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Post by booboobrewer on Dec 6, 2006 19:29:14 GMT -5
Didn't see a thread for this one...thoughts on this book? I think I found it incredibly boring but maybe I just don't remember it well. I thought Scout sounded really cute. I remember the Deb subplot scaring me...did she go blind because she had glaucoma?
It was also a reaaally short book if I recall...
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Dec 7, 2006 3:02:04 GMT -5
They seemed to have Scout for a really short amount of time - they were supppsed to keep her for about a year, weren't they? They give her back in Abby's Un-Valentine!
I liked the scene in the supermarket where the lady has a hissy fit about Scout being in the shop. The rest of the book was dull as.
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Post by booboobrewer on Dec 7, 2006 20:03:38 GMT -5
I know! I didn't think of that but yeah, it seems like a very short time. Ditto about that scene...I liked how Abby got all indignant too.
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Dec 14, 2006 15:52:19 GMT -5
I think if I had read it as a kid I would have been very freaked out by the glaucoma subplot. Then again, when I was about eight, I made up a story where the BSC sat for a blind little girl.
I don't know very much about raising guide dogs, but it seemed like a very random decision for the Brewer-Thomas family to make, especially with kids as young as Andrew and Emily (who will have limited understanding at best about having to give the dog BACK, as we see later). Then again, these are the people who gave their kids barely a day's notice they were about to have a new baby sister, so maybe they just want to make sure Andrew comes out REALLY neurotic. As if being Karen's little brother wasn't enough, poor baby.
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gabbie
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 144
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Post by gabbie on Dec 14, 2006 16:10:41 GMT -5
It did seem really random. Especially since they had so many other pets. (Not that there is anything wrong with having lots of pets!) But I suppose it would have been good for the puppy since she would have been exposed to lots of people and animals.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2007 23:11:06 GMT -5
I just finished this one and I had one quick question. Was Deb ever in another book before this one? When they first talked about her, they were just saying that Shannon told Kristy about her cause she goes to SDS but then all the BSC members seemed to actually know Deb, like when Stacey came over to sit at the Coopers, she said "Hi, it's Stacey". Just wondering if there's a book I missed or forgot about with her in it.
And when Mr Cooper calls to set up a sitting job for 12 year old Deb, Mallory and Jessi both actually get considered. I'm sure that'd do wonders for Deb's self-esteem. It also seems that Claudia is baby-sitting for Ben Hobart at one point in this.
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digigirl02
Junior Sitter
The P is for Princess
Posts: 698
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Post by digigirl02 on Jan 22, 2007 0:36:40 GMT -5
And when Mr Cooper calls to set up a sitting job for 12 year old Deb, Mallory and Jessi both actually get considered. I'm sure that'd do wonders for Deb's self-esteem. It also seems that Claudia is baby-sitting for Ben Hobart at one point in this. That would be a bit akward, but then again the other sitters aren't that much older then Deb anyway.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2007 8:32:00 GMT -5
Could anyone tell me wich book nubmer this is? I guess it's one of the higher numbers since I don't seem to know it. Dutch books only go till 66 and I'm stull busy collection the other books in english.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Jan 25, 2007 10:16:54 GMT -5
^ It is #118.
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Post by aln1982 on Apr 22, 2007 7:47:20 GMT -5
Just couldn't get into this book - probably because I do not like dogs and the thought of dogs inside makes me cringe a little. I will probably receive criticism for this point of view but ... I probably feel this way because I am severely allergic - I can smell a dog outdoors from like 50 ft away and indoors, I start having trouble breathing if someone is even just around me who has dog hair on their clothes. This allergy has gotten much worse over time. That's what made me a little irritated in this book too when the lady in the grocery store got mad with Scout being in there (sorry, but I can relate to that) and asked what if someone was allergic and Abby said she was allergic. She might "test" that she's allergic to dogs (my parents test like that for cats but just sneeze and get a few sniffles around them) and get a little stuffy nose but allergies range in severity. It bugs me that sometimes people don't seem to realize this. Enough about that...Deb made me a little mad but yet I could relate and felt for her struggles to create a new "normal." Though not justified, her bitterness was understandable. Have to admit that the glaucoma subplot scared me a bit (I'm paranoid). With MA and Search For Tigger (which I also read today - get the "pet" books read at one time )), this is one of my lesser favorites though I did like the kids when they came to see the Coopers and did feel for Deb. Too bad her family wasn't mentioned again.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Apr 22, 2007 13:47:06 GMT -5
I think the subplot with Deb is realistic and like reading about how angry she is. Which is why it bothers me so much that she's never mentioned again in the series. All through the books, the sitters are like, "It's okay that you're blind, Deb! Everyone still likes you and you can still do stuff!" Then that message is totally negated by her not existing in the series anymore as soon as the book with the plot where she was needed as Token Blind Girl was over.
Not that BSC books don't use someone for a plot and never mention them again -- it happens all the time. But it particularly irked me in this one.
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Post by aln1982 on Apr 22, 2007 14:43:41 GMT -5
^ Agree wanderingfrog even though I never thought of the "Token Blind Girl" angle. It did also bug me that they didn't sit for the Coopers - at least the boys - again without good explanation (Great Aunt Eloise usually sits for them but had a broken hip at that time or whatever
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mckay
Junior Sitter
Posts: 672
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Post by mckay on Apr 23, 2007 17:00:23 GMT -5
This one bugged me for the same reason alula mentioned a while back. And also because it seems really unlikely that after a couple of talking-tos kids as young as Karen, David Michael and Andrew (let alone Emily) would be able to understand that the dog couldn't be treated like just any other pet, and also stick to that when faced with the temptation of, say, playing tug-of-war.
Also, I think AMM has a To Kill a Mockingbird obsession (it's a great book/movie, to be sure, but random for a bunch of thirteen year olds). Kristy mentions liking the book in this one, and in one of the other books they get all excited during a sleepover because the movie's on television. Which...I liked the book a lot when I read it in seventh grade, but I wouldn't have been terribly excited about the movie being on TV.
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Post by greer on Jun 21, 2007 6:13:25 GMT -5
This book is useless. However since the books came out once a month, it seems fine to me that they gave scout back 9 books later.
But yeah, boring book w a depressing subplot.
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Post by aln1982 on Oct 8, 2007 10:00:00 GMT -5
I like this book more each time I read it. And each time, I am less irritated with Deb's bitterness and more sympathetic and understanding. Still don't like the whole dog thing (I don't like dogs ;D) and think it's weird how the main plot and subplot are so closely connected. Could have used a random Pike sitting chapter to lighten things up. ;D Also wondering who is the boy on the cover? I assume the guy that they meet at the end who has the dog but find it odd that he is featured on the cover when he's barely mentioned in the book.
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