This is Dawn's replacement?

The Baby-sitters Club #68: Jessi and the Bad Baby-sitter

No, this is most definitely not Dawn's replacement. Hmmph. As if anyone could ever replace Dawn. Trust me, Jessi, both you and Mal couldn't replace Stacey, there's no way this new twit is ever going to replace Dawn. If we are even going to attempt to replace Dawn, the only acceptable Dawn substitute is Shannon Kilbourne. I have loved Shannon Kilbourne since the moment she was introduced, walking her Bernese Mountain Dog named Astrid of Greenville through the hoity-toity streets of Kristy's new neighborhood. I'm still bitter that she never really got any books of her own.

Well, the Dawn-inator has shipped out for California, despite the fact that I just don't believe she would do that. Wasn't Jeff leaving enough? Poor Sharon. Poor BSC, too, as Dawn's absense and Mallory's (as yet a) mystery illness have left them crazy-busy with business. The BSC is overwhelmed, so Jessi suggests that her new friend Wendy might want to join the club. Wendy comes to a meeting and is sort-of interviewed by Kristy, but the meeting is so busy that she doesn't really get put through the paces the way Dawn, Jessi, Mal, and even Stacey were. When Kristy Thomas wants to grill you, she can rival even Jack Byrnes from Meet the Parents. Overwhlemed and anxious, Kristy agrees to let Wendy go on a sitting job with Jessi to be evaluated before being offered a spot in the club.

Wendy's major issue seems to be punctuality, as she's clearly good with kids. She almost makes Jessi late to the first meeting she comes to and they're almost late to the trial sitting job at the Rodowsky's. Once they're there, though, Jessi sees no problems with Wendy's sitting (and to be honest, neither do I), so she recommends that she be allowed to join the club, and Kristy agrees.

Unfortunately, Wendy doesn't have the commitment level required to be in the BSC. She would rather do things like play Super Mario Brothers with her friends (oh, those were the days! I used to love Super Mario Brothers, even though my brother said I sucked and would never let me play, and when I did get to play, I always had to be Luigi, and really I just wanted to be the princess, so whatever. You know what I was really, really good at though? Duck Hunt. That should really come as no surprise to anyone.) Wendy also doesn't want to have to offer her regular sitting jobs to club members, which I actually could understand too. Besides, maybe her regular clients don't want a random BSC member. I mean, they don't know them. Even Jessi gets fed up when Wendy shows up half an hour late to a sitting job at the Pikes. At the next meeting, Kristy brings her behavior up as "club business" which seems a little bitchy to me, and to Wendy too, who gets angry and then kind of frustrated. These rules weren't explained to her before she joined the club because the meeting she attended was just too hectic, and she just basically can't handle it. She has parents and teachers, she doesn't need a club (or Kristy) telling her what to do as well. Wendy quits.

Luckily, Shannon saves the day! Shannon had been really busy planning some sort of honor society dinner for her school, but that is over, so she agrees to become the alternate officer and attend meetings until Dawn comes back, then she's totally willing to go back to associate status. Yay! More Shannon! If they weren't going to bring Dawn back, I wish they'd just kept Shannon forever, instead of bringing in the random annoying new girl, Abby. I guess I'm going to have to recap an Abby book one of these days, but I just can't bring myself to do it yet. She's not a real baby-sitter, she's just a poseur.

In other news, two (actually three) weirdly divergent plotlines. It seems like they were mostly there to keep Dawn in the story, even peripherally, set up Mallory's upcoming battle with mono (YAWN. Haha. Did you see how I made fun of Mal and worked in a clever reference to how mono makes you tired all the time? I crack myself up), and I honestly have no idea what role the third plotline was supposed to play.

So, 1,2,3.
1) The Barrett kids miss Dawn (me too, Barrett kids! Me, too.) The BSC decides to help them and some of their friends make a video to send to Dawn. I thought they'd just tape some kids saying "hi" and stuff, but no, they decide to write a play (a Snow White/Captain Planet crossover, which... actually, surprisingly, works. I like it.) They round up a bunch of Stoneybrook kids to put on the play, then mail it off to Cali. At the same time, Dawn gets the same idea and makes a video showing the BSC some of the kids they sat for and the places they visited when they blew their lotto money on a trip to CA. So we do see (or at least hear about) Stephie again. I stand corrected.

2) Mal is whiny (nothing new) and tired all the time. She won't take sitting jobs even though the BSC is drowning in business because she says she doesn't feel up to it. When she does try to sit at her house with Jessi, Mal totally makes Jessi do all the work. She also refuses to see a doctor for, like, weeks, and I simply have no patience with this. I'm glad when Kristy finally snaps at her that she needs to see a doctor and figure it out, or try to just overcome it. She can't just be whiny and lethargic without at least trying to get better. I concur.

3) Margo steals from a store, and Jessi catches her. Jessi confronts Margo and tells her she has to tell her parents, then leaves. So, DUH, Margo totally does not tell her parents. Jessi frets, then finally tells Mal, Mal marches Margo straight to her mother and makes her tell the truth (OMG! Is that a backbone from Mallory??! I never thought I'd live to see the day!) Mrs. Pike takes Margo back to the store, makes her pay for the things she stole, the store manager lectures her, and then we all go on our merry way. Honestly? What was the point of that? It was such a weird little plotline thrown in there. I like it when BSC books only have an A plot and a B plot. Anything more and they get too cluttered.

Conclusion: I actually think the title of this book is kind of unfair to Wendy. I mean, she's not a bad-babysitter, the way the Baby-sitters Agency girls were. I mean, yes,the punctuality thing is kind of bad, but the only sitting job she's really late for is the one where she's sitting with Jessi at the Pikes, and she knows Jessi will be there, and I don't think the whole "Two Sitter" rule was ever really explained to her, just like a lot of the rest of the rules. She's not a bad baby-sitter, she just doesn't fit in the BSC mold. Every vignette of her interacting with kids shows that she's a good baby-sitter. In fact, Jessi even tells her that she would fit in perfectly with the We <3 Kids club out in CA; she just doesn't function well under Kristy's rules. I don't know, it's rare that I defend a minor character like Wendy, especially one with obvious faults, but it just seems like she's getting an undeservedly bad rep here. Much more importanly however, please join me in a moment of rejoicing: More Shannon! More Shannon! More Shannon! YAY!