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situationnormal's review
4.0
I haven't gotten this engrossed in a BSC book in a while. The beginning was on the slow side and the ending felt unresolved, but the middle bits were a lot of fun. Apparently I like relationship drama, which is what this boils down to, a lot more as an adult than I would have as a kid because this definitely wouldn't have been my jam back then. I am missing having one client be the focus of the book though--and I'm missing some of the old clients. Maybe I, as a reader, need a refresh like the BSC.
bibliotequeish's review
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important
chicafrom3's review
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Overwhelmed by school, extracurricular commitments, and anxiety about interpersonal relationships, the BSC decides to call it quits. This is of course undone by the end of the book. The most interesting thing is Kristy's realization that a) she's overly controlling (which she realizes pretty frequently anyway), and b) the BSC has a monopoly on babysitting in Stonybrook.
peachani's review
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Medical content
finesilkflower's review
4.0
The Baby-sitters Club is disbanded.
As the new school year starts, everyone is super busy with school and other commitments. Nobody wants to do Kristy’s “Fall into Fall Block Party” festival idea (especially when it involves increasingly insane demands like tying apples to trees for fake apple-picking). Against Kristy’s protestations, the club votes to change a meeting day to accommodate Jessi’s Friday dance class. Then Mallory gets a Wednesday writing class, and other conflicts pop up. Kristy worries it’s a slippery slope, especially when the others start suggesting club policy changes for flexibility--like making meeting attendance optional. On top of that, Jackie falls out of a tree and hurts his ankle under Kristy’s watch, and she worries that she is a bad baby-sitter. In a meeting which starts out as a fight but turns into an eerie calm reasoned discussion, the club--including Kristy--votes to disband.
Life after the BSC is like retirement for Kristy. She starts gardening with Watson. She misses the club and the activity, but insists the pangs are fading. Claudia is constantly answering to irate clients and referring them to other club members. Abby never gets to sit, because the clients know the other girls so much better that they don’t think of her. Mallory and Jessi never wanted the club to disband in the first place (they were the only nay votes). Stacey and Claudia are heartbroken when they run into Jamie Newton and learn he believes the club is mad at him. Then Jackie has another accident, this time not while being baby-sat, and the entire club shows up at his hospital room. Kristy realizes that she misses the BSC and the kids, and that she hadn't want to admit it to herself, but her role in Jackie's original accident had spooked her more than she realized.
Kristy calls everyone together to discuss a possible future for the club. After some discussion (the junior members are right on board, but some of the senior members still have reservations), they decide to restart the club for a one-month trial period.
It’s about time the club members burned out! I bet this book is sort of meta about how all the writers were feeling, too, and it’s not surprising that this is relatively close to the end of the run (the main series, anyway). This book had enough emotional beats for a "to be continued...", but given that the club’s break-up and return together has to be in the same book, this is quite well-done.
The snowballing conflicts and the clash between Kristy’s rigidity and other club members urging flexibility feels organic. Kristy does have a point that behaving as if the club is not a priority has symbolic weight and will lead to the club’s gradual downfall anyway. Claudia has a point that if the club can’t bend, it’ll break. The moment when Kristy says, “I, Kristy Thomas, hereby declare that the Baby-sitters Club no longer exists,” and Claudia records a quiet message on her machine, is an awesome slap in the face of the heart of the reader.
The problems caused by the end of the club also feel realistic, and the club is apart just long enough--and Kristy takes the permanence of the breakup seriously enough--to make your heart leap along with Kristy’s at the slightest suggestions that she should re-form it.
Ghostwriter: Peter Lerangis, recognizable from Lerangian tropes like having someone read a prepared statement that is overly formal to point of gibberish and having someone respond, "Can you repeat that very slowly, as if I am learning English for the first time?"
Lingering Questions: At one point, Mrs. Prezzioso is irate because she spent all morning on the phone to different ex-members looking for a sitter for that night. "This whole process was much easier when you were the Baby-sitters Club," she complains. Does she not remember that the club never met on Saturdays anyway?
Business Model Review: Now seems like a good time to re-review the BSC’s business model, particularly the changes that the girls suggest. Claudia now has an answering machine, so that’s a step in the right direction (and she even notes that the club doesn’t need meetings at all if they just let the machine pick up--she’s been reading my blog!) And while Kristy doesn’t want to change meeting times because they are “burned into our clients’ brains,” Stacey has a point that because Friday is a big night for jobs and for clients to be out with their families, Thursday is probably a more convenient night for them to call for sitters (of course, the club is back to Friday at the end when Jessi’s dance class gets moved).
Although Kristy is perhaps right that any step away from rigid mandatory attendance would lead to under-attended clubs, I think the idea of having optional attendance is actually pretty good. People who want to sit more--who have more time and need more money--can attend more meetings and take more jobs. The rest would be available to call upon if none of the attendees could take the jobs. This would eliminate the distinction between associate and non-associate members and make everything more spectrumy and fluid and allow more specific tailoring of the amount a particular baby-sitter wanted to work, thus allowing all the members to take on other activities and prevent burn-out like we saw here. It could also open the club up to accept more members, such as Erica Blumberg (who finally gets a chance to sit after the "Baby-sitters Club monopoly" ends), because being in the BSC’s network wouldn’t necessarily mean the commitment of meetings, and the number of people in the club wouldn’t be limited by the number Claudia’s room could hold (although, to be fair, Erica could already have joined as an associate if the club members liked her or respected her as a sitter.)
Dues would be an issue, but if they switched to a percentage of earnings system or just made each meeting "pay to play" (essentially you pay dues of $1 to attend a meeting and get a shot at jobs worth much more than that), I think it would work out. Alternately, they could disband the dues system and just have everyone buy their own Kid-Kit supplies, although this might end up with Kid-Kit Quality Disparity.
Continuity Errors: Kristy gives Mallory clip-on earrings from Hawaii. She has pierced ears, as we all know from the drama surrounding that. Of course, maybe Kristy didn’t know or care about that plotline.
Slash Watch: Kristy describes herself as "loud and proud."
Wait, What? Forget all this club disbanding nonsense: the point when my world is really rocked is when Claudia misspells Mary Anne’s last name as "Speer." Wait, I’ve been pronouncing it like Spy-er this whole time! What do I do now? Where do I go?
Timing: September again.
Revised Timeline: September of senior year of college. Onset of senioritis feels like as good a time as any to get burned out, although I'd have expected it to happen a long time ago--high school senior year, maybe. And with everyone suddenly being busy and differently-scheduled, first year of college would have worked too. In this alternate timeline, there is something bittersweet about the club re-forming by the end of September senior year, because they are (presumably) all going to be scattered to the winds in eight short months anyway.
As the new school year starts, everyone is super busy with school and other commitments. Nobody wants to do Kristy’s “Fall into Fall Block Party” festival idea (especially when it involves increasingly insane demands like tying apples to trees for fake apple-picking). Against Kristy’s protestations, the club votes to change a meeting day to accommodate Jessi’s Friday dance class. Then Mallory gets a Wednesday writing class, and other conflicts pop up. Kristy worries it’s a slippery slope, especially when the others start suggesting club policy changes for flexibility--like making meeting attendance optional. On top of that, Jackie falls out of a tree and hurts his ankle under Kristy’s watch, and she worries that she is a bad baby-sitter. In a meeting which starts out as a fight but turns into an eerie calm reasoned discussion, the club--including Kristy--votes to disband.
Life after the BSC is like retirement for Kristy. She starts gardening with Watson. She misses the club and the activity, but insists the pangs are fading. Claudia is constantly answering to irate clients and referring them to other club members. Abby never gets to sit, because the clients know the other girls so much better that they don’t think of her. Mallory and Jessi never wanted the club to disband in the first place (they were the only nay votes). Stacey and Claudia are heartbroken when they run into Jamie Newton and learn he believes the club is mad at him. Then Jackie has another accident, this time not while being baby-sat, and the entire club shows up at his hospital room. Kristy realizes that she misses the BSC and the kids, and that she hadn't want to admit it to herself, but her role in Jackie's original accident had spooked her more than she realized.
