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The Baby-Sitters Club #118

Kristy Thomas, Dog Trainer

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Kristy's newest sitting job is challenging. Ten-year-old Erin was recently blinded in an accident and is not ready to rely on people. At the same time, Kristy's family is training a puppy to be a guide dog.

114 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

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548 people want to read

About the author

Ann M. Martin

1,098 books3,047 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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175 (37%)
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47 (10%)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH.
448 reviews116 followers
October 11, 2018
this is my first time reading this book.

in this serious issue/educational book by ghostwriter Nola Thacker, kristy’s family helps train a guide dog puppy for the guide dog foundation on long island. they’re inspired to do so by one of their neighbors, deb cooper, who went blind almost out of nowhere due to glaucoma. deb is a classmate of shannon’s, and the bsc members start babysitting for her younger siblings. deb is completely miserable, understandably so, but is somehow still not sympathetic at all. perhaps it’s because she keeps insisting she can do everything herself and then getting mad when people don’t help her. or perhaps it’s because anytime anyone seems to be having a remotely acceptable time being alive, she tries to make them feel guilty for not suffering the way she is. it gets so bad that one day when kristy is sitting, deb disappears. kristy goes outside and finds that she had left the house by herself and was trying to cross a busy street to go to the video store. she almost gets hit by a car, but kristy helps her back onto the sidewalk. kristy tells her she could’ve been killed, and deb responds, “maybe that wouldn’t have been so bad.” DAMN. kristy responds that she has friends and family who love her, and deb says she doesn’t have any friends anymore. kristy says it’s impossible to be friends with her because she treats people like she doesn’t want them around. deb responds that she doesn't want anyone feeling sorry for her and kristy says, "stop acting like someone people should feel sorry for!" DAMN. this is a wake up call for deb, who starts working on being independent and stops being a jerk about it. all of the titular guide dog plotlines are way less interesting. at one point karen lets scout chew on an old shoe and kristy gets mad at her. and someone yells at kristy for bringing a dog into a grocery store. that’s about it. oh, and there’s a lot of kristy thinking about how noble her family is for how they’re training dogs that will help people like deb one day. smuggity smug smug.

highlights, all of which are BOOM moments:
-relating to deb’s desire to avoid people, stacey says it made her uncomfortable when people treated her as though they felt sorry for her when they found out she had diabetes. abby says that it doesn't make her uncomfortable when people treat her that way because of her asthma, it makes her angry, and looks knowingly at kristy. BOOM. abby isn’t gonna let kristy forget she was a jerk in Welcome to the BSC, Abby
-deb tells kristy how she went blind suddenly and tells her it could happen to anyone. confident kristy is shaken by it. BOOM.
-the moment deb says she doesn't want anyone feeling sorry for her and kristy says "stop acting like someone people should feel sorry for!" BOOM.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-scout jumps on strangers and they all say, "it's okay." kristy tries to stress to them that it’s not okay because she’s a guide dog in training. but also, it's not okay. even if the dog weren't training to be a guide, that's not behavior you should encourage in any dog ever.
-kristy gets other bsc members to bring their charges over to hang out with deb and her siblings, thinking that deb could use human interaction. but they don’t ask her if it’s okay, and she is understandably pissed.
-a woman yells at kristy that dogs aren't allowed in the grocery story. the woman finds the manager who tells her that guide dogs in training like all other service animals are welcome in the store. and the woman says she's taking her business elsewhere. isn't it illegal to not let service animals in your grocery store? can’t the manager just say that to the woman?
-karen gives jackie's busted cleats to the dogs and kristy is mad and criticizes her intensely, saying that she may ruin scout's chances of becoming a guard dog, and then kristy is apologetic. but karen screwed up. kristy shouldn't be mean or anything but how thoughtless can you be, even for a 7 year old? they talk about how precocious she is but maybe they just mean she uses big words, not that she's world-wise at all

outfits
claud outfit:
-"Her ensemble included a giant Hawaiian print shirt worn over hot-pink bicycle shorts, hot-pink-and-lime-green socks, and an ancient pair of formerly black Doc Martens that she had painted in swirls of electric color. She'd knotted a pink plastic flower into each shoelace and had pulled her hair back with another pink plastic flower. Her earrings, which of course she'd made herself, were dangling sprays of tiny pink, green, and yellow beads."

stacey outfit:
-"She had on black jeans, a black cropped cotton sweater, and soft, srunchy ankle boots. The color made her blue eyes look dramatic, and her earrings, which were tiny coils of gold braid, finished the outfit."

jackie disaster:
-in sliding into third base, peels the sole off one of his cleats

snacks in claudia’s room:
-chocolate chip cookies home-baked by her mother's assistant (n.s.)
-cheez doodles (n.s.)
Profile Image for Kerri.
57 reviews4 followers
January 21, 2020
Surprisingly well done!

As someone who is sighted but spends a lot of time with people who are blind or partially sighted (several with guide dogs) there were some things that irritated me about this book, mostly how it took what seemed to be so long for the kid to get a white cane. I kept thinking to myself “someone get this kid a cane!”
I know it’s fiction but I feel like even if she wasn’t trained to use it “properly”, she should’ve had one around! At the very least could her family could’ve been taught to sighted guide properly rather than this backward way everyone seems to do, not just in this book!

The guide dogs stuff seems fairly accurate to me, which is great. Said in a different way many of the self deprecating comments Deb made, my friends make on a daily basis in a different tone as jokes or comments that can (sometimes) put people at ease. Someone will ask my friend Steve “how are you?” “Fine! Blind as ever!” with a big smile; “would you like the receipt?” “Is it in Braille?” - clearly, I know the fictional kid isn’t there yet.

With some clarifications, I’d definitely recommend this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Michael.
Author 4 books15 followers
October 29, 2021
Kristy's family gets a puppy named Scout. They train her to be a guide dog for the blind. Scout learns everything perfectly on the first try, so not much training is required. (Kind of weird that a book with "Dog Trainer" in the title skips over all the dog training, huh?) Scout's only problems are when Karen accidentally gives her a shoe, and when a mean woman demands that the dog be kicked out of the grocery store.

I don't think the dog storyline had enough content, to fill up an entire book. There were places where it felt like the author was stretching out the story. A good example would be the fact that this book has two separate chapters, dedicated to a dog party.

In a serious subplot, a twelve-year-old named Deb has recently become blind. Deb is angry at life, and she's mean to the baby-sitters for the entire book. Her story was unpleasant to read at times, but I was okay with it, overall.
Profile Image for Jaclyn.
2,570 reviews5 followers
April 10, 2023
This was cute. Not much story but the training scenes make me want to train dogs. Scout is adorable.
Profile Image for Samantha.
Author 39 books34 followers
October 24, 2017
First off, what's up with the Goodreads blurb about this book? It changed Deb's name to Erin. Wasn't Erin the girl that Abby clashed with in the unified soccer team book? Oh well, whatever! Moving on!

The plot of this book was full of good intentions, that were executed in the most boring way possible. While it's good for kids to be aware of people with disabilities and about things like guide dogs, did we really need a book that's basically nothing but talking about training a dog? I mean I found that interesting as a kid, I even earned a scout patch for training my dog, but....it's just not so much fun to read about. Throw in too much Karen Brewer and a Krushers practice and I was snoozing.
Profile Image for Cassandra Doon.
Author 57 books84 followers
March 18, 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 Maeve.
2,701 reviews26 followers
June 3, 2023
When Deb Cooper becomes blind due to glaucoma, Kristy and her family are inspired to volunteer as puppy trainers for the Guide Dog Foundation. The Thomas family is given Scout to train. While Kristy cares for Scout she must also work with the BSC to help Deb move from her feelings of anger and resentment towards acceptance.
Profile Image for Devon.
1,103 reviews1 follower
September 10, 2024
Are the...BSC books sort of on a roll? Here near the end of the series?A little predictable, but I was surprised with how dark Deb's character was in this book--I felt her anger was truly palpable. The main (?) story about Scout the guide dog in training was cute, but didn't feel like it had much substance compared to the B story.
Profile Image for Tonia Christle.
Author 10 books9 followers
August 6, 2021
Not sure how to feel about this one -- since not just anyone can raise guide dog puppies -- but I guess they were evaluated and passed the test? I'm also not sure about the disability representation -- since I'm not blind myself, I don't feel I can judge.
Profile Image for Ashley.
1,744 reviews33 followers
June 26, 2023
This book was brought to you by the Guide Dog Foundation of Smithtown, NY.

Seriously though, this was a decent enough book, though it felt like one big ad for guide dogs. And it frustrates me when they introduce a new character just for the plot (and usually for a Very Special Episode.)
Profile Image for Lianna Kendig.
1,016 reviews25 followers
January 18, 2021
(LL)
The lessons in here were very good; however, the story could have been told a lot better. It didn’t get the point across well enough to get past that three star mark.
Profile Image for Liesl Miller.
491 reviews5 followers
Read
November 8, 2023
As a person who adopted a dog a few months ago, I chose a great time to read this!
Profile Image for Ciara.
Author 3 books418 followers
June 27, 2011
well, damn. this book has it all: kristy is the narrator, the plot is dog-centric, there's a healthy heaping dose of karen, there is at least on entire chapter devoted a krushers practice, & just to round things out, there's an angry blind girl. what's not love? aside from EVERYTHING.

watson has decided that the family may like to help raise & train a seeing-eye guide puppy. there's a bunch of boring information about how such dogs are trained which any person in the year 2011 could just google if they were interested. the family is all for it, & the guide dog foundation approves them without a lot of fuss. they even have a puppy all ready to be trained. another family had it, but they had to move suddenly, so it's up for grabs. even though later in the book, much is made of the fact that the dogs can be trained pretty much anywhere. so that was a little confusing.

the thomas-brewers' guide puppy is a chocolate lab named scout & she sounds pretty cute, but unfortunately, the ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK is just about how to train a guide puppy. most boring plot ever? perhaps.

to spice things up a little, a new family is introduced. they are the cooper family. mrs. cooper works with watson at his insurance firm, & the coopers live in kristy's neighborhood. the kids go to stoneybrook day school. they are two little boys, jed & mark, & a 12-year-old girl named deb. deb recently came down with angle closure glaucoma & went blind. this is all feeling very mary from little house on the prairie. deb only recently got out of the hospital & hasn't gone back to school yet. she is having a lot of feelings (mainly bitterness) about her blindness. she refuses to see friends or anyone else, aside from her family & doctors.

the coopers call for a sitter for the younger boys & mary anne takes the job. she only has one brief run-in with deb, but it was enough to scare the pants off her, just because deb is not a sweet, gracious blind person who is taking her sudden loss of vision totally in stride. i'm not going to recap this totally stupid, ham-fisted plot. suffice to say, any part of the book that isn't tedious descriptions of the thomas-brewers sending scout to puppy obedience training is about deb lashing out at the world because of being blind.

at one point, karen gives scout an old softball cleat to chew on. even though she KNOWS that scout is being specially trained as a guide dog & that even regular every day dogs need to be trained not to chew on shoes. kristy tells watson about the transgression & he's all, "whatever. one softball cleat won't hurt her." & this is why karen gets away with murder.

kristy is supposed to be sitting for the cooper boys one afternoon, & keeping deb company. deb decides she wants to go to the video store & get some new movies to listen to. but the boys just got a new jungle gym set & want to play with it. kristy promises deb they will go to the video store later. deb storms inside & won't speak to kristy. a little while later, kristy goes inside to tell deb that everyone is ready to walk to the video store, but deb is gone. she has tried to walk to the video store on her own. kristy rushes after & guides her out of traffic. deb had become disoriented & almost got hit by a car. kristy kind of loses her temper & tells deb to get her shit together & let people be there for her. apparently this gets through to deb.

deb's brothers decide they want to get a guide dog for deb. deb is too young for a guide dog (apparently you have to be 16), but kristy invites her & the rest of the coopers to join the thomas-brewers at some special guide dog trainer appreciation day or something. deb has a surprisingly nice time & seems to finally be accepting her blindness. & this introduces yet another babysitters club trope (previous tropes include the discovery of secret diaries, valuable or important paintings that have just been painted over, unrealistic summer vacation romances, & public schools embezzling student funds): puppies solve everything. kristy was given a puppy after louie died, lou mcnally was given a puppy her adoptive parents to welcome her to the family, the nicholls boys get a puppy after their dad beats the crap out of him, & now deb cooper will (eventually) get a puppy to help with the blindness. only 22 books to go...
Profile Image for Leigh.
1,175 reviews
December 16, 2024
An we're back to the boring books again. Oh well it was fun while it lasted. This book was decent but dull. Watson announces they are going to foster a puppy that will be training as a guide dog. They take in a lab named Scout, there's way too much Karen so that's a no for me and it's a lot of info about training guide dogs. The b plot involves a young girl Debbie who went blind as a result of glaucoma. She's not adjusting well as expected I don't think any of us would. Kristy tells her off and it looks like things smooth out in the end. This one was a let down after the previous book.
Profile Image for April.
2,640 reviews175 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 Nancy.
213 reviews18 followers
November 1, 2013
In which K. Ron's family trains a guide dog and I die of boredom. I read this for the first time during my epic re-reading. I'm glad I've only read it once.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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