“I came up with the same astronomical figure”…………BSC # 114: The Secret Life of Mary Anne Spier

Memory Reaction

I missed this one as a kid.

Revisited Reaction

This is one of the ones with a sort of convoluted plot: Mary Anne’s father lends her his credit card to do her Christmas shopping, provided she doesn’t charge more than she can pay him back. Using the card makes her not pay attention to how much money she spends, despite of the fact that she’s the organized and responsible one. And the fact that Kristy warns her about it out at every single store. But Mary Anne also figures that she’s saved up, and she’ll have six weeks of baby-sitting to earn any extra money. But, then she finds out that her father’s anal and always pays his bill the second he gets it, as opposed to waiting until it’s actually due, a month later. Which means she has to pay him back in two weeks, or he’ll make her pay the interest. You’d think he would have told her this earlier, but then we wouldn’t have a story.

At this point, Mary Anne totals up her spending and realizes she went way overboard, and knows she can’t make the money baby-sitting in the next two weeks. She’s too embarrassed to return any of the gifts, because she’d already wrapped them and put them under the tree. She decides to get a second job, and ends up working at the mall as an elf in the Santa village display they have. She’s too embarrassed to tell anyone, so they don’t understand why she’s suddenly so busy and tired. And she lies to her dad about why she’s going to the mall so often, telling him it’s to get donations for an event the BSC’s having.

Meanwhile, Dawn’s visiting, and Mary Anne feels like she’s being distant and acting like she’s too sophisticated for the BSC. The reason for this is that she’s now in the California Diaries series, which I guess are meant to appeal to a slightly older crowd. But Mary Anne’s crazy-busy, so she doesn’t get to hang around long enough to talk to Dawn about it. Eventually, she does confront her, and Dawn says she was feeling a bit disconnected at first, but started feeling more like her old self a couple days later. But since Mary Anne was working, she wasn’t around to realize this. So, Mary Anne admits everything to Dawn, who convinces her to tell everyone else. They all think it was a silly thing to lie about, and her dad’s a little pissed she went behind his back, but she’s not in any trouble.

While working, Mary Anne befriends a girl named Angela. Angela’s 17 and living at the Stoneybrook Women’s Shelter because her parents threw her out. We don’t get too many details about why, but it seems like they’re snobs and don’t like who Angela associates with. Because it’s a Christmas theme, Mary Anne invites her to stay with them on Christmas and it’s all very sappy. And Angela earned enough money for a plane ticket to California, where she has friends who want her to stay with them. It’s really a whitewashed story, but it’s the holidays, so whatever.

I guess the ghostwriter was feeling overly Christmas-y because we get another subplot that’s about giving back during the holidays. The hospital Dr. Johanssen works at usually has a program where they give kids in the hospital toys, but the budget was cut. The BSC decides to “save the program.” They organize a fair to raise money. It’s a huge success, but I’m not sure why they had to do something so complicated. Or why the BSC had to get involved in the first place. I’m sure the workers at the hospital would have made donations. Or people could have just gone door-to-door. Regardless, they help out sick kids, so I probably shouldn’t be too hard on them.

High/Lowlights

• Do they just let 13-year-olds use credit cards because their last name’s the same as the one on the card?

• Apparently, Mary Anne’s hair is long on her student ID. I guess this makes sense, since it was long when she first started 8th grade, but she’s also started 8th grade a bunch of times since she got the makeover.

• This book starts two weeks before Christmas. Now, I can buy that they’re still hiring people to work at the mall at this point. But, I can’t believe that the reason for this is that the mall’s Santa display is starting then. I know it didn’t always start as early as it does now, but it was never THAT late

• Mary Anne doesn’t seem like the type to not pay attention to how much she’s spending, but maybe that’s the point?

• I like Mary Anne, but she has the most boring “secret life” in the world.

• Mary Anne gets to the mall every day by taking the bus. In the early books, someone had to drive them to Washington Mall, that’s why it was a bigger deal to get there. They should have had her get a job at the department store in town.

• Also, it takes Kristy and Mary Anne 45 minutes to get home for the mall due to holiday traffic. So, why didn’t Mary Anne ever have trouble getting there/home on time. She was going after school some days, so if it really took that long, she couldn’t have been working many hours.

• I think saying she’s going to the mall to get donations is a pretty stupid lie to tell her dad. How many donations could she be getting? And, she says she’s going with other people in the BSC, which makes me think she’ll get caught when another BSCer doesn’t know about it. But it never happened.

• Since when does Stoneybrook have a women’s shelter?

• Richard makes stew for dinner and says he made it with meat and tofu. My first thought was that he made two pots, because that’s how I’ve seen other people handle that. But it turns out, he made one pot and put meat AND tofu in. Apparently, everyone’s okay with picking out what they don’t eat? But I’m a vegetarian and wouldn’t be okay with that…neither would most other vegetarians I know. If the meat simmers with the rest of the dish, it gets into everything else.

• Mary Anne refers to “her parents” letting her stay home from school so she can go to the airport when they pick up Dawn. It’s sweet that she thinks of Sharon that way. Or maybe the ghostwriter just forgot which girl they were writing about.

• I think it’s good that they’re portraying Dawn changing when she’s in California, but I don’t get why Mary Anne’s acting like it’s such a major change. Supposedly, Dawn was home for Thanksgiving (less than a month ago), so did Mary Anne not notice the difference then?

• Angela meets Mary Anne when they are both applying for the job and advises her to say she’s 16. Apparently, the place just took her word for it. She was getting paid in checks, so it seems like a pretty legitimate business.

• Mary Anne has to wear a big elf mask, which makes it easy for her to not get spotted by anyone she knows. The closest call is when Logan and Dawn end up there with Logan’s siblings (they took them to see Santa) and they’re standing right next to Mary Anne. Only Hunter (the younger brother) recognizes her, but he agrees to keep it secret.

• I don’t get how Hunter recognized her. I think it’s supposed to be one of those things where kids are innocent and can see the truth. Kind of like how little kids could see ghosts on Ghost Whisperer or Al on Quantum Leap.

• The fundraiser the BSC has is called “Santa-Hanukah-Kwanzaa Town.” Those girls are so multicultural and politically correct, aren’t they?

• The fundraiser they have seems like a weird way of making money. They get donations of old toys (to use for games at a fair), food (for refreshments at the fair), and new toys (to actually give to the kids in the hospital). But it still seems like a lot of un-needed work. But I guess we needed an excuse for kids to be around.

• Mary Anne sees Angela try to call her parents collect and hears that they won’t accept the charges. So, she decides to get Angela phone cards as a Christmas gift. She thinks this will be good for someone moving away. But it seems kind of mean, since it won’t solve the problem of her parents not wanting to talk to her.

• Mary Anne got the gift for Angela so she wouldn’t feel left out at her house on Christmas, when the rest of the family is exchanging presents. But then she gives it to her on Christmas Eve, when no one else is around. How does that make her not feel left out?

• It’s actually kind of funny when Mary Anne “confesses”? Dawn asks what wrong, and Mary Anne comes out with, “I’m an elf!” And Dawn’s all WTF? But then sort of laughs when she hears the truth.

“Get a life, Mom. That’s what I was saying”……..BSC Special Edition: Shannon’s Story

Memory Reaction

I HATED this book. Seriously hated it. I don’t remember reading it more than once, even though I owned it. In fact, once when I was a kid and re-read the whole series (up until that point), this was the only book I skipped. The reason I didn’t like it is because Shannon fails a test on purpose in this one. To my childhood self, that was one of the worst things that could happen. I think what made it worse was that Shannon was supposed to be a great student, and with an F, her record got a bit tarnished, even if she did well moving forward. It may have set off the perfectionist part of me.

I also remember how Shannon has to “take over” for her mother while she’s away, and the thing that stands out in my mind’s her being on a bus with her sisters going to the grocery store. The scene seemed a bit over-the-top to me, like she was taking herself so seriously. I could see her being asked to baby-sit, but not act like she’s in charge of the whole house (cause her father was home, albeit working, the whole time too).

