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The Baby-Sitters Club #84
Dawn and the School Spirit War
When School Spirit month at Stoneybrook Middle School begins to get out of hand, Dawn openly refuses to participate despite the rejection she endures from her classmates, and only her fellow Baby-sitters can lend support.
134 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
51 people are currently reading
672 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,123 books3,086 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 38 reviews
May 19, 2019
The school is having a spirit month. Dawn finds herself in the center of a huge war, when she doesn't wear enough yellow clothes for "wear yellow" day. Kids threaten her, vandalize her property, and the teachers do nothing, not even when Dawn is physically attacked in front of them. I know adults in Stoneybrook are useless, but that's terrible, even for them! Dawn starts a crusade to cancel school spirit month, but the kids who support her are just as vicious as the kids who oppose her. When the parents have an open forum on the topic of school spirit, a literal riot breaks out. It's ridiculously over the top. A riot, because Dawn wore yellow socks instead of a yellow shirt?
In the end, they decide to make participation in school spirit month optional, not mandatory. This solution is so obvious, everyone comes across as an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. That's the main problem with this book. It's stupid, in so many ways. I want to like this book. It explores some deep themes about how to live your life, and the tension between following rules and thinking for yourself. I like seeing the independent Dawn learn about the positive aspects of working with others. But I can't get past how dumb the whole thing is.
In the end, they decide to make participation in school spirit month optional, not mandatory. This solution is so obvious, everyone comes across as an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. That's the main problem with this book. It's stupid, in so many ways. I want to like this book. It explores some deep themes about how to live your life, and the tension between following rules and thinking for yourself. I like seeing the independent Dawn learn about the positive aspects of working with others. But I can't get past how dumb the whole thing is.
September 13, 2020
woof. this is the worst one i’ve read yet. i can’t even explain
how dumb this one was. every single character was at their most annoying, save for sweet claudia. also i forgot stacey ditched the bsc for a while for her more mature friends? read this in about 90 minutes and i’d do a lot to get that time back. good god. what a bad book.
how dumb this one was. every single character was at their most annoying, save for sweet claudia. also i forgot stacey ditched the bsc for a while for her more mature friends? read this in about 90 minutes and i’d do a lot to get that time back. good god. what a bad book.
May 12, 2023
I like how Dawn started out not really caring about the spirit month but then stepped up when she saw how much pajama day bothered mary anne.
I have to admit though, I'm with Claud on this one - both sides of the war took the whole thing way too seriously.
The solution Dawn and Mary Anne came up with is so obvious and simple that I'm totally side-eyeing the school staff for not doing it in the first place.
I have to admit though, I'm with Claud on this one - both sides of the war took the whole thing way too seriously.
The solution Dawn and Mary Anne came up with is so obvious and simple that I'm totally side-eyeing the school staff for not doing it in the first place.
April 28, 2017
in this paragon of dawn-ness by ghostwriter Suzanne Weyn, stoneybrook middle school is hosting a spirit month, featuring all kinds of wacky whimsical spirit days, like pajamas day and dress as a teacher day. mary anne is embarrassed about the prospect of wearing pajamas but doesn't want to stand out by not participating (not to mention doesn't want to hurt logan the jock's feelings). dawn accidentally forgets to dress up for class color day and is relentlessly bullied for it. she gets so mad that (egged on by her mother -- see more about this in the highlights) she petitions to have the school cancel spirit month. it turns into a big deal, with community members (not to mention members of the bsc) pitted against each other over their beliefs: is spirit month about participation/showing spirit or about conformity/getting forced to do what people say? in a subplot, the barrett-dewitts don't really fit in their way too small house, and the kids freak out and think they will have to move. in the end, they put an addition on the house.
highlights:
-this was always one of my favorite books when I was younger. I love dawn overreacting and learning a lesson about appropriate use of her SJW personality/training. I love how all the characters come out on the side you would expect them to (mal and mary anne being anti, kristy and claud being pro, etc)
-everything that happens in this book is sharon schafer/spier's fault. dawn and mary anne aren't feeling great about spirit month, and she basically equips them with the grenade that is a petition to shut down spirit month. she doesn't even bring up the possibility that they could talk to the faculty of the school about cracking down on the bullying based on lack of participation. I kind of love this: we finally really get a sense of why dawn is so obnoxious about her political beliefs: her mom told her how to be.
