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Post by laylaandmixup13 on Apr 14, 2010 6:05:27 GMT -5
BooBoo, I dont mean as a teen. I mean as a friend. Someone she can go to with advice and such.
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Post by booboobrewer on Apr 14, 2010 9:52:58 GMT -5
Got it.
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Post by wiggir13 on Sept 10, 2011 20:41:34 GMT -5
I just started these CA diaries and well they definitely are different! I sort of liked it though b/c this was what my life as a teenager was like. I snuck out and went to parties and drank when I shouldn't have. It's funny my high school was 8-12 so I guess this book was pretty similar to how I felt in 8th grade.
I really do think that Carol was contemplating getting rid of the baby, but Dawn's eavesdropping def would have put a damper on that.
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Post by psychoseal on Sept 11, 2011 14:44:42 GMT -5
I got the feeling that Carol just wanted to tell Jack in person rather than over the phone. It was her first baby I know I would want to tell my partner in person. Over the phone is less personal
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Katie
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 153
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Post by Katie on Jan 9, 2012 10:43:53 GMT -5
I actually did tell my husband over the phone. I couldn't wait for him to get home so I sent him a text with a picture of the positive test. I totally get Carol wanting to tell Jack in person.
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Post by anzuhana on Mar 27, 2012 18:29:05 GMT -5
If Carol really wanted to get an abortion, she probably would've. After the abortion, Carol could then tell Dawn and everyone else that she had a miscarriage.
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Post by greer on Mar 28, 2012 8:59:08 GMT -5
If Carol really wanted to get an abortion, she probably would've. After the abortion, Carol could then tell Dawn and everyone else that she had a miscarriage. I don't think Carol wanted an abortion; I just think that Gracie may not have been planned and that she might not have necessarily been planning on having kids with Jack all along.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Apr 2, 2012 14:12:00 GMT -5
I actually have my original copies of the first 3 books. When my Grandparents were put into a home, we had traveled to my hometown to visit them and stopped by the house. (My Aunt was cleaning it out at the time and didn't tell us, despite the fact that we had rooms there with childhood stuff in it). Anyway, my sister went and picked out some things she thought I'd want, and these 3 books were among the (small) pile of stuff I got. So there's kind of sentimental to me that way. I only have a handful of my original BSC books.
They talk about boobs a lot! I was kind of surprised to hear Dawn talking about "double-Ds" and thought they're big for a high-school girl (I guess that's the point). Also, the part with Maggie's shirt getting wet and her chest being exposed. I guess it surprised me coming off of a BSC kick where everything is so PC and the most shocking thing is bra-strap or fart.
Somewhat sad to see Dawn admit that she doesn't miss her Stoneybrook friends. Kind of makes everything that happened beforehand seem pointless, in a small way, because aren't they supposed to be "friends forever".
This has been addressed before but it's slightly weird that Ducky would want to hang out with some 8th grade girls. Maybe it's trying to show how "cool" Dawn and friends have become?
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Post by booboobrewer on Apr 2, 2012 16:06:35 GMT -5
They talk about boobs a lot! I was kind of surprised to hear Dawn talking about "double-Ds" and thought they're big for a high-school girl (I guess that's the point). Also, the part with Maggie's shirt getting wet and her chest being exposed. I guess it surprised me coming off of a BSC kick where everything is so PC and the most shocking thing is bra-strap or fart. Well, they talked about them too, just in a tamer way--buying bras, and who's filling out her bikini, etc. Since Mary Anne was usually the one focusing on that stuff, and Ann relates to her the most, and she wrote this one, well... I definitely thought that was what it looked like in the beginning, this upperclassman wanting to hang out with them, and then as the series went on you realized Ducky wasn't really "cool" after all.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Apr 2, 2012 17:03:24 GMT -5
^ Maybe Ann has a think for chests Also, I haven't gotten that far into the series but I can see how it would progress that way (with Ducky). I went to a used bookstore where I knew they had some California Diaries books and picked up 3 more. Unfortunately, they're not in order.
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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 Apr 2, 2012 20:27:23 GMT -5
^I honestly think a significant reason for the creation of Ducky is because they really needed someone who was old enough to drive. It's like they had some of these angsty teenage plots in mind, and then they decided they would build the plots around one of the pre-existing BSC girls, which meant the characters were limited to being 13, which would really limit a lot of the storylines (the girls were certainly able to get into more adult situations when they had access to a car! ). But yeah - it's one of those situations where the 13-year-olds involved would think it's so cool to be hanging out with a 16-year-old, but then once they get a few years older they realize most "cool" 16-year-olds would not suddenly become best friends with a group of 13-year-olds!
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Enigma
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 128
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Post by Enigma on Dec 22, 2015 13:20:58 GMT -5
Just read this one for the first time and it seemed that AMM was trying way too hard to make this series seem 'more mature.' Dawn's personality seemed to have a complete makeover from the BSC; going from a happy-go-lucky, somewhat goody-goody environmentalist who sees herself as a real individual to a stereotypical "sheep" teen trying too hard to be part of the cool crowd and sneaking off to an upperclassmen party late at night and sneak back in without being caught. I think the drinking and pool scenes were kind of funny and accurate for the hazing party but it didn't really seem like Dawn. I also thought Ducky's character was just put in there as a regular just for the sake of having a 16-year-old boy as one of the narrators but I do like the idea of him discovering his homosexuality throughout the series (still somewhat risque for late '90s but not as taboo as it would have been in the late '80s and not nearly as normalized as it would be today).
It would have also been more believable if this was set in ninth grade and they started high school the way they were expected to (if you're trying to make them more 'mature' actually age them) rather than suddenly moving eighth grade there as it was supposed to be taking place at the same time that Mary Anne was making such a big deal about bringing Logan over on a baby-sitting job- no, not to 'make out' or even just to 'hang out with Mary Anne'- but to be a 'male role model' and hang out and play with her charge in "Mary Anne Breaks the Rules."
It seemed VERY contrived to me but maybe because I'm reading it for the first time as an adult and I never tried those things as a teen. I'd like to hear from others who got into CA diaries when they were the intended target audience age when they first read them.
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mallorypike
Sitting For The Papadakis's
If I were thirteen instead of eleven, life would be a picnic...
Posts: 1,636
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Post by mallorypike on Jul 19, 2017 10:53:41 GMT -5
I haven't read the California Diaries but I ordered this book from Amazon and I'm looking forward to reading it! I've heard this series is a lot more mature than the BSC.
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mallorypike
Sitting For The Papadakis's
If I were thirteen instead of eleven, life would be a picnic...
Posts: 1,636
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Post by mallorypike on Jul 19, 2017 20:51:14 GMT -5
sorry for the double post, but I got the kindle version of this book right after I posted my comment above, and I just finished reading it. I thought it was really good and CD Dawn seemed a whole lot different than BSC Dawn - in a good way. I actually liked her; I hated her in the BSC! I already knew that CD was way more mature than BSC, but I didn't expect it to be that mature. The party, Sunny getting drunk, the phrase "all hell broke loose", and the endless mentions of boobs surprised me since it came from an AMM book and I'm used to reading fluffy and clean BSC books. I still liked it though and I thought it was realistic for teenagers to go through that sort of stuff. The only thing that bothers me is that Dawn is STILL 13! She should've been 14 at the youngest; 15 or 16 would've been the best age honestly. As for Carol being pregnant, I'm sure the baby was an accident and that she might possibly considered abortion. She's really immature and I rolled my eyes when she giggled at the world 'sterile'. I noticed that Dawn didn't seem to be that excited about being a big sister again. Or disappointed. She never talked about her feelings about the baby. Just her suspicions about Carol. As for Jill, I really felt bad for her. There's nothing wrong with acting young and honestly to me, she still acted 13. I was like her at age 13. It was kind of mean how Dawn and the others resented her for being childish. Jill had been nothing but nice to them! She covered for them while they went to the party and everything. When she accidentally spilled Carol's secret, I understand that Dawn would be upset but Carol? She should've been more adultish and be more understanding with Jill, not just leave angrily. I felt terrible for her when she was left alone crying on the front stoop.
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Post by merrymelody on Jun 14, 2020 18:24:49 GMT -5
The Dawn books in this series are so odd, not just because the health fixation seems to have been phased out; but also because she seems much more unpleasant from her own POV than anyone else's. Like Sunny and Maggie describe her quite generously and seem to see her as a good friend, but her inner thoughts are basically contemptuous of almost everyone - Carol sucks, Jill's a baby, Jeff's a dork, Sunny's smug and bitchy... its not even the teenager thing, none of the other 4 are written that way.
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