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Post by greer on Jul 5, 2007 5:31:29 GMT -5
This is probably the only bsc book I have no recollection of. Any thoughts on it?
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magentanation
Sitter-In-Training
The girl with colitis goes by
Posts: 424
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Post by magentanation on Jul 5, 2007 10:36:04 GMT -5
Come to think of it, I don't really remember much about it either. Wasn't this the one about the feuding families thing? I know I own this, I'll have to re-read it now.
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Post by maddieruns on Jul 6, 2007 9:54:46 GMT -5
This used to be one of my favorite bsc mysteries when i was a kid... but it must be pretty forgetable, because i can't remember much about it either.
^but yeah, i think it had something to do with the feuding families, and clown paintings on the wall. i'll have to re-read this one.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jul 6, 2007 11:19:45 GMT -5
I thought the Livingstons were some of the weirdest clients the club has ever sat for (not the kids so much, but their moms/the sisters). I'm not sure why. They just seemed really detached and cold, but it had to do with the way they were raised, etc., and then there was all that drama with their father and his will. I thought it was a pretty uninteresting read overall.
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Post by aln1982 on Jul 6, 2007 16:29:17 GMT -5
^ I remember liking the Livingstons okay but agree that they were sort of strange and detached. I think this is what gave the book the storyline, though. I remember liking this one pretty well and plan to reread soon. It's one of my "summer" books ;D
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Jul 7, 2007 13:31:22 GMT -5
This one came after I stopped reading as a kid, so when I read it the first time I was kind of amused because of the random over-the-top moments, even within BSCness--all the decriptions of the mansion and the feuding and so forth. It's very soap opera. Also, I find there's something a tiny bit incestuous about Amy (the youngest sister) and the butler-in-disguise--I remember having basically figured it out and then being all, "huh, you could totally read that as if he's her secret Luv-ah!"
The subplot's pretty irritating though--oblivious and rude (and out-of-the-blue amazingly popular in Stoneybrook) Dawn, passive-aggressive and hypersensitive Mary Anne, v. 3,000,002.
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Post by aln1982 on Jul 7, 2007 16:04:19 GMT -5
^ What was the subplot in this one? I know it was something with Dawn and MA but can't remember what. Are there any other baby-sitting chapters that aren't related to the mystery?
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Jul 7, 2007 19:00:51 GMT -5
^Dawn keeps making plans to do stuff with Mary Anne, since she's about to leave for California again, but then she forgets and schedules stuff with other people at the same time. (I actually find this iteration of passive-aggressive, hypersensitive Mary Anne more understandable, because that would bug the hell out of me, but it is pretty much the way the two of them work every time Dawn goes to California!). Part of it's funny, though, because it mentions at least a couple of times that Dawn has to do stuff with her "other" SMS friends, and it's like, when did Dawn ever do anything with anyone not in the BSC? Then at the end they have a party for the kids, "Friends Day" and "Family Day" and Dawn learns a valuable lesson about not double-booking herself. Or something.
In one chapter, Mary Anne and Dawn take the Braddocks to the pool, but it's not really a baby-sitting focused chapter, it's more part of their fight. I don't remember if there are any others.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jul 8, 2007 1:28:10 GMT -5
Part of it's funny, though, because it mentions at least a couple of times that Dawn has to do stuff with her "other" SMS friends, and it's like, when did Dawn ever do anything with anyone not in the BSC? Hehe.
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magentanation
Sitter-In-Training
The girl with colitis goes by
Posts: 424
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Post by magentanation on Jul 8, 2007 9:48:25 GMT -5
^ Yeah, you would think the BSC would have completely disowned her and short sheeted her bed and hidden all her health food for daring to spend any time with someone who wasn't in the club.
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Post by greer on Jul 9, 2007 6:30:46 GMT -5
How is she undercover though? that's the real thing that confuses me.
Also, as far as I'm concerned, no children's book does the "let's turn the will into a game" better than the westing game. Nice try, ghostwriters.
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Post by aln1982 on Jul 9, 2007 9:49:39 GMT -5
^ I've always been confused about the title, too, and found it kind of funny because it sounds so dramatic - much more dramatic than the story ;D Actually, I never cared for the Westing Game and really liked this one better but I know almost everyone else really likes the Westing Game. Maybe it was too complicated for me ;D
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Post by booboobrewer on Jul 9, 2007 14:32:48 GMT -5
I was also gonna say that it reminded me a bit of The Westing Game but forgot. Yeah, love that book!
The Livingstons' lawyer (a friend of Richard's) finds out Dawn's a sitter for the family and suggests to her that she keep an eye out for clues to the inheritance when she's in the house--because the sisters need to solve a puzzle of some sort and they don't want to work together--so the lawyer tells Dawn by working undercover like that and also trying to bring their children together, she could help them all out.
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Post by greer on Jul 10, 2007 9:51:29 GMT -5
I am a big ellen raskin fan and have read a bunch of her other stuff and a lot of it is really heavy for children's books. Definitely not as... I dunno... Milquetoast (in a wonderful way of course as the bsc. I really wanted dawn to be a spy. Darn it. How are the kids in this book?
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Post by aln1982 on Jul 10, 2007 23:30:17 GMT -5
^ Also wanted to be a spy, greer ;D (not as a job, though - too dangerous. Just wanted to be able to spy on something good as a kid) Do the Livingstons ever show up again in another book? I don't remember that they lived in Stoneybrook but wasn't sure if they kept the house or sold it or what so it would have been kind of cool for them to at least come back for a visit or something and have the BSC sit for the kids again. I can't stand it when clients are only used in one mystery and never mentioned again.
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