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Taffy Sinclair #4
Taffy Sinclair and the Romance Machine Disaster
Jana Morgan finds her relationship with popular Randy Kirwin is threatened when a computer romance game matches up Jana and nine other girls, including her rival Taffy Sinclair, with Randy.
- GenresMiddle Grade
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1987
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Betsy Haynes
122 books109 followersABOUT ME
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 10, 2023
The writing style changes slightly in this installment. While in the first books, it's kind of obvious that Jana is just jealous of Taffy and picking on her, this book strives to make Taffy as annoying as Jana always claimed. All of the girls are annoying here, as they compete for Randy Kirwin's attention. The story parallels with Jana's mom being mad at her boyfriend Pink who is anxious for her to commit to marrying him. At the end, everything works out for Jana as usual, because even though she is a brat and not that pretty, of course the cutest boy in the class chooses her over Taffy.
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June 6, 2024Taffy Sinclair and the Romance Machine
Jana calls an emergency meeting of the Fabulous Five and she gives them the news. Randy Kirwin -the boyf of her dreams- asked her to come to his football game and then out to pizza at Mama Mia’s. This will make Jana the first girl in the sixth grade to get a date and they can’t wait to throw it in Taffy Sinclair’s face. Beth calls her up and disguises her voice and immediately they can tell Taffy is furious. She says it’s a lie and asks who it is. Beth hangs up before she can give herself away -because she’s laughing uncontrollably-. All the girls say they’ll call other girls and spread the word. But later, Jana worries what she and Randy will talk about and her tongue going numb.
All the girls at school are excited and Sara -who says she’d love to be asked out by Randy- makes Jana promise she’ll tell them (her) all about it. Taffy is nowhere in sight. Randy comes in and doesn’t look at jana-she thinks it’s because he’s with some other guys-. Taffy comes in finally and speaks to Randy. She’s looking at Jana furiously. Randy catches Jana’s eye in class and smiles at her -which makes Jana wanna die-.
All during the game Randy glances Jana’s way and keeps giving her smiles. Randy makes a lot of touch downs. They win the game! Jana worries that he’ll want to talk about the three touch downs he made and she doesn’t know anything about football. But she compliments him on them and this seems good enough. They find out they like the same kind of pizza (mushroom, deep dish, pepperoni, green peppers). When they get there, Taffy invites them to sit with her (and Mona) but Jana suggests another table. They find out they also have dogs as a favorite animal in common. The more they talk the more they find out they have in common. They both hate oinions and Brussel sprouts. They both like amusement parks and fireworks on the 4rh.
Melanie and Alexis bombard Jana qith questions in the bathroom, but she tells them she’ll tell them later. Melanie thinks she can get the hook up with Scott because he’s Randy’s friend. They talk and talk. When Randy goes to pay, Jana sneaks the straw in Randy’s cup as a souvenir. The next day, Jana wonders what they’ll say to each other the next day, but Randy doesn’t say anything to her at all. He’s outside tossing a ball around with his friends (Mark and Scott). Curtis does come wp to them and tell them he has a scoop but says he can’t tell them what.
Mrs. Wiggins says they’re going to start a unit on computers. They’re going to do an experiment. They’ll fill out a questionnaire of likes and disklikes and a computer will tell them who they have the most in common with. Jana thinks about how perfect it will be when she and Randy prove to be the perfect match. The first question is what’s your favorite food. Jana thinks of pizza and Randy did say pizza but is it his favorite FOOD. She answers FOOTBALL for what’s your favorite sports because she’s sure it’s Randy’s. One of the questions is whats your favorite cjpre she puts take out the trash. She gets more and more confused thinking of what she’d put verses what Randy would answer. Then she worries he’ll get matched up with someone else.
Melanie wants to match up with Scott. Christie wants to match up with .. a teacher (Mr. Scott). Jana wonders if her parents would have matched up. Then decides they wouldn’t because they had nothing in common but her. The next day, the results are given. Jana matches up with Randy. Alexis matches with Randy. Then allot of girls start saying they got Randy too. Curtis says he got Jana’s name. Taffy smirks and says she got Randy’s name too. Leith and his other friend taunt Randy about getting his girlfriend “Jana-banana”. Jana wishes he’d just hurry up and tell, but he says he’s not gonna tell. Scott says he won’t tell either and then the rest of the boys say if Randy isn’t telling he’s not either.
Melanie gets mad and blames Jana because she was the one Randy was getting teased about by Joel and keith (because he went out with her). Jana dpesm’t see how this is her fault but all the girls are now mad. Nine girls got Randy’s room. Beth also got his name. Jana can’t believe Beth’s had a secret crush on him. Melanie got Taffy vice versa. Christy is mad because no one got her name. Katie’s mad because she got an error. Everyone is mad in the sixth grade but Curtis. Christie thinks they’re all just using her because her mother is the principal.
Taffy announces outside that if Randy must have had someone else’s name (hers). Which pisses off Jana. Then Randy doesn’t look at her the rest of the day. Jana tells her mom all about her day. She’s home sick from coming down with the flu. Jana says maybe Randy is just feeling self-conscious. He was the first to have a date and he matched with half the girls in class. Jana’s mom says she just doesn’t know. Someone rings the doorbell. Jana thinks its Randy but it’s a lady delivering flowers to Jana’s mom. They’re from Pink.
Jana gets the idea to dress up for school-in her plaid skirt and matching sweater- and wear makeup-blue eye shadow-. But then she finds out all the other girls have had the same idea. They all rush Randy -espeically Sara and Alexis- and “give him the homework he dropped”. Taffy and Melanie also approach Randy. Taffy has on makeup and she has a new hairstyle-a curly perm-. She (Taffy) tells him she has something to talk to him about. She whispers something to him and he smiles.
Jana vents to Katie and she says he’s conceited. Jana doesn’t believe this and thinks it just hate. No boys like Katie so how could she know. But then she starts to have second thoughts. Jana hears Melanie asking Taffy if she should get a perm (and complimenting her on hers). Taffy says she’ll be all to happy to show her in the girl’s bathroom how it would look on her. Wiggins sends all the girls to the bathroom to wash off their makeup. She sends Taffy to go with Jana. Taffy tells her Randy didn’t get her name. He’s not telling her because he just doesn’t want to hurt her feelings and he feels sorry for her. She says if he doesn’t ask her to go out with him to the upcoming game for pizza then it’ll show she’s right.
Then Jana thinks about what her mom says. Even tho she tells Taffy he will ask her out again. Jana leaves Taffy in the bathroom vowing she’ll get Randy to ask her out again, Mrs. Wiggins takes them to the Media Center and gives them a lesson on computers. She tells them they can use the computers but never leave them on. Always shut them down when they’re done.
There’s a quiz on the computer’s functions but jana wasn’t listening so she doesn’t even get past the rist question about the cursor. Luckily there’s a fire drill bu when she gets up to leave she realizes she doesn’t know -has to- shut the computer down. Randy waits for her but Curtis is the one that shuts it down for her and then grabs her arm and pulls her out. Jana again talks to her mom. Pink has been calling her off the wall and wants to take her to Ricardo’s-an expensive restaurant-. She says it looks like all the attention is giving Randy the big head. Then Pink calls again and jana has to tell he “she’s sleeping”. Then she asks Jana does she have any objections to them getting married. Jana says no. He then asks her to talk him up to her mother so this will help her make up her mind. Jana says she will. But then she again has second thoughts. Her mother doesn’t seem to want to talk about Pink but maybe she can bring up his good qualities.
Beth calls and asks why she’s mad at her. She reminds her that *all* the girls like him. He’s popular. But he might have gotten her name. Jana tells Beth if she’s her best friend she’ll talk her up to Randy. Hey if it Pink can suggest it. But maybe just Beth won’t be enough. Christy’s still mad. Melanie is getting too close to the enemy. Kate thinks Rany’s conceited. So she decides Christy’s the best choice. So she calls her but she acuses her of calling her trying to butter her up because she wants something because of her mom. Jana gets Christy to agree-but asking for her advice if it’s a good idea-. She gets Melanie to agree-by promising to talk her up to Sctott- and Katie-who thinks it’s silly-. She tells her friends to play up her popularity the next day. She wants Christy to make it seem like Taffy is shady and up to her old tricks. She’s so popular she’s trying to turn the other girls against her. She tells Melanie to tell Rany she saw her rescue a puppy. She doesn’t give Katie anything to do that night.
She tells her mom the next day to take Pink’s flowers to work so everyone can see how caring he is (and sit them on her desk). She goes on to hear about how she’s always liked him and been impressed by him and how nice he is to take her to Ricardos. Her mom just snaps at her and says she’s sick of him and doesn’t want to talk about him anymore. Beth tells Jana (and Katie) the next day she told Randy everything Jana told her to say but just shrugged. Jana says its because he didn’t want her to see how jealous he was. Hr also shrugs off when Christy bad mouths Taffy. At lunch, Randy sits with Alexis, Sara, Kim, and Taffy.
Jana realizes she was wrong about him. Jana goes over to tell him moff. She tells him conceited and she doesn’t care who he got in the match up. He walks out with Taffy. She tries to tell her mom later but she’s upset because Pink didn’t talk to her or eat with her that day. It’s different now that he’s ignoring her. She didn’t see this because he was suffocating her. Jana sees her friends the next day with the other girls (Alexis, Kim, Lisa, and Sara) they all tell Jana she was right. Randy is the most conceited boy they know and not just him all the sixth grade boys. They say if they don’t need them they don’t need them and they should find a way to get even. Jana suggest they go on strike. They won’t let the boys borrow anything anymore.
It works immediately. The boys don’t have any supplie and the girls turn them down..Mrs. Wiggins just smiles and gets on the boys cases. She makes them do their work at the black board. Taffy says she has plenty of paper and pencils and passes it to all nine boys. So they all take their spelling test. Keith asks Jana for help with his math assignment but she ignores him. Taffy also gives the boys the answers to their math problems. After lunch, Kim touches Clarence and starts yelling that she touched a boy so this causes the boys to start chasing the girls. Then they all get in trouble and Clarence rats out the girls to the teacher when she asks what happens. He’s backed up by the boys and the girls jump in. Randy says the problem is she said they didn’t have to tell about the match ups.
Wiggins says the real problem is the computer is just human, but some of them have been acting like big shots and loving the attention and playing hard to get. Then others have been acting like fools trying everything they can to find out who the match ups are. Some have even been acting like the computer is “magic” -in giving them the perfect match-. She says they all got who they wanted. But they all don’t believe it. Jana’s mom tells her she broke her date and starts to go off about why she ever wasted her time on him. He ignored her again. Jana tries to talk him up but her mom is pissed off. Jana says if she thinks Pink is bad Randy is wose. Her mom says men are all alike. Her dad called and says he lost his job because of his drinking again so she’ll have to send him some money. If not he’ll come back and try to live off them.
The next day Melanie is happy. Scott got her name and asked her to Mama Mia’s after the game. Scott also told her Randy didn’t want the attention at first that’s why he didn’t tell whose name he got. He says he’ll tell whose name he got tho when he’s ready. Jana’s mom suggest she talk to Randy. She finds out her mom has been saying hello to him sometimes and Jana is confused why she keeps changing her mind. Melanie asks her to come to the game. All the boys are starting to tell the girls. Jana says no way but then she doesn’t want to just give Taffy to Randy so she agrees to go. Jana notices her mom sneak into the closet to talk on the phone. After a minute, she tells her she decides to forgive him and go to Ricardo’s. She realizes she was just being stubborn and almost ruined their chances.
Jana says she’ll go to the game with Melanie but she’s not talking to Randy. She’s over him! Randy gets hurt during the game. Taffy screams. There’s blood pouring eveyehre but he just has a bloody nose. Taffy leaes. Jana tells herself he’ll be ok and Randy stays on the bench the rest of the game. But this makes him a hero. When they get to Mama Mia’s Taffy is smug. Randy isn’t there on a date with Jana. Jana realizes Rany’s not conceited. They were both stubbon. She then notices Randy has their favorite pizza waiting. Taffy in a fury leaves with Mona. Randy later tells her he had her name all along when he walks her home and kisses her. Jana realizes she doesn’t need a suvenior she has the real thing.
My Thoughts
This one really didn’t make a lot of sense to me. So at first I thought why would Randy *not* say he got Jana’s name? So what he got teased by his friends. He could EASILY have turned this around and told them well at least I can get a girl to go out with me. I don’t see ANY of you all (Keith or Joel) going to Mama Mia’s with anyone. Then I bet they would have gotten defensive and been like “I bet cho I can.” That’s all Randy had to say to get them off him. But I might can undersand how he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Still, I just think it’s dumb to worry about what other people think. This whole situation could have been handled if he would have just OWNED it and said “Yeah I got Jana.” If he would done that they probably would have moved on.
But then the girls blamed Jana for Randy not telling who he got in the match up. What sense did that make? SHE wanted him to tell too. You can’t blame someone else for what someone themselves doesn’t wanna do. Then you can’t trust computer matchups. Mrs. Wiggins said computers are just HUMAN. Really? Computers aren’t human at all. They’re machines. They go by data and what they’re feed. People might look like a good match ON PAPER but you CAN NOT go by that.
Rating: 5
Jana calls an emergency meeting of the Fabulous Five and she gives them the news. Randy Kirwin -the boyf of her dreams- asked her to come to his football game and then out to pizza at Mama Mia’s. This will make Jana the first girl in the sixth grade to get a date and they can’t wait to throw it in Taffy Sinclair’s face. Beth calls her up and disguises her voice and immediately they can tell Taffy is furious. She says it’s a lie and asks who it is. Beth hangs up before she can give herself away -because she’s laughing uncontrollably-. All the girls say they’ll call other girls and spread the word. But later, Jana worries what she and Randy will talk about and her tongue going numb.
All the girls at school are excited and Sara -who says she’d love to be asked out by Randy- makes Jana promise she’ll tell them (her) all about it. Taffy is nowhere in sight. Randy comes in and doesn’t look at jana-she thinks it’s because he’s with some other guys-. Taffy comes in finally and speaks to Randy. She’s looking at Jana furiously. Randy catches Jana’s eye in class and smiles at her -which makes Jana wanna die-.
All during the game Randy glances Jana’s way and keeps giving her smiles. Randy makes a lot of touch downs. They win the game! Jana worries that he’ll want to talk about the three touch downs he made and she doesn’t know anything about football. But she compliments him on them and this seems good enough. They find out they like the same kind of pizza (mushroom, deep dish, pepperoni, green peppers). When they get there, Taffy invites them to sit with her (and Mona) but Jana suggests another table. They find out they also have dogs as a favorite animal in common. The more they talk the more they find out they have in common. They both hate oinions and Brussel sprouts. They both like amusement parks and fireworks on the 4rh.
Melanie and Alexis bombard Jana qith questions in the bathroom, but she tells them she’ll tell them later. Melanie thinks she can get the hook up with Scott because he’s Randy’s friend. They talk and talk. When Randy goes to pay, Jana sneaks the straw in Randy’s cup as a souvenir. The next day, Jana wonders what they’ll say to each other the next day, but Randy doesn’t say anything to her at all. He’s outside tossing a ball around with his friends (Mark and Scott). Curtis does come wp to them and tell them he has a scoop but says he can’t tell them what.
Mrs. Wiggins says they’re going to start a unit on computers. They’re going to do an experiment. They’ll fill out a questionnaire of likes and disklikes and a computer will tell them who they have the most in common with. Jana thinks about how perfect it will be when she and Randy prove to be the perfect match. The first question is what’s your favorite food. Jana thinks of pizza and Randy did say pizza but is it his favorite FOOD. She answers FOOTBALL for what’s your favorite sports because she’s sure it’s Randy’s. One of the questions is whats your favorite cjpre she puts take out the trash. She gets more and more confused thinking of what she’d put verses what Randy would answer. Then she worries he’ll get matched up with someone else.
Melanie wants to match up with Scott. Christie wants to match up with .. a teacher (Mr. Scott). Jana wonders if her parents would have matched up. Then decides they wouldn’t because they had nothing in common but her. The next day, the results are given. Jana matches up with Randy. Alexis matches with Randy. Then allot of girls start saying they got Randy too. Curtis says he got Jana’s name. Taffy smirks and says she got Randy’s name too. Leith and his other friend taunt Randy about getting his girlfriend “Jana-banana”. Jana wishes he’d just hurry up and tell, but he says he’s not gonna tell. Scott says he won’t tell either and then the rest of the boys say if Randy isn’t telling he’s not either.
Melanie gets mad and blames Jana because she was the one Randy was getting teased about by Joel and keith (because he went out with her). Jana dpesm’t see how this is her fault but all the girls are now mad. Nine girls got Randy’s room. Beth also got his name. Jana can’t believe Beth’s had a secret crush on him. Melanie got Taffy vice versa. Christy is mad because no one got her name. Katie’s mad because she got an error. Everyone is mad in the sixth grade but Curtis. Christie thinks they’re all just using her because her mother is the principal.
Taffy announces outside that if Randy must have had someone else’s name (hers). Which pisses off Jana. Then Randy doesn’t look at her the rest of the day. Jana tells her mom all about her day. She’s home sick from coming down with the flu. Jana says maybe Randy is just feeling self-conscious. He was the first to have a date and he matched with half the girls in class. Jana’s mom says she just doesn’t know. Someone rings the doorbell. Jana thinks its Randy but it’s a lady delivering flowers to Jana’s mom. They’re from Pink.
Jana gets the idea to dress up for school-in her plaid skirt and matching sweater- and wear makeup-blue eye shadow-. But then she finds out all the other girls have had the same idea. They all rush Randy -espeically Sara and Alexis- and “give him the homework he dropped”. Taffy and Melanie also approach Randy. Taffy has on makeup and she has a new hairstyle-a curly perm-. She (Taffy) tells him she has something to talk to him about. She whispers something to him and he smiles.
Jana vents to Katie and she says he’s conceited. Jana doesn’t believe this and thinks it just hate. No boys like Katie so how could she know. But then she starts to have second thoughts. Jana hears Melanie asking Taffy if she should get a perm (and complimenting her on hers). Taffy says she’ll be all to happy to show her in the girl’s bathroom how it would look on her. Wiggins sends all the girls to the bathroom to wash off their makeup. She sends Taffy to go with Jana. Taffy tells her Randy didn’t get her name. He’s not telling her because he just doesn’t want to hurt her feelings and he feels sorry for her. She says if he doesn’t ask her to go out with him to the upcoming game for pizza then it’ll show she’s right.
Then Jana thinks about what her mom says. Even tho she tells Taffy he will ask her out again. Jana leaves Taffy in the bathroom vowing she’ll get Randy to ask her out again, Mrs. Wiggins takes them to the Media Center and gives them a lesson on computers. She tells them they can use the computers but never leave them on. Always shut them down when they’re done.
There’s a quiz on the computer’s functions but jana wasn’t listening so she doesn’t even get past the rist question about the cursor. Luckily there’s a fire drill bu when she gets up to leave she realizes she doesn’t know -has to- shut the computer down. Randy waits for her but Curtis is the one that shuts it down for her and then grabs her arm and pulls her out. Jana again talks to her mom. Pink has been calling her off the wall and wants to take her to Ricardo’s-an expensive restaurant-. She says it looks like all the attention is giving Randy the big head. Then Pink calls again and jana has to tell he “she’s sleeping”. Then she asks Jana does she have any objections to them getting married. Jana says no. He then asks her to talk him up to her mother so this will help her make up her mind. Jana says she will. But then she again has second thoughts. Her mother doesn’t seem to want to talk about Pink but maybe she can bring up his good qualities.
Beth calls and asks why she’s mad at her. She reminds her that *all* the girls like him. He’s popular. But he might have gotten her name. Jana tells Beth if she’s her best friend she’ll talk her up to Randy. Hey if it Pink can suggest it. But maybe just Beth won’t be enough. Christy’s still mad. Melanie is getting too close to the enemy. Kate thinks Rany’s conceited. So she decides Christy’s the best choice. So she calls her but she acuses her of calling her trying to butter her up because she wants something because of her mom. Jana gets Christy to agree-but asking for her advice if it’s a good idea-. She gets Melanie to agree-by promising to talk her up to Sctott- and Katie-who thinks it’s silly-. She tells her friends to play up her popularity the next day. She wants Christy to make it seem like Taffy is shady and up to her old tricks. She’s so popular she’s trying to turn the other girls against her. She tells Melanie to tell Rany she saw her rescue a puppy. She doesn’t give Katie anything to do that night.
She tells her mom the next day to take Pink’s flowers to work so everyone can see how caring he is (and sit them on her desk). She goes on to hear about how she’s always liked him and been impressed by him and how nice he is to take her to Ricardos. Her mom just snaps at her and says she’s sick of him and doesn’t want to talk about him anymore. Beth tells Jana (and Katie) the next day she told Randy everything Jana told her to say but just shrugged. Jana says its because he didn’t want her to see how jealous he was. Hr also shrugs off when Christy bad mouths Taffy. At lunch, Randy sits with Alexis, Sara, Kim, and Taffy.
Jana realizes she was wrong about him. Jana goes over to tell him moff. She tells him conceited and she doesn’t care who he got in the match up. He walks out with Taffy. She tries to tell her mom later but she’s upset because Pink didn’t talk to her or eat with her that day. It’s different now that he’s ignoring her. She didn’t see this because he was suffocating her. Jana sees her friends the next day with the other girls (Alexis, Kim, Lisa, and Sara) they all tell Jana she was right. Randy is the most conceited boy they know and not just him all the sixth grade boys. They say if they don’t need them they don’t need them and they should find a way to get even. Jana suggest they go on strike. They won’t let the boys borrow anything anymore.
It works immediately. The boys don’t have any supplie and the girls turn them down..Mrs. Wiggins just smiles and gets on the boys cases. She makes them do their work at the black board. Taffy says she has plenty of paper and pencils and passes it to all nine boys. So they all take their spelling test. Keith asks Jana for help with his math assignment but she ignores him. Taffy also gives the boys the answers to their math problems. After lunch, Kim touches Clarence and starts yelling that she touched a boy so this causes the boys to start chasing the girls. Then they all get in trouble and Clarence rats out the girls to the teacher when she asks what happens. He’s backed up by the boys and the girls jump in. Randy says the problem is she said they didn’t have to tell about the match ups.
Wiggins says the real problem is the computer is just human, but some of them have been acting like big shots and loving the attention and playing hard to get. Then others have been acting like fools trying everything they can to find out who the match ups are. Some have even been acting like the computer is “magic” -in giving them the perfect match-. She says they all got who they wanted. But they all don’t believe it. Jana’s mom tells her she broke her date and starts to go off about why she ever wasted her time on him. He ignored her again. Jana tries to talk him up but her mom is pissed off. Jana says if she thinks Pink is bad Randy is wose. Her mom says men are all alike. Her dad called and says he lost his job because of his drinking again so she’ll have to send him some money. If not he’ll come back and try to live off them.
The next day Melanie is happy. Scott got her name and asked her to Mama Mia’s after the game. Scott also told her Randy didn’t want the attention at first that’s why he didn’t tell whose name he got. He says he’ll tell whose name he got tho when he’s ready. Jana’s mom suggest she talk to Randy. She finds out her mom has been saying hello to him sometimes and Jana is confused why she keeps changing her mind. Melanie asks her to come to the game. All the boys are starting to tell the girls. Jana says no way but then she doesn’t want to just give Taffy to Randy so she agrees to go. Jana notices her mom sneak into the closet to talk on the phone. After a minute, she tells her she decides to forgive him and go to Ricardo’s. She realizes she was just being stubborn and almost ruined their chances.
Jana says she’ll go to the game with Melanie but she’s not talking to Randy. She’s over him! Randy gets hurt during the game. Taffy screams. There’s blood pouring eveyehre but he just has a bloody nose. Taffy leaes. Jana tells herself he’ll be ok and Randy stays on the bench the rest of the game. But this makes him a hero. When they get to Mama Mia’s Taffy is smug. Randy isn’t there on a date with Jana. Jana realizes Rany’s not conceited. They were both stubbon. She then notices Randy has their favorite pizza waiting. Taffy in a fury leaves with Mona. Randy later tells her he had her name all along when he walks her home and kisses her. Jana realizes she doesn’t need a suvenior she has the real thing.
My Thoughts
This one really didn’t make a lot of sense to me. So at first I thought why would Randy *not* say he got Jana’s name? So what he got teased by his friends. He could EASILY have turned this around and told them well at least I can get a girl to go out with me. I don’t see ANY of you all (Keith or Joel) going to Mama Mia’s with anyone. Then I bet they would have gotten defensive and been like “I bet cho I can.” That’s all Randy had to say to get them off him. But I might can undersand how he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Still, I just think it’s dumb to worry about what other people think. This whole situation could have been handled if he would have just OWNED it and said “Yeah I got Jana.” If he would done that they probably would have moved on.
But then the girls blamed Jana for Randy not telling who he got in the match up. What sense did that make? SHE wanted him to tell too. You can’t blame someone else for what someone themselves doesn’t wanna do. Then you can’t trust computer matchups. Mrs. Wiggins said computers are just HUMAN. Really? Computers aren’t human at all. They’re machines. They go by data and what they’re feed. People might look like a good match ON PAPER but you CAN NOT go by that.
Rating: 5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2017
When I first read these books I was obsessed with them. I was the same age and experiencing the same things the characters were. Now, it's funny to read back through and remember computers just becoming a "thing". Our school had just gotten a few, the same as in this story. I shake my head reading about the green and white printer paper and how the kids that had one at home were "nerds". LOL! Good stuff!
Read
July 29, 2020As a kid every Saturday we went to Kmart, and every Saturday my mom would let me buy one thing, and it was ALWAYS a fabulous five book. (The cover looks like a spiral notebook cover... I thought that was very clever)
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
Taffy Sinclair is such a misunderstood character. She was definitely not the nicest person, but I think a lot of that stemmed from insecurity.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it make references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again.
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
Taffy Sinclair is such a misunderstood character. She was definitely not the nicest person, but I think a lot of that stemmed from insecurity.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it make references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again.
January 2, 2023
Not my favorite of the Taffy series but maybeeee the best cover? I'll forever love that gooey-looking pizza.
Jana gets asked out by her biggest crush, Randy, only for mayhem and mind games to commence after their class participates in a computer "matching" program.
The worst part of this book is probably Jana's mom modeling completely immature tactics in her own relationship with her boyfriend Pink, which Jana then imitates.
Jana gets asked out by her biggest crush, Randy, only for mayhem and mind games to commence after their class participates in a computer "matching" program.
The worst part of this book is probably Jana's mom modeling completely immature tactics in her own relationship with her boyfriend Pink, which Jana then imitates.
March 11, 2023
I read this in probably in 5th grade or so. I believe my Grandma S. owned a copy in her library that we grandkids could "check out" (she'd write it down on a pad of paper) and then return to get another book. I have many fond memories of reading with my siblings in Grampa's office in the back of the house where the daybed was.
I had NO idea that the author had so many books featuring Taffy Sinclair and her friends! It might be fun to see if I could get my hands on some of them.
I had NO idea that the author had so many books featuring Taffy Sinclair and her friends! It might be fun to see if I could get my hands on some of them.
May 6, 2020
These girls are all terrible human beings.
January 11, 2024
I loved this book as a kid. I must have read it a thousand times. It put a big smile on my face to read it again.
May 27, 2024
Awful yet strangely compelling.
August 24, 2025
2.5 stars, rounded down. These kids are crazy.
February 24, 2011
This book wasn't as great as I thought it would be. It was all about love and conforming yourself so as to be accepted. I think if it wasn't for the really cute boy in the cover, I wouldn't have liked this book.
We have Jana Morgan who tries her best to get paired up with Randy Kirwan, the most popular guy in school, in this computer compatibility test or something. Instead of answering honestly, she tries putting herself in Randy's shoes and answers the questions like how she'd think Randy would answer them. Pathetic.
What's even more pathetic than that is Jana forcing her friends to talk her up with Randy. Talk about how popular she is getting with the guys, how her enemy's really a mean person, how compassionate and kind Jana is and etc. How pathetic is that?
I did not like Jana. I did like the idea of the computer generated compatibility test and how the girls kind of "revolted" halfway through the book, but other than that, it was a pretty meh book.
We have Jana Morgan who tries her best to get paired up with Randy Kirwan, the most popular guy in school, in this computer compatibility test or something. Instead of answering honestly, she tries putting herself in Randy's shoes and answers the questions like how she'd think Randy would answer them. Pathetic.
What's even more pathetic than that is Jana forcing her friends to talk her up with Randy. Talk about how popular she is getting with the guys, how her enemy's really a mean person, how compassionate and kind Jana is and etc. How pathetic is that?
I did not like Jana. I did like the idea of the computer generated compatibility test and how the girls kind of "revolted" halfway through the book, but other than that, it was a pretty meh book.
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