Everything Changes is the first Super Special and first book in the Baby-sitters Club: Friends Forever series by Ann M. Martin. It takes place after The Baby-Sitters Club series concludes, with Mary Anne adjusting to the events of The Fire at Mary Anne's House.
Back Cover Summary
It's a summer the BSC members will never forget. For some, it's time to leave the club. For others, it's time to make a new beginning. Plenty of surprises await them–boyfriend troubles, friendship feuds, tough decisions, and totally unexpected adventures. Throughout it all, one thing is for sure: By the time the summer is over, the BSC will be very different...and better than ever!
Summary
This book switches from Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Claudia’s point of view. It’s told all in letters between Kristy and Mary Anne, journal entries by Kristy and Mary Anne, and letters and emails between Stacey and Claudia. The girls are apart for the summer–Kristy’s back at Camp Mohawk, Stacey’s in New York City, Claudia’s on a month-long vacation to Maine with her family, and Mary Anne’s in Stoneybrook, due to the fact that Mary Anne was supposed to go to camp as well, but backed out because she was worried about leaving town so soon after the fire, when she doesn’t know if her family’s moving or not.
Stacey’s in New York City to see her dad, Edward, but is looking forward to spending time with her fifteen-year-old boyfriend Ethan Caroll as well. Unfortunately, her dad sees fifteen-year-old Ethan and thirteen year-old Stacey standing outside some adult club and decides he’s too old for her and a bad influence. It is unknown if Ethan was actually in the club or not, but it doesn’t seem to matter to Mr. McGill. He tells Stacey she can only see him two hours a day, or a total of fourteen hours a week. As a result, Stacey’s mad at her dad and gets even more annoyed when he tells her his girlfriend Samantha Young may move in with him. Ethan convinces Stacey to be more open to this, which makes Mr. McGill relent about Stacey spending time with him.
Claudia’s at the famous artist colony called Monhegan located in Maine for a month, where many famous artists grew up there. She and her family along with some other people are doing this thing where they don’t have a phone, TV, computers, books, etc due to the fact because they want to have a more relaxed vacation intending to stay away with no electronics and back to nature and beauty. Claudia’s bored at first, but she ends up loving it because there are a lot of artists (including famous artists) on the island either living or visiting, and she bonds with them, making the island an "artist colony". Being an artist herself, she thinks their work is beautiful and is inspired by it. She even talks about wanting to live there someday. Claudia later catches her older sister Janine using her laptop (that she snuck in) to check her email (the house has phone service, the Kishis' just had the physical phones removed because of the thing they were doing). Janine lets Claudia use the computer for email in exchange for keeping quiet. Claudia also finds her mom Rioko reading trashy romance novels (when she was trying not to) and her dad John sneaking to watch a game on their neighbors TV. Only Claudia ends up not breaking the rules they set up. However, she promises to keep all of her family's secrets, so she feels like she has scored some points all around.
Mary Anne’s staying in a tiny rental house in Stoneybrook that the insurance company’s paying for because of the fire. Her grandmother comes to visit, which Mary Anne’s nervous about at first, but it ends up being a great visit. She brings Mary Anne some things that used to belong to her mom, so Mary Anne starts to feel better about everything she lost. Meanwhile, she’s annoyed at her boyfriend Logan Bruno because he keeps asking her if she’s okay and treating her like she’ll break. She finally tells him how she feels, and he stops talking to her. Richard decides not to take the job in Philadelphia, and the family decides to renovate the barn on their property to a new house. In the meantime, they’ll be renting a house from the Goldmans, a couple that live next-door to Claudia, that are moving to Florida; however, they don’t want to sell the house yet.
Kristy loves being at camp. She and her friend Abby are co-CITs in the same cabin, and Kristy can’t stop talking about how so much fun they’re having together. Then Abby decides to quit the club, so she has more time to play sports and relax. Kristy’s very upset, but eventually reconciles with her. It was particularly a hard thing to accept because Logan and Jessi had already quit: Logan, so that he’d have more time for sports, and Jessi because she got into a new ballet school and won’t have time to babysit.
By the end of the book, Shannon also tells Kristy she won’t have time to do much babysitting. Since Mallory’s already at boarding school and Dawn's in California, this leaves the original four members of the club (Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey). They talk among themselves and decide they want more free time too. They will still keep the club running, but may cut back on jobs and only have 1-2 meetings a week. Still, the former members still are friends with the members.
Characters
BSC Members
Kids
- Marcia Bailey, Kate Wells, Harmoni Rose Curtin, Rachel Werner, Jenna Front, LaVonne Simon - Kristy and Abby's campers in 8A
- David Michael Thomas (mentioned)
- Karen Brewer (mentioned)
Pre-Teens
Teens
Adults
Locations
- New York City
- Renwick's
- Monhegan, Maine
- Stoneybrook
- Brewer/Thomas House
- Spier rental house
- Camp Mohawk
Pop Culture and Real Life References
- Chelsea Clinton
- Of Mice and Men, A Wrinkle in Time, Little Women (books)
- Lily Munster
- People Magazine
Continuity and Inconsistencies
Continuity
- On page 14, Kristy recalls that Mallory quit the club to go to boarding school and they didn't replace her.
- Dawn and Mallory are honorary members, which Kristy mentions on page 84.
Inconsistencies
- On page 2, Kristy thinks that Mallory and Jessi couldn't run the BSC when they did run the BSC in Baby-sitters' Haunted House.
- On page 11, Claudia says that she's never been stuck on an island before. She's been stuck on an island with Dawn and some sitting charges in Baby-sitters' Island Adventure.
- Stacey mentions that she wanted to learn how to do needlepoint, but she had a needlepoint project started in Boy-Crazy Stacey.
- Mary Anne mentions that the Hobart Family lives in Kristy's old house when it's actually the Perkins Family. The Hobarts live in Mary Anne's old house.
Trivia
- On the dedication page it says: "In honor of the birth of my goddaughter - Welcome, Harmoni!"
- This book is written entirely through letters or diary entries.
- This is one of the few books that mentions dates.
- Kristy has been writing in a journal and wants to keep them in Watson's safe in case of a fire.
- Mallory has been typing her stories rather then handwriting them.
- Logan joins the Stoneybrook Baseball League, the Panthers.
- Logan was the first to leave the BSC followed by Jessi, then Abby, finally Shannon. Shannon only tells the others once they call her about it.
- Claudia is in Maine for the whole month of July.
- David Michael and Karen aren't going back to camp this year, which they aren't happy about.
- This is the first time Abby goes to camp, and she likes the food.
- Stacey and her dad had an entire conversation through a fax.
- Samantha is considering moving in with Ed.
- Janine is the first to break a family rule on vacation, she brought her laptop. Then her mom, Rioko, started reading trashy romance books, then finally her dad when he'd go to the neighbors house to watch TV.
- Claudia ate lobster everyday when she was in Maine.
- Mary Anne's grandmother gave her and Richard more of Alma's things.
- Janine and Claudia take an art class together.
- Mary Anne considers breaking up with Logan, which eventually happens in Mary Anne's Big Breakup.
- Mrs. Hobart told Richard about the Goldman's renting out their house.
- Ethan formally meets Stacey's dad.
- Kristy and Mary Anne pulled a prank on Claudia when they were in the second grade.
- The BSC won't be looking for new clients and will meet less during the week.
- In Chapter 26, Kristy mentions Dawn's stepmother having a baby girl this is most likely Gracie.
Gallery
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Everything Changes | #1 Kristy's Big News | #2 Stacey vs. Claudia | #3 Mary Anne's Big Breakup | #4 Claudia and the Friendship Feud | #5 Kristy Power! | #6 Stacey and the Boyfriend Trap | #7 Claudia Gets Her Guy | #8 Mary Anne's Revenge | #9 Kristy and the Kidnapper |#10 Stacey's Problem | #11 Welcome Home, Mary Anne | #12 Claudia and the Disaster Date | Graduation Day | ||
Other Series | ||
Baby-Sitters Club | Super Special | Portrait Collection | Mystery | Super Mystery | California Diaries | Baby-Sitters Little Sister | The Kids in Ms. Colman's Class |