<![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Oh no! The old cover said it all, the new cover is awful! Paula Danziger was a master, she had the nerdy-adolescence thing down. My friends and I, while technically too old to read it, passed this book around a lot in high school, along with the daring (for its time - it featured gay boys prominently), tragicomic Trying Hard to Hear You. (I forget who wrote that one - but it's a must-review!) We related, big-time, both to the kids as portrayed, and to the understanding adults in these novels that we hoped to become.

Sputnick

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I grew up on Judy Blume ("Superfudge" is the shizznit!) and Beverly Cleary, discovering Paula Danziger c. 7th grade. I loved how a) her books were so real in covering teenage angst, and b) how she cussed in her books lol. This 11-or 12-year-old was shocked to see 4-letter-words in these books, but loved it. I was very sad to find out that Danziger died a few years ago. Her political incorrectness is the thing so many teens can relate to. Thank you, Paula Danziger, for your real view on being a teenager! (holds up a drink)

WTF is with the Ugly Betty 2008 cover? Is the illustrator trying to be quirky, or is the publisher afraid that a picture of a fat girl will turn away potential readers.

tvpirate05

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Dodai
According to a Print Magazine article, Paula Danziger hated that the book's cover portrayed an illustrated Marcy.

When they reissued the book in 1998 Danziger had a say in the cover and approved the cat.

LunaPark

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Enthusiasm...Curbed: I'm sure it's too late for you to check this, but I'm pretty sure the book you're referring to is called "Singularity." Two twins are staying in an old family house, cleaning it up after a distant family member died. One twin spends a year inside the time-warp shack thereby allowing him to finally get the edge on his better-looking, cooler brother.

scribbles

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I have to add in (days late of course) any William Sleator....I just bought all of those again. Singularity and The Boy Who Reversed Himself just rock.

Avi

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> The Wonder Years episode with "Miss Shaw" completely ripped off this book. I wonder why PD didn't sue them.

Re lesbian overtones, Hey Dollface is awesome, but The Last of Eden is even awesomer.

jmi

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> New covers seem to be designed by people who never read the books. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is similar.

librisdraconis

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> My favorite Jez feature, thx!
I miss staying after school for the hell of it.%2

ShoplifterOfTheWorld

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Jeez, I forgot all about this book. Major blast from the past. I read it when I was 9 or 10 and I was still too young (and freakishly skinny) to relate, but I remember loving it none the less. Time warp, for real.

ULookinAtMyJunk is the Hate Mitigator

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @dingosmom1: Orange seeds! I was thinking someone had genetically engineered some orange until it had a pit like a peach.

I ain't your... Masokist

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @RayBay: Oh, and I loved this book. As well as all Barthe DeClements books ('Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade') and Sachar's 'Sixth Grade Secrets'.

RayBay

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> The problem is that we don't want reality anymore. Of course today's kids would choose the treacly pink cover over the original. Just as most people prefer Blake Lively's new nose to the slightly less cookie cutter original, or as many men think Heidi Montag post-boob and nose job is "hot".

Not to sound like a Debbie Downer. But I think we have regressed in a terrible way since the 60s and 70s, and I have no idea how one is to combat this idiotic, airbrushed, downward trend.

RayBay

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I adored this book, and There's A Bat In Bunk Five, too. Loved Paula Danziger. Now I want to read these books again!

SisterHavana

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I first read this in second grade. This book and "Speak" saved me in middle school.

ManhattanManHatin'

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I LOVED this book. Loved The Bat In Bunk Five as well, not least because it did have a kissing scene in it. Thank you so much for featuring it with the ORIGINAL cover.

Snakeophelia

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @EdnasEdibles:
I remember Bat had a kissing scene that felt pretty steamy to an 11-year-old.

All I can gather with this cover business is that the Industry/Patriarchy/Celebritocracy/Googleplex thinks that now preteen girls-pardon me, "tweeners"-want to see aspirational images instead of true reflections of their insecure, geeky selves. Anyone have a representative sample of girls around to ask?

djdreilinger

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Dodai: For real. The new cover makes me want to puke -- I guess they're trying to pull in Gossip Girl readers? Ugh.

Nicolars

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Oh. God. This. Book. I love how, in the final passages, the narrator says, "I still hate my father." Talk about a delicious, ambiguous, perfect, ending. I agree the new cover is hideous and wrong.

olympia72

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @TheFormerJuneBronson: The Moon Has No Atmosphere.

There's lesbian undertones to Harriet the Spy? Sweet. I never read those.

nardo218

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @eeva: Whoa. Fifteen. This features gives me flashbacks to things I didn't know were still inside my brain. Amazing.

3cardkitty

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Oh, I love Paula Danziger. I'm buying up all the old books I loved as a kid, too. This Place Has No Atmosphere was my particular favorite.

Of course, I have a whole shelf full of Baby-Sitters Club books now. And I bought the first Sunset Island book off half.com, too.

robotitron

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> um yeah. my mind is a little bit blown. lizzie skurnick... of like englewood, nj who played the cello? i remember wanting to be all super smart like you when i was a kid, just one grade lower than you.
craziness. thank you jezebel for showing me how small the world really is.

reesemcg

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @rosie7:
Latin Lovers are referenced in Judy Blume's "Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself" about the New Jersey family that moves to Florida for the winter.


smoakes

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> hate the new cover....so PC it make me want to throw up.

the historian

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> thanks for the memories.

the historian

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @eeva: Jane's heartthrob was Stan....on the cover of the version I had he was dreamy....I DESPERATELY wanted some boy to give me his ID bracelet....*sigh* and I HATED that prissy girl that made Jane feel mousy. They drove into the city in the delivery van....whoah. Free-associating here....

Tissa

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Serious flashback :) I hate the new sugary cover. ICK!

femmesavante

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Dogtanian: Um, was that the one where there was like a shack in a clearing in the woods and it warps time and maybemakes people evil? I feel like I vaugely remember this, if it's the one I'm thinking of. I think one of the most satisfying things is remembering these wierd tidbits of childhoohd books and then rediscovering them...which is why this is my favorite thing on jezebel.

Enthusiasm...Curbed

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Tissa: FIFTEEN! Oh my god, so good. When they go to the city, and she eats Chinese food for the first time, and finds something in it that looks like a little hand? And when he gives her his bracelet, or something? I could go on, but I will refrain.

On Danziger, I must have taken The Pistachio Prescription out from the mobile library (it was a van o' books that came every Tuesday, and it smelled, but it introduced me to Paula Danziger!) about seventeen times. I must go find it immediately.*

*Maybe, judging by what was done to this cover, they'll have changed the pistachios to something less fattening, though? Like now she has an obsession with wheatgrass pellets?

Eeva

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Masokist: A seed found in Ye Olde Orange (fruit-ly speaking).

Mrs. DeLesseps To You, Dahling

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Love the book, but WTF with the new Hannah Montana cover?

Sally Tomato

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Enthusiasm...Curbed: Interstellar Pig was great. He wrote another book about a cloning machine which was even better, but I forget what that was called.

Dogtanian

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @VanDessa: I was just thinking of Welcome Home, Jelly Bean the other day!! Who wrote it?

squirrelcop

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I just want someone to tell me what an orange pit is.

I ain't your... Masokist

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Can I just gush for a minute about this feature? I loved this book (being a slightly fat extremely uncoordinated nerd myself.) I ate these books up like crack. Does anyone remember "Welcome Home Jelly Bean" by any chance? Or "My Mom, the Wolfman and Me"?

VanDessa

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> my childhood was all about the B.C.D.

B - Judy Blume
C - Ellen Conford (please write about her books soon!), Beverly Cleary
D - Paula Danziger

silkyjumbo

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Paula Danziger needs a minion to bow, scrape, and offer a shelf-full of awards.

That is all.

Rooo sez BISH PLZ

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> This is my all-time favorite YA book - the only one I re-read multiple times. YAY!

washionfore

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> ima get this at the library.

incurable paranoiac

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> why are people today fucking with my childhood. cut the shit. see...bitches looking for stitches again.

Incognegro is wshing on a starfruit

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Enthusiasm...Curbed: Oh my god, yes, I agree! I read this every summer as a kid, and even wrote my own version of it.

And as for Paula Danziger, i so wanted to be Cassandra. I thought she was the coolest/angstiest ever. Remember her awesome best friend?

srslyallie

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I vote for the Westing Game next. I know it's not a teen angst book, but it's damn good. (ie, I reread it last summer and I'm 24.)

Enthusiasm...Curbed

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @TheUptightMidwesterner: Bribery. Helloooo. The end justifies the means.

Ladies-I received and began The Egypt Game last night. It is soooooo good!

Mrs. DeLesseps To You, Dahling

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> My husband asked our granddaughter what she wants to be when she grows up...she said "Hannah Montana." My question is, do I start that macrame' necklace now?

Mrs. DeLesseps To You, Dahling

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Tissa: Fifteen - I had it on perma-checkout from my grade school library. Like Jane, I was not a "cashmere-sweater kind of girl." And probably still not...sigh.

Mego

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @southernbitch: Cynthia Voight...she wrote that series about those runaway kids right? For some reason I have two random memories from those books those stuck in my head - when they're eating pb&j at a picnic table because it's all they can afford and then there's something about making a boat?

Enthusiasm...Curbed

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I was only thinking of this yesterday, that's made my day. It's amazing how the memories flood back. I can't wait to have a daughter to share all these books with. Have any of you read 'Shadow in Hawthorne Bay' - I can't remember who wrote it, but I Loved it as a kid.

mepo

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Also .....It's an Aardvark-Eat-Turtle World.....anyone? That covered sooo many issues. I can't remember if it was that one or a Judy Blume one that referred to some guy as a Latin Lover. I used to write about how bad I wanted a Latin Lover in my diary.

rosie7

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Thanks so much for writing about this book. I read it when I was in 4th grade and my family moved 4 times in 6 months. I started getting pimples and reading this book made it feel cooler somehow. Thanks so much for writing this column. What would puberty have been without these books.

rosie7

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Suggestions for future columns:

Hey Dollface, by Debora Hautzig (this one has lesbian undertones!)

Fifteen, The Luckiest Girl, Jean and Johnny by Beverly Cleary...totally old school but I read them endlessley...I JUST WANTED A BOYFRIEND, DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!

Tissa

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> The new cover is cute, but completely, completely awful for the book. I guess someone thought that no one would read a book with the old cover, because people don't like looking at unattractive girls.

I remember this book very vaguely. I read it in 6th grade, because Paula Danziger also wrote half of PS Longer Letter Later, which I probably read about twenty times when I was a kid.

lynxwings

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I thought she didn't like the purple pantsuit so much as the silver jewelry she bought to go with it....she liked jewelry shopping because it doesn't matter what size you are....love those books.

Tissa

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @richcreamerybutter: OMG Yes! House of Stairs was such a creepy book. (I actually just ordered Interstellar Pig from half.com on a whim. It was just as intersting, but slightly less creepy, if I remember correctly...)

Enthusiasm...Curbed

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Ahhhhh! Another book I read til it fell apart in my fingers, but had forgotten about until 4pm on a Friday! Thank you! "Baby blimp" just brought it all rushing back. And the new cover? Looks like chick lit for kids. Bleh.

Beautifully-written post, though.

Mego

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> If i may be pedantic for a minute, though, it's "apoplectic." As in, apoplexy, or about to have a stroke. Good use of the word, though.

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Candyboots: Oh, God, the purple pantsuit. "Grapes don't wear jewelry."

In my head, I just know that pantsuit is doubleknit poly.

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> It is amazing how little these books do to accomodate the hero's/heroine's desires, when pretty much the entire culture these days revolves around how to make children happy (or conversely, how to make adults feel, well, more like children). Why did life lessons for teens go out of style so quickly?

missdotparker

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @EdnasEdibles: For some reason, I remember There's a Bat in Bunk Five better than I do the original. I think I read those books when I was too young to *get* The Cat Ate My Gymsuit.

frozenblueberries

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Weekly Reader, folks!

I would like Fine Lines to analyze "House of Stairs" next week. This book inexplicably turned me on in the 7th grade.

richcreamerybutter

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Second Dodai.

Elspeth

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Reading this great review/lookback/whatever, I am struck by how much of Donnie Darko, is, apparently ripped straight from this book. Anyone else?

olivia2.0

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I never bought books as a kid--I only ever borrowed them from the library. Now I'm going through this phase of buying up all the books I cherished when I was younger. I'm terrified that by the time I have kids, none of the great ones will be left on the library shelves. Though I can't stand the new covers either.

partystripes

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @FrostyTempleton: Yes, my 35 year old self loves it as well. I echo everyone who says they want to go out and buy or borrow these books.

Pithlit

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> My favorite detail about this book is the purple pantsuit. REMEMBER THE PURPLE PANTSUIT? And how it boosts Marcy's self-esteem? I remember wishing I had a purple pantsuit even as it sounded horrifying to my 80s fashion sensibilties.

Candyboots

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I had forgotten about this book until reading this. I'd read this in the 3rd or 4th grade. Now it's all coming back to me. What's weird is that every time I see or hear "Ms." I think of Ms. Finney. I'd just forgotten about the rest of the book. I think that was the first time I'd ever heard of anyone using Ms.

Pithlit

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I remember all these books! And they were GOOD. Is anyone writing good kids books anymore, I wonder? Or is it all the dreaded Harry Potter?

@mcgeorge: I remember There's a Bat in Bunk Five, too!

zivah

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @TheFormerJuneBronson: I loved "This Place Has No Atmosphere." I remember the cover of that one showed the main character with bobbed hair and bangs. I got my mom to cut my bangs like the girl on the cover.

layladylan

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> As soon as I saw the old cover I thought, "They would never release this cover these days, because they wouldn't dare to put an actual fat girl on it." Then I scrolled down and actually saw the new cover. Horrors! I was so sad that I was right.

layladylan

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> i need to go back to my parents house and reclaim all the books i bought when i was a kid. i had an impressive library, and i don't think i've ever enjoyed books as much as i did when i was 11. i totally ordered a cynthia voight book over the internet last week. love her.

southernbitch

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> To quote the snotty maitre d in Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "I weep for the future" when I see the new cover. Hate to think what MY prepubescent self would have thought when reading a book about a fat girl who is illustrated on the cover to look flat-out skinny, but I am sure it would be along the lines of "if THAT is fat, I must be grotesquely obese"

Blech.

I fondly remember this book and the sequel, There is a Bat in Bunk Five, where Marcy is a camp counselor. Wish I'd held on to my copies of both of these gems, though I do still have The Pistachio Prescription and The Divorce Express on my bookshelves....

mcgeorge

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @FrostyTempleton: yeah, I want to fill my Amazon wish list with all the Judy Blume/Paula D/etc books I used to read, but I hate the new covers. Ebay/Half, I guess.

summerwheatley

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I loved this, and think Joel is just dying to bone Marcy.

quitpretendingthanks

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I'm only going to say that those fuckers at Puffin should have hired me when they had the chance. What the fuck is this new cover all about?

I love this book. Paula Danzinger will always be my #1.

Lady Skittlehattington

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> That new cover makes me want to scream. Marcy doesn't have highlights or hipster glasses or wear pink. Marcy has pimples and bad hair and is fat. The entire book is about how Marcy feels about herself and her appearance--don't pretty up the cover just to sell more books. I'm sure it makes young girls even more paranoid about their bodies if Cutsie McPinky is their example of a blimp.

GordonGartrell

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> One more thing - I love Fine Lines. My thirties are coming to a close and I find myself becoming very nostalgic for the "good old days". This column reminds me of those days and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you ever so much. :)

FrostyTempleton

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> See, everytime I read Fine Lines, I go to a 2nd hand book store and buy my teen nieces all these books, and they think I am insane. I cannot get these girls to read them, and me and my sisters end up talking about them for hours. I don't know how to get them to put down the Ipods and Jonas Brothers and actually GET THEM TO READ!!!

TheUptightMidwesterner

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @golddigger: This Place Has No Atmosphere. I was just mentioning it today on my journal because of a similarity in plot to the ideas about urban redensification in this Atlantic article.

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I think this book is why I drew a feminist cartoon for my mom to display on her desk at work. I want to be Ms. Finney!

bloislane

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Oh, wait, who was the one in Malpractice, then? Damn. You're right; Cassandra was in Pistachio Prescription. She had a beautiful mom and a beautiful older sister, and she plucked out her eyebrows.

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> There's a second book where she's a camp counselor at some arts camp with Ms. Finney called There's a Bat In Bunk Five. She's thin in the second book and has a boyfriend.

EdnasEdibles

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @golddigger: ::hangs head:: Cassandra was the one who got shit from people at school for being a ninth-grade girl dating an eighth-grade boy. She had a pretty older sister who moved in with her boyfriend and their father freaked right the fuck out. That one was Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice?

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> [en.wikipedia.org]

Sadness.

brookidy

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Most of my old books mysteriously disappeared from my parents' house while I was away at college. I've been slowly replacing what I can by scouring the used book stores in town, but it's taking a long time because I refuse to buy the updated covers. Refuse!!

FrostyTempleton

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @golddigger: *to a lesbian reading. Ugh, comment system = weird on my browser.

ALSO ALSO ALSO did anyone read the matthew martin series by her? OR the one where the girl goes to live on the moon? it's so fun and dated!

golddigger

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Jeez, I can see myself looking at the cover as a preteen and thinking "If this is the character that's fat and geeky and not pretty, I must be a troglodyte." Good going, book publishers!

Lollia

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @lina_lamont: The Pistachio Prescription. I love all of her stuff.

brookidy

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @BAngieB: Lesbian undertones for the win! Try submitting Harriet the Spy

golddigger

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I still have this book! Its under my bed somewhere.
I loathe the new cover.

Cassandra was the girl in 'The Pistachio Precription'
I loved that book so much.

LMusic

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I love all her books. And the original cover is fabulous! And, she totally had a crush on Ms. Finney.

BAngieB

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @golddigger: And there's this one book about a girl who is a comedienne// mans the school radio station and has a secret crush on the other DJ, I think? But he likes some pretty girl? But then they end up together in the end? Or is that even by Paula Danziger?

OK now I'm confusing myself.

golddigger

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> my life was very similar to marcy except without the love interest and the magical paula danziger-created plotline when marcy gets thinner in the later books. but i did participate in gym class.

rednrowdy

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @lina_lamont: Oh! That's the book about the girl named Cassandra who is jealous of her 'pretty" sisters and then turns out to be pretty herself (and more book-smart or something). What was that book called?

golddigger

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> i still have all of the Paula Danziger books with the original covers somewhere in my mother's house.

I should try and retrieve them ASAP.

This one one of my all-time faves.

SharonTaint

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> ...by the way, lina_lamont, I wrote that last line without knowing you said the EXACT SAME THING. Great minds, etc. I'll try something else: it's an atrocity exhibition.

epiclady

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I was just thinking about this book about a week ago, especially the line where she gives up her bowl of ice cream after dinner, then looks in the mirror to see if doing so made her skinny.

That thought process always resonated with me as a child, and as a woman now, I still think that way. Everything about this book was fantastic. Thanks for bringing it to the attention of lots of people who've never heard about it before.

Oh, and the new cover is a complete abomination.

epiclady

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> This book is wonderful. One of my absolute favorites from my middle school years. The new cover doesn't really match the story inside though.

AthertonMerriweather

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> The new cover is an abomination. The fake cat is almost as offensive as the stick-arms.

Paula Danziger rocked my world when I was eleven. There was this book, and then one about pistachios? Love her.

lina_lamont

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> LOL, I totally read this book as a kid and just a few days ago was trying to remember the title. Thanks, Jezebel! You're more service-y than the service publications you mock! ;)

golddigger

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I always liked this book. But what is with new cover making it all happy and hearts and flowers?

flackette is frustrated

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Dodai: For reals. The new cover looks like Lisa Loeb in a fucked up fun house mirror. And why is the Fancy Feast cat staring at her? The scale is all wrong! The color is wrong! Everything is wrong!

hortense

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Agree that the new cover is horrible. And I read this when I was so naive that "plant grass on Mr. Stone" made me wonder 1) how one would do that--sod? and 2) why he could be busted for it.

I don't remember exactly what I thought of Ms. Finney leaving at the end, but I probably didn't think it was as cowardly then as I do now. Then again, the adult world was different in those days, and the other faculty members might have made life much harder for her than the kids or the community would have.

I lurve her books. I always wondered what happened to Marcy after Bunk Five.

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> did I read this? oh, god. the teddy bear full of orange pits just sounds soo familiar. I wasn't a kid that long ago! but I do drink a lot. hmm.

cupcakesofdeath

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> I was a Henry Huggins girl myself.

Ptarmigan

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> @Dodai: She's not even fat!

JessicaLovejoy: Wanton Trollop

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> Love Paula D.

Hooplehead

]]> <![CDATA[<i>The Cat Ate My Gymsuit</i>: A Pocket Full Of Orange Pits]]> the new cover sux. original cover FTW.

Dodai

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