This was an after-school special book on how kids with dyslexia are not dumb and it's okay to use the resource room at school if you need it. Honestly, this book wasn't terrible (unlike Kristy & The Secret of Susan, which is mentioned in this one). We start out with Claudia in English class and she's zoning out of course. Her teacher keeps her after class and tells her that if she doesn't pass the next test (not just pass, but ace it), she'll fail the grading period. She suggests Claudia use the resource room (because it worked before) and Claud freaks and says "No!" but that she will study more for sure. I don't remember Claudia ever having to use the resource room in any of the other books.
That afternoon, at the BSC meeting, Mrs Rodowsky calls and wants one of the girls to tutor Shea, who was just diagnosed with dyslexia (okay really, why do they have to make that word so hard to spell?? It's just mean!) and she thinks having someone closer to his age might help. Mary Anne gets the job. Claudia announces her personal dilemma and Stacey offers to tutor her. Claudia thinks this is a great idea (spoiler: it's not) and when she asks her parents that night after dinner, they agree to give it a shot. Stacey comes over the next afternoon and immediately turns into Ms Strict McGill, Tutor Extraordinaire. They study in the kitchen, she covers all the clocks and any other distractions, and makes Claud write out flash cards for her spelling & vocabulary words. Later, she gives Claudia a journal and tells her to write in it each day and Stacey will correct her spelling and grammar. Blegh. I don't blame Claudia for being annoyed and starting a secret journal to kvetch about Stacey. (It was soooo hard to write this below with the spelling mistakes lol.)
"Anastasia Mcgill is a pill. I am glad shes helping me studey. I know I need all the help I can get, espesially sinse I don't want to fail english. But I don't like being bossed around like I am some two year child. But the morre Stacey treats me like child, the moore I want to act like a child. That's not as bad as how Stacey is acting, tho. She should see herself. Hah."
And underneath that I drew a caricature of Stacey as a pointed-nosed schoolteacher holding a ruler.
I'm sure you can guess that Stacey ends up with the wrong journal at some point. But first they have an argument about how Stacey is just trying to help, etc...and the BFF's don't speak for a couple of days. Stacey asks for her journal to mark and Claudia tells her it's in the drawer, forgetting she put both there until several days later when she goes to write in the secret journal. Towards the end of the book, they meet up and both apologize at the same time because they were both wrong blah blah and we finally get a What Claudia & Stacey Are Wearing!
I changed into something more suitable -- a giant blue-and-white striped shirt and socks with blue spots, over blue bike shorts that matched the stripes and spots. I pulled on red high tops, and hung a dangly red earring made of a string of hearts in one ear and another earring that was a dangly row of silver arrows. [I want these earrings!] I pulled my hair back with a red ribbon, and headed for Stacey's.
She'd changed, too, into black jeans and black Doc Marten's, and a big golden yellow shirt with round black buttons. She looked super. But stern.
In baby-sitting news, Shea's tutoring isn't going well, he thinks he's dumb when he's really not, and just getting frustrated. Claudia actually has some sessions with him and they end up helping each other out. Claudia didn't know how to spell "peach" or know the "i before e" rule. In the 8th grade. She probably should be using the resource room regularly. Stacey baby-sits Emily Michelle & David Michael, who wants to play haunted house and accidentally scares himself in the basement when the power goes out. Nannie has a hot date and wears this sassy number: a pink silk dress with a wide twisted silver and pink sash, sparkly silvery earrings, and these really cool flat pale silver slippers.
Finally, the girls have been getting secret notes for awhile at Claudia's house, during club hours, that say things like "You are very nice" and "You are the best". There's a dance coming up (yes, another one) and each girl seems to think the note is meant for them, from the boy of their choice. Kristy even dresses up, in a denim skirt and tights, to go see Bart and try to figure out if it's from him. (It's not) They get one last note asking them all to meet at the Rosebud Cafe for a special surprise. The note smells like perfume which leads them to believe it's actually a prank from their nemeses Cokie & Grace. So they decide to dress up in their worst clothes, because?? That will show them?? I don't really know the reasoning behind this. See below for fashion victims. Turns out it wasn't Cokie & Grace, but the Rodowsky kids plus Arnold twins and Braddock kids, wanting to thank the BSCers for being so awesome.
Done in URStyle
Wrapping up this unnecessarily long review: Claudia passes her English test, gets a 97 on the spelling part; the Spring Dance is at the Community Center so has all ages there; Shea & Claudia dance together; the end.
