Mean Girls

Speaking of of nasty tweens, I just recently discovered the Taffy Sinclair books, written by Betsy Haynes in the late '70s and early '80s. The Dairi Burger has included a few posts about them among its usual SVH mix, so when I came across a bunch of the books for sale, I snapped them right up.

Besides being about the real kinds of things middle school girls are concerned with (unlike, say, the BSC), the series is really cool for another reason. All the books are named for Taffy Sinclair ... the antagonist! Jana—the actual main character—and her friends are so obsessed with hating Taffy that they have an Against Taffy Sinclair Club. In fourth grade, I was part of the We Hate _____ Club. Why form this kind of un-fan society? Well, maybe the girl you're hating on is a total bitch (like _____) or maybe you're just hella jealous.

From the first book's back-cover copy:
It was bad enough when snobby Taffy Sinclair was just a pretty face. But now, she's gone and developed you-know-whats. This calls for drastic measures from the Against Taffy Sinclair Club.

I don't want to give everything away, but let's just say the drastic measures include a "bustline developer" ordered from the back of Redbook and a secret sub-society known as Lambda Rho, for "little raisins."

I've read the first two books already, and really, Taffy isn't all that bad. Maybe the claws will come out in Blackmailed by Taffy Sinclair?