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The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #14
BSC in the USA
In two RVs driven by Dawn's dad and Kristy's stepdad, the members of the Baby-sitters Club, rejoined by an exuberant Dawn, take a fun-filled, cross-country trip from Connecticut to California. Original.
246 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1997
107 people are currently reading
468 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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June 8, 2011
why the hell can't these girls ever go on vacation with their families instead of each other? & why can't watson brewer ever come up with his own vacation plans?
dawns (ugh) starts this book off with a very obnoxious letter to sunny back in california. it has all these asides written in different handwriting, & eventually we learn that supposedly jeff wrote them. really? he just sat patiently next to dawn while she wrote a letter to sunny, occasionally snagging her pen in order to share his thoughts? doubtful. apparently jack, dawn's father, has an art dealer friend based in new york city. his name is mr. choi & he has decided to move back to california. the only hitch is that he owns an RV...& seriously, show of hands for new york city residents that own RVs. are you fucking kidding me? most new yorkers don't even have cars! anyway, mr. choi doesn't want to drive the RV to california himself, so jack arranges to do it for him, with the caveat that he can take dawn & jeff along on a cross-country vacation. mr. choi agrees, & there are custody arrangements to be worked out with sharon, but eventually she agrees as well. then watson hears about this plan & he thinks it sounds just fabulous. he cancels the brewer-thomas family vacation plans & instead rents an RV, planning to drive across the country in tandem with jack. naturally he extends an invite to all the other members of the babysitters club, because stuffing only himself, elizabeth, kristy, david michael, karen, & andrew into an RV sounded too relaxing (emily michelle will be staying home with nannie, & apparently sam & charlie have big plans to drink wine coolers & lose their virginities because they're not coming either).
everyone going on the trip is allowed to choose one special location, & they settle on a southern route & a northern route. everyone will meet up in palo city for a special party at the end, & then the stoneybrook residents will fly home. god, this sounds so lame.
watson (who plans to see an old college friend in oklahoma) is driving the southern route with elizabeth (she wants to see the grand canyon), karen (four corners), andrew (san diego zoo), david michael (a rodeo anywhere), abby (graceland), jessi (the missisippip plantation on which her ancestors were slaves), & mallory (chincoteague). jack (who eventually chooses to visit the rock & roll hall of fame) is driving the northern route with jeff (rock climbing somewhere out west), dawn (chronically undecided, but eventually she chooses a ghost town after actually considering a factory that makes soybean-based products for a while--does dawn know how to party or what?), mary anne (iowa to see her grandmother--another party animal), claudia (the chicago art institute), stacey (seattle for a coffeeshop rendezvous with ethan--lame), & kristy (as many major league baseball parks as possible (which is like the equivalent of getting one wish from a genie & wishing for infinite wishes).
the two teams head out & here's a rundown of what happens:
* watson's team heads down to oakley, new jersey to have dinner with jessi's extended family. everyone has a grand old time, except for mallory, who kind of hangs back & seems shy. jessi starts to wonder if perhaps mallory is alienated by the fact that jessi's family is black, her grandparents' house is decorated in a decided african pride theme, etc etc. i thought i remembered from reading this book before that jessi eventually asks mallory about her feelings & mallory explains that she just wanted jessi's family to like her & it made her extra self-conscious, but i there was no scene like that in here (unless i read it without taking it in at all--this book is pretty boring, so it's possible). instead, jessi's grandma gives her a pep talk about how friends stick by you & mallory is probably not prejudiced at all. cool story, grandma. too bad it doesn't have much relationship to reality. anyway. in this chapter, jessi also says something to abby about how elvis presley stole a lot of his singing & dancing style from black musicians in the 50s. abby is described as having a "skeptical" reaction to this info. not cool, abby.
* also, we learn in this section that jessi has an uncle named john. apparently he is one of her father's brothers. maybe that is who squirt (john phillip ramsey, jr.) is named after, since it has previously been established that jessi's father's name is alex? or maybe jessi's grandparents had two sons named john. stranger things have happened.
* they visit graceland. they see an elvis impersonator & follow him to what sounds like a no-tell motel. he gives them his business card. this could have gone in a very unfortunate direction, but instead, it's just boring.
* next stop: chincoteague. it's far more tourist-y than anyone expected, & at first, they don't see ponies anywhere. eventually they give up & have a picnic before they get back on the road, & then all the ponies emerge. mallory actually tears up because they are so beautiful & magnificent. mallory is pretty lame. the caravan also meets another family traveling cross-country in an RV: a girl named liz & her grandparents. liz is a bossy busybody know-it-all & the kids all hate her immediately, but the grown-ups are of course all polite to each other.
* watson & elizabeth entertain the little kids at a diner while the babysitters accompany jessi to the plantation museum in dalton. jessi plods through the tour of the plantation home & all the fancy things the daltons owned. finally she sees the few artifacts in the slave museum, including photographs of lynchings. she heads outside to clear her head & begins to imagine what the plantation may have looked like in the 1800s with slaves working on it, including her ancestors. a black woman appears, carrying some books, & she asks jessi is she is lost. they chat for a while & the woman explains that she also thinks her ancestors had worked on the plantation. she's writing a history of slavery in the area, & she clarifies that there are few genealogical records for slave families, so she & jessi may or may not be related. she also explains that slaves passed information to each other through songs & jessi imagines slaves singing songs about freedom to each other, the white masters none the wiser. this was all so very PSA/after-school special that i was totally expecting the woman with the books to, like, be the ghost of jessi's great-great-great grandma or something. but she was just a regular lady.
* they cut west to visit watson's friend in oklahoma, who of course has a baby. about two seconds after they all arrive, a tornado blows through. they all hide in the bathroom. everyone is fine. even karen. i know. i was disappointed too.
* they visit a rodeo & david michael hates it. he hadn't realized it involved lots of animal torture. they leave before it really starts & just have fun playing midway games & eating snacks.
* they head down into the southwest. watson sees a turn-off for the zuni reservation & decides to take it, even though the only kid in the car who had a zuni pen pal was david michael. dawn's not even with them. they basically just drive their RV right into the town square & take a gander at the elementary school, which features a big plaque thanking "the children of stoneybook" for raising money to re-build the school. a crowd gathers, & the whole thing seriously sounds really racist, like it's a bunch of natives seeing the white man for the first time. i'm surprised watson doesn't step forward to say, "me watson. show me leader." the mayor comes up & is all, "people of stoneybrook, we thank you." karen (rudely) points out that not all the children of stoneybrook helped raise money for the school (way to let him know how little you care about his school, dude...& also, i seem to recall that karen did help raise money), & the mayor dude, or principal or whatever, is like, "all children are precious anyway." all except karen! one of the zuni families cooks up a big meal for the entire RV group & half the rest of the town just on the spur of the moment. this entire scene really, really rubbed me the wrong way. it just seemed really rude for the brewer group to just roll in & benefit from all this spontaneous hospitality & then just leave again.
* they go to the four corners. karen gets a chapter. isn't there a volcano they can sacrifice her to somewhere?
* abby starts having a lot of emotions as they approach the grand canyon. apparently, her father was in the middle of planning a big family trip to the grand canyon when he died. abby feels like she is betraying him by being there without him. she splits off from the rest of the group & spends some quality time just taking in the scenery on her own. she realizes that the beauty of the canyon is making her feel better, & that it was a place her father loved, & she can share it with his memory & honor him that way. it's a pretty sweet scene. kind of makes up for the zuni stuff.
* they visit the san diego zoo & goess whose there? know-it-all liz & her grandparents. andrew wants to see the panda bears, but liz tells him they have been shipped back to china because one is about to give birth or something. she's like, "duh! they don't give birth in captivity." dude, he's four. how would he know that? also, lots of zoo animals give birth in captivity. i don't know much about panda births, but i don't really think zoos ship the pandas back to china & just release them into the wild, collecting them later after they've given birth. i'm sure there's some kind of zoo oversight. anyway, liz bores the pants off everyone being a know-it-all, & mallory overhears her whispering to her grandparents about how dumb & boring the brewer crew is. her grandparents make an escue & take liz to their next destination, some other wildlife thing. after that, the brewer team has a much better time.
* on to the schafers. their first stop is cleveland, so kristy can see the stadium. i think they just stop for food, & somehow they find out about the rock & roll hall of fame & decide to go. i guess the ghostwriter didn't have time to do research on the rock & roll hall of fame because there's no description of it at all (or else i just didn't pay attention--like i said, boring).
* they swing through detroit so kristy can visit the stadium there, & then they're on to chicago. claudia is poking around, looking for her sketchbook, & she finds what she thinks is her sketchbook but is actually stacey's diary. all she reads in like one sentence that says, "ohio is really boring but the rock & roll hall of fame was awesome!" & she tucks it away on stacey's bunk. but stacey catches her & thinks she read it & refuses to speak to her.
* claudia looks at art & kristy forces everyone to go to a cubs game. stacey says they are playing the "boston something-or-others". i know stacey is not exactly a sports fan, but how can you be from new york city & not know about the boston red sox? their rivalry with the yankees is pretty legendary.
* they drive through the badlands & run out of gas. smooth move, schafer. jack abandons them on the side of the road for an entire day while he hitches a ride with some hillbillies to the nearest gas station. just as they begin to fear being ripped apart by coyotes, he returns with some state troopers & they are escorted to wall.
* claudia visits an antique store & buys a georgia o'keeffe-style sketch. i'm sure you know where this is going.
* they picnic in yellowstone & have an encounter with a bear. tragically, no one is maimed.
* mary anne's grandma suggests they meet at the mall of america. mary anne is initially disappointed, but everyone has fun.
* jeff rock climbs. jesus, i hadn't really realized how unbearably boring the schafer trip was.
* dawn inadvertently has the group visit a cheesy ghost town re-enactment amusement park-type place, but everyone has a great time.
* stacey has coffee with ethan. dude, NO ONE CARES.
* kristy sees another baseball game in san francisco. can i just mention that baseball tickets are not exactly cheap? even tickets to a kansas city royals game cost like $20. granted, this book is set fifteen years ago. but still. kristy's friends are shelling out a nice chunk of babysitting change to do something that is really not remotely interesting to anyone who is not actually interested in baseball.
* kristy also sees her dad on the jumbotron at the giants game. somehow, she figures out what section he's sitting in & goes & finds him. at first, security won't let her go down to his section, so she screams, "DAAAAAD!" & despite the fact that patrick abandoned his children years earlier, he turns around. really? he didn't think the "dad" in question might be one of the other 20,000 middle-aged dudes in the stadium? weird. anyway, their reunion is pretty perfunctory & awkward.
* party in palo alto. mr. choi is there & he tells claudia that her sketch is a real georgia o'keeffe. "from her student days," he says, even though it's of a cattle skull, which she did not really start drawing until she had moved to new mexico, like twenty years after beginning her art career as a student. hmmm. he offers her $500 for it. dude, i have a lithograph--just a lithograph--by a far less famous painter than georgia o'keeffe, & it's worth six times that. he's scamming you. luckily, claudia decides to hang on to the sketch because she feels an "emotional connection" to it.
dawns (ugh) starts this book off with a very obnoxious letter to sunny back in california. it has all these asides written in different handwriting, & eventually we learn that supposedly jeff wrote them. really? he just sat patiently next to dawn while she wrote a letter to sunny, occasionally snagging her pen in order to share his thoughts? doubtful. apparently jack, dawn's father, has an art dealer friend based in new york city. his name is mr. choi & he has decided to move back to california. the only hitch is that he owns an RV...& seriously, show of hands for new york city residents that own RVs. are you fucking kidding me? most new yorkers don't even have cars! anyway, mr. choi doesn't want to drive the RV to california himself, so jack arranges to do it for him, with the caveat that he can take dawn & jeff along on a cross-country vacation. mr. choi agrees, & there are custody arrangements to be worked out with sharon, but eventually she agrees as well. then watson hears about this plan & he thinks it sounds just fabulous. he cancels the brewer-thomas family vacation plans & instead rents an RV, planning to drive across the country in tandem with jack. naturally he extends an invite to all the other members of the babysitters club, because stuffing only himself, elizabeth, kristy, david michael, karen, & andrew into an RV sounded too relaxing (emily michelle will be staying home with nannie, & apparently sam & charlie have big plans to drink wine coolers & lose their virginities because they're not coming either).
everyone going on the trip is allowed to choose one special location, & they settle on a southern route & a northern route. everyone will meet up in palo city for a special party at the end, & then the stoneybrook residents will fly home. god, this sounds so lame.
watson (who plans to see an old college friend in oklahoma) is driving the southern route with elizabeth (she wants to see the grand canyon), karen (four corners), andrew (san diego zoo), david michael (a rodeo anywhere), abby (graceland), jessi (the missisippip plantation on which her ancestors were slaves), & mallory (chincoteague). jack (who eventually chooses to visit the rock & roll hall of fame) is driving the northern route with jeff (rock climbing somewhere out west), dawn (chronically undecided, but eventually she chooses a ghost town after actually considering a factory that makes soybean-based products for a while--does dawn know how to party or what?), mary anne (iowa to see her grandmother--another party animal), claudia (the chicago art institute), stacey (seattle for a coffeeshop rendezvous with ethan--lame), & kristy (as many major league baseball parks as possible (which is like the equivalent of getting one wish from a genie & wishing for infinite wishes).
the two teams head out & here's a rundown of what happens:
* watson's team heads down to oakley, new jersey to have dinner with jessi's extended family. everyone has a grand old time, except for mallory, who kind of hangs back & seems shy. jessi starts to wonder if perhaps mallory is alienated by the fact that jessi's family is black, her grandparents' house is decorated in a decided african pride theme, etc etc. i thought i remembered from reading this book before that jessi eventually asks mallory about her feelings & mallory explains that she just wanted jessi's family to like her & it made her extra self-conscious, but i there was no scene like that in here (unless i read it without taking it in at all--this book is pretty boring, so it's possible). instead, jessi's grandma gives her a pep talk about how friends stick by you & mallory is probably not prejudiced at all. cool story, grandma. too bad it doesn't have much relationship to reality. anyway. in this chapter, jessi also says something to abby about how elvis presley stole a lot of his singing & dancing style from black musicians in the 50s. abby is described as having a "skeptical" reaction to this info. not cool, abby.
* also, we learn in this section that jessi has an uncle named john. apparently he is one of her father's brothers. maybe that is who squirt (john phillip ramsey, jr.) is named after, since it has previously been established that jessi's father's name is alex? or maybe jessi's grandparents had two sons named john. stranger things have happened.
* they visit graceland. they see an elvis impersonator & follow him to what sounds like a no-tell motel. he gives them his business card. this could have gone in a very unfortunate direction, but instead, it's just boring.
* next stop: chincoteague. it's far more tourist-y than anyone expected, & at first, they don't see ponies anywhere. eventually they give up & have a picnic before they get back on the road, & then all the ponies emerge. mallory actually tears up because they are so beautiful & magnificent. mallory is pretty lame. the caravan also meets another family traveling cross-country in an RV: a girl named liz & her grandparents. liz is a bossy busybody know-it-all & the kids all hate her immediately, but the grown-ups are of course all polite to each other.
* watson & elizabeth entertain the little kids at a diner while the babysitters accompany jessi to the plantation museum in dalton. jessi plods through the tour of the plantation home & all the fancy things the daltons owned. finally she sees the few artifacts in the slave museum, including photographs of lynchings. she heads outside to clear her head & begins to imagine what the plantation may have looked like in the 1800s with slaves working on it, including her ancestors. a black woman appears, carrying some books, & she asks jessi is she is lost. they chat for a while & the woman explains that she also thinks her ancestors had worked on the plantation. she's writing a history of slavery in the area, & she clarifies that there are few genealogical records for slave families, so she & jessi may or may not be related. she also explains that slaves passed information to each other through songs & jessi imagines slaves singing songs about freedom to each other, the white masters none the wiser. this was all so very PSA/after-school special that i was totally expecting the woman with the books to, like, be the ghost of jessi's great-great-great grandma or something. but she was just a regular lady.
* they cut west to visit watson's friend in oklahoma, who of course has a baby. about two seconds after they all arrive, a tornado blows through. they all hide in the bathroom. everyone is fine. even karen. i know. i was disappointed too.
* they visit a rodeo & david michael hates it. he hadn't realized it involved lots of animal torture. they leave before it really starts & just have fun playing midway games & eating snacks.
* they head down into the southwest. watson sees a turn-off for the zuni reservation & decides to take it, even though the only kid in the car who had a zuni pen pal was david michael. dawn's not even with them. they basically just drive their RV right into the town square & take a gander at the elementary school, which features a big plaque thanking "the children of stoneybook" for raising money to re-build the school. a crowd gathers, & the whole thing seriously sounds really racist, like it's a bunch of natives seeing the white man for the first time. i'm surprised watson doesn't step forward to say, "me watson. show me leader." the mayor comes up & is all, "people of stoneybrook, we thank you." karen (rudely) points out that not all the children of stoneybrook helped raise money for the school (way to let him know how little you care about his school, dude...& also, i seem to recall that karen did help raise money), & the mayor dude, or principal or whatever, is like, "all children are precious anyway." all except karen! one of the zuni families cooks up a big meal for the entire RV group & half the rest of the town just on the spur of the moment. this entire scene really, really rubbed me the wrong way. it just seemed really rude for the brewer group to just roll in & benefit from all this spontaneous hospitality & then just leave again.
* they go to the four corners. karen gets a chapter. isn't there a volcano they can sacrifice her to somewhere?
* abby starts having a lot of emotions as they approach the grand canyon. apparently, her father was in the middle of planning a big family trip to the grand canyon when he died. abby feels like she is betraying him by being there without him. she splits off from the rest of the group & spends some quality time just taking in the scenery on her own. she realizes that the beauty of the canyon is making her feel better, & that it was a place her father loved, & she can share it with his memory & honor him that way. it's a pretty sweet scene. kind of makes up for the zuni stuff.
* they visit the san diego zoo & goess whose there? know-it-all liz & her grandparents. andrew wants to see the panda bears, but liz tells him they have been shipped back to china because one is about to give birth or something. she's like, "duh! they don't give birth in captivity." dude, he's four. how would he know that? also, lots of zoo animals give birth in captivity. i don't know much about panda births, but i don't really think zoos ship the pandas back to china & just release them into the wild, collecting them later after they've given birth. i'm sure there's some kind of zoo oversight. anyway, liz bores the pants off everyone being a know-it-all, & mallory overhears her whispering to her grandparents about how dumb & boring the brewer crew is. her grandparents make an escue & take liz to their next destination, some other wildlife thing. after that, the brewer team has a much better time.
* on to the schafers. their first stop is cleveland, so kristy can see the stadium. i think they just stop for food, & somehow they find out about the rock & roll hall of fame & decide to go. i guess the ghostwriter didn't have time to do research on the rock & roll hall of fame because there's no description of it at all (or else i just didn't pay attention--like i said, boring).
* they swing through detroit so kristy can visit the stadium there, & then they're on to chicago. claudia is poking around, looking for her sketchbook, & she finds what she thinks is her sketchbook but is actually stacey's diary. all she reads in like one sentence that says, "ohio is really boring but the rock & roll hall of fame was awesome!" & she tucks it away on stacey's bunk. but stacey catches her & thinks she read it & refuses to speak to her.
* claudia looks at art & kristy forces everyone to go to a cubs game. stacey says they are playing the "boston something-or-others". i know stacey is not exactly a sports fan, but how can you be from new york city & not know about the boston red sox? their rivalry with the yankees is pretty legendary.
* they drive through the badlands & run out of gas. smooth move, schafer. jack abandons them on the side of the road for an entire day while he hitches a ride with some hillbillies to the nearest gas station. just as they begin to fear being ripped apart by coyotes, he returns with some state troopers & they are escorted to wall.
* claudia visits an antique store & buys a georgia o'keeffe-style sketch. i'm sure you know where this is going.
* they picnic in yellowstone & have an encounter with a bear. tragically, no one is maimed.
* mary anne's grandma suggests they meet at the mall of america. mary anne is initially disappointed, but everyone has fun.
* jeff rock climbs. jesus, i hadn't really realized how unbearably boring the schafer trip was.
* dawn inadvertently has the group visit a cheesy ghost town re-enactment amusement park-type place, but everyone has a great time.
* stacey has coffee with ethan. dude, NO ONE CARES.
* kristy sees another baseball game in san francisco. can i just mention that baseball tickets are not exactly cheap? even tickets to a kansas city royals game cost like $20. granted, this book is set fifteen years ago. but still. kristy's friends are shelling out a nice chunk of babysitting change to do something that is really not remotely interesting to anyone who is not actually interested in baseball.
* kristy also sees her dad on the jumbotron at the giants game. somehow, she figures out what section he's sitting in & goes & finds him. at first, security won't let her go down to his section, so she screams, "DAAAAAD!" & despite the fact that patrick abandoned his children years earlier, he turns around. really? he didn't think the "dad" in question might be one of the other 20,000 middle-aged dudes in the stadium? weird. anyway, their reunion is pretty perfunctory & awkward.
* party in palo alto. mr. choi is there & he tells claudia that her sketch is a real georgia o'keeffe. "from her student days," he says, even though it's of a cattle skull, which she did not really start drawing until she had moved to new mexico, like twenty years after beginning her art career as a student. hmmm. he offers her $500 for it. dude, i have a lithograph--just a lithograph--by a far less famous painter than georgia o'keeffe, & it's worth six times that. he's scamming you. luckily, claudia decides to hang on to the sketch because she feels an "emotional connection" to it.
June 5, 2018
in this super special by ghostwriter Peter Lerangis, jack schafer (dawn’s dad) is planning to drive his rv across the country from stoneybrook to southern california. watson, never one to be outdone (see Baby-Sitters on Board! for the other time he did something like this), rents an rv so that between the two rvs all of the baby-sitters can come, along with the brewers sans nanny charlie sam and emily michelle, plus jeff schafer. the schafer rv goes on a northerly route and the brewer rv goes on a southerly route. each kid gets to choose the one place they want to go to, which is included in the character plotlines below.
character plotlines:
abby: obsessed with elvis, her destination is graceland. her other plotline is that she’s dreading going to the grand canyon because her dad planned to take her there before he died. but then she goes and feels connected to him anyway.
jessi: two destinations: oakley nj to see her grandmother, then the plantation in dalton mississippi to track down her lineage like Alex Haley. while it was mallory’s destination, she has a powerful moment at assateague island when she sees wild ponies in the flesh.
mallory: destination is chincoteague, but she finds it disappointing because it’s not like it is in Misty of Chincoteague, a book that was written in the 1940s. they go to assateague as well and end up seeing wild horses.
stacey: destination is seattle to see ethan, the boy she flirted with/sort of dated in Stacey's Broken Heart. her other plotline is that she fights with claudia because she thinks claud was reading her diary, but really it looked exactly like claud's and fell into claud’s bunk.
claud: destination is the art institute of chicago. finds a georgia o’keefe-style sketch in wall drug and pays $1 for it and later finds out it’s actually by o’keefe.
david michael: destination is a rodeo, but when he gets there he is horrified to discover how animals are treated and doesn’t actually watch the rodeo.
jeff: destination is grand tetons for rock climbing and rappelling
karen: destination is four corners
mary anne: destination is the mall of america, where her grandmother meets her. she also has drama with dawn's dad, because he keeps insulting the east coast, her dad, etc. finally she confronts him about it and he relents and is apologetic.
dawn: destination is a ghost town, but then can’t find one, so they end up going to a fake cheesy ghost town which is sort of like the place in super fun time
kristy: destination is as many baseball stadiums for as many games as the others will abide. at a game in san francisco, she sees her estranged dad on the big screen. she tracks him down in the park and talks to him for a bit, but it’s pretty awkward.
highlights:
-is this the last dawn narration we get in this series? this book came out one month before california diaries started (with Dawn: Diary 1). we’re free of dawn! aaaaahhhhh!
-they go to the rock and roll hall of fame! one of my favorite places
-soapbox jessi moment, regarding a tour guide saying that the daltons were known for humane treatment of slaves: "how could the daltons be humane if they considered slaves possessions?" you said it, jessi.
-at dalton plantation jessi meets a woman doing doctoral research who says her family had worked on the plantation, and jessi thinks they may be related. it’s a nice moment because she asked the folks doing the plantation tour for information, and they were really dismissive and said that nobody kept records for slave families.
-the brewer rv folks get stuck in a tornado in oklahoma visiting watson's friend.
-the schafer rv folks accidentally end up in wall drug. I guess that's where in the heck it is.
-the brewer rv happens to go by the town where the zuni live from the pens across america program (see Dawn and the Big Sleepover) so they go there and get treated like royalty
-the brewer rv folks see a pygmy chimp at the san diego zoo and it runs up to them and scowls and andrew says it's kristy because it's making a kristy-like face. it’s just like the time that I went to the chimelong safari park in guangzhou and my little siblings and I saw this tiny monkey that looked just like my father because they have identical scowls. in case you were wondering what my father’s perpetual facial expression looks like, here it is:
lowlights/nitpicks:
-jack schafer is such a jerk in this book. he keeps acting like richard (mary anne’s dad) is like this snooty rich guy, which is funny because sharon’s parents made her break up with him in high school because they didn’t think he was rich enough, but they approved of jack, so he must be a snooty rich guy too.
-jessi says that her dad says that elvis stole a lot from black singers in the fifties. abby won’t hear of it. it’s really annoying. like, abby, you can enjoy elvis, but when someone who is in fact black claims that elvis made a career out of stealing from black people, maybe you better listen?
-why is stacey hanging with ethan in seattle when she goes to nyc all the time to visit her dad? why can’t they just hang out in new york?
-also ethan asks stacey to meet him at the corner coffee shop, but doesn’t give her an address. there are four coffee shops in seattle called corner coffee shop or something like that, so of course stacey doesn’t know which one to go to. have some common sense, ethan.
-why do they go to chincoteague before assateague when assateague is basically on the way to chincoteague from new jersey (where they had been coming from)? also when they get to assateague they don't see horses for a long time. I don’t buy this, because every time I go to assateague I see horses all over the place.
-recurring characters are introduced in this book for some reason, a little girl named liz and her grandparents the hoyerses. they meet them at chincoteague but see them at four corners and the san diego zoo. liz is super obnoxious and a know-it-all. why did this plotline even happen?
-dawn lectures a vendor about selling bratwurst, or as she calls it stuffed animal entrails. I can’t wait to not have dawn narration in any more of these books!
-jack schafer runs out of gas in the badlands. he leaves to get gas and doesn’t come back for hours, and the kids just sit in the rv after dark getting more and more scared. what an irresponsible jerk he is.
the division of the rvs:
southerly route/brewer rv: watson, elizabeth, karen, andrew, david michael, abby, jessi, and mal
northerly route/schafer rv: jack, dawn, jeff, mary anne, claudia, stacey, kristy
character plotlines:
abby: obsessed with elvis, her destination is graceland. her other plotline is that she’s dreading going to the grand canyon because her dad planned to take her there before he died. but then she goes and feels connected to him anyway.
jessi: two destinations: oakley nj to see her grandmother, then the plantation in dalton mississippi to track down her lineage like Alex Haley. while it was mallory’s destination, she has a powerful moment at assateague island when she sees wild ponies in the flesh.
mallory: destination is chincoteague, but she finds it disappointing because it’s not like it is in Misty of Chincoteague, a book that was written in the 1940s. they go to assateague as well and end up seeing wild horses.
stacey: destination is seattle to see ethan, the boy she flirted with/sort of dated in Stacey's Broken Heart. her other plotline is that she fights with claudia because she thinks claud was reading her diary, but really it looked exactly like claud's and fell into claud’s bunk.
claud: destination is the art institute of chicago. finds a georgia o’keefe-style sketch in wall drug and pays $1 for it and later finds out it’s actually by o’keefe.
david michael: destination is a rodeo, but when he gets there he is horrified to discover how animals are treated and doesn’t actually watch the rodeo.
jeff: destination is grand tetons for rock climbing and rappelling
karen: destination is four corners
mary anne: destination is the mall of america, where her grandmother meets her. she also has drama with dawn's dad, because he keeps insulting the east coast, her dad, etc. finally she confronts him about it and he relents and is apologetic.
dawn: destination is a ghost town, but then can’t find one, so they end up going to a fake cheesy ghost town which is sort of like the place in super fun time
kristy: destination is as many baseball stadiums for as many games as the others will abide. at a game in san francisco, she sees her estranged dad on the big screen. she tracks him down in the park and talks to him for a bit, but it’s pretty awkward.
highlights:
-is this the last dawn narration we get in this series? this book came out one month before california diaries started (with Dawn: Diary 1). we’re free of dawn! aaaaahhhhh!
-they go to the rock and roll hall of fame! one of my favorite places
-soapbox jessi moment, regarding a tour guide saying that the daltons were known for humane treatment of slaves: "how could the daltons be humane if they considered slaves possessions?" you said it, jessi.
-at dalton plantation jessi meets a woman doing doctoral research who says her family had worked on the plantation, and jessi thinks they may be related. it’s a nice moment because she asked the folks doing the plantation tour for information, and they were really dismissive and said that nobody kept records for slave families.
-the brewer rv folks get stuck in a tornado in oklahoma visiting watson's friend.
-the schafer rv folks accidentally end up in wall drug. I guess that's where in the heck it is.
-the brewer rv happens to go by the town where the zuni live from the pens across america program (see Dawn and the Big Sleepover) so they go there and get treated like royalty
-the brewer rv folks see a pygmy chimp at the san diego zoo and it runs up to them and scowls and andrew says it's kristy because it's making a kristy-like face. it’s just like the time that I went to the chimelong safari park in guangzhou and my little siblings and I saw this tiny monkey that looked just like my father because they have identical scowls. in case you were wondering what my father’s perpetual facial expression looks like, here it is:
lowlights/nitpicks:
-jack schafer is such a jerk in this book. he keeps acting like richard (mary anne’s dad) is like this snooty rich guy, which is funny because sharon’s parents made her break up with him in high school because they didn’t think he was rich enough, but they approved of jack, so he must be a snooty rich guy too.
-jessi says that her dad says that elvis stole a lot from black singers in the fifties. abby won’t hear of it. it’s really annoying. like, abby, you can enjoy elvis, but when someone who is in fact black claims that elvis made a career out of stealing from black people, maybe you better listen?
-why is stacey hanging with ethan in seattle when she goes to nyc all the time to visit her dad? why can’t they just hang out in new york?
-also ethan asks stacey to meet him at the corner coffee shop, but doesn’t give her an address. there are four coffee shops in seattle called corner coffee shop or something like that, so of course stacey doesn’t know which one to go to. have some common sense, ethan.
-why do they go to chincoteague before assateague when assateague is basically on the way to chincoteague from new jersey (where they had been coming from)? also when they get to assateague they don't see horses for a long time. I don’t buy this, because every time I go to assateague I see horses all over the place.
-recurring characters are introduced in this book for some reason, a little girl named liz and her grandparents the hoyerses. they meet them at chincoteague but see them at four corners and the san diego zoo. liz is super obnoxious and a know-it-all. why did this plotline even happen?
-dawn lectures a vendor about selling bratwurst, or as she calls it stuffed animal entrails. I can’t wait to not have dawn narration in any more of these books!
-jack schafer runs out of gas in the badlands. he leaves to get gas and doesn’t come back for hours, and the kids just sit in the rv after dark getting more and more scared. what an irresponsible jerk he is.
the division of the rvs:
southerly route/brewer rv: watson, elizabeth, karen, andrew, david michael, abby, jessi, and mal
northerly route/schafer rv: jack, dawn, jeff, mary anne, claudia, stacey, kristy
January 10, 2013
The Baby-Sitters Club in the USA was the first book I ever read that had a romantic subplot... I remember discovering the full-page black-and-white illustration of Stacey kissing the hot hip random stranger she met on vacation, and being completely awed. My third-grade self was floored... a KISS?
??? ?/??
. I was maybe even a little turned on.
The Baby-Sitters Club was my first guilty pleasure. I used to hide the books in my desk during class and read them when I thought the teacher wasn't looking. If she didn't notice, she probably thought I was just this weird kid who stared at her lap a lot.
"What are you reading?" was the dreaded question when it came to silent reading time. I always lied and named something by Pam Muñoz Ryan or Louis Sachar, whilst sliding the book lower into my lap so the teacher wouldn't be able to see the cover, because my she hated Ann M. Martin for some reason. She loved Ryan and Sachar, though.
The Baby-Sitters Club was the reason I fell into books.
The Baby-Sitters Club was the first series I ever read from the very beginning, as well as the first series whose new releases I eagerly awaited at the local B&N. And when the shiny new copies arrived, I transformed into this marathon runner and got my hands on one of them before anyone else could (tricky kid, eh?)
The Baby-Sitters Club was my childhood. Thank you, Ann M. Martin.
Much love,
The (sort of) grown-up Stephanie
The Baby-Sitters Club was my first guilty pleasure. I used to hide the books in my desk during class and read them when I thought the teacher wasn't looking. If she didn't notice, she probably thought I was just this weird kid who stared at her lap a lot.
"What are you reading?" was the dreaded question when it came to silent reading time. I always lied and named something by Pam Muñoz Ryan or Louis Sachar, whilst sliding the book lower into my lap so the teacher wouldn't be able to see the cover, because my she hated Ann M. Martin for some reason. She loved Ryan and Sachar, though.
The Baby-Sitters Club was the reason I fell into books.
The Baby-Sitters Club was the first series I ever read from the very beginning, as well as the first series whose new releases I eagerly awaited at the local B&N. And when the shiny new copies arrived, I transformed into this marathon runner and got my hands on one of them before anyone else could (tricky kid, eh?)
The Baby-Sitters Club was my childhood. Thank you, Ann M. Martin.
Much love,
The (sort of) grown-up Stephanie
Read
July 5, 2021i found all the babysitters club books on libby so see you all at the end of summer, i guess
May 31, 2018
Stumbled upon my favorite Babysitters Club book from childhood at my local library. Immediately reread it and felt all the nostalgia without a hint of embarrassment. This series = highlight of the 90s! Still love it!
December 5, 2024
As a kid, Kristy's sections made me cry -- her interactions with her father and Watson. As an adult, Jessi visiting the plantation made me sob.
July 22, 2022
As the completion of reading this series (well, the Super editions, at any rate) as an adult looms, I have to point out how, even though these special editions get a little ridiculous towards the end (these middle schoolers are better traveled than I am in my mid 40s), they also have proved to age significantly better than the Sweet Valley High series since the 80s and 90s, and I'd still happily recommend this series of books to the late elementary school crowd even today-maybe with a few discussions about updated ways to think about disability and race. In general, they're simply better quality and the writers less chauvinistic than the other series.
At any rate, in this book, the BSC are being chauffeured across the country in 2 RVs- one driven by Dawn's dad and the other by Kristys mom and Watson. Through their journal keeping format, the kids introduce us to various cool tourist destinations in the US, including several MLB stadiums, the Mall of America, 4 Corners, Jessi's family in New Jersey, a former slave plantation, a ghost town out west, Chincoteague Island in MD, and some others that I'm forgetting because I finished this book weeks ago. Enjoyed the character development of Mary Anne in this installment, as we get to see her grappling with the weird dynamic of a trip with Dawn's dad/her stepmom's ex, as well as meeting her maternal grandmother. Also thought it was cool to see the realistic depictions of how this sort of long and closely quartered travel can cause annoyances and rifts between even the best of friends (Stacey and Claudia). As always, the girls learn lessons about friendship. Not a particularly stand out book from the series, but fans will like it. 3 stars.
At any rate, in this book, the BSC are being chauffeured across the country in 2 RVs- one driven by Dawn's dad and the other by Kristys mom and Watson. Through their journal keeping format, the kids introduce us to various cool tourist destinations in the US, including several MLB stadiums, the Mall of America, 4 Corners, Jessi's family in New Jersey, a former slave plantation, a ghost town out west, Chincoteague Island in MD, and some others that I'm forgetting because I finished this book weeks ago. Enjoyed the character development of Mary Anne in this installment, as we get to see her grappling with the weird dynamic of a trip with Dawn's dad/her stepmom's ex, as well as meeting her maternal grandmother. Also thought it was cool to see the realistic depictions of how this sort of long and closely quartered travel can cause annoyances and rifts between even the best of friends (Stacey and Claudia). As always, the girls learn lessons about friendship. Not a particularly stand out book from the series, but fans will like it. 3 stars.
December 11, 2018
I needed to read a book for my copycat Challenge and this one was it. It was quite fun, but at times I had a hard time getting through it. There were just too many characters for me. I had thought we would get one or two, but instead we get everyone. At the beginning of the chapters we have short parts hand-written by the characters but I just couldn't read them all. Some of them were just scribblies.
I did like the tour through the US, it sounds so much fun and boy did they see a lot of things. Malls, ballparks, Elvis, forests, friends from other books, San Francisco, canyons, bears, twisters. And then there is a hint of romance which I thought was really sweet. The drama however between two characters was just dumb. Oh no, she touched my diary, now I am going to be pissed and not listen to her at all. *rolls eyes*
I did like the tour through the US, it sounds so much fun and boy did they see a lot of things. Malls, ballparks, Elvis, forests, friends from other books, San Francisco, canyons, bears, twisters. And then there is a hint of romance which I thought was really sweet. The drama however between two characters was just dumb. Oh no, she touched my diary, now I am going to be pissed and not listen to her at all. *rolls eyes*
October 6, 2024
On yet another summer vacation the BSC heads out on an RV trip across America. That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea if you go with a small group. Dawn's dad is driving an RV across the country for a friend and Watson decides that he'll join them. One crew goes north the other goes south. Dawn's dad is a bit of a jerk like when he takes his kids from their mother earlier than arranged, or making fun of the east coast and Mary Anne's dad. Then there's the idiotic move of running out of gas in the badlands and leaving a group of kids to fend for themselves. Anyway each person on the trip has a place they want to visit and at times the book reads like a travel brochure. Kristy wants to see as many ball parks as she can and buy a hat from each one. She also bails from her family's RV proving that deep down even she can't imagine staying with Karen in a confined space for that long. She also finds her dad at a ball game in San Francisco. Mary Anne wants to visit her grandmother, Jessi her family in New Jersey and a plantation in Mississippi where she yries to learn about her family's history. Stacey only wants to see Ethan in Seattle which is dumb but so Stacey. Mallory wants to see the wild horses in Chincoteague, Abby wants to go to Graceland chases after "Elvis" and ends up has a touching moment connecting with her dad at the Grand Canyon. Claudia if course wants to see an art exhibit and uncovers a potentially valuable art piece in Wall South Dakota, the only place besides the badlands mentioned in this book that I've actually been to. Dawn wants to see a ghost town but can't find one which is dumb considering how many are littered around South Dakota alone. I'm glad Dawn is finally gone I still hate her selfish judgemental holier than thou attitude. Karen wants to see the four corners, Jeff wants to rock climb, David Michael wants to see a rodeo and ends up hating it and Andrew wants to see pandas. Me too, they're so adorable. Would've been better with no Dawn but she's gone after this one so yay. There's also a sort of recurring character named Liz who's traveling with her grandparents and annoys everyone so quite similar to Karen really. Otherwise an intersection book almost made me want to travel almost. For now I'll continue to enjoy my travel in book form.
March 19, 2023
For some reason I missed this book when I was younger.
You know, I don't think we give Martin enough credit. If she was writing today she'd likely be called "woke", because as everyone knows name-calling is the best way to express superiority. I didn't realize how many things Martin normalized. The BSC and their families are diverse, Martin normalized having all kinds of friends and family members. Abby is Jewish and honestly I learned a lot about Judaism from Martin's careful attention to those details. Martin normalized celebrating not denigrating different religious beliefs. Dawn is eating organic and is ahead of her time in her concern from the environment. Martin normalized organic diets and climate change activism. Kristy is described as a tomboy, a term you almost don't hear anymore, in both dress and likes/dislikes. Martin normalized identity expression. Martin also normalized just how different families can look and how each iteration of family is just as special as the others. She also normalized not being good at everything. And she normalized the idea that girls can be business owners and really good at it!
This book took the reader to a plantation and while I would have loved more of that storyline today that chapter would be labeled CRT and probably get Martin banned! This book also discussed grief and normalized the idea that grief can last for years and that is okay! The book also tackled children setting boundaries with adults, as Mary Anne does.
Is there room for criticism? Sure. Do these books still require some suspension of disbelief? Of course - tell me you've never been in a tornado without telling me you've never been in a tornado. But I am really thankful I was exposed to so many things in these books. They are easy to call silly, but I see now that I was being taught a lot about acceptance and love -- not only of others, but of myself. Martin deserves more credit than she's given.
Naturally, I recommend this book. Hurry and read it before it gets added to the banned lists.
You know, I don't think we give Martin enough credit. If she was writing today she'd likely be called "woke", because as everyone knows name-calling is the best way to express superiority. I didn't realize how many things Martin normalized. The BSC and their families are diverse, Martin normalized having all kinds of friends and family members. Abby is Jewish and honestly I learned a lot about Judaism from Martin's careful attention to those details. Martin normalized celebrating not denigrating different religious beliefs. Dawn is eating organic and is ahead of her time in her concern from the environment. Martin normalized organic diets and climate change activism. Kristy is described as a tomboy, a term you almost don't hear anymore, in both dress and likes/dislikes. Martin normalized identity expression. Martin also normalized just how different families can look and how each iteration of family is just as special as the others. She also normalized not being good at everything. And she normalized the idea that girls can be business owners and really good at it!
This book took the reader to a plantation and while I would have loved more of that storyline today that chapter would be labeled CRT and probably get Martin banned! This book also discussed grief and normalized the idea that grief can last for years and that is okay! The book also tackled children setting boundaries with adults, as Mary Anne does.
Is there room for criticism? Sure. Do these books still require some suspension of disbelief? Of course - tell me you've never been in a tornado without telling me you've never been in a tornado. But I am really thankful I was exposed to so many things in these books. They are easy to call silly, but I see now that I was being taught a lot about acceptance and love -- not only of others, but of myself. Martin deserves more credit than she's given.
Naturally, I recommend this book. Hurry and read it before it gets added to the banned lists.
May 26, 2016
I think this was my favorite of all the BSC super specials, mostly because it involves a cross-country road trip by RV & Kristy visiting like 12 major league ballparks (seriously, how did she get away with that when everyone else only gets to pick one stop?).
Read
June 23, 2024BS in the USA
Dawn’s dad comes to visit and wants to know where they want to go on the road trip they’ll be taking. Dawn thinks it would be cool to visit a ghost town in the west. Jeff wants to go repeling. Maryanne is undecided.
There are two RV’s going (rented by Watson). They’ll be going to 15 different locations and there are 15 people. Kristy organizes who’ll be in what van. Reluctantly she has to be in a different van from her family. Some want to head north. The other’s south.
There fist stop is Oakly (Jessi’s grandparents house). They’re soon joined by all her uncles and cousins. Her grandparents are throwing down making fried chicken and okra. Jessi notices Mallory is acting a little uncomfortable and wonders if it’s all the Afriican décor. Could she be .. No. Jessi tries to erase that thought from her mind. In the kitchen, Jessi and her grandmother talk about what’s next on the trip. Jessi says they’ll be going to see ponies and then to Dalton which used to be a (slve plantation?). Her grandmother warns her that some things never change. But she also makes her see that Mal was just worried about making a good impression. After this, she seems
more at ease when Keisha makes her feel more at home.
The next stop is Cleveland and a Cleveland Indians baseball game The only one excited about this stop are Kristy, Jeff, and Mr. Schaffer. Stacey is more interested in meeting up with a guy named Ethan that she meet in NY once. They’ve been writing each other and she’s a little nervous it might not be what she thought it was when she sees him again.
In Chincoteague they only thng Mal sees is an accident, but in Asateague Waston pulls over the RV so they can have a picnic. Mal spots three ponies in the distance and this makes her whole trip! They stop in Chicago. Claudia wants to see an Impressionist exhibit at the art museum. She enjoys the paintings but before they get there Stacey gets mad at her for accidently picking up her notebook. Maryanne gets a tittle sensitive about Mr. Schafer’s comment about lawyers not making time for their families. It’s been a long trip and its starting to wear on Claudia being in a RV with so many people for days on tend.
They visit Graceland and tour Elvis’s estate (this is what Aby wants to do). Abby has a belief that Elvis is still alive (like many others). When they get to Graceland they see a pink Cadillac. Karen says she saw him driving it. After they tour the estage, they see the pink Cadillac again and see Elvis get out. So, they decide to follow him. He goes to a motel with a box. But they soon find out he’s an impersonator and there’s a contest during Elvis week. (I think it’s on the day they have the candlelight vigil). After this Abby has to admit he really is dead.
Maryanne meets up with her grandmother at the Mall of America. They go to Camp Snoopy (which is an amusement park inside the mall. Mr. Scaffer starts to talk about Mr. Spier again when Dawn drags them to a health food restaurant, but grandma isn’t having it. She says her son in law eats very well and maybe Mr. Scafer needs to try it (indicating his pot belly). This shuts him up. What is his problem anyway?
Jessica, Mallory, and Anny take a tour of the Dalton Museum and are told some of the history of the Dalton’s who owned 100 slaves but “treated them humanely” (yet thought of them as property. There’s a space in attic where the slaves were kept, There are also pictures of (among other things) lynchings. It’s about here that Jessi decides she needs some air. Outside she looks at the grounds and starts to imagine her family in the field’s picking cotton. A black lady named Mrs. Pardell comes up to her and they talk about Jessi trying to find out more about her relatives (who were owned by the Daltons) but there were no records of the slaves (only first names). The lady says that there were some that could read and write but they couldn’t exactly pass this on (she saw the consequences). What they did do tho was sing in code. Jessi realizes the chances of her finding out anything in depth about her relatives are slim.
The trip comes to a halt for a minute the RV that Dawn, Kristy, anc Claudia are in runs out of gas and Mr. Scafer has to catch a ride with someone passing by to go to the gas station. They kill the time playing trivia, singing, and playing 20 questions. Watson’s RV group stops in Oaklahoma to visit a college friend of his (the Romney’s). While they’re there they get a tornado warning and all have to take cover in the bathroom since they don’t have a basement. In a town call Walls at an antique shop Claudia finds a treasure (a sketch of skulls in the style of O Keefe) and she gets it for a dollar. Stacey calls it junk.
After the torado warning lets up, Watson’s group (Abby, Jessi, Mal, David Micheal, Karen, Andrew) go to Texas. David Micheal is all excited about going to a rodeo until he actualy heards about what they do to the calf’s at one of the events. Then he spends the rest of the time riding the mechanical bull. The others do the mid-way events. Then they all have a picnic. Jeff goes hiking in Yellow Stone and he and the others come face to face with a bear. They thang some food up a tree and when he can’t get it he loses interest and leaves. After this he goes rock climbing and makes it all the way to the top. He getrs scared a minute going down but he makes it (and is proud of himself).
In Zuri (New Mexico) they go to the resort (and school) of the kids they were pen pals with whose school burnted down and they made significant donations (and were listed on a plague outside the school). The principal shows them around and they actually get to meet some of the kids they wrote too in Hands Across America. (A lot of Mal’s brothers and sisters were in the program as well as Karen and David Michael). Dawn chooses a place called Buzzard Galch which she thinks will be a ghost town, but it turns out to be be a VERY bad imitation of the West World (original) theme park complete with a reannactment of a theft and a haunted house.
Karen wants to see the Four Corners but they’re already behind getting to the Grand Canyon. But Watson says they can still do both after seeing how disappointed Karen is. She wants to put her feet in two states and her hands in the other others (and wave to the people in Stoneybrooke). She also gets to see a rock formation that’s shaped like a skyline on the way there. Watson gets to see a place called Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon.
Stacey goes to meet Ethan at a coffee shop but after wating a half an hour he doesn’t show. So she calls his house. No answer. Thinking that she may have got the wrong location she calls the directory and is told four different places have similar names to the coffee shop they were supposed to meet at. So, Mr. Schafer talks her to each one. He’s at none of them. Stacey realizes she left her back pack at the first coffee house andshe goes back. Ethan is there. Turns out he had to change the time and left messages on her mom’s and dad’s machine. Only both are out of town. So they talk a while about everything that’s happened on the trip. Then they take a walk. Then when it’s time to leave they share a kiss. Stacey gots back and gives Claud all the details. They make up after Claudi says she didn’t read her journal and Stacey offers to read some of it to her.
At first, Abby doesn’t want to go see the Grand Candyon. It reminds her of the promise her dad made to her that he’d take her many times. But right before they were supposed to go he got in an accident and got killed. She remembers how he always spoke of the magic and peace the Grand Canyon had. She tries to talk Mrs. Brewer out of seeing it, but it doesn’t work. It looks like for a minute they aren’t any spots for the RV by the canyon but Watson finds another location. Abby tries to stay in the van but ends up going. Then she sees exactly what her father was talking about. She imagines going their with her mother and twin one day.
They make a stop in San Fransisco and tour the city in a cable car. Mr. Scafer notices Maryanne is quiet and she finally admits that some of his comments make her uncomfortable. He apologizes and says je (dpes( jave a nog ,pitj It’s caused him to lose a friend or two. After this they go to Candlight Park to a baseball game (I think Cubs?) Kristy and Maryanne see Kristy’s father on the big screen with a lady. Jesi, Mallory, and Abby go to the San Fransico zoo and are joined by the know it all girl Liz from earlier in the book. After a while she complains to her grandparents that they’re all boring and if they don’t take her to the Wildlife Zoo (which is bigger) she’ll scream until her face turns blue (Are we sure this isn’t Verruca Salt?). Of course, her grandparents make up an excuse to ditch the group which makes everyone happy.
Kristy and her dad reunite and exchange addresses. He promises he’ll write to her. (It’s awkward he’s there with his girl friend but Kristy doesn’t want him to introduce her to his girlfriend). She seems to be ok with the meeting tho. It ends with them in Caliornia. Carol has thrown them a party. I don’t know who Mr. Choi is but he looks at Claudia’s sketch and discovers it’s a real George O Keefe. He says they’d need to get it appraised but she can get at least five hunfdred for it and the museum would be interested in ownining it. But Claudia says she’s not interested in giving it up.
My Thoughts
This was a fun concept. I kinda wish my family would rent an RV and go on a road trip all over and each pick places we’d like to see in different places. It would kkind of shake things up. All the parties and sports events we do are getting kind of stale. But then there were only a couple of places I would have chosen. The most interesting was the Mall of America. I think this one fell on my radar YEARS ago when a friend of mine mentioned it who was an airline stewardness talked about. I don’t remember if she’d gone or she wanted us to go. So, I looked up all the stores and restaraunts and the park inside of it. I still think this would be amazing to see if it still exist.
The next interesting thing was the Art Institute thing was the Art Museum in Chicago and the store where Claduia got the sketch. But that’s were it ended for me.
I wouldn’t want to (and don’t understand why Jessi wanted to) see a slave museum. I DEFINITELY would not want to visit the home of the people who’d enslaved my ancestors. To me that would be like visiting Salem. But in a similar way I can kind of see the dark appeal . But its interesting to think that *this* was the best way she could think of back then. Now a days there are sites that trace back your ancestors. For someone 11 this was a VERY mature thing to want to do. I kind of
hoped she’d find her answers some day if not on this trip.
There were WAY to many stops at sports related things (stores, parks, etc). I could have cared less about that. I didn’t really care about Graceland. Maybe if it had been Paisley Park or Neverland. Then there was the hiking and rope repeling activities which I didn’t have an interest in either. And coming face to face with a bear, it surely would have terrified the life out of me. *That*S an experience I never want. Ranks right up there with coming face to face with a snake. The *fake* Westworld experience sounded lame. I mean *today* you probably could just go on You Tube and search the word “Ghost Towns” and then from there they’d show you some places. (I actually have done this recently for a whole different reason). I think if Dawn had actually found a ghost town this may have been a little more up my ally to want to see on this trip but not this park. The Grand Canyon maybe it’s just something you have to experience because it doesn’t really make me think it’s something I’d be dying to see.The school and resort and New Mexico (maybe), but it sounded like it was in the desert. I don’t know. There was also Mallory’s location where they saw the deer. I’d just have to actually *see* this one. I couldn’t get a *Feel* for it. Other than it had deer.
Rating: 9 Good concept just the places picked left a lot to be desired.
Dawn’s dad comes to visit and wants to know where they want to go on the road trip they’ll be taking. Dawn thinks it would be cool to visit a ghost town in the west. Jeff wants to go repeling. Maryanne is undecided.
There are two RV’s going (rented by Watson). They’ll be going to 15 different locations and there are 15 people. Kristy organizes who’ll be in what van. Reluctantly she has to be in a different van from her family. Some want to head north. The other’s south.
There fist stop is Oakly (Jessi’s grandparents house). They’re soon joined by all her uncles and cousins. Her grandparents are throwing down making fried chicken and okra. Jessi notices Mallory is acting a little uncomfortable and wonders if it’s all the Afriican décor. Could she be .. No. Jessi tries to erase that thought from her mind. In the kitchen, Jessi and her grandmother talk about what’s next on the trip. Jessi says they’ll be going to see ponies and then to Dalton which used to be a (slve plantation?). Her grandmother warns her that some things never change. But she also makes her see that Mal was just worried about making a good impression. After this, she seems
more at ease when Keisha makes her feel more at home.
The next stop is Cleveland and a Cleveland Indians baseball game The only one excited about this stop are Kristy, Jeff, and Mr. Schaffer. Stacey is more interested in meeting up with a guy named Ethan that she meet in NY once. They’ve been writing each other and she’s a little nervous it might not be what she thought it was when she sees him again.
In Chincoteague they only thng Mal sees is an accident, but in Asateague Waston pulls over the RV so they can have a picnic. Mal spots three ponies in the distance and this makes her whole trip! They stop in Chicago. Claudia wants to see an Impressionist exhibit at the art museum. She enjoys the paintings but before they get there Stacey gets mad at her for accidently picking up her notebook. Maryanne gets a tittle sensitive about Mr. Schafer’s comment about lawyers not making time for their families. It’s been a long trip and its starting to wear on Claudia being in a RV with so many people for days on tend.
