Thoughts before reading:
I have read this one before, but I never owned it and probably only read it once. I don't remember my thoughts on it, but the plot sounds a lot like the BSC movie... I wonder if it was partially based on this book?
The basics:
Richard's law firm is merging with another firm, which he's excited about. The change does mean he will have to travel more though, starting with a two week trip to Cincinnati in July.
Summer's coming up, and some of the BSC girls are worried that with Stacey out they might have more work than they can handle, at least until summer camps and community center programs kick in. Kristy decides they can solve this problem by offering their own camp during the three week gap between school ending and other camps starting. Camp BSC is born. The girls decide it will be held at Mary Anne and Dawn's house, from 9am to 5:30pm. Kids can sign up for a full or half day. (Mrs. Prezzioso and Mrs. Braddock will be on call if they need an adult for any reason.) The camp will have a circus theme.
The idea gets off to a good start, with 22 kids being signed up. On the first day, a little girl named Alicia has separation anxiety from her mother, crying and begging her not to leave. She won't even go to the park with the other kids because she thinks her mom won't be able to find her there. As the days pass, the problem doesn't get any better. (It doesn't help that Mary Anne is babying her, staying back from the park every day with her, and being really defensive whenever anyone else suggests she isn't helping, or even that Alicia will be fine.) Even when the campers take a special field trip to the Stone farm, Mary Anne and Alicia stay behind.
There are some other issues too. The campers from SES and those from SA (Stoneybrook Academy) are mostly sticking with their own classmates. Most of the SA kids have been to circus camps before, and think the theme is dumb. (Karen's the ringleader of the naysayers.) The SES kids are excited about the idea though.
A week into camp, Richard leaves for his business trip. Mary Anne can't help but feel left behind and abandoned. (Never mind the endless trips she's been on without her dad since the series started, and all the babysitters we know he left her with when he was single.) It doesn't help that Sharon and Dawn are all excited by the prospect of living as "bachelor girls" for 2 weeks. They try to get things off to a fun start with a so-bad-they're-funny movie night, but Mary Anne just isn't having it. She sulks the whole night, then goes to bed early. As the days wear on, she gets grumpier, and the house grows messier. She also gets sick of having take out every night. (Of course, there's nothing stopping her from speaking up, offering to cook, or doing some cleaning.)
Friday night of the second week, the girls have a cookout for the campers, as a special treat. On Saturday, Mary Anne is finally relaxed and ready to enjoy a day with Dawn and Logan, when her bike hits a pot hole and she crashes. Mr. Braddock sees the accident and takes them to the hospital, where it turns out she sprained her ankle. Mary Anne's furious when she finds out her dad isn't coming home early now that she's hurt, thinking he doesn't care enough to do so. She sulks the rest of the weekend, and refuses to do anything fun with Sharon or Dawn.
The third and final week of camp starts that Monday, and Alicia finally starts going on outings with the other kids. She's finally learned that she's been missing out on the fun. It takes this for Mary Anne to suddenly realize that she's been missing out on all the fun too... Dawn and Sharon also miss Richard, but missing someone won't kill you, and acting like a baby doesn't help. (Only took her 86+ books to learn this!) She now understands that she could have made the best of things from the start, which would have made everything easier. Mary Anne apologizes to Sharon, and suddenly becomes cheerful.
Camp is set to end with the campers putting on a circus for their families to come see. The dress rehearsal is a disaster though. Karen tries to use a real saw for her act, and none of the kids who have been to a "real" circus camp have bothered to practice their acts. Naturally, the BSC steps in to help revise the acts, and together they pull off a successful show.
On the very last day, Mary Anne, Dawn, and Sharon clean up the house together, then pick up Richard. Mary Anne tells him how she felt, and he promises to travel less if she promises to loosen up and enjoy herself.
Timeline:
Early summer, the end of the school year and into July.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Nola Thacker.
*This book says Dawn is practically a vegetarian. Much better! Although I'm sure they'll still change it.
*Fun fact: Claudia, Dawn, and Logan like to sleep late. Kristy, Jessi, and Shannon don't. Mary Anne likes to sometimes, but Tigger doesn't like to let her. Mal can't sleep in at her house.
*Here's a list of the campers, for those like me who like lists and facts:
Andrew Brewer, 4
Alicia Gianelli, 4
Jamie Newton, 4
Nicky Pike, 8
Margo Pike, 7
Claire Pike, 5
Karen Brewer, 7
Hannie Papadakis, 7
Nancy Dawes, 7
Vanessa Pike, 9
Haley Braddock, 9
Linny Papadakis, 9
Marilyn Arnold, 8
Carolyn Arnold, 8
Charlotte Johanssen, 8
Bobby Gianelli, 7
Natalie Springer, 7
Matt Braddock, 7
Becca Ramsey, 8
David Michael Thomas, 7
Ricky Torres, 7
Chris Lamar, 7
*Mary Anne says Logan "looks very handsome on a bicycle", LOL...
*Mary Anne projects her own issues onto the situation with Alicia, to the degree that she thinks Mallory is callous for daring to say that Alicia does fine at drop offs once she's distracted (pg 50).
*I liked that Camp BSC didn't go TOO smoothly, like almost all BSC ventures.
*Later on in the book, it says Richard is going to Cleveland, Ohio. So which is it? How hard is it to have continuity within the same book??
*It's way too late in the series for a plotline like this one, about Mary Anne being so upset that her dad's gone, because she's never had a problem being away from him before. Quite the opposite, as we've seen her struggle for independence. Her moping around about her dad's trip just falls flat as a result. She's old enough to understand it's just a business trip. Even if she understood that but still struggled with it emotionally, she could have risen above those feelings sooner instead of having a constant pity party. Either way, it's too much of a stretch that she'd struggle at all after all those trips to California, summer camp, the cruise, visiting her grandma in Iowa, the class ski trip, the New York trips, the Shadow Lake trip, 3 Sea City trips... give me a break.
*The movies chosen for the themed movie night were Plan 9 From Outer Space (Dawn), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Mary Anne), and an old Elvis movie called Girls, Girls, Girls (Sharon).
*Also, I've totally done this same movie night idea before, and it's always a blast, with gems such as The Room, Spring Breakers, Plan 9, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Jawbreaker...
*Dawn gets turkey dogs in here... why those instead of tofu dogs?
*Page 88 error, says "whether the kids were SMSers or SESers..." should be SESers or SAers. SMS is the middle school.
*Page 87 error: Logan's notebook entry is in Mary Anne's handwriting. This book is a real mess! Was it even edited or had they just stopped caring by this point?
*Apparently Mallory is really good at telling ghost stories.
*Page 94, yet another error: the ghost cat plot line happened to Mallory, but it says it was Dawn in here.
*I usually don't mind Karen, but she's SUCH a brat about the circus camp in here, and sounds really spoiled and entitled.
*Some wisdom from Kristy: A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.
*Page 132 error, it's stated again that the kids were no longer divided into SES and SMS factions.
Books mentioned:
None
My rating:
2.5 stars. Not a bad plot idea, but between Mary Anne acting like such a baby and the terrible editing, it wasn't very enjoyable.
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