Jessi and the Jewel Thieves (M#8)

Original Publication Date: 1993

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles

Synopsis:

While Jessi's parents, aunt, and brother go out of town for a wedding (Squirt will be baby-sat during it) and Becca stays at the Pikes' (the Johannsens weren't available), Jessi gets to visit New York. She heads over with Stacey for the weekend, and gets to spend time with Quint. While at his apartment, they overhear two men in another apartment across the alley. They're arguing loudly enough for Jessi and Quint to hear that they're planning a jewel heist. But they don't know many details, and decide to find out more before going to the police. But, in a fantastic twist, the two would-be thieves are actors rehearsing a script! Oh, what tomfoolery!

Also, Jessi and Quint decide to be just friends until they're older or live closer.

Back in the 'brooke, Becca is being a major pain about being "abandoned" by her family. She gradually calms down enough to somewhat enjoy her stay at the Pikes', but is of course still overjoyed when her parents return.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Munchos (what?), Doritos, Lifesavers, jawbreakers, Kit-Kats, Snickers, Ruffles

In the last book Jessi narrated, she practically agreed with Mallory's assessment of herself as "not pretty" but now she's amended that to say she does think Mallory's cute but Mallory won't believe her.

Stacey and Jessi both love zoos.


Their Families:

Becca's awfully whiny for an eight-year-old. Certainly I've met whiny eight-year-olds, but I've also met younger kids who handle disappointment better. Fortunately, this isn't too typical of the Becca I've seen.

I think Stacey's dad is still spoiling her/trying to make up for not seeing her; he takes her to VERY fancy places to eat, takes her shopping all day, and so on. Especially when he promises another night out to justify that he's going in to the office on a Saturday.

Becca has a good appetite, and loves tacos.

The Pikes call empty wrapping paper or paper towel tubes "hoo hoo tubes." Please. They're "dir-di-dirs."


The Club: nothing new


SMS: nothing new


PSA Time:

You know, emergency services never get mad at people for calling 911 when the callers legitimately think there's something a reasonable person would call an emergency (meaning, "I heard a crash and I think it might be a cat burglar but I'm not sure" vs "THE FAST FOOD PLACE WON'T GET MY ORDER RIGHT").


Misc:

I don't know, no-kid weddings seem weird to me. There are always kids in my extended family (when you have 15 first cousins ranging from mid-thirties to less than a year old, it happens), and it wouldn't seem right to invite some cousins and not others. I sort of understand; certain venues are geared to adults, or the bride and groom aren't comfortable around kids. But it still seems odd, because parents can usually handle their children for a couple hours. Oh well, the only wedding guest list I needed to concern myself with was mine.

John Lennon is described as "the Beatle who died." Uh, true, but not JUST died...

Thanks to some editing weirdness, we have a BSC notebook entry from Claudia in front of a Mary Anne sitting chapter, and the entry is from a different sitting job (chapter 10). Mary Anne's entry shows up in front of Claudia-narrated Chapter 13.

This is Jessi's one and only mystery. Apparently Scholastic didn't want to encourage eleven-year-olds to solve mysteries. But thirteen-year-olds? Go for it!


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 4

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 3

BSC Fights: 8

SMS Staff and Faculty: 32

Students (other than the BSC): 96; 63 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 18 6th graders, 12 unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 72 (Okay, this list is getting out of hand. I'm still keeping track in a Word document, and when I finish I'll post it all)

Crushes (same here; too long):
Claudia-8
Stacey-7
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Mallory-1

Claudia's -Freind- Friend (RS#62)

Original Publication Date: 1993

Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker

Synopsis:

Shea Rodowsky is newly-diagnosed with dyslexia, and his parents have asked the BSC to help tutor him as they think people closer to him in age would be helpful. While it explains why he's been having trouble in school, he's understandably frustrated with the difficulties it brings. Claudia ends up tutoring him, and they bond over their school frustrations and feeling dumb. Because they understand each other, they help each other out.

Claudia herself gets tutored by Stacey. Unfortunately, Stacey acts like an old school marm and treats Claudia like an elementary student. Claudia doesn't like being treated like a little kid, and gets a bit frosty to Stacey. Stacey has Claudia keep a journal, correctly assuming that the more Claudia practices writing the easier it will get. However, Claudia starts keeping a second journal in which she unloads her frustrations at Stacey. Naturally, Stacey gets the wrong journal at one point. Once everything's out in the open, Claudia and Stacey patch things up. And Claudia's English grade improves.

Also, there's a dance being held at the community center. When the BSC starts receiving anonymous notes ("You're the greatest" etc) they each assume a different boy is leaving them, ready to ask one of the girls out. Then the notes invite them out to brunch, and the BSC thinks it's a trick. But when they go to see, it's their charges, wanting to surprise them with a nice treat.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: chocolate twigs, trail mix

Claudia's been testing for learning disabilities and been found to not have any, but she sure seems like she has ADD or something. I don't have ADD so I can't speak from a first-hand experience, but the way her mind wanders and goes off on tangents sounds like what I know of ADD.


Their Families:

Janine cleans her room every Saturday morning.


The Club:

Mallory has a sitting job that lasts until 5:30 so is late to a BSC meeting. Kristy's actually okay with it once Mallory reminds her where she was.

I'm surprised that Shea could play the piano as well as he does with dyslexia.


SMS:

Mrs. Hall is still the 8th grade English teacher.


PSA Time:

Uh, Stacey...don't show little kids like Emily Michelle the pictures in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Most of the stories aren't so bad (except for "The Wendigo") but the pictures...


Misc:

I like the way Claudia designs her vocabulary flash cards, decorating them so the words match their definitions. It'll probably help her remember them.

Does anyone else remember being told that you should have an hour of homework for each grade you're in, as in one hour for first grade, two for second? That never made sense to me, because think about being in eleventh grade...

When Claudia wants to come up with an example of an alphabet with a ton of characters she picks Chinese. Her example is valid, but why not Japanese?


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 4

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 3

BSC Fights: 8

SMS Staff and Faculty: 32

Students (other than the BSC): 96; 63 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 18 6th graders, 12 unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 70 (bonbons, bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, chocolate marshmallow cookies, chocolate twigs, Chunky bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, dark-chocolate caramels, Devil Dogs, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, Frosted Flakes, fruit pie, Goobers, gumdrops, Gummi Bears (regular and sweet-n-sour), Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, jellybeans, Kit-Kats, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, malt balls, marshmallows, Mentos, Milk Duds, Milky Ways, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf and chocolate-dipped), Payday bars, Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels (regular and sourdough), pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, tortilla chips, trailer mix, Triscuits, Twinkies, Yodels, yogurt-covered raisins)

Crushes: Claudia-8 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-5 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris, Price Irving, Richie Magnesi), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart), Jessi-3 (Daniel, Curtis Shaller, Quint Walter)

Kristy and the Worst Kid Ever (RS#62)

Original Publication Date: 1993

Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker

Synopsis:

The Papadakis family is fostering a child, Lou (short for Louisa). She's been through a lot in her short life, and is hard to get along with. She picks fights, resists peoples' attempts to get to know her, and complains about the rules at the Papadakis house (after all, she's a McNally, not a Papadakis). Eventually, Lou lets Kristy in a little bit, and Kristy starts to understand where Lou's frustration comes from. It was already known that Lou's mother had abandoned the family, her father recently died, and her brother was with a different foster family, but it isn't until Lou starts opening up that the BSC realizes how much hurt she's had to endure.

Nonetheless, the fact that Lou has had a difficult life doesn't mean she's allowed to make the people around her miserable. She starts to learn that it's okay to let people get close to her, and stops trying to push everyone away. But she still believes her mother will come back and take her and her brother, so when her social worker comes with the news that she and her brother will live with their uncle's family, Lou goes ballistic. Kristy calms her down, though, and when the day comes for Lou to go to her new family, things are okay. Two big things help: she gets to see her brother again, and she gets a puppy all for herself. Dogs make everything better.

Meanwhile: Karen and her friends turn the old garden shed into a playhouse, and SMS holds a fund-raising auction (the BSC writes letters and gets celebrities to donate things like a jacket worn during a movie filming, the warm-up blanket from the Kentucky derby winner, etc). The highest-earning item? 24 hours of sitting from the BSC. Cue eyeroll.


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: yogurt-covered raisins, Mallomars, Frosted Flakes, and sourdough pretzels under her bed, marshmallows in a desk drawer, Fig Newtons

Dawn's starting to lecture more about food, but about eating healthy, not cow carcasses (yet).

Mary Anne still has a fangirl crush on Cam Geary. Later in the book, Mary Anne correctly uses a possessive pronoun with a gerund and I consider starting my own fangirl crush.

Kristy specifically mentions that Mary Anne holds a piece of paper a little far from her face to read it. Considering Mary Anne uses reading glasses, that makes perfect sense.

It's implied that Stacey's tastes are getting older than those of the rest of the BSC. She's into music that high schoolers like, for example. Maybe because of dating Sam?

Logan buys pearl earrings for Mary Anne at the auction. I hope they're clip ons.


Their Families:

And exactly HOW does Sam Thomas deliver groceries for the A&P? It's his parttime job, and he's fifteen...


The Club:

We get to see the Craine family again, the ones who had a ghost cat. I thought they only appeared the once in the Mallory mystery.


SMS:

SMS has computers! And has had them long enough for the computers to be outdated! I forget sometimes that technology from beyond the 1970s exists in the BSC world.

From Jessi's narration, it's implied that SMS has no playground or recess. But in the first few books they have recess. Jessi and Mallory even met during recess.


PSA Time: nothing stood out


Misc:

Considering how it seems Ann M. Martin was trying represent different kinds of families in the BSC members, it's interesting that all the girls are raised by at least one biological parent. There are divorcees, widows, happily married couples, extended family living under the same roof, but no BSC member is adopted. Even the American Girl books have an orphan (Samantha, who's in her grandmother's custody).

There are a lot of accurate call-backs in this books: different incidents with Cokie Mason, Kristy's run for class president...


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 4

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 3

BSC Fights: 8

SMS Staff and Faculty: 32

Students (other than the BSC): 96; 63 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 18 6th graders, 12 unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 68 (bonbons, bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, chocolate marshmallow cookies, Chunky bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, dark-chocolate caramels, Devil Dogs, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, Frosted Flakes, fruit pie, Goobers, gumdrops, Gummi Bears (regular and sweet-n-sour), Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, jellybeans, Kit-Kats, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, malt balls, marshmallows, Mentos, Milk Duds, Milky Ways, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf and chocolate-dipped), Payday bars, Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels (regular and sourdough), pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, tortilla chips, Triscuits, Twinkies, Yodels, yogurt-covered raisins)

Crushes: Claudia-8 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-5 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris, Price Irving, Richie Magnesi), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart), Jessi-3 (Daniel, Curtis Shaller, Quint Walter)

Dawn and the Disappearing Dogs (M#7)

Original Publication Date: 1993

Ghostwriter? Yes, Ellen Miles

Synopsis:

Dawn gets a weekend pet-sitting job at the Mancusis' and their Great Dane goes missing (flashbacks of Buddy Barrett, anyone?). Understandably, Dawn feels awful, just as anyone would. Then MORE dogs start disappearing, including the Thomas-Brewers' Shannon the Bernese Mountain Dog. The BSC is on the case!

