Mary Anne's Big Break-Up (The Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever #3)

The Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever #3

by Ann M. Martin

More than 100 stories after meeting Logan, Mary Anne is ready for a change. And she's about to find out that breaking up is hard to do. Martin's classic series is going in a new direction with a new look and new focus on the four characters who started it all.

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

86 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1999

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

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where was this series when I was growing up? I was probably 16-17 when they first came out and had left the BSC long ago but wow. These books show California Diaries what a spin off of slightly older version of the beloved characters from the original series should be. These four girls are still obviously 13 but you can see them growing learning and maturing while still managing to stay true gone to they are. Dawn is basically an emo edgy kid trying to be cooler and better than she really is in California Diaries. She might've been like that in the original series too, I've heard in later books she was, but I never got to those ones. Anyway back to this book. After reading the first two books I needed more. So instead of spacing them out I want to eat them at once and given that 2021 is proving to be just as if not even more shitty than 2020 was, it's good to have some nostalgic wholesome escapism. So this time it's Mary Anne's turn to share her story. Once again she feels stifled by Logan, I did remember that much from the originals. So she decides to break up with him. He cries like a whiny little bitch and turns everyone against her including his siblings which makes for an awkward baby sitting job. He keeps begging Mary Anne to come back to him saying she's not thinking straight and I really wanted to punch him for saying that. Shut up Logan. But Mary Anne is growing up. During the book, they are also rebuilding Mary Anne's house which ties in with the main story very well showing how she is changing. Dawn makes a cameo via phone call or two, which is nice for someone who wasn't too kind to her Stoneybrook friends in California Diaries. I wish they had these out when I was 11-13 because I loved seeing the growth and maturity of Mary Anne and as someone who was and probably still is a lot like her I think this book could've helped me out so much back then. I'm glad Mary Anne is at last free and I can't wait to see how the old barn looks when it's finally remodeled. The ending was touching and shows just how tight the bond these four girls really have. Next up what is Claudia's side of the Jeremy feud. Seriously girls as an adult, no boy or man is worth ditching a truly good friend over, ever.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

there's not a lot to this book. mary anne grows a backbone & dumps logan because she's being a possessive jerkface. she's kind of bummed about it, & logan is really upset, but mary anne sticks to her guns & realizes she is doing the right thing. she rereads old letters she sent him in which she said things like, "i feel like half a person without you," & she gets really icked out with herself. she realizes that if you are feeling like half a person without your boyfriend, you need some space to stand on your own two feet & get to know yourself, & that's what she does. it turns out that she's quite the hot commodity at stoneybrook middle school. two boys ask her out after hearing that she dumped loagn, citing the fact that she is "very pretty & nice". she refuses both of them because she wants to get to know herself & her own possibilities without a boyfriend. pretty awesome! mary anne is spinsterxcore! her friends are all pretty supportive, with the exception of kristy, who thinks logan is awesome & mary anne is making a big mistake by dumping him. mary anne thinks for a second that maybe logan & kristy are going to start something up (they should, in my opinion) & confronts kristy, & they fight because kristy doesn't want mary anne telling her what to do, but they make up pretty quickly. kristy is not going for logan (hopefully because she is interested in <3 cary retlin <3!).

i guess the sub-plot is that the building plan for mary anne's family's new house have been approved & they are ready to hire contracters & start construction on their new barn house (mary anne's house burnt down at the end of the original BSC series). mary anne has a heart-to-heart with one of the contracters, who is also a landscaper, about being open to unforeseen possibilities & taking chances, & she realizes she is becoming more independent & doesn't want to be hemmed in by people's expectations of sad, sensitive, sweet mary anne, BSC secretary & logan's girlfriend. basically, mary anne is becoming a total badass. i wish i was that mature, insightful, & self-aware when i was 13. my life probably would have been a lot more awesome to date. i love the fact that there's a YA book out there for young girls in which the prtag ditches her boyfriend, who everyone really likes, because he is too possessive of her in these weird little ways that girls are taught is no big deal (ie, always picking the restaurant they eat at, squelching mary anne's opinions of movies they see, etc), & rather than rushing right out & finding a replacement boyfriend, she hangs in there by herself & make a conscious effort to get to know herself better. very refreshing!

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 1 out of 5]

in this book by ghostwriter Suzanne Weyn, mary anne and logan break up. again, we knew what was going to happen based on the title. logan has always been overbearing, making decisions on mary anne’s behalf about what they will do on dates and what she wants to eat and such. they even broke up because of it back in Mary Anne vs. Logan. but he’s gotten even worse since The Fire at Mary Anne's House, and when mary anne tries to exert her independence, logan gets weird about it because he’s a horrible boyfriend. she complains and he basically says that he’s just being himself and it’s not fair for mary anne to ask him to change. so finally she breaks up with him. everyone at school acts weird around her: some kids seem to pity her while others seem mad at her. logan acts all wounded, furthering the idea of mary anne as the villain and logan as the victim, which is just not accurate to their situation at all. there’s a dance coming up, and a couple different boys at school ask mary anne to it, but she doesn’t feel ready to date. then she sees kristy talking to logan and becomes convinced that they are going to the dance together and are dating (because the events of Kristy + Bart = ? apparently weren’t sufficient to show mary anne that her best friend is not attracted to boys) and tries to get kristy to take her side. but kristy is loyal to both mary anne and logan, because she is friends with both of them, and she won’t hate on her friend’s ex just because they broke up. but of course, she does tell mary anne that she and logan are in fact NOT going to the dance together. the night of the dance, logan basically invites himself over mary anne’s house to watch a movie. they have a good time, and logan points out that since they still have fun together he doesn’t think they should be apart. then he is super condescending and says that mary anne isn’t in her right mind because of the fire, so she shouldn’t be making these big decisions right now. mary anne fights back, and logan says that mary anne will never be happy with anyone because she expects people to be in tune to her every feeling. which is sort of true, but also how hard is it to check in with your girlfriend before making plans on her behalf? anyway, it’s left like that. dawn makes mary anne feel a little better by pointing out that mary anne has always defined herself by her relationships and that it's good that she's changing.

highlights:
-mary anne finds a letter she had written to logan right after they got back together in which she said she feels like half a person without him. and she realizes that that's not a good thing. wow, is she actually growing?

lowlights/nitpicks:
-mary anne has a card from logan from when she was a mother's helper in sea city and they missed each other a lot. but the only time they were dating when she was a mother’s helper was in Mary Anne and Too Many Boys, when she was basically avoidant of her relationship. in Sea City, Here We Come! it was jessi and mal who were mother’s helpers, not mary anne.
-when they're fighting about how logan decides everything for them, he says that he's just being him and he doesn't ask mary anne to change so she shouldn’t ask for him to change. but it's like...yeah you do. you want her to do everything you want all the time, so that is making her change to accommodate you.
-logan's siblings are mad at mary anne for breaking up with him but she still has to babysit them. she explains that she still likes him as a person but doesn't want to date him anymore. then logan comes home and hunter says that mary anne still likes him, which logan of course takes the wrong way. because little kids ruin everything.
-claudia says she's positive jeremy would have liked her if not for stacey. really, claudia? REALLY?
-the garden contractor is planning for the new house's garden and mary anne wonders if it's hard to conceptualize when it’s not the right season yet, but the garden contractor says it's easy because you just don't have to limit yourself and should experiment with life. what an obvious unnuanced metaphor for mary anne’s specific situation.
-mary anne goes apple picking with the thomases and richard spier requests red delicious apples. really? red delicious are the worst kind of apples!
-kristy is a bad friend: she apparently told her little siblings that mary anne was crazy to break up with logan. woof.
-apparently in the past mary anne and logan saw the movie paulie (with jesse eisenberg's sister!) and mary anne liked it but logan kept insisting it was dumb, and finally mary anne felt like she had to agree with him. yeah, that sounds infuriating. like when everyone forces marshall to agree that ducks are good and rabbits are bad and it’s like...you and your friends can have a difference of opinion and still be friends.
-the worst logan gets is when he says that because mary anne has been through a lot lately he doesn’t trust her judgment. this is truly the most condescending and possibly abusive thing. like, using that logic, he could manipulate her into staying in that relationship forever.
-logan says "I do not push you around or make you do things my way...that's just the way you see things." because mary anne’s perceptions must be wrong. seriously, I HATE LOGAN SO MUCH.

outfits
claud:
-"Today she was wearing white painter's coveralls decorated with a wild daisy pattern she'd created herself."

mary anne:
-"I...dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt, and an orange fleece pullover."
-"I pulled on a long-sleeved T-shirt, overalls, sneakers, and a heavy sweater."

snacks in claudia’s room:
-carrots and celery sticks (n.s.)
-potato chips under the pillow on her bed
-pringles in her bottom dresser drawer
-cracker jacks in her bottom dresser drawer

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem with these books that keeps tripping me up is that they have been 13 for so long, so I keep trying to figure out in their world the length of time Logan and Mary Anne have been together, which is at most two years (and I think it was the beginning of eighth grade - the first time they were in eighth grade - when they got together, so that would be like a couple of weeks), even though for the author it's really like 12 years. So I've decided maybe it's been about a year or so, which is an interminable amount of time for a middle school relationship, and I try to put in perspective how hard that must be to have your first heartbreak. The story does a fantastic job making those kind of base emotions of whether you did the right thing resonate. I really like Mary Anne in this, because she, so far, is the only one who feels like she's actually maturing and developing, while her friends all feel very much 13. Especially Stacey - I don't remember her being this shallow, and it's kind of annoying. I'm also kind of digging the lack of emphasis on the babysitting - those chapters in the old series kind of slowed everything down, just as you were getting into the story. I like that it's a part of their life, but it's just something that they do, not the necessary framing device. So yes, overall, this one so far feels the strongest of the Friends Forever series I've read, but it could also be that Mary Anne has the best built-in arc to do so.

[Carla Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having been a causal fan of the Baby-Sitters Club series since elementary school and have grown out of the demographic since as well as jumped into reading this book before reading the other Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever series, this book wasn't that bad although shorter than I thought it would be (were BSC books always this short? I'm so used to reading books that are at least 250 pages, this is so weird!).
While I was a big fan of Logan Likes Mary Anne, I do like how the book emphasizes the importance of being your own person and not limiting who you are based on your relationships. It would have been nice if I had read this as a young girl.
Some parts did drag on for a bit, but it did not detract from the reading experience. If you're looking to pass the time, this is quite a pleasant read.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've only read this book once before, because I didn't own it like the others and only recently found it at Half Price Books. As such, I didn't remember much about it at all.

I'm pretty impressed with Mary Anne here. She knows in her gut something isn't right in her relationship with Logan, even though she can't quite put her finger on what. All of her friends try to convince her she's crazy, but she sticks to her guns and breaks up with him anyway. I like this new Mary Anne!

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. I love Logan and Mary Anne together so I kinda hate how the series periodically makes them break up and then turns Logan into a jerk to justify doing so, and here, i feel like Logan's character was retconned altogether. Still, I like seeing Mary Anne decide she wanted to grow as herself and not as herself in relation to her dad, the BSC, or Logan.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't cut Mary Anne a lot of slack, but maybe she's grown on me throughout the course of the series because I didn't find her quite as intolerable as she did her usual stuff throughout this book. Good for her for standing up for herself, even though this just seemed cobbled together for this series to tie off some loose threads.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 3 out of 5]

(LL)
Again, Mary Anne breaks up with Logan and he tries to tell her she’s wrong while all her friends tell her she needs to figure out who she is without a man...since she’s only known for being in the BSC and dating Logan. She’s a basic bitch and Dawn finally calls her out on it (of all people).

[Avani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so proud of Mary Ann for standing up for herself! But Mary Ann and Logan were my childhood OTP and I was a little heartbroken about them breaking up. I always saw them together forever. Overall, it had a great plot!

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how I feel about Logan; usually, he's just kind of there, but in the books where Mary Anne and him break up he's a total jerk. I'm also not Mary Anne's biggest fan, but this book was still bittersweet. Lots of changes for Mary Anne, it's exciting to be rereading this series!

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Anne finally got a spine! It only took about 150 books for that to happen, but hallelujah! I am so proud of her in this moment!

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way this book ended. It was a beautifully optimistic way to finish the book. Mary-Anne has always been my favourite BSC member and this book made me fall in love with her all over again.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much of a plot, but I still liked it.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Friends Forever series where the main character felt like herself. She grew but it was not to something unrecognizable.

[Aaliyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for mary anne I think it was a great choice to brake up with logan.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have broken my 10 year old heart.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book with a great message. You don't come across a lot of books like this. Love it. Super cute to read as an adult.

[Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

More BSC fighting! Ahh, my favourite books.

There's good continuity in this book, something that the original BSC series lacked, especially when they got into the higher digits. Stacey actually mentions an event that happened in the original series (Stacey's Movie - book 130). Thank you, Ann M. Martin Suzanne Weyn!

But Stacey's also a jackass in this book. She goes from one boy to the next, never thinking about developing her own single self-identity. When Mary Anne's just fresh out of her breakup with Logan, Stacey immediately tries setting her up with Pete Black. At least Dave Griffin (possibly related to Rachel Griffin, who Stacey befriends in Stacey vs Claudia?) tries to understand that Mary Anne wants to be on her own for a while.

But finally, Mary Anne and Logan are no more! Logan's such a jackass. Go Mary Anne, shake your single ass and your creepy future visions. Better get that checked out- Sharon might have added some of her 'herbs' to your dinner last night.

[dearlittledeer · Rating 3 out of 5]

They first got together in "Logan Likes Mary Anne!" (BSC #10, published 1988). In "Mary Anne's Big Breakup" (published 1999), she finally dumps him for good. Hey, you might get antsy too if you'd been 13 for 11 years! Let me say that this was kind of a downer for a BSC book (even one of the more realistic Friends Forever series) but I really love Mary Anne's character development. She's not that into Logan and his overbearing ways anymore, and she's not going to stay with him just because it's the easier thing to do. Way to go, MA!

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book the Third: In which Mary Anne vs. Logan happens again. This time for good. I didn't care much for this one, mainly because it really did seem to me like a rehash of regular series book #41. I did like that MA didn't accept any of the date offers she received and decided to try being single for a while. Maybe she'll end up hooking up with SMS Dream Hunk and All-Around Practical Joker Cary Retlin. Fingers crossed!

[Liesl FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading the OG BSC novels as a kid and feeling so inspired by Mary Anne and Logan's romance (lol). If I'd read this novel as an adolescent, I would NOT have understood Mary Anne's decision to break up with him at all. As an adult, I totally understand, and more power to Mary Anne for being prescient enough to realize that breaking up was the right thing to do. She is wise beyond her years.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mary Anne books are the saving grace of the Friends Forever series-we get to see more of the Schafer-Spier home life than we usually do in the series and Sharon and Richard prove to be more likable characters than some of the sitters themselves.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so bad, it's good. Teens acting/speaking like grandmas, babysitting charges knowing more than they should, forced introspection. Kristy calling her peers 'kids' never gets old.

Also, Logan's face 'crumples' and he cries. Heeee.

[Sella Malin · Rating 1 out of 5]

didn't like these books much.

[Memz Allerby]

idk yet its a suprise

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mary Anne actually dumps Logan, because she's finding him just too possessive and overbearing and controlling. And he spends about 80 pages begging her to come back.