Revisited Reaction

Shannon’s really excited because her French class is taking a trip to Paris right after school gets out for the summer. But while we’re waiting for that to arrive, we get to hear about all of Shannon’s family issues. You know her sisters, but now we meet her parents. First up is her dad….he works too much during the week and plays golf on the weekends. He basically has no idea what’s happening with Shannon and her sisters and hardly talks to her mom. This is pretty standard for rich girl father issues. Meanwhile, and more relevant to this book, is her mother. She doesn’t work and with the kids getting older, she has nothing to do with her time. So, she constantly asks Shannon about her schedule and criticizes what she eats/wears, etc. She also tries to hang out with her all the time and it drives Shannon crazy.

When Shannon finds out her mom’s going to chaperone the Paris trip, she loses it. She flunks her French final on purpose so that she isn’t eligible to go on the trip. Her mom still goes as chaperone and Shannon’s “in charge” while she’s gone. During that time Shannon has an epiphany about how hard her mother’s life is, how it must be tough to not have anything to do while her husband and children are busy, and blah, blah, blah. Shannon decides she’s going to start being nicer, starting with throwing a welcome home party for her. Somehow this makes her father try to be a better father/husband as well. And her mom might start working as well, so she has more to do.

Since the theme’s mother-related, the subplot is about the BSC doing something for mother’s day. The first part of this is that they have a “gift-a-thon,” where kids go to Mary Anne’s backyard to make presents. Jackie Rodowski causes a disaster involving the refreshment table, I’m sure you can picture it. The second part’s a mother-child softball game. It’s most of their regular clients playing their mothers (obviously). The mom team wins, which shouldn’t be a big surprise considering most of the kids are Krusher’s. I actually enjoyed this, because all the moms in town were talking to each other, which I don’t remember happening before. Unless the parent is also a BSCer’s parents (Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Brewer), they usually only appear long enough to give sitting directions or talk about how great the BSC is.

High/Lowlights

• This is taking place the first time Dawn’s in California, so Shannon’s attending regular BSC meetings. I guess that’s like how they had Logan “filling in” for Dawn in his first book. You can’t have a BSC book without BSC meetings!

• Shannon’s school lets students do independent studies on stuff they’re interested in, so she takes Astronomy and Psychology. Which I can see happening in a private high school, but not 8^th grade. I guess Shannon’s supposed to be advanced though. And does talk about being in the Astronomy Club in her section of the memory super special, so that’s some continuity.

• When Kristy and Shannon get to the Kishis’ for a club meeting, Janine lets them. It’s weird, because they’re always telling us how the girls go right in on meeting days. But it’s really just an excuse to remind us how smart Janine is…when Shannon greets her in French, Janine responds in kind.

• Stacey outfit: “Black leggings, a black sweater, a big black belt with an oversized buckle, black Doc Martens, and her hair pulled back with a black and gold scarf that picked up the gold of the gold chain earrings she was wearing.”

• Claudia outfit: “An enormous pair of pants held up with a man’s belt and a pair of neon purple suspenders, an enormous purple T-shirt over a tie-dyed long-underwear top, her long black hair pulled back into a braid clip at intervals with little-kid barrettes, and these dangly peace-sign earrings.” Is it weird that I want to know what earrings she wore in her third hole? I like when they specify.

• When planning their Mother’s Day event, they refer to the Mother’s Day Surprise book where Emily Michelle was adopted. But they want to do something different this time.

• This book really makes Shannon seem like a brat. She gives up a trip to Paris with her best friends that she was looking forward to all year because she doesn’t want to be around her mom? And she does it by flunking a test purposely? Seriously, an embarrassing mother isn’t the worst problem in the world.

• Mrs. Kilbourne buys matching Laura Ashley dresses for her and Shannon, which of course Shannon finds mortifying. And, yeah, I can understand that. I’m surprised her mother wouldn’t have gotten the matching dress for Tiffany or Maria who are both younger. But then again, they’re not narrating this book.

• Also, when her mom wants them to wear the dresses to dinner, Shannon tries to say it’s at the cleaners. But what 13-year-old takes their own clothes to the cleaners?

• I won’t talk about how going to Paris is a crazy unrealistic school trip because Shannon goes to a private school with all the rich kids in town, and it’s only her French class going. It makes a little more probable than SMS trips.

• When planning the softball game, one of the girls says they’ll provide sitting for kids who are too little to play. My reaction to this was to say that 2 ½ year-old Gabbie Perkins plays on the Krusher’s. Who are they thinking will be too little to play? But it turned out they meant actual babies.

• Shannon’s all embarrassed that her mom uses her childhood nickname, Shanny, in front of her friends. But that’s really not so bad as far as childhood nicknames go.

• The back of the book says “Shannon Kilbourne, Straight-A Student,” but her final grades are three As, 2 Bs and an F (which was intentional). No one comments on how her Bs are rare, so I’m thinking the back of the book thing was written by someone who didn’t actually read the book.

• I can’t tell if her mom knows what Shannon did with the test. Mrs. Kilbourne gives her this speech about how she’s surprised and it makes her think Shannon doesn’t want to go, but she knows Shannon would have said something if that was the case. It’s either some kind of guilt trip or she’s really clueless.

• Shannon’s teacher and guidance counselor do meet with her after her test score comes in to try and find out what happened. Because, it’s really weird for someone who’s gotten As all year to suddenly totally bomb a test in the same subject. But there’s nothing they can really do about it.

• When Mrs. Kilbourne’s leaving, Shannon reminds her not to worry because her dad will be there and he has a beeper, so they won’t have trouble getting in touch with him. I remember when beepers were popular. But it’s amazing how the existence of cell phones makes such a difference in life, because this whole conversation would have been different if it was written today.

• When Shannon goes grocery shopping with her sisters, she doesn’t let them buy any junk food that they ask for. Which seems a bit harsh. I mean, I was always a total goody-goody but I would have bought something sweet in those circumstances.

• The mothers who play in the mother-child softball game are Mrs. Barrett, Mrs. Papadakis, Dr. Johanssen (even though Charlotte a cheerleader, not a player) Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Rodowski, Mrs. Braddock, and Mrs. Brewer/Thomas. It’s kind of fun to see them all athletic and competent instead of people who need teenagers to tell them what’s happening with their kids.

• Shannon also plays on the mothers’ team because Maria wants to play and her mom’s in France, but we don’t get to hear whether she’s any good or not.

• It’s kind of weird…when planning the game, the girls say they’ll play on the mom team because there are fewer mothers than kids. But we don’t hear about any of them playing. Kristy coaches the kids (and I guess they needed one person to do that), and others are mentioned as selling refreshments, but that’s it.

• Shannon’s realization about what her mom’s dealing with is a bit too obvious for me. She’s in the kitchen thinking how she’s done whatever she had to do and maybe she should just go talk to her sister, and literally says to herself, “this must be what mom feels like.”

• It’s not clear if the grades Shannon gets are for her final exams, or actually her final course grades. If they’re her course grades, she really screwed herself because getting an F in French would mean she doesn’t move up to the next level with her friends, and wouldn’t get to go on next summer’s trip. But I guess it doesn’t matter since she’ll never get out of 8^th grade anyway.

• I’m guessing they are actually her test grades, because how big an impact could the test have had? She said that until the final, her French grade was higher than all her other grades. So, say she had a 95 average. If the test was 25% of her grade, she could have gotten a 0 on the test and still gotten a 71 in the class. But I’m probably putting more thought into this than the ghostwriter, so whatever.

• I’m not really sure what made her dad resolve to be around more and delay a business trip to be there when Mrs. Kilboure gets home. Because he sees his daughters making a welcome home cake for his wife? It seems a bit forced. I’m guessing they wanted to wrap up the conflict in this book since it’s a one-off and we won’t be going revisiting Shannon’s life the way we will with the other girls.

“I spend the other half feeling intimidated and stupid”……BSC # 108: Don’t Give Up, Mallory

Memory Reaction

This was just after I stopped reading.

Revisited Reaction

The book starts with Mallory getting her mid-term progress report and seeing she has all As. Unfortunately, her classmates also see this and start making fun of her for being a “brainiac.” She’s embarrassed, but still pleased about it. She’s also pleased with her new Short Takes class – it’s about children’s literature, which is obviously her thing. But, when the class starts, she finds out it’s all discussion. The dork in her is upset that they’ll be no writing, and she’s not a fan of having to talk in class a lot.

At first Mal tries to speak up, because the class is graded on participation. But she doesn’t get called on a lot, and then she loses confidence in her ideas. Part of the problem is that the teacher (a young, “cool” teacher) lets two of the obnoxious guys in the class call out their answers. He also seems to favor the boys when calling on students. The first couple of times he does call on Mal, she gets flustered and doesn’t speak up, she doesn’t even correct him when he calls her “Valerie.” It keeps happening, and eventually, she keeps looking away to avoid being called on.

Eventually, Mal gets courage to tell the teacher she thinks he’s favoring the guys. At first he tries to brush her off, but he still makes an effort to call on girls the next day. Then in class he suddenly realizes she’s right, and apologizes to the class as a whole (he doesn’t mention her accusation). That’s the part that totally lost me. I can’t see a teacher ever doing that, and it comes off as the book trying to make everyone learn a lesson or something. Anyway, Mal does a great job on the one paper they do have, so she gets a B+ in the class.

I expected to feel bad for Mallory based on the back of the book summary, but I really didn’t at all. First of all, since when is Mal shy? She’s quiet, but I don’t remember her being afraid to talk in class or stuttering when she’s called on. She’s not as outspoken as Kristy, but she’s not as shy as Mary Anne. Secondly, the whole thing’s really her fault. She stops raising her hand. She avoids getting called on. When I was in school, I was super-shy, but if a teacher told us we were graded on participation, I raised my hand and spoke up because I was a dork like Mal that wanted straight As. And yeah, the teacher’s favoring the guys, but that’s mostly because they jump in with answers all the time. In the real world, there are going to be people who are more outspoken, or people who might be favored, and you deal with it. Now, to be fair, Mal admits that it’s partially her fault. But she still annoyed me. Maybe I’m getting old and just can’t relate to middle school problems anymore.

Meanwhile, Mallory’s still Secretary of 6^th Grade, and is working with the other class officers on a fundraiser. Apparently, the sixth grade class always has a fundraiser, and then leaves the money to the school to do something special. I’m not sure why sixth graders would be gifting something to the school, it seems more like something the graduating class would do. But whatever. It’s not like anyone actually graduates from the place anyway. Mallory finds out that a few years ago, the class’s monetary gift of $1,000 got re-classed to pay for fixing pipes or something, instead of making a student lounge. Mallory encourages the other class officers to go with her to talk to the vice-principal about how unfair that was, and he agrees that if they raise $1,000 this year, the school will match the donation to make up for what they did a few years ago. And they not only make $1,000, they break the school’s record, thanks to all Mal’s work. So, she does get to be competent at something. This is nice, because while she’s always the butt of some jokes, I like Mal.

There’s also this silly subplot about how Buddy Barrett’s jealous that Lindsay (his step-sister) gets to march in the Memorial Day parade with her Brownie troop. Since only “groups” are allowed to march, he told the parade organizers that he has a marching band. I’m not sure why they took an eight-year-old’s word, but again, whatever. Buddy asks the BSC to help him form one. They jump into it like always, and soon all the regular clients want in. They help them make handmade instruments, but realize the kids sound horrible when they try to play. Mal gets the idea to give all the kids kazoos and hide them in the instruments. Then the day of the parade they get way more kids than they expected, because parents of their clients just drop off their kids, even though they hadn’t been involved in the preparation or talked to any of the BSCers about it. But it goes well enough in the end.

High/low

I know kids tease, but the making fun of Mal for having straight As seems a bit over the top.

There’s a subplot with a girl in Mal’s class trying to act dumb and agreeable so that boys like her, and Mallory telling her it’s not right to do that. It’s the feminist message of the book, and probably the whole reason for it existing.

Claud outfit: “She was wearing denim overall shorts, a short black T-shirt, red-and-white pin-striped stockings that came over the top of her knees, red thick-soled patent leather shoes, and a black felt derby.”

I love that they mention “All the Children of the World,” the band they started in that book with the racist client. (I’m being serious – I really like references to past books).

The teacher starts class by talking about how they’ll be no papers, and even tells Mallory to put her notebook away because he doesn’t want kids taking notes. But then he goes, “oh, wait there will be one essay.”

