malloryfan14
New To Stoneybrook
Hey, did you guys know that Jessi's black?
Posts: 57
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Post by malloryfan14 on Sept 4, 2015 21:07:47 GMT -5
This is one of my favourite books! Dawn annoyed me as the series went on but here, and in her other earlier books, she was one of my favourite sitters And plus, who doesn't love a good ghost mystery!
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Post by thejunkbucket on Sept 7, 2015 17:39:10 GMT -5
This is one of my favourite books! Dawn annoyed me as the series went on but here, and in her other earlier books, she was one of my favourite sitters And plus, who doesn't love a good ghost mystery! Why did Dawn annoy you?
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Post by thejunkbucket on Sept 7, 2015 17:41:40 GMT -5
One thing I've wondered, didn't Nicky get scared being inside a basically dark tunnel? They made it seem like it was pitch black in there 'cause Mary Anne and Dawn always needed flashlights. Personally, I would be creeped out, especially at 8 years old. Not to mention that there were likely mice running around. Eek!
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malloryfan14
New To Stoneybrook
Hey, did you guys know that Jessi's black?
Posts: 57
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Post by malloryfan14 on Sept 7, 2015 20:19:40 GMT -5
^thejunkbucket, Dawn annoys me for lots of those common reasons, like her pushing vegetarianism down everyone's throats and her 'planet saving'. It's fine if someone is interested in that, but she just went to far with it, in my opinion. She would always tell Mary Anne and Stacey and the other girls etc about not eating meat but then when she does things like lecture strangers or waiters at restaurants about healthy eating, I just thought 'Oh c'mon, Dawn, that's enough.' Bit too over the top.
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Post by bscfan1997 on Oct 11, 2015 1:25:20 GMT -5
The Ghost at Dawn's House is awesome! I love it, I just love it. Even the little things like the Trip Man, Dawn and Jeff's relationship, Mallory being the second sitter for the first time, the movies at the end, and the first Cam Geary reference. This book made ten year old me believe that there was a secret passage in our house - a house built in the late 90s or early 2000s. Thanks a lot, Dawn. oh, and I love the first appearance of Myriah and Gabbie. A wonderful book overall, and it was before Dawn got irritating and Jeff moved to Cali.
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Enigma
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 128
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Post by Enigma on Jan 4, 2016 2:55:51 GMT -5
I agree with all your points. I just re-read it and noticed two things about about the Jeff/Dawn relationship that might have not been mentioned on this thread.
Dawn and Jeff both act like siblings hanging out together rather than having a sitter/sittee relationship (unlike Mallory vs. Pike triplets where the age gap is much smaller than the Jeff-Dawn one). Dawn acts like a typical freaked out 12-year-old-kid when she and Jeff both freak out and call her mom on her date about the 'ghost.' Jeff in this book is potrayed as "pretty responsible almost 10-year old" so Dawn is given permission to leave him home alone during the daytime and go off and do things while her mom's at work rather than having full charge responsibility of him. He also seems to be adjusting well and pretty agreeable overall. In the next few books, he turns into an unhappy, miserable sulky kid whose always getting in fights at school and has to be shipped back to California to live with dad.
I think the ghost hunting/freaking out/exploring the passage stuff as well as trying to agree on which movies to watch made the girls seem more real. The clumsy way the sitters handled Pike kids' shenanigans also shows the mood of the earlier books as opposed to the savvy way they would have had everything under control in the later books.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jan 4, 2016 13:33:22 GMT -5
I Dawn and Jeff both act like siblings hanging out together rather than having a sitter/sittee relationship (unlike Mallory vs. Pike triplets where the age gap is much smaller than the Jeff-Dawn one). Maybe because they are each other's only sibling so they have a closer bond than Mal has with her brothers? Plus when you're only watching one kid it feels more like hanging out than being their sitter I guess.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Jan 4, 2016 16:43:40 GMT -5
This is weird! Lately when I have finished a BSC book I come on the board only to notice someone has posted about the book on the same day I read it! (Not complaining!)
This book is still one of my favourites! I appreciated all of the scenes where Dawn reads - in her bed during the bad thunderstorm and in the barn in a cool place, which is also how she finds the trap door to the secret passage! Also, I know Nicky is harmless but I don't understand how he didn't get in more trouble for snooping on people's property.
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mallorypike
Sitting For The Papadakis's
If I were thirteen instead of eleven, life would be a picnic...
Posts: 1,636
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Post by mallorypike on Jun 12, 2016 2:42:53 GMT -5
I've read through the majority of this thread, and the logistics of the secret passage being built is unrealistic and confusing and not plausible! And the secret passage must've been pretty narrow and there are about two flights of stairs, so it's steep too. The secret passage is actually a little dangerous. But I didn't think about this at all until I read this thread...
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Natasha
New To Stoneybrook
BSC Reread Update: no 115:Jessi's big break.
Posts: 198
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Post by Natasha on Mar 4, 2017 9:40:03 GMT -5
This is one of my favourites too. Dawn being a favourite of mine. I love the idea of finding a secret passageway in an old house. The triplets were so mean to Nicky, it was bullying.
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andrew
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 353
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Post by andrew on Nov 8, 2017 14:32:57 GMT -5
There wasn't much plot in this book but I liked Dawn bonding with Nicky, Dawn being (pretty simultaneously) both excited and scared about ghosts and that the sitters were determined to fully enjoy all of the lasts moments of summer vacation.
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Post by wistfuldreamer86 on Aug 29, 2018 19:59:06 GMT -5
It was interesting rereading this because when I read it as a kid, I actually lived in an old farmhouse. We even had a barn out back. I think it was even storming when I read it and when I went to bed that night, I remember staring at the wall and thinking about secret passages. lol! And the den of our house was actually a newer addition so it was also the place we hung out the most, like Jeff and the AC. So reading the book brought back a lot of memories of that brief time (we only lived there a year or so before moving into town). I didn't really care about the "ghost" plotline. But I liked all the baby-sitter scenes, the jobs and their scenes together. I laughed out loud when Kristy told Mary Anne to leave the room so she could hear what Dawn read in a book. lol. Also all the parts where the girls were scaring each other. I think this book really played up the idea that the girls were mostly just freaking themselves out over nothing. It probably didn't help that it was storming a lot.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,258
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Post by oldhickory on Sept 11, 2018 11:17:14 GMT -5
It was interesting rereading this because when I read it as a kid, I actually lived in an old farmhouse. We even had a barn out back. I think it was even storming when I read it and when I went to bed that night, I remember staring at the wall and thinking about secret passages. lol! And the den of our house was actually a newer addition so it was also the place we hung out the most, like Jeff and the AC. So reading the book brought back a lot of memories of that brief time (we only lived there a year or so before moving into town). ^ That sounds so scary, in a good way! I've posted this before, but I read Kristy's Mystery Admirer sitting next to a window at night, and the part where she thinks she sees the face in the window scared the hell out of me. I would be so freaked out thinking about secrets behind the wall.
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Jun 9, 2020 20:21:55 GMT -5
I just reread this and I enjoyed it just as much as I did then. The different sitting jobs were cute and the first introduction of the Perkins family. The party at the end sounded like so much fun. Plus even Kristy wore make up too.
As for the cover, dawn and Jeff searching through house at one point I’m sure. Maybe they were just looking around on the cover, but then again they are never know to be right. The secret passage itself mentioned that it had veered off to the left from the barn. So it’s probably in the walls too, not just the space between dawn and her moms room. I wonder how tall the first floor is, maybe it’s not as steep as we think.
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Post by booklover85 on Jul 17, 2020 23:07:56 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of reading The Ghost at Dawn's House and I loved reading the secret passage scenes.
I wish that Dawn and Karen would have teamed up and went ghosthunting together and the books Dawn was reading sounded really fascinating. I wished that they were real.
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