True story: every time I've ever swept my bangs to the side and the bangs have gone too far, forming a daffodil bulb-type shape, I think, "Ugh. This is so Mary Anne on the cover of Mary Anne Saves The Day." (Original cover, of course.) It's a weird cover. Besides Mary Anne's odd appearance, Jenny Prezzioso's face looks like the man in the moon.

This was a good reread, but I have to say- Mary Anne's father's insistence upon keeping his preteen daughter positively infantile is incredibly creepy. What sane father forces his daughter to dress like a four-year-old and keep pictures from nursery rhymes on her wall?

Also weird- when Jenny Prezzioso's fever hit 104, why didn't Mary Anne give her a friggin' Tylenol before calling 911 and requesting an ambulance? If I called 911 every time one of my sitting charges had a 104 fever, I would have cost various parents tens of thousands of dollars in ambulance fees by now.

The intertwining plot with the gigantic BSC fight was interesting, too. Everyone does exactly what you'd expect them to- Kristy is a grudge-holding asshole, Stacey is a snob, Mary Anne is freaked out and desperate for the fight to be over, and Claudia looks to everyone else for cues. The scene where Claudia and Stacey smush KoolAid-covered paper towels in each others' faces at Jamie Newton's birthday party is freaking priceless. Priceless, I tell you!