Review: "Claudia & The Sad Goodbye: The Baby-Sitters Club #26"

Claudia & The Sad Goodbye: The Baby-Sitters Club #26 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

Ugh, I've been dreading this book since I started this whole reread project! It's so freaking sad, I can hardly stand it. The last several books have been hinting that Mimi, Claudia's grandmother, has been getting sicker and sicker. So it really didn't come as a surprise to anyone but Claudia when she ended up in the hospital again and eventually died.

This book feels very disjointed, which I guess kind of goes with the story-line, but it's hard to follow at times. Claudia jumps around a lot and has really vague memories of a lot of things. She doesn't know how to handle her grief after Mimi dies, especially because she feels mad and guilty at her. It's actually a really well written story for younger kids dealing with death.

Claudia talks to Mimi the night she dies, right before bed, and Mimi ends the call with "Good-bye, my Claudia." I think that was the first time I teared up. After that it was just one big sob-fest. (I'm at the library writing this review and trying not to cry again...people already look at me weird for reading a BSC book hah!) Okay...I'm going to have to do my What Claudia is Wearing now so I can get happy again.

At the moment I'm wearing lavender plaid cuffed pants with suspenders [I think she might actually be repeating clothes, because I used the same overalls before] over a green shirt with buttons down the front, a matching lavender beret (and not just because I'm at my easel), and fleece-lined, high-top sneakers which I must admit are uncomfortably hot, but they look great. Also, I've got on earrings shaped like Christmas tree lights that actually blink on and off. [Oops...I forgot the earrings, but I think you can picture their hideousness on your own.] I think there is a way better way to wear plaid pants if that's what she's going for than the awfulness she picked...so I decided to show it. :)

The B-side story in this one is all about Claud and Mary Anne starting an art class on Saturdays for the neighborhood kids, including a new girl named Corrie. I'm not sure if Corrie and family move away soon after this or just decide to get more mature baby-sitters, but I don't remember her at all. (I'll have to keep an eye out for her in future books.) She's one of the typical "neglected children" of BSCLand that the BSCers end up helping. Funny, her brother is neglected too but they don't really care about him. Anyway, Claud is teaching the kids to make paper mache puppets and Corrie turns out to be pretty darn talented (maybe more than Claud?!?) and makes a Nancy Drew puppet.

Side story to end with: Every time Claud mentions the Nancy Drew books it kind of makes me want to start rereading those too. Would that be totally crazy? I don't even know how many there are and I don't have any of them anymore. I used to have a whole bunch, like a trunk full, but we got rid of them. (I also collected old Reader's Digests for some reason, I was kind of nerd lol.) What do you think? Totally crazy or totally cool?