Book 4: Singing sensation

Here we have Chelsie singing her heart out. Yay for canon-appropriate clothing, which is similar to the doll's clothes. Oh, the melodrama! of going to boarding school. Shiny covers does not scan well.

Chelsie comes down to breakfast. Chelsie's father which is cheerful and silly, hidden under his proper and serious exterior, says that he didn't came to say good night to her last night because he heard Chelsie singing and didn't want to interrupt her composing. For breakfast, they can't have anything other than tea and scones. Hello stereotypes. Chelsie's father knows a lot of languages, but he doesn't understand who the Ravers and other social groups at Chelsie's school are. Her father thinks she has potential as a songwriter.
Chelsie thinks her parents should stop being so formal, like opening the door for each other and always remembering to say please. I just think they're really sweet and well mannered. Her mother disapproves of the New York kids' behavior. Mr. Peterson's leaving for Portugal this evening. It comes to a shock for Chelsie, and she's disappointed. Her mother always wants Chelsie to be brave and understand a diplomat's responsibilities. Mrs. Peterson smiles and says that she won't be alone with the delegations as Chelsie will be there to help her. Chelsie often feels lonely in her home when her parents are working. She's much closer to her dad and hates that he has to be away the whole time.
Chelsie wishes she could wear some funky clothes for school, like all of her friends wear, but she has only sweater sets, boo hoo. Maybe her parents have no idea that she likes different styles?
James, their driver, takes Chelsie to school in their limo(!). Chelsie's father is usually going to work at the same time, but he can't drive with Chelsie today as he's meeting the Dutch ambassador at home. Tori goes quickly by on her skateboard, almost crashing into the limo. James wants to tell her off, but Tori is faster and sticks her head up to the window and says "Koala! Wombat! Dingo!" . Their chaffeur think she's really rude. Then she greets Chelsie and says "See ya at school."
James asks Chelsie if that girl was a friend of hers. Chelsie tells a half lie that it was just some girl from the school, as she's afraid James will find Tori "inappropriate company" and report back to her mother.

Chelsie and the other girls meet in the auditorium. Principal Simmons announces Sing Out, a competition between the seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen about who could write the best musical. Barbie tells the class that Chelsie's a professional song writer. Lara, which is the only one who understands what the Pants boys are saying, says that they read about her in the school newspaper. The class votes Chelsie as the songwriter, and Barbie, Chelsie, Nichelle, Tori, Ana and Lara is the creative committee. Chelsie can't bring the girls home with her, so they'll go to Nichelle's place instead.
Damien is principal Simmons' son and usually known as "Devil spawn". He will work on the musical with the girls. Chelsie almost wishes she was going to a boarding school, so she wouldn't have to perform in front of her whole school.

At Nichelle's, Chelsie gets to borrow Nichelle's brother's guitar. She strums the guitar and performs her song about homelessness, with phrases like "the ache of life is in my bones". Ana, Lara and Nichelle doesn't look completely enthusiastic. I would think that Lara would appreciate the song more and I'm actually surprised that Tori likes it so much. So they think it's too depressing. I quote ""Life is depressing" [Chelsie] retorted. The other girls think they have no reason to be unhappy, and that they should write about something they have personal experience with. I quote again "She was embarrassed that her award-winning song not well-recieved. But mainly, she was angry. No reason to be unhappy? How about having the threat of boarding school hanging over your head? How about the reality of being constantly being separated from the one person who really understood you?". So melodramatic.
And then ""We have hurt your feelings." "Now, how could you?" Chelsie replied tartly. "I don't have any, remember?. Then she runs out and gets on the subway home. She's pulled herself together when she gets home. Her mother tells her that someone named Nichelle has called for her. ""No," [Chelsie] said, choking back tears. "I don't have any friends." And with that, she ran up the stairs to her room, threw her backpack down, and fell across the bed, sobbing." Okay, while I'd love to have Chelsie's life in so many ways, this is totally me as a fifteen year old. Shutting herself off from others and sulking because she's been insulted. Feeling that other people can never truly understand what you're going through. Getting hurt over the smallest things. Her mom goes up to asks what's wrong. "What's wrong?" "What was wrong was that no one understood her creativity". Sometimes this book feels like reading fanfiction. Chelsie's mother tries to comfort her and even asks if she has any friends that could keep her company while Mrs. Peterson goes to see the African delegation. Aww, I think her mother seems very gentle and sweet, not detached at all. She'll get home early so they could have a long talk later. Chelsie goes to her father's study to write. She snoops in one of the drawers and and find a letter addressed to her mother from headmistress Prunella Smythe *facepalm*. She has room for Chelsie at Underwood Boarding School. There's also an airline ticket for Chelsie at the night of the musical premiere. Chelsie's horrified. Going to a boarding school would be a. Fate. Worse. Than. Death.
Her friends come to say they're sorry and Chelsie reluctantly lets them in. She explains about the letter. Chelsie blames all decisions on being English and tradition. Then the girls talk some sense into her and say that her father probably hasn't seen this letter, since it arrived today and was addressed to her mother, so Chelsie can talk about the letter with him when he comes home. Ana proposes the story of Tori's Aunt Tessa as a musical plot. Tori has to ask her aunt for permission first. The girls quickly disappear out the back door so Chelsie's mother doesn't see them when she arrives home.

Chelsie goes to Recorded History, a music store, to ask the owner for advice. I can't believe a seemingly cultured girl have never seen any musicals. He educates Chelsie on songs and composition in musicals. Fletcher follows Barbie around because he has a crush on her. Barbie is hiding from him, so she and Chelsie try to sneak into Eatz without being noticed. Tori has written down the story, as told to her by Aunt Tessa. They discuss the script to come up with some more ideas. Fletcher comes in and tries to dance in his thick-soled boots, but trips and goes flying into the girl's table. They all laugh and because they're so nice, they tell Fletcher that this could be a funny moment in the show. When they talk about costumes, Chelsie says that she knows nothing on fashion. The others say that she looks really nice, but Chelsie doesn't believe them and goes home to listen to musicals. At their flat, Chelsie is sour when her mother is happy to have her home and thinks she would rather have her in a boarding school across the ocean. The French delegation are all nice and asks how it is being young in an interesting city like New York, and how about her interests and friends. Chelsie just replies that she has few friends, and she would like to go to her room to write soon. If you stopped wallowing in self pity, maybe you'd notice that most of those persons are actually interesting, and - better - interested in you and your opinions. Chelsie's mothers' eyes shine with tears for a moment, then she regains her composure. I just want to jump through the page and give her a hug and a big cup of hot chocolate. Chelsie herself decides that she's nevar evar going to boarding school.

Rehearsal at the school. Barbie will film. I must says that Tessa is an awesome person, but still, an artist's life in the desert, is that really a musical type of plot? I thought it would more like a serious or abstract piece, if it could be adopted to theatre at all. Chelsie shows up with her new song about Tessa and her parrot. "I won't preen, don't ask me". They find the song really funny. Chelsie starts performing the song and the whole cast gets in line, singing and dancing. Chelsie sings with Carla, a sweet girl who's playing Tessa. Fletcher gets overexcited and they all fall in a pileup with Fletcher on top. The juniors intrude to spy on the freshman class and show off their more professional moves. Damian has a plan...

The girls fear the worst. Chelsie realizes that they can't beat the juniors with the material they have now. She tries telling that to the rest of the group. Damian want to make sure the juniors can't use their two best performers by making "no pass, no play" rule, as he'd sneaked a look in his mothers records and sees that the best junior performers are falling maths. The other freshmen find this foul play, and argue that they would lose some of their good performers too, then. Barbie says that she'll tell his mother if he ever snoops into peoples grades again.

Sets and costumes are being made and Chelsie and Tori keep going over the script and lyrics to make it even better. The cast hopes that this is the last lyric versions they'll have to learn. Blaine is going to play the parrot, as Mike who originally did the role has a sore throat. Chelsie has made a ballad about how difficult it is when the person you're closest to is far away. They're rehearsing a dance with paint brushes. On the opening night the dancers will paint on a backdrop on stage, but for now they'll do it without paint. It's going really well until Fletcher accidentally dips his brush in paint and sprays the pants boys with paint dots. Chelsie thinks the musical actually has a chance of winning, but she worries that her mother will notice her friends, find them unsuitable and send her to England before her father is home.

Chelsie decides to straighten up her room so her mother won't have anything to complain about. Mrs. Peterson wants to have a talk with her daughter above some tea. Chelsie has no appetite. Her mom takes out a letter, not the Underwood letter, but a letter from MIH which says that Chelsie has missed two math classes, a history quiz, and hasn't turned in most of her homework. Whoops, not the way to make your mother happy and keep everything under control, Chelsie. She explains that's she's been really busy with the musical. Her mum asks if she's happy, if the school work is easy, and if she's trying hard to fit in. Giles, Chelsie's father calls, and says that he won't be home soon as he's been asked to go Egypt. Chelsie loses control and screams "I want you to be there, Daddy! You're never here when I need you! Never..." Mrs. Peterson hangs up the phone and tries to hug her. Chelsie twists away and shouts that no one wants her in this house and that she's always last priority after the foreign delegations. Her mother will bring some tea in her room, now this quite lolworthy passage "Chelsie felt like her life was ending, and all her mother had to offer was tea! I don't want any TEA!" Chelsie bellowed." Now she gets grounded. "I understand more than you think." Chelsie screams, before she runs up to her room, slamming the door and locking it. She's so emo.

Chelsie's mum will be out with the Indian delegation all day, so Chelsie goes quietly out on her rollerblades to meet her friends at Eatz. They see that Chelsie's sad because her father isn't home in time to the show or to stop her from being sent to Underwood. Then she admits that she'd always secretly wanted to skate around in the park and wearing outrageous outfits. Ana, Lara, Nichelle, Barbie and Tori takes her to Thrift-O-Rama.
There's an offer of a free hat with a purchase, if they fits the customer's head. Hat lovers unite! I have a lot of hats, even if I look strange in most of them. Chelsie gets a velvet hat with a fake rose. Her friends pick out a short velvet dress, chunky boots and an antique purse for Chelsie. They rollerskate around, while Barbie films them, before they buy hot dogs from a vendor that doesn't speak English. They sit at a wall, eating hot dogs and talking, when the limo drives past with Mrs Peterson and the delegation. Chelsie holds her breath, but Chelsie's mother doesn't recognize one of the girls as her own Chelsie. A narrow escape.
They decide to not work on the show today, but to go to the park, and the Pants Boys leads them towards a band singing a song about the rain forest. Then they tell about Chelsie's songwriting abilities and urges Chelsie to perform. Chelsie borrows a guitar and sings her song about missing someone close. She's shy at first, but gets into the moment. Everybody liked her song and understood that this is something she's experienced from her own heart. Chelsie feels incredibly sad that this will soon be over.

At dinner, Chelsie throws a robe over her trendy outfit and fakes a cold so her mother won't suspect anything. Her mother wants her to stay home from school tomorrow. Chelsie almost protests, but realizes that if she's "ill" until her dad's home, she won't be sent to England. So she gets her meals up in her room and spends Sunday doing the last rewrite of the songs. On Monday, she hides her clothes under her robe again. She stops her mother from making Alice, the maid check on her. She'll get her own food through the day. When her mother has left, Chelsie sneaks out on the subway. She gives the new lyrics to Melissa. Her throat tightens as she thinks she won't be there to sing her own song.

It's Thursday, and Chelsie's totally nervous about how the show will be and if her mother will send her to boarding school. She notices her mothers sadness and understand that maybe she feels lonely too, and that Giles is the only person who understands her. Her mother explains that she misses her husband very much too, but she lets him do what he needs to do because she loves him. Chelsie understands the respect and understanding between their parents are their way of showing their affection. Chelsie's robe falls open and shows her outfit. Her mother notices that Chelsie has been hiding something, and then Chelsie spills that she knows about the letter from Underwood. Mrs. Peterson has not yet decided if she'll send Chelsie there. She had planned on discussing this with Chelsie's father, but he won't be home in time to make the decision and she just wants Chelsie to be happy. So she has to leave on Friday... Tori calls and says that Melissa has a great voice and will be singing Chelsie's song. Chelsie explains for Tori that's she's leaving and will miss them lots, but she can't disturb her father.
Chelsie asks them to stop the car, so she could thank Peter from Recorded History for everything he'd learnt her. In there, she overhear Damian telling some other boys that Melissa is sick and can't sing. They have no chance then, so Damian plans on sabotaging the juniors by metronome beat, so they get out of rhytm during their tap number. Chelsie can't let this happen. Chelsie tells her mother that she too has responsibilities and will meet her at the airport, before she runs off.

Chelsie runs to school and informs the others about Damian's idea. They tell the Pants Boys, who stuff Damian in the trash cans before he could do any sabotage. Melissa can't sing, so Chelsie has to do it. While the other shows are on, Melissa's costume are taken out and Chelsie's hair is done. She goes out on stage and does a terrific and moving performance. Everybody congratulate Chelsie. She has to hurry to her plane, so she's hugging the girls and they say goodbye while crying. Suddenly both her parents walk in. Her father is back for the concert and has seen Chelsie live. Barbie and the other girls sent him the video of the girls roaming around New York City and he had to go back to see what's happening with his daughter. Her parents have been really worried for Chelsie because she acted like she was sad and lonely and had a hard time. Stop being so passive agressive, Chelsie. Have you ever talked to parents about these things? Have you ever tried? I know people rarely understand your motives unless you talk to them, and then many people don't get a hint, so you have to voice your thoughts really clearly.
Mrs. Peterson was a diplomate's daughter herself. She had problems fitting in and felt like it was something wrong with her. She just didn't want her daughter to experience the same thing. She missed her father a lot and felt like her parents where disappointed. Chelsie's mother sounds like a character with hidden depths. Hey, now there's actually three decent adults in the series. Chelsie's parents and Aunt Tessa. Not bad, they should meet up. Such an upgrade from the first book where absolutely all adults were unlikeable. I'm purring like a cat at the thought of being the daughter of two smart, culturally educated Brits. Hey, I want a spin-off book about Mrs. Peterson, Giles, and Tessa. Like I want spin off stories about Gunnar Thorn. Now Chelsie and her mother will explore New York together.
The sophomores wins the contest, of course. Fletcher and Melissa are dating now, and Barbie's really happy for them. Then the whole sophomore class lifts Chelsie on their shoulders. Her future is full of friendship and fun in New York.

After reading this book, I like Chelsie's mother, even if she's meant to be annoying, and I actually like Chelsie too, even if she's very whiny and annoying, when she's meant to be likeable. I do not like Chelsie as much as when I only read about her from other perspectives, but I understand her flaws.

I'm slightly offended of the treatment of private school as a subject. I admire private schools, I've dreamt about those since I was 7 years old. Public school was never a place of well-being or knowledge for me.
My love of private schools, especially boarding schools, began with reading Harry Potter, the private school series in Wendy(one about a girl who cares for a slightly mistreated pony, and another with three regular girls who meet a new classmate who turn out to be an Arabian princess in disguise), the Foxhall book series, and The Worst Witch. Some of my biggest fandoms in my childhood were The Worst Witch, Generation Girls, Harry Potter, Wendy, Foxhall, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
So when I thought about private schools, I pictured the building as Hogwarts, the environment as Miss Cackle's academy, and the cute uniforms from the story about Jill and the pony. And then it inspired me to make my own little private school stories, as I wrote in the introduction. Private school is described as a threat, not a treat.

The article in the back is about Poogy, which is quite weird as I thought it would focus on covering Sing Out. Writing=honesty=you know it.

This book in one ord: Teen angst

Book 3: Pushing the limits

Both the Swedish and English cover show some wear here. I thought Ana's top was flesh-coloured/orange in parts before I saw that it was a crop top, so it's her waist peeking out under her hair. I was a canon nazi as a kid, so it annoyed me that the Ana doll had bangs, and cover Ana didn't have those. The Swedish cover doesn't have the numbers on the front, and it mentions Clarisse in the back text, which the English cover doesn't.

Ana is meeting the girls in Eatz. When she's pushed by a skateboarder, her books and clothes from her gym bag flies everywhere. Clarisse, Ana's snobby and competitive teammate and her friends giggle. Clarisse is obsessed with winning and a strong runner, but Ana won't let her win and risk losing her chance for a college scholarship. Ana picks up her towel and bathing suit, then a boy with brown hair comes over to help her pick up her sandals. They shake hands, Ana with a sandal in her hand at first, then Blaine goes back to his friends in line. The other girls tease her and asks Ana about her meeting with the boy. Ana will just eat a salad, as sh's preparing for the maraton. Clarisse looks quite unhappy that Blaine was paying attention to Ana. Blaine(Huh? Isn't Blaine+Barbie canon? Maybe they'll get together later, though.) comes back with her history book. He asks the girls if they'll study together with him. Nichelle butts in and says yes.
Barbie walks Ana to the bus. Ana has known this city her whole life, but Barbie notices all the little interesting details. The meet a woman who's walking a little white dog with a diamond collar for hundred dollars a week. Ana asks if she can walk dogs too, as she hopes to earn some extra money for stuff she needs, but it's not any jobs available now. The girls says goodbye and Ana hurries to the bus.

Ana lives with her father, a hardworking construction worker, her mother, who just speaks Spanish, her little sister, Rosa, who highly admires Ana. Her older brother, Juan, has joined the navy and will be stationed in Hawaii. They live in a not so upscale part of Harlem, and everybody there speaks Spanish. Ana picks up cilantro and onions for her mother. The shopkeeper knows her family very well and greets Ana like a daughter. She invites Ana's mother over on Sunday. Ana thinks of walking the three floors up the apartment as exercise. The family eats a nice dinner together and Ana promises to send Juan pictures from the triathlon.

Ana's up at 5 A.M and gets off the subway at 6.15 AM. She has juice and a sports bar on the way. Ana gets into school with the special access pass athletes have so they can practice. Ana looks under the loose floor tile and finds a note from Chelsie, with a big orange juice stain on exclusive stationary. She asks Ana if she could write an article on the triathlon for the school's paper. Ana puts on a lucky t-shirt which used to be her brother's. She runs around the track with no troubles on her mind. Then there's swim practice. Ana does forty laps and thinks that the pool here is much nicer than the pool at her old school. Ana notices Nichelle sitting on a bench doing her maths homework. Nichelle will also swim after that. Ana has English with Barbie, which struggles with French. Lara can help her. Ana thinks it's harder to get her schoolwork done than at her old school. Clarisse and her friends giggle when they pass Ana. Clarisse's last name is Stephenson, so, unfortunately for Ana, she's at the locker next to Ana's, standing in front of her mirror and eavesdropping on their conversation. Clarisse marches away when she overhears the girls saying that Blaine is really into Ana. They'll meet up later in the cafeteria, which has, like any other cafeteria in a YA book, disgusting food. Ana and Tori goes to Art Class. Tori does a really abstract flower drawing and talks about how she got her aunt to try roller blades. She will join the other girls for lunch today, so that's all Dingo as she and Lara usually has early lunch. Chelsie and Ana talks about the article. Chelsie is forced to dress really formal and preppy by her mother. Ana promises to help Chelsie when she has the time.

Now it's history class for Ana. She tries to look discretely for Blaine, but he's moved front when he got new glasses, and will be sitting beside her. The class is very boring, so they write notes to each other to keep awake. They meet Clarisse after class, who completely ignores Ana and is super sweet to Blaine, saying that he forgot her birthday. Blaine talks to Ana about her running track. Clarisse huffs and walks away. Ana should meet Blaine later, but she has track pratice, so Nichelle will explain that to Blaine. Ana puts on her lucky t-shirt. She's better at long distance, so Clarisse beats Ana most times. Then Ana wins the hurdles and is congratulated by the coach. In the locker room afterwards, Ana hears Clarisse and her friend talk about Blaines interest in Ana. Clarisse says that Blaine is a do-gooder and sees Ana as a poor little Mexican girl, so her treats her as a charity case. I do not like the slightly racist undertone here :I Ana feels so angry and let down. She practices angry comebacks for Blaine and wipes the tears from her eyes before her family sees her.

Ana ignores Blaine and refuses to read his notes. She stops Nichelle from speaking to Blaine, Barbie and Nichelle comfort Ana and they got to Eatz. They races to Eatz, Tori gets there first, and the others are all sweaty, but they have fun and eat lots of French Fries. It's time for Ana's track meet and she hopes she'll beat Clarisse. Barbie and Nichelle are there to cheer her on, and Barbie will tape Ana. Clarisse teases Ana about her clothes, which makes Ana even more determined to win. Clarisse's dad says he wants his daughter to be better than last time, when she came in second. Ana wins a great sprint. Clarisse's dad is not pleased. Blaine turns up and asks Barbie and Nichelle why Ana's not talking to him. They don't know. Blaine swears he hasn't been a jerk, and he and Clarisse just went to the movies a couple of times when they went to school together. Blaine starts to cheer really loudly for Ana to show his support. Clarisse turns really sour and won't wish her team mates good luck. Ana has a great start and passes, but then she trips up and hurts her ankle badly. It might be sprained or even broken.

Clarisse's father congratulates his daughter on winning, but Clarisse doesn't look all that happy. Barbie watches the tape again and vince when she sees Ana's fall. After watching it closely and in slow motion, they see that the fall is not caused by Ana's feet, but by Clarisse elbowing her from the next lane. Nichelle and Blaine watch the tape too. Clarisse did push Ana! They're so angry and want to tell the principal at once, but they'll talk to Ana first and see what she wants to do.
Ana has a bad sprain. She's bandaged and on crutches. She wants to get Clarisse expelled, but then she bumps into Clarisse's parents which are not happy if their daughter makes less than first place. Then Ana has second thoughts, she won't do this this in front of Clarisse's parents and taking her off the team too will ruin their chances.

