The book starts with Mary Anne and Mallory babysitting for the Pikes. The kids are being really wild but do not do anything actively gross. When Mary Anne goes home they have supper with three-cheese macaroni that's a recipe Dawn made up, and garlic and onion toast that Mary Anne made. It is supposed to sound really good but I hate homemade mac and cheese and garlic toast so the meal just sounds kind of gross to me. Richard announces that his law firm has merged with another firm and he'll be traveling more, starting with a two week trip to Cincinnati in July.
The baby-sitters realize that there is a three week gap between the end of school and the start of most camps and YMCA activities in the area, so they decide to hold a day camp in Mary Anne and Dawn's backyard for a couple of weeks and give it a circus theme. Shannon quotes a line from the Wizard of Oz. The club signs 22 children up for the camp. There are a bunch of kids from Karen's class at school as well as a bunch of kids the club usually sits for.
One of the kids, Alicia Gianelli, is four years old and has separation anxiety about being away from her mother. Mary Anne feels sympathetic toward her and spends a bunch of time with her, even staying with her while the other kids go to the park. The club announces the circus theme to the kids. Karen and her friends start acting superior because they've been to a real circus camp before. Karen in particular acts like a little brat about the entire idea and doesn't want to participate.
Richard leaves on his trip to Cleveland. Nothing is mentioned about why he is now going there instead of Cincinnati. Some of these later books weren't edited particularly well. Sharon has decreed that she and the girls will have a great time while Richard is gone. They rent stupid movies and throw popcorn at the screen during the bad scenes. Mary Anne misses her dad and really doesn't enjoy the movies or the mess.
The BSC campers take a field trip to the Stones' stupid farm, well, except for Alicia who stays with Mary Anne. Mrs. Stone gives the children a tour of her farm and tells them about the animals and some of the crops she grows. Everything goes well until they get to Elvira the stupid goat, who chews a strip off of Claire Pike's t-shirt. I don't know why I hate a fictional baby goat so much, but I really, really do.
Richard has been gone for four days, and the house is a mess. Sharon has been ordering takeout every night. FOUR NIGHTS YOU GUYS. She and Dawn tell the delivery people to not pack the food in Styrofoam or send plastic forks, so they have to use their own utensils. Three people have already managed to go through all of the silverware the family owns, then dig out the "good silver" and start using that, even though it is explicitly stated that they had pizza one night. I think maybe the family could use a few more forks, is what I'm getting at. Mary Anne tries to clean the house and does "about a thousand loads" of dishes in the dishwasher which is frankly fucking ridiculous. After four days where the girls are at camp and Sharon at work during the day, and they eat takeout at night, how many dishes can there be? Cereal bowls and breakfast dishes, maybe. Some plates and the aforementioned silverware from suppers. Glasses. But there really shouldn't be many pots and pans or other dishes, so I don't know how Mary Anne can be doing so many dishes.
Karen is a bratty little shit some more and bitches about the circus camp not being a real circus camp.
On Friday night, the end of the first week of camp, the sitters have a cookout for the campers. They serve turkey dogs, coleslaw, and baked beans, because Dawn will eat turkey dogs but not beef or pork because, well, because these books were really inconsistent about whether Dawn was actually a vegetarian. Then they take the kids in the barn to tell ghost stories. Some of the kids have brought pajamas to change into and pretend it is a real campout. This is the scene depicted on the cover. Mary Anne looks cute. I'm pretty sure Jackie Rodowsky is the kid next to Karen but I don't know who the others are supposed to be.
Mary Anne, Logan, and Dawn are going to ride their bikes to the lake and have a picnic, but Mary Anne wrecks and scrapes herself up badly, and of course, badly sprains her ankle. I should add a sprained ankle tag, there really is one in about every third book. Mary Anne wants her dad to come home but he can't and she feels really lonely and sorry for herself.
The campers go to the bowling alley, except for Alicia who stays with Mary Anne. Alicia kind of wants to go bowling but Mary Anne doesn't realize it. She's still babying Alicia. The bowling chapter is pretty boring. The next day Alicia wants to go to the park and after she goes, Mary Anne realizes that she's been acting like a baby and refusing to have fun with Sharon and Dawn because she misses her dad. She has a talk with Sharon and tries to embrace the remaining time before Richard returns. They go to a double feature at the drive-in.
The circus dress rehearsal is a disaster because Karen and her asshole friends have spent so much time bitching about the circus that they didn't rehearse their acts. The club has to work quickly to rework some of the acts so they don't seem completely terrible. Of course since the BSC is amazing, the circus performance the next day goes off without a hitch.
Mary Anne, Dawn, and Sharon clean the house because Richard is due home. They do a "gazillion" loads of dishes and laundry, which again, pretty impressive when you've not cooked anything at home. Mary Anne has a long talk with her dad and he tells her to try to loosen up and enjoy herself more. You know, because that's a thing that a man who alphabetizes his socks would say. Then I guess Mary Anne probably does another hundred loads or so of dishes.
