jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on May 14, 2006 1:16:03 GMT -5
I'm quite disappointed in this book. It reads like a bad fanfic... The plot is boring, the subplot is boring, and the characterisation is incredibly forced and moved far too quickly.
I'd say that this is a sign of bad ghostwriting during the later books, but there are actually some later books that I think *are* well written, such as the All New Mallory Pike and Kristy at Bat. But in particular, this book and Stacey McGill... Matchmaker? were awful.
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Post by booboobrewer on May 15, 2006 19:03:44 GMT -5
Yeah I didn't think much of this one either. I'm not that interested in the books that mention Claudia's seventh grade friends. The party sounded like it would be a disaster from the start -- teams? cookie-decorating? Ugh. I did like the over-eagerness on Janine's part, though, it was cute. "Special sister activities", hehee.
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Post by bscfan24 on May 19, 2006 0:56:50 GMT -5
^^that party sounds like something they'd do for second graders.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on May 21, 2006 0:15:49 GMT -5
It was a good idea in theory, but really poorly executed... And I can't believe that an entire book was based around that. Were they getting desperate towards the end, or what?
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lisa
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 201
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Post by lisa on Jul 25, 2006 3:07:42 GMT -5
I'm going to say that my favourite part of this book was when oh-so-sophisticated Stacey was balancing pizza boxes on her head with Rick and Shira.
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Jul 27, 2006 13:20:02 GMT -5
I don't think the party activities were that childish. My friends and I did dumb stuff at our get togethers right up through high school.  I do think it was a little unrealistic to expect a whole houseful of middle schoolers to actually organize themselves for games, though. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2007 17:10:58 GMT -5
Ha! I didn't notice that Stacey was one of the ones balancing pizza boxes on her head. I was hoping for more scandal in this one...someone bringing alcohol, or kissing, or at least a big mess. The worst that happened was Mal breaking a vase, and she wasn't even doing anything irresponsible at the time.
I didn't mind the main plot of this one so much (I like Janine), but the subplot was SO stupid...Bill Korman hates Melody, and then they work together on getting into the house (and they don't even have to ACTUALLY get into the house) and everything's all right. Um, could we maybe explore WHY he hated his sister so much? Supposedly he didn't like her because she was "stupid," but liked her again as soon as she demonstrated competence, so are we supposed to believe this is the first remotely intelligent thing Melody has done? Seems like there was a little more going on there...
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mckay
Junior Sitter
Posts: 672
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Post by mckay on Oct 20, 2007 21:45:40 GMT -5
That subplot bothered me too, because Melody was also being bratty to Bill (in a typical little sister way), but we never got any indication of what the heck was wrong between them. I thought we were going to get some revelation about how he felt that his parents liked Melody more, or she had accidentally broken something of his and she didn't apologize, or she did something to him and their parents took her side, ANYTHING!
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 20, 2007 23:41:30 GMT -5
^ I never got why the Kormans were fighting, either, but figured I just didn't understand sibling rivalry because I'm an only child. I tend to never care for Korman subplots and this one is better than some of the other ones for me so I didn't mind it too much. I guess it did have parallels to the sibling relationship between Claudia and Janine (they're all siblings but that's really about the only connection ;D)
As for what happened at the party, I was actually glad that nothing more happened. I was relucant to read it with this title because I knew what a party might mean.... The whole Stacey and the Bad Girls thing was almost too much for me. ;D
The thing that I thought was weird in this one was the activities that Claudia had planned. The cookie decorating, especially, and group mingling sounded kind of strange and like it wouldn't really appeal to anyone. Not to me at least.
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fluffy
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 180
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Post by fluffy on Oct 21, 2007 0:24:26 GMT -5
I liked the part in the book with the kids playing catch when the cookie when Claudia takes the cookie and eats it. For some reason I found that so funny!
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Post by booboobrewer on Oct 21, 2007 2:34:02 GMT -5
I liked that too! Also when Claudia finds some kids watching the TV in her parents' room because Mary Anne wanted to watch a movie downstairs and Logan made them use the other one. Ah, that Logan  |
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Oct 21, 2007 21:58:07 GMT -5
I thought this book was going to be interesting but I found it incredibly boring. Plus Mal's depressing mood made me feel depressed too.
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Oct 22, 2007 11:46:27 GMT -5
The most vivid picture I have from this is when they try to make their own pizza and it's horrible. I did the same thing once, and it was equally bad, so it really turns my stomach to read about Claudia's failed pizza experiment. The giant cookies sound awesome, though! |
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 22, 2007 15:27:29 GMT -5
^ The pizza always sounded so disgusting to me. I felt for Claudia with that. I also kind of felt for her with things getting out of hand with so many kids showing up but can't remember if she was to blame or not. Knowing Claudia, her communication hadn't been clear to her friends.... ;D
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Oct 26, 2008 19:14:24 GMT -5
It was a good idea in theory, but really poorly executed... And I can't believe that an entire book was based around that. Were they getting desperate towards the end, or what? Yeah, that good idea was what made me want to read the book originally. I was so excited thinking that the BSC was going to be throwing some kind of wild party and it turned out to be lame. I definitely think they were getting desperate towards the end. |
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I do think it was a little unrealistic to expect a whole houseful of middle schoolers to actually organize themselves for games, though.
