This book has about a million milestones in it, and I intend to record each one for posterity.
I actually read this one about a week ago, and decided I wanted to blog this one instead of #4 Mary Anne Saves the Day because this one is so much better. After I committed to that, I figured I better reread it and take notes so I didn't miss anything. And I think I'll just dive in without putting up a plot summary. Mary Anne turns 13, and 8th grade starts. And hilarity ensues.
Major Milestones:
This book marks the first day of the original run of eighth grade.
Mary Anne turns 13 in this book. More on this later.
She also gets her first bra, and goes to her first dance. Not much more on these later.
This is also the introduction of three major characters: Tigger the kitten, Logan the boyfriend, and Jackie "Walking Disaster" Rodowsky (and family). More on all these later.
Minor Milestones:
The gang all start to share a lunch table.
Claudia's spelling starts to worsen. It wasn't bad thus far in the series, but now it really goes downhill.
Sort of a WTF Moment: In the beginning, Mary Anne is talking about how she's the youngest member of the club since her birthday is in September. This does not compute for me. My birthday is in October, and I was one of the oldest kids in my class (my youngest classmates' birthdays were in August of the following year. Two of my classmates had the same birthday, but exactly a year apart.) So how does Mary Anne end up the youngest? Did Richard start her in school late? (I have consulted my Complete Guide to the Baby-Sitters Club and their birthdays are: Mary Anne, Sept 22; Stacey, April 3; Kristy, Aug. 20; Claudia, July 11; Dawn, Feb. 5; Abby, Oct. 15; Jessi, June 30; Mallory, May 2; Logan, Jan. 10; and Shannon, March 17.) Oh, we missed Claud's birthday by 3 days! Funny how she doesn't really mention turning 13 in #7, her own book. I think she gives it all of one sentence.
I want to talk about Logan, Cam Geary look-alike. He and his horrible "southern accent" (I know people from Kentucky and they don't talk like that) got me to say "way-ull" in stead of "well." Thanks, dick! He seems like a prince now, Mary Anne, but you just wait 30 books or so. Also, Logan's number is KL5-1018. Logan's first BSC job is with the brand-new Rodowskys. Mary Anne tags along, and starts mentally
The Rodowskys: The first job is baby-sitting only Jackie. Meeting Logan there, Mary Anne says, "How much trouble can one little kid be?" Oh, honey, I can't wait till you're a parent. Well, Jackie pulls down the shower curtain rod, gets his hand stuck in a jar, and spills an entire glass of grape juice on the carpet. And Mrs. "Call Me Mariel" Rodowsky doesn't look like a mom to Mary Anne, because she's tall, thin, red-headed, and wears jeans and a denim jacket. What are moms supposed to look like then?
I know I said I wouldn't do outfits when I started this blog, but I think I'll do the gang's dancewear:
"Then Claudia handed me a full white skirt with the words Paris, Rome, and London, and sketchy pink and blue pictures of the Eiffel Tower, the Tower Bridge, and other stuff scrawled all over it. She matched it with a pink shirt and a baggy pink sweater. I would never, ever have tried on that skirt, but with the shirt and sweater it looked really cool. ... Claudia was wearing short, tight-fitting black pants and a big white shirt that said BE-BOP all over it in between pictures of rock and roll dancers. She had fixed a floppy blue bow in her hair. Stacey was wearing a white T-shirt under a hot-pink jumpsuit. Dawn and Kristy looked more casual. Dawn was wearing a green and white oversized sweater and stretchy green pants. Kristy was wearing a white turtleneck shirt under a pink sweater with jeans. We just couldn't seem to get her out of blue jeans."Stacey's hair is permed, Dawn's is white-blonde and hangs to her ass, and Kristy's is in a messy ponytail. Claudia is the only one cool enough to have Mary Anne describe her "dance hair." I remember doing the floppy bow in my hair. It didn't make me look cool. Probably because I wasn't wearing short, tight-fitting black pants with it.
More WTF Moments:
At the first meeting of the book, Kristy says that since school has started, business will pick up. Huh?? If kids are in school, wouldn't that mean less "day" jobs? Only afternoon and evening jobs?
Mary Anne says hello to her old locker. (#132 for those of you keeping count.) I never had the same locker all through school. The locker halls were assigned by grade. New locker every year, and we didn't have locks on them either. You could bring your own, but the locks weren't built in like at SMS.
Kristy says at a meeting that she likes when things get "fast and exciting." Stacey suggests that Kristy move to New York City because that is the epitome of fast and exciting. Shut up Stacey.
How much did copier paper cost in 1988? Kristy takes $8 out of the treasury to pay for 100-150 fliers (made at her mother's workplace). Why do they need that many fliers anyway? Fifty copies would have been plenty.
When the gang goes to Bellair's to shop for dance clothes (taking Richard's charge card with them), Claudia wants to hit Shoes, Dawn wants Juniors, Stacey wants Underwear, and Kristy suggests Sportswear, because, "This isn't the prom, you know. You might find a nice sweater in Sportswear. Or an accessory." Like ski goggles? Funny how Stacey wants Mary Anne to slut it up with some lacy lingerie.
Continuity Issues:
Mary Anne and Dawn are in the same homeroom. At first I was sure this was going to fall the Continuity Beast. But I peeked into #60 Mary Anne's Makeover and they're still in the same homeroom. Foiled!
This book mentions how Stacey is the vice-president of the dance committee. I guess after she moves back to NYC and then back to Stoneybrook, she isn't anymore. Cuz it's never mentioned again, to my knowledge.
Mary Anne changes her clothes for the BSC meeting Logan was invited to:
"I brushed my hair one hundred times. I don't have any makeup, but I do have some jewelry, so I put on a small pair of hoop earrings and a gold chain bracelet that used to belong to my mother. Then I took off the sweat shirt I'd been wearing and put on a bright vest over a short-sleeved white blouse. I looked...not bad."Um, don't the next 1,000 books say that Mary Anne doesn't have pierced ears? (Non-pierced hoops would be complete rediculosity.) And she would never get them pierced? There's an entire episode about it when the gang goes to Camp Mohawk.
Disappearing client: Mr. Ohdner and his daughters. They're not mentioned in the Complete Guide so maybe they fell off the face of the earth.
Last continuity issue: Kristy explains to Logan (at lunch) how the BSC was started. Then, ten pages later, at the meeting, she explains it to him again.
Oh, I almost forgot about the party and the cat. Stacey hatches a plan to have a party a few days before Mary Anne's actual birthday and then surprise her with a birthday cake at the party. Actually, Stacey is too sophisticated to think of this, and Charlotte Johannsen is who really comes up with it. It's a boy-girl party, and Mary Anne invites Logan. At the party, she is very surprised when Stacey walks up to her with a birthday cake and she panics. Panics so much that she runs right out of the party (of her friends) and goes home. No one calls to fix things, and Mary Anne is convinced that all her friends hate her because she's a baby, while everyone who was at the party is convinced that she hates them because they surprised her. When she calls Logan the next day to apologize, he explains what happened and she feels like a chump. So she invites him to go to the animal shelter and help her pick out a cat. He does, and so arrives Tigger, the gray-striped tiger kitten.
Making up with Logan and getting the kitten gives Mary Anne the courage to call Stacey and apologize. Stacey brings over the rest of the gang, and some cake and the birthday presents, so they can finish having the rest of the party, just the five of them. Tigger is too entranced with playing with the wrapping paper to properly meet the other girls. It doesn't matter anyway, because Mary Anne takes him with her whenever she leaves her house.
I think I'm going to do a Super Special next. I have #8 on my coming up list, but it'll be a toss-up between that and #4. Haven't decided yet. Until next time!
1 comment:
A bit late, but about Mary Anne's birthday:
I went to elementary school in Connecticut (where Stoneybrook allegedly is) and they don't have a cut-off date (this might not have been true as of the 1980s, I started school in 1996).
That is, in my grade, there were people born 1/1/1991 and 12/31/1991. There were some kids born in late '90, but it was perfectly acceptable to be born in September (or even December) and start kindergarten at 4...
I'm born in November and my cousin is a day older than me, but a year behind in school because her state didn't allow her start kindergarten at 4. So it really does depend on the state, but if CT in the late 80s was the same as in the late 90s, AMM got it right...
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