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Baby-Sitters Club Special Edition #3
Shannon's Story
Being an associate member of the BSC is perfect for Shannon, because it leaves her plenty of time for studying and all her activities. School is especially important to Shannon now, because if she keeps her grade up in French, she'll be able to go on a special class trip to Paris. Ooh la la!
111 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1994
32 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,120 books3,073 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 7, 2020
While I actually started reading around age 3 (thank you, my Granny's Dick and Jane books!), this series is what I remember most about loving to read during my childhood. My sister and I drank these books up like they were oxygen. I truly think we owned just about every single one from every one of the series. We even got the privilege of meeting Ann M. Martin at a book signing, but of course little starstruck me froze and could not speak a word to my biggest hero at that time. Once in awhile if I come across these at a yard sale, I will pick them up for a couple hour trip down memory lane, and I declare nearly nothing centers and relaxes me more!
February 22, 2011
shannon's story is that she is a little dull. she is also trapped in the time warp to end all time warps. in the last babysitters club book, everyone was starting school again for the fall. here we are one book later & suddenly it's the end of the eighth grade AGAIN for the older babysitters. the babysitting-themed B-plot involves yet another babysitters club mother's day project. they arrange a crafternoon for their charges to help them make mother's day gifts (such as bedazzled eyeglass cases, potted plants, & feathered earrings), & they throw a child versus mother softball game (the moms win). emily michelle has not aged at all, even though she was adopted last mother's day (& they even reference "last mother's day" & the "day off" they gave their clients by taking their children to the carnival). also strange is that we had a whole series of summer books right before this that established that stoneybrook schools don't let out until the end of june (as evidenced by stacey immediately leaving for a two-week vacation with her father at fire island, which included the fourth of july). but in this book, school ends at the end of may.
anyway, the main plot is all about shannon's issues with her mother, & her kind of shitty home life. her dad is apparently a workaholic...like almost all men in the babysitters club series. her mom doesn't work. she just kind of wafts around the house all day, vaguely trying to amuse herself, even though her three children are older & more independent now & she employs a housekeeper so there isn't even any housework to do. rather than, say, getting a part-time job or taking a class or doing volunteer work or doing pretty much anything that would structure her time & put her in the company of other adults, she just kind of trails after her daughters & vaguely asks them to keep her company while she's making dinner or walking the dog. the girls interpret this as a passive-aggressive way of asking them to do more chores, & they do the chores grudgingly. mr. kilbourne (shannon's dad) is often late coming home from the office. he routinely misses family dinner & even big family celebrations, like birthdays. he's pretty unreliable as a husband & a father, at least as taking a social or paternal interest in things goes.
as school wraps up for the year, shannon is preparing for final exams. most notably, she is taking french & she's working hard to get a good grade because everyone who scores well on the exam & has a strong GPA overall gets to go to paris for a week after school is out. it's never made clear who exactly is paying for this trip to france. the school? the parents? is it a team effort? there's a brief mention of "fundraising," but that's all we hear. i guess shannon goes to private school & you have to be rich (in the states) to send your kids to private school (unless they're getting scholarships or something), so i think we're supposed to assume that money is not an issue.
anyway, shannon is really excited for the paris trip, due in no small part to the fact that it will give her a week away from her mother. her mother has started snapping at her over little things & treating her like a baby (in shannon's estimation). her crimes include telling shannon to wear a coat when she takes the dog for a walk on a not-so-cold day, telling shannon to eat her salad at lunch, reminding shannon to make a study schedule to prepare for exams even though shannon already made one, & accusing shannon of slacking off on her studying when shannon is caught reading a magazine (she was "on a study break"). none of these transgressions really sound all that terrible, but i guess i remember being a teenager. even the most benign mom presence was too much.
i will add that all the french words shannon uses throughout the book are incredibly basic & elementary. they are vocabulary words more than anything else. like pommes frites & tres mal. at no point does she actually string together a whole sentence in french. i assume that this is because the ghostwriter was not actually familiar with the french language, because i think a french student being rewarded with a trip to france for doing well in the class should be able to actually say a sentence in french. i took french in eighth grade, & we did learn sentence structure & grammar.
just when shannon is feeling really excited about the trip, her mom drops the bomb. apparently a chaperone for the trip dropped out & mrs. kilbourne was drafted as a late-season replacement. shannon is horrorstruck. even though her friends are like, "your mom isn't that bad," shannon can't imagine spending a week in france with her mom. so she decides to get out of the trip by purposefully failing her french exam, bringing her grade in the class down to the point where she is ineligible for the trip. her teacher, principal, friends, & mother all ask what happened, but shannon lies & tells them all that she froze because she was so nervous about the test. mrs. kilbourne decides to chaperone the trip anyway, which is A-okay with shannon. there's this really weird long passage in which shannon goes into great detail about how mr. kilbourne is going on a business trip the week after mrs. kilbourne gets back from france, so they will see each other only in passing at the airport when she gets home & he is leaving (calling bullshit on that one--apparently the stamford airport has international terminals? that are so close to the domestic terminals that mr. & mrs. kilbourne will have time to say hi to each other? i think not). it's strange because shannon ends up throwing her mom a welcome home dinner when she gets back, & then makes a big fuss about how her dad remembered the dinner & made an effort to be there & bring a bouquet of flowers & everything. what the hell happened to his business trip? i think maybe the ghostwriter was going somewhere else with the plot & ran out of space or something.
anyway, mrs. kilbourne leaves shannon in charge while she's gone. i mean, as in charge as you can get with a daily housekeeper & your dad still around every night. shannon makes all these lists to stay organized, remembering to pick up groceries & have dog food delivered & water the plants & come up with menus with the housekeeper, etc. she finds it all pretty effortless. in fact, in the last few days before mrs. kilbourne is due home, shannon realizes she's bored. she's at loose ends. she's thinking about wandering out to her sister's garden just to hang out. & she realizes that this must be how mrs. kilbourne feels every single day. shannon suddenly realizes that mrs. kilbourne is bored & lonely & that's why she's been all up in shannon's business & treating her like a baby. shannon decides to make an effort to be more understanding after her mom gets home.
there's also a big blow-up on mother's day when mr. kilbourne leaves early in the morning to play golf & then comes home with a gift & card that says "happy birthday". mrs. kilbourne realizes immediately that the gift is just the emergency gift he keeps at the office when someone springs a birthday on him or something, & that he'd forgotten mother's day. they have a big fight. but shannon realizes when she sees her parents interacting at the airport that they do care about each other & it's not easy to keep the spark alive over the course of fifteen years or whatever.
& then the book ends without anything really changing. shannon never admits why she really failed the french test. mrs. kilbourne continues to get on her case for little things (like wearing too much make-up). there is never another shannon book, so we never really find out how things pan out for the kilbourne family.
it does, however, get one full star for the scene on the cover, which really happened. maria & tiffany (shannon's little sisters) dressed the dog up in clothes & shannon told them not to because it makes the dog look "undignified". i LOLed. it's a dog. they are the definition of "undignified".
anyway, the main plot is all about shannon's issues with her mother, & her kind of shitty home life. her dad is apparently a workaholic...like almost all men in the babysitters club series. her mom doesn't work. she just kind of wafts around the house all day, vaguely trying to amuse herself, even though her three children are older & more independent now & she employs a housekeeper so there isn't even any housework to do. rather than, say, getting a part-time job or taking a class or doing volunteer work or doing pretty much anything that would structure her time & put her in the company of other adults, she just kind of trails after her daughters & vaguely asks them to keep her company while she's making dinner or walking the dog. the girls interpret this as a passive-aggressive way of asking them to do more chores, & they do the chores grudgingly. mr. kilbourne (shannon's dad) is often late coming home from the office. he routinely misses family dinner & even big family celebrations, like birthdays. he's pretty unreliable as a husband & a father, at least as taking a social or paternal interest in things goes.
as school wraps up for the year, shannon is preparing for final exams. most notably, she is taking french & she's working hard to get a good grade because everyone who scores well on the exam & has a strong GPA overall gets to go to paris for a week after school is out. it's never made clear who exactly is paying for this trip to france. the school? the parents? is it a team effort? there's a brief mention of "fundraising," but that's all we hear. i guess shannon goes to private school & you have to be rich (in the states) to send your kids to private school (unless they're getting scholarships or something), so i think we're supposed to assume that money is not an issue.
anyway, shannon is really excited for the paris trip, due in no small part to the fact that it will give her a week away from her mother. her mother has started snapping at her over little things & treating her like a baby (in shannon's estimation). her crimes include telling shannon to wear a coat when she takes the dog for a walk on a not-so-cold day, telling shannon to eat her salad at lunch, reminding shannon to make a study schedule to prepare for exams even though shannon already made one, & accusing shannon of slacking off on her studying when shannon is caught reading a magazine (she was "on a study break"). none of these transgressions really sound all that terrible, but i guess i remember being a teenager. even the most benign mom presence was too much.
i will add that all the french words shannon uses throughout the book are incredibly basic & elementary. they are vocabulary words more than anything else. like pommes frites & tres mal. at no point does she actually string together a whole sentence in french. i assume that this is because the ghostwriter was not actually familiar with the french language, because i think a french student being rewarded with a trip to france for doing well in the class should be able to actually say a sentence in french. i took french in eighth grade, & we did learn sentence structure & grammar.
just when shannon is feeling really excited about the trip, her mom drops the bomb. apparently a chaperone for the trip dropped out & mrs. kilbourne was drafted as a late-season replacement. shannon is horrorstruck. even though her friends are like, "your mom isn't that bad," shannon can't imagine spending a week in france with her mom. so she decides to get out of the trip by purposefully failing her french exam, bringing her grade in the class down to the point where she is ineligible for the trip. her teacher, principal, friends, & mother all ask what happened, but shannon lies & tells them all that she froze because she was so nervous about the test. mrs. kilbourne decides to chaperone the trip anyway, which is A-okay with shannon. there's this really weird long passage in which shannon goes into great detail about how mr. kilbourne is going on a business trip the week after mrs. kilbourne gets back from france, so they will see each other only in passing at the airport when she gets home & he is leaving (calling bullshit on that one--apparently the stamford airport has international terminals? that are so close to the domestic terminals that mr. & mrs. kilbourne will have time to say hi to each other? i think not). it's strange because shannon ends up throwing her mom a welcome home dinner when she gets back, & then makes a big fuss about how her dad remembered the dinner & made an effort to be there & bring a bouquet of flowers & everything. what the hell happened to his business trip? i think maybe the ghostwriter was going somewhere else with the plot & ran out of space or something.
anyway, mrs. kilbourne leaves shannon in charge while she's gone. i mean, as in charge as you can get with a daily housekeeper & your dad still around every night. shannon makes all these lists to stay organized, remembering to pick up groceries & have dog food delivered & water the plants & come up with menus with the housekeeper, etc. she finds it all pretty effortless. in fact, in the last few days before mrs. kilbourne is due home, shannon realizes she's bored. she's at loose ends. she's thinking about wandering out to her sister's garden just to hang out. & she realizes that this must be how mrs. kilbourne feels every single day. shannon suddenly realizes that mrs. kilbourne is bored & lonely & that's why she's been all up in shannon's business & treating her like a baby. shannon decides to make an effort to be more understanding after her mom gets home.
there's also a big blow-up on mother's day when mr. kilbourne leaves early in the morning to play golf & then comes home with a gift & card that says "happy birthday". mrs. kilbourne realizes immediately that the gift is just the emergency gift he keeps at the office when someone springs a birthday on him or something, & that he'd forgotten mother's day. they have a big fight. but shannon realizes when she sees her parents interacting at the airport that they do care about each other & it's not easy to keep the spark alive over the course of fifteen years or whatever.
& then the book ends without anything really changing. shannon never admits why she really failed the french test. mrs. kilbourne continues to get on her case for little things (like wearing too much make-up). there is never another shannon book, so we never really find out how things pan out for the kilbourne family.
it does, however, get one full star for the scene on the cover, which really happened. maria & tiffany (shannon's little sisters) dressed the dog up in clothes & shannon told them not to because it makes the dog look "undignified". i LOLed. it's a dog. they are the definition of "undignified".
January 19, 2017
okay guys, this is gonna be a rough review. this is truly the most phoned-in book I have ever read. the editor(s) was/were taking a vacation through this one, and the ghostwriter (Nola Thacker) clearly didn't care enough at all.
shannon's mom is too involved in shannon's life. of course she is; her husband (shannon's dad) works 70 hour work weeks at a corporate law firm, and the time he spends not working he spends golfing and ignoring his wife. shannon's siblings are disturbingly obsessed with their hobbies: maria with the swim team, and tiffany with her garden. all of these miserable family components are vaguely hinted at, FYI, in The Baby-Sitters Remember. shannon looks forward to the end of the school year, when she will get to go on a class trip to paris. when shannon's mom announces that she is going to chaperone the trip, shannon purposely fails her french final so she will no longer be eligible for the trip. while her mom is in paris, shannon takes her place with house responsibilities and discovers that the life of a stay-at-home mom can be boring, so she gets a little bit of sympathy. meanwhile, the babysitters organize some mothers day surprises for their clients.
highlights:
-for mother's day shannon's dad gives her mom a gift with a happy birthday card. she calls him out on the fact that this is just a generic gift that sits around his office waiting for a time that he needs to get someone a present but doesn't have time. brutal, but totally believable for a corporate law asshole like him.
-every time they call stoneybrook day school SDS I picture this:
lowlights:
-shannon and her sisters play a gross foods game, wherein they name gross flavor combinations. most are actually gross but one is pepper ice cream with garlic sauce. gimme some black pepper chocolate ice cream with a mellow lightly sweet roasted garlic sauce, that sounds delish!
-I know shannon doesn't want to be around her mom, but I just don't buy that she would fail her french test. she is way too much of a school-loving goody two-shoes.
-lotsa problems with editing and poor writing (see the next list for these)
-to get anything more than one star this book would have had to have a perfect plot that made me feel all the feels (to compensate for the AWFUL writing). it didn't.
some of the many, MANY typos/inconsistencies/weird grammatical problems/etc:
-in one chapter shannon has no problem getting called shanny, but in the next chapter she gets really mad about it.
-julia CHILDS is not the celebrity chef's name -- it's julia child.
-at one point shannon puts on loafers and then on the next page finds her loafers and puts them on.
-shannon says to her mom, “you’re into instant gratification? I didn’t know adults were allowed to do that?” (huh? do what? be into instant gratification? poor word choice, dudes)
-shannon narrates, "now there is one other associate member too." but logan became an associate member before her.
-shannon says she isn't crazy about math and then in the next chapter says she likes math.
-because I'm already mad about this book since it's unresearched and poorly-written I will finally say my piece about frookies (which I have thought about in other bsc books where they talk about stacey eating frookies, but I have yet to rant about it). frookies are cookies sweetened with fruit juice, so they are supposedly a good snack for stacey. but fruit juice has a ton of fructose in it, which would still cause hyperglycemia in a brittle diabetic.
-shannon AND her mom were supposed to go to paris, but when shannon ends up not going her mom makes her do all the homemaking. does this mean shannon's mom hadn't had a plan for who was going to take care of the two younger girls (maria and tiffany) while she and shannon were out of the country?
-shannon goes grocery shopping one morning and sets it up so the groceries will be delivered. by dinner time that evening they haven't been delivered. did they ever get delivered?
-"claudia was doing a brisk business at the refreshment stand." huh? was she pooping? I'm pretty sure that's what "doing a business" means.
-shannon narrates something about matthew braddock. no one has ever called him matthew before, since he is clearly a matt. I think nola thacker is confusing him with this guy:
-shannon narrates something about "cheer-leaders" at one point after consistently calling them cheerleaders the rest of the book.
-is the housekeeper named mrs. bryar or bryan? because that changes from page to page.
-this whole book is plotted around mother's day and the end of school. but mother's day is in may. do they mean father's day? that's the holiday that's around the end of most schools' years.
outfits
claud:
-”…an enormous pair of pants held up with a man’s belt and a pair of neon purple suspenders, an enormous purple T-shirt over a tie-dyed long-underwear top, her long black hair pulled back into a braid clipped at intervals with little-kid barrettes, and these dangly peace-sign earrings.”
shannon:
-”I made a face at mom’s use of my baby name and continued yanking off my school uniform and getting into decent clothes — jeans, a big cotton sweater, loafers.”
stacey:
-”For example, today Stacey looked ultra-city in black: black leggings, a black Doc Martens [sic], and her hair pulled back with a black and gold scarf that picked up the gold of the gold chain earrings she was wearing.” (an exercise in how many times you can say the word gold in one sentence)
mrs. barrett:
-"Mrs. Barrett, for example, who is always immaculately dressed, just like an executive, had on a pair of baggy gray sweat pants, her BSC Mother's Day game T-shirt, and an old St. Louis Cardinals hat pulled down over her forehead."
jackie disasters:
-knocks over the refreshments table at the giftathon while trying to play an egg balancing race game
snacks in claudia's room:
-mallomars (n.s.)
-oatmeal raisin frookies (n.s.)
-cheez doodles (n.s.)
shannon's mom is too involved in shannon's life. of course she is; her husband (shannon's dad) works 70 hour work weeks at a corporate law firm, and the time he spends not working he spends golfing and ignoring his wife. shannon's siblings are disturbingly obsessed with their hobbies: maria with the swim team, and tiffany with her garden. all of these miserable family components are vaguely hinted at, FYI, in The Baby-Sitters Remember. shannon looks forward to the end of the school year, when she will get to go on a class trip to paris. when shannon's mom announces that she is going to chaperone the trip, shannon purposely fails her french final so she will no longer be eligible for the trip. while her mom is in paris, shannon takes her place with house responsibilities and discovers that the life of a stay-at-home mom can be boring, so she gets a little bit of sympathy. meanwhile, the babysitters organize some mothers day surprises for their clients.
highlights:
-for mother's day shannon's dad gives her mom a gift with a happy birthday card. she calls him out on the fact that this is just a generic gift that sits around his office waiting for a time that he needs to get someone a present but doesn't have time. brutal, but totally believable for a corporate law asshole like him.
-every time they call stoneybrook day school SDS I picture this:
lowlights:
-shannon and her sisters play a gross foods game, wherein they name gross flavor combinations. most are actually gross but one is pepper ice cream with garlic sauce. gimme some black pepper chocolate ice cream with a mellow lightly sweet roasted garlic sauce, that sounds delish!
-I know shannon doesn't want to be around her mom, but I just don't buy that she would fail her french test. she is way too much of a school-loving goody two-shoes.
-lotsa problems with editing and poor writing (see the next list for these)
-to get anything more than one star this book would have had to have a perfect plot that made me feel all the feels (to compensate for the AWFUL writing). it didn't.
some of the many, MANY typos/inconsistencies/weird grammatical problems/etc:
-in one chapter shannon has no problem getting called shanny, but in the next chapter she gets really mad about it.
-julia CHILDS is not the celebrity chef's name -- it's julia child.
-at one point shannon puts on loafers and then on the next page finds her loafers and puts them on.
-shannon says to her mom, “you’re into instant gratification? I didn’t know adults were allowed to do that?” (huh? do what? be into instant gratification? poor word choice, dudes)
-shannon narrates, "now there is one other associate member too." but logan became an associate member before her.
-shannon says she isn't crazy about math and then in the next chapter says she likes math.
-because I'm already mad about this book since it's unresearched and poorly-written I will finally say my piece about frookies (which I have thought about in other bsc books where they talk about stacey eating frookies, but I have yet to rant about it). frookies are cookies sweetened with fruit juice, so they are supposedly a good snack for stacey. but fruit juice has a ton of fructose in it, which would still cause hyperglycemia in a brittle diabetic.
-shannon AND her mom were supposed to go to paris, but when shannon ends up not going her mom makes her do all the homemaking. does this mean shannon's mom hadn't had a plan for who was going to take care of the two younger girls (maria and tiffany) while she and shannon were out of the country?
-shannon goes grocery shopping one morning and sets it up so the groceries will be delivered. by dinner time that evening they haven't been delivered. did they ever get delivered?
-"claudia was doing a brisk business at the refreshment stand." huh? was she pooping? I'm pretty sure that's what "doing a business" means.
-shannon narrates something about matthew braddock. no one has ever called him matthew before, since he is clearly a matt. I think nola thacker is confusing him with this guy:
-shannon narrates something about "cheer-leaders" at one point after consistently calling them cheerleaders the rest of the book.
-is the housekeeper named mrs. bryar or bryan? because that changes from page to page.
-this whole book is plotted around mother's day and the end of school. but mother's day is in may. do they mean father's day? that's the holiday that's around the end of most schools' years.
outfits
claud:
-”…an enormous pair of pants held up with a man’s belt and a pair of neon purple suspenders, an enormous purple T-shirt over a tie-dyed long-underwear top, her long black hair pulled back into a braid clipped at intervals with little-kid barrettes, and these dangly peace-sign earrings.”
shannon:
-”I made a face at mom’s use of my baby name and continued yanking off my school uniform and getting into decent clothes — jeans, a big cotton sweater, loafers.”
stacey:
-”For example, today Stacey looked ultra-city in black: black leggings, a black Doc Martens [sic], and her hair pulled back with a black and gold scarf that picked up the gold of the gold chain earrings she was wearing.” (an exercise in how many times you can say the word gold in one sentence)
mrs. barrett:
-"Mrs. Barrett, for example, who is always immaculately dressed, just like an executive, had on a pair of baggy gray sweat pants, her BSC Mother's Day game T-shirt, and an old St. Louis Cardinals hat pulled down over her forehead."
jackie disasters:
-knocks over the refreshments table at the giftathon while trying to play an egg balancing race game
snacks in claudia's room:
-mallomars (n.s.)
-oatmeal raisin frookies (n.s.)
-cheez doodles (n.s.)
January 10, 2018
Nothing about this story really makes sense.
The B plot about moms vs kids softball is boring.
The A plot is unrealistic. While I felt for Shannon's mom and thought Shannon was often horrible to her, i don't believe that Shannon would ruin her chances to go to Paris. Furthermore, we have been told time and time again that Shannon is an A grade student who does French club. If she purposefully bombs out on her French test, her French teacher do more than just allow her to skip out on the trip. Why didn't her teacher put two and two together and attempt to resolve it?
Life is boring as a housewife, I agree. And I hope Shannon learned her lesson, but to be honest, this book would have been a lot better if Shan and Mrs K went to Paris, fought the whole time and came back as besties.
The B plot about moms vs kids softball is boring.
The A plot is unrealistic. While I felt for Shannon's mom and thought Shannon was often horrible to her, i don't believe that Shannon would ruin her chances to go to Paris. Furthermore, we have been told time and time again that Shannon is an A grade student who does French club. If she purposefully bombs out on her French test, her French teacher do more than just allow her to skip out on the trip. Why didn't her teacher put two and two together and attempt to resolve it?
Life is boring as a housewife, I agree. And I hope Shannon learned her lesson, but to be honest, this book would have been a lot better if Shan and Mrs K went to Paris, fought the whole time and came back as besties.
November 4, 2010
I can't say I exactly blame Shannon - having an over-involved mum like that would drive me crazy as well. On the other hand it very much seems like a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
December 15, 2023
This book was published just as I was outgrowing the series, so I never read it as a kid. It's actually one of the better-written BSC books, and it's nice to get the perspective of a side character. I could relate to Shannon feeling smothered by her mom, but the story itself is rather boring.
I have trouble believing that star-student Shannon was just "allowed" to fail her French exam and bring down her GPA with no repercussions. That felt like it should have been a major climax in the story, but it's sort of glossed over. I was also waiting for her parents to announce a separation or a divorce, but that didn't happen either. Nothing really wraps up or comes to a satisfying conclusion.
The timeline of this book really highlights how messed-up the BSC time warp is. The story starts off in springtime, but it's the end of the school year, but no mention is made of Shannon going on to attend high school the following year. (Unless Stoneybrook Day School is kindergarten through 12th grade and I somehow missed that fact.) At the end of the book, her classmates tell her that the Paris trip will be held again the following year, and that she's definitely going then. So...is the trip for everyone in French class? Only a certain grade? It's not specified. Also, the side plot is another Mother's Day Surprise even though the last one ALSO took place while the girls were in 8th grade and no one has aged. In book #24, Emily Michelle was adopted just after Mother's Day, which would make it a "year" ago, but this is never brought up because the BSC exists in a temporal anomaly. School ends just after Mother's Day, which would put it in May, not June. Shannon attends BSC meetings because Dawn is in her 6-month "temporary" stay in California, which spanned two cycles of eighth grade and like three summers. My head hurts and I wish they'd just aged up the girls into high school with the chronological release of the books. It would have make for much more dramatic plotlines than "Shannon's mom is a bored housewife."
I have trouble believing that star-student Shannon was just "allowed" to fail her French exam and bring down her GPA with no repercussions. That felt like it should have been a major climax in the story, but it's sort of glossed over. I was also waiting for her parents to announce a separation or a divorce, but that didn't happen either. Nothing really wraps up or comes to a satisfying conclusion.
The timeline of this book really highlights how messed-up the BSC time warp is. The story starts off in springtime, but it's the end of the school year, but no mention is made of Shannon going on to attend high school the following year. (Unless Stoneybrook Day School is kindergarten through 12th grade and I somehow missed that fact.) At the end of the book, her classmates tell her that the Paris trip will be held again the following year, and that she's definitely going then. So...is the trip for everyone in French class? Only a certain grade? It's not specified. Also, the side plot is another Mother's Day Surprise even though the last one ALSO took place while the girls were in 8th grade and no one has aged. In book #24, Emily Michelle was adopted just after Mother's Day, which would make it a "year" ago, but this is never brought up because the BSC exists in a temporal anomaly. School ends just after Mother's Day, which would put it in May, not June. Shannon attends BSC meetings because Dawn is in her 6-month "temporary" stay in California, which spanned two cycles of eighth grade and like three summers. My head hurts and I wish they'd just aged up the girls into high school with the chronological release of the books. It would have make for much more dramatic plotlines than "Shannon's mom is a bored housewife."
February 9, 2025
Shannon's dad sucks. I hope this was a temporary glitch in their marriage, otherwise I hope he either pays more attention to his family or Shannon's mom goes and finds herself a better man.
Shannon's exasperation over her mom's clinginess is super relatable, especially for a 13-year-old. Alas, her mom's clinginess is also kinda relatable for an adult. Especially with her husband being basically MIA. I do feel for the kids though, and I'm glad Shannon eventually has A Talk with her mom about basically getting a life outside her kids. I hope things get better for her afterwards. That being said, I do think that Shannon's big realization about why her mom was so clingy----felt a bit too simplistic. I get it's simplified for kids, but like, I also feel like it minimizes the importance of what her mom does do.
The bit about Shannon is a bit far-fetched, but I can buy it. I can imagine going to such lengths to get some space from an overbearing parent, again, especially as a teenager. But
Shannon's exasperation over her mom's clinginess is super relatable, especially for a 13-year-old. Alas, her mom's clinginess is also kinda relatable for an adult. Especially with her husband being basically MIA. I do feel for the kids though, and I'm glad Shannon eventually has A Talk with her mom about basically getting a life outside her kids. I hope things get better for her afterwards. That being said, I do think that Shannon's big realization about why her mom was so clingy----felt a bit too simplistic. I get it's simplified for kids, but like, I also feel like it minimizes the importance of what her mom does do.
The bit about Shannon is a bit far-fetched, but I can buy it. I can imagine going to such lengths to get some space from an overbearing parent, again, especially as a teenager. But
March 24, 2021
I wish we got more Shannon-narrated BSC, it was interesting to learn a little about her family and friends, and I'd like to have the chance to have gotten to know her even better throughout the series. She still seems like such an enigma, even after all this time. So I appreciated this book for that reason; I also somewhat enjoyed the story, though I found the execution was lacking. Parts were pretty repetitive, and considering I felt Shannon's story (heh) was strong enough on its own, it made me feel like there were way too many chapters devoted to the BSC's project of the week that made the main plot feel rushed. I also have issue with the timing of this book: on the first page, Shannon mentions that "you could feel spring just waiting to happen in Stoneybrook," yet school gets out for the summer by the end of the book, and there's no mention of weeks passing. (I think my real issue with it is that I'm trying to figure out a cohesive timeline of where these books fit in with each other and the fact that this book both was published in September yet takes place over the span of a couple of months in the spring really mucks up where it fits. As if celebrating all those summers, Christmases, and other holidays multiple times throughout their eighth grade year wasn't already messing up the timeline ahahha.)
January 22, 2022
The timeline of this book is WILD. This takes place at the end of eighth grade, which also happened at the beginning of Stacey's Lie, which was published just FIVE books earlier. Basically, an entire year has passed in five books. Yet, this book also takes place during Mother's Day, and the last Mother's Day we read about was BOOK TWENTY-FOUR. Oh yeah, and Dawn's "six month" visit back home to California has basically lasted two years at this point.
This book is just okay, which is disappointing because I like Shannon and she's a straight-up cold-blooded killer for sabotaging herself so brutally just to get out of going on a trip her mom is chaperoning. Nothing really gets resolved in this and it's just kind of unsatisfying and depressing.
This book is just okay, which is disappointing because I like Shannon and she's a straight-up cold-blooded killer for sabotaging herself so brutally just to get out of going on a trip her mom is chaperoning. Nothing really gets resolved in this and it's just kind of unsatisfying and depressing.
October 26, 2017
Did I read this book as a kid? I can't remember for sure, and I figure that is due to the fact that this book is really pretty boring. I mean I liked it and all, but nothing really happens. There's no closure on anything, which is sad because Shannon is a pretty interesting character. I loved her story in The Baby-Sitters Remember super special, and knowing more about her is honestly pretty cool.
Though, really, this book is also a little depressing. Her family is so dysfunctional, and we never get to know if things are ever resolved or ever get better. Bummer, huh?
Though, really, this book is also a little depressing. Her family is so dysfunctional, and we never get to know if things are ever resolved or ever get better. Bummer, huh?
November 8, 2021
It seemed weird that two Logan books came out before a Shannon book was written, but...not after reading the book. Honestly, for someone who has so much stuff going on in their life, there isn't too much going on in this Shannon book. The ghostwriter seemed like they weren't quite sure how to write the other BSC characters, too, which is even weirder.
I did love the mother/child softball game, which was adorable and really fun, but other than that...meh. I just felt bad for Shannon's mom--but maybe that's a sign of my old age.
I did love the mother/child softball game, which was adorable and really fun, but other than that...meh. I just felt bad for Shannon's mom--but maybe that's a sign of my old age.
August 8, 2025
As a Shannon stan (why is she so under-utilized in the main series?) I’ve been excited to get to this book for awhile now. And it did not disappoint. I loved how this worked as a kind of character study, not just of Shannon but of her whole family. Her mom especially got a lot of depth here, more so than a lot of the BSC parents do. I really felt for her.
I did find myself wishing, as I do with a lot of these books, that it was longer. Because of the 15-chapter limit most BSC books have, more complex themes and plot points can be left feeling rushed.
But overall, this was a home run for me.
I did find myself wishing, as I do with a lot of these books, that it was longer. Because of the 15-chapter limit most BSC books have, more complex themes and plot points can be left feeling rushed.
But overall, this was a home run for me.
Read
October 26, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
January 22, 2021
(LL)
This was interesting because we got to see a story from Shannon’s perspective, but it was a pretty basic storyline.
This was interesting because we got to see a story from Shannon’s perspective, but it was a pretty basic storyline.
November 11, 2022
I’ve always found Shannon to be an interesting character and I loved reading more about her and her life. Her observations about family dynamics were interesting and mature. Loved it!
February 19, 2020
This felt like a sitcom where the protagonists have a plot twist and don't actually end up going abroad because filming a show abroad is prohibitively expensive, except this is a novel.
February 19, 2024
This one was a bit jarring for me. I just finished reading Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise and now here we are exactly one year later. Only everyone is still the same age as they were in that book. I know they want a timeless quality to these but the number of last days of school, summer and winter vacations and Mother's Days, Christmases etc is blowing my mind. Anyway we get a Shannon focused book. I was confused at first about why she was attending meetings since the whole point of being an alternate member is she didn't have to go to meetings, but then it was explained that Dawn hadn't fully moved to California which still didn't make a lot of sense but whatever. Shannon is annoyed at her mother. Like most teenagers she finds her mom annoying. Shannon dreams of going to Paris on her school trip but after her mom fills in as a chaperone she purposely fails a test so she can't go. I saw this both ways, one as an adult who no longer has a mom and would've loved to spend time with her again and two as a teen who wants some independence which is also understandable. For the most part things are smoothed out in the end. Shannon's parents are probably headed for divorce based on this book though. The Mother's Day plot has the girls organizing a gift a thon where the kids gather to make their own presents for their moms. Kristy organizes a mother kid softball game which is fun I guess. This one wasn't terribly interesting it was kind of boring and made me glad Shannon wasn't a regular member of the club since her life seems so dull.
December 14, 2009
Shannon wasn't really a big part of the BSC. First she was all snotty to Kristy because Kristy was poor and her mom married for money. Then she and Kristy somehow became friends and she joined the baby-sitters club, but it was kind of a part-time thing for Shannon, since she's rich and doesn't need to resort to manual labor for extra spending money. So it was interesting to have this one book all about her, but you can see why she didn't rate two books like Logan did.
August 21, 2016
I wish there had been more Shannon books!
September 22, 2017
I liked this book fine. It's one of the BSC books. If you like the Babysitters Club it's good, but it really not a necessary book to read. It's decent though.
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