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situationnormal's review
4.0
3.5 stars and rounding up. The portrait books are such a nice departure from the other series-within-a-series the BSC has because they're so personalized to each sitter. That said, Kristy's last story about her dad felt very shoehorned in (I'm assuming this was around the time the BSC movie came out and they had to make it fit?) And left the book feeling a little lackluster.
impybelle's review
4.0
Kristy's book is another book in the BSC series that takes a page from the movie and references Patrick Thomas appearing in Stoneybrook only to see Kristy. If the BSC were more realistic, I wonder if her brothers ever would have found out that their father had no interest in them at all. I wonder if it would have bothered them, especially DM since Patrick chose to walk out on them right after DM was born and pretty much NEVER saw his youngest.
The stories of younger Kristy (and MA as well as Claudia) are sweet, but my favorite is the way Watson steps in for Kristy. Looking back on the series, he seems to be an iffy father (at best) for Karen and Andrew (think about how much time they spend with babysitters before they do the one month on, one month off switch. It's a lot.) but when he gets it right, he really, truly does.
The stories of younger Kristy (and MA as well as Claudia) are sweet, but my favorite is the way Watson steps in for Kristy. Looking back on the series, he seems to be an iffy father (at best) for Karen and Andrew (think about how much time they spend with babysitters before they do the one month on, one month off switch. It's a lot.) but when he gets it right, he really, truly does.
chicafrom3's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Kristy reflects on her life to date, particularly her relationships with her family. Notable for the development of Patrick Thomas.
finesilkflower's review
3.0
The Portrait Collection is a series of the Baby-sitters Club girls' school-assigned "autobiographies," which take the form of 2- to 3-chapter short stories about their childhoods. I'll summarize and review each story individually.
Age 5: Kristy’s first great idea: she, Claudia, and Mary Anne build decorative snowmen for their neighbors in exchanges for donations to the Mimi birthday present fund. Brief and fine.
Age 5 1/2: Kristy cons her way along on a movies trip with her big brothers, breaking rules and worrying her mother, who expects to find her home. Kristy’s father, Patrick, laughs it off, saying she has "spunk," but her mother punishes her. An incident which neatly showcases Kristy's bond with her older brothers and her mother's and father's opposing parenting styles (responsible vs. irr-).
Age 6: After Kristy’s father leaves and her mother gets a job, Kristy, Sam, and Charlie are left on their own after school for a few weeks. They get into scrapes, notably when Louie is sprayed by a skunk, until their mother imposes clear rules and expectations. This is the story we've all been waiting for, really, showing what it was really like in those early days, with Kristy as troublesome yet way-too-responsible kid and Charlie and Sam as baby-sitter types.
Age 10: Kristy wins a scholarship to a girls’ softball camp where she helps overcome the red team-vs-blue team infighting that threatens to ruin the team spirit of the all-camp team. Yawwwn but I guess we needed a baseball story.
Age 13(+?): Kristy’s mysterious father returns in the wake of a break-up with his new wife; wreaks minor havor with Kristy’s emotions; and then disappears again. This last entry happens after Watson is established as Kristy’s stepfather, so it’s actually during the continuity of the BSC books, raising the question: why wasn’t it actually a book? True, Kristy’s father is much more a presence in the entirety of this book than he has been in the entirety of the rest of the series, but it would have been nice to have an actual, more canonical story involving Patrick. More than enough material for the plot of a BSC book is jammed into these three chapters, which read like a summary for an actual story, perhaps because they were salvaged from one. It’s so summarized that it is actually boring to read, despite the inherent interest value of the storyline.
Lingering Questions: WHY. WHY DID WE NOT GET A WHOLE BOOK ABOUT PATRICK.
Grade: For her autobiography effort, Kristy gets a B+. Why? The teacher wrote nothing but good comments. Where did she lose points? This is just like in ninth grade when Jason E. and I suspected that the English teacher's subjective grading was more based on past work and other assorted biases (i.e. lower grades for students who she deemed loud or disruptive in class or who were boys) than our actual work on any individual assignment. We came up with this great scheme where we simply swapped our names on a typical assignment. I usually got A's and he usually got C's so if it was reversed, we'd be proved correct. And lo and behold, "his" (actually my) assignment got a C and "my" (actually his) assignment got an A! We were correct! And we... didn't do anything else about it, as I recall. Just sort of smirked and basked in our rightness. Should we have told somebody? Ugh, fourteen-year-olds.
