Patti Gets Even

Sleepover Friends #17

by Susan Saunders

Patti responds to the obnoxious Wayne Miller's bragging by betting that she can win more contests at the Winter Carnival.

Genres: Young Adult, Middle Grade, Childrens

87 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

Reviews

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I don't remember much about it I definitely remember the cover and since I forgot to add it when I started reading it this time the actual nice cover shows up instead of the weird bland kindle one so you can see it in all its glory. Who could forget about Bullwinkle who is essentially a moose which is probably how he got his name, unless Rocky was the moose and Bullwinkle the squirrel? Anyway, again two things are happening here. There's a winter carnival going on in town and Patti suddenly has a competitive streak and challenges a boy named Wayne who I think was from the bike race a few books ago. One of the competitions is a dog sled race and well Bullwinkle is a disaster as expected. The other major thing is Stephanie's mom is about to pop at any moment. I don't really remember much about the baby plot line maybe I didn't care much about it or notice it as a kid who knows. Anyway thrown in is that Patti's uncle has a robot that does jobs and is called Oddjob and her brother Horace is training him to play chess among other things. The girls also want to buy the baby an expensive denim jacket which is ridiculous given how quickly babies grow they won't have time to wear it much. But they enter a dance competition and snow/ice sculpture building to raise the money if they win. Training with Bullwinkle is a mess as expected, kind of reminds me of my friend's dog. A giant fluffy ball of love and destruction. The carnival begins and Mrs. Green goes into labour at the same time. Stephanie is unable to join in and Patti ends up dancing in her place along with Oddjob who now dances when he (it?) hears music. They win second place. They build and ice castle and while Wayne and crew blast music Oddjob destroys their sculpture while dancing. Again they place second. Stephanie calls when they get home and her mom has twins. A boy and a girl and Emma and Jeremy enter the series. I remember nothing about them. Maybe if they'd been named Cory and Carrie? Anyway the big dog race arrives and Patti has an idea to keep Bullwinkle on track, while Wayne and his dog oddly named Killer are side tracked by a rabbit Bullwinkle does well but we don't learn how he placed in the end just that they beat the bad guys. Oh well. I know I read the next one, I remember the cover a parts of the story very well so onto that one.

[Britt Nichole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and fun and nostalgic!!

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Patti Gets Even
Plot: Patti challenges Wayne Miller to a competition of who can win the most awards at a winter carnival. The contest are 1 the Snow Queen competition (which Stephanie will enter) 2 the Dog Sled race (between Bullwinkle and Killer Wayne’s dog) and 3 the ice sculpture competition. They try to train Bull winkle but he’s kinda hyper. They finally figure out a way to do it with his favorite dog snacks, but he gets out of control and almost throws poor Kate off the sled. Patti figures out a way around the fishing rod and the treat. But on the day of the carnival, Mrs. Green goes into labor and Stephanie can’t be in the Snow Queen contest so Patti has to do her dance routine. Along with a robot called Odd job that Patti’s uncle has loaned them for the time being. Patti wins second place. She also comes up with a plan to throw balls in the path for Bull winkle to chase after. As for the sculpture competition the next day it gets really hot so the penguins, they were going to submit melt. Instead, they do an ice castle. Odd Job wrecks Wayne’s fort-which he’s struggling with anyways-. Mrs. Green has twins. They wanna take all the gift certificates to buy the baby a patchwork jacket they see at a new baby store but decide they don't have enough and since it's twins they'll get them two denim jackets.

My Thoughts: This one was so-so. Like Stephanie, I’m not a big fan of cold. So there’s no way I’d be outside trying to train a dog to pull a sled. I’m not even that big a fan of dogs. Particularly not hyper ones like Bullwinkle. But the winter carnival did sound nice with the donuts, and the hot, apple, cider, and the pine candles. It gives me memories of when it was winter here and my aunt used to take me and my cousins to the Zoo-light Safari in the winter. And it was FREEZING! But there was hot cocoa -which was really the best part of being out there-. Not that the lights weren’t pretty to look at. I also thought the penguin sculpture idea was cute! BIG BIG FAN OF PENGUINS! As well as the ice castle. So I did like the details. I seriously thought the Greens had named that baby Sting Green. NOOO! Not sure why Patti lets this jerk get to her though. He doesn’t even seem worth the bother. He’s the kind that good for talking a bunch of crap and then ends up not being able to back it up.

Rating: 5 Despite the allure of the winter carnival this one was just a lot of them training Bullwinkle which wasn’t all that enticing. It’s meant to be funny, but I guess you’d have to be a dog lover to appreciate dog hi-jinks.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if I've read this one before. Oddjob was familiar (but I wonder if he shows more in future books, since the Jenkinses are watching him for six months) but the Winter Carnival wan't. Though I do remember the denim jacket that the girls wanted to buy Stephanie's new sibling. Plural. Which I also don't overly remember reading when they were born.

But I did really like this, I enjoyed how the girls overcame all the obstacles thrown at them in creative and butt-kicking ways. It was a very fun book!