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Post by greer on Feb 1, 2009 17:45:58 GMT -5
There was a haunted house "war" in one of the books.
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 28, 2009 17:26:57 GMT -5
I hate when they actually mention the prices of things because then that's all I think about. Five hundred bucks for a 10 day trip to Hawaii is one sweet deal. I had to laugh at the other vacation destinations mentioned because they were pretty much all mentioned in that Super Special wish list thread on here. Alaska, Australia, Greece, Quebec. It's like Peter L. was psychic.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on May 17, 2009 0:06:03 GMT -5
I'm reading this one for the first time while on my break at work. It's one of the few BSC books my library has left. I remember the days when we had so, so much Anyway, I'm only a few chapters in, but it just feels WEIRD to me. Everyone is so snarky, then I saw Peter Lerangis was the ghostie for this one, and his writing style is very snarky, especially Claudia's lines. Still, Claudia saying "Sometimes, it pays to be stupid!" made me do a double-take, needless to say heh. I also liked the line where they're all guessing about where the trip is going to be and Logan suggests downtown Stamford. He's a jerk in some books, but in others, he's pretty d**n funny. That being said, how can SMS afford to go on so many field trips? I never went on trips like that in 8th grade! Hell, my HIGH SCHOOL had a yearly trip to either France or Spain (they alternated), and it was EXPENSIVE. Which meant that not everyone went on it. Also, freshmen weren't allowed to go, so I don't get middle schoolers going to Hawaii and London. Yay for plot devices? And what's the deal with them letting non-SMS kids go? An excuse so Dawn would have the opportunity to join the rest of the BSC in Hawaii? And Dawn's incredibly paranoid. I rolled my eyes in the beginning at her whole "OMG the BSC is going to disown me because they must like Abby better!" For someone who's described as such an individual, she worries a LOT about what other people think of her.
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Post by booboobrewer on May 17, 2009 3:31:59 GMT -5
I liked that Dawn packed a Sierra Club magazine for her flight. It was a nice, not in-your-face example of her environmentalist tendencies. The breakfast food also sounded good, I didn't notice before. Carol's buckwheat pancakes with strawberries and Richard's Spanish omelettes. Yum! Oh. THIS one was. They could all send you off with a slap on the back, but they don't, Schafer.
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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 18, 2009 22:56:44 GMT -5
I have to agree with you booboo about the breakfasts, actually a lot of the food in this book sounded good, even the food Dawn was selling at her little stand.
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Post by sugarandspicexx on May 20, 2009 21:45:08 GMT -5
One thing that annoys me greatly in this book that's already been mentioned is Dawn carrying on about Jeff wanting to wear gloves to change nappies. I'm a childcare worker and when I was training for my qualification, we were basically told that gloves were not only preferable, but mandatory in some workplaces.
10 year old babysitters? It gets more and more ridiculous, 11 was hard enough to believe. And just what is the difference between 11 year olds sitting for 10 year olds compared to 10 year olds sitting for 9 year olds?
The Hawaii thing was just all a little too convienient - taking non SMS kids and there was just one place left over and it just happened to go to Dawn.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on May 21, 2009 13:25:42 GMT -5
10 year old babysitters? It gets more and more ridiculous, 11 was hard enough to believe. And just what is the difference between 11 year olds sitting for 10 year olds compared to 10 year olds sitting for 9 year olds? I started "baby-sitting" when I was 11. I watched a 4 year old and a 7 year old who lived down the street from me. My parents were home, of course. It wasn't such a big deal back then. It's illegal now, i guess you need to be 12 to be left without adult supervision. But I was super mature. Sidebar: I recently was hired to babysit a 15 year old, a 13 year old, an 11 year old, and a 7 year old. ... what is up with this world?
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on May 21, 2009 13:51:53 GMT -5
The Hawaii thing was just all a little too convienient - taking non SMS kids and there was just one place left over and it just happened to go to Dawn. I know, right? The liability issue would wayyyy too big for that to fly in real life. My HS made you sign a ton of forms if you were bringing a date from another school to prom, saying that YOU were responsible for them and all that. And when we did our big trips, we didn't bring kids from other schools! I guess it was to prevent Dawn from bitching about "I came to CT, now they're all leaving me to go to Hawaii, wtf?" throughout the book lol.
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Post by greer on May 21, 2009 14:43:41 GMT -5
^really? At my hs you could take whoever you wanted and you didn't have to sign any forms. I took my bff who had been expelled.
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Penny Lane
Sitting For The Arnolds
The Girl With Colitis Goes By
Posts: 2,888
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Post by Penny Lane on May 21, 2009 14:54:46 GMT -5
Yeah, we had overseas trips and non students went. It was the same paperwork.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on May 21, 2009 18:31:31 GMT -5
^really? At my hs you could take whoever you wanted and you didn't have to sign any forms. I took my bff who had been expelled. Something must have happened in the past, I'm assuming, because there was always a big to-do before prom about how if you were bringing someone from another school, you had to get a form signed by your parents and the principal, if I remember correctly, saying that you're responsible for your guest, and if they misbehaved or something, you could face punishment as well. They were always incredibly strict about prom - three girls in my brother's class were invited by other students when they were sophomores, and were then banned from their junior and senior proms, because a teacher caught them drinking in the bathroom. As for trips, especially the overseas ones, it was always kids from our school only.
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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 4, 2009 23:42:52 GMT -5
Did anybody else find it funny that Peter uses a lot of weird words in his books? Like "druthers," "hackles," and "finked" in this one and "booking" (departed) and "jacked" in Happy Holidays, Jessi. My gripe - why didn't Jessi just let Jeff play with Jenny since he showed that he was good with her instead of making him try to take care of Andrea? For some reason, I remember that surgical gloves could give a baby a rash if you touch the skin too much. I just thought that that was the reason why Dawn didn't like him using it. *shrugs*
I just looked at Dawn's scrapbook. Did anybody think the picture in the top-right-hand corner looked a little, uh, weird . . . at least suggestive?
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Post by anzuhana on Apr 17, 2010 16:23:38 GMT -5
I'm kinda jealous that they went on a 10 day trip to Hawaii for only $500. If only there was a real trip to Hawaii for $500. I liked reading about how the girls tried to earn the rest of the money to be able to go to Hawaii. As for the subplot, I don't think that Jeff and the Pike triplets should've been paid. The BIT's should've worked for free and the BSC members should've kept all the money that they've earned.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,251
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Post by oldhickory on Feb 23, 2011 1:36:06 GMT -5
i read this one for the first time, and i was surprised that there was no mention of jeff on the island. he was so mature and resourceful and took great care of the kids (INCLUDING haley). now all of a sudden, he and haley want nothing to do with each other, and jeff forgot everything he knew about watching kids. i know, facing a situation like that will bring out the best or the worst in somebody, but considering BITs was his idea, it seemed so strange that he took it so lightly.
also, if i were sharon and richard, i would absolutely NOT let dawn go on that trip. sharon hardly ever sees her kids, which is hard enough. but for dawn to spend that whole summer trying to get out of stoneybrook is really unfortunate.
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Post by zoar3 on Feb 23, 2011 12:43:06 GMT -5
^I never thought of that Oldhickory about Jeff, I mean. I thought he (and Claudia) were the best part of IA in terms of surprising me with how resourceful they were. I think he might have thought it would be an easy way to make some money. Possibly also because the triplets were of course, related to Mal, maybe they thought that as such their jobs would never be too demanding--Mal would help them out. If the boys had worked out they could have been a welcome addition to the storylines, especially at that time (later in the Series).
Sharon and Richard shouldn't have let either Dawn or Mary Anne go. As I've posted elsewhere, I don't think (other than in the disaster in Family Feud) they ever spent time together as a family, even just getting to know one another.
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