This is another old favorite. Not sure if it has anything to do with the story or the fact that it introduces the awesomely snarky Shannon Kilbourne and The Fabulous Amanda Delaney and her $400 cat, Priscilla,, or the fact that I just always really liked the super-preppy pleated skirt/sweater vest combos worn by Shannon and Amanda on the front cover. All the stuff with Louie in this book is actually really sad, even though I have a heart of stone. And also, if you really think about it, the life of the Thomas kids is kind of sad… so much change in such a short time—Elizabeth remarrying, gaining Watson, Karen (ugh), and Andrew as family members, moving across town, adjusting to new wealth (not that I’d mind that), and now their dog, one of the last few connections to their previous life, having to be put down. I am shocked they’re as well-adjusted as they are… one of them is going to come unhinged at some point (my money’s on Kristy.)
Also, a few life updates of my own! I have moved (yes, again) to a location much further south than I’ve ever lived, although I’m told this “Isn’t really the South.” Whatever. People call me ma’am and dress up for college football games. It’s the South. It’s nice to be back in an actual city-- a city 1/25th the size of my beloved NYC, but none the less, a city with more than one grocery store, coffee shop, and restaurant, and one in which the possibility of actually meeting a nice single man around my age with all his teeth and no children yet at least seems mildly feasible. I don’t ask for a lot, people.
Anyway, back in Stoneybrook, KT and the Thomas clan have slowly adjusted to life in the mansion, but as school starts again, Kristy finds herself having run-ins with the local tweens (who apparently were all away at camp all summer. Kristy would “kill” her mom if she ever sent her to camp… Conveniently forgetting the forthcoming “Summer Vacation” set-up!) Anyway, if there’s one thing Kristy hates, it’s a snob. Also, squirrels. She does not explain that little aside, but I feel like there’s a story there. As if, perhaps, one time in college Kristy was studying outside on the quad with some friends and a squirrel actually ran onto her blanket and stole the bag of cookies they were eating, causing significant shrieking and general consternation, and also leaving them snack-less. Little bastard. Not that I know anyone to whom that has happened…
So, Kristy’s first encounter with Shannon comes while waiting at the bus stop, when Shannon and her friends are whispering and looking at Kristy and generally being middle-school-aged girls. They ask Kristy if she’s “Mr. Brewer’s new kid” who’s been sending around baby-sitting fliers and she takes offense and there’s some typical 8th-grade back and forth and the encounter ends with Kristy being called “Jerkface” and Shannon being called “Snob” and me pouring another glass of wine.
Kristy baby-sits for the Papadakises for the first time. Hannie and Linny and Sari are all well-behaved and all is well, but then Kristy gets a call from Shannon telling her the house is on fire. Shannon, I love you, but this is overkill. You’re better than that. Of course, Kristy goes into super-sitter mode, grabbing the kids and bolting from the house. Once outside she realizes of course there is no fire, and Shannon is laughing on her front porch. You realize, you’re going to get busted for this, right, Shan? Of course the kids are in a panic and Kristy has to tell Mrs. Papadakis when she gets home, and she is PISSED at Shannon. Also, Kristy then exacts her own revenge on Shannon by placing a fake order for diaper service to her house? I don’t understand. What is diaper service? Apparently they deliver a pack of diapers every day? Do they also take the dirty ones? Is it like baby laundry-service? Is this a rich people thing? Or a 1980s thing? Are there people out there to lazy to just go to Target and buy a jumbo-pack of Pampers and need an entire business devoted to doing that for them? I am thinking way too hard about this.
KT then baby-sits for the Delaneys, The Fabulous Amanda and her brother Max, and also Priscilla, their $400 cat. The Delaneys have the famous Fish Fountain in their front hall (it cost $2000, and I must say, is that all? I’ll consider putting one in my apartment!) and a family room of pure white, including white shag rug, white leather sofa, white lacquer tables, and white TV set. This room is so 1980s it gives me a headache just to picture it. The kids boss Kristy around and for reasons I don’t understand, Kristy takes it so as not to “upset a new client.” Then Shannon calls and says she’s baby-sitting at the Papadakises and needs Kristy’s help because Sari won’t stop crying, and far be it from Kristy to abandon a squalling infant, so she packs up Amanda and Max and runs to the Papadakises, where of course, Shannon was just crying wolf. But as Kristy’s leaving, Shannon comments “Thanks for pushing me out of my baby-sitting jobs” and we start to get a glimpse of what’s driving some of this vitriol.
Kristy then spends hours bitching to the BSC about Shannon and the Delaneys (the “Snobs”) and Stacey happily offers to sit for the Delaneys the next time they call. Because Stacey, with her big New York City, magazine reading ways, knows enough “psychology” to deal with them. Oh, Stace. So she reverse-psychologies them—messing up their playroom instead of cleaning it, offering them every beverage in the fridge when they demand milk, etc. Really, I’m not sure it’s the reverse-psychology aspect of it that works so much as they just think she’s the most bizarre baby-sitter they’ve ever had. However, they eventually reach an uneasy truce and Stacey teaches the kids how to play a hopscotch variation called “Snail.” Two things: This is definitely where I first learned about reverse-psychology, so thank you BSC for the life lesson. Number 2: I definitely used to try playing Snail with my friends, and it really was not as fun as the Delaneys seem to think. Unless we were playing it wrong. It’s possible, because back then we didn’t have the internet, so we were trying to play this game off of the very brief description in a BSC book… and I have no idea why we thought that was so cool. Damn it. We were losers, weren’t we?
Then Kristy watches the Delaneys again (I refuse to call them the Snobs because I like them so much) and things go much better when she employs some of Stacey’s tactics. However, things with Shannon reach a boiling point when Shannon and her sister Tiffany order a pizza and have it delivered to Kristy (remember the days when people could order things and the delivery service, be it pizza or diapers, would actually deliver stuff without you having to give them a credit card number? I wonder if they’ve had to update things like this in the new BSC e-books they’re releasing… Today’s kids would not relate to this at all!) Kristy one-ups them though, by pretending she’s the baby-sitter (named Genevieve for some reason, and it’s the little details in these old BSC books that really make me laugh) and that Kristy is the girl across the street with the long blonde hair (Shannon). The pizza driver is skeptical, but heads over to the Kilbournes, where after arguing for a few minutes, Shannon pays him, then comes stomping over to the Delaneys yelling that Kristy owes her money. They get into a shouting match (in front of the kids, which, real professional there, guys) that ends with Shannon threatening to throw a piece of pizza at Kristy and Kristy threatening to throw it right back at Shannon’s dog, Astrid of Grenville, thereby making her a Pepperoni Mountain Dog. Something about this is so hilarious that it causes everyone to start laughing, Shannon and Tiffany come in and everyone enjoys some pizza and conversation, and suddenly Shannon and Kristy are on their way to being friends. I don’t really get it, but I’m not going to fight it.
While all of this is going on, the Thomas’s dog Louie is rapidly deteriorating and it’s hard on all of them. They’ve had Louie for years and David Michael has always been especially attached to him. The vet is trying all sorts of things to help him, including pills and even twice daily injections, but he’s got arthritis, and is going blind, and simply getting old. All this crap with the Snobs is not helped by the fact that Shannon and Amanda made fun of him when they first met (really Amanda, more than Shannon, which is understandable, since she is younger and doesn’t quite get it. Shannon definitely softens as soon as Kristy tells her that Louie is old and has arthritis. Amanda still thinks he’s “not pretty.”) It’s really sad to watch the Thomas’s deal with Louie’s increasing accidents, inability to get around, and pain, and after they find him with his hind legs paralyzed, Elizabeth and the vet decide that ultimately it’s time to put him down (BTW, I recognize a lot of this from my family’s experience a few years ago when we had to put down our dog, Jake. I was never close to him, as I’m not much of an animal person and we didn’t get him until I was 12, but my little brother loved him and it was distressing for all of us.) The goodbyes the Thomas’s say to Louie are so sad. Then they hold a funeral for him in the backyard and Karen invites the neighborhood kids, including the Papadakises, Delaneys, Kilbournes, and Shannon’s friends. Kristy is furious because she thinks they will all laugh (and Sam and Charlie are mortified to be seen by the neighbors participating in a dog funeral, even for Louie, and I kind of don’t blame them) but everyone is really respectful and Shannon says nice things to Kristy as she leaves, so that’s good. A few weeks later Shannon comes by with a puppy and offers it to Kristy. Apparently Astrid of Grenville, Shannon’s purebred Bernese mountain dog, who Kristy thought was a boy, is a girl, and has puppies, and the Kilbournes would like Kristy’s family to have one for free, even though they are selling the rest because their purebred. And this is a lovely gesture, but seriously, Watson can afford to pay for it. In fact, that’s what Elizabeth says when Kristy calls to ask about keeping the dog—that she and Watson had already decided to get another dog when David Michael felt ready, and had thought about buying one of Astrid’s. Anyway, she says they can keep her, if DM is okay with it. So DM meets the puppy and is initially wary because the new dog cannot replace Louie, but ultimately likes her and names her Shannon. And this is all very lovely, but I still can’t help but just think I’d prefer the Thomas/Brewer family went back to the pound for their new puppy. There are so many animals in need of adoption, and even as heartless as I am, I wish they would find families and believe it’s the right thing to do.
In baby-sitting news, Mary Anne baby-sits for the annoyingly perky Perkins girls, who are excitedly preparing for their new baby sibling, but distraught when Jamie Newton tells them how much he disliked his new baby sister. Mary Anne cheers them up with a tea party. The Pikes all have the chicken pox and run Claudia ragged. Mallory helps Claudia baby-sit but gets almost no speaking lines, so that’s a bonus. Mr. and Mrs. Pike decide to go to dinner and a movie and leave their 5 sick children (and 2 non-sick children who become sick that night) with a baby-sitter because they are tired of dealing with them, so tick another box on your “the Pikes are horrible parents” scorecard. And finally, while her mom goes out with the Trip-Man, Dawn baby-sits for Jeff who is really struggling with the move to CT (and also really into Leave it to Beaver… did kids still watch this show in the 80s? Wasn’t it boring even then?) and he loses it on her screaming that he doesn’t want to live with them. Dawn is distraught over the thought of her family being split in half. After Dawn tells her mom about it, Sharon has a conversation with her ex-husband about what’s happening and Jeff’s comment about returning to California. Mr. Schaefer is not over the moon about this idea, which causes Dawn to struggle with thinking that he doesn’t care about them. The BSC discusses this and the girls help Dawn see that maybe her dad was just surprised by this late-night phone call and idea. He didn’t say he wouldn’t do it, but he did mention some of the logistical challenges like having to adjust his work hours and hire a housekeeper, etc. Kristy mentions that she knows what it’s like when your dad really doesn’t want you, because her father is a deadbeat asshole. Dawn comes to terms with the idea that her dad still does love her and Jeff, but still hates the thought of Jeff leaving. I don’t blame her. He’s my favorite BSC sibling! I really love when Ann M. Martin writes Kristy and Dawn dealing with these divorce issues. I just think she does it so well and it’s really realistic. Once the ghostwriters took over, we never see them delving into these really tough conversations anymore, and I think it’s a shame.
Finally, I love Watson and Elizabeth so much. I want to be in a relationship like theirs… ie, I want to be married to a millionaire who is also a great cook who also helps out around the house and divides chores evenly, even though we have a twice a week cleaning lady, and who is awesome to my (non-existent) kids and rearranges his schedule to take my elderly dog to the vet twice a day. And by the same token, I want to be Elizabeth, who kicks ass at her job while doing a damn good job raising 4 happy, well-adjusted kids on her own and being fierce and independent and fully deserving of a great guy like Watson, who seems to be equally deserving of an awesome woman like her. Also, whatever. I choose to find no shame in identifying with the BSC parents more than the BSC.
Oh, also, the BSC finally meets Shannon while hanging out at the Brewer house one day, and they ask her to join the club. Unfortunately, she's too busy with all her other commitments to make regular meetings, but she agrees to become an Associate Member. Yay, more Shannon!
Anyway, back in Stoneybrook, KT and the Thomas clan have slowly adjusted to life in the mansion, but as school starts again, Kristy finds herself having run-ins with the local tweens (who apparently were all away at camp all summer. Kristy would “kill” her mom if she ever sent her to camp… Conveniently forgetting the forthcoming “Summer Vacation” set-up!) Anyway, if there’s one thing Kristy hates, it’s a snob. Also, squirrels. She does not explain that little aside, but I feel like there’s a story there. As if, perhaps, one time in college Kristy was studying outside on the quad with some friends and a squirrel actually ran onto her blanket and stole the bag of cookies they were eating, causing significant shrieking and general consternation, and also leaving them snack-less. Little bastard. Not that I know anyone to whom that has happened…
So, Kristy’s first encounter with Shannon comes while waiting at the bus stop, when Shannon and her friends are whispering and looking at Kristy and generally being middle-school-aged girls. They ask Kristy if she’s “Mr. Brewer’s new kid” who’s been sending around baby-sitting fliers and she takes offense and there’s some typical 8th-grade back and forth and the encounter ends with Kristy being called “Jerkface” and Shannon being called “Snob” and me pouring another glass of wine.
Kristy baby-sits for the Papadakises for the first time. Hannie and Linny and Sari are all well-behaved and all is well, but then Kristy gets a call from Shannon telling her the house is on fire. Shannon, I love you, but this is overkill. You’re better than that. Of course, Kristy goes into super-sitter mode, grabbing the kids and bolting from the house. Once outside she realizes of course there is no fire, and Shannon is laughing on her front porch. You realize, you’re going to get busted for this, right, Shan? Of course the kids are in a panic and Kristy has to tell Mrs. Papadakis when she gets home, and she is PISSED at Shannon. Also, Kristy then exacts her own revenge on Shannon by placing a fake order for diaper service to her house? I don’t understand. What is diaper service? Apparently they deliver a pack of diapers every day? Do they also take the dirty ones? Is it like baby laundry-service? Is this a rich people thing? Or a 1980s thing? Are there people out there to lazy to just go to Target and buy a jumbo-pack of Pampers and need an entire business devoted to doing that for them? I am thinking way too hard about this.
KT then baby-sits for the Delaneys, The Fabulous Amanda and her brother Max, and also Priscilla, their $400 cat. The Delaneys have the famous Fish Fountain in their front hall (it cost $2000, and I must say, is that all? I’ll consider putting one in my apartment!) and a family room of pure white, including white shag rug, white leather sofa, white lacquer tables, and white TV set. This room is so 1980s it gives me a headache just to picture it. The kids boss Kristy around and for reasons I don’t understand, Kristy takes it so as not to “upset a new client.” Then Shannon calls and says she’s baby-sitting at the Papadakises and needs Kristy’s help because Sari won’t stop crying, and far be it from Kristy to abandon a squalling infant, so she packs up Amanda and Max and runs to the Papadakises, where of course, Shannon was just crying wolf. But as Kristy’s leaving, Shannon comments “Thanks for pushing me out of my baby-sitting jobs” and we start to get a glimpse of what’s driving some of this vitriol.
Kristy then spends hours bitching to the BSC about Shannon and the Delaneys (the “Snobs”) and Stacey happily offers to sit for the Delaneys the next time they call. Because Stacey, with her big New York City, magazine reading ways, knows enough “psychology” to deal with them. Oh, Stace. So she reverse-psychologies them—messing up their playroom instead of cleaning it, offering them every beverage in the fridge when they demand milk, etc. Really, I’m not sure it’s the reverse-psychology aspect of it that works so much as they just think she’s the most bizarre baby-sitter they’ve ever had. However, they eventually reach an uneasy truce and Stacey teaches the kids how to play a hopscotch variation called “Snail.” Two things: This is definitely where I first learned about reverse-psychology, so thank you BSC for the life lesson. Number 2: I definitely used to try playing Snail with my friends, and it really was not as fun as the Delaneys seem to think. Unless we were playing it wrong. It’s possible, because back then we didn’t have the internet, so we were trying to play this game off of the very brief description in a BSC book… and I have no idea why we thought that was so cool. Damn it. We were losers, weren’t we?
Then Kristy watches the Delaneys again (I refuse to call them the Snobs because I like them so much) and things go much better when she employs some of Stacey’s tactics. However, things with Shannon reach a boiling point when Shannon and her sister Tiffany order a pizza and have it delivered to Kristy (remember the days when people could order things and the delivery service, be it pizza or diapers, would actually deliver stuff without you having to give them a credit card number? I wonder if they’ve had to update things like this in the new BSC e-books they’re releasing… Today’s kids would not relate to this at all!) Kristy one-ups them though, by pretending she’s the baby-sitter (named Genevieve for some reason, and it’s the little details in these old BSC books that really make me laugh) and that Kristy is the girl across the street with the long blonde hair (Shannon). The pizza driver is skeptical, but heads over to the Kilbournes, where after arguing for a few minutes, Shannon pays him, then comes stomping over to the Delaneys yelling that Kristy owes her money. They get into a shouting match (in front of the kids, which, real professional there, guys) that ends with Shannon threatening to throw a piece of pizza at Kristy and Kristy threatening to throw it right back at Shannon’s dog, Astrid of Grenville, thereby making her a Pepperoni Mountain Dog. Something about this is so hilarious that it causes everyone to start laughing, Shannon and Tiffany come in and everyone enjoys some pizza and conversation, and suddenly Shannon and Kristy are on their way to being friends. I don’t really get it, but I’m not going to fight it.
While all of this is going on, the Thomas’s dog Louie is rapidly deteriorating and it’s hard on all of them. They’ve had Louie for years and David Michael has always been especially attached to him. The vet is trying all sorts of things to help him, including pills and even twice daily injections, but he’s got arthritis, and is going blind, and simply getting old. All this crap with the Snobs is not helped by the fact that Shannon and Amanda made fun of him when they first met (really Amanda, more than Shannon, which is understandable, since she is younger and doesn’t quite get it. Shannon definitely softens as soon as Kristy tells her that Louie is old and has arthritis. Amanda still thinks he’s “not pretty.”) It’s really sad to watch the Thomas’s deal with Louie’s increasing accidents, inability to get around, and pain, and after they find him with his hind legs paralyzed, Elizabeth and the vet decide that ultimately it’s time to put him down (BTW, I recognize a lot of this from my family’s experience a few years ago when we had to put down our dog, Jake. I was never close to him, as I’m not much of an animal person and we didn’t get him until I was 12, but my little brother loved him and it was distressing for all of us.) The goodbyes the Thomas’s say to Louie are so sad. Then they hold a funeral for him in the backyard and Karen invites the neighborhood kids, including the Papadakises, Delaneys, Kilbournes, and Shannon’s friends. Kristy is furious because she thinks they will all laugh (and Sam and Charlie are mortified to be seen by the neighbors participating in a dog funeral, even for Louie, and I kind of don’t blame them) but everyone is really respectful and Shannon says nice things to Kristy as she leaves, so that’s good. A few weeks later Shannon comes by with a puppy and offers it to Kristy. Apparently Astrid of Grenville, Shannon’s purebred Bernese mountain dog, who Kristy thought was a boy, is a girl, and has puppies, and the Kilbournes would like Kristy’s family to have one for free, even though they are selling the rest because their purebred. And this is a lovely gesture, but seriously, Watson can afford to pay for it. In fact, that’s what Elizabeth says when Kristy calls to ask about keeping the dog—that she and Watson had already decided to get another dog when David Michael felt ready, and had thought about buying one of Astrid’s. Anyway, she says they can keep her, if DM is okay with it. So DM meets the puppy and is initially wary because the new dog cannot replace Louie, but ultimately likes her and names her Shannon. And this is all very lovely, but I still can’t help but just think I’d prefer the Thomas/Brewer family went back to the pound for their new puppy. There are so many animals in need of adoption, and even as heartless as I am, I wish they would find families and believe it’s the right thing to do.
