Thoughts before reading:
This was another of my absolute favorites! I loved Rosie Wilder when I was a kid. We were around the same age, so I related more to her than the older girls, and I wanted to be just like her, so I re-read this constantly. I always dreamed of being the kind of kid who took tons of lessons, went to private school, and had a bunch of talents. I was already a perfectionist, and did well in school, but I always longed to be a genius. (If all this sounds really dorky, it was. I was a kid with a boring life, mostly just stuck at home if I wasn't in school.) Around the time of my BSC obsession, I was also really into playing pretend that I was a book character. I used to read this one, then play a game where I pretended to be Rosie Wilder and followed her schedule. Keep in mind, I had a lot of free time, and I lot of imagination.
The summary on the back of the book says that Rosie is so annoying even Janine doesn't like her, so I'm very interested to see what I think now. I do really like Janine on this re-read though, so this seems a bit harsh already.
The basics:
Claudia's watching a documentary on Andy Warhol and trying to think of a new art project when the idea for Junk Food Fantasy hits. She decides to work on a series of pop art paintings capturing her favorite junk foods. Excited to have a new project, she immediately sets to work.
The BSC gets a call from a new client, Mrs. Wilder. She needs a sitter three times a week for awhile because her mother has fallen ill and needs her help. Her daughter Rosie is seven, and an only child. Claudia thinks that Mrs. Wilder sounds a bit odd on the phone, but she takes the job.
Rosie turns out to be very smart, taking tons of lessons, and full of talents. She plays the piano, sings, tap dances, does ballet, and acts, as well as doing crossword puzzle competitions at school. Claudia's impressed but a bit intimidated that this seven year old is smarter than she is. She also finds Rosie obnoxious, and quickly comes to dread the sitting jobs with her. Claudia also struggles to help Rosie with her homework, so she enlists Janine to help.
Stacey also babysits for Rosie on a day that Claudia isn't free, and it also happens to be the day that a tv host named Uncle Dandy is coming over to audition Rosie for his talent show. They ask Stacey to read lines with Rosie, and she winds up mortified because she's nervous and fumbles most of her lines while Rosie does perfectly. Shortly after, Jessi also has an embarrassing time sitting for Rosie, and Rosie tells her she only wants Claudia to babysit her because she likes Claudia the best.
As the jobs continue, Claudia notices that Rosie never seems happy when she's doing any of her lessons or talents, and she begins to realize she's only doing all these things because she feels like she has to. She actually doesn't like any of them. This is confirmed one day when Rosie is watching Claudia work on her junk food sketches and ends up joining in. Rosie finally confesses to Claudia that drawing is what she really likes to do, but she hides it from her parents.
Claudia and Mary Anne attend one of Rosie's crossword puzzle contests at her school. Rosie wins, but gets teased by the other kids the whole time and ends up crying. Claudia gives her some good advice about how difficult it is to be different. They return to Rosie's house and enjoy some downtime, drawing and goofing off. The Wilders return home and find them that way, and they are not happy, scolding Rosie for not doing something useful with her time. Rosie blows up at them (finally!) about how she hates her life because she never has any fun, she just works all the time. Claudia tries to help by telling the Wilders how talented Rosie is at art, but they immediately start trying to turn it into a career path, which makes Claudia realize the reason Rosie was hiding it. Her parents would just push her too hard and suck the fun out of it, like they did with everything else.
Kristy has the idea for Claudia to hold an art show with her junk food painting series, and invite clients, to show kids how much fun art can be. Claudia loves the idea, and invites Rosie to also take part in it. The show goes fairly well, even though Alan Gray crashes it to play stupid jokes. Claudia even sells two of her paintings. Rosie does end up coming too, and she promises that she will stand up to her parents.
On the last day of Claudia's job with Rosie, they just relax and have fun together. Rosie tells her that she talked to her parents and told them that doing too many things was making her hate everything, and she needs more free time. They agreed with her, and Rosie decided to keep doing only math club, violin lessons, and art classes.
Timeline:
During the school year and spans about a month, which is pretty typical.
My thoughts:
This was WAY different than my childhood memory, and the first time that's happened so far. I think the actual point of this book, and Rosie's struggle, somehow went right over my head. This time around, I felt really sorry for her instead of envious. She wasn't a brat at all, just a deeply unhappy kid. This poor girl doesn't get to have any sort of childhood at all. She works at something literally all the time, having absolutely no downtime or time she's allowed to waste. Nobody can live that way, never having any fun. Her schedule is like the equivalent of several full time jobs. She also doesn't fit in with other kids as a result, not that she'd be allowed to spend any time with friends anyway. Her know-it-all persona that drives everyone crazy is just an act. If she didn't take on the persona that her parents expected from her, there's no way she could deal with living that way. I can't even guess at what they were thinking by pushing her that hard. Left unchanged, she was right on track to become a child star with crazy stage parents, then go wild rebelling as a teenager. Maybe this is an insight into why so many child stars get into drugs, partying, and serious trouble really young? Her parents were really the epitome of the type that manage their child's career to the exclusion of everything else. They don't even let her stop for ice cream because it messes up her schedule!
The set up of this book was a lot like Mallory and the Trouble With Twins, except that Rosie was much more likeable and sympathetic to me. Even though I found this book well done overall, it was yet another example of a BSC member swooping in and fixing a family. Those seem to make up about 75% of all babysitting plot books, while also being the least realistic. I'm also very suspicious of how easily the Wilders let go of everything. If they had this whole big fantasy about their daughter being a celebrity, would they really just give up because she told them she was unhappy? It certainly didn't seem like they ever cared about that before.
Misc:
*Ghostwritten by Peter Lerangis
*Claudia thought calculus was a roman emperor, LOL.
*If Janine's IQ was really 196, wouldn't she already be in college at 16, not just taking some college classes? That's essentially the same as the AP class set up most high schools have, and plenty of students can succeed at those just by working hard. Plus, 196 is ridiculously high.
*I liked how Claudia defended her Nancy Drew reading in here: "To me, reading is kind of like food. You can't eat filet mignon all the time. It's nice to have some ice cream and cake. Nancy Drew mysteries are my ice cream and cake." (pg 6) So true, Claud.
*Janine going to the Wilder's to help Rosie with her homework? Yet another example proving that Janine is actually a really good sister.
*Claudia's whole issue in this book is that she's really just jealous of Rosie, which also made me sad for Rosie. She clearly has this problem in most of her relationships, and all the things about her that make others jealous are things she hates, or didn't choose.
*While Janine and Rosie are working on her science homework, Claudia says she "felt about as useful as an oar on a speedboat", LOL.
*Stacey had the most compassion for Rosie, telling Claudia that conceited people are actually really insecure. Yet another reason that Stacey is awesome.
*Rosie's scene for Uncle Dandy was from a soap opera called "The Brash and the Beautiful", which I thought was also funny.
*Claudia ends up calling her exhibit "Claudia Lynn Kishi's Disposable Comestibles, a pop-art multi-media extravaganza". Quite a mouthful! Janine accidently gave her the idea.
*The two paintings Claudia sells go to Ms. Besser (remember her?) and Watson Brewer.
Books mentioned:
*Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
*The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis
My rating:
4 stars, best babysitting plot yet. That's a real compliment too, since I hate the ones where the girls magically fix a family they just met.
No comments:
Post a Comment