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Post by aln1982 on Apr 24, 2006 16:17:41 GMT -5
I always loved this book as a kid and still enjoy it. As a take-charge, “fixer” type person, I liked the whole idea of Dawn going in and straightening up the Barretts’ life. I also appreciated (especially when I was little) the kids’ dependence on her, even though I agree that it had to end. For some reason, I really liked the scene when Suzi got sick (not the throwing up part itself – gross!) and how Dawn sat with her in the bathroom. I guess I used to like to visualize myself as Dawn taking care of the Barrett kids as a surrogate mother (that thought always fascinated me as a kid - maybe it made me feel important and grown up, not sure). My favorite part was when Kristy came to Dawn’s house. I thought it was nice to have the two of them spend time together without MA. I always find their interaction especially interesting, maybe because there is that bit of jealousy that exists. I think this was one of my favorite Dawn books. She actually seemed almost mature and pretty normal instead of sometimes when she acted like a stalker or was obsessed with a boy or pouting and fighting with MA. Anyone else enjoy this book?
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Apr 24, 2006 19:27:56 GMT -5
^ yeah it was great. I haven't read it for a while, but I really liked Dawn. She actually seemed like the mature, responsible, easy-going person she's portrayed as in every Chapter Two. And the whole psycho-enviro-murdered-mammals thing isn't yet apparent. Sure, they like health food, but they're not so superior about it all.
Only thing I wasn't impressed with was the title as the kids were actually really good, happy to help clean the house and do the right thing for their mother. Only Mrs Barrett was truly impossible.
I enjoyed the Kristy/Dawn interaction as well, although even in future books there was always a bit of tension between those two.
I didn't even mind Dawn's anti-toy-gun preaching too much. I could definitely see her point, it wasn't eyerolling like her stupid ZOMG THEY USED STYROFOAM! rants.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Apr 24, 2006 19:36:30 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree. She actually seemed like the mature, responsible, easy-going person she's portrayed as in every Chapter Two. And the whole psycho-enviro-murdered-mammals thing isn't yet apparent. Sure, they like health food, but they're not so superior about it all. Word! I really disliked Mrs Barrett in this book, though. Irresponsible parent much? If you can manage to make yourself look drop dead gorgeous, why can't you at least make your kids halfway presentable? aln1982, I agree with your comments about liking reading about Dawn looking after the whole household. The only difference is that I was glad that it was Dawn and not me
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ktag
Junior Sitter
Posts: 694
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Post by ktag on Apr 24, 2006 20:36:40 GMT -5
I liked the Dawn and Kristy bonding. Plus, the rope swinging sounded fun.
Word on Mrs. Barrett. She's one of my least favorite client parents.
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Post by buffykay70 on Apr 24, 2006 23:29:18 GMT -5
yeah, i liked kristy and dawn becoming friends, that was nice. and the rope swinging and stuff. and i agree that mrs barrett was so irresponsible and annoying and i hated how they always mentioned that she was gorgeous with chestnut curls or some crap haha.
and i felt sorry for buddy when he cried. and i love when dawn was a b*tch to mal over the brownie, that still makes me laugh.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2006 0:17:38 GMT -5
I like the part in this book where Dawn mentions that Mary Anne was wearing her first ever pair of jeans and sweat shirt, and she looked great. Hee. I also like Dawn's quote to Janine--I'll have to head to the BSC quote page and put it there, if someone else hasn't yet. There was a lot of mention of food in this book. The all natural meatless cheese pizza, a sandwich, The CONN state lunch, the Shillaber twins hot lunch, Dawn's lunch, Dawn and Kristy's snack, Jeff's snack, the tofu-ginger salad, EZ brownies, the food at the Schafer's barbeque. Seems like a lot to me for some reason...I don't know why I'm commenting on this...I guess I'm hungry. ETA more food
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inge
Junior Sitter
Posts: 767
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Post by inge on Apr 25, 2006 5:37:25 GMT -5
This is one of my favorite Dawn books as well, although I really don't like Ms Barrett. Always looking like a model but not taking good care of her kids. She was the impossible one so it always bugs me when in later books they say stuff like "Dawn used to call the Barrett kids the impossible three, but these days, they're not nearly as impossible". They never really were! They were good kids, helping Dawn clean up the house and everything.
Word on the Dawn/Kristy bonding. The rope swinging sounded like a lot of fun! Also there are a lot of good quotes in this one, but they were already mentioned.
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Post by sotypical42483 on Apr 25, 2006 11:36:56 GMT -5
haha, Dawn yelling at Mal over the brownie, definitely a classic BSC moment.
Im really not a fan of the Barrett's - the kids or their mother. The kids are too hyper most the time and their mother is a total space cadet.
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Post by hitzpink on Apr 25, 2006 21:21:43 GMT -5
I haven't read this book in ages, but I agree with everyone else - the Kristy/Dawn thing was really nice. I really didn't like how Dawn had to swoop in and fix the Barrett's lives. She was only 12! I can't imagine an actual 12 year old sitting a grown woman down and confronting her about the state of her house and whatnot.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Apr 25, 2006 23:11:20 GMT -5
I really didn't like how Dawn had to swoop in and fix the Barrett's lives. She was only 12! I can't imagine an actual 12 year old sitting a grown woman down and confronting her about the state of her house and whatnot. Yeah, whether it was justified or not - and in this case, I actually do believe it was - Dawn's "telling off" was still not entirely appropriate.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Apr 26, 2006 1:01:35 GMT -5
There was a lot of mention of food in this book. The all natural meatless cheese pizza, a sandwich, The CONN state lunch, the Shillaber twins hot lunch, Dawn's lunch, Dawn and Kristy's snack, Jeff's snack, the tofu-ginger salad, EZ brownies, the food at the Schafer's barbeque. Seems like a lot to me for some reason...I don't know why I'm commenting on this...I guess I'm hungry. Hehe, I love reading about food! I thought I was the only one.
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Post by aln1982 on Apr 26, 2006 15:21:08 GMT -5
I really didn't like how Dawn had to swoop in and fix the Barrett's lives. She was only 12! I can't imagine an actual 12 year old sitting a grown woman down and confronting her about the state of her house and whatnot. I think the fact that lots of the things in these books wouldn't and shouldn't happen is what makes them so fun to read - especially for kids. "I" in the form of "Dawn" enjoyed being able to do something that I never would have done in real life - straightening up Mrs. Barrett's screwed up life (by the way, I also can't stand the woman and agree that she is the "impossible" one instead of the kids. They were actually pretty cute - especially Suzi - despite their rowdiness). I think there are times, though, when kids should stand up to adults (not saying that this is one of them) and thought Dawn handled it in a pretty good way.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2006 13:13:38 GMT -5
I adore this book! Of course, I don't think there's any argument that the earlier books are higher quality than later, and I definitely think that the original 4 plus this one are the absolute best. There is so much, like, legitimate human emotion. And that just makes it infinitely more real and memorable, or something. I also liked that the family wasn't near perfect, including Mrs Barrett. Even though she was a mess, her life had just changed, and she was totally lost. I think she was frustrating but sympathetic and pretty true to life. And it was nice to see things get really out of control and have Dawn have to actually be a good babysitter, esp in a crisis. I mean, I could be a great babysitter if parents were super prepared and kids were all angels all the time, too. Even though I totally agree that it was good that the Barrett's dependency on Dawn eased up, I wish they had kept them close throughout the series. She seemed to genuinely like them a lot in this one.
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
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Post by starrynight on Aug 31, 2006 13:37:40 GMT -5
I guess I'm in the minority, because I never really liked this book. I think it was the part where everyone got the stomach flu that did it; when I was a kid, I liked barfing almost as much as Stacey did. After a year and a half working with dogs, though, I kind of got over being grossed out by stuff like that.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Aug 31, 2006 21:52:13 GMT -5
Yeah, it was great to see a bit of realism in the books - divorced mother with three kids isn't automatically supermum.
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