Ana tries to swim, one of the few exercises she can do with her ankle. Blaine studies with Ana. She tells him that she has only five procent chance to do the triathlon.
Coach Arlen makes Clarisse help Ana to train to get back on track. The other girls thinks it terrible, but Ana sees the possibility to make Clarisse act like her slave, and being so sweet that Clarisse will feel guilty. Ana makes Clarisse get up really early for training at 6 AM to punish her, as Clarisse hates morning training. Ana says that it's so sad that she blew her chances of doing the marathon she has been looking forward to for the whole year. When I think about it, they weren't competing for places on a team or anything, so it was a big measure to ruin Ana's ankle for just one victory, not a place in the school team or marathon or anything. Ana makes Clarisse get out of the pool and walk around the whole gym to get her a towel.
Clarisse wants Ana to do her best. She's becoming a serious coach, meeting Ana every day and egging her to go on. Clarisse knows some good exercises that won't put pressure on Ana's ankle. She wants Ana to continue, and try some walking or running on track. She will buy Ana an ice cream sundae if she runs and even calls Ana a lazy quitter when she refuses to do so. That makes Ana run and she realizes that this is probably the motivation Clarisse gets from her father. Ana takes Clarisse to watch the tape. Then she reveals to Clarisse that she's known about the push for a while. Clarisse says she's sorry, and that she knows Ana is no lazy quitter. Ana says that Clarisse is the best runner, and actually a great coach.

It's the day of the triathlon. Clarisse tells Ana that she would hated her if it was the other way round, and Ana can push her at next track meet if she wants to. Ana's friends are all there on the big day, Blaine, Clarisse, Ana's parents and Rosa too. Barbie takes photo of Ana, and some group photos too. Everybody wishes her luck and Ana is ready to start.... Ana swims better than ever and is very well ranked. Bike riding is harder, and a red headed woman passes her. Ana focuses on the lady's red pony tail, which reminds her of Clarisse. Ana's ankle swells and aches before the run. She's ranked third in her age group, which means that she did the swimming very well. After four kilometres, Ana's ankle pops underneath her. Miss ponytail passes her, but Ana keeps on running, even when she's in major pain. Ana gives everything. All her friends and family starts screaming Ana's name. Then Ana actually passes the lady with the red pony tail at the finish line. Her ankle is double it's normal size, but Ana still feels really good. Ana got number nine in her age group. Ana gets her first kiss on the cheek by Blaine. More teasing from her friends. Aww, I think it's very sweet that she's fifteen years old and don't have to go further than a kiss on the cheek. Ana's parents are very proud of her and this is her best moment ever. Ana has had the greatest time in her life and she writes an article for the school paper about her experience.

The article in the back is about Ana training for the triathlon. And it teaches kids to write sport features. Writing=honesty=truth.

This book in one word: Exciting.

Book 2: Bending the rules

Why is Lara just standing in the middle of nowhere painting? Again, sorry for the worn and creased cover. I swear I wasn't very messy and careless with my books as child, I just loved them and took them everywhere and read them many times. Now I wish I kept them in near mint condition... I still think that both back pictures are cute.

Tori is living abroad with her aunt, Tessa. Tessa has a serious, strict and quite chilly personality. Tori goes everywhere on her rollerblades, even if the guard tells her not to. She's a very lively and spunky girl. Aunt Tessa has a lot of rules. Tori is not allowed to make noise and she should never open the three rooms far down in the hall. Tori meets Barbie before Barbie should go to another history class with Budge, which is a described as a weirdo obessed with personal hygiene. The girls leave messages to each other under a loose tile on the fifth floor. Err, isn't that quite risky? Can't like anybody take a sneak peak at the notes they leave there? Lara asks Tori to meet her at Eatz for Lunch.

The owner of Eatz is also Australian, so Tori greets him happily. Lara sounds quite down. She has a crush on the art teacher, Mr Harris. Tori tries to talk about the "pants boys", but Lara prefers her boys mature with some sort of style and grace. You and me both, sister. Lara invites Tori to her home after school. Tori asks if they could drop by her place first and explains how strict Aunt Tessa is.

Lara goes with Tori to Tessa's home. Tori barks back to this fancy little dog. Lara is very sweet and polite to Tessa and Tessa seems to like her back. They talk about art and Lara admires some of Tessa's paintings. Tessa's parrot says "Good night, Ernest" but Tori has never been explained who Ernest is. Tori delivers a letter addressed to Tessa Steinmetz to her aunt, but Tessa says it's not for her and tells her to send it back with the guard again. Tori explains that Tessa is very different from the rest of her family. She works in a museum restoring picture frames. Tessa has lived the US practically her whole life and she's not close to her other family members. Then Tori writes a postcard to her parents.

Tori is happy at school, she works on the school website, does homework with friends and climbs. She wonders about Tessa, her secrets, her artwork from the West Coast and who the guy in the painting is. She nearly forgets that she's hanging on the climbing wall. One day Tori sees a scared dog in the middle of the traffic. She stops the traffic and calls him very carefully closer to her, tempting the dog with a bagel. A police man says that it's hard to find the dog's owner, and the dog pond isn't a very nice choice. Tori names the dog Bagel.

Tori sees Nichelle after she's bought some dog food. They go home with Bagel. Tori feeds him and then the girls tries to give Bagel a bath. Bagel shakes off the water and foam, just as Aunt Tessa is home.

The girls are very nervous, but Aunt Tessa accepts him if Tori can make sure that Bagel is house trained, takes all responsibility for walking and feeding him and watches Bagel so he'll not ruin any of her interior or carpets. She even gives Tori a dog leash she has kept, without any explanation. Lara calls and asks if the girls could come with her to the museums tomorrow for an art project. Nichelle is busy, but Tori will go the museum of modern of art.

