#102: Mary Anne and the Little Princess

 

Thoughts before reading:

I guess they were really just running out of ideas by this point... let's just hope this is better than it sounds. 

The basics:

The SMS football team is on a winning streak, so everyone's really into the game at the moment... except for Mary Anne. She's hanging out at Kristy's while she plays with Logan and some kids though, during which time she notices a moving van stop down the street. (Kristy promptly runs over with a BSC flier and gives it to the movers, hahaha.) From there, she starts putting a flier in the new family's (the Kents) mailbox every day. It actually works too: they end up calling the BSC. The Kents are looking for a companion for their 8 year old daughter, Victoria, to help her adjust to the US. She's a princess, distantly in line for the British throne. Mary Anne gets the job because she answered the phone, and doesn't get the chance to explain how the club works before being informed that she'll be picked up at home the next day.

Sure enough, the next morning a driver picks Mary Anne up in a limo for her interview. The family's nice, but she feels uncomfortable with all the formality, and is unable to find any common ground with Victoria. She gets the job, but can't wait to leave. Then when she gets home, no one's there, and Sharon has left her a note referring to herself as "mom" and mentioning they're having tofu for dinner. (Richard's on a business trip in Wisconsin.) Mary Anne starts feeling sorry for herself and ends up crying. 

Mary Anne remains nervous for her first sitting job with Victoria, but Sharon tries to put her at ease, even telling her to invite the Kents over for Thanksgiving dinner. None of this really makes her feel any better though, especially after Victoria turns out to be a spoiled brat (big surprise). That first day, she demands to go to Washington Mall after seeing it on TV, so Mary Anne, the nanny, and Victoria all end up going in the limo. Victoria charges anything she wants while there to her personal credit card. (Mary Anne also hates riding in the limo, because everyone stares.)

Richard's business trip gets extended, and he now won't be back until Thanksgiving day. Mary Anne and Sharon go shopping together to cheer themselves up, but even that doesn't please Mary Anne, who starts to feel like she's just a stand-in for Dawn after Sharon buys her an expensive sweater similar to one Dawn has, and wants to eat at a health food place for lunch. 

After spending more time with Victoria, Mary Anne starts to like her, realizing she just doesn't know how to make friends. She takes her to Logan's football game, and helps her mingle with kids her own age. Both go pretty well, until Victoria tells the other kids they can't go to NYC with her, instead inviting Mary Anne, Kristy, and Stacey. (Kristy almost says no, because it conflicts with a BSC meeting.) The girls all end up agreeing to come.

In NYC, Victoria's nanny, Miss Rutherford, is spoiling the trip for the girls by being paranoid about every little thing, so at Stacey's suggestion they give her the slip. After having some fun, they reunite at the UN to visit Victoria's parents. When she learns her parents aren't joining them for dinner because of work, her good mood vanishes, and she ends up refusing to eat anywhere besides Pizza Hut. (Stacey invites her dad to join them too, and he does.)

On Thanksgiving morning, Mary Anne and Victoria head to the airport in the limo to pick up Richard, and Dawn, who's visiting for the holiday. Victoria opens up to Mary Anne about how much she hates her parents going away, and how she's tried purposely not to make friends, because she's leaving in 6 months. Mary Anne uses her experiences with Dawn and Richard leaving to relate and explains that even though it's hard to lose people, you have to go on living. Victoria is cheered up a bit, and agrees to have a play date with Karen. 

Timeline:

It's November and chilly.

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Peter Lerangis.

*Apparently Kristy now offers new BSC clients a free hour of babysitting and a money back guarantee, haha.

*I'm surprised Mary Anne getting the job with the Kents without it being offered around didn't start a huge BSC fight. Less has.

*I loved stuff like this as a kid, so I really wish I'd gotten to it back then.

*Mary Anne's now helping Claudia with her homework. I guess they've finally become comfortable with each other again.

*I'm so tired of Mary Anne's pity parties... I know we all feel sorry for ourselves sometimes, but enough is enough. I doubt anyone else feels bad for her. She has zero idea how good she has it, and no ability to deal with anything.

*Druscilla's visiting her grandma, Mrs. Porter, again.

*Error on page 52? It says, "you may notice the cross out in Kristy's notebook entry," but there isn't one. I guess they forgot to add it in?

*Andrew thought "European settlers" were doggies, haha. (As in "setters".)

*Kristy has her younger siblings make a model Pilgrim village. I liked doing stuff like that for the holidays when I was a kid too.

*Mrs. Prezzioso takes pictures of the limo from her window. She definitely would...

*Why did Mary Anne have to get this job? I'd love to have seen Victoria go toe-to-toe with Stacey or Kristy instead.

*Since Sharon hardly ever sees her own daughter, I doubt Mary Anne was very fair off base with her feelings in here. She still comes across as very ungrateful though. She's annoyed when Sharon introduces her as her daughter, even. Plus despite wanting to get the health food, she does also get a turkey for Mary Anne and Richard. 

*Dawn now refers to turkey as a "brutally massacred, decapitated, and scorched bird carcass", despite the fact that she's eaten chicken for the whole series. Mary Anne even says she occasionally eats non-red meat. It just makes no sense to me that you could have these really strong views, but then eat meat anyway.

*Kristy calls into the BSC meeting she missed to check on things, from the United Nations building! Definitely not surprised.

*Dawn surprises her mom by coming for Thanksgiving, which was sweet. Mary Anne knew ahead of time, hence the pick up in the limo.

*In her back of the book letter, Ann M. Martin lists her favorite childhood books. Unsurprisingly, they've all been mentioned in the BSC books: A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Doctor Doolittle, Marguerite Henry's horse stories, James and the Giant Peach, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and Baby Island.

Books mentioned:

*Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman

*Stone Fox, by John Reynolds Gardiner

My rating:

2.5 stars. Mainly a generic babysitting plot, and it will probably never be mentioned again. My least favorite kind...