Thoughts before reading:
I'm hoping that the point of this book is for the girls to make up, but somehow I doubt it.
The basics:
Claudia misses Stacey, as the former best friends haven't spoken for a month now. She's still angry about her and Jeremy though. A sitting job with Erica leaves her feeling a little bit better, and hopeful that she's found a new friend. (Gasp! Babysitting with a non-BSC member?? I think that's a series first!)
She also bumps into Jeremy one day, who mentions that he wants to invite Stacey over for Thanksgiving, but he's nervous about it. Then he tells her he still wants to be friends, and asks if her and Stacey aren't speaking because of him. She dodges the question, and they end up chatting until Stacey comes along, sees, and glares at them.
After talking to Peaches later and learning she went through a similar situation with her best friend as a girl, and they're still friends, Claudia decides to call Stacey and make up. Yet she somehow finds herself calling Erica instead. The two girls go shopping at the mall together, which Erica's not really into. She does enjoy the art store though, and Claudia's pleased to have a new creative friend, something she hasn't had in awhile.
Jeremy and Claudia keep running into each other, and he even calls her one evening to chat. They end up talking for an hour, which leaves Claud feeling more confused. The next day at school, she runs into Jeremy again, and they talk about how great it is to be friends. Once he walks away, Stacey comes up and whisks Claudia away to talk... then she basically just tells her to remember that Jeremy is HER boyfriend.
Claudia and Erica end up going Black Friday shopping together, something she always loved to do with Stacey (never mind that they could have only gone once together if not for the time loop, since they met during 7th grade). Claudia talks about Stacey the whole time, and even accidently calls Erica by her name once. Erica's finally forced to remind Claudia that she isn't Stacey, can't replace her, and doesn't want to be a rebound friend.
The Pike kids get Kristy to switch places with Stacey at a sitting job, to force her and Claudia together and reunite them. It seems to work at first... Stacey tells Claudia she's missed her and wants to be friends again... if Claudia avoids Jeremy. Claudia realizes things between them can't be like they were before, and she's ruined her new friendship with Erica over something that's gone. Her and Stacey part again on a sour note, with nothing resolved.
Claudia later apologizes sincerely to Erica, and they make up.
Jeremy transfers into Claudia's English class, so she'll be seeing even more of him.
Timeline:
It's November.
Misc. thoughts:
*It was nice to see Claudia and Mary Anne hanging out in here. The friendships get way more attention in these books, which I love. It was also nice, once again, to see a BSC member making new, outside friends.
*Mentions of Mallory: she sends the BSC a letter, and she has a crush on a boy from her writing workshop. It must be in town or something, because we were clearly told Riverbend is girls only.
*The BSC girls are scrambling to fill a job, and so they end up asking Erica for help. It seemed weird to me that they didn't ask Abby. Wouldn't she want to sit once in awhile, for some spending money? In the last book, they were bugging Logan about taking jobs still.
*We also read about a sitting job in here for the first time in the FF books, when Claudia and Erica sit for the Pikes. So, we went four books without a single one that wasn't skipped over. What a change!
*Jordan Pike has a crush on Erica.
*Janine teases Claudia for wearing her hair in braids, which seems really out of character. Since when would she notice, let alone care?
*Claudia's English class is reading Wuthering Heights? That seems too hard for 8th graders to me. It's not like Claudia's in an advanced or honors class.
*Claudia makes Lynn outfits, which is pretty adorable.
*The BSC members don't sit together at lunch every day anymore, and now it's no big deal.
*After one conversation with Jeremy, Claudia thinks he likes her again, even though he mainly just asks about Stacey. It's really sad. I feel bad for her, because it's pretty pathetic.
*We learn how Peaches and Russ met: she had a screaming fight in college with her best friend, over a boy they both liked. It was in the campus library, where Russ was a student librarian. Peaches was crying, and he took her out for coffee.
*Claudia's building a scene of the first Thanksgiving table for a centerpiece, which actually sounds really neat.
*Stacey and Rachel are still hanging out.
*None of the old BSC-verse mall stores are mentioned, except Critters. This book instead mentions stores like Old Navy and Macy's. It was really weird.
*Erica's adopted, and has been wanting to find her birth parents lately. Claudia mentions how she thought she was adopted for a few weeks (back in #33).
*Claudia struggles with origami, the only artistic thing I think we've ever heard is hard for her.
*Claudia says she eats whenever she's stressed. So do lots of us, but we don't get to stay magically thin while we do it.
*There's another Rugrats reference in here.
*When Claudia and Erica first sit for the Pikes, it's mentioned that if only the job was one day later, Mal would be home to sit with Claud. Towards the end of the book, at least a week later, Claudia and Erica sit for the Pikes again, and Mallory's not mentioned at all.
*Claudia mentions spending multiple Thanksgivings with Stacey, but that's not strictly possible. There should have just been one, in 7th grade.
*Logan serves Claudia and Erica at the Rosebud, but in the last book it said he didn't work there anymore.
*It's mentioned that Mal, Jessi, Kristy, Abby, Mary Anne, and Claudia all hang out, but we don't get to read about it.
*Claire doesn't say "silly-billy-goo-goo" in these books.
*Ghostwritten by Laura Dower... a new one, and it shows. Lots of errors in here.
*I'm so sad that these books are ruining Stacey for me. I kind of wish I wasn't reading them, but then I would never complete the whole BSC series, technically speaking.
*I did like that the concept of rebound friends was mentioned. That's a pretty common preteen, pre-dating problem, at the age where your friends are the center of your world.
Books mentioned:
*Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
*A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
My rating:
2 stars. No real plot at all. Yawn.
I really like the idea behind these books, and the things they have fixed, so the intention of this series is appealing to me, but I don't like the execution much at all. So far, except for #1, they've all been really boring, had little or no plot, and ruined characters/friendships for me.
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