Thoughts before reading:
I'm still not a Mary Anne and Logan fan in the slightest, so I can't muster up much enthusiasm for this. It would actually be awesome if the series followed through and did send him away to school, although I know they don't. This relationship is just so unrealistic, even for children's books, primarily because it's gone on for so long.
This is a really unflattering cover for both of them as well, and no teenagers in the mid-90s dressed this way... Also, what is with that face Logan is making??
The basics:
Richard, Sharon, and the whole BSC are at the airport waiting for Jeff and Dawn to arrive for summer vacation. The plane's delayed, so they decide to kill time in the cafeteria. While there, a man starts choking. Sharon rushes over and saves him by doing the Heimlich maneuver. Mary Anne is not only impressed, but she feels really guilty that she just froze up in the face of an emergency and did nothing. (So did everyone else around, since only Sharon acted, so as usual, Mary Anne is really overreacting. I know how she feels though, because I've frozen up in an emergency too, when I really needed to act, and I still feel guilty about it.)
Later on, the BSC discusses the choking incident, and they all decide to take a first aid class at the community center. (Alan Gray and Pete Black are also taking it, as it turns out.) At the end of their first class, Logan shows up and tells Mary Anne that his dad wants him to go to boarding school. It's a prep school in New Hampshire that he attended as a kid, and he wants Logan to go to prepare for a good college. He also wants him to attend a survival and leadership camp beforehand, over the summer. Mary Anne is crushed. From then on, Logan's in a bad mood over being sent away soon, and Mary Anne gets frustrated that he won't talk to his parents about how he feels.
The first aid class proves a bit more intense than Mary Anne expected, as the sessions continue. They visit the ER during one class, which has her freaking out the whole time, especially after she sees a little boy come in after having had a seizure. Another time, the class does a mock disaster drill, and Dawn volunteers Mary Anne to be the "heavy bleeder". Mary Anne's pissed because just the idea makes her feel sick, and she gets mad at Dawn over it. They make up pretty quickly though, and Dawn reminds her of all the times she did the right thing in an emergency.
One afternoon, Dawn and Mary Anne are sitting for the Korman kids, who are playing in their pool with some friends. There's an adult neighbor who's helping to supervise, but when he steps inside for lemonade Mary Anne notices Timmy Hsu struggling and going under in the deep end. She manages to pull him out, and begins CPR. After one breath he starts gasping and coughing. Dawn calls 911, and an ambulance quickly shows up to take him.
This incident gets Mary Anne thinking about Logan's situation in a new light, namely, how he's refusing to jump in and act. She talks to him again, and he admits to being scared to talk to his dad, not wanting to seem like a sissy. Mary Anne reminds him what she went though with her dad, back when she was struggling for some independence. They end up agreeing to talk to Mr. Bruno together.
Logan explains to his dad how happy he is in Stoneybrook, and that he already has been earning good grades and doing well in sports. His dad relents on everything easily.
Side plot: The BSC members teach some of their charges about safety.
Timeline:
It's the beginning of summer vacation, so June.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Peter Lerangis
*Mary Anne also gets upset and faint when the teacher demonstrates infant CPR on a doll, because the doll looks limp and lifeless. Are we really supposed to believe someone this sensitive has been so clear headed in several emergencies involving children?
*I hated how convenient it was that after dealing with her guilt over not acting during the choking incident, followed by taking a first aid class, there's a babysitting emergency on Mary Anne's watch. I know these are only intended for kids, and but that doesn't mean the plots have to be so simplified and dumbed down.
*If Logan's dad is so strict and determined to have his son succeed, via a plan he's probably had for years, there's just no way he would just give it up so easily. Another pointless storyline.
Books mentioned:
*Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
*A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
My rating:
2 stars. Nothing really happens in here, because these storylines are so pointless that the outcomes are glaringly obvious from the beginning of the book. Mary Anne is really annoying in here as well, and all the first aid stuff is really boring, and packed into the story as obvious filler.
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