Review: "Kristy for President: The Baby-Sitters Club #53"

Kristy for President: The Baby-Sitters Club #53 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

Kristy looks super weird on this cover. Like they spray-tanned her first, to match Emily Michelle. And David Michael too (I'm guessing that's who that is). This book starts off on a Friday at school, where Kristy is headed to another boring assembly (don't know what for), which is interrupted by a fire drill. Then it's lunchtime and we start right off with Disgusting School Lunches by Kristy Thomas. (Warning: don't read if you are about to eat or have just eaten lol.)

"Splatter art," I [Kristy] agreed. You know, like in those horror movies..."

Mary Anne picked up her fork and started to cut the meat loaf. Just as she cut it, I shrieked. Mary Anne gave a little shriek herself and dropped the fork. I lowered my voice mysteriously. "I think it's still alive."

I picked up my own fork and took another look at the meat loaf. It was gray, and the tomato sauce was pale red and watery. The mashed potatoes next to it had a sort of oozy quality. And I wasn't so sure I liked the color of the broccoli. It looked like something that had been attacked by Bunnicula, the vampire rabbit.

This led to the girls discussing the upcoming student elections and how Kristy should run for President and change the food if she hated it so much.

She [Dawn] pointed to the soggy piece of angel food cake on my tray, which was beginning to look a little too much like the mashed potatoes. "Your motto could be 'Let us eat cake.'"

That sets Kristy's little "take charge of all things" wheels spinning and she begins to seriously consider it. Even though she's already super busy and really doesn't have time for it. She's even almost late for her baby-sitting job for the Newton's. Luckily, Jamie is too preoccupied with his new bicycle that's coming to care. A "real" bicycle, not a baby one. Before we get more into that, let's see What Claudia & Stacey are Wearing.

Claudia was wearing lime green bicycle pants, a long, long bright pink shirt, and a cropped lime green striped shirt over that. She was also wearing black hightop leather sneakers with pink butterfly barrettes clipped to the laces. She had two feather earrings in one ear (lime green, of course), and a tiny pink heart in the other. [Her hair] was pulled up on top of her head and fell down to one side.

[Stacey] is also a way cool dresser. Like that Monday, she was wearing a black skirt and tights that were two colors: one leg was red and the other was black. And her shoes were shiny black and laced up to the ankles. She was also wearing this enormous black turtleneck sweater with red flecks in it, and one round red earring and one square black one. Her hair, which was in a mid-perm stage around her face, was pulled back with this silver lamé band. She looked smashing.

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At the meeting, Claudia brings up the class play, which is Mary Poppins. Everyone immediately starts bashing it, saying how childish it is. But I'm pretty sure it's Stacey's favorite movie (after Parent Trap oops no, that's Dawn's fave) and she doesn't say much, but it's still kind of weird. Kristy goes on a rant about it, which turns into a speech, which leads to her finally saying she's running for President. Oh and Mallory is running for 6th grade secretary, but really, who cares?

Kristy is up and running with her candidacy...Claudia comes up with some K+ slogans (see what I did there?) and becomes her campaign manager. Kristy is pretty sure she's got it in the bag. Her other competition is the reprehensible Alan Gray, Grace Blume (Cokie Mason's sidekick), and Pete Black (Kristy just says he's immature, whatever that means.) The girls plaster the school with Kristy's posters and get fierce with their competition. Kristy goes a little overboard during Campaign Day and tosses this little gem out: "Grace," I said. "The best woman - and the best candidate - is going to win. So why don't you just go somewhere and get some more practice at being a loser?" Oooh, harsh. The stress is getting to her, for sure.

Oh! We get another Claudia outfit with bonus comparison to Janine the Genius. Claudia was dressed fairly conservatively: white jeans, red shoes with big bows, a tropical jungle shirt with each button shaped like a piece of fruit, and her hair pulled to one side over her shoulder with a banana barrette. But Janine, with her short hair and bangs, her pullover sweater, and plain skirt and loafers, made Claudia look extremely exotic.

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Now let's get back to Jamie and his brand new bicycle. I got a new bicycle a couple of months ago too. :) (Shown here with The Unexpected Everything because it matched lol.) I was like Jamie actually, in the beginning. I haven't ridden a bike in at least 20 years a really long time. I not-so-jokingly said I wanted training wheels but my sister said no. But I managed to get on it and ride the first day! I was pretty proud of myself. I'm still pretty wobbly on it and straight-line challenged but I'm getting there. Okay, anyway, Jamie! He is not doing so well and will barely move, even with the training wheels. He stops for every crack, stick, and leaf on the sidewalk and has to get off the bike to turn around. Then he decides training wheels are for babies and removes them, which of course makes everything worse. He finally agrees to put them back on after the "big kids" in his neighborhood stop and tell him how they all started with them too.

And how's Kristy faring with her campaign? Well, it's just lucky she's not running in the real presidential election. (Although I'd still vote for her (or even Alan Gray) over one or two of our nominees right now.) Her grades begin to slide, she has to retake a science test that she didn't even study for, she cancels Krushers practice, and considers, for a brief moment, taking a break from the BSC. Finally, she realizes the only logical thing is to drop out of the campaign. As soon as she makes that decision, she feels better and everything becomes easy again.

And oh my lord, we get a 3rd Claudia outfit and 2nd Stacey one! What's so special about this book?? Hope you enjoy these as much as I do making them!

Stacey had pulled her hair back into a braid with a silver hat pin stuck through it. She was wearing purple capri pants, soft black flat ankle boots, black-and-white-striped socks, and a black-and-white-checked shirt, only the checks were all different sizes. She had square silver earrings in her ears.

Claud's hair was down, but she was wearing a hat. On the green hat ribbon was pinned a "Kristy+" button. Her tights were orange and her dress was tie-dyed [I'm kind of in love with the dress I picked for this lol] every color you could think of. She was wearing her feather earrings, and she'd drawn a star on her face next to her right eye.

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