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18 Pine St. #1
Sort of Sisters
With her too-perfect cousin Tasha moving in with her family and attending her school, Sarah Gordon worries that her junior year at Murphy High will be spent competing with Tasha.
- GenresYoung Adult
Library Binding
First published August 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 24, 2022
Wow! I vaguely remember seeing books from this '90s YA series back in the day. I'm pretty sure someone I know used to read copies from the library.
The other day, when I saw a book description calling 18 Pine St., a series created by Walter Dean Myers, "the first major young adult series to focus on multicultural characters," I was curious to see if "multicultural" would be a code word for "Black." As I got into this first book, I did indeed find the core gang of friends to be multicultural, matching the back cover picture.
It's clearly the type of book that would be "coolest" for preteen kids to read while they'd still only be imagining what high school would be like. I found this story to be fairly interesting, though I couldn't get the best grip on the writing style. It's easy to read, of course, but for lack of a better way to put it, I couldn't tell at first exactly where certain details and comments were coming from, and then they wouldn't feel spot-on when they landed. The characters' actions and reactions didn't always seem to mesh right away either.
Still, even given the '90s setting and YA trends back then, this short novel isn't quite as corny as I thought it might be. Some parts are even genuinely funny, and it's a positive read overall.
I plan on seeing if any more 18 Pine St. books are still around.
The other day, when I saw a book description calling 18 Pine St., a series created by Walter Dean Myers, "the first major young adult series to focus on multicultural characters," I was curious to see if "multicultural" would be a code word for "Black." As I got into this first book, I did indeed find the core gang of friends to be multicultural, matching the back cover picture.
It's clearly the type of book that would be "coolest" for preteen kids to read while they'd still only be imagining what high school would be like. I found this story to be fairly interesting, though I couldn't get the best grip on the writing style. It's easy to read, of course, but for lack of a better way to put it, I couldn't tell at first exactly where certain details and comments were coming from, and then they wouldn't feel spot-on when they landed. The characters' actions and reactions didn't always seem to mesh right away either.
Still, even given the '90s setting and YA trends back then, this short novel isn't quite as corny as I thought it might be. Some parts are even genuinely funny, and it's a positive read overall.
I plan on seeing if any more 18 Pine St. books are still around.
August 5, 2019
Remember this series from my childhood. I had to go back to read it all over again
January 10, 2011
I'll blog about this later
November 12, 2011
I read every book in this series as a teenager and loved every one of them!
October 13, 2022
Sort of Sisters
Plot: Sarah, Cindy, and Kwame discuss Sarah’s dad going to the board with a request to supply money for video equipment for his school Hamilton High (a remedial school for students) Since it’s likely the board won’t grant the request, Sarah wants to have a talent show at their school Murphy High and giving Hamilton the money Kwame leaves (agreeing to help make fliers). Jennifer joins them (the rich girl of the clique). They all discuss Sarah’s cousin from California who’ll be moving in with them because her parents died in a car accident. Sarah admits she doesn’t know her very well.
Tasha is beautiful but she has a chip on her shoulder. She gets offended by Sarah’s attempt to introduce her to her friends and mistakes it as they all think of her as a charity case. Her mother, father, and Grandmother (Miss Essie) tell Sarah to give Tasha time. Dave and Kwame are sweating Tasha’s soccer skills, and it gets to Sarah. She and Dave over the summers started feeling each other and she made a personal move. And Kwame has only ever had eyes for her. Tasha knows about her and Dave but she doesn’t seem to care because she flirts with him in front of her. Tasha invites them all over to dinner. After dinner, Tasha says she thinks Hamilton should put on their own talent show since they’re the ones trying to raise the money. She invited a cute new guy from school named Roy and says he can direct it and they can give the Hamilton students suggestions. Tasha seems interested in Roy, but Roy asks *Sarah* out on a date. Feeling hurt and angry Sarah kisses Roy and accepts.
