Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #04: Mary Anne Saves the Day

Been a minute since we've been in Stoneybrook, huh? Yeah, I didn't intend to end up taking a year hiatus on a project that honestly I have been enjoying going over, but I did say that Baby-Sitters Club was going to not be as much of a priority. But eh, still feel like I could have been a bit more punctual. It's book number four as we continue the rotation of our main characters. This time it's Mary Anne Spier. What do we know of her so far? Mother died not long after giving birth to her, her dad is strict and overprotective. So much so that it's almost cost her the ability to even be a part of the Baby-Sitters Club. So how are things going to be when she takes the main role? Let's find out with Mary Anne Saves the Day. And yes. I am aware of it. We'll get to it the conclusion.

Again, I don't know how I want to do this, older cover or newer cover? Or even newer cover in some cases? Or like, the graphic novel covers in some other cases. Okay the latter might not be in my plans but it's in the ether I guess. I'm going with the 90s cover this time as I do feel it's a more overall interesting cover. The original just has Mary Anne checking a temperature, which this one straight up involves an ambulance. Definitely the more harrowing of the two and my choice of better cover.

We open with the regular preamble for those coming in late (or someone like me, for instance, who took a long break). Mary Anne even mentions the events of the last book involving the Baby-sitters Agency. Sadly, without mentioning the god-tier idea of balloon-based advertising. They get calls to watch David Michael and a call from Watson to watch Karen and Andrew, which Kristy takes since Mary Anne is still a bit freaked out by Mrs. Porter, the witch next door. After Mrs. Newton calls for a baby-sitting job involving their new baby, Lucy, Kristy takes up the job without asking the others, which is verboten. So verboten in fact that it causes Claudia, Kristy and Stacey to all start sniping at one another, pretty much ready to cut ties on the whole club thing. Even when Mary Anne speaks up, she gets shouted down. So she takes her leave before chewing them all out for being snobs, job hogs and know-it-alls. 

After feeling miserable for what she said (though she also feels conflicted since she was in the right to say it), she returns home and prepares dinner for herself and her father, who prays for god to watch over Alma, his deceased wife and Mary Anne's mother, while the two make rather short conversation with one another since they both really don't have that much to say with one another. The next day, this whole blow up hasn't blown over and nobody is talking with one another, which bothers Mary Anne in particular. She ends up having lunch with a new girl in school, Dawn Schafer. They get along well, with Mary Anne even mentioning Alexander Kurtzman, a boy in school who wears a three-piece suit. So either he's a living ventriloquist dummy or a stereotypical rich kid from an 80s/90s cartoon. Either fits.

So, Mary Anne and Dawn start getting along better, while Kristy is literally slamming the door in Mary Anne's face. Guess she didn't learn that much about decorum after all. We learn that Dawn lives in an old farmhouse built in 1795. As such, the doorways are rather short, which does cause Mary Anne to use the M-word, but it's an eighties book so am I surprised? Dawn tells Mary Anne that her parents divorced and that she and her mom moved to Stoneybrook as it was her old home in her days as Sharon Porter, which Mary Anne thinks that maybe she knows her dad. They talk about their lives as they watch The Parent Trap, which oddly could be a reference that isn't AS dated as it should be. 

Mary Anne then goes to a club meeting. No Kristy as she's been hanging out with twins Mariah and Miranda Shillaber, and Kristy and Claudia seem to be still at odds with each other. But at the very least Mary Anne patches things up with Claudia, so that's one down. She also talks with Kristy, who isn't leaving the club or anything, just far from ready to patch anything up. And upon seeing Mary Anne inviting Dawn over to her house, is also getting concerned. Mary Anne gets a call from a Mrs. Prezzioso to watch her daughter Jenny. We learn that Mrs. Prezzioso is a prim and proper woman who also dresses quite frilly and almost from another time period. This includes Jenny's new dress. And it just so happens that Mary Anne brought watercolors with her in the kid kit. So, guess what happens next? Thankfully it's just water so no additional guilt tripping for Mary Anne.

But don't worry, save that for when she gets home as Mary Anne tries to talk with her father about extending her baby-sitting curfew to ten o'clock, which he refuses to. To the point that she finally lets it all out, angrily calling him her jailer and not her father. The next day she talks with Mimi, Claudia's grandmother, about if she's a normal kid, even if she has pictures of Alice in Wonderland and Humpty Dumpty on her walls, to which Mimi calls her the "Shattered Eggman". I freaking love Mimi. Such a great character. And yes, I'm aware. But that's not for a while. She calms Mary Anne down then refers to her as "my Mary Anne", which leads to awkwardness when Claudia shows up and gets upset since she's the only one Mimi refers to as "my". It's like some sort of force field of bad luck just keeps circling around Mary Anne in this book.

So, now making Claudia mad means that once again everyone is mad at one another. But Mrs. Newton invites them to Jamie's fourth birthday party, so hopefully that's enough of a start to maybe patch this up. Kristy and Mary Anne baby-sit the Pike kids, all eight of them, but Mary Anne has to leave at nine, given her curfew. And despite trying to hash it out again, her dad still thinks she lacks the responsibility, which even she reflects on. And she also realizes that to show that responsibility, she needs to get the band, or club in this case, back together. That doesn't happen next day, but both Mary Anne and Dawn check old yearbooks and realize that their father and mother definitely knew one another, as in were in a relationship in high school. That they seemed to have split up for some reason. Someone wanted to nip their relationship in the bud.

Mary Anne babysits Jenny again while the Prezziosos are gone, then discovers that Jenny has a high fever, giving us the events of most of the covers for the book. Instead of calling an ambulance on a fever, she calls Dawn instead. They get her to the hospital and learn it's a case of strep throat. After the Prezziosos arrive, the girls are given double pay (or a large sum for Dawn who wasn't even in the club), then head to Mary Anne's. She sees Kristy staring out her window and in an attempt to make her jealous, she puts her arm around Dawn's and sticks her tongue out at Kristy. Which even Dawn realizes what's going on and that Mary Anne's been lying to her about all of this and that she's been used. So Dawn leaves, putting a rift in that friendship for the moment. But when her dad learns about how she saved Jenny Prezzioso, he finally admits that he was a bit hard on her and that she is maturing. So a compromise of babysitting till 9:30 weeknights is made with 10 on weekends. So we're inching to our mega happy ending.

After Jamie's party which still has everyone on edge, and Dawn and Mary Anne making up before that, the girls return to Claudia's and all patch things up, having been angry each other for a month now and feeling like it should all be in the past. After that, Dawn and Mary Anne tell their parents about one another and as the girls have their monthly party at Mary Anne's, the two start to rekindle. Mrs. Schafer's parents didn't approve of Mr. Spier, and eventually moved. While the parents get reacquainted, Dawn finally meets the other girls. She used to baby-sit in California, and after what happened with Jenny, it's enough for the other girls to officially welcome her into the club. So mega happy ending right on schedule.

I like this book, but I do think it's not as strong as the others so far. I think that has to do with a lack of many lingering threads like the previous book does. With the fight and break-up happening so early, there really isn't much time given to the rest of the girls. Even the baby-sitting stuff feels more truncated here. Not to mention Stacey feels like she vanishes mid-book and only really comes back by the end. At least she got last book, I guess, so it's not a massive determent. The book's entire focus is on Mary Anne and it's a solid focus. Giving us insight on the most meek member of the club and her issues with everything falling apart around her. Her friendships disbanding, her issues with her father, even almost losing Dawn because she took her anger at Kristy too far. That even after showing tremendous maturity for saving Jenny, she still isn't AS mature as she'd like to believe.

Dawn is an interesting addition as well. Feeling in many says similar to Kristy both in being a friend to Mary Anne and as someone who is dealing with a broken home situation. And her friendship with Mary Anne and eagerness to see if their parents knew each other makes the book fun to read through. The right kind of "cutesy" hokum that works for these books. Dawn standing up for herself is also a great moment. And she is in the right. While Mary Anne felt she was being genuine in her friendship, she was using Dawn as a tool to make Kristy jealous. A third wheel. And that's unfair. I will say the making up feels very rushed in that "need to end on a happy note", but I'm cool with it. Also, the first chapter of the Ms. Schafer and Mr. Spier story which is another pin to put up on the pin board for later. 

If you were looking for a book with the plot progression of last book, you'll be let down, but otherwise, you still get a solid story. One that looks at what maturity actually is and how sometimes petty squabbles can be mended soon enough once everyone realizes they were in the wrong. Though given there's another hundred books, can't quite say the plot of "Baby-Sitters Club breaking up" really kept my interest, but the book flows well, the characters remain well written and things continue to be built up in the background. A good first look at Mary Anne as a focus. Next up is Dawn, who we still don't have that much on, but we'll soon see what happens when she takes on the impossible three. I promise it won't take a year to get to it. 

And I'll also bring it up because I know people would ask. Yes, I am aware of the Netflix adaptation of Baby-Sitters Club. No, I really don't feel like covering it entirely for the blog as I want to focus to stay on the books more than the shows. And yes, I am aware of the adaptation of this book in particular. The episode is similar in structure, but changes one thing in particular. Changing the Prezziosos to the Delvecchios, and chancing Jenny to Bailey, a trans girl. After Mary Anne takes her to the hospital, we get a scene where the nurses look at Bailey's chart and misgender her, to which Mary Anne has to be the one to stand up for her and to treat Bailey like a person. This becomes the moment in which Mr. Spier sees that she's more mature than he thought.

And of course, the people you expected to get mad got mad. For the reasons you'd expect. From Mary Anne talking down to adults to the obvious trans issues that these idiots always take. It could be debatable that Bailey feels semi-exploitive, more used to spread a message than being something that necessarily makes or breaks the episode if it was still Jenny Prezzioso. But my opinion is that I think it's a great thing done and something that shows that this is a franchise unafraid to talk about things that are a part of modern society. It's a willingness to adapt to the future and not be stuck in the past. Which is more than you can say for the people who got mad since they're the same people who still use the same two "jokes" about trans people. 

So, in the end, like I said, it's a solid book. My least favorite as it does feel lacking in focus outside of Mary Anne. But everything else about it still works and puts the character's best foot forward as the series progresses. Still really liking this book series and still kicking myself for not giving it a slight chance as a kid. Ah well, time makes fools of us all. Mary Anne Saves the Day gets a B. 

RELATABLE REFERENCES
Ring Dings
Alice in Wonderland
A Wrinkle in Time
The Parent Trap
Colorforms
Winnie the Pooh
The Phantom Tollbooth
Spider-Man
Peter Rabbit
Pippi Longstocking
Blueberries for Sal
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
Caps for Sale