Dawn on the Coast

The Baby-Sitters Club #23

by Ann M. Martin

America's favorite series returns with a new look and a Netflix tv show. Dawn can't wait for her trip to California. Besides all the sun and fun, it's her first visit since her brother, Jeff, moved back to live with their dad. California is better than Dawn ever remembered it. The beaches are beautiful, Disneyland is a blast, and Californians eat healthy food! Plus, Dawn's best friend, Sunny, has even started her own baby-sitting club. After one wonderful week, Dawn begins to think she might want to stay in California, like Jeff. Dawn's a California girl at heart -- but could she really leave Stoneybrook for good?

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

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1989

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

[aarya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look, I sympathize that Dawn has angst over divorce and which parent to live with… but I just don’t care. Let’s go back to Stonybrook, stat. Read via audio (narrated by Stephanie Einstein).

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my fave. dawn goes to california for a couple of weeks to visit her dad & her brother, jeff. her vists seems to be in the springtime, which is kind of weird. doesn't she have school? there's excitement because part of her visit coincides with vista (her former school) being on spring break, so she can spend a lot of quality time with her old friends. they somehow kept this a secret (which...doesn't jeff go to that school too? wouldn't he have spilled the beans?). they also manage to keep secret the fact that they started their own babysitting club, with the vaguely creepy moniker we [heart:] kids. they invite dawn to join them for a meeting & she is really impressed with how california the meetings are (in ann m. martin's imagination, everyone in california is blonde, loves the beach, eats health food, is totally laid-back & easygoing, etc). the girls offer calls around with clients holding on the line rather than phoning them back (which seems like a far superior system to me--all that dialing & letting the phone ring at a client's house seems like a big waste of keeping the phone line open). at meetings, the girls sit around painting their toenails & swapping health food recipes. they don't appear to have a club notebook or a complex record keeping system like the BSC. dawn finds it a breath of fresh air (despite the fact that she is arguably the most uptight member of the babysitters club). she even takes a few jobs herself with some favorite clients--sisters named clover & daffodil. dawn's dad says that clover & daffodil's parents were "flower children," & despite living in california, dawn doesn't really know what that means & doesn't bother to ask. i think it's more likely that ann didn't really have a clear idea. clover & daffodil's mom is a weaver...of course. what a bunch of hippies.

being around her dad & jeff is also awesome for dawn. they go to disneyland & the beach & mr. schafer has hired a housekeeper who makes delicious healthy dinners every night. jeff is psyched to have dawn around & seems way happier & well-adjusted now that he's back in california. dawn starts daydreaming about what life would be like if she just stayed in california. she floats the idea with her dad & with sunny (her best friend) & both of them are amenable. actually, sunny is overjoyed & mr. schafer says he will talk to dawn's mom about it & see what the legal hurdles would be like. but when dawn talks on the phone with her mom, she starts to realize that she doesn't want to leave connecticut. she makes a pros/cons list & of course stoneybrook has way more points in its favor because how could anyone ever willingly abandon the babysitters cult...i mean, club. we're only 23 books into the series. there are so many more hijinks for dawn to pursue, like giving herself a teen magazine make-over to impress a dude from kentucky, bringing stoneybrook to its knees over her reluctance to wear yellow on school spirit day, rescuing some kidnapped dogs, being around when her mom marries mary anne's dad, throwing herself at an older high school boy, spying on stacey out on a pizza date, & such forth. so she breaks the news to jeff, sunny, & mr. schafer & flies home.

in summary: *yawn*. it would have been so much better if maybe she got eaten by a shark at the beach.

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is the first time I've read this book!

in the FIRST EVER GHOSTWRITTEN bsc book (Jan Carr you know who you are), dawn goes to california for her two week spring break (uh, can I have a two week spring break? thank you) and decides that she maybe wants to pull a jeff and stay there forever. but then she decides she doesn't want to stay there forever and goes back to connecticut. and there's a couple bsc stories from back home so we don't miss any of claire pike's "silly-billy-goo-goo"s.

highlights:
-I love any description of dawn's mother's boyfriend, the trip-man: "he's a real conservative type. tortoiseshell glasses, you know what I mean."
-shannon thedognotthehuman escapes the house and jessi grand jetes to catch her. jessi is a superhero and her superpowers are ballet.
-dawn's awful flight attendant who dawn thinks looks like a kewpie doll, and she is pretty transparent about her interest in only serving the sexy men who are on the flight. that chapter is pretty hilarious.
-introduction of the we <3 kids club, plus the introduction of sunny, jill, and maggie. I am a HUGE fan of the california diaries series (see book one here: Dawn: Diary 1) so these characters are all very important to me.
-at one point, jeff says, "hey sis, get your bod to the table." jan carr obviously knows as little about california as ann does, and she thinks that 10-year-old boys talk about their sisters' "bods" because "bod" is obviously a word that the cult of cali-blonde-surfer-dudes all say. short for bodhi, methinks.
-the trip-man takes dawn's mom to a "lecture on humor" -- I seriously laughed out loud the hardest I have in a REALLY LONG TIME when I read that.

