Kristy and the Kidnapper

The Baby-Sitters Club Friends Forever #9

by Ann M. Martin

On a school trip to Washington, D.C., Kristy becomes involved in a mystery when she witnesses an attempted kidnapping

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Contemporary, Collections, Fiction, Friendship, Young Adult

142 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

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

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book.

in this book by ghostwriter Ellen Miles, kristy and abby go to dc for a debate convention along with a few other sms students, including melissa banks (see Claudia and the World's Cutest Baby). kristy recognizes one of the dc-based competitors as terry hoyt (see Stacey and the Mystery Money), but his name is now david hawthorne and he’s super avoidant when kristy asks him questions. david ends up on kristy’s debate team, and their assignment is to debate that cats are better pets than dogs. they all like dogs better, so they bemoan their bad luck, but set to work and have great chemistry as a debate team. then one day, david almost gets kidnapped by a man who has been following them, and david explains that his dad has put a lot of people behind bars in his former life as a secret service guy, and the man who tried to kidnap him is probably trying to get revenge. like max cady but it’s a kids’ book so without the whole being a rapist thing. kristy and david are able to identify the attempted kidnapper based on photos that david’s dad shows them, and they have secret service agents tailing them for the rest of the debate convention. that plotline is resolved when the attempted kidnapper comes to the final debate competition and david’s dad and a secret service guy catch him. meanwhile, kristy and abby have been constantly debating cats vs. dogs and have become butthurt about it. when they are forced to actually debate one another in the final, they make it really personal, and the judges call them out for being unprofessional about it, but kristy’s team wins (mostly because kai was the best debater). the most charming plotline involves melissa, who kristy and abby think of as a bad debater because she’s wishy washy in her personal conversations. she runs into a boy she dated from camp named lucas, and they spend the whole trip being lovey-dovey. when it turns out melissa will have to debate lucas, kristy and abby are convinced that she will throw the competition to help lucas win. but of course she doesn’t, she wins because she is an amazing debater, and kristy and abby are both just jerks who think being strong-willed and argumentative automatically makes you a good debater.

highlights:
-classic kristy quote: "I am president of the BSC, since the club was my idea. not that it's important. just thought I'd mention it."
-kristy notes that boys in her debate class crack up at the word rebuttal. me too, boys. it’s a funny word.
-kristy has a dream she's debating bart simpson who keeps telling her to not have a cow, man
-kristy describes an english guy as having "very good diction. (that's when you pronounce all your words carefully and correctly.)" lol thanks for the lesson in what diction means kristy
-I love when melissa owns lucas in the debate after kristy and abby had thought she was going to throw the debate.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-abby says something about going "stark, raving mad." does this mean naked AND raving mad?
-kristy and abby are really mean girl-ish to melissa. they keep nitpicking everything she says and question whether she’s even a good debater.
-kristy quote: "of course, everyone knows dogs make better pets." SURE THEY DO KRISTY. as an unequivocal cat person, I know that there’s no reason to firmly believe that either makes a better pet, because it varies from person to person and animal to animal. some dogs are better pets than some cats, and vice versa.
- there’s a reference to the dj playing "dorky music from the eighties" but first off, these books started in the 80s, and secondly, I feel like 80s music was really cool around 2000
-at one point the agents can't find david and kristy thinks he's been kidnapped but really he's just irresponsibly hanging out avoiding secret service. gross.
-kristy and abby being weirdly defensive in the debate because they make it personal. I mean, I buy this plotline for them, but it’s just uncomfortable to read.

