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Post by candykane on Aug 24, 2008 15:26:40 GMT -5
I would love to explore an attic full of left-behind things. This book always made me wish that I'd find an old diary or an old trunk of antiques. Maybe that's something more likely to happen in New England, because it's the "birthplace" of the country and has been established for a lot longer than other parts of the country. Around here (Michigan) things from the 1850's are considered really old, at least to me. But in CT and the rest of New England, they've got American history going back to the 1600s, which is totally cool.
^ The BSC did tutor a lot of kids in various school things. I can't think of any others right now, but I'm sure there were more pairings!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2008 10:00:09 GMT -5
I started it this morning it sounds kinda intresting but im only on chapter 3 and im kinda like.. Whens something intresting going to occur?
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Post by candykane on Aug 25, 2008 17:08:34 GMT -5
Just keep reading. Chapters 2 and 3 in most BSC books aren't much more than a description of the club members and how the club itself works. After that, the plot will start to pick up.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,254
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Post by oldhickory on Mar 4, 2010 20:19:12 GMT -5
i actually really like this book. mallory seems more honest and eager to please than she does later in the series. normally the barretts really gross me out (mostly suzie and marnie) but buddy by himself isn't so bad. i think he's a good kid who comes from a messed up family. the mystery was all right. it's a lot more believable than some of the mysteries and i like how the painting was in the attic the whole time and nobody thought to look for it. if they thought jared stole the painting, why not check his attic? it seems typical for overzealous teenagers to overlook something so obvious :]
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Post by anzuhana on Jun 19, 2010 14:37:56 GMT -5
I'm jealous that Mallory found an old diary. I would love to find an old diary so I could read about the person's life.
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Post by zoar3 on Nov 27, 2010 22:15:39 GMT -5
Wanderingfrog, thanks for sharing your journal, it was fun to read. I'd love to find an old diary, too. This is my favorite Mallory book and still makes my top ten BSC Book list. I was disappointed that Jared Mullray was (probably) not the Jared featured in this book--that would have made an awesome tale. I also wish Dawn had tried harder to find "A History of Stoneybrooke." Later in the Series, the BSC often goes to the library to do research and even to the Historical Society. You'd think, the latter especially could have provided some added excitement to the book. Normally I'm not a big history buff but in this case it could have made for a better read.
A couple other things, I loved Mal's idea of Buddy and Charlotte becoming the next Frank Hardy and Nancy Drew. That comparison seemed sweet as I enjoyed both characters mystery solving help in this one. The two of them should have "teamed up." I wish Mal/Buddy had been developed more. They worked well together. Mrs. Barrett, I thought, once again was inappropriately going off at the mouth about her lack of time who spend with her kids to the Sitter. I also was so angry with her for hiring a Sitter (blanking on who) so Mal could tutor Buddy. It was better when she hired two sitters. I re-read and found out Mrs. Barrett was home that afternoon herself. This was when Mal/Buddy made comic books. It was great she spent time with Marnie and Suzi, but maybe she could have been the one to give Buddy one on one time and have had Mal be the sitter. It sure sounded like she (Mrs. B) spent zero extra time with her own son. This would have been perfect time to bring back Mr. Barrett. I don't think we ever read about him again do we aside from Buddy's note to his Dad in SS10 which (to our knowledge) Mr. Barrett never answers?
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starrynight
Sitting For The Kuhns
The Royal Diner of Pizza Express
Posts: 4,004
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Post by starrynight on Nov 30, 2010 14:13:18 GMT -5
I actually had a diary named Judy at one point, too. When I was nine, I had a Judy Blume Memory Book, so I wrote my diary entries in it to Judy. You can actually read it in its entirety here (it's not very long). Not all of it will make sense, but at least you can read about my BSC obsession at age nine! Finally got around to reading this...great stuff! This is my favorite quote: "All female bichon frisès would feel that way. Then again, how would you feel being the bird? My first diary, which I kept when I was about 11 to 13, was a Lisa Frank diary with two unicorns on the front. I named them Sprinkles and Rainbow and all my entries were letters to them. I should put it online....
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,254
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Post by oldhickory on Mar 2, 2011 0:27:26 GMT -5
i am currently rereading, but there are about a hundred things annoying me that didn't annoy me before.
