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Sweet Valley Twins #40
Danny Means Trouble
While writing a story for the school newspaper about Danny, a star runner and major troublemaker, Elizabeth discovers the real reason why he has been getting into trouble, and sets out to help him without betraying his secret
138 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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About the author
Francine Pascal
1,139 books1,844 followersFrancine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.
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August 24, 2024Danny Means Trouble
Jessica tells Liz and Amy that Danny Jackson was fooling around pretending like he was going to cut Julie’s hair and she turned around and he actually cut her hair. She left the classroom and hasn’t been seen since. Caroline adds that if Danny gets in trouble again he won’t be able to run against Pine Crest. Or anymore for that matter. The next day, Jessica is disappointed to find that Julie just got her hair trimmed up. She just evened it up. When the twins get to school, a crowd has gathered. Danny is joining their homeroom and class.
Mr. Davis has put him in the front row. Danny’s in Jessica’s social studies class. The principal thought it would be a good idea to put him in different classes to give him another chance. Danny makes a snarky comment about checks and balances. While she goes to take a call, Danny starts to imitate Mrs. Arnette. He draws a picture on the black board of a woman of Mrs. Arnette. Jessica thinks he’s funny. Mrs. Anette comes back and quickly tries to erase the picture but he’s not quick enough. This earns him a slight scolding . Danny tries to bail Jessica out when she answers a question wrong and then luckily the bell rings. After class, Lila says she thinks Danny will make the class more interesting. They both agree to study together after school.
Danny is also in Jessica’s science class. Ellen teases Jessica, he may like her and wanted to be in all her classes. The teacher says they’ll be starting a new experiment. They’ll be dissecting worms and everyone has to participate. Then he talks about lab reports and says they’ll have to turn in a sample. He tells them to partner up. Jessica and Ellen work together. Jessica says she’s glad she’s not working with Danny. Danny’s working with Ken. Danny takes the paper and rips it. Then they start fighting. The teacher makes them apologize to the class and then the teacher escorts them to the principal’s office. Jessica wonders what they argued about. Ellen says maybe it was her.
Julie eats with Amy and Liz at lunch and they compliment her hair. Jessica comes by their table and compliments her too. They talk about the fight. Liz wonders what’s up with him and hopes he won’t be kicked out the meet. Jessica says she’ll be cheering and Liz says she’s covering it for the Sixers. Danny says he’s going to do something exciting at the meet. Ken and Danny come into the lunchroom and they look like they’re over the fight and didn’t get kicked out the meet.
At the meet Danny breaks the school record. Liz goes over to talk to him after the meet to congratulate him and ask him questions for the paper. When she comments his parents must be proud of him, he says not really. She asks why and he says none of her business and walks off. Then she and Jim talk a little. She tries to ask Jim about Danny parents. He says he thinks they get along. They’re scientist. He says they don’t come to meets because they aren’t into sports. In fact, they want him to quit running so he can spend more time studying. Liz says she hopes they don’t make him quit. Maybe if they came to the races, they’d change their mind. SV wins the track meet.
After the meet, Lila wants to go look at earrings because her dad said it was ok if she got her ears pierced. She says Jessica should ask her parents and she says she’ll think about it (covering up the excitement of the idea). Mrs. Arnette is giving a lesson about the judicial system. Danny says they should all just watch “The Citizen’s Court”. Mrs, Arnette isn’t amused and threatens to give him detention for his “sass”. Walking home, Jessica overhears Bruce talking to a girl named Krissie and is upset that he doesn’t pay her any attention. She tells Liz maybe she’ll get into aerobics. She invites Liz to join her but she turns it down.
In English the next day, they have a sub (Mrs. Windohoven) in Mrs. Bowman’s class. She gets Nora to read a little bit of a short story and then she tells Danny to read the rest. Danny asks shouldn’t they discuss what they just read. That’s how Mr. Bowman does it. She says she’s in charge. Danny says he’ll read the story but just so she knows there’s a mouse under his desk. Then the class all start looking for it. So, the teacher goes to get the custodian. No one sees it now. The custodian comes and has a look and declares he’s seen nothing and never has since he’s been there. He asks Danny what color it was and he says brown. Someone says maybe it was a lab rat. The custodian says no those are white. After he leaves, the teacher gets on Danny for his “hijinks”.
