Shipwrecked Castaways

Before I dive (a little water humor there) into my review of the BSC Super Special #4, Baby-sitters' Island Adventure, let's take a looksie at the cover. I think after 30 years of this being published, I finally figured out who is who:

 

For the longest time, I thought there were a couple of rand-os in the mix. Let me point out the characters I can definitely identify: Mallory is the dork in the yellow top and black overalls (I don't know if you would classify those as overalls). Everyone is waving, including her, but it looks like she's raising her hand in class, just dying to show off she knows the answer to a difficult question. "Ooh, pick me! I know, I know! Pick me! ME, ME, ME!" Right in front of Mal, is Stacey wearing a VERY boring outfit. And right in front of Stacey, with the pigtails and sailor hat, is Mary Anne. You'd think Stacey or Claudia would go with the nautical theme. In the middle with the blue jacket and bowl haircut is Jamie Newton. Claudia, for some reason looking a lot younger than the other members of the BSC (including Mal and Jessi) is the one in the red and white striped shirt. It doesn't look like she's waving, but rather like she's making gesture with her hands, almost like she's showing how big a fish was that they caught. Dawn is in the braided pigtails wearing the white sweatshirt with red cuffs and collar. She's also wearing the same thing in the artwork that is in the book, so props for the continuity there. Jessi is in the purple top and Becca is in the yellow top. Becca looks more like she's five than eight to me, but of course, I probably couldn't tell a five-year-old from an eight-year-old in real life, so who am I to judge? 

Also, for the longest time (like since I first read this book when it came out in 1990), I just assumed the blond kid in the blue next to Dawn was Jeff. But after studying the cover, I realized the blond kid was wearing shoes with flowers on them and frilly socks and didn't think Jeff would be wearing that. Then I remembered that Haley is described as having short blonde hair with a rattail, so that has to be her. So does that mean Jeff is the kid in the yellow shirt and green shorts? That kid looks like they have red hair, not blond hair. But it has to be Jeff. And the girl in the pink shirt next to Mallory must be Kristy even though she looks nothing like Kristy. 

Ships ahoy! It's time to steer right into my review! So this Super Special is a bit different than the previous three in that the actual adventure only happens to two of our baby-sitters and they don't go anywhere...I mean, they DO go somewhere, but this was not a planned event! Dawn is our "host" for this SS and she narrates the majority of the chapters. Usually you get three chapters from each girl, but Dawn has a whopping 10 chapters plus the prologue and epilogue. Claudia narrates five chapters and the other girls only get one or two chapters. It makes sense that this book focuses mostly on Dawn and Claudia as they are the ones having the adventure. (This book should have been called Claudia and Dawn's Island Adventure!) They have been taking sailing lessons and on the day of a big race between them, it's a tie (although Dawn thinks she won) and they decide to do a re-match. We are told they have counselors in the boat when they are sailing. If that's the case, then why didn't Claudia's counselor tell her to take off her dangly earrings (that will end up getting caught on a sail - ouch!) or to button up her shirt which is blowing all around and up in her face? Duh. 

They're told that they don't need counselors anymore when they sail (gee, how convenient for the plot of this book!) as long as they don't sail alone. Dawn and Claudia decide to do their rematch next Saturday. Instead of racing to Greenpoint Island and back, they decide just to race to the island where they will have a picnic with the guests they have decided to bring along. 

Dawn's brother, Jeff, has a four-day weekend and will be visiting Stoneybrook, so he will be joining Dawn on her boat. Jessi volunteers that Becca would love to go sailing and Claudia agrees to have her on her boat. Oh, man, can you imagine if Kristy said that Karen wanted to go sailing? Can you imagine being stranded on an island with Karen Brewer for two days? :::shudder::: You know she'd be the first to be sacrificed if they had to resort to cannibalism on the island! 

The girls are sort of forced to invite Haley Braddock to come along when Becca spills the beans and tells her about it and now she wants an invitation. (What if Claud and Dawn could only haver one guest each? Just tell her no; it's like they can't ever let any of their charges down). They do invite Haley, but I think it's pretty crappy that they don't also invite Matt to be the fourth person (since each of them will have two kids with them). Yes, they do talk about how Haley sometimes feels left out since Matt gets all this special treatment since he's deaf and they wanted this to be a special treat for Haley, and, yes, maybe Matt's parents wouldn't feel comfortable about him going since Dawn and Claudia probably only know minimal sign language (even though Haley would be there), but geeze, pretty rude to invite one kid and NOT invite the other. However, it isn't even an issue. 

The last kid they end up inviting is four-year-old Jamie Newton which is insane. Look, I understand that his parents had no idea what was going to happen, but still, I would never allow my four-year-old to go out on a boat with a couple of thirteen-year-olds. I'm not sure how long it takes to sail to Greenpoint Island, maybe an hour. It takes the rescue boat a couple hours to get to them on the island they're stranded on. (Spoiler alert: they do get rescued!) It's one thing for an eight-year-old and a nine-year-old to go with them (and even then, I'd still be wary about sending them out with a couple of thirteen-year-olds!) To me (and probably to most of society!), thirteen is still a child. But a FOUR-year-old? Nuh-uh. No way. I would think even Claudia and Dawn wouldn't feel comfortable about him being there. Why is Jamie invited? Because he loves boat. Well, most four-year-olds do. He also probably loves dinosaurs, planes, trains, and trucks too. You know who I think they should have invited? Jackie Rodowsky. Can you imagine if he was out there? He'd probably spread the fire they started, cut his hand on the jagged mirror Claudia finds, and dump all the water out of the tarp. And who knows what would have happened when he was on the sailboat. Hmm, maybe it's a good thing he wasn't invited! And I guess it wouldn't be fair to invite him and not his brothers. What about Charlotte Johanssen? Hell, if Myriah Perkins was with them, they'd probably all be rescued within a couple of hours! Actually, after Dawn tells Claudia Jeff is coming, Claudia invites Mallory. Apparently, the Pike family "loves boating and they spend a lot of time on the water." Uh, what? They do? Huh? Since when have we ever seen the Pikes go boating? I know they spend every summer (the SAME summer!) at Sea City, but do they even go boating there? Mal isn't able to go because her parents have plans for the family (yeah, like searching for two boats and six people!) But I think that could have been interesting if she had been one of the people stranded on the island; then we would get another baby-sitter's perspective. 

So Dawn has Jeff and Haley in her boat and Claudia has Becca and Jamie in her boat and they begin their race, but, uh-oh! A storm's a-brewing! Didn't anybody look at the weather forecast for that day? The scariest part for everybody is when their boats are getting sloshed by water and Dawn's boat starts sinking so they have to send their supplies to Claudia's boat and Dawn, Jeff, and Haley have to hang on to their boat as it washes up an island that isn't Greenpoint Island. 

When this book first opens, we get a journal entry from Dawn talking about exciting and traumatic events in her life. (She says gaining a stepfather and a sister was traumatic (end exciting). Hmm, interesting). So when she wrote that, her adventure on the island had already happened so we know everyone was fine. I think reading this as a kid, I never realized the severity of the situation since I knew they would be fine. But they were gone for two days and nobody knew where they were or even if they were alive. That's pretty scary. During this time, we never actually see Jessi's parents or Claudia's parents or the Newtons or the Braddocks and I think we might see Sharon very briefly. We're told that the Kishis have been crying and that the Newtons and the Braddocks are out searching with the Coast Guard, but we don't actually see any of our girls actually having a conversation with a family member of the missing (except for Jessi and Mary Anne, of course). 

This book gets pretty grim with talk about the possibility of them drowning. I can kind of understand why AMM had the family members of the missing off doing their own thing with help searching because that would be pretty heavy if one of the girls had to talk to the Newtons with the possibility that their four-year-old drowned. You KNOW the Newtons got into a huge fight about allowing him to go off with two thirteen-year-olds who just literally got their sailing certificate. I know that it seems like both parents gave permission, but I just can't see it. 

Before I talk about Dawn and Claud's "Island Adventure", let's check in with the rest of the girls:

Jessi gets her one chapter near the beginning. It's the evening of the race and Becca should have been home a couple of hours ago. For some reason, Jessi's parents are away for the weekend and think that an eleven-year-old is responsible for taking care of her eight-year-old sister and one-year-old brother. Who does that? My mom would NEVER let me do that. Now, granted I am the youngest, but she would have never let my eleven-year-old brother take care of seven-year-old me for a weekend. No. Freaking. Way! Absolutely ridiculous. So Jessi ends up calling....Aunt Cecelia! Yes, this is the book we are introduced to Aunt Cecelia, so that's pretty cool. And AMM must have had plans for Aunt Cecelia because this book comes right before #36, Jessi's Baby-Sitter. Now when I was younger, I couldn't stand Aunt Cecelia much like Jessi, but now that I'm a little bit older and wise, all I can say is, Thank God for Aunt Cecelia. I absolutely love this quote we get from her:

"How could a couple of intelligent adults leave an eleven-year-old in charge of two younger children for three whole days?"

THANK YOU, Aunt Cecelia, thank you. I couldn't have said it better myself. She does blame Jessi for letting Becca go on the sailboat even though it was Becca's parents who gave permission, so I can understand Jessi's frustration about that. 

Right before Dawn left, she and Mary Anne had a huge fight. I feel like these two are always fighting but maybe that's because I just read Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation where they have a fight in that book and I just read Mary Anne and the Great Romance where they fight and I'm about to read Dawn's Wicked Stepsister which is pretty much all about them not getting along. Have we ever had two other baby-sitters who fight as much as these two? I guess that's what sisters do! They get into a fight because Dawn was supposed to tell Mary Anne (who was baby-sitting) that Logan wouldn't be able to meet her at the library because he had to stay home and watch his sister since his brother had an asthma attack and had to be rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately, the phone rings two more times after Dawn gets off the phone with Logan and she forgets to call Mary Anne to tell her. Dawn forgets all about this until later when Mary Anne comes home in a huff, exclaiming that she can't believe Logan stood her up. Dawn is trying to tell her (but not doing a very good job!) and Mary Anne calls Logan and chews him out. Then she realizes what happens and is angry at Dawn and tells her, "I wish I never have to see you again. I wish you would get out of my life - forever." You know, for someone who is supposed to be "supportive" and "sympathetic", Mary Anne can be a downright bitch sometimes. I'm sorry, but it's true! 

Of course, she does feel awful for what she said when she realizes the situation is dire and thinks that she caused what happened by what she said. When she is inevitably reunited with Dawn, she promises that she'll never not talk to her again.

God, Logan is such a fucking ASS in this book. I realize he was mad that Mary Anne thought he stood her up. Fine, that's fine. But she did apologize. There is a point when he calls her to tell her he's sorry about the boat incident. (We will later find out that the news is calling this story "The Connecticut Disaster"). She asks him if this means their fighting is over and he tells her that it doesn't. DUDE. There are six people MISSING, perhaps even possibly presumed DEAD and you still want to fight with your girlfriend over something petty like this? Get your priorities straight, dude. Mary Anne should break up with him (and then not get back together with him five books later when she does!) 

Speaking of stupid, ass-hat-ty thirteen-year-old boys, Kristy also has to deal with one of her own. The Krushers have a game against the Bashers on Monday (there's no school on Monday so this must take place during Labor Day or Memorial Day, perhaps?) but when the missing six still haven't been found by Sunday, Kristy calls Bart and asks him to postpone the game. Bart accuses her of being "irresponsible" (uh, what?) and that she's going to "disappoint a lot of kids". Uh, DUDE. There are six people MISSING, perhaps even possible presumed DEAD and you still want to have your little kiddie ball game? (Why do I feel like a broken record?) UGH. Why are these girls dating such stupid asshole guys? WHY????  He also accuses her of wanting to cancel the game because she's trying to "worm [her] way out of the game" because she doesn't want to see her kids get disappointed since they haven't beaten his team yet. Okay, he does eventually apologize when he realizes the severity of the situation...I guess he didn't know before even though this is all over the news in Stoneybrook. Still a jerk.

There's one particular Kristy-narrated chapter (Chapter 12) where I think AMM was either on a deadline or didn't have enough time to get it proofread or maybe even someone else entirely wrote this chapter because there are three pretty big errors. This is the chapter where Kristy has called an emergency meeting of the BSC and she, Jessi, Mary Anne, and Mal meet at Mal's house. Here are the three errors:

1) Jessi's name is spelled "Jesse" on page 103 (third line down).

2) This line is spoken by Mary Anne on page 108: "My mom spoke to Mrs. Newton, Mr. Braddock, and both of Claud's parents last night..." and then she will go on to say, "And my dad and Sharon are helping coordinating things at the center..." No way Mary Anne is referring to Sharon as her mom (this book takes places only five books after Richard and Sharon's wedding). And even if she did, why would she then refer to her as Sharon? Obviously a huge error.

3) On page 110, we get this line of dialogue: "What about you, Kristy?" asked Dawn. "Do you want to come out in the boat with my family? We'd be glad to have you." Uh...what? How did Dawn suddenly end in Mallory's room? That line was supposed to have been for Mallory. 

Stacey is in New York when Dawn and Claudia and the others go missing and as soon as Kristy calls to tell her about it, she wants to leave, but her dad won't let her because he has tickets to a play. They get into a fight and Stacey feels like she's stuck in the middle between her parents and blah, blah, blah. She does eventually leave early on Sunday and is able to join Kristy and the Pikes on a boat to search.

Mallory's only chapter is about that search. Claudia's abandoned boat had been found earlier and they all thought that was a good thing that there were no supplies on it since some of them are under seats so SOMEONE must have taken them off. However, while on the boat they see Dawn's boat which has been torn apart by the storm. They are able to see three numbers which match Dawn's boat's serial number. Again, everyone starts expecting the worst. I think this might be the only BSC book where the possibility of death for a BSC member (and their charges) is even uttered. It's been difficult to search for everyone because the weather is so foggy and they can't see anything,

Dawn and Claudia and Jeff, Becca, Haley, and Jamie find shelter in a cave where they make a fire (luckily they had seven waterproof matches in the survival kit). They had packed peanut butter and bologna sandwiches (two different types of sandwiches; they weren't peanut butter AND bologna together because that would be disgusting!), yogurt, salad (salad?? obviously Dawn packed that!), granola bars, bananas, apples, candy bars, juice boxes, bottles of water, and a big bottle of Coke. The granola bars are soaked and have to be thrown away. They decide to eat the sandwiches, yogurt, and salad (I would love to know what kind of salad it is. A leafy green salad? Potato salad? Bean sprout tofu salad?) since they don't know how long they'll last. They save the candy bars and fruit for later since they don't know how long they'll be there. They decide to save their liquids for when they really need them. At one point Haley wants to go out searching for coconuts. She thinks they might have drifted to a location where they would find coconuts. Hmm, I think I would double check her geography skills. And maybe her math skills while we're at it. Jeff also may need extra help in geography (and math) because he thinks they could have drifted all the way to Nova Scotia. Seriously, did these kid never watch Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? 

The next morning, Jeff comes back with a couple of small fish he caught with a stick, a piece of string, and a safety pin. Not sure how he caught fish without any bait...unless he used a bananas or something. We never actually see Jeff fishing, we just hear about it when he comes back with fish. Dawn and Jeff are the only ones who eat the fish (at first) because the others are like, "Eww, fish, gross!" Hey, it's not like you're eating rats or grubs...I'd much rather eat fish than that. 

Because they're not on Greenpoint Island, Claudia and Dawn agree that it wouldn't be a good idea to take the boat out and try to sail back to the mainland since they have no idea where they are and could end up sailing towards the Atlantic. They will find out later even if they wanted to they couldn't because the boat has been washed away. 

Becca gets the idea of collecting a bunch of shells and spelling HELP in the sand so any search planes might see it. It's an activity that helps pass the time, but unfortunately due to the haze and the fact that that shells are the same color as the sand, their hard work goes unnoticed. Jamie says he now knows how to spell six words: Jamie, Lucy, Mommy, Daddy, love, and help. Doesn't he know how to spell his own last name? 

Claudia notes how good Jeff is with the younger kids and tells Dawn that if something were to happen to one of them, Jeff would be a good person to have in charge. Dawn agrees that Jeff is good with kids and we learn that the last time she was in California, she and Jeff "got stuck sitting for two kids one night". While Dawn took care of the crying baby, Jeff entertained the older kid. This makes me think that Dawn's dad had company over and they brought their kids to the house as well. Seems kind of weird you would just expect your kids to be watched by your friend's kids. 

I felt so bad for Jamie Newton. He tells the girls he has a sore throat, his head hurts, and his ears ache. We will later find out he had strep throat. Ugh. I hate having a sore throat when I'm in the comforts of my own home with ginger ale and chicken noodle soup and my nice warm bed with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu available with thousands of movies and shows to watch, but I cannot even imagine having to deal with a sore throat and hurting all over while lying on the hard rock floor of a cave with barely anything to eat and not having my parents around AND being only four-years-old? Poor Jamie. Claudia and Dawn feel his forehead after Jeff mentions how warm Jamie feels and Claudia guesses him to have a temperature of 103! WHAT?! Didn't Jenny Prezzioso have a temperature of 104 and had to be rushed to the hospital? (Oh, man, can you imagine if Jenny were with them in place of Jamie?) While Jamie does have a fever, no way it is that high! How would Claudia even know how high it is? Since when did she become a nurse? The girls give him water and that seems to make him feel a little better, but he's not all the way cured. 

Since Jamie has been drinking most of the water and since it's been raining non-stop, Claudia uses a tarp that was in the survival kit that she ties to four sturdy sticks so she can catch water that will catch in the middle. When it becomes full, she gets the empty containers and fills them. Pretty clever. 

Claudia goes searching in the woods looking for anything to help them get rescued. She finds a jagged piece of mirror (how did that end up on the island?) and uses it to reflect sunlight so a search plane can see them. They do and a couple hours later a boat with all their parents and a doctor on it comes to rescue them. Yay! Everyone is safe and alive! The BSC are reunited once again!

The story gets a five-minute segment on the news (does that seem kind of long to anyone?) and they're on the front page of the newspaper. Mary Anne is so obnoxious. She wants to know where her picture is. Um, YOU weren't even stranded, you little twit! She does get her wish because there is a photo of her hugging Dawn. I have to say, I wasn't a fan of Mary Anne in this book.

Even though this book is extremely far-fetched, I did enjoy it. I liked that it was something different for a Super Special. I don't think they ever mention this incident ever again in the regular series, do they? My favorite thing were the illustrations by Angelo Tillery whose work we won't see again until SS #7. 

Winter Fun with the BSC!

It's a perfect time to read and review Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation (BSC Super Special #3) because, I swear, it's snowed here just about every other day for the last two weeks and we just got a couple more inches last night (during the time I was writing this, that is!) Everything is covered in snow, to my dismay. Now, if I didn't have to go anywhere and had all the food and toilet paper and supplies I needed, then I'd be like, bring it on! Bring on the snow! But when I have to drive in it? Nuh-uh. Don't enjoy it at all. But right now, I'm perfectly happy sitting in my apartment working on this review on my laptop while I drink a vanilla latte from Starbucks (Starbucks is less than five minutes from where I live; so I can venture out as long as the streets have been cleared) and eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (Claudia would be so proud) while my cat keeps trying to crawl all over me and around my laptop (Mary Anne would be so touched).

So let's begin the review! Our girls are going on a mandatory school trip to Leicester Lodge in Vermont. I'm not quite clear why this trip is mandatory other than they go during when school is in session because they mention if the trip is cancelled due to bad weather, they'd just go to school. For some reason, I always just assumed this took place during the week of their winter vacation (probably because of the title!) But, no, according to Mary Anne, who is our "host" for this Super Special, this trip is mandatory for all the students at SMS unless you already had a family vacation planned to Aruba like Logan's family does. This is another reason why I thought it took place during their winter vacation; why are Mr. and Mrs. Bruno pulling their three kids out of school when it's still in session? I guess Logan doesn't really matter since he'd just be skiing and ice-skating and throwing snowballs and drinking hot chocolate in the lodge, so he's not really missing any schoolwork. I guess I can't be too judgmental, because my parents have pulled me out of school to go on trips and this was when I was in elementary school and the teachers would just give you your homework in advance.

Now, I've never been to Vermont (or anywhere in that area of the U.S.) in my life (yet!), but the destination I would visit with my family and another family when my parents would take me out of school? Colorado! Yes, they'd take us out of school so we could go skiing in Cooper Mountain, Keystone, or, my personal favorite, Breckenridge. Maybe I'm biased, but I think Colorado is the best place to ski. Of course, it's the only state I've skied in, except when I skied for about an hour in Washington when we went there one Christmas, but after years of skiing in Breckenridge, I was more used to that.

 But back to this being trip being mandatory for the SMS students, again, WHY??? I could understand if they were still going to have school and learn at the lodge, but all they do is participate in the Winter Carnival/Winter War and make snow sculptures, ice skate, and ski. Mary Anne mentions that they don't even have to pay for the trip, just make a "small donation" to the Winter Carnival Fund (whatever that is). I'm also confused as to how many students go to SMS. Is it 1200? Is it 600? 300? I have no idea. Why not just make this trip optional and have all our girls go, plus some of the students we've already gotten to know. We do see some familiar faces make appearnces like Ashley Wyeth and Alan Gray and Dori Wallingford and Rick Chow, but there's also students we have never heard from before and will never hear from again! 

Leicester Lodge is described as being a gigantic hotel in the mountains (like the hotel in The Shining) and this place must be huge because not only are they hosting all the SMS students (plus a few teachers), but also 8th graders from a school in northern Vermont (hmmm, how come it's only the 8th graders?), and 7th and 8th graders from New Hampshire (I guess Mal and Jessi are lucky they live in Stoneybrook, otherwise they wouldn't have been invited!) and a group of 16 elementary school children in Maine. Not to spoil anything, but we won't meet any of the other middle school students (except for one person), but we will be spending lots of time with the elementary school kids. Because they're the Baby-Sitters Club! Again, I'm not sure how many students there are from the Vermont and New Hampshire schools. Not only are all those students there at the lodge, but also the people who are just staying there for a skiing holiday. I guess that's how Mr. and Mrs. George, the couple who own the lodge, make their money. They seem to let school children come to their lodge for their experience and it sounds like they (or their parents) pay next to nothing since the Georges' already have it covered. We are never given an age of the Georges', but they've had the lodge for twenty years, so I would guess mid-50s or early 60s. They seem to have a lot of people working for them in their 70s; in fact one woman tells Mary Anne that she's worked there since 1930. (This book was published in December 1989). 

Each grade is divided by gender and they all sleep in huge rooms that have two rows of fourteen bunk beds. However, we are also told the lodge has suites because that's where the teachers sleep. (I should hope so! Can you imagine being an adult and having to bunk with 28 other adults in the same room? Ugh!) 

There's lots of shade thrown against Camp Mohawk; so much, in fact, that I don't think the girls enjoyed their camping experience that much! Mallory and Jessi are worried that the food is going to be terrible, but the other girls, who went to the lodge last year (they did?) assure them the food is so much better than it was at Camp Mohawk. Also, while they have bunk beds at the lodge like they did at Camp Mohawk, they also have dressers and mirror and rugs and adjoining bathrooms. I mean, I would also rather go to a ski lodge in Vermont than summer camp. Of course, I wouldn't want to be baby-sitting while I was there, but that's exactly what our girls end up doing. Because they're the Baby-Sitters Club and they always end up baby-sitting wherever they go. When they go on a cruise and to Disney World? They're baby-sitting! When they go to summer camp? They're baby-sitting! When they visit Stacey for a weekend in NYC? They're baby-sitting! And when they go on a school trip to Vermont? They're baby-sitting! What happens is that the bus with the sixteen kids from Maine is an accident and the two teacher chaperones have to be taken to the hospital (they're fine) and Kristy pretty much volunteers the BSC to take care of them. The seven of them end up moving into a smaller dorm with the kids. The other members seem to be okay with this arrangement, but for just once I'd like one of the other girls to put her foot down and say they DON'T want to be baby-sitting while they're on vacation. Enough is enough! 

So let's talk about each Baby-Sitter and what they do during their "winter vacation":

Mary Anne presents this book as a journal for Logan since he's unable to attend. She pretty much spends 90% of the book mooning over him and worrying that he's met a hot girl in Aruba that he's kissing and snorkeling with. As an adult re-reading these books, one thing I find disturbing about Mary Anne is how much Logan defines her. Have you ever noticed that once they're together, he's often a big part of the plot of her books? Obviously, we see them meet in Logan Likes Mary Anne! In Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery, he's the reason Cokie sends her that "bad luck" necklace. His sister is the one who took her cat in Mary Anne and the Search For Tigger. I actually don't remember him playing a big role in Mary Anne and the Great Romance, but doesn't Mary Anne rub it in Dawn's face that she has a boyfriend in Dawn's Wicked Stepsister? Then, I don't remember how he fits into Mary Anne and Too Many Boys, but for sure he's one of the "boys". Then you have the break up and the re-uniting of the couple in Mary Anne vs. Logan and Mary Anne Misses Logan. Then it's Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies where she and Logan are pretend married and take care of an egg baby. And of course he played a big part in the last Super Special when they were at Camp Mohawk and she tried to sneak around the lake to see him. It's like every Mary Anne book, it's Logan, Logan, Logan! 

Mary Anne doesn't have any plans to participate in the Winter War, but she did volunteer to be the "trip historian" and write a report on the history of the lodge for extra credit. Is it me or does that sound more like something Mallory would volunteer for? Apparently this is the first time ever someone volunteered to research the lodge, so I guess it isn't assigned or anything. When she' doing her research, (the only thing she does when she's not pining for Logan), she find out there may be a ghost haunting the resort, but it doesn't really go anywhere (the story, not the ghost!). This is when Mary Anne talks to all the workers who are in their seventies who may be able to tell her about the supposed ghost. The only person who will really talk to her is Mr. George who tells her a not-so-liked visitor was found dead in the bathtub in 1930 (they don't give his age) and that when his relatives heard the news, they were relieved he was dead. Nobody claimed his body so he was buried in the woods outside the hotel. Weird things and weird noises started happening soon after and that's how the legend of the Leicester Lodge Ghost was born. 

We get a judge-y moment from Mary Anne when she's interviewing the cook and she notices one of his teeth is missing (just ONE, mind you) and she's all like," I can't stand when adults have teeth missing. I am a firm believer in dentures." It's a weird and petty character trait that seems to come out of nowhere. She also gets into a fight with Dawn when Dawn has had a bad day and when she tries to talk to Mary Anne about it, Mary Anne is just moping about how far away Vermont is from Aruba. They do end up making up, of course. There's tears and hugging. This book takes place right before Mary Anne and the Great Romance and it's mentioned how Mary Anne's dad and Dawn's mom are seriously dating and that Mary Anne and Dawn decide to share a bunk for "practice" if they eventually become stepsisters. I don't understand this since I'm pretty sure neither of them have a bunk bed of their own. 

I was not a fan of Kristy in this book. She's just so competitive with the whole Winter War thing and she's pretty rude to the students who aren't as athletic as she is. As someone who has never been athletic and has been berated by people like her when I miss a kick or shot or whatever it is, she just brought back bad memories. I think this is a big reason I've never been able to relate to Kristy and I would have never been friends with her in real life. So the Winter War is a competition between the Red Team an the Blue Team. The students are divided up randomly. Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Dawn are on the Blue Team and Claudia, Mallory, and Jessi are on the Red Team. There are five events the teams will be competing in:

1) ice-skating (which is more like a speed skating because they're judged on how fast they can skate; not any technical ice-skating moves).

2) snow-ball fight (there's a Capture the Flag element to this where each team has a tennis ball that the other teams needs to claim). 

3) snow sculpture contest

4) downhill skiing

5) cross-country skiing

What, no curling? Well, I guess they aren't in Canada! 

Kristy is very ambitious. Not only is she the captain of the Blue Team (Rick Chow is the captain of the Red Team), but she's also organizing the entire thing - she has to schedule the practice sessions, ask kids if they want to compete (shouldn't they know who's going to participate for what event in advance?), and help keep score. Um....why? WHY is one eight-grader in charge of the whole winter competition? Shouldn't this be a teacher's (or several teachers') duty? I could see them asking for help from a few students and they could help organize different events and what not, but why is it only just Kristy? And why would they let the captain of one of the teams do it? You'd think she'd be busy with those duties! And on top of that, she's busy with her baby-sitting responsibilities! I found this to be a bit ridiculous and totally unrealistic. 