Read as a kid: No. One of the last BSC books I read as a kid was Claudia's portrait book, which came out in March 1995--second of the Portrait Collections. Kristy's was fifth, in September 1996, by which time I had deemed myself "too old for" the baby-sitters club. And yet. And yet.
Age 5: Kristy’s first great idea: she, Claudia, and Mary Anne build decorative snowmen for their neighbors in exchanges for donations to the Mimi birthday present fund. Brief and fine.
Age 5 1/2: Kristy cons her way along on a movies trip with her big brothers, breaking rules and worrying her mother, who expects to find her home. Kristy’s father, Patrick, laughs it off, saying she has "spunk," but her mother punishes her. An incident which neatly showcases Kristy's bond with her older brothers and her mother's and father's opposing parenting styles (responsible vs. irr-).
Age 6: After Kristy’s father leaves and her mother gets a job, Kristy, Sam, and Charlie are left on their own after school for a few weeks. They get into scrapes, notably when Louie is sprayed by a skunk, until their mother imposes clear rules and expectations. This is the story we've all been waiting for, really, showing what it was really like in those early days, with Kristy as troublesome yet way-too-responsible kid and Charlie and Sam as baby-sitter types.
Age 10: Kristy wins a scholarship to a girls’ softball camp where she helps overcome the red team-vs-blue team infighting that threatens to ruin the team spirit of the all-camp team. Yawwwn but I guess we needed a baseball story.
Age 13(+?): Kristy’s mysterious father returns in the wake of a break-up with his new wife; wreaks minor havor with Kristy’s emotions; and then disappears again. This last entry happens after Watson is established as Kristy’s stepfather, so it’s actually during the continuity of the BSC books, raising the question: why wasn’t it actually a book? True, Kristy’s father is much more a presence in the entirety of this book than he has been in the entirety of the rest of the series, but it would have been nice to have an actual, more canonical story involving Patrick. More than enough material for the plot of a BSC book is jammed into these three chapters, which read like a summary for an actual story, perhaps because they were salvaged from one. It’s so summarized that it is actually boring to read, despite the inherent interest value of the storyline.
Lingering Questions: WHY. WHY DID WE NOT GET A WHOLE BOOK ABOUT PATRICK.
Grade: For her autobiography effort, Kristy gets a B+. Why? The teacher wrote nothing but good comments. Where did she lose points? This is just like in ninth grade when Jason E. and I suspected that the English teacher's subjective grading was more based on past work and other assorted biases (i.e. lower grades for students who she deemed loud or disruptive in class or who were boys) than our actual work on any individual assignment. We came up with this great scheme where we simply swapped our names on a typical assignment. I usually got A's and he usually got C's so if it was reversed, we'd be proved correct. And lo and behold, "his" (actually my) assignment got a C and "my" (actually his) assignment got an A! We were correct! And we... didn't do anything else about it, as I recall. Just sort of smirked and basked in our rightness. Should we have told somebody? Ugh, fourteen-year-olds.
Read as a kid: No. One of the last BSC books I read as a kid was Claudia's portrait book, which came out in March 1995--second of the Portrait Collections. Kristy's was fifth, in September 1996, by which time I had deemed myself "too old for" the baby-sitters club. And yet. And yet.
sammah's review
2.0
Kristy's dad was a total loser. I personally think Mrs. Thomas should have punched him when she had the chance. Or, at the very least, Charlie should have in the Friends Forever series before those kids peaced out of his life for good.
xtinamorse's review
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/portrait-collection-kristys-book
ssshira's review
3.0
this potrait collection book by portrait collection writer extraordinaire [a:Jeanne Betancourt|79828|Jeanne Betancourt|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1258759027p2/79828.jpg] is all about kristy, framed as being her autobiography that she had to write for school. here are the main stories she tells:
-within her first five years of life: her mom goes into labor while she and kristy's dad are at a yankees game. they almost don't leave the game because they want to watch it so badly. later in these early years chapters, kristy, claudia, and mary anne build a snowperson. one of their neighbors says she misses the snow people her kids used to make so kristy has her first great idea to build snowpeople for neighbors. the neighbors all pay the kids well because the kids plan to spend the money on a gift for mimi. they end up buying her a scarf that she wears every winter for the rest of her life.
-at age 5 1/2: kristy wants to be independent like her brothers, so when she finds out they are going to see a movie called car man, she schemes to get to see it with them. she tells her mom she's going to claudia's but actually meets up with her brothers and then tells her brothers that her mom let her go with them to the movie. kristy's mom figures out that kristy had lied and ends up going to the theater to take kristy out before the movie ends. desperate to find out how the movie ends kristy and claudia and mary anne play car man and convince sam and charlie to play with them so they can sneakily find out the ending from them.
-at age 6: kristy's dad leaves. he doesn't tell anyone in his family but tells his boss where he's going and the family just has to figure it out by calling the boss. kristy's mom gets a job and needs the kids to take care of themselves but they basically just eat pizza and chinese food every day and at one point louie gets sprayed by a skunk and they try to clean him but end up making a mess and getting locked in the bathroom. kristy's mom sees this as a wake-up call that they need to get better organized. after that they enact a chore wheel and start cooking instead of just eating pizza.
-at age 10: kristy goes to softball camp and gets involved in annoying drama. the cabins have too much spirit and it makes them hate each other too vehemently so they relentlessly prank war with each other. when the cabins are enmeshed for an all-camp team, they in-fight so much that the coach gets frustrated quits. but eventually they make it up to her and stop being jerks. kristy is sort of mature in this because she recognizes the other cabin's shortstop as a better shortstop than her and becomes friends with her
-at age 12: kristy's dad comes back and it's basically the plot of the bsc movie. he keeps trying to get her to stay out with him and lie to her family. at one point he gets her a baseball glove as a present but it's a righty and she's a lefty. she's really bummed out but decides to try to exchange it and turns out it was swag from a banquet that he got because he works in the industry (meaning, he didn't buy it for her but just took it as a giveaway to give to her). watson ends up getting her a new glove that is actually right for her because he's her REAL father in spite of not being her bio father. and then her bio father ends up leaving again without telling her AGAIN.
highlights:
-krisy apparently ran her first steps. why am I not surprised?
-the premise of car man: a used car salesman who could turn into any car he wanted. goshdarnit I love this so much. it's like if transformers were just totally uncool.
-apparently kristy's dad thought kristy had shown spunk when sneaking out and going to car man and didn't want to punish her. dear kristy's mom: I think you were better off without him, because this dude is not equipped to coparent.
-kristy gets short sheeted as a prank at the softball camp! wasn't I keeping track of short sheets in these books? there hasn't been one in a while. I believe the most recent one was [b:Jessi's Baby-sitter|558380|Jessi's Baby-sitter (The Baby-Sitters Club, #36)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387738550s/558380.jpg|2227765].
lowlights/nitpicks:
-sam tells his mom that it was her fault their dad left. woof.
-in the illustration of the junk food kristy and her brothers were eating when their mom got a job, there's a carob bar. really? carob as junk food? carob is what dawn eats. chocolate is junk food.
-patrick keeps insulting kristy's mom by saying she's too controlling and such. it's almost exactly what happens in the last chapter of the mary anne portrait collection book, [b:Mary Anne's Book|558343|Mary Anne's Book (The Baby-Sitters Club Portrait Collection)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387737143s/558343.jpg|545520], where her grandmother keeps insulting her father. I'm not saying it's badly done or anything, but it just seems like lazy writing to have such a similar plotline in two back-to-back portrait collection books.
-within her first five years of life: her mom goes into labor while she and kristy's dad are at a yankees game. they almost don't leave the game because they want to watch it so badly. later in these early years chapters, kristy, claudia, and mary anne build a snowperson. one of their neighbors says she misses the snow people her kids used to make so kristy has her first great idea to build snowpeople for neighbors. the neighbors all pay the kids well because the kids plan to spend the money on a gift for mimi. they end up buying her a scarf that she wears every winter for the rest of her life.
-at age 5 1/2: kristy wants to be independent like her brothers, so when she finds out they are going to see a movie called car man, she schemes to get to see it with them. she tells her mom she's going to claudia's but actually meets up with her brothers and then tells her brothers that her mom let her go with them to the movie. kristy's mom figures out that kristy had lied and ends up going to the theater to take kristy out before the movie ends. desperate to find out how the movie ends kristy and claudia and mary anne play car man and convince sam and charlie to play with them so they can sneakily find out the ending from them.
-at age 6: kristy's dad leaves. he doesn't tell anyone in his family but tells his boss where he's going and the family just has to figure it out by calling the boss. kristy's mom gets a job and needs the kids to take care of themselves but they basically just eat pizza and chinese food every day and at one point louie gets sprayed by a skunk and they try to clean him but end up making a mess and getting locked in the bathroom. kristy's mom sees this as a wake-up call that they need to get better organized. after that they enact a chore wheel and start cooking instead of just eating pizza.
-at age 10: kristy goes to softball camp and gets involved in annoying drama. the cabins have too much spirit and it makes them hate each other too vehemently so they relentlessly prank war with each other. when the cabins are enmeshed for an all-camp team, they in-fight so much that the coach gets frustrated quits. but eventually they make it up to her and stop being jerks. kristy is sort of mature in this because she recognizes the other cabin's shortstop as a better shortstop than her and becomes friends with her
-at age 12: kristy's dad comes back and it's basically the plot of the bsc movie. he keeps trying to get her to stay out with him and lie to her family. at one point he gets her a baseball glove as a present but it's a righty and she's a lefty. she's really bummed out but decides to try to exchange it and turns out it was swag from a banquet that he got because he works in the industry (meaning, he didn't buy it for her but just took it as a giveaway to give to her). watson ends up getting her a new glove that is actually right for her because he's her REAL father in spite of not being her bio father. and then her bio father ends up leaving again without telling her AGAIN.
highlights:
-krisy apparently ran her first steps. why am I not surprised?
-the premise of car man: a used car salesman who could turn into any car he wanted. goshdarnit I love this so much. it's like if transformers were just totally uncool.
-apparently kristy's dad thought kristy had shown spunk when sneaking out and going to car man and didn't want to punish her. dear kristy's mom: I think you were better off without him, because this dude is not equipped to coparent.
-kristy gets short sheeted as a prank at the softball camp! wasn't I keeping track of short sheets in these books? there hasn't been one in a while. I believe the most recent one was [b:Jessi's Baby-sitter|558380|Jessi's Baby-sitter (The Baby-Sitters Club, #36)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387738550s/558380.jpg|2227765].
lowlights/nitpicks:
-sam tells his mom that it was her fault their dad left. woof.
-in the illustration of the junk food kristy and her brothers were eating when their mom got a job, there's a carob bar. really? carob as junk food? carob is what dawn eats. chocolate is junk food.
-patrick keeps insulting kristy's mom by saying she's too controlling and such. it's almost exactly what happens in the last chapter of the mary anne portrait collection book, [b:Mary Anne's Book|558343|Mary Anne's Book (The Baby-Sitters Club Portrait Collection)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387737143s/558343.jpg|545520], where her grandmother keeps insulting her father. I'm not saying it's badly done or anything, but it just seems like lazy writing to have such a similar plotline in two back-to-back portrait collection books.
leighannsherwin's review
4.0
Even though I'm sure there is a certain order to these, I decided to go in the order the girls joined the club and the offices they hold. Kristy being the founder and president goes first. As expected this book has a lot to do with baseball, which is Kristy's life. But it was interesting to see her life and childhood. From amusing stories like Louie getting sprayed by a skunk and the kids turning the bathroom into a tomato juice bloodbath, to young Kristy, Claudia and Mary Anne building snow people to earn money for Mimi's birthday present there were some non sports happenings. Especially sad was the depiction of Patrick Thomas, the absentee dad who didn't come home from work one night and then six years later showed up to try and win Kristy over by making her lie to her mom and everyone else. It was an okay book, Kristy wasn't the obnoxious person in this story that she usually is. It was touching to see her relationship with Watson which has grown into a nice father daughter bond. Also to see her early leadership skills while at sports camp as she helps to bring the camp softball team together to try and win. It was a nice look into the early life of Kristy Thomas and I'm looking forward to seeing the childhoods of the others now too.
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