I don't think anyone really likes Amanda much, though Max is more tolerable.

I like how the books include that the Papadakis kids and the Delaney kids hate each other. It seems realistic! As a general rule, the charges all seem to get along in a great big easygoing group (except a general wariness around Jenny Prezzioso, but even that's different to "kid A and kid B consistently don't get along"), which is nice, but no rivalries? None? And it was consistent across spinoffs too -- Karen being friends with both Amanda and Hannie sometimes caused problems in LS books.