What do you think?
Rate this book
Sweet Valley Twins #36
Mary is Missing
One of the twins has disappeared and they do not know if it is a prank or kidnapping.
131 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 1990
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,149 books1,854 followersFrancine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Read
June 6, 2024Mary Is Missing
Jessica calls Mary to find out why she didn’t come to an important Unicorn meeting and Lila’s ice cream party the previous day. Her mother tells her she’s not available to come to the phone and doesn’t give her any more details. She voices her concerns to Liz. Mary mentioned having problems with her mother the last time she spoke to the twins but Liz says she thinks Jess is just being dramatic when she says maybe he’s run away. Meanwhile, Amy is headed to Mary’s because Mary promised to type up a Sixer’s article for her. On the way she sees Lila and Ellen who tell her don’t waste her time. Mary isn’t there and her mother isn’t saying where she is. Amy’s also been looking for Mary for two days. At the Wakefields, Seven gives the twins a vague message about some girl calling who mentioned money and needing to get away.
At scjpp;. the Unicorns notice their ice-crean party was left out of the Sixers. Ellen says her Johnny Buck party was also left out and it was the social event of the year. They want Jessica to talk to Liz because they think there’s a plot against the Unicorns. Jessica says she doesn’t have anything to do with that and agrees to talk to Liz. Then she quickly changes the subject to Mary. Lila says she’s getting annoyed with Mary. They really need that treasury report and she wasn’t home when she and Ellen stopped by. Jessica mentions maybe she should stop by and Lila says good idea and let her know what Jessica finds out. When Jessica goes by, she sees Mary’s closet and drawers open but no treasury money. Lila later calls and Jessica tries to make light of what she saw-not wanting to betray Mary’s confidence= but Lila starts to sound like Mary took the money and Jessica isn’t telling everything. Liz says the messy room doesn’t sound like Mary and it’s a mysery.
At the mall, the twins check the papers for movie times. Liz notices a paper that has some of the words cut out and sticks it in her bag. They run into Lila and Ellen going to the movies and they give Jessica a hard time about avoiding them and about her knowing where Mary is. They also not so discreetly accuse Mary of taking the money. Later Liz puts the missing words from the newspaper together. The message says YOUR DAUGHTER IS SAFE. WILL BE IN TOUCH. DON’T CALL THE POLICE. Jessica burst into Liz’s room and says Mrs. Wallace was rude to her on the phone and told her she didn’t know when Mary would be back and don’t call there again. Liz shows Jessica the message and Jessica asks if she thinks Mary was kidnapped.
Amy goes over and the twins tell her their theory. Amy says she saw Mrs. Wallace at the bank and Jessica thinks it’s because she was getting the ransom. Amy says it could be Annie DeSalvo. After all she’s done it before. She might have several reasons (financial gain, revenge, she misses Mary). Liz says the should call Officer Kerry. Officer Kerry says he’ll look into it. A little later he calls and says Mary went away with some friends and will be back soon. Liz trusts what he says but Jessica says Mrs. Wallace wouldn’t tell him. She also says the note could be a part of a game and they don’t know why Mrs. Wallace was taking out the money. She thinks they should drop the whole thing. Jessica tho isn’t convinced. Liz says they should just wait for now. If she’s not in school in a few days they’ll take action.
So, Jessica goes to Lila’s to try to convice her and Ellen., butt they aren’t going for it. So, she suggest they stake out Mary’s house. There’sa vacant lot next to the Wallace’s house. It gets boring but after a while they hear a conversation between Mrs. Wallace and someone. She’s going to meet up with someone and she says she’ll bring what she promised. It’s all small stuff. She says it will take a while to get the rest of it together. Jessica notices that she says “none of it was marked”. Kisnappers never want marked bills. Plus, she knows she went to the bank. Mrs. Wallace comes out with a suitcase, a bunch of Mary’s clothes, and Mary’s favorite teddy bears . This is enough to convince Lila. Jessica tries to follow her but they lose her in traffic. When they come back they notice she doesn’t have the suitcase or the teddy bear. Ellen wants to know why Mary isn’t with her but Jessica says it’s just the first payment and reminds them that Mrs. Wallace said it would take her a while to get the rest.
Amy and Liz go to the library to work on a school project. Liz hears someone next to her and goes to confront them. It’s a lady and she gets up and leaves. She finds out it’s not a book. It’s a newspaper. By looking up the newspaper on microfilm. The article is about a kidnapping that was unsolved. A LA family’s daughter was kidnapped and they paid the randsom but the daughter wasn’t returned. The police got involved but could find nothing. They both think the lady is the one that kidnapped Mary. At lunch, Kimberly comes by the Unicorns table and asks about mary and the missing money. Mrs. Arnette overhears and says that Mary went to Mexico because she wanted to go there in person for a school assignemtn. But the others don’t believe it. Later Amy and Liz are in the grocery store and they see the same woman they saw at the library. They follow her to a deserted part of town and watch her pull up to a house with an attic. Later, after some debate wbaout who’ll go Lila, Jessica, Ellen, Amy, and Liz return to the house dressed in black to case the joint and decide on what move to make next.
What they notice is the lady is there cooking and there are some lights on in different rooms. In one of them there’s the silhoutee of a tall, slender, girl =who they take to be Mary- and the shadows of someone younger-who isn’t moving. Since they can’t do anything else and their parents want them home by eight, they leave and plan to come back the next night. Lila and Jessica are late because Lila called Bruce and spent forever talking to him. Then her shoes heel comes off-which I say is BS because Lila wouldn’t ear cheap shoes=. Ellen gets tried of Amy calling her a chicken and slips into the basement while Liz and Amy are deciding who’ll keep watch and who’ll go in to get Mary.
So Amy goes in and Liz is left waiting outside. The kidnapper comes back. THAT WAS QUICK! Jessica and Lila show up and talk about what to do next. Liz suggests they should all go in and confront the kidnapper. Meanwhile, Amy sneaks upstairs while the kidnapper is distracted and finds Ellen slightly hurt. The door to the bedroom was bobby trapped. (She heard a crash when she was coming inside and something fall over). They hear noises on the stairs but before they can hide the kidnapper opens the door. E llen tries to go out the window but she can’t get it open. When Lila, Liz, and Jessica find the others, Amy is sitting on the kidnapper. She was going over Ellen and Amy knocked her out with one of the chair’s legs. Lila goes to call the police.
In their excitement they’ve forgotten about Mary and they see her in an alove, but it’s not Mary. It’s a girl with red hair and blue eyes. Her name is Becky Kern and the woman kidnapped her until her parents could pay ransom. The girl says the ladies name isn’t Annie. It’s Rita Parkman. Lots of pictures are taken and much praise is given to Amy and Liz. Not so much the others. Although Amy does credit then all. Mary really did go to Mexico with the Altmans (who went to visit friends and give Mary and her mom a breather)(, The suitcase of clothes were for a charity that her mother was donating some clothes of Mary’s too and she took Max to get him cleaned.
My Thoughts
It’s just interesting to me that the police praised these kids for being BRAVE! When actually they were really dumb. So yes, they might have caught a kisnapper through LUCK. BUT they went on a assumption that was iffy at best. You can’t just suspect from someone reading an article about a kidnapping that they ARE a kidnapper. You don’t know WHY this could have been of interest to them. This might have been a college student and she might have wanted it for a course or something. They kept insisting that this was Annie DeSalvo. Have they ever actually SEEN Annie Desalvo? Because I don’t remember Mary giving a description of her in “Threes A Crowd”. Then breaking into someone’s house on a iffy assumption? They should have AT LEAST gotten a lecture of even a WARNING that you can’t just do that and they’re MINORS. They called the police and used good judgement when they thought Mary was missing. I know they didn’t want to call again but couldn’t they have LEFT A ANONYMOUS NOTE? Not only this Amy ASSAULTED someone. Do they not realize how lucky they were to get out of that house ALIVE? If this lady was pychotic enough to kidnap a kid did they not think that she could have also gotten them and held them there with a kife or a gun. Or again did they assume because this is Sweet Valley the land of the perfect beaches and sunshine that people like this don’t live there? But no they get their pictures in the paper. SMH But what struck me as off was why even if Mrs. Wallace wasn’t at a good place with Mary why snap at Jessica not to call there again. That was a little wrong. Or come to thin of it why she didn’t just say she’s with the Altman on a trip. That’s really all she had to say.
Rating: 6 The mystery in this one wasn’t bad.
Jessica calls Mary to find out why she didn’t come to an important Unicorn meeting and Lila’s ice cream party the previous day. Her mother tells her she’s not available to come to the phone and doesn’t give her any more details. She voices her concerns to Liz. Mary mentioned having problems with her mother the last time she spoke to the twins but Liz says she thinks Jess is just being dramatic when she says maybe he’s run away. Meanwhile, Amy is headed to Mary’s because Mary promised to type up a Sixer’s article for her. On the way she sees Lila and Ellen who tell her don’t waste her time. Mary isn’t there and her mother isn’t saying where she is. Amy’s also been looking for Mary for two days. At the Wakefields, Seven gives the twins a vague message about some girl calling who mentioned money and needing to get away.
At scjpp;. the Unicorns notice their ice-crean party was left out of the Sixers. Ellen says her Johnny Buck party was also left out and it was the social event of the year. They want Jessica to talk to Liz because they think there’s a plot against the Unicorns. Jessica says she doesn’t have anything to do with that and agrees to talk to Liz. Then she quickly changes the subject to Mary. Lila says she’s getting annoyed with Mary. They really need that treasury report and she wasn’t home when she and Ellen stopped by. Jessica mentions maybe she should stop by and Lila says good idea and let her know what Jessica finds out. When Jessica goes by, she sees Mary’s closet and drawers open but no treasury money. Lila later calls and Jessica tries to make light of what she saw-not wanting to betray Mary’s confidence= but Lila starts to sound like Mary took the money and Jessica isn’t telling everything. Liz says the messy room doesn’t sound like Mary and it’s a mysery.
At the mall, the twins check the papers for movie times. Liz notices a paper that has some of the words cut out and sticks it in her bag. They run into Lila and Ellen going to the movies and they give Jessica a hard time about avoiding them and about her knowing where Mary is. They also not so discreetly accuse Mary of taking the money. Later Liz puts the missing words from the newspaper together. The message says YOUR DAUGHTER IS SAFE. WILL BE IN TOUCH. DON’T CALL THE POLICE. Jessica burst into Liz’s room and says Mrs. Wallace was rude to her on the phone and told her she didn’t know when Mary would be back and don’t call there again. Liz shows Jessica the message and Jessica asks if she thinks Mary was kidnapped.
Amy goes over and the twins tell her their theory. Amy says she saw Mrs. Wallace at the bank and Jessica thinks it’s because she was getting the ransom. Amy says it could be Annie DeSalvo. After all she’s done it before. She might have several reasons (financial gain, revenge, she misses Mary). Liz says the should call Officer Kerry. Officer Kerry says he’ll look into it. A little later he calls and says Mary went away with some friends and will be back soon. Liz trusts what he says but Jessica says Mrs. Wallace wouldn’t tell him. She also says the note could be a part of a game and they don’t know why Mrs. Wallace was taking out the money. She thinks they should drop the whole thing. Jessica tho isn’t convinced. Liz says they should just wait for now. If she’s not in school in a few days they’ll take action.
So, Jessica goes to Lila’s to try to convice her and Ellen., butt they aren’t going for it. So, she suggest they stake out Mary’s house. There’sa vacant lot next to the Wallace’s house. It gets boring but after a while they hear a conversation between Mrs. Wallace and someone. She’s going to meet up with someone and she says she’ll bring what she promised. It’s all small stuff. She says it will take a while to get the rest of it together. Jessica notices that she says “none of it was marked”. Kisnappers never want marked bills. Plus, she knows she went to the bank. Mrs. Wallace comes out with a suitcase, a bunch of Mary’s clothes, and Mary’s favorite teddy bears . This is enough to convince Lila. Jessica tries to follow her but they lose her in traffic. When they come back they notice she doesn’t have the suitcase or the teddy bear. Ellen wants to know why Mary isn’t with her but Jessica says it’s just the first payment and reminds them that Mrs. Wallace said it would take her a while to get the rest.
Amy and Liz go to the library to work on a school project. Liz hears someone next to her and goes to confront them. It’s a lady and she gets up and leaves. She finds out it’s not a book. It’s a newspaper. By looking up the newspaper on microfilm. The article is about a kidnapping that was unsolved. A LA family’s daughter was kidnapped and they paid the randsom but the daughter wasn’t returned. The police got involved but could find nothing. They both think the lady is the one that kidnapped Mary. At lunch, Kimberly comes by the Unicorns table and asks about mary and the missing money. Mrs. Arnette overhears and says that Mary went to Mexico because she wanted to go there in person for a school assignemtn. But the others don’t believe it. Later Amy and Liz are in the grocery store and they see the same woman they saw at the library. They follow her to a deserted part of town and watch her pull up to a house with an attic. Later, after some debate wbaout who’ll go Lila, Jessica, Ellen, Amy, and Liz return to the house dressed in black to case the joint and decide on what move to make next.
What they notice is the lady is there cooking and there are some lights on in different rooms. In one of them there’s the silhoutee of a tall, slender, girl =who they take to be Mary- and the shadows of someone younger-who isn’t moving. Since they can’t do anything else and their parents want them home by eight, they leave and plan to come back the next night. Lila and Jessica are late because Lila called Bruce and spent forever talking to him. Then her shoes heel comes off-which I say is BS because Lila wouldn’t ear cheap shoes=. Ellen gets tried of Amy calling her a chicken and slips into the basement while Liz and Amy are deciding who’ll keep watch and who’ll go in to get Mary.
So Amy goes in and Liz is left waiting outside. The kidnapper comes back. THAT WAS QUICK! Jessica and Lila show up and talk about what to do next. Liz suggests they should all go in and confront the kidnapper. Meanwhile, Amy sneaks upstairs while the kidnapper is distracted and finds Ellen slightly hurt. The door to the bedroom was bobby trapped. (She heard a crash when she was coming inside and something fall over). They hear noises on the stairs but before they can hide the kidnapper opens the door. E llen tries to go out the window but she can’t get it open. When Lila, Liz, and Jessica find the others, Amy is sitting on the kidnapper. She was going over Ellen and Amy knocked her out with one of the chair’s legs. Lila goes to call the police.
In their excitement they’ve forgotten about Mary and they see her in an alove, but it’s not Mary. It’s a girl with red hair and blue eyes. Her name is Becky Kern and the woman kidnapped her until her parents could pay ransom. The girl says the ladies name isn’t Annie. It’s Rita Parkman. Lots of pictures are taken and much praise is given to Amy and Liz. Not so much the others. Although Amy does credit then all. Mary really did go to Mexico with the Altmans (who went to visit friends and give Mary and her mom a breather)(, The suitcase of clothes were for a charity that her mother was donating some clothes of Mary’s too and she took Max to get him cleaned.
My Thoughts
It’s just interesting to me that the police praised these kids for being BRAVE! When actually they were really dumb. So yes, they might have caught a kisnapper through LUCK. BUT they went on a assumption that was iffy at best. You can’t just suspect from someone reading an article about a kidnapping that they ARE a kidnapper. You don’t know WHY this could have been of interest to them. This might have been a college student and she might have wanted it for a course or something. They kept insisting that this was Annie DeSalvo. Have they ever actually SEEN Annie Desalvo? Because I don’t remember Mary giving a description of her in “Threes A Crowd”. Then breaking into someone’s house on a iffy assumption? They should have AT LEAST gotten a lecture of even a WARNING that you can’t just do that and they’re MINORS. They called the police and used good judgement when they thought Mary was missing. I know they didn’t want to call again but couldn’t they have LEFT A ANONYMOUS NOTE? Not only this Amy ASSAULTED someone. Do they not realize how lucky they were to get out of that house ALIVE? If this lady was pychotic enough to kidnap a kid did they not think that she could have also gotten them and held them there with a kife or a gun. Or again did they assume because this is Sweet Valley the land of the perfect beaches and sunshine that people like this don’t live there? But no they get their pictures in the paper. SMH But what struck me as off was why even if Mrs. Wallace wasn’t at a good place with Mary why snap at Jessica not to call there again. That was a little wrong. Or come to thin of it why she didn’t just say she’s with the Altman on a trip. That’s really all she had to say.
