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Fabulous Five #32
Class Trip Calamity
Overjoyed when she finds out that Wakeman Junior High is to become a middle school and that she and the other seventh graders will be upperclassmen, Jana soon realizes that her superior attitude could get her into a lot of trouble.
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1992
33 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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 14, 2018
Class Trip Calamity
PLOT: The big news is Wakeman Junior High will now be Wakeman Middle School and all the seventh graders are excited because they'll be the upper-classman next year. Some of the kids decide to drink to celebrate and take it a step further and bring alcohol on their class trip to New York. Jana doesn't approve of any of it and gets pranked because of it. Meanwhile, Laura and Randy bond over a shared secret. And we find out about Laura's problems at home.
MY THOUGHTS:
*Ok Jana's anxiety is a little unnecessary. I know her Dad had alcohol problems, but if she doesn't want to drink on the class trip no-one's making her. A few kids sneaking booze doesn't qualify you for AA. And none of the kids are putting pressure on *her* personally. There's light teasing, but it's nothing that's seriously pushing her to do it. If just the *idea* that people are going to drink gets you that upset, I don't know.
*Shawnie has A LOT of nerve! She was the one Katie let post up at her place when her lying behind ran away from home. Now she's sassing off to her about being scared. WOW!
*It's something VERY shady about Funny's confession. Up until this point I really didn't have a reason to think anything of Jana and Funny's friendship, but as soon as she goes to Funny there was a little dark place in my head that said maybe Funny's not as good a friend as you think. It would make more sense for her (than Melissa) to be the one to prove her friendship to Laura since they probably see her as the betrayer. But then I guess they didn't want to ruin the friendship, but it would have made things a lot more interesting.
*Obviously these kids aren't that bright because if one of the chaperones walks past they can't cover up the strong smell of alcohol with a breath mint or even the fact that they drunk a thermos full of alcohol. None of them are experienced drinkers. One of them is going to get sick or starting acting out of character. -And immediately this does happen.
*And then it took the teacher's a little too long to discover there *was* alcohol.
Rating: 5 This kind of read like an after-school special about the dangers of drinking. Personally-recently even- I've seen the dangers of what alcohol can do but then people are going to drink and too much so I'm not sure if the lesson on these kids was for nothing. Some of them might have looked at Laura and it turned them off-then-. But in the future that little incident will probably go right out their heads. Or it might have done the trick I don't know. I guess tho if anything they learned not to do it on field trips. This book though was overall a quick advertisement about how you shouldn't drink to solve personal problems or be popular. It's kind of old-schoolish. I really today don't know too many people that follow this lesson sadly enough.
PLOT: The big news is Wakeman Junior High will now be Wakeman Middle School and all the seventh graders are excited because they'll be the upper-classman next year. Some of the kids decide to drink to celebrate and take it a step further and bring alcohol on their class trip to New York. Jana doesn't approve of any of it and gets pranked because of it. Meanwhile, Laura and Randy bond over a shared secret. And we find out about Laura's problems at home.
MY THOUGHTS:
*Ok Jana's anxiety is a little unnecessary. I know her Dad had alcohol problems, but if she doesn't want to drink on the class trip no-one's making her. A few kids sneaking booze doesn't qualify you for AA. And none of the kids are putting pressure on *her* personally. There's light teasing, but it's nothing that's seriously pushing her to do it. If just the *idea* that people are going to drink gets you that upset, I don't know.
*Shawnie has A LOT of nerve! She was the one Katie let post up at her place when her lying behind ran away from home. Now she's sassing off to her about being scared. WOW!
*It's something VERY shady about Funny's confession. Up until this point I really didn't have a reason to think anything of Jana and Funny's friendship, but as soon as she goes to Funny there was a little dark place in my head that said maybe Funny's not as good a friend as you think. It would make more sense for her (than Melissa) to be the one to prove her friendship to Laura since they probably see her as the betrayer. But then I guess they didn't want to ruin the friendship, but it would have made things a lot more interesting.
*Obviously these kids aren't that bright because if one of the chaperones walks past they can't cover up the strong smell of alcohol with a breath mint or even the fact that they drunk a thermos full of alcohol. None of them are experienced drinkers. One of them is going to get sick or starting acting out of character. -And immediately this does happen.
*And then it took the teacher's a little too long to discover there *was* alcohol.
Rating: 5 This kind of read like an after-school special about the dangers of drinking. Personally-recently even- I've seen the dangers of what alcohol can do but then people are going to drink and too much so I'm not sure if the lesson on these kids was for nothing. Some of them might have looked at Laura and it turned them off-then-. But in the future that little incident will probably go right out their heads. Or it might have done the trick I don't know. I guess tho if anything they learned not to do it on field trips. This book though was overall a quick advertisement about how you shouldn't drink to solve personal problems or be popular. It's kind of old-schoolish. I really today don't know too many people that follow this lesson sadly enough.
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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.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews