read through: discussion post - #1 Kristy's Great Idea

[ozqueen]

FOUR FRIENDS AND BABY-SITTING - WHAT COULD BE MORE FUN?

Welcome to our first discussion post! Don't panic if you haven't finished Kristy's Great Idea yet - we're all in different time zones, so things will be a little bit staggered. The post doesn't have an expiry date on it, so just comment whenever you're ready. This is the post to discuss your reading of Kristy's Great Idea. What was your favourite part? What was your least favourite part? Any memorable quotes you'd like to share? What had you forgotten about since the last time this book was read? There are no mandatory questions or points of discussion for this - anything you want to talk about in relation to this week's book, go ahead!

Comments

[ozqueen]

I'm full-on about to fall asleep, so this is just a quick post of random thoughts while they're still in my head - I'll probably be back later with more detailed ramblings, but...

- KRISTY, YOU ARE SO MEAN TO WATSON IN THIS BOOK. D:
- Foxy chicks and gorgeous hunks. ♥
- Sheep are in.
- PINKY AND BUFFY. Lollll, I had totally forgotten about them.
- Mr. Spier sounds like the scariest and most unreasonable dad ever.
- Possibly the only book in the entire series where "there are eight Pike kids" isn't followed with "THAT'S RIGHT, EIGHT" and then we're given a detailed rundown of each of them. It's just mentioned as a throwaway fact. NBD.
- Gatorade in wine glasses. ♥
- Janine and her apostrophe spiel and the reason I always quietly roll my eyes at myself whenever I use the word "hopefully" incorrectly, which apparently is ALL THE TIME.
- MORBIDDA DESTINY AND BOO BOO.
- Also Karen has brown eyes in this book, which, wtf.

I need to stop editing this with more things and go to bed.

Kristys Great Idea

[bscfan38182]

I love the older books. I think my favorite part of this one is the fact that the girls actually act their ages and not like adults. Also the fact that Kristy wears skirts to school! I had forgotten how hateful Kristy is to Watson also.

Re: Kristys Great Idea

[ozqueen]

I know! Kristy is much girlier in the early books. She wears skirts and dresses, has only just given up playing with dolls, and I think in one of the upcoming books she talks about going to a dance with Alan Gray. (I can't remember which book it is - maybe one of the first four.) In the later books, all of this stuff is pretty out of character for Kristy to do.

Re: Kristys Great Idea

[luxken27]

The dance with Alan Gray is in the next book! :P And I think they went to a dance together in Book #10, too.

[kalloway]

The fashion descriptions made me giggle.

The little group spats were very realistic for their ages - that really is the age where differences in general maturity and interests really start to show.

I think Kristy's reactions to Watson were (while mean) fairly realistic too.

[ozqueen]

I like that during this fight, Kristy is already thinking about how quickly it will blow over. It doesn't drag out too long because they all realise it's kind of petty.

And I agree with Kristy's treatment of Watson being pretty realistic - she's got a big mouth and she's worried/unhappy about things changing, so her attitude towards him is understandable. I love the way she starts to warm up to him though - the note she leaves him is adorable. ♥

[marycontraria]

OKAY so apparently I have to take notes while I'm reading the next one because I swear I was going to have more things to say than this, but now I'm sure I can't remember what they all were...

The most pressing matter is, WTF Stacey's sweatshirt and sweat-skirt in grey with yellow number 10s all over??

Love all the little details here that turned into inconsistencies later, like Kristy's mom being named Edie and Karen having brown eyes - and Kristy just being, you know, a regular kid who sometimes wears skirts and not sports!Kristy all the damn time. Although actually, so many ghostie-written books later, it's regular-kid!Kristy who's reading as OOC.

I think that Kristy's response to Watson here, although not very nice, is totally realistic. And I love their fight at the end of the book! So middle-school! So not a big deal! And they all know it.

I also (re-)read The Summer Before this week, did anyone else?

[kalloway]

I also (re-)read The Summer Before this week, did anyone else?

I borrowed it from the library and have it waiting for my next day off. ^_^

[luxken27]

WTF Stacey's sweatshirt and sweat-skirt in grey with yellow number 10s all over??

And the rainbow clips. I just can't picture this as looking anything except totally dorky. Imagine my disappointment when she wasn't actually wearing that outfit in the graphic novel version of this book!

[ozqueen]

Edie is short for Elizabeth, but I totally don't understand why it was stopped after the first book. I love the name Edie. (Might be biased, my great-grandmother was Edie heh.)

I've never read The Summer Before! I keep meaning to try and find it to check it out.

[luxken27]

What was your favourite part?

Definitely Stacey's first BSC job. Not only because it launched my canon ship ♥ but also because I thought Kristy's rush introduction was funny (as were her thoughts on Sam & Stacey's reactions to each other).

What was your least favourite part?

I don't know that I have a least favorite, but Karen was pretty annoying already with her hyperactive chatter. No matter how much I reread the books Ann actually wrote, I just don't get how we're supposed to find her adorable and charming.

Any memorable quotes you'd like to share?

“Hey,” I greeted her. I pulled her hand out of her mouth and looked at her nails. “Mary Anne! How do you ever expect to be able to wear nail polish if you keep doing that?”

“Oh, come on,” she said with a sigh. “Nail polish. I’ll be seventy-five before my father lets me wear it.”

Kristy caring about being able to wear nail polish? Or even that her friends can wear nail polish?! LOL, given her objections to dresses/dressing up in this book, I find this rather amusing!


What had you forgotten about since the last time this book was read?

That Mary Anne actually mentioned that her mother died of cancer. Totes blows my last piece of BSC fanfic out of the water, but *shrug* oh, well. :P Obvs this reread will be helpful just as much as it is fun! :P

Oh, and that Karen didn't make up the Morbidda Destiny mythos herself - she "heard it from the big kids" on her street, apparently.

Definitely going to agree with the consensus that the girls seem so much more realistic and like they have more depth than the caricatures they become as the series progresses. Kristy being a brat to Watson is understandable, I suppose, given the numerous pointed asides she makes about her father's absence from her life. She doesn't want to let anybody else get that close to her because of what he did, and she doesn't want her mother to be hurt again.

[ozqueen]

Oh, and that Karen didn't make up the Morbidda Destiny mythos herself - she "heard it from the big kids" on her street, apparently.

I hadn't remembered that, either! I just thought it was Karen and her ~over-active imagination~~

I don't know that I have a least favorite, but Karen was pretty annoying already with her hyperactive chatter. No matter how much I reread the books Ann actually wrote, I just don't get how we're supposed to find her adorable and charming.

Yeah I don't hate Karen, but I definitely don't like her. Andrew, on the other hand - I have a bit of a soft spot for him. Maybe because I know he has to put up with Karen 24/7 and he just does it so quietly and patiently. ;)

[luxken27]

Yes! I feel the same way about Andrew ♥