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. 

Come Sail Away With the Baby-Sitters Club!

 So I've decided to re-open my Book Blog which hasn't been used in many years and re-read the Baby-Sitter Club Super Special books and write a little "book report" for each one. Now I'm guessing if you're here, you're most likely a fan of the BSC so I'm not going to go into every little character detail like they do in chapter 2; I'm assuming you know who I'm talking about when I say a character's name! 

Our first book is Baby-sitters on Board! where our baby-sitters go on a four day cruise around the Bahamas, then spend three days at Disney World. How did they get so lucky to go on a dream vacation? Well, it's all thanks to Mallory Pike's dad (and Mal wasn't even a member during this time!) when he wins a contest at his company where they have to name a new product and he won. We never find out what the product is and what he named it. Isn't Mr. Pike a corporate lawyer? This makes it sounds like he works for advertising. They just say he "won a contest at the company he works for." You think they would rig it so the guy with EIGHT freakin' kids wouldn't win it. Just saying. The Pike elders request that Stacey and Mary Anne join them as helpers because they helped them when they went to Sea City for two weeks (pretty sure that trip and this one is in the same summer! But then again, all their vacations take place in the same freakin' "year"!) When Watson hears about this and finds out that Kristy has never been anywhere outside of Connecticut, he decides not only to take the entire Brewer/Thomas family on the same trip, but also Claudia and Dawn so the entire BSC can go. 

Oh boy, we have a lot to unpack here!

1. The fact that Kristy has never been out of Connecticut at the age of thirteen is mind boggling to me. I don't consider myself well-travelled at all, but I have have been lucky enough to have traveled to France and some pretty big cities in the U.S. At the age of 13, I had already been to Colorado, Floria, and Virginia (and surrounding states where I lived in the Midwest). You're telling me that Kristy has never been to New York or Boston or anywhere in New England? Really? REALLY? I think it would have been a little more realistic if she said she'd said she'd never been anywhere outside of that area. Of course, she will have gone to New York, California, Hawaii, Paris, London, etc by the time the series is over and she's STILL thirteen, so I guess she definitely will make up for it! 

2. Watson is always trying to show off his wealth, isn't he? Oh, the Pikes are going on this trip, so I better go on this trip with my family too! It's like in BSC in the USA (which I read for the first time a few years ago) when Dawn's dad takes a trailer across the USA so Watson has to do the same thing! And I'm sure there's other examples too. 

3. I'm shocked that none of Kristy's siblings threw a fit that she got to have two friends come along and none of them did, but then I had to think about this and figured Karen would be the only one that might get upset about this. Sam and Charlie probably wouldn't want to invite anyone along since they just hang out with each other and I can't see them wanting to have their friends along on a family trip. I'm honestly surprised that they just didn't stay home and had Claudia and Dawn take their place because they are barely seen in this book. They're mentioned being on the plane and they're mentioned sharing a room with David Michael and spending a day at Disney World with him, but other than that they have no dialogue and no story to this book. Andrew is too young and shy to want to invite any friends, David Michael already has Nicky Pike on the trip, so that leaves Karen. I'm honestly surprised that Karen didn't throw a tantrum that she wasn't allowed to invite Nancy Dawes AND Hannie Papadakis (BTW, I just found out this summer while watching the BSC Netflix series that I've been mispronouncing that MY ENTIRE LIFE! I was saying it "Pap-a-dack-eese", but it's "Papa-dock-is". Obviously, I am not Greek!) I mean, after all she IS Watson's biological child and if I were her I would feel some kind of way. Yes, it's true Margo Pike, who is also Karen's age (wait...is Karen 6 or 7? I swear to God I've seen her one age in some books and the other age in other books...) is there, but they never hang out. In fact, I don't think they've ever been friends in the series which is weird since both their sisters are in the BSC. I know they don't go to the same school, but you think they'd at least hang out when they were on the cruise together? 

4. Let's talk about Mary Anne and Stacey and how PISSED both of them should be. I'm sure when they were chosen for the job, they were excited. They get a free trip to the Bahamas and Disney World! What's not to love about that? But then...if I found out that the other members in the BSC also got to go on the same trip without having to work, well, I'd be a little irritated. They're probably thinking, What the hell? If the Pikes hadn't chosen us, we would have been able to go on the trip WITHOUT baby-sitting. Also, sometimes it's fun to go on a trip and then be able to tell your friends afterwards. I bet Mary Anne and Stacey were super excited that they got invited to go on this trip that would just be for them and then Kristy's stepdad had to ruin it by inviting the other members because God forbid, the BSC can't ever be separated! Of course they make it so all the girls are happy and excited they're going on this trip together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.

