The Baby-Sitters Club #100: Kristy’s Worst Idea

Kristy just got back from a week-long vacation in Hawaii and cannot wait for their first BSC meeting, but no one else feels the same way. In the last book, Abby took over as president and wasted most of the club treasury on a Mexican festival. The girls keep talking about how much fun they had, which makes Kristy feel like they don’t need her.

Jessi gets into a ballet class for top students, but it meets on Friday afternoons. Everyone considers letting her skip those meetings, but Kristy decides it is all or nothing: either she stay in the BSC or quit for ballet. Abby thinks they should move their Friday meetings to Thursday and takes a vote. Everyone agrees except Kristy, so they send out new fliers with the new time listed.

Things start going downhill from there. Mary Anne and Claudia set for the Barrett/DeWitt house and have an argument. Mary Anne wants to play relaxing board games and calms the kids down. Then Claudia gets them all riled up with art projects. They start fighting and eventually cannot even be in the same room together.

Mallory gets into a creative writing class that meets on Wednesday nights. Abby wants to move the meetings to Tuesday and Kristy wants Mallory to quit the club. Everyone gets into a fight over when to host meetings and Kristy decides they should disband the BSC. Claudia feels relieved and everyone else is kind of happy too. They take a vote and only Mal and Jessi want to keep the club going.

Kristy thinks that everyone needs a few days to calm down and that by Monday, they will all beg her to form the club again. No one really does and they all seem happy about it. Claudia and Stacey go shopping all the time, Mary Anne spends all of her free time with Logan, and Abby has time for sports. Kristy already feels like crap because while sitting for Jackie, he fell out of a tree and sprained his ankle. Now she feels completely out of sorts.

Even though Claudia records a message on her machine, parents keep calling her at all hours of the day. It drives her nuts, but she still wants time for herself. She and Stacey run into Mrs. Newton at the mall. Jamie acts pissy towards them and finally admits that he think they don’t like him anymore. None of the kids understand and blame themselves for the club breaking up.

Abby points out that none of the parents call her for sitting jobs because they don’t know her. Kristy suggests reforming the club, but Abby blows her off. Kristy mopes around for awhile, feels crappy, and gets annoyed with her friends for not caring. She has a run-in with Emily over sitting jobs because Emily sat for Jamie. Emily tells her that the BSC had a monopoly on sitting jobs and since they broke up, she could finally get some work. Even Cokie gets a sitting job!

Mallory tries to get the club together, but when they all go out for pizza, Claudia and Mary Anne skip because they don’t want to see each other. Claudia calls in a panic because Jackie hurt himself. The whole club rushes to the hospital to cheer him up and he says that he misses them all. They agree to one more meeting at Claudia’s house.

Kristy suggests starting the club again and only half agree. Stacey is worried that the club will take over their lives and Claudia doesn’t want to deal with all the phone calls. They decide to do a one month trial and if they are happy, they can keep the club going for the rest of the school year.

*As soon as Kristy announces the breakup of the club, Claudia records a new message, telling clients to call the sitters one at a time. That seems kind of fast!

*Kristy says that she never wanted the BSC to have a monopoly, which is complete bull shit. When that other club started, they went out of their way to bring them down. She also acts like it never crossed her mind that other kids might want to sit, but that’s pretty unbelievable.

*Yeah, so this marks the beginning of 8^th grade yet again. The book makes it clear that Abby is still new in town, but everyone goes shopping for school supplies and stuff. BTW, this book takes place over several months. Yup, the BSC broke up for months!

*Kristy is constantly bored and never once mentions the Krushers. Couldn’t she schedule some extra practices or something?

*Claudia wears a bracelet made from shoelaces, a ruffled shirt, two different Converse shoes, men’s suit pants, and a bungee cord as a belt. Why doesn’t anyone ever show her a mirror?

*It’s kind of realistic that the club breaks up because everyone has different interests. Yet, Stacey is the only one that ever had problems with the BSC and real life. Suddenly, everyone wants more time to do other stuff.

*I did like that the club members pointed out how the BSC takes over their lives and doesn’t give them time for anything else.

*Kristy wants to do a fall festival, but she really only wants to do it because Abby ran a festival without her. The story goes on for multiple chapters with no one wanting to do it, until she finally gives up.