Thoughts before reading:
I've never read this one before either... this is another long streak of new BSC books for me. I was only 8 when most of the books in this section came out, but I guess I somehow missed all of them. A lot of my top favorites are actually still to come.
Is it bad that I can't tell who's Claudia and who's Peaches on this cover?
The basics:
Claudia's Aunt Peaches, who has wanted a baby for a long time, calls to tell her she's finally pregnant, and Claud is thrilled. Her and Russ will also be moving to a bigger house, in Stoneybrook. During the month long transition between homes, they are going to stay with the Kishis. All of this has Claudia soaring, especially since she's always been so close to Peaches. She decides to make something for the baby, and asks Mary Anne to teach her to knit (Mary Anne learned from Mimi).
Peaches has also decided to leave her job and stay home with the baby, effective immediately, so while her and Russ are staying with the Kishis she has a lot of free time during the day. She starts inviting Claudia to hang out and do things with her a lot. First, it's baby supply shopping, then spontaneously seeing a movie. Claudia puts off homework to spend time with her aunt, even though she's been falling behind.
One afternoon, Claudia is swarmed with homework, but Peaches promises to help her with it later if she helps her grocery shop and cook a nice dinner. Claudia reluctantly agrees, since she's so excited about the idea. They even dress up like waiters with fake mustaches and serve the family, for fun. (This is the scene from the cover.)
Claudia just falls further and further behind on her school work from there, and Peaches keeps asking her to hang out almost every day. Since it's way more fun than homework, she has a hard time saying no. The situation comes to a head when Peaches wakes her up late one Friday night to go out for pizza, after the rest of the family is asleep. (It's about 11:30.) Claudia's down for the adventure, and they drive downtown to Pizza Express and eat at the restaurant. She has a great time, but feels a little weird about it. When she thinks to ask Peaches if she left a note, Peaches says she forgot.
When they arrive home, everyone is up and worried sick. Claudia's mom scolds her for using poor judgement, but doesn't punish her since she was with an adult. After a through scolding, Claudia finally snaps and says (rightly) that she's been trying to do the right thing and keep up, but Peaches is always there wanting her to do something else. Then she storms out.
An awkward weekend follows, which Claud spends catching up on homework. Struggling through it makes her grow more resentful of Peaches. Claudia gets impatient with her aunt as a result, and Peaches lets her have it, complaining about how she has a lot to deal with, and a sulky teenager isn't helping. (Wow.)
Thinking everything over, Claudia decides to apologize (before the "adult"...), but when she gets home from school that day, she finds out Peaches lost the baby. Since she upset her aunt, Claudia feels like it's her fault. When Peaches gets back from the hospital, Claudia apologizes, and they cry together. Peaches assures her that it wasn't her fault, and Claud shows her the blanket she started knitting.
When the month is up, they move into their new house, and Peaches starts working from home. She tells Claudia that they'll start trying again soon.
Meanwhile, the BSC has gotten a new client, Mrs. Springer. She has a 7 year old daughter, Natalie. (She's in Karen's class in school, and in a lot of the Little Sister books.) Claudia takes the first job, but gets a bit more than she bargained for. Natalie has no friends, and gets very attached to Claudia, very quickly, even calling her at home and showing up at her house. When Stacey babysits, Natalie tries the same thing with her. The BSC girls decide to try to help her make friends.
The "friendship campaign" doesn't go very well though, because Natalie gets bossy with the other kids and alienates them. The girls decide a fresh start is what Natalie needs, and finally get her playing nicely with some kids from Jessi's neighborhood: Becca, Charlotte, the Hobarts, and Rosie Wilder.
Timeline:
School has started again, and it's now fall.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner.
*Claudia has painted stars and moons on her ceiling.
*Claudia's making a sculpture entirely from non-biodegradable materials, called "Forever Yours". That's actually pretty clever.
*Mrs. Kishi's first name is Rioko. Other adults are called by their first names a lot, but I'm pretty sure this is the first mention of hers.
*Peaches and Russ lived in Stoneybrook until Claudia was 7. She hasn't seen them since Mimi's funeral. (We haven't heard any mention of them in a long time either.)
*Claudia eats graham crackers smothered in peanut butter and topped with chocolate chips for her after school snack. This is pretty genius...
*Peaches used to work in advertising, before she quit her job to be a mom. (Lucky her.)
*Claudia gets scolded for wearing sparkly socks in gym class, haha.
*After reading this book, I am really NOT a fan of Peaches. This woman needs to grow the hell up, or at least make some adult friends. Claudia is a kid, not her BFF, and it's not even like she's still on summer vacation. Hopefully this won't be her parenting style. Even Claudia, who I often criticize for her immaturity, is more mature than her aunt.
*I also felt bad for Claudia when she got in trouble for the pizza run. Peaches was an adult who should have known better. Her mom should have listened to her and asked the whole story before tearing into her. At the very least, Peaches could have defended her. What teenager is going to tell an adult they look up to no when they want to do something fun together?
*THEN Peaches has the nerve to get irritated with Claudia and complain about how much she has to deal with? I have zero sympathy. She even says she's "dealing with quitting her job"?? Poor baby! Tons of people would LOVE to have the luxury to do that, and it was her choice.
She may be family, but she's still a guest in their house. Claudia has her own life and responsibilities, and cannot be on call. Plus, it's common knowledge that she struggles in school as it is.
*Mary Anne actually gives Claudia good advice in here, telling her to remember that Peaches being pushy is something she loves about her, and nothing so bad has happened between them that they can't fix it.
*Natalie spells better than Claudia.
Books mentioned:
*Easy, Ivy, Overs (Book of jump rope chants. I couldn't find it, but I know there's a lot of similar ones that are real.)
My rating:
4 stars. I enjoyed the family dynamics in here, and the story was something different. The two storylines actually went well together, because Natalie's struggle to make friends lead Claudia to realize she hadn't been a good friend to Peaches, and to want to apologize. I was surprised by how dark this got, tackling a miscarriage storyline. It seemed out of place, in a good way, among all the recent silly plots.
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