Author: Ann M. Martin
Genre: Juvenile / Nostalgia / Mystery
Status: Read
Cats?: Yes, there's a cat named Mouse!
KitKat Says:
It's not often that I get to read the first book in a series that features characters I remember fondly from kittenhood, but here we have one with The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #1: Stacey and the Missing Ring.
It's been ages since I've read a Baby-Sitters Club book, but I loved this series as a kitten. So when this mystery crossed our desk, you better believe I got my paws on it right away. I couldn't wait to dive right in!
Reading this book really took me back. It begins with three chapters of reminding you who all the characters are: the girls in the club, their families, their clients. This takes a while, but kids like repetition, and this is juvenile fiction, after all.
Then we get into the juicy stuff: the babysitting. No, I'm kidding. THE MYSTERY. As you've probably guessed from the title, this mystery involves 13-year-old Stacey and a missing diamond ring.
See, diamond is Stacey's birthstone and she's been begging her mom for a (diamond) birthstone ring. Mother and daughter have an argument about it, and Stacey tells all her friends. As luck would have it, she babysits for a fancy new client and, sure enough, that client's diamond ring goes missing. Stacey is blamed. No, it's worse than that. Stacey is accused of stealing. And when she won't confess, the client threatens to tell all The Baby-Sitters Club's clients she's a thief.I really felt for Stacey, when she was accused of a crime she didn't commit. It's hard enough for that to happen to you as a grown-up, but when you're thirteen, the trouble is compounded by the fact that you're a kid and nobody believes you. She has no way of proving she didn't steal the ring, and even her best friend seems to think she's guilty.
Nobody, cat or kitten, would want to find themselves in Stacey's predicament.
But Stacey comes up with a clever way to solve the problem. That, paired with a bit of luck, leads her to the solution.
Is there a lot of investigation in this book? No. Does it include all the components you expect to find in your typical mystery? No. There's no questioning suspects or anything along those lines, but there are enough red herrings that I thought I had this mystery tied up and I was wrong, wrong, wrong. But I don't mind being wrong. The ending surprised me and put a little smile on my face.
The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #1: Stacey and the Missing Ring took me on a trip down memory lane. I would recommend it to people who are currently thirteen years old, as well as grown-ups who read these books when they were young. If you're as much of a sucker for nostalgia as I am, you're sure to enjoy it!
Find Stacey and the Missing Ring at Amazon
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