Since when do teachers give out progress reports in class? In my school they mailed them to our parents. If they’re giving them out in class, I would at least expect an envelope in order to avoid kids seeing other people’s grades.

Claud’s outfit for “building” instruments: “Shorts and a rainbow tie-dyed T-shirt. Her hair was pulled into a thick pony tail held by a matching tie-dyed scrunchie…she sported her favorite work shoes, red high-top sneakers.” That may be the tamest Claud outfit ever. How boring.

Stacey’s outfit for the same thing: “Jeans with rolled up cuffs, an oversized denim work shirt, and a painter’s cap turned backwards.” Also pretty tame.

When Claud and Stacey show up for a sitting job, Mr. and Mrs. DeWitt seem surprised to hear about the whole making instruments and forming a band thing. Shouldn’t the girls have cleared it with them before agreeing to help the kids?

In Mal’s class, the kids are talking about projects to “further the cause of children’s literature,” and her suggestion is to arrange to have SMS students read to little kids. The teacher is…surprisingly down on it. But he loves suggestions like making a poster or giving books to a library in underprivileged areas. This was the one time when I felt for Mallory in the whole thing, I thought her idea was better than the others. It also made me think of this book.

Mallory takes one of the class officers into the basement of the school to find evidence of what happened to the old donation, I think it’s the same place they snuck into in some other book (Maybe this one?). But that time, it was records from 20 + years ago. I can’t imagine records from only five years ago being stored in a basement.

The scene also dates the book, because today you’d have someone hacking into the school’s computer to “investigate.”

Some guy in Mal’s class makes a Jurassic Park reference, as though it’s current…but that movie came out way before 1997, when the book was published.

It’s kind of annoying that parents in town just drop their kids off at the beginning of the parade and expect the BSC watch them/let them join the “band.” BUT, can you really blame them? Look at everything else these girls do.

However, I don’t buy that Mrs. Newton would be one of the parents who did this. She just drops her 4-year-old off near the parade start, watches him walk over toward Kristy and wave good-bye? With no contact with Kristy first?

Also, Kristy was already planning to watch the Barrett-DeWitt and Papadakis kids by herself before the parade started…that’s way more than their usual limit. That’s why the other kids showing up is a big deal.

Mallory and the other class officers work on the fundraiser and talk about what to do with the money. It feels like there should be more people in on that decision, aren’t there members of student council that aren’t the officers? They should be involved.

Again, why are sixth graders talking about what people will remember them for?

“What’s the point of having a Queen and King?”…………BSC # 106: Claudia, Queen of the Seventh Grade

Memory Reaction

Nothing to say here…

Revisited Reaction

When we last left Claudia, she had been demoted back to seventh grade, and was miserable.  But now it’s a few months later and she’s much happier…she’s made some friends and is actually doing well in school.  One of her new friends nominates her for prom Queen, and at first Claud thinks she has no chance.  However, her friends introduce her to a lot of people and she ends up winning.    The prom King and Queen are supposed to help plan the prom, but they find out that it’s really teachers who do that.  The King and Queen just get to dance in front of everyone and try and get kids excited about it.

Claudia has a really ambitious plan to have students plan the whole prom.   The teacher adviser agrees to give it a try.  A lot of kids help out, but it’s still a lot of work, especially for Claud.  The King, Mark, ends up being less than helpful.  He seems to be one of those people who says they’ll do things, but doesn’t follow through.  He and Claudia spend most of the book bickering, but end up kissing at the end.  I think I would have seen this coming, even if I didn’t know he would become her boyfriend in later books.

Meanwhile, Claudia’s annoyed that Jessi and Mal are the only BSC members who seem interested in her being Queen and planning the dance.  The other girls also keep making fun of seventh-graders, especially the guys, including Claud’s friend Josh (who will also become her boyfriend in later books).  She finally tells them off and they sort of apologize, but don’t actually use the words “I’m sorry.”   I guess that’s typical of them.

Subplot:  The BSC gets hired to work a bunch of jobs at the Addisons.  Sean, who we last saw burning books, is upset about having a baby-sitter.  He thinks ten’s old enough to stay by himself and claims he’s getting teased at school over it.  The Addisons actually let him call himself an “assistant sitter” when Abby’s there sitting for his sister.  Then Sean tricks his parents into not using a baby-sitter, accidently overflows the dishwasher, and calls the BSC for help.  They then solve the problem by telling Sean that the kid making fun of him has his own sitter.  So, Sean blackmails the kid into being nice.  What a nice, happy solution, huh?

High/Lowlights

• Um, why have we never heard about a prom king and queen?  And who has a prom in middle school? 

• Also, Claudia says all the grades have them and yet we don’t hear about the 6^th or 8^th grade elections.

• Also, we’ve never heard of them having a prom. They’ve talked about a dance at the end of the year, but I remember them calling it the “final fling.” 

• Plus, when Claudia first went back to seventh grade, she couldn’t go to the Halloween dance because sixth and seventh graders weren’t allowed.  But now seventh graders get to have a prom? 

• Claudia also says the prom’s the biggest dance of the year, but it seems that there are separate ones for each grade.  How can a dance with one grade be bigger than the rest of the dances?  

• We don’t get a Claudia outfit in this book, but she has a dream where she switched clothes with Queen Elizabeth.  She just wore a subdued dress, but as for the Queen:  “Her hair was tied to one side with a scrunchie and she was dressed in Spandex pants, a Hawaiian shirt with ‘Ed’s Diner’ stenciled across the breast pocket, and a pair of Doc Martens.” 

• Was Sean always ten?  Because I could have sworn he was only eight in the book with the library read-a-thon.  I remember that the books being burned were on the third grade reading list (which was why they temporarily suspected Nicky).  And I thought Sean was picking books based on his reading list, but it could have been a coincidence.  Unfortunately, I can’t find my copy of the book to check it.

• Do people have prom king and queen in real life?  If we had them in my high school I can’t remember it.
• The kid making fun of Sean is Mel Tucker, who’s the same guy we’ve seen making trouble for kids in the past.  It’s like they have don’t want to have one of their regular clients do anything too mean, but are too lazy to invent a new character.

• Sean says that the Pike Triplets told him they were assistant sitters now, and Claudia tells us it’s an exaggeration.  But isn’t that the resolution of a recent book?

• I can’t be bothered to learn the name of Claudia’s friends, except for Josh.  The girls don’t seem to have different personalities and most of the names start with J.

• One of the ideas Claudia has to include a charity food drive at the prom. She thinks of it because a seventh grade friend’s mother had been pressuring the friend to organize one.  Now, I think it’s great of Claud to do this.  But doing it at prom?  Who wants to bring food to a dance?  Also, they’d get better results if they opened it up to other grades.

• Kristy keeps telling Claud she’s not really a seventh grader.  Does she not understand the concept of being left back?  I thought Claudia was the dumb one.

• Claudia references the book, My Side of the Mountain, which I remember reading as a kid.  For some reason I like seeing real books get mentioned in these books.  I also read the sequel as a kid, but I didn’t know there was a third one.  I kind of want to read it now.

• The teacher advisor for prom was almost laughing at Claudia and Mark arguing about organizing the dance.  I think it’s supposed to be one of those, “we fight cause we love each other” things.

• Claud laughs because Josh leaves prank messages on her answering machine, but we’ve seen the BSC get annoyed at Sam for pulling the same one on them.  It’s the one where she gets a bunch of calls for X, then someone calls saying they’re X and want to know if any calls for them have come in.

• Claudia’s actually upset after the first time she and Mark kiss, because she’s still trying to hate him.  But they kiss again at the dance and she realizes she wants to date him.

• It’s totally obvious that Josh also into Claudia.  And I’m not just saying that because I read a later book when they’re together. Claudia’s in denial but I think she’s into him too, otherwise she wouldn’t have been too embarrassed to tell him she kissed Mark (she told all her other friends).  But I’m sure that’s a topic for a later book.

• Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Abby keep making fun of seventh graders and saying they’re immature.  They’re only one year older, how can there be such a big difference?  Maybe it’s because they’ve been in eighth grade for ten years and it seems like more?