Let's start something I likely won't finish, eh?

[impy]

1.) Favorite sitter
2.) Least favorite sitter
3.) Favorite regular book
4.) Least favorite regular book
5.) Favorite mystery
6.) Least favorite mystery
7.) Favorite super special
8.) Least favorite super special
9.) Favorite minor character
10.) Least favorite minor character
11.) Favorite sitting charge
12.) Least favorite sitting charge
13.) Favorite parent
14.) Least favorite parent
15.) Favorite BSC fight
16.) Favorite BSC love interest
17.) Favorite BSC organized event
18.) Favorite vacation spot
19.) Favorite holiday book
20.) Favorite couple in the book
21.) Favorite couple not in the book (as in who you wanted to get together but didn't)
22.) BSC member or minor character you could see yourself being friends with
23.) Favorite Friends Forever
24.) Least favorite Friends Forever
25.) Moments/Scene from the books that sticks out to you the most
26.) Favorite Claudia outfit
27.) Favorite Stacey outfit
28.) One thing you learned from the BSC
29.) Favorite BSC 'villain'
30.) Biggest 'that wouldn't really happen in real life' moment





I could have sworn I started this once upon a time, back in the day. But since I'm shit at tagging my stuff properly for future!me, I guess we'll never know. Might as well give it a go and see how far I make it before I give up. I'm pretty sure I might've finished one of these however many days kind of things over the course of, y'know, a billion years. Oops.

1.) Favorite sitter
Dawn. I could pretend otherwise, and there are certainly close runners up, but it's pretty much always been and always going to be Dawn. The very first BSC book I bought and read was Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn and I was hooked right from the start. Long hair (younger!me was forever getting haircuts that were entirely too short, either through my own fault or someone trying to "even things out" or gum would get stuck in my hair), ghost loving, marches to the beat of her own drummer but still worries about how that's percieved by other people? SOLD.

Over the years for various things I've defended Dawn and should the need arise again, I shall continue to do so. Her ghostie years are a crime against humanity that adults should be able to work around since it's not like most of the characters fared too well but I guess part of growing up is realizing that the stuff you loved as a kid had faults and then you overcompensate. Or something like that.

Anyway, early Dawn is the best Dawn. She managed to be granola crunchy but understood that not everyone was going to feel the same way and let them live. She had certain non-negotiables (toy guns) but found ways to get her point across calmly and without much fuss. While she might not have been the ultimate Individual the others always said she was, I think I always understood that to be kind of the point. Dawn's friends saw her one way and then Dawn's books and little interludes in the other books showed what was going on behind the curtain. The girl is thirteen, she doesn't have it all figured out even if she'd like to think she does sometimes.

Never did understand the Laura Ashley thing though.

Comments

[venivididolli]

Bless you, for you have given me something to do while I let the hamster zip around in his ball for another hour or so.

[impy]

Woo! This means I'll have something to read later. Wins for everyone!

[luxken27]

You might very well have done this before! I dug up the original post from 2011, when the fandom was really active on LJ.

I'm going to do this myself but I have to think about some of the answers first. It's been interesting looking at those who have started it, tho. Definitely food for thought!!

My first BSC book was also a Dawn book - #50 Dawn's Big Date. So yay for having that in common!! I also 10000% agree with you about early canon Dawn being the best Dawn. For me, it started to break down when she started going back to California, even in #23. It was only made worse in the mid-60s and she was downright insufferable in the mid-80s until she returned to California for good.

But early Dawn - with a full-fledged personality - was pretty darn awesome.

[impy]

I'm too lazy to go poking around to see if I did it before and I'd bet a gazillion bucks that if I did start it, I didn't finish it unless I sat down and did it all in one go. Besides, it's fun to give it a whirl... possibly again.

I think the cover of Dawn's Big Date might be my favorite Dawn look. And huzzah for Dawn books being the gateway drug!

One day I might do a re-read all the way through and see if I can pin point it, though I do agree that by the time she was pinging back and forth it was a bit much. Isn't 23 a ghostwritten one, too?

Dawn love. Well, early Dawn love. ♥

[luxken27]

Yes, #23 is ghost-written, but not by one of the usual suspects (Jan Carr). Wow, the beginning of the end for Dawn came early! o.O

I read a Jessi book by Lerangis yesterday...he really was the worst, ugh.

[impy]

Woo! I remembered correctly. I hope whatever fact that replaced wasn't important. Probably math. Poor Dawn, but I still love her.

Which Jessi book?

[luxken27]

I'm doing a re-read of all of Jessi's books (depressingly, she has the least except maybe for Abby - her books are few and far between in the latter series, and she only has one mystery). Yesterday I read #55 Jessi's Gold Medal, which was ghost-written by Lerangis. The only one so far, but then I'm only up to #68. #55 was very OTT with the sound effects and exaggerated expressions, which is too bad because synchronized swimming was a pretty neat idea. And Jessi wasn't all that great at it, which is a refreshing change for Lerangis books.

[impy]

Oh, yeah, he is the sound effects ghostie, isn't he? I never did understand why they went with Mal and Jessi only getting one mystery each. I know it was explained as "they're too young" or something but dude. M&J would totally be up for mystery hijinks, with or without the club.


Why the Jessi re-read? Inquiring minds and all that.

[luxken27]

Huh, I didn't realize Mal got screwed in the Mysteries series, too! I know she appears on the covers of other mysteries (Dawn and the Disappearing Dogs comes to mind) so I guess that fooled me. That does suck, because wasn't it Mal who came up with the idea of the mystery notebook in the first place??

Jessi re-read: because after reading #28 I realized just how much Jessi *is* an underdeveloped character. I mean, of course at that point Stacey doesn't really know her, but it struck me that, well, nobody really does. Her book counts really tail off after #68, and her one-note personality was the easiest/shallowest. So I figured why not? Plus I'm not 100% sure I've actually read all of her books (#103 comes to mind). It has certainly been interesting. Her character really flattens out after about #36.

Speaking of strange reading experiences: I re-read Super Mystery #1 last night and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. And how I have no memory of the story at all. I have memories of reading the book, but I retained none of the actual story. Bizarre!