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A review by impybelle
The Summer Before by Ann M. Martin
4.0
I give the extra star not because the book necessarily deserves it as a whole, but because nostalgia works in funny ways.
It's been 20 some-odd years since I started reading the BSC books and I'm glad AMM resisted the urge to do a book about life after the Club. That said, a lot of the special BSC books already delved back into life prior to the club forming, so some of this book feels like a retread. The rest throws some interesting new trivia our way.
The book is split four ways, with each chapter narrated by one of the original club members, much like the various super specials in the series, but without the headache inducing handwriting.
First there's Kristy. The rest of the Thomas clan loves Watson, the man Kristy's mother has recently begun dating, but Kristy still misses her real father desperately. For reasons even she can't really explain, she convinces herself that he's planning a big surprise for her birthday. Either a phone call, or a gift, or maybe a card... or, and this is the crazy part, maybe he'll visit. Just walk through the door and wish her a happy birthday. She knows it's crazy and yet she keeps hoping. She pins her entire summer on the hope that at the end, her father will finally come through for her.
Yeah. Kristy's issue is the same one we almost always deal with, and if there weren't at least three other books dealing with her hoping her father would finally do right by her (plus that movie), this would be more interesting. As it is, I wish AMM had spent more time on how Kristy felt/dealt with Watson being welcomed into the family so quickly. I liked the bits where Kristy resented Watson either assuming he was invited to 'family' get togethers or that Kristy's mom invited him without considering the fact that maybe at least one of her kids would want to spend time with just the actual family. Especially when we're told Watson's only been dating Mrs. Thomas since May.
In a lot of the early books, it's pointed out that Mary Anne still plays with dolls. This is usually to illustrate how much younger MA is than Claudia or Stacey. We finally learn what started that observation and it has very little to do with actually playing with dolls.
MA goes searching in the attic (yeah, again... but for the first time? Time warp confusion!) and finds a box of her mother's things. In it, she finds four dolls that she suspects her mother was keeping to give to her when she was old enough, only MA is now a little too old for them. Instead, she decides she'll make them clothes and play with them that way. She tells Kristy who understands, but when they ask for Claudia for help (without telling them the dolls were MA's mother's), Claudia bails on them.
Elsewhere we learn that as of the start of this book, MA hasn't babysat anyone before because her father doesn't think she's old enough. Funny, later in the series when she helps torture Mal, this never comes up. MA spends a good portion of her summer trying to find a way to convince her father that she's old enough to babysit alone.
The real standout for me, with MA, is the way she realizes that Kristy's summer wish is never going to happen, and when her father inevitably lets her down, Kristy will need something big to pick her back up again. And then shy, sweet MA recruits people for the first ever Kristy Day. Even when people make fun of her or her ideas, MA still pushes forward because she knows her best friend in the world needs something to cheer her up. This makes me love MA/Kristy something fierce.
Claudia should sue for defamation of character. As readers my age look back on the original series, they frequently comment that usually Claudia is the sanest of the bunch, awful and improbable spelling aside. She's developed a bit of a cult following, even.
This book? This one sets fire to the roots of that following. First there's the way Claud bails on MA and Kristy when MA asks for help with the dolls. She doesn't ever learn the truth, I don't think, and is rude the way she just disappears on them. Then Claudia's birthday rolls around and she has Janine invite friends to the party so she won't be bored. She watches as Janine lights up when the guy she's invited shows up. She doesn't realize Janine is interested in the guy (Frankie) until Janine fusses at her _after_ the party. Considering the way Claud was blinded by Frankie, this I'm willing to believe.
But even after Claud realizes her sister is interested in Frankie, she still goes out with him. A lot. Annnnnnd I've got to say I found her story the least interesting of the bunch, really. But I will say this: Janine was much nicer than I would have imagined she'd be.
Stacey's story involves the most amount of retcon in the least amount of time. Assuming you've read the BSC series prior, you know that sixth grade brings the end of Laine and Stacey. TSB begs to differ on that. Instead it says that after Laine comes back from her summer at camp, she's changed. She begins to freeze Stacey out before the diabetes even factors into things. She's also downright nasty to Stacey, in front of their parents, and gets away with it.
I wish there'd been more to Stacey's story than there actually was and I really wish the book hadn't ended with basically a rehash of the first paragraph of Krisy's Great Idea.
