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The Baby-Sitters Club #33
Claudia and the Great Search
It's no secret that Claudia and her sister are different. For one, they don't look alike at all. Claudia loves her wild clothes and funky jewelry, and Janine dresses. . .well, kind of nerdy. Janine is a genius, and Claudia brings home C's--when she's lucky.
Claudia opens the family photo album to see what she and her sister looked like when they were little. But there are hardly any baby pictures of Claudia! And when she goes searching for her birth certificate and birth announcement in the newspaper, Claudia can't find them.
Is Claudia Kishi who she thinks she is? Or is there something her parents aren't telling her?
Claudia opens the family photo album to see what she and her sister looked like when they were little. But there are hardly any baby pictures of Claudia! And when she goes searching for her birth certificate and birth announcement in the newspaper, Claudia can't find them.
Is Claudia Kishi who she thinks she is? Or is there something her parents aren't telling her?
144 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1990
82 people are currently reading
927 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,112 books3,055 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
August 16, 2010
god, i love the claudia books! her narrative voice is so hilarious. this one opens with claudia counting down the minutes in science class until she can leave to head over to the high school for an awards ceremony. her older sister, janine the genius, is being given a very prestigious science award. mr. & mrs. kishi are beside themselves with pride. claudia is not looking forward to it at all, because she feels like she's a dummy & that her parents would like her better if she was a genius too, but she can't help it--she's just a weirdo who can't spell.
that night at dinner, claudia's parents are fawning all over janine, asking what she's going to do with the check she got, beaming when she says she's going to put it away for college (as if she won't get a full scholarship somewhere). after dinner, claudia pages through some family photo albums & realizes that while there are a gazillion photos of janine, there are barely any photos of her. there's not even a photo of her being brought home from the hospital. she looks through her parents' desk, hoping to find photos they just haven't had time to put in albums, but she finds a locked strongbox instead. & because this is claudia we're talking about, & she's read too many nancy drew books, she realizes that she must be adopted & her adoption papers are locked in the box. she looks for the key to the box, but can't find it.
she keeps the news to herself for a week, but she's really down about the fact that she was adopted & her parents have been forcing her to live a lie all these years. the big babysitting sup-plot du jour this time involves emily michelle, kristy's adopted vietnamese sister. emily is having a lot of learning problems. she still likes baby toys, she doesn't know shapes or colors, her vocabulary is really limited, she's not toilet-trained. some of this is because she is new to the english language, but even her doctor is a little concerned. & kristy is stressing because she wants to spend more time with emily & help her out, but she's busy with a regular sitting job with the papadakis kids across the street.
claudia thinks about how lucky emily is that her adoptive parents are being honest with her. she compares herself to emily: neither of them look like the other members of their families, both of them have trouble learning.
so claudia decides to seek out the truth about her identity. she starts by calling the agency that the brewers used to adopt emily. they tell her they have only been in business for five years (& that they only place vietnamese children, which i covered in my kristy & the mother's day surprise recap--diplomatic relations & hence, american adoptions of vietnamese children--were not normalized until 1996 & this book is from 1989, i believe). so claudia stops by her former pediatrician's office & pretends she has a school assignment that requires her to learn about her birth. the receptionist informs claudia that she didn't start seeing that doctor until she was two years old. i think it's mighty convenient that the receptionist remembers that kind of detail about some random former patient. it's kind of like the chris farley/mr. biggg scene in "wayne's world." "he had an awful lot of information for a security guard, don't you think?" but let's go with it. claudia certainly does. she interprets it as proof positive that she was adopted.
next, claudia goes to the public library while her mother (the head librarian) is in a staff meeting & looks at the birth announcements for the week she was born on microfiche. there is no announcement for her. so she writes down the info on the other girl babies born the same week as her & decides to find them & try to get information about the babies named to see if maybe they are her & her parents just changed her name after she was adopted.
which is fairly ridiculous. if she was born in stoneybrook & adopted at birth, wouldn't her now-parents be listed in the birth announcements instead of her birth parents? & if she was adopted through an agency, she could have been born anywhere. but claudia is convinced that she was born in stoneybrook because her parents wouldn't have wanted to travel with an infant. what? this makes no sense.
conveniently, one of the announcements is for a baby named resa ho. she was born to parents visitinf from wyoming. because who doesn't love to travel when they're on the verge of giving birth? after ruling out the local parents (who are shockingly forthcoming about the names & ages of their children to some stranger asking questions over the phone--claudia could be a serial killer for all these people know!), claudia calls the three hos listed for the town in wyoming named in the newspaper. like the family couldn't have moved to a different town in the last 13 years. she rules two out when they don't have any 13-year-old daughters...even though the whole point of claudia being adopted is that her birth parents wouldn't currently have any 13-year-old daughters. logic fail. it's not like they'd be all, "yes, i have three sons, & also there is a girl i gave up at birth. she would be 13 now." what?
anyway, claudia doesn't get an answer at the last number, so she assumes that must be her birth mother. she calls stacey to share the news. stacey is skeptical & encourages claudia to talk to her parents.
so she does. & they are quick to assure her that they are her birth parents after all. there are few photos because they were too busy to take photos with two little kids, & plus, the thrill wears off when you have your second baby. (but still. not even a photo of her coming home from the hospital?) her birth announcement was published in a paper that has since gone out of business, but mrs. kishi still has a copy, which she shows claudia. the strongbox is full of emergency cash. & while claudia may not look much like her parents, she's the spitting image of her grandmother mimi when mimi was 13. mrs. kishi has the old photos to prove it. so claudia feels much better.
she is also hired to tutor emily michelle on shapes, colors, counting, etc, & she does such a bang up job that emily is accepted into a pre-school that had previously rejected her for being too far behind the other kids. so claudia may not be great at doing her own homework, but she knows her colors well enough to teach a two-year-old.
my favorite part of the book is when claudia is gazing at a photo of mimi from when she was 13 & stacey shows up for a BSC meeting. claudia was so engrossed in the photo that she didn't hear stacey come in. stacey asks if it's mimi & claudia says yes, & narrates for us that she tried not to show that stacey took ten years off her life sneaking up on her like that. i LOLed. i just love the mental image of claudia trying to maintain her poise when she always comes across as such a crazy flake. oh, claudia. never change.
that night at dinner, claudia's parents are fawning all over janine, asking what she's going to do with the check she got, beaming when she says she's going to put it away for college (as if she won't get a full scholarship somewhere). after dinner, claudia pages through some family photo albums & realizes that while there are a gazillion photos of janine, there are barely any photos of her. there's not even a photo of her being brought home from the hospital. she looks through her parents' desk, hoping to find photos they just haven't had time to put in albums, but she finds a locked strongbox instead. & because this is claudia we're talking about, & she's read too many nancy drew books, she realizes that she must be adopted & her adoption papers are locked in the box. she looks for the key to the box, but can't find it.
she keeps the news to herself for a week, but she's really down about the fact that she was adopted & her parents have been forcing her to live a lie all these years. the big babysitting sup-plot du jour this time involves emily michelle, kristy's adopted vietnamese sister. emily is having a lot of learning problems. she still likes baby toys, she doesn't know shapes or colors, her vocabulary is really limited, she's not toilet-trained. some of this is because she is new to the english language, but even her doctor is a little concerned. & kristy is stressing because she wants to spend more time with emily & help her out, but she's busy with a regular sitting job with the papadakis kids across the street.
claudia thinks about how lucky emily is that her adoptive parents are being honest with her. she compares herself to emily: neither of them look like the other members of their families, both of them have trouble learning.
so claudia decides to seek out the truth about her identity. she starts by calling the agency that the brewers used to adopt emily. they tell her they have only been in business for five years (& that they only place vietnamese children, which i covered in my kristy & the mother's day surprise recap--diplomatic relations & hence, american adoptions of vietnamese children--were not normalized until 1996 & this book is from 1989, i believe). so claudia stops by her former pediatrician's office & pretends she has a school assignment that requires her to learn about her birth. the receptionist informs claudia that she didn't start seeing that doctor until she was two years old. i think it's mighty convenient that the receptionist remembers that kind of detail about some random former patient. it's kind of like the chris farley/mr. biggg scene in "wayne's world." "he had an awful lot of information for a security guard, don't you think?" but let's go with it. claudia certainly does. she interprets it as proof positive that she was adopted.
next, claudia goes to the public library while her mother (the head librarian) is in a staff meeting & looks at the birth announcements for the week she was born on microfiche. there is no announcement for her. so she writes down the info on the other girl babies born the same week as her & decides to find them & try to get information about the babies named to see if maybe they are her & her parents just changed her name after she was adopted.
which is fairly ridiculous. if she was born in stoneybrook & adopted at birth, wouldn't her now-parents be listed in the birth announcements instead of her birth parents? & if she was adopted through an agency, she could have been born anywhere. but claudia is convinced that she was born in stoneybrook because her parents wouldn't have wanted to travel with an infant. what? this makes no sense.
conveniently, one of the announcements is for a baby named resa ho. she was born to parents visitinf from wyoming. because who doesn't love to travel when they're on the verge of giving birth? after ruling out the local parents (who are shockingly forthcoming about the names & ages of their children to some stranger asking questions over the phone--claudia could be a serial killer for all these people know!), claudia calls the three hos listed for the town in wyoming named in the newspaper. like the family couldn't have moved to a different town in the last 13 years. she rules two out when they don't have any 13-year-old daughters...even though the whole point of claudia being adopted is that her birth parents wouldn't currently have any 13-year-old daughters. logic fail. it's not like they'd be all, "yes, i have three sons, & also there is a girl i gave up at birth. she would be 13 now." what?
anyway, claudia doesn't get an answer at the last number, so she assumes that must be her birth mother. she calls stacey to share the news. stacey is skeptical & encourages claudia to talk to her parents.
so she does. & they are quick to assure her that they are her birth parents after all. there are few photos because they were too busy to take photos with two little kids, & plus, the thrill wears off when you have your second baby. (but still. not even a photo of her coming home from the hospital?) her birth announcement was published in a paper that has since gone out of business, but mrs. kishi still has a copy, which she shows claudia. the strongbox is full of emergency cash. & while claudia may not look much like her parents, she's the spitting image of her grandmother mimi when mimi was 13. mrs. kishi has the old photos to prove it. so claudia feels much better.
she is also hired to tutor emily michelle on shapes, colors, counting, etc, & she does such a bang up job that emily is accepted into a pre-school that had previously rejected her for being too far behind the other kids. so claudia may not be great at doing her own homework, but she knows her colors well enough to teach a two-year-old.
my favorite part of the book is when claudia is gazing at a photo of mimi from when she was 13 & stacey shows up for a BSC meeting. claudia was so engrossed in the photo that she didn't hear stacey come in. stacey asks if it's mimi & claudia says yes, & narrates for us that she tried not to show that stacey took ten years off her life sneaking up on her like that. i LOLed. i just love the mental image of claudia trying to maintain her poise when she always comes across as such a crazy flake. oh, claudia. never change.
September 21, 2022
I remember the time when I was around 11 or 12 that I started thinking maybe I was adopted (which seems like something almost every kid worries about at some point). When I told my mom that I was scared I wasn't their "real" kid*, one of the things she pointed out was that I am literally my father's mini-me in female form.
Accurate.
(*I of course do not think that adopted children are not someone's "real" kid, but at that age, it felt like a very big and meaningful difference to me.)
All that to say, I truly sympathized with Claudia in this book, and I think this is one of my favorites so far in my reread of the series. It honestly makes a lot of sense, when you put yourself in the mind of a 13-year-old, why she started thinking she was adopted, and why it made her feel lonely or upset. And while some of her tactics to try to investigate were a little silly, again she is only a kid, plus...poor babe didn't even have Google, you know? I thought she was actually quite resourceful and smart about it.
Which is an interesting way for the author to show her, since of course one of Claudia's reasons as to why she thinks she's adopted is because her sister is a genius and Claudia herself struggles so badly in school. We're always told that she gets bad grades, she's a bad speller, etc. But here you see that she has her own kind of intelligence, and I thought that was pretty cool. Also it was super sweet at the end when her parents showed her the pictures of her late grandmother and Claudia saw how much she looked like her.
Really liked this one and think it was well-handled!
Accurate.
(*I of course do not think that adopted children are not someone's "real" kid, but at that age, it felt like a very big and meaningful difference to me.)
All that to say, I truly sympathized with Claudia in this book, and I think this is one of my favorites so far in my reread of the series. It honestly makes a lot of sense, when you put yourself in the mind of a 13-year-old, why she started thinking she was adopted, and why it made her feel lonely or upset. And while some of her tactics to try to investigate were a little silly, again she is only a kid, plus...poor babe didn't even have Google, you know? I thought she was actually quite resourceful and smart about it.
Which is an interesting way for the author to show her, since of course one of Claudia's reasons as to why she thinks she's adopted is because her sister is a genius and Claudia herself struggles so badly in school. We're always told that she gets bad grades, she's a bad speller, etc. But here you see that she has her own kind of intelligence, and I thought that was pretty cool. Also it was super sweet at the end when her parents showed her the pictures of her late grandmother and Claudia saw how much she looked like her.
Really liked this one and think it was well-handled!
March 3, 2016
this is my first time reading this book!
for a bunch of totally ludicrous reasons, claudia develops a theory that she is adopted. she tries to find evidence of it and even tries to find her "birth parents". meanwhile, emily michelle brewer is having a rough time -- she is having attachment problems (which makes sense because her birth mother died and she got sent to live with a new family pretty recently) and she is having language acquisition problems (which makes sense because she only heard vietnamese up until she came to the united states pretty recently). claudia tutors her and she does really well.
highlights:
-claudia's elaborate paranoia is so funny and in character. "maybe someone had stolen me from a hospital and sold me to a crooked lawyer who had let mom and dad (the people I thought were my real parents) adopt me for a huge sum of money. then mom and dad took me home, but later they found out that I was stolen, only they were afraid to return me. maybe we all had different identities now. we were incognito and on the lam."
-in general, claudia thinking she is adopted is a really annoying plotline. it's believable as a sort of manifestation of the personal fable/exactly how adolescent psychology works. but it's still annoying. so why did I put this under highlights? because claudia is such a little wannabe nancy drew in this book, and I love it. it's like she's so bored with her life so she needs to concoct these elaborate mysteries to solve, and while that's an annoying teenager thing, it's still SO CLAUDIA that I find it charming.
-all the emily stuff is really well-done. I like how concerned kristy is, and I like how david michael is upset that emily is getting so much attention. also claudia is a really good teacher, unsurprisingly (I mean, she taught art in Claudia and the Sad Good-bye and in general she is really good with kids and good at anything she cares about).
lowlights:
-once again a reference to mary anne becoming secretary only because she has good handwriting. SHE WANTED TO BE SECRETARY! ann, do you not remember Kristy's Great Idea? you WROTE that book!
-claudia talks about how being a teacher (to emily michelle) is hard and how she has more respect for her teachers who probably had to work extra hard to help her. I do not believe that claudia could be that conscious of her teachers' feelings. she is way too self-centered for that.
-the perkins girls (ages 5 and 2) know how to bake cookies because they are unbelievably perfect.
-once again stacey being tired is referenced. what is this foreshadowing?! AGH!
claudia outfit:
-"I...was dressed in one of my usual wild outfits -- a very short black skirt, an oversized white shirt with bright pink and turquoise poodles printed on it, flat turquoise shoes with ankle straps, and a ton of jewelry, including dangly poodle earrings. My long hair was swept to one side in a high ponytail held in place with a huge pink barrette."
claudia's "evidence" that she's adopted and the explanations that her parents give her:
-there are very few baby pictures of her compared to a ton of baby pictures of janine - because she's not the first child (and first children tend to have more photos while second children have fewer)
-she acts differently from her family - because that just happens in families! people are different!
-she doesn't look like her family members - she actually looks just like mimi did when she was thirteen
-she finds a locked box in a desk and assumes her adoption papers are in there - it's actually full of cash that her parents keep around for emergencies
-she can't find a birth announcement in the microfiche of the stoneybrook news - the announcement is in the gazette, a paper that was discontinued a while ago
snacks in claudia's room:
-mini chocolate bars under the quilt at the foot of her bed
-pretzels behind her pillow
for a bunch of totally ludicrous reasons, claudia develops a theory that she is adopted. she tries to find evidence of it and even tries to find her "birth parents". meanwhile, emily michelle brewer is having a rough time -- she is having attachment problems (which makes sense because her birth mother died and she got sent to live with a new family pretty recently) and she is having language acquisition problems (which makes sense because she only heard vietnamese up until she came to the united states pretty recently). claudia tutors her and she does really well.
highlights:
-claudia's elaborate paranoia is so funny and in character. "maybe someone had stolen me from a hospital and sold me to a crooked lawyer who had let mom and dad (the people I thought were my real parents) adopt me for a huge sum of money. then mom and dad took me home, but later they found out that I was stolen, only they were afraid to return me. maybe we all had different identities now. we were incognito and on the lam."
-in general, claudia thinking she is adopted is a really annoying plotline. it's believable as a sort of manifestation of the personal fable/exactly how adolescent psychology works. but it's still annoying. so why did I put this under highlights? because claudia is such a little wannabe nancy drew in this book, and I love it. it's like she's so bored with her life so she needs to concoct these elaborate mysteries to solve, and while that's an annoying teenager thing, it's still SO CLAUDIA that I find it charming.
-all the emily stuff is really well-done. I like how concerned kristy is, and I like how david michael is upset that emily is getting so much attention. also claudia is a really good teacher, unsurprisingly (I mean, she taught art in Claudia and the Sad Good-bye and in general she is really good with kids and good at anything she cares about).
lowlights:
-once again a reference to mary anne becoming secretary only because she has good handwriting. SHE WANTED TO BE SECRETARY! ann, do you not remember Kristy's Great Idea? you WROTE that book!
-claudia talks about how being a teacher (to emily michelle) is hard and how she has more respect for her teachers who probably had to work extra hard to help her. I do not believe that claudia could be that conscious of her teachers' feelings. she is way too self-centered for that.
-the perkins girls (ages 5 and 2) know how to bake cookies because they are unbelievably perfect.
-once again stacey being tired is referenced. what is this foreshadowing?! AGH!
claudia outfit:
-"I...was dressed in one of my usual wild outfits -- a very short black skirt, an oversized white shirt with bright pink and turquoise poodles printed on it, flat turquoise shoes with ankle straps, and a ton of jewelry, including dangly poodle earrings. My long hair was swept to one side in a high ponytail held in place with a huge pink barrette."
claudia's "evidence" that she's adopted and the explanations that her parents give her:
-there are very few baby pictures of her compared to a ton of baby pictures of janine - because she's not the first child (and first children tend to have more photos while second children have fewer)
-she acts differently from her family - because that just happens in families! people are different!
-she doesn't look like her family members - she actually looks just like mimi did when she was thirteen
-she finds a locked box in a desk and assumes her adoption papers are in there - it's actually full of cash that her parents keep around for emergencies
-she can't find a birth announcement in the microfiche of the stoneybrook news - the announcement is in the gazette, a paper that was discontinued a while ago
snacks in claudia's room:
-mini chocolate bars under the quilt at the foot of her bed
-pretzels behind her pillow
July 7, 2020
While I actually started reading around age 3 (thank you, my Granny's Dick and Jane books!), this series is what I remember most about loving to read during my childhood. My sister and I drank these books up like they were oxygen. I truly think we owned just about every single one from every one of the series. We even got the privilege of meeting Ann M. Martin at a book signing, but of course little starstruck me froze and could not speak a word to my biggest hero at that time. Once in awhile if I come across these at a yard sale, I will pick them up for a couple hour trip down memory lane, and I declare nearly nothing centers and relaxes me more!
September 2, 2019
Yikes! Claudia is finding bits and pieces that make her think it’s possible she is adopted! She hardly has any baby photos, she doesn’t look like anyone in her family, and to top it off she isn’t as “smart” as the rest of them. She goes in search of answers instead of just asking her parents out right. While all this is going on we find out that Kristys adopted 2 year old sister Emily Michelle is falling behind from other 2 year old. She hardly talks, she doesn’t know shapes or colors, and she isn’t toilet trained. Claudia makes it her mission to help little Emily learn new things and help her get into pre school.
December 21, 2023
Read via audio (narrated by Ali Ahn).
August 20, 2016
This one was written by Ann, who I do love, but man, I hated this book.
Claudia is all angsty about Janine being awarded something else (doing the most classes at community college while at high school), and feels like she doesn't belong in her family at all. After spending time with Kristy's adpoted sister, Emily Michelle, Claudia becomes convinced that she must have been adopted.
Seeing as the adoption search needs to take up a whole novel, there are lots of false leads and stupid things that happen. Eventually Claudia is prompted to say 'fess up, tell me I am adopted'. Guess what? She wasn't adopted. In fact, Mimi looked just like Claudia at 12, which proves she's a Kishi.
I so wish Mimi was still with us. She was the only person who really got Claudia and who has some sense of responsibility (yup, ruling out Peaches here).
Claudia works with Emily Michelle on things like colours and shapes, and after being retested, it seems that her tutoring sessions are helping the little bundle of joy. I feel very sad that Emily Michelle barely sees her adopted parents (thank God for Nannie) and has to have Claudia teach her instead of a real teacher. However, creative license overrules any of this, so I guess it's okay.
Also, David Michael and Emily Michelle? Whhhhhy? Also, Emily Michelle Junior (Karen's rat) and Shannon (the puppy, not the person)... Someone should have thought this one through. Editors, looking at you here.
Claudia is all angsty about Janine being awarded something else (doing the most classes at community college while at high school), and feels like she doesn't belong in her family at all. After spending time with Kristy's adpoted sister, Emily Michelle, Claudia becomes convinced that she must have been adopted.
Seeing as the adoption search needs to take up a whole novel, there are lots of false leads and stupid things that happen. Eventually Claudia is prompted to say 'fess up, tell me I am adopted'. Guess what? She wasn't adopted. In fact, Mimi looked just like Claudia at 12, which proves she's a Kishi.
I so wish Mimi was still with us. She was the only person who really got Claudia and who has some sense of responsibility (yup, ruling out Peaches here).
Claudia works with Emily Michelle on things like colours and shapes, and after being retested, it seems that her tutoring sessions are helping the little bundle of joy. I feel very sad that Emily Michelle barely sees her adopted parents (thank God for Nannie) and has to have Claudia teach her instead of a real teacher. However, creative license overrules any of this, so I guess it's okay.
Also, David Michael and Emily Michelle? Whhhhhy? Also, Emily Michelle Junior (Karen's rat) and Shannon (the puppy, not the person)... Someone should have thought this one through. Editors, looking at you here.
November 3, 2009
I never quite understood this book. Claudia, who is Japanese-American, is somehow convinced that she was adopted by her Japanese-American family after spending some time with Kristy's adopted sister Emily (a 2-year-old from Korea). She is convinced of this because her sister Janine is smart, while Claudia couldn't spell to save her life, and because she likes to read Nancy Drew, which her mother the librarian thinks is "trash." Plus there are hardly any pictures of Claudia as a baby! In the end we find out that no, Claudia is not adopted. Big surprise.
January 23, 2024
Just what I needed on a sick day.
January 21, 2019
I like when Claudia gets a chance to shine, and to show that she's not as dumb as her spelling implies. It was great seeing her helping Emily learn, even if we didn't get to see very much of it. Her stressing about being adopted wasn't my favourite plot, but the scene where she confronts her parents about it was pretty sweet.
November 5, 2021
4 stars. Loved this. Claudia is one of my favorites and I always seem to enjoy her books a lot. I loved the scenes of her tutoring Emily, those were adorable. And I thought all the work she put into trying to find her “birth parents” was impressive. I completely understood her reasoning and why she felt the way that she did. Everything wrapped up really nicely and this was just a lovely read.
November 20, 2022
Surprisingly really good. Things went off the rails slightly when Claudia was convinced she was adopted and all of her friends well really just Stacey agreed with her and promoted her delusions lol.
February 15, 2025
This book had 8 year old me thinking I was adopted even though there are (unflattering) pictures of me a few minutes after I was born. LOL.
September 25, 2019
Barely three stars
One of the biggest problems with the BSC is when Anne M Martin tries to describe age development especially with those under five. Few toddlers are potty trained at two, most are just starting some fragmented sentances and might know one color at that age. It drives one who knows about babies and toddlers crazy the inaccuracies. As for the other story leave it to the one she designed to be dumb to jump to that conclusion and what rotten parents. I am second born yet I think there are more pictures of me and my little sister than my older brother, parents like Claudia’s are selfish not busy if they do not take pictures of their kids, one of the least best of the series
One of the biggest problems with the BSC is when Anne M Martin tries to describe age development especially with those under five. Few toddlers are potty trained at two, most are just starting some fragmented sentances and might know one color at that age. It drives one who knows about babies and toddlers crazy the inaccuracies. As for the other story leave it to the one she designed to be dumb to jump to that conclusion and what rotten parents. I am second born yet I think there are more pictures of me and my little sister than my older brother, parents like Claudia’s are selfish not busy if they do not take pictures of their kids, one of the least best of the series
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June 6, 2024Claudia and the Great Search
Claudia gets out of class early to attend a special science ceremony for Janine. One of the teachers makes a comment that if Claudia is anything like Janine, she looks forward to having her in her class and asks is she a genius. She then comments they don’t look anything alike. Claudia doesn’t even get a chance to answer because the attention is on Janine again. After this they leave. Janine goes with her friends to celebrate. Claudia thinks to herself out of jealousy how unfashionable they are.
At the BSC, Kristy says because Emily is language delayed, she’s having some problems. She’s also having nightmares, she’s scared of a lot of things and won’t try new things. Kristy wants to spend more time with her but she’s got a regular job at the Papadakis-they’re grandfather feel down and hurt himself-. Mrs. Brewer then calls needing a sitter next Friday night to watch Emily and David Micheal. After her friends leave, Claud feels depressed and her leg starts to hurt-this means rain-. After this Claudia thinks about the week starting with Janine asking her what to wear to the ceremony-All her clothes look the same so she just says they all look fine-, a test she didn’t do so well on, and then the ceremony. Claud makes a salad for dinner but they think it’s in honor of Janine. Janine has more news that there will be a reporter following her around and writing an article on “A Day In the Life of a Genius”. Her mother asks what Janine will do with the check she got for 250.00. Clauida is thinking of clothes, art supplies, and candy. Janine says she’ll put it toward college. There’s even a cake for Janine with yellow roses. The best part is her name is spelled wrong
Claudia looks through some old pictures later. She looks through one. Then another. In the second one it’s full of pictures of her *and* Janine. The first has only pictures of Janine. Claudia notices they don’t look a thing alike. Then she thinks of how she doesn’t really look like her parents either. She looks through her parents drawars hoping that there will be a roll of her not developed but there aren’t any. Way back in the drawer she sees a locked box. Claudia knows all of a sudden she’s adopted and the box holds her adoption papers. Claudia wishes she could ask Mimi. She knows she can’t ask her mom and dad. She wonders who her real mom and dad are, why they gave her awa, and who is she really.
Claudia’s imagination starts to get the better of her and she thinks up wild scenerious like maybe she got stolen and sold to the hospital. Only her parents didn’t know this. Maybe they are incognito and on the run. David Micheal is sick when Claudia sits for him and Emily. The weather also looks bad. Mrs. Brewer gives the instructions (David Micheal has a cold, Emily might shed a few tears) then she and Watson leave. Emily runs to the door and starts to wail. She calms down a little when they go to check on David Micheal. Emily tries to go for the remote, but David Micheal won’t let her have it (she breaks them). Claudia gives her a bath. Then she gives David Micheal a few things (jice, water, a wwash cloth). Emily won’t go to sleep so Claudia puts Karen’s night light in her room. The thunder makes her antsy again so Claudia holds her until she goes to sleep. After this, Claudia tries to start her homework, but ends up thinking of how lucky Emily is that her parents have told her every day she’s adopted. Stacey calls and Clauia ends up telling her what she thinks. Stacey says she thinks she should start a search and look for her bio parents. She says at least she and Janine aren’t related. Then she has to go because Emily wakes up.
Dawn also has a sitting job at Kristy’s. Kristy says she’ll be by later with Hannie, Linny, and Sari. Emily again starts to cry but stops when she sees David Micheal. David Micheal invites over a friend (Timmy) who wants to join Kristy’s Krushers. While they do this, Emily almost eats a pebble. Then she thinks of how two years olds are supposed to be past that stage. She thinks of Gabby and Marnie and compares them. Emily is *way* behind. Dawn is stuck watching Hannie when Kristy agrees to give Linny, David Micheal, and Timmy a Krishers lesson. So the girls play ring around the roses. Emily doeesn’t catch on very fast but she seems to have fun. Kristy sees this. She tells Dawn her mom and Watson tried to get her into a preschool program but she didn’t get accepted because she too far behind. Kristy says they think she’ll catch up. Dawn tells it won’t do any good worrying. Kristy says no they need to take action.
Claudia starts to see the similarities between her and Emily. Emily doesn’t look ike her famly and isn’t as bright and she’s adopted. LAudia starts her search at this place called “Love Bundles”. She says they’ve only been in operation five years and Claudia is thirteen. They also only place Vietnamese children. She then has an idea to go look at her birth certificate and it’s at the bank in a safety deposit box, So she goes there. The lady wants her ID and a key. Claudia has to pretend she “left the key at home”. Claudia has an idea and decides to go to her doctor’s office, but then she can’t just waltz in and ask if she’s adopted. She thinks of a lot of different things to tell her (Janine has a rare blood disease, she has a report for school). She decides to just go with the school report story. The receptionst frowns at her and tells her the Dr she came to see wasn’t her first pediatrician. She didn’t start to see her until she was 2. She’d have to look at her charts to find out who her first one was. Claudia says she’ll just ask her parents but decided that MRs. Wilson lied to her.