-sharon even has her own mini-political activism subplot: mimi snowden, a local tv reporter, shows dawn as an anti-spirit jerk on the news, so mrs. spier gets mad and tries to call her to get her to clarify, but she refuses to take the call. then mrs. spier chews her out at a town hall meeting about spirit month, and mimi snowden later talks on the news about how mrs. spier almost started a riot. which is of course untrue. alternative facts? no way, she got her info directly from the NSA!
-somebody writes "go back to california you weirdo" on dawn's locker. I think I got this exact same message when I first moved to maryland in 7th grade. but it's not really an insult. dawn knows she's from california and that she's a weirdo.
-dawn's revelation that the meetup for anti-spirit month folks is like a pep rally. it's maybe a little beyond dawn, but fortunately for believability she turns it around by being like, "I didn't want to become sympathetic towards spirit month folks so I pushed the thought away." oh dawn, you were so close to stumbling into self-awareness for a second.
-logan keeps being all, "make spirit month baseball again!"
lowlights/nitpicks:
-claud wears a rain outfit that she painted with "native american designs" -- I would think she would know better.
-dawn comments that her petition contains 300 signatures. assuming that about half the student body are opposed to spirit month (this is how it's portrayed in the book), that would mean there are probably around 600 students in the school. but in Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation there are 382 students on the trip and we are made to believe that aside from logan, every single student at sms is on the trip. HOW MANY KIDS ARE AT THIS SCHOOL?
-spirit month ends up getting cancelled, but dawn isn't happy about it, so she talks to the school administrators and they agree to bring it back but make participation completely optional and not allow bullying (you know, what should have happened in the first place). everyone forgives dawn and acts like there's no problem. really? I would still be pissed.
-subplot of the barrett-dewitts' house being too small: they decide to renovate to give the kids their own rooms, but then the kids want to share rooms instead so they get upset. kind of leave it to beaverish and dumb.
claudia outfit:
-"Her long black hair was tucked into a wide-brimmed purple rain hat with colorful Native American designs painted on the brim. She wore a matching purple slicker with identical designs along the hem. Even her umbrella matched!"
other outfits:
class color day:
dawn:
-"I pulled on jeans, a blue workshirt, socks, and sneakers, and raced down the stairs."
mary anne:
-"Mary anne stood at the counter eating a bowl of corn flakes dressed in a yellow sweatshirt dress, yellow stockings, and black flats."
grace blume:
-"Grace Blume...was wearing a yellow rain slicker (even though there wasn't a clousd in the sky), yellow pants, and high-tops that she'd obviously painted yellow...I could see Grace smile and flip back her hair to reveal large, yellow daisy earrings."
alan gray:
-"He'd pinned blown-up yellow balloons all over his jacket and was wearing yellow plaid pants that were way too big for him, probably his father's."
no snacks in claudia's room.
highlights:
-this was always one of my favorite books when I was younger. I love dawn overreacting and learning a lesson about appropriate use of her SJW personality/training. I love how all the characters come out on the side you would expect them to (mal and mary anne being anti, kristy and claud being pro, etc)
-everything that happens in this book is sharon schafer/spier's fault. dawn and mary anne aren't feeling great about spirit month, and she basically equips them with the grenade that is a petition to shut down spirit month. she doesn't even bring up the possibility that they could talk to the faculty of the school about cracking down on the bullying based on lack of participation. I kind of love this: we finally really get a sense of why dawn is so obnoxious about her political beliefs: her mom told her how to be.
-sharon even has her own mini-political activism subplot: mimi snowden, a local tv reporter, shows dawn as an anti-spirit jerk on the news, so mrs. spier gets mad and tries to call her to get her to clarify, but she refuses to take the call. then mrs. spier chews her out at a town hall meeting about spirit month, and mimi snowden later talks on the news about how mrs. spier almost started a riot. which is of course untrue. alternative facts? no way, she got her info directly from the NSA!
-somebody writes "go back to california you weirdo" on dawn's locker. I think I got this exact same message when I first moved to maryland in 7th grade. but it's not really an insult. dawn knows she's from california and that she's a weirdo.
-dawn's revelation that the meetup for anti-spirit month folks is like a pep rally. it's maybe a little beyond dawn, but fortunately for believability she turns it around by being like, "I didn't want to become sympathetic towards spirit month folks so I pushed the thought away." oh dawn, you were so close to stumbling into self-awareness for a second.
-logan keeps being all, "make spirit month baseball again!"
lowlights/nitpicks:
-claud wears a rain outfit that she painted with "native american designs" -- I would think she would know better.
-dawn comments that her petition contains 300 signatures. assuming that about half the student body are opposed to spirit month (this is how it's portrayed in the book), that would mean there are probably around 600 students in the school. but in Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation there are 382 students on the trip and we are made to believe that aside from logan, every single student at sms is on the trip. HOW MANY KIDS ARE AT THIS SCHOOL?
-spirit month ends up getting cancelled, but dawn isn't happy about it, so she talks to the school administrators and they agree to bring it back but make participation completely optional and not allow bullying (you know, what should have happened in the first place). everyone forgives dawn and acts like there's no problem. really? I would still be pissed.
-subplot of the barrett-dewitts' house being too small: they decide to renovate to give the kids their own rooms, but then the kids want to share rooms instead so they get upset. kind of leave it to beaverish and dumb.
claudia outfit:
-"Her long black hair was tucked into a wide-brimmed purple rain hat with colorful Native American designs painted on the brim. She wore a matching purple slicker with identical designs along the hem. Even her umbrella matched!"
other outfits:
class color day:
dawn:
-"I pulled on jeans, a blue workshirt, socks, and sneakers, and raced down the stairs."
mary anne:
-"Mary anne stood at the counter eating a bowl of corn flakes dressed in a yellow sweatshirt dress, yellow stockings, and black flats."
grace blume:
-"Grace Blume...was wearing a yellow rain slicker (even though there wasn't a clousd in the sky), yellow pants, and high-tops that she'd obviously painted yellow...I could see Grace smile and flip back her hair to reveal large, yellow daisy earrings."
alan gray:
-"He'd pinned blown-up yellow balloons all over his jacket and was wearing yellow plaid pants that were way too big for him, probably his father's."
no snacks in claudia's room.
August 22, 2021
I remember really liking this one the first time I read it ~15 years ago, it was still enjoyable now but maybe not as much as it was before. I thought this was very in-character for Dawn, I do like Dawn the activist. But I found the backlash to be a little over the top, and I forever hate how the pro-spirit BSC members were so awful to the anti-spirit members - like, refusing to baby-sit with them. Totally extreme.
June 16, 2025
Otherwise known as Dawn and Mary Anne vs the Brown Shirts.
Holy cow, this one is DARK. And exceptionally on the nose, with the kids in favor of Spirit Month (nationalism) sitting on the right in multiple assemblies, and those protesting it on the left. Sadly, the ultimate lesson is compromise, "good people on both sides." The harassment and MULTIPLE PHYSICAL ASSAULTS Dawn experiences are never dealt with by adults (who are all completely feckless) and, while Dawn herself is upset by them, they are weirdly downplayed. Is there some sexism involved? There are definitely some moments, and real world data says yes, absolutely.
Holy cow, this one is DARK. And exceptionally on the nose, with the kids in favor of Spirit Month (nationalism) sitting on the right in multiple assemblies, and those protesting it on the left. Sadly, the ultimate lesson is compromise, "good people on both sides." The harassment and MULTIPLE PHYSICAL ASSAULTS Dawn experiences are never dealt with by adults (who are all completely feckless) and, while Dawn herself is upset by them, they are weirdly downplayed. Is there some sexism involved? There are definitely some moments, and real world data says yes, absolutely.
June 27, 2017
When I was in high school we had Spirit Week (definitely not an entire month) leading up to the homecoming football game. We did a lot of the activities they mention in this book including: pajama day, color day, pep rallies, and all of that. We actually had a theme for every class, and we would decorate hallways, make videos, do skits, and a lot of other silly/fun things.
It always amazed me in this book how they wasted so much class time though. We did the majority of our things after school (the decorating and video making and whatnot) and kids weren't bullied or forced into participation. So in some ways this book was very realistic to me, while being totally off the grid in others.
For once, I actually did sort of agree with Dawn. The way everyone behaved was ridiculous, and if I were her and/or Mary Anne I would have straight up punched Kristy in the face for the stuff she said. The BSC-verse really needed a little bit more catty violence haha. THAT would have been REALLY like middle/high school.
It always amazed me in this book how they wasted so much class time though. We did the majority of our things after school (the decorating and video making and whatnot) and kids weren't bullied or forced into participation. So in some ways this book was very realistic to me, while being totally off the grid in others.
For once, I actually did sort of agree with Dawn. The way everyone behaved was ridiculous, and if I were her and/or Mary Anne I would have straight up punched Kristy in the face for the stuff she said. The BSC-verse really needed a little bit more catty violence haha. THAT would have been REALLY like middle/high school.
October 22, 2012
This is actually the first time I've read this one, and it honestly it cements my feelings that Kristy is/was a b!tch. The things she says to MaryAnne are awful. I can't understand how or why MaryAnne (or any of the BSC) puts up with her mean, thoughtless comments. God forbid anyone have any opinions that are different from the all-mighty Kristy's...
January 8, 2025
The first book I read from the Baby Sitters Club when I was 13 and I absolutely loved it!!
March 14, 2011
the boys' baseball team at stoneybrook middle school is undefeated & staring down the barrel at a big championship game with their rivals at howard middle school (which we have never heard of before this book). to get everyone pumped for the big game, the SMD administration declares april to be school spirit month. every day for a month, the school body will participate in a different spirit-boosting activity, from cleaning up the grounds to wearing pajamas to school to planting a garden to wearing a color assigned to each grade. mary anne is excited about school spirit month, due in large part to the fact that logan is on the baseball team. at least, she's excited until she thinks about wearing her pajamas to school. then she cries because it will be so, so embarrassing.
dawn seems to find school spirit month kind of silly. she doesn't really have anything against school spirit as a concept, but she's not psyched about being forced into goofy activities, & no one seems to know for sure if the school spirit activities are mandatory or not. other members are also divided. kristy is way into school spirit month, & jessi is enthusiastic as well. mallory is down on it for pretty much the same reason as mary anne--she thinks it will be embarrassing. claudia is into it because there is a mural-painting day & she wants to pain a mural.
everyone pitches in with school clean-up day (which dawn supports whole-heartedly because she likes to throw away trash, i guess), but color day is a disaster. dawn oversleeps & forgets all about color day until she rushes into the kitchen & finds mary anne all decked out in a bright yellow outfit. she runs back upstairs to swap out her boring socks for a bright yellow pair, but she doesn't have any other yellow clothes to throw in. she thinks the socks will have to do & hustles off to school.
a local reporter named mimi snowden is there, interviewing students about spirit month. mimi zeroes in on dawn as an example of a student who is not falling in line with the school spirit hoopla. dawn is grumpy because she was almost late for school & brusquely shows mimi her yellow socks. but that's not good enough for mimi or many of the other students at SMS, who mock dawn for not wearing yellow. some of the other students who chose not to wear their colors are also being harrassed. the pep squad sprays one girl down with yellow silly foam & some students try to staple yellow construction paper to another non-participant's clothing. by the end of the day, dawn is totally fed up with spirit month.
sharon becomes fed up with it too that evening when she sees mimi's report on the 6 o'clock news. mimi portrayed dawn as a spiritless hater & sharon flies off the handle & calls the station to complain. she whips dawn & mary anne into an anti-spirit month frenzy. even though mary anne participated in color day, she is swiftly won over the anti-spirit side when confronted again with the looming specter of pajama day. can i just pause for a minute & point out that if ALL the students are wearing their PJs, it's unlikely to be embarrassing for any single individual? mary anne will just stick out more, & face more harrassment, if she DOESN'T wear her pajamas. she is also convinced that everyone will be able to see her underwear through her pajamas, which doesn't make any sense to me.
anyway, dawn drafts up a petition to shut down spirit month & she & mary anne take it to school the next day & start collecting signatures. they get a fair amount of support, but they also face a lot of harrassment from pro-spirit people. someone writes, "go back to california" on dawn's locker. alan gray "accidentally" dumps his lunch on dawn in the cafeteria, sparking off a huge food fight. by the end of the day, the administration suspends classes to hold an emergency hearing on whether or not to keep going with spirit month. the entire student body is divided into two camps--the pro-spiriters & the antis. they all line up to make their arguments & dawn presents her petition to the principal.
can i interrupt again & point out that spirit month seems to be having a very negative impact on SMS's ability to do its job & actually educate its students? i mean, they SUSPENDED CLASSES to argue over spirit month. i think that's a sign that spirit month--or at least its compulsory element, which is ludicrous--is doing more harm than good. anyway, the administration says they will consider the issue & make a decision the following week. & meanwhile everyone is fighting.
turns out the administrators are equally divided, so they arrange an evening community meeting for students, parents, teachers, et al. again, the community is divided & all kinds of crazy fights break out. the pro-spirit crowd's argument basically boils down to, "if you can't force your kids to participate in color day, you're an unfit parent & your 13-year-old might as well be laying pregnant is a crack den somewhere." one mother actually tells sharon & mrs. pike that they are unfit mothers for not forcing their daughters to participate in all aspects of spirit month. the anti-spiriters talk a bunch about individuality & personal liberty & how their kids aren't sheeple. two men actually get into a fistfight. sharon yells at mimi snowden for misrepresenting dawn on her news segment, & finds herself misrepresented in a segment of her own. spirit month is turning into all-out war. & mary anne is STILL crying non-stop about pajama day while logan wanders around, sulking about how no one is paying enough attention to the undefeated baseball team. what a couple of babies.
finally the administration cancels spirit week. everyone is stunned. dawn thinks she should be happy that she got what she wanted...but she doesn't feel happy. she realizes that she doesn't think there is anything wrong with pro-spirit activities--as long as they are voluntary & are not connected with harrassment of students who choose not to participate. she asks the administrators to reinstate spirit week as a voluntary activity...& it fucking blows my mind that it wasn't voluntary from the get-go. explain to me how you're going to force an entire student body to dress up in rero clothes or wear pajamas to school! are non-participants tossed in detention or something? i think that is probably illegal.
anyway, the administration is all, "herp derp, voluntary spirit activities? this sounds like the perfect solution!" they make spirit month voluntary & everyone is happy & no one glues any more lockers shut. & the SMS baseball team wins the big game against howard.
the B-plot is all about how the barrett/dewitt house is too small for all its children. but the kids still don't want to move away from stoneybrook. they arrange a picket line against moving, & mr. & mrs. dewitt decide to build an addition on to the house to make more space. then the kids are like, "no, we don't like your blueprints." they ask for two huge bedrooms--one for the girls & one for the boys, plus an extra bathroom or two. mr. & mrs. dewitt see nothing wrong with letting seven kids under seven draw up the plans for their expensive new home addition, & everyone is happy.
this might be the book where the babysitters club series officially jumped the shark.
dawn seems to find school spirit month kind of silly. she doesn't really have anything against school spirit as a concept, but she's not psyched about being forced into goofy activities, & no one seems to know for sure if the school spirit activities are mandatory or not. other members are also divided. kristy is way into school spirit month, & jessi is enthusiastic as well. mallory is down on it for pretty much the same reason as mary anne--she thinks it will be embarrassing. claudia is into it because there is a mural-painting day & she wants to pain a mural.
everyone pitches in with school clean-up day (which dawn supports whole-heartedly because she likes to throw away trash, i guess), but color day is a disaster. dawn oversleeps & forgets all about color day until she rushes into the kitchen & finds mary anne all decked out in a bright yellow outfit. she runs back upstairs to swap out her boring socks for a bright yellow pair, but she doesn't have any other yellow clothes to throw in. she thinks the socks will have to do & hustles off to school.
a local reporter named mimi snowden is there, interviewing students about spirit month. mimi zeroes in on dawn as an example of a student who is not falling in line with the school spirit hoopla. dawn is grumpy because she was almost late for school & brusquely shows mimi her yellow socks. but that's not good enough for mimi or many of the other students at SMS, who mock dawn for not wearing yellow. some of the other students who chose not to wear their colors are also being harrassed. the pep squad sprays one girl down with yellow silly foam & some students try to staple yellow construction paper to another non-participant's clothing. by the end of the day, dawn is totally fed up with spirit month.
sharon becomes fed up with it too that evening when she sees mimi's report on the 6 o'clock news. mimi portrayed dawn as a spiritless hater & sharon flies off the handle & calls the station to complain. she whips dawn & mary anne into an anti-spirit month frenzy. even though mary anne participated in color day, she is swiftly won over the anti-spirit side when confronted again with the looming specter of pajama day. can i just pause for a minute & point out that if ALL the students are wearing their PJs, it's unlikely to be embarrassing for any single individual? mary anne will just stick out more, & face more harrassment, if she DOESN'T wear her pajamas. she is also convinced that everyone will be able to see her underwear through her pajamas, which doesn't make any sense to me.
anyway, dawn drafts up a petition to shut down spirit month & she & mary anne take it to school the next day & start collecting signatures. they get a fair amount of support, but they also face a lot of harrassment from pro-spirit people. someone writes, "go back to california" on dawn's locker. alan gray "accidentally" dumps his lunch on dawn in the cafeteria, sparking off a huge food fight. by the end of the day, the administration suspends classes to hold an emergency hearing on whether or not to keep going with spirit month. the entire student body is divided into two camps--the pro-spiriters & the antis. they all line up to make their arguments & dawn presents her petition to the principal.
can i interrupt again & point out that spirit month seems to be having a very negative impact on SMS's ability to do its job & actually educate its students? i mean, they SUSPENDED CLASSES to argue over spirit month. i think that's a sign that spirit month--or at least its compulsory element, which is ludicrous--is doing more harm than good. anyway, the administration says they will consider the issue & make a decision the following week. & meanwhile everyone is fighting.
turns out the administrators are equally divided, so they arrange an evening community meeting for students, parents, teachers, et al. again, the community is divided & all kinds of crazy fights break out. the pro-spirit crowd's argument basically boils down to, "if you can't force your kids to participate in color day, you're an unfit parent & your 13-year-old might as well be laying pregnant is a crack den somewhere." one mother actually tells sharon & mrs. pike that they are unfit mothers for not forcing their daughters to participate in all aspects of spirit month. the anti-spiriters talk a bunch about individuality & personal liberty & how their kids aren't sheeple. two men actually get into a fistfight. sharon yells at mimi snowden for misrepresenting dawn on her news segment, & finds herself misrepresented in a segment of her own. spirit month is turning into all-out war. & mary anne is STILL crying non-stop about pajama day while logan wanders around, sulking about how no one is paying enough attention to the undefeated baseball team. what a couple of babies.
