JUNIOR HIGH 4

There's a lot going on in this volume of Junior High.

First, Nora is bombing shop class until they get to car stuff and then she realizes she knows quite a bit. She also realizes Brad, her cute shop partner, only likes her when she doesn't understand things. Tracy tells her to play dumb if she wants Brad to like her, but everyone else thinks this is stupid. 

Then they're off to Washington DC on a class trip. They visit a few cool places while there, but there are also not one but three dramatic instances. Nora's favorite band turns out to be in the same hotel and she concocts an elaborate plan to meet them, borrowing a uniform from a sub shop waitress and delivering an order of subs to the penthouse. It actually works, but she doesn't get to see any of the guys. Then the van a small group is travelling in overheats and they have to pull over. In these days before cell phones, this is a way bigger issue. So does Nora have a look under the hood after Brad failed at fixing the van? She ends up doing it, fixing the van and saving the day. But instead of being upset, this time Brad is proud of her. And finally, class clown Jason Anthony disappears. They find him at the bus station, though he couldn't afford a ticket home. He was homesick. 

And if all that isn't enough, Brad takes Nora on her first date and gives her her first kiss. Jen is a bit envious but gets over it. 

The book's description make it sound like the field trip van breakdown is the main incident in the book, but they really jam-packed a lot in there. I think they could have easily left out the rock star stalking bit. It was mostly fun but also felt like too much. 

JUNIOR HIGH 3

Somehow this is one of Nora's best covers, even dressed in an apron. Poor Mia on the right looks decidedly bad though. They sadly never did her justice. 

This book is a mess. It's not that it doesn't hold up over time. It's simply that the entire concept is terrible. 

Nora and Jennifer write a gripe list about the school that gets out of hand and eventually leads to some of the eighth grade getting an opportunity to run the school for one day. 

Now this is obviously not the best idea in the first place, but they're completely set up for failure. 

Positions aren't chosen with any sort of logic, but by a draw. This is just stupid. Nora would have done fine as the school nurse, but Denise flips out and of course is besieged by boys faking illnesses. The cafeteria job is far too much for inexperienced children. Students may have done fine as teachers, but the faculty were clearly up to something and must have met with the 7th and 9th graders to make things extra difficult. All the student teachers have difficult classes and the 9th graders go on strike. This doesn't make sense unless it was a set up. You would think these two classes would also want a shot at this experiment, so they'd behave. 

So basically, the faculty set up the eighth grade for failure, but they didn't give them a fair shot either. A wise eighth grade would have known this day was a little bit extra. Nora was suspicious but too tired to care anymore. She was happy enough the faculty would meet with class reps to work toward positive changes.

The whole thing is just plain stupid. Jennifer was easily the best character, while everyone else was either fully annoying or simply okay. 

JUNIOR HIGH 2

Oh, gods, it's a teacher crush novel. At least we get it out of the way early. 

The cover girls are Jen, who looks pretty good, Tracy and Nora. Nora looks better than she did on the first cover, but it's not her best. She'll get many tries though. Despite the large number of characters, the only ones ever on the cover are Jen, Nora, Tracy, Mia (who they never get quite right) and Jason Anthony. I think one of the other boys is on one cover, though I'm not sure which boy it is and won't have a guess until I reread.

So we open with the girls already crushing on Mr. Rochester, their new English teacher, who's filling in for the regular teacher on maternity leave. 

This whole book is the girls trying different schemes to make sure they're the one "Cliff" likes best. Nora makes him a healthy diet plan. Tracy plays dumb. Susan shows off her intellectual prowess. Jennifer tells him about her save the whales meetings and he actually comes. Mia gives him punk albums to listen to. Then they start going to poor Steve for advice, only he gives them all the same advice, so one day they all show up with food and one day they all come in dressed to look older. 

That's when Mr. Rochester goes to Jeff, the Manns' housekeeper and the family friend who actually got him the job. Nora and Jennifer overhear an embarrassing conversation where Cliff asks Jeff for advice. He's worried he could lose his job because the drama teacher saw the girls all dressed up and suggested he was encouraging them. Jeff says they have to just let the crush burn out and it does pretty quickly. 

During this whole mess, the boys have tried different plans to get the girls to pay attention to them and Steve's at the end finally works. Although it also just happened to coincide with the collective losing interest so maybe it wasn't the plan after all. 

This was just painful. I like all the characters and a lot of the scenes were funny, but I've never gotten the whole crush on an older authority figure of some kind thing. This guy is TEN years older. That's a lot. The girls finally admit at the end that it would have been creepy if he did like one of them. 

My favorite thing was Mia and Andy. I'm a sucker for the punk couple. He's so devoted to her that he actually buys her an album she wants even though he's a) not speaking to her (Plan #1 to get the girls' attention back) and b) knows she's probably just going to let Mr. Rochester borrow it. I think Mia did get the best attention from Rochester. He gave her a compliment he had to know she'd love and he actually listened to her albums. Susan, Nora and Tracy got far less attention, though Jennifer did have a moment where he disturbed a bunch of people to sit by her at the whales meeting. As innocent as it was, it was nice to see the punk girl actually be the one to be liked the most. I think Mia treated Andy pretty horribly but she's 13, so it's to be expected. Andy is obviously my fave of the boys. He's just fun. 

My biggest critique is that they sidelined both characters who maybe could have calmed the girls down. Denise is barely in the book because she tells the girls they're too old for a teacher crush and she basically has such secondhand embarrassment for them that she can't be around them. Then there's Lucy. Lucy is too smart for this shit, so what does the author do? Pretty much leaves her out of the entire thing. 

I did think it was funny that all the girls think Mr. Rochester is married and his wife's name is Edna, but only Nora and Jen know that Edna is his cat. They make some great comments in a couple different scenes about this without ever letting anyone else know Edna is just a cat. 

JUNIOR HIGH 1

We're taking a little break from Sweet Valley to visit Cedar Groves Junior High. 

It's the first day of eighth grade for all the main cast. Let's run through a quick who's who. 

Jennifer Mann: Tall, pale, black hair, hazel eyes. Jen is really nice, though still figuring out who she is. She loves getting involved in different causes, like saving the whales and volunteering at nursing homes. Her mother died when she and her younger brother Eric were young, and her dad has a live-in housekeeper named Jeff. Jeff is pretty awesome. 

Nora Ryan: Short brown hair, brown eyes, shorter than Jen. Nora is very smart and wants to be a doctor, so she's interested in biology and health. Likes health food but also kinda eats anything. Nora is more cynical than Jen and less adaptable. Her older sister Sally wants to be a professional ballerina and is a freshman in college.  

Jason Anthony: Redheaded class clown, always on a skateboard. He's in the middle on the cover there.

Lucy Armanson: Well-dressed black girl with an afro. Look, Sweet Valley, they have a black character right away. Lucy's awesome. She's one of my two favorite supporting characters. She's witty and loves to hold her own against bitchy Susan. 

Tracy Douglas: Blonde and boy crazy. She's got a million different crushes and is a bit of an airhead. 

Susan Hillard: Always got something mean to say. Why these girls put up with her I don't know. She has some scenes where she's not outright mean, but she's always sarcastic and never pleasant. I don't think she ever got a physical description. 

Mia Stevens: My other favorite. She's the resident punk girl. Her outfit descriptions are hilarious and her hair is typically orange and spiky. Her hair is described as "tawny" so I think they mean that's her natural color. She has blue eyes. Mia can be a bit boy crazy, despite having Andy. 

Tommy Ryder: Sandy brown hair. Class flirt. 

Mitch Pauley: Brown eyes. Class jock. 

Steve Crowley: Dark brown hair, blue eyes. Family owns a restaurant. Childhood friend of Nora and Jen. Nice guy. 

Andy Warwick: Punk guy. Mia's boyfriend.

Amy Williams: Short curly hair. Round face. Wants to teach PE.

Joan Wesley: Class genius. 

I think those are all the big names except for two. You see, there's a new girl in the eighth grade. Her name is Denise Hendrix and she's from a rich family that owns a cosmetics company. Denise is the third main character after Nora and Jen. She's struggling to fit into normal American life, but she's used to Europe and Swiss boarding school. So she's definitely got a lot of culture shock. Some of the girls like her (Jen), but others think she's too different from them to be a close friend (Nora). There's some conflict between Jen and Nora with how Jen is learning a lot from Denise and how Nora is kinda mean to her. Each one takes it a bit too far. The other character I'd like to mention is Denise's older brother Tony, who a bunch of the girls think is hot. He seems nice, though definitely has no interest in a bunch of giggling 13-year-olds. (Yeah, most of them are 13. Denise is older at 14.)

The majority of the book is getting to know the main cast and Denise trying to fit in. She throws a slumber party that's mostly a big hit and then takes over the dance committee, which is less so. She kind of peer pressures the girls into more mature decorations and tries to force them to bring dates. Neither Nora nor Jen is interested in dating yet, so each one asks Steve, which leads to a big fight between the girls. That gets resolved and the dance is pretty awkward, though Denise has one moment of niceness that improves her standing in Nora's eyes. My favorite bit was Mia and Andy coming dressed as preps. 

These books were written in 1986, so they're from the same time period as the big name series. They've got a lot of the same features, including the frequent use of characters' full names. They do this so much in Sweet Valley! I think I know Lila's last name is Fowler by now, okay? I don't know why this time period has such a trend in full names in writing. It's bizarre. 

I remember loving this series more than Sweet Valley High, which is comparable in the book's physical size as well as page total. We'll see how it goes. I haven't reread it in forever. I enjoyed this one, but I didn't love it.