In baby-sitting news, Mary Anne baby-sits for the annoyingly perky Perkins girls, who are excitedly preparing for their new baby sibling, but distraught when Jamie Newton tells them how much he disliked his new baby sister. Mary Anne cheers them up with a tea party. The Pikes all have the chicken pox and run Claudia ragged. Mallory helps Claudia baby-sit but gets almost no speaking lines, so that’s a bonus. Mr. and Mrs. Pike decide to go to dinner and a movie and leave their 5 sick children (and 2 non-sick children who become sick that night) with a baby-sitter because they are tired of dealing with them, so tick another box on your “the Pikes are horrible parents” scorecard. And finally, while her mom goes out with the Trip-Man, Dawn baby-sits for Jeff who is really struggling with the move to CT (and also really into Leave it to Beaver… did kids still watch this show in the 80s? Wasn’t it boring even then?) and he loses it on her screaming that he doesn’t want to live with them. Dawn is distraught over the thought of her family being split in half. After Dawn tells her mom about it, Sharon has a conversation with her ex-husband about what’s happening and Jeff’s comment about returning to California. Mr. Schaefer is not over the moon about this idea, which causes Dawn to struggle with thinking that he doesn’t care about them. The BSC discusses this and the girls help Dawn see that maybe her dad was just surprised by this late-night phone call and idea. He didn’t say he wouldn’t do it, but he did mention some of the logistical challenges like having to adjust his work hours and hire a housekeeper, etc. Kristy mentions that she knows what it’s like when your dad really doesn’t want you, because her father is a deadbeat asshole. Dawn comes to terms with the idea that her dad still does love her and Jeff, but still hates the thought of Jeff leaving. I don’t blame her. He’s my favorite BSC sibling! I really love when Ann M. Martin writes Kristy and Dawn dealing with these divorce issues. I just think she does it so well and it’s really realistic. Once the ghostwriters took over, we never see them delving into these really tough conversations anymore, and I think it’s a shame.
Finally, I love Watson and Elizabeth so much. I want to be in a relationship like theirs… ie, I want to be married to a millionaire who is also a great cook who also helps out around the house and divides chores evenly, even though we have a twice a week cleaning lady, and who is awesome to my (non-existent) kids and rearranges his schedule to take my elderly dog to the vet twice a day. And by the same token, I want to be Elizabeth, who kicks ass at her job while doing a damn good job raising 4 happy, well-adjusted kids on her own and being fierce and independent and fully deserving of a great guy like Watson, who seems to be equally deserving of an awesome woman like her. Also, whatever. I choose to find no shame in identifying with the BSC parents more than the BSC.
Oh, also, the BSC finally meets Shannon while hanging out at the Brewer house one day, and they ask her to join the club. Unfortunately, she's too busy with all her other commitments to make regular meetings, but she agrees to become an Associate Member. Yay, more Shannon!
This was one of my favorite books growing up. I definitely tried to play snail--but unlike you and the Delaneys, I was likely more of a loser because I had no friends to play it with XD. I mean, I had friends, I guess, but none that read The Babysitters Club and would have related to its little details.
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