Poor Mallory!

The Baby-Sitters Club #39

by Ann M. Martin

When Mallory's dad loses his job, the Baby-sitters decide to help out by getting her a job babysitting in Kristy's rich neighborhood, but the swimming pools, tennis courts, and huge houses only make Mallory feel worse

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

142 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

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

[Claudia Lomelí · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Mallory Pike and all the Pike kids (except for Claire, but just because of her annoying silly billy goo-goo thing).

[Hallie]

Poor Mallory indeed. First of all, the family that she babysits for really should not allow their little kids and all the neighborhood kids to swim while a SIXTH grader is in charge. That is not very good water safety. Also, could Mallory's parents take two seconds to calm their children down and let them know that somehow they'll all be okay after her dad loses his job. It's definitely a stressful and scary time but Mallory had to step up and be the adult at the ripe age of ELEVEN because her parents couldn't at least share that her dad was still receiving severance pay. Mallory is the true hero of this story.

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

class war visits stoneybrook! mr. pike has lost his job as a corporate lawyer (seriously, are there ANY fathers in stoneybrook that AREN'T lawyers of some variety?) & the pike children form a club & brainstorm ideas to save money & contribute to the family coffers. they decide that they will turn off the TV when they aren't watching it & use washable cloths instead of paper towels to clean up spills. WTF? are they also going to stop lighting their cigars with hundred-dollar bills? their money-saving ideas are proposed as if they are really novel sacrifices that the children will make in an effort to see the family through these lean times, but does anyone seriously use paper towels? what a waste of money & trees! okay, moving on. mallory also takes a thrice weekly sitting job with the filthy rich delaney children, who live in kristy's posh-as-fuck neighborhood. these are the kids who have a foundtain in their front hallway, a $400 cat, & two tennis courts. they also have a brand-new in-ground pool, complete with diving board & water slide. i find it highly dubious that the delaney parents would allow eleven-year-old mallory to watch their children & not just hire a nanny, especially because they need the sitter because mrs. delaney is taking real estate classes & preparing to go back to work, but whatever. the sitting job provides the necessary foil for the A plot & B plot to converge. you see, lots of neighborhood kids have been coming over to swim in the delaneys' new pool. but max & amanda (the delaney kids) are starting to wonder if these kids are friends with them because they are truly friends, or if they are just being used for their pool. & mallory is being teased at school by some girls who used to be her friends, because her father lost his job. so mallory helps amanda understand that they have the same problem of not knowing who their real friends are. she tells amanda to lie to her pool friends & tell them they can't use the pool when a sitter is in charge, & then invite her friends over to play with dolls instead, to see who is a real friend. & she applies her own advice to tell off the girls who have been teasing her about her dad being out of work. everything comes out in the wash: amanda & max realize who their real friends are, the babysitters club sticks by mallory through these tough times, all the pike kids become entrepeneuers to help with family finances (vanessa styles hair on the playground, including giving one classmate the infamous side ponytail), & mr. pike gets a new job by the end of the book. i remember being way into this book...well, i was going to say "as a child," but it was published in 1990, when i was eleven. a little old for the BSC, though you know that didn't prevent me from actually being in the official fan club (i even won a backpack in a contest...when i was twelve...i can't believe i am admitting this to the internet). mallory was my favorite character because she was a book-ish super-nerd like me, & we were both eldest children (though she is way more into looking after her younger siblings than i was), & even then, i was all over any story that was class-conscious, even if i was not completely aware of my own working-class pedigree at the time. & this is a classic earlier book (#39), actually written by ann herself. she's a much stronger writer than her ghosties. her kids really sound like kids & have real kid problems & don't just have festivals for local children every other weekend. (ps--prepare yourselves for a lot of BSC re-caps. i mooched a shit-ton of them off bookmooch.)

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book!

mallory's dad's company hasn't been doing well lately and needs to cut back by laying off about 50% of its staff. mr. pike is one of those that gets laid off, and the pike family has to change pretty drastically to accommodate it -- mrs. pike gets work through a temp agency, the pike kids try to work to contribute money to the family, etc. meanwhile mallory takes a regular sitting job at the delaneys' (the snooty kids from Kristy and the Snobs), who have recently installed a new pool. in a bart of darkness-style plotline, the neighborhood kids all want to be best friends with the delaneys all because of their pool. the plotlines connect as mal realizes that at least her dad losing his job means she knows who her true friends are, as opposed to the delaneys who are surrounded by pool-loving fairweather friends.

