Young Adult Revisited

While sitting for the Kuhn family, Patsy tells Kristy that she saw their daddy’s car the other day. The other kids roll their eyes and say that she’s imagining things because their dad lives in Texas now. Jake pouts a little because his dad wanted to take him to Europe and his mom said no, and his dad now can’t come to his birthday party. Kristy holds a practice for the Krushers that Patsy and Laurel skip because of a dentist appointment. Bart and his team show up, and they play a few innings. Bart walks them home and Jake starts off on his own, saying his mom told him that he could. It starts raining, so they rush home and hang out for awhile. Caroline Kuhn calls to ask if they’ve seen Jake because he’s missing. After calling the Barrett house, she decides that her evil ex-husband must have kidnapped him. Kristy calls an emergency meeting of the BSC to talk about the situation, and the cops show up because she was the last one who saw him. The meeting accomplishes nothing, and Mrs....

Claudia is in serious trouble because she’s in danger of failing English class again. When she tells the BSC, they decide that the perfect solution is to tutor her themselves instead of, you know, getting her some actual help. Stacey volunteers to take the first session, and turns into an uber bitch. She holds the session in the kitchen, blocks all the clocks, and acts like that teacher everyone hates. Stacey decides that it would be too confusing for Claudia to have more than one tutor, so she takes all the jobs. Every time Claudia wants to have any fun, Stacey shoots her down with another session or practice test. She finally gives her a notebook and tells her to use it as a journal. Claudia looks up the spelling of every word, but Stacey still attacks the journal with a red pen. At the same time, Mrs. Rodowsky calls the club because Shea was recently diagnosed with dyslexia and she wants to hire a few tutors. Mary Anne takes one job and helps Shea write a letter to someone he adm...

Dana has the brattiest little sister in the world. Seriously, Brandy reminds me of what Jessica Wakefield must have been like as a kid. No matter what she wants, her parents give it to her. When she decides to throw an egg hunt birthday party, they are all over that shit. Unfortunately, mom runs out of time and decides to hide normal eggs. Once the kids find out, it turns into a massive egg fight. Dana finds an unusual egg, and thinking that it’s a turtle egg, he brings it home. After looking at it closer, he finds out that it actually has veins and seems to throb. The next day, the egg starts hatching and Dana freaks out. To avoid touching it, he scoops it up with a trowel and baseball mitt, tossing it in a shoebox. He carries it to his friend Anne’s house, hoping that she’ll have some idea what it is. Anne’s mom made eggs, which grosses him out and when her mom sees the creature, she flips out and tosses it in the sink. Dana manages to save the little yellow creature and takes it t...

This is one of the two books that supposedly bridge the gap between The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley Junior High, but I totally don’t believe that. This book barely mentions the rezoning of the school district before Elizabeth takes off for Costa Rica. I also want to point out that I paid 50 cents for the paperback Jessica book at a book sale. A local thrift store charged me a ridiculous $1.99 for a hardback version of this book. I did complain because it’s clearly a kids’ book and they told me that all hardback books are $1.99. Really? You think someone will pay $1.99 for those battered Sesame Street encyclopedias? Oh well, this is the same thrift store that had $300 on a newish dirty couch. Anyway, Elizabeth read that a charity group needed volunteers to help rebuild homes in Costa Rica. She hoped that Maria would go with her, but she has a role in a film shooting that summer, so Elizabeth is off with a bunch of strangers. Jessica gives her a bag of CDs and fashion magazines, te...

In case you didn’t know, Jessi is an amazing dancer. She tells us multiple times when the book starts and again in other parts of the book. Her teacher decides to host a series of classes for underprivileged youngsters and asks for volunteers, but only Jessi and this girl Mary decide to help. Jessi is a little surprised because Mary is a lousy dancer who has no future. After their next class, Mary mentions that she feels fat and needs to lose some weight, even though Jessi can’t see any fat on her. One of the other girls tells her that if she loses 10 pounds like she did, Mary can dance like a dream. Jessi basically forgets about the conversation until she notices that her classmate is acting a little weird. The first class goes a little weird because it isn’t disciplined like her earlier classes were. She notices this boy Devon who keeps acting up even though he dances really well. There’s another little girl who has some good skills but is too shy to even answer when she gets call...

Mr. Siegel announces a new project for the entire middle school: marriage. All of the girls think the idea is super romantic, which annoys him because he wants them to learn something. He warns them that he will pull their names out of hats, randomly assigning everyone a spouse. Even though they know what’s coming, the Unicorns still think they will come out on top. When the partners get announced, it seems like no one is happy. Elizabeth gets Bruce, Janet winds up with Randy Mason, Ellen gets paired with Winston, Lila’s with Todd, and Jessica gets Rick Hunter who constantly teases and picks on her. Todd convinces Elizabeth to talk to their teacher, but before she can, he announces that he won’t change the partners. Bruce is a pain in the ass. He acts like Mr. Cool all the time, never doing any assignments. The teacher decides that they have to do everything together, including eat lunch and attend classes. When Bruce is late, he won’t even let Elizabeth sit down until he gets there...

This is one of those books that came out long after I quit reading the series, but I found a few of the later mysterious at a thrift store, so yay! I don’t know about you guys, but thrift stores are hit or miss with me. I can walk into one and find nothing, then go back a few weeks later and find 3 or 4 books. Thrifts and book sales have both been pretty bad for me lately, though one thrift here in Ohio recently had around 10 books that I was missing, and all of them were from some library in Texas LOL. Anyway, Claudia comes home from a sitting job and overhears her parents talking about the Hatt family. She vaguely remembers their daughters and that their son Stevie had a lisp. Over dinner, her parents announce that the entire family is coming to stay with them. Since they are short on space, Janine will move into her room until they leave. Mr. Hatt owns the lighthouse in town, which Claudia says is an eyesore. Everyone whispers about some big controversy that happened but no on...