Claudia's Book

 

Thoughts before reading:

Well, this is a bad time for this book to come up... normally I'd be interested in it, but after the last book I can't say I'm very excited about it. Claudia was so obnoxious in there, I'm a little off her character at the moment. 

The basics:

*Claudia was born on July 11th, and weighed 7 lbs.7 oz.

*One of her earliest memories is making "art" in the wet cement in her driveway with Kristy and Mary Anne. Mimi called the workers back to fix it, but let each girl press in a handprint.

*Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, Alan Gray, Cokie Mason, and Pete Black were all in the same kindergarten class.

*Janine used to walk Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne to school, reading along the way.

*Claudia's 6th birthday was a circus theme, because she wanted to be a lion tamer when she grew up. No one showed up to her party though, because she handed out the invitations at the end of the last day of school, so the kids forgot. 

*Little Claudia was scared of the tooth fairy.

*Second grade was the last year she liked school.

*Her first tooth had to be pulled out by a dentist after she fell on the playground. Due to her fear that the tooth fairy was going to come in her room at night and steal all her teeth, she couldn't sleep that night... so she saw her mom come in and leave the money.

*In 4th grade, Claudia and Kristy were in the same class for the first time since 1st grade.

*By 4th grade, she didn't understand her schoolwork anymore, and therefore hated it. Her parents considered private school. Claudia didn't want to leave SES, so she blew the interview on purpose, but got in anyway. 

*In her new private school, without her friends, Claudia got depressed and even lost interest in art. Her parents ended up letting her return to her old school.

*When Claudia was 11, she went on a beach vacation with Kristy's family. (Mary Anne was away visiting relatives.) Sam and Charlie had to go for a school baseball tournament, and so Mrs. Thomas was busy with them most of the trip. This left David Michael mostly in Kristy's care. One of the days, they lost track of him for a terrifying hour. 

The trip lead Claudia to realize how much Mrs. Thomas relied on Kristy, and that her life wasn't easy. She came to respect Kristy a lot more as a result.

Timeline:

N/A. The portraits are for a school assignment, and they all take place at the same time. During this book, Stacey is still in the BSC, so they are taking place sometime in the past. 

Misc. thoughts:

*Claudia titles her autobiography An Artist's Life, haha. 

*Mr. Kishi's name is John. I think this is new information, although Mr. Schafer has been called John before at least once.

*I thought it was too bad that Claudia never gave her private, alternative school a chance. It actually sounded like it could have really helped her.

*Claudia gets a B on her project, and she dedicates it to Mimi.

*She also is inspired by it to start a new art project: autobiography paintings, of her past and future self.

*Why does Abby later get a portrait, but not Mal or Jessi? That's kind of messed up. Instead of making it an 8th grade assignment, they should have made it a Short Takes class assignment or something so the original characters would all get one. 

*The last story, about the beach trip, made me really curious about Kristy's Book. I already knew she'd had one of the harder early childhoods, and that would have a big effect on how she acts now, at 13. I'm looking forward to new details.

*Ghostwritten by Nola Thacker.

*No new insights to Claudia's character in here, unfortunately. This just confirmed that she's had a pretty easy life. That combined with being the baby of her family, I can see why she's one of the least mature girls. 

Books mentioned:

*The Wizard of Oz, by Frank Baum

*Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh

My rating:

3 stars. This dragged at times, but it was still something different. I do always enjoy reading about the characters at different ages.