Claudia's Portrait

[liss31d]

The Boo for Fourth Grade chapter kind of irritated me in parts even though I liked reading it. What kind of a kid, especially one as seemingly outgoing as Claudia, goes into a severe depression about changing schools? I've changed schools, the first time when I was around her age, maybe a little younger and then again when I was 10 and I had to move to different countries each time to a differnt continent! But I didn't go into a major depression about it, I got on with it and eventually adapted, 'cause that's what kids generally do, unless they're being bullied or something and Claudia wasn't. It was her own fault she went into depression as she didn't even try to like the school or make friends. A girl came up and spoke to her smiling and Claudia just snapped at her and acted all cold, and she sat at lunch by herself, so she clearly didn't try. Regarding her starting to 'dislike' art, I bet it was just her way of attention seeking to be honest. I think the school seemed really good for her if she'd tried to adapt and make friends. Shouldn't she have been happy at least that she'd get to do art much more in school and focus on arty subjects and methods as opposed to looking like an idiot at Stoneybrook Elementary?

[aln1982]

Claud had some major insecurity issues, if you ask me. This chapter backed up this theory of mine. Maybe that is what happens when no one comes to your birthday party though....

[magentanation]

I feel sorry for Claudia when nobody shows up to her birthday party. That's gotta screw a kid up.

[aln1982]

^ I always felt terrible for Claud with that, too. I knew a little girl who that really happened to and it was sad. But I'm not sure why it happened to Claud (I can kind of understand the other little girl) because she didn't seem unpopular and seemed like a pretty likeable kid. Did Kristy and MA come? I can't remember anymore.
Maybe this was the start of Claudia's insecurities....

[magentanation]

^Kristy and MA were the only kids who showed up.

[liss31d]

It was because her party was held in the middle of the summer, in which most kids would probably be on holiday out of Stoneybrook, others would have forgotten to tell their parents as they were only 6 years old and Claudia gave out the invitations at the last minute on the last day of school... I know as like Claudia, my birthday is in July and when I was little, I would usually have my birthday in June before school ended as most kids wouldn't turn up in the middle of the summer.

[sotypical42483]

Weird. My niece is 7 (well almost 8) and her b-day is August 2nd. Kids always come to her parties. I mean why are Claudia's parents putting her in charge of the invitations anyway? Claudia's kind of an idiot, I would expect her to forget or lose them. My sister mails the invites or calls the kids personally, she surely doesn't make my niece take care of it because in that case, there probably wouldn't be many guests, like Claudia's situation.

[secondhandshoes]

liss31d said:

It was because her party was held in the middle of the summer, in which most kids would probably be on holiday out of Stoneybrook, others would have forgotten to tell their parents as they were only 6 years old and Claudia gave out the invitations at the last minute on the last day of school... I know as like Claudia, my birthday is in July and when I was little, I would usually have my birthday in June before school ended as most kids wouldn't turn up in the middle of the summer.

I did the same thing. My birthday is at the end of July, and everyone here goes away for the summer.

[aln1982]

Agree about Claudia not being responsible enough to take care of the invites herself and that no little kid should really do that. My mom always threw me big, fun parties as a kid, even though my birthday is in August, (thankfully almost everyone always came) and took care of everything. Somehow, though, I can't see the Kishis doing this. They seemed so uninvolved in Claudia and Janine's lives.

[alula]

My birthday's in July, and I never had more than a few people miss my parties, athough sometimes they weren't on my actual birthday because we were out of town. (My mom convinced me that this was actually a great treat, as it meant I got to "stretch my birthday out.") I think once or twice I may have settled on a particular date to make sure my very best friend could come, though.

I agree Claudia was too young to be in charge of the invitations. Also, some schools, I know, don't allow students to distribute invitations or things like that at school anyway to avoid hurt feelings if not everyone is being invited.

I've always been bothered by the private school chapter--I find it really frustrating that everyone gives up so easily on a place that actually did seem to be addressing some of Claudia's needs. I don't mean that she needed to just tough it out, but I really think she would have been more adaptable if she'd had more time and maybe some counselling or something. I find the Kishis really frustrating because they seem to me to be really unwilling to ever do anything serious about Claudia's school issues; they kind of just let her drift by with the occasional empty threat. This isn't just about her not being "academic" as a preference or personality type; not everyone has to love school, but there are times her writing is barely literate! Being a talented artist at thirteen does not a career make.

[aln1982]

^ Totally agree about the school thing. I think this was my least favorite thing about the book. The Kishi parent's attitude towards Claud's education bugs me. They won't let her read Nancy Drew but they don't seem to encourage her to learn - just to do better in school.
Also had similar situations with being gone on my birthday. Now I actually prefer being gone ;D I had never thought of schools not letting you pass out invites but this is true.

[Amalia]

^ My English teachers have always told the class that during your spare time you should read only things that you like. The easier the better because it will help with your grammar and spelling, instead of having you straining to understand the vocabulary, etc. So, with that theory, I wonder why Claudia's parents aren't more encouraging with her Nancy Drew reading.

[alula]

^My parents probably would have been upset if I ONLY had read BSC books, or if my brother only had read comics, but we were both natural readers anyway, and they never forbade us from reading anything. Our school librarian was horrified at some of the things we read (but she was a mean old lady who didn't like kids and didn't seem to like books that much either--awesome career choice, Mrs. B!), but I think that's part of the reason we're still very active readers--we weren't reading thick books to show off, or reading books that bored us because they were on some approved list; we read the things that interested us.

My cousin, on the other hand, was slow to start to read--she didn't read for fun until she was about nine, and then for about a year, all she read was the Harry Potter books (1-4, at that point). And I mean literally--she just read them over and over again, and it drove my aunt crazy. But we didn't take them away from her--we just gave her other books (especially books I picked out or I read when I was her age;there are times when being the older girl cousin has a little cachet), and now, at 16, she's a totally voracious and pretty sophisticated reader--she reads plenty of light stuff, but she also reads things like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice for fun.

So yeah, I agree it's really counterproductive for the Kishis to be so uptight about the Nancy Drew books, and I think Mrs. Kishi as a librarian especially should know better! Grrr.

[aln1982]

^ Mrs. Kishi doesn't seem to have a lot of sense sometimes (wonder where Claud gets it ;D) and seems pretty out of tune with her kids - Claudia especially. I may be being too hard on her but that's how it always seemed to me.

[wanderingfrog]

Yeah, about the Nancy Drew thing, Mrs. Kishi definitely isn't like any librarian I know, and I know quite a lot of them.