Fear not: Mary Anne and Logan's long estrangement is at an end.Mary Anne is assigned to a group author research project with Pete Black and Logan. Cokie Mason, Mary Anne’s rival, worms her way into the group as a way of getting close to Logan, which actually seems to work; he agrees to go on dates with her. While Logan and Cokie spend their free time at games and concerts, Mary Anne and Pete feel it’s up to them to do the work. Logan finally ditches Cokie and catches up on his part of the project, with Mary Anne’s help. They bond.The project gets a little unrealistically high-stakes when the kids find out at last minute that the authors they are researching will be visiting the school. (Although I do sort of like that there are so many details about fake author Megan Rinehart--most of the books mentioned in BSC books are real, and the way Megan Rinehart is mentioned alongside them, and the details of her fake oeuvre, make her seem realistic. You get a real sense of the kind of books she writes.) In the end, each group member except Cokie delivers a solid speech, and Logan asks Mary Anne out again.I like Logan and Mary Anne getting back together, and I think their problem--basically that Mary Anne was too much of a wimp to state what she wanted--is the kind of thing that time apart can believably solve. But I would have liked the break-up to last more than five measly books! I remember it being longer, perhaps because I had to wait for a new allowance every time I wanted a new book, and I didn’t necessarily read them in order. Looking back at them now, it would have been nice if there had been an intervening Mary Anne Stands Up For Things! book. This is a fairly unsatisfying execution of an inherently satisfying plot advance. While there’s a certain amount of yearning and excitement, I feel like more could have been done with the set-up. Neither Mary Anne nor Logan is particularly likeable or romantic. Cokie at least seems more interested in improving her own life than ruining Mary Anne’s, for once, but she’s just as much of a ridiculous caricature as ever (airhead variety). The babysitting subplot in which Bill and Melody Korman (new kids who moved into the Delaney house) become afraid of an imaginary Toilet Monster is thoroughly meh.Cover Art Oddity: For all their shortcomings in depicting accurate proportions and physics (the spilling liquid on the cover of Stacey’s Emergency is an embarassment), the cover oil paintings for BSC books tend to be true and accurate to the content of a particular scene in the story, with outfit details and so forth generally correct. This is the one of the very few books where the cover art depicts a scene which isn’t even in the book: Mary Anne and the other senior BSC-ers rollerskating. Weird.Revised Timeline: This is where I figure out how old the baby-sitters would be if they aged. September of eleventh grade
Despite the focus on Author Day, this is one of the more boring BSC books. Half of it focused on the Korman kids being afraid of the Toilet Monster, a sub-plot that I couldn't even vaguely connect with Mary Anne's desire to get back together with Logan. On the plus side, I could sympathise with her jealousy over Cokie flirting with Logan, and could totally understand her annoyance that Cokie didn't do any work on their English project. It was nice to see Pete featuring in this book, he's always a nice secondary character to have around. But most of the BSC girls barely featured in this plot, sadly. I'm not sure what it was, but this book just didn't interest me very much. I vividly remembered the Author Day incidents with Cokie, but rereading it was a bit of a let-down. 7/10
What do You think about Mary Anne Misses Logan (1991)?
I read about 20-25 of these books. I read them in fifth and sixth grade. I strongly remember wanting to read these because they seemed cool and my older sister read a few of them. I remember that our library had a little display of them and I also bought a lot of them through the book catalogs we got at school. I remember most strongly the set up of the books; each book started explaining the club and describing each of the members. I also strongly remember the covers.The cover of this book has stood in my mind for a long time; as silly as it sounds, it helped define friendship for me.
—jacky
Let's start with the cover. It's cute right? The girls are roller skating, their outfits are all there: Mary Anne's mom jeans, Kristy's sweater + turtleneck (isn't that hot??), Claudia's totally dibbly vest + fedora, Dawn's "Cali Casual". There's only one problem: this scene DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE BOOK. What?? This is the first time that has happened and it is super annoying. Stoneybrook Middle School is doing another ridiculous school-wide assignment (do they ever do any *actual* learning, like SAT vocab words or something?). All the 8th graders will be grouped up in 4's and assigned a living author to research and report on. Which is pretty cool, actually. But Mary Anne is freaked out about having to work with possible strangers or even worse, Cokie Mason or Alan Gray. And even though she misses Logan terribly, she doesn't even consider that she might have to work with her ex-boyfriend.Read my full review here! Includes Stacey's totally dibbly outfit plus an extra special Mary Anne outfit!!
—Jenn
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
