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Post by greer on Jul 1, 2007 8:49:56 GMT -5
Way before the spaz girl thing the editors were thinking of sending her off to boarding school... There's a note from ann about it from before the spaz girl thing was even plotted. The editors just totally hated mal.
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Post by liss31d on Jul 1, 2007 9:13:04 GMT -5
Aw poor Mal... another reason to add to the Ann Hates Mal thread.
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Post by ringdings on Jul 3, 2007 8:43:28 GMT -5
I think Mr. Pike was downsized. I also wondered how the other kids knew about Mr. Pike being unemployed.
And if I'm not mistaken, wasn't Janet O'Neal the name of one of the older sitters from the Baby-sitters Agency in The Truth About Stacey? Just like Sabrina Bouvier, they're just recycling names. Gee, just open a phone book and pick a name!
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Lauren
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,026
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Post by Lauren on Jul 3, 2007 9:37:18 GMT -5
I think it was Janet Gates in The Truth About Stacey.
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Post by ringdings on Jul 3, 2007 9:58:27 GMT -5
^Thanks, gracie. I think you're right.
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Post by aln1982 on Sept 21, 2007 23:42:47 GMT -5
I just read a book (possibly Stacey’s Choice) where Mal mentioned that she had to go visit her grandparents and thought it was strange as it’s the only reference I remember the books making to them. I had always assumed they were dead since they weren’t even mentioned during the Uncle Joe saga.
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Post by greer on Sept 22, 2007 1:59:44 GMT -5
maybe they went to see her mom's parents, who would not have a stake in the uncle joe saga.
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Post by aln1982 on Sept 22, 2007 8:00:35 GMT -5
^ Never thought of that but you're probably right. I still think it's a bit strange her dad's parents were never even mentioned (they are too old to take him, they're dead, they hate him ;D, etc)
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Post by greer on Sept 22, 2007 14:09:25 GMT -5
maybe the fact that uncle joe was so important to mr. pike meant that he and his real parents had some issues.
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Post by aln1982 on Sept 22, 2007 16:39:46 GMT -5
^ That's kind of what I was wondering. That or his parents had died and Uncle Joe was some kind of connection to them.
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 28, 2007 7:51:41 GMT -5
I just read Fright Night and really liked it how Mallory stood up for Eileen. I thought at first that it seemed strange, though, since she later was so bothered as "spaz girl". In earlier books like this one and Don't Give Up, Mal does seem to have a backbone and to be able to stand up for herself more. Then I started thinking about it and think that a lot of it is a person reaches a breaking point where they just can't take anymore. Being tormented really wears on them until defenses are so strained that they don't want to even bother standing up for themselves - the effort is almost too great. I don't know, that's probably just the way I'm seeing Mal's situation and probably analyzing this way too much but this has influenced my whole perspective on the spaz girl thing and Mal's decisions to go to boarding school.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Dec 28, 2007 18:00:37 GMT -5
I've been thinking about Mal. (Not in that that way! Get your minds out of the gutter!) I've come to the conclusion that I am mad at her. Yes. Mad. I liked her when I was younger, probably because she was closer in age and wanted to be older. I can understand that. I might not have understood the horse thing, but it didn't bother me. Now, though.. I think because I'm reading more of the books (after the sixtys?) I'm liking her less and less. I think her earlier character is much better written and less annoying. She's less WOE is ME. EVERYONE hates ME and My LIFE is terrible. She had problems, but she also solved them.
Example: She wanted her ears pierced. She asked her parents, and they said yes. They even stipulated that she wear something fun once in a while.
Her dad loses his job. She is sad and kids are mean. She doesn't know what to do. But she gets through it, and stands up for herself at the end.
She wants a best friend. She tries to join the baby-sitters club, but the girls are slightly evil and clique-ish. She meets Jessi, they become friends and set up their own club. Club fails, they join the BSC and never mention the other club again. Problem solved.
Mallory wants to ride a horse. (Insert your own joke about 'riding' here). She does, and is just as unathletic on a horse as off. She falls off the horse and decides that it sucks. She fights with her friends. She is awkward around rich kids. Life is terrible. She overcomes her fear and makes up with jessi and is better at horses then 50% of her class.
Those books aren't bad. Then we get the ones where she seems to INVENT the drama. Like the ear thing - she can SO wear something besides studs, but she won't. She's mad because she has mono and her parents won't let her do anything. She's mad because she has to write a story for school and her parents wont' let her. But does she ever just talk to her parents? No. She's mad because she has to play volleyball in gym and decides she doesn't like it before she even stepsup to the net. She's mad because ... her favorite author writes FICTION? she's upset because she sucks at art.
Okay, so Mal apparently is worse off then Claudia. I mean, Claudia may be bad at school, but Mal is bad at everything BUT school. And thats only if she never has to take art or drama or p.e.
I also loved the one where she finds the diary in Stacey's attic. She wasnt' all "WOE IS ME MY PARENTS DON"T UNDERSTAND" ... tear.
And that is why I wish she had been sent to boarding school a few BSC years earlier.
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Post by aln1982 on Dec 28, 2007 20:41:47 GMT -5
^ I love Mallory and the Mystery Diary, too. Also like a lot of the early Mal books, though I do feel for her in the later books. She does create a lot of her own drama but being bullied is awful.
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mckay
Junior Sitter
Posts: 672
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Post by mckay on Dec 30, 2007 23:57:03 GMT -5
I forget which book had it - I did a lot of BSC rereading this past weekend - but there was one book where Mallory was whining about being treated like a little kid and whining about having too many responsibilities from her parents within, like, three pages of each other. I could swear there was also a book where she basically complained about being asked to do too much by her parents but didn't want to complain about it TO them, but I might be making that up.
I actually thought Mal got annoying before cpennylane said - she bugged me endlessly in Mallory and the Dream Horse, maybe because I'm a horse person.
She actually seemed really adult in New York! New York! to me, though, when she said that she was glad she tried Claudia's type of "serious" art, but it wasn't for her after all.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on Jan 3, 2008 1:47:00 GMT -5
^I think that was Mallory on Strike.She never told them she had stuff to do, before her big blow up. I thought Mal was on the verge of annoyance in Dream Horse. I had a horse growing up (sort of. We kept him at my grandparents) but I never liked to read about them. And I wasn't obsessed with riding or anything. I thought it was fun and all, but I hated horse camp - they made me ride western and get up at the crack of dawn to feed them. I didn't quite get the whole purpose of that camp. I mean, arent 'you paying for fun? I do not remember much fun. I remember being yelled at a lot for riding wrong. ... and you know, now that I think about it, Mals fear kind of annoyed me. It was the same reaction I had to Paris Hilton falling off that horse ... really? You need to go to the hospital? Why? I did like in NY, NY that she was able to identify that Claudia's art wasn't for her. But -- was that her just making an excuse because she sucked? And calling cartoon mice "art" might be pushing it. Claudia was the one who was all immature in that book. Did I mix them up? Probably.
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