After school, Jessica tells Liz, that Mr. Clark called Danny to his office and tells him if he gets in trouble one more time he’s off the team. Liz hopes this will make him more careful. The next meet she says is in three weeks. Jessica says he won’t last three hours. Liz just hopes she’s wrong. Jessica gets some new workout clothes. She takes a fitness quiz. The results are half-fit-half fat. She decides a few workouts should do it. So, she puts on Jumping for Joy with June. By Monday, she’s over worked out and sore. For breakfast she turns down pancakes for just whole weat toast. Jessica asks can she get her ears pierced. Alice says they’ll have to think on it. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea. She says they can talk about it later. Jessica drops it for now but she knows with a little patience she’ll get what she wants.
There’s a Parent Night at the school. Liz overhears Mrs. Wyler talking to Danny’s problems. They’re telling him he’s done good overall, but his parents seem upset that he’s getting a B. Liz speaks to him but he walks past her and doesn’t say anything. She then hears his parents telling Mr. Bowman they think he needs to give up track. Mr. Bowman says he *should* spend more time reading but he doesn’t think he should give up track. Maybe re-arranging his schedule so he could get his work done earlier. Liz looks at Danny and feels bad that they’re talking about him like he’s not there. Mr. Bowman also says he makes excellent contributions but he needs to be more careful in his assignments. It’s obvious to Liz that the parents don’t know about Mr. Clarks threats. Danny even notices how nice his teachers are being by not meaning the trouble he’s been in. Mr. Clark gave his parents a note to sign but he signed it instead. His parents want to meet Mr. Clark, but luck is on his side. He’s surrounded by people. His mom suggest they go home and Danny happily agrees.
The Unicorns look at Jessica like she’s lost it when she tells them she won’t be coming to the meeting because she has to work out. But she’s not that committed that she can’t go to the mall that weekend. Lila asks about if her parents said anything about the earrings. Jessica tells that what they told her. Janet told her that means no (I’ll think about it). She asks her mom about it again later. Later tho, her mom says they can both get their ears pierced at 14. REALLY?! She says their too young. I’ve seen BABIES with pierced ears! Liz looks for Danny to go over the article and finds him in the AV room watching a movie. He’s not happy to be interrupted and scans the article quickly and says it’s fine. It seems to be taking him a while to read the artice. Liz realizes she’s never heard him read. Whenever he’s asked to read something always “Comes up”. Liz realizes he can’t read (which is why he’s watching the movie which has a book version. She also remembers the math teacher said they’d started a new unit and he’s been having problems with word problems.
Liz asks him if he can’t read and he gets upset and tells her to mind her business. He rips up a book and tells her if she tells anyone she’ll be sorry. Mr. Clark and the librarian ask Danny what’s going on and the librarian tells on him. Liz tries to jump in and over for him, by saying it’s her fault, but Mr. Clark dismisses her and takes Danny to his office. Jessica meets her in the hallway with the Unicorns and asks if it’s true Danny hit her with the book. Liz says no. Tamera told them she was in the library and heard everything. They want to know the details so she says she wrote something in the article that didn’t agree with him. She says he was just “in a bad mood” and it was no big deal. Jessica offers to walk home with her but she says “she has a meeting with Mr. Bowman”. Liz goes to meet with Mr. Clark and he says he doesn’t hold it against her. She says she said something that upset him, but he says he was accountable for his actions. Until Danny tells him the truth, he’s suspended from the track team. Liz wonders if she should tell Mr. Clark, but decides she won’t betray Danny. Mr. Clark tells her he’ll work it out soon enough.
Danny thinks about how sorry he is, but Liz was right and he was mad that someone found out his secret. At his old school when he tried to read, he’d just mumble through it and so he stopped. He stopped trying. The treachers stopped pushing him and just gave him low grades and suggestions of getting a tutor. Liz makes Jessica promise she won’t tell anyone and she makes her sign an agreement. Then she tells her about Danny. Jessica tells Liz not to get involve, but she hopes they don’t kick him out of school (since he’s her source of entertainment). Liz says they wouldn’t kick him out,. They’d try to help. Later, she asks her Dad for advice.
He says maybe he has a learning disability. He says he doesn’t think there’s anything she *can* do. If she tells the teacher’s she’ll be betraying his confidence. So, the best thing to do would be let him tell on his own. Liz says what if he doesn’t. Her father says he will sooner or later. You can’t help someone who doessn’t want to be helped. Liz is hopeful that he’ll tell Mr. Bowman. Her father says eventually he’ll tell someone he trusts. Jessica is supposed to meet Lila at the mall, but instead her mother tells her she can’t go unless she clearns her room. So, she convinces Liz to “help her” aka (do all the work). They find a magazine article about a guy who didn’t know how to read until he was nineteen. His name is Greg. He got through high school because he was a good athlete. His teacher just passed him. He dropped out in college and couldn’t fill out the application for jobs. So, he got tutors and eventually he went on to run in the Olympics. He ran track like Danny.
Jessica thinks they should stick the article in Danny’s locker, but Liz says they should pay him a visit and see if he’ll talk to Danny in person. Liz says she’ll try writing him a letter. She’ll try to call information to get an address. She finds the address, writes the letter, and mails it. At the mall, Jessica kind of dances around the truth and tells them her parents will let her get her ears pierced soon. This kind of shuts Lila up for now. As they go over all the good things Greg has done, Jessica finds out Liz has a crush on Greg. She says she just hopes he’ll call. Jessica is out running in her new leotard and she runs into Bruce and some of his friends. She gets his attention but it’s just to tease her and tell her she looks like an alien. Jessica says they’ll be sorry when Greg comes to the school and she gets *his* attention.
Greg calls and Liz asks if he’ll come to one of the practices and “hang out”. Then he can talk to him about track and maybe he’ll talk to him. Jessica thinks she’s going to go with Liz to meet up with Greg, but Liz tells her she told him she’d meet him alone. Jessica tells her if it wasn’t for her she wouldn’t have even seen the article but Liz just says sorry. The next day, there’s an emergency dealing with the Sixers and Liz wants Jesica to step in. Instead, she says she’ll go meet Greg. Liz doesn’t like it but goes to handle the issue with the paper
Jessica wants to stall Greg but he’s more interested in finding Danny. He does say he’ll see her later. Greg finds Danny and asks why he’s not running. He lies and says he “pulled his hamstring”. Greg says they should go get some ice cream so they go to Casey’s. Grag tells Danny his story and tells him he doesn’t want that to happen to Danny. Danny realizes maybe he’s not in it alone and he tells Greg he can’t read and he got suspended from the team. Greg can relate. He says his parents will be disappointed that he’s not smart. Greg says just because he has a learning disability doesn’t mean he’s not smart. Greg tells him to tell someone and Danny decides maybe he can tell Mr. Bowman. A man comes in the room and Mr. Bowman makes a announcement that Danny will be missing some of their classes. Jessica talks to Liz and tells her it has to be a tutor. Jim congratulates Liz on a great article and tells her Danny is back on the team. Lila calls and says she got her ears pierced. Jessica goes to the beach to exercise and ends up falling asleep. When she wakes up, she discovers she has a blister. Bruce’s friend Jake takes her home. She starts to take a bath but weighs herself and she’s gained 3lbs. She throws away the magazine that told her she was half fit and half fat. Excersizing got her NOWHERE! Mr. Bowman tells the class Danny has dyslexia. He tells them he doesn’t want anyone to make a big deal of it or make Danny feel differently. Danny wins the race. His parents are there and look happy. SVMS wins the track met for the best score in thirty years. Danny sets a state record.
There’s a special assembly and Danny is acknowledged and gets a plaque. Then Greg comes out to congratulate the team and talk about getting a good education and the importance of letting people know when you need help. Then he calls Elizabeth up and thanks her and kisses her on the cheek. After the assembly, there’s a cake from Danny and he apologizes to Liz for blowing up.
My Thoughts
This book made me think of another old episode from a show called “Punky Brewster”. So Punky Brewster’s best friend Cherie had a cousin named I think it was Paula and she couldn’t read but she was hiding it from everyone. Then it came out one day when her little brother swallowed fabric softner and she had to call 911 and they asked her to read the instructions on what to do on the bottle if swallowed. When I think about it there were probably other shows that focused on this as well. The athlete with the reading disability seemed to be one of the topics shows seemed to like to hit on.
