#53 Kristy for President

Summary

It's time for school elections at SMS, and it's no secret that some changes need to be made. The school lunches are barely edible, and (at least in the opinion of the BSC) the school play is a joke. When Stacey suggests that Kristy should run for 8th grade president, she agrees to give it some thought. I know this will come as a huge shock, considering the title of the book, but Kristy does decide to run, and asks Claudia to manage her campaign. What's more, Kristy feels like it's her duty to win, considering the other candidates: Alan Gray, Grace Blume, and Pete Black (who you'd think is evil incarnate in this book, from the way Kristy talks about him).

Pretty soon, the campaigning is going full force. SMS is plastered with posters, everyone is wearing buttons. The candidates themselves are kept pretty busy with meetings and events, and Kristy starts to feel a little overwhelmed. She's late to a candidates' meeting because she was already scheduled to talk to one of her teachers, and she's falling behind in school. Since Kristy is, well, Kristy, she manages to hold things together, more or less by finishing homework whenever she has time, and taking care of campaign stuff with whatever minutes are left over. That little plan works out okay, until....Kristy fails a science test. Her teacher gives her the chance to take it again the following day during lunch, which Kristy happily agrees to do. She plans to study (and write her first campaign speech, to be given the next day as well) all afternoon and evening. Too bad she forgot about the Krushers practice she rescheduled....

The next day is both good and bad for Kristy. Her speech goes well, but the science test doesn't. In fact, she gets and even worse grade than before. Her teacher ends up calling her mom and Watson, who decide to monitor her assignments to make sure she's doing her homework. Kristy realizes that she's trying to do too much, and she's letting a lot of important things slide. She doesn't want to be so busy that she doesn't have time to have fun, and she decides to drop out of the race. Kristy announces that fact at the campaign debate. Pete Black ends up winning, and none other than Mallory Pike wins 6th grade secretary!

Also, Jamie Newton is trying to learn to ride a bike. Practicing is all he wants to do, but he's scared of falling

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• This book was written by Nola Thacker, who's the queen of references to past books. Seriously; within the first couple of chapters of this one, she manages to mention Dawn almost staying in CA in #23, the pranks that Cokie played on both Mary Anne and Kristy, and Claudia's Honorable Mention award for the unfinished sculpture of Jackie's head.
• I HATE this stupid subplot. I normally like Jamie Newton, but I really didn't so many sitting chapters about him and his stupid bike.
• I'm surprised that Kristy didn't instantly jump at the chance to run for president, considering how much she likes to run everything.
• Is Mallory really popular enough to win a school election? When I was that age, it was all about who was "cool."
• The play that the BSC thinks is so lame is Mary Poppins. Kristy calls it "disgusting," and Dawn calls it "babyish." Mary Anne is the only one who spoke up in defense of the hated play, saying that she used to love it. Where was Stacey during this discussion? Mary Poppins is her favorite movie. Besides, Peter Pan isn't all that much more adult, and it won't be too long before they're all excited about being in that one.
• Dawn's suggestion for a replacement play is A Raisin in the Sun. That's a great play, but it's all about the experiences of an African-American family. Since there are only a handful of black students at SMS, they would inevitably have to do the play with a predominantly white cast. That seems like it would be a little...awkward to me.