1. mrs barrett is freaking out because apparently her part time job keeps her so busy that she doesn't have the time to be a good mother to buddy (which by itself is absurd) but on one occasion, mrs barrett is chilling at home and waves to mallory when she gets there. stupid. obviously i don't expect her to devote every spare second of her life to other people (she would go crazy), but she couldn't do a single tutoring session for herself? not one single session when she's already at home?
2. dawn wearing a straw hat. i'm sorry, i know she's an "individual" and all, but no self-respecting teenage california surfer girl would be caught dead wearing a straw hat, unless she's trying to make some sort of statement, which i don't buy (unless it's a lame statement.)
3. i wish they would have found out what sophie's last name is. they already know who her grandfather is. it can't be that hard to do the rest.
ugh. i'm sure i could come up with more, but i'm irritated. usually i love this book, but i'm just not feeling it this time around.
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Post by zoar3 on Mar 2, 2011 13:18:05 GMT -5
Oldhickory, I'll just agree with everything you said to save time and being a broken record. This book is one of my favorites, probably because it showed Mal as being someone of strength. I also liked her and Stacey hanging out. As I've said before I thought Buddy was awesome in this one and he and Charlotte should have teamed up to be the "next Frank Hardy and Nancy Drew."
I thought Mrs. Barrett was horrendous in this one. I thought it was great that she took time to spend with Marnie and Suzi. However, at that time, Buddy needed his mom more yet she basically ignored him. I also was so upset with her for yelling at him in general but also in front of Dawn, not cool at all. In thinking about it right now, Dawn really should have left at that moment or as she had originally offered, taking Suzi and Marnie outside--away from the scene.
Lol, maybe Dawn was aiming for being a "skinny rabbit"-like scarecrow?
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Post by candykane on Mar 2, 2011 13:38:11 GMT -5
I pictured Dawn's straw hat to look like the kind you buy at the craft store for dolls, the kind that have a flat, really wide round brim. So, not very cool-looking.
I also wish they'd taken the time to find out what Sophie's last name was. It definitely wouldn't have been hard to find out. A quick search at the Stoneybrook library probably would have yielded the answer.
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Post by zoar3 on Mar 2, 2011 17:28:06 GMT -5
^If they had maybe it would have been Mullray, connecting the two "legends." That was something I always wished had occurred.
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Post by booboobrewer on Mar 3, 2011 21:16:02 GMT -5
oldhickory, agreed about Mrs. Barrett. She acted like there was no way she could carve out any time at all to read with Buddy, and, really? If her job was part-time, surely she could have. candykane, I pictured the hat looking that way too. I had a little hat like that for one of my Barbie dolls, and I liked putting it on the dolls with long blonde hair...very Dawn-like
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Post by zoar3 on Mar 3, 2011 23:09:36 GMT -5
I just thought of a question about Mrs. Barrett's part time job. Do we ever find out what exactly she does? We know she stays home with Marnie in the morning and works some afternoons part time. My question is, in this book and I believe in others, Mrs. B will leave the kids in the hands of a BSC Member from like 3 or 3:30 until 6 when she says she'll be home. We don't know how far away she works but isn't that not very much time to get anything done? Just seems a bit odd. But then, a lot of the parents in Stoneybrook manage to do an awful lot of errands between 3:30-5 so this is more time.
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Post by BuckinghamAlice on Mar 13, 2011 6:38:22 GMT -5
I always rather liked this one. I do like Mallory, despite (or maybe even because of) her annoying whiny ways. This is one of my favorite of her books. Mallory didn't seem quite so whiny as usual.
I liked the stuff with Buddy. His mother annoyed me, as usual. Charlotte and Buddy's contributions to the mystery solving were great.
While I would have liked if they had figured out for sure that this Jared was Jared Mullray, that would have seemed a little too convenient. It would have been nice to know a last name though, even if it wasn't Mullray.
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Post by zoar3 on Mar 25, 2011 13:14:50 GMT -5
Poor Mallory, even when someone gives her a gift she can't win. I'm reading this again now and was taken aback by the back cover of the new version.
Doesn't that sound like "Dusty piece of junk, here, Mal, take it?" Not quite, that bad, perhaps, but the general idea!
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