Claudia sits for David Micheal and Emily again. Only David Micheal goes over to Timmy’s. Emily wants to color. Claudia asks to see the red crayon. Emily doesn’t know red. Claudia then just asks for a crayon. This she can do. Then she gives her another. She asks again for the red crayon. She gives her a purple and yellow one. Claudia lays three different colored squares. Then she tries to get her to match it with the other red square. She points to it and then praises Emily. She tries again with the yellow square but Emily gives her the red quare. Then she tries to get her to match the red square. Claudia realizes she’s not teaching her colors. She’s teaching her matching. So Clauida helps her match the two squares. Claudia can see a light go on. She does it immediately. She then matches the yellow one and the blue one. Then when it gets to easy Clauida gets her to match the shapes. When MRs. Brewer comes home Claudia and Emily show her what she can do. Mrs. Brewer wants Claudia to work with Emily two times a week.
Stacey has a job at the Perkin’s. Gabby and Myriah want to know if they can cook with real ingrediants that night. She says yes as long as they clean up and be in bed by eight thirty. Mrs. Perkins tells Stacey to make a list of whetever they use up and don’t let them eat anything to dubious. Myriah wants to make chocolate thicp cookies. Gabby wants to make a green mess. So they compromise and make green chocolate chip cookies. Myriah is one of those cooks that doesn’t need a recipe or cookbook. They bake the cookies. They hear a CRASH and the girls go to check on him. He’s knocked cookies everywhere. They have to get him quick before he eats the cookie and put him in the garage. The Perkin’s have a friend that gives the girls book since she’s a pushlisher. She finds a book called “Find A Stranger Say Goodbye”. She then calls Claudia and tells her about it. It’s about an adopted girl).
Clauida gets through the book quickly. It gives her a lot of ideas. The girl (Natalies) parents are very open with her and give her the information she needs to find her birth parents. Claudia has to go to the public library when her mother isn’t there. She goes to the old time machine that has the dated articles (micro fishe). She wants to look at the announcements for births. She finds the dates but none of them are hers. She looks at the week after and the before. Nothing! This proves that she was born through a private agency. Maybe she was given a different name. So she copies down the girl’s names that she doesn’t recognize. The name Reeca Ho intrigues her. Her parents say they were visiting from Wyoming. Stacey stays after the meeting for dinner. Finally Claudia says she read the book and says she thinks she was privately adopted. Maybe to a young couple that wasn’t ready. Maybe her parents found out that after they had Janine they couldn’t have any more kids. Claudia tells her she went to the library. Stacey says she might have been born anywhere. Claudia says all birthds were listed and hers wasn’t. It’s a possibility she was born in Steonybrooke. She says she’s going to look up the three names she’s found.
Claudia gets the numbers and addresses but decides to wait until the next day to contact the first two. She calls Mr. Ferguison (?) first. She makes up a story about a school project. One of his kids (Cara) is the one on the birth annoument. Next she calls the (Selsomes?-I’m as bad a speller as Claudia-_. She goes to this address. She tells her the Selsoms live in Lawrenceville and were the previous owners. The layd has their number and she calls. They did have a daughter (do) named Daphne. STRIKE TWO! She talks to Stacey after this and Claudia says she’ll come over. Stacey says she has to be on bed tho. She’s been tired.
Kristy takes David Micheal to a Krusher’s practice. Nannie has taken Emily back to be re-evaluated. She’s making a lot of progress now. On the way David Micheal confesses, he hates Emily. Well not hates but he gets so much attention. Kristy says she resents her a little too, but she tells herself that Emily really needs all the attention and help. She needs way more help than they do and she gets David Micheal to see all the limitations she has she has that he doesn’t. I think I’ll just skip this Krusher’s practice. Moving along, Are these really necessary? They fill like just something to fill pages and this is a REPAT of scenes in KRISTY AND THE WALKING DISASTER. Bart talks her home. Kristy excitedly asks Nannie what was said but Nany says it’ll take several days.
The day after Charlie brings Emily over to Claudia’s. She now tries to pronounce names and doesn’t cry. Claudia takes Emily to her room. Janine gives her a balloon on the way up. She gets the color of it right. Now she can matc and knows how to recognize colors. Claudia decides to give her a counting lesson. All the Ho’s are a NO GO! But Claudia the lady that didn’t answer -from process of elimation-is her mother. She calls Stacey and she tells her she’s not the only one that won’t fit into her family. Look at her. She’s the only one with diabetes. Look at Niky Pike. Look at Jessi and Becca. She tells her the o nly way she’s gonna know is if she asks her parents. Her parents luckily say they call her into the den after dinner. They tell her they’ve noticed something was wrong and encourage her to tell them. She accuses them of lying to her. Then they tell them she’s adopted. She says there are hardly any pictures of her and she’s different from them. She’s a wild dresser and boy crazy and she’s found a locked box. Then she says there’s no birth announcement for her in the paper.
They tell her she’s not adopted. They say there usually are more pictures of the first child. As for being different all families are different. They tell her she’s a lot like Peaches and she looks a lot like Mimi when she was young. Plus she looks like she’s a cross between the both of them. As for her birth announcement it was in the Stoneybrooke Gazette a paper that went out of business. There’s five hundred dollars in the lock box for emergencies. In the future they tell her they’ll pay more attention to her feelings. They show her the pictures of Mimi and she and Claud look like twins.
Claudia fames them and displays them in her room. Stacy says she’s beat and all she did was sit for Laura. Claudia is about to give Stacey a lecture. She says she needs the bed. Kristy announces the Papadakis grandfather is now better. Now she’ll have more time to spend with Emily. Speaking of the teachers say Emily has made progress. She trust people now. She still doesn’t like thunderstorms but she can start preschool in the fall (She’ll be three). She says she’ll have to be toilet trained by the teachers have given her praises for learning her shapes and colors and that’s thanks to Claudia. The teachers want Claudia to keep working with Emily. It’ll be good preparation for preschool. When Claudia calls to set up a tutoring session Emily answers the phone and all the others talk to her. After everyone leaves she looks at Mimi’s picture and says she can’t believe she was adopted but she’s lucky to have her family. She then asks Janine to make dinner with her.
My Thoughts
This book reminded me of a couple of things. The first was when my best friend’s son was about Emily’s age they (well his wife) became worried that he wasn’t talking yet. He had to have special tutors and *today* you would never have none it. He’s bright and friendly and excels in school and especially computer related things. I just think of all the progress he’s made and it’s amazing! Sometimes it just takes the right teacher. I love how patient Claudia was with Emily!
The other thing it reminded me of was when my little cousin King first started preschool about a year ago. He’d never been to school before and my cousin was worried because the teacher -who was ridiculous and expected him to know *and I’m blanking on the term but I think it was combination words*. Thus, my cousin somehow got the crazy idea that he was “slow”. My mother 0whose a teacher) had to make him see that he’d JUST started school. He also wasn’t being very interactive with the other students. And then I had to make them see that (just like Claudia) my little cousin is different. He’s quite a lot like me so I understand him more than my family who are pretty much extroverts. Bottom line is that everyone learns at their own pace! Some are quicker at certain things than others but then you might be better at something else than the next person. After reading this it did make me sentimental, I kinda wished I a little girl like Emily to nurture and watch progress. Even when she cried and got frustrated Emily just seems like a very sweet baby. She might just be my favorite one in the series.
I also have a rough relationship with my sister -who I didn’t grow up with-. She’s not a genius or anything but I do feel like she tends to get all the attention from my family. Even from my mother-who isn’t her mother-. And this is hard because even when she’s dead wrong people in the family always for some reason that I sear to you I can not figure out-they side with her and do everything to protect her feelings. So I know what it’s like to have a siser that sometimes you feel resent for just like David Micheal and Claudia and it is ROUGH! So this one I could reate a lot too!
Rating: 7
Claudia gets out of class early to attend a special science ceremony for Janine. One of the teachers makes a comment that if Claudia is anything like Janine, she looks forward to having her in her class and asks is she a genius. She then comments they don’t look anything alike. Claudia doesn’t even get a chance to answer because the attention is on Janine again. After this they leave. Janine goes with her friends to celebrate. Claudia thinks to herself out of jealousy how unfashionable they are.
At the BSC, Kristy says because Emily is language delayed, she’s having some problems. She’s also having nightmares, she’s scared of a lot of things and won’t try new things. Kristy wants to spend more time with her but she’s got a regular job at the Papadakis-they’re grandfather feel down and hurt himself-. Mrs. Brewer then calls needing a sitter next Friday night to watch Emily and David Micheal. After her friends leave, Claud feels depressed and her leg starts to hurt-this means rain-. After this Claudia thinks about the week starting with Janine asking her what to wear to the ceremony-All her clothes look the same so she just says they all look fine-, a test she didn’t do so well on, and then the ceremony. Claud makes a salad for dinner but they think it’s in honor of Janine. Janine has more news that there will be a reporter following her around and writing an article on “A Day In the Life of a Genius”. Her mother asks what Janine will do with the check she got for 250.00. Clauida is thinking of clothes, art supplies, and candy. Janine says she’ll put it toward college. There’s even a cake for Janine with yellow roses. The best part is her name is spelled wrong
Claudia looks through some old pictures later. She looks through one. Then another. In the second one it’s full of pictures of her *and* Janine. The first has only pictures of Janine. Claudia notices they don’t look a thing alike. Then she thinks of how she doesn’t really look like her parents either. She looks through her parents drawars hoping that there will be a roll of her not developed but there aren’t any. Way back in the drawer she sees a locked box. Claudia knows all of a sudden she’s adopted and the box holds her adoption papers. Claudia wishes she could ask Mimi. She knows she can’t ask her mom and dad. She wonders who her real mom and dad are, why they gave her awa, and who is she really.
Claudia’s imagination starts to get the better of her and she thinks up wild scenerious like maybe she got stolen and sold to the hospital. Only her parents didn’t know this. Maybe they are incognito and on the run. David Micheal is sick when Claudia sits for him and Emily. The weather also looks bad. Mrs. Brewer gives the instructions (David Micheal has a cold, Emily might shed a few tears) then she and Watson leave. Emily runs to the door and starts to wail. She calms down a little when they go to check on David Micheal. Emily tries to go for the remote, but David Micheal won’t let her have it (she breaks them). Claudia gives her a bath. Then she gives David Micheal a few things (jice, water, a wwash cloth). Emily won’t go to sleep so Claudia puts Karen’s night light in her room. The thunder makes her antsy again so Claudia holds her until she goes to sleep. After this, Claudia tries to start her homework, but ends up thinking of how lucky Emily is that her parents have told her every day she’s adopted. Stacey calls and Clauia ends up telling her what she thinks. Stacey says she thinks she should start a search and look for her bio parents. She says at least she and Janine aren’t related. Then she has to go because Emily wakes up.
Dawn also has a sitting job at Kristy’s. Kristy says she’ll be by later with Hannie, Linny, and Sari. Emily again starts to cry but stops when she sees David Micheal. David Micheal invites over a friend (Timmy) who wants to join Kristy’s Krushers. While they do this, Emily almost eats a pebble. Then she thinks of how two years olds are supposed to be past that stage. She thinks of Gabby and Marnie and compares them. Emily is *way* behind. Dawn is stuck watching Hannie when Kristy agrees to give Linny, David Micheal, and Timmy a Krishers lesson. So the girls play ring around the roses. Emily doeesn’t catch on very fast but she seems to have fun. Kristy sees this. She tells Dawn her mom and Watson tried to get her into a preschool program but she didn’t get accepted because she too far behind. Kristy says they think she’ll catch up. Dawn tells it won’t do any good worrying. Kristy says no they need to take action.
Claudia starts to see the similarities between her and Emily. Emily doesn’t look ike her famly and isn’t as bright and she’s adopted. LAudia starts her search at this place called “Love Bundles”. She says they’ve only been in operation five years and Claudia is thirteen. They also only place Vietnamese children. She then has an idea to go look at her birth certificate and it’s at the bank in a safety deposit box, So she goes there. The lady wants her ID and a key. Claudia has to pretend she “left the key at home”. Claudia has an idea and decides to go to her doctor’s office, but then she can’t just waltz in and ask if she’s adopted. She thinks of a lot of different things to tell her (Janine has a rare blood disease, she has a report for school). She decides to just go with the school report story. The receptionst frowns at her and tells her the Dr she came to see wasn’t her first pediatrician. She didn’t start to see her until she was 2. She’d have to look at her charts to find out who her first one was. Claudia says she’ll just ask her parents but decided that MRs. Wilson lied to her.
Claudia sits for David Micheal and Emily again. Only David Micheal goes over to Timmy’s. Emily wants to color. Claudia asks to see the red crayon. Emily doesn’t know red. Claudia then just asks for a crayon. This she can do. Then she gives her another. She asks again for the red crayon. She gives her a purple and yellow one. Claudia lays three different colored squares. Then she tries to get her to match it with the other red square. She points to it and then praises Emily. She tries again with the yellow square but Emily gives her the red quare. Then she tries to get her to match the red square. Claudia realizes she’s not teaching her colors. She’s teaching her matching. So Clauida helps her match the two squares. Claudia can see a light go on. She does it immediately. She then matches the yellow one and the blue one. Then when it gets to easy Clauida gets her to match the shapes. When MRs. Brewer comes home Claudia and Emily show her what she can do. Mrs. Brewer wants Claudia to work with Emily two times a week.
Stacey has a job at the Perkin’s. Gabby and Myriah want to know if they can cook with real ingrediants that night. She says yes as long as they clean up and be in bed by eight thirty. Mrs. Perkins tells Stacey to make a list of whetever they use up and don’t let them eat anything to dubious. Myriah wants to make chocolate thicp cookies. Gabby wants to make a green mess. So they compromise and make green chocolate chip cookies. Myriah is one of those cooks that doesn’t need a recipe or cookbook. They bake the cookies. They hear a CRASH and the girls go to check on him. He’s knocked cookies everywhere. They have to get him quick before he eats the cookie and put him in the garage. The Perkin’s have a friend that gives the girls book since she’s a pushlisher. She finds a book called “Find A Stranger Say Goodbye”. She then calls Claudia and tells her about it. It’s about an adopted girl).
Clauida gets through the book quickly. It gives her a lot of ideas. The girl (Natalies) parents are very open with her and give her the information she needs to find her birth parents. Claudia has to go to the public library when her mother isn’t there. She goes to the old time machine that has the dated articles (micro fishe). She wants to look at the announcements for births. She finds the dates but none of them are hers. She looks at the week after and the before. Nothing! This proves that she was born through a private agency. Maybe she was given a different name. So she copies down the girl’s names that she doesn’t recognize. The name Reeca Ho intrigues her. Her parents say they were visiting from Wyoming. Stacey stays after the meeting for dinner. Finally Claudia says she read the book and says she thinks she was privately adopted. Maybe to a young couple that wasn’t ready. Maybe her parents found out that after they had Janine they couldn’t have any more kids. Claudia tells her she went to the library. Stacey says she might have been born anywhere. Claudia says all birthds were listed and hers wasn’t. It’s a possibility she was born in Steonybrooke. She says she’s going to look up the three names she’s found.
Claudia gets the numbers and addresses but decides to wait until the next day to contact the first two. She calls Mr. Ferguison (?) first. She makes up a story about a school project. One of his kids (Cara) is the one on the birth annoument. Next she calls the (Selsomes?-I’m as bad a speller as Claudia-_. She goes to this address. She tells her the Selsoms live in Lawrenceville and were the previous owners. The layd has their number and she calls. They did have a daughter (do) named Daphne. STRIKE TWO! She talks to Stacey after this and Claudia says she’ll come over. Stacey says she has to be on bed tho. She’s been tired.
Kristy takes David Micheal to a Krusher’s practice. Nannie has taken Emily back to be re-evaluated. She’s making a lot of progress now. On the way David Micheal confesses, he hates Emily. Well not hates but he gets so much attention. Kristy says she resents her a little too, but she tells herself that Emily really needs all the attention and help. She needs way more help than they do and she gets David Micheal to see all the limitations she has she has that he doesn’t. I think I’ll just skip this Krusher’s practice. Moving along, Are these really necessary? They fill like just something to fill pages and this is a REPAT of scenes in KRISTY AND THE WALKING DISASTER. Bart talks her home. Kristy excitedly asks Nannie what was said but Nany says it’ll take several days.
The day after Charlie brings Emily over to Claudia’s. She now tries to pronounce names and doesn’t cry. Claudia takes Emily to her room. Janine gives her a balloon on the way up. She gets the color of it right. Now she can matc and knows how to recognize colors. Claudia decides to give her a counting lesson. All the Ho’s are a NO GO! But Claudia the lady that didn’t answer -from process of elimation-is her mother. She calls Stacey and she tells her she’s not the only one that won’t fit into her family. Look at her. She’s the only one with diabetes. Look at Niky Pike. Look at Jessi and Becca. She tells her the o nly way she’s gonna know is if she asks her parents. Her parents luckily say they call her into the den after dinner. They tell her they’ve noticed something was wrong and encourage her to tell them. She accuses them of lying to her. Then they tell them she’s adopted. She says there are hardly any pictures of her and she’s different from them. She’s a wild dresser and boy crazy and she’s found a locked box. Then she says there’s no birth announcement for her in the paper.
They tell her she’s not adopted. They say there usually are more pictures of the first child. As for being different all families are different. They tell her she’s a lot like Peaches and she looks a lot like Mimi when she was young. Plus she looks like she’s a cross between the both of them. As for her birth announcement it was in the Stoneybrooke Gazette a paper that went out of business. There’s five hundred dollars in the lock box for emergencies. In the future they tell her they’ll pay more attention to her feelings. They show her the pictures of Mimi and she and Claud look like twins.
Claudia fames them and displays them in her room. Stacy says she’s beat and all she did was sit for Laura. Claudia is about to give Stacey a lecture. She says she needs the bed. Kristy announces the Papadakis grandfather is now better. Now she’ll have more time to spend with Emily. Speaking of the teachers say Emily has made progress. She trust people now. She still doesn’t like thunderstorms but she can start preschool in the fall (She’ll be three). She says she’ll have to be toilet trained by the teachers have given her praises for learning her shapes and colors and that’s thanks to Claudia. The teachers want Claudia to keep working with Emily. It’ll be good preparation for preschool. When Claudia calls to set up a tutoring session Emily answers the phone and all the others talk to her. After everyone leaves she looks at Mimi’s picture and says she can’t believe she was adopted but she’s lucky to have her family. She then asks Janine to make dinner with her.
My Thoughts
This book reminded me of a couple of things. The first was when my best friend’s son was about Emily’s age they (well his wife) became worried that he wasn’t talking yet. He had to have special tutors and *today* you would never have none it. He’s bright and friendly and excels in school and especially computer related things. I just think of all the progress he’s made and it’s amazing! Sometimes it just takes the right teacher. I love how patient Claudia was with Emily!
The other thing it reminded me of was when my little cousin King first started preschool about a year ago. He’d never been to school before and my cousin was worried because the teacher -who was ridiculous and expected him to know *and I’m blanking on the term but I think it was combination words*. Thus, my cousin somehow got the crazy idea that he was “slow”. My mother 0whose a teacher) had to make him see that he’d JUST started school. He also wasn’t being very interactive with the other students. And then I had to make them see that (just like Claudia) my little cousin is different. He’s quite a lot like me so I understand him more than my family who are pretty much extroverts. Bottom line is that everyone learns at their own pace! Some are quicker at certain things than others but then you might be better at something else than the next person. After reading this it did make me sentimental, I kinda wished I a little girl like Emily to nurture and watch progress. Even when she cried and got frustrated Emily just seems like a very sweet baby. She might just be my favorite one in the series.
I also have a rough relationship with my sister -who I didn’t grow up with-. She’s not a genius or anything but I do feel like she tends to get all the attention from my family. Even from my mother-who isn’t her mother-. And this is hard because even when she’s dead wrong people in the family always for some reason that I sear to you I can not figure out-they side with her and do everything to protect her feelings. So I know what it’s like to have a siser that sometimes you feel resent for just like David Micheal and Claudia and it is ROUGH! So this one I could reate a lot too!
Rating: 7
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2018
My daughters review:
the main plot of this book is ‘adoption and mystery’ and it was one of those kinds of things that start out differently but turn together.
the bad parts-
- ann m martin’s narration at the beginning. claudia leaves sms early to go to shs for her sister Janine’s award ceremony. Ann (Claudia) narrates that she was happy to get out of school early. A few pages later, Claudia hates the ceremony because everyone says “so you’re Claudia are you a genius too” doesn’t make sense here....
- the reporters actually SAID “genius” and i can’t believe that. Yes Janine is a genius but them asking Claudia and saying genius and asking that stuff.
- the reporters are doing a news interview called “a day in the life of a genius” and at first Claudia said it was like a small award ceremony but newspapers featuring Janine? Author/ editors....SERIOUSLY?!?!
The whole genius thing WAS TERRIBLE!!
- Claudia makes up excuses on the phone to call people . She should go and say that she was adopted and looking for her birth parents, but instead Claud makes up excuses. I think people will be more open if you’re not lying.
- I like when Claudia tutors Emily Michelle but here’s the thing:
Claudia wants her to LEARN but the Thomas brewers want Emily to be accepted into a pre school and learn. Claudia’s way is better. But the Thomas brewers have a point.... I DON’T GET IT!!!
The good parts are just chunks, Claudia tutoring and Claudia searching. I love how she thinks she’s adopted.
THE END
the main plot of this book is ‘adoption and mystery’ and it was one of those kinds of things that start out differently but turn together.
the bad parts-
- ann m martin’s narration at the beginning. claudia leaves sms early to go to shs for her sister Janine’s award ceremony. Ann (Claudia) narrates that she was happy to get out of school early. A few pages later, Claudia hates the ceremony because everyone says “so you’re Claudia are you a genius too” doesn’t make sense here....
- the reporters actually SAID “genius” and i can’t believe that. Yes Janine is a genius but them asking Claudia and saying genius and asking that stuff.
- the reporters are doing a news interview called “a day in the life of a genius” and at first Claudia said it was like a small award ceremony but newspapers featuring Janine? Author/ editors....SERIOUSLY?!?!
The whole genius thing WAS TERRIBLE!!
- Claudia makes up excuses on the phone to call people . She should go and say that she was adopted and looking for her birth parents, but instead Claud makes up excuses. I think people will be more open if you’re not lying.
- I like when Claudia tutors Emily Michelle but here’s the thing:
Claudia wants her to LEARN but the Thomas brewers want Emily to be accepted into a pre school and learn. Claudia’s way is better. But the Thomas brewers have a point.... I DON’T GET IT!!!
The good parts are just chunks, Claudia tutoring and Claudia searching. I love how she thinks she’s adopted.