highlights:
-I think this is the first book where they say dibble and dibbly! mal says dibbly SO MANY TIMES in this book. in later books it becomes "dibbly fresh." dibble is short for "incredible" so it is used to mean something good, but dibbly can also just be an adverb to indicate the intensity of a bad thing, i.e. "dibbly stale"
-mrs. prezzioso is pregnant with andrea.
-weird camping songs that mal and jessi sing, including "how I itch in my woolly underwear" and "johnny rebeck and his sausage-making machine." I looked them both up and it turns out the gross thing about the sausage-making machine song is that johnny rebeck takes the neighborhood cats and dogs and makes them into sausage. but mallory says she's grossed out by the song and doesn't say why, so I NATURALLY assumed that this song was either a penis or poop metaphor (sausage-making...I mean...right?)
-mary anne does the pig farm prank call to one of the girls who is particularly mean to mallory. she keeps it going for like 10 minutes and ends up crying because she's pretending to be upset. it's kind of amazing that mary anne commits so intensely to a prank call.
-in general, the plotlines here are not always pleasant but are interesting to read and are very well done. mallory tries to help out by getting the other pike kids to make money and to save money by turning off lights when they're not using them, etc. mr. pike gets really depressed at some point, and it's really a bummer but it's very believable.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-when mrs. pike is working and mr. pike is depressed on the couch, mrs. pike confronts him to say that when she works he should keep house, and he says "excuse me?" as though house-keeping is beneath him. what a jerk!
-why does mallory know what a mortgage is? when I was 11 I might have known that it means that you have to pay something every month, but there's no way I knew that it means that the bank still owns your house. it seems unbelievable to have an 11 year old know this when her 10 year old brothers don't.
-jessi says squirt's newest activity is climbing stairs. once again, WHY DID HE CLIMB STAIRS WITHOUT ANYONE EVEN NOTICING in Mary Anne and Too Many Boys????
-they keep saying mr. pike was fired. he really wasn't. he was laid off. the kids in school are being jerks, assuming that he got fired because he was incompetent or something, but mallory could have just said, "actually, he was laid off. the company isn't doing well." I guess she kind of did eventually, but still...fired and laid off are not the same thing.

no outfits

jobs the pike kids take on to make some extra money:
-the triplets: odd jobs (lawn mowing, painting chairs, etc.)
-vanessa: does kids' hair at school
-nicky: paper route
-claire and margo: lemonade and brownie stand

snacks in claudia's room:
-mallomars in her jewelry box
-fritos behind her pillow

[Shadyside Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little sad at times but overall a very wholesome book that will leave you smiling ear to ear :)

[Swankivy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is literal, if you didn't know. Mallory becomes "poor" because her dad lost his job. And they have eight freaking kids.

My mom was one of eight. And even though her dad made a decent living, times were tough. The way they lived and ate was all about cheap food and hand-me-downs and repairing things instead of replacing them. Mallory's family has to learn this, and the kids who have the ability to do so try to find some way to chip in. Mallory's way of doing so is of course babysitting, but she takes a special job that oh-so-coincidentally pops up for her: a regular sitting job for rich kids in Kristy's neighborhood. They have their own pool.

I must interject here and include some personal anecdotes. Mallory's eleven. I was eleven when I moved to Florida--into a house with a pool. There were pools everywhere--nearly everyone in our neighborhood had one. And I can absolutely tell you that NOBODY WOULD HAVE LET ME BE THE ONLY AUTHORITY IN SIGHT WATCHING YOUNGER KIDS IN A POOL. Okay, they might have left me alone for a minute, with one other child, as long as I promised to keep my hand on said child. But no. Mallory the eleven-year-old kid being left alone with a bunch of children is ridiculously poor judgment on the part of any adult. (And it WAS a bunch of children, not just the kids she was sitting for; neighborhood kids kept coming over and pretending to be friends with the kids who lived in the house so they could use their pool. Makes one wonder why their rich families in the same neighborhood didn't also have pools, but this was New England, not Florida. Meh.)

Anyway, the plot's pretty much about Mallory dealing with having to tighten her belt while looking at opulence everywhere in her sitting charges' lives, and also the kids dealing with not knowing who their real friends are because they might be being used by the neighborhood kids since they have a pool. Even though the parents don't forbid Mallory to have anyone in the pool while she's sitting, she uses that as an excuse for them to see if kids will still come over, enabling her charges to find out who likes them and who was just using them. And everything's fine by the end of the book because Mallory's dad gets a new job, woo-hoo.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor Mallory! Her parents have suddenly realized that having EIGHT KIDS has put a drain on their finances, especially after Mr. Pike loses his job. So Claire says she'll reuse her tissues, and Mallory takes on more sitting jobs... and grows more and more bitter about how much money those rich brats have... until one day she decides to blow up their mansions. Just kidding! These days Mr. Pike would have just gotten himself a reality show, but back in the 80s it was a simpler time.

[Alison Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure I like the pun in the title here, considering the book is mainly about Mallory's father losing his job and the kids being worried they're going to lose their house. Like, literally calling her "poor" in the title is kind of a dick move, IMO.

However! I did appreciate the overall message of this one regarding how some of Mallory's and her siblings' classmates treat them when they hear their dad was laid off. A few girls were snotty and rude to Mallory, teasing her and saying crass (and wrong) things about her dad's situation. It made her feel bad at first, because of course it did, but she realizes that their attitude and behaviors reflect on them and not on her. And while usually a scene in a book where one character makes a Big Moral Speech to others is pretty cringe, in this case I thought it was done well. I loved that Mallory told them that she didn't care what these girls wanted to say about her--they weren't her friends so their opinions didn't matter to her. Exactly!! I got made fun of A LOT in middle school and early high school, and it sucked of course, but at the same time, I was like...okay, you think I'm a dork. So what? You're an asshole, so why would I want you to like me? It just never made me feel like "Oh no, I need to do whatever I can to gain the approval of a bunch of shitty kids!!" and I wish more teens were able to see it that way. I know this is corny, but it's true: The people who mind don't matter, and the people who matter don't mind.

I also liked seeing the Pike kids all wanting to do their part to help out by trying to save money (by using lights and appliances less, dish towels instead of paper towels, etc) and also earning money with odd jobs and such. It can be hard for kids who grew up at least middle-class to realize that all the things they take for granted will always be there might not actually be, but it was nice to see them all want to pitch in.

I will say that I didn't like their dad getting gruff and mean with them a few times. Of course I understand his frustration with being laid off and having to wait to hear about interviews, but dude, your kids are 11 and under, don't take it out on them. Also...why the heck didn't they tell the kids Dad was getting severance from the beginning??? It seems like that would be something you'd mention when you tell them you lost your job. "I know this sounds scary, but I'm going to look really hard for something new, and plus I'll be getting severance pay for [x number of months] so we should be okay if we're all careful." Instead, the kids don't find out about the severance pay until after their dad gets a new job, and they tell him they were worried about the bank foreclosing on their house. Their parents were like "LOL but Dad was still getting paid" and I was like:



I mean, come on.

But overall this was decent with an important message for kids: Jerks can eff off into the sun.

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mallory's father loses his job as a corporate lawyer, sending a wave of surprise through the sheltered, rich enclave that is Stoneybrook. Mallory is forced to take work as a governess. . . I mean an eleven year old baby sitter to the Delaney kids, who are so rich that even the people of Stoneybrook are in awe of them. I read this when I was nine or ten.

Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I was incredibly annoyed at how someone losing their job was written when I first read this book. I loved the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary because I so related to the constant anxiety, and worry Ramona and Beezus feel when their father loses his job, and then struggles for years to get back on track. To me that was written very realistically, and it wasn't resolved with the best, most wonderful outcome, even at the end of the series. Instead of finding better paying, more enriching work as a teacher after spending several years in low-paying jobs, and going back to school, Mr Quimby is forced to go back to the supermarket he hated working at because it's the only place that will hire him. He realizes that having steady work with benefits is more important to the well-being of his family than holding out for a teaching position. He's a little sad about it, his family is a little sad about it, but they pull together because everyone realizes that it's the best they can do. Mallory's father is out of work for a few weeks, and then gets a job that pays just as well, at a great company, and all is well. Good for him. But why am I supposed to read this? It's not really a story, more like an interlude.

I remember the Pike kids being such goody-goodys about saving and earning money while their father is out of work. They all vow to reuse things, turn off lights, and get jobs to help out the family. I am all for being aware of what your ecological footprint looks like, but in this book the Pike kids were so earnest and noble that I wanted to hit them. When I read this as an adult I noticed there's a passage that talks about how the kids washed the dishes by hand to save electricity, instead of loading the dishwasher. I wanted to scream with frustration. How can using up gallons and gallons of hot water to wash the dishes of a ten person family be any better/cheaper/greener than loading and running the dishwasher???? Stupid, stupid Pikes.


Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
I didn't realize that this was the book where the baby sitters learn that bratty Jenny Prezzioso will get a new sibling. I also didn't remember that none of the baby sitters want to know the sex of the new baby, which seems completely stupid. Who cares about being surprised?

In some ways this book is even more obnoxious than I remember, and in some ways I think it's much better than I remember. I hate that Stoneybrook is so wealthy that Mr Pike's job loss makes the gossip rounds, and that Mallory is teased for having a father who lost his job. At every single school I went to, even the private one, there was no way in the world that any student would dream of making fun of someone for that. In the first place every kid in the world knows that things that happen to parents are no fault of their children. In the second place why pick on someone for having a parent out of work which is a situation a lot of kids don't fully grasp, when you could make fun of them for something more concrete like their crappy clothes, or whiny attitude? Also Mallory spends a lot of time ruminating on the unfairness of her life, especially when she compares her situation to the Delaneys, her baby sitting clients. Amanda and Max Delaney are neighbors of Kristy, so they live in a huge McMansion, complete with a swimming pool, and tennis courts. Mallory sees everything they have, and is upset that her family is struggling, and that her sister Claire can't have a Skipper doll. Which to me implies that the Pike kids are just as spoiled as the Delaney kids, since all they are focused on is what material things they can't have now that their father is out of work. (Besides the Skipper doll, Mallory also makes a big deal about not having junk food in her house. Ridiculous.) This also bothers me because the Delaneys seem perfectly nice, especially since Amanda and Max made an appearance in Kristy and the Snobs, where they sounded like spoiled brats. In this book they are a little clueless, and a little annoying (Amanda's obsession with money is so strange), but no worse than the Pikes. What bothered me about the book the first time around was that the worries Mallory and her family have about money seems to be a focus on THINGS. No one really worries if they will be able to pay the mortgage on the house, or if Mr Pike is qualified enough to get a job he really likes. No one is really concerned what will happen in the long term, presumably because they are fairly confident that Mr Pike will get another job without a problem. (Which he does, and before his severance pay runs out.)

There were some things that I appreciated about the book that I didn't when I was little. I thought the scenes that show Mr Pike becoming a depressed couch potato who didn't care about keeping track of his five year old daughter were well done. (If this were a realistic story, I would think that this stage would go on for several weeks, or months, not just a few days, but I understand the need to keep the story moving.) I also like that after he is confronted by Mrs Pike and Mallory he grudgingly shapes up, and agrees to keep the house clean, and get dinner going. He also plays with Claire after school, and this frightens Mallory. It takes her a little while to put her finger on why it scares her, but then she realizes that she doesn't like seeing her father look so happy and comfortable staying at home, because she's afraid he won't be motivated to look for a job. I can see this being a real concern, one that most kids (like Mallory) would be bothered by, but are not quite able to realize why they are bothered. I also thought the scenes with the kids using the Delaney's for their pool was well done also. The kids came across as bratty, but not evil or vindictive. Kids that age don't quite know the concept of using people, even though they do it. I usually think this series oversimplifies conflict resolution, with kids being much more cooperative than they are in real life, but I thought the baby sitters' handling of this was great. They refuse to let the kids stay in the pool when the Delaney kids (the ones they are being paid to watch) are tired of using it, although they offer to let the kids stay and play something else. Mallory gives Amanda a good way to see who her true friends are, and makes her feel better about having friends who are probably only her friends so that she will invite them to use her pool.

And speaking of the pool I was completely horrified that so many kids could play in the pool under the supervision of an eleven year old baby sitter. Even trained life guards aren't supposed to watch so many kids for so long.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Poor Mallory
Mallory comes home and finds out from her mother that her dad might lose his job. His company hasn’t been doing well and pink slips are being handed out. Since he doesn’t have the senority of some of the other lawyers he’s worried. At the BSC meeting,Mallory finds out from Dawn that Mrs. Prezzioso is going to have a baby. When she tries to tell tho, the rest don’t want to know. She says she’ll tell Maryanne later. Mrs. Delany needs a regular sitter and Kristy gets the job. Jessi asks if mal has heard anything else (Mal called her while she was sitting Charlotte) but mal says she’ll call her when she finds out. She chants “Good news! Good news!” all the way home. Her dad is there when she gets in. Mal doesn’t even need to ask what it is (it shows on everyone’s face). Her dad got a pink slip. Mal blows up that they should have told him earlier. Her dad says maybe they were still undecided, but got fired and that’s that. He doesn’t want to spend any more time talking about it. Mal is surprised by his tone. Mrs. Pike says they should all eat and Nicky says shouldn’t they be saving their food. There dad says they aren’t destitute. Needless to say dinner is gepressing.

Mom says they’re a family. They’ll all have to work together. First of all there will be no extras. Meaning no new clothes. No new toys. No trips. Her mother and father will do the shopping and they won’t complain about what they buy. Mrs. Pike says she’ll get a flexible jon (or jobs). And Mallory will be in charge while she works. Also, they won’t be getting allowances. Mallory notices how angry her dad looks. She wonders why. Everyone seems to be cooperating. Mr. Pike says he’ll be in charge while their mothers at work (he can barely get that out) and he expects them to obey him. Mom says she’ll probably only work a couple of days a week. After dinner everyone helps clean up and everyone goes to there rooms. Mal tells her brothers and sisters to come into her room. Mal calls a meeting of “The Pike Club”. She says they’ll meet to discuss things they’re afraid or and how to sae money.

Mago says she’s scared of dad. He yelled at mom. Mal says she thinks he’s mad at himself. Then they discuss using less electricity. Then can use paper towels and use less tissue. She then calls Jessi and just talks for a while. Jessi tells her she’s there if she needs her. Two days go by, Dad gets even more cross. The Pikes watch less tv and listen to the radio less. They clean up more but Mrs. Pike doesn’t say anything about it. At the next BSC meeting, Kristy says Mal should take the job at the Delany’s. Kristy says she needs it more than her. She asks if Mal is offended. Mal says just surprised and thanks her. Mal wonders how she’ll get there but Kristy says she can take the bus home and Charlie can take them to the meetings. Then back home. Kristy says Mal should have the pick of any jobs if she can handle them. This makes Mal emotional. Mrs. Delany agrees to the change.

