So, gentle readers, I
have finally done what any decent recapper would have done 5 years ago. I have
read the BSC prequel published by Ann M. Martin back in 2010. I knew it was out
there but I put it off, because really, did we need a prequel? Wasn’t Kristy’s Great Idea basically the prequel to BSC? Did we need more origin story?
The answer, after
all, is yes. This was not a bad book! So as a special welcome back (to me)
present, I’m recapping it for you. Along with offering a promise to get back into
recapping regularly, 2009-style. I’ve moved, (yes, again) back home for good.
I’m settled about 30 minutes from the Midwestern hometown I fled almost a
decade and a half ago. I’m rebuilding relationships I thought were done for
good. I’ve had a good run, in my beloved NYC, in other areas of the country for
the last few years, and when circumstances, both good and bad, conspired to
offer me the chance to try going home again, I felt I had to give it a chance.
And so I find myself, 6 months later, feeling like Stacey returning to NYC or
Dawn back to California, trying to navigate the old and new and reconcile the
person I am now with the person I was then, and figure out where my home is and
what my life will be in my new-old environment. So, I may as well recap the BSC while I do all this, no?
So let’s escape, back
to Stoneybrook with a dash of NYC, to a more idyllic time. This book plays like
a super-special, with different POV chapters and intertwining stories. There’s
no Dawn (sad!), no Jessi (meh), and Mallory is limited to a fourth-grader no
one cares about (yay!) Everybody’s dealing with change, and if I remember the
summer after my sixth grade year correctly, a lot of it seems pretty plausible.
There’s not a ton of action, but the good part is that this is old-school Ann
M, none of that ghostwriter crap. There’s also CONSIDERABLE attention paid to
continuity, and mad props for that!
