Cover Art:
My copy of the original cover has a price sticker right over Claudia’s face. Thanks for that, Seller. Her sweater is absolutely hideous (although, on Claudia, it looks fabulous!). And the child (Nina Marshall?) she is holding is huge.
The new cover is pretty good too. I like Claud’s outfit better. The child still looks weird – almost like a dwarf, which isn’t a bad thing if you ARE a dwarf…
Have I mentioned that I was excited about the new covers? I don’t really like that they changed the main picture, but I do like the pictures of the girls down the side and that each girl has a certain theme to their book. I miss the back cover, though. I liked that it had each girls’ name and their job title listed.
Anyway, onto the first unofficial mystery of the BSC!
Plot:
Claudia starts us out telling us she has a thing for “the most gorgeous boy in the entire seventh grade,” Trevor Sandbourne. She professes that she’s IN LOVE. I wonder how closet hat is to being in “LUV?” This is convenient timing because the Halloween Hop is just weeks away.
Cut to ‘Phantom Caller on Rampage in Mercer.” Oh no! Mercer is only 20 miles from Stoneybrook! This Phantom calls random houses and hands up if someone answers. The Phantom breaks in and robs the home if no one answers. The girls worry that the Phantom is going to get them while they’re babysitting.
This terrifies them throughout the entire plot and they never think that THEY’RE ANSWERING THE PHONE, so the Phantom knows someone is home. Oh – but then they start worrying that the house could get robbed by anyone. Thus, the creation of their signal: “Have you found my red ribbon?” The person they call says, “No, the blue one.” Why not just say “no?” Then the called can either say, “Now I’m in for it” if there’s trouble or “that’s okay” if there’s no trouble. Sheesh girls! Of course, they can’t remember these simple lines, so Ms. President of the World Kristy Thomas has them study it during their free time… and then they still can’t get it right.
OK guys, let’s practice. I say, “Have you found my red ribbon?” Now you – “No, the blue one.”
Ding, ding, ding!
The entire book has the girls in “scary” situation at different jobs. All leading up to…
Claudia and Kristy are sitting for the Newton/Feldmans and someone is lurking outside the Newton’s house. Any guess on who it might be? The Phantom Caller or a pervy teenage boy? If you guess pervy teenage boy, you’re right! Alan Gray has been calling houses when he knows Kristy’s there so he could ask her to the dance. He kept losing his nerve and hanging up. He finally asks her to the dance and Kristy accepts.
Trevor later calls Claudia and admits that he was just too shy to ask her sooner, but wants to know if she would go to the Halloween Hop with him. Claudia accepts and all is well in BSC land again!
And to everyone’s relief, the Phantom Caller was caught in the last chapter. Phew!
Bullet-Point Worthy Items!!!:
- Stacey whines that she doesn’t have many friends. Don’t worry Stace. By about your 4th trip through 8th grade, you’ll have plenty of friends. Really good ones – ones who drink, steal, and get you in all sorts of fun trouble.
- Aww, they want to rent a movie for Stacey’s VCR. Um, what’s a VCR?? ;)
- The first (of many) Emergency Meeting of the Babysitters Club happens in this book!
- I have to agree with Claudia that the Shillaber twins are too old to dress alike. I don’t like when people dress toddlers alike, much less 12 year olds.
- Claudia refers to the Phantom Caller as “PC.” I’m impressed that she knows to spell “phantom” with a “P” because she later spells “pharaoh” with an “F.”
- Why did Trevor call Claudia when she was babysitting (he and Alan got the numbers from the record book) when her number is plastered all over town on the BSC fliers? KL5-2321
- Kristy can’t believe Watson will be her stepfather next year – sorry Kristy. It’s happening sooner than you think and you’ll freak out about it in just a few books.
- Karen wasn’t much of a brat during Kristy’s babysitting job, but she was super annoying. Enough with the witch hunt!!!
- Mary Anne sets alarms at the Thomas house, but can’t manage to shut and lock the doors correctly. The wind blows open the front door, and Louie opens the back door because he knows how to get it open if it’s not latched right. I think she deserves to be robbed.
- Claudia accepts a job from Mr. Willis and she has sat at his house before. I guess Ann hated that family because we never hear anything else about them. We also missed reading Claud’s terribly written account of the job in the record book.
- Hahaha – Claud drops her lunch in Trevor’s lap. Ten bucks says that if it was Stacey, she would have offered to wipe it up.
- Claudia and Kristy sit for Jamie Newton and the Feldmans. Kristy tells Rob, “One false move and I’ll punch your lights out.” Good technique, Kristy.
Outfits:
Claudia: “I’m wearing purple pants that stop just below my knees and are held up with suspenders, white tights with clocks on them, a purple plaid shirt with a matching hat, my high-top sneakers, and lobster earrings.”
I think Claude is way prettier in the old cover. As far as the child being huge, keep in mind 12 year old girls still have some growing left to do sometimes. Although Claudias head might be a little small for the rest of the picture.
ReplyDeleteI do like that Claudia actually looks 12 on the old cover!
ReplyDeleteI think the reason for the child being huge was because i heard from a couple of friends that the girl who modeled that girl in the claudia book 2 is named kristen dunst (the one who would later star in the spiderman movies)
ReplyDeleteit kinda explains it all. I agree with claudia that the twins are much too old to dress alike. Good thing abby and anna doesn't dress alike later on in the series.
i thought it was also pretty stupid that trevor would call claudia from a babysitters club job and not bother to look at all the fliers that the bsc would post all over town, much less even look up from a telephone book.
i liked how Kristy and alan do go to the dance together in the end, along with pete and stacey, and claudia and trevor, and how kristy reacts to alan's confession that he liked her "gee alan that's all, of course i'll go to the dance with you.
I like this book and one of my favorites so far from the original books.
That is one giant baby.
ReplyDelete