Dawn and the Impossible Three

The fifth book in The Baby-sitters Club series follows Dawn Schafer, the club's newest member, as she takes on a challenging baby-sitting job for a recently divorced family while finding her place among new friends in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. Dawn moved from California months earlier after her parents' divorce. Her mother, who grew up in Stoneybrook, relocated Dawn and her younger brother Jeff to be near her own parents. Dawn misses the warm weather and her old best friend, Sunny Winslow, but she has formed a close bond with Mary Anne Spier, the club's secretary.

The Baby-sitters Club is a small business run by five seventh-grade girls who meet three times a week in vice president Claudia Kishi's bedroom, where Claudia's personal phone line allows clients to call during meetings. Kristy Thomas founded and presides over the club with brisk efficiency. Stacey McGill serves as treasurer, and Mary Anne keeps the record book of appointments and client information. Dawn holds no official title.

Dawn and Mary Anne's friendship deepened when they discovered that Mary Anne's father and Dawn's mother dated seriously in high school. The two parents have since started dating again. Mary Anne's mother died when Mary Anne was very young, and Dawn's mother has struggled with loneliness since the divorce. Mr. Spier's relationship with Dawn's mother has loosened his strict parenting; he has allowed Mary Anne to get contact lenses, choose her own clothes, and spend her baby-sitting money.

At a club meeting, a new client calls: Mrs. Barrett, a recently divorced mother of three, including Buddy (seven), Suzi (four), and baby Marnie (one and a half). Mrs. Barrett nervously admits she is disorganized and looking for work. Dawn, who identifies with the family's situation, is glad to take the job.

Dawn also contends with tension within the club. Kristy, who has been Mary Anne's sole best friend for years, responds to Dawn's arrival with hostility. When Dawn helps Mary Anne redecorate her bedroom, Kristy arrives uninvited and speaks only to Mary Anne, pointedly excluding Dawn. Dawn soon realizes Kristy is not angry but jealous, feeling displaced as Mary Anne's best friend. Dawn's attempts to bond with Kristy over Kristy's own upcoming changes, including her mother's engagement to Watson Brewer and the family's planned move to Watson's mansion across town, backfire when Kristy snaps that she does not want to move.

Dawn's first job at the Barrett house reveals the depth of Mrs. Barrett's disorganization. The children are unkempt, the house is filthy, and Mrs. Barrett rushes out for a job interview without leaving instructions or emergency information beyond the Pike family's phone number. Dawn organizes the children into timed cleaning races and establishes a rule against gun play when Buddy charges her with a toy ray gun. When Dawn gently tells Buddy and Suzi that divorce is permanent, Suzi calls her a liar and runs upstairs. Despite these difficulties, the children warm to Dawn, and Mrs. Barrett praises her effusively.

Dawn resolves her conflict with Kristy by inviting her over after school. At Dawn's farmhouse, built in 1795, Kristy discovers the old barn where Dawn and Jeff swing from a rope rigged to a beam above the hayloft. Kristy nervously climbs up and swings down, her expression shifting from terror to delight. Lying in the hay afterward, they talk honestly about divorce, moving, and Mary Anne. Kristy admits she is glad Mary Anne made a new friend and proposes a new club position for Dawn: Official Alternate Officer, someone who can fill any role when a member is absent. Dawn accepts, and their rivalry dissolves.

The Barrett job grows increasingly difficult. Dawn sits for the family with mounting frequency, and the house is always in disarray. During a picnic at the Pikes', Dawn nearly gives Marnie a brownie before ten-year-old Mallory Pike, one of the Pike children, lunges across the blanket and snatches it away, revealing that Marnie is allergic to chocolate. Dawn is shaken that Mrs. Barrett never disclosed the allergy. When she confronts Mrs. Barrett, Mrs. Barrett apologizes and then issues a troubling instruction: If her ex-husband calls, Dawn must not let him speak to the children and must pretend to be a mother's helper. Suzi falls ill on one occasion and Dawn cannot reach Mrs. Barrett because she left the wrong phone number. Another time, Buddy cries because his mother promised to help with a school project but will be too exhausted, so Dawn helps him build it.

When Mary Anne takes a turn sitting for the Barretts, she encounters the same chaos. A call from Mr. Barrett disrupts the afternoon. Following Dawn's relayed instructions, Mary Anne tells him the children are at a friend's house, and Mr. Barrett slams down the phone. When Mrs. Barrett returns and learns of the call, she erupts at Buddy, telling him she cannot manage everything alone. Both she and Buddy end up crying before embracing, and Mary Anne slips quietly out the door.

Dawn's mother hosts a Memorial Day weekend picnic that brings together Dawn's grandparents, Mr. Spier and Mary Anne, the Barretts, and Kristy with her younger brother David Michael. Dawn's grandparents once disapproved of Mr. Spier because his family had little money, but Dawn's grandfather warms to him after learning Mr. Spier started his own successful law practice. Dawn suspects her mother arranged the gathering so her grandparents could see how well Mr. Spier has done.

The Barrett situation reaches its crisis when Buddy disappears during a sitting job. Dawn sends him outside while she tends to the younger children, and when she comes out, he is gone. She searches the neighborhood, and Mrs. Pike, the Pike children's mother, organizes a wider search. When Jordan, one of the Pike triplets, reports seeing Buddy get into a blue car, Mrs. Pike calls the police. Officers arrive with search dogs. Buddy finally calls from a pay phone, saying he is with his father. Mrs. Barrett arrives to find police in her kitchen and realizes she confused the dates on the custody schedule. Mr. Barrett explains that he found Buddy alone and took him to an amusement park to teach Mrs. Barrett a lesson. The police warn him and advise both parents to consult their lawyers.

The next day, Dawn tells Mrs. Barrett she can no longer baby-sit for the family. She lists her grievances: the undisclosed allergy, wrong phone numbers, lack of instructions, and Buddy's frightening disappearance. She also raises a deeper concern: Buddy and Suzi have begun depending on Dawn rather than their mother, bringing their problems to their sitter instead of their parent. Mrs. Barrett proposes changes, including arriving early to exchange information, keeping the house tidier, and paying Dawn extra for chores. Dawn agrees to a three-job trial period. When Buddy later calls Dawn during a club meeting to complain about a school problem, Dawn gently redirects him to talk to his mother, reinforcing the boundary she set.

Kristy solves the club's other looming problem. Watson's mansion is too far for Kristy to bike to meetings, and she fears she may have to leave the club she founded. She proposes raising dues to pay her older brother Charlie, who will soon have his driver's license, to drive her to and from meetings. The members agree, relieved the club will survive. Days later, Jeff arrives at a meeting with a camera. The other four members arranged the visit so Jeff could photograph the group for a framed picture to hang in Mary Anne's redecorated room. Mary Anne bursts into happy tears, and the five members pose together on Claudia's bed as Jeff snaps the picture.