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The Baby-Sitters Club #96
Abby's Lucky Thirteen
Abby and her twin sister, Anna, recently turned thirteen. They are preparing for their Bat Mitzvah, which is a big deal for the twins and their mother. And now, just when Abby should be acting like an adult, she is caught cheating on a math test and is suspended from school. Even though Abby didn't cheat, she refuses to tell what really happened. She even keeps the suspension a secret from her mother.
Abby is heading for big trouble on the biggest day of her life. Will she be able to get it together without disappointing everyone - including herself?
126 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
40 people are currently reading
674 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,125 books3,090 followersAnn 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 22, 2022
UHM... creo que Abby tampoco me cae bien. Dejamos a Dawn para otra niñera insufrible nopuedeser.
Definitivamente, con el paso de los libros, puedo asegurar que mis favs son: Claudia, Stacey, Mallory y Kristy. Y he notado que las tramas de los libros de Stacey son las que más me entretienen.
Definitivamente, con el paso de los libros, puedo asegurar que mis favs son: Claudia, Stacey, Mallory y Kristy. Y he notado que las tramas de los libros de Stacey son las que más me entretienen.
January 22, 2018
all right, guys. this one is about jews being jews, so you KNOW I’m gonna have a lot to say. ghostwriter Nola Thacker is, we can only assume, a gentile, so she has given a special thanks to a few people for sharing their bar and bat mitzvah stories (and unsurprisingly David Levithan is one of them -- he had been an editor along with ann and all these other folks). abby and anna have their bat mitzvahs, but not before abby goes through some personal growth, then recedes a little bit, then grows some more. abby has been doing terribly in math, so when a kid offers her a study guide for the upcoming exam, she is stoked. when she takes the exam, though, she realizes that the study guide was actually just a copy of the exam with the answers filled in. she and a few other kids in the class get caught, and the teacher suspends them. she lies to her mother about being suspended; each day she leaves her house as though she’s going to school but goes somewhere to pass the time until it would be appropriate to go home. but she gets caught by her mother and has to confront the situation. when she’s back at school she sees the same kid who gave her the “study exam” try to give one to mary anne, so they tell the teacher, who finally believes that abby hadn’t intentionally cheated. abby’s bat mitzvah speech is basically about that. in a really mundane subplot, a bunch of the bsc kids aren’t allowed to watch tv. they are miserable at first, but then they decide to make their own mini-plays based on a tv show they liked. now, see a whole bunch of my lowlights/nitpicks for all sorts of jew story inconsistencies and inaccuracies.
highlights:
-soapbox feminist abby, re kristy being called bossy: "I think that the people who call her bossy are mostly just not comfortable with a girl being so sure of herself."
-jenny prezzioso "was, claudia suspected, a future patron of the home shopping channels." this is the funniest line in any bsc book ever.
-jenny goes into her parents' bedroom to watch home shopping network and claudia legit uses tools to remove the door. it is SO GOOD. best chapter in any bsc book I’ve read in a while. I was howling with laughter.
-"uncle saul is a lawyer, the kind of laywer who never answers any questions yes or no, and he frowns a lot and all his suits look exactly the same."
-they say april 27th was the 8th of iyar. that's actually when it fell in 1996, so they must have done their homework. the parsha is achrei mot-kedoshim. this is the parsha with the golden rule, love others as you love yourself.
-not bad or good, really, but this book is only 14 chapters long. some of the early books had inconsistent numbers of chapters, but for the last 100 or so it's been pretty consistently 15 chapters exactly.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-anna's dress on the cover is legit not a dress that anyone would wear in 1996. it is almost like the pretty in pink dress.
-this book is basically the same as Claudia and the Middle School Mystery but with a whole bunch of incorrect assertions about judaism
-they say a lot of things about bat mitzvahs as though they’re universal facts when they are actually very specific to those specific family traditions. for instance, they say that a bat mitzvah happens when you turn 13, but that’s for reform jews...orthodox and conservative jews celebrate the bat mitzvah at 12.
-they say a bat mitzvah happens "usually shortly after she turns thirteen." no, it usually happens when the parsha (torah portion) she was born during is traditionally read (based on the lunar calendar), when she turns 12 (or 13 for reform kids) according to the JEWISH calendar. not shortly after a secular calendar birthday. it might fall shortly after it, but if so it’s coincidental.
-they say you have to take lessons to become a bat mitzvah. once again, nope. that's only for people who read the torah for their bat mitzvah, but many don't. I was an orthodox kid, and orthodox girls are not allowed to read the torah, so I didn’t take any lessons.
-they say shabbat is friday at sundown to saturday at sundown: nope. friday at sundown to saturday at one hour after sundown (theoretically when you see two stars in the sky)
-it seems that abby is learning to read hebrew for the first time. I don't buy this. if she is religious enough to read torah at her bat mitzvah, then she’s been going to hebrew school for most of her life.
-abby says that when she becomes a bat mitzvah, she will be part of the jewish community all over the world. once again, if she's religious enough to read torah for her bat mitzvah, then she's already been part of the jewish community all over the world. also, who actually is excited by that? maybe I see being excited that you are, according to judaism, an adult. but being excited about connectedness at 13? I don't buy it.
-why are abby and anna, the STEVENSONS, whose father presumably is also a stevenson, the product of grandparents named ruth and david on their dad's side (jewish names)? stevenson is not a jewish name.
-abby works what happened with the cheating scandal into her speech. it would've been more real if they're included references to the parsha (torah portion), because you typically give a speech that connects your real world experiences with what you’ve learned from the parsha.
-they say abigail means “father's light -- his joy.” it actually just means father's joy. light would be abior, or abikeren (or meaning light, keren meaning ray of light)
-the biggest problem is they should have turned 13 months and months ago. it's april of 8th grade, why are they just now 13? also it's not corresponding with a birthday story, so when even was their birthday? the jewish calendar is different from the secular one, but not so far off that their birthday could've happened months and months ago. (I actually looked up their birthday, which I think we find out in Abby's Book, and it’s october 15th, which means they were most likely born on october 15th of 1982 considering that their bat mitzvah happened in april of 1996. this would make their parsha bereishit, aka genesis, aka the first torah portion in the entirety of the torah. their birthday fell on the 28th of tishrei which fell on october 22nd in 1995, a sunday, so their bat mitzvah ceremony at the shul should’ve happened on october 21st of 1995. my entire life as a lapsed orthodox jew has been in preparation for this review, so thank you for joining me in it).
outfits
claudia outfits:
-"Claudia was in leopard-print tights, black ankle boots with fuzzy yellow slouch socks, black bicycle shorts, a yellow leotard, and this teeny, tiny fuzzy sweater with cap sleeves that was black with big yellow buttons. Her earrings were leopards: On one side a leopard looked as if it was coming through her earlobe toward you. On the other side, you could only see the back of the leopard, disappearing into her earlobe, as if her earlobes were these weird leopard cat doors. She'd crinkle-braided strands of her black hair, and tied the crinkled parts at the top with knots of yellow ribbon."
-"Claudia had gone all out in a long skirt, lace socks peeking out above her black Doc Martens, and a tunic top with a belt she'd made herself out of twists of lace and a silver buckle. She wore her hair in a single braid tied with a piece of lace, and her earrings were silver snowflakes."
jessi outfit:
"She was wearing a loose rose-colored turtleneck, a jean skirt, tights, and pale pink warmup leggings with her flat shoes."
mary anne outfit:
-"Mary Anne had on a pale yellow wool skirt, dark tights, a plaid vest, and a turtleneck sweater."
jackie disaster:
-goes into bo's doghouse at the same time as bo attempting to get a ball. the doghouse rocks and then tips over
their truly jewish feast, all of which abby says is delicious:
-chopped liver (really, a 13-year-old thinks this is delicious?)
-pickled herring (REALLY, a 13-year-old thinks THIS is DELICIOUS?)
-lox and bagels
-whitefish salad and lox salad
-rugelach and babka
-chicken and tomatoes and cucumbers and pickles (the least jewish things in this list)
their jewish relative names:
-morris
-judith
-sarah
-saul
-esther
-micah
-eli
snacks in claudia’s room:
-twinkies (n.s.)
highlights:
-soapbox feminist abby, re kristy being called bossy: "I think that the people who call her bossy are mostly just not comfortable with a girl being so sure of herself."
-jenny prezzioso "was, claudia suspected, a future patron of the home shopping channels." this is the funniest line in any bsc book ever.
-jenny goes into her parents' bedroom to watch home shopping network and claudia legit uses tools to remove the door. it is SO GOOD. best chapter in any bsc book I’ve read in a while. I was howling with laughter.
-"uncle saul is a lawyer, the kind of laywer who never answers any questions yes or no, and he frowns a lot and all his suits look exactly the same."
-they say april 27th was the 8th of iyar. that's actually when it fell in 1996, so they must have done their homework. the parsha is achrei mot-kedoshim. this is the parsha with the golden rule, love others as you love yourself.
-not bad or good, really, but this book is only 14 chapters long. some of the early books had inconsistent numbers of chapters, but for the last 100 or so it's been pretty consistently 15 chapters exactly.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-anna's dress on the cover is legit not a dress that anyone would wear in 1996. it is almost like the pretty in pink dress.
-this book is basically the same as Claudia and the Middle School Mystery but with a whole bunch of incorrect assertions about judaism
-they say a lot of things about bat mitzvahs as though they’re universal facts when they are actually very specific to those specific family traditions. for instance, they say that a bat mitzvah happens when you turn 13, but that’s for reform jews...orthodox and conservative jews celebrate the bat mitzvah at 12.
-they say a bat mitzvah happens "usually shortly after she turns thirteen." no, it usually happens when the parsha (torah portion) she was born during is traditionally read (based on the lunar calendar), when she turns 12 (or 13 for reform kids) according to the JEWISH calendar. not shortly after a secular calendar birthday. it might fall shortly after it, but if so it’s coincidental.
-they say you have to take lessons to become a bat mitzvah. once again, nope. that's only for people who read the torah for their bat mitzvah, but many don't. I was an orthodox kid, and orthodox girls are not allowed to read the torah, so I didn’t take any lessons.
-they say shabbat is friday at sundown to saturday at sundown: nope. friday at sundown to saturday at one hour after sundown (theoretically when you see two stars in the sky)
-it seems that abby is learning to read hebrew for the first time. I don't buy this. if she is religious enough to read torah at her bat mitzvah, then she’s been going to hebrew school for most of her life.
-abby says that when she becomes a bat mitzvah, she will be part of the jewish community all over the world. once again, if she's religious enough to read torah for her bat mitzvah, then she's already been part of the jewish community all over the world. also, who actually is excited by that? maybe I see being excited that you are, according to judaism, an adult. but being excited about connectedness at 13? I don't buy it.
-why are abby and anna, the STEVENSONS, whose father presumably is also a stevenson, the product of grandparents named ruth and david on their dad's side (jewish names)? stevenson is not a jewish name.
-abby works what happened with the cheating scandal into her speech. it would've been more real if they're included references to the parsha (torah portion), because you typically give a speech that connects your real world experiences with what you’ve learned from the parsha.
-they say abigail means “father's light -- his joy.” it actually just means father's joy. light would be abior, or abikeren (or meaning light, keren meaning ray of light)
-the biggest problem is they should have turned 13 months and months ago. it's april of 8th grade, why are they just now 13? also it's not corresponding with a birthday story, so when even was their birthday? the jewish calendar is different from the secular one, but not so far off that their birthday could've happened months and months ago. (I actually looked up their birthday, which I think we find out in Abby's Book, and it’s october 15th, which means they were most likely born on october 15th of 1982 considering that their bat mitzvah happened in april of 1996. this would make their parsha bereishit, aka genesis, aka the first torah portion in the entirety of the torah. their birthday fell on the 28th of tishrei which fell on october 22nd in 1995, a sunday, so their bat mitzvah ceremony at the shul should’ve happened on october 21st of 1995. my entire life as a lapsed orthodox jew has been in preparation for this review, so thank you for joining me in it).
outfits
claudia outfits:
-"Claudia was in leopard-print tights, black ankle boots with fuzzy yellow slouch socks, black bicycle shorts, a yellow leotard, and this teeny, tiny fuzzy sweater with cap sleeves that was black with big yellow buttons. Her earrings were leopards: On one side a leopard looked as if it was coming through her earlobe toward you. On the other side, you could only see the back of the leopard, disappearing into her earlobe, as if her earlobes were these weird leopard cat doors. She'd crinkle-braided strands of her black hair, and tied the crinkled parts at the top with knots of yellow ribbon."
-"Claudia had gone all out in a long skirt, lace socks peeking out above her black Doc Martens, and a tunic top with a belt she'd made herself out of twists of lace and a silver buckle. She wore her hair in a single braid tied with a piece of lace, and her earrings were silver snowflakes."
jessi outfit:
"She was wearing a loose rose-colored turtleneck, a jean skirt, tights, and pale pink warmup leggings with her flat shoes."
mary anne outfit:
-"Mary Anne had on a pale yellow wool skirt, dark tights, a plaid vest, and a turtleneck sweater."
jackie disaster:
-goes into bo's doghouse at the same time as bo attempting to get a ball. the doghouse rocks and then tips over
their truly jewish feast, all of which abby says is delicious:
-chopped liver (really, a 13-year-old thinks this is delicious?)
-pickled herring (REALLY, a 13-year-old thinks THIS is DELICIOUS?)
-lox and bagels
-whitefish salad and lox salad
-rugelach and babka
-chicken and tomatoes and cucumbers and pickles (the least jewish things in this list)
their jewish relative names:
-morris
-judith
-sarah
-saul
-esther
-micah
-eli
snacks in claudia’s room:
-twinkies (n.s.)
December 4, 2022
Cute story. Abby is getting ready for her bar mitzvah and has a lot on her plate. She misses school bc of a cold and her teacher won't give her a break on a test and she fails. She buys a study guide from a kid which ends up being the test. There is a mistake on it and her and 4 other kids are suspended 3 days for cheating. She hides it from her mom until the last day when she catches her at the pizza place. She gets grounded but her mom feels the teacher should have at least listened to Abby and trusted she didn't cheat on purpose. When the kid sells Mary Anne a test too they show the teacher and then she believes them. The babysitting chargers all can't watch TV and have to learn to live without- cute stories from that. A lot about the Bar Mitzvah which I'm sure would be interesting to kids reading it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2022
I remembered this book being kind of boring, so I wasn't overly looking forward to it - but not the case at all! (I should have known better. Abby is the best, after all.) I really liked the cheating plot, and Abby getting suspended and hiding out from her mom, and how that all tied in with her Bat Mitzvah. I also liked the completely unrelated B-story about Stoneybook's kids' TV addiction. It was funny to read of them being grumpy, and I especially liked the Mallory/Mary Anne/Claudia chapter about them having to sit for different groups of kids (the Pikes/Arnolds/Prezziosos) going through their withdrawals.
February 9, 2020
The book "Abby's Lucky Thirteen" by Ann M. Martin is a realistic fiction about Abby who is turning 13 and has to get her big day planned. But its not just her birthday they are celebrating,they are also celebrating her twin sister Anna's b-day. What I found the most interesting of this book is that their family is a different culture and reads things in the Torah, which I learned about in my Social Studies class. ( Thanks Miss Brauser!) Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and the series because they are relatable since I have to take care of my cousins a lot. This book will help you understand the Jewish culture and how they celebrate a day like this. Some of you may even relate! I think this book deserves a 5 star rating.
April 26, 2011
abby fails a math test & her teacher sends the test home to be signed by mrs. stevenson. mrs. stevenson completely hulks out because she thinks the teacher is being unfair to abby. abby missed a few days because she was out with a cold & the teacher didn't offer an extension so that abby could catch up. abby knows she hasn't been applying herself in math, but she doesn't want to admit to her mom, even though she knows she is now on her teacher's shit list. the next day in class, the teacher announces another test coming up the next day (really? two tests in like three days?), which will count for 25% of the students' grades. abby panics. she's going to have to cram to pass the test, but she's completely booked up with soccer practice & studying for her bat mitzvah. she's moping in the hallway when another student offers to sell her a "study guide". abby happily forks over her three bucks & thinks the study guide is great. it has questions, answers, explanations for how to find the answers...abby works it through a few times before bed & feels like she's ready for the test.
but when she looks at the test the next day, she realizes that the study guide WAS the test. it was a cheat sheet--a copy of the test with all the answers filled in.she doesn't know what to do. she never intended to cheat. but she knows her teacher hates her & will never believe that she "accidentally" bought a cheat sheet. so she takes the test & feels weird about it.
when the kids get their tests back the next day, the teacher asks that five students, including abby, remain behind. all five of the kids got 98% on their tests, & they all missed the same question in the same way. she thinks they all cheated, & the smirks she receives from the students that aren't abby don't do much to convince her otherwise. they are all suspended for three days.
abby is pretty horrified. she doesn't want anyone to know, so she leaves the house every morning like she's going to school, but instead she goes to the library to work on her bat mitzvah speech & do homework. way to party, abby. obviously she has to tell anna the truth, but she tells her babysitters club friends that her mom is letting her take some time off school to prepare for the bat mitzvah. on the third day of the suspnsion, abby decides to live a little & have lunch at pizza express. mrs. stevenson (who really has taken a few days off work to prepare for the bat mitzvah--she's preparing a lot of the food) catches her. abby confesses to everything & is grounded, but mrs. stevenson agrees to go to the school & argue abby's case, since she really didn't intend to cheat.
the next day after school, abby sees the same boy who sold her the cheat sheet (brad simon) about to exchange a sheaf of papers for cash from mary anne. abby basically tackles mary anne & prevents the transaction. she admits everything to mary anne, & together they go to abby's math teacher & explain what happened. the teacher is skeptical of abby, but believes mary anne. she agrees to let abby make up the test--a brand new test, written from scratch. she speculates that brad is creating his "study guides" with help from his student job in the principal's office, where the tests are stores or something. there's a photocopier there. sounds like stoneybrook middle school has pretty lax security.
all this drama helps abby figure out what she wants to say in her bat mitzvah speech. the bits with the bat mitzvah seem to go on forever & could not be more boring. they basically function to explain to the gentiles what exactly a bat mitzvah is, but since i am already clear on the concept, it was really tedious reading.
in the babysitting C-plot, a host of parents across stoneybrook have become concerned that their kids are couch potatoes, so they have banned or significantly restricted the kids' TV time. the kids are of course very upset about this & complain about it constantly. when they are not sneaking TV. one day they start re-enacting one of their favorite TV shows & writing new plotlines for it, which becomes an activity they find so enjoyable, they don't even miss TV anymore. crap like this makes me wonder if reading babysitters club books has given me a grossly inaccurate perception of children, which will come back to bite me in the ass big-time once i have a child of my own. you mean they don't just invent intellectually stimulating & creative activities for themselves out of whole cloth when i lay down the law about TV time? bummer.
but when she looks at the test the next day, she realizes that the study guide WAS the test. it was a cheat sheet--a copy of the test with all the answers filled in.she doesn't know what to do. she never intended to cheat. but she knows her teacher hates her & will never believe that she "accidentally" bought a cheat sheet. so she takes the test & feels weird about it.
when the kids get their tests back the next day, the teacher asks that five students, including abby, remain behind. all five of the kids got 98% on their tests, & they all missed the same question in the same way. she thinks they all cheated, & the smirks she receives from the students that aren't abby don't do much to convince her otherwise. they are all suspended for three days.
abby is pretty horrified. she doesn't want anyone to know, so she leaves the house every morning like she's going to school, but instead she goes to the library to work on her bat mitzvah speech & do homework. way to party, abby. obviously she has to tell anna the truth, but she tells her babysitters club friends that her mom is letting her take some time off school to prepare for the bat mitzvah. on the third day of the suspnsion, abby decides to live a little & have lunch at pizza express. mrs. stevenson (who really has taken a few days off work to prepare for the bat mitzvah--she's preparing a lot of the food) catches her. abby confesses to everything & is grounded, but mrs. stevenson agrees to go to the school & argue abby's case, since she really didn't intend to cheat.
the next day after school, abby sees the same boy who sold her the cheat sheet (brad simon) about to exchange a sheaf of papers for cash from mary anne. abby basically tackles mary anne & prevents the transaction. she admits everything to mary anne, & together they go to abby's math teacher & explain what happened. the teacher is skeptical of abby, but believes mary anne. she agrees to let abby make up the test--a brand new test, written from scratch. she speculates that brad is creating his "study guides" with help from his student job in the principal's office, where the tests are stores or something. there's a photocopier there. sounds like stoneybrook middle school has pretty lax security.
all this drama helps abby figure out what she wants to say in her bat mitzvah speech. the bits with the bat mitzvah seem to go on forever & could not be more boring. they basically function to explain to the gentiles what exactly a bat mitzvah is, but since i am already clear on the concept, it was really tedious reading.
in the babysitting C-plot, a host of parents across stoneybrook have become concerned that their kids are couch potatoes, so they have banned or significantly restricted the kids' TV time. the kids are of course very upset about this & complain about it constantly. when they are not sneaking TV. one day they start re-enacting one of their favorite TV shows & writing new plotlines for it, which becomes an activity they find so enjoyable, they don't even miss TV anymore. crap like this makes me wonder if reading babysitters club books has given me a grossly inaccurate perception of children, which will come back to bite me in the ass big-time once i have a child of my own. you mean they don't just invent intellectually stimulating & creative activities for themselves out of whole cloth when i lay down the law about TV time? bummer.
June 16, 2021
Although I found Abby just as annoying as I did in Welcome to the BSC, Abby, I liked this book (slightly) more because it had more plot. Abby was suspended from school for cheating after she bought a "study guide" to help her prepare for an upcoming math test. While she had not intended to cheat, she took the test knowing that she had all the answers and did not tell her teacher. When she returned to school, Abby saw Mary Anne buying a "study guide", which the girls brought to the teacher. Once perfect Mary Anne was involved, Abby's teacher decided to let her retake the test.
Abby and her twin sister, Anna, had their Bat Mitzvah celebration. I appreciated the Jewish representation and hope to see more of it in future books. While I cannot speak to the accuracy of the representation, I was pleased to see that this book was dedicated to four people were thanked for sharing their Bar and Bat Mitzvah stories. (David Levithan, who edited the BSC series before becoming a young adult author, was among the dedicatees.)
Meanwhile, many Stoneybrook parents decided to completely ban their children from watching television, or at least severely limit the amount of TV they watched. Mary Anne's experience babysitting for the Arnold twins, Mallory's experience babysitting for her four youngest siblings, and Claudia's experience babysitting for the Prezzioso girls were all combined into one chapter (and one notebook entry) with the three BSC members going back-and-forth to interject what happened during her particular job. I suppose this was done so more attention could be focused on Abby who had two plots of her own, but there was no way Kristy was okay with this. Also, the plot about Jenny Prezzioso needed its own chapter.
Four year-old Jenny Prezzioso enjoyed watching the shopping channel, so was not pleased with the television ban. "Finicky Jenny Prezzioso got some of her best finicky ideas from watching television. She was, Claudia suspected, a future patron of the home shopping channels." When Claudia told Jenny to turn off the television in the den, Jenny locked herself in her parents' bedroom to watch TV in there. Claudia decided to take Jenny's parents' door off its hinges. But the door was too heavy and crashed to the floor, almost hitting Jenny in the process. Just then, Mr. Prezzioso came home and Jenny burst into tears. Poor Jenny!
Abby and her twin sister, Anna, had their Bat Mitzvah celebration. I appreciated the Jewish representation and hope to see more of it in future books. While I cannot speak to the accuracy of the representation, I was pleased to see that this book was dedicated to four people were thanked for sharing their Bar and Bat Mitzvah stories. (David Levithan, who edited the BSC series before becoming a young adult author, was among the dedicatees.)
Meanwhile, many Stoneybrook parents decided to completely ban their children from watching television, or at least severely limit the amount of TV they watched. Mary Anne's experience babysitting for the Arnold twins, Mallory's experience babysitting for her four youngest siblings, and Claudia's experience babysitting for the Prezzioso girls were all combined into one chapter (and one notebook entry) with the three BSC members going back-and-forth to interject what happened during her particular job. I suppose this was done so more attention could be focused on Abby who had two plots of her own, but there was no way Kristy was okay with this. Also, the plot about Jenny Prezzioso needed its own chapter.
Four year-old Jenny Prezzioso enjoyed watching the shopping channel, so was not pleased with the television ban. "Finicky Jenny Prezzioso got some of her best finicky ideas from watching television. She was, Claudia suspected, a future patron of the home shopping channels." When Claudia told Jenny to turn off the television in the den, Jenny locked herself in her parents' bedroom to watch TV in there. Claudia decided to take Jenny's parents' door off its hinges. But the door was too heavy and crashed to the floor, almost hitting Jenny in the process. Just then, Mr. Prezzioso came home and Jenny burst into tears. Poor Jenny!
June 23, 2024
I have learned to like Abby. She grew on me in the Super Mysteries and Friends Forever series and even though I was long done with the series by the time Abby joined she's become one of my favourites. In this book Abby and Anna are having their bat mitzvah and Abby gets caught cheating and is suspended from school. Abby is doing bad at math and fails a test, her mom tells off the teacher and Abby feels bad. After announcing that there will be another math test instead of going to math whiz Stacey fir help she buys a study guide from another student only to fund out it's the actual test. She and a few others get into trouble and are suspended. Abby erases the phone message and hides the letter from her mom. She goes on the bus with Anna to school then goes to the library to study the Torah. On the last day of her suspension Abby goes for a pizza lunch and her mom spots her and she's in trouble. Unlike Mrs. Brewer, Mrs. Stevenson is not a relative of the Foxworth family and grounds her daughter in the normal way. Abby gives a heartfelt speech at her bat mitzvah about the incident. The b plot involves the kids of Stoneybrook not having TV. This one was odd since it seems like the kids are always outside playing or doing crafts and hardly ever in front of the TV. Claudia hilariously takes the door off its hinges to get to Jenny Prezzios who's locked herself in her parent's bedroom. That was a great scene and part of me hopes they try to incorporate it into the Netflix show cause I'd love to see that. They soon start to act out skits from Cassandra Clue and have little serial plays they put on for the parents. It's a cute story line. I did mostly enjoy this. As someone pointed out it's a copy of Claudia and the Middle School Mystery with the cheating storyline but almost 100 books in I guess they're running out of plots to use. Who knows? Still good because it's Abby and I think she's awesome.
April 2, 2021
Although I don't personally care for Abby's personality, I can appreciate her. She isn't perfect in school, she talks back to teachers, and she doesn't have a very lovey dovey relationship with her mom, that is, they aren't demonstrative. I like the books where the girls are less than perfect, and I enjoyed the Bat Mitzvah scenes, although I thought the relatives all had really stereotypical names. There had to be a Saul, didn't there?
February 28, 2024
I really liked this one. It almost didn't seem like a BSC book, especially when these later books in the series could get really ridiculous with plot and characterization. Instead this one is very grounded and semi-serious. I'd outgrown the BSC series long before Abby was introduced, but I wish she'd been introduced earlier because she's a very likable character (unlike Dawn, who was thankfully written out by this point).
Abby has a moral and ethical dilemma after getting suspended for cheating on a test and hiding it from her mother. That's much more relatable to YA readers than some of the storylines that other characters in this series have had (like hosting a radio show, baby-sitting for a literal princess, winning the lottery, etc). So I like that the story is realistic. The last two chapters detail Abby and Anna's Bat Mitzvah, which they've nervously been preparing for throughout the book. A Bat Mitzvah is something I was unfamiliar with, so I have no idea how accurately it's portrayed, but it was so much more refreshing to read about than another carnival with the Pike kids, or the Barrett-DeWitt kids fighting with each other, etc.
So although it's not a typical BSC book, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more Abby books.
