Thoughts before reading:
Definitely never read this one before. The plot sounds like the craziest one yet, especially for a book this early in the series. I'm very curious to see how they handle the subject matter and how dark it gets. For those who have also never read this, it's basically about a new sitting charge who plays a prank on Claudia that causes her to break her leg. Yikes.
Not much to say about the cover, but I do like it. Very sweet and simple, probably for the serious nature of the story.
The basics:
Boredom on a rainy day afternoon leads the BSC girls and lots of other kids to attend a slapstick film festival at the library. The kids get really into the humor, mostly of the practical joke variety, and it becomes a trend in the neighborhood. Even Kristy's brother, Sam, keeps prank calling during meetings.
Claudia then gets a job sitting for a new client, the Sobaks. They only have one 8 year old, Betsy, but Claudia is still apprehensive about the job. The family doesn't live in the neighborhood, so they usually had other regular sitters. She knows some of them from school, and they all refuse to sit for Betsy anymore because of her pranks.
Unfortunately Claudia is still determined to take the job. Betsy starts right in on her too, with a dribble glass trick, a fake ice cube with a fly in it, and pepper gum. Desperate for a break, Claudia suggests they play outside. Without her gag props, how much harm can the kid do? They decide to swing, and Betsy directs Claudia to sit in a certain one. For some reason she listens, and it's not long before the chain gives away, sending her flying. She breaks her leg on impact. Betsy tearfully tells her she knew the chain was broken and had her use that swing on purpose, but "forgot" once she started swinging and didn't immediately fall.
Claudia is taken the hospital in an ambulance, where she finds out her break was pretty severe. She'll have to stay in the hospital for a week, with a huge cast and her leg up in traction. From there, she will stay home from school resting for another week. After that she can do more of her normal routine, but will be in the cast for two months and have to do physical therapy after.
During the time she's resting at home, Claudia starts thinking about quitting the club. She's nervous to sit anymore after this horrible experience, and worried something might happen to interfere with her art (like if she'd broken an arm instead). Meanwhile, the BSC is still sitting for Betsy instead of taking a stand with her family. Their strategy to deal with all of this is to declare a "joke war" on Betsy.
Mallory is the first to babysit for her again, and goes prepared with pranks. Betsy hasn't learned a thing from what happened to Claudia, and immediately resumes doing pranks to Mallory. The same thing happens when Dawn sits next. The joke war, predictably, is just egging Betsy on. It's only after Kristy embarrasses her with a fake thumb in her popcorn at the movies that Betsy seems to realize how she makes other people feel. Kristy tries to explain to her that her jokes embarrass others and it's impossible for her to know what the pranks could cause to happen to someone.
Betsy goes with Kristy to apologize to Claudia. This helps Claudia realize she can't control everything in life, leading her to decide to stay in the BSC. She just won't sit for Betsy ever again. Inexplicably, the rest of the club continues to do so, and whatever Betsy learned at the movies was short lived. By the end she has a new catalogue full of different gag items in her bedroom.
Timeline:
There's no indication of the time of year, but this book alone spans 3 MONTHS of 8th grade by the time Claudia gets her cast off at the very end.
My thoughts:
This was by far my least favorite so far, and it actually made me angry. I felt like the really serious subject matter was being taken WAY too lightly. Betsy Sobak is actually a dangerous, really fucked up kid. She plays these pranks on people relentlessly, barely stopping in between each one to do anything else. We're told she does this at school too, so none of the other kids like her. She does it to all her sitters, which is why Mrs. Sobak even calls the BSC to begin with. Her bedroom is essentially a joke shop, stuffed with tricks. Enter into all of this what she did to Claudia...even if she didn't understand that Claudia would get hurt, what she did was serious. The fact that she didn't understand the consequences is more alarming to me, not less. Now, for all of this, there are ZERO consequences to Betsy, and no learning experiences for her either. Her parents don't do anything, not even taking away her pranks! They don't visit Claudia in the hospital, or apologize even. Betsy does write her a note saying she's sorry, but so what? It's clear afterwards she still has no grasp on what she actually caused to happen.
It blew my mind that the people in Claudia's life weren't even angry. Her parents should have been furious. The Sobaks should have been among the first visitors, apologizing in person and paying the hospital bills. Instead, nothing from them. It seems like they are completely blind to their daughter's problems. She should really be in therapy. They don't even discipline her at all, and then they have the nerve to keep calling the BSC to line up more jobs! I couldn't believe that Kristy didn't refuse them service. Instead they just go right on sitting for Betsy, using the "joke war" to get even. Stupidest idea ever, all it does is show Betsy playing pranks is okay because the older kids do it too. What happened to Claudia is really serious, not a game, and this just makes it seem like it was a game to her friends. Nothing redeemable even happens, because Betsy doesn't change by the end, so she hasn't really learned a thing.
Even after the swing prank with Claudia, a lot of the stuff Betsy did went beyond just little jokes. On one of the jobs she hid from Mallory, who had no idea where she was. She could have gone missing or gotten hurt herself. When Dawn sat, she tricked her into eating shaving cream instead of whipped cream, which could have made her sick.
I thought it was totally understandable that Claudia would want to quit the club. The whole experience had to be really traumatic. She was understandably scared when she got hurt and was alone with just Betsy, not to mention pretty helpless since she couldn't walk. Her whole school year is affected too, since she misses almost 3 weeks. I wouldn't want to babysit for a long time after either. So, I was really annoyed that the rest of the BSC took Claudia's fears really lightly. They scoff at her saying Betsy almost killed her (dramatic of course, but damn, have some empathy!) and don't have any sympathy for why she might not want to do the club anymore. I thought Claudia actually handled herself well, I would have been way more upset. The BSC girls should have put their friendship before the club and been more supportive, letting her work things out no matter how long she needed. Like I said earlier, they also should have made a show of solidarity by calling the Sobaks and saying they would never sit for Betsy again.
Misc:
*Betsy gave me the creeps honestly. I was getting Bad Seed vibes the whole book...
*Claudia was worried about having to repeat 8th grade since she missed so much school. Very ironic.
*This was sort of a strange kid's book since Betsy didn't ever learn what she did wrong, just had a brief remorse because she herself got embarrassed by one joke in front of her classmates. I wonder what the intention behind this book even was.
*I remember having a practical joke phase as a kid, but my parents weren't stupid enough to let me buy a bunch of prank items.
*Also noticed that the club members fall for a shocking number of these pranks. There was no reason for them to be so gullible after this kid broke Claudia's freaking leg...
Books mentioned:
*Dawn has Mrs. Piggle Wiggle in her kid kit
*Claudia is reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor in her English class
My rating:
2 stars, did not enjoy at all
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