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Club member Dawn finds herself torn between her nostalgia for California and her Connecticut friends, especially Mary Anne, her best friend and stepsister.

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1995

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About the author

Ann M. Martin

1,123 books3,086 followers
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...

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
Profile Image for Ciara.
Author 3 books419 followers
March 24, 2011
the only good thing about this book is that dawn leaves. it's just too bad she didn't take mary anne with her.

dawn's claifornia best friend, sunny, calls & tells dawn & that her mom has been diagnosed with lung cancer. things don't look so great. dawn is horrified & decides she wants to move back to california--permanently. partly to support sunny, but also because she realizes that california is her home & she misses it too much. she misses the beach, the weather, her dad, jeff, etc etc. she talks to her parents about it & they agree that she can make the switch. dawn realizes that she needs to let kristy know ASAP so kristy can decide how to proceed in finding a replacement, so she calls kristy & breaks the news, but asks her to keep it under her hat until she can tell mary anne herself.

the next night, dawn & mary anne arrange a special sisters pizza-&-movie night. dawn thinks it will be a good opportunity to tell mary anne about her decision, but before they even have a chance to start cooking, logan calls to see how mary anne is handling the news that dawn is moving back to california. apparently kristy couldn't keep the news to herself, so she told claudia, who told stacey, who told robert, who told logan, who told mary anne. mary anne is PISSED that everyone in town knew about dawn's decision before she did. they have a big fight in which mary anne acts like a total asshole & dawn is surprisingly lukewarm about coming to her own defense. she's all thinking to herself, "i should have told her." yeah, & she was going to! like within the hour! maybe it would have been smart to keep the news on the down-low until after she'd told mary anne, but it was a pretty responsible gesture to tell kristy first. even though it's not like kristy can start looking for a replacement without discussing the news with the rest of the club. which includes mary anne.

anyway, the entire book is just one big annoying fight between dawn & mary anne. dawn convinces herself that mary anne is planning some special goodbye gesture, but mary anne isn't. mary anne just acts like a jerk for 140 pages & finally cries the night before dawn gets on the plane to move back to palo city.they hug it out, problem solved. BORRRRING!

the B-plot is also really lame. james hobart breaks his leg while playing football with some of the pike kids. he's bummed about having a broken leg in the summertime. so the babysitters concoct a scheme to cheer him up: xmas in july. i hate xmas, so this would not cheer me up at all. they recruit a bunch of their charges to make xmas cards & decorations & buy little gifts & wrap everything & cut pine boughs & all this random xmas-y crap, & then they descend upon the hobarts' house singing carols. they succeed in cheering james up. he goes so far as to say that for a minute, he thought he was enjoying real xmas back home. everyone is like, "durrr, what?" until mrs. hobart explains that xmas is in the summertime in australia because australia is in the southern hemisphere.

farewell, dawn! don't less the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Samantha.
Author 39 books34 followers
June 8, 2017
The best part about this book is the cover. Dawn and Mary Anne look all sad that Dawn is leaving. Kristy and Claudia, however, are downright stoked to see that bitch getting on that plane to head back to California for good.

FINALLY!
Profile Image for FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH.
448 reviews118 followers
November 8, 2017
I was about to call this the penultimate dawn book in the series (not including individual chapters in super specials or the california diaries series) before her portrait collection book (Dawn's Book) but I had forgotten about Dawn Schafer, Undercover Babysitter and Dawn and Too Many Sitters. seriously, why did they let her keep narrating books after she moved to california? anyway, in this not penultimate dawn book by ghostwriter Suzanne Weyn, dawn is itching for california again. I know, I know, we’ve already read this book. it was called Dawn's Big Move. this one is essentially dawn’s bigger move, because she decides she is going to move to california for good. she wimps out about telling mary anne and so mary anne finds out from logan (since the news spread among the bsc) and is furious. meanwhile, james hobart breaks his leg, which is a bummer since it’s during summer vacation. the bsc and bsc kids throw him a fake christmas party, not knowing that christmas is actually during the summer in australia where james is from.

