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The Baby-Sitters Club #59
Mallory Hates Boys (and Gym)
Being a "total spaz" in gym is bad enough, but now Mallory's worst nightmare has come true. Gym class has gone co-ed!
146 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1992
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,128 books3,095 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
September 1, 2020
mallory gets a lot of hate from bsc fans bc she’s a whiny brat but honestly it is because of this that she is the most relatable of all these girls. justice for mallory!
June 13, 2016
this is my first time reading this book!
in this glimpse into the unnuanced thought process of an 11-year-old by ghostwriter Suzanne Weyn mallory's class has to take volleyball lessons with boys. the boys realize that mallory sucks at sports and target her, prompting her to refuse to participate and get detention. meanwhile, all the male bsc kids are terrors, and mallory thinks that it's due to boys being the worst. I mean, she's kind of not wrong, but once again -- unnuanced.
higlights:
-ms. walden, mallory's gym teacher, is SUCH A JERK to her. it's not fun to read, but I feel like I remember gym teachers who were angry at me for being bad at sports. at one point she says mal is wimping out on her team, and when mal gets hit in the face with a volleyball she blames her ("maybe if you hadn't been daydreaming it wouldn't have happened.") thanks, victim blaming POS.
-mallory's one theory about boys that is valid: since boys' sports are more accepted and appreciated than girls' sports, it makes boys think they're more important so they act obnoxious
-eventually the evil ms. walden tells the boys to let up on mallory if she tries in volleyball. she does so, and while she doesn't have fun, at least she's trying. then they switch to an archery unit.
-mallory says that archery is romantic and adventurous and that it appeals to the writer in her. because she wants to be with this guy:
or, I dunno, maybe this guy:
-mallory is actually really good at archery and ends up trying out and making the archery team (do we ever hear about this again in later books, I wonder?). her brothers make her a congratulatory cake, resolving the boy-hating plotline too.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-mallory narrates something about how being good at volleyball isn't her ambition in life. sure, I agree, but she's still pretty condescending about how she says it.
-ben says something about how he knows girls aren't delicate flowers but they do play sports in a less aggressive way than boys. he says he will change the way he plays volleyball to accommodate that. uh, it sounds like you think they're delicate flowers, dude...
-no punishment for mallory for getting detention and stealing the detention notices
-mallory thinks that the boys in stoneybrook are different from boys elsewhere. this theory is based on the fact that logan and the hobart boys don't suck, and they're not from stoneybrook originally. she goes to far as to trade brothers with ben hobart for the night, and while the pike boys (triplets + nicky) act like little angels at the hobarts', the hobart boys act like terrors at the pikes'. this is why you shouldn't have eight kids within a six year period (and then not make any rules for them): of COURSE the pikes' household made the hobarts wild!
-james hobart falls out of the bunk bed. pikes, why does your bunk bed not have something to stop people from falling out? my brother fell out of his bunk bed in the 80s and broke his arm. in the 90s most bunk beds had barriers to prevent this.
claudia outfit:
"Claudia was wearing a pair of soft, balloony, purple pants; a neon green long-sleeve leotard top; a wide, red braided belt; and a pair of soft, red ballet shoes. Her hair was swept into a French braid with wispy tendrils hanging loose. From one ear dangled a long earring made up of small papier-mâché hoops. (This earring set is her own creation.)"
dawn outfit:
-"For example, today she was wearing black stirrup pants, a long, fleecy red-and-pink rose-print top and black high-top sneakers. She has two holes pierced in each ear. In those she wore four matching sparkly rose earrings."
jackie disasters:
-locks bo (the rodowskys' dog) in the toolshed
-loses the key to the toolshed while bo is in it
-gets into a paint fight with archie
no snacks in claudia's room
in this glimpse into the unnuanced thought process of an 11-year-old by ghostwriter Suzanne Weyn mallory's class has to take volleyball lessons with boys. the boys realize that mallory sucks at sports and target her, prompting her to refuse to participate and get detention. meanwhile, all the male bsc kids are terrors, and mallory thinks that it's due to boys being the worst. I mean, she's kind of not wrong, but once again -- unnuanced.
higlights:
-ms. walden, mallory's gym teacher, is SUCH A JERK to her. it's not fun to read, but I feel like I remember gym teachers who were angry at me for being bad at sports. at one point she says mal is wimping out on her team, and when mal gets hit in the face with a volleyball she blames her ("maybe if you hadn't been daydreaming it wouldn't have happened.") thanks, victim blaming POS.
-mallory's one theory about boys that is valid: since boys' sports are more accepted and appreciated than girls' sports, it makes boys think they're more important so they act obnoxious
-eventually the evil ms. walden tells the boys to let up on mallory if she tries in volleyball. she does so, and while she doesn't have fun, at least she's trying. then they switch to an archery unit.
-mallory says that archery is romantic and adventurous and that it appeals to the writer in her. because she wants to be with this guy:
or, I dunno, maybe this guy:
-mallory is actually really good at archery and ends up trying out and making the archery team (do we ever hear about this again in later books, I wonder?). her brothers make her a congratulatory cake, resolving the boy-hating plotline too.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-mallory narrates something about how being good at volleyball isn't her ambition in life. sure, I agree, but she's still pretty condescending about how she says it.
-ben says something about how he knows girls aren't delicate flowers but they do play sports in a less aggressive way than boys. he says he will change the way he plays volleyball to accommodate that. uh, it sounds like you think they're delicate flowers, dude...
-no punishment for mallory for getting detention and stealing the detention notices
-mallory thinks that the boys in stoneybrook are different from boys elsewhere. this theory is based on the fact that logan and the hobart boys don't suck, and they're not from stoneybrook originally. she goes to far as to trade brothers with ben hobart for the night, and while the pike boys (triplets + nicky) act like little angels at the hobarts', the hobart boys act like terrors at the pikes'. this is why you shouldn't have eight kids within a six year period (and then not make any rules for them): of COURSE the pikes' household made the hobarts wild!
-james hobart falls out of the bunk bed. pikes, why does your bunk bed not have something to stop people from falling out? my brother fell out of his bunk bed in the 80s and broke his arm. in the 90s most bunk beds had barriers to prevent this.
claudia outfit:
"Claudia was wearing a pair of soft, balloony, purple pants; a neon green long-sleeve leotard top; a wide, red braided belt; and a pair of soft, red ballet shoes. Her hair was swept into a French braid with wispy tendrils hanging loose. From one ear dangled a long earring made up of small papier-mâché hoops. (This earring set is her own creation.)"
dawn outfit:
-"For example, today she was wearing black stirrup pants, a long, fleecy red-and-pink rose-print top and black high-top sneakers. She has two holes pierced in each ear. In those she wore four matching sparkly rose earrings."
jackie disasters:
-locks bo (the rodowskys' dog) in the toolshed
-loses the key to the toolshed while bo is in it
-gets into a paint fight with archie
no snacks in claudia's room
November 28, 2010
this book opens with my most hated babysitters club literary device: a character utilizes a "big" word & explains in the narrative that it was a recent vocabulary word. in this case, mallory uses the word "pandemonium" to describe the state of her house with all of her seven siblings getting up to various hijinks.
she makes them all occupy themselves elsewhere (outside or in their rooms) because ben hobart is coming over to do homework. do kids really do this? personally, i generally find it distracting to try to read or write when i have specifically arranged to read or write in the presence of another person. i can do it around my boyfriend, but only because we have lived together for over two years. when we first moved in together, i was constantly distracted by having him around, feeling like i had to entertain him. anyway! mallory's brothers tease her & embarrass her by making kissy noises, so ben & mallory retreat to ben's house. mallory thinks about the fact that her brothers are so obnoxious, but ben & his brothers are nice & well-behaved. this establishes the first half of our titular theme.
on the walk home, jessi informs mallory that their gym class has finished field hockey & will be moving on to volleyball. mallory is horrified. she does not want to play volleyball...especially after jessi says that their all-girl class will be combined with an all-boy class for co-ed volleyball lessons. mallory is disgusted & humilated by the idea of boys seeing her cowering from the ball in her ugly gym uniform.
okay, an aside: apparently stoneybrook middle school only has gym twice a week, & the gym uniforms are standardized. also, the classes are usually segregated by gender. & mallory is COMPLAINING about this? once i hit junior high, we had gym every day, the classes were always a mix of boys & girls, & we had to scrounge together our own gym uniforms, which for me generally involved a jimi hendrix t-shirt & baggy boxer shorts. mallory is getting gym class served to her on a silver platter & she's whining about it. hence the two-star review. i sympathize with mallory's lack of physical coordination & fear of embarrassing herself in front of her classmates, & i definitely remember gym class as the ninth circle of junior high hell, but mallory could have it A LOT worse.
so this is the second half of the titular theme.
you can guess what happens next. gym class sucks. mallory tries to pretend to faint in order to get out of it, but she waits too long & no one is in the locker room to witness her performance. she jumps away from the ball, disappoints her teammates, & becomes an easy mark to the opposing team. this eventually culminates in a volleyball to the face, which makes her lose her temper & yell at her gym teacher, who proceeds to bench her.
this gives mallory an idea. what if she gets benched in every class? she tries it out in her next class, by benching herself. ms. walden tells her to play or take detention. she opts for detention. she discovers that her parents will be receiving a letter about her detention, so she decides to bench herself for every gym class, take the detention, & then rush home & collect the letter before her parents see it. problem solved. ben is even nice enough to wait for her after her detentions & walk her home.
however, jessi points out that if mallory doesn't participate in gym class, she'll fail the class, & there won't be any way to hide that from her parents. & eventually ms. walden gets sick of mallory's attitude & makes her wash all the pinnies after school instead of sitting in detention.
meanwhile, a lot of the boy charges the club sits for are acting uncommonly wild. jamie newton, david michael, the pike boys, buddy barrett, & others are all being brats. the stories about these kids are enough to cure anyone's baby fever. mallory realizes that all the bratty charges are boys, so she starts concocting a theory about how exposure to gym class makes boys from stoneybrook big entitled jerks. obviously this theory is ridiculous, but she decides to put it to the test by swapping siblings with ben one night. the triplets & nicky will saty at the hobart house, while the younger hobart boys will stay at the pikes'. mallory is looking forward to having three angelic boy siblings for a night. but things don't work out that. the usually well-behaved hobarts go nuts, tearing apart the rec room, telling ghost stories, falling out of bed, etc. & the pike boys are as good as gold for the hobarts. mallory decides her theory is a wash (though there's always the possibility that the hobarts just went bananas because the pikes have no rules).
mrs. pike also convinces mallory to talk to her gym teacher about the trouble she's having in class. ms. walden agrees to talk to some of the rowdier boys about letting up on mallory, if mallory promises to try her best in class. not that it really matters, because volleyball is over & now everyone is learning archery. it turns out that mallory has a natural talent for archery, & ms. walden asks her to try out for the school team. (what kind of middle school has an ARCHERY TEAM? that kind of seems like a waste of resources.) mallory does so & makes the team.
add archery to the locked room on the fourth floor of the brewer mansion where we're stashing the zuni pen pals, the stoneybrook middle school recycling program, pete black's class presidency, curtis shaller, lewis bruno, & every other random thing from these books that never gets addressed again.
she makes them all occupy themselves elsewhere (outside or in their rooms) because ben hobart is coming over to do homework. do kids really do this? personally, i generally find it distracting to try to read or write when i have specifically arranged to read or write in the presence of another person. i can do it around my boyfriend, but only because we have lived together for over two years. when we first moved in together, i was constantly distracted by having him around, feeling like i had to entertain him. anyway! mallory's brothers tease her & embarrass her by making kissy noises, so ben & mallory retreat to ben's house. mallory thinks about the fact that her brothers are so obnoxious, but ben & his brothers are nice & well-behaved. this establishes the first half of our titular theme.
on the walk home, jessi informs mallory that their gym class has finished field hockey & will be moving on to volleyball. mallory is horrified. she does not want to play volleyball...especially after jessi says that their all-girl class will be combined with an all-boy class for co-ed volleyball lessons. mallory is disgusted & humilated by the idea of boys seeing her cowering from the ball in her ugly gym uniform.
okay, an aside: apparently stoneybrook middle school only has gym twice a week, & the gym uniforms are standardized. also, the classes are usually segregated by gender. & mallory is COMPLAINING about this? once i hit junior high, we had gym every day, the classes were always a mix of boys & girls, & we had to scrounge together our own gym uniforms, which for me generally involved a jimi hendrix t-shirt & baggy boxer shorts. mallory is getting gym class served to her on a silver platter & she's whining about it. hence the two-star review. i sympathize with mallory's lack of physical coordination & fear of embarrassing herself in front of her classmates, & i definitely remember gym class as the ninth circle of junior high hell, but mallory could have it A LOT worse.
so this is the second half of the titular theme.
you can guess what happens next. gym class sucks. mallory tries to pretend to faint in order to get out of it, but she waits too long & no one is in the locker room to witness her performance. she jumps away from the ball, disappoints her teammates, & becomes an easy mark to the opposing team. this eventually culminates in a volleyball to the face, which makes her lose her temper & yell at her gym teacher, who proceeds to bench her.
this gives mallory an idea. what if she gets benched in every class? she tries it out in her next class, by benching herself. ms. walden tells her to play or take detention. she opts for detention. she discovers that her parents will be receiving a letter about her detention, so she decides to bench herself for every gym class, take the detention, & then rush home & collect the letter before her parents see it. problem solved. ben is even nice enough to wait for her after her detentions & walk her home.
however, jessi points out that if mallory doesn't participate in gym class, she'll fail the class, & there won't be any way to hide that from her parents. & eventually ms. walden gets sick of mallory's attitude & makes her wash all the pinnies after school instead of sitting in detention.
meanwhile, a lot of the boy charges the club sits for are acting uncommonly wild. jamie newton, david michael, the pike boys, buddy barrett, & others are all being brats. the stories about these kids are enough to cure anyone's baby fever. mallory realizes that all the bratty charges are boys, so she starts concocting a theory about how exposure to gym class makes boys from stoneybrook big entitled jerks. obviously this theory is ridiculous, but she decides to put it to the test by swapping siblings with ben one night. the triplets & nicky will saty at the hobart house, while the younger hobart boys will stay at the pikes'. mallory is looking forward to having three angelic boy siblings for a night. but things don't work out that. the usually well-behaved hobarts go nuts, tearing apart the rec room, telling ghost stories, falling out of bed, etc. & the pike boys are as good as gold for the hobarts. mallory decides her theory is a wash (though there's always the possibility that the hobarts just went bananas because the pikes have no rules).
mrs. pike also convinces mallory to talk to her gym teacher about the trouble she's having in class. ms. walden agrees to talk to some of the rowdier boys about letting up on mallory, if mallory promises to try her best in class. not that it really matters, because volleyball is over & now everyone is learning archery. it turns out that mallory has a natural talent for archery, & ms. walden asks her to try out for the school team. (what kind of middle school has an ARCHERY TEAM? that kind of seems like a waste of resources.) mallory does so & makes the team.
add archery to the locked room on the fourth floor of the brewer mansion where we're stashing the zuni pen pals, the stoneybrook middle school recycling program, pete black's class presidency, curtis shaller, lewis bruno, & every other random thing from these books that never gets addressed again.
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March 3, 2017Mallory has never been a kind of sports person. Gym is her least favorite subject in school or anywhere. Though her worst subject has turned into a nightmare, and once the boys in her gym class find out that she can not play volleyball, they decide to make her life really suck. So now, Mal does not only hate gym, but she hates boys even more.
I recommend this book to kids who like to read the baby sitters club, and for all students.
I recommend this book to kids who like to read the baby sitters club, and for all students.
September 28, 2017
Okay, honestly I'm kind of with Mallory on this one. Gym in middle/high school sucked. Gym in elementary was only moderately better, unless you had a sadistic gym teacher that made you beat her to the jungle gym or you had to run laps. Oh and she didn't hold back either. She didn't care if you were in 1st or 5th grade, she'd still give it her all! Wow, I might still be a little bitter. Moving on!
The book starts out with Mallory putting her new vocabulary word, "pandemonium", to the test when she arrives home. The Pike clan is in full crazy mode and Mal is anxious about her study date with the wonderful Australian, Ben Hobart. Liking a guy is so weird. There's just no way to explain why suddenly you're so crazy about someone. Unfortunately, her brothers & sisters pretty much ruin the date so they head over to Ben's house, where she raves about how good and polite his 3 brothers are. Then she's almost late to a BSC meeting and we get a Claudia outfit along with a special What Dawn Was Wearing.
Claudia was wearing a pair of soft, balloony, purple pants; a neon green long-sleeve leotard top; a wide, red braided belt; and a pair of soft, red ballet shoes. Her hair was swept into a French braid with wispy tendrils hanging loose. From one ear dangled a long earring made up of small papier-mache tropical fruit. In the other ear, where she had two holes, Claudia wore two small papier-mache hoops. (This earring set is her own creation.)
2 things: I had purple pants exactly like that in 5th grade. We called them (MC) Hammer pants and I wore them with a white tshirt tucked in and black patent leather shoes with big silk laces. I was dibbly fresh and wore this outfit at our talent show, where my friend and I danced to Tevin Campbell's Round & Round. (I just listened to again, so good still lol.)
And also, it would have been nice to have some continuity from the previous book and have her wear her cat & dog earrings.
Today [Dawn] was wearing black stirrup pants, a long, fleecy red-and-pink rose-print top and black high-top sneakers. She has two holes pierced in each ear. In those she wore four matching sparkly rose earrings. (Seems more like a Stacey outfit than Dawn, but whatevs.)
Logan is at the meeting, because he & Mary Anne were studying together, and there's a big point of his mom calling for a sitter because Logan doesn't want to be asked all the time. Just like Mallory. I was never given a choice to baby-sit my sister or not. And I definitely didn't get paid for it. After the meeting, Jessi & Mallory are walking home and Jessi reminds her that they are starting the volleyball unit in gym on Monday and they'll be co-mingled with the boys. Mal immediately freaks out. I was expected to appear in front of a bunch of boys in my gross, disgusting gym suit (which is really just a tshirt & shirts) and demonstrate that I was probably the most klutzy, uncoordinated girl in the sixth grade. And she pretty much does that for the rest of the book.
On Monday, she decides to wear a one-piece denim jumpsuit that she'd gotten for her last birthday and never worn. Not because I hate it or anything. It's just not me. It's a little too high-style or something. I'm sorry. Isn't that exactly what she's been begging for for the last 59 books?? I decided to do a special for this outfit: what Mallory thinks she looks like and what she probably looks like. Always fun. :)
Every book that has even the slightest hint of physical activity makes Mallory panic and immediately come up with plans to get out of it. In this one, she begs her parents to let her stay home, pretends to faint in the locker room (no one is around), WALKS OFF THE COURT after getting hit with a ball (I don't blame her for that one), gets detention on purpose for a week when she sits out each day (and hides the papers from her parents. Trust me, that never works for long.) It's all a bit ridiculous.
The side plot is that all the boys they baby-sit for are suddenly little monsters. Just the boys, not the girls. Mallory comes up with this long convoluted theory that makes no sense; something about if they were raised in Stoneybrook and went to gym class there, they were super aggressive animals. Meaning, Logan and the Hobart boys are excluded. This doesn't pan out though, when Mal and Ben agree to switch brothers for the evening and the Hobarts turn into little hellions while Nicky & the triplets are perfect angels. She can't believe it. But what do you expect when they go to a house like the Pikes where there are basically no rules?
Back in gym class, Mal keeps walking off and the gym teacher finally sits down and talks to her. She asks her to just try and she'd get the boys to back off on their attack. Also, she makes Mal wash all the pinnies one afternoon gross. Mallory agrees to try, her parents find out about the detentions (and don't punish her whaaattt??!), and finally the volleyball unit is over. Next up? Archery! Is anyone surprised at all that Mallory is good at it? So good that her teacher tells her to try out for the archery team and she makes it. I wonder if that will come up again in later books. And her brothers make her a congrats cake, ruining her "boys suck" theory. The end. And hey, I've got another Super Special already after this one! Woo!!
Blogged at SeeJennRead!
The book starts out with Mallory putting her new vocabulary word, "pandemonium", to the test when she arrives home. The Pike clan is in full crazy mode and Mal is anxious about her study date with the wonderful Australian, Ben Hobart. Liking a guy is so weird. There's just no way to explain why suddenly you're so crazy about someone. Unfortunately, her brothers & sisters pretty much ruin the date so they head over to Ben's house, where she raves about how good and polite his 3 brothers are. Then she's almost late to a BSC meeting and we get a Claudia outfit along with a special What Dawn Was Wearing.
Claudia was wearing a pair of soft, balloony, purple pants; a neon green long-sleeve leotard top; a wide, red braided belt; and a pair of soft, red ballet shoes. Her hair was swept into a French braid with wispy tendrils hanging loose. From one ear dangled a long earring made up of small papier-mache tropical fruit. In the other ear, where she had two holes, Claudia wore two small papier-mache hoops. (This earring set is her own creation.)
2 things: I had purple pants exactly like that in 5th grade. We called them (MC) Hammer pants and I wore them with a white tshirt tucked in and black patent leather shoes with big silk laces. I was dibbly fresh and wore this outfit at our talent show, where my friend and I danced to Tevin Campbell's Round & Round. (I just listened to again, so good still lol.)
And also, it would have been nice to have some continuity from the previous book and have her wear her cat & dog earrings.
Today [Dawn] was wearing black stirrup pants, a long, fleecy red-and-pink rose-print top and black high-top sneakers. She has two holes pierced in each ear. In those she wore four matching sparkly rose earrings. (Seems more like a Stacey outfit than Dawn, but whatevs.)
Logan is at the meeting, because he & Mary Anne were studying together, and there's a big point of his mom calling for a sitter because Logan doesn't want to be asked all the time. Just like Mallory. I was never given a choice to baby-sit my sister or not. And I definitely didn't get paid for it. After the meeting, Jessi & Mallory are walking home and Jessi reminds her that they are starting the volleyball unit in gym on Monday and they'll be co-mingled with the boys. Mal immediately freaks out. I was expected to appear in front of a bunch of boys in my gross, disgusting gym suit (which is really just a tshirt & shirts) and demonstrate that I was probably the most klutzy, uncoordinated girl in the sixth grade. And she pretty much does that for the rest of the book.
On Monday, she decides to wear a one-piece denim jumpsuit that she'd gotten for her last birthday and never worn. Not because I hate it or anything. It's just not me. It's a little too high-style or something. I'm sorry. Isn't that exactly what she's been begging for for the last 59 books?? I decided to do a special for this outfit: what Mallory thinks she looks like and what she probably looks like. Always fun. :)
Every book that has even the slightest hint of physical activity makes Mallory panic and immediately come up with plans to get out of it. In this one, she begs her parents to let her stay home, pretends to faint in the locker room (no one is around), WALKS OFF THE COURT after getting hit with a ball (I don't blame her for that one), gets detention on purpose for a week when she sits out each day (and hides the papers from her parents. Trust me, that never works for long.) It's all a bit ridiculous.
The side plot is that all the boys they baby-sit for are suddenly little monsters. Just the boys, not the girls. Mallory comes up with this long convoluted theory that makes no sense; something about if they were raised in Stoneybrook and went to gym class there, they were super aggressive animals. Meaning, Logan and the Hobart boys are excluded. This doesn't pan out though, when Mal and Ben agree to switch brothers for the evening and the Hobarts turn into little hellions while Nicky & the triplets are perfect angels. She can't believe it. But what do you expect when they go to a house like the Pikes where there are basically no rules?
Back in gym class, Mal keeps walking off and the gym teacher finally sits down and talks to her. She asks her to just try and she'd get the boys to back off on their attack. Also, she makes Mal wash all the pinnies one afternoon gross. Mallory agrees to try, her parents find out about the detentions (and don't punish her whaaattt??!), and finally the volleyball unit is over. Next up? Archery! Is anyone surprised at all that Mallory is good at it? So good that her teacher tells her to try out for the archery team and she makes it. I wonder if that will come up again in later books. And her brothers make her a congrats cake, ruining her "boys suck" theory. The end. And hey, I've got another Super Special already after this one! Woo!!
Blogged at SeeJennRead!
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February 17, 2025Mallory Hates Boys
Mal has found a new word to describe her family (pandemonium). It means: wild uproar and noise. The Pikes are all doing different things. Vanessa is watching a rock video. Claire has puzzle pieces everywhere. Margo is practicing a cheer. The triplets are playing a game called monkey in the middle with a Nerf ball. Nicky is playing with a speaker that has several sound settings (a robot and a baby). Mal uses her new word but no one pays any attention.
Claire thinks she said panda. Nicky thinks it sounds like a sickness. Vanessa thinks it sounds like something you wash pans with. Mal never gets a chance to explain the meaning because she’s hit in the forehead with the triplets Nerf ball. Then Mrs. Pike comes in and tells them -and Margo- to take it outside. Then she asks Mallory to watch Claire. Mallory resents this a little because she’s tired of being asked to watch them, she never has any privacy, and sometimes its not convient. Mostly she just goes along with it. But today Ben is coming over to do homework.
She says she’ll watch her after supper and her mom can make the calls she needs to make. Ben arrives and comments on how quiet -and spooky- it is, but that doesn’t last. They’re working on their math when Mal suddenly feels something warm and furry on her foot and screams. She sees Frodo-their hamster- and finds Adam, Byron, Jordan, and Nicky. It gives about five minutes for Mal and Ben to catch Frodo and put him back in his cage.
Then they start talking in high-pitched and deep voice pretending to be Mal and Ben and saying how much they love each other. While emphasizing this with kissing noises. So, they decide to work at Ben’s house. Mal thinks how nice it must be to live at the Hobarts. His brothers are well behaved and his mom makes delicious chocolate cake. At the meeting, Mal gets teased for being late because she was at Ben’s studying. Then Maryanne gets teased because she and Logan were at the library studying. (He’s also at the meeting). Mrs. Hunter calls for a sitter on Tuesday so she and Mr. Hunter can go to PTA. Logan has been complaining about being tired of sitting. Everyone is busy tho. No sports game at Pete Blacks for Logan.
After the meeting, Mal comments on how cold its getting and she hopes it’s warmer Monday. Jessi reminds her that Monday they switch up and will go from field hockey to volley ball. Only it’ll be with the boys (to Mal’s absolute HORROR). Mal chooses a denim jumpsuit the next day. (It’s easy to get in and out of-so she can get dressed quickly-). Everyone notices how crabby she is. Her parents ask what’s wrong and she blames them for not having any athletic abilities. They ask if there’s anything they can do and she says let her stay at home. She thinks her mother might say yes but her brothers say they want to stay at home too and their father says no one is staying home.
Mal comes up with an idea to faint, but decides not to tell Jessi because she’s too honest. Mal waits too long tho and there’s no one in the locker room. Mal tries to tell her teacher that she doesn’t feel well but she just tells her to hurry up and get out there and makes her carry the pennie’s. Mrs. Waldon assigns them teams for the volleyball unit. Mal tells Jessi she’s gonna be the worse one on the team and make a fool of herself. Jessi tells her she won’t be that bad. But she is. Instead of hitting the ball, she runs away from it.
This guy named Chris (who’s on the opposite team) figures out a winning stategy. Keep hitting the ball to Mall. This guy on her team after a while just tells her just let him get it. Mallory even goes flying backwards and falls on her butt. Mal starts flapping her arms in the air and from a distance it looks like she’s doing something, but it doesn’t fool her teacher and she never lets up calling her out to get balls. Then to make it worse, the boys are relentless and play like they’re at war.
Mal sits for Jamie and Lucy that afternoon.
Mrs. Newton warns her that Jaime for some reason has been acting wild. She doesn’t know if it has something to do with Lucy and the attention she gets or something about nursery schoolThere are about a hundred crayons in the hallway and he’s peeling the paper off them and snapping them in half. He says he’s making rockets and hurling them at Lucy’s door. Mal tells him to stop. He’ll wake Lucy, mark up her door, and ruin his crayons, but he says he doesn’t care and continues to do it. He then says he wants to call Roger. Roger he says is his best friend in nursery school. He’s so loud he wakes up Lucy. When she settles Lucy down, she notices she has 4 teeth (two more than previously). When she tells Jamie he says “Big deal.” Then Mal sees what Mrs. Newton was saying and thinks about how when Nicky wants to impress the triplets he acts tough. Maybe Roger is the reason Jaime’s acting like he is. For a minute, Mal has to change Lucy and Jaime goes out of the room. When she looks around, she can’t find him. He’s not in the house and not in the yard. She calls the number she finds that says Roger Friedman but there’s no answer. She’s about to take Lucy outside to look for him, but Lucy needs another diaper change. While she’s trying to decide what to do, Jaime creeps up behind her and says BOO! Mal tells him it wasn’t funny and don’t do it again.
