oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Feb 13, 2024 12:32:51 GMT -5
I don't get anything to do with Gabbie. She's on the Krushers and bakes cookies with no recipe. They wanted to make her smart but her abilities are that of a much older kid, besides the fact that she speaks like a toddler.
I get Tiffany/Mallory vibes from this. By propping Gabbie up as a super genius, she makes Emily Michelle look dumber than rocks. I feel so bad for her.
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Post by oldmeanie on Feb 13, 2024 22:26:12 GMT -5
I don't get anything to do with Gabbie. She's on the Krushers and bakes cookies with no recipe. They wanted to make her smart but her abilities are that of a much older kid, besides the fact that she speaks like a toddler. I get Tiffany/Mallory vibes from this. By propping Gabbie up as a super genius, she makes Emily Michelle look dumber than rocks. I feel so bad for her. Even Myriah acts much older than 5. I still can't get over Gabbie being a Krusher... pretty ridiculous. I feel bad for Emily here too :/ Comparing like they're doing in this book is so damaging. It's weird that I didn't pick up on it much in my initial re-read.
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Post by booboobrewer on Feb 13, 2024 23:47:23 GMT -5
Yeah, Ann really made the kids of her bestie total superkids. (The Perkins girls are based on the daughters of her real life bff Beth Perkins). Emily Michelle sounded like a doll and reading more of her backstory in this book endeared me to her. The fact that she was adopted to make the Brewer-Thomases feel “complete” doesn’t totally sit right with me. I hope she had a lot of loving support as she grew up.
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Post by oldmeanie on Feb 14, 2024 0:43:53 GMT -5
Yeah, Ann really made the kids of her bestie total superkids. (The Perkins girls are based on the daughters of her real life bff Beth Perkins). Emily Michelle sounded like a doll and reading more of her backstory in this book endeared me to her. The fact that she was adopted to make the Brewer-Thomases feel “complete” doesn’t totally sit right with me. I hope she had a lot of loving support as she grew up. Agreed on Emily Michelle! She seems so sweet. The whole "complete" thing made sense to me as a kid, kind of like she's a kid Watson and Elizabeth had together. This made more sense in my head. As an adult, it does feel problematic, and I wonder if later down the line she'd feel pressured from that. And probably be closer to Nannie than Watson or Elizabeth. I'm glad they retconned this in the Netflix series so that Watson officially adopted the Thomas kids instead.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Feb 18, 2024 12:34:39 GMT -5
Re reading this one now. Something stood out to me this time- Watson and Elizabeth tried to enroll Emily Michelle in preschool. Isn't 2 and a half kind of young for that? I looked it up, and 3 is the recommended age. I sort of don't love how the girls are comparing Emily Michelle to the other kids they know around the same age. I get it, sorta, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way. Like in BSCland time, the Thomas-Brewers barely adopted her. She was in an orphanage and grew up around a different language. Isn't it kind of early to be worried? I might be totally off-base, I'm by no means an expert in child development, but still. Is it normal for 2 year old kids to draw beyond scribbles? Claudia says in-text that Gabbie and Marnie's drawings are "becoming identifiable" but that Emily just scribbles. I mean she's 2... that seems OK to me? Also, Gabbie is ridiculously precocious, so it's an unfair comparison. No, you're totally right! My nephew is 2 and my sister is looking at preschool for next year. I believe one of the requirements for preschool too is the child has to be potty trained and Emily Michelle isn't. Maybe Watson and Elizabeth meant they were looking for daycares? But they have Nannie taking care of her so that doesn't make sense. Also, yes, my nephew just scribbles when he colors. I know Gabbie is like baby prodigy so there's really no reason for them to be comparing her to Emily Michelle. And Marnie eats Kleenex
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Post by oldmeanie on Feb 20, 2024 18:33:38 GMT -5
Re reading this one now. Something stood out to me this time- Watson and Elizabeth tried to enroll Emily Michelle in preschool. Isn't 2 and a half kind of young for that? I looked it up, and 3 is the recommended age. I sort of don't love how the girls are comparing Emily Michelle to the other kids they know around the same age. I get it, sorta, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way. Like in BSCland time, the Thomas-Brewers barely adopted her. She was in an orphanage and grew up around a different language. Isn't it kind of early to be worried? I might be totally off-base, I'm by no means an expert in child development, but still. Is it normal for 2 year old kids to draw beyond scribbles? Claudia says in-text that Gabbie and Marnie's drawings are "becoming identifiable" but that Emily just scribbles. I mean she's 2... that seems OK to me? Also, Gabbie is ridiculously precocious, so it's an unfair comparison. No, you're totally right! My nephew is 2 and my sister is looking at preschool for next year. I believe one of the requirements for preschool too is the child has to be potty trained and Emily Michelle isn't. Maybe Watson and Elizabeth meant they were looking for daycares? But they have Nannie taking care of her so that doesn't make sense. Also, yes, my nephew just scribbles when he colors. I know Gabbie is like baby prodigy so there's really no reason for them to be comparing her to Emily Michelle. And Marnie eats Kleenex After finishing the book, it was mostly Kristy who was worried, which makes sense. The preschool thing is still weird though! They definitely meant preschool. 2 and a half is too young I think. That sounds about right! Gabbie really skewed the bell curve here lol.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Apr 2, 2024 15:07:39 GMT -5
This book has one of my favorite Claudia outfits. For Janine's awards ceremony, she wears a white blouse with pink and turquoise poodles on it, a short black skirt and turquoise flats with ankle straps. Then she adds poodle earrings and a big pink barrette in her hair. It's wild but not as out there as some of her other creations
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Apr 3, 2024 11:12:13 GMT -5
Replace the skirt with black pants and that's an outfit I'd wear today. It seems crazy casual for an awards ceremony though.
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Post by sparklymouse on Apr 3, 2024 19:27:47 GMT -5
Claudia and Janine should have done some 23andMe kits and called it a day.
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Post by booboobrewer on Apr 3, 2024 22:01:13 GMT -5
That made me lol. Claudia, just waiting to reveal her DNA results at a meeting. Janine, appearing in the doorway at the moment of truth.
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Apr 3, 2024 22:05:05 GMT -5
That made me giggle too. The one thing that bothered me about this book is that Claudia looks at her immediate family and thinks she doesn't fit in. I wonder why she never looked at Peaches or one of her aunts on her dad's side (we know he has at least one in the friends forever series) and thinks "oh maybe I could be more like them." Its clear that she has a great relationship with Peaches later in the series.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Apr 5, 2024 10:13:00 GMT -5
That's a really reasonable question and she should have used some common sense, but Claudia's a moody teenager who's feeling lost without Mimi and all her thoughts are irrational, haha. When I feel sorry for myself, it's so easy to spiral and think ugly thoughts.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Apr 21, 2024 10:45:39 GMT -5
I did feel really bad for Claudia. I remember at one point she's crying and wishes Mimi was still around because she could ask her and get an honest response. I guess Mimi was the only one she felt comfortable talking to about it
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