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The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #4
Baby-sitters' Island Adventure
Dawn and Claudia have a perfect day planned. They've invited Dawn's brother and three other kids to join them on a sailing race out to Greenpoint Island. The girls have even packed a picnic lunch for the adventure.
But then a big storm blows up in the middle of the race. And Claudia and Dawn and the kids never return from the island.
The Baby-sitters can't believe it's true--two of their members are missing!
But then a big storm blows up in the middle of the race. And Claudia and Dawn and the kids never return from the island.
The Baby-sitters can't believe it's true--two of their members are missing!
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 1990
78 people are currently reading
619 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,114 books3,062 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
September 12, 2010
this book is hilariously ridiculous. it's amazing that the plots of the super specials went off the rails so early. the premise is that stoneybrook is suddenly right on the water, complete with a community center where people can take boating lessons. dawn & claudia have both completed sailing training, & they decide to have a race to a nearby island & back again. during their first race, with instructors, claudia's billowing button-down gets tangled around her face & one of her ludicrously over-sized earrings gets caught in the rigging. so dawn pulls ahead, but once claudia frees herself & her accessories from the boat's hydraulics, she makes up the distance & the race ends in a tie. so they decide to re-match.
dawn's brother jeff will be visiting from california during the re-match, & he likes to sail as well (must be a california thing, amirite?), so she invites him to come along. the girls won't need instructors this time, & dawn thinks it will be useful to have another hand on deck. but this makes things somewhat unfair, so claudia decides to invite becca ramsey to accompany her. even though becca has never been on a boat before & could not possibly be as helpful as jeff. becca is psyched & calls her friends, including haley braddock. apparently haley is bummed about always being in the shadow of her deaf brother, & she wants something special for herself, such as stealing becca's thunder by wanting to go on the boat as well. claudia generously acquiesces. but now claudia has two deckhands & dawn just has jeff. so dawn does the obvious thing & invites along four-year-old jamie newton. way to handicap yourself, there, dawn. the newtons bizarrely think this is a great idea. but dawn & claudia realize that jamie might prefer to be on claudia's boat (jamie is claudia's special babysitting charge), so they swap haley & jamie. it really seems like dawn has the stronger crew, but...whatever.
in the lead up to the race, dawn decides to get an edge by carb loading & working out. during one of her work-outs, logan calls to let mary anne know that he's been drafted into some last second babysitting & won't be able to meet her for their hot study date at the library. dawn takes the message, but forgets to pass it on to mary anne because she's so into her exercising. when mary anne comes home later, she's pissed at logan for tanding her up. dawn realizes the miscommunication is her fault & tries to let mary anne know, but mary anne just shushes her so she can call logan & yell at him. he explains that he left the message with dawn, but he's still really mad at mary anne for thinking he'd stand her up. so logan is mad at mary anne, & mary anne is mad at dawn for causing this problem. mary anne goes so far as to tell dawn that she never wants to see her again. mary anne is supposed to be so sweet & innocent, but she she gets angry, she really doesn't pussyfoot around.
so the girls & their motley crews head down to the dock for their race. a good portion of stoneybrook turns out to see them off, but mary anne & logan skip it. the newtons tell the girls to make sure jamie wears a jacket because he's getting over a cold. so he's not just a four-year-old on a sailing race--he's a sickly four-year-old on a sailing race. the girls decide it might be fun for the kids to have a picnic, so they decide to just race to the island & then stop there for some snacks & playing, before a leisurely sail back to stoneybrook. accordingly, they have packed coolers with sandwiches, fruit, candy bars, & juice boxes.
& they're off! now, supposedly, this island is about three miles off the coast of connecticut, but the girls are already at sea for an hour when a big storm kicks up. a few questions: 1) couldn't a sailboat probably make it three miles to an island within an hour? 2) especially if there's wind, due to an incoming storm? 3) did no one think to check on the weather for the day before sending two 13-year-olds off in charge of a bunch of children on some sailboats in the atlantic ocean?
of course, if people were thinking clearly, we wouldn't have a story. the boats get caught in the storm. jeff is very helpful, securing the food under plastic tarps & such forth, but the boats begin to drift away from each other. & then a wave overpowers dawn's boat & it starts to sink. she manages to steer close enough to claudia's boat for jeff to throw their food in, but then dawn, jeff, & haley have to swim for it. if you stop & think about it, this is actually really scary. there's a raging storm, with waves serious enough to take out a sailboat, & three children have to swim in the open ocean for another small sailboat piloted by another crew of children. i'm 31 & i wouldn't want to be anywhere in this mixed up situation. they all make it safely to claudia's boat, but there's not enough room on board for three more people, so they just have to hang on to the side & dangle in the ocean, like leonardo dicaprio clinging to the lifeboat at the end of "titanic". cray-cray.
the storm starts to lift & someone sees land. they don't know if it's the island they were trying to get to, but it beats the ocean, so that's where they go. they unload their supplies & find a fairly dry cave. claudia & dawn begin to realize that this is not the island they were aiming for, but they opt to keep it from the kids. jeff heads out to scavenge dry twigs for a fire...& here's where i have another question: wouldn't starting a fire in a cave be a little dangerous? without proper ventilation, they could all die of smoke inhalation, Y/Y?
this is where our castaways start to display their similarities to various characters on "lost". dawn thinks she's going to be the fearless leader, but instead she's kind of bumbling & over-emotional & ends up being jamie's nursemaid when he gets sick again. so she's jack. claudia proves herself surprisingly inventive & capable, & is really the only one on this godforsaken rock that has any ability to ensure anyone's survival, so let's call her sayid. haley wants to gather rocks & make a big "HELP" sign in the sand, so obviously she's bernard the dentist, complete with the fascist overtones (haley panics & screams when she discovers that the boat is missing). becca just kind of amiably goes along to get along, never really distinguishing herself in any meaningful way, so...maybe she's boone. someone surely could have convinced her to scale a cliffside & die a tragic death if they'd stayed on the island long enough. jamie is useless & sick, so i guess he's claire. jeff is a crackerjack fisherman, so he's jin.
meanwhile, on the mainland, we discover that the pikes are big on sailing, & they're out on a boat in the ocean looking for the castaways all day everyday. so...convenient boating & navigational abilities combined with relentless desire to search despite all signs of futility? must be penny. mary anne cries & feels guilty about having said she never wanted to see dawn again. she's just about useless enough to be the charlie of the group. stacey is trapped in new york city with her father, who refuses to let her go home & help search. controlled by a dominating patriarch & determined to rise up in independence? must be sun. kristy just kind of lingers in the background. at one point, she joins the pikes on their boat. contributes pretty much nothing, despite being a bossy britches who talks a big game? kristy is john locke. she certainly fancies herself as possessing the omnipotence of a smoke monster. jessi is extremely concerned about becca's disappearance, & it's worth noting that she was in charge of her younger siblings for the weekend. when her aunt cecelia hears about what happened, she comes straight to stoneybrook & takes over, blaming jessi for becca's involvement in the accident. jessi bristles at this injustice. so...blamed for something over which she has no control & oppressed by authority? maybe she's the man in black. & we'll say logan is jacob, & that he & jessi together are the puppetmasters behind this entire tragedy, just because i think that's a hilarious concept. i like the idea of them back in stoneybrook, watching all their friends freak out, idly playing a little backgammon & having murderous philosophical debates.
our castaways spend two days on the island & then they find another group of survivors, one of whom shoots jamie newton in the gut. wait, no. they spend two days on the island & then a polar bear kills them all. wait, that doesn't happen either. they spend two days on the island & then haley is kidnapped by a technologically advanced tribe & is forced to perform surgery on their bug-eyed leader. wait, that doesn't sound right...they spend two days on the island & then claudia builds a raft that results in becca being kidnapped. no? maybe they find a nuclear warhead? or maybe wes ellenburg, student math teacher extraordinaire, parachutes to the island to tell them that they're flashing through time? or maybe they find a mysterious hatch & ben hobart is inside, armed to the teeth & rocking out to the mamas & the papas? or maybe they are lured to a temple guarded by peaches & russ, where they are informed that dawn is pure evil & must be tricked into eating a poison capsule encased in bulgar wheat?
what really happens is that they survive by rationing their picnic supplies & collecting rainwater, & then claudia finds a piece of mirror in the woods & uses it to signal a search plane flying over the island (no word on the pilot, but i'm going to go ahead & assume it's lapidus wearing a badass hawaiian shirt--& keamy is lurking in the cargo hold with a remote incendiary device strapped to his arm just in case dawn says anything about peak oil). the plane gets the coordinates (from eloise hawking in the lamp post?) & they send a rescue ship, which is in fact a normal rescue ship & not some kind of crazy freighter loaded up with explosives. though that would have been a great way to end the book. everyone is rescued, dawn & mary anne make up, jamie comes to terms with his bad wig & decides he can be a good mother after all, &...scene.
dawn's brother jeff will be visiting from california during the re-match, & he likes to sail as well (must be a california thing, amirite?), so she invites him to come along. the girls won't need instructors this time, & dawn thinks it will be useful to have another hand on deck. but this makes things somewhat unfair, so claudia decides to invite becca ramsey to accompany her. even though becca has never been on a boat before & could not possibly be as helpful as jeff. becca is psyched & calls her friends, including haley braddock. apparently haley is bummed about always being in the shadow of her deaf brother, & she wants something special for herself, such as stealing becca's thunder by wanting to go on the boat as well. claudia generously acquiesces. but now claudia has two deckhands & dawn just has jeff. so dawn does the obvious thing & invites along four-year-old jamie newton. way to handicap yourself, there, dawn. the newtons bizarrely think this is a great idea. but dawn & claudia realize that jamie might prefer to be on claudia's boat (jamie is claudia's special babysitting charge), so they swap haley & jamie. it really seems like dawn has the stronger crew, but...whatever.
in the lead up to the race, dawn decides to get an edge by carb loading & working out. during one of her work-outs, logan calls to let mary anne know that he's been drafted into some last second babysitting & won't be able to meet her for their hot study date at the library. dawn takes the message, but forgets to pass it on to mary anne because she's so into her exercising. when mary anne comes home later, she's pissed at logan for tanding her up. dawn realizes the miscommunication is her fault & tries to let mary anne know, but mary anne just shushes her so she can call logan & yell at him. he explains that he left the message with dawn, but he's still really mad at mary anne for thinking he'd stand her up. so logan is mad at mary anne, & mary anne is mad at dawn for causing this problem. mary anne goes so far as to tell dawn that she never wants to see her again. mary anne is supposed to be so sweet & innocent, but she she gets angry, she really doesn't pussyfoot around.
so the girls & their motley crews head down to the dock for their race. a good portion of stoneybrook turns out to see them off, but mary anne & logan skip it. the newtons tell the girls to make sure jamie wears a jacket because he's getting over a cold. so he's not just a four-year-old on a sailing race--he's a sickly four-year-old on a sailing race. the girls decide it might be fun for the kids to have a picnic, so they decide to just race to the island & then stop there for some snacks & playing, before a leisurely sail back to stoneybrook. accordingly, they have packed coolers with sandwiches, fruit, candy bars, & juice boxes.
& they're off! now, supposedly, this island is about three miles off the coast of connecticut, but the girls are already at sea for an hour when a big storm kicks up. a few questions: 1) couldn't a sailboat probably make it three miles to an island within an hour? 2) especially if there's wind, due to an incoming storm? 3) did no one think to check on the weather for the day before sending two 13-year-olds off in charge of a bunch of children on some sailboats in the atlantic ocean?
of course, if people were thinking clearly, we wouldn't have a story. the boats get caught in the storm. jeff is very helpful, securing the food under plastic tarps & such forth, but the boats begin to drift away from each other. & then a wave overpowers dawn's boat & it starts to sink. she manages to steer close enough to claudia's boat for jeff to throw their food in, but then dawn, jeff, & haley have to swim for it. if you stop & think about it, this is actually really scary. there's a raging storm, with waves serious enough to take out a sailboat, & three children have to swim in the open ocean for another small sailboat piloted by another crew of children. i'm 31 & i wouldn't want to be anywhere in this mixed up situation. they all make it safely to claudia's boat, but there's not enough room on board for three more people, so they just have to hang on to the side & dangle in the ocean, like leonardo dicaprio clinging to the lifeboat at the end of "titanic". cray-cray.
the storm starts to lift & someone sees land. they don't know if it's the island they were trying to get to, but it beats the ocean, so that's where they go. they unload their supplies & find a fairly dry cave. claudia & dawn begin to realize that this is not the island they were aiming for, but they opt to keep it from the kids. jeff heads out to scavenge dry twigs for a fire...& here's where i have another question: wouldn't starting a fire in a cave be a little dangerous? without proper ventilation, they could all die of smoke inhalation, Y/Y?
this is where our castaways start to display their similarities to various characters on "lost". dawn thinks she's going to be the fearless leader, but instead she's kind of bumbling & over-emotional & ends up being jamie's nursemaid when he gets sick again. so she's jack. claudia proves herself surprisingly inventive & capable, & is really the only one on this godforsaken rock that has any ability to ensure anyone's survival, so let's call her sayid. haley wants to gather rocks & make a big "HELP" sign in the sand, so obviously she's bernard the dentist, complete with the fascist overtones (haley panics & screams when she discovers that the boat is missing). becca just kind of amiably goes along to get along, never really distinguishing herself in any meaningful way, so...maybe she's boone. someone surely could have convinced her to scale a cliffside & die a tragic death if they'd stayed on the island long enough. jamie is useless & sick, so i guess he's claire. jeff is a crackerjack fisherman, so he's jin.
meanwhile, on the mainland, we discover that the pikes are big on sailing, & they're out on a boat in the ocean looking for the castaways all day everyday. so...convenient boating & navigational abilities combined with relentless desire to search despite all signs of futility? must be penny. mary anne cries & feels guilty about having said she never wanted to see dawn again. she's just about useless enough to be the charlie of the group. stacey is trapped in new york city with her father, who refuses to let her go home & help search. controlled by a dominating patriarch & determined to rise up in independence? must be sun. kristy just kind of lingers in the background. at one point, she joins the pikes on their boat. contributes pretty much nothing, despite being a bossy britches who talks a big game? kristy is john locke. she certainly fancies herself as possessing the omnipotence of a smoke monster. jessi is extremely concerned about becca's disappearance, & it's worth noting that she was in charge of her younger siblings for the weekend. when her aunt cecelia hears about what happened, she comes straight to stoneybrook & takes over, blaming jessi for becca's involvement in the accident. jessi bristles at this injustice. so...blamed for something over which she has no control & oppressed by authority? maybe she's the man in black. & we'll say logan is jacob, & that he & jessi together are the puppetmasters behind this entire tragedy, just because i think that's a hilarious concept. i like the idea of them back in stoneybrook, watching all their friends freak out, idly playing a little backgammon & having murderous philosophical debates.
our castaways spend two days on the island & then they find another group of survivors, one of whom shoots jamie newton in the gut. wait, no. they spend two days on the island & then a polar bear kills them all. wait, that doesn't happen either. they spend two days on the island & then haley is kidnapped by a technologically advanced tribe & is forced to perform surgery on their bug-eyed leader. wait, that doesn't sound right...they spend two days on the island & then claudia builds a raft that results in becca being kidnapped. no? maybe they find a nuclear warhead? or maybe wes ellenburg, student math teacher extraordinaire, parachutes to the island to tell them that they're flashing through time? or maybe they find a mysterious hatch & ben hobart is inside, armed to the teeth & rocking out to the mamas & the papas? or maybe they are lured to a temple guarded by peaches & russ, where they are informed that dawn is pure evil & must be tricked into eating a poison capsule encased in bulgar wheat?
what really happens is that they survive by rationing their picnic supplies & collecting rainwater, & then claudia finds a piece of mirror in the woods & uses it to signal a search plane flying over the island (no word on the pilot, but i'm going to go ahead & assume it's lapidus wearing a badass hawaiian shirt--& keamy is lurking in the cargo hold with a remote incendiary device strapped to his arm just in case dawn says anything about peak oil). the plane gets the coordinates (from eloise hawking in the lamp post?) & they send a rescue ship, which is in fact a normal rescue ship & not some kind of crazy freighter loaded up with explosives. though that would have been a great way to end the book. everyone is rescued, dawn & mary anne make up, jamie comes to terms with his bad wig & decides he can be a good mother after all, &...scene.
June 2, 2016
Sometimes you need that nostalgia. (I was a BSC kid.)
June 24, 2019
And the award for the most outlandish Super Special goes to...
Everything about this book is ridiculous and so obviously I loved it.
Everything about this book is ridiculous and so obviously I loved it.
March 21, 2016
this is my first time reading this book!
in this super special that really should have just been a regular length book (based on lack of interesting content), dawn (the framing device narrator) and claudia get shipwrecked in a sailing race and end up stuck on an uninhabited island for a few days. unfortunately for them (but fortunately for the plot of the book), they had brought along jeff schafer, becca ramsey, haley braddock, and jamie newton on the race, so while being stuck on the island they also have to deal with baby-sitting problems, like jamie newton running a high fever. meanwhile, the other members of the bsc are part of the search team and are dealing with their own individual dramas, in classic super special fashion.
highlights:
-they talk about how it's always 9 o'clock on the island, which of course reminds me of monkey island:
-newscasters reporting on the story keep asking everyone how they feel about their friends/family having disappeared. it's kind of amazing how dumb they are. but mary anne and sharon both snap, "how do you THINK I feel?" also stacey says something along those lines too.
-this book is really good for claudia's self-esteem. she creates a water container out of a tarp and sticks, and then she has the idea to use a mirror's reflection to alert a plane. she feels really good about herself for her problem-solving.
-dawn is disappointed in herself for not being the strong caretaker type, but sharon tells her that she thinks it was good, because it allowed claudia to fall into that role. good point.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-within the intro, dawn mentions that this experience reminded haley of Baby Island and jeff of The Cay. I'm glad ann tells us early on which books she ripped off.
-dawn says she packed salad without mayonnaise (HUH? is this minnesota?) so it won't go bad, but then she also packs yogurt. YOGURT NEEDS REFRIGERATION TOO, ANN!
-both bart taylor and mr. mcgill are AWFUL in this book. inconsiderate jerks.
-where is jeff fishing? not that fishing on the beach isn't doable, but it takes forever before you get a bite. it seems unrealistic that jeff would be catching enough fish to sustain everyone for that long.
-mary anne wrote a notebook entry for the last chapter but dawn narrated the chapter anyway. this is how it works in regular series books, but not in super specials. typically for the super specials each chapter is narrated by a different person, and we know who narrated it based on who wrote the journal entry/letter at the beginning of the chapter. this is so confusing!
-when the newspaper article about the shipwreck survivors comes out, mary anne asks if she got quoted and where her picture is in the article. OH MY GOD I HATE HER.
individual plotlines (aside from the shipwreck plotline):
-kristy: has to cancel a krushers/bashers game because of the shipwreck, and bart thinks she's chickening out.
-mary anne: had fought with dawn right before the shipwreck and told her she never wanted to see her again. also had fought with logan for a dumb reason (I don't even want to get into it), but then they make up.
-stacey: is in ny with her dad, but she wants to go back to stoneybrook when she hears about the shipwreck. but her dad makes her stay in ny and guilt trips her because he is the worst.
-mallory: the pikes do a good amount of the searching and she is part of that.
-jessi: her aunt cecilia (introduced in this book!) comes to stay with her and squirt because her parents are out of town. cecilia won't let her join the rescue effort.
claudia's impractical racing outfit:
-”She’d put on a tank top and baggy drawstring pants. Over the top, she was wearing button-down shirt of her father’s. The sleeves were rolled up, but none of the buttons were buttoned. She was also wearing big earrings that she had made herself.”
snacks in claudia's room:
-ring dings (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)
in this super special that really should have just been a regular length book (based on lack of interesting content), dawn (the framing device narrator) and claudia get shipwrecked in a sailing race and end up stuck on an uninhabited island for a few days. unfortunately for them (but fortunately for the plot of the book), they had brought along jeff schafer, becca ramsey, haley braddock, and jamie newton on the race, so while being stuck on the island they also have to deal with baby-sitting problems, like jamie newton running a high fever. meanwhile, the other members of the bsc are part of the search team and are dealing with their own individual dramas, in classic super special fashion.
highlights:
-they talk about how it's always 9 o'clock on the island, which of course reminds me of monkey island:
-newscasters reporting on the story keep asking everyone how they feel about their friends/family having disappeared. it's kind of amazing how dumb they are. but mary anne and sharon both snap, "how do you THINK I feel?" also stacey says something along those lines too.
-this book is really good for claudia's self-esteem. she creates a water container out of a tarp and sticks, and then she has the idea to use a mirror's reflection to alert a plane. she feels really good about herself for her problem-solving.
-dawn is disappointed in herself for not being the strong caretaker type, but sharon tells her that she thinks it was good, because it allowed claudia to fall into that role. good point.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-within the intro, dawn mentions that this experience reminded haley of Baby Island and jeff of The Cay. I'm glad ann tells us early on which books she ripped off.
-dawn says she packed salad without mayonnaise (HUH? is this minnesota?) so it won't go bad, but then she also packs yogurt. YOGURT NEEDS REFRIGERATION TOO, ANN!
-both bart taylor and mr. mcgill are AWFUL in this book. inconsiderate jerks.
-where is jeff fishing? not that fishing on the beach isn't doable, but it takes forever before you get a bite. it seems unrealistic that jeff would be catching enough fish to sustain everyone for that long.
-mary anne wrote a notebook entry for the last chapter but dawn narrated the chapter anyway. this is how it works in regular series books, but not in super specials. typically for the super specials each chapter is narrated by a different person, and we know who narrated it based on who wrote the journal entry/letter at the beginning of the chapter. this is so confusing!
-when the newspaper article about the shipwreck survivors comes out, mary anne asks if she got quoted and where her picture is in the article. OH MY GOD I HATE HER.
individual plotlines (aside from the shipwreck plotline):
-kristy: has to cancel a krushers/bashers game because of the shipwreck, and bart thinks she's chickening out.
-mary anne: had fought with dawn right before the shipwreck and told her she never wanted to see her again. also had fought with logan for a dumb reason (I don't even want to get into it), but then they make up.
-stacey: is in ny with her dad, but she wants to go back to stoneybrook when she hears about the shipwreck. but her dad makes her stay in ny and guilt trips her because he is the worst.
-mallory: the pikes do a good amount of the searching and she is part of that.
-jessi: her aunt cecilia (introduced in this book!) comes to stay with her and squirt because her parents are out of town. cecilia won't let her join the rescue effort.
claudia's impractical racing outfit:
-”She’d put on a tank top and baggy drawstring pants. Over the top, she was wearing button-down shirt of her father’s. The sleeves were rolled up, but none of the buttons were buttoned. She was also wearing big earrings that she had made herself.”
snacks in claudia's room:
-ring dings (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)
March 7, 2019
Time for another Super Special in BSCLand! And you know what that means: some crazy, convoluted plot that would never, ever happen in real life. :) Apparently Dawn and Claudia have been taking sailing lessons at the local rec center. Because Stoneybrook is on water now. It's like the Simpsons' Springfield...it just grows whatever it needs to make the plot make sense at that specific time lol.
They decide to have a race to Greenpoint Island and back, with instructors. Isn't it odd how Claudia is always so athletic in the Super Specials, but it's never mentioned in the regular books? She can ski, sail, ice skate, rock climb, snorkel, run marathons, bicycle the Tour de France...okay, maybe not quite, but seriously? She's good at something else besides art and stuffing her face with junk food and her parents never seem to notice it. I guarantee Super Genius Janine can't do that stuff. Sucks for Claudia. Ah well. Dawn and Claud are pretty much neck and neck in the race, until Claudia's crazy outfit screws her up. (Maybe that's why her parents don't notice the good stuff. They just think: "Oh, she pulled a Claudia again.") full review here! :)
They decide to have a race to Greenpoint Island and back, with instructors. Isn't it odd how Claudia is always so athletic in the Super Specials, but it's never mentioned in the regular books? She can ski, sail, ice skate, rock climb, snorkel, run marathons, bicycle the Tour de France...okay, maybe not quite, but seriously? She's good at something else besides art and stuffing her face with junk food and her parents never seem to notice it. I guarantee Super Genius Janine can't do that stuff. Sucks for Claudia. Ah well. Dawn and Claud are pretty much neck and neck in the race, until Claudia's crazy outfit screws her up. (Maybe that's why her parents don't notice the good stuff. They just think: "Oh, she pulled a Claudia again.") full review here! :)
July 7, 2020
While I actually started reading around age 3 (thank you, my Granny's Dick and Jane books!), this series is what I remember most about loving to read during my childhood. My sister and I drank these books up like they were oxygen. I truly think we owned just about every single one from every one of the series. We even got the privilege of meeting Ann M. Martin at a book signing, but of course little starstruck me froze and could not speak a word to my biggest hero at that time. Once in awhile if I come across these at a yard sale, I will pick them up for a couple hour trip down memory lane, and I declare nearly nothing centers and relaxes me more!
October 15, 2024
this was terrible. i have incredibly low standards for the bsc reread journey i'm on and this was still so very terrible.
January 20, 2019
This was a great stroll down memory lane with the girls from BSC.
It's crazy to think I still remembered each girl's handwriting.
It's crazy to think I still remembered each girl's handwriting.
Read
July 14, 2023This summer I've decided to start reading all of the BSC books that I somehow missed as a kid, and this was the first. Believable? No. Entertaining? Yes. Thumbs up.
June 10, 2020
It is absolutely absurd that parents would let a 4 year old get on a sailboat with a random 13 year old but I love a survival book so this was fun.
September 6, 2007
I refuse to spend 3 hours going through and rating every Babysitter's Club book I read, but I will tell you that I remember this one being my favorite. Most likely because as a dorky elementary school student, I liked to picture myself with a large group of friends like this, getting stuck on an island and saving the day with a mirror.
November 3, 2009
Survivor: The Baby-sitters Club season. Yes, Claudia is resourceful, coming up with idea to collect rainwater on tarps! Dawn is a mess! Everyone else can't seem to find this island off the coast of fictional Stoneybrooke! For some reason, I thought Mary Anne in her sailor cap on the cover was the cutest outfit ever and I wanted it for myself! That's middle school for you.
April 30, 2021
3 stars. This was absolutely absurd but dammit did I love it. LOL. What a mess but it was a fun mess. Nothing about this book made sense. All of the adults in this book were morons but the whole thing of the kids being stuck on the island was interesting. I also liked that this book was such a positive thing for Claudia in the end because I just adore her.
July 22, 2022
The BSC Super Specials just scratch this really specific nostalgic itch. There's just something so familiar and enjoyable about them.
Ignoring the slightly silly and far-fetched reach to get to the main island plot point, this is a really good one! Genuinely tense and scary—the storm that comes up on Claudia and Dawn's boats is etched into my memory. Crashing onto an unfamiliar island with young kids in tow when you're only THIRTEEN yourself is terrifying.
There are also a lot of more profound moments in this book, as the remaining club members process that two of their best friends (and some of their siblings!) are lost at sea and potentially dead.
I really, really liked re-reading this one.
Ignoring the slightly silly and far-fetched reach to get to the main island plot point, this is a really good one! Genuinely tense and scary—the storm that comes up on Claudia and Dawn's boats is etched into my memory. Crashing onto an unfamiliar island with young kids in tow when you're only THIRTEEN yourself is terrifying.
There are also a lot of more profound moments in this book, as the remaining club members process that two of their best friends (and some of their siblings!) are lost at sea and potentially dead.
I really, really liked re-reading this one.
September 20, 2019
When Claudia and Dawn start taking sailing/boating lessons they are having the time of their lives! They decide they want to hold a race during the weekend and so they each gather up a crew of kids to take with them. Dawn brings her brother Jeff and Jamie Newton. Claudia brings Haley and Becca. In the middle of the race an unexpected storm hits down on them and one of the boats starts to sink. All the kids must use the other boat and get to safety onto an unknown small island. The next morning when the storm ends they find out that their boat has been washed away. What will they do! What will they eat and drink! How will they be found! Read to find out.
August 9, 2019
This story was about how Dawn and Claudia got stuck on an island with 4 kids and everyone’s different point of views about what they were going through and the search for dawn and Claudia.
October 23, 2021
Don't know much about sailing, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's probably not something people should let 13 years olds do miles out in the ocean with no adults and boats full of little kids? Is there not a legal age for sailing? In this book, apparently a course at the community center is all it takes for a middle schooler to be allowed to sail a boat. That seems insane. Maybe I'm off base.
Speaking of off base, Claudia and Dawn have a sailboat race and they get stuck in a storm with 4 kids ages 4-10, and get lost and wind up on a deserted island where they ration picnic supplies, live in a cave, and eat fish. Claudia takes charge and they survive ok. Meanwhile, Stoneybrook is panicked and Mary Anne and Logan are fighting and Stacey's dad is like- "why are you stressed? We have Broadway tickets, kid!" Also? Jessi's parents leave her alone with her siblings for an entire weekend- Jessi is ELEVEN, and she has a ONE YEAR OLD BABY BROTHER. This would not have happened in real life either. I wonder if I questioned this shit when I read this as a kid or if I just thought that the BSC were magically mini-adults and not actually kids close to my age because one of them had her own phone line. Hmmm... Fun, but stupid. 3 stars.
Speaking of off base, Claudia and Dawn have a sailboat race and they get stuck in a storm with 4 kids ages 4-10, and get lost and wind up on a deserted island where they ration picnic supplies, live in a cave, and eat fish. Claudia takes charge and they survive ok. Meanwhile, Stoneybrook is panicked and Mary Anne and Logan are fighting and Stacey's dad is like- "why are you stressed? We have Broadway tickets, kid!" Also? Jessi's parents leave her alone with her siblings for an entire weekend- Jessi is ELEVEN, and she has a ONE YEAR OLD BABY BROTHER. This would not have happened in real life either. I wonder if I questioned this shit when I read this as a kid or if I just thought that the BSC were magically mini-adults and not actually kids close to my age because one of them had her own phone line. Hmmm... Fun, but stupid. 3 stars.
December 3, 2023
Reading these BSC books for the first time as an adult but this is my first review. Dawn and Claudia race 2 boats to and island off the coast of Stoneybrook and end up stuck on an island with candy and water. Dawn becomes her normal helpless self and Claudia becomes smart and invents a way to collect rainwater and get the attention of a plane to get rescued. Both inventions work great and give her self confidence. Dawn's brother Jeff catches fish which they are all able to eat for 2 days. Now this is not a bad plotline. However, I think some of the editors took a day off in one of the chapters. I found multiple errors which drove me nuts, such as Dawn narrating a chapter but naming herself as if she were Claudia. I had to go back to the beginning of the chapter. It was hard to finish because of this, it distracted me from the story. I won't even mention Kristy and Bart & Mary Ann & Logan, at times these girls are written as if they were 16 not 13, but that is continuous throughout the series.
August 14, 2017
For awhile the BSC plots were silly, but at least pretty believable. Then, all of a sudden, we hit stuff like this. What the hell!?
Claudia and Dawn get into sailing (at some point I guess Stoneybrook ended up right by the ocean, though I can't remember at what point that is first brought up) and decide to race. It's determined a tie (by Kristy) and they decide to race again. For some reason they figure it's it's also smart to bring four little kids with them. Well, Jeff isn't "little" but you get the point.
Of course they get caught in a storm and shipwreck and Jamie Newton gets deathly ill. No, really, that's the main plot of this.
I can't even. Never change, BSC. Never, ever change.
Claudia and Dawn get into sailing (at some point I guess Stoneybrook ended up right by the ocean, though I can't remember at what point that is first brought up) and decide to race. It's determined a tie (by Kristy) and they decide to race again. For some reason they figure it's it's also smart to bring four little kids with them. Well, Jeff isn't "little" but you get the point.
Of course they get caught in a storm and shipwreck and Jamie Newton gets deathly ill. No, really, that's the main plot of this.
I can't even. Never change, BSC. Never, ever change.
November 9, 2021
I seriously LOVED this book. It's so ridiculously fun. Retconning Stoneybrook as a seaside town where Dawn and Claudia are master and commander, Jeff Schafer is king of the jungle, and someone would allow their 4-year-old out on a boat with a 13-year-old, is so unbelievable that it's actually brilliant. This book basically blows up the BSC universe and turns it into a place where anything can happen. I'm honestly surprised Ann didn't go ahead and just kill off Jamie Newton, this book was that disruptive. I enjoyed the hell out of this purely because I've reached the point where the characters feel like friends, and I just love reading their wacky, improbable adventures, the more unrealistic the better.
August 30, 2020
This was one of my faves as a kid because I adored the trope of kids having to survive and make homes for themselves in weird situations, but as an adult I could not get over the fact that Jamie's parents let a FOUR YEAR OLD go on a sailing trip where the only chaperone was a 13yo??? The Stonybrook parents are wildly irresponsible. Also, Dawn and Mary Anne's convenient fight felt waaaay out of character.
August 22, 2008
I am not going to add all the Babysitter's Club books to my list, but I remember this one being one of my favorites in the whole series. I have always been fascinated with the idea of people being stranded on an island...That's probably why I love the show LOST so much. haha But, this one was great. I read this in about a day over a weekend when I was in 5th grade.
November 29, 2014
These were my favorite books during my pre-teen and new-teen years, and I kind of regret giving my huge collection to the library when I was 16. Of all the BSC books, this is the one I most want to read again. The story was suspenseful, and I liked seeing how each of the girls reacted to the events. Just a fun book in a memorable series.
July 31, 2014
In which Caludia and STFUDawn are stranded on an island with some kids. In other news, MA is a passive-aggressive bitch, Stacey has a fight with dear old dad, and Aunt Dictator makes her first appearance. Caludia was kinda cool in this one, and STFUDawn kinda falls apart. Honestly? One of my favorites. I dig the whole "stranded on an island" thing.
April 29, 2009
I love how the cover looks so jolly, and then they go and get stranded on a deserted island for a few days. :D
January 15, 2016
Awesome
This book is just completely awesome. It is thrilling and exciting. There is mystery in it and it's not even a mystery books. I just absolutely love this book so yeah.
This book is just completely awesome. It is thrilling and exciting. There is mystery in it and it's not even a mystery books. I just absolutely love this book so yeah.
January 4, 2021
As an adult, it is banana's that Jamie's parents let him go on this boat adventure.
April 22, 2021
Back at this with my BSC obsessed child. But hilarious. I would never allow my 6 year old to go out on a boat with a 13 year old and no adult. It’s flat out comical. But oh the nostalgia.
August 5, 2021
Still pretty ridiculous. Still one of my series favorites.
July 5, 2025
As I make my way through my nostalgia reading marathon of my favorite childhood series, The Baby-Sitters’ Club, I have been looking forward to Super Special #4, as it is one that I distinctly remember owning and re-reading as an avid BSC fan. Baby-Sitters’ Island Adventure is a departure from previous Super Specials, as the stakes are raised and the drama is ramped up so that we are left with one gripping read.
The plot at the center of Baby-Sitters’ Island Adventure concerns a sailboat race between Dawn and Claudia, who are apparently both expert sailors. They are so good out on the water, in fact, that not only are they permitted to race to nearby Greenpoint Island, but they are also allowed to each bring along a crew with members as young as 4 years old. (When I say that the 80s & 90s were different, they were different! Today’s kids will never know …)
Of course, this party at sea quickly turns to peril at sea when the boats are caught up in a treacherous storm. Dawn’s crew has to abandon ship as they take on water, and they float hanging on to Claudia’s boat until they wash up on a deserted island that is decidedly NOT Greenpoint. Now it is up to Dawn and Claudia to keep everyone alive until rescue comes … that is, IF rescue comes. With a lack of food and water, and only a cave for shelter, not to mention, no modern day tech to call out for help, can the baby-sitters survive their disaster at sea?
Although mature readers of Baby-Sitters’ Island Adventure will certainly have to suspend disbelief throughout this book, it is such a fun and exciting read for kids. Not only do Claudia and Dawn get to go on such an adult adventure - who allows 13-year-olds to sail by themselves, much less with child passengers aboard - they also become shipwrecked on an island! It is enough to satisfy any child’s adventurous heart while also striking a bit of fear in them because things to do get a bit hairy there for the crew for a while.
This novel is mostly plot-driven, but there is quite a bit of character development and self-actualization that takes place with Dawn realizing that she CAN be helpless in a dire situation, Claudia stepping up into a leadership role, Mary Anne being a complete brat and regretting it, and Stacey even declaring boundaries with her newly divorced parents. This has always been one of the reasons why I loved the BSC and looked up to its members. These girls learn real lessons about life and themselves, inspiring self-reflection in young readers.
If you, like me, found Super Specials #2 & 3 to be somewhat of a drag, Super Special #4 is back with a bang, exploding forth with an exciting, page-turning adventure! Next up, California, here we come!
The plot at the center of Baby-Sitters’ Island Adventure concerns a sailboat race between Dawn and Claudia, who are apparently both expert sailors. They are so good out on the water, in fact, that not only are they permitted to race to nearby Greenpoint Island, but they are also allowed to each bring along a crew with members as young as 4 years old. (When I say that the 80s & 90s were different, they were different! Today’s kids will never know …)
Of course, this party at sea quickly turns to peril at sea when the boats are caught up in a treacherous storm. Dawn’s crew has to abandon ship as they take on water, and they float hanging on to Claudia’s boat until they wash up on a deserted island that is decidedly NOT Greenpoint. Now it is up to Dawn and Claudia to keep everyone alive until rescue comes … that is, IF rescue comes. With a lack of food and water, and only a cave for shelter, not to mention, no modern day tech to call out for help, can the baby-sitters survive their disaster at sea?
Although mature readers of Baby-Sitters’ Island Adventure will certainly have to suspend disbelief throughout this book, it is such a fun and exciting read for kids. Not only do Claudia and Dawn get to go on such an adult adventure - who allows 13-year-olds to sail by themselves, much less with child passengers aboard - they also become shipwrecked on an island! It is enough to satisfy any child’s adventurous heart while also striking a bit of fear in them because things to do get a bit hairy there for the crew for a while.
This novel is mostly plot-driven, but there is quite a bit of character development and self-actualization that takes place with Dawn realizing that she CAN be helpless in a dire situation, Claudia stepping up into a leadership role, Mary Anne being a complete brat and regretting it, and Stacey even declaring boundaries with her newly divorced parents. This has always been one of the reasons why I loved the BSC and looked up to its members. These girls learn real lessons about life and themselves, inspiring self-reflection in young readers.
If you, like me, found Super Specials #2 & 3 to be somewhat of a drag, Super Special #4 is back with a bang, exploding forth with an exciting, page-turning adventure! Next up, California, here we come!
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