list of "slang" or "rude" words used as examples for alternate scrabble:
-butt
-snot
-fart
-nerd

no outfits. no snacks in claudia’s room.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was totally ludicrous. they're only nine books into the "friends forever" series & they are already scraping the bottom of the barrel for plotlines. okay, here we go: kristy & abby are on some kind of weird debate team as part of their english unit...even though kristy was doing biographies with a totally different english teacher just four books ago...whatever. that's fine. as part of their debate unit, they have been selected to go to a competition in washington DC. they make friends with a girl named melissa on the bus. when they arrive in DC, melissa runs into the arms of her boyfriend from another school, who is also there to do debate. he is friends with a boy kristy thinks she recognizes from stoneybrook. could it be terry hoyt, co-star of "stacey & the mystery money" or whatever that mystery book was where stacey thought terry was a counterfeiter? but this guy says his name is david hawthorne. what the crap?

naturally, david & kristy are assigned to be teammeates. they have to debate whether cats or dogs make better pets, & they are assigned to argue in favor of cats. kristy is ridiculously distraught about this because "everyone knows dogs are better pets," she says. uh, i think there's not one objective answer, but whatever. kristy thinks they need to get all the practice they can get if she has to argue in favor of gross icky cats.

she & david head down to the lobby to meet up with their third teammate, kai, & as they walk down the stairs, david notices that a guy in black is following them. & then the guy in black goes nuts & kidnaps david! seriously, WTF. kristy runs into the lobby screaming & security guards give chase & david is recovered but the kidnapper escapes. after being questioned by security & police, david confesses to kristy that he IS terry hoyt! his dad is a secret service agent & they were living under an assumed identity in stoneybrook, but his real name is david hawthorne. is dad has been re-assigned a new job where he doesn't have to have fake names & shit, but some of the bad guys he put in jail are angry about...being put in jail, i guess, & are maybe trying to kidnap david as revenge. THIS IS RIDONKULOUS. kristy rolls with it & hides david's identity from the cops & everyone else. they join up with kai & go on to kick some serious ass all over the debate room. secret service agents are assigned to each of them, to protect them from the kidnapper, who is identified as some computer hacker dude that david's dad arrested while living in seattle. he was acquitted on a technicality & now apparently wants to add kidnapping to his rap sheet? seriously, what the hell?

anyway, the book goes on with more kidnapping scares & debates & melissa fawning over her boyfriend & abby & kristy arguing bitterly over which is better--cats or dogs. finally the climactic scene: the finale debate is outside the lincoln memorial. abby & kristy let their emotions get the best of them & get personal in the cats vs. dogs debate in front of judges, & then kristy sees the kidnapper running through the audience! she screams, david's dad does a full-body tackle, the kidnapper is subdued, the judges deliberate, & kristy's team wins the debate. WHAT. then kristy & abby have a heart-to-heart over how they shouldn't let their competetive natures interfere with their friendship, they hug it out, & then david's dad gives them a private tour of the white house, where he now works protecting the president. WHAT. this book was INSANE.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't read many of the Friends Forever books, but I picked this one up at a book sale yesterday and decided why not! I had only read the first one and then just...stopped. I don't know why, but there's no time like the present to fill in the holes!

From what I have read and know about this continuation series, a lot of the plot lines were centered more about the characters personal lives, romances, and things of that sort. This one, however, seems very convoluted and way out there (a lot like some of the plots in the original series). Kidnapping? Secret service agents?

Oh, BSC. Don't ever, ever change you beautiful garbage angel! I will love you forever.

[JH · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one sounded like it was going to be really boring- Kristy and Abby in DC for a debate competition...yawn. But it ended up being really cool! I learned about debate, I saw kristy and Abb's friendship bossom, and we get some fun continuity with the return of a character from a BSC Mystery, which was totally random but fun.

[probably not cam geary]

Was this, at some point, an outline for the Mystery series? The terrible Sergeant Johnson would've been around, then, for bewildering reasons... or maybe an identical D.C. cousin of his, just as eager to ruin teen sleuthing fun with police nonsense. Meanwhile, back in Stoneybrook, kids all over town would've become obsessed with the magic of debate, culminating in a chapter where the BSC-minus-K-&-A organizes a carnival/festival/talent show/afternoon gala/debate competition extravaganza, Claire Pike silly-billy-goo-gooing her way to first place.

Anyway! Not a Mystery title. Not much of a mystery either. Or a thriller. Right after a kidnapping attempt ft. guns: "the judges had taken their places again, [...] the audience had settled down." Okay! I care as much as those people do, I guess.

Anyway-anyway, what I like here is the Abby & Kristy content. I still get slightly bummed over Abby not being a Friends Forever narrator, btw. She's cool and fun(-but-secretly-sorta-sad-and-for-good-reason) and deserved better than those late, joyless sitting plots. FF was her chance! Alas. But back to Stevenson-Thomas reflections...

This is our last time seriously checking on the state of their friendship. I've come to find that arc surprisingly satisfying, and one deeper that you'd generally expect in BSCland. Now, fights about cats and dogs might not seem exactly moving, but CONSIDER (or not):

Up until now Abby's been, on occasion, described and self-described as a loner ("but I don't think she is lonely"). She doesn't belong to an official Best Friend pairing, although she and Kristy often seem closer than Kristy and Mary Anne (K & MA being, for the most part, a strangely tell-don't-show dynamic). The closeness is not an easy one, as they're both too aware of their similarities (see, for ex., A's description of K in Notorious Neighbor). They're proud, they're "bossy," and some patience & understanding & blah blah blah learning are needed if they wish to become a better match. Do they? Bickering's always a possibility, entertaining and kinda tiring.

Something happens in Abby's last POV book, though. After noting that she doesn't usually go to the Thomas-Brewer house just for hanging-out reasons, Abby opens up to Kristy, and Kristy's listening and advice touch her. Things end as they always should: a date at the movies, a free box of candy. It feels a bit like a New Chapter in a universe of immovable friendships. (And, well, it's pretty delightfully shippy, but that's not my point this time.)

Everything Changes then takes both on a JOURNEY!!!!!! of highs and lows, lots of fun together & then heartbreak & then admitting that they obviously care about the other. It's sad! It's great! It's ultimately kinda terrible because—see my FF!Abby frustrations somewhere above. (SHOULD'VE BEEN A NARRATOR!!)

So. Kristy. And the kidnapper. A man named Dibdin and a chase down the stairs and unfazed judges. And Abby and Kristy fighting about cats and dogs. And it's all silly (and entertaining and kinda tiring...). And then Abby, Loner But Not Lonely, No Best Friends But Cool About It, reveals that she really, really wanted to spend time with Kristy during their trip. A world away from Welcome to the BSC, Abby, we're-too-much-for-each-other, etc. Reader, I teared up, and when you tear up at the esteemed Ellen Miles's last attempt at a mystery that's really too much for this franchise (remember the simple times of missing rings and secrets in the attic, and then the increasingly strange parade that led us down to the BSC analyzing bullets?)... well, it isn't chilly, it isn't distant, it's certainly not dibbly fresh, but it's something. And whatever it is, ridiculous as it is, I'm fond of it.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciate all the throwbacks in the Friends Forever series. From Stacey's many boyfriends throughout the series in Stacey and the Boyfriend Trap , to the return of Terry Hoyt from Stacey and the Mystery Money in this book, it's fun to see one-shot characters again. (And though I understand that his ties with the Secret Service make for a great book, Kristy and the rest of the BSC also have one-offs that would have been neat to see again!)

I forgot how good this one is; again, it's great to see a throwback character, but also I like Kristy and Abby's friendship and seeing them interact. And, as I'm sure I've mentioned in another review of a Friends Forever book, it's nice to not have the action broken up by baby-sitting chapters.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of a thriller feel with the Secret Service agent thing. No violence or anything too scary.

The debates seemed formatted oddly, with teams debating the exact same topic multiple times over the convention. When I did debate in high school, each debate had a new topic, so things were kept a bit more fresh and interesting for the debaters. The bit about Kristy and Abby's friendship actually getting tense coz of their opposing sides of the debate was a bit silly, as was their debate topic. (Do cats or dogs make better pets? Like huh? I can see that as a debate topic for 8 year olds, not 13 year olds.) But also I'm glad the series covered a debating story.

[Sarah Hyatt]

This whole series was such a weird attempt to continue the BSC while actively distancing the BSC from all things babysitting. Including comments in the actual text about how unimportant it was. "I'm in this club for babysitting, BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT." And then the text would be peppered with the expected Chapter Two BSC member descriptions, as if they just couldn't be left out completely, even if they weren't needed.

Also, disappointingly, no one was kidnapped.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again grateful for some Abby crumbs after the original series, but...once again with the repeating storylines. How often do Kristy and Abby need to learn that the same lessons? I did enjoy the familiarity of this mystery because it takes elements from so many of the ones before it. But this is nothing ultra fun, and doing a rinse and repeat of the same Kristy and Abby storyline isn't thrilling me.

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this one is probably one of the most boring BSC book so far. Kristy is really the only BSC member in the book. I know the author has tried to make it more interesting with the debating and the mystery of David and his father, but it seemed irrelevant to the BSC ongoing tale.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The situation was bogus. But I want to give bonus points for Kristy actually being frightened for her own safety. In the original series and mysteries the BSC hunted down burglars and kidnappers all the time without really worrying. But situations like this are actually traumatic.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty ridiculous and implausible, but it brings back old characters (Terry Hoyt!) and has a lot of Abby in it, which is a definite plus for me.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book the Ninth: In which K-Dawg and STFUAbby go to DC for some debate competition or some crap and run into a dude who was in one of the old mystery books. And something about a kidnapper. This book was ridiculous. I hate the cover. I want to hit K-Dawg.

Okay, you know what? I hate the cover so much that I'm stripping Kristy of her cool K-Dawg moniker. You're K. Ron again, Kristy. That's what you get for having such a stupid book and an even stupider pose on the cover.

Anyway, I guess K. Ron kinda like helps catch a kidnapper or something. I seriously didn't like this book at all. Except that K. Ron had to argue that cats make better pets than dogs. She gets psychotically outraged that anyone would ever suggest cats are better than dogs. Whatever, K. Ron. I like cats better, but I don't totally flip my shit if someone is a dog person. Chill, dude.

Oh, right, plot or whatever. Um. So David Hawthorne is really Terry Hoyt, who Stacey was in LUV with back in that counterfeiting mystery. His dad is in the CIA or something, and some dude that he'd locked up for hacking or whatever is out and looking for revenge. He fails, obvs. Whatever. Happy ending. Not that kind of happy ending.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was a weird one. Kristy and Abby are off to Washington for a debate convention. While there Kristy sees a boy she thinks she knows as Terry only to learn his name is David. Kristy and Abby are on opposite teams debating if cats or dogs are a better pet. Both end up on sides they disagree with Kristy for cats, Abby for dogs. Kristy's team has the mysterious David on it and just before a debate practice a man tries to kidnap David. She then learns he was Terry while in Stoneybrook but is now David his real name as his dad is a secret service agent. So Kristy and David have guards put on them and David being an idiot shakes off his guard at one point and gets the poor guy fired. Teenagers are truly horrible. Abby and Kristy fight and nearly spoil their chance at winning the final debate the kidnapper is caught. This one was bizarre. I mean were Kristy's parents not told she was involved in an attempted kidnapping? Did they even care if they did know? There's a side plot of their roommate Melissa being in love and all mushy with her boyfriend which annoys Abby and Kristy. The only redeeming part of this book was getting to see Abby who I like more and more now because despite a crime and mystery element this one was kind of boring.

[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!

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it. I've never liked the BSC mysteries very much and this one was no exception. I might try it again later.

[Liesl Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would three teenagers REALLY be allowed to wander around the White House unaccompanied, even if one of those teenagers was the son of a Secret Service agent?