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The Baby-Sitters Club #112
Kristy and the Sister War
When Kristy gets a regular sitting job at the Kilbourne house, she has to wonder: Doesn't Shannon Kilbourne, associate member of the BSC have time to take care of her own sisters? The answer, unfortunately, is "no." Shannon is too busy to deal with her sisters. But they will not be ignored.
First, Tiffany and Maria try to help Shannon--by "cleaning" her room and "correcting" her algebra homework. When this doesn't work, Tiffany and Maria decide to make Shannon's life harder. Can Kristy manage to forge a truce--or will the Sister War rage out of control?
First, Tiffany and Maria try to help Shannon--by "cleaning" her room and "correcting" her algebra homework. When this doesn't work, Tiffany and Maria decide to make Shannon's life harder. Can Kristy manage to forge a truce--or will the Sister War rage out of control?
160 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
33 people are currently reading
567 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,000Ìýbooks2,946ÌýfollowersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 12, 2011
in the letter from ann m. martin in the back of this book, ann explains that she & her editors came up with the title of this book before they dreamed up a plot. it really shows. the sister war takes place between the three kilbourne sisters, BSC associate member shannon & her younger siblings, tiffany & maria. shannon is running herself ragged with projects, clubs, & commitments, & her sisters are sad because they feel shannon has no time for them anymore. kristy is hired to babysit the younger girls two days a week while mrs. kilbourne takes some classes (she is thinking about going back to school for a teaching certificate), which is how kristy gets caught in the middle. though i believe tiffany, the middle sister, is eleven years old & it has been stated in previous books that she occasionally babysits in the rich neighborhood. so i'm not sure why she needs an after-school sitter.
anyway, kristy tells tiffany & maria that shannon is really busy these days with atsronomy club, french club, trying out for the school play, & organizing the first all-stoneybrook dance, at which middle school students from all three stoneybrook middle schools will be welcome. the girls wonder if they could make shannon's life easier & create more time for themselves in her life if they "helped" her in various ways. first, they make her favorite cookies, but they forget that they have evening commitments, & so shannon is stuck cleaning up their mess, which does not endear them to her. they try walking astrid, which is usually one of shannon's chores, but astrid escapes & only shannon can be counted on to lure her back. they try to "help" shannon with her algebra homework by substituting all the letters in her answers with numbers. they try to clean her room, but only succeed in making it even messier. at no point do they actually ask shannon how they could help her, & shannon only sees the annoying results of their attempts, so she is more aggravated with them than ever.
so the girls try a different tack & start annoying her. they say her name over & over again at dinner. they put a bucket of jello over her bedroom door. i actually can't remember all the different ways they fuck with her, but it culminates in putting cooked spaghetti in her backpack. at first, shannon is really angry & even blames kristy, because kristy was babysitting when the girls hid the spaghetti. but then she starts laughing & realizes that the girls were just looking for any kind of attention from her at all. she decides to cut back on some of her responsibilities in order to spend more time with them.
i think my recap is making the book sound a lot more exciting than it is. trust me, this book is really, really boring. i have seriously experienced more excitement clipping my own toenails.
in the B-plot, the children of stoneybrook decide to organize an all-stoneybrook dance for elementary school kids. but it's a big mess at first because the kids keep arguing over the details, like where the dance will be, what the theme will be, etc. & then they all get nervous about the possibility of having dates. the babysitters club swoops in & forbids dates to take the pressure off the kids, & they also help them figure out how to vote effectively & make decisions. these are also skills that are needed in planning the all-stoneybrook middle school dance, which is plagued with the same problems of arguing & bickering between the schools. it kind of reads like the ghostwriter forgot which plot was having difficulties with the dance. it's just sloppy & dull.
anyway, both dances happen & they are successful. there's a happy ending for tiffany & maria when their parents & shannon come to the dance & declare that they will try to create more family time. don't quote me on this, but i think this is the last major appearance of the kilbourne family in the babysitters club series. i feel like some ghostwriters have been setting mr. & mrs. kilbourne up for divorce for a while, but maybe the editors stepped in on this one & were like, "listen, ann, not EVERY family is torn apart by divorce. maybe let's give it a rest with the divorce plotlines." so they had to do a sister war instead.
anyway, kristy tells tiffany & maria that shannon is really busy these days with atsronomy club, french club, trying out for the school play, & organizing the first all-stoneybrook dance, at which middle school students from all three stoneybrook middle schools will be welcome. the girls wonder if they could make shannon's life easier & create more time for themselves in her life if they "helped" her in various ways. first, they make her favorite cookies, but they forget that they have evening commitments, & so shannon is stuck cleaning up their mess, which does not endear them to her. they try walking astrid, which is usually one of shannon's chores, but astrid escapes & only shannon can be counted on to lure her back. they try to "help" shannon with her algebra homework by substituting all the letters in her answers with numbers. they try to clean her room, but only succeed in making it even messier. at no point do they actually ask shannon how they could help her, & shannon only sees the annoying results of their attempts, so she is more aggravated with them than ever.
so the girls try a different tack & start annoying her. they say her name over & over again at dinner. they put a bucket of jello over her bedroom door. i actually can't remember all the different ways they fuck with her, but it culminates in putting cooked spaghetti in her backpack. at first, shannon is really angry & even blames kristy, because kristy was babysitting when the girls hid the spaghetti. but then she starts laughing & realizes that the girls were just looking for any kind of attention from her at all. she decides to cut back on some of her responsibilities in order to spend more time with them.
i think my recap is making the book sound a lot more exciting than it is. trust me, this book is really, really boring. i have seriously experienced more excitement clipping my own toenails.
in the B-plot, the children of stoneybrook decide to organize an all-stoneybrook dance for elementary school kids. but it's a big mess at first because the kids keep arguing over the details, like where the dance will be, what the theme will be, etc. & then they all get nervous about the possibility of having dates. the babysitters club swoops in & forbids dates to take the pressure off the kids, & they also help them figure out how to vote effectively & make decisions. these are also skills that are needed in planning the all-stoneybrook middle school dance, which is plagued with the same problems of arguing & bickering between the schools. it kind of reads like the ghostwriter forgot which plot was having difficulties with the dance. it's just sloppy & dull.
anyway, both dances happen & they are successful. there's a happy ending for tiffany & maria when their parents & shannon come to the dance & declare that they will try to create more family time. don't quote me on this, but i think this is the last major appearance of the kilbourne family in the babysitters club series. i feel like some ghostwriters have been setting mr. & mrs. kilbourne up for divorce for a while, but maybe the editors stepped in on this one & were like, "listen, ann, not EVERY family is torn apart by divorce. maybe let's give it a rest with the divorce plotlines." so they had to do a sister war instead.
January 9, 2019
I actually liked how Kristy was written in this book (for the most part) and the story itself managed to keep my interest. Sure, it's still a bit cheesy and cliched since it's a BSC book but with over 110 books in the series, this was a kind of breath of fresh air for me.
June 21, 2018
this is my first time reading this book.
in this non-mystery by mystery ghostwriter , shannon is extra busy, and her sisters tiffany and maria are bummed out because they miss her. kristy helps them try to do nice things to make shannon’s life easier so she will have more time for them, but the nice things backfire and they accidentally make her life harder. she gets mad at them, so they decide to intentionally mess with her. finally kristy talks to shannon about it, and shannon decides to lighten the load with her activities so she will have time for her sisters (and her parents both do the same and vow to have dinner together every night). subplot is that there is an all-stoneybrook dance, with the middle schoolers from all the stoneybrook middle schools. claudia wants kristy to go with her boyfriend mark’s friend from another school, so they agree to double date. the guy is a total dud: he likes sports memorabilia but doesn’t care about sports for real. other subplot is that the bsc has an all-kids dance, like the all-stoneybrook dance but for elementary school kids. the kids worry about getting dates, so the bsc decree that no one should bring dates to that dance.
highlights:
-tiffany and maria plan to short-sheet shannon's bed! I love when they short-sheet in these books.
-the kids fight over the theme for the dance, but charlotte and linny want star trek. I love the idea of a star trek-themed dance.
-mark pays more attention to his friend steve than claudia on their double date, plus he was late. kristy thinks he's not good enough for claud but wants to be a supportive friend so she doesn’t say anything. foreshadowing their breakup in .
-greer carson, a friend of shannon, says that berry punch is "vomitacious" -- I love this fake-ass word.
-tiffany and maria fight over who will get to dance with jordan pike, but at the dance it turns out maria actually liked adam and tiffany actually liked byron, neither of them liked jordan. haha triplet drama
lowlights/nitpicks:
-tiffany and maria claim snickerdoodles have walnuts and raisins inside, which is a patent lie
-maria and tiffany change shannon’s algebra homework so all the variables are numbers and claim that it looked wrong because it shouldn't have letters. I’m sorry, nobody is stupid enough to think they are helping their big sister by fixing her math homework.
-tiffany and maria both have a crush on jordan pike, and kristy narrates that they are just fooling around with the idea of having a crush on a boy because they're too young to be interested in dating. too young? tiffany is eleven, the same age as mal and jessi.
-claud says purple and orange is an ugly color combo. she's wrong.
-at a meeting of the all-stoneybrook dance committee, everyone keeps fighting and disagreeing about everything. then kristy puts on a cd and they all spontaneously start dancing, and suddenly they all agree on everything and everything is fine. what is this, she’s all that or something?
claudia outfit for double date:
"Finally, she settled on a pink corduroy miniskirt with a lime green sweater...She pulled her hair up into a ponytail, wrapped a lime green scrunchie around it, and spiked out her bangs with gel."
cokie outfit for dance:
-"She was dressed entirely in animal prints, from her dalmatian go-go boots to her leopard-skin miniskirt to her zebra top."
in this non-mystery by mystery ghostwriter , shannon is extra busy, and her sisters tiffany and maria are bummed out because they miss her. kristy helps them try to do nice things to make shannon’s life easier so she will have more time for them, but the nice things backfire and they accidentally make her life harder. she gets mad at them, so they decide to intentionally mess with her. finally kristy talks to shannon about it, and shannon decides to lighten the load with her activities so she will have time for her sisters (and her parents both do the same and vow to have dinner together every night). subplot is that there is an all-stoneybrook dance, with the middle schoolers from all the stoneybrook middle schools. claudia wants kristy to go with her boyfriend mark’s friend from another school, so they agree to double date. the guy is a total dud: he likes sports memorabilia but doesn’t care about sports for real. other subplot is that the bsc has an all-kids dance, like the all-stoneybrook dance but for elementary school kids. the kids worry about getting dates, so the bsc decree that no one should bring dates to that dance.
highlights:
-tiffany and maria plan to short-sheet shannon's bed! I love when they short-sheet in these books.
-the kids fight over the theme for the dance, but charlotte and linny want star trek. I love the idea of a star trek-themed dance.
-mark pays more attention to his friend steve than claudia on their double date, plus he was late. kristy thinks he's not good enough for claud but wants to be a supportive friend so she doesn’t say anything. foreshadowing their breakup in .
-greer carson, a friend of shannon, says that berry punch is "vomitacious" -- I love this fake-ass word.
-tiffany and maria fight over who will get to dance with jordan pike, but at the dance it turns out maria actually liked adam and tiffany actually liked byron, neither of them liked jordan. haha triplet drama
lowlights/nitpicks:
-tiffany and maria claim snickerdoodles have walnuts and raisins inside, which is a patent lie
-maria and tiffany change shannon’s algebra homework so all the variables are numbers and claim that it looked wrong because it shouldn't have letters. I’m sorry, nobody is stupid enough to think they are helping their big sister by fixing her math homework.
-tiffany and maria both have a crush on jordan pike, and kristy narrates that they are just fooling around with the idea of having a crush on a boy because they're too young to be interested in dating. too young? tiffany is eleven, the same age as mal and jessi.
-claud says purple and orange is an ugly color combo. she's wrong.
-at a meeting of the all-stoneybrook dance committee, everyone keeps fighting and disagreeing about everything. then kristy puts on a cd and they all spontaneously start dancing, and suddenly they all agree on everything and everything is fine. what is this, she’s all that or something?
claudia outfit for double date:
"Finally, she settled on a pink corduroy miniskirt with a lime green sweater...She pulled her hair up into a ponytail, wrapped a lime green scrunchie around it, and spiked out her bangs with gel."
cokie outfit for dance:
-"She was dressed entirely in animal prints, from her dalmatian go-go boots to her leopard-skin miniskirt to her zebra top."
May 1, 2013
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!
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!
October 21, 2017
You can tell that at 112 books in, they're REALLY strugglingfor ideas. Yeesh.
April 12, 2023
I think I've only read this book once, and I couldn't remember much of what happened, so not an overly solid entry to the series. Not even enough Shannon to make up for it. And, while reading it this time, all I could focus on was Tiffany, and how she was banished to the land of immature 11-year-olds with Ben Hobart. Doomed to be pranking siblings and entering silly contests for kids instead of a mature 11 like Mal and Jessi, getting to go to the all-school dance and being a BSC member. (Heck, even the 10-year-old Pike triplets can be the second sitter for their family...) So that says a lot for this book when that's all I could focus on.
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October 1, 2023I have a sticker on my water bottle that says:
"Lead like Kristy
Dress like Claudia
Date like Stacey
Organize everyone's schedules
be the first with a steady boyfriend
get a haircut that pisses off your friends
wear your heart on your sleeve
like Mary Anne."
I stopped reading the OG BSC novels at 111, so I figured I should read the rest. You can get them on Libby! (At least in my library system).
Anyway. Why were all the elementary school kids in this book so focused on taking a date to an interschool dance?
"Lead like Kristy
Dress like Claudia
Date like Stacey
Organize everyone's schedules
be the first with a steady boyfriend
get a haircut that pisses off your friends
wear your heart on your sleeve
like Mary Anne."
I stopped reading the OG BSC novels at 111, so I figured I should read the rest. You can get them on Libby! (At least in my library system).
Anyway. Why were all the elementary school kids in this book so focused on taking a date to an interschool dance?
Read
July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
April 20, 2023
Sweet, kinda sad, and relatable. I do kinda wish this story was from Shannon's POV instead of Kristy's; she was the one really impacted by the events, and Kristy was mostly awkwardly on the outside looking in. (Plus her early attempt to 'help' by suggesting Tiffany and Maria do nice deeds for Shannon is well-intentioned but misguided. Since Kristy knew from the start how Tiffany and Maria felt, why didn't she just talk to Shannon or their parents earlier?)
March 1, 2023
Kristy is doing a lot of babysitting for the Kilbourne family since both Shannon and Mrs. Kilbourne are so busy. While babysitting, Kristy learns that Shannon's siblings miss their sister and have various "plans" to get her attention...most of which are unsuccessful. Meanwhile, there are two multi-school dances being planned: one for the middle schools and one for the elementary schools.
March 18, 2023
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
March 11, 2024
More like 3.5 stars and rounding up. Maybe because my last BSC book was so weak, but this one was actually really fun. The subplot and main plot worked very well together, and there was tons of babysitting shenanigans to read and laugh about. I also loved that we got quite a few scenes of the other sitters (especially at the dance!) Plus, I'm a sucker for plots that develop family relationships.
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August 17, 2019Shannon and Kristy go to a dance together. Shannon's sisters want their family to pay attention to them. The BSC organise a middle school dance and there's so much romance drama between all the children?
January 17, 2021
(LL)
This was better than I was expecting. Most of the stuff in here was fairly realistic in how siblings interact with one another. The All-Kids Dance was a cute idea. A decent story from Kristy, which doesn’t always happen!
This was better than I was expecting. Most of the stuff in here was fairly realistic in how siblings interact with one another. The All-Kids Dance was a cute idea. A decent story from Kristy, which doesn’t always happen!
November 5, 2021
Meeeeehhhh. This one felt really out of sync with the others. If anything, it would have been better to have Shannon be the narrator, rather than Kristy. It just felt disjointed and the wrong POV the entire book.
November 24, 2019
Review on please listen to this book and kids don't try the stunts at home.
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March 13, 2021Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever:
October 30, 2024
This one wasn't as bad as the previous Stacey book was. At least it was mildly entertaining not very but okay. It would've been better if the sister war was between Dawn and Mary Anne or Karen, Emily Michelle and Kristy. But instead it's the Kilbourne girls, Shannon Maria and Tiffany. Shannon is busy and has no time for family and her sisters feel left out. As their parents also have no time Mr. Kilbourne is like Mr. McGill and always works and Mrs. Kilbourne is going back to school to be a teacher, so they are on their own. Kristy is hired to baby sit for Maria and Tiffany even though one of the sisters is the same age as Mallory and Jessi. But anyway the girls start out trying to help Shannon. They end up making more work for her instead. They bake her cookies and end up leaving a mess for her to clean, try fixing her algebra homework but humiliate her, they walk Astrid and end up losing her. Then they switch to pranks which Shannon barely responds to until they put cooked spaghetti in her bag. Then things cone to a head and eventually it all works out. The b plot involves a Stoneybrook school dance. The girls decide to have a dance for their sitting charges as they are also having a Stoneybrook wide dance. It's sort of cute. Also Claudia drags Kristy out on a double date and there's foreshadowing for the next book since cute Mark isn't all Claudia dreamed he'd be. Ugh this one was just okay kind of boring but more readable than the last book.
May 29, 2009
22. 4/6/09: Baby-Sitters Club number hundred and zillion: Kristy and the Sister War, by Ann M. Martin (ostensibly). This was not bad as upper-level BSC books go, definitely better than some. I love books with Shannon in them, so this rated highly on that account.
November 1, 2013
In which K. Ron is a buttinski, as usual. Shannon's sisters are pissed at her, so instead of talking to her, K. Ron allows the kids to prank her. Yeesh, these later books are bad.
December 31, 2021
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