Dawn And The Impossible Three (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
this is the first dawn book of the series, in which she becomes the regular sitter for the barrett family. buddy, suzi, & marnie are being raised by a single mom who recently went through a pretty acrimonious divorce. the kids seem to be coping well enough, but their mom is struggling to find steady employment & isn't managing the demands of childrearing, job seeking, & housework very well. dawn often comes by to babysit, only to find the kids still in their pajamas, without breakfast, in a disaster area of a house. mrs. barrett rushes off to job interviews & temp positions without leaving proper instructions & emergency contact info. dawn invents a game to get the kids excited about cleaning up the house, & mrs. barrett starts to rely on dawn too much. the kids also start to over-rely on dawn--when buddy does well on a class assignment, he stops by dawn's house to tell her about it, instead of sharing the news with his mom. one day while dawn is sitting, buddy disappears from the front yard while dawn is getting the girls dressed to go outside. jordan pike saw buddy get into a car. dawn panics & calls the police. the neighbors fan out to search the neighborhood. dawn can't read mrs. barrett, who is in the next town over, running errands. finally buddy calls & says he's on his way home. it turned out that the man who picked him up was his dad, & it was his regular day to have the kids, but flaky mrs. barrett forgot (though it seems like if she wanted a personal day to shop & run errands, she'd be counting down the moments until her ex had visitation so she wouldn't have to pay a sitter...anyway). when hamilton came by to pick the kids up & found only buddy, he decided to just take him to freak mrs. barrett out. considering the prevalence of exes kidnapping their own children, & how the courts can be pretty strict about visitation & custody issues, this seems like a pretty bad idea if hamilton wants to hang on to his partial custody rights, but there were no consequences for him here aside from a talking-to from the cops. after this goes down, dawn has a talk with mrs. barrett & says she can't sit for her anymore unless mrs. barrett makes more of an effort to keep dawn in the loop, leave contact phone numbers, etc. mrs. barrett is understanding & agreeable & everyone lives happily ever after. i liked the fact that this book showcased a less-than-perfect family. with the stepford perkinses on their way in just a couple of books, it's nice to be reminded that sometimes teenage babysitters end up biting off more than they can chew in dealing with familial dramas in real life. i didn't like the egregious continuity error on the book: at one point while dawn is teaching the kids how to clean the house, marnie sits on the floor & eats M&Ms (she's really too young to understand or help with housework). maybe twenty pages later, the barretts are at a picnic at the pikes' house & dawn gives marnie a brownie. mallory pike snatches the brownie away & tells dawn that marnie is allergic to chocolate. the allergy reveal is supposed to illustrate the dangerousness of mrs. barrett leaving dawn in charge without giving her proper instructions. but why was she just eating M&Ms two seconds ago with no ill effects? plus, as early as book two, the babysitters make a big fuss about asking about things like allergies before taking on new clients (there's a scene where claudia gets allergy info from mrs. marshall before agreeing to sit for eleanor & nina). so...WTF?but i still love reading these early books. take me right back to being seven years old again.
This was a very easy and enjoyable read. The book is part of a series. This particular one tells the story of a group of five young girls, Dawn, Kristy, Mary-Anne, Claudia, and Stacey that are in a club called the Baby-sitter's Club. The girls hold meetings and babysit for the families in their communities. They are well-liked and always have jobs. In this book, Dawn begins regularly babysitting for the Barrett family. With Buddy wanting to play guns all the time, Ms. Barrett being extremely unorganized and Mr. Barrett always trying to get in touch with the kids, things can sometimes get pretty rough at the Barrett household when Dawn is in charge. During the times that Dawn isn't babysitting, she is having to deal with her parents divorce and also trying to become better friends with Kristy. Throughout the book we visit the Barrett's with Dawn while she babysits. One afternoon while Dawn in babysitting, she wants to let the kids play outside since it had finally stopped raining after 4 straight days. She lets Buddy go out first because he was already dressed. When she returns with the rest of the kids to go outside, she discovers Buddy is nowhere to be found. Dawn notifies all the families around and they begin a neighborhood search. The police eventually come and the searching continues throughout the afternoon. Right before Ms. Barrett returns home, Dawn receives a phone call from Buddy claiming he is on his way home and Dawn is confused and furious, but most of all relieved. Ms. Barrett returns and comes home and finds police scattered all over her house and is very confused as to what was going on. Dawn explains what happened and in the meantime, Buddy's dad, Mr. Barrett, brings Buddy home. Mr. Barrett is questioned, but everything turns out okay and everyone is safe. Dawn is second guessing to continue babysitting for the Barrett's but decides to give it another shot. The club is still held together, despite Kristy's move down the street, and everyone is happy. This would be a great book for third through fifth grade readers, girls especially. This book is one that many girls can relate too and enjoy reading.The cover on the book is yellow with three pairs of rainboots. It is a simple and pretty painting that doesn't give away too much about the book, but can draw readers in because of the colors.I gave this book three and a half stars because I found it to be a wonderful, enjoyable book for most readers, grade three and beyond.
What do You think about Dawn And The Impossible Three (1995)?
You know what I've realized I love the most about The Baby-sitters Club? It's the fact you can curl up with a book and read it in an hour and a half. These past few weeks, when I've come across a book I've struggled to get through for whatever reason (work, working out, family life, slow plot line), having the option to turn to one of the books from my childhood has really helped me to just sit down and read for a few hours. This is quite possibly one of the many reasons I enjoyed the series so much as a little girl.In Dawn and the Impossible Three, the newest member of the BSC, Dawn Schaffer finds herself struggling with two major (for a twelve year old) dilemmas. The first has to do with her position in the club and more specifically, her relationship with the club President, Kristy Thomas. After all, Dawn has just recently become Mary Anne Spier's friend and in the wake of Kristy's impending move across town and the revelation that Mary Anne and Dawn's parents are dating, there's a lot of jealousy clouding Kristy's mind. I won't go as far to claim she's being bitchy as she has been in previous books, but I will not completely say her behavior towards Dawn is justifiable. Yes, things are changing for her and she eventually learns to accept Dawn, not only as Mary Anne's friend, but her own. But by the same token, Dawn shouldn't have taken it upon herself to offer an olive branch. After all, she never really does anything wrong towards Kristy. For example, when she's helping Mary Anne decorate her room, it is Mary Anne's fault, not Dawn's, that Kristy wasn't originally invited.The other dilemma Dawn has to deal with comes in the form of a new family the club is babysitting for: The Barretts. In the process of getting divorced, Mrs. Barrett seems to be falling apart in every aspect of her life, with the exception of her own appearance. Though a few of the other girls babysit for the family throughout the course of the book, it is Dawn who primarily has to handle juggling neglected children and undertaking the task of reorganizing (and cleaning) up Mrs. Barrett's life. As a child of divorce herself, she shares a special bond with the three children and with a disorganized mother, at times, she even sympathizes with Mrs. Barrett. But the truth is, Mrs. Barrett is neglectful to the point of inexcusable throughout this entire book. She rarely leaves Dawn with any information about where she's going to be, she has no regard for the state of her house nor her children and she even neglects to warn Dawn that one of her children is allergic to chocolate. The allergy issue alone raises a lot of red flags, especially since normal parents would warn you of such a thing as you step in the door. But she also fails to warn Dawn that she and her husband are having a somewhat messy custody battle and it winds up putting the poor girl in a difficult spot when Mr. Barrett decides to just pick up his kids on his day, regardless if Mrs. Barrett remembered or not.Obviously, things get better at the Barret house as I do vaguely remember them being mentioned in future books. But truthfully, if I were their babysitter, I would have quit as it was clear the other girls in the club were. As with every BSC book, everything works out nice and neatly, just in time for the book to end.
—Kristine
If I could rename this book I'd title it DAWN AND THE IMPOSSIBLE FOUR, because as much as the barret kids need help, their mother needs to be straightened out, too!When Dawn Schafer first comes to Stoneybrook, she doesn't really have a good time. Doesn't like the weather, has to deal with the impossible three (four) and is not on good terms with the BSC club president, Kristy Thomas. That's because Kristy is jealous of Mary Anne, her best friend, and Dawn, because they seem to get on well and Kristy is falling behind. Plus, Dawn and Mary Anne may become step-sisters!I liked the way Dawn sorts out all her problems in the end and helps fix the Barret problems. Book rating - four stars! loved it!
—Yusra Rahman
I remember liking this book a lot more as a kid than I actually did this time around. I think girls who are hooked on the series will breeze through it and move right onto the next one without analyzing it too much. I would be interested to know, though, whether Dawn is as popular among fans of the series today as she was among the girls I hung out with in fourth and fifth grade, who loved her, while I loved Kristy and Mallory. I haven't heard kids say much about it in the library, but this book was the hardest to get my hands on, since it gets checked out pretty often. I'm not sure if that says anything about its popularity, or if I just looked for it at the wrong time, but I guess it does indicate that there is at least a small audience still interested in reading it, despite how dated it might seem.Read my full review on my blog: http://sharingsoda.blogspot.com/2011/...
—Katie Fitzgerald
