Claudia's baby cousin is finally here! She's definitely the cutest, sweetest baby ever born. And Claud can't do enough for her. She's spending every spare second at her Aunt Peaches and Uncle Russ's house — bringing gifts, changing the baby, helping with the cooking and the shopping, and, of course, offering Peaches plenty of BSC-tested baby care tips. There is just one problem. After two weeks of Claudia's help, Peaches is acting as if she is mad at Claudia. What could possibly be bothering her?
Main Plot[]
Claudia's aunt has a baby (a girl named Lynn), and she and Russ choose Claudia to be Lynn's godmother. But Claudia drives Peaches crazy by offering too much babysitting advice.
Subplot[]
The Arnold twins get scared watching horror movies and sleep in the same room together with the lights on. During a sitting job with Mary Anne they watch a "making of" video and instead of getting scared they're excited and try to make their own movie.
Highlights, Wall Street Journal, Popular Mechanics, American Medical Journal (magazines)
The Wizard of Oz
Rocky, Home Alone, Mary Poppins (movies)
Spielberg
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Saddle Club, Where the Wild Things Are, Harold and the Purple Crayon, There's a Nightmare in my Closet, The Catcher in the Rye (books)
1776 (musical)
Warner Brothers
Disney
Metro-Goldwyn
Continuity and Inconsistencies[]
Continuity
Mary Anne teaching Claudia how to knit and the blanket they made together in Claudia and Crazy Peaches is brought back up and Claudia gives the blanket to Peaches.
Claudia and Stacey over pack which often happens when they go on trips.
The nursery furniture depicted on the cover is the same set Claudia and Peaches picked out during Peaches' first pregnancy in Claudia and Crazy Peaches.
Inconsistencies
In Abby and the Best Kid Ever Abby says that she is in the same history class as Claudia and Stacey, but in this book Claudia is in a different class than Abby and Stacey.
Claudia is talking about her parents/Janine liking classical music like Bach...WHOEVER THAT IS. However, in Keep Out, Claudia! Claudia says that she enjoys listening to Bach.
Marilyn is described as the twin with shorter hair. In every other book, it's Carolyn.
Descriptions of this book at the back of other BSC books say "Claudia can't get enough of her adorable new niece". Lynn is Claudia's cousin, not her niece.
Ann M. Martin's Dear Reader Letter[]
Dear Reader,
In Claudia and the World’s Cutest Baby, Claudia is very excited when Peaches and Russ give their baby Claudia’s middle name, Lynn. When my parents were expecting me, they picked out two names: John Lawrence and Ann Elizabeth. In the end, I was named Ann Matthews (Matthews is my mother’s maiden name). Like Peaches and Russ, my parents were very proud of me. My mother wrote down everything I did in my baby book. For example, my first word was “ba,” for bird. Interestingly enough, one of my next words, “ackaminnie,” meant ice cream. I’m sure I wasn’t the world’s cutest baby, but my parents certainly thought I was.
The working title for this book was Claudia and the Wonder Baby [1].
Claudia would burn her own sonogram if she ever found it.
When discussing what Peaches would name the baby, Janine liked the named Ariana, Rioko thought of Hideyoshi, and Claudia thought of Mimi.
Claudia thinks that she inherited Peaches’ genes.
Rioko and John eat pure nuggets cereal.
Claudia calls Kristy sweet and a ham.
Rioko visited Lynn and Peaches on her lunch break.
Claudia buys a Swiss army knife using Kristy's advice.
In chapter 4, Claudia asks a receptionist at the hospital where her aunt is, and she uses the name “Peaches.” Unless Claudia’s aunt legally changed her name, she would’ve been admitted to the hospital under her birth name (Miyoshi Benedict).