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xtinamorse's review
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/sea-city-here-we-come
ssshira's review
2.0
this is my first time reading this book!
in this first super special to be credited to a ghostwriter ([a:Peter Lerangis|17216|Peter Lerangis|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1273412599p2/17216.jpg]) everyone in the bsc except shannon gets to go to sea city. the pikes hire mal and jessi to be their mother's helpers, and the barretts hire stacey. plus, when the dewitts (erroneously called the harrises in this book, for some reason) come to stay with the barretts for a weekend, dawn is hired to be a second mother's helper. the others all just stay with the pikes as houseguests. eventually a hurricane comes to town and the causeway that is the only way back to the mainland gets flooded, so everyone has to stay at the elementary school for safety's sake.
character plotlines:
-claudia: before the sea city trip she goes to summer school, where she makes new friends (something kind of unheard of among bsc members -- consider how angry everyone is at her in [b:Claudia and the New Girl|233746|Claudia and the New Girl (The Baby-sitters Club, #12)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386921834s/233746.jpg|2152021]), and she is the "smart" one among them. aw, claud should just hang out with near-dropouts to start to feel better about herself!
-mallory: toby (stacey's backup boo in [b:Boy-Crazy Stacey|137947|Boy-Crazy Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club, #8)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390945749s/137947.jpg|3057022], who also appears in [b:Mary Anne and Too Many Boys|233789|Mary Anne and Too Many Boys (The Baby-Sitters Club, #34)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435682558s/233789.jpg|2152020]) is tryna real hard with mallory, which is creepy bc I think he's 14 and she's 11, but whatever. stacey gets mad and keeps talking about how toby is a creep, and mal thinks she's just jealous, but then it turns out he actually is a creep -- he even asks about if jessi is single in a note to mal in the epilogue (I kind of hate this -- I wanted stacey to be wrong about him and just have to deal with this boy who liked her being into an 11-year-old)
-stacey: is a jerk/baby to mallory about toby stuff (see mallory plot)
-logan: super jealous of alex (mary anne's boo in [b:Boy-Crazy Stacey|137947|Boy-Crazy Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club, #8)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390945749s/137947.jpg|3057022] who also appears in [b:Mary Anne and Too Many Boys|233789|Mary Anne and Too Many Boys (The Baby-Sitters Club, #34)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435682558s/233789.jpg|2152020]) and paranoid that mary anne is going to have some romantic feelings for him or something. between these jealous paranoid fantasies and mary anne's in [b:Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation|371080|Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation (The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special, #3)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387711881s/371080.jpg|361047] these freaks are MADE for each other.
-mary anne: along with dawn, before the sea city trip she hosts a mini-camp for bsc charges
-dawn: see mary anne plot
-kristy: before the sea city trip she tries to get replacement krushers for a game since many of her players are out of town. she gets snooty kids from her neighborhood, most of whom have no idea how to play sports and are not athletic at all. they lose terribly to the bashers. this is maybe my favorite chapter in this book.
-jessi: thinks the guy at the ice cream palace is a babe but that is never mentioned again. she is excited that the storm cancels the sand castle building contest bc the young pikes had wanted to participate but would absolutely lose, since most of those in the contest were building house-type sand castles, and then the young pikes would be bummed.
highlights:
-on the way to sea city the young pikes play a game of counting the nose pickers in cars near them on the highway
-the girl with her swimsuit getting pulled by a dog billboard (one of the indicators that you are arriving at sea city, discussed in [b:Boy-Crazy Stacey|137947|Boy-Crazy Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club, #8)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390945749s/137947.jpg|3057022] and [b:Mary Anne and Too Many Boys|233789|Mary Anne and Too Many Boys (The Baby-Sitters Club, #34)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435682558s/233789.jpg|2152020]) is replaced by a sign for "weiner's wieners"
-one of the new rich kid krushers is named s. emerson pinckney iv. his nickname is quad. this whole plotline is hilarious to me.
-at one point there's a margo chapter. there's a tidepool full of small sea creatures. margo calls it her beach zoo and tries to charge admission. such a cute little kid chapter.
-pizza falafel! there's a pizza falafel place! is it falafel in a pita that also has pizza stuff inside? is it falafel balls as pizza toppings? this is the most intriguing part of this book
-nicky & buddy are fighting and call each other "nicky-nicky-got-so-sicky" and "buddy-buddy-elmer-fuddy"
lowlights/nitpicks:
-claudia has a theory that summer school teachers want the time off and when they have to teach in the summer they resent the kids for that. this may be true, but not everyone HAS to teach summer school. it's something you sign up to do, and you get paid more for it.
-they say horseshoe crabs are dangerous. they're not! they're one of the most defenseless animals in the world, and people take advantage of that and hunt them frequently, using them as bait for fishing other animals and use their blood for testing pills.
-there's a place called kotton kandy korner (and jessi wonders why they can't spell it right, not realizing that it's obviously a KKK front -- of COURSE jessi wouldn't notice something like this, because of all of her not seeing racism speech in [b:Jessi and the Awful Secret|290516|Jessi and the Awful Secret (The Baby-Sitters Club, #61)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387742414s/290516.jpg|2227762])
-franklin harris? it's dewitt. come ON. they get married and become the barrett-dewitts.
-stacey says she's never been in a hurricane. maybe she hasn't been in a terrible one, but there have been at least a couple in nyc when she's been alive.
-mallory writes a letter to mrs. mcgill (which makes NO sense to begin with -- yeah, I like to write letters to my friends' moms when I'm on vacation) and addresses it "dear mrs. mcgillicuddy" -- this is a WEAK i love lucy reference.
-"madame trousseau's wax museum"? I think you mean madame tussaud's
-they go to a double feature of the sword in the stone and robin hood. I can only imagine they mean disney's robin hood, since it's a double feature with the sword in the stone. then there's a reference to prince john's death scene. HUH? he doesn't die. last we see him, he is chasing sir hiss around the burning castle, but he could easily still get out, especially considering the castle seems to be mostly stone and probably doesn't catch fire that easily. at most it's an implied death, but there's no DEATH SCENE.
jackie disaster:
-scratches his eye with a plastic drinking straw and has to wear a patch
claudia outfits:
-"That Friday, for instance, she was wearing ripped cut-off jeans held up by a frayed rope belt, a T-shirt with the collar torn off, huge white socks all bunched around the ankle, and old-fashioned black lace-up shoes."
-"I was wearing the only long pants I had packed, these overdyed navy jeans. I was also wearing a loose black cotton sweater over a white tank top."
stacey outfit:
-"At our Friday meeting she was wearing this white T-shirt that hung practically to her knees (Stacey calls it a "jersey tunic" or something), white stretch pants ("ribbed leggings"), to mid-calf, a tan leather belt over the T-shirt, and leather-strap sandals."
mal outfit:
-"I ended up choosing a short, flared, white-on-blue polka-dotted skirt (mine); a white, ribbed tank top (Jessi's); and a long, royal-blue men's shirt with the tails tied in front (Claudia had run to her room for that.)...Claudia yanked back my mane and figured out how to put the flamingo barrettes in it so they wouldn't get lost."
snacks in claudia's room:
-heath bars (n.s.)
-skor bars (n.s.)
-corn chips (n.s.)
-twinkies in a shoebox in her closet
-pretzels in a suitcase in her closet
in this first super special to be credited to a ghostwriter ([a:Peter Lerangis|17216|Peter Lerangis|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1273412599p2/17216.jpg]) everyone in the bsc except shannon gets to go to sea city. the pikes hire mal and jessi to be their mother's helpers, and the barretts hire stacey. plus, when the dewitts (erroneously called the harrises in this book, for some reason) come to stay with the barretts for a weekend, dawn is hired to be a second mother's helper. the others all just stay with the pikes as houseguests. eventually a hurricane comes to town and the causeway that is the only way back to the mainland gets flooded, so everyone has to stay at the elementary school for safety's sake.
character plotlines:
-claudia: before the sea city trip she goes to summer school, where she makes new friends (something kind of unheard of among bsc members -- consider how angry everyone is at her in [b:Claudia and the New Girl|233746|Claudia and the New Girl (The Baby-sitters Club, #12)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386921834s/233746.jpg|2152021]), and she is the "smart" one among them. aw, claud should just hang out with near-dropouts to start to feel better about herself!
