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 3rd 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.
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