#93 - Mary Anne and the Memory Garden

Timeline
Winter of their 6th repeat

Plot
MA wants to get to know more people and be more social (be careful with that, MA, those kinds of things get you kicked out of the BSC). She gets the opportunity pretty quickly in her English class - she gets put into a group with three people- Amelia, Gordon and Barbara. They have a brainstorming sess at MA's house, and it goes amazingly well - the group just clicks and they have the best ideas. When they leave that night, Amelia is going to dinner with her family. She jokingly invites the group to go with her, but they won't all fit in her dad's tiny car.

The next day, SMS is a buzzing with the news of a car accident and the death of a 13 year old girl. They soon find out it was Amelia's family and she has died.

Kristy takes the news especially hard for some reason, and MA makes it her mission to take care of her and make sure she's okay. Kristy becomes obsessed with SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving) and starts a Stoneybrook chapter. She throws herself into the project and seems to get back to her old self, and that's when MA starts to lose it. She sinks into a depression and decides to go to a therapist. The therapist points out that Kristy didn't handle the news well bc it's something she can't explain or control - and MA wanted to take care of her bc that's what MA does - and then when Kristy threw herself into a project and MA didn't have to take care of her anymore, reality set it.

MA decides she wants to do something in memory of Amelia, and comes up with the idea of a memory garden. She goes to Amelia's best friend and brother, and they work on it together.

Also, there is a boring side story about Dawn finding a dirty, litter covered field in California and she gets her friends and babysitting charges to clean it and they plant a garden.

Takeaways
This book is not named correctly; the memory garden does not even come into the story until the second to last chapter.

Dude, I legit cried reading this book. That shit is rough.

Enough with the Dawn in California shit. No one cares. She gone.

Best Character
Mary Anne. She broke my heart this book.

Worst Character
The drunk driver who killed Amelia.

#92 - Mallory's Christmas Wish

Timeline
Christmas of their 6th repeat school year

Plot
It's Christmas time in Stoneybrook and Mallory has this great idea about having a old-fashioned Christmas. She wants to make presents and have fires and sing carols and chop down their own Christmas tree. She takes the idea to her family and they all agree that it sounds fun.

Then a man comes to the door with a $10,000 check. Apparently there was a contest at the local TV station that Vanessa submitted the family for - basically viewers could submit ideas for an original Christmas celebration, and the winner would get filmed throughout the entire holiday week and get a cash prize. The whole family is so excited and agrees to be filmed.

At first it is okay, with the film crew just kind of there. But then they start constantly getting in the way, breaking things, screaming CUT in the kids's faces and demanding they redo things for the camera. They go to the mall with the family to see Santa and they completely ruin the experience. They go to the tree cutting place and ruin that experience. Mallory and the BSC are helping with a Christmas Carnival at the old age home and they go along to record and actually end up getting kicked out of the building. Mallory is threatened to never bring them along again.

The BSC is having their holiday party at Mallory's because Kristy thinks it will be good publicity for the club to be on camera. However, that is the one time the crew decides to take a break. Kristy is a whiny little brat about it, begging them to stay, and then she pouts through the whole party.

Finally on Christmas Eve everything comes to a head. The crew is totally disrupting the family's celebration, and finally Mr. Pike asks them to leave for awhile. While they are gone, they have a family meeting and decide they are done being celebrities. When they come back, they give them the $10,000 check back and tell them to get lost.

Takeaways
There is so much wrong with this story.

First of all, I highly doubt the family would have gotten paid until after this whole thing was done.

Second of all, they had made it all the way up to Christmas. I wish they would have just kicked them out, had their real Christmas celebration, wrapped everything back up and then faked it for the camera. Then at least they could have kept their money.

Also, that was pretty shitty of the Pike's because now the news crew literally has nothing. They can't find another family on Christmas Eve.

The Pike's house sounds like complete chaos all of the time. I would go crazy there.

Kristy's obsession with getting publicity for the club has been so annoying in so many books.

This whole book was like a sneak peek into life now - where reality shows are a big deal. I wonder how truly annoying it is to constantly having to be redoing things for the camera.

Best Character
Mr. Pike for finally telling the crew to GTFO.

Worst Character
That shitty news crew.

#91 - Claudia and the First Thanksgiving

Timeline
Thanksgiving of their 6th repeat

Plot
Claudia, Abby and Stacey are in the same "Short Takes" class for this semester and it is themed History of Thanksgiving, or something like that. They decide to write a play about the true history of Thanksgiving and have third graders act it out. As they start to do their research, they realize how different the world was back then - the way Indians were treated, the way Pilgrims treated woman, etc. They write their play true to history.

When parents start getting wind of it, they complain to the teachers. When teachers get wind of it, they complain to the principal. The principal then issues an ultimatum - either rewrite the play with the traditional history, or don't do it. The class decides to rewrite the play, but let everyone know it is censored. Then they perform the real, uncensored play at the middle school, complete with protesters for both sides.

The subplot is that every single babysitter has these great family plans for Thanksgiving, and every single one of them get cancelled. So they decide to bring all their families together for a huge Thanksgiving at Kristy's house. Their parents go for it and they all eat dinner together.

Takeaways
It seems weird to me that their parents all went along with this huge Thanksgiving. They must all be friends, too.

It also seems weird that parents would actually protest a middle school play.

This book was kind of boring. There isn't much to say.

Oh, and Dawn comes back. She doesn't tell anyone, and just shows up at Mallory's when all the babysitters are there.

Best Character
I will have to go with Abby, because when the parents start bitching about the play, she stands up to them about their freedom of speech.

Worst Character
All those stupid fucking parents who have nothing better to do then hide the truth from their children and protest a middle school play.