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Post by zoar3 on Jul 7, 2009 12:22:57 GMT -5
Did the BSC ever take their charges to the Water Park the Strawberry Festival supposedly raised money for? ITA with comments on how "old" both R and S looked and how freaky did S look. Also, if the boyfriend of my 13 year old daughter appeared in the middle of the night, looking the way Robert did, not so sure I'd have gone right back up to bed the way Mrs. McGill did! I just re-read this and on Page 25, Claudia actually wonders aloud to Stacey if Robert or any of his friends might be doing drugs. How it was written and then ignored previously and after was weird. As many people have mentioned this may have made for a good plot but it sure was not written well. Lol, I guess the connection between the plot and subplot is to eat strawberries when depressed? The book did make it almost seem that easy to overcome. Would be nice if it were but a sort of not very clear or good/helpful even message to readers.
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 11, 2010 19:32:42 GMT -5
Seriously the only thing I could think about the whole time reading this was that strawberries wouldn't be ready to pick yet in May in Connecticut. And yeah, a strawberry chatroom? Not a message board, but live action chat all about strawberries. That is awesomely weird.
One of Stacey's kneecaps is a few inches higher than the other on the cover. Maybe she has scoliosis too.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Feb 12, 2010 20:29:06 GMT -5
Ever since I read this book I have been trying to understand what kind of weirdos construct and participate in a chatroom devoted entirely to strawberries. I imagine a guy like fanboy dude in the Simpsons. This immediately made me think of a blog post my brother's friend wrote after he stumbled across fire alarm enthusiasts on the Internet. Some people are so weird.
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lilafowler
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,163
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Post by lilafowler on Aug 23, 2010 18:08:18 GMT -5
God, even when she's on vacation Mallory has to work. I like eating strawberries, but picking them is the worst. Stacey's relief at Robert not answering the phone when she calls him reminds me of calling in to work and praying I get my supervisor's voicemail so I can just leave a message I love that Janine listens to Dr. Gupti. I love advice columns, too. Oh, and I was pleased to see Barbara Gupti's brown-sounding last name, but why does no one in the BSC universe with a South Asian last name have a corresponding first one? George Singh and Vicki Sahadevan are other examples of this phenomenon. Some "sexual references" that are really just me shoehorning them into a BSC book: I couldn't help but think "AND IT'LL ONLY GET WORSE ONCE YOU HAVE SEX, STACEY!!!" when I read that. In fact, if the reprints get up to #119, they should definitely change "kissed" to "banged," which will surely seem more realistic for contemporary middle schoolers. Speaking of things that have changed, Stacey's mom's rule about her having to stay in the kitchen when boys are over seemed sensible when I was eight, but now it just makes me think that I'd rather my kid at least had sex in a bed, rather than go ahead and do it on the kitchen table or something. I mean, we'd still have to eat off of that.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,254
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Post by oldhickory on Feb 12, 2011 19:42:07 GMT -5
i actually think stacey looks really cute on the cover. back in the 90s when i first read this book, i thought her outfit just oozed cool.
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scrounge
Sitter-In-Training
Boo and bullfrogs!
Posts: 414
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Post by scrounge on Feb 16, 2011 1:39:51 GMT -5
I was just confused by the rule that Stacey could only have guys in the kitchen because I knew that with being at work all day, there was utterly no way her mom would know which rooms they'd been in as long as they were back at the kitchen table by the time she got home. Then again, I was older when I read this. At the target age for the books I probably would have just accepted that of course mature, glamorous Stacey would follow the rule.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,254
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Post by oldhickory on Feb 21, 2011 0:36:44 GMT -5
^ even though i could totally see stacey thinking that rule is dumb and baby-ish, i think she respects her mother enough to go along with it anyway. plus robert and maureen seemed to get along really well, and he probably wouldn't want to jeopardize that by breaking the rules.
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 21, 2011 17:25:47 GMT -5
^It was similar to Richard's early rule of Logan not being allowed into the house at all if he wasn't home. In one of Mary Anne's books it was cold out and Richard wasn't home but Mary Anne still made Logan sit on the porch to talk. Sometimes kids actually just accept and follow the rules that their parents lay out for them, lol.
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Post by zoar3 on Feb 21, 2011 20:27:56 GMT -5
^I think that was in Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger. I remember MA going inside to get Logan his favorite soda (never said what that was) or something to drink.
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Post by zoar3 on Aug 17, 2011 18:05:01 GMT -5
What a total waste of strawberries! I never thought about that before in terms of how quickly they would go bad, yet parents keep shelling out $ for their kids to get more berries that won't be eaten? I also agree that it's highly unlikely they wouldn't have all spoiled before the festival. I actually liked reading about the festival itself but still wish we had gotten to read about the BSC taking the kids to the water park.
The Robert/depression plot wasn't handled very well at all. I thought it was awesome that his baseball coach called him so late at night at Stacey's house and that doing so helped Robert get over his initial anxiety about talking to someone. My "problem" with that is like a lot of you, it was made to seem like that solved everything. I also still fail to comprehend how Maureen could go back up to bed after seeing how Robert looked. I don't care what either Stacey or Robert said, she (M) should have been on the phone to the Brewsters immediately. This was no longer something for Stacey to "handle."
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,254
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Post by oldhickory on Aug 18, 2011 1:15:01 GMT -5
maybe maureen really just wanted to get back to sleep? :] she did kind of drop the ball on that one. i understand that she wanted to give stacey her space and not try to take over -- maybe part of her knew that robert wouldn't respond to anybody else even if she tried to intervene. but i also understand that after all maureen has been through the last couple of years (three moves, a divorce, going back to work for the first time in a decade, health scares, blah blah), stacey sneaking a boy in the kitchen probably isn't her biggest worry.
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Post by wiggir13 on Aug 18, 2011 10:32:07 GMT -5
So boring...but I did fell bad for Robert. It is hard growing up and figuring out how to deal with yourself. I do find it odd that no on suggested a therapist.
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Post by zoar3 on Aug 18, 2011 11:12:24 GMT -5
Lol and Good, points Oldhickory. I just think based on how Robert looked on the cover if he looked worse that night, she should have stayed. I was glad Stacey finally talked to her though and liked that M listened to Dr. Gupti.
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Post by anzuhana on Oct 5, 2011 19:32:08 GMT -5
I did like the chapter two in this book since it had a theme and it wasn't the generic chapter two. I liked the strawberry picking. I liked the continuity of Stacey and Andi talking to each other about Robert in Stacey and the Stolen Hearts and their interactions in this book. I don't think Robert was completely over his depression since I think he was still recovering from it in European Vacation.
I wouldn't mind eating some strawberries after reading the subplot, particuarly some strawberries that are covered in chocolate. Maybe it's because I've never eaten any chocolate strawberries and would like to try some. The strawberry festival reminds me of this event that happens in Alaska where for you can pick as many raspberries as you can.
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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 Jun 30, 2013 8:25:41 GMT -5
In Claudia's notebook entry in chapter 14, she spells the word forever as 4-ever. Is she using shorthand or is that a really bad case of misspelling? I agree with greer that a chatroom devoted to strawberries is weird but then again I've heard that food chatrooms exist mainly for people who need assistance while they're actually cooking. I used to live in a small town and a new store opening was kind of big news so I could understand how strawberry fever could've taken over the residents of Stonybrooke when that store opened. It seemed weird to me when Robert told Alex that he was sorry that he wasn't a better friend to him during Alex's parents' divorce because I always imagined that teenage boys were typically not very open about their feelings at least stereotypically.
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