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lorien13's review
3.0
I will never understand parents that control their kids. I just...don't get it. Maybe it's because of my family, but I just can't understand a person that thinks a child is a robot, something to control. You can't. You can't choose a damn thing for them, once they can start moving. Which is before their born.
That is a lesson that the main character and her family have to learn. Maggie learned to let go, live, and be herself, the person no one can control but herself. It was nice, and I hope she'll continue to do that.
That is a lesson that the main character and her family have to learn. Maggie learned to let go, live, and be herself, the person no one can control but herself. It was nice, and I hope she'll continue to do that.
valhecka's review
4.0
So Maggie basically is me, except with added singing abilities and a famous dad - family situation, position in school, identity among friends, tendency to capslock when excited...
This one really struck me. She's a great well-rounded character and I love her voice. Should probably track down her other two diaries for the hell of it...
This one really struck me. She's a great well-rounded character and I love her voice. Should probably track down her other two diaries for the hell of it...
finesilkflower's review
3.0
Maggie's not going to sing. Don't make Maggie sing.
Full disclosure: this diary is peppered with Maggie's poems and song lyrics. I did not read them.
When Maggie was originally introduced in BSC #23 [b:Dawn on the Coast|558328|Dawn on the Coast (The Baby-Sitters Club, #23)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387723115s/558328.jpg|226354], she was vaguely characterized as the Stacey/Claudia of the club: the fashion-experimental daughter of a movie mogul. She had a green rat tail. By the time of California Diaries, she's aged out of that punk nonsense--she judges Sunny, now, for her black lipstick--and she's become The Perfect One. Her father pressures her to have a "five year plan" and decide what to do with her life, and she juggles multiple extracurriculars with perfect grades.
Taking its cue once again from My So-Called Life, this book has Maggie sort of accidentally falling into a role as singer for a friend's band. (But only after categorically refusing to sing and being tiresomely cajoled by every character for half the book.) But the Battle of the Bands is the same day as an important professional event of her dad's that she has to attend! Time for one of those complicated two-places-at-once plans, wheee! (Ducky's driving, obvs.)
While I relate to Maggie's obsession with grades and plans and pro-con lists, I find her hard to like. When her friends try to do anything for her, her first instinct is to suspect them of ulterior motives (which I guess is understandable, with friends like Dawn and Sunny). Still, she feels like a realistic teen.
Highlights: Delightfully creepy self-haircutting while manically laughing scene.
Other Characters are Horrible People: Maggie sees Sunny as a "high-maintenance friend," someone with legitimate problems but who "throws her problems in your face." This seems fairly consistent with what we've seen of Sunny, although it's obviously more sympathetic from the inside. She describes Dawn as "Dawn the peacemaker," always trying to distract her friends from their issues with inane talk. Ducky is "on all the time, but you get used to that." Only Amalia is described glowingly, and that's because (a) Maggie doesn't know her very well yet and (b) she's poorly sketched in as a character and we don't know any of her flaws yet.
Timing: November 9 to December 3
Revised Timeline: This is where I figure out how old the characters would be if time passed in the series. I originally reasoned that Dawn's first diary took place the September after her college graduation, and each Diary seems to progress only a few days after the last. So here we are. Maggie's father's insistence that he was already practicing his career by the time he was her age makes a lot more sense if she's 21/22 than 13. And it also makes sense for a goody-goody kid who graduated top of her class to flounder and feel groundless when she emerges into the world and finds there's no one to give her a gold star anymore. Maggie's journey of discovering that things can be fun in and of themselves even if they don't lead specifically to an advance on the Ladder of Life strikes me as an apt lesson for young adulthood.
Full disclosure: this diary is peppered with Maggie's poems and song lyrics. I did not read them.
When Maggie was originally introduced in BSC #23 [b:Dawn on the Coast|558328|Dawn on the Coast (The Baby-Sitters Club, #23)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387723115s/558328.jpg|226354], she was vaguely characterized as the Stacey/Claudia of the club: the fashion-experimental daughter of a movie mogul. She had a green rat tail. By the time of California Diaries, she's aged out of that punk nonsense--she judges Sunny, now, for her black lipstick--and she's become The Perfect One. Her father pressures her to have a "five year plan" and decide what to do with her life, and she juggles multiple extracurriculars with perfect grades.
Taking its cue once again from My So-Called Life, this book has Maggie sort of accidentally falling into a role as singer for a friend's band. (But only after categorically refusing to sing and being tiresomely cajoled by every character for half the book.) But the Battle of the Bands is the same day as an important professional event of her dad's that she has to attend! Time for one of those complicated two-places-at-once plans, wheee! (Ducky's driving, obvs.)
While I relate to Maggie's obsession with grades and plans and pro-con lists, I find her hard to like. When her friends try to do anything for her, her first instinct is to suspect them of ulterior motives (which I guess is understandable, with friends like Dawn and Sunny). Still, she feels like a realistic teen.
Highlights: Delightfully creepy self-haircutting while manically laughing scene.
Other Characters are Horrible People: Maggie sees Sunny as a "high-maintenance friend," someone with legitimate problems but who "throws her problems in your face." This seems fairly consistent with what we've seen of Sunny, although it's obviously more sympathetic from the inside. She describes Dawn as "Dawn the peacemaker," always trying to distract her friends from their issues with inane talk. Ducky is "on all the time, but you get used to that." Only Amalia is described glowingly, and that's because (a) Maggie doesn't know her very well yet and (b) she's poorly sketched in as a character and we don't know any of her flaws yet.
Timing: November 9 to December 3
Revised Timeline: This is where I figure out how old the characters would be if time passed in the series. I originally reasoned that Dawn's first diary took place the September after her college graduation, and each Diary seems to progress only a few days after the last. So here we are. Maggie's father's insistence that he was already practicing his career by the time he was her age makes a lot more sense if she's 21/22 than 13. And it also makes sense for a goody-goody kid who graduated top of her class to flounder and feel groundless when she emerges into the world and finds there's no one to give her a gold star anymore. Maggie's journey of discovering that things can be fun in and of themselves even if they don't lead specifically to an advance on the Ladder of Life strikes me as an apt lesson for young adulthood.
sammah's review
3.0
Of all the California Diaries books/characters, Maggie was really my least favorite. At least in this first journal of her's anyway, she just didn't resonate. Her plot got more interesting when they really dove into her eating disorder issues, but this book just didn't pack much of a punch. While her family issues are pretty messy, especially her mom's hinted at drinking problem, it didn't get into her issues deep enough. Though her Britney Spears-esque hair chopping off melt down WAS pretty good.
xtinamorse's review
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/california-diaries-3-maggie
engpunk77's review
2.0
Because she writes the babysitter's club series, I figured this may be an easy read for some of my 7th grade girls. I couldn't get into it, and I'm 3/4 finished. The protagonist is really into singing, is an over-achiever, goal-oriented, and totally rich. She writes and revises her own songs throughout, which was kind of cool, but really, nothing sparked my interest. Blah, blah. I don't even know to whom I'd recommend it, so I guess I'll get rid of it and make room on my shelves for something I can get excited about. When I'm excited, the kids get excited. That's what I've learned.
Update: Well, there are a lot of good reviews from what seems to be teens for this one....I'll just keep it there hoping that some day it'll find a good match.
Update: Well, there are a lot of good reviews from what seems to be teens for this one....I'll just keep it there hoping that some day it'll find a good match.
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