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The Baby-Sitters Club Portrait Collection #2
Claudia's Book
Focusing on Claudia Kishi, vice president of the BSC Club, the second title in the Baby-sitters miniseries Portrait Collection is fully illustrated and filled with "snapshots," postcards, letters, and background information.
163 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,101 books3,053 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 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 11, 2011
this is claudia's version of the lengthy autobiography that each stoneybrook middle school eighth grader has to write. she subtitles it "an artist's life". it opens with some pretty dull recollections from janine about the day claudia was brought home from the hospital after being born. janine was three & a half then & was eating alphabet soup for lunch. mimi was trying to each her how to spell "claudia" with her alphabet noodles. then mr. & mrs. kishi arrived home with baby claudia & janine said hello & then she finished her soup. FASCINATING. claudia includes a copy of her birth announcement, from the now-defunct "stoneybrook gazette". claudia & i have the same birthday: july 11. & the same middle name by birth: lynn. i have since legally changed my middle name to miaow.
one of claudia's earliest memories involves her sixth birthday. her parents let her throw a birthday party with a complicated circus theme. it involved a game of pin-the-nose-on-the-clown, a circus-themed ice cream cake with a little figurine of claudia dressed in a ringmaster outfit on top, & cute invitations that looked like tickets to the circus. because claudia was born in the middle of summer, she took her invitations to school on the last day of kindergarten to hand them out to her classmates. but the last day of school is so busy with all the celebrating & cleaning out of cubbies & such forth that claudia doesn't get around to passing out invitations until the end of the day. children are encouraged to RSVP by having their parents call the kishis, but as summertime marches on, the kishis receive no RSVPs. mrs. kishi frets that maybe claudia didn't hand out the invitations. claudia is unconcerned. she knows she handed out the invitations & can't imagine why no one would want to come to her birthday party.
well, of course no one comes because they completely forgot about it in the excitement of the last day of school & the intervening six weeks that passed before claudia's party. like i said, claudia & i have the same birthday & i can totally vouch for the fact that having a mid-summer birthday SUCKS as a child because it's pretty much impossible to have birthday parties. i did have a birthday party when i turned six--somehow my parents managed to invite maybe ten girls from the kindergarten class. my family lived in a big park at the time--we were supposed to take care of the grounds, plant grass, maintain the playground equipment, direct traffic to the pool on busy days, scare off wolves, etc. so it was an ideal setting for a child's birthday party. unfortunately, i came down with chicken pox a few days before my birthday & had to sit inside, covered in calamine lotion, while my friends sat outside at picnic tables, eating cake & ice cream & playing games. i think it was probably my worst birthday ever.
anyway, claudia thinks hers is the worst birthday ever because no one comes to the party except for kristy & mary anne. claudia runs away & cries. finally mimi coaxes claudia out of her room & across the street, where the kishis have teamed up with the thomases & the spiers for a smaller but still elaborate circus-themed party. they replaced the melted ice cream cake with a fresh one & the older thomas kids have wrapped up some of their old toys as gifts for claudia. she ends up having a great time after all.
in the second grade, claudia develops a fear of the tooth fairy. she thinks the tooth fairy is basically a big monster that steals teeth right out of children's heads. she is very reluctant to lose a tooth. then she falls on the playground & knocks one of her teeth loose. for some bizarre reason, her parents don't just let nature take its course. they instead take her to the distance, who pulls the loose tooth. what the fuck? the dentist gives claudia the tooth & reminds her to stash it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. instead, claudia makes herself a little nest in her closet & sets a bunch of traps so that she will wake up & be ready to fight back when the tooth fairy shows up. she is almost dozing off in the closet when a figure creeps into her room & whispers her name. the figure then reaches under claudia's pillow & sneaks away. claudia realizes that it was her mother, swapping out the tooth for a silver dollar. she puts it all together amazingly quickly for claudia: there is no tooth fairy, it's her parents, there is also no easter bunny or santa claus. she feels very grown up.
in the fourth grade, claudia is really struggling to keep up with her schoolwork. her teacher requests a conference with mr. & mrs. kishi & suggest that claudia be transferred to the stamford alternative academy, which can provide her with more individual attention & may have teaching strategies that will help claudia learn in her own way. claudia freaks. she's not doing well at stoneybrook elementary as far as academics, but she is loath to switch schools & leave her friends before. she decides she will bomb the entrace exams for the academic academy, which she figures won't be hard to do since she is so bad at tests anyway.
of course, the tests aren't really tests. they're just examinations designed to show in which areas claudia needs more help. she is admitted to the alternative academy & is really bummed about it. she starts classes there & finds that she does have an easier time learning with all the individual attention she gets. whenever she doesn't understand a topic through one way of teaching, her instructors try something else until they hit on a method that helps her learn. but even as her schoolwork improves, claudia is getting depressed. she doesn't try to make friends at her new school & is convinced that her old friends at stoneybrook elementary have forgotten about her because they don't go to school together anymore. gradually, she stops talking to anyone, stops eating, starts sleeping all the time.
finally her parents recognize that claudia is profoundly depressed & they allow her to go back to school at stoneybrook elementary. they say that improved scholastic achievement isn't worth paying the price in claudia's happiness. claudia returns to stoneybrook elementary & again starts slipping academically, but is too happy to be back with her friends to care.
i have really mixed feelings about this story. i went through some bouts of profound depression when i was a child--at an age far earlier than most adults start worrying about children exhibiting depression symptoms. so i appreciated this take on childhood depression. but it bummed me out that the story seemed to be a choice between claudia being able to keep up academically & prepare for a successful future, versus claudia maintaining her mental health & social life, which are also important for a healthy & productive adulthood. i really wanted the kishis to try to find some kind of middle ground, where claudia can be happy but also get the special academic attention that she obviously needs. obviously regular classroom settings are failing her. i don't know. it bummed me out.
the last story is about claudia going on a beach weekend trip with the thomas family when she is like ten years old. she & kristy are looking after david michael & he gets permission from them to go on his own to get a hot dog. kristy says he has to be back in ten minutes. but he just doesn't come back. kristy & claudia are in a panic looking for him, wondering if maybe he was hit by a car or kidnapped & wandered into the ocean alone & drowned. they finally find him an hour later playing with some other kids in the sand. he is four years old & had no idea what ten minutes really was or how to tell time. he didn't even realize that he was missing. david michael, kristy, & claudia agree to keep the event from mrs. thomas because she'll just get mad at all of them if she knows, & it all worked out in the end, so...no harm, no foul. but claudia realizes that kristy doesn't have it easy, taking on as much responsibility as she has had to do since her dad walked out.
claudia gets an A for presentation & a B- for organization, spelling, & grammar.
one of claudia's earliest memories involves her sixth birthday. her parents let her throw a birthday party with a complicated circus theme. it involved a game of pin-the-nose-on-the-clown, a circus-themed ice cream cake with a little figurine of claudia dressed in a ringmaster outfit on top, & cute invitations that looked like tickets to the circus. because claudia was born in the middle of summer, she took her invitations to school on the last day of kindergarten to hand them out to her classmates. but the last day of school is so busy with all the celebrating & cleaning out of cubbies & such forth that claudia doesn't get around to passing out invitations until the end of the day. children are encouraged to RSVP by having their parents call the kishis, but as summertime marches on, the kishis receive no RSVPs. mrs. kishi frets that maybe claudia didn't hand out the invitations. claudia is unconcerned. she knows she handed out the invitations & can't imagine why no one would want to come to her birthday party.
well, of course no one comes because they completely forgot about it in the excitement of the last day of school & the intervening six weeks that passed before claudia's party. like i said, claudia & i have the same birthday & i can totally vouch for the fact that having a mid-summer birthday SUCKS as a child because it's pretty much impossible to have birthday parties. i did have a birthday party when i turned six--somehow my parents managed to invite maybe ten girls from the kindergarten class. my family lived in a big park at the time--we were supposed to take care of the grounds, plant grass, maintain the playground equipment, direct traffic to the pool on busy days, scare off wolves, etc. so it was an ideal setting for a child's birthday party. unfortunately, i came down with chicken pox a few days before my birthday & had to sit inside, covered in calamine lotion, while my friends sat outside at picnic tables, eating cake & ice cream & playing games. i think it was probably my worst birthday ever.
