Baby-sitters' Fright Night

The Baby-Sitters Club Super Mystery #3

by Ann M. Martin

On a school trip to Salem, Massachusetts, Kristy, Abby, Mallory, Stacey, and Mary Anne find a mystery instead: a famous diamond, the Witch's Eye, is stolen from a local museum. The Baby-sitters set out to investigate, but someone seems determined to stop them. Stacey's room is ransacked. Abby is followed. And then Kristy disappears!

Abby's sure the BSC is cursed. And all the Baby-sitters agree: Whether or not the danger is supernatural, it's definitely real. Will they find Kristy, and the thief, before it's too late?

Genres: Middle Grade, Mystery, Childrens, Young Adult, Halloween, Fiction, Collections

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[EuroHackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. We wrap up this year's nostalgia re-readathon with another BSC Super Mystery, but unlike last year's book, I have no real recollection of this one. I'm sure I've read it before, even though it's post-#100 in the regular series and thus, after I stopped reading the series originally. I still have a hard time with considering the Abby years as real BSC canon, because so much is different, 10 years and 100 books in. We're fast approaching the one-note personality trait stage, for one thing. And, well, it just isn't the same without Dawn.

This novel is bookended by chapters narrated by Abby, but since it wasn't written by Peter Lerangis, she's not completely annoying. She sets up the story for us: part of the BSC is going on a four-day-weekend school trip to Salem, where they will complete special history projects about a subject of their choosing. We don't really hear much about this, or really why the whole club isn't going, but alas, it doesn't matter. Claudia, Jessi, Shannon, and Logan are holding the fort in Stoneybrook over the Halloween weekend while the others are off taking various tours around Salem and scrounging up ideas for their projects.

Shit happens fast when, on the second day the SMS group arrives in Salem, the massive yellow diamond nicknamed the Witch's Eye is stolen from a museum near the inn where the school is staying. Mary Anne and Stacey were actually at the museum when the theft occurred, and are quickly hurried off the premises. The girls quickly switch into detective mode when Abby finds a discarded custodian uniform in the bushes, and Mary Anne has a frightening encounter with a long black wig. Mallory, who has met one of her favorite authors at the inn, is frantic that they must have the BSC Mystery Notebook in order to record all of their clues in order to solve the mystery of the theft. I never could figure out why they couldn't just use loose-leaf notebook paper or scratch pads or whatever they had on hand, but no, Mal actually called her house and spoke to Jessi, who was baby-sitting at the time, and asked her to send the BSC Mystery Notebook with one of the spouses of the chaperones who was coming up for the weekend. Mal was just obsessed with having this notebook, and the group spends a lot of time discussing their ideas during their meals in the dining room, which of course attracts attention.

Anyway - on the day of the theft, Abby, Mary Anne, and Stacey are stopped for questioning by the police. Abby wanders into the inn's gift shop and finds herself enchanted with Chekov's gun a tiny ceramic pumpkin, which she buys on impulse and proclaims to be her pet. She carries it with her everywhere, and it soon becomes obvious that she is being followed around town. Her waist pack is stolen during the Salem Halloween parade, and the room she shares with Stacey is ransacked by the time they return to the inn. The pet pumpkin was safe, however, as Mallory had incorporated it into her costume.

Kristy is inexplicably brooding the entire trip, and she falls prey to some of Alan Gray's more immature practical jokes. It's not until she follows a false clue back to the now-closed museum that she realizes there's more to Alan's jokes than him just being a dumb idiot: no, Cary Retlin has been egging Alan on and has apparently set a trap for her and Alan at the museum. Cary is one of my least favorite characters, so I hate it when he pops up in any major role in the later BSC books. But, Kristy gets her revenge on Cary by teaming up with Alan to turn the tables and scare the shit out of him, so at least he got his comeuppance.

While Kristy is missing after trailing this clue, the other girls are caught at the inn in a massive thunderstorm that knocks the power out, and the thief makes one last desperate grab for the diamond. Abby saves the day with some especially vicious soccer fouls after they all realize that the diamond had been hidden in the pumpkin Abby bought way back at the beginning of the story. The diamond has a weird green glow to it when its discovered, and its enough of a distraction for the authorities to rush in after the BSC and grab the criminals. Turns out its Mal's favorite author, who had become obsessed with the diamond and its perceived curse, and wanted it bad enough to steal it when the owner wouldn't sell. Why she wanted a cursed diamond is beyond me, but there you go.

The SMS group is also experiencing some bullying, led by Cary and Cokie, who seem to be influenced by the whole Salem witchcraft hysteria. The chaperones are apparently oblivious, but the BSCers stand up not only for Kristy, but also for a sixth-grader named Eileen, who is Mal's roommate and apparently "a social klutz," whatever that means. Reading this bit of storyline makes the foreshadowing of Mal's own eventual decision to leave Stoneybook due to bullying seem eerily prescient.

Meanwhile, back in Stoneybook, the BSC decides to put together a Halloween parade for their sitting charges, which the adults think is a fantastic idea! Also, Jordan Pike is acting like he has magical powers and taking credit for both the good and the bad things that befall his siblings. His head gets too big for his body at the parade and he's humiliated into confessing that he was just playing pretend to his siblings. This was a bizarre little subplot, but the Halloween parade was a cute idea, and we have a whole chapter of Rodowsky shenanigans to enjoy on top of that. Yay!

The main mystery was pretty dumb, but the subplot was cute and I'm always here for Cary Retlin getting a taste of his own medicine. Last series BSC books will never be my favorites, but I think this was a great way to end our re-readathon this year. I'm already looking forward to next year! :)

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun! This one definitely took EVERY cue from Nancy Drew, and for that I'm thrilled. Love a diamond heist. Love Halloween themed books. Love pranksters getting what's coming to them. All so good.

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 4 out of 5]

in this third super mystery by ghostwriter Nola Thacker, some of our favorite baby-sitters (kristy, mary anne, abby, stacey, and mallory) go on a school trip to salem for halloween weekend, where they stumble on a mystery. an infamous cursed diamond called the witch’s eye is stolen from the museum where it was recently allowed to be displayed by its owner, agatha moorehouse (which is rich old white lady name if I’ve ever heard one). stacey and mary anne both find pieces of evidence implying that the thief is staying at the same hotel as them (a note with numbers on it on hotel stationery, and a disguise hidden in the bushes outside the hotel). so it seems that the suspects are the following people, because apparently they’re the only ones staying in the hotel: mrs. moorehouse herself (potentially having stolen it for insurance money), her caretaker naomi, a popular mystery author who happens to be staying there named martha kempner (who is very short and usually wears high heels), and two virtually indistinguishable men, sean knowles and harvey hapgood (yes, HARVEY HAPGOOD. definitely a villain in a scooby doo episode, or an archie comic, or something). mallory is a huge martha kempner fan so she desperately doesn’t want her to be the thief. abby ducks into the souvenir store in the hotel right after the robbery and happens to find and buy a ceramic pumpkin toy with a crack in it, and she starts to develop a theory that the pumpkin is cursed when bad things keep happening to her -- she gets bodychecked, someone steals her fannypack and subsequently uses her key card to ransack her room without actually taking anything, etc. alan gray and cary retlin and cokie mason are all in fine form in this book, relentlessly teasing an awkward 6th grader named eileen who is related to someone who was tried as a witch in the salem witch trials. and alan keeps pranking kristy, like it’s early in the series and he has a crush on her all over again (see Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls). when kristy finds a note implying that there’s evidence in the museum, she decides to investigate without consulting her friends, which is the easiest way to get yourself killed in both dnd campaigns AND real life. turns out, cary retlin pranked both her and alan with these similar notes, so they prank him right back and humiliate him. BUT because kristy is dilly-dallying at the museum, destiny steps in and makes it so the mystery gets solved without her there and she misses everything, which is definitely karma for her going off on her own. back at the hotel, the power goes out due to a storm. the bsc members get followed, and then a showdown happens wherein martha kempner and harvey hapgood, her accomplice, try to get the ceramic pumpkin from abby, because that is OBVIOUSLY where the diamond was all along -- after stealing it, martha hid it in the pumpkin and had to drop it in the gift shop so no one would find it on her person in case they checked, and then when she went back for it later abby had already bought it. the pumpkin breaks open and the witch’s eye glows in some sort of mystical way, and harvey hapgood doesn’t want it anymore because it’s too spoooooooky. and then the cops come. but not before abby uses some soccer moves to physically harm martha and harvey, because soccer moves can and will be used as fighting moves, apparently. meanwhile back at the ranch aka stoneybrook, jordan pike pretends that he has magical powers and manipulates his siblings into doing his bidding, but the bsc mess with him by pretending his powers work too well and then he gets freaked out and confesses.


