#29 Mallory and the Mystery Diary (Or Mallory Fixes it All)

Mallory, we love you, but if that’s your room on the cover, I can tell you why everyone considers you a nerd.  It looks like my mom’s bedroom in the late 80s; mine was a bit more…hip.

“If only I were thirteen instead of eleven.  Life would be a picnic.”  Yes, Mal, the instant you turn thirteen, life becomes a picnic.  Just wait until you turn fifteen.  Life will suddenly become an absolute dream.  And then we get an explanation of what a journal is and how her journal is just a notebook so she can write in it whenever she wants.  Did journals provide dates for you?  I’ve only ever seen ones that you can write your own date in.  “My eleventh year already seems a decade long.”  That might be because you’re already in your second year of being eleven.  Mom calls her downstairs and asks her to take a casserole over to Stacey and her mom, who recently moved back to Stoneybrook.  We get the chapter two spiel and see Stacey and her mom unpacking in their house.  They stumble over an old trunk and Mallory refuses to let Stacey and her mom throw it out and volunteers to take it home.  She drags it in and wonders what mysteries it holds.

The trunk remains locked and Mal and her siblings try all sorts of things to get it open. 

Dawn sits for the Barretts.  Buddy is reading below grade level and Mrs. Barrett is upset with herself.  Dawn volunteers the BSC to help tutor him.

So, the trunk still isn’t open and Mallory finally caves and lets her brothers smash the locks off the trunk.  The trunk contains clothing and a diary from 1894.  Vanessa dresses up in the clothes, and she and Mal exchange broaches and start dreaming about life in the past.  Mal decides to save the diary for a little light bedtime reading.

Mal tutors Buddy and tries to mimic school.  Buddy’s not thrilled about tutoring.

That night Mal decides to set aside her homework and read the diary of Sophie.  It turns out that Sophie’s mother died and her painting disappeared just after her burial.  Sophie’s grandfather blames Sophie’s father, and since the grandfather is wealthy, the whole town shuns the family.  Sophie is angry and vows to clear her father’s name or she will not rest easy when she dies.  Mal instantly assumes Stacey and her mom live in a haunted house!  There have been more than six families who lived in the house; obviously it’s haunted.

Kristy sits for her siblings and, since Mallory told them the story of the haunted house, she’s got ghosts and attics on the brain.  And Karen is visiting for the weekend, so of course she’s freaking everyone out.

Mallory’s at the BSC meeting, wearing a shirt that says I Heart Kids.  I think this could be massively misconstrued these days.  Mal describes everyone else’s clothing (nothing too exciting; Claud went back to the 50s for the day). They decide that Sophie’s grandfather was James Hickman, otherwise known as “Old Hickory” and her father could possibly be crazy Jared Mulray.

Mallory has another tutoring session with Buddy.  She decides to have him read comic books and write his own comic so that he can discover that reading is fun. 

Things are at a standstill with the mystery, so Mallory and her friends decide to have a séance.  Kristy demands to be the “channeler” and the rest of the girls decide to go along with it.  They meet at Stacey’s house and “Madame Kristin” begins the séance.  They try to channel Sophie’s spirit, Kristy pretends to be Sophie and finally everyone decides it’s time to eat.  Mal isn’t too disappointed; she didn’t expect to actually get Sophie.

Stacey sits for Charlotte.  Charlotte points out that things aren’t always what they seem and maybe they’re overlooking something.

Mallory has another tutoring session with Buddy and they read Encyclopedia Brown.  Mal tells him about the mystery and shows him the diary.  Buddy’s arm gets stuck in the trunk.  Buried in the pocket in the side of the trunk is Old Hickory’s confession.  He couldn’t bear to look at the portrait of his daughter, so he had it painted over.  When his friends asked where it was, he said in it was stolen and they automatically blamed Jared.  Old Hickory never said otherwise.  Buddy asks if they could look around Stacey’s attic to see if maybe the painting was moved there.  They call Stacey and thunder over to see if they can find the painting. After looking around for a few minutes, they find a picture of ships….that are sailing over a finger with a ring on it.  They show Mrs. McGill and she stops them from rubbing the painting with turpentine, but suggests they take it to a professional art restorer.  As the only adult prominently featured in this book, I’m glad she has one common sense line…and she follows that up with a comment about how she doesn’t want any ghosts in the house.  Great.

Mal runs Buddy home, explains to Mrs. Barrett how she miraculously cures Buddy of his reading troubles in less than three weeks (if a kid in 3^rd grade is struggling with sight words, there are other issues afoot other than “liking to read”).

At the next BSC meeting, Stacey rushes in with news about the painting; Mal asks her to wait until everyone gets there.  It turns out that it was the painting of a beautiful woman, most likely Sophie’s mother.  Stacey and her mom are going to hang the painting in their house so the spirits can all be together.  Rah.

Buddy then calls the meeting to tell Mallory that he’s been moved up from the crows to the robins in school reading groups.  Hooray!  All problems are solved, all mysteries are solved and everyone is happy.  Now I’m going to go swipe some trick-or-treat candy from my kids’ buckets.

#25 Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger

I’m sorry I’ve been dragging my feet on this snark folks.  I just can’t stand Mary Anne and I keep drawing her blasted books!

On the cover, Mary Anne is holding a bowl of catfood out to an invisible Tigger.  I’ve never lost a cat, but it makes more sense to me that she would scatter cat treats on the ground instead of holding a large dish of food.  I digress….I may do that a lot in this book.

So, we start with Dawn and Mary Anne riding their bikes to the cat store to buy more toys for Tigger because he keeps batting them behind the refrigerator.  Common Sense Moment: Move the stupid fridge instead of wasting your money on more new toys.  If you don’t ever move the fridge, I REALLY don’t want to see what’s under there.  We get the chapter two spiel and it’s not even chapter two yet.  I want to hang my head and cry.

They get back in time to give Tigger his toys and head to the BSC meeting.  More gobbledygook (the language of goblins) about meetings and procedures and MA gets a job sitting for Logan’s siblings.  Ironically enough, Logan is the one who calls the club to arrange a sitter for his sibs.

Richard still has some rules, including a rule that Logan cannot come in the house without an adult present.  So MA and Logan sit on the front step and hang out.  It’s an icky, almost raining Friday.  Logan is a little snappish, Jamie Newton comes over to play with Tigger and then Mariah and Gabbie come over.  After they leave, Charlotte J stops by to play with Tigger too.  I am amazed that Logan isn’t annoyed that his pseudo date with MA was interrupted by the neighborhood kiddos.  It’s time for the BSC meeting, but Tigger is so happy outside that MA leaves him out while she goes to the meeting.

MA gets home, starts dinner and realizes she hasn’t fed Tigger.  I just have to pause to say this cat has a mat that says “food please”.  MA is going to be one of those crazy cat ladies when she’s old, isn’t she?  You know, those people that feed their cats at the table and talk about Smoopkins as though he was a person.  She looks through the whole house (conveniently forgetting she left him OUTSIDE before the meeting) until her dad comes home.  Then both of them search outside in the dark.  Richard finally talks MA into going back in and having dinner.  She tries to remain calm until it’s bedtime and then she panics about Tigger again.  Richard tells her to go to bed; Tigger’s probably just off having and adventure.  But when the cat’s not back the next morning, Richard’s worried too and they take turns watching for Tigger.

MA breaks from TIggerWatch 1989 to babysit for Logan’s brother and sister.  Hunter is allergic to everything and Kerry is trying to stretch her independence wings. 

MA hurries home to see if Tigger’s back and he’s not.  She calls Kristy for an emergency meeting.  They meet at Claudia’s and MA sniffles through the story of the lost Tigger.  Mallory suggests posters, Claudia volunteers to draw a picture of Tigger and Kristy suggests a reward.  She also says her mom will run copies off at her office and they can hang them around the neighborhood the next day.  MA calls Logan to tell him about the Tigger problems, but he’s distracted by baseball, so she calmly hangs up on him.

Jessi has a sitting job for her siblings and has to write about it in the club notebook.  It’s really more about her reading Sounder and thinking about where Tigger is.

Sunday morning dawns and Kristy calls MA at 8am to tell her that they can go and paper the neighborhood.  MA runs into a kid who says he saw Tigger and can he please have the reward money?  They tell him to beat it and he scrams. 

They keep looking for Tigger and even when MA sits for the Newtons the next day, Jamie offers to continue to search.  They invite Mariah and Gabbie to go along with them, but still no Tigger.  They stop by MA’s house, she gets the mail and there’s a letter…Tigger has been catnapped!!!!  She calls Logan, who is massively underwhelemed, but volunteers to come to the meeting.  They all try to figure out what to do, when Logan suggests a plan.  MA drops an envelope of monopoly money and the rest of them hide out in the field to wait for the catnapper.   They all agree not to involve any adults.  Mommy Moment: If one of my kids felt that they couldn’t tell me something or about some problem they’re having, I’d be worried.  These girls NEVER go to an adult first, but their friends.  Is this normal teen behavior?

Dawn sits for the Barretts, and the kids are freaked out about their dog Pow possibly being napped.  Way to go, MA.  Jamie Newton has spread the word of the catnapping.  Perhaps you shouldn’t have been calling everyone and their uncle to tell them about your letter WHILE YOU WERE BABYSITTING!  Mommy Moment: If my kids are in bed, feel free to talk, text, browse the internet.  While they’re awake, I want you aware and paying attention to what is going on.

The next day, MA slogs through school, waits anxiously until it’s time to go and then heads to the drop location.  She pretends to go home, then doubles back to hid with Kristy.  Suddenly, someone approaches the rock.  It’s the same kid who demanded money while they were hanging posters!!  They confront him and he admits to just trying to get some easy money.  They let him go after they scold him a bit.  But where is Tigger?

Claudia sits for the Perkins girls and they talk about replacing Tigger.

At the same time, MA is sitting for Hunter and Kerry again.  Lo and behold, Kerry has Tigger hidden in her closet!  She saw him by the street one evening and decided he wasn’t being well taken care of, so she took him home.  You know, in spite of the fact that her brother is allergic to EVERYTHING.  You’d think once she saw the posters for the missing kitten that she would have given him back.  What a sanctimonious brat.  She’s just trying to show that she’s good and responsible, so she has a heart to heart talk with her mom.  MA decides that Logan must have known Kerry had Tigger and accuses him of being a liar.

Well, that hurts Logan and he is angry with her.  She says he’s hurt her by being gruff and crabby lately.  He says he’s about to get kicked off the baseball team so he’s sorry if he’s been distracted.  They promise to be honest with each other.

MA brings Tigger with her to the meeting, poo-pooing the idea she’s being as overprotective with her kitten.  Who cares?  Hes’ back and he’s happy.  And….he’s a kitten.

The Babies are Here!

Tess made it to within a month of her due date (October 28th) and today her babies were born!  Micah Daniel (5 lbs, 1oz, 17.5 inches long) and Merissa Delaney (5lb 8oz, 18 inches long) arrived at 1:22am and 1:40am respectively.  Micah's in the NICU with a little oxygen, but Merissa's breathing like a champ. Tess is tired, but relieved that everyone is okay and that she's done with pregnancy!  Hopefully she'll be up to snarking again in a few months!  Congratulations Tess and Jesse!