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Taffy Sinclair #9
The Truth About Taffy Sinclair
After years of hating Taffy, previously known only through the eyes of Janna and the Fabulous Five, readers now have the chance to see whether or not she has been misunderstood all this time. Taffy tells of pending humiliation because she has lost her diary; if it is read in public, everyone who does not like her will despise her more, and her one friend will desert her. In the meantime, the sixth grade is anticipating a party that will mark the end of grade-school years and the summer before junior high. In recalling excerpts in the diary, Taffy reveals her side of the story in the incidents of earlier books.
104 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1988
About the author
Betsy Haynes
116 books103 followersABOUT ME
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
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July 26, 2024The Truth About Taffy Sinclair
Taffy is heading out the door while her mother is rambling on about upcoming tv commercials, fashion shoots, and how she use to be a Rockett. When she gets to school, Alexis comes up to her and starts to gossip about how Clarence might not pass. It’s a few days before they graduate Mark Twain Elementary. Curtis then comes up to them and invites them to his graudation party. Since he’s a nerd, Taffy says she might have an audition and probably can’t make it. Alexis says if everyone else is going and he marks her as a yes. Taffy wonders if Randy is going. If he is she *HAS* to go (not knowing when she’ll have another chance this summer to steal him from Jana). There’s some chaos in the hallway. The sixth graders were supposed to bring trash bags to clean out their locjers. When Taffy opens her locker it’s a mess and nothing in it is hers. In horror, she realizes what she left in it the day before. Then she sees Jana reading something and the rest of the Fabulous Five crowded around her. She knows it’s her diary.
Mrs. Wiggins tells everyone to return what they can to the right owners. The rest of the stuff they’ll sort out later. Taffy goes to to Jana and demands she give her back what belongs to her, but Christy says they were looking at a dirty magazine that they thought belonged to one of the guys. Everyone saw Keith, Richie, and Joey laughing as they saw the mess so they think it’s them. They deny this and say they were just laughing because they got their first. Randy comes over to Taffy and asks if something belongs to her but it’s her social studies book. Still, she plays it up in front of Jana. But she forgets to ask Randy if he’s going to the party. All the discarded items are placed on a table and they’re called up by rows to claim what’s theres. By the time Taffay gets to the table there’s nothing there but a brown banana peel, a spiral notebook with all the pages torn out, and .. the dirty magazine.
Taffy thinks that since the diary wasn’t returned they must know what they have and not only that but its hers. Aftr all, she’s the only girl in the class whose secrets are worth knowing. She thinks about the Fabulous Five breaking the diary open and becoming furious about what she wrote about each of them. But what if Randy has it and just didn’t turn it in. She thinks how embarrassed she’d be if he read about the entries she wrote saying she was in love with him. Mrs. Wiggins calls her out for not paying attention and right after all the Fabulous Five one by one clear their throats (a signal they know she’s embarrassed).
Taffy finds out from talking to Lisa and Alexis and Mona that all the boys are coming to the party. That means Randy. That means she’ll have to be there. She’ll even convince her mother by telling her she needs new clothes and hair for a photo shoot. At lunch, all the tables are full except the one by the garbage can. She sits by herself and starts to fantasize about Randy talking to her in a dark room at the party but then the Fab Five come over and ask did she get her dirty magazine back. Taffy accidently bluts out that they know it’s her diary missing and regrets it soom as she says it.
It doesn’t take long for the story to spread around the school. Inside the school, Taffy thinks about how she wrote in the diary about seeing Jana with the Mrs. Wiggins wallet and blackmailing her afterwards and how much trouble she’d be in if they showed it to their teacher or Mrs. Wichell. She hears someone coming and thinking it’s Jana coming to say something about the diary pretends like she’s looking in her purse for a number to the tv studio so she can say she is and make Jana jealous. But it’s Randy. They start to talk about the party and he looks surprised that she’d rather come to the party than cancel the tv commercial audition. (She tells him she’s looking in her purse to find the number so she can cancel). But her mother isn’t hearing it!
She lays a guilt trip on her about what she had to give up as a dancer so Taffy could have the opportunities she has. Taffy comes up with a plan and lays sall her clothes out on her bed. She tells her she doesn’t have anything to wear to the audition and that Cynthia Cameron (Cynthia is her biggest competition and her mother is her mother’s rival) will be in something new. Her mother agrees that they should go shopping after school.
Taffy thinks about the entries she wrote about how Jana and her friends started a club against her and how she told them she started one called the Against Jana Morgan Club and made her think lots of girls were in it, but she was the only member. She plays on Mona’s insecurities by mentioning how Jana and her friends were all into her when she and Melanie were close. Making it seem like they were using her because they were jealous of Taffy. This works like a charm because when Taffy tells Mona they stole her diary, she offers to find out if they did. Taffy pretends to turn it down (claiming they won’t tell her) but she knows she’ll do it anyway. She then *rewards* her by offering to give her something of hers to wear to the party. After the talk, Mona goes immediately over to the Fab Five.
Taffy sees the Fab Five and Mona laughing and then wonders why. Then she thinks of something that makes *her* laugh. It was remembering the entry of showing Jana how to use body language to attract boys. But then she thinks of the mean things she said in other entries about how horribly Mona dresses and knows Jana will probably show them to her. Clarence tries to harass Taffy and get a kiss from her at the party and she thinks about how he’d deserve to get left back. Mrs. Wiggins gives the class some house cleaning to do and their all excited. Taffy gets assigned to take things back to the media room with Randy. Seizing the opportunity when he mentions the party and Clarence she tells him about Clarence wanting to kiss her. This upsets Randy and he says he’ll walk her home every day after school so he won’t try anything.
Mona tells Taffy the Fab Five says they don’t have her diary, but she’s sure someone will return it. Taffy says she knows they have it and their probably going to read it at the party. Mona says she’ll try again. Clarence again tries to bug Taffy about giving him a kiss at the party but she tells him to get lost. When she goes to her desk, there’s anote of a drawing of a diary and the words “Friday Night”. (Before this she’s made Keith, Joel, Richie, Jana, Katie, Christy, Beth, Melanie, and Mona suspects. Mona because she wants her beauty secrets. But she takes her off the list because if she’d actually read it she wouldn’t be (being) so nice.
Taffy has an idea and ask MRs. Wiggins can she be excused. She checks all the Fab Five’s lockers but the diary isn’t there. She thinks about the embarrassing stuff in it she wrote she’d rather them not read like when she stayed home three days after Jana wrote the article about her when she was on Interns and Lovers. And then when she and Melanie became friends during modeling school and how she really thought of Melanie as a friend and didn’t want to lose her to Jana. So she thought of a plan but it backfired. When Randy walks Taffy home, she can’t think of anything to say to him so it’s a quiet walk. She and her mother go shopping and find the perfect outfit a sundress with straps with “a blaze of colors”. When Mona comes by she gives her one of her best outfits (the ruffly blue top and the knee pants). Interestingly Taffy tells in her diary she wishes she weren’t pretty all the time she just wants to be normal and she admits she’s a little jealous of Jana who seems to have everything (popularity and Randy).
Taffy goes to Jana and her friends to plead with them to give her diary back. She apologizes for all the mean things she’s said. They tell her they really don’t have her diary. She tells them someone’s planning to expose her and shows them the note. When she gets home, her mother has news for her. She’s rented a limo to take her to the audition and she’ll be going alone Taffy manipulates it so her audition will be in the morning due to a cough. She then arranges it so the limo will take her to the party and the audition. . Taffy finds out at the party, Clarence has the diary. The Fab Five jump him and return it to her. He wasn’t going to read it. He was jut going to use it to try to get a kiss.
My Thoughts
I’ve said it once. I’ll say it again. It’s silly to bring your diary to school if you don’t want it to get lost or potentially stolen either. When even would you have time to write in it? At lunch? Or recess? That would be the only time but when I was in the sixth grade we couldn’t just stand around at recess. We had PE and that ALWAYS involved doing something. Then here’s another thing. Hide and Seek? At a SIXTH grade party. Isn’t that a little elementary school. But then they *do* consider sixth grade in this series elementary school. Sixth grade when I was in school was considered middle school. I think now it’s considered something else. It might have went back to elementary school. This book is the ONLY book in the series of what I thought the series *should* be. It’s from Taffy Sinclair’s POV and gives her stories. I remember having this book a long time ago! It had been so long I forgot that Clarence was the one who had it. While I was reading it, I thought it was going to be Curtis. Taffy’s diary IS pretty. Just by looking at the cover, I know I’d be curious to read it. But disappointedly, it wasn’t anything in it that we didn’t get from the other books leading up to it. When I first read this it probably seemed more *juicy* because the only other book I remembered having and reading was the Against Taffy Sinclair Club”.
Rating: 6
Taffy is heading out the door while her mother is rambling on about upcoming tv commercials, fashion shoots, and how she use to be a Rockett. When she gets to school, Alexis comes up to her and starts to gossip about how Clarence might not pass. It’s a few days before they graduate Mark Twain Elementary. Curtis then comes up to them and invites them to his graudation party. Since he’s a nerd, Taffy says she might have an audition and probably can’t make it. Alexis says if everyone else is going and he marks her as a yes. Taffy wonders if Randy is going. If he is she *HAS* to go (not knowing when she’ll have another chance this summer to steal him from Jana). There’s some chaos in the hallway. The sixth graders were supposed to bring trash bags to clean out their locjers. When Taffy opens her locker it’s a mess and nothing in it is hers. In horror, she realizes what she left in it the day before. Then she sees Jana reading something and the rest of the Fabulous Five crowded around her. She knows it’s her diary.
Mrs. Wiggins tells everyone to return what they can to the right owners. The rest of the stuff they’ll sort out later. Taffy goes to to Jana and demands she give her back what belongs to her, but Christy says they were looking at a dirty magazine that they thought belonged to one of the guys. Everyone saw Keith, Richie, and Joey laughing as they saw the mess so they think it’s them. They deny this and say they were just laughing because they got their first. Randy comes over to Taffy and asks if something belongs to her but it’s her social studies book. Still, she plays it up in front of Jana. But she forgets to ask Randy if he’s going to the party. All the discarded items are placed on a table and they’re called up by rows to claim what’s theres. By the time Taffay gets to the table there’s nothing there but a brown banana peel, a spiral notebook with all the pages torn out, and .. the dirty magazine.
Taffy thinks that since the diary wasn’t returned they must know what they have and not only that but its hers. Aftr all, she’s the only girl in the class whose secrets are worth knowing. She thinks about the Fabulous Five breaking the diary open and becoming furious about what she wrote about each of them. But what if Randy has it and just didn’t turn it in. She thinks how embarrassed she’d be if he read about the entries she wrote saying she was in love with him. Mrs. Wiggins calls her out for not paying attention and right after all the Fabulous Five one by one clear their throats (a signal they know she’s embarrassed).
Taffy finds out from talking to Lisa and Alexis and Mona that all the boys are coming to the party. That means Randy. That means she’ll have to be there. She’ll even convince her mother by telling her she needs new clothes and hair for a photo shoot. At lunch, all the tables are full except the one by the garbage can. She sits by herself and starts to fantasize about Randy talking to her in a dark room at the party but then the Fab Five come over and ask did she get her dirty magazine back. Taffy accidently bluts out that they know it’s her diary missing and regrets it soom as she says it.
It doesn’t take long for the story to spread around the school. Inside the school, Taffy thinks about how she wrote in the diary about seeing Jana with the Mrs. Wiggins wallet and blackmailing her afterwards and how much trouble she’d be in if they showed it to their teacher or Mrs. Wichell. She hears someone coming and thinking it’s Jana coming to say something about the diary pretends like she’s looking in her purse for a number to the tv studio so she can say she is and make Jana jealous. But it’s Randy. They start to talk about the party and he looks surprised that she’d rather come to the party than cancel the tv commercial audition. (She tells him she’s looking in her purse to find the number so she can cancel). But her mother isn’t hearing it!
She lays a guilt trip on her about what she had to give up as a dancer so Taffy could have the opportunities she has. Taffy comes up with a plan and lays sall her clothes out on her bed. She tells her she doesn’t have anything to wear to the audition and that Cynthia Cameron (Cynthia is her biggest competition and her mother is her mother’s rival) will be in something new. Her mother agrees that they should go shopping after school.
Taffy thinks about the entries she wrote about how Jana and her friends started a club against her and how she told them she started one called the Against Jana Morgan Club and made her think lots of girls were in it, but she was the only member. She plays on Mona’s insecurities by mentioning how Jana and her friends were all into her when she and Melanie were close. Making it seem like they were using her because they were jealous of Taffy. This works like a charm because when Taffy tells Mona they stole her diary, she offers to find out if they did. Taffy pretends to turn it down (claiming they won’t tell her) but she knows she’ll do it anyway. She then *rewards* her by offering to give her something of hers to wear to the party. After the talk, Mona goes immediately over to the Fab Five.
Taffy sees the Fab Five and Mona laughing and then wonders why. Then she thinks of something that makes *her* laugh. It was remembering the entry of showing Jana how to use body language to attract boys. But then she thinks of the mean things she said in other entries about how horribly Mona dresses and knows Jana will probably show them to her. Clarence tries to harass Taffy and get a kiss from her at the party and she thinks about how he’d deserve to get left back. Mrs. Wiggins gives the class some house cleaning to do and their all excited. Taffy gets assigned to take things back to the media room with Randy. Seizing the opportunity when he mentions the party and Clarence she tells him about Clarence wanting to kiss her. This upsets Randy and he says he’ll walk her home every day after school so he won’t try anything.
Mona tells Taffy the Fab Five says they don’t have her diary, but she’s sure someone will return it. Taffy says she knows they have it and their probably going to read it at the party. Mona says she’ll try again. Clarence again tries to bug Taffy about giving him a kiss at the party but she tells him to get lost. When she goes to her desk, there’s anote of a drawing of a diary and the words “Friday Night”. (Before this she’s made Keith, Joel, Richie, Jana, Katie, Christy, Beth, Melanie, and Mona suspects. Mona because she wants her beauty secrets. But she takes her off the list because if she’d actually read it she wouldn’t be (being) so nice.
Taffy has an idea and ask MRs. Wiggins can she be excused. She checks all the Fab Five’s lockers but the diary isn’t there. She thinks about the embarrassing stuff in it she wrote she’d rather them not read like when she stayed home three days after Jana wrote the article about her when she was on Interns and Lovers. And then when she and Melanie became friends during modeling school and how she really thought of Melanie as a friend and didn’t want to lose her to Jana. So she thought of a plan but it backfired. When Randy walks Taffy home, she can’t think of anything to say to him so it’s a quiet walk. She and her mother go shopping and find the perfect outfit a sundress with straps with “a blaze of colors”. When Mona comes by she gives her one of her best outfits (the ruffly blue top and the knee pants). Interestingly Taffy tells in her diary she wishes she weren’t pretty all the time she just wants to be normal and she admits she’s a little jealous of Jana who seems to have everything (popularity and Randy).
Taffy goes to Jana and her friends to plead with them to give her diary back. She apologizes for all the mean things she’s said. They tell her they really don’t have her diary. She tells them someone’s planning to expose her and shows them the note. When she gets home, her mother has news for her. She’s rented a limo to take her to the audition and she’ll be going alone Taffy manipulates it so her audition will be in the morning due to a cough. She then arranges it so the limo will take her to the party and the audition. . Taffy finds out at the party, Clarence has the diary. The Fab Five jump him and return it to her. He wasn’t going to read it. He was jut going to use it to try to get a kiss.
My Thoughts
I’ve said it once. I’ll say it again. It’s silly to bring your diary to school if you don’t want it to get lost or potentially stolen either. When even would you have time to write in it? At lunch? Or recess? That would be the only time but when I was in the sixth grade we couldn’t just stand around at recess. We had PE and that ALWAYS involved doing something. Then here’s another thing. Hide and Seek? At a SIXTH grade party. Isn’t that a little elementary school. But then they *do* consider sixth grade in this series elementary school. Sixth grade when I was in school was considered middle school. I think now it’s considered something else. It might have went back to elementary school. This book is the ONLY book in the series of what I thought the series *should* be. It’s from Taffy Sinclair’s POV and gives her stories. I remember having this book a long time ago! It had been so long I forgot that Clarence was the one who had it. While I was reading it, I thought it was going to be Curtis. Taffy’s diary IS pretty. Just by looking at the cover, I know I’d be curious to read it. But disappointedly, it wasn’t anything in it that we didn’t get from the other books leading up to it. When I first read this it probably seemed more *juicy* because the only other book I remembered having and reading was the Against Taffy Sinclair Club”.
Rating: 6
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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January 7, 2011Oh, 6th grade drama. How I used to love you so!
January 13, 2013
The truth finally comes about about why (not actually that bitchy) Taffy Sinclair is the way she is.
December 8, 2020
All the girl hate in so many of these 80s tween series books just makes me sad. This one and the Fabulous Five series are especially guilty offenders. 😒
Read
July 29, 2020As a kid every Saturday we went to Kmart, and every Saturday my mom would let me buy one thing, and it was ALWAYS a fabulous five book. (The cover looks like a spiral notebook cover... I thought that was very clever)
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
Taffy Sinclair is such a misunderstood character. She was definitely not the nicest person, but I think a lot of that stemmed from insecurity.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it make references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again.
I also managed to track down all the Taffy Sinclair books at a thrift store.
Taffy Sinclair is such a misunderstood character. She was definitely not the nicest person, but I think a lot of that stemmed from insecurity.
I wonder if this series is still at my parents I would definitely read them again.
I remember in the Taffy books Melanie was chubby and it make references to her eating brownies and then one day she was like NO i don't want the brownie... and then she got skinny.
This is a very vague memory... so don't quote me on this one, what you CAN quote me on is that Taffy had a crooked bicuspid, and Jana ate cream cheese and jam sandwiches,... which I tried because of her and they were DIS-GUS-TING, and I never trusted her again.
November 29, 2007
It's the last week of school at Mark Twain Elementary and the 6th are cleaning out their lockers. But some of the boys have switched around everyone's belongings. Most of the kids think the prank is funny, but for Taffy Sinclair , it's no laughing matter. The personal diary that she's kept since 4th grade is missing! If it doesn't turn up soon, The Fabulous Five and the rest of the school will learn the truth about Taffy Sinclair!
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