The teachers at SMS have assigned homework to do over the summer. How mean! Plus, the essay topic is so boring: What I Did This Summer. If Kristy were teacher, she'd choose something much more interesting. Like writing about your most vivid memory. Which gets the Baby-sitters thinking...
About baby-sitting adventures. And when they were little. Stacey remembers a tough time in New York. Dawn shares her memory of first meeting Mary Anne. Sad times, happy times, funny times. The Baby-sitters each have a special story to tell.
Chapter 1: Kristy - Kristy remembers her first baby-sitting job, when her mom hires her at age 10 to take care of her younger brother, David Michael. Kristy was excited that she finally had a chance to prove her responsibility.
Chapter 4: Stacey - Stacey remembers a night in sixth grade when she and her best friend Laine Cummings went to a sleepover at their friend Deirdre's house. Stacey had been eating and drinking a lot because of undiagnosed diabetes, and she later wet the bed she and Laine had been sharing. The story spread around school which lead to Stacey being ostracized and losing friends. The incident also lead to her diabetes diagnosis, and a whirlwind of doctors and test and hospital visits that made her classmates thinks she was a hypochondriac. By the time her dad tells her they are moving to Stoneybrook because his job is transferring him to Stamford, she is thrilled to move to a new place where no one knows she wet the bed or has diabetes.
Chapter 7: Claudia - At age six, Claudia and her class are given an assignment to draw self-portraits. The other kids draw themselves as people in a typical expected way. Claudia draws a butterfly, and she is the only one who draws something different. Her teachers reprimands her for not following directions. Mimi, however, is proud of her and goes back to Claudia's teacher to demand an apology.
Chapter 9: Jessi - At age 9, Jessi and her sister Becca are not thrilled to be getting a new baby sibling, because babies cry a lot and smell bad, and Becca will have to move into Jessi's room. However, after her brother Squirt is born, she learns to appreciate him after she is able to sing to calm him from crying, which he did a lot because he had colic.
Chapter 12: Logan - Logan remembers meeting Mary Anne for the first time and managing his first baby-sitting job for the BSC after he moved to Stoneybrook from Louisville, Kentucky.
Chapter 15: Mallory - At age 10, Mallory writes a letter to her favorite author, Amelia Moody, and is thrilled to learn Moody will be signing books at the Washington Mall in Stoneybrook. When she stands in line to get her book signed, she forgets what she was going to say. Nevertheless, the memory inspires her to be an author someday because she knows the reaction an author can provoke in a reader.
Chapter 17: Shannon Kilbourne remembers a time when a new popular, pretty, rich girl, Sally White, alternately "chose" different girls to be best friends with, they quickly dump them for someone else. Shannon was briefly chosen by Sally, but declined to spend a second day with her because she needed to study to pass a test to get into astronomy club. Shannon felt that she nearly didn't pass, and all for someone who wasn't worth the possible consequences. Shannon learned what kind of person she wanted to be friends with, so for the next person to befriend, she chose her neighbor Kristy Thomas.
Chapter 19: Dawn - When Dawn was 12, her parents get divorced and her mom moves from California to Stoneybrook, where Dawn's grandparents Granny and Pop-Pop live. Dawn and Jeff follow their mom, and she is a new girl at Stoneybrook Middle School, where she meets and joins the BSC.
Chapter 22: Mary Anne - When Mary Anne was 8, her dad was always hiring strange and unlikeable baby-sitters for her. When he leaves on a two-day trip, he hires Mrs. Tate. To make the experience better, Mary Anne arranges for Claudia and Kristy to come over for a sleepover during that time. Even though Mrs. Tate looks like the rest of her baby-sitters, Mary Anne discovers she is more fun than expected, and that Mrs. Tate actually laughs at Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne's pranks rather that shriek in outrage.
Trivia
The first printing of this book came wrapped in plastic with a BSC necklace, and a foiled gold cover. 2nd and later printings had the same cover design but in a yellow instead of gold color.