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The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #13
Aloha, Baby-sitters!
It's the coolest school trip ever: a week in Hawaii! Almost all of the BSC members are going, including Logan.
Since Mal can't go to Hawaii, the Baby-sitters resolve to bring Hawaii home to her, taking photos and making notes of everything they see, eat, and do. Some of their adventures get pretty wild, too: Abby acts in a commercial; Dawn rescues a wrecked beach; and Stacy takes a dangerous helicopter ride she'll never forget.
If only the Baby-sitters could stay in Hawaii! Too bad aloha means hello ... and good-bye.
Since Mal can't go to Hawaii, the Baby-sitters resolve to bring Hawaii home to her, taking photos and making notes of everything they see, eat, and do. Some of their adventures get pretty wild, too: Abby acts in a commercial; Dawn rescues a wrecked beach; and Stacy takes a dangerous helicopter ride she'll never forget.
If only the Baby-sitters could stay in Hawaii! Too bad aloha means hello ... and good-bye.
223 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1996
121 people are currently reading
508 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,101 books3,049 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 45 reviews
March 24, 2018
this is my first time reading this book!
in this super special by ghostwriter/dawn lover Peter Lerangis, we see the antics of the sms hawaii trip alluded to in Dawn and Too Many Sitters. because peter lerangis loves dawn so much, she’s on this school trip even though she doesn’t go to sms anymore. the framing device for the book is that jessi has decided to document the hawaii trip to make a journal for mallory, who is missing out. (note: kristy is also missing out on this trip, but she will go to hawaii with her family later in the summer). see the character plotlines for more info.
character plotlines:
-mal and kristy: are stuck back in stoneybrook helping the stones (of elvira stone the baby goat fame) run farm camp. at one point a busybody at the park sees mal not give in to jenny prezzioso when she’s throwing a tantrum and mal happens to be wearing a bsc shirt. the busybody calls during meeting hours and complains to kristy about mal’s behavior, and kristy backs mal. later mal sees her at the park and her kid is throwing a tantrum that puts jenny’s to shame, and the lady gets embarrassed.
-mary anne: does a “TBI” experiment -- together but independent -- with logan, where they don’t spend every waking second together, but then they end up missing each other. also babysits for a family even though it’s her vacation because she wants to see how “a typical hawaiian family” lives and is disappointed that they act like normal american kids. because she’s a creepy colonialist who needs to get cannibal holocausted.
-claud: goes to pearl harbor and takes on a ton of guilt as a japanese person. she wishes she weren’t japanese, since she feels responsible. it’s only when she babysits for the “typical hawaiian family” from the mary anne plotline and meets their white grandfather, a pearl harbor survivor, that she begins to get over it.
-stacey: has a lot of trouble in paradise moments with robert where he’s flirting with other girls (foreshadowing Stacey's Broken Heart), then she gets into a helicopter crash in maui. she and the others are all fine but their classmates can’t find them and are worried. stacey ends up hospitalized once they’re found, because she has low blood sugar. she and robert make amends, since he was so worried about her safety.
-jessi: no particularly interesting plotlines, other than the fact that she is obsessed with documenting everything that happens in hawaii for the journal for mallory.
-abby: acts in a commercial for crappy sunblock and ends up badly sunburnt. spends much of the book talking about how steven spielberg is gonna call her up and she’s gonna be famous.
-dawn: finds a private beach that has a ton of trash in it, and cleans it. because she’s dawn and all of her plotlines are the same and are annoying and dumb.
highlights:
-comedian abby: she goes through the "five phases of packing: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, and mourning."
-kristy being kristy: she got bsc advertising tshirts made for everyone in the bsc
-there's some good political stuff in here, where they learn about how white colonialists came to hawaii and brought diseases and eliminated a lot of historic hawaiian culture and jessi narrates that this story is familiar because white colonialists treated african people and native people the same.
-classic jenny prezzioso moment: "I'm going to make the park into an enchanted world of deep discounts...that means toys and games. I saw it on tv. this fairy goes into an empty room and waves her wand and makes toys appear. at the lowest possible price."
-another good political moment, when claud goes to pearl harbor. she feels guilty for being japanese there. she remembers a time that a white guy was arguing with her dad and the man said, "you got us at pearl harbor. what more do you want?" woof. anyway, claudia knows about the japanese internment camps in wwii and knows about how the bombings in hiroshima and nagasaki killed far more people than in pearl harbor (and while in pearl harbor, the vast majority of those killed were soldiers, the vast majority of those killed in hiroshima and nagasaki were civilians), but she still feels awful. she thinks about how she's always been proud of her heritage, but for the first time she questions that. "the whole war, when you thought about it, was a terrible, bloody mess. it should never have been started in the first place." this is a developmentally appropriate thing for a 13-year-old to be upset about when going to a place like pearl harbor.
-abby says her agent is swifty thomas (aka kristy)
-robert and logan narrate chapters. I love boy narration, which we basically only get in peter lerangis ghostwritten books.
-claud tells the white grandfather of the hawaiian kids she’s babysitting, who is a pearl harbor survivor, that she's embarrassed to be japanese, and he tells a story about his scottish ancestors who murdered a bunch of people too. he tells her she can't take on the burden of an entire country. I just find this whole plotline interesting and am impressed with claudia’s journey
lowlights/nitpicks:
-mary anne and logan determine that they need to continue to be codependent, because this whole not being codependent thing wasn’t working for them.
-dawn came to connecticut just to go to hawaii. they acknowledge that it's weird in the book, but still.
-dawn says claud ate a whole bag of doritos and claud says that it's not true because dawn ate three of them. dawn ate DORITOS? but doritos aren’t made of flax seed and pepitas and made in a dehydrator or oven on a low enough temperature that the food is still considered raw. I hope she at least put some alfalfa sprouts on them to cancel out the msg!
-kristy makes mal wear her new bsc shirt for every job. really? kristy, this is rough even for you.
-the jenny/busybody plotline is frustrating. when jenny throws a tantrum, mrs. p requests that mal tell her that when she's finished she can come tell her. but because she JUST started actually exercising discipline with jenny, jenny throws particularly epic tantrums, embarrassing mallory in public. when mal tries to explain to the busybody at the park that she’s just doing what the mom asked, the busybody says, "I'm sure her mom doesn't mean for her child to be neglected, dear." UGH. I wanna smack that woman.
-abby is basically the same as mallory in California Girls! (read: EXTREMELY annoying and self-obsessed). this is my first time really disliking abby, who I usually love.
-dawn narration: "in l.a., I sometimes ride with my dad up to the santa monica mountains." for the eight billionth time, she doesn't live in l.a. she lives in orange county.
-robert says “lookin' good” to the flight attendant and claims it was about the juice she was giving them. ew. then stacey says she didn't know he liked brunettes. also ew. they’re both creeps in my book.
-someone at one of the tourist places asks claudia the correct pronunciation of hawaii. because all asian/polynesian people are the same, apparently.
-mary anne practices how to say good morning in hawaiian and instead says merry christmas. she almost says she had been wanting to meet "a typical hawaiian family." she stops herself when she realizes that she would be uncomfortable if someone said about her family that they wanted to meet "a typical suburban white family." YES, MARY ANNE. YOU ARE TOTALLY FUCKED UP AND VOYEURISTIC AND CREEPY AND RACIST.
-they act like dawn is weird for getting azuki beans (aka red bean paste) in her hawaiian shave ice. red bean is one of the most common toppings for traditional shave ice, and is delicious. it’s not a health food thing, it’s a appreciation of eastern and polynesian foods thing.
no outfits.
snacks in claudia’s room:
-pineapple rings draped over mallomars (n.s.)
in this super special by ghostwriter/dawn lover Peter Lerangis, we see the antics of the sms hawaii trip alluded to in Dawn and Too Many Sitters. because peter lerangis loves dawn so much, she’s on this school trip even though she doesn’t go to sms anymore. the framing device for the book is that jessi has decided to document the hawaii trip to make a journal for mallory, who is missing out. (note: kristy is also missing out on this trip, but she will go to hawaii with her family later in the summer). see the character plotlines for more info.
character plotlines:
-mal and kristy: are stuck back in stoneybrook helping the stones (of elvira stone the baby goat fame) run farm camp. at one point a busybody at the park sees mal not give in to jenny prezzioso when she’s throwing a tantrum and mal happens to be wearing a bsc shirt. the busybody calls during meeting hours and complains to kristy about mal’s behavior, and kristy backs mal. later mal sees her at the park and her kid is throwing a tantrum that puts jenny’s to shame, and the lady gets embarrassed.
-mary anne: does a “TBI” experiment -- together but independent -- with logan, where they don’t spend every waking second together, but then they end up missing each other. also babysits for a family even though it’s her vacation because she wants to see how “a typical hawaiian family” lives and is disappointed that they act like normal american kids. because she’s a creepy colonialist who needs to get cannibal holocausted.
-claud: goes to pearl harbor and takes on a ton of guilt as a japanese person. she wishes she weren’t japanese, since she feels responsible. it’s only when she babysits for the “typical hawaiian family” from the mary anne plotline and meets their white grandfather, a pearl harbor survivor, that she begins to get over it.
-stacey: has a lot of trouble in paradise moments with robert where he’s flirting with other girls (foreshadowing Stacey's Broken Heart), then she gets into a helicopter crash in maui. she and the others are all fine but their classmates can’t find them and are worried. stacey ends up hospitalized once they’re found, because she has low blood sugar. she and robert make amends, since he was so worried about her safety.
-jessi: no particularly interesting plotlines, other than the fact that she is obsessed with documenting everything that happens in hawaii for the journal for mallory.
-abby: acts in a commercial for crappy sunblock and ends up badly sunburnt. spends much of the book talking about how steven spielberg is gonna call her up and she’s gonna be famous.
-dawn: finds a private beach that has a ton of trash in it, and cleans it. because she’s dawn and all of her plotlines are the same and are annoying and dumb.
highlights:
-comedian abby: she goes through the "five phases of packing: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, and mourning."
-kristy being kristy: she got bsc advertising tshirts made for everyone in the bsc
-there's some good political stuff in here, where they learn about how white colonialists came to hawaii and brought diseases and eliminated a lot of historic hawaiian culture and jessi narrates that this story is familiar because white colonialists treated african people and native people the same.
-classic jenny prezzioso moment: "I'm going to make the park into an enchanted world of deep discounts...that means toys and games. I saw it on tv. this fairy goes into an empty room and waves her wand and makes toys appear. at the lowest possible price."
-another good political moment, when claud goes to pearl harbor. she feels guilty for being japanese there. she remembers a time that a white guy was arguing with her dad and the man said, "you got us at pearl harbor. what more do you want?" woof. anyway, claudia knows about the japanese internment camps in wwii and knows about how the bombings in hiroshima and nagasaki killed far more people than in pearl harbor (and while in pearl harbor, the vast majority of those killed were soldiers, the vast majority of those killed in hiroshima and nagasaki were civilians), but she still feels awful. she thinks about how she's always been proud of her heritage, but for the first time she questions that. "the whole war, when you thought about it, was a terrible, bloody mess. it should never have been started in the first place." this is a developmentally appropriate thing for a 13-year-old to be upset about when going to a place like pearl harbor.
-abby says her agent is swifty thomas (aka kristy)
-robert and logan narrate chapters. I love boy narration, which we basically only get in peter lerangis ghostwritten books.
-claud tells the white grandfather of the hawaiian kids she’s babysitting, who is a pearl harbor survivor, that she's embarrassed to be japanese, and he tells a story about his scottish ancestors who murdered a bunch of people too. he tells her she can't take on the burden of an entire country. I just find this whole plotline interesting and am impressed with claudia’s journey
lowlights/nitpicks:
-mary anne and logan determine that they need to continue to be codependent, because this whole not being codependent thing wasn’t working for them.
-dawn came to connecticut just to go to hawaii. they acknowledge that it's weird in the book, but still.
-dawn says claud ate a whole bag of doritos and claud says that it's not true because dawn ate three of them. dawn ate DORITOS? but doritos aren’t made of flax seed and pepitas and made in a dehydrator or oven on a low enough temperature that the food is still considered raw. I hope she at least put some alfalfa sprouts on them to cancel out the msg!
-kristy makes mal wear her new bsc shirt for every job. really? kristy, this is rough even for you.
-the jenny/busybody plotline is frustrating. when jenny throws a tantrum, mrs. p requests that mal tell her that when she's finished she can come tell her. but because she JUST started actually exercising discipline with jenny, jenny throws particularly epic tantrums, embarrassing mallory in public. when mal tries to explain to the busybody at the park that she’s just doing what the mom asked, the busybody says, "I'm sure her mom doesn't mean for her child to be neglected, dear." UGH. I wanna smack that woman.
-abby is basically the same as mallory in California Girls! (read: EXTREMELY annoying and self-obsessed). this is my first time really disliking abby, who I usually love.
-dawn narration: "in l.a., I sometimes ride with my dad up to the santa monica mountains." for the eight billionth time, she doesn't live in l.a. she lives in orange county.
-robert says “lookin' good” to the flight attendant and claims it was about the juice she was giving them. ew. then stacey says she didn't know he liked brunettes. also ew. they’re both creeps in my book.
-someone at one of the tourist places asks claudia the correct pronunciation of hawaii. because all asian/polynesian people are the same, apparently.
-mary anne practices how to say good morning in hawaiian and instead says merry christmas. she almost says she had been wanting to meet "a typical hawaiian family." she stops herself when she realizes that she would be uncomfortable if someone said about her family that they wanted to meet "a typical suburban white family." YES, MARY ANNE. YOU ARE TOTALLY FUCKED UP AND VOYEURISTIC AND CREEPY AND RACIST.
-they act like dawn is weird for getting azuki beans (aka red bean paste) in her hawaiian shave ice. red bean is one of the most common toppings for traditional shave ice, and is delicious. it’s not a health food thing, it’s a appreciation of eastern and polynesian foods thing.
no outfits.
snacks in claudia’s room:
-pineapple rings draped over mallomars (n.s.)
May 7, 2011
in a rare instance of plot continuity, the B-plot in dawn & too many babysitters segues into this super special, in which the babysitters club goes to hawaii. all the club members are going, save for shannon (who is going to summer camp), kristy (who is going to hawaii with her family later in the summer), & mallory (whose parents wouldn't pay for the trip). it's basically a school trip, so some other tertiary stoneybrook middle school characters are going as well, like alan gray, pete black, cokie mason, robert brewster, etc. the group will be chaperoned by teachers & administrators. i wonder if the chaperones had to pay their own way? if so, that is kind of the worst job ever. if not, damn, i should consider being a middle school teacher.
because mallory can't go, jessi decides to force everyone to keep a trip journal so that mallory can experience hawaii through the eyes & ears of the best friends she'll ever have. tragically for mallory, this vacation is one of the most boring trips the BSC has ever embarked upon.
jessi basically just does tourist-y crap & writes down every boring detail for mallory. she essentially doesn't do anything or write anything or photograph anything that is not already listed in any hawaiian travel guide worth its weight in pineapple slices. at one point, she begins to wonder if trying to capture every tedious detail for mallory's sake is interfering with her enjoyment of the trip...but she decides her dedication to her best friend is worth the sacrifice, i guess.
dawn manages to stumble across a private beach that is very dirty. it's not necessarily polluted (it's right next to a sparkling, pristine, travel brochure beach), but there's a lot of litter. she gets permission from some chaperones to clean it up, recruiting a few of her classmates & some local children. leave it to dawn to find something to clean while on vacation.
mary anne & logan have decided that they may be spending too much time together, so they decide to use the hawaii trip as an opportunity to be "together but separate". ie, still dating, but more independent. mary anne has a difficult time with it. she thinks the together but separate thing is probably good for her, but she misses logan a lot. & logan seems to feel the same way. to distract herself from logan, mary anne decides she really wants to meet a "traditional hawaiian family". she honestly seems to believe that a traditional hawaiian family probably lives in some kind of thatched roof hut & eats roasted pig cooked on a spit for every meal & wears nothing but coconut bras & grass skirts. she helps find a little boy that goes missing in her hotel (he just accidentally locked himself in a hotel room & fell asleep) & is invited to babysit for the family. she accepts (her chaperone makes fun of her for babysitting on vacation, which is awesome) & thinks she's going to get to see a real hawaiian family in action. she is kind of disappointed & embarrassed when she discovers that they live in a regular house & wear regular clothes & like video games & stuff. she finds out that the grandpa (the dad's dad, i think) is a white dude who was stationed in hawaii during world war two & decided to stay put. there is a weird, kind of racist bit where mary anne assumes that this family is more like families in the continental united states because they have a white grandpa. i think the take-away is supposed to be something about how we all may be different colors, but we're alike deep down or something, but the whole thing reads as really racist.
speaking of racist, claudia is pumped to go to hawaii, & one of the first activities she signs up for is a trip to pearl harbor, where she learns all about the japanese bombings that killed thousands of people & purportedly inspired the united states to get involved in world war two. she is deeply, deeply ashamed that japanese people were involved in all the carnage. she kind of slinks around the pearl harbor site hoping that no one knows or thinks that she is japanese american & thinks a lot about how much she hates herself for being japanese american. she even thinks about the atomic bombs dropped in hiroshima & nagasaki & how that resulted in a much greater loss of life, but can never make up for what the japanese did at pearl harbor. she spends the entire book being totally self-loathing & praying that people think she is chinese. then she takes a sitting job with the "traditional hawaiian family" mary anne is so obsessed with. she thinks it's cool because kids don't give a fuck if she is japanese. but she discovers during the job that grandpa is white & was stationed at pearl harbor during the bombing & she freaks out. he's due home at minute & she assumes he's going to be like, "what the fuck is some japanese scum doing in my home! step away from the children!" but instead he comes home & is all, "hey, what's up? you must be claudia." she's like, "OMG i am so sorry i am japanese!" & he's like, "huh?" she spills the beans, about how ashamed she feels about pearl harbor & grandpa is all, "why? it's not like you were involved." he kind of illuminates the complexities of war for her & makes her feel a lot better. grandpa for the win! though there is a really weird bit where claudia is thinking about world war two & is like, "so many people died at pearl harbor, & so many people died during the atomic attacks in japan. world war two should have never happened." it's totally weird to me that she doesn't say anything about, you know, nazis or anything. though when i mentioned that to jared, he said something about how it was refreshing that claudia was not taking a euro-centric approach to thinking about world war two, & then he said something about how "no one likes a war of attrition," which i think was supposed to be a history student joke, but i didn't get it.
abby basically volunteers to sub for a SAG car-wielding actress in a sunscreen commericial, dupes the director into thinking she's 18, makes a very bizarre speech about how she is not union & won't expect union wages (that's a good thing?), & gets her chaperone to sign off on the whole thing. so she gets to be in a commercial. & she does not apply any sunscreen before filming & gets totally burnt in the process. which i'm sure looked great on film.
stacey goes on a helicopter ride with some classmates, but bad weather swoops in unexpectedly & her helicopter goes down. everyone is okay, but they kind of have to hike out of the middle of the woods, & they don't have much food on them, which makes stacey's blood sugar all wackadoodle. they get rescued & stacey gets rehydrated & in the hospital. the main point of this story is that stacey & robert have not been getting along well, & they took separate helicopter tours because they were kind of bickering. then stacey's helicopter crashed & robert panicked. it made them both realize that they really do care about each other. or something.
the B-plot back in stoneybrook is all about kristy & mallory running some kind of boring "farm camp" for their charges. it of course involves mrs. stone's farm & that godforsaken baby goat. makes me reflect lovingly on the last time i ate ethiopian food, which involved a delicious goat dish. anyway, mrs. prezzioso hires mallory for a few sitting jobs & explains that jenny is going through a temper tantrum stage & the prezziosos have decided to deal with it by making her cry herself out. they fear that she is becoming spoiled (um, yes). mallory takes jenny to a playground, where she throws a tantrum over not wanting to wear sunscreen or something. she is thrashing around, screaming & crying, & mallory just keeps an eye on her but doesn't try to comfort her or bribe her with a toy or anything. a woman sitting next to her is all, "oh my god! how neglectful! she really looks like she's suffering!" mallory tries to explain that it's a tantrum-management strategy recommended by jenny's parents, but the woman is all, "i'm sure they didn't mean that you should neglect her!" then she notices that mallory is wearing an ugly babysitters club advertisement t-shirt kristy made for everyone, & mallory freaks out that this woman is going to get in touch with all their clients & bust them for being neglectful.
the woman does call the babysitters club to "report" mallory, & kristy freaks out a little. mallory is worried that she has ruined the club. but a few days later, she's at the playground again with jenny, & a little boy throws a huge tantrum. turns out that the little boy's mom is the same woman who bitched mallory out. &...really? she has a son that is like three who has never thrown a tantrum before this day? where can i get a kid like that? mallory opts not to gloat & the woman appears chagrined.
because mallory can't go, jessi decides to force everyone to keep a trip journal so that mallory can experience hawaii through the eyes & ears of the best friends she'll ever have. tragically for mallory, this vacation is one of the most boring trips the BSC has ever embarked upon.
jessi basically just does tourist-y crap & writes down every boring detail for mallory. she essentially doesn't do anything or write anything or photograph anything that is not already listed in any hawaiian travel guide worth its weight in pineapple slices. at one point, she begins to wonder if trying to capture every tedious detail for mallory's sake is interfering with her enjoyment of the trip...but she decides her dedication to her best friend is worth the sacrifice, i guess.
dawn manages to stumble across a private beach that is very dirty. it's not necessarily polluted (it's right next to a sparkling, pristine, travel brochure beach), but there's a lot of litter. she gets permission from some chaperones to clean it up, recruiting a few of her classmates & some local children. leave it to dawn to find something to clean while on vacation.
mary anne & logan have decided that they may be spending too much time together, so they decide to use the hawaii trip as an opportunity to be "together but separate". ie, still dating, but more independent. mary anne has a difficult time with it. she thinks the together but separate thing is probably good for her, but she misses logan a lot. & logan seems to feel the same way. to distract herself from logan, mary anne decides she really wants to meet a "traditional hawaiian family". she honestly seems to believe that a traditional hawaiian family probably lives in some kind of thatched roof hut & eats roasted pig cooked on a spit for every meal & wears nothing but coconut bras & grass skirts. she helps find a little boy that goes missing in her hotel (he just accidentally locked himself in a hotel room & fell asleep) & is invited to babysit for the family. she accepts (her chaperone makes fun of her for babysitting on vacation, which is awesome) & thinks she's going to get to see a real hawaiian family in action. she is kind of disappointed & embarrassed when she discovers that they live in a regular house & wear regular clothes & like video games & stuff. she finds out that the grandpa (the dad's dad, i think) is a white dude who was stationed in hawaii during world war two & decided to stay put. there is a weird, kind of racist bit where mary anne assumes that this family is more like families in the continental united states because they have a white grandpa. i think the take-away is supposed to be something about how we all may be different colors, but we're alike deep down or something, but the whole thing reads as really racist.
speaking of racist, claudia is pumped to go to hawaii, & one of the first activities she signs up for is a trip to pearl harbor, where she learns all about the japanese bombings that killed thousands of people & purportedly inspired the united states to get involved in world war two. she is deeply, deeply ashamed that japanese people were involved in all the carnage. she kind of slinks around the pearl harbor site hoping that no one knows or thinks that she is japanese american & thinks a lot about how much she hates herself for being japanese american. she even thinks about the atomic bombs dropped in hiroshima & nagasaki & how that resulted in a much greater loss of life, but can never make up for what the japanese did at pearl harbor. she spends the entire book being totally self-loathing & praying that people think she is chinese. then she takes a sitting job with the "traditional hawaiian family" mary anne is so obsessed with. she thinks it's cool because kids don't give a fuck if she is japanese. but she discovers during the job that grandpa is white & was stationed at pearl harbor during the bombing & she freaks out. he's due home at minute & she assumes he's going to be like, "what the fuck is some japanese scum doing in my home! step away from the children!" but instead he comes home & is all, "hey, what's up? you must be claudia." she's like, "OMG i am so sorry i am japanese!" & he's like, "huh?" she spills the beans, about how ashamed she feels about pearl harbor & grandpa is all, "why? it's not like you were involved." he kind of illuminates the complexities of war for her & makes her feel a lot better. grandpa for the win! though there is a really weird bit where claudia is thinking about world war two & is like, "so many people died at pearl harbor, & so many people died during the atomic attacks in japan. world war two should have never happened." it's totally weird to me that she doesn't say anything about, you know, nazis or anything. though when i mentioned that to jared, he said something about how it was refreshing that claudia was not taking a euro-centric approach to thinking about world war two, & then he said something about how "no one likes a war of attrition," which i think was supposed to be a history student joke, but i didn't get it.
abby basically volunteers to sub for a SAG car-wielding actress in a sunscreen commericial, dupes the director into thinking she's 18, makes a very bizarre speech about how she is not union & won't expect union wages (that's a good thing?), & gets her chaperone to sign off on the whole thing. so she gets to be in a commercial. & she does not apply any sunscreen before filming & gets totally burnt in the process. which i'm sure looked great on film.
stacey goes on a helicopter ride with some classmates, but bad weather swoops in unexpectedly & her helicopter goes down. everyone is okay, but they kind of have to hike out of the middle of the woods, & they don't have much food on them, which makes stacey's blood sugar all wackadoodle. they get rescued & stacey gets rehydrated & in the hospital. the main point of this story is that stacey & robert have not been getting along well, & they took separate helicopter tours because they were kind of bickering. then stacey's helicopter crashed & robert panicked. it made them both realize that they really do care about each other. or something.
