Keep Out, Claudia! (RS#56)

Original Publication Date: 1992

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

Jackie Rodowsky inspires Claudia to a great idea of her own: a band that the neighborhood kids can play in. A lot of kids join, their skills ranging from actually taking lessons to banging on oatmeal drums. They come together pretty well, and have a well-received concert of songs from Fiddler on the Roof.

That choice of play, however, means the most recent additions to the BSC client roster won't be in the band. At first, the Lowell children (girl-boy-girl) seem sweet and well-mannered; they're angels for Mary Anne. But when Claudia sits for them, they're rude, even the mother. Then Jessi goes to sit for them, and the mother changes her mind and shuts the door in Jessi's face (we never hear about the father). Pretty soon, the BSC catches on: the Lowells are prejudiced, even going so far as to ask for only blonde-haired, blue-eyed sitters. The BSC decides not to sit for them anymore, and hope that their example will instill some wisdom onto the family. Claudia is especially hurt by this, having never experienced racism before, but her family and the BSC help her through it.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Paydays in her dresser, crckers

Claudia likes Bach.

While I understand what she's saying, it's funny that Claudia thinks the English alphabet could do without the letter C. Spell your name, dear. Oh, wait...Caludia...

Kristy and Jessi horde their money.

Isn't it strange that Claudia equates poor fashion sense with intelligence (as seen in Janine, through Claudia's eyes) when Stacey is her best friend?

Shannon's "description" is now relegated to a parenthetical aside. She doesn't even get her own paragraph.

Though Mary Anne doesn't often attend church, when she does, it's Presbyterian.

Jessi takes French class. (thanks, Laura!)


Their Families:

Watson still likes to talk in quotes.


The Club:

The Rodowskys have a dog, Bo. I don't remember reading about him before. When they were introduced in RS#10, Jackie had a pet grasshopper named Elizabeth.

Jackie and Nicky Pike seem to be getting friendly.


SMS: nothing new; I think it's still summer
***Commenter Laura pointed out that Jessi mentions French class homework; school has started again***

PSA time: nothing new


Misc:

I don't think "out" in the title should have been capitalized, as it is on the book cover (at least my version, which is the old style). It's a preposition. Usually those and articles aren't capitalized.

This book does bring up something interesting...religion very rarely plays a part in the books. I know not everyone is religious, but I was always surprised that it came up so infrequently.


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: 3

BSC Fights: 6

SMS Staff: 26

Students (other than the BSC): 84; 59 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 11 sixth-graders, 11 unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 61 (bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, chocolate marshmallow cookies, 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, malt balls, marshmallows, Mentos, Milky Ways, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf and chocolate-dipped), Payday bars, 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, tortilla chips, 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-3 (Daniel, Curtis Shaller, Quint Walter)