After this a glass vase falls and Jaime cuts his hand. It’s nothing that can’t be taken care of when cleaned up and a band aide applied but Jaime starts to carry on like his hand was completely severed. Then Lucy starts up. Only half an hour into the job, Mal thinks this is the longest and worse day she’s ever had. Jessi has a job sitting for her siblings. Squirt can now walk and gets into everything. He pulls a lace runner off a side table and everything falls to the floor on the table. He then gets into a drawer where the phone books are and starts ripping pages out of them. Jessi even makes him his favorite food macaroni and he flings it away and gets it everywhere.
Becca makes a mess to. She has an assignment for a unit on nutrition that she has to create a healthy drink and bring a sample to school in a thermos. Everyone will bring theirs and they’ll vote on who’s is the best. Jessi and Becca work on the drink (given to them by Dawn). I would NEVER drink this because the first thing in it is beet juice! Squirt is annoyed by the sound of the blender. (Can’t really blame him there). Jessi tries to get him to stop banging the pots but he yells no and hurls one of the lids. It hits Becca and she drops the blender on the floor. The purple drink goes all over the place.
Jessi tells her to invite Charlotte over while she cleans up. When Jessi vents to Mallory that she doesn’t know what was wrong with Squirt, Mal has a theory. Squirt, Jaime, Robbie, and her brothers are boys. Thus, they’re PAINS! Mal is even more convinced the next gym class that rolls around when she sees how crazed the boys get over the game. When it’s Mal’s turn to serve, Mrs. Walden rattles her so much that she drops the ball and has to go chase after it. This lady is getting on my nerves and needs to go sit down somewhere because every time she gives Mal “a suggestion” she messes up the serve.
Mal makes an EXCELLENT point and it’s that she doesn’t see an editor saying “I’m sorry Mrs. Pike you wrote an excellent children’s book but we can’t publish it because your serve sucks.” (Mrs. Waldon tells her to watch a girl named Helen who has a MEAN serve). While she’s thinking this the ball hits her right in the face. The guy tries to apologize. Mallory snaps at him. Mrs. Walden tells her well you shouldn’t have been daydreaming. I’m really starting to hate this teacher! Mal goes off on her and says what if *she* would have gotten hit in the head with a volleyball and this gets her benched. Ironically tho this wasn’t a punishment. Mal sits there and makes herself not cry by staring at the ceiling. After class, this witch has the nerve to say she expects a better attitude from her next time and *then* asks how her cheek feels.
When she gets home, she just wants to be alone but again her mom asks her to watch the others. She has to go to school to pick up Margo (whose thrown up). The triplets and Nicky immediately start throwing a basketball around (which they aren’t allowed to do in the house). Mallory snaps at them and they tell her to bug off and she returns the insult. She decides if there’s one thing she hates as much as gym it’s boys. By Monday, Mal has a plan to just get benched all the time, but it will take nerve. Robbie makes up her mind for her when he asks her if she’s alright. Mallory says yes. He says that’s funny cause your face is killing me. Mallory benches herself and when Mrs. Walden orders her to she says she won’t. So, Mrs. Waldren says if she doesn’t, she’ll get detention and Mal says fine. Mal wonders if this is the beginning of her life as a criminal and wonder when you stop caring where do you draw the line.
But for now it works. Even detention isn’t that bad. She just gets to do her homework. Well that is until she hears her parents will get a written notification. Mal doesn’t want to hear a lecture from them and knows she can’t tell them it won’t happen again because she’ll keep on avoiding gym until the unit is over. Ben is amazing! I’ve never been more impressed with a male character in this series. First he sympathizes with Mal and says he doesn’t really like volleyball either. Secondly when he hears what happens to her, he says he’ll play differently now. It’s not like girls are delicate and fragile but they just have different styles of how they play sports. (I love how he said that-meaning they might not play as aggressively as males). Then even tho he doesn’t agree with Mal avoiding to play and he thinks she should just stick it out, he’ll wait for her after detention as long as he has too. Logan’s brother also acts up. He throws his Lego’s all over the place and refuses to pick them up. He demands to have a hamburger for dinner but won’t eat it because he says its too salty. Then he refuses to brush his teeth (Logan says he doesn’t have to) and it takes him forever to go to sleep because he keeps getting up asking for things.
Logan talks about this at the Wednesday meeting. Mal isn’t happy he’s there. She’s not feelin boys still and she got another detention for benching herself. (She’s decided to check the mailbox every day to get the note that will be sent to her parents). Claudia says (and I’ll take this from the book because it’s a lot) this is what happened when she sat the Rodowsky’s. Jackie locked Bo in the toolshed because he wanted to paint the inside of Bo’s doghouse. Then he lost the key to the toolshed. Poor Bo was howling his head off. While I was fiddling in the lock with a bobby pin, he and Archie got into a fight. The next thing I knew, blue paint was flying everywhere. So Shea decided to play the big brother, saying he’d paint the doghouse. But he didn’t realize Jackie had wanted to paint the inside, and he began slapping the paint on the outside — which caused another fight. And then Shea only painted half of the doghouse, got bored, and went to a friend’s house." Mrs. Rodowsky had a key tho and let Bo out.
Dawn says Buddy kept picking on Suzy and Marnie. Mal points out that all the trouble is coming from the boys. Stacey asks can they be favoring the girls. Claudia points out the Rodowsky’s don’t have a sister. Kristy says still they should be extra nice to the boys just in case. Dawn says she wasn’t favoring Suzy and Marnie. Jessi says she wasn’t favoring Becca. They ask Logan if he has any suggestions but he says he doesn’t. He says maybe they’re just at “that age”. Dawn says maybe the planets are in some kind of alightment that are only affecting boys. Mal gives them her theory but Stacey, Maryanne, and Logan says it doesn’t hold up. Ben isn’t that way. Neither is Logan and there are other boys that aren’t. Mal gets a job watching Charlotte which is perfect.
Jessi tells Mallory it’s just that she hates gym that has her so down on boys. She says that whoever likes volleyball in a pain. Jessi says that’s not true because she likes volleyball. Mallory tells her she’s just stressed. Then advises she go home and take a nap. The job with Charlotte goes fine. The job she has with the Hobarts also goes fine. She’s reluctant but lets them make chocolate chip cookies. So, then she has a new theory it’s just boys from America that live in Stoneybrook that are pains. The little ones don’t take gym, but their influenced by the older ones. Mal asks what gym is like in Australia. Ben says it’s pretty much the same but they only have it once a week.
Ben asks Mal if she got the notices and she says she got both of them and just in time because her mother had come out when the second one came. Again, he tells her she should just play. It’s gonna show up on her card when she fails gym. This is something Mal hasn’t thought about and she says she’ll try to play. The next gym class, Mal tries to play but ends up blowing up and walking over to the bleacher’s mid-game. This time Mrs. Waldon asks her what’s wrong. She tells her she’s no good at volleyball. Mrs. Waldon tells her maybe she needs to true. She says she did but she’s not doing it anymore and she can send her to detention every day if she wants to.
Mrs. Waldon tells her it’s not a good idea to begin to get into a pattern of quitting. Mal tells her she’s still not playing. She asks what her parents think and Mal says they don’t think she should be forced to play if she doesn’t want to. For this, Mrs. Waldon makes her stay after and watch the pinny’s. (Which if your like me and have no idea what this is it’s a jersey). Mal hates this because their sweaty and she gets teased by the boys. It continues when Kristy watches her brothers and sisters, David Micheal hogs the tv and won’t let Emy watch “Care Bears”. Then he starts hurling his jet pieces.
Andrew starts scolding Emily for playing “Shark Attack” wrong. Then David Micheal stars playing something at top volume to tune out the Care Bears. David Micheal and Andrew go back and forth being horrible. Mrs. Pike finds the third detention notice. Mal tells her the fourth one will be coming. She tells her about the gym situation and then cries. Her mom says maybe the teacher could tell the other kids to let up or give her some pointers. Mal says she doesn’t think this will happen (the teacher telling them to let up). It’s just this one boy named Chris. Mrs. Pike suggests talking to him. Mal says she could try. Her mother says unfortunately in life there will be things you just don’t want to do but you have to.
Ben and Mal decide to switch brothers. They’re excited and go a little crazy over the bunk beds and the rec room. Then the Pike girls somehow get the boys to start barking. Then they all play Operation. Mal starts her homework. When Mal goes to check on the kids the room is wrecked and the kids are gone. The kids are running back and forth between the bed room and bath room. The tub is over flowing and there’s foam. Noone wants to go to bed. Mr. and Mrs. Pike remind Mal that she says they’ll love the boys because their *angels*, Mal at the end of the night, can’t wait for the Hobart boys to go home. Matthew wakes up Mal and tells her he can’t sleep. In the morning, James has rolled out the bed and hurt his arm. James says he wants to go home and he wants his father to take him to the hospital. But they can’t get the Hobarts on the phone. Then they can’t find James. At breakfast they don’t eat their cereal because it’s not whole milk.
When Ben calls tho he tells her (her) brothers were great. Their mother made a special dinner and Adam told a story about the Zumi people and he was interesting. So was Byron who told him about his lending library. Then Jordan played the piano. Later his father showed slides of their home in Australia. Mal concludes there’s nothing really angelic any more than the other boys about the Hobarts. Mrs. Waldon makes a deal with Mallory that if she tries, she’ll tell the boy’s gym teacher to talk to Chris about letting up on her (tho he’s doing the right thing game wise by finding the weak spot of the other team). When Mallory comes to gym one day she finds the volleyball unit has ended and they’ll be doing archery. Noone is really good at that. Turns out Mallory is kinda decent at archery. She hits the bullseye and Mrs. Waldon encourages her to try out for the archery team. She does and makes it.
