brittneycloyd's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't read the BSC books in order, nor did I read all of them. Instead, I picked up those books that interested me, especially those narrated by Mary Anne, Dawn, or Mallory (since they were my favorite characters). I remember being excited to read this one, and, surprisingly, I remembered many details from the book during this reread. However, I don't remember loving this one.
Both now and in my youth, I love books set in boarding schools. But the plot on this one was thin, and the writer (who I'm pretty sure is a ghostwriter at this point in the series) tried too hard to sound young and hip. This is children's fiction, and it's not supposed to be profound or literary. But it didn't have to be so unrealistic and annoying, either.
I think the earlier BSC books were better. There weren't so many characters, and therefore the 2nd chapter's introduction of characters wasn't as annoying. The author(s) hadn't yet run out of plot points. This book almost seemed like they needed to "kill off" a character, but since this is children's fiction, they sent her to boarding school instead. And then they gave her some really lame drama, Mallory whined a lot, and the readers were happy to see her go. Good riddance, Mallory! I'll stick to the earlier books, in which you are a baby-sitting charge, from now on.
Both now and in my youth, I love books set in boarding schools. But the plot on this one was thin, and the writer (who I'm pretty sure is a ghostwriter at this point in the series) tried too hard to sound young and hip. This is children's fiction, and it's not supposed to be profound or literary. But it didn't have to be so unrealistic and annoying, either.
I think the earlier BSC books were better. There weren't so many characters, and therefore the 2nd chapter's introduction of characters wasn't as annoying. The author(s) hadn't yet run out of plot points. This book almost seemed like they needed to "kill off" a character, but since this is children's fiction, they sent her to boarding school instead. And then they gave her some really lame drama, Mallory whined a lot, and the readers were happy to see her go. Good riddance, Mallory! I'll stick to the earlier books, in which you are a baby-sitting charge, from now on.
peachani's review against another edition
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
finesilkflower's review against another edition
5.0
Mallory goes to boarding school.
This book depicts Mallory's first few weeks at Riverbend, a private boarding school in Massachusetts to which she is (unbelievably) admitted as a mid-year full scholarship student. The school is described idyllically. The classes are small, interdisciplinary, project-based, and engaging. Extracurricular activities are abundant. Students give back to the community through volunteer work. The student body is talented, precocious, creative, and driven. Academically, Mallory is in heaven. And while she was worried about the social aspect because of the ways she was bullied in Stoneybrook Middle School and because of her dependence on the BSC, she finds it easy to make friends here, quickly becoming close with sweet fellow new kid Samita and outgoing actress Sarah Bernhardt (I know).
But it isn't all sunshine and roses: Mallory clashes with her roommate, a mercurial and obnoxious rich girl who seems hell-bent on driving Mallory out of the dorm. In a final conflict resolution attempt with an RA, Mallory is shocked to learn that her roommate is jealous of HER because of the way SHE has thrived socially. She just thought of herself as a nerd who values friendship, but here, that makes her popular.
I enjoyed this in-depth window into Mallory's new world, and I admire the way this book gamely goes in-depth into a totally different setting with a totally different cast of characters. The new characters felt like old friends almost immediately. Riverbend is a little too unbelievably perfect, but that's okay. It's escapism. I think a lot of nerds spend time on academic daydreaming - designing the perfect school in your mind - and I don't think it's a totally fruitless exercise. Some of those kids will go on to be educators and reformers and thinkers about how to improve systems. There are also aspects of Mallory's new world that feel very much like college, such as choosing classes and clashing with roommates, and it's always thrilling for precocious K12 students to get a taste of that life.
Read as a kid? I don't think I read this one until I was in my 20s, which is too bad. I would have adored this one as a kid. I loved books set in college.
This book depicts Mallory's first few weeks at Riverbend, a private boarding school in Massachusetts to which she is (unbelievably) admitted as a mid-year full scholarship student. The school is described idyllically. The classes are small, interdisciplinary, project-based, and engaging. Extracurricular activities are abundant. Students give back to the community through volunteer work. The student body is talented, precocious, creative, and driven. Academically, Mallory is in heaven. And while she was worried about the social aspect because of the ways she was bullied in Stoneybrook Middle School and because of her dependence on the BSC, she finds it easy to make friends here, quickly becoming close with sweet fellow new kid Samita and outgoing actress Sarah Bernhardt (I know).
But it isn't all sunshine and roses: Mallory clashes with her roommate, a mercurial and obnoxious rich girl who seems hell-bent on driving Mallory out of the dorm. In a final conflict resolution attempt with an RA, Mallory is shocked to learn that her roommate is jealous of HER because of the way SHE has thrived socially. She just thought of herself as a nerd who values friendship, but here, that makes her popular.
I enjoyed this in-depth window into Mallory's new world, and I admire the way this book gamely goes in-depth into a totally different setting with a totally different cast of characters. The new characters felt like old friends almost immediately. Riverbend is a little too unbelievably perfect, but that's okay. It's escapism. I think a lot of nerds spend time on academic daydreaming - designing the perfect school in your mind - and I don't think it's a totally fruitless exercise. Some of those kids will go on to be educators and reformers and thinkers about how to improve systems. There are also aspects of Mallory's new world that feel very much like college, such as choosing classes and clashing with roommates, and it's always thrilling for precocious K12 students to get a taste of that life.
Read as a kid? I don't think I read this one until I was in my 20s, which is too bad. I would have adored this one as a kid. I loved books set in college.
sammah's review against another edition
4.0
And then, just like that, Mallory Pike is banished forever from the BSC-verse! In Friends Forever she is briefly mentioned, at least in the first book, but we are left to more or less imagine what becomes of Mallory from this point onward. I like to imagine she was happy, learned a lot, made good grades, and got herself into a badass women's lit college.
You go, Mallory!
Also there were only a couple of baby-sitting chapters, and they revolved around the Pike kids. I can accept that. It was a beautiful thing.
You go, Mallory!
Also there were only a couple of baby-sitting chapters, and they revolved around the Pike kids. I can accept that. It was a beautiful thing.
ssshira's review against another edition
4.0
in this book by ghostwriter [a:Ellen Miles|286072|Ellen Miles|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], mal finally goes to boarding school. riverbend is a girls’ school with buildings named after famous women (see the list below) and it’s a collective where everyone takes turns doing jobs on campus and everyone has to volunteer in the community and they call the teachers by their first names. basically it’s evergreen college for middle and high schoolers. mal’s roommate alexis is really controlling; she won’t make space for mal’s stuff, tells her who to hang out with, tells her what to wear, etc. meanwhile mal makes friends with a couple drama nerds, smita and sarah, and alexis doesn’t seem to have any friends. and it’s no wonder. at one point she reads mal’s journal and is unapologetic about it. she tells mal she won’t read it again because it wasn’t even interesting. gradually, we find out that alexis has already had two roommates this school year. one left school, and the other ended up moving into a single. mal tries to avoid her but when they eventually see each other alexis acts butthurt. mal talks to her RA who tells her to talk to alexis about it. unsurprisingly, it exacerbates the problem. mal gets a care package from the bsc and leaves it on her bed, and later comes back to the room to find alexis has completely destroyed it. FINALLY the adults seem to get that this a serious issue and they intervene. no, they don’t take any kind of disciplinary measure with alexis -- that would be too rational! instead, they ask alexis’s old roommate, the one who’s now in the single, to move into mal’s room so alexis can have the single. the subplot is that the pike siblings fight over who gets mal and vanessa’s room, since up to this point all four boys share one room. jordan and adam want the triplets to get their own room, but byron doesn’t care because he’s too chill for this crap. so eventually byron ends up sharing margo and claire’s room with nicky, adam and jordan move into mal and vanessa’s room, and all four girls (vanessa, margo, claire, and mal when she’s in town) will share the boys’ big room.
highlights:
-the bsc gives mal a certificate that she's an honorary member for life, then they talk about all of the best mal babysitting memories, sort of like [b:The Baby-Sitters Remember|2004357|The Baby-Sitters Remember (The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special, #11)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1216362102s/2004357.jpg|2008257]
-vanessa, musing to herself after mal leaves: "it's so tragic. mallory was the world to me." mary anne points out that she's not dead. vanessa says, "I didn't think you'd understand. after all, you've never lost a dear sister." (but of course dawn moved away, so mary anne relates, but LOL)
-alexis’s crap is all over the room, including posters of "scary-looking rock stars" (god I wish I knew who this was about)
-mal notes that it's nice being at a school where everyone is a girl, in part because of situations like what happened with mr. cobb in that short takes class ([b:Don't Give Up, Mallory|371081|Don't Give Up, Mallory (The Baby-Sitters Club, #108)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387740974s/371081.jpg|361048])
-it’s fun to read about all of mal's classes and how much more compatible they are with her learning/engaging style. her english class is focused on short stories, and her french is immersive which she likes, and she's taking an elective on writing plays
-dude, when alexis tells mal she won’t read her journal again because it was boring, it’s just...GENIUS. I’m sure it is boring (“I’m mad at jessi because she said she likes palomino arabians better than silver dapple clydesdales!”) but also it’s just so COLD how she says it. and mal is pissed.
-mal is sort of sympathetic about alexis, because she doesn't have any friends and mal has made tons of friends in one week. I love mal. she’s probably the bsc member who is the most decent human, because only she or stacey (or mary anne, but for the wrong reasons) would ever be sympathetic to someone who was being a jerk to her in a situation like this.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-the school is in easton in western massachusetts, twenty miles from stockbridge in the berkshires. in actuality easton, ma is in eastern massachusetts, in the boston-providence metro area.
-jen (alexis's old roommate/mal’s new roommate) says about herself, "here I am, a nice, friendly jewish girl from boston. what's not to like? but alexis didn't give me a chance." why did she mention that she was jewish in that context? I mention that I’m jewish all the time, but I still wouldn’t think to mention that I’m jewish in that context.
-riverside students volunteer at the easton library for a program where parents drop off their kids for a movie festival. uhh..librarians aren't babysitters. they don't do that shit. I hate books like this because people already think it's our job to babysit their effing children, and it's NOT.
-the biggest issue: why in the world doesn’t the RA or dean intervene way earlier? alexis clearly has serious mental health problems (I think she’s got bipolar ii or maybe even borderline personality disorder) and they already knew about that. why did they force their new student to room with her? why wasn’t alexis the one who got stuck in a single when she was impossible to get along with? finally, how is it that there are singles for some of the 6th graders but not for others?
buildings named after important women at riverbend:
-amelia earhart (dorm)
-elizabeth cady stanton (dorm)
-sojourner truth (dorm)
-barbara jordan (dorm)
-georgia o'keeffe (art)
-marie curie (science)
-katharine hepburn (drama)
alexis outfit:
-"She wore a black sweater, a short black skirt, and black high-tops...Her jewelry? Well, I bet you can guess she wasn't wearing unicorn earrings or a smiley-face ring. No, she wore tiny black metal hoops, three in one ear, two in the other."
sarah outfit:
-"She was dressed in flowing purple clothes--a long skirt and a silky shirt that seemed to shimmer when she moved."
no claudia outfits. no snacks in claudia’s room.
highlights:
-the bsc gives mal a certificate that she's an honorary member for life, then they talk about all of the best mal babysitting memories, sort of like [b:The Baby-Sitters Remember|2004357|The Baby-Sitters Remember (The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special, #11)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1216362102s/2004357.jpg|2008257]
-vanessa, musing to herself after mal leaves: "it's so tragic. mallory was the world to me." mary anne points out that she's not dead. vanessa says, "I didn't think you'd understand. after all, you've never lost a dear sister." (but of course dawn moved away, so mary anne relates, but LOL)
-alexis’s crap is all over the room, including posters of "scary-looking rock stars" (god I wish I knew who this was about)
-mal notes that it's nice being at a school where everyone is a girl, in part because of situations like what happened with mr. cobb in that short takes class ([b:Don't Give Up, Mallory|371081|Don't Give Up, Mallory (The Baby-Sitters Club, #108)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387740974s/371081.jpg|361048])
-it’s fun to read about all of mal's classes and how much more compatible they are with her learning/engaging style. her english class is focused on short stories, and her french is immersive which she likes, and she's taking an elective on writing plays
-dude, when alexis tells mal she won’t read her journal again because it was boring, it’s just...GENIUS. I’m sure it is boring (“I’m mad at jessi because she said she likes palomino arabians better than silver dapple clydesdales!”) but also it’s just so COLD how she says it. and mal is pissed.
-mal is sort of sympathetic about alexis, because she doesn't have any friends and mal has made tons of friends in one week. I love mal. she’s probably the bsc member who is the most decent human, because only she or stacey (or mary anne, but for the wrong reasons) would ever be sympathetic to someone who was being a jerk to her in a situation like this.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-the school is in easton in western massachusetts, twenty miles from stockbridge in the berkshires. in actuality easton, ma is in eastern massachusetts, in the boston-providence metro area.
-jen (alexis's old roommate/mal’s new roommate) says about herself, "here I am, a nice, friendly jewish girl from boston. what's not to like? but alexis didn't give me a chance." why did she mention that she was jewish in that context? I mention that I’m jewish all the time, but I still wouldn’t think to mention that I’m jewish in that context.
-riverside students volunteer at the easton library for a program where parents drop off their kids for a movie festival. uhh..librarians aren't babysitters. they don't do that shit. I hate books like this because people already think it's our job to babysit their effing children, and it's NOT.
-the biggest issue: why in the world doesn’t the RA or dean intervene way earlier? alexis clearly has serious mental health problems (I think she’s got bipolar ii or maybe even borderline personality disorder) and they already knew about that. why did they force their new student to room with her? why wasn’t alexis the one who got stuck in a single when she was impossible to get along with? finally, how is it that there are singles for some of the 6th graders but not for others?
buildings named after important women at riverbend:
-amelia earhart (dorm)
-elizabeth cady stanton (dorm)
-sojourner truth (dorm)
-barbara jordan (dorm)
-georgia o'keeffe (art)
-marie curie (science)
-katharine hepburn (drama)
alexis outfit:
-"She wore a black sweater, a short black skirt, and black high-tops...Her jewelry? Well, I bet you can guess she wasn't wearing unicorn earrings or a smiley-face ring. No, she wore tiny black metal hoops, three in one ear, two in the other."
sarah outfit:
-"She was dressed in flowing purple clothes--a long skirt and a silky shirt that seemed to shimmer when she moved."
no claudia outfits. no snacks in claudia’s room.
liannakiwi's review against another edition
1.0
(LL)
Not only was this book pointless, but it reinforced bad behavior. Alexis acted out and was a brat to everyone because she didn’t want a roommate. What did they do to “solve” the situation? She had no punishments and ended up getting to live in a single room, which is what she wanted the whole time. Bullshit. This is in no way, shape, or form the correct way to show kids how a difficult student should be handled.
Also, the Pike kids took over the subplot by arguing who should get to have their own room. Umm really? Mallory will have to come home for summer and winter break, which adds up to about 4 months of time she’ll be living at home. There was no reason, other than the writers not being able to think of any other drama to write about, for the kids to think they could fight over who got the room. Pointless and boring.
Not only was this book pointless, but it reinforced bad behavior. Alexis acted out and was a brat to everyone because she didn’t want a roommate. What did they do to “solve” the situation? She had no punishments and ended up getting to live in a single room, which is what she wanted the whole time. Bullshit. This is in no way, shape, or form the correct way to show kids how a difficult student should be handled.
Also, the Pike kids took over the subplot by arguing who should get to have their own room. Umm really? Mallory will have to come home for summer and winter break, which adds up to about 4 months of time she’ll be living at home. There was no reason, other than the writers not being able to think of any other drama to write about, for the kids to think they could fight over who got the room. Pointless and boring.
natep's review against another edition
2.0
Honestly, I found Mallory very annoying and whiny. I felt the beginning, before she got to school, was incredibly boring.
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