BSC #33: Claudia and the Great Search

Tagline: Claudia thinks she's adopted, and no one understands!

It's no secret that Claudia and her sister are different. For one, they don't look alike at all. Claudia loves her wild clothes and funky jewelry, and Janine dresses... well, kind of nerdy. Janine is a genius, and Claudia brings home C's - when she's lucky.

Claudia opens the family photo album to see what she and her sister looked like when they were little. But there are hardly anybaby-pictures of Claudia! And when she goes searching for her birth certificate and a birth announcement in the newspaper, Claudia can't find them.

Is Claudia Kishi who she thinks she is? Or has she been... adopted!

The book starts off with Claudia reiterating how much she hates school. Luckily for her, class is cut short, because she has to leave for a family event. Unluckily for Claudia, that event is an awards ceremony for Janine. There, Claudia is reminded of how academically superior Janine is to her, and it not only makes Claudia jealous, but it also makes her upset. Even when Claudia tries to do something nice for dinner, her parents turn it back around to Janine. Upset and unable to concentrate, Claudia heads to her family's den to look at old photos. Claudia is hoping to find proof that her and Janine were more alike as children than what they are now.

Unfortunately for Claudia, she doesn't find what she's looking for. While there are albums and albums of pictures of Janine as a newborn and a baby, there are hardly any of Claudia. Claudia's upset, but doesn't think too much of it. Going into her parents' bedroom, Claudia hopes to find more pictures there. Instead, Claudia finds a lockbox. This convinces Claudia that she must be adopted and that's why there aren't more pictures of her, and that the lockbox contains the details of her adoption.

Claudia is unsure of what to do or how to proceed. She's convinced that she can't go to her parents because they wouldn't tell her the truth. Claudia tells Stacey, who isn't entirely convinced, but is very supportive of her friend. Claudia starts digging around, and the more she finds, the more she's convinced that she's adopted: she can't find her birth announcement and she finds out that Dr Dellenkamp wasn't her original pediatrician. Claudia decides to call all the families who had baby girls born at the same time as Claudia, and sees if any of them could be her parents. All their daughters are good and accounted for, except for one. Claudia is convinced she must be that girl.

Of course, Stacey believes her, but also doesn't think that just because Claudia has ruled out the other girls, it means she's necessarily this girl. Stacey finally convinces Claudia to talk to her parents and ask for the truth. Which Claudia does. Claudia's parents explain that sadly, they just don't have many pictures of Claudia because most parents don't have too many pictures of their second child. They show her her birth announcement (in a newspaper that went out of business several years before) and reassure Claudia that she is indeed their daughter. Mrs Kishi points out that Claudia is very similar to Peaches, whom Mrs Kishi is very different from. Mr Kishi also points out that Claudia greatly resembles Mimi when she was younger, and they even show Claudia pictures to prove it. Claudia goes to bed feeling better, and even ends up spending some quality time with Janine later.

The subplot in this one is Emily Michelle, Kristy's younger adoptive sister. Emily is far behind developmentally than she should be. The doctors and Watson and Kristy's mom figure it's due to her hectic past: her mother dying, then being raised in an orphanage for awhile, then being sent halfway around the world to learn a new language and culture she had never seen before. But Kristy's worried. Watson and Kristy's mom agree that it wouldn't hurt for Emily to get some tutoring and get used to other people. After a sitting job where Claudia starts teaching Emily about shapes and colours, they decide to hire Claudia as a tutor. There Emily makes great strides and improvements, so much so that she eventually passes her preschool interview, much to everyone's delight.

Random Thoughts:

• In the back of my SS #3, the coming soon lists this book as Claudia and the Mystery of Stoneybrook. Fans of the series know that this is eventually the title of Stacey's next book, #35. I have no idea why this changed. Does anyone?? I know why the title of #35 got changed, but I'm wondering why this one was affected, and why the whole shuffle around.
• This is definitely not one of my favourites. I suppose it's realistic that a 13 year old might think she's adopted and be too afraid to ask, but I dunno. I found the main plot really boring. I really enjoyed all the stuff with Claudia and Emily though.
• It's interesting, but at the beginning of this one, Claudia speculates the Peaches and Russ (her aunt and uncle) weren't able to have kids, because they hadn't done so as of yet.
• 1) That's totes presumptuous of her. Maybe they just didn't want to! Although, I suppose back in the 80s... plus as a 13 year old... that wasn't a common thought
• 2) Although I haven't read them, I know that eventually Peaches does get pregnant, but ends up miscarrying in a book. She later gets pregnant again, and has a healthy baby girl.
• Emily Michelle is a lot older than I thought she was. For some reason, I thought she was closer to age 1. The fact that's actually already 2 years old, almost 3, surprises me.
• We learn that Emily Michelle's mother died, and that Emily was stuck in an orphanage for awhile. They never mention her father. Now, maybe he was never around and it's a really dark and tragic story (rape??), but it does lend a bit of credence to the popular fan theory that Watson had a one-night stand (hired a prostitute? vacation lover?) while on a business trip, and is in fact Emily's legitimate birth father.
• I feel so bad for Janine. Again, she's definitely the unsung hero. She's nervous about receiving such a prestigious award, so she seeks outfit advice from Claudia. Claudia just dismisses her, figuring that all of Janine's clothes are boring and the same, so it didn't matter. Janine just gets confused and eventually leaves Claudia alone.
• Yet again, more foreshadowing on Stacey's health. Yay!
• Dr Dellenkamp is definitely like, everyone's pediatrician haha
• I'm sad that nothing seems to come from Claudia helping Emily. It would have been nice to have seen her parents acknowledge it.
• I find it weird that the adoption agency that Claudia looks into apparently only specializes in Vietnamese babies. Is there really such a market for that? I mean, I can understand specializing in babies from Asian, or all babies from Europe, or cross-continental babies or what not... but it seems weird to me to specialize in babies from one specific country. Then again, maybe not haha