Claudia and the Bad Joke

Ann M. Martin's Claudia and the Bad Joke is a friendship story for 9 year olds about a babysitting job with a girl who can't stop playing practical jokes.

What happens

It starts on a rainy Saturday at a slapstick film festival in the library. Pies in faces, exploding birthday cakes, the lot. Kristy thinks getting a cream pie in the face sounds like a dream (she has a whole theory about wearing food).

Claudia Kishi tells this one. She's thirteen, arty and very proud of her outfits. She hides junk food all over her bedroom, and her Nancy Drew books too, because her parents would rather she read something more worthwhile.

Then a new client rings the club. Mrs Sobak needs someone for eight-year-old Betsy, and Claudia gets the job. At school, two of Betsy's old sitters look at her with real sympathy. Betsy, they say, is an incurable practical joker.

She seems lovely at the door. Within minutes there's a fake fly frozen in Claudia's ice cube, apple juice dribbling down the shirt she painted and sequinned herself, and gum that tastes of pepper. Poor Claudia!

Claudia's voice is the best bit. She's honest about her B-minus in maths and the killer looks she shoots at her genius big sister Janine. You get the whole club together too, with Kristy squirting "disappearing ink" over Mary Anne at a meeting and a mystery caller asking about Prince Albert in a can. Is anyone in Stoneybrook not playing tricks this week?

It's worth knowing that one joke goes properly wrong, and quite early on. Betsy knows a swing chain is broken and steers Claudia onto that swing. The chain snaps mid-contest and Claudia breaks her leg on the driveway. There's no blood, but the twisted leg and the crunch are described plainly, and then there's an ambulance and a week in hospital.

A child who's squeamish about injuries, or nervous about hospitals, might find that chapter hard going. Others will be glad to see Betsy keep her head and phone for help. Claudia's anger afterwards, and her wondering whether babysitting is worth the risk, feel very real.

This is the nineteenth Baby-Sitters Club book, and Claudia fills you in on everyone near the start. If you'd rather begin where the club began, that's Kristy's Great Idea.

What to read next

If it's the pranks your reader loves, try The Terrible Two. Miles Murphy arrives at a new school with a notebook full of his best tricks, only to find someone has already parked a car on the front steps.