#88 - Farewell, Dawn

Timeline
Summer, after their 5th repeat

Plot
Dawn's friend Sunny's mom is sick, and Dawn can't stop thinking about going back to California to be with her. Plus she just wants to be there. So she tells her mom she wants to move their, permanently. Very quickly Dawn's mom makes it happen.
For some reason, Dawn tells Kristy before she tells MaryAnne. Kristy tells Claudia, who tells Stacey, who tells Robert, who tells Logan, who tells MaryAnne. Dawn can't believe how mad Mary Anne is. Then MaryAnne stops being mad and just starts being complacent towards Dawn, which is worse. Dawn makes some big fancy dinner to try to talk to her, and MaryAnne is like "Dude, I'm not going to spend the next two weeks saying goodbye to you. Just chill." So then Dawn gets it in her head that MaryAnne is planning a big grand gesture to say goodbye to her.

They throw a goodbye party for her, and somehow there are 20 people there, even though the BSC is pretty strict about not having outside friends. Dawn is waiting for the grand gesture, but of course it doesn't happen. Finally at home one night MA cries and tells her how much she will miss her.

The sub story is that James Hobart broke his leg and they decide to do a "Christmas in July" type event for him. They all go to his house and celebrate Christmas and give him little presents.

Takeaways
Dude, Dawn is the worst. Literally the worst. She's so selfish.

But I have to admit, I'm glad I don't have to listen to her shit anymore. I hope there aren't any "Dawn in California" books moving forward.

I love how realistic Mary Anne was in this book. It's exactly how I am when I know someone is leaving. I just cut them out right away. Like this girl at work put in her notice last week, and I have just been living my life like she is already gone.

Also, how stupid is Dawn for thinking MA was going to do some big grand gesture. That is not Mary Anne's style at all.

And WHY did Dawn tell Kristy first, who has the biggest mouth in the world?

Best Character
MaryAnne. She wins bc I love how she put Dawn in her place and barely cried in this book at all. Maybe she is sick of Dawn's bullshit too.

Worst Character
FUCKING DAWN. Goodbye, don't come back.

#87 - Stacey and the Bad Girls

Timeline
Summer, after their 5th repeat.

Plot
Stacey still is not in the BSC. She is still hanging out with Robert all the time, and her new group of friends are basically his. There are five girls she is hanging out with, but one, Andi, is her closest friend in the group. However, she is leaving for a few weeks so Stacey is sad, but excited to get to know the other four girls. She has a lunch to say goodbye to Andi, and the other girls come too. They take note that Stacey has an empty house to herself, and start coming over daily. Mrs. McGill gets annoyed bc they are leaving messes and eating all the food, and tells Stacey to get a goddamned job. Stacey agrees and starts searching. She reaches a bunch of dead ends, and then her mom suggests she go to the department store where she works and interview for a job in the daycare area. Stacey interviews and gets the job. Her new friends start coming to the store every day, waiting for her to get off. Then they walk around the store, but they never buy anything.

One day, they ask Stacey to buy them stuff using her discount. She feels weird about it, but does it. The next day they pay her back and then take her to lunch. They say it's her commission. She is confused, and they explain they returned all the items and got the full refund, so they made money. Stacey is SO PISSED but then she gets over it because they tell her that their favorite band is having a concert on Saturday and they are all going to go stand in line to get tickets. Well....Stacey ends up standing in line alone and buying all of their tickets. She is SO PISSED but then she gets over it because she is so excited for the concert.

When they get to the concert, the other girls immediately start drinking from flasks/bottles they snuck in. Of course Stacey can't, because of her diabetes, but also she just wouldn't. She is SO PISSED, but gets over it because the band comes on. But since the girls are drunk, they start fights and get loud, so security comes and takes them away. That is when they find a bottle wrapped up in Stacey's sweater. All of their parents get called, and while Stacey's mom acknowledges that she knows Stacey wasn't drinking, she is still grounded for three days. Her mom also asks her to consider not hanging out with those girls anymore.

All Stacey wants to do is be friends with the BSC again. While they are not perfect, all together they are friends she decides she wants to have. She gets a chance to reconnect when Amy, Dawn and MaryAnne's young cousin who is staying with them, runs away. She thinks the department store is a train station, so she goes in there. Stacey recognizes her from conversations she has had with Claudia, so she calls MA and Dawn. That makes her realize she wants to rejoin the BSC. She calls Claudia and asks her to bring it up at a meeting. Claudia does, and they decide to bring Stacey back on a probationary status. Stacey quits her job at the daycare to focus on her BSC work.

Takeaways
Okay 1. those girls would never all be friends with each other. One was a cheerleader, one was a thug, one was like a hippie....they would never. ever ever,

The whole subplot was Dawn and MA's cousin, whose parents were going on a THREE WEEK vacation, was dumped off with people she had never met. No wonder she ran away.

Dawn gets a call from her California best friend Sunny in this book, whose mom has lung cancer from smoking as a teenager. She then whines and cries that she needs to go to California to be with her.  1 - nice PSA on smoking and 2 - nice foreshadowing because I think the next book is called Farewell Dawn.

When Stacey goes back to discuss getting back in the BSC, they are like "um what about Robert?" which shows they haven't really changed and they still consider the BSC to be a cult.

Stacey's mom demands she get a job for the summer - Stacey is 13. It's not even legal for her to work, except to babysit, which the BSC kind of has a monopoly on.

Best Character
Honestly, probably Stacey. She is trying to make new friends, trying to be a good person but those girls are pretty terrible.

Worst Character
Those stupid fucking bad girls.

#86 - Mary Anne and Camp BSC

Timeline
The first three weeks of summer, after their fifth repeat

Plot
Mallory and MaryAnne are talking and realize that when school ends there is going to be a three week time period before summer camps start where they are going to be really busy babysitting all the kids of Stoneybrook. To be proactive, at the next club meeting they decide to do a summer camp, called Camp BSC, so they can babysit all the kids at once. The theme is a Circus Camp, and there are a set of kids (Karen Brewer and the other rich kids) who have been to a real Circus Camp and are huge snobs to the kids who haven't been.

There is one little girl, Alicia, who doesn't take too well to the camp and doesn't want to go on any of the field trips. MaryAnne feels bad for her so she always stays back with her. At first everyone gets it, but then the other sitters are like dude....you should probably stop enabling her.

But part of the reason MA is feeling so sorry for Alicia is bc she is also feeling like an orphan. During this time, MaryAnne's dad announced that there is a big merger at his work and he has to leave town for a few weeks. Dawn and her mom are super fucking pumped to "bach" it and plan on partying it up. They are actually quite disgusting, throwing food at the television and leaving it, only ordering from places that deliver, not doing the dishes or the laundry or anything, etc. It's pretty disgusting. MA misses her dad and actually asks him to come home early, but he kind of brushes her off and asks to talk to her stepmom.

MaryAnne is on a bike ride and has a pretty bad fall, twisting her ankle. She sinks into a pretty bad self pity hole. Then Alicia stops being a little baby and realizes she is missing out on all the fun, and then MA realizes she's being a pretty big baby too. She talks to Sharon about how she is feeling. They clean the house and pick up Richard at the airport. The end.

Takeaways
MaryAnne is pretty annoying during this book, but wow Dawn and her mom are immature bitches. Throwing popcorn at the tv? Refusing to clean anything up? I wonder how much money they spent on delivery charges, since they would only order from places that deliver. Also, how big is Stoneybrook that, in the early 90's, they had that many places that would deliver?

I wonder how much the BSC charges per kid for this camp. Also, do the Pikes get a discount since they are sending so many?

Karen was a huge bitch in this book - just a little rich snob. I see that getting worse as she gets older.

This book was pretty boring.

Best Character
I really don't even know. No one really stands out in this book. I guess maybe Mallory, since the whole camp thing happened bc she was smart enough to realize there was going to be a babysitting problem.

Worst Character
Disgusting Dawn and her disgusting mom.

#85 - Claudia Kishi, Live from WSTO!

Timeline
Late spring of their 5th repeat

Plot
Claudia is feeling bored so she comes up with a (ridiculous) list of things to try, such as tuba, dance classing, choir, etc. They all lead to dead ends, but then she hears of a radio contest where they are looking for young people to host a radio show. She submits a pretty clever essay and ends up winning. When she goes to the studio for her first day, she finds out Ashley Wyeth, who is an artsy 8th grader who Claudia was good friends with for a short time but now doesn't speak to, got 2nd place in the essay contest so she gets to be her co-host.

The girls decide to do a "For Kids Only" show where each show has a theme and they have guests come on to sing songs, read passages, be interviewed, etc. They do auditions to get acts for each of their shows, and Kristy becomes obsessed with getting on the show. Finally, she submits an idea that fits right into Claudia's theme, so she lets her on.

The show ends up being a huge success and the mom of one of the listeners calls in to thank the girls and sends in a huge check, which is a tremendous help bc the station is almost ready to shut down due to budget issues.

Takeaways
This is like the third book in a row where Kristy is absolutely awful. She has so many terrible ideas and she just thinks she is a fucking genius. Also, when Claudia wins, she somehow gets Charlie to drive her to her first day and then insists on going in with her, and then tries to follow her back to the meeting. It's seriously awful.

Oh, and she tries to get Claudia to say "This is Claudia Kishi and this show is sponsored by the BabySitters Club!" Claudia says no.

The first week's theme is Friendship, and Claudia talks about losing Stacey and how much she misses her. Stacey ends up calling after the show's run ends and tells Claudia congratulations. It's very sweet, and I'm surprised there was nothing about how the rest of the BSC was pissed that Claud mentions Stacey.

Again, I have to reiterate how terrible Kristy has been acting.

Best Character
Claudia, because she took a chance and tried out for the radio show, and then she does a really good job. It was nice seeing her succeed and be good at something.

Worst Character
Fucking Kristy.

#84 - Dawn and the School Spirit War

Timeline
April of their 5th repeat

Plot
The SMS baseball team is doing really well and they have a big rivalry game coming up. SMS, and the school they will be playing, each do a "School Spirit Week" where each day has a theme. Some of them are worthwhile, like "Clean Up Your School Day" and some are pretty stupid, like Pajama Day. The babysitters are split on if they are happy about Spirit Week - Claudia, Kristy and Jessi are loving it, and Dawn, MaryAnne and Mallory hate it. Well, Dawn thinks some of it is cool, but some of it is ridic. MaryAnne wants to support Logan, who plays baseball, but she cannot stand the thought of wearing her pajamas in public.

On "Each Class Wears a Different Color Day" Dawn forgets to wear yellow. The news happens to be at the school that day and they show her and trash her for not being spirited. The other kids harass her and spray paint her locker. That's when Dawn decides she must end Spirit Month. She starts a petition, which leads to an all school meeting, which leads to an all community meeting, which leads to School Spirit Month getting cancelled.

After that, Dawn and MA realize that School Spirit Month was good in theory, but the harassing needs to stop. So they draft another proposal and get it started again.

There is also a boring subplot about the Barretts and the DeWitts all being cramped up in a too small house, so they decide to add an addition to the house and have a groundbreaking party for it.

Takeaways
Okay, seriously Spirit MONTH? What the fuck. Spirit Week would be enough.

The news covers this stupid thing, and after the community meeting the entire newspaper is about the events. SERIOUSLY. Nothing else is going on in Stoneybrook? And this is the MIDDLE school, it's not even the high school.

Kristy is a huge bitch in this book about the spirit stuff. I think that character has jumped the shark. She's pretty awful.

Also, of course Mallory hates spirit month, Mallory fucking hates everything.

Oh, and MA actually fucking cries like four different times about having to wear her pajamas to school.

Best Character
I would say Logan, because he just wants everyone to remember that this whole thing is supposed to be to show support to the baseball team, not to fight each other about wearing their pajamas to school.

Worst Character
Dawn and her constant need to have a crusade to fight against. MA for being a fucking baby and crying about Pajama Day. Mallory for being a fucking bitch about EVERYTHING. Kristy for being a psychopath and just being rude AF.

#83 - Stacey vs. the BSC

Timeline
March of their 5th repeat. Stacey and Robert are planning a "end of winter, welcome spring" party.

Plot
Stacey is starting to outgrow the BSC. This was bound to happen. She is in a pretty serious relationship with Robert, and she is starting to see how immature the BSC members are. She is starting to resent them, getting annoyed with their little comments in meetings and how immature they are out in public.

She also is prioritizing Robert above everything else, including babysitting and the club meetings. All of the members are getting pissed. Dawn seems to take it pretty hard, even going as far as sneaking into a pizza place in disguise to spy on Stacey during a date.

It all comes to a head when Stacey plans a party with Robert, planning on it being at Robert's house. She only invites Claudia from the club, but since it's at Robert's house she thinks she can keep it a secret. However, at the last minute it has to be moved to Stacey's, and of course the club members find out. Dawn and MaryAnne show up at the door, and there is a fight. Claudia gets pissed too and leaves.

The club is also planning a talent show for the kids in Stoneybrook (of course they are) and Charlotte only agrees to do it if Stacey is there to support her. However, it's the morning after the party and Stacey can't stand to face the club, so she skips and Charlotte loses her mind.

Well, as you can imagine, skipping the talent show was the last straw. Stacey goes to the next BSC meeting, and they fight it out. Stacey quits the club, but then Kristy fires her as well.

Takeaways
I'm glad this book was from Stacey's point of view. This book really shows how cultish the BSC had become by this point, and also how immature the rest of the girls were considering they were 13 years old. I mean, in one year they should be getting their permits to drive. Yet Kristy spends an evening in a restaurant sticking straws up her nose and threatening to eat butter.

I don't understand why Dawn had the hardest time and seemed the most angry at Stacey. She was never that close to her? Maybe because Dawn through Stacey was hurting Mary Anne's feelings.

When the party gets moved to Stacey's house, her mom wears a backwards ball cap to look cool.

I have to say, as much as I love the BSC, this book was pretty perfect in that it showed how ridiculous the club is and how immature and stupid they look to the rest of the school. I bet they are known as the losers in school.

Best Character
I would say Stacey's mom. She lets them move a party to her house at the very last minute and then tries very hard to look cool, but not overbearing.

Worst Character
I know you think I'm going to say Stacey, and she is second worst. But the first worst is fucking Dawn, sneaking into a public place where many of her fellow students are, and spying on Stacey like a giant fucking loser.

#82 - Jessi and the Troublemaker

Timeline
February of their 5th repeat

Plot
Danielle is a babysitting charge who had cancer and is now in remission. Since she is better, her parents are going out more often and need babysitters, so the girls have been babysitting her and her little brother often.

Since Danielle is feeling so much better, she is living it up - and causing a lot of problems. She tries to go skiing down their basement steps. She tries to create a swimming pool in the bathroom. The final straw is when Jessi is there and Danielle and three of her friends decide to take the car for a spin. They crash it into another car and one of the girls winds up with stitches. Finally, after that, her parents realize that they can't let her get away with murder just because she survived cancer.

While all of that is going on, Aunt Cecilia is inviting a man over a lot, and Becca and Jessi overhear them talking about a wedding. Without ever asking anyone in their family, the girls decide they have to be talking about their own wedding. Then they hear them talking about Saturday at noon, and decide that must be the day and time. So Saturday morning they get up, get dressed in fancy clothes and wait to be told about the wedding. As you may have guessed, it is not their wedding. They are helping at a friends wedding. Jessi is so so embarrassed because she had already told all her friends about the wedding.

The end.

Takeaways
The entire subplot with Aunt Cecilia's non-wedding makes no sense. 1. Why didn't they just ask one of the adults? 2. Jessi is an idiot.

Also, after they find out they aren't getting married, Jessi decides to try to convince Aunt Cecelia to marry the guy so she doesn't have to admit to her friends that she was wrong. So she like creates this date night for them and they were like dude...we are just friends, we are not getting married.

There is also some foreshadowing in this book that Stacey is going to be fighting with the club soon...the next book is called Stacey vs the BSC. She is late to meetings and constantly backing out of babysitting jobs and calling the other members to sub for her.

Best Character
Even though she is the "troublemaker" I'm going to give this one to Danielle because she beat cancer.

Worst Character
I have to go with Jessi and Becca because they were complete fucking morons and had to look so stupid when they got all dressed up for nothing.

#81 - Kristy and Mr. Mom

Timeline

January of their 5th eighth grade year. Yep, we skipped all the holidays with no mention.

Plot
Watson, Kristy's stepfather has a heart attack. While it is minor and he ends up fine, he needs to make some lifestyle changes, one of them being he needs to cut back on stress due to work. So he decides to go very very part time at work and be more active at home. This makes Nannie feel like she's not needed, so she moves out. As soon as she moves out though, the entire household goes to shit. So Kristy goes to her new apartment and basically tells her to come back, so she does. So she's literally gone like...maybe ten days?

Subplot is that Mrs. Marshall, who has two little girls, has been calling for babysitting but not telling them that one of her friends, who has three kids, will have her kids there too. She only pays for her two, though, and her friend doesn't pay anything. She does it twice, and then when she calls for a third time both Claudia and Stacey go, and Mrs. Marshall is like nope, I only asked for one babysitter so I will only pay for one. So then they both leave and Mrs. Marshall is effed. Kristy finally calls to explain what happened, and then Mrs. Marshall realizes she's not being cool and they make up.

Takeaways
Okay first of all, when Watson has his heart attack I legit started crying.

So Mrs. Marshall calls and asks for a babysitter and then when Dawn gets there she finds the three extra kids. When Mrs. M pays her, she only pays for two. So what should have happened was Dawn goes to the next BSC meeting, then Kristy calls Mrs. Marshall and explains that anything over 4 kids requires two sitters and you have to pay her kid. Problem fucking solved. I don't understand why they didn't think of that themselves. Morons.

Nannie decides to move out without ever explaining why to anyone.

Why are all of the characters in this book afraid to actually talk to each other about their problems?

Best Character
I'm going to go with Kristy. She has to pick up the slack majorly when Watson goes into the hospital, then when he comes home and Nannie leaves. She even has to give all her siblings money for lunch when Watson not only didn't go grocery shopping, but also had no money.

Worst Character
Fucking Mrs. Marshall's cheap ass wins this one. 

#80 - Mallory Pike, #1 Fan

Timeline
Fall of their 5th sixth grade/eighth grade year

Plot
Mallory has a new assignment where she has to figure out a project on what she wants to do when she grows up. She knows she wants to be a children's author, so she decides to write a play and have the kids in the Kids Can Do Anything Club act it out. She gets permission, but then her teacher tells her that's not enough for the assignment. So she also decides to interview her new favorite author, Henrietta Hayes. She writes her three letters and just gets form letters back, but then she does a little research and finds out Henrietta lives in Stoneybrook! Mallory rides her bike to her house and not only does Henrietta invite her in, but she hires her as her assistant.

Mallory reads a quote from Earnest Hemmingway about how real authors base their writings off personal experience. So she decides the play she writes has to be about her real life, and she writes an absolutely terrible play where she is a perfect person and her entire family are a bunch of aholes. The other babysitters and all the kids in the play tell her it's mean, but she refuses to budge on her "autobiographical" ideas of writing. She then does some research on Henrietta and finds out her life has actually been really sad - both her parents and her brother died in a fire, her husband left her and her only child got killed - but rather than feel bad for her, Mallory gets pissed bc her books are happy, and clearly Henrietta is a liar bc her life isn't happy. So Mallory is super mean to her, writes her a letter and calls her a liar, and then quits her job as her assistant.

Meanwhile, Mallory's family finds out about her play and they are fucking pissed, so they boycott it. Mallory's mom gets involved and goes to see a dress rehearsal of it and agrees it is mean. So Mallory has to rewrite it. And she's pissed at her mentor. Her life is kind of awful.

Then she finally wakes up. She rewrites the play and makes up with Henrietta. Her newly written play goes well, she gets an A on her project and Henrietta is writing a new sequel to the books Mallory loves and dedicates it to her.

The end.

Takeaways
Mallory is such a fucking moron in this book. She seems to forget what "fiction" means, even though writing is supposedly her passion. Stacey is even like "um what about Peter Pan and Charlotte's Web?" and Mallory just blows her off.

When Mallory is writing her play, she calls the character based off herself "Valerie", the one based off Vanessa "Ranessa" and so on. She's so fucking stupid.

I also cannot believe how rude she is to her "favorite" author.

Also, how is a pretty famous author living in Stoneybrook but no one knows? I feel like for as many "authors" days as the school has, she maybe would have been invited since she lives down the fucking street?

Best Character
Vanessa because she takes the lead on not letting Mallory embarrass the entire family.

Worst Character
Fucking Mallory.

#79 - Mary Anne Breaks the Rules

Timeline
Halloween time of their 5th 8th grade year

Plot
Mary Anne is so so happy. Can't stop talking and thinking about how happy she is. She takes a baby-sitting job at the Kuhn's, whose dad just left and moved far away. The two girls are okay, but Jake, the oldest boy, is not handling it well. Mary Anne invites Logan over while she is babysitting to do "boy stuff" and Jake becomes a happy go lucky kid again. So MA keeps inviting Logan over. One day, the three kids and Logan and MA are inside eating a snack when the mom comes home, and the mom LOSES her mind that MA invited her boyfriend over. She yells at Logan and MA. Then calls Kristy and yells at Kristy. Then Kristy yells at MA. Then Kristy yells at Logan. MaryAnne cries through all of this.

Then Mrs. Kuhn actually talks to her son and finds out that there was no hanky panky, it was all just Logan trying to be a good mentor for Jake. So she and Jake go over to MA's house and apologize. Then she calls Logan and apologizes. Then she calls Kristy and apologizes. Everyone makes up. Mary Anne cries through all of this.

The subplot is that all the kids in Stoneybrook split up and make competing haunted houses. Alan Gray helps one of them out.

Takeaways
I have to admit, this book is pretty freaking boring.

The conflict with MA, Logan and the Kuhn's gets wrapped up in chapter 13. That left two entire chapters at the end that is just about the kids' haunted houses. Very boring.

The most annoying thing about this book is that is MA had just asked Mrs. Kuhn is Logan can come over and explained why she wanted him to, everything would have been fine. Or, maybe they should have just asked Logan to take one of the jobs. It's very un-MaryAnne like to not ask permission.

Also in this book MA says her dad got  remarried when she was 12. Nope. Wrong. She was 13. But I understand her confusion, since this is her 5th time through 8th grade.

Best Character
Dawn - everytime MA calls her to cry about stuff, Dawn tells her it will all blow over and to calm down. And she was right.

Worst Character
Probably Logan, because when Mrs. Kuhn comes home and finds him sitting there, he just fucking bolts.  Like literally just runs out the door.