Thoughts before reading:
Never read this one before. Hopefully this trip to NYC goes better than the one from #18. I'm guessing since Stacey lives in Stoneybrook again now, all those prior problems with the BSC being in the city will just have vanished. Besides that, not a lot of opening thoughts on this one. It's a vacation super special, so I'm not expecting much of anything. Then again, I did enjoy the California one, so we'll see.
The basics:
The BSC is about to begin their spring break, and Stacey will be spending hers in NYC with her dad. Claudia has always wanted to take art classes in the city, taught by a famous artist she really admires. She asks her parents if she can join Stacey on the trip, and after talking to Mr. McGill, they agree. He also tells Stacey she can invite as many friends as she likes, so pretty soon the whole BSC will also be going on the trip. Some of the girls are staying at Mr. McGill's place with Stacey, and the rest are staying with Laine Cummings (awfully generous of her parents!).
Through Laine's parents, Stacey and Mary Anne end up getting a babysitting job, showing two wealthy British children around the city while their parents are working during the weekdays. At first the job is fun, but then they both start to notice a man in sunglasses and a rain hat following them around. When they finally tell the children's parents, they explain he's the family bodyguard.
Jessi goes to see a ballet by herself and ends up meeting Quint, a boy dancer. He tells Jessi he gets teased about doing ballet, so he wants to quit, even though it ways always his dream to go to Julliard. Jessi convinces him to keep at it, and goes with him to discuss all of this with his parents. As they are leaving his apartment he kisses her, her first kiss.
Claudia and Mallory end up taking the art class together, with Mr. Clarke. Mallory wants to illustrate children's books one day as well as writing them, so she figures it will be a good experience. Claudia quickly becomes angry and hurt instead of enjoying the classes though, because the teacher keeps criticizing everything she does while praising Mallory. As a result the girls also start bickering, because Claudia's jealous and starts making snide comments about Mal. Towards the end of the trip, Mr. Clarke finally tells Claudia he's been hard on her because she's the most talented young artist he's ever met, but she lacks focus. She's thrilled and promises to keep working hard.
Dawn is still terrified of the city, and everything in it (no idea why she even wanted to come...). She spends most of the trip hiding in Mr. McGill's apartment, alone. Kristy stays with her for a few days, but she doesn't want to give up her whole trip to hide indoors. Later in the trip, Dawn ends up meeting Richie, a neighbor of Mr. McGill's. He convinces Dawn to go sight seeing, and she ends up having fun and relaxing.
Kristy finds a dog in Central Park and wants to keep him, but Watson says no. She hides the dog in Laine's apartment anyway, until Mrs. Cummings finds him and insists that Kristy look for his owners. She doesn't find them, but ends up getting the dog a nice new home with a little boy.
Timeline:
The second spring break of 8th grade, we just had one in Super Special #5...you'd think they would at least space them out a little bit.
My thoughts:
Unfortunately, this was a real return to form for the Super Specials. Like the early ones, this was nothing but boring, random, pointless, and forgettable plots that had nothing to do with each other. Not much of anything even happened in this book, despite it being one of the longest ones so far. It took me awhile to even get through it, because I never had any motivation to pick it up. Most of the storylines, like Claudia's art teacher being critical of her, or the man following Stacey and Mary Anne, had resolutions that were painfully obvious from the very beginning. The other storylines were just little bits of filler that will never be mentioned again. The only thing that advances the series is the introduction of Quint, since I know we'll be seeing a fair amount of him later on. Also, Dawn being scared again was SO annoying. Why would she even go on this trip if she was still so afraid? Never mind that she already went through all of this before, in #18, and everything worked out fine.
The main plus to this: it's so much less gimmicky than the other vacation Super Specials. At least there were no winning lottery tickets or contest prizes in here. It's still be no means a realistic trip, though. I find it hard to believe everyone's parents were fine with them roaming NYC with no adult supervision. After all, Mr. McGill is a known workaholic, and he wasn't on any vacation time. He may have generously allowed all these girls to overtake his apartment, but he was by no means watching them. It's also absurd that the Cummings would take in so many guests that they didn't know. These girls aren't even Laine's friends, they're Stacey's. They barely even know Laine.
Misc:
*This book got off to a bad start with me, after it opened with 6 pages of Claudia's handwriting! Talk about torture.
*The chapter 2 backstory was done by having Claudia imagine everyone packing for the trip, a nice change that made it slightly better.
*Richie has a rat tail, and Dawn thinks it's cool. Ugh, the early 90s!
*The girls making up words has gotten old, even though I know lots of preteens do this. In here it's "chilly", which means cool. In fact, almost every word they make up means this same thing, haha.
*Claudia used to think medieval meant "halfway evil", LOL.
*I've never heard of the Cloisters in NYC before, so I actually learned something from a BSC book! I probably shouldn't brag about this, though...
*The kids Stacey and Mary Anne were watching needed a bodyguard, yet their parents were fine leaving them in the care of two 13 year old's? One of the dumbest plots in here.
*Ann M. Martin's father illustrated this book.
*Jessi's parents tell her not to roam around NYC alone: apparently they are the only BSC parents with any good sense.
*This story and pictures are Claudia keeping a record this time. A little hard to believe, since she hates writing, and can barely even do it...
*Claudia maintains her position as one of the least mature BSC members. She's such a brat in here, being petty and mean to Mal just because she thinks the teacher likes her better!
Books mentioned:
*Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
*Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West, by Marguerite Henry
*A Summer to Die, by Lois Lowry
*The Anastasia Books, by Lois Lowry
My rating:
2 stars. Skip it, and you'll miss nothing.
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