Kristy's Portrait

[greer]

Nope.

[tiff85]

Nope, she only mentioned being in camp in Kristy at Bat and of course Kristy's Portrait.

[otempora541]

Take it from a divorced kids: it is possaible for fathers not to pay child support (then again, my own father is in Israel, but I think everyone here is sick of my daddy issues.)

This book cemented my Elizabeth hate. I understand the financial need of you going to work with four children, but did you really expect all three of your children to practically raise themselves, espically as the oldest had to have been younger then 14? I'm sure Richard, your daughter's best friend's father, would've been more then happy to have someone watch the kids until you came home, or heck, even Mimi! It's a wonder the three of them didn't burn down the house.

Anybody surprisd Kristy's a lefty?

[supprazz]

I'm surprised child welfare didn't intervene....

[anzuhana]

While I enjoyed reading this book, I went WTH when I found about the chores that Charlie had to do after Patrick left. That seems a bit much for me. I'm sure he didn't have to scrub the bathrooms and do the laundry everyday but that seems a bit much for a 10 year old to do.

I don't understand why Elizabeth didn't have the neighbors check up on Kristy and her siblings and where was Nannie? If she was working, I think she could have sent some money to Elizabeth to help out.

[oldhickory]

i finally read this book yesterday. i used to think charlie was creepy, but just this one book has completely changed all that for me. instead of thinking he should be spending less time hitting on kristy's friends, now i see that charlie learned at a VERY young age to take care of his family, any way he could. giving a ride to the bsc probably seems easy compared to what he had to do at 10. maybe he even thought he was expected to do it.

i know a lot of you think DM was a save the marriage baby, but i never got that feeling. i think he was just an accident. elizabeth and patrick were probably already having problems. she's trying to make him grow up, he's trying to feel independent, etc. but then they find out she's pregnant and he just freaked out and didn't want any part of it.

it does bother me that this book was published the year after the movie came out. if you are going to write a book based on what happened in the movie, at least make it the same story. i can forgive some of the differences, but the biggest part of the movie was that this was all happening around her birthday (and patrick stood her up on her birthday), and that's just too hard to overlook.

[wiggir13]

^I agree that I thought DM was a whoops baby too. I also wondered if he was the last straw for Patrick to peace out. I mean four kids is a freaking lot and if he was already overwhelmed by three, the fourth would have made him snap.

I have my own dad issues, but man oh man I felt for Kristy when she was meeting him secretly and hoping they would have a relationship. I hate the way he talked about Kristy's mom and made those comments. It made me see what type of life they may have had before he left.

[celaeno]

I finally got to read this one! I had read Stacey's, Claudia's, and Mary Anne's portraits as a kid, and I luckily got my hands on this one recently. Now I just need to find copies of Dawn's and Abby's.

Overall I liked this one, and I think it's my favorite of the ones I read so far. I have such mixed feelings toward Kristy - on the one hand, I usually dislike her in the books because she's loud and bossy, qualities I usually can't stand. On the other hand, I also think that Kristy is the sitter with the most going on beneath the surface. In the occasional books where we get to see what's going on beneath Kristy's surface, with her daddy issues and her fear of things being out of her control, I then usually end up having a lot of sympathy for her. I feel like Kristy is the sitter with the most depth.

I was totally surprised that they wrote about the plot from the movie in this book (coincidentally, I just finished reading the movie novelization) - I had been under the impression that the movie was considered totally non-canon in relation to the books, and it gives me an odd satisfaction that they're referencing the movie in the books! (And I had forgotten, they also reference the movie plot in SS#14, when Kristy sees her Dad at the baseball game).

I think Patrick is one of my favorite characters to read about. He's such a d-bag and I think he's also a surprisingly realistic character, which makes him stand out a lot in a series that is otherwise usually so innocent . To me, he's made such a big impression on the series, which is weird considering that he's only appeared a handful of times.

[sparklymouse]

The first half was one of my favorite portraits. Then the second half came along and ruined it.

The First Five Innings: People give Elizabeth crap for having a fourth kid with Patrick, but it sounded like he was already a real catch after two kids. David Michael didn't push him over the edge. He had always been there. The snow person business was adorable. There was some funky reverse inflation going on with money in Stoneybrook. One of the neighbors gave them $10 for their snowman. Seven short years later ten bucks was a bonus for saving an overheated child’s life. If five-year-old Mary Anne had saved the day then imagine what her bonus would have been!

Breaking the Rules: Every movie that played in Stoneybrook sounded so terrible. Was Car Man supposed to be like Transformers? Only instead of robot/cars it was human/cars? Again with the magic $10. Kristy said she had enough money to buy popcorn for everyone. It said they bought popcorn, sodas and candy, plus she paid for her ticket. If she managed to pay for all of that then it didn't matter how bad the movies were. I’d go too at that price! I liked that Claudia tried to play dumb about where Kristy was (Mary Anne ratted her out). I guess this was supposed to show how Elizabeth did all the parenting in the family since Patrick thought what Kristy did was funny.

On Our Own: I never really thought Patrick literally disappeared one day, but there ya go. I can’t imagine how humiliating the phone call that Elizabeth had to stumble through with Patrick’s boss must have been. The family was really slumming it if David Michael was in the unheard of daycare. Elizabeth wasted a ton of money on take out food, too. The Louie skunking part was cute, although I’m not sure why a skunk was randomly chilling in their back yard that day. I know a lot of you didn't like Elizabeth after this story, but I could relate to it. Not the disappearing dad part, but parents who were always out of the house and a sibling who was too young to be in charge being in charge. I don’t think the chores Elizabeth handed down were unreasonable at all, except for maybe David Michael’s nightly bath. (Partly because babies don’t need nightly baths. Unless she wanted the daycare stench off of him. )

Play Ball: This was boring. It was a clichéd camp story about feuds, pranks, hi jinks, and truces. The series just was not capable of writing a softball story that interested me.

My Real Father: Patrick was creepy. We've heard it all before. The guy couldn't even sign “Dad” on cards to the kids. He used his initial. I guess the worst part was how quickly Kristy got sucked into him and how that was a pattern with her. (This happened before BSC in the USA and Kristy’s Big News.) I was trying to decide if 7 year olds know what their dominant hand is. I guess, right? They've been learning to write for a few years by then. I wanted to give Patrick the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know Kristy was a leftie because he wasn't there to see her develop it. (Although that’s worse than just forgetting. I mean, my family forgets well-known stuff like eye color and how to spell each other’s names. It happens.)

The last chapter was a waste of paper. Why did we need a recap of what we just read? I was thinking about how long winded Kristy can get in BSC meetings and how she probably writes like that, too. That might be the reason for the B+.

[anzuhana]

The First Five Innings: People give Elizabeth crap for having a fourth kid with Patrick, but it sounded like he was already a real catch after two kids. David Michael didn't push him over the edge. He had always been there.

It really makes a person wonder why Elizabeth kept having kids with Patrick when she knew he was undependable.

[virgoscorpio]

^ Maybe they just got frisky and it happened. This may be too much information, but I had to say it! Maybe DM wasn't planned. I think we've all come to that conclusion (or something close to it).

[anzuhana]

^ But that requires the question on why Elizabeth willingly kept getting intimate with him.

[zoar3]

Firstly thank you Sparklymouse for taking the time (in each portrait)! to give us your thoughts in such detail. Lol, you must have taken a lot of "notes." I just read through this thread (as I will the others) and was surprised I had never posted in it. One "new" (to me) comment I noticed was made 6 years ago by Lovelymontree. She said:

Mimi could have popped in a couple times in the afternoon. Similarly, I've always wondered why in Kristy's Great Idea and The Truth About Stacey Mimi wasn't asked to baby-sit David Michael and Jamie. She was right across the street and with Claudia and Janine grown, it's not like she had a lot to do.

^That would have been absolutely endearing to read about Mimi baby-sitting. Jamie Newton came across as being especially close to her. David Michael probably saw her all the time, too. Even Mimi sitting for Mary Anne or Kristy would have made for a touching scene. Now I'm "mad" the ghosties never thought of that. Mimi could have been an "honorary" (pre) BSC Member.

[sparklymouse]

Dec 12, 2012 9:48:24 GMT -5 anzuhana said:

^ But that requires the question on why Elizabeth willingly kept getting intimate with him.

Cause he was her husband and she didn't want a life of celibacy? I don't really understand what you're saying. They were like 30 years old. Were they never supposed to have sex again? (After reading this one I don't really think David Michael was unplanned anymore anyway.)

[supprazz]

I never knew helping out your family was creepy. You white people suck and should just go work for child welfare or something.