Mary Anne in the Middle

The Baby-Sitters Club #125

by Ann M. Martin

When Mallory prepares to go away to boarding school and a bereft Jessi tries to prevent her from going, Mary Anne finds herself caught in the middle of the biggest fight she has ever encountered

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

121 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reviews

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

this is my first time reading this book.

in this book by ghostwriter Suzanne Weyn, mal officially gets a full scholarship to riverbend, the boarding school she toured in Stacey McGill...Matchmaker? jessi and the pike sibs (egged on by jessi) are being really unsupportive, so she starts confiding in mary anne about it. and as her relationship with jessi gets more strained, she and jessi both rely on mary anne as the go-between, putting her in a crappy position she didn’t ask for (though she is partly to blame because she’s a busybody). things get so bad that the bsc assign the two of them to babysit the barrett-dewitts, thinking it will bring them together. but unsurprisingly, it doesn’t and instead leads to them bickering in front of small children. when jessi’s friends from dance ny (see Jessi’s Big Break) come to stoneybrook for a sleepover, mary anne convinces mal to come to it, but then they get into yet another fight and blame mary anne for all their drama. finally, when they both call mary anne to complain about each other the following day, she invites them both over without telling each other. she gives them a chance to speak their piece, moderating. this was apparently all they needed, because once they hear each other’s perspectives they become friends again. mini-subplot 1: the bsc decide not to replace mal because they can’t think of anyone to replace her, so she takes it to mean she was unnecessary and freaks out, so they host a we love mallory day, complete with seeing henrietta hayes (from Mallory Pike, #1 Fan) and the manager of the bookstore where she worked in Stacey and the Mystery at the Mall, plus a movie date with ben hobart and a date to see the musical cats with jessi. mini-subplot #2: the pike siblings are bummed that mal is leaving, and jessi eggs them on. mini-subplot #3: the retirement community where mal’s uncle joe lives has crappy holiday decorations so the bsc decide to make them new ones with the help of their charges.

highlights:
-the thomas/brewers apparently got a kitten named pumpkin. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I really need to read the little sister series for some of these weird continuity things. apparently boo-boo died in Karen's Movie Star and they got pumpkin in Karen's Black Cat.
-jessi, on the difference between thinking you want something and actually wanting it: "you might think you want a carob bar from the health-food store because it looks like chocolate. then, when you get it and take a bite...you might not want it anymore." we've all been there, jessi.
-interesting in general that this story is from mary anne's perspective instead of being mal or jessi's. maybe they wanted to keep the reader neutral? but it didn’t work, because mal is clearly suffering and jessi is clearly being a jerk.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-the uncle joe’s retirement community plotline is just a rehash of the one from Mallory’s Christmas Wish
-jessi compares mallory’s situation to when her family moved to town and everyone was racist, but they stayed and faced the people, and it got better. mary anne thinks this is convincing. it's different though, because getting targeted by individual bullies is different from systemic oppressive behavior. also, mal doesn't deserve to be bullied or anything, but they're doing it based on actual events and actual things they know about her. it's not like they saw that she had glasses and hate everyone with glasses and gave her a hard time. also it's kids at the school, not adults. not like parents are saying "oh you can't hang out with mal because she's a spaz girl" like parents were about jessi. this is why own voices books are important, because white authors won’t necessarily get what systemic oppression feels like and will write this kind of crap.
-when mal says that she's decided to go to the school, jessi realizes she already told mary anne (by the look on her face) and is really mad. but it's like, you're not being a friend to her, so what do you expect?
-jessi is such a jerk in this book that it’s miserable to read.
-the biggest issue with the plotline is that nobody ever tries talking to the school administration. I know 1998 was a different time, but still, if bullying were that intense, even back in 1998 the kid’s parents would talk to the administration. it’s almost treated like it’s mal’s fault she’s getting bullied and it’s her responsibility to do something about it. nope, it’s the administration’s responsibility to punish bullies. expel alan gray, that’ll send a real message to everyone else.

claudia outfit:
-"The shirt she was wearing that day was one she had tie-dyed and then cut into fringe around the bottom. At the end of each fringe was a polymer clay bead she'd made. Her earrings and necklace featured more of the same beads, and so did the barrette holding back her long, silky black hair."

no snacks in claudia’s room.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - English Ebook

Review follows later.

[Maeve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mallory has decided to attend Riverbend, a boarding school in Massachusetts. She tells Mary Anne before telling Jessi...which places Mary Annr in the middle of a huge fight.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well Jessi is awful. Mallory is still being relentlessly bullied and applies to Riverbend. Jessi treats her awful. Don't you get how much your friend is hurting? It hasn't stopped for months she's not running, she's probably saving her own life by going to the new school. The whole book is Mallory and Jessi fighting and using Mary Anne to rant to. Jessi even turns the rest of the Pike siblings against her. She's just horrible even worse than in Starring the Babysitters Club. I would've liked to have gotten the story from Jessi's prospective just to see if she really was that awful and what was going through her head and not filtered through Mary Anne. The b plot is a rehash of at least one or two other books with the BSC making decorations for the nursing home where Mallory's uncle lives and throwing a party. As someone who works in LTC I like this idea, intergenerational programs are amazing. Not the greatest I mean come on Jessi do you really enjoy seeing your best friend in such emotional pain?

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish this were a Jessi book, since Mallory narrates the next book, instead of a Mary Anne book. The whole story was the fight between Mallory and Jessi, instead of further developing Mary Anne's character arc. Mary Anne did not appreciate feeling like she had to act as a mediator in her friends' argument, even though she put herself in the position by being a busybody. The book ended on an up note with We Love Mallory Day and a sweet moment between the girls who restored their friendship. Mary Anne admitted she had gone herself in the middle of her friends' fight and was happy about it.

I loved seeing them [Mallory and Jessi] happy together, the way they had always been, the way I hoped they would always be. It even made me sort of glad I’d gotten in the middle.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

you may recall that in kristy in charge, mallory was drafted to teach an eighth grade english class & it didn't go so well. the eighth graders teased her a lot & called her spaz girl. her life at stoneybrook middle school has deteriorated to the point that she is contemplating transferring to boarding school. she found one she likes a lot in the berkshires. it's called riverbend hall & it seems academically challenging & has a strong creative writing component. mallory has applied & in this book, she is accepted. mary anne happens to be at the pikes' house babysitting when mallory gets her acceptance letter. she tells mary anne that she has decided to go, but she's not looking forward to breaking the news to the other babysitters--especially jessi. jessi has not been especially accepting of mallory's decision to leave stoneybrook...& who can blame her after the way mallory reacted when jessi was invited to enroll in dance new york in jessi's big break? it seems that a big reason why jessi chose to defer enrollment at dance new york was because she didn't want to leave mallory, but now mallory is leaving her. mallory is not sure how to proceed & vents a lot of her concerns & frustrations to mary anne, because mary anne is such a great listener.

but jessi is also using mary anne as a sounding board. jessi just knows that mallory is going to accept riverbend if they invite her to go to school there, & jessi is really frustrated. she can't understand why mallory can't just pull it together & deal with the teasing at school, nor can she comprehend how mallory can be okay leaving her family & the babysitters club. but jessi doesn't know that mallory has been accepted & is planning to attend starting in january.

mary anne feels caught in the middle. she doesn't feel that it's her place to tell jessi that mallory has already been accepted (& i agree with her on that), so she is forced to try to assuage jessi's feelings without letting the cat out of the bag. & while she is sad to see mallory go, she wants to be supportive of mallory's decision.

the younger pike kids are also having a tough time with mallory's decision. i guess they feel abandoned. they give mallory the cold shoulder & tell her that they're practicing for after she leaves. mallory is really frustrated with everyone because she feels that no one really understands how difficult it has become for her to get along at SMS. jessi doesn't help matters by accusing mallory of abandoning her siblings, right in front of them.

things come to a head at a babysitters club meeting when jessi demands to know mallory's decision, framing it as crucial information the babysitters club needs in order to move forward as an organization. she says that they need to start looking now if they're going to have to replace mallory. mallory explodes & admits that she's been accepted & is going. everyone is shocked, but jessi is especially pissed because she can tell from the look on mary anne's face that she already knew. jessi storms out, & is mad at both mallory & mary anne.

to try to smooth things over, mary anne signs both mallory & jessi up for a joint sitting job at the barrett/dewitt's place. the babysitters are doing another one of their dumb projects that involve the whole town, making new holiday decorations for the old folks' home. has there been a single holiday season in the last twenty years at the old folks' home that the babysitters haven't had their part in? jesus. mallory & jessi both bring art supplies to the sitting job so the kids can make decorations, but they get into a fight when suzi wants to make a snowman instead of a kinara. mallory says that's fine, but jessi says she brought the clay & she'll decide how it gets used. she wants suzi to make clay fruit instead, in keeping with a kwanzaa theme. suzi is okay with this, but mallory doesn't see why the kids can't make what they want. jessi doesn't think it's right for mallory to give the kids permission to do stuff without jessi's input.

both girls call mary anne when they get home & rant to her. she has to keep switching from one call to the other. she finally loses patience & tells them both to come over. she hopes that forcing them to be in the same room & express their feelings to each other with result in a truce, & that mallory & jessi can then appreciate their last few weeks together as friends.

mary anne's plan works. jessi explains that she's hurt that mary anne knew about mallory's decision before jessi did. mallory explains that jessi was the hardest person to tell because she is going to be the hardest person to leave behind. everyone cries & makes up. mallory also patches things up with her siblings. the kids all write her nice poems about how much they're going to miss her.

i kind of think mallory was in the wrong on this one. while it may have been difficult to tell jessi that she's leaving for boarding school, that really is the kind of thing that you just have to do. i guess it's unrealistic to expect mature adult perspective from an eleven-year-old, & jessi didn't help matters by being so passive-aggressive about mallory's decision. i don't know.

hilariously, the little girl who once owned this book filled out the weird little reading comprehension sheets in the back of the book. under, "which babysitter are you most like & why?" she wrote, "mallory because she is cool." it's weird to remember that a lot of girls thought mallory was cool when they were elemntary school-ages (me included), when she is now seen as a huge dork by nostalgic adult readers.

[Liesl]

Jessi was SO out-of-character in this novel, it drove me a little crazy. Wasn't she just complaining about how immature Mal was being when Jessi went to Dance New York? And now, Mallory is about to go to Riverbend Hall to escape the hellscape that is SMS (seriously, good for her) and Jessi is acting even worse. It's like all of "Jessi's Big Break" never happened!

Narrator Mary Anne even brings this up and all Mallory can say is "That was different." NO IT'S NOT, MALLORY. IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

As 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.

[Jonathan R Herrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Slightly Annoying Fight

I'm definitely excited with the new plot twist but was slightly annoyed with Jessie and Mallory. These two friends were pitted against each other in a silly squabble and it really seemed immature. I also was confused how only Mary-Ann seemed to get involved in this feud while the other me!need of the best seemed to ignore it.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 2 out of 5]

(LL)
This book was pointless. All it did was prepare for the next book with Mallory at her new boarding school. Mallory wasn’t a great character after her driest few books, and this only makes the case worse. The book is teaching kids to run away from their problems. I don’t care for it because that’s not how life works.

[Dr. Aditi Kapoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very different book. It shows the babysitters maturing further. In this one Mary Anne plays mediator to a misunderstanding between Jessi and Mallory as Mallory plans on going to a boarding school. It shows the entire story from Mary Anne's perspective and how she gains the strength to help her friends. Worth reading.

[Cassandra Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatable and sweet. When you're 11, it's really hard to deal with your BFF suddenly moving away, especially when (as in this case) it's her decision and she couldn't really muster up the guts to tell you properly about it. Mary Anne, as the sweet, sensitive listener, is a great conduit for us to hear both Mallory and Jessi's POVs.

