Thursday, March 4, 2021

Review: "Stacey's Big Crush: The Baby-Sitters Club #65"


Stacey's Big Crush: The Baby-Sitters Club #65 by Ann M Martin
5 out of 5 stars

Yes! I loved this book! It was so good and so bad all at the same time. Perfect from the cover: he's smart, he's handsome, he's 22! to the last page: "I guess sometimes love hurts." "Yeah, I guess so." This book has it all: hot student teachers, lilacs, another school dance, baby goats, really bad poetry, cottage cheese, daydreams, and more! The only thing it is missing is a Claudia outfit but we do get several Stacey outfits. So let's get started!

It's springtime in Stoneybrook and Stacey is sitting in math class, daydreaming about lilacs. Mr Zizmore calls her out but she recovers and answers his question correctly. Because she's the star math student. Then he tells the class that they're going to have a student teacher for the last month of school. The class all groans, because they love Mr Z? That might be the most unrealistic thing in the whole book lol. The dude's name is Wesley Ellenburg (or Baconburger as Claudia calls him) and Stacey is already thinking what a major dweeb he's going to be.

At the BSC meeting, Claudia has a new snack for Stacey & Dawn: All-natural Crispy Rancho-style Veggie-Rice Nuggets with Nacho Substitute Cheese-food Flavor. I'm with Kristy on this one. "They look like moldy Cheez Doodles." Nasty. The next afternoon, Stacey goes home with Mary Anne & Dawn and they're visited by their neighbor Mrs Stone. She needs someone to look after Elvira for a week because she's only 2 months old and she can't be trusted to stay out of the trash if she's left alone. Confused? I wasn't really, but Stacey was. Elvira is a kid, a baby goat. And the most adorable baby goat ever!

Elvira was all eyes and bony joints. She stared up at us, jerking her head from face to face. Beneath her chin was a thin, pointy beard. Her fur was a mottled gray-white-black, and it looked scraggly and dusty. In other words, she was absolutely beautiful.

We'll get back to Elvira in a minute, because Tom Cruise has just entered the room. Oh wait my bad, that's just the hottest student teacher that ever student taught. A dweeb, he is not. Dimples, slate blue eyes, wavy light brown hair. Sigh....Stacey, and every other girl in class, is immediately smitten with Mr Ellenburg "call me by my first name" Wes. He is "drop-dead incredibly hunkified gorgeous." And Stacey is convinced that she and Wes belong together. I mean, he's only 22. That's not that bad right? For a 13 year old? And he's just a student teacher, not a real one. So yeah, she immediately starts planning her outfits (she gets it in her head that Wes likes girls in dresses so that's all she wears for the next month), making sure her homework is absolutely perfect and written in her best handwriting (hearts on the i's and all), and becomes the model student. Let's pause for an outfit before we get into the over-the-top stuff.

I found myself staring at a short, rayon challis tank dress my mom had ordered for me. It was navy with white polka dots. The fitted top tapered down to a flared skirt, with white buttons down the front. It was feminine, yet comfortable-looking. Absolutely perfect. Claudia suggested...new white sneakers I'd just bought, made of eyelet canvas with lace shoelaces.

Okay, so I know Wes is new to the teaching stuff and all, but he probably should have asked Mr Z or another adult before he did the next few things. He asks Stacey to stay after school to help him get organized (not too terrible). But then he asks her again the next week to stay and 1. help him fill out his teacher paperwork like W2 and insurance?? then 2. has her average everyone's grades in the grade book. After keeping her extra late for all that, he drives her to a BSC meeting, in his car, alone, without telling anyone. Yeah. Can you imagine a teacher doing that now? So obviously Stacey is convinced they're going to get married, eventually. And she *cringe* writes him a poem. It's so bad y'all. Of course I will put it here for you to cringe at too. (Can you imagine being the ghostwriter for this one? Ann comes to you and says, "I need a poem. Like a teenage girl would write. Make it super embarrassing. No really, like soooo embarrassing." And you turn this in and everyone laughs at you.)

I see two stars in summer's night,
Hovering, lost, in blinding light,
Each so dull in heaven's net,
So each remains, as yet unmet.

But Fortune moves in strangest ways;
It lengthens nights, it shortens days.
May this night end, and day begin
And bring two young people back again.

So Stacey gives Wes the poem and he's like "uhhh...gee, thanks?" Stacey is confused. So a few days later, she *gulp* tells him she's in love with him. Guys, I can't even. The second-hand embarrassment is so strong in this one. And he doesn't say anything! He just goes pale and stares at her and she runs off. Then, he completely ignores it all! Like, hello? NOW is the time to talk to an adult, Wes. For real. At the end of the book, there's a school dance and Wes is chaperoning. Stacey asks him to dance with her and he says yes, because he's an idiot, and they have lots of fun for several songs. Then he finally tells her he doesn't/can't have any feelings for her because she's thirteen years old. And Stacey leaves, heartbroken. But she'll get over it. I'm pretty sure there will be some other inappropriate boy in a few books.

Let's end with happy goat baby Elvira, yeah? She's adorable and playful and romps around kicking and jumping and doing all the adorable goat things that goats do. (I love goats.) The girls start taking her on sitting jobs and she's a huge hit and a tiny bit of trouble (getting in trash, running away), but no one really cares. The Pike kids put on a play for her, Three Billy Goats Gruff, that goes hilariously wrong. Everything is perfect with Elvira around. 

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Review: "Dawn's Family Feud: The Baby-Sitters Club #64"


Dawn's Family Feud: The Baby-Sitters Club #64 by Ann M Martin
2 out of 5 stars

This book gets 1 star for Claudia's outfit below and 1 star for Mrs Barrett finally getting her "happily ever after". No stars for Dawn or Mary Anne or their entire plotline. But I guess I'll go over it anyway.

Jeff is coming to town to visit for a whole week and Dawn is understandably super excited. Mr Spier takes off for the whole week to spend it with Jeff and suggests they take a family roadtrip to either Washington DC or Boston at the end of the week. The first few days are great, everyone is getting along and they have lots of fun making fun of a silly alien movie and eating Mexican food. But then the girls have to go to school, Jeff is left alone with Mr Spier (Mrs Schafer has to work), and Jeff gets sulky when he's forced to clean up after himself and the Pike boys don't want to play soccer. Things go downhill from there. Mr Spier is boring (duh), Dawn & Mary Anne start bickering amongst themselves, "a crack was starting to form in [their] family".


Let's pause the misery for a What Claudia was Wearing, shall we! Today for instance she was dressed in black overalls that she had splattered with pink and green and yellow globs of paint. Her purple high top tennis shoes matched her purple long sleeve t-shirt. Claud has beautiful black shining hair that she'd fixed in a French braid. On top of her head perched a little white painter's cap that she'd also splattered with paint. She looked awesome. (She always does.) (I would totally wear this outfit today. Also, those were my wedding shoes. :))

Okay, back to the Spier-Schafer breakdown. They head out on their trip to Boston. Jeff pouts because he suddenly changes his mind and wants to go to DC. Mary Anne thinks Jeff is being a pest and hurting her dad's feelings, Dawn thinks Mary Anne is being a baby, none of the 3 kids want to do anything that the "other family" does. Including share a hotel room, go on the same sightseeing tours, and eat at the same restaurants. And for some reason, their parents go along with it, splitting up into their "original families". Like, what? No. This is a family vacation, you do things together, whether you like it or not. Also, Dawn and Mary Anne are 13 years old and old enough to baby-sit. Let them go off on their own and the parents can do what they want. Ugh. Anyway, the trip is a huge failure and they head home early. 

Dawn's mom has scheduled a photographer to come and take a family picture before Jeff leaves and since they're all fighting still, it starts off awful. None of the kids are wearing their fancy clothes, the parents bicker over where to stage the photo, Mary Anne wants Tigger in the picture but he runs off, and everyone has angry faces. When they all see the test shots they realize how stupid they're all being and start laughing, breaking the tension finally. Everyone apologizes, retakes the pictures, and enjoys Jeff's last day there.

Alright, let's move on to the part that rated a star: Mrs Barrett finally getting her a decent man lol. You remember Mrs Barrett, right? The divorced mom of 3 who was kind of a wreck until Dawn helped her get her life turned around? Well she's finally found a good man and his name is Franklin DeWitt. The impossible 3 love Franklin, until they find out he has 4 kids of his own! Yikes. And they're all around the same age. Disaster in the making. The kids don't get along, the adults don't know how to handle it, and the baby-sitters save the day, as usual. Mrs Barrett makes her kids dress up for a fancy dinner, there's a disaster picnic in which a goat steals a sandwich, and lots of crying. Towards the end, the kids realize it's more fun to get along and play games together and it's all good. I do remember Mrs Barrett & Franklin getting married eventually, but not sure when. I'm sure there will be more drama before they do.

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Happy Bookish Sisters!

So yesterday, I shared my wonderful bookish wedding photos and today, I wanted to do a quick post to share 2 other pictures we took at Half Price Books that day. My sister was our only in-person witness and she did double (triple? whatever) duty as bridesmaid, groomsman, camera person, makeup artist, and lots more. She also threw me a fantastic bridal shower and I got to see my extended family members for the first time all year. So I wanted to make sure we took some pictures together that day too.

I decided we needed to commemorate one of our favorite bookish memories. When we were kids and our parents would take us to B Dalton's Bookstore, my sister and I would head straight to the children's section. I'd help her pick out a new Berenstain Bears book and I would get the latest Baby-Sitters Club. Then we'd sit on the floor and read until our parents were ready to go. It was such fun to recreate that!




Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Happy Bookish Wedding Post!

I'm not sure why I haven't posted about this yet, I guess I forgot I could lol. On October 23, 2020 I got to marry my best friend, my favorite fellow bookish nerd. We met in 2017, thru a mutual online friend, had our first date at Half Price Books, and have been loving life and each other ever since. We got engaged Christmas Day 2019, started planning a fun wedding, and then hello, COVID19 hit. We knew we wanted to get married in October so we decided to wait it out. And wait and wait. And then we decided to change our plans, go smaller, simpler, but still us.

I found my dress online very cheap and it fit perfectly, my sister made our masks and did my hair & makeup, and my former work BFF made our flowers, out of Harry Potter pages. (I found the oldest used copy possible, don't worry!) We bought our Doctor Who inspired rings on Etsy from C9TTungsten  and added in purple accents to match them. Yes, I wore purple Converse sneakers! 


We started with a courthouse ceremony with just my sister as a witness. The rest of our friends and family watched on Facebook Live. (We were so happy the courthouse had good WiFi lol.) Yes, we wore masks throughout and it was both strange and normal at the same time. Afterwards, the 3 of us had a lovely lunch and then headed to our favorite Half Price Books, where we had our first date, to take wedding pictures. I called ahead of time and got it okayed with the manager, we went in a middle of a weekday so it wasn't very crowded, and we made sure to stay away from everyone else. And it was so much fun. We may not have had the wedding we wanted in the beginning, but it was an absolutely perfect day, and we will never forget it!


RInfinity Photography was recommended by my stepmom and she was so wonderful to work with and our pictures came out amazing. We used some of our favorite books as props (and of course bought them afterwards because we couldn't resist) and just had fun and laughed a lot. It was so nice to be back in a bookstore, among all my fictional friends. Oh yeah, and enjoy the time with my husband. :) And now, more picture fun! (Click any of them to make bigger)