#108 Don't Give Up, Mallory!

[booboobrewer]

I liked how this one dealt with some issues that middle school girls face, the fear of speaking up or being confident enough to hold their own with the more outspoken boys in the class. Pretty cool that Mal got the courage to confront that discriminating heartthrob, Mr. Cobb, and I think it was realistic how she didn't get her perfect grade in the end. Some of my favorite children's books are "featured" in their literature class - The Polar Express, Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight, Moon, Charlotte's Web, Animalia, etc. The subplot with them raising money for the sixth grade student lounge sounded fun (but um...sixth graders in need of a lounge?), and I think some of her classmates are mentioned again, like Justin Price. Was he the boy who asked her to dance in the Winter Vacation book? If so, yay for continuity

[Amalia]

I liked this one also, for all of the reasons listed above. But my favorite part of the book was where they met for their student government meetinngs (at least once): at the memory garden. The memory garden has got to be my favorite thing from the series.

[booboobrewer]

Oh, I loved that too. Mary Anne and the Memory Garden is such a touching book...

[macca]

I really want to read this one. I wish the later books weren't so impossible to find.

[Amalia]

I found some on ebay. The thing I don't like about the ebay items is that the books are sold in bunches, and I already have most of the books in there, so I don't want to buy the whole thing.

[jen]

I love the fundraiser in this book! I thought all the different days and themes were great, original and well executed. Yay for Mal! The marching band subplot was pretty cool, too.

[macca]

mcpon said:

I found some on ebay. The thing I don't like about the ebay items is that the books are sold in bunches, and I already have most of the books in there, so I don't want to buy the whole thing.

Yeah, I agree, that's really annoying. For a while I ended up with several copies of certain books in order to obtain one rare new one, but now I wait until I can purchase them individually. Which means they're hardly ever available and when they are I'm ALWAYS outbid. I thought these books were unpopular... ugh.

[jen]

We should start a letter-writing campaign, getting Scholastic to re-release them After all, there are gazillions of childrens series that keep getting reprinted...

[Amalia]

jenlovesmorelli said:

The marching band subplot was pretty cool, too.

I'm surprised they didn't have more disasters with that one.

[lilafowler]

Okay, I started this book (even though I said I wouldn't!) today after my exam and the first four pages of mine are missing. What happened? Did they get report cards or something?

[wanderingfrog]

^ Yes, they do. I just looked it up, and to be specific, they get "midterm progress reports." Mallory gets straight A's and some of the other kids in her class make fun of her for being a "brainiac" and "Ms. Know-It-All." (One of them sees her report card when she drops it on the floor. Because, you know, she's Spaz Girl and all that.) But Jessi says something like "way to go." About getting straight A's, not about dropping her report card on the floor.

[booboobrewer]

^Hehe.

I felt for Mallory in that moment, it's terrible when kids rag on other kids for making As and being smart or a "brain." I used to dread it happening to me too, since I loved making good grades but hated the teasing. In my experience most kids grew out of that by junior high/high school, though.

[aln1982]

I just read this one and really liked it! I had hesitated to read it because I thought it might be depressing (based on the title) but thought that Mal was great. And I could relate to so many things in it. I really had to laugh at Sandra and the shoes - as I was reading, I kept thinking how Sandra reminded me of a friend I have who turns into a total idiot around boys. Then I got to the shoes incident, which is almost exactly something my friend did. She wore huge, clunky shoes to Disney World and had to go home early because her feet hurt so bad. I kept going all day in my comfy Kristy-like "uniform". And the only guy who was with us commented to her, "why would you be so stupid to wear those shoes?" I was really glad to hear Mal at the fundraiser say, "I am strange" (or something to that effect) when Sandra told her to stop being so happy. This is something I would have said. I also liked her standing up to the teacher but am not surprised he gave her a B then. Unfortunately, that always seemed to be what would happen to me when I questioned a teacher (even if they said it didn't impact my grade).
I could also relate to the parade scene at the end where all of the parents drop off their kids. I was a teen leader for 4h for several years and parents often used meetings as a free babysitting service. There was one family that was notorious for it. Thank goodness for my mom (who was the leader of the class) because we had about 20 little kids running around in our barn after their parents dropped them off early and picked them up late. So annoying!
Anyway, I thought this book was really realistic and liked it a lot. Definitely worth a reread (I'll have to get my own copy)

[digigirl02]

macca said:

I really want to read this one. I wish the later books weren't so impossible to find.

Me too. Maybe I'll try to find it on e-bay.

[starrynight]

booboobrewer said:

I think some of her classmates are mentioned again, like Justin Price.

I thought Justin Price was an 8th grader?