this is my first time reading this book.

in this serious issue/educational book by ghostwriter Nola Thacker, kristy’s family helps train a guide dog puppy for the guide dog foundation on long island. they’re inspired to do so by one of their neighbors, deb cooper, who went blind almost out of nowhere due to glaucoma. deb is a classmate of shannon’s, and the bsc members start babysitting for her younger siblings. deb is completely miserable, understandably so, but is somehow still not sympathetic at all. perhaps it’s because she keeps insisting she can do everything herself and then getting mad when people don’t help her. or perhaps it’s because anytime anyone seems to be having a remotely acceptable time being alive, she tries to make them feel guilty for not suffering the way she is. it gets so bad that one day when kristy is sitting, deb disappears. kristy goes outside and finds that she had left the house by herself and was trying to cross a busy street to go to the video store. she almost gets hit by a car, but kristy helps her back onto the sidewalk. kristy tells her she could’ve been killed, and deb responds, “maybe that wouldn’t have been so bad.” DAMN. kristy responds that she has friends and family who love her, and deb says she doesn’t have any friends anymore. kristy says it’s impossible to be friends with her because she treats people she doesn’t want them around. deb responds that she doesn't want anyone feeling sorry for her and kristy says, "stop acting someone people should feel sorry for!" DAMN. this is a wake up call for deb, who starts working on being independent and stops being a jerk about it. all of the titular guide dog plotlines are way less interesting. at one point karen lets scout chew on an old shoe and kristy gets mad at her. and someone yells at kristy for bringing a dog into a grocery store. that’s about it. oh, and there’s a lot of kristy thinking about how noble her family is for how they’re training dogs that will help people deb one day. smuggity smug smug.

highlights, all of which are BOOM moments:
-relating to debÂ’s desire to avoid people, stacey says it made her uncomfortable when people treated her as though they felt sorry for her when they found out she had diabetes. abby says that it doesn't make her uncomfortable when people treat her that way because of her asthma, it makes her angry, and looks knowingly at kristy. BOOM. abby isnÂ’t gonna let kristy forget she was a jerk in Welcome to the BSC, Abby
-deb tells kristy how she went blind suddenly and tells her it could happen to anyone. confident kristy is shaken by it. BOOM.
-the moment deb says she doesn't want anyone feeling sorry for her and kristy says "stop acting someone people should feel sorry for!" BOOM.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-scout jumps on strangers and they all say, "it's okay." kristy tries to stress to them that itÂ’s not okay because sheÂ’s a guide dog in training. but also, it's not okay. even if the dog weren't training to be a guide, that's not behavior you should encourage in any dog ever.
-kristy gets other bsc members to bring their charges over to hang out with deb and her siblings, thinking that deb could use human interaction. but they donÂ’t ask her if itÂ’s okay, and she is understandably pissed.
-a woman yells at kristy that dogs aren't allowed in the grocery story. the woman finds the manager who tells her that guide dogs in training all other service animals are welcome in the store. and the woman says she's taking her business elsewhere. isn't it illegal to not let service animals in your grocery store? canÂ’t the manager just say that to the woman?
-karen gives jackie's busted cleats to the dogs and kristy is mad and criticizes her intensely, saying that she may ruin scout's chances of becoming a guard dog, and then kristy is apologetic. but karen screwed up. kristy shouldn't be mean or anything but how thoughtless can you be, even for a 7 year old? they talk about how precocious she is but maybe they just mean she uses big words, not that she's world-wise at all

outfits
claud outfit:
-"Her ensemble included a giant Hawaiian print shirt worn over hot-pink bicycle shorts, hot-pink-and-lime-green socks, and an ancient pair of formerly black Doc Martens that she had painted in swirls of electric color. She'd knotted a pink plastic flower into each shoelace and had pulled her hair back with another pink plastic flower. Her earrings, which of course she'd made herself, were dangling sprays of tiny pink, green, and yellow beads."

stacey outfit:
-"She had on black jeans, a black cropped cotton sweater, and soft, srunchy ankle boots. The color made her blue eyes look dramatic, and her earrings, which were tiny coils of gold braid, finished the outfit."

jackie disaster:
-in sliding into third base, peels the sole off one of his cleats

snacks in claudiaÂ’s room:
-chocolate chip cookies home-baked by her mother's assistant (n.s.)
-cheez doodles (n.s.)2016-bsc-challenge2 s Kerri57 4

Surprisingly well done!

