Thoughts before reading:
I read this at some point when I was a kid, but I don't remember much about it. Something tells me this plot isn't going to be super memorable.
The basics:
Claudia's English teacher, Mrs. Hall, warns her that unless her spelling improves she's in danger of failing English. (I can't believe this hasn't been a problem before now...) Claud promises to study harder and pass the upcoming test. She tells the BSC about her troubles in class, and they offer to tutor her. She also tells her parents, and they agree to let her be tutored by a friend, as long as she shows them her work afterwards so they can check it. Stacey steps in to be the tutor, and puts a lot of work into it, even making Claudia flashcards. She also gives her an assignment: keeping a journal so Stacey can read and correct her spelling and grammar. Claudia's surprised by how strict Stacey turns out to be about her studying.
Around this same time, Shea Rodowsky is diagnosed with dyslexia. He's getting remedial help at school, but also needs homework help. Since he's resistant to adults right now, his mom wants to hire a BSC member to help tutor him. Mary Anne gets the job, and is sad to learn Shea thinks his dyslexia means he's dumb. Claudia tries to help him next, but Shea's so frustrated by his schoolwork that they don't make much progress.
After a few tutoring sessions with Stacey, Claudia gets tired of being ordered around and explodes at her during a BSC meeting, in front of everyone. Stacey ends up leaving the meeting early, after Claudia straight up tells her to just go. Still furious, Claudia starts keeping a second journal where she writes mean things about Stacey.
Claudia ends up confiding in Shea about her troubles in English, and he asks her to help him study again. He tells her some of the study tricks he uses, which ends up helping her too. After this, Shea requests that Claudia be his tutor from now on.
Stacey ends up accidently taking Claudia's secret journal to correct, instead of the one she wrote in for tutoring. (This happens because Stacey asked Claudia for the journal, and was told to get it herself.) Claudia panics because she filled that journal with nasty, hateful things about Stacey. Knowing that she's going to read all of those rants now, Claudia suddenly realizes she's been a bad friend. Just as she's about to call Stacey to talk, Stacey calls her. The girls meet up in person and both apologize, also at the same time. Claudia admits that her problem was that she hated to admit she needed help. Stacey admits that she was too tough and was treating her like a little kid. She also agrees to keep helping her.
The big test finally arrives, and Claudia gets a B-, with a 97% in spelling, which is more than enough to pass her class. Shea is also doing better in school. He and Claudia thank each other and agree to stay special friends.
For our side plot, there's an upcoming Spring Dance at the community center that all the BSC girls are excited about. They eagerly discuss dates, and who they want to go with. Notes also start turning up on Claudia's front door during the BSC meetings, saying nice but simple messages, like "you are the best". Each girl thinks the notes are from her boyfriend or love interest, since there's never any names on them. One of the notes invites the girls to come to the Rosebud Café on Saturday for a treat. This time they figure it must be Cokie messing with them, and Kristy cooks up a plan for them to show up looking terrible and bring gag items.
Once everyone arrives, looking their worst, they find a bunch of the kids they sit for waiting to surprise them. Sheepishly, everyone hits the bathroom to improve their outfits, then the kids treat them to ice cream, and give them portraits they made.
Despite the fact that the notes turned out to be unrelated to the dance, everyone ends up attending the dance and having a good time. Shea and Claudia even dance together.
Timeline:
It's spring
Misc. Thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Nola Thacker
*WHY hasn't Claudia ever been diagnosed with a learning disability? It would explain so much, especially her spelling. Plus it would give kids with similar problems someone to relate to.
*I thought it was sweet how hard Stacey worked at tutoring Claudia, making her flashcards and coming up with lessons.
*Kvetching: complaining as an art form. Who says you can't learn anything from the BSC books??
*Shea spells his own name wrong? Is this common with dyslexia? I know Claudia also spells her own name wrong at some point, although I don't know what book it's in...
*It was painfully obvious that the notes were from a child, so everyone assuming they were love notes was really silly. They were never addressed to anyone or left at anyone else's house, and they were all short and generic, not romantic or personal. Even Stacey thought they were from Sam...he's 15! I would hope he could come up with a better note or use her name at least, haha...
*Claudia is a real brat again in this book, once again proving to be one of the least mature BSC members. She gets grouchy and fed up with Stacey tutoring her and telling her what to do after only one session. Even reading from Claudia's POV, I think it's clear that Stacey just really wants her to do well and gets a little too gung-ho. She's given up her free time to tutor Claudia, with nothing in it for herself. Even though Claudia's grade is on the line, Stacey works harder and takes it more seriously. She also took up her own study time to plan lessons, and buys her the journal and cards. In return for all her effort, Claud keeps a mean secret journal about her and draws caricatures of her.
*Typo on page 81 says "break" instead of "brake".
*Apparently Shea is a huge help to Claudia with her spelling, but her spelling never improves after this book. It might even get worse.
*Even after the fight where Claudia kicks Stacey out of the BSC meeting and they aren't speaking to each other, Stacey keeps tutoring her! That's classy.
*Stacey says The Babysitter sounds like the title of a horror book: it is. Probably a lot of them...
*The Spring Dance dates are: Mary Anne and Logan, Bart and Kristy, Ben and Mallory, Jessi and Curtis, Stacey and Sam, Claudia and Austin Bentley, Dawn and Pete Black. Unfortunately there is no scene where Stacey and Sam make the date, but Stacey does daydream about how fun Sam is, when he's not acting wild and crazy.
*Claudia doesn't feel even slightly bad about how she's treated Stacey until she knows Stacey has the secret journal.
*Stacey also handled the journal REALLY maturely, because it was pretty damn mean. If I'd read a journal like that about me when I was a teenager, I would have flipped out and probably stopped speaking to the person.
*Stacey has her head on Sam's shoulder at the dance, and a dreamy smile on her face. Awww.
*Claudia makes a collage out of junk food wrappers. I hope they were cleaned.
Books mentioned:
*Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark, by Alvin Schwartz
My rating:
3 stars, very average and kind of dragged for me...plus Claudia was a really annoying narrator in here. Not a bad story though.
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