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.