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The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #12
Here Come the Bridesmaids!
When two weddings give three club members the opportunity to be bridesmaids, Claudia and Dawn excitedly fly out to California to participate in Dawn's father's nuptials, while an enthusiastic Stacey attends Mrs. Barrett in Stoneybrook
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
67 people are currently reading
502 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,112 books3,056 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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March 6, 2011
every babysitters club super special has an obnoxious conceit. each one documents some kind of event in the babysitters' lives, & one sitter is anointed the documentarian of the group. she has the others keep a diary of their adventures, & the result is ostensibly the super special. in this book, dawn's father, jack, is getting married to his long-term girlfriend carol. dawn has been tapped to be a bridesmaid & allowed to invite mary anne, claudia, & kristy to the wedding. she asks them to keep a record of the wedding & its preparations so she will always remember that magical day. meanwhile, in stoneybrook, long-time babysitters club client mrs. barrett is marrying her fiance, franklin dewitt. because mrs. barrett & franklin have seven children between the two of them, they hire members of the babysitters club to look after the kids during the preparations & wedding. because the barretts have always been special to dawn, she asks the stoneybrook sitters to record their experiences for the same record. the two weddings are being held on the same day.
this is arguably one of the most boring super specials. but maybe i'm biased because i find weddings really tedious. it is not the most ludicrous super special, although it has its moments. here's what happens:
carol asks dawn to be her bridesmaid. jeff is going to be jack's best man. dawn, despite having spent about fifty books hating on carol, has come around & could not be more excited for the wedding, which will take place on the beach. jack will wear a linen suit & carol will wear a colorful indian-print dress. dawn is allowed to choose her own dress, & she totes the we <3 kids club to the mall to make her selection. she settles on a hideous satin puff-sleeved drop-waist off-the-shoulder monstrosity that would make jessica mcclintock gag. but she is 13 & devoid of taste, so she thinks it's beautiful. the we <3 kids club agrees. dawn buys a matching dress in mary anne's size, because she says mary anne is going to be a bridemaid as well. that's part of why the wedding is so exciting to dawn. she can hardly wait to share her father's special day with her best friend & stepsister.
it's unclear why jack allows claudia to invite her stoneybrook friends to the wedding. mary anne & kristy seem to be there just for shits & giggles, but after mr. kishi balks at allowing claudia to attend, jack invites her in the capacity of a photographer & offers to pay half her airfare. mr. kishi is embarrassed by the possibility that jack thinks he can't afford the airfare, so he relents & allows claudia to attend. she will be paid for her photography & has to use it to pay mr. kishi back for the ticket he buys.
meanwhile, in stoneybrook, mrs. barrett learns that one of her four bridesmaids can't attend her lavish white dress church wedding. (is it not true that second marriages generally are not so traditional? especially weird because this is the second wedding for both mrs. barrett & franklin, & they have some very young children, indicating that their divorces are still pretty fresh.) so she does what anyone would do & asks stacey to take her place. seriously, it's ridiculous. the bridesmaid that can't make it is one of mrs. barrett's sisters, so she just subs in some random 13-year-old babysitter? why not just have three bridesmaids? it's not that big of a deal. naturally, stacey accepts & is THRILLED to be in the wedding. mallory & shannon are chosen to be the wedding babysitters.
you may be thinking, what about jessi? did everyone forget about her? no, she has her own special plotline. you see, both of these weddings are december weddings, taking place immediately before xmas. the babysitters are surprised at a meeting one afternoon when mrs. mcgill calls & explains that the man they hired to play department store santa backed out & they haven't been able to find a replacement. she says it's more important to get along with kids than to actually look like santa claus, & she asks if any of the babysitters can do it. everyone is booked with wedding stuff except for jessi, who grudgingly agrees to the job, despite being eleven years old, female, & black. she thinks the kids are going to laugh her right out of bellair's.
can i just say that i wish jessi got a little more face time in the series? i really like her family. there are some cute bits in this one in which the ramseys are having breakfast & mr. ramsey is telling all these jokes & making everyone laugh. it reminds me a lot of my own home life with jared. i think it's fun & charming. but jessi is constantly sidelined so we can heard more about stacey's boyfriend du jour or karen brewer's latest we all come in character. ugh.
turns out jessi makes a fine department store santa. a few kids cotton on to the fact that she's not the real santa, but she successfully convinces them that she is santa's helper. she defuses a few tricky situations & becomes an idol to some little children of color at the store. & that's that. jessi may as well be dead to us.
mallory, meanwhile, is having her own issues. she made plans to go caroling with ben hobart & some sitting charges on the very same day as mrs. barrett is getting married. she then had to back out of the caroling to take the wedding babysitter gig & ben hobart had an utter meltdown over it. he yelled at her, saying that she was disappointing the children & obviously didn't care about him, & then he hung up on her. what a baby. mallory feels bad, but not bad enough to leave mrs. barrett in the lurch.
meanwhile, out in california, mary anne is having mixed feelings about the wedding. she finds it deeply disturbing that jack & carol are getting married on a beach. she acknowledges that beaches can be romantic, but she also feels that sand is going to get into everything & that she'll probably get sunburnt. she thinks "real weddings happen in churches". that's real nice, mary anne. i guess all the non-christians out there in the world are not "really married". I FUCKING HATE MARY ANNE. anyway, dawn makes mary anne feel a little bit better when she pulls out mary anne's bridesmaid dress. at first mary anne is disappointed (could she be any more ungrateful?) because she thinks the dress is great for dawn, but not for her. she's concerned about the off-the-shoulder cut opening her up to even more sunburn. but eventually she gets over it & is just excited to be part of the wedding party.
shortly thereafter, jack gives everyone their wedding day assignments. he explains that guests will be traveling separately from the wedding party, & that the wedding party consists of himself, carol, jeff, & dawn. dawn & mary anne realize simultaneously that mary anne is not in the wedding party & not a bridesmaid.
yes, you read that right. dawn just ASSUMED that jack would be totally psyched to have the teenage daughter of the man his ex-wife married participate in his wedding. dawn never confirmed this with jack directly. she went so far as to buy a dress based on a ridiculous assumption. newsflash, dawn: this is not YOUR DAY. bridesmaids don't get to pick the other bridesmaids, even if they are the daughters of the person getting married.
rather than being relieved about no longer having to deal with "being the center of attention" (newsflash, mary anne: usually at weddings the bride & groom are the center of attention; no one really cares that much about the bridesmaids), mary anne is pissed. she thinks it was thoughtless & selfish of dawn to tell her she was a bridesmaid when she wasn't.
this entire plotline is so obnoxious. what a load of untenable manufactured outrage. i'm not going to write anymore about it except to say that eventually dawn & mary anne make up & mary anne decides to wear her matching dress to the wedding anyway. because that won't look stupid at all.
kristy does pretty much nothing. claudia earns her keep, choosing flowers for the reception & ceremony, ordering the cake, & photographing everything. so of the angles sound questionable. she shoots some photos from the floor, because doesn't everyone look great with under-the-chin ghoul lighting? but whatever, she's 13.
back in stoneybrook, suzi barrett is having a meltdown over the idea of moving into her new home mere days before xmas. she's worried that santa claus won't know she moved, & will deliver her gifts to some other family. stacey helps her write a letter to santa, informing him of her new address, but suzi is still worried. so she convinces her mom to drive her over the her old house on xmas eve, & then she leaves a trail of chocolate chip cookie crumbs to her new house. & she thinks it worked, because she wakes up on xmas morning & has gifts. no one cares about the precocious misadventures of four-year-olds.
