Customer Reviews

Claudia and the New Girl (Babysitters Club # 12)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ISBN 0590437216 - Tough one to review for me! I found myself a little bothered that the BSC was judgmental about the new girl, but Martin made an effort to resolve that, so I'll give it my usual BSC 5 stars, with the hope that the next "oddball" to enter Stoneybrook will be treated better.

Claudia loves her art, and her friends, and she's never had to choose between them before. When new-girl Ashley arrives, Claudia's very impressed with her - she has multiple piercings in her ears, dresses very bohemian, and she went to the Keyes Art Society, an art school in Chicago! Not only that, but she think Claudia has real artistic talent, if only she'd spend more time on it. Like, ALL her time. Ashley begins to pull Claudia away from her friends and Claudia, flattered, allows it. The BSC is not happy with the traitor in their midst and lets her know it. Can Claudia manage to have her art, Ashley and the BSC, or will she be forced to give up something, or someone, she really cares about?

Martin's BSC books always impress me with their ability to moralize without boring a reader to sleep, and Claudia and the New Girl pulls that off, as well. The girls realistically respond to the thought of Claudia ditching them for Ashley, which takes a few amusing, very pre-teen, turns - the notes they leave her are hilariously on-target!

- AnnaLovesBooks

I read this book at school...
It begins when Claudia's,class gets' a new student.Claudia was thinking how'll the new student will be.When the new student arrives,everyone was suprised in seeing the way she was dresses.She was wearing "different"clothes,that even Claudia was suprised.Well,when the teacher says the new girls name;Ashley(I forgot her last name),Claudia asked Ashley if she was related to a painter.That's how they begin being friends,& how Claudia misses her BSC meetings.I think that the BSC member were being alittle selfish,I mean Claudia is good in art,and her having a friend who also liked art,was suprising.but Ashley was being quite selfish,too,she wanted Claudia all for her self.Will Claudia leave the baby sitters club for sure?Just for Ashley?Read this book to find out!

Overall,i give this book 3 stars because of the selfishness,it's an OK book,but there are better BSC books,than this.

Check out all my review!
-Ana

There are five girls in the Baby Sitters Club in this book. Their names are Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Stacey McGill, and Dawn Scafer. Mallory and Jessi haven't joined yet. Kristy has brown hair and brown eyes. She lives with her mom, step dad, brothers, Sam, Charlie, and David Miachel, her stepbrother, Andrew, and her stepsister, Karen. She has a dog. Her best friend is Mary Anne. Mary Anne has brown hair and brown eyes too. She lives with her dad. Stacey has blond hair. She came from New York. She lives with her parents. She has diabetes. Claudia is Japenese. She has black hair. She lives with her parents, sister Janine, and grandma. She's best friends with Stacey. Dawn has blond hair. She used to live in California. She lives with her mom and brother Jeff.

In this book, a new girl comes to their school, Ashley Wyeth. She wears clothes like Claudia. At art class, Claudia sees Ashley. There's going to be an art contest and Ashley's going to help Claudia enter.But then she keeps missing meetings to look at things to make for the contest with Ashley. Then Ashley sees her baby sitting and gets mad at her.

I read this twice. I get it from the library.
I don't know why Claudia liked Ashley. She didn't even let her go to the meetings, and she didn't want Claudia to be in the Baby Sitters Club. She only liked Claudia because she was good at art too. And she didn't want to be friends with anyone else.

Will Claudia quit the club or will she stop going places with Ashley while her friends are having meetings? And what does she make for the art contest? Read this book to find out.

That`s what Claudia finds out.Ashley Wyeth is the new girl in her school and Ashley likes art as much as Claudia,maybe a little more.Claudia grows to become best friends with Ashley.This reallt hurts Stacey and the B.S.C. beacuse she misses meetings and the menbers are putting mean notes all around her room and eating ALL of her junk food.Even Dawn is helping eat it.This book is good.It`s shows you who your true friends are

I like the books about Claudia best. She is the most interesting of the babysitters. In this book, Claudia meets this new girl, Ashley, who has gone to a very proffesional artschool, at the place she lived before. She encourages Claudia to keep on painting, since Claudia loves art, but to quit babysitting. Claudia is always late for the BSC meetings, and her friends are getting pretty tired of it...

ashley, the new girl, is so pretty and wears the newest fashions. claudia wants to be her friend. then claudia and ashley become a little friendly. there's one problem: ashley pulls claudia away from babysitting and says she should quit. because ashley is great at art and loves it. claudia is spending less time with the bsc and they're getting mad. Claudia makes a real hard desicion.

Synopsis: Claudia is in English class, trying to pass one of Mrs. Hall's spelling tests, when in walks the new girl Ashley Wyeth. Claudia is immediately taken in by Ashley's hippie outfits and the fact that she has read all the books that Mrs. Hall has appointed the class to read. She later asks Ashley if she is related to Andrew Wyeth, the famous painter, and even though Ashley isn't, they both become quick friends due to their love for their art of painting and sculpture.

Claudia comes to look up to Ashley and respect her because of her talent, that she is so serious about her goals at being an artist, and the fact that she has studied in Keyes Art Society, a prestigious art school that Claudia could not get into during the summer because it was too expensive. Ashley also feels that Claudia has potential to be a wonderful artist, and insists they both enter when Ms. Baehr announces of the new gallery that would be opening in Stoneybrook, where a sculpture contest is being held for the students at the Art Center. When Ashley finds Claudia babysitting the Rodowsky's next door, she realizes that Claudia has a lot of activities besides her art, and wants Claudia to follow in her footsteps and drop all these activities.

Claudia soon starts sitting with Ashley during lunch, coming late to Babysitter meetings because of Ashley, and in general, starts spending more time with Ashley than the club members. The BSC is not too happy about Claudia and her new friend, and start avoiding putting Claudia for babysitting appointments. On one hand, Claudia wants to keep her friendship with the club, but on the other hand, she also wants to learn from Ashley and prosper in something she is really good at. However, who will she turn to when Ashley gives her an ultimatum, to either be with her or be with the BSC?

Review: I thought this was a very well written book, but it did have some parts that I didn't particularly enjoy, which is why I gave this book only 4 out of 5 stars. Probably the main reason why this book bothered me a little was because the Club never bothered to understand why Claudia started hanging out with Ashley in the first place (until the end), or even why Ashley never gave Claudia a chance to be with the BSC. Ann M Martin wrote the characters in 2 such extremes (either be on our side or be on hers) that it felt that the Babysitters Club were just as bad as Ashley in some parts of the book, especially when they raid Claudia's room while she is not there (which I thought was a little harsh, considering how long they have been friends to do this to her).

On the other hand, I did enjoy the main concept of the book, on how a new girl could potentially come between the members of the club. I thought Kristy was being a little too nasty (but she usually is in a lot of the books), but I liked reading of how Stacey was affected by Claudia's new friendship with Ashley. We also get to read a little about the problems Jeff is having in school, which concerns Dawn, and I thought that was added blended with the other story.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting book to read, but it is not one of my favorites.

this book made me think of claudia getting caught up in a cult about art which was how the new girl ashley acted, and she was forgetting her priorities and letting her friend control and pressure her to devote her life to art and all this strange stuff but in the end claudia gets back to reality

When Claudia makes a friendship with Ashley, Claudia does not join the BSC meetings anymore it's like she throws a temper tantrum. Mary Anne, Staey, Kristy and Dawn are raging war. They will do anything to make Claudia join the BSC MEETINGS!

This book is really good for showing that "What friends are all about". I am 9 years old and just started them last year and i thought that they are great. When i am old enough to babysit i want to be just like them. My favorit babysitters are maryanne,dawn and stacy. Ann M.Martin is my favorit author!!!!!!