Thanks as always! 
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Alright, next question is on page 225 of the blue book.
「ジジのよ。帰るときのおしゃれに作ってあげたのよ。おばあちゃんにもらったの、大晦日の夜に飛ばしちゃったから」
キキがジジに腹巻きを着せてやると、ジジはもう言葉もなく、またぐるぐる回りをし出しました。
Small question here, but this is referring to the 腹巻き Kiki just pulled out of the paper bag, right? The text after the dialog (plus that fact that she pulls out 腹巻き for her parents next) makes me think this is referring to this 腹巻き and not a previous one, but I’m a little thrown off by あげた being in the past tense. Perhaps it’s just that she “gave” it to him already, just not physically yet.
Also:
「なにがわかった？」
「べつに」
I’m glad they do this in Japanese too. 
= p247 of the red book.
Yes, definitely the new 腹巻き (to replace the one he lost on NYE)
あげた is in the past tense because it is modifying 作る. (Grammar point: “～てあげる”)
It’s not “I made it and I gave it to you”, it’s “I made it for you”
There’s an equally funny exchange in about 2 pages time!
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I finally took the time to read through the final chapter today. All in all, I enjoyed this book more than the one I read for the Intermediate Book Club.
What were you impressions of the book? Did you feel, despite the challenges with reading it, like you gained anything from reading it?
To those who finished, お疲れ様でした。
Did you read through the last chapter all in one sitting? I’ll be sure to answer your real book club-like questions once I’ve finished the chapter. 
I did; it took about an hour or so. That’s why hadn’t responded to your questions. But it seems that @Kyasurin did a great job at explaining.
Actually, I thought you had also finished. Now knowing that you haven’t finished, I would have waited to post those questions. My bad. 
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That’s impressive! 
I’ve been reading the chapter for around 4-5 hours over 3 sittings, and I’ve read 10 of the 23 pages in the chapter.
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@Kyasurin I got up to your “SEAN HELP” in the vocab sheet haha. Page 230 (blue) / 252 (red).
I think the meaning you put for 尻上がり (“feet-first somersault hanging from the horizontal bar”) is probably right. If you remember, when Kiki first built the new broomstick, she had some issues with getting it under control. I don’t remember if she ever actually ended up hanging from the broom by her feet (so I can’t say if this is using 尻上がり somewhat literally or just figuratively), but I think it’s a reasonable callback to that event.
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お疲れ様です、皆さん！！！
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Ahh you guys keep making me feel like I should be done already!
We are pretty 疲れた even if the book isn’t yet 終われた
(Sorry, couldn’t resist!)
I wish looking up words was faster… I can read a chapter in way less time than it takes me to use the dictionary!
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Not to mention all the words you look up a million times because you just can’t remember them. For me, that’s mostly the onomatopoeia words.
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I know! Also words I look up and then think “I would have known that instantly if only they’d used the kanji!”
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Yeah that too…
OK, I have a grammar question (maybe for you @Lucasdesu)
On p257 of the red book, the following sentence:
コキリさんは大喜びで手のひらに乗せては、引っ繰り返し、引っ繰り返しては顔を近づけて見ています。
This ~ては～、～ては～ is it common? I tried googling and came up with something saying it was equivalent to ～したり、～したり, but the examples they gave always used two contrasting verbs i.e. AしてはB、BしてはA, which is different from the sentence above.
Any clarification gratefully received!
And now for an illustration! 
Some examples of 薄紫色の貝殻（うすむらさき色の貝がら）
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My understanding was this was to express a repeated action that’s similar to ～たり. However neither the repetition of the pattern is necessary nor do the verbs have to have a contrasting relationship (e.g., on/off), though that’s how this grammar is usually used. I’m pretty sure you came across this on Maggie Sensei’s site during your research, but this is resembled the meaning even though the form wasn’t repeated.
- Whenever something happens / someone does something ~ (repeated situation/ habitual situation)
★ How to form:
Verb te-form Vて ( = te) + は ( = wa)
Note: In this usage, you don’t repeat ては ( = tewa) twice.
If, for example, a baby saw my face and smiled and it just happened once, you say:
Ex. 赤ちゃんは私の顔を見て笑った。
= The baby smiled when she / he sees my face.
If the baby looked at my face and smiled and looked at my face and smiled…and it went on and on, you use ては ( = tewa)
Ex. 赤ちゃんは私の顔を見ては笑っていた。
= All the baby does is to look at my face and smile.
So essentially Kokiri-san, upon receiving her souvenir, (all she was doing was) holding the stomach warmer turning it about in her hands looking at it close to her face.
As for how common the ～ては、～ては is, I can’t tell you but I don’t think it has additional meaning beside emphasizing repetition (watch up until he talks about the repetition of ては). I’ll ask about it tomorrow with my conversation partner to confirm because I don’t know for sure.
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On page 231 of the blue book, there’s a sentence that goes 「どの家も明かりをつけ、…」.
I’ve seen this どの～も pattern a couple times now, so I wanted to double check its meaning. Is it basically saying “Every ___”? So in this case, “every house has its lights on…”?
Also, they keep saying 一年目, but wouldn’t that mean “first year”? They keep saying it in the context of Kiki’s year away being done, but I don’t really understand why the author would use 一年目 instead of something like 一年間.
Nice callback by Jiji on page 234 (blue book) when he says いい内緒は三倍嬉しい、ってね.
@Kyasurin I think I’m finally caught up to you. That monologue by Kiki on page 235 blue (presumably 258 red) was really nice too. It helps that I understood 95% of it with just looking up a word or two. It has so much more impact when you don’t have to look up 10 words and some grammar to understand what’s going on!
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yeah, i do that all the time, just keep forgetting the same words…
and onomatopoeia, man that’s difficult!
どんどん・rapidly / だんだん・gradually <<< i get these two confused all the time!!!