One of my favorite things about this book is that the introduction to everybody is thankfully short. It really just gives you a list of everybody going on the trip and how old they are. It's like Ann M. Martin figured if you read this book, you probably read the others. I wish she took the same advice for her other books. Why do I need to read that Kristy's dog "just" died, like fifty books ago or that Stacey moved back to New York after she moved to Stoneybrook, but now she's back? I mean, who really cares if she's back, right? I hated the chapters 2 so much and they must have been so tedious to write! But this book just gets to the point, which I greatly appreciate! (Yes, I was one of those who skipped chapter 2, but would often scan just to make sure I didn't miss a Claudia Kishi original). 

For some reason they're flying in a 777, which has NINE seats in each row (five in the middle and two on each end). Does this seem a little...excessive to anyone? The only time I've flown in a plane that big was from Chicago to Paris. Do they even use planes that big for domestic flights? True, they're flying from New York to Miami, but still...But this was 1988, so maybe that's how they did it back then. I'm not sure which was more unbelievable: that Margo Pike uses her barf bag the minute the plane starts moving (the Pikes really need to take her to a specialist) or that Karen Brewer, spoiled Karen with her millionaire Daddy, gets excited about a bunch of condiment packages. Really, Karen? Hasn't she been on a plane before? Even if she hadn't, I can't see her getting excited over freaking condiments of all things. All the young kids gets to visit the cockpit and meet the captain while they're flying. That would never happen today. 

So the sleeping arrangements on the cruise ship, The Ocean Princess, are interesting. First of all, I'm surprised Watson didn't have any luxury suites for his party; instead the Brewer/Thomas clan are in the same area as the Pikes. Kristy, Claudia, and Dawn share a room. This will cause a rift between Kristy and Dawn because Dawn is super neat while Kristy just trashes the place; she will literally open a bag of chips and dump everything out on a table and just throw the bag on the floor. I don't remember Kristy ever being this much of a slob in the series. If anything, I always thought she was pretty organized being the President of the BSC and all. I feel like they just did this to have conflict between her and Dawn. Kristy even gets mad at Dawn when she sees the beds have been made one morning....uh, Kristy, you do realize that this is normal and it probably wasn't Dawn that made the beds? And really, are made beds something to be so upset about? 

To get back to the room arrangements...Sam, Charlie, and David Michael share a room and Watson and Elizabeth have Karen and Andrew which makes sense. With the Pike clan, we have Mary Anne with Mallory and Vanessa and Stacey with Margo and Claire. I don't know if that was what they decided or if the Pike parents just assigned them that way, but I have to say I think Mary Anne got the sweeter deal. I would much rather be with the two older girls who are more quiet and just like to read. I would HATE having to share a room with a seven-year-old who throws up all the time (surprise, surprise Margo Pike gets seasick!) and an annoying five-year-old who adds "Silly-Billy-Goo-Goo" to everyone's name. No. Just no. Thank your lucky stars, Mary Anne. The triplets and Nicky share a room which you would think would cause some issues, but surprisingly this is the one book where they actually do all get along. The Pike parents have a room all to themselves that is attached to their sons' room. You gotta hand it to John and Deidre: they will always try to get out of being around their kids. Remember when they went to Sea City and every day they went somewhere: Atlantic City or some quaint town and Mary Anne and Stacey would have to watch all those kids. Here's the kicker: Mary Anne and Stacey only have to take care of four kids since Mallory and the triplets are allowed to be by themselves...so they really only each have to take care of two kids, which seems like a pretty sweet gig to me. I wonder if Mary Anne and Stacey's way was paid through the corporation that sponsored the trip or if the Pikes paid their tickets for them? Though the sitting arrangements will change after the boys get in (minor) trouble and have to have a chaperone. I think the only time the Pike parents spend any time with their kids is when they go to Disney World, though Margo does spend the night in their room when there' a bad storm and she gets super sick (seriously, who thought it was a good idea for this girl to go on a cruise?)

