The Baby-sitters Club #21 Mallory and the Trouble With Twins

This will probably be the last BSC book I will do for awhile, because I've been doing a lot lately (hey, I read them the most as a child) and I like some variety. Also, someone left a comment on the Baby-sitters Remember post and said I was "blatantly ripping off Tiff." I guess that means I can't talk about the BSC any more, since only one blog discussing them may exist. Although I did check a minute ago and Tiff never recapped that particular book, so I don't get it. Please explain.

Congratulations to Mallory, who totally killed everyone in the poll! I have to say, I'm glad she won. Elizabeth is really judgmental and overbearing, Enid is hella boring, and Penny is just a bitch. But I like to think that Mallory is lovably lame. Come on, we all had our Mallory moments growing up, feeling awkward and insecure about your looks, hanging out with the cool girls but never feeling quite good enough for them, and getting lost in the crowd of your siblings. Mallory may be boring, but she's definitely relatable.

Sorry this update is so late, but Major Payne was on HBO. I'm sure you understand. "Who's the dummy now?" Also, I would like to curse the weather for snowing so much that the college was given a snow day on the one day that I don't have classes.

I liked Mallory and the Trouble With Twins because I liked whenever the BSC went to the mall and I got to read about what they bought. This one has three mall trips!

The book opens with all the Pikes on their way to Washington Mall for new shoes. That's got to suck. Mallory wants some awesome pink shoes with green trim, but has to get loafers instead because her mom says that they'll go with everything. Let her get the pink shoes, Mrs. Pike! If she bitches about them not matching anything, then remind her whose idea it was to get them. The Pikes all split up, and Claire and Margo go off with Mallory. She has the great idea to take them to watch people get their ears pierced. Gross! I didn't even want to watch when I got my own ears pierced, let alone a complete stranger's. Claire screams as she watches, and Margo says she's going to puke. Mallory drags them out of there, mortified.

Mallory gets a new sitting job for the Arnold twins, Marilyn and Carolyn. The twins' mom is making them dress alike and shit, so no one can tell them apart. They do wear name bracelets, though. Mallory makes the mistake of telling them they look cute, and they take off their bracelets and run around and tell her to tell them apart now. Um, what? Cute is an insult now? The twins also start speaking in this made up language of theirs. It's so demented. Mallory is understandably flustered.

Mallory feels fug and babyish, and wants her ears pierced and her hair cut. She also wants her parents to treat her a little bit more like an adult. Mallory? You're 11. Also, if you want this shit, just ask. Don't sit and whine about it.

The twins continue pulling their shit and act like little assholes. Beat them! They pull a switch on Claudia, but instead of just a harmless little prank, they have Carolyn go to Marilyn's music school for an important recital practice. Claudia obviously can't drive, so she can't switch them back. Mrs. Arnold comes home and yells at the twins, and then proceeds to yell at Claudia for not being able to tell the girls apart without their bracelets on. Um, Mrs. Arnold? Don't dress your identical twins alike if you want people to be able to tell them apart!

More Mallory whining about her looks and not doing anything about it.

Twin breakthrough! The twins act like assholes again and start talking in their dumb language, but Mallory replies to them in Pig Latin, and they get mega pissed because they can't understand her. She agress to teach them Pig Latin if they stop using twin talk, and they tell her how you can tell them apart. Mrs. Arnold hires Mallory, Mary Anne, and Dawn to help at the twins' upcoming birthday party.

Party! The twins get all pissed because they're dressed alike and every guest brings them identical gifts because no one has actually gotten to know them. What kind of friends are those? Mallory is the only one who gets them something different, and they love it. The next time she sits for them, she helps them talk to their mom about letting them dress differently. Their mom agrees, and Mallory gets the brilliant idea to talk to her parents about the way she looks. Yes, it really takes her that long!

Mallory sits in her room and plots how she'll talk to her parents. Doesn't seem so hard to me. She asks them for contacts, a new wardrobe, a hair cut, and pierced ears, and they nearly shit themselves. They say no to the contacts and new wardrobe, which Mallory just used to bargain with anyway, but yes to the haircut and pierced ears. Mallory is all excited and stuff. I can see whay they might not say yes to pierced ears, but why not to a haircut? The Pikes doesn't really seem like strict parents, so I don't know why she's all surprised that they'd say yes.

Mallory takes the twins shopping for some new clothes, and they buy some sexy things like push down socks, heart kneesocks, and a dibble sweatshirt with moons and stars on it. I totally had that shirt in black!

The BSC plans a super chilly mall trip, and Claudia, Mallory, Jessi, and Dawn all get their ears pierced. Now, maybe the rules were different back then, but if I had walked into Claire's at 11 or 13 and told them to pierce my ears, they would've kicked me out unless I had a parent with me. But no, in Stoneybrook you can just walk right in and they pierce you without even batting an eye. Man, why didn't Mallory get her ears pierced sooner then? It's not like it's so noticeable. My dad didn't even notice my second holes (I have three in each ear and then one in my cartilage) until months afterwards. But that's our Mallory, I guess. She'll never be a badass.

A few weeks later, Mallory has gotten her hair cut. Her stylist is a moron who tells her that cutting her hair will make the curls settle into waves. I have naturally curly hair, and know that the opposite is true. The longer the hair is, the less curly it will be because the weight will pull it down. Mallory listens to the dumb stylist, though, and says that her hair is now short and fluffy. Fro? The BSC all give each other sweet earrings in honor of everyone being able to change them now. Mallory gives Jessi a special pair because they're bff!


The twins are really ugly. Mallory doesn't look so bad, actually. The cover artist does have a heart!