team out for pizza, but abby goes running at miller park instead. she is surprised to find that erin also skipped the post-game pizza party & is also running in the park. they race each other for a while, & then they both apologize for their behavior.
back home, abby tells her mom the truth about how she didn't want to see her dad's grave, & she lied about having to play soccer. mrs. stevenson is understanding & abby says she'd like to make another trip to long island to see her dad's grave, maybe for father's day.
*yawn*
January 25, 2010
Abby was never one of my favourite BSC characters, mainly because I only ever read two of her books before they stopped publishing the BSC series in the UK. She always seemed too similar to Kristy, and a boring replacement for Dawn when she went back to California. Anyway, this book wasn't too bad but I found it rather boring to begin with. Basically, Abby believes that she's the best soccer player on her team and is disappointed when her coach demotes her to a lesser role in the team. She sets out to prove what a great player she is and ends up being a ball-hog and gets benched for not being a team-player. Another girl is also benched and she and Abby hate each other because they each think that they're the best at soccer. Eventually Abby realises that she can do the role that the coach assigned her, even if she isn't the star of the team because of it. She and the other girl become friends. I suppose that the lesson is good, but reading pages of Abby going on about how great she is at soccer isn't exactly thrilling. There are two sub-plots: Abby's mum wants their family to visit their grandparents and their father's grave and Abby still doesn't think she's ready; and the rest of the BSC have a car wash and make badges to raise money to buy team shirts for Abby's team. To be honest, the chapters where the BSC were watching Abby's team play were more interesting than the ones from Abby's POV, mainly because I really don't understand football. I mean, soccer. Overall, this book got better half way through but the first few chapters about the soccer team were a bit boring. Abby does learn a good lesson in the end. Just one thing - was it PC in 1997 to say that someone had "mental-retardation"? I'm sure that in Britain we would have said that they had "mental disabilities" or even "learning disabilities." 7/10
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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.
January 28, 2023
Abby has just started playing with the Stoneybrook Special Olympics Unified soccer team. Although she normally plays as a forward, Coach Wu assigns Abby to play as a defender. Abby thinks this is a mistake, and takes every opportunity she can to show off her forward skills...but to everyone else, it looks like she is a bad sport. Abby has to confront her feelings about soccer as well as her grief about her father's death. Meanwhile, the BSC forms a booster club to support Abby's soccer team.
March 18, 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.
April 5, 2023
Fun and relatable, though honestly I think Abby should've faced more serious consequences than Erin. Erin retaliated and became a bad sport herself, but Abby was totally not doing her job from the very beginning. TBH, I think Abby should've been benched earlier before it even got to the point of the big confrontation between them.
January 17, 2021
(LL)
The idea that you need to learn how to be a good team player is so important for kids to see. Some of the other plots in here weren’t great, but the main plot with Abby playing soccer was very important.
The idea that you need to learn how to be a good team player is so important for kids to see. Some of the other plots in here weren’t great, but the main plot with Abby playing soccer was very important.
February 14, 2021
I wasn't so sure about this book, but it turned out to be one of the only BSC books that does a decent job with disability representation. (I'd love to hear from people who have intellectual disabilities who have read this, to see if the rep is as solid as it seems!)
February 6, 2024
2.25 stars. Not my favorite BSC book but definitely not my least favorite either. Abby is definitely a jerk in this one (and tbh I'm not convinced Erin was equally to blame), and the side plots are almost non-existent. I wish there had been more of, well, babysitting. And the other babysitters.
November 24, 2019
Review on www.audible.com please listen to this book
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March 1, 2021Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/abby-t...
April 4, 2023
As much as I love seeing anyone in the BSC be anything less than perfect, Abby was so fucking annoying in this book that I hated it. Also all the soccer is boring, too.
May 1, 2013
Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.
I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.
The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.
Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.
The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.
Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
November 1, 2013
In which Abby is a douchenozzle because she can't be the star of the Unified Soccer team. Snore. STFU, Abby.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews