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Post by zoar3 on Mar 21, 2011 18:00:17 GMT -5
My first of year of college I lived in a co-ed dorm. Men and Women were seperated by "wings." I lived on the first floor (3 floor building) and this very attractive (Jack-look-a-like perhaps) lived on the boys' side also on the first floor. He was much older than I and everyone else was. I think he was actually 23 or 24. I have no clue why he was allowed in a freshman/sophomore dorm but he was. Anyway, I harbored a crush on him despite his not being a very good person. He was someone who was your friend when he needed you, quickly dropping you when he didn't. To be fair, to Jack we really don't know much about him. Maybe the Richard fan in me wants to automatically say Richard was a better man than Jack but lol we'll never know that for sure. Richard probably was much more of an everyday person than Jack may have been let's put it that way.
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Post by booboobrewer on Mar 21, 2011 18:57:33 GMT -5
I can see where, after dating the kind of dude Jack seems to be, that a woman might find herself thinking, time for the unassuming lawyer who organizes his sock drawer and listens to smooth jazz. Haha, and don't forget those girl groups.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Nov 30, 2011 0:06:41 GMT -5
I thought it was cute how Dawn was the one who brought Claudia junk food in the hospital. Also, Mallory mentions in this book that, "Autographs are dumb." I guess she doesn't want to be giving out any autographs once she becomes a famous author? No signed books here, folks!
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Post by sillybillygoogoo on Jan 31, 2013 10:40:28 GMT -5
I can't believe Mary Anne brought Tigger to the hospital!
Betsy was an annoying kid, but it didn't seem right that the sitters would get down to her level like they did. It was pretty funny when Betsy put slime in Dawn's Kid-Kit, though! ;D
It seemed kind of irrational to me that Claudia would fear baby-sitting after her accident. I mean, sure it was traumatic, but you'd think she'd just fear sitting for Betsy. It hardly seems likely that kids like Myriah and Gabbie, or Charlotte, would cause an accident like that.
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Post by zoar3 on Jan 31, 2013 11:20:12 GMT -5
^All of you know what I think of Tigger. I do think it was very sweet of Mary Anne to sneak him inside though. MA felt Tigger might bring Claudia some fuzzy comfort and he did. Tigger can stay far away from me, but I'm glad he was there to be a furry friend to Claudia. As for Claudia's baby-sitting fear, I wonder if she was more afraid of realizing that an accident could happen at any time. By quitting the club, she would be minimizing the risk simply by (probably) being home more. I don't think Betsy meant for Claudia to end up with a fractured leg, that part was an unfortunate consequence of a joke gone very wrong. The set up of the joke itself was no accident and as so many of us have said, that was the problem.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Jan 31, 2013 21:01:50 GMT -5
There was a book in The Gymnasts series (#6 Bad Break where Cindi breaks her leg skiing and afterwards she's afraid of gymnastics for a while, but that's a much more realistic fear, since gymnastics has a much higher risk of injury than baby-sitting does.
I was watching a TV show a while ago where there was a practical joke war and of course it reminded me of this book, but now I can't remember what show it was an episode of.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,270
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Post by oldhickory on Apr 29, 2013 13:04:27 GMT -5
just the other day i saw the practical joke episode of boy meets worls, but their jokes were pretty mean (parking a car inside a dorm room, and stealing a nude picture so they could make giant print outs).
i really love the part where mrs kishi and mr pike leave to get coffee together, because they are so very different. they probably had a conversation about claudia's leg, and i bet mr pike really helped calm her nerves, because this was her first experience with an injured child and mr pike has probably seen so many injuries and broken bones that he can't even keep track.
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Post by candykane on Apr 30, 2013 13:57:09 GMT -5
I've read a couple news stories recently about therapy dogs visiting hospital patients and it made me think of Mary Anne sneaking Tigger in to see Claudia. I guess Mary Anne was just ahead of the times with the "animals bringing comfort" idea.
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inge
Junior Sitter
Posts: 767
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Post by inge on Dec 3, 2015 21:24:10 GMT -5
Picked up this book again after not reading any BSC books for a whiiiile, and I was a bit thrown off by the opening discussion on "my fantasy is wearing food". Mulled it over for a bit in my head, then decided to just continue... Funny though I really enjoyed Mimi in this book. She was so kind and patient to Claudia, and so understanding. I was sad all over again remembering she passed on soon after. As others have mentioned I also enjoyed the glimpses of the friendship between Dawn and Claudia a lot! I think Dawn bringing in junk food was a really selfless way for her to help her friend, unlike eg Mary Anne bringing Tigger in which she herself thought was cute but just seemed to make Claudia nervous! Also mentioned before, I was really angry Betsy's parents did not apologise to Claud and her family. Even if it was just an accident, Betsy was really irresponsible and needs to learn consequences. The parents attitude bugged me. I didn't care much for the Betsy character in the rest of the book though I did like her apology scene with Claudia and the fact she took initiatve to send hera note while she was in the hospital. The afraid to babysit plot felt a bit like filler to me, to add some suspension. I didn't think it was all that necessary because reading about Claudia's recovery was already keeping me interested. For example reading about her teachers visiting would have been much more fun! I would have been horrified in her position! I really liked the phone call from the whole class. So sweet. Finally I am glad someone pointed out they were babysitting charges depicted on the cover. I always thought they were meant to be MA and Logan, accidentally drawn like they were much younger... What a relief
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Dec 3, 2015 23:58:43 GMT -5
Why didn't her parents ever apologize? Or even pay for the bill? It was Betsy's fault that Claudia broke her leg. Sure, Claudia didn't have to get on the swing but Betsy was trying to get her hurt. Claudia thought he pranks were over. Didn't she say that she wanted to see Claudia sit on the swing and fall right on the ground?
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Post by booboobrewer on Dec 4, 2015 10:26:47 GMT -5
Maybe an apology happened behind the scenes? In any case I'm glad the club didn't sit for her much after that. They should have picked another charge to be the "star" in First Thanksgiving.
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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 Dec 4, 2015 13:46:33 GMT -5
I enjoy this book a lot. The girls acted younger and more age-appropriate. In the later books, they definitely wouldn't try to "get back" at their sitting charges! Betsy was a real brat. I couldn't stand her! She never learned her lesson even after Claudia broke her leg. Or should I say Betsy broke Claudia's leg. She learned her lesson just from the movie theater trick Kristy pulled on her which is way less major than oh I don't know breaking her babysitter's bones. I agree that her parents should've paid the bills. If I were Claudia's parents, I would've sued Betsy's parents! By the way, did mr. And Mrs. Kishi even know that Betsy broke their daughter's leg? I loved how sweet and gentle Mimi was. This was the last Claudia book before she died. I didn't like the subplot where she considers dropping out of the club because of het broken leg. Yeah, babysitting can be risky, but ANYTHING could. She couldn't prevent accidents totally. Plus the Claudia book (#12) last before this one, she also considers quitting the club...what an overused plot.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Dec 20, 2015 11:08:08 GMT -5
The parts I really liked about the book where the ones where the BSC members really and truly were there for Claudia - when Dawn shows up to help her before the ambulance comes and when Mary Anne is there with her family to welcome her when she comes home. I felt these sweet moments showed how much the friends cared for one another.
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Post by enbrethiliel on May 10, 2016 2:53:56 GMT -5
+JMJ+
I just read this and felt that Ann M. Martin was phoning it in. =( The practical joke war was especially silly--not just as an idea, but as a part of the plot. After a few back-and-forth pranks, everything would start to look like "crying wolf" and you wouldn't be able to fool anybody anymore.
Like others in this thread, I'm also amazed that the BSC members were still willing to keep the Sobaks as clients! Betsy would have learned more about the consequences of too much pranking from realising that *nobody* in town wants to baby-sit her any longer than from Kristy's joke in the cinema.
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Post by wistfuldreamer86 on Oct 4, 2018 17:59:21 GMT -5
The practical jokes were a bit much, but like others have said, I did like the Dawn/Claudia and Kristy/Claudia scenes. I always enjoy scenes between characters that aren't "best friends". Besides that, there wasn't really anything noteworthy about this one.
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