Thoughts before reading:
I have read this one before, but I don't remember anything about it or my opinions. We'll see if it seems familiar as I go.
The basics:
Claudia's been feeling down lately. She doesn't have Stacey in her life anymore, and she's really missing her best friend. Added to her lack of boyfriend prospects, and no new, exciting activities to look forward to, she decides she really needs a change, something new and fun. For the next few days, she tries and fails to come up with something new to try, until she hears about a contest on the radio for kids 10-14. The winner will get to host their own hour long radio show, twice a week for the next month. The prospect definitely interests Claud, and she sets about working hard on her entry, a one page essay detailing why she wants to host. (Don't worry, she uses spell check!)
The contest winner is (conveniently) announced during a BSC meeting, and it's Claudia! Everyone's thrilled for her, although her parents are mainly just concerned about her school work. Janine makes a toast to her though. (See, she is a good sister!)
On her first day at the station, Claudia's shocked to find out her assistant, the second place winner, is Ashley Wyeth. (Wow, this is a blast from way back! She was from #12.) Claudia's a little wary, but luckily Ashley has changed. She's learned that art isn't everything. Her and Claud set to work on ideas for their show, but they don't agree on much of anything. The girls also learn that the station is in financial trouble. Ashley's annoyed, thinking they only had the contest to get two unpaid staff members.
After some struggling, Claudia decides to do a theme for each show, then center her guests and content around it. For example, their first theme is friendship. Her and Ashley audition a bunch of kids to find a variety of acts. They end up finding a comedy routine, a few singers, and some movie recommendations to go with their friendship idea. Both girls are really nervous, but they pull the show off, even when they have to improvise.
The second show's theme is family. That show is a bit rockier, but the overall feedback is positive. When an act cancels for one of the shows, Claudia fills it in by taking call-ins and offering peer counseling. She doles out friendship advice (which makes her think about Stacey), babysitting advice, and helps out a boy with serious family problems.
For the last show, the radio crew gets Claudia and Ashley flowers, and sings a toast to them. For the actual show, they do wacky talents, then an Ask Claudia and Ashley segment. At the very end, the mother of the boy Claudia helped calls in to thank her and announces that she's making a donation to help save the station.
The donation turns out to be huge. Everyone's celebrating it when Claudia gets a call from Stacey. She tells Claud that she listened to every show, and hopes someday they can be friends again.
No real side plot in here, which was nice, just Kristy trying desperately to get on Claudia's radio show. She comes up with a play to promote the BSC and show babysitting tips at the same time, and forces the Barrett-Dewitt kids and Dawn to be in it. It's actually really funny, because it's so terrible.
Mal makes up a character called the Oogly Oogly beast to amuse her little sisters, and Kristy starts hounding her to audition for the show with it.
Then, finally, Kristy and the Arnold twins come up with a book themed Jeopardy show for kids, and Claudia approves it for one of her shows.
Timeline:
It's still springtime.
Misc. thoughts:
*Jack Schafer? Is this finally Dawn's dad's real name?
*Ghostwritten by Peter Lerangis.
*Dawn now gives other people a hard time about eating meat, something she never did in the early books.
*This book says Janine is a sophomore, but she's actually a junior (pg 5).
*Janine gives Claudia a hard time about one of her outfits, but it actually sounds pretty tame for her: overalls she made by cutting 2 different pairs in half, a backwards t-shirt, and mismatched socks.
*When Claudia tells her family that she wants to do something new, their replies are hilarious. Her dad says stamp collecting, Janine says to take computer programming, and her mom says, "Don't you have homework?"
*Claudia's ideas for new hobbies include tuba lessons, tap dancing, cooking, chorus, swimming, and drama club. I'm surprised she considered swimming at all. What about her hair??
*I can't believe they had Claudia win an essay contest, of all things. This is quite a stretch. They should have had video submissions or something along those lines.
*Kristy keeps trying to tell Claudia she should turn off the radio in her own room, AGAIN. I don't know why Claud puts up with this...
*Dawn gives Claudia a list of ecology oriented songs to play? I didn't know there were any...
*Kristy volunteers Charlie to drive Claudia to WSTO for her shifts. This guy is really the most tolerant brother of all time.
*Mr. Kishi tells Claudia he's proud of her, and she nearly cries (and so did I! Sniff sniff.).
*I really liked that this book was all about Claudia, doing something for herself, outside the BSC. We hardly hear anything about any of the other club members in here, and I think that's a good thing.
*When Claudia doesn't know what to do with her extra radio time, she asks herself what Stacey would do, because she's the coolest person she knows. Awww...
*Claudia also admits, on the air, that she misses Stacey. That's impressively brave of her.
*For more proof that Kristy never lets anything go, she's still holding a grudge against Ashley for the events of book #12. Sigh.
*Other themes of Claudia's shows include "It Ain't Easy Being a Kid", "My Favorite Place in the World", "What Are You Reading?", music, and hobbies.
*Kristy's numerous auditions literally made me laugh out loud. She's so misguided, but trying SO hard...
*Another hilarious moment comes when Kristy is pitching radio act ideas to 8 year old's, and being shot down and told how dumb they are.
*One of the guests on Claudia's show is Ted Garber, who writes a fictional series for kids called Night Frights. Sounds like BSC-verse Goosebumps!
*WSTO has been around since World War 2.
*Nothing in here struck me as familiar beyond the random scene where everyone tried to tap dance at the very beginning.
Books mentioned:
*The Saddle Club series, by Bonnie Bryant
*I Hate English, by Ellen Levine
*Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, by Bruce Coville
*Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
*Babar series, by Jean de Brunhoff
*The Wizard of Oz, by Frank Baum
*The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis
*Mary Poppins, by P. L. Travers
*Jennifer Murdley's Toad, by Bruce Coville
My rating:
4 stars. I had zero expectations for this one... it seemed too far fetched, silly, and like filler, but I actually really liked it. This was just a fun read all around. It was funny, light-hearted, and character based. Claudia got to do something new for a change, grow as a person, and break away from the BSC a little. This also added a much needed break from all the serious, dire plotlines of late.
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