SS #5 California Girls!

My copy of this

Book is missing its cover.

Have I read too much?

Summary

Claudia had, apparently, been buying Lottery tickets for ages. When the jackpot goes up to $23 million, the other girls in the BSC decide to get tickets of their own and split the money if any of them are winners. Dawn's ticket just so happens to contain 5 out of 6 winning numbers, and they win $10,000. The girls have yet another convenient 2 week vacation from school, as do Jeff and Dawn's California friends, so they decide to use the money to go to California and visit the west coast branch of the Schafer family. Here's a rundown on what everyone did there:

Dawn freaks out a lot over the presence of Carol, her dad's girlfriend. She doesn't like the way Carol tries so hard to be one of the gang, and she doesn't like the advice that Carol keeps giving her friends (namely, Claudia and Mal). When Stacey gets into a little trouble with some new friends of hers, Dawn fully expects Carol to keep in between them. When she insists on telling Dawn's dad, Dawn it pretty mad at first. Then, she realizes that she actually respects Carol more when she acts like a parent than a teenager, and they bond a little by the end of the trip. dawn even gives her dad permission to marry Carol...because Jack Schafer totally needs his daughter's permission for that sort of thing.

Stacey falls in love with surfing. Dawn introduces her to some older kids that she used to go to school with, and Stacey goes to the beach with them almost every day. They're a little wild, and could probably use a refresher course in proper driving ettiquette, but Stacey finds hanging out with them to be pretty exciting. Then, on the way home from the beach one day, they cause a bad car accident. No one is hurt, but the driver tries to get everyone else who was in their car to lie so it won't look like his fault. When the cops arrive, though, Stacey tells them the truth. The older kids look daggers at her until she's taken to the hospital to get checked out. After she's given a clean bill of health, she calls the Schafers for a ride home. She's pretty relieved when Carol answers the phone; since Carol had seemed like just another kid for most of the vacation, Stacey figures she's in the clear. She's awfully surprised when Carol tells her that Mr. Schafer will need to know about what happened. Mr. Schafer forbids her to see the older kids again, and they call Stacey's parents to tell them what happened.

Jessi meets up with Derek Masters, Stoneybrook's very own child star. He invites her to the set of his sitcom, and while she's there, she gets picked to be in a crowd scene. Jessi has a good time, and when Derek suggests she look into getting an agent or getting on a show while she's in CA, she likes the idea. She eventually realizes that ballet is her true love, and that she's just not meant for the world of acting.

Claudia has the most boring Super Special romance in the entire series. She meets Terry on the beach one day, and even though she's attracted to him, she thinks they're too different for a relationship to work out. He's super smart, loves school and reading, and Claudia figures she's no match for a guy like that. She doesn't plan on seeing him again after the beach, but Stacey runs into him and gives him the Schafers' number so he can call her. Claud is kind of afraid to be herself around him (she doesn't want him to think she's stupid), so she ends up sitting through boring foreign movies she doesn't understand, eating escargots, and trying to hold down her end of conversations about things she knows nothing about. She ends up calling Janine for advice, and Janine (in keeping with her usual awesomeness) tells Claud to just be herself. Claudia takes her advice, and by the end of the vacation she's in LUV with Terry.

Kristy is mortally offended by the casual way that Dawn's friends run the We Love Kids Club. When she's offered a job with two of their most difficult clients, she figures that it's her chance to prove what a great sitter she is. She ignores the advice of the WLKC, which turns out to be a bad move on her part. Erik and Ryan Dewitt aren't bad kids, but they're wild. They cause all sorts of chaos on a trip to Universal Studios, and Kristy is forced to admit that she's not the only one in the world who knows a lot about kids, baby-sitting, and clubs.

Mary Anne sits for a little girl named Stephie Robertson. Stephie is a lot like Mary Anne was as a kid; she's quiet and shy, is being raised by her father, and even looks like Mary Anne. One big difference is that Stephie has asthma. This freaks Mary Anne out; she's super paranoid about letting Stephie do anything active, and is convinced that Stephie is always on the verge of an attack. She loosens up after Stephie makes it through the Universal Studios trip with no problems, but Stephie ends up having an attack during Mary Anne's very last sitting job. Stephie's attacks are usually brought on by emotional stress, not physical activity, and she's sad about saying good-bye to Mary Anne. Stephie's okay, though, and she and Mary Anne keep in touch after Mary Anne goes back home. At least, they keep in touch until later in the series when Dawn suddenly becomes the one who helped Stephie break out of her shell and there's no more mention of Mary Anne's involvement.

Mallory....oh, Lord, where do I start? Mal becomes obsessed with all things cosmetic (she even makes Carol take her and Jessi to the Max Factor Museum of Beauty), and decides to transform herself into a "California Girl." During a mall trip, she blows all her money on make up and hair dye. Yep, hair dye. Mallory thinks that part of being a California girl is having blond hair, so she dyes hers. She drives everyone crazy for the rest of the trip with her talk about her looks, and is totally oblivious as to why they seem so irritated with her. She also has to borrow money from Jessi for admission to places they go to as a group. Things come to a head for Mal when she's invited to the P.S. 162 set. The director calls for volunteers for another crowd scene, but Mal isn't chosen because her looks aren't quite right. She mopes for a few days, but her friends help her to see that she was much better off as she was before. There's just one problem, though: the wash-out blond dye she used isn't washing out. So, the BSC goes to a drug store and buys a bottle of red dye, and Mal is back to her natural state. Since she won't be able to use the make up once she gets back home, she sells it to Claudia and Stacey, and then turns the money over to Jessi to pay her back for what she's borrowed.

Rating: 3.5

Thoughts and Things

• Don't even get me started on the legal issues surrounding a bunch of 13 year olds winning the Lottery....

• I find it hard to believe that all the BSC parents were fine with the girls spending that kind of money on a vacation. You'd think that at least one of them (Richard Spier???) would want their daughter to start a college fund or something with the money.

• I also find it hard to believe that Dawn never, just for a second, wanted to keep all the money for herself since it was her ticket that was a winner.

• Note to Ann: you don't dye red hair blond, especially with wash out dye. You have to bleach it, and I'm pretty sure that's not something that can be done at home by an 11 year old. I'm pretty sure that the only way you can dye hair blond rather than bleach is if it's already pretty light.

• Claudia and Terry really weren't a very good match, even after Claud started being herself around him. They were just so boring together!

• About the cover: in what world to 11 year olds have bodies like Mallory? Also, that bikini that Stacey's wearing? It makes me wonder what Hodges was thinking when he drew this picture. Actually, never mind. I don't want to know.....

• I really like Jessi's friendship with Derek Masters, and I wish we'd seen more of it.

• Janine rocks. :)

#39 Poor Mallory!

The Pikes have no cash

For things like Persian cats that

Cost 400 bucks.

Summary

The company that Mr. Pike works for is in financial trouble, and he loses his job. The Pike family is all set to tighten its belt by foregoing allowances, only buying necessities, and having Mallory baby-sit for free, and Mrs. Pike is going to be registering with a temp agency. Mal is glad to pitch in, but she's scared about what's going to happen to the family, and scared of her dad (getting laid off has made him cranky). She figures her siblings are probably scared, too, so she forms the Pike Club. They come up with even more ways to save money, like not leaving the lights on, and (per Claire's suggestion) only using one Kleenex to blow their noses. :) Banding together and coming up with ways to contribute helps the Pike kids feel a little better about things.

Not long before Mr. Pike lost his job, the Delaneys called the BSC for a regular, 3-day-a-week sitter for a month. Kristy originally took the job, but agrees to give it to Mal instead. The big news in the Delaney house is their new in-ground swimming pool. Max and Amanda like swimming, and they like having their friends swim with them, but it becomes pretty clear that some kids are only pretending to like them in order to use the pool. To figure out who their real friends are, the Delaneys pretend that there's a new pool rule in effect: no swimming when there's a sitter in charge. The kids that come over anyway are real friends, and the ones that don't, aren't.

Mallory can't help but contrast her situation (the Pike only getting what they really need) with the Delaneys (they have everything they want and more). She does feel a little bit connected to them, though: the Delaneys and the Pike kids are in the process of finding out who their real friends are. Mal and her siblings have been teased and excluded at school because their dad is out of work, and are learning to appreciate those who've actually stuck by them during their tough times.

Mr. Pike eventually finds another job. Over a celebratory dinner, Pike kids mention how relieved they are that they're not going to lose the house. Mr. Pike reassures them that they wouldn't have, even if he hadn't found a job; he'd been getting severance pay from his old company. The Pike kids are a little exasperated when they find that out; they'd put an awful lot of work into earning and saving money. Also, Mal hosts her very first BSC sleepover, at which they prank call some of the girls who'd been meanest to her. Sweet revenge. :)

Rating: 3

Thoughts and Things

• If Mr. Pike was getting severance pay, why did they Pike parents take all the money that their children earned? From they way they discussed things over their celebration dinner, it sounds like they did just that. That seems kind of wrong....

• Mal mentions that she's only allowed to wear gold hoops or dots in her ears, yet one of Mrs. Pike's conditions for letting Mal get her ears pierced in #21 was that she not stick to boring stuff.

• Here's another mystery: it was Halloween in the previous book, yet in this one, it's pool weather. That much time doesn't usually pass between BSC books.

• Is having an unemployed parent really something that would cause kids to tease each other?

• If Mr. Pike's company was having such trouble, maybe they shouldn't be paying for families of 10 people to go on cruises to the Bahamas and Disney World. ;) Heck, maybe that's WHY they ended up in dire straits!

#38 Kristy's Mystery Admirer

Kristy's getting love

Notes! Too bad they're from Bart;

She dumps him later on.

Summary

Kristy gets home from a BSC meeting one day to find multiple phone messages from Shannon Kilbourne waiting for her. A note for Kristy was delivered to the Kilbourne's mailbox, and since the envelope is decorated with hearts and flowers, Shannon is convinced that it's a love note. She brings the note to Kristy after dinner that night, and what do you know? It is a love note. Shannon suspects Bart Taylor right away, but Kristy thinks it's her brother, Sam, playing one of his jokes. Several more notes arrive over the next few days, and Kristy even brings them to school to share with the BSC members. They aren't the only ones who are interested, though; Cokie, Grace, and their two cronies who we never hear about again are also paying very close attention to what's going on...

That afternoon, another note arrives. This one's a little different, and the warning message it contains is far creepier than the sappy stuff that made up the first few. More disturbing notes follow that one, including one that goes like this:

Violets are blue,

Blood is red,

I'll remember you when you are dead.

Pretty creepy! Kristy is now convinced that Bart might just be the one sending the notes, because he's a psycho masquerading as a normal teenage boy. Either that or it some random psycho who's out to kidnap her for ransom money. Shannon isn't buying that theory; she thinks that Bart is sending the notes to psych Kristy out so she won't be able to coach the Krushers to a win in he upcoming World Series game with the Bashers. Both of them give Bart the silent treatment for days, until he finally shows up at Kristy's house wanting to know what's up. She confronts him, and while he admits he did write the first notes (the sappy ones), he denies kowing anything about the second set. He's also (understandably) mad that Kristy would think he'd sabotage her or her team just to win a baseball game.

The mystery of who sent the scary notes isn't solved until the day of the Krushers/Bashers World Series. Cokie and her friends show up at the game, making Kristy suspicious (they hate baseball...they hate the BSC...why would they come?). She's even more suspicious when Cokie tries to start a conversation with her. Then, Cokie uses a phrase from one of the notes, giving herself away. The Krushers win the World Series, Kristy and Bart are (kind of) together, and they even go to the Halloween Hop...as lobsters. :)

Rating: 3

Thoughts and Things

• Is it me, or are some of Bart's love notes just as creepy as the scary ones that Cokie sent???

• So, once again, Cokie gave herself away by using a phrase from one of her threatening notes. She did the same thing in #17 when she called Mary Anne's mustard seed necklace a "bad luck charm." This must be why the whole book felt really repetitive.

• This book is the most we've seen of Shannon since #11. I thought she played a bigger role in the series than that. Maybe I'm just thinking of the later books when she becomes the alternate officer for awhile.

• Kristy hides her notes in a copy of The Cat Ate my Gymsuit; a definite shout out to AMM's friend, Paula Danziger.

• The lobster costumes are pretty freaking awesome, but how did they drink punch with the claw mittens over their hands? Did they take them off?

• Speaking of costumes, I kind of miss dressing up for Halloween. I haven't had a reason to in years....

• Shannon's uniform on the cover is ugly.

• I've never been one to jump on the "Kristy is a lesbian bandwagon," but in this book, Shannon tells her to come out of the closet and Kristy refuses. Yes, Shannon meant it literally (Kristy was trying to have private phone conversation from inside a closet), but it still made me giggle. That, and Kristy thinking the notes were sent by a girl. :)

#37 Dawn and the Older Boy

Travis - judging by

This picture, I'd say you aren't

Sixteen; you're thirty!

Summary

The morning after a BSC sleepover at Kristy's, Dawn wakes up to find "the cutest guy in the whole world" (as she puts it) in the Thomas/Brewer kitchen. Charlie introduces him as Travis, and Dawn is smitten. None of the girls are particularly thrilled to have a hot guy see them first thing in the morning, especially since they went to sleep the night before with their makeup on (I could never do that...). They hightail it back upstairs for some quick primping, and when they come back down later, Dawn is happy to see that Travis is still there. She sits herself next to him, and they bond over California (Travis is from there, too). He also tells her that she should always wear blue, since it brings out her eyes. The making over of Dawn has officially begun...

Later that day, Dawn asks Mary Anne if she believes in love at first sight. Mary Anne does (she uses her father and Dawn's mother as an example), but once she figures out that Dawn is talking about herself and Travis, she tries to talk Dawn out of falling for him. Needless to say, Dawn doesn't take her advice, and spends the next week or so obsessing over Travis. That Saturday, Wonder Boy actually shows up at her house. They sit on the porch to talk (no boys in the house when the parents aren't home) and it becomes abundantly clear that Travis is an ass. All he can do is talk about himself; he interrupts Dawn, brags incessantly, and won't shut up about his stupid car. Does Dawn pick up on any of this? Of course not. According to her, he brags because he's talented and interesting, and he wants her to change because he likes her. Plus, he brought her a necklace and some hair combs. Yep, must be love.

The following week, Travis shows up at SMS just as school lets out. He asks Dawn to go shopping downtown with him (he needs to get his dad a birthday present), and she jumps at the chance. After shopping, he takes her to Burger Bite for a snack. Dawn is a little apprehensive about going to a place like that, especially when Travis ORDERS FOR HER. Luckily, he gets them both grilled cheese. Once again, Travis talks incessantly about himself and all of his ever-so-amazing accomplishments, and Dawn still doesn't get what a jerk he is. After eating, they walk around downtown and end up at the Merry-Go-Round. Travis buys Dawn a pair of butterfly earrings, and tries to convince her to get another hole punched in each ear so she can wear them. Dawn finally grows a backbone, though, and says no.

When Dawn gets home, she finds her mom and Richard waiting for her. Mary Anne spilled the beans about where Dawn had been all afternoon, and they're not happy. They don't like the fact that Travis is so much older than her, and that he's buying her all these presents even though he barely knows her. Dawn manages to escape the conversation once the adults start arguing about whether or not she should be allowed to see him again, and nothing is really settled that day.

Later that week, Kristy mentions that Travis has been seeing the captain of the SHS swim team. Dawn is devastated, and decides she has to know the truth. She waits for Travis outside SMS a few days later. Sure enough, he leaves school with a pretty redhead and they head downtown. Dawn then ends up witnessing a carbon copy of her own date with Travis: first, he orders for the redhead at Burger Bite and then takes her to the Merry-Go-Round, although they don't buy anything. Dawn even sees them kissing, much to her dismay. She's still upset when the next BSC meeting rolls around, and when the conversation turns to Travis, she threatens to leave. The other BSC members are completely kerflummoxed; they have no idea what's been going on with Dawn and Travis, so she confesses. Dawn wants Travis to know that she's onto him, so she follows him and his girlfriend (Sara) after school one day. When Dawn confronts them, Sara seems to be totally aware of what had happened between Dawn and Travis. After telling them that she was already a beauty before Travis got ahold of her, she goes home. Later, she calls Travis and bascially lets him have it, and the BSC members are proud of her for standing up for herself.

