#4- Mary Anne Saves the Day

Mary Anne's on her own. Can she take charge?

The Jessi: I only read this book once and it was when I was a little older. I don't remember a lot of the details but I remember Mary Anne sitting for that brat Jenny Prezzioso, all the club members being in this huge fight where they hold meetings at separate times just so they don't have to see each other and because of this Mary Anne ends up eating lunch by herself and meets Dawn. It wasn't one of my favorites and I didn't care if I read it again.

The Mal: A fight breaks out during a meeting when Kristy takes a job without offering it to the other members first. Soon things blow up and everyone is yelling at each other. Mary Anne runs out crying. After thinking about the fight, Mary Anne decides to make up with Kristy that night. However, Kristy has other ideas and shuts her blinds so that she and Mary Anne cannot communicate with flashlights like they usually do. The next day, Mary Anne decides she's not mad at Claudia so she writes her an apology note but she forgets to give the note to Claudia because she eats lunch with the new girl Dawn instead. The next morning, Mary Anne goes to Kristy's house so they can walk to school together and make up before the club meeting that evening but she ends up having the door slammed in her face. She fights back to this by making sure Kristy sees her going to Dawn's house after school. Mary Anne and Dawn watch The Parent Trap and have a fun time together. At the meeting, things are tense between MA, Claud and Stace. Kristy doesn't show up at all. Mary Anne and Claudia make up, they both agree to talk to Kristy and Stacey to figure out what's going to happen with the club. They decide that one person will meet to answer phones and take as many jobs as possible, the other jobs will be offered to the other members. This will make it so they don't have to be by each other or talk to each other. Mary Anne takes a job babysitting for Jenny Prezzioso which turns out not being so bad despite Jenny being a little brat and spilling on her brand new white dress. Later, Mary Anne tries to talk her father into giving her a later curfew, when he refuses, she blows up at him. She decides to go talk to Claudia's grandmother, Mimi because she feels like Mimi would understand her. When Mimi accidentally slips and calls Mary Anne "My Mary Anne" Claudia overhears it and gets very mad. Thus making the only peaceful relationship in the club ridden with anger. At Mary Anne's next turn to answer phones, Mrs. Newton calls and asks if all the girls will help at Jamie's 4th birthday party, they all agree to. Then Mary Anne and Kristy must take a sitting job at the Pikes with each other because there are too many children to just have one sitter. They manage to communicate through the children by playing Telephone, this way they don't have to directly talk to each other. The next day, Dawn comes over to Mary Anne's house, they end up looking at her father's old yearbooks and discover that their parents used to date in high school. A few days later, Mary Anne is babysitting for Jenny again. Jenny is quiet and falls asleep shortly after Mary Anne gets there. When Mary Anne feels her forehead she is burning up. Panicked, Mary Anne calls everyone she can think of but nobody answers. Finally she gets Dawn to come over and they get Jenny to the hospital via an ambulance. It turns out that Jenny has strep throat. Everyone congratulates Dawn and Mary Anne on taking care of Jenny. When they get back to Mary Anne's house Dawn catches Mary Anne sticking her tongue out at Kristy and figures out that Mary Anne was using her to get back at her friends. Dawn gets mad and storms out.  Mary Anne's father finds out about her helping Jenny and agrees to let her have a later curfew, wear her hair down, and change her room a little. Mary Anne makes up with Dawn. Jamie's birthday party is almost turned into a disaster when the girls start fighting again so Mary Anne calls an emergency meeting for right after the party. At the club meeting the girls all make up and everything is good again. Mary Anne holds a party at her house. Dawn has her mother drop her off for the party and her mother and Richard set up a date for the next night. Dawn is then officially instated into the BSC.

The Stacey: Number of times Mary Anne bangs things around while preparing dinner after the fight-8, Number of chapters- 16 (this beats the usual books which only have 15) Number of rules Mary Anne's father has- enough to keep a 12-year-old in penny loafers and braids until the apocalypse.

The Dawn: Oh baby, I loves me a good pre-teen fight. I especially loves me one in the first chapter. This one does not disappoint. Apparently Kristy is a bossy know-it-all (ok, so we already knew that), Claudia is a job hog, Stacey is a stuck up New Yorker, and Mary Anne is such a baby. I kind of agree with these statements. Not so much the Claudia one but then again she's so close to perfect they had to find something stupid to pick on her for. Most of the drama focuses on Mary Anne dealing with her overprotective father. I seriously feel bad for Mary Anne about the lack of communication and openness there is between her and her father. I can't imagine how that would feel to not be able to talk to your parent. I know I'm lucky to have the parents I do, and this book reminded me of that. Also, why does Mary Anne's dad talk like a robot, has the man never heard of contractions? Doesn't he know that you can combine words and nobody will get offended? Seriously, this is 1987 Richard.

The Claudia: Mary Anne says "I'd like to go to school wearing skintight turquoise pants, Stacey's 'island' shirt with the flamingos and toucans all over it and bright red high-top sneakers. I'd like to create a sensation." Oh honey, a sensation you would create with that. So, I couldn't find a shirt with flamingos and toucans but I did find this bathing suit with toucans and a flamingo scarf. I feel like it's a good compromise. It's still sensation creating so it's all good.

The Mary Anne: I love how the early books talk about a lot of details that were in the books before the current one. For example, in this book Mary Anne is finishing the scarf that she started in the previous book. I know it's just a minor detail but it's something that the ghostwriters leave out. In this book, they talk about the Thomases' regular sitter quitting which totally backs up my whole Cathy/Baby-Sitters Agency theory. Mary Anne frequently talks about the meals her and her father have. They kind of sound fancy for a weekday, like the time they have pot roast, maybe it was just my family but we only had pot roast and special foods like that on Sunday. I thought it was so sweet how Mary Anne's dad still prays for her mom even though she's dead, Mary Anne seemed a little put out by it which is strange because she's supposed to be the sensitive one. When Mary Anne was describing her room, it sounded exactly like my room growing up and I could relate with her 150%. I hated pink and everything in my room was pink and ruffly. One more example of Mary Anne not being as nice and sensitive as she is always depicted, she describes Dawn as "she wasn't exactly pretty, but she was pleasant" Coppertone, rub it on, you just got burned Dawn! I sensed a little foreshadowing when they both decided to watch The Parent Trap. Methinks they're about to do some parent-trapping themselves. One thing that kind of bugged me, Mary Anne invited Dawn to come over and bake cookies or make fudge. Not only does Dawn agree but she is excited about it. Isn't Dawn supposed to be super health conscious and not eat sugar? Whatever. Mary Anne tells a nursery rhyme about a little girl with a curl, my mom used to always tell me that rhyme when I would get mad. Let's face it, that happened a lot and I have that rhyme memorized. There was another reference in this book to the wild kids at the mall. Maybe I've been going to the wrong malls but that was never where the wild kids my age hung out. I love that one of the suggestions for a play by the Pikes is Chuck Norris. So ahead of their time. I know that the Prezzioso's love their daughter and stuff but aren't they at all concerned about how much an ambulance ride and an ER visit is going to cost them. I know these things aren't cheap and it's not like she was dying or anything. Oh, pizza toasts. Do you know how much I've always wanted to have one of those? Too bad I don't like pizza and I'm pretty sure I couldn't find anyone on this planet to do it with me. Life stinks when your best friends are fictional characters.

The Kristy: This book isn't as bad as I remember it. I thought a lot more of it focused on Jenny being sick than it really did. I did get sick of the little feud though. I just wanted them all to suck it up and move on with their lives a lot sooner than they did. I give it a 3.8 out of 5.