BSC #9: The Ghost at Dawn's House

Front Cover: Creaky stairs, spooky noises, secret passages - it must be a ghost!

Back Cover: Dawn has always thought there was a secret passage hidden in her house. But she never thought there was a ghost... until now. All kinds of creepy things go on whenever Dawn's at home. There are even spooky noises behind her bedroom wall!

Dawn is sure there's a ghost in her house. And so are the other Baby-sitters. But they're so busy with their baby-sitting jobs that they hardly have time for a ghost hunt. Will Dawn and her friends ever solve the mystery, or will Dawn have to share her house... with a ghost?

It's the last two weeks of summer, and the girls are all reunited after their adventures in the last book. Dawn is back from her vacation in California, and she decides that now is the perfect time for her to really dedicate herself to the search for a secret passage in their old farmhouse. We're treated to several chapters of Dawn scaring herself silly, between the search, reading ghost stories, and the stormy weather.

But then one day, when trying to find a place to read in the barn, Dawn stumbles upon a hidden trap door. Following the passageway, Dawn finds that it leads straight to her own bedroom! She's excited, and continues to explore it periodically. However, Dawn starts to notice things: things start to show up and then disappear in the passageway. But if Dawn is the only who knows about the passage, how is this happening? The only thing Dawn can think of is this: her house must be haunted!

The subplot in this book is actually connected to the main plot: over at the Pikes, Nicky is feeling left out, because the triplets always want to hang out together and their own friends, leaving Nicky alone with all the girls. Mr and Mrs Pike decide to let Nicky assert his independence by letting him wander around the neighbourhood alone, so long as he adheres to a 2-block radius. Despite Nicky insisting that he does, Dawn can never find him whenever she sits for the Pikes and goes out looking for him (after the events of Buddy from book 5, she suitably sensitive about this). Eventually though, Dawn realizes that her own house is within a 2-block radius and concludes that Nicky must be using her passage. Sure enough, he has been. She says he can continue to do so, and everything ends well. However, Dawn still isn't entirely convinced that her house isn't haunted.

Another thing to note in this book is that we meet the Perkinses for the first time. They moved into Kristy's old house, next to Mary Anne.

Random Thoughts:

• I have always loved Dawn on the cover of this. I love her outfit (I would totes wear something like that; back then AND now!) and I just think she looks super pretty and realistic. The cover also reminds me of the mystery/horror novels I used to read as a child, specifically Betty Ren Wright's The Dollhouse Murders.
• ...yes, I admit it: I just Googled the book Dawn is reading at the beginning Ghosts and Spooks, Chills and Thrills: Stories NOT to Be Read After Dark. It sounded good! I was hoping it'd be real haha it's exactly the kind of book I would have read at her age.
• I always imagined Dawn to be one of the taller girls, but either AMM has no concept of height, or Mary Anne and Kristy are MIDGETS, and Dawn is just as short as them: "Although I'd only fallen about five feet, it felt like five thousand. I was in darkness, but above me I could see a square of light". By grade 8, I was 5'2", and I pretty much stopped growing at that point (only gained a cumulative inch over the next 3 years, so I settled in at 5'3"). In grade 8, I was average height for the girls. There were a few girls a few inches taller than me, and a few girls a few inches shorter than me. But I don't recall anyone being much shorter than 4'11.
• I love Dawn's description of "Disneyland Daddy". It's so perfect: "...a guy who hasn't seen his kinds in months and feels really guilty. Guilty enough to take time off from work and give them a whirlwind vacation of beaches, amusement parks, shopping, dinners in restaurants, movies, treats, surprises... It was spectacular - except for the fact that a Disneyland Daddy doesn't feel like your father anymore. But I guess he's better than no father at all."
• I love the Perkinses. I think they're my favourite of the kids' charges. They are so not realistic kids at all, but they're adorable and I love them.
• We're also introduced to the Trip-Man in this book. While I don't entirely find it weird that Sharon is dating someone other than Richard (especially since the Trip-Man is the son of her parents' friends), I do find the overall timeline of everything to be weird. She essentially dates him off and on up until like, 6 months before finally marrying Richard. Maybe adult relationships are different, especially when it's a second marriage to a guy you already dated/knew for a long time earlier in your life, but it just seems sudden to me.
• I have always pronounced Myriah Perkins's name like Mariah Carey's. It has never occurred to me to pronounce it any other way. But in the past few years, through discovering fandom and what not, it came to my attention that it could theoretically be pronounced like "Maria" (think West Side Story and Sound of Music).

