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The Double-Digit Club
Worried that her best friend Paige will join the Double-Digit Club when she becomes ten and leave her deserted for the summer, Sarah anxiously awaits the date to see what will become of her friend and their special plans for a fantastic summer together.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
5 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Marion Dane Bauer
171 books186 followersMarion Dane Bauer is the author of more than one hundred books for young people, ranging from novelty and picture books through early readers, both fiction and nonfiction, books on writing, and middle-grade and young-adult novels. She has won numerous awards, including several Minnesota Book Awards, a Jane Addams Peace Association Award for RAIN OF FIRE, an American Library Association Newbery Honor Award for ON MY HONOR, a number of state children's choice awards and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota for the body of her work.
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
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INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
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Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
-------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
-------------------------------------
Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 27, 2012
My favorite part was when Paige never went to the club anymore.the bad part was when she joined it.
September 30, 2025
okay this one surprised me! I almost gave it 3/5 stars because I genuinely wanted the book to go into more detail about Valerie, who was set up as the main antagonist but ended up not being. primarily because she was explicitly a parallel to our MC Sarah. but I decided to give it an extra nudge because I was surprised by the depth of Sarah specifically. it's rare to find a children's chapter book where the protagonist is intentionally a bit of a controlling jerk, and Sarah being an unreliable narrator was really interesting to see. I think there are a few areas that should be embellished, so I recommend adult facilitation of the book's content to support the young audience's understanding. still, this is a good lesson to kids about growing up, and the ending not being a typical happy ending was surprising but welcome. I definitely enjoyed this read even if it was imperfect.
March 7, 2018
i really liked it, it had my name Paige in it so I thought that was really cool and what I learnd from the book is that be your self stick with your friends and enjoy life. I would sugjest this book to people who like action and exsitement. it is a really good and fun book to read I really live this book a lot
December 4, 2018
I really liked this book. Sarah had to learn a lesson. She was faced with a lot of trials but in the end it was all good.
November 6, 2009
Gr. 3-5. In this sharply observed look at the fraught social lives of tween girls, fourth-grade best pals Sarah and Paige make a pact: they'll never join prissy Valerie's Double-Digit Club, a clique open only to 10-year-olds. But when Paige's tenth birthday brings an invitation to become a "DDC" and she accepts, 9-year-old Sarah is left reeling from her friend's abandonment. Bauer gets Sarah's sense of loss laced with disdain just right; she speaks of Paige "going over to Valerie" in terms usually reserved for recruits to the Dark Side. Her friendship with a blind, elderly neighbor offers some solace, but her impulsive decision to "borrow" Mrs. B.'s antique porcelain doll, in a bid to win back doll-enthusiast Paige, feels somewhat forced. Even so, middle-graders will sympathize with how seemingly innocuous errors in judgment can snowball into serious trouble and respond to Mrs. B.'s gentle but firm guidance as Sarah learns the "simple but very complicated" truths about growing up.
June 25, 2008
Format: 116 pages, appx. 22,000 words, third person, past. Style: midgrade realist chicklit.
Sarah is a few months shy of her tenth birthday and she's afraid that her best friend Paige will join the dreaded Double Digit Club, an exclusive group of girls started by her rival Valerie. When Sarah's fears are realized, she sets off on a path to get her friend back, compromising her sense of right and wrong as she lies and steals to find the perfect lure for Paige. Sarah's schemes unravel as the story unfolds forcing her to make hard choices which could damage two of her most precious friendships. In the end, Sarah learns that part of growing up is taking responsibility for choices and having to live with the consequences and changes that occur.
Sarah is a few months shy of her tenth birthday and she's afraid that her best friend Paige will join the dreaded Double Digit Club, an exclusive group of girls started by her rival Valerie. When Sarah's fears are realized, she sets off on a path to get her friend back, compromising her sense of right and wrong as she lies and steals to find the perfect lure for Paige. Sarah's schemes unravel as the story unfolds forcing her to make hard choices which could damage two of her most precious friendships. In the end, Sarah learns that part of growing up is taking responsibility for choices and having to live with the consequences and changes that occur.
January 17, 2016
Bethany Walsh 1/17/15
Title: The Double-Digit Club
Author: Marion Dane Bauer
Genre: RF or Realistic Fiction
Main Characters: Sarah, Page, Miss B, Valerie, Sarah's Mom, and Sarah's Dad
Setting: Sarah's House, Miss B's House, and The Beach
How could turning 10 be so hard?
Sarah's class had a special club and you could only join when you turn 10. Paige and Sarah were only 9 when school was out for the summer. Paige was the first to turn 10 and was invited to join the club. This left Sarah alone and thinking of ways to win Paige back.
If you are struggling with growing up this may be an interesting book to read.
Title: The Double-Digit Club
Author: Marion Dane Bauer
Genre: RF or Realistic Fiction
Main Characters: Sarah, Page, Miss B, Valerie, Sarah's Mom, and Sarah's Dad
Setting: Sarah's House, Miss B's House, and The Beach
How could turning 10 be so hard?
Sarah's class had a special club and you could only join when you turn 10. Paige and Sarah were only 9 when school was out for the summer. Paige was the first to turn 10 and was invited to join the club. This left Sarah alone and thinking of ways to win Paige back.
If you are struggling with growing up this may be an interesting book to read.
October 24, 2010
This is a really good book! I read it when I was in fourth or third grade! This book is about a little girl that is nine turning ten. She is going from nine which is one digit to ten wich is two digits! Now you see how the book got it`s name, Double Digits! I would recommend this book to anyone escpecially if you are nine and turning ten! Lol! But even if yoyu aren`t nine and aren`t turning ten you can still read this book. Because it is a really good and wonderful book!
January 22, 2008
Sarah is dreading the summer because her best friend, Paige will turn 10 before her and is sure to be asked to join the "Double Digit Club" lead by Valerie a girl who doesn't like Sarah.
April 13, 2008
i read this book over and over agian when i was nine!! because i always thought that i would be like the 9 yr old because i was 9. then i thought i would get leftout y the double digiters
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July 3, 2010The Double Digit Club by Marion Dane Bauer (2004)
March 4, 2016
Amazing Book!
April 26, 2009
A good book, but meant for younger readers.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews