Snowbound

The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #7

by Ann M. Martin

When Stoneybrook experiences a blizzard, Dawn is stranded at the airport, Jessi is snowed in at her dance school, Kristy's boyfriend gets stuck overnight at Kristy's house, and no one knows the whereabouts of Stacy and her mother.

Genres: Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult, Juvenile, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

227 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

Ann 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...

Reviews

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

this super special has a place in my heart, probably because there's really not much plot to it. a snowstorm is predicted for stonybrook, but the weathercasters have been predicting snow for weeks & not a flake has descended on our fair town, where parents permit 13-year-olds to raise their children. so no one believes the storm predictions. this is preposterous enough. stonybrook is supposedly in connecticut. i live in boston, just a little bit north. when huge snowstorms are predicted here, people go out & stock up on canned food, batteries, & other supplies, just in case. it's also not as if weather casters are waving bird entrails over crystal balls & just guessing at what weather conditions might develop. there is a science to meteorology, & mistakes happen, but i find it dubious that the weather people are predicting all this snow & everyone in stonybrook is like, "pfft. whatever." everyone makes plans that ignore the forecast. the perkins parents are driving out to the country to have dinner with friends, & they hire claudia to watch their perfect children. the pike parents are going to new york for a full day of tourist-y bullshit, which boggles the mind a little. why? why not do it on a weekend? why not bring the kids? why do it at all? but whatever. they follow through on their plan & allow mallory & mary anne to watch the rest of the clan. jessi of course has a super-important ballet rehearsal in which she has a ludicrously large role for her age, & she is at her dance school, awaiting the arrival of her boyfriend from NYC (because eleven-year-olds have boyfriends). kristy invites her "boyfriend," bart, over to watch videos & have dinner. stacey & her mom go to the mall so stacey can get a new perm. dawn accompanies her mother to the airport, where they are picking up jeff, dawn's brother, who is coming to stay for the holidays. & then the snowstorm hits. bart is trapped at kristy's house & kristy is so embarrassed that she curls her hair & wears make-up. claudia is trapped at the perkins' house, watching the girls, who are perfect, even though the dog gets shut in the basement. stacey & her mom get trapped in their car on some back country road, but are rescued by a nice stranger who takes them home to meet his wife & their baby (of course). dawn & her mom are trapped at the airport & jeff's flight is re-routed to DC (dawn also makes the acquaintance of a baby--seriously, all these parents are lucky that their children meet the babysitters club & not, like, child snatchers). mary anne & mallory are snowed in at the pikes' & the pike parents can't get home & they are running low on ood, so they eat everything in the fridge. what? & jessi is trapped at her dance school with all the other kids, including little children, of course, which jessi calms with her magical eleven-year-old babysitting ways. & her boyfriend somehow walks to the school from the train station in the blizzard & arrives safely & without frostibite that could sideline his professional ballet career forever. & everyone is safe & sound the next day. mary anne & the pikes are saved from starving to death when mary anne's boyfriend, logan, cross-country skis over with a backpack full of food. kristy convinces all the babysitters to write up their FASCINATING blizzard experiences & sends them to the newspaper. WHAT? seriously, this is why i like this book. nothing happens except for a lot of snow, & the babysitters are still convinced that the whole town of stonybrook is thirsting for news of their hijinks...& they are probably not wrong, because this whole town seems designed to cater to these girls' every whim. logan needs a steady after-school job? no problem! the rosebud cafe will hire a 13-year-old as a bus boy! the babysitters needs someplace to stage countless festivals & outdoor circuses & such forth? i have the solution! the schafers' barn, which was widely considered a death trap in book #9, is now safe for children of all ages! whatever. it's okay. i still love the BSC.

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 5 out of 5]

note: this is one of my all-time favorite baby-sitters club books. for some context of how many times I've read it, check out what my copy looks like:


the local news sources in stoneybrook have been forecasting snow for weeks, but no snow has fallen. so when a huge blizzard (over 2 feet fallen) hits a couple days before the stoneybrook middle school winter dance, nobody expects it. all of the bsc members get stranded or stuck in weird, uncomfortable, or potentially scary positions. the framing device is that kristy is trying to write a human interest story for the local newspaper about her friends' experiences, so she gets them all to write up what they went through. see the individual character plotlines for more info.

character plotlines:
-kristy: bart gets stuck at her house overnight. her siblings are delightfully annoying (in a super-realistic sibling way, calling him her boyfriend loudly in front of him and such). she barely sleeps and then in the morning freaks out and primps so bart won't see her looking like morning kristy.
-mary anne and mallory: were supposed to sit for the pikes overnight anyway, but the overnight turns longer than expected and they start to run really low on food. logan rides over in the morning on cross country skis and brings them food.
-stacey: the one seriously dangerous/not just inconvenient situation. she and her mom go to the mall so she can get a perm and while driving home they pull off the highway due to crappy roads and get stuck on a back road. they don't have food with them (beyond tiny snacks) so stacey's diabetes is in danger. also they run out of gas and can't heat the car anymore. finally some kind stranger arrives and brings them to his house where they have food and a cute baby, so it all works out okay.
-dawn: jeff is coming from california so she and her mom go to pick him up at the airport. his plane gets rerouted (arriving the next day) and dawn and her mom stay in the airport overnight.
-claudia: baby-sitting for the perkinses. the only notable part is when the dog chewy disappears, but it turns out he was in the basement. really the most boring and pointless story (considering the mary anne and mal baby-sitting story is already in here).
-jessi: gets stuck at her dance school overnight. quint (the boy she met and kissed in New York, New York!) is coming to stoneybrook to go to the dance with her, and he finds his way from his train to the dance school. jessi and quint essentially baby-sit the younger kids because the adult ballet teachers apparently hate kids.

