Kristy's Portrait

[aln1982]

Like all of the Portrait books, this one gave me a lot of insight into the character’s personality. I enjoyed reading how Kristy has not changed much over time. There were lots of funny parts in this one and I liked Kristy’s first great idea of the snowpeople building business. You can see a lot of Karen in her with the big ideas.
Patrick was a real jerk! This book makes me hate him so much as a father. Elizabeth doesn’t win a parent of the year award in my book, either. First of all, it was obvious that her marriage was not going well for years. Why keep having kids? I hate it when people do this trying to “save the marriage” because it usually just ends up creating more problems for everyone involved and never seems to work. I felt so sorry for Charlie having all of the responsibilities at a young age – Sam and Kristy too. It’s a wonder they turned out as great as they did. I know some might argue the responsibilities helped, but they could have just as easily had the opposite effect. This book also made me like David Michael a bit more because I feel pretty sorry for him. The one question I have is where was Nannie and why didn’t she help out more?
I thought it was a little weird and almost creepy how Patrick wanted only to see Kristy. I felt so sorry for her with the glove and loved how Watson bought her one at the end. It almost symbolized the feeling that I get from Kristy of “Watson’s my “dad” now.” I love that as I think he’s so great to all of Elizabeth’s kids and enjoyed his relationship with Kristy in this book.
I really liked the pictures in this book, too, especially the ones with the snowpeople. The girls are so cute! For some reason, this one seemed to read easier than MA and Claudia’s Books (the only portraits I’ve recently reread). I think I liked it better, too, maybe because I like Kristy. I don’t know if this is my favorite portrait book but I thought it gave great insight into Kristy, was pretty funny and deserved higher than the B grade the teacher gave her (not sure how the grades were assigned for the portraits but I might have graded them differently – I guess I wasn’t reading for English content, though

[fluffycakes]

^ I don't get how they were graded on the assignments, either. I don't remember how well the others did, but I seem to remember them all getting As, except Kristy and Claudia (though I could very well be wrong). It makes sense for Claud to get a B, what with her spelling and grammar issues, but Kristy's book was no worse or better than those who got As, so that always baffled me.

Does anyone know which came first - Kristy's book, or the BSC movie? I didn't like the Patrick chapter in the book because I saw the movie before reading the book. I used to think that Ann was just being incredibly lazy in copying from the movie.

[secondhandshoes]

I'm pretty sure the movie came first because Patrick in the Portrait Collection looks identical to Patrick in the movie

[lyricalangel]

^Yeah he does. Doesn't he have the same beard and everything?

[Deleted]

I kinda have the feeling that Kristy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when her dad showed up. If Sam or Charlie were the ones that were there when Patrick showed up, I doubt Kristy would have known about it.
But then again, where's the dramatic story in that?

[aln1982]

^ I'm not sure then why Patrick didn't want to see Sam and Charlie, too, and didn't even want Kristy to say anything. I wonder if he thought Kristy might be the most receptive to seeing him and the least angry, therefore the easiest for him to deal with without having to explain or defend himself. Seems like typical Patrick to take the easy way out.

[Karen Brewer]

^I think that's probably the case too, although in Kristy's Big News Charlie had said that Patrick made it pretty obvious that Kristy was his favorite. ;D

[hitzpink]

I just read this for the first time. I'd always liked Elizabeth before but this book REALLY made me rethink my opinion of her. I know you guys already talked about it, but seriously I can't believe she left them home alone at such young ages!! When I was 10 my mom still had my 14 year old sister watching me after school. She NEVER would have left me in charge of (hypothetical) younger siblings at that age! It seemed like they also had to get themselves ready for school all alone too -- at one point it mentions that one of Kristy's many ridiculous "chores" is to pack up the car for her mom, then they all stand around and wave goodbye to her & DM. I guess they're responsible enough to see themselves off to elementary school everyday?!

And Charlie and Sam, at ages 9 and 7, get to go to the movies with their friends alone?! The book kept talking about those two "hanging out with the guys" and stuff like they were teenagers. Sam was in 2nd grade!

I loved the story about poor Louie getting sprayed by a skunk and all of the kids locked in the bathroom together trying to wash him with tomato juice. Also loved Kristy, MA, and Claudia making "snowwomen" and "snowpeople" for all the neighbors to earn money for Mimi's gift. That was sweet and fun to read about.

Kristy's softball camp was boring, and the Patrick thing was creepy. What a crappy situation to put a young girl in, making her sneak around and lie to her mom so that she can hang out with you. Yuck!

[aln1982]

I felt the same way about Elizabeth. This book and Mind Your Own Business gave me such negative impressions of her, which is why I started the thread on her (and got a lot of disagreement ;D) Lately, I've liked her better so won't reread the chapters in Kristy's Book that talk about her.
This book really brings out my Patrick-hatred, too. But I don't mind that since pretty much every book does ;D

[hitzpink]

I haven't read MYOB Kristy yet, I'm kind of afraid to know what it says about Elizabeth!

[Karen Brewer]

I'm another one that has yet to read MYOB, Kristy. I'll have to order that from Amazon. Though I have to say, the more BSC and LS books I read, the less I like Elizabeth.

[greer]

what happened in myob that made you dislike elizabeth? was it the emphasis on charlie's role in pulling the family together?

[aln1982]

^ That was pretty much it. About how she was so tired he had to feed DM in the night. I know that probably wasn't her fault and doesn't really say anything bad about her but it just gave me a bad impression of her (when I already had the bad impression because I read MYOB right after this one)

[Karen Brewer]

What irks me about Elizabeth is how she was wanting a baby so much and then when she got Emily Michelle....well, this has already been discussed before. ;D

[sotypical42483]

Well Elizabeth is always pretty willing to put the responsibilities on other people. I'm not too big of a fan of her. It just seems like there are a lot of people who handle a lot more than she does without putting it all on their kids (in general, not necessarily in BSC books) and it's kind of pathetic how Charlie had to friggin' WRITE THE MORTGAGE CHECK. And vacuum and bathe DM and whatever else the poor kid had to do. When did he do homework??