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! 

Shipwrecked Castaways

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Winter Fun with the BSC!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3) snow sculpture contest

4) downhill skiing

5) cross-country skiing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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