It's that time again. It's time for yet another trip to Stoneybrook. I swear I intend to get these on a more cohesive schedule since so far these have been fun to go through. And it's time to focus on the newest member of the Baby-Sitters club, Dawn Schafer. We met Dawn in our previous book, Mary Anne Saves the Day, as she became Mary Anne's new friend while her other friends were all fighting. Not only that, but we also learn that Dawn's mother and Mary Anne's father were once a couple and are in the process of rekindling that fire. So props to the previous book for setting things in motion. How will Dawn fare as focus? Let's see when we deal with Dawn and the Impossible Three.
We open with our introduction to Dawn and the club as per usual. Dawn used to live in California with her mom, dad and brother Jeff. However, when the divorce happened, Dawn, Jeff and their mother ended up moving from California to Stoneybrook. We open with Dawn babysitting for the Pike family, which has eight, count em, EIGHT kids. That includes a set of triplets. But thankfully, she's only watching four of them so not the worst case scenario. Margo, Mallory, Claire and Nicky. But Mallory being the oldest at ten is more helpful. After meeting with Mrs. Pike, she checks in on Margo who is first seen singing Puff the Magic Dragon and Old MacDonald as Dawn checks in on her. As she talks with Mallory we learn a bit more about Dawn's family situation.
We know already that Mr. Spier and Dawn's mom were a couple briefly before her rich parents forced the split due to Mr. Spier being poor. Sometime later, she married Dawn's dad, but it didn't go well due to her dad being a more organized person and her mom being more absent-minded and aloof, which Dawn thinks was the factor that caused the divorce. Not so much throwing her mom under the bus, but ouch. This talk gets interrupted when Suzi Barrett, a neighbor kid, shows up with a scraped knee, which Dawn fixes up. After the job, she talks with Mary Anne to which we learn that since rekindling things with Dawn's mom, Mr. Spier has become more lenient with Mary Anne, not being as strict as he was before the events of our last book. She even gets to fix up her room and get rid of those Alice in Wonderland pictures she was complaining about last book. So that's cool.
The club gathers for their latest meeting, with them getting calls from the usual suspects, as well as Mrs. Barrett, who is going through a divorce and needs someone to watch her three kids, including Sizi who we met earlier. Dawn figures she'll have to be the one to do it. The Prezzosios call wanting a babysitter for Jenny, and the other girls give that job to Mary Anne since she's the only one who gets along with Jenny, and, you know, she did save her life. Kristy mentions taking David Michael to the new Disney movie, which this book was released in 1987. No new animated films that year, so did she take him to see Benji the Hunted? Maybe Brave Little Toaster, but that's not listed as a Disney film. Here I am talking about everything but the book. What else is new?
The next day, Dawn and Kristy join in on Mary Anne's big redecoration project. The next day, while talking with Miranda and Mariah Shillaber, a pair of twins who are friends to Kristy and Mary Anne, they talk about how things are progressing between Dawn and Mary Anne's parents. And if it gets really good it could mean that Mary Anne and Dawn would become stepsisters, which delights the two of them, but bothers Kristy, who hasn't said it yet, but Dawn can already sense that Kristy thinks she's being a wedge between her friendship with Mary Anne. Which given when we met Dawn Mary Anne used her as a way to make Kristy jealous, yeah, I can see how that would still be a lingering issue. It's also way on the nose because Kristy's mom and Watson are about to marry, and that means Kristy will be moving.
Dawn heads to Mrs. Barrett's house to watch over Suzi, Marnie and Buddy, the latter of which likes to shoot his toy gun a lot. The place is a mess, with dirty dishes and everything. Mrs. Barrett is in a rush for a job interview, so Dawn is left with limited instructions and three kids to deal with. So, probably still better than dealing with Kristy? She also manages to get the kids to help clean the house up, so her ability to enforce child labor's on point, though Buddy's not fond of not being allowed to even do finger guns around Dawn, who really doesn't like the idea of even pretend guns. I'm sure some rightwing nut is calling Dawn super woke as we speak. It's all going great, until the topic of divorce rears its ugly head and Dawn says that divorce is forever, which upsets Suzi. Making friends, everywhere you go Dawn. Just making friends.
Dawn babysits for Karen and Andrew, and Kristy shows up. Thankfully it's less cold this time, but they have fun with the kids, and Karen invites her friend Hannie over. They play a bit, when they see a reflection of Mrs. Porter outside, the woman everyone thinks is a witch. She wanted some herbs for whatever she's cooking, but Kristy thinks that Watson wouldn't have any of those. They then head upstairs and see Boo Boo the family cat, which we get added lore that Karen believes that the ghost of Old Ben Brewer, Watson's great-grandfather, haunts the attic. For a series called The Baby-Sitters Club, I was not expecting this many possibly supernatural elements. After, Dawn invites Kristy to her place and the two visit the barn which is in bad shape, after swinging on a rope in the hayloft, it seems at least for now that Kristy's warmed up to Dawn, enough to have her as the alternate officer for the club. Essentially the pinch hitter if the others can't take a job.
When Dawn babysits for Mrs. Barrett again, it's the same deal. House a mess and kids barely dressed, but Mrs. Barrett looks great. Not ready to call this neglect yet since it's likely signs of her being too busy and the divorce messing with Mrs. Barrett's mental health. The kids a bit more annoying but far from the impossible three yet. Stacey and Claudia invite the Barretts and Dawn to a picnic at the Pikes so Dawn makes brownies. Also Jenny Prezzioso is there because she just showed up. Eighties and lax parental helicoptering, it's quite the combination. Then Nicky Pike points his index fingers and does what is called the "Bizzer sign", which is just done to annoy the other kids, which bothers some of the other kids, all while Dawn is confused as to what the heck even is a Bizzer Sign, and if it was something that maybe started certain wars. No, I don't think anyone bizzered Franz Ferdinand... Also Dawn almost gives Marnie a brownie, but Mallory Pike (the older sister who was a help earlier) stops her, saying that Marnie is allergic to chocolate. This angers Dawn because she wasn't made aware of ANY of the allergies by Mrs. Barrett, so that was one hell of a dodged bullet.
In fact, Dawn is getting annoyed at everything Mrs. Barrett has done, or in this case not done. So now she's starting to suspect some neglect, and that she's being shortchanged for not just babysitting, but doing the chores as well. She plans to give her a good talking to... some other time, she's not quite ready for that yet. When she visits the Barretts again (She's been the only babysitter for the Barretts so far) we learn a little more that the divorce was bad, so bad that she tells Dawn not to let Mr. Barrett know the kids are there. Yikes. The kids make a mess before Mrs. Barrett makes her leave. Suzi gets sick, Dawn tries to call Mrs. Barrett, but gets a local auto shop instead. So she's there with a sick kid for the day until Mrs. Barrett comes home. So now Dawn is doubly pissed. The next visit, she has to do a family tree for Buddy because his mom is too busy. So now it's quadruply pissed.
While at Kristy's place, Stacey watches David Michael. A little later we get confirmation that David Michael and Kristy are both frustrated that they'll have to move soon. Given she's always lived next to Mary Anne, that's the biggest frustration for Kristy in particular, that and not babysitting her regulars. And living three miles away means that she might not even be able to attend the club meetings, meaning that the club is now in peril. The next day, Dawn and her mother have a picnic for themselves, Mary Anne and Mr. Spier, Dawn's grandparents, and anyone else that can come, which breaks down to Kristy, David Michael and the Barretts. Mary Anne's dad really does have new confidence to go with his new contact lenses. This was all clearly a way for Ms. Schafer to show her parents that Mr. Spier is a better man than they thought, and it surprisingly works.
Mary Anne babysits for the Barrett kids and it's a bit more crazy. She ends up talking with Mr. Barrett, but makes sure to say that Suzi and Buddy aren't around. He's only supposed to talk to them on specific Tuesdays. Dawn babysits for them next and lets Buddy go outside to play in the rain puddles while getting the other kids dressed. Which turns out to be a bad idea, not just because she's not paying attention to the boy, but because he ends up disappearing. The neighborhood searches for him, but he's nowhere to be seen. Jordan, one of the Pike kids, says he saw Buddy enter a car, but couldn't see who it is. Dawn gets a call later from Buddy at a gas station and learns he was taken by his dad, who yanks him away from the phone. So yeah, Dawn screwed up big time. I mean, there are other factors here, but I'll get to it in the conclusion.
