Buddies is the story of Dinah Feeney, a girl so kind she can't say no to anyone. She gets hand-me-downs from the entire neighborhood dumped on her. Just take them to the friggin' thrift shop or something. One of the other characters talks about her crappy camp projects being donated, so it's not like that isn't a thing.
Dinah decides a trip to camp might help her reinvent herself and she is thrilled to find she's cabinmates with two girls destined to be some of the most popular at camp.
Marilyn Powers is the granddaughter of the guy who put up the money to build the camp. So she's been stuck going there since she was six and she hates it. She's bold, sarcastic, loud and hilarious. I've always liked Marilyn a lot.
Cassandra Barnhill is your run of the mill popular girl. She dresses like she has money, acts as adult as she can, and is definitely your pretty, prim and proper type. She's got an emotional side, so she does come across as more likable than not, despite her flaws.
Dinah's problem is that a destined to be UNpopular girl met her in the bus parking lot before leaving for camp and has latched herself onto Dinah. Fern is one of the least likable, least sympathetic and most downright gross characters I've ever read in a book meant for kids. Aside from people meant to be villains and bullies, of course. The entire book is like a catalog of Fern's poor hygiene. Dinah tries to tell her multiple times that she should go make some new friends and she just doesn't get it. The other girls are clearly giving signs that she's pestering them to death and they're all about to lose it, but she's so socially backward that she misses every single cue.
Which means it's time for something drastic.
Dinah ends up pushing her out of a canoe when they're switching places so Fern can paddle. Then the next several chapters are Dinah beating herself up for it, getting angry at everyone about it, using said anger to forget about Fern and enjoy herself, and then trying to make up with her not once but twice, both of which end up as ridiculously over the top painful incidents.
By the time she's home, I think Dinah realizes she'll likely never forget what she did to Fern in exchange for a couple weeks of friendship and popularity with girls she'll likely never speak to again. I'm not convinced she's learned how to not be a complete pushover, but maybe she'll start doing more for herself and less for others in the future.
The real lesson here is don't be afraid to tell people how you feel, even if it is a hard conversation. Fern was obnoxious as fuck, but she deserved to be told so in a way that finally reached her, not pushed out of a canoe because things finally got to that level. Although she hopefully learned some lessons as well, because knowing when you're not wanted is a pretty valuable one.
Two covers exist for this book. The first one up at the top is my own photo of my book. This one on the right I found via Google.
I like both of them, but these are seriously ambiguous.
Fern isn't on the first one at all and she's obviously the girl in the pot in the second.
Cassandra with her auburn hair is also obvious on both. On the first, she's the one in blue. On the second, she's the cannibal in the center.
Now Dinah and Marilyn are where the problem comes in. All we know about Dinah is that she has brown hair and blue eyes. Marilyn is only described as "tall and tan" and she wears funny tees. Well, none of these girls is wearing a funny tee.
For the first cover, I've always thought Marilyn was in the red and Dinah was in the light colors on the right. Marilyn is a casual goofball and I just can't picture her with the long side-ponytail in that nice an outfit. That girl has a kind, sweet face, which is much more fitting for Dinah. And the one in red is more sassy, which works for Marilyn.
On the second cover, I'd say Dinah has the short dark hair on the left, while Marilyn is sprawling blonde on the right. But it's completely ambiguous.
The book is another enjoyable, quick read. There's something fun about it, even though Dinah tortures herself waaaaaaaaaaaay too much.
No comments:
Post a Comment