As someone who is sighted but spends a lot of time with people who are blind or partially sighted (several with guide dogs) there were some things that irritated me about this book, mostly how it took what seemed to be so long for the kid to get a white cane. I kept thinking to myself “someone get this kid a cane!”
I know it’s fiction but I feel even if she wasn’t trained to use it “properly”, she should’ve had one around! At the very least could her family could’ve been taught to sighted guide properly rather than this backward way everyone seems to do, not just in this book!

The guide dogs stuff seems fairly accurate to me, which is great. Said in a different way many of the self deprecating comments Deb made, my friends make on a daily basis in a different tone as jokes or comments that can (sometimes) put people at ease. Someone will ask my friend Steve “how are you?” “Fine! Blind as ever!” with a big smile; “would you the receipt?” “Is it in Braille?” - clearly, I know the fictional kid isn’t there yet.

With some clarifications, I’d definitely recommend this one. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review1 MichaelAuthor 4 books14

Kristy's family gets a puppy named Scout. They train her to be a guide dog for the blind. Scout learns everything perfectly on the first try, so not much training is required. (Kind of weird that a book with "Dog Trainer" in the title skips over all the dog training, huh?) Scout's only problems are when Karen accidentally gives her a shoe, and when a mean woman demands that the dog be kicked out of the grocery store.

I don't think the dog storyline had enough content, to fill up an entire book. There were places where it felt the author was stretching out the story. A good example would be the fact that this book has two separate chapters, dedicated to a dog party.

In a serious subplot, a twelve-year-old named Deb has recently become blind. Deb is angry at life, and she's mean to the baby-sitters for the entire book. Her story was unpleasant to read at times, but I was okay with it, overall.1 Jaclyn2,186 5

This was cute. Not much story but the training scenes make me want to train dogs. Scout is adorable.1 SamanthaAuthor 33 books30

First off, what's up with the Goodreads blurb about this book? It changed Deb's name to Erin. Wasn't Erin the girl that Abby clashed with in the unified soccer team book? Oh well, whatever! Moving on!

The plot of this book was full of good intentions, that were executed in the most boring way possible. While it's good for kids to be aware of people with disabilities and about things guide dogs, did we really need a book that's basically nothing but talking about training a dog? I mean I found that interesting as a kid, I even earned a scout patch for training my dog, but....it's just not so much fun to read about. Throw in too much Karen Brewer and a Krushers practice and I was snoozing. childhood-throwback favorites kindle ...more Leigh974

An we're back to the boring books again. Oh well it was fun while it lasted. This book was decent but dull. Watson announces they are going to foster a puppy that will be training as a guide dog. They take in a lab named Scout, there's way too much Karen so that's a no for me and it's a lot of info about training guide dogs. The b plot involves a young girl Debbie who went blind as a result of glaucoma. She's not adjusting well as expected I don't think any of us would. Kristy tells her off and it looks things smooth out in the end. This one was a let down after the previous book.2022 audio fictional-series ...more Cassandra DoonAuthor 10 books39

When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well. Maeve2,164 23

When Deb Cooper becomes blind due to glaucoma, Kristy and her family are inspired to volunteer as puppy trainers for the Guide Dog Foundation. The Thomas family is given Scout to train. While Kristy cares for Scout she must also work with the BSC to help Deb move from her feelings of anger and resentment towards acceptance.age-children age-tween fiction ...more Tonia ChristleAuthor 10 books9

Not sure how to feel about this one -- since not just anyone can raise guide dog puppies -- but I guess they were evaluated and passed the test? I'm also not sure about the disability representation -- since I'm not blind myself, I don't feel I can judge. Ashley1,501 31

This book was brought to you by the Guide Dog Foundation of Smithtown, NY.

Seriously though, this was a decent enough book, though it felt one big ad for guide dogs. And it frustrates me when they introduce a new character just for the plot (and usually for a Very Special Episode.) 2023 bsc ebook ...more1 Jennifer Baratta1,905

Review on www.audible.com please listen to this book guide dog foundation mentioned.audio-books read-2019 Lianna Kendig752 24

(LL)
The lessons in here were very good; however, the story could have been told a lot better. It didnÂ’t get the point across well enough to get past that three star mark. Christina488 2 Read

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/kristy...baby-sitters-club Liesl Miller308 5 Read

As a person who adopted a dog a few months ago, I chose a great time to read this! Carley Adair273 3

A fantastic cute little story

I loved this story.Kristy was wonderful with deb.I loved scout the guide dog.she was adorable.I love this series and will read more in it . CiaraAuthor 3 books367

well, damn. this book has it all: kristy is the narrator, the plot is dog-centric, there's a healthy heaping dose of karen, there is at least on entire chapter devoted a krushers practice, & just to round things out, there's an angry blind girl. what's not love? aside from EVERYTHING.

watson has decided that the family may to help raise & train a seeing-eye guide puppy. there's a bunch of boring information about how such dogs are trained which any person in the year 2011 could just google if they were interested. the family is all for it, & the guide dog foundation approves them without a lot of fuss. they even have a puppy all ready to be trained. another family had it, but they had to move suddenly, so it's up for grabs. even though later in the book, much is made of the fact that the dogs can be trained pretty much anywhere. so that was a little confusing.

the thomas-brewers' guide puppy is a chocolate lab named scout & she sounds pretty cute, but unfortunately, the ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK is just about how to train a guide puppy. most boring plot ever? perhaps.

to spice things up a little, a new family is introduced. they are the cooper family. mrs. cooper works with watson at his insurance firm, & the coopers live in kristy's neighborhood. the kids go to stoneybrook day school. they are two little boys, jed & mark, & a 12-year-old girl named deb. deb recently came down with angle closure glaucoma & went blind. this is all feeling very mary from little house on the prairie. deb only recently got out of the hospital & hasn't gone back to school yet. she is having a lot of feelings (mainly bitterness) about her blindness. she refuses to see friends or anyone else, aside from her family & doctors.

the coopers call for a sitter for the younger boys & mary anne takes the job. she only has one brief run-in with deb, but it was enough to scare the pants off her, just because deb is not a sweet, gracious blind person who is taking her sudden loss of vision totally in stride. i'm not going to recap this totally stupid, ham-fisted plot. suffice to say, any part of the book that isn't tedious descriptions of the thomas-brewers sending scout to puppy obedience training is about deb lashing out at the world because of being blind.

at one point, karen gives scout an old softball cleat to chew on. even though she KNOWS that scout is being specially trained as a guide dog & that even regular every day dogs need to be trained not to chew on shoes. kristy tells watson about the transgression & he's all, "whatever. one softball cleat won't hurt her." & this is why karen gets away with murder.

kristy is supposed to be sitting for the cooper boys one afternoon, & keeping deb company. deb decides she wants to go to the video store & get some new movies to listen to. but the boys just got a new jungle gym set & want to play with it. kristy promises deb they will go to the video store later. deb storms inside & won't speak to kristy. a little while later, kristy goes inside to tell deb that everyone is ready to walk to the video store, but deb is gone. she has tried to walk to the video store on her own. kristy rushes after & guides her out of traffic. deb had become disoriented & almost got hit by a car. kristy kind of loses her temper & tells deb to get her shit together & let people be there for her. apparently this gets through to deb.

deb's brothers decide they want to get a guide dog for deb. deb is too young for a guide dog (apparently you have to be 16), but kristy invites her & the rest of the coopers to join the thomas-brewers at some special guide dog trainer appreciation day or something. deb has a surprisingly nice time & seems to finally be accepting her blindness. & this introduces yet another babysitters club trope (previous tropes include the discovery of secret diaries, valuable or important paintings that have just been painted over, unrealistic summer vacation romances, & public schools embezzling student funds): puppies solve everything. kristy was given a puppy after louie died, lou mcnally was given a puppy her adoptive parents to welcome her to the family, the nicholls boys get a puppy after their dad beats the crap out of him, & now deb cooper will (eventually) get a puppy to help with the blindness. only 22 books to go...kids-books read-in-2011 April2,625 172

Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.

I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.

The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.

Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!childrens reviewed Melenia2,531 6

Loved these books as a childchildhood Nancy213 19

The interesting part about this book was learning about the American workers who traveled to the Soviet Union after the 1917 Russian Revolution, in search of a better life. But unfortunately I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, because of the poor writing, shallow characters, cheesy comments and the completely unplausible plot. Just as an example, check this profound scene where the American hero, a humble car factory worker that will get to play the role of a lawyer in front of Stalin himself, torn between the love of 2 equally beautiful young girls, an American and a Russian one, is finding some comfort in the tea drank with his soup:
"He made some tea and began to sip it along with the soup. The drink comforted him, not so much because of its flavor, but because its heat reminded him of the warmth he always felt from NatashaÂ’s smile."
I rest my case, do yourself a favour and don't waste your time...nu-recomand u?urele13 s Lora J Rahe6

Glad I didn't pay for it!

Though the mystery of uncovering the real bad guys kept me reading, it was more of a chore than a pleasure. The writing style reminded me of a high schooler's first attempts. There was too little character development and too much predictability. However, setting the story in Russia during the US depression era was unique, and I haven't read anything about the unusual immigration of Americans to Russia before, so I did learn something.10 s R.G. PhelpsAuthor 8 books14

A Historical Fiction with well researched true history

The Last Paradise by Antonia Garrido, although from true historical essays, was both repetitious and unrealistic that an intelligent young man from the United States, born in Russia, could actually put himself into such controlling positions. It was the repetitious of Jack's always positioning himself to be able to gain such control over Soviet officials that finally got to me. Antonio chose to give some characters such polished abilities that, to me, took away from the historical significance of his novel. Also, I'm not sure that the Russian leaders of that time would be role playing with Stalin, at an extended trial. The book was interesting and I had not known about Henry Ford being so interested in helping Russia, so that was a special treat. Two stars may be a stretch but at this point you decide...6 s Lena1,170 318



This months kindle first offering was a story of people so desperate during the Great Depression that they emigrated to Russia, the "workers paradise." I had never heard of this and was struck by how bad of an idea it was and how hopeless you had to be to move to Russia (then, later, now, ever!).

The story is mostly about poverty, communism, bribery, lies, murder; and as you can guess, not much fun. But I found the light threads of love poignant as a contrast that ultimately shaped the point of the book. The characters must confront what's really important in life.

There is sort of a happy ending so I'm giving it three stars. I don't regret reading it.historical-fiction kindle-first4 s Mª Carmen691

4,5?3 s Marta QuerolAuthor 8 books180

Garrido mantiene en esta obra su maestría en la elección de tramas interesantes y originales, pero aporta como novedad una mayor dosis de realismo dramático. La historia es muy atractiva: como cuenta la sinopsis, fueron muchos los americanos que tras la Gran Depresión partieron a trabajar a la URSS con la esperanza de salir de la miseria. El autor nos va a contar esa epopeya y qué fue lo que se encontraron, a través de las aventuras de un joven ambicioso y superficial, más preocupado por llevar buenos trajes y disfrutar de la vida que de sus semejantes, y que se ve forzado a emprender esa difícil travesía. A lo largo de la novela veremos evolucionar a Jack Beilis, aprender, madurar, conocer lo que es el amor verdadero, la traición... La ambientación está muy conseguida y las tramas relacionadas con los sabotajes que se suceden en la planta de automoción mantienen la intriga y el interés hasta sospechar de todos sin saber quién está detrás de esos accidentes. Una obra con el sello inconfundible del buen hacer de Antonio Garrido y que le valió el XX Premio Fernando Lara de Novela. Aquí la vídeo reseña en Youtube. "El último paraíso"aventuras drama narrativa-contemp2 s Mi Camino Blanco274 37

Una muy acertada recreación de unos hechos históricos de los que yo desconocía prácticamente todo: los años en que ciudadanos norteamericanos emigraron a Rusia escapando de la gran crisis que atenazaba al país durante los años 30. La mayoría viajaban engañados por consignas propagandísticas en busca de un mundo mejor y más justo (el paraíso del título) para encontrarse con una realidad bastante poco halagüeña y la imposibilidad añadida de poder regresar.

Con el trasfondo de un hecho real como la implantación de una gran empresa estadounidense como representante del capitalismo más feroz, en territorio soviético, dónde la forma de enfrentarse al mundo es totalmente diferente, el autor consigue desarrollar una historia tristemente humana de superación y sueños rotos en la que la moraleja final es que no hay diferencias cuando se trata de la explotación del más débil. Da igual la bandera o la ideología, siempre pierden los mismos.

En estos tiempos que ahora corren y dónde el tema de la inmigración vuelve a estar desgraciadamente presente, la reflexión que suscita esta novela merece la pena.



https://www.micaminoblanco.blogspot.c...


2 s Vikki VaughtAuthor 11 books158

My Musings

Fascinating look at a terrible time in history. I never knew that Americans traveled to Russia during the Great depression. I did struggle with many of the characters. They were so self-serving, t has a difficult time admiring them, except he Natasha. Glad I took the time to read this book. Happy ?reading
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