Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise is the 24th book in the original The Baby-Sitters Club series. Kristy and The Baby-sitters Club plan a huge outing as a surprise for their clients.
Kristy decides to give the mothers of some of their charges a day off by taking the kids to a carnival, feeding them lunch, play at the park, and then take them back to Claudia's house for crafts & stories. Stacey even comes up to Stoneybrook for the weekend since they are watching 21 kids.
Sub Plot
Meanwhile, Kristy's mother, Elizabeth and stepfather, Watson have been dropping hints about having another child. Kristy thinks that her parents want to get pregnant, but in the end, they adopt a 2-year-old Vietnamese girl named Emily Michelle, who comes home on Mother's Day.
Back Cover
Mother's Day is coming up, and the Baby-sitters have the same problem they do every year: What do they get their mothers? Kristy, especially, wants to do something nice for her mom. Mrs. Brewer has been acting kind of strange and secretive lately, and Kristy's worried about her.
But then Kristy gets another one of her great ideas. Why don't the Baby-sitters treat their moms — and the mothers of the kids they sit for — to a day off without any kids around?
Together with Stacey, the Baby-sitters plan a gigantic baby-sitting party. It's a Mother's Day surprise that couldn't be beat!... until Kristy's mom reveals a very special surprise of her own.
Trivia
References the films Love Story and Brian's Song.
From the original cover to the reprint, Kristy's face changes and she goes from wearing no hat to wearing a red baseball cap.
Ann M. Martin's Dear Reader Letter
Dear Reader:
In Kristy and the Mother’s Day Surprise, Kristy is thrilled when Emily Michelle joins the family. It’s been a long time since there was a baby in my family. I was two years old when my sister Jane was born. I’ve been told that when my parents brought Jane home from the hospital, my mother knelt down and opened up her arms to me. She hadn’t seen me in a week. I started running, then shot right past her to my father, who was holding my new baby sister.
I might have ignored my mother then, but I never forgot her on Mother’s Day. Here are ways you can honor someone special on Mother’s Day: Cook an easy meal. Do chores around the house. Make her a card. Or give her the day off, just like the members of the Baby-sitters Club did.