I jI can’t imagine going that long (middle school) without even *wanting* to read. I’ve been reading since I was about three years old. My mom likes to tell this story about how when she was in the beauty shop one time I was reading something and I caught the attention of a lady that said “Is she really reading that?” (in shook). Then she also tells the story of how when I was in the second grade I read so well that my teacher called her at work and asked where I learned to read like that. I didn’t start my elementary school *at* my elementary school. I was brought in from another school.
Like most SV parents Danny’s were horrible! How do two SCIENTIEST not realize until their kid was in the SIXTH GRADE that their kid can’t read? How do you NOT know that? I would never want to be this kind of parent that my child didn’t feel like they couldn’t talk to because they felt like I’d be disappointed in them because they learned at a slower rate or had a disability. I know a little something about not doing things at the same rate as “mornal” people do. And I would never not support my child in what they had a passion for. Danny’s parent’s waited WAY to late to come to one of his mets. They more than him left a bad taste thought out this whole book
Rating: 5
Jessica tells Liz and Amy that Danny Jackson was fooling around pretending like he was going to cut Julie’s hair and she turned around and he actually cut her hair. She left the classroom and hasn’t been seen since. Caroline adds that if Danny gets in trouble again he won’t be able to run against Pine Crest. Or anymore for that matter. The next day, Jessica is disappointed to find that Julie just got her hair trimmed up. She just evened it up. When the twins get to school, a crowd has gathered. Danny is joining their homeroom and class.
Mr. Davis has put him in the front row. Danny’s in Jessica’s social studies class. The principal thought it would be a good idea to put him in different classes to give him another chance. Danny makes a snarky comment about checks and balances. While she goes to take a call, Danny starts to imitate Mrs. Arnette. He draws a picture on the black board of a woman of Mrs. Arnette. Jessica thinks he’s funny. Mrs. Anette comes back and quickly tries to erase the picture but he’s not quick enough. This earns him a slight scolding . Danny tries to bail Jessica out when she answers a question wrong and then luckily the bell rings. After class, Lila says she thinks Danny will make the class more interesting. They both agree to study together after school.
Danny is also in Jessica’s science class. Ellen teases Jessica, he may like her and wanted to be in all her classes. The teacher says they’ll be starting a new experiment. They’ll be dissecting worms and everyone has to participate. Then he talks about lab reports and says they’ll have to turn in a sample. He tells them to partner up. Jessica and Ellen work together. Jessica says she’s glad she’s not working with Danny. Danny’s working with Ken. Danny takes the paper and rips it. Then they start fighting. The teacher makes them apologize to the class and then the teacher escorts them to the principal’s office. Jessica wonders what they argued about. Ellen says maybe it was her.
Julie eats with Amy and Liz at lunch and they compliment her hair. Jessica comes by their table and compliments her too. They talk about the fight. Liz wonders what’s up with him and hopes he won’t be kicked out the meet. Jessica says she’ll be cheering and Liz says she’s covering it for the Sixers. Danny says he’s going to do something exciting at the meet. Ken and Danny come into the lunchroom and they look like they’re over the fight and didn’t get kicked out the meet.
At the meet Danny breaks the school record. Liz goes over to talk to him after the meet to congratulate him and ask him questions for the paper. When she comments his parents must be proud of him, he says not really. She asks why and he says none of her business and walks off. Then she and Jim talk a little. She tries to ask Jim about Danny parents. He says he thinks they get along. They’re scientist. He says they don’t come to meets because they aren’t into sports. In fact, they want him to quit running so he can spend more time studying. Liz says she hopes they don’t make him quit. Maybe if they came to the races, they’d change their mind. SV wins the track meet.
After the meet, Lila wants to go look at earrings because her dad said it was ok if she got her ears pierced. She says Jessica should ask her parents and she says she’ll think about it (covering up the excitement of the idea). Mrs. Arnette is giving a lesson about the judicial system. Danny says they should all just watch “The Citizen’s Court”. Mrs, Arnette isn’t amused and threatens to give him detention for his “sass”. Walking home, Jessica overhears Bruce talking to a girl named Krissie and is upset that he doesn’t pay her any attention. She tells Liz maybe she’ll get into aerobics. She invites Liz to join her but she turns it down.
