FF #4: Claudia and the Friendship Feud (Ch. 1-5)

[joykilldrama]

Well I’m back again with the Friends Forever series as I continue my snark on the entire series. Hopefully this book will be easier than Mary Anne’s Break Up. After all, while this series does have the girls acting more realistically, it does seem like just the title will make it easier. Also, this book is ghostwritten by Laura Dower. After a quick

Comments

[shatisarockgod]

Ditto with what I said about the Mary Anne cover, I'm just not picking up Claudia vibes from this model either. Yeah, I think the lack of crazy clothes is another thing throwing me off

[joykilldrama]

I have a headcanon that the reason they tell her NOT to read the Nancy Drew books is to make the seem forbidden so she'll read anything. It also let's them try to encourage her to read other books as well. You know they all have to know that she's reading Nancy Drew.

[author_by_night]

As an adult I always took the Nancy Drew thing to mostly mean they're supposed to be on the literary elitist end of things (the sort who make snide remarks about adults who read books like Harry Potter), but that's also an interesting headcanon. I may adopt it.

What grade level* is Nancy Drew? I tried the books at about Claudia's age and while they did seem a bit "young" to me, I'd still say they were middle grade, which is probably what Claudia's reading level is anyway.

*In theory, I mean, I actually have issues with grade level designations, but that's another rant.

[joykilldrama]

From what I've seen in an incredibly quick google search, Nancy Drew is between a 6-8 grade reading level.

And the only reason I don't believe that they are literary snobs is the fact that they seem to encourage Claudia to do the things she loves and Rioko seemed very against book banning in Mary Anne and the Library Mystery. Which makes me think that they actively encourage her to read other books while 'banning' Nancy Drew so they'll be forbidden and she'll read SOMETHING.

And we know that her parents have to know she's still reading them because several time her mother brings her books that are a tiny more advanced or simply not Nancy Drew on the grounds that as she likes Nancy Drew, she might like these detective books. I can't recall the exact book that happened in, but I think it happened at least twice.

[anabellabobella]

We have an Asian girl standing in front of a closet looking pensive.

She looks Native American. Her complexion is awfully dark which, combined with her double eyelid fold (more noticeable on the cover of Claudia Gets her Guy, which has the same model, which you can conclusively tell my her hair line) indicates she's not Asian. Wouldn't be the first time a girl in the BSC was racially miscast. Look at BSC-TV-series Claudia. Isn't she straight-up white?

Since when does Vanessa take ballet?

Since when do 9-year-old ballet classes have emergency rehearsals?

I think these books are showing that Ann wasn't reading the regular series books. She has no clue what the characters do or who they are.

[zimathestrange]

She is probably Asian, but maybe Filipino instead of Japanese, or even a mix of the two.

[metamorphstorm]

“However, they do not decide to leave the theater, which is a bit more mature than I expected. They also are not crawling down the aisle to spy on them, but I guess that was always more Dawn’s style than anyone else’s . . . Stacey thought that Dawn was in California and therefore she wouldn’t be stalked on this particular date.” - LOL, that’s brilliant. I’m surprised that the writer doesn’t have a spying scene; the BSC books had an awful lot of them (which I, as a kid, totally loved).

“Claudia recaps what happens and MA tells her basically to let it go. MA actually suggests going to say hi and Claudia is very firm in her ‘no’.” - Aside from wasting ten or twenty books angsting over Logan, Mary Anne did handle her breakup pretty maturely; she didn’t avoid him, awkward as it was to see and talk to him, and she didn’t obsess over his other potential girlfriends. At least, that’s how it seemed to me . . . but then, Mary Anne didn’t have to deal with her best friend walking around kissing the guy. But I’m biased; Logan kinda seemed like a

[metamorphstorm]

I hadn’t realized I’d already read this, and it’s funny what two years changes - mostly I wanted to respond to different things this time, apparently, lol

- MA actually suggests going to say hi and Claudia is very firm in her no. -

And they say Mary Anne’s the sensitive one. I don’t think she remembers how she acted after breaking up with Logan, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t go up and say ‘hi’ to him when she saw him on a date with another girl. (To be fair, I think I remember that she considered doing so before deciding she wasn’t ready.)

- Anyway, there’s a crash coming from Adam and Jordan’s room and Claudia goes to investigate. The boys aren’t opening the door and when Claudia finally convinces them to, Frodo flees for his dear hamster life. -

Reason #20 that hamsters are NOT pets meant for children. Especially Pikes.

Also, were the Pike parents dumb enough to allow their kids (especially four sharing one room) the ability to lock their doors, or was Claudia just not smart enough to think of trying the doorknob?

- Claudia