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The Baby-Sitters Club #53
Kristy for President
Kristy's not too happy with some things at Stoneybrook Middle School. The hot lunches, for example, look like dog food. And Kristy's class has to perform Mary Poppins for their annual play. How babyish can you get?
What the eighth grade really needs is a new class president. Someone who is organized and has great ideas. Someone like - Kristy!
But can Kristy coach a softball team, get straight A's, baby-sit, run the BSC, and be president? The Baby-sitters are about to find out!
153 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1992
68 people are currently reading
851 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,101 books3,053 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 - 30 of 46 reviews
December 3, 2021
Kristy books are such a chore
May 24, 2016
in this cautionary tale (seriously guys, just don't be kristy) penned by ghostwriter nola thacker, kristy runs for eighth grade class president even though she's overly busy with school, the bsc, coaching the krushers, and more. why? because she thinks it's her responsibility to be the class president because she thinks she would be good at it. see highlights for my thoughts on the mental gymnastics that control freaks like kristy (and, *cough*, uhm, me?) go through to convince themselves that it's their responsibility to control everyone else. meanwhile, in an inane subplot to beat all other inane subplots, jamie newton gets a bike and wants to learn to ride it but has trouble. seriously, a BUNCH of chapters are devoted to this.
highlights:
-some kristy quotes about the election: "I had to win, I had to. I was not being arrogant. I simply knew how important it was for me to be elected." "it was my responsibility to run for president." now you could read this and be annoyed at kristy and all, but I choose not to be annoyed because I get where she's coming from. if you are a control freak sometimes you get it into your head that things will implode if you're not there to take responsibility for them. by this point in my life, I know that I have tendencies towards thinking this way and so I try really hard to not put myself into supervisory roles whenever I can avoid them. this is why dumbledore repeatedly turned down the minister of magic position and harry broke the elder wand: "power was my weakness and temptation" (dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). and I'm a slytherin, so imagine how overly neurotic and controlling a leader I would be! I think that this aspect of the control freak personality was addressed and handled really well in this book. kristy finally decides to drop out of the presidential race because she doesn't have time for it. she even sort of admits that pete black would be an okay president and had some good ideas.
-for alan gray's presidential election speech he just asks everyone in the audience to stand up and then sit down and then says, "I've just proved to you what a good leader I am. you all did what I told you. so now I'm telling you to vote for me."
-kristy fails her science test because she's overworked and her teacher gives her a makeup. and she fails that one even worse. BOOM. this is what happens, kristy, when you overwork yourself!
-soooooooo many outfits! see the outfits after the lowlights/nitpicks
lowlights/nitpicks:
-the school play is mary poppins and all the bsc members agree that it's babyish. but stacey loves it! remember in Kristy's Big Day she takes kristy's cousins to see it, and in The Ghost at Dawn's House she votes to watch it at a slumber party?
-jamie's bike. ughhhhhhhhhh. I get that this is a plotline that is maybe helpful to kids who are trying to learn how to ride a bike, but HOLY JEEZ. every chapter about it is the same. also the baby-sitters coddle him. even after he makes his dad take the training wheels off (way too early since he isn't even steady on the bike WITH the training wheels) he forces the baby-sitters to hold the bike very tightly and push it (since he doesn't pedal at all) and brush leaves off the sidewalk along the way. after all of that he expects them to NOT drop him and the bike. baby-sitters, tell this kid that he's being ridiculous. tell him he needs to get steady with training wheels before he removes them. it takes a neighborhood kid's intervention to get this through to jamie, but WHY didn't the baby-sitters say anything before it came to that?
-there's a reference to dawn's reluctance to use white sugar, saying that she usually uses brown sugar. I think you mean raw sugar. brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses in it.
claudia outfits:
-"Today, for instance, Claudia was wearing lime green bicycle pants, a long, long bright pink shirt, and a cropped lime green striped shirt over that. She was also wearing black high-top leather sneakers with pink butterfly barrettes clipped onto the laces. She had two feather earrings in one ear (lime green, of course), and a tiny pink heart in the other."
-"Claudia was dressed fairly conservatively: white jeans, red shoes with big bows, a tropical jungle shirt with each button shaped like a piece of fruit, and her hair pulled to one side over her shoulder with a banana barrette."
-"Claud's hair was down, but she was wearing a hat. On the green hat ribbon was pinned a "Kristy +" button. Her tights were orange and her dress was tie-dyed every color you could think of. She was wearing her feather earrings and she'd drawn a star on her face next to her right eye."
stacey outfits:
-"Like that Monday, she was wearing a black skirt and tights that were two colors: one leg was red and the other was black. And her shoes were shiny black and laced up to the ankles. She was also wearing this enormous black turtleneck sweater with red flecks in it, and one round red earring and one square black one. Her hair, which was in a mid-perm stage around her face, was pulled back with this silver lamé band."
note: I'm picturing this:
-"Stacey had pulled her hair back into a braid with a silver hat pin stuck through it. She was wearing purple capri pants, soft black flat ankle boots, black-and-white-striped socks, and a black-and-white-checked shirt, only the checks were all different sizes. She had square silver earrings in her ears."
kristy outfit (in dialogue):
"black pants", "an enormous sweater of a sort of creamy brown, with little black and green stripes running across it", and "loafers"
kristy cafeteria food comments:
kristy: what is that stuff?
claudia: I like to think of it as art.
kristy: splatter art. you know, like in those horror movies...I think it's still alive.
snacks in claudia's room:
-sweet 'n' sour gummy bears (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)
-double-dipped chocolate oreos (n.s.) - huh?
-taco chips (n.s.)
-popcorn (n.s.)
-yogurt raisins (n.s.)
-tropical-flavored jellybeans (n.s.)
-fig newtons (n.s.)
-frookie cookies (n.s.)
highlights:
-some kristy quotes about the election: "I had to win, I had to. I was not being arrogant. I simply knew how important it was for me to be elected." "it was my responsibility to run for president." now you could read this and be annoyed at kristy and all, but I choose not to be annoyed because I get where she's coming from. if you are a control freak sometimes you get it into your head that things will implode if you're not there to take responsibility for them. by this point in my life, I know that I have tendencies towards thinking this way and so I try really hard to not put myself into supervisory roles whenever I can avoid them. this is why dumbledore repeatedly turned down the minister of magic position and harry broke the elder wand: "power was my weakness and temptation" (dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). and I'm a slytherin, so imagine how overly neurotic and controlling a leader I would be! I think that this aspect of the control freak personality was addressed and handled really well in this book. kristy finally decides to drop out of the presidential race because she doesn't have time for it. she even sort of admits that pete black would be an okay president and had some good ideas.
-for alan gray's presidential election speech he just asks everyone in the audience to stand up and then sit down and then says, "I've just proved to you what a good leader I am. you all did what I told you. so now I'm telling you to vote for me."
-kristy fails her science test because she's overworked and her teacher gives her a makeup. and she fails that one even worse. BOOM. this is what happens, kristy, when you overwork yourself!
-soooooooo many outfits! see the outfits after the lowlights/nitpicks
lowlights/nitpicks:
-the school play is mary poppins and all the bsc members agree that it's babyish. but stacey loves it! remember in Kristy's Big Day she takes kristy's cousins to see it, and in The Ghost at Dawn's House she votes to watch it at a slumber party?
-jamie's bike. ughhhhhhhhhh. I get that this is a plotline that is maybe helpful to kids who are trying to learn how to ride a bike, but HOLY JEEZ. every chapter about it is the same. also the baby-sitters coddle him. even after he makes his dad take the training wheels off (way too early since he isn't even steady on the bike WITH the training wheels) he forces the baby-sitters to hold the bike very tightly and push it (since he doesn't pedal at all) and brush leaves off the sidewalk along the way. after all of that he expects them to NOT drop him and the bike. baby-sitters, tell this kid that he's being ridiculous. tell him he needs to get steady with training wheels before he removes them. it takes a neighborhood kid's intervention to get this through to jamie, but WHY didn't the baby-sitters say anything before it came to that?
-there's a reference to dawn's reluctance to use white sugar, saying that she usually uses brown sugar. I think you mean raw sugar. brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses in it.
claudia outfits:
-"Today, for instance, Claudia was wearing lime green bicycle pants, a long, long bright pink shirt, and a cropped lime green striped shirt over that. She was also wearing black high-top leather sneakers with pink butterfly barrettes clipped onto the laces. She had two feather earrings in one ear (lime green, of course), and a tiny pink heart in the other."
-"Claudia was dressed fairly conservatively: white jeans, red shoes with big bows, a tropical jungle shirt with each button shaped like a piece of fruit, and her hair pulled to one side over her shoulder with a banana barrette."
-"Claud's hair was down, but she was wearing a hat. On the green hat ribbon was pinned a "Kristy +" button. Her tights were orange and her dress was tie-dyed every color you could think of. She was wearing her feather earrings and she'd drawn a star on her face next to her right eye."
stacey outfits:
-"Like that Monday, she was wearing a black skirt and tights that were two colors: one leg was red and the other was black. And her shoes were shiny black and laced up to the ankles. She was also wearing this enormous black turtleneck sweater with red flecks in it, and one round red earring and one square black one. Her hair, which was in a mid-perm stage around her face, was pulled back with this silver lamé band."
note: I'm picturing this:
-"Stacey had pulled her hair back into a braid with a silver hat pin stuck through it. She was wearing purple capri pants, soft black flat ankle boots, black-and-white-striped socks, and a black-and-white-checked shirt, only the checks were all different sizes. She had square silver earrings in her ears."
kristy outfit (in dialogue):
"black pants", "an enormous sweater of a sort of creamy brown, with little black and green stripes running across it", and "loafers"
kristy cafeteria food comments:
kristy: what is that stuff?
claudia: I like to think of it as art.
kristy: splatter art. you know, like in those horror movies...I think it's still alive.
snacks in claudia's room:
-sweet 'n' sour gummy bears (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)
-double-dipped chocolate oreos (n.s.) - huh?
-taco chips (n.s.)
-popcorn (n.s.)
-yogurt raisins (n.s.)
-tropical-flavored jellybeans (n.s.)
-fig newtons (n.s.)
-frookie cookies (n.s.)
March 28, 2021
Kristy decides to run for class president, after all ... she has tons of president experience as it is, being the president of the BSC. As she starts campaigning and writing speeches though she realizes she may have bit off more than she can chew. Running for/ Being class president takes up so much of her time. She already has BSC meetings, kids to babysit, Krushers baseball practice, PLUS keeping up with school and homework. When Kristy fails two tests, cancels a baseball practice, and runs late to a BSC meeting she finally understands that there is only so much a person can do.
I loved this book and how it taught a good life lesson. Kristy is always a favorite perspective to read from and this was a fun 3 star read
I loved this book and how it taught a good life lesson. Kristy is always a favorite perspective to read from and this was a fun 3 star read
December 20, 2024
Kristy for President
It’s Friday and there’s an assembly called at SMS. It’s boring and the BSC aren’t paying any attention and doing other things. Kristy briefly thinks about Bart and then her mind wonders to the Special Ed kids (and Susan). Kristy is so into her thoughts; Maryanne has to poke her to get her attention to a fire drill. There have been a lot of those lately. I think it alludes to Alan and some of his friends being the cause because Kristy sees him looking sheepish and some of the teachers (Mr. Zorzi).
Lunch -as always- is disgusting! On this day it’s meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and angel cake. Dawn and Stacey have brought their lunches. Stacey tells Kristy she should do something about it if she doesn’t like it. School elections are coming up. Kristy says maybe she will. (She already has the B average requirement).
The next day, Nannie and Kristy have breakfast and they discuss their plans. Nannie is going bowling. Kristy will be watching her younger siblings in the morning and Jaime and Lucy in the afternoon. Karen and David Micheal are singing non-sense rhymes to the tune of “Do-Re-Me”, but then it gets quiet and Kristy goes to check it out. They’re having a blinking contest. After this, Kristy takes them outside to collect leaves (and after this have a “leaf dance”). Shannon stops by and asks kristy to go on a walk with her and Astrid (who if you don’t remember is Shannon’s mother). But Kristy says she has another job. They make plans to try again the next day. Bart also stops by on his way to a Basher’s practice. He invites her to it, but again she says she has another job and maybe she’ll stop by later.
The big news at the Newtons is Jaimie is getting a “real” bicycle. He asks Kristy is it hard to learn to ride and she tells him that it’s like practice with the Krushers. The more he does it, the better he’ll get. That night he even has a new book called “The Bicycle Rider” Stacey calls Kristy later and basically tells her she HAS to run for president. Something has to be done about SMS and that Grace (Cookie’s friend is running). Kristy says she’ll let her know Monday.
At the BSC meeting, Maryanne gets a job with Jaime. Then there’s one that we don’t get to know who got for the Prezzioso’s (probably Maryanne). There’s a play coming up at school “Mary Poppins”. Kristy wants to do something more real like “Raisin in the Sun” or “The Glass Menagerie”. Right then she decides she’ll do it. She’ll run for president. Mal says she’s thinking of also running for 6th grade secretary but she’s not sure if anyone will vote for her. Jessi says she will.
White Kristy is watching Jaime, his bike arrives. Jaime is excited but scared that he’ll fall off. Kristy has to walk behind him and assure him that the training wheels are on. Claudia gets done with her art class early and comes by. She shares some ideas with Kristy about her election. She’s come up with a symbol K+. They decide to have pizza on Friday as a special celebration after their jobs. Kristy thinks Jaime will definitely need more practice.
At the BSC meter (after it’s over), they all work on posters and Claudia comes up with designs for buttons. The other candidates are Alan and Pete. Kristy thinks she *has* to win the save the 8th grade from goof-ball Alan, nerdy Pete, and Grace (who has no substance). They get the thumbs up for their efforts from Janine.
When Maryanne watches Jaime, he’s EXCESSIVELY cautious and stops for every rock and pebble so he won’t fall off his bike and he rides for hours. Maryanne can tell he’s discouraged because kids keep riding back him with one hand or no hands. They stop for a little and Maryanne and he come up with campaign slogans for Kristy (which takes his mind off it) and they think of some good (and funny) ones.
The campaign starts. Posters go up. The BSC make a photocopy of Kristy’s slogan and Claudia makes a flier of the symbol. They also use recycled paper and make the posters reversible so the students won’t have to see the same ones. There’s a meeting and Mr. Kingsbridge announces to the candidates they’ll have a Campaign Day where they’ll set up booths, and have a debate, and make two speeches. It’s mandatory. Mal freaks out because she’s never had to debate anyone.
There’s another meeting on the same day Kristy has a conference with her English teacher. She has to rewrite a report. He gives them the rules for Campaign Day. Kristy then has to go to the library to work on some school work. She plans to do homework at her sitting job. She’s sitting for Skylar, Melody, and Bill. (These are the kids who thought there were monsters in the toilet). On this job, they’re convinced the ice cream is full of moles. (It’s just chocolate-chips). Kristy plans to finish her homework don’t happen but she does finish it that night.
On Campaign Day, Claudia and Maryanne talk Kristy into wearing black pants and a big, creamy brown sweater with black and green stripes and loafers. They hand out buttons, ribbons, and handouts that tell about Kristy and her plans. It looks like a report card. (Claudia’s design). Alan wears a bunch of balloons. Everyone who takes a button of his gets to pop one. Mal has buttons that look like clocks that say “Time to Let Mal Keep The Minutes.” Grace has her booth set up to look like a television studio and she’s being filmed talking to people asking her questions. Cookie is also taking pictures of people with Grace. She and Grace have an exchange and Kristy calls her a loser when Cookie comes up to her and asks her how it feels to be the underdog.
That night, Kristy has to cancel a Krusher’s practice because she has a test the next day. Jaime is disappointed and tells Kristy what she told him about the more practice the better but she tells him they’ll practice soon. Dawn sits for Jaime and Lucy. Surprisingly, Jaime no longer has the training wheels on his bike. Long story short, Dawn is supporting him on the bike and she ends up falling and she turns over the bike and him. At first, he says he’ll never get on a bike again, but by the time she comes back from settling Lucy down (who’s started to fret) he sees the kids again zipping back and ask Dawn if he can practice some more. Dawn was trying to think of how to tell him he’s not quite ready to go without the training wheels.
Kristy doesn’t pass the science test and gets a 60, but her teacher gives her a chance to make it up. She didn’t study. She tells her she can re-take it during lunch the next day. She realizes she doesn’t have a meeting that day or a sitting job. But when she gets home David Micheal reminds her she has a Krusher’s game. (I skipped reading this practice). Afterwards, Kristy starts to study but Claudia calls and reminds her she has a speech to give tomorrow.
Kristy can’t sleep that night. She puts her book under her pillow thinking the material will seep in. As soon as she drifts off she starts having anxiety over all the things she’s involved in and what she’ll have to cut back on (like taking a temporary leave from being the president of the BSC). So, she gets up and tries to study but the house is too quiet and she can’t focus. She gets a little studying in but by the next day she hasn’t retained a whole lot.
Kristy does give the best speech. Grace’s speech is about how they work too hard and need to celebrate more. Kristy’s focuses on how they need to have more of a voice (with picking out the plays and people to be at the assembles) and she also talks about the Special Education program. Alan just tells everyone to stand up and then sit down. They do and he says this proves he’s a good leader because they did what he said. Now go vote for hi,. Pete’s speech to me just echo’s Kristy’s. He agrees with all her ideas and then adds they need to have more pep rallies for all the school sports.
Unfortunately tho, Kristy retakes the test and makes an even lower grade. Claudia sits for jaime. More practing. More falling. More of Jaime getting frustrated until the boys that keep passing ask him where his training wheels are and tell him he’s trying to do too much too soon. They promise to work with him if he gets his parents to put the wheels back on. Jaime then starts to show interest in something else and asks Claudia if she wants to take Lucy for a walk.
Kristy takes a lesson from what the boys tell Jaime (you can only do one thing at a time) and decides to get organized and make a list. Only she can hardly do this before Karen wants her to come help with a pancake breakfast, she Nanny, and David Micheal are preparing for. (This is on Sunday). Kristy is late for the next meeting of the BSC. She sat for the Papadakis and tried to study but then Charlie came. The others just look at her. Kristy tells them her science teacher called her mom and Watson and now they’re *monitor* her to make sure she does her assignments. Stacey reminds her of the debate the next day. When she gets home she does her homework and starts to work on her speech but keeps getting interrupted by the phone. First, Bart calls and then Jessi. Jessi suggest that maybe she should consider dropping something. (Kristy’s already told the BSC she won’t be taking on any new jobs temporarily).
In the end, Kristy decides the best thing to do is drop out of the race, and she tells everyone this at the debate. Pete wins the election and Mallory wins the position of sixth grade secretary. They all celebrate and take her out after the BSC meeting.
My Thoughts
I feel like I’ve also read this plot in too many series books. The election plot and the plot of a character doing too much. Without having even read this one, I kinda knew 2 things. 1) That Kristy would drop out and 2) That Pete OR Alan would win because as we’ve seen recently it doesn’t matter how well qualified you are as a candidate if you’re a WOMAN the MAN will be the new president. Yes, I do think Kristy WAS the best choice, but even had she stayed in the race I wouldn’t have been surprised if Pete or even Alan -with all his antics- would have ended up winning all the same. I think this was the first time in this whole series that I skipped and I skipped through reading about the Krusher’s practice. But Kristy takes Krusher’s practices WAY too seriously! She actually put a Krusher’s practice over a SCIENCE TEST FOR SCHOOL! I’m sure these kids wouldn’t have died if a couple of practices got cancelled and even so it just showed that Kristy does NOT know how to prioritize.
Rating: 5 This one really wasn’t all that good, but then I kinda knew that it wouldn’t be from the title. I just didn’t get that feeling.
It’s Friday and there’s an assembly called at SMS. It’s boring and the BSC aren’t paying any attention and doing other things. Kristy briefly thinks about Bart and then her mind wonders to the Special Ed kids (and Susan). Kristy is so into her thoughts; Maryanne has to poke her to get her attention to a fire drill. There have been a lot of those lately. I think it alludes to Alan and some of his friends being the cause because Kristy sees him looking sheepish and some of the teachers (Mr. Zorzi).
Lunch -as always- is disgusting! On this day it’s meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and angel cake. Dawn and Stacey have brought their lunches. Stacey tells Kristy she should do something about it if she doesn’t like it. School elections are coming up. Kristy says maybe she will. (She already has the B average requirement).
The next day, Nannie and Kristy have breakfast and they discuss their plans. Nannie is going bowling. Kristy will be watching her younger siblings in the morning and Jaime and Lucy in the afternoon. Karen and David Micheal are singing non-sense rhymes to the tune of “Do-Re-Me”, but then it gets quiet and Kristy goes to check it out. They’re having a blinking contest. After this, Kristy takes them outside to collect leaves (and after this have a “leaf dance”). Shannon stops by and asks kristy to go on a walk with her and Astrid (who if you don’t remember is Shannon’s mother). But Kristy says she has another job. They make plans to try again the next day. Bart also stops by on his way to a Basher’s practice. He invites her to it, but again she says she has another job and maybe she’ll stop by later.
The big news at the Newtons is Jaimie is getting a “real” bicycle. He asks Kristy is it hard to learn to ride and she tells him that it’s like practice with the Krushers. The more he does it, the better he’ll get. That night he even has a new book called “The Bicycle Rider” Stacey calls Kristy later and basically tells her she HAS to run for president. Something has to be done about SMS and that Grace (Cookie’s friend is running). Kristy says she’ll let her know Monday.
At the BSC meeting, Maryanne gets a job with Jaime. Then there’s one that we don’t get to know who got for the Prezzioso’s (probably Maryanne). There’s a play coming up at school “Mary Poppins”. Kristy wants to do something more real like “Raisin in the Sun” or “The Glass Menagerie”. Right then she decides she’ll do it. She’ll run for president. Mal says she’s thinking of also running for 6th grade secretary but she’s not sure if anyone will vote for her. Jessi says she will.
White Kristy is watching Jaime, his bike arrives. Jaime is excited but scared that he’ll fall off. Kristy has to walk behind him and assure him that the training wheels are on. Claudia gets done with her art class early and comes by. She shares some ideas with Kristy about her election. She’s come up with a symbol K+. They decide to have pizza on Friday as a special celebration after their jobs. Kristy thinks Jaime will definitely need more practice.
At the BSC meter (after it’s over), they all work on posters and Claudia comes up with designs for buttons. The other candidates are Alan and Pete. Kristy thinks she *has* to win the save the 8th grade from goof-ball Alan, nerdy Pete, and Grace (who has no substance). They get the thumbs up for their efforts from Janine.
When Maryanne watches Jaime, he’s EXCESSIVELY cautious and stops for every rock and pebble so he won’t fall off his bike and he rides for hours. Maryanne can tell he’s discouraged because kids keep riding back him with one hand or no hands. They stop for a little and Maryanne and he come up with campaign slogans for Kristy (which takes his mind off it) and they think of some good (and funny) ones.
The campaign starts. Posters go up. The BSC make a photocopy of Kristy’s slogan and Claudia makes a flier of the symbol. They also use recycled paper and make the posters reversible so the students won’t have to see the same ones. There’s a meeting and Mr. Kingsbridge announces to the candidates they’ll have a Campaign Day where they’ll set up booths, and have a debate, and make two speeches. It’s mandatory. Mal freaks out because she’s never had to debate anyone.
There’s another meeting on the same day Kristy has a conference with her English teacher. She has to rewrite a report. He gives them the rules for Campaign Day. Kristy then has to go to the library to work on some school work. She plans to do homework at her sitting job. She’s sitting for Skylar, Melody, and Bill. (These are the kids who thought there were monsters in the toilet). On this job, they’re convinced the ice cream is full of moles. (It’s just chocolate-chips). Kristy plans to finish her homework don’t happen but she does finish it that night.
On Campaign Day, Claudia and Maryanne talk Kristy into wearing black pants and a big, creamy brown sweater with black and green stripes and loafers. They hand out buttons, ribbons, and handouts that tell about Kristy and her plans. It looks like a report card. (Claudia’s design). Alan wears a bunch of balloons. Everyone who takes a button of his gets to pop one. Mal has buttons that look like clocks that say “Time to Let Mal Keep The Minutes.” Grace has her booth set up to look like a television studio and she’s being filmed talking to people asking her questions. Cookie is also taking pictures of people with Grace. She and Grace have an exchange and Kristy calls her a loser when Cookie comes up to her and asks her how it feels to be the underdog.
That night, Kristy has to cancel a Krusher’s practice because she has a test the next day. Jaime is disappointed and tells Kristy what she told him about the more practice the better but she tells him they’ll practice soon. Dawn sits for Jaime and Lucy. Surprisingly, Jaime no longer has the training wheels on his bike. Long story short, Dawn is supporting him on the bike and she ends up falling and she turns over the bike and him. At first, he says he’ll never get on a bike again, but by the time she comes back from settling Lucy down (who’s started to fret) he sees the kids again zipping back and ask Dawn if he can practice some more. Dawn was trying to think of how to tell him he’s not quite ready to go without the training wheels.
Kristy doesn’t pass the science test and gets a 60, but her teacher gives her a chance to make it up. She didn’t study. She tells her she can re-take it during lunch the next day. She realizes she doesn’t have a meeting that day or a sitting job. But when she gets home David Micheal reminds her she has a Krusher’s game. (I skipped reading this practice). Afterwards, Kristy starts to study but Claudia calls and reminds her she has a speech to give tomorrow.
Kristy can’t sleep that night. She puts her book under her pillow thinking the material will seep in. As soon as she drifts off she starts having anxiety over all the things she’s involved in and what she’ll have to cut back on (like taking a temporary leave from being the president of the BSC). So, she gets up and tries to study but the house is too quiet and she can’t focus. She gets a little studying in but by the next day she hasn’t retained a whole lot.
Kristy does give the best speech. Grace’s speech is about how they work too hard and need to celebrate more. Kristy’s focuses on how they need to have more of a voice (with picking out the plays and people to be at the assembles) and she also talks about the Special Education program. Alan just tells everyone to stand up and then sit down. They do and he says this proves he’s a good leader because they did what he said. Now go vote for hi,. Pete’s speech to me just echo’s Kristy’s. He agrees with all her ideas and then adds they need to have more pep rallies for all the school sports.
Unfortunately tho, Kristy retakes the test and makes an even lower grade. Claudia sits for jaime. More practing. More falling. More of Jaime getting frustrated until the boys that keep passing ask him where his training wheels are and tell him he’s trying to do too much too soon. They promise to work with him if he gets his parents to put the wheels back on. Jaime then starts to show interest in something else and asks Claudia if she wants to take Lucy for a walk.
Kristy takes a lesson from what the boys tell Jaime (you can only do one thing at a time) and decides to get organized and make a list. Only she can hardly do this before Karen wants her to come help with a pancake breakfast, she Nanny, and David Micheal are preparing for. (This is on Sunday). Kristy is late for the next meeting of the BSC. She sat for the Papadakis and tried to study but then Charlie came. The others just look at her. Kristy tells them her science teacher called her mom and Watson and now they’re *monitor* her to make sure she does her assignments. Stacey reminds her of the debate the next day. When she gets home she does her homework and starts to work on her speech but keeps getting interrupted by the phone. First, Bart calls and then Jessi. Jessi suggest that maybe she should consider dropping something. (Kristy’s already told the BSC she won’t be taking on any new jobs temporarily).
In the end, Kristy decides the best thing to do is drop out of the race, and she tells everyone this at the debate. Pete wins the election and Mallory wins the position of sixth grade secretary. They all celebrate and take her out after the BSC meeting.
My Thoughts
I feel like I’ve also read this plot in too many series books. The election plot and the plot of a character doing too much. Without having even read this one, I kinda knew 2 things. 1) That Kristy would drop out and 2) That Pete OR Alan would win because as we’ve seen recently it doesn’t matter how well qualified you are as a candidate if you’re a WOMAN the MAN will be the new president. Yes, I do think Kristy WAS the best choice, but even had she stayed in the race I wouldn’t have been surprised if Pete or even Alan -with all his antics- would have ended up winning all the same. I think this was the first time in this whole series that I skipped and I skipped through reading about the Krusher’s practice. But Kristy takes Krusher’s practices WAY too seriously! She actually put a Krusher’s practice over a SCIENCE TEST FOR SCHOOL! I’m sure these kids wouldn’t have died if a couple of practices got cancelled and even so it just showed that Kristy does NOT know how to prioritize.
Rating: 5 This one really wasn’t all that good, but then I kinda knew that it wouldn’t be from the title. I just didn’t get that feeling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2023
When did Jamie Newton become such an insufferable brat? Usually a sweet rather easy going character here he's a total brat. But that's the b plot. The main story involves Kristy realizing she is actually human and not a robot. On top of the BSC, the Krushers, school and baby sitting she decides she can totally run for 8th grade president. Soon she's failing tests, canceling baseball practices, or spacing out during them, coming in late for meetings and even considering giving up the club altogether leading her to finally realize she can't do it all. It was nice to see a human side to Kristy or any of these girls who are always painted as perfect and capable of doing literally everything and was an early look into what's now known as self care. The Jamie Newton plot was weird. First of all why wouldn't the parents want to be there when their first born child got his first bike and learned to ride. I was a second born child and my parents had tons of pictures of me learning to ride a bike the first time. Jamie is rude and demanding wanting all the attention demanding the girls sweep away any little things in his path. Meanwhile poor little Lucy sits in a playpen ignored completely. Even when she cries her bratty brother doesn't care. He was never this bad. I have vague memories of this as a kid, Kristy giving speeches Alan Gray's amazing speech of stand up sit down and I still think now more than ever Mary Anne should've dumped Logan's ass for Pete Black. He's perfect for you Mary Anne dump that controlling idiot! This one was mildly entertaining not the best but at least I wasn't bored.
January 18, 2017
Kristy decides she doesn't have enough to do with bossing around the girls of the BSC -- she would like to boss around the entire eighth grade, so she runs for class president. In the meantime Jamie Newton has trouble learning to ride his bike.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I remember Alan Gray running for president and making all the kids stand up and sit down during his presentation, and he thought that qualified him to be president.
I think I did not understand the implications of being class president when I read this book when I was nine or ten. I assumed it was something like the random extra curriculars the girls get into in every other book, so I was a little puzzled by Kristy's inability to keep on top of other things she was doing. I remember so little of the actual book, but I do remember reading it, and being somewhat confused by what I was reading.
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
Kristy is a classic politician, especially for the year 2017. She is super organized and she enjoys being the one in charge. She also feels there is no way to enact change without being the one leading the way, and making sure she is a part of everything that happens because the other candidates aren't worthy. She doesn't think any of them have any good ideas of any kind, and seems pretty reluctant to offer them support of any kind. She has to run for president to "save the eighth grade," and even when she knows she should drop out, she doesn't because she feels the responsibility to run. However, Kristy is not like a politician because she realizes her short-comings, and she understands that even though she really doesn't want to, she has to drop out of the race in order to make time for her failing grades, and her current responsibilities to the BSC and her Krushers softball team.
One of Kristy's reasons for running for class president is that she wants to stage more "mature" plays like "Our Town", or "A Raisin in the Sun" (with the white students of Stoneybrook Middle School changing the themes of the play to be about poor white families instead of poor black families?). She thinks middle school isn't the place to stage a play like "Mary Poppins", even though big-city sophisticate Stacey has called it her favorite movie over and over. In one of the Super Specials further down the road, SMS joins forces with the high school and elementary school to stage a production of "Peter Pan". And Kristy gets the part of Peter Pan. What is the difference between Mary Poppins and Peter Pan? Both are written by British writers, and feature spoiled, racist children. Both were written for a young audience. Both were adapted by Disney in the 1960s. It's interesting that Kristy was offended by Mary Poppins, but A-OK with Peter Pan. I would rather be in the play where the main character is an awesome, loner woman. At the end of the book, after Kristy has decided she's too busy to take on any more major projects, she wonders if maybe she should try out for "Our Town". And the baby sitters have to remind her that she just learned a lesson about not taking on more than she can handle. But later, she accepts the lead in "Peter Pan"! These overachieving baby sitters never learn!
This book was interesting to read because it showed the unstoppable force that is the collective BSC. Together they decide that Kristy will be elected class president, and they go all out to help her. They make suggestions about her campaign, her slogan, her speeches. They get their baby sitting charges involved. They paper the town with her campaign fliers. If she hadn't dropped out of the race she would have won by the sheer force of will of the BSC. It's bittersweet for me to read about now; the determination of strong women, and how far they still have to go. It was also interesting to read about the class elections. I never took them seriously when I was in middle school or high school, but they are very much like small-scale actual presidential elections. They require a lot of commitment, and a lot of personal time. If you can't keep up with the work you currently do while running for president then maybe you have no business being president. I'm actually surprised that the BSC pushed Kristy so hard to run for president when being part of the BSC is such a lot of work already.
Kristy is such a goody-goody about her school work, and it kind of bothered me. She commits herself to do too much, so of course her grades suffer. She freaks out about her bad science tests because she is someone who does well in school even if they don't like the subject. She wonders if Claudia is used to seeing her bad grades because Claudia is always a bad student, and she knows that she could never get used to bad grades, no matter what. I think I was annoyed by this because I always got bad grades on tests, no matter how hard I studied. Later Kristy fails the same test again, which is something even Claudia has never done.
The Jamie bike saga was so boring to read. The baby sitters are much too patient with him. I wonder if his parents couldn't deal with his inability to ride his bike anymore and told him, "Oh you can practice when the baby sitter comes over," so they wouldn't have to deal with him. Also, Lucy the baby is really just OK sitting on the lawn, just watching? It seems like Jamie shouldn't monopolize the baby sitter's time, when he has a baby sister. I would tell him that I could help him up and down the driveway five times, then I would have to spend some time playing with Lucy. I wouldn't risk my back, or my knees to spend endless amounts of time with stubborn Jamie, but then I am probably older than his parents.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I remember Alan Gray running for president and making all the kids stand up and sit down during his presentation, and he thought that qualified him to be president.
I think I did not understand the implications of being class president when I read this book when I was nine or ten. I assumed it was something like the random extra curriculars the girls get into in every other book, so I was a little puzzled by Kristy's inability to keep on top of other things she was doing. I remember so little of the actual book, but I do remember reading it, and being somewhat confused by what I was reading.
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
Kristy is a classic politician, especially for the year 2017. She is super organized and she enjoys being the one in charge. She also feels there is no way to enact change without being the one leading the way, and making sure she is a part of everything that happens because the other candidates aren't worthy. She doesn't think any of them have any good ideas of any kind, and seems pretty reluctant to offer them support of any kind. She has to run for president to "save the eighth grade," and even when she knows she should drop out, she doesn't because she feels the responsibility to run. However, Kristy is not like a politician because she realizes her short-comings, and she understands that even though she really doesn't want to, she has to drop out of the race in order to make time for her failing grades, and her current responsibilities to the BSC and her Krushers softball team.
One of Kristy's reasons for running for class president is that she wants to stage more "mature" plays like "Our Town", or "A Raisin in the Sun" (with the white students of Stoneybrook Middle School changing the themes of the play to be about poor white families instead of poor black families?). She thinks middle school isn't the place to stage a play like "Mary Poppins", even though big-city sophisticate Stacey has called it her favorite movie over and over. In one of the Super Specials further down the road, SMS joins forces with the high school and elementary school to stage a production of "Peter Pan". And Kristy gets the part of Peter Pan. What is the difference between Mary Poppins and Peter Pan? Both are written by British writers, and feature spoiled, racist children. Both were written for a young audience. Both were adapted by Disney in the 1960s. It's interesting that Kristy was offended by Mary Poppins, but A-OK with Peter Pan. I would rather be in the play where the main character is an awesome, loner woman. At the end of the book, after Kristy has decided she's too busy to take on any more major projects, she wonders if maybe she should try out for "Our Town". And the baby sitters have to remind her that she just learned a lesson about not taking on more than she can handle. But later, she accepts the lead in "Peter Pan"! These overachieving baby sitters never learn!
This book was interesting to read because it showed the unstoppable force that is the collective BSC. Together they decide that Kristy will be elected class president, and they go all out to help her. They make suggestions about her campaign, her slogan, her speeches. They get their baby sitting charges involved. They paper the town with her campaign fliers. If she hadn't dropped out of the race she would have won by the sheer force of will of the BSC. It's bittersweet for me to read about now; the determination of strong women, and how far they still have to go. It was also interesting to read about the class elections. I never took them seriously when I was in middle school or high school, but they are very much like small-scale actual presidential elections. They require a lot of commitment, and a lot of personal time. If you can't keep up with the work you currently do while running for president then maybe you have no business being president. I'm actually surprised that the BSC pushed Kristy so hard to run for president when being part of the BSC is such a lot of work already.
Kristy is such a goody-goody about her school work, and it kind of bothered me. She commits herself to do too much, so of course her grades suffer. She freaks out about her bad science tests because she is someone who does well in school even if they don't like the subject. She wonders if Claudia is used to seeing her bad grades because Claudia is always a bad student, and she knows that she could never get used to bad grades, no matter what. I think I was annoyed by this because I always got bad grades on tests, no matter how hard I studied. Later Kristy fails the same test again, which is something even Claudia has never done.
The Jamie bike saga was so boring to read. The baby sitters are much too patient with him. I wonder if his parents couldn't deal with his inability to ride his bike anymore and told him, "Oh you can practice when the baby sitter comes over," so they wouldn't have to deal with him. Also, Lucy the baby is really just OK sitting on the lawn, just watching? It seems like Jamie shouldn't monopolize the baby sitter's time, when he has a baby sister. I would tell him that I could help him up and down the driveway five times, then I would have to spend some time playing with Lucy. I wouldn't risk my back, or my knees to spend endless amounts of time with stubborn Jamie, but then I am probably older than his parents.
November 10, 2021
“But the best laid plans of mice and men---and babysitters --- go wrong”
Well this is different. So you'll know I covered some of Graveyard School, which is written by Nola Tacker. She's done some stuff, and notable thing would be some stuff under the Point banner for Scholastic. I'm on a quest to do at least one book from the authors of the rip off series and with Nola I had plenty of options. You'd think I do a Point Horror entry she did...but I went in a different direction and teased it on Twitter. From the start I knew I'd do this just for fun. I'll get to her work as Deathkins someday but for now, something different for me. Kinda. Great Mom Swap was in the same kind of league.
As I cover Goosebumps a lot, and got into Animorphs this year, it was only fair to give Babysitter's Club a shot. I said this before but I have vague memories of reading at least one way back when and reading more from the Little Sister spin off series. Not sure that caught my attention more but there ya go. My history ends there.
I figured I'd try out one on here someday and with the Nola connection, this was a good excuse. She did quite a few and I went with this one just at random. It was her first so it made sense. She did some in the Mysteries sub-series which is close to the YA horror stuff but nah, this one instead.
With that out of the way, this was fine. It was roughly what I expected and for what it is, it's a nice diversion, but I have my issues. It's mostly in the writing more than the story itself. I can't compare to the usual Ann M Martin writing but I can tell this was a ghostwriter's first effort. For one, remember how I mentioned that the first ghostwritten Animorphs felt like the ghost getting used to the characters, to the point where we get unneeded lengthy reminders of who they are?
This was so much worse in that regard. It's not enough to just quickly to say who everyone is, they needed to practically tell us their life story. If I was a regular reader I'd be even more annoyed. They go on for a while too, we all the complicated details in some cases, and it was a bit much. There's a ton of parenthesis in this on what feels lime every page.
And most of the time it's pointless saying things we already know and such. The writing in other regards is fine, standard for this kinda thing, but things like that were rather annoying. This is mostly first person but two scenes jump to third to follow a couple of the others as they deal with the subplot. It's written kinda like the rest so it took me a bit to realize it was happening. Anyway, I hope Nola fares better in later ones where she got used to these.
As for the story, Kristy decides to run for school president after seeing minor annoyances she wants to fix. That seems easy enough, until she gets caught up in everything else she does from being BSC president to coaching a softball team, to trying to pass a test. It becomes a moral on not biting off too much. It's basic but it is a good lesson and ones most can relate to in some way.
There's a subplot with this kid she's sitting for, it has some annoying bits but it does eventually tie into the main story by making her realize the moral. It's fine overall once that becomes clear. The highlight for me were some of the character interactions, as the club memebers do have solid chemistry and there's some amusing moments.
As an election story, it mostly focuses on Kristy getting swamped and there's a bit of showing off her competition, with one girl using her popularity, one kid being annoying and one being normal. The former is the focus so we don't get too much of them butting heads. My favorite election stories usually have more of that and gets into satire. This, not so much. A bit but not a lot.
It works fine given the moral, just isn't an especially great take on the election story, it's just alright in that regard. There isn't too much wrong with the story itself, the minor annoyings with writing add more than any story problems. It can be kinda padded, this 148 pages or so which is a bit much, but it's not terrible.
Overall, it's a fine quick read. I don't like to use the word "cute" to describe things I review but this is a good example of that fitting. For the flaws, it has a fine moral and a decent enough story with some amusing moments. It has some notable annoyances for sure so it's not like it's super good but it did its job.
I am interested in reading more someday to see if these are toned down or Nola got better. It's not super high on my list as I got enough on my plate, and like Kristy I must save room for more important things. Still, as a one off thing for now, I liked it alright. I'm now curious how her Point work compares.
She seems to be good at the character stuff at least, I can tell by now. Well that was fun but we need to get back to the usual grind so see ya tomorrow for more Animorphs. For the next casual read, not sure but I have an idea or two. This was one I wanted to back in September but couldn't find room for and my other ides fall into that.
Either way, see ya then.
(Also, bonus points for the Bunnicla reference)
Well this is different. So you'll know I covered some of Graveyard School, which is written by Nola Tacker. She's done some stuff, and notable thing would be some stuff under the Point banner for Scholastic. I'm on a quest to do at least one book from the authors of the rip off series and with Nola I had plenty of options. You'd think I do a Point Horror entry she did...but I went in a different direction and teased it on Twitter. From the start I knew I'd do this just for fun. I'll get to her work as Deathkins someday but for now, something different for me. Kinda. Great Mom Swap was in the same kind of league.
As I cover Goosebumps a lot, and got into Animorphs this year, it was only fair to give Babysitter's Club a shot. I said this before but I have vague memories of reading at least one way back when and reading more from the Little Sister spin off series. Not sure that caught my attention more but there ya go. My history ends there.
I figured I'd try out one on here someday and with the Nola connection, this was a good excuse. She did quite a few and I went with this one just at random. It was her first so it made sense. She did some in the Mysteries sub-series which is close to the YA horror stuff but nah, this one instead.
With that out of the way, this was fine. It was roughly what I expected and for what it is, it's a nice diversion, but I have my issues. It's mostly in the writing more than the story itself. I can't compare to the usual Ann M Martin writing but I can tell this was a ghostwriter's first effort. For one, remember how I mentioned that the first ghostwritten Animorphs felt like the ghost getting used to the characters, to the point where we get unneeded lengthy reminders of who they are?
This was so much worse in that regard. It's not enough to just quickly to say who everyone is, they needed to practically tell us their life story. If I was a regular reader I'd be even more annoyed. They go on for a while too, we all the complicated details in some cases, and it was a bit much. There's a ton of parenthesis in this on what feels lime every page.
And most of the time it's pointless saying things we already know and such. The writing in other regards is fine, standard for this kinda thing, but things like that were rather annoying. This is mostly first person but two scenes jump to third to follow a couple of the others as they deal with the subplot. It's written kinda like the rest so it took me a bit to realize it was happening. Anyway, I hope Nola fares better in later ones where she got used to these.
As for the story, Kristy decides to run for school president after seeing minor annoyances she wants to fix. That seems easy enough, until she gets caught up in everything else she does from being BSC president to coaching a softball team, to trying to pass a test. It becomes a moral on not biting off too much. It's basic but it is a good lesson and ones most can relate to in some way.
There's a subplot with this kid she's sitting for, it has some annoying bits but it does eventually tie into the main story by making her realize the moral. It's fine overall once that becomes clear. The highlight for me were some of the character interactions, as the club memebers do have solid chemistry and there's some amusing moments.
As an election story, it mostly focuses on Kristy getting swamped and there's a bit of showing off her competition, with one girl using her popularity, one kid being annoying and one being normal. The former is the focus so we don't get too much of them butting heads. My favorite election stories usually have more of that and gets into satire. This, not so much. A bit but not a lot.
It works fine given the moral, just isn't an especially great take on the election story, it's just alright in that regard. There isn't too much wrong with the story itself, the minor annoyings with writing add more than any story problems. It can be kinda padded, this 148 pages or so which is a bit much, but it's not terrible.
Overall, it's a fine quick read. I don't like to use the word "cute" to describe things I review but this is a good example of that fitting. For the flaws, it has a fine moral and a decent enough story with some amusing moments. It has some notable annoyances for sure so it's not like it's super good but it did its job.
I am interested in reading more someday to see if these are toned down or Nola got better. It's not super high on my list as I got enough on my plate, and like Kristy I must save room for more important things. Still, as a one off thing for now, I liked it alright. I'm now curious how her Point work compares.
She seems to be good at the character stuff at least, I can tell by now. Well that was fun but we need to get back to the usual grind so see ya tomorrow for more Animorphs. For the next casual read, not sure but I have an idea or two. This was one I wanted to back in September but couldn't find room for and my other ides fall into that.
Either way, see ya then.
(Also, bonus points for the Bunnicla reference)
July 6, 2016
Kristy looks super weird on this cover. Like they spray-tanned her first, to match Emily Michelle. And David Michael too (I'm guessing that's who that is). This book starts off on a Friday at school, where Kristy is headed to another boring assembly (don't know what for), which is interrupted by a fire drill. Then it's lunchtime and we start right off with Disgusting School Lunches by Kristy Thomas. (Warning: don't read if you are about to eat or have just eaten lol.)
"Splatter art," I [Kristy] agreed. You know, like in those horror movies..."
Mary Anne picked up her fork and started to cut the meat loaf. Just as she cut it, I shrieked. Mary Anne gave a little shriek herself and dropped the fork. I lowered my voice mysteriously. "I think it's still alive."
I picked up my own fork and took another look at the meat loaf. It was gray, and the tomato sauce was pale red and watery. The mashed potatoes next to it had a sort of oozy quality. And I wasn't so sure I liked the color of the broccoli. It looked like something that had been attacked by Bunnicula, the vampire rabbit.
This led to the girls discussing the upcoming student elections and how Kristy should run for President and change the food if she hated it so much.
She [Dawn] pointed to the soggy piece of angel food cake on my tray, which was beginning to look a little too much like the mashed potatoes. "Your motto could be 'Let us eat cake.'"
That sets Kristy's little "take charge of all things" wheels spinning and she begins to seriously consider it. Even though she's already super busy and really doesn't have time for it. She's even almost late for her baby-sitting job for the Newton's. Luckily, Jamie is too preoccupied with his new bicycle that's coming to care. A "real" bicycle, not a baby one. Before we get more into that, let's see What Claudia & Stacey are Wearing.
Claudia was wearing lime green bicycle pants, a long, long bright pink shirt, and a cropped lime green striped shirt over that. She was also wearing black hightop leather sneakers with pink butterfly barrettes clipped to the laces. She had two feather earrings in one ear (lime green, of course), and a tiny pink heart in the other. [Her hair] was pulled up on top of her head and fell down to one side.
[Stacey] is also a way cool dresser. Like that Monday, she was wearing a black skirt and tights that were two colors: one leg was red and the other was black. And her shoes were shiny black and laced up to the ankles. She was also wearing this enormous black turtleneck sweater with red flecks in it, and one round red earring and one square black one. Her hair, which was in a mid-perm stage around her face, was pulled back with this silver lamé band. She looked smashing.
At the meeting, Claudia brings up the class play, which is Mary Poppins. Everyone immediately starts bashing it, saying how childish it is. But I'm pretty sure it's Stacey's favorite movie (afterParent Trap oops no, that's Dawn's fave) and she doesn't say much, but it's still kind of weird. Kristy goes on a rant about it, which turns into a speech, which leads to her finally saying she's running for President. Oh and Mallory is running for 6th grade secretary, but really, who cares?
Kristy is up and running with her candidacy...Claudia comes up with some K+ slogans (see what I did there?) and becomes her campaign manager. Kristy is pretty sure she's got it in the bag. Her other competition is the reprehensible Alan Gray, Grace Blume (Cokie Mason's sidekick), and Pete Black (Kristy just says he's immature, whatever that means.) The girls plaster the school with Kristy's posters and get fierce with their competition. Kristy goes a little overboard during Campaign Day and tosses this little gem out: "Grace," I said. "The best woman - and the best candidate - is going to win. So why don't you just go somewhere and get some more practice at being a loser?" Oooh, harsh. The stress is getting to her, for sure.
Oh! We get another Claudia outfit with bonus comparison to Janine the Genius. Claudia was dressed fairly conservatively: white jeans, red shoes with big bows, a tropical jungle shirt with each button shaped like a piece of fruit, and her hair pulled to one side over her shoulder with a banana barrette. But Janine, with her short hair and bangs, her pullover sweater, and plain skirt and loafers, made Claudia look extremely exotic.
Now let's get back to Jamie and his brand new bicycle. I got a new bicycle a couple of months ago too. :) I was like Jamie actually, in the beginning. I haven't ridden a bike inat least 20 years a really long time. I not-so-jokingly said I wanted training wheels but my sister said no. But I managed to get on it and ride the first day! I was pretty proud of myself. I'm still pretty wobbly on it and straight-line challenged but I'm getting there. Okay, anyway, Jamie! He is not doing so well and will barely move, even with the training wheels. He stops for every crack, stick, and leaf on the sidewalk and has to get off the bike to turn around. Then he decides training wheels are for babies and removes them, which of course makes everything worse. He finally agrees to put them back on after the "big kids" in his neighborhood stop and tell him how they all started with them too.
And how's Kristy faring with her campaign? Well, it's just lucky she's not running in the real presidential election. (Although I'd still vote for her (or even Alan Gray) over one or two of our nominees right now.) Her grades begin to slide, she has to retake a science test that she didn't even study for, she cancels Krushers practice, and considers, for a brief moment, taking a break from the BSC. Finally, she realizes the only logical thing is to drop out of the campaign. As soon as she makes that decision, she feels better and everything becomes easy again.
And oh my lord, we get a 3rd Claudia outfit and 2nd Stacey one! What's so special about this book?? Hope you enjoy these as much as I do making them!
Stacey had pulled her hair back into a braid with a silver hat pin stuck through it. She was wearing purple capri pants, soft black flat ankle boots, black-and-white-striped socks, and a black-and-white-checked shirt, only the checks were all different sizes. She had square silver earrings in her ears.
Claud's hair was down, but she was wearing a hat. On the green hat ribbon was pinned a "Kristy+" button. Her tights were orange and her dress was tie-dyed [I'm kind of in love with the dress I picked for this lol] every color you could think of. She was wearing her feather earrings, and she'd drawn a star on her face next to her right eye.
Blogged at See Jenn Read!!
"Splatter art," I [Kristy] agreed. You know, like in those horror movies..."
Mary Anne picked up her fork and started to cut the meat loaf. Just as she cut it, I shrieked. Mary Anne gave a little shriek herself and dropped the fork. I lowered my voice mysteriously. "I think it's still alive."
I picked up my own fork and took another look at the meat loaf. It was gray, and the tomato sauce was pale red and watery. The mashed potatoes next to it had a sort of oozy quality. And I wasn't so sure I liked the color of the broccoli. It looked like something that had been attacked by Bunnicula, the vampire rabbit.
This led to the girls discussing the upcoming student elections and how Kristy should run for President and change the food if she hated it so much.
She [Dawn] pointed to the soggy piece of angel food cake on my tray, which was beginning to look a little too much like the mashed potatoes. "Your motto could be 'Let us eat cake.'"
That sets Kristy's little "take charge of all things" wheels spinning and she begins to seriously consider it. Even though she's already super busy and really doesn't have time for it. She's even almost late for her baby-sitting job for the Newton's. Luckily, Jamie is too preoccupied with his new bicycle that's coming to care. A "real" bicycle, not a baby one. Before we get more into that, let's see What Claudia & Stacey are Wearing.
Claudia was wearing lime green bicycle pants, a long, long bright pink shirt, and a cropped lime green striped shirt over that. She was also wearing black hightop leather sneakers with pink butterfly barrettes clipped to the laces. She had two feather earrings in one ear (lime green, of course), and a tiny pink heart in the other. [Her hair] was pulled up on top of her head and fell down to one side.
[Stacey] is also a way cool dresser. Like that Monday, she was wearing a black skirt and tights that were two colors: one leg was red and the other was black. And her shoes were shiny black and laced up to the ankles. She was also wearing this enormous black turtleneck sweater with red flecks in it, and one round red earring and one square black one. Her hair, which was in a mid-perm stage around her face, was pulled back with this silver lamé band. She looked smashing.
At the meeting, Claudia brings up the class play, which is Mary Poppins. Everyone immediately starts bashing it, saying how childish it is. But I'm pretty sure it's Stacey's favorite movie (after
Kristy is up and running with her candidacy...Claudia comes up with some K+ slogans (see what I did there?) and becomes her campaign manager. Kristy is pretty sure she's got it in the bag. Her other competition is the reprehensible Alan Gray, Grace Blume (Cokie Mason's sidekick), and Pete Black (Kristy just says he's immature, whatever that means.) The girls plaster the school with Kristy's posters and get fierce with their competition. Kristy goes a little overboard during Campaign Day and tosses this little gem out: "Grace," I said. "The best woman - and the best candidate - is going to win. So why don't you just go somewhere and get some more practice at being a loser?" Oooh, harsh. The stress is getting to her, for sure.
Oh! We get another Claudia outfit with bonus comparison to Janine the Genius. Claudia was dressed fairly conservatively: white jeans, red shoes with big bows, a tropical jungle shirt with each button shaped like a piece of fruit, and her hair pulled to one side over her shoulder with a banana barrette. But Janine, with her short hair and bangs, her pullover sweater, and plain skirt and loafers, made Claudia look extremely exotic.
Now let's get back to Jamie and his brand new bicycle. I got a new bicycle a couple of months ago too. :) I was like Jamie actually, in the beginning. I haven't ridden a bike in
And how's Kristy faring with her campaign? Well, it's just lucky she's not running in the real presidential election. (Although I'd still vote for her (or even Alan Gray) over one or two of our nominees right now.) Her grades begin to slide, she has to retake a science test that she didn't even study for, she cancels Krushers practice, and considers, for a brief moment, taking a break from the BSC. Finally, she realizes the only logical thing is to drop out of the campaign. As soon as she makes that decision, she feels better and everything becomes easy again.
And oh my lord, we get a 3rd Claudia outfit and 2nd Stacey one! What's so special about this book?? Hope you enjoy these as much as I do making them!
Stacey had pulled her hair back into a braid with a silver hat pin stuck through it. She was wearing purple capri pants, soft black flat ankle boots, black-and-white-striped socks, and a black-and-white-checked shirt, only the checks were all different sizes. She had square silver earrings in her ears.
Claud's hair was down, but she was wearing a hat. On the green hat ribbon was pinned a "Kristy+" button. Her tights were orange and her dress was tie-dyed [I'm kind of in love with the dress I picked for this lol] every color you could think of. She was wearing her feather earrings, and she'd drawn a star on her face next to her right eye.
Blogged at See Jenn Read!!
June 7, 2020
This book was OK I just wasn’t my favorite. I like that Kristi was running for president of her class because That seems like something she should really do. And I understood why she dropped out of the race but I thought Kristi might do other things to guarantee she would be elected Other than complaining silently about the other candidates. During the debate Alans speech Was hilarious I loved it because he thought that being a good leader Ment being able to tell people what to do. He told everyone to stand up and then sit back down again and when they did it he said he was a good leader because they did what he said. I like the sub plot about Jamie trying to ride his bike without training wheels because that can be relatable for babysitters or parents who have to be patient with kids who do similar things and it’s funny that he doesn’t. want pebbles in his way when he rides his bike. I felt that Kristi‘s campaign and some of the details about it and the election or repetitive and there wasn’t enough different actions to make this book stand out. Also what does Kristi have against Pete black he seems like a good class president. In mystery book number four Pete is class president Which means that the mystery books are about 50 or 40 books off from the regular books. In all I would say that this book was mostly boring and not creative although there were funny parts that Made the book better
August 28, 2017
(I actually prefer the old cover, but the copy I own is the new one.)
For whatever reason I have always loved the BSC books where a club member gets in over her head and has to re-evaluate her life, so I always enjoyed this one. Upon re-reading it, though, I'm confused by several things.
Why is Kristy harping on Pete Black? She's never disliked him before, but she pretty much despises him here and feels like she has to run just so he doesn't win. Everyone also talks about how babyish a Mary Poppins play is (despite it being Stacey's favorite movie!) but they go nuts fighting over being in a Peter Pan play in a later book. I know there had to be "reasons" for Kristy running for president, but the reasons given here just make no sense.
For whatever reason I have always loved the BSC books where a club member gets in over her head and has to re-evaluate her life, so I always enjoyed this one. Upon re-reading it, though, I'm confused by several things.
Why is Kristy harping on Pete Black? She's never disliked him before, but she pretty much despises him here and feels like she has to run just so he doesn't win. Everyone also talks about how babyish a Mary Poppins play is (despite it being Stacey's favorite movie!) but they go nuts fighting over being in a Peter Pan play in a later book. I know there had to be "reasons" for Kristy running for president, but the reasons given here just make no sense.
August 7, 2022
I love the BSC series, I’ve rated every book I’ve read a 5, even some of the mysteries, but was this a bore! I think the whole thing that made it boring was the sub-plot. Jamie Newton is one of my least favorite kids the club sits for. Lucy is fine, but, in my opinion, he’s a brat in all of the books. Still, him getting mad at Mary Anne over trying to help him just made me a bit angry.
“DON’T” and “STOP”
All I’m saying is that I barely made it through this book. Jamie and Mary Anne and on I was FORCING myself. The Kristy storyline was fine, but Jamie pulled it down from a 3 to a 2. Sorry if people love this book, I couldn’t hardly make it through this.
“DON’T” and “STOP”
All I’m saying is that I barely made it through this book. Jamie and Mary Anne and on I was FORCING myself. The Kristy storyline was fine, but Jamie pulled it down from a 3 to a 2. Sorry if people love this book, I couldn’t hardly make it through this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
July 26, 2024
Kristy struggles with overcommittment when she decides to run for class president. It does seem natural that Kristy would have political aspirations and it also made sense that it would fall apart for her as she's spread too thin. We are back to the subplots not connecting as the Jamie bike subplot could have been in any book though there isn't any more than a cursory attempt to tie the two together.
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.
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.
June 29, 2023
I had zero interest in the plot of this one, but I actually wound up really liking it. Good messages, really none of the problematic ideas of many of the other books, and a group of young kids that support a younger kid who's struggling, rather than teasing him. One small complaint is the two dimensionality of the girl-nemeses, Cokie and Grace. Come on, enough with the Dumb Popular Girl trope.
December 14, 2020
(LL)
This book does an amazing job tackling: campaigning, time management, and understanding you can’t do everything.
As an aside: Solid story without that much of the hyperbolic school drama usually included in these books.
This book does an amazing job tackling: campaigning, time management, and understanding you can’t do everything.
As an aside: Solid story without that much of the hyperbolic school drama usually included in these books.
May 14, 2023
2 stars. Kristy books are my least favorites and this one was just a huge bore. My goodness. She runs for class president which is definitely a Kristy thing to do but then gets way over her head. Even the B plot with Jamie's new bike was dull. This was a really boring read unfortunately.
August 15, 2017
This was so boring it took me a few days to get through it. Just absolutely so bad.
September 30, 2019
Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book.
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August 11, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
April 25, 2021
This one was kind of frustrating for me. I feel bad for being annoyed with Jamie Newton and his bike woes but...
February 5, 2024
Kristy never wanted to be president--she was pressured into it by her friends. And yet, when she realizes its too much to handle, no one is disappointed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2025
The one where Kristy gets burnout.
There was something kind of tedious about this one I can’t quite put my finger on? Maybe I’m just feeling sick of and cynical about elections and politics 🤷♂️
There was something kind of tedious about this one I can’t quite put my finger on? Maybe I’m just feeling sick of and cynical about elections and politics 🤷♂️
December 21, 2019
I'm sick, so reading about all of Kristy's responsibilities just exhausted me.
May 25, 2020
This book does a really good job of showing the importance of self-care, but the bicycle subplot was painful.
December 31, 2020
Great lesson on taking on too much. One I have read before, but enjoyed rereading.
November 11, 2010
kristy is probably my second-least-favorite member of the babysitters club. goddamn, her books are boring.
in this one, kristy decides to run for class president of the eighth grade. she's up against alan gray, class clown extraordinaire; grace blume, who is cokie mason's right hand woman & a major snob; & pete black, who kristy mysteriously dismisses as a total geek, even though he's been on numerous dates with both stacey & claudia, & has been buddies with other members of the babysitters club as well.
kristy is running on a platform of giving the students more responsibility & more freedom. for example, when she finds out the class play is going to be "mary poppins," she is angry that someone selected such a baby-ish play & decides that a panel of students should be formed to select future class plays.
in BSC #6, stacey admits that "mary poppins" is her favorite movie. & she's supposedly miss new york sophisticate. she is present while the babysitters are whining about how lame "mary poppins" is, but doesn't contribute. also, in super special #9, the school play is "peter pan" & all the babysitters (plus their charges) are chomping at the bit to get parts. so "mary poppins" is for babies...but "peter pan" rules? okay.
all the other babysitters pitch in to help kristy with her campaign. but all the campaign work is getting in the way of kristy's other responsibilities. she doesn't have time to study for a science class because she has to write a campaign speech, & she actually fails the test. she falls behind on homework & has to cancel a krushers practice to try to catch up. she has to turn down babysitting jobs to try to keep up with homework & prepare for the candidates' debate.
this is not-so-subtly mirrored in the B-plot, which is all about four-year-old jamie newton getting his first bicycle. he is determined to learn how to ride it...by sitting on it while one of his babysitters pushes him up & down the sidewalk, kicking any stray twigs, pebbles, or leaves out of his path. he eventually has the training wheels removed so he can ride like the big kids do, but this only leads to more frequent falls. he throws crazy red-faced temper tantrums when the babysitters encourage him to take a break from practicing & do something else, or when they need a break so they can tend to lucy. finally some bigger kids stop by & encourage jamie to put the training wheels back on. they offer to give him lessons, & jamie is pumped. he acknowledges at last that he was trying to do too much too quickly & that he needs to slow down & make sure he has fun with his new bike.
so can you guess what this means for kristy?
yes, obviously she realizes that she isn't keeping up with her main responsibilities or making time for the things she likes to do because the campaign has taken over her life. she drops out of the race, has a change of heart concerning pete, & votes for him. he wins. she's happy. also, mallory is elected sixth grade class secretary...& we never heard about it again.
boring boring boring.
in this one, kristy decides to run for class president of the eighth grade. she's up against alan gray, class clown extraordinaire; grace blume, who is cokie mason's right hand woman & a major snob; & pete black, who kristy mysteriously dismisses as a total geek, even though he's been on numerous dates with both stacey & claudia, & has been buddies with other members of the babysitters club as well.
kristy is running on a platform of giving the students more responsibility & more freedom. for example, when she finds out the class play is going to be "mary poppins," she is angry that someone selected such a baby-ish play & decides that a panel of students should be formed to select future class plays.
in BSC #6, stacey admits that "mary poppins" is her favorite movie. & she's supposedly miss new york sophisticate. she is present while the babysitters are whining about how lame "mary poppins" is, but doesn't contribute. also, in super special #9, the school play is "peter pan" & all the babysitters (plus their charges) are chomping at the bit to get parts. so "mary poppins" is for babies...but "peter pan" rules? okay.
all the other babysitters pitch in to help kristy with her campaign. but all the campaign work is getting in the way of kristy's other responsibilities. she doesn't have time to study for a science class because she has to write a campaign speech, & she actually fails the test. she falls behind on homework & has to cancel a krushers practice to try to catch up. she has to turn down babysitting jobs to try to keep up with homework & prepare for the candidates' debate.
this is not-so-subtly mirrored in the B-plot, which is all about four-year-old jamie newton getting his first bicycle. he is determined to learn how to ride it...by sitting on it while one of his babysitters pushes him up & down the sidewalk, kicking any stray twigs, pebbles, or leaves out of his path. he eventually has the training wheels removed so he can ride like the big kids do, but this only leads to more frequent falls. he throws crazy red-faced temper tantrums when the babysitters encourage him to take a break from practicing & do something else, or when they need a break so they can tend to lucy. finally some bigger kids stop by & encourage jamie to put the training wheels back on. they offer to give him lessons, & jamie is pumped. he acknowledges at last that he was trying to do too much too quickly & that he needs to slow down & make sure he has fun with his new bike.
so can you guess what this means for kristy?
yes, obviously she realizes that she isn't keeping up with her main responsibilities or making time for the things she likes to do because the campaign has taken over her life. she drops out of the race, has a change of heart concerning pete, & votes for him. he wins. she's happy. also, mallory is elected sixth grade class secretary...& we never heard about it again.
boring boring boring.
July 14, 2025
Review 2023: Awww THIS is the cover I remember from when I was younger. 😊 The ebook I borrowed from the library has a different cover, a close-up of Kristy, and I think claudia and Mary Anne.
I liked this story. Type A personality Kristy runs for class president I can relate with her desire to keep doing new and exciting things, and I can also relate to her feelings of overwhelm. So i love the life lessons she learns here.
I also appreciate the subplot of Mallory running for class secretary. We don't see as much of her campaign as we do Kristy's, but given how shy Mallory is, it's nice to see her step out of her shell and dare to put her name forward in the first place.
The b-plot was also kinda relatable, mostly as someone who's never learned to ride a bike, lol. Jamie Newton gets a bike and struggles to learn it. He removes the training wheels too early coz of pride,
I liked this story. Type A personality Kristy runs for class president I can relate with her desire to keep doing new and exciting things, and I can also relate to her feelings of overwhelm. So i love the life lessons she learns here.
I also appreciate the subplot of Mallory running for class secretary. We don't see as much of her campaign as we do Kristy's, but given how shy Mallory is, it's nice to see her step out of her shell and dare to put her name forward in the first place.
The b-plot was also kinda relatable, mostly as someone who's never learned to ride a bike, lol. Jamie Newton gets a bike and struggles to learn it. He removes the training wheels too early coz of pride,
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!
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!
December 28, 2008
This was a fun read, I remember it vividly from when I was a child. It was actually quite amusing that Kristy was getting stressed out because she committed herself to so many things, as I'm going through that at the moment. Not written by Ann, but still a good BSC book. Also, mine is the British edition and has the same cover as the one on here which claims to be the "Spanish Edition." 8/10
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