highlights:
-the one thing I really like about the book is that mary anne has a backbone in it. she is seriously PISSED at dawn, and it shows.
-also this book makes me think of the aforementioned california diaries series which is an excellent series (and my favorite bsc spinoff) -- in it the local high school has to take on the 8th grade for spacing reasons and so dawn and all her friends act like high schoolers and have teen drama problems (alcoholism, suicide attempts, abusive boyfriends, etc)

lowlights/nitpicks:
-when the bsc and co actually throw james hobart the fake christmas party, he is surprised and thinks he might be back in australia. he explains that in australia it’s summer in december, so he’s used to summertime christmas. the bsc members and kids are surprised by that, but they shouldn’t be, because they had already run the party by the entire rest of the hobart family. are we really meant to believe that it hadn’t occurred to any other hobarts to mention it?
-dawn is happy to see that norman hill has lost some weight, because people were teasing him, and also because, according to dawn, "being overweight is unhealthy." ugh. dawn is like ben stiller in heavyweights:

-though I appreciate mary anne’s sudden backbone in this book, it’s really frustrating how she freezes dawn out and they don’t get to make the most of their last few weeks of permanently living together. they reconcile the night before dawn leaves. I don’t particularly like either of them, but it’s still such a shame that those crazy kids couldn’t work it out earlier.

claudia outfits:
-"Today she was wearing a baggy, white, cotton jumpsuit that was cut wide and open at the sides and neckline. Under it she wore two sleeveless T-shirts, one purple, one pink. She'd tied the jumpsuit with a belt she'd made from safety pins and beads, and she'd used fabric paint to create a jungle scene on the left leg of the jumpsuit. From her ears dangled two colorful wooden parrot earrings onto which she'd glued beads that matched the beads on her belt."
"Naturally, Claudia put together the perfect outfit for the occasion--red shorts, a green vest over a white T-shirt, and sandals she'd laced up to her knees with criss-crossing red and green ribbon. Homemade papier-mache Santa earrings completed the look."

mary anne outfit:
-"She was already dressed in blue and white plaid shorts and a blue T-shirt."
dawn outfits:
-"I pulled on a pair of white shorts and a short-sleeved flowered blouse, slipped into straw sandals, bent forward, then quickly brushed my blonde hair."
-"The dress looked great. It had small pearly buttons down the front and it flared at the bottom, which was just about two inches above my knees. Mom bought it for me, along with a pair of new straw sandals and some carved wooden beads I liked."

snacks in claudia’s room:
-cheez doodles behind the pillow on her bed
Profile Image for Lily Stoddard.
20 reviews
February 28, 2024
I didn’t really like this book as much as I liked the other recent books I read in this series. I feel like Dawn tried to get to Mary Anne but Mary Anne was just dealing with Dawn leaving in her own way . I do see how both girls had some faults. Mary Anne was being snobby and snippy and just stuck up with her too cool for school boyfriend, Logan, who didn’t really get into the book that much. I get how he’s trying to be there for Mary Anne, but he’s honestly just making things worse.

I totally understand why Dawn told Kristy why she was leaving when she did. Everything would have been great if Kristy had just kept her mouth shut like she said she would! Usually I get Kristy but here, goodness Kristy why does Claudia have to know Dawns leaving!?! It’s not even Stacey who’s leaving! Welp then Claud’s like ‘ Hey Stace did you know…’ Then of course she just HAS to tell her boyfriend Robert about it cause we all know how much he cares about his girlfriend’s friend then ex friend and now friend again. Now Robert tells Logan who calls just as Dawn was FINALLY about to tell Mary Anne and then he tells Mary Anne! It’s a three ring circus. Almost everyone is at fault here. Jessi and Mallory are the only ones ( as usual) who just kinda are there and just shrug their shoulders and don’t get into the drama.

I was really mad at Mary Anne when Dawn went to her going away party. She didn’t do a thing to help with the party and then she’s like oh I’m sorry I wasn’t really nice but whatever, forgive and forget right? I don’t know Mary Anne was getting on my nerves.
I wasn’t really that surprised that Dawn decided to leave though. It wasn’t a big WHOA! moment. But I was ok with that. I love how Dawns mom took the situation. She was great. Richard has a lot to be desired. The second he found out he said well I’ll need to get those custody papers. What the heck! She’s your stepdaughter! You live with her this is a big change!!! Hmm now where did I put those papers 🙄
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Renata.
2,946 reviews443 followers
July 29, 2024
again I never read this far when I was a kid but then I got into a groove and these books are such fast reads! wow bye Dawn enjoy your vegetables!!
Profile Image for Sitara.
5 reviews
October 5, 2024
was sick in bed this week and feeling a little nostalgic 😭
Profile Image for Nicole.
56 reviews
January 16, 2020
Continuing my reading of the the series that I never read as a kid, I forgot how up herself Dawn was. Reading this book did make me feel sad though as I said good bye to a close friend this week who moved away.
Profile Image for Rachel.
185 reviews2 followers
October 26, 2020
Wasn’t the best and to be honest, I was ready to say farewell and peace out to Dawn.
Profile Image for Ashley.
1,767 reviews33 followers
October 20, 2021
Ugh, yes, Dawn should have told Mary Anne she was moving to California, instead of MA finding out through the grapevine. But god, Mary Anne. Way to make this all about YOU. (And she called Dawn selfish.) Mary Anne is always described as the sensitive one, but she always comes across to me as all "woe is me" - and it's especially prevalent in this book. She doesn't try to understand why Dawn wants to live in California, she just goes right for passively-aggressively icing her out. And though it's explained as "I can't keep saying good-bye to you every day until you leave," which I totally get and sympathize with, Mary Anne always makes everything all about her. Sensitive, my foot.
Profile Image for Lianna Kendig.
1,033 reviews24 followers
December 28, 2020
(LL)
This was okay, it felt repetitive of when Dawn left the first time, but we didn’t need a whole new book dedicated to this.
It’s good she finally left, so she could be happy, since she wasn’t really that great of a character and her constant complaints over wanting to be in California were getting old.
Profile Image for Jaclyn.
2,592 reviews5 followers
August 20, 2023
Poor Mary Anne. Couldn't have been easy to find out as she did. But good on Dawn for holding firm regardless.

I do wish there had been more closure on the Mary Anne / Dawn storyline. Like an actual full-hearted conversation. But I get that they're 13, so okay.

And yikes, poor Sharon. CanNOT be easy having BOTH her kids choose to live with their dad. I'm glad she has Richard.
Profile Image for Sayo    -bibliotequeish-.
2,053 reviews37 followers
Read
July 29, 2020