Dawn and the others manage to track down a car Dawn had seen circling before the dog was stolen, and they turn the evidence over to the police, who seem dismissive. Dawn, thinking she should be informed of every step of a an on-going investigation, checks up the lead, but is told not to worry, the car belongs to a rich man, Karl Tate. Dawn doesn't trust the police officer's assessment, maybe because of the cavalier attitude of discussing this with a minor...Eventually, the find that the new pet shop has been working with Tate (who was actually in financial trouble) to steal pets to fill special orders. While at a softball game, Dawn sees one of the stolen dogs in a field, and the theft ring unravels from there. To his credit, the formerly abrupt-though-way-to-free-with-information police officer is quick to acknowledge Dawn's persistence. The dogs are safe! (no softball pun intended)


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Twix, Three Musketeers

Dawn's a vegetarian because she doesn't like the taste of red meat, not because she feels sorry for the cow. Yeah, I'll remember that when you start berating people for eating cow carcasses, Dawn.

The Krashers softball team forms from combining players of the Bashers and Krushers to play a softball team in a nearby town (Stoneybrook wins).


Their Families:

A point that's been brought up before:it's often noted that it's a good thing Kristy lives in a mansion, because when (and only when) Karen and Andrew are over, her family has ten people and OhMyGoshHowCouldTheyAllFitOtherwise. But Mallory's family has ten people also, full-time! Kristy's has more pets, especially since Sarge the cat disappeared, but still...


The Club:

The Mancusis have added an iguana to their menagerie. Jessi's experiences pet-sitting for them are accurately recalled in this book.

The Mancusis' Great Dane, Cheryl, understand what the spelled-out "W-A-L-K" means, like my dog did! She would get so excited, my dad switched to saying he was going to take Shadow out for a Chinese cooking utensil (wok). Eventually, Shadow learned that, too.


SMS: nothing new


PSA Time:

If you take guinea pigs or other rodents out of their cages for any reason, watch them to be sure they don't go chewing on wires. Electricity+tiny things+potential for animals being stuck in tight place=not good. To prove this point, my eight-and-a-half-month wide-awake-at-11:30 daughter is trying to get the laptop's power cord. (She won't fall asleep no matter what, so I'm resigned to having her play in bed in hopes that she'll wear herself out and drift off. Any typos are her fault.)


Misc:

Nothing can ever be "most unique." It's either one of a kind or it isn't. It's like being most first place in a race.

Dawn admits she can't remember the difference between macaws and other large, colorful birds, but I do! Macaws have no feathers around their eyes. For example, on a scarlet macaw (the red ones with the rainbow tails) the white patches around their eyes are skin, not white feathers. Thank you, Rachel T. at Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah, WA.

I think it's funny how the BSC almost acts like ONLY five-year-olds can be silly, Trust me, twenty-seven-year-olds have their ridiculous moments, too.

So, if the thieves were stealing purebred dogs to sell, do you think they faked the paperwork, too? They'd pretty much have to, to prove the dogs were pedigreed, right? I wonder how difficult that would be in 1993.

Done. Almost half past midnight...the baby finally fell asleep ten minutes ago, tired out from playing with a stuffed Stegosaurus.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 4

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 3

BSC Fights: 8

SMS Staff and Faculty: 32

Students (other than the BSC): 96; 63 8th graders, 2 7th grader, 18 6th graders, 12 unspecified

Clients: 29

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 65 (bonbons, bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, chocolate marshmallow cookies, Chunky bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, dark-chocolate caramels, Devil Dogs, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, fruit pie, Goobers, gumdrops, Gummi Bears (regular and sweet-n-sour), Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, jellybeans, Kit-Kats, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, malt balls, marshmallows, Mentos, Milk Duds, Milky Ways, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf and chocolate-dipped), Payday bars, Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, tortilla chips, Triscuits, Twinkies, Yodels)

Crushes: Claudia-8 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Arthur Feingold, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-5 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris, Price Irving, Richie Magnesi), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart), Jessi-3 (Daniel, Curtis Shaller, Quint Walter)