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The Baby-Sitters Club Super Mystery #4
Baby-sitters' Christmas Chiller
The Christmas season takes on a spooky feeling when the members of the Baby-sitters Club become tangled up in a string of mysterious events.
223 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
42 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,112 books3,058 followersAnn 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...
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...
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June 25, 2011
five stars for pure insanity. none of the babysitters club mysteries are great, & the super mysteries are generally even worse, but this is the worst of the worst in terms of crazy-ass plots. it's also the last of the super mysteries. i am wondering if maybe the ghostwriter just threw all the unused mystery plots the scholastic editors had brainstormed into one book because they knew the mysteries were being phased out?
there are three big plots here, none of which are really connected at all.
#1: mallory, jessi, & mary anne are helping out with "the church christmas pageant," even though we have never really heard anything before about any of the members of the babysitters club going to church or being particularly religious. i guess the holiday season brought it out in them. plus, a bunch of mallory's siblings are in the pageant. the triplets are playing the wise men, of course.
while walking home from the church, mallory sees a confused-looking woman standing near the graveyard. she isn't wearing weather-appropriate clothing & she seems dazed. mallory decides to do a good deed & see if the woman needs help. mallory thinks maybe she's lost or something. there is a huge block of description about how the woman is clearly pretty young & petite. she is repeatedly described as "looking like a child," although she is also enormously pregnant. can i just say that i am really not down with describing pregnant women as "looking like children"? the idea of a pregnant child does not really appeal to me.
anyway, the woman tells mallory that she doesn't know where she is, what day it is, or even who she is. she has no idea how she ended up standing near the cemetery. she doesn't even seem to be familiar with the concept of stoneybrook, connecticut. & she doesn't have a purse or any identification (or money) with her. mallory stays with the woman while jessi calls for an ambulance. turns out the cops think the woman may have been the victim of a purse-snatching, & may have hit her head, causing amnesia. of course. because in books & TV, all you have to do is slip in the shower & the next thing you know, you have amnesia.
the cops ask mallory to come by the hospital to see the woman, who has been nicknamed "mary doe" by the police. way to hit us over the head with the christian symbolism, guys. mary remembers mallory, & everything that has happended since mallory found her, but she doesn't remember anything else, like who she is, where's from, ostensibly who her baby's father is or who her ob/gyn are. can you imagine getting amnesia while you're eight months pregnant? waking up one day totally clueless about who you are or what your life situation may be, but staring down the barrel of caring for a newborn in a matter of weeks? what if she had arrangements for someone to adopt the baby & she's just forgotten all about it? this is ridiculous.
the only clue to mary's identity is that she is wearing a beautiful custom-made wedding ring. but there's no inscription inside it or anything that might lend a clue to her identity. mary swiftly becomes huge local news in the tri-state area, but no one comes forward to identify her. mallory decides to invite her to the pikes' house for xmas. mary accepts, & while mallory is hanging up her coat, she notes that it's a maternity coat with a tag that says "babybaby" in it. apparently babybaby is the boutique where it was purchased.
mallory calls information & gets the number for a babybaby maternity shop in california. she calls them & describes the coat. they confirm that it's from a new line & must have been purchased in the last few months--but they point out that it could have been a gift. it doesn't mean that mary bought the coat herself or is from california. mallory asks them to go through their receipts. then she thinks of the ring & asks them for the names of jewlery stores near the boutique. she calls them & describes the ring. one jeweler asks mallory if she can fax an image of the ring. turns out that it was made in her shop, for her nephew. he is in australia on business, & he does indeed have a very pregnant wife who had accompanied him to the east coast. when he left for australia, she started traveling up to new york city via train. police figure that she was purse-snatched at the stoneybrook station & fell & hit her head, causing the amnesia. no one stepped forward to identify her because no one knew she was on the east coast or that she hadn't made it safely to new york city. her husband is alerted & he flies back to the states & arrived just in time for their son to be born on xmas day. they name him nicholas. supposedly the birth helps her memory return. o....kay.
#2: stacey is spending xmas with her dad in new york, & she has invited claudia to come along. stacey is also excited to spend some quality time with her new boyfriend ethan, & she hopes that he & claudia will hit it off because they are both artists. they do, & everything is going great...except that ethan is acting kind of weird. both stacey & claudia catch him staring intently at stacey several times--& not in a "so in love" way. more in "i wonder what your spleen tastes like" way. even when he's not around, they feel like they are being watched & followed.
stacey is also confused by the fact that her father's doorman nows ethan, even though this is the first time she's ever had ethan by her dad's place. & one afternoon, as she, claudia, & ethan are getting off the elevator, a pretty teenage girl with "butterscotch-colored hair" is getting on. ethan tries to duck out of her view & acts all weird. stacey wonders if ethan perhaps is cheating with the other girl.
then stacey gets a creepy jack-in-the-box, which is just left in a box outside her father's apartment door. the jack figure has a photo of stacey taped to it. stacey & claudia are both freaked out by it & find it threatening, but they wonder if maybe it was supposed to be a sweet gift from ethan that was unintentionally creepy. they show it to him, & all he says is that the colors aren't that great.when stacey asks if he sent it, he denies it most vociferously. but it must have come from someone with access to the building.
more creepy stuff happens, like someone stealing the lightbulbs from the hall outside stacey's apartment, & someone spilling red paint that looks like blood in the elevator. one day, stacey & claudia get home from shopping to find the stairs blocked off. they take the elevator instead, & get stuck. they wonder if someone tampered with the elevator, even though they get rescued.
finally, stacey gets a note, in ethan's handwriting, asking her to meet him in the basement at 5pm. by this point, she is really starting to wonder if ethan is total lunatic & she doesn't know about meeting him. she calls him & he rushes over to explain everything: he thinks that the note & the jack-in-the-box & everything else are the work of the butterscotch-haired girl. he used to date her, before he ever met stacey. he describes her as "unstable," & the relationship didn't last long. but she's been trying to win him back ever since, & she obviously discovered that stacey is dating ethan because she lives in stacey's dad's building. she mimicked ethan's handwriting & is trying to lure stacey into the basement.
if i was stacey, i probably wouldn't believe any of this. i'd still be suspecting ethan.
anyway, stacey, ethan, & claudia go to the basement to see what the girl wants. she's not there. just as they are breathing sighs of relief, the power cuts out. the girl has appeared & she's a maniac. i don't know what she plans to do...kill stacey? ethan, claudia, & stacey decide to hold on to each other's shirts & make their way to the door, but because this is claudia we're talking about, she holds on to the crazy girl's shirt instead & gets eparated from stacey & ethan. under cover of darkness, this gives her a chance to tackle crazy girl while crazy girl is doing what all fictitious villains since the beginning of time have done, detailing her plan to date before moving in for the kill. stacey is able to dash to freedom & rouse the doorman, who gets more help. the girl is turned over to her parents, who get her some psychiatric help. ethan, stacey, & claudia go in for a slow-motion three-way high five. ...well, not really, but that's basically how it ends, with them laughing & being relieved that ethan's crazy ex didn't kill them all.
#3: over in kristy's neighborhood, the hsus' house is broken into while they are away visiting relatives. it appears that not much was stolen, but the place was trashed & the burglar wrote the word "naughty" on the wall in bright red spraypaint. a few nights later, the same thing happens at the papadakis residence. everyone is freaked out & kristy suggests they form a neighborhood watch. a few nights after this, someone tried to break into mrs. porter's house, but she has a high-tech burglar alarm which scares them off. & kristy finds a letter in her family's mailbox, which says "nice" in cut-out magazine letters.
even though kristy is obsessed with the break-ins (all of which have involved the word "naughty" spraypainted on a wall) & has devoted herself to "solving the mystery," she doesn't think the "nice" letter might be related. she assumes it's a flirtatious note for sam or charlie. she stuffs it in her pocket & forgets about it.
a few nights later, the alarm at abby's house goes off. someone broke a window downstairs & dropped a letter that looks exactly like the one kristy got. i don't know why the culprit felt the need to break the stevensons' window to praise them when he just put the thomas-brewers' letter in their mailbox, but hey. whatever.
the girls consider their clues, such as they are. there was a strange patch of dirt on the papadakis' carpet, which didn't match the soil in any of their houseplants, nor the soil outside. mr. korman found a random rake in his yard the afternoon of one of the break-ins. mrs. korman saw a gardening truck driving around the neighborhood, even though it's wintertime & no one is really using a gardener. none of the greenery around abby's broken window has been damaged. & the hsus & papadakises recently fired their regular gardener, mr. nixon, & hired a new company. the stevensons & the thomas-brewers are still employing mr. nixon.
to test the theory, a sting is arranged. watson calls mr. nixon & fires him. he asks him to hurry over to pick up his last check because the family is going out of town that evening & watson doesn't have time to waste. the thomas-brewers make a big show of leaving the house with lots of suitcases & leaving the pets with a neighbor. a couple of police officers hide inside the house, & a couple of others sit in an unmarked van down the street. the thomas-brewers drive downtown & then circle back & stay at abby's place. everyone watches the house until mr. nixon pulls up in his gardening truck & starts to break in. he is swiftly arrested, at which point he starts screaming at watson, "this is all your fault! you fired me!" kristy's theory--that a disgruntled gardener, upset at being fired, has been punishing the families that fired him & "rewarding the families" that continue to employ him--has borne fruit.
pretty much the most awesome thing about this book is that it involved almost no babysitting at all!
there are three big plots here, none of which are really connected at all.
#1: mallory, jessi, & mary anne are helping out with "the church christmas pageant," even though we have never really heard anything before about any of the members of the babysitters club going to church or being particularly religious. i guess the holiday season brought it out in them. plus, a bunch of mallory's siblings are in the pageant. the triplets are playing the wise men, of course.
while walking home from the church, mallory sees a confused-looking woman standing near the graveyard. she isn't wearing weather-appropriate clothing & she seems dazed. mallory decides to do a good deed & see if the woman needs help. mallory thinks maybe she's lost or something. there is a huge block of description about how the woman is clearly pretty young & petite. she is repeatedly described as "looking like a child," although she is also enormously pregnant. can i just say that i am really not down with describing pregnant women as "looking like children"? the idea of a pregnant child does not really appeal to me.
anyway, the woman tells mallory that she doesn't know where she is, what day it is, or even who she is. she has no idea how she ended up standing near the cemetery. she doesn't even seem to be familiar with the concept of stoneybrook, connecticut. & she doesn't have a purse or any identification (or money) with her. mallory stays with the woman while jessi calls for an ambulance. turns out the cops think the woman may have been the victim of a purse-snatching, & may have hit her head, causing amnesia. of course. because in books & TV, all you have to do is slip in the shower & the next thing you know, you have amnesia.
the cops ask mallory to come by the hospital to see the woman, who has been nicknamed "mary doe" by the police. way to hit us over the head with the christian symbolism, guys. mary remembers mallory, & everything that has happended since mallory found her, but she doesn't remember anything else, like who she is, where's from, ostensibly who her baby's father is or who her ob/gyn are. can you imagine getting amnesia while you're eight months pregnant? waking up one day totally clueless about who you are or what your life situation may be, but staring down the barrel of caring for a newborn in a matter of weeks? what if she had arrangements for someone to adopt the baby & she's just forgotten all about it? this is ridiculous.
the only clue to mary's identity is that she is wearing a beautiful custom-made wedding ring. but there's no inscription inside it or anything that might lend a clue to her identity. mary swiftly becomes huge local news in the tri-state area, but no one comes forward to identify her. mallory decides to invite her to the pikes' house for xmas. mary accepts, & while mallory is hanging up her coat, she notes that it's a maternity coat with a tag that says "babybaby" in it. apparently babybaby is the boutique where it was purchased.
mallory calls information & gets the number for a babybaby maternity shop in california. she calls them & describes the coat. they confirm that it's from a new line & must have been purchased in the last few months--but they point out that it could have been a gift. it doesn't mean that mary bought the coat herself or is from california. mallory asks them to go through their receipts. then she thinks of the ring & asks them for the names of jewlery stores near the boutique. she calls them & describes the ring. one jeweler asks mallory if she can fax an image of the ring. turns out that it was made in her shop, for her nephew. he is in australia on business, & he does indeed have a very pregnant wife who had accompanied him to the east coast. when he left for australia, she started traveling up to new york city via train. police figure that she was purse-snatched at the stoneybrook station & fell & hit her head, causing the amnesia. no one stepped forward to identify her because no one knew she was on the east coast or that she hadn't made it safely to new york city. her husband is alerted & he flies back to the states & arrived just in time for their son to be born on xmas day. they name him nicholas. supposedly the birth helps her memory return. o....kay.
#2: stacey is spending xmas with her dad in new york, & she has invited claudia to come along. stacey is also excited to spend some quality time with her new boyfriend ethan, & she hopes that he & claudia will hit it off because they are both artists. they do, & everything is going great...except that ethan is acting kind of weird. both stacey & claudia catch him staring intently at stacey several times--& not in a "so in love" way. more in "i wonder what your spleen tastes like" way. even when he's not around, they feel like they are being watched & followed.
stacey is also confused by the fact that her father's doorman nows ethan, even though this is the first time she's ever had ethan by her dad's place. & one afternoon, as she, claudia, & ethan are getting off the elevator, a pretty teenage girl with "butterscotch-colored hair" is getting on. ethan tries to duck out of her view & acts all weird. stacey wonders if ethan perhaps is cheating with the other girl.
then stacey gets a creepy jack-in-the-box, which is just left in a box outside her father's apartment door. the jack figure has a photo of stacey taped to it. stacey & claudia are both freaked out by it & find it threatening, but they wonder if maybe it was supposed to be a sweet gift from ethan that was unintentionally creepy. they show it to him, & all he says is that the colors aren't that great.when stacey asks if he sent it, he denies it most vociferously. but it must have come from someone with access to the building.
more creepy stuff happens, like someone stealing the lightbulbs from the hall outside stacey's apartment, & someone spilling red paint that looks like blood in the elevator. one day, stacey & claudia get home from shopping to find the stairs blocked off. they take the elevator instead, & get stuck. they wonder if someone tampered with the elevator, even though they get rescued.
finally, stacey gets a note, in ethan's handwriting, asking her to meet him in the basement at 5pm. by this point, she is really starting to wonder if ethan is total lunatic & she doesn't know about meeting him. she calls him & he rushes over to explain everything: he thinks that the note & the jack-in-the-box & everything else are the work of the butterscotch-haired girl. he used to date her, before he ever met stacey. he describes her as "unstable," & the relationship didn't last long. but she's been trying to win him back ever since, & she obviously discovered that stacey is dating ethan because she lives in stacey's dad's building. she mimicked ethan's handwriting & is trying to lure stacey into the basement.
if i was stacey, i probably wouldn't believe any of this. i'd still be suspecting ethan.
anyway, stacey, ethan, & claudia go to the basement to see what the girl wants. she's not there. just as they are breathing sighs of relief, the power cuts out. the girl has appeared & she's a maniac. i don't know what she plans to do...kill stacey? ethan, claudia, & stacey decide to hold on to each other's shirts & make their way to the door, but because this is claudia we're talking about, she holds on to the crazy girl's shirt instead & gets eparated from stacey & ethan. under cover of darkness, this gives her a chance to tackle crazy girl while crazy girl is doing what all fictitious villains since the beginning of time have done, detailing her plan to date before moving in for the kill. stacey is able to dash to freedom & rouse the doorman, who gets more help. the girl is turned over to her parents, who get her some psychiatric help. ethan, stacey, & claudia go in for a slow-motion three-way high five. ...well, not really, but that's basically how it ends, with them laughing & being relieved that ethan's crazy ex didn't kill them all.
#3: over in kristy's neighborhood, the hsus' house is broken into while they are away visiting relatives. it appears that not much was stolen, but the place was trashed & the burglar wrote the word "naughty" on the wall in bright red spraypaint. a few nights later, the same thing happens at the papadakis residence. everyone is freaked out & kristy suggests they form a neighborhood watch. a few nights after this, someone tried to break into mrs. porter's house, but she has a high-tech burglar alarm which scares them off. & kristy finds a letter in her family's mailbox, which says "nice" in cut-out magazine letters.
even though kristy is obsessed with the break-ins (all of which have involved the word "naughty" spraypainted on a wall) & has devoted herself to "solving the mystery," she doesn't think the "nice" letter might be related. she assumes it's a flirtatious note for sam or charlie. she stuffs it in her pocket & forgets about it.
a few nights later, the alarm at abby's house goes off. someone broke a window downstairs & dropped a letter that looks exactly like the one kristy got. i don't know why the culprit felt the need to break the stevensons' window to praise them when he just put the thomas-brewers' letter in their mailbox, but hey. whatever.
the girls consider their clues, such as they are. there was a strange patch of dirt on the papadakis' carpet, which didn't match the soil in any of their houseplants, nor the soil outside. mr. korman found a random rake in his yard the afternoon of one of the break-ins. mrs. korman saw a gardening truck driving around the neighborhood, even though it's wintertime & no one is really using a gardener. none of the greenery around abby's broken window has been damaged. & the hsus & papadakises recently fired their regular gardener, mr. nixon, & hired a new company. the stevensons & the thomas-brewers are still employing mr. nixon.
to test the theory, a sting is arranged. watson calls mr. nixon & fires him. he asks him to hurry over to pick up his last check because the family is going out of town that evening & watson doesn't have time to waste. the thomas-brewers make a big show of leaving the house with lots of suitcases & leaving the pets with a neighbor. a couple of police officers hide inside the house, & a couple of others sit in an unmarked van down the street. the thomas-brewers drive downtown & then circle back & stay at abby's place. everyone watches the house until mr. nixon pulls up in his gardening truck & starts to break in. he is swiftly arrested, at which point he starts screaming at watson, "this is all your fault! you fired me!" kristy's theory--that a disgruntled gardener, upset at being fired, has been punishing the families that fired him & "rewarding the families" that continue to employ him--has borne fruit.
pretty much the most awesome thing about this book is that it involved almost no babysitting at all!
December 5, 2017
The Baby-sitters' Christmas Chiller has been my favorite super special for a LONG time. It's over the top and I am here for it. There's good, clean, babysitting fun, a mysterious woman with amnesia, and an assortment of criminal activity! What more could you ask for in a book?!
Nothing at all, my friends. Nothing at all.
Nothing at all, my friends. Nothing at all.
August 21, 2018
in this extravagantly preposterous super mystery by ghostwriter Nola Thacker, the babysitters deal with three separate mysteries:
1. leaving her church christmas pageant play rehearsal, mal finds a 9 months pregnant woman with amnesia and tries to help her. she has two distinguishing items: a ring that looks handmade and a sweater from a small maternity boutique based in the san francisco bay area. mal tracks down the maternity boutique, who don’t know the woman. then mal asks if there are local jewelers nearby, and tracks down the jeweler that made the ring. turns out the woman is the wife of the jeweler, and he didn’t even know she was missing because he was on a trip in australia, and she was on a trip to boston visiting friends. we never find out how she got amnesia.
2. someone is breaking into houses in kristy and abby’s neighborhood and painting the word NAUGHTY on the walls. some houses instead get NICE notes and their stuff gets less trashed than the NAUGHTY houses. a lot of vague clues (muddy footprints, a rake, a workman’s truck that’s been seen in the neighborhood that is typically full of jags and porsches, etc) make it clear that it’s the disgruntled local gardener who has been fired by a lot of the neighborhood’s families since they’ve hired a larger, fancier company to do their gardening work.
3. the most interesting of the three plotlines, but also the most preposterous: stacey and claud are in nyc staying with stacey’s dad and spending a lot of time with stacey’s bf ethan (see Stacey's Broken Heart and BSC in the USA for more about him). he keeps staring at stacey when he thinks she’s not looking, and he seems to know stacey’s dad’s doorman even though he’s never been to visit stacey there. and a lot of creepy stuff happens in the building, like the control panel in the elevator and stacey’s floor being covered in what looks like blood, and someone leaves a jack in the box with stacey’s face pasted on it outside her dad’s door, etc. it turns out that ethan used to date a girl in stacey’s building, and she went crazy when he broke up with her. she thinks stacey is the reason they broke up, so she has been harassing stacey. the reason ethan’s been staring at her is he’s studying her to work on a statue of her.
no highlights. this book is just bad.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-they call the pregnant lady mary doe instead of jane doe. it’s annoying and christian-centric, just because it’s around christmas and she’s pregnant, to call her mary.
-why did the woman take a cross-country trip to visit her friends when she was 9 months pregnant? why did her husband go to australia when she was 9 months pregnant?
-the NICE notes the gardener leaves were made of letters cut out of a popular gardening magazine, which kristy notices when she sees watson and nannie’s copy of the magazine. I find it ridiculous that a. kristy would even notice that in the first place and b. that nola thacker thinks it’s appropriate to make a character be so one-dimensional: he’s a gardener, so obviously if he sends creepy notes with letters cut out from a magazine, you can be damn sure they’re from a GARDENING magazine.
-sgt johnson asks the people in kristy and abby’s neighborhood to keep an eye out for suspicious vehicles. someone mentions seeing a busted old truck, which OF COURSE must be suspicious because everyone in the neighborhood is richie mcrich. jerks.
-I don’t feel good about stacey dating ethan. first of all, I think a statue of your girlfriend is a creepy thing to make for her as a surprise present, and staring at her a lot is just icky. second, I don’t buy his story about his ex-girlfriend. how likely is it that this girl is totally unhinged and that he’s a complete victim in this story? no way. I’m sure he strung this girl along, treated her like crap, and made her crazy, and then tried to act to stacey like he did nothing wrong.
-why does the gardener break into the houses of the families he’s not mad at, just to leave NICE notes?
-giving birth makes mary doe remember who she is and junk. huh? how is that possible?
claud:
-"She had braided her long jet-black hair into a single braid with narrow red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple ribbons woven in. Her short red turtleneck dress had a braided yellow belt, and she was wearing purple tights, yellow scrunch socks, and black Docs. Her earrings were in the shape of Christmas trees, but they were painted in rainbow colors, instead of just green."
stacey:
-"That day, she was wearing a short dark blue skirt and a light blue and green patterned sweater that was cropped short in the front and hung long in the back. Her tights matched the skirt, and she wore navy ankle boots with pointed toes that looked like elf shoes. Gold star earrings dangled from each ear, and she'd twisted her hair into a sleek knot."
jackie disaster:
-wears his pageant costume too early for no reason and tries to fly because he's an angel, but his robe gets stuck and he is left dangling
no snacks in claudia's room
1. leaving her church christmas pageant play rehearsal, mal finds a 9 months pregnant woman with amnesia and tries to help her. she has two distinguishing items: a ring that looks handmade and a sweater from a small maternity boutique based in the san francisco bay area. mal tracks down the maternity boutique, who don’t know the woman. then mal asks if there are local jewelers nearby, and tracks down the jeweler that made the ring. turns out the woman is the wife of the jeweler, and he didn’t even know she was missing because he was on a trip in australia, and she was on a trip to boston visiting friends. we never find out how she got amnesia.
2. someone is breaking into houses in kristy and abby’s neighborhood and painting the word NAUGHTY on the walls. some houses instead get NICE notes and their stuff gets less trashed than the NAUGHTY houses. a lot of vague clues (muddy footprints, a rake, a workman’s truck that’s been seen in the neighborhood that is typically full of jags and porsches, etc) make it clear that it’s the disgruntled local gardener who has been fired by a lot of the neighborhood’s families since they’ve hired a larger, fancier company to do their gardening work.
3. the most interesting of the three plotlines, but also the most preposterous: stacey and claud are in nyc staying with stacey’s dad and spending a lot of time with stacey’s bf ethan (see Stacey's Broken Heart and BSC in the USA for more about him). he keeps staring at stacey when he thinks she’s not looking, and he seems to know stacey’s dad’s doorman even though he’s never been to visit stacey there. and a lot of creepy stuff happens in the building, like the control panel in the elevator and stacey’s floor being covered in what looks like blood, and someone leaves a jack in the box with stacey’s face pasted on it outside her dad’s door, etc. it turns out that ethan used to date a girl in stacey’s building, and she went crazy when he broke up with her. she thinks stacey is the reason they broke up, so she has been harassing stacey. the reason ethan’s been staring at her is he’s studying her to work on a statue of her.
no highlights. this book is just bad.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-they call the pregnant lady mary doe instead of jane doe. it’s annoying and christian-centric, just because it’s around christmas and she’s pregnant, to call her mary.
-why did the woman take a cross-country trip to visit her friends when she was 9 months pregnant? why did her husband go to australia when she was 9 months pregnant?
-the NICE notes the gardener leaves were made of letters cut out of a popular gardening magazine, which kristy notices when she sees watson and nannie’s copy of the magazine. I find it ridiculous that a. kristy would even notice that in the first place and b. that nola thacker thinks it’s appropriate to make a character be so one-dimensional: he’s a gardener, so obviously if he sends creepy notes with letters cut out from a magazine, you can be damn sure they’re from a GARDENING magazine.
-sgt johnson asks the people in kristy and abby’s neighborhood to keep an eye out for suspicious vehicles. someone mentions seeing a busted old truck, which OF COURSE must be suspicious because everyone in the neighborhood is richie mcrich. jerks.
-I don’t feel good about stacey dating ethan. first of all, I think a statue of your girlfriend is a creepy thing to make for her as a surprise present, and staring at her a lot is just icky. second, I don’t buy his story about his ex-girlfriend. how likely is it that this girl is totally unhinged and that he’s a complete victim in this story? no way. I’m sure he strung this girl along, treated her like crap, and made her crazy, and then tried to act to stacey like he did nothing wrong.
-why does the gardener break into the houses of the families he’s not mad at, just to leave NICE notes?
-giving birth makes mary doe remember who she is and junk. huh? how is that possible?
claud:
-"She had braided her long jet-black hair into a single braid with narrow red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple ribbons woven in. Her short red turtleneck dress had a braided yellow belt, and she was wearing purple tights, yellow scrunch socks, and black Docs. Her earrings were in the shape of Christmas trees, but they were painted in rainbow colors, instead of just green."
stacey:
-"That day, she was wearing a short dark blue skirt and a light blue and green patterned sweater that was cropped short in the front and hung long in the back. Her tights matched the skirt, and she wore navy ankle boots with pointed toes that looked like elf shoes. Gold star earrings dangled from each ear, and she'd twisted her hair into a sleek knot."
jackie disaster:
-wears his pageant costume too early for no reason and tries to fly because he's an angel, but his robe gets stuck and he is left dangling
no snacks in claudia's room
May 15, 2023
I have read this book completely out of my reading order, but 'tis the night before Christmas, and this is my favourite Christmas BSC book. Which is funny, because even as I'm reading it, I know how preposterous it is - especially Stacey (and Claudia)'s being stalked in NYC parts. Of course it's an unhinged ex. And the ridiculousness of the Mystery series is one of my minor pet peeves with the BSC, that the teenaged baby-sitters are better at catching criminals than the actual police - and this book serves that up nicely with the naughty/nice burglary plot. So really, I shouldn't enjoy this one so much, because it has all the things that I admit to disliking about the series. YET I LOVE IT.
All three stories, though not connected (other than the fact that they happen to people who are friends at Christmas), are so interesting and engrossing, I'm always dying to know what will happen next, only to have to move to one of the other plotlines. And I don't even mind, because then I'd get totally involved in THAT story, too.
Also, it was neat to read ahead in the series. It's been waaaay too long since I've read through the series (oh god, probably 10 years, I usually just pick and choose faves to reread) and in my current readthrough, I'm at the books published in summer 1994 (vs this book's December 1997 publication.) A lot happens in three years in Stoneybrook (yet the girls stay perpetually 13) and so it was neat to read about Abby, and to have Stacey dating Ethan (I completely forgot about him - still don't remember much about him.) Plus, I just love the Super Mysteries. So reading this really made me excited to keep plugging through the series.
All three stories, though not connected (other than the fact that they happen to people who are friends at Christmas), are so interesting and engrossing, I'm always dying to know what will happen next, only to have to move to one of the other plotlines. And I don't even mind, because then I'd get totally involved in THAT story, too.
Also, it was neat to read ahead in the series. It's been waaaay too long since I've read through the series (oh god, probably 10 years, I usually just pick and choose faves to reread) and in my current readthrough, I'm at the books published in summer 1994 (vs this book's December 1997 publication.) A lot happens in three years in Stoneybrook (yet the girls stay perpetually 13) and so it was neat to read about Abby, and to have Stacey dating Ethan (I completely forgot about him - still don't remember much about him.) Plus, I just love the Super Mysteries. So reading this really made me excited to keep plugging through the series.
December 15, 2020
Pretty far-fetched and not terribly Christmassy.
— Stacey’s mystery was very anticlimactic in its resolution, especially given how serious the situation was.
— the break-ins in Kristy’s neighborhood plotline was interesting and I liked the neighborhood watch idea. I also liked the inclusion of the Hanukkah party at Abby’s house. The motivation for the crime was a bit odd though. As was the “naughty” and “nice” signs left behind. I guess it was thrown in to make it seem Christmassy?
— Mal, Jessi, and Mary-Anne’s amnesiac woman story was okay, but I don’t think jewelers and shopkeepers would give out information about a customer over the phone like that. I really liked how the Pike family welcomed the woman into their home though. On a side note, calling her “Mary” and then having Mary-Anne be one of the characters involved in this storyline made it confusing, and several times I thought everyone had started calling Mary-Anne by the shortened version of her name.
— Stacey’s mystery was very anticlimactic in its resolution, especially given how serious the situation was.
— the break-ins in Kristy’s neighborhood plotline was interesting and I liked the neighborhood watch idea. I also liked the inclusion of the Hanukkah party at Abby’s house. The motivation for the crime was a bit odd though. As was the “naughty” and “nice” signs left behind. I guess it was thrown in to make it seem Christmassy?
— Mal, Jessi, and Mary-Anne’s amnesiac woman story was okay, but I don’t think jewelers and shopkeepers would give out information about a customer over the phone like that. I really liked how the Pike family welcomed the woman into their home though. On a side note, calling her “Mary” and then having Mary-Anne be one of the characters involved in this storyline made it confusing, and several times I thought everyone had started calling Mary-Anne by the shortened version of her name.
November 20, 2024
This was actually a pretty fun super mystery. Ridiculously chaotic, in that there are three separate storylines that don't at all intersect, so it feels more like three separate novellas and the BSC members all just happened to have weird adventures that one Christmas. And each storyline was ridonkulously dramatic. But somehow it all kinda worked? Like there were three pretty entertaining stories?
FIRST PLOT
Stacey and Claudia are in NYC for Xmas. Stacey's boyfriend Ethan is acting weird, but more alarmingly, scary things start happening to Stacey. There's (fake) blood on her elevator control panel, a jack in the box delivered to her door with her photo on it, weird sensation of someone following her and Claud, her and Claud getting stuck in the apartment elevator, and scariest of all, someone actually tried to push on onto the subway tracks! The book is careful to clarify that the person didn't really want her to fall, just push her hard enough to give her a little scare, but dude, that is SCARY DANGEROUS.
Anyway, I thought that was the scariest of the plotlines, and the subway incident in particular made me feel like Stacey was truly in danger. It turns out
SECOND PLOT
There's a robber in Kristy and Abby's neighbourhood. They've been breaking into people's homes, taking valuables and smashing up the interiors, and then leaving the word "NAUGHTY" in red. Kristy gets a note in the mailbox saying "NICE", and Abby's home is broken into but the burglar is scared off by the alarm and only leaves behind a note saying "NICE."
The baddie is easy enough to guess.
Kristy, Abby, and Dawn set up a sting operation to catch them in the act, and with Watson's help, use Kristy's house as bait. This was the only snag for me, because it didn't make sense that the culprit would act the way they did.
THIRD PLOT
Mallory, Mary Anne, and Jessi meet a pregnant woman with amnesia on their way home from rehearsing for the church holiday pageant. The media names the woman Mary Doe (instead of Jane Doe, because Christmas, duh), and then Mallory and Mary Anne try to investigate who this woman actually is.
For the first few chapters, I legit thought this woman was faking the amnesia and was actually involved in the robberies in Kristy and Abby's neighbourhood, coz at the start, I still thought the different plot lines would all be connected to a single story. But no.
This storyline was okay. Some bits were a bit of a stretch, like Mallory sees the tag on the woman's clothing and calls the boutique to see if they remember who she is, and the boutique people don't, but even if they do, would they actually release that information to a stranger on the phone? Same with the jeweler who had made Mary's ring -- that person just started blabbing about what they know of the ring owner even before Mallory explained why she was asking for that information.
Ok, typing out that whole spoiler on Mary's backstory made me realize how far-fetched this storyline is, LOL. It was definitely my least favourite of the storylines here, but whatevs, it was fine and probably the most Christmassy coz of the holiday pageant and the pregnant woman being called Mary.
UPDATE 2024 - ok re-read is extra silly. 3 stars for this round but I'll keep my original 4 star rating.
FIRST PLOT
Stacey and Claudia are in NYC for Xmas. Stacey's boyfriend Ethan is acting weird, but more alarmingly, scary things start happening to Stacey. There's (fake) blood on her elevator control panel, a jack in the box delivered to her door with her photo on it, weird sensation of someone following her and Claud, her and Claud getting stuck in the apartment elevator, and scariest of all, someone actually tried to push on onto the subway tracks! The book is careful to clarify that the person didn't really want her to fall, just push her hard enough to give her a little scare, but dude, that is SCARY DANGEROUS.
Anyway, I thought that was the scariest of the plotlines, and the subway incident in particular made me feel like Stacey was truly in danger. It turns out
SECOND PLOT
There's a robber in Kristy and Abby's neighbourhood. They've been breaking into people's homes, taking valuables and smashing up the interiors, and then leaving the word "NAUGHTY" in red. Kristy gets a note in the mailbox saying "NICE", and Abby's home is broken into but the burglar is scared off by the alarm and only leaves behind a note saying "NICE."
The baddie is easy enough to guess.
Kristy, Abby, and Dawn set up a sting operation to catch them in the act, and with Watson's help, use Kristy's house as bait. This was the only snag for me, because it didn't make sense that the culprit would act the way they did.
THIRD PLOT
Mallory, Mary Anne, and Jessi meet a pregnant woman with amnesia on their way home from rehearsing for the church holiday pageant. The media names the woman Mary Doe (instead of Jane Doe, because Christmas, duh), and then Mallory and Mary Anne try to investigate who this woman actually is.
For the first few chapters, I legit thought this woman was faking the amnesia and was actually involved in the robberies in Kristy and Abby's neighbourhood, coz at the start, I still thought the different plot lines would all be connected to a single story. But no.
This storyline was okay. Some bits were a bit of a stretch, like Mallory sees the tag on the woman's clothing and calls the boutique to see if they remember who she is, and the boutique people don't, but even if they do, would they actually release that information to a stranger on the phone? Same with the jeweler who had made Mary's ring -- that person just started blabbing about what they know of the ring owner even before Mallory explained why she was asking for that information.
Ok, typing out that whole spoiler on Mary's backstory made me realize how far-fetched this storyline is, LOL. It was definitely my least favourite of the storylines here, but whatevs, it was fine and probably the most Christmassy coz of the holiday pageant and the pregnant woman being called Mary.
UPDATE 2024 - ok re-read is extra silly. 3 stars for this round but I'll keep my original 4 star rating.
January 11, 2019
This one takes place around Christmas and in Stoneybrook and NYC. Stacey and Claudia go to New York to visit Stacey's dad and boyfriend, Ethan. Weird things are happening to the girls, and they solve the mystery. Dawn, Mary Anne, Mallory, Jessi, Abby, and Kristy are in Stoneybrook. Mallory and Jessi are involved in the church pageant and solve a mystery involving a woman from another town. Kristy and Abby start and are involved in their neighborhood watch program because there have been a bunch of break-ins in their neighborhood. Also, they and Dawn and Mary Anne celebrate Hannakah with Abby's family. Logan is in Kentucky visiting family, and Shannon is skiing with her family.
December 18, 2021
I am almost 30 years old and can barely read the font they used for Jessi's handwriting. This was super entertaining, actually. Not sure I loved the conclusion of Claudia and Stacey's plot but the journey was fun.
August 31, 2016
Something outlandish and slightly creepy is happening to the Babysitters Club. The whole gang is finally together, including Dawn and this quickly changes when Stacey and Claudia spend the majority of the book in the city. The book contains three main plots. Mallory and Jessi are dealing with a woman who has amnesia and the horrors of being alone on Christmas without knowing who you are...and the worst part is that the woman is pregnant and is almost due! Kristy, Mary Anne, Dawn, Abby, etc are dealing with a series of break ins. Someone is breaking into the homes of the people in Kristy's well off neighborhood and leaving notes that simply say "NAUGHTY" or "NICE." Who could be doing this!? And Stacey and Claudia are being stalked in New York City. Stacey was nervous to introduce her boyfriend Ethan to Claudia, but felt they had enough in common to get along, but he's just acting completely sketch. And then Stacey starts getting creepy things delivered to her door such as a jack in the box with her face on it. ICK! And fake blood on the elevator, and then they get trapped in the elevator. It turns that a deranged ex of her boyfriend who lives in their building is stalking them. The book ends on a happy note as most Babysitters Club do. I think the Babysitters should stick to babysitting and leave the detective work to the professionals, capiche?
November 30, 2024
This was always my favorite of the BSC Super Mysteries, and it is still my favorite of the four. That said... I ONLY had ANY recollection WHATSOEVER of the Claudia/Stacey stalker-in-NYC plotline, because of course. The Mallory/Jessi and Mary Doe giving birth at the church or whatever, clearly I forgot because it's Jesus-adjacent and meh. The burglary plotline... okay. When we'd gotten to three burglaries (the Hsus, the Papadakises, and the Stevensons) I was like, "Oh my god, is this a hate crime book? Did I completely forget or not understand as a kid that these are hate crimes?!" but fortunately, no. I'm still narrowing my eyes at the baddie for his choices of victims all being the non-WASP families of Stonybrook, but thank goodness it is NOT a hate crime book. My memory didn't fail me that hard.
January 19, 2023
Love re-reading these books!
December 21, 2019
This is completely fucking ludicrous, but I had a fun time reading it.
December 14, 2017
A little over a year since I started my re-read/new read of selected "Baby-Sitters Club" novels, and I'm discovering subseries I never knew existed.
Like the Super Mystery series.
I was looking for some "Christmas" books to read (and review for my blog), and knew there was one "Baby-Sitters Club" novel that came out after I stopped reading the series in 1995. Turns out there was more than one. I wound up buying three, including this one.
The Super Mystery series was published between June 1995 and December 1997, with four books in the series, this one being the final part.
It's Christmastime in Stoneybrook (and for Stacey and Claudia in New York City, where they're visiting until Christmas Eve), and a series of mysteries are occurring in both cities. In Stoneybrook, there's a series of robberies/vandalisms on the street that Kristy and Abby live on, Mallory and Jessi's encounter with a pregnant woman suffering from amnesia, and a series of misadventures and mishaps for Claudia and Stacey during their trip to New York (Stacey's boyfriend acting strange, missing lightbulbs, paint everywhere, broken elevators, a near miss on the subway platform). What the heck is going on, and will the girls resolve all of their mysteries in time for Christmas?
I really enjoyed this book. I have been reading it in dribs and drabs (in bed, at the gym, and during my lunchbreak one day in an effort to finish it). As with all the Baby-Sitter's Club books, they're all pretty cheesy. I've come to realize this since last year, but in that cheesiness, I have gotten in touch with the reasons why I've always liked the stories. This one had its moments where I could picture the girls shrieking, mostly because I've watched the TV series, and there wasn't an episode where they didn't let out some kind of shriek. Call me silly, but it was quite fun running the whole mystery through my head and trying to figure out who did it. The best part is that this kept me guessing until the very end, so I felt like I was really thinking on their level. Let's face it, I'm 35 years old, but to really enjoy this and get into it, I have to put on my "inner eleven-year-old" cap. Trust me, that's not a difficult task.
I do like how the story wrapped up, because it ends on a nice note (don't they all), and it is a Christmas story, after all.
I think I'm going to tackle the rest of the Super Mysteries at some point.
I still have two more BSC Christmas novels to go, so hey, two more reviews to come!
Like the Super Mystery series.
I was looking for some "Christmas" books to read (and review for my blog), and knew there was one "Baby-Sitters Club" novel that came out after I stopped reading the series in 1995. Turns out there was more than one. I wound up buying three, including this one.
The Super Mystery series was published between June 1995 and December 1997, with four books in the series, this one being the final part.
It's Christmastime in Stoneybrook (and for Stacey and Claudia in New York City, where they're visiting until Christmas Eve), and a series of mysteries are occurring in both cities. In Stoneybrook, there's a series of robberies/vandalisms on the street that Kristy and Abby live on, Mallory and Jessi's encounter with a pregnant woman suffering from amnesia, and a series of misadventures and mishaps for Claudia and Stacey during their trip to New York (Stacey's boyfriend acting strange, missing lightbulbs, paint everywhere, broken elevators, a near miss on the subway platform). What the heck is going on, and will the girls resolve all of their mysteries in time for Christmas?
I really enjoyed this book. I have been reading it in dribs and drabs (in bed, at the gym, and during my lunchbreak one day in an effort to finish it). As with all the Baby-Sitter's Club books, they're all pretty cheesy. I've come to realize this since last year, but in that cheesiness, I have gotten in touch with the reasons why I've always liked the stories. This one had its moments where I could picture the girls shrieking, mostly because I've watched the TV series, and there wasn't an episode where they didn't let out some kind of shriek. Call me silly, but it was quite fun running the whole mystery through my head and trying to figure out who did it. The best part is that this kept me guessing until the very end, so I felt like I was really thinking on their level. Let's face it, I'm 35 years old, but to really enjoy this and get into it, I have to put on my "inner eleven-year-old" cap. Trust me, that's not a difficult task.
I do like how the story wrapped up, because it ends on a nice note (don't they all), and it is a Christmas story, after all.
I think I'm going to tackle the rest of the Super Mysteries at some point.
I still have two more BSC Christmas novels to go, so hey, two more reviews to come!
Read
March 16, 2020BSC RE-READ #1:
this was equal measures bonkers and brilliant. did we see any of it coming? maybe. did THEY see it coming? nope. re-reading as an adult means dealing with the nasty realisation, that I would've hated dealing with any of these kids so I feel you Sergeant Tang and your wry smiles. it continues to surprise me how young they all are, and how gloriously old they all seemed back then.
some favourites
- that we're seeing Stacey and Claudia's accelerated transitions into adulthood, but the narration is also consistent in reining it in when needed. Yep they waltzed around NYC at Christmas time, yep they tried on jewelry at Tiffany's, and yep they went to a coffee bar. but the aside was brilliant: they always made sure Stacey's dad knew where they were, they always had to ask for permission before going out. thank god for this because I was a bit anxious about thirteen year olds just waltzing into Tiffany's.
- Hanukkah! for a book about Christmas it's refreshing that Hanukkah was fleshed out. ahead of its time as usual?
some gripes
- the Mary Doe subplot was actually gripping, but for that resolution UGHHHH.
- the ____________ did it?? UGGGHHH.
3/5 gold stars from the Kid Kits.
mostly for New York, Mary Doe, and Kristy going up to Morbidda Destiny's mansion at the crack of dawn.
this was equal measures bonkers and brilliant. did we see any of it coming? maybe. did THEY see it coming? nope. re-reading as an adult means dealing with the nasty realisation, that I would've hated dealing with any of these kids so I feel you Sergeant Tang and your wry smiles. it continues to surprise me how young they all are, and how gloriously old they all seemed back then.
some favourites
- that we're seeing Stacey and Claudia's accelerated transitions into adulthood, but the narration is also consistent in reining it in when needed. Yep they waltzed around NYC at Christmas time, yep they tried on jewelry at Tiffany's, and yep they went to a coffee bar. but the aside was brilliant: they always made sure Stacey's dad knew where they were, they always had to ask for permission before going out. thank god for this because I was a bit anxious about thirteen year olds just waltzing into Tiffany's.
- Hanukkah! for a book about Christmas it's refreshing that Hanukkah was fleshed out. ahead of its time as usual?
some gripes
- the Mary Doe subplot was actually gripping, but for that resolution UGHHHH.
- the ____________ did it?? UGGGHHH.
3/5 gold stars from the Kid Kits.
mostly for New York, Mary Doe, and Kristy going up to Morbidda Destiny's mansion at the crack of dawn.
December 11, 2023
📚: Baby-sitters’ Christmas Chiller by Ann M. Martin
⭐️: 4/5
I was one of the many, many girls that were born in the 1980s, had a childhood during the 1990s, and was raised on Lunchables (pizza was always preferred), Capri Sun juice boxes (red berry, please), Dunkaroos (vanilla frosting!), and The Baby-Sitters Club.
Thinking back to it, maybe that’s why I became such a fast reader, considering there’s 57583927549 books in this series that 7 year old Meredith had to get through.
I found this book on a random holiday reads post while scrolling, and I’m so happy that I did. The perfect way to end my weekend was a light Christmas read of the most nostalgic kind.
It’s nearly impossible to give a Baby-Sitters Club book a rating (lol), but honestly, this was well-written, the plot was actually suspenseful (better than some adult mysteries I’ve read!), and was most importantly, fun, despite the fact that preteens running around doing everything that happens in this book is truly unhinged. Minus one star for me wanting more of Stacey & Claudia’s plot line. (As I always wanted at age 7. Proof that some things truly don’t change.)
⭐️: 4/5
I was one of the many, many girls that were born in the 1980s, had a childhood during the 1990s, and was raised on Lunchables (pizza was always preferred), Capri Sun juice boxes (red berry, please), Dunkaroos (vanilla frosting!), and The Baby-Sitters Club.
Thinking back to it, maybe that’s why I became such a fast reader, considering there’s 57583927549 books in this series that 7 year old Meredith had to get through.
I found this book on a random holiday reads post while scrolling, and I’m so happy that I did. The perfect way to end my weekend was a light Christmas read of the most nostalgic kind.
It’s nearly impossible to give a Baby-Sitters Club book a rating (lol), but honestly, this was well-written, the plot was actually suspenseful (better than some adult mysteries I’ve read!), and was most importantly, fun, despite the fact that preteens running around doing everything that happens in this book is truly unhinged. Minus one star for me wanting more of Stacey & Claudia’s plot line. (As I always wanted at age 7. Proof that some things truly don’t change.)
December 19, 2023
I know I technically did my great BSC re-read back in 2020, but I stumbled across one of the few I'd never read in a Little Free Library and had some time to kill. I'd actually never even read a Super Mystery before, but the reread definitely reminded me that the mysteries tended to have shakier plots than the main series.
Boy howdy this was cuckoobananas. Three completely disconnected mysteries with no bearing on each other whatsoever: rich people getting their mansions trashed, a 13-year-old crazy stalker, and an amnesiac who's symbolically implied to be pregnant by immaculate conception.
Four mysteries if you count Jessi's eternally illegible handwriting.
I guess this was the last Super Mystery, so maybe the ghostwriters just threw whatever ideas they had left into this one. One whole extra star for the sheer insanity of it all.
Boy howdy this was cuckoobananas. Three completely disconnected mysteries with no bearing on each other whatsoever: rich people getting their mansions trashed, a 13-year-old crazy stalker, and an amnesiac who's symbolically implied to be pregnant by immaculate conception.
Four mysteries if you count Jessi's eternally illegible handwriting.
I guess this was the last Super Mystery, so maybe the ghostwriters just threw whatever ideas they had left into this one. One whole extra star for the sheer insanity of it all.
Read
December 11, 2023I FORGOT ABOUT THE MYSTERIES AND THE SUPER MYSTERIES
So all of my original BSC novels were gifted to me as hand-me-downs from an older neighbor. It included books 1-111, Super Specials 1-14, Super Mysteries 1-3, and a handful of random mysteries. (Also some Little Sister books).
This was a fun one, and very seasonally appropriate. Though I have to say, the whole plot in New York with Stacey was strangely harrowing. Why's it always Stacey whose life actually gets put in danger in these situations? If I recall correctly, she was once nearly run down by a speeding car in another super mystery, and trapped in a car with her mom during a snowstorm in a super special. Let Stacey live!!!
So all of my original BSC novels were gifted to me as hand-me-downs from an older neighbor. It included books 1-111, Super Specials 1-14, Super Mysteries 1-3, and a handful of random mysteries. (Also some Little Sister books).
This was a fun one, and very seasonally appropriate. Though I have to say, the whole plot in New York with Stacey was strangely harrowing. Why's it always Stacey whose life actually gets put in danger in these situations? If I recall correctly, she was once nearly run down by a speeding car in another super mystery, and trapped in a car with her mom during a snowstorm in a super special. Let Stacey live!!!
December 31, 2022
I was such a huge fan of the Babysitters Club growing up, and with it being Christmas time, I decided to read one I hadn't when I was younger.
The book wasn't necessarily bad, it just way too much going on. There are 3 plot lines, and it just seemed like way too much.
It was interesting reading a book published in 1997, before cell phones were in the pocket of practically every American over the age of 12.
The book wasn't necessarily bad, it just way too much going on. There are 3 plot lines, and it just seemed like way too much.
It was interesting reading a book published in 1997, before cell phones were in the pocket of practically every American over the age of 12.
January 3, 2021
This BSC mystery was probably my favorite as a kid. The plot is insane, basically right out of a soap opera - a pregnant woman with amnesia, a stalker ex-girlfriend, and a vengeful gardener. Not to mention all these things happen in the space of a week. Ridiculous and over the top, but fun, at least for a BSC fan
June 20, 2024
Normally I love these super mysteries, so maybe it's because I read this far removed from the Christmas spirit (in June), or maybe it's because they were just weak mysteries, but I never got absorbed into any of the elements of this one. The Stacey and Claudia storyline was genuinely pretty dark and creepy, but wrapped up too neatly, and the others were just...boring?
September 26, 2021
I stepped out of my comfort zone and read a mystery. I never read these as a kid. I did not care for this. Two stars because it all happens during Christmas but that is the only part I liked. Super unrealistic.
December 11, 2022
I grew up reading the baby sitters club series and for nostalgic reasons I still love the books. I never read this one growing up so maybe that made it seem even more INSANELY unrealistic lol but it was entertaining somewhat.
June 24, 2024
I hope whoever was in charge of the cover art got fired. Is that supposed to be Mary Anne? She looks terrible.
Anyway, this book must’ve come out after I stopped reading the series and/or before I started reading holiday themed mysteries (they’re the best).
This was kind of creepy. Someone starts breaking into homes on Kristy’s street. My first thought was, she lives in a mansion so all the other houses around are probably pretty good sized so why don’t people have security alarms? They probably do now.
It wasn’t very Christmasy and the reason for the break ins was lame.
Anyway, this book must’ve come out after I stopped reading the series and/or before I started reading holiday themed mysteries (they’re the best).
This was kind of creepy. Someone starts breaking into homes on Kristy’s street. My first thought was, she lives in a mansion so all the other houses around are probably pretty good sized so why don’t people have security alarms? They probably do now.
It wasn’t very Christmasy and the reason for the break ins was lame.
December 3, 2025
After reading a good number of BSC, some better/some worse, this was my first Mystery book. I thought it was actually pretty good! For a moment it felt like it was creeping into RL Stine - Fear Street territory! Great Read! Happy December ! 🎄
May 20, 2017
Great Book
I liked it. It was fun to read. It was also full of suspense. Once again, it was a wonderful Baby-Sitters Club book!
I liked it. It was fun to read. It was also full of suspense. Once again, it was a wonderful Baby-Sitters Club book!
December 3, 2017
What the hell was this hot mess!? There wasn't even an attempt at one cohesive story, just a lot of wtf all all over the place.
I'm so glad I'm done with the mysteries.
I'm so glad I'm done with the mysteries.
July 24, 2018
It's certainly no Babysitters Beware, I'll tell you that. Maybe the lack of fond memories made this one subpar for me. I don't think I ever read this one as a child.
April 26, 2020
A little scary
December 12, 2020
This was mostly fun and silly... deducted a star for the Stacey and Claudia storyline being rushed toward the end and using a trope that is as overdone as it is uncomfortable.
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March 27, 2021Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/baby-s...
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