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finesilkflower's review
3.0
I'm not sure which date the title refers to; there are a few. Claudia dates Alan Gray, but is embarrassed to tell her friends. When she finally brings them all together, Alan is so aware of her embarrassment that he acts unnaturally polite, which makes Claudia realize she prefers the "real" Alan, goofy and pesty as he can sometimes be. Meanwhile, Claudia has a summer job in the children's room of the library. Her immediate supervisor loves her idea to update the library kids' mural, but her mother, the big boss, vetoes, which hurts Claudia's feelings. Finally, Claudia's coworker/non-BSC friend Erica Blumberg looks for her birth parents. (It's never specifically mentioned that Claudia once conducted her own birth parent search, believing she was adopted, in [b:Claudia and the Great Search|302949|Claudia and the Great Search (The Baby-Sitters Club, #33)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1219221148s/302949.jpg|2376121], but she does recommend the same book that she read then, [b:Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye|12934|Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye|Lois Lowry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924385s/12934.jpg|2534075], so there's that nod to continuity. Or maybe it's an accident.)
There are a few too many storylines in this short book so none of them are particularly well-developed, and like most of the Friends Forever books, the writing style is a little stilted and awkward, not as down-to-earth and friendly as the main series. But Alan is effective as a romantic lead, and the story ends on a nice scene of the BSC + several former BSC friends + Alan, Cary Retlin, and Pete Black having a picnic. It's a nice scene to finish off the last (ordinary, pre-Super-Special ending) Friends Forever book, suggesting a future where the BSCers' social world widens to a mixed group of boys and girls, club members and civilians.
Author Gratefully Acknowledges: Nola Thacker
Timing: Summer. Wait, I always thought the final BSC/FF book was "Graduation Day," where they finally get out of 8th grade, but does this one actually take place afterward?
Revised Timeline: Summer after third academic year post-grad. Let's simplify things mentally and say that instead of Claudia happening to volunteer alongside Erica on several distinct occasions, that they are just co-workers now. Claudia getting a job at her mom's library out of college makes sense for nepotism reasons; I believe librarians actually have to be trained in a really specific way, but she could have some sort staff child-wrangling job to make money while she does freelance illustration. It makes sense that she would want to do the mural as a way to gain artistic exposure for herself and that her mother would be uncomfortable with her using her job that way, especially since she probably pulled some strings to get her daughter hired. And although none of the girls have struck out on their own after graduating in this mental exercise, because all of them are still around, Claudia and Alan's relationship does have the vibe of a somewhat desperate, mutually sheepish coupling of "townies" who both wish they were further along in life but will work with what they've got.
Anyway, we finally have the answer to how old the girls would be if they aged in each book. When the series started, they were twelve and in seventh grade. Since then, twelve year cycles have passed, of which they were said to be thirteen and in eighth grade for 11 of them. They should now just be turning twenty-five.
There are a few too many storylines in this short book so none of them are particularly well-developed, and like most of the Friends Forever books, the writing style is a little stilted and awkward, not as down-to-earth and friendly as the main series. But Alan is effective as a romantic lead, and the story ends on a nice scene of the BSC + several former BSC friends + Alan, Cary Retlin, and Pete Black having a picnic. It's a nice scene to finish off the last (ordinary, pre-Super-Special ending) Friends Forever book, suggesting a future where the BSCers' social world widens to a mixed group of boys and girls, club members and civilians.
Author Gratefully Acknowledges: Nola Thacker
Timing: Summer. Wait, I always thought the final BSC/FF book was "Graduation Day," where they finally get out of 8th grade, but does this one actually take place afterward?
Revised Timeline: Summer after third academic year post-grad. Let's simplify things mentally and say that instead of Claudia happening to volunteer alongside Erica on several distinct occasions, that they are just co-workers now. Claudia getting a job at her mom's library out of college makes sense for nepotism reasons; I believe librarians actually have to be trained in a really specific way, but she could have some sort staff child-wrangling job to make money while she does freelance illustration. It makes sense that she would want to do the mural as a way to gain artistic exposure for herself and that her mother would be uncomfortable with her using her job that way, especially since she probably pulled some strings to get her daughter hired. And although none of the girls have struck out on their own after graduating in this mental exercise, because all of them are still around, Claudia and Alan's relationship does have the vibe of a somewhat desperate, mutually sheepish coupling of "townies" who both wish they were further along in life but will work with what they've got.
Anyway, we finally have the answer to how old the girls would be if they aged in each book. When the series started, they were twelve and in seventh grade. Since then, twelve year cycles have passed, of which they were said to be thirteen and in eighth grade for 11 of them. They should now just be turning twenty-five.
sammah's review
3.0
It's so hard for me to imagine Claudia dating Alan Gray. I think because in my head I picture Alan as that disgusting guy in class who overcompensates with unfunny jokes and probably also smells a little bit or something. I dunno, that's just what I picture though. So it's made me very bias to this particular situation.
There were several bad dates in this, so which was the real disaster date? Who knows! I just wish there had been less kiddy mural and more Cary Retlin!
There were several bad dates in this, so which was the real disaster date? Who knows! I just wish there had been less kiddy mural and more Cary Retlin!
ssshira's review
3.0
in this LAST NON SUPER SPECIAL BOOK OF THE ENTIRE DAMN BSC RUN (not including spinoffs or [b:The Summer Before|6817038|The Summer Before (The Baby-Sitters Club, #0.5)|Ann M. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328837362l/6817038._SY75_.jpg|7025488]) by ghostwriter [a:Nola Thacker|133114|Nola Thacker|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png], claudia is sort of dating alan gray. they’re really compatible, but claud keeps being uncertain how she feels about him. he’s the same old goony alan, which is sometimes embarrassing, but he’s also super sweet and thoughtful. kristy is totally unwilling to accept that claudia and alan may actually be dating, and it comes to a breaking point when kristy and alan fight loudly at claud’s summer job in the public library. finally, alan decides that they should clear the air and plans a minigolf excursion with all the four current (original) bsc members and dawn, plus cary retlin and pete black. cary manipulates the situation so kristy is teamed up with alan, and he intentionally loses to her to try to make kristy like him. then she calls him a wimp, because it’s impossible to please kristy. alan starts trying to act really normal and tone down his goofiness, which makes claudia uncomfortable, because she genuinely likes how silly he is. in the end, claud throws a party and invites the bsc and alan, and it seems like they will get all along - and claudia and alan call each other boyfriend and girlfriend. cute! one subplot is that erica tries even harder to track down her birth parents (see [b:Claudia and the Friendship Feud|275455|Claudia and the Friendship Feud (Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever, #4)|Ann M. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388807778l/275455._SX50_.jpg|632627] for the start of this plotline), and actually ends up finding a birth certificate with their names on it. she confronts her adoptive parents, who agree to let her try to find them, but she decides she doesn’t want to after all. a larger (and more infuriating) subplot is that claudia and erica tag-team the children’s library assistant job at the public library while the library tries to find someone to hire. (see lowlights/nitpicks for the many, many, MANY problems I had with this plotline as an actual librarian who actually knows some things about libraries). claudia decides to update the old-fashioned mural that only has white kids in it, and talks to the children’s librarian about it without asking her mom, the director of the library. they get into a minor fight about it, but after witnessing erica’s conversation with her parents, claudia clears the air with her mom.
highlights:
-claud and alan bond over arty animated movies, which alan loves but claud's friends don't take seriously. so cute!
-the children’s librarian, ms. feld, buttons her cardigan wrong which makes her "seem more like one of the children than the librarian." funny observation for a miss frizzle style character
-the one truly accurate depiction of a children’s room in a library: after storytime it looks like a hurricane tore through the place. all day they are constantly having to pick up books and toys that have migrated all over the place. yes, this is exactly what children’s librarianship is like.
-kristy keeps giving claudia a hard time for dating alan, until finally stacey calls kristy out for having gone out with alan in the past ([b:Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls|290503|Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-sitters Club, #2)|Ann M. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388901660l/290503._SX50_.jpg|2227698])
-alan asks claudia how long members of the baby-sitters club sit on babies before they hatch. stupid joke but I love it
-as a gift for claudia, alan takes a carnation, splits the stem, and sticks it into test tubes filled with colored water, and the carnation becomes multicolored. how thoughtful and sweet, and what a spot on gift for claudia. I know I said it in [b:Claudia Gets Her Guy|371099|Claudia Gets Her Guy (Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever, #7)|Ann M. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387734033l/371099._SX50_.jpg|361066], but I really ship them.
-alan's dad says "we brought the minivan for miniature golf" and alan is embarrassed. but also it totally makes sense that alan’s dad is a dad-joker, because alan himself is kind of a dad-joker.
-the way cary sets it up so kristy and alan will have to team up for minigolf: kristy is about to ask mary anne to be her partner when cary cuts in and says, "I can ask her myself. mary anne, will you do me the honor of being my partner." NAILED it.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-basically every single aspect of the library plotline. to be a library assistant/paraprofessional you need a bachelor’s degree. maybe in a teeeeeeny tiny rural town you’ll get high school students, but not in a relatively populous suburb. also they are presumably 13, which is probably below legal age. when I got my first job at 15, I had to get a work permit because I was under 16, and you needed to be at least 14. and it was around the time this book came out. at every library where I’ve worked, you had to be at least 14 to volunteer or work as a page or teen summer intern.
-claudia says "bibliophile" means "she loves books" which is not really true. you could say "bibliophile" means "book lover" or you could say "bibliophile" means she loves books. but it doesn't literally mean "she loves books" so why the quotation marks?
-the nancy drew thing is overdone in this book. I get that scholastic was devoted to keeping the plotline that claudia’s mom doesn’t approve of nancy drews (which was old-fashioned even by the 1980s’ standards) so they don’t want to make it actually contemporary (having her mom challenge claudia’s reading of captain underpants or junie b. jones or something), but it’s just annoying as a librarian to see the authors of these books treat nancy drews like they are scandalous. at one point claud says something about "award-winning books that librarians like to recommend to children instead of nancy drew." librarians don’t only recommend award-winning books. I’ve recommended nancy drews to kids who like historical fiction (I know nancy drew isn’t historical fiction but it was written before they were born!) and mysteries. but also nancy drew books are not the only books I would recommend because, guess what claudia? there are other damn books in the world.
-okay, again. claudia is proud of herself for saying "my favorite mysteries are nancy drews" aloud in a library. nobody cares if you like nancy drews! not even your mom, probably.
-the librarian, ms. feld, is loud. and claudia thinks it's worth mentioning that she's not using a library voice. come ON.
-claud says parents drop off their kids for storytime to go to the adult section, which is NOT the way libraries do things. parents stay with their kids and interact with them so they can learn the skills they will need to encourage literacy development at home.
-story time is one hour long - two days a week they do chapter books and two days a week they do picture books. there is no mention of songs, rhymes, movement, etc. once again, this is NOT how libraries do storytime. basically since augusta braxton baker changed storytime at nypl in the 1950s.
-claudia wraps the books in protective film and then the books will be cataloged. do they not a. have technical services staff/volunteers and b. not order from vendors that do the processing for them? the only times I’ve had to do this level of tech services myself have been in school libraries.
-claudia thinks that when scolding alan and kristy her voice sounds "stern and librarian-ish" - once again, why does nola thacker hate librarians so much?
-without asking claudia, ms. feld assumes it's okay to include the kids in the mural project. and it's a disaster and the kids get paint everywhere. and then claudia’s mom scolds her: "while I appreciate your creativity, this time you may have gone a little too far." but it is ENTIRELY ms. feld's fault, and she should really be scolding the irresponsible children’s librarian she hired who apparently doesn’t know how to interact with children in a productive (not destructive) way.
claudia outfit:
-"I settled in the end for beige linen shorts, an enormous red, blue, and purple tie-dyed T-shirt that I had made earlier in the summer, a pair of earrings I'd made from bottle caps and glitter, and purple high-tops with blue socks folded over the top."
snacks in claudia's room:
-candy corn in her left winter boot in her closet
-mixed nuts in her right winter boot in her closet
-cheese-filled pretzels in her right winter boot in her closet
-rainforest crunch chocolate bar (n.s.)
-little boxes of cereal (n.s.)
-oreos (n.s.)
highlights:
-claud and alan bond over arty animated movies, which alan loves but claud's friends don't take seriously. so cute!
-the children’s librarian, ms. feld, buttons her cardigan wrong which makes her "seem more like one of the children than the librarian." funny observation for a miss frizzle style character
-the one truly accurate depiction of a children’s room in a library: after storytime it looks like a hurricane tore through the place. all day they are constantly having to pick up books and toys that have migrated all over the place. yes, this is exactly what children’s librarianship is like.
-kristy keeps giving claudia a hard time for dating alan, until finally stacey calls kristy out for having gone out with alan in the past ([b:Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls|290503|Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-sitters Club, #2)|Ann M. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388901660l/290503._SX50_.jpg|2227698])
-alan asks claudia how long members of the baby-sitters club sit on babies before they hatch. stupid joke but I love it
-as a gift for claudia, alan takes a carnation, splits the stem, and sticks it into test tubes filled with colored water, and the carnation becomes multicolored. how thoughtful and sweet, and what a spot on gift for claudia. I know I said it in [b:Claudia Gets Her Guy|371099|Claudia Gets Her Guy (Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever, #7)|Ann M. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387734033l/371099._SX50_.jpg|361066], but I really ship them.
-alan's dad says "we brought the minivan for miniature golf" and alan is embarrassed. but also it totally makes sense that alan’s dad is a dad-joker, because alan himself is kind of a dad-joker.
-the way cary sets it up so kristy and alan will have to team up for minigolf: kristy is about to ask mary anne to be her partner when cary cuts in and says, "I can ask her myself. mary anne, will you do me the honor of being my partner." NAILED it.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-basically every single aspect of the library plotline. to be a library assistant/paraprofessional you need a bachelor’s degree. maybe in a teeeeeeny tiny rural town you’ll get high school students, but not in a relatively populous suburb. also they are presumably 13, which is probably below legal age. when I got my first job at 15, I had to get a work permit because I was under 16, and you needed to be at least 14. and it was around the time this book came out. at every library where I’ve worked, you had to be at least 14 to volunteer or work as a page or teen summer intern.
-claudia says "bibliophile" means "she loves books" which is not really true. you could say "bibliophile" means "book lover" or you could say "bibliophile" means she loves books. but it doesn't literally mean "she loves books" so why the quotation marks?
-the nancy drew thing is overdone in this book. I get that scholastic was devoted to keeping the plotline that claudia’s mom doesn’t approve of nancy drews (which was old-fashioned even by the 1980s’ standards) so they don’t want to make it actually contemporary (having her mom challenge claudia’s reading of captain underpants or junie b. jones or something), but it’s just annoying as a librarian to see the authors of these books treat nancy drews like they are scandalous. at one point claud says something about "award-winning books that librarians like to recommend to children instead of nancy drew." librarians don’t only recommend award-winning books. I’ve recommended nancy drews to kids who like historical fiction (I know nancy drew isn’t historical fiction but it was written before they were born!) and mysteries. but also nancy drew books are not the only books I would recommend because, guess what claudia? there are other damn books in the world.
-okay, again. claudia is proud of herself for saying "my favorite mysteries are nancy drews" aloud in a library. nobody cares if you like nancy drews! not even your mom, probably.
-the librarian, ms. feld, is loud. and claudia thinks it's worth mentioning that she's not using a library voice. come ON.
-claud says parents drop off their kids for storytime to go to the adult section, which is NOT the way libraries do things. parents stay with their kids and interact with them so they can learn the skills they will need to encourage literacy development at home.
-story time is one hour long - two days a week they do chapter books and two days a week they do picture books. there is no mention of songs, rhymes, movement, etc. once again, this is NOT how libraries do storytime. basically since augusta braxton baker changed storytime at nypl in the 1950s.
-claudia wraps the books in protective film and then the books will be cataloged. do they not a. have technical services staff/volunteers and b. not order from vendors that do the processing for them? the only times I’ve had to do this level of tech services myself have been in school libraries.
-claudia thinks that when scolding alan and kristy her voice sounds "stern and librarian-ish" - once again, why does nola thacker hate librarians so much?
-without asking claudia, ms. feld assumes it's okay to include the kids in the mural project. and it's a disaster and the kids get paint everywhere. and then claudia’s mom scolds her: "while I appreciate your creativity, this time you may have gone a little too far." but it is ENTIRELY ms. feld's fault, and she should really be scolding the irresponsible children’s librarian she hired who apparently doesn’t know how to interact with children in a productive (not destructive) way.
claudia outfit:
-"I settled in the end for beige linen shorts, an enormous red, blue, and purple tie-dyed T-shirt that I had made earlier in the summer, a pair of earrings I'd made from bottle caps and glitter, and purple high-tops with blue socks folded over the top."
snacks in claudia's room:
-candy corn in her left winter boot in her closet
-mixed nuts in her right winter boot in her closet
-cheese-filled pretzels in her right winter boot in her closet
-rainforest crunch chocolate bar (n.s.)
-little boxes of cereal (n.s.)
-oreos (n.s.)
liannakiwi's review
3.0
(LL)
The book was fine. Nothing really surprising or interesting from the last book before the super special finale to the series.
The book was fine. Nothing really surprising or interesting from the last book before the super special finale to the series.
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