Kristy calls everyone together to discuss a possible future for the club. After some discussion (the junior members are right on board, but some of the senior members still have reservations), they decide to restart the club for a one-month trial period.
It’s about time the club members burned out! I bet this book is sort of meta about how all the writers were feeling, too, and it’s not surprising that this is relatively close to the end of the run (the main series, anyway). This book had enough emotional beats for a "to be continued...", but given that the club’s break-up and return together has to be in the same book, this is quite well-done.
The snowballing conflicts and the clash between Kristy’s rigidity and other club members urging flexibility feels organic. Kristy does have a point that behaving as if the club is not a priority has symbolic weight and will lead to the club’s gradual downfall anyway. Claudia has a point that if the club can’t bend, it’ll break. The moment when Kristy says, “I, Kristy Thomas, hereby declare that the Baby-sitters Club no longer exists,” and Claudia records a quiet message on her machine, is an awesome slap in the face of the heart of the reader.
The problems caused by the end of the club also feel realistic, and the club is apart just long enough--and Kristy takes the permanence of the breakup seriously enough--to make your heart leap along with Kristy’s at the slightest suggestions that she should re-form it.
Ghostwriter: Peter Lerangis, recognizable from Lerangian tropes like having someone read a prepared statement that is overly formal to point of gibberish and having someone respond, "Can you repeat that very slowly, as if I am learning English for the first time?"
Lingering Questions: At one point, Mrs. Prezzioso is irate because she spent all morning on the phone to different ex-members looking for a sitter for that night. "This whole process was much easier when you were the Baby-sitters Club," she complains. Does she not remember that the club never met on Saturdays anyway?
Business Model Review: Now seems like a good time to re-review the BSC’s business model, particularly the changes that the girls suggest. Claudia now has an answering machine, so that’s a step in the right direction (and she even notes that the club doesn’t need meetings at all if they just let the machine pick up--she’s been reading my blog!) And while Kristy doesn’t want to change meeting times because they are “burned into our clients’ brains,” Stacey has a point that because Friday is a big night for jobs and for clients to be out with their families, Thursday is probably a more convenient night for them to call for sitters (of course, the club is back to Friday at the end when Jessi’s dance class gets moved).
Although Kristy is perhaps right that any step away from rigid mandatory attendance would lead to under-attended clubs, I think the idea of having optional attendance is actually pretty good. People who want to sit more--who have more time and need more money--can attend more meetings and take more jobs. The rest would be available to call upon if none of the attendees could take the jobs. This would eliminate the distinction between associate and non-associate members and make everything more spectrumy and fluid and allow more specific tailoring of the amount a particular baby-sitter wanted to work, thus allowing all the members to take on other activities and prevent burn-out like we saw here. It could also open the club up to accept more members, such as Erica Blumberg (who finally gets a chance to sit after the "Baby-sitters Club monopoly" ends), because being in the BSC’s network wouldn’t necessarily mean the commitment of meetings, and the number of people in the club wouldn’t be limited by the number Claudia’s room could hold (although, to be fair, Erica could already have joined as an associate if the club members liked her or respected her as a sitter.)
Dues would be an issue, but if they switched to a percentage of earnings system or just made each meeting "pay to play" (essentially you pay dues of $1 to attend a meeting and get a shot at jobs worth much more than that), I think it would work out. Alternately, they could disband the dues system and just have everyone buy their own Kid-Kit supplies, although this might end up with Kid-Kit Quality Disparity.
Continuity Errors: Kristy gives Mallory clip-on earrings from Hawaii. She has pierced ears, as we all know from the drama surrounding that. Of course, maybe Kristy didn’t know or care about that plotline.
Slash Watch: Kristy describes herself as "loud and proud."
Wait, What? Forget all this club disbanding nonsense: the point when my world is really rocked is when Claudia misspells Mary Anne’s last name as "Speer." Wait, I’ve been pronouncing it like Spy-er this whole time! What do I do now? Where do I go?
Timing: September again.
Revised Timeline: September of senior year of college. Onset of senioritis feels like as good a time as any to get burned out, although I'd have expected it to happen a long time ago--high school senior year, maybe. And with everyone suddenly being busy and differently-scheduled, first year of college would have worked too. In this alternate timeline, there is something bittersweet about the club re-forming by the end of September senior year, because they are (presumably) all going to be scattered to the winds in eight short months anyway.
xtinamorse's review
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/kristys-worst-idea
pixieauthoress's review
4.0
This is actually a pretty good book. I now feel the need to snatch the other "new" BSC books off my school library's shelves and see if they're on the same standards. Like the first three BSC books, book 100 covers quite a few serious issues, and is definitely the kind of book which I'd be happy with my kids reading.
ssshira's review
4.0
in this oddly almost fanfic (alternate universe-style) installment by ghostwriter [a:Peter Lerangis|17216|Peter Lerangis|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1273412599p2/17216.jpg], kristy comes back from hawaii and is bummed out that the club didn’t completely fall apart without her. in fact, after the events of [b:Stacey's Broken Heart|176729|Stacey's Broken Heart (The Baby-Sitters Club, #99)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387742413s/176729.jpg|170751], abby kind of got it together, and the other bsc members have started to vibe with her more lax presidential style. they have a meeting on labor day and everyone but kristy is surprised/bummed about it and then KRISTY is surprised/bummed that they don’t want to work on labor day because kristy is the job. like, not just married to the job, but IS the job. then jessi’s new ballet class is gonna be on fridays so they vote to change the friday bsc meetings to thursdays, which kristy freaks out about but agrees to anyway, and then mallory wants to do a writing class that meets on wednesdays which would mean changing those meeting dates too and kristy basically doubts everyone’s commitment to sparkle motion (a meme I’m sure I’ve used in bsc reviews before but it’s never not funny). and as a sort of last ditch effort kristy attempts to force this fall festival block party in spite of the fact that to do it as she wants to they will have to hang literally hundreds of apples from trees, and they will have to get an expensive block party permit, and also there’s already a similar fall party the town is hosting on the same day. and then when kristy is babysitting for the rodowskys jackie does something incredibly irresponsible because it’s a day that ends with a y and he always does that on those days and he ends up spraining his ankle and kristy blames herself. and claudia and mary anne aren’t getting along because they get into a fight while sitting for the barrett-dewitts because the kids are playing a game and claud wants them to stop so they can do an art project and mary anne is mad because she thinks claudia thinks she is boring and claudia is mad because she thinks mary anne thinks she is stupid. WHEW. sorry, I needed to take a second to get away from all the 13-year-old drama. okay, where were we? since the bsc is essentially imploding and because kristy thinks she is a terrible babysitter she suggests they disband. and they put it to a vote, and they all vote to disband, so they actually do. and then it turns into an interesting alternate universe-y plotline: the other middle schoolers in town are finally getting a chance to babysit and are not actually all that good at it because they don’t have any practice because the bsc has had a monopoly on all babysitting since its formation. claudia gets calls nonstop from parents asking for all the other sitters’ numbers who just complain to her that it was so much easier when the bsc existed. jamie newton thinks that since other people have been sitting for him it means everyone in the bsc hates him and that’s why they broke up. abby never gets any sitting jobs because she’s the newest member so the parents don’t know her well. eventually jackie rodowsky, who blames himself for the bsc breaking up since his injury set kristy’s idea for the bsc to break up in motion, tries to bike to kristy’s house sans helmet and ends up badly injured and hospitalized. the bsc realizes how much they care about kids and sitting and all that jazz so they get back together.
highlights:
-it’s interesting to see what actually happens when the bsc disbands, in the world imploding/angry parents ways and also the world being better off without the bsc/other kids finally getting a chance to babysit ways
-kristy seems to think it’s cool that other kids are getting a chance to babysit and even considers starting a business where she teaches babysitting basics. but then she finds cokie babysitting for a family and she can’t abide that, and it’s one of the things that makes her want to get the bsc back together. ah, nothing like blind cokie hatred.
-I like how personally the bsc kids take it, especially jamie newton and jackie rodowsky
-mr. papadakis tries to get the club to stay together by giving them a weekly retainer. ah, rich people who think they can get anything they want if they pay enough money.
-shea rodowsky claims while doing mad libs that an adverb is a verb from an advertisement, "like brush teeth or eat wheaties," and that a pronoun is the name of a pro team like the new york knicks.
-kristy thinks about how she could've prevented jackie from climbing a tree and mentions the prospect of coating the tree with vaseline. like what the philly cops did to the eagles fans this year!
-they're discussing the direction they want the club to go in, and some of the jokes are babysitting by fax, using the net, or virtual babysitting. man, 1996 was a long time ago.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-kristy grasping at straws with the fall festival is truly, truly depressing
-kristy makes a new sign advertising the new bsc hours in which she says it's instead of its. this is so unlike kristy.
-mary anne theorizes that the cafeteria dilutes their pesto with spinach and that's what makes it taste bad. I make spinach pesto and it's delicious!
-claudia having to deal with all the angry parents is truly, truly depressing
-kristy blaming herself for jackie’s latest disaster and refusing to babysit is truly, truly depressing
-when all the bsc members move on quickly kristy gets upset and thinks the bsc wasn't a good idea in the first place and it’s truly, truly depressing
-when sitting for the pikes, mal smashes claire's finger in a door by accident. when telling her it's wrong for her to take the blame, kristy realizes it's not her fault that jackie is a disaster. what a lovely coincidence that the first time kristy decides to actually babysit she gets to see a perfect parallel to her situation so she can learn her lesson
-ann's letter says that the bsc series has spawned three other series: the bsc mysteries, the little sister series, and the kids in ms coleman's class series. what about the super specials, portrait collections, special edition readers requests, and super mysteries?
jackie disasters:
-falls out of a tree and sprains his ankle
-crashes his bike and is not wearing a helmet and is actually badly hurt
gifts kristy brings everyone from hawaii:
-claudia: a huge pineapple-shaped clock whose two hands were a surfer and a surfboard
-abby: hula-grass hat
-stacey: toy ukulele
-mary anne: mirrored sunglasses
-mallory: pink-and-blue lei-shaped clip-on earrings
claudia outfit:
-"She was wearing a bracelet of dyed, braided shoelaces, along with a blousy ruffled shirt that looked as if it once belonged to Captain Hook; mismatched high-top Converse sneakers; and baggy, pinstriped men's suit pants, gathered at the waist with a bungee cord."
snacks in claudia’s room:
-caramel corn
-gumballs (from a mini gumball machine in the shape of a dolphin) in her closet
-doritos (n.s.)
-snickers bars in her closet
-milk duds (n.s.)
-tortilla chips in her closet
highlights:
-it’s interesting to see what actually happens when the bsc disbands, in the world imploding/angry parents ways and also the world being better off without the bsc/other kids finally getting a chance to babysit ways
-kristy seems to think it’s cool that other kids are getting a chance to babysit and even considers starting a business where she teaches babysitting basics. but then she finds cokie babysitting for a family and she can’t abide that, and it’s one of the things that makes her want to get the bsc back together. ah, nothing like blind cokie hatred.
-I like how personally the bsc kids take it, especially jamie newton and jackie rodowsky
-mr. papadakis tries to get the club to stay together by giving them a weekly retainer. ah, rich people who think they can get anything they want if they pay enough money.
-shea rodowsky claims while doing mad libs that an adverb is a verb from an advertisement, "like brush teeth or eat wheaties," and that a pronoun is the name of a pro team like the new york knicks.
-kristy thinks about how she could've prevented jackie from climbing a tree and mentions the prospect of coating the tree with vaseline. like what the philly cops did to the eagles fans this year!
-they're discussing the direction they want the club to go in, and some of the jokes are babysitting by fax, using the net, or virtual babysitting. man, 1996 was a long time ago.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-kristy grasping at straws with the fall festival is truly, truly depressing
-kristy makes a new sign advertising the new bsc hours in which she says it's instead of its. this is so unlike kristy.
-mary anne theorizes that the cafeteria dilutes their pesto with spinach and that's what makes it taste bad. I make spinach pesto and it's delicious!
-claudia having to deal with all the angry parents is truly, truly depressing
-kristy blaming herself for jackie’s latest disaster and refusing to babysit is truly, truly depressing
-when all the bsc members move on quickly kristy gets upset and thinks the bsc wasn't a good idea in the first place and it’s truly, truly depressing
-when sitting for the pikes, mal smashes claire's finger in a door by accident. when telling her it's wrong for her to take the blame, kristy realizes it's not her fault that jackie is a disaster. what a lovely coincidence that the first time kristy decides to actually babysit she gets to see a perfect parallel to her situation so she can learn her lesson
-ann's letter says that the bsc series has spawned three other series: the bsc mysteries, the little sister series, and the kids in ms coleman's class series. what about the super specials, portrait collections, special edition readers requests, and super mysteries?
jackie disasters:
-falls out of a tree and sprains his ankle
-crashes his bike and is not wearing a helmet and is actually badly hurt
gifts kristy brings everyone from hawaii:
-claudia: a huge pineapple-shaped clock whose two hands were a surfer and a surfboard
-abby: hula-grass hat
-stacey: toy ukulele
-mary anne: mirrored sunglasses
-mallory: pink-and-blue lei-shaped clip-on earrings
claudia outfit:
-"She was wearing a bracelet of dyed, braided shoelaces, along with a blousy ruffled shirt that looked as if it once belonged to Captain Hook; mismatched high-top Converse sneakers; and baggy, pinstriped men's suit pants, gathered at the waist with a bungee cord."
snacks in claudia’s room:
-caramel corn
-gumballs (from a mini gumball machine in the shape of a dolphin) in her closet
-doritos (n.s.)
-snickers bars in her closet
-milk duds (n.s.)
-tortilla chips in her closet
liannakiwi's review
3.0
(LL)
The following review is still relevant, but I downgraded it from five stars to three stars since THEY GLOSSES OVER THE WHOLE THING IN THE NEXT TWO BOOKS. They did probation with no issues and the club went back to normal without changing a thing. Ugh. It could have been such a good thing to change some of the rules/routine of the BSC for the series overall, but I guess they changed their minds.
I think it was time that they broke up the club, even if for only a few weeks. Schedules get more complicated and full as you get older, and meeting three times a week once they get into high school would be a difficult task. I also liked that they didn’t just go back to usual like nothing happened, as that would have made the break up kind of pointless. It’s difficult growing up, and that’s what the members of the BSC are doing, and sometimes that means somethings gotta give. It also gave the series some real drama for the first time: will the book series be over soon? Will the trial period work out or no? Can the BSC work together to find meeting times that works for everyone?
It’s just the shake up that the series needed.
The following review is still relevant, but I downgraded it from five stars to three stars since THEY GLOSSES OVER THE WHOLE THING IN THE NEXT TWO BOOKS. They did probation with no issues and the club went back to normal without changing a thing. Ugh. It could have been such a good thing to change some of the rules/routine of the BSC for the series overall, but I guess they changed their minds.
I think it was time that they broke up the club, even if for only a few weeks. Schedules get more complicated and full as you get older, and meeting three times a week once they get into high school would be a difficult task. I also liked that they didn’t just go back to usual like nothing happened, as that would have made the break up kind of pointless. It’s difficult growing up, and that’s what the members of the BSC are doing, and sometimes that means somethings gotta give. It also gave the series some real drama for the first time: will the book series be over soon? Will the trial period work out or no? Can the BSC work together to find meeting times that works for everyone?
It’s just the shake up that the series needed.
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