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Baby-Sitters Club Special Edition #1
Logan's Story
Like lots of guys, Logan enjoys baby-sitting. And being an associate member of the BSC means he can sit when he wants to, and still have time for Mary Anne and sports.
But now the Baby-sitters really need Logan. Logan wouldn't mind taking on the extra baby-sittig jobs, but he's busy trying out for the track team. And the jocks are giving Logan a hard time about hanging out with girls and babies.
Logan doesn't want to let the Baby-sitters down. But he's tired of being picked on!
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
8 people are currently reading
265 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,119 books3,067 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
May 30, 2016
in this BOY STORY by ghostwriter Peter Lerangis, jeff schafer has to be hospitalized due to a ruptured appendix, so dawn and her mom go to california to be with him. logan steps in as temporary alternate officer in spite of not really wanting to (he feels pressured to do it) and not having time for it (considering he is on the football team and trying out for the track team). then he is part of the bsc so much that all of the manly men on his sports teams tease him so mercilously that he ends up quitting the bsc. eventually dawn comes back and he becomes an associate again. in an inane subplot, the bsc has a table at the local health fair that provides information about how to be a safe babysitter.
highlights:
-logan's voice is pretty clearly different, and peter handles this well. there was not a moment that I felt like it was someone else narrating.
-after the guys on his football team/trying out for track mostly stop making fun of logan, he still doesn't let down his guard and is still nervous around them. I'm glad this is included, because so often bullying just stops and everyone thinks the repercussions just go away. they don't.
-logan babysits the hobarts a lot in this book. they miss him once he quits the bsc but they come to his track tryouts to cheer him on. so sweet!
-at the end the other guys trying out for track ask logan about all his babely friends in the bsc (once again evidence that guys don't actually care that men hang out with women a lot as long as they're hot -- like in Logan Likes Mary Anne!).
lowlights/nitpicks:
-mary anne brings jenny and andrea prezzioso to watch logan practice for track tryouts and mary anne pays no attention while jenny runs out in the track causing logan and another boy to crash into each other. why aren't you with jenny, mary anne? also why did you go to watch him anyway? idiot. I hate mary anne.
-logan doesn't advocate for what he needs and then gets mad when nobody reads his mind. I hate these kinds of plot points (like in Mallory on Strike).
-johnny hobart disappears at the health fair (when logan is babysitting him). king (the meanest of the bullies) finds him, and he says something about how if the bsc needs more male baby-sitters they should ask him. maybe he wasn't serious but I don't really know, and kristy is so mean to him after that. give him a chance! maybe he is one of those bully tropes that is a bully because he's really just jealous.
-where are the women trying out for track? they only talk about men, but track is typically a coed sport.
no outfits.
snacks in claudia's room:
-chocolate marshmallow cookies under her pillow
-tortilla chips under her bed
-twinkies (n.s.)
-fritos (n.s.)
highlights:
-logan's voice is pretty clearly different, and peter handles this well. there was not a moment that I felt like it was someone else narrating.
-after the guys on his football team/trying out for track mostly stop making fun of logan, he still doesn't let down his guard and is still nervous around them. I'm glad this is included, because so often bullying just stops and everyone thinks the repercussions just go away. they don't.
-logan babysits the hobarts a lot in this book. they miss him once he quits the bsc but they come to his track tryouts to cheer him on. so sweet!
-at the end the other guys trying out for track ask logan about all his babely friends in the bsc (once again evidence that guys don't actually care that men hang out with women a lot as long as they're hot -- like in Logan Likes Mary Anne!).
lowlights/nitpicks:
-mary anne brings jenny and andrea prezzioso to watch logan practice for track tryouts and mary anne pays no attention while jenny runs out in the track causing logan and another boy to crash into each other. why aren't you with jenny, mary anne? also why did you go to watch him anyway? idiot. I hate mary anne.
-logan doesn't advocate for what he needs and then gets mad when nobody reads his mind. I hate these kinds of plot points (like in Mallory on Strike).