Abby has a moral and ethical dilemma after getting suspended for cheating on a test and hiding it from her mother. That's much more relatable to YA readers than some of the storylines that other characters in this series have had (like hosting a radio show, baby-sitting for a literal princess, winning the lottery, etc). So I like that the story is realistic. The last two chapters detail Abby and Anna's Bat Mitzvah, which they've nervously been preparing for throughout the book. A Bat Mitzvah is something I was unfamiliar with, so I have no idea how accurately it's portrayed, but it was so much more refreshing to read about than another carnival with the Pike kids, or the Barrett-DeWitt kids fighting with each other, etc.
So although it's not a typical BSC book, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more Abby books.
June 26, 2022
Abby Stevenson is about to turn thirteen, which makes her really nervous because it also means having her Bat Mitzvah, where she'll have to recite a portion of the Torah and give a speech among other responsibilities.
As she goes through a rough week at school, Abby learns that her idea of being an adult is different than what it's actually like, and that being honest is extremely important.
I loved this book, and I've loved every single book leading up to this one. I started this series in middle school and am still reading it now in high school. I love the characters and the fun adventures that they have with the kids. If you're looking for a good series with multiple narrators for a middle-grade reader, or if you just love books about babysitting, I highly recommend all Baby-Sitters Club books.
As she goes through a rough week at school, Abby learns that her idea of being an adult is different than what it's actually like, and that being honest is extremely important.
I loved this book, and I've loved every single book leading up to this one. I started this series in middle school and am still reading it now in high school. I love the characters and the fun adventures that they have with the kids. If you're looking for a good series with multiple narrators for a middle-grade reader, or if you just love books about babysitting, I highly recommend all Baby-Sitters Club books.
June 9, 2017
I didn't understand as a kid, and I still don't get it now, why Abby just didn't tell the teacher when she got the test what had happened. She could have gone to the test, quietly whispered what happened, and then the teacher could have called off the test, rewritten it, and given it out a couple of days later. Thus giving Abby time to actually study, and stop being such a slacker.
Then again Abby was slacking on everything in this book. She hasn't learned Hebrew, written her Bat Mitzvah speech, or done anything else except be sort of annoying. By sort of I mean really.
It was nice though, then and now, to read about a Jewish character. You didn't get that a lot in a series like this, so it was a positive change. Too bad she was just sort of obnoxious all of the time.
Then again Abby was slacking on everything in this book. She hasn't learned Hebrew, written her Bat Mitzvah speech, or done anything else except be sort of annoying. By sort of I mean really.
It was nice though, then and now, to read about a Jewish character. You didn't get that a lot in a series like this, so it was a positive change. Too bad she was just sort of obnoxious all of the time.
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January 29, 2026Abby and her twin sister, Anna, recently turned thirteen. They are preparing for their Bat Mitzvah, which is a big deal for the twins and their mother. And now, just when Abby should be acting like an adult, she is caught cheating on a math test and is suspended from school. Even though Abby didn't cheat, she refuses to tell what really happened. She even keeps the suspension a secret from her mother.
Abby is heading for big trouble on the biggest day of her life. Will she be able to get it together without disappointing everyone - including herself?
August 13, 2022
Abby and Anna are turning thirteen which means their Bat Mitzvah is approaching. Abby is struggling with all of her responsibilities: preparing for Bat Mitzvah, babysitting with the BSC, playing soccer, and studying for school. When she is suspended from school, she keeps it a secret from her mom. Can Abby prove that she is acting like an adult?
March 5, 2023
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.
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.
December 27, 2020
(LL)
I liked that this book brought something new to the table with the Bat Mitzvah for Abby and Anna, however, the cheating but not really cheating storyline is recycling a storyline from Claudia’s book “Claudia and the Middle School Mystery.”
I liked that this book brought something new to the table with the Bat Mitzvah for Abby and Anna, however, the cheating but not really cheating storyline is recycling a storyline from Claudia’s book “Claudia and the Middle School Mystery.”
July 26, 2022
Genuinely enjoyed both plot and subplot in this one, although the main plot felt a little more tell than show some of the time. The subplot was hilarious, though, and made me feel so much better about that.
November 12, 2019
Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book
April 8, 2020
It's an interesting book in the series, I can say that.
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July 15, 2020Very good book
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December 9, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
September 26, 2021
A friend gave me some later number BSC books that I never read growing up, so I'm going to work my way through those.
October 20, 2023
Really enjoyed learning more about Abby in this book! I really enjoy her character quite a bit, and I really hope we get to delve deeper into her character in later installments.
November 30, 2012
Abby's Lucky Thirteen
Author: Ann M. Martin
Summary: This book is about girls Abby and Anna. This two girls just turned 13 and they are now getting ready for their Bat Mitzvah ceremony. A Bat Mitzvah ceremony is a special and important ceremony to show that a jewish girl have become an adult. Abby is really busy with other things like soccer, religion things, and math. Abby is having a lot of problems with math and her teacher just announced their having a math problems, and Abby has problems studying. A day a boy just comes to her and told her he has sealing a cheat sheet page of the test for $3.00, Other 4 kids bought it. When they were doing the test they saw that what they bough wasn't a cheat sheet it was actually the actual test. After everybody was finished with their test the bell rang and everybody went out except the 4 people that bout the actual test and Abby their teacher called them. The teacher saw that in the test those five people have gotten the same problem wrong. Why do you think they got the same problem wrong? was there something wrong with the sheet cheat? Read it to find out.
Rate: I give this book four stars. One of the reasons is because the good thing is that you could connect with the Abby if you are also Jewish, have 13, have had a bat mitzvah or have bought a fake sheet cheat. This book is one of the best books of Baby Sitters Club searies. I also recommend this book to mainly girls. You can also relate to this book if you are into religion.
Author: Ann M. Martin
Summary: This book is about girls Abby and Anna. This two girls just turned 13 and they are now getting ready for their Bat Mitzvah ceremony. A Bat Mitzvah ceremony is a special and important ceremony to show that a jewish girl have become an adult. Abby is really busy with other things like soccer, religion things, and math. Abby is having a lot of problems with math and her teacher just announced their having a math problems, and Abby has problems studying. A day a boy just comes to her and told her he has sealing a cheat sheet page of the test for $3.00, Other 4 kids bought it. When they were doing the test they saw that what they bough wasn't a cheat sheet it was actually the actual test. After everybody was finished with their test the bell rang and everybody went out except the 4 people that bout the actual test and Abby their teacher called them. The teacher saw that in the test those five people have gotten the same problem wrong. Why do you think they got the same problem wrong? was there something wrong with the sheet cheat? Read it to find out.
Rate: I give this book four stars. One of the reasons is because the good thing is that you could connect with the Abby if you are also Jewish, have 13, have had a bat mitzvah or have bought a fake sheet cheat. This book is one of the best books of Baby Sitters Club searies. I also recommend this book to mainly girls. You can also relate to this book if you are into religion.
April 29, 2009
Go away, Abby, DO NOT WANT. Ugh. Also, I never quite got what a Bat Mitzvah was anyway. The only time I'd ever heard of them was from various Judy Blume books - and they don't exactly go and fully explain them either. (I didn't even know it was a Jewish thing, I just thought it was some American thing popular in the 70s, because the author so clearly expected her target audience to know what they were that she never went and explained them. And when you grow up in another country and also don't know any Jews... it's easy to not understand and thus not care.) And I read them waaaay before you could just go and google something. So to have this annoying Judy Blume thing suddenly invade the BSC, along with the UNNECESSARY NEW BABY-SITTER, just kind of annoyed me. :P
November 22, 2012
Either this one, or "Welcome to the BSC, Abby," was my first BSC book (if I remember correctly - it sounds about right, I was 8 or 9 when I started reading the series). I won it for making the funniest face in class. Because that's what matters in Canadian middle schools. So Abby was always a special character to me, since it was through her that I entered the series, and we were both Jewish. And for all those reasons, this was one of my favourite BSC books as a kid.
At the time, Claudia and Kristy (she liked dogs, sports, and jeans - we were practically the same person!) were my favourite originals, which seems to be a fairly unpopular opinion around here. I also had a soft spot for Mallory, but was fairly indifferent to the rest, for the most part.
At the time, Claudia and Kristy (she liked dogs, sports, and jeans - we were practically the same person!) were my favourite originals, which seems to be a fairly unpopular opinion around here. I also had a soft spot for Mallory, but was fairly indifferent to the rest, for the most part.
May 1, 2013
Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.
I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.
The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.
Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.
The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.
Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
June 17, 2016
Abby mi piace E' molto diversa dalle altre protagoniste e in un certo senso più avvicinabile e anche più matura. La trama non è particolarmente avvincente (il dramma di aver accidentalmente comprato una copia del test di matematica! oddio! Io sarei stata contenta+i genitori che decidono di vietare la tv ai figli per settimane) ma la famiglia di Abby è interessante e il suo punto di vista sempre un piacere da leggere..almeno per ora visto che questo è solo il secondo libro narrato dal suo punto di vista.
August 21, 2016
All the books in the BSC series qualify as relaxing afternoon reads that bring back my childhood. This book in particular ties the events together with the protagonist's bat mitzvah and truly brings out the ways in which our decisions shape our experience. The only general complaint that I have about this series is that each book contains a way too extensive introduction of each character in the beginning. A good writer would be able to work this in more subtly and gradually and not in a repetitive way.
July 7, 2011
Abby's my least favourite BSC member, and I was still surprised by how much she annoyed me in this book.
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