#108 Don't give up, Mallory
Part 2
I am finding this book hard to snark... I apologize but offer part 2 nevertheless.
We are thrown into Mallory's Short Takes Class. The teacher is Mr Cobb, dressed in a collarless white shirt, jeans, and a black vest. His sun-streaked hair looks great with his deep tan and gleaming white teeth. Ooh, he must be from California!! I am becoming more and more convinced that that is indeed Dawn's shirt he's wearing on the cover. We know how she loves her fellow Californians, especially if they're older. I bet he adores Granola, too.
Ah, we learn he's not from Cali, but from Florida (which he tells the class by flashing his teeth at them). Besides his favorite passtime, anaylzing literature for all ages, he is also a sports fanatic and the coach of the SMS baseball team. The boys obviously love him for this and call him Coach Cobb.
Uh-Oh!! Mal's been all excited about the class, because she "spends all her free time devouring all the great children's books she can find".Duh. YOU ARE A CHILD, MALLORY!!! She spent last weekend getting a new binder and stuff, but now SHE WON'T NEED THEM! Why? Do we not write a lot of papers? NO! We will be doing a lot of thinking. This course, Mallory, is "a meeting of the minds"- not a meeting of teacher's pets. Well, she is totally bummed about that- what about grades?! These will be assigned based on participation. Now, this really worries her, which again leaves me somewhat surprised. Isn't this usually done in the US? You can say dumb stuff or nothing, write good papers and get straight As?
The rest of the lesson is then described, which is boring, except that Mallory makes an idiot of herself because she can’t read out loud. The last paragraph sums up this chapter quite nicely:
Mr Cobb hadn’t even noticed her. When he did, he got her name wrong. (calling her Valerie… wasn’t that what she called herself once in that play of hers with the ridiculous aliases? See, Mallory, he knows your work! He’s a secret admirer of your literary prowess!)The kids had teased her. She choked when asked to read. Huh. Bummer.
Chapter 4
Notebook entry Stacey/Claudia:
-What do you get when you take 7 kids, add three boxes of Kleenex, 4 toilet paper-tubes, 2 oatmeal boxes, and 3 balls of string?
I- don’t know Stacey what do you git?
No, Claudia, YOU’RE the git. Anyway, to answer the question, once you add two fantabulous BSC sitters, you get a bunch of instruments. The 7 kids in question (Barretts & DeWitts) proceed to make a drum (Kleenex box with rubber bands- oh wait, that was the guitar), a trumpet our of toilet paper, a google-blaster (two toilet rolls with string wrapped around them) and a snorkaphone (a milk jug plastered with tangled up tape). Unsurprisingly, they sound terrible. On top of looking nothing like instruments. MOO! Honk! Thud! In case you didn’t recognize it immediately, that was the BSC band’s rendition of Jingle Bells.
Stacey begins to realize that this bodes ill for the upcoming parade…how will the BSC solve this?
-
I am finding this book hard to snark... I apologize but offer part 2 nevertheless.
We are thrown into Mallory's Short Takes Class. The teacher is Mr Cobb, dressed in a collarless white shirt, jeans, and a black vest. His sun-streaked hair looks great with his deep tan and gleaming white teeth. Ooh, he must be from California!! I am becoming more and more convinced that that is indeed Dawn's shirt he's wearing on the cover. We know how she loves her fellow Californians, especially if they're older. I bet he adores Granola, too.
Ah, we learn he's not from Cali, but from Florida (which he tells the class by flashing his teeth at them). Besides his favorite passtime, anaylzing literature for all ages, he is also a sports fanatic and the coach of the SMS baseball team. The boys obviously love him for this and call him Coach Cobb.
Uh-Oh!! Mal's been all excited about the class, because she "spends all her free time devouring all the great children's books she can find".Duh. YOU ARE A CHILD, MALLORY!!! She spent last weekend getting a new binder and stuff, but now SHE WON'T NEED THEM! Why? Do we not write a lot of papers? NO! We will be doing a lot of thinking. This course, Mallory, is "a meeting of the minds"- not a meeting of teacher's pets. Well, she is totally bummed about that- what about grades?! These will be assigned based on participation. Now, this really worries her, which again leaves me somewhat surprised. Isn't this usually done in the US? You can say dumb stuff or nothing, write good papers and get straight As?
The rest of the lesson is then described, which is boring, except that Mallory makes an idiot of herself because she can’t read out loud. The last paragraph sums up this chapter quite nicely:
Mr Cobb hadn’t even noticed her. When he did, he got her name wrong. (calling her Valerie… wasn’t that what she called herself once in that play of hers with the ridiculous aliases? See, Mallory, he knows your work! He’s a secret admirer of your literary prowess!)The kids had teased her. She choked when asked to read. Huh. Bummer.
Chapter 4
Notebook entry Stacey/Claudia:
-What do you get when you take 7 kids, add three boxes of Kleenex, 4 toilet paper-tubes, 2 oatmeal boxes, and 3 balls of string?
I- don’t know Stacey what do you git?
No, Claudia, YOU’RE the git. Anyway, to answer the question, once you add two fantabulous BSC sitters, you get a bunch of instruments. The 7 kids in question (Barretts & DeWitts) proceed to make a drum (Kleenex box with rubber bands- oh wait, that was the guitar), a trumpet our of toilet paper, a google-blaster (two toilet rolls with string wrapped around them) and a snorkaphone (a milk jug plastered with tangled up tape). Unsurprisingly, they sound terrible. On top of looking nothing like instruments. MOO! Honk! Thud! In case you didn’t recognize it immediately, that was the BSC band’s rendition of Jingle Bells.
Stacey begins to realize that this bodes ill for the upcoming parade…how will the BSC solve this?
-