the B-plot back in stoneybrook is all about kristy & mallory running some kind of boring "farm camp" for their charges. it of course involves mrs. stone's farm & that godforsaken baby goat. makes me reflect lovingly on the last time i ate ethiopian food, which involved a delicious goat dish. anyway, mrs. prezzioso hires mallory for a few sitting jobs & explains that jenny is going through a temper tantrum stage & the prezziosos have decided to deal with it by making her cry herself out. they fear that she is becoming spoiled (um, yes). mallory takes jenny to a playground, where she throws a tantrum over not wanting to wear sunscreen or something. she is thrashing around, screaming & crying, & mallory just keeps an eye on her but doesn't try to comfort her or bribe her with a toy or anything. a woman sitting next to her is all, "oh my god! how neglectful! she really looks like she's suffering!" mallory tries to explain that it's a tantrum-management strategy recommended by jenny's parents, but the woman is all, "i'm sure they didn't mean that you should neglect her!" then she notices that mallory is wearing an ugly babysitters club advertisement t-shirt kristy made for everyone, & mallory freaks out that this woman is going to get in touch with all their clients & bust them for being neglectful.
the woman does call the babysitters club to "report" mallory, & kristy freaks out a little. mallory is worried that she has ruined the club. but a few days later, she's at the playground again with jenny, & a little boy throws a huge tantrum. turns out that the little boy's mom is the same woman who bitched mallory out. &...really? she has a son that is like three who has never thrown a tantrum before this day? where can i get a kid like that? mallory opts not to gloat & the woman appears chagrined.
January 9, 2019
Things I want, need and expect from a Baby-Sitters Club Super Special:
-A fabulous destination
-Mystery
-Disaster, possibly natural in nature
-Romance
I guess I got all these things from Aloha, Baby-sitters! but in a be-careful-what you wish for kinda way:
-A fabulous destination, Hawaii is possibly the MOST fabulous destination of all the Super Specials - fight me, Camp Mohawk fans!
-Mystery, why is Dawn tidying up on holiday? Why is Dawn on a Stoneybrook Middle School trip when she doesn’t even go there? Why do Mallory’s parents insist on having so many children when they can’t even afford to send their original child on a normal, everyday, typical, run-of-the-mill school trip to Hawaii?
-Disaster, possibly natural in nature, Big City Stacey McGill is in a helicopter crash. This would never have happened on the Upper West Side or Central Park or any of Stacey’s other oft-mentioned Manhattan stomping grounds.
-Romance, Stacey is there with Robert, and Mary-Anne has Logan. There is some intense hand-squeezing action.
-A fabulous destination
-Mystery
-Disaster, possibly natural in nature
-Romance
I guess I got all these things from Aloha, Baby-sitters! but in a be-careful-what you wish for kinda way:
-A fabulous destination, Hawaii is possibly the MOST fabulous destination of all the Super Specials - fight me, Camp Mohawk fans!
-Mystery, why is Dawn tidying up on holiday? Why is Dawn on a Stoneybrook Middle School trip when she doesn’t even go there? Why do Mallory’s parents insist on having so many children when they can’t even afford to send their original child on a normal, everyday, typical, run-of-the-mill school trip to Hawaii?
-Disaster, possibly natural in nature, Big City Stacey McGill is in a helicopter crash. This would never have happened on the Upper West Side or Central Park or any of Stacey’s other oft-mentioned Manhattan stomping grounds.
-Romance, Stacey is there with Robert, and Mary-Anne has Logan. There is some intense hand-squeezing action.
December 24, 2018
The only members of the BSC that didn't go to Hawaii were Kristy, Mallory, and Shannon. Kristy and Mallory work at a farm camp for children, and Shannon wasn't in this book. The rest of the BSC visit the sites in Hawaii. The see beaches, mountains, volcanos, Pearl Harbor, and more. Jessi takes notes, photographs, and sound recordings of everything she does and everywhere she goes for Mallory. Mary Anne and Claudia baby-sit for a local family. Dawn cleans a beach. Abby does a sun tan lotion commercial. Stacey and Robert fight, and Mary Anne and Logan take a break. They are still a couple but spend time with their friends instead of each other.
April 16, 2018
For my written review, please check out the link below:
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August 14, 2023Aloha Babysitters
The students have been given a trip to Hawaii. Only Mallory can’t go because it’s too expensive. So, she’ll be staying behind and helping a lady named Mrs. Stone that has a farm. Kristy will be helping Mrs. Stone too. Her family will be going next month. Jessica decides to make a scrapbook of the trip (with the help of the others) and give it to her as a present. All the others parents say if they pay for half they’ll pay for half. So of course, they’ve done a lot of babysitting.
As always there’s a meeting before they get ready to leave. Krsiy’s made them all tee shirts to wear on the beach with the club’s name. Jessi reads the schedule of events. For some reason, TBSC has decided that Maryanne and Logan are spending too much time together so they decide to be together but not together on the trip. Meaning that they’ll be flexible and spend a little more time with each of their sets of same-race friends. They don’t sit by each other on the bus or plane trips. But then Logan starts to act like he’s mad about something and Maryanne wonders what she’s done.
Stacey and Robert also seem to be fighting. Claudia observed them having words and she thinks its because Robert was talking to a girl named Sue. Basically, all the club is in the same group and they have to sign up each day for the itinerary they want for the day. Claudia, Dawn, and Maryanne are in one room. Abby, Stacey, and Jessi are in another. When they’re all settled in they go for a walk. Then they have dinner and dine on dolphin, Hawaiian rice, and papaya juice.
The next morning, Jessi, Maryanne, Claudia, Stacey, Dawn, Robert, and Logan take the guided walking tour. These are the things Jessi writes about and takes pictures of a statue of a warrior god (Kamehamha), the history of James Cook, the state Capitol, (which has columns like palms and rooms in the shape of volcanoes), the Mission Houses Museum, (a small section of restored houses built by missionaries), They eat at Chinatown for lunch and Jessi accidentally eats a dried, hot, pepper. I CAN RELATE! After this, they have mango ice cream in the Aloha Tower and attend a hula festival. (She had Schezhun chicken for lunch).
