read-through: discussion post - #7 Claudia and Mean Janine

[luxken27]

#7 Claudia and Mean Janine
Claudia's sister makes everything impossible - even baby-sitting!
Welcome to the discussion post for week seven! Don't panic if you haven't finished Claudia and Mean Janine 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 Claudia and Mean Janine.

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

[luxken27]

I love this book because it gives us such great insight into Janine, but at the same time, I get so angry when I reread this book, because Claudia was such a monumental bitch to her sister the entire time. Nevertheless, I am always a little surprised when I read that scene where Claudia almost slaps her in front of Jamie Newton o.O

I thought the parallel stories between the Newton siblings and the Kishi siblings was well-done. I wish we'd had a bit more of the playgroup subplot, but I guess after the B-story of the previous book it would've been a little much...though Karen really doesn't come out any better for it. Bleh.

With hindsight, this is also a sad book, considering it's pretty much the beginning of the end for Mimi :-/ which is very difficult to read.

[kalloway]

I remember being pretty bitter about this one when I first read it, because I would have read it not long after losing my grandmother to a stroke.

Though... it was a good explanation and I definitely understood more about what had happened.

The early books were good about tackling issues that might be popping up in the lives of girls that age, though. I think that sort of died off as the series went on.

[luxken27]

Agreed - the time warp really warped everything, didn't it?

Though sometimes I like to think about the girls just aging instead of being forever thirteen. It makes sense in a twisted sort of way - for instance, by the time of the Bad Girls arc, Stacey et al would be 19. Suddenly it doesn't sound so bad having all those boyfriends, LOL :P

[kalloway]

Oh wow. *__* I never really realized how many years the girls were trapped in that time-warp. They did seem to keep maturing, too. Maybe not to the point of being in their twenties, but yeah...

[marycontraria]

This book is a little bit upsetting because I usually love Claudia - seriously, I think she's not one of my favourite baby-sitters and then every time I read one of her books I'm like "OH CLAUDIA I LOVE YOU SO HARD", but in this book she's the one who comes off looking like the mean sister and that is sad.

Oh, Janine. I like you a lot and I think in so many ways you are a realistic oddball doesn't-fit-in teenager and Claudia and Janine realizing how much they love each other and then ending up super-tight is one of my favourite fic tropes, but omg even super-geniuses don't actually talk like you do in this book. It's like you are doing it on purpose to aggravate Claudia, and stop that because don't be mean to your sister even if she is being a monumental bitch to you!

Mimi. Oh, Mimi. I have to say, I loved the scene where she yells at Mary Anne and then apologizes, because first of all Mimi that is the sweetest apology ever and also because the whole thing gives such an insight into MA's character. Although something that bugs me a little bit overall is the timeframe of Mimi's recovery because, unrealistic. I have a friend who had a stroke last year and he has made a pretty spectacular recovery, but - last year, and he's still working hard on it every damn day, you know? But, I get that kid-book timeframes are different from real-life timeframes, so I guess that's ok...

I don't know what else. I know they needed a baby-sitting subplot and I guess it's understandable that a bunch of 12-year-olds feeling super-proud of their recent wedding day-camp success would come up with a neighbourhood play group, but personally I never liked those subplots all that much so I am bummed that this marks the beginning of "big-project-with-our-clients"-BSC, haha.

[kalloway]

even super-geniuses don't actually talk like you do in this book. It's like you are doing it on purpose to aggravate Claudia, and stop that because don't be mean to your sister even if she is being a monumental bitch to you!

That actually struck me as pretty realistic for sisters that age, though. And it's sort of nice that even though Janine is smart, she's not necessarily mature because she's very much still fifteen.