Kristy And The Walking Disaster (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
hated this book as a kid, hate it as an adult. this is the one where kristy starts her ragtag softball team, kristy's krushers (although obnoxious brat karen brewer insists on spelling it, "kristy's crushers," because she is all about proper spelling). her team consists of kids too young or uncoordinated or otherwise unfit for little league, including jamie newton (afraid of the ball), calire pike (prone to baseball-related tantrums), david michael thomas (a klutz), jake kuhn (chubby), matt braddock (deaf...& this prevents him from joining little league how, exactly, in a way that wouldn't result in a lawsuit?), gabbie perkins (two & a half years old), etc. & let's not forget poor jackie rodowsky, the titular "walking disaster". kristy spends a lot of time observing that jackie's sneakers are untied, his jeans ore muddy, his hair is mussed, there's a hole in his t-shirt, etc. uh...he's a seven-year-old boy. lay off! poor jackie. the sitters are so mean to him. he does "disastrous" things like hit a home run into the woods so the ball is lost (dude, at least he hit a home run!), fouling the ball so it breaks a window at the school (which, if it were that easy for a seven-year-old to do that, the ball field is probably too close to the school & it's not really jackie's fault), tossing the bat & knocking the legs out from under the refreshment table at the big game (the refreshment people should have set up further away--i mean, how far can a little kid really throw a bat?), etc. they just never cut him any slack.the other part of the plot involves the krushers' rivalry with another ragtag softball team, bart's bashers. the bashers are generally older, better players, & all boys. they are just a smidgen too young for little league, i guess. it seems unsporting for the bashers to even play against the krushers, but true to the formula of all underdog sports fables everywhere, the bashers underestimate the krushers' tenacity & determination, & krushers fight to win & nearly succeed. & it's the nearly-winning that really matters to the krushers, who are delighted to not have been defeated & ground into the dirt.the bashers are coached by bart taylor, a thirteen-year-old boy who lives in kristy's neighborhood. kristy gets a big crush on him. but she is not impressed when bart & some of his bashers check out a krushers practice session & make fun of some of her players. they call jake a "fatso" (that's sad! leave the fat kids alone!) & matt a "dummy" (that is beyond the pale--i would have smacked the ugly right off those bashers). kristy is disturbed by the fact that bart doesn't seem to notice his players fucking with her team & her crush fades. good for kristy! but it comes back later when he offers to walk her home.& thus begins the sad fact that we have to deal with at least a little boring softball crap in every single kristy book for the rest of the series. horrifying. but perhaps this is why i joined a softball team myself when i was eight. in our first big game, the pitcher hit me in the knuckles with the ball & broke one of my fingers. i never lifted a bat again.
You know when you attend a professional baseball game in the summer, it's mildly interesting because you can eat nachos, paint your nails, get a tan and sing along to whatever they blare from the speakers? But when you watch a professional baseball game on TV it's a bit more boring because you lose some of the experience? Now imagine reading a book about a softball team that is half comprised of toddlers/preschoolers (literally Gabbie is 2.5) written at about a third grade reading level. See where I'm going with this?If I don't hit my monthly reading goal, I cheat by reading a few BSC books. Clearly this has been happening a lot lately, since I'm on number 20. I haven't picked these up since 4th or 5th grade, which is well over 20 years now, and sad to say that they were better when I was 8. There are little aspects of these books that feel really dated and out of place. Like the fact that all the moms except Dr Johanssen stay at home and only need babysitters in the afternoons so they can run errands and go to doctor's appointments. Or that the deaf kid is called a "dummy" in this book without severe reprimand. Kristy's books aren't really my favorite, and this one is one of the weaker books so far. Although I haven't gotten to that Abby BS yet.
What do You think about Kristy And The Walking Disaster (1996)?
The last of this batch of BSC Kindle read. I read it pretty quickly (don't really know why) but I remembered having read it before. I actually remember almost nothing of the storyline except for the presence of Bart. The highlight of the book is just that... Kristy likes a boy. After so much complaining (in the last books) about how she dislikes them, there comes a boy that can make her change her mind...Now I'm realizing that, as I finished the book more than a month ago, I've already blocked the rest of the storyline :P Oh well, its one of those books that features a lot of the little kids together (the Krushers!!) and we have mini cheerleaders! Bring it On!
—Natalí
When I picked this one up I expected to not really enjoy it because I don't care for books about "disasters" and contrived clumsiness, but I have to admit I have a weakness for inspirational sports movies and this kind of reminded me of The Sandlot. Kristy has a clumsy sitting client and invites him--along with some other neighborhood kids who are too young for Little League--to join her ragtag softball team, Kristy's Krushers. Annoyingly, there had to be a non-sports element as well, so the author threw in a romance--Kristy developed a crush on an opposing team's male coach. Great. (I thought it was cool, though, that unlike a lot of girls her age, Kristy actually starts disliking her crush when he does jerky things.)I didn't like that the children on the Krushers were really stereotyped. Every child had something specific that made baseball difficult, and was defined in this book by whatever that trait was. (It annoyed me that the deaf kid had his deafness invoked as a setback in playing baseball, when actually baseball is Matt's THING and the only problem he has regarding deafness is that not many kids can talk to him.)I did like that even though the inspirational sports "thing" was played out--the underdog team plays a better, more practiced team and gets scoffed at until they show them what they're made of--they didn't actually come from behind and WIN. And they weren't all pissed off about losing--they were legitimately glad that they did as well as they did, and that was cute and cool.
—Swankivy
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!
—April
