Review: "Mary Anne's Makeover: The Baby-Sitters Club #60"

Mary Anne's Makeover: The Baby-Sitters Club #60 by Ann M Martin
4 out of 5 stars

As someone who totally identifies with Mary Anne on a deep and spiritual level, I absolutely love this book. You go, girl! Sorry. I had that exact haircut in 6th-7th grade. I wish I had that outfit today. Okay, so this book starts off with Mary Anne baby-sitting the Arnold twins and something about a flummp caterpillar (flux capicitator). Mary Anne has made a New Year's resolution: to be the best person [she] could be, in all possible ways. And that meant being the best possible baby-sitter, along with everything else. Yeah, that's gonna work. The sciencey twin is making a time machine, a la Back to the Future. And the musicy twin is practicing the piano. She was playing this dainty classical piece that made me think of people with powdered faces dancing around in wigs and dresses with big bustles.

Mary Anne is feeling very blah because it's winter and cold and grey and she has to repeat the same old boring stuff about all the members of the BSC and everything they do. But we do get an early What Mary Anne is Wearing outfit, pre-makeover. That day I was wearing teal-colored stirrup pants and a bulky ski sweater with a colorful snowflake print, over a pink turtleneck.

At the BSC meeting, the girls are looking at fashion magazines and Mary Anne finds a really cool haircut she likes, but all the other girls just laugh at her and tell it's not her at all. MA kind of shrugs it off, but doesn't forget about it. Later that night, she finds an even better haircut and she really thinks it will look good on her, so she decides to talk to her dad about it. You know, the dad who made her wear pigtail braids til she was 52. But he's surprisingly chill about it and even takes her to the mall to get it AND lets her get some makeup and new clothes. Marrying Sharon has REALLY mellowed him out. I bet she gives him special brownies for dessert.

I couldn't take my eyes off this outfit. It was a fiery red, off-the-shoulder crepe dress, with shirred sleeves, a fitted bodice, and a skirt that flared to mid-calf. It was the kind of dress the old me would never have dreamed of wearing. But the New Mary Anne would look great in it for the January Jamboree! Do you think there's a committee at the school that just thinks up dumb names for the dances? (See below for the dress, this was so hard to find the right one!) She also got an oversized, indigo cable-knit sweater; and a pair of floral paisley print Lycra leggings with a French terry top.

Back at the Arnold's house, Jessi is baby-sitting this time and the time machine is the center of the conversation. Carolyn wants to go back in time to when her mom and dad were kids, so she can baby-sit them. That's sweet. But she seems to be taking it all a little too seriously and Jessi is worried Carolyn really thinks she can go back in time. Especially when she starts charging kids a dollar for reservations.

On her face was a snorkel mask, complete with pipe. A pair of fluffy earmuffs was on her head, and a big wool scarf around her neck. Between the mask and the muffs, her hair was sticking out every which way.

So Mary Anne gets this super awesome makeover, but she keeps it a secret from all her friends. When she reveals her new look, it does not go well. Honestly, the other BSCers are downright rude in this one. Dawn is jealous that MA went without her and that Mr Spier spent all that money on her and such. And she tells Logan and the other girls about it all before Mary Anne can surprise them. Logan loves it, of course, because he's not totally stupid. The other girls' reactions are:

"It's shorter than I thought." 
"Mary Anne, you knucklehead...we said that cut wasn't you."
"It's okay."
"It'll grow out."

I mean, seriously? First of all, Kristy has NO room to talk. She's probably still got a dent in her hair from her ponytail holder. Then they start spreading rumors around that some high school guy likes her. Which isn't too surprising. Everyone at school think she looks great. Even Cokie Mason, that skank who loves Logan Bruno and tried to steal him away, says she looks fantastic. Mary Anne makes some new friends, with some of the "popular snobby" girls and she realizes that maybe the BSCers are the ones who are snobby. I'm not saying they are but...it is an elitist club that they hardly let anyone join and they always sit together at lunch and never let anyone help with any of their special events and...yeah.

There's another rumor that some dude named Carlos is going to ask Mary Anne to the Winter Dance at the high school (not to be confused with the January Jamboree) and Logan hears about it and gets his feelers hurt for a bit. But they get it sorted out quickly and he doesn't have to go beat up the guy or anything. Mary Anne finally decides she needs to sort things out with her friends and starts with Dawn. You're always telling me to stand up for myself and be independent. Then, when I finally do something independent, you treat me like a traitor. They talk and hug and cry and laugh and everything is all good and then we get to go to the January Jamboree which is apparently as fancy as the senior prom.

[Dawn's dress] was made of black velvet, with a sheer bodice trimmed with beading and lace, and a flared, above-knee skirt. With black stockings and shoes, and her hair pulled up in a French braid, Dawn looked absolutely breathtaking. There were other spectacular sights, too. Like Kristy trying to walk with heels in a long dress (she kicked them off about two minutes after she got to the gym.) And Claudia, wearing a lamé outfit that was all sharp angles and flashy colors. And Stacey, looking as if she had stepped out of a Hollywood movie in a slinky silk gown that belonged to her mother. Her date was Sam Thomas, Kristy's older brother. 

(A brief note about my outfit collages: I was using Polyvore previously and loved it and was obviously very upset when they suddenly closed/changed last year. I'm currently using good old Google images and creating my own collages in Word. I'm not sure how well it will work going forward, but I'm going to do my best. If you have any suggestions for a replacement site, please let me know!)