Eventually, Mr. Barrett does bring Buddy back. See, this actually was the weekend he was supposed to have visitation rights, but Mrs. Barrett forgot the right dates. So he took Buddy for a bit hoping Mrs. Barrett would get the picture I guess? But when he realized that Buddy was worried about Dawn, he eventually brought him back. So he gets a warning for that and leaves. But this is finally enough for Dawn to confront Mrs. Barrett and requests to no longer babysit. She loves the kids, but Mrs. Barrett hasn't done anything to help her out in situations like, you know, what could have been a kidnapping. That she's been more of a mother to the kids than Mrs. Barrett. But Mrs. Barrett doesn't want her to just up and leave, so she promises to help out, keep the place clean and at least prove to Dawn that things can be better. It's enough for Dawn to give her three more chances.
So the book ends with things getting a little better (though Buddy still talks with Dawn more than his mother), Kristy finding a solution with Charlie driving her to the club meetings at Claudia's and everyone finally finishes redecorating Mary Anne's room. Super happy ending for a book with an attempted kidnapping. Huh.
Speaking of Kristy, I'm glad the book doesn't drag her issues with Dawn throughout the whole book. It's not like last book where we have the whole "Is the club over" drama that never felt like a real issue given the series was only on its fourth book. But I also get Kristy being frustrated, especially given that Dawn was used as a manipulation tool by Mary Anne last book. And it's just nice for the two to have common ground on certain things. And on the front of Mr. Spier and Ms. Schafer, things continue to look good. I even like the little touch of Mr. Spier getting the approval of Ms. Schafer's parents, proving that he's changed. Him being more lenient to Mary Anne, him getting contacts, just being less of a helicopter parent. It's all really nice progression that happens a lot faster than I thought it would.
The main conflict of the book is Mrs. Barrett and the divorce. How clearly neither side took it well. It devastated Mrs. Barrett, and now being a single parent she's lost track on so much while trying to get a job. So much so that it's becoming emotionally taxing on her kids, and Dawn unintentionally becomes their surrogate mother. Though they're not really the impossible ones that the title suggests. They're a handful, but never to the point of driving Dawn insane. Her issues are always with Mrs. Barrett's poor job of filling her in on what to do. Mr. Barrett is concerning, given his gambit of just taking Buddy for a spell, and the book makes it clear that the divorce didn't go well on either side, but I don't know, him getting a slap on the wrist and a suggestion to fix this up doesn't seem like a fitting punishment.
But by that token, Dawn screwed up big time and I think the book should have focused on that aspect. She let Buddy leave the house on his own instead of waiting for Suzi and Marnie to be dressed and ready to go. Didn't we kind of have this similar bad case of poor babysitting two books ago with the Agency just letting a kid play in the street? Yes, it all worked out in the end, but if it wasn't Mr. Barrett and it were someone else, then good odds this would have been a much darker book. So yeah, for as much as things can be put on Mrs. Barrett for how things went, Dawn ultimately dropped the ball on this one. For an organization who have been great at handling the kids, this was a huge foul up.
So, while I still liked this one, I think it's my least favorite book so far. Mainly on the conflict and resolution, mainly on really being disappointed in how Dawn screwed up (even if it gave us a strong enough climax) and it really feeling more like filler that reminds us more that things are on the horizon instead of a book where things happen. It's also a book again where most of the cast are less important, namely Claudia and Stacey yet again, which is a shame since so far they're my two favorite BSC members. Hope that changes soon. In the end, it's still a recommend. It's not impossible, but it's definitely passable. Dawn and the Impossible Three gets a B-.
RELATABLE REFERENCES
Puff the Magic Dragon
Old MacDonald
Alice in Wonderland
Disney Movies
Mary Poppins
Duncan Hines
The Brady Bunch
Weber Grills
Candy Land
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.