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situationnormal's review against another edition
3.0
Dawn kills me in this book, and Claudia is a close second--but otherwise the storylines vary from bland to mildly entertaining, so that makes this book a success, right? Maybe I would have had more fun with it if I'd been to New York for more than 12 hours in my life.
decembermoon's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
bibliotequeish's review
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
jamietherebelliousreader's review
4.0
4 stars. Such a fun read. The girls visit New York and they all go on different adventures. I will say the only plot lines that I didn’t really care about was Claudia and Mallory taking art classes. It just wasn’t that interesting. My favorite plot was Jessi’s. She meets a boy named Quint who is also a dancer but is ashamed of it because he gets teased a lot by other boys. Their friendship was so adorable and Quint was a cool kid. Everyone else’s story was fun as well. I appreciated how New York was a character itself and all of the details and scenery that was included. It made me want to visit for sure.
finesilkflower's review
2.0
The entire club goes to New York City for two weeks. Half stay with Stacey’s dad, and half with Laine’s family. This is a Claudia-initiated trip diary, and she carries the main plotline, in which she and Mallory take art lessons with a famous artist. Claudia is frustrated because he always admonishes her and praises Mallory, but it turns out of course that it’s because he sees more potential for improvement in Claudia. The other girls’ New York personalities, first established in Stacey’s Mistake, are in full force; Mary Anne is a guidebook, and Dawn is too afraid to leave the apartment until she meets a Magical Boy who shows her the Wonder of New York. Mary Anne and Stacey get temporary jobs looking after the adorable children of some English dignitaries (WHAT). Kristy tries to keep a dog she finds in the park. And Jessi meets a conveniently age- and race-appropriate male ballet dancer, whom she convinces to follow his Juilliard dreams despite teasing from the neighborhood boys. On the whole, it’s a pretty phoned-in Super Special.
Read as a kid: Yes. I remember the bit where Claudia and Mallory go to the Cloisters, anyway.
Timing: This is tricky. Claudia’s handwritten opening narration leaves it ambiguous as to whether this is summer vacation or spring break (intentional spelling errors intact):
What school has a vacation other than summer break which lasts at least two weeks? I’m choosing to interpret this as summer. (You may think I’m too quick on the summer trigger, trying to age up the girls for my revised timeline, but believe me, I wish the years would slow down so I didn’t have to deal with what I’m going to do when they should have graduated college. There just needs to be a summer here to space out all the Valentine’s Days.)
Revised Timeline: Summer between tenth and eleventh grades (or eighth and ninth grades for Jessi and Mal). This is where the revised timeline comes in real handy, because I can’t believe that any parents would allow their sixth- and eighth-grade children to go away for two weeks and wander around New York City in groups of one. Even aging Jessi up to thirteen or fourteen, her plotline is still ludicrous. Jessi meets Quint at the ballet, and then visits him at his home. Laine pays some lip service to the idea that she shouldn’t be going to strange boys’ apartments alone, and insists on walking her over and talking with the boy’s parents before she leaves, but even with the revised timeline, Laine is only maximally sixteen. She’s hardly a valid adult chaperone. Anyway, what boy is worried about college at fourteen (let alone eleven)? What boy is even interested in girls at eleven? And how did Jessi get permission to even go to the ballet alone (or the money)? This entire book would work better if the older girls were, say, nineteen, and the youngers seventeen, but not even I can make that happen.
Read as a kid: Yes. I remember the bit where Claudia and Mallory go to the Cloisters, anyway.
Timing: This is tricky. Claudia’s handwritten opening narration leaves it ambiguous as to whether this is summer vacation or spring break (intentional spelling errors intact):
Anyway, I had a glorious school vacation coming up. My friends... and I were really looking forward to it. Then I got my big idea. "Please, please, please can I go to New York City for two weeks?" I begged Mom and Dad. "I could take art lesins at the Fine Arts League of New York. They let you take clases whenever you want..."
What school has a vacation other than summer break which lasts at least two weeks? I’m choosing to interpret this as summer. (You may think I’m too quick on the summer trigger, trying to age up the girls for my revised timeline, but believe me, I wish the years would slow down so I didn’t have to deal with what I’m going to do when they should have graduated college. There just needs to be a summer here to space out all the Valentine’s Days.)
Revised Timeline: Summer between tenth and eleventh grades (or eighth and ninth grades for Jessi and Mal). This is where the revised timeline comes in real handy, because I can’t believe that any parents would allow their sixth- and eighth-grade children to go away for two weeks and wander around New York City in groups of one. Even aging Jessi up to thirteen or fourteen, her plotline is still ludicrous. Jessi meets Quint at the ballet, and then visits him at his home. Laine pays some lip service to the idea that she shouldn’t be going to strange boys’ apartments alone, and insists on walking her over and talking with the boy’s parents before she leaves, but even with the revised timeline, Laine is only maximally sixteen. She’s hardly a valid adult chaperone. Anyway, what boy is worried about college at fourteen (let alone eleven)? What boy is even interested in girls at eleven? And how did Jessi get permission to even go to the ballet alone (or the money)? This entire book would work better if the older girls were, say, nineteen, and the youngers seventeen, but not even I can make that happen.
bangel_ds's review
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
sammah's review
3.0
I loved this Super Special as a kid! I had a thing for NYC, and always though it was so glamorous. I've been there a couple of times since reading this when I was young, and I still love NYC. So I don't hate this book. Some of the plots are pretty silly, but hey, it's the BSC-verse. There are worst things! Like, you know, being shipwrecked on an island.
xtinamorse's review
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/new-york-new-york
ssshira's review
4.0
on yet another one of these seasonless two-week school vacations (the type of thing that happens in almost every super special), the entire baby-sitters club goes to stay in new york city with stacey's dad and laine's parents. the framing device is that since claudia is taking an art class at falny (fine arts league of new york) with mckenzie clarke, some famous artist, she wants a record of the experience. she illustrates the trip journal and has each of the bsc members contribute to it. see character plots!
-claudia: taking classes with mckenzie clarke. she draws too fast and pays too little attention to her work, so he doesn't compliment her, but he compliments mallory (who is also taking the classes and actually takes the time to work on her drawings). clauda is a total brat in this book, kind of like in any book about her and janine.
-kristy: finds a dog in central park and hides him in laine's apartment, hoping her parents will let her take him home (because he looks slightly like louie, her deceased collie). when laine's mom figures out the dog is there, she is way too nice to kristy about it, and she (and the bsc) help her put up signs that she found a dog. she ends up giving him to a little boy who lives in a nice humble apartment (seriously condescending descriptions, see more in the lowlights).
-stacey & mary anne: baby sit these british kids who are in town for a couple weeks. they think they're getting stalked by a kidnapper, and it turns out that he's the british kids' bodyguard (their parents are important politicans or something).
-mallory: taking classes with claudia under mckenzie clark. he liberally compliments her work because she tries hard and claudia doesn't. but she decides she's not particularly good at or interested in fine arts. she just wanted to get better at illustrating children's books that she wanted to write.
-dawn: INSUFFERABLE IDIOT. she is this book's mary anne. she won't leave stacey's dad's apartment and is constantly being a drama queen about how she thinks all her friends are going to get murdered in new york. it's like how she is in [b:Stacey's Mistake|625280|Stacey's Mistake (The Baby-Sitters Club, #18)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1176427186s/625280.jpg|545675] but WAY more extreme. and then a cute boy (with a ponytail! barf!) asks her to leave the apartment, and she does. because she's an idiot who won't go hang out with her friends but will totally go hang out with some ponytail guy. he shows her the fun quirky stuff in nyc, which is fun to read.
-jessi: meets quint, the nyc ballet dancer who gets bullied and teased by neighborhood kids for being a "sissy". quint has been told he's good enough for julliard, and jessi finally convinces him to at least audition. he gets in and decides to go even though he's gonna be bullied more mercilously. but also he gives jessi her first kiss!
highlights:
-mary anne refuses to sing "a hell of a town" in "new york, new york" and instead sings "a wonderful town" -- seriously I laughed so hard.
-claudia says that her mom and dad don't let her call adults by their first names when she hears another student call mckenzie clarke "mac". I find this funny, but also...live a little, claud!
-dawn describes richie magnesi's (the boy who persuades her to leave the apartment) ponytail as "very chilly" (the bsc word for "cool") and narrates, "how could I have thought he looked like a creep?" um, maybe because he has a tiny ponytail? DUH. ;)
-when dawn says new york makes her nervous, richie calls her an antiurbanist. #wannabeanticiv (aka joey's old okcupid name)
-claudia thinks she has an elvis sighting. the way she rationalizes it is so good. like, she knows he's dead, but lots of people report seeing him, so it must be him. hahahaha
-when quint says he likes fred astaire better than ginger rogers and eleanor powell, jessi calls him a male chauvinist. I love crotchety old feminist jessi (along with mallory, one of the anti-beauty contest bsc members in [b:Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn|48919|Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (The Baby-Sitters Club, #15)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344203940s/48919.jpg|910848] -- why are these 6th graders so much cooler than the 8th graders?)
-kristy had called the dog she found "sonny" which was a nickname for "son of louie" which she called him because he sort of looked like louie. when she brings him over to brandon's house (brandon is the kid who ends up taking him) and they decide that brandon can keep him, kristy asks what he's going to call him. he says, "I'm going to call him sonny, of course." AWWWWW.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-according to this book, jessi and mal have met laine before. they have? when? she's never been to stoneybrook and they haven't been on the bsc trips to ny in [b:Stacey's Mistake|625280|Stacey's Mistake (The Baby-Sitters Club, #18)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1176427186s/625280.jpg|545675] or [b:Stacey's Emergency|794933|Stacey's Emergency (The Baby-Sitters Club, #43)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387735085s/794933.jpg|251850]. if I'm wrong please comment and tell me!
-stacey says admission to the tisch petting zoo is and always will be 10 cents. that's not true. now it is included with regular zoo admission, which is $7 for kids.
-after riding the subway for the first time dawn narrates that she is shocked she's still alive. UGGGGGHHHHHHH I HATE HER.
-when she is cooped up in stacey's dad's apartment all day, dawn organizes everything in his apartment. it's so annoying.
-the bodyguard for the british kids comes to the public library for storytime all by himself. there is no way the public library would let a creepy adult man in a rain hat and sunglasses come into a children's program with no children. ick.
-claudia notes that the ads in the subway are for roach spray and roach motels. this is a funny touch, I guess, but it makes me feel like saying, "yeah, we get it. there are roaches in big cities. move on. roach repellents are not the only things to advertise."
-richie and dawn get TWO TACOS for their lunch. each has ONE TACO. when I was thirteen I would eat three tacos and still be starving. especially considering dawn's doesn't have any protein (not even beans), there is no way that's enough food.
-they were gone on this trip for two weeks. in new york. which can't be more than an hour or two away from stoneybrook considering nyc is like an hour from stamford and stoneybrook is near stamford. so WHY did the pikes have to make a banner for their return? why did the brewer/thomases make t-shirts? COME ON. you can live without these freakazoids for two weeks and not have to throw them welcome home parties.
-WHY OH WHY did the british parents not tell mary anne and stacey that that guy was the kids' bodyguard. HOW did they not anticipate that the girls would get scared when they saw a creepy-looking guy following them around? IDIOTS.
-the condescending classist description of brandon's apartment made me irritated. it's all old and shabby and the furniture is worn, but you can tell there's a lot of love there so they make it work. barf. it's like kristy has finally turned into a millionaire's stepdaughter in her mentality about the world.
-jessi and quint get VANILLA egg creams. blasphemy. that's like getting light cream cheese on your bagel and lox.
no claudia outfits, but one KRISTY outfit (I KNOW!)
-"She was wearing a long cotton sweater, black leggings, and black shoes. (She had borrowed everything from Laine)."
no snacks in claudia's room.
-claudia: taking classes with mckenzie clarke. she draws too fast and pays too little attention to her work, so he doesn't compliment her, but he compliments mallory (who is also taking the classes and actually takes the time to work on her drawings). clauda is a total brat in this book, kind of like in any book about her and janine.
-kristy: finds a dog in central park and hides him in laine's apartment, hoping her parents will let her take him home (because he looks slightly like louie, her deceased collie). when laine's mom figures out the dog is there, she is way too nice to kristy about it, and she (and the bsc) help her put up signs that she found a dog. she ends up giving him to a little boy who lives in a nice humble apartment (seriously condescending descriptions, see more in the lowlights).
-stacey & mary anne: baby sit these british kids who are in town for a couple weeks. they think they're getting stalked by a kidnapper, and it turns out that he's the british kids' bodyguard (their parents are important politicans or something).
-mallory: taking classes with claudia under mckenzie clark. he liberally compliments her work because she tries hard and claudia doesn't. but she decides she's not particularly good at or interested in fine arts. she just wanted to get better at illustrating children's books that she wanted to write.
-dawn: INSUFFERABLE IDIOT. she is this book's mary anne. she won't leave stacey's dad's apartment and is constantly being a drama queen about how she thinks all her friends are going to get murdered in new york. it's like how she is in [b:Stacey's Mistake|625280|Stacey's Mistake (The Baby-Sitters Club, #18)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1176427186s/625280.jpg|545675] but WAY more extreme. and then a cute boy (with a ponytail! barf!) asks her to leave the apartment, and she does. because she's an idiot who won't go hang out with her friends but will totally go hang out with some ponytail guy. he shows her the fun quirky stuff in nyc, which is fun to read.
-jessi: meets quint, the nyc ballet dancer who gets bullied and teased by neighborhood kids for being a "sissy". quint has been told he's good enough for julliard, and jessi finally convinces him to at least audition. he gets in and decides to go even though he's gonna be bullied more mercilously. but also he gives jessi her first kiss!
highlights:
-mary anne refuses to sing "a hell of a town" in "new york, new york" and instead sings "a wonderful town" -- seriously I laughed so hard.
-claudia says that her mom and dad don't let her call adults by their first names when she hears another student call mckenzie clarke "mac". I find this funny, but also...live a little, claud!
-dawn describes richie magnesi's (the boy who persuades her to leave the apartment) ponytail as "very chilly" (the bsc word for "cool") and narrates, "how could I have thought he looked like a creep?" um, maybe because he has a tiny ponytail? DUH. ;)
-when dawn says new york makes her nervous, richie calls her an antiurbanist. #wannabeanticiv (aka joey's old okcupid name)
-claudia thinks she has an elvis sighting. the way she rationalizes it is so good. like, she knows he's dead, but lots of people report seeing him, so it must be him. hahahaha
-when quint says he likes fred astaire better than ginger rogers and eleanor powell, jessi calls him a male chauvinist. I love crotchety old feminist jessi (along with mallory, one of the anti-beauty contest bsc members in [b:Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn|48919|Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (The Baby-Sitters Club, #15)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344203940s/48919.jpg|910848] -- why are these 6th graders so much cooler than the 8th graders?)
-kristy had called the dog she found "sonny" which was a nickname for "son of louie" which she called him because he sort of looked like louie. when she brings him over to brandon's house (brandon is the kid who ends up taking him) and they decide that brandon can keep him, kristy asks what he's going to call him. he says, "I'm going to call him sonny, of course." AWWWWW.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-according to this book, jessi and mal have met laine before. they have? when? she's never been to stoneybrook and they haven't been on the bsc trips to ny in [b:Stacey's Mistake|625280|Stacey's Mistake (The Baby-Sitters Club, #18)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1176427186s/625280.jpg|545675] or [b:Stacey's Emergency|794933|Stacey's Emergency (The Baby-Sitters Club, #43)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387735085s/794933.jpg|251850]. if I'm wrong please comment and tell me!
-stacey says admission to the tisch petting zoo is and always will be 10 cents. that's not true. now it is included with regular zoo admission, which is $7 for kids.
-after riding the subway for the first time dawn narrates that she is shocked she's still alive. UGGGGGHHHHHHH I HATE HER.
-when she is cooped up in stacey's dad's apartment all day, dawn organizes everything in his apartment. it's so annoying.
-the bodyguard for the british kids comes to the public library for storytime all by himself. there is no way the public library would let a creepy adult man in a rain hat and sunglasses come into a children's program with no children. ick.
-claudia notes that the ads in the subway are for roach spray and roach motels. this is a funny touch, I guess, but it makes me feel like saying, "yeah, we get it. there are roaches in big cities. move on. roach repellents are not the only things to advertise."
-richie and dawn get TWO TACOS for their lunch. each has ONE TACO. when I was thirteen I would eat three tacos and still be starving. especially considering dawn's doesn't have any protein (not even beans), there is no way that's enough food.
-they were gone on this trip for two weeks. in new york. which can't be more than an hour or two away from stoneybrook considering nyc is like an hour from stamford and stoneybrook is near stamford. so WHY did the pikes have to make a banner for their return? why did the brewer/thomases make t-shirts? COME ON. you can live without these freakazoids for two weeks and not have to throw them welcome home parties.
-WHY OH WHY did the british parents not tell mary anne and stacey that that guy was the kids' bodyguard. HOW did they not anticipate that the girls would get scared when they saw a creepy-looking guy following them around? IDIOTS.
-the condescending classist description of brandon's apartment made me irritated. it's all old and shabby and the furniture is worn, but you can tell there's a lot of love there so they make it work. barf. it's like kristy has finally turned into a millionaire's stepdaughter in her mentality about the world.
-jessi and quint get VANILLA egg creams. blasphemy. that's like getting light cream cheese on your bagel and lox.
no claudia outfits, but one KRISTY outfit (I KNOW!)
-"She was wearing a long cotton sweater, black leggings, and black shoes. (She had borrowed everything from Laine)."
no snacks in claudia's room.