Thoughts before reading:
I read this multiple times as a kid, and owned it at one point. Now it's rather infamous as the Racist Book, so I remember the basics about this pretty well, since those memories have been refreshed. I'm not sure what I thought of the racism in here when I was a kid. I think I just really liked the story and the drama, but the real ugliness of this situation probably went right over my head. This would have been before I really knew much about discrimination, or US history, for that matter. Then again, if I'm being honest, I come from a really racist family, so maybe this seemed normal to me. If I had read it when I was a few years older, I would have understood racism for myself and this would have had more of an impact. I definitely remember being a few years older when I started questioning the things I was hearing from adults in my family.
I can't really say I "like" this cover, since it features those creepy blond haired, blue eyed kids glaring at Claudia, but I do think it's a good picture of Claud. This is how she looks when I picture her, especially that outfit. I love those leggings and boots!
The basics:
Claudia's babysitting for the Rodowsky boys, and they're talking a lot about music and show business. Listening to them gives her the idea to plan something musical for the BSC charges. She mentions all this at the next meeting, and everyone eagerly starts discussing what sort of show to do. Claudia ends up deciding they should help the kids form a band. A call comes in during the planning from a new client, the Lowells. Mary Anne takes the job.
The Lowells have three children: Caitlin, 8, Mackenzie, 6, and Celeste, 3. Mary Anne likes them right away, finding them to be very well dressed, polite, helpful, and curious. They ask her tons of questions about herself, and even about her religion. She's a little surprised, but mostly finds it to be cute. It's not long before Mrs. Lowell calls again, and the next job goes to Claudia. Her experience is completely opposite from Mary Anne's. Right when she gets there, Mrs. Lowell is rude to her, and hardly even looks at her. None of the kids will listen to anything she says either. She does end up taking them to meet the other neighborhood kids who are forming the band, but is offended when Celeste spots Mary Anne there and clings to her the whole time.
The next time Mrs. Lowell calls the BSC, she asks to speak to Kristy, then requests any sitter except for Claudia. Kristy gives the job to Jessi (uh-oh...) and then asks Claudia what happened. She honestly says she doesn't know. The only thing she can think of is that her outfit was too wild, and offended their conservative taste. Mrs. L didn't explain either, and Claudia's left feeling hurt and confused.
Jessi's understandably nervous about the job, and doesn't want Mrs. L to be able to find any fault with her work. She diligently prepares for the job by working on her kid kit, turning it into an office play kit for Caitlin. Then she arrives exactly five minutes early for the job, wearing a nice outfit she specially picked out. Mrs. L answers the door, stares at her for a moment in apparent shock, then says she doesn't need a sitter anymore and shuts the door in her face. Jessi's hurt and goes crying to Mal's house.
Once they tell Kristy, she's even unsure of what to do, and decides to wait and see how the next job goes. It was assigned to Mary Anne, but Kristy ends up taking it. She also dresses up, wearing a skirt and blouse. Mrs. L is pleasant, but evasive when she asks if there was a problem with Claudia or Jessi. She later asks the kids, who tell her that Claudia looked funny, then choke on their juice when Kristy tells them Jessi is African-American. (Their mom shut the door on her so quickly, none of the kids actually saw her.)
Disturbed, Kristy decides to talk to her own parents about all of this (something I'd like to see these kids do WAY more often!). Elizabeth, Watson, and Nannie are saddened by the story, but all in agreement that it sounds like the family is racist. At the next BSC meeting, Kristy reluctantly admits her findings. Jessi's not surprised, but Claudia is furious about the unfairness of it. The girls have a heavy discussion about prejudice. Mrs. L literally calls during it to ask for a blue eyed, blond babysitter. Kristy tells her they are fresh out of those, but offers up Logan. She declines.
Claudia tells her father about what happened, and asks him if anyone ever hated him for being Japanese. Janine tells her about the Japanese internment camps that the US had during WW2. Claudia had never heard of them before.
The BSC discusses the Lowells again, ultimately deciding it's not their place to teach them a lesson or call them out on being bigots. They will instead keep saying no one is available when Mrs. L calls, until she gives up.
The Lowell kids do come by one of the band practices, but their mother makes them leave when she finds out they're doing songs from Fiddler on the Roof (it's about Russian Jews). During the actual concert, Caitlin and Mackenzie show up, just peeking in and then slipping out again. It definitely looks like they wanted to be a part of things, so the girls have hope that when they get older they will form their own opinions and unlearn the prejudices.
Timeline:
Warm, sunny weather
My thoughts:
There is a lot of discussion about prejudices and racism in here, and it goes get heavy at times, but the problem is it doesn't really go anywhere or draw any conclusions. That really frustrated me at first, but then I realized it was probably done intentionally. As kids who are facing adults, the BSC girls feel powerless to confront or change the situation, or the racism they're facing. Ultimately, they just decide to hope that things get better (here, in the form of hoping the Lowell kids will "outgrow" the prejudices they've been raised to believe). In the end, that's all most of us can do too: educate ourselves, people we know, and hope that things will get better and others will do the same. Racism is unfair and unreasonable, and you can't change the mind of bigots. (To be clear, I'm not saying to ignore racism or do nothing. I'm only saying you can't change someone else's beliefs, no matter how unjust.)
Where this book does succeed is in introducing these subjects to kids who have possibly never heard about them before, like I was as an eight year old. It explores how it feels to be discriminated against, why it's wrong, and touches on the historical aspects. Ultimately, it does do a pretty good job for this age group. This is a good addition to teaching children about acceptance. (Unfortunately, LGBT+ is left out of the discussion entirely, since those groups don't even exist in the BSC-verse.)
Misc:
*Claudia likes Bach. I swear there was a book where she didn't know who he was though, but it could have been someone else.
*Claudia's latest art project: making themed mobiles, like one with cowboy boots, cactus, and a coyote.
*The Lowell kids say that Mallory must be Catholic because she has such a big family, and they laugh at the eyes of some Asian children on tv. Both things go right over Mary Anne's naïve head.
*By far the most sickening aspect of this book was how these people taught these really little kids to be racist. I mean, Celeste is only 3!! I know these things do really happen, but it's just insane. Even more disturbing is how through their parents were about it. These kids already know stereotypes about specific groups, like Catholics? Does this family ever discuss anything else?
*Charlotte's taking guitar lessons.
*Claudia actually wears the cover outfit in this book! It's the one she wears when she meets the Lowells, and then later she ends up worrying it was too wild.
*Since the Lowells are this racist, I was really surprised they even left their precious kiddos alone with Claudia.
*Claudia has started buying healthy snacks for Dawn and Stacey regularly, hiding them around her room with her junk food. More and more, I keep wondering where she gets these groceries from. Does she ride her bike to the store alone to buy her junk food stash every week? It's hard to picture, and harder to believe she could get this large volume of food past her parents. She has to get all this stuff into her room secretly, after all. If she had a stay at home parent, she'd probably have to make do with just a candy bar now and then.
*Jackie picks the name All The Children for the band.
*I really liked that this book actually contained BSC members' parents!
*Sam does drama in school, and even wrote a play.
*I was really glad they had this be a Claudia book. Jessi has had a lot of storylines about racism already, but Claudia never has.
*Since when can Emily Michelle speak in whole sentences? In here she repeats "Are you in the band or not?"
*Karen comes up with the idea for band uniforms, and they decide to accept donations for them at the concert. So...is this band going to keep doing performances later on?
*It's true that as kids the BSC members were limited in what they could do about this problem, but they really should have refused the Lowells as clients outright, at least just by explaining how their club works. Picking and choosing sitters has never been allowed. That's fair, honest, and gets some of the point across.
Books mentioned:
*Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey
*The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
*A Chair For My Mother, by Vera Williams
*Good Dog, Carl, by Alexandra Day
My rating:
3.5 stars. Not a bad book, but not exactly a pleasant read.
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