118: Karen's Figure Eight

[Kylie90210]

Please discuss this book here.

[sweetvalleygirl99]

Not one of my favorites but it was interesting to read about Karen and her skating lessons .

[annieb]

This wasn't one of my favorites either considering the fact that it was one of the last books of the series. Karen's figure eight was a good read and I look foward to reading it again.

[tiff85]

Karen's figure eight was interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if Karen made it to the finals, considering how she loved skating and winning competitions.

[anzuhana]

I liked reading about Karen's skating lessons. I thought that in the pictures, Jillian looked like Kristy.

[scrounge]

I felt bad for Karen and also for Ian when he was so embarrassed by his skating that he didn't want her to tell anyone in their class about the performance. We all know that Karen loves talking about the exciting things she does, and feeling like it was something to hide was no fun for either of them.

[virgoscorpio]

Did anyone else think that Ian is gay?

[virgoscorpio]

Is Ian the same kid as Ian from Ms. Colman's class (Karen's classmate?)

[Honeybee]

Dec 30, 2010 20:24:35 GMT -5 anzuhana said:

I liked reading about Karen's skating lessons. I thought that in the pictures, Jillian looked like Kristy.

That's what I thought so too. When I saw the pictures.

This was okay. first time reading it though.

When they show a picture of Karen & Andrew. Andrew big, being a 4 half years old. He look like he was 7 or 8 years old. Not 4.

[scrounge]

I liked how Karen enjoyed daydreaming about being a big skating star but realized she just didn't love skating enough to put the time in to get that good at it. I hope Ian kept taking classes because he really seemed to enjoy skating even though he was worried about his friends finding out. And even that turned out to be a non-issue since their classmates didn't tease him about it.

Jillian seemed really lonely. With not being in school I guess she had nobody to talk to. Usually I'd think it was weird for a 13-year old to be striking up a friendship with a little kid but I think Jillian was a little socially stunted and also it was kind of a mentoring relationship with her helping Karen with figure eights and her pairs routine.

[zoar3]

I quickly reread because I had no memory of Ian being in Karen's class. I enjoyed his character in KIMCC "Snow War," and that he was so very much into reading about the adventures of the "X-er's" and their planet. I'm not into sci fi but his enthusiasm made me smile think of all of our love of Stoneybrook and wishing we could take a trip there. I admit this wasn't a favorite of mine, I have never ice skated so maybe that's why. I did enjoy the movie the Cutting Edge and remember the male lead in that story who was a former hockey player was at first embarrassed to figure skate because he was a guy, maybe Ian might have enjoyed watching that. I liked when Karen called Nancy and Nancy was on the other line with Ian. I enjoy extra mentions of characters who normally don't talk/hang out much because it can tell us more about them. As for Jillian, it was sweet how Karen bought her the pink bear and very clever how Karen offered her the cocoa as a way of introducing herself. I could sometimes use some of Karen's boldness that way in terms of going right up to someone I don't really know. I know this book comes a long way (especially in Stoneybrook time) after Karen's Cartwheel. I did wonder if this had been a big house book if somehow Karen might have shared about her ice skating interest with Mrs. Porter? I loved their conversation in cartwheel and that was when Mrs. Porter had told Karen that she was once a skater. This could have been a great time for them to have remembered that and have a friendly scene or two.

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

I actually really liked this book out of the last couple. Jillian was really nice but looked a bit like kristy. Actually made me want to ice skate too.

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

I did a quick reread of this and still enjoyed it. One thing I noticed was that Hannie took piano lessons on Fridays. I like that Hannie and Nancy took Natalie to see that movie together.

Kristy told Karen that she knew Jillian from SES. I wonder why Karen never though to have Jillian and Kristy see each other again. They probably would have liked it.

[sparklymouse]

I liked this because I used to watch a ton of figure skating in the 90s. I also daydreamed about being an Olympic champion, but I couldn’t properly stand up on skates.

Jillian was 13 and was supposed to be the next big Olympian. This was written in 2000, so the next Winter Olympics was 2002. She could have been Sarah Hughes. I believe the age limit has been raised to 16, so now she would have been too young by a year and then probably past her peak 4 years after that. The Olympics are fickle!

The ghostwriter picked a triple axel as the jump for Jillian to fall on, but there’s only a handful of women in the world who have ever landed that in competition. It’s why anybody knew who Tonya Harding was before the Nancy Kerrigan attack. This random little 13-year-old wouldn’t be attempting that jump in a small, local competition. Anyhoo.

These cheesy Olympian names cracked me up: Michael Phaneuf and Roman Legedza. There are famous people with normal names out there. Just never in Stoneybrook.

This book had very little in it that didn’t have to do with the skating rink. I did wonder what secrets the unicorns actually had in that movie that Karen’s friends went to.

I laughed when Karen saw Ian for the first time. She didn’t know that he was embarrassed to be seen and wanted to ask him why he was acting like a spy on a secret mission.