I’ve
never read this book before, for one blatant reason: I knew I was going to hate
the dated, non-‘people-first’ language. Actually, if I remember correctly, I
started reading it and stopped for that exact reason. Let’s see if I have
better luck this time.
Abby’s
joined what the book calls a Unified Special Olympics team. Special Olympics
athletes are playing on a team with athletes without impairments; quite
frankly, the only reason I can see for this is that they can throw a PSA about
the Special Olympics, because the rest of the plot doesn’t seem to benefit from
that fact. One of the other athletes, Erin, is as good at soccer as Abby is,
which is something Abby isn’t used to, and she’s given the position Abby wants.
The two of them start competing against each other, trying to one up another,
and refusing to play nice. The Krushers form a booster club to support the
team, so all the kids get to see Abby acting badly and find out that both Abby
and Erin get benched for two games. Abby accepts her position, apologizes to
Erin (and Kristy, who calls Abby on her B.S.) and moves on.
Meanwhile,
Abby’s mother decides the family needs to spend the weekend of their late
father’s birthday with his parents,
whom they haven’t spent much time with since he’d died. Abby doesn’t want to
go, so she sorta lies/sorta misleads her mother into not making her go. He real
reason for not wanting to go? She hates visiting her father’s grave, because
it’s too real.
Interesting
tidbits
Aaaaaand
Abby starts the book with a pun on page one. She’s so late to the meeting that
she’s running. You know how BSC books almost always start with the narrator
describing the scene and then saying, “I’m getting ahead of myself”? This time,
Abby is running ahead of herself.
Abby’s
now firmly described as being medium, instead of super-tall like she originally
was. This is the second book in a row to use that adjective for her.
In
order to verify what I’ve said recently, Abby is indeed allergic to tomatoes
and shellfish. Going back to the last book, Abby ate with the Brewers and
Derek’s friends at a seafood restaurant. There would be plenty of things she
could eat there, but depending on how severe her allergy is, she might have
problems just eating near shellfish
or if the same cooking surface was used.
Aaaaaaaaand,
we have our first ‘mental retardation’ on page 6. It definitely could be worse
though, because at least it says ‘players with mental retardation.’ By the way,
the players with impairments are known as athletes and the ones without are
called partners. I think it’s kind of offensive for them to even create a
distinction.
Abby
tries to convince the rest of the BSC that soccer is awesome. She tells Claudia
it’s a moving art form, and Stacey points out that it’s all based in geometry.
I don’t think she could convince my cousin, though, who spends the entire World
Cup whining each time because it’s taking televised time from ‘real sports
people actually care about.’
Did you
know that Kid Kits are not kids used to assemble children? Abby is sooo
hilarious.
Since
when do middle schools have varsity and junior varsity? We always had A team
and B team, which is the same thing SMS has in book #129.
Other
players on the team: Jojo (lol), Petra, Connie, Sandy, Annalise, and Jeana
Abby
admits to expecting less out of the athletes than partners, simply because they
have impairments. I think that’s fair enough, because how many people with
mental impairments have they ever met before?
I swear
they only have a player named Petra so Abby can make the pun that she looked
petra-fied.
There
are seriously a whole bunch of pages just explaining soccer positions and
rules, and it’s wicked boring. And, unlike my cousin, I love soccer.
Abby’s
competition with Erin starts before the first practice even begins, when the
two of them get into a race during laps. And then Coach Wu gives Abby’s
preferred position—center forward, pretty much the plum position on the team—to
Erin, so Abby’s jealous.
Ha! The
name of the ice cream store Coach Wu takes the soccer team to? Thirty-two
Flavors and Then Some. That’s not so subtle there.
Abby
really is a horrible sport. She resents Erin for getting ‘her’ position and
being more popular with her teammates, so she decides Erin is a ‘showoff’ and
the rest of the team are ‘phonies.’ Later, after the team wins, she tells Erin
she knows more about soccer than Erin does…after Erin (truthfully) says that
they lost because Abby kept leaving her defensive position to try to score. (It
may not have been exclusively Abby’s fault, but when she’s spending all her
time in midfield or forward, trying to score, it makes it a lot easier for the
other team to get past the defense.) Then again, when Abby was first
introduced, she said she wasn’t a team player, so maybe that’s the real
problem.
The
title quote comes from when Shannon-the-dog decided to join the soccer game and
a soccer player tripped over her.
At one
point Haley calls the soccer team ‘footballers’ and Karen gets ready to argue
with her about it. Haley would be right in just about every other country in
the world. (Plus, footballers sounds so much cooler than soccer players.)
Mallory
mentions that the triplets play soccer, yet I remember at least once Jeff
complaining that the triplets didn’t like soccer. I guess it’s just a sign of
the times; in 1986, soccer wasn’t very popular, but by 1997, it was a lot more
played.
Stoneybrook
United loses a second game, largely because Abby refuses to pass the ball to
Erin, who was wide open. Instead, she takes the shot herself and misses; the
other team scores through the empty hole Abby created in the defense. She and
Erin get into a shouting match and nearly pound each other. The most obnoxious
part of this, though? Karen and company sitting on the sidelines, saying things
like “Isn’t she supposed to pass now?” “They’re not going to fight, are they?”
and “They were bad sports.” We all know all that without the kiddie commentary.
Abby
doesn’t tell anyone she’s benched. Instead, Karen finds out by talking to Erin,
who was also benched. Kristy gives Abby a totally contemptuous look, but I can
only imagine the look Kristy would have given if she’d known the whole story.
(Abby didn’t tell her mother she’d been benched either, and used the game as an
excuse not to go spend the weekend with her paternal grandparents.)
Claudia
spelling. Yay! Hapen, rihgt, wasch, allot (a lot), leest, fighte. She also uses
your for you’re, twice.
The
boosters throw a carwash, which is (mostly) too boring to mention. But the
first customer is the Pink Clinker, which Nannie then agrees they can park on
the corner to gather attention for the carwash. They describe the Pink Clinker
as “the big, old pink car.” I’ve mentioned before that I pictured the Pink Clinker
as a Volkswagen Beetle, but this totally has me picturing an early-80s
Cadillac: a giant boat of a car.
Odd.
Abby goes running in Miller’s Park, mentioning that “from what I’ve heard”
there was a fight with a developer over the park that ended with it being
declared a historic monument. Umm, that happened in Mystery #24. Abby’s first
mystery was #23, so she was around when that happened.
Leave
it to Abby to suggest a whole bunch of really punny soccer team names when
Kristy suggests a Krushers-spinoff soccer team.
So Abby
tells her mother the truth about the soccer team, and about why she didn’t want
to visit her father’s grave. Her mom understands her and accepts Abby for who
she is and what she’s done, which is really nice, if you think about it. I mean,
Abby’s apologizing for not talking to her mother and for not being ready to go
back to her father’s grave…and neither of those is really a crime (or even
necessarily something to apologize for). And her mom is cool with it because
Abby can’t help what she feels, and she’s already worked out for herself that
she made some bad choices.
So the
Special Olympics aspect could have been way worse. They actually use
people-first language throughout the book, and don’t refer to the actual mental
impairments much. Instead, a point is made of how similar the athletes and
partners are. Most of the time, the only way you can tell the difference
between the athletes and partners are that one of the athletes stutters and
several of them are described as acting a little younger than the partners.
(When I taught special education, my students—ages nine through
thirteen—largely still believed in Santa and many of them acted a year or two
younger than they really were. It’s not always true, but it’s not horribly
offensive, either.) The only awkward part is when Erin calls Abby on her bad
sportsmanship. Abby tells Erin she’s a better athlete than Erin is, and Erin
replies, “Why? Because I have mental retardation?” I cringed big-time at that
point. It’s poorly phrased for a couple different reasons, at least partly
because mental retardation is a
dated-sounding term. I wouldn’t have been nearly as bothered if Erin had said,
“Why? Because I’m in special education?” or used the term special needs or even
disability.
Outfits
Claudia:
crop top muscle shirt batikked in green and blue, skinny black shorts, one blue
sock and one green, Doc Martens, button earrings; oversized t-shirt with purple
and white soccer balls and matching earrings
Stacey:
purple silk t-shirt
Mary
Anne: purple striped shirt
Jessi:
purple leotard
Mallory:
purple and white socks
Next:
Our final super special! Saaaaaaad!
I found Erin's comment jarring, too.
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