Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2006 1:58:46 GMT -5
In addition to loving the girls age-appropriate behavior (flashlight code, talking back to adults and/or parents, accusing another of playing with dolls), I also like the behavior they display towards each other.
I liked the "get to know you" questions and wow responses Mary Anne had for Stacey. I liked Kristy's apprehension with once-good-friend-but-becoming-an-acquaintance Claudia. I liked Kristy's almost picking a fight with Mary Anne when she wouldn't stop crying after the fight with Stacey and Claudia.
Their collective behavior show the early stages for the entire club coming together (and stumbling together) as a group. It's endearing to read and easy to accept/believe.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
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Post by Amalia on Apr 20, 2006 13:43:18 GMT -5
I love MA's crying. That's why she's my favorite sitter. I agree with the above. The earlier books were easier to accept.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2006 21:48:41 GMT -5
I also agree that this book was extremely well-written. The formation of the club didn't seem so cheesy. And their baby-sitting experiences seemed more real. Mary Anne actually seemed like a kid baby-sitting for Karen and Andrew.
And we also now all know the word decorum!
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
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Post by Amalia on Apr 21, 2006 22:53:42 GMT -5
Yeah, the opening scene was realistic. It began with everybody being sweaty, stinky, and gooey while flies had a field day with the humans, not exactly an appealing and beautiful scene to kick off the series but was totally great.
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Post by sotypical42483 on May 3, 2006 11:49:28 GMT -5
I just finished re-reading this last night. A couple of things...
4 chapters in a ROW of baby-sitting! Kristy and the dogs, MA and the Brewer kids, Stacey and DM, Claudia and Jamie + the Feldmans. Geesh!!
Loved Kristy in this book. She was a brat to her mom and Watson half the time, but she wasn't unlikeable. Loved the apology notes she wrote them.
One thing that bugged me a lot... Kristy flat out says that Claudia was never that close of a friend. So why is she in the club? They barely speak at school, don't eat together... why didn't she ask the Shillaber twins to join or something instead? I didn't really care for Claudia in this book... esp how she stuck up for the lying Stacey because Stacey is "sophisticated" while Kristy and MA are childish.
Felt kinda bad for DM in this book (and I really am not a DM fan at ALL!), I bet he felt like a total inconvenience to his entire family. Kinda creepy how Kristy describes her brother as an attractive guy...
oh, ETA: Kristy and her brothers seemed to have been sitting for DM for FREE for a long time... now suddenly she is going to get paid for it? Am I missing something or were her and her bros being paid before to do it, too?
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Post by hitzpink on May 3, 2006 18:21:56 GMT -5
^Yeah, I didn't like how Kristy said that Claudia wasn't a very close friend. I like to think that Kristy, MA, and Claudia were the original Three Muskateers. I don't think that Kristy and her brothers were ever paid to babysit for DM, until Kristy started the club (business, really) and suddenly everybody was paid to sit for their own siblings.
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macca
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Post by macca on May 3, 2006 19:33:51 GMT -5
I've wondered this too. But personally, I think it's because Ann/Scholastic/whoever wanted a "spectrum" of personalities - you know, the tomboy, the artsy one, the sophisticated one, the shy one - much more marketable, even if it's unlikely that four so totally different girls would be such BFFs.
Right from the beginning, the books read as if Claud wasn't really a friend, but she was a convenient acquaintance - lived across the street, had her own phone and personal, private phone number (as we're constantly reminded) plus a room full of junk food.
I prefer to think that they were close friends as little kids but gradually grew apart over time, which is a common thing.
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ktag
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Post by ktag on May 3, 2006 20:46:32 GMT -5
I think it's just another inconsistancy, and they forgot about that comment when they started writing their backstories. Because the three were really close as kids...even though they kept saying Kristy and Mary Anne were the best friends, they still did almost everything together. Claudia goes on vacation with the Thomases a year before they started the club. I do believe they would grow apart, they just messed up the timing.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
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Post by jen on May 4, 2006 7:08:37 GMT -5
Claudia goes on vacation with the Thomases a year before they started the club. I do believe they would grow apart, they just messed up the timing. Hey, that's true! I never thought about the timeline like that.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
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Post by Amalia on May 7, 2006 1:47:23 GMT -5
^ Yeah, in Claudia's Portrait, Kristy and Claudia go to Sam's playoff game in some faraway city. The whole Thomas family all come to watch him and stay at a hotel overnight. They even shared a big secret. But of course that book was written well after Kristy's Great Idea, so . . . And yeah, I think that Kristy only invites Claudia to join the club because of the room and private telephone. I don't think they were that close until the club brought them closer together.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
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Post by macca on May 7, 2006 2:25:08 GMT -5
I think it's quite sweet that an old childhood friendship was rekindled, although for someone so cool, Claud certainly went to extremes to hang onto her friends. They weren't more than casual acquaintances, yet Kristy and Co were over three times a week and mooching all her junk food.
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Amalia
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Post by Amalia on May 7, 2006 2:57:57 GMT -5
^ Yeah, I think that Kristy & Co. took advantage of Claudia's generosity. I think that. subconsciously, they think that they are doing Claudia some degree of a favor by putting up with her embarrasing writing skills and think that eating her food is only fair. And same thing with MA's crying. They are compensated by having her do that hardest job. And both enable the others to take advantage of them like that (being melodramatic, heehee) so it continues.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
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Post by jen on May 8, 2006 0:44:19 GMT -5
Mary Anne *liked* her job, though.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
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Post by Amalia on May 8, 2006 0:48:37 GMT -5
^ And Claud seemed to like to share, and so she enabled them to take advantage of that. And yeah, I didn't like it that Kristy didn't really consider Claudia a true friend either. I guess the Schillaber twins didn't really babysit that much?
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
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Post by macca on May 8, 2006 21:43:25 GMT -5
^ it was weird that Kristy was apparently so close with the Shillabers. They weren't developed as characters at ALL.
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