Kristy and the Baby Parade

The Baby-Sitters Club #45

by Ann M. Martin

The Baby-sitters just love little babies. So of course Kristy has the great idea of entering a float in the Stoneybrook Baby Parade. All the girls have to do is round up a bunch of adorable babies like Squirt and Emily Michelle, dress them in costumes, and plop them on a float. Easy, right?j

Wrong. The float looks like a big orange blob, the costumes are hideous, and the babies won't stop crying. S.O.S.--the Baby-sitters' float is about to sink!

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary, Juvenile, Realistic Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book!

straight-up awful book from ghostwriter Ellen Miles. this book has almost no merit. mrs. prezzioso wants a regular sitter for jenny and andrea but she mandates that that sitter (kristy) take an infant care class (an absurd premise considering the bsc members have all cared for infants before). the rest of the bsc decides to take it too, and then they annoy the reader with all the things they "learned" and how they "apply" that knowledge that they already had. UGH. then kristy decides to sign a bunch of bsc babies up for a baby parade (and separately helps mrs. p get andrea into a hideous-sounding queen costume for the parade), and the bsc members don't work together so their float turns out terrible and they all get in a fight. in a totally unrealistic and unnuanced way. it's like ellen was trying to write a Mary Anne Saves the Day-style fight but doesn't understand how fights work or why people fight or how humans interact with each other in the first place.

highlights:
-the lady who teaches the baby class (anita) introduces the class to her partner, don. she says partner. it's pretty rad for a bsc book.
-they keep talking about the concept of too many babies -- foreshadowing Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies ??? hahaha
-introduction of jimmytony, nina marshall's imaginary friend (who is actually in the bsc movie too!)
-mallory and jessi are impressed with the old cowboy singer who is hosting the baby parade. it seems weird but it turns out it's because they think his horse is pretty. I chuckled.
-kristy's thoughts on bagpipes: "imagine twenty mean cats fighting over a single piece of fish. that's how bagpipes sound to me."

lowlights/nitpicks:
-kristy says that emily michelle has her hair cut like a dutch girl's. I don't know what that means but when I google "dutch girl hair" all the images are people who look like kirsten larson, the american girl doll. I don't think kristy means dumb braids since emily's hair is so short. I truly don't get what she's trying to say. edit: in The Mystery at Claudia's House claudia narrates that janine has a dutch boy hairstyle. I realize now that this is PROBABLY what ellen thought she meant in this book. a dutch girl hairstyle isn't a thing, but a dutch boy hairstyle is and is also known as a page boy.
-the bsc members act like they don't know what colic is but they talked about it in Hello, Mallory in a way that indicated that they do know what it is
-the premise of the infant class doesn't make sense bc they've been caring for babies for ages. so many irritating examples.
-this book takes over a month, since the class is four weeks long. seriously mrs. prezzioso knew she would need a regular baby sitter that far in advance? and kristy was the only one available over a month in advance for it? implausible.
-also who paid for the class for the other bsc members? did their parents? I'm sure they didn't have enough dues to pay for the six of them (since the prezziosos paid for kristy).
-kristy notes that andrea "startles" at the noise of jenny shouting, which is something she just learned about in infant class. but if babies do that a lot how have you not seen it before? and kristy feeds but forgets to burp her a couple times. HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT? YOU HAVE CARED FOR INFANTS BEFORE. AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
-the whole book is like a babies 101 book. it's like you may as well read a how-to-care-for-babies book.
-anytime they go to a public library in any of the bsc books and find it super full of people, I get bummed out because it makes me think of work.
-the bsc proposed float ideas (see below). it's funny I guess how everyone wants a float that matches their ONE interest, but it reads like chapter 2 (kristy likes sports, stacey is sophisticated, blah blah). like yeah, we already know that these characters are one-dimensional. you don't have to drill it in our heads any more.
-claudia and stacey are SUCH turds about the float (not working together, claudia snapping that the babies should be quiet because she's working, stacey being mad that mallory's costumes don't match her paint that she chose without consulting anyone)
-charlie is so embarrassed by driving the bad-looking float, but his friends still would have made fun of him for being in a baby parade otherwise. also why were cool high school seniors at a baby parade in the first place?
-luke skywalker is on one float carrying a plastic sword. not a light saber. HUH? also they call han solo a swashbuckler, which is totally not accurate. swashbucklers use swords and are chivalrous. honestly, ellen, have you never seen star wars?

the baby-sitters' proposed float ideas:
-kristy: take me out to the ball game (babies in baseball uniforms on diamond)
-dawn: surfin' usa (babies in cool-looking outfits on surfboards in ocean)
-mary anne: three little kittens (babies in kitten outfits wearing mittens with tigger)
-stacey: new york, new york (nyc skyline, babies in tuxedos and evening gowns)
-mallory: misty of chincoteague (no details)
-claudia: babies from outerspace, like a tabloid (no details)
-jessi doesn't get one for some reason, even though hers would obviously be ballet-related.
***plus then they all show up to the parade wearing costumes that are for their themes (not the old lady in the shoe theme they actually go with) because they're stubborn one-dimensional idiots***

claudia outfit:
-"Here's what she was wearing...an oversized red blouse with black buttons, green leggings with white, tie-dyed streaks, and black high-top sneakers with all kinds of buckles and snaps on them. (The laces were untied, which I guess is the cool way to wear them...) Can you guess what her earrings were? Dangling watermelon slices. Get it? She was dressed like a watermelon, head to toe."

snacks in claudia's room:
-barbecue potato chips (n.s.)
-brownies claudia made (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)
-diet soda (n.s.)
-mini snickers bars under her pillow
-low-salt triscuits under her bed

[✨Jordan✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kristy and the gang decide to enter this years Baby Parade! For ages 3 and under. They get together a bunch of babies from their clients whom hire them to babysit and get to work coming up with float ideas.
Also the group decided to take a baby learning class! Learn correct ways to take care of infants and their needs.
This book is focusing on communication and team work. The girls lacked that in this book and learned a valuable lesson the hard way.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

ugh. a baby-heavy kristy book. what could be worse? there is a shit ton of babysitting in this one. it opens with kristy at home, sitting for david michael & emily michelle. what the hell is up with the thomas/brewer clan & their obsession with middle name inclusion? the kids are bored & kristy suggests they make collages out of old newspapers & magazines. she idly reads the paper while they work, as 13-year-olds are wont to do. she stumbles across an announcement about the biannual stoneybrook baby parade. children under three are permitted to enter. there will be separate judging categories for floats, decorated strollers, & wagons/go-karts. go-karts? that does not seem safe. nor does it seem safe to put a baby on a float. nor does it seem probable that the babies would be all that visible on a float. floats are big, babies are small. anyway, kristy starts daydreaming about how cute emily michelle would look in the baby parade. poor emily michelle. she's all language delayed & all her family ever does is give her cookies & fuss over how cute she is. i foresee some serious self-esteem issues for her in about ten years, when she's chubby & has developed a complex from associating food with love, no one expects much from her academically, & people just want her to be a cute little asian girl.

anyway. before kristy can really follow-through on the emily michelle/baby parade idea, she gets a regular gig sitting for the prezziosos while mrs. prezzioso does some project for jenny's pre-school. the only hitch is that mrs. prezzioso wants her sitter to take a baby class "now that andrea is older & more active." because sitting for a newborn is a cinch. you don't really need infant-specific skills until the kid can hold its own head up, amirite?

kristy is pumped for the class, & all the other sitters decide to sign up too. claudia says they can advertise themselves as "infant specialists" once they have all graduated. kristy acknowledges that this is a "great idea" & "tries not to be jealous." kristy has issues.

there's this really weird side plot in which all the babysitters get crushes on the teacher's husband, don. even kristy, who isn't usually into having crushes. there is never any explanation for the crush, aside from the fact that "don is very handsome." he is never really shown doing anything especially noteworthy or interesting. & the crushes all disappear without much fanfare when the sitters meet his son. kristy realizes that don is just another father who might call them to babysit one day. o...kay? i have seriously expended more energy writing about this plotline in this synopsis than is spent on it in the book, which makes me wonder why it was included at all. it went nowhere & seemed to illustrate no point. maybe it was ann's PSA encouraging new babysitters not to crush on their charges' fathers?

anyway. the sitters learn a lot in their class, but only two class members receive perfect scores. they are kristy & one of the expectant fathers. everyone is really shocked that it was a dude who did so well. i am kind of distressed & disturbed that they are so surprised. even in the world of the BSC, child care is first & foremost a woman's job. i am also weirded out by the idea of a "final exam" & announcing scores. i feel like becoming a parent is enough of a transition without taking a test that may indicate that you don't know what the fuck you're doing.

so kristy is ready for her job with the prezziosos. right off the bat, mrs. prezzioso goes nuts with her plans to enter andrea into the baby parade, & basically drafts kristy into helping. kristy is reluctant because it will eat up time & energy she'd rather spend preparing emily michelle for the parade, but she seems to be convinced that mrs. prezzioso will unceremoniously fire her if she doesn't help. this makes no sense, but it forwards the plot, so...then kristy realizes that maybe all the club can help make one big float with multiple babies on it, & emily michelle can be one of the babies. the other sitters love this idea. they all have babies they want to enter. kristy can enter emily michelle, claudia is hung up on lucy newton, mary anne wants to enter laura perkins, dawn focuses on eleanor marshall, jessi of course wants to enter squirt, & the girls contact some of the new parents they met at their baby class to recruit more babies for their terrible plan. they decide their float theme is "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe". claudia will make a big papier mache shoe, one of the sitters will dress up like the old woman, & all the other sitters will ride the float dressed as older children & help wrangle the babies. charlie will pull the float. because riding on a float behind the exhaust-spewing junk bucket is safe for babies.

the problem is that, mysteriously, apropros of nothing, considering all the group projects these girls have done over the years, none of them really communicates with the others about their personal contributions to the float. kristy envisions the babies peeking out of the shoe (which is an awful idea--the babies will be hard enough to see without being encased inside an enormous shoe), but claudia just makes a big shoe as a centerpiece, for the babies to sit around. stacey mixes up some orange-brown paint for the shoe, which clashes terribly with the bright pink fabric mallory buys for the baby costumes. the costumes also feature an awful ruffle down the front & look like clown outfits. dawn, kristy, jessi, & mary anne notice all these problems right away, but for some reason, they choose not to say anything, not wanting to make the other girls feel bad. much better to wait until the project is too late to save & THEN make them feel bad, right? seriously, this makes no sense. they can see the main float organizers having a breakdown of communication & they just sit there & watch. rather than suggesting that stacey & mallory talk color while stacey is still mixing paint & still has time to change colors, they do nothing. rather than offer some constructive critique of mallory's costume design, dawn just chooses a different outfit for eleanor to wear. rather than offering to help claudia with the shoe, they just watch her make something ugly.

& of course, the float is terrible, no one is happy, & everyone argues. dawn has an awesome line when one of the babies starts crying in her costume. she says, "maybe she's crying because her costume is so ugly." hahaha!

kristy is also depressed because she's finding it much more difficult to take care of a baby when she also has a four-year-old to watch. she seems chronically unable to remember to burp andrea after feeding her, so andrea throws up everywhere on like every single sitting job. mrs. prezzioso has decided to dress andrea as a queen & asks kristy to make her stroller into something that resembles a royal carriage. naturally, kristy dresses andrea up in her costume & andrea pukes on it. nice work. kristy makes the carriage (which seems like way too huge & important of a job to delegate to the 13-year-old babysitter with two children to watch--why not hire kristy to watch the kids while mrs. prezzioso makes the carriage? or enlist mr. prezzioso is this challenge?) & she thinks it looks terrible. mrs. prezzioso is consumed with the idea of andrea winning first place in the stroller division & kristy fatalistically concludes that it won't happen. she also convinces herself that mrs. prezzioso will fire her if andrea doesn't win. what?

parade day! the float looks awful, none of the babysitters are wearing costumes or even vaguely matching clothing, there are gazillions of babies to watch, charlie is so embarrassed to be seen pulling the float that he actually wears a disguise, & none of the sitters are talking to each other. the float is hands down the worst in the parade. & yet, there is a moment at judging when kristy wonders if maybe they scraped third place. they did not. but queen andrea wins first place in the stroller division, despite kristy's dire predictions. this seems uncharacteristic. isn't kristy usually insanely over-confident?

the book ends with kristy dispatching charlie to pull the float to the dump & make sure it gets compacted. he does so & confesses at dinner that it was really satisfying to see it gets destroyed. i think this is definitely one of the weirder BSC books. kind of "twin peaks" vibe, if you stop & think about it.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extra star for the mention of Darryl Strawberry. 🤩😂

[Kristi Clemow · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty cute - a train wreck of a parade. personal summary/spoilers in comments

[Tiffany Spencer]

Kristy and the Baby Parade

Kristy is babysitting for David Micheal and Emily Michelle and they’re all bored. They’ve already played “Clue” “Candy Land” “Shark Attack” and “Monopoly”. Then Kristy comes up with the idea to make collages. Kristy is leafing there the paper for pictures and then comes across an ad for the Stoneybrooke baby parade. It’s an event where the parents dress up their babies in wild costumes and try to win prizes. Kristy up until now has always thought it was silly. Some of the kids are on strollers, some in gocarts, some ride on a float. There will be a Grand Marshall and Judges to choose winners. All the children have to be under three. They all have to have themes. Kristy looks at Emily and the wheels start turning. Then she turns her attention back to David Micheal whose made a baseball collage.

At the BSC meeting, Claud gets a job for Mrs. Perkins. Dues are collected since it’s a Monday. They talk about the notebook and Maryanne’s suggestion for tantrum techniques. Mrs. Prezzioso needs a regular sitter two times a week for a month. She wants the sitter to take an infant care class and she’ll pay for it. Kristy says she’d love to do it and she’s the only one that can. Claudia says she wants to take the class too. The others say they’ll sign up as well. It’ll be something to add to their qualifications. So they all sign up at the community center.

The class seems to be full. There are of course pregnant women and a few men (fathers?) There are also some parents. The class is taught by a lady named Anita. Maryanne introduces Anita to Kristy and Kristy is surprised she’s being so forward. Anita leads them to a lady named Liz Salem who has twins. She comments on their BSC tee-shirts. Her twins names are Ricky and Rose. Maryanne and the others go ga ga over the twins. Anita then starts the class. She starts off by telling them to go around and introduce themselves and tell why they’re there. There’s Anita, her partner Don, a lady named Sue (whose pregnant), her husband John, (among others). Kristy realizes how good this will be for business when she tells the others about the BSC.

Some of the topics they’ll go over are “Child Development”, “Birth to Six Months”, “What Babies Do and Don’t Do.” “Feeding” “Diapering” “Sleep Schedules” “Bathing” and “Playtime”. Maryanne thinks diapering will be the hardest. Anita hands out some pamphlets and starts to talk about how babies have to depend on you for everything but they can’t communicate yet what they need. Ricky starts to cry (perfect timing). Mrs. Salem guesses wrong that he’s hungry. She tries walking him around the room. That doesn’t get it either. (Kristy watches Rose while she does). Some of the others make guess. Maybe he wants a favorite toy one woman says. But he’s too young to have a favorite toy. Dawn asks if he’s colliic-y, but she says no. Kristy suggests maybe he needs his diaper changed and this does the trick. He settles down.

Anita introduces them to her son Ethan. All the BSC gets crushes on Don, but then Kristy starts to see him as just a husband and father. On the day they get there certificates Charlie, Sam, Logan, and Shannon come. The Kishis and Stacey’s mom comes. Becca comes with the Pikes. Kristy is nervous about finding out what she made on the evaluations. They were told they all passed. Still.. The first questions were multiple choice. Maryanne had a hard time with that part because she grew up an only child. The next part covered practical skills. Some of the things they had to know was how to poweder the baby, how to keep ther hand on the baby when changing it, and how to hold the baby three different ways. They were also asked to demonstrate a burping technic. A John Davenport and Kristy make perfect scores.
After everyone gets there certificates, there’s a reception. Five people ask for there cards. Mrs. Salem says she’ll be calling them one day. Ethan asks if Kristy will babysit for him and she says sure. After this the BSC go to Clauds room to have there own private party. Kristy calls Mrs. Prezzioso to let her know the class is over. Then she gets nervous she’ll be sitting for a real baby.