-johnny hobart disappears at the health fair (when logan is babysitting him). king (the meanest of the bullies) finds him, and he says something about how if the bsc needs more male baby-sitters they should ask him. maybe he wasn't serious but I don't really know, and kristy is so mean to him after that. give him a chance! maybe he is one of those bully tropes that is a bully because he's really just jealous.
-where are the women trying out for track? they only talk about men, but track is typically a coed sport.
no outfits.
snacks in claudia's room:
-chocolate marshmallow cookies under her pillow
-tortilla chips under her bed
-twinkies (n.s.)
-fritos (n.s.)
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!
February 8, 2017
Apparently BSC fans from around the world clamored for a story told from Logan's point of view, so Scholastic dutifully complied. This made it into my library when I had almost outgrown the series, so I have much more cynical memories of this book. I was probably eleven or possibly even twelve when I read it.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I remember I was surprised that this book was considered a "Reader's Request" because it never in my wildest dreams would have occurred to me to request a book specifically about Logan. I never cared for Logan, and as a kid I wasn't interested in reading a long story about him.
Everyone being really, really upset that Jeff Schafer has to have an appendectomy. Mary Anne is crying (well, I guess she's always crying) and Dawn goes rushing off to California to be with him. Even as a kid this sounded like an extreme reaction to me. By the time I read this is I knew plenty of kids and adults who had had their appendix out, and I knew it wasn't that big a deal. I know they say that Stacey's uncle almost died from a ruptured appendix, but I have never heard of that happening. It's even more ridiculous when you consider Dawn has to miss weeks and weeks of school just hanging around, waiting for Jeff to recover.
Logan baby sits the Hobart boys and they make up a game about attacking bears in the woods or something. To pre-teen me this sounded exactly like the kind of stupid game boys would invent, and I thought this chapter was really annoying to read. However, as an adult. . .
Things I've considered since reading this as adult:
. . . reading the chapter about Logan baby sitting for the Hobarts made me laugh out loud. The game is so funny and ridiculous, and it's written exactly the way small boys play. Seeing it through teenage Logan's eyes is hilarious because he has some dry humor about it, which the boys are too young to pick up on. They have a great time yelling and running, and I'm wishing I could be there to play too, when. . . Logan's middle school male friends show up. And prove how lame boys can be. The big, dumb jock on Logan's football team is named Clarence King, and he's always making fun of Logan. The things he really likes to pick on him for are baby sitting, and hanging out with Mary Anne, which sounds ridiculous, unless you start to wonder if Clarence is stuck so deep in the closet that the only way he can communicate with any male is to make fun of him for having a girlfriend. It just doesn't make sense otherwise, unless Clarence and Logan were in second grade. I can see seven or eight year old boys teasing each other for having a girlfriend, but I can't see eighth grade boys giving each other that much grief for having a girlfriend. Of course, it's been a long time since I was in middle school.
Logan says exactly the thing I thought happened when he and Mary Anne broke up: Mary Anne always acted so shy and passive that he assumed he had to make all their decisions, and that's why he started acting like a control freak. I thought so! It's refreshing to hear about their breakup from his side for once.
Logan's father sounds exactly like your typical man who is awkward and uncomfortable discussing anything other than sports. He's weirded out that his son (who's super athletic and plays on every sports team SMS offers) earns extra money by baby sitting occasionally. What on earth is he going to do when Logan comes out of the closet? What's sad to think about is that maybe Logan will never come out because he's afraid of his dad's reaction. When he tries to tell his dad that he's bothered by his team making fun of him for baby sitting, Mr Bruno seems to deliberately misunderstand why Logan is upset. He tries to justify Logan's being a baby sitter because his girlfriend tells him to do it, not because he really wants to do it. Someday those guys will have a really hot girlfriend who bosses them around he tells Logan. Then they'll understand why Logan appeared to be interested in baby sitting. This point is proved at the end of the book when Logan's track teammates realize that Logan's cheering section is full of hot girls. Of course we never hear about any of these potential matches working out, presumably because the girls in the BSC have higher expectations than a bunch of dumb jocks. (Note that Clarence King was one of the only boys NOT expressing any interest in the hot girls.)
