"I am going to turn into the Leicester Lodge Lounge Lizard." Super Special #3, Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation

I'm not sure why, but this one is in my top five Super Specials (the others are 2, 4, 7, and 8, in case you care). For some reason, I've always liked the idea of going on a skiing vacation, even though I couldn't ski to save my neck. Sitting in front of an over-sized fireplace with a hot buttered rum in a ski chalet sounds like more fun than riding a five-foot long, three-inch wide piece of wood fiberglass down a large mountain.

On the cover here, the gang is throwing snowballs at one another. I really love this cover; I like how pretty Stacey (well, the blonde in the blue beret) looks, and I like that Mallory doesn't look like a dork. She actually looks kinda cute. Heh, I had this book on the table yesterday while I was eating lunch, and my husband picked it up. I asked him to guess the ages of the girls on the cover. His estimate? All at least 18. He choked on his sandwich when I told him their "real" ages.

Well, this time around, the entire population of SMS is going to Leicester Lodge in Hooksett Crossing, Vermont. Evidently, this is a yearly, mandatory event. Unless, of course, you're going to Aruba instead, like Logan. (On second thought, I'd rather go to Aruba instead of a ski resort.) But, he's missing the Winter War! Boo hoo. Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Dawn are all on the Blue Team, and Claudia, Jessi, and Mal are Red Team members. And they all have their own little plotlines:

• Kristy is running the entire Winter War: scheduling practices and events, competing, Captain of the Blue Team, helping keep score, encouraging kids to participate, and generally making a nuisance of herself.
• Mary Anne has volunteered to be the Trip Historian, a job no one else has done in at least three years. She's also busy mooning over Logan's being away and fantasizing about all the hot girls he's met on the beach.
• Stacey meets a French boy from upstate Vermont. His parents came from France but he doesn't have an accent or even speak French. She spends away her time making out with him and skiing the "baby trails."
• Claudia, as it turns out, is a better skier than Kristy, and she manages to fall in "luv" with her ski instructor, who's 25 and married with kids. She also judges the snow sculpture contest, earning herself some much-needed extra credit.
  
• Dawn is complete klutz. And goes around being pissy about it.
  
• Mallory brings along her journal and continues her Harriet the Spy adventures from SS #1. She also is being overly uptight about the all-school dance held on the last night SMS will be there.
• Jessi is organizing the talent show: picking the acts, scheduling rehearsals, etc. She also decides to do a Swan Lake routine in the show herself. This book is what started off my Jessi dislike, and I'll tell you why in a minute.
  

There's also a pack of kids from an elementary school in Conway Cove, Maine, who earned their trip to the lodge by winning a read-a-thon. They're late getting to the lodge because their bus driver crashed the bus into a ravine. The kids are stranded in the bus, and of course, it's BSC to the rescue. Since the Conway Cove teachers are out of commission from the accident, the gang decides that they will take care of the kids for the week, and even bunk with them in an unused dorm room. Good-bye, relaxing vacation. Hello, wiping noses and tying shoes.

Everything's fab at the lodge. Mary Anne hangs out in the library, Kristy and Claudia are hitting the slopes, Stacey runs over Pierre D'Amboise with her skis, Dawn can't stay upright once she puts anything other than clogs on her feet, Mallory's spying on observing everyone and everything and freaking out about the dance, and Jessi is alternately planning Talent Night and imagining the damage she could do to herself if she does any kind of winter activity and gets hurt.

This is about all I can say of the plot(s) without getting into the WTF moments and other notables. So, here they are!


WTF Moments:

*Logan and his fam are going to Aruba instead of hanging around in the snow. Aruba?! Kind of an unusual locale for a family-friendly vacation destination.

*Jessi doesn't want to do any outdoor activities because she could break her leg skiing, or get frostbite during the snowball fight. I get that breaking a leg would suck, and it would keep her from dancing for a while, but frostbite during a snowball fight? Ain't gonna happen, sister. Jessi's worried that she'll get frostbite so bad, they'll have to amputate her toes. Right.

*While she is babysitting Pinky (a Conway Cove kid), Jessi suggests playing Candyland or Scrabble. Um, those are pretty different skill levels for a little kid. Pinky doesn't like either, so Jessi gets Memory. Jessi wins three games in a row and Pinky calls her a cheater.

*Short people aren't fast? During the ice skating competition, Dawn makes this comment:

So Kristy sailed across the ice to the flag that had been placed fifty yards out on the pond. For someone short, she sure is fast.

Of course short people are fast! They have less wind to displace!

*Jessi turns down an act for the talent show that consists of someone "playing" "Doe, A Deer" in his armpit. Isn't that part of Maria's scales song from The Sound of Music? As in, "Doe, a deer/A female deer/Ray, a drop of golden sun/Me, a name I call myself"?


Continuity Issues:

*Dawn talks about how when she went to Leicester Lodge last year, she didn't know anyone and therefore didn't care what they thought about her. There's two separate remarks about Dawn's being at the lodge during seventh grade.

*Mary Anne snaps at Dawn when Dawn is pouring her heart out. Mary Anne, instead of comforting Dawn, dreamily asks if Dawn knows how far from Vermont Aruba is. Dawn freaks out on Mary Anne, they "fire" each other as bunkies, and Dawn says that Mary Anne never gets mad. You don't know Mary Anne very well yet, do you? Well, I guess this is before Richard and Sharon get married, so maybe not.

*Bad editing! In a Mallory chapter, she's stressing about the stupid dance. (So just don't go!) Mal and Jessi are discussing what Mal should wear. It says, "Why don't you wear your red and white sweater with your jeans?" asked Mal. I think it's supposed to say, "asked Jessi."


Other Notables:

*There's 382 SMS students. Because I know you're counting.

*Mrs. George, owner of the lodge, doesn't trust the BSC! When Kristy volunteers the BSC's services for the Conway Cove kids, Mrs. George is all, "who?" and asks the SMS teachers for verification.

*Jessi kinda gets a big head about dancing in the talent show:

When I stopped dancing, there was a moment of silence. Then the kids and teachers, even the ones backstage, began clapping wildly. A few kids even whistled! [Probably just Kristy.] I felt as if I had finally, really accepted at Stoneybrook Middle School, which is why I grinned until my face nearly fell off.

*"I'am pretty sure the red Team will wine!" Claudia's hand-written chapter intro.

*Your rihgt, Claud! The Red Team did wine, the hole winter War! And you even got a coupon for a free slice of pizza. Woo-hoo.

And finally, the reason Jessi isn't my favorite babysitter:

Why was it that I overlooked all that and focused on what Pinky had said and done only to me (like ordering me to get her a drink)? Was it because of the bad experience I'd had in Stoneybrook with our neighbors? Probably. But did that mean I was prejudiced in some way now? I hoped not. But I knew I would need to have a long talk with my parents when I returned from Leicester Lodge.

See, what happened was Pinky was being a brat to everyone, but Jessi only noticed when it happened to her. Jessi even to talked to Mal about it, and Mal said she didn't think Pinky was prejudiced against Jessi. Jessi disagreed, and she had to eat her own words when Pinky fessed up that she was just homesick. Then Jessi noticed that Pinky was being snotty to everyone. At any rate, I never liked how Jessi thought everyone was prejudiced. She even thought that about Mallory, her best friend, in SS #14 when the Southern route crew stopped in Jersey at Jessi's grandma's house. Mal was a little uncomfortable, and bingo! She's racist. No, she's nervous about meeting your grandma! Lighten up Jessi.


Whew! That's quite a long post. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do a Super Special, so this is how it turned out. Maybe by the next one, I'll have it pared down a little.