Baby-sitters Beware (SM#2)

Original Publication Date: 1995

Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker

Synopsis:

Ugh, mysteries. Ugh, SUPER mysteries. I just don't like them! This one could have been suspenseful even, but the pacing is bizarre and a lot of the "scary" parts are told through third-person rather than first-person narration. So annoying! But I had my wisdom teeth removed Friday morning (uppers in my sinus cavities, lowers impacted and erupting) and I've taken my percocet, so I should be able to make it through. I blame any typos on the narcotics.

The BSC returns to Shadow Lake. Well, Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne do, with Abby coming along too, while the rest stay behind for various reasons. Before they leave, the mysteries start. Kristy and Abby witness a breaking-and-entering (turns out to be the home-owner's son having money troubles), Mary Anne and Logan seem to be passing each rude notes but neither of them actually authored any...and then things get weirder.

Kristy is threatened with a rock thrown through a downstairs window, the rock reading "You're next." Mary Anne sees a prowler outside her house. Someone starts a fire in Claudia's family's outdoor trash cans. There are threatening calls to the original four of the BSC. Stacey is almost run down by a car.

It gets really dicey later on: someone is stalking the four girls at Shadow Lake, and Shannon, Jessi, and Mallory discover they're in real danger. Turns out that Karl Tate, who was running that dog-napping ring back in Mystery #7, is back. The Shadow Lake girls get stranded on ski lifts, snow-bound with power outages (but not fun ones like in that Super Special), and unknowingly lead by the culprit through a blizzard. Also, Stacey's insulin is stolen, which is just creepy (she has an emergency kit though).

Then the twist: Karl Tate IS at Shadow Lake, but the protect the BSC. His son is after the girls, seeking revenge. Things are revealed and solved just in the nick of time, and the book sort of fizzles out. Again, could have been good. But the extraneous plot points, the poor pacing, the illogical narrations, the outright STUPID notebook enteries...this is a hard book for me to get through.

So...did I throw up from a combination of swallowed blood and anesthesia, or from the overwrought melodrama of this book?


Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: none mentioned

Abby knows some Yiddish.

Logan's main sports are baseball and track. Football's come up a lot too, though. In fact, his being on the team is mentioned in chapter 4.

Claudia lends Mary Anne a pair of earrings. Claudia has clip-ons? Or Mary Anne suddenly has pierced ears? Chapter 2 is silent on the matter.

A line of Kristy's narration reveals that she might not think of herself as such a bossy personality as others do; she might think that some things she states as commands are suggestions. (page 154)


Their Families:

Sam Thomas breaks up with his girlfriend early in the book. Stacey, are you paying attention? Leave Robert.

Neither the Kishis nor the Schafer-Spiers have regular answering machines (although Claudia does).


The Club (and clients):

This book sees the advent of the mystery notebook. Mallory compiles it.

Claudia gets to fill in as president when both Kristy and Abby miss a meeting due to being interviewed by police after witnessing a potential buglary.


SMS: nothing new.


PSA Time:

Once upon a time, Mary Anne warned us that many cats are lactose intolerant, especially the males, and that milk should only be a small occasional treat. Here she gives Tigger milk with no such warning.


Misc:

I think it's weird that Super Specials have pictures, but Super Mysteries don't.

If you're in the Seattle area and need dental work, I highly recommend the UW School of Dentristy. I had a consult Thursday morning at 10, a nice low insurance quote by 2:00 pm, set up surgery for Friday at 9, and was home recovering before noon.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 8

Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2

Winter holidays in 8th grade (that BSC members celebrate, not just reference): Christmas-2, Hanukkah-1, Kwanzaa-1

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 8

BSC Fights: 10

SMS Staff and Faculty: 54

Students (other than the BSC): 177; 113 8th graders, 6 7th graders, 42 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 33 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 117

Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0

Claudia and the First Thanksgiving (RS#91)

Original Publication Date: 1995

Ghostwriter? Yes, Nola Thacker

Synopsis:

Claudia's short takes class is assigned to write and direct a play for the third-graders at Stoneybrook Elementary. They choose a Thanksgiving theme, and in doing the research, learn that they've been viewing the origins of the holiday through rose-colored glasses. They mention how life was actually pretty difficult for the Pilgrims, trying to eke out a living on a land totally alien to them, and how women were subservient to men. They also talk about how some native tribes today mark Thanksgiving as a solemn time of mourning rather than a celebration. Because of this, several parents and teachers protest the script as un-American (well, it wasn't the USA yet...) and demand it be changed to the "traditional" story. Claudia's class relents, but the playbills, publicity, and buttons they wear at the performance make it clear that this is not the original play. They also put on the original at SMS, complete with the original complainers picketing it.

But...as someone who had finished third grade a couple years before this book came out and who attended a teeny tiny private conservative Christian school for it...I have a hard time seeing this protest happening. We learned about the things that were "un-American" and it was a non-issue. Still, the book shows some good ideas for dealing with censorship.

Also, everyone in the BSC starts out with grandiose Thanksgiving plans involving relatives and trips, and all the plans fall through (worst is Mallory's family has to miss the Macy's parade again, just like the last Thanksgiving book when she had mono). So the BSC gets all their families together to celebrate and have a good time anyway. Even Dawn flies in for a surprise visit. Of course, Shannon's and Logan's families aren't part of it.



Established or continued in this book:

The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: potato chips, pretzels, candy corn, chocolate

Stacey likes the Marx Brothers. Smart girl.

Logan likes pecan pie, a traditionally southern dish.


Their Families:

Claudia's family is all dressed in navy blue on the same day. Did they coordinate?

The Pike triplets are all going to dress as Groucho Marx, rather than two of them being Harpo and Chico (maybe Nicky could be Zeppo?). In a past Halloween of the same school year, they were considering the Three Stooges. How long before they let Nicky trick-or-treat with them and be Abbott and Costello AND Laurel and Hardy? Byron would have to be Costello or Hardy since his character trait is eating.

Kristy mentions some of her extended family, and the descriptions fit with the ones she gave way back in Kristy's Big Day.

Mimi used to take Claudia and Janine to the library. I do that with my daughter, too. I hope she likes reading more than Claudia...


The Club (and clients):


The BSC still sits for Betsy Sobak. In case you've forgotten, her practical joke broke Claudia's leg.

Claudia lets us know that Kristy does understand BSc members missing a meeting if they're at a sitting job. How gracious of her.


SMS:

New teacher: Ms. Garcia teaches a short takes class.


PSA Time: nothing stood out.


Misc:

It's Thanksgiving for the second time. Halloween is also briefly mentioned, but seems to be the same one from the last book, as it's mostly past tense.

A couple things I would have included in the history bits: it wasn't just that only men could vote, it was only white male land-owners. The Pilgrims first settled in Denmark, but still didn't find the freedoms they wanted there. The illness that killed Squanto's tribe was widespread across the Americas, similar to the Bubonic Plague of the Middle Ages, and wiped out up to ninety percent of the native population, which is why the European settlers had so much space to settle.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 8

Halloweens in 8th grade: 5 (plus one in seventh)

Thanksgivings in 8th grade: 2

Christmases in 8th grade: 1 (Hanukkah is also mentioned, but no one in the BSC has celebrated it--yet)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 2

Summers after 8th grade: 8

BSC Fights: 10

SMS Staff and Faculty: 54

Students (other than the BSC): 177; 113 8th graders, 6 7th graders, 42 6th graders, 15 unspecified. Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation tells us that SMS has about 380 students.

Clients: 33 families

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 116

Crushes:
Stacey-11
Claudia-9
Dawn-5
Jessi-3
Mallory-2
Mary Anne-2
Kristy-1
Abby-0