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The Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries #33
Stacey and the Stolen Hearts
Stacey's class is selling "valentine-grams", packets of secret messages and candy that kids can send to each other. When someone steals the bag of messages, Stacey becomes a super sleuth to find the culprit and save Valentine's Day.
144 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1998
12 people are currently reading
330 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,098 books3,047 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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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 27, 2011
it's valentine's day season again & pete black, the eighth grade president, approaches stacey to ask if she will help him run a valentine-gram booth. when she asks why, considering that she's not a class officer, he's all, "i don't know, because you're on pep squad & a mathlte & shit." i guess he can't admit the truth, which is that this is just a plot contrivance. the idea is that kids can pay a dollar to write a valentine, which will be delivered on valentine's day by the class officers (& stacey). each valentine will come with a little bag of candy hearts. sounds pretty lame if you ask me--why pay a dollar for something you could just do for free yourself? but what do i know?
pete & stacey staff the booth & business is gangbusters. stacey notes that she is learning a lot about her classmates by watching them write their valentines. cokie mason writes like twelve valentines to her boyfriend, brent, but he doesn't write any to her. several different girls write valentines to alan gray, which surprises both stacey & pete. jacqui grant writes a valentine to stacey's ex-boyfriend, robert, who is moping around & seeming really down in the dumps, totally unreceptive to jacqui's many attempts to flirt with him.
one afternoon while stacey is staffing the booth alone & helping someone with a valentine, the bag where she was stashing the valentine-grams is stolen. she calls & pete & lets him know right away & he suggests that they keep it quiet & see if the bag turns up. stacey agrees, but their devious plan is foiled when they show up at school the next day to find that someone has plastered the hallways in posters that say, "number of valentines cokie sent brent: 12. number of valentines brent sent cokie: 0. give it up, cokie! he's obviously not interested. maybe he doesn't like being called sugarbear."
cokie is pissed & demands that stacey do something to make things right. stacey realized that whoever stole the valentines is using them to play pranks & embarrass the students, & anyone could be next. she & the other babysitters put their heads together & come up with a list of suspects.
naturally, the first person they think of is the wonderful & talented cary retlin, but he tells them he had a dentist appointment & wasn't even at the school when the bag was stolen. stacey even double checks his story by calling his dentist office, but it's true.
other suspects include alan gray, just because he's kind of a jerk; pete black, whom mary anne overhears lamenting sending a valentine to emily bernstein in case she doesn't like him (they think maybe he stole the bag to get his valentine back); cokie, after they see that she & brent have made up, due in part to brent feeling sorry that cokie was embarrassed all over school; clarence king, because he is also kind of a jerk...
basically, they suspect everyone & they don't really have compelling reasons for any of it. as they try to unravel the mystery, more & more embarrassing tidbits of info pertaining to the valentine-grams surface in the form of posters all over school. rambling rose is busted writing tons of goopy romantic valentines to clarence king. jim poirier's flowery love note to sabrina bouvier is recreated in its entirety.
the babysitters manage to score a clue with jim's valentine, which is in fact a photocopy. there's a little bit of a striped shirt peeking into the image. not sure why whoever did the photocopying didn't put the lid down, or why they were casually leaning on the glass of the machine, but whatever. call it a deus ex machina. the club fans out to look for anyone wearing a striped shirt, but i guess stripes aren't in that year because they can't find anyone. then stacey remembers that cary is wearing a striped shirt that day. she already ruled him out as a suspect because his dentist alibi checked out, but now she goes looking for him again. she bumps into alan gray, who informs her that cary hangs out in the school basement. stacey heads down there & cary is totally awesomely just kickin' it in the boiler room, reading a book in an armchair beneath a single bare light bulb. stacey is all, "um, what the hell are you doing?" & cary is all, "the janitor & i have an arrangement. he understands my need for solitude."
god, i fucking love cary retlin.
anyway, she asks him again if he stole the valentines & he again denies it. stacey tells him she recognized his shirt in the photocpy. he explains that he didn't steal the bag, but he may have helped out with things later. he paints her a little picture: "imagine that you're an eighth grade boy. you're the butt of everyone's jokes, no one takes you seriously. but you do have feelings. you like a girl. you send her a valentine. then you overhear her talking about how she sent you a valentine--as a prank. you hear her say that a lot of girls have decided to send you prank valentines. maybe it hurts your feelings a little, but it's okay. what's not okay is that you realize that when this girl gets your sincere valentine, she'll spread the news all over school & you'll never live it down. you need to get that valentine back. so you steal the bag. & then you get back at everyone who tried to hurt your feelings. i just helped with the revenge part."
stacey is all like, "so...you stole the bag?" & cary is like, "you're a little slow, huh?" he doesn't say that, but he should. he leaves stacey to ruminate on his story & she finally realizes that the boy in question was alan. she is surprised to learn that he sincerely liked a girl, but whatever. she goes to his house & confronts him. she says she knows who stole the bag, & who helped with the pranks that followed, & she won't tell anyone what she knows if the valentine-grams are returned to her. otherwise, she will have to go to the principal & tell him her suspicions.
the next day, the bag is waiting for stacey outside her homeroom. she & the class officers package them up with the candy hearts & distribute them. stacey notes that there are no valentines for alan--or for cary, for that matter. (an outrage!) but the valentines are back & people are more or less happy. whew!
in the B-plot, the babysitters can't leave well enough alone & insist on organizing a valentine's day festival for their sitting charges. they even hold a "focus group" to learn what the kids do & do not like about the holiday. they discover that the kids like the idea of eating cupcakes & making valentines. um...really? they needed a focus group to figure out that children like sugar & making messes? i thought these girls were experienced babysitters. apparently mathew hobart has a crush on mary anne. lame. james hobart & margo pike have crushes on each other. that's kind of cute. there's a kind of funny bit where mary anne is making valentines with the kids. adam pike is working on a valentine with a big gory, blood-spattered heart, ostensibly for jordan or byron. mary anne says she's going to make a valentine with a frog on it for jamie newton, & jamie says, "good, i like frogs." adam says, "who doesn't?" it was just such a hilariously perfect ten-year-old boy thing to say, it tickled my funny bone. but mainly, cary is what made this book awesome.
oh, & all the crap about robert being depressed is just foreshadowing for stacey's ex-boyfriend, which is sure to be a real yawn.
pete & stacey staff the booth & business is gangbusters. stacey notes that she is learning a lot about her classmates by watching them write their valentines. cokie mason writes like twelve valentines to her boyfriend, brent, but he doesn't write any to her. several different girls write valentines to alan gray, which surprises both stacey & pete. jacqui grant writes a valentine to stacey's ex-boyfriend, robert, who is moping around & seeming really down in the dumps, totally unreceptive to jacqui's many attempts to flirt with him.
one afternoon while stacey is staffing the booth alone & helping someone with a valentine, the bag where she was stashing the valentine-grams is stolen. she calls & pete & lets him know right away & he suggests that they keep it quiet & see if the bag turns up. stacey agrees, but their devious plan is foiled when they show up at school the next day to find that someone has plastered the hallways in posters that say, "number of valentines cokie sent brent: 12. number of valentines brent sent cokie: 0. give it up, cokie! he's obviously not interested. maybe he doesn't like being called sugarbear."
cokie is pissed & demands that stacey do something to make things right. stacey realized that whoever stole the valentines is using them to play pranks & embarrass the students, & anyone could be next. she & the other babysitters put their heads together & come up with a list of suspects.
naturally, the first person they think of is the wonderful & talented cary retlin, but he tells them he had a dentist appointment & wasn't even at the school when the bag was stolen. stacey even double checks his story by calling his dentist office, but it's true.
other suspects include alan gray, just because he's kind of a jerk; pete black, whom mary anne overhears lamenting sending a valentine to emily bernstein in case she doesn't like him (they think maybe he stole the bag to get his valentine back); cokie, after they see that she & brent have made up, due in part to brent feeling sorry that cokie was embarrassed all over school; clarence king, because he is also kind of a jerk...
basically, they suspect everyone & they don't really have compelling reasons for any of it. as they try to unravel the mystery, more & more embarrassing tidbits of info pertaining to the valentine-grams surface in the form of posters all over school. rambling rose is busted writing tons of goopy romantic valentines to clarence king. jim poirier's flowery love note to sabrina bouvier is recreated in its entirety.
the babysitters manage to score a clue with jim's valentine, which is in fact a photocopy. there's a little bit of a striped shirt peeking into the image. not sure why whoever did the photocopying didn't put the lid down, or why they were casually leaning on the glass of the machine, but whatever. call it a deus ex machina. the club fans out to look for anyone wearing a striped shirt, but i guess stripes aren't in that year because they can't find anyone. then stacey remembers that cary is wearing a striped shirt that day. she already ruled him out as a suspect because his dentist alibi checked out, but now she goes looking for him again. she bumps into alan gray, who informs her that cary hangs out in the school basement. stacey heads down there & cary is totally awesomely just kickin' it in the boiler room, reading a book in an armchair beneath a single bare light bulb. stacey is all, "um, what the hell are you doing?" & cary is all, "the janitor & i have an arrangement. he understands my need for solitude."
god, i fucking love cary retlin.
anyway, she asks him again if he stole the valentines & he again denies it. stacey tells him she recognized his shirt in the photocpy. he explains that he didn't steal the bag, but he may have helped out with things later. he paints her a little picture: "imagine that you're an eighth grade boy. you're the butt of everyone's jokes, no one takes you seriously. but you do have feelings. you like a girl. you send her a valentine. then you overhear her talking about how she sent you a valentine--as a prank. you hear her say that a lot of girls have decided to send you prank valentines. maybe it hurts your feelings a little, but it's okay. what's not okay is that you realize that when this girl gets your sincere valentine, she'll spread the news all over school & you'll never live it down. you need to get that valentine back. so you steal the bag. & then you get back at everyone who tried to hurt your feelings. i just helped with the revenge part."
stacey is all like, "so...you stole the bag?" & cary is like, "you're a little slow, huh?" he doesn't say that, but he should. he leaves stacey to ruminate on his story & she finally realizes that the boy in question was alan. she is surprised to learn that he sincerely liked a girl, but whatever. she goes to his house & confronts him. she says she knows who stole the bag, & who helped with the pranks that followed, & she won't tell anyone what she knows if the valentine-grams are returned to her. otherwise, she will have to go to the principal & tell him her suspicions.
the next day, the bag is waiting for stacey outside her homeroom. she & the class officers package them up with the candy hearts & distribute them. stacey notes that there are no valentines for alan--or for cary, for that matter. (an outrage!) but the valentines are back & people are more or less happy. whew!
in the B-plot, the babysitters can't leave well enough alone & insist on organizing a valentine's day festival for their sitting charges. they even hold a "focus group" to learn what the kids do & do not like about the holiday. they discover that the kids like the idea of eating cupcakes & making valentines. um...really? they needed a focus group to figure out that children like sugar & making messes? i thought these girls were experienced babysitters. apparently mathew hobart has a crush on mary anne. lame. james hobart & margo pike have crushes on each other. that's kind of cute. there's a kind of funny bit where mary anne is making valentines with the kids. adam pike is working on a valentine with a big gory, blood-spattered heart, ostensibly for jordan or byron. mary anne says she's going to make a valentine with a frog on it for jamie newton, & jamie says, "good, i like frogs." adam says, "who doesn't?" it was just such a hilariously perfect ten-year-old boy thing to say, it tickled my funny bone. but mainly, cary is what made this book awesome.
oh, & all the crap about robert being depressed is just foreshadowing for stacey's ex-boyfriend, which is sure to be a real yawn.
August 31, 2018
this is my first time reading this book!
in this school story (yay!!!) by ghostwriter Ellen Miles, stacey has been selected to help pete black (the class president) sell valentine-grams as a class fundraiser. she was selected because she's on the pep squad (see Stacey's Secret Friend for backstory on this slightly out-of-character plotline). the bag of valentine-grams gets stolen and someone starts distributing copies of some of them around the school, sort of like this:
stacey assumes it was cary retlin because anything that goes wrong at sms in one of the mystery books must be caused by cary retlin (have you noticed how he only appears in mysteries? do you think ellen miles is the only ghostwriter who likes him?). cary has a solid alibi. other potential suspects include stacey’s ex robert, who has been seeming depressed lately and who is trying to avoid the flirtations of jacqui grant (one of the titular bad girls in Stacey and the Bad Girls); cokie mason, who sent her boyfriend tons of valentine-grams but he sent her none; pete black himself (an inside job!) since he has a secret crush on newspaper editor extraordinaire emily bernstein; rambling rose or brian hall, a couple who started dating in Claudia and the Perfect Boy since rose sent tons of valentine-grams to lots of people but brian only sent ones to her; and alan gray, who was near the bag when they got stolen. turns out it was alan. he found out there was a plot to send him prank valentines from a lot of people including the girl he has a crush on, so he sabotaged the valentine-grams and cary helped him prank the school with the photocopies afterwards. the people whose valentine-grams they were publicizing were the ones who sent alan prank messages. stacey tells alan she knows who stole them and doesn’t care about comeuppance (since alan was in a bad situation, so she’s understanding) but just wants the valentines back. he drops off the bag, minus the prank ones to him, and all is well. the subplot is that the bsc has a valentines party for their charges after having a focus group to discover what kids like about valentines day.
highlights:
-for whatever reason, the last four mysteries in the series (starting with this one) have a different cover format from the previous 29 of them. the art style is super different too; stacey actually looks 90s here!
-I love how very full of minor characters from other books this is, like jacqui grant and rambling rose and brian hall
-I love that the bsc are so out of touch with kids that they have a FOCUS GROUP to figure out what kids like. hilarious.
-cary retlin regularly hangs out in the basement in a room with one bare lightbulb hanging down reading books in an armchair. when stacey asks him about it, he says "I have an arrangement with mr. halprin," (the janitor). "he understands my need for solitude."
-I love school stories. we almost never get school-focused stuff anymore. this mystery is more the kind of mystery that a bunch of 8th graders WOULD actually solve, unlike the usual dognapping, bank robbing, and evil murderous secret society types of cases they usually have.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-one of the photocopies of a valentine-gram has an imprint of a hand with a bit of sleeve (really? how bad do you have to be at photocopying to put your sleeve in it?) so they look for striped shirt-wearers that day. is there truly only one kid in the school wearing a striped shirt? reading this, I went to my closet, and I found that I own 8 striped shirts, most of which I wear in my regular rotation.
kristy lunch comments:
-"that's lunch? I thought it was some failed project from woodshop. and are those gopher guts I see?”
jackie disaster:
-knocks into a book display at the library, creating an avalanche of books
stacey outfit:
-"I dressed carefully that morning in a pink sweater, white miniskirt, and heart-shaped earrings."
snacks in claudia’s room:
-pretzels (n.s.)
in this school story (yay!!!) by ghostwriter Ellen Miles, stacey has been selected to help pete black (the class president) sell valentine-grams as a class fundraiser. she was selected because she's on the pep squad (see Stacey's Secret Friend for backstory on this slightly out-of-character plotline). the bag of valentine-grams gets stolen and someone starts distributing copies of some of them around the school, sort of like this:
stacey assumes it was cary retlin because anything that goes wrong at sms in one of the mystery books must be caused by cary retlin (have you noticed how he only appears in mysteries? do you think ellen miles is the only ghostwriter who likes him?). cary has a solid alibi. other potential suspects include stacey’s ex robert, who has been seeming depressed lately and who is trying to avoid the flirtations of jacqui grant (one of the titular bad girls in Stacey and the Bad Girls); cokie mason, who sent her boyfriend tons of valentine-grams but he sent her none; pete black himself (an inside job!) since he has a secret crush on newspaper editor extraordinaire emily bernstein; rambling rose or brian hall, a couple who started dating in Claudia and the Perfect Boy since rose sent tons of valentine-grams to lots of people but brian only sent ones to her; and alan gray, who was near the bag when they got stolen. turns out it was alan. he found out there was a plot to send him prank valentines from a lot of people including the girl he has a crush on, so he sabotaged the valentine-grams and cary helped him prank the school with the photocopies afterwards. the people whose valentine-grams they were publicizing were the ones who sent alan prank messages. stacey tells alan she knows who stole them and doesn’t care about comeuppance (since alan was in a bad situation, so she’s understanding) but just wants the valentines back. he drops off the bag, minus the prank ones to him, and all is well. the subplot is that the bsc has a valentines party for their charges after having a focus group to discover what kids like about valentines day.
highlights:
-for whatever reason, the last four mysteries in the series (starting with this one) have a different cover format from the previous 29 of them. the art style is super different too; stacey actually looks 90s here!
-I love how very full of minor characters from other books this is, like jacqui grant and rambling rose and brian hall
-I love that the bsc are so out of touch with kids that they have a FOCUS GROUP to figure out what kids like. hilarious.
-cary retlin regularly hangs out in the basement in a room with one bare lightbulb hanging down reading books in an armchair. when stacey asks him about it, he says "I have an arrangement with mr. halprin," (the janitor). "he understands my need for solitude."
-I love school stories. we almost never get school-focused stuff anymore. this mystery is more the kind of mystery that a bunch of 8th graders WOULD actually solve, unlike the usual dognapping, bank robbing, and evil murderous secret society types of cases they usually have.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-one of the photocopies of a valentine-gram has an imprint of a hand with a bit of sleeve (really? how bad do you have to be at photocopying to put your sleeve in it?) so they look for striped shirt-wearers that day. is there truly only one kid in the school wearing a striped shirt? reading this, I went to my closet, and I found that I own 8 striped shirts, most of which I wear in my regular rotation.
kristy lunch comments:
-"that's lunch? I thought it was some failed project from woodshop. and are those gopher guts I see?”
jackie disaster:
-knocks into a book display at the library, creating an avalanche of books
stacey outfit:
-"I dressed carefully that morning in a pink sweater, white miniskirt, and heart-shaped earrings."
snacks in claudia’s room:
-pretzels (n.s.)
November 26, 2017
The real question we should all be asking is: why wasn't Cary Retlin introduced WAY earlier in the series!? Every book he shows up in is gold, just by virtue of him being in it! He's so hilarious and snarky and perfect, and is infinitely better than most other background characters in BSC books.
I also did enjoy how this book played out. Poor Alan Gray, all those bitches got what they deserved and I wish he hadn't given in. Though also props to Cary for being his wingman of sorts!
The B-plot was pretty silly, as usual. The baby-sitters throwing yet ANOTHER Valentine's Day party for their charges, this time in the children's room of the public library. What a yawn.
I also did enjoy how this book played out. Poor Alan Gray, all those bitches got what they deserved and I wish he hadn't given in. Though also props to Cary for being his wingman of sorts!
The B-plot was pretty silly, as usual. The baby-sitters throwing yet ANOTHER Valentine's Day party for their charges, this time in the children's room of the public library. What a yawn.
August 20, 2024
I love Stacey but this book seemed to have so little to do with her (she's completely disconnected from our B story) and is so far outside of her voice that I kept forgetting who our narrator was for this book. The mystery set up honestly isn't bad and I like being reminded of BSC classmates we haven't heard from in a while, but I felt like the ending didn't wrap the mystery up very well, and overall it was lackluster. (Also, who cares about Robert?)
June 20, 2023
I was going to lament that there aren't enough BSC books where Alan Gray acts human (and I say this as someone who loves Alan) but then I remembered that the Friends Forever series exists and I am almost there!
Read
March 4, 2024Was there a reason for this whole story to be told via Stacey reminiscing on the train to New York? No. But I think this was probably the lowest-stakes Stacey mystery to date. The worst thing anyone had go through was the embarrassment of the entire school knowing your crush (instead of just your crush knowing your crush). Also, glad to see the library play such an important role in this book!
December 18, 2020
Normally, I haven’t been the hugest fan of Stacey lately. Don’t know what it was specifically, but I liked this mystery a lot better than the last one of hers I read. There was no playing the Diabeetus card in this one and Wilford Brimley and I appreciated that.
December 12, 2022
One of my favorite Mystery books. I was actually interested in the plot and it was a good pace. The B plot wasn’t too much in the way either. It still cracks me up how these 11-13 year olds handle stuff on their own. Not one parent was mentioned lol.
February 19, 2024
Stoneybrook Middle School really needs to figure out how to manage their students. Gosh, this place is a mess! At least this is the last BSC mystery book on my shelf, and I can move on to bigger and better things.
April 20, 2020
Kind of sad that kids can be so cruel
January 28, 2021
(LL)
This was boring and predictable, but nothing so unrealistic that it took me out of the story, so three stars for this one.
This was boring and predictable, but nothing so unrealistic that it took me out of the story, so three stars for this one.
Read
April 2, 2021Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/stacey...
October 19, 2021
Was feeling nostalgic and this didn’t disappoint
January 25, 2022
A cute nostalgia read, but hard to suspend my disbelief at times.
April 20, 2023
Fun and quick, and the culprit actually had a kinda sad and relatable motive that tugged at the heartstrings.
April 2, 2025
A little short. And obvious that it was alan that did it. I think i will gjve it 3 stars maybe even less. But it is still ok and I like i is about valintinsday and love 🥰❤️❤️📚
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2018
Stacey And The Stolen Hearts
PLOT: Stacey thinks about what happened around Valentine's Day as she goes to see her boyfriend Ethan. Pete Black has an idea to do Valentine -Grams (that is messages and candy delivered to whoever the recipients desire to have it sent to). And everyone but Kristy (who doesn't have a boyfriend) loves the idea. Kristy has her own idea to plan a Valentine's festival for all the sitting charges. Meanwhile, someone steals the bag with all the Valentine grams in it. Making it another mystery for the BSC to solve in time for V-Day. Robert Stacey's boyfriend has been withdrawn also.
MY THOUGHTS: I pretty much felt like Kristy about all this Valentine's hype. Valentine-grams aren't really the greatest concept and I'll tell you why. When I was in school I can remember how it felt on V-time day when all that stuff (teddy bears, balloons, candy, flowers, etc) was being passed out and called to the office to receive and to be the person that didn't receive anything and to have that thrown in your face all day long. Which is why I sympathize with Alan. Hell, I applaud Alan for doing what he did. The only thing I fault him for was giving the bag back and being intimidated by Stacey. Did Stacey really have any proof? And then yeah Alan is a jokester but Cookie is .. (Well a word that rhymes with witch). And they talked about her feelings? What about Alan's? It did seem just a little bit odd that Cookie sent Brent all those Valentine's but he didn't even send her ONE. Then he's consoling her. Great guy. NOT! He sounds part-time. I bet they won't be together next book. But maybe that's what she deserves. I really don't have any sympathy for Cookie. So yes the whole V-day thing and all the craziness it caused with not only the V-Grams but the students of SMS you can miss me with. Even though I did like the festival and some of the activities I thought were cool. But what really got to me was Robert. Not only did this feel familiar because this isn't the first time I've read about Robert's depression. (It was also in Stacey's Ex-Boyfriend) but it hit home because he sounded similar to someone I know that showed the same symptoms. And I could relate to Andi and Stacey wanting to help but not quite knowing what to do about his depression. Robert's parts were the most relatable to me in the story. The mystery itself was decent enough. I always thought it was Cary. Although it would have been fun if it WAS the teacher and for once it had nothing to do with one of the students. I actually might have read this previously. The cover and some of it felt familiar.
RATING: 51/2
PLOT: Stacey thinks about what happened around Valentine's Day as she goes to see her boyfriend Ethan. Pete Black has an idea to do Valentine -Grams (that is messages and candy delivered to whoever the recipients desire to have it sent to). And everyone but Kristy (who doesn't have a boyfriend) loves the idea. Kristy has her own idea to plan a Valentine's festival for all the sitting charges. Meanwhile, someone steals the bag with all the Valentine grams in it. Making it another mystery for the BSC to solve in time for V-Day. Robert Stacey's boyfriend has been withdrawn also.
MY THOUGHTS: I pretty much felt like Kristy about all this Valentine's hype. Valentine-grams aren't really the greatest concept and I'll tell you why. When I was in school I can remember how it felt on V-time day when all that stuff (teddy bears, balloons, candy, flowers, etc) was being passed out and called to the office to receive and to be the person that didn't receive anything and to have that thrown in your face all day long. Which is why I sympathize with Alan. Hell, I applaud Alan for doing what he did. The only thing I fault him for was giving the bag back and being intimidated by Stacey. Did Stacey really have any proof? And then yeah Alan is a jokester but Cookie is .. (Well a word that rhymes with witch). And they talked about her feelings? What about Alan's? It did seem just a little bit odd that Cookie sent Brent all those Valentine's but he didn't even send her ONE. Then he's consoling her. Great guy. NOT! He sounds part-time. I bet they won't be together next book. But maybe that's what she deserves. I really don't have any sympathy for Cookie. So yes the whole V-day thing and all the craziness it caused with not only the V-Grams but the students of SMS you can miss me with. Even though I did like the festival and some of the activities I thought were cool. But what really got to me was Robert. Not only did this feel familiar because this isn't the first time I've read about Robert's depression. (It was also in Stacey's Ex-Boyfriend) but it hit home because he sounded similar to someone I know that showed the same symptoms. And I could relate to Andi and Stacey wanting to help but not quite knowing what to do about his depression. Robert's parts were the most relatable to me in the story. The mystery itself was decent enough. I always thought it was Cary. Although it would have been fun if it WAS the teacher and for once it had nothing to do with one of the students. I actually might have read this previously. The cover and some of it felt familiar.
RATING: 51/2
January 26, 2010
This was one of the many BSC books that came out after I outgrew the series, so I've got no emotional childhood attachment to it.
Which is just as well because the info-dumps that are traditionally left for Chapter Two really weigh the begining of the book down because they take over the first three or four chapters. You cannot escape them, no matter how fast you flip the pages.
I don't buy that Kristy could be outgrossed out with Stacey eating tartar sauce, no matter what Stace called it. Just no.
Mystery-wise, the book is interesting. There's a list of suspects that shifts continuously. Every time you think someone can be crossed off the list, they find their way back onto it.
I don't understand why Cary is allowed to spend his time in the basement of SMS but maybe that's covered in another book? What keeps this mystery from sucking completely is that just when you're ready to write it off as being just as bad as the cover implies, it suckers you in and makes you feel for a longtime character.
Alan has been the go to guy for a punchline since the series began. Once the ghostwriters were given what felt like free reign, his maturity level plummeted and he *became* the punchline. When Alan works up the courage to send a valentine-gram to a girl he likes only to find out that everyone is sending him crank valentine-grams, Alan decides to seek revenge. Well. As much revenge as one can seek in a BSC novel, mystery or otherwise.
I felt so bad for Alan in the twenty or so seconds he's given to show that he's actually got feelings and they're seriously hurt by what his classmates are doing to him.
I wish that had been explored more than the mystery itself or the Robert is depressed C plot, or even the obligatory babysitting B-plot.
Which is just as well because the info-dumps that are traditionally left for Chapter Two really weigh the begining of the book down because they take over the first three or four chapters. You cannot escape them, no matter how fast you flip the pages.
I don't buy that Kristy could be outgrossed out with Stacey eating tartar sauce, no matter what Stace called it. Just no.
Mystery-wise, the book is interesting. There's a list of suspects that shifts continuously. Every time you think someone can be crossed off the list, they find their way back onto it.
I don't understand why Cary is allowed to spend his time in the basement of SMS but maybe that's covered in another book? What keeps this mystery from sucking completely is that just when you're ready to write it off as being just as bad as the cover implies, it suckers you in and makes you feel for a longtime character.
Alan has been the go to guy for a punchline since the series began. Once the ghostwriters were given what felt like free reign, his maturity level plummeted and he *became* the punchline. When Alan works up the courage to send a valentine-gram to a girl he likes only to find out that everyone is sending him crank valentine-grams, Alan decides to seek revenge. Well. As much revenge as one can seek in a BSC novel, mystery or otherwise.
I felt so bad for Alan in the twenty or so seconds he's given to show that he's actually got feelings and they're seriously hurt by what his classmates are doing to him.
I wish that had been explored more than the mystery itself or the Robert is depressed C plot, or even the obligatory babysitting B-plot.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2024
This was a more realistic mystery at least even if still a bit boring. Stacey for some reason is recruited to help Pete Black with Valentine Grams. I remember those from my school days. Even though it's the class officers doing it Stacey is recruited even though she isn't one. Things are going well but then one day the bag with the Valentine grams is stolen. The girls set out to find who took them. Cary Reitlin is hilarious as always in here. The b plot involves a festival for the BSC clients. They aren't impressed with the idea so they have a focus group to find out what they want which was kind of cute. But overall this was just another so so mystery in a series of so so mysteries.
February 14, 2016
I just had to re-read this book for Valentine's Day. =) The later books (especially the mysteries) definitely started to decline in quality by this point, but this one is pretty decent.
Also, I absolutely love Cary Retlin. Why couldn't we have gotten a spin-off series about him?!? He is by far the most interesting character to ever appear in the BSC books.
Also, I absolutely love Cary Retlin. Why couldn't we have gotten a spin-off series about him?!? He is by far the most interesting character to ever appear in the BSC books.
August 16, 2010
I'm reliving my childhood. :)
Read
November 22, 2012(I loved these new covers at the time. Still do, kinda.)
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