Logan keeps referring to Mary Anne's father as "Felix" like Felix Unger in The Odd Couple. It's cute and funny at first, but then. . . it's just not. Probably like a real-life Logan would be.
Even though this is a Special Reader's Request(!) Logan still describes every single baby sitter, and every single aspect of how the club runs in excruciating detail. As a reader I would have requested that information not appear in this particular book. I assume you are only reading this book because you are a die-hard BSC fan, and not because you were browsing through the library and thought this looked like the greatest book ever. On the other hand, I got into the BSC series by picking up Dawn's Wicked Stepsister at the library completely randomly. Maybe I wouldn't have been so into it if those characters hadn't been described in such detail, assuring me that there were plenty of their stories out in the world. Still, I think it would have been hilarious if instead Logan had described SMS background boys like Austin Bentley, Pete Black, and Rick Chow in minute detail, including all their likes and dislikes, their family dynamics, and exactly what clothes they were wearing.
The stupid baby sitters really put the screws to Logan in this book. First they gang up and high-pressure him into enlisting as a full-time member of the BSC. He tries to tell them that he has a lot going on, but they insist that he can skip football and track practice because their staffing situation qualifies as an emergency, and of course he can make the meetings because practice gets out early enough. And OF COURSE, even though they just made a huge fuss about how they have so many new clients, and not enough baby sitters to go around, they immediately decide to take on a big project and have a booth at an upcoming local health fair. They decide to do this within five minutes of telling Logan that they are just so busy that they absolutely can't be without a member for two weeks! Maybe if you didn't take on so many ridiculous projects you baby sitters could get some actual baby sitting done. Logan is pretty upbeat about it, because the health fair makes him think of his brother, who has severe asthma. But if I were Logan I would be pissed off. Even when he tells them in no uncertain terms that he needs to quit, Kristy still tries to guilt him into staying for another week. Stupid Baby Sitters Cult.
This book is sort of wonderful for a lot of reasons. I did not appreciate it as a kid, but as an adult I really enjoyed the 1990s version of how boys view each other. Logan is constantly made fun by his teammates for being a baby sitter, and although he's embarrassed by it, and somewhat ashamed of his baby sitting skills, he knows that he can't react to this kind of teasing in front of his charges because their feelings will be hurt. He tells the Hobart boys that some boys think of baby sitting as a job for girls, and therefore not as important as jobs that are considered for men only (like sports). I like this distinction a lot because it not only points out the sexism of baby sitting being a pastime for girls, and playing sports being a pastime for boys, but that the sexism goes deeper because it assumes that sports is the worthwhile pastime because boys do it, and baby sitting is the silly pastime because girls do it. Logan tells the Hobarts that he thinks baby sitting is just as important as sports, and proves it to them by playing their camping games, and showing them how he trains for track. He's fed up with the stupid teasing and I can't blame him (his team constantly refers to him as a girl, call him "Lois" and throw easy catches to him), but he's more annoyed by the monotony of dealing with it. (At one point he wonders if King will become an old man who still refers to Logan as a girl.) I also really, really liked that Logan's voice is unique to the girls of the BSC because he's clearly a boy. He jokes like a boy, and observes like a boy, and even though some girly details slip in it's usually because one of the BSC members has called it to his attention. Reading this book actually made me like Logan a lot more. It was nice to have him fleshed out beyond the long-suffering guy who has to deal with Mary Anne's social awkwardness.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I remember I was surprised that this book was considered a "Reader's Request" because it never in my wildest dreams would have occurred to me to request a book specifically about Logan. I never cared for Logan, and as a kid I wasn't interested in reading a long story about him.
Everyone being really, really upset that Jeff Schafer has to have an appendectomy. Mary Anne is crying (well, I guess she's always crying) and Dawn goes rushing off to California to be with him. Even as a kid this sounded like an extreme reaction to me. By the time I read this is I knew plenty of kids and adults who had had their appendix out, and I knew it wasn't that big a deal. I know they say that Stacey's uncle almost died from a ruptured appendix, but I have never heard of that happening. It's even more ridiculous when you consider Dawn has to miss weeks and weeks of school just hanging around, waiting for Jeff to recover.
Logan baby sits the Hobart boys and they make up a game about attacking bears in the woods or something. To pre-teen me this sounded exactly like the kind of stupid game boys would invent, and I thought this chapter was really annoying to read. However, as an adult. . .
Things I've considered since reading this as adult:
. . . reading the chapter about Logan baby sitting for the Hobarts made me laugh out loud. The game is so funny and ridiculous, and it's written exactly the way small boys play. Seeing it through teenage Logan's eyes is hilarious because he has some dry humor about it, which the boys are too young to pick up on. They have a great time yelling and running, and I'm wishing I could be there to play too, when. . . Logan's middle school male friends show up. And prove how lame boys can be. The big, dumb jock on Logan's football team is named Clarence King, and he's always making fun of Logan. The things he really likes to pick on him for are baby sitting, and hanging out with Mary Anne, which sounds ridiculous, unless you start to wonder if Clarence is stuck so deep in the closet that the only way he can communicate with any male is to make fun of him for having a girlfriend. It just doesn't make sense otherwise, unless Clarence and Logan were in second grade. I can see seven or eight year old boys teasing each other for having a girlfriend, but I can't see eighth grade boys giving each other that much grief for having a girlfriend. Of course, it's been a long time since I was in middle school.
Logan says exactly the thing I thought happened when he and Mary Anne broke up: Mary Anne always acted so shy and passive that he assumed he had to make all their decisions, and that's why he started acting like a control freak. I thought so! It's refreshing to hear about their breakup from his side for once.
Logan's father sounds exactly like your typical man who is awkward and uncomfortable discussing anything other than sports. He's weirded out that his son (who's super athletic and plays on every sports team SMS offers) earns extra money by baby sitting occasionally. What on earth is he going to do when Logan comes out of the closet? What's sad to think about is that maybe Logan will never come out because he's afraid of his dad's reaction. When he tries to tell his dad that he's bothered by his team making fun of him for baby sitting, Mr Bruno seems to deliberately misunderstand why Logan is upset. He tries to justify Logan's being a baby sitter because his girlfriend tells him to do it, not because he really wants to do it. Someday those guys will have a really hot girlfriend who bosses them around he tells Logan. Then they'll understand why Logan appeared to be interested in baby sitting. This point is proved at the end of the book when Logan's track teammates realize that Logan's cheering section is full of hot girls. Of course we never hear about any of these potential matches working out, presumably because the girls in the BSC have higher expectations than a bunch of dumb jocks. (Note that Clarence King was one of the only boys NOT expressing any interest in the hot girls.)
Logan keeps referring to Mary Anne's father as "Felix" like Felix Unger in The Odd Couple. It's cute and funny at first, but then. . . it's just not. Probably like a real-life Logan would be.
Even though this is a Special Reader's Request(!) Logan still describes every single baby sitter, and every single aspect of how the club runs in excruciating detail. As a reader I would have requested that information not appear in this particular book. I assume you are only reading this book because you are a die-hard BSC fan, and not because you were browsing through the library and thought this looked like the greatest book ever. On the other hand, I got into the BSC series by picking up Dawn's Wicked Stepsister at the library completely randomly. Maybe I wouldn't have been so into it if those characters hadn't been described in such detail, assuring me that there were plenty of their stories out in the world. Still, I think it would have been hilarious if instead Logan had described SMS background boys like Austin Bentley, Pete Black, and Rick Chow in minute detail, including all their likes and dislikes, their family dynamics, and exactly what clothes they were wearing.
The stupid baby sitters really put the screws to Logan in this book. First they gang up and high-pressure him into enlisting as a full-time member of the BSC. He tries to tell them that he has a lot going on, but they insist that he can skip football and track practice because their staffing situation qualifies as an emergency, and of course he can make the meetings because practice gets out early enough. And OF COURSE, even though they just made a huge fuss about how they have so many new clients, and not enough baby sitters to go around, they immediately decide to take on a big project and have a booth at an upcoming local health fair. They decide to do this within five minutes of telling Logan that they are just so busy that they absolutely can't be without a member for two weeks! Maybe if you didn't take on so many ridiculous projects you baby sitters could get some actual baby sitting done. Logan is pretty upbeat about it, because the health fair makes him think of his brother, who has severe asthma. But if I were Logan I would be pissed off. Even when he tells them in no uncertain terms that he needs to quit, Kristy still tries to guilt him into staying for another week. Stupid Baby Sitters Cult.
This book is sort of wonderful for a lot of reasons. I did not appreciate it as a kid, but as an adult I really enjoyed the 1990s version of how boys view each other. Logan is constantly made fun by his teammates for being a baby sitter, and although he's embarrassed by it, and somewhat ashamed of his baby sitting skills, he knows that he can't react to this kind of teasing in front of his charges because their feelings will be hurt. He tells the Hobart boys that some boys think of baby sitting as a job for girls, and therefore not as important as jobs that are considered for men only (like sports). I like this distinction a lot because it not only points out the sexism of baby sitting being a pastime for girls, and playing sports being a pastime for boys, but that the sexism goes deeper because it assumes that sports is the worthwhile pastime because boys do it, and baby sitting is the silly pastime because girls do it. Logan tells the Hobarts that he thinks baby sitting is just as important as sports, and proves it to them by playing their camping games, and showing them how he trains for track. He's fed up with the stupid teasing and I can't blame him (his team constantly refers to him as a girl, call him "Lois" and throw easy catches to him), but he's more annoyed by the monotony of dealing with it. (At one point he wonders if King will become an old man who still refers to Logan as a girl.) I also really, really liked that Logan's voice is unique to the girls of the BSC because he's clearly a boy. He jokes like a boy, and observes like a boy, and even though some girly details slip in it's usually because one of the BSC members has called it to his attention. Reading this book actually made me like Logan a lot more. It was nice to have him fleshed out beyond the long-suffering guy who has to deal with Mary Anne's social awkwardness.
August 16, 2021
You already know everything there is to know about the girl members of the BSC, so now we get to learn a lot about Logan (associate member, and also Mary Anne’s Boyfriend).
Logan loves babysitting, but he also enjoys playing sports. When these two worlds collide and the boys in his class start bullying him about babysitting…he doesn’t really know what to do.
I enjoyed this book, it was nice to read from Logan’s perspective for once. I also love how he ended up handling things in the end.
Logan loves babysitting, but he also enjoys playing sports. When these two worlds collide and the boys in his class start bullying him about babysitting…he doesn’t really know what to do.
I enjoyed this book, it was nice to read from Logan’s perspective for once. I also love how he ended up handling things in the end.
November 18, 2010
goodreads ate my review. long story short: logan fills in as a regular member of the babysitters club while dawn is in california waiting for jeff to recover from an emergency appendectomy. he has to take on more sitting jobs than usual, causing him to miss football practices. some of his teammates discover that this is why he's missing practice, & they ridicule him. they call him logan & say he's a girl & it's all very sexist.
also, there's a health fair happening. kristy signs the club up for a "safe babysitting" table & the sitters agree to bring their charges to the health fair. logan brings the younger hobart boys & manages to lose johnny, the youngest one, in the bathroom. king, the football player who has been teasing logan to most mercilessly, finds johnny & returns him to the babysitters club table right before logan really panics & calls the police. logan is grateful for johnny's safe return, but he's resentful that babysitting is causing him to be teased so much, & his confidence in his babysitting abilities has been undermined. he quits the club altogether, & finally scuffles with his teammates until they back off & stop teasing so much.
logan goes out for track & gets a place on the team. his new track teammates happen to think it's really cool that a big crowd of girls & little kids came to cheer logan on. they all wants dates with the babysitters club members, & logan feels better about track. he also misses babysitting, so he goes to a meeting & asks to be re-instated as an associate member. happy endings.
it was obvious that ann wrote this book. she's actually good at writing YA fiction, unlike her ghostwriters, who turned her characters into caricatures who constantly find themselves in unrealistic, hackneyed situations. logan's problems here are fairly realistic. also, mary anne continued to annoy the shit out of me. she cries & cries & cries hysterically when she hears that jeff needs an emergency appendectomy. so much so that logan momentarily thinks that maybe dawn died or something. i really can't stand people who react that strongly to other people's problems. it's not nice & supportive. it's a drain on the emotional resources of the people who may need or want to support the person actually having the problem. mary anne sucks.
also, there's a health fair happening. kristy signs the club up for a "safe babysitting" table & the sitters agree to bring their charges to the health fair. logan brings the younger hobart boys & manages to lose johnny, the youngest one, in the bathroom. king, the football player who has been teasing logan to most mercilessly, finds johnny & returns him to the babysitters club table right before logan really panics & calls the police. logan is grateful for johnny's safe return, but he's resentful that babysitting is causing him to be teased so much, & his confidence in his babysitting abilities has been undermined. he quits the club altogether, & finally scuffles with his teammates until they back off & stop teasing so much.
logan goes out for track & gets a place on the team. his new track teammates happen to think it's really cool that a big crowd of girls & little kids came to cheer logan on. they all wants dates with the babysitters club members, & logan feels better about track. he also misses babysitting, so he goes to a meeting & asks to be re-instated as an associate member. happy endings.
it was obvious that ann wrote this book. she's actually good at writing YA fiction, unlike her ghostwriters, who turned her characters into caricatures who constantly find themselves in unrealistic, hackneyed situations. logan's problems here are fairly realistic. also, mary anne continued to annoy the shit out of me. she cries & cries & cries hysterically when she hears that jeff needs an emergency appendectomy. so much so that logan momentarily thinks that maybe dawn died or something. i really can't stand people who react that strongly to other people's problems. it's not nice & supportive. it's a drain on the emotional resources of the people who may need or want to support the person actually having the problem. mary anne sucks.
December 8, 2017
Logan was never a particular favorite of mine. This book was okay though, despite his narration and the fact that they always act like us Kentuckians talk like mouth breathing nitwits. Hint: we don't talk in the weird way that they insist that Logan talks. I don't know where they get this stuff from.
Long story short, Logan takes over for Dawn in the club when she is allowed to somehow miss a couple of weeks of school to go to California because her brother had to have his appendix taken out. These kids sure do miss an awful lot of school for some seriously stupid shit. Anyway. Logan is going to meetings and taking more jobs and boys on the football tea with him start making fun of him for it. Which is....actually very realistic, so you can tell a ghost writer probably didn't actually touch this book! MIRACLE!
The most annoying things that happen is that there's a health fair and Kristy insists that the BSC have a booth. Because that is where 11 and 13 year old babysitters belong. At a health fair. The other annoying thing is the fact that Mary Anne bawled like somebody had died when they found out about Jeff and asked Logan to join the club. Someone smack her already.
Long story short, Logan takes over for Dawn in the club when she is allowed to somehow miss a couple of weeks of school to go to California because her brother had to have his appendix taken out. These kids sure do miss an awful lot of school for some seriously stupid shit. Anyway. Logan is going to meetings and taking more jobs and boys on the football tea with him start making fun of him for it. Which is....actually very realistic, so you can tell a ghost writer probably didn't actually touch this book! MIRACLE!
The most annoying things that happen is that there's a health fair and Kristy insists that the BSC have a booth. Because that is where 11 and 13 year old babysitters belong. At a health fair. The other annoying thing is the fact that Mary Anne bawled like somebody had died when they found out about Jeff and asked Logan to join the club. Someone smack her already.
August 8, 2020
I never read this as a kid, never knew it existed, and frankly I'm not sure if I would've read it because I really didn't give a damn about Logan. Apparently this was a reader request. Go figure. So the book was as I expected. I didn't care a lot for it. Logan has a lot going on trying out for track, playing on the football team and baby sitting. So when Dawn's brother has his appendix removed for some reason both Dawn and her mother rushed to California. I can understand his mom, but don't get why Dawn had to go. I mean my grandfather had a major heart attack and only my dad went to see him right after and we stayed at home by the phone. But they needed a plot so I guess that's why. Logan is basically bullied to become the alternate officer. Basically he's bullied throughout the book, mostly by his teammates. Of course only boys seem to be on the track team which is odd. I knew girls who ran track, I even know a girl who played high school football. Mary Anne cries a lot, over really dumb things, Kristy is her usual asshole self. There's a dumb plot about a health fair that Kristy forces them to join. Logan loses a kid he's sitting for quits the club and focuses on sports. This was boring, I'm not a fan of Logan, it wasn't horrible but hey I somehow got through.
July 27, 2024
This is a refreshing change of pace even if it’s a little contrived. I love the concept of letting Logan have a book and this one was pretty impressive.
Logan is asked to temporarily replace Dawn who has to go to California to be with an ailing Jeff and struggles to balance his commitments to the BSC and sports, while also enduring teasing from his teammates. I have to say, I liked this one. Logan’s voice is strong and very different from the other members who are often indistinguishable. It extends even to Chapter 2 where he describes the other BSC members in a way that sounds convincingly boyish. It’s also nice to see inside Logan’s head and see what he’s like when Mary Anne isn’t around. His perspective just felt very realistic! Logan getting to be baby-sit the Hobart boys was adorable and it was cute to see how differently they interact with a male sitter. The teasing from Logan’s teammates was brutal but honestly probably realistic, too. Honestly, aside from the sloppiness of the setup and the nothingburger of the health fair this was nice. It makes sense that Logan would have his conviction to be a boy baby-sitter shaken by the ribbing though of course he ultimately sticks to his guns and rejoins the BSC.
Logan is asked to temporarily replace Dawn who has to go to California to be with an ailing Jeff and struggles to balance his commitments to the BSC and sports, while also enduring teasing from his teammates. I have to say, I liked this one. Logan’s voice is strong and very different from the other members who are often indistinguishable. It extends even to Chapter 2 where he describes the other BSC members in a way that sounds convincingly boyish. It’s also nice to see inside Logan’s head and see what he’s like when Mary Anne isn’t around. His perspective just felt very realistic! Logan getting to be baby-sit the Hobart boys was adorable and it was cute to see how differently they interact with a male sitter. The teasing from Logan’s teammates was brutal but honestly probably realistic, too. Honestly, aside from the sloppiness of the setup and the nothingburger of the health fair this was nice. It makes sense that Logan would have his conviction to be a boy baby-sitter shaken by the ribbing though of course he ultimately sticks to his guns and rejoins the BSC.
December 5, 2021
'm totally uninterested in "Logan's story," unless his story is a full confession to masterminding the events of Mary Anne's Bad Luck Mystery, Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger, and Mary Anne Misses Logan. I really don't care about his fragile masculinity, especially after just reading about my BSC universe king Bart Taylor letting Kristy charge in while he stayed behind with the kids in Kristy and the Missing Child.
That said, this wasn't extremely terrible. I actually liked Logan's "voice," and he comes across WAY better in this than any Mary Anne book. Logan also hilariously highlights how cultish the BSC can be, and I can genuinely say this was the first book where I was like… Logan, maybe you should leave Mary Anne and this pack of weirdos behind.
That said, this wasn't extremely terrible. I actually liked Logan's "voice," and he comes across WAY better in this than any Mary Anne book. Logan also hilariously highlights how cultish the BSC can be, and I can genuinely say this was the first book where I was like… Logan, maybe you should leave Mary Anne and this pack of weirdos behind.
July 29, 2025
A fun, quick, easy read. Logan has such a distinct narrating voice, and I loved getting to see the BSC girls through his eyes---it was especially sweet to read about how much he admires Kristy's ideas and leadership skills.
I did find it a little odd that Logan didn't just stand up for himself at the beginning since he's usually characterized as being pretty forward and outspoken, not as someone with that many people-pleasing tendencies. Still, this was a good story with a nice message about bullying and keeping a healthy work-life balance.
I did find it a little odd that Logan didn't just stand up for himself at the beginning since he's usually characterized as being pretty forward and outspoken, not as someone with that many people-pleasing tendencies. Still, this was a good story with a nice message about bullying and keeping a healthy work-life balance.
December 26, 2019
I appreciate that, in a book series with seven main characters, each girl has her own unique voice. This doesn't change in Logan's book, he feels like a different character than any other narrator we've had, and it's nice to have that change and see the BSC from the male perspective. I enjoy the story, I like Logan and the predicament he's in and the trouble he goes through. Definitely a solid and interesting entry in the Baby-sitters Club series.
September 5, 2021
Honestly this one wouldn't be awful if not for the subplot that contributed no plot or substance except for a place for Logan to be seen with his charges. Also, he says the guys probably went for free food...to a health fair...and then they make fun of him for eating "health foods" later on.
But the Hobarts are super cute.
But the Hobarts are super cute.
June 1, 2023
Well. Still more gender essentializing than I would like, but it seems like more a function of when this book was written than anything else. It actually deals surprisingly well with toxic masculinity (much better than I'd expected), and Logan is WAY better in this book than any previous ones.
July 11, 2017
I remember reading a couple of these "special edition" books. I clearly recall the colour of this book in particular. I don't remember thinking it was anything 'special' though.
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August 17, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
January 22, 2021
(LL)
It was nice to finally see some things through Logan’s perspective, but nothing super interesting happened besides that.
It was nice to finally see some things through Logan’s perspective, but nothing super interesting happened besides that.
April 6, 2022
I really liked this book, I wish Logan had more than just two.
July 6, 2022
This one has not aged well.. plus I never really liked Logan.
September 6, 2022
This is an interesting addition to the series, I somehow never knew that there were a couple books focused on Logan.
October 10, 2023
Why doesn't Logan answer his bullies by pointing out that at age 13, he has a PAYING job?
March 8, 2025
2023 REVIEW: This was fun. I loved having a whole story solely from Logan's point of view, and reading about the challenges of being a boy baby-sitter and a jock whose friends think baby-sitting's for girls.
I think Kristy shouldn't have pressured Logan so much to fill in for Dawn; I get that Shannon is busy with other commitments, but as Logan himself notes, he also has commitments, and I don't like that Kristy is all "needing an extra full-time BSC member is an emergency worth skipping football practices for." Like, no it's not. Emergencies mean like a family member in the hospital or something, and football is important to Logan, so back off, Kristy.
Still, I like Logan's realization at the end, that he loves both baby-sitting and sports and needs to balance both in his life, instead of giving up one or the other. (Like he gave up lots of sports to fill in for Dawn at the BSC, and like he tried giving up baby-sitting altogether to get back into training to try out for the track team.)
I think Kristy shouldn't have pressured Logan so much to fill in for Dawn; I get that Shannon is busy with other commitments, but as Logan himself notes, he also has commitments, and I don't like that Kristy is all "needing an extra full-time BSC member is an emergency worth skipping football practices for." Like, no it's not. Emergencies mean like a family member in the hospital or something, and football is important to Logan, so back off, Kristy.
Still, I like Logan's realization at the end, that he loves both baby-sitting and sports and needs to balance both in his life, instead of giving up one or the other. (Like he gave up lots of sports to fill in for Dawn at the BSC, and like he tried giving up baby-sitting altogether to get back into training to try out for the track team.)
December 11, 2009
I really liked reading about things from Logan's point of view. This was all about how his football buddies thought he was a sissy for baby-sitting and hanging around with girls.
June 30, 2010
I can understand Logan's friends giving him a hard time, but his father doesn't understand babysitting either? That's sad.
November 4, 2013
In which a boy learns that he is not as naturally equipped as the girls to balance babysitting with jr. high extra-curriculars.
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