Sorry for the long delay, but the end of the school year plus the start of summer fun has really take up a lot of time.
This book is so….I can’t even. I can’t really see what the point of it is,
other than the BSC girls scaring the snot out of themselves and their charges.
This is an Ellen Miles book, so woo-hoo for ghost-writers!
So, here’s the basic storyline: Stacey (and her mom) is asked by the
Johanssens to take Charlotte
for a week while Mr. and Doctor go to Mrs’s hometown to be with his dad during
a surgery. Of course, the McGills take Charlotte. During this time, she develops tonsillitis
and needs to be on penicillin.
At the same time Charlotte
is staying with Stacey, there is an old house being torn down in the
neighborhood. Stacey and Char visit and
see some weird things. Then Kristy
(while she’s sitting her sibs, of course) discovers a map that shows the house
built over an ancient burial ground.
Claudia does a little more digging and discovers the house belonged to a
Ronald Hennessey, who is a resident at Stoneybrook Manor (the local nursing
home).
Stacey and Charlotte visit the house again and see fire shooting
out of the window. Stacey attempts to
put it out with rainwater in a wheelbarrow, but it suddenly disappears. That night they both have nightmares about
the place.
Stacey tells her friends about what happened at the house
and the dreams. Kristy immediately calls
an emergency meeting, which never happens that often (only in every book). At the meeting, they decide to visit Ronald
Hennessey.
Kristy, Claud, Stacey and Charlotte are the ones to visit
Mr. Hennessey. They tell him about their
experiences and he tells them all kinds of spooky stories about his days living
there. He ends the visit with the words,
“Just be careful.”
The house is coming down the next day and they all go to
watch. When it comes down, Stacey
notices that it’s burning up with an elderly man in the middle of it! But….no one else notices. Stacey runs to the nursing home to see Mr.
Hennessey, but finds out he died during the night.
It turns out that he left her a note saying that he had made
up the stories he told them on their visit.
He hopes he didn’t scare her too badly.
Kristy, Charlie and Sam pick Stacey up from the nursing home
and explain away all of the weird things that happened, except for the burning
when the house came down. I’d chalk that
one up to sleep deprivation, Stacey.
The Johanssens arrive not long after Stacey and Char arrive
home and pick up their daughter. Charlotte calls her later
to tell her she misses her and they have a special good-night moment. Awwwwwwwwww!
Mommy Moments:
- Hooray! The Johanssens actually call Mrs. McGill before officially leaving their child with her. Way to communicate!
- Charlotte complains of her throat hurting before the Johanssens leave. As a mother, I think two things: 1. she’s faking so I don’t leave. 2. she has a history of chronic tonsillitis; she could really have an issue.
- If my child was ill and my father-in-law was recovering nicely, I’d come home ASAP!
- So Stacey and Charlotte are freaking themselves out to the point that they’re not sleeping and can’t really function. Doesn’t Mrs. McGill notice this at some point?
Common Sense Moments:
- In order to get Charlotte to take her medication, Stacey shows her some of her diabetes equipment and explains how much work it takes to take care of her body. I don’t know how effective that method would really be.
- In her quest to get to the bottom of the mystery, Stacey effectively freaks Charlotte out, to the point she’s having nightmares about the place. At one point she even asks herself if she’s getting so caught up in the mystery that she’s forgetting to be a good baby-sitter. The answer is YES, STACEY!!
Outfits:
- Stacey “I had dressed for my train ride in a white jumpsuit, layered over a blue tank top. I had on white push down socks with blue hearts on them, a wide patent leather belt and a wild necklace made of all kinds of plastic sea creatures in a rainbow of colors.”
- Stacey “pink polka-dotted short skirt with suspender straps and had worn it with an oversized white t-shirt. I had on my pink high-top sneakers, folded down to show their striped lining. I’d also worn these great earrings Claud had given me for my last birthday. They had all these little pink plastic hearts dangling down from one bigger heart.”
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