[Although I read and reviewed one of the original copies of this book, I currently also own one of the updated copies, with the Notebook Pages in the back.]

Author's Note

AMM talks about how as a child, she was obsessed with finding a secret passage in her house (even though it was a new house at the time!) and how she loved ghost stories. She decided to give these traits to one of her characters, and thus Dawn was born. AMM figures that her readers would love reading about things that interest her as a little girl. Again, we get a mention of how much she loved Nancy Drew and mysteries.

Notebook Pages


Dawn's new house is big and spooky. The spookiest place I've ever been is the old jail in Ottawa, Canada, that's now a hostel

It gave me the creeps because even though the lower half has been renovated to be a hostel, the upper half is still creepy as fuck, with the original jail cells and deathrow on display

The spookiest thing that ever happened to me was when I first moved into my house. I lived alone, and it was my first time not living with my parents. The house made all sorts of weird sounds, but the scariest thing was when I heard a crashing sound in my backyard. I woke up the next morning to find a giant weathered wood plank in my backyard. I have no idea where it came from

When this happened, I did nothing haha I just told myself that the plank must have always been there, that the wind just knocked it around, that everything was normal

One person who really scares me is Chuckie

This person scares me because he seems completely normal, wears button up shirts, mild-mannered and polite... but then every now and then... when you least expect it... he'll say something very disturbing or very not accepted by society... and he'll say it in a totally nonchalant, matter-of-fact tone, and then carry on like he hadn't said anything weird.

If I wanted to scare this person back, I would do nothing; I don't think Chuckie is scarable haha  

Dawn likes to read scary books. The scariest book I ever read was I don't know if they were the scariest books I've ever read, but Michael Grant's Gone series has always stuck with me and haunted me and once gave me nightmares haha

My favourite kinds of books are young adult sci-fi and horror

I like them because of the escapist factor. The things that happen in those books will never happen to me in real-life. I like being able to use my imagination

Dawn has a sleepover at her house. I've been to not that many, but a few sleepovers.

The most fun I've ever had a sleepover was when my friends and I did the 30 Hour Famine in high school

During Dawn's sleepover, the girls tell scary ghost stories. The scariest ghost story I've ever heard was about children. Children are always scary haha    

BSC #8: Boy-Crazy Stacey

Front Cover: Who needs baby-sitting when there are boys around!

Back Cover: Stacey and Mary Anne are mother's helpers for the Pike family for two weeks at the New Jersey shore. Things are great in Sea City: There's a gorgeous old house, a boardwalk, plenty of sun and sand... and the cutest boy Stacey has ever seen!

Mary Anne knows that Scott the lifeguard is way too old for Stacey, but Stacey's in love. She fixes Scott's lunch, fetches his sodas, and spends all her time wtih him... instead of with the Pike kids. Suddenly, Mary Anne's doing the work of two baby-sitters, and she doesn't like it one bit. But how can she tell Stacey that Scott just isn't interested - without breaking Stacey's heart?

So, this is not one of my favourites. There's nothing really wrong with it, but not a whole lot happens really.

This book picks up exactly where the last one left off: the Pikes are going on a two-week trip to Sea City, only this time they want some time to themselves, so they invite two sitters along. For various reasons, Mary Anne and Stacey are the only ones available. Both girls are very excited, because it's their first trip away from home (Mary Anne) since getting diagnosed with diabetes (Stacey).

The trip starts off pretty well. Mary Anne is all excited because it's her first two-piece bathing suit, but then she gets all self-conscious about it. Stacey's a good friend though and assures her that she looks fine (after telling the readers that Mary Anne doesn't quite fill it out as nicely as she, Stacey, does haha). They get down to the beach, and right away Stacey sees the lifeguards. She falls in love with Scott, who is 18.

From there, it's just Stacey obsessing over him. She and Mary Anne take the kids to various places, and we're treated to chapters of them eating at the Burger Garden and playing miniature golf. But mostly, it's Stacey obsessing over Scott. She ignores the kids and Mary Anne, and then can't figure out why Mary Anne is so pissed. She decides that Mary Anne is jealous, because the only person Mary Anne has to talk to is a dorky guy mother's helper. She also decides that Mary Anne shouldn't be so mad, because she does have the help from the male mother's helper, Alex.

Scott gives Stacey his lifeguarding whistle, and Stacey takes it as a sign that he loves her too. On their first Friday night, Stacey spends all of the girls' free time shopping around for a gift for Scott. She ends up blowing all her money on a box of chocolates. Of course, immediately after she does, she and Mary Anne run into him kissing a "much older girl" (who Stacey later admits is actually Scott's age). Stacey is heartbroken and runs off.

She spends the next week dreading running into Scott, but eventually decides it's not worth it. She's not entirely mad, because he is her first love, but she's over it. What helps is that Alex has a cousin named Toby, who Mary Anne arranges to go on a double-date with. Of course, Stacey instantly falls in love again.

Despite the fact that she ignored her for most of the week, Stacey and Mary Anne do end up a bit closer, and Mary Anne has her first encounter with love too. Of course, Mary Anne is a lot more practical, and knows that it doesn't really mean anything in the long run, but she's just happy for the time and memories of Alex, and that they'll be penpals now.

We're also treated a chapter from Kristy, where she baby-sits for Karen and Andrew. Fuck, I do not remember them being in these books this much. They decide to wash Watson's rich fancy car (with Watson's permission), and get all settled with soap, hoses and sponges. However, David Michael was at Linny's place with Louie, but Louie gets injured and it looks like he needs stitches. Kristy tries calling everyone she knows with a car in a panic, leaving Karen and Andrew outside with the car and the car washing supplies. It should have been fine, except that Karen decides that sponges aren't good enough, and ends up running back into the house to grab the steel wool that Watson uses on the pots. This of course ruins the paint on the car. In a surprise turn of events (this totes wouldn't have happened in the later books), Watson is actually angry at Kristy for having paid closer attention to the kids.

Random Thoughts:

• I love how Kristy was reading People magazine at the beginning of this book.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: all the references to the Jersey Shore (the actual location, not the show haha)
• I love the way Stacey looks on the cover. She looks a little older than 13, maybe closer to 14 or 15, but yeah. She looks young and innocent and it's awesome. Scott on the other hand, doesn't look 18. He looks like he's 25! haha
• I think this book would have been way more interesting from Mary Anne's perspective
• The job description makes it sound like Mr and Mrs Pike would be going to the beach with the kids, but they wanted the sitters around so that they could occasionally take an afternoon or evening off, or in case the kids wanted to split up and they needed extra hands on deck for different excursions. But it seems like Mr and Mrs Pike spend the whole time inside the cottage, essentially meaning that Stacey and Mary Anne are working the whole time.
• We find out a lot about the Pikes in this book, which I suppose for first-time readers, especially if reading in chronological order or as they're being published, would be exciting. But since I've read Super Special #10 [Sea City, Here We Come!] a million times, as well as just other books in the series, this wasn't that interesting to me.
• I'm not so sure what the big deal on bathing suits is. I wear a two-piece, but I wear swim trunks on the bottom. My two best friends both wear one pieces, also with swim trunks. We like to cover up haha our lack of skin doesn't make us any less adult, I don't think haha
• I'm surprised that the Pikes can afford to go to Sea City every summer. Apparently they'd been going every summer since Mallory was 2, to which I'm like "omfg why???" At that point, Mallory would have been 2, which is young for a family vacation, but okay. BUT, the triplets would have been 1 years old AND Mrs Pike most likely would have been pregnant with Vanessa. I cannot imagine trying to go on vacation with 4 kids in diapers WHILE pregnant. And it just gets worse from there. I think if the youngest kid is 2, then trips are feasible. 
• Also, the house they rent is HUGE. The boys all sleep in one room, the girls in two different rooms (same arrangements that they have at home, actually), and then Mary Anne and Stacey share another room, but are told that if they don't like it, they can choose another one. With so many rooms, I'm surprised the kids would want to share. This is probably their only chance to have their own rooms. Or at least split up the boys or something.