Against Taffy Sinclair Club, The

Taffy Sinclair #1

by Betsy Haynes

Offended by Taffy Sinclair's snobbishness and jealous of her developing figure, Jana Morgan and her friends form a club to do something about it

Genres: Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Contemporary, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

ABOUT ME

Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?

My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade

I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/​junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.

Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.

I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.

Reviews

[Aida]

Holy balls, I remember reading this when I was little. I've never forgotten the Venus de Milo Bust Developing kit and the code-name for little boobs: Lambda Rho, which stood for "little raisins." Ah, one of my first encounters with Greek.

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Against Taffy Sinclair Club is a complicated book. Because at the root of it, forming a club to hate someone is pretty awful.

But when I put myself in the shoes of Jana and her friends, I can *feel* why they're so upset at Taffy. She's not an innocent character. She teases and torments the girls, and I remember being a Jana, and not feeling adequate and also being picked on by the same girls that seemed to have it all. You really understand why they've made her the focus of their adolescent wrath.

The book would be silly fluff in lesser hands, but Betsy Haynes really packs a lot of punch in the first entry in the series. Jana is such a sympathetic but complex character. She's going through a ton of emotions and changes and it just felt so true to life—worrying about your breast size, wondering if you have B.O., figuring out relationships with your family and friends etc..

I really didn't have many expectations going into this re-read, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up and the emotional beats it struck. I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the Taffy books and then finally diving into a full The Fabulous Five re-read.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the first complete book I read in English, I was in 4th grade and needed a dictionary beside me for a LOT of words. But I was so hooked that this is the book that encouraged me to want to learn more English. I wrote to Betsy Haynes a few years ago and told her that in my email and SHE WROTE BACK saying I had made her day! I still own all these books and I'm not parting with them ever. Jana, Melanie, Beth, Christie and Katie got me through some tough times when I was growing up.

[Bert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret meets Mean Girls.

[Celestarius · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to review — the Taffy Sinclair and Fabulous Five series were some of my favorites as a kid (starting in about 1st grade), so I have a lot of nostalgia for them. They, along with the Baby-sitters Club books, are the reason that I and various friends were constantly starting our own little clubs (that never lasted, but still). But upon re-read, through the filter of my modern feminist views, there's so much awful stuff here! Body shaming, internalized misogyny, all the basics — even as Jana herself talks about how they're all for the "women's movement", they're plotting against a fellow fifth-grade girl just because she happened to develop over the summer. Yikes!

To be fair to this book in particular, that's actually part of what Jana deals with (spoilers ahead): feeling bad for being a bully to Taffy along with her friends and realizing it's "babyish", supposedly calling a truce with Taffy. So if this book were standalone, it would actually be pretty okay in that respect, since by the end she has learned her lesson. But since I've read all the others I know the rivalry continues throughout and actually gets worse in a lot of ways. Still, I mean, this was written in the '70s, so I can't be *too* harsh on it. And it's not only about the Taffy drama; Jana also has issues relating to her absent father, which I think is the more emotional part of the book. She also gets embarrassed, or is afraid she's going to be embarrassed, a LOT. "What if [insert possible scenario] happens? I'd be so embarrassed that I'd DIE." A bit dramatic, yes, but probably accurately so for a preteen. And I think capturing the experience of being a preteen girl is what this book (and the series overall, IIRC) does best.

[Brenda]

This book gave me the idea of an "against so-and-so club". Not a great idea because I went on to use it with mixed results. Also, I remember thinking that Taffy Sinclair looked absolutely perfect on the cover, exactly how I wanted to look in middle school. Now I think Taffy Sinclair is an awesome name for my next cat.

[Peacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Betsy Haynes treads on the heels of Judy Blume and Paula Danziger for this one. Jana Morgan a neurotic , over dramatic preteen leads a club against a snooty, beautiful classmate Taffy ( which we’re never quite sure is ever justified. ) When Taffy develops you-know-whats that’s the last straw. The girls have a plan though - they’ve been reading woman’s magazines and found themselves a bust developing ad dubbed the Milo Venus - ha- Venus deMilo - and decide to sell enough brownies to purchase the crazy contraption. Code word becomes Lambda Rho - which stands for Little Raisins! Meanwhile Jana is trying to figure out why her flaky dad has brushed her off a promised summer vacation , develops a crush on a teacher , attempts to speed things up with cotton balls and loses her clubs beloved book which has all their non-existent bust measurements and catty comments about Taffy. A frenetic , fast paced , lol story. Which just misses being as bad as Blubber mainly because Jana manages to embarrass herself ( not Taffy ) at every turn! For a longer review - with a peek at 70's bust ads that might’ve inspired Betsy Haynes - and some groovy 70's kids clothes - check out my site -http://cliqueypizza.wordpress.com/

[Eliza Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why did they all hate Taffy Sinclair? Plus I hate when an author refers to one of her other books within the text, like she didn't write the damned thing.

[Karianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved these Taffy books when I was young. She sounded gorg and I wanted to be her friend even though she was "so stuck up". Loved it!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was obsessed with the Taffy Sinclair books as a kid! Recently dug these out of storage and had to take a look through. I may be biased, but I think it still holds up. ;)

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's time to tackle a book that has been on the backburner for a while. We finished off Betsy Haynes Great Mom Swap trilogy recently and usually I want variety so I wouldn't go back to her so soon. But I wanted something short and this fit the ball. This one book from 1976 ended up starting a whole series, two infact. There was first just a few sequels dealing with Taffy Sinclair, then in 1988 that got spun off into The Fabulous Five which is about the group dealing with other stuff. That one is numbered and very much in the BSC vain.

That ended in 1992, so this legacy as it were was long lasting for a while. It all started here and since I do wanna cover some of the series, I may as well do this first one. Our narrator is Jana Morgan, who's rival is the snotty popular Taffy Sinclair. She grew to dislike her to the point of starting the titular club, with her friends Katie Shannon, Melanie Edwards, Beth Barry, and Christie Winchell. Things get worse when Taffy gets more to brag about by developing "you know whats". Yes.

Things heat from there as they try to find a way to get back at Taffy while Jana deals with her own issues. So this was flawed in some ways but generally. That's mostly due to the ending, which will get to. Betsy had books before this but this was the first she did in the more typical young people deal with issues vein. The style is about the same as Mom Swap, so we do get some charming interactions.

The friend group feels generally believable and that carries the early parts. Most members get enough of a character but some are less so, and as it goes on it feels like they aren't given much to do. Jana resolves things her own and the friends are more in the background. This was clearly meant as a one off that blew up so it's lucky we get 30 plus more books with this group.

The most notable is Shannon for being the "Radical feminist'. Their words, not mine. She basically speaks the truth in a loud way, idk how to gauge her but she is kind of the best of them so whatever. There is a solid monologue from Jan that has some good little moments that capture what a kid would think in these situations.

She can be a bit off at times though. As if starting a club to hate someone wasn't enough, she does have her selfish moments and while it can be charming, it can be a turn off at times. Also, the plot is a bit loose sometimes. There's a side thing where her parents are divorced and dad isn't able to fulfill his promise of taking her on this two week trip and things spiral from there. This seems to be an side quest that kind of takes over. It comes around but sometimes it does take a bit to come back to the Taffy focus.

The breast talk is something. It's understandable to tackle it and is only a part of the story anyway, the thing that gets them riled up. A bit awkward to read as an adult and it's no Judy Blume but it's a fine aspect. I had to bring it up so even if I didn't say much, there it is.

However, the ending makes up for some of this. Basically, Jana has a whole arc about her wanting a villain for everything, a cause to all her problems. She wonders what caused the divorce and shifts blame from dad to herself, and realizes it was a more complicated case and dad was, spoilers, mostly good but they split over certain things. Jana learns that yeah, that club is bad and Taffy is still a person. Taffy is a clear jerk but she does have some humanity and didn't mean for things to blow up as they do.

The ending is quite nice as things wrap up nicely and we get a good lesson. It's well done and does give this all a good purpose. I figured some of the small off moments from her would be ignored but it's part of the point, as she does realize what she's down and makes up for it. It's not perfectly executed this does give the book an edge. Most of it is standard for these kind of books and while it's nothing great, the overall arc makes it stand out at least a bit.

There's a few iffy of the time bits (fat shaming, hooray, not super often but it's there a bit) but it's aged alright for the most part. I don't know how all the rest will fare but this is a good little book for what it is. I'd say I like it more than the Mom Swap trilogy, due to the ending bringing things around nicely.

We'll see how any others fare but this one was a good start overall. Should be fun to dig into all that someday. That's about what I got for this one. Next read will likely be the start of our spooky Hallo0ween reads. Yep, we're doing that again and hey, Fabulous 5 has a Halloween book so maybe we'll get to it sooner .

I kinda want to do something before next Thursday but I'll be working on a review for the blog so yeah that may take focus away. So in case, I spun the wheel to see how we start. With it, we can finally return to Monsterstreet. See ya then.

[Tiffany Spencer]

The Against Taffy Sinclair Club
P Jana is cleaning up her room when she gets an emergency call from Beth. Taffy Sinclair (the envy of all 5th-grade girls) is back and she has breasts.

Beth calls a meeting of the Against Taffy Sinclair club (her, Jana, Melanie, Chrisie, and Katie). They all decide to start a second secret club called “Lamda Rho” that will focus on saving money to get something they saw in an ad that will develop their breasts faster than Taffy’s.

On the first day of school, Jana and Taffy wear the same dress, but there’s a noticeable difference in the front. Then the teacher walks in and he’s HOT! His name is Mr. Neal. Jana instantly develops a crush on him and starts fantasizing about how she’ll get his attention. Unfortunately, he picks then to ask her to introduce herself. Taffy makes a slight move after class, by sticking her elbow out so it’ ’ll touch his sleeve. So, Jana announces that she can’t wait until the next Lambda Rho meeting and this does the trick. Taffy storms off. Beth gets mad at Jana because she thinks Mr. Neal overheard and would know about Greek letters. Jana vows to “make him see her for who she really is.”

Jana is also struggling with her parent's divorce and why her Dad wrote her a letter asking her to spend a two-week vacation with her and then ghosted her.

So, at the next meeting, they decide until they can get the money to do breast development exercises and then measure themselves and write it in their notebooks.

Jana gets the brilliant idea to sell brownies from Melanie’s mother’s recipe but the plan falls short because she just makes them from her head. Jana thinks of another plan but she has to sneak one of her mother’s cookbooks. She waits for her mom’s boyfriend to leave and her mom to go to sleep to sneak into the kitchen and gets a book.

Mr. Neal assigns a five-hundred-page essay about what they did over the summer, and Jana (who can’t say she spent the summer by her mailbox waiting for her dad’s letter) makes up this fantastic trip to the west. It’s so good that Mr. Neal gives her an -A minus and tells her that he’s going to put it on the first page of the school paper. She feels so guilty she confesses it to the rest of her friends. Jana is so nervous waiting for the paper to be distributed that someone will call her out she throws up in front of the class.

When she gets back to school Taffy hints that she found her notebook (that notebook) and turned it in to Mr. Neal. Now they’re all worried about how much he read, what he’ll tell, and how they’ll get it back. So they decide to use the “kill em with kindness” approach. That way Mr. Neal will think the notebook is fake and see the truth that Taffy is a nasty snob.

The next day they try it outside and she snubs then. Then they all plan to go in class one by one and be nice to her in front of Mr. Neal. Only Taffy smiles back and then starts laughing.

That day Jana had decided to stuff her front with cotton balls and the cotton balls slipped out one side. (Groaning).

Jana’s last resort is the angry letter she wrote her absent father will fill him with so much guilt he’ll buy her a amazing present that will make Taffy jealous. She waits all weekend. No call. Her mom lays it out to her that it sounds like all of em are jealous and maybe they should just be nice to Taffy. (Heard this before. There was this weird girl in college whose pet RAT kept getting lose in my room. My mom told me the exact same thing. “Oh maybe she’s just lonely. You should be *nice* to her and be her friend. Riight!)

Jana out of anger spray paints in red TAFFY SINCLAIR HAS HER PERIOD on the sidewalk. She’s so filled with guilt the next day she gets up early to sneak out and cover it up, but the custodian is already there fixing the damage. She decides to be good after that.

She’ll even write her Dad another letter (a nicer one) but she gets a surprise present. He sends her a box of chocolates (no letter). Rolls eyes!

Jana and her friends decide that Jana should use the cream first, but when she gets it she decides to triple up on her exercises and throw the cream away.

Not long after Mrs. Sinclair shows up holding the notebook about Taffy. Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Sinclair go in the kitchen and talk and Taffy and Jana talk. Jana in the end figures out that while she doesn’t really like Taffy it’s stupid to hate her.

Mrs. Morgan and Jana have a long talk about everything and Jana has one with all the other girls (ending the club and the attempts to develop breasts). They decide to start a self-improvement club (The Fabulous Five).

My Thoughts: Even for the age level it’s intended for it’s RIDICULOUS! It’s ridiculous to start a club against someone for no reason whatsoever just because you hate them. What do they do at the regular meetings? Just sit around discussing how she gets on their nerves? That sounds BORING as hell! And I hate to tell you this but she’s already WON if you thought that much of her that you started a club in her “honor”. Then I can think of something better to do with 5 cents than put it toward discussing someone I hate. REALLY? You can do that for FREE! But you’d rather waste your money buying her stupid cards. I was never this obsessed with anyone in the 5th grade. Nor was anyone else I know. Then this had the slight feel of the episode of Punky Brewster where Cherie gets jealous of Punky because she needs a bra and then she starts doing some kind of exercises that have a chant that goes “I must. I must. I must. Increase my bust. A bust. A bust. A bust is just a must.” Now honestly even as an adult, I have been swayed. It’s easy to get there considering we live in what I call “the plastic” times and EVERY thing is oversized. I’ve seen creams and pills that promise the same thing but also as Betty to Cherie in that episode “Honey you’d get the same results from rubbing a jar of mayonnaise on your chest.” (Don’t quote me on that exact line). It’s ridiculous (and might I add CRINGEWORTHY) to read about 11-year-olds lusting over a grown *** man. It’s bad enough in teen books but these are CHILDREN fantasizing about getting there teacher alone by a tree. You know what else is ridiculous? Stuffing your front because I’m sure before padded bra’s quite a few girls did but if Jana is flat then she’s not wearing a bra. If she’s not wearing a bra there’s nothing to hold the cotton balls up. It looked like she woulda thought of this even at 11. Unless she’s wearing a tight top that has some kind of elastic under it. Then I take it back. Stuffing your top for a TEACHER is just WRONG at ELEVEN! Jana’s dad is also ridiculous! As if ghosting her wasn’t enough he in typical male fashion sends her a box of candy thinking that’ll make up for his shitty behavior. I really wanna take that chocolate and smash it in his face for being an ASS!. Initially when I wrote this my sympathy went toward Taffy. The others were kind of bullies and deserved to be called out. But I can’t really say this time around I feel fully sorry for Taffy because I knew girls like her in school that were nasty for no reason. I guess we’re supposed to because her mother is “a gorilla” but that’s really not an excuse. Your mother being horrible doesn’t excuse you acting like your above everyone else. Taffy did snub their attempts (even if it was fake) to be nice to her and she *did* steal Jana’s notebook. If you bold enough to go in someone else’s property than can you really play the pity card that your upset? So I wasn’t on Jana or Taffy’s side in this ome.

Rating: 5 The plot just seemed silly. I wouldn’t even have had this in my head to do in the 5th grade. None of it start a stupid club against someone else, care about my breast size, or get the hots for my teacher which is SO INAPPROPRIATE!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5 stars

This was one of those pastel pink paperbacks in the 80s I'd never gotten around to as a kid. It's hard for me to rate as an adult. You can certainly tell it was written in 1976.

Jana and her friends aren't nice girls. They're rather despicable up until the very last pages. THEY START A CLUB JUST TO HATE ON A PRETTY CLASSMATE. It's never really shown that Taffy is as nasty as they say. She's a little snotty a couple times, but then again, we don't really get to know Taffy at all. And Jana isn't very nice to her FRIENDS for that matter: she secretly fat shames one, complains about another being too dramatic and doesn't seem to like poor Katie at all. (And I've never been able to relate to the "hot for teacher" storylines in a lot of books of that era. And the girls thinking that the ADULT teacher has the hots for girls in their 5th grade class creeps me out.)

BUT Jana does have CHARACTER GROWTH. (I must admit, I was worried she wouldn't.) Her mother is the best character in the book. But I've noticed there are 4 more books...it worries me that Jana is going to go back to her old ways. (I probably won't read any more to find out.)

Also, did it seem to anyone else that the author...BORROWED HEAVILY...from the "I-must-I-must-I-must-increase-my-bust" plotline of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret"????

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

As a kid every Saturday we went to Kmart, and every Saturday my mom would let me buy one thing, and it was ALWAYS a fabulous five book. (The cover looks like a spiral notebook cover... I thought that was very clever)
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.

Taffy Sinclair is such a misunderstood character. She was definitely not the nicest person, but I think a lot of that stemmed from insecurity.

I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it make references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again.

[Jennifer Hoey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first in the Against Taffy Sinclair Club Series, all of them are worth reading especially the final book where we hear Taffy's side! I read these books as a child and loved them. The series covers topics
like puberty, insecurities related to looks, growing up, bulimia, and bullying. the characters are great and you really get to know them. Well worth reading!

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

So odd going back to this. Poor Jana never eats a decent meal in the whole thing.

[Joshua Arnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Anti-Taffy Sinclair (who herself is a big boobed DEMON) club is completely inept. One failed scheme and plot after another. Pathetic stuff, gang.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, *that* was deeply disturbing. Also, why are all of the girls on that cover dressed like religious fundies. Creepy AF.

[Savannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very humorous book about young girls getting through grade school and trying to best their rival, Taffy Sinclair. A fun read to delve yourself back into what it was like to be a ten-year-old!

[Jodi Johnson-Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, quick, funny read.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded down.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was obviously very dated, but it was so reminiscent of Lois Lowry/ Beverly Cleary / Judy Blume that I really enjoyed it.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I was inspired by Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction to reread the books that I had loved when I was younger. Betsy Haynes was a favourite author because she wrote the Fabulous Five series which this book is a precursor to.

Does it hold up? Kinda. Most of the problems are pretty universal preteen angst stuff. Divorce, school, friendship, etc... Jana Morgan, the main character, is a pretty typical kid.

There is a lot of girl hate (obvious from the title), and body shaming which probably made more sense in the late 70's when this was originally published. Now it does feel almost brutal to read in a kids book. But I will say this, the narrator is Jana Morgan, a fifth grader. She isn't a reliable narrator and there's a harsh authenticity to her inner dialogue that as a kid I related to more than I'd like to admit. The fact is that Taffy Sinclair is probably more like Jana and her friends than she is different and while it didn't get all the way to that realization, it was on its way.

And then there's Katie. Oh, Katie who probably planted a lot of seeds in my young feminist brain. Having a character who's so beloved in a book series who isn't afraid to stand up for her beliefs, be proud of her self-improvement, and question the decisions she and her friends make through the lens of her own budding feminism was so important to me. She's not perfect, but she's in fifth grade!

My first reread inspired by Paperback Crush was really more of a success than I expected. Despite the sharp edges of my own remembered girl hate and body shaming, The Against Taffy Sinclair Club made me feel warm and fuzzy with candy-coloured nostalgia. I haven't found any of the Fabulous Five books yet, but I can't wait.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Next in my string of rereading childhood favorites, this short but sweet novel took me about a half hour this afternoon. This is a time capsule. Jana Morgan is the head of a group of immature elementary school girls who are jealous of the prettiest girl in their class. They have a club against her, stalk her incessantly and have meetings where they report on everything they have seen her do. As a kid, I always related to Taffy Sinclair, as I always felt a lot like her. I think this book is incredibly realistic, plus reading it really shows me how different my childhood was from my kids. In a modern elementary school, these little bucketdippers would be expelled for bullying. ;) All in all, this is an excellent book and I don't think children 's books today have as much realism, not just with the jealousy issue, but in describing how so many people in America actually live (late bills, absentee fathers, apartment living, etc) rather than the exaggerated lifestyle of the wealthy. I miss books about average people.

[Bunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who hated a lot of girls in school, this book was always a favorite of mine. I can't believe I'd forgotten about it! Love!

----

I bought it at a library sale to have again, but to hoard, or not to hoard, that is the question. And Taffy Sinclair didn't make the cut.

[Justin Fraxi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to moderately enjoy this series. I don't remember exactly which ones I read and which ones I didn't, but I remember that I preferred the ones narrated by Taffy. The other girl was kind of a bitch.

[Tiff]

The description for this kinda cracked me up just now. And what an 80stastic cover!

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was feeling nostalgic last night and read this in about 1 1/2 hours. Think I might reread the whole series again.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved all the Taffy books!