Thoughts before reading:
This was the best picture of this book I could find. I know it's not very good, but I like to use pictures of the editions I have. Whenever possible, I only bought the original editions with this style cover. That was mostly what I read growing up, until the books started being issued in the newer format.
Once again, I have not read this one before. This has been the longest streak of new books so far. It's making me feel like a bad fan. Hopefully I just missed a lot of the early books, since I was reading these in the mid to late 90s.
This book goes back to the babysitting centered storyline format, which I usually don't like, but this seems like it will be a sweet one. Like Jessi's Secret Language, it was probably intended to diversify the books, and teach kids about others who are different from them.
The basics:
The BSC gets a call from Mrs. Felder, a new client. She lives in the neighborhood, and has a daughter, Susan, who's autistic. Susan's eight and has been attending a special school for years, but she's home now for a month between switching schools. Mrs. Felder wants a sitter three days a week so she can take a break to do errands. Kristy decides to take on the job, and she goes over to meet Susan before it begins. Her mom wants to make sure she still wants the job after knowing what she's getting into. Susan turns out to be very withdrawn, not speaking at all, mostly just pacing, flapping her hands, and making clicking sounds. She's also a savant though, playing piano flawlessly, memorizing any song she hears once, singing, and she's memorized the calendar covering at least 50 years.
Despite the clear challenge this job will be, Kristy accepts it immediately. She finds herself feeling angry at the Felders for keeping Susan away at school all the time, and taking the easy way out. It seems like her parents don't see how special she is. Kristy decides she will help Susan by showing her parents that she can make friends and live at home.
A family from Australia, the Hobarts, have just moved into Mary Anne's old house around this same time. They have four boys, one of them in 6th grade like Mal and Jessi. The neighborhood kids are teasing the boys because they have strong accents, so they aren't fitting in very well. Mallory takes her siblings over to meet them so they can start making friends. Kristy decides to do the same with Susan, to help her begin forming friendships. The playdate goes decently well- the Pike and Hobart kids like each other, Mal and Ben form crushes on each other even, but Susan doesn't acknowledge any of the other kids. Despite this, the kids are impressed by her calendar trick: since she's memorized the calendar, if anyone tells her a date from a specific year, she knows the day of the week it fell on instantly.
Kristy thinks she's making great progress making Susan friends when neighborhood kids start dropping by the house to see her, including the bullies that tease the Hobart boys. The kids all come one at a time, ask to see Susan, then ask her a date or to play piano, then leave again. Kristy's thrilled about how popular she's getting, not catching on that anything's amiss until she catches the bullies charging other kids money to see Susan "do tricks".
Finally realizing Susan hasn't made any friends or changes, Kristy begins to see that she can't change her. She needs help only professionals can provide, and the special school is likely the best place for her. When it comes time for her to go, Kristy comes over to help out and say goodbye. The Felders give her the news that they're having another baby, a girl they will call Hope.
The Hobart boys, on the other hand, do start to make friends. They even befriend their bullies, and Ben asks Mallory out to the movies.
Timeline:
Spans a month, but no idea what time of year. It's not winter though, because there's no snow and the kids are constantly playing outside in this book.
My thoughts:
I was really disgusted by the arrangement Mrs. Felder makes with Kristy. This woman doesn't work, and has only this one kid, who is usually always away at a special school. Now she's home for only one month, and she flat out tells Kristy she needs a sitter three times a week so she can have a break? I completely understand that Susan is beyond challenging, but she hardly ever sees her. I could see 1 day, to get errands done, although you'd think her dad could spend time with her those days. At the absolute least, shouldn't they get an adult or special aid to sit for their daughter? She's so challenging she can't live at home, but not so challenging a 13 year old kid can't handle her? It's just so unrealistic that it makes no sense. I get that this set up is really just designed to teach kids about autism, and that's a good thing. It would just be so much more plausible if Mrs. Felder was hiring a mother's helper, and staying at home the whole time. Susan is severely autistic, seemingly completely unaware of the world around her. She can't eat, sleep, dress, or use the bathroom without difficulty. Yet Kristy is constantly taking her outside and around the neighborhood. There's so many things that could have gone horribly wrong. Of course, it's BSC-world, so nothing does.
Worse than all of this though, was the ending. Something about how it was presented just really rubbed me the wrong way. Kristy finally realizes Susan is better off away at school, and then right as she's getting ready to be sent away again, it's announced that Mrs. Felder is pregnant. Not only that, but she's having another girl, and naming her Hope. Everyone is so thrilled by the news, because they felt bad for the Felders that they only had the one child who didn't communicate with them. This whole baby thing feels really cringe worthy in this situation, like a replacement daughter. She'll be "normal" and actually live at home and probably barely know her sister? They obviously won't be raised together. And that name, Hope? We know what that means: the hope they have for a normal child. Mrs. Felder even tells Kristy they've already done all kinds of tests on the unborn baby to look for problems.
It's clear from reading this book that the understanding of autism in 1990 was very different, so this book felt very dated. Mrs. Felder tells Kristy that Susan could talk but just doesn't want to, and she doesn't want to leave her own little world. She makes it sound like a lot of Susan's problems are her own fault, choices she made. She also says her IQ is thought to be below 50, which would make her extremely retarded. This is also untrue, and would never be said today. Susan is a savant, and a piano prodigy, so she's actually very bright. She just doesn't communicate or understand the world they way others do. It has nothing to do with intelligence, you can just tell they didn't realize this back then. The dictionary Kristy looks up autism in even associates it with childhood schizophrenia. I thought this was also really dated, but I looked it up and it was actually progressive. In 2017 there were studies linking the two conditions.
As for the storyline with the Hobart boys, what the hell is wrong with Stoneybrook? People there are such prejudiced assholes. The Hobarts are getting tormented just for being from Australia? They basically go through just what the Ramsey family did. This is like some bizarre whitewashed town where they can't handle anything different. It gives me the creeps, honestly. I'm very surprised that Claudia's family fairs (mostly) fine.
Misc:
*Kristy tells us her brother Charlie put a sign in his car window that says "baby-sitter on board" because he gives her so many rides. Ok, uhm what 17 year old boy would really do this? Charlie is either a huge dork or the most chill, confident guy ever. I'll assume the latter, since so far I really like him.
*This book was almost entirely backstory until page 29! It was brutal. We do not need this much detail! This took up 2 1/2 chapters, seriously. At least keep it down to chapter 2. Why can't they just tell us the details important to the book we're reading? I don't need to know the history of each girls' pets in every book.
*Claudia asks if autistic means retarded. Just when I was thinking how that wouldn't fly in a book today, this book started using that word constantly. They use it so much in here that it started to make me uncomfortable! Out of all the books so far, this has really been the first that felt so painfully dated.
*The theme of this book: outcasts.
*Kristy, Ben, and Mallory decide at one point to let the kids deal with the teasing themselves, so they can learn how. Seemed really mean to me, they could have at least protected Susan...one of the bullies is flapping his hands in her face and Kristy doesn't do anything!
*Kristy was shocked in here that the "normal" kids at school teased the special ed kids. Horrible as that is, this can't be the first time she's seen something like it. I remember a lot of that from school, starting in Elementary. Kids would call other kids "special ed", and it was the worst insult ever. Of course, worse things went on too, but you get the idea.
*Apparently Kristy's never heard of the Roaring 20s by 8th grade? Please stay in school, kid.
Books mentioned:
None again.
My rating:
3 stars, very average for me, but I appreciate what this book tried to do. It was probably really progressive when it came out.
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