-mallory: toby (stacey's backup boo in [b:Boy-Crazy Stacey|137947|Boy-Crazy Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club, #8)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390945749s/137947.jpg|3057022], who also appears in [b:Mary Anne and Too Many Boys|233789|Mary Anne and Too Many Boys (The Baby-Sitters Club, #34)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435682558s/233789.jpg|2152020]) is tryna real hard with mallory, which is creepy bc I think he's 14 and she's 11, but whatever. stacey gets mad and keeps talking about how toby is a creep, and mal thinks she's just jealous, but then it turns out he actually is a creep -- he even asks about if jessi is single in a note to mal in the epilogue (I kind of hate this -- I wanted stacey to be wrong about him and just have to deal with this boy who liked her being into an 11-year-old)
-stacey: is a jerk/baby to mallory about toby stuff (see mallory plot)
-logan: super jealous of alex (mary anne's boo in [b:Boy-Crazy Stacey|137947|Boy-Crazy Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club, #8)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390945749s/137947.jpg|3057022] who also appears in [b:Mary Anne and Too Many Boys|233789|Mary Anne and Too Many Boys (The Baby-Sitters Club, #34)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435682558s/233789.jpg|2152020]) and paranoid that mary anne is going to have some romantic feelings for him or something. between these jealous paranoid fantasies and mary anne's in [b:Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation|371080|Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation (The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special, #3)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387711881s/371080.jpg|361047] these freaks are MADE for each other.
-mary anne: along with dawn, before the sea city trip she hosts a mini-camp for bsc charges
-dawn: see mary anne plot
-kristy: before the sea city trip she tries to get replacement krushers for a game since many of her players are out of town. she gets snooty kids from her neighborhood, most of whom have no idea how to play sports and are not athletic at all. they lose terribly to the bashers. this is maybe my favorite chapter in this book.
-jessi: thinks the guy at the ice cream palace is a babe but that is never mentioned again. she is excited that the storm cancels the sand castle building contest bc the young pikes had wanted to participate but would absolutely lose, since most of those in the contest were building house-type sand castles, and then the young pikes would be bummed.
highlights:
-on the way to sea city the young pikes play a game of counting the nose pickers in cars near them on the highway
-the girl with her swimsuit getting pulled by a dog billboard (one of the indicators that you are arriving at sea city, discussed in [b:Boy-Crazy Stacey|137947|Boy-Crazy Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club, #8)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390945749s/137947.jpg|3057022] and [b:Mary Anne and Too Many Boys|233789|Mary Anne and Too Many Boys (The Baby-Sitters Club, #34)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435682558s/233789.jpg|2152020]) is replaced by a sign for "weiner's wieners"
-one of the new rich kid krushers is named s. emerson pinckney iv. his nickname is quad. this whole plotline is hilarious to me.
-at one point there's a margo chapter. there's a tidepool full of small sea creatures. margo calls it her beach zoo and tries to charge admission. such a cute little kid chapter.
-pizza falafel! there's a pizza falafel place! is it falafel in a pita that also has pizza stuff inside? is it falafel balls as pizza toppings? this is the most intriguing part of this book
-nicky & buddy are fighting and call each other "nicky-nicky-got-so-sicky" and "buddy-buddy-elmer-fuddy"
lowlights/nitpicks:
-claudia has a theory that summer school teachers want the time off and when they have to teach in the summer they resent the kids for that. this may be true, but not everyone HAS to teach summer school. it's something you sign up to do, and you get paid more for it.
-they say horseshoe crabs are dangerous. they're not! they're one of the most defenseless animals in the world, and people take advantage of that and hunt them frequently, using them as bait for fishing other animals and use their blood for testing pills.
-there's a place called kotton kandy korner (and jessi wonders why they can't spell it right, not realizing that it's obviously a KKK front -- of COURSE jessi wouldn't notice something like this, because of all of her not seeing racism speech in [b:Jessi and the Awful Secret|290516|Jessi and the Awful Secret (The Baby-Sitters Club, #61)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387742414s/290516.jpg|2227762])
-franklin harris? it's dewitt. come ON. they get married and become the barrett-dewitts.
-stacey says she's never been in a hurricane. maybe she hasn't been in a terrible one, but there have been at least a couple in nyc when she's been alive.
-mallory writes a letter to mrs. mcgill (which makes NO sense to begin with -- yeah, I like to write letters to my friends' moms when I'm on vacation) and addresses it "dear mrs. mcgillicuddy" -- this is a WEAK i love lucy reference.
-"madame trousseau's wax museum"? I think you mean madame tussaud's
-they go to a double feature of the sword in the stone and robin hood. I can only imagine they mean disney's robin hood, since it's a double feature with the sword in the stone. then there's a reference to prince john's death scene. HUH? he doesn't die. last we see him, he is chasing sir hiss around the burning castle, but he could easily still get out, especially considering the castle seems to be mostly stone and probably doesn't catch fire that easily. at most it's an implied death, but there's no DEATH SCENE.
jackie disaster:
-scratches his eye with a plastic drinking straw and has to wear a patch
claudia outfits:
-"That Friday, for instance, she was wearing ripped cut-off jeans held up by a frayed rope belt, a T-shirt with the collar torn off, huge white socks all bunched around the ankle, and old-fashioned black lace-up shoes."
-"I was wearing the only long pants I had packed, these overdyed navy jeans. I was also wearing a loose black cotton sweater over a white tank top."
stacey outfit:
-"At our Friday meeting she was wearing this white T-shirt that hung practically to her knees (Stacey calls it a "jersey tunic" or something), white stretch pants ("ribbed leggings"), to mid-calf, a tan leather belt over the T-shirt, and leather-strap sandals."
mal outfit:
-"I ended up choosing a short, flared, white-on-blue polka-dotted skirt (mine); a white, ribbed tank top (Jessi's); and a long, royal-blue men's shirt with the tails tied in front (Claudia had run to her room for that.)...Claudia yanked back my mane and figured out how to put the flamingo barrettes in it so they wouldn't get lost."
snacks in claudia's room:
-heath bars (n.s.)
-skor bars (n.s.)
-corn chips (n.s.)
-twinkies in a shoebox in her closet
-pretzels in a suitcase in her closet
liannakiwi's review
1.0
(LL)
This is the third or fourth book about going to the same place. Nothing new and really not necessary. Boring. The hurricane plot line could have been good, but all the kids kept saying how “cool” it was and how it was “boring” because there wasn’t much damage for them to look at in the aftermath. Like the hell? There was also some casual fat shaming thrown in here too.
This is the third or fourth book about going to the same place. Nothing new and really not necessary. Boring. The hurricane plot line could have been good, but all the kids kept saying how “cool” it was and how it was “boring” because there wasn’t much damage for them to look at in the aftermath. Like the hell? There was also some casual fat shaming thrown in here too.
darkrootscreations's review
3.0
This was a good one, especially to read right now...the summer. Because I live in NJ going to the Jersey shore has a particular fondness for my childhood, as do these books.
If anything, I'm now plotting how I can plan a few days down at the water.
If anything, I'm now plotting how I can plan a few days down at the water.
samanthaspice91's review
3.0
The hurricane was fun and Logan was cute but TOBY IS A CREEP AND THAT IS NEVER ADEQUATELY ADDRESSED.
unielesta's review
3.0
When I was younger my favorite BSC books were Boy-Crazy Stacey and Dawn on the Coast. I liked the former because Sea City reminded me of Wildwood, NJ, where I used to go on vacation most summers. In truth they probably weren’t that alike other than being in New Jersey and having a few generic similarities (the Ferris wheel!). But anyway, since then I’ve always had an affinity for books set in Sea City, which is my long way of saying I’m probably being a bit generous with my rating.
debrasbookcafe's review
4.0
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