#32 - Kristy and the Secret of Susan

Timeline: 
Still end of their 8th grade year. I am sure Ann M. Martin just assumed that at this point, everyone would forget where they were at in the school year, but I'm tracking your ass, Ann.

Plot: 
The BSC gets a new client, the Felder's. They have one daughter, Susan, who is autistic. She normally is away at a special school, but she is home for a few weeks and Mrs. Felder knows she is going to need a break from her, so she hires Kristy to come three days a week and sit with Susan for a few hours.

Kristy meets the family and is immediately judgmental, thinking they are terrible for sending Susan away. She decides to spend her weeks with them "fixing" Susan, having her make friends, and showing the Felder's the don't need to send her away anymore. There is a new family in town, the Hobart's, from Australia, and Kristy seems especially obsessed about making them friends with Susan. One of them, James, does kind of take a liking to her and protects her from people making fun of her. And there are plenty of them...

So the Hobart's are Australian, so people make fun of their accents. Susan is autistic, and not only do those same people make fun of her, they then pretend to be her friend so they can charge people to watch the "retard". Susan has a few amazing qualities - she is an expert piano player and very good singer, and also she has a calendar in her head where she can name the day of the week any date falls on, past or future. So these bully kids charge other kids to see Susan's amazing talents - like she's in the circus or something.

Okay, so despite all of that, Kristy's plan doesn't work and she realizes the Felder's are right for sending Susan away. Then she learns they are going to have another baby, and she is downright ecstatic.

Oh, and Mallory starts dating the oldest Australian boy, Ben. 

Takeaways:

I am just weirded out by this whole book. First of all, I hated it as a kid. I don't know why. 

Second of all, there is no "secret" of Susan. Everything about her is very laid out, very clear. At no point is there a secret about her, except maybe that she is going to be a big sister, which isn't revealed until the end of the book. 

Third of all, Susan is only home for a month. Why does her mom need a break from her? Can't she just wait until her husband gets home from work? And why does her mom not work, when they don't have any kids at home most of them time?

Kristy was so Kristy in this book - thinking she was right about Susan and the Felder's did not need to send Susan away. Thank God she realized how wrong she was. 

The word "retard" was used an uncomfortable amount of times in this book. 

Best character: 
I honestly don't know. I guess I will go with Mr. Felder, who doesn't make an appearance until the end of the book, but he just sounded like a fun dude who was pretty cute. But no one else really did anything worth awarding in this book.

Worst character:
There were two kids who were charging people to see Susan perform. Not cool, bratty Stoneybrook kids. You are the worst.