Thoughts before reading:
This is another one that I read and loved as a kid. I really related to Mallory's exact problems in here. I was constantly watching my four younger siblings growing up, almost every day, and just like Mal, I was constantly asked to help out and do extra things. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it was so frequent that it did interfere with schoolwork as I got older, as well as extra curriculars and friend time. Unlike Mallory though, I could never have refused or gone on strike. This story was a delicious fantasy to me back in my older BSC reading years...maybe when I was around 10.
Plus it's just about time someone gets tired of babysitting. It wouldn't make sense if no one ever did. Childcare is a weird enough passion for seven middle school girls to all share, especially without ever wanting a break to do other things. They can't babysit so much all the time. We'll see this again later when Stacey quits the BSC for awhile (something I always fully understood and supported).
The basics:
SMS is now having a Young Author's Day, and Mallory is dreaming about entering a short story and winning a prize. She has everything all planned out so she can spend lots of time working on her entry: she'll get all her homework for the weekend done before the Friday BSC meeting, then spend the rest of the weekend writing. Her careful planning is ruined the minute she walks in the door of her house though. Everything is complete chaos, and after dealing with calamity after calamity (Nicky lets Frodo loose, the triplets scare Claire, Margo gets into makeup), she gets no work done at all.
Saturday morning Mallory gets up at 7 am instead of sleeping in, and gets all her homework done before anyone else wakes up. She's proud of herself, and thrilled to now have all day to write her story, but all day long her parents constantly interrupt her to babysit or help out with the kids. She ends up doing chores all day and writing nothing. This remains a pattern, and to make things even worse, she gets scolded by the teacher at her next writing class for having so little of her story done.
Mallory buckles down and becomes more determined, making herself a strict daily schedule for the next few weeks. Yet she is still unable to get any work done until the next Friday, when she ends up getting in a state of creative flow and is late to the BSC meeting. Kristy's mad, which understandably makes Mal mad, so she refuses to apologize. She also turns down several jobs, explaining about her short story problems. Kristy still isn't understanding, and this gets even worse after Buddy Barrett gets hurt while Mallory's babysitting him. He gets hurt riding his bike barefoot, and Mal didn't notice he wasn't wearing shoes because she was busy cleaning up a huge flour mess the kids had made inside.
Claire and Margo complain to Jessi when she's babysitting them that Mallory is mean and never has time for them. They then do a ballet called "Mean Old Mallory", which Jessi finds funny. When Mal finds out, she's obviously upset. All she wanted was some time for herself. She ends up deciding to ask to be demoted to an associate member of the BSC, or else she'll have to quit. Everyone is shocked, telling her to think it over and they'll cover for her. She refuses, so Kristy tells her to take two weeks off, then decide for sure.
With one week left to go before Young Author's Day, Mallory goes on strike. She wears a big sign announcing such to her family, and refuses to deal with anything. It sadly takes this move for her family to finally leave her in peace. She ends up working on her story all day, and getting a ton of it done. Mary Anne advises her to talk to her parents instead of striking though, if she wants real change. Mal does, pouring her heart out to them. Her parents apologize, and promise to do better. They take her and Jessi to the mall the next day as a special treat, no siblings included. Mal has fun, but misses her siblings, who all also love the mall.
Mallory ends up winning Best Overall Fiction For Sixth Grade, the prize she most wanted. Her and Jessi plan a special day for her siblings, with a treasure hunt around town. Mal rejoins the BSC. Her parents come up with a fair plan, telling her when she needs private work time she can use the desk in their bedroom and hang a Do Not Disturb sign.
Timeline:
During the school year? I have nothing else on this one...
My thoughts:
I still really related to this book, and it reminded me of some angst and problems I had growing up. The chaotic sibling scene in chapter one depicted pretty accurately what my whole childhood was like. I even longed to be a writer like Mal back then, but often struggled to even get enough quiet to do my basic schoolwork. I also wished to be an only child, like she does in this book.
This story made me like the Pike parents even less. Between the two of them, they couldn't deal with their own kids and give Mal a little break until she went on strike? They are two grown adults, who chose to have so many children. Mallory didn't chose the family she was born into. Again, my parents were this exact same way, and that's why this annoys me so much to this day. It's not fair to Mal at all, she's also a kid and deserves a childhood. She even explains to her parents about the story contest and they still don't care. They should be proud that she's ambitious and does well in school. Besides this, why can't any of the other kids do any work? These people have three ten year old's! That's only a year younger than Mal. Why aren't they being asked to do some of these chores and help with the younger kids? That'd be a lot of extra hands. You can bet Mal was helping out with all of this much younger than ten.
To top off all of this terrible parenting, the Pikes can't even deal with their other kids alone for the one day Mallory goes on strike! They end up calling over two BSC sitters at the last minute and going to a library board meeting! These people are really too much, WHY did they have so many kids??
Kristy also could have been way more understanding in here, and I've heard this gets worse as the series goes on. If Mal is late once in awhile, or too busy for jobs, that's just life. School is way more important than babysitting. Everyone else was really understanding once Mal explained what was going on, wanting to help her and encouraging her not to just quit.
Misc:
*Ghostwritten by Johanna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner
*Young Author's Day? Isn't this awfully close to Author's Day, which only just happened in #46? You'd think they would spread these two ideas apart more.
*Jessi's studying French in the sixth grade? That's impressive.
*Mal felt awkward the first time she turned down a sitting job, because she was "free" and everyone else was surprised by it. I didn't get why she didn't just tell them about her story then. Other members have needed extra time for school before.
*I used to make a schedule of my days all the time (yes, I was weird), but I had no idea where I got it from until re-reading this now! One of the best parts of doing childhood book re-reads is piecing together where little parts of yourself came from like this.
*I loved that this book addressed babysitting burnout, especially when it comes to watching siblings.
*Watson ordered Kristy to babysit without notice when his friend ended up in the hospital suddenly. Not unreasonable in an emergency, but he says Nanny can't do it because she's bowling?? Uhm if it's an emergency, who cares about bowling? Isn't this sort of thing why she moved in?
*Mallory's story is called "Caught in the Middle", about a girl named Tess who's the middle child and feels left out of her family.
*By the end of this book, Mal sums everything up with: "Not being forced to take care of my brothers and sisters made me appreciate them so much more." (pg 143). So true, and so sad her parents don't get this.
Books mentioned:
None
My rating:
4 stars, really enjoyed reading this, and it had realistic topics actually useful to kids.
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