The Jessi: I never read this book as a child, I know that's weird because I read all the other books in the early part of the series but somehow this one got missed until a few months ago. I remember when I was younger, thinking Dawn was gorgeous on the front cover and being so excited that there was a new member from California but I guess I never cared enough to read it.
The Mal: Dawn has a babysitting job at the Pikes. While there, Buddy and Suzi Barrett come over and they all meet for the first time. At the next club meeting, Dawn agrees to a regular sitting job with the Barretts because their family situation sounds a lot like her own and she feels she can relate with the kids. On Saturday, Mary Anne and Dawn go through some of Dawn's things from California so they can redecorate Mary Anne's room. Kristy comes over to help out but is a little standoffish to Dawn. The next day during lunch, Dawn realizes Kristy doesn't hate her, she's just jealous. Dawn's first job with the Barretts starts out a little shaky but she gets them to clean by telling them they can set a record. After they get done cleaning, they have a discussion about divorce which leads to Suzi getting mad and storming out. A few minutes later, she realizes Suzi had an accident in the bathroom and helps her get cleaned up. Mrs. Barrett comes home and tells Dawn how wonderful she is. Kristy takes a sitting job with Karen and Andrew. Karen is as animated as ever with her games of Let's All Come In and stories of Morbidda Destiny and Ben Brewer. One day, while Mary Anne is babysitting, Dawn invites Kristy over. They play in the hayloft at Dawn's barn and get along. Kristy ends up asking Dawn if she wants to be the Alternate Officer. Their fight is over. The next Saturday, Dawn is sitting for the Barretts again. Claudia and Stacey plan a big picnic for the Barretts and the Pikes. At the picnic, Dawn tries to feed Marnie Barrett a brownie, Mallory Pike yells at her to stop because Marnie is allergic to chocolate and will get very sick if she eats it. Dawn gets mad that Mrs. Barrett never told her that and plans to talk to her when she gets home. She forgets to talk with her when Mrs. Barrett starts praising Dawn. When she finally does get around to talking to Mrs. Barrett she asks if there's anything else she should know. Mrs. Barrett tells her to never let the kids talk to their father on the phone and not to tell him that Mrs. Barrett is gone. Several more occurrences happen where Mrs. Barrett should be around more for her children but instead Dawn is. At a club meeting, Kristy reveals how upset she is about having to move across town. The club tries to think of solutions on how they can get Kristy to meetings when she's in her new house. Dawn's mother has a barbeque on Memorial Day and invites Mr. Spier, her parents and a bunch of other people. Kristy, Dawn, and Mary Anne watch as they all interact and they are pleased that Dawn's grandparents treat Mr. Spier so kindly as they disapproved of him when he was a teenager. Mary Anne babysits for the Barretts and they are a disaster. While she is there, Mr. Barrett calls and asks to speak with the children. Mary Anne tells him they are at a friend's house and he hangs up on her. The next time Dawn goes to babysit it's raining. When it finally clears up, she lets Buddy go outside to play while she gets Marnie and Suzi ready to go outside. When she comes out a few minutes later, he's gone. In a panic, she calls Mrs. Pike and they search for Buddy. They can't find him so they call the police. Soon a whole search party is out looking for Buddy. A little while later, they get a phone call from Buddy, turns out his dad had picked him up because it was his weekend with the children. He took Buddy in the hopes that it would scare Mrs. Barrett, little did he know she wasn't even home and it was a poor babysitter that got stuck worrying. Dawn has a talk with Mrs. Barrett and they agree that Dawn will keep babysitting on a trial basis and she tries to tell Mrs. Barrett how she can be a better mom.
The Stacey: Year published- 1987, Number of children that go missing- 1, Number of ham faces made- enough to put a pig farm out of business
The Dawn: As with almost every BSC book, there are two dramatic situations going down in the Brook. First, Dawn is babysitting regularly at the Barretts. Mrs. Barrett is irresponsible and doesn't give Dawn enough instructions to help her out. Dawn starts cleaning the house to help Mrs. Barrett out and then it becomes expected of her. When Buddy goes missing, Mrs. Barrett finally realizes that she's been doing wrong. It kind of bothers me how non-confrontational these girls are about important things like the Barretts but then over the stupid things, they're confronting all over the place. The second bit of drama is that Kristy is jealous of Dawn. I always thought Kristy was stupid for hating Dawn but I kind of see her point now. I would hate if some pretty little thing from California came in and took my best friend. I think this is one of the few times I will ever sympathize with Kristy. Don't get use to it.
The Claudia: Dawn talking about Stacey "She was wearing a simple pink T-shirt under a baggy jumpsuit with big pink and red flowers all over it." I love me a hot little jumpsuit number. Especially floral ones. Too bad I couldn't actually find a floral jumpsuit so you're going to have to use your imagination on this one.
The Mary Anne: Dawn talks a little bit about why her parents got divorced. She says a lot of it was because of her mom's untidy habits. I know that marriages end all the time but just because somebody is a little messy they get divorced? That seems a little extreme to me. Janine tells Dawn that something she says is redundant this totally made me have a flashback. I was in an AP Euro History class my sophomore year of high school and for some reason there was a junior in that class. Only one. And he thought he was super cool because he had been gone for half the school year at an internship in Washington D.C. He was also a mouth-breather. Honestly, I could not stand that kid. Then he had to read one of my essays and he went off on how redundant it was and blah blah blah. Now every time I see or hear the word redundant I think of that and it makes me angry. Stupid mouth-breather. Everybody always talks about how everything Dawn eats is sooo California. Maybe I went to the wrong part of California but I didn't see all that many healthy places to eat. I saw more fast food places than where I live. Something that bothered me, when Dawn gets the Barrett kids to clean the kitchen the first time, Marnie sits down and starts eating some M&Ms, isn't she supposed to be allergic to chocolate? Yet she doesn't get sick? Ok... One thing that I liked about this book is Dawn eats salt water taffy and chocolate like a normal person and isn't as self-righteousy about eating healthy like she is in the later books.
The Kristy: This definitely isn't one of my favorites, I don't hate it but I don't feel attached to it like I do some of the others. I would have to give it a 1.9 out of 5.
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