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Post by candykane on Sept 4, 2010 12:49:44 GMT -5
I read this last night and found it quite boring. I didn't care for the haunted house subplot at all and thought there was too much space devoted to it.
The title doesn't fit, since Mary Anne didn't set out to "break the rules." There was only good intent behind what she was doing.
You'd think that Jake, being so happy and all, would excitedly tell his mom about Logan coming over and how much fun it had been.
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Post by zoar3 on Sept 18, 2010 19:59:20 GMT -5
It might also make sense if Jake had called Logan on the phone once or twice, just to talk but in a way "make sure" the two of them were truly buddies, if that makes sense. The only character that truly broke "rules" (though not in Stoneybrook) was Mrs. Kuhn for being an absentee parent.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,257
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Post by oldhickory on Sept 18, 2010 22:47:22 GMT -5
^ it's the same way that stacey and charlotte are "almost sisters" but they never hang out unless stacey is sitting. (i went on a long rant about this earlier today, so i will stop here :] )
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Post by zoar3 on Sept 19, 2010 11:41:14 GMT -5
^Your post led to my own rant of sorts last night, Oldhickory. I thought your comments about S and C were well said, too. I had always been disappointed in their lack of a friendship but never truly dismissed the "almost sisters." Now, I honestly don't think they were. Perhaps, they wanted to be, at times even felt close like sisters but it never lasted. I also feel, I sort of said this in the "Goodbye Stacey Goodbye," thread where I felt it was rude of Stacey to sign her book to Charlotte as "from your favorite baby-sitter." I'm almost sure that's why Char simply signed her handmade book back to Stacey as "from your favorite kid" instead of from your friend or even sister. No "almost." I "get" the idea of "like" or "almost" a sister but the label bugs me. Either you have come to bond with someone in that way or you haven't! I'll step down myself.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,257
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Post by oldhickory on Sept 19, 2010 12:22:34 GMT -5
^ this is why i like you, zoar. we think the same way :]
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Post by zoar3 on Sept 19, 2010 21:55:24 GMT -5
^Lol, thanks. I think. I like, you, too.
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Post by booboobrewer on Feb 7, 2011 20:09:54 GMT -5
I just read this one for the first time. I liked it, but agree that too much time was devoted to the subplot. I absolutely loved the beginning! And I always get a huge craving for pizza whenever they're eating it. Other stuff: - Mary Anne says "Mrs. Kuhn likes girl sitters anyway because of Patsy and Laurel." That just kind of stuck out to me because when do any of them say that about a client? Has any client ever really made it known that they prefer a girl to a boy? Interesting. Or was that just tossed in because of the events that were about to transpire? - She calls herself a "BSCO," Baby-sitters Club Outcast. Perfect opportunity to use the word pariah again - Mrs. Arnold hires a sitter because she lost a contact lens and is going to the eye doctor. She's wearing "granny glasses" in the meantime. It's so like Mrs. Arnold, who's always very conscious of appearances, to not want to be seen in her old glasses. It seemed like a nice bit of continuity. - when Shannon gets back to her house on Halloween, her sisters immediately demand help with their costumes, and their mom walks in only to be like "why are you late?" and still it says that Shannon was the one getting everyone ready and out the door. Um, nice, Mrs. Kilbourne. Compare that with Mrs. Kuhn who gets out her sewing kit to fix another kid's (Buddy's) costume. - Logan writing "free if you don't survive" on the haunted house sign cracked me up, as did Jake saying, "welcome to the mysterious and deadly underwear!" instead of underworld ;D - Logan lost points big-time when he left the house after Mrs. Kuhn found out. Mary Anne obviously didn't feel confident enough to say anything to Mrs. Kuhn by herself, but she might have if he had stayed for support. Zooming out the door is what the bad girls would do to Stacey when her mom arrives and finds the house a mess. Big no-no, Logan.
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Post by zoar3 on Feb 7, 2011 20:57:48 GMT -5
^Wouldn't Logan's not sticking around raise more suspicion on Mrs. Kuhn's part? ITA he should have stayed.
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Post by zoar3 on Jul 8, 2011 22:37:27 GMT -5
This is a struggle to re-read. One "gem" of an inconsistency, I believe the first of its kind, can be found at the top of page 6. ^ Secretary Stacey! At the first BSC meeting in this book, on page 16, Stacey is once again the Treasurer. I guess Mal's title/reasoning is the "shortened version." Other thing, that's yet another Dawn moment and likewise for Mary Anne (though also how MA "bows to Dawn." Reminds me of (I think) "Mary Anne and the Great Romance," when MA is worried that if she and Kristy take a second chocolate eclair popsicle with their (otherwise disguisting lunch) Dawn will "faint." Because of that fact, she (MA) doesn't "allow" Kristy to take it and neither does MA for herself, despite wanting it. Sorry about that tangent. Here's the "point" from near the bottom of page 4. ^This implies (what "we" already know) that Dawn doesn't consider animals other than cows and pigs to have any "rights." Although, I just read "Dawn and Whitney," and Dawn has nothing negative to say about Maggie's leather bomber jacket. More "proof" that wearing animals is all right by Dawn and that she (probably) could care less about them. Second, apparently MA "feels guilty" when she eats those things in Dawn's presence.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Jul 8, 2011 23:55:09 GMT -5
Interesting....
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Post by zoar3 on Jul 9, 2011 21:00:23 GMT -5
Two last things, I finished reading and think Mrs. Kuhn is definitely way up there for one of the BSC's most awful parents. Mary Anne and Logan "get caught" on a Friday afternoon. It takes until the following Friday, for Mrs. Kuhn to not only really talk with MA about what happened (when she comes to apologize with Jake) but, worse, to bother asking her son what happened!! Mrs. Kuhn claimed the previous week had been so busy she didn't have time. Now that is Stoneybrook parenting at its (at least one of) all-time worst! I still also fail to comprehend how Logan's name never came up in conversation between the Kuhns during the afternoons he hung out with Jake. Second, did it seem odd to anyone else that neither Patsy nor Laurel ever wondered why Logan was not there to hang out with them? In one scene MA and the two girls watch (for quite a while) Jake and Logan play basketball, without ever joining in. Not very "Ann-like" at all, imo, and in this case, she'd be "right."
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Post by wiggir13 on Jul 12, 2011 3:54:09 GMT -5
ITA about Logan not being mentioned by Jake sooner. It seems very unrealistic that he wouldn't have mentioned him. It was sad that Logan didn't go to his game b/c of his mom.
Love the reference to the girls not joining in zoar ... too true! I must admit that I am struggling getting through this part of the series. The books are just so boring!
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Post by zoar3 on Jul 12, 2011 11:22:15 GMT -5
^That's why I've been "skipping" and/or "skimming" Wiggirl, the books are too boring. The "sad" thing is I know that what's left (imo) hold only a handful of gems. Sigh. I always want to go back to the beginning a little before now in re-reads, hoping for a better end somehow.
As for the Kuhn girls I just thought it was weird that neither ever questioned Logan suddenly showing up and the fact he basically "ignored" them. What happens if Logan was ever the baby-sitter? Would he ask Mary Anne to come by and hang out with Patsy and Laurel?
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,257
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Post by oldhickory on Jul 14, 2011 12:33:03 GMT -5
- She calls herself a "BSCO," Baby-sitters Club Outcast. Perfect opportunity to use the word pariah again man, when these girls are mad at MA they really let her have it. i'd forgotten that they all ganged up on her twice, in the space of like 20 books :]
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Post by anzuhana on Sept 18, 2011 19:51:39 GMT -5
The title made it seem like Mary Anne would've done something more sinister than just invite Logan without telling Mrs. Kuhn. I think she really should've broken the rules or something. I liked the scene in the Pizza Express involving Mary Anne and Logan and Stacey and Robert.
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