#126: The All-New Mallory Pike

 

Thoughts before reading:

I have a distinct memory of seeing this in a bookstore shortly after I'd outgrown the series, and thinking that the books must have gotten ridiculous if this was what they were doing... after all, these were supposed to be about friendship and babysitting, and now one of the girls was off at boarding school? Yet at the same time, I was curious and a little tempted to buy it. Book money was very precious then though, since all I had to spend was my small allowance, so I moved on to what I was actually looking for. (At that point, most likely a Fear Street title.) After that I pretty much forgot about the series until a few years ago, when I became curious about revisiting it. 

The basics:

After an emotional final BSC meeting with Mallory as a member, where everyone tells stories about her and she's made an honorary member again, her family and friends surprise her with a going-away party. It's her last day in Stoneybrook before leaving for Riverbend. 

The next day, after a family breakfast, her parents drive her to her new school. Mary Anne and Jessi stay with the other Pike kids, who are all upset, and therefore a handful. They've also wasted no time in fighting over the bedroom arrangements now that one kid is mostly out of the house. 

Once her parents have dropped her off, Mal sets about getting settled in. Her roommate, Alexis, has been there since September, and has already taken over most of the room. She hasn't arrived for the new semester yet, since the new students go in a day early, so Mal figures she just forgot shed have a roommate after the winter break. She just tries to arrange her things in the tiny spaces available for now.

The first full day mainly consists of moving in and attending orientation. Afterwards, Mal passes out, exhausted, only to be woken up by her roommate the next morning. Alexis is bossy and intimidating from the get-go, unconcerned about making any space for Mal, and opens by basically telling her how things are going to be. Luckily two other 6th graders, Sarah and Smita, stop by to invite Mal to brunch, and she makes a getaway. 

Classes start on the third day, and Mal likes hers right away. The classes are tiny, the kids are eager to learn, the teachers are enthusiastic, and the subjects are taught in creative, interactive ways. (She does still hate gym though, even though they stress non-competitive activities, which doesn't sound bad to me at all.) 

Mal ends her first day of classes by hanging out at the library with Sarah and Smita, both of whom she's quickly becoming friends with. When she returns to her room, Alexis is reading her journal... out in the open, not even trying to hide it. Alexis isn't apologetic at all about being caught either, just claiming that Mal left the journal lying out open. After this incident, she gets even bossier, telling Mal who to be friends with, accusing her of being sloppy, and of using her things. Alexis also starts to borrow Mal's things without asking, and even quotes her own journal to her. Sarah tells Mallory that Alexis has already been through two roommates this year. After confiding in her dorm supervisor about all these problems, Mal tries to talk things out with Alexis, but she just turns things around and becomes really hostile. 

The BSC sends Mal a care package, and Alexis destroys it, eating the snacks and defacing the photos. The two girls have a meeting with the Dean following this incident, to resolve their issues. Alexis ends up storming out during it, and trashing their room instead. The Dean ends up putting Mal in with one of Alexis's old roommates, and Alexis is given a single. 

With this issue resolved, Mal finally feels fully welcome, happy, and is at peace with her decision. 

Timeline:

Begins on January 2nd, and school resumes on the 4th at Riverbend.

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.

*I'm very surprised they never tried to do a spin-off series about Mal at Riverbend. I wonder if that was the intention behind this storyline, but for some reason it just never took off?

*Mal's diary entries were a nice touch in here... something different from the BSC notebook.

* I also liked the reminiscing at her last BSC meeting. Everyone talks about when Mal first wanted to join the club, the ridiculous test Kristy made for her, Mal and Jessi trying to start their own club... I'm not even done with the series yet, and I already miss those times!

*Also during that meeting, Kristy says one of Mallory's best moments as a sitter was when she figured out what was upsetting the Arnold twins (Mallory and the Trouble With Twins). That was also the moment when Kristy says she knew Mal would be a valuable member of the BSC. From there, the girls make Mal an honorary member and tell stories about her best sitting moments, which include helping Buddy Barrett learn to enjoy reading, via comic books, and helping the Delany kids figure out who their real friends were and who was just using them for their pool.

*"The last BSC meeting" gimmick worked on me, I'm not gonna lie. I started feeling pretty emotional... I wasn't expecting this book to be so sad.

*It's too bad we don't ever get a sense of how close Mal and Vanessa are until this book, where Mal is leaving and the series is almost over. They are only two years apart, and they share a room, yet Vanessa has always just been one of the kids, another sitting charge. Now, in here they are finally written like friends, the way it should have always been. In real life, there's no magic number like the BSC-verse's age 11 that makes you different. Two sisters so close in age, whether they were great friends or rivals, would have a complicated and interesting relationship, and probably do things together a lot. Yet I think this book is the first time they've even had a real conversation or scene alone. 

*Every morning Mal tells Vanessa the weather before she gets up, and Vanessa makes up a short poem for her.

*Riverbend is in the Berkshires, and the school itself sounds gorgeous. All the buildings are named after famous women. For instance, Mallory's dorm is called Earhart. 

*This set up would be a great start to a horror story! Clearly I've seen and read too many, because once Mal left for school I couldn't stop getting that vibe, haha.

*Fun facts about the school: Riverbend's an alternative school that focuses on drama, writing, dance, visual arts, and music. Traditional courses all have a creative twist. The kids call the teachers by their first names. The school teaches grades 5-12, girls only. Everyone's given jobs, to help keep the school community going (yardwork, library duty, etc). They also do volunteer work in the local community on weekends. 

*Other dorm names include figures like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Barbara Jordan, Georgia O'Keeffe, Marie Curie, and Katharine Hepburn. 

*Mal's schedule:

1- Math

2- French

3- Global Studies

4- lunch

5- Gym

6- English

7- Computer Lab

8- Creative Writing for the Stage

*Mal learns to use email in this book.

*I would have LOVED this when I was a kid, because I had a weird fascination with boarding schools and always wanted to attend one. I even had a game I played where I would pretend I was at one. (Yes, I was the biggest dork you could ever imagine. No shame.) 

*This is the first BSC book to contain emails. They head a few of the babysitting chapters about the Pike kids, when the various BSC members are emailing Mal. 

*This book somehow manages to be completely different from the other BSC books, while still being deathly boring. 

*Mal's first community service is at the Easton Public Library, supervising kids. How convenient.

*It's really fucked up that the school put a new student in with a girl who's known to be troubled. What did they expect to happen? It's also just really unfair to put a new kid through all that when they're already adjusting to a new school and being away from home for the first time.

*Not to mention Alexis is basically rewarded by getting her own room, instead of being expelled for this psychotic behavior. If I was Mal, I'd be furious. This school seems pretty sketchy to me, based on how they handled this situation. Especially the fast that they knowingly created the problem in the first place.

*This is the last Mal book. She only had 13 books total in the whole series, the least of any original character. Jessi had only 14. 

Books mentioned:

*The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

My rating:

2.5 stars. I really wanted to like this, because I've always liked Mal, this is where her story ends, and I've always been curious about this book... but I just didn't. After a solid, emotional start, this fell completely flat because it was so boring. There was no real plot, besides Alexis, who took over most of the book. That story would've been better if we'd gotten any insight into why she is the way she is, or any real resolution or justice, but we don't. Otherwise this book is really just about Riverbend itself, but who cares about that? This is the only book about it, so it's not setting anything up. 

Plus Mal is an original character, and she deserved a better ending than this bummer. Now she's just randomly off at boarding school, and we never hear from her again.  

#108: Don't Give Up, Mallory

 

Thoughts before reading:

It's been a long time since we had a Mallory book. This is the one with the sexist teacher though, so I know it's going to piss me off. Not excited. I think this is the beginning of the story arc that ends up with Mal going to boarding school.

The basics:

It's a busy day at SMS for Mal: her class gets their mid-term progress reports, and she's teased by some of the kids for having straight A's. 6th grade fundraising week is also starting, and Mal's organizing the event with a committee because she's the class secretary. (Continuity!) The next round of short takes classes is also announced, and the subject is children's literature. Mal is ecstatic, since she wants to be a children's author when she grows up. Not only that, but it will be taught by Mr. Cobb, a cool, young teacher who's fairly new to the school. 

Mal stocks up on new school supplies for her children's lit class, but is immediately disappointed when Mr. Cobb tells her she won't need them. There will be no tests or papers in the class, only discussion. (I HATED classes like this too.) Most of the class is thrilled to hear they won't have to write anything. The boys are especially having a good time, because Mr. Cobb coaches baseball, so he already knows a lot of them. Right away Mal starts to feel uneasy with the classroom dynamics, as she watches him joke around with the boys for most of the period. Despite all this, Mal is determined to do well, so that night she reads every Maurice Sendak book in her house and takes notes, as he's the first author they'll be studying. She heads to the next class extra prepared, and raises her hand almost the whole period, but is never called on once. 

Mr. Cobb picks Mal to read a book to the class the following day, but her confidence is shaken from the feeling of being ignored, and she does a poor job, stumbling over her words. She's embarrassed, but vows to forge ahead and keep trying. In the next class, she tries to speak up again, but still isn't called on. When she tries to say something without raising her hand, Mr. Cobb asks her to speak up, and further embarrasses her by calling her the wrong name. When she corrects him, he asks why she didn't tell him sooner. Mal leaves the class feeling depressed about how she feels like a wimp whenever she's in it, and has lost her motivation to try. 

Instead she throws her energy into fundraising week, starting with reading the minutes from old 6th grade meetings, looking for ideas for their class gift. She notices that 5 years ago, the class raised $1,000 for a student lounge in the library... but the weird thing is, SMS still doesn't have one. Mal tells the other 6th grade officers about it, and they agree to look into it together.

By the end of the week, Mallory's just trying not to be noticed in Mr. Cobb's class at all. He's started discussing the end-of-class project with them too: they have to think up something that furthers the cause of children's literature. Mal's idea is to organize students to read for younger kids at SES, but Mr. Cobb is clearly not impressed. 

Sandra, one of the girls in Mal's children's lit class, tells her she doesn't like to disagree with the boys because boys don't like brainy girls. This really bothers Mal, and she starts doing a lot of thinking about why she's turned into such a wimp in class. She also wonders if boys seem more confident than girls because they have it easier. (Mal: yes. Welcome to modern feminism!)

It just so happens that Sandra is also one of the 6th grade officers, and she agrees to go to school early with Mal one day to sneak into the basement and look at old school records. They discover that the money was used the following year for roof repairs and repainting some classrooms. Mal tells the BSC, and is surprised by how seriously they take it. She then goes to the principal about it, with the other class officers, but he just tells them it was a rough year and they really needed that money to do repairs. However, it is agreed by everyone that if they can raise $1,000, the school will match the amount and finally build the lounge. 

In spite of this victory, Mal is still avoiding speaking in Mr. Cobb's class. One day he keeps her after the bell and asks her how she's doing. She insists that everything is fine, because she doesn't want to look dumb. However, she does finally tell her BSC friends about what's been going on, and they all encourage her to speak up and keep trying. 

Mal talks to another girl in her class, Lisa, about how Mr. Cobb calls on the boys way more than the girls, and gives the boys forever to answer, but cuts the girls off. This, combined with her fundraisers being a big hit, give her the confidence to ask Mr. Cobb for a conference. She also tells Sandra she shouldn't change herself just because of what others think.

At the conference, Mr. Cobb tells Mal he's been concerned about her lack of participation in class. She tells him her reasons are a lack of self-confidence, and that he never calls on girls, or gives them much time to answer. Mr. Cobb tells her that he doesn't think it's true that he favors the boys, and she has to take responsibility for herself, but he appreciates her coming in. Mal leaves feeling like he's mad at her.

There are some changes in class afterward, though. Mr. Cobb starts asking the boys to raise their hands, and he calls on kids more carefully. (He does keep shooting nervous glances at Mal though, haha.) Towards the end of the period, he apologizes to the class and says a student pointed out his favoritism to him. He's come to realize it's true, and he wants to do better.

For her final project, Mal makes a reading plan for grades 1-3. She gets a B+, which ruins her A average. She's bummed at first, but then realizes she worked really hard for it.

The fundraiser total is $1, 352, an all-time record.

Side plot: Buddy Barrett wants to be in the Memorial Day parade, but they only take groups, so he claims to be in a marching band. He then calls the BSC with his problem, and Kristy says they can use the members of All the Children of the World (the band they helped the kids form in #56). 

Timeline:

It's the beginning of May.

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner.

*A children's literature class is an awesome idea, and I'd love to take one. But for 6th graders? Aren't they still reading children's literature in English class? They are only 11...

*This is the first time I remember the series referring to the Pike kids as stair-step kids (born one after another). 

*This far into the series, and poor Margo's only personality trait is still that she barfs easily.

*I REALLY don't think so many kids would care about Mal having straight A's. I sometimes got teased for being a goody-goody or teacher's pet in junior high, but never about grades. No one really cared.

*The series has gotten a crazy amount of plot mileage out of these short takes classes. I think they just throw one in whenever they don't have another idea.

*The memory garden is done (from #93). A nice little bit of continuity. 

*Another reason not to like Mr. Cobb: he says "exactomundo" all the time.

*Stacey calls Mr. Cobb a heartthrob. Sigh, this girl and her teacher fetish! It's really gross. 

*I might have been wrong about this beginning Mal's trouble at SMS, because things were pretty resolved in here. The teacher did apologize and recognize that he did something wrong, and Mal made that happen. She also rocked the fundraiser, so by the end of this book she's in a pretty good place.

Books mentioned:

*Animalia, by Graeme Base

*Eleventh Hour, by Graeme Base

*Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown

*The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown

*Dinosaurs and How They Lived, by various

*Dinosaur Discovery, by Chris McGowan

*Dinosaurs A to Z (there's a lot of books called this, so I'm not sure exactly which one this book refers to)

*Dinosaur Bob, by William Joyce

*Dinotopia, by James Gurney 

*Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss

*The Polar Express, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and The Wreck of the Zephyr, by Chris van Allsburg

*Make Way For Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey

*Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White

*Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

My rating:

3 stars. I enjoyed this more than I expected to, and it was a different story than I was expecting also. If not for the terribly dull side plot, I would have given it a 3.5 

#92: Mallory's Christmas Wish

 

Thoughts before reading:

This is one of the few Mallory books I never read growing up. It doesn't look familiar to me at all either. She hasn't had a book in quite awhile: the last one was #80. I've noticed the further in the series you get, her and Jessi get less and less books. I wonder why that is? Were they just not as popular? Or as time went on, was the concept of 11 year old sitters just too ridiculous, and they wanted to downplay them?

Despite Mallory's terrible outfit, I do like this cover too. At least she actually looks like a kid on it!

The basics:

It's Christmastime again, and Mallory's thinking about all the gift shopping she has to do, which makes her start to feel down about how commercialized the holiday is. This leads her to the idea to have an old fashioned Christmas this year. She runs it by her family, and they also love the idea. Uncle Joe will also be spending the holidays with them, because Stoneybrook Manor is having a fundraiser, and he wants to get out of the chaos. Mal tells the BSC about all of this, and Kristy wants them all to volunteer at the fundraiser, and also have a BSC party. 

Vanessa decides to enter her family in a contest, using the old fashioned Christmas idea. She doesn't tell anyone about it, so it's a complete surprise when a man turns up at the Pike house announcing that they've won. The Pike kids are delighted, however, and Vanessa instantly becomes a hero. Winning means they'll appear on a TV special and earn $10,000. A film crew will follow them around for awhile to gather material for the show, and film their holiday celebrations.

Being followed by the TV crew turns out to be way less fun than the kids expected, and they quickly grow tired of being told what to do, and doing endless takes of the same thing so the crew can get good shots. The younger kids start fighting and having tantrums, which are often caught on camera. Mal gets discouraged and starts losing her Christmas spirit. 

