Claudia and Mean Janine

Claudia has the spotlight again in this book, and she is unhappily sharing it with her older sister, Janine. Claudia is the artist, messy and creative and original. Janine is the scholar, studious and organized and boring. When their Mimi suffers a stroke, and the whole family is struggling to cope with the trauma, tensions between Claudia and Janine reach a breaking point. When they finally confront each other, the girls discover that they have more in common than they imagined, and that each of them need to compromise a little.

Meanwhile, the other babysitters are handling their latest innovation, a summer camp that runs three days a week in the mornings. After their successful week of handling fourteen children at once, Kristy came up with an idea of generating more money by hosting a program where the children can play together and all the babysitters work together to coordinate. They invited all of their regulars, and because they are good at their job, they have a decent crowd every time. The novel doesn't spend much time on this thread, since Claudia and her family have a more interesting plot line, but I again appreciated the change up from the typical babysitting story.

The last two books in the series have raised my interest levels. Maybe I never read these when I was younger and so they are fresh? Either way, I think the plots are tighter with more at stake, the babysitting adventures are different and more interesting, and I am seeing quality character development. I'm interested to see what happens next. ( )