Thoughts before reading:
I can't believe I'm on the last series book! When I started this project, I couldn't even imagine getting this far.
I wonder how this came to be the last BSC book, exactly? Was it planned that way, or just weird luck? The idea for it is so different from the usual BSC fare, and such a dark ending to an idyllic series. Everyone else's last books were just normal, small plots, nothing special. Then we hit this last one and it's about a house fire. If it was planned as a way to change some things for the Friends Forever books, I wonder if they just were ready to do something different, or if the series had dropped in popularity. Friends Forever didn't last very long, after all.
The basics:
Summer vacation has just started, and Mary Anne's relaxing and reading Teenzine magazine. She's excited to see that they're having a "Babysitter of the Year" contest, so she spreads the word to the rest of the BSC. They decide to enter as a group, going through the club notebook for essay ideas for their entry. Everyone starts reminiscing about all the crazy times the club has been through. They even gather testimonials from some of their charges.
After a pleasant, ordinary summer day, which Mary Anne spends having a picnic with Logan in her barn, reading in a hammock, going to the BSC meeting, and having some family time, Tigger wakes her up in the middle of the night. It's 4:42 AM, and she hears fire alarms going off. Confused, she scoops up Tigger and leaves her room. The downstairs of her house is completely up in flames, and there's thick smoke everywhere. Her dad is out in the hall, and quickly guides her down the stairs, where they then crawl outside to safety. Sharon's already out there, and has just called 911. They huddle together outside, waiting, and watching their house burn.
The firefighters quickly arrive and set to work, but the fire has done a lot of damage very quickly. They manage to save the barn, but the house is almost completely destroyed. Mary Anne watches everything unfolding, in complete shock and unable to cry. Stacey comes to wait with her at some point in the very early morning, and other neighbors keep stopping by.
Awhile after dawn, the fire is finally out. More neighbors, along with the rest of the BSC, stop by for moral support. Watson offers to let them stay with his family, which Richard gratefully accepts. Maureen brings everyone water and sandwiches. Someone calls Dawn and Jeff to let them know, and Dawn promises to come ASAP. Then a few firefighters lead the family into the wreckage to look for things to salvage. There's barely anything left, but Sharon's wedding ring and a pearl necklace of Mary Anne's are found.
By late morning, Mary Anne finally goes to Kristy's house to sleep for a few hours. When she returns to the house later, her parents and many other volunteers are going through the wreckage, still hoping to find things to save. Kristy helps Mary Anne search for anything from her room. The whole BSC ends up returning to help, and Dawn arrives that evening.
After a few days of salvaging and finding almost nothing, Richard calls a family meeting to discuss what's next for them. Right before the fire, he got a really good job offer in Philadelphia, and Sharon wants to quit her job and go back to school... so they think now this might be a good time to move. Mary Anne's stunned by the prospect of more changes.
In the coming days, Mary Anne finds herself feeling helpless, numb, and unable to cry or discuss the fire with anyone. She's also having nightmares and trouble sleeping. One night she creeps out of the house alone after a bad dream, and rides Kristy's bike all the way to the ruins of her house. (The book makes sure to tell us this isn't a smart thing to do, but she does wear a helmet!) She looks at the items saved in the barn, and finally cries. Dawn shows up after awhile, having guessed where she went. They sit and cry together, and talk about the fire at last. Mary Anne realizes she's not alone after all.
The BSC charges pull together to help write the history of the BSC, which inspires Kristy to finally write her essay on why she loves to babysit. (Included in entirety.) The essay makes everyone cry, even Logan.
Timeline:
It's June, summer vacation.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.
*Almost 200 books later, Tigger is still a kitten.
*At the beginning of this book, Mary Anne's reading the "Hot Summer Fun" issue of Teenzine. Sounds like the BSC-verse version of BOP, haha.
*Mary Anne has a Cam Geary collage, to the surprise of no one.
*We're told in here that Dawn's a very relaxed person who never judges anyone? (pg 5) OK, I like Dawn generally, but that's simply not true. She's really judgmental when people don't follow along with what she believes in, or agree with her. As the series has progressed, that's also gotten way worse. She's said and thought really harsh things about people who eat meat numerous times, even though she also eats it herself fairly often, for one example.
*Why did this house have to be the one to burn down, if they really wanted a house fire book? It was my favorite in the series, when I was a kid and still during my re-read.
*Mal isn't in this book, because Riverbend starts their summer vacation 2 weeks later.
*This book gets meta on us: "The BSC has had so many experience I'd have to write a whole book-- a whole set of books-- if I wanted to tell our complete story" (pg 22).
*There was LOTS of reminiscing in here, which was both fitting and nice. While working on their contest essay, the girls look back on Jackie's injuries, Jenny's strep throat, making instruments with the kids, making Thanksgiving baskets for Stoneybrook manor, the ghost in the secret passage, Jake Kuhn going missing, the pet sitting, the Mother's Day Off free sitting event... and the original notebook entries are included. Normally I'd complain about filler, but it was fun to look back on the things from long ago. It already feels like it's been forever since I read those early books. They definitely knew this would be the last book when they wrote it.
*Norman Hill's apparently always trying to diet and likes to be kept from temptation? He's 7! More like his parents want him to do both...
*Sharon works for a woman who has her own small accounting business, but she's not happy with the job lately. That's called adulthood, Sharon.
*The time loop is sort of acknowledged in here, albeit awkwardly... Mary Anne and Logan jump in the hay in the barn during their picnic, something she says she hasn't done in years. Technically she's right, but since she met Dawn during 7th grade, and 8th grade has just ended (in theory, although they're going to go through it one more time). So the longest it could possibly be since she even met Dawn is less than two years. Taking into account that she's entering 8th grade again in the fall, it would only be months.
*Mary Anne and Logan kiss in the hayloft? Is it just me, or does this sound like a euphemism, as in "a roll in the hay"? Maybe it's G rated BSC speak for making out?
*I liked that this book goes through the "last normal day" of Mary Anne's life in detail. Who doesn't do that in their mind after something life changing happens, especially when it's unexpected?
*Mary Anne crawls out of the burning house whole holding Tigger? That's impressive, but I think also pretty impossibly, unless she's on all fours. She couldn't really roll then though, as we're told she does.
*How did Sharon end up outside alone while Mary Anne wasn't even awake yet? I hope Richard made her go out to safety and to call 911, otherwise that's pretty messed up that she just left them both inside.
*This book would have terrified me as a kid, and was still unsettling now. The way the sequence of events is described, it's very clear that Richard, Mary Anne, and Tigger were mere moments away from being trapped in the second floor of a burning house.
*Mary Anne thinks the saddest two movies ever made are Titanic and Roman Holiday. It's so weird to hear her mention a movie as recent as Titanic. These girls love their old movies, and like I've said before, these books will forever be stuck in an earlier era for me. I can't picture them past the early 90s.
*Mary Anne's kept journals ever since she could write? That's new info... I thought only Mal did that.
*I do think it would have been more fitting to give Kristy the last book, have this be second to last, and tie up some loose ends, while giving the BSC creator and narrator of the first book a better storyline to finish on.
*Items salvaged from the house during the later searches include a bathtub, andirons from the fireplace, a jumble of silverware, 3 pots, a colander, Dawn's porcelain dolphin, a tin box, a ruined stuffed animal, and one picture of Mary Anne's mom.
*If Sharon wants to move, it should be to California, so she can actually be in her children's lives and help raise them. I can't believe she'd consider moving anywhere else.
*The letter in the back of this book from AMM is about the Friends Forever series, which began only a month after this book.
*Last Mary Anne book and last book in the regular series. She narrated 28 books.
Books mentioned:
*Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
*My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George
*101 Fantastic Hamburger Recipes
My rating:
4 stars. Mary Anne definitely got the best final book. This was well done, sad, and touching.
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