Friday, March 10, 2017

Girls of Canby Hall #17 Graduation Day and #18 Making Friends

In Girls of Canby Hall #17, Graduation Day, Dana, Faith, and Shelley will soon be graduating from Canby Hall.  Dana is worried about the poem that she is composing for Arch Day.  Faith is worried that her parents can't afford to send her to college while Shelley worries about Tom's new girlfriend.

Dana, Faith, and Shelley's sophomore and junior years take up the first 16 books of the series. Their entire senior year is crammed into this one book.

On page 97, we learn that Dana's sister, Maggie, is at Canby Hall.  It's odd, since Dana worried about Maggie coming to Canby Hall for an entire book.  Maggie came, but we never got to see any events connected to Dana dealing with Maggie's arrival.  Placing the entire senior year in one book is unsettling to the reader.

I enjoyed this book.

In Girls of Canby Hall #18, Making Friends, three new girls arrive in Room 407.  Jane is a snobbish girl from Boston.  Andy is from Chicago, and she wants to become a ballet dancer.  Toby is from Texas, and she isn't used to being around other people.  The three girls do not get along at first, and they must work to develop their friendship.

The premise of this book is very similar to that of the first book in the series.

On page 88, Jane thinks about how strange Cary looks.  She reflects that "by far the most amazing thing about him was the single silver stud earring he had in one ear."  Really?  Actually, Jane's amazement is logical from her point of view, since Jane is from a straight-laced family.

On page 89, Jane thinks of Cary as "this dreadful person," so I knew that meant that they would end up dating.

I enjoyed this book.

1 comment:

A said...

Book 17 seemed so rushed when I read it as a child. I loved the first group of girls, and it felt at the time like they were getting rid of them as opposed to sending them off. The pacing in the serious seemed off. As you point out, the Maggie issue never seemed to be properly resolved.

Part of me wonders whether this treatment wasn't about sales or professional reasons as opposed to proper treatment of the characters. For example, maybe sales were slumping, so they decided to shake things up by getting a whole group of new girls. Or maybe the authors were tired of the girls. Perhaps their story was played out. As reader, it would have been nicer to have a few books about senior year as opposed to cramming everything into one book.

As to the earring controversy in 18, you have to look at it within the context of the 1980's. It was perceived that only bad boys wore earrings at the time. A 'good girl' liking the 'bad boy' was a common 1980's plot in books, tv, music, films, etc.