Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2006 12:24:00 GMT -5
I never got as far as the boarding school books, but how could her parents afford to send her there? Did she get a scholarship or something? Boarding school ain't cheap, especially when you've got seven other kids to feed
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
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Post by macca on Nov 21, 2006 19:58:56 GMT -5
^ apparently she got a writing scholarship or something.
I just wonder how the Pikes are going to afford braces for their other kids. These things are usually genetic, so at least a couple more kids are going to need them! They're not cheap either.
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lyricalangel
Sitting For The Newtons
Logan's love-bunny
Posts: 1,918
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Post by lyricalangel on Apr 5, 2007 0:29:53 GMT -5
Too bad they don't do hand me down braces. Vanessa could have gotten Mallory's old ones. LOL. Yuck!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2007 23:54:35 GMT -5
wow, as someone who was teased pretty mercilessly until oh, college (with a few pockets of being almost cool here and there) I wish teh "bullying" books would have been around when I was young enough to read the series. 'Cause at 14 when I had bad hair, bad skin, braces, bad clothes, glasses and are was the marching band, I needed something like this
these days, at 28, I am RAD!
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
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Post by wanderingfrog on May 6, 2007 1:27:32 GMT -5
I read #125 and #126 when they were first published eight years ago, and I didn't read #122, #123, and #124 until three months ago, so that gives me a different perspective on the "Spaz Girl" situation. #125 and #126 really focus more on how Mallory thinks that Riverbend would be a great opportunity for her than how SMS was making her miserable after she started getting teased a lot, so it's harder for me to see Mal going to Riverbend as running away from her problems. What I think happened is that she was so unhappy at SMS after the Spaz Girl stuff started that she wanted to find any way she could of getting out of it, but it might have blown over after a while and/or she might have stuck it out if she hadn't happened to find out about Riverbend and see it as a perfect fit for her. After she learned some things about the boarding school, it became more of a going towards Riverbend thing than running away from SMS thing.
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Post by baseballchica03 on May 6, 2007 15:14:34 GMT -5
^^ That's good to know, wanderingfrog. I haven't been able to find some of the higher books where the "Spaz Girl" stuff goes down, but I thought that showing Mallory just running away from the problem to boarding school seemed like a bad idea. Not everyone can just leave when being teased like that, and who's to say that something else wouldn't pick up when you're far away from family and friends? It's good that it was more of a choice about how good of a fit Riverbend was than the teasing.
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msstock87
Sitting For The Braddocks
Here Comes The Bride!
Created by Rie.
Posts: 3,618
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Post by msstock87 on May 7, 2007 15:52:57 GMT -5
I need to reread the later books. For some reason I remember not being that surprised when Mal went to boarding school. I always got the feeling that she felt like she didn't 100 percent completely belong. I don't think the teasing is the only thing that drove her to boarding school.
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Post by aln1982 on May 17, 2007 15:42:26 GMT -5
^ I agree. I think Mal's too strong to just give in because of that. I remember in Hello Mallory how she is glad that Jessi comes because she doesn't have any "good" friends. And I always get the impression that she and Jessi both more look up to the girls in the BSC than feel like they actually fit in at the same level - all understandable. I think that feeling like Jessi might be her only friend is one reason that Mal gets so upset at the idea of Jessi leaving (Jessi's Big Break, Jessi and the Superbrat). I really feel for her with the not fitting in and with the teasing and have found that teasing usually is targeted at those easy marks who don't quite fit - maybe because they are different or maybe because they don't have as many friends right there to back them up (I know the BSC is great for this but most of them are in 8th, not 6th grade).
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Post by sotypical42483 on May 20, 2007 22:13:06 GMT -5
I agree completely, aln. I'm convinced that Mal and Jessi, no matter how long they are in the BSC for and are friends w/ the girls for, still believe the older girls are letting them hang around them and could and possibly would drop them at any moment. It's interesting to think about it and the way the BSCers go on and on about Mal and Jessi being only 11, well maybe their fears aren't completely unwarranted. I think throughout the whole series they still maintain a sense of awe that they are hanging out with 8th graders (esp 8th graders like Stacey and Claud. I could see MA/Kristy being nice to them regardless, but I do think its weird Stacey/Claud even like them. they seem a bit shallow for that to be honest...)
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Post by aln1982 on May 20, 2007 23:49:22 GMT -5
I think this is a really common feeling - the sense of awe of hanging out with older kids - and can relate to it. Though I often didn't feel on an inferior level to kids only 2 years older. I agree about Stacey/Claud seeming too shallow, but then I consider Claudia's level of brilliance and I actually think Stacey is not as shallow as she would like to think and tries to act (if that makes sense).
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Post by liss31d on May 21, 2007 4:17:20 GMT -5
It's hard to say, but sometimes I do get the vibe from the BSC that they sometimes resent having Mal and Jessi in the club because they're younger. For example in Welcome Back Stacey, Mal's whining away about this sparkley outfit she got and about her parents treating her like a "kid" and the other BSC members are basically rolling ther eyes and Stacey's thinking "We all love Mal but there are times like this when we remember she's only eleven." Also in Stacey vs. the BSC, Peter Lerangis makes them sound very childish and Stacey wants to kill them throughout the book.
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Post by aln1982 on May 21, 2007 7:52:57 GMT -5
^ And then all of the snarky comments against the 7th graders in Claudia Queen of the Seventh Grade couldn't have been good for Mal and Jessi's self esteem and must have made them feel uncomfortable. I thought they were really supportive of Claudia - and my favorite characters - in that book. They always try to be so supportive and neutral that I sometimes think they are actually the most mature of all the girls. I agree, liss, that I also get a vibe from the girls sometimes and Mal and Jessi must sense it, too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2007 22:21:14 GMT -5
Wouldn't the school get bored of calling her Spaz Girl? I doubt it. I was teased pretty bad for all of elementary school, once you're an outcast it's hard to get out of being one in everyone's eyes. Though I highly doubt boarding school is the best response to that
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
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Post by macca on Nov 16, 2007 22:26:50 GMT -5
Wouldn't the school get bored of calling her Spaz Girl? I doubt it. I was teased pretty bad for all of elementary school, once you're an outcast it's hard to get out of being one in everyone's eyes. Though I highly doubt boarding school is the best response to that WORD. To all of it ;D
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Post by sweetvalleygirl99 on Nov 16, 2007 22:58:09 GMT -5
Yeah, the bullying started in "Kristy in Charge". For some absurd reason, the TOT co-ordinators gave her an 8th grade class, and even the all-mighty Kristy isn't enough to stop an entire class full of people who wanted to be mean to Mallory. In "Stacey McGill... Matchmaker?", you see a bit more of Mallory being bullied (there's abook between those two, which I don't have, where I assume the plot developed further). And then in "Mary Anne in the Middle", Mallory gets sick of it and decides to apply to boarding school. The books do try and show you how miserable Mallory is getting, and it really *was* miserable. But it did seem a bit strange that she couldn't find a way to get over it... Wouldn't the school get bored of calling her Spaz Girl? Ahh, I see now, thanks so much for the info! I've only read MA in the Middle and The All-New Mallory Pike, so I wasn't sure where the whole "Spaz Girl" thing first began and the books that it developed in (with the exception of Claudia's Big Party, which I read and it talked about Mal being depressed about the Spaz Girl thing). Now that I know, I definitely want to read them to see how this whole thing develops. Oh, and what does TOT stand for?
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