My Thoughts:
Speaking for someone that’s not athletic and doesn’t like sports all that much, I just think there should be some kind of alternative for kids like Mallory who REALLY don’t want to play field hockey, and dodge ball, and volley ball, and whatever else they come up with for you to do in gym. Because she makes a fantastic point that in the bigger picture unless they choose an athletic career to follow, they won’t need this stuff in the long run. The only thing that I can see this will help her with is writing a book about a kid that despises gym and OOPS that’s been done and I don’t know of anyone who’ll pick this one as a favorite in the series. I know there’s probably some kind of physical requirement. Ok, how about walking or running around the field. I can vaguely remember doing this when I was in school. Or how about giving them an option. How about if you want to take the kinds of events like swimming, and rope climbing, and volleyball etc, you can sign up for it. Or you can take a class that you might have just exercise like (treadmills, or excersize bikes, or arm cycling, or some light weight lifting, or cycling). Then kids won’t have to worry about thinking of ways to get out of a gym unit. I mean there should be something between the fear of getting hit in the face and an anxiety attack. And I since I haven’t been in middle school in a LONG time and things have changed so much, I’m hoping there is because if I were a parent, I don’t think telling my kid “Well there are just some things in life that we don’t want to do that we have to do.” (while this is true making them get hit in the face for something they will never be good at and frankly is just unnecessary) just wouldn’t cut it with me. I thought the next thing Mallory was gonna do was like when they had the Sports Festival (injure herself so she wouldn’t have to play but I guess they used that already). Still, the point is NO ONE should have to be forced to do something that could potentially injure you if you just don’t want too.
Rating: 5
Mal has found a new word to describe her family (pandemonium). It means: wild uproar and noise. The Pikes are all doing different things. Vanessa is watching a rock video. Claire has puzzle pieces everywhere. Margo is practicing a cheer. The triplets are playing a game called monkey in the middle with a Nerf ball. Nicky is playing with a speaker that has several sound settings (a robot and a baby). Mal uses her new word but no one pays any attention.
Claire thinks she said panda. Nicky thinks it sounds like a sickness. Vanessa thinks it sounds like something you wash pans with. Mal never gets a chance to explain the meaning because she’s hit in the forehead with the triplets Nerf ball. Then Mrs. Pike comes in and tells them -and Margo- to take it outside. Then she asks Mallory to watch Claire. Mallory resents this a little because she’s tired of being asked to watch them, she never has any privacy, and sometimes its not convient. Mostly she just goes along with it. But today Ben is coming over to do homework.
She says she’ll watch her after supper and her mom can make the calls she needs to make. Ben arrives and comments on how quiet -and spooky- it is, but that doesn’t last. They’re working on their math when Mal suddenly feels something warm and furry on her foot and screams. She sees Frodo-their hamster- and finds Adam, Byron, Jordan, and Nicky. It gives about five minutes for Mal and Ben to catch Frodo and put him back in his cage.
Then they start talking in high-pitched and deep voice pretending to be Mal and Ben and saying how much they love each other. While emphasizing this with kissing noises. So, they decide to work at Ben’s house. Mal thinks how nice it must be to live at the Hobarts. His brothers are well behaved and his mom makes delicious chocolate cake. At the meeting, Mal gets teased for being late because she was at Ben’s studying. Then Maryanne gets teased because she and Logan were at the library studying. (He’s also at the meeting). Mrs. Hunter calls for a sitter on Tuesday so she and Mr. Hunter can go to PTA. Logan has been complaining about being tired of sitting. Everyone is busy tho. No sports game at Pete Blacks for Logan.
After the meeting, Mal comments on how cold its getting and she hopes it’s warmer Monday. Jessi reminds her that Monday they switch up and will go from field hockey to volley ball. Only it’ll be with the boys (to Mal’s absolute HORROR). Mal chooses a denim jumpsuit the next day. (It’s easy to get in and out of-so she can get dressed quickly-). Everyone notices how crabby she is. Her parents ask what’s wrong and she blames them for not having any athletic abilities. They ask if there’s anything they can do and she says let her stay at home. She thinks her mother might say yes but her brothers say they want to stay at home too and their father says no one is staying home.
Mal comes up with an idea to faint, but decides not to tell Jessi because she’s too honest. Mal waits too long tho and there’s no one in the locker room. Mal tries to tell her teacher that she doesn’t feel well but she just tells her to hurry up and get out there and makes her carry the pennie’s. Mrs. Waldon assigns them teams for the volleyball unit. Mal tells Jessi she’s gonna be the worse one on the team and make a fool of herself. Jessi tells her she won’t be that bad. But she is. Instead of hitting the ball, she runs away from it.
This guy named Chris (who’s on the opposite team) figures out a winning stategy. Keep hitting the ball to Mall. This guy on her team after a while just tells her just let him get it. Mallory even goes flying backwards and falls on her butt. Mal starts flapping her arms in the air and from a distance it looks like she’s doing something, but it doesn’t fool her teacher and she never lets up calling her out to get balls. Then to make it worse, the boys are relentless and play like they’re at war.
Mal sits for Jamie and Lucy that afternoon.
Mrs. Newton warns her that Jaime for some reason has been acting wild. She doesn’t know if it has something to do with Lucy and the attention she gets or something about nursery schoolThere are about a hundred crayons in the hallway and he’s peeling the paper off them and snapping them in half. He says he’s making rockets and hurling them at Lucy’s door. Mal tells him to stop. He’ll wake Lucy, mark up her door, and ruin his crayons, but he says he doesn’t care and continues to do it. He then says he wants to call Roger. Roger he says is his best friend in nursery school. He’s so loud he wakes up Lucy. When she settles Lucy down, she notices she has 4 teeth (two more than previously). When she tells Jamie he says “Big deal.” Then Mal sees what Mrs. Newton was saying and thinks about how when Nicky wants to impress the triplets he acts tough. Maybe Roger is the reason Jaime’s acting like he is. For a minute, Mal has to change Lucy and Jaime goes out of the room. When she looks around, she can’t find him. He’s not in the house and not in the yard. She calls the number she finds that says Roger Friedman but there’s no answer. She’s about to take Lucy outside to look for him, but Lucy needs another diaper change. While she’s trying to decide what to do, Jaime creeps up behind her and says BOO! Mal tells him it wasn’t funny and don’t do it again.
After this a glass vase falls and Jaime cuts his hand. It’s nothing that can’t be taken care of when cleaned up and a band aide applied but Jaime starts to carry on like his hand was completely severed. Then Lucy starts up. Only half an hour into the job, Mal thinks this is the longest and worse day she’s ever had. Jessi has a job sitting for her siblings. Squirt can now walk and gets into everything. He pulls a lace runner off a side table and everything falls to the floor on the table. He then gets into a drawer where the phone books are and starts ripping pages out of them. Jessi even makes him his favorite food macaroni and he flings it away and gets it everywhere.
Becca makes a mess to. She has an assignment for a unit on nutrition that she has to create a healthy drink and bring a sample to school in a thermos. Everyone will bring theirs and they’ll vote on who’s is the best. Jessi and Becca work on the drink (given to them by Dawn). I would NEVER drink this because the first thing in it is beet juice! Squirt is annoyed by the sound of the blender. (Can’t really blame him there). Jessi tries to get him to stop banging the pots but he yells no and hurls one of the lids. It hits Becca and she drops the blender on the floor. The purple drink goes all over the place.
Jessi tells her to invite Charlotte over while she cleans up. When Jessi vents to Mallory that she doesn’t know what was wrong with Squirt, Mal has a theory. Squirt, Jaime, Robbie, and her brothers are boys. Thus, they’re PAINS! Mal is even more convinced the next gym class that rolls around when she sees how crazed the boys get over the game. When it’s Mal’s turn to serve, Mrs. Walden rattles her so much that she drops the ball and has to go chase after it. This lady is getting on my nerves and needs to go sit down somewhere because every time she gives Mal “a suggestion” she messes up the serve.
Mal makes an EXCELLENT point and it’s that she doesn’t see an editor saying “I’m sorry Mrs. Pike you wrote an excellent children’s book but we can’t publish it because your serve sucks.” (Mrs. Waldon tells her to watch a girl named Helen who has a MEAN serve). While she’s thinking this the ball hits her right in the face. The guy tries to apologize. Mallory snaps at him. Mrs. Walden tells her well you shouldn’t have been daydreaming. I’m really starting to hate this teacher! Mal goes off on her and says what if *she* would have gotten hit in the head with a volleyball and this gets her benched. Ironically tho this wasn’t a punishment. Mal sits there and makes herself not cry by staring at the ceiling. After class, this witch has the nerve to say she expects a better attitude from her next time and *then* asks how her cheek feels.
When she gets home, she just wants to be alone but again her mom asks her to watch the others. She has to go to school to pick up Margo (whose thrown up). The triplets and Nicky immediately start throwing a basketball around (which they aren’t allowed to do in the house). Mallory snaps at them and they tell her to bug off and she returns the insult. She decides if there’s one thing she hates as much as gym it’s boys. By Monday, Mal has a plan to just get benched all the time, but it will take nerve. Robbie makes up her mind for her when he asks her if she’s alright. Mallory says yes. He says that’s funny cause your face is killing me. Mallory benches herself and when Mrs. Walden orders her to she says she won’t. So, Mrs. Waldren says if she doesn’t, she’ll get detention and Mal says fine. Mal wonders if this is the beginning of her life as a criminal and wonder when you stop caring where do you draw the line.
But for now it works. Even detention isn’t that bad. She just gets to do her homework. Well that is until she hears her parents will get a written notification. Mal doesn’t want to hear a lecture from them and knows she can’t tell them it won’t happen again because she’ll keep on avoiding gym until the unit is over. Ben is amazing! I’ve never been more impressed with a male character in this series. First he sympathizes with Mal and says he doesn’t really like volleyball either. Secondly when he hears what happens to her, he says he’ll play differently now. It’s not like girls are delicate and fragile but they just have different styles of how they play sports. (I love how he said that-meaning they might not play as aggressively as males). Then even tho he doesn’t agree with Mal avoiding to play and he thinks she should just stick it out, he’ll wait for her after detention as long as he has too. Logan’s brother also acts up. He throws his Lego’s all over the place and refuses to pick them up. He demands to have a hamburger for dinner but won’t eat it because he says its too salty. Then he refuses to brush his teeth (Logan says he doesn’t have to) and it takes him forever to go to sleep because he keeps getting up asking for things.
Logan talks about this at the Wednesday meeting. Mal isn’t happy he’s there. She’s not feelin boys still and she got another detention for benching herself. (She’s decided to check the mailbox every day to get the note that will be sent to her parents). Claudia says (and I’ll take this from the book because it’s a lot) this is what happened when she sat the Rodowsky’s. Jackie locked Bo in the toolshed because he wanted to paint the inside of Bo’s doghouse. Then he lost the key to the toolshed. Poor Bo was howling his head off. While I was fiddling in the lock with a bobby pin, he and Archie got into a fight. The next thing I knew, blue paint was flying everywhere. So Shea decided to play the big brother, saying he’d paint the doghouse. But he didn’t realize Jackie had wanted to paint the inside, and he began slapping the paint on the outside — which caused another fight. And then Shea only painted half of the doghouse, got bored, and went to a friend’s house." Mrs. Rodowsky had a key tho and let Bo out.
Dawn says Buddy kept picking on Suzy and Marnie. Mal points out that all the trouble is coming from the boys. Stacey asks can they be favoring the girls. Claudia points out the Rodowsky’s don’t have a sister. Kristy says still they should be extra nice to the boys just in case. Dawn says she wasn’t favoring Suzy and Marnie. Jessi says she wasn’t favoring Becca. They ask Logan if he has any suggestions but he says he doesn’t. He says maybe they’re just at “that age”. Dawn says maybe the planets are in some kind of alightment that are only affecting boys. Mal gives them her theory but Stacey, Maryanne, and Logan says it doesn’t hold up. Ben isn’t that way. Neither is Logan and there are other boys that aren’t. Mal gets a job watching Charlotte which is perfect.
Jessi tells Mallory it’s just that she hates gym that has her so down on boys. She says that whoever likes volleyball in a pain. Jessi says that’s not true because she likes volleyball. Mallory tells her she’s just stressed. Then advises she go home and take a nap. The job with Charlotte goes fine. The job she has with the Hobarts also goes fine. She’s reluctant but lets them make chocolate chip cookies. So, then she has a new theory it’s just boys from America that live in Stoneybrook that are pains. The little ones don’t take gym, but their influenced by the older ones. Mal asks what gym is like in Australia. Ben says it’s pretty much the same but they only have it once a week.
Ben asks Mal if she got the notices and she says she got both of them and just in time because her mother had come out when the second one came. Again, he tells her she should just play. It’s gonna show up on her card when she fails gym. This is something Mal hasn’t thought about and she says she’ll try to play. The next gym class, Mal tries to play but ends up blowing up and walking over to the bleacher’s mid-game. This time Mrs. Waldon asks her what’s wrong. She tells her she’s no good at volleyball. Mrs. Waldon tells her maybe she needs to true. She says she did but she’s not doing it anymore and she can send her to detention every day if she wants to.
Mrs. Waldon tells her it’s not a good idea to begin to get into a pattern of quitting. Mal tells her she’s still not playing. She asks what her parents think and Mal says they don’t think she should be forced to play if she doesn’t want to. For this, Mrs. Waldon makes her stay after and watch the pinny’s. (Which if your like me and have no idea what this is it’s a jersey). Mal hates this because their sweaty and she gets teased by the boys. It continues when Kristy watches her brothers and sisters, David Micheal hogs the tv and won’t let Emy watch “Care Bears”. Then he starts hurling his jet pieces.
Andrew starts scolding Emily for playing “Shark Attack” wrong. Then David Micheal stars playing something at top volume to tune out the Care Bears. David Micheal and Andrew go back and forth being horrible. Mrs. Pike finds the third detention notice. Mal tells her the fourth one will be coming. She tells her about the gym situation and then cries. Her mom says maybe the teacher could tell the other kids to let up or give her some pointers. Mal says she doesn’t think this will happen (the teacher telling them to let up). It’s just this one boy named Chris. Mrs. Pike suggests talking to him. Mal says she could try. Her mother says unfortunately in life there will be things you just don’t want to do but you have to.
Ben and Mal decide to switch brothers. They’re excited and go a little crazy over the bunk beds and the rec room. Then the Pike girls somehow get the boys to start barking. Then they all play Operation. Mal starts her homework. When Mal goes to check on the kids the room is wrecked and the kids are gone. The kids are running back and forth between the bed room and bath room. The tub is over flowing and there’s foam. Noone wants to go to bed. Mr. and Mrs. Pike remind Mal that she says they’ll love the boys because their *angels*, Mal at the end of the night, can’t wait for the Hobart boys to go home. Matthew wakes up Mal and tells her he can’t sleep. In the morning, James has rolled out the bed and hurt his arm. James says he wants to go home and he wants his father to take him to the hospital. But they can’t get the Hobarts on the phone. Then they can’t find James. At breakfast they don’t eat their cereal because it’s not whole milk.
When Ben calls tho he tells her (her) brothers were great. Their mother made a special dinner and Adam told a story about the Zumi people and he was interesting. So was Byron who told him about his lending library. Then Jordan played the piano. Later his father showed slides of their home in Australia. Mal concludes there’s nothing really angelic any more than the other boys about the Hobarts. Mrs. Waldon makes a deal with Mallory that if she tries, she’ll tell the boy’s gym teacher to talk to Chris about letting up on her (tho he’s doing the right thing game wise by finding the weak spot of the other team). When Mallory comes to gym one day she finds the volleyball unit has ended and they’ll be doing archery. Noone is really good at that. Turns out Mallory is kinda decent at archery. She hits the bullseye and Mrs. Waldon encourages her to try out for the archery team. She does and makes it.
My Thoughts:
Speaking for someone that’s not athletic and doesn’t like sports all that much, I just think there should be some kind of alternative for kids like Mallory who REALLY don’t want to play field hockey, and dodge ball, and volley ball, and whatever else they come up with for you to do in gym. Because she makes a fantastic point that in the bigger picture unless they choose an athletic career to follow, they won’t need this stuff in the long run. The only thing that I can see this will help her with is writing a book about a kid that despises gym and OOPS that’s been done and I don’t know of anyone who’ll pick this one as a favorite in the series. I know there’s probably some kind of physical requirement. Ok, how about walking or running around the field. I can vaguely remember doing this when I was in school. Or how about giving them an option. How about if you want to take the kinds of events like swimming, and rope climbing, and volleyball etc, you can sign up for it. Or you can take a class that you might have just exercise like (treadmills, or excersize bikes, or arm cycling, or some light weight lifting, or cycling). Then kids won’t have to worry about thinking of ways to get out of a gym unit. I mean there should be something between the fear of getting hit in the face and an anxiety attack. And I since I haven’t been in middle school in a LONG time and things have changed so much, I’m hoping there is because if I were a parent, I don’t think telling my kid “Well there are just some things in life that we don’t want to do that we have to do.” (while this is true making them get hit in the face for something they will never be good at and frankly is just unnecessary) just wouldn’t cut it with me. I thought the next thing Mallory was gonna do was like when they had the Sports Festival (injure herself so she wouldn’t have to play but I guess they used that already). Still, the point is NO ONE should have to be forced to do something that could potentially injure you if you just don’t want too.
Rating: 5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2010
I got this book a while back from a member at ReaditSwapit.co.uk. I used to own it as a kid and read it many times as I agreed with Mallory's hatred of gym class and obnoxious boys. Even as I read it now I found myself agreeing with her comments!
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2nd re-read, 07/01/10
Reading this again I liked it even more. I totally understand how Mallory felt being picked on in gym class because she was bad at volleyball. I was always really bad at sport, and I remember clearly how annoying the boys in my class were. Plus, Mallory's theory about why boys are such pains is very amusing. The ending, where her brothers bake her a cake, is very sweet. Great exam-time reading! 9/10
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2nd re-read, 07/01/10
Reading this again I liked it even more. I totally understand how Mallory felt being picked on in gym class because she was bad at volleyball. I was always really bad at sport, and I remember clearly how annoying the boys in my class were. Plus, Mallory's theory about why boys are such pains is very amusing. The ending, where her brothers bake her a cake, is very sweet. Great exam-time reading! 9/10
September 15, 2009
my boyfriend got this book for me at an estate sale because he said the title reminded him of my life. ha ha ha. this was an enjoyable read--i remember reading it when i was in junior high and really relating to it because i, like the titular mallory, was a bookish future writer who SUCKED at volleyball & was endlessly ridiculed for it. i especially loved the gym teacher who absolutely cannot comprehend that some people hate sports & aren't good at them. so true! there is a pretty right-on critique of patriarchy somewhere in the middle, too. a man-hating classic!
May 9, 2012
As an 8- and 9-year old, I loved the Babysitter Club series. However, looking back, this book was really unrealistic. Suddenly, all these boys who are normally well-behaved are monsters? Doesn't make much sense.
July 19, 2010
Mallory is behaving extremely immature in this book, and there's surprisingly little babysitting going on.
February 21, 2017
The title says it all. It is the focus of the whole plot, and the subplot. No one needs to read this book, they just need to read the title.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I think I read this book in fourth or fifth grade, right around the time when gym stopped being fun and started being torture for me. I remember really, really liking this book as a kid, especially because at the end Mallory finds that although playing volleyball with preteen boys isn't her cup of tea, archery is. She's good enough to get on the archery team. As a kid I was pretty disappointed that we never hear about this again.
As a kid, volleyball was the one sport I liked a lot, and was really good at, probably because it didn't involve lots of running. I was on the girls volleyball team in high school, but even when I was young I loved playing the game at my grandmother's community (they LOVED volleyball). However, I sympathized with Mallory in this book because even though I liked volleyball, I hated playing with boys of a certain age. There was a kid who lived in the community who was the most intense, most competitive volleyball player ever, and it was really annoying. He was two years older than me, and I hated him. Later we went to high school together, and I thanked god every day that the girls and boys had separate volleyball teams because his intensity got worse as he aged.
I remember very clearly the beginning of the book when all the Pike kids are saying what they think "pandemonium" means, and Nicky says it sounds like a disease. To this day I think of a disease when I hear the word "pandemonium."
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
As an adult I find Mallory's problems a little tedious. If her biggest problems are boys and gym then, well. . . good for her. I didn't like gym either, and when I was in middle school it was an especially bleak moment in my week, but now that I'm grown I actually do appreciate that it instilled in me certain habits, like stretching before and after a workout, and other silly things that I can commiserate with others on, like having to change into and out of gym clothes. Also, as someone who doesn't think of herself as being athletic, I have always had a low tolerance for people who complain about being unathletic and don't try at any kind of physical sport at all. I've found if you give it a little effort, most sports are bearable enough to suffer through them for an hour. Since Mallory is a long way from being grown-up, and gaining some perspective on her hatred of boys and gym, the reader is stuck with a lot of annoying inner dialogue about how horrible Mallory's life is. (Mallory does realize at some point that in the big picture of life being a bad volleyball player isn't the end of everything, but since she's stuck inside the little picture it seems like it is.) And it's a bit much, especially when she decides that all boys, everywhere (at least everywhere in the Stoneybrook), are a problem, even the little boys she baby sits for. It's also annoying to me that she doesn't at least give volleyball a fighting chance, and that she's so uber-sensitive about her team mates bumping into her. Jessi handles gym class a lot better than Mallory does, although she is not crazy about playing volleyball with boys either. She just kind of puts up with it, and tries her best. (Being in ballerina boot camp probably doesn't hurt! She's clearly much more athletic than Mallory, which makes her perspective a little different. Of course, when she tells Mallory that she kinds of likes volleyball, Mallory has to act like a jerk and tell her, "No, you don't. You've just been hit in the head too many times to know better.") I didn't notice it as a kid, but Mallory tends to be very immature in her books.
Mallory says that until she met Ben Hobart she thought that baking from scratch meant using cake mixes. At some point later in the series she says that she thought one made tea by heating up water in a microwave, with a tea bag. I guess a disadvantage of the Pikes "eat whatever you want" philosophy is that their kids don't learn the simple basics of cooking.
Despite my dislike of Mallory's attitude, and despite the stupid subplot which involves Mallory thinking all Stoneybrook boys are terrible, and deciding that the Hobarts are so well behaved because they were raised in Australia, I liked that this book handled Mallory's problem reasonably well. Mallory dreads gym so much that she asks her mother if she can stay home, and although her mother is sympathetic, she ultimately tells Mallory that she will have to go to school. Even the Pike parents think Mallory should suck it up. Later in the book Mallory's mother even reminds her that there are things in life you don't like to do, but you have to do them. Reading about Mallory's experiences reminded me a lot of the whiny, drippy boys and girls who suffered through gym far more than I did, so I think that part was well written. I thought Ms Walden, her gym teacher was a great character. She's tough on Mallory, and gives the stupid idioms gym teachers the world over give, ("You're wimping out on your team! Life eats up quitters!") but she has enough sensitivity and sympathy to eventually realize that Mallory is truly miserable in gym, and talks to the kids who are targeting Mallory. She's a gym teacher through and through about it ("That's good strategy," is what she calls the kids practice of aiming hard, fast balls directly at Mallory, knowing that she'll jump out of the way) but she understands how difficult it is to put up with the treatment day after day. I think that's a practical approach to Mallory's problem. Coach Walden also encourages Mallory to try out for the archery team (something I have never, ever heard of a middle school having) after she realizes that Mallory has a talent for it. It's nice that she doesn't just dismiss Mallory as an nonathletic person, that she realizes that Mallory's talents aren't indicative toward a team sport like volleyball, but a more solitary thing like archery. I would have loved it if Mallory's archery was more part of future books, since it would have reinforced that even people who don't think of themselves as being talented in traditional athletic sports might find an unexpected talent in something like archery or yoga (like me!).
The Pikes racism rubs off on the Hobarts when the kids tell them about the "plight of the Zuni people."
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
I think I read this book in fourth or fifth grade, right around the time when gym stopped being fun and started being torture for me. I remember really, really liking this book as a kid, especially because at the end Mallory finds that although playing volleyball with preteen boys isn't her cup of tea, archery is. She's good enough to get on the archery team. As a kid I was pretty disappointed that we never hear about this again.
As a kid, volleyball was the one sport I liked a lot, and was really good at, probably because it didn't involve lots of running. I was on the girls volleyball team in high school, but even when I was young I loved playing the game at my grandmother's community (they LOVED volleyball). However, I sympathized with Mallory in this book because even though I liked volleyball, I hated playing with boys of a certain age. There was a kid who lived in the community who was the most intense, most competitive volleyball player ever, and it was really annoying. He was two years older than me, and I hated him. Later we went to high school together, and I thanked god every day that the girls and boys had separate volleyball teams because his intensity got worse as he aged.
I remember very clearly the beginning of the book when all the Pike kids are saying what they think "pandemonium" means, and Nicky says it sounds like a disease. To this day I think of a disease when I hear the word "pandemonium."
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
As an adult I find Mallory's problems a little tedious. If her biggest problems are boys and gym then, well. . . good for her. I didn't like gym either, and when I was in middle school it was an especially bleak moment in my week, but now that I'm grown I actually do appreciate that it instilled in me certain habits, like stretching before and after a workout, and other silly things that I can commiserate with others on, like having to change into and out of gym clothes. Also, as someone who doesn't think of herself as being athletic, I have always had a low tolerance for people who complain about being unathletic and don't try at any kind of physical sport at all. I've found if you give it a little effort, most sports are bearable enough to suffer through them for an hour. Since Mallory is a long way from being grown-up, and gaining some perspective on her hatred of boys and gym, the reader is stuck with a lot of annoying inner dialogue about how horrible Mallory's life is. (Mallory does realize at some point that in the big picture of life being a bad volleyball player isn't the end of everything, but since she's stuck inside the little picture it seems like it is.) And it's a bit much, especially when she decides that all boys, everywhere (at least everywhere in the Stoneybrook), are a problem, even the little boys she baby sits for. It's also annoying to me that she doesn't at least give volleyball a fighting chance, and that she's so uber-sensitive about her team mates bumping into her. Jessi handles gym class a lot better than Mallory does, although she is not crazy about playing volleyball with boys either. She just kind of puts up with it, and tries her best. (Being in ballerina boot camp probably doesn't hurt! She's clearly much more athletic than Mallory, which makes her perspective a little different. Of course, when she tells Mallory that she kinds of likes volleyball, Mallory has to act like a jerk and tell her, "No, you don't. You've just been hit in the head too many times to know better.") I didn't notice it as a kid, but Mallory tends to be very immature in her books.
Mallory says that until she met Ben Hobart she thought that baking from scratch meant using cake mixes. At some point later in the series she says that she thought one made tea by heating up water in a microwave, with a tea bag. I guess a disadvantage of the Pikes "eat whatever you want" philosophy is that their kids don't learn the simple basics of cooking.
Despite my dislike of Mallory's attitude, and despite the stupid subplot which involves Mallory thinking all Stoneybrook boys are terrible, and deciding that the Hobarts are so well behaved because they were raised in Australia, I liked that this book handled Mallory's problem reasonably well. Mallory dreads gym so much that she asks her mother if she can stay home, and although her mother is sympathetic, she ultimately tells Mallory that she will have to go to school. Even the Pike parents think Mallory should suck it up. Later in the book Mallory's mother even reminds her that there are things in life you don't like to do, but you have to do them. Reading about Mallory's experiences reminded me a lot of the whiny, drippy boys and girls who suffered through gym far more than I did, so I think that part was well written. I thought Ms Walden, her gym teacher was a great character. She's tough on Mallory, and gives the stupid idioms gym teachers the world over give, ("You're wimping out on your team! Life eats up quitters!") but she has enough sensitivity and sympathy to eventually realize that Mallory is truly miserable in gym, and talks to the kids who are targeting Mallory. She's a gym teacher through and through about it ("That's good strategy," is what she calls the kids practice of aiming hard, fast balls directly at Mallory, knowing that she'll jump out of the way) but she understands how difficult it is to put up with the treatment day after day. I think that's a practical approach to Mallory's problem. Coach Walden also encourages Mallory to try out for the archery team (something I have never, ever heard of a middle school having) after she realizes that Mallory has a talent for it. It's nice that she doesn't just dismiss Mallory as an nonathletic person, that she realizes that Mallory's talents aren't indicative toward a team sport like volleyball, but a more solitary thing like archery. I would have loved it if Mallory's archery was more part of future books, since it would have reinforced that even people who don't think of themselves as being talented in traditional athletic sports might find an unexpected talent in something like archery or yoga (like me!).
The Pikes racism rubs off on the Hobarts when the kids tell them about the "plight of the Zuni people."
January 7, 2018
This is Mallory at her best. Now I don't mean Mallory being on her best behavior, because she does get quite obnoxious, but her point of view of gym class and all her problems that surrounded it are expertly portrayed.
You might already guess that gym wouldn't be Mallory's favorite class. While she's not exactly a slouch in physical activity, she does prefer to sit and read. Gym represents everything she hates: the humiliating gym uniform, the gym teacher barking at her, the boys acting like middle school boys, the brutality that is the game of volleyball. She does her best snarking and rebelling when she justifies that knowing how to play volleyball will never become important in her life's ambitions and how boys are just awful (except a few more gentlemanly guys like Ben and Logan, or so she verbally backtracks.) At the same time, her brothers are acting as unruly as usual and her frustrations with them only fuel into her boys are awful viewpoint.
At first, she willfully resists indoctrination into the gym cult. Unable to bear the humiliation of getting smacked in the face and trampled during volleyball games, she starts to sit out. Eventually she gets confronted and she has to admit that this is not the best strategy. Finally, she talks to her detested gym teacher and they make a deal, if she makes more of an effort to participate, then the teacher will ask the boys to ease up on her. The deal works, and Mallory's outlook begins to change: the other students do ease up on her once she does make an effort, even if she still messes up. Then they change to archery, for which Mallory has a much better knack while the boys who gave her such a hard time seem to struggle more.
As for boys, they aren't so bad after all, especially when her brothers and sisters try to make her a cake to congratulate her on making the archery team.
The change in point of view went over my head when reading this as a kid: I could sympathize with Mallory having to deal with playing the sadistic sport of volleyball, though I never had the nerve to risk detention by sitting out. Rereading this as an adult, I was impressed with the change in Mallory's perceptions. I could see that some of her thinking was wrong: that the teacher was more frustrated with Mallory not trying than she was with Mallory not making the perfect hit, and it was just fun seeing the normally responsible Mallory rebel against the awfulness of gym class in such an authentic way. While the switch in attitude at the end does seem to come too swiftly, it is realistic enough that Mallory doesn't become a volleyball superstar overnight, and then they move on to a sport that is vastly different.
You might already guess that gym wouldn't be Mallory's favorite class. While she's not exactly a slouch in physical activity, she does prefer to sit and read. Gym represents everything she hates: the humiliating gym uniform, the gym teacher barking at her, the boys acting like middle school boys, the brutality that is the game of volleyball. She does her best snarking and rebelling when she justifies that knowing how to play volleyball will never become important in her life's ambitions and how boys are just awful (except a few more gentlemanly guys like Ben and Logan, or so she verbally backtracks.) At the same time, her brothers are acting as unruly as usual and her frustrations with them only fuel into her boys are awful viewpoint.
At first, she willfully resists indoctrination into the gym cult. Unable to bear the humiliation of getting smacked in the face and trampled during volleyball games, she starts to sit out. Eventually she gets confronted and she has to admit that this is not the best strategy. Finally, she talks to her detested gym teacher and they make a deal, if she makes more of an effort to participate, then the teacher will ask the boys to ease up on her. The deal works, and Mallory's outlook begins to change: the other students do ease up on her once she does make an effort, even if she still messes up. Then they change to archery, for which Mallory has a much better knack while the boys who gave her such a hard time seem to struggle more.
As for boys, they aren't so bad after all, especially when her brothers and sisters try to make her a cake to congratulate her on making the archery team.
The change in point of view went over my head when reading this as a kid: I could sympathize with Mallory having to deal with playing the sadistic sport of volleyball, though I never had the nerve to risk detention by sitting out. Rereading this as an adult, I was impressed with the change in Mallory's perceptions. I could see that some of her thinking was wrong: that the teacher was more frustrated with Mallory not trying than she was with Mallory not making the perfect hit, and it was just fun seeing the normally responsible Mallory rebel against the awfulness of gym class in such an authentic way. While the switch in attitude at the end does seem to come too swiftly, it is realistic enough that Mallory doesn't become a volleyball superstar overnight, and then they move on to a sport that is vastly different.
January 10, 2025
I never bothered reading this one because when I was a kid I didn’t really like Mallory. And her books usually involve her having an issue that is both difficult and not particularly interesting. But I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I mean, sure, Mallory overreacts to things in true eleven year old fashion.
But I found myself captivated by the nuances of her problems - loving her siblings but feeling put upon by all the baby-sitting her parents expect of her, feeling angry that the boys are being genuinely mean to her in gym and no one seems to notice, the drunken power of “you can’t make me” when she decides to just stop participating in gym, the genuine care and concern Ben shows for her. I loved the experiment of swapping your little brothers for someone else’s and thought it was really funny that her brothers were so well behaved as the Hobarts’ guests. I really felt bad for her when that boy stepped on her foot and it throbbed all day (the nurse should have looked at it!). And it was fun to see “monster” versions of the cutie pie regulars like Jamie Newton and Andrew Brewer. All in all, one of my favorite BSC books.
But I found myself captivated by the nuances of her problems - loving her siblings but feeling put upon by all the baby-sitting her parents expect of her, feeling angry that the boys are being genuinely mean to her in gym and no one seems to notice, the drunken power of “you can’t make me” when she decides to just stop participating in gym, the genuine care and concern Ben shows for her. I loved the experiment of swapping your little brothers for someone else’s and thought it was really funny that her brothers were so well behaved as the Hobarts’ guests. I really felt bad for her when that boy stepped on her foot and it throbbed all day (the nurse should have looked at it!). And it was fun to see “monster” versions of the cutie pie regulars like Jamie Newton and Andrew Brewer. All in all, one of my favorite BSC books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2022
This was one of the first BSC books I read. I could relate cause I hated gym, especially volleyball cause I was always getting hit and no one wanted me on their team. I was a little younger than mallory at the time of reading this, so we still had co-ed gym and it was awful. Mallory comes up with a theory that guys from Australia (the Hobarts) are much more polite than her own brothers, so they switch for a night and she learns a lesson. Also, Mallory is good at archery at the end of this book, which we never hear about again. I feel like in the 50's series of the BSC books, Ann was trying to give Mallory and Jessi new hobbies like synchronized swimming and horseback riding.
August 17, 2023
This one's pretty good. There's actually a lot of stuff going on. The toxic masculinity in gym class is really realistic, and I think the cultural lines between masculinity performance, sports, dominance, and gendered harassment are really well drawn. Mallory's gym teacher is not great. The "compromise" at the end doesn't make up for overall bad teaching, and its gender-blind assessment of the situation doesn't help either. Mal's mom gives her such a ridiculous, insipid, milquetoast solution. And what's up with all Stacey's gaslighting lately?
August 24, 2017
I also hated gym class as a kid, for no actual rhyme or reason. I was athletically inclined to some degree, and I didn't MIND participating and playing with others even if I didn't like the sport. There's just something about being FORCED to play that is super, super annoying and just yeah. I hated it. I sympathize with you, Mal. Although you only had gym twice a week, so screw you on that one.
Is sucking it up twice a week REALLY that bad?
Is sucking it up twice a week REALLY that bad?
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July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
December 15, 2020
(LL)
This book does a great job tackling: kids who aren’t athletic, bullies, and learning to find some sport you can do well. I liked that Mallory was decent at archery in the end, but not some sort of prodigy. Most kids feel like they aren’t good a sports, so this was a good attempt at showing just that.
As an aside: they made all of the teachers way too harsh and oblivious to what was going on, which is rather sad and (hopefully) unrealistic.
This book does a great job tackling: kids who aren’t athletic, bullies, and learning to find some sport you can do well. I liked that Mallory was decent at archery in the end, but not some sort of prodigy. Most kids feel like they aren’t good a sports, so this was a good attempt at showing just that.
As an aside: they made all of the teachers way too harsh and oblivious to what was going on, which is rather sad and (hopefully) unrealistic.
January 18, 2020
I mean, I hated gym when I was young (ESPECIALLY volleyball! I can remember how red my poor arms would get!) but it was never as bad as Mallory makes it out to be. This book is also frustrating reading about what holy terrors all the kids are being. There must've been a full moon in Stoneybrook. (Though I'd like to read the brother swap from Ben's point of view!)
May 25, 2020
This might have the worst title in the series, but the book itself is actually a lot of fun.
I can definitely sympathize with Mallory on gym class, but I love that she finds a sport she loves at the end. Also, I love the side plot with the Hobart boys coming to the Pike house and being little terrors. Oh, and Ben is so sweet in this one - I forgot how much I liked him and Mallory together!
I can definitely sympathize with Mallory on gym class, but I love that she finds a sport she loves at the end. Also, I love the side plot with the Hobart boys coming to the Pike house and being little terrors. Oh, and Ben is so sweet in this one - I forgot how much I liked him and Mallory together!
March 5, 2023
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
July 30, 2023
Super relatable to me, even as a kid, coz I also suck at volleyball. (No boys in my gym class though, so I could hate volleyball for what it is without thinking about the gender dynamics of behaviour at gym.)
November 11, 2023
3 stars. Eh, I love Mallory but her books aren’t always the most interesting and this was a good example of that. This was fine. I wasn’t all that invested in it and the plot felt underdeveloped but it wasn’t awful or anything.
February 5, 2018
I really liked it. It shows who Mallory raelly is. Also how much she hates boys.
October 6, 2019
Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book
August 15, 2020
Mallory Pike is my hero!
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August 27, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
December 9, 2021
Some of the most boring outdated gender binary you will ever read
December 9, 2021
This is my favorite of the series that I’ve read so far.
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