finally the administration cancels spirit week. everyone is stunned. dawn thinks she should be happy that she got what she wanted...but she doesn't feel happy. she realizes that she doesn't think there is anything wrong with pro-spirit activities--as long as they are voluntary & are not connected with harrassment of students who choose not to participate. she asks the administrators to reinstate spirit week as a voluntary activity...& it fucking blows my mind that it wasn't voluntary from the get-go. explain to me how you're going to force an entire student body to dress up in rero clothes or wear pajamas to school! are non-participants tossed in detention or something? i think that is probably illegal.
anyway, the administration is all, "herp derp, voluntary spirit activities? this sounds like the perfect solution!" they make spirit month voluntary & everyone is happy & no one glues any more lockers shut. & the SMS baseball team wins the big game against howard.
the B-plot is all about how the barrett/dewitt house is too small for all its children. but the kids still don't want to move away from stoneybrook. they arrange a picket line against moving, & mr. & mrs. dewitt decide to build an addition on to the house to make more space. then the kids are like, "no, we don't like your blueprints." they ask for two huge bedrooms--one for the girls & one for the boys, plus an extra bathroom or two. mr. & mrs. dewitt see nothing wrong with letting seven kids under seven draw up the plans for their expensive new home addition, & everyone is happy.
this might be the book where the babysitters club series officially jumped the shark.
December 23, 2020
(LL)
The only reason I gave this book three stars was because the overall messages in the book are very important for kids to learn (petitioning and standing up for what you believe in.) However, Dawn is painfully annoying in this book. She’s supposed to be individual and cool yet thinks Spirit Month so dumb that she wants to get rid of it all together? Poor Logan simply wanted some support for this baseball team and Dawn was straight up a bitch about pep rallies and cheerleaders for no reason. I know this was for kids, so it’s supposed to be over the top, but this book makes Dawn an even more unlikable character than she already was for many readers.
The only reason I gave this book three stars was because the overall messages in the book are very important for kids to learn (petitioning and standing up for what you believe in.) However, Dawn is painfully annoying in this book. She’s supposed to be individual and cool yet thinks Spirit Month so dumb that she wants to get rid of it all together? Poor Logan simply wanted some support for this baseball team and Dawn was straight up a bitch about pep rallies and cheerleaders for no reason. I know this was for kids, so it’s supposed to be over the top, but this book makes Dawn an even more unlikable character than she already was for many readers.
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July 29, 2020Dawn Hates Yellow
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
December 11, 2021
As far as Dawn books go, this one was actually decent. Granted, still not good, but decent. I mostly really liked the parent involvement in this one (because the parents in these books rarely get involved in their kids lives although they supposedly go to a LOT of meetings), and that both sides of the argument actually made sense to me for once--although, as always, things go way too far before reaching the obvious conclusion. But that's a Dawn book for you. Honestly, Mary Anne is more annoying in this book than Dawn is so I feel like I have to give Dawn a pass.
November 3, 2022
This has to be one of the wildest BSC books. Never has a book vacillated so wildly between utter ludicrousness and total tedium. The A-plot is as exciting as civil unrest and violence breaking out over a middle school spirit month; the B-plot is literally the DeWitt-Barrett family adding on to their house.
I know I said Dawn is unwell, but Mary Anne also needs medication and therapy. She is in tears, MULTIPLE TIMES, over wearing pajamas to school. Her reaction is as extreme, stressed, and traumatized as if the school banned clothes altogether and forced the students to come naked.
I know I said Dawn is unwell, but Mary Anne also needs medication and therapy. She is in tears, MULTIPLE TIMES, over wearing pajamas to school. Her reaction is as extreme, stressed, and traumatized as if the school banned clothes altogether and forced the students to come naked.
February 18, 2022
It's Spirit Month at Stoneybrook Middle School, and while everyone else is getting swept away, Dawn doesn't see the point. On Color Day, Dawn doesn't wear enough yellow to appease her classmates, and unintentionally begins a spirit war: those for spirit month and those against it. This war quickly spirals out of control, and it takes some reflection and empathy on Dawn's part to find a way to fix it.
October 16, 2019
Good idea but flopped some
I am glad the girls stood up for their freedeoms and it did show well how things get out of control but most was stupid and like a handful of the books no one really seemed in character so while the ending was good it ended up saying little and almost being plitical with little closure
I am glad the girls stood up for their freedeoms and it did show well how things get out of control but most was stupid and like a handful of the books no one really seemed in character so while the ending was good it ended up saying little and almost being plitical with little closure
March 5, 2023
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
October 25, 2023
We had weekly theme days at school around the time this book came out, and nobody cared if you didn’t follow the themes. The backlash dawn got for wearing yellow socks and nothing else was so over the top and ridiculous. And Mary Anne was terrified about the upcoming pajama day and was worried she would be targeted. A school should be a safe and inclusive space, not like a war zone!
June 23, 2025
I’m trying very hard to not be too harsh on these books because I did love them but also this one was just bad. People go crazy over school spirit and it’s a month long thing? Dawn is threatened and physically attacked and nothing happens?
The conclusion is that they should make it optional? Why didn’t they just say it was optional in the first place? You can’t mandate participation.
The conclusion is that they should make it optional? Why didn’t they just say it was optional in the first place? You can’t mandate participation.
September 17, 2017
This is right up there with "Claudia and the First Thanksgiving" in terms of ridiculousness, but for some reason I just love this book.
June 22, 2018
I will never be too old to read The BBC books,, ❤️❤️
March 12, 2019
Re-reading these books many years later brings back memories. All the main characters are reintroduced each book so it doesn't matter if you don't remember them
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November 11, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
January 21, 2022
Wow! Threats??
May 31, 2023
You know, the whole situation here is ridiculous, but I almost feel like you could switch out "school spirit month" with "book bans" and this could feel unfortunately relevant.
December 13, 2025
3 stars. This wasn't the most interesting BSC novel but it had its moments.
August 21, 2022
An ok version of BSC. It's one in qhich Stacey is with a new set of friends. It subtley talks of individuality.
March 30, 2024
This was annoying. Entertaining but annoying. The SMS baseball team is undefeated and the school has decided to hold a school spirit month. While this is all good in theory not everyone is a sports fan. For me pep rally day meant I got to go home early. Why would I bother going to a loud gym when I lived five minutes away and could go home to peace and quiet and my book or more likely homework. There are fun themed days, including wearing colours depending on your grade, pj day, retro day etc. Then one day Dawn forgets it's colour day, realizes she looks awful in yellow and has nothing in yellow anyway. She puts on yellow socks. There's an annoying reporter at school who trashes Dawn which seems inappropriate for a reporter but okay. The kids for spirit month vandalize property, torture and threaten those who don't wear yellow or want to go along with it. The school splits into two camps, as does their rival school. There's fist fights, cars are vandalized, parents and kids alike are dragged down into this. Then in the most obvious resolution they make spirit month optional which is how it should've gone in the first place. I ain't participating in that. What if I don't have yellow clothes? I have to spend money to buy something yellow to please some weird school cult thing? Kristy proves again she's an awful person and I realize where Karen gets it from. The b plot involves the DeWitt Barrett household crammed into a small house, the kids vowing to not move no matter what and their parents looking quite frazzled before deciding to build an addition to the house, which reminded me of that Ramona book where the Quimby family builds an addition and Ramona was too scared to sleep in it after she fought Beezus to get the room first. This one annoyed me though, like would people really take this seriously? It reminded me of a Simpsons episode where something small gets blown up to idiotic proportions and Mrs. Lovejoy crying won't someone think of the children? Especially that big debate at the high school. But it was also kind of silly and entertaining so there's that.
May 1, 2013
Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.
I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.
The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.
Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.
The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.
Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
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