Mal decides to give most of the money she makes to her parents to buy food. There’s a call for a job at the Prezzioso’s and Mal decides to take it. Then there are some more calls. Mal tells them a girl named Nan told her she heard her dad got fired and then asked if he stole from the company. Then she and another girl say their dads never got fired. They all wonder why some kids are like that and Maryanne says maybe to make themselves feel better and maybe there scared their parents might get fired one day. The BSC all say they’ll stick by mal. Mal says she wishes she could teach all the girls who teased her a lesson. They tell her don’t get carried away and Dawn says she’ll get through it somehow.

On the bus, Kristy gives Mal some tips. Amanda and Max like to test new sitters, She tells her not to let them order her around and don’t let them get away with anything they shouldn’t be doing. Kristy tells her to call her if she needs her and then wishes her good luck, Mrs, Delany says they just put a pool in and Max and Amanda can use it whenever they want. A neighboor has to be home tho when they use it. They can have other kids swim in the pool but they have to be able to swim the length of the pool without resting. Amanda knows who they are. Amanda and Max come in. Mal’s made a snack for them in the kitchen. They claim they never eat in the kitchen but Mal says they will today. Then they look at the fruit and gram crackers she’s put out and say they usually have coke and Oreos, Mal doesn’t question this. Then they talk about Kristy and Shannon. Then Mal tells them about herself. The subject turns to Mal’s father and she tells them the truth. They say their father is a lawyer and they bring on him and then on their swimming pool. Then Amanda starts to invite her friends to swim. A whole bunch of kids start showing up. Amanda tho turns the fourth away. A boy comes by and she also turns him away. Mal tells her to be a little nicer and scolds her for using the pool to get back at the boy for being mean to her once. For a while, she just watches them play in the pool. She thinks how unfair it is that the Delany’s have so much money and feels like a nothing.

Mal starts to worry about college. Stacey takes a job at the Delany’s. She brings her suit so she’s prepared. When she arrives they’re in the pool with Karen and four other kids. Karen starts to show off and pretends she’s fallen into the pool. Amanda (who by this book should have BEEN learned not to test Stacey) says she wants a snack. So, Stacey offers hr yogurt, furit, and a salad. Amanda says never mind. She then tells Max Stacey is crazy and weird. Then Amanda gets all in Stacey’s business about what her father does and how much money he makes. Amanda gets bored with playing in the pool, but her friends don’t want to get out. Karen says she’ll play with her. So, she looks at Stacey and Stacey tells them to get out of the pool. We find out their “friends” Angie and Timmy just came over to play in the pool and they start to argue back and forth. Angie, Timmy, and Huck leave and this leaves the Delany’s upset. Thankfully Karen suggest they play dress up. Max makes himself with Stacey reading to him while Karen and Amanda play “Lovely Ladies”.

Mrs. Pike gets a lot of secretarial jobs. She’s working more but Mr. Pike’s progress is slower. Claire starts to get impatient that he’s not playing with her anymore and Mal has to remind her that he’s trying to make money to buy her the Skipper doll she wants. Mal finds Claire one day in her room playing dolls and scolding them for wanting the new Skipper. She hasn’t had anything to eat. He falls into a routine of just sitting around in jeans and a tv shirt watching tv (and I think drinking. Mal says he has a glass of something). Then he gets hooked on Soaps and starts not paying any attention to watching his children. Mal starts to get worried but he snaps at her to stop asking him how he is. Mal finds out he can’t even be bothered to pick Claire up from school. Nicky, Claire, and Margo sit by themselves. Mal suggests they do something with friends and Vanessa watch Claire. Her mom finds out and blows up at her husband. Then they start to fight. Mal leads the others saw. Her mom wins. The house gets cleaner, he cooks, and he starts to work on a project with Claire.

That night Mal calls a meeting. This doesn’t make Mal happy. She realizes it’s because he looks to happy. What if he forgets all together that he’s supposed to be job looking. Mal tells her brothers and sisters about the girls at school teasing her (Nan and Jan?) She tells them they were passing around a note that says she’s going to be on welfaire. (One of the girls name is Rachel). Byron says there’s also a guy that doesn’t want to hang out with them anymore (Micheal). The triplets talk about things they’d like to do to get even with him. (The other girls name is Janet). The girls say mean things they’d like to do to the girls. Mal says they need to figure out how to earn money. She tells them about the mortgage and the other bills they’re parents have to pay so they’ve been paying out of their savings. So, she suggests they make money to put in the savings account. Jordan says they can earn money to. Vanessa says she can sell her poetry to magazines. Mal starts to interrupt her but the triplets start to laugh. Vanessa says she wants to still try. Margo comes back with an ad that says IF YOU READ THIS YOU CAN GET A GOOD JOB. She says she can become a secretary. The trips say they can walk dogs or mow grass or start an odd job service and call it ABJ (Adam, Bryon, and Jordan). Nicky says maybe he can get a paper route, Mal says these are all good ideas.

Margo says if being a secretary isn’t a good idea, she and Claire can set up a lemonade stand. Byron wants to know what will happen if they can’t pay their mortgage. Mal says in time they might lose the house. Byron says and that’s how you become homeless. Kristy sits for the Papadakis kids and they invite David Micheal and Karen over and they all decide to play “Office”. They decide to turn the office into a job agency like Karen saw on I :ove Lucy. It makes Kristy think of Mr. Pike. The sun comes o ut and they all go out and play. They decide to go over to Amanda and Max’s. But Hanie can’t stand Amanda and doesn’t want to. Linny doesn’t want to go either and reminds David Micheal he doesn’t like Max either. So this starts a fight between Linny and David Micheal and Karen and Hannie. David Micheal and Karen leave to go to the Delany’s. Kristy says she doesn’t think what David Micheal did is right. He just wants to use them for their pool. But then a lot of kids Kristy finds out are doing the same. She also isn’t crazy about how Karen just left Hannie.

Mal is at the Delany’s. Angie, Timmy, and Max are playing in the pool. Amanda is reading “Super Fudge” (in the pool). She finishes the book and asks Angie to play with her, but she says she has a diving test next week. She asks if she’s there to play with her or practice. She kinda blushes. Max wants to play tennis. Timmy doesn’t. He wants to go hit balls on the tennis court. So, Mal tells the other kids to get out the pool. They can play tennis with Max or dolls with Amanda. The other kids kind of groan but the Delany’s kids thank Mal. The other kids just leave. Max goes off to still play ball. Amanda asks Mal why Angie won’t play with her. She asks if she’s bossy. Mal tells her no she’s not being bossy. Then she asks what’s the problem. She says she wants the kids to like her or do they just like her for her pool. Then she starts to cry. Mal thinks it’s not easy having a father that’s unemployed but at least she knows where she stands with her friends. Still, deep down she’s jealous of Amanda. She tells Amanda she learned who her friends were when her dad lost his job. The ones who didn’t stick with her she didn’t trust. She tells her what she can do is tell her “friends” she can’t have friends over when there’s a sitter. If they still come over she’ll see whose who.

Mal thinks about taking her own advice. She decides to confront her former friends (Racheal and Valerie and Janet). Mal talks it over with Jessi at lunch and they contemplate. Then they hear Nan talking about them. They’re calling Mal’s dad stupid and a loser. So, Mal goes over to them and tells them she can HEAR them. But then that’s probably wahat they wanted. Then she calls them prejudice. Mal says she can talk about her all they won’t but there not her real friends so theier opinions don’t count. Then she says and for tere information her father wasn’t fired. He was let go like a lot of other people. She tells them they were never her friends. She warns Jan and Nann about Valerie and Racheal and then walks off. They’re only their friends when it’s convient.

Amanda and Max tell Mal her idea worked. All there friends tho are coming over except Angie. But Amanda says she didn’t much like her anyway. Jessi sits for her own siblings-glad that Aunt Cecelia is out for the day-. Beccaa says she feels bad because Vanessa can’t have treats treats. Jessi says they will son because all the Pikes are making money. She finds out (Jessi) that Vanessa is calling herself “Mrs. Vanessa” and her side line hustle is fixing hair on the playground. Becca invites “Miss Vanessa” over and they also invite Charlotte over. She says she’ll teach them to play SAS (Secret Agents) It’s the game Jordan invited some books back. Jessi decides not to interfere and then starts to help Squirt go up and down the stairs. Jessi hears a noise and then sees Charlotte’s red swater. She knows they’re the ones being spied on. She also sees Vanessa write something down while she and Squirt are watching Seasame Street. Charlotee at the end of the day says she got her blue badge and completed three secret missions. Becca completed four and got her green badge. Vanessa is extremely happy when she leaves.

When she gets home, Mr. Pike gets a call for an interview at a place called Metro Works. When Mal gets home from school, her dad tells her he has a second interview. He then tells her he has a third interview. Friday after the BSC meeting, she finds out her dad got the job. He’ll be a lawyer for Metrow Works. It’s a smaller company but he might get a promotion next y ear. Mrs. Pike will keep working smaller jobs, She makes a special dinner to celebrate. They have hamburgers and eat in the dining room. The Pike kids tell their parents about their club and there worries. Mr. Pike tells them about the severance pay he was getting. Both Mrs. And Mr. Pike tell them how proud they are of them. Then they tell them about how mean the kids were at school.

