Mallory and Claudia are helping Stacey unpack from her move back to Stoneybrook when they find an antique trunk in the McGills' attic. Stacey doesn't want the dusty thing, so she gives the trunk to Mallory... who finds an old diary in the bottom of it.
The diary once belonged to Sophie, a girl who lived in Stacey's house in the 1890s. As Mallory reads deep into Sophie's diary, she discovers a mystery. There may be ghosts that haunt Stacey's house!
The Baby-sitters have one big mystery on their hands to solve. Because Stacey's house isn't big enough for her, her mom... and a family of ghosts!
This one starts off with Mallory writing in her journal. She calls it a journal because it's her personal feelings and opinions, not just her day-to-day stuffs, which she says would be in a diary. Anyways, her mom interrupts her to send her to Stacey's: Mrs Pike has made a casserole to help with the move. Upon delivering the casserole to Stacey, Mallory discovers Stacey and Claudia packing up the empty boxes, and helps them move it to the attic. There, they discover all sorts of random things that had been left behind by previous tenants. It's super fun, and in the end, Mallory discovers an old antique trunk and decides to keep it.
Once at home, she and her siblings can't figure out how to open it. After agonizing it over a few days, Mallory eventually breaks and agrees to let the triplets break the locks. Inside the trunk, she finds all sorts of old clothes and things, which she gives to Vanessa. But at the bottom, she also finds an old diary. It belongs to a 12 year old girl named Sophie, and the diary is dated in 1894.
Mallory reads the diary and quickly learns of a mystery in Stacey's house! Sophie's father Jared, was not respected or well-liked in the community. Her grandfather, Grandfather Hickman, believed that Jared only married Sophie's mother for the money. Anyways, despite the fact that Sophie is twelve, and her mother is therefore well past her prime, Jared encourages her to get pregnant again, hoping for a son. Well, he gets the son he wants, but two days later, Sophie's mother dies from complications. Soon, a painting of the mother goes missing, and Grandfather Hickman blames Jared for it, calling him a thief and implying that he sold it for money. The diary ends with the mystery unsolved and Sophie claiming that no one's souls will rest unless the painting has been found and that Jared's name been cleared.
Mallory brings the mystery to the Club's attention, and they decide to try to solve it. The first thing they figure out is whether or not Grandfather Hickman is the same as Old Hickory, of the town's folklore. Turns out that he is, so that gives the girls some place to start. However, after much searching and research, they find themselves coming up empty handed. They decide to hold a seance to try to contact the spirits, but it turns out to be a bust.
The girls continue to puzzle over it while they baby-sit. Charlotte shares with Stacey a story, telling Stacey that sometimes things are not what they seem and that there might be a clue hiding right under their noses. Then Buddy Barrett comes over and takes a crack at reading the diary and searching the trunk. In his search, he gets his hand stuck in a hidden pocket. There, he finds a confession from Grandfather Hickman, confessing to having gotten the portrait painted over, because he couldn't stand the sight of his dead daughter, but didn't want her to be far away either. Mallory and Buddy run over to Stacey's house, and together they search for a painting that could potentially be the portrait. Eventually, they come up with one that has some paint chipping away.
Mrs McGill takes it to get restored and sure enough, it's the missing portrait! Stacey and her mom decide to hang it in their house, and everything ends all happy.
The subplot in this one is that Buddy is having a hard time reading at school. He's reading way below grade level, and Mrs Barrett just doesn't have time for him. So she hires Mallory as a tutor for him. At first, Mallory wants to do all the stuff his teacher gave him, and is super-serious. But eventually she realizes that she has to make reading fun for Buddy, and that it doesn't matter what he's reading, so long as he's reading. So she has him read comic books and Encyclopedia Brown novels. Eventually, Buddy's reading improves and he gets moved up in reading groups at school. He now loves reading and Mallory is totally proud of herself for a job well done.
Random Thoughts:
- Mallory is pretty whiny in the beginning of this one. She talks about how being 11 sucks, and how she feels like she'll be 11 forever. If she only knew... haha
- I'm kinda sad we don't see more of Stacey and Mallory forming a friendship. Living so close to each other, it would have been kind of cool.
- Reading about Mallory tutoring Buddy was super fascinating now that I'm a teacher. The struggle to get kids to read is real.
- I love how apparently Dawn and Mary Anne's parents have only been on 25 dates so far in their adult life. That's not that many. I've been dating my boyfriend for about a year now, and we've probably gone on more dates. Or less, depending on how you count them. We don't really go out so much anymore. He'll come to my house and we'll make dinner together, and then go and watch TV or watch a movie or play video games for the evening. Then he'll spend the night. Obviously Dawn and Mary Anne's parents aren't spending the night at each other's places. And they probably aren't having that many nights together in either. So yeah. 25 dates, even if they see each other once a week, is only 6 months. That's not that long. Especially considering Dawn's mom was definitely still dating The Trip-Man for awhile during that time. Yet the next regular book has them engaged!
- I'm with Mallory: I would totes have claimed that trunk for myself. It's funny, cuz as a child, I thought like Mallory too: omg don't damage the locks; okay, damage them just a bit so that it doesn't look horrible. Now as an adult, I'm like, "Whatevs... obviously try to minimize the damage, but then I'm totes taking it to get fixed. Hmmm... maybe a locksmith first??" haha
- I would kill for some antique clothes. I have no idea where or when I'd wear them, but it'd be fucking awesome haha
- I love that Grandfather Hickman and Old Man Hickory ended up being the same person, but I am also glad that it didn't turn out that Dawn's Jared was the same Jared. That would have been too much of a coincidence!
- I learned the word "pine" from reading this book as a child! haha
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