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Post by zoar3 on Oct 18, 2009 15:59:15 GMT -5
I am re-reading and the one thing that jumps out this time that never had before, is how truly weird Dawn's inner thoughts regarding telling Mary Anne are. They seem more appropriate for an older woman to be telling a boyfriend of a long period of time or vice versa. I know that MA thinks a lot of Dawn and will be affected deeply by this decision but the tone, (maybe it's just me) of the wording seems so drastic and intense! Did anyone else feel this way? Lol! To why would anyone want to come to Dawn's party! Not very nice but definitely a true thought. I'm glad people did come. Also when they are planning the menu, MA disaparingly comments that the food will have to be healthy. Dawn counters with maybe they could simply have some veggies, etc on hand, like always. Okay, this is one (the only)? time where the party is for Dawn, so the BSC should take the time/spend the $ to have some foods she will enjoy eating. ITA with that. However, once again, Dawn's eating habits=a whole ordeal! I am so tired of that. The BSC could even create a basket for her similar to in Get Well Soon, Mallory. Make it more of a gift that the girls put a lot of thought into. Then move on and have Claudia and everyone else start baking. I also am wondering if at this time more than ever, even a small part of Sharon was considering relocating back to CA. Or at least admitting that she * might * (even) have been to rash in deciding to move cross country. Either could have made for a very interesting story.
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Post by mafan4life on Oct 22, 2009 10:26:38 GMT -5
I would agree with Lilafowler and Sugarmonkey even though I never read that. I only have Dawn's Big Move as her first move back to California for awhile ago
I wouldnt blame Mary Anne for being upset and Kristy tells MA everything since they are best friends.
Samething happened between Mallory & Jess in Mary Anne in the Middle when Mallory got accepted to a boarding school & tells MA before telling Jessi because Mallory knew it would be hard on Jessi.
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Post by helsieboo on Nov 4, 2009 5:10:57 GMT -5
Hmmmm, you're right Liz - although I have read all the BSC books, I never made the connection that they basically rehashed the storyline later on, with MA in the Middle and just changed the scenario slightly.
Interesting point.
And yeeeeeeesh, I will never understand the Dawn food ordeal at all. The dips, veggies and fruit sound great and what you'd serve up anyway!
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Post by mafan4life on Nov 24, 2009 10:55:31 GMT -5
Im going to be ordering that book anyway. Plus Mary Anne and the Playground Fight Mary Anne to the Rescue Mary Anne and the Memory Garden I was going to order The Fire at Mary Anne's House, but my proofreader's daughter has it and would let me have those BSC books. She just moved to Florida and isn't bringing them with her.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
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Post by oldhickory on Apr 23, 2010 22:38:42 GMT -5
i found this book up the day before i left for china last year, and i couldn't bear to leave without reading it. so i ended up bringing it with me and reading it every day for two weeks :[ but last night i finally managed to read it again, and i liked it. MA was a pretty big pain, but i can understand why she felt so abandoned. my best friend went away to an academy during the last two years of high school, and it definitely sucks when you think your best friend will always be there, and then find out she isn't. but MA definitely is waaay too attached to dawn.
like everybody else, i loved jessi's letter at the end. it's too bad that the ghostwriters never explored the relationships between the sixth graders and eighth graders. we know that jessi and mallory are besties, and claudia and stacey, and etc. but considering how the girls talked about everyone being so close, they really never hung out with anybody besides their one best friend.
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 24, 2010 17:16:06 GMT -5
^They really didn't Oldhickory. MA sure never hung out with Kristy unless she was "mad at Dawn. But then Kristy never invited MA over either...It would have been interesting to read about Mal/Jessi developing a friendship with one of the older girls. Kristy, MA, and Claud, have always known the Pikes. Later on when Mal joins the club we are told how much she's always looked up to them, obvious one. Then in Snowbound I got the impression again that Mal admired MA. Also in Baby-sitters' Remember it was MA who had given Mal the idea of writing to an author.
I sort of thought at least based on Stacey's Choice and Mallory and the Mystery Diary that, Mal/Stacey might have hung out at times. We know Maureen and Dee (Mal's mom) were friends so it'd seem like at least every now and then Stacey would go over to the Pikes with her or Mal would...I really enjoyed their interactions in Mystery Diary.
I believe both Mal and Jessi admired Kristy.
As for Claudia I've had this thought for awhile but never quite sure how to explain it. We know how Aunt Cecelia tells Jessi that she (Aunt C) sometimes feels like because she's Black she has to be "perfect" or present her very best self at all times. I would hope not (yes it is sad that Aunt C feels that way) but I really do wonder if Claudia's parents feel the same about their race. Maybe that's part of the reason they are so strict on one hand but aloof on the other? I hope that came out right.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
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Post by oldhickory on Apr 24, 2010 22:33:13 GMT -5
^ no, i understand what you mean. it's probably especially hard on the kishis that claudia is different since, unlike the ramseys, both kishi parents were born and raised to an extent in japan, where the culture is much different.
i think jessi (more so than mallory) could have been really good friends with the older girls because she was way more mature for her age. going through a tough move, and dealing with racism at an early age, made her grow up more than mallory. i know she respects kristy a lot because kristy stood up for her and let her in the club when she was still trying to fit in in stoneybrook, and she and stacey got along really well when jessi choreographed stacey's audition dance. things like this seem so obvious. i just hate that the writers got so lazy.
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 25, 2010 17:11:31 GMT -5
I am glad/relieved to know you understood what I was saying. I agree about the writers getting lazy. In so many ways as well we know.
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wanderingfrog
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Official BSC Archivist
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Post by wanderingfrog on Apr 26, 2010 20:17:33 GMT -5
Well, Mallory's pretty mature for her age, too, since she's used to having to take care of seven other kids, and then she goes away to boarding school at the age of eleven.
I know she also has some not-so-mature moments, but hey, she and Jessi are both eleven and sometimes they both pretend they are freakin' horses.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
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Post by oldhickory on Apr 26, 2010 23:23:46 GMT -5
^ haha, where was that? i don't remember them pretending they were horses.
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
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Post by lilafowler on Apr 26, 2010 23:57:37 GMT -5
I think it's two different situations. Asians are seen as a model minority in the US; people generally assume we are hard-working and capable until they get evidence to the contrary. However, that isn't the case for other minorities, who tend to have more trouble getting hired and earn lower wages. So Aunt Cecelia is warning Jessi about that when she explains why her standards seem unreasonably high a lot of the time.
The Kishis' strictness is more likely to come from Asian culture, where a child often obeys her parents without question and academic success is very highly valued.
ETA: Still Team MA, by the way. I like to think I channel her as well as Rihanna when I use the phrase "break dishes" to mean "be infuriated and possibly homicidal". I mean, really. Poor girl has to move out of her childhood home to a farmhouse with janky wiring because the family anticipates needing to house 4 people. Then the fourth person peaces, so it turns out they could have stayed on Bradford Court the whole time, making the future trauma of the fire completely avoidable. Way to be, Dawn. Hate your ass.
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 27, 2010 15:58:18 GMT -5
Lol, Lila, another Dawn "fan" I see. I needed a laugh right about now, thanks. I never thought of the fact that Jeff (permenately) moved to CA before the wedding. Other than for short visits during the summer it would be unlikely he'd return for an extended time. I really do believe soon after Jeff left, Dawn started wishing she had too. Instead of talking about her feelings, she allowed them to escalate into 5000 moves back and forth. I've said this before in another thread but unless the Spiers' old house on Bradford Court was signifcantly smaller than either Kristy's or Claudia's...there would have been plenty of room for everyone. Also, like the Barrett-DeWitts, perhaps they could have created an addition. Kristy's old house we know had rooms for: K, Sam and Charlie (I believe they shared), and a very small "closet" for David Michael. There was a master bedroom. So that's 3 rooms plus a master. The Kishis' house: Claudia, Janine, Mimi :'/, Master, Den downstairs that was converted into a bedroom for Russ and Peaches and the Hatts, as well as that small playroom that used to be for C and J. We also know their house had a big basement, possibly finished? I sort of think most all Stoneybrook homes had them. IOW, no need for the move to the creaky farmhouse with bad wiring (I will never, ever like Fire at MA's in general but especially that it was the final book). This actually brings up an interesting thought I never had until just now: I know after Dawn moved to Ca for good, Kristy had long since left Bradford Court, The Hobarts lived in MA's old house and the Perkinses in Kristy's. However, I never got the impression aside from MA vs Logan when MA wants to spend the day curled up reading that the Farmhouse truly was HOME for her. Did she ever wish they had not moved or could move back to Bradford Court?
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wanderingfrog
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Post by wanderingfrog on Apr 27, 2010 18:42:11 GMT -5
Yes, when the Spiers move out of their house on Bradford Court, the Hobarts, who are a SIX-person family, move into it.
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 27, 2010 21:30:30 GMT -5
^That is very true, Wanderingfrog. A little while ago, I remembered that Richard had a study so that was yet another potential bedroom. Sigh, there really was no reason for them to move.
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
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Post by lilafowler on Feb 6, 2011 12:38:27 GMT -5
Bumping this thread up because my post about new covers vs. old ones in the Mary Anne and the Memory Garden thread reminded me of this one, the last old cover title.
Dawn sucks. She freezes Mary Anne out when MA gets a haircut but by the time this book rolls around, she's conveniently forgotten how much it sucked when her best friend made a major life decision (HAIRCUT.) without discussing it with her. And never mind that during her 6-month California vist, she flew back to Connecticut in a rage because she was so shocked by Carol and Jack getting engaged and angry they hadn't adequately prepared her. I still can't blame MA for being passive-aggressive and, well, kind of a b*tch. After being jerked around by Dawn she probably doesn't want to get her hopes back up. And like I said last April, she doesn't even know that in just over 20 books' time the house Dawn left her in will burn to the ground. UGH DAWN YOU ARE THE WORST.
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