Original Publication Date: 1998
Ghostwriter? Yes, Suzanne Weyn.
Synopsis:
Stacey and other SMS students have been noticing that Robert is acting oddly. He's sort of in a perpetual fog, and losing interest in things he used to enjoy. At the urging of his younger sister, Stacey talks to him and soon it's clear that there's level of clinical depression going on. Stacey tries to pull him out of it, but fortunately realizes before too long that she's in over her head, and encourages Robert to talk to a trusted adult. The book ends without him being 100%, but feeling better about life in general.
There's a pointless subplot about picking strawberries and having a strawberry festival.
Established or continued in this book:
The Girls (and Logan):
Claudia candy: none mentioned
Stacey wishes she had Abby's hair.
Their Families:
Nicky Pike seems to sunburn easily.
Stacey gets along well with her dad's girlfriend.
The Club (and clients):
Abby brings snacks (strawberries) to a meeting! For once Claudia can relax a bit. However, I hope Abby didn't eat any, because as Anonymous pointed out in the comments section, Abby has been established in both Stacey the Math Whiz and Claudia, Queen of the Seventh Grade as being allergic to strawberries (thank you for catching that!).
I've read a lot of criticisms about how the BSC takes over for parents. But I think they have to. Case in point, this sentence: "Parents had to ask Shannon and her sister to set a two-cake limit [at the strawberry festival] so that their kids wouldn't make themselves sick." Hey, parents? Take responsibility for your own kids and watch what they eat yourselves. When I took my toddler to a festival at my church that included lots of from various nations, I didn't expect anyone but me (my husband was at work, otherwise him, too) to keep an eye on how many cookies she had.
SMS:
The SMS baseball team is doing really well, and on its way to winning a regional championship.
A teacher who has previously only been seen teaching Short Takes classes, Mrs. Boyden, also teaches homeroom for some students (including Robert).
PSA Time:
Stacey claims "you can always use a plain white blouse." Just remember that white becomes see-through when wet. Figured that one out the hard way in a lake...
Assuming you have a car, keep an old towel in the trunk. You'll know why I say this when you need it.
Misc:
A bit of trivia inspired by Claudia painting black stripes on a white leotard to make zebra stripes: zebras are black with white stripes. You can tell because their noses are black.
Kristy uses the internet in this book. Weird!
The numbers:
Starting 8th grade: 10
Halloweens in 8th grade: 6 (plus one in seventh)
Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 3
Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate in the plot of a book, not just reference): Christmas-5, Hanukkah-2, Kwanzaa-3
Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 4
St. Patrick's Days in 8th grade: 1
Summers after 8th grade: 10
BSC Fights: 11
SMS Staff and Faculty: 67
Students (other than the BSC): 214: 120 8th graders (not including Amelia Freeman, who is deceased), 29 7th graders, 48 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.
Clients: 37 families
Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 139
Crushes:
Stacey-12
Claudia-11
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0
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6 comments:
Abby's allergic to strawberries!
Wait, is she? I was wondering about that when I read the book, but thought I was imagining things. Hmm...how serious can a strawberry allergy be? My mom is allergic to raw tomato, but can touch them. Although if the juice gets on her she gets hives.
I'm pretty sure I read it in a few different books. I had a look and found it in #105: Stacey, The Math Whiz.
(No, Abby didn’t have a cold. She’s allergic to just about anything you can think of – dust, pollen, shellfish, strawberries, dog fur, you name it.)
It may be in other books, but when I found that, I stopped looking. Lol.
The thing about Abby's "allergies" is that they really messed up with keeping it consistent. I found so many mistakes. I don't know why I didn't notice the strawberry one before, when it was a big subplot. Weird.
They say that she's allergic to tomatoes and cheese, yet she eats pizza with the rest of the BSC. She also ate a tomato pasta dish in one book, while in the first book she showed up in (#89: Kristy & The Dirty Diapers), she had to eat soy sauce and olive oil over her pasta. And probably other various examples. I'm kind of nitpicky, so I paid close attention to things like this, to see how many mistakes they'd make. It helps me improve my own writing and continuity. It really frustrates me though. I mean, Abby was a new character and most of what you need to know about her was in the first book she was in, so how did they get it so wrong immediately afterwards? It's not like there were 88+ previous books filled with information about her. Whew, sorry!
Just found this in #106: Claudia, Queen Of Seventh Grade (about Abby).
She reacts to dust, shellfish, dogs, strawberries, and a million other things (fortunately, not junk food).
Thank you so much! I'll go amend the post. I'm usually pretty good with details, but this one escaped me. I'll blame pregnancy brain.
What threw me more about Abby's eating habits at first was that it was never specified whether or not she kept Kosher, which you'd assume a Jewish character in a BSC book would do. But then she's mixing dairy and meat and ordering pizza with pepperoni. I know that not all people who practice Judiasm keep Kosher, but since the BSC books tend to focus a lot on what makes people different, I was surprised to find that it's never mentioned.
Thank you again!
Well, you're welcome. Glad my nitpickyness helped, heh. I have a pretty good memory, and I like to test myself when reading other books, since as I said, it helps me with my work. Also, I snark books for my boyfriend, and he was a game tester until recently (just got promoted), and he is great at picking up mistakes and things like that. Together, we spot a lot.
Yes, I have also wondered about her diet, when it comes to being Jewish. It's something I find annoying, when they add something to a character, to make them "different" and so that everyone can find someone/something to relate to, but don't follow through. A lot of times they only focus on a few things about the trait/religion/issue, and it doesn't seem like a full lifestyle. It's kind of hard to explain.
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