Book Review: Claudia's Freind Friend

A Fair Trade Book

Title: Claudia's Freind Friend

Author: Ann M. Martin

Author's web page: http://www.scholastic.com/annmartin/

Date: 1993

Publisher: Scholastic

ISBN: 0-590-45665-2

Length: 151 pages

Quote: "I didn't have any learning disabilities...I was supposed to be smarter than your average kid...I was a plain old underachiever, which meant they'd never leave me alone."

All the girls in the Baby-Sitters Club are nice. Nicer than nice human girls really are. They are aliens from the Planet of Nice. Nasty thoughts never cross their minds, and naughty thoughts almost never do. They're not real kids; they're Role Models. Real kids recognize this and have enjoyed the Baby-Sitters for so long that, if the Baby-Sitters were human, by now their children would be almost old enough to become baby-sitters.

Nevertheless, when it comes to schoolwork, Claudia seems just plain lazy. Or is it that, if she made any effort to earn good grades at school, she'd be in a permanent, unwinnable competition with her superstar student sister? Claudia is not dyslexic; she's not really attention-deficient; she may have some extrovert tendencies, but they're well under control. She's competent. She just feels bored by spelling and grammar.  And she actually likes reading--as long as it's Nancy Drew or similar frivolous brain candy. It seems, in Claudia's Freind Friend, to be the idea of schoolwork that makes Claudia twitch and fidget.

Claudia doesn't want to go to "the resource room" for regular tutoring. Stacy, who's been Claudia's best friend for years, wants to help...and doesn't. One of the younger children Claudia baby-sits has feelings about spelling similar to Claudia's. Can studying with the child help Claudia?

It's the Baby-Sitters Club, so you know the answer will be friendly, funny, with some insights into baby-sitting along the way. 

To buy this book here, send $5 per book + $5 per package + $1 per online payment to the appropriate address at the bottom of the screen. To order a doll dressed like a character on the cover, add $10 per doll and allow an extra week for knitting/sewing time. You could fit any combination of 5-7 more BSC paperbacks, or at least 1 and probably 3 more books and dolls, into one $5 package, and we'll send a 10% payment to Martin or the charity of her choice.