They visit Graceland and tour Elvis’s estate (this is what Aby wants to do). Abby has a belief that Elvis is still alive (like many others). When they get to Graceland they see a pink Cadillac. Karen says she saw him driving it. After they tour the estage, they see the pink Cadillac again and see Elvis get out. So, they decide to follow him. He goes to a motel with a box. But they soon find out he’s an impersonator and there’s a contest during Elvis week. (I think it’s on the day they have the candlelight vigil). After this Abby has to admit he really is dead.
Maryanne meets up with her grandmother at the Mall of America. They go to Camp Snoopy (which is an amusement park inside the mall. Mr. Scaffer starts to talk about Mr. Spier again when Dawn drags them to a health food restaurant, but grandma isn’t having it. She says her son in law eats very well and maybe Mr. Scafer needs to try it (indicating his pot belly). This shuts him up. What is his problem anyway?
Jessica, Mallory, and Anny take a tour of the Dalton Museum and are told some of the history of the Dalton’s who owned 100 slaves but “treated them humanely” (yet thought of them as property. There’s a space in attic where the slaves were kept, There are also pictures of (among other things) lynchings. It’s about here that Jessi decides she needs some air. Outside she looks at the grounds and starts to imagine her family in the field’s picking cotton. A black lady named Mrs. Pardell comes up to her and they talk about Jessi trying to find out more about her relatives (who were owned by the Daltons) but there were no records of the slaves (only first names). The lady says that there were some that could read and write but they couldn’t exactly pass this on (she saw the consequences). What they did do tho was sing in code. Jessi realizes the chances of her finding out anything in depth about her relatives are slim.
The trip comes to a halt for a minute the RV that Dawn, Kristy, anc Claudia are in runs out of gas and Mr. Scafer has to catch a ride with someone passing by to go to the gas station. They kill the time playing trivia, singing, and playing 20 questions. Watson’s RV group stops in Oaklahoma to visit a college friend of his (the Romney’s). While they’re there they get a tornado warning and all have to take cover in the bathroom since they don’t have a basement. In a town call Walls at an antique shop Claudia finds a treasure (a sketch of skulls in the style of O Keefe) and she gets it for a dollar. Stacey calls it junk.
After the torado warning lets up, Watson’s group (Abby, Jessi, Mal, David Micheal, Karen, Andrew) go to Texas. David Micheal is all excited about going to a rodeo until he actualy heards about what they do to the calf’s at one of the events. Then he spends the rest of the time riding the mechanical bull. The others do the mid-way events. Then they all have a picnic. Jeff goes hiking in Yellow Stone and he and the others come face to face with a bear. They thang some food up a tree and when he can’t get it he loses interest and leaves. After this he goes rock climbing and makes it all the way to the top. He getrs scared a minute going down but he makes it (and is proud of himself).
In Zuri (New Mexico) they go to the resort (and school) of the kids they were pen pals with whose school burnted down and they made significant donations (and were listed on a plague outside the school). The principal shows them around and they actually get to meet some of the kids they wrote too in Hands Across America. (A lot of Mal’s brothers and sisters were in the program as well as Karen and David Michael). Dawn chooses a place called Buzzard Galch which she thinks will be a ghost town, but it turns out to be be a VERY bad imitation of the West World (original) theme park complete with a reannactment of a theft and a haunted house.
Karen wants to see the Four Corners but they’re already behind getting to the Grand Canyon. But Watson says they can still do both after seeing how disappointed Karen is. She wants to put her feet in two states and her hands in the other others (and wave to the people in Stoneybrooke). She also gets to see a rock formation that’s shaped like a skyline on the way there. Watson gets to see a place called Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon.
Stacey goes to meet Ethan at a coffee shop but after wating a half an hour he doesn’t show. So she calls his house. No answer. Thinking that she may have got the wrong location she calls the directory and is told four different places have similar names to the coffee shop they were supposed to meet at. So, Mr. Schafer talks her to each one. He’s at none of them. Stacey realizes she left her back pack at the first coffee house andshe goes back. Ethan is there. Turns out he had to change the time and left messages on her mom’s and dad’s machine. Only both are out of town. So they talk a while about everything that’s happened on the trip. Then they take a walk. Then when it’s time to leave they share a kiss. Stacey gots back and gives Claud all the details. They make up after Claudi says she didn’t read her journal and Stacey offers to read some of it to her.
At first, Abby doesn’t want to go see the Grand Candyon. It reminds her of the promise her dad made to her that he’d take her many times. But right before they were supposed to go he got in an accident and got killed. She remembers how he always spoke of the magic and peace the Grand Canyon had. She tries to talk Mrs. Brewer out of seeing it, but it doesn’t work. It looks like for a minute they aren’t any spots for the RV by the canyon but Watson finds another location. Abby tries to stay in the van but ends up going. Then she sees exactly what her father was talking about. She imagines going their with her mother and twin one day.
They make a stop in San Fransisco and tour the city in a cable car. Mr. Scafer notices Maryanne is quiet and she finally admits that some of his comments make her uncomfortable. He apologizes and says je (dpes( jave a nog ,pitj It’s caused him to lose a friend or two. After this they go to Candlight Park to a baseball game (I think Cubs?) Kristy and Maryanne see Kristy’s father on the big screen with a lady. Jesi, Mallory, and Abby go to the San Fransico zoo and are joined by the know it all girl Liz from earlier in the book. After a while she complains to her grandparents that they’re all boring and if they don’t take her to the Wildlife Zoo (which is bigger) she’ll scream until her face turns blue (Are we sure this isn’t Verruca Salt?). Of course, her grandparents make up an excuse to ditch the group which makes everyone happy.
Kristy and her dad reunite and exchange addresses. He promises he’ll write to her. (It’s awkward he’s there with his girl friend but Kristy doesn’t want him to introduce her to his girlfriend). She seems to be ok with the meeting tho. It ends with them in Caliornia. Carol has thrown them a party. I don’t know who Mr. Choi is but he looks at Claudia’s sketch and discovers it’s a real George O Keefe. He says they’d need to get it appraised but she can get at least five hunfdred for it and the museum would be interested in ownining it. But Claudia says she’s not interested in giving it up.
My Thoughts
This was a fun concept. I kinda wish my family would rent an RV and go on a road trip all over and each pick places we’d like to see in different places. It would kkind of shake things up. All the parties and sports events we do are getting kind of stale. But then there were only a couple of places I would have chosen. The most interesting was the Mall of America. I think this one fell on my radar YEARS ago when a friend of mine mentioned it who was an airline stewardness talked about. I don’t remember if she’d gone or she wanted us to go. So, I looked up all the stores and restaraunts and the park inside of it. I still think this would be amazing to see if it still exist.
The next interesting thing was the Art Institute thing was the Art Museum in Chicago and the store where Claduia got the sketch. But that’s were it ended for me.
I wouldn’t want to (and don’t understand why Jessi wanted to) see a slave museum. I DEFINITELY would not want to visit the home of the people who’d enslaved my ancestors. To me that would be like visiting Salem. But in a similar way I can kind of see the dark appeal . But its interesting to think that *this* was the best way she could think of back then. Now a days there are sites that trace back your ancestors. For someone 11 this was a VERY mature thing to want to do. I kind of
hoped she’d find her answers some day if not on this trip.
There were WAY to many stops at sports related things (stores, parks, etc). I could have cared less about that. I didn’t really care about Graceland. Maybe if it had been Paisley Park or Neverland. Then there was the hiking and rope repeling activities which I didn’t have an interest in either. And coming face to face with a bear, it surely would have terrified the life out of me. *That*S an experience I never want. Ranks right up there with coming face to face with a snake. The *fake* Westworld experience sounded lame. I mean *today* you probably could just go on You Tube and search the word “Ghost Towns” and then from there they’d show you some places. (I actually have done this recently for a whole different reason). I think if Dawn had actually found a ghost town this may have been a little more up my ally to want to see on this trip but not this park. The Grand Canyon maybe it’s just something you have to experience because it doesn’t really make me think it’s something I’d be dying to see.The school and resort and New Mexico (maybe), but it sounded like it was in the desert. I don’t know. There was also Mallory’s location where they saw the deer. I’d just have to actually *see* this one. I couldn’t get a *Feel* for it. Other than it had deer.
Rating: 9 Good concept just the places picked left a lot to be desired.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 26, 2018
The BSC heads to California again. Logan and Shannon don't go, though. They had other plans.
Shafer RV:
Jack (Dawn's dad): Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland & Badlands National Park for hiking and nature
Jeff: Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park for hiking and nature
Dawn: Old West theme Park in Idaho
Mary Anne: Mall of America to visit her Grandma
Kristy: Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants stadiums for games and hats
Claudia: Art Institute of Chicago
Stacey: Seattle to see her boyfriend
Brewer RV:
Watson and Elizabeth (Kristy's stepdad and mom): Grand Canyon National Park for hiking and nature
Andrew: San Diego Zoo
Karen: Four Corners to be in four states at the same time
David Michael: Texas rodeo
Mallory: Chincoteague Island for nature and a picnic
Jessi: Mississippi to visit family
Abby: Graceland
Shafer RV:
Jack (Dawn's dad): Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland & Badlands National Park for hiking and nature
Jeff: Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park for hiking and nature
Dawn: Old West theme Park in Idaho
Mary Anne: Mall of America to visit her Grandma
Kristy: Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants stadiums for games and hats
Claudia: Art Institute of Chicago
Stacey: Seattle to see her boyfriend
Brewer RV:
Watson and Elizabeth (Kristy's stepdad and mom): Grand Canyon National Park for hiking and nature
Andrew: San Diego Zoo
Karen: Four Corners to be in four states at the same time
David Michael: Texas rodeo
Mallory: Chincoteague Island for nature and a picnic
Jessi: Mississippi to visit family
Abby: Graceland
January 28, 2020
I’m not feeling good, so naturally I reach for one of my comfort reads: BSC books.
I absolutely loved this book as a kid, and I still do now. I’ve been to a lot of the places the girls visit here, and some of them I’ve been to BECAUSE of this book. (When my dad and I took a road trip together when I was 14, I specifically asked to visit Four Corners because of how cool it sounded here.)
My only real complaint is that it ends when they get to California, and I’m still confused on how Watson gets the other RV back home with their several new passengers from Jack’s RV. How did they fit? And didn’t they stop at anything on the way back? The girls all lament about how their trip is over once they get to Dawn’s house, but isn’t that only half the trip? Somehow I never thought about this a kid, but I’m kinda fixated on it now.
Anyway, the 5 stars are obviously just for pure nostalgia.
I absolutely loved this book as a kid, and I still do now. I’ve been to a lot of the places the girls visit here, and some of them I’ve been to BECAUSE of this book. (When my dad and I took a road trip together when I was 14, I specifically asked to visit Four Corners because of how cool it sounded here.)
My only real complaint is that it ends when they get to California, and I’m still confused on how Watson gets the other RV back home with their several new passengers from Jack’s RV. How did they fit? And didn’t they stop at anything on the way back? The girls all lament about how their trip is over once they get to Dawn’s house, but isn’t that only half the trip? Somehow I never thought about this a kid, but I’m kinda fixated on it now.
Anyway, the 5 stars are obviously just for pure nostalgia.
July 9, 2023
Really well done. A rare BSC super special that gives each sitter her own storyline and manages to keep them all heartfelt and real. No contrived anxieties for Mary Anne, no over the top spying subplots, and even the mini-drama between Stacey and Claudia was low-key and realistic. The tornado scene and RV breaking down in Death Valley were the major dramas, but they both were fine and again made sense.
Standout stories are Jessi's visit to the plantation where her ancestors lived, and Abby's dealing with grief for her father triggered by a visit to the Grand Canyon.
Also, I get that Dawn and her Cali friends are health buffs, but screaming "ewww" and gagging at the cold cuts Watson brought to the party is just plain rude.
Standout stories are Jessi's visit to the plantation where her ancestors lived, and Abby's dealing with grief for her father triggered by a visit to the Grand Canyon.
Also, I get that Dawn and her Cali friends are health buffs, but screaming "ewww" and gagging at the cold cuts Watson brought to the party is just plain rude.
March 24, 2023
I already knew I loved this book just based on the cover alone (I bought the original oil painting off the artist, Hodges Soileau, back in 2016. It's just so perfect! All eight Sitters! None of them look stupid! AAAA!) but I forgot just how good the story is, and how many layers there are to it. Everyone has a little more to the story than just their travel destination. My only nitpick is that the BSC is split between RVs, so we don't get full Club interactions - but there's a lot banter between the girls in each RV, which I live for. (See: my review of SS8.)
July 28, 2019
This one is more of a 2 star for me but I nostalgia bumps it up a notch.
Nitpicks :
- Why wouldn’t they just take two RVs on the same route?
- Why would Kristy leave her family and friends to ride in Dawn’s RV?
- Glossing over of black history is pretty meh (Jessi visits the plantation where her ancestors were slaves)
- the older I get, the more I realize literally no one ever was supervising these children (left alone in the badlands? Dropped off at Graceland?)
- I’m an adult Dawn aka everyone’s most hated character 😭😩😭
Nitpicks :
- Why wouldn’t they just take two RVs on the same route?
- Why would Kristy leave her family and friends to ride in Dawn’s RV?
- Glossing over of black history is pretty meh (Jessi visits the plantation where her ancestors were slaves)
- the older I get, the more I realize literally no one ever was supervising these children (left alone in the badlands? Dropped off at Graceland?)
- I’m an adult Dawn aka everyone’s most hated character 😭😩😭
August 23, 2019
The babysitters club are going on a road trip across the USA. Dawns father is driving an RV from Stoneybrook to California and will be taking Dawn and her brother with him. Kristys stepdad thinks this is a great idea and decides to take his family with him. Of course the rest of the club goes with them. They split up into two teams and go in different directions. Lots of interesting stops along the way for what everyone wants to do. They all meet up in California.
February 27, 2025
This was a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I loved all the hand written journal entries and was so impressed how accurately they captured the voices of pre teen girls.
The content was quite progressive and I wonder if it got an update in the 2014 reprint? I feel like some of the content wouldn’t have been handled the same way in 1997.
As a kid I would’ve loved the idea of a big cross country trip with my friends in an RV but as an adult I am amazed at these parents’ bravery in travelling this distance/ time with 6 tween girls! It sounds like a nightmare to me now.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this re read if one of my favourite childhood book series. 4⭐️
The content was quite progressive and I wonder if it got an update in the 2014 reprint? I feel like some of the content wouldn’t have been handled the same way in 1997.
As a kid I would’ve loved the idea of a big cross country trip with my friends in an RV but as an adult I am amazed at these parents’ bravery in travelling this distance/ time with 6 tween girls! It sounds like a nightmare to me now.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this re read if one of my favourite childhood book series. 4⭐️
September 13, 2025
Man, did they pack this Super Special! Everyone had something going on all at the same time.
Abby’s story was so touching, so was Kristy’s, but they also made Stacey’s story feel super shallow. I was also shocked that Jessi would even think that Mallory was racist! Girl, that is your best friend! What are you talking about?
Overall, I enjoyed it. I can imagine having a lot of fun reading this on my own road trip when I was a kid.
Abby’s story was so touching, so was Kristy’s, but they also made Stacey’s story feel super shallow. I was also shocked that Jessi would even think that Mallory was racist! Girl, that is your best friend! What are you talking about?
Overall, I enjoyed it. I can imagine having a lot of fun reading this on my own road trip when I was a kid.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2026
The hit series is back, to charm and inspire another generation of baby-sitters!It's BSC road trip time! Two RVs are parked in front of Claudia's house. Dawn's dad, Mr. Schafer, will drive one. Watson Brewer, Kristy's stepdad, will pilot the other. The plan? Mr. Schafer and his bunch will take a northern route to California, while Watson's crowd heads south. Every passenger gets to pick a special stop along the way. The destinations? For starters, they include the Grand Canyon, a rodeo, a ghost town, Seattle, and plenty more. In two weeks, the two teams will meat in Dawn's hometown, Palo City.
Baby-sitters, start your engines. It's time to hit the road!The best friends you'll ever have--with classic BSC covers!
August 19, 2017
Remember back in the day when the BSC used to vacation separately? Oh how I long for those days!
This was a book I really loved as a kid. As an adult it's honestly kind of laughable. Also a little bit depressing. Especially Jessi's storyline which is, as usual, both a little boring and a little traumatic.
I can't even.
This was a book I really loved as a kid. As an adult it's honestly kind of laughable. Also a little bit depressing. Especially Jessi's storyline which is, as usual, both a little boring and a little traumatic.
I can't even.
November 17, 2019
While I always enjoy a good BCS Super Special, this one was especially good.
One of my dreams was to visit all 50 states, a goal I accomplished in 2013. Reading about the BSC visiting quite a few of those same places reminded me of my own trips there, my traveling companions and just conjured up good memories in general.
I especially liked that Kristy ran into her dad at the game. :)
One of my dreams was to visit all 50 states, a goal I accomplished in 2013. Reading about the BSC visiting quite a few of those same places reminded me of my own trips there, my traveling companions and just conjured up good memories in general.
I especially liked that Kristy ran into her dad at the game. :)
September 25, 2020
I recently looked on Overdrive for a different Ann M. Martin book that had been published under two titles; when I just searched for her name, I was a little excited to see that my library had added a ton of BSC books. This one was one of my absolute favorites once upon a time, and it was fun reading it again.
October 18, 2023
This one was a slog to get through. Because of the split nature of the book (two different RVs filled with babysitters) it felt very disconnected and didn't flow well. Some of the stories were interesting, but all of them were too short to have much substance. Not my favorite Super Special.
April 16, 2018
For my written review, please check out the link below:
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
Debra's Book Cafe
Debs :-)
January 5, 2021
This was a classic average super special. Some of the stuff in it was good, but other stuff not so much. It’s not the best super special, but it certainly isn’t the worst!
February 6, 2021
Revisited one of my childhood favourites & it did not disappoint!
Read
February 28, 2021Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/bsc-in...
January 17, 2022
I guess everyone has it in them to act foolishly - not even the BSC members are perfect!
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