So even though all the BSC members are on this trip together, they hardly spend any time together. In fact, each of them will meet someone on the cruise ship (who we will never see or hear from again). Oh, sure, there's a few times when they all interact or a couple of them interact, but it's very few and far between. Let's meet all the characters they meet:

Kristy meets a curmudgeon named Rudy Staples. His wife died only two months earlier and he is taking this  trip to "get away from the memories". I can see an old person going on a cruise, but to Disney World (yes, he  is also at DW..he does try to leave, but Kristy talks him out of it)? No. Kristy tells him about her problem with Dawn and he tells her that's how he and his wife were, with him being the messy one. Kristy and Rudy (who is in his 70s) start hanging out which is a little weird because what 70 year-old would want to hang out with a thirteen-year-old who isn't their grandkid and what thirteen-year-old girl would want to hang out with some random 70-year-old dude when she has a whole fleet of friends, family, and baby-sitting clients already on the boat? Kristy keeps trying to set up her Nannie (who hasn't moved in with the Thomas/Brewers yet). Kristy, chill. The man's wife only died two months ago and he lives in Arizona. 

Dawn meets a boy (of course; theres' always some romantic storyline in these Super Specials) who she calls "the most absolutely gorgeous, handsome, perfect, wonderful boy". Calm down, Dawn. The boy, Parker, turns out to be kind of a drip. He's on this trip with his dad and new stepmom and stepbrothers and is bitching about them. Yes, towards the end he and Dawn end up with his stepbrothers at Disney World and he ends up having a lot of fun, but there is nothing special about this lame boy. 

Stacey (along with Margo and Claire) meet a seven-year-old boy named Marc Kubacki and his parents. Marc looks a lot younger than his age and is in a wheelchair, not because he can't walk, but because he has a heart condition and can't over exert himself. His parents tell Stacey that they are taking this trip because Marc will be getting surgery soon and they wanted to take this family vacation in case...well, you know. It's actually quite sad. Marc is by far the most interesting person that one of the baby-sitters befriends. Of course, by the end of the book we find out that the surgery was successful and Marc is doing great. 

Mary Anne meets a girl named Alexandra Carmody. The first few times I read this, I always thought she was seventeen. She's mentioned as being "a few years older" than the BSC members and I think she's only supposed to be 14 or 15. I'm not really sure. Anyway, her thing is she's a pathological liar. She just tells people all these lies like she's an actress or her aunt is a countess. She tells Mary Anne (who she meets because Mary Anne is gawking at her because she's wearing a skimpy bikini...subtle, Mary Anne) that she's traveling alone and her parents were killed in a car accident six months ago. Of course, Mary Anne thinks this is horrible and confides in the girl that her mother died when she was a baby. You would think this would make Alexandra feel guilty and confess she made that up...but no, she keeps it up. Mary Anne is a bit suspicious about her because the first time they have a (very short) conversation, she tells Mary Anne she's traveling alone, then the second time they meet, she mentions her brother, but Mary Anne doesn't bring it up because I guess she doesn't want to be confrontational. She calls Alexandra "a true friend" (really? someone you've only had two conversations with, Mary Anne?), but is vexed why she lied to her about traveling alone. Thanks to Mallory's spying (we'll get to that later), Mary Anne finds out that Alex was lying to her all along and her parents, two famous folks singers, are alive and well and Alex lied to her about them being dead because she wants attention. When they're at Disney World, Alex keeps following around Mary Anne, who is with Margo and Claire, trying to apologize. Mary Anne does forgive her, (of course she does; she's Mary Anne) but they don't stay in touch or anything. I honestly didn't understand the point of this girl.

Claudia has a secret admirer on the trip and it's just as creepy as you would expect! Somebody keeps paying for her food and/or buying her things they see her looking at. Whoever this person is, they're in pretty close proximity to her pretty much wherever they go. It's *super* creepy. After Stacey finds out that said secret admirer pays for her butterscotch sundae (side note 1: after reading this, I was totally craving a butterscotch sundae so I went to the store and bought some vanilla ice cream and butterscotch topping. I could only find a large thing of butterscotch topping, so I still have some in my fridge...it will eventually all be used. (Side note 2: butterscotch must be Claudia's sundae flavor of choice because she also gets this when the girls go out for ice cream to celebrate Jessi's first big dance performance in Stoneybrook in Jessi's Secret Language)), Claudia tries to find him and ends up running into a boy her age who is clearly the secret admirer, but, well, we all know Claud isn't the brightest crayon in the box and she really has no clue. The boy is Timothy and later it will be this big twist that he's Alex's brother, but is that really supposed to be some big reveal? As you can see, this Carmody family is full of little shits. Timothy keeps up the secret admirer gig even after he and Claudia chat and she seems to like him and everything. Dude, just come clean...he will, but not until the last night. And Claudia will reward him with a kiss, ugh. 

The BSC members aren't the only ones to narrate chapters...other characters do as well, including a pre-BSC member Mallory. She pretty spends the entirety of her vacation people watching and writing in her journal. Look, I think people watching can be interesting and it's probably a great thing to do to pass time on the cruise ship, but at Disney World? Yes, she does go on some rides, but she also spends her time there sitting on a bench and writing about people who pass by in her journal. I don't know what shocks me more: that an eleven year old would rather sit on a bench at Disney World or that said eleven-year-old's parents would just let her roam around Disney World by herself. Look, I realize it's DW and probably very safe, but still....This is how Mary Anne finds out that Alex isn't an orphan....Mallory tells her after she sees and overhears Alex talking to her parents in line for a ride. As much as I'm surprised the Pike parents let their oldest kid schlep around the Happiest Place on Earth by herself, I'm more appalled that they (and Watson and Elizabeth) let their sons roam a Bahamian island by themselves! 

Byron Pike narrates a couple of chapters. I guess he was the Chosen Triplet because he's more sensitive than the other two and Adam and Jordan are pretty much the same person, right? This is one of the only times in the triplets' lives where they actually get along with Nicky. Most of the trip is them hanging out with Nicky and David Michael. They go see Treasure Island which is playing in the cruise ship's movie theater and they all get pirate fever (man, they would have loved the Pirates of the Caribbean movies...they did love the ride!) and they're all sure they're going to find hidden treasure when they visit Treasure Cay. Cay, I learned recently (not from this book, though it is mentioned), is pronounced "key". They're in for a rude awakening when they expect the island to look "all jungly and wild with monkeys and coconuts and maybe a couple of pythons", but in reality it's mostly "hotels all along the beach". It's pretty much a tourist destination. Nicky thinks that they must have let them off on the wrong island which is pretty hilarious. 

It is absolutely insane that the Pike parents let three ten-year-old and two eight-year-old boys gallivant around the island by themselves because the island is small. It's almost like they don't care if their kids get kidnapped because they have so many that they wouldn't notice if a few went missing anyway. They all go to the beach and are digging up shells and random crap. Byron finds a piece of paper which he believe to be a treasure map. It's written in a foreign language and they think it's a map, though in actuality, as they will learn later on the plane ride home, it's a copy machine diagram written in Dutch. But in the meantime, they will believe it's a treasure map...and, get this, will try to find the treasure on the ship and on Disney World. I really hope that deep down, they know there's no way in hell pirate treasure is not going to be found on a modern ship or at a modern theme park and they're just having fun with the whole thing. It's like when I was young and all the kids in the neighborhood were convinced this one house was haunted. (How very Karen Brewer). Deep down, I knew it wasn't, but I went along with the rumor because it made it more fun. 

Speaking of Karen, she also gets her own chapters. Ugh. I'm sorry, I am not a fan of Karen and this book doesn't help her case at all. She is a spoiled brat who always gets her way and never gets in trouble. So this is how she starts her first chapter:

I love my big stepsister, Kristy. She is very, very fun. But here's one thing I don't love about her. Sometimes she doesn't believe the things I say. And just because I'm only six years old. I don't think that's fair. But it happens. Also, sometimes she says I'm too little to do things. I don't think that's fair either.

So I bring this up because this paragraph is full of contractions and I distinctly remember Karen making a point of saying she never uses contractions. And yet, here she is going crazy using them. Now I'm guessing that character trait comes after this book. So let's correct the paragraph:

I love my big stepsister, Kristy. She is very, very fun. But here is one thing I do not love about her. Sometimes she does not believe the things I say. And just because I am only six years old. I do not think that is fair. But it happens. Also, sometimes she says I am too little to do things. I  do not think that is fair either.

Ah, that's better. Now I need to go back and see if Karen from the '90s  TV show or Netflix series uses contractions. I don't remember if Karen was in the movie (I don't think so, excuse me, I do not think so). As much as a can't (excuse me, cannot,) stand book Karen, I do like that they toned her character way down for the Netflix series but still kept her essence.   

Kristy takes Karen, Andrew, and David Michael to the pool. When they get there, Karen realizes she forgot her ear plugs and asks if she can go back to her cabin to retrieve them. So in a previous chapter that Mary Anne narrates, we are given a tour of the Ocean Princess.  This is what we have:

-Island Deck - the bottom deck; contains cabins.

-Dolphin Deck - the first deck; contains cabins and the purser's office.

-Providence Deck - the second deck; contains their cabins, infirmary, and a pirate-themed restaurant.

-Coastal Deck - the third deck; contains the Flamingo Cay Restaurant, a barbershop and beauty salon, and cabins.

-Tropical Deck - the fourth deck; contains a stage and theater, casino, arcade, lounge, pub, and Moonlight Cafe. (Sidenote: they keep referring to the arcade as the "video games room" which just seems weird to me). 

-Moondance Deck - the fifth deck; contains luxury cabins, children's recreation room and children's pool.

-Starlight Deck - the sixth deck; contains a cafe, two swimming pools, ice cream parlor, disco, teen center (what is a teen center anyway? They never go there even though there is a specific place on the ship just for them...maybe that's where Sam and Charlie were all that time), bar, and movie theater.

-Sun Deck - the very top deck; contains a large swimming pool, jogging track, and health spa.

So they're on the fifth deck and Karen wants to go three floors down to the second deck where her cabin is and Kristy allows this. Look, I've never been on a cruise ship before and as Billy Zane from Titanic says, "It's a ship; how big can it be?", a cruise liner is still pretty big...even if it's not the Titanic! (Wait, am I supposed to italizize both the movie name and the ship's name?) Kristy does want to take them all back down to retrieve the earplugs, but Karen convinces her to let her go by herself. I can't imagine letting a six-year-old wander around a cruise ship by their selves; if it were a twelve-year-old, that would be one thing, but a freakin' six-year-old? Also, why didn't they just go try to find a shop nearby that sold earplugs. There had to be one on that same level that sold children's pool toys and bathing suit. Duh. 

So Karen heads to her cabin (I'm guessing she has a key? Or is she going to wake her dad and stepmom who are taking nap?), but she ends up stopping at the Coastal Deck, the deck right above where her cabin is, to look around and goes to the beauty shop and gets her nails done. She asks to have it charged to her cabin and explains she learned about charging when Watson took her and Andrew to a hotel in New York (and you know that hotel was the Plaza!) The woman does ask her if she has permission to charge to her cabin and Karen pulls the "My parents are divorced" card which makes the woman feel sorry for her and forget about the fact that Karen doesn't have permission to do this. 

She gets her manicure, then grabs her earplugs from her cabin. (She didn't wake her parents, so she must have had the key). On the way back to the pool, she decides she's thirsty and stops to get a Coke at the cafe on the Tropical Deck, the one that's right below the deck the children's pool is on. Again, isn't there a shop near the pool that sells cold drinks? It's only after Karen has gotten her nails painted, retrieved her earplugs, and ordered and drank a Coke that she then saunters back to the pool. Of course, Kristy is besides herself. They don't say how long she's been gone, but it has to be at least 45 minutes. Even Karen admits she's been gone a long time. Kristy was way too lenient on Karen. Yes, she was worried, but she sort of lets Karen get away with being gone for so long by joking that she was about to call the boat police on her. She just hugs Karen and tells her, "You are too much!" when Karen tells her what she was up to. Then she takes a photo of her. Um, I'm sorry, but what the hell happened to Super Sitter and President of the BSC, Kristy Thomas? Why didn't she take her two brothers and go wake up her parents or find Sam and Charlie to take care of them while she tried to find her six-year-old sister who could have been kidnapped or, God forbid, fallen off the boat. (Look, I may find Karen irritating, but I don't want her to fall off a cruise ship much like I didn't want Lex to be dino chow in Jurassic Park even though I found her super annoying (I'm talking about the book; not the movie, FYI)). What happened to the Kristy Thomas from the '90s BSC TV series episode, "Claudia and the Missing Jewels" where Karen the brat takes Claudia's jewelry that she made and pretty much pins the blame on Julie the housekeeper (who conveniently is only there for that one episode and is never again mentioned in the subsequent episodes or any of the books) and Kristy tells her in a very firm voice, "Karen Brewer, you know better than that!"

Karen continues to be a brat when they get to Disney World. Shocker, I know. She eats breakfast on a stationed steamboat with her parents and Andrew. The gimmick of this restaurant is that Disney characters walk around and interact with the patrons. When I went to Disney World, I was three years older than Karen and I have a vague recollection of eating at a restaurant where my mom had a near collision with Mickey Mouse when she was coming out of the restroom and on her way back to the table. I don't think it was on a boat, though. Anyway, there's a young boy at a nearby table who's having a birthday and Karen gets extremely jealous when they sing "Happy Birthday" to him. I don't know why. Personally, I hate it when people sing "Happy Birthday" to me in public, but then again, I am the antithesis of Karen; I HATE being the center of attention, but she revels in it. The more the spotlight is on her, the better, it's all about Karen, Karen, Karen. She is the Center of her own Universe. After they sing to the boy, Karen announces that it's HER birthday even though it most definitely is not. Question: do we even know Karen's birthday? I know Ann M. Martin gave birthdays to all the BSC members, but what about Karen? If I had to guess, I'd say she's a Leo. Everyone sings to Karen:

I beamed. I loved it. I loved being right in the middle of things, with everyone thinking about me. I didn't care that it wasn't my birthday. It was probably my only chance ever to have about a hundred people sing to me.

Good God, what a fuckin' narcissist! Also, she's still using a bunch of contractions! Does Karen get in trouble for this stunt? Well, yes and no, but it's mostly just no. Watson seems to let Karen get away with murder and it is absolutely infuriating! After everyone sings to her, Watson, in a low voice, tells her never to do that again and scolds her for telling a lie. He tells her he "has half a mind to make [her] wait outside with [him] until breakfast is over." But because it's their last day of vacation, he's not going to. Also, because everyone thinks it's her birthday. Why doesn't Watson just announce that it's not her birthday? If Karen is going to straight out lie about it, why not call her out on it? Why not just stop them before they start singing and explain it's not her birthday? So Watson doesn't punish her because he doesn't want to look like a bad parent punishing his own daughter on her birthday. Okay, fair enough...but why not punish her a different way? How about not letting her go to the big parade with firework they've all been excited to see? THAT would teach her a lesson! Can you tell I really wanted Karen to get some kind of punishment? 

There's a subplot where Karen goes on The Haunted Mansion ride and thinks the hologram ghost that she sees sitting between her and Elizabeth at the end of the ride is a real ghost and he's following her around. It's as lame as it sounds. Also, Karen blames the ghost for making her say it's her birthday. Uh-huh. 

While the BSC members often spend time apart, Kristy still finds time for all of them to continue having meetings. This is pretty much to discuss their ideas for what to get her mom and Watson and the Pikes for taking them on this trip. They keep suggesting really lame ideas. It isn't until the very last chapter when Claudia gets the grand idea to put together a photo book with all the pictures they took during the trip. Well, duh, that would have been the very first thing I would have mentioned if I were a BSC member on this trip! I mean isn't a photo album of your trip the most obvious thing? We get to see these "photographs" throughout the book, which are just really terrible drawings. At least once we get further into the Super Specials, the black and white drawings look a lot more realistic. 

For some reason, I thought we would get to read all the letters they sent to their new friends and the ones they received, but we only see the letter the Kubackis send to Stacey telling her Marc's surgery went well. I think I thought that because in the other Super Specials we get all the handwritten letters and notes at the end. I believe this is the only Super Special where the chapters don't begin with handwritten journals or letters/postcards. 

This book definitely made me want to go on a cruise when I first read it (I believe I had already been to Disney World by the time I read this), but going on a cruise now (ESPECIALLY now!) doesn't sound like fun. You just hear horror stories about cruise ships and even though it has all that fun stuff on it, the novelty must wear off fast, right? Actually, I was supposed to go on a cruise to the Bahamas in early 2017. My friend had a friend who would get a discount if they had a group of 15 people and my friend asked me if I wanted to go with him and I said, sure why not. We even booked our rooms and got everything figured out and paid our deposit. But about a couple months before, he told me he wasn't going to go because he couldn't afford it (I honestly don't remember how much it was going to cost, but I guess it was enough that I could afford it) so he decided to back out. Well, I did too because why would I want to go on a cruise with a bunch of people I didn't know? Honestly, I was kind of relieved we ended up not going as I have the feeling I probably wouldn't have that much fun! 

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Title: Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Author: Lynne Truss
Published: 2003
Read: Feb 2007
Number of pages: 204
Non-Fiction
Where I obtained the book: Barnes and Noble

How I discovered it: read the first one
My grade: B+

Just with an add of a comma, a panda who eats shoots and leaves and a panda who eats, shoots and leaves are two very different scenarios. In her book about punctuation,  Truss emphasizes that the comma and other punctuation marks are very essential tools when writing and how important it is to use them right! She has a strict, no-nonsense policy when it comes to using any kind of punctuation wrong. She sites an example as having seen signs with "Book's, DVD's, and CD's on sale!" many times. Of course this is wrong because the added apostrophes make the items possessive. 

Let me tell you, bad grammar and incorrect punctuation drive me crazy! The only time I think it's okay to let is slide is when someone is texting. It's a pain in the butt to have write correctly when you're texting, so I don't mind when people don't use commas or capitalization or spell things correctly then. 

However, there really is no excuse for everything else - ESPECIALLY when they know it will be read by the public. I once saw a sign that said "We're glad your here!" and it just made me cringe everytime I passed by it. We're glad your what is here? Really, if you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" it's time to go back to first grade! 

Something I learned that I didn't know before while reading this book was the Oxford comma. This is the last comma in a list. The title of this book is Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but Eats, Shoots, and Leaves would be correct too and the comma after "Shoots" is called an Oxford comma. 

Sometimes I'll be uncertain about whether a comma goes or if I should have one at all, but for the most part I feel pretty I'm using them correctly. (I hope!) 

New Moon

Title: New Moon

Author: Stephanie Meyer
Published: 2006
Read: March 2009
Number of pages: 563
Fiction
Where I obtained the book: E-bay

How I discovered it: read the first one
My grade: F

After paying full price for the first book in the Twilight series (aptly titled Twilight), I decided I would not pay that much for the second book which was sure to be just as awful, so I got it off E-bay and I still probably spent too much for it! 

Here's a quick recap from the first book: Bella is in love with Edward, the vampire.

The good news about New Moon? Edward is absent for about 400 pages, so we don't have to deal with Bella talking about his "crooked smile" or his "rock-hard abs" or "perfect face" on EVERY. SINGLE. PAGE. 

The bad news? Edward is absent for about 400 pages and all Bella does is mope around about missing him and how she can't live without him. Good lord, girl, stop being such a pansy.

Here are some eye-roll inducing lines from the book:

(Bella and Edward are watching Romeo and Juliet: The movie captured my interest, thanks in large part to Edward whispering Romeo's lines in my ear - his irresistible, velvet voice made the actor's voice sound weak and coarse by comparison. 

Seriously, I feel like I'm reading fanfic!

"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars - points of light and reason. And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire, there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the metero had fallen over  the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything." 

::::gag::: and :::zzzz:::: And why is Edward so enamoured with an immature 17 (18?) year old girl? He's been around for at least over a hundred years, you'd think he go for an older, more sophisticated woman who's seen the world. Just saying. 

Okay, question...am I suppose to be rooting for Bella and Edward? Because when I read their scenes together, I feel nothing. I honestly don't care about them as a couple. Even though they make kissey faces and "gaze into each other's eyes", I don't feel like they are a couple. I don't get that arm, fuzzy feeling inside of me when I read about other couples that are well-written, well-developed and make sense. With Bella and Edward, I just feel...nothing. I think she has more chemisty with Jacob. At least with Jacob she got to know him and they spet a good time being friends beofre there was any attraction on her part. With Edward, it was just "OMG! He's hot - he's my soulmate!" I can't stand Edward. He's too perfect. He's so boring.

The book ends with Edward promising Bella that he'll make her a vampire after she graduates from high school. There's these bad vampires after her and the only way to save her it to make her a vampire or they'll kill her. Why the Cullen family can't protect her as a human is beyond me. There's this one asinine scene where she is taking a vote of the Cullen family on whether they want to join their familr or not and all but two of them are like, "Yeah! Become one of us! We want you to be in our family." Gee, how thoughtful of them to think of how her parents might react to their daughter becoming a vampire. And not to mention that becoming a vampire is a painful experience, I really don't think they have her best interest at heart. What a moron. 

House of Sand and Fog

Title: House of Sand and Fog

Author: Andre Dubus III
Published: 1999
Read: January 2006
Number of pages: 365
Fiction
Where I obtained the book: Borrowed from parents

How I discovered it: liked the movie, so decided to read the book
My grade: A-

Before this novel was made into a 2003 movie starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly, it was an Oprah book club selection. That was enough to make me not want to read it as I don't like people telling me what I should read, least of all Oprah. After watching the movie, which I thought was pretty good, I decided to read the book as my parents already owned it and I was looking for something to read at the time.

I'm glad I did because it was a very intriguing story told from the point of view of two different characters - Kathy Nicolo (the Jennifer Connelly character if you've see the movie) and Colonel Behrani (the Ben Kingsley character). The writing style is also different as well as the tenses so it makes you feel like they are two different people. One was told in the present tense and the other in the past tense, which is something I've never seen done much in books. You either get one or the other. 

Kathy's house has goes up for auction and the Colonel and his family has moved in and she's  trying to get her house back. The novel takes you through a journey of the characters' lives. The ending is not one that is happy! 

The Time Traveler's Wife

Title: The Time Traveler's Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Published: 2003
Read: August 2010
Number of pages: 536
Fiction
Where I obtained the book: Christmas present

How I discovered it: was always aware of it, but didn't read it until it was made into a movie
My grade: C-

I was excited to read this book because I am fascinated by time-travel. I loved "Timeline" by Michael Crichton and the Back to the Future movies and the TV show, Quantum Leap. The premise for this book sounded interesting with one of the characters, Henry, being a time traveler and going back in time to when his wife, Clare, was younger and before they met in real time. The novel started out promising, but by the time I finished it, I felt greatly disappointed. The book is told in first person by both Henry and Clare. Now I wouldn't have any problem with this, except for the fact that both the tones of their voices are exactly the same. There is really no difference between the way they're written. Niffenegger  should have just stuck with Henry's POV and called it "The Time Traveling Husband". This book is over 530 pages, but it could have easily been condensed. There are many scenes that could have been cut as they don't move the plot along at all. These include the scene where Henry and Clare are playing their pretentious game they made up with their friends, a scene with Henry talking to two young teens about his thoughts on music, etc. There are better examples, but those are the first two I could think of. Also, what's the point of being a time-traveler if you can't change anything about your history? I can't remember if Henry really can't do anything to change his past, or if he just doesn't want to mess with it, but if he knows somebody he loves is going to die, why not try to warn them when he's older? There's this one scene and the day just so happens to be THAT day in 2001. It's early in the morning and Clare joins Henry who's watching TV and asks him if it's happened yet and he replies, "Oh, it won't begin for  a couple more hours." Okay, seriously, if you KNEW that terrorists were going to attack the country, wouldn't you call somebody to warn them? I'm not sure who they would call - the FBI? The airports? CTU? Now of course it would look suspicious that he knew this was going on and he'd probably be questioned and the book would take place in a parallel universe where 9/11  never happened, but that would have been a lot more interesting then the actual plot!  There's also the really creepy plotline where he goes back in time and sees his wife between the ages of 6-18. In all of these excursions, he's usually in his 30s, sometimes in his early 40s and finds himself attracted to Clare when she's 13 or older and has to remind himself that she's not his wife yet. It's very creepy and uncomfortable, especially when they have sex on Clare's 18th birthday when he's 41. Maybe people find this romantic because she eventually becomes his future wife, but I felt like I had to take a long, hot shower after reading that.  Don't read this book. And don't watch the movie.

PS, I Love You

Title: PS,  I Love You

Author: Cecelia Ahern
Published: 2004
Read: October 2005
Number of pages: 512
Fiction
Where I obtained the book: Barnes and Noble

How I discovered it: browsing through the aisles of Barnes and Noble
My grade: A

This novel is so charming and has a clever premise that I can forgive the amateur mistakes from first-time novelist Ahern (who was in her early twenties when she wrote this) such as over-using cliches and repeating lines such as "he/she rolled his/her eyes to heaven". Of course, while I mad admit the story was enjoyable and fun to read, let's face it: the fact that she is the daughter of the Prime Minister of Ireland at the time probably helped her a lot to get it published. She's since published a handful of books - I've only read one other by her and didn't particularly care for it. 

This book is about a young woman named Holly who lost her husband, Gerry, to a brain tumor and before he died, he left her ten letters that she is instructed to open each month for the rest of the year. Inside are tasks he gives her to do and he signs each one with 'PS, I love you'. She learns to cope without him and leans on her family and friend for support and becomes closer to one of her brothers she wasn't so tight with before. She does meet a new guy and you think he might be a new love interest for her. 

This book was made into a movie with Hilary Swank and it was okay, but you might like the book better!