Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 06 - Hello, Mallory (The Baby-sitters Club #14)

Summary

Overdue Podcast – "Sit Me Baby One More Time" Ep 06: Hello, Mallory (The Baby-sitters Club #14)

Date: December 26, 2025
Hosts: Andrew and Craig
Book Discussed: Hello, Mallory by Ann M. Martin (The Baby-sitters Club #14)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Overdue continues Craig and Andrew’s Baby-sitters Club mini-series, diving into Book 14, Hello, Mallory. In this installment, the hosts leap ahead in the series timeline to focus on Mallory Pike’s journey to join the BSC, her friendship with new character Jesse, and the nuanced handling of race, exclusion, and growing up. The conversation balances nostalgia, critical analysis, and humor, while exploring how Ann M. Martin constructed longer arcs and tackled difficult subjects in an iconic children’s series.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Skip Ahead to Book 14?

• The hosts wanted to cover introductions for as many core club members as possible, requiring a jump from Book 5 to 14.
• Craig highlights this is "our first jump" in the series and notes that ghostwriters haven't yet taken over, maintaining continuity and tone.
  • [04:26] Craig: "We read five books...established our five main characters...these books have kind of been like, okay, now we're gonna go through each person again."
• Andrew emphasizes they’re still in the “original Anna Martin era.”
  • [04:47] Andrew: “Time dilation has not explicitly begun yet."

2. Quick Recap: What the Hosts Skipped

• They briefly summarize the intervening books (Books 6–13), discussing key events (Christy’s mom’s wedding, Claudia’s grandma’s stroke, Stacy’s “boy crazy” beach vacation, the club’s evolving structure, and Logan’s introduction).
  • [06:31] Craig: "I do want to do a quick rundown of what books we are skipping..."

3. The Babysitters’ Club Time Loop

• The hosts discuss the infamous BSC time dilation: while the girls experience 8th grade, 13 years worth of stories happen.
  • [13:02] Craig (referencing online fan ZOR3): "Between real world years of 1987 and 2000, these girls attend 8th grade 13 distinct times..."
• The parallels with The Simpsons and other long-running properties’ shifting “timelines” are debated, leading to playful exasperation:
  • [14:17] Andrew: "It's weird...characters are always the same age, but then the time that they grew up in keeps moving forward.”

4. Book & Character Details: Introduction to Mallory

• Mallory Pike is the oldest of eight children, wears glasses, and aspires to join the BSC.
  • [24:19] Craig: "Hi, I'm Mallory. I'm the oldest of eight. I wear glasses..."
• Her introduction is contrasted with previous character intros; she enters a group that’s older, cliquish, and has established rituals.

5. Mallory’s Tough Entry to the Club

• The BSC puts Mallory through a comically unfair “entrance exam” after a trial babysitting run, including esoteric questions about infant development and first aid.
  • [36:02] Craig: "What is the difference between creeping and crawling? ... Which one is first?"
  • [36:49] Andrew: "You take it off when the doctor says to take it off!" [regarding the “tourniquet" test question]
• Mallory fails, highlighting both the exclusivity of the club and the cruelty of middle school social life.
  • [37:03] Andrew: "I know they don't know any of this stuff...She loses some respect for them in this moment."
  • [37:20] Craig: "Well, and anger...she blows up and says I don't even want to be part of your club and leaves. Very sad for her."

6. Introducing Jesse Ramsey & Addressing Race

• Mallory befriends Jesse, the only Black student in her class, newly moved into Stacy’s old house.
• The book addresses racism in the town directly—subtle, structural, and peer-based.
  • [20:33] Craig: "Just Ann M. Martin being like, you know, this town's racist as all get out."
  • [21:03] Andrew: "As somebody who did go to like an almost entirely white high school where there was like one black kid...None of the little white kids know how to handle that."
• There’s a nuanced discussion around the casual, silent racism Jesse's family encounters, contrasted with moments of evolving solidarity and support.
  • [34:09] Andrew: "This is the first time I have been extended this simple act of kindness and respect since we moved into this white, white neighborhood..."

7. Sitters United / Kids Incorporated: Rival Babysitting Club

• After the BSC rejection, Mallory and Jesse start their own babysitting venture, humorously likened to a "startup seeking acquisition."
  • [39:43] Craig: "Which name do you prefer? Sitters United or Kids Incorporated?"
  • [40:16] Andrew: “I prefer the more socialist of the two options...but they go with Kids Incorporated.”
• Their club’s primary business comes from family acquaintances, paralleling earlier BSC business-building stories.

8. BSC Faces a Labor Shortage—Mallory’s Redemption

• The core BSC realizes (in part due to their own overwork and positive feedback from families) that they judged Mallory unfairly and need new members.
  • [45:00] Craig: "They've got their, they've got their like, second string members on the case..."
  • [45:48] Andrew: "We just, we just need more bodies to throw at this problem. We're so successful, we need to expand."
• When the BSC move to acquire Mallory and Jesse's new club, Mallory demands Jesse be admitted as well—for reasons of friendship and fairness.
  • [48:03] Craig: "Mallory has declared in her own head, oh, we are best friends now...she is not gonna leave her best friend behind."
• There’s an honest reckoning with race dynamics; Christy asserts:
  • [49:38] Andrew: "If anybody is like this, then I don't want to babysit for them either."

9. Style, Recurring Themes & Series Structure

• The hosts note the series formula and patterns—each book focusing on a different character’s issue and a specific family or new social wrinkle.
  • [52:15] Andrew: "You feel the like, this is a thing that's been going for a bit now...You know all these little kids...It's a slightly different vibe to the rhythms of this as a thing that's been repeated a dozen times already."
• Shifts in character focus (from the original five to Mallory/Jesse) and narrative constraints (single perspective; diary devices) are discussed as both strengths and limits.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the confused chronology:
  [13:02] Craig: "We're jumping onto the perpetual 8th grade that the entire rest of the series takes place in."
• On BSC's exclusivity:
  [28:33] Craig: "I spent most of this book very frustrated by the four girls in the club."
• On Ann M. Martin’s treatment of Mallory:
  [22:29] Craig: "I think the general consensus is that Anna Martin never liked Mallory for some reason, it makes her life miserable until she finally just leaves Stony Brook for boarding school."
• On racism in Stony Brook:
  [21:03] Andrew: "...It is very, like, it's just, it's...None of the little white kids know how to handle that because they have no context for it."
• On competition:
  [41:22] Andrew: "There is a weird, you know, they take a very like 90s Bill Gates like approach to competition, which is if you can't like run them out of the business, then you have to acquire."
• On club unity:
  [50:28] Craig: "The Three Musketeers rule applies. Like, if they won't hire Jesse, then they can't hire any of us."

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Important Timestamps

• 03:01 – Spoiler warning and intro to the episode.
• 04:26–07:41 – Rationale for skipping to Book 14, and a rapid summary of skipped books.
• 13:02–15:26 – Discussion of the BSC’s cyclical time and “13 years of 8th grade.”
• 24:19–28:13 – Mallory’s introduction, family details, and awkward first club meeting.
• 29:32–31:36 – Mallory meets Jesse, discusses race and friendship.
• 36:02–37:20 – The infamous BSC written babysitting test and its fallout.
• 39:43–41:03 – Launching rival club, “Sitters United” vs. “Kids Incorporated.”
• 45:00–46:52 – BSC’s labor shortage and reconsideration of Mallory.
• 48:03–49:43 – Mallory demands Jesse be included if she rejoins the club; overt discussions of race.
• 52:15–54:52 – Reflection on series formula, shifting character focus, and narrative maturity.
• 57:58–58:41 – Humorous sign-off in Mallory’s voice.

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Tone & Style

Craig and Andrew balance affectionate ribbing, grown-up analysis, and sincere engagement with the book’s themes. The banter is gently nostalgic, wry, and occasionally self-deprecating, but grounded in respect for the breadth and complexity of the series—especially how Hello, Mallory handles exclusion and racism for a young audience.

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Listen If You Want To:

• Hear a lively, nitty-gritty breakdown of Hello, Mallory, from plot to publishing timelines to sociological nuance.
• Understand why Mallory and Jesse’s introduction shifted the BSC universe.
• Enjoy a thoughtful, modern perspective on 80s/90s children’s lit and its legacy.
• Laugh at podcast hosts hurled into “13 years of eighth grade” chaos.

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Next episode: Book 16, Jesse’s Secret Language (skipping Little Miss Stoneybrook and Dawn).

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Closing line:
[57:58] Andrew (in-character): “Spectacles, eyeglasses, bifocals, trifocals. No matter what you call them. Glasses are glasses and I have to wear them. Hello, I'm Mallory Pike.”

Transcript

[Andrew]

This is a Headgun podcast.

[Craig]

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[Craig]

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[Andrew]

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[Craig]

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[Andrew]

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[Craig]

I like that. So turn your expensive wireless present into huge wireless savings future by switching to Mint Shop. Mint unlimited [e-mail] overdue. That's mintmobile.com overdue. It's a limited time offer. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan required. That's the 15 month equivalent. Taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term Only greater than 35 gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed and coverage varies.

[Mattea Roach]

See mintmobile.com okay, so you've just finished an amazing book. You laughed, you cried, you told all your friends about it. But you're not ready to be done talking about it yet because you have a million questions for the author here's where I might be able to help. I'm Mattea Roach and on my podcast bookends, I ask authors all your burning questions like why is John Green obsessed with tuberculosis? And why did Taylor Jenkins Reid want to bring her latest love story to outer space? You can check out bookends with Mattea Roach on your favorite podcast app.

[Craig]

While Andrew and Craig believe the joy of discovery is crucial to enjoying any well told tale, they will not shy away from spoiling specific story beats when necessary. Plus, these are books you should have read by now. Sit Me Baby One More Time. Nope, probably a few more times after this. Welcome to Sit Me Baby One More Time, a Babysitters Club podcast from the folks that overdue a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. My name is Craig.

[Andrew]

My name is Andrew. As always, sit down.

[Craig]

It's time to sit. It's time to be sit.

[Andrew]

Time to sit and to be sat upon by Ann M. Martin's Babysitters Club series, which we're still reading a selection of.

[Craig]

Yeah, this is our miniseries where we go through the introductory books for the main members of the titular Babysitters Club. This is episode six. And Andrew. Yes, we're jumping.

[Andrew]

Jumping.

[Craig]

This is our first jump.

[Andrew]

Yes. We are jumping ahead from I think book five. We read last time, dawn and the Impossible three. We've jumped ahead to book 14 to. Hello, Mallory.

[Craig]

Hello.

[Andrew]

Because our thinking when we planned the series was that we wanted to be introduced to many members of the Babysitter's Club.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

It's a very active club and this book is interesting. So it's number 14. We are well into the run now, but ghostwriters haven't started doing it yet.

[Craig]

Correct.

[Andrew]

Time dilation has not explicitly begun yet. And I do have a bit to talk about in terms of time dilation.

[Craig]

Sure.

[Andrew]

And it seems like the tone and the sort of continuity with all the. The babysat kids, everything, like it's all still. It's all still there. But we're getting further afield from the core group. In fact, Stacy is not in this. Stacy is like left to go back to New York City for a while.

[Craig]

Yes, I do. Okay, so we're gonna talk about the 1988 book hello Mallory by Ann M. Martin. Or as my notes app declared her, Any M. Martin today.

[Andrew]

Can I get any M. Martin in here to write a Citize Club book for me?

[Craig]

It was reprinted in 1995 and then again in 2021. The COVID is a good old Hodges swallow. Hodges work continues. We can talk about alternate titles in other Countries, such as 2000 in Italy, Benvenuta Mallory, or the Spanish Bienvenida Mallory, or the French Mallory entrance, or the 1995 Italian title, Mallory Supera un difficile SM.

[Andrew]

Sorry.

[Craig]

Which I believe translates to passes a difficult exam.

[Andrew]

Passes a difficult exam. Okay, that's. That's good. That's descriptive.

[Craig]

But before we can get there, I do want to do a quick rundown of what books we are skipping. I don't think I'll do this in such a granular way for our next skip, but because to your point, Andrew, like, we read five books that were the five sequential starting books in the series, established a lot of conventions, established our five main characters or four, and then our fifth. And it seems like these books have kind of been like, okay, now we're gonna go through each person again. Ish. Yeah. And like, you know, move them along. And then by, like, books 12 and 13, it's like we're going to. We're going to break some stuff. So book six, Christie's Big day. Christie's mom finally gets married, and the club needs to sit 14 kids at once as, like, part of the wedding weekend. Whoa.

[Andrew]

One last. One last job.

[Craig]

I know. It has one last job. Energy number seven, Claudia and mean Janine. So our good friend Mimi, Claudia's grandmother, has a stroke, which is referenced in this book.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Craig]

And this brings Claudia and Janine into a lot of conflict since they are spending a lot of time together. Book number eight, boy crazy Stacy. Also important for this book, there's a babysitting vacation with the Pikes, which are the central family of this book. Stacy and Marianne go on a vacation with them to the beach, I think. And Stacy falls in love with a lifeguard, and it causes problems.

[Andrew]

Because she's boy crazy.

[Craig]

Because she's boy crazy. But Mallory, like, steps up as a. As the oldest sister in that book on that trip, which is important.

[Andrew]

That's. And that's what. That's what makes the Babysitters Club members look at her and say, ooh, a business opportunity.

[Craig]

Number nine, the ghost at Dawn's house. There's a ghost in Dawn's house.

[Andrew]

Is this. This is before the mysteries series had been established to kind of absorb these wild hairs of Anna Martin's, I think.

[Craig]

Number 10, Logan likes Marianne. Good old Logan. Bruno likes Marianne. And he wants to join the Babysitters Club.

[Andrew]

That is also. That is also referenced in this book. We can talk about the state. The state of play in the club. I mean, we talked. We Already saw them kind of crush their competition, truly establish a kind of benevolent autocracy under the iron fist of.

[Craig]

Christie, of Christie, who now lives in a different neighborhood, as evidenced in book 11. Christie and the Snobs. Great band name. Christie now lives in her new neighborhood now that her mom has married, has remarried, and these new kids in this new neighborhood are jerks. But of course, this means that Christy is like commuting to the babysitter's club all the time.

[Andrew]

One thing I liked about this book is we get two separate instances of BSC members having left their houses. And I don't know what the real estate market in Stony Brook is like, but it's like these are the only. It's like these are the only like eight houses that exist in the entire world. So when a. When a babysitter moves out of a house, it's an opportunity to bring another like a babysitting aged family into the, into the neighborhood to give more opportunities to these entrepreneurs.

[Craig]

Number 12, Claudia and the new girl. A new girl named Ashley. Wyeth pulls Claudia away from the babysitters club a bit.

[Andrew]

Ashley, so, so late 80s, early 90s of them.

[Craig]

I think she's an artist, which pinged me when her last name was Wyeth. I got very confused.

[Andrew]

I don't know. I think, I think I. The mo. I think my graduating class in high school had three Ashley's.

[Craig]

I don't.

[Andrew]

There was 70 of 71 people. So it's like a substantial percentage of Ashley's.

[Craig]

There might have been at least two in my graduating class. And I dated an Ashley who was like two years older than me.

[Andrew]

Yeah, you did.

[Craig]

No comment. Book number 13, Goodbye, Stacy. Goodbye. Stacy winds up going back to New York City. Her father is being moved back there for work. And who will be the new girl? And that's. That's the end. They do not make that decision in that book, or at least not in the summary that I read. But maybe Mallory's name is bandied about and that brings us. It probably is, but that brings us to book 14.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Because at the outset of book 14, Mallory is already like, we're introduced to her perspective. She is a sixth grader while the babysitters are in the eighth grade.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And she is coming to her first meeting of the babysitters club because they're kind of sounding her out and trying to figure out if she's. If she meets their exacting standards. Because as she talked about, and I think book three, where the babysitter's agency tried to sabotage them. They have a very. They have a strict vetting process for new members and babysitters. Now can we talk about. Okay, so the first five. The first five books of the series, we commented a few times, like, how quickly they seem to be moving through the seventh grade. Yeah, this was a big deal in Christy's great idea. Like, she. She had. They just started the seventh grade. They were kind of dealing with, like, changes to themselves and lives. And then by the time we're in book five, we're already talking about it being like, springtime in Stony Brook. And apparently book six, Christie's big day, is the last book that takes place while they are in seventh grade.

[Craig]

Oh, okay.

[Andrew]

Then there are four books that take place in the summer break before eighth grade.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

There are three. Three main series. And then super special number one is like that.

[Craig]

Like that weird, like half season of Saved by the Bell where. Where they were at the beach for some reason.

[Andrew]

And we knew from our show research that the series ends with them graduating from the eighth grade.

[Craig]

Okay, so you're building up to a. They're entering the time loop.

[Andrew]

We're jumping onto the perpetual 8th grade that the entire rest of the series takes place in.

[Craig]

Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow.

[Andrew]

Book 14 is in fact the fifth book in what poster ZOR3 on the babysitters club boards in 2011 termed eighth grade year one.

[Craig]

Whoa.

[Andrew]

Eighth grade year. Okay.

[Craig]

ZOR3.

[Andrew]

Posits that there are 13 years of eighth grade. Whoa. That they go through in the rest of the series. And it's kind of a. You get into a, like a Simpsons or a Bob's Burgers kind of loop where, like, this 10 year old has experience, like 23 distinct Christmases.

[Craig]

Well, like the show, my experience with the Simpsons is, like, they do kind of reference them sometimes.

[Andrew]

Yes. Yeah, it is weird. And with the Simpsons has been running for like 30 years. So the time dilation gets so weird that, like, the characters are always the same age, but then the time that they grew up in keeps, like, moving forward. So you do have flashback episodes of Homer and Marge being like, kids in the 70s or teens in the 70s, and then flashback episodes of them being, like, teens in the 90s, which is just. It's weird.

[Craig]

I don't like that.

[Andrew]

Like, I don't like it. But yeah, they. They just. They go through school and summer school and summer school and summer for, you know, 13 cycles of eighth grade. And they're just in eighth grade the entire time.

[Craig]

Okay, thank you.

[Andrew]

ZOR3 this was from my BSC timeline that one day will get edited and posted. The below is my best guess based on publication year and book happenings. Enjoy. The dates correspond to what would have been the real years. P.S. i just reread Claudia and the Perfect Boy. In that story, Claudia mentions the Sea City trip from super special number 10. Based on that, I finally just decided to stick that book back after number 65. So he is trying to like.

[Craig]

Oh no, these are like the people with the Zelda timeline.

[Andrew]

Yes, he is. He is trying to make it make sense. But yes, between the real world years of 1987 and 2000, these girls attend 8th grade 13 distinct times. And so we are still in 8th grade year one year. Like, there's no. There's no sign yet that things have gotten weird.

[Craig]

On next. Next episode we're going to be. Which.

[Andrew]

Which book is that?

[Craig]

Oh, next episode's only book 16. Not a big jump. Jesse's Secret Language.

[Andrew]

Okay, so we're still in eighth grade year one in book 16, but then we do a bigger jump.

[Craig]

I'll be interested for our last official episode. Welcome to the BSC Abbey. Book 90 in book.

[Andrew]

By the time we get to book 90, we are in eighth grade year eight. And that is the first book that takes place in eighth grade year eight. Okay, again, according to Zor3, according to babysitter, babysitters club.pro boards.com the pro boards.

[Craig]

Handle of any M. Martin official. Yes. Okay.

[Andrew]

She. She has 6,312 posts. So like, she's pretty. She's pretty knowledgeable.

[Craig]

Very knowledgeable.

[Andrew]

And I can say she. Because she does have her. Her gender declared and her little profile here. It also says that she's sitting for the Barrett DeWitt and she has achieved some kind of ranking called our own Mimi.

[Craig]

That's a spoiler. That means that the. That lady Barrett gets married at some point. Probably. Sorry. Huh.

[Andrew]

Everybody. Everybody has little, like, statuses. Like, new to Stony Brook is somebody I love Junior sitter. This I miss. I miss forums.

[Craig]

Bring forums back.

[Andrew]

I know forums still exist. Like, the place where I work has a surprisingly vibrant forum culture still, which is on purpose and like meticulously cultivated over many, many years. But like, bring back forms, bring them.

[Craig]

Back and don't let any business actually be in charge of them.

[Andrew]

Yeah, no more algorithms. No more like social media. People just have to like, be able to find pockets of their own people and then stay there and not like have any spillover happen.

[Craig]

Nothing can ever break containment. No. The back cover says Mallory pike has always Wanted to be a member of the Babysitters club. The babysitters are so much fun to be around and so grown up. Now the club members have invited Mallory to a meeting. This might be her big chance. But the babysitters don't make it easy. First, Claudia makes Mal feel like a baby on her first official babysitting job. Then they give her a written test with questions nobody could answer. Mallory's beginning to think she doesn't want to be part of the babysitters club. And maybe with her new friend Jessie, she'll start a club of her own. It's time to show those babysitters what a couple of new girls can do.

[Beck Bennett]

Hi, I'm Beck Bennett.

[Kyle Mooney]

I thought I was Beck Bennett.

[Beck Bennett]

No, no, no, no.

[Kyle Mooney]

It's always Kyle Mooney.

[Beck Bennett]

Sorry about that.

[Andrew]

Exactly.

[Beck Bennett]

No, all good. All good. Thanks, buddy.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Beck Bennett]

And we host the show what's our podcast here on Headgum.

[Kyle Mooney]

But we want to make sure you heard about a very special episode with a very special guest that we just released. In the feed.

[Beck Bennett]

Yeah, it's in the feed. It was sponsored by Squarespace because they were appalled. They were. That we didn for our show yet.

[Craig]

They were like, you don't have a website?

[Kyle Mooney]

What are you guys, kindergarteners?

[Beck Bennett]

They wanted to do something about that. So we built a flawless, beautiful, perfectly designed website live on the pod with our very special guest and very web savvy guest. Should we tell them who it was?

[Kyle Mooney]

We could play 20 questions.

[Beck Bennett]

I don't think we have time for that.

[Kyle Mooney]

Is it Person?

[Beck Bennett]

No, it's not.

[Kyle Mooney]

It's Finn Wolfhard. But Finn had a bunch of great ideas for the website. Beck, you had some amazing ideas for the website.

[Andrew]

Thanks, man.

[Beck Bennett]

You had some amazing ideas.

[Kyle Mooney]

Well, I was sort of driving the thing. I was sort of like clicking and.

[Beck Bennett]

And I was like, let's put a little. Let's put some. I was talking about widgets.

[Kyle Mooney]

You kept on using that phrase, widgets.

[Beck Bennett]

Yeah, there's all sorts of stuff there. And you might want to check out the hippo. Just go check out the website.

[Kyle Mooney]

Know that there's a hippo video and know that you're going to want to watch that. We had a lot of fun making this episode. We had a lot of fun making this website. I think you're going to have a fun time listening to it and maybe watching it. Think of it as our little Christmas present to you.

[Beck Bennett]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Beck Bennett]

This is a gift for you. Okay. It's just like, it's a selfless thing we did for you.

[Kyle Mooney]

Thanks to Squarespace for making us build a website sponsoring the episode and for supporting creators across the Headgum network.

[Beck Bennett]

Go check out the bonus episode. What's our website from? What's our podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Kyle Mooney]

Go to squarespace.com beckand Kyle for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code Beckand Kyle yes Sir. To save 10 off your first purchase.

[Nicole Byer]

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[Craig]

Get it Kyle. Quick. Choose a meal deal with MC value, the five dollar MC chicken meal deal, the six dollar McDouble meal deal, or the new $7 Daily Double meal deal. Each with its own small fries, drink and Four Piece McNuggets. There's actually no rush. I'm just excited for McDon for a limited time only.

[Andrew]

Presence of participation may vary.

[Craig]

Not Valdermic delivery.

[Andrew]

All right, so you know what I mean. I suspect that you were going to bring this up at some point. You know what I wasn't expecting to deal with in this book based on all the blurbs and the name of it was like a bunch of race stuff.

[Craig]

Just Anna Martin being like, you know, this town's racist as all get out.

[Andrew]

But in like a quiet sort of way where you can sort of wait it out and people will get over it.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Kind of.

[Craig]

You can kind of just say, like, most people will grow out of it.

[Andrew]

I think the handling of. So a black family moves into Stony Brook and they are.

[Craig]

This is Jess family.

[Andrew]

Yes. Practically the only black family. We'll get to it as we go over the plot.

[Craig]

But. Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew]

But I just wanted to say up front, like, I, I'm not complaining about Anna Martin's depiction.

[Craig]

No.

[Andrew]

And actually, as somebody who did go to like an almost entirely white high school where there was like one black kid, like, it is very, like, it's just, it's. Nobody knows what to do with that. None of the, none of the little white kids know how to handle that because they have no context for it.

[Craig]

Yep. Yep. They're not taught well.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And. And there's some, like, cool moments of solidarity that, like, feel. They felt good to read. Like, it was just like, cool to see these girls, like, act the way that they wind up acting. So Anna Martin's letter said, among other things, that she had received a number of letters from readers asking for a younger member the bsc, since many readers were Mallory's age or younger. And then I decided she said that Mallory needed a best friend. So I created one for her. Jesse Ramsey.

[Andrew]

There's some people in our discord who think that Ann Martin kind of has it out for Mallory based on.

[Craig]

Oh, yeah, I have some of what happens to her.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I don't know if you want to do that now or if you want to do it some other time. It reminded me of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Viewers will know that at least once or twice a season, the character of Chief o' Brien is sent through trials that would destroy a lesser man. And I feel like Mallory is kind of the Chief o' Brien of the Babysitter's Club universe.

[Craig]

So Jason said, I think the general consensus is that Anna Martin never liked Mallory for some reason, it makes her life miserable until she finally just leaves Stony Brook for boarding school. Now, Anna Martin does take pains in the. In the letter to, like, say how much she identifies with Mallory. So I don't know what that. What that means.

[Andrew]

Maybe she identifies with the. Maybe Mallory is everything she doesn't like about herself.

[Craig]

Yeah. Mary Garcia.

[Andrew]

I don't like that I wear glasses. I don't like how much I like horses.

[Craig]

Mallory and Jesse both get fewer and fewer books as the series goes on. Christie alone has more titles in 100 to 131 than Mallory and Jesse combined. Quote, which is wild because it's not a TV show. It's not like you couldn't get the actors for that episode. But they also have been written out because maybe they've been written out because they're sixth graders. So fewer chances to interact with the rest of the group in the school setting. And that. That does make sense to me based on, like, how the previous books have been structured. And then looking at how this book is structured where, like, it's kind of hermetically sealed. Like, the way these characters move through these books is, like, it's very difficult to give you multiple perspectives and, like, take you anywhere with the. The main character isn't. And so if you're trying to, like, center books on Mallory, you can't have all of the, like, the main characters around too often. If you're doing, like, a rich subplot of Mallory's life, like, I get it. It's a little bit of a. A narrative trap that she has laid for herself, I suppose.

[Andrew]

Did you know that babysitters club book 100 is called Christie's Worst Idea?

[Craig]

Oh, that's good.

[Andrew]

A play on Christy's good idea.

[Craig]

I like that a lot.

[Andrew]

Cool.

[Craig]

All right, let's start at the beginning of the book here, Andrew.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Craig]

Hi, I'm Mallory. I'm the oldest of eight. I wear glasses and I have seven siblings. There's a lot of them. Yeah, there's three twin boys that are ten. There's a poet, Vanessa, who's nine. There's Nikki, the baby, he's eight. There's Margo, the boss. Sounds like seven.

[Andrew]

Sound like mobster.

[Craig]

I know Nikki.

[Andrew]

The babies going to Rikers for 30 years.

[Craig]

Then there's five year old Claire, who's the silly baby. Her mom works at home raising the kids, and her dad is a fancy corporate lawyer in Stamford, where he doesn't go to court, he just goes to the office. I made a few notes on what his company might be. Con Air. The, like, hair dryer people, maybe?

[Andrew]

Oh, I thought you meant the.

[Craig]

The movie.

[Andrew]

The. The prisoner transport service.

[Craig]

Con Air, the postal equipment company. Pitney Bowes, Purdue Pharma. Moved there in 2000.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Couldn't be them in this, though.

[Craig]

And the WWE moved there in 1991.

[Andrew]

Okay. So if we were in a different year of eighth grade, those could still be possibilities. But this is still eighth grade, year one. And so I don't think. I don't think the timeline could bear that.

[Craig]

The opening chapter has her babysitting some of her siblings and her. And Nikki, the baby gets hurt.

[Andrew]

Yeah, Nikki, the baby's playing volleyball with some neighbor kid. It's amazing to me. And this. This was true to my experience as a kid, but now it's just. For. For some reason, it's hard for me to fathom just how, like, all the neighbor kids just kind of filter in and out of everybody's yards without really wander around. Yeah. Like, parents aren't really setting up playdates or anything. You just, like, just a kid. A kid is here. And now I'm gonna play with this kid who's here.

[Craig]

Yeah, you just kind of leave your house and then you see another kid, and then you just go to the other kid, and if that kid has a volleyball, you just start chucking it at each other.

[Andrew]

I'm not saying one of the ways is better. No, it's just like these are very different ways. Different kids hanging out.

[Craig]

Do you want to describe his injury, Andrew?

[Andrew]

He's. He's playing volleyball with some neighbor kid who has wandered over from who knows where. And the volleyball is spiked while Nikki, the baby, is not paying attention. And his finger is broken, like, awfully, like really, like really kind of a goosebumps esque description of a broken finger here.

[Craig]

And her parents, like, show up and are like, all right, you're in charge, emergency room. And all the kids just stare at this. While this happens, it's really kind of horrifying. But she's like, okay, I'm in charge. My brother got hurt while I was in charge, but now I'm really in charge, and it's time to go meet the BSC and she.

[Andrew]

And she's got babysitting on the brain because she's got this meeting with the biggest babysitting outfit in town.

[Craig]

Yes. Yes.

[Andrew]

And. Yeah. And then chapter two, as it always is in the books, is the subplot. Here is a meeting of the babysitters club. Here is everybody's deal. Christie is bossy. Dawn is from California.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Marianne is a little mousey. Claudia wears cool clothes and eats junk food all the time. These are the babysitters.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And then Mallory is there.

[Craig]

And Mallory is there. And she kind of describes what happened with, like, some of her babysitting experience.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I mean, she. So she. Is she in this meeting. Like, they are. They're talking about how to, like, try her out, and they're like. It's just kind of an uncomfortable interaction.

[Craig]

They don't have a plan because they.

[Andrew]

Don'T have a plan. And because they're all two years older than she is, and so she. They don't quite know how to interact with each other. And then she, toward the end of this meeting, thinking that she is demonstrating how, like, resourceful and responsible she is, tells them about this broken finger incident. And they all, like. They all get super weird about it.

[Craig]

It's so weird because, like, her main thing is my parents trusted me enough to put everyone in my care while they took my brother, who I was watching when he got hurt, to the hospital. And they're like, your brother got hurt? I spent most of this book very frustrated by the four girls in the club.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And it doesn't help that you are there all kind of held at a remove. Now you do the convention where you see other girls other than, like, the main girl through the eyes of, like, babysitting entries in the babysitting journal.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

That. That persists in this book. And so you do know pretty early that Mallory, like, everything ends up fine for Mallory because she. The whole book is in her head. And the only reason that we know about these diary entries is because she tells us, like, oh, I read this diary entry later.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

And let me tell you what happened.

[Craig]

Yeah. So they're gonna make up a test. They don't have a test. They don't have an entrance exam, but they're gonna stay up all night and make one for her. Which she didn't know.

[Andrew]

They tell her to come back the next day. She does have a second round interview, but like not for, not for good reasons.

[Craig]

In the interim, she goes to school and they're, you know, Jessie, Jesse and her family moved to town. She's the only black kid in the class. And wouldn't you know it, Andrew, some of these white kids suck.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Like there's one who's like spitballing her. Like there, there are kids in the cafeteria who are just like talking about how they. I don't know. Yeah, right. Just like marveling at the existence of her.

[Craig]

And props to Mallory just being like, I don't understand you.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

What do you mean?

[Andrew]

And Mallory also, we are told, is, is looking, explicitly looking for a best friend. Not just a friend, but a best friend.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Because she is friendly with a lot of people, but they all are already paired off with a best friend.

[Craig]

Yes. And, and she is the oldest of eight and spends a lot of time with her siblings and caring for her siblings and is like at an age now where she really needs like another, from her perspective, another adult to talk to. But she does meet up with Jessie on her way to take the test. Meets Jesse's younger siblings, Becca and Squirt, I think.

[Andrew]

Yes. And they're all living in Stacy's old house.

[Craig]

Yes, they're all living in Stacy's house.

[Andrew]

And so that grounds us in the space, I guess, because they live in Stacey's house.

[Craig]

I like Jesse because she has three kid traits. She likes to tell jokes, she loves to read and she's a dancer. And I guess also she's from New Jersey, but like, whatever. But like, I love that she tells the penguin zoo joke. I like that joke.

[Andrew]

Yes, that's a good joke.

[Craig]

And they bond over like horse books and stuff.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And there's some, I think there are some interesting bits of, of biography that we get about Jesse. Like she has moved from New Jersey where she lived in like even, even getting this through the Anna Martin filter and then the Mallory Filtner filter of just like all encompassing whiteness. Yes. Jesse lived in New Jersey. She lived in what was what is clearly implied to be like a black neighborhood. And pretty much everybody in her family was like living on the same, like on, on the same street. All very near each other, all very like tight knit.

[Craig]

Not just a more diverse neighborhood, but a neighborhood in which like her extended family was all there, which is very different. Yes.

[Andrew]

And so, and so Jesse's dad has moved for one of the two reasons that people move in the babysitter's club universe, which is either your divorced parent married another divorced parent or your dad got a job somewhere else.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

Those are the two reasons.

[Beck Bennett]

Uh huh.

[Craig]

There's the only two things that can cause a move.

[Andrew]

And she's like, so she's, she's feeling that like, loss of her, of her family at the same time as everybody in the community is like, really not. That really does not know how to. And it's, it's not even like explicitly a everybody's being nasty thing. It's just like they are clearly being treated differently from like the, like Stacy's family, for example, like the last white family that moved into this house.

[Craig]

Yep. Later in that book, later in the book, Mallory has this like kind of light bulb moment. She's like, wait, you mean like the welcome wagon didn't come by? Like, this is, this is a thing our town does when there's a new person, like somebody comes over and like gives you stuff and learns about you. And Jesse's like, no, never happened. Didn't I do like the moment where she goes into Jesse's house? You know, their family's still unpacking, but they've also clearly been dealing with this like, energy. And Mallard just like walks up and like goes to shake Jesse's mom's hand. You get this whiff of Jesse's mom, you're like, who is this little white girl coming into my house? Also she seems okay.

[Andrew]

Well, I read that as this is the first little white girl who's come around trying to introduce herself and be friendly and make friends with any of her children. And so that moment of hesitation that is described, I didn't think of that as being any kind of recoiling on Jesse's mom's part.

[Craig]

It's not just what I meant. Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

It's just like, oh, this is the first time that I have been extended this simple act of like, kindness and respect since we moved into this white, white neighborhood in White Brook, Connecticut.

[Craig]

So they bond a little bit. And, and what she tells Jesse, like, I'm gonna go try to join this club. I've got this high stakes test. Yeah, please cheer for me, you know?

[Andrew]

Yeah. And then Jesse talks about, oh, there's like the, the dancing group that she wants, like the ballet group that she wants to join. She is waffling on it because she worries that if she does like, because she knows she's good, but she worries that if she gets like lead parts, then everybody is gonna think this because it's because she's black.

[Craig]

Yep, yep. Or gonna do the, like, you know, how could you have a black girl be the lead in whatever thing? Or something like that.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I don't think. I don't think that's as. That's mentioned as as much. I feel like that's more of a. I feel like that. I feel like that is more of a modern reaction to things in response to, like, race blind casting of stuff. Like. Like, the first time I remember it really blowing up on the Internet is when they, like, cast. Was it Idris Elba who was a God in Thor?

[Craig]

That was a big one. That was.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I think that was the first one where I really remember it being like, y' all know that all of this is, like, pretend, right? Like, it's. It's all pretend.

[Craig]

Yeah, but so then she's gonna go to this test, and this test stinks. This is a bad test.

[Andrew]

It's a bad test. And then you can tell, like, the girls admit later, like, this test sucked because we stayed up all night doing it. And we had to stay up all night doing it because we didn't know any of the answers to any of the questions that they were asking. But the questions are like, what is the digestive system like? Like, draw the digestive system.

[Craig]

What is the difference between creeping and crawling?

[Andrew]

And like, when does a baby cut their first teeth?

[Craig]

And which one is first?

[Andrew]

And the. The answer is seven months. But Mallory says eight months. And it's like this. These are. These are all averages, everybody. Like this. This is something you should know as professional babysitters, is that things happen for different kids at different times.

[Craig]

Well, and also then they're like. Then they're like, what's a tourniquet?

[Andrew]

That was a. That's the weirdest one, I think, is what's a tourniquet? Well, how would you dress this Civil War era wound? Mallory, 11 year old.

[Craig]

Then like, the follow up question is like, and when would you take it off? And she's like, well, when the wound is healed. And they're like, no, the answer is never.

[Andrew]

You take it off when the doctor says to take it off.

[Craig]

Okay. Which she does so poorly on this test because it's such a bad test.

[Andrew]

And there are a couple of moments where Mallory is like, I know that, like Claudia just said, said divestive system.

[Craig]

To me.

[Andrew]

I. I know they. I don't know. I know they don't know any of this stuff. Like, she loses some respect for them in this moment. That makes it not it is not a devastating loss for her to have not gotten this job. It is like, you don't want me. Well, I don't want you stinkers either. I'm out of here.

[Craig]

Yes, well, and anger. It blows up after. She also does that, like, quick babysitting job with Claudia, which I don't think actually go. You know, which they, again, they also admit later did not go as bad as they report on it to her, where, like, they go over the kids, and she's like, what snacks do you want? And all the kids say, you know, garbage. And Claudia's like, well, minus 10 points to Gryffindor, because you could have said apples first. And now all they want is ice cream.

[Andrew]

You're supposed to proactively suggest the healthy snacks, which is like, okay.

[Craig]

Can a person not learn? Is there no training for this job? She lets a dog inside. Whoops.

[Andrew]

You get one. All or nothing shot at being in the babysitter's club. Listen, everybody's feeling their way in this. This is only. This is only the first year of eighth grade. Everybody's still learning at grade.

[Craig]

They've got 12 more loops to do to get better at it. She did, like, the part I felt the worst about is when, like, so they're babysitting for this family where the mom just had a. Had a new baby, and the mom is in the hospital. The dad's gonna go visit her, and the kids are home alone. They need babysitters. And she asks the one kid, like, hey, are you, like, excited to, you know, meet your new sibling or whatever? And the kid's like, no, I just miss my mom. And the kid starts to cry, and then she gives the kid a hug, and Claudia's like, what did you do?

[Andrew]

It's. So Claudia's primed by the. By like, mostly how mad Christy is. Like, I think Christy, as usual, is the.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Ringleader in all of this. Claudia's prime to be unimpressed by Mallory. Based on how the. How the interviewed quiz thing, which had a. Yeah, you're right. She's looking portion and a drawing portion.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Where she draws, like, the esophagus and the stomach and the intestines. And they. She hands it over to the girls, and they're like, oh, you forgot the pancreas and the liver and all this other stuff.

[Craig]

You don't need to know that stuff.

[Andrew]

I'm sorry that Mallory can't name all the, like, 200 and whatever bones in the human body. But, like, I think she could probably still babysit. Okay.

[Craig]

So they tell her that she failed and she blows up and says, I don't even want to be part of your club and leaves. Very sad for her. And then she and Jesse hang out for a little bit, they commiserate about not fitting in and they decide to start their own club. Andrew, which name do you prefer? Sitters United or Kids Incorporated?

[Andrew]

I do. They, they do run it as more of like a communal sort of co op sort of situation where they don't, they don't have offices and titles. They like both run everything together. So I think the, the. More like socialist of the two options, I would prefer to the like faceless corporate option, which is what they go with. They do go with Kids Incorporated.

[Craig]

Yes. I prefer primarily.

[Andrew]

Primarily they get jobs from their parents.

[Craig]

The Sitters United case did really change a lot in Stamford, Connecticut.

[Andrew]

We are living in the, in the Sitters United era. Many, many.

[Craig]

But yes, they get, they get nepo baby jobs from their parents, which is.

[Andrew]

Something that in book one, Christy was explicitly not interested in doing. Like, she did not want their first and only job to be like sitting for her mom.

[Craig]

Yeah, because she's got her pride, you know, she does. Christy's nothing but pride. They, you know, make some flyers. Their, their thing is that they're. Because they know they're younger, they market themselves as a pair that they will, you know, you've got a team of babysitters.

[Andrew]

Two sitters for the price of one. Yes.

[Craig]

Two sitters for the price of one. And then we get the first of the. The Notebook like device where dawn is doing some babysitting for kids who are being. We. I think it's the Barrett's again. And one of the kids is putting diapers on a dinner table.

[Andrew]

Apparently Mrs. Barrett has gotten her stuff together since don the Impossible 3, but who knows? Only. Yeah, I don't know how. I don't know how deep that goes or what prompted the changes or what.

[Craig]

It does end with her seeing Jesse and Mallory babysitting. And then there's one of those like protracted. Why would they write any of this down in the book sequences where like Christy and Dawn are just like yelling about how bad this is.

[Andrew]

There is a weird, you know, that they, they take a very like 90s Bill Gates like approach to competition, which is if you can't like run them out of the business, then you have to acquire.

[Craig]

You have to acquire your business. Yeah, there is that weird thing, and this was noted in the wiki at the end of the exchange between like dawn and, And Christie. I think because all of this is supposed to be Mallory telling us what happened that she learned from reading the Notebook later. And it's supposed to be a back and forth between dawn and Christy. And then it, like, says that, like, I asked instead of dawn asked.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Craig]

And then no one at Scholastic has thought to fix this in 35 years or whatever.

[Andrew]

I hope someone got fired for that blunder.

[Craig]

It's just weird. I just got confused because I was like, why is Mallory in this scene? This is not.

[Andrew]

It's the. It's the, you know, it's. It's the ongoing imperfection of this as a way to have other sitters like activities introduced into the book is because you're. You can't straight up shift perspectives. It's like, what if you're reading Song of Ice and Fire and then, like, Tyrion is telling you what Ned Stark is doing, like, secondhand.

[Craig]

Yes, that's exactly what it is.

[Andrew]

That's exactly what it's like.

[Craig]

They. During one of their meetings, Christy calls them to complain. And that goes about as well as you would think.

[Andrew]

They do have their meetings at the exact same time on the exact same days as the Babysitter's club.

[Craig]

True. It's really like they're trying to get acquired, to be perfectly honest.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I mean, sometimes you start up, sometimes you do a startup to get acquired.

[Craig]

Yeah. It's like the whole goal, you just, like, make your brand good enough so that venture comes in and picks it up. Right.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Well, it's lucky for Mallory that she didn't take any Babysitter's Club work product with her when she left, because then they could have been sued for all kinds of stuff.

[Craig]

She left with a. With a kid kit. Take her to court.

[Andrew]

This is privilege. We sign an NDA not to reveal the kid kits to anybody else.

[Craig]

They do get hired by Jesse's mom to do some babysitting, which is where Mallory really clocks the whole, like, wow. No welcome wagon came. Like, this is really a racist town. This stinks. But they do have to. Your point about the kids just wandering around? Mrs. Johanson sends her daughter Charlotte over to play with one of Jesse's siblings, who is playing with a big bubble machine.

[Andrew]

Yep.

[Craig]

And clearly the kids are, you know, in this world, the kids are our future. They are interested. You know, they don't know racism. Not these little kids, anyway. The middle schoolers do, but not the little kids.

[Andrew]

Not the little kids. The little kids just see a bubble machine and want to play with. Bubble machine.

[Craig]

Yep. And then we cut back to the bsc. What's their problem, Andrew? What's the, what's the worst thing that could happen to them?

[Andrew]

A labor shortage.

[Craig]

They've got their, they've got their, like, second string members on the case as well.

[Andrew]

Yeah, like Logan and some Shannon who we don't know because we skipped the books. But they're like the, the pinch hitting babysitters who get called in when the main four cannot sit. But, like, their calendar is full because Stacy's gone and they haven't been able to find somebody else yet. And so this, this brings all four of them around to saying, like, maybe that test where we didn't know any of the answers either was unfair and we need somebody even if, even if it's just a younger kid who can only sit in the afternoons. Like that frees us up because none of us are allowed to take two jobs in a day because we have school.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

So we just, we just need more bodies to throw at this problem. We're so successful, we need to expand.

[Craig]

Marianne basically recounts, you know, events from that beach trip where she says, you know, we went to the Sea City with the Pikes. And Stacy's not here to advocate for Mallory also. So, like, the only person who could maybe speak with experience about Mallory is the quietest of the group. Even though we know Marion's coming out of her shell. She's feeling just fine. She's got a kitten apparently, which is I would love to know more about, but I'm not going to go back and read that book.

[Andrew]

We don't, we don't hear anything about the, the relationship between Dom and Marianne's dad in this. Like, we assume it's continuing a pace, but we are not given an update.

[Craig]

Yeah, Mallory was.

[Andrew]

We get more updates in the, like the Marianne books that happen.

[Craig]

Yes. Yeah, Mallory. Mallory was awfully helpful. She wasn't even supposed to be a babysitter, but she automatically watched her brothers and sisters all the time, especially in the water. She remembered to see that they were wearing sunblock. And we knew that if we had to split into groups, like when we were playing miniature golf, we could put her in charge of one of the groups and not have a thing to worry about. That sounds like you should have said that before the test and before Christy.

[Andrew]

Whipped you up into a frenzy about excluding this poor girl.

[Craig]

I've got a great idea. Christy shouldn't be the president.

[Andrew]

They just stage a couple.

[Craig]

Claudia admits the Perkins gig was fine. Dawn also shares, like, a secondhand story about Nikki, the baby's broken hand, you know, that tells her that it was not really in Mallory's control anyway.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Like, they all. They. They all get around to basically saying, hey, Po Biddy's nerfix. We shouldn't hold Mallory to a higher standard than we would hold ourselves. Maybe we should give her another chance.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

So Christy swallows her gigantic pride and calls the Kids Incorporated. Kids Incorporated.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Andrew]

To make them a buyout offer.

[Craig]

It's like Shark Tank. It's like, I'm just gonna acquire this.

[Andrew]

And Mallory says, well, if you got. If you're gonna take me, you gotta take Jesse. Because Jesse is. When. When she hears that Mallory is being offered another chance, and Mallory's really excited about it, Jesse is, like, briefly devastated because she's like, oh, I just. I just got this friend.

[Craig]

Like, well, Mallory has interactions where Mallory has, like, declared in her own head, oh, we are best friends now. Like, they've had, like, moments, and she is not gonna leave her best friend behind.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And. And she even says to the bsc, like, there might be some racists here who might not hire my best friend who you need to take as part of Kids Incorporated.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And I thought, like. And Chris. Yeah. Chrissy's response, like, all four of the baby, like, the main babysitters are a little weird about it because they haven't.

[Craig]

Like, even thought about it.

[Andrew]

They haven't even thought about it. And I, like, the reason I brought up having, like, gone to a high school that only had, like, one black kid in it. Like, we had one black kid and, like, a couple of Jewish kids who are from the same family. We just. And some of that treatment, I think, like, where they are occasionally singled out is. I'm not going to say it's not racism, but I am going to say it's coming from, like, a place of, like, I genuinely like the way the place where I live and the way I live my life has never made me confront this situation before. And I'm just, like, literally never thought about it. And so you have people kind of trying to figure things out in real time. And so the.

[Craig]

The.

[Andrew]

The way that the babysitters are a little bit, like, they. They don't know how to confront this. But then Christy says, well, you know, if anybody is like this, then I don't. You know, I don't want to babysit for them either.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Like, that is a. That. That is a. A good place to start from, I think.

[Craig]

Yeah. Well, and it's interesting. Like, they're. They're. Martin doesn't Talk much about, you know, issues that Claudia's family has had. Right. Like, she's Japanese American. But, like, there is this sense that just, like, this type of overt, like, social neglect and active racism by jerko kids is just not something any of them have seen.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And any of them have actually encountered.

[Andrew]

And it does seem like some families are finally reaching out to Jesse's family by the end of the book. And it's like they're not getting the same treatment that Stacy's family got. But clearly some people are thinking better of.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Andrew]

Like, ignoring them. So. Yeah.

[Craig]

And I. And I just generally like the scene where, like, the Babysitters club is like, well, then if they. The Three Musketeers rule applies. Like, if they won't hire Jesse, then they can't hire any of us. Like, that's just the rule. Now they do get a nice phone call from Stacy and talk to her a little bit, and then they do one more job just to, like, make sure that everybody's cool with the Newtons.

[Andrew]

Yep.

[Craig]

And there's, like, some, like, back and forth where, like, they have a guy fixing the washing machine and Jamie falls off a swing and whatever.

[Andrew]

There's a lot of little challenges. It is like a. Like a. A. Like a shooting range where the little, like, cardboard guys are, like, popping up at you, and you have to, like, you have to handle them all exactly correctly to pass the test. But Mallory does pass this one.

[Craig]

She does. And. And I think, you know, I don't remember which of the main club members. Is there Claudia or is it Claudia again? Yeah.

[Andrew]

Because she has to leave briefly to deal with a Mimi situation.

[Craig]

Yes, you're right. And she's like, hey, you did a great job. Good work. You're clearly in the club and then into club place.

[Andrew]

Somehow in the book.

[Craig]

Somehow.

[Andrew]

But it's like a cover by the.

[Craig]

Slime Kings and not by Christy and the Snobs.

[Andrew]

By Christie and the Snobs.

[Craig]

But, yeah, it's. I liked this one. I. It. It did. And I imagine this is how something like welcome to the BSC Abbey will feel as well, which is just like. The way we structured this read means that we didn't really get to spend time with all the characters we've been invested in. But that's fine.

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's fine. I like. I think. I think Mallory is. Mallory and Jesse are both pretty well drawn in this.

[Craig]

They are. I was in.

[Andrew]

I was invested in their deal. I do think you feel the, like, this is a thing that's been going For a bit now, like, this is a thing that's got some rhythms. You know who all these little kids are. We aren't going to spend a lot of time, like, telling you which one is which, because you've read 14th these books, and you know all the families and you know, all the babysitters, you know, all their deal. Like, it. I'm not. I. I don't think rote is the word. I would. I would go for or even just like, like auto or. Or autopilot or anything like that. But I think there is a. A slightly different vibe to the rhythms of this as a thing that is, like, following in a pattern that's been repeated, like, a dozen times already.

[Craig]

Yep. Yep.

[Andrew]

As opposed to, like, the way the first four or five books felt.

[Craig]

Yeah. It doesn't feel like the new family is Jesse's family, and it's not. What is this new family we have to learn how to babysit for? It is like. No, this is like a new character that we're gonna, like. Typically, there has been a. Oh, now we have to deal with this new type of kid in each book, and that's not quite what's going on here, but you're right. I do. In terms of, like, the way Mallory's story is structured, I like that it's not like this is just her meeting and befriending one new person. It could have been. Could have been some, like, more big, like, classroom drama for her at middle school or something like that. I was actually surprised it didn't focus more on her and her siblings based on, like, what we knew about her coming in.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I almost wonder if that's. That's on purpose from. Because. Because we have. I. I am assuming we have not entered Mallory's perspective before this, because we have not. Like, this is her first book as a sitter, so everything else you've seen of her, if you've read all these books, is, like, of her in the context of the entire rest of her family and all of their relations to everybody.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Like, even the way that it describes the relationship between what's the last name of the lady who's divorced and she.

[Craig]

The Barrett.

[Andrew]

The Barrett's.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

The way, like, the relationship between all the Barretts is described is like, oh, yeah, you know what the deal with all these people is?

[Craig]

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Andrew]

Like, you probably don't need to know a ton more about how Mallory relates to her family, because that's all you've seen her. That's most of what you've seen her doing up until.

[Craig]

Totally true. Totally true.

[Andrew]

So now we gotta define her as an individual so that she can be a. A member of the Babysitters Club who then carries future books, even though she does, as we discussed, get fewer and fewer.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

As the series goes on.

[Craig]

But. Yeah. So that's the book. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I continue to enjoy these books and I continue to be, like, you know, intrigued by what I'm enjoying about them. They do, like, find ways to surprise me. Didn't know we were going to talk about racism in this.

[Andrew]

Did not know there was going to be a race element.

[Craig]

You know, I hadn't read the back of the book before I started reading. Didn't know that there was going to be another rival babysitter's business. You know, things like that.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I mean, it's a. It's a. It's a different feel, though.

[Craig]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And it's like as an acquisition, of.

[Andrew]

Course, Kids Incorporated, we have to bring them into the folds.

[Craig]

Sitters United is better. They would have been able to stay on their own if they were Sitters United. They wouldn't have gotten swallowed up. But that's the book. Next time we will discuss Jesse's secret language. Book 16. What book are we skipping? Little Miss Stony Brook and Dawn. So dawn book about a child's beauty pageant.

[Andrew]

Oh, no, I think by book we're not going to read this one, obviously. But book 18 is called Stacy's Mistake. So I assume Stacy has come back by then. Like, clearly. Clearly she does not stay away from the club forever.

[Craig]

No, no, no. Yeah, Club meetings are gonna get pretty big.

[Andrew]

Yeah, People. People eating ring Dings out of a.

[Craig]

Pillowcase in Claudia's room, toasting with gummy worms or whatever.

[Andrew]

Oh, book 28 is called welcome back, Stacy. I bet that's the one where Stacy comes back.

[Craig]

Okay. Okay.

[Andrew]

That's the second year of eighth grade. Though she misses most of the first year of eighth grade.

[Craig]

Well, she got held back a year of eighth grade. That's it. If you want to share your Babysitters Club thoughts with us, you can email us overdue podmail.com find us on social media at Overdue Pod or go ahead. And you know, Andrew can tell you more about how to join us on the discord for whatever long read project we're talking about when you listen to this Babysitters club or not. But our theme song is composed by Nick Laurensis. And if folks want to know more about the show, Andrew, where do they go?

[Andrew]

Overdue podcast.com, that website. And if you want to know more about joining our community or getting bonus episodes and long read episodes and other things early, go to patreon.com overdue pod. That is our Patreon projects. You support the show when you support us on Patreon, like in a very direct, tangible way. We buy books, we buy equipment, and we. It makes it possible to continue fitting the show into our lives.

[Craig]

These long reads would not be possible without our Patreon supporters. Thank you to all of you who make this possible. Yeah, Andrew, what do we say at the end of every episode of Sit Me Baby one more time?

[Andrew]

Spectacles, eyeglasses, bifocals, trifocals. No matter what you call them. Glasses are glasses and I have to wear them. Hello, I'm Mallory Pike. That was a Headgum podcast.

[Nicole Byer]

Hi, I'm Nicole Byer. Hi, I'm Sasheer Zamada. And this is the podcast Best Friends. And we're here at Headgum. So this is just a podcast where we just talk? Yeah, we're best friends. We talk and then we have a segment where we answer questions and queries so audience members can ask questions about friendships and we can answer them to the best of our abilities. We are professional friends. We are professional friends. Subscribe to Best Friends on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Cast, or wherever you get your podcasts and watch videos on YouTube. New episodes drop every Wednesday. That's the middle of a work week. I was deeply unhelpful to you during that whole thing. You were. I'm really sorry. I felt the support. I was so okay. I was trying to be supportive.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Nicole Byer]

But I was like, I don't know. Reading seems pretty hard right now.

[Craig]

It's a lot. I think.

[Mattea Roach]

You did good.

[Nicole Byer]

Thank you so much.

[Craig]

You're welcome.