The crew also follows Mal to Stoneybrook Manor when she goes to volunteer, to Kristy's delight. Uncle Joe gets overwhelmed by them, and backs out of coming over for Christmas. The manor director also gets fed up with the crew being pushy, scolds Mal, and tells her not to bring them again.

When the BSC party rolls around, the camera crew has the day off. Kristy sulks through the whole event, because she wanted the party to be filmed for publicity. The Stoneybrook Manor event is a success though, and most of the BSC is moved to tears by the kids singing to the residents. Mallory's favorite part is the break from the cameras.

Christmas Eve at the Pike house ends up being a disaster with the crew involved, taking up space, in the way when neighbors drop by, and making the family keep stopping while opening gifts to get good shots. The kids get frustrated and beg their parents to make the crew leave. The whole family votes to return the money and cancel the contract. 

Christmas day without the cameras turns out to be wonderful. Uncle Joe ends up coming, the BSC stops by, and everyone gets lots of quality family time.

Timeline:

December, through Christmas.

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Peter Lerangis.

*Mal complains that her parents are way more strict with her than the younger kids... another oldest sibling woe I can relate to. It's definitely true.

*I also relate the the hassle of Christmas shopping for a large family and trying to keep track of what so many kids want.

*Mal and Jessi pretend to be French refugees visiting London for the first time in the 19th century? Funny yes, and weirdly specific, but aren't they a little old to play make believe together? Or am I just thrown off by BSC members actually acting like kids?

*I love the idea of the old fashioned Christmas, but at 11 I would have hated it, so I'm impressed by Mal's maturity and lack of greed on this. (To clarify, by this Mal means homemade everything, nothing artificial.)

*Kristy is 5' 0", and Mal is 5' 1".

*Mal says the Kishis are very strict, but I don't really think so, aside from the Nancy Drew thing. I've always found that ridiculous.

*"12 Days of Christmas" made up Pike style was actually really funny (pg 27). 

*Of course Kristy immediately tried to get in on the camera action, lol. 

*I like that one of the Pike kids stepped outside of their usual 1 character trait and started a plot device.

*Mal says it's hard to tell the Arnold twins apart? Uhm no it's really not, at least not since book... 21? More bad research...

*I HATE when books devote a lot of time to the kids making crafts for a project. This is just never remotely interesting to read about.

*In an earlier book Mal had to beg for a haircut, but now her mom immediately takes her for one after she says she has an emergency.

*Uncle Joe's Alzheimer's is getting worse. 

*This plot had a lot of potential for me, and I was really interested in it at the beginning, but it gets really bogged down by the Stoneybrook Manor side plot.

*Stacey misses a concert with Robert's family to help at Stoneybrook manor, even though they have enough help without her, just so Kristy won't get mad. It's so ridiculous that by this point in the series the girls are scared of making Kristy angry. The whole premise of these books is about friendship, but that's starting to get lost.

*This book says the secret Santa wish granting thing is a Pike tradition? I don't remember that being mentioned in the Secret Santa book.

*We're only told a few of the wishes (I really wish we found them all out!):

Vanessa: to be rich and famous

Adam: a snake, iguana, or gila monster

Mallory: the greatest Christmas book of all time

Byron: his own phone

*The man on the cover in the green jacket is Hodges Soileau, the BSC cover artist.

*It was nice to at least see more of the Pike kids as individuals, not just a unit.

*Vanessa gave Mal a blank notebook for her Christmas wish, so she could write it herself. 

Books mentioned:

*A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

*Christmas Tree Farm, by Sandra Jordan

My rating:

2.5 stars. Off to a good start, but ended up going off the rails and really dragging. 

#80: Mallory Pike, #1 Fan

 

Thoughts before reading:

This is one of the few Mallory books I never read growing up, which is too bad, because I probably would have liked this one quite a bit, since it's about books and authors. When I was around my BSC age I also wanted to be a writer, which was part of why I liked Mal so much. I used to write "novels" all the time.

It's been quite awhile since we had a Mallory book... this is her first one since Get Well Soon Mallory, back when she got mono.

I really like this cover, especially the fall scenery. Makes Stoneybrook look really cozy, the way I like to imagine it.

The basics:

Mal's just read a new book, Alice Anderson (fictional), and she absolutely loved it. She decides to write to the author, Henrietta Hayes, to tell her how much the book meant to her. Once done, she mails it to her publisher. 

The 6th graders have also just been given an English assignment to do some type of creative writing that relates to their dream career. With the BSC's help, Jessi decides to write a book of stories of famous ballets. Mal wants to write a play featuring kids, and see if the Kids Club will perform it for her. (This is the club Danielle, Becca, and various other charges are in, that does charity projects.) When Mal pitches her idea, the teachers at SES in charge of the club are hesitant, until she says they could use the experience to put on plays to entertain people in nursing homes and hospitals. She hits another roadblock when her own English teacher tells her it's not involved enough, because she won't learn anything new from this project.

When Mal gets a generic fan letter in reply to the one she sent Henrietta Hayes, she's really disappointed. She learns that she actually lives in Stoneybrook though, and so she decides to dress up her project by trying to interview her, then writing a paper about her playwriting experience vs. that of Henrietta Hayes. (She's also written plays.) 

Claudia goes with Mal to talk to the Kids Club about the play, and they end up with about ten kids who want to be in it, including Haley, Becca, Charlotte, Danielle, Sara Hill, and Buddy Barrett. Deciding to follow the advice to write about what you know, Mal wants to write her play about her family.

Next, Mal writes to Henrietta Hayes again, asking for help with her school project. She receives the exact same generic fan letter in return. Undaunted, Mal looks up her address in the phone book, then writes her a third letter, telling her all about the project. When this leads to a third identical reply, she decides to go talk to her in person, and rides her bike over. Ms. Hayes is surprisingly receptive to this, and invites Mal in to discuss the project. She not only kindly answers all Mal's questions, but also asks her to assist her for a few weeks with some filing, typing, and answering the phone. That way Mal will be able to see what being an author is really like, and make some money at the same time. Mallory is over the moon, thinking her life has now changed forever. 

On her first day of work, Mal learns that Ms. Hayes had a daughter who died as a teenager, Cassie. She also learns that she inspired her to write an Anderson family reunion book, with Alice all grown up. Not only that, but she asks for Mal's ideas. It's a great start to the job, and inspires Mallory to work on her own play. She's titled it "The Early Years", about a young author in the early years of her life. (It's a fictionalized Pike family, with Mal as the star.) 

Unfortunately, the way Mal depicts her siblings is really insulting, while her own character is a saint. Stacey comes to the next Kids Club meeting, and tries to warn Mal that her siblings are going to be offended, but she doesn't listen. Sure enough, when the other Pike kids read the material, they are understandably angry, but Mal refuses to change anything.

Mallory's English teacher reminds her that she needs to use outside sources for her paper, so she heads to the library to research Ms. Hayes. In doing so, she learns that her life has been vastly different from her sunny, happy books, which Mal had just assumed were based on her life. For some reason, this really shakes her and she now thinks all her books are lies because they aren't autobiographical (even though they are FICTION...). 

The next day, when she goes to work, Mal asks Ms. Hayes a bunch of rude personal questions, then accuses her of lying in her books. (Her reply is awesome: she tells Mal to go look up fiction in the dictionary before hurling accusations!) Despite this, Mal still thinks she knows what fiction truly is: you don't report every fact, but the heart of the story must be true. Mal ends up writing a note saying she can't work for her anymore, and was wrong to think she could learn from her, then she leaves.

Back home, the Pike kids are picketing Mal's room. Mrs. Pike gets involved (for once) and comes to see the play the next day, so she can judge for herself what the big deal is. She ends up agreeing that the story is really insulting. All the kids in the play who are friends with the Pike kids end up dropping out as well. All of this finally gets Mal to rewrite the story, and the changes get her mom's approval. She realizes that her writing got better when she stopped worrying about being true to life. Seeing this, she decides she was harsh to Ms. Hayes, and should hear her out.

Ms. Hayes explains to Mal about emotional truth, making up stories, and how she modeled the Andersons after one of her foster families.

Mal's play does end up going well, and she gets an A+ on her project. Ms. Hayes even comes to see it, and shows Mal that she's on the acknowledgements page of her next book. 

Timeline:

It's November, because the Kids Club is having a Thanksgiving food drive.

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Suzanne Weyn.

*They were having a contest to name the new babysitter during the time this book came out. I guess they were released so quickly that they had to be pretty planned ahead.

*Vanessa Pike is trying to master a Skip-It! I had one of those in the 90s too, and I used to get 100's of reps without messing up. I was a little obsessed with the thing for awhile, haha. I still remember playing with it in my backyard for HOURS without getting bored.

*Continuity error: this book says Claire Pike is 4. She's 5, and this is a fairly big mistake to make in a Mallory book...

*Spelling error: page 43, Buddy Barret. Plus it was just spelled correctly the page before!

*I like it when a random pairing of the BSC members hangs out together, like Claudia and Mal do in here. 

*These Alice Anderson books remind me of the Alice series I loved growing up, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I really want to go back and re-read those too.

*I'm very surprised a famous author would be in the phone book. Wouldn't she have fans and kids always dropping by?

*After reading this, I wish even more that I had found it as a kid. Since I wanted to be a writer, I would have loved everything about this.

*Henrietta Hayes is friends with Amelia Moody (the fictional author Mal loved in Super Special #11).

*I loved how Mal's parents let her go over to Ms. Hayes' house alone, when they've never met her and know nothing about her... 

*Not only did Mal's play sound terrible, she even kept the names the same, just rhyming with the originals: Valery Spike, Ranessa. The Spike parents treating Valery like Cinderella was spot on though, haha...

*Henrietta Hayes was a foster child from age 3, when her parents and little brother died in a fire. College was the first time she lived in one place longer than a year. As an adult, she had a bitter divorce, followed by a lengthy custody battle. Then her only daughter, Cassie, died at age 18 in a hit and run. Holy crap! This is terribly depressing, NOT typical BSC-verse fare at all. These later books are getting a bit darker...

*The central conflict in here where Mal was upset about Ms. Hayes "lying" in her fictional books was so absurd I couldn't believe it. Mal is ELEVEN, and she loves reading and writing. Therefore, how does she think untrue fiction is a "lie"? She's old enough to understand the difference, and she's written other things herself without having this confusion. Now suddenly her logic about the topic is so flawed and frustrating. She now thinks if an author isn't drawing on real life experience, then they can't be a good writer. 

Plus, what about fantasy, science fiction, horror, mysteries, thrillers...? Does she really think all those horse books she loves are true stories? 

Books mentioned:

*Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie

*Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White

*Stuart Little, by E. B. White

*Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

My rating:

4 stars. Despite the huge flaws in logic, this was all about books, reading, writing, and authors, as well as the impact beloved books can have on your life. Also, no babysitting at all! I couldn't help but enjoy this, even though Mal was a huge brat in here. She's at her worst, but ends up getting everything she wants in spite of it, in typical BSC-verse style.  

#69: Get Well Soon, Mallory!

 

Thoughts before reading:

I read this book numerous times as a kid and loved it. I can't remember exactly what I liked so much about it, other than that it was a Mallory book. There is some kind of carnival in here that I liked reading about, and even tried to mimic at one point for my younger siblings. This book also actually taught me what mono was, and had me worried about catching it. I was always wary of water fountains after reading this, and avoided them for a long time in elementary school, haha. 

The basics:

Mrs. Pike apparently has cousins in NYC, and they want the Pike family to come visit for Thanksgiving. They even have tickets for everyone to see the Macy's parade. All the kids are thrilled to hear the news, and start really looking forward to the trip. 

Mallory still hasn't been feeling well, however. She ends up completely missing out on Halloween: she's so tired that she sleeps right through it. By a few days later, her temperature has soared to 103 degrees, and she's doing even worse. Her mom takes her back to the doctor, who runs a blood test. When the results come in, they finally find out she has mononucleosis. Mal's mortified to learn that mono's called the kissing disease, especially since she's never even kissed anyone! That doesn't stop her brothers from teasing her about it though, and she hears that kids at school are even teasing Ben.

Mal's parents explain to her that mono can take weeks or months to recover from, and it hits some people harder than others. She appears to be one of those, so even after she feels well enough to return to school, there will be no extra activities and no BSC for quite awhile. Mal is heartbroken at the thought of giving up the club, and reluctantly calls Kristy and Jessi to share the news. The BSC decides they don't want to replace Mal, so they make her an honorary member for the time being. Despite being touched by the gesture, Mal decides that by the time she's better, her BSC friends will hate her because of all the extra work they'll have had to do in her absence. Since they won't let her quit, she thinks the solution is to get kicked out. 

During this time, the rest of the BSC members have been working on making Thanksgiving goody baskets for the residents of Stoneybrook manor, complete with a little carnival there. When Jessi sends Mal a note listing things she can do to help them from her bed, Mal puts her plan into motion by refusing to do any of them. Her little sisters are shocked. Mal also stops calling her friends back and acts cold and rude when they come to visit her. Luckily for Mal, the other girls realize what she's trying to do and call her out on it, telling her they need her to stay in the club. 

Feeling much better about her friendships, Mal starts doing what she can to help from home. Everyone else gets busy fundraising, and Vanessa comes up with the idea to have a "promises campaign": offering people a promise to do something, like a chore, in exchange for money up front. It's a success, and the BSC is able to hold their carnival at SB manor, and make nice gift baskets for everyone, as planned. They also bring a mini version of the carnival and a basket to Mal. 

The Pikes cancel their NYC trip due to Mal's mono, and all the kids are crushed. The family does end up enjoying a nice holiday at home together though, and Mal feels well enough to be up and out of bed for the day. The BSC stops by for dessert, and Dawn even calls. 

At the end, Kristy and Claudia make up a new holiday BSC flier and show it to Mal. She tells them to leave her name off, because she has no idea when she'll be able to re-join the BSC. 

Timeline:

Begins on October 30th, and goes through the end of November and the beginning of snowfall. 

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner

*Where were these NYC Pike cousins during the Super Special where the whole BSC was there? Seems like Mal would have visited or stayed with them instead of with Laine, who most of them barely knew.

*Jessi acts surprised that Mal is sick and exhausted in here, even though she has been for two books prior to this.

*Mono is a gland disease, and the only treatment is rest. Too much activity can actually damage your spleen. The rest needed can range from 1-4 weeks generally, but longer for some people. It's called the kissing disease because mostly teenagers get it. 

*Mal misses so much school that she's worried she'll be stuck in 6th grade forever. I think this is a wink wink from the ghostwriters? 

*Even when she's sick with mono, Mal's parents leave her to babysit Margo and Claire! Gee, this seems like a safe decision...

*One of the soaps Mal starts watching is called Young Doctors in Love, haha! Sounds about right.

*I remember being so jealous of the Thanksgiving carnival in this book that I tried to make my own, complete with booths made out of cardboard boxes from Costco. Not a big success.

*Were the Pikes really going to take all their kids on a trip to NYC with NO mother's helpers?! I didn't know they had it in them...

*Instead of Costco, they have Cost-Club.

*Mrs. Pike is randomly referred to as "Mother" once (pg 115). It sounded really awkward and out of place. 

*The scene where the BSC girls visit Mal and bring her a small version of their carnival was really cute. I also liked the Cost-Club shopping trip scene. It was just a fun one to read about, like going to Target without any crowds. 

Books mentioned:

*Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White

*The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

*The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

*Lucy Berky and the Thanksgiving Turkey (Sadly, this appears to be fictional. I can't find it anywhere.)

My rating:

4 stars. I was really surprised by how much of this I remembered, and I was loving all the nostalgia. The story was well done, and the side plot was really sweet, much better than most. I felt really sorry for Mal though...this poor kid really does have the worst life ever. 

#59: Mallory Hates Boys (and Gym)

 

Thoughts before reading:

I LOVED this book when I was a kid. It was another all time favorite, and one of my most re-read. I still have my childhood copy, which I also bought used for $1.65, according to the sticker inside. This also has the distinction of being one of the very few BSC books I re-read a lot after my BSC phase was over. I really hated middle school, and struggled a lot to adjust to it after how much I had loved elementary school. Gym class was one of the main reasons for this, and always the low point of my days. It was the bane of my preteen life, something I dreaded all day, every day, even on weekends. I was a clumsy, dorky kid, not even remotely good at any sport. In PE class I was teased because of this, mainly by boys, just like Mal is in this book. So, in 6th and 7th grades, whenever I was having a particularly hard time in school, I would reach for this book. I'd also reach for it if I was being teased, or just having a bad day. This story made me feel less alone.

This is one I've been looking forward to re-reading. Hopefully it holds up at least a little. 

The basics:

Jessi tells Mal that their gym class will be mixing with the boys for the upcoming volleyball unit, and Mal is horrified. Usually their class is only girls, and that's already bad enough. She starts really dreading the class, which puts her in a terrible mood. She even tries to pretend to faint before the first day of volleyball, but she waits so long to try it that the locker room is empty and no one is there to see. 

Her first volleyball game goes just as bad as she'd feared: she's afraid of the ball, unable to hit it, and annoys her teammates by always missing. The other team notices all this and starts targeting her, knowing she won't hit it back. Kids start teasing her, and even the teacher singles her out, giving her a hard time for being fearful of the ball.

After school, Mal's bad day continues to rage on. She has a terrible sitting job at the Newtons. Jamie's jealous of his baby sister Lucy again, so he's not listening and being a real handful. This gets Mal thinking about how a lot of her problems are caused by boys. The BSC compares notes and decides a lot of kids are being more wild and hard to deal with lately, and Mal points out to them that they're all boys. Stacey explains that the boy clients are not all bad, they're just skewing their own statistics by only looking at the ones who have been a problem. (Thank you for the logic, Stacey!)

The second day of volleyball, Mal gets hit in the face by the ball. She ends up exploding in anger and yelling at her teacher, which gets her benched. Delighted by not having to play, she decides the solution to her problem is to just refuse to play from now on. The next class, she walks off the court and benches herself, which earns her the first detention she's ever gotten. She still feels great about the decision, until hearing the school will notify her parents. Ben Hobart advises her to "grin and bear it" instead of refusing, but when she says no he promises to wait for her outside detention everyday. 

Mal starts stealing the detention notices out of the mail before her parents see them, but Ben points out she's going to fail gym and still have to explain that, so she decides she has to play again. She doesn't even make it through one whole game before quitting though, due to her team complaining that she's making them lose. The teacher has a talk with her about being a quitter, which has no effect, so she makes Mal stay after school to wash all the sweaty pinnies. (Like a mesh vest: I had to look it up.)

Mrs. Pike eventually finds one of the detention notices, but she's sympathetic and advises her to ask for extra help in class, and try talking to the kids who are teasing her. Mal agrees to try, and begins by talking to her gym teacher, Ms. Walden. She says no to the extra help, but has the boys' teacher talk to them about easing up on Mal. It does help, although her playing never improves. (In real life, the boys would just treat her worse after getting talked to about it...)

Volleyball finally comes to an end, and the class begins an archery unit, which Mal ends up being really good at. Ms. Walden tells her she should try out for the archery team. She does, and makes it. This improves her confidence, and school isn't so bad again. Her brothers even make her a cake to celebrate.

Meanwhile, after an incident where Ben Hobart comes over to study with Mal after school, but her brothers won't stop teasing them or leave them alone, they end up having to move to Ben's house. His brothers are sweet and well behaved, so they actually get their homework done there. She starts thinking his brothers are angels, despite Ben telling her they are far from it. They end up deciding to trade brothers for a night. Predictably, they act like terrors at Mal's house, particularly around her sisters. 

Timeline:

Cold weather, so it's winter sometime.

Misc. thoughts:

*Ghostwritten by Suzanne Weyn.

*I also loved words growing up, just like Mal does.

*Byron's still mentioned as not being as athletic as Jordan and Adam are. Good continuity! 

*Mal says her looks never mattered to her until she met Ben, which is definitely not true. She was always really fixated on them.

*Apparently Mal got her nose from her grandfather.

*I've said it before, but WHY can't Mrs. Pike ever watch her own children?? I'd be really annoyed and resentful of this if I was Mal. In here her mom asks her to watch Claire while she makes phone calls. Mal says no, because she has to study, so Mrs. Pike does it herself. Yet apparently she can't watch anyone else at the same time, because this is all during the time that Mal and Ben get tormented by her brothers and can't study. These people are such incompetent parents, I will never get over it. 

*Another reason I liked this book so much was because the gym unit is volleyball. That was always my least favorite, and I actually had gym teachers who teased me about being afraid of the ball instead of helping me or at least being adults about it.

*Mal is lucky that her gym class isn't always co-ed though, like mine always were. It doesn't meet every day either, just three days a week. We had it every school day, rain or shine.

*I could definitely tell why I loved this so much. It's basically identical to my PE experience, and I dreamed of just refusing to play, the way Mal does. I still wonder, reading this, why schools do this to kids?? PE is fine, but making clumsy, unathletic kids play team sports with athletic, competitive kids is a terrible idea. It's not good exercise either, since the worse you play the less you end up actually doing anything. You'd think they could figure out something else to traumatize fewer kids and improve the work outs, which are the entire point.

*Jamie Newton was a huge brat in here: he actually acted like a real 4 year old! Only now, 59+ books in, this book has the most realistic babysitting job yet! I babysat a lot, and this was what it was actually like. During that terrible job Mal has with Jamie and Lucy, he won't listen, makes a bunch of messes, throws and breaks his crayons, calls Mal names, hides from her until she's frantic, breaks a vase, picks up the broken glass and cuts himself, and cries/struggles with her constantly. Lucy cries a ton too, and needs diaper changes at all the worst moments. Spot on!

*Mal tries to improve her gym class by ironing her gym clothes, LOL...

*Hasn't Mal surely struggled in gym class before this book though? She hates it so much now that it's affecting her whole life, but we've never heard anything about it before.

*This book says Buddy Barrett is 7, but he's always been 8 before.

*The Zuni pen pal program is mentioned again in here (from Dawn and the Big Sleepover).

Books mentioned:

None

My rating:

3.5 stars. Entertaining, but after finishing I'm honestly surprised I drew so much comfort from this as a kid. Everything wraps up so nice and unrealistically for Mal. Our PE units were all team sports, with nothing solo or different like archery. So for a kid like me, class never really improved. We just went from one rough sport experience to another. I guess the comfort just came from relating to her, and knowing that my torture would also end, even if it wasn't until summer vacation. 

#54: Mallory and the Dream Horse

 

Thoughts before reading:

This is one of the few Mallory books that I've never read. I liked My Little Ponies when I was a kid, and I was really obsessed with them for awhile, but I've always had zero interest in real horses. I never had even a little of the "horse phase" that so many girls do. My best friend growing up was obsessed (and still is), and even had her own pony when we were little, but I still didn't get it. I've always loved animals, but horses to me were just a lot of work, didn't do much, and didn't have much personality. Dogs and even cats just seemed so much more affectionate and loving. So obviously, I never read any Pony Pals, Saddle Club, etc, and this book held no interest for me. 

The basics:

Mallory discovers a flier in the mail for Kendallwood Farm, a riding school right outside Stoneybrook. She's thrilled by the idea of possibly taking lessons, something she's dreamed about for a long time. She asks her parents about taking a beginners riding class that meets on Saturday mornings, and promises to pay for half, both of which they agree to. Jessi also really wants to take the class, but her parents say no, because she's already doing a lot of activities. 

At her first lesson, Mal's embarrassed because everyone else in her class besides her is wearing full English riding habits (tan riding pants, collared shirts, high black boots). She just wears jeans, since the gear is really pricey. She does see her dream horse at the stables though, a beautiful white Arabian. His name is Pax, and she even gets to ride him during her second lesson. She also tries to make friends with the other kids in her class, but a lot of them are snobby and barely talk to her in return. In addition to being increasingly uncomfortable with her classmates, Jessi gets jealous that she's taking the lessons, and begins acting distant and cold. By the time a few classes have passed, Jessi and Mal aren't talking to each other at all.

During her third class, Mal rides a horse named Gremlin and has a bad fall. She's shaken and embarrassed afterwards. Her mom picks her up early and takes her to the ER. The doctor declares she's fine, but the incident ruins her confidence. Afterwards she's left afraid to try riding again on any horse, and starts to dread her lessons. 

Mal does get invited to a birthday part for one of the girls in her riding class. Since no one called her back when she had tried to make friends, she considers it progress and decides to go. She ends up feeling really awkward the whole time though, and doesn't have any fun or befriend anyone. When it's finally over she tries to tell Jessi about it, but she couldn't care less.

The Sunday following the last class, there's a little horse show designed to showcase what everyone has learned. Mal's dreading it, especially since her friends and family are coming. The fun has gone out of riding since her fall, and she figures she'll just humiliate herself. She ends up telling the BSC how worried she is, and when Jessi hears how miserable she's been they finally make up. Everyone attends, as promised, and Mal places 6th out of the 12 students in her beginner's group. Her parents are proud, since this isn't bad for a first show. They offer to pay for the next 8 weeks of lessons in full. Mal finally admits to them that she didn't really enjoy riding, and wants to quit.

While this is going on, the BSC is dealing with Nina Marshall having some problems due to being teased about her blankie. It ends up falling apart in the wash. Dawn comforts her by showing her how she can keep little blankies with her all the time in secret now. 

Also, the four youngest Pike kids put on a neighborhood talent show. 

Timeline:

No indication, other than it's not winter.

Misc. thoughts:

*If Mal is so horse obsessed, why did she never take any lessons or get involved until now? Or is it a recent obsession, and we just don't know, since she never ages?

*Ghostwritten by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner

*I LOVED the Little Princess movie growing up. I had no idea there was an older version with Shirley Temple.

*Mal says her and Jessi sit around talking about horses and that it's their favorite rainy day activity? Sounds like a real thrill...

*Jessi's behavior in here sounds pretty standard for her age group, but she's really a little bitch all the same. It's not Mal's fault that Jessi's parents said no to the class, plus Jessi does dance and has dance friends of her own. Surely she talks to Mal about these things. How would she like it if Mal was jealous and took it out on her?

Books mentioned:

None!

My rating:

3 stars, this one wasn't bad. The horse riding lessons were something different, and could have some value for kids who may have similar feelings: be true to yourself. REALLY boring subplots though.