Thoughts before reading:
I've never read this before, and I'm not excited to now. This is such a dull section of books... I can't wait to get to #100, but I'm hoping things improve before then.
The basics:
Abby and Anna have their Bat Mitzvah coming up, and Abby's worried about it because she hasn't been keeping up with the work involved (practicing her Hebrew). They will have to give a speech, read in Hebrew, and sing, all as part of the ceremony. She's also having trouble juggling all her other commitments, and her school work is slipping. In fact, she just received an F on a math test, because she was out sick for two days with a cold, and her teacher still made her take the test with the rest of the class. When she tells her mom, she decides to go down to the school and give them a piece of her mind, since she finds this really unfair. Abby feels guilty though, because she knows she did slack off... but she doesn't say so. At the meeting at school, her mom rips into Ms. Frost, Abby's math teacher, without giving her a chance to explain that Abby already hadn't been the best student.
Another math test is announced, and Abby panics because she still isn't caught up. A boy sees her with her math book at her locker and offers her a study guide for $3. She's too relieved to question it much, and happily buys one. The guide is better than she could have hoped, really detailed and through.
On test day, Abby finally realizes she actually bought a copy of the test, because it's identical to her study guide. Seeing no other option at this point, she takes the test anyway, but is then tormented by guilt. It turns out that one of the answers on the study guide was wrong, because Abby gets a 98%... and so do four other kids in her class, who all missed the same question the same way. All five of them are suspended for 3 days for cheating. Abby tries to tell Ms. Frost what happened, but she doesn't believe it was an accident (which I can't really blame her for). Furious, Abby storms out, then deletes the message from the school on the answering machine at home so she can hide the suspension from her mom.
Abby decides to hide her suspension from everyone but Anna, so she pretends to go to school those days, then slips off to the library instead. On the last day, she decides to treat herself to Pizza Express... where she runs into her mom and gets caught. Abby confesses to everything, and her mom believes her about the test. She's grounded for one month, and her mom promises to talk to Ms. Frost again.
Then Abby spots Mary Anne in the halls at school, buying a cheat sheet from the same kid. She rushes in to stop her from making the same mistake. They go to Ms. Frost together afterwards to show her and explain. She thanks the girls for coming forward, and agrees to let Abby re-take her test.
The Bat Mitzvah goes well for both twins. Abby's relieved that all her studying paid off, and she uses her recent learning experiences for her speech. Afterwards, the BSC throws her a sleepover. Abby knows she'll never forget her special weekend.
Side plot: Some of the BSC clients get together (Pikes, Ramseys, Arnolds, Prezziosos) and ban their kids from watching tv, and even though the BSC members never let the kids they sit for watch much tv, it causes big drama. Eventually the kids on the ban end up coping by acting out their own episodes of a popular show they've been missing, Cassandra Clue's Casebook.
Timeline:
It's April. The Bat Mitzvah is on April 27th, a rare case where we get a specific date.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Nola Thacker.
*Bat Mitzvah is Hebrew for "daughter of the commandment".
*Bar Mitzvahs have been around since the Middle Ages, but Bat Mitzvahs only began in the 20th century. Typical.
*Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne sit for Abby's younger cousins during the services the night before her Bat Mitzvah.
*This book felt the need to pad its word count by explaining how to tell apart the Arnold twins... who dress 100% different and have had different haircuts since book #21. Cue eye roll...
*I actually did like the side plot in here, because I'm a big believer in getting kids away from screens (and into books!).
*If Abby really felt so bad about cheating, but didn't want to tell her teacher, why didn't she miss some other questions on purpose? Just a few...
*Abby's behavior in here was really bold for a BSC member. Why not just tell her mom the truth in the first place? It seems like she'd be understanding.
*Jenny P locks herself in her parents bedroom to watch tv, and Claudia has to take the door off the hinges! BSC charges usually never misbehave this much, damn. Despite her bad reputation, this is by far the brattiest Jenny's ever been.
*Abby says she's not that tight with anyone in the BSC?! Blasphemy! By this point, they all only have BSC friends.
*Aretha Franklin is Abby's favorite singer.
*Ann M. Martin's letter in the back is about how much fun she has writing Abby, which is something she never actually does...
*Why doesn't Abby get scrapbook pages? This is real laziness in my opinion. How hard would it be to just pay for a few sketches? They use the same ones in each narrator's books anyway.
Books mentioned:
*Turning Thirteen, by Susan Beth Pfeffer
My rating:
2.5 stars. SO much filler! Plus the cheating in school storyline has already been done, and much better.
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