The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #3: Baby-Sitters Winter Vacation

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Mary Anne and the Memory Garden. Kristy and the Secret of Susan. Claudia and the Great Search. The Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries 2: Jessi and the Awful Secret. Dawn and the Older Boy. Claudia and the World's Cutest Baby. Claudia and Crazy Peaches. The Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries 4: Kristy and the Missing Child. Claudia, Queen of the Seventh Grade. The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery Claudia And The Lighthouse Ghost. Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries Stacey and the Fashion Victim.

Claudia and the Perfect Boy. Welcome to the BSC, Abby.

Claudia and the Middle School Mystery. Dawn and Whitney, Friends Forever. Claudia and the New Girl. Dawn and the We Love Kids Club. Kristy And The Mystery Train. Stacey and the Cheerleaders. The Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries Claudia and the Mystery Painting. Dawn and the School Spirit War. Jessi and the Troublemaker. Stacey and the Bad Girls. Kristy and the Copycat. Claudia and the First Thanksgiving. Claudia and the Recipe for Danger.

Abby and the Secret Society. Kristy and the Worst Kid Ever. Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street. The Truth About Stacey: Logan Likes Mary Anne! Dawn and the Halloween Mystery. Is Jessi right to assume racism, or is should she try to be understanding, and not think everyone had a problem with her skin color? This was a truly worrying dilemma for me when I was eight or nine. How could I trust myself to navigate the world that was full of people who just didn't like me. Was it fair of me to think every non-Native person who was mean or rude to me was probably a closet racist.

I was crushed that we never heard another word about this in the series, and we never got to hear the conversation Jessi wanted to have with her family about this. Things I've considered since reading this as an adult: I have even more mixed feelings about this than I did as a child. Why should Jessi feel she is in the wrong for thinking someone who treats her badly may be a racist?

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On the other hand it's a terrible way to go through life assuming everyone who doesn't like you, or who is rude to you is a racist. As an adult I'm actually a little angry that this issue was even brought up in a book written and edited by white people. White people simply do not understand those of us who deal with institutional racism.

It's entirely possible that Pinky's parents speak rudely to black people, and order them around, and that although Pinky doesn't realize it, she has picked up their habits. She knows she's being mean which is why she apologizes to Jessi but she doesn't realize that had a white baby sitter be looking after her, she might add a please and thank you to her demands, and she might not take on such an angry tone.

I noticed that Pinky opens up about her fears to Dawn, a white girl. I think if Jessi assumes racism, there's a good chance there is some form of racism there, especially since there is no mention in the story of Pinky being rude to Stacey, the baby sitter who helped her at the site of the bus crash. The trouble with this series is that the writers and editors assume that racism only exists in overt forms. For this reason I was bothered by Mallory's dismissal of Jessi's concerns about Pinky, especially since Mallory is usually pretty understanding about Jessi's problems with prejudice.

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Once again a Super Special has made my head hurt thinking of the improbability of the cost. Several years after I left the fancy private school they stopped taking the high schoolers on the skiing trip because the school's insurance could no longer cover the cost of so many hormonal young adults running around a ski lodge even though the size of the high school had gone down by then; the first class of graduates who didn't get to go skiing was only six students.

I can't imagine taking students, sixth to eighth grades from Connecticut to Vermont for a week. That's at least a four hour drive, probably made longer by winter weather dangerous driving conditions in other words over multiple state lines. I can see this trip being an extra curricular trip one that costs money for some of the school sports teams to compete against other schools. But why would you make an entire school go on this trip for no money in the middle of winter? It sounds like an insurance nightmare.

And why are the only chaperones teachers? How are there not a bunch of pregnant teens in Stoneybrook after this trip?

Never mind that it might be hard to sneak in and out of dorms at night although there seem to be no teachers assigned to sleep in the dorms with the students but the students are left entirely to their own devices during the day, and they have the run of a huge lodge with very little adult supervision. They are not made to take skiing or skating lessons. They are not required to check in with anyone.

Baby-sitters' Island Adventure

They could hitchhike to Canada for all the adults care. Stacey could have gotten it on with Pierre in the quiet secluded room they were sitting in alone when Mallory attempted to spy on them. If they hadn't caught her, maybe they would have. As it is the book makes constant references to "Stacey was nowhere to be found" and "She's been pretty scarce ever since Tuesday morning. I don't understand why you would bother having one if you're not making the kids participate. What if lots of students for the Red Team turn up at the contests, but almost none for the Blue Team?

Actually this did happen in the book, which makes it seem unfair that Kristy's team lost. And why let Claudia judge one of the competitions when she's competing in other contests as a member of the Red Team? Also, the prize is said to be a free slice of pizza, which is the lamest thing I ever heard of, so I guess it might not be worth it to enter. But then, do you still get a free slice of pizza if you are on the winning side, but you didn't participate?

Later in the series teachers and administration freak out over student participation in Spirit Week, and the whole town comes to blows over this stupid controversy.

If you're that nuts about making students feel bad about not participating in Spirit Week, and put pressure on them to do so, then why is Winter War participation so loosy-goosy? It doesn't make sense.

Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation

Claudia's crush on her ski instructor is adorable. When she's in her thirties she will look back on herself and laugh in relief that Guy wasn't a creepy pedophile, but a regular twenty-something with an age appropriate wife and two young children, who had no designs on Claudia at all. As a kid I thought Mary Anne's attitude about Logan was completely ridiculous. As an adult I understand it, but I do think it's weird. Why does Mary Anne completely lose herself just because Logan's not around?

She seems too young to be so co-dependent. Also, why does she write a weird skit for children to perform about a girl breaking up with her boyfriend? Does she secretly want to break up with Logan already? Since her father isn't yet married to Dawn's mother the time when Mary Anne does break up with Logan is way in the future.

Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation

And why does she miss him so much that she doesn't do anything else her whole trip but pine for him, if she subconsciously wants to break up with him? This whole story line is very, very strange. Mallory is really annoying in this book, so much so that I'm surprised she had any friends left by the end of it. In many ways she was the only one who acted so out of character. Dawn makes a huge fuss about how she's not as independent and resilient as she thinks she is, but I feel like that's already been established.

Maybe it was a revelation to her, but not to me. There is nothing unique and individual about Dawn. She is exactly what you would think a mean-spirited, moody, bossy, insecure teenage girl would be. Mary Anne acts exactly the way you would expect Mary Anne to act. I don't think of Mary Anne as being sensitive and understanding. I think she's often manipulative, and self-centered, exactly the way she acts with Dawn in this book. Kristy is weirdly competitive as she can be sometimes. Stacey thinks she's in love with a boy she just met who she will never mention again. I thought it was hilarious that Stacey comes off sounding like a Victorian debutante in this book when she talks about being rude by only dancing with Pierre, so they are sure to trade partners every so often.

Mallory on the other hand has always seemed like a pretty calm person, but in this book she loses it on too many occasions. She makes much too big a deal about going to a dance, she tells Jessi that Pinky's racism is not "the problem this time", and she jumps to crazy conclusions about the people she spies on.

When she finds one of her teachers crying in the bathroom why did her mind immediately go to assuming that it was because she has a crush on the vice-principal? Why did she instantly think the cook was trying to poison everyone when she just. It's the most far-fetched thing. It would be one thing to come up with these outlandish stories if she was working on becoming the next Nora Roberts, or Sue Grafton, but she says that she wants to uncover truths and secrets about the people around her. She does a terrible job at it. Stick to fiction Mallory. This one involves a school trip to Vermont without Logan and baby-sitting children from Maine who are also on a school trip.

Mary Ann spends the book pining for Logan. Stacey and Claudia meet boys, but only of them has a chance with their crush. Kristy is in charge of the Winter War which involves a snowball fight, ice sculptures, ice skating, down-hill skiing, and cross-country skiing. Mallory wanders around the lodge watching people. Dawn attempts a winte This one involves a school trip to Vermont without Logan and baby-sitting children from Maine who are also on a school trip. Dawn attempts a winter sport and misses California.

Oct 04, Ella rated it really liked it. Martin is a fictional book that takes place in Stoneybrook and Vermont. The baby-sitters club are a group of seven girls who made a babysitting business. Their school brought the whole middle school to a ski lodge in Vermont. They then set up a winter war with activities such as skiing, cross-country skiing, ice skating, and a snow sculpture contest.

Will the red or blue team win? And will The Babysitters club get along? I really enjoyed reading Baby-Sitters Winter Vacation and can't wait to read the series! Sep 06, Lisa Birch rated it it was ok. What even is this book? I only read it twice as a kid, so I must have thought it wasn't too crash hot then either. Basically, this book is Camp Mohawk over again, but this time there is snow and more squabbles between the BSC members. Plus, Mal is more weird than usual and a small child called Ethel is fat shamed in the last chapter.

Aug 09, Samantha rated it it was ok Shelves: I don't remember this from my childhood, and for apparently good reasons. It was freaking boring as hell. I was falling asleep in places. It was next level awful, even for the BSC. May 14, Adelle rated it really liked it. As a youth, I loved this series! Mar 11, Lilly F. All the kids from Stoneybrook Middle School get to go to a lodge for one week during the winter and ski, skate, and have snowball fights. But after 16 younger school kids get into a car accident 2 miles down the road, will the Babysitters Club give up some of their winter trip to take care of the kids?

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about camp! Jul 09, Julie Decker rated it it was ok. The babysitters' school is taking everyone on a mandatory ski vacation, so now the BSC is plopped into the middle of cold snowdrifts and hot hotties! Kristy gets a little carried away with the competitive spirit, Claudia tries to rein Kristy in, Stacey becomes obsessed with the French ski instructor, Dawn is miserable in her battle with the elements, and Mary Anne researches the history of the ski lodge. When a bus accident causes a major crisis, it's babysitters to the rescue.

The premise felt w The babysitters' school is taking everyone on a mandatory ski vacation, so now the BSC is plopped into the middle of cold snowdrifts and hot hotties! But even considering that, I found the individual plot lines awfully thin as well. Kristy's might have been best as she at least has precedent for flying off the handle when there's competition, and I guess Stacey has a history of mooning over unavailable guys and learning that same hard lesson over and over in case you haven't read a previous book, but so many of the situations are handled in this cursory, oversimplified fashion.

The Mary Anne storyline really irritated me because it's more or less inevitable that anytime anyone in this series investigates the history of a place, they will start freaking out over whether it is haunted or cursed. I also thought the Jessi storyline was frustrating because even when Jessi stories aren't about racism they're about racism.

This time, there wasn't actually racism; she just thought there was, and became fixated on whether someone was treating her poorly because she's black. Debbie Downer Mallory doesn't want to do much while there except spy on people. She makes up stories about people because she thinks she's Harriet the Spy.

She also complains about not wanting to dance at the end of the trip dance party. Overall, the book was okay. I don't think this was the best Super Special of the series but it still kept my interest. One person found this helpful. Swank Ivy Top Contributor: Steven Universe TV Show. The thing I remember most about this one was one of the babysitters getting a crush on a ski instructor with a French accent his name was Guy, and they told you how to pronounce it. By this point I was really annoyed that any reasonably attractive older man was going to turn into the ridiculous irrationally pursued hottie, though I was realizing all my friends were kind of doing this too, and I just didn't care about boys.

The whole "omg he is so cute" sub-plots of these vacation books really annoyed me. So this extravagant trip involving skiing is undertaken by the babysitters' entire freaking middle school. I know some school districts are richer than others but this is ridiculous. We used to have to raise money to go to the movies as a reward, you know? And they get a ski vacation that's mandatory? Anyway, there's friendly competition between "teams" during a "Winter War," and of course Kristy kind of ruins things by being too competitive about everything.

She and Claudia were kind of at each other's throats the whole time because of this, and Kristy pushing some kid into participating in the skiing contest and he breaks his foot which makes her feel like a jerk. Can there please stop being ghosts in these books? Especially since, much like Scooby-Doo, they're never really ghosts?

And Dawn's storyline is mostly about how she sucks at snow. I guess they just had to stick her with this stereotypical trait because she's from California which as we all know is one giant beach.

See a Problem?

Ah, and Stacey was chasing a boy the whole time, because she is Boy-Crazy Stacey after all. And our junior members spend the book being annoying as well. Jessi's storyline isn't about racism, which means it has to be about racism. She imagines that a white girl is being snotty to her because she's black, and later concludes that wasn't it. So the moral of the story was that even when the story isn't about racism, it's about racism if you're a black character.

I wish it'd been a bit more nuanced though I know the level these books are aimed at ; wondering whether someone is acting poorly toward you because of racism, and whether that involves danger or oppression, is part of the minority race experience, so it isn't silly to think it might be there. It's just wrong to assume it must.

Anyway, Mallory keeps seeing "evidence" of stuff she's making up and writing about it to document it. Because I guess she thinks she's a detective. There was also some kind of bus accident where some teachers were hurt but I don't think it was super relevant to the plot except that some of the children had to be watched by the babysitters. I'm rereading these books as an adult and this one is okay, but not great. Mary Anne acts like a sap, mooning over Logan and writing goofy letters.

Kristy acts like a competitive jerk, Stacey of course finds someone to fall in love with and Jessi jumps to conclusions. Malory acts like a baby, and Claudia falls in love in the most cliche way imaginable. Then there is Dawn. Every time I reread one of these books I realize how much I despise this character.

Everytime something goes wrong in her life it is always someone else's fault. And always, whenever the group goes away somewhere Dawn always acts like a scared little wimp. New readers, I wouldn't start with this one. A little blah, but I still like these episodes where the friends all get away together. Not a big fan of winter, maybe that's why this fell a little flat for me. Also not a big fan of sport description. A ton of guests included, don't try to keep them all straight. There IS a positive lesson to be learned in this book, and it deals with Jessie.

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