Meanwhile, Mallory has walked into Jenny having another one of her tantrums. Mr. and Mrs. P have finally gotten a clue and gone to a parent group where they’ve learned they’ve given Jenny too much power. So now they’re just ignoring her until she gets over it. They want Mallory to do this too. It’s a rough afternoon. Jenny starts off being mad at Mal because she doesn’t want her to sit for her. Then she throws a tantrum because she won’t give her any ice cream. She finally calms down but when Mal takes her to the park she throws another tantrum and several mothers notice her. (Same reason she wants ice cream). Not only this but one of the mothers tells her she doesn’t think her would want her to neglect her (when Mal tells her Jenny’s mother didn’t want her to have sweets) and she pays close attention the baby sisters club shirt she has on (you know this isn’t in a good way).
The next day, Claudia and Maryanne go with a group to see Pearl Harbor. Claudia is curious about this after a long time ago a man made a bigoted remark to her father. They take a boat over and go to the museum. Then they see a movie about the bombing that sickens Claudia. After this, they see one of the boats and another museum dedicated to the soldiers. Claudia thinks about a story Mimi use to tell her and her sister about an Asian girl that used to widen her eyes so she could pretend to be American. The whole experience seeing Peral Harbor leaves Claudia shaken, embarrassed, and wanting to get far away from it and not come back.
Stacey and Abby spend Wednesday shopping on the main drag Abby buys a bunch of tourist junk. Then they go to the aquarium. Then they go to the beach. Abby dozes off for a little. When she wakes up Stacey isn’t there. She sees her in the water and is about to go join her when a volleyball lands at her feet. A cute guy comes to retrieve it. Then she notices there’s a tv crew. Abby finds out two of the stars backed out so she tells them she can do the commercial. She lies and says she’s eighteen and not Union. It's for a sun tan lotion that she’s never heard of called (Day-night). She tells the lady she can be there at seven. She knows she’ll have to get permission but even if her teacher doesn’t agree to it, she can always sneak out.
Dawn, Jessi, and Logan take a tour of Mount Tantalus (the highest point on the island). This leaves Dawn feeling a little nauseated, Then they go to a place called Paradise Park. At lunch, they eat at the Tree Top Restaurant. Back in Stoneybrooke, the woman calls that Mallory saw and threatens Kristy that she needs to let her go or her club won’t be around for long. Abby is allowed to do the commercial. Only she brings the wrong kind of sunscreen and is afraid they’ll find her using the competition so she doesn’t put any on at all. So she ends up sunburned after playing for three hours.
Stacey and Robert go on a camping trip near the site of a volcano crater. Stacey is tripping a little bit over Robert giving so many girls his attention but she realizes it quickly enough. Stacey describes it as looking like the face of the moon. Robert makes a comment about all Manhattan fitting inside and Stacey makes a comment back she hopes not. The subways would be too hot. Robert takes it as being snide and says he was just kidding. Stacey says she was just joking. Claudia tells about the Punch Crater National Museum Cemetary.(a graveyard for the soldiers of Vietnam and WW2). There’s a monument upstairs dedicated to the dead. This sickens Claudia again. She had a dream the night before that she was a spy and an American general caught her. As she ran from soldiers, bombs were going off in te background. Claudia slips away and goes back to the bus. Then they go to the summer place of a Hawaiian Queen named Emma. Claudia wanders off and notices a Japanese temple. Some tourist mistake Claudia for being one of the guides. She tells them she’s not Hawaiian. She’s Asian. Then they see a mountain range.
Maryanne, Dawn, Abby, and Claudia go to the Sea View Family Resort. They have pretty cool hotel managers Mr and Mrs. Reynolds and resort has two pools and a golf course. Maryanne talks to Claudia later and tells her she can’t take it personally. The next day they go on their day’s outing Maryanne and Claudia meet two little girls Nikki and Evie. Their parents can’t find their little brother Joesph and MRs. Reynolds offers to stay with the girls, but Marryanne offers to watch them while the parents and the Reynolds go look. Maryanne has the good idea to check his room and discovers that the he’s there but the door is stuck. He went back to get something and went to the wrong room. Then he got stuck in the doors. YES THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME! After this, Mrs. Reynolds offers Maryanne a job. She has three kids and their regular daytime sitter is sick. Maryanne accepts the job,
Not all the beaches in Hawaii are amazing. Dawn finds one that has muddy water with clothes and trash scattered all around. There are also boards and planks in the water. There’s a sign that says “Swim At Your Own Rick”. Yet, there are children swimming and playing there. Dawn decides to do something about it. Stacey is hot and cold with Robert which confuses him. He knows she’s still mad about Sue. After the camp out on the crater, they go to the botanical gardens. One day they take a helicopter ride. Stacey and Robert are looking forward to this but they can only seat four. For some reason, Robert has to get in one and Stacey in a separate one. On the helicopter ride, the guide points out different sites. Dark clouds then begin to roll in. The guide drives right into the storm. He assures them this is perfectly fine. But the occupants all start to get a little nervous. Mr. Frederickson (the driver) finally realizes the seriousness of it. Then they all start to plunge. Then Stacey blacks out. When she comes to, the helicopter is on its side and no one is in the plane but Stacey. But then she sees Mr. Fredricks and he gets her out. Everyone’s fine. The plane has landed on the side of a boulder.
Mallory drags Claire and Margo to the park. She’s been trying to bump back into Margaret Wellfleet so she can prove to her she’s not just some irresponsible kid. She eventually sees her. But Mallory just can’t bring herself to confront her. A little boy comes over and takes Margo’s sand castle-making tools. It turns out he’s Collen (Margerett’s son) and he throws a tantrum when Margo retrieves it. Ol Margret just watches unable to stop him and Mallory gets this satisfied feeling like WHAT? But she can’t bring herself (again) to say anything. Margaret sees her and looks embarrassed. (I think we’d call woman like this today a “Karen”).
To Maryanne’s disappointment, she was expecting to babysit typical Polynesian kids but they turn out to be not much different from the kids she sits. The kids are Scott (8), Lani (5), and Raymond. The kids show off their skates and Maryanne takes them to the park. After that Maryanne cleans up, puts the baby down for a nap, and plays video games with the kids. The Reynolds ask Maryanne to help them out the other day. Maryanne weirdly doesn’t want to do it because she’s on vacation. UH SINCE WHEN? So she turns it down but thinks it’ll be good for Claudia.
