Girls of Canby Hall #7 Four Is a Crowd and #8 The Big Crush

In Girls of Canby Hall #7, Four Is a Crowd, Pamela Young is new to Canby Hall.  Pamela's mother is a famous film star, and Shelley is captivated by Pamela.  Dana and Faith dislike Pamela, and the conflict threatens to destroy their friendship with Shelley.  Even worse, Pamela is a devious person, and she plays tricks on the three girls to pit them against each other.

On pages 28 and 29, Pamela mistakenly thinks Faith is a servant because she is black.  While this series just barely scratches the surface with respect to racism, it is nice that the series does incorporate some issues into the plots.

On page 78, a Snickers wrapper was crumbled up and thrown into the trash like a basketball.  That doesn't work with modern plastic wrappers.  Old wrappers were made from paper.

This book uses the phrase "could care less."  No, it's "couldn't care less"!

On page 45, the girls have to wait in line to use the pay phones.  I thought about how modern teens would see these books as quaint older books just like how I viewed the older series books from the 1950s.

I enjoyed this book.

In Girls of Canby Hall, #8, The Big Crush, Dana develops a huge crush on the new school guidance counselor, Michael.  Dana thinks Michael is just as attracted to her, and she fantasizes about their future relationship.  Dana is due for a hard fall when she learns that Michael is dating Alison, her housemother.

Both the front and back cover state that all three girls have a crush on Michael.  They do not! Dana is the only one.  I guess it sounds cuter to have all three girls in love with the same person, but it also sounds incredibly stupid.

Dana annoyed me in this book.  I find that she is rather fickle and is prone to falling in love too easily.  She doesn't think of her current boyfriend, Randy, as she crushes on Michael.  She isn't very fair to Randy, and I don't understand why she stays involved with Randy.

I also enjoyed this book.