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I So Don't Do... #1
I So Don't Do Mysteries
SO HERE I am spending spring break in California with my best friend, Junie. Our chaperone is a teenager, like us. And soon I’ll get to hang out with the coolest, cutest boy in the Southwest. Life is so good.Except I should tell you that I’m not actually in San Diego for fun. Even though I’m a normal person who likes normal stuff—friends, clothes, the mall—I’m supposed to be solving a mystery, one that involves a rhino heist and a crazy chef. And I have to do it because my supercop mom is counting on me. Did I mention she’s a ghost? A ghost who can makecontact with only one person. Me, Sherry Holmes Baldwin. My mom is flunking out of the Academy of Spirits, and if I don’t help her, she’ll be banished to an afterlife for ghost failures.But . . . I so don’t do mysteries.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 8, 2008
73 people are currently reading
1172 people want to read
About the author
Barrie Summy
6 books109 followersBarrie Summy grew up in Canada on a steady diet of books and tobogganing. She tries to read a book a week and always breaks for tea and cookies at three oclock.
Barrie lives in California with her husband, their four children, a veiled chameleon, and Dorothy the Dog.
Barrie lives in California with her husband, their four children, a veiled chameleon, and Dorothy the Dog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
December 19, 2010
I so didn't like this book.
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September 28, 2015Sherry was your normal teen, she liked going to malls, dreaming of boys, and hanging with friends. But it all changes when her mother (a dead cop) reaches to her and needs her help to solve a mystery, but by the cover you see she does not like mysterys. But she helps her mom so she can become an animal and walk the earth, watching over sherry and her little brother.
This book was good! It was a funny story which i enjoyed! I really like mysteries and this was a good one!
This book was good! It was a funny story which i enjoyed! I really like mysteries and this was a good one!
March 14, 2010
Really good!!!
January 4, 2021
I found this book charming, hilarious, and full of personality. The main character, Sherry, is a bubbly girl who clicked with me on the first page. She is an extremely relatable middle school girl who is just living out her life, with the normal teen worries like her gorgeous crush Josh and whether her makeup looked okay.
But she also has some unique worries tacked on top. Her mother was a cop killed in the line of duty, and when she contacts Sherry as a ghost about to fail out of the Academy of Spirits, Sherry is understandably bewildered. Suddenly, her life turns upside down and she has to help her mother solve a fishy mystery in San Diego.
I think the factor that carries this book to success is Sherry herself. I really enjoy when a character's growth is visible. I especially like how she reconnects with her mother at the same time. I found that really heartwarming. She's also extremely down-to-earth and her interactions with other people are very realistic. Sherry has a certain sarcastic tendency that makes her character very compelling. It's hard not to like her. I also like how she has to juggle several conflicts: her crush, her flunking mother, the whole ghost thing in general, and her dad's new wife. It's pretty difficult to cram that into a cohesive plotline.
- Kate, Grade 10
But she also has some unique worries tacked on top. Her mother was a cop killed in the line of duty, and when she contacts Sherry as a ghost about to fail out of the Academy of Spirits, Sherry is understandably bewildered. Suddenly, her life turns upside down and she has to help her mother solve a fishy mystery in San Diego.
I think the factor that carries this book to success is Sherry herself. I really enjoy when a character's growth is visible. I especially like how she reconnects with her mother at the same time. I found that really heartwarming. She's also extremely down-to-earth and her interactions with other people are very realistic. Sherry has a certain sarcastic tendency that makes her character very compelling. It's hard not to like her. I also like how she has to juggle several conflicts: her crush, her flunking mother, the whole ghost thing in general, and her dad's new wife. It's pretty difficult to cram that into a cohesive plotline.
- Kate, Grade 10
July 7, 2024
If you want to punish someone for loving books….. Make them read this.
January 7, 2010
Don’t know what to get an almost-teen girly girl?...a girl who rolls her eyes at all things Middle Earth/Hogwarts?...a girl who is just venturing into the world of messy emotions, boys and malls (…and not in that particular order)?
Chuck her a copy of 'I So Don’t Do Mysteries' and she won’t hate you too much.
Sherlock ‘Sherry’ Holmes Baldwin has a lot on her plate. Her widowed dad is getting married to her Maths Teacher (no less!), her l'il brother is being a pain as only l'il brothers can be, the boy she’s crushing on appears to be sending out similar vibes and her real mom, a Phoenix Police Department cop who was killed in the line of duty is now back as an invisible ghost asking Sherry for assistance.
Turns out Sherry’s mom didn’t go off into the big doughnut in the sky. She chose to stay on in the Academy of Spirits, an organization which trains ghosts to protect the living. Unless Sherry’s mom solves the mystery entrusted in her care, she will have to move-on .
Despite her name, Sherry is not big on the whole sleuthing gig. But the alternative means never hearing from her mum again. So the digging-her-heels-in-the-sand Sherry is soon off to San Diego to save a bunch of rhinos from a ploy to take them out.