All the babysitters worry about Stacey. Jessi says she hopes the Death Marcher’s don’t get her. These are ghosts. Can I get this plot, please? Claudia takes the job. It’s pretty easy. They eat junk and play outside. But then she sees the picture of Mr. Reynold’s dad and sees he’s a war hero and she starts getting nervous. But he sits her down and starts to talk to her about how she likes it there. Claudia confesses to him that she hated Pearl Harbor and how ashamed she felt because she’s Japanese. Mr. Reynolds tells her there are “bad apples” in his own family but when he goes back to that town he’s treated like a hero. He says they can’t be responsible for what their ancestors did and no one has the right to put that burden on anyone. He says people there are pretty tolerant of each other and that’s all they can do. Claudia is relieved and put at ease by his words.
In the meanwhile, Dawn gets some of the others (and some of the local kids) to help her clean up the beach. In a hour they have the whole thing looking nice. Dawn tells the kids to hand out trash bags from now on. They say that’ll get expensive. Jessi says they could have a walkathon. Abby says they could also have a read-a-thon and pledge five dollars a page. Dawn feels good about what they accomplished and hopes they’ll stay committed to keeping the beach clean.
Someone rescues Stacey and her group. Stacey tho ends up in the hospital because her blood sugar is low. She’s released tho and they’re flown back in a helicopter. Robert is there when she wakes up. On the way back they make up and apologize to each other. Then she’s reunited with the rest of the BSC. Stacey gets a lot of attention afterward. Her story ends up on the news. After this, they spend the day at Sunset Beach. They go to a Lua and then an event (revue) called Mana. The next day they go to Haleiwas, Wainnea Fall Park, Then they go back to the beach. Dawn gives Logan a surfing lesson. He’s not all that good. Then they go to a shaved ice place, a banana plantation, and an airplane stunt show. Wednesday they return home. On the way home, Logan and Maryanne decide enough is enough. No more TBI this trip or the next.
My Thoughts
This didn’t really have much of a plot. Well, not a good one. Jessi’s part was naming locations and taking pictures. And I have to admit after a while I got lazy wanting to write down the Hawaiin names for all the places she rattled off.
Kristy didn’t have a plot either. But honestly, I really wasn’t interested in her working on this farm. I didn’t want another sports (game) plot either. The other minuscule part was a reaction to Mallory’s story.
For Mallory’s story, knowing me I probably wouldn’t have said anything to this woman either. I’m not one for confrontations. I know a family member that probably would have told her off from the first mouth she decided to butt her nose into what wasn’t her business. But I would have at least had to give her a smug look when I caught her eye to let her know “Yeah. I see you.” That in itself would have been satisfying. But the ending of Mallory’s story felt RIGHT. Like there was a sense of justice like WHAT?! Your kid’s a bigger brat than mine ever could be. Then Mr. and Mrs. P just made me roll my eyes at them because REALLY? It took a parent group to show you not to let your kid run all over you.
Maryanne really didn’t have a story. either. She sits for a family one time and then says oh you don’t act like what I thought a HAwaian was, Moving on! And since when do any of these girls care about not sitting because they're on vacation? I thought they lived, breathed, and died, to babysit twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.
Ckadua's story was,, Honestly I’m surprised that she even knew about the events of Pearl Harbor. I was expecting her to think it was filled with pearls. I know I’m not giving Claudia much credit but that’s how they write her (as a ditz). Not only that I just didn’t see an historical event like this affecting her as much as it did. Maybe she’s deeper than we thought, But this storyline just kind of seemed out of character for Claudia.
This was really the first book I’ve read with Abby in it (for a Super Special) I REALLY hope they don’t continue the spelled-out allergy dialogue in any of the others. She does a commercial. She gets sunburned. That really isn’t much of an interesting storyline either. I guess they just had to throw in a sports activity somewhere. Dawn’s was cool. I liked that she tried to make the beach cleaner but then why did it take someone from out of town to care enough to clean up this beach and there are children playing there like it’s just the most normal thing? I guess you can’t rope off a beach and there was a sign (swim at your own risk) But this beach looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen. It’s dirty. There’s glass and trash everywhere. But yet children are still on it. Shouldn’t there be (I don’t know) like a guard or a boat patrol person or something to keep people off this property before they either just injured or end up DEAD? Maybe this is where the Death Walkers all live. I really want the story of the Death Walkers. That reminds me. Almost forgot about Stacey’s story.
I don’t know but Stacey just seems to get the worse of all these plots. She got poison ivy at Camp Mowhawk. In this one she’s in a helicopter crash. In California Girls she gets in a car accident with reckless drivers But hers was probably the most interesting storyline in the book. It beat the other one about her and Robert having petty arguments throughout the story.
Rating: 5 These Super Specials are getting more and more lackluster to read.
December 4, 2023
My favourite childhood series and now decades later I am reading a digital copy. Pure nostalgia and enjoyment.
June 2, 2019
Surprisingly nuanced handling of Claudia working through Pearl Harbor.
July 19, 2023
This was pretty good.
Claudia's storyline was especially strong. A visit to Pearl Harbour made her think about the complex histories between both sides of her identity -- Japanese and American.
Stacey's mini-crisis (her group's helicopter crashes in a forest and is cut off from communication) is especially harrowing because of her diabetes. I thought that was handled well too.
Abby's jaunt with fame with the sunblock lotion commercial was funny. I wish we'd had more of it.
Mary Anne's baby-sitting a Hawaiian family was just okay. Not sure about the SMS teachers okay-ing it, coz I figure there must be liability considerations about letting their students taken on side jobs while on a school trip. Plus like I get this is a BSC book, but who wants to work on vacation??? But this storyline did tie into Claudia's story eventually so that was good.
Mallory's storyline about a Karen being pissed at how Mallory was ignoring Jenny's tantrum was also good. Nice bit of karma for the Karen at the end when
Dawn's storyline about getting other students + local kids to clean the beach was... well, typical Dawn, but also a bit eye-rolly? Coz like, yeah Hawaiians need a California girl to teach them how to keep their beaches clean? Also, like, who wants to work/clean up trash on vacation? Also, also, and this may just be a sign of the times and this book being written in the 90s -- the illustration showed them picking up trash without gloves or those poky pointy sticks?! Weren't the SMS teachers worried about liability if one of their students got tetanus or picked up a stray needle?!
Claudia's storyline was especially strong. A visit to Pearl Harbour made her think about the complex histories between both sides of her identity -- Japanese and American.
Stacey's mini-crisis (her group's helicopter crashes in a forest and is cut off from communication) is especially harrowing because of her diabetes. I thought that was handled well too.
Abby's jaunt with fame with the sunblock lotion commercial was funny. I wish we'd had more of it.
Mary Anne's baby-sitting a Hawaiian family was just okay. Not sure about the SMS teachers okay-ing it, coz I figure there must be liability considerations about letting their students taken on side jobs while on a school trip. Plus like I get this is a BSC book, but who wants to work on vacation??? But this storyline did tie into Claudia's story eventually so that was good.
Mallory's storyline about a Karen being pissed at how Mallory was ignoring Jenny's tantrum was also good. Nice bit of karma for the Karen at the end when
Dawn's storyline about getting other students + local kids to clean the beach was... well, typical Dawn, but also a bit eye-rolly? Coz like, yeah Hawaiians need a California girl to teach them how to keep their beaches clean? Also, like, who wants to work/clean up trash on vacation? Also, also, and this may just be a sign of the times and this book being written in the 90s -- the illustration showed them picking up trash without gloves or those poky pointy sticks?! Weren't the SMS teachers worried about liability if one of their students got tetanus or picked up a stray needle?!
July 22, 2024
This might be my favorite Super Special yet. The relatability, pace, humor, and suspense of the stories in this one make it a thoroughly fun read! I enjoyed the sweet, yet not-too-corny details of Mary Anne & Logan and Stacey & Robert’s relationships, as well as the realistic conundrums Mallory and Kristy found themselves in back home. I also loved how Ann M. Martin portrayed Claudia’s grappling with her Japanese heritage in a sensitive, complicated way, and how she ultimately came to her own conclusions after asking questions and searching for what she believed about herself.
Another aspect of this one that I appreciated: I feel like some BSC books make the members’ quirks extreme to the point of obnoxious (Mal’s mosquito netting suit in “Shadow Lake,” anyone?), but this SS incorporated details that felt funny and believable. Heads up, the illustrations are classicly ‘80s… aka, the 14-year-olds look like 27-something sitcom stars, but it you’ve read any BSC before, that’s all just part of the nostalgia. ;)
Definitely one I would read in a day all over again!
Another aspect of this one that I appreciated: I feel like some BSC books make the members’ quirks extreme to the point of obnoxious (Mal’s mosquito netting suit in “Shadow Lake,” anyone?), but this SS incorporated details that felt funny and believable. Heads up, the illustrations are classicly ‘80s… aka, the 14-year-olds look like 27-something sitcom stars, but it you’ve read any BSC before, that’s all just part of the nostalgia. ;)
Definitely one I would read in a day all over again!
July 10, 2022
Totally normal for a Connecticut public school to take a field trip to Hawaii, right? Nothing ridiculous in that premise as the book begins. This may be the worst special of all of them. Jessi is documenting the Stoneybrook Middle School trip for Mallory, who's parents aren't independently wealthy enough to keep paying for elaborate trips for an eleven year old. Some seriously cringe, sorta racist stuff happens in this book regarding Claudia reacting to Pearl Harbor and Mary Anne thinking that a babysitting job in a "traditional Hawaiian home " somehow was going to be a day spent doing hula dancing and fire eating, not board games and fruit snacks. It was bizarre. At any rate, 1 star. Almost done with this series.
May 3, 2023
I liked it - though I can't imagine how much this trip for middle school students would have cost considering all the things these kids were allowed to do. I also pity their poor teachers. Mallory doesn't get to go and Kristy is going the next week or month but the rest of them all go. Abby is in a commercial, Claudia freaks out about Pearl Harbor, Dawn is annoying per usual, Mary Anne babysits for a family they meet at the hotel, Stacey gets in a helicopter accident and is stranded overnight which they weirdly brush off as like OK, Jessi is funny because she documents everything and takes pictures.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2020
I actually really liked this one?? The descriptions of Hawaii were really vivid, and I liked that it actually examined some colonialism and racism issues with Claudia and Mary Anne's plots. It made me actually want to visit the setting, which none of the other destination Super Specials have managed to do so far. Minor quibbles: both the Stacey/Robert and Mary Anne/Logan romance subplots are stupid (natch), Dawn has the same plot in every book, and Abby is weirdly self-obsessed for some reason this time around.
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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.
March 19, 2025
I like how these Super Specials manage to give each girl a little story of her own — even Mallory back in CT. The depictions of Hawaii made me want to go there. The only thing that could have made it better would be if Stacey was with Sam instead of Robert. I really liked this one. However, I do find it hard to believe that Dawn would ever eat Doritos. I think she’d starve to death before touching them!
June 3, 2020
Read this with my daughter for a little mother daughter book club. I don't remember reading it before actually so it was fun not knowing what was going to happen. I don't remember Abby and liked getting to know her character. This super special had a lot of action and adventure and I loved the descriptions of Hawaii. 🥰🥰🥰
September 14, 2022
The worst part about this book is that it's narrated by Jessi, who is meticulously documenting the entire trip for Mal, because she couldn't go. Which means A LOT of Jessi's handwriting, which is probably the hardest of the Club to read. (Also some fairly forgettable storylines, but still - that handwriting!)
August 6, 2017
Of all the BSC super-special ridiculous vacations and whatnot...this might have been the worst. A helicopter crash? Really? That is some later seasons ER convoluted crap right there and I am not about that life.
September 22, 2022
The most fun I've had reading a Super Special in a while, but I think it was less about content and more about not having read much lately and feeling nostalgic and missing having the whole group together...sort of.
March 5, 2025
I really like the way everyone tells a part of their story. But it's not the kind of book I would love like LOVE! Still, it's not the worst. I think I'm in the middle of a scale from one to ten. 😊😉🫠😅❤️👌🤌📚
August 21, 2019
The babysitters Club is going to Hawaii except Kristy as she is going with her family later on and Mallory as her parents couldn’t afford to let her go. Lots of adventures and of course drama.
April 9, 2020
The main issue I had with this was suspending my belief that a middle school would take students on a Hawaiian vacation with apparently no academic or educational requirements during said trip.
Want to read
June 27, 2020It was a great read i love this series
Read
December 20, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
January 5, 2021
(LL)
This was only a three star book because of Claudia’s parts.
This was only a three star book because of Claudia’s parts.
Read
March 15, 2021Fun read!
This was great simple read to have for easy access on my cell! Looking forward to whatever adventure is next.
This was great simple read to have for easy access on my cell! Looking forward to whatever adventure is next.
November 16, 2021
This was not at all what I expected. It read a bit like someone visited Hawaii and made copious notes and then gave the characters those notes as actual dialogue...
March 12, 2023
AWESOME!!!
April 14, 2023
Read these through a book reading club when I was a kid
March 14, 2024
Great book! I love the adventure and the trip to Hawaii!
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