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2024 Nostalgia Re-readathon | BSC Super Mystery #1: Baby-sitters' Haunted House

Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn are off to Maine to help take care of Karen and Andrew and the four Menders kinds, whose parents stand to inherit the huge seaside house where the whole group will be staying.
The Baby-sitters have seen some spooky houses before, but nothing half as scary as this place: screams in the night, mysterious light from a locked attic, a ghostly figure in white...How can the BSC take care of six kids for ten days, when they aren't sure they'll survive even one night?
This is our first year to incorporate BSC books into our nostalgia re-readathon, and this one was my pick. I remember that it held up pretty well to re-reads, and that was my experience again this time. IIRC, Jeanne Betancourt wrote quite a few of the Mystery line, so it was great to have a strong ghostie for the first Super Mystery.
Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn finagle a two-week trip to Reese, Maine to baby-sit for Karen and Andrew and family friends of theirs, the Menders. (This is mid-late canon, while Stacey was estranged from the club during the "Bad Girls" saga.) The Menders have inherited a huge mansion in the seaside town, but can only have it if they agree to live there full time. Seth and Lisa, Karen and Andrew's parents, are along to assist them with setting up their family business. Only two of the Menders kids fall into the category of baby-sitting charges, but the parents decide that bringing along 4 teenage girls is worth not having to pay them for the job. I'm a little surprised Kristy went for this, especially considering she was giving such a big push to the club to gobble up the early summer baby-sitting jobs in Stoneybrook, but I guess a two-week trip to coastal Maine was worth it, even to her.
The group arrives to find a caretaker couple, the Coopers, already in place. The Menders kids are extremely resistant to moving to small-town Reese from Boston, and the BSC is charged with assisting them to acclimate. The kids get a say in whether the family will move, and it will be so much easier if they agree!
As for the Menders:
[+] one of the kids, Jill, immediately glues herself to Dawn's side
[+] Lionel, the oldest, is so busy trying to become ~an actor~ that he basically spends his time annoying everybody
[+] Jason is a bit reticent but willing to make friends with the locals
[+] Martha, the youngest and painfully shy, has the worst fate of them all: Karen Brewer has decided to make it her life's mission to make Martha the Most Popular New Kid in Reese
(Poor Martha, seriously. Karen is completely obnoxious AND gets her own narration chapter *shudder*)
From the first night of the group's arrival, spooky things are happening in the house. First, it's just a flickering candle in the hallway at night, but things ramp up with a light blinks on and off on the fourth floor (the door to which is firmly locked), noises are heard in the walls, and a ghostly apparition appears on the widow's walk. Combined with the stories told to the group by the Coopers about the tragic fates of the various Randolph family members, everyone is thoroughly creeped out.
Lionel fesses up fairly quickly to being the candle-wielder in the hallway, but the rest is still a mystery. The girls decide to play detective, and have firmly in their sights the former caretakers' grandson, Giorgio, a handsome 18-year-old who shows immediate interest in Claudia. Actually, he kinda creeps on all of them, but most of the overtures are definitely aimed at Claud. He thinks she's sixteen, and she doesn't correct him, but still. I know Claud is supposed to be sophisticated and all, but up close, youth will tell. So Giorgio, who seems to be following them around and warns them not to go to the fourth floor of the mansion, seems like a good suspect for the 'hauntings.'
The BSC splits their time between caring for their charges and trying to help the Menders find footing in Reese, and trying to solve the mystery of the mansion. It's all fairly believable (even Claudia drawing mustaches on photocopies of the Randolph family ancestors), but also kinda obvious who the culprit is. (It's the Coopers, of course, who are trying to scare the Menders family away. Elton Cooper is actually Charles Randolph, cousin to Mr Menders and rival for his inheritance. The BSC finds some of their plans for further escalation and they've planned some serious shit, up to and including setting Martha's room on fire.) I hate that the adults are all completely clueless until the BSC clues them in with all the evidence they collect. And the villains more or less get away with it.
In the suplot, Mallory and Jessi are running the club in the older girls' absence, and fear they have ruined everything when they botch up some baby-sitting appointments and have to turn away jobs due to lack of sitters. Soon, none of their usual clients are calling. Oh noes! But considering it's summer vacation, it's no big surprise that the calls have trickled to a stop because everyone's going on vacation. The two manage to convince Janine to take a night job, and the chapter that Logan narrates when Mallory runs him down at the Rosebud Cafe in order to make sure he arrives on time for a baby-sitting job that he didn't even know he had is pretty funny.
The subplot wraps up with Mal and Jessi gathering up about 15 regular clients and putting them in the "Celebrate America" parade. They decided to do a little BSC advertising (guilty consciousness for turning down jobs?), so got the charges to decorate their bikes and skateboards in patriotic colors. They convince Sam Thomas, riding a unicycle, to carry their sign "BSC on Wheels" at the front, and a thank you sign at the end. So, all's well that ends well in Stoneybrook, too.
So, I knocked off a star for being Stacey-less, and for having a Karen-narrated chapter (I just cannot with her). I was also a bit surprised at how badly Andrew was written. He had an extremely short narrative chapter as well, and I would've pegged him to be about 2 instead of 4. Though I suppose growing up with an older sister like Karen means you wouldn't get too many words in edgewise, LOL.
Hopefully we will have more BSC books in future nostalgia re-readathons. It was an especially nice palate cleanser after the last book of WTFery!
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Well, that and the Ten Step Plan that mentions fucking arson being left lying around, even if it was in their room. What kind of cartoon villain writes that shit out? Oh, and Dawn not mentioning the accent until much, much later. Yes, the woman can speak, but it only takes another second or two to add "with an accent!" DAWN.
I lied. Jill sticking to Dawn like glue (and the completely believable but also painfully palpable "ugh" that followed every mention thereafter) and Karen's whole... deal were also not fun. Mal and Jessi thinking they killed the club when they were the only people left actually in town and trying to take jobs (Shannon, your disrespect shall not be forgiven today) both killed and amused me, depending on the time of day.
Sam on a freakin' unicycle, however, erased most of those sins. Because of course he'd be on a friggin' unicycle. OF COURSE HE WOULD. Sorry, it's a very cap heavy day.
I would love to spend two weeks at a seaside mansion in Maine, complete with well timed theatrical but not terribly dangerous storm, even if that means I have to be haunted by weirdos or possibly even real ghosts. Let's make it happen. We can both go, it'll be fab.
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LMAO, yes, I had the same thoughts when reading Georgio's weird attachment to Claudia. TBF Stacey is the one that usually attracts those boys who think she's older, and movie!Stacey was probably in her twenties IRL, but yes. If I can ever get my gif program to work on this computer, I'll do it!
Like... my good dude, if you can't tell that Claudia is thirteen, you're gonna end up on a list and deserve that spot.
Sooooo right *shudder*
the Ten Step Plan that mentions fucking arson being left lying around, even if it was in their room. What kind of cartoon villain writes that shit out?
AND LEAVES IT FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE AFTER FLEEING THE SCENES OF THEIR CRIMES. That *was* a little much, even for the Scooby Doo team that the BSC usually is in the mystery stories.
Karen's whole... deal were also not fun
And everyone brushing it off because "she's so precocious!" like OMG STOP, you can totally dislike her, she is the most obnoxious sitting charge in the book, IDK if she is Kristy's stepsister. I seriously cannot with the continual passes that Karen receives for her behavior.
Shannon, your disrespect shall not be forgiven today
Yeah, that was some serious WTFery. If you didn't want to come to the meetings, don't come, sheesh! Logan doesn't come to the meetings.
Sam ♥ ♥ ♥ here he comes to save the say! LOL.
I would love to spend two weeks at a seaside mansion in Maine, complete with well timed theatrical but not terribly dangerous storm, even if that means I have to be haunted by weirdos or possibly even real ghosts. Let's make it happen. We can both go, it'll be fab.
I'm in!
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Which is why we need his freakout in easily accessible form. I shall throw you a parade if you can get your gif program to work and make it happen. :D If not, we'll console ourselves at our seaside retreat.
I kinda appreciate that the BSC cycles through characters who chase after older dudes and are seen as older than they are, but having Georgio actually in college and unable to clock a 13 year old, who he sees interacting with actual children and three other girls her own age, is weird as hell. There's just such a world of difference between 13/16/18. The BSC really was here setting up weird age gaps as being fine for a fling and uh, no, 13/18 is not okay. I do wonder what kind of tailspin Georgio went into when he got that letter.
Did they leave it out when they left, or was it just while they were out doing whatever they were doing on their day off? In either case, leaving or having it at all was just super dumb. I know we needed hard evidence they were eViL but dude, no one who thinks to have half the duo not speak due to an accent is gonna just leave such incriminating paperwork around. Oi.
I refuse to believe that Martha wanted to invite Karen back. Her visibly cringing from everything Karen was up to was the most relatable thing ever, and this is coming from someone who has softened towards Karen a little after the graphic novels. Seriously, Martha would not willingly invite that back into her life after finally being free.
When I read the Sam bit, I immediately thought I know someone's gonna be happy! right before realizing it said unicyle and thinking about how that absolutely tracks.
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Did they leave it out when they left, or was it just while they were out doing whatever they were doing on their day off?
IIRC, the BSC found the note when they went searching through the rooms after the Coopers left, but before anyone had realized they'd left. And honestly, even though the book is like 5 feet away from me, I'm not going to look it up, LOL.
I refuse to believe that Martha wanted to invite Karen back. Her visibly cringing from everything Karen was up to was the most relatable thing ever, and this is coming from someone who has softened towards Karen a little after the graphic novels. Seriously, Martha would not willingly invite that back into her life after finally being free.
My vote is that Martha quietly "forgets" to invite Karen to everything and does her best to remove every trace of this terrible summer vacation from her memory.
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*cackles* I also asked that question when I had the book within arm's reach and still didn't look it up. Now the book is allllllllllll the way upstairs and I am too lazy to go look. Might look it up when I go back upstairs, or I might let this one remain... unsolved.
Ah, Martha. Soon Karen will be nothing but a vague nightmare you wake from, unsettled but unable to recall anything important. Freedom! Unless, of course, Lionel decides to perfect his Karen impression.