anyway, mrs. barrett & franklin get married. stacey has a whole chapter about getting ready with the other bridesmaids & how much fun it was to hang out & joke around with adult women. i really worry about stacey's self-esteem. of course the kids get rowdy waiting for the ceremony to start. shannon has to hustle little two-year-old out of the chapel when he won't stop screaming, & misses the whole thing watching him nap in his portable crib. mallory has to wrangle the remaining four children (the two oldest are in the wedding, as flower girl & ring bearer). it doesn't really work out. marnie barrett escapes & runs up the aisle to cling to her mom's dress throughout the ceremony. there's lots of stuff about how stuffy, uptight guests glared at the children when they were noisy or disruptive, which seems weird to me. anyone who was invited to the wedding has to know that mrs. barrett & franklin have several children a piece, all of whom are pretty young. it can't possibly be surprising that they chose to invite their children to their wedding, or that the children are finding it difficult to behave decorously. i tell you what, if anyone glared at my kid during my wedding, i would personally escort them out into the street where we would rumble. that's fucked up.
anyway, after the wedding, mallory is sad that she's not out singing carols with ben & their sitting charges. so she calls him up & apologizes, & he apologizes too, & then they go caroling. well, that was a really boring subplot that was solved with no effort whatsoever.
in conclusion, weddings are boring.
this is arguably one of the most boring super specials. but maybe i'm biased because i find weddings really tedious. it is not the most ludicrous super special, although it has its moments. here's what happens:
carol asks dawn to be her bridesmaid. jeff is going to be jack's best man. dawn, despite having spent about fifty books hating on carol, has come around & could not be more excited for the wedding, which will take place on the beach. jack will wear a linen suit & carol will wear a colorful indian-print dress. dawn is allowed to choose her own dress, & she totes the we <3 kids club to the mall to make her selection. she settles on a hideous satin puff-sleeved drop-waist off-the-shoulder monstrosity that would make jessica mcclintock gag. but she is 13 & devoid of taste, so she thinks it's beautiful. the we <3 kids club agrees. dawn buys a matching dress in mary anne's size, because she says mary anne is going to be a bridemaid as well. that's part of why the wedding is so exciting to dawn. she can hardly wait to share her father's special day with her best friend & stepsister.
it's unclear why jack allows claudia to invite her stoneybrook friends to the wedding. mary anne & kristy seem to be there just for shits & giggles, but after mr. kishi balks at allowing claudia to attend, jack invites her in the capacity of a photographer & offers to pay half her airfare. mr. kishi is embarrassed by the possibility that jack thinks he can't afford the airfare, so he relents & allows claudia to attend. she will be paid for her photography & has to use it to pay mr. kishi back for the ticket he buys.
meanwhile, in stoneybrook, mrs. barrett learns that one of her four bridesmaids can't attend her lavish white dress church wedding. (is it not true that second marriages generally are not so traditional? especially weird because this is the second wedding for both mrs. barrett & franklin, & they have some very young children, indicating that their divorces are still pretty fresh.) so she does what anyone would do & asks stacey to take her place. seriously, it's ridiculous. the bridesmaid that can't make it is one of mrs. barrett's sisters, so she just subs in some random 13-year-old babysitter? why not just have three bridesmaids? it's not that big of a deal. naturally, stacey accepts & is THRILLED to be in the wedding. mallory & shannon are chosen to be the wedding babysitters.
you may be thinking, what about jessi? did everyone forget about her? no, she has her own special plotline. you see, both of these weddings are december weddings, taking place immediately before xmas. the babysitters are surprised at a meeting one afternoon when mrs. mcgill calls & explains that the man they hired to play department store santa backed out & they haven't been able to find a replacement. she says it's more important to get along with kids than to actually look like santa claus, & she asks if any of the babysitters can do it. everyone is booked with wedding stuff except for jessi, who grudgingly agrees to the job, despite being eleven years old, female, & black. she thinks the kids are going to laugh her right out of bellair's.
can i just say that i wish jessi got a little more face time in the series? i really like her family. there are some cute bits in this one in which the ramseys are having breakfast & mr. ramsey is telling all these jokes & making everyone laugh. it reminds me a lot of my own home life with jared. i think it's fun & charming. but jessi is constantly sidelined so we can heard more about stacey's boyfriend du jour or karen brewer's latest we all come in character. ugh.
turns out jessi makes a fine department store santa. a few kids cotton on to the fact that she's not the real santa, but she successfully convinces them that she is santa's helper. she defuses a few tricky situations & becomes an idol to some little children of color at the store. & that's that. jessi may as well be dead to us.
mallory, meanwhile, is having her own issues. she made plans to go caroling with ben hobart & some sitting charges on the very same day as mrs. barrett is getting married. she then had to back out of the caroling to take the wedding babysitter gig & ben hobart had an utter meltdown over it. he yelled at her, saying that she was disappointing the children & obviously didn't care about him, & then he hung up on her. what a baby. mallory feels bad, but not bad enough to leave mrs. barrett in the lurch.
meanwhile, out in california, mary anne is having mixed feelings about the wedding. she finds it deeply disturbing that jack & carol are getting married on a beach. she acknowledges that beaches can be romantic, but she also feels that sand is going to get into everything & that she'll probably get sunburnt. she thinks "real weddings happen in churches". that's real nice, mary anne. i guess all the non-christians out there in the world are not "really married". I FUCKING HATE MARY ANNE. anyway, dawn makes mary anne feel a little bit better when she pulls out mary anne's bridesmaid dress. at first mary anne is disappointed (could she be any more ungrateful?) because she thinks the dress is great for dawn, but not for her. she's concerned about the off-the-shoulder cut opening her up to even more sunburn. but eventually she gets over it & is just excited to be part of the wedding party.
shortly thereafter, jack gives everyone their wedding day assignments. he explains that guests will be traveling separately from the wedding party, & that the wedding party consists of himself, carol, jeff, & dawn. dawn & mary anne realize simultaneously that mary anne is not in the wedding party & not a bridesmaid.
yes, you read that right. dawn just ASSUMED that jack would be totally psyched to have the teenage daughter of the man his ex-wife married participate in his wedding. dawn never confirmed this with jack directly. she went so far as to buy a dress based on a ridiculous assumption. newsflash, dawn: this is not YOUR DAY. bridesmaids don't get to pick the other bridesmaids, even if they are the daughters of the person getting married.
rather than being relieved about no longer having to deal with "being the center of attention" (newsflash, mary anne: usually at weddings the bride & groom are the center of attention; no one really cares that much about the bridesmaids), mary anne is pissed. she thinks it was thoughtless & selfish of dawn to tell her she was a bridesmaid when she wasn't.
this entire plotline is so obnoxious. what a load of untenable manufactured outrage. i'm not going to write anymore about it except to say that eventually dawn & mary anne make up & mary anne decides to wear her matching dress to the wedding anyway. because that won't look stupid at all.
kristy does pretty much nothing. claudia earns her keep, choosing flowers for the reception & ceremony, ordering the cake, & photographing everything. so of the angles sound questionable. she shoots some photos from the floor, because doesn't everyone look great with under-the-chin ghoul lighting? but whatever, she's 13.
back in stoneybrook, suzi barrett is having a meltdown over the idea of moving into her new home mere days before xmas. she's worried that santa claus won't know she moved, & will deliver her gifts to some other family. stacey helps her write a letter to santa, informing him of her new address, but suzi is still worried. so she convinces her mom to drive her over the her old house on xmas eve, & then she leaves a trail of chocolate chip cookie crumbs to her new house. & she thinks it worked, because she wakes up on xmas morning & has gifts. no one cares about the precocious misadventures of four-year-olds.
anyway, mrs. barrett & franklin get married. stacey has a whole chapter about getting ready with the other bridesmaids & how much fun it was to hang out & joke around with adult women. i really worry about stacey's self-esteem. of course the kids get rowdy waiting for the ceremony to start. shannon has to hustle little two-year-old out of the chapel when he won't stop screaming, & misses the whole thing watching him nap in his portable crib. mallory has to wrangle the remaining four children (the two oldest are in the wedding, as flower girl & ring bearer). it doesn't really work out. marnie barrett escapes & runs up the aisle to cling to her mom's dress throughout the ceremony. there's lots of stuff about how stuffy, uptight guests glared at the children when they were noisy or disruptive, which seems weird to me. anyone who was invited to the wedding has to know that mrs. barrett & franklin have several children a piece, all of whom are pretty young. it can't possibly be surprising that they chose to invite their children to their wedding, or that the children are finding it difficult to behave decorously. i tell you what, if anyone glared at my kid during my wedding, i would personally escort them out into the street where we would rumble. that's fucked up.
anyway, after the wedding, mallory is sad that she's not out singing carols with ben & their sitting charges. so she calls him up & apologizes, & he apologizes too, & then they go caroling. well, that was a really boring subplot that was solved with no effort whatsoever.
in conclusion, weddings are boring.
