Camping with the BSC

Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #8, Baby-Sitters at Shadow Lake, seems like a good idea in theory, but in actuality, this book is a bit of a snooze fest. It hurts me to say that because I DO want to like this book. Watson's aunt and uncle want to leave him a cabin that's located by Shadow Lake in western Massachusetts (and there does seem to be an actual Shadow Lake in MA, but I have no idea if it's one and the same) in their will. They suggest that Watson take his family to spend two weeks there and see how he likes it. Watson used to go there all the time when he was a kid, but hasn't been back in ages. He agrees to this arrangement and also gets suckered into taking two of Karen's friends (Hannie and Nancy), two of David Michael's friends (Nicky and Linny), and SIX of Kristy's friends. Good God, Watson, why don't you just put your foot down and tell your family that this is going to be a FAMILY trip. But, yeah, yeah, I know, you need all the BSC girls or otherwise there wouldn't be a book. But maybe Watson (and Elizabeth and Nannie and Sam and Charlie) got a sweet deal because none of them will have to pay any attention to the younger kids. Kristy and her friends have offered to watch the younger kids free of charge. They make a schedule where three BSC members are on baby-sitting duty (one watching the girls, one watching the boys, and one watching Andrew and Emily) and whoever isn't baby-sitting can have a "free day". So at least not everybody has to watch kids all the time. That is a pretty big reason why Watson agrees to let all of Kristy's friends come along.

All in all, there are twenty people going on this trip. (Plus Shannon and Boo-boo. I can understand taking a dog; but seems a bit weird to take a cat). You're probably wondering where all these people are going to  sleep (or maybe not if you've already read the book, which you probably have!). There are two big rooms that hold six bunk beds. The girls get one room and the boys get another. Right away the girls (well, okay, it was mainly Mallory) start bitching that the boys will get an entire bunk bed to himself while all the girls will have to share. OMG, STFU, Mallory!! (LOL, that should have been a book title!) First of all, you're here on vacation with your friend's family who were nice enough to invite you (and your brother, Nicky); 2nd of all, who the fuck cares if all the boys get their own bunk bed. You're not even going to spend that much time in this room except for sleeping and getting dressed. There are also two regular size bedroom where the adults will sleep. I noticed poor Nannie doesn't get her own bathroom like the master bedroom. Does that mean she has to use the bathroom that's connected to the girls' room? The only reason I know Nannie on this trip is because she drives one of the three cars that transports everyone to the cabin. Otherwise, we don't really hear from her.

This book sort of reminded me of Baby-Sitters' Summer Vacation because this has a summer camp vibe. There's a cabin, there's a lake, there's activities that you would find at a summer camp, etc. I liked this book better because at least our girls are interacting with each other and we've met all the characters who are on this trip whereas in Summer Vacation, we get summaries about every single person who the girls share a cabin with and why do I give two shits about these characters I will never see again? Also, besides Mal and Jessi, the girls barely interact with each other in that one. So at least this book has that going for it. 

However, it seems like AMM (or most likely, the ghost writer) seemed to have trouble of coming up with storylines for all the characters because some of them are stretching for storylines. This is also the first SS since Summer Vacation where we get chapters from other characters besides the core 7. 

Alright, so let's discuss each girl:

Kristy is the main narrator of the entire book and all the journal entries we read from everyone at the beginning of each chapter will be going into a scrapbook that Kristy is creating for Watson to give to him at the end of the trip to show him how much they loved the cabin and hope that he will take up his aunt and uncle's offer. Sometimes we will see her write in somebody else's journal entry, almost like they're having a back and forth conversation on paper. It's so weird...is she, like, standing behind the person who is writing an entry and then jumps in and takes the notebook away from them so she can write HER thoughts on THEIR thoughts? It's very odd. And it happens quite a lot. Besides that, her only other plot line is that she learns to drive a small motorboat called the Faith Pierson, so yeah....

Dawn is super fucking annoying in this. And also super fucking dumb. I'm sorry, but it's true. Because it's called Shadow Lake, she thinks there must be some spooky mystery that is tied to the lake. You know what, Dawn? Sometimes a name is just a name. Maybe it's called Shadow Lake because there's lots of shade; IDK!!! She talks to a few locals who tell her they believe a monster lives in the lake, much like the Loch Ness Monster. Um, if there WAS a huge monster swimming in the lake, don't you think there would be some reports of it, or a lot of people missing when they went to Shadow Lake? Duh, use your brain, Dawn. She also refers to the Shadow Lake sea monster as the Loch Ness monster, or Nessie:

[Dawn] shaded her eyes, too, and then said, sounding awed, "Oh, my lord. That's no shadow. That looks just like Nessie."

It was Stacey's turn to act surprised. "Nessie?"

"The Loch Ness Monster. Thats her nickname."

 Okay, what the actual fuck??? Does Dawn not know that the Lock Ness monster is its own entity and lives (well, "lives") in Scotland? Did she think Nessie swam across the Atlantic? It seems like the locals think this is a different monster and Dawn is just a dumbass who think this monster and the Loch Ness monster are one and the same. I would expect this stupidity from Claudia, but not from Dawn. 

We have many instances where Dawn or someone thinks they see a large dark shadow in the lake and Dawn starts going berserk, insisting it's the Lake Monster. I feel like Dawn is one of those people who deep down know there's no such things as monsters and ghosts, but she acts like they're real, so maybe she can get someone else to believe in them, so then SHE can believe in them. In other words, I think it's all a big act because she likes the attention. In fact, Dawn almost admits she's never seen the monster, but then catches herself:

"What color is the Lake Monster?" Mal wanted to know.

  I glanced at Dawn. "Ask Dawn. She saw the monster."

"I did n--" Dawn started to exclaim. Then she caught herself. "Green. The monster is green. And it looks like a tremendous snake."

And I could be wrong, but I feel like in later books (like when she moves back to Cali for good), she's dropped the whole ghost thing and is now on the whole environmental warrior kick. I haven't read any of the California Diaries books, so I can't say that for sure. 

Dawn almost gets two storylines because not only is she freaking out about the Lake Monster (I refuse to refer to it as "Nessie"), but there's also a mystery she's trying to solve that has nothing to do with the Lake Monster....or does it. (No, I'm pretty sure it doesn't). She finds out there was a family named the Bayards who disappeared "decades and decades ago". They were the wealthiest family in the area and lived on the island that's situated in the middle of the lake (how big is this lake that it has its own island that's big enough to hold a mansion?). The Bayard family consisted of the parents; their eighteen-year-old daughter, Annie; her younger brother, Ethan (we don't get an age for him); and servants who they would send to the mainland to get supplies and food. Apparently they rarely left the island. The kids were taught at their home by a governess. Dawn talks to an elderly man who was the fiancé of Annie. He would go to the island to help the gardener and help with repairs on the house, so that's how he met her. When he notices that none of the Bayard's help have been on the mainland for awhile, he goes to the island to find out that everybody is gone. The house is still standing with everything still inside of it, untouched. Annie's fiancé speculated they had dissapeared  the night before when there was a huge storm, but their bodies were never accounted for. I mean, it actually is quite intriguing. I'm wondering myself what happened to them. 

Again, I'm wondering how big this island is and how far away it is. They can see it from their cabin, so I would guess maybe it takes twenty minute (if that) to get there by boat. The BSC decides it would be fun to go there to spend the night (well, Dawn is the only one who doesn't want to go, but even she would rather do that than have a slumber party with Karen and her friends). I am shocked that the adults allow this. This seems very unsafe. And also, I'm sorry, but going to an uninhabited island to sleep on the ground in sleeping bags doesn't sound like my idea of fun. The very few times I've slept outdoors, I've slept in a tent. At least that sort of helps block the elements and you're not just exposed to the outdoors. They do mention taking two tents but mention they would only put them up if it rained. But why...why not just have Sam (who drives three of the girls over in a borrowed boat because their own boat isn't big enough to get everyone over in one go) help put the tents up? Or, better yet, why not just make a day trip out of the island WITHOUT spending the night. Get there in the morning and just explore the island and do whatever there is to do....we know there are no shops or restaurants...again, this is not an island that people inhabit. Not really sure what the point of it is. Not the island, but why the girls want to spend the night there. But they do and Dawn is freaking out, certain that she keeps seeing ghosts and whatnot. They do find bricks scattered around that they surmise is the Bayard house. Dawn does find a heart-shaped locked with the initials AB carved in it. Obviously, it belonged to Annie Bayard. She gives it to the old man who was her fiancé. The mystery plot line doesn't go anywhere. Nothing is solved from it. I know there's a mystery book where they go back to Shadow Lake, so I wonder if this storyline shows up in that one. It seems like you could have an entire book based upon this mystery, but they only dedicate a couple chapters to it. Like, what's the point? We get some chapters that are VERY useless and could have been deleted (you'll find out who I'm talking about later) and that could have been used for this mystery. 

There's a boat show where people can decorate their boats (like a float) and Claudia decides to enter Faith Pierson. She gets her inspiration from Dawn and decides to deck out the boat like the Lake Monster. I'm very confused by the way the boat is presented. First of all, the way Claudia creates the monster is confusing. She's using the boat as the body and she's just making the head and the tail, which she uses green towels to do that. I can see her twisting the towel together to make the tail, but the head? I'm SUPER confused on how she managed to create a dragon-like head made out of towels complete with a mouth, nostrils, eyes, and eyebrows. (There's an illustration). Like, huh?? Even more confusing is that she wants Kristy, who will be steering the boat, and herself, to also dress up. Kristy is dressed up as naturalist with binoculars as though she's out to study the Lake Monster and Claudia is dressed up as a tourists with a camera around her neck as though she's trying to get a picture of the Lake Monster. I actually think this is a pretty clever idea....however why is the boat the Lake Monster. That means they're riding the Lake Monster? Huh? Wouldn't it be better to have the boat be (and go with me here!) .... a boat! And then maybe create the Lake Monster on the side of the boat as though it's coming up from out of the water and INTO the boat and Kristy and Claudia can act like they're looking for the monster, but are none the wiser that the monster is about to crawl into their boat? Wouldn't that make way more sense? Not sure how Claud would create that, but she's pretty crafty. Can papier-mache get wet? 

There is a funny part where Claudia makes a sign for the boat so people know what it's supposed to be and she writes "The Lack Munster." First of all, if she knows she's such a shit speller, why doesn't she ASK somebody how to spell it before she attempts to write it? Dumbass. (She did write a second sign with the correct spelling after Kristy pointed it out to her). Second of all, how the hell does she hear a "u" sound in "monster"? Huh?? Also, while we're at it...how the hell does she spell "lake" like "lack"? How does she think "lack" is spelled - "lac"? "lak"? "lakc"????? WHO TAUGHT CLAUDIA LYNN KISHI HOW TO SPELL???? I can understand misspelling some words.....but simple words like "lake"??? WTF??? 

She also spells boat show as "boat shoe" in one entry and "boot show" in another. She's not even consistent with her spelling. Also, super weirdly, she spells thinking as "thicking". I don't get it. I just don't get it. 

Claudia starts to feel a little insecure about the boat parade because the majority of the boats are much bigger and are elaborately decorated like New York or Disneyland or the Wild West. However, everyone loves their boat (even though it makes no sense) and she receives a participation trophy; a ribbon that reads "Most Spirit".

Of course Mallory gets a super lame plot line. She keeps getting bitten by bugs! Seriously, that's her storyline. And it's only Mallory getting the brunt of the bug bites, so I thought it was going to be revealed she was using a new lotion or soap or perfume or something, but no, nothings seems to be out of the ordinary for her, so who knows why the bugs like her so much more than any of the others. Look, Mal is being a bit of a pain in this because she does whine a lot about the bug bites; HOWEVER the other girls (besides Jessi) don't want anything to do with her because she's wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirts and a safari hat with mosquito netting to protect herself. She also sprays herself with tons of bug spray which apparently makes her smell funny. Claudia and Stacey are just aghast by this and make Mal walk ten paces behind them if they go anywhere because they are just so embarrassed. I'm sorry, but if Claudia was wearing this get-up, they would call her a fashion icon and worship the ground she walked on while wearing said outfit. 

Jessi meets a boy her age who is vacationing with his family in a cabin nearby. His name is Daniel and she thinks he's very cute. She's also very conflicted because she feels like she's cheating on Quint, her sort-of boyfriend in New York. The two meet and it is revealed they pretty much don't have anything in common. Daniel can't dance, he doesn't like to read, and he couldn't imagine baby-sitting for kids who aren't his siblings. 

Daniel asks her to the dance the lodge is having their last full day at Shadow Lake (is it me or do these Super Specials always end with a dance?). For some strange reason, Jessi thinks Daniel is going to "profess his love for [her]". (That's what she tells Mallory!) Um, Jessi, you are eleven freakin' years old! I had to laugh when Mallory is all amazed and how Ben Hobart has never professed his love to her (because, again, they're only eleven! They are literally children!) and Jessi is all, "Daniel is older than Quint and Ben. An entire year older." Wow, Jessi and Mal really do think that once you turn 12, your whole perspective on life changes, don't they? Because a twelve-year-old boy is much more mature and worldly than an eleven-year-old one. And here I am, couldn't even tell the difference between one from the other! 

I can't really blame Jessi for thinking that Daniel likes her as more than a friend. If I were in her situation, I'd probably think the same thing. He does flirt with her, is nice to her, compliments her, asks her to the dance, calls her "gorgeous" when he sees her at the dance, etc. I really don't blame the girl for being nervous to tell him that she has someone else she really cares about. After she does, he tells her that he has a girlfriend. Maybe this would have all been cleared up if he had told her this at the beginning when they met. Also, is it me or does eleven and twelve seem awfully young to have boyfriends and girlfriends and be in relationships? 

Before I continue on, I wanted to point out a couple things I found odd in the Jessi chapters:

1) When Jessi first meets Daniel, he tells her he's from Boston. Jessi replies by saying, "I've never been there. I've been to New York, though." Huh? Who cares about New York? What does that have to do with Boston? I don't meet people from Portland and tell them I've never been there, but I have been to Seattle. I honestly don't think they would give a flying flip as much as I'm sure Daniel doesn't care that Jessi's been to New York. I wonder if she said that because she was feeling guilty about Quint.

2) When Mallory tells Jessi that no boy has ever professed his love for her (poor Mallory!), she tells Jessi the things she and Ben talk about and this includes "why there should be movies that adults are not allowed to see." This makes absolutely no sense. Although, I think there are plenty of movies that adults have absolutely no interest in seeing! 

Stacey has to deal with Sam who is acting like an immature goon towards her. I don't have a problem with Sam liking Stacey (or vice versa) because Stacey is pretty mature for her age and I can see Sam having a crush on her. I don't think they actually date in the series, do they? Maybe they do since Stacey seems to have at least a billion boyfriends. I know when I was reading The Complete Guide to the BSC, there's a list of Stacey's boyfriends that takes up an entire page and that had me rolling. And looking at it again (and it's a page and a half!)  they do count Sam as one of her boyfriends. Hmmm....I ship them dating when they're both in high school, or maybe even when they're young adults, out of college and have come together somehow. 

Sam is one of the non-BSC characters who narrates a chapter from this book. He keeps calling Stacey "dah-ling" and doing obnoxious things like touching her hair or wolf whistling at her when she's sunbathing in her bathing suit. Of course we find out he's doing these things because he likes her. He tells her that he likes her (advice from Charlie) and she says she once liked him too, but now feels confused. When Stacey is getting ready for the dance, she asks Claud what she should do if Sam wants to dance and Claud gives her terrible advice: 

"Probably you should just be polite. If he asks to dance, then dance. Tonight's out last night. Whatever he says or does, go along with him."

 I'm sorry, but what the fuck? If Stacey doesn't want to dance with him, then she shouldn't have to dance with him! I'm going to give Claudia the benefit of the doubt and since she knows Stacey does like Sam (or at least used to), then maybe that's why she's giving her this advice. If it was, say, someone like Alan Gray who she doesn't have any interest at all, I would hope Claudia would not give her that advice. I still think this is terrible advice and Claudia should be siding with Stacey here and tell her she should do what makes her feel comfortable, not do the "polite" thing. Ugh. They do come up with a signal where Stacey will blink her eyes at Claud if she's dancing with Sam and needs to be rescued. As you can imagine, this is a terrible signal because Claud sees her dancing with Sam and she blinks at her, but it's only a natural movement and she has to signal she doesn't need her help. They dance and it's the first time Sam acts like a gentleman (well as gentlemanly for a 15-year-old!) towards her.

From reading Sam's chapter, it's clear that he and Charlie are having the best time at Shadow Lake. First of all, they don't have to baby-sit any of their younger siblings. They're also doing all the fun lake things like para-sailing and water-skiing. There's also some clear evidence that neither of them are fans of Karen which makes me fans of them. When they're all getting the three cars ready to drive to Shadow Lake, they're having trouble fitting everything in and Charlie suggests putting these two suitcases in the back of Watson's car and is told there won't be room for Karen and he goes, "Hey! Maybe that isn't a bad idea after all!" and Karen gets all indignant and accuses Charlie of making her stay home. But, *mwah*, chef's kiss, Charlie, that was brilliant. Also, one morning Sam wakes up and hears someone "singing a really stupid song." He thinks at first it was Karen (ha!), but turns out it was Andrew. He tells us:

Oh no! It was a hereditary problem. Andrew was going to wind up just like Karen. I wasn't sure I could take two of them.

Sick burn on Karen there and I LOVE it. Sam and Charlie are my new favorites. This book is clearly written by a ghostwriter who is dissing Karen.

And finally, we have Mary Anne, who pretty much just baby-sits Karen, Hannie, and Nancy who go by The Three Musketeers. Seriously, that's her storyline. They obviously couldn't think of a plot point for her and we just got her POV when she was baby-sitting the three girls a couple of times. She panics because she loses the girls, but it turns out they had found this shed that's falling apart in the woods. They want to keep it a secret and spruce it up so they feel like they're in The Secret Garden (of which I've never read or seen the movie, so I had no idea what they were talking about). Mary Anne finds out about it and tells them they can keep it a secret from the younger boys, but need to tell the adults and the other BSC members when there're playing there. 

In the other Mary Anne chapter, where you can obviously see where they are running out of ideas for her, she is once again baby-sitting the Three Musketeers and tells them that she can be the kid and they can be the baby-sitters. Hannie (hey, I just realized we had Hannie and Nannie on this trip!) tells her she needs to crawl around like a baby and I'm like, why? She can still walk and just pretend she's a little kid. But that wasn't the weirdest thing about this. No, that was when Mary Anne says she can't crawl around all day (still not the weird part) because, "I'm thirteen. My knees are weak." WTF? Look, I totally get why she wouldn't want to crawl around because that would be weird and uncomfortable, but if your knees are weak when you're thirteen, I don't know what to say to that...You're 13, Mary Anne, not 83! 

We also get chapters narrated from Karen and David Michael (two each) and you could skip these chapters and not miss anything. Seriously, I'm probably doing you a favor by giving you this advice. The boys find out about the playhouse and they want to play in it too but the girls won't let them. The boys decide they're going to build their own fort and each group make a bet that their own playhouse will be the best. Whoever wins (I guess the adults will be the judges), the others will have to do their chores for the rest of the summer. Now this makes sense for David Michael and Karen and Hannie and Linny since they're siblings, but what about Nicky and Nancy who never have any interaction with each other? I guess this is perfect for them since they're not doing each other's chores! In the end, the boys build a terrible fort and the girls decide that the boys will only have to do their chores for the next day. But like I said, you can just skip any of the David Michael and Karen chapters. Why are we wasting all this time on them when we could have gotten more Stacey and Sam storyline or the Shadow Lake mystery? C'mon. 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Watson does agree to have the cabin willed to him.

I don't really have anything snarky to say about the cover. Nobody is wearing anything truly hideous. Once again, Claudia is the MVP of the cover. I do really like this cover; it just looks cozy how they're all around the campfire roasting marshmallows to make s'mores (nice touch not having Dawn making one) with the lake in the background. 

The One Where it Snows. A Lot.

It's time to get Snowbound with the BSC! So I appreciate that this Super Special, the 7th, is a little more realistic than them taking a fancy two-week vacation or getting shipwrecked on an island, but it is a tad on the boring side. It just snows a lot (two and a half feet) and we hear about their own little adventures. Big freakin' whoop. There's a running gag that the weatherman has been predicting snow, but they haven't seen a flake of it so when snow is reported for Wednesday, nobody believes it. However, by Wednesday evening it starts to snow pretty hard and school is cancelled on Thursday. By Friday the roads are cleared and school is open, which is good because they can also all go to the Winter Wonderland Dance which is Friday night. Yay! 

So let's talk about each girls' "adventure":

Jessi has to spend the night at her dance school in Stamford. I should mention that they decided to cancel that day's meeting of the BSC. Not because of the snow, because, remember, they didn't know it was going to snow. No, they cancel because they're all going to be busy. I suppose this is somewhat true, but really it's because it's supposed to start snowing around this time on Wednesday and then all the girls would be stuck at the Kishis' and we wouldn't get our Super Special! 

So Jessi is at dance class, practicing for The Nutcracker which she will be performing in. She's excited because Quint, who we met in the last Super Special, is coming to Stoneybrook from New York via train to go to the dance with her. I think this is the first romantic interest we've met from a Super Special that has made an appearance in another book. Jessi's dad is supposed to pick up Quint at the train station first, then pick up Jessi at her school. Man, that would be so awkward if your dad was going to have some time alone with your sort of boyfriend/date to the dance.

After dance rehearsal, it begins to snow really hard and parents call to say they're going to be late, then they call to tell them they won't be able to make it so all the kids will have to spend the night. Luckily there's a kitchen at this dance school (not sure why) that's stocked with instant soup, dried fruit, and cookies. Better than nothing, I guess.

The most absolutely ridiculous thing is that Quint shows up at the dance school. Apparently he walked from the train station. WTF? Isn't Stamford a pretty good sized town? The dance school must be a five-minute walk from the train station (on a good day) and maybe it took Quint 15-20 minutes to get there. That's the only way I'm buying this. Although, even if it were ten miles away, I can't really blame Quint. I sure as hell wouldn't want to spend the night at a train station. (Hey, I've seen Adventures in Baby-Sitting! I know what happened to poor Brenda!) 

I had to roll my eyes because Jessi acts like such a goody two shoes by helping the younger kids get ready for bed with the help of Quint. Christ on a cracker, Jessi, I'm sure there are plenty of adults to help with that. You don't need to show off your baby-sitting skills all the time. However, when she's in line to use the phone to call her parents, it was nice of her to comfort the younger girl in front of her. I think those smaller moments are better, anyway.

Dawn has to spend the night at the airport. She and her mom are there to pick up Jeff who is flying in to spend Christmas with them. It starts snowing when they leave for the airport and the streets are already getting slippery. Sharon, who isn't even going very fast, bumps into a mailbox and says a word that Dawn has never heard her mom say, but that she's heard in movies that she isn't allowed to watch. So either the word is "fuck" or "shit". I drop the f-bomb all the time if I'm driving in snow (which I hate to do), so my vote is for that one!

They reach the airport where they find out that Jeff's airplane has been rerouted to D.C. where he will stay overnight at a hotel, then fly to CT the next morning. While Sharon is in line to use the phone (ah, what a world we lived in before smart phones were a normal, everyday part of our lives!) to call Jeff and/or Richard, the phones go down. 

Dawn moans in one of her journal entries that spending the night in an airport felt even longer than the time she was stranded on an island for two days. Bitch, please. Sure, I'm sure it's no picnic trying to sleep in a hard plastic chair at the airport, but at least you're with your mom and aren't responsible for four children, one of whom is sick. At least there are working toilets around. At least you can get food (even though you'll probably bitch it isn't healthy enough). At least you have books and magazines to read and things to do. Shut up, Dawn.

The next morning Jeff arrives and they're all reunited. Hurrah. Whatever.

Stacey and her mom get stranded on a back country road after going to Washington Mall for Stacey to get a perm. (Stacey and her damn perms!) Maureen hates driving in the snow, but since it isn't snowing when Stacey gets home from school (even though snow has been predicted, mind you!), she agrees to take Stacey to the mall to get her hair done. So I didn't realize that Washington Mall isn't actually in Stoneybrook and takes about half an hour to drive there. That seems like a really long way just to go to a stupid mall. The closest mall to me is a little over five minutes away. And when I was younger and actually liked going to the mall, it was about that distance too. Now that I'm older I could care less about malls. Who needs malls when you can do all your shopping online? It seems like they're always going to Washington Mall so I just assumed it was a ten minute drive, tops. 

When they leave the mall, it has begun to snow heavily. Maureen gets on the highway and nearly gets into an accident. She decides they're going to get off the next exit and take the back roads home. She says there's too many cars on the highway and hence too many accidents. While I do see her point (there's always some asshole in a four wheel drive who loves to be on everyone's ass while driving in snow, at least in my experience there is!), I feel like the highway is more likely to be plowed and at least if you get in trouble, there are people. But on the other hand, I hate it when there are so many cars around if I'm driving in snow, so I can't really blame her for wanting to get off the highway.

They decide to stop the car and wait until the snow has let up, only when Maureen decides to start the car again, she finds out she's out of gas. Good going there, Maureen. Panic starts to set in because they're in the middle of nowhere and Stacey needs to eat something because of her diabetes. Luckily, out of nowhere, a man comes to their rescue. Not sure why he is out and about in a blizzard, but that's besides the point. He offers to take Stacey and Maureen down the road to where he lives with his wife and six-month-old baby and they eat dinner and spend the night with their new friends.

So I thought this was the same family that Stacey baby-sits for in Stacey and the Missing Ring, the first mystery, because I remember it was a new family and there's a baby in that one, but I don't think it is the same family. 

It is made a big deal that Stacey is missing and isn't home yet in some of the other girls' chapters. Mary Anne and Mallory are sitting for the Pikes and they're worried because the lights at the McGills haven't been turned on at all. Word gets out about Stacey's whereabouts and everyone is super worried. But, of course, they had nothing to be worried about. 

Claudia is baby-sittings for the Perkins and it's super boring. The Perkins parents call to tell her they won't be able to make it home that night and will Claudia stay overnight or take the girls to her house to spend the night? They can't find Chewy at all, but the next morning Claudia hears weird noises in the basement and that's where he was all along. So...when they were searching for him, why didn't they look in the basement in the first place? Also, why didn't such a big and rambunctious dog make more noise? I'm guessing Chewy just wanted some alone time and snuck down to the basement where he took a long sleep. 

The most interesting things about the Claudia chapters are her journal entries. I had to laugh when she spells "disappointed" as disapperntened. How the fuck do you even get that? Why is there an "r" in there? I don't hear any "r" sound in "disappointed". Also, she spells Myriah's and Gabbie's names TWO different ways in the same entry: "Myria and Gabie" and "Mariah and Gabby". (To be honest, if I heard those two names, I would spell them the same as the latter. "Myriah" is such a weird way to spell "Mariah" (I assume it's pronounced the same way). You usually don't replace an"a" with a "y"; so I always want to pronounce it MY-riah, not MA-riah.) 

Oh, she also seems to think that "know" is "no." So how does she spell "no"? "Noe?" Why did her parents let her spend two weeks at art school when they should have had her going to spelling school? 

There's an illustration of Claudia with the two girls and Myriah looks like she's eight, not five, and Gabbie looks like she's five, not two and a half. But I am terrible with guessing kids' ages, so what do I know? 

Like I mentioned before, Mallory and Mary Anne are baby-sitting for the Pikes. One of the reasons they cancelled their Wednesday meeting is because this is an all day job, so those two wouldn't have been able to make it. The Pike parents have plans to spend all day in NYC and they have the most ridiculous itinerary:

-have breakfast at coffee shop

-go to the Met

-go to Natural History museum

-go shopping

-meet up with friends and have lunch

-go to Museum of Broadcasting

-walk around Lincoln Center

-meet different friends for dinner

-go see The Phantom of the Opera.

What the actual fuck? Do the Pike parents not realize it takes time to do all these things? You need to stand in line and get tickets and actually walk around at the museums. Are they just planning on spending half an hour at every place? Also, if they're doing their Christmas shopping, that's going to take a few hours! Especially if they're buying Christmas gifts for their eight children! Then it will take some time to eat all three meals. Why don't they just grab something at the train station for breakfast? And, then, how long is The Phantom of the Opera? Isn't that nearly a three hour show? There is NO WAY you can do all of that in one day! Claire Pike gets my favorite moment in the entire book after she's heard all this and says, "Wow, will you ever get to go to the bathroom?" You know what, Claire? I was thinking the EXACT same thing! 

Because the Pike parents have a marathon day planned in New York, they will be leaving at 5 am and won't her back until nearly 1 am, or, at least, that's the plan. Mary Anne will be spending Tuesday AND Wednesday night with the Pikes. Ugh, forget sleeping at an airport. Forget being stranded in a car during a snowstorm...spending TWO nights at the Pikes' would be my worst nightmare.

There's a cot set up for Mary Anne in Mallory and Vanessa's room and we get this weird scene where Mr. Pike tells her that they'd give her their room, but they'll be using it. Well, duh. Why is he even offering their room to her when they will be sleeping in their bed both nights? Of course, they do end up stuck in New York and have to stay over night with some friends. 

The most exciting thing that happens in these chapters is that the electricity goes out and they have to eat the ice cream so it doesn't melt. The next morning everyone is whining because there's no food (only a few items) and they all act like they're going to die. Dumbass Mary Anne wants to call Pizza Express even though a) they're probably not open at 9 am and b) the roads aren't cleared yet. Even Logan gets a good jab in at her when she talks to him on the phone:

"You're kidding! The pizza place is closed at nine o'clock on a morning when we're snowed in and the plows haven't come through yet? What a shock."

I'm not the biggest fan of Logan, but this did make me laugh.  

They're so desperate that Margo suggests that they make spaghetti with chocolate frosting, which sounds absolutely disgusting. You'd think that Barf Girl would NOT want to eat that. Jordan proclaims he's rather have that then the plenty of vegetables that are in the freezer. Uh, no you would not, buddy. But if they had spaghetti, why didn't they just eat that? Just skip breakfast (if I can do it, so can they) and have spaghetti for lunch. Mary Anne whines to Logan that she's hungry and the next thing she knows, he's skied (yes, skied!) over with some food including bread, peanut butter, and bananas. 

Like Mallory, Kristy is also at home when the big snowstorm hits. She decides to call Bart to invite him over to watch some movies and stay for dinner. I am so confused by the timeline of all the events that happen on Wednesday for Kristy. School probably lets out at 3, and she probably got home at 3:30 since she takes the bus and SMS isn't exactly nearby her ritzy neighborhood. She then does her homework, but tells us she finished early so I'll be generous and say it only took her half an hour, so now it's 4:00. This is when she calls Bart. Instead of inviting Bart to go to the video store (hahahahaha, remember when we had video stores? Kids today don't know how lucky they are they can just stream movies from the comfort and convenience (I had to ask Siri to spell that for me!) of their own homes!), she has Charlie drive her there and she picks out two movies: Uncle Buck and Back to the Future (surprisingly somewhat recent for the time!) She mentions she was "hemming and hawing for so long"that [Charlie] said, "Were you hoping to rent something before Christmas?" I'm going to say the drive to the video store, picking out the videos, and the drive back was 45 minutes. And let's tack on five minutes for the phone call she had with Bart. Plus let's tack on another five minutes for when she gets back home and calls Bart to tell him to come over.  So now it's five 'til 5:00 and Bart has arrived. (And shouldn't it be snowing by now?) They watch Uncle Buck AND nearly most of Back to the Future before it's time for dinner. Uncle Buck is one hour and forty minutes. Back to the Future is nearly two hours. This now puts the time at....almost 9:00, right? What is going on here? Did they really eat dinner THAT late? Is this normal for people in Connecticut to eat dinner that late? Did AMM just misjudge the time?

So during the entire time they're watching movies, Kristy is embarrassed because David Michael, Karen, Andrew, and Emily Michelle keep being little pests and want to bother them while they're watching movies. Nannie at least tries to be helpful and has the kids go to their playroom for awhile, but they still manage to escape and come back to bother Kristy and Bart. But, seriously, where the fuck are Watson and Elizabeth? These are THEIR kids. They can't wrangle them up and tell them to go anywhere else in their twenty-room mansion? (I have no idea how many rooms their house is; that was just a guess). I feel like they take for granted that Kristy loves baby-sitting so much and just figure she'd be happy to entertain the kids while she has company over. 