In subplot news, James Hobart has written a play that his brothers, the Perkins girls, and Chewy are all starring in. His neighborhood friend, Zach (remember him from #32?) tries to convince James that he needs to stop hanging out with girls, doing "baby stuff," and turn himself into Zach's idea of what an American boy should be. In the end, though, James sticks with the play and it's a big hit. Also, Lewis (Logan's cousin) and Dawn start writing to each other, setting up book #50.

Rating: 2

Thoughts and Things

• Ugh...where do I start on Travis? He's just awful, and Dawn doesn't seem like the type to overlook stuff like that. Her individuality always seems to take a backseat when a boy is involved, though.

• I'm not a feminist or anything, but I hate how Dawn lets Travis control her. The ordering for her at Burger Bite especially bugs me. I hate it when Logan orders for Mary Anne later in the series, too.

• I just hate the whole message of this book; that's why it got a 2. I used to really like this book when I was younger, though, mostly because it involved boyfriend stuff. :D

• I always want a grilled cheese sandwich after reading about the Burger Bite trip!
  

#36 Jessi's Baby-sitter

Only in the 'Brook

Do eleven year olds not

Need baby-sitters...

Summary

Mama Ramsey is going back to work, so good old Aunt Cecelia (aka the Voice of Reason from SS #4) is moving in with the family. Jessi and Becca are pretty unhappy about this news, and right away, they start plotting all sorts of awful things they can do to drive her away. At first, it looks like they'll have good reason to want to "get" their aunt; from the second she steps out of her car, she's picking on the girls, and it just gets worse from there. Aunt Cecelia completely takes over the household; she decides what the girls eat for snacks, orders them to bed far earlier than they normally go, doesn't trust them with Squirt, and even restyles their hair for them. Once, Aunt Cecelia even grounds Jessi from a BSC meeting for being 10 minutes late getting home from a sitting job. The obvious solution here would be for Jessi and Becca to talk to their parents about what's going on, but they don't. This is the BSC, after all. Parental contact must be kept to a minimum. :)

Jessi and Becca have checked off plenty of the things on their "List of Mean Things to Do to Aunt Cecelia," including shortsheeting her bed and putting shaving cream in her slippers. They're puzzled (and nervous) by the fact that their aunt hasn't said a word about the tricks. Hmmmm...

Meanwhile, it's science fair time for the SES students. Jackie Rodowsky is entering (with some help from Jessi), Margo Pike is entering (with some help from Mal), Charlotte Johanssen is entering (with a little help from Stacey), and David Michael is entering (with some help from Kristy). Jessi is afraid that the club will get all competitive with each other, and the science fair will turn into another Little Miss Stoneybrook situation. As it turns out, Jessi herself is the only one who gets all crazy. She practically does his project for him (he makes an erupting volcano because he say the Brady kids do it), and when the judges at the fair ask him questions about volcanic activity, he can't answer any of them. Jessi feels pretty bad; she just wanted Jackie to feel like a winner for once in his life, so she took over to show that she cares. Jessi also decides to talk to her parents about what's been going on at home (finally). The Ramseys talk things over, and Aunt Cecelia agrees to trust Jessi and Becca a little more. Just like Jessi, she was only taking over and being bossy to show that she cared. Also, Aunt Cecelia was afraid she wouldn't be as good a sitter as Jessi. Heh. She also lets the cat out of the bag about the tricks that the girls have been playing, but before the Ramsey parents can throw down any punishments, Aunt Cecelia asks to speak to them privately. Jessi and Becca don't hear another word about the matter....until they find shaving cream in their slippers and rubber vermin in their beds. :) Score one for Aunt Cecelia!

Rating: 3

Thoughts and Things

• I totally copied Charlotte's playing music to plants project for one of my high school science classes. I guess elementary science fair projects don't carry over well to 9th grade physical science, because I only got a C. ;)


• My main frustration with this book is the same as my main frustration with Dawn's Wicked Stepsister. NO ONE COMMUNICATES!!! Seriously; if a family is going through a major change, like having another person (or people) move in, they should sit down together and talk about house rules, expectations, etc.

• The Ramsey parents seemed totally out of character in this book. They really aren't the type to be so clueless as to what's going on with their kids.

• Speaking of acting OOC, Jessi did, too, when she took over Jackie's project. I know it had to be that way for plot/subplot connection purposes, but that's so much more a Kristy thing to do.

• I don't like how Jessi and Becca plot Aunt Cecelia's destruction from the second they find out she's moving in. They don't even give her a chance before they decide that living with her will be awful!

• I would have loved owning Jessi's cover outfit when I was 11!

SS #4 Baby-sitters' Island Adventure

This book gets the prize

For ugliest cover of

All Super Specials.

Summary

Claudia and Dawn have been taking sailing lessons at the Stoneybrook Community Center. They have a race, but when it ends in a tie, they decide to have a rematch. Race #2 becomes quite the outing; Dawn recruits her brother, Jeff, and Haley Braddock as crew members, while Claudia agrees to take Becca Ramsey and Jamie Newton(!!!). The girls decide to race out to a nearby island, have a picnic and some playtime with the kids, and then sail home later. On their way to the island, though, a storm blows in. Dawn's boat sinks, so she, Jeff, and Haley all have to bail out, swim to Claudia's boat, and hold onto the edge (it's too small to actually hold all of them). They make it to land pretty quickly, but realize that it isn't the island they were shooting for. They're in pretty decent shape, though; they find shelter, and managed to rescue most of the food from the boats. Things are okay until the following day, when Jamie Newton gets sick. Claud and Dawn do the best they can to care for him, but luckily, they don't have to worry for long. That's because Jamie dies....no, I'm kidding. :) Claudia finds a piece of mirror in the woods and uses it to signal a passing plane. The pilots get a Coast Guard boat out to them, complete with a doctor for Jamie.

During their time on the island, Dawn kind of falls apart. Claudia is the one who takes charge, figures out how to collect rain water for them to drink, and finds the mirror that gets them home. Dawn feels bad about that, but realizes that by taking a back seat (whether intentionally or not), she helped Claudia to see how capable she can actually be.

Prior to the sailing accident, Mary Anne and Dawn have a fight. Dawn forgot to give Mary Anne a message from Logan, leading Mary Anne to think that Logan stood her up. Logan gets mad at her for thinking that, which in turn makes Mary Anne furious with Dawn. She tells Dawn that she wishes she'd get out of her life forever, and when Dawn goes missing, Mary Anne is a basket case. She thinks that it's her fault that the accident happened (because she just can't help but make everything all about HER...), and she's so distraught that she doesn't even help search.

Stacey is in New York when she finds out about what happened, and she wants to come home right away to help with the search. Her dad won't let her, though, because it would interfere with the weekend full of restaurants and shows that he has planned. Jerk...Stacey does finally get to leave a few hours earlier than planned, but her dad still manages to pout about it.

Kristy cancels a Krusher's practice and game to help search, which doesn't make Bart particularly happy. He basically turns into a junior version of Ed McGill; all Bart does when Kristy breaks the news to him is talk about how irresponsible she is and how she's going to be disappointing a lot of kids. He even goes so far as to accuse her of cancelling because her team isn't ready. Could he be any more insensitive? He apologizes eventually, and uses the excuse that he didn't know how serious the missing boaters situation was. Was he living in a cave? Supposedly, it was all over the news. I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't have seen any newscast at all. It would have been much more insensitive to just go ahead with the game as if one of the Krushers' players and one of their cheerleaders weren't missing.

Jessi's parents are away for the three day weekend, and they've left her in charge of Becca and Squirt. When Becca goes missing, Jessi calls her Aunt Cecelia for help. She's not fond of her aunt, and becomes even less so when Cecelia walks in the door and right away starts criticizing the Ramsey's decision to leave Jessi in charge. I call that "stating the obvious," but whatever.