Tori takes Bagel out. Then Tessa gives him some toast and Tori does her homework before she goes to MOMA. Complains and disses about Tori's lab partner, which happems to be a goth, and Chelsie's geeky lab partner. They meet up with Barbie at the museum and looks at Pollock and some other paintings. Tori quite likes a Picasso painting. Lara sees some very interesting desert paintings by T. Steinmetz. They go the museum shop to look up T. Steinmetz. Tori buys stationary and Barbie a pencil holder. The books has very little info on T. Steinmetz, just that for an unknown reason the artist stopped an amazing career and bought all paintings but two back. Nothing's been heard from T. Steinmetz ever since.
Lara is disappointed about the lack of information. Tori thinks about the letter with the name Steinmetz on it. The girls goes their separate ways home. Then Tori overhears the condominium board discussing her. They think that Tori's too loud and complains about her singing, roller blading and doing cartwheels. Tori is afraid she'll get thrown out, but Aunt Tessa sticks up for Tori and defends her, saying that Tori is just young, joyful, and spirited. Tori is so impressed with her aunt and sees a whole new side and spark in her.

Tessa has also bought a huge sack of top quality dog food for Bagel. Tori's very moved by this action. Henry Adams visits Tessa. He got no reply to his letter. Henry Adams tries to persuade Tessa to go back to her painting career. Suddenly Tori realizes that Tessa is T. Steinmetz. Tessa does not agree with Henry, but promises to think about it.

Tori has a boring schoolday and thinks of Tessa and her paintings. She tries to convince Poogy to take the dog, but dogs are not allowed where he lives. She goes with Ana to the computer lab to work with the school newspaper. Chelsie is terribly stressed out because the computer has crashed and she doesn't have time to write her feature again. Tori lectures the newspaper staff on always saving their work, then she pulls the power on the computer and restarts it, so an emergency backup file is saved.

When Tori comes home, she's surprised to see Tessa home early. Tori asks about Henry Adams, which used to be an artist himself, although not terribly talented. Now he's running his own gallery and tries to convince Tessa to put her paintings on show again. Tori is surprised to hear about Tessa's art, as her parents have never talked about it. They talk about that they're both going really different ways from the rest of the family. Tessa tells Tori that Tori's mother was suspended from school for dancing can-can in the corridor once.
Tessa used to live in the desert in an artists' colony with her husband, Ernest, a very talented sculptor. They and their friends, among them Henry Adams, lived and breathed for art. Henry was also a painter, although not a very successful one and he needed to go back to the city.
One day Ernest was in a car accident and got badly hurt so he was wheelchair bound and couldn't paint. Tessa gave up her painting and cared for Ernest, who lived only two years after the accident. A short time after Ernest's death, their dog, Fletcher also died. Tessa gave away her oil paints and bought her paintings back to remove every trace of Tessa Steinmetz the artist before moving to New York. Tessa has hidden all her paintings in the three rooms in the bottom of the corridor. Tori tells Tessa that life isn't fair, but Tessa's an amazing artist and art is her joy, so she shouldn't stop painting after Ernest's death, but let the world take part in her talent. If Tessa exhibits her paintings, then Tori will stop using her roller blades in the hall.
Tori fears getting told off, but then Tessa tells her niece that she's a bright girl and asks her to fetch Henry Adams business card.

It's January and the Steinmetz exhibition has opened. The girls and Tessa are all dressed up and looking for celebs. Henry Adams thanks Tori for her intervention. Tessa asks Nichelle to model for some of her future portraits. Lara got her interview with Tessa and has written a great project. And Mr. Harris is there with his wife. Lara feels slightly let down, but the girls have had a great night. Tessa treats the girls to a taxi ride, she and Tori are going home to their dog. In the end of the book, Tori writes another letter to parents, telling them that she has a wonderful time and has learned a lot.

The article in this book are covering Tori finding Bagel and abandoned pets. Writing=honesty=fruitloops.

This book in one word: Unsurprising.

Book 1: New York, here we come

Sorry about the Norwegian cover, and that it show a lot of wear as I've had it for a long time. As you can see, I really liked to read this book ;) When I was a child, I thought the girls in the cover pictures were super gorgeous. Now I think they're just meh-pretty. And I see that several of them could be wearing wigs. The front cover is this kind of Myspace pic that only Ana would be happy about, as it shows her from a better side than the others.

Barbie's just arrived in the Jenners' home in New York. She's traveled all the way from California. Sorry, she's not a vegetarian and California Casual. If we're lucky, she has an evil twin, though. In this story, she's a fifteen year sophomore with dreams of making it in the actor's business. She's starting at a new school in New York, New York. So welcome to the world of fashion, maths and hopefully not diabetes.
Barbie enjoys her new room. "Call me Terri" Mrs. Jenner and Barbie looks out of the window and admire the gorgeous view. For some reason, I do not like any of the adults in this story. They all fall flat, Sam, Terri, Selma, the Principal and Mr Toussaint.
Heck, she barely knows them, they could force her to join their home-made cult, she could become Mr. Jenner's second wife and get pregnant with him, all while being forced to prepare animal sacrifices? Hey, stranger things has happened in real life before. So Barbie and Terri are all buddy buddy and have a little girlie chat.
Barbie admits that starting a new school is overwhelming. Terri think she's very brave and will probably make new friends soon. It's nice to have a teenager in the house again after their little Scott went and joined the peace corps. For some reason, I'm picturing her son as Sheridan Bouquet.
They have a meal at Sam's restaurant, which is supposed to be some fancy place with lots of athmosphere and then Barbie emails her sisters. I think it's very sweet that they get a little nod. One of Sam's friends is an agent, and she can help Barbie with finding acting jobs.

Next day. Barbie changes her outfit a million time before deciding to wear capri pants, a white top and a denim jacket. She eats eggs, a pear and bagel and runs to the train.
So Barbie gets on the underground. There she gives an elderly man with a cane a seat for the disabled, but a dirty looking man steals the seat. Then a girl with blonde pigtails, an Australian accent and rollerblades tells the rude guy off and calls the attention of all the people in there, so the man is forced to leave the seat and everybody cheers for the old gentleman.

Barbie gets off the train and notices that the map in her information brochure is missing. She sees a girl with Manhattan International High School written on her shoulder bag. The girl on roller blades almost runs her down. Lara, the girl with the bag, is just as confused as Barbie is about finding the way to MIH and her brochure is also missing page 3 with the map. They ask a policeman about the way. Lara is half German and half Italian. She grew up in France, has lived in three different countries, and transferred to MIH when her father got a job in New York. She's carrying a huge box containing her paintings and paint supplies. Lara gives Barbie one of her hand-painted post cards as a gift.

Lara's old school was very strict and her father wanted her to paint in the same style as one of his friends, a famous artist. Lara wanted to change schools and paint in her own style to express herself, so she made a bet with her father that if she won a art contest, got top grades in school, and learnt to paint in the style of the well known artist, she could choose schools herself. She won the bet and the whole family moved to New York when her father got the job. Barbie's parents are away to China as archaeologists. Lara looks a bit sad when they talk about family being together. Foreshadowing...They meet Principal Simmons and get directions to their classes. Then all new students take some food and Barbie and Lara sits with Ana and Randall. Ana is a very sporty and organized girl who's training for the New York Maraton. Randall is a shy boy which seems to be dressed as a geeky metalhead. He barely speaks to the girls and draws super heroes on his notepad. It's a reference to WTC in this chapter, so that felt a bit odd and sad to read now.

Lara is off to art class and Barbie to English with Mr. Toussaint. I don't know why, but Toussaint seems like the type that's described as very charming, but would probably be more annoying than charming in real life. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way. Many advisors with the "I always keep my door open" policy tends to come across as creeps both in real life and in books.
The students complain about elevators and other stuff that's not working yet. Toussaint says that he feel proud to educate such different students. And this is a great school because it has so many great people and learning opportunities, so who cares that it's only half finished anyway? So... lots of propaganda, I mean neutral information about why public school totally ROCK and private school totally SUCK. Yawn.
Toussaint asks for two people for demonstration. Barbie volunteers, and a sweet and shy girl named Chelsie is the second volunteer. Barbie has to tie a bow around Chelsies neck with Mr. Toussaint's tie. Then all the other pupils should write down how Barbie made the bow. Barbie will then follow their instructions to make the bow again. None of students wrote how she made the bow down correctly. We're introduced to Writing=honesty=truth for the first time. The class should work together in pairs and write a biography of 150 words about each other for homework.
When Barbie's class is over, she's going to meet Lara. Lara is screaming about a girl which stole her box of paints. Barbie recognizes the girl as Tori. Is Tori trustworthy? Or has she really stolen Lara's paintbox?

Lara just left the box for a short time when she had a drink of water, and then she saw the other girl going off on rollerblades carrying her box. Barbie explains that she has proof of Tori's niceness, and she thinks Lara should wait before involving the police. Lara doubtfully follows her advice. The girls are hungry, so they go off to Eatz. They talk about Nichelle, the model and the Pants Boys. Barbie goes home to do the biography. She got a call from Selma Devine, and they'll meet up and talk about possible auditions and jobs for Barbie soon. Barbie writes a short biography about Chelsie and mentions her pricewinning song about homelessness.

Barbie is early at school to try to find the name of the Australian girl. She convinces the janitor, Pugasjov to let her in. There's only two Australian girls in the whole school, Tori Burns and Glenda Eastwick. Barbie meets Chelsie before she's off to have history with Budge, the slightly weird history teacher. Then English with Toussaint again, the students read their biographies out loud with the names censored, and the other kids try to guess who the biographies are about.
Both Chelsie and Barbie plans on trying out for the school paper. Barbie is in gym class after eating lunch with Chelsie, Ana and Nichelle. She pays a lot of attention when the teacher calls out the name Glenda Eastwick. Glenda is a skinny redhead with braces. So it's not Glenda, Miss Plain Jane either. Then it's either Tori Burns or the girl isn't a MIH pupil.

It's meeting time for Barbie and Selma Devine at the restaurant. She sounds kind of odd, but not as odd as when I read the book for the first time. She's known Terri and Sam since they were young.
Lol, if the three of them were friends and Terri and Sam ended up married, were they ever a love triangle? Were there ever any sensual tension between Sam and Selma? Or heck, Selma and Terri? But then only two of them got married. And now you're a family man, a football fan and your name is Harry. Are Terri and Ms. Devine foot flirting under the table and making inappropriate jokes about eating out? All while Sam impregnates Barbie of course.
And why is Sam never at home? If I skimmed the text, I'd miss that he's Terri's husband. He greets this fifteen year old girl he's known for a short time with a kiss on the cheek. Selma wants to be Barbie's agent. She has an audition idea for her, in one of Lee Quigley commercials for Crumbly Cookies, Barbie has very short time to learn her lines, but she's really pleased.

Chelsie congratulates Barbie, which has told all her new friends about the commercial. Chelsie knows Tori, and will bring her a message about meeting Barbie after the last class. Tori is going climbing, but Barbie could go after her if she needs to see her at once. Barbie follows Tori to Chelsea Piers which is *googles* also real. She's impressed by Tori's climbing skills, especially since she has a big sore below her knee. Tori is all "Yo, wallaby!" They talk about what happened on the train and the paint box incident. Tori tells
"Lara put her paint box outside by the fountain. Then some random guy went by on rollerblades and picked up the box and stole it. Tori went after him, the guy dropped the box like a hot potato. Tori picked up the box and followed him, looking for a police man. Then Tori fell and hurt her knee going after him." I don't get why she doesn't put any kind of bandage or band-aid on it, doing sports with a big open sore on your knee sound gross and unhygienic. Tori gave Lara's box to Poogy the janitor, so could bring it back to it's correct owner.

Barbie trains for her role as Chipper Girl. She goes through the role many times, watches a lot of cookie commercials, learns to recognize the cookies blindfolded and pratices making that special crumble sound. Barbie and Ana sits in sience class dissecting a cow's eye. Barbie talks Ana into going with her to the school newspaper's office after school. Chelsie, Nichelle and Lara are also there. They'll name the school paper Generation Beat, which was Nichelle's suggestion. Tori arrives late. Lara accuses her of stealing the paintbox. Toussaint calms them down and they sit scowling at each other for the rest of the class. Poogy arrives and gives Lara her box back. He says the Tori delivered the box to him, and then Tori explains the whole situation. Lara thanks Tori and Poogy and the newspaper gang goes out to celebrate with pizza.

Before her audition, Barbie has a nightmare about a giant cookie. Barbie auditions, with five gorgeous girls who are all blonde and taller than her. She plays her heart out and at last Barbie is up against the shy and nervous girl.The shy girl makes the better cookie crumble noises, so she gets the part. It's all quite a shock for Barbie.
But.... She gets a better deal! Barbie will star in a commercial for Dominique jeans, which is more high profile than Crumbly cookies. When I grow up I wanna be famous, wanna be a star, wanna have boobies... She hopes they'll let her keep some of the jeans. The book ends with a cute and happy email to Skipper, Stacie and Shelly.

In the back, there's a little "neswsaper article" about the school. I was a weird kid and loved article-form fiction. And there's some advice to kids about how they can make their own newspaper, and reminding them of Mr. Toussaint's sentence. Writing=honesty=truth.

*And to any Australians who reads this, no offence, I love you. I'm not mocking Aussies, I'm mocking the books' need to emphasis her heritage. All Australians I've talked to on discussion boards and Ebay has been very cool and nice.

This book in one word: Sweet.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Generation Girl snark blog. So, this is my second snarky blog. I'm literally turning over a new leaf in my life now, and I'm starting with blank sheets. This time my blog will be in English(English isn't my first language, so I'd like to apologize in advance for any spelling or grammar errors)and about the Generation Girl books. A short introduction:

As with my other Wendy blog, I'm going to cover subjects that are extremely narrow, but meant a lot to me through my childhood. I'm going to do some recaps, 1bruce1 style, of the book series written by Melanie Stewart.

The plot of the Generation Girl books is basically the adventures of six very different girls that goes to Manhattan High School(which, by the way, exists in real life, although I have no idea if it's anything like the school described in this book).

I always preferred Chelsie, she had those lovely long auburn curls and a gorgeous personality(at least I thought so then, when I had only read the first two books.)The Kelly doll named Chelsie was also my favorite as a child. Now I prefer Lara, she's the deepest character. If I were a man, you'd probably say I have a thing for creative European brunettes.

Both Lara books are really good. Contains divorce, crushes, being different and other personal issues.
The Chelsie books are also sweet, about parents, boarding schools, journalism and not letting yourself being pushed around.
The Tori books are actually number three. Aunt Tessa is a strong character and the book with the dress code issues actually talks about freedom of speech and double standards, which is a rare topic in children and YA books.
Then Ana, I like to read about her enemy and trainer Clarisse. The ski-trip book is somewhat anticlimactic.
The first Barbie book is sweet, I've read it terribly many times, but I'm not that into her theatre book, as books with a crime mystery as the main story isn't my cup of tea.
Nichelle books are just okay, I'd probably like her as a person if I met her in real life, but uncovering a burial place and trying to help a slacker boy to become student president isn't as interesting as most of the other books.

Generation Girl sparked my first ever fanfiction (written down fanfiction, that is, I've been making up "fanfiction" in my head ever since I could read) when I was eight. I wrote little stories about those girls and their new friends, among, and sometimes interlinked with, my other stories, about teddy bears and dolls and private school girls. The books, dolls and other stuff were quite rare over here. I remember being so disappointed when the bookstore couldn't get more than the first two books. I was also disappointed when this gross brat ruined the hairstyle of my only Generation Girl doll. As I can recall, I had no reason to let her borrow the doll as she was, and still is, an extremely rude person and costantly put me down through my entire childhood. I guess I was a nice, through naive pushover as a kid.

Those books are more mature than the other Barbie books, they were written as short novels with a teen and pre-teen audience. I was around... eight years old when I discovered them and I would say that they're intended to be read by 8-14 year olds. Of course, that doesn't mean they can't be reviewed and enjoyed by an older audience ;) It's been about ten years since these books were printed.

What's annoying with these books are, as with the Wendy and Sweet Valley series, are that they're very unrealistic and full of stereotypes. Of course the Mexican girl has a big, kindhearted family that's short on money. Of course the British girl is daughter of two stuffy diplomats... and so on. The books are still very loveable, though.