This is Dawn's first book in the series. In fact, the very first sentences read, "The Baby-sitters Club. I didn't start it and I don't run it, but I am its newest member." Good for you, Dawn. And I love how the cover shows a situation that didn't really happen in the book. Yes, there's Dawn with the Barretts, but after her initial sitting job with them, they were pretty well-behaved for her. I also love the "wackadoo" (as my son called it) look on her face, with her eyes all bugged out and her snotty stance.
I have to say I kind of like the early Dawn books, except for #15, mainly because she isn't all militant ecologist/vegetarian. Seriously, in this book, she eats gummy worms and saltwater taffy and doesn't even get all bitchy about doing so. And she puts sugar in the iced tea she drinks with Mrs. Barrett.
So, this book starts out in late April, early May. Dawn is harping about the weather, saying Connecticut will never be warm enough for her. When she listens to the weather report on the radio, she calls the weatherman a cheesebrain. Then she apologizes when it warms up a few degrees. Dawn's next book should be called Dawn and the Bi-Polar Epidemic.
Well, at a meeting, to which Mary Anne wears her first ever pair of jeans and sweatshirt, Dawn gets a semi-regular sitting job for a new family, the Barretts. She had already met the two older kids, Buddy and Suzi, a few days before while sitting at the Pikes'. Turns out that the Barrett Parents are getting divorced (somewhat messily), and Mrs. Barrett, apparently on her own for the first time in her life, has to get a job. And it takes her like a month. During which time, Dawn is baby-sitting almost constantly for her. Finally Dawn snaps, sick of mothering the Barrett kids, cleaning the Barrett's house, and enabling Mrs. Barrett to be careless.
Dawn is baby-sitting for her, an all-day job so Mrs. Barrett can go to Greenvale to go shopping, and Buddy is kidnapped from the front yard. After freaking out, Dawn calls Mrs. Pike. Mrs. Pike organizes a search party, and while everyone's out looking, Jordan Pike gets home and tells Dawn that he saw Buddy get in a car to go to his lesson. After ascertaining that Buddy doesn't take any kind of lesson, Mrs. Pike calls the police. After a few hours, Dawn gets a phone call from Buddy himself. He fesses up that it was his dad in the car that picked him up and that they went to an amusement park and out to lunch. He felt bad because he hadn't told Dawn where he was going and when Mr. Barrett realized that his kids were home with a baby-sitter, he figured he'd better get back to Stoneybrook ASAP. He shows up just after Mrs. Barrett gets home, who had no idea that her son was missing. They decide to talk to their lawyers about custody arrangements and we never hear about him again. And this is when Dawn decides she needs to Talk to Mrs. Barrett.
The lame-o subplot in this book is the feud between Kristy and Dawn. How jealous Kristy is of Dawn because of Dawn's new friendship with Mary Anne. All it takes to clear it up is one afternoon in Dawn's barn of swinging on the rope in the haymow and lying in the hay talking about divorce and moving.
Talk About Being Rich: Dawn says that her grandfather, Pop-Pop, is a banker and "has lots of money." So why does everyone make such a big deal about Watson being so rich? Whatever. And speaking of Watson, this book says that his house has nine bedrooms. Somehow, I think the Continuity Beast will be all over that one. Let's count bedrooms: Master bedroom-1, one for each kid, that would be 6 more, so we're at 7, one each for Emily and Nannie, that 2 more, which makes 9 right there. And they still have guest bedrooms?? Somebody's math is wrong, and it ain't mine.
We get a little more background on the Richard/Sharon high school romance. Sharon tells Dawn that after high school, she was sent to college in California. And "during summers, I stayed in California and worked. And at Chrismastime, Granny and Pop-Pop would take me to the Bahamas." Rough!
Dawn talks Sharon into having a barbecue on Memorial Day. Sharon is planning on cooking tofu and stuff like that, until Dawn tells her to buy burger patties and hot dogs, and pre-made potato salad and cole slaw. Sharon is grossed out by the mention of hot dogs but finally agrees. Then they realize they don't have a grill. Hey, Sharon? You grew up in Stoneybrook, right? You should know what New Englanders like to eat. Also, they invite everyone for 1:00. Everyone's there by 1:15. Dawn says, "In California, one o'clock meant two or two-thirty." Well, some people are considerate.
At the picnic, Dawn, Kristy, and Mary Anne are watching the adults. Granny is "pretending" to talk to Mrs. Barrett, while on the other side of the yard, Pop-Pop is stoking the brand-new grill and interrogating Richard about where he lives now and how long he's been a lawyer. Looks like the best things he ever did for himself was move out of his shabby neighborhood and start his own law firm. Because now Sharon's parents Approve of Him.
Continuity Issues:
*The first time Dawn baby-sits for the Barretts, she tricks Buddy and Suzi into helping her clean up the house. She says Marnie finds a bag of M&Ms and starts to eat them. Later on, Mallory steals a piece of brownie from Marnie and Dawn gets crabby. Mallory, all wounded, explains that Marnie is allergic to chocolate and can't eat the brownie. So what's with the M&Ms? Are they not made of chocolate? If they aren't, then me and my PMS had better find a new treat.
*Ages: Buddy and Suzi are 8 and 5, respectively, and are doomed to stay those ages through the run of the series. Marnie is one and a half, but later advances to two and half.
*Stoneybrook is "near" the Atlantic coast. In later books, like Super Special #4, Stoneybrook is on the coast. Kind of weird how there isn't really is public swimming beach, only a pool, in Stoneybrook.
Hmm. I just noticed that Stacey doesn't have much of a role in this book. She has a sitting job with David Michael Thomas, and they talk about The Big Move to Watson's. D.M.'s worried that the moving guys will put Louie the collie in the van, and Stacey has some difficulty convincing him that they won't. She is also sitting at the Pikes' during the ill-fated brownie luncheon. Other than that, she is kinda invisible.
Lastly, Mary Anne has been redecorating her room. She got new carpet, wallpaper, curtains, some junk from Dawn's California house, and she wants a photograph of the BSC to frame and hang in her room. So, last chapter, Jeff goes to the meeting, and they all pose and say cheese for the camera.
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