#11: Kristy and the Snobs

Tagline: Nobody's going to tell Kristy what t o do - especially not the Snobs!

Cover: Shannon is shorter than Kristy is, which is not the image of Shannon I have in my head at all. Shannon's skirt is distractingly long. And why don't Shannon and Amanda have the same uniform? Don't they both go to Stoneybrook Day School? Maybe there's a primary and middle school difference? When I am wondering about the dress codes of the Stoneybrook school that we know the least about, I know it's time to step away from the computer.

Plot!: Kristy is having a hard time adjusting to being in Watson's neighbourhood, because she thinks the other people in the neighbourhood are snobs. And they're sort of proving her right, because they're mean to Louie, the Thomases sick dog, who eventually dies. But Shannon comes around and gives them Shannon, the dog, and she becomes an Associate member of the BSC!

Points of Interest:

• Things Kristy cannot stand: blood, cabbage, people chewing with their mouths open, squirrels, and snobs. Where's Kristy and the Cabbage Wars or Kristy vs. the Squirrels?
  
• Apparently Watson has been talking about putting in a swimming pool, although that never happens, does it? Too bad - I'm sure there would have been some kind of mystery in the backyard that only the BSC could solve!

• Okay. What's the Brewer-Thomas car situation? In this book, Charlie drives the station wagon, and Watson and Elizabeth both have cars. Does one of these get sold/traded when Charlie gets the Junk Bucket? What about when Nannie moves in? Do they have five cars?
  
• The Thomases' vet? You guessed it, a woman. I never noticed how many professional women there were in these books.
  
• Kristy calls Shannon a snob, and Shannon calls Kristy a jerk. Both of them really escalated this situation pretty quickly.
  
• While babysitting for the Papadakises (for the first time), Shannon calls Kristy and tells her that the house is on fire. That's messed up.
  
• Kristy orders a diaper delivery service to make deliveries to Shannon's house, starting early the next morning. And they show up, presumably without a credit card number or any kind of billing information, unless Kristy billed it to the Kilbournes. There's just something not right about that whole ordering scenario.
• There's a weird moment when Mary Anne is babysitting for the Perkinses, and it switches from "Mary Anne asked" to "I asked," even though Kristy isn't there.
• I still think it's kind of weird that Sharon Schafer would have to call the BSC to arrange for a sitter for Jeff, and the job ends up going to Dawn, because she's free. What if someone else took it? Would that sitter and Dawn just hang out there? I guess Dawn might get another job. It kind of makes sense, but I just find it needlessly official.
  
• Sharon goes out on a date with the Trip-Man.
  
• Jeff is acting up and wants to go back to California and live with his Dad. Dawn is starting to say things like "I'd never do that!"
• Stacey tames the snobs with a little reverse psychology, because she's so sophisticated.
  
• Shannon orders a pizza to the Delaneys while Kristy is sitting there, but Kristy outwits the delivery guy and sends it to Shannon, who storms over and they have a big fight about baby sitting territory but end up being friends. Pizza - is there anything it can't do?
• Five of the Pike kids have the chicken pox. By the time Claudia leaves, seven of them have it, all except Mallory. Poor Mallory?
  
• Kristy misses a meeting because of Louie. I'm sure this contradicts later stuff, like "Kristy never misses a meeting" or "Mary Anne never makes a mistake" (not that she does here, but that's something that also gets tossed around that I'm pretty sure is not true)
• Heh. Kristy calls Lisa "the first Mrs. Brewer," even though she's probably married to Seth Engle by now.
  
• Okay, I'm not a big animal person, and I've never had a pet other than a goldfish, but the part about the family meeting where it's revealed that Louie is going to be put down is pretty freakin' sad.
  
• Okay, I'm not going to lie. I'm at the part where they're at the vet, saying goodbye to Louie, and there are tears in my eyes. Damn you, Ann M. Martin!
• Kristy and Karen get into a big discussion about whether to put RIP or Rest in Peace on Louie's cross. Aaaaand my tears are gone.
  
• Astrid is a girl's name, and it means divine strength. There's your little tidbit for today.
  
• Mary Anne makes an exercise/exorcise pun. Because there's nothing that thirteen year old girls like better than wordplay!
• They make a play for Shannon to join the club, but she kind of shoots them down before they get around to asking, and so becomes an associate member, and we're one more person closer to the classic BSC lineup.

Final Thought: The chicken pox plot is very, very random. It's as if they realized they only had enough story for fourteen chapters, or they hadn't included their obligatory Pike kids reference.

#107: Mind Your Own Business, Kristy!

Tagline: Oh, brother!

Cover: Go for it, Charlie! Although he looks kind of fug through the face. Angelica is exhibiting quite the bitchface. And Kristy looks kind of like Blair from Gossip Girl, if Blair was undercover as...no, Blair would never look like that.

Plot!: It's Spring Break! So naturally, Kristy decides to organize a softball clinic for the Krushers. She gets Charlie to help her, but he starts exhibiting normal teenage behaviour when he'd rather be around Angelica. Kristy gets jealous and upset and they fight, and it's not pretty. Then, on their way to a concert, Angelica gets everyone in an accident and it's a big mess. Eventually Kristy and Charlie work out their differences and bond in a siblingy way.

Points of Interest:

• One of the colleges that Charlie receives a brochure from is from Levithan Polytechnic Institute, which I think is a Peter Lerangis shout-out to YA writer David Levithan.
  
• Kristy wins tickets to a Blade concert. Blade is her all-time favourite rock group, in case you didn't know.
  
• Kristy + Bart = not that much, apparently. They're on the outs for this book.
• A Sassy reference? I think that's another case of Lerangis seeing how much he can slip by AMM.
  
• Kristy decides to hold a softball clinic for the Krushers. But uh-oh! Dissension in the ranks! Stacey whines that they're on vacation. And so, accordingly, Stacey isn't much heard from for the rest of the book.
  
• Charlie is distracted by Angelica, who is baby-sitting from the Hsus (an outside baby-sitter?!?). We know we're not supposed to like her because Kristy doesn't, and we know she's bad news because she smokes!
• Watson takes Kristy shopping at a sports store, but then goes into a gourmet shop and Kristy explains that he isn't an athlete. But didn't he help her set up the Krushers? And doesn't he umpire for them? Maybe he's just being nice.
• Kristy tries to set Charlie up with Sarah, his ex-girlfriend, by arranging for them both to be in the same place at the same time. And just like every other time this has been used on TV or in a book, it doesn't work.
  
• Charlie starts blowing off the Krushers' Klinic (no, really, that's what it's called) to spend time with Angelica. So Kristy tells Charlie that he's acting like their dad. Low blow, Kristy.
  
• Charlie borrows Watson's car to take him, Angelica, Kristy, and Claudia to the Blade concert, but he's so used to driving the crummy old Junk Bucket that he has no idea how to drive a fancy car. So Angelica drives, but gets pulled over by a cop car. But it turns out she didn't have a license! So she and Charlie try to switch places (while driving!), and the car rams into the shoulder barriers. Watson is going to be pissed.
  
• But when they get home, Charlie's punishment is to pay for the traffic ticket, not drive the Junk Bucket (not even to Kristy's BSC meetings?) and to rethink his social attachments. Harsh.
  
• Oh, and Charlie also promised to get Jack Brewster, a famous ex-ball player, to come to the Krushers' Klinic. But he flaked on that, too. But Sarah, his ex-girlfriend, is related to Jack Brewster and she arranges for him to come after all!
  
• Angelica sends a note to Charlie: "Dear Charles. I haven't called you because I'm really upset. I didn't want to cry and yell over the phone, so I figured I'd write instead. First of all, I'm sorry for what I did. It was stupid. My parents are so mad at me. They don't want me to see you ever again. They said it was totally unlike me to do what I did. They think you were a bad influence. I argued with them a lot. But then I thought about it. My last boyfriend had a car, too, and I never tried to drive it. Well, he was a great driver, that was the main reason. But even if I asked, no way would he have let me. He was this super-mature type. We actually had a lot in common. I think we broke up because we were almost exactly alike. Then I met you. You were so different - like a big kid. I needed that for awhile. But I have this weakness - I let other people's personalities rub off on me. So what I'm saying is, I think my parents were right. I need to move on, Charlie. I need to find someone on my wavelength. Hope you're not mad at me. Ciao, Angelica."
• Okay. Unless Charlie and Angelica knew each other from school (and she probably goes to Stoneybrook Day School or something), they've known each other less than a week. They were on like, one date.
• The rest of the book is kind of hit and miss (no baseball pun intended, if there even is one there), but pages 124-127 are really, really good. Charlie is forced to confront Angelica's statement that he's a big kid and Kristy's allegation that he's just like their dad. He and Kristy talk about what is was like when their Dad left and how Charlie pulled the whole family together. I know I mentioned this in Kristy's Big Day (probably in reference to this book), but I really do like the Kristy-Charlie-Sam dynamic, especially when they're talking about serious stuff.
  
• Jack Brewster shows up and everyone is happy. And he tries to get Charlie and Sarah back together. He's a ballplayer AND a matchmaker! I smell sitcom!

Final Thought: This, like almost all of my books, is one that I bought used (this one is from eBay) and the previous owner filled in the notebook pages at the back. She's seven and in 2nd Grade and bought the book from Chapters. Her favourite part was when Sarah helped Charlie, her favourite member is Mary Anne, she is most like Claudia because they have jet black hair, and if she could write a BSC book it would be about "kissing and in love things." This is what she thinks of Angelica: she's a show-off, a liear, and is acetative.

#62: Kristy and the Worst Kid Ever

Tagline: Need a sitter for Lou? Don't call the Baby-sitters!

Cover: Kristy looks like she's adopting the same baby-sitting strategy as Dawn in Dawn and the Impossible Three. But nevermind that - I want to talk about the Papadakis children. Compare and contrast to Welcome to the BSC, Abby below. Hannie's still rocking the pigtails (which is consistent with her Little Sister character, too), but she doesn't look Chinese. Linny, on the other hand, looks about five, and he has a much different skin colour than his sister, Hannie (dropped adoption plot?). Why is that dog all over the furniture? The Papadakises have a poodle (named Noodle). Is that covered in the book? And Lou could not look more butch if she tried, which I guess she is trying to do. Why does her sweater have an elbow patch, though? Maybe it's because she's poor. But when I see that, I don't think 'poor,' I think 'academic.' Finally, the book acts as a kind of historical record - someday people will see it and ask "did people really have televisions that looked like that?"

Plot!: The Papadakis family takes in a foster child - Lou (and don't call her Louisa). She has difficulty adjusting because she misses her mom (who ran off), and her father (who is dead) and her brother (in a different home). So the BSC tries to figure her out. Meanwhile, they are having an auction at SMS to benefit...something, and people are bringing in fancy items. So the BSC decide to get celebrity items to sell, as well as baby-sitting hours. And they worry that the items won't come, but they do, and they're a big hit. Yay.

Points of Interest:

• My copy, which I bought used, has the following inscription: "Dearest Ashley, Happy Easter Dear, all my love, Nana." Poor Nana.
  
• In a strange bit of continuity, Sam has his job delivering groceries for the A&P, which was mentioned in Kristy's Big Day, and maybe other places. But how does a fifteen year old with no car deliver groceries? On his bike? Walking? It makes no sense, ANM!
• Boo Boo, Watson's cat, has gray fur and terrible yellow eyes.
• Hannie and Linny and Karen and David Michael discuss whether they want a girl foster kid or a boy foster kid. With Lou, they kind of get both.
  
• There are two Wizard of Oz references in the first two chapters. Lazy.
  
• Kristy says Dawn "appears to be easy going," with the implication that she isn't, which might be the best description of Dawn in any Chapter Two. She's not California Casual, people!
  
• Logan flexes an arm, and Mary Anne blushes. I like the Mary Anne in the Friends Forever series a LOT better.
• The auction is for new computers. That's a lot more realistic than the carnival to fund the arts program in Welcome to the BSC, Abby.
• The social worker is "pinch-lipped," because basically every career woman in this series is some kind of uptight unhappy woman.
  
• The BSC makes a big deal about Lou wanting to be called Lou, and not Louisa, which I find strange. Firstly, she's introduced to them as Lou, so it's not like all of a sudden she's like, call me something else. Also: Kristy goes by Kristy, not Kristin, and Stacey doesn't go by Anastasia, Jessi doesn't go by Jessica, Hannie doesn't go by Hannah, and so on. They don't go "I went shopping today with Anastasia, excuse me, Stacey." And they try to make it into another case of Lou being 'difficult.' Please. These thirteen year olds need to chill.
  
• The Papadakis parents aren't doing anything with Lou - she's always either at the Brewer house, not playing with Karen or with a baby-sitter. Shouldn't they be, like, more involved with her? They don't seem prepared or interested in this at all.
  
• I don't know anything about the Craine family at all. Margaret and Sophie and Katie? Who are these people?
• The BSC has to do some brainstorming for the auction so they don't feel 'guilty' when then they goof off, eat junk food, and fall asleep at their sleepover. Gah.
  
• Okay, the cover picture actually takes place at the Brewer house, so that's...Boo Boo being held, and Shannon jumping up. MAYBE it's David Michael in front, but that makes even less sense. Speaking of David Michael, I once read a BSC fan fic where he was Watson's biological child. Weird.
  
• Would Lou's social worker really show up and talk to Lou without one of the foster parents there? It seems...dangerous.
  
• Lou and her brother Jay go to live with her aunt and uncle, and she seems okay with this, eventually. The baby-sitters marvel at the change in her, like they had never considered how much this had taken a toll on her and that all of her problems couldn't be solved by playing in Karen's playhouse.
  
• Lorne Conners, some fake artist who won four "Grammies" sent the BSC a T-shirt, autographed, for the auction. They had written to famous people and asked for items. It's kind of like when Zack Morris sells Johnny Dakota doorknobs. Anyway, by some miracle, the items actually arrive in time. In addition to the shirt, they get toe shoes from a ballerina, a boxed set of autographed books, an autographed baseball from a sports team, a blanket from a horse that won the Kentucky Derby, an autographed picture of a track and field athlete, and Cam Geary's jacket.
  
• In my version, Chapter 15 is just in plain type, not in the traditional block letters.
  
• Heh. Watson buys a hand crack phonograph. Dirty!
• Logan buys Mary Anne diamond earrings. Too bad there wasn't a diamond ring there - Stacey might have got one for a great price!
• I've never understood the ending: Stacey announces that the BSC contributed the highest ticket item of the auction, which is 24 hours of baby-sitting. And Jessi notes that they're worth more than Cam Geary's jacket, which went for more than a hundred dollars. If that is true, and the hours went for more than a hundred dollars, why didn't they mention this during the auction? It's needlessly confusing. To me. And I don't like being confused by ANM.

Final Thought: Has anyone read Abby and the Best Kid Ever, where Lou comes back? I haven't.

#6: Kristy's Big Day

Tagline: Kristy's a baby-sitter - and a bridesmaid, too!




I feel like this title needs an exclamation mark: Kristy's Big Day! But let's not get too excited - she's not the one getting married, after all. She's a baby-sitter - and a bridesmaid!

Cover: The old classic cover features Kristy in a very flowy, hippie dress with long flowing brown hair. Her face looks a little old for her, but maybe people in the 80s just naturally looked older? She's there with Karen and Andrew, her soon-to-be stepsiblings. Andrew looks like a short old man. The updated version, which is the one I currently own, has a brand new picture showing the same scene. Kristy's dress has all of the same elements (including the tied-to-match shoes), but looks completely different. More like 'Kristy,' I think, because she didn't really develop her inherent Kristy-ness until after the series had been progressing for awhile. Karen is acting more like Karen, running around the room throwing petals - white petals, in a nice detail, because she gets afraid when her white petals mix with the black magic of Morbidda Destiny.

Plot!: Watson and Elizabeth (Kristy's Mom) set a date for their wedding: the third week in September! But then various things happen that mean the wedding is going to have to be moved up. So it is - to two weeks from now. Kristy is still coming around to Watson, and now she's not happy about leaving her house and her neighbourhood so quickly. While all of this is happening, Kristy's mom realizes that 13 kids are going to be hanging around prior to the wedding (the relatives and friends' kids). So Kristy suggests that the BSC looks after the kids - and amazingly, they are available! So for the princely sum of $600, the BSC is running a day camp! They assign groups by age and plan different events. Not everything goes smoothly, and kids cry and have their clothes switched. But in the end, everything is resolved and the wedding goes off smoothly. There's only sort of one big plot.

While all of this is happening, Kristy is also trying to think of a gift for her mom and Watson. She eventually decides to give them a variation on a family tree, showing their two families joined together.


Continuity Fairy: We rarely ever hear about Kristy's family or her mother's good friends again, but I think they do come up, or are at least mentioned. Her cousin Robin must be on her Dad's side? We meet Nannie for the first time. Stacey loves (luvs?) Mary Poppins.

Points of Interest:

• At the beginning of the book, Kristy calls Watson a jerk. That's pretty strong language for this series!
• "Oh, yick, yick, yick," said David Michael. "Pew, pew, pew." Who says that? Why not just "yuck" or "gross"?
  
• "When you reach the drinking age," replied Mom pleasantly, "then you may drink." "But Mom, a year from now I'll be going to college." That's what you think, Charlie! A year from now you'll still be schlepping Kristy across town to BSC meetings.
• I'd forgotten that Watson and Elizabeth had gotten engaged at the end of the first book. I'd been thinking that they got engaged at the beginning. Instead, they set a date in September, that instead gets moved to two and a half weeks from...chapter two.
  
• Do we ever hear how Elizabeth's trip to Europe goes? That's why their wedding changed in the first place.
  
• Similarly, do we ever find out why the Perkinses are so desperate to move into Kristy's house?
  
• Kristy asks why her mom is so worried about the money. Her mom answers: "Honey, Watson and I and Watson's ex-wife and your father all have various ideas about how to spend our money." Isn't there something about that sentence that just seems weird? I thought that Patrick (Elizabeth's ex-husband)'s idea of how to spend his money was to NOT spend it on his family.
• Kristy goes to the Final Fling with Alan Gray, who is fifty percent pesty and fifty percent fun. Claudia went with Austin Bentley, and Stacey pissed off Dorianne Wallingford (best name ever) and went with Pete Black. Dawn and Mary Anne went out for pizza with their parents.
  
• In the original edition, Lisa and Seth (Karen's mother and stepfather) were called Sheila and Kendall. That was changed for the new edition.
  
• The pay for the BSC works out to three dollars an hour. $600 for the week (for all of them) sounds like a lot; $3/hour does not.
  
• David Michael was voted best citizen by his classmates. He sort of becomes a non-entity in the rest of the books; this is his moment to shine.
  
• Claudia wants to buy 120 bags of peppermints. Yick, yick, yick.
  
• This book was the first time I had ever heard the name Maura. Or Berk.
  
• Whoa! Karen's shoes are black with a strap; looks like the first cover got that one right.
  
• Claudia's ring dings come from the STILL LIF AND PORTRITS box.
  
• According to the BSC Wiki, Nannie's real name is Janet Taylor. Does that make Kristy's mom's maiden name Elizabeth Taylor?
• Library shout out! Kristy and Claudia take seven kids (including Jamie Newton) to story hour. I hope it was a drop-in program.
  
• Watson has three toaster ovens. For a bachelor. Who has his kids every other weekend. That seems ridiculous.
  
• All of the parts with the kids are very boring.
  
• Kristy's rehearsal dinner dress is an over-sized white sweater dress with silver designs woven into it. Hot.
  
• Kristy's mom wears antique earrings (old), her dress (new), Nannie's pearl necklace (borrowed), and underwear (blue).
  
• Okay. Morbidda Destiny might not be a witch, but she doesn't really have any social graces. Who appears at the front of the wedding when the bride and groom are kissing? To give them a gift? Was she invited or not?
  
• Stacey got her pictures developed at a one-hour photo place. She's soooo sophisticated!
  

Final Thoughts: Ann M. Martin has gone on record with this as one of her favourite books in the series. It's one of my favourite books, too. All of the early ones are written in a much better style than the later ones - especially the ones in the later half of the series, written by ghostwriters. They're still fun in a different way, but in this one Kristy shows real growth. She's struggling with Watson and the Brewers. She's a tomboy but really excited about wearing a bridesmaid's gown. She has conversations with her brothers about what this means for them. The Thomas/Brewers are very interesting to me - and although it is near the end of the series, Mind Your Own Business, Kristy! has a really interesting take on the Charlie/Kristy dynamic.