Overall, it's a nice, sweet story that adds to the BSC's history, but I'm not sure how well it holds up on it's own.
It's been 20 some-odd years since I started reading the BSC books and I'm glad AMM resisted the urge to do a book about life after the Club. That said, a lot of the special BSC books already delved back into life prior to the club forming, so some of this book feels like a retread. The rest throws some interesting new trivia our way.
The book is split four ways, with each chapter narrated by one of the original club members, much like the various super specials in the series, but without the headache inducing handwriting.
First there's Kristy. The rest of the Thomas clan loves Watson, the man Kristy's mother has recently begun dating, but Kristy still misses her real father desperately. For reasons even she can't really explain, she convinces herself that he's planning a big surprise for her birthday. Either a phone call, or a gift, or maybe a card... or, and this is the crazy part, maybe he'll visit. Just walk through the door and wish her a happy birthday. She knows it's crazy and yet she keeps hoping. She pins her entire summer on the hope that at the end, her father will finally come through for her.
Yeah. Kristy's issue is the same one we almost always deal with, and if there weren't at least three other books dealing with her hoping her father would finally do right by her (plus that movie), this would be more interesting. As it is, I wish AMM had spent more time on how Kristy felt/dealt with Watson being welcomed into the family so quickly. I liked the bits where Kristy resented Watson either assuming he was invited to 'family' get togethers or that Kristy's mom invited him without considering the fact that maybe at least one of her kids would want to spend time with just the actual family. Especially when we're told Watson's only been dating Mrs. Thomas since May.
In a lot of the early books, it's pointed out that Mary Anne still plays with dolls. This is usually to illustrate how much younger MA is than Claudia or Stacey. We finally learn what started that observation and it has very little to do with actually playing with dolls.
MA goes searching in the attic (yeah, again... but for the first time? Time warp confusion!) and finds a box of her mother's things. In it, she finds four dolls that she suspects her mother was keeping to give to her when she was old enough, only MA is now a little too old for them. Instead, she decides she'll make them clothes and play with them that way. She tells Kristy who understands, but when they ask for Claudia for help (without telling them the dolls were MA's mother's), Claudia bails on them.
Elsewhere we learn that as of the start of this book, MA hasn't babysat anyone before because her father doesn't think she's old enough. Funny, later in the series when she helps torture Mal, this never comes up. MA spends a good portion of her summer trying to find a way to convince her father that she's old enough to babysit alone.
The real standout for me, with MA, is the way she realizes that Kristy's summer wish is never going to happen, and when her father inevitably lets her down, Kristy will need something big to pick her back up again. And then shy, sweet MA recruits people for the first ever Kristy Day. Even when people make fun of her or her ideas, MA still pushes forward because she knows her best friend in the world needs something to cheer her up. This makes me love MA/Kristy something fierce.
Claudia should sue for defamation of character. As readers my age look back on the original series, they frequently comment that usually Claudia is the sanest of the bunch, awful and improbable spelling aside. She's developed a bit of a cult following, even.
This book? This one sets fire to the roots of that following. First there's the way Claud bails on MA and Kristy when MA asks for help with the dolls. She doesn't ever learn the truth, I don't think, and is rude the way she just disappears on them. Then Claudia's birthday rolls around and she has Janine invite friends to the party so she won't be bored. She watches as Janine lights up when the guy she's invited shows up. She doesn't realize Janine is interested in the guy (Frankie) until Janine fusses at her _after_ the party. Considering the way Claud was blinded by Frankie, this I'm willing to believe.
But even after Claud realizes her sister is interested in Frankie, she still goes out with him. A lot. Annnnnnd I've got to say I found her story the least interesting of the bunch, really. But I will say this: Janine was much nicer than I would have imagined she'd be.
Stacey's story involves the most amount of retcon in the least amount of time. Assuming you've read the BSC series prior, you know that sixth grade brings the end of Laine and Stacey. TSB begs to differ on that. Instead it says that after Laine comes back from her summer at camp, she's changed. She begins to freeze Stacey out before the diabetes even factors into things. She's also downright nasty to Stacey, in front of their parents, and gets away with it.
I wish there'd been more to Stacey's story than there actually was and I really wish the book hadn't ended with basically a rehash of the first paragraph of Krisy's Great Idea.
Overall, it's a nice, sweet story that adds to the BSC's history, but I'm not sure how well it holds up on it's own.