nitpicks:
-not everyone in southern california is a blonde white person. seriously you don't know anything about california, jan (it's okay--ann doesn't either). yes, orange county in the late 1980s was majority white, but with pretty substantial asian and hispanic minorities (about 10% asian and about 25% hispanic). it's not like she never saw a person of color until she moved to the east coast. dawn acts like stonybrook is so diverse because she has a japanese friend and a black friend there. but if it's so diverse why was your black friend the victim of so much overt racism when she moved there?
-STOP NOT DOING YOUR DISNEY THEME PARK RESEARCH! this is like all the wrong things about space mountain in Baby-Sitters on Board!. worse. here we go:
-first of all, there is no theme land in disneyland (or magic kindgom, or any other disney park) called jungleland. adventureland is a jungle but it is currently and HAS ALWAYS BEEN called adventureland. this since the park opened in 1955.
-second, who goes to disneyland and picks the theme lands they're going to go to and doesn't go to any others? who misses out on adventureland just because they're already going to new orleans square? jeff went to pirates of the caribbean, is it REALLY that hard to walk another 50 feet to the jungle cruise? disneyland is a pretty small park and it doesn't take too long to walk from point a to point b.
-third, SERIOUSLY MR. SCHAFER? you are going to tell your ten-year-old son that he can only go on one "roller coaster"? I call serious bullshit. the matterhorn is barely even a thing. I was going on that when I was way younger than 10, and I would follow it up with space mountain and big thunder, and nobody cared. it's not like mr. schafer is actually overprotective, so why is jeff only allowed to go on one of the supposed roller coasters at an amusement park for which the reason 10-year-old boys go there is to go on roller coasters. also they are not even really roller coasters. space mountain is the only real roller coaster at that park. BOOO. get me to be your disneyland fact checker, editors!

almost kristy's comment on food:
-dawn thinks fondly that kristy would call her airplane food "fried monkey brains"

sunny's kid kit:
-play-doh
-cookie cutters
-watercolors
-kids can cook...naturally

no outfits, and no snacks in claudia's room. :(

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great entry into The Babysitters Club series and it didn't feel too rushed or catty. Dawn travels to California on her spring break to visit her father and brother while her mom resides in Connecticut. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to live an entire country away from your family that you only get to visit a few times a year. The author painted a picture very well how it must have been to live in California during the 80's: healthy food choices abound, children with names like Clover, and open beachy floorplans. It was interesting to see Dawn struggle between her Cali friends and the BSC back home in CT. They both offered different things and she even drew out a Pro/Con List to help her decide. It was also super neat to see what a trip to visit to Disneyland entailed too. I think she even mentioned ride tickets, which they don't even use now in the year of our Lord 2021. I was super jealous of the Matterhorne(?), which is a ride we don't have at Disney World. My girl, Jessi, even got a shoutout who helped Dawn make her choice on whether to come back to Stoneybrooke. My two favorite members, Dawn and Jessi, had their own heart-to-heart. What a treat. Let's keep riding the wave of BSC and hope the next one is just as good!

[yue ☽]

sometimes you just gotta

[Alison Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made me wonder if I've been hallucinating my entire life's existence because I'm a born-and-raised-and-gonna-die-here Californian.............but I'm not blonde!!!!

Someone please go back in time and tell Ms Martin (and her ghostwriter) that their understanding and depiction of my state is so painfully stereotypical and cliché that it ought to come with a complimentary bottle of Tylenol. We're not all blonde, we don't all go to the beach (in fact, for most of us, swimming in the ocean is something we'd only do if we had a strange desire for hypothermia), we don't all eat nothing but carrot sticks (and I'm a fucking vegetarian!), and we're not all white. Not even in the 80s! Even when I first read this as a kid, I remember thinking the author had clearly never been here.

Okay so anyway, like most of Dawn's books, I didn't like this one much, partially for all the crap I just mentioned, and also just because she's both boring and a prissy little snot. The sense of superiority is so evident in her attitude toward food specifically, but also anything else she compares to her life in California. She's supposed to be "laid-back" but she's not in any way. I of course could empathize with the emotional struggle of being so far from her dad and brother, and missing her home state. Moving from California to Connecticut would definitely be a shock and I don't blame her for feeling torn. But like.........girl, did nothing bad ever happen to you before you moved? Was life literally perfect? I doubt it. Even though she does later end up moving back to California, it's pretty obvious in this one that of course she's going to go home to Connecticut. (I thought it was weird that her dad acted like she had to make her decision before the end of her trip so they could cancel her flight or whatever....like, was he not going to let her go home to get her stuff? What about finishing the school year, since this was her Spring break? Chill, Pops.)

There were some weird things too that rubbed me the wrong way. Her dad has a full-time housekeeper who also cooks all of their meals? Is he a fucking movie mogul? Dad and Jeff can't make their own scrambled eggs? Dawn is 13 in the mid-80s, meaning she was born in the early 70s, in Cali-freaking-fornia, and yet she's confused by the concept of "flower children" aka hippies? Oh, and the bit where Dawn compares her experience around her Aryan Children of the Corn cohort to that of Jessi going back to her hometown where she gets to be around other Black people besides her own family. YIKES.

Plus, what was up with all the side-stories in this one? Yes, we usually get one or two babysitting chapters from girls other than the book's title character, but it makes sense when we're still in Stoneybrook. I swear there were three in this one, and it felt so pointless because it had nothing to do with the main storyline except a couple of the kids being like "I miss Dawn" for some bloody reason. Ugh, and we got another annoying appearance from Karen Brewer, the Scrappy Doo of this series. Too much side plot with too much inane ghost shit.

I did appreciate Dawn's struggle with deciding whether to move back to the state she loves or to stay with her mom, who she's very close to (though I don't like how much she has to parent her). I liked too that her parents pretty much let her make the decision herself and don't use her against each other, like some divorced parents do. But mostly this one was pretty thin on substance and long on irritation...so, a lot like Dawn herself.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7 stars (4/10 hearts). For some odd reason, I have always really liked this book. I haven’t read much of the Baby-Sitters Club books—just the random ones I found at friends’ houses—but I always liked them because they were about a whole different world from mine. A small community where you knew everyone and you mattered… lots of friends your own age… public school… few siblings… lots of living outside the home and making “adult” decisions (N.B.: I read these as a tween, and I thought the BSC was way older than me)… It’s not that I wanted that life necessarily (certainly not some parts of it!), it’s just that it was so different than mine and hence fascinating. It’s also very 80s/90s, thus “nostalgic” and old-fashioned.

This book in particular was gifted to us and as I mentioned, I somehow latched on to it. Perhaps it was the plane—I love planes and always wanted to fly commercially. Perhaps it was Dawn’s long blonde hair, which I envied her. Perhaps it was the gorgeous Californian home and the cool, yummy food descriptions. Or the silk purse, or Jill’s shimmery nail polish. Or, quite simply, the BSC and their interesting characters. Definitely all the beautiful handwriting, though.

I like how the book is split between Dawn’s adventures on the West Coast and her friends’ adventures on the East. I’m not a fan of the divorce and stuff, but it is well handled and I like how her parents are still very friendly and such. And I appreciate the bit about changing lives and moving to a new place where everyone is different from you…

Although it’s a very laid-back, casual book, it actually has some deep themes and nearly made me cry a few times as I pictured my own family split up across a continent. <3

Yeah… there you are. It’s an odd book to claim as one that marked you profoundly and made you who you are now, but there you are. This book meant a lot to me as a tween and I still love it despite the flaws. And I would for sure read more BSC books if I could get my hands on them.

Content: Bikinis; mild euphemisms; a little girl is convinced a ghost haunts her house (said ghost being kept very much alive by her prankster older brother).

[Kristine (The Writer's Inkwell) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review was originally posted on The Writer's Inkwell
Of all of the Dawn books up to this point, this is the first one where she makes any indication that she would ever consider returning to California. As the books meet the point where they fall into a never-ending year, this book would actually take place after the book where Dawn decides to move back to California. Knowing this, as a new reader of the series, I would become confused. Fortunately, I am not a new reader and am old enough to realize this is just the start of the problems of continuity due to the timeline constantly being recycled.

As for the story itself, I actually didn’t feel Dawn’s attachment for her return to her childhood home. While it seems great to have warm weather, time for the beach and healthy snacks galore, it just all felt superficial. Even her “friendship” with Sunny didn’t feel as if it were a solid plot point. It just seemed to be convenient and Sunny’s inability to realize that her club and friends did not balance out with Mary Anne and the BSC is quite comical. After all, Dawn even states at the beginning that she didn’t really know the girls in Sunny’s club, let alone consider them friends. But Martin was so determined to show a different kind of baby-sitting club, these random characters (at least random for now) were vital.

As someone who moved for multiple reasons as a child, I can relate to the idea of wanting to return to the comfort of what you perceive as “home.” I even planned to runaway just to go back. So I appreciate this struggle being brought up throughout this book, I just felt it was a bit too superficial as Dawn never shows any desire to return until this book.

[Swankivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Dawn gets to go to California to visit her dad during spring break or something, and she reconnects with her old friends, old neighborhood, and family members. It's tough for her because she's having a great time (in vacation mentality, of course), and on top of that, her friend has started a babysitting club (because that's what everyone is doing everywhere!) and she gets to sit in on the meetings, so it's hard to think she's going to have to go back to Stoneybrook. Now, one thing I didn't like about this book was that it had this weird stereotype of California people. They're not all health-food-eating blonde beach bums, you know. I always wondered, even when I was a kid, how these books were received by California kids. I was a Florida kid. I wondered how Florida kids would be portrayed in this series.

I liked this book because the main conflict of the book--Dawn's reluctance to return home--was realistically handled. I could definitely feel the struggle there--especially since we idealize places and experiences when they aren't our everyday lives.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 5 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!

[Emma Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best ones once again! Dawn goes back to California to visit her father and brother and everything there is great and familiar. They even visit Disneyland. The descriptions of California life sounded like heaven. Loved this, a great addition to the BSC series.

[ThatBookish_deviant · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dawn has the first glimmers of ambivalence about living in Connecticut with her flaky mother. Also, is this the first book in the series to be ghostwritten? I noticed the dreaded "The author gratefully acknowledges Jan Carr" in the first pages. I read this when I was about nine or ten.


Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
Dawn says her flight attendant looks like a Kewpie doll. I didn't know what Kewpie dolls were, and my mother didn't know either. We had to hunt all over the library before finally finding a picture. (Obviously, this was LONG before the internet.) My mother and I both pronounced them Kew-PIE dolls until we learned that Kewpie was short for Cupid. Since Kewpie dolls were popular in the early part of the 20th century, and neither my mother or I had ever heard of them, how does California-casual Dawn know what they are? I guess because she's such an individual. Or maybe her wealthy grandparents are antique collectors.

I had already read about Kristy's competition with the We <3 Kids Club in the Super Special California Girls! so by the time I read this book I was kind of bored with the California club's laid back attitude. When I read this book I had no way of knowing that during my freshman year of high school the We <3 Kids Club would return with a vengeance in the spin-off series California Diaries, the darker, angstier version of regular series. If I had known, I might not have been so bored while reading about them in this book.

Dawn's spring break, and Sunny's spring break was for two weeks. I went to three different schools in elementary school and not once did I get a spring break that was longer than one week.



Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
Dawn's mother doesn't think you have to be at the airport until a few minutes before the flight leaves, which in this day and age is adorable. I remember when people used to think that way. Later, the family gets "delayed" at security because Jeff has a jackknife. Ah, the carefree days of airline travel before 9/11. The plane is even so empty that Dawn can just randomly switch seats without talking to anyone about it.

East coaster Ann Martin seems to think everyone in California is laid back, and blonde. This makes me furious as I grew up both in California and New Mexico. In New Mexico I had more blonde friends than I did in California. There are lots of Asians in California, and lots of Hispanics. There's a scene where a big group of Dawn's family and friends are going to the beach, and they are ALL blonde, making it seem like her neighborhood is part of a white power compound for the advancement of the Aryan race. It's a little disturbing. Dawn's father says "We look like the Swedish delegation to the blonde convention," which sounds nicer than white power movement, but is somewhat racist in its own way. Even later in the book one of Dawn's baby sitting charges pretends to be "an Indian brave" while riding a pony. Later Dawn calls this charge "Spotted Deer" because she was pretending to be an Indian. (Since I don't get the option to pretend to be an Indian I took massive offense to this.) This book is just uncomfortable to read, especially after Dawn makes the observation that the BSC could be an advertisement for the UN. In what world????

Ever since I had my thought that maybe Sharon, Dawn's mother, has some sort of mental or emotional problems, it's all I can think about when I read about Dawn. In this book her father has a little talk with her which to me reads like an adult trying to get information about someone without scaring or leading the kid, like the interviews the detectives on Law and Order: SVU have with children. He asks if Dawn is doing well in school, how her friends are, doesn't Jeff seem so much happier since moving away from Connecticut . . . and then, "So how's your mother? Is she, uh. . . doing okay?" And Dawn thinks (probably because she knows nothing else) that her "scattered", weepy mother is doing just fine. Later when Dawn mentions moving back, the first thing her father says is "It's certainly a possibility", and then is thrilled (and maybe relieved?) at the thought of Dawn moving to California.

There is reference to Sam Brewer in this book. Neither Kristy or any of her brothers took Watson's last name when their mother married him. Sam's last name is still Thomas.

Dawn's California friends throw her a good-bye party full of so-called healthy foods, including carrot cake and zucchini bread. Both of these things have just as much sugar as the birthday cakes Dawn always refuses to eat.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, let me just get this out of the way right now: this book was boooooring. Nothing really happened, Dawn is kind of one-dimensional and dull most of the time. :( There was plenty of foreshadowing though, so let's go through that first:

1. Dawn goes to sunny, warm, perfect California to visit her dad & Jeff. She misses it terribly and thinks about moving back there permanently, leaving her poor, old mom all alone in Stoneybrook.

2. Dawn meets a hot older guy on the plane and spends the whole flight chatting with him. Doesn't she have a fling with some kid's dad or something later on? No? Kind of?

3. Dawn and Mary Anne's parents have "cooled off" their dating, but "you never know..."

4. Dawn's dad invites the whole BSC to come visit soon, very soon.

And now, a few highlights:

1. Clover & Daffodil, Dawn's favorite kids to babysit in Cali. "Pieces of eight! I'm rich!"

2. Claire Pike: "...streaked up the stairs, waggling her head and crying "Moo!" Was she calling her mother or making cow sounds? Did it matter? This was definitely going to be one of Claire's sillier days."

3. The stewardess on the flight to Cali: "First of all, she looked strange. Something about her hair....or her makeup. Her cheeks had a cakey look, and when she had put on her lipstick, she had drawn it above the natural line of her lips. Also, she painted on her eyelashes. You know, dark little lines painted on her eyelids. The whole effect was pretty weird."

Blogged: SeeJennRead

[Rachel Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have fond memories of reading this book as a child but rereading it now I have to admit that nothing really happens in it. Dawn goes for a 2 week vacation with her dad and brother in California and enjoys it so much that she considers moving back permanently - but only briefly. She spends a couple of chapters considering it but then gets some postcards from her friends that makes her realise how much she'd miss her mum and her new friends in Connecticut. In the end, she decides to return home as planned. Pretty uneventful book but cute enough. The bit I remembered most was her writing lists of all the Pros about each location. Oh yes, and the bit where Kristy's dog runs across the garden and Jessi does a jete and grabs it. I always thought this was a really cool thing to do and when I wrote one of my BSC fanfics I had my character do tap springs across the garden to grab a pet...tap dancing is not quite as romantic as ballet. 7/10

[Adel]

‏This book revolves his story about a girl whose parents divorce and after that her brother decides to live with his father while she lives with her mother for a period of time and then decides to return to her father and live with him for a period and then take the last decision to return to live with her mother and build her future there with many details, but this is The main summary

‏In my opinion this book is good but there are very subtle details, sometimes you get bored
The story arrangement and events are very impressive and attract attention as well as characters
I think this book is very excellent for children and teaches them many things for the future as well as how to live with difficulties .
‏But the problem is that I did not benefit from this information and if you ask me why I read this book I will tell you that I had to read it because I am an English language learner and this book is easy to understand

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading this makes me wonder how far into the series they were before it was ultimately decided that Dawn would definitely go back to California. Mostly because the heavy-handed foreshadowing for later in the book also works for Dawn's flip-flopping between coasts later in the series.

There are some odd moments but I love the little way the earlier books have the girls relate to each other beyond their one or two character traits. In this case it's Jessi realizing that she and Dawn are both going back to their childhood homes and how weird the changes are and how it messes with you, especially when you still have family there.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one really didn't age well. I guess I didn't relate much to Dawn when I was a kid. I get the health food kick, but it's so rampant right now. I almost wonder why she's not eating kale chips. Flying on a plane is the most obvious difference. Can anyone even meet you at the airport anymore, or see you off at the gate? I think Dawn should have had her own flight attendant since technically she's an unaccompanied minor.

Anyway, the core theme of divorce holds to the test of time. I think most kids with two homes can relate. Just now you can get avocados year round, everywhere, and you don't have to slip them in your carry on luggage.

[Ds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo capitolo è molto carino. Mi piace quando Dawn va in California e sinceramente la sua indecisione può essere capita benissimo.
Sarà perché Dawn è un personaggio un po' più maturo degli altri e meno lamentoso (considerata anche la situazione familiare) ma è decisamente un libro più piacevole degli altri che ho letto prima.ù
Continuo a pensare che certe cose siano assurde, tipo lasciare i figli in mano a dodicenni...ma la Martin ha pubblicato questa serie negli anni '80, immagino che le cose fossero piuttosto diverse allora.
In ogni caso un piacevole tuffo nel passato.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first BSC book I ever read, so it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Oh, and Dawn's "healthy food" that everyone gags at sounds fantastic to me, honestly. Dawn books always make me hungry!

[Kristi Clemow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm just biased....against Dawn. Pretty much everything about her annoys me. But I do love a good Disneyland scene.
Dawn goes to CA for spring break - loves it there. Thinks she may want to stay but then realizes stoneybrook Is her home now. Not too much goes on in this one really.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice chill break from Stoneybrook.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Dawn on the Coast
Dawn is going to spend Spring Break with her dad and Jeff in California. She tells her mom she’s happy they have each other, but her mom looks at all the bags she’s packed and doesn’t say anything. Then they go out to eat at Cabbages and Kings. Dawn then goes to a sleepver at Kristy’s. After things calm down (Karen is rushing around saying she saw Ben Brewer), they order pizza (broccoli for Dawn (Firhgt Nigth at Spook Lake). ). When Sam brings it up its covered with worms (fake curtesy of Sam). Then they watch a scary movie, Karen asks to watch and Kristy says she can if she promises not to get scared. (But she does). The rest of the n ight they talk about school and boys. Claudia draws caricatures of them. Maryanne tells her she’ll be gone so lon and she probably won’t even think of them, g but Dawn says she’ll be back before they know it. Maryanne tells her to call whenever she wants and to send postcards. Dawn is now feeling a little anxious about leaving because *this* feels like home.

The next morning, Dawn’s mom gets emotional at the airport. Dawn gets emotional on the plane thinking of her mom thinking of where she parked the car and tries to give her the mental note Row C. On the flight, Dawn gets this sorry excuse for a stewarness (that I would have personally reported). There’s a man named Tom whose sitting with Dawn and she while flirting with him ignores Dawn. She doesn’t offer her a set of headphones. She gives her special ordered Vegetarian meal another man without checking the list, and when Dawn requests real milk at first she forgets and then she just gives her the milk substitute. They really should fire this airhead for bed customer service.

When she reaches Cali, her dad, Jeff, and Sunny are there. Sunny tells her she has a surprise for her and meet her at her house the next day. The first day, Dawn, Jeff, and Mr. Schafer go to Disneyland. Mr. Schafer and Jeff admit they miss Dawn. Dawn thinks it’s the perfect day. At five she goes over to Snny’s. She blindfolds Dawn and leads her up to her room. In the room are Maggie and Jill. She tells her about a club they started called the We (heart) Kids Club. She’s kept it a secret for 6 months. Some things are similar like collecting dues, and Kid Kits. Sunny’s has a book called “Kids Can Cook”. They also have an appointment book. They’re snacks are more healthy tho (apple slices and peanut butter), they don’t have officers, and they’re more flexible about the calls (they don’t get the info and call the client back). Sunny has a wide selection of ghost stories and gives them to Dawn for vacation reading. Dawn takes a job for Daffodil and Clover. Sunny has one last surprise. They’re on vacatin too. Dawn lives the meeting thinking about how she loves that everything in California is so easy and free.

The Newtons and the Parkins (the adults) are going out so they decide to combine the kids and then there’s the Feltman’s . Claudia and Maryanne take this job. They plan to take them to the school playground. But it rains. So, Maryanne takes the babies and Claudia the other kids. Claudia gives the other kids crayons. A fight breaks out with Rosie and Brenda. So, Maryanne asks Brenda to help her with the babies. Rob is surprisingly good with babies. Rosie starts to get loud but Gabby surprisingly shuts her up by telling her to be quiet. She’s hurting her ears. They find out Rob read a book called “Babies In Space” about some astronauts who study babies so the book has all these tips about babies. Claudia let shim help with Lucy. After they eat they put the kids to bed.

On Thursday, Dawn and her friends and her dad all go to the beach. Jeff and Luke tease the girls about going to the beach in their underwear. Dawn notices everyone is blond and thinks how stereotypical the scene is. The beach luckily isn’t crowded and the wather is beautiful. Dad calls them all “The Blond Convention”. Once there, Jeff and Luke busy themselves with a clam hunt. Mr. Scaffer and Dawn have a talk and catch up. It gets awkard when Dad wants to know how Mrs. Scaffer is. Then they start talking about the secret passage way. Dawn starts to get a little snippy when Jeff being better since he’s there comes up and the problem with Nicky’s lack of privacy. She brushes it off tho and plays with her friends in the water. Her bitterness fades and Dawn distracts herself by building a sand castle. Then they have lunch (that Mrs. Bruen packed *the housekeeper). Later Dawn calls her mom and ells her everything that’s been going on. She bababbles on about how great everything is, but it feels wrong to her that she’s there and her mom is alone in the farm house. (At the beach Dawn thinks of Claudia because making sandcastles is something Claudia would do).

On the day Dawn sits, she takes Clover and Daffodil to a carnival. Clover wonders if someone spun Dawn’s hair into gold and asks if she ever meet Rumplestitlskin. For a while at the carnival, the girls play Ring Toss. Then they check out the pony rides. Then the ferris wheel and the Octopus ride. Then they get cotton candy. Dawn gets fruit juice and vegetal friters (sticks I’m imagine). Then Daffodil wants to play Ring Toss again. This time she makes all six. She wins a pink elephant. When Dawn talks to her mom later she mentions Granny and Pop Pop called and she feels guilty that she hasn’t thought of them since she’s been there.

Jessi sits for karen, Andew, and David Micheal. Karen wants to play “Let’s All Come In” but David Micheal is building a lego city with Andrew. So its just Jessi and Karen. Since Jessi wants to be a society lady Karen says they don’t have anything to fit her they have to go to the ominous third floor where Ben Brewer lives. Jessi says they don’t have to, but Karen says they can’t let a ghost rule there lives. Half way up on the railing they see “Turn Back”. When they open the attic door water splashes on them. Jessi thinks this is suspicious. Why would a ghost play pranks? Karen finds a note that says “death to all that enter here” Karen gets scared and leaves the room. Jessi picks up the note. It’s on a pieces of paper that has the logoo SHS (Stoney brooke High School). Sam and Charlie come home. Jessi sees Sam smirk. Mrs. Brewer says she wonder how another child whould fit into all this, but she doesn’t say anything when Kristy questios her. Jessi hands Sam the note and asks if he lost something. Kristy says the I ncident will have to be written up.

When Dawn goes to the next meeting, she tells them about her sitting job. Dawn realizes that that just talking about it is enough. They don’t have to write it down in a notebook, Dawn thinks how easy it would be to slip right back into her old routine. They all start to work on the recipe file. These are recipes they find for the kdis to make. Sunny invites Dawn to stay over for dinner, but Dawn starts to think about staying for good. There’s a week left. Dawn says she has to go. Before she does she agrees to sit again for Clover and Daffodil.

Dawn tries to write a letter to her mother, but doesn’t get far. She decies to talk to her dad instead. Her dad says that it’ss a possibility. SShe already has a bedroom there and they have Mrs. Bruen. But then there’s her mom and transferring schools to consider. He asks if she wants him to talk to their mom but Dawn says no. She has to figure out what she really wants. Jeff is over the moon tho. Later Dawn makes a pros list. California seems to have the most pro’s. She tries to decide who to call. She thinkos of calling Sunny, but she’ll only convince her to stay. She thinks of calling Maryanne, but even tho she’d make a good cchoice, she knows that who she really wants to talk to is her mom.

Kristy sits for the Pikes =. Claire =, Margo, and Venessa spend the day making secret message with milk that you have to iron to see. The boys again leave Nicky out when they play and he excuses himself after lunch to go to his hiding place. Kristy comes to talk to him and they have a talk about how rough it is to be the younger brother. Dawn is surprised to hear that Nickey misses her. In the end, Dawn tells her dad she’s going back. Dad gets misty. Jeff stomps off. Her dad says he knew she’d go back. She calls her mom and she says she knew she’d want to stay. She says she can stay there if she wants, but Dawn says she’s coming home.

She sits for Clover and Daffodil one last time. Their mother give her a handmade purse in silk red and gold (like Sunshine Dawn’s nickname). The We Love Kids Club have a final sleepover for Dawn. Sunny gives her goodbye presents. One is the “Kids Can Cook” book and the other is a recipe file with all the recipes they each have in their boxes. They all go out to a Mexican restaurant that night (Jeff, Mr. Schaffer, and Dawn). Dawn and Jeff make up. He thought Dawn was leaving because he and dad are boys. Dad says she can visit anytime she wants and she can bring the BSC.

At the airport, Jeff tries to stall Dawn so she’ll miss her flight. But then when its clear she’s going to leave, he takes her picture one last time.

My Thougths
Weirdly what I remember most about having read this book a long time ago is Mrs. Bruen’s lunches sounded GOOD! I’m not even a vegetarian and half the time the things Dawn eats in these stories sound SOOO unappealing. But some of those lunches and breakfast’s Mrs. Bruen made (made) me want to hop through the pages. I can see the appeal tho of wanting to live in California. It just sounds so unstressful. My best friend lives in California. He’s never mentioned the “laid back” aspect of it, but what he does mention CONSTANTLY is the food! He always says something like. If your not eating out here you either don’t have the money or you don’t want to. Meaning there’s no shortage of options. You can find almost ANYTHING there. He’s also talked about some events (non food) that I would love to see. It just sounds like a cool place to be. I would say that I wish that this book would have gotten into more than just Disney Land (which Ive gone to Disney World several times) and the beach, but I gets into more things I think in the Super Special when they go to California for Mr. Schaffer’s wedding (but not that many more) and they always seen to leave off Universal and over look it completely. I know there’s more to California than just Disneyland. Oh yeah But I guess there was also the carnival.


Rating: 5

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a memory of going to visit family on the EAST coast circa 1991 and my aunt telling me to go down to the basement and help myself to any of my older cousin’s BSC books (she’d outgrown them. I was thrilled!) IIRC, this is one of the ones I chose and I remember reading it on the way to the Statue of Liberty (we visited a lot but sometimes would do tourist things.) The only thing I remembered about this book was Dawn describing the stewardess as a Kewpie doll and being confused as to what that was. Turns out that entire scene is the most memorable one in the book due to so many things about Dawn’s flight being antiquated. The word stewardess, people going right up to the gate (miss that ability,) smoking on planes (what???? I had to look it up because I was 6 when this was published and I thought there was no way that was still a thing in my lifetime but it was! Wasn’t abolished until a year after this book was published! I have no memory of that, despite flying a lot before it was banned.) Oh, and real meals on the plane when it’s domestic. 🤣

All that musing aside, the book was otherwise kind of random. Just Dawn visiting CA, missing CA, worrying about whether she should move back, and the result. I would have given it a 3 except I liked the air travel stuff and the 80s Disneyland stuff.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't remember minding Dawn much when I was a kid. It was only when I got older that I figured out how utterly absurd she is. They literally took every convoluted stereotype about Californians and shoved them into one self-righteous character from hell.

This book was even worse because they took normally annoying Dawn, and shoved her in California where she could be extra annoying with a bunch of clones of herself more or less. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't she (per the California Diaries) been friends with Maggie and Jill for years? In this book she doesn't really know them well, and they're just two random girls from her old school. I got the impression that they'd been friends since childhood, but I guess I could just be reading things wrong. I don't think I am, but it's possible.

Anyway, I may have to read the book next where she goes back to California and thankfully stays there. Just to cheer myself up. She was just so obnoxious in these, but wasn't so bad in the California Diaries. Perhaps because they were intended for a slightly older audience? Who knows.

[Zazie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm starting to realize that this series is probably not one for me. I grew up loving these books, although I'm not sure which books I was able to read before I became "too old" for them. I wish I could remember the ones I read and what ratings I gave each of the books I did read, but I don't. I only remember feeling that these books were 30star reads for the most part.

This book has just not grabbed my attention as much as other books have. I was not into it as much as I thought I would be, so this story felt boring to me. I'm sure it's a great story, but for me, it was just not enjoyable. I have a couple more audiobooks to listen to before I'm done with what I've bought so far and I think they will be the last books in this series that I'll be listening to. I don't feel it to be worth the time it takes to get through.

Despite my feelings about this series so far, I hope that if you decide to read these books, you enjoy them and I also hope that this whole series becomes a favorite to you. Have fun!

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the strengths of the writing of Ann M Martin is the diversity of characters, and the fact that she deals with broken families and the various complications that arise, and one of those is who to live with, especially when your parents are living in two different states.
This was done thoughtfully in this BSC book which was a step above some of the others.
The only issue is as stated previously by not having the characters age there is a vast opportunity missing to see real character development and what could have been interesting storylines.
Having characters being perpetually the same age is lazy writing and publishing and also misses the opportunity of the reader growing up with the characters.

[Jennifer Maloney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m fairly sure I did read this one as a kid, but I definitely didn’t remember it. I thought it was funny how a lot of the “heathy” California food Dawn mentioned was actually quite not. Like one of the dishes was smothered in cheese. And another meal was zucchini bread and carrot cake (both full of sugar and butter, if you’re making it the normal way). 😂 I also liked how they foreshadowed the whole BSC club visiting in California one day. I vaguely remember a Super Special about that. It was also funny to see pre-9/11 airports. So much less stressful than airports are now! ✈️

Anyway, I’m enjoying reliving the BSC. I didn’t read quite as much this weekend as I was hoping, but it was a nice romp down memory lane anyway.

[Sylvia H · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Dawn on the Coast Dawn goes back to California and she sees Jeff and her dad! Then she joins the We ❤️ Kids club and she babysits for Clover and Daffodil who she used to sit for 😃! She likes California so much she is thinking about moving🤭!!! She has to choose to live in either California or Stoneybrook🤷🏻‍♂️. I give this book a 4 out of 5 because I like how in the beginning she is having trouble with the stewardess and her lunch🤢! But I don’t give it a 5 because there is not a lot of baby sitting and the book is called bsc.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. The main dilemma in this novel was whether Dawn should stay in California with her dad and brother or return to Connecticut to her mom and the baby-sitters club after a 2 week Spring Break vacation. Some parts of the book didn't age well - I had to look up what a Kewpie Doll is (a comparison Dawn made between the doll and one of the flight attendants) and I was surprised Dawn got excited that the in-flight movie was "Adventures in Baby-Sitting." Had the author actually seen that movie? Not quite as wholesome as these BSC books! Anyway, it was a quick, fun, nostalgic read for me!