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)