highlights:
-when the investigator into the diamond’s disappearance asks if abby and mary anne are friends from school, abby almost says, "I've never seen that girl before in my life," but realizes it would be a bad idea. I love abby so much sometimes.
-my favorite alan gray prank: at the chocolate shop, he says, "wow, free samples!" and hands kristy a plate. she eats the chocolate and discovers that it's disgustingly salty.
-there's a running joke where abby keeps saying some elaborate conspiracy theory and saying "happens all the time." I think I just came to an important realization. I might just like abby because she is exactly like rob, my partner, who also has countless soundbyte-y dad jokes he repeats over and over.
-they say calling cokie a witch is insulting witchkind and mary anne says calling her a human is insulting humankind. ooohhhh, mary anne, that’s COLD, and I LOVE it.
-cornucopia is the name abby gives the pumpkin
-there are hints of claudia's current school troubles implying that she will be held back in Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout
-soapbox feminist abby: on high heels, "if men had to wear shoes like that, how long do you think high heels would be fashionable?"
-soapbox anti-capitalist abby: musing about what the people killed for witchcraft would think of salem business booming on halloween, "after all, it was their deaths that had given salem the reputation it was capitalizing on now."
-alan tries to take eileen's chair when she's about to sit down but mary anne and mal hold her up and then kristy says, "what are you going to do for your next trick, alan? pick your nose?" BOOM.
-they realize that martha seemed shorter than usual on the day of the robbery, because she was wearing sneakers (for sneaking)

-to thank them for finding the diamond, mrs. moorehouse buys the bsc members a pumpkin shaped cake with pumpkin charms inside each slice. is this a real thing that they make in salem? it sounds awesome, and I want it.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-abby says witches were hanged in the 1700s. she means 17th century, which is actually the 1600s
-abby also says the last trip she took with the bsc was the shadow lake trip (in Baby-Sitters Beware). what about hawaii, in Aloha, Baby-sitters!?
-mal has read all of martha kempner’s books. really? I understood with henrietta hayes (Mallory Pike, #1 Fan) because they were kids books and that’s what mallory is into, but it seems like kempner's books are for grownups and I just can’t see mal reading a ton of grownup mysteries
-stacey says that suits with sneakers is a look that is so new york fifteen years ago. how does she know that? she wasn’t alive then.
-stacey finds a note from the hotel with numbers on it in the museum and memorizes them accidentally because she has a brain for numbers (for example, she still remembers the license plate for the bus that drove them to salem). I have a brain for numbers and I don’t accidentally memorize numbers everywhere I go. we’ve never seen stacey’s rain man-style talents before, so it feels like a copout.
-mal gets jessi to send the mystery notebook to salem even though it's an effing weekend trip. she’s really out-malloried herself on that one.
-the bsc stand up for eileen and think about how if someone had said stop then the salem witch trials might not have happened. shyeah, right. the people who said stop got called out as witches too, you idiots.
-kristy is bummed to have missed the resolution of the mystery but that's what happens when you leeroy jenkins! or is there a one-person equivalent of the leeroy jenkins meme?

outfits
claud's last year halloween outfit:
-"Last year it was Doc Martens with pumpkin stickers, a hand-batiked shirt in orange and black, plus one orange sock and one black sock."
stacey outfit:
-"Stacey had gone for almost total black: black jeans, black boots, black turtleneck, silver cropped top over that, black boots with silver side buttons and silver X earrings."
eileen outfit:
-"She was wearing a huge purple dress, a puffy orange windbreaker, and these really clunky shoes. Her hair stuck out in spikes beneath a wool hat that had a pattern of white snowflakes on a red background."
kristy outfit:
-"We all dressed up (sort of -- I put on corduroys and my best oxford shirt and a sweater vest)."

alan's pranks of kristy:
-ice cube on her chair (makes her pants wet)
-cold spaghetti down the back of her shirt
-gets her to eat salty chocolate -- see highlights for more info
-tampers with her ticket when the sms kids go to see the crucible
-leaves permanent ink that looks like bloody spots like a vampire bit her neck

halloween costumes:
-kristy: sherlock bones (dog hat, necklace of dog biscuits, and a fake nose-moustache-glasses combo)
-mal: pumpkin patch (all orange with paper pumpkins all over her, plus the top half of a plastic candy pumpkin on her head and holding the other half filled with green yarn and paper leaves, and cornucopia on her belt)
-mary anne: tigger (whispers and ears made of felt, mittens with fake fingernails trimmed into claws, a yarn tail attached to a gray sweatshirt)
-stacey: mother time (all in black, with the face of a clock painted on her face)
-abby: women's world cup (t-shirt that says soccer: invented by men, perfected by women, along with a plastic blow-up globe on one shoulder and a plastic cup on the other)

jackie disasters:
-tries to make a papier mache mask by covering his face (including teeth) in papier mache and wants to blow dry it

snacks in claudia’s room:
-oreos (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

i showed jared the cover illustration of this book, because i think all the babysitters look kind of terrible. he pointed to mallory & said, "that one looks like shawn white." "who's shawn white?" i asked. "that snowboarder that looks like carrot top," he said. "are you just saying that shawn white looks like carrot top because they both have red hair?" i asked. "yes," he said. "are you just saying that mallory looks like shawn white & carrot top because she has red hair too?" i asked. "yes," he said, "but also...she does not look good." i LOLed. this also reminded me of this time like twelve years ago when i said something about how the thought of carrot top not being a virgin was unthinkable to me because i can't imagine anyone ever having sex with him, & one of my friends got really angry & was like, "WHY NOT? because he's UGLY? ugly people shouldn't have sex, is that what you're saying?" & then she stopped being friends with me. seriously. because i guess i oppress uggos.

i am rambling about all of this because it's way more interesting than the book, which is set in salem, massachusetts & revolves around a stolen diamond called the witch's eye. but here's a basic plot synopsis anyway.

a bunch of the babysitters go on a school trip to salem. i think they all go except for jessi (who has a dance recital that conflicted with the trip) & claudia (whose parents wanted her to stay home to catch up on schoolwork). as soon as the SMS contingent arrives at their bed & breakfast (really not understanding how they're fitting an entire middle school into a bed & breakfast with room for other guests, but whatever), mallory sees a famous mystery author named martha kempner. she rushes over to introduce herself & fawn over ms. kempner's books. ms. kempner is pretty gracious about it & says she is staying in the B&B to do research for a new book or something, & that she'll be happy to sign something for mallory later.

the babysitters also notice an elderly woman named mrs. moorehouse, who has a health care attendant. she apparently owns the witch's eye & has loaned it to a local museum for a while. a squirrely dude named mr. hapgood approaches mrs. moorehouse at dinner & asks to buy the diamond. she laughs at him. the sitters also notice a mysterious man engaged in the mysterious act of reading a mysterious newspaper. they learn that his name is shawn knowles. all of these people are staying in the B&B.

the next day, stacey & mary anne visit the museum that is hosting the witch's eye, but like two seconds after they arrive, all the alarms go off. the witch's eye has been stolen. stacey & mary anne are separated & stacey finds out the diamond has been stolen & sees some cops debriefing shawn knowles. mary anne is hustled outside, where she finds a discarded maintenance outfit in the bushes. perhaps part of a robber's disguise?

basically, all the people i just mentioned become suspects, as far as the babysitters club is concerned. they suspect mrs. moorehouse because maybe she faked the diamond's theft for the insurance money. they suspect mr. hapgood because he wanted to buy the diamond & mrs. moorehouse refused. they suspect mr. knowles because he was suspiciously reading a newspaper & was quick on the scene after the theft. they suspect ms. kempner because...she's there, i guess? mallory doesn't really suspect her. she doesn't think a famous writer would go around stealing diamonds.

this being a super mystery, each character kind of has a storyline. kristy is busy bickering with cary retlin & alan gray, who keep pranking her. she basically misses the entire mystery because she is fighting with them. while the mystery is being solved at the end of the book, she is being set up for the scaring of a lifetime by cary retlin, but she figures it out, combines forces with alan, & together they scare the pants off cary. as if cary could ever be outwitted by the likes of kristy thomas. as if.

claudia & jessi are back home...i'm sure they have a babysitting B-plot but i'll be a monkey's uncle if i can remember the first thing about it. something obnoxious, in which children behave precociously, i am sure. too bad no one cares!

mallory basically just gets obsessed with getting her hands on the mystery notebook, which they left in stoneybrook. she has jessi send it along with a teacher's spouse visiting for the weekend (who how what?) & obsessively writes up notes about their suspects...especially ms. kempner's outfits. mallory is so sad.

mary anne babysits for one of her teachers. the little girl she's looking after wants to be in the children's halloween parade. snorrrre.

stacey basically just collects clues & nothing else. one of the clues is a piece of a paper with a series of number written on it, which stacey immediately commits to memory because she says that's just what she does with numbers. look, i can buy that stacey is good at math, but that doesn't mean she has a photographic memory for numbers. but whatever.

abby is the real linchpin of this story (& the primary narrator). she buys a ceramic pumpkin in the B&B gift shop & is later pickpocketed at the halloween parade. someone steals her entire fanny pack. which...hahaha, abby was sporting a fanny pack. the pack contained her room key card & when she goes back to her room, it's been ransacked. she keeps feeling like she is being followed & she thinks someone else tried to pickpocket her at another point later in the story. the big climax comes when a huge storm blows up & knocks out all the power. the babysitters figure out that without power, the rooms won't lock, so they sneak into each suspect's room to try the series of numbers that stacey memorized on the room safe. ms. kempner's safe is a match. the babysitters then wander down a dark hallway, & for some reason abby sprints on ahead & turns into a part of the B&B that is under construction or something, & ends up wrestling with a shadowy figure that attempts to wrest her ceramic pumpkin away. the pumpkin breaks & the witch's eye rolls out. apparently whoever stole it hid it in the pumpkin & then left the pumpkin in the gift shop, where abby bought it. whaaaaat?

abby uses a soccer move to take down her opponent, who is ms. kempner. but she has an accomplice in the form of mr. hapgood, who tries to take the diamond from abby. suddenly the diamond emits an eerie green glow, which freaks everyone out for just long enough that mr. knowles can run in &...arrest everyone or something. or at least the bad guys, even though he is just an insurance investigator & not a cop. though there are cops there as well. also, mr. knowles shows the babysitters his insurance investigator ID & his full name is shawn colvin knowles. um...really?

this book SUCKED.

[Abigail F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last time I read this book I was probably 10 years old and yet — more than two decades later — the second a certain event happened about three chapters into the novel the entire solution to the mystery came flooding back to me, and on this reread, it’s so incredibly obvious. But that’s okay, it’s for middle graders, after all, and it’s not so much about the mystery as it is about all the hijinks the girls get up to both in Salem and in Stoneybrook.

This isn’t the strongest of the mysteries or super specials, and I found it hard to differentiate between the voices of the girls (and Logan) in the chapters, whereas in other BSC mystery and super special books with this format it’s usually clearer. Still, it was a cute story, lots of fun and funny subplots: a solid book with a core mystery and lots of Good Clean Babysitting Fun. It’s definitely more suited to a Halloween read than a June read, but I’m a fan of the podcast The Babysitters Club Club and this weekend they’re doing a live show featuring this book, so figured I’d brush up on the material. It’s always a joy to return to the world of the BSC!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

yeah they really went off the rails towards the end of this series huh. how tf did y’all make me hate my favorite characters 😔

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a joy to read. If I ever get bored of adult fiction I'm gonna read all the BSC mysteries.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun seasonal read, perfect to read around Halloween. It was fun to reread it because it has been YEARS since I last read it.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This mystery wasn't nearly as dark and terrifying as the last one where the girls are stalked by a literal murderer. Instead as Halloween approaches the club splits up with Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, Mallory and Abby heading on a field trip to Salem and will be staying at an old inn and soaking up local culture while Jessi Claudia, Logan and Shannon are left to keep things running at home. Soon after arriving in Salem Mary Anne and Stacey get mixed up in a burglary of a rare diamond known as the Witches Eye, believed to have a curse on it. There's many things happening in this story, from Kristy losing her mind over the obnoxious Alan, to Mallory befriending Eileen a classmate everyone believes is a witch and bullies her for it because middle school kids are terrible, and the missing diamond. Back at home there's a minor plot about a Halloween parade and the fact that Jordan Pike believes he can cast spells and is responsible for several incidents involving other children. But the main action is in Salem with Mallory weirdly obsessed with the club's mystery notebook as if an old mystery will help solve this new one. As always things get resolved, mystery solved, and the bullies receive revenge for their actions. While I'm positive I never read this or any super mysteries, I stopped reading these long before Dawn left for good and Abby arrived, many scenes felt like I had read them before like the papier mache. I mean they probably just copied a scene from an older book for this one. As always there's a storm of some kind and a blackout right before everything falls into place so I'm sure if I read this as a kid I would've been on the edge of my seat but I mean it's not like a murderer was after them this time. I did love Kristy getting her revenge on the boys, she's not usually my favourite in these books but it was worth it watching so called big tough bullies scream like little girls so that was fun. These are definitely a different take from the other books in the series and even the spin offs as it's not afraid to go to some dark places, this one was lighter and more kid or young adult focused as it took on issues like bullying and friendship, not my favourite but after listening to Hello Mallory earlier today and seeing how Kristy treated Mallory then, this book did help redeem her a bit for the revenge part and because Mallory was just so weird about that damn notebook.

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

BSC, you got an extra star for the following reasons.
1) Mal looks cute on the cover. Usually she looks like the artist is using her to torture someone.
2) I love Halloween books.
3) Salem. The BSC in Salem.
4) I like Abby's pet pumpkin and how she talks to it.

Otherwise, whoa. You can tell this was written as we hit closer and closer to the end of the series. The girls are extremely set in their limited character traits. Stacey? Always going on about money or shopping. Even when it makes no sense and to the point of distraction.

Also, did this ghostwriter write some of the Karen books, too? There are an awful lot of places where normal teenagers would use contractions and they don't. Repeatedly. It's strange.

As to the mystery, I'm not sure if you're supposed to be able to solve it or if you're just supposed to guess the answer based on the number of times Mal says, "No. It can't be!"

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll admit it, I skipped Kristy's Book to read Baby-sitters' Fright Night today, Halloween. It just seemed fitting. Especially fitting, since I spent today home sick with a migraine; that's a bummer, and this book is the weakest of the Super Mysteries, so that's also a bummer. It all ties in together!

I think the reason this book is so weak is that it's totally a Scooby-Doo "I'd get away with it if it weren't for you pesky kids" type story. It doesn't take place in Stoneybrook, the cast of suspects includes a couple of nondescript men that I don't even remember how they ended up on the suspect list. It's just over the top and I feel like it could have been tons of fun. Even the cover art is pretty ugly: why does Stacey's hair look so stringy?!

That said, I loved the BSC telling off Cokie and Alan for picking on one of the awkward sixth graders on the trip. I don't really understand why they needed to include this random one-off character, or what purpose it served the plot, but it was nice to see the girls tell off the bullies. I also quite loved Cary Retlin's meddling in this, and how Kristy and Alan turned the tables on him. Though it was stupid af for Kristy to go to the museum alone and I hate her for that.

I also don't know why, but the fact that Abby named her pet ceramic pumpkin "Cornucopia" has lived rent-free in my mind since the first time I read this book over 15 years ago.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh. My. God. I can't even with this! 108 pages of digital agony!

There wasn't even one specific thing about this that was lame. It just was in general. How many times can BSC members be in a museum when it's robbed? Also a glowing cursed diamond? Really? That was trapped inside a ceramic pumpkin that Abby bought?

About the pumpkin: I can not fathom the size of this thing. I thought it was one of those small little ceramic jack-o-lanterns that you put out on your porch for Halloween. Then she's carrying it everywhere? Then it's clipped to Mal's pants? Then it's small enough to fit in a fanny pack!? WHAT IS THIS STUPID THING!?

I need a breather after this.

[Anita (Hearts and Whodunits) · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the Baby-sitters visit Salem, they learn the mystery of the Witch's Eye, a famous diamond that has been stolen from a local museum. When they launch an investigation, they fear they have become cursed.
This was my first foray into the Baby-sitters' Club books. And it was a great story and kept me interested in finding out about the stolen diamond. The main characters were very likable. The only problem was that there were too many of them. It became confusing, and I couldn't tell the difference between some of the main characters.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one takes place around Halloween. Kristy, Stacey, Mary Anne, and Abby go to Salem, MA for a school trip. They solve a mystery involving an author and a stolen diamond. There is a Halloween parade there, and the BSC members participate. Claudia, Mallory, Jessi, Shannon, and Logan stay in Stoneybrook. They baby-sit and put on a Halloween parade with the neighborhood children. Dawn is in California.

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

As part of revisiting some of the books I liked as a kid, I've been picking up BSC books from the thrift store. This one is both ridiculous and, well, not that great. Diamond thieves in Salem, MA, BSC on a school trip (where Mary Anne is yet again babysitting for someone while she's supposed to be on a trip), and Alan Gray being an ass. Oh, and an author Mallory worships turning out to be terrible (Ann M. Martin working out some feelings, maybe?).

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it's because it took me so long to finish this book, but it really dropped the ball for me. I could have definitely done without the Claudia/Jessi/Shannon/Logan storyline, but Abby and Stacey were bright spots while solving the mystery. This one just felt a little disconnected, and easy to solve once the clues were presented.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suspension of disbelief failed. The girls are constantly calling hotel staff and tour guides to ask about the whereabouts of STRANGERS, and people tell them! We're not even in Stoneybrook where the BSC are proven mystery-solvers, but on vacation where no one believes the girls are anything but nosy busybodies.

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one more than the others I've read recently. The plot was okay, but I mostly just enjoyed reading the different perspectives! This was the last Baby Sitter's Club book on my shelf, and I can finally call it a day from this series!

[Marcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up thought it was boring.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly boring, and the B-plot about the Halloween parade in Stoneybrook was especially meh. But I do love Abby's action sequence near the end. Go, Abby! 😁

[Cloud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a Scooby Do type mystery. Not my favorite mystery, but definitely had its moments.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.

I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.

The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.

Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

22/25
4
4
5
5
4

[Kerryn (RatherBeReading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Christel Franken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread 13 september 2016