Rereading My Childhood: The Baby-Sitters Club

#25: Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger

Logan Bruno and I have been off to a rocky start. He started out okay, but then he compared Mary Anne to other girls and generally disappoints me with his ambivalence toward Mary Anne. On top of all that, he's barely a driving factor in her life. And that's when he's around, which is never. If every book didn't start with a long description of each member, adding that Mary Anne's boyfriend is named Logan, then I wouldn't have any idea that Mary Anne is in a relationship. However, maybe it's better if Logan isn't an integral part of the series, considering his track record.

And it's strange. I don't remember having any disdain for Logan when I was a kid. He wasn't my favorite of the BSC boyfriends, but I didn't hate him. Maybe when I was a kid, the bar for men was so low that Satan himself could use it for pull-ups. Since then, the bar has been raised. Now it's on the ground, but it's still impossible for some men to hop the inch it takes to clear it.

Logan plays a significant role in The Baby-Sitters Club #25: Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger. That means he has another chance to justify himself to adult me and be the boy I remember from my childhood. Let's hope Logan can climb his way out of hell and use that southern charm to get himself one inch into the air to get over that bar.

Mary Anne starts the novel at the pet store with Dawn. She is buying presents for her cat, Tigger. See, Tigger keeps losing toys behind the refrigerator, so the logical thing to do is buy the cat more toys. You know. To replace the ones behind the refrigerator? I think?

But it's almost time for a BSC meeting, so the girls pay for their purchases and rush back to Mary Anne's house before heading to Claudia's house, where Mary Anne can tell us a little about the young artist.

Claud mixes and matches the weirdest stuff and comes up with the coolest outfits. Like a loose blouse with a fake coat of arms on it worn over a very short black skirt. Around her waist, a scarf. On her feet, short black boots. Dangling from her ears, dinosaurs. And her hair might be piled on top of her head and held in place with hairpins that look like seahorses. She combines all this stuff - and she looks fantastic.

Then Mary Anne calls Claudia's room "a rat hole." That's needlessly harsh, Mary Anne. Maybe that "rat hole" has all the accessories she looks "fantastic" in.

Mary Anne doesn't say it out loud, so this isn't one of the books wherein the girls fight. That's a firm check in the "plus" column. Instead, Logan calls! He needs a babysitter. See, he has engineered clones in his free time and they need a sitter while he's speaking at the United Nations on the ethics of cloning. I'm kidding. He needs a sitter for his siblings, Hunter and Kerry because he joined the baseball team and can't watch them. Mary Anne takes the job.

The next day, Logan and Mary Anne are outside of her house playing with Tigger and going over what Mary Anne needs to know about Logan's siblings. Hunter is allergic to everything, which would make him a terrible hunter. Kerry is trying to prove she's independent, which Logan thinks would end if she had more friends. Suddenly, Jamie appears to play with the cat. And then Myriah and Gabbie. And finally, we have Charlotte. And they all play with the cat, and Mary Anne tells us that Logan is good with kids and gorgeous.

You know what I still can't figure out, though? I can't figure out why Logan likes me. Why would any boy like shy me better than sophisticated, outgoing Claudia? Or self-assured Dawn?

Boys don't like sophistication, otherwise, there wouldn't be thirty-five-year-old men dating nineteen-year-olds. Boys also don't like confidence, otherwise, again, there wouldn't be thirty-five-year-old men dating nineteen-year-olds. And Logan shouldn't make Mary Anne feel that way. What is he telling her? A boyfriend should give you the confidence to fight God and time like a JRPG character. They shouldn't make you question your worthiness.