Can we first just enjoy this cover outfit? Exquisite fashionable Claudia! This book starts off with Claudia hugging herself. Literally. She's lonely and a little jealous of Mary Anne & Logan's relationship and just wants that super-special, tingly, in-love thing. Yeah, she's had dates and short-term boyfriends (on every vacation she goes on) but nothing "real" and steady. And now she wants it. So she decides to make herself a list of the perfect guy: handsome, funny, athletic, sensitive, interesting, artistic, good dresser...the list just goes on and on. She's really asking for a lot here. But we'll see if she gets it. And time for a What Claudia Was Wearing already!
I like to experiment with the way colors look and I combine them in ways that please me. (You'd be amazed by the colors that go together. Take pink and gold. You might not think to wear pink socks with gold stretch pants, and then add a gold turtleneck under a pink sweater. But that's what I did yesterday, and then I added blue jewelry. It was great! I looked like a human sunset. The outfit made me very happy.)
Stacey & Claudia are having a sleepover after their Friday BSC meeting and Claudia tells Stacey all about her perfect guy list. Then Stacey gets the genius idea for Claudia to start a personals column in their school newspaper, the SMS Express. Claudia is like "yeah right, me, the worst speller in the world?" But she can't get the idea out of her head so she talks to Emily Bernstein, the editor, on Monday and she loves the idea. So Claudia gets her column and we get lots of newspaper talk from Emily, which is actually really interesting.
Of course, the really fun part is when Claudia starts getting letters. She gets tons of letters from kids looking for love and also one heart-breaking letter from a boy whose parents are splitting up and he wants to meet up with other kids going through the same. (Claudia ends up giving him the number to Mary Anne's therapist, which is apparently only mentioned in the special Chain Letter book.) Claudia thinks she's gotten way over her head, especially with her spelling track record. But Stacey shows her this genius invention that changes Claudia's life forever: spellcheck on the computer! It's funny to see the girls learning how to use a computer together.
Claudia finds 2 guys pretty quickly that she is interested in and decides to write them, while also printing their ads in the paper. The first guy turns out to be the grossest guy in the 8th grade: Alan Gray! Ew. (Doesn't she actually end up dating him later in the series?) The other guy is a little better so she agrees to a date with him. And is totally embarrassed when her mom insists on meeting him first. And we have Claudia's First Date Outfits #1 & #2. Is it just me or are these basically the same outfit? Also, not the one on the cover.
I'd settled on a long white shirt under a green tapestry vest, green corduroy pants, and low boots.
I slipped into my new brown suede cloth pants. [Stacey suggests I wear] bead earrings, lots of silver jewelry, bangles would be perfect. "And put in your good silver hairclip." I trust Stacey's fashion sense, so I took her advice. I finished the outfit with a simple yellow button down shirt and a brown and yellow brocade vest.
Sadly, both the dates are a bust. The 1st guy is Boring, he sketches but it's the model cars that he then puts together, from a kit. The 2nd guy has a creepy Asian fetish and that's all we're going to say about him. Her 3rd date doesn't even warrant an outfit check. Then she gets a couple of letters from a perfect-sounding, Jason Priestley look-a-like guy. Turns out it's Stacey, but she was just trying to make Claudia feel better. Claud is mad for a few days but then thinks it's funny. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't get over it that easily.
Claudia's match-making is going great though. She gets the big-boned girl in 7th grade a date with a short nerd, the girl that talks a lot hooks up with the boring guy Claudia went out with, etc. She does make one little mistake though and nearly causes a breakup between Logan & Mary Anne oops, but it's all sorted out by the end. Claudia's newspaper career is a success.
The baby-sitting plot is mostly about Marnie Barrett who is having allergy issues and Mrs Barrett trying to figure it out. Claudia thinks this little gem that really burns when you're well over 30 reading this lol. Scatterbrained and old (she was at least thirty as far as I could tell), Mrs Barrett with her three wild kids had a boyfriend, and I didn't. Mrs Barrett has really cleaned up her act though, especially since dating Franklin. The house is clean, she's organized, all good. But then she finds out what Marnie is allergic to: Pow, their sweet old Bassett Hound dog. I admit, I cried with Buddy & Suzi when they found out. I would be devastated if I was allergic to dogs or cats. Pow has to stay in the garage til they can find a new home for him and it's all terrible. But the Pike family comes to the rescue! Mr & Mrs Pike had been considering getting a dog for their brood and have been around Pow already and they live right across the street, so they agree to take him and Marnie stops sniffling and everything is wonderful again.
