I really enjoyed this read. I thought this book also tackled some new friendship issues both in the core group but also the complexities of new friendship. I also thought this book also explored how to life balance for middle school kids. As a adult, I still struggle with that and found that to be refershing topic. I read this book in on siting. Such a fun series!! ( )

I really enjoyed this read. I thought this book also tackled some new friendship issues both in the core group but also the complexities of new friendship. I also thought this book also explored how to life balance for middle school kids. As a adult, I still struggle with that and found that to be refershing topic. I read this book in on siting. Such a fun series!! ( )

Ashley is a new girl in Claudia's English class and Claudia's immediately smitten with her talent as an artist. The feeling appears to be mutual and everything seems great until Ashley wants Claudia to focus only on art and wants to monopolize all her time until the point where Claudia is falling behind in school work, missing Baby-sitters Club meetings, and neglecting her core group of friends. But, she really loves the art mentorship, so what should Claudia do?

This book has an interesting message/warning about false friends who want a component of you but not the whole package. No one wants to be pigeonholed by only one aspect of themselves, and no one should have to give up core parts of themselves for a relationship of any kind.

However, I do feel like the book could have handled this theme a little better. Maybe it's in part due to the shortness of the adaptation, but it felt like the BSC group turned on Claudia very quickly and were mean-spirited in their retaliations to her missing a few meetings. It is briefly touched on towards the end when everyone apologizes, but I think it didn't go far enough in explaining that their behavior was almost equally bad.

That being said, there is still a lot of positive values shown by the group, including making amends, being responsible and trustworthy, finding common ground, seeking consent, and supporting friends' hobbies and talents.

This graphic novel series has a new (third?) adaptor/illustrator. The art style is similar to the previous ones but with slightly different twists that I'm not sure I love. ( )

A transfer student upsets the status quo for the friendship group in the BSC. It's not one of my favorite episodes since so many of the characters are acting mean and petty for a lot of the book, but I do like the arc Claudia follows and her conscientious interaction with the members of the Rodowsky family for whom she babysits even in the midst of all the tempest-in-a-teapot tween drama. And there are good lessons about prioritization and time management. It's a pretty decent start for the new adapter, Gabriela Epstein. ( )

I thought the message if you can call it that, was great. It's not good to monopolize one person's time, especially if you have to manipulate them to do so. ( )