lyricalangel
Sitting For The Newtons
Logan's love-bunny
Posts: 1,918
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Post by lyricalangel on Aug 21, 2007 23:38:12 GMT -5
^Good point
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2008 19:32:57 GMT -5
This was the first BSC book I was obsessed with. Old houses fascinate me, so I loved reading about Dawn's house. And while I'm on that subject did anyone else notice how the descriptions of her house seemed to change as the series progressed? In the early books it had small rooms and the doorways and ceilings were so low Mary Anne said the original occupants must have been midgets. Somewhere along the way they stopped talking about how small it was, and later in the series, and especially in the videos, it seemed pretty spacious. I really liked how Dawn made friends with Kristy, and it was nice to hear Dawn talk about health food without bringing cow carcasses into it. Organic peanut butter, raw honey, and wheat bread sandwich, anyone? I liked the Barrett kids and it was really cute how Buddy adored his mom. I'm kind of on the fence about Mrs. Barrett. I get that she was going through a lot of upheaval, what with an acrimonious divorce, moving to a new house, looking for a job and adjusting to being a single mom, but seriously, what did she do all day? I liked how Dawn whipped everything into place, but the whole family really got too dependent on her. The kids started treating her like a surrogate mother and even Mrs. Barrett depended on her too much. Telling Dawn she's the glue holding them together is a lot of pressure to put on a 12 year old. Heck, it's a lot of pressure to put on anyone. Mrs. Barrett did seem to have some boundary issues. I just reread Mallory and the Mystery Diary and there's a scene where Mrs. Barrett rants to Dawn about how busy she is and Buddy's teacher doesn't understand that she doesn't have enough time to help Buddy with his reading. Not really an appropriate thing to tell your babysitter. Buddy's disappearance was pretty harrowing. I felt awful for Jordan when the police kept asking him questions about the car he saw Buddy get into, and he couldn't tell them anything. What a nightmare for a kid.
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on May 19, 2008 12:50:21 GMT -5
I just loved the part in the book when Dawn brought Kristy to her house and there was a note from Sharon on the refrigerator door telling Dawn to not under any circumstances touch the tofu casserole in the refrigerator (or some kind of weird health food ;D) and Kristy just looks at Dawn and says ever so nonchalantly, "You mean, there's a chance that someone would?" ;D Hilarious!
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courtky10
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,125
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Post by courtky10 on Jun 9, 2008 22:29:59 GMT -5
I felt so sorry for Jordan Pike in this book -the police made him cry
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2008 22:55:57 GMT -5
I have always liked this book.
I love how she cleans them up and takes care of the as if they were her own.
I can actually relate to her in this book, because I used to babysit for two girls(8 and 4) who's mom was exactly like that. She wouldn't tell me where she was going, and would be back two hours later than she said she would. Then when I went to call her to see when she would be back, I found that before she left, she left the only phone in the house off the charger, so it ran out of battery. My mom doesn't let me sit for them anymore. Although I love the kids, their mom(who - look at that - was single, too) was just a little...well, off.
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Post by sparklymouse on Jun 28, 2008 18:42:09 GMT -5
I hated how Mrs. Barrett sounded all gorgeous and put together while her kids were the type to have dirty uncombed hair and dried up snot on their sleeves from wiping their faces on them. I don't think it had anything to do with Mrs. Barrett being single. She just seemed like a self absorbed person in the beginning.
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nothingtolose18
Sitting For The Johanssens
Mal / Sam / Price / Ben
Posts: 1,059
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Post by nothingtolose18 on Jun 30, 2008 22:42:34 GMT -5
^ I hated that too. She was always described as 'looking like a supermodel' while her kids were all messy and dirty. Come on. That's one of the main reasons I've always disliked Mrs. Barrett. If one of my parents had been in the position of single mom or dad, I know they would have done anything for my sister and I, before themselves. If anyone were to look neat and tidy, it would have been us. It seemed like Mrs. Barrett had all the time in the world to pretty herself up, but she didn't have any time to clean her house or kids.
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Post by wenonah4th on Jul 9, 2008 14:58:50 GMT -5
A lot of the moms seemed pretty put-together; remember when we first "meet" Mrs. Arnold?
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bsclover18
Junior Sitter
God loves you!
Posts: 813
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Post by bsclover18 on Jul 9, 2008 16:33:50 GMT -5
Yeah...Mrs. P. was also pretty strict in the beginning, but she loosened up a little bit.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2008 20:31:31 GMT -5
this was the first BSC book I bought! I still enjoy rereading it, and it makes me sad that Dawn's character started to go downhill just after two books...I think she would have become one of my favorite sitters, otherwise.
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Post by wenonah4th on Jul 22, 2008 6:31:11 GMT -5
I don't think Mrs. Arnold was unusually strict. I was talking about how the mothers dress. They talk about how Mrs. P and Mrs. Barrett dress every time they show up, and MRs. Arnold was described as being very cute and matchy-matchy.
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Post by Kylie90210 on Sept 22, 2008 3:50:38 GMT -5
I liked the Kristy andd Dawn scene in this one, and also the BBQ. I also love how Dawn says to Mal "You'll get your brownie later!" LOL, ahhh Mal.
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vgirl42
New To Stoneybrook
The voices in my head often sing showtunes *icon courtesy of ohh_redlace*
Posts: 26
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Post by vgirl42 on Sept 22, 2008 18:12:33 GMT -5
I thought it was a bit unbelievable that Ms. Barret was so absent minded, like how she didn't tell Dawn about Marnie being allergic to chocolate. anyone else?
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Post by sparklymouse on Sept 22, 2008 18:45:49 GMT -5
I think the whole point of the book was that Mrs. Barrett needed to get her act together and Dawn was the one to make her realize this. I probably had a baby-sitter 3 times my whole childhood so I have no idea what kind of instructions my parents would have given a sitter. Some of the BSC clients IMO gave way more information than necessary. I would agree that allergies or medications are important info to give especially if the kid is like Marnie and too young to know what's going on.
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Sept 23, 2008 11:35:33 GMT -5
It's odd that both David Michael Thomas and Marnie were said to be allergic to chocolate, but it was never mentioned more than once (I think).
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