Sarah confronts Tasha, and Tasha accuses Sarah of being controlling. Roy turns out to be a bit too aggressive for Sarah. He takes her to a fancy Italian restaurant and a movie. But she isn’t ready for Wine at his uncle’s place. Instead, she feels guilty for running into Dave at the movies (who turned his back on her). Sarah is even more so convinced that helping the Hamilton kids is the right thing to do when two of the students stop by (Kiki *who wants to be an actress* and Steve). Sarah tries to make amends with Tasha but they just end up having a fight about the talent show. Sarah thought Tasha would be like a sister. Tasha is too stubborn and sees Sarah’s intentions as turning her into a project to control. Sarah gets a couple of calls from Roy and one from Kiki.
She calls Roy back and makes up an excuse why she can’t go out with him and he gets pissed and hangs up. She calls Kiki and finds out she’s decided to have an auction. Then she gets good news that Miss Essie is going to audition for a role on a tv pilot.
At school, Dave is getting a lot of shit talk from an article from a rival player. Kwane drops the bomb Tasha is helping Dave get ready for a big game coming up. Sarah decides she’s over Roy and Dave, but yet tells Roy she’ll think about going out with him again. Kiki calls and says no one will promote the auction so Sarah calls the newspaper and asks for the sports desk. Sarah goes to the game to root for Dave but instead has a breakdown in the restroom because she’s there with the wrong guy and she couldn’t get the newspaper interested in the auction. Tasha sends her home after reassuring her that Dave is into her and saying she has something to tell her later. The gang comes by later and Dave says they lost but they get another chance to play Strikland next month. Then Mr. Gordan has to rush out because Steve got arrested for grand auto theft. He fears it’ll be just what the board needs to refuse the request for the video equipment. After that Tasha tells Sarah she was intimidated by her because she seemed to have the perfect family and hers was absentee. They hug and it’s all good between them now.
There’s a big mess over they can’t hold the auction (which is them auctioning services) because of Steve and they also aren’t allowed to do it apart from the school. Roy offers to speak to a publicity person *when* Sarah is ready to go out with him again. Sarah confides in April and Cindy and they tell her to drop Roy and just ask Dave out. Sarah takes the plunge and asks Dave out and he says yes. It turns out a lot of people that own small Sarah and businesses in the neighborhood went to Hamilton and are willing to hire the kids for a day to help out. Sarah and Dave’s date is a little awkward at first. He’s a little distant but then he admits how much he likes her and after that, they’re both in luuuv. They end up making two thousand dollars and seventeen cents from the auction. Steve really was just fixing the lady’s car and taking it for a test drive but he got stopped by the cops for not having a license.
My Thoughts: This was a great series that I discovered a long time ago, and has sat with mostly all the books in the series on my favorite shelf (shelves).
A nice normal family (The Gordan’s) that have have two talented and SANE teenage girls (unlike two blond twins with one being a pycho-path and getting into insane situations). These characters have REAL LIFE problems and situations that are REALISTIC! When you think all the other series that were made into television shows like (The Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High) it just makes me wonder why this wasn’t picked up as a series that could have fit in perfectly with shows like (Family Matters, and South Central, and Sister Sister and Moesha. It would have been nice to see an African-American teenage series picked up and given some air time. If I could develop a station based on things from the past (and this is a dream of mine.
I liked all these characters. Tasha did rub me the wrong way for a minute because it just seemed selfish for her for no good reason to say “Oh that’s their problem.” I heard a saying once that said if your not part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem. Then I remembered another Tasha that reminded me so much of this Tasha. Same light skin. Same long hair. Same attitude. You may not remember this but if you’re a fanatic on old obscure books and tv shows then you might just remember a pilot that never got picked up called “A Little Bit Strange” with a popular athletes d(cheerleader) named Tasha who had the same attitude and chip on her shoulder.
I also kind of laughed to myself and imagined this Kiki (the character) played by Kiki Palmer.
I kind of wondered to myself why and what point Sarah was trying to prove by keeping Roy around as long as she did. And then come to think of it, they figured out a solution to the auction, but nothing was really done about Roy. It kind of just left us hanging there. I guess we can kind of imply he got the hint when he saw Sarah with Dave and backed off and went on to his next “victim”. I can see him trying to get at Jennifer next.
I do not know about Dave. What was up with him wearing a suit to go rowing? Maybe he felt like he had to step up his game because of Roy, but a nice silk shirt, linen pants, and a leather jacket would have surficed. Then would you really want a boyfriend that you had to coach to tell him what to say and what to do?
The auction part was…. I just didn’t understand why the school board had a problem with the kids doing this apart *from* school. Nor do I understand why the actions of one kid had ANYTHING to do with something that was going to help the school. And it would have been nice to know what the video equipment was for. Were they going to have a drama department so they could put on school productions?
Rating 8 This was good! I wish there could have been more series like this in a sea of so many white based teen series.
Plot: Sarah, Cindy, and Kwame discuss Sarah’s dad going to the board with a request to supply money for video equipment for his school Hamilton High (a remedial school for students) Since it’s likely the board won’t grant the request, Sarah wants to have a talent show at their school Murphy High and giving Hamilton the money Kwame leaves (agreeing to help make fliers). Jennifer joins them (the rich girl of the clique). They all discuss Sarah’s cousin from California who’ll be moving in with them because her parents died in a car accident. Sarah admits she doesn’t know her very well.
Tasha is beautiful but she has a chip on her shoulder. She gets offended by Sarah’s attempt to introduce her to her friends and mistakes it as they all think of her as a charity case. Her mother, father, and Grandmother (Miss Essie) tell Sarah to give Tasha time. Dave and Kwame are sweating Tasha’s soccer skills, and it gets to Sarah. She and Dave over the summers started feeling each other and she made a personal move. And Kwame has only ever had eyes for her. Tasha knows about her and Dave but she doesn’t seem to care because she flirts with him in front of her. Tasha invites them all over to dinner. After dinner, Tasha says she thinks Hamilton should put on their own talent show since they’re the ones trying to raise the money. She invited a cute new guy from school named Roy and says he can direct it and they can give the Hamilton students suggestions. Tasha seems interested in Roy, but Roy asks *Sarah* out on a date. Feeling hurt and angry Sarah kisses Roy and accepts.
Sarah confronts Tasha, and Tasha accuses Sarah of being controlling. Roy turns out to be a bit too aggressive for Sarah. He takes her to a fancy Italian restaurant and a movie. But she isn’t ready for Wine at his uncle’s place. Instead, she feels guilty for running into Dave at the movies (who turned his back on her). Sarah is even more so convinced that helping the Hamilton kids is the right thing to do when two of the students stop by (Kiki *who wants to be an actress* and Steve). Sarah tries to make amends with Tasha but they just end up having a fight about the talent show. Sarah thought Tasha would be like a sister. Tasha is too stubborn and sees Sarah’s intentions as turning her into a project to control. Sarah gets a couple of calls from Roy and one from Kiki.
She calls Roy back and makes up an excuse why she can’t go out with him and he gets pissed and hangs up. She calls Kiki and finds out she’s decided to have an auction. Then she gets good news that Miss Essie is going to audition for a role on a tv pilot.
At school, Dave is getting a lot of shit talk from an article from a rival player. Kwane drops the bomb Tasha is helping Dave get ready for a big game coming up. Sarah decides she’s over Roy and Dave, but yet tells Roy she’ll think about going out with him again. Kiki calls and says no one will promote the auction so Sarah calls the newspaper and asks for the sports desk. Sarah goes to the game to root for Dave but instead has a breakdown in the restroom because she’s there with the wrong guy and she couldn’t get the newspaper interested in the auction. Tasha sends her home after reassuring her that Dave is into her and saying she has something to tell her later. The gang comes by later and Dave says they lost but they get another chance to play Strikland next month. Then Mr. Gordan has to rush out because Steve got arrested for grand auto theft. He fears it’ll be just what the board needs to refuse the request for the video equipment. After that Tasha tells Sarah she was intimidated by her because she seemed to have the perfect family and hers was absentee. They hug and it’s all good between them now.
There’s a big mess over they can’t hold the auction (which is them auctioning services) because of Steve and they also aren’t allowed to do it apart from the school. Roy offers to speak to a publicity person *when* Sarah is ready to go out with him again. Sarah confides in April and Cindy and they tell her to drop Roy and just ask Dave out. Sarah takes the plunge and asks Dave out and he says yes. It turns out a lot of people that own small Sarah and businesses in the neighborhood went to Hamilton and are willing to hire the kids for a day to help out. Sarah and Dave’s date is a little awkward at first. He’s a little distant but then he admits how much he likes her and after that, they’re both in luuuv. They end up making two thousand dollars and seventeen cents from the auction. Steve really was just fixing the lady’s car and taking it for a test drive but he got stopped by the cops for not having a license.
My Thoughts: This was a great series that I discovered a long time ago, and has sat with mostly all the books in the series on my favorite shelf (shelves).
A nice normal family (The Gordan’s) that have have two talented and SANE teenage girls (unlike two blond twins with one being a pycho-path and getting into insane situations). These characters have REAL LIFE problems and situations that are REALISTIC! When you think all the other series that were made into television shows like (The Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High) it just makes me wonder why this wasn’t picked up as a series that could have fit in perfectly with shows like (Family Matters, and South Central, and Sister Sister and Moesha. It would have been nice to see an African-American teenage series picked up and given some air time. If I could develop a station based on things from the past (and this is a dream of mine.
I liked all these characters. Tasha did rub me the wrong way for a minute because it just seemed selfish for her for no good reason to say “Oh that’s their problem.” I heard a saying once that said if your not part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem. Then I remembered another Tasha that reminded me so much of this Tasha. Same light skin. Same long hair. Same attitude. You may not remember this but if you’re a fanatic on old obscure books and tv shows then you might just remember a pilot that never got picked up called “A Little Bit Strange” with a popular athletes d(cheerleader) named Tasha who had the same attitude and chip on her shoulder.
I also kind of laughed to myself and imagined this Kiki (the character) played by Kiki Palmer.
I kind of wondered to myself why and what point Sarah was trying to prove by keeping Roy around as long as she did. And then come to think of it, they figured out a solution to the auction, but nothing was really done about Roy. It kind of just left us hanging there. I guess we can kind of imply he got the hint when he saw Sarah with Dave and backed off and went on to his next “victim”. I can see him trying to get at Jennifer next.
I do not know about Dave. What was up with him wearing a suit to go rowing? Maybe he felt like he had to step up his game because of Roy, but a nice silk shirt, linen pants, and a leather jacket would have surficed. Then would you really want a boyfriend that you had to coach to tell him what to say and what to do?
The auction part was…. I just didn’t understand why the school board had a problem with the kids doing this apart *from* school. Nor do I understand why the actions of one kid had ANYTHING to do with something that was going to help the school. And it would have been nice to know what the video equipment was for. Were they going to have a drama department so they could put on school productions?
Rating 8 This was good! I wish there could have been more series like this in a sea of so many white based teen series.
June 3, 2024
Cute and corny .
It reminds me of saved by the bell and a different world . Sarah and her family are the center of it all and kind of on a pedestal but this book just really gives me 90s sitcom nostalgia .
Easy throwback read .
It reminds me of saved by the bell and a different world . Sarah and her family are the center of it all and kind of on a pedestal but this book just really gives me 90s sitcom nostalgia .
Easy throwback read .
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews