The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #10: Sea City, Here We Come!

The Pikes are heading back to Sea City, but this time, Mrs. Barrett is going too. She somehow managed to rent a smaller house right next to theirs on the beach. The Pikes also ask Jessi to go in place of Stacey or Mary Anne to help them out. Stacey goes with Mrs. Barrett as her helper. Franklin plans to come up for a few days too, and he agrees to bring the rest of the gang with him for a few days.

Jessi is the one who starts the special book for their vacation. She's super worried about what the Pikes think of her and how they'll hate her for not working as hard as the older girls do. She goes overboard making breakfast and taking care of the kids. Suzi, Margo, and Claire also want to enter some sand castle building competition with her help. It turns out that it's a big deal and people come from all over the world to compete. She tries to talk them out of it, but they want to compete. The competition ends up getting canceled due to a major hurricane.

Karen gets a chapter for some reason. She's back in Stoneybrook when Hurricane Bill comes through and worries about what will happen to Kristy. The storm comes through in the middle of the night, but her whole family gets up and listens to the radio together. Then, she helps police clean up the next day.

Kristy finds out at the last minute that she doesn't have enough players for some big game against Bart's team. She runs around town and finds players who have no experience because she doesn't want to forfeit. They end up losing really bad to his team, but since it's Kristy, she gets over it pretty fast.

Claudia gets stuck in summer school yet again and meets some cool girls. One of them plans a special party for them on the same day that she leaves. She thinks about going up later but decides to go anyway. She really has no story.

Dawn and Mary Anne host a summer camp for kids at their home. They throw a slumber party for them on the last night. Dawn scares everyone when she makes up a story about the ghost of her barn and his dead fiance. Once they get to Sea City, Mary Anne worries about seeing Alex and Toby again.

Logan comes up for a few days and goes out of his way to make Mary Anne think about him and not Alex. They do all the typical romantic stuff before he leaves. When the hurricane hits, he thinks that she spent the whole time with Alex but later finds out that they were nowhere near each other. He then plans a huge horse drawn carriage thing when she gets back.

Mallory runs into Toby, who suddenly thinks that she's cute. They run into each other at the miniature golf course, and he asks her out. This sends Stacey into a tailspin, which leads to them constantly fighting. In the end, Mallory realizes that she likes Ben way better than she likes Toby.

Stacey is pissed that Toby dumped her and now has a thing for Mallory. She's also unhappy with Mrs. Barrett and how she's so scattered all the time. After whiny throughout the whole book, she goes to Mallory and apologizes. Then there's something at the end about Mrs. Barrett apologizing to her.

Hurricane Bill comes through and washes out the only access to Sea City. Both families and all the sitters wind up spending a few days at the local school. They then go back, help clean up the beach a little, and then go home.

*The adults go crazy and don't know what to do when the hurricane gets closer. Kristy is the one who suggests they go to a hotel, because adults can't do anything without the help of a teen girl.

*I think it's a little cute that Mrs. Barrett and Franklin rent two separate houses instead of living together.

*The Pikes actually have to rent a van just to have enough room to bring all the BSC members back. Where do they get their money from??

*I think it's creepy that Toby goes after Mallory. He's supposed to be older than Stacey and is around 14 or 15, but Mal is only 11!

*Mallory's date outfit is a blue and white polka dotted skirt, a white tank top, and a blue men's shirt tied in front. Claudia picks out these cool buttons and pink flamingo barrettes for her to wear too. Mal says that the buttons had faces of Stephen Hawking, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and other people but that Claudia didn't know who anyone was. I find it hard to believe that Mallory would know those people. Also, one is of Virginia Wolf, which seems like a weird person to put on a button.

*Stacey wears a long white tee shirt, white capris pants, a brown leather belt, and leather thongs. It's not bad, but it doesn't seem appropriate for a 13-year-old girl.

*Mallory is totally wearing running shoes and socks on the cover of this book. Who wears that to the beach?

*Mrs. Barrett drives over a curb and curses. Stacey tells her that her dad always does the same thing because he grew up in NYC and didn't learn to drive until he was an adult. She's shocked that Mrs. Barrett really doesn't care because adults usually love that story. Sure, Stacey, sure.

*Toby tells Mallory to let him know if she has any cute single friends and later writes to ask her about Jessi. She's all shocked that he would do that, but what did she expect? He is the same guy who dumped one of her "best" friends.