Sarah Millar

BSC Bloggin’: Dawn and the Big Sleepover

By: Lizanor Barrera | May 30, 2013 BSC Bloggin' No comments

Let’s be honest. There were times when I would finish reading a BSC book and just feel so inadequate and unaccomplished. Not only did these young girls already have a thriving babysitting business, but they also managed to spearhead huge and successful projects on the side. Dawn and the Big Sleepover was definitely one of the books that made feel like I was doing nothing meaningful with my adolescence.

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Tragedy strikes in the beginning of the story. Many of the children the BSC babysit for are devastated when the school and homes in New Mexico that belong to the Zunis, their pen pals, are burned down during a gas station fire. As a result, the Zunis are left without food, clothing and an education.

While everyone else in Stoneybrook just feels sorry for the Zunis, Dawn decides to take action. She goes directly to Stoneybrook Elementary School (SES) to organize a food and clothing drive, a fundraiser and a massive sleepover in the school gymnasium to reward the kids for their hard work. Of course, everything turns out amazing in the end and the Zunis receive food, clothing and money to start building a new school.

What I found so interesting in the story was how characters in the novel often revealed that their motivations for their charitable contributions weren’t purely out of the goodness of their hearts. Although Dawn is passionate about helping the Zunis and is happy when Kristy gets involved, she worries that Kristy will overpower her and take credit for her idea.

Also, the SES children openly admit to working hard to raise money and get donations in hopes of receiving prizes and recognition for their efforts. Really, can’t people do good deeds just because they want to help?

Whenever I hear about people like Craig Kielburger, who at 12-years-old became an activist fighting against child labour and founded Free the Children, I want to — and do — believe that his perseverance is fueled only by his need to right injustices in the world. Perhaps I am idealistic and naïve to hope that people can be truly selfless and fight for important causes without ego or personal gain.

But then again, even superheroes are flawed (even Spiderman and Iron Man enjoyed fame and adoration once in a while), so why am I harping on the kids?

Fortunately, although the story admits that the human heart can be a little selfish at times, the reader is constantly reminded that the priority is to help others. Furthermore, the stronger message is that at any age, an individual can make a difference to really help the less fortunate. That alone is inspiring.

Liz Barrera is a communications specialist who is addicted to reading! She loves road trips, musicals, rock climbing, tea parties and The Vampire Diaries (because those vampires don’t sparkle). You can follower her on Twitter @blizanor.

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BSC Bloggin’: Stacey’s Emergency

By: Sarah Millar | May 29, 2013 BSC Bloggin' One comment

When I decided to re-read the Baby-Sitter Club books, there were a handful of books that stood out in my memory, this was one of them.

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I always liked the character of Stacey, and as I re-read this book, I wondered if as a kid, and a teenager, I had a bit of Charlotte Johannsen in me too.

Stacey is hospitalized for a few weeks after her diabetes gets a little out of control. Of course, she turns out OK in the end. However, 8-year-old Charlotte gets a case of hypochondria in response to Stacey’s hospitalization.

From when I was 12 until I was 15, I was convinced I had diabetes. I was thirsty all of the time. I ate a lot. I was so convinced, I even had my mom bring home blood sugar testing machines where we pricked my finger to check my insulin levels.

I never was diagnosed with diabetes.

Now, I’m not saying that Stacey McGill, or the BSC books, made me think I had diabetes. Not directly anyway. But it’s amazing how things you read or are exposed to as a kid can stay with you. Re-reading this book made me wonder if I was able to make my “symptoms” seem worse than they were because of Stacey’s story.

I guess we’ll never know, but I was sure glad I got to re-read this book as a grownup, who is a diabetes-free.

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BSC Bloggin’ Bonus: California Girls!

By: Sarah Millar | May 17, 2013 BSC Bloggin' No comments

This is the latest in a series of bonus BSC Bloggin’ posts where we take a look at the books that run outside the series. Today’s bonus post: California Girls!

This super special starts in an interesting way. Instead of simply getting into a plot that seems absurd and a little crazy, there’s a prologue explaining why the situation is not that far-fetched.

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In California Girls, the explanation is simple: The girls have two weeks off from school coming up. The Connecticut jackpot is at an all-time high, so the girls give Dawn’s mom money for tickets, promising to split the winnings.

Wouldn’t you know it, Dawn gets 5 out of the 6 numbers and wins $10,000. Of course, the girls’ parents are totally cool with them spending the money on a trip to California instead of putting it away for university.

ANYWAYS.

What I liked most about this book is the storylines for Mallory, Claudia and Stacey. All three girls try to be someone they’re not (Mal dyes her hair blonde, Claudia tries to be smart to impress a boy and Stacey hangs out with a risky group of teenagers). They soon learn why being themselves is the best thing they can do.

I remember loving this book as a kid. Re-reading it now, I enjoyed it just as much the second time. It’s a strong super special, with well-defined stories for most of the girls. Besides Mal, Claudia and Stacey, I related a lot with Dawn this time around.

See, Dawn’s dad is dating a women neither Dawn, nor her brother Jeff, particularly like. Carol tries too hard to be cool with the BSC, as far as Dawn’s concerned. The first time I read this book, my parents were still married, so I can’t say Dawn’s chapters really affected me much. If anything, I may have found Dawn to be a bit of a whiner.

But 15 years after my dad met a woman who tried to get me and my siblings to like her, who I didn’t gave a fair shot to right out of the gate, I see Dawn’s chapters differently. Divorce is hard on everybody, but especially if you’re a teenage girl. I was slightly older than Dawn when my now-stepmom came into my life, but that doesn’t mean I handled things any better. I only wish I had a change of heart as quickly as Dawn did.

So far, I think this is the best super special I’ve read thus far. Four stars!

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About that time I ran the Sporting Life 10K

By: Sarah Millar | May 17, 2013 Personal 6 comments

This year, I challenged myself to run a total of 750KM and my first 10K race before the end of 2013.

Last weekend, I completed one of this tasks.

I wish I could say it was completing the 750KM, but alas, I’m not quite that motivated. Rather, I ran in my first 10K, and actually did pretty darn good (if I do say so myself).

The race was the Sporting Life 10K held every May in Toronto. An easy course for my first foray in 10K running (nearly 7K of the route is running downhill on Yonge St.). But everyone’s gotta start somewhere, right?

I had a few concerns going into this race. The first one is that I’ve only ever run 10K once in my life. It was last fall while I was training for a 5K. It was awful. I hurt for a week afterwards. When I got back, I was limping. My time wasn’t awful for a first attempt (1:14), but I walked a lot of that and found everything after 6K really hard.

The second concern was the lack of training I actually did leading up to this race. Oh sure, I had a plan. Especially given my goal for kilometres run by the end of the year. I mean, I’d be running at least 15K a week, right? Right?

Not so right. See, I haven’t really been hit by the running bug. I like to track my runs and watch myself improve, but I more run because I know I need to in order to stay in shape and try to shed a few pounds. I don’t really run for the love of running. Truth be told, I hate it. If I had a choice, I’d stay on the couch and open another bag of potato chips. But that’s a blog post for another day.

So going into this race, the furthest I had run leading up to it was 7K. Gulp.

I knew I had gotten stronger (again, why I track these things), but didn’t know if I could pull it off.

Leading up to race day, we had some great weather. Race day came and it was one degree when we left the house. Gulp. And the wind. Wowzas.

Still, Keith and I soldiered on. And when the time finally came for our corral to go, I was ready. Whatever happened, I knew this would all be over in the next hour and a half. I just had to do it.

And do it I did.

I set a goal for myself to finish in 1:12. When I created my run playlist the night before, the music ended at that time. I figured finishing a few minutes sooner than my first 10K with not a lot of training before the race would have been good enough of an accomplishment.

I ended up finishing the 10K in 1:05 (1:06 for the actual race — I started my Nike+ app and my run 200 metres before I crossed the start line). I also ended up running the entire 10K. I really wanted to walk around the 8.5K mark, but had a feeling if I did, I’d never start running again.

I can’t describe the way I felt after finishing that race. Pride, amazement, accomplishment were all ways I felt. Keith finished ahead of me and was standing just past the finish line waiting for me. When I saw him, I just collapsed in his arms. I really, really did it.

We’re planning another 10K, but I will train this time. And I have 600KM to go to meet my 750 goal for the year. But even if I don’t completely fulfill that goal, I’ll have this one.

BSC Bloggin’: Jessi and the Dance School Phantom

By: Lauren Souch | May 15, 2013 BSC Bloggin' No comments

I actually don’t remember too much about Jessi as a BSC character, other than the fact she was a junior officer and a dancer. When we were selecting books for this project, I jumped at the chance to re-read a Jessi-centric book, as I wanted to try and get to know her a little better.

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In Jessi and the Dance School Phantom (which is pretty much The Phantom of the Opera, BSC Style), Jessi lands the sought-after role of Princess Aurora in her dance school’s upcoming performance of Sleeping Beauty. Since it’s such a coveted position, many of her classmates are naturally jealous. However, someone in her class is a little TOO jealous and starts sending Jessi threatening notes, stealing her things, and shredding her leotards.

Rather than go to her dance teacher or parents about it (isn’t that always the way it is in these books?), Jessi turns to the BSC for help and the girls band together to try and catch whoever it is tormenting Jessi.

At the same time, the BSC is planning a Pet Show for all the kids in the neighbourhood — another one of Kristy’s “great ideas” — only the kids are getting really competitive about it, leading Kristy to wonder if maybe her idea wasn’t so great after all.

I really liked this book for a number of reasons. First off, Jessi is dealing with an anonymous bully in her dance class. Bullying was an issue when I was growing up (I was both a bully and bullied at some point in elementary school), and it’s an even bigger issue in schools today. Kids can be so cruel, and this book does a great job of not only showing how mean a child can be, but demonstrates how it is possible to forgive and move on.

When Jessi discovers the identity of her bully, she confronts her about it and eventually gets an apology. Rather than rat Hilary (the bully) out to her teacher (and likely get her expelled), Jessi talks to her about it and decides to try and forgive her.

While I think it’s important kids feel comfortable telling an adult when they are being bullied (and it does irk me how often the BSC try to deal with big issues like this on their own), I think there’s also a lesson to be learned about one-time bullies, like in this story.

Hilary was under extreme pressure from her mother to land the lead role, and she was usually a decent kid otherwise. She apologized for her behaviour, and tried to make amends (by turning over the pen she used to write the notes, offering to replace Jessi’s damaged dance clothing, and generally being a lot nicer to her in subsequent rehearsals).

In return, Jessi promised not to tell as long as she actually stopped being mean. While Jessi was apprehensive about trusting Hilary at first, she comes to realize that people can change, and that sometimes you need to forgive and forget.

I also really liked how the pet show plot line mirrored this lesson: the kids were picking on each other, fighting, and getting competitive over which pet was the “better” pet. Worst of all, by inviting all the kids to the show to be inclusive, those without pets were feeling really left out. Luckily, some of the kids who have more than one family pet eventually “share” their pets, which begins to help calm some of the drama.

In the end, though, it’s Jessi who comes up with an idea that will save the pet show: rather than award place prizes, the BSC would award each child with their own, individual award (like “Friendliest Pet” or “Best Tricks”).

Oh, and you know how we learned earlier that people can chance? It turns out this lesson applies to pets, too: mean old Boo Boo the cat finds a friend and somehow manages to score the “Best Personality” award.

Lauren is a 20-something multimedia professional/daydreamer, political nerd, fitness enthusiast, coffee addict and gluten-free cupcake-lover. She blogs about all these things and more over at See Lauren Write.

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