Ann M. Martin

Feeling like a bit of an ugly duckling after getting glasses and losing a bunch of baby teeth, second grader Karen Brewer thinks that getting a fashionable new haircut will make her feel like her glamorous self again. Except the hairdresser ignores Karen's request and chops off a lot of her hair so that she has a short pixie cut she doesn't like. Further, her friends and classmates also don't like Karen's new hairdo -- they laugh at her and keep her out of their plans. How can Karen respond show more to this?

This book is all about growing pains and those awkward feelings of changing without having any control over it. As someone who once had a hairdresser completely push aside the stated request because it came from an elementary schooler and cut off enough hair to cause tears, I can completely feel Karen's pain! Things that aren't that big of a deal for adults are absolutely a huge deal for young children. Karen tries her best to solve it all on her own, and actually does a pretty good job of settling everything just among the children. Eventually everyone comes to realize that outer beauty doesn't matter when you are still yourself on the inside.

I didn't necessarily super love the ongoing obsession with fellow second graders getting married to one another (nor the tired cliche of a young boy *obviously* having a crush on a young girl if he's rude and teases her), but overall this was an entertaining, quick read. show less

Out of the blue, Missy Piggle-Wiggle gets a note from her great-aunt, asking if Missy could come and stay at the Upside-Down House for a while and take care of the animals. Since Missy has the same sort of magic as her auntie, she's a good fit for the town. After all, even in these days, children are apt to come down with common ailments like tardiness, greediness, or the Whatevers . . . and Missy is just the person for the job.

As soon as I saw this book coming out, I knew it was going to be show more a good fit for me. In my childhood, I read all of the original Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, and everything I could get my hands on by Ann M. Martin (the Baby-Sitters Club series, of course, but my favorite was Ten Kids, No Pets). Going into this book, I felt a little trepidation, but I need not have worried: Martin perfectly captures the whimsical charm and innocent magic of the original series. When I closed the book, I felt as if I had spent a few hours in the world of childhood again. I'm pretty sure this is intended to be the start of a new series, but the episodic nature of the plot means that the conclusion of this book is satisfactory. Recommended to kids who enjoy stories with a little bit of magical fun -- and to adults who harbor nostalgia for Betty MacDonald's classic tales. show less

This little novel is one of the best reading experiences I've had in a long time. The narrative voice of Rose Howard is direct, compelling and sometimes heart-breaking.

Rose is the author of the novel. She sets out to tell her story with structured straight forward honesty, setting out the events and providing the background we need to understand them. She even gives us permission to skip the chapters that experience has taught her we might find boring, like when she explains her rules for show more listing homonyms (which are really homophones but she knows that homonym is an accepted colloquialism and which are even more fascinating that prime numbers).

She tells us about her life , her father's life, why she isn't allowed to ride the school bus any more, her teacher, her classmates, her uncle and the damage that Super Storm, Hurricane Susan did and her dog, Rain (whose name is a homonym: R A I N and R E I G N), who she loves even more than homonyms and who loves her back.

Rose is a high-functioning autistic, so she sees the world differently from most people. As she tells her story, I began to understand the clarity and honesty of Rose's vision and to share her ability to take joy in things that most people don't value (what can I say: I really do enjoy homonyms) and to admire the effort she puts in to communicate with the people around her despite their tendency to break rules and to be mean to each other.

Some of Rose's behaviours are distressing to her and to the people around her. Her ability to experience and express empathy is very limited. She has to work hard to make her behaviour "appropriate" and she does not like to be touched. It does not occur to Rose to feel sorry for herself. This is not to say that she doesn't feel sorrow. She feels it deeply. When she asks what she is supposed to do with the blank spaces in her day that used to be filled by things she loved, I wanted to hold her. I wouldn't have, of course. Rose doesn't like to be touched.

The book is written with a gratifying lack of sentimentality and a complete absence of self-pity which I found made the emotional impact of the book even stronger.

Rose is not a victim. She doesn't need to be rescued. She is a little girl. She needs to love and to be loved back. For everything else, she will make a plan and find a way through.

Years ago, when it was fashionable, I tried to read "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time" and gave up because I felt the autistic child was being used as a clever plot device. "Rain Reign" grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go because it is a book in which a little girl tells her story with complete honesty. The fact that she is a high functioning autistic is no more or less important that that she's a girl, or an American, or that she lives alone with her father.

I strongly recommend the audio version of this book. Laura Hamilton performs Rose perfectly. show less

While reading the History Smashers book about The Mayflower, I remembered this Baby-Sitters Club book that I read as a kid. In Claudia and the First Thanksgiving, they put on a Thanksgiving play at the elementary school. They do lots of research to make it more historically accurate, but then parents get mad and make them change it to a “traditional” Thanksgiving story. They stealthily write “Censored” on all the posters.

That’s what I remembered from my childhood reading of this show more book. But I couldn’t remember what they did in the play that made people mad. I didn’t have my childhood copy, so I looked up the book and downloaded the Kindle edition.

Claudia and the First Thanksgiving felt surprisingly relevant to 2021. When I was a kid, I remember wondering why adults would censor and protest a Thanksgiving play with more historical accuracy. I’m now an adult with kids, and I definitely recognized those parents who are protesting more historically accurate critiques of those who came before us. 25 years later, we’re still having the same problems.

As far as what enraged parents and some faculty about their Thanksgiving play? They brought up women’s rights. They also stated that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and Native Americans observe a day of mourning. They pointed out differences between then and now. They got to keep the more accurate costumes and foods. I guess those didn’t anger the parents.

I’m actually looking at the book cover right now, and wondering if the cover artist read it. Lol.

I hadn’t read a Baby-sitters Club book since middle school, and didn’t have super high expectations for Claudia and the First Thanksgiving to hold up for an adult, but this book was kind of amazing. I remembered a surprising amount of weird details, like when Claudia decides to stir marmalade into her oatmeal, but also considers the option of grape jelly.

One thing that surprised me a little bit was the release date. Claudia and the First Thanksgiving was published in November of 1995, when I would have been in 7th grade. I’m guessing that I must have read this book very soon after its release. I think I started reading BSC books in 4th grade and kept reading them through 8th grade, so this was relatively late in my Baby-sitters Club reading era. I had definitely read at least one hundred Baby-sitters Club books in my life by age 14. I definitely learned about lots of things from BSC books, including diabetes and autism. Re-reading this book reminded me of the idea that maybe we could understand each other better if only everyone read more books. show less