Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #11: Kristy and the Snobs

The first ten books are now behind us. The initial plan of a ten-book series clearly didn't stick as the books were doing far better than expected. So it's time to continue our adventures in Stoneybrook. And this time we have class struggles and your reminder that the rich kind of suck. What goes down when Kristy has to deal with said classism? Let's see as we deal with Kristy and the Snobs.

This cover is fine. Not the most dynamic, but sets the story up quite well. Kristy having to deal with Shannon Kilbourne, who yeah, that's as 80s snob as you can get. Sweater vested as hell over here. All they're missing is a sweater around their neck and you know they've gotten away with slurs. We also get Louie, Kristy's dog on the cover and, well, I hope you don't get too attached to old Louie is all I'm saying...

Kristy opens the book telling us she hates snobs. That and like cabbage, blood, gum chewers and squirrels. What the hell did the squirrels do to you? But what she really hates are snobs. And her new neighborhood has a ton of them. With fancy homes, fancy cars, tennis courts, pools and so much of that pure eighties affluence. Kristy notes that Watson, her stepfather, isn't the same. He isn't exactly making the kids live off his money, nor flaunting it on lavish materials, which is something Kristy actually likes. But since summer has passed and school is back up, it means the snobs of the neighborhood are back from their rich summer camps and other vacations. We start the story proper with Kristy waking up and their dog Louie at her bed with cold paws. He's walking with a limp as well. But Kristy thinks that it's nothing to be concerned about. Certainly nothing one the horizon to be absolutely devastated over, I'm sure. She heads to the bus stop where she runs into two of the snobby kids in the neighborhood who mock her being Watson's new kid and having a baby-sitting club. Also her clothing because of course they would.

The Baby-Sitters Club meeting goes on and they note that their treasury is getting low on account of supplies and other expenses but hope it won't dry up. There's also calls for the Rodowsky family (which we met last book with accident-prone Jackie) and a new family the Papadakis, which Kristy accepts. Later, Kristy and the family notice that Louie isn't getting much better. They take him to the vet who says he has arthritis and poor vision and might not be around for much longer. Everyone is concerned, except David Michael, who more or less ignores all this and is sure that Louie is going to be juuuuuust fine. Kristy takes Louie out for a walk and they run into the snob girl from earlier and another girl, who mock Louie's look and smell and note how much better their dogs Astrid of Grenville and Priscilla are. The girls also introduce themselves as Shannon Louisa Kilbourne and Amanda Delaney, while still mocking Kristy for pretty much everything, in case it hasn't been made clear that these two kind of suck. 

Kristy watches the Papadakis kids, Hannie, Linny and Sari, who want to have a fashion show with their pets, Myrtle the Turtle and Noodle the Poodle. Rhyming pet names, always good stuff. They notice Shannon next door with her sister Tiffany. The kids tell Kristy about Shannon and her family, which consists of Shannon, Tiffany and Maria along with Amanda and Max, and while Shannon does baby-sit for them, they are usually pretty snobby and awful. And speaking of awful, Shannon calls the Papadakis house and tells Kristy that the house is on fire. Kristy rushes everyone out of the house, only to realize that she was pranked. So Kristy pays them back by sending Mr. Stork's diaper company to the Kilbourne house for a diaper delivery. Which, honestly, is a weaker comeback from phony fire claims. Mary Anne watches for the Perkinses again and notices that David Michael's room is being redecorated for the new baby, which Gabbie and Myriah hope gets called Lauren and Beth. Then Jamie Newton shows up and says the kid should be called Stupid Head. Which given some baby names these days wouldn't be too out there. This bothers the girls, but Mary Anne cools things down, saying that Jamie was jealous when the new Newton baby was being born, so he's just being petty. 

The next day Kristy watches for the Delaneys and both Amanda and Max are awful. Bossing her around, not really doing anything she asks, and pretty much treating her not like a baby-sitter but "the help". David Michael comes over with Louie, who is getting worse. Max and Amanda mock the dog's ailments and freak out when he sneezes. Then Shannon calls again, telling Kristy to come over to help Sari, which Kristy falls for again, with Shannon also chiding Kristy for costing her baby-sitting jobs. We then get Dawn baby-sitting for Jeff, who is acting like a little shit all of a sudden. To which we learn is because he's tired of being treated like a baby. Though, I mean, the tantrums ain't helping, dude. He wants to live with his father in California, which upsets Dawn given, you know, the family's already torn apart and this will just make things worse. Technically that can't happen since Mrs. Schaefer has legal custody, but she'll try to do something about it. At the next club meeting, Kristy dumps her frustrations on the others about how the Delaneys acted, with them even noting that maybe she should have been more assertive. Stacey takes the next job for the Delaneys, while she's still rocked over the Jeff situation. Kristy returns home and sees that Louie's gotten worse. As in "now making messes on the carpet because he can't control his bowels" bad. So yeah, not much longer in this book, huh?

Stacey watches the Delaney kids, believing she can handle them better than Kristy could. She asks them to clean their room, but they refuse, so she just messes it up worse for them. And this reverse psychology kind of works, they don't seem to actually hate it, more they're just confused that anyone would actually stand up to their BS. Kristy baby-sits the next day and it seems to go a lot better than before. Shannon sends a pizza delivery to Kristy, but she manages to divert it back to Shannon. Jeez, if this book was made today Shannon would have just swatted her at this point. Shannon and her sisters show up with the pizza box, mad about being scammed out of money for their own prank, and also for Kristy taking her jobs. She's about to throw the pizza, but after Kristy comments about throwing some at their dog Astrid, it'll be a pepperoni mountain dog. And that's somehow the ice breaker at least for this little "snob vs... well, not slob" war to come to a stalemate for now. Also Claudia baby-sits for the pikes, with five of the kids having chicken pox, so somehow she had the worse night than Kristy.