anyway, claudia thinks hers is the worst birthday ever because no one comes to the party except for kristy & mary anne. claudia runs away & cries. finally mimi coaxes claudia out of her room & across the street, where the kishis have teamed up with the thomases & the spiers for a smaller but still elaborate circus-themed party. they replaced the melted ice cream cake with a fresh one & the older thomas kids have wrapped up some of their old toys as gifts for claudia. she ends up having a great time after all.
in the second grade, claudia develops a fear of the tooth fairy. she thinks the tooth fairy is basically a big monster that steals teeth right out of children's heads. she is very reluctant to lose a tooth. then she falls on the playground & knocks one of her teeth loose. for some bizarre reason, her parents don't just let nature take its course. they instead take her to the distance, who pulls the loose tooth. what the fuck? the dentist gives claudia the tooth & reminds her to stash it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. instead, claudia makes herself a little nest in her closet & sets a bunch of traps so that she will wake up & be ready to fight back when the tooth fairy shows up. she is almost dozing off in the closet when a figure creeps into her room & whispers her name. the figure then reaches under claudia's pillow & sneaks away. claudia realizes that it was her mother, swapping out the tooth for a silver dollar. she puts it all together amazingly quickly for claudia: there is no tooth fairy, it's her parents, there is also no easter bunny or santa claus. she feels very grown up.
in the fourth grade, claudia is really struggling to keep up with her schoolwork. her teacher requests a conference with mr. & mrs. kishi & suggest that claudia be transferred to the stamford alternative academy, which can provide her with more individual attention & may have teaching strategies that will help claudia learn in her own way. claudia freaks. she's not doing well at stoneybrook elementary as far as academics, but she is loath to switch schools & leave her friends before. she decides she will bomb the entrace exams for the academic academy, which she figures won't be hard to do since she is so bad at tests anyway.
of course, the tests aren't really tests. they're just examinations designed to show in which areas claudia needs more help. she is admitted to the alternative academy & is really bummed about it. she starts classes there & finds that she does have an easier time learning with all the individual attention she gets. whenever she doesn't understand a topic through one way of teaching, her instructors try something else until they hit on a method that helps her learn. but even as her schoolwork improves, claudia is getting depressed. she doesn't try to make friends at her new school & is convinced that her old friends at stoneybrook elementary have forgotten about her because they don't go to school together anymore. gradually, she stops talking to anyone, stops eating, starts sleeping all the time.
finally her parents recognize that claudia is profoundly depressed & they allow her to go back to school at stoneybrook elementary. they say that improved scholastic achievement isn't worth paying the price in claudia's happiness. claudia returns to stoneybrook elementary & again starts slipping academically, but is too happy to be back with her friends to care.
i have really mixed feelings about this story. i went through some bouts of profound depression when i was a child--at an age far earlier than most adults start worrying about children exhibiting depression symptoms. so i appreciated this take on childhood depression. but it bummed me out that the story seemed to be a choice between claudia being able to keep up academically & prepare for a successful future, versus claudia maintaining her mental health & social life, which are also important for a healthy & productive adulthood. i really wanted the kishis to try to find some kind of middle ground, where claudia can be happy but also get the special academic attention that she obviously needs. obviously regular classroom settings are failing her. i don't know. it bummed me out.
the last story is about claudia going on a beach weekend trip with the thomas family when she is like ten years old. she & kristy are looking after david michael & he gets permission from them to go on his own to get a hot dog. kristy says he has to be back in ten minutes. but he just doesn't come back. kristy & claudia are in a panic looking for him, wondering if maybe he was hit by a car or kidnapped & wandered into the ocean alone & drowned. they finally find him an hour later playing with some other kids in the sand. he is four years old & had no idea what ten minutes really was or how to tell time. he didn't even realize that he was missing. david michael, kristy, & claudia agree to keep the event from mrs. thomas because she'll just get mad at all of them if she knows, & it all worked out in the end, so...no harm, no foul. but claudia realizes that kristy doesn't have it easy, taking on as much responsibility as she has had to do since her dad walked out.
claudia gets an A for presentation & a B- for organization, spelling, & grammar.
