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Post by virgoscorpio on Feb 22, 2012 0:48:40 GMT -5
I LOVED this book. I have really strong memories of reading it while listening to the Alanis Morisette Jagged Little Pill CD (pretty deep for a kid in Grade 5)! I feel this plot is a bit more realistic -- for the scary bits -- than most. Alanis Morisette improves everything by like 76%. Also, Mary Anne and Cary are a great pairing. I actually like Cary quite a bit... he reminds of someone I know, but I can't put my finger on who... Bwahaha. Your exact measurement of 76% made me laugh. But seriously, this mystery is probably one of my favourites purely for nostalgic reasons alone. *And* I always thought Mary Anne looked killer on the cover (and I liked her outfit too, at the time, especially the pants). Also, BuckinghamAlice, I get what you mean with the Cary thing. Maybe that's the beauty in him. He reminds us of someone we know.
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celaeno
Sitting For The Papadakis's
I have to share a room with Vanessa
Posts: 1,514
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Post by celaeno on Feb 4, 2013 9:30:59 GMT -5
I agree with everyone that said Amalia seemed really cute. It seems to me like the BSC sat for kids of every age, but very few 3-year-olds (2-and-a-half-year-olds are still 2!). Y/N?
It was also lovely to get a book with no subplot, which makes the story seem much more tight.
The bad guy in this book was such a stereotypical, Scooby-Doo-type villain. An evil land developer, and his name is actually "Reginald" - I'm surprised he wasn't wearing a monocle while stroking a white cat and laughing evilly. And, of course, he puts his full, evil, "How I Am Going To Destroy Stoneybrook" plans in writing, signs his name to it, then, *of course*, accidentally drops them in the old mill, where they're found by a kid. And then delivers a really poorly written exposition at the end explaining the motives behind his evil plan.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,257
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Post by oldhickory on Feb 5, 2013 12:33:11 GMT -5
haha. when you put it like that, he really deserved to get caught.
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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 Feb 10, 2013 15:28:38 GMT -5
Jamie Newton was three when the series first began and I think there were three year olds involved when the BSC took care of the group of kids in #6, but I'm having trouble coming up with any others!
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Post by virgoscorpio on Feb 10, 2013 23:53:31 GMT -5
^ Wasn't Andrew three-going-on-four when the series began and then he graduated to four-going-on-five?
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celaeno
Sitting For The Papadakis's
I have to share a room with Vanessa
Posts: 1,514
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Post by celaeno on Feb 11, 2013 0:17:05 GMT -5
^Yeah, but I wasn't really counting the ages when the sitters were 12 - since that only lasted for, what, like 4% of the series? This book didn't really have much closure at the end. I thought we would find out if the Martinezes got another sitter - it's not like the BSC would continue sitting for them regularly. Also, we didn't get much closure about Samuel. Even though he was breaking the law, he had the same motives as the BSC to save the park, so I thought the BSC would have at been like "Gee, it sure sucks that he's going to jail."
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Post by virgoscorpio on Feb 11, 2013 0:23:02 GMT -5
^ I wish the Martinezez became regular clients. I really would have loved hearing more about them. Both kids were extremely cute.
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andrew
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 353
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Post by andrew on Oct 8, 2016 9:17:34 GMT -5
To me this was pretty boring (aside from the arrest) with the club members and seemingly their parents all agreeing among themselves against the development (I would think Richard and maybe Watson would be at least ambivalent if not support it). It was obvious for a while that the witness had somehow had a bad baby-sitter and yet he still mostly trusted the club members. I also really didn't get how the bad guy's twin brother thought hurting the club members/protesters' reputations would somehow stop his brother from succeeding in his plans.
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Post by morbiddadestiny on Apr 19, 2022 18:31:59 GMT -5
it was nice to see a 3 year old who actually acted like a 3 year old and wasn't constantly carrying on full conversations. amalia was adorable.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,257
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Post by oldhickory on Jun 14, 2022 10:32:01 GMT -5
I lost power yesterday so I decided to read this one. I found it at a thrift store awhile ago.
- Everyone says Amalia is cute, but she sounds gross. There were multiple mentions of wet kissing and wet whispering right in the ear. Ugh.
- The antagonist couldn't be more cartoony if he tried. Calaeno had it right 9 years ago. He puts Scooby Doo villains to shame.
- The day the plans to develop the park are announced in the paper, the club spends the entire walk to school discussing only that. Really? Seven middle schoolers all read the morning paper? Mary Anne was running late for school on the same day. I don't believe at all that everyone had time to read the paper.
- Tons of parentheses. The first chapter has 18 in the first 7 pages and only slows down when the dialogue kicks in. Chapter 2 has 13.
- The resolution was way too easy. The nail in the coffin for the development is Luke's discovery of the villain's master plan, which he conveniently signed and misplaced. The bad guy immediately admits it's his and stomps out of the auditorium in defeat. Why didn't he say it wasn't his? That was their only evidence! He could have won the whole argument if he just shut up. The group of kids ragging on him in the paper happen to spend everyday with the boy who "allegedly" found the plans - it would be so easy to call it a frame up and take the wind out of their sails.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 14, 2022 19:05:19 GMT -5
Hahaha. I remember that about Amalia, how disgusting. She is really cute on the cover though.
Agreed about the paper. And if they didn’t read it themselves, they heard a relative in the house talking about it, which also seems unrealistic.
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livvy
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 394
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Post by livvy on Jul 19, 2022 2:52:57 GMT -5
I laughed when Mary Anne calls herself a vegetarian. A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat meat or diary products and you use skim milk in your cereal. And you eat meat so she's hardly a vegetarian!!
This one was kind of dull.
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Jul 25, 2022 11:54:25 GMT -5
I laughed when Mary Anne calls herself a vegetarian. A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat meat or diary products and you use skim milk in your cereal. And you eat meat so she's hardly a vegetarian!! This one was kind of dull. When did Mary Anne call herself a vegetarian? I thought it was vegans that didn’t have dairy products but vegetarians can.
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