Kristy for President (RS#53)

Original Publication Date: 1992

Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker

Synopsis:

Kristy decides to run for student body president (interestingly, Stacey pushes her to do so). While she's campaigning, she finds herself get spread thinner and thinner, as she still has responsibilities to her Krusher softball team, her family, the BSC, and her schoolwork. As the campaign moves forward, it becomes clear that it's simply too much for her to handle. She bows out of the race, leaving Pete Black, Grace Blume, and Alan Gray as candidates. Pete wins and seems set to do a good job.

At the same time, Jamie Newton is determined to learn to ride his new bike. It's slow going, especially when he wants to remove the training wheels prematurely.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: sweet-n-sour Gummi bears, chocolate-dipped Oreos, pretzels, jelly beans

When Jessi and Mallory meets the rest of the BSC in a school assembly, it's implied that Jessi's just told a bad pun. How about that, a glimmer of personality from her introduction book!

Stacey brings her own lunch to school, which makes a lot of sense given the seriousness of her diabetes.

Fail: when the BSC finds out the school play will be Mary Poppins, they disparage it. That's Stacey's favorite movie. She doesn't say anything for or against it.

Dawn suggests "shrooms" for a pizza topping. Suspicious...


Their Families: nothing new


The Club:

Kristy has to go from a baby-sitting job at her house to one at Jamie Newton's in her old neighborhood, yet there's no elaborate explanation of how she got there. Normally there would be mention of how she needed a ride or something.

Fail: speaking of Jamie Newton, there's another sitting job that comes up for him. Kristy can't take the job because she has Krushers practice...Jamie's on the team. His being on the team is even mentioned a couple chapters later.

Lucy Newton wears lavender an awful lot. And why not, purple's a good color.


SMS:

Kristy finds herself unprepared for a ten question true-or-false pop quiz on the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates. Really? Given the vast amount of animals in each group, are even enough that she could do poorly on such a quiz in seventh grade?

Apparently SMS school assemblies are pretty lax: students are reading, doodling, and otherwise not paying attention. I read this book later on, in college, after I'd attended a military training encampment and always picture the assembly taking place in the auditorium where we'd have lectures...definitely no slacking there.

SMS Staff: Mrs. Simon (8th English)


PSA time:

Um, Dawn, even if you're just ducking inside to the closet right by the door to grab a Band-Aid, you should probably take the extra two seconds to pick up the baby who's playing in a playpen on the front lawn and take her with you. Wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and bring in the four-year-old who just skinned his palms and knees; he'll need to wash out those cuts.


Misc:

Impeachment doesn't remove a president from office. Andrew Johnson was impeached, and served out his term. Same with Clinton. It's the process by which (in the US) the president is formally brought up on charges. So many people are calling for Obama to be impeached thinking it would remove him from office, and they're just as wrong about that as the people a few years back who wanted Bush impeached to get him out of office.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 3

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 2

BSC Fights: 6

SMS Staff: 25

Students (other than the BSC): 72; 50 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 10 sixth-graders, nine unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 56 (bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, Chunky bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, dark-chocolate caramels, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, fruit pie, gumdrops, Gummi Bears (regular and sweet-n-sour), Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, jellybeans, Kit-Kats, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, marshmallows, Mentos, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf and chocolate-dipped), Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Triscuits, Twinkies, Yodels)

Crushes: Claudia-8 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-5 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris, Price Irving, Richie Magnesi), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart), Jessi-2 (Curtiis Shaller, Quint Walter)

Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies (RS#52)

Original Publication Date: 1992

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

It's time for egg-babies. The eighth-graders are taking a Modern Living class (it might be a section of health class; it's not clear) for which they are paired up as married couples and each couple gets an egg to take care of for a month. Mary Anne is confident: she and Logan are a real couple already, and she's an experienced baby-sitter. Naturally, she and her classmates quickly find out that, at thirteen, they are nowhere near ready to live independently of their parents, much less have their own kids. Ultimately, Mary Anne does enjoy the project, but decides kids and marriage should wait until she's in her early-to-mid twenties. The rest of the BSC agrees that responsibilities like this should wait. The project also cures Mary Anne and Dawn of their longing for a baby brother or sister.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned, unless you want to count the eggs that "attended" a few meetings

We already know that Kristy and Mary Anne have similar coloring and height, but I think this is the first we've heard that they have a similar face shape.

Um..."[Claudia]'s very exotic-looking. No brown hair and brown eyes for her. She's Japanese-American." Because, as we all know, people of Japanese-only descent have magenta eyes.

"Individuality and independence do not necessarily equal self-confidence. Dawn has some chinks in her armor..." Nice to see it acknowledged that Dawn tried to change herself for a couple guys.


Their Families:

Mallory, reminiscing about her mom's pregnancy with Claire: "You don't know how tired you feel when you're pregnant. And you're even tireder after the baby comes. Busier, too." Truer words were never spoken.


The Club:

New clients: twin infants Ricky and Rose Salem, from the infant-care class the club took in #45; and Alicia and Bobby Gianelli (the latter is one of Karen Brewer's classmates).


SMS:

Students: Aaron Albright, Angela ?, Kevin ?, Miles ?, Tarik ?, Zoe ? (8th)

Staff: Mrs. Boyden (8th grade Modern Living)

The Modern Living class seems like a fore-runner of the upcoming Short Takes classes.

In the Modern Living class, the students are paired off into couples. There are four more boys than girls, so there end up being two boy-boy couples. An attempt at being progressive, or one at humor?


PSA time:

Okay, come on. Meat is not intrinsically bad for you. In fact, vegetarians and vegans have to be careful to find adequate sources of protein to replace what would have been eaten in meat. Many people live perfectly healthy lives without meat, and others eat too much of it, but to say that it's always bad for everyone is just not true.

Salt will hold together a spilled egg yolk. Good to know if you drop an egg or your kid decides to "adopt" one as a pretend child and breaks it trying to draw clothes on it.

Yes, Mary Anne, good job. It's always fine to ask a mom with a new baby if how she's doing. If she's really, really not doing well, it can be an opportunity for her to realize that she might need some help.


Misc:

From the way the scene is written, the Salem twins seem to be drinking expressed milk rather than formula. The early books seemed to not even acknowledge that babies can drink milk; they always, always, always talked about formula...

...Like a few chapters later, when some of the girls are pretend-feeding their eggs, and talk about how they'd have to mix up formula if they were real babies. Feeding a baby formula doesn't bug me (yes, breast is best, but it's most important to feed the kid, period) but it's so weird to not see breastfeeding mentioned. I knew about it well before the age of thirteen, but that may have something to do with having a brother seven years younger.

This book made me look forward to doing a project like this one day in school. Never happened, though. Oh well, now I'm doing it for real!


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 3

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 2

BSC Fights: 6

SMS Staff: 24

Students (other than the BSC): 72; 50 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 10 sixth-graders, nine unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 53 (bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, Chunky bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, dark-chocolate caramels, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, fruit pie, gumdrops, Gummi Bears, Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, Kit-Kats, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, marshmallows, Mentos, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf), Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Triscuits, Twinkies, Yodels)

Crushes: Claudia-8 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-5 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris, Price Irving, Richie Magnesi), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart), Jessi-2 (Curtiis Shaller, Quint Walter)

Mallory and the Ghost Cat (M#3)

Original Publication Date: 1992

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles

Synopsis:

Mallory gets a short-term job sitting for the Craine family's three young girls while their aunt recovers from a broken leg. From her first visit, she hears a cat meowing, but the Craines don't have a cat. Later, she and the girls find a white cat in their attic, and after that, some old letters that lead them to believe the cat is the ghost of one who lived with the previous owner of the house (there's a hilarious part with Dawn doing "official" tests to see if the cat is a ghost, and Mallory being skeptical of some of the tests). Then the rightful owner of the cat shows up...and looks exactly like the late owner of the house. Ghost or not, cat and man are reunited. The Craines end up getting another cat from a shelter.

Speaking of short-term (and the worst segue ever), Mallory's great-uncle comes to visit the Pikes for a month. It becomes clear pretty quickly that he's not the man her dad remembers: he has short-term memory loss (see?), gets confused easily, is irritable...turns out he's in the early stages of Alzheimer's. My great-aunt has Alzheimer's, and some of what Uncle Joe does in the book ring true. His visit is cut short, and he goes back to the nursing home where he can get better care. The family does learn how to interact with him better, and while Uncle Joe still has his struggles, when the family understands what's happening, they can get on with him pretty well.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none

Mallory's favorite vegetable is artichoke.

Very brief insight into Mallory, which helps explain why she, at the advanced age of eleven, takes care of her ten-year-old brothers: she wants to grow up so badly she does every grown-up thing she can think of.

Deep, dark secret: even though they're not little kids, Jessi and Mallory still play that they're horses (despite the above). *shifty eyes* I don't know what they're talking about.

Dawn's getting more self-righteous.


Their Families:

There is a slight reference to Mallory's family needing to watch its spending. Possibly a reference to when her dad lost his job?

Jordan Pike doesn't like waffles.

It might just be in this book, but Adam seems the most logical of the three Pike triplets.

Mallory's dad walks her to the Craines' door for her first job. Hooray for parental responsibility!


The Club:

New clients: the Craine family (three daughters: Margaret, Sophie, and Katie)


SMS: nothing new


PSA time: nothing new


Misc:

The Pike boys play mudball, which Mallory thinks is gross, because it's so filthy. My brothers played SLUGball. Like baseball, but guess what the balls were made from? Made the gardeners on our street very happy.

This was written before the word "tween" was invented: Mallory doesn't know what call the stage of life she's in.

This is Mallory's one and only mystery. She and Jessi each got just one, because Scholastic didn't want to encourage eleven-year-olds to go solve mysteries (but had no problem with thirteen-year-olds doing the same thing).


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 3

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 2

BSC Fights: 6

SMS Staff: 24

Students (other than the BSC): 72; 50 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 10 sixth-graders, nine unspecified

Clients: 30

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 53 (bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, Chunky bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, dark-chocolate caramels, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, fruit pie, gumdrops, Gummi Bears, Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, Kit-Kats, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, marshmallows, Mentos, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf), Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Triscuits, Twinkies, Yodels)

Crushes: Claudia-8 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-5 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris, Price Irving, Richie Magnesi), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart), Jessi-2 (Curtiis Shaller, Quint Walter)

Stacey's Ex-Best Friend (RS#51)

Original Publication Date: 1992

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

Laine has a weeklong break from school, and Stacey convinces her to spend it in Stoneybrook. SMS still in session, so Laine comes to classes for a day. There, Pete Black sees her and falls in lust. Lucky for him, there's a school dance for Valentine's Day on Friday...the thirteenth.

No, seriously. Mallory, Kristy, and Mary Anne get in fights with Ben, Bart, and Logan, respectively. More importantly, Laine and Stacey get in a fight after it simmering all week. Laine has matured much faster than Stacey in many ways, but not in such a way that she can avoid being a snotty brat to Stacey and her friends. She's acts rude and superior the whole time, which finally culminates in her and Stacey leaving the dance early so Laine can catch an earlier train back to New York. After thinking about things, Stacey realizes she and Laine have grown apart. She writes Laine a letter explaining her feelings, and includes with it her half of the best friends necklace Laine gave her when she moved back to Stoneybrook.

The BSC charges have a nicer Valentine's: the BSC puts on a masquerade for them and all goes well.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Snickers under her pillow, Fritos in her desk drawer, fruit pie in her backpack

Stacey likes home shopping networks, and patronizes them. And Claudia decides to join her.


Their Families: nothing new


The Club:

The Hobarts' Australian accents are fading.


SMS:

Students: Ron Belkis (7th), Dave Griffin (8th), Curtis Shaller (7th)


PSA time: nothing new

Misc:

There's another mention of global warming coupled with the appearance of snow, just like in SS#7.

I agree with Stacey. "Babe" is a weird pet name for a significant other. I'm also not a fan of "baby" unless I'm referring to an infant.

A thought occurs...the Pike triplets were possibly born via C-section. In the 80s and 90s, VBACs were rare. Most doctors recommend no more than five C-sections for a woman...triplets, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, Claire. Makes sense Claire is the last one.

Ugh, "it takes two to tango." I had a teacher who would say that when punishing students for talking even if it really was just one student trying to talk the other and the second student ignoring the first.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 3

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 2

BSC Fights: 6

SMS Staff: 23

Students (other than the BSC): 66; 44 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 10 sixth-graders, nine unspecified

Clients: 28

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 53 (bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, Chunky bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, dark-chocolate caramels, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, fruit pie, gumdrops, Gummi Bears, Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, Kit-Kats, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, marshmallows, Mentos, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf), Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Triscuits, Twinkies, Yodels)

Crushes: Claudia-8 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-5 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris, Price Irving, Richie Magnesi), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart), Jessi-2 (Curtiis Shaller, Quint Walter)