March 3, 2017
this is my first time reading this book!
in this token Peter Lerangis-ghostwritten book (treating dawn and mary anne like they're acceptable people in any way, plot points that don't really come together or make any sense, not enough outfit descriptions), two weddings take place: dawn's dad's wedding in california, and mrs. barrett's wedding back in stoneybrook. each of the babysitters (except jessi and logan) is either in one of the weddings or working one of the weddings. see character plots below (divided into california and connecticut) for more.
CALIFORNIA
-dawn & mary anne: dawn assumes that mary anne will be a bridesmaid in her dad's wedding but mary anne doesn't want to (she is just SO SHY, guys). once mary anne gets convinced, dawn finds out that her dad didn't want her to be one in the first place. dawn drops the ball but mary anne is really terrible about it too. proof that they are the two worst characters.
-kristy: micromanages w<3kc and dawn's going away party, and somehow sunny and dawn's other california friends don't hate her for it
-claud: is basically the aesthetic consultant for the wedding, figuring out centerpieces and floral arrangements and such
-jeff: is upset that carol will be moving into the house after the wedding because a. he thinks mrs. bruen will move out (spoiler: she won't) and b. he thinks carol's furniture and other stuff sucks (she has macrame, lava lamps, etc)
CONNECTICUT
-stacey: is a bridesmaid at the barrett-dewitt wedding. this is the most preposterous plotline of all, though for boring mainstream bridezilla types they feel the need to have a specific number of bridesmaids sometimes (this is something I have never understood, but whatevs)
-mal & shannon: babysit the barrett-dewitt kids at the wedding. mal had planned to go caroling with ben and some bsc kids and then agreed to babysit at the wedding on the same day, so she and ben get into a fight about it, which ends up being resolved really quickly and easily.
-logan & suzi barrett: logan is hired to help the barrett-dewitts move into their new house (and by move I mean including a freakin' PIANO). suzi is scared that santa won't know she moved, so logan helps her plan to leave a trail of cookies from their old house to their new house so santa can find them.
-jessi: is a mall santa. this is the saving grace of the book, particularly because jessi feels conflicted about being a black santa but decides that black kids should have the opportunity to see a santa that looks like them.
highlights:
-jessi as a mall santa. there's a conversation about black santas (jessi says she used to like seeing black santas when she lived in oakley, then shannon asks who SAYS santas can't be black, etc) that would make megyn kelly plotz
-jeff schafer's description of carol's lava lamps: "[they] look like pig embryos swimming around in colored water tanks"
-this sentence: "Have you tried the grape leaves? They're exquisite," said a man with slicked-back short hair and sunglasses to a woman with slicked-back short hair and sunglasses.
-carol's moving van is stolen and all of her gross hippie stuff inside is stolen. carol doesn’t even care. it’s a really silly and funny and weird resolution to jeff’s fears.
-also this wedding gift for jeff and carol: a crying clown wearing black and white polka dots. it's a lamp, and when you press one button it lights up from the inside and the frown turns into a smile. when you press the other button, it sings opera.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-dawn is complaining that because of the barrett-dewitt wedding some of the bsc won't be able to come to california for mr. schafer's wedding. but why would they in the first place? they have barely even met mr. schafer and carol
-why is stacey a bridesmaid for the barrett-dewitt wedding? if any of the babysitters should be asked it should be dawn who was basically the barretts' other mother in Dawn and the Impossible Three
-mrs. barrett asks stacey "what are you, a size six?" but stacey is always described as being REALLY skinny, so she is probably much smaller than that. peter lerangis doesn't know women's sizes
-mary anne says this will be her last entry in the journal (the framing device of the book: dawn making a journal about bridesmaids), but it's her FIRST ENTRY. ugh.
-maggie's outfit (see outfits section for description) -- huh? she is always wearing biker jackets, not rasta chic. also there is an accompanying picture of her “dreads”, and they are NOT dreads (more like a greasy mullet):
-one party food suggestion (maggie): string cheese with caraway seeds. huh? I'm a vegetarian with many vegan and healthy-eating friends and I have NO IDEA who eats string cheese with caraway seeds.
-nasturtia at a december wedding? I know it's california, but it's not like it's usually super hot in december there.
-"even in california, december isn't always beach weather" -- it almost never is! ughhhhh learn something about california, peter. on that note, they fly into lax and fly out of john wayne in santa ana. this is fine, but they say john wayne is half an hour from palo city. if you go half an hour northwest of john wayne airport you are still at least an hour from hollywood, where dawn babysat for derek in Kristy and the Vampires. THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. is palo city near LA, or is it near anaheim?
-why don't the barretts/dewitts hire a moving company? if you have a piano, you don't hire a 13-year-old to help you move it. you hire a fucking professional who has proper equipment. disrespectful.
maggie outfit:
-"Her hair was in dreadlocks. Two of them were dyed red and green. She was wearing this crazy neon-patterned jumpsuit, under a tailored cotton jacket with padded shoulders."
kristy cafeteria comment (but for her airplane food):
-"Tastes like a tennis ball covered with paste." (re: chicken cordon bleu)
snacks in claudia's room:
-cheez doodles (n.s.)
in this token Peter Lerangis-ghostwritten book (treating dawn and mary anne like they're acceptable people in any way, plot points that don't really come together or make any sense, not enough outfit descriptions), two weddings take place: dawn's dad's wedding in california, and mrs. barrett's wedding back in stoneybrook. each of the babysitters (except jessi and logan) is either in one of the weddings or working one of the weddings. see character plots below (divided into california and connecticut) for more.
CALIFORNIA
-dawn & mary anne: dawn assumes that mary anne will be a bridesmaid in her dad's wedding but mary anne doesn't want to (she is just SO SHY, guys). once mary anne gets convinced, dawn finds out that her dad didn't want her to be one in the first place. dawn drops the ball but mary anne is really terrible about it too. proof that they are the two worst characters.
-kristy: micromanages w<3kc and dawn's going away party, and somehow sunny and dawn's other california friends don't hate her for it
-claud: is basically the aesthetic consultant for the wedding, figuring out centerpieces and floral arrangements and such
-jeff: is upset that carol will be moving into the house after the wedding because a. he thinks mrs. bruen will move out (spoiler: she won't) and b. he thinks carol's furniture and other stuff sucks (she has macrame, lava lamps, etc)
CONNECTICUT
-stacey: is a bridesmaid at the barrett-dewitt wedding. this is the most preposterous plotline of all, though for boring mainstream bridezilla types they feel the need to have a specific number of bridesmaids sometimes (this is something I have never understood, but whatevs)
-mal & shannon: babysit the barrett-dewitt kids at the wedding. mal had planned to go caroling with ben and some bsc kids and then agreed to babysit at the wedding on the same day, so she and ben get into a fight about it, which ends up being resolved really quickly and easily.
-logan & suzi barrett: logan is hired to help the barrett-dewitts move into their new house (and by move I mean including a freakin' PIANO). suzi is scared that santa won't know she moved, so logan helps her plan to leave a trail of cookies from their old house to their new house so santa can find them.
-jessi: is a mall santa. this is the saving grace of the book, particularly because jessi feels conflicted about being a black santa but decides that black kids should have the opportunity to see a santa that looks like them.
highlights:
-jessi as a mall santa. there's a conversation about black santas (jessi says she used to like seeing black santas when she lived in oakley, then shannon asks who SAYS santas can't be black, etc) that would make megyn kelly plotz
-jeff schafer's description of carol's lava lamps: "[they] look like pig embryos swimming around in colored water tanks"
-this sentence: "Have you tried the grape leaves? They're exquisite," said a man with slicked-back short hair and sunglasses to a woman with slicked-back short hair and sunglasses.
-carol's moving van is stolen and all of her gross hippie stuff inside is stolen. carol doesn’t even care. it’s a really silly and funny and weird resolution to jeff’s fears.
-also this wedding gift for jeff and carol: a crying clown wearing black and white polka dots. it's a lamp, and when you press one button it lights up from the inside and the frown turns into a smile. when you press the other button, it sings opera.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-dawn is complaining that because of the barrett-dewitt wedding some of the bsc won't be able to come to california for mr. schafer's wedding. but why would they in the first place? they have barely even met mr. schafer and carol
-why is stacey a bridesmaid for the barrett-dewitt wedding? if any of the babysitters should be asked it should be dawn who was basically the barretts' other mother in Dawn and the Impossible Three
-mrs. barrett asks stacey "what are you, a size six?" but stacey is always described as being REALLY skinny, so she is probably much smaller than that. peter lerangis doesn't know women's sizes
-mary anne says this will be her last entry in the journal (the framing device of the book: dawn making a journal about bridesmaids), but it's her FIRST ENTRY. ugh.
-maggie's outfit (see outfits section for description) -- huh? she is always wearing biker jackets, not rasta chic. also there is an accompanying picture of her “dreads”, and they are NOT dreads (more like a greasy mullet):
-one party food suggestion (maggie): string cheese with caraway seeds. huh? I'm a vegetarian with many vegan and healthy-eating friends and I have NO IDEA who eats string cheese with caraway seeds.
-nasturtia at a december wedding? I know it's california, but it's not like it's usually super hot in december there.
-"even in california, december isn't always beach weather" -- it almost never is! ughhhhh learn something about california, peter. on that note, they fly into lax and fly out of john wayne in santa ana. this is fine, but they say john wayne is half an hour from palo city. if you go half an hour northwest of john wayne airport you are still at least an hour from hollywood, where dawn babysat for derek in Kristy and the Vampires. THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. is palo city near LA, or is it near anaheim?
-why don't the barretts/dewitts hire a moving company? if you have a piano, you don't hire a 13-year-old to help you move it. you hire a fucking professional who has proper equipment. disrespectful.
maggie outfit:
-"Her hair was in dreadlocks. Two of them were dyed red and green. She was wearing this crazy neon-patterned jumpsuit, under a tailored cotton jacket with padded shoulders."
kristy cafeteria comment (but for her airplane food):
-"Tastes like a tennis ball covered with paste." (re: chicken cordon bleu)
snacks in claudia's room:
-cheez doodles (n.s.)
December 21, 2018
This mostly focused on Dawn's dad's marriage in California. Although, there is another wedding in Connecticut. Dawn, obviously, Kristy, Mary Anne, and Claudia go to California for that wedding. There is a misunderstanding about who is and isn't a bridesmaid. Claudia works for Dawn's dad to pay for her ticket to California. Stacey is a bridesmaid in the Connecticut wedding of Mrs. Barrett. Logan helps the former Mrs. Barrett and her children move into her new husband's house. Shannon baby-sits the children at the wedding. Mallory goes caroling with Ben, her boyfriend, and their siblings. Jessi is a department store Santa one weekend before Christmas. The group of baby-sitters in California come home for Christmas , and they gather at Mary Anne and Dawn's house to celebrate.
July 7, 2020
While I actually started reading around age 3 (thank you, my Granny's Dick and Jane books!), this series is what I remember most about loving to read during my childhood. My sister and I drank these books up like they were oxygen. I truly think we owned just about every single one from every one of the series. We even got the privilege of meeting Ann M. Martin at a book signing, but of course little starstruck me froze and could not speak a word to my biggest hero at that time. Once in awhile if I come across these at a yard sale, I will pick them up for a couple hour trip down memory lane, and I declare nearly nothing centers and relaxes me more!
May 27, 2021
I've been mulling over this book for three days now, and I think it might be my least favourite Super Special! :O And I can't believe I'm going to say this, since there is literally a book where two Sitters get shipwrecked, but I felt like the plot was reaching. Dawn's dad's wedding? Okay, that's a big deal for Dawn. Not sure why Kristy, Claudia, or Mary freaking Anne need to be there (Nevermind "omg we're ~sisters!!!" but like does Jack really want his ex-wife's new husband's daughter there?!) and Dawn and Mary Anne's fight was ridiculous. And sure, the Barrett-DeWitt (why is she always Mrs Barrett and he's Franklin? Why is he never called Mr DeWitt or she Natalie?!) wedding has been built up over the last few books... but whyyyyy does the BSC need to be so involved? Why does Stacey need to be a bridesmaid? Why weren't their kids more included in the wedding? And don't get me started on Mallory's stupid pointless fight with Ben.
The high points in this book are Jessi's very unrelated plot where she is a department store Santa, and I would read a whole book about this eleven year old Black girl killing it as the big man in red. I loved it. But the real star of this book is Jeff Schafer and how Over It he was. His chapters were so full of snark, I laughed at everything he said and did. More Jeff, please!
The high points in this book are Jessi's very unrelated plot where she is a department store Santa, and I would read a whole book about this eleven year old Black girl killing it as the big man in red. I loved it. But the real star of this book is Jeff Schafer and how Over It he was. His chapters were so full of snark, I laughed at everything he said and did. More Jeff, please!
February 24, 2025
The misogyny in this one is strong. Jeff is positively TOXIC, and all the girls are described as constantly crying and gossiping and being sort of frivolous. And all the adults are completely feckless, bumbling messes. Both sets of marrying couples seem to only plan their weddings like a week in advance, and I'm using the word "plan" generously. Everyone depends on thirteen year old children to do all the work; Claudia winds up being basically the wedding planner. It's also kind of a weird expectation of free care work from these young teen girls. In Claudia's case, she's being paid (arguably not nearly enough for the work she's doing), and presumably Shannon and Mallory are also. But it is just expected that these girls will do everything from trimming the Christmas tree DURING THE WEDDING RECEPTION to wrangling five very little children in church during their parents wedding - while all the adults around them are angrily shushing said children. This book was extremely frustrating to read at times. On the other hand, it was pretty funny, which kept it engaging.
Read
December 8, 2024Dawn’s brother Jeff is such a little brat but admittedly he’s kind of hilarious. 😂
Read
August 25, 2023Here Come The Bridesmaids
Dawn, Maggie, Sunny, and Jill are at the mall searching for Dawn a bridesmaid’s dress around Chrsitmastime. Dawn finds a off the shoulder, satiny, fuschia, gown that she thinks will look perfect for a wedding on the beach. She also buys one for Maryanne. They all go to lunch to celebrate.
Stacey has a sitting job for the Barett-DeWitt kids. It’s at their new house. Stacey takes the kids outside while the workers come to paint the house. Buddy teases his sister and tells her he saw a rat that was asking for her. Stacey placed “Tag” “Red Light Green Light” and “Duck Duck Goose”. Then treasure hunt. There are a lot of issues with the house and the kids and a lot of yelling. Mr. Franklin decides to take them all for burgers. At lunch, Franklin admits he hasn’t ordered his tux. Stacey finds out one of Mrs. Barett’s (one of) bridesmaids can’t make it. So, she asks Stacey to take her place. Stacey says yes.
At a BSC meeting, Mrs. McGill calls and says Bellairs has lost their Santa Claus. She wants to know if one of them wants to fill in. Everyone’s unavailable except for Jessi. Jessi points out she’s a girl and she’s black . Already I just know there will be some ish. Claudia tells her race shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t but this is “Stoneybrooke” so it ALWAYS does. Jessi tho buys this and thinks black kids should have someone to look up to. UH WHAT BLACK KIDS? There are only her, Becca, and Squirt. Well rather she’s FORCED into it by Kristy and Stacey (who calls her mom).
Mal is over Ben’s house (just visiting). His three brothers are there tho (James, Matthew, and Johnny). Pretty soon 9 kids are there (Jaime, Mariah, Charlotte, Becca, and Jake Khaun, and Nina Marshall). Ben makes them hot chocolate and makes them sing Christmas carols. They all make plans to go carolling for real next Saturday. Then they ractice some Christmas songs. But when Mal gets home, Claudia calls and tells her Mrs. Barett is freaking out. She forgot there will be kids coming. Claudia has already given a job to Shannon. Mal volunteers to help but then quickly remembes she already made plans to go caroling. She calls Ben and he tells her to cancel. When she refuses he gets mad and hangs up the phone.
Suzy worries that since there’s no chimney, Santa won’t visit them. Mrs. Barette tells her they can just leave the window open. They agree they can write Santa a letter so Santa will know they aren’t in the old house. But then Suzy asks her mom how many kids are there in the world and she says millions. Suzy then worries that Santa won’t get the letter in time. So, she tells her mom they can’t move until Chrsitmas and she’ll be staying in the old house.
Claudia, Kristy, and Maryanne leave for California. The BSC are thrilled to be reunited with Dawn again. Jeff not so much happy with all the chattering. Mrs. Bruno has to stell him to write in the joural the next day just to keep Dawn happy. Jeff worries about a couple of things. Where Carol’s stuff will go, but most importantly where Mrs. Bruen will go? Jeff tries to talk to his dad and Carol about one of this concerns (where her stuff will go) but it just turns into an argument between them (which isn’t what he wanted0.
Kristy is still ragging on the We Love Kids Club. They go visit Dawn at her school the next day and then Sunny says they should have a We Love Kids Club meeting. Sunny tells Kristy they’ve been having more regular meetings but Kristy just says unh hunh. At the meeting, the replay a recording of when the club members were on tv. Then they start talking about health snacks and bring out the help food. When Dawn goes to get it Sunny says she’s throwing a surprirse party for Dawn. Kristy says their flight is the day she wants to have the party but Sunny says she’ll have it early. Then Kristy finds out Sunny hasn’t even planned anything. So, Kristy decides there’s no way she can pull it off without her help. Kristy tells Dawn she’s going to stay and hang out with Sunny. Dawn thinks this is weird but she leaves with Dawn and Claudia. Then Kristy and the others plan the menu, guests, and decorations. Sunny and Maggie decide to do the shopping. Then they decid on the time.
Claudia goes to work after the meeting. Her dad has hired her to be the wedding consulant. He’ll pay for half the tickets. Claudia’s parents will put the tickets on their credit card and then she’ll pay them back. (Or is it Mr. Safer paid for her ticket). So she goes to pick out the flowers and give the cater the food request. Then she goes to buy shdes and sun tan lotion for her, Kristy, and Maryanne. Claudia thinks a beach wedding will be romantic. Marynne doesn’t. She thinks its strange. She’s thinking of how bad she sun burns. Maryanne is totally shocked when Dawn tells her she’s going to be a bridesmaid. She’s not all that excited about standing up in front of all those people (something you’d think Dawn would know by now). And she doesn’t really like how her shoulders look in the dress. Then they get in a fight. Dawn tells her no one will even be looking at her. She says they will because she’ll have on a hat and be covered up. No one teld her it was a beach wedding. She says she thought it would be a “normal” wedding. But then Maryanne apologizes. Then Dawn apologizes. Then they both start crying and hugging. After a weird dinner (ok I know they’re all health food nuts but COME ON! When they have out of town guests can’t they get THEM some non-health foods. Not everyone eats that stuff-. That’s just thoughtless to impose their lifestyle diet on other people). Then they have a rehearsal right there in the living room. Carol and M. Schafer say Dawn ill be the only bridesmaid which makes Maryanne see red (who now wants to be a bridesmaid). Now Dawn and Maryanne are arguing again.
Jessi is nervous as she gets to the mall and dresses in her costume. But the kids seem to accept her just fine. And WHAAAT there’s another little black boy. By the time her shift ends, Jessi is ready for another half hour. Dawn apologizes to Maryanne the next day. Dawn says she was so exited she got all spacey, Maryanne thinks about how Dawn is like her mom. Still, what she did was hurtful. But she forgives Dawn anyway. She even agrees to wear the dress. Mr. Scafer and Carol’s wedding goes off without a hitch. So do the Barett-Franklin’s. Some of the kids get a little bored before the wedding. Marnie turns out to her mom during the ceremony but that’s about all.
After the wedding, Claudia gets another job taking candids. (She also did all the BSC’s hair). Dawn stands up and makes a touching speech to her dad and Carol. After the wedding, M al goes home. She calls Ben and apologizes and he says they didn’t have to break up. They could have just gone another day. The decide to go the next day and call the kids parents. All the Pike kids now want to go. Before the go they have hot chocolalte and cookies. They sing for a lot of the familes and a lot of them invite them in for cookies (and fruit cake). Mal thinks the nicest part is when they sing on the corner for each other and when she and Ben put their arms around each other.
Mrs. Bruno will not be getting fired. Instead she’ll be getting more hours. After everyone leaves, they all go in to open presents. Someone has put a tree up. Mostly they get a bunch of bowls. They also get a clown lamp. They all agree it’s the tackiest (ugliest) thing they’ve ever seen. Mr. Schafer gets a call that the van with all of her things in it got stolen (her things not the van). Carol just laughs about it. She hated the stuff anyway. Thesurprise party for Dawn goes off well. There are kids there from her school and the kids the We Love Club sits for. There are a lot of tearful goodbyes. The cake is in the shape of Dawn’s face. It’s a banana cake. Steffi (one of the kids) says she’s angry at Dawn for leaving. Dawn says she’ll come back to visit and she’ll wite her. Stephie’s already written Dawn and the letter makes her cry. Logan helps the Franklin and Barett kids get situated in their new rooms and entertain them. Logan also gives Suzie a solution. They can leave a message at the old house that she’s moved.
Kristy, Claudia, and Maryanne fly back to Conneticut. Now Dawn has to worry about her last test, but Carol says she’ll help her. She passes them all. They all open their presents that night. Carol and Mr. Schaffer will be leaving for their honeymoon in Mexico the next day and Dawn and Jeff will be going to Conneticut. Carol gets a lava lamp. Jeff gets a new bike. Dawn gets birds of paradise earrings and an envelope with an airline ticket.
Suzie’s worries are put to rest. She has presents under the tree. Then they all open their presents. Susie tells them her idea. She left a trail of chocolate chip ccokies from her old house to her new house. Buddy just laughs at this and says the raccons will be spending Christmas with them, but Suzie doesn’t care.
When Jeff and Dawn arrive home, the house is all decorated. There’s a tree and tons of presents. Dan gets clothes and a cashmere scarf. They have the BSC over for dinner.
My Thoughts
This one just really didn’t do it for me. It was about two weddings. The one in Stoneybrooke the Barett-Franklin one just.. I guess it always throws me off when I read about this paring because I never finished this whole series so my mind is still stuck at the beginning of it when there were just Mrs. Barett, Suzie, and Marnie. Now it’s like uh where did all these other people come from? It’s almost *too* many for my head to deal with and process. (As you can see I was skimpy with the wedding details about the kids parts other than Suzie). I know this IS a pairing but I just haven’t gotten use to them like the Brewers. Maybe there should be several pages about them at the beginning overy book so they’ll just jammed in my head.
There was one thing that stood out to me about Carol and Mr. Schafer’s wedding. It wasn’t the wedding itself tho. It was the way they opened the wedding gifts after. We always use to have this tradition after Christmas (on my dads) side. After everyone opened their presents, my aunt (who was a day care teacher) would open the gifts her kids gave her and some of those were the most tackiest (ugliest) things in the world. We’d open those and always have a good laugh that the parent just went to the dollar store and bought the cheapest thing they could find. A lot of times it was a ton of gift cards. Ah the good old days! But that came back to me when I read the part about Carol getting the clown lamp.
Rating: 5
Dawn, Maggie, Sunny, and Jill are at the mall searching for Dawn a bridesmaid’s dress around Chrsitmastime. Dawn finds a off the shoulder, satiny, fuschia, gown that she thinks will look perfect for a wedding on the beach. She also buys one for Maryanne. They all go to lunch to celebrate.
Stacey has a sitting job for the Barett-DeWitt kids. It’s at their new house. Stacey takes the kids outside while the workers come to paint the house. Buddy teases his sister and tells her he saw a rat that was asking for her. Stacey placed “Tag” “Red Light Green Light” and “Duck Duck Goose”. Then treasure hunt. There are a lot of issues with the house and the kids and a lot of yelling. Mr. Franklin decides to take them all for burgers. At lunch, Franklin admits he hasn’t ordered his tux. Stacey finds out one of Mrs. Barett’s (one of) bridesmaids can’t make it. So, she asks Stacey to take her place. Stacey says yes.
At a BSC meeting, Mrs. McGill calls and says Bellairs has lost their Santa Claus. She wants to know if one of them wants to fill in. Everyone’s unavailable except for Jessi. Jessi points out she’s a girl and she’s black . Already I just know there will be some ish. Claudia tells her race shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t but this is “Stoneybrooke” so it ALWAYS does. Jessi tho buys this and thinks black kids should have someone to look up to. UH WHAT BLACK KIDS? There are only her, Becca, and Squirt. Well rather she’s FORCED into it by Kristy and Stacey (who calls her mom).
Mal is over Ben’s house (just visiting). His three brothers are there tho (James, Matthew, and Johnny). Pretty soon 9 kids are there (Jaime, Mariah, Charlotte, Becca, and Jake Khaun, and Nina Marshall). Ben makes them hot chocolate and makes them sing Christmas carols. They all make plans to go carolling for real next Saturday. Then they ractice some Christmas songs. But when Mal gets home, Claudia calls and tells her Mrs. Barett is freaking out. She forgot there will be kids coming. Claudia has already given a job to Shannon. Mal volunteers to help but then quickly remembes she already made plans to go caroling. She calls Ben and he tells her to cancel. When she refuses he gets mad and hangs up the phone.
Suzy worries that since there’s no chimney, Santa won’t visit them. Mrs. Barette tells her they can just leave the window open. They agree they can write Santa a letter so Santa will know they aren’t in the old house. But then Suzy asks her mom how many kids are there in the world and she says millions. Suzy then worries that Santa won’t get the letter in time. So, she tells her mom they can’t move until Chrsitmas and she’ll be staying in the old house.
Claudia, Kristy, and Maryanne leave for California. The BSC are thrilled to be reunited with Dawn again. Jeff not so much happy with all the chattering. Mrs. Bruno has to stell him to write in the joural the next day just to keep Dawn happy. Jeff worries about a couple of things. Where Carol’s stuff will go, but most importantly where Mrs. Bruen will go? Jeff tries to talk to his dad and Carol about one of this concerns (where her stuff will go) but it just turns into an argument between them (which isn’t what he wanted0.
Kristy is still ragging on the We Love Kids Club. They go visit Dawn at her school the next day and then Sunny says they should have a We Love Kids Club meeting. Sunny tells Kristy they’ve been having more regular meetings but Kristy just says unh hunh. At the meeting, the replay a recording of when the club members were on tv. Then they start talking about health snacks and bring out the help food. When Dawn goes to get it Sunny says she’s throwing a surprirse party for Dawn. Kristy says their flight is the day she wants to have the party but Sunny says she’ll have it early. Then Kristy finds out Sunny hasn’t even planned anything. So, Kristy decides there’s no way she can pull it off without her help. Kristy tells Dawn she’s going to stay and hang out with Sunny. Dawn thinks this is weird but she leaves with Dawn and Claudia. Then Kristy and the others plan the menu, guests, and decorations. Sunny and Maggie decide to do the shopping. Then they decid on the time.
Claudia goes to work after the meeting. Her dad has hired her to be the wedding consulant. He’ll pay for half the tickets. Claudia’s parents will put the tickets on their credit card and then she’ll pay them back. (Or is it Mr. Safer paid for her ticket). So she goes to pick out the flowers and give the cater the food request. Then she goes to buy shdes and sun tan lotion for her, Kristy, and Maryanne. Claudia thinks a beach wedding will be romantic. Marynne doesn’t. She thinks its strange. She’s thinking of how bad she sun burns. Maryanne is totally shocked when Dawn tells her she’s going to be a bridesmaid. She’s not all that excited about standing up in front of all those people (something you’d think Dawn would know by now). And she doesn’t really like how her shoulders look in the dress. Then they get in a fight. Dawn tells her no one will even be looking at her. She says they will because she’ll have on a hat and be covered up. No one teld her it was a beach wedding. She says she thought it would be a “normal” wedding. But then Maryanne apologizes. Then Dawn apologizes. Then they both start crying and hugging. After a weird dinner (ok I know they’re all health food nuts but COME ON! When they have out of town guests can’t they get THEM some non-health foods. Not everyone eats that stuff-. That’s just thoughtless to impose their lifestyle diet on other people). Then they have a rehearsal right there in the living room. Carol and M. Schafer say Dawn ill be the only bridesmaid which makes Maryanne see red (who now wants to be a bridesmaid). Now Dawn and Maryanne are arguing again.
Jessi is nervous as she gets to the mall and dresses in her costume. But the kids seem to accept her just fine. And WHAAAT there’s another little black boy. By the time her shift ends, Jessi is ready for another half hour. Dawn apologizes to Maryanne the next day. Dawn says she was so exited she got all spacey, Maryanne thinks about how Dawn is like her mom. Still, what she did was hurtful. But she forgives Dawn anyway. She even agrees to wear the dress. Mr. Scafer and Carol’s wedding goes off without a hitch. So do the Barett-Franklin’s. Some of the kids get a little bored before the wedding. Marnie turns out to her mom during the ceremony but that’s about all.
After the wedding, Claudia gets another job taking candids. (She also did all the BSC’s hair). Dawn stands up and makes a touching speech to her dad and Carol. After the wedding, M al goes home. She calls Ben and apologizes and he says they didn’t have to break up. They could have just gone another day. The decide to go the next day and call the kids parents. All the Pike kids now want to go. Before the go they have hot chocolalte and cookies. They sing for a lot of the familes and a lot of them invite them in for cookies (and fruit cake). Mal thinks the nicest part is when they sing on the corner for each other and when she and Ben put their arms around each other.
Mrs. Bruno will not be getting fired. Instead she’ll be getting more hours. After everyone leaves, they all go in to open presents. Someone has put a tree up. Mostly they get a bunch of bowls. They also get a clown lamp. They all agree it’s the tackiest (ugliest) thing they’ve ever seen. Mr. Schafer gets a call that the van with all of her things in it got stolen (her things not the van). Carol just laughs about it. She hated the stuff anyway. Thesurprise party for Dawn goes off well. There are kids there from her school and the kids the We Love Club sits for. There are a lot of tearful goodbyes. The cake is in the shape of Dawn’s face. It’s a banana cake. Steffi (one of the kids) says she’s angry at Dawn for leaving. Dawn says she’ll come back to visit and she’ll wite her. Stephie’s already written Dawn and the letter makes her cry. Logan helps the Franklin and Barett kids get situated in their new rooms and entertain them. Logan also gives Suzie a solution. They can leave a message at the old house that she’s moved.
Kristy, Claudia, and Maryanne fly back to Conneticut. Now Dawn has to worry about her last test, but Carol says she’ll help her. She passes them all. They all open their presents that night. Carol and Mr. Schaffer will be leaving for their honeymoon in Mexico the next day and Dawn and Jeff will be going to Conneticut. Carol gets a lava lamp. Jeff gets a new bike. Dawn gets birds of paradise earrings and an envelope with an airline ticket.
Suzie’s worries are put to rest. She has presents under the tree. Then they all open their presents. Susie tells them her idea. She left a trail of chocolate chip ccokies from her old house to her new house. Buddy just laughs at this and says the raccons will be spending Christmas with them, but Suzie doesn’t care.
When Jeff and Dawn arrive home, the house is all decorated. There’s a tree and tons of presents. Dan gets clothes and a cashmere scarf. They have the BSC over for dinner.
My Thoughts
This one just really didn’t do it for me. It was about two weddings. The one in Stoneybrooke the Barett-Franklin one just.. I guess it always throws me off when I read about this paring because I never finished this whole series so my mind is still stuck at the beginning of it when there were just Mrs. Barett, Suzie, and Marnie. Now it’s like uh where did all these other people come from? It’s almost *too* many for my head to deal with and process. (As you can see I was skimpy with the wedding details about the kids parts other than Suzie). I know this IS a pairing but I just haven’t gotten use to them like the Brewers. Maybe there should be several pages about them at the beginning overy book so they’ll just jammed in my head.
There was one thing that stood out to me about Carol and Mr. Schafer’s wedding. It wasn’t the wedding itself tho. It was the way they opened the wedding gifts after. We always use to have this tradition after Christmas (on my dads) side. After everyone opened their presents, my aunt (who was a day care teacher) would open the gifts her kids gave her and some of those were the most tackiest (ugliest) things in the world. We’d open those and always have a good laugh that the parent just went to the dollar store and bought the cheapest thing they could find. A lot of times it was a ton of gift cards. Ah the good old days! But that came back to me when I read the part about Carol getting the clown lamp.
Rating: 5
February 12, 2010
I used to love the Super Specials when I was a kid but I've started to realise that a lot of them don't have much depth to them. Perhaps it's also because I read this book for the first time at the age of 18?! I did enjoy this book and it was a nice distraction from 'Oroonoko' and 'Gulliver's Travels' (although I have my first lecture on the latter in a week's time and I've barely read the first chapter - perhaps not such a good distraction?). But seriously, the plot was rather contrived in this book! And I actually found myself enjoying the Stoneybrook storyline more than the California one. Perhaps this book would have worked better as a regular series book from Dawn's point of view. Overall, a cute story but not one of my favourite Super Specials. 7/10
December 9, 2009
These girls have been in more weddings and gone on more vacations than I have and I'm more than twice their age. First, there was Kristy's mom's wedding. Then Mary Anne and Dawn's parents married each other. Now Dawn's dad is getting married and the two girls get to be bridesmaids AGAIN (necessitating another vacation to California!) and Stacey gets to help out at the wedding of one of her baby-sitting clients.
So, if these girls are REALLY still in eighth grade, this makes, like, the fifth time they've all been to California in one year?
So, if these girls are REALLY still in eighth grade, this makes, like, the fifth time they've all been to California in one year?
June 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!
Read
June 9, 2012I am still having a difficult time understanding Dawn's thought process that just because SHE was a bridesmaid for her dad's wedding, that meant MaryAnne was too. Whaaaaa? Yeah, I'm sure your dad wants the daughter of the man his ex-wife married to be front and center when he starts his new life. Brilliant, Dawn. Brilliant.
December 23, 2015
One last BSC Christmas re-read for the year! I have way too much fun with these books.
By the way, I still find it hilarious that Dawn really thought Carol and Jack would want Mary Anne as a bridesmaid in their wedding. After all, who DOESN'T want their ex wife's new husband's daughter in their wedding, am I right? Man, Dawn is an idiot.
By the way, I still find it hilarious that Dawn really thought Carol and Jack would want Mary Anne as a bridesmaid in their wedding. After all, who DOESN'T want their ex wife's new husband's daughter in their wedding, am I right? Man, Dawn is an idiot.
July 3, 2007
Ha! Perfect timing - I didn't even know it took place around Christmas when it picked it up.
I would have loved to read more about Jessi - hers was the most interesting storyline, and the one we heard the least about. Ah well.
I would have loved to read more about Jessi - hers was the most interesting storyline, and the one we heard the least about. Ah well.
April 17, 2008
These seem to lose some of their charm when you're above a third grade reading level.... and WTF with the entire premise of the plot? Lame!
Nostalgia doesn't work when it's a book that was published after you stopped reading a series....
Nostalgia doesn't work when it's a book that was published after you stopped reading a series....
May 29, 2009
Took myself back to childhood again. There are weddings on both coasts. It is the end of Dawn's "vacation" at her dad's house. I can see why as a child I loved these books, but now that I am reading them as an adult I find myself laughing at a lot of it. It was still a fun read though.
November 1, 2013
In which half the gang is in OMGCALIFORNIA at Jack and Carol's wedding and the other half is in the 'Brook at Mrs. Barrett's wedding. Why is Mrs. Barrett having Stacey be a bridesmaid? Doesn't she have any friends? Decent story, but not that memorable.
December 27, 2015
A heartwarming story
A heartwarming story about how the baby-sitters club are reunited, from different points of view of the characters. In the process they go through two successful weddings, with a few difficulties along the way. A must read.
A heartwarming story about how the baby-sitters club are reunited, from different points of view of the characters. In the process they go through two successful weddings, with a few difficulties along the way. A must read.
August 28, 2014
Another that I didn't read as a kid.
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January 31, 2016I needed some bubblegum and a blast from the past. This was an excellent palate cleanser.
August 20, 2016
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 16, 2022
What more do you need on a rainy Saturday night than a giant glass of wine and returning to a wacky BSC super special?
The premise and pacing of this book are both bad. This is a double wedding book that is inexplicably also a Christmas book. The summary of this book is that there are multiple opportunities for drama, tension, or something to happen, but nothing of consequence happens. The most dramatic thing that happens is a child interrupting a wedding. Every single storyline is super underwhelming, and there are too many POVs and not enough plot. Jessi’s storyline is wrapped up in Chapter 11, but thank god we checked in with Logan about how hard it was to move Mr. DeWitt’s piano!!!
DAWN: This book is so Dawn-heavy, but all she does is move the plot chains. Even her bridesmaids drama with Mary Anne is wrapped up long before the book ends.
STACEY: Stacey is asked to be a bridesmaid at Mrs. DeWitt’s wedding. It goes fine.
JESSI: Jessi is hired as a mall Santa. Her storyline could have been interesting, because she’s anxious about being a black female Santa in racist Stoneybrook. But, it’s a Jessi POV, so she kills it and everything works out fine.
MARY ANNE: Mary Anne is AWFUL in this special. While Dawn shouldn’t have done the bridesmaid crap, it’s soooo inconsequential in comparison to her reaction. Mary Anne’s main struggle is that she wants Jack and Carol to have a “normal” wedding in a church. Because she’s deeply religious and traditional? No. Because she doesn’t want to get sunburned at the ceremony.
KRISTY: She plans the world’s most boring surprise going away party for Dawn with the We <3 Kids Club. Zzzzzzzz. Why were Kristy and Claudia at this wedding?!
CLAUDIA: Claudia has the weirdest storyline where she's hired by Dawn's dad to be a consultant/photographer. Her first chapter sets you up to think it's going to be a disaster, but it all works out fine.
MALLORY: Mallory has a scheduling conflict that leads to her fighting with Ben. Spoiler alert: it works out fine.
We also get unnecessary and boring POVs from Jeff Schafer, Shannon, Suzi Barrett, and Logan.
The premise and pacing of this book are both bad. This is a double wedding book that is inexplicably also a Christmas book. The summary of this book is that there are multiple opportunities for drama, tension, or something to happen, but nothing of consequence happens. The most dramatic thing that happens is a child interrupting a wedding. Every single storyline is super underwhelming, and there are too many POVs and not enough plot. Jessi’s storyline is wrapped up in Chapter 11, but thank god we checked in with Logan about how hard it was to move Mr. DeWitt’s piano!!!
DAWN: This book is so Dawn-heavy, but all she does is move the plot chains. Even her bridesmaids drama with Mary Anne is wrapped up long before the book ends.
STACEY: Stacey is asked to be a bridesmaid at Mrs. DeWitt’s wedding. It goes fine.
JESSI: Jessi is hired as a mall Santa. Her storyline could have been interesting, because she’s anxious about being a black female Santa in racist Stoneybrook. But, it’s a Jessi POV, so she kills it and everything works out fine.
MARY ANNE: Mary Anne is AWFUL in this special. While Dawn shouldn’t have done the bridesmaid crap, it’s soooo inconsequential in comparison to her reaction. Mary Anne’s main struggle is that she wants Jack and Carol to have a “normal” wedding in a church. Because she’s deeply religious and traditional? No. Because she doesn’t want to get sunburned at the ceremony.
KRISTY: She plans the world’s most boring surprise going away party for Dawn with the We <3 Kids Club. Zzzzzzzz. Why were Kristy and Claudia at this wedding?!
CLAUDIA: Claudia has the weirdest storyline where she's hired by Dawn's dad to be a consultant/photographer. Her first chapter sets you up to think it's going to be a disaster, but it all works out fine.
MALLORY: Mallory has a scheduling conflict that leads to her fighting with Ben. Spoiler alert: it works out fine.
We also get unnecessary and boring POVs from Jeff Schafer, Shannon, Suzi Barrett, and Logan.
August 29, 2023
Fun wedding story. Highlights include Jeff's chapters, coz he's hilarious; Logan's adventures with moving the DeWitt's piano; and Suzi Barrett's stress over Santa not finding their new house. Her solution was simple but brilliant.
I also really like the subplot about Jessi stepping in as a substitute department store Santa. Her concern that the (mostly white) Stoneybrook kids won't accept a Black Santa rings true, but I'm glad it turned out not to be an issue. Her associated concern that kids won't accept an 11 year old girl Santa makes lots of sense as well, and would've been an issue even with other BSC members, but somehow the kids are all fine with it anyway, so it all worked out.
But Dawn super duper sucks for assuming Mary Anne is a bridesmaid without (1) telling Mary Anne, and worse, (2) asking her dad and Carol! Poor Mary Anne! And I think just coz I'm reading all these books so close together, I feel like I've seen Dawn do thoughtless, self-centered things like this before, and then blame Mary Anne for being too sensitive. But like, in this case, Dawn totally screwed up. And the only bright side is that she didn't double down and try to convince her dad and Carol to let Mary Anne be in the wedding after all.
I also really like the subplot about Jessi stepping in as a substitute department store Santa. Her concern that the (mostly white) Stoneybrook kids won't accept a Black Santa rings true, but I'm glad it turned out not to be an issue. Her associated concern that kids won't accept an 11 year old girl Santa makes lots of sense as well, and would've been an issue even with other BSC members, but somehow the kids are all fine with it anyway, so it all worked out.
But Dawn super duper sucks for assuming Mary Anne is a bridesmaid without (1) telling Mary Anne, and worse, (2) asking her dad and Carol! Poor Mary Anne! And I think just coz I'm reading all these books so close together, I feel like I've seen Dawn do thoughtless, self-centered things like this before, and then blame Mary Anne for being too sensitive. But like, in this case, Dawn totally screwed up. And the only bright side is that she didn't double down and try to convince her dad and Carol to let Mary Anne be in the wedding after all.
June 23, 2025
All of the super specials are a little weird but this one doesn’t introduce a whole bunch of characters we never meet again so that’s nice. Dawn’s father and Carol are getting married the same weekend as the Barrett-DeWitts.
Dawn - it’s her super special so she’s talking about the wedding a lot
Jeff - annoyed
Mary Anne - for some reason Dawn buys Mary Anne a matching bridesmaids dress to hers? They have a fight but they make up.
Kristy - helps the We ❤️ Kids Club plan a surprise party
Claudia - is the paid help
Jessi - mall Santa (the wedding is in December)
Mallory - has a stupid fight with Ben
Logan - moves a piano
Suzy Barrett - is worried that Santa won’t find them
Stacey - is one of Mrs Barrett’s bridesmaids for some weird reason. The reason is that while earlier Dawn was closest to the Barretts Dawn is otherwise engaged that weekend
Shannon - babysits
I don’t understand why the people at the Barrett- DeWitt wedding are mad there are kids there? They have seven under the age of 9. Surely their wedding guests are aware of that too?
Dawn - it’s her super special so she’s talking about the wedding a lot
Jeff - annoyed
Mary Anne - for some reason Dawn buys Mary Anne a matching bridesmaids dress to hers? They have a fight but they make up.
Kristy - helps the We ❤️ Kids Club plan a surprise party
Claudia - is the paid help
Jessi - mall Santa (the wedding is in December)
Mallory - has a stupid fight with Ben
Logan - moves a piano
Suzy Barrett - is worried that Santa won’t find them
Stacey - is one of Mrs Barrett’s bridesmaids for some weird reason. The reason is that while earlier Dawn was closest to the Barretts Dawn is otherwise engaged that weekend
Shannon - babysits
I don’t understand why the people at the Barrett- DeWitt wedding are mad there are kids there? They have seven under the age of 9. Surely their wedding guests are aware of that too?
June 7, 2022
Almost done with these super specials, and it's starting to become apparent that the franchise was running out of ideas-- In this one, the super-peripheral characters of Dawn's father and Mrs. Barrett are both having weddings-one in California, and one in Stoneybrook, and all of the members (including Logan and Shannon), are at least minimally involved in one or the other of the weddings. The best parts of this book were the chapters about the Barrett family going all Brady Bunch and were told from the perspective of kindergarten Suzi Barrett or her sitter-turned-bridesmaid Stacey. 3 stars- enjoyed the chapters from random kids and associate members, but found Claudia's storyline ridiculous.
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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.
August 19, 2019
Dawns dad is finally marrying and of course dawn is back home in California. The babysitters club all want to go to California however one of the babysitters club parents is getting married on the same day. Stacey is a bridesmaid and Mal and Shannon are booked to babysit. Lots of adventures on both different ends of the country.
January 5, 2021
(LL)
This one I really tried to like, but it was boring and unnecessary. We already got “Kristy’s Big Day,” so we don’t not need to have another whole book about two weddings for people in their second marriage.
This one I really tried to like, but it was boring and unnecessary. We already got “Kristy’s Big Day,” so we don’t not need to have another whole book about two weddings for people in their second marriage.
April 16, 2018
For my written review, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
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October 31, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
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