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Post by sugarmonkey on May 19, 2006 19:01:08 GMT -5
This book wasn't bad. I think it had too much going on. I would've preferred to go more in depth (in depth for a BSC book anyway) into one big mystery than cram several ones into one SS. Quite a coincidence that it all happened at one time. And right near Christmas. Maybe it was known that this would be the last SM and they crammed any remaining ideas into one final book?
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fluffy
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 180
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Post by fluffy on May 29, 2006 10:50:33 GMT -5
*Snerk*. I always found the mysteries very inflated and far-fetched for BSC books, but this one was truly stale. IMO, the ghostwriters went a bit too far trying to express their inner crime-novelist desires. It was also very disheartening to see Morbidda Destiny in her 'real person' form. And who is called Papademetricus or whatever the pregnant lady's name was? What a rip-off Christmas.
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ktag
Junior Sitter
Posts: 694
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Post by ktag on Jun 18, 2006 18:20:50 GMT -5
Ugh, pages and pages of Jessi's handwriting.
I thought the book was okay, though unrealistic as the mysteries usually are. The Cybil thing annoyed me. Call the d**n police when all that stuff is happening. And Carl the doorman helped? Beyond stupid. That girl could have seriously hurt them, and she basically gets off scot-free. She almost pushed Stacey into a train! Screw being nice and understanding of her "mental instability"!
Why do they always ignore the most obvious clues? Kristy mentioned "naughty and nice" herself in her notebook entry, but she doesn't think anything of getting a "nice" note in her mailbox? The neighborhood watch really didn't do anything.
Mary Anne looks weird on the cover. The "It's beginning to look a lot like...danger!" is my favorite tagline so far. It's so corny, it's funny.
I looked up Papademetriou, and apparently Lisa Papademetriou used to be an editorial assistant at Scholastic (she has a website). Wonder how many characters are real people.
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Post by lovelylemontree on Jun 20, 2006 1:23:49 GMT -5
I don't have this one, but that tagline alone convinces me that I must have it.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Jul 6, 2006 7:09:48 GMT -5
I love the party at Abby's house with the jelly doughnuts and latkes... Mmm, food. The mysteries were kind of lame, though My favourite mystery in this one was the pregnant lady one.
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Post by booboobrewer on Dec 9, 2006 17:37:48 GMT -5
'Tis the season for holiday themed BSC books and I re-read this one and am now on Snowbound...
"IMO, the ghostwriters went a bit too far trying to express their inner crime-novelist desires" That's a good way of putting it.
I liked Lisa/Mary the pregnant lady but I was wondering what Mal was doing when she first came across her on the sidewalk...Jessi comes up a second later and is like, well who is she? And Mal goes, "She keeps asking where she is." Lisa asks Jessi "Do YOU know where I am?" Uh, was Mallory just staring at the woman and saying nothing?
When I read that part about how Carl helped her with her "pranks" because he thought it was between her and Ethan I was like whaa? That just didn't seem right. All those complaints from Stacey and Claudia didn't mean anything to him? Stupid Carl.
And of course the psycho girlfriend's name was Cybil...wasn't there a movie about a character with that name who had multiple personalities?
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Dec 9, 2006 22:33:06 GMT -5
The book and movie about the woman with multiple personalities were called Sybil with an "S", but yeah, it's still kind of lame to name the psycho girlfriend Cybil.
I agree with the people who think this book had too many plotlines going on. It might have been improved by taking the Cybil mystery out.
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Post by booboobrewer on Dec 12, 2006 0:58:54 GMT -5
Ah yes, I had a feeling it was with an "S".
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gabbie
New To Stoneybrook
Posts: 144
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Post by gabbie on Dec 14, 2006 16:15:16 GMT -5
So I just finished that one. Seriously Carl the doorman should be fired. That is some weird behavior. Also Ethan should have just told Stacey that he knew someone in the building.
Is this the only time church is mentioned in a BSC book? All of a sudden all the kids are in a nativity play. Huh? Nothing wrong with nativity plays but it seems kind of random.
There did seem to be too many mysteries though.
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Post by spazgirl on Dec 16, 2006 10:13:41 GMT -5
The Mr. Nixon "naughty/nice" thing was resolved too quick. Like how did Dawn just figure it out by seeing a rake? Although I could tell once Abby and Kristy started talking offhandedly about the gardening service in the area. But seriously, the Stoneybrook police sucks.
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Jan 4, 2007 22:13:36 GMT -5
Why were all those people in Kristy's neighborhood firing their gardener in December? I don't know that much about gardening, but I would think that even (gasp) millionaires can't do that much landscaping in the snow. My parents have a landscaper, and I guess it seems weird to me that my mom would decide in December, when we usually have a couple inches of snow (except now, when we've mostly had rain), to switch to a different guy.
I liked the pregnant lady story best, too--although I kind of doubt that most women, when they were eight months pregnant, would think, "Hey, you know what would be fun! Traveling cross-country by train!" I mean, there's a reason the planes won't fly you after a certain date. Of course, this is BSC-land, where Mrs. Pike got pregnant within three months of having triplets, so it's obvious this isn't a real fine point to the writers.
Carl is a super-incompetent doorman, and Cybil is super-crazy. I feel like her name--Sybil with a "C" was one of those in jokes Ann and Co. seem to find funny, but are generally just totally off for the intended audience and not that funny anyway.
And yeah, I think this is the only time the BSC shows anyone *involved* in a church activity. In the very beginning of the series (Mary Anne Saves the Day), Richard says grace and Mary Anne says she "blesses her mother" when she goes to sleep at night; I think she also mentions that they go--not very often--to the Presybyterian church where Richard and Sharon get married. I also think in "Happy Holidays, Jessi," she might say she knows the other African-American families from church, in which case you might wonder why Becca isn't participating in a pageant at the church the Ramseys regularly (?) attend. Also, I have the feeling that in BSC-land, especially one written by Peter Legrangis, ALL black people who go to church sing lots of gospel (with lots of clapping and "amens!) and the ladies wear really fancy hats (and they probably have to be AME, too). (Do I have to say "not that there's anything wrong with that?" I hope not--I've been to services like that and they're awesome (in all senses) and was made very welcome, despite the fact that I'm so white I sunburn if I say the word "Florida" three times fast. I just meant that in the real, non-diversity slotted world, there are, of course, African-American Catholics and Lutherans and Unitarians and Jews and Muslims, too. Hmm. If the BSC were still being published today, would there be a Muslim member now? Although I'm not sure there was ever a prominent Latina/o character, for that matter--a few of the teachers, I think, had names that sound like they could possibly signify that (Ms. Gonzalez and Ms. Martinez and her kids, but no one else comes to mind).
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Post by greer on Jan 10, 2007 20:30:19 GMT -5
i actually liked the cybil mystery the best.
as for latinos/latinas in the bsc--Amalia from the california diaries is the only truly prominent latina character i can think of.
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magentanation
Sitter-In-Training
The girl with colitis goes by
Posts: 424
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Post by magentanation on May 8, 2007 16:27:30 GMT -5
Just got this one in the mail from Amazon and read it for the first time ever. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. I hated the Cybil storyline. I mean, come on. How freaking stupid is Carl? I should think at the very least after the Stuck In The Elevator incident he would be less inclined to go along with Cybil's little schemes. And I don't know about you, but if I were the Papadakis's or the Hsu's I sure as hell wouldn't want a half dozen extra teenagers running around my house while the police are trying to investigate. If they really wanted to "donate their babysitting services" that badly I would have them take the kids to Kristy's house. ;D Oh, and the part where Mary Anne was like "Do cell phones work without electricity?" made me giggle like a schoolgirl.
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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 May 8, 2007 16:50:34 GMT -5
I KNOW I've read this one, but nothing about it really stuck out in my mind. It must not have been very memorable (it sounds like that's the case), because SS's and SM's usually DO stick out!
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msstock87
Sitting For The Braddocks
Here Comes The Bride!
Created by Rie.
Posts: 3,618
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Post by msstock87 on May 8, 2007 17:33:53 GMT -5
I liked the pregnant women story best in this one as well. For some reason, the cybil storyline bothered me a bit. I think it is because of the possible reference to Sybil.
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