The book is frothy, filled with a few interesting ideas and a bunch of adorable(seriously, that’s the only word I could think of) comparisons like:
a.A full moon has risen, a sugar cookie in the night sky
b. Miles off in the distance , green hills are dotted with rocks that look like huge Pippi Longstocking freckles
……you get the idea...
Chuck her a copy of 'I So Don’t Do Mysteries' and she won’t hate you too much.
Sherlock ‘Sherry’ Holmes Baldwin has a lot on her plate. Her widowed dad is getting married to her Maths Teacher (no less!), her l'il brother is being a pain as only l'il brothers can be, the boy she’s crushing on appears to be sending out similar vibes and her real mom, a Phoenix Police Department cop who was killed in the line of duty is now back as an invisible ghost asking Sherry for assistance.
Turns out Sherry’s mom didn’t go off into the big doughnut in the sky. She chose to stay on in the Academy of Spirits, an organization which trains ghosts to protect the living. Unless Sherry’s mom solves the mystery entrusted in her care, she will have to move-on .
Despite her name, Sherry is not big on the whole sleuthing gig. But the alternative means never hearing from her mum again. So the digging-her-heels-in-the-sand Sherry is soon off to San Diego to save a bunch of rhinos from a ploy to take them out.
The book is frothy, filled with a few interesting ideas and a bunch of adorable(seriously, that’s the only word I could think of) comparisons like:
a.A full moon has risen, a sugar cookie in the night sky
b. Miles off in the distance , green hills are dotted with rocks that look like huge Pippi Longstocking freckles
……you get the idea...
January 15, 2014
!!!!A BIT OF A SPOILER ALERT!!!
I So Don't Do Mysteries is about a girl named Sherry Baldwin. Sherry's excited for a fun summer until... uh-oh... her dead mom contacts her as a ghost. Her mom explains how she's about to fail the Academy of Spirits, and she needs Sherry's help so she can stay. Her mom needs Sherry's help solving a mystery at a San Diego Zoo... someone is plotting to kill the rhinos. Can Sherry, helped my her best friend Junie, transported by the super annoying Amber, encouraged by her crush Josh, motivated by her Fearless Rhino Warrior title, inspired to help the rhinos, help save the day and her mother's afterlife? This book is a bit of a mystery mixed with a teenage-girl point of view. Can Sherry solve the mystery of the rhinos and beat out Gary, Chef L'Oeuf, and the oldies who need the rhinos for their aching arthritis?
I loved this book because I felt like I was very alike to Sherry. Most of her decisions would've been similar to mine. Her attitude and spunk made the book! I rate it 4 stars! (it wasn't the best book in the whole world.)
Lana Sabbagh!
I So Don't Do Mysteries is about a girl named Sherry Baldwin. Sherry's excited for a fun summer until... uh-oh... her dead mom contacts her as a ghost. Her mom explains how she's about to fail the Academy of Spirits, and she needs Sherry's help so she can stay. Her mom needs Sherry's help solving a mystery at a San Diego Zoo... someone is plotting to kill the rhinos. Can Sherry, helped my her best friend Junie, transported by the super annoying Amber, encouraged by her crush Josh, motivated by her Fearless Rhino Warrior title, inspired to help the rhinos, help save the day and her mother's afterlife? This book is a bit of a mystery mixed with a teenage-girl point of view. Can Sherry solve the mystery of the rhinos and beat out Gary, Chef L'Oeuf, and the oldies who need the rhinos for their aching arthritis?
I loved this book because I felt like I was very alike to Sherry. Most of her decisions would've been similar to mine. Her attitude and spunk made the book! I rate it 4 stars! (it wasn't the best book in the whole world.)
Lana Sabbagh!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 27, 2016
The book "I so don't do mystery's" was a very action packed book! I really like this book because it used a look of descriptive words and the author Barrie Summy made the book unique with the way she put everything together. She did a very good job in this book, the one thing that its lacking is that it starts off very slow and confusing because she just throws things in that with make you puzzled for a second but then you will get it after you think about everything that happened in the book. The overall thought of the book for me is that it was a very good adventurous book and I would recommend it to people who like mystery's, drama and friendship!
April 14, 2011
Sherry was your average teen, she liked going to malls, dreaming of boys, and hanging with friends. But it all changes when her mother (a dead cop) contacts her and needs her help to solve a mystery, but by the cover you see she does not like mysterys. But she helps her mom so she can become an animal figure and walk the earth, watching over sherry and her little brother.
This book was good! It was a funny story which i enjoyed! this book was the book that made me realize that I love mysterys!
This book was good! It was a funny story which i enjoyed! this book was the book that made me realize that I love mysterys!
January 4, 2010
Very fun book. I really liked Sherry's voice, and loved her grandpa.
November 2, 2010
it was pretty good. and it relates to my life. it was good if you like mysteries. and animals. specifically rhinos. hahaha
Currently reading
February 21, 2011so far so good!
September 26, 2020
When Sherlock Holmes meets reincarnated mothers(that are birds), boys, and family matters. You receive this wonderfully confusing and crazy book full of mystery and action.
August 29, 2017
It is a really good book.
June 17, 2023
It's a 2.5, but I considered breaking all rules of arithmetic and rounding down because Barrie Summy clearly went to the Lisi Harrison school of pop culture references and passed with honors.
Okay, Summy's writing isn't THAT bad. Whenever the book gets into the plot, be it the mystery or the main character Sherry's budding romance, the like totally radical teen slang and pop culture references begin to even out, but these crutches to make Sherry relatable and appealing to tweens fall flat and make the first few chapters hard to get through.
The mystery is also perhaps a little too obvious. I'm not exactly in the target demographic for these books, but during the culprit's first appearance, I figured out exactly what was going on with only a few details needing to be filled in. It's good to have your mysteries be solvable, but Sherry focusing on red-herrings was a little frustrating.
I thought Sherry was a decent protagonist. She's got a lot of hidden depth to her and I liked how, from the early chapters we get to see how her mind works. She was written consistently as a creative, out-of-the-box problem solver who has good people skills but also fails to look closer at other people than surface level. She's a flawed protagonist who is quick to judge people, often based on appearances, and can be quite rude about those things in her narration but in a way that feels very true to your average middle schooler. Like, she'll nickname people "GI Joe" or "Monkey Man" in her head or talk about how ugly someone's outfit is. But this superficiality actually has consequences throughout the book AND she's willing to change her tune whenever she gets to know people better.
Because I bought the second book in middle school, I'm also going to read it, but I'm unlikely to seek out the other books in this series.
My analysis is that Summy definitely has talent for character writing but comes across as trying too hard to make her characters sound like teens to the point that it sounds borderline like a parody.
Okay, Summy's writing isn't THAT bad. Whenever the book gets into the plot, be it the mystery or the main character Sherry's budding romance, the like totally radical teen slang and pop culture references begin to even out, but these crutches to make Sherry relatable and appealing to tweens fall flat and make the first few chapters hard to get through.
The mystery is also perhaps a little too obvious. I'm not exactly in the target demographic for these books, but during the culprit's first appearance, I figured out exactly what was going on with only a few details needing to be filled in. It's good to have your mysteries be solvable, but Sherry focusing on red-herrings was a little frustrating.
I thought Sherry was a decent protagonist. She's got a lot of hidden depth to her and I liked how, from the early chapters we get to see how her mind works. She was written consistently as a creative, out-of-the-box problem solver who has good people skills but also fails to look closer at other people than surface level. She's a flawed protagonist who is quick to judge people, often based on appearances, and can be quite rude about those things in her narration but in a way that feels very true to your average middle schooler. Like, she'll nickname people "GI Joe" or "Monkey Man" in her head or talk about how ugly someone's outfit is. But this superficiality actually has consequences throughout the book AND she's willing to change her tune whenever she gets to know people better.
Because I bought the second book in middle school, I'm also going to read it, but I'm unlikely to seek out the other books in this series.
My analysis is that Summy definitely has talent for character writing but comes across as trying too hard to make her characters sound like teens to the point that it sounds borderline like a parody.
November 8, 2017
I So Don’t do Mysteries, by Barrie Summy, is a fun book about a 7th grade girl named Sherry, solving mysteries with her mom. The only problem is, her mom is a ghost. Over spring break Sherry expects to have a great time in California having fun with her best friend and hanging out with her crush. Suddenly, her mom arrives as a ghost. Sherry is really excited until her mom informs her that she is flunking the academy of spirits and Sherry has to spend her spring break helping her mom solve a mystery. Sherry is really nervous about getting her best friend to believe her, saving her mom, and still managing to have a great spring break. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. It was funny, interesting, and hard to put down! I would recommend it to people in late elementary or middle school, and anyone who likes a suspenseful story about a teen sleuth.
August 26, 2022
this book is amazing! it is soo relatable for teens. Mostly I spend my time watching youtube, but when I saw this book I could not put it down. But overall, I liked the book it just could be not a dragging on I'm not saying I didn't like it because it was long but because every thing that happens just keeps dragging on. Otherwise the book had lots of exciting features and lots of other great thing. Thanks for listening
December 29, 2025
OOOOOH. Where should I start! Whenever I opened this book I just felt like I was hopping onto a bus with Sherry and Junie preparing for some random adventure. This book was such a fun read! Im always reading heavy and sad books, and this book was such a relief to read! Highly recommend!
October 27, 2017
I thought that this book was good and I like how it had page turners.
July 6, 2018
Review by C.J. : "I liked that it was a mystery and kept me in suspense. I did not dislike anything. Someone that likes mysteries would like it."
November 2, 2018
This was one of my fave books as a kid. I remember reading this and laughing all the way through. This was one of the first books that made me feel like I was a character in the story.
March 4, 2019
Abandoned.
September 28, 2019
Cute quick read.
January 26, 2021
This was an amazing book! I definitley recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries!!
September 17, 2021
love this book but would a 7th grader really be doing all this? probably not but it’s still a fun concept!
dnf
June 3, 2023Didn't work for me at all but I am not the target audience at all either.
March 11, 2024
Cute!
January 11, 2025
This was cute! I enjoyed the quirky narrator a lot! Plus solving mysteries with your ghost mom? Soooo super fun!
July 29, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews