Reviews for Welcome to the Bsc, Abby

The average rating for Welcome to the Bsc, Abby based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-03-31 00:00:00 Terrence Tully this is the first abby-narrated book of the series. since she is new & everything. i stopped reading the babysitters club series as a child long before abby came into the picture, but i really enjoy her as an adult. i feel like she is a tool for the ghostwriters to make fun of the other characters. in the very first chapter, she refers to kristy as a "bossy beast". i love the tension they have with each other, both being sporty loudmouths. & the tension is really ratcheted up in this book. the big plotline here is that the school board is thinking about making some budget cuts to all the public schools in town (there are like 47 of them). specifically, they're talking about cutting sports & music. so the community decides to band together & hold a fundraising carnival. which is kind of bogus, because it's really the job of the education budget-makers to come up with the funds for these public education programs. that's why homeowners pay taxes & shit. but once again, the babysitters club universe is a unique world where regular laws & regulations do not apply. at first, abby doesn't really care about the arts budget being in trouble...until she remembers that her sister, anna, is passionate about being a violinist & won't be able to participate in the school orchestra if it gets defunded. she wants her family to staff a booth at the carnival, & comes up with the idea of "fingerpainting food," which is just a gross way to describe the idea of kids decorating their own cupcakes. anna & mrs. stevenson are remarkably blase about the carnival idea. anna seems almost completely indifferent to the problems with the arts budget. & mrs. stevenson...it's weird. the stevensons moved into kristy's posh neighborhood & hired an interior decorator & put her through the wringer, making sure the decor was completely perfect before they moved in. they bought all new furniture & added an addition on to what is almost certainly already a large home. i'm sure the mortgage is expensive & mrs. stevenson pays out the ass for property taxes. plus, she pulled strings to enroll the girls in stoneybrook middle school specifically for the purpose of anna having access to a school orchestra. literally like two weeks after they moved to town (& i'm sure mrs. stevenson researched lots of options before settling on stoneybrook), the arts budget is in trouble & she doesn't even seem upset about it. pretty weird. anyway, abby throws herself into the carnival idea. all the other members of the babysitters club, as well as their charges, are also planning to have booth at the carnival. abby even suggests that the babysitters club staff their own booth (i'm sure kristy wanted to murder her for coming up with that gem of an obvious idea before kristy got the chance). the babysitters decide to make arts-themed pins to sell, & some of them will be redeemable for free hours of babysitting. the pikes organize a carousel-themed booth where they will sell handicrafts manufactured by various folks in the neighborhood with too much time on their hands & no etsy access. the arnold twins concoct a plan where people can have their photos taken with elvira the baby goat. the other big plot involves abby's allergies & asthma. it's actually more interesting than it sounds. abby takes a job sitting for the papadakis kids (she says she "likes to the commute"--they live across the street from her--& none of the other babysitters get the joke; i love how abby is always making ridiculous catskills borscht belt-style jokes that the other sitters are too dumb to understand), but their many pets cause her allergies to act up. so she takes the kids outside, but the mold on the falling leaves make her allergies act up out there. she starts to ask linny to run inside & grab her inhaler, but apparently the look on her face scares the crap out of hannie. hannie decides she needs to go for help, so she runs across the street to get kristy. unfortunately, she runs right out in front of a car & abby panics, which triggers a full-blown asthma attack. linny gets the inhaler, but it doesn't arrest the attack very effectively, & kristy has to call the paramedics. abby recovers quickly in the ER, but kristy is really concerned that abby's asthma & allergies are a liability when it comes to babysitting. she asks what abby would have done if she had just been sitting alone for sari (the baby), with no older kids to fetch her inhaler or call for help. abby tries to explain that she had an attack when hannie scared the crap out of her running into the street, but kristy is not convinced. at the next babysitters club meeting, kristy pulls some strings to get other sitters to take jobs for which abby is available. abby doesn't know how to convince kristy that she's okay & can babysit responsibly. there is also a bit about abby & anna unpacking crates & finding an old box full of their dad's stuff. their dad died in a car accident when abby & anna were nine years old. their mom rarely talks about him. they didn't know that she had kept any of his stuff, but they find a box containing his bathrobe, which smells of cologne the twins gave him for his birthday one year, his glasses in a monogrammed case, his wristwatch (he wasn't wearing it during the accident), a framed wedding photo of himself & mrs. stevenson, & some other sentimental stuff. abby & anna are kind of emotionally walloped by finding this stuff unexpectedly. they assume their mom had packed it away after he died & forgot about it, & they get angry with her & hide the box in the attic. i have to admit, this scene actually made me tear up a little. my dad is dead as well, & i can relate to how hard it must be for the girls to stay strong & carry on, & how hard it must have been for mrs. stevenson to suddenly become a widow with two little girls to look after. abby & anna reminisce about when their dad was alive. mrs. stevenson's ambition then was to be a professional chef. their dad was an environmental engineer who specialized in coming up with architecture & technologies that were environmentally friendly. he & mrs. stevenson talked about opening an organic restaurant built into a tree. definitely a goofy idea, especially on long island, but also kind of sweet. after he died, mrs. stevenson took a better-paying job in the publishing industry (boy, does that ever date this book) & started working such long hours that she never had time to cook anymore. anyway, the carnival happens & abby's cupcake booth is a big hit. both anna & mrs. stevenson promise to help out at the booth the next day. mrs. stevenson has to go into the city to get some work done but promises to leave on an early afternoon train & come straight to the carnival. anna & shannon kilbourne relieve abby from the booth so she can check out the carnival, & an announcer comes over the loudspeaker to say that a train from new york city has derailed. abby think it's her mom's train. she collects anna & they both run off to find kristy & ask her parents for a ride to the train station to get more info. kristy assumes abby is having another asthma attack, but they straighten everything out & go to the station. no one there knows anything, nor do the local police. abby & anna basically just have to sit tight & wait. they go back to the carnival & keep selling cupcakes. finally at 6pm, their mom comes running up. she's fine. she was on the train right behind the one that derailed & got stuck in a tunnel when the derailment happened. everyone was stuck in the tunnel for hours & she had no cell reception so couldn't call. her train was finally evacuated & the passengers had to walk back to the station & then take buses to their destinations. all the stevensons are totally relieved to be together again. they go home & have a heart-to-heart in which abby & anna tell mrs. stevenson about the box. it's another sad scene in which mrs. stevenson picks up the glasses & says she took them to the hospital when she heard about the car accident, thinking mr. stevenson would need them. she didn't know he was already dead. i cannot even imagine. this is why my boyfriend is never allowed to die. the stevensons hug it out, abby convinces kristy that her asthma won't prevent her from babysitting, & the carnival raises enough money to save the arts programs.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-13 00:00:00 Kevin Nordbye [image error]