[Tianna Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun one! The drama of Mallory vs Jessi. Poor Mary Anne was stuck in the middle.

I give it 4 stars because it felt like Mallory’s bullying wasn’t addressed. I’m glad that Mallory is growing up though into her own person. It feels like an end of series book and it’s the perfect lead up to her being written out.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conflict in this one is an often used plot in the BSC books, and is especially fresh coming from Mallory who should understand EXACTLY how Jessi feels after she was almost the one to leave town for an opportunity important to her. But anyways. It does make sense that Mary Anne of all people would be directly in the middle of this though.

[Hezekiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the few BSC books where Jessi and Mallory are written in a way that makes sense to me as 11 year olds. In most books, they are written like they are just starting high school, and the other sitters seem 16.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why, but I always really liked this one. I think I'm just excited to gear up to Mallory Pike FINALLY being free of Stoneybrook!

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on www.audible.com must listen to this book

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/mary-a...

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessi is one of my favourite sitters, but sheeeeeesh she was a major jerk in this book.

[Aaliyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book sad for Mary Ann.

[Suzanne Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jessi is effing UNBEARABLE in this book!

[Laura Rayner]

Mallory is going away to boarding school, but her best friend, Jessi, doesn't want her to go. It's the biggest fight in BSC history -- and Mary Anne is caught in the middle!

[Nerija · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my neighbors recently set up a Little Free Library in her front yard, and there were some fun nostalgic titles in there -- including a few BSC books.

And it was definitely fun and nostalgic, and I'm going back for the other BSCs. I have to say, this is the one time I was actually glad for the kind of exposition-o-rama Mary Anne gives us in the first few chapters, because I really did need a refresher on who all these characters are and what's happened to them up to this point.

My two-star rating isn't really a reflection of the story quality; it's a very quick, feel-good read. It's just that I'm no longer in the age range when I would've been totally into all the drama -- i.e. how characters react to things (though, at least these pre-teens feel more real than the Sweet Valley gang). When I was +/- 11-13, everything was that big of a deal, both in my real life and in my favorite fictional worlds. When Animorphs #19 (wow, I actually remembered which number it was, before looking it up…that's how big a deal it was) was released, I wrote in my diary: CASSIE QUITS!!!!!! (only imagine that in even larger All-Caps and in a 12-year-old's handwriting).

And at that age, I probably would've written a poem exactly like Vanessa's if I had an older sister who was considering going to school in another state. Heck, when I was 16, I cried myself to sleep when I heard my favorite teacher was leaving, even though I was super happy for her (she was having a baby).

And to be fair, I can still very much relate to Mary Anne's overall sensitive nature. Hello, my name is Nerija ("Hello, Nerija"), and I am also a "champion crier."

Jessi, on the other hand... seriously? I can absolutely understand being upset at the thought of your best friend moving away, but calling her a coward for even considering leaving a school where she's constantly bullied? Or for wanting to go to a school with a better writing program -- the thing she loves as much as you love dancing? And you're calling her selfish? If I were Mary Anne I'd have had a much harder time staying impartial and not telling you off.

Phew! Got that out of my system ^_^;;

But anyway, like I said, I'm definitely going back for more Stonybrook shenanigans.

[Maria Camp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Annoying. Did not ring true to the characters, especially Jessi.

I recently read #115 where Jessi stays in New York City for a month for a special ballet program. If you haven't read this book, you should, and then you will understand how Jessi's reaction makes no sense.

I also expected a better reaction from Mary Anne; however, it was certainly more sensible than Jessi's.

This scenario could have been handled much better.

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was the one of the maybe 7 or 8 that I read when I was younger and I recently wanted to see if they were as good as I remembered. Honestly, I never really liked this one because it was so dramatic. I understand that is how people are, but I couldn't handle 120 simple pages of it with very little subplot or side plot

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mauha is there anything better than the books dealing with juvenile fights amongst the BSC?

[Shivers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love most of the babysitter's club books but this one was quite boring.

[Melenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child