We return to the Louie situation and things aren't going great. He's at the point where he needs two injections a day at this point, so the entire family arrive that Friday, including Karen and Andrew, Karen still thinking Mrs. Porter is Morbidda Destiny because, you know, agent of chaos. That gets cut when they see that Louie can't even walk on his hind legs anymore. The younger kids are in a panic, while everyone else pretty much realizes that there's nothing else they can do for Louie. The next day, Kristy, Watson, Mrs. Brewer and David Michael take Louie to the vet to be put down. Karen, in an act of not chaos, comes up with the idea of holding a funeral for Louie, and even setting up a gravestone to remember him by. They don't have his corpse, but they bury his leash and bowl to remember him by. The Kilbournes also show up with Shannon showing remorse for Louie's passing. I mean, she still mocked a sick dog, but I can believe her grief. 

Kristy watches for the Delaneys again when Shannon shows up holding a puppy. Astrid had a litter so she thought that Kristy's family could use one. Kristy calls her mom, who was already aware of Astrid being pregnant and planned this, so long as David Michael was fine with it, which, even though he misses Louie, ultimately decides to be for. Shannon apologizes to Kristy for being awful, saying that a lot of it came from feeling like Kristy was costing her and Tiffany jobs. They all bury the hatchet and decide to call the new puppy Shannon. A few weeks pass and another BSC meeting goes down, with human Shannon even showing up. The idea is made that like Logan, Shannon can be an associate member similar to Logan Bruno, which Shannon accepts to give us our on-time super mega happy ending.

Well this book is definitely a case of tonal whiplash. You get a mixture of fun and silly stuff with Kristy having to deal with Shannon's nonsense, all while the book describes, in agonizing detail, that Louie the collie is going to die in this book. And yeah, this even made me feel emotional. I never got over losing my cat almost a decade ago, so the book describing Louie's arthritis, his legs giving out, his incontinence, the signs that the end was coming, it's some hard stuff. But I think it's why I think this is one of the best books for the series that I've covered so far. It's why I respect how Ann M. Martin treats her readers with respect and honesty, letting them understand the situation. The sadness, the frustration, the grief, the feeling of losing someone important, especially if it's someone like a cherished pet. One that the book makes clear has been around Kristy for her whole life and David Michael's. 

You don't get a lot with David Michael, but enough to understand how he's handling it. The five stages. Denial when he won't listen to anyone about how bad Louie's getting, anger after the accident on the rug, bargaining with hoping they can just keep the shot schedule going, fear with how bad Louie's getting and the inevitable putting down, and acceptance with the adoption of Shannon and the realization that the puppy isn't meant to replace Louie. All while dealing with Kristy and the rest of the family grieving and dealing with the inevitable in their own way. For trusting her readers to handle all that and giving them a sign of hope, I think really shows the greatness of this series. Again, I really wish I read these as a kid, maybe I'd have enjoyed them more than I do as an adult. I think in a way I could have used them. Also, yeah, this won't be the last time this series deals with the death of a member of the club's family, but that's still not for a while.

This is Kristy's best book so far. Better than the first book for sure since that book had to also be a pilot for the book series. This gives us a focus on Kristy and it's good stuff. You understand her frustrations with Shannon, her fears about Louie, and her trying to be a good baby-sitter even when dealing with awful, unappreciative rich kids. Speaking of which, Shannon... I don't know how to feel about Shannon. Granted, she turns out to be better at the end of the book than she was at the start of the book, giving Kristy the puppy and all. But she was still super awful to Kristy, making prank calls, and, for all of the grief she has at the end, was still pretty mean about Louie. So for everything to resolve itself so quick kind of feels a bit too rushed. A bit like it had to be rushed quick to get to the finale involving the death of Louie. It's also a similar case to Logan where she doesn't get any focused books aside from a special edition later on. And while the associate idea is good, I do feel like I'd want more stories with Shannon as the focus to fix the issues she still has. 

So overall, this book is really good. Not perfect. And the non-Delaney baby-sitting chapters feel like they're just there. Probably the worst case of such in the while. And most of the girls feel lesser important here. But given the nature of the plot being focused on Kristy's plights, it's less of a big deal. But given this is a book with my oh-so-beloved worldbuilding, it makes me appreciate this. It's a fun book with some decent stuff involving class issues while also being an emotional book about the death of a dog. It's a tonal whiplash, but still works both well enough. Does it get easily resolved a bit too easily? Oh yeah, especially with Shannon's redemption. But I do think it flows quite well and at least makes the reader intrigued as to what's going to happen next. And dammit, this series still has me interested. So points in its favor. Kristy and the Snobs gets an A-. 

This Little Piggy
Rock-a-Bye Baby

Disney World

Coca-Cola

Leave it to Beaver

Gummi Bears

M&Ms

The Taming of the Shrew

Tinker Toys

Matchbox

Lego

Lincoln Logs

Barbie

Hawaiian Punch

Oreo

Mary Poppins

Great Big Globs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts

B-I-N-G-O

Brother Louie

The Tenth Good Thing About Barney

The Aristocats