“The
author gratefully acknowledges Mary Lou Kennedy for her help in preparing this
manuscript.” Here we go! Let’s see what Mary Lou can do, huh?
So we’ve gotten some comments that
pictures would add to the enjoyment of the blog and we’re more than willing to
help you, our readers, enjoy what we write even more!
So here’s the original cover….Does
anyone else think that Toby looks like Scott Baio?
…and here’s the revamped
cover. I think they were trying to make
MA look more modest, shy and retiring, but she just looks like she’s…in
pain. Much like I’ll be by the time this
snark is done.
It’s the first day of summer
vacation and everyone is talking about what they’re going to do. MA and Stacey are going back to Sea City
with the Pikes. This year Mal is going
to be paid for helping out, but only part of the time since they want her to
have a vacation too. Dawn is flying to California, which she
hurridly calls her second home after calling it home, much to MA’s chagrin and
tearyness. Claudia’s family is going to Vermont
without Mimi for the first time and they’re trying a different place. Kristy and Jessi, well, they’re stuck at home
carrying out the sitting business. We
get the chapter 2 bit and suddenly MA is crying because everyone will be gone
soon. ~sniff. SOB!
Dawn’s packing up, MA is getting
teary, Richard is concerned about the mess and Sharon is trying to think of where she left
the stamps she bought for the kids. I
find this line interesting: “Dawn was dressed for travelling, which meant she was
wearing a beautiful Laura Ashely dress and had swept her long blonde hair back
in pearl barrettes.” It seems to me that
if she was really dressed for travelling, especially on a plane, she’d be
wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants with comfortable shoes and a pony tail.
They have their teary good-bye at
the airport and MA heads home, where she finally gets to sleep. Her dad rousts
her out of bed and they head over to the Pikes for another teary goodbye. Inconsistency: Last time the Pikes
went to Sea City, they went in August, just before
the beginning of the school year. Now
they’re going just after school let out.
It seems funny they’d change it that much, especially since everyone
else was also vacationing at the same time.
They head out. MA is
in the car with the triplets and Vanessa, who insists on rhyming every thing
that comes out of her mouth, much like Fezzig.
They stop at Howard Johnson and have some ice
cream. MA thinks to herself about how
she used to feel bad about eating sweets in front of Stacey, but now she
doesn’t think about it anymore. Except
that she’s thinking about it. She’s
thinking about it instead of watching the kids.
Claire goes missing and they start searching for her. Mommy Moment: If I
was paying for someone to watch my kids, I’d be mad if my kid.went.missing.
They finally arrive and MA and Stacey begin to unpack. The reminisce about the previous summer,
Scott, and Alex and Toby. Alex and MA
exchanged rings, but that doesn’t mean they’re serious or anything. Obviously not, since she hit Logan
like it was hot just weeks after she returned to Sea City.
She agonizes over a postcard to Logan, has breakfast with the Pikes (it’s amazing how much planning goes into
breakfast for twelve people).
We get a sitting chapter.
Kristy takes the Rodowsky boys to the pool. Jackie drops a cookie in the pool, steps on a
bee, disappears and tries to buy probably $50 worth of food. Common Sense Moment: If
you send an 8-year-old boy to buy lunch, chances are he’s going to be tempted
beyond what he can bear and will try to get as much junk food as he can. I defy you to find a kid anywhere that
wouldn’t.
So MA and Stacey and all the Pike
kids rush down to the beach for a day of fun in the sun. Lo and behold, who should appear, but Toby
and Alex (and 8 tiny reindeer). Turns
out they’re mother’s helpers for a whole month here in this fair town and want
to have some fun. That evening, Stacey
is gushing about seeing Toby and wonders if they’ll ask them out. Mal looks at MA as if to say, “Dude, you have
a boyfriend,” causing MA to blush and
reassure everyone that Logan has nothing to worry about. But she’s worried, because she didn’t even
think about Logan
until now. Mommy Moment: This is why thirteen-year-olds should not have steady
boyfriends. That’s just too young. They don’t even know themselves yet, much
less be mature enough to understand everything that a relationship entails.
Anyway, this whole “asking out”
thing ends in disaster when MA and Stacey both are asked out on the same
night. Stacey tells her to cancel with
Alex very calmly and MA blurts out that Stacey should have asked her before she
made the date. Common Sense Moment: Um Hon, you did the same thing. Stacey gets huffy and flounces off to
finish getting ready to get dressed while MA fumes about how Stacey is so
selfish. And I comment to myself, “This
is the same girl who just chapters before agonized over a postcard to her
boyfriend and a few books ago was certain she would marry said boyfriend
(unless of course he was cheating with a hot chick in Aruba). She’s this concerned about breaking her
date?” Vanessa’s love-sick poetry for IC
Hottie finally rings a warning bell in her head that something isn’t right,
that maybe Vanessa is obsessing over
someone she doesn’t even know. Of
course, the obvious reason they’re having so much trouble is that there are
just too many boys. Mommy Moment: If my nine-year-old daughter was writing love poetry to
a stranger, I’d want to know about it.
There are some scary people out there.
We get a Dawn sitting chapter from Cali. Her dad’s girlfriend unexpectedly arrives
with two kids, but dear old dad had plans.
He unceremoniously dumps them on Dawn to take care of. The eight-month-old has colic and the
three-year-old is bored. Jeff helps out
with the toddler and Dawn rocks the baby to sleep. Mommy
Moment: Either A. Ann’s ghostie has
no idea what she’s talking about or B. this baby should see a gastric
specialist. Colic rarely lasts longer
than 5 months and if your child is older than that, it could indicate
gastrointestinal issues.
So MA and Alex reschedule for
Saturday, but Stacey has once again decided to head out with Toby. MA tells her no and gets ready to go
out. They are headed to a fancy seafood
restaurant. Yes, thirteen-year-olds at a
fancy restaurant ordering lobster and crabcakes. Yes, I’ll take their paychecks please! They end up on the boardwalk and Alex wins
her a purple hippo. MA is floating on
air…until she thinks of Logan.
MA takes the girls into Sea City
the next day. First they shop for a
souvenir for Margo; then they go to Trampoline
Land, where Margo almost
gets sick. Then they go to the putt-putt
golf course. All the while, Vanessa is
whining to go to the Ice Cream Palace.
MA can’t figure out why until Vanessa confesses she’s been three times
to leave poems for IC Hottie. MA is a
little worried and then becomes a lot worried when IC Hottie asks Vanessa to
tell Mallory that he’d love to go out with her Saturday night. Mommy Moment:
Criminy! Do these writers realize Mal’s
eleven???? And IC Hottie is
twelve?? Do they realize it’s against
the law in the majority of states to employ anyone under 14 and illegal to
employ anyone under 16 full time?? This
book would make more sense if it was written about high school seniors. They head home and Vanessa shuts herself in
her room for the rest of the day. MA is very worried about her, but still doesn’t
tell Mrs. Pike about this.
We get a Jessi sitting chapter. Squirt learns what same means and puts the
two hamsters together in the same cage.
This is probably the most realistic chapter in the book.
Stacey picks a fight with MA the
next day and then they all learn that Toby dumped her. He wants to go home and see other people and
not be tied up with her. Common Sense
Moment:
Well, duh, Stacey, you don’t even live in the vicinity of each
other. Did you think you were going to
go steady? MA and Alex have one
last date and neither of them has much to say.
MA blurts something out about Logan;
Alex admits he has a girlfriend too and they both laugh. They decide they’ll be friends forever.
MA arrives home and spies a light
on in Vanessa’s room. She’s awake and
writing another poem to IC Hottie. She’s
“breaking up” with him, without telling him that she was his admirer, not Mal. MA thinks this is a great idea and promises
to help Vanessa get into town before they have to leave in the morning. Then she returns to her room, where Stacey
apologizes for being such a jerk. They
tear up and share a moment before going to sleep.
The next morning is crazy with
packing up, but MA gets Vanessa into town and to the Ice Cream Palace. Vanessa times it just right because she knows
his schedule (STALKER!!) and leaves the poem without a trace of herself.
They arrive home later that day and
MA races into the house to be reunited with her family. Dawn is sleeping off her jet lag so MA calls Logan, the love of her
life. Dawn staggers down and demands
stories, which MA tells her. As she’s
unpacking later that night, she finds a poem from Vanessa about how she’s a
true friend for life. And MA decides
Vanessa will be just fine. The end.
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