After dinner is about the time that Karen announces it's snowing. Bart is wise to suggest that he go home now, but Watson tells him he should wait because he doesn't want to drive in it. Uh, didn't Bart just walk over? Can't he walk home? Doesn't he live in the same neighborhood. Fuckin' hell, if Quint can walk from the freaking train station in Stamford to Jessi's dane school, then Bart sure as hell can walk from Kristy's house to his house... I bet you THAT'S a lot closer! 

They have dessert of store bought blueberry pie and ice cream. I mention this because Kristy tells us that Nannie stuck the pie in the microwave to heat it up. WHAT? I have never heard of warming up a frozen store bought pie in the microwave....the oven is what I would use for that. 

Elizabeth suggests that Bart spend the night and Kristy is just mortified by this. David Michael asks if Bart is going to sleep in Kristy's room which I thought was rather quite forward for a BSC book! No, of course, he'll be sleeping in one of the guests rooms. 

Kristy is unnecessarily freaking out about Bart spending the night. She doesn't want him to see her in her pajamas (what exactly do her pajamas look like?) and she sets her alarm for 5:30 am. Why? Because she has to get up early to beautify herself. Look, I understand Kristy likes Bart and wants to look cute for him, but I think she goes WAY overboard and this is very out of character for her. (Hmm, did AMM write this book or was it a ghostwriter?) I can see her taking a shower, brushing her teeth, running a comb through her hair, making sure there's no zits on her face, then putting on a cute, but still Kristy-like outfit. That would be more in character for her. But no, she wakes up at the crack ass of dawn to take a shower and shave her legs for the first time. (Why even bother? It's winter! You're wearing long pants anyway!) She blow drys her hair, then CURLS it, which she says it made her hair look like "limp macaroni." Why, Kristy, WHY? Then she proceeds to put on make up. Seriously, who is this person and what has she done with Kristy? 

It sounds like there are only two bathrooms on the second floor. This one and another one that the younger kids share. (Well, I'm sure Elizabeth and Watson have their own bathroom and I hope to God they gave Nannie her own bathroom). But you would think a mansion would have more than two bathrooms on the second floor! Sam and David Michael make fun of Kristy (to which I can't really blame them), but Bart says she looks beautiful. Kristy, I'm sure he would still think you were pretty without all the primping. He obviously likes you. Yeah, that part of the Kristy storyline just didn't ring true to me.

So they go to the dance and we get this illustration:

I can tell Stacey and Dawn apart because only Stacey would wear a short little black dress in the middle of winter! I like Claudia's outfit; only a true trendsetter like Claud could pull that off. Dawn's and Jessi's dresses are very prom-y. Mallory looks very matronly: that's something a mother of the bride (or grandmother of the bride!) would wear. Kristy's outfit looks very young and old-fashioned and Mary Anne's dress looks very dated. They should just all have Claudia and Stacey pick out their outfits for the next dance. 

Welcome to New York (It's Been Waiting For Them)

Today I'll be talking about BSC Super Special #6; New York, New York! I have to admit; it's not one of my favorites. As someone who has been to NYC (only once though; and it was only for four days) and absolutely LOVED it, I found this book to be a little on the dull side. It also doesn't make any logistical sense to me. Why the flying fuck are seven girls, who only live, what, one hour by train, going to NYC for TWO FLIPPIN' WEEKS? Okay, I understand why Claud is going. The book is based around her keeping a journal full of notes and drawings because she's attending a prestigious art class at the Fine Arts League of New York (aka FALNY) that is taught by a world renowned artist named McKenzie Clarke (aka Mac). This conveniently happens during ANOTHER two week vacation they're having from school (didn't they just have one??) and Stacey will be visiting her dad during this time. Claud's parents (and Stacey's dad) gives permission for Claud to stay in NY with Stacey during this time. Okay, so far, so good. Sounds reasonable enough. Then Mr. McGill announces that the rest of the BSC is invited! This prompts Mallory to ask her parents if she can attend FALNY and the Pikes agree to this. This in itself is an unbelievable plot line. First of all, these classes can't be cheap and I have a hard time believing the Pikes, with their eight children, would just pay for their eleven-year-old daughter to attend them, and let's be honest, these art classes really aren't Mal's forte. Also, no way the Pikes are letting Mal go to New York, basically unsupervised, for two weeks. I guess they think since she'll be with Claudia, then she'll be fine because in Stoneybrook, once you turn 13, you are a full-fledged and responsible adult.

But, Ed, what are you doing? Why are you inviting SIX of Stacey's friends when you only have room for Stacey and two of her friends at your apartment? What about the four other girls? Where will they stay? I'm glad you asked. They (and "they" include Kristy, Mary Anne, Jessi, and Mal) will be staying with the Cummingses at their swanky three-bedroom Dakota apartment. Wow, Laine's parents must be SAINTS to allow four pre-teens (yes, I know technically Kristy and Mary Anne are teenagers, but in this case, I'm rounding down) to stay with them for TWO FUCKING WEEKS. I could understand the weekend, but even that would be very generous of them. I cannot imagine having four houseguests for two weeks EVEN if I did know them. Ugh, that just seems like my worst nightmare. I like my space and my privacy. Jessi and Mal probably get the best deal of where they stay. Not only do they get to stay at the Dakota, but they get the guest bedroom while Kristy and Mary Anne sleep in Laine's room where she has an extra trundle bed. They say this is because Laine knows Kristy and Mary Anne, but she's only met them ONCE. Jessi and Mal lucked out because I would feel uncomfortable sharing a room with someone I've never met or only met once.

The send off for these girls is absolutely ridiculous. Every family member of the girls is there to see them off. WHY? Why doesn't just Kristy's mom go with her? Why not just Mal's dad? Why do they need all their  siblings there? Why does Mary Anne bring her cat? Yes, she brings Tigger with her in his carry case to see her off. Good lord. I would never do that to my cat. Trying to get him in his carry case is a hassle, plus he would hate being in a crowded, noisy train station. You say goodbye to your pet at your house like a normal person, MARY ANNE. 

All of the parents (except Mrs. McGill) are shitting bricks because they're so scared to send off their kids to New York (even though most of them had visited Stacey for a weekend when she moved back there). I guess this was during a time when New York was mostly known for its crime more than anything, but they literally live an hour away by train. Any of these parents could just jump on a train and check up on the girls any time they wanted. When they flew all the way across the country to California, there was no fanfare at all and nobody seemed concerned. 

Before we dive into each of the girls' stories, let's talk about the cover:

To me, Claud is the MVP of the cover. She looks super trendy and cute in her HRC t-shirt with denim shorts and black leggings and shoes. Her jewelry game is fierce with her hoop earrings, bangles, and cross necklace. (Didn't know she was so religious!) I also love her hair and she has the best pose. Jessi and Dawn look fine too, although Dawn's denim on demin look is a bit much (her hair looks great, though!) The other girls? NO. 

-Stacey's outfit is totally boring and I can't see a native New Yorker wearing a HRC t-shirt from their own city. Also she looks like a super dork with her pose. 

-Mary Anne looks like a fucking tourist with her I [heart] NY pants (I didn't even know I [heart] NY pants even existed! She probably had them made special), her New York t-shirt, and her I [heart] NY pin. And if her outfit didn't already scream TOURIST!!!, she's also carrying a camera and a map.

-Not to be mean or anything, but looking at Mal on this cover, it's easy to understand why she doesn't like her looks (and as someone who looked like Mal when I was her age, I totally relate!). Also, Mal, if you're going to give bunny ears to someone, DO IT RIGHT. She has her whole fist above Jessi's head; only the two fingers (the bunny ears) should be showing. Duh!

-I know Kristy isn't known for her fashion sense, but she looked like she got dressed in the dark. An ugly red shirt with ugly brown pants that hit right above her ankle, socks and ugly brown shoes? WTF? The Statue of Liberty crown is kind of a cute touch, though.

Okay, onto all the girls' adventures!

Like I mentioned earlier, Claudia and Mallory are taking art classes. These art classes sound super boring to me, but then, I'm not an artist. They do things like sketch a pile of boxes or take a field trip to the Cloisters and sketch stone walls. For some reason, Claudia thinks McKenzie Clarke is going to look like Santa Clause, but he doesn't. I'm not sure why she would think that except that she seems to think he's going to be jolly and kind with a twinkle in his eye and the image of Kris Kringle came to her mind. 

While Mal is getting compliments from Mac, Claudia is getting more criticism such as she needs to slow down and be more focused. We will later find out this is because the teacher sees real talent in Claud's artistic abilities and knows she has it in her to become a true artist. During the first week and a half, Claudia is pissed at Mallory. She either ignores her or calls her names (like "teacher's pet" or "dweeb"). 

At one point, we are given the contents of a lunch Claud has packed and it made me sick to my stomach:

-Fluffernut sandwich (which is marshmallow fluff and peanut butter on bread - yuck, that sounds absolutely disgusting!)

-Oreos

-Chocolate chips cookies

-Fritos

Why would you pack Oreos AND chocolate chip cookies? I like both kinds, but they're both cookies; you don't need both of them. And Fritos are good. If she had packed a deli chicken and cheese sandwich, Oreos, and Fritos, plus maybe an apple or a banana, that would be something I could eat. But, ugh, that makes me wants to puke. Can you imagine if Dawn had seen that lunch? She would have had a FIT. Mallory calls the lunch "terrific-looking". I guess I can't blame her because I always find the Pike meals absolutely disgusting, so to her, that probably would look delicious. 

Stacey and Mary Anne are hired to baby-sit two British kids name Alistaire and Rowena Harrington (who are 7 and 4) during their two weeks. Their parents are very wealthy important political dignitaries. I feel like AMM modeled these kids after the kids from Mary Poppins. They are so extra. They wear the most ridiculous outfits for children to wear when they're out exploring New York. The boy wears a white sailor suit and white knee socks and the girl wears a white sailor dress and white tights with a red hat and red Mary Janes. They also talk very proper and it didn't ring true to me for children to talk this way. There's lots of "brilliants"! peppered in their dialogue, but I guess they are British.  These kids were almost too precocious; it was a bit grating. Give me Erick and Ryan DeWitt the so-called "terrors" from the last SS any day.

While the girls take the children around New York (including the Central Park zoo, the Natural History Museum, the NY public library, and the South Street Seaport), Mary Anne keeps noticing she sees a lot of men wearing sunglasses and a raincoat and it isn't until the end of the day when she realizes it's the same man. (Well, duh). She tells Stacey about this and they keep seeing this man when they go out with the kids. It starts to freak out the girls (understandably) and they decide, on almost the last day of their trip, to tell the Harrington parents that a strange man has been following their kids and they are worried that he is planning on abducting them. The parents just laugh at this and introduce them to Bill, the man who's been wearing the hat and and sunglasses, and is their bodyguard. Well, why didn't they just tell Stacey and Mary Anne their bodyguard would be following the around? Because they thought they'd be nervous and that they would overprotect the children and they (the parents) just wanted the kids to have a good time. Yeah, I'm not buying that. And if anything, Mary Anne and Stacey became even MORE protective of the children when they thought someone was trying to abduct them! It just seemed that little detail was conviently left out so we could have this mystery plot line. 

One of the things they do while they're in New York that would be something I'd love to do is go on the Circle Line Cruise which is a boat that takes them all around Manhattan. At one point, Mary Anne, our walking (and obnoxious!) tour guide gives us information about the World Trade Center: "Two towers, one hundred and ten stories each..." YIKES. Dot, dot, dot indeed. I know this book was written a decade before 9/11, but it's always a little chilling when you read about or see the WTC. 

Jessi meets the perfect boy for her. His name is Quint Walter. Like her, he's also eleven, also black, and also a ballet dancer. It's a match made in heaven! She meets him after watching a performance of Swan Lake at Lincoln Center. Quint tells Jessi that his dance teacher tells him he's so good that he could probably get into Juilliard. However, he doesn't want to audition because the guys in his neighborhood call him a "sissy" because he's a dancer. Dude, screw those kids. If you have a good chance of getting accepted into Juilliard (which is EXTREMELY hard to get into, but I'm sure you already knew that), then you audition for Juilliard!  Jessi talks him into going and he does audition and gets in (this is all told to us through the postcards they send each other after Jessi returns to Stoneybrook). 

Jessi gets her first kiss when they say goodbye. I remember that Quint pops up in a couple of other books, but it's not like they keep their relationship hot and heavy or anything.

Kristy has an extremely boring plot line: she finds a stray dog in Central Park and sneaks it back to the Cummingses apartment and keeps it in the bedroom Mal and Jessi are staying in (I'm sure they loved that). Since the dog looks like Louie, she names it Son of Louie and calls him Sonny for short. (Why not just call him Louie Jr. or Junior?) Kristy assumes the Dakota doesn't allow pets (which I don't know why; don't MOST apartment buildings allow pets? I feel like it's very rare when NO pets are allowed. My apartment complex used to only allow cats, but finally allowed people to have dogs because people had them anyway) and Laine assumes Kristy is hiding the dog from her parents because she knows her parents wouldn't be thrilled to have a dog. The first time we see Kristy sneak Sonny into the building, Jessi distracts the doorman by pretending to be really ditzy about the directions she's asking. We never see this again, but I assume Jessi has to act like a jackass everytime Kristy needs to sneak the dog out to take him for a walk or for him to use the bathroom. Kristy wants to keep the dog and calls Watson and asks permission to keep him, but he tells her no. She assumed he would say yes because they already have a dog, a cat, goldfish, a rat, and god knows what else. 

When they come home from the Circle Line cruise, Mrs. Cummings has found Sonny and is waiting for the girls. Kristy assumes that they have been kicked out of their home and is apologizing profusely. That is when she learns that she didn't have to sneak the dog by the doorman after all. Mrs. Cummings tells her she needs to find a home for the dog because it can't stay with them. So Kristy and the others post LOST DOG fliers in Central Park and put an ad in the paper. I really thought that the dog belonged to someone who had lost him and he was reunited with his owner...that's what my brain remembered from the last time I read this book, which was 2004. (I remember it was 2004 because I went to NYC in 2004 and after visiting, I wanted to read this book so I bought it off e-bay. I still have that copy and it's the only hardback cover book of the BSC I own). But, no, a young boy calls Kristy and tells her he wants a dog. So Kristy goes over to his apartment and meets the boy, Brandon, and his dad. It's love at first sight and Brandon's dad gives permission for his son to have the dog. Kristy asks him what he's going to name the dog and Brandon says Sonny.

We know from the last time they visited New York, Dawn was deathly afraid of the city. She thought she had overcome her fear and is fine on the train ride there, but once they reach the city, she becomes jumpy and nervous, sure she is about to be mugged or murdered, or perhaps both. When they are trying to figure out who's going to stay where (and why didn't they already have this figured out before?), I was shocked when Dawn didn't offer to stay at the Dakota. If you want to feel safe and secure in New York, then you stay at one of the most prestigious apartment complexes that has security up the wazoo. Mr. McGill's apartment doesn't even have a doorman and has a fire escape which Dawn hates because she believes it's like sending a burglar an open invitation to come in and steal whatever. She also says that she couldn't sleep a wink because of all the noise outside. I believe it is Jessi who mentions that staying at the Dakota is like staying at a hotel because it's soundproof and there are no fire escapes. This sounds like the place for Dawn. However, she tells us she wants to stick close to Stacey. But why? Because Stacey is the native New Yorker? So is Laine AND she lives in a super secure place AND Mary Anne would be there. But, whatever.

The first couple of days, Kristy takes pity on Dawn and stays with her because Dawn absolutely refuses to leave the apartment. She spends her days either cleaning or watching TV or listening to the radio. After Kristy gets tired of baby-sitting her (imagine that!), Dawn meets a boy who lives in the same apartment complex. His name is Richie and he's come to introduce himself because Mr. McGill had told him his daughter is coming to visit and they should meet. We get this weird mention that Richie visits Mr. McGill sometimes. Now I could believe if Mr. McGill was friends with Richie's parents and mentioned to Richie that his daughter was visiting soon and that he should stop by and introduce himself to her. But why is a thirteen-year-old boy "sometimes visiting" a forty-something man? Does that seem weird to anyone else? Or is it just me? I don't think Richie ever did meet Stacey. 

Anyway, Richie convinces Dawn to go out and explore the city with him and she does. They see all the famous NYC sites. Dawn even eats a piece of chocolate from Godiva and actually thinks it's good. (But I'm sure will admit this to no one!) Richie takes her to Madison Avenue which he calls "one of the finest shopping streets in the city." But after telling her some of the stores it has to offer, he says, "It's the soup to nuts of the shopping world."  This is on page 158. Um, WHAT? What does that mean? I have never heard that expression (I assume it's an expression!) in my life. The soup to nuts? WTF?  I don't get that. Okay, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and it tells me this:

"Soup to nuts" is an American English idiom that conveys the meaning of "from beginning to end", derived from the description of a full course dinner.

Weird. I had never heard that. I was so confused when I read that! 

 OMG! Before I forget, I wished I had counted the amount of times they use the word "chilly". And I thought they went overboard in California Girls with their stupid slang. Maybe that didn't seem so obvious because they used a few different words like "dibble", "fresh", and "distant." In this book, the only slang word they use is "chilly" and they must use it at least twice (if not more!) per chapter. If anyone is planning on doing a re-read of this book soon, PLEASE do a chilly word count and let me know how many times it is said! It's like, Stop trying to make "chilly" happen! It's not going to happen!

Fine, Fresh, Fierce

Guess what? It's that time again! And this time we're going to Dawn's favorite place in the whole entire world: CALIFORNIA!!! First, let's chat about the cover:

This is one of the few Super Special covers where I can tell Dawn and Stacey apart, hurrah! Stacey is obviously the one wearing the VERY skimpy bikini (and the only one to wear a bikini...for some reason I thought Dawn often wore bikinis? Am I making that up in my head?) Do you think Stacey's mom knows she even owns that? I would never wear a bikini like that, without straps. I would be so terrified it would fall down. Stacey does take surfing lessons while she's on the West Coast and I have to wonder if she wore that bathing suit because no way that top stays on! Hopefully she brought a couple of other options. Dawn looks like a bumblebee in her bathing suit. Mallory looks like she belongs on Bay Watch. Also, Mal looks SUPER tall, like she's six feet or something. No way she is eleven in that drawing! I like Claudia and Jessi's bathing suits the most. It looks like they came from the same collection; they are very cohesive with their black, white, and green color scheme (plus yellow on Jessis' suit). I feel kind of bad for Mary Anne. Not just because she has to wear that boring white cover-up and has to slather SPF 80 all over herself, but it looks like she's not having that much fun. Kristy and Dawn are playing with a beach ball (btw, notice the extra back up ball next to Kristy?) and Jessi, Mal, Stacey, and Claud all seem to be laughing about something. (Maybe something in the magazine Mal is reading?) Also, I love that Stacey is sitting in a chair facing AWAY from the water. Most people would want to FACE the ocean, but I understand they did it for the purpose of the cover.

On to my review! The girls have a two weeks vacation (I NEVER got two week vacations when I was in middle school - just sayin'!) and decide to go to California after winning the lottery. You see, apparently, Claudia has been having her parents buy lottery tickets for her (I'm shocked that they would do this, the Kishis being the same parents who would have a shit fit if they found the junk food and Nancy Drew books in their daughter's room) and when the lottery gets up to twenty-three million dollars, she convinces the other members of the BSC to buy tickets and if one of them wins, they'll split the money and will never have to baby-sit again! (Just kidding! They don't actually say that! You know our girls will never give up baby-sitting!) Dawn makes a comment that she didn't know that there was that much money in the world. Really, Dawn? Sure, 23 mil is a lot of money for a mere mortal like her and me (and probably you, dear reader), but damn, even I knew at the age of 13, there was a hell of a lot more than 23 million in the ENTIRE WORLD! Really, Dawn, I thought Claudia was supposed to be the dumb one.

Dawn ALMOST wins, but is off one number. She does get $10,000 which isn't anything to sneeze at. She still splits the money with her friends which is quite generous. If that had been me, I would have been like, "Hey, we only agreed to split if we won the BIG money. I'm keeping my ten grand, bitches!" So they all decide to go to California and stay at Dawn's dad's house for two weeks. 

We get a chapter dedicated to their plane ride and it's like, WHY? Why do we need to hear about what happened on the plane? NOTHING happened. It should have been, "We got on the plane and five hours later we were in California." That's all you need. Well, there were two things of note that happened on the plane ride: 1) the in-flight movie was Vertigo (seems a bit old to be playing on a plane ride in 1990) and Mallory has no idea who Alfred Hitchcock is. Girl, REALLY? (But to be fair, Claudia won't have any idea who the Grateful Dead are in a later chapter). The other interesting thing is that the girls have to choose between spaghetti and chicken. All the girls choose spaghetti except for Stacey and Dawn. Uh, isn't Dawn a vegetarian? Why is she eating chicken? Of course, I do remember them stating in the earlier books that she just didn't eat red meat. 

Let's discuss each of the girls:

Stacey has caught the surfing bug (Dawn's words) and spends a good amount of her vacation on the beach. I've never been surfing but it does look like a lot of fun, though I'm sure I would suck. You'd think her storyline would be her having a near drowning experience or something scary involving surfing. She does get scolded a couple times when she rides a wave she's not ready for, but her storyline involves around the people she's met that she goes surfing with. They're all sixteen or seventeen and live in Dawn's neighborhood and apparently Dawn is friends with them. Who knew Dawn hung out with the older kids when she was in Cali? One of them drives a convertible and drives like Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding, completely erratic and pays no attention to anyone around them. On the way home from surfing, they end up in a four car collision and the guy tells the others not to rat him out, but Stacey does. She's taken to the hospital, but is fine, despite being a bit shaken up.

I think (correct me if I'm wrong) this is the first book where we meet Mr. Schafer's girlfriend, Carol. I believe she has been mentioned before, but this is the first book where she makes an appearance. And, boy, does Dawn not like her. I'm honestly not sure why. Carol seems pretty cool. She's also super nice, driving the girls anywhere (within reason) with the van she's borrowed from a van. (Mr. Schafer is working the first week the girls are there...I'm sure he's more than happy that he doesn't have to be home with eight kids in his house!) She usually drives something "small and red" that Dawn deems too young for her. Dawn bitches A LOT about how Carol is too old for certain things and tries to act like she's their friend. My mind was blown when Dawn is complaining about how Carol, a 32-year-old woman, is too old to say "you guys." Uh, excuse me, Dawn? What the fuck are you talking about? I am older than Carol and I still say "you guys" and I am pretty sure I have said "you guys" all my life. How is there an age limit of saying "you guys." How would anybody ever get to quote The Goonies: "Hey, you guuuuysssss!"  

In this book, we get many instances of the girls using their stupid slang they have created. You know, words such as "distant", "fresh", and the incredibly stupid "dibble" for something that is cool and "stale" for something that is not cool. Now, if Carol had started using those words, then yes, I could see Dawn's argument. She is much too old to be using those words as synonyms for "cool" and she never would because no grown ass adult would ever use those stupid words. 

We are told that Carol is a "painter" and I was wondering if that meant she painted houses or murals or portraits. She then says her hours are flexible and at the beach she's sketching something, so she must be some kind of artist. We're really not given much information about her career and I wonder if more information is brought up in any of the other books. I'm surprised that Claudia didn't bond with her over their artistic abilities. 

When Stacey is in her accident, she calls the Schafer residence and Dawn and Carol are the only ones home so they're the ones who pick her up at the hospital. Dawn is livid when Carol tells Stacey that she's going to have to tell Mr. Schafer about it. Well, what the fuck do you want, Dawn? You bitch that Carol is trying too hard to be like one of you, then when she does do the responsible thing, you bitch some more. Dawn does eventually see that Carol did the right thing and comes around to her. She writes her an apology letter and they're all good...for now. 

The BSC gets to meet the We Love Kids Club and Kristy is a bit judgmental how their club runs. I can't really blame her; it does seem a bit all over the place. They don't really have a set time or place; their clients call any of them anytime they want and they just sort of take whatever job. It's very "California casual". Kristy wants to show what a great baby-sitter she is when she decides to baby-sit  for Erick and Ryan Dewitt, two boys who are desribed as "terrors". I'd probably describe them as just normal little boys, but whatever. When the WLKC girls try to give Kristy some tips, she doesn't listen to them, knowing that she is an awesome sitter and she'll be able to do things her way.

It turns out the day she's supposed to baby-sit the boys, Mr. Schafer is taking all the girls, plus Jeff to Universal Studios, so Kristy calls the DeWitt parents and asks them if she can bring the boys along and apparently they say yes. I wonder if they understood that there would only be one adult (Mr. Schafer) with eleven kids (our girls, Jeff, plus three kids they end up inviting). I sure as hell wouldn't let my kids go to a huge amusement park like Universal Studios with only one adult in charge of eleven kids. That seems like a recipe for disaster. We meet Erick and Ryan and they're very excitable little boys. When Kristy is waiting for them to use the bathroom before they're about to board a ride, she has to send Jeff in the bathroom because they're taking forever and he finds them throwing paper towels and spraying each other with water. They get a little rambunctious on the ride and Kristy has her hands full reigning them in. She learns her lesson and realizes that the WLKC girls had been right and she should have listened to their advice and that she's not the only person in the world who's a baby-sitting expert.

During their stay, Dawn invites the WLKC girls for a sleepover and Kristy narrates that all NINE of them were going to sleep in the rec room. Um, shouldn't there be ten of them? Our seven girls plus the three We Love Kids Club girls. Unless Dawn is sleeping in her bedroom? But why would she? I should also point out that during their stay, that ALL the girls are sleeping in Dawn's bedroom on the floor in sleeping bags. (Obviously Dawn is in her bed). She must have a huge room! 

During the sleepover, the girls raid the fridge and they must have some lousy food because Kristy seems pretty happy when she gets to make herself a peanut butter and honey sandwich as she was worried she might get stuck with eggplant and celery pizza. Look, I'm not dissing peanut butter and honey sandwiches, but that's the kind of thing I would make for myself if there was absolutely no food in my kitchen. I usually have honey and peanut butter on hand, and if I had bread, I would make myself that kind of sandwich if I were starving because there was nothing else to eat.  It's not good sleepover food. No. You need pizza or nachos or cookies or chips and dip...something substantial like that. Seriously, Dawn, you couldn't go shopping for food ALL of your guests would like? Shame, shame.

Kristy isn't the only one who spends her vacation baby-sitting; Mary Anne also sits for a little girl named Stephie who is basically a Mini-Me version of Mary Anne: her mom died when she was a baby, her dad is a overly protective of her, she has a room that is decorated a little too young for her, yada, yada, yada. Stephie has asthma and this freaks out Mary Anne. Stephie is one of the kids who go to Universal Studios with them and Mary Anne is sure that from all the excitement Stephie is going to have an attack, but she doesn't. Stephie's morning baby-sitter tells Mary Anne that Stephie's asthma attacks are usually brought on by emotional feelings. This will prove to be true when Stephie has an attack the last day Mary Anne baby-sits her and the day before she's supposed to go back to Connecticut. Stephie is highly upset about this. I have to scratch my head over this. WHY is this little girl so attacked to her baby-sitter who she's only been baby-sat by three times? I know, I know, they share that bond, but still... 

Jessi pretty much has the same storyline that she did in Jessi and the Superbrat. Remember, in that one she baby-sits for child star Derek Masters and he convinces her to move to L.A. and get an agent and become a TV star and she seriously considers it, but then decides she doesn't want to move away from her family and wants to pursue her ballet dream. In this book, Derek has invited her to watch him work at the studio and she ends up getting to be an extra on the show. Derek says she should try to look for an agent while she's out in L.A. and she gets excited by the prospect, but in the end, decides that ballet is what she wants to pursue. I do love that that back of the book says "Jessi lands a (tiny) part in a TV show." Uh, no, that would imply that she actually had a line of dialogue. She was a freaking extra. She was probably just walking around in the background during a scene. Probably no one even noticed her except her family and friends! 

Mallory is such a fucking idiot. I'm sorry, but it's true. She ends up blowing all her money on make up and hair dye. All she has left is $6.28 I have to wonder how much she had to begin with. All the girls got about $1400 from their lottery winnings. I looked up how much a plane ticket cost in 1990 and I got $288, so let's round that up to $300. That leaves her with $1100! And this is even before they go to any attractions (they don't really go anywhere besides the beach and the mall until the second week). I have a hard time believing she spent that much money on make up and hair dye. Most likely, she had a couple hundred dollars for spending money. Make up can add up, so I can definitely see that. 

Why is Mal blowing all her money on products she won't even be able to use when she returns home because her parents won't let her make up? Because she wants to be a true "California Girl." (Don't you have to be born in Cali for that to happen?) She moans that all the girls on the beach are blonde (which isn't true) and she wants to be noticed so she gets all that make up. She ends up getting wash out dye so she'll be able to return home a redhead. (But they end up having to buy RED hair dye because they don't think she'll be able to remove the blonde by the time they return). 

Because Mal has blown all her money, Jessi has to pay her way into Universal Studios and she is pissed, which I don't blame her. Also, because of her lack of money, Mal can't join her friends to go to a screening of Mary Poppins (don't think she's missing anything...this may be a hot take, but I find that movie to be overly long and boring, though I will admit it does have some good songs) and she also doesn't go with them to Knot's Berry Farm. Now that place looks pretty cool, so she was a dumbass for spending all of money on such frivolous things. 

Finally Kristy gives her the buck up speech and this is when Mal buys the red hair dye, sells her make up to Claudia and Stacey who were nice enough to buy it from her and she forks over the money to Jessi. 

This is the fourth Super Special where Claudia has a crush on a boy. Remember, we have that creep-o who was stalking her in the first one (can't even remember his name); Will from Camp Mohawk (probably my favorite and the best suited for her from all her SS romances) Guy the married ski instructor with two kids who was much too old for her from Winter Vacation, and now we meet Terry in this one. Much like Will, Terry is her age and is Asian-American. The only difference is that Terry is more like Janine. He's reading a thick tome at the beach and likes to talk about "current events" such as the situation in the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall. 

Terry takes Claudia to an Italian movie and she's not fast enough to read the subtitles. Poor Claudia. He also takes her to a fancy French restaurant where he's wearing a suit and Claudia is wearing a Laura Ashley she borrowed from Dawn. The image of two thirteen-year-olds getting dressed up to have a date at a French restaurant is just weird and amusing to me. Claudia even states that they're the youngest there by thirty years. No kidding. The waiter speaks to them in French and the menu is in French, so of course Claudia is freaking out. Now I go to a French restaurant every year for my birthday and while the menu is in French, it also explains what the dish is in English. Also, the wait staff speaks in English. Terry, who is apparently fluent in French, remarks that the chicken (le poulet!) special sounds good and orders it. Why didn't Claudia just order that as well? She ends up ordering les escargots, but points to it on the menu instead of sounding like a dumb-dumb and trying to pronounce it "es-car-gots". Of course, she ends up getting snails because she has no idea what she's ordering. She tells us, "Let me tell you, swallowing those snails was not easy. I felt like I was swallowing garlic-coated rubber." I'm sorry, but if it felt like you were swallowing "garlic-coasted rubber", then they did not cook their escargot right. I've had escargots a couple times at that French restaurant I usually go to on my birthday and they were absolutely delicious. They were in some kind of sauce (with garlic) and they did not taste rubbery at all. Maybe somebody needs to inspect that restaurant or hire a new chef or something.

Claudia calls Janine to ask for some advice on how to sound smart and Janine tells her just to be herself and invite Terry to Hollywood with them to look at stars' homes and visit Grauman's Chinese Theater. Terry is a huge movie buff and has a lot of fun. Claudia also finally tells him about the BSC and being an artist and Mimi, things that she actually has a passion for and Terry seems genuinely interested. 

I guess it's cute that they finally end up on the same page, but what is the point of having a romance with somebody who lives on the opposite side of the country? Seems like AMM couldn't think of a better storyline for her. I had to cringe when we see the letter Claudia writes to Terry in the last chapter of the book and it is just riddled with spelling errors. You'd think she'd have her sister or one of her friends go over it. She spells "really" with only one "l". Really, Claudia, you can't spell REALLY? She also spells "Right now" as "write now" and "like" as "lick"...Good Lord... If I got a letter from a boy that was filled with spelling errors I'm sorry, but that would be a deal breaker. 

In a postcard to her parents she writes, "We've have already been to the beach." In another letter to her sister, she writes "Im am fine." Oh, God, I have no words. Sometimes I think they make Claudia a little too stupid.

There is foreshadowing for the next Super Special because Dawn says if they win the lottery again, they could go to New York and stay with Stacey's Dad. Start spreading the news!