The All-New Mallory Pike

The Baby-Sitters Club #126

by Ann M. Martin

In a breakthrough book for the series, Mallory says good-bye to Stoneybrook and hello to the Riverbend School. The boarding school in the Berkshires introduces Mallory to a new group of friends--and a not-so-friendly roommate.

Genres: Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile, Contemporary, Young Adult, Boarding School

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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

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

in this book by ghostwriter Ellen Miles, mal finally goes to boarding school. riverbend is a girls’ school with buildings named after famous women (see the list below) and it’s a collective where everyone takes turns doing jobs on campus and everyone has to volunteer in the community and they call the teachers by their first names. basically it’s evergreen college for middle and high schoolers. mal’s roommate alexis is really controlling; she won’t make space for mal’s stuff, tells her who to hang out with, tells her what to wear, etc. meanwhile mal makes friends with a couple drama nerds, smita and sarah, and alexis doesn’t seem to have any friends. and it’s no wonder. at one point she reads mal’s journal and is unapologetic about it. she tells mal she won’t read it again because it wasn’t even interesting. gradually, we find out that alexis has already had two roommates this school year. one left school, and the other ended up moving into a single. mal tries to avoid her but when they eventually see each other alexis acts butthurt. mal talks to her RA who tells her to talk to alexis about it. unsurprisingly, it exacerbates the problem. mal gets a care package from the bsc and leaves it on her bed, and later comes back to the room to find alexis has completely destroyed it. FINALLY the adults seem to get that this a serious issue and they intervene. no, they don’t take any kind of disciplinary measure with alexis -- that would be too rational! instead, they ask alexis’s old roommate, the one who’s now in the single, to move into mal’s room so alexis can have the single. the subplot is that the pike siblings fight over who gets mal and vanessa’s room, since up to this point all four boys share one room. jordan and adam want the triplets to get their own room, but byron doesn’t care because he’s too chill for this crap. so eventually byron ends up sharing margo and claire’s room with nicky, adam and jordan move into mal and vanessa’s room, and all four girls (vanessa, margo, claire, and mal when she’s in town) will share the boys’ big room.

highlights:
-the bsc gives mal a certificate that she's an honorary member for life, then they talk about all of the best mal babysitting memories, sort of like The Baby-Sitters Remember
-vanessa, musing to herself after mal leaves: "it's so tragic. mallory was the world to me." mary anne points out that she's not dead. vanessa says, "I didn't think you'd understand. after all, you've never lost a dear sister." (but of course dawn moved away, so mary anne relates, but LOL)
-alexis’s crap is all over the room, including posters of "scary-looking rock stars" (god I wish I knew who this was about)
-mal notes that it's nice being at a school where everyone is a girl, in part because of situations like what happened with mr. cobb in that short takes class (Don't Give Up, Mallory)
-it’s fun to read about all of mal's classes and how much more compatible they are with her learning/engaging style. her english class is focused on short stories, and her french is immersive which she likes, and she's taking an elective on writing plays
-dude, when alexis tells mal she won’t read her journal again because it was boring, it’s just...GENIUS. I’m sure it is boring (“I’m mad at jessi because she said she likes palomino arabians better than silver dapple clydesdales!”) but also it’s just so COLD how she says it. and mal is pissed.
-mal is sort of sympathetic about alexis, because she doesn't have any friends and mal has made tons of friends in one week. I love mal. she’s probably the bsc member who is the most decent human, because only she or stacey (or mary anne, but for the wrong reasons) would ever be sympathetic to someone who was being a jerk to her in a situation like this.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-the school is in easton in western massachusetts, twenty miles from stockbridge in the berkshires. in actuality easton, ma is in eastern massachusetts, in the boston-providence metro area.
-jen (alexis's old roommate/mal’s new roommate) says about herself, "here I am, a nice, friendly jewish girl from boston. what's not to like? but alexis didn't give me a chance." why did she mention that she was jewish in that context? I mention that I’m jewish all the time, but I still wouldn’t think to mention that I’m jewish in that context.
-riverside students volunteer at the easton library for a program where parents drop off their kids for a movie festival. uhh..librarians aren't babysitters. they don't do that shit. I hate books like this because people already think it's our job to babysit their effing children, and it's NOT.
-the biggest issue: why in the world doesn’t the RA or dean intervene way earlier? alexis clearly has serious mental health problems (I think she’s got bipolar ii or maybe even borderline personality disorder) and they already knew about that. why did they force their new student to room with her? why wasn’t alexis the one who got stuck in a single when she was impossible to get along with? finally, how is it that there are singles for some of the 6th graders but not for others?

buildings named after important women at riverbend:
-amelia earhart (dorm)
-elizabeth cady stanton (dorm)
-sojourner truth (dorm)
-barbara jordan (dorm)
-georgia o'keeffe (art)
-marie curie (science)
-katharine hepburn (drama)

alexis outfit:
-"She wore a black sweater, a short black skirt, and black high-tops...Her jewelry? Well, I bet you can guess she wasn't wearing unicorn earrings or a smiley-face ring. No, she wore tiny black metal hoops, three in one ear, two in the other."

sarah outfit:
-"She was dressed in flowing purple clothes--a long skirt and a silky shirt that seemed to shimmer when she moved."

no claudia outfits. no snacks in claudia’s room.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so nice to see Mallory get a happy ending. Throughout the series she is constantly picked onn, ignored she even has the least amount of books throughout the series. Here she finally arrives at Riverbend her new school and she loves it. She quickly makes new friends and feels like she finally belongs somewhere. But because we need a plot she has the roommate from hell. Alexis appears to have some untreated mental illness. She makes up rules takes Mallory's things without asking and at least twice destroys their room. She always apologizes or blames Mallory for it. Sort of like an abusive spouse or parent does leaving poor Mallory confused about what just happened. Alexis had two other roommates one left the school one moved out into a single room. You'd think they would realize that Alexis is the problem and move her out, but oh well. Eventually it works out and at last Mallory has found happiness and her place in the world. The b plot was dumb but kind of funny. Everyone fights over who gets Mallory and Vanessa's room cause apparently Mallory is not coming back ever? Their antics drive their parents crazy and they always seem excited to leave when the babysitters show up which I loved. But overall I loved this because Mallory has found her place after being taken for granted for so long.

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this one I just wish that we could have a spin-off series with Mallory and all her adventures at her new school

[aem · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Mallory got all her issues resolved, there was no follow up relating to the roommate’s extremely disturbing and disruptive behavior and actions…

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mallory, a sixth grader at Stoneybrook Middle School, hated school. At the beginning of the school year, she participated in a guest teacher program for an eighth grade English class. The rowdy older kids found her to be an irresistible target for ridicule because she was earnest and sincere. Some chalk fell out of her hand while she wrote on the board, so the kids called her "Spaz Girl" for the rest of the semester. (See Kristy in Charge for the original story.) She lost confidence and could no longer focus on her schoolwork.

Mallory knew she needed to change schools, but her family could not afford to send her to Stoneybrook Day School. I wonder if her parents considered transferring her to Kelsey Middle School where Kristy, Abby, and Anna were zoned. It was a smaller school than SMS (not big enough to have its own orchestra) and she could even get the school bus to come to her neighborhood and pick her up. Instead, Mallory got a full-ride scholarship to attend Riverbend Hall Boarding School in Massachusetts!

Mallory attended her last BSC meeting, which turned into a mini-version of The Baby-Sitters Remember. The BSC members discussed Mallory's babysitting achievements. After the meeting, there was a surprise going-away party at Mallory's house with the whole club (including Associate Members Logan and Shannon) and some of their babysitting charges in attendance. The next morning, Mallory's parents drove her to her new school in Massachusetts. Mallory enjoyed her new school. She made new friends and enjoyed her classes. She also liked that there were no boys at school. She mentioned her sexist teacher from Don't Give Up, Mallory who rarely called on girls or gave them a chance to answer questions.

However Mallory did have trouble getting along with Alexis, her roommate. Alexis was controlling and mean. She did not respect Mallory's privacy since she read Mallory's journal. She told Mallory she would not read it again because it was too boring. The girls' RA finally intervened after Alexis destroyed the care package Mallory received from the BSC, along with the girls' room. But I wished the RA had done more to support Mallory in the first place and encouraged Alexis to attend therapy for her undiagnosed mental health disorder.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a really good book, I know some people didn't enjoy it and I can see from their point of view how they didn't. I love all of the baby sitters club original instead of the graphic novels. The originals have so much more plot. Also, there are more original books. Anyway, in the book Mallory goes away to a boarding school, Riverbend, and is stuck with Alexis, the world's worst roommate. Alexis read's Mallory's journal and wear's Mallory's earing and apologizes and seems sincere. But when Mal's care package from the BSC gets vandalized she has had enough. She talks to her RA and she suggests she talks it out with Alexis. Alexis being Alexis, nothing changes. So Mal talks to her RA again. Her RA, Pam, then sets up a meeting with the dean. Once the meeting is over and changes have been made Mal is happy again. But I just want to say Alexis moves to a new room by herself and I think that's the wrong way to treat a situation. The subplot was at the Pike household where everyone is fighting about who gets who's room. In the end, Vanessa, Margo, and Claire take the triplet's and Nicky's old room, Byron(Who's super chill, and doesn't care about who gets who's room) and Nicky take Claire and Margo's old room and Adam and Jordan take Vanessa and Mal's room. In the end, it's a pretty good book but it could be better.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 1 out of 5]

(LL)
Not only was this book pointless, but it reinforced bad behavior. Alexis acted out and was a brat to everyone because she didn’t want a roommate. What did they do to “solve” the situation? She had no punishments and ended up getting to live in a single room, which is what she wanted the whole time. Bullshit. This is in no way, shape, or form the correct way to show kids how a difficult student should be handled.
Also, the Pike kids took over the subplot by arguing who should get to have their own room. Umm really? Mallory will have to come home for summer and winter break, which adds up to about 4 months of time she’ll be living at home. There was no reason, other than the writers not being able to think of any other drama to write about, for the kids to think they could fight over who got the room. Pointless and boring.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

And then, just like that, Mallory Pike is banished forever from the BSC-verse! In Friends Forever she is briefly mentioned, at least in the first book, but we are left to more or less imagine what becomes of Mallory from this point onward. I like to imagine she was happy, learned a lot, made good grades, and got herself into a badass women's lit college.

You go, Mallory!

Also there were only a couple of baby-sitting chapters, and they revolved around the Pike kids. I can accept that. It was a beautiful thing.

[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.

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this one a lot. It's definitely a different situation for Mallory and I'm glad it didn't end super rosily and tied with a bow (not that it ends grimly or anything). I also liked seeing her siblings and their different personalities and dynamics for the first time in a bit. I like that all of the triplets have such different temperaments, when it would be easy to make them the same character x3.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always like Mallory the most in her own books, since she doesn't tend to get dunked on by the narrative nearly as much in this. This was actually one of the stronger books in the series, I think - for once the B-plot was directly relevant to the main story, and the conflicts were a lot more grounded, realistic and mature than what we usually get.

[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.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite Mallory book.

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on www.audible.com please listen to this book.

[Shannon Galan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Mallory but her roommate was a witch and she should not have touch Mallory journal or her things

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

listened to this as an audiobook, very interesting!!! enjoyable to listen to while I worked from home

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

MY KINGDOM FOR A RIVERBEND SPIN-OFF SERIES

[Liesl]

I think this is the first Mallory book that I actually liked without finding Mallory as a character whiny or cringy.
Also, there are just 5 BSC books left now!! 😱

[Aaliyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it wasn’t just Alexis fault but a great book it needs more from Mallory in this time.

[Maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mallory is off to boarding school at Riverbend Academy...and while the classes are amazing, she is struggling with her roommate. She must rely on her experience as a babysitter to tackle this issue.

[Shifaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book👍🏻👍🏻

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is one of my all-time favorite BSC books, because it is a mallory book (i still like her, except for when she whines incessantly about her parents not letting her get a nose job at age eleven--like, are you kidding me?) & it's about mallory going away to BOARDING SCHOOL, & i think we have established my obsession with boarding schools in other reviews on this site. previously in mallory's stoneybrook life, she taught a class for some dumbass program at stoneybrook middle school. she, as a sixth-grader, was assigned to teach eighth graders something or another--probably something about writing, because that's her bag. & she fucked it all up because she was nervous about teaching older kids, & the older kids started picking on her & calling her spaz girl. wow. how incredibly original, witty, & devastating. mallory also had big issues in gym class, due to being unathletic & forced to muddle through a pick-up game of volleyball anyway. i shouldn't scoff because i pulled out all the stops to either skip or be excused from gym class when i was in high school--i hated being athletic in front of my peers, even though i was actually really good at basketball. but still, as an adult, i really wish that both mallory & my 14-year-old self would just suck it up & deal with the fact that you're playing with a ball for forty minutes a few times a week. life could be a lot worse. anyway, due to these issues, mallory decides to transfer to riverben hall, a boarding school in weatern mass. & not just any boarding school--this is a special alternative school with an emphasis on the arts, which will prepare mallory for a lucrative career...drawing little mouse cartoons & writing childish stories for children. okay. whatever. she even gets a full scholarship, even though she applied in the middle of the school year & her grades started slipping after the whole spaz girl situation. she makes some friends right off the bat, but her roommate is a bossy, manipulative terror. i would have smothered her in her sleep, but mallory toughs it out until the girl destroys their shared room, & then the school switches everyone around so monster roommate has a single room & mallory gets to room with one of her new friends. & at the pike homestead back in stoneybrook, all the pike siblings are going crazy because vanessa has a room to herself with mallory gone, & they are all fighting over it. eventually a compromise is brokered, thanks in no small part to wussy eating machine byron, who is above his siblings' petty squabbles & agrees to share a room with perpetual outcast nicky. those two are going to have some serious therapy bills in about fifteen years. & that's the last we ever hear from mallory pike. ann really hated her, huh? spaz girl, mono, braces, dad gets shitcanned at work, being forced to draw a diagram of the divestive system...she could not get a break.

[Marna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think Mallory deserved to catch so much shit and also mono but at least this made me feel much better that I was so apathetic due to depression & bullying I could not apply to hippie arts boarding school i mean if this is what it would have been like and probably? This actually did happen to me at SFAC and then she continued to ruin my life at drama meets once, I did a dramatic interpretation of that essay Dicey writes in Dicey's Song and she beat me out and then yelled around about how cringe I was or whatever & then it turned out that I actually had won and I was really mad & subsequently got a lecture from everyone else about my immaturity and attitude which seems unfair as they were all seniors and I was a freshman and I did not care if it meant glory for Ketchikan in the long term, I had wanted to rub it in her face & say something scathing while she was locked in a bathroom stall trying desperately not to throw up tbh I don't know if she knew I was there and so it was extra lols or not... ???

Oh, I probably should have led with this but: the mix up occurred because we had the same last name only spelled differently and they actually said that I won, then in the bathroom she was like 'can you believe they actually thought that loser won?' really loudly no u know what I think she KNEW I was locked in that stall she was not that great an actress. Anyway so they said that I took first, then said, no actually oops, and then it wasn't until were back in Ketchikan that they were like no actually we were right the first time sorry!!

Well u know what those other Larsons stole sheep they were sheep stealers

I'll settle for some medieval vengeance & petty slander

[Brittney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't read the BSC books in order, nor did I read all of them. Instead, I picked up those books that interested me, especially those narrated by Mary Anne, Dawn, or Mallory (since they were my favorite characters). I remember being excited to read this one, and, surprisingly, I remembered many details from the book during this reread. However, I don't remember loving this one.

Both now and in my youth, I love books set in boarding schools. But the plot on this one was thin, and the writer (who I'm pretty sure is a ghostwriter at this point in the series) tried too hard to sound young and hip. This is children's fiction, and it's not supposed to be profound or literary. But it didn't have to be so unrealistic and annoying, either.

I think the earlier BSC books were better. There weren't so many characters, and therefore the 2nd chapter's introduction of characters wasn't as annoying. The author(s) hadn't yet run out of plot points. This book almost seemed like they needed to "kill off" a character, but since this is children's fiction, they sent her to boarding school instead. And then they gave her some really lame drama, Mallory whined a lot, and the readers were happy to see her go. Good riddance, Mallory! I'll stick to the earlier books, in which you are a baby-sitting charge, from now on.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.

I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.

The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.

Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!

[Melina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of my favourites of the later BSC books, mostly because the actual BSC don't appear as much (save us from 2-dimensional Kristy). Mallory begins her new life at private boarding school, Riverbend (I want to go there. Or teach there.) She loves the academics and makes good friends, but struggles with her prickly roommate. Meanwhile, her siblings fight over who shares what bedroom not she's gone.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid bad roommate story, and I'm glad Mallory managed to make friends so quickly at her new school. I do feel kinda bad for the girl at the end who had to give up her single room just so the bad roommate couldn't inflict damage on any other poor student. I wish there'd been at least something about the school actually imposing some kind of disciplinary action on the bad roommate (like suspension or something???).

[Maria Camp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent premise. Interesting story.

I think this is an overall good story for Mallory; however, some things happened too easily. Other things felt contrived.

Additional conflict could have provided greater interest.

I would have liked to have seen Mallory try harder to solve her own problems in her new school.

The ending felt forced and not fully satisfying.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mallory away at boarding school?! Quite trippy for the BSC.

[Dana Salman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel sorry for Mallory, I wouldn't last a day at boarding school, and she's only eleven. Still, Riverbend seems like a passionate school. Plus her sibs haven't gotten any less funny without her!