I haven’t written in five days… a long time, I know. I do have a reason, of course. School is starting for me so I’ve been busy with registration, settling in, etc. Anyway, I felt that now is a good time to address this issue, a sticky one in the BSC books. The First Day of School.

#10 (Logan Likes Mary Anne!) is the last BSC book with a normal first day. We see Mary Anne excited about her school supplies (a blue binder with dividers for each subject, some gum) and schedule comparisons. After this book, the Stoneybrook Time Warp began and the BSC would be stuck in eighth grade until Graduation Day and go through a billion Christmases, Valentine’s Days, etc.

It gets even weirder around book 100. Here, Kristy is planning the Fall Into Fall Festival Block Party, and everyone feels that with eighth grade starting, they have more work. In 101, Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout, everyone is really excited about starting eighth grade because they feel like the teachers are really starting to treat them like adults. This is pretty stupid because they had already been in eighth grade since #10. I can deal with the Stoneybrook Time Warp, but not to this extent. They could have just said, Oh Claud is just really struggling in school. Instead they had to make this whole big deal about starting eighth grade. Claud should be fine with starting eighth grade by now; she’s done it at least ten times. So, are there any books besides CKMSD where we see the girls starting eighth grade and making a big deal about it? In most books that take place in the summer they just don’t mention the whole grade thing, I think, or just say that the girls are eighth and sixth graders at SMS. Usually I can ignore the time warp, but as I said, this one is particularly annoying.

On another note, here is a quote from Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls that really bugs me: “Now hear this!” shouted Kristy. “No yelling, no running, and no jumping inside this house – and I mean it.” She saw that Rob was about to say something, so she added, “One false move and I’ll punch your lights out. That goes for all of you. Do you hear me?”

OK Kristy, threatening to punch little kids.

Here is another quote that is just funny, from Kristy and the Walking Disaster: They are Claudia Kishi, Mary Anne Spier, Dawn Schafer, Mallory Pike, and Jessi Ramsey, and they are all different and special.

Bleccch.

ETA: I just realized upon rereading this post that I said #10 was MA vs Logan. It most certainly is not. I think that was a typing Freudian slip that displays my intense hatred for Bruno, which I surely will touch on another time.