Things are a little different at the Prezzioso’s. Jenny and Mrs. P don’t look like they’ve stepped out of a fashion magazine and Jenny is actualy excited that Kristy’s there. Mrs. P says she’s excited about being a big sister. Jenny wants to play Candy Land outside under her favorite tree. Kristy says they can’t because they have to listen for Andrea. But they don’t even start the game before Andrea starts to wake up. Andrea seems ok at first but then she starts to cry. Kristy tries to walk with her and speak with her in a soft voice. Jenny starts to yell to make her stop. Kristy tells her to stop cause it’s not helping. They go downstairs to give Andrea a bottle. Jenny tries to get it but knocks over a pot of spaghetti. Kristy gets the bottle on the warner. Luckily Andrea stops crying when she’s feed. Kristy’s arms start to get tired. Jenny starts to get restless. Kristy says after she’s done eating they’ll make cookie. While they’re doing it, Andrea starts to cry again. She has gas. Then she starts to cry again, She needs to be changed. Jenny is disappointed they don’t get to make the cookies. Kristy sees it’s just to hard to do a special project like bake and take care of an infant. Then Mrs. P comes back she tells her she wants to enter Andrea and asks Kristy’s help. Kristy starts to protest and says she doesn’t think she’ll have the time but she tells her to let her know.

Claudia has a sitting job for Jamie. She’s dressed like a watermelon (red shirt, black buttons, green tie dye pants, watermelon earrings). She takes Jamie to the library to see the new puppet room. After that there’s a meeting. Kristy talks about what kind of costume she can dress up Emily as Maryanne points out she’s supposed to be thinking of Andrea’s costume. Kristy says she can’t decide. She doesn’t know if her mom will let her enter Emily but if she doesn’t enter Andrea she might be let go. Claudia says Lucy Newton should be in it. Jessi thinks Squirt is. Then Maryanne says Laura and Gabbie should be. Then Dawn says Elenor Marshall should be. Kristy says what if they enter them all on a float. Then she can enter Andrea in the stroller division. So, they call all the parents. Kristy comes up with an idea for the float. It’s “Take Me Out To The Balll Game” (GROANING! NO KRISTY). She wants to design the float as a baseball diamond. Dawn must have just heard me because she says no.

Dan thinks they should do “Surfing USA”. She wants to dress them in cool outfits and put them on surf boards and decorate the float to look like a beach. Maryanne wants to do nusury rhymes. She wants to do “Three Little Kittens” She can knit them mittens and have Tigger be on the float. Stacey says she just wants her kitten on the float and she starts to cry (rolls eyes). Stacey says it should be something more sophisticated like “New York New York”. They could dress up the babies in tuxes and evening gowns and have the NY skyline in the background. They ask Mal and she says she wants to do her favorite book Misty (O Chinateaque?) about the horses. She wants to dress the babies like wild poinies UH YEEEAH Claudia says her idea was babies from outer space. But she says she likes Maryanne’s idea about nursery rhymes. So far they have (Squirt, Lucy, Eleanor, and Emily, and Laura). Then they come up with “The Old Woman Who Lives In A Shoe”. They make a call and come up with four more babies. Two are Ricky and Rosie.

One of them will be the old woman. The others will be her older children. They’ll ask Charlie to pull it behind “The Junk Bucket”. Jenny tells Kristy when she sits for her that she wishes she could be in the parade and that she wasn’t such a big girl. Mrs. P says she’s going to dress Andrea as Queen Andrea. She has a crown for her and a big wig. Because she’s already thought of her costume Kristy hopes she won’t need her. Mrs. P says she wants her to make her stoller look like a coach. She wants her to win first prize. Kristy worries that if she doesn’t do a good enough job she’ll be fired. She feeds Andrea and watches Jenny jump around doing badly done gymnastics. Jenny says she can do them in the parade, but Kristy reminds her she’s not young enough. Jenny shows Kristy Andreas’s costume. She looks funny in it. The robe and the collar of the dress swallows her. Andrea spits up all over the ruff. Kristy goes to see what Mrs. P left her to work with on the carriage and Jenny starts to sing badly “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. She says maybe she can sing in the parade. Kristy has to remind her again she’s too old. Kristy sees some gold fabric and decides to make a canopy. Jenny starts to dance and twirl and AGAIN Kristy reminds her it's just for babies. She tells her to help her make the coach and Jenny decides that if she does and her sister wins she wins.

Jessi sits for Squirt. He’s occupied with Seasame Street. She’s teaching Becca the five positions of ballet. After this she suggests they go over to Claudia’s to help with the float. Claudia, Stacey, and Mal are already working on the float. Claudia is making the shoe, Stacey is mixing paints, and Mal is sketching the costumes. Only Mal’s pink costumes clash with Stacey’s red orange paint. Dawn and Maryanne come by and the babies are introduced to each other. Lucy takes Squirt’s favorite toy fish and puts it in her mouth and he howls. Then Laura starts to cry. Squirt gets his toy back, but Lucy continues to cry. It continues on with all the babies crying on and off. Claudia tells them to be quiet. It’s distracting them. Then get them settled but they start to wonder if it’s such a thing as too many babies.

Dawn sits for Nina and Eleanor. They start off by playing hide and seek. They aren’t very good at hiding. Then they go over to Claudia’s. Only the float is a MESS. Claudia and Stacey are arguing. Claudia says she tried to use everyone’s idea but now she’s going to do it her way. Then they decide to have a dress rehersal. Mal brings over the costumes. The color is WAY to bright and they look like clown suits with ruffles down the front. They look alright but they clash with the float. She and Stacey start to argue. Mal didn’t make costumes for the rest of them. So, they’ll have to design their own. Then the babies start to cry. Maryanne says their crying because their costumes look stupid. Then Mal starts to cry and they all start to fight. Dawn leaves and then puts together a costume for Eleanor (a blue party dress and MaryJane shoes and ties her head in pigtails). Dawn says now she looks right not like a clown. Eleanor says “Clown” as in she liked the other one. Mrs. Marshall tho says she likes it and to make sure she wears it.

On the day of the parade, Kristy goes over to help Mrs. P. Andrea’s costume is all over the place. Mrs. P looks ridicous and has a guard’s outfit. Her makeup looks like Jenny helped with it (she did). The carriage looks tacky. Jenny helped with that too. She stuck stickers all over it. Kristy gets ready and puts on her costume. She’s going to be the Old Women. Emily’s dressed up as a clown. (She doesn’t like the costume). The float is a mess. Charlie doesn’t even want to pull it behind his car it’s so ugly. There are red things hanging from it that are supposed to be shoe laces. Charlie has to put on a shades and a hat so no one will recognize him. All the Babysitters dress differently. Dan looks like a beach comber. Maryanne looks like Raggedy Anne. Jessi has on her ballet outfit. Stacey has a NY sweatsuit and Mal is dressed as normal. All the babies look alike except Eleanor.

The Grand Marshall is a man named “Slim Peabody”. At this point none of the BSC are speaking to each other. But the parade starts. Everyone looks at the float in confusion. The signs are even misspelled. But at least the babies aren’t crying. The other floats are better. There’s a living merry go round, a tropical forest, there’s a stroller with the theme “Little Miss Muppet”. There’s a bag pipe band that plays. Things start to go really bad. Charlie gets teased by some guys and girls. The babies start to get fussy and cry. Emaily gets a stomach ache. After the parade, Charlie takes off. None of the baby sitters are speaking so Kristy watches the other flots with Emily. There’s one with the theme Star Wars There’s another one from the Wizard of Oz that’s green. There’s a stroller decorated like “Good Night Moon”. (wagon). Slim “entertains” the crowd with cowboy songs and then the prizes are given. The Merry Go Round wins the first pirze. The first place for the stroller contest goes to Andrea. Later, Kristy realizes it all went wrong because they didn’t work together. Kristy makes up with Maryanne first. She and Dawn have made up. She says the others probably are too. Kirsty then apologizes to Charlie and he says no big deal. Just don’t ask him to do it again. With the money in the treasury on the next meeting they decide to have a pizza party. They also get two new clients from the class Rose and Ricky’s mother and another lady named Mrs. Gold.

My Thoughts
It was a GOOD idea for the BSC to take this training class. It was a BAD idea to participate in this parade. I was a little surprised by a couple of things. One was if this float was *this* badly prepared and they JUST took a training class for babies was it even safe to put the babies on it in the first place? The thing honestly souded rushed and I just don’t think they used the best judgement. It didn’t fall apart while they were on it. Still.. And then I felt like this gave a good lesson why you shouldn’t just rush into things because if you do you’ll do a half-(you know what) job (like they did). How long did they have to prepare for this because it seemed like a couple of weeks tops. Even Andrea’s “coach” sounded tacky. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade popped up in my mind and how long it must take to get something like that ready for Thanksgiving Day. It takes TIME to design a float. I think I was also surprised that as much as these books tell us Claudia can create ANYTHING over and over and over she couldn’t have designed a paper marche shoe. I thought this was one of the things we were told she was good at. So, I felt kind of let down when we were told you couldn’t even tell this *was* a shoe. She said “they didn’t let her do it her way”. Still. I was thinking about what could have saved this float tho. I liked Maryanne’s idea of nursery rhymes and I don’t think The Old Lady in the Shoe” was a bad choice but if they wanted to do separate things and still fit this theme, I think Claudia should have made a paper marche nursery book. (Again this would have taken TIME) and maybe Kristy could have been “Mother Goose” and the rest of the babies could have been different characters from the book. For example one of the baby sitters could have dressed up like Bo Peep and put the baby in a little wool suit. Another could have been Goldilocks and the baby could have been the little bear. I’m not sure how much they’d like being put in wool outfits but just a idea. Then having a float in a LONG parade too me just *sounds* like a NIGHTMARE!

Rating: 5

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kristy narrating + lots of babies + a poorly executed K*Idea = one awfully boring book. One of the only good things about this book is that the cover artist didn't make them look as awful as they should have. Also, there is a truly stupendous Claudia outfit later on. And by "stupendous" I mean "horrendous". :)

Okay, so the book starts out with Kristy baby-sitting David Michael & Emily Michelle and she sees an ad in the paper for the town baby parade. I know, weird right? There's so many things wrong with a baby parade, I can't even talk about it. Kristy immediately thinks of Emily Michelle because she's the Cutest Adopted Baby Ever. (Maybe I should call her CABE from now on, it's shorter!) Before she can start planning for it though, she has to reminisce about all her friends and family and how she had the most brilliant idea in the world to start a Baby-Sitters Club. Gag.

Okay, so the girls all get together to discuss their float and of course, they all have very specific ideas of what the theme should be. Do they really have to all go with their personalities ALL the time? Can't Stacey want a sea creature themed float instead of sophisticated New York City? And really Mallory? We're going to dress up a bunch of babies as horses for your stupid childish Misty of Chena-whatever books?? No.
Read my full review here plus see Claudia's watermelon outfit!!

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bit of an odd one. Kristy finally has a Big Idea that turns out horribly although it's never fully explained why, though it was bound to happen.

It's a given that when a BSC member suggests that the club enter a bunch of their charges in the baby parade, everyone else will agree it's a good idea.

If you're thinking there aren't that many kids under three in BSC-land at this point, you'd be right. Luckily the girls sign up for a class on newborn care at the request of a client and find a whole new batch of clients. This part is actually interesting and shows that Kristy is fully capable of thinking, and expecting, another club member to have done better at something childcare related.

Anyway, for some reason each club member has her own vision for the float and none of them ever seem to talk to one another about it except if they're not actually working on the float. It doesn't take long before you realize there's a reason the cover for this book is incredibly ugly. It's actually one of the most true-to-the-book covers ever.

You pick now to faithfully recreate a scene? Ugh.

Other than teaching kids that it's important to communicate when working on a project, I don't see why the BSC doesn't ever talk about their plans. Usually they overtalk things to death, but for a float they just fall apart? Weird.

[Swankivy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually barely remember this one, but must've read it at least once because I remember bits and pieces. I think it was just a really weird and disjointed book. What I remember more than the "baby parade" from the title is that the babysitters decided to take a class on taking care of babies, which results in them both being more qualified to take care of babies AND finding more babies in the area to take care of. And the reason they're focusing on this is that kids that are under age three are allowed to be in a "baby parade" and Kristy wants to enter her adopted sister, but also kinda gets drafted to work with a client's baby (and even though she does great in the infant class, she seems to do pretty poorly with actually taking care of this baby). What was especially weird/stupid about this one is that Kristy and her friends are all collaborating on creating a float for the baby parade but they don't actually seem to be on the same page at all. That was unlike them and therefore it seemed contrived, which was disappointing. This book was about where I stopped reading every book and ended up just reading a few more in the series by chance.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the first half of the story, the entire baby-sitters' club go to a course on taking care of infants. Their classmates are expectant parents, and parents who already have babies. It seems like all these different groups would need different classes.

The club participating in the parade turns out to be a bad idea, since they can't agree on ideas and don't bother to communicate. I was impressed, both because the girls DO make the best of it to stick to their commitment, and they DON'T end up having fun. That's life sometimes. There wasn't even a cop-out token prize for "most imaginative" or "most babies" that you'd usually wrap-up a kids' book with...

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had to be the most sad-sack BSC book (and cover) of them all. The baby-sitters want to have a float in the parade, but everything goes wrong with their Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe theme. The boot is orange, the kids have weird costumes... there was no moral to this other than: the Baby-Sitters Club is pathetic. But we already knew that.

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably my least favourite BSC so far. I just couldn't make myself care for it at all. And Jessi didn't know what colic was? Jessi, whom we're later told helped care for Squirt when he was a baby and had colic? Get your facts straight, ghost-writer (although to be fair it was the writer of "The Babysitters Remember" who got it wrong, as that one was written after this one).

[Alison Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really felt like it should have been the B plot in another book.

The idea of a "baby parade" to a childfree hag like me sounds kind of awful, even if I admit it could also be cute. (So long as I wasn't having to take part in it in any way.) And I thought the idea the girls finally landed on was a good one. "The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe" makes sense for a parade full of babies, and could have worked great if the BSC members hadn't been uncharacteristically bitchy with each other and self-sabotaged the whole thing. It's so weird to me how the girls are almost always these sweet friendly wonderful kids, but when the story requires it, they change personalities on a dime and turn into a bunch of jerks. But the whole parade thing just felt kind of thin for a main plot. The ghostwriter tried to flesh it out with the baby-care class the girls all took in the beginning, even if I'm not sure how they could go on for four weeks. Also, I cracked up when a baby started crying during the class, and the mom and the other ladies are perplexed as to what could possibly be wrong after trying a bottle, and Kristy has to be the one to suggest maybe the baby needed a diaper change. Like...what. I don't have kids and have spent very little time with babies, but even I know that a dirty diaper is one of the main reasons a baby cries.

And yeah, the whole disaster of a float situation was so painfully contrived, especially considering how many big projects the girls have done together. And the snippiness was so weird and forced, too. Also, the whole "Claudia can't spell" thing gets more and more ludicrous as this series goes on. You're telling me a 13-year-old girl can't spell "woman" or "shoe" correctly, and in fact spells both words wrong twice in two different ways on the float? That's not just "bad speller", that's a serious learning disability and her parents ought to have her evaluated.

The other floats in the parade sounded cute, and I'll admit I could almost be tempted to want to enter a baby in the stroller division and do like a Grim Reaper theme or something. Maybe The Raven. Or vampires. They'd probably kick me out, but it would be worth it.

(Oh yeah, I forgot -- the original version of the nursery rhyme includes child abuse. Fun choice!! -_-)

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is by far the weirdest BSC book ever. As a kid I thought it was boring, but re-reading it now all I could think of was how completely odd this book is.

Let's start with the fact that Mrs. Prezzioso asks Kristy to attend a month-long class on taking care of babies before she can sit for Andrea, and all the other baby-sitters decide to attend as well. Are we supposed to believe that none of them have known how to take care of babies before this? It's not like it's an infant first aid class or something like that, it's literally learning how to put on diapers and burp babies after they eat. This is book #45 of the series - have the girls seriously not been putting on diapers correctly or burping the babies they sit for?! The whole thing is just so, so weird. Oh, and at one point a baby is crying and absolutely no one can figure out why, even the instructor, until Kristy suggests a diaper change and saves the day. I guess it's to make Kristy look like she knows what she's doing but it really just makes every other person in the room look incompetent. (And having Jessi of all people ask what colic is, when her most vivid memory is curing Squirt of his colic?! Major continuity fail!)

After the class ends they finally start planning the titular baby parade, which is yet another odd event. For no reason that I can figure out, the girls decide to all work against each other and come up with their own ideas for the parade. It's just so out of character for them to not plan everything together and work harmoniously, and while it's maybe more realistic that way it's just not the BSC.

That being said, this is the first (and perhaps only?) time the BSC crashes and burns at anything. I remember being shocked when I first read this that the parade actually ended up being a colossal fail, because I was so sure they would all come together at the end and save the day or whatever. I'm still surprised that didn't happen, and I do have to admit that it was kind of fun to read about it all falling apart.

[Stella Battenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, Kristy. Or maybe I should say oh, Ellen.

Mrs. Prezziosso requests a regular sitter but stipulates that the sitter take an infant care course. Kristy takes the job but the entire club takes the course. Um? What? They've been taking care of infants for 44 books, but Ellen Miles depicts them as not knowing basic things like heating up a bottle, changing a diaper, or what colic is. Then, after the course, the girls decide to create a float for the previously never mentioned (since it only happens every two years apparently, which is very weird) baby parade. Mrs. P also asks Kristy to help her with Andrea's individual entry.

Kristy is uncharacteristically fretful about this. She defers to Mrs. P's ideas while internally calling them ridiculous. What happened to Kristy's big mouth? I can easily imagine her accidentally saying this idea is ridiculous. The idea of Kristy and the Prezziossos on its own is pretty unlikely.

But the true worst part is the float. The club members don't communicate so they end up with a crappy float. Then we get a boring rehashed club fight. Because they didn't like the float Claudia made entirely on her own - I can't even imagine how I'd go about building a float now and Claudia is 13 and can't Google "how to build a float." Nobody consults on color and no one follows the theme.

An almost interminable BSC project with no non-baby-sitting plot. Honestly, Charlie is the best part, both being embarrassed to be seen with the BSC's float (but why are a bunch of high school seniors at the baby parade to being with?) and relishes taking it to the dump and getting it crushed. That's more or less how I felt after reading this.

[lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kristy and the other baby sitters bite off more than they can chew, and lose themselves in the process of making a float for a "baby parade." This book bored me to tears when I was a kid, and since I don't remember anything about it, I wonder if I actually read the whole thing -- I have a feeling I skipped over a lot of parts.

Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
The only thing I remember about this book is that the baby sitters fight about what theme their float should be. Stacey wants to do a New York City theme of course, and Mary Anne wants to do a kitten themed float so that Tigger can included. I think the only reason why I remember this is because I didn't know of a kitten in the world who would tolerate being on a parade float.

Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
I hadn't thought about it, but the BSC is weirdly obsessed with showing off their baby sitting charges. They are constantly doing things that enable them to put their charges in the spotlight -- plays, talent shows, pet shows, etc. This book was very, very similar to Little Miss Stoneybrook. . . and Dawn in that the BSC strong-arms parents and kids into participating in their project, and then goes off the rails with each other. There is competition, lack of teamwork, arguing, and miscommunication. In the end everyone's a loser and the BSC learns a valuable lesson about not losing yourself over some silly contest, at least until the next pageant/parade comes to town.

Kristy refers to Mrs. Prezzioso as one of their difficult clients. I didn't think they thought Mrs. Prezzioso was difficult, just her daughter. And she's never seemed that difficult to me, just fussy about things. It was funny to realize that Mrs. Prezzioso is totally a pageant mom, one who would be a regular on Toddlers and Tiaras had such a thing existed. I hadn't noticed it as a kid, but it really stands out as an adult, especially since I have a memory that later in the series she has both Jenny and Andrea work as child models. The way Mrs Prezzioso insists on having Jenny dress up, and act like a little adult all the time, and the way she caves into anything Jenny wants seems exactly the way a pageant parent would act. Kristy is sure that Andrea's carriage and costume for the parade are completely over the top, and borderline tasteless, but that's what wins these kinds of competitions, and Mrs Prezzioso knows it.

I have absolutely no memory of the infant care class the whole club takes. (How? Are they all free to take it at the same time? Isn't that making them turn down jobs?) I do remember that Mary Anne takes care of the twins Ricky and Rosie later in the series, so I guess this is where they make their first appearance. All in all this class was a waste of a read. I wanted to scratch my eyes out. Jessi asks what "colicky" means even though I remember very, very clearly that her "most vivid memory" in the Super Special The Baby Sitters Remember was that she wasn't too happy about having Squirt as a baby brother until he developed colic. She's the only one who can comfort him, so she spends a lot of time with him, and she realizes how much he means to her. The other baby sitters act like they've never heard of colic either even though they're baby sitters, several with young siblings whose babyhood they would have remembered. No one can figure out what's making baby Ricky cry for so long until Kristy says, "Do you think he needs a clean diaper?" Duh. A whole group of people can't figure that out until Kristy steps in to save the day? Ridiculous. Also ridiculous (and incredibly awkward) is Kristy's "crush" one of her class instructors, Don. The female instructor introduces him as her "partner" and Kristy notices how handsome he is, and notes that "he was kind of old -- not as old as Watson, but maybe the same age as my English teacher. . ." Oh my god, that is so weird and sad. I hate it when girls have daddy issues, especially when they're only thirteen. Later on, Kristy realizes that Don is married to her female instructor, Anita, and says, "I had gotten used to the idea. . . after four weeks I still had kind of a crush on Don; so did Stacey and Dawn." I like how the BSC members who have a crush on poor Don are the members who have divorced fathers who live far away from them. However Kristy's crush instantly vanishes when she realizes Don is a father just like her other baby sitting clients. Ew, that's right he's a dad. . . and I'm only thirteen. Gross. I think it would be funny if, years from now, when it's more age appropriate, Don hooks up with Dawn. It would make for hilarious address labels.

Logan shows up for the party they have at the end of the infant care class! Kristy mentions that she likes seeing Logan and Mary Anne together again, but that "It must be hard to learn how to be friends with someone you used to go out with." In the next book Logan and Mary Anne are clearly not on friendly terms, so I guess they couldn't learn how to do it. Amateurs.

Claudia's idea for a theme for their baby float is "babies from outer space", because she's inspired by the tabloids that have insane headlines like "Woman gives birth to baby on Mars." I laughed out loud when I read this. I didn't think it was possible to like Claudia even more, but this whole "babies from outer space" idea proved me wrong.

The last two pages are so stupid and corny I couldn't believe it. We are truly at the point in the series now when the ghostwriters completely take over. The ghostwriter for this book was Ellen Miles, who I always thought of as middle-of-the-road writing; not bad but the best she could hope for was to be in a stable of ghostwriters for popular series. The wrap-up of this book proves my point. All the baby sitters get together and come to realization that "A big project. . . just can't work without cooperation." They all shout some middle management team building slogans (Give and take! Communication! Working together!) and then Kristy says, "We learned an important lesson." I wanted to gag at these horrible, contrived trite sentiments. And then Kristy says something like, hey we learned a valuable lesson, AND we got new clients out of it! And once again, all is right in Stoneybrook.

[Ellis Billington · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, but kind of nonsensical in terms of how it fits into the wider BSC canon. The plotline with the girls taking an infant-care class could’ve made sense if it had been presented as them choosing to build on their already existing infant care skills, but instead the author chose to act like the girls had limited experience taking care of babies/newborns… which just straight-up isn’t true.

The fight the girls get into at the end felt off too, coming out of nowhere and having the girls talk to each other in a way that just didn’t sound like them at all, even when they’ve fought in the past before. Honestly, the dialogue in that whole section felt awkward and stilted.

So, yeah. Fun enough, but I’m not convinced this particular ghostwriter (I think Ellen Miles?) had ever read another BSC book before writing one.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of my least-favourite BSC books, though I thought the baby course took place during Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies . I'm just not a fan of all the babies, and all the parade drama. Though it's nice to see things not always work out so perfectly for the BSC, the secondhand embarrassment I felt during the parade was enough for me to never want to read this book again.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

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.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 2 out of 5]

(LL)
This book does a great job tackling: proper infant care. They took an infant care course to ensure their client they could handle a newborn baby. That was a great thing for baby-sitters/kids to read about in case they wanted to watch an infant.
The rest of the book was rather boring, since it was literally all about babies and parades, which I don’t like parades so this book wasn’t my cup of tea.

[Danni Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't great! It felt like the ghostwriter didn't really GET Kristy (or the other characters, but it was most obvious with Kristy as she was the narrator). A particularly stand-out issue was her having a crush on an adult man?? Why? Why was that necessary?? No thanks. In general the implausibility of the story felt like it really stretched past the limit from "charming" to "completely off the rails". The Netflix show version of this story was SO much better.

[Jane Fujiwara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was all over the place even for a BSC book. The “fight” kind of came out of nowhere and ended just as quickly. I think it would have been better to have the conflict be more about managing that many children/babies on a good float.

Interesting points…

P62 Claudia is dressed as a watermelon on a random afternoon.

The origin story of Jimmytony! I remembered him from the 90s movie but not the books.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a funny, interesting book until chapter 11 when Dawn started being a jerk. The only funny part was during the parade, but at least there was a Claudia outfit on pg. 62: oversized red blouse with black buttons, green leggings with white streaks, black buckle high-tops, and watermelon slice earrings. Maybe the other BSC books will be better and will end my bad streak with them last month.

[Cassandra Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.

[Kristen Staubitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't remember reading this one when I was younger and I guess that's because it bored the hell out of me. This whole book felt like they had no idea what to write about for a Kristy book and just pulled the first thought remotely possible out of their ass and went with it.

[Devon · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the boring side, especially considering the content. You'd think a story about making parade floats and dressing babies up in silly costumes would be fun, but the theme is that the babysitters have trouble working together...which makes this book a drag, honestly.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of weird stuff going on in here, and the pacing isn't very good. But it does a really good job addressing embarrassment and failure, how to learn from things that don't go your way. I liked it better than I thought.

[Elise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this from a book fair but I wasn’t too crazy about it. The baby sitters fight in it when preparing their float and the babies costumes backfired. I’m curious about how Claudia created the float cause the description doesn’t fit the version on the cover

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course Stoneybrook has a baby parade! That's totally normal!

I'll be sobbing in the corner if you guys need me.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too saccharine for me. This was one I missed reading as a child, and I think I'm too old to enjoy this one the first time through now.