February 7, 2021
the portrait collections is a book focused on each girl's memories of their young childhood as part of an autobiography project for their class. i don't remember much of these books, but the pictures in this book are so familiar to me, so i must have read it more than once as a kid. it's fun to learn more about the girls when they were young but wow claudia had a wild time, including a sixth birthday party that nobody showed up to and a pretty serious depressive episode in fourth grade when she transferred to an alternative school for a while. giving this one five stars because claudia never disappoints.
however--mrs. kishi is the town librarian which RULES, but also means that there's no way in the world she would discourage claudia from reading nancy drew books. no way. unless she's a bad librarian, which i refuse to accept. ann m. martin ('s ghostwriter) just maybe doesn't know a lot of librarians. {end rant}
however--mrs. kishi is the town librarian which RULES, but also means that there's no way in the world she would discourage claudia from reading nancy drew books. no way. unless she's a bad librarian, which i refuse to accept. ann m. martin ('s ghostwriter) just maybe doesn't know a lot of librarians. {end rant}
April 28, 2017
in this second PORTRAIT COLLECTION book by Nola Thacker, claudia tells her life story:
-at four: she, mary anne, and kristy destroy wet cement that workers have laid on her driveway. when mimi catches them she has the guy smooth the cement over and lets them press their hands into it. because mimi is understanding af even when she shouldn't be.
-at six: claud has a circus-themed birthday party. she invites her whole class but only right at the end of the last school day, so maybe they stuffed the invites in their backpacks and forgot about them, or maybe they're all at camp or something -- nobody shows up. claud is understandably really upset, so the kishis, spiers, and thomases surprise her by re-throwing the party and have a wonderful time
-second grade: the truth about the tooth fairy: claud thinks that she steals teeth from kids' mouths. she catches her mom taking the tooth and has a revelation that if the tooth fairy isn't real, maybe santa and the easter bunny aren't real either.
-fourth grade: goes to a private school for underperforming kids. scholastically she does better but she gets really depressed: withdraws from her friendships with kristy and mary anne, sleeps all the time, etc.
-at eleven: goes to the beach with the thomases. when she and kristy are babysitting a 4.5 year old david michael, they let him go get a hot dog by himself and lose him. they find him but, REALLY? he is 4.5 and you're letting him walk off to buy a hot dog?
notes:
-this is the same month that Stacey vs. the BSC came out, but this one must take place first because there is no reference to stacey not being in the bsc, a fight, or anything.
-no reference to jessi's race or skin color or anything. we already know she's black anyway, so do they REALLY need to remind us, with their classic, "mal and jessi are similar and different: they both like horses but mal is white and jessi is black."
-she gets a B- on her autobiography project for spelling and grammar errors. REALLY? what a jerk teacher! she did so well and tried so hard!
-the portrayal of pre-adolescent depression is pretty spot on.
claudia outfits:
-"Looking back at me from the mirror wasn't a butterfly: just Claudia Kishi, with long black hair and brown eyes and an enormous shirt and patchwork vest over striped leggings. I looked down at my high-tops and back at the earrings I was wearing. I'd made them myself out of leftover bits of broken jewelry that my friends and family had given me: patchwork earrings."
kindergarten class photo outfit:
-"In that picture, my hair was in pigtails and I was wearing double ribbons on each pigtail -- four colors in all -- to match the flowered blouse I was wearing with my purple Oshkosh overalls. I think I had purple sneakers, too."
sixth bday party outfit:
-"Even though it was summer, I was wearing black tights and my tall black rainboots and my red jacket with the brass buttons. I had a T-shirt with a lion's head painted on the front and I wore that under the jacket."
other outfits:
mary anne (claud's 6th bday party):
-"Mary Anne was wearing a pink flowered dress with pink tights and flat black patent leather shoes. Her hair was fixed in pigtails and tied with pink bows."
kristy (claud's 6th bday party):
-"Kristy was wearing navy blue shorts with a matching camp shirt, white socks, and her best sneakers."
snacks in claudia's room:
-fruit roll-up in the pocket of her good winter coat
-hershey's hugs in the pocket of her good winter coat
-at four: she, mary anne, and kristy destroy wet cement that workers have laid on her driveway. when mimi catches them she has the guy smooth the cement over and lets them press their hands into it. because mimi is understanding af even when she shouldn't be.
-at six: claud has a circus-themed birthday party. she invites her whole class but only right at the end of the last school day, so maybe they stuffed the invites in their backpacks and forgot about them, or maybe they're all at camp or something -- nobody shows up. claud is understandably really upset, so the kishis, spiers, and thomases surprise her by re-throwing the party and have a wonderful time
-second grade: the truth about the tooth fairy: claud thinks that she steals teeth from kids' mouths. she catches her mom taking the tooth and has a revelation that if the tooth fairy isn't real, maybe santa and the easter bunny aren't real either.
-fourth grade: goes to a private school for underperforming kids. scholastically she does better but she gets really depressed: withdraws from her friendships with kristy and mary anne, sleeps all the time, etc.
-at eleven: goes to the beach with the thomases. when she and kristy are babysitting a 4.5 year old david michael, they let him go get a hot dog by himself and lose him. they find him but, REALLY? he is 4.5 and you're letting him walk off to buy a hot dog?
notes:
-this is the same month that Stacey vs. the BSC came out, but this one must take place first because there is no reference to stacey not being in the bsc, a fight, or anything.
-no reference to jessi's race or skin color or anything. we already know she's black anyway, so do they REALLY need to remind us, with their classic, "mal and jessi are similar and different: they both like horses but mal is white and jessi is black."
-she gets a B- on her autobiography project for spelling and grammar errors. REALLY? what a jerk teacher! she did so well and tried so hard!
-the portrayal of pre-adolescent depression is pretty spot on.
claudia outfits:
-"Looking back at me from the mirror wasn't a butterfly: just Claudia Kishi, with long black hair and brown eyes and an enormous shirt and patchwork vest over striped leggings. I looked down at my high-tops and back at the earrings I was wearing. I'd made them myself out of leftover bits of broken jewelry that my friends and family had given me: patchwork earrings."
kindergarten class photo outfit:
-"In that picture, my hair was in pigtails and I was wearing double ribbons on each pigtail -- four colors in all -- to match the flowered blouse I was wearing with my purple Oshkosh overalls. I think I had purple sneakers, too."
sixth bday party outfit:
-"Even though it was summer, I was wearing black tights and my tall black rainboots and my red jacket with the brass buttons. I had a T-shirt with a lion's head painted on the front and I wore that under the jacket."
other outfits:
mary anne (claud's 6th bday party):
-"Mary Anne was wearing a pink flowered dress with pink tights and flat black patent leather shoes. Her hair was fixed in pigtails and tied with pink bows."
kristy (claud's 6th bday party):
-"Kristy was wearing navy blue shorts with a matching camp shirt, white socks, and her best sneakers."
snacks in claudia's room:
-fruit roll-up in the pocket of her good winter coat
-hershey's hugs in the pocket of her good winter coat
August 29, 2017
This is by far one of my favorite books in the Portrait Collection! I think because we actually learned a few new things about Claudia there note-worthy, like her stint at the alternative school and her bout with depression (even though it's never actually called that by name). I also really appreciated the story of her spending time with Kristy! That was unexpected and nice to see, even during my adult re-read!
September 10, 2015
I really liked reading this because Claudia is my favourite babysitter's club character and I got to learn about her childhood in this book.
August 21, 2021
For Claudia being my fave Baby-sitter, her Portrait Collection is a little boring. I mean, I liked the first couple of stories enough - Claudia, Kristy, and Mary Anne putting their hands in the cement walkway in the Kishi's backyard. (Yes, I cried. Mimi is such a perfect character. I loved all the Mimi in this book!!! Ughhhhh when Janine told Claudia the story about first meeting baby Claud, and how Mimi immediately called her My Claudia? TEARS!) And Claudia's sixth birthday fiasco had a nice conclusion. (Yes, I cried again. Just call me Mary Anne!) But the best story without a doubt was the one when, in fourth grade, Claudia got sent to an alternative school for a semester and just became so depressed and uninterested in anything, despite the fact that she was finally doing well in school. It was a bummer of a story, sure, but it just brought so much depth to Claudia, and really hammered home how school and her just don't jive. But the tooth fairy story was snore city, and the beach vacation story was more about Kristy and the Thomases (just from an outsider's perspective), which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I love all the BSC members and love learning more about the girls' pasts. Just that I wanted more of fabulous Claudia.
June 4, 2020
I think the Portrait Collection books are my favorite books in the whole series. I just love getting their childhood stories, even though the premise of them writing autobiographies at 13 has always been a little strange.
I remember being shocked as a kid about Claudia going to a different school in fourth grade. Her depression (even though it’s never labeled as such) felt so real, and of course only Mimi truly noticed. I’m so glad Claudia had Mimi growing up!
I remember being shocked as a kid about Claudia going to a different school in fourth grade. Her depression (even though it’s never labeled as such) felt so real, and of course only Mimi truly noticed. I’m so glad Claudia had Mimi growing up!
July 10, 2025
How does Claudia get a B- on this assignment?? The teacher says she needs to work on "organization, grammar, and spelling"? The whole time i was reading this, i was thinking, there's no way i could write an autobiography this concise and well-organized. And there's nothing wrong with her grammar. And spelling should definitely not bump an eighth grader down from an A+ to a B-. I guess what we're reading is not supposed to be the same thing that she turned in? B Just give her the A.
December 24, 2019
Reading “Claudia’s Book” was mostly fun and made me admire Kristy more. I also learned that Claudia had style even when she was a little kid:
pg. 30: multicolored double ribboned pigtails, flowered blouse, purple overalls, and purple sneakers
pg. 40: black tights, tall black rainboots, red jacket with brass buttons, and a T-shirt with a lion’s head on the front
pg. 30: multicolored double ribboned pigtails, flowered blouse, purple overalls, and purple sneakers
pg. 40: black tights, tall black rainboots, red jacket with brass buttons, and a T-shirt with a lion’s head on the front
December 7, 2021
The portrait collection is the best. Such a bittersweet little collection of vignettes. I love Claudia's family because although her parents are "strict" they so obviously love her and are so supportive. The scene of Janine describing when Claudia was born was so sweet, too. I miss Mimi.
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November 5, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
June 25, 2022
Claudia was always my favorite. 🙃
August 12, 2023
So cool to read Claudia's story!
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January 5, 2025This one got heavy with Claudia's depression.
March 28, 2024
I decided to read these portrait books in the order of their offices in BSC instead of order of publication. Kristy, then Claudia, Mary Anne etc. So after going through Kristy's early days it's time to see how Claudia's childhood was. Since I listened to Claudia and the Sad Goodbye yesterday seeing Mimi back was both happy and kind of sad. No surprise that Janine remembers the day her little sister came home. I always pictured Janine has having a photographic memory. So she details the earliest days of her sister's life. Reading these as an adult I see the relationship between the two sisters as similar to the one I had and have with my own brother. We're opposite in every way and at times can't really get along especially as kids, but when you definitely don't want to mess with either of us as we're always there for each other. Anyway she reflects on her fear of the tooth fairy which was cute and kind of funny, her almost disaster of a circus birthday party that turned into one of her best parties ever. Her, Mary Anne and Kristy making an art project out of the new sidewalk when Mimi had her back turned the mention in her dedication was very touching. Things got a bit more serious when Claudia was transferred to a new school. While I understood she was miserable there I still wish she could've somehow stayed there or done a few extra classes or something, but that would mean revising the whole series I guess. It ends with Claudia and Kristy going on a Sea City like trip to the beach and nearly losing David Michael who in typical little boy fashion just lost track of time. It was nice to go back in time and to see both Mimi and a much younger Louie again. I'm enjoying these autobiographies.
November 1, 2023
I enjoyed the stories about Claudia's circus birthday party with the descriptions of the circus theme and presents she got for her birthday; a mystery book from Janine, paints from Mimi and so on. I also like how she made a paiper mache animal tooth in art class before losing a tooth and learning the tooth fairy is not real, and trying out an alternative school to deal with poor school work, though it was just a temporary arrangement after she couldn’t adjust
January 11, 2016
I've always hated Claudia. she seemed materialistic and selfcentered, perhaps a bit like mallory keaton. This book, however, displayed her almost as a different person. I've grown to semi-like her, although she will never be my favorite.
March 23, 2010
Adding this just to maintain the integrity of my list.. I have a bunch of these books at home and I read it in an hour one night when I couldn't sleep. Don't judge me!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews