What do you think?
Rate this book
Fabulous Five #5
The Bragging War
The Fantastic Foursome are constantly bragging, so Beth Barry comes up with a countercampaign and starts telling wild stories about The Fabulous Five. Can "Super XL-mouth" find a way to live up to her claims before The Fabulous Five's reputation is ruined?
- GenresChildrensYoung Adult
Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
1 person is currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Betsy Haynes
123 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 10, 2013
I had very vivid memories of the part where Beth uses stage makeup to cover her mammoth zit and it runs together as she's cheerleading a football game, and turns red so everyone thinks it's blood. Classic.
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.
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.
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.
July 30, 2025
Beth pisses me off
April 11, 2018
The Bragging War
PLOT: Laura McCall (leader of the Fantastic Four Clique) has been going around doing what she does best (bragging) about her father letting her drive his red Maserati (even though she's only 13). This makes Beth Barry furious. So after inviting half the seventh grade girls from WJH to a mysterious slumber party, Beth tries to one up her and makes up a slumber party she's throwing where boys will be invited (a lie because she's been grounded). Only (ssh) the other girls don't know that. So they fall for it and start wishing they'd come to Beth's party. Beth gets called out when Laura and the rest of the girl's show up and gets the reputation of being a big mouth. After a terrifying experience involving a zit during a football game, Beth again sticks her foot in her mouth and tells everyone that Jana is related to the lead singer Trevor Morgan. How will she ever get out of this one? By using Trevor's passion for Indians to her advantage of course.
MY THOUGHTS:
*If you're going to make up a over the top (fake) slumber party and have people buy it you need to have the details worked out. Beth's plan might have worked if she'd also included in the story she was going around telling the girls at school that the party was going to be held in a top secret location. But then she probably would have had to tell Todd, Brian, and Brittany to go along with this in case Laura or any of the others had older brothers and sisters. And some-how going off the impression Beth's family gave me in this book they don't even listen to her half the time. Which is sad but sometimes it is hard to find your voice even in a small family. Or how about she could have gone a step further and not even mentioned a date and just said she was having this elusive party that was so elusive you needed an invite to even know what date it was or when it was. Beth could have done a WAY better job than she did. And she's going to be an actress? They have to be good and improv don't they?
*And Laura's supposed to be the sophisticated one? Her big plans are Tping cute boys houses. That sounds SO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! I'm disappointed in Laura. I'd be expecting something like her flying all the girls to her private island, or to an opening of her own teen night spot, or a month off school to go to Orlando because her Dad has "connections" with the Principal. (Coughs) But even harder to believe is all the girls are excited over this. (Shaking my head). I wouldn't have been excited over this in the seventh grade.
*The ending was TOO EASY! It should not have been that easy to first of all find out what room Trevor was in, much less get to his room PERIOD! If it were that easy to get into his room half of Wacko should have been able to do it.
RATING 6
PLOT: Laura McCall (leader of the Fantastic Four Clique) has been going around doing what she does best (bragging) about her father letting her drive his red Maserati (even though she's only 13). This makes Beth Barry furious. So after inviting half the seventh grade girls from WJH to a mysterious slumber party, Beth tries to one up her and makes up a slumber party she's throwing where boys will be invited (a lie because she's been grounded). Only (ssh) the other girls don't know that. So they fall for it and start wishing they'd come to Beth's party. Beth gets called out when Laura and the rest of the girl's show up and gets the reputation of being a big mouth. After a terrifying experience involving a zit during a football game, Beth again sticks her foot in her mouth and tells everyone that Jana is related to the lead singer Trevor Morgan. How will she ever get out of this one? By using Trevor's passion for Indians to her advantage of course.
MY THOUGHTS:
*If you're going to make up a over the top (fake) slumber party and have people buy it you need to have the details worked out. Beth's plan might have worked if she'd also included in the story she was going around telling the girls at school that the party was going to be held in a top secret location. But then she probably would have had to tell Todd, Brian, and Brittany to go along with this in case Laura or any of the others had older brothers and sisters. And some-how going off the impression Beth's family gave me in this book they don't even listen to her half the time. Which is sad but sometimes it is hard to find your voice even in a small family. Or how about she could have gone a step further and not even mentioned a date and just said she was having this elusive party that was so elusive you needed an invite to even know what date it was or when it was. Beth could have done a WAY better job than she did. And she's going to be an actress? They have to be good and improv don't they?
*And Laura's supposed to be the sophisticated one? Her big plans are Tping cute boys houses. That sounds SO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! I'm disappointed in Laura. I'd be expecting something like her flying all the girls to her private island, or to an opening of her own teen night spot, or a month off school to go to Orlando because her Dad has "connections" with the Principal. (Coughs) But even harder to believe is all the girls are excited over this. (Shaking my head). I wouldn't have been excited over this in the seventh grade.
*The ending was TOO EASY! It should not have been that easy to first of all find out what room Trevor was in, much less get to his room PERIOD! If it were that easy to get into his room half of Wacko should have been able to do it.
RATING 6
Read
June 5, 2016I remember I kept staring at this cover obsessed with the french braid hair lol. I read several Fabulous Fives growing up - they didn't stand out as too interesting and were a little over-dramatic, but they worked for my age group at the time. I liked the clique and the girls involved as they went through different situations at home, school, and together. - this was one of my favorites
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews