Review: "Get Well Soon, Mallory! The Baby-Sitters Club #69"

Get Well Soon, Mallory! The Baby-Sitters Club #69 by Ann M Martin

5 out of 5 stars

I've been looking forward to this book for awhile now. How many of us young 90s kids/preteens wanted to get mononucleosis after reading this book? Just me?? No!!! Okay, well that's the only reason I gave it 5 stars, it's really not that great a book lol. Also, I think this is one of the last ones I really remember reading as a kid. Which makes sense because I was probably close to 13 years old when this one came out. 

The book opens on the day before Halloween and the Pike kids are all trying to pick out costumes. They have a whole trunk full, which is pretty cool. Mrs Pike announces big news to the family: her cousins have invited them to come to New York City ("The City") for Thanksgiving and go to the Macy's Parade. Everyone is excited naturally, though the parents are a little worried about finding a hotel and restaurant reservations for all 10 of them. Also, Mallory is still super tired. But she makes it her mission to get the family there.

Next day, Halloween, finds Vanessa practicing her different waves for the parade cameras: "the windshield wiper, screwing in the light bulb, and the flap." Can you picture each one? The kids get ready for trick-or-treating and Mallory is supposed to go with them, with Jessi, but....she's too tired. Yeah, this bit goes on and on for awhile. Let's skip to the B plot, Kristy's next big idea.

They decide to do something special for the elderly people at Stoneybrook Manor for Thanksgiving, because they may not have any family around anymore. They mention several old people and act like we should know them already, like Mallory's Uncle Joe who apparently lived with them for a few weeks and developed Alzheimer's. Of course, they get their sitting charges involved. They want to make goody baskets for all the residents and have a carnival. They also want to do a fundraiser for the money. And apparently don't start doing all this until 12 days before Thanksgiving yikes. Of course they pull it off and the old people are very happy.

Back to Mallory. She wakes up one morning super sick. Everything hurts, she has a fever, glands swollen, etc. Tries to make it to school but mom is like "yeah, no." They go to the doctor, who tells her "you have the distinction of having one of the worst looking throats I've ever seen." They test her for strep, a bacterial infection, and mono. Surprise, she has mono! And she has to stay in bed for at least a week but possibly a month! Her siblings immediately start teasing her that she has the "kissing disease", cooties, that Ben Hobart gave it to her, and more.

After just a week in bed, she's sick of her pajamas, soap operas, and all the kids' teasing. Claire & Margo are very sweet though. They play Nurse & Doctor with her and bring her whatever she wants, read to her, and take her temperature. At the end of the week, Mallory tries to play it off that she's feeling loads better but her parents aren't buying it. In fact, they've decided to restrict her activity even more: no school, no archery team, and no Baby-Sitters Club. Mal is devastated and so is the rest of the Club when they find out. Logan even suggests they protest outside her house with "Free Mallory!" signs. But they just decide to make Mallory an honorary member for now. I'm not sure why they had to change it at all, but whatevs. At her next doctor appointment, Dr Dellenkamp tells her it could be up to 3 months now and she may have to go to summer school. Wow, great bedside manner Doc! 

Since Mal is stuck in bed, she has plenty of time to think of ideas for the Thanksgiving project. But soon she starts thinking the BSC should have just replaced her after all. She knows they won't, so she decides to make them kick her out. By being a jerk and not helping out where she can. Sigh...luckily that doesn't last too long before the girls see right thru her plan and call her out. She starts helping out again, trying to raise the last bit of money they need for the carnival. Vanessa comes up with the brilliant idea of selling promises, ie: I'll do something for you later, if you pay me today. And they get the extra money. The kids and healthy sitters go shopping at CostClub or something and pick out gifts, fruit, sweets, books, toys for the old people.

Mallory's parents decide to cancel the New York trip and Mallory has officially ruined Thanksgiving. Not really. Everyone rallies and makes it a nice day, dressing up and watching the parade on TV and eating all the yummy food. I'm hungry now lol. We didn't have a Claudia outfit this book, so we'll end with Mallory's special occasion outfit: It's a blue velvet skirt with a matching bolero jacket and a white silk blouse. I pulled my hair into a pony tail and tied a white satin ribbon around it. The book ends with the BSC girls coming over for pie and Dawn calls from California. And Mallory is not better, at all, and decides to step away from the club semi-permanently for now. Sad face.

Review: "Mallory Hates Boys (And Gym): The Baby-Sitters Club #59"

Mallory Hates Boys (And Gym): The Baby-Sitters Club #59 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

Okay, honestly I'm kind of with Mallory on this one. Gym in middle/high school sucked. Gym in elementary was only moderately better, unless you had a sadistic gym teacher that made you beat her to the jungle gym or you had to run laps. Oh and she didn't hold back either. She didn't care if you were in 1st or 5th grade, she'd still give it her all! Wow, I might still be a little bitter. Moving on!

The book starts out with Mallory putting her new vocabulary word, "pandemonium", to the test when she arrives home. The Pike clan is in full crazy mode and Mal is anxious about her study date with the wonderful Australian, Ben Hobart. Liking a guy is so weird. There's just no way to explain why suddenly you're so crazy about someone. Unfortunately, her brothers & sisters pretty much ruin the date so they head over to Ben's house, where she raves about how good and polite his 3 brothers are. Then she's almost late to a BSC meeting and we get a Claudia outfit along with a special What Dawn Was Wearing.

Claudia was wearing a pair of soft, balloony, purple pants; a neon green long-sleeve leotard top; a wide, red braided belt; and a pair of soft, red ballet shoes. Her hair was swept into a French braid with wispy tendrils hanging loose. From one ear dangled a long earring made up of small papier-mache tropical fruit. In the other ear, where she had two holes, Claudia wore two small papier-mache hoops. (This earring set is her own creation.)

2 things: I had purple pants exactly like that in 5th grade. We called them (MC) Hammer pants and I wore them with a white tshirt tucked in and black patent leather shoes with big silk laces. I was dibbly fresh and wore this outfit at our talent show, where my friend and I danced to Tevin Campbell's Round & Round. (I just listened to again, so good still lol.)
And also, it would have been nice to have some continuity from the previous book and have her wear her cat & dog earrings.

Today [Dawn] was wearing black stirrup pants, a long, fleecy red-and-pink rose-print top and black high-top sneakers. She has two holes pierced in each ear. In those she wore four matching sparkly rose earrings. (Seems more like a Stacey outfit than Dawn, but whatevs.)

Logan is at the meeting, because he & Mary Anne were studying together, and there's a big point of his mom calling for a sitter because Logan doesn't want to be asked all the time. Just like Mallory. I was never given a choice to baby-sit my sister or not. And I definitely didn't get paid for it. After the meeting, Jessi & Mallory are walking home and Jessi reminds her that they are starting the volleyball unit in gym on Monday and they'll be co-mingled with the boys. Mal immediately freaks out. I was expected to appear in front of a bunch of boys in my gross, disgusting gym suit (which is really just a tshirt & shirts) and demonstrate that I was probably the most klutzy, uncoordinated girl in the sixth grade. And she pretty much does that for the rest of the book.

On Monday, she decides to wear a one-piece denim jumpsuit that she'd gotten for her last birthday and never worn. Not because I hate it or anything. It's just not me. It's a little too high-style or something. I'm sorry. Isn't that exactly what she's been begging for for the last 59 books?? I decided to do a special for this outfit: what Mallory thinks she looks like and what she probably looks like. Always fun. :)

Every book that has even the slightest hint of physical activity makes Mallory panic and immediately come up with plans to get out of it. In this one, she begs her parents to let her stay home, pretends to faint in the locker room (no one is around), WALKS OFF THE COURT after getting hit with a ball (I don't blame her for that one), gets detention on purpose for a week when she sits out each day (and hides the papers from her parents. Trust me, that never works for long.) It's all a bit ridiculous.

The side plot is that all the boys they baby-sit for are suddenly little monsters. Just the boys, not the girls. Mallory comes up with this long convoluted theory that makes no sense; something about if they were raised in Stoneybrook and went to gym class there, they were super aggressive animals. Meaning, Logan and the Hobart boys are excluded. This doesn't pan out though, when Mal and Ben agree to switch brothers for the evening and the Hobarts turn into little hellions while Nicky & the triplets are perfect angels. She can't believe it. But what do you expect when they go to a house like the Pikes where there are basically no rules?

Back in gym class, Mal keeps walking off and the gym teacher finally sits down and talks to her. She asks her to just try and she'd get the boys to back off on their attack. Also, she makes Mal wash all the pinnies one afternoon gross. Mallory agrees to try, her parents find out about the detentions (and don't punish her whaaattt??!), and finally the volleyball unit is over. Next up? Archery! Is anyone surprised at all that Mallory is good at it? So good that her teacher tells her to try out for the archery team and she makes it. I wonder if that will come up again in later books. And her brothers make her a congrats cake, ruining her "boys suck" theory. The end. And hey, I've got another Super Special already after this one! Woo!!

Review: "Mallory and the Dream Horse: The Baby-Sitters Club #54"

Mallory and the Dream Horse: The Baby-Sitters Club #54 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

Mallory's books are very up and down for me. This was a down, unfortunately. Mal gets the chance to do one of her dreams, ride a horse, and of course, it doesn't go well. But in the beginning it's all good. Mallory & Jessi are at Mal's house, with ALL the Pike kids running around like loons of course. They try to talk about horses but get interrupted by the Pike Circus (literally, Nicky wrestles Frodo, the hamster alligator). When Mal heads out to the mailbox later that afternoon, she sees a flyer for riding lessons at a stable that just happens to be a bike ride away. I'm pretty sure Stoneybrook is bigger than that but okay. Before she can talk to her parents, we have a BSC meeting and a What Claudia Could Be Wearing.

Claudia can put together strange combinations of clothes-like one of her father's old shirts over tie-dyed tights, with a big belt and a funky vest-and look like she stepped out of a fashion magazine.

In baby-sitting news, Nina Marshall is the "child of the week" with a problem. She just started preschool and insists on carrying her "Blankie" with her everywhere. I don't remember a Blankie in their other books. (Can't remember which books those might be at the moment.) Of course, that doesn't go over well at school and the other kids make fun of her. All the sitters try to help her, psycho-analyzing her, until Dawn destroys Blankie in the dryer. Okay, it wasn't really Dawn, Mrs Marshall insisted on washing it, but Nina blames Dawn. Blankie is torn into lots of tiny bits, but it's cool, because now Nina can tuck Blankie into her pocket, her socks, her shoe, etc and no one will have to know. BSC to the rescue, once again!

Now back to Mallory and her dream come true. She convinces her parents to let her sign up for the horse riding lessons, by agreeing to pay for half of it with her baby-sitting money. She is over the moon but let down a little when she finds out Jessi can't take the lessons with her, due to her ballet classes. Mal doesn't let it get her down too much though. And she just gets a little embarrassed when she starts her classes and realizes she's the only one not in a proper English riding habit. Poor, poor Mallory. Literally, she can't help it if she's poor. Her parents keep having kids. (I'm surprised there was never a "surprise" Pike kid in any of the books.)

She tries to move past it though and just enjoy the lessons. The horses are great and she thinks she's making new friends. (Spoiler: she's not.) After each lesson, she rushes home to tell Jessi all about it, thinking her best friend will be super excited for her. (Spoiler: she's not.) Then things start to go south. Mal falls off of a horse (named Gremlin, seriously?) and freaks. She's not injured, just the wind knocked out of her, but it's enough to make her fear getting back on the horses and kills any enjoyment she was having. And of course, she can't tell her parents because money. Then, she gets invited to one of the girl's birthday party and she wears the completely wrong outfit and doesn't fit in at all.

I decided that since I didn't know the kids well I really should dress more conservatively. I was wearing a gold-and-brown kilt, a matching gold cotton sweater, and penny loafers. The second I stepped through Amber's front door I realized I had made a big mistake. First of all, most of the girls were wearing wacky bright clothes with spiked hair and tons of fun jewelry. The guys looked just as cool. I felt as if I were dressed for Sunday school.

(I'm getting a major Don't Tell Mom The Baby-Sitter's Dead vibe from the pink outfit lol.)

Mallory is pretty much over these lessons but she has to keep going and even has to participate in a show that her entire family and friends will be at. She's terrified of course but gets through the show with minimal mistakes. Her parents are super proud of her and offer to pay for more lessons but she tells them no way. Mal & Jessi make up, Jessi was jealous, blah blah. To end things, the Pike kids host a talent show, Stars of Tomorrow, in their backyard and just generally make their mother's life a living hell.

Review: "Mallory on Strike: The Baby-Sitters Club #47"

Mallory on Strike: The Baby-Sitters Club #47 by Ann M Martin
4 out of 5 stars

This is the 2nd book in a row with a school project centering around authors and books. What's the deal? Did they switch ghost-writers in between and forget to inform the new ones of what they were doing? Either way, I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than the last. I think I've finally come to terms with Mallory being my favorite character. I mean, appearance wise, I'm more of a Mary Anne and family wise, more of a Kristy. But I just connect with Mallory more. I'm a big nerd and I'm okay with that.

Annnyway...Mallory's life is changed forever when her creative writing teacher tells them about "Young Authors Day". Okay, first: Mal is in the 6th grade. She was picked for this class because she's so freaking creative. How can they tell? From her 5th grade work? I was creative in 5th grade too (example), but come on. This is more of a 10th grade class. And second: another special event?? I am repeating myself from the last book, but really, these kids should be studying SAT vocab lists. Ugh, I hated those lists. My younger sister was so lucky I kept all of mine too because she totally just copied mine lol.

Mallory is convinced that she is going to be an Author one day and decides to enter the Best Overall Fiction Story category. She goes home from school all excited to start writing and then gets distracted by all her brothers and sisters. You know what's really distracting? Those pants she's wearing on the cover. Seriously, what's going on there? With all the chaos, Mal starts to wonder if she'll even be able to write her story. "Seven brothers and sisters is just too many! I hate to admit this but sometimes I wish they would just disappear so that I could have a normal life." And then her guardian angel appeared and showed her how everyone's lives would be different if her siblings weren't around. Just kidding. :) She goes to her BSC meeting and we get a What Claudia is Wearing (or might wear, actually).

Claudia can wear anything and it looks great. Like she'll wear polka dot leggings with a short red skirt. Then she'll wear a long-sleeved T-shirt with a black vest (covered with cool pins that she's made herself) over that. Sometimes she decides to go fifties and wears penny loafers with white anklets.

At the meeting, Mal is offered a sitting job for the Hobarts for the next 4 Saturdays which would be "yay, money!" but "boo, no time to work on her story!" so she turns it down. But she doesn't explain to the other club members why she's turning it down, so they just basically think she's being a brat or something. The next day, Saturday, she gets up early (she usually sleeps til eight) to finish her homework and have time to work on her story all day. Only she doesn't get more than a sentence written, because her family needs her help all day long. I know how that is! Just writing this blog, I've had to dry my own clothes and help my sister pick out nail polish colors lol...she chose the smaller polka dots just FYI.

Mal knows something needs to change, so she makes herself a super strict schedule that doesn't leave any time for fun or new baby-sitting jobs. She almost misses a BSC meeting because she was on a roll with her story and Kristy gives her the Death Glare. Mal starts to wonder if maybe she should just leave the club for a while. And her baby-sitting job with the Impossible Three, the Barretts, helps make that decision a little easier. They spill flour all over the kitchen floor and try to clean it up with water, then Buddy cuts his foot bad on his bicycle and Mal has a minor freakout, thinking she's a horrible baby-sitter. She tells the other girls at the next meeting that she wants to be demoted and, predictably, it does not go over well.

"So please demote me. If you don't, I'll quit!"
There. I'd said it. Jessi gasped in horror. Mary Anne's eyes instantly filled with tears. Claud dropped the candy bar she was unwrapping onto her lap and stared at me, openmouthed.
"Quit?" Stacey and Dawn repeated in barely a whisper.
Kristy sat very still. No one had ever voluntarily quit the BSC. It was unthinkable.

Kristy tells her to just take 2 weeks off to think about it, which duh, is all she really needed to work on her story. Back at home, Mallory makes a sandwich board with the titular "Mallory on Strike" and lets her family know that she won't be leaving her room until she finishes. Unsurprisingly, Mr & Mrs Pike go along with it and also later reward her with her very own Mallory Day. Mal finally gets some writing done on her story, "Caught in the Middle", and is very pleased with herself. And of course, she wins the Best Fiction award and everyone cheers for her and she's totally awesome.

On Mallory Day, her parents take her & Jessi to the mall and we get an extra special What Mal & Jessi Are Wearing: [Mallory] changed clothes three times before finally settling on jean skirt and jacket, bright red tights, sneakers, and multi-colored earrings that Claud had made. [Jessi was] dressed in a new purple jumpsuit with a gold turtleneck, which made her look taller and more like a dancer than ever. (I'm sorry, I just could not force myself to make Jessi's outfit, so I updated her a bit!)

While they're at the mall, they have lots of fun, but Mal realizes that she actually misses her brothers & sisters and decides to make up an adventure for them. She and Jessi take them all on an Explorers' Day thru the neighborhood, generally making lots of noise and being annoying for the neighbors. And everything ends up happily ever after...for now. Dun dun DUN!! ;)

Special: Baby-Sitters Club All Grown Up: Mallory!

I finally wrote up Mallory's All Grown Up post! I know, I'm such a slacker. ;) Mallory was hard at first, especially because I haven't read very many of her books yet. (Also slacking on that bah!) Okay, here we go!

(click here for details & links)

Mallory really flourished after she transferred to Riverbend boarding school towards the end of 6th grade and she continued to grow and mature throughout high school and college. Finally being accepted for her quirks and appreciated for her writing and drawing talents really helped Mal become the person she is today. Thanks to a hefty scholarship and part-time job at The Strand, Mal was able to go to NYU and graduated with honors. She lived with Jessi for a year after graduating, but after one too many arguments over wet dance tights hanging in the shower, she decided to move back to Stoneybrook. Her parents graciously offered to let her stay in her old room, but Mallory refused to share with Margo and Claire, so she got a cheap apartment in the downtown area near her job at the public library. Working with Claudia's mom was a dream for Mal and even more so when Mrs Kishi introduced Mal to their newest employee, a young Irishman named Liam. Ever since Ben Hobart, she'd had a soft spot for red bearded men with accents. Mallory & Liam soon became a serious item and after a year of dating, Liam proposed in the middle of children's story-time hour and Mal accepted, much to the children's delight.

Liam encouraged Mallory's dream of becoming a published author and it paid off. Turns out Mallory really is a talented writer and illustrator...her first children's book, titled Sebastian the Seal Goes to Sailing School, was a huge success and led to a line of seafaring adventure books. Her next series will be based on the country mice she first came up with back on that big trip to New York City with the BSCers. Speaking of her former co-babysitters, she sees Mary Anne regularly at the library of course and occasionally runs into Kristy at the market. Jessi rarely comes to visit, especially after her parents and younger brother and sister moved back to Oakland.

Liam and Mallory both came from huge families and after all those years of sharing a bathroom with 3-6 other kids, they decided that one child was more than enough for them and had a little girl named Madeline in their second year of marriage. A stray cat and roly-poly puppy named Bert round out their happy little family and they now live around the corner from the Pike family home. Claire is the only one still living at home and is always happy to baby-sit for little Maddie, for a hefty price. And that is where Mallory is now, I hope you enjoyed this much delayed installment of the Baby-Sitters Club All Grown Up!! :)

Review: "Poor Mallory! The Baby-Sitters Club #39"

Poor Mallory! The Baby-Sitters Club #39 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

This is the one where Mallory gets pissed that she has to share a bathroom with 7 other kids and goes on a rampage thru Kristy's rich neighborhood, right? No? Well, it should have been. Okay, what really happens is that Mallory's dad loses his job and gets a new one by the end of the book. That's the short story. This was a decent book though: someone is getting a new baby, we get some of Mallory's "poor little me" routine that comes up again later on, and there are some great bits with Claire the silly-billy-goo-goo. :)

Okay, so we start off with Mal and Jessi walking home from school, singing some gross song the triplets came up with. Mal informs us that Jessi is black, but she's totally okay with it. She gets home where she finds Claire fending for herself in the wilds...er, the living room...because their mom is lying down. She had talked to Mr Pike earlier and he's afraid he's getting laid off from his job. He's a lawyer in Stamford, because that's what all the dad's in Stoneybrook do. Suit up! Mallory is kind of freaked but doesn't think it will happen and goes off to the BSC meeting in a good mood. Then we get the usual reminiscing about all her dibble friends. "Dibble is short for incredible. Another word meaning dibble is distant. The opposite of dibble and distant are stale!" Gag me with a spoon. And a What Claudia is Wearing woo!

Claudia is also outgoing, but she doesn't have a big mouth, and she is so dibbly sophisticated and chic. She wears wild clothes like big hats; flowered vests over long shirts that belong to her father and which she leaves untucked; short black pants; and then, something just a little offbeat like penny loafers from the 1950s with white bobby socks. And her jewelry. It's the height of dibble-dom. She makes most of it herself-ceramic bead necklaces and big dangly earrings, but in shapes you wouldn't expect. Claudia might wear a monkey in one ear and a banana in the other. [I updated this look quite a bit, since it wasn't really a full outfit and I wanted to. :)]

(click here for links)

Also, Stacey gets to wear sparkly nail polish and *still* isn't feeling well. God, when is she going to get sick already?? And we find out that Jenny Prezzioso is going to be a big sister. That should go over well...the world's most selfish 4 yr old having to share Mommy & Daddy with a cute new baby. Can't wait. Oh and the Delaney's (you remember them? The super brats with the $400 cat who think Stacey is mentally deranged? I can't for the life of me find which book that was in. Arg.) need a regular sitter for a full month. Though I'm not sure why they wouldn't just hire a nanny. Mrs D is taking a real estate course that *only* meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 3:30-5:00 pm. How convenient. Do none of these families ever need a sitter during BSC meeting times?? That's always bugged me. Anyway, Kristy takes the job, for now, and meeting is over.

Mal runs home, dad got the pink slip, and doesn't.want.to.talk.about.it. The kids are all worried they aren't going to be able to eat, Claire wants to know what "dessatoot" (destitute) means, Mom is going to do temp work typing, the kids don't get their allowance anymore, Mal calls the first meeting of the Pike Club. They discuss ways they can help save money, by turning off the TV when they're not watching it and using washable towels instead of paper.

At the next BSC meeting, Kristy (being surprisingly generous & kindhearted) offers the Delaney job to Mal and has even set up transportation for her. The rest of the members agree that Mal should take as many jobs as she can, for extra money. And then they start gossipping about school...Dori Wallingford farted in lunch lol. And Mal & Jessi tell the others about this cow (whom I've never heard of) named Nan White that made fun of Mallory because her dad lost his job. I'm not sure how she heard about it, unless the whole BSC was spreading it around? And Kristy says she'd like to teach that Nan a lesson. Probably scare her in a cemetery or something.

Okay, so it's time for Mallory's first sitting job for Amanda and Max McMoneypants. She's awed by the fountain in the foyer, the space station kitchen, and the two tennis courts. (Why 2?) Then Mrs Delaney tells her that they have a new pool and the kids can use it, as long as one of the adult neighbors is home. And they can have friends over, but only as long as they are good swimmers. Which is all well and good, but:

A. What if Mallory can't swim? (Not to mention the fact that she doesn't have a swimsuit.) She's going to run over to the neighbor's if one of the kids is drowning?
B. Mallory now has to watch 5 kids, 3 for free. How is that fair? Mrs Delaney better pay really well.

But whatev. The kids come home, talk Mal into Oreos & Coke for a snack (Mal goes along, because hey, Oreos & Coke) and boast about their cat, home, pool, and father. (Also a lawyer) Then they go swimming in their fabulous pool with their "friends" and Mallory pouts on the side, thinking about poor Claire who just wants a new Skipper doll. Moving things along, Mal's dad keeps looking for a job, Mal's mom does some temp work, Mal's dad gets discouraged and starts vegging on the couch, poor Claire tells her dolls that they're bad and they can't have a new Skipper. Claire is really the star of this book, in my opinion. Things get worse when Dad decides not to get out of his pajamas and just watch soaps all day, letting Mrs Perkins pick up Claire from school. Mrs Pike blows up at him, telling him he should be cleaning and stuff because she's bringing home the bacon now. Mal calls another Pike Club meeting and the kids talk about how they're being teased at school and what they can do to make more money for the family, so they can pay the mortgage. Claire the awesome says "I'm sorry. I don't know what a mortgage is, either. I can't help it." Me neither, Claire, and I used to work for a mortgage company.

Meanwhile, back at the Delaney's, the kids are starting to realize that having a pool isn't always that great. Their so-called friends really only want to hang out for the pool usage (one girl is practicing her diving for a meet) and don't really want to play with them outside the pool. Max & Amanda are pretty upset and Mallory takes the time to think about how her sitting job parallels her own life. Ugh. Mal suggests that Amanda tell the kids she can't have them over in the pool with a sitter anymore and see who still wants to come over. Then, Mal decides that she wants to confront Nan & the other girls at school. The next day, at lunch, she gets her chance. Stupid Nan & her stupid friends are talking about Mallory's dad again and she's had enough. Jessi is scared she's going to fight them, but Mal just goes over and tells them off. She calls them prejudiced (I don't think that word means what you think it means) and says they aren't her friends, blah blah blah. The girls are stunned and Mal is satisfied. At her next sitting job, she finds out her plan for Amanda worked too.

So, we finally get to the end, Mal's dad gets a new job and isn't all mopey anymore, they find out that Vanessa was doing hair on the playground to earn money (side ponytails ftw), and Claire can finally get her new Skipper. The BSC have a sleepover at Mallory's house (she's finally in the big time!) and they decide to prank call Nan & her friend Janet. Ah, the days when you could do prank calls and not worry about *69 or caller ID. And all is happy again in the Pike household.

Up next is another Super Special woo! And then a BSC All Grown Up and maaaaybee....another giveaway? :) Thoughts? Comments? Requests?

Review: "Mallory & The Mystery Diary: The Baby-Sitters Club #29"

Mallory & The Mystery Diary: The Baby-Sitters Club #29 by Ann M Martin
4 out of 5 stars

Mindy was my BFF in 4th-6th grades...I wonder what #32 has to do with her? Hmm...This book starts out with Mallory lamenting the fact that she's never going to turn 13. If only I were thirteen instead of eleven. Life would be a picnic. I feel as if I'm going to be eleven forever. Sorry Mal, but it's true.

Stacey has moved into her new home, behind Mallory's, and as a welcome home Mal takes over a tuna casserole (side note: I've never had tuna casserole, but it sounds disgusting!). While she's there, she helps Stacey take some boxes up to the attic and they discover all this old junk up there that has been left behind by different families over the years. Mallory finds this awesome old trunk and Stacey's mom says she can have it, so she bribes the triplets into carrying it home for her and dragging it upstairs to her and Vanessa's room...but the stupid thing is locked. Vanessa immediately gets inspired by what might be inside and starts cranking out all this poetry about it. (trunk, lunk, thunk, monk, chipmunk, steampunk, who'da thunk...) This book might have been the reason I wanted a trunk so bad when I was younger, I'm not sure. I did end up getting one, a big black footlocker-type trunk. I used to lock my little sister in it (in my defense, she asked me to most of the time!) and I still have it. It has all my high school stuff in it and tons of books on top.

Anyway, while Mal is trying to figure out how to get that thing unlocked, let's do a What Claudia Was Wearing. :) Mallory starts us off with this insane statement: She [Claudia] would never, ever get arrested by the Fashion Police. Was she high??? Did she accidentally eat some of Dawn's weird mushrooms?? Claud was wearing jeans, a plain white blouse, a pink sweater, white socks, and loafers. She said she'd gone back to the fifties for the day. There's also a bit where Mal is totally amazed and shocked because Dawn is wearing a straw hat. Like ZOMG!!! 

Okay, so Mallory finally gets the trunk open and she and Vanessa are pretty excited about what's inside: a bunch of old clothes, shoes, dresses, hats, pins and best of all, a diary written by 12 year old Sophie, who lived in Stacey's house in 1894. Mal immediately starts reading the diary and it turns out there's a mystery surrounding Stacey's house. Oooh...another mystery! This one ties up the other 2 mysteries we had about Jared Mullray and Old Man Hickory a while back and brings them all together. Sophie is Jared's daughter and Hickory's granddaughter. Her mom died soon after a second child was born in Sophie's 12th year and Old Man Hickory blamed Jared and even accused him of stealing a painting of his (Hickory's) dead daughter. Sophie says there's no way her dad could have done that and she won't rest until she proves it. And that's where the diary ends. Jeez Sophie, leave us on a cliff-hanger why don't ya?

Mallory and the rest of the BSCers of course get totally consumed with the mystery, even having a séance. Kristy comes dressed as a gypsy which is totally offensive, but pretty funny because she's wearing an actual skirt and makeup.

The baby-sitting plot is pretty interesting too this time...Mallory agrees to tutor Buddy Barrett in reading because he's having some problems and his super-busy, scatterbrained mom doesn't have time/energy to help him. Baby-Sitters Club to the rescue! Yet again! Okay, well Mallory starts off with the assigned reading and those horrible flashcards so of course Buddy hates it and refuses to cooperate. Then Mal gets the bright idea to have him start off with something fun and interesting, like comic books. Because at this point, it doesn't matter what the kid is reading, as long as he is. And I agree. My stepsister is in the 6th grade this year and her reading class assignment is to read 30 books for the school year. That seems like a huge amount to me for a kid. Well, at Christmas time she got hooked on the Harry Potter books which is great, but she was getting behind since they are such big books. She said all her other classmates were reading the Magic Treehouse books, which were waaaay younger. How is that fair? That teacher needs to get her priorities straight!

Anyway! Mallory gets Buddy reading and writing his own comics and he's suddenly completely excited about reading. He even reads Sophie's journal and helps solve the mystery of the lost painting. While exploring the trunk, his hand gets stuck in a pocket and he finds a written confession by Old Man Hickory. Turns out he took the picture down himself and had it painted over with a new scene, but then when the townsfolk started asking about it, he blamed Jared! How rude! Mal & Buddy race over to Stacey's to see if the painting might still be in the attic and guess what?? It was! I know, you never would have guessed it. ;) They find it under a painting of some sailboats or something, Stacey's mom has it restored, and they hang it in their living room. Once again, the City of Townsville mystery is solved...thanks to the Powerpuff Girls Baby-Sitters Club. 

Review: "Mallory & The Trouble With Twins: The Baby-Sitters Club #21"

Mallory & The Trouble With Twins: The Baby-Sitters Club #21 by Ann M Martin
5 out of 5 stars

Oh I love this one: twins and tons of outfits and secret languages and ear piercing fun! Even though on the cover, the twins are incredibly creepy lol. I always wanted a twin. My sister and I are four years apart and in the last couple of years, people have started asking us if we are twins ALL THE TIME. Seriously, it's pretty funny when they start looking back and forth between the two of us and you can see the question coming. Of course, we never go with it, because we're dumb and don't think that fast. Sometimes we practice saying, "Yes, we ARE twins". :) Ally made this mosaic a while back for us...I'm the (older and shorter) one on the left in the majority of the pictures. We don't think we look that alike at all, what do you think?

Okay, on to the BSC! The Pike family is on it's way to the mall to buy new shoes...did you hear the Duggars are having another baby? I think the Pikes would be like that by now if they weren't fictional characters. Mallory wants cool pink shoes with green trim, but she has to get boring old loafers instead. Poor, deprived Mal. After she's humiliated in the shoe store, she takes Claire & Margo to watch a girl getting her ears pierced because Mal desperately wants hers done. When the gun punches the girl's ear, Claire freaks out, almost causing the girl to get a nose piercing instead and Margo almost barfs. Mal is humiliated yet again. You'd think she wouldn't get embarrassed so easily after 11 years with that family, but no.

At the BSC meeting, which Logan is attending btw so no bra talk!, Mal is still obsessing over earrings (Claudia has red sneakers) and she gets a regular job for 8 year old twins Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold. For some reason, I always called them MariLINE and CaroLINE in my head. I know that's not right, but I couldn't help it. Mar-Car (as I will now call them) were the epitome of twin-ness, thanks to their bow-obsessed mother.

Both girls were wearing blue kilts with straps that went over their shoulders, white blouses with lace edging the collars and sleeves, white knee socks, and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes. Their brown hair was cut in a bowl shape, framing their faces, and each twin had put on a blue headband with a blue bow on the side of it. Also, each wore a silver ring on the pinky finger of her right hand, and a beaded identification bracelet on her left wrist. The bracelets were the only difference between the twins.


Their mother is even worse....I just couldn't bring myself to make a polyvore of her outfit, so you'll just have to picture it on your own. She was wearing two necklaces, a pin, bracelets on each wrist, rings, earrings, and even an ankle bracelet. Her stockings [which means the ankle bracelet is OVER her stockings!] were lacey, and she was, well, as Claud might have said, overly accessorized. [Hello Pot, meet Kettle] Practically everything she wore had a bow attached. There were bows on her shoes, a bow on her belt, a bow in her hair, and a bow at the neck of her blouse. Her sweater was beaded, and she hadn't forgotten to pin a fake rose to it. Whew! [You’re telling me sister!] As for cute, her earrings were in the shape of ladybugs, one of her necklaces spelled her name-Linda-in gold script, her pin was in the shape of a mouse, and the bow in her hair was a ribbon with a print of tiny ducks [DUCKS!!?!?!] all over it. Seriously...there has to be something wrong with this woman. How does her husband feel being married to that?


Anyway, Mal starts out okay with Mar-Car until she mistakenly calls them "bookends" and they flip out. They abandon the name bracelets and start talking in their made-up language. And her easy-peasy sitting job turns into a nightmare after that. The girls completely ignore Mal the whole time, they play hide-and-seek and one twin gets 2 snacks instead of 1; just being brats in general. They also get Claudia in trouble when she sits for them, by sending the wrong twin to her music lesson. Claudia realizes that these girls really are rotten and it wasn't just Mal being a bad sitter lol. The BSC'ers try to figure out a solution at their next meeting, instead of you know, going to the parents. They don't really come up with anything, but Mal gets a chance to ogle their super awesome outfits...


[Claudia's] long hair was fixed in about a million braids which were pulled back and held in place behind her head with a column of puffy ponytail holders. She was wearing a T-shirt she'd painted herself, tight blue pants that ended just past her knees, push-down socks, and no shoes. From her ears dangled small baskets of fruit. She'd made those, I knew. Sitting next to Claud on the bed were Mary Anne and Dawn. Mary Anne was wearing a short plum-colored skirt over a plum-and-white-striped body suit. The legs of the body suit stopped just above her ankles, and she'd tucked the bottoms into her socks. I don't know where her shoes were. The neat thing about her outfit was that she was wearing white suspenders with her skirt. [Apparently, everyone in Stoneybrook wears suspenders all the time. I never had them! That makes me sad now!] I immediately decided to use some of my hard-earned Arnold money to buy suspenders. And maybe a pair of push-down socks like Claud's. Or, if I became rich, to copy Dawn's entire outfit. [I don't know why, I think it's pretty darn ugly and as you can see, I took generous creative licensing on it.] Dawn was wearing this cool oversized (really oversized) blue shirt. One of the coolest things about it was that it was green inside, so that when she turned the collar down and rolled the sleeves up, you could see these nice touches of green at her neck and wrists. She was wearing a green skirt--and clogs. I'd never seen a person actually wearing clogs, just photos of people in Sweden. Dawn was the only kid in school who could get away with wearing them. She is so self-possessed. [What the heck does that mean??]

Mallory finally figures things out at Mar-Car's birthday party, where they get identical presents from everyone except Mallory. She gives them individual gifts based on their interests and they LUV them and suddenly they're BFF's. Okay not really, but they chill out a little. Even more (or maybe before the party) when Mallory teaches them Pig Latin so they can have a real fake language. My dad taught us Pig Latin when we were kids. It-hay as-way awesome-hay. ol-lay. ;) She sits down with the girls after the party and they tell her how much they hate being "THE TWINS" all the time now. So Mal agrees to talk to their mom with them. Cause that's what every parent wants, for their 11 year old baby-sitter to tell them they don't know how their own kids feel. But it works, because it's BSCLand, and Mrs. Bowalicious agrees to let Mar-Car dress differently and even use some of their birthday money for new clothes.


Mrs. Bowtastic drops Mar-Car and Mal off at the mall one afternoon to do some shopping and the twins take this seriously, looking at everything in all the stores before going back and buying stuff. Smart. Very smart. Carolyn ends up with a neat white sweat shirt with a glittering yellow moon and two stars on the front, cool jeans and yellow push-down socks. Marilyn bought a cute pink jeans skirt and a ruffle white blouse which cost at least three quarters of her money, knee socks with hearts on them and pink barrettes. They're mom has a mini-freakout when she sees them, but then she's cool with it.

This whole "talking and communicating with your parents" thing gives Mallory the bright idea to talk to HER parents and see if she can get her ears pierced. Well actually, she first asks for: a haircut, pierced ears, contact lenses, and a new wardrobe. Selfish much. Her parents agree to a haircut and pierced ears and to let her spend some of her money on new clothes. Totally reasonable. I didn't get contacts til I was 18. I don't really get the pierced ears thing though. I had mine done when I was pretty little and then my mom and I got our 2nd holes together when I was 12 or 13. She did have a fit over the cartilage piercing when I was 18 but after about a week she wanted one too lol.


Anyway, Mal is super excited and talks Jessi into begging her parents for earrings too and they agree. And then Claudia decides to get another set of holes in her head too. So they decide to make it a day at the mall. I love when they go to the mall, it reminds me of when our dad would give us "going away money" (yes, I'm being serious here) and we'd hang out at the mall for hours just wandering around being nuisances to the sales people. Mal & Jessi get their ears pierced with no problem. (With no parents' permission btw.) Miss "I have 2 holes already and I'm an old pro at this" Claudia almost faints when she gets her's done. Hah! And then Dawn decides last minute that she wants earrings too and calls her mom, who agrees to not one but two holes in each ear! Kristy and Mary Anne are wusses, so they don't get any. They do buy secret presents for each of the other 3 though and there's a big earring gift giving meeting towards the end of the book. Studs in the shape of California, gold loops with oranges hanging from them, artists' palettes, ballet shoes, horses, books, and weird kitschy ones Claud made with miniature Coke cans, eyeglasses, forks, animals, feathers and beads. So dibbly. Oh wait, they haven't invented that word yet, have they? My bad. :)

Review: "Hello, Mallory: The Baby-Sitters Club #14"

Hello, Mallory: The Baby-Sitters Club #14 by Ann M Martin

2 out of 5 stars

I really disliked this book. I love Mallory, she's probably the most like me after Mary Anne. Anyone who says "I love to read, and I don't believe that you have to finish one book before you start another." is A-Okay with me! :) But her first real book was full of mean baby-sitters, ridiculous tests and racism.

Okay, let's start from the beginning. The BSC has invited Mallory to join them to help replace Stacey, but they want to give her a test first. Mallory is super excited...finally something to make her more "grown-up". Maybe now her parents will let her get contacts or not get braces or get cooler clothes. Or not..."What Mallory is Wearing" for her first BSC meeting:

I finally decided on my red jumper that said "Mallory" across the front, a short-sleeved white blouse, and white tights with little red hearts all over them. "You look like a Valentine," Vanessa told me, but I didn't care. I put on my penny loafers.

Yeah, you do. I forgive her though, because I would be super excited to join the BSC too! Until they give me a crazy hard test about how to apply a tourniquet and drawing and labeling the digestive system!! I would have stormed off and started my own club too. Way to go Mallory!

So Mallory doesn't start the club by herself...she meets a new girl at school, Jessi Ramsey, and they become fast friends. Jessi is black. And a ballet dancer. And black. And likes to read horse stories just like Mal. Oh and she's black. And she likes to tell funny jokes, which goes away in like the next book I think. And did I mention she was black? That's pretty much how the book goes. :/ I get that this book was published in 1988 (holy crap I'm old!) but is that really necessary?

Anyway, Mal & Jessi are BFF's now and when the BSC realizes they were total jerkheads (my new favorite insult) and invite Mal to join the club after all, she refuses unless Jessi can join too. They say okay and at the first meeting Jessi points out the fact that she is black (not that they couldn't tell) and suggests that some of their clients might not like that. Enlightened 8th graders that they are, the BSC'ers say then they don't want those people as clients. And tada! The BSC now has 2 Associate Members!