Thoughts before reading:
A book about Abby AND Lou? I don't think I could be less excited, haha. Not a bad cover though. Abby looks exactly how I picture her.
The basics:
The Stoneybrook Community Center has an exhibition on Black History Month every year, and all the schools submit projects. At SMS they're voluntary, for extra credit. Abby can definitely use some help, so she's planning to do one.
Also, Lou McNally is coming back to town... her aunt and uncle are moving to Stoneybrook for good. Mr. Papadakis wants to set up a sitter for Lou and Jay while the McNally's are unpacking and getting settled, and Abby gets the job.
Her first time sitting for the two kids, Abby finds out that Lou is now a weirdly perfect kid: polite, eager to please, well behaved... but also very anxious. This continues each time she goes over, and on moving day, Lou is super helpful, but frets over any little mistake she makes, even getting upset when she gets dirty.
Abby asks the kids for project ideas too, since she can't think of a good one. Nicky Pike gives her the idea to do the Underground Railroad and use Mary Anne's house, which Abby loves. Lou, of course, offers to help. From there, Abby decides to do her project in the style of a tv news report, from the POV of a fugitive slave. The kids will play the roles of various historical figures. She gets a group of them together, and Lou sticks to Abby's side the whole time, remaining in her uber helpful mode. She's trying so hard, in fact, that she keeps messing things up and making more work for Abby. Jay tells her that Lou's been trying to be perfect so that no one will ever have a reason to not want her again. (They've already been adopted by their aunt and uncle, but she's worried something might happen to them.)
After Lou accidently walks into a shot Abby's filming and ruins it, she gets impatient with her and tells her to lighten up. Afterwards, Lou turns back into her old self, and starts playing pranks and sabotaging the project. Anytime Abby gets fed up and reacts to anything, Lou tells her to "lighten up".
The next time Abby sits for Lou and Jay, Lou breaks a plate on accident, then has a hysterical meltdown. Luckily the McNallys return while it's going on, and tell Lou they'd never give her up. Abby goes home and hugs her own mom tightly.
Abby's project is a success, and she gets an A.
Side plot: The Addisons are moving to Seattle, because Mrs. A got a job offer there. (Oh darn, no more Sean.) Claudia's sad about Corrie leaving, and the news brings up unexpected feelings about Mimi for her... when she died, Claud was giving Corrie art lessons. (It was actually an art class, not just Corrie, but this is still good continuity!) To say goodbye, they work on a portrait of Stoneybrook together, which is actually a really sweet scene.
Sean, meanwhile, thinks the BSC hates him, and they try to convince him they don't. (I'm really not sure why they bother.) He ends up telling the BSC he's going to miss them and doesn't want to leave.
Timeline:
Begins on the first Monday afternoon of February.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Nola Thacker.
*Hershey's hugs are Claudia's current favorite junk food.
*Abby says no one would mistake Mal for a ballet dancer, but Jessi's NYC friends did at first, in the last book. Also, mean...
*Jay's 11, and he acts like a kid too. What if Mal or Jessi had gotten this job?
*This book says Mary Anne's house was built in 1795? I think that's the correct one.
*The history project is the most interesting part of this book, even though it's shameless filler. I usually like reading about school projects and research though, and history is my favorite.
*This book mentions kente cloth, which I hadn't heard of before. They're really pretty though.
*Mal is also doing a project, and hers is a "deconstruction of Uncle Tom's Cabin from 1852 to now". Whatever that entails...
*The Nicholls family is moving into the Addison house. Mary Anne meets them, and Mr. Addison recommends the BSC to them. There's a scene with Mr. Nicholls and his sons in here too, where they seem scared of him and he's very stern with them, setting up the next book. I'm not sure if kids would pick up on that or not though.
*I'm glad a character besides Jessi got the Black History Month story. It's nice to see a different perspective besides the obvious one.
*At the Addisons' going away party, Abby notices how uptight Mr. Nicholls is, and how his boys obey him like puppets. Honestly, he seems a lot like my dad, so I'm not looking forward to that book.
*This is the first Abby book with a scrapbook. The pics are mostly all from past books, like super specials.
Books mentioned:
*Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein
*Finances for Dummies (Stacey's reading it, haha!)
*Get on Board: The Story of the Underground Railroad, by Jim Haskins
*Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
*A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
My rating:
3 stars. This wasn't bad, definitely the best Abby book so far. There was a lot going on, which made it fairly entertaining, although none of it was really anything new.
No comments:
Post a Comment