Mallory is kind of a non-entity in this one; she and her family go out searching on boats a lot, and she cries a few times. That's about it.

Rating: 2.5

Thoughts and Things

• I'm pretty sure that this is my least favorite Super Special, but I'll withhold final judgement until I've made it through all of them again.

• Okay, the cover. Like I said in my haiku, it's ugly. Let's break it down further, shall we? Mallory couldn't look any dorkier if she tried. Actually, I think she looks a little bit..."special." Kristy has no neck, and Claudia's hair is kind of frizzy. Jessi (miracle of miracles, considering some of her covers) actually looks kinds of pretty, and Becca's not bad, either. Dawn is okay, but her hair isn't long enough or light enough. I guess I can forgive that, though, because it almost never is. :) Jeff looks a little cross-eyed, and Haley looks like an ugly man. Mary Anne is okay, too, but her shoes are hideous. I think she and Haley must have bought theirs at the same place. Last but not least, Stacey closely resembles Miss Bell, my preschool teacher circa 1985. It's actually kind of creepy....

• The illustrations on pages 216 and 217 were screwed up in some copies of this book. Page 216 is supposed to show the Jeff, Dawn, Claudia, Becca, and Haley crouched down, waiting for Jamie to run to them from page 217. Instead, the messed up copies show the group on page 217, facing to the right while Jamie runs up behind them. It's funny. :)

• Speaking of illustrations, let's discuss the one on 208. Who is the short girl shaking the mayor's hand??? I always thought it was Claudia (it would make sense if it was), but she really looks more like Kristy. If it is Claud, she must have shrunk or something during her time on the island; if you take a look at page 17, she and Dawn appear to be the same height.

• Last illustration comment; I promise! On pages 104-105, Mary Anne totally looks like Blossom, and Kristy looks like Jasmine Guy from A Different World.

• It's weird to think that the majority of this book takes place over 48 hours rather than a week or two, like most Super Specials.

• Do we ever hear about the girls sailing again? I don't think so....

#35 Stacey and the Mystery of Stoneybrook

I love haunted house

Mysteries, but this one was

Not haunted...was it???

Summary

The BSC is all abuzz about an old house that's being torn down. Stacey's a little mystified by everyone's fascination with the place, especially compared to her own news about some celebrity sighting she had in NYC. That, of course, is far more interesting to our sophisticated New Yorker that some old landmark. I think I'd be more interested in the house, but that's just me.

Later that week, Charlotte Johanssen comes to stay with the McGills for awhile while her parents are out of town (Charlotte's grandpa is having surgery). She predictably homesick and nervous about her grandpa's surgery, so Stacey takes her to see the old house to get her mind off of things. That's when the weird things begin to happen: Stacey sees a face in one of the windows, even though all the workmen had already left for the day, and she and Charlotte both hear clanking and moaning coming from inside. At the BSC meeting later, Stacey and Charlotte tell the others what they saw and heard, but no one takes them all that seriously. That changes when Kristy makes an important discovery in some old books of Watson's: Stoneybrook was built over an ancient burial ground, and the old house was built on a particularly sacred spot!

Meanwhile, Charlotte is sick. She'd been complaining of symptoms since arriving at the McGills', but Stacey and her mother had just assumed it was homesickness. Not quite: Charlotte has tonsillitis (again...apparently she gets that a lot?). When she's feeling a little better, Kristy brings over the old books so she, Stacey, and Charlotte can do some more research into the old house. They don't uncover any more clues, though. Claudia, however, does. She's at the library with the Perkins girls (yes, Claud voluntarily went to the library and voluntarily did research!), and finds out that the former owner of the house, Ronald Hennessey, is still alive and living in a nursing home in Stoneybrook.

That same day, Charlotte and Stacey make another visit to the house. Just as they're starting to think that maybe they imagined all the weird stuff, flames start shooting out of one of the windows. By the time that Stacey finds a wheelbarrow full of water to use to try and put the fire out, it's gone. There's no smoke smell, no burn marks, no sign that there was ever any fire at all. That night, both Stacey and Charlotte have nightmares about the old house, and Stacey really begins to think that it has some sort of mysterious power over them. The next day, she tells the other members of the BSC about the dreams, and Kristy decides that enough is enough; she calls an emergency meeting for that afternoon to discuss the mystery. As it turns out, Stacey and Charlotte aren't the only ones who've had odd house-related experiences. Just before the meeting, Claudia went to look at the old house. While she was standing there, she felt a hand on her arm...and no one was there. Also, Mallory and Vanessa once picked some flowers for their mother in the house's overgrown flower beds, and that night, Mal had a dream that the house (or whatever spirits lived there) wanted the flowers back. The girls decide they need to visit Mr. Ronald Hennessey to get the truth about the house, and Claudia, Stacey, Charlotte, and Kristy are the lucky ones who get to go.

Mr. Hennessey is awfully interested in what the girls have to say about the old house. He even has a few scary stories of his own about things that he and his family had supposedly seen and heard there. Stacey and the others are skeptical, but decide to heed Mr. Hennessey's warning about staying away from the house as it's being torn down (that's when the truth is supposed to come out). In the end, Stacey and Charlotte can't stay away. They, along with about half of Stoneybrook, turn up to watch whatever happens. At first, it looks like nothing much until what's left of the house goes up in flames. The only problem? Stacey seems to be the only one who can see the fire, and the old man inside calling for help. She's distracted for minute by Charlotte, and when she looks back at the house, the flames (and the old man) are gone. Stacey's left feeling that she needs to go see Mr. Hennessey, so she pawns Charlotte off on Claudia and heads to the nursing home. When she gets there, though, she gets some bad news: Mr. Hennessey died the night before. One of the workers notices Stacey and remembers her from her previous visit. As it turns out, Mr. Hennessey left Stacey a letter in which he admits that his stories weren't in any way true. Stacey's relieved but disappointed, and is glad when Kristy and Charlie arrive to pick her up. Stacey still seems to want to hold onto at least some of the mystery, so she asks Kristy how they can just explain away all the weird things they saw and heard. There are plenty of explanations, courtesy of Kristy and Charlie. The fire that Stacey and Charlotte saw was a torch being used by a workman who'd stayed behind, and I'm assuming the face Stacey saw during their first visit was a workman, too. All the clanking and moaning happened courtesy of the ancient plumbing, which the workers had to try and get out intact. So...there really wasn't much of a "Mystery of Stoneybrook," but we still don't know exactly why Stacey saw the house catch fire while it was being torn down when no one else could, and why she saw Mr. Hennessey in the flames. We also don't know why Claudia felt a hand on her arm when she was near the house. Imagination? Maybe, but I'd rather think there really was a ghost or two. :)

Rating: 4.5 (I can't believe I rated this one higher than Mary Anne and Too Many Boys. I always used to like Too Many Boys better!

Thoughts and Things

• It really isn't all that shocking that Stacey and Charlotte had dreams about the house on the same night. People tend to dream about what's been occupying their minds, and both Stacey and Charlotte had definitely been thinking about that old house.

• There's actually a reference to Kristy promising not to ask the club members if they've read the notebook (that happened in #22). Good going, Ellen Miles! Love the continuity.

• I'm not really sure about Stacey's total involvement of Charlotte in this mystery. Some pretty scary stuff happened, and Charlotte is only 8.

• What is with the Pike boys' obssession with bologna? In this book, Byron eats a bologna and jelly sandwich for dinner, and Nicky has peanut butter and bologna. In the past, they've eaten their bologna fried. I don't get it; bologna is almost as disgusting as Spam!

• During that same sitting job, the Pikes and Dawn put on a play of The Wizard of Oz. I totally used to do that with my best friend and siblings growing up. Either my best friend or I would be Dorothy, and whoever wasn't Dorothy would play both witches. My sibs would fill in the other roles as needed. Good times. :)

• When Charlotte is sick, she and Stacey play Clue quite a bit. Too bad you actually need at least three people for the game to work right.....