Nicky and the triplets say there going to keep their jobs, Nicky earned more money than ABJ. Vanessa is too embarrassed to admit what she did but Mal tells them. Adam says maybe she’ll have her own beauty school. For dinner they have a cake and in fifteen minutes it’s gone. After this they watch home videos and eat popcorn. Mal has a sleepover at for the BSC at her house-the first-. Adam slimes Kristy and Claudia with his new gun. They have hoages for snacks. Kristy says she sat for the Delany’s and there was no pool trouble. Mal says Racheal called and she has a feeling she wanted to come to the party but Mal made it clear only her *friends* were invited and hung up on her. So they decide to goof call Nan and Jan later. They decide to do Sam’s favorite. They call Nan first and ask for “Cissy”. Each take a turn asking for “Cissy” Then Mal calls and says she’s Cissy and asks if there are any calls for her. Maryanne makes a pig farm call to Jan in a Southern drawl. She asks how she’d like her pigs shipped. Mr. Pike then finds the gun and they all stage an attack on the triplets. They talk that night about their dreams and fears,

My Thoughts
Maybe because of Mal’s red hair and all the kids and the way they were teased about being poor I just couldn’t stop thinking of them as the Weasley’s. just something that got stuck in my head. I could definitely sympathize tho with Mr. Pike. In 2000 I was working for a company online and I’d started to notice some changes (shorter hors, repeated training, constant switching of deparments, longer hours, less people). Then just one day out of the blue they called us all into a meeting and told us the whole department was being left go. Fortunately at the time I had another source of money to depend on and I didn’t have the demand of having a lot of kids to support. It was also at the time that money was being given from the pandemic. Well that is until the powers that be got strict with it and wanted proof that you were really searching for jobs weekly. Then that was the end of that. I also thought there is NO WAY if I had a pool and I was a parent I’d let other people’s kids swim there with just a sitter present. If that’s not a lawsuit waiting to happen I don’t know what is. A sitter shouldn’t have to keep their eyes on their clients kids AND another set of kids whose parents probably don’t even know that an adult isn’t there. If they even know at all that there children are in someone else’s pool and will probably want to know why they weren’t told.

Rating: 5

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm seriously having way too much fun re-reading BSC books.

I couldn't help but wonder about the ending of this, though. Mr. and Mrs. Pike basically laugh at the kids for being worried, and explain that he's had severance pay this whole time so they were fine. If that's true, then why did they take all of Mallory's babysitting money, all of Nicky's paper route money, Claire's lemonade stand money, etc.? I never noticed that as a kid, but I think it's kinda messed up that they scared their children enough to have them all get odd jobs, TAKE THE KID'S MONEY, and then only tell them AFTER Mr. Pike gets a new job that they were really fine all along. The Pike parents suck.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the one where Mallory gets pissed that she has to share a bathroom with 7 other kids and goes on a rampage thru Kristy's rich neighborhood, right? No? Well, it should have been. Okay, what really happens is that Mallory's dad loses his job and gets a new one by the end of the book. That's the short story. Read the long story here. :)

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mallory is such a dark character to me. I feel like she's lowkey neglected. The Pike parents seem so checked out and leave the kids to figure things out. Why would they have an open conversation about the dad losing his job and NOT mention that he got severance??? You can tell this kind of instability happens all the time because the kids immediately organized for their own survival. Mr. Pike went from "full time lawyer" to "alcoholic who forgets to feed his children" in about two days.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this series as a kid, it dealt with a fairly real issue too that many kids may have to deal with one day. One of the better books for a series with a 100+ books in it! Probably one of the most realistic ones too! Great for kids in their preteens.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ohnoez, the Pikes are poor! And all must set about making money fast! Very fun. :)

[Juliette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good start to talk about classism and the mental load of women in a family.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 4 out of 5]

(LL)
This book does a great job tackling: parents losing their jobs/financial security, bullying, and fake friends.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The entire book spans about 5 weeks, from what I can gather. Mallory sits for the Delaneys for a month, and her dad lost her job right before that started (which is why Kristy handed the job over to her). At the end of the book, she hasn't seen the Delaneys for a week or so, and she's commenting on how her dad was liking his new job, which means he's probably been there a week or so too. When he took the job, he said he had two weeks before he started. That means he was out of work for two weeks. He got the first and only interview he went on. This is not drastic. Two damn weeks is NOTHING. And hell, he was collecting severance from his old company during that time. Yet they never thought to tell the kids that they were going to be okay financially. They gather them in a room, tell them Dad has no job and that they have to cut back on expenses, AND THAT'S IT. I can't stand the Pikes. I really can't. They're so full of themselves that they rarely spend any time with their kids (why did they even have so many, if they don't want to be with them?), and the BSC is practically raising their kids for them.

And as for the Delaneys, I find it hard to believe that parents would let an 11-year-old (who they don't even know if she can swim) watch their two kids in their own pool, much less let them invite the whole damn neighborhood over.

[Jennifer Maloney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I realized I hadn’t read enough books this month, so I busted out a quick BSC book! I feel like I’ve probably read this one before but I didn’t really remember it.

Mr. Pike loses his job so Mallory takes on a month-long job for the Delaney’s… aka “the snobs”… who live across from Kristy. It was a cute book about friendship and how to know who your real friends are.

One weird thing about this one was a) Mallory and Jessi had new slang words that I’d never heard of before. Mallory claims her and her friends make up words all the time, but this the first I’m hearing of it. And b) Mallory had trouble with some “friends” from school who she thought were her friends but were suddenly acting mean… who I’d also never heard of before.

It felt weird having these established things in Mallory’s life that hadn’t actually been established at all before in the series. I get that it’s hard to foreshadow everything, but this just felt sloppy to me. Then again, it’s a 100-page middle grade from 1990, so I guess I can’t expect too much. 🤣🤷🏼‍♀️

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book deals with a real life topic. Mal and her family deal with her dad losing his job. This is a relatable book. Some of the kids at school no longer want to be friends or play with the Pike kids because Mal's dad lost his job. Some of them also make mean comments. Mal and her siblings find out who your real friends are-the ones that stick with you through bad times also, not just good times. The only downside is that Mal is 11 and she is watching over kids who are swimming in a pool alone. I know a neighbor is home next door, but still she is still too young to do it alone. Another little nitpick is that Mal is shown to be sleeping on the cover of the story, while kids play in the pool. A big no no. I know she does not fall asleep in the story, but still not a good thing to show for water safety. I really like the covers, but this one is a no from me.

[Lesley Barklay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was never into Baby-Sitter's Club books when I was a kid. I was a hipster before the word was invented. The only thing I needed to know about Baby-Sitters Club for me to turn my nose up at it was the fact that all my friends liked them, and there were over a hundred books in the series.

Now I'm all grown up, and my eight-year-old daughter has discovered them. I thought I'd better give this a read, mainly for nostalgia. My three star rating here is an average of her rating and mine. There's are still not my thing, but I can appreciate them for what they are - healthy, fun books for second grade girls with fifth grade reading levels.

It's so hard to find books that challenge her, but that are also interesting, and with appropriate content. Even though the Baby-Sitters Club lived in a simpler time, these are still books that young girls can dream about.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like that this book shows how close the Pike family is, despite there being so many of them.

But how did EVERY KID EVER know that Mr Pike lost his job? How did all the Pike kids get made fun of? Like, I guess they told a friend, who told a friend, etc, but I don't really think that kids care that much about what someone else's dad does. Like, I barely knew what my own parents' jobs were growing up, let alone what my friends' parents, LET ALONE a rando from school. So that kind of puzzled me that they got made fun of so much for it.

Also, I love how awkwardly badass Mallory is. Like I love that she told off her Janet and Nan, but you know they just totally cracked up laughing and made fun of her even worse as she walked away. "You're not my real friends," bahahahahahaha.

[✨Jordan✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Mallorys dad loses his job, things get tense. With 7 brothers and sisters how will they be able to afford things, how will they be able to keep their house. When her school mates find out, some of them begin to tease her and call her poor. Mallorys father losing his job opened her eyes to who her REAL friends are. Also , she has a month long babysitting job with the Delaney kids who are rich and own an underground pool. The Delaney kids are in a similar position. Tons of kids come over but only to play on the pool. Are these kids USING the Delaneys or are they truly their friends.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martin Mission #72
BSC #39
Book #39 of the BSC and Mallory's old man gets retrenched from his job - not fired as the story keeps saying incorrectly.
They seem to go broke almost immediately and into a crisis, one would think they have some savings put aside and surely he would get some severance from his retrenchment, and do they no have any unemployment benefits in the USA?
All questions that demand answers, and well could have given a better story.
There are some good moments about defining who a true friend is.
Overall an average yarn.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Pike loses his job as a lawyer, because every dad in this town is a lawyer apparently, and that means that things are tight around the Pike abode. This tends to happen when you squeeze out eight kids. All the children take on odd jobs to help raise money to help out their parents, and I personally think that Vanessa's Playground Hair Salon is the most enterprising. Everyone else laughed at her, but hey. She had a good idea, so suck it Kristy!

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much Nostalgia with this book. I used to read these books when I was younger and decided to pick it up for a little bit of reminiscing. There was so much in this book that would be helpful for kids in the same situation. I forgot how could these books word to help teach kids about serious situations in an entertaining way and in a way that they can relate to. Love it

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. I didn’t like how Mr. Pike reacted and got short with the children. They didn’t fire you you ass. Ugh. Other than that this was okay. I felt for Mallory and her siblings as they were all genuinely worried that they were going to lose everything and then having to see their parents be so stressed. Not a favorite but it was fine.

[Cassandra Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.