Books like Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation

this is my first time reading this book!UGHHHHH. okay. there is a mandatory stoneybrook middle school trip to an overlook-style lodge in vermont (all grades) every winter. don't ask me how having a mandatory school trip is conceivable in a public school. the lodge is so huge that a elementary school class from maine and the eighth grade from a school further north in vermont are also staying there in addition to the 382 SMS kids. the elementary school class gets into a horrible bus crash on their way and the bus flips over. the teachers have to go to the hospital, so the bsc steps in to babysit them pro bono. see the character plotlines for more info.mary anne: (framing device is her writing a book about the trip for logan, who somehow got out of the trip by going to aruba with his family). she agrees to do a project on the history of the lodge but gets busy imagining that logan is canoodling with sexy girls in aruba. she writes him cheesy letters but never sends them (a good example: "the entire last page consisted of xxx's and ooo's."). eventually, doing the history project, she finds info about a ghost story but ann doesn't really go into many details and this plotline sees no resolution. this is the worst mary anne has ever been in any book up to this point. I hated her SO MUCH in this book.-jessi: worries she will get injured during winter war (see kristy's plotline) and can't risk it because she is a delicate flower (read: ballerina). organizes a talent show. doesn't get along with one of the elementary school girls (pinky, not to be confused with the saint bernard of the same name). she thinks pinky is mean because she's racist when really she's just a jerk. see lowlights for my thoughts on this extremely offensive plotline.-mallory: Harriet the Spy recycled plotline crap (decides she is going to spy on people and write about them, which is EXACTLY what she did in Baby-Sitters on Board!). she doesn't want to go to the dance that they have at the lodge, but then she does and a boy asks her to dance and it's fine.-kristy: in charge of winter war (which is basically a color war but with winter sports). she gets really competitive and mad at claudia for her judgment in the snow sculpture contest (see claudia for more info). she pressures some people into doing the cross-country skiing competition, but then one of them fractures his ankle and she finally feels bad about being a competitive jerk.-claudia: judges the sculpture contest for the winter war and picks a sculpture that is coincidentally someone on her winter war team (though it's the best sculpture). kristy gets mad at her for that, thinking that she chose her teammate because she wanted her team to win. she also is in the skiing competition and it almost turns into an 80s skiing movie (or a parody of an 80s skiing movie). plus she has a crush on her french skiing instructor guy who is in his 20s, and then she is disappointed to find out he has a wife and kids because HE IS WAY TOO OLD FOR HER. ugh. also ann writes him with an annoying french accent (e.g. "zat wozz wonderful!")-stacey: in LUV with one of the northern vermont 8th graders, pierre d'amboise (seriously, between him and guy I am so over these french-ass names). but honestly we barely see them together because I think ann wanted an excuse to not include stacey in most of the other characters' stories (they're all constantly like, "we haven't seen stacey all day, maybe she's off with pierre?")-dawn: gets in a fight with mary anne because she is upset about the winter war and goes to mary anne to talk about it, and all mary anne has to say in response is, "do you have any idea how far aruba is from hooksett crossing?" (hooksett crossing is where the lodge is. seriously, she won't shut up about logan the whole book, SHE IS SO INSUFFERABLE, I can't stress enough how much I hate mary anne right now). the reason dawn was upset was because she kept being clumsy during winter war stuff. falling down while ice skating, etc. and she thinks of herself as someone who is very capable.highlights:-I'm trying so hard to think of something good, and I just can't. I really disliked this book.lowlights/nitpicks (get ready for a lot of them):-mandatory public school trip to vermont for 5 days? shyeah right.-logan's never been on the trip because his family lived in kentucky last year. is this assuming this is winter of second 8th grade? or first 8th grade? and dawn moved after winter break, so why would she have gone to the winter carnival if logan didn't?-382 kids in the school. that's like 127 per grade. no wonder everyone in your grades knows each other and there's no anonymity. in my private school, there were like 30 kids in my grade. but when I went to public school it was more like 600. I guess 127 per grade is possible but it seems like way fewer than I would think for a town that's not THAT small (it's not like stars hollow or something).-the elementary school teachers were going to have their own room, so why do the bsc have to bunk with/chaperone the kids when there were already not going to be teachers bunking with them? had the teachers planned on having the kids (all of them, girls AND boys) stay in the same room for the week, with no chaperones? huh?-dawn says she is good at skiing and ice skating, but that doesn't make sense because she hates cold weather.-mary anne "can't stand" toothlessness -- good for you, girl who never has to worry about that because she comes from a non-poor family and is the kid of a lawyer who could afford to get regular her teeth cleanings and probably has a dental plan anyway. JERK.-the pinky story. UGH. jessi says that since she thought pinky was racist and it turns out pinky was just a jerk, it means that maybe jessi herself is prejudiced. seriously? SERIOUSLY? ann, are you trying to make it seem like black women who say someone is being racist towards them are prejudiced? are you trying to act like black women shouldn't trust their intuition about race-fueled aggressive behavior? also, it's not like there's this dichotomy of evil racist vs. angelic non-racist. seriously ann you are so simplistic about this stuff, and it's like you think when people say "I don't see race" it's actually a positive thing.-talent show problems. first off, the SMS teachers do a medley of 1950s songs, changing the lyrics to be about school stuff (kids being loud in the cafeteria, etc). and the SMS kids think their performance is cool. jessi narrates: "when they were done, they somehow seemed like real people to me, instead of just teachers." I don't buy this for a second. this is cheesy as hell and maybe in ann's leave it to beaver-style upbringing this would fly but in 1989, NO WAY.-all the performances by kids in the talent show are also unbelievably old-fashioned. there's a tap dance to singin in the rain, someone does the vitameatavegamin bit from I love lucy, and some people do an andrews sisters (dressed in 40s garb). it's 1989. where is the kid dancing to bobby brown or any new kids on the block song or something? ANN, YOU'RE KILLING ME.-ann thinks that everyone is supposed to trade partners at a dance because sticking with one would be rude. maybe that was the case in the olden days (i.e. in the Betsy-Tacy series, which takes place around the turn of the 20th century, it is considered improper for one boy and one girl to dance together all night because it's suggestive). but in 1989, people didn't have to switch partners and doing so was maybe a little weird. you dance with the person you went to the dance with.-on the bus ride home, some of the boys sing a song about how a girl on the bus named ethel is fat. mary anne narrates that ethel hearing that song didn't prevent her from eating three snickers on the bus ride. SERIOUSLY? SO SHE WANTED TO EAT SOME SNICKERS, YOU ASSHOLE. ann, you have offended me so many freakin' times in this book, I can't even believe it.-so many loose ends. the ghost story, the mention of ashley wyeth and kristy having to bunk with her for a second but then that doesn't happen, etc.no outfits. no snacks in claudia's room. ughhhhh.