Back Cover: Mallory Pike has always wanted to be a member of the Baby-sitters Club. The Baby-sitters are so much fun to be around, and so grown-up. Now the club members have invited Mallory to a meeting. This might be her big chance!So this is our first book narrated by Mallory. In it, we learn all about Mallory and are introduced to her and the Pikes from her perspective. Mallory is excited because she has a received an invitation from the BSC to potentially join them. She gets all dressed up, wanting to impress them at her first meeting.
But the Baby-sitters don't make it easy. First Claudia makes Mal feel like a baby on her first official baby-sitting job. Then they give her a written test - with questions nobody could answer!
Mallory's beginning to think she doesn't want to be part of the Baby-sitters Club. Maybe with her new friend Jessi she'll start a club of her own...
It's time to show those Baby-sitters what a couple of new girls can do!
But first, Mallory goes to school, where she meets a new girl. Not only is this girl new, but she's black. This is a big deal, because the only other African-American student in their school (and yes, there's only one) is in the 8th grade. Mallory is excited, because this is her big chance to make a new friend; maybe even a best friend.
Things don't go smoothly for Mallory though. At her first Club meeting, she feels awkward and realizes that she's too dressed up. The other girls have a hard time transitioning from Mallory being a charge to Mallory being in charge. When they hear about an accident Nicky had when Mallory was taking care of him, they decide that they better put her to the test!
Like the description says, the tests don't go well. The questions on the written test are so ridiculous, and Mallory gets so nervous during her sitting job with Claudia that she just acts like a giant spazz, causing Claudia to deem her unfit. Frustrated, Mallory decides that she doesn't need the BSC, and decides to start her own club!
Meanwhile, Mallory has been getting to know Jessi better. Jessi's family has been having a hard time with their move and transition into Stoneybrook, because apparently no one has seen a black family before. Of course Mallory doesn't care, and since she's in need of a best friend, she's especially keen to get to know Jessi and her family. Luckily for Mallory, Jessi loves reading (especially horse stories) and baby-sitting, so the two get along famously. Jessi immediately joins Mallory in her baby-sitting club.
Kids Incorporated doesn't get much business. In fact, the only business they do get is their own families. But the BSC isn't going to take any chances, plus they really do need more sitters. So eventually Kristy and the girls decide to stop being so unreasonable and mean, and recruit Mallory again. Mallory, not wanting to leave her new best friend in the lurch, insists that her and Jessi are a package deal. The girls agree to give them each one test run baby-sitting job (one without heavy breathing and berating). Mallory of course aces hers, and is now part of the club!
Random Thoughts:
- Although I know for sure that I have read this one before, I don't particularly remember reading it, so I don't think it was one that I re-read often.
- It's interesting getting everyone's descriptions from Mallory for the first time, as well as getting additional early insight into Mallory. For instance, despite the fact that every other book describes her as a red-head, and she's always depicted as a red-head on the covers (including this one!), we learn in this book that the Pikes all have "dark brown hair" (or "chestnut brown", as Mrs Pike refers to it). "Chestnut brown", even though I know is technically a darker brown, always makes me think of a more auburn brown, which would then be bordering on red. I had always assumed that the Pikes had auburn/medium brown hair, with Mallory's being particularly russet, leaning towards full-on ginger. But nope: apparently they originally all had dark brown hair! It'll be interesting to see when that changes.
- I'm probably the only one, but I would have liked to have seen more of the casual racism Jessi faces to have continued for a few more books. And maybe it will. I can't remember. I think I've only read Jessi's first book a couple of times. But yeah. I feel like it's really a non-issue after it was such a big deal in this one.
- I like how they don't list Mallory on the back of this book, as if there's any debate or suspense about her eventually joining the Club haha
- I think it's sad that Mallory has never really had friends, especially not a best friend, prior to this novel and meeting Jessi. I think it's especially sad that she says that she's never really needed to have friends: she'd always been so busy with her siblings that she didn't really have any time or need for friends.
- I can never figure out the size of Stoneybrook and/or the school. Stoneybrook always seems so large, and they have a million special elective classes and projects going on at SMS, that it doesn't really seem like a tiny town. Plus there are three middle schools in the area that feed into their high school: Kelsey Middle School, SMS, and Stoneybrook Day School (although that one's private). Is Stoneybrook just a community? Because my city is made up of many many many neighbourhoods/communities, each with their own set of elementary/middle schools and then high school. Several of them. But I can't imagine considering any one of those to be a town on their own. And like, I can easily public transit between the communities. Even if the girls weren't allowed to take public transit, there's no way their tiny community is so far out in the middle of nowhere that their next town over is a city! Yet somehow, Stoneybrook is so tiny that the arrival of an African-American family is a huge deal
- I especially liked hearing about Mallory eating lunch with the other girls in her class and how horrible they were about Jessi. I totally do not remember any 6th grade girls ever being mentioned in any of Mallory's other books.
- I miss the days when Jessi was a comedian. This one specifically points out how much she likes jokes and how she knows more jokes than anyone!
- Are reading glasses a thing? Everyone I knows pretty much wear glasses all the time, not taking them on and off. Either way, this is one of the few times where Jessi wearing glasses is part of her default description.
Yes, some people are far-sighted rather than near-sighted: their vision is blurry up close but fine for distances. They don't need glasses for say, seeing street signs as they're driving, but words on the pages of books close to the face are blurry. Usually people who are far-sighted get it middle age. The joke is that their arms get too short, because people start holding books and other reading materials farther and farther from their faces, until they finally get reading glasses or have theirs arms stretch out straight, holding books as far from their faces as possible.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know a few people who technically have reading glasses, but they tend to wear them all the time. Either they wear them all the time while at school (and then not at all outside of school) or ALL THE TIME. I don't really know anyone who picks up a book and puts on glasses, then puts both the book and the glasses away afterwards.
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