Claudia

Books narrated: 31

#2 Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (no ghostwriter) my favorite Claudia book
#7 Claudia and Mean Janine (no ghostwriter)
#12 Claudia and the New Girl (no ghostwriter)
#19 Claudia and the Bad Joke (no ghostwriter)
#26 Claudia and the Sad Goodbye (no ghostwriter)
#33 Claudia and the Great Search (no ghostwriter)
#40 Claudia and the Middle School Mystery (ghostwriter: Ellen Miles)
#49 Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street (gw: Peter Lerangis)
#56 Keep Out, Claudia! (no ghostwriter)
#62 Claudia’s Freind Friend (gw: Nola Thacker)
#71 Claudia and the Perfect Boy (gw: Suzanne Weyn)
#78 Claudia and Crazy Peaches (gw: Jahnna Beecham/Malcolm Hillgartner)
#85 Claudia Kishi, Live from WSTO! (gw: Peter Lerangis)
#91 Claudia and the First Thanksgiving (gw: Nola Thacker)
#97 Claudia and the World’s Cutest Baby (gw: Peter Lerangis)
#101 Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout (gw: Ellen Miles)
#106 Claudia, Queen of the Seventh Grade (gw: Peter Lerangis)
#113 Claudia Makes up Her Mind (gw: Peter Lerangis)
#117 Claudia and the Terrible Truth (gw: Ellen Miles)
#123 Claudia’s Big Party (gw: Vicki Berger Erwin)
#128 Claudia and the Little Liar (gw: Suzanne Weyn)

M#6 The Mystery at Claudia’s House (gw: Ellen Miles)
M#11 Claudia and the Mystery at the Museum (gw: Ellen Miles)
M#16 Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph (gw: Ellen Miles)
M#21 Claudia and the Recipe for Danger (gw: Ellen Miles) my favorite Claudia mystery
M#27 Claudia and the Lighthouse Ghost (gw: Peter Lerangis)
M#32 Claudia and the Mystery in the Painting (gw: Vicki Berger Erwin)

Claudia’s Book (gw: Nola Thacker)

FF#4 Claudia’s Friendship Feud (gw: Laura Dower)
FF#7 Claudia Gets Her Guy (gw: Ellen Miles)
FF#12 Claudia and the Disaster Date (gw: Nola Thacker) my favorite Claudia FF

Portrayed by Jeni F. Winslow in the TV show and Tricia Joe in the movie. The TV episodes "Claudia and the Missing Jewels" and "Claudia and the Secret Passage" are centered around her.

Claudia’s Crushes-14 (first place)
Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Alan Gray, Frankie Harris, Mark Jaffe, Woody Jefferson, Josh Rocker, Jeremy Rudolph, Trevor Sandbourne, Georgio Trono, Will Yamakawa

Claudia started hiding candy in her room as early as second grade. She drinks coffee, and her favorite potato chip flavor is sour cream and onion. She also has a particular fondness for tacos. She doesn't like the “butter” that movie theaters have for popcorn.

Claudia babysits to fund her wild clothes, which her parents won’t pay for. They must save a lot of money, because very few items of her clothing aren't wild. The Summer Before indicates that Claudia’s wild clothing obsession started around the time she was old enough to baby-sit, possibly only because she could finally buy what she wanted. Claudia shops a lot at thrift stores and flea markets, which explains how she can stretch her meager earnings into so many outfits. Claudia wears about the same size clothing as Dawn. She wears a size seven shoe. Janine wears the same shoe size per The Mystery at Claudia’s House.

Claudia’s school troubles started early: she still couldn't read in the first grade. Claudia’s family checks her homework following a letter the school set about her falling grades as established in Kristy’s Great Idea. Janine finds the homework so boring she will sometimes give Claudia the answers. Despite her struggles in school, Claudia’s IQ is above average.

Claudia is often very insecure. A particularly sad example is from Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street, in which we learn that she fears the rest of the BSC mocks her spelling behind her back. She also has a habit of blaming herself for other people’s medical problems if she and the other person had a recent fight (see: Mimi’s stroke, Peaches’s miscarriage).

Hilarious quote from Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies: "[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, and none are brunettes.

Claudia hates spiders.

Claudia learned to knit from Mary Anne, who learned from Mimi.

After breaking her leg in Claudia and the Bad Joke, Claudia can tell when bad weather is coming due to her leg aching.

Claudia likes to sleep in late.

During summer vacations, Claudia has taken sailing lessons (not just in Baby-sitters' Island Adventure).

In Claudia and the Middle School Mystery, Claudia thinks measuring baking ingredients is a waste of time. No wonder her baking experiments in Claudia and the Recipe for Disaster are awful.

Claudia is pretty sure she has type O blood. No mention of Rh factor. I'm O+. A good way to find out your blood type is to donate blood.

Claudia likes Bach. Claudia likes the art of Salvador Dali. He’s one of my favorites, too.

Claudia makes her own greeting cards.

Claudia has different lucky colors on different days.

While working on her personals column for the SMS newspaper, Claudia sees an ad from a boy who looks to be a good match for her. It turns out to be Alan Gray, and Claudia quickly changes her mind. But they do get together in the Friends Forever series and make a decent couple.

Claudia takes tissues with her to baby-sitting jobs, in case the kids she’s watching start crying.

Claudia gets sick to her stomach if she tries to read or write in a moving vehicle.

Claudia has a computer in room by the end of the series.

Only Claudia and Mallory stay in the same house for the duration of the series.

Claudia’s Family

Claudia lives with her parents, John and Rioko (maiden name Yamamoto), and older sister, Janine. Her maternal grandmother, Mimi, lives with them until she passes away in Claudia and the Sad Goodbye.

The Kishis give out raisins and dried fruit for Halloween. Consequently, they don’t get many trick-or-treaters.

In Boy-Crazy Stacey Claudia’s family takes a summer trip to a mountain resort in New Hampshire. In Everything Changes, they forget about this and take their first family summer vacation trip, also in New England (Maine).

Claudia's father is a partner at an investment firm and her mother is head librarian. Their favorite restaurant is Chez Maurice. Kristy’s Great Idea tells us that Claudia’s parents have been married for 20 years. So Claudia’s mom became pregnant after about four years (with Janine). When my husband and I celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary, we will have at least two daughters, who will be almost Janine’s and Claudia’s ages—the older will turn 16 three months later, and the younger will have turned 13 three months earlier.

Claudia’s dad’s birthday seems to be around March. He buys her lottery tickets from time to time.

Mrs. Kishi’s bank PIN is Claudia’s birthday. Oddly, the ATM she uses stocks bills other than twenties, because she usually gets $50.

Mrs. Kishi’s favorite color is blue. Mimi’s was purple.

Mimi was still in Japan during World War II, but was probably pretty young, teenager or in her twenties. Mimi came to the US when she was 32. Claudia’s maternal grandfather died before she was born, but after Janine was born. Mimi's last name was Yamamoto, according to a postcard Claudia addressed to her in a Super Special. Her first name started with an L, which, from what I understand, wouldn't really happen with a Japanese name. If I recall, L is an uncommon letter.

Initially, only Mimi knew that Claudia hide Nancy Drew books, according to Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls.

Janine takes classes at the local university and has an IQ of 196. According to the Guinness Book of World Records the highest IQ belongs to Marilyn vos Savant, who was awarded the title in 1985 for her 190 IQ. Guinness discontinued the category in 1990.

Claudia’s pretty sure that Janine talks in larger-than-necessary words to screw with people.

Janine hides candy in her room like Claudia does. She makes a point of cleaning her room every Saturday morning, so she probably has a better idea of her current candy inventory than Claudia does.

Janine used to walk Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne to school.

Aunt Peaches and Uncle Russ are supposed to live fairly close to Claudia’s family even before they move (the move is prompted by the impending arrival of a baby; that pregnancy ends in miscarriage but they do have a little girl later, for whom Claudia is the godmother), but they don’t visit when Mimi is in a coma following her stroke. They also aren't mentioned as visiting her when she’s dying. But they make a trip to visit when Janine wins an academic award…

Mr. and Mrs. Goldman live next door to the Kishis.