Review: "Claudia & Crazy Peaches: The Baby-Sitters Club #78"

Claudia & Crazy Peaches: The Baby-Sitters Club #78 by Ann M Martin

3 out of 5 stars

I was bamboozled by the title and cover of this one. I didn't read the back closely and didn't remember enough of what it was actually about. I was expecting fun times with Aunt Peaches and instead I got a sequel to Claudia & Mean Janine! So the book starts off with Claudia waking up on a Monday morning with a tingly feeling that something big is going to happen and her mom confirms it when she says her Aunt Peaches is going to call her at 4:00 that afternoon. But she's running late so she'll have to wait til after school to find out what the news is and she gets dressed in a hurry.

I had no time to think about my wardrobe. I just made it up as I went along. I slipped on a pair of baggy jeans with an extra long belt and gabbed a pinstriped vest to go over my white shirt. For color, I wore my purple high-tops and a black derby with a pink-and-purple hatband.

Aunt Peaches is Claudia's mom's younger sister and is married to Russ, a white guy who gave her the nickname Peaches. White-washing? Peaches & Russ lived in Stoneybrook til Claudia was 7 years old and Claudia loves them both and always has lots of fun with them. When they talk that afternoon, Peaches gives Claudia the big news that she's pregnant and moving back to Stoneybrook! They've somehow already sold their old house and the new one isn't ready yet, so they move in with the Kishis for about a month. Claudia is over the moon excited of course and immediately starts thinking of all the ways she can help out with the baby and pregnancy. Claudia asks Mary Anne to teach her how to knit a blanket, because Mimi taught Mary Anne and it would be like full circle. It's very sweet. The entire BSC offers different ways to help Peaches and Logan's response was the sweetest. "Your aunt sure is lucky because, if I know you and the rest of the BSC, she won't have to lift a finger. All she'll have to do is sit on her nest and wait for that little egg to hatch."  Awww....

Peaches is about 2 months along at this point and has already quit her job because she is going to "...sit around the house and get fat. And ...stay home and enjoy the whole experience." Which is great and all, but at 2 months?? She's also already thinking about everything she'll need to buy for the baby. The very first day they've moved in with the Kishis, Peaches & Claudia go shopping for the baby, and buy out the store basically. (The sales ticket was two feet long.) I really should have seen the foreshadowing here, but I didn't. 

In the next few weeks, Peaches encourages Claudia to come have lots of fun with her: movies, midnight pizza (they get in big trouble for that), baby shopping, looking at samples, big fancy dinner parties for the family, etc. All at the expense of Claudia's grades, which start slipping even more than normal. Claudia and Peaches finally have a big fight, Peaches calls her a "sulky teenager" which is really out of line in my opinion, and don't talk to each other for a few days. And here comes the sad part. 

Claudia gets home from a baby-sitting job, ready to apologize, and finds Janine sitting in the kitchen crying. Peaches has lost the baby. Claudia immediately thinks it's her fault, just like with Mimi's stroke. Maybe they should get her some counselling or something. Peaches is okay, it's "just one of those things", and they can try again later. (I seem to remember them actually having a baby later on in the series?) Claudia & Peaches make up, with lots of tears and hugs. Peaches & Russ move into their new home a week later and Peaches announces she's going back to work and if/when they have another baby, she'll work part-time in her home office.

Natalie Springer is the new client for this book and doesn't know how to make friends. Although when we first hear about her, Kristy said she's a friend of Karen's? Natalie is a grade A clinger, asking Claudia to be her bff, comes over to her house all the time (without an adult), calling her to chat, offering to help clean the house. They also play Lovely Ladies (another Karen Brewer trademark game) in the park and we get this funny little line: "That's right. You name all of your poodles Pierre. I should have remembered." The BSC girls make it their mission to get the kid some friends, it goes badly at first, and then they succeed. All is normal in BSC-land.