Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #23: Dawn on the Coast

This is the one, right? This has to be the Dawn book that I come out really liking, right? I mean, 23 books in, her fourth leading role, and it's a book that focuses on her in California. Like, this has got to be the one. But then I see that this is the first book in the series with a ghostwriter, which yep, of course a series with over 100 books and a metric ton of spinoff books was going to need ghostwriters. So that makes my concerns raise just a bit higher. This blog truly is no fun in the sun sometimes, so hopefully we can warm up to this book. Let's get California dreamin' with Dawn on the Coast. 

With this batch of covers, we officially reach the end of the road. Because as of this writing, Dawn on the Coast is currently the last Graphic Novel with an available cover to talk about (Not counting the Karen books, we have a few left for them), so following this book we'll be sticking to the reprints and the originals. And these covers are all fine. The first and second hit on the same idea of Jeff splashing Dawn with a bucket of water. Very fun and silly setup. Good stuff. But I do really like the graphic novel's a bit more. It's a little more simplified, but I like the colors and the focus on Dawn, It does a good job in focusing on this being in California and this being a Dawn book. All three work for what the book is trying to offer, so good works.

Dawn gives us the long preamble about herself, her situation since moving to Stoneybrook and about the club, of course. But, more importantly, she's going to take her spring vacation in California to visit her dad and Jeff. She worries about leaving her mom alone in the big house that may or may not have a ghost... at Dawn's house. But her mother is fine and is still going out with her current boyfriend Trip. Dawn and the girls then have a slumber/going away party where they order pizza, which is covered with rubber worms thanks to the antics of Kristy's brother Sam. Dawn soon heads for the airport and her flight goes mostly well, save for her vegetarian meal being given to someone else, so she's stuck with mystery meat. Eventually she arrives and is greeted by her dad, Jeff, and Sunny Winslow, her best friend in California, who says that she has a surprise for Dawn. 

Dawn wakes up the next day as her dad's housekeeper Mrs. Bruen works on breakfast. Her dad has a big day planned for her as they're headed to Disneyland. Oh, great. More Disney advertising. With the book somehow namedropping even more Disney attractions than Baby-sitters on Board did, which that was pretty damn excessive. I do the "Relatable References" bit and you'd probably forgive me if I just went "Every damn attractions in late 80s Disneyland" but nope, I'm going to post the entire thing. They go to pretty much all the attractions and even watch some Mickey cartoons. After the advertisement-err, I mean chapter, Dawn heads to Sunny's house to see her surprise. It turns out that Sunny and two of Dawn's former classmates Maggie Blume and Jill Henderson, have formed their own baby-sitters club, the "We ❤ Kids Club". Ever since Dawn started sending letters about the club, they decided to take up their own branch. They don't do thinks as professionally as the Stoneybrook gang, but they try. Dawn also accepts a sitting job while she's still in California.

Speaking of the Stoneybrook gang, just because this is a Dawn book doesn't mean we don't get the other girls sitting back in Stoneybrook. Hence Mary Anne and Claudia sitting for the Perkinses, the Newtons and the Feldmans. Which I was going to go "who the hell are the Feldmans" and was going to look back through old blogs, until it gets revealed they're cousins to the Jamie and Lucy Newton. Rob, Brenda and Rosie. It's mostly chaotic as a lot of these sitting jobs are, but eventually Rob, the oldest and the girl hater, manages to calm the kids down by remembering something from a book called Babies in Space, which is a science fiction book because it's established he's a sci-fi nut. Back to Dawn who goes to the beach with her dad, Jeff, his friend Luke, and the We ❤ Kids Club. All of them are blonde by the way, which Dawn says fits the California stereotype, but I dunno. That screams Children of the Corn to me. While there Dawn talks with her dad about things, how Jeff is much happier in California, how her mom's doing, all while Dawn is starting to really enjoy being home in California, which gives her a bit of a dilemma.

The next day Dawn baby-sits for Clover and Daffodil Austin, kids she sat for back when she lived in California. They're described as part of a hippie family (no, really? I'd have guessed they were botanists) and takes them to the carnival which, again, is a nice moment. When she gets home she gets calls from her family and Mary Anne, which again continues to weigh the conflict on Dawn on what world she wants to be in. Back in Stoneybrook, it's been a while, but we're dealing with the agent of chaos again as Jessi sits for the Brewers. They play Let's All Come In which requires getting clothes from the third floor attic, where Karen claims the ghost of Old Ben Brewer lives up there. There's no ghost, but a note that says death to all who enter. It's clearly a joke from Sam, but it furthers Karen's belief of the paranormal. Dawn has the club meeting with the girls and realizes that she's having a great time. Too great a time. Too "maybe I should live here instead" great a time. So she starts to write to her mother but changes her mind before going to dinner and asking her dad if she could stay in California instead, but to think about it before going all-in. She makes a list and the pros for California outweigh that of Stoneybrook, but she still hasn't decided.

Kristy watches the Pikes, which involves them making iron-on secret messages which, I didn't even know that was a thing one could do, so that's actually pretty sick sounding. Nicky is in a bad mood, both because the triplet aren't playing with him and that Dawn's still gone. But Kristy cheers him up, so that becomes another key factor in Dawn's decision making given she would be leaving a lot of her charges. Back in California, Dawn gets postcards from the girls and her mother. Namely Jessi who managed to return to Oakley for a visit while Dawn was gone. Sunny tries to convince her to stay, while her dad says she has a day left to make her decision. She sleeps on it, but comes up with her decision. She calls her mother and says she's coming back to Stoneybrook. I mean of course. Could you imagine Dawn staying in California permanently? Wouldn't that be wild? Good thing that never happens, right? Yep, gonna be a while but that's another pin for the board. Her dad suggests that next time Dawn visits, she should bring the Baby-sitters club as well. Dawn returns home where all of the girls greet her with a big banner welcoming her back. These girls love their banners. As they all leave, Dawn realizes she made the right call.

Ladies and gentlemen and those with other preferred gender choices, it's finally happened. The first Dawn book I actually like. Not love, but like. Because it's the first Dawn story that really focuses on Dawn. How she wrestles with what she really wants and where she really wants to live. California or Connecticut? It is kind of funny how after ten books since Stacey left the series that the books are already teasing that idea with another member. Imagine if Ann M. Martin pulled the trigger on that. I'd have loved to have seen the reactions to that. But thankfully, for now, Dawn is still in the series. And the book does a lot to make things feel like California. Perhaps a bit too much as the Disneyland chapter just feels hella excessive. Just a big ol' pamphlet for the park. But we get the sunny beaches, the general vibe of California. It reminds me a bit of Boy-Crazy Stacey in how well the book captures the atmosphere of a summer vacation. And any shake-up from the normal Stoneybrook setting is always appreciated. 

This is the first ghostwritten book. Author is Jann Carr, who has a history with kids books, having written well over 50 of them. And she does a good job in keeping the book feeling like a work of Ann M. Martin, while making to sure to keep with most of the important continuity of the series. I'll be interested to see how that continues as we soon enter the pretty much full-on ghostwritten era. The book also does a good job in weighing the pros and cons of Dawn's decision. That, yes, Dawn has more pros to cons when it comes to choosing California over Stoneybrook, but by doing so she's more or less abandoning the people she's made lasting relationships with, namely the club and Nicky Pike. So the book makes the important call of not messing too much with the status quo to hurt these books. In terms of any cons, they're minor really. It does feel like the book lacks much in terms of deep conflict outside of Dawn's choice. Just a whole lot of fun things happen and not much else. But at least for once the baby-sitting jobs weren't tied to the plot of the book, save for the Nicky conflict.

So overall, this finally puts Dawn in the win column. Is it the deepest book ever? No. Could it have had more of a strong conflict? Definitely. But I like how the book presents California, how the book keeps the focus almost entirely on Dawn not knowing which to choose, and it flows really well, which always helps. It's a definite recommend. See? It's not actually a bad thing to have a book that mostly feels like it doesn't rock the boat on the status quo. Nah, save that for next time as we have a Kristy book up next. Yes, already. Now we need to find that one really good Mallory book. She's our straggler. Dawn on the Coast gets an A-.

Cookie Monster

Ring Dings

Twinkies

Tootsie Pops

VCRs

Forbes

Business Week

Coke

Jell-O

John Wayne

California Girls

Disneyland

Star Tours

Big Thunder Mountain

Jungle Cruise

Space Mountain

Matterhorn

Pirates of the Caribbean

Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes

Tomorrowland

Bear Country

Frontierland

Fantasyland

New Orleans Square

Jungleland

Main Street USA

Mickey Mouse

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Mickey Mouse Ears

Mad Tea Party

Captain EO

Michael Jackson

Mark Twain

Haunted Mansion

Steamboat Willie

Mickey's Polo Team

99 Bottles of Beer

Rumpelstiltskin

Teddy Roosevelt

Annie Oakley

Lego

Adventures in Baby-sitting