(If you click the cover, you'll see it bigger.)The Cover: The girls are easily identifiable thanks to the descriptions in Chapter 2. Stephanie’s on the left, conspicuously out of her red, black and white color scheme. Then there’s Lauren next to her. Patti’s in the green jersey, which I think is more Lauren’s style. And Kate’s the lone blonde. Though I don’t think Betty Boop is really her style.
CHAPTER 1:
We start off at a sleepover, of course! Over Chinese food, Stephanie is grilling Kate and Lauren about their opinions on the new girl, Patti. We get Kate vs. Stephanie tension already on page 2. Steph’s a former city girl and Kate thinks she goes on about it too much. (The girls live in a town called Riverhurst.) Lauren smoothly changes the subject by commenting on how incredible it is that they’re in fifth grade. The exact setting is established: they’re at Kate’s for one of their regular Friday night sleepovers. Kate’s nosy little sister Melissa makes her first obnoxious appearance. Lauren wants more food, which leads to a conversation on how she can stay so thin when she eats all the time. Answer: she exercises. Duh. Stephanie says sweating makes her hair, which is already curly, frizz. Lauren says she wishes she had that problem, as her hair is stick straight. Stephanie proceeds to fix up Lauren’s hair, using the old braid-wet-hair-and-let-it-dry method. We get a little flashback of Patti’s first appearance in their fifth grade class. Then we get the history of the Sleepover Friends (though they’re not yet using that name).
The Backstory:
Kate and Lauren have been best friends since kindergarten. “In those days, sleepovers meant Kool Pops, dressing up in our moms’ clothes, and playing school.” Kate’s dad dubbed them the Sleepover Twins. They eventually graduated to eating a ton of barbecue chips with Lauren’s signature onion-soup-olives-bacon-bits-and-sour-cream dip, drinking Dr. Pepper, writing Mad Libs, spying on Lauren’s older brother, and avoiding Melissa. But in fourth grade, Stephanie moved to Riverhurst. She and Lauren were in the same class and got to be friends. Eventually, Lauren asked her to one of the sleepovers and the “Sleepover Twins became a threesome.”
The girls continue talking about Patti and are briefly interrupted by Kate’s mom, asking them to keep it down, since Kate’s dad had a hard day’s work at the hospital. Stephanie finishes Lauren’s hair in time for Lauren to get hungry again. They venture downstairs, fetch Kate’s signature half chocolate and half marshmallow fluff fudge, and turn on the TV. Kate’s love for movies is established and they quickly turn to gossiping, then Truth or Dare. After a crush confession from Kate, Lauren is dared to knock on Donald Foster’s window. Donald lives in the house between Lauren and Kate. He’s in seventh grade and thinks he’s fantastic. Lauren does her dare and heads back for the house, only to hear a shriek. Melissa thinks she saw a “space creature” outside. Kate and Stephanie dive for Lauren’s head, ripping out the rubber bands and undoing the braids. The girls play innocent and get away with it, then go to sleep.
Chapter 1 provides a lot of detail. I didn’t get into it in the summary because there’s just so much. So here it is, girl-by-girl.
Lauren Hunter:
-Narrator
-“Straggly brown hair”
-Eats a ton, never gains weight because she exercises
-Older brother named Roger (she jogs with him four times a week)
-Sporty one
-Messy
-Tall, but not as tall as Patti
Kate Beekman:
-Short blonde hair worn brushed back from her face
-HUGE movie fan, wants to be a director
-Bratty little sister named Melissa
-Not into sports
-Very neat
-Father is a doctor
-Current crush: Bobby Krieger, a redhead from another class
Stephanie Green:
-Dark curly hair “that she’s let grow since first grade”
-Lived in “the city” until before 4th grade, is still enamored of it
-Worries that her face is too round (this is mentioned a lot)
-Mother makes great peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies
-Great dancer
-Current crush: Larry Jackson, whose ears stick out
Patti Jenkins:
-“Brownish hair”
-Tallest girl in 5th grade
-Shy and quiet
-Went to Stephanie’s school until after first grade
Lauren, Kate and Stephanie all live on
Okay, now that our cast is established…
CHAPTER 2:
Lauren begins by saying her hair looked great for the weekend, but was back to normal on Monday. The girls eat lunch with Patti, who Stephanie speaks for more than Patti herself does. Patti’s parents are history professors at the university and she has a little brother named Horace. Patti’s a smart one, as she learned to read at age three. Patti lives on
Friday comes fast and Lauren, Kate and Stephanie bike to Patti’s house. They take her to “all the high spots” of Riverhurst.
-Charlie’s Soda Fountain: On Main Street, antique stained-glass windows
-Dandelion: clothing store
-Record Emporium: At the mall
-Tully’s Fish Market: Featuring a big pool filled with fish, clams and sea urchins, and a lobster tank
-Munn’s Pond and the Riverhurst Wildlife Refuge
The girls then go to Stephanie’s house. She has a big room with two twin beds pushed against one wall. She also has two foam rubber chairs that unfold into beds and her own TV set. Everything is done in red, black and white. Kate picks the chair closest to the TV, as she’s a bit near-sighted. Patti takes the other, leaving Lauren and Stephanie the beds. The girls eat pepperoni pizza and then watch the first sci-fi movie, Invasion from the Ice Planet. Stephanie goes off for snacks after the movie is over. The second movie is replaced by a football game, which pisses Kate off. (Lauren meanwhile stuffs herself with chocolate chip cookies and Cheese Doodles.) Stephanie finds a witch movie on TV, which Lauren doesn’t like. She was scared by the Wicked Witch of the West at age 3. Stephanie and Kate are glued to the movie, where the witch is putting a curse on someone. They push to watch the movie with Kate getting into the act. “Goodwoman Jenkins,” she says, “I curse you and your sons and your sons’ sons to an eternity of ill luck.” Lauren’s still not having it and asks where the cable guide is. Stephanie answers and Patti offers to get it…knocking over the entire snack tray in the process. Then she steps onto Kate’s backpack and snaps Kate’s glasses in two. Everyone cleans and Patti worries. Stephanie turns off the TV and suggests Truth or Dare. When asked which she prefers, the city or Riverhurst, Patti shocks Stephanie by saying Riverhurst. Stephanie takes a phone call dare from Patti (with some assistance from Kate). Stephanie likes a boy named Michael Pastore and dials him up. His father answers, but she slams down the phone before Michael can get to it. Stephanie then gets Kate back with a dare to use some purple styling gel. All four girls end up using up the entire jar and then take pictures of themselves. Kate discovers that the gel stains and they go to wash it out, only to find that there’s no water. Stephanie’s dad thinks it’s a water main break, which means the girls have to wrap their heads in towels for the night. In the morning, the water still isn’t fixed, so Kate and Lauren have to bike home as purple messes. Naturally, they get spotted by cute neighbor Donald. And Lauren begins to wonder if there is some truth to Kate’s joking curse.
CHAPTER 3:
Over the weekend, Lauren does her homework, a paper on “If I Taught Fifth Grade.” She types it up on her brother’s typewriter (yes, typewriter!). On Monday, it’s a cloudy day, but there’s no rain predicted so everyone bikes to school. Patti gets her jeans’ cuff caught in her bike chain, so Lauren hands her books to Patti and goes to untangle her. Lauren doesn’t notice that Patti set down the books to assist with the untangling until her books are driving away on the back bumper of a station wagon. Lauren takes off after the driver on her bike, followed by Patti. The pursuit requires so much attention that Lauren doesn’t notice that Patti’s no longer with her. The car finally turns into a driveway and it’s Lauren’s dentist. Dr. Nadler drives Lauren back to school. There’s no sign of Patti, so Lauren assumes she must have turned around and gone back to school, but she’s not there when Lauren gets to class. Lauren lets her teacher know what happened and the day moves onward. Then it starts raining. Patti finally appears, absolutely drenched. Mrs. Mead leaves with her and Lauren finally tells Kate and Stephanie what happened. Patti doesn’t come back to the classroom with Mrs. Mead. Stephanie calls to see how she’s doing and it turns out Patti caught a cold. She’s out of school for a few days. And again, Lauren thinks of the Beekman curse.
CHAPTER 4:
Naturally, Kate thinks this is ridiculous and mocks Lauren. Lauren, unlike Patti, has some good luck. She gets a good grade on her runaway paper and her suggestion of more field trips turns into an actual field trip to the city’s natural history museum. The city is an hour and a half bus ride away. The class is split into three groups, one lead by Mrs. Mead, the other two each led by a mother. The girls are split up. Kate ends up in Group One, Lauren and Patti in Two and Stephanie (with Larry Jackson, so she’s happy) in Three. Lauren and Patti’s chaperone is Mrs. Mason, who’s a bit on the twitchy side. The boys end up getting distracted by a case of cockroaches. Lauren notices Patti keeping away from them and Patti says if she gets any closer, she’ll knock the case over. She, too, has noticed her bad luck. The group looks at what they need to, then talks Mrs. Mason into taking them to the dinosaurs. They run late and she panics a bit, so Patti suggests they take the elevator. Mrs. Mason counts and recounts the kids, taking enough time that the doors shut on her. The elevator starts moving down and Patti presses the button for the basement, where the cafeteria is. The elevator comes to a halt. The kids start to freak and Lauren tells everyone to calm down and sit down. Pete Stone agrees with her and everyone is calm until Mark Freedman decides to tell a ghost story. The girls start getting worked up, but then the elevator moves again and the kids land in the basement. Pete smiles at Lauren, earning a glare from Jenny Carlin, who likes Pete. Upon returning to the school, Patti apologizes for what happened. Lauren tries to convince her that she had nothing to do with it and invites her to a sleepover at the Hunter house.
CHAPTER 5:
The next day, Kate and Lauren are hanging in Kate’s backyard. Logical Kate insists the bad luck is all in Patti’s head. Lauren goes to sit in a swing and is freaked by a spider there. It turns out to be fake. Melissa, Kate’s little sister, has a machine that makes them. Kate comes up with a logical reason for everything that’s gone wrong, adding that Lauren’s now got Pete Stone after her, which is not exactly bad luck. (Of course, Kate’s forgetting that Lauren isn’t cursed, so why should her good luck somehow mean that Patti doesn’t have bad?) Lauren decides they should bad luck proof the sleepover at her house. She, Kate and Stephanie come up with a few guidelines (no cooking, no dancing, quieter games). Friday night comes and Lauren’s actually cleaned her room. Kate asks where Bullwinkle, Roger’s dog is. Bullwinkle is older than Lauren and mostly
CHAPTER 6:
Bullwinkle runs around like mad and manages to get outside when Roger returns from a date. He wakes up the entire neighborhood. Stephanie makes a leap for him and then Lauren’s mom lures him inside with his dog chow as bait. Stephanie, however, is not okay. She’s sprained her ankle. Patti flips, takes her bike and rides away. George, Lauren’s dad, and Lauren go after her in the car. Lauren tries to get her in the car, but she refuses. They follow her until she gets home, then they turn around and head back to the Hunter house.
CHAPTER 7:
Stephanie’s definitely got a sprain and Lauren’s mom’s got her set up on the couch in the den. Lauren tells them Patti is convinced she’s bad luck. Kate still thinks it’s stupid and Stephanie thinks Patti’s just a klutz. Later the next day, Kate and Lauren are at Stephanie’s. Lauren tried calling Patti, but Horace said she wasn’t home. Stephanie said Patti was supposed to be babysitting him today. On Monday, Patti doesn’t show up at the usual meeting spot, and Kate and Lauren are almost late after waiting for her. Patti continues to avoid them, so Stephanie comes up with a plan. She wants Kate to remove the curse, but sensible and stubborn Kate won’t do it. So it’s on to Plan B. The book fair is this week and Mr. Green, the lawyer, is going to be a fortune teller in drag and everything. Stephanie will have her father promise nothing but good luck in Patti’s future. Patti avoids the girls for the new few days, but Stephanie plots to corner her at the book fair.
CHAPTER 8:
Book fair day! The girls are on different shifts. Patti’s latest from
CHAPTER 9:
Kate calls Lauren and says she’ll lift the curse. Lauren calls Patti and says Kate is going to remove the curse, so she needs to come to a Saturday sleepover at Kate’s. Patti agrees, but still avoids the girls at school. Kate is also quite busy getting prepared. Dr. Beekman dubs the four girls the Sleepover Friends. The four kill time until
CHAPTER 10:
The next morning at breakfast, the phone rings. Mrs. Beekman tells Kate to get it and Kate asks Patti to, because she’s closest. Patti proceeds to win dinner for four and tickets to the amusement park by answering Riverhurst’s founding year. Patti thanks Kate for taking the curse off and thanks everyone for not laughing at her for believing in it. Kate and Stephanie still believe it was all in Patti’s head, but Patti and Lauren think otherwise. Lauren asks if Kate has any potion left, as she has a math test next week. Kate offers her a spider, which turns out to be made of chocolate from Melissa’s machine. Patti is extremely relieved and the girls laugh.
And that’s it for book one! It’s definitely not the best of the series, but I think it serves well to set the mood and introduce the characters.
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