Class of '89: Freshman
Class of '89: Freshmanby Linda A. Cooney
Four girls. Friendly, good-hearted Bets. Laurel, lonely and unsure. Micki, who tries to hard. And Page, who has it much too easy.Micki wants to make her mark freshman year. She's pulling the class together and doing all the work. No wonder she can't stand it that gorgeous Page gets all the credit - without lifting a finger. Laurel's caught between two friends. One's the most popular girl in their class; the other's a boy who doesn't fit in - which one has to go? Bets just wants to be Doug's pal... She doesn't know what to do when he says they should be more than friends.Freshman year means they can be anyone they want to be. Why is it so hard to find out who they really are? (transcribed from back of book)
Ah, my readers! I am sure you have been longing to get back to the halls of Redwood High have you not? Now that I have found the missing book in the Class of '89 series* I can gladly take you there over the next month! Our first stop of course is with the Freshman year of the Class of '89 and if you were paying attention to my Class of '88 posts you'll know that they are the second ever Freshman class to attend the shiny new school! So exciting!Also the summary on the back of the book is really very wrong compared to what you read between the covers. And this is something I have wondered about since the first time I read the book in the late 80s - what girl is supposed to be which character on that cover?! I have tried once more to try and fit the cover girl with the description of the characters in the book and I am still uncertain. I think that Page is the tiny dark-haired one on the far left of the cover but I'm not entirely sure. The other three? They are interchangeable as far as I am concerned. All of them seem to be blond. Only one apparently has "cornsilk" coloured hair... is that supposed to be blond or red? Gah!This book also has the most amazing example of how pop-culture references don't exactly hold up over time - at least not always with the same meaning. *clears throat* and I quote:
But finally on Wednesday, Jason decided to take things in hand. Just moments after the final bell rang, Jason did what had become to be known on campus as his 'O.J. Simpson';
Wait... so he murdered a bunch of people and then got away with it? Or, he led the police on what was possibly the slowest car chase in the world?
his energetic sprint from his last class to his locker, where it seemed he dashed over, under, and around about half of the Redwood student body.
Ohhhh! Right! Before 1994 O.J. Simpson was known for FOOTBALL! Riiight. And this book, though written in 1988 was actually set in 1985! My bad!Bets doesn't really play a large role in this story, it's mostly Micki and Page. There are some horrible and mean things these girls do to each other and I felt like this book actually portrays the unknown and trying to fit in feeling that we all have entering the ninth grade - whether it be your first year in high school or your third (like in Quebec). Close-knit groups do not let new people join in the fun and the new people resent the close-knit kids and the close-knit kids generally feel that the outsiders think they are better than them. So sad.There was this one quote at the end of the 15th chapter that I found really summed up high school to a "T".
"I don't understand why the world is the way it is," Jed said. "School is this bizarre place that we have to go to every day, where all kids seem to care about is who has this and who lives there and wins this and loses that. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with what we feel inside."
Good ol' outcast, different Jed. That one paragraph pretty much sums up why I felt so connected to these books. Even if I had nothing in common with the rich kids and California and the age difference was there, there were parts of this book that GOT what I was feeling even if it wasn't like that in real life. No one admits to feeling different than their classmates. People try so hard to fit in and make an impression and care too much about things that don't really matter.Being a teen is hard and it sucks and as cheesy as these books from 1988 are, they got it back then. Books today also get it but I don't relate to them as much for a couple of reasons. First, I don't have the same way of thinking as I did when I was 12 or 14. I'm not as passionately emotional about everything I do or say. I still know how I FELT about these things but I don't react to new things with the same gusto. Second, the emotions may be the same but the technology is different. I'm not saying that I don't get books that have cell phones and internet in them, I'm just saying that I can't imagine how difficult it must be to grow up surrounded by all that extra noise. It's got to feel different than growing up with pen and paper and rotary phones, I know it does. I just can't put myself in that situation. Likely because it terrifies me.But I digress!I remember now that I did not care as much for the Class of '89 as I did for the Class of '88. Not sure if it was just that I had no connection to the year or just that the characters were slightly more bland. I'm trying to remember if I read all 4 books back then or if I wasn't able to find them all to complete the set. I shall see as I continue through the years with this four girls as they prepare to graduate high school.* I found my missing Sophomore book at BetterWorldBooks and it's on its way to me! I know this because the book wrote me to tell me it was on its way! I think I might write a post about how much BetterWorldBooks impressed me.Class of '89
- Freshman
- Sophomore
- Junior
- Senior