highlights:
-this book was the first place I heard of saying XYZ meaning "examine your zipper"
-in writing the letter to the journalist proposing a human interest story, kristy starts to advertise for the bsc. oh, kristy!
-david michael sings the name song about bart, which makes you realize that nobody should be named bart. bart bart bo bart, banana fana fo FART.
-the second time jessi will ever hang out with quint (meaning the few days they saw each other in new york), he is staying with her. wild! especially for 11-year-olds, having a boy staying at your house?!
-dawn narration: "according to adults, kids are always going through phases." LOL.
-nicky pike's new thing is that when he says crumble, claire has to fall to the floor. he says that years from now he's going to do it at her wedding when she's walking down the aisle.
-stacey can't get her hair done at gloriana's because she gave karen brewer a mullet one time (in Karen's Haircut, which is the only little sister book I really like)
-stacey puts in a tape (shout it! by the tin can voices -- I love bsc band names so much), but vivaldi's four seasons plays because stacey's mom swapped the tapes. haha, ADULT'D.
-while stuck in the car, stacey asks her mom what made her fall in love with her dad. apparently they liked the same things, including having the same favorite I Love Lucy episode, same favorite bandleader, and levi's are both's preferred jeans brand. this even made me laugh when I was a kid reading this book.
-quint is so romantic! I want to date him!
-mal: "this may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. what with global warming and all." she does not understand global warming, apparently.
-I LOVE the chapter where kristy wakes up early and makes herself up for bart. yes, she's a tomboy. so what? I was a baggy t-shirt kid, but when I was thirteen I absolutely would have shaved my legs, curled my hair, and worn the tiny bit of makeup I had if I was sleeping in the same house as a BOY I liked!
-stacey appreciates seeing her mom scared because it helps her realize adults aren't perfect. I love these types of things in kids' books, since I definitely thought adults were perfect.
-the photo from the dance! I love claudia and stacey's cool outfits and everyone else's lumpy gross 80s dresses (in 1991).


lowlights/nitpicks:
-mary anne calls logan and whines that she's hungry before she even greets him. I hate mary anne so much. she pretends like being sensitive means it's okay that she's a self-centered jerk.
-mr and mrs schiavone act like they're christmas fanatics because they put their decorations up about a week ago (this is a few days before christmas) -- HUH? if you're a fanatic, you put them up in AUGUST!
-the newspaper is going to pay kristy for the story. unrealistic.

claudia outfit (for the dance):
-"I'd bought this black velvet knicker outfit and was going to wear it with a lot of silver jewelry, including snowflake earrings."

everyone's dates to the dance:
-kristy: bart
-mary anne: logan (obvs)
-mallory: ben hobart
-stacey: austin bentley
-dawn: price irving
-claudia: iri mitsuhashi
-jessi: quint

no snacks in claudia's room.

[michelle]

thanks, random airbnb, for having a copy of this book in the living room! i only read it 27,000 times as a kid so it was great to get in a 27,0001st read this afternoon.

bart bart bo bart, banana fana fo…

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am shocked to say I loved this. Cute, funny, exciting. What a start to my vintage year 🙂

[Fredrik deBoer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #7: Snowbound is a tweenaged grindhouse nightmare of positive attitudes and minor stakes, a book that dares to ask “What comes after just now - the jubilee and terror of an unmarked world, the misery of being stuck with our indelible selves, or the worst of both at once?” Somehow both frenetic and narcotizing, this tale of the female id set free from the bounds of our still-Victorian mores by several feet of snow both entrances us with the possibilities of wymxn’s liberation and horrifies us with its assertion of the inevitability of phallic power. The girls long to be free of the patriarchal constraints imposed on them by an uncaring society, one which now showily critiques the male gaze but which still seeks The Eternal Daddy at all times for love, validation, protection, and sexual recompense. But these young firebrands, these six avatars of the American Sehnsucht, embody in their collective identit(y)ies what we might call the misandrist barbaric yawp. As much as a seminal 1970s issue of Lesbian Connection magazine, as much as the Bumble profile of someone who writes for Teen Vogue, B-SCSS7SB conveys the femxnxne sublime, the post-male imagination… and its limits.

Ponder the horror of the American imaginarium.

The Baby-Sitters Club series is of course the creation of “Ann M. Martin,” a figure who like JT Leroy both exists and does not, and in so doing troubles our conception not only of the author, but of the very meaning of authorship. A ghost, a cypher, a vessel for the collective unconscious, a woman made so fabulously wealthy by the first three dozen or so of these goddamn things that she could pawn the job off on someone who was willing to do it for a flat fee with no royalties - who’s to say, really, who this “Ann M. Martin” really is? Perhaps, in a way, she is all of us, if we had all grown immensely wealthy by coming up with the avante garde premise “what if some girls did babysitting?” Well, in her honor, let’s do what she forced so many of us to do, which is to skim through the same laborious bullshit explaining the characters and story to date in all 213 of these fucking books.

Who could, at this stage, not know the basic story by heart, imprinted as it has been on the great quilt of the human experience? Young Kristy, heart torn by the divorce of her parents and possessed by a need to hold ultimate authority over other children, gathers a murderer’s row of girls with brown hair to her ambitious startup, a dream team of babysitting skills/having implausibly dramatic but relatable problems. (Eventually they added three new girls to move more merch in the key blonde, Black, and ginger demographics.) With chilling efficiency, they take over the Stoneybrook market, achieving monopoly power and working relentlessly to crush the competition, Bezos-like. The rival Baby-sitters Agency sought to resist the totalizing force of Kristy’s ambition and met the same fate as Diapers.com. Our girls are thus free to undertake a series of babysitting adventures in which they live, laugh, and love their way to greater maturity and understanding. Along the way they wrestle with prickly siblings, nagging parents, boys who just don’t understand, and Stacey���s crippling cocaine habit. (They may have cut that last bit out for the Netflix show.) For a generation of young readers, these girls showed what it was like to survive The Struggle, specifically the struggle of being high-achieving upper-middle-class children from stable families living in a tony suburb on the western Connecticut shore.

Questions abound - Does the BSC pay taxes? How is it appropriate for an 11 year old to supervise three young children? What kind of tween babysitting cartel needs five fucking officers? - but “Martin” feels no need to answer these quotidian gripes; she plays with the very concept of “making sense,” and introduces these brain puzzlers simply to accentuate the unheimlich. Truly we are dealing with a maestro here. I tip my cap to her as well as to the sweatshop workers who actually wrote these.

Continue reading my review....

[Emma Beckett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, happy nostalgia 😌

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book for myself as a stocking stuffer, as we've been having a white Christmas, and I have fond memories of reading this book (it was my favorite Super Special when I was young). It's so fun to see what everybody is doing at the time of the blizzard... Kristy has a date with Bart, Claudia is at the Perkinses', Mary Anne and Mallory are at the Pikes' baby-sitting, Stacey is off to the mall with her mom to get a perm, Dawn and her mom are off to the airport to pick up Jeff, and Jessi is at dance in Stamford. All of this while the Big Dance is only a couple of days away.

One thing I particularly like, reading the book(s) as an adult, is how Ann M. Martin deals with issues that are real issues that young females deal with, like Kristy getting up at 5:30 so that Bart doesn't see her looking fugly, or "screwing up" on the job (when Claudia loses Chewbacca). The author also touches on themes of divorce (Stacey asking her mom randomly why she married her father - it shows that the recent divorce still weighs heavily on her mind), racism (Kristy normally states that "Mal is white and Jessi is black, but we don't care"), puppy love, parental issues (like Mary Anne's father giving her a bit more space, and Claudia's parents loving her and caring about her despite the "disappointment" she perceives them as having for her). It has a little bit of everything, and I would definitely let my future daughters read this book, and the rest in the series, for the fun stories and messages of friendship, acceptance, fun, and love that they promote.

[✨Jordan✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Baby Sitter Club gang isn’t at all prepared when a huge snowstorm takes over!

- Bart, Kristys “boyfriend” gets stuck over at the Thomas house during the snowstorm. He came over for dinner and to hang out, but Kristy didn’t know he would be spending the night because of the storm! Uh oh, she starts getting insecure and a little embarrassed by how her siblings are acting

- Claudia gets caught in the snowstorm while babysitting for the Perkins girls. 3 little girls all 5 years and under are in her care for the whole night since the Perkins parents can’t drive home with the roads not plowed. Can she handle 3 little kids by herself?

- Mary Anne and Mallory are babysitting the Pike Kids all night during the snowstorm (all 7 of them) when the power goes out. Can they survive the night without any parental help and with barely any food left in the house?

- Dawn and her mother got stranded at the airport while waiting to pick up Dawns brother Jeff. Jeff’s flight got delayed until morning so now they have to spend the night at the airport with a bunch of other random people and nothing to sleep on but uncomfortable plastic chairs. Will Jeff be okay on his own?

- Stacey and her mom were driving home from the Mall when the storm became out of control and they had to pull over on a side road since they couldn’t see where they were going. When the heat runs out and the gas runs out...what happens? Can they last all night?

- Jessi gets stuck at her ballet recital when the storm hits. She isn’t alone though, all of the other kids are stuck here too. Her “boyfriend” Quint was expecting to arrive today though...what happens when her parents can’t pick not only her up, but also can’t pick Quint up from the train station??

As always I had a good time reading these books and will continue on with the series for some major childhood nostalgia

[Samantha Ania · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just riddled with Dramatic but Not Too Dangerous Actually situations that I was constantly imagining myself in as a kid. Still don't understand the school thing but I'm giving it a pass because Stacey's perm apparently looked great.

[Edgar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book to read during the winter. It was good seeing how all the babysitters handle their own difficulties during their challenging times.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stoneybrook is getting a snowstorm...according to the weather reports. But the BSC have their doubts and go about their normal routine until a blizzard strikes, leaving many of them in dangerous and unique situations. Dawn becomes stranded at the airport with her mom; Jessi gets trapped at her dance school. Mary Anne and Mallory become stranded with the Pikes and realize they are running out of food...Claudia gets stranded at the Perkins where there is a missing dog...Kristy gets stranded with her boycrush Bart and STacey and her mom are stuck on the road! This book is truly one of the greatest in the series and has a lot of moments that I had forgotten were so fun, not to mention the awesome illustrations. And this book leads the perplexing question...how old is Mallory REALLY ...according to the cover?

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has always been my favorite BSC book. I can't really explain why, other than that the pieces and storylines all balance together perfectly.

[Valerie Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of the Super Specials, which were probably my first experience with multiple perspectives retelling the same event. This event is a blizzard that hits Stonybrook, CT, catching every one of the babysitters off-guard.
I have to hand it to Martin: she is good at plausibility. There IS a storm predicted in Stonybrook, but it doesn’t arrive and it doesn’t arrive and everyone stops taking the prediction seriously, so everyone is believably unprepared when it does hit.
Least interesting to most interesting storyline: Kristy is trapped at her mansion with her sort-of boyfriend Bart and has to figure out how not to get caught in her pajamas (grow up, Kristy); Claudia is babysitting for Gabby and Mariah Perkins and has to stay with them all night (across the street from her parent’s house, so, not that big of a deal); Dawn and her mother wait at the airport for Jeff who’s arriving from California (Jeff, like Dawn, is one of those characters the text kind of demands you care about even while it gives zero reason why you should); MaryAnn and Mallory are babysitting the Pike kids and basically run out of food (which, truthfully, is kind of my nightmare); Stacey gets stuck coming home from the mall with her mom (after getting a perm...at the mall, which is peak 1991), and basically could have almost died, had they not been rescued by some guy with a Victorian mansion; and Jessie, the most underrated Club member (junior), who gets stuck at her ballet school and her boyfriend (she’s ELEVEN. Why do these CHILDREN have romance storylines, however tame?!) walks through the blizzard from the train station (I’ve deemed this the most exciting because of Quint’s bravery).
I like the bottle episode nature of this story, and that the characters don’t interact with each other once the story really gets going. They’re separated, each dealing with the rise and fall of their own story while still sharing an experience.

[Abigail F · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was purely a nostalgia read, and honestly, it mostly held up! I've been feeling a bit sad/bad this lockdown, and thought maybe a little bit of the BSC in a blizzard would help. And it did! I loved the 1990s-ness of it all -- no cell phones, especially. This plot would be much more difficult to make happen today, unless literally all of them had low battery when the power went out. I loved how capable all of the girls were in objectively stressful situations, though for the life of me I can't figure out why all these parents let their 13 and 11-year-old daughters stay all alone at strangers houses all night! I mean, c'mon Mrs. Kishi! Mr. Spier! Also, Jessi says Quint was her first kiss ('well, first kiss that meant something'). Girl is 11! She's had multiple kisses?! And the dance teachers leave two 11-year olds in charge of all the little kids? What is going on with all of these adults?! Also, the number of times the girls say, 'Guess what.' is astounding. I swear it appears at least once every chapter.

My favorite part was when Kristy said something about the weatherwoman and then added 'well, I call her the weatherwoman, but the newscasters at WSTO call her the weathergirl.' Smash that patriarchy, Kristy!!!

But honestly, what a super fun afternoon of alternating between PhD reading and the BSC. Lockdown felt a little brighter today, as I shared it with my favorite club members. (*music plays* Say hello to your friends...)

[Zoe T · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was sitting in my apartment during the bomb cyclone of '18, I couldn't help but think back to reading this book as a wee child living near the beaches of Los Angeles. I haven't read this book for at least fifteen years, but I vividly remember certain parts of it, like them eating ice cream after the power goes out so that it doesn't melt and Logan cross-country skiing over to give Mary-Anne a hand. Having now been snowed in a number of times this book is much less charming and romantically exotic but the fact that I still remember it says a lot.

[Meaghan Steeves · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty engaging. I liked the mini cliffhangers and the unexpected charcoal artwork.

[Alicia]

30 years later, a fun trip down memory lane.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so cozy! A perfect start to the year’s PHS Book Club reads.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the BSC and it was fun to experience each girl’s experience in the blizzard. Stacey is my favorite and I think I liked her story best. It was cute.

[Julie Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgia rating and review. Had fun revisiting this old favorite. 🥰

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man! Jessi's boyfriend is a tool!

[Rachel Brand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't love this book as a kid but I loved rereading it as an adult. It seemed particularly appropriate to read it last night as there was horrible wind and rain and hail, to the extent that I could feel it through my windows! So I was snuggled up in bed with a zillion layers and this book. We didn't have any snow (but I live right on the coast, literally, I can walk to the beach in 20 minutes) but I did feel a sort of connection to the BSC girls while reading this book. For once, the girls didn't do anything terribly remarkable - Kristy is embarrassed about Bart meeting her family, Mary Anne and Mallory have to look after the Pikes over night and run out of food, Claudia gets stuck with the Perkins girls and loses the dog, Stacey and her mum get stuck on a back road in their car, Dawn and her mum have to wait overnight for Jeff's plane, and Jessi is at her dance school and worried about whether Quint will make it from the train station on his own. But it was still fun to read about their little adventures, and it was nice to see that their parents helped out - both Mary Anne and Claudia's parents popped round to see if they were managing on their own. There were a few stories that weren't quite as interesting as others, but all in all this was a fun book to reread. 9/10

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first Super Special I read when I was younger, so it has a special place in my heart. I think that as a child I was fascinated by that amount of snow (living in Queensland, Australia probably didn't help, considering this usually means Christmas is stinking hot), plus reading now as an adult unfortunately coincided with the recent spate of wild weather we are having here - wild, howling winds and heaps of rain! So it felt a little creepy reading it.

It's kinda funny reading it because when they get snowed in and the babysitters have to stay overnight with their charges my adult brain goes - "Jeez I hope these kids get paid extra for having had to spend the night!" Which is shocking! I shouldn't think such things especially if lives are in danger. (Yes, I am aware this is a work of fiction.)

Mary-anne is really out of her shell here which is great to see. There are lots of funny moments in this one mainly cause these little kids are saying the funniest things. The Perkins kids would have to be my favourite.

Now I will got back and start at #1 like I should have!!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was always my absolute favorite BSC book growing up. I'm not sure why, since there is really no plot besides a snowstorm, but I reread it every single Christmas (and probably several times throughout the year, too). I was fascinated by the idea of a blizzard like this, maybe because I've always lived in Texas and never experienced snow at all until I was an adult and went to Colorado on vacation. Whatever the case may be, this book has always held a special place in my heart. It took me ages to track down a copy, but I'm so glad I finally own it now.

Upon rereading this, I couldn't help but laugh when Mary Anne called Logan to complain about being hungry because she'd only had "one measly packet of instant oatmeal" for breakfast. ... How many packets does she USUALLY consume in one sitting? I never noticed anything was amiss about the "Mary Anne and the Pikes have no food" storyline as a kid, but I actually took note at how much food was consumed at dinner, before bed, and at breakfast and it's pretty ridiculous how "hungry" these kids could be after that. The whole thing just made me laugh.

The 5 stars are, of course, for nostalgia's sake.

[Amanda Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I've been wanting to reread one of my favorite BSC books for awhile, but wanted to wait until December. Not a bad read all these years later! At times I did want to shout, "Stop your whining and worrying! You're thirteen! Calm down!" Stacy was the only one in real dire straits. I always wanted an excuse to eat all the ice cream in a power outage like Mallory and Mary Anne. And I can't decide if being stuck at an airport like Dawn and her mother would be better or worse these days. All the same, I had fun reading this again. :)

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book every year when Christmastime comes around. It has that cozy feeling that makes you want to sit under a blanket with hot cocoa and wallow in the holiday-themed nostalgia while reading this. A crackling fireplace and a scrunchie is a must.

I'd be lying if I said it's really exceptional, but it's light, fun, and full of heart. I got this book from a neighbor, so when I got it, it had already been lightly loved. I wasn't alive during the 80s, but man! This book makes it seem like so much fun. I want to be friends with all of the babysitters! It's a sweet book.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

So so so fun to re-read this as an adult!

[Tiffany Spencer]

Snowbound
There’s been talk of a big snowstorm in Stoneybrooke. Kristy is trying to do math problems but can’t concentrate. She’s thinking about the Winter Wonderland dance that she’ll be going to with Bart. Then Bart calls and they briefly talk about what they’re wearing to the dance. Kristy will be wearing a red dress. Bart will be wearing a black suit. Karen has lost her rat, Emily. And is frantic. All the kids are kind of loopy. Kristy hears another report about it snowing the next night but dismisses it. That night she dreams that she and Bart go to the dance but instead of sit storming snowflakes it snows out carnations like the one she plans to buy Bart.

Claudia is excited to be going with Iri and Japanese boy in her class. She’ll be wearing a black outfit with lots of silver jewelry and snowflake earrings. At the Monday BSC meeting,, they all talk about the dance, and because they’ll all be busy that Wednesday, Kristy decides to cancel the meeting. They decide to work something out about canceling two meetings in a row. The dance is on Friday. Claudi says she can answer the calls Wednesday.

Dawn will be going with a guy at school she’s been crushing on ( ). Jeff will also be coming home for Christmas. But when she calls him to find out when his flight is, he’s having a real bad case of anxiety over what if the plane crashes. His mom tells her it’s just separation from the divorce. )Dawn will be going back to California with him until New Years).

Mallory’s parents will be spending a day and a half in New York and have agreed to let Maryanne stay over for two nights so she and Mal can watch the younger kids. There’s a talk of a snow storm coming but most of the characters seem to dismiss this like it’s the biggest joke they ever heard. Stacey and her mom are at the Washington Mall in the beauty shop after Stacey’s gotten her hair permed for the dance. They overheard another customer say it’s started to snow.

Kristy invites Bart over to watch movies (Uncle Buck and Batck to the Future) but it doesn’t turn out like she wants it to. Karen, David Micheal, Emily, and Andrew keep popping up, and they end up watching the movie with them. At dinner, Watson’s made the setting candle light and he’s going on and on about an antique sale. Emily turns a cup over, Karen keeps trying to find her rat and David Micheal is getting a kick out of calling Bart Kristy’s boyfriend. Then it starts to snow.

Quinn will be coming to Stoneybrooke and taking Jessi to the dance (Remember him? If not Jessi refreshes your memory). She’s at Madame Noelle’s class practicing to be in the Nutcracker Suite when it starts to snow and the class is told their parents are coming to get them. Jessi waits and waits. Her parents don’t show. She starts to worry. She and her dad are supposed to pick up Quinn at the (airport?)

On the way to the airport to pick up Jeff, Dawn, and her mother have a couple of accidents and near misses but they make it there. The snow is getting heavier. Meanwhile, Stacey and her mom leave the mall and almost hit a car that stops suddenly in front of them. Mrs. McGill decides to take the back roads home but then decides to pull over until the snow lets up. When she tries to drive again, the car doesn’t start up.

Kristy is getting fed up with her family’s antics in front of Bart. But Watson invites him to stay a little longer because of the heavy snowfall. When he tries to leave the snow has piled up in front of the door So Mrs. Brewer invites him to just stay the night. By the time he’s gotten off the phone with his parents, the power goes out. Watson decides it’s time for them all to go to sleep. Bart will have a guest room. Kristy locks her door for fear he’ll see her in her pajamas. Claudia has a sitting job for Myriah and Gabby. It's pretty typical, but then Mr. and Mrs. Perkins can’t drive home and will stay at a friend's. Claudia then has to spend the night. That night they notice Chewy is missing. Claudia tries to call her parents to help them look but the line is dead.

Jessi sees a little girl named Holly crying and finds out she’s never been away from home and she wants her parents and doll. So Jessi tries to make the situation seem more like “an adventure”. They’ll be having a school sleepover. This doesn’t work. Jessi then begins to think again about where Quinn is. Maybe he turned back around. Maybe she should call his parents. If he didn’t and is at the station maybe they think he’s already been picked up. She doesn’t want to worry then. She also meets a little boy named Ginmarcho. Shortly after Quinn shows up. When Mr. Ramsey didn’t come he walked all the way to the dance school. Jessi then goes to the office to let her parents know.

Nicky begins to torment Claire about their being an abominable snow man that likes to steal homework. Mr. and Mrs. Pike call and say they won’t be able to make it home that day. The kids don’t seem bothered by it. But when they get hungry Mal tells Maryanne they’re almost out of food. Mrs. Pike was going to hit up the store when she got back. They have the emergency money she gave them, but when they try to call in for pizza the phone is dead. Then the power goes out.

Dawn and her mom are told that Jeff’s flight is rerouted to Washington (where there is no snow) and that they’ll try to fly him in the next day. In the meanwhile, he’ll be put up at a hotel. They try to contact him but the phones go dead and then they’re told they’re not letting anyone out of the airport or in the airport. So they’re stuck there for the night. Stacey and her mom are suck in the car, the heater stops working, and they find out they're out of gas. So, they start yelling HELP to the top of their lungs. A car pulls up and a man gets out and offers them a place to stay with him and his wife who live down the road. Stacey doesn’t trust it.

The next day, power returns to the Pikes, and school gets closed. Eventually Mariah and Gabby and Claudia find Chewy. The next day their power comes back on too. Claudia makes (snow comes?) and they go outside and make snow people. Quinn and Jessi get through the night together. They help calm down the little kids. The next morning, the teacher takes them to a coffee shop for breakfast. Jessi thinks it’s romantic. Quin says they have two more days and a dance. Jessi says and if there is no dance. He says they’ll go to another one some other time.

Logan and Maryanne talk the next morning and he comes by later with food (bananas, peanut butter, crackers, bread, carrot sticks). Logan goes over ot Stacey's and no one comes to the door. They think about telling Claudia but decide against it. Richard has already told them where Dawn is. Kristy wakes up the next morning and decides to shave her legs (for the first time) and put on makeup. Her brothers of course tease her but Bart know what to do. He tells her she looks beautiful. Then she calls around and gets an update on where the other BSC are. Stacey and Maureen stay with the man and his wife. They have a new baby. The next day they return to Stoeybrooke and Claudia is on the porch and fills them in about what happened to the others. Kristy writes an article about the blizzard for the newspaper. The dance isn’t canceled also.

My Thoughts
It was interesting that NONE of the BSC believed it was gonna snow, which makes me think how much of a joke is Stoneybrooke’s weather person (station)? Does he just cry “wolf” all the time and randomly out of nowhere just like to predict that it’s going to snow? Now, admittedly, I have heard this where I’m from and the weather person predicts snow and people are like yeah right. But it just surprised me that practically no one took the weather person seriously.

Also, was it just me or were their priorities all *wrong*? Stacey acts like she’s going to DIE if she doesn’t get to the mall to get a PERM for a school dance. My mother would NOT have driven to Washington Mall just for that and bad weather was predicted. Dawn worries that Jeff will have to wait for a little while in the airport if they’re late. NOT about her mother practically killing them trying to get there. Jessi worries that she and Quinn won’t be able to go to this dance. Are they handing out billion-dollar checks at this dance? Kristy is worried about Bart seeing her in her nightgown and her family embarrassing her. And then what kind of power does Mallory have? All the power goes off but the heat says on. BS. Trust me. If the power goes off so does the heat.

This book reminded me of one year we had really heavy snow and the power went off for DAYS! I think it was one of the worst snowstorms we’ve had here. I remember my mom and I and a friend of hers had to go downstairs and sleep in front of the fireplace to keep warm. We also had to just make do with what we could find for food because there was no going out and getting food. I wanna say we used the fireplace also to cook. I felt bad for Stacey and her mom because that must have been MISERABLE to be stuck in a car with no heat. Not that it’s any better to be stuck in a house with no heat like Mallory, Maryanne, and Claudia. But at least they only went one day. I know people around me that have had power outages for MUCH longer and suffer more damage than this depending on the intensity of the storm and what kind it is.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was *obsessed* with the BSC books when I was growing up. I was so thrilled when my boys picked up my old copies, and happy to send them along to my niece to start reading when she's ready. Fortunately, I missed this one book when I packed the rest up to send off, and was so glad to find it when looking for something to read recently.

I loved the quaintness of the books - the small town and small-scale hijinks in the books. I had my favorite (Claudia, obv) and my least favorite (Mallory, because even AMM must have hated her, based on how she's written), I started a babysitting club with my bestie, and even took on the various handwriting styles of the BSC to try them out (final result: I write mostly like Dawn in real life).

I would say that the books pretty much hold up in 2022; they were fairly progressive for when they were written. I did find that there is no way this book could be written today, only because we have cell phones and other technological advances, which would have rendered most of of the plot points to be completely out of the question, such as...
* No one watches the weatherperson on TV, and probably only a handful of folks hear the weather reports on the radio (when they're not listening to Spotify, Sirius, etc.). Which means that we don't even think about whether they're crying wolf with the forecast. Also, you'd check the weather app pretty regularly, and certainly before your son is flying cross-country or you head to NYC for the day, etc.
* Kristy goes to a video store to rent movies to watch with Bart. Hahahahahahahaha....
* Stacey goes to the MALL without an appointment to get a perm? Was that ever a thing?
* Phones are down, which means that there is literally no way to get in touch with anyone. No texting, posting on social media, etc.
* Jessi considers calling the train station and having them page Quint to use a courtesy phone to take her call, and also wonders if he has correct change to use a pay phone (which I think was 25 cents at the time this was written, so I *hope* his parents - who let their 11-yo ride a train solo to visit a family he's only met once - gave him handfuls of quarters to call them from wherever he may need to).
* Dawn's mother calls the airport to find out what gate Jeff was arriving. Even at this time, they had TV screens to tell you this info when you arrive, so this is odd even then. This was also the time when you could meet someone right at the gate and not on this side of security.

I'm sure there were others, but it was just fun to find these in the book.

Solid book. Almost makes me wish I'd kept a few more so I could read them again...

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This one was on the verge of being boring but then it pulled out the fun and outrageous in the end. It starts out with Kristy being super annoying, writing the Stoneybrook newspaper about the blizzard they had and offering to sell them the Baby-Sitters Club's story as an article. She's all "your story was good but mine is better" and "by the way, do you need a baby-sitter?" And she basically spoils the whole story for us, by listing what happened to everyone during the blizzard. THEN we go back to the beginning of the story.

It's a normal weekend at home for Kristy...homework, daydreaming about her "boyfriend" Bart, helping Karen with her sweater-pants, searching for missing rats, etc...The weather people are calling for a huge snowstorm, but since that's the 4th time they've predicted snow with nothing, Kristy doesn't think much about it. Oh and there's another dance: the Winter Wonderland Dance. And it's pretty close to Christmas. For some reason, we get the intro chapter in this Super Special and they lay out what everyone is doing on Wednesday: Mary Anne and Mallory are doing a marathon baby-sitting job for the Pikes, Jessi has a rehearsal for The Nutcracker, Dawn is picking up Jeff at the airport, and Claudia is baby-sitting for the Perkins girls. So they decide to actually cancel the Wednesday meeting (I don't know how Kristy didn't have a heart attack) and then they gab about the dance and all the awesome guys they're going with. Claudia already has her dibbly outfit picked out too:

I was really looking forward to dressing up. I'd bought this black velvet knicker outfit and was going to wear it with a lot of silver jewelry, including snowflake earrings.

Okay, let's start going down the list of where everyone is and what happens to them when it finally snows! The snowstorm finally starts up late Wednesday afternoon, conveniently when the BSC meeting was cancelled. Mary Anne and Mallory are doing their huge sitting job because Mr & Mrs Pike are having some weird touristy day in New York. I guess that's the only way they can afford vacations. Mary Anne is staying the night and Mrs Pike says there is enough food for them, but she'll have to go to the grocery as soon as she gets back. (Important point for later.) When it starts snowing, the triplets scare Claire with stories of the Abominable Snowman. As it gets later and the snow gets heavier, the Pike parents call and say they aren't coming back that night, then they realize they are almost out of food, then the phones and power go out, and suddenly everyone is starving. Like, 30 minutes after dinner. They make it thru the night but the next morning they're all still hungry and Mary Anne even calls Logan and whines that she's hungry. So what does any self-respecting 13 year old boy from Kentucky do? Gets on his cross-country skis and brings a backpack full of food over to his girlfriend. Yeah, seriously.

Stacey and her mom are at Washington Mall, getting Stace's hair permed for the big dance. Her mom doesn't like to drive in snow and starts freaking out when they leave the mall to see big snowflakes coming down. They get on the highway and start inching their way slowly home. Until they fishtail and her mom decides to take the backroads home. Then she pulls over when it gets too hard to see. And they get stuck on the side of the road. Pretty scary, especially once Stacey gets hungry and the car dies. To keep their minds off things, Stacey asks her mom how & why she fell in love with her dad. Kind of like that part in The Parent Trap. And then they get rescued by a desperate criminal...just kidding, it's a kindly gentleman with a wife and a baby at home. He takes them to his country home, which is decked out for Christmas. It looked like a house from a fairy tale, lit inside and out, a green wreath with a plaid ribbon hanging on the door, the gold lights on a Christmas tree twinkling through a window. Have I mentioned how ready I am for Christmas this year? I am full of holiday spirit lol. Stacey mentions that this will be her first Christmas as a divorced kid. They fall in love with the Schiavone family and even trade Christmas cards afterwards. Once Stacey gets back home, Claudia rushes over, all worried, because everyone had noticed they were gone and says "Don't ever think we wouldn't miss you." Aw...

Claudia is busy baby-sitting the Perkins girls when it starts snowing and of course, the parents can't get back home and the power goes out. Instead of taking the girls across the street to her home, she decides to just stay at their house. And then Chewy, the big destructive dog, goes missing. Turns out he was in the basement the whole night. Not a lot happens for Claud, so we'll put in this gem from Myriah Perkins:

[We can make] "a whole snow family! A snow mommy and a snow daddy and three snow girls and a snow dog and two snow cats."
"You are going to be very busy tomorrow," [Claudia] said.
"That's what happens when you're five," Myriah replied.

And on to Jessi...she has her big Nutcracker rehearsal, which of course contains plenty of small children. Quint, her New York boyfriend, is on his way to stay with Jessi for the week and go to the dance with her. The snow starts, parents can't get there (doesn't anybody leave early when they see there might be bad weather?), everyone is stuck there overnight. Quint shows up a few hours later after WALKING there from the train station. Seriously, that's just dumb. Jessi & Quint help corral the younger kids, because apparently all the adults there can't do it. The next morning, they have a romantic breakfast across the street.

Dawn's mom is the only adult in the whole book who actually leaves early, to pick up Jeff from the airport. Doesn't matter though, because his flight is diverted to Washington and Dawn & her mom get stuck at the airport for the night. Luckily, Dawn has a baby in a nearby family to keep her occupied. Jeff arrives the next morning, understandably upset over the whole ordeal, but by the time they get home, it was a grand adventure.

And finally...Kristy. The only person who was actually in her own home (besides Mallory I suppose). She invites Bart over to watch some movies and have dinner with her entire family (not too bright for Miz Prez) and he has to stay the night once it starts snowing. Kristy freaks because ZOMG A BOY!!! And sets her alarm for 5:30 the next morning so she can get up and make herself pretty. I'm not sure why, because he's never seen her pretty before. Ooh...zing! She even shaves her legs, for the first time, with an electric razor. Ouch. All her brothers make fun of her, of course, but Bart says she's beautiful. After the storm, everyone catches up on everyone else's story and back to the present...Kristy gets a call from the newspaper that they do want to publish her article. I hope it's not as long as this blog post! (Sorry!) And the girls all go to the Winter Dance together, with their various boy toys. The End.

Reviewed at Give a Hoot Read a Book. (Click thru to check out Claudia's special snowflake outfit!)