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Post by zoar3 on Aug 11, 2011 11:35:36 GMT -5
It would have, also to see more of her self beneath the jokes and bluster. If you feel he was than he was.
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scrounge
Sitter-In-Training
Boo and bullfrogs!
Posts: 414
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Post by scrounge on Aug 14, 2011 17:50:35 GMT -5
You're the only one who can decide whether it was truly a coincidence or not, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with feeling that your dad was there with you for that transition in your life.
About this book, it drove me crazy that the ghostwriter went so far out of the way to make the special needs athletes seem normal that I couldn't figure out just by reading which ones were "normal" and which ones had special needs. Was Abby so competitive in other books? I don't remember much about the books where she played soccer. She seemed really driven to prove she was the best player here. Maybe it would have been more beneficial to put some of that competitive energy into extra practice instead of just being a jerk to Erin.
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Post by wiggir13 on Aug 14, 2011 18:26:34 GMT -5
I think she always seemed competitive to me with the way she treated other people. I always saw her as a person who put other people down or made them feel inferior somehow. I don't know why I always felt that way b/c I liked her portrait book, but I just feel like this book showed who she truly was.
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Post by zoar3 on Aug 14, 2011 19:51:04 GMT -5
ITA with you Wiggirl about Abby. IMO, she used her anger/sadness about her dad as (even if it was subconcious) way of okay-ing her putting others down. I think it was Kristy in "Kristy in the Sister War," who said what a great mimic Abby was but that MA always felt bad for the person being, well made fun of (no K did not say that). That was the only time, other than when Kristy thought Abby was making fun of her (K) that any of them ever said something negative about their newest member. I also enjoyed her portrait book and thought it was the best of the lot.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Mar 29, 2012 20:17:27 GMT -5
I think that this is the book where the BSC narrator is the bitchiest - ever. I know many characters have their bitchy moments, but this book tops them all! Is it bad that I like it because of that? Seriously, even when Abby is trying to be nice - like when she is smiling at Karen or the other BSC charges - it's forced. She's bitchy to her teammates, she's bitchy to Anna and Rachel and she's bitchy to the BSC! Abby's one very cloudy raincloud in this book.
Did anyone else get the impression that James, Rachel's assistant, is gay? They never allude to it except for the fact that he has the "longest eyelashes" Abby has ever seen. Hmm.
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valuemeal2
Sitter-In-Training
California Girl!
Posts: 295
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Post by valuemeal2 on Nov 19, 2013 5:32:16 GMT -5
I haaaaaate this book. I just reread it a couple of days ago in my reread the series in order quest, and it's so hard to get through. I normally like Abby, but I hate sports, and this book is the sportsiest of the sports books. The subplot with Nicky/Jackie is barely mentioned and not interesting. This book gets a big fat F in my BSC gradebook. (Although I do always like when they get into issues involving the girls dealing with their father's death.)
I'm also really bothered by the chapters that tell Abby's story from someone else's POV. Like the chapter where it keeps going "Claudia watched me talk to the coach, but she couldn't hear what I was saying. As I ran toward the goal, she thought 'What is Abby doing?' " REALLY confusing narration technique and not necessary to the story at all IMO.
ETA: evidently this isn't even the book with the Jackie/Nicky subplot? Well, that shows how memorable these storylines are to me...
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celaeno
Sitting For The Papadakis's
I have to share a room with Vanessa
Posts: 1,514
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Post by celaeno on Feb 14, 2014 13:00:49 GMT -5
Please tell me that someone else feels this way: I have a difficult time taking the cover of this book seriously, because to me it looks so very much like Erin is spanking Abby (and Abby's face looks like she's kinda into it):
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Feb 14, 2014 13:09:08 GMT -5
Abby's butt does look like it's sticking out for it.
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Post by anzuhana on Feb 14, 2014 13:22:52 GMT -5
Yeah, it does look like Erin is about to spank Abby. I think it's been mentioned several times (maybe not on this board but on other places on the internet).
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Post by virgoscorpio on Feb 14, 2014 17:41:59 GMT -5
I never noticed that until now!
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Post by mistrali on Oct 20, 2015 15:33:37 GMT -5
Haha, I didn't notice that either!
It seems I'm in the minority here - is it wrong that I quite liked this book? It was miles better than Abby's Lucky Thirteen or Abby's Twin, and I appreciated that the kids with disabilities acted basically like Abby, because although the author should've acknowledged their disabilities rather than ignoring them, this is vastly preferable to the horribly condescending, fetishistic attitude in 'Dawn and Whitney', 'Secret of Susan' and 'Kristy Thomas, Dog Trainer'.
Anyway, I found everything else realistic, if a bit OTT, and I felt like this book showed us an aspect of Abby we hadn't seen before and was a rare example of a BSC member acting awful in a realistic way.
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Post by booboobrewer on Sept 19, 2016 19:14:03 GMT -5
Liked it less the second time around Skimmed over the soccer. I though I might change my mind because Nola wrote it, and she has a quirky way about her. I love Kristy for President and how she wrote that. But this is dull. I noticed that Abby ate ice cream in this, isn't she allergic to dairy? She has Toffuti with her mom and sis in another book.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on May 16, 2020 16:53:26 GMT -5
I can't believe I didn't notice before that the ice cream shop in this book is called 32 Flavors and Then Some, when the Ani DiFranco reference is so obvious.
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Post by oldmeanie on Jun 17, 2023 13:47:07 GMT -5
First time reading this one.
It's definitely the worst Abby book for me so far. I actually like that Abby was in the wrong here (and she recognizes that in the end anyway), since it feels like a real flaw and a realistic one for a 13yo girl to have. I hate her attitude here (and she feels kind of OOC in this one, just extremely moody and her sense of humor isn't as present. She's SUPER serious for the most part), but it seems like she learned from it.
I think the language must have been updated (I read the Kindle version), because this book doesn't contain the r word, but "intellectual disabilities." Tbh it reads a bit awkwardly, but it's still an improvement imo. I hate to say it, and maybe it's because it was from Abby's perspective, but I wasn't a huge fan of Erin either. I feel like no other characters on the team were developed.
Part of the reason I didn't like this one (even though I read it quickly) was because of all the sports talk. Obviously it's a soccer book, but still! It's... not that interesting if I'm being honest lol. The chapter with the Abby and Erin fight (and Erin wanting to hit Abby) was super interesting, though. I definitely felt secondhand embarrassment on Abby's behalf.
Idk how I feel about the Stevenson subplot. I think it's extremely obvious that they need therapy, and I'm saying this in the kindest way (heck, I'm going to therapy right now). It 100% feels like they haven't accepted the loss of Jon, which is understandable, but I think for the longest time it was at the expense of healthy emotional expression and caused them to grow apart a bit (although, like Abby said in this book, they have been growing closer). It's actually really sad to see. I agree with the commenter who said it's like they lost Rachel too. I don't blame Abby or Anna for their reaction (I totally get Abby not wanting to visit his grave), but I definitely think Rachel should be there more to support her daughters (I think this is improving though). I hope this doesn't sound totally horrible, and I know Rachel is in a really horrible position.
Obviously the subplot was more interesting than the soccer stuff. I get where people are coming from when they say too many Abby books discuss her dad's death, but I think it's realistic. It's super obvious that Abby was a daddy's girl and had more in common with him, and that she hasn't fully processed her grief. I do really like how she plans on leaving her lucky cleats at his grave in the end. I like that she was honest with Rachel at the end too. This subplot did feel kind of repetitive somehow otherwise, though, and didn't feel as strong to me as some of the other Abby subplots.
I'm talking like these characters are real people lol.
I get where Kristy is coming from (for once). Their fight actually felt very real to me, totally like a fight between jocks lol. It makes sense that, as a fellow athlete and coach, Kristy would be offended by Abby's behavior. I like their friendship a lot.
I didn't hate this one as much as most people seem to. It has kind of a retrospective tone, which kind of works, but the sports parts are just boring to me (and I usually don't mind them!). This one gets a 3.5.
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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 Jun 19, 2023 9:32:09 GMT -5
IDK, I like how Abby's books always touch on her dad. It's only been 4 years for her so it would be weirder to me to have his death be a chapter two mention only. But I get it. Everyone else has 13 years of books, but Abby is only around for 4 years so she doesn't get to evolve as much. And since her dad is gone, she doesn't get to have the new experiences (like MA and Richard do) so everything she knows about him is stuff that already happened.
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