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.
223 reviews3 followers
January 18, 2022
In this book, Dawn decides to move back to California for good, after finding that she misses her Dad & Jeff, and her best friend Sunny. Mary Anne finds out before Dawn could tell her, and is upset with her through much of this book, to the point where she didn't even participate in planning her goodbye party and was cold. They make up in the end the day before Dawn leaves. The side plot was planning a summer Christmas for James Hobart who broke his leg.
Profile Image for Maeve.
2,768 reviews27 followers
April 19, 2022
Dawn, who has been missing California, realizes that Palo City is her true home. She decides to move back permanently. Dawn doesn't know how to share this news with Mary Anna, so she puts it off until Mary Anne hears about it from Logan. The two have a huge fight and only reconcile the day before Dawn leaves. Meanwhile, James Hobart breaks his leg and the BSC makes "Christmas in July" to cheer him up.
Profile Image for Amanda.
210 reviews6 followers
August 23, 2023
This whole book felt like a giant metaphor for the way I’ve come to feel about Dawn—I’m just over her. Somewhere along the way of reading these books, I came to find Dawn so mean, passive-aggressive, and judgmental. I was so on Mary Anne’s side about their fight and Dawn’s self-righteous need to have a certain goodbye. I actually wish this was a Mary Anne POV book and I think it would have been an interesting take on Dawn.
Profile Image for Devon.
1,118 reviews1 follower
January 5, 2022
Dawn makes a big speech to Mary Anne about how she acts and Mary Anne only reacts, which is true, but doesn't Dawn act so impulsively? This one is awful. Dawn is awful as usual--she starts off the book cheering Norman Hill on for looking less fat and more "husky" and it only gets worse from there. Good riddance, Dawn.
Profile Image for Cassandra Doon.
Author 59 books84 followers
March 5, 2023
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
Profile Image for Umair Sial.
85 reviews
August 30, 2019
This story is very easy going. Mary Ann doesn't like Dawn's decision to desert her so the book goes by with her being cold towards Dawn. The whole book seemed like Dawn was trying not to think about Mary Ann and was hoping for her to make her the first move towards reconciliation.
2,870 reviews
March 2, 2022
Difficult & emotional for the BSC gang
Profile Image for Aaliyah.
448 reviews
February 1, 2024
I didn’t like how Mary Ann acted it was very snobbish but a great book
Profile Image for Leigh.
1,205 reviews
April 30, 2024
Dawn and Mary Anne are the worst. In this merry-go-round plot Dawn decides once again she wants to go back to California. Way to punch your mom in the gut Dawn. So Dawn makes this choice for the 100th time in about 10-20 books and immediately tells Kristy so she will be prepared when she leaves. Despite being told to keep her mouth shut Kristy the notorious big mouth tells Claudia and soon everyone knows. Mary Anne learns from Logan and has a huge fight with Dawn and they both act stupid right up until the day before Dawn leaves. Then they make up. But they are both annoying. Dawn who constantly flip flops between California and Stoneybrook no wonder Mary Anne is annoyed at her. Hell the only one who's probably happy in this situation is the family lawyers working on the always changing custody agreement. I only wish this would be the end of Dawn but she has a few more BSC books and of course California Diaries where she becomes the person she accuses Stacey of being and is the only one without a decent storyline in the series just whining about her stepmother having a baby and acting like Sunny's mom's dying is harder on her than the girl who's actually owing her mom. The b plot involves James Hobart breaking his leg and being stuck inside all summer. The club throws him a Christmas in summer the highlight of which was him getting a game boy and a tetris game with it. Ah memories. I loved playing game boy and tetris was my mom's favourite game both n game boy and regular Nintendo. I can hear her swearing now. Miss you mom. Anyway I'm glad Dawn is finally gone she got more annoying with each book she appeared in.
Profile Image for Marshan Alma.
89 reviews2 followers
April 26, 2015
yes, I had blast from the past moments when I read this book. I adored the BSC books when I was younger. I had every single book up to the age where I felt I got too old for them. I think that was somewhere around sixty something. Anyway, I was looking at my library online service, and this book was on the front page. I figured I would belittle fun and read it. One thing I realized when I read this book was that I had missed my childhood friends! It felt good to get back in touch with the girls. I was sad to see Dawn move back to Cali, but was still thrilled that they hadn't changed at all. I can't wait till my daughter is old enough to read all the books that I've held onto for so many years.
Profile Image for April.
2,641 reviews174 followers
May 1, 2013
Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.

I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.

The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.

Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
Profile Image for Maria Elmvang.
Author 2 books105 followers
January 26, 2011
Honestly, this is pretty much just a (worse) retake on "Dawn's Big Trip". Kinda ridiculous that she goes through SO much thinking when it's just temporary, and pretty much makes the decision from one day to the next when it's permanent. I'll miss her though. Granted, she's not my favourite BSC'er, but she's still a LOT better than Abby!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews

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