THE END
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2020
I always loved this book! It seems a little ridiculous to me now, but as a kid I had so much sympathy for Claudia thinking she was secretly adopted.
I enjoyed the subplot with Emily Michelle a lot more than I remember. It never really sunk in as a kid that this poor girl was orphaned and then taken to a strange country, and that her new parents are constantly leaving her with baby-sitters. I started thinking about that in the last few BSC books - why are Watson and Elizabeth always leaving? I noticed they especially leave when Karen and Andrew are there, which is only every other weekend, and Kristy is almost always baby-sitting them. Shouldn’t Watson plan his outings on the weekends he doesn’t have his kids? It just seems odd.
Oh, and I still teared up at the ending, with Claudia framing the pictures of her and a teenaged Mimi and hanging them up on her wall. I always loved Mimi, and her absence is so strong in Claudia’s books.
I enjoyed the subplot with Emily Michelle a lot more than I remember. It never really sunk in as a kid that this poor girl was orphaned and then taken to a strange country, and that her new parents are constantly leaving her with baby-sitters. I started thinking about that in the last few BSC books - why are Watson and Elizabeth always leaving? I noticed they especially leave when Karen and Andrew are there, which is only every other weekend, and Kristy is almost always baby-sitting them. Shouldn’t Watson plan his outings on the weekends he doesn’t have his kids? It just seems odd.
Oh, and I still teared up at the ending, with Claudia framing the pictures of her and a teenaged Mimi and hanging them up on her wall. I always loved Mimi, and her absence is so strong in Claudia’s books.
February 10, 2019
There’s millions of reasons why Claudia Kishi might be my favorite babysitter.
1. Her style is so amazing, especially on pg. 10: black miniskirt, oversized white shirt with hot pink and turquoise poodles, turquoise flats with ankle straps, poodle earrings, and huge pink barrette in high side ponytail and on pg. 139: Day-Glo striped shirt and skinny knit pants (my other favorite on the page was Jessi’s ballet leotard with jeans.).
2. She makes me laugh (especially when she thought she was adopted).
3. Her family melts my heart.
4. She’s a great babysitter.
Mr. Kishi is right about how boring it would be if every family member was the same. Besides, one crazy Brooke is enough lol.
1. Her style is so amazing, especially on pg. 10: black miniskirt, oversized white shirt with hot pink and turquoise poodles, turquoise flats with ankle straps, poodle earrings, and huge pink barrette in high side ponytail and on pg. 139: Day-Glo striped shirt and skinny knit pants (my other favorite on the page was Jessi’s ballet leotard with jeans.).
2. She makes me laugh (especially when she thought she was adopted).
3. Her family melts my heart.
4. She’s a great babysitter.
Mr. Kishi is right about how boring it would be if every family member was the same. Besides, one crazy Brooke is enough lol.
November 10, 2020
(LL)
This one was set up to be a decent book, but it was disappointing. Claudia struggles the whole book about how she’s most likely adopted and how sad and angry that makes her only to find out that isn’t true, so everything is perfect now? This book implies being adopted would have been terrible and the worst thing to ever happen to her? Really? These books are great and helping kids accept their situations and make them feel normal, but the implication that Claudia being adopted would ever be a bad thing isn’t okay. I know it’s from 1990, but that’s still not cool to be the main message from this book.
This one was set up to be a decent book, but it was disappointing. Claudia struggles the whole book about how she’s most likely adopted and how sad and angry that makes her only to find out that isn’t true, so everything is perfect now? This book implies being adopted would have been terrible and the worst thing to ever happen to her? Really? These books are great and helping kids accept their situations and make them feel normal, but the implication that Claudia being adopted would ever be a bad thing isn’t okay. I know it’s from 1990, but that’s still not cool to be the main message from this book.
August 5, 2023
Not a fan of Claudia's constant jealousy and resulting meanness to Janine. Yes, Janine is a genius and wins lots of awards, and yes, Claudia's jealousy is understandable. But all the eye-rolling about how proud their parents are and how Janine's humility must be fake is eye-roll behaviour in itself. And Claudia's glee that the bakery misspelled Janine's name on the congratulatory cake their parents bought is just petty.
Still, once we got over that bit of the story and Claudia began searching for proof of her adoption and identity of her birth parents, the story picked up. And I really liked how Claudia turned out to be really good at tutoring Emily Michelle.
Still, once we got over that bit of the story and Claudia began searching for proof of her adoption and identity of her birth parents, the story picked up. And I really liked how Claudia turned out to be really good at tutoring Emily Michelle.
January 14, 2018
This was THE book, the exact book, that made me fall in love with reading. I had hated reading before, I'd thought it was boring. My mom bought this to give as a gift to my older cousins and said I was too young to read it (I was 6). But I was curious. So I sneakily read it. And then it was all over. I was obsessed with reading, it was the thing that defined me for most of my childhood. Thank you Ann M. Martin, for wonderful characters, and for writing a thoughtful book about an Asian-American girl and her Asian immigrant family that I could relate to.
March 7, 2024
Ahh this was a cute one. I vaguely remember reading this as a kid and I’m pretty sure I had the same question then that I have now… I suppose there wouldn’t be a plot if that happened though. 🤣
I did enjoy the mystery hunting aspect of this book though. It was fascinating remembering how anyone researched anything pre-internet. I grew up in those days and it still sounded difficult to me. 😂
I did enjoy the mystery hunting aspect of this book though. It was fascinating remembering how anyone researched anything pre-internet. I grew up in those days and it still sounded difficult to me. 😂
Read
July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
December 20, 2023
Claudia is my favorite so this story is also a favorite. I find it funny that when Claudia is investigating her birth she could con so many strangers into giving her private information. People were so trusting!
In the end the simplest explanation was the answer. I also really liked the parallel story of Claudia helping Kristy's sister Emily learn her colors, shapes and numbers.
5 out of 5 Birth Announcements.
In the end the simplest explanation was the answer. I also really liked the parallel story of Claudia helping Kristy's sister Emily learn her colors, shapes and numbers.
5 out of 5 Birth Announcements.
July 31, 2020
This book is about how Claudia tried to find out if she is adopted. First she looked through Stonebrook news but couldn't find herself on list of new babies. When she got home she asked her parents to tell her the truth. The truth is that she was not adopted. She thought she was adopted because she looks very different and is not as good at school as Janine.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2023
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
October 21, 2024
This could have been “Claudia Jumps the Shark.” Though as ridiculous as it sounds, I think we all had a time in our young life where we dreamt up some wild conspiracy.
As a teacher for young children and ELL learners, I really liked the parts of the book where Claudia worked with Emily. I’ve definitely had students in a similar boat make huge strides after just a few one on one sessions.
As a teacher for young children and ELL learners, I really liked the parts of the book where Claudia worked with Emily. I’ve definitely had students in a similar boat make huge strides after just a few one on one sessions.
May 31, 2025
I liked this one! There was something very 13 year-old about Claudia jumping to the conclusion that she was maybe adopted because she doesn’t feel like she fits in with her family. Seeing her go full detective mode was pretty fun too. It was just the right level of unhinged for a Claudia book. The ending (Claudia looks like Mimi!) was so heartwarming too.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2025
This is another installment where the B-plot is better than the main story - Claudia becomes convinced that she's adopted but spoiler, she isn't and there's an explanation for all of the things she finds suspicious. I definitely preferred reading about her and Kristy's new adopted sister, Emily Michelle, watching Claudia become the teacher she never imagined she'd be.
August 6, 2017
Honestly I can really believe that Claudia would think she's adopted. She's sort of an uber misfit in her family, so really it could have happened. This is the BSC-verse though, so naturally it didn't haha. Oooh the plots! Oh the anxiety!
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