Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #07: Claudia and Mean Janine

It's time to finally shine the spotlight on Claudia again. And this time we're dealing with one of those pins I said we'd come back to, and this being her issues with her older sister Janine. What we know of Janine is that she's a genius. So much of a genius that she often corrects others when it comes to things like pronunciation or grammar. You know that scene in Back to the Future where Marty says "This is heavy" and 1955 Doc Brown thinks he's talking about the gravitational pull? That's Janine Kishi. So can this book give us a bit more to her, or is this sibling squabble far from resolved?  Let's get the answer with Claudia and Mean Janine.

Both covers I could have gone with do a solid enough job in presenting the general conflict of the book, which is Claudia and Janine being at odds with one another. I think the reprint cover does a better job in making this feel like an argument between both sides. Making things feel like a bigger conflict overall.

The original cover also does a good job in selling the conflict, but I don't know, it also makes it seem like Claudia is the only real issue here and that both Janine and the kid don't want to deal with her nonsense. It's a sillier cover which is earns it more points at least. I guess your taste will vary more on which feels more like it sells the issue to you, and I think that goes with the first reprint.

We open with Claudia pretty much giving us what we kind of already know about the Kishi family. Conservatives, constantly on the go, Claudia is the more out there daughter with her clothing and outlook while Janine is button-down, keeps to herself and is a genius without really any friends, which Claudia notes is because her parents want Janine to be a physicist. I take it physicists don't get many friends? But while Claudia sees issues with Janine being such a square, it's also with a tinge of her own worries. That she's letting her parents down by not going down a similar path. By not being overly educated, career driven, and, you know, being a friendless physicist. 

At breakfast, we get a bit more of a scope to just how fractured this sibling pair is as while Claudia mentions going to the Baby-Sitters Club meeting, Janine tries to ask how they plan to continue keeping up the club since Kristy now lives out of town since the wedding just happened but of course she says so in big words that confuses Claudia. Claudia gets annoyed, she annoys Janine, and both head off in a huff. Happy, happy family we got here. The meeting goes down, and after everyone notices that Stacey got her hair cut, Kristy mentions that since the whole situation with taking care of all the kids for the wedding went well, given it's Summer, they could do sort of a play group with their regular kids that they babysit, to which everyone seems to be cool with. 

After the girls get the good to go with the other parents, Claudia comes home to Mimi who makes her pancakes for dinner. They didn't ask Janine, which bothers her, but she's also more focused on her studies to really express it. They then play a trivia game, which Claudia easily loses because at this point if she won that would be a shocker. The two quarrel some more before Claudia straight calls Janine a nerd which ends that game as Janine storms off, and Mimi heads to her bedroom. The girls resume arguing when they hear the sound of something hitting the floor of Mimi's bedroom. They find Mimi on the floor, unconscious. Yep, I knew we were getting close to the start of this.

They think that Mimi had a heart attack and call the paramedics. After they get their parents, they head to the hospital to find out that Mimi suffered a stroke and in critical but stable condition. So they won't be able to get a concrete answer for days. The next day, Claudia relays the news to the others and they decide that they should have the kids make get well soon cards for Mimi once she's awake. Their play group goes mostly well, with Jenny really being the only bratty kid. After that finishes up, Claudia is at her house with Jamie Newron when Janine comes home. Claudia asks her about school, to which Janine responds about it, only for Claudia to be upset she didn't mention Mimi or their mother, then call her mean before almost being about to hit her. Um... okay, but your first question was "How was school" and, like, you've lived with Janine for 13 years so, the heck response did you expect? Anyway, this is the scene from the first cover, meaning yeah, if I were Jamie, I'd cover my ears too.

After having a makeshift dinner on account of no Mimi, who usually does that, Claudia, Janine and their parents visit her. Claudia is so taken aback at the sight of her in the hospital bed that she can't do it yet. But Janine manages to. The next day, she manages to talk with Mimi, who can only respond in blinks. After the visit, they return home. Claudia sees Janine in her room on her computer and can faintly tell that Janine may be crying. The next play group again doesn't go well thanks to Jenny, who is in a white outfit, which means that unless those clothes are somehow stainless, she's gonna get dirty. Karen shows up and notes Jenny's dress and, because this is Karen, she can't help but instigate, mentioning something about a monster. I see the alien situation hasn't smartened her up. She claims that her brother Andrew turns into a monster because of Morbidda Destiny. 

That night, Mrs. Kishi has good news that Mimi is now able to eat on her own and has been moved to a different room in the hospital, so she's improving. When they visit, they see that she still can't talk or communicate that well, but she's recovering. But needs therapy and visits from her family to help, which Claudia volunteers, even if Janine was going to be the first to suggest. This means she misses the next play group, which consists of the perils of giving Kristy's dog Louie a bath. Some time goes by and Mimi starts to improve, however she can't say certain words in English anymore and can only remember the name in Japanese. A form of aphasia as the doctor tells Claudia. 

Mimi is brought home and now Claudia volunteers to help take care of her, trying to help her re-learn certain words. Later, as Mary Anne tries to watch over Mimi, Mimi snaps at her because, well, while she was doing her best in trying to help Mimi re-learn, she was kind of doing it in a more baby-ish way, and even Mary Anne realizes she deserved it. But more time passes and Mimi continues to recover, though she still can't do anything with her right arm, meaning she has to go southpaw from now on. The Baby-Sitters club work a christening for the Newtons' baby daughter Lucy, to which Claudia notes both how jealous Jamie is that his baby sister gets all the attention, but that ultimately he won't hurt his sister because he loves her, which finally makes Claudia kind of realize she's been kind of awful to Janine.

When she returns home, she sees Mimi alone and Janine in her room doing her studies. Claudia is angry, but Janine says that she's not as good as Claudia in handling Mimi, and that she's clearly gotten the message that she's not as welcome into Claudia's circle. In fact, it constantly feels like she's the odd one out, never suggested to be the one to help. Claudia says that while, yes, they screwed up on that, it doesn't help that Janine keeps to her studies and doesn't speak up about it. And the two settle their issues on this, both deciding to help Mimi out. Later, Claudia talks with Mimi and apologizes, thinking her actions gave Mimi the stroke, but Mimi assures her that this was going to happen given she wasn't feeling well. Claudia's outburst didn't expedite it. And we wrap up this story with Janine suggesting the three of them go for a walk, giving us our happy ending. 

Oh, and we learn that the Pike family are going on vacation to Sea City and needs two baby sitters to come with, so Stacey and Mary Anne volunteer. How does that go? We'll just have to find out next time.

I've stated that I believe Claudia is my favorite of the BSC and this still holds true in her second outing. Honestly, while the book feels like the one most lacking in baby-sitting stuff, when it comes to character development, it is one of the best so far. As it's a study on not just the relationship between Claudia and Janine, but also how both have to handle dealing with their lives changing after their grandmother suffers a stroke. And I again like how this book doesn't sugarcoat things. Mimi recovers, yes, but the book still goes through how much her life changes and how she needs to re-learn so much of what she already knows. 

It also deals well with both Claudia's guilt and Janine's feelings of isolation. Claudia feels like she should take the blame for what happened to Mimi, even if she didn't do anything to cause it. That's a real feeling that a lot of people can have in a situation. It explains why she's so eager to volunteer and why she feels bad taking money from her parents for watching Mimi when they offer. That's why Claudia is great. But we also get why Claudia is flawed, and it's how she handles the situation with Janine, particularly the big argument which Claudia started and almost made worse by almost striking her. But, I also get it. Claudia already feels guilty, and she isn't willing to let Janine get a chance to even talk about Mimi. Her defenses were way too up for a moment like that.

I also like the conflict with Janine. The book does a solid job in building that sense of feeling unwanted that Janine has. That sense of loneliness, even from her own family. It might also explain why she's so focused on her studies to become a physicist. That doing so might earn more of her family's respect. That, despite being so learned and quick to correct grammar and pronunciation, she isn't good at speaking her own mind. She is the polar opposite to Claudia and it makes the dynamic of the two more believable in how it can become so chaotic. We get a quick resolution to everything, but one that does feel earned. That Janine is willing to lower her own defenses much like how Claudia has lowered hers as well. 

If you want a book with a lot of baby-sitting, there isn't too much, but the play group stuff still works, as does the christening and the one time Claudia baby-sits for the Newtons. I do wonder if this is the start of Ann M. Martin trying to shake things up in terms of the format of these books, since we're spinning to less of the baby-sitting than we had in the earlier books. Which is something I feel is worth sacrificing if it means more character development. And, if you weren't satisfied with the lack of baby-sitting, the book ends on a cliffhanger that at least promises us some more next book. So look forward to that. 

Overall, I think this is the best book so far, but that's my Claudia bias probably talking. It does a great job developing both Claudia and Janine, gives us some emotional drama involving Mimi, gives just the right balance of baby-sitting, and flows pretty well. Only downside is the rest of the girls kind of have far less involvement, but this is fine given the subject matter of the story. Easy recommend. What happens next time with the vacation? Hopefully I don't take a year to get to it. Claudia and Mean Janine gets an A-. 

RELATEABLE REFERENCES

Nancy Drew 

The Clue in the Tapping Heels

The Message in the Hollow Oak

Ho Hos

Ring Dings

Twinkies

M&Ms

The Phantom of Pine Hill

The Guiness Book of World Records

Kermit the Frog

Napoleon Bonaparte

Babe Ruth

Coca-Cola