Don't Give Up, Mallory Part 3
My computer ate the first version of this part, but like Mallory, I did not give up! But I did swear a lot more.
Chapter 11
FUN-raising time. Feel the excitement. The first day is a “hearts and flowers” booth, and for some reason, the deliveries are made on Rollerblades. Also, Mal is wearing a “painter’s cap covered with heart and flower decals and buttons (courtesy of Claud, of course)” because I guess it takes Troo Artistik Geenyus to pin buttons on a hat. If only Claudia had been able to run an Etsy shop. Also, all the messengers are wearing t-shirts decorated with puff paint, because nothing says cool like pink puff paint. Helen Gallway of the “mean serve” is in charge. Also, in a brilliant display of continuity, on the first page of the chapter they have carnations donated from ZuZu’s, but on the very next page Logan buys a rose. Because I can buy a store donating a ton of carnations, I guess, but roses? Those suckers are expensive.
Jessi is one of the delivery-people (they all seem to be girls, but I’m not sure what, if anything to make of that-boys don’t wear hot pink bike shorts? Boys can order flowers, but not deliver them? Come to think of it, we actually only see boys buying these things. . .) and she tells Mal she’s already made five deliveries, bringing the fund-raising total to $5. Mallory squeals with excitement. I yawn with boredom. Logan and Mallory compete to see who can be dorkier as he buys a heart and one of those mysterious “roses” for Mary Anne, and Mal wiggles her eyebrows. Alan buys ten hearts for ten of his “secret admirers” and I don’t think it works that way, Alan. The booth is so busy that they open a new line, and Mal runs over to Sandra and squeals (that’s the text, not me) “Look at all that money! We’re going to be rich!” while rubbing her hands together. Sandra tells Mal not to act so silly, because people will think she’s weird.
Mal replies by crossing her eyes and whispering back “I am weird, Sandra. Didn’t you know that?” I would clap and cheer for this, except that neither Mal nor the text really thinks weirdness--or embracing your own weirdness--is something to celebrate. Well, except in the form of Claudia’s wardrobe and Dawn’s “individualism” and strong opinions. So I guess you’re allowed to be weird if you are also spectacularly gorgeous. Or a cat.
Back in Mr. Cobb’s class, they’re discussing Goodnight, Moon.
I sigh a little at how stupidly and badly run a class which could have been cool has been. (Also, I think I may have recced her in a previous snark, but seriously, if you love children’s lit, pick up Dear Genius: The Collected Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. Margaret Wise Brown made me think of it, because she was one of the people Ursula Nordstrom edited early in her career.)
Mr. Cobb asks the class what makes it so popular and calls on Lisa Mannheim, but when she takes a second to think, he calls on Bobby Gustavson, and waits a full minute while Bobby doodles, scratches himself, takes a few phone calls. . .
I’m pretty sure this book was partly “inspired” by the famous 1992 AAUW “How Schools Shortchange Girls” report, but treating it with this level of exaggeration actually misses the point. I wonder if Christina Hoff Sommers ever read this?
Bobby finally answers and Mallory and “several other students” raise their hands while Benny Ott and Robbie Mara yell things out. Megan Armstrong waves her hand frantically to get called on. Later Mr. Cobb finally calls on Mallory, “smiling vaguely” again. She says that she and Claire like to see how the hands on the clock in the pictures change, Mr. Cobb asks a follow-up and Chris Brooks yells something out before Mal can speak.
At class break, Mallory and Lisa commiserate about Mr. Cobb calling on more boys, giving them longer to think, and letting boys shout out and derail the discussion while the girls patiently sit with hands raised. They wonder if Mr. Cobb is even aware of it, or if he is consciously favoring the boys. For the rest of the class, they both quietly keep track and nod at each other whenever this happens. On the one hand, it makes Mal feel better to realize it isn’t just her problem or her fault. But she still doesn’t know what to do about it.
(In the list of Mallory books at the end, the tagline for this is “Mallory’s teacher needs to be taught a lesson,” which has a vaguely sinister, menacing tone this book sadly fails to live up to.)
(I'm such a sucker for Schrodinger's Cat jokes).
The next day the fund-raising is “painted t-shirts” and not that I really care, but considering the length at which they explain basic concepts for the other events, I find myself wondering the logistics of these. Do kids have to carry around wet t-shirts all day?
Next day is “Slam-dunk the teachers” and they explain the dunk tank concept at great length. Boys’ gym teacher (was it even normal to have boys and girls gym classes separated in the mid-90s?) Mr. De Young is wearing “a pair of swim trunks that showed off his muscular body,” which grosses me out for some reason. It makes me picture him in a Speedo. The dunking is so successful--especially Mr. Kingbridge--that Lisa calculates they are on track to meet their goal. Mallory is so excited about this that she marches into Mr. Cobb’s class and announces she’ll take him up on that conference. Mr. Cobb is a douchebag and calls her Valerie again.
As she sits down, Mal thinks Sandra looks “depressed” and makes a “silent vow” to talk to Sandra, too.
References: Helen Gallway, Laura Aronsen, Jamie Sperling, Mrs. Gonzalez, Mr. De Young, Renee Johnson, Liz Cohen
Chapter 12
Claudia has designed the concept for the candy sales, because God forbid any non-BSC member be allowed to contribute creative ideas. Despite the fact that Claudia is in seventh grade. Anyway, they do a Halloween theme (outrageous!) so that you pay $0.50 to grab from a pumpkin that either has candy or “gross stuff” like plastic spiders. Amazingly, Fiona McRae (12-she sculpted that fierce stag), an actual sixth-grader, is permitted to execute Claudia’s plans. The girls working the booth wear “Elvira” wigs (the quotes are from the book) and the boys wear Dracula capes.
Sandra and Mal are working the booth when Woody Jefferson and Trevor Sandbourne (of the epic pate and sparkling cider bromantic cafeteria lunch) stop by and flirtatiously ask Sandra to pick for them. She gives Woody the pumpkin with a vampire on it, and he pulls out a “fist full of Gummi Bears, licorice bites, jaw breakers and tiny candy bars.” Um. Individually wrapped, right? Because if not, that’s disgusting. Trevor gets the tarantula pumpkin, and Woody asks, I guess flirtatiously? if he and Trevor are vampires and spiders, what is Sandra. She giggles “shrilly” and says “I’m the witch,” and Trevor of the brooding eyes is all, “No, really, which pumpkin would you choose?” and no, really, why do you care? Sandra picks the pumpkin with the little black cat. “A kitty?” Trevor smiled and nodded, and I’m officially squicked. (I supposed I should be glad it wasn’t “a pussy?” which is probably more what a middle school boy would say)
Then Pete Black compliments the booth and asks if they made it and Sandra points to herself and says “Me? No way. Fiona McRae made it.” And I think we’re supposed to see this as her being too feminine and self-deprecating to take credit but. . .Fiona McRae did make it. So WTF. So, feminism means taking credit for other people’s work?* Well, shit, than all those ghosties must make Ann super-feminist of all time!
*(I so don’t have the energy to talk about feminism in regards to womanism on this point right now.)
Mal decides it’s time to have a Talk with Sandra, who sits down and declares her feet are killing her. She’s wearing “chunky two-inch heels” and Mal says she should have worn sneakers and shut up, Mal, I actively find sneakers uncomfortable, and would rather stand in low heels than flats. Sandra says she always wears heels because they “make [her] look more feminine” and when Mallory asks why she needs to look more feminine, Sandra says guys don’t like girls who are jocks. And it’s like every time this book brushes against a half decent point, it muddles it beyond recognition, because wearing sneakers doesn’t equal “jock.” I don’t know if this is just a way to easily “fix” Sandra by giving her stupid straw (wo)man arguments, but it’s really irritating.
Indeed, lest we begin to think about Sandra’s behavior with nuances which would be impossible to fix in the parameters of a BSC book, throughout much of this scene she appears to have suffered a head injury resulting in short term amnesia.
So Mal tells Sandra that she’s cute and smart and shouldn’t think so much about what people think and Sandra denies she does this, and Mal argues that Sandra just said she was wearing uncomfortable shoes so boys would like her, and that she said before she doesn’t like to contradict the boys in their class because she doesn’t want to seem pushy. And instead of further articulating this, Sandra is just “oh, did I say that? How curious!” Also, I’m almost positive there’s a book where Stacey is wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and black jeans in the summer and when Kristy says she must be boiling, Stacey says something like “it’s worth it to look this good.” (Seriously, am I hallucinating this? I couldn’t find it, but I swear I remember this.) Also, keep in mind in just a few short books, Stacey will be an absolute jerk to Tess Swineheart at least in part about Tess not wearing make-up and not wearing fashionable clothes. “Hypocrisy” is spelled “B-S-C.” (Shut up, Karen. it’s a metaphor.)
My eyes start to roll out of my head at the next part, when Mallory scolds her for picking the “smallest and meekest” animal to represent her. And just. . .wtf. Firstly, do you believe for a second anyone would give Mary Anne shit for saying she was the kitty? Mary Anne, the girl who placed a personal ad describing herself as a “cuddly kitten to love you furever,” which grossed me out as a kid and grosses me out even more as an adult. Like, seriously, I feel like that would not be out of place on a mail-order bride site or escort service. Or an episode of Law and Order: SVU. Blech. More seriously, kind of, there’s some writing about the ways teenage girls identify with animals-why it’s a time when so many become interested in vegetarianism or animal rights, and it is about both identifying with vulnerable creatures and responding to that identification in positive ways. (LOL, maybe that’s why Dawn the individual "vegetarian" hates animals.)
Sandra then says she couldn’t be the vampire or the spider because those are “guy things” and Mal is like “ARE THEY?” And I’m in a mood, so I want to play with this a bit. On the one hand, there’s a long and complex historical discourse about vampires and female sexuality and romance/horror tropes. But I still might pick a cat, because cats rule while sleeping 20 hours a day and vampires bite (rimshot), especially if they sparkle.
Also, in a world of vampires, I wanna be a Slayer, not a vamp. Do I lose feminist points if part of that is wanting my very own Giles? Do I care?
You could make a case for spiders being female-associated, too, with Charlotte and Arachne and all that weaving. Excellent.
Anyway. Sandra also says she couldn’t be the Frankenstein and Mallory interrupts her and says “because Trevor would think you were coming on too strong?” Feminism: speaking over other women! I’m sure that’s the “right” answer, but maybe it’s because Frankenstein is actually really sad? And Frankenstein wasn’t written by Mary Shelley, daughter of Mary “Declaration of the Rights of Women” Wollstonecraft, in a vacuum, and is filled with all kinds of metaphors about fears of giving birth and of a male scientist abusing both the processes of creation and the subject of that creation? And maybe if Trevor is such a goddamn poet, he should know that Frankenstein is the doctor, not the monster? (Lol, that’s me being really pedantic and petty. Because this conversation is missing the point in so many ways, and I’m filling the gaps with horror studies and lolcats, since I have no alcohol.)
Mallory says she remembers Sandra speaking up more and asks “sensitively” if something happened. Sandra says that since she was elected class VP, she feels under so much pressure, and check to be sure there isn’t alcohol to get me through the pressure-cooker of middle school student government. Because Sandra’s next line is actually really poignant and on point, and it really annoys me that they’ve set it up as if it’s this very particular situation and not far more universal. Sandra says she feels like everyone, boys and girls, are just waiting for her to slip up. “Say or do the wrong thing. If I don’t have a smile plastered on my face every second I’m in school, people think I’m stuck up. If I raise my hand too much in class, people think I’m a show-off.”
Mallory is surprised that these words “hit home” (because who would think Sandra could have anything insightful to say, hmm?) but of course she relates it directly to That Goddamned Progress Report, instead of a much broader issue about the often-conflicting expectations and demands put on women, regardless of standing or celebrity. Sandra says that “Sometimes I think I would do anything to keep the attention away from me,” which is really sad, and I think reflects back to my earlier rant about women being expected to downplay their achievements-and part of that is the idea that your achievements make you fair game for all kinds of commentary. (Yes, some of this happens to men, but not as much and not in the same ways-men in politics are not typically given grief over their wardrobe or hair styles, for example.)
Sigh. Mallory says they should talk more later, like she’d be allowed to have a friend outside of the Cult, or indeed like she even thinks of people outside the Cult as real human beings. She’s all proud of herself that Sandra works the rest of their shift in her stocking feet.
Now it’s time for her conference with Mr. Cobb and this part actually makes me actively uncomfortable. Partly because it reminds me a lot of my fourth-grade teacher, who I think in retrospect (and having heard stories from other people) genuinely had a problem with smart little girls. Compared to me, my older brother was kind of a handful as a kid, but I was mostly used to teachers adoring me (so were my parents!). Anyway, this same year my district also started a new gifted pull-out program where all the kids ID’d as gifted in each grade met at a central location to do projects and things together one day a week (instead of the teacher traveling around to all the schools to meet with us 30 minutes a day a few times a semester), and my teacher resented the HELL out of this, and made a point of scheduling activities and projects on our pull-out day as much as possible. She also pretty much encouraged kids in our class not to listen to me, to say I “took over” in group projects, and allowed a boy to call me a bitch in front of the class with no repercussions whatsoever. She also accused me of cheating for using the word “matriarchal” in a report about the Onandago tribe, because no fourth-grader could possibly no that word. Anyway, other than telling you a long-winded story about me having a sad, at one point she angrily told my mother that my mom was turning me into “some kind of feminist!” And my mom, said basically, “Well, yeah, obviously.” So rock on, Mom. But seriously, that woman undermined my confidence and my faith in teachers for years.
Okay. Conference. Mallory is literally shaking with nerves and I cannot snark her even a little. I could not have done this alone at that age. (See above, regarding my mom.) Mr. Cobb says that he’s glad she came in, because he’s been concerned about her lack of participation and Mallory says she’d like to talk about her reasons for that.
Mr. Cobb is all “You have REASONS?” like I think he thought he was going to give a Cool Teacher pep talk or something. Probably full of sports analogies.
Mallory says that even though she loves the subject, she’s been having trouble participating. Part of that is her own lack of confidence in this particular class (although honestly, since Mal seems to participate just fine in classes with competent teachers, that’s probably less her fault than she thinks) but there are other reasons, too. “Reasons that involve you.”
Mr. Cobb, who was tilting his chair like a Cool Teacher does, lets it bang on the floor as he immediately goes on the defensive. “Me? What have I done to you?” with his arms crossed over his chest and dude, when Mallory Pike is the mature one in the conversation, you’ve got some Issues.
Mallory points out that he doesn’t call on girls, even when they have their hands raised a long time, and he allows boys to yell out and talk over them. Mr. Cobb retorts that he called on two specific girls, and ah, it’s essentially the “I have a black friend” argument. He insists it is simply “not true” that he favors boys over girls.
Mallory says those are two very outspoken girls, but lots of others never get to speak at all. Also, he gives boys more time to answer questions. Mr. Cobb sputters “you’ve been timing me!?!” because 1) noticing sexism and 2) documenting sexism make you the REAL sexist. (And of course, being accused of sexism is much, much worse than experiencing it.) Mr. Cobb is filling out quite the bingo card here.
Mr. Cobb’s response to all this is to say “Look, Mallory, a student has to take responsibility for herself. If you don’t feel comfortable in class, you can’t blame it on me.” I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: What. An. Asshole.
Mallory doesn’t start crying, like I probably would, and looks him in the eye, saying that she doesn’t blame him completely, but she does think the way he runs the class has a lot to do with her inability to participate.
The bell rings then, and Mr. Cobb stiffly dismisses her and says unconvincingly that he’s glad she came in, and he appreciates her feeling free to share her opinions, even if he completely rejects them. Then a bunch of Mr. Cobb’s boy-groupies come in to the room and Mal flees. She ranks the whole experience a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, since Mr. Cobb didn’t actually scream at her and throw her bodily from the room. Mal, honey, you’ve got to set higher expectations and remember you deserve better treatment. Trust me.
She thinks to herself “who needs straight As” anyway, and this bugs me, too. Because if you want to have a book about perfectionism and giving yourself permission not to get straight As, that’s one thing. But don’t mix it up with not getting a A because of a shitty and unfair teacher. (Okay, that may happen in real life, too, but when has that ever had anything to do with a BSC plot?)
At home, her siblings make her watch them “practice” for the parade. The chapter ends on a totally confused and random note. “A week ago, I thought my brothers had it easier than me because they were boys. But maybe they didn’t. All they had to do was lead a kazoo parade. I had to be a student in middle school.”
Like. . .the hell? What exactly has happened to make her decide it doesn’t have anything to do with gender dynamics and expectations? Except that Ann and the ghosties couldn’t bear to leave a social issue open-ended, so they’ve “fixed” sexism by having Mallory decide the real problem is middle school? I don’t even know. Also, Mallory, we know you’re never getting out, but it should occur to you that your brothers will one day be middle school students, yes?
Chapter 13
The last fundraiser is posed photos with those cut-outs you poke your head through. Mary Anne and Logan are posed as diapered babies, and after the unfortunate “furever” flashback, that’s a mental image I could have happily gone without. Lisa Mannheim runs up to announce that even though it’s only Friday morning, they’ve hit their $1000 goal already. Jessi declares they can buy “really fun posters” for the lounge, and it’s still beyond me what this $2000 lounge contains or is made of.
Because a book about feminism wouldn’t be complete without some random judginess, we get a cameo from Grace Blume and Cokie Mason, getting their pictures taken in a punk rock cutout (naturally). Really, it says “(naturally)” in the text, because, idk, punk is evil? If punk is so evil, why did they even make punk rock cut-outs? Was Mal that judgy about everyone who picked them? Shut up, Mal. Seriously, this interlude has NO POINT except for Mal to randomly be bratty to and judgmental of Cokie and Grace.
Back to Mr. Cobb’s class. Mal is worried he will be holding a grudge, but he nods hello to her for the first time as she enters. They’re discussing Animalia and Benny Ott shouts out an answer, and Mr. Cobb starts to talk with him, then stops and tells him to raise his hand. Chris Brooks’s hand shoots up and Mr. Cobb almost calls on him, but catches himself and calls on Jen Corn, who has been waiting patiently the whole time. Mr. Cobb also shoots nervous looks at Mal this whole time, like she’ll shoot him with her Feminazi Lazer eyes. It takes Jen a moment to gather her thoughts, while Robbie Mara yells “Me! Me!” like, is he six years old? But Mr. Cobb lets Jen answer and even praises her response and Mal slightly creepily notes this causes Jen to “bloom.”
The class goes on, with Mr. Cobb catching himself a few times, and then at the end of the class he stands in front of the room (rather than “perch[ing] jauntily on the edge of the desk”) and says he owes the class an apology. Benny yells out “For what?” and Mr. Cobb says for that, for allowing some people to yell out while others waited patiently and politely. He says it was pointed out to him that he seems to favor boys by calling on them more and giving them more time, and today he realized that’s true, and he wants to change that.
Notably, Mallory is terrified that he’ll mention her by name, which is probably the most realistic thing about this whole “resolution.” I guess I’m supposed to think it’s nice and all, but I just don’t buy it. I think boys would be yelling out that was totally untrue, for one thing. And sad to say, none of my experiences with either bad teachers or sexists have changed on a dime like that. (Interestingly, it’s actually documented that people perceive a lot of examples of gender equality as female-dominated. Like, if you show a movie with the exact same number of male and female characters, people will remember there being more women, where if the cast ratio is, oh, 6 or 7 men to 3 or 4 women, they think of that as “equal.”)
But yea, I guess this is the happy ending. The BSC has fixed sexism, we can go home now. Mr. Cobb is a decreed a “good guy.” I think he’s more of a Nice Guy, myself.
End of the day, they announce their fund-raising results and Mr. Kingbridge praises their “positive thinking.” I twitch a little, because I’m like Barbara Ehrenreich in thinking positive thinking is way overrated (and can even be turned around into spectacular victim-blaming).
Justin invites the class officers out for pizza, and Mal thinks she would like to go, but can’t because she has too much work. Justin points out it’s Friday, but Mallory is baby-sitting all weekend, so that’s a no-go, plus she has a BSC meeting (she actually tells him that). Justin teases her about being a brain, which is shitty. On the other hand, I think we’re supposed to think “Yay, Mal, you do that homework and baby-sitting!” and I feel like I denied myself a lot of fun under similar rationales that in retrospect I regret. Also, if an eleven-year-old is baby-sitting too many hours to take one off for pizza, I think THAT’s the problem. But Sandra sticks up for her, so I guess that’s closure on that issue, too.
The BSC toast her with sugar-free punch, not pizza. Dammit, I want pizza now.
Chapter 14
The end is nigh!
Kristy notebook entry about how the parade “turned out to be a baby-sitter’s worst nightmare!” But don’t get your hopes up-these girls have no damn perspective, considering they’ve been stranded, snowed in, had legs broken, had sick kids, had injured kids, had missing kids-this is nothing. K. Ron is such a drama queen. On the plus side, she asks someone to kick her if she ever suggests a marching band again. I nominate Abby!
Kristy is waiting for kids outside the town hall. The Barrett-DeWitts (minus Lindsay) and the Papadakises (minus Sari) are already there, having arranged with Kristy for her to watch them earlier, but the other terrible slacker parents of Stoneybrook just start dropping kids off willy-nilly. So we’ve got the Hills, the Arnolds (with their own kazoos) and Jamie-and seriously, nice, Mrs. Newton, not even walking your four-year-old over. Aren’t four year olds mostly still in booster seats? (Maybe not in 1997, I guess, but I don’t know that they should be scrambling out of minivans on their own.) Kristy freaks out as she know has thirteen kids to watch, and shrieks when Ryan and Marnie wander a few feet away to watch a squirrel. Jessi and Mal show up with siblings in tow (22 kids) soon joined by the Hobarts (minus Ben) and Jenny Prezzioso, and it sounds like Mrs. P barely even slowed down the car.
Kristy flails and “officially declares the parade a disaster,” which I’m sure makes the kids milling around feel awesome. Stacey and Claudia are due soon, but apparently Mary Anne and Abby were just going to watch like, sure, K. Ron would allow that, and sure Abby would stand still when she could be running around like a maniac. Mallory heads to a pay phone to call MA and Abby and Kristy “barks” to tell them to bring whistles. “Don’t ask why. Just do it.” Mal tells us that when Kristy is stressed out, she gets really bossy. “This was one of those times.”
Jessi comes up with the brilliant suggestion of having the kids practice, while Kristy flails around and yells and is generally useless. I kind of wish Mall or Jessi would mention that they supervised fifteen kids in a parade by themselves, just so K. Ron’s head would explode. Stacey and Claudia show up with Charlotte and Haley Braddock, and is Matt just not allowed to participate because he can’t appreciate the siren strains of "The Stars and Stripes" on kazoos? I’mma fanwank that he’s marching with a cooler group. So, 28 kids and five sitters, which is a lot, but I don’t know that it’s so much more terrifyingly huge than other stupid projects they’ve done, and here the kids are in the same place for the same activity. Of course, to make Kristy’s meltdown a little bit more convincing, the kids act like actual kids and run off to harass clowns and climb on other people’s floats. Hilariously, in the narration Mal says “To make matters worse, the staging around the town hall was starting to fill up with other groups.” How very dare they! So much fun is had with K. Ron screaming at the kids if they so much as scratch a nose. Yeah, I really wish I’d had a Kristy. . .not.
The organizer tries to line them up, calling them by name. Of course they don’t have a name, or so they think-Buddy signed them up as “The Buddy Barrett Marching Band,” which almost causes a riot, but the sheer force of the K. Ron gets all the kids to let it go.
Mary Anne comes by with whistles-she said she would get “all the ones in her house” and send Sharon to buy more. First, if things are so desperate, maybe it would be more useful for Sharon or another adult to actually come help. Second, do most people have a lot of whistles in their houses? Is that a thing?
Kristy shrieks that “her plan” might work and calls a huddle, presumably leaving the children unwatched. Her “plan” is for them to divide up and march along side at different rows, and blow the whistles if a kid starts to wander off. That. . .counts as a plan? Kristy actually has to “sketch it out in the dirt” like a quarterback, because she’s ridiculous. Abby says it’s sounding more like a cattle drive, and Kristy drawls, “That’s right, pardner. And we want to make sure every little calf makes it to the end of this drive.” No one smacks her, and she declares this one of their “toughest assignments.” Whatever.
Blah blah, no one gets lost, everyone thinks the band is “darling,” and Mal claims they play their song 50 times. Just the thought of hearing “your web-footed friend” on kazoos fifty times is making me need a lie-down. So here's a cuter and more talented band!
Click to viewAnd yes, apparently those TODDLERS marched the whole time. Whatever. The kids get delivered back to the parents and the BSC collapse on the lawn exhausted. K. Ron suggests next time they could just watch the parade. No one checks to see if she’s a pod person, but maybe Pod!K. Ron would be a nice vacation, so I can’t blame them.
Chapter 15
Short Takes, reports are back, Mr. Cobb tells Mal she did a lot of research and knows the field. Mal says she wishes she could say she’d made a complete turnaround in terms of participating in class, because she still fears being teased and judged. I kind of feel that although this is realistic, it makes it much easier to leave this as Mallory’s Problem, not Society’s Problem. And as if another BSC girl would be left still feeling that insecure at the end of the book.
Anyway, he gives her a B+ and Mallory thinks that she “finally” got a B and the world hasn’t ended, which is nice and all, but has nothing to do with the damn book.
Letter from Ann
C’mon, did you expect it to mention sexism or feminism or anything? Or even standing up for yourself? Nah. It’s all “I love children’s books! I have picture books in my office! I’m BFFs with Paula Danziger.”
Indeed he does. Indeed he does.
As per usual, I am very suggestible as to future snarks!