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mdevlin923's review against another edition
3.0
Claudia, who has grown up in the shadows of genius Janine, is convinced that she is adopted...especially when she can't find any baby photos of herself.
frostbitsky's review
fast-paced
5.0
Claudia is my favorite so this story is also a favorite. I find it funny that when Claudia is investigating her birth she could con so many strangers into giving her private information. People were so trusting!
In the end the simplest explanation was the answer. I also really liked the parallel story of Claudia helping Kristy's sister Emily learn her colors, shapes and numbers.
5 out of 5 Birth Announcements.
In the end the simplest explanation was the answer. I also really liked the parallel story of Claudia helping Kristy's sister Emily learn her colors, shapes and numbers.
5 out of 5 Birth Announcements.
bibliotequeish's review against another edition
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
jamietherebelliousreader's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars. Loved this. Claudia is one of my favorites and I always seem to enjoy her books a lot. I loved the scenes of her tutoring Emily, those were adorable. And I thought all the work she put into trying to find her “birth parents” was impressive. I completely understood her reasoning and why she felt the way that she did. Everything wrapped up really nicely and this was just a lovely read.
finesilkflower's review against another edition
4.0
Claudia becomes convinced that she was secretly adopted.
Inspired by Kristy’s adopted sister Emily Michelle, Claudia wonders if she, too, was adopted. It would explain her differences in appearance and personality from her parents and Janine, and the suspicious comparative disparity in number of baby pictures between the two daughters. After reading the book [b:Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye|12934|Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye|Lois Lowry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924385s/12934.jpg|2534075], she launches into full Nancy Drew investigation mode. She seeks out medical and birth announcement records, and actually calls some people she thinks might be her birth parents, but meets a lot of dead ends. Finally, she asks her parents, who assure her that she is not adopted and that in fact she looks a lot like Mimi did at her age.
Meanwhile, Emily Michelle is having language difficulties, so Claudia plays games with her, teaching her shapes and colors. Mrs. Thomas is impressed and hires her as a tutor; Claudia realizes may not have Janine’s brains, but she is a patient, understanding teacher.
I actually really like the plot of this book. It ends up being much ado about nothing, but that somehow makes it feel more profound, unlike most "everything has a logical explanation after all" mysteries. An adoption conspiracy is the kind of fantasy a kid might easily blow out of proportion, especially a kid with a strong feeling of alienation from her family. (It’s also, I think, the kind of thing kids just like to daydream about, as evidenced by the popularity of books like "The Face on the Milk Carton.") This is a particularly poignant story placed as it is in the continuity, the first Claudia book after Mimi’s death. Claudia’s attempts to discover the truth are thorough and inventive but still fundamentally flawed in a way that seems realistic for a kid schooled in research by mystery novels. And I do love a good research yarn.
Mild Racism Alert: Claudia supposes she might not even be Japanese; she might be Chinese or even Hawaiian. Even giving her "magical thinking" leeway, does she really think all look same?
Revised Timeline: This is where I figure out how old the baby-sitters would be if they aged. Late spring of ninth grade
Inspired by Kristy’s adopted sister Emily Michelle, Claudia wonders if she, too, was adopted. It would explain her differences in appearance and personality from her parents and Janine, and the suspicious comparative disparity in number of baby pictures between the two daughters. After reading the book [b:Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye|12934|Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye|Lois Lowry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924385s/12934.jpg|2534075], she launches into full Nancy Drew investigation mode. She seeks out medical and birth announcement records, and actually calls some people she thinks might be her birth parents, but meets a lot of dead ends. Finally, she asks her parents, who assure her that she is not adopted and that in fact she looks a lot like Mimi did at her age.
Meanwhile, Emily Michelle is having language difficulties, so Claudia plays games with her, teaching her shapes and colors. Mrs. Thomas is impressed and hires her as a tutor; Claudia realizes may not have Janine’s brains, but she is a patient, understanding teacher.
I actually really like the plot of this book. It ends up being much ado about nothing, but that somehow makes it feel more profound, unlike most "everything has a logical explanation after all" mysteries. An adoption conspiracy is the kind of fantasy a kid might easily blow out of proportion, especially a kid with a strong feeling of alienation from her family. (It’s also, I think, the kind of thing kids just like to daydream about, as evidenced by the popularity of books like "The Face on the Milk Carton.") This is a particularly poignant story placed as it is in the continuity, the first Claudia book after Mimi’s death. Claudia’s attempts to discover the truth are thorough and inventive but still fundamentally flawed in a way that seems realistic for a kid schooled in research by mystery novels. And I do love a good research yarn.
Mild Racism Alert: Claudia supposes she might not even be Japanese; she might be Chinese or even Hawaiian. Even giving her "magical thinking" leeway, does she really think all look same?
Revised Timeline: This is where I figure out how old the baby-sitters would be if they aged. Late spring of ninth grade
sammah's review against another edition
3.0
Honestly I can really believe that Claudia would think she's adopted. She's sort of an uber misfit in her family, so really it could have happened. This is the BSC-verse though, so naturally it didn't haha. Oooh the plots! Oh the anxiety!
xtinamorse's review against another edition
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/claudia-and-the-great-search
pixieauthoress's review against another edition
5.0
Although it was crazy of Claud to think she was adopted - even if she does read a lot of mysteries - this book was fun to read and the story panned out quite well. 9/10
ssshira's review against another edition
3.0
this is my first time reading this book!
for a bunch of totally ludicrous reasons, claudia develops a theory that she is adopted. she tries to find evidence of it and even tries to find her "birth parents". meanwhile, emily michelle brewer is having a rough time -- she is having attachment problems (which makes sense because her birth mother died and she got sent to live with a new family pretty recently) and she is having language acquisition problems (which makes sense because she only heard vietnamese up until she came to the united states pretty recently). claudia tutors her and she does really well.
highlights:
-claudia's elaborate paranoia is so funny and in character. "maybe someone had stolen me from a hospital and sold me to a crooked lawyer who had let mom and dad (the people I thought were my real parents) adopt me for a huge sum of money. then mom and dad took me home, but later they found out that I was stolen, only they were afraid to return me. maybe we all had different identities now. we were incognito and on the lam."
-in general, claudia thinking she is adopted is a really annoying plotline. it's believable as a sort of manifestation of the personal fable/exactly how adolescent psychology works. but it's still annoying. so why did I put this under highlights? because claudia is such a little wannabe nancy drew in this book, and I love it. it's like she's so bored with her life so she needs to concoct these elaborate mysteries to solve, and while that's an annoying teenager thing, it's still SO CLAUDIA that I find it charming.
-all the emily stuff is really well-done. I like how concerned kristy is, and I like how david michael is upset that emily is getting so much attention. also claudia is a really good teacher, unsurprisingly (I mean, she taught art in [b:Claudia and the Sad Good-bye|399806|Claudia and the Sad Good-bye (The Baby-sitters Club, #26)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1174438107s/399806.jpg|2227699] and in general she is really good with kids and good at anything she cares about).
lowlights:
-once again a reference to mary anne becoming secretary only because she has good handwriting. SHE WANTED TO BE SECRETARY! ann, do you not remember [b:Kristy's Great Idea|233722|Kristy's Great Idea (The Baby-Sitters Club, #1)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389241314s/233722.jpg|2302767]? you WROTE that book!
-claudia talks about how being a teacher (to emily michelle) is hard and how she has more respect for her teachers who probably had to work extra hard to help her. I do not believe that claudia could be that conscious of her teachers' feelings. she is way too self-centered for that.
-the perkins girls (ages 5 and 2) know how to bake cookies because they are unbelievably perfect.
-once again stacey being tired is referenced. what is this foreshadowing?! AGH!
claudia outfit:
-"I...was dressed in one of my usual wild outfits -- a very short black skirt, an oversized white shirt with bright pink and turquoise poodles printed on it, flat turquoise shoes with ankle straps, and a ton of jewelry, including dangly poodle earrings. My long hair was swept to one side in a high ponytail held in place with a huge pink barrette."
claudia's "evidence" that she's adopted and the explanations that her parents give her:
-there are very few baby pictures of her compared to a ton of baby pictures of janine - because she's not the first child (and first children tend to have more photos while second children have fewer)
-she acts differently from her family - because that just happens in families! people are different!
-she doesn't look like her family members - she actually looks just like mimi did when she was thirteen
-she finds a locked box in a desk and assumes her adoption papers are in there - it's actually full of cash that her parents keep around for emergencies
-she can't find a birth announcement in the microfiche of the stoneybrook news - the announcement is in the gazette, a paper that was discontinued a while ago
snacks in claudia's room:
-mini chocolate bars under the quilt at the foot of her bed
-pretzels behind her pillow
for a bunch of totally ludicrous reasons, claudia develops a theory that she is adopted. she tries to find evidence of it and even tries to find her "birth parents". meanwhile, emily michelle brewer is having a rough time -- she is having attachment problems (which makes sense because her birth mother died and she got sent to live with a new family pretty recently) and she is having language acquisition problems (which makes sense because she only heard vietnamese up until she came to the united states pretty recently). claudia tutors her and she does really well.
highlights:
-claudia's elaborate paranoia is so funny and in character. "maybe someone had stolen me from a hospital and sold me to a crooked lawyer who had let mom and dad (the people I thought were my real parents) adopt me for a huge sum of money. then mom and dad took me home, but later they found out that I was stolen, only they were afraid to return me. maybe we all had different identities now. we were incognito and on the lam."
-in general, claudia thinking she is adopted is a really annoying plotline. it's believable as a sort of manifestation of the personal fable/exactly how adolescent psychology works. but it's still annoying. so why did I put this under highlights? because claudia is such a little wannabe nancy drew in this book, and I love it. it's like she's so bored with her life so she needs to concoct these elaborate mysteries to solve, and while that's an annoying teenager thing, it's still SO CLAUDIA that I find it charming.
-all the emily stuff is really well-done. I like how concerned kristy is, and I like how david michael is upset that emily is getting so much attention. also claudia is a really good teacher, unsurprisingly (I mean, she taught art in [b:Claudia and the Sad Good-bye|399806|Claudia and the Sad Good-bye (The Baby-sitters Club, #26)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1174438107s/399806.jpg|2227699] and in general she is really good with kids and good at anything she cares about).
lowlights:
-once again a reference to mary anne becoming secretary only because she has good handwriting. SHE WANTED TO BE SECRETARY! ann, do you not remember [b:Kristy's Great Idea|233722|Kristy's Great Idea (The Baby-Sitters Club, #1)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389241314s/233722.jpg|2302767]? you WROTE that book!
-claudia talks about how being a teacher (to emily michelle) is hard and how she has more respect for her teachers who probably had to work extra hard to help her. I do not believe that claudia could be that conscious of her teachers' feelings. she is way too self-centered for that.
-the perkins girls (ages 5 and 2) know how to bake cookies because they are unbelievably perfect.
-once again stacey being tired is referenced. what is this foreshadowing?! AGH!
claudia outfit:
-"I...was dressed in one of my usual wild outfits -- a very short black skirt, an oversized white shirt with bright pink and turquoise poodles printed on it, flat turquoise shoes with ankle straps, and a ton of jewelry, including dangly poodle earrings. My long hair was swept to one side in a high ponytail held in place with a huge pink barrette."
claudia's "evidence" that she's adopted and the explanations that her parents give her:
-there are very few baby pictures of her compared to a ton of baby pictures of janine - because she's not the first child (and first children tend to have more photos while second children have fewer)
-she acts differently from her family - because that just happens in families! people are different!
-she doesn't look like her family members - she actually looks just like mimi did when she was thirteen
-she finds a locked box in a desk and assumes her adoption papers are in there - it's actually full of cash that her parents keep around for emergencies
-she can't find a birth announcement in the microfiche of the stoneybrook news - the announcement is in the gazette, a paper that was discontinued a while ago
snacks in claudia's room:
-mini chocolate bars under the quilt at the foot of her bed
-pretzels behind her pillow