Claudia and the Perfect Boy is the 71st book in The Baby-Sitters Club series.
Back Cover Summary
Mary Anne has Logan. Stacey has her new boyfriend Robert. Kristy even has a sort-of boyfriend Bart. Isn't there someone out there for Claudia?
Then one day Claudia is reading a magazine, and she comes across a personal column. It's full of ads from people interested in meeting other people. This gives Claudia a great idea. Maybe she can start a personals column—just for kids—in her school paper. And maybe, if Claudia's lucky, she'll find a boy who's perfect for her...
Summary
Subplot
Marnie Barrett is revealed to be allergic dogs and the Barretts worry about where Pow would have to go. The Pike Family takes him in.
Characters
Claudia's Family
BSC Members
Kids
- Jordan, Adam, Byron, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire Pike
- Buddy, Suzi, and Marnie Barrett
- Sara and Norman Hill (mentioned)
Preteens
- Mallory Pike
- Liza Shore
- Nathan - boy who answers Liza's ad
Teenagers
- Emily Bernstein
- Alan Gray
- Rock - boy who responds to Claudia's Personals
- His brother Russ
- Brian Hall
- Rose Marie Montey
- Bart Taylor (mentioned)
Adults
- Mrs. Barrett
- Franklin DeWitt (mentioned)
Locations
- Kishi House
- Stoneybrook Middle School
- Barrett House
- Pike House
- Rosebud Café
Pop Culture and Real-Life References
- Paula Abdul and Jason Priestly
- Nancy Drew books
- Seventeen Magazine
- Homer Simpson
- Hawaiian punch (beverage brand)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- The Addams Family
- Curious George
- Scooby Doo
Continuity and Inconsistencies
Continuity
- Mary Anne went to Dr. Reese, a therapist, which is first mentioned in the The Baby-Sitters Club Chain Letter.
- Claudia recalls liking Terry from California Girls!.
- Mallory is still out sick from her mono which started in Get Well Soon, Mallory!
- Marnie's chocolate allergy from Dawn and the Impossible Three is brought up.
- When the BSC was at Sea City baby-sitting the DeWitts from Sea City, Here We Come!
Inconsistencies
- Claudia wears a pink outfit at the beginning of the book only to turn around and say she doesn't look good in pink later.
- Claudia liked tattoos when she saw the blue star one on the ear lobe of the thief in Stacey and the Mystery Money, but thought they were gross when Rock show her his.
Ann M. Martin's Dear Reader Letter
Dear Reader,
In Claudia and the Perfect Boy, much to her surprise, Claudia finds herself writing for the school newspaper. I never wrote for our school paper, but I loved to write, and all during sixth grade, I wrote and distributed a neighborhood newspaper. It took a lot of work, but I managed to put out an issue every week with a lot of help from my best friend, Beth, and my neighbor across the street, Jessi. In those days nobody had computers, and you could only find Xerox machines in offices and libraries. So, in order to make copies, I had to use carbon paper. It took forever, and there was no erasing a mistake, but it worked.
Once a week, I walked from house to house in the neighborhood collecting news. Just about anything anyone told me could turn into an article for the paper. I wrote about family vacations and new pets, who had won awards, and who was home sick. Also, once a week I ran a contest for the kids in the neighborhood. I didn’t have a personals column like Claudia did, and I didn’t write about gossip like Karen Brewer did in her neighborhood paper, but I had a lot of fun.
Trivia
- Emily Bernstein is the editor of the SMS Express, the weekly school paper.
- Shannon has a soft spot for dogs.
- Claudia hates sushi.
- Claudia says that she doesn't look good in pink.
- The Pike Family get Pow since Marnie's allergic to him.
- Robert is a better talker then listener.
- Claudia is friendly with Emily Bernstein
- The SMS Express used to run a pet care column
- Edward McGill's secretary has been showing Stacey how to use a computer during visits to his office
- Up until this book Claudia had seen computers as interesting if they could be used for graphic design or pattern-making or something like that. Otherwise, she didn’t have the slightest interest.
- Shannon narrates chapter eight.
- Claudia first learns about spell check.
- Alan's dad has a P.O. Box that he let Alan use.
- Funnily enough Claudia DOES end up dating Alan later in the Friends Forever series.
- Kristy would date Brian Hall if she didn't already have Bart.
- The cover is Claudia on a date with a boy named Kurt, however, we don't see the date in the book.
- Kristy's watched the track team practice to know that there's nobody that looks like Jason Priestly.
- The Barretts are accumulating non-allergic animals fast.