In English the next day, they have a sub (Mrs. Windohoven) in Mrs. Bowman’s class. She gets Nora to read a little bit of a short story and then she tells Danny to read the rest. Danny asks shouldn’t they discuss what they just read. That’s how Mr. Bowman does it. She says she’s in charge. Danny says he’ll read the story but just so she knows there’s a mouse under his desk. Then the class all start looking for it. So, the teacher goes to get the custodian. No one sees it now. The custodian comes and has a look and declares he’s seen nothing and never has since he’s been there. He asks Danny what color it was and he says brown. Someone says maybe it was a lab rat. The custodian says no those are white. After he leaves, the teacher gets on Danny for his “hijinks”.
After school, Jessica tells Liz, that Mr. Clark called Danny to his office and tells him if he gets in trouble one more time he’s off the team. Liz hopes this will make him more careful. The next meet she says is in three weeks. Jessica says he won’t last three hours. Liz just hopes she’s wrong. Jessica gets some new workout clothes. She takes a fitness quiz. The results are half-fit-half fat. She decides a few workouts should do it. So, she puts on Jumping for Joy with June. By Monday, she’s over worked out and sore. For breakfast she turns down pancakes for just whole weat toast. Jessica asks can she get her ears pierced. Alice says they’ll have to think on it. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea. She says they can talk about it later. Jessica drops it for now but she knows with a little patience she’ll get what she wants.
There’s a Parent Night at the school. Liz overhears Mrs. Wyler talking to Danny’s problems. They’re telling him he’s done good overall, but his parents seem upset that he’s getting a B. Liz speaks to him but he walks past her and doesn’t say anything. She then hears his parents telling Mr. Bowman they think he needs to give up track. Mr. Bowman says he *should* spend more time reading but he doesn’t think he should give up track. Maybe re-arranging his schedule so he could get his work done earlier. Liz looks at Danny and feels bad that they’re talking about him like he’s not there. Mr. Bowman also says he makes excellent contributions but he needs to be more careful in his assignments. It’s obvious to Liz that the parents don’t know about Mr. Clarks threats. Danny even notices how nice his teachers are being by not meaning the trouble he’s been in. Mr. Clark gave his parents a note to sign but he signed it instead. His parents want to meet Mr. Clark, but luck is on his side. He’s surrounded by people. His mom suggest they go home and Danny happily agrees.
The Unicorns look at Jessica like she’s lost it when she tells them she won’t be coming to the meeting because she has to work out. But she’s not that committed that she can’t go to the mall that weekend. Lila asks about if her parents said anything about the earrings. Jessica tells that what they told her. Janet told her that means no (I’ll think about it). She asks her mom about it again later. Later tho, her mom says they can both get their ears pierced at 14. REALLY?! She says their too young. I’ve seen BABIES with pierced ears! Liz looks for Danny to go over the article and finds him in the AV room watching a movie. He’s not happy to be interrupted and scans the article quickly and says it’s fine. It seems to be taking him a while to read the artice. Liz realizes she’s never heard him read. Whenever he’s asked to read something always “Comes up”. Liz realizes he can’t read (which is why he’s watching the movie which has a book version. She also remembers the math teacher said they’d started a new unit and he’s been having problems with word problems.
Liz asks him if he can’t read and he gets upset and tells her to mind her business. He rips up a book and tells her if she tells anyone she’ll be sorry. Mr. Clark and the librarian ask Danny what’s going on and the librarian tells on him. Liz tries to jump in and over for him, by saying it’s her fault, but Mr. Clark dismisses her and takes Danny to his office. Jessica meets her in the hallway with the Unicorns and asks if it’s true Danny hit her with the book. Liz says no. Tamera told them she was in the library and heard everything. They want to know the details so she says she wrote something in the article that didn’t agree with him. She says he was just “in a bad mood” and it was no big deal. Jessica offers to walk home with her but she says “she has a meeting with Mr. Bowman”. Liz goes to meet with Mr. Clark and he says he doesn’t hold it against her. She says she said something that upset him, but he says he was accountable for his actions. Until Danny tells him the truth, he’s suspended from the track team. Liz wonders if she should tell Mr. Clark, but decides she won’t betray Danny. Mr. Clark tells her he’ll work it out soon enough.
Danny thinks about how sorry he is, but Liz was right and he was mad that someone found out his secret. At his old school when he tried to read, he’d just mumble through it and so he stopped. He stopped trying. The treachers stopped pushing him and just gave him low grades and suggestions of getting a tutor. Liz makes Jessica promise she won’t tell anyone and she makes her sign an agreement. Then she tells her about Danny. Jessica tells Liz not to get involve, but she hopes they don’t kick him out of school (since he’s her source of entertainment). Liz says they wouldn’t kick him out,. They’d try to help. Later, she asks her Dad for advice.
He says maybe he has a learning disability. He says he doesn’t think there’s anything she *can* do. If she tells the teacher’s she’ll be betraying his confidence. So, the best thing to do would be let him tell on his own. Liz says what if he doesn’t. Her father says he will sooner or later. You can’t help someone who doessn’t want to be helped. Liz is hopeful that he’ll tell Mr. Bowman. Her father says eventually he’ll tell someone he trusts. Jessica is supposed to meet Lila at the mall, but instead her mother tells her she can’t go unless she clearns her room. So, she convinces Liz to “help her” aka (do all the work). They find a magazine article about a guy who didn’t know how to read until he was nineteen. His name is Greg. He got through high school because he was a good athlete. His teacher just passed him. He dropped out in college and couldn’t fill out the application for jobs. So, he got tutors and eventually he went on to run in the Olympics. He ran track like Danny.
Jessica thinks they should stick the article in Danny’s locker, but Liz says they should pay him a visit and see if he’ll talk to Danny in person. Liz says she’ll try writing him a letter. She’ll try to call information to get an address. She finds the address, writes the letter, and mails it. At the mall, Jessica kind of dances around the truth and tells them her parents will let her get her ears pierced soon. This kind of shuts Lila up for now. As they go over all the good things Greg has done, Jessica finds out Liz has a crush on Greg. She says she just hopes he’ll call. Jessica is out running in her new leotard and she runs into Bruce and some of his friends. She gets his attention but it’s just to tease her and tell her she looks like an alien. Jessica says they’ll be sorry when Greg comes to the school and she gets *his* attention.
Greg calls and Liz asks if he’ll come to one of the practices and “hang out”. Then he can talk to him about track and maybe he’ll talk to him. Jessica thinks she’s going to go with Liz to meet up with Greg, but Liz tells her she told him she’d meet him alone. Jessica tells her if it wasn’t for her she wouldn’t have even seen the article but Liz just says sorry. The next day, there’s an emergency dealing with the Sixers and Liz wants Jesica to step in. Instead, she says she’ll go meet Greg. Liz doesn’t like it but goes to handle the issue with the paper
Jessica wants to stall Greg but he’s more interested in finding Danny. He does say he’ll see her later. Greg finds Danny and asks why he’s not running. He lies and says he “pulled his hamstring”. Greg says they should go get some ice cream so they go to Casey’s. Grag tells Danny his story and tells him he doesn’t want that to happen to Danny. Danny realizes maybe he’s not in it alone and he tells Greg he can’t read and he got suspended from the team. Greg can relate. He says his parents will be disappointed that he’s not smart. Greg says just because he has a learning disability doesn’t mean he’s not smart. Greg tells him to tell someone and Danny decides maybe he can tell Mr. Bowman. A man comes in the room and Mr. Bowman makes a announcement that Danny will be missing some of their classes. Jessica talks to Liz and tells her it has to be a tutor. Jim congratulates Liz on a great article and tells her Danny is back on the team. Lila calls and says she got her ears pierced. Jessica goes to the beach to exercise and ends up falling asleep. When she wakes up, she discovers she has a blister. Bruce’s friend Jake takes her home. She starts to take a bath but weighs herself and she’s gained 3lbs. She throws away the magazine that told her she was half fit and half fat. Excersizing got her NOWHERE! Mr. Bowman tells the class Danny has dyslexia. He tells them he doesn’t want anyone to make a big deal of it or make Danny feel differently. Danny wins the race. His parents are there and look happy. SVMS wins the track met for the best score in thirty years. Danny sets a state record.
There’s a special assembly and Danny is acknowledged and gets a plaque. Then Greg comes out to congratulate the team and talk about getting a good education and the importance of letting people know when you need help. Then he calls Elizabeth up and thanks her and kisses her on the cheek. After the assembly, there’s a cake from Danny and he apologizes to Liz for blowing up.
My Thoughts
This book made me think of another old episode from a show called “Punky Brewster”. So Punky Brewster’s best friend Cherie had a cousin named I think it was Paula and she couldn’t read but she was hiding it from everyone. Then it came out one day when her little brother swallowed fabric softner and she had to call 911 and they asked her to read the instructions on what to do on the bottle if swallowed. When I think about it there were probably other shows that focused on this as well. The athlete with the reading disability seemed to be one of the topics shows seemed to like to hit on.
I jI can’t imagine going that long (middle school) without even *wanting* to read. I’ve been reading since I was about three years old. My mom likes to tell this story about how when she was in the beauty shop one time I was reading something and I caught the attention of a lady that said “Is she really reading that?” (in shook). Then she also tells the story of how when I was in the second grade I read so well that my teacher called her at work and asked where I learned to read like that. I didn’t start my elementary school *at* my elementary school. I was brought in from another school.
Like most SV parents Danny’s were horrible! How do two SCIENTIEST not realize until their kid was in the SIXTH GRADE that their kid can’t read? How do you NOT know that? I would never want to be this kind of parent that my child didn’t feel like they couldn’t talk to because they felt like I’d be disappointed in them because they learned at a slower rate or had a disability. I know a little something about not doing things at the same rate as “mornal” people do. And I would never not support my child in what they had a passion for. Danny’s parent’s waited WAY to late to come to one of his mets. They more than him left a bad taste thought out this whole book
Rating: 5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2018
A nice nostalgia trip in a lot of ways.
February 10, 2022
This one was even more ridiculous than usual, and that's saying a LOT.
November 27, 2024
Ugh so nostalgic, so charming.
January 17, 2016
This is a story that I have very mixed feelings about. A new boy comes to school, Danny, and starts right off causing a lot of trouble in his classes. He gets into an actual fight but is not suspended. He just happens to be on the track team and is the best person on that team, and there's a big match coming up.
At the same time he is having trouble with his parents and he has a personal problem that causes him to have trouble reading. Elizabeth manages to get someone in sports to help him.
Thus, there is a reason, sort of, for him acting up, yet I still find two problems with what he is doing.
First, he actually gets into a physical fight at school. To me, that is an offense which should result in an automatic suspension of at least two weeks for the person who started the fight. This is a major problem in any classroom and violence of any kind should NOT be allowed in the classroom. There should be an actual zero tolerance policy for that. (Schools claim they have zero tolerance policies but many of them don't actually enforce the policy.)
Second, it seems that Danny's being an athlete is like having a free ticket to do whatever wants. Eventually he is sort of punished, but this is not sufficient for the number of times he has acted up in class and disrupted the class, thereby automatically doing at least some damage to the educational process. This also just reinforces the idea (and frequent practice) that school athletes are not held to the personal standards expected of the non-athletes.
So, as I said, I have quite mixed feelings about this story.
At the same time he is having trouble with his parents and he has a personal problem that causes him to have trouble reading. Elizabeth manages to get someone in sports to help him.
Thus, there is a reason, sort of, for him acting up, yet I still find two problems with what he is doing.
First, he actually gets into a physical fight at school. To me, that is an offense which should result in an automatic suspension of at least two weeks for the person who started the fight. This is a major problem in any classroom and violence of any kind should NOT be allowed in the classroom. There should be an actual zero tolerance policy for that. (Schools claim they have zero tolerance policies but many of them don't actually enforce the policy.)
Second, it seems that Danny's being an athlete is like having a free ticket to do whatever wants. Eventually he is sort of punished, but this is not sufficient for the number of times he has acted up in class and disrupted the class, thereby automatically doing at least some damage to the educational process. This also just reinforces the idea (and frequent practice) that school athletes are not held to the personal standards expected of the non-athletes.
So, as I said, I have quite mixed feelings about this story.
May 6, 2021
Loved these books as a child
Read
December 29, 2013AR Quiz No. 9712 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 3.8 - AR Pts: 4.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 3.8 - AR Pts: 4.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP
March 29, 2008
Be careful of what u do!
June 22, 2013
I remember the cover just not the story.
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