The Blue Team loses the first two events (ice skating and snow sculpting) which greatly upsets Kristy. She berates everyone who doesn't help their team win (including Dawn who falls during the skating competition).  They manage to catch up in the next two events and are pretty close to winning when it's only the cross-country competition left. She tries to recruit more people and goes around telling people "if they can walk, they can cross-country ski" and this is how she gets a few (reluctant!) students to join. There was one moment that made me LOL when a bunch of students exclaim, "We can't walk yet!" before she can even recruit them. Despite having a bunch of people entered, they still suck and one student ends up breaking his ankle. The Blue Team ends up losing and Kristy is pretty sour about that, but she also feels bad about pushing the kid who broke his ankle into entering the competition. 

Oh, in case you were wondering, the winning team of the Winter War all get a coupon for a free slice of pizza. Whooo! 

Claudia does not enter the snow sculpture contest, but is a judge for it, along with a teacher. They end up picking a sculpture of the Cheshire Cat which was made by two people who are on the Red Team. Now I am willing to give Claudia the benefit of the doubt and trust that she picked what she believed was to be the best sculpture, but perhaps subconsciously she was looking for the best sculpture on the Red Team? This, of course, pisses off Kristy, as well as Ashley Wyeth (who is on the Blue Team), who I guess thought Claudia would pick hers since they share an artistic bond. Personally, I thought it would have looked way more shady if Claudia HAD picked Ashley's (or any member of the BSC) even if they were on the opposite team. Hey! Here's an idea: why didn't they just have a blind judging? Claudia is sequestered while they make the sculptures, then when she goes around to judge them, she has no idea who made them. This seems like a pretty good solution and pretty obvious. I am honestly surprised they let her judge when she was already on the Red Team. 

This is the third Super Special where Claudia falls in love! By this rate, she has more Super Special love interests than Stacey! She falls for her ski instructor, a French-Canadian named Guy (rhymes with "ski", appropriately!) who happens to be twenty-five and Claudia is sure that he likes her, you know, like that.  She even tells Stacey, "My ski instructor has a crush on me." Um, no, Claudia, he does not. You are a literal child. He is a twenty-five-year-old man. If he wanted to date you or be in a romantic relationship with you, he would be in jail. So apparently we are told that Claudia is a champion skier and that she is the best skier at her school even though we had no evidence of this before this book and I'm pretty sure this doesn't come up in later books. Guy is just impressed with her skiing skills and encourages her to be even better. 

Of course, Claudia's dreams of her and Guy riding on a gondola in Venice, walking along a beach holding hands during sunset, and having an intimate dinner with him by candlelight all come crashing down when he introduces Claudia to his wife and two children. Yeah, who didn't see that coming?

Jessi has the task of overseeing the entire talent show the school is putting on the last day at the lodge. (Seriously, what is the point of putting on a talent show? You'e got plenty or other entertainment when you're there!) It's not as big as being in charge of the entire Winter War, but, again, why doesn't SMS just ask for three or four student volunteers? Why just have ONE sixth-grader be in charge of the whole thing. These girls are way too overly (and obnoxiously!) ambitious at times. Not only that, but she plans to do a dance from Swan Lake (which she will kill and will get a standing ovation).

Jessi doesn't participate in any of the outdoor activities except for the snow sculpture contest (she and Mal sculpt a pair of ballet shoes, which, I think sounds pretty cool) because she's worried she will break a bone and her dance career will come to a screeching halt. Instead, she volunteers to stay at the lodge and watch over Pinky, this bratty girl from the elementary school who was in the bus accident. Pinky, who is probably 7 or 8, sprained her ankle and can't do anything physical. She's also just a total Debbie Downer and none of the kids want to bunk with her, so she's the only one to have a bunk bed to herself. When Jessi tries to make conversation with her the girl is pretty rude to her. Jessi think it's because the girl is racist (or "prejudiced" is the word she uses), but since we've seen other examples of Pinky being bratty to her other peers, the reader isn't supposed to jump to that conclusion. Jessi ponders if it had been Kristy or Mal watching her, would Pinky have acted the same to them? Come to think of it, I can't remember any examples of Pinky being rude to the older members of the BSC and she seemed to respect teacher authority. I can see Pinky being a brat to Mal, though. Being that Jessi is only three years older than her, she probably saw her as a fellow peer who was annoying her. If I were in  Pinky's shoes, I would be a bit annoyed if an eleven-year-old took it upon themselves to baby-sit me while I was in a lodge with plenty of things to keep my occupied (not to mention plenty of people). Jessi says it's "her job to entertain Pinky". No, it's not, Jessi. You're here on a school vacation. Go have fun with your friends; stop worrying about this girl who clearly doesn't want to do anything. Let her be someone else's problem.

Jessi compares Pinky to her racist neighbor who lives across the street, which, honestly, I think was a bit unfair to Pinky. Yes, this girl is a total brat, but we will later learn why she's acting this way. I remember we met this horrible neighbor in the book when we first meet Jessi; she's the one who didn't want her daughter playing with Becca and has threatened to move. I don't remember if we ever hear from her again, so hopefully she did move. For a second, I did wonder if this is the same woman from Keep Out, Claudia. I remember she had three kids and (I believe) the oldest was a girl, but I don't remember how old she was. Also, I'm pretty sure Jessi would have immediately recognized the address and warn the other girls not to baby-sit for that racist c**t. 

When I think of the name Pinky, I think of a dog (perhaps a Saint Bernard with a sibling named Buffy) or maybe a mouse who wants to help his other mouse friend take over the world. Jessi asks an annoyed Pinky about her name and she tells her it's a nickname for Priscilla (don't know how you get Pinky from that, but I guess it's better than being called Prissy! :::shudder::::) Jessi comments she likes "Pinky" better, but Pinky does not. So why does she go by that nickname if she'd rather be called by her real name? I have a name that is pretty straight forward and doesn't lend itself to nicknames (Sara), but isn't the person with the name the one who tells people what they'd rather be called? Unless she was called Pinky when she was younger and didn't have a say in it and it stuck and now she wants people to call her Priscilla, but nobody will because they're so used to calling her Pinky.

So we learn the reason why Pinky is acting like a brat is because she's home sick. That's it. So did the other kids get along with her back at school and they just shunned her on this trip because of the way she was acting? I was a little confused about that. 

Dawn is also feeling a little homesick, we find out, but that didn't really ring true to me. We know Dawn, who is from sunny California, who loves sunshine and going to the beach and tanning, does NOT like cold weather or snow or anything to do with winter. Why not have this be her storyline? She's just so miserable through this whole experience. And that's where it seems to be headed when she trips on the ice when she's in the skating competition, then later she falls trying to get on the ski lift. She's just not having a good day. The homesickness thing just seems to come out of nowhere. 

She and Mary Anne get into a huge fight when she tries to talk to Mary Anne about her bad day, but Mary Anne is more concerned about Logan. I'm on Dawn's side here. She just wants a sympathetic ear, but all Mary Anne can do is "think about her precious Logan" as Dawn puts it. 

While skiing, Stacey meets a "gorgeous guy" named Pierre who is also staying at the lodge with his class from Dixville Falls (is it me or does that name sound a little dirty?) Pierre's parents are from Paris, but moved to the States after the got married and he's always lived in Vermont. He reveals he doesn't speak French, but takes Italian at school (weird that they have Italian as a language at a middle school....you'd think the use the resources for French, Spanish, or German).  When Stacey asks him if he speaks any French, he replies with "Chevrolet coupe" (pretend there's an accent mark over the e) and Stacey "laughed so hard [she] nearly fell over". Girl, please. This reminded me of that stupid joke Toby tells her in Boy-Crazy Stacey (I can't even remember what it was) and she laughed like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. 

Stacey makes a remark about how Pierre's voice is changing and "acquiring that deepness". It made me laugh when she's writing about Pierre in the notebook for Mary Anne (which will eventually be given to Logan) and says, "And his voice is starting to change, which is so cool..." I mean, this is the right age when a boy's voice starts to change and I don't think the subject of puberty has even been brought up in this series which is fascinating since they are in the ripe age for it, 11-13. These girls have never been mentioned as getting their periods, which I find fascinating. Surely, the older member have gotten theirs by now! (Maybe not Kristy; I can see her being a late bloomer). 

I rolled my eyes so hard when Stacey thinks about the other boys she's known and she "decided that Pierre was the nicest, the most fun, and - if things went my way - probably my first meaningful crush." Girl, GTFO. Pierre doesn't even make it in the top five of your crushes/boyfriends. What about Robert? What about Ethan? What about Sam? Yeah, yeah, I realize these relationships will happen after the events of this book, but little does Stacey know is that she will barely remember Pierre one she leaves Vermont. 

What's interesting about the Stacey chapters is that she has two pretty close to the beginning, then doesn't get her last chapter until much later in the book. The other girls note that Stacey's sort of been off doing her own thing (i.e. making out with Pierre) and they don't see her that much. She narrates chapters 2, 8, and 22, so that's a pretty big gap! I thought that was pretty clever to have her "hide" out for awhile since that's how the other members of the BSC perceived her at that time. There's a big dance for all the students at  the lodge and of course Stacey is in LUV as she dances with Pierre. They exchange addresses and he does send her a postcard where he writes "I love you" on it which is a bit weird considering they're only 13 and he's only known her for three or four days, but whatever. Out of all Staceys' five billion romances, Pierre has to be one of the least memorable.

There's this weird line where Stacey is talking about them saying their good-byes and she narrate, "Then the buses would leave, and Pierre would go back to Vermont and I would go back to Connecticut." Um, how can Pierre "go back" to Vermont if he's already in the state?(!) Why not just say he'll be going back to the town in Vermont he's from? IDK, that kind of annoyed me.

Stacey claims that New York doesn't get much snow and her "personal theory is that the city is too warm for snow." Um, didn't NYC get a huge blizzard a couple years ago? Now I don't know if that is rare for the city or if New York never had that much snow back in the '80s, so she just never lived in a New York where it ever snowed much. She even says "There is very little for for a blizzard in New York City." Just give it a couple decades, Stacey. Never say never. 

She volunteers to help one of the teachers get 15 kids ready to ski. This includes dressing them up in their winter gear, which is a feat all on its own. It takes them 30 minutes, then the kids have to use the bathroom (of course they do!) and they realize there's a lot of mismatched mittens and forgetting to put on their sweaters under their snowsuits. That takes an extra 20 minutes to get everything fixed. However, the worst part of this still hasn't happened: they need to fit 15 children for skis, boots, and poles. Oh. Dear. FUCKING. God. This would be my absolute nightmare. I remember going with my parents and older brother and having to get all that stuff when we went skiing in Colorado and that was such a long and boring process. You have to find ski boots that fit, then you gotta be fitted for the skis and make sure they're secure and blah, blah, blah. Skiing is fun but getting fit for all the equipment is not fun. Come to think of it, Claudia was pretty smart for bringing all her own equipment. I cannot even phantom having to go through all of this with FIFTEEN kids (17 people altogether if you count Stacey and the teacher). Stacey says the process "took nearly forever, and I am not exaggerating." And I believe her. I bet that took at least a couple of hours. This would have been an ideal scenario to have other BSC members there to help out with all of this. 

Last, but not least (well maybe a little! (j/k! I love you, Mal!) is Mallory who pretty much has the same storyline of her first Super Special plot where she's spying on people and writing in her notebook. She even makes reference to her trip to the Bahamas and Disney World. Mal vows not to get caught and that she was "going to be a keen observer that [her] journal would be filled only with the truth. [She] would never, ever read something into a situation that wasn't really there." Cut to a series of Mal's journal entries where she's clearly jumping to conclusions such as she thinks the cook is trying to poison them when she sees him putting an unlabeled spice into the food. She also gets caught red-handed (and red-faced too, I'm sure!) when she's peeping through the door trying to spy on Stacey and Pierre making out. 

Mallory is super nervous and anxious abut the big dance and thinks she has everything covered when she suggests they invite the elementary school kids and thinks all she will do is watch them, but when they start to dance as well, she can't use that excuse anymore. Everything turns out fine and a boy even asks her to dance. 

So that's all the girls' adventures in Vermont. I think this may be my favorite Super Special so far, but we're only three in. I remember California Girls always being my favorite and we're not too far off from that one so it will be interesting to see how that one holds up. Before I go, let's take a look at the cover:

I apologize if this isn't the clearest picture. So here we have all the BSC members having a snowball fight with each other. Shouldn't Claudia be on the side with Jessi and Mal since those were the Red Team members? Also which one is Stacey and which one is Dawn? I think Dawn is wearing the blue hat and Stacey wearing the red hat, but I honestly can't tell. 

Sumer Camp with the BSC

Baby-Sitters' Summer Vacation is the second Super Special and the one where the girls go to summer camp at Camp Mohawk in upstate New York (Luckily, they had the good sense to change the camp's name to Camp Moosehead in the Netflix series). The story is presented by Stacey, who is living in New York at this point. The other members are going to this camp for two weeks and want Stacey to join them. She doesn't want to at first, but they finally persuade her to come. I've only been to a week-long overnight camp once in my life and I absolutely hated it! I can't remember if it was before or after I read this book, but I can tell you now that reading this book did not make me want to go camp like I've seen so many say after they read this! 

Stacey presents this book as a notebook that she wants all her friends to write in to share their camp experiences. This is the first Super Special where each chapter begins with a postcard the baby-sitters are sending to someone. I thought it would be fun to rank the baby-sitters' handwriting (including Logan since he also has a couple chapters):

1. Stacey - Look, Stacey's handwriting isn't always practical; it must be a bitch to dot every lower case "i" with a heart, but there is something aesthetically pleasing about her handwriting. I will admit she's the reason I sometimes write my "a"'s the same way she does...they look more sophisticated than those regular old "a's" you learn to write in grade school.

2. Dawn - I prefer print to cursive, whether it's reading or writing it, and I've always found Dawn's handwriting easy on the eyes.

3. Kristy - Kristy is the only cursive handwriting I like and the only cursive handwriting I don't have any problem reading. If she wasn't the president, I think she would have been a good choice for the secretary!

4. Mallory - Not a big fan of her chicken scratch; you'd think as a writer, she'd have more interesting handwriting, but at least I can read it.

5. Logan - While I despise when people write/type in ALL CAPS (I guess it's a boy thing?) his handwriting is still easier to read than the remaining ones.

6. Mary Anne - The BSC members say Mary Anne has the best handwriting in the club and I'm scratching my head over that one. Her handwriting is overrated, IMO.

7. Jessi - When looking Jessi's handwriting, you'd expect it to be from an eighty-year-old woman, NOT an eleven-year-old girl. It hurts my eyes because it's very loopy, and good Lord, it must take her more time to write letters because she's adding all this extra curves and loops and nonsense to her words.

8. Claudia - Oh, God. Not only would it be difficult to read her small cursive handwriting even if she spelled everything right, then you add that she can't spell shit, so it's more difficult on top of that. I had to laugh when she writes to Janine and asks, "Who are you?" instead of "How are you?" She also tells Janine, "I realy, realy, hop your ok." You know what? If I were Janine, I'd be thinking the same thing about Claudia! When she writes to her parents, she says, "Hi, how are you?" and I'm thinking, oh she got that one right! But then she follows it up by writing, "Me just fin." Oh, God, her parents must be SO proud. Even if she did spell "fine" right, that just sounds terrible! She sounds like a caveman! She also mentions she's been working on some "niddlework." I had the toughest time figuring out what that word was because I thought the "n" was an "m"(the way she writes it, it looked like an "m") and I thought it said "middlework" and I was trying to figure out what the fuck she was talking about. Then I realized it was an "n" and she meant "needlework." Ahhh! God, her spelling is absolutely atrocious! 

What are your rankings of the club members' handwriting? Oh, and if anyone really cares, I'd probably add Abby before Jessi and right after Mary Anne, Even though she prints, I do not like her handwriting at all. 

So the girls (and Logan) are going to be CITs (counselor-in-training) at Camp Mohawk for two weeks. Well, all of them except Jessi and Mal because you have to be thirteen to be a CIT, but our junior members have been told they can be Junior CITs. The girls tells Stacey "being a CIT is better than being a camper or a counselor because you get all the fun of being a camper, plus extra privileges and all the privileges of being a camper, plus extra fun." 

Each BSC member is assigned a cabin where there's another CIT, a counselor, and six campers of all one age. There is an adjoining cabin with another counselor, two CITS, and six more campers of the same age. This is what we know:

-there are 12 cabins, two for each of the age groups of campers which range from six to eleven.

-Stacey mentions the oldest people who are on the bus she takes to the camp are about 20, so I'm guessing counselors are 18-20 years old. So that must mean CITs are 12-17. I honestly don't know. We don't know any ages of the other CITs or the counselors. I feel like 13 is pretty young to be a CIT, but what do I know? My camp knowledge is pretty much none. 

A big reason the girls decide to go to camp is because they just watched The Parent Trap (the original, obviously as this was years before the Lindsay Lohan version was released). It's Dawn's idea because that's her favorite movie and she had been to camp before in California. You can tell Ann M. Martin loved that movie because I recently read an Abby book from later in the series and Abby mentions that movie too. (I guess she likes it because she's a twin? *shrug*). I must have seen that movie sometime after I read this and always thought the whole movie takes place at camp because this book made it seem like that, but, that's not the case. I have a movie review blog and I reviewed both versions of The Parent Trap.

So let's talk about each girl's story:

Claudia is a CIT in a cabin with nine-year-olds that include Vanessa Pike and Haley Braddock. Compared to some of the other girls, she seems to have a great rapport with the other CITs. Claudia's main storyline is that she meets a boy. Now, there's usually at least one romance subplot in the SSs, usually containing Claudia or Stacey. Claudia meets a boy CIT named Will. What makes Will extra special is that he's also Japanese-American and she's elated because she knows her parents will be thrilled by this. Calm down, Claudia, you're only 13. It's not like you're going to marry him. In fact, you're never even going to see him again after camp. However, compared to Timothy, the weird creeper boy Claudia had a "romance" with in the first SS, I definitely liked Will better. He seemed to be a good match for Claudia, and I'm not just saying that because he's also Japanese-American. They talk about their grandmothers, as Will's grandmother also lived with his family until she passed. Now this book takes place right before Mimi dies. We know this book comes after Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise because Emily Michelle is mentioned and before Claudia and the Sad Goodbye because Mimi is still alive. We do get hints that Mimi isn't doing so well, so that was some nice foreshadowing. It really makes me sad that Claudia spent TWO WEEKS at camp when she could've been spending that precious time with her grandmother. Gosh, that really hurts my heart. Yes, she met a great guy at camp, but like I said, we never heard from this guy again! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure he's never mentioned again. Claudia and Will agree not to exchange addresses, but in the end some of her campers do get his address for her. Will is from Ashfield, MA so that's why they don't keep up a relationship. 

Mary Anne is trying to impress the other CITs in her cabin who don't believe she has a boyfriend (I guess because she's short and doesn't wear make up or accessories like the other girls?) She writes a mushy love letter to Logan and "accidentally" leaves it on her bed so they see it. She has no intention of giving it to Logan, she just wants the other girls to see it. They do and suggest that she sneak around the lake to the boys' side to give him the note. The lake is named Lake Dekanawida and I only noticed for the first time that they kept changing the name because they couldn't remember the actual name when I reread this book three years ago. I read this book many times in my childhood and never noticed that! Anyway, they also tell Mary Anne she'll have to be careful because a killer just escaped from the asylum that's conveniently located near the camp. Because she's so gullible, she actually believes this. She goes out after bed check and hears voices, thinking it's the escaped murderer. It turns out it's a couple of male counselors and Mrs. Means, the head of the camp. Mary Anne's counselor is also there and tells her one of the seven-year-old campers in their cabin told on her. Mary Anne's punishment is no swimming for three days and she could care less. However, she's mortified when one of the guys tell her they'll make sure Logan will get the note. I don't know why she gave them the note. I mean, I understand for the sake of the story so we see Logan's POV when he gets the letter, but it's not like she had to give them the note. The other girls seem to gain respect for Mary Anne after this. She also gets a small subplot where the other CITs want to pierce her ears. She doesn't want them to, but she's still trying to impress them, so she goes along with it. In the end, the other girls are too scared to go through with it. What if they had pierced her ears? I can only imagine her dad would have flipped out. I don't think Richard would be angry if Mary Anne got her ears pierced (I could be wrong about that), but I think he would be livid if she had it done by a couple of teenagers who had never done it before. 

Kristy has a similar storyline to Mary Anne's where she's trying to impress the other CITs. She feels inferior to them because she's short and doesn't wear make up or accessories and when all the other girls are bemoaning how they miss their boyfriends, she mentions Bart. I had thought the ear piercing storyline had happened to Kristy, but I guess I was mixing that up with when the other CITs make her over for the dance. Kristy also has another subplot where she helps Charlotte Johanssen, who's in her cabin, with her homesickness. 

Stacey has a pretty miserable time at camp. She sits in a pile of leaves her first night there and ends up getting poison ivy and has to spend most of her time at camp in the infirmary. Of course, this could have been a blessing in disguise as Karen Brewer was in her cabin and Karen is super annoying. On her first day in the cabin she says, "I'm a Martian. Here's my Martian face. And here's my Martian voice. Eeeee!" I mean, my God, I'd want to shoot myself. I thought Karen narrated some chapters in this book, but she doesn't, thank God. 

Not only does Stacey have poison ivy, but she also has pinkeye (given to her by another six-year-old camper in her cabin...Stacey really hit the jackpot being assigned to the six-year-olds, didn't she? BTW, does anyone think six seems to be a bit young to be at camp?), impetigo (which is "a highly contagious skin infection that cases red sores on the face"; not sure how or why she got that...), and on top of all that she has a cold (!!!), and a shit-ton of bug bites. This girl is miserable. 

There's a girl in her cabin named Nonie and when I was a child, I must have missed the part where Stacey says she has a lisp because I always thought she was from another country since AMM wrote her as speaking in an accent and Nonie seemed like a foreign name to me (still does...had never heard of the name back then and still have never heard of it....). And I always pictured her as being older than six; I guess she just came off pretty mature for a six-year-old that in my mind she was around twelve to fourteen. I know, weird. Well, maybe not all that mature because she seems to have a penchant for playing practical jokes; after she visits Stacey in the infirmary, she passes by her window out side and shoots Stacey with a rubber and and Stacey just laughs. Me? I would've been hella pissed. Have you ever been hit by a rubber band somebody aimed at you? That shit hurts! 

Another reason I feel bad for Stacey is because her parents have talked to the director beforehand about her diabetes and so they're suppose to make sure all her meals have everything she needs. However, her first day there she's served meatloaf, carrots, a candied sweet potato and a honeyed biscuit and she can only eat the meat and carrots. She has to go into the kitchen to explain this to the cook who is pretty dismissive of her. She does get this sorted out in the end, but it makes the other campers mad that she gets an apple and they can't have one because they need enough when they're served for the next dinner. I don't know, this scene just made me really angry on Stacey's behalf. I hate it when you tell people in advance special instructions and they just ignore them. It's quite infuriating. 

Dawn is a CIT for one of the cabins with the eleven-year-olds, but not the one that houses Mallory and Jessi. She kinda annoyed me because she kept being worried about this one girl, Heather, who was quiet and liked to keep to herself, so she would keep trying to encourage her to socialize more with the other girls. Look, I understand what Dawn was trying to do, but as someone who is quiet and likes to keep to myself, stop interfering, Dawn! Dawn seems a bit judgmental to me. This is what she says (internally) about Heather: 

I just don't understand Heather. She's always pleasant when she says anything. But she speaks so rarely. She reads and writes and sometimes goes to arts and crafts or the nature cabin or quiet places like that.

Seriously, who the fuck cares, Dawn? If the girl likes to do "quiet" activities, then let her be. I never really gave any thought to whether Dawn was an introvert or a extravert (obviously, Kristy is an extravert and Mary Anne is an introvert, but I never gave any thought to the other girls), but I would make the case that she's an extrovert. As someone who is an introvert, it drives me crazy when other people think there's something wrong with you because you don't want to join in conversations or do social activities. I don't know, this whole thing with Dawn just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe this book was the start of my dislike for her and then it just got worse and worse because by the time she moves back to California, she's pretty insufferable! 

 Dawn's big storyline is that she gets to go on an overnight camping trip with her cabin. Their counselor had to go home due to a family emergency (her mother is "very sick", that's all the information we are given), so they get a new counselor who is considerably younger. I assumed the original counselor was 19 or 20 and the new one is only 15. They're letting a 15-yer-old take two 13-year-olds and six 11-year-olds out on an overnight trip? No, I'm sorry, not happening. And how the hell did a FIFTEEN-year-old become a fucking counselor?? They don't say how old you have to be, but I would assume you'd at least have to be eighteen!  The girls end up getting lost, surprise, surprise. They end up making camp at some clearing. One of the girls says they should save their rations (and Dawn internally interjects with "(rations?)" as if she doesn't know what that means; it was weird) just in case they're not rescued soon. She also offers to go out and catch a rabbit. This was obviously before they made Dawn a hardcore animal activist because she barely says anything to this, even when another camper asks the girl who's going to skin the rabbit. The Dawn we know now would have been throwing a shit fit (I would have too, to be honest). Hell this Dawn even "managed to choke down a hot dog". In the morning, they try to find Camp Mohawk, but end up walking for three hours and return top the clearing where they spent the night! D'oh! See, this is exactly why you don't send a fifteen-year-old out to be in charge. At one point Dawn mentions that she's terrible at reading maps. That just seemed out of character for her, no? It's five in the evening and they're still not back, so they spend the night once again and Heather becomes a hero when she asks if she can find their way back and she does and everyone is happy and Dawn and Mary Anne (who was super worried about her) are reunited. Hmm, I wonder if AMM got the idea for Baby-Sitters Island Adventure from this little subplot? 

Mallory and Jessi have to deal with their other cabin mates who come off as pretty unlikeable and in the particular case of one girl, just straight up racist. These girls make snide remarks about Mallory and Jessi being like twins because they're inseparable and one girl snidely says nobody would ever have any problems telling them apart. Mallory brings up the Bobbsey Twins and points out there are two sets of twins in those books, a boy and a girl, and how she and Jessi are more similar than those twins...I don't know about that, just because you can tell a boy from a girl, doesn't mean they can't still have similar features. I would hope a boy and girl twin siblings would look more alike than two girls who aren't biologically related! So I've heard of the Bobbsey Twins (probably from the BSC!), but never read the books and had no idea what they were about. They are a family with two sets of twins - twelve-year-olds Nan and Bert and six-year-old Flossie and Freddie. The six-years-old have better and more memorable names, if you ask me. What are the odds that you would have two sets of twins? 

The racist girl calls both Mallory and Jessi "Oreos" and is immediately reprimanded by their counselor. Mallory asks Jessi what she meant by that and Jessi tells her what the racial slur means. This confuses Mallory because the racist girl called them both Oreos and Jessi thinks either the girl is stupid or maybe she meant because they are always together, they're like Oreos, and Mallory says, "Yes, with one of the cookie parts missing because Nicky took it off..." To this day, I'm still confused as to why that girl called them both Oreos, but she sucks majorly. 

As being junior CITs, their responsibility is to help put on a play the eight-year-olds will be performing for Parents' Day. Gee, what are the odds that they would get the cabin with Jessi's younger sister (and Charlotte Johanssen?) They have to write and put on the play and they're not so subtle when they cast (super shy and stage frightened) Becca and Charlotte as twins. The other girls in their town are mean to them at first, but come around in the end. After the play, all the girls from Jessi and Mal's cabin, except for the super racist girl,  tell them they're sorry for the way they acted.

I have to be honest; this is not one of my favorite BSC Super Specials. The girls barely interact with each other and besides the Dawn storyline, there's not that much that screams "summer camp." If I remember right, I liked Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation much better so I'll be curious to see if that holds up.