Thoughts before reading:
I remember really liking this one as a kid. I really related to Mary Anne, and I had tons of drama with my friends growing up, so I liked books where I could see other kids having similar problems. I was very shy, bookish, and a crybaby when I was young, so a lot of the things Mary Anne went through in her early books made me feel less alone. My parents were also really strict like her dad was, which was one of the reasons I became a bookish kid...lots of time at home to fill myself.
This is a cute cover too, she looks adorable and her actual age here. They even got Jenny's frilly clothes right.
The basics:
The club is having a meeting when a call from Mrs. Newton comes in, and it's a rare one where she will be leaving Lucy (her young baby, born in #3) at home. Kristy answers the phone and takes the job without remembering to offer the job around. It's club policy that whoever answers the phone takes down the job details, then tells the others, sees who is free, and they decide together who gets it. The other club members are furious, even though this has happened quite a bit already, and a fight begins and very quickly escalates into shouting and name calling. Mary Anne ends up crying and running out.
The next day at school everyone is still fighting, even though Mary Anne is immediately ready to make up. Kristy is eating lunch with their usual friends but snubbing her, so she sits down at a table alone. Almost immediately, a new girl at school approaches, asks to sit with her, and introduces herself as Dawn Schafer. She mistakes Mary Anne for another new girl, but Mary Anne tells her all her friends are just absent that day.
Dawn and Mary Anne start to eat together every day and get along right away, even though Mary Anne is using Dawn to make Kristy jealous at first. During this time she does try to make up with Kristy, even going over to her house, but Kristy literally slams the door in her face and doesn't even attend the next club meeting. Mary Anne still wants to make up with everyone, and briefly does with Claudia, only to have Claudia end up more mad at her because Mimi calls Mary Anne "my Mary Anne".
Things between the girls aren't getting any better, so they decide to start handling meetings one at a time. One girl will answer all the calls, take as many jobs as she can herself, and only offer up those she can't. This way, they barely have to talk. Kristy and Mary Anne even sit for the Pikes together (they always have two sitters, because they have eight kids) without speaking to each other at all. Instead they turn everything into a game of telephone, which the kids happen to love.
During this time, Dawn and Mary Anne are still hanging out together in and out of school. Mary Anne has never made a friend herself before, and she likes Dawn for real pretty quickly, but still hasn't told her the truth. One afternoon they go through Mary Anne's dad's yearbooks and realize he used to date Dawn's mom. Both of their parents get flustered when they mention it to them, but they do end up making plans to go out to dinner.
Mary Anne gets a job sitting for Jenny Prezzioso, a 3 year old girl, while her parents are an hour away at a game. Jenny ends up running a 104 degree fever, and Mary Anne can't get ahold of anyone. Dawn comes over to help, they call 911, and an ambulance takes Jenny to the hospital for care. Turns out she had strep throat, and the Prezziosos are very grateful and impressed. When Mary Anne's dad finds out, he relaxes some of his strict rules finally. Unfortunately, shortly after Dawn finds out that Mary Anne lied to her about her friends and was using her, and they fight. This fight is quickly resolved though, because when Mary Anne apologizes Dawn actually listens and forgives her, which none of the BSC has been willing to do.
Things between the BSC finally come to a head when they are all hired to help out at Jamie Newton's 4th birthday party. They get really petty and bicker over ridiculous things during the party, which ends up making poor Jamie cry. Finally everyone realizes how awful they are being and they quickly make up. Dawn is invited to join the club, and the book ends with Mary Anne throwing everyone a pizza party.
Timeline:
January of 7th grade
My thoughts:
The big fight felt really contrived to me this time around. The "job hogging" issue has happened in every book and everyone immediately gets over it, but this time they all freak out and turn nasty really quickly. It's nice to see them acting their ages, but this is still a bit much. Then as the fight drags on, I was amazed by how bratty everyone was acting. I get that they were mad about the name calling from the initial fight, but wow, was it ridiculous. Lots of sticking tongues out, refusing to attend meetings or be in the same room, more name calling... it made me feel better about my behavior at this age, that's for sure.
In that same vein, the way Kristy treats Mary Anne in this book is the absolute worst! She refuses to talk to her or make up, slams a door in her face, and sits with their old mutual friends at lunch but then gets furious when Mary Anne makes a new friend. She's even mad when Mary Anne has the nerve to call her to offer her BSC jobs. Her behavior towards Mary Anne is insanely possessive, and it had me wondering if there was any truth to the theories that Kristy is gay and has feelings for Mary Anne. It definitely seems possible. Also, Mary Anne is repeatedly called babyish by everyone else, but this book proves she is possibly the most mature of the four girls.
Claudia is also the worst in this book. She makes up with Mary Anne at first, only because Mary Anne takes the initiative to do something, but then she ends up even madder at her for something she can't control. Mimi, Claudia's grandmother who she is very close with, calls Mary Anne "my", as she does with Claudia. After this Claudia freaks out and is even more angry with Mary Anne than she was before, even going so far as to blare music during the BSC meeting Mary Anne is handling alone. Come on here Claudia, Mary Anne doesn't have a mother or any other motherly figure in her life, so really? Guess she isn't so sophisticated after all...
I felt really bad for Mary Anne, not just for the fight, but because of her home life. Her dad has a real stick up his ass, with insane rules that cover literally everything. Just a short list from this one book include her having to wear her hair in braids, keep her room like a nursery practically, look nice at meals, eat 3 meals a day, she can't say certain words, her clothes must be approved by him even though he buys them all, and he even approves what she reads! The poor girl has to be feeling like she can't do anything right.
Misc.
*Mimi is teaching Mary Anne to knit? This girl really is an old soul.
*What is with the fixation on Kristy and Mary Anne being babyish and Claudia and Stacey being sophisticated? It's brought up in every book, regardless of the narrator...
*Mary Anne's mother's name was Abigail.
*I think it's really healthy for poor Mary Anne to have a friend besides Kristy and separate from the club, too bad it doesn't last long.
*Mary Anne tried to impress Dawn with mean gossip about some of the other kids in the cafeteria when they first met, which seemed really out of character.
*Also, why does Mary Anne tell Dawn all her friends are absent? I get that she panicked but that seems like the dumbest explanation and obviously leads to problems later.
*Dawn lives in a farmhouse built in 1795, lucky girl!
*Even as a kid I found the fact that Mary Anne's dad and Dawn's mom used to be in love a bit much.
*In the back of the book where it shows the list of all the BSC books so far, I noticed this one showed a book that never happened! #43, Stacey's Revenge. Sounds kinda dark for the BSC, probably why it changed later on.
*This book just had a nice brief recap on page 2.
Books mentioned:
*Mary Anne is reading A Wrinkle In Time (which her father approves)
*Mary Anne reads Pippi Longstocking to Vanessa and Nicky Pike
*Vanessa Pike is also reading The Phantom Tollbooth
My rating:
4 stars, a very quick enjoyable read. There was a lot going on in this book, and even though I found the big BSC fight obnoxious, I really liked it.
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