Rating: 6 The mystery in this one wasn’t bad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 28, 2023
What a great book
July 3, 2020
...and I'm 9yo all over again.
October 3, 2018
In this one, Jessica and Elizabeth believe their mutual friend Mary has gone missing. Her mom refuses to tell them where she is. What a cool mom! In case you forgot, Mary has had one jacked up life: she was kidnapped, then forced into foster care when her kidnapper abandoned her, and now she's living with her bio mom.
Elizabeth sees a cut up newspaper randomly sitting on a bench at the mall so OF COURSE that means it was for a ransom note and Mary was kidnapped. I MEAN OBVIOUSLY.... Scooby Doo is quaking!!!
A teacher tells them that Mary is on vacation in Mexico but for some reason they think the teacher is as liar cuz that's what teachers do apparently
They find a woman who's been cutting up newspapers at the library and tail her to her house, which they stake out until they ultimately sneak in, knock out the lady.......... and find that she IS a kidnapper, but of a DIFFERENT GIRL. Wowie Zowie
Then Mary shows up in Sweet Valley with a "Mexican skirt" on. Cool of you not to tell your best pals that you were going to be gone for days in Mexico, sis!
Elizabeth sees a cut up newspaper randomly sitting on a bench at the mall so OF COURSE that means it was for a ransom note and Mary was kidnapped. I MEAN OBVIOUSLY.... Scooby Doo is quaking!!!
A teacher tells them that Mary is on vacation in Mexico but for some reason they think the teacher is as liar cuz that's what teachers do apparently
They find a woman who's been cutting up newspapers at the library and tail her to her house, which they stake out until they ultimately sneak in, knock out the lady.......... and find that she IS a kidnapper, but of a DIFFERENT GIRL. Wowie Zowie
Then Mary shows up in Sweet Valley with a "Mexican skirt" on. Cool of you not to tell your best pals that you were going to be gone for days in Mexico, sis!
March 17, 2018
Another of my favorites!
Read
June 1, 2021Great
July 24, 2021
I'm glad that I never read these as a child. The girls (except Elizabeth) are so mean. I don't even want to think how bad they can be as teens in SVH.
August 2, 2021
It was vary exciting
December 24, 2021
This one was fairly ridiculous, and naturally I loved it.
January 17, 2016
The problem starts with Jessica and Elizabeth noticing that their friend Mary has not been seen lately. Then others note the same thing, and soon the idea is going around that Mary is missing. Mary and her mother had been arguing, so running away becomes a possibility. That Mary could have been kidnapped is also a possibility
Various of the girls try gathering all the information they can. Mary's mother refuses to say anything. They stake out her house. Then messages are found in the newspaper which the girls interpret that means Mary was kidnapped, since she was kidnapped once before.
Their hunt for Mary keeps being unsuccessful, but it doesn't mean they fail to find someone else who is in deep trouble.
Another good story in the series.
Various of the girls try gathering all the information they can. Mary's mother refuses to say anything. They stake out her house. Then messages are found in the newspaper which the girls interpret that means Mary was kidnapped, since she was kidnapped once before.
Their hunt for Mary keeps being unsuccessful, but it doesn't mean they fail to find someone else who is in deep trouble.
Another good story in the series.
April 29, 2009
See, I guess this one might have been a lot more interesting had I liked/cared about Mary Wallace.
October 24, 2010
Young, older or all grown up, the Wakefield twins just make me smile. I wanted their adventures to be my adventures.
May 6, 2021
Loved these books as a child
June 22, 2013
I remember the cover just not the story.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews