Logan's Story

 

Thoughts before reading:

I've never read this before, and I still don't really want to. As a kid, I had no opinion on Logan, I just wouldn't have picked a book about him over one from any one of the girls. Plus I just found boys really boring and annoying when I was eight, haha... Now however, I can't stand Logan, and a whole book of him sounds like absolute torture. This cover and tagline aren't helping either. Apparently he's going to get teased and called a girl for being a babysitter. Hooray for dated sexism...

The basics:

Right as Logan's family is getting ready to sit down to a barbeque dinner together, Kristy calls him to come to the BSC meeting, claiming it's an emergency. When he arrives, Mary Anne is in tears and everyone else is keyed up. Kristy quickly explains that Jeff has ruptured his appendix, and so Dawn and Sharon are leaving immediately to spend a few weeks in California with him. The BSC has already been swamped lately, and now they have to reassign all of Dawn's jobs. She's hoping he can take them, and attend the meetings as the alternate officer. He agrees to both, even though he doesn't really want to, because all the extra work is sure to conflict with some of his football practices. Some of the other guys already tease him for babysitting, so he knows he can expect worse if they find out.

Logan's fears are quickly realized: at that first meeting, he already gets a job that causes him to miss a football practice (the first one he's ever missed, too). The job is for the Hobart boys though, charges he really does enjoy. They get involved in a camping game in the front yard, where some of Logan's football buddies spot him on their way home. Knowing this is what he missed practice to do, they start in on teasing him about it. He feels miserable, but the Hobart boys absolutely love him, and request him to sit for them again. He's quickly assigned two more jobs with them, plus one with the Rodowsky boys. This means he'll also have to miss a second football practice in a row, plus his track practice. (I will admit, he takes all of this in stride.)

During one of the track practices he is able to attend, Mary Anne brings Jenny and Andrea by to watch. Jenny ends up getting onto the track, causing the guys to crash into each other trying to avoid running her over. Logan also takes the Hobart boys by the track on one of his sitting jobs, because they've been curious about it. Some of his track teammates show up and see them. Both incidents escalate the teasing. Guys start calling him Lois (because apparently he's girly now). Logan asks them to knock it off, but of course, no one does. 

Meanwhile, there's a health fair coming to the local mall, and the BSC has a booth there, distributing pamphlets about babysitting safety. Logan attends the fair with the Hobart boys, where he's teased even more by King, one of his football teammates. King happens to be nearby when Johnny Hobart asks Logan to go to the bathroom, something he finds hilarious. Logan lets Johnny and Matthew go in alone after they beg him, especially since King is there laughing at him. After the boys have been gone more than ten minutes, Logan finally goes in to look for them, and he can't find Johnny anywhere. Everyone starts to search, and Logan's panicked. King ends up finding him and bringing him to the BSC booth. 

With this mistake on top of everything else going on, Logan's completely overwhelmed. He tells Kristy he can't take Dawn's place anymore, and ends up quitting effective immediately. At his track tryouts, the Hobart boys, plus the whole BSC and some of their charges, come to cheer him on. Logan ends up making the team, and he doesn't get teased because his track teammates take interest in all the pretty members of the BSC and are too distracted to worry about him. 

Logan ends up deciding to be an associate member again, because he does miss sitting. 

Timeline:

Never stated, but football season is in the fall, so that's my best guess.

Misc. thoughts:

*Logan's dad is the manager of a sporting goods manufacturer.

*We also learn that Logan being a babysitter makes his dad uncomfortable because he's "old fashioned". Sounds more like he's a sexist asshole to me. Still, I wish the book had focused more on their relationship, and Mr. Bruno coming to terms with his son, instead of the endless problems with teammates. That would have actually made for a pretty good book. 

*Finding out about his dad does give some insight into why Logan is the way he is though, which I did like.

*Logan's POV was also more interesting that I expected, mainly because he does have a very distinct voice from the girls. He describes Claudia's style as being sexy, and mentions being "hot for Mary Anne", This stuff is almost racy for a BSC book, and I liked that they tried to make him seem like a realistic 13 year old boy. I was expecting a watered down, sexless, perfect BSC-verse boy.

*Claudia's blood type is O.

*All the BSC members want to donate blood when they're older. 

*I'm surprised everyone went along with Kristy wanting to have a booth at the health fair. I know they don't like to even try to argue with her, but they were supposed to have been totally swamped and overwhelmed already.

*I loved to playing camping out in my backyard when I was little too, like Logan and the Hobart boys do in here.

*Apparently up to this point, Logan's guy friends didn't even know he was a BSC member? I wonder how he managed that.

*Mal's in 6th grade, yet somehow still doesn't know the basic food groups? That seems really weird, they hammer it into you in elementary school. Or at least, mine did...

*A few weeks of school is a lot for Dawn to miss, just to be sitting around a hospital all day. I'm surprised her parents allowed this, instead of just letting her come out for a few days to visit. After all, what good was she going to do, with both parents there to care for Jeff? Also, does appendicitis really require weeks in the hospital? 

*Jenny Prezzioso has designer pajamas. I'm not surprised, I guess...

*Mary Anne has a serious lapse in babysitting skills in here. What kind of sitter lets a little girl run out into a track full of boys running around full speed? She would have had to be paying next to no attention to her.

*Ghostwritten by Peter Lerangis

Books mentioned:

*The Call of the Wild, by Jack London   (Logan's reading it in English class.)

My rating:

2.5 stars. Pretty repetitive and thin on plot, but much better than I expected.