Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #02: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

We previously covered the first Baby-Sitters Club book Kristy's Great Idea, and the overall reception was positive, with enough interest out there (as well as admittedly my own interest) to continue covering these regularly. Last time, we got our focus on Kristy, this time the focus is on Claudia. What do we have in store? Let's find out with Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls.

Like I said, there's quite a few covers for some of these books and in the case of the first one for this book, it's kind of bland. But I guess it gets the point of the book across fine enough. Claudia as the focus, baby-sitting and the phone to represent our phantom phone calls. So, in terms of selling the book, I guess it's fine?

Our narrator this time is Claudia Kishi, who would rather be reading Nancy Drew than having to do homework. Well, that or drawing a still image of a boy named Trevor Sandbourne. But to maintain any chance of a social life and to stay in the Baby-sitters Club, she's got to do what her parents say. And given her sister Janine is a super genius, there's that issue as well. That despite having a good IQ herself, Claudia will never catch up to Janine. She does some homework with the help of Mimi, her grandmother, then gets back to her Nancy Drew book. And it turns out that reading a scary book is good timing given Halloween is coming up. 

Instead of reading, she works on a portrait of Mimi before asking about her grandmother's childhood in Japan. Mimi brings up that it was a family much like Claudia's and that she got along with her sister, which Claudia doesn't quite know the feeling of, given her feeling of inadequacy with Janine. After drawing, Claudia reads her book and fantasizes about Trevor Sandbourne when she gets a call from Stacey, who is still crushing on Kristy's brother Sam. Stacey is also a bit bummed that she still doesn't know too many people in Stoneybrook yet, but Claudia promises to help her out with that.

The girls meet up, but have nothing to do since this is the eighties and it's far easier to get bored in the eighties. Claudia brings up her Trevor obsession, what with him being a poet and everything, and Kristy mentions that he sits next to Alan Gray, a rather rotten kid who likes to pick on Kristy and the others. But to Kristy's credit she doesn't take his crap either, once tricking him into stealing what he thought was her amazing lunch, only for it to be really gross food, which embarrassed him. So, points to Kristy on the clever ideas. Though it hasn't stopped Alan being cruddy to her.

They look through the newspaper and it's been a wild few days apparently, from the mall catching fire to a depressed trucker going crazy. But the real focus is the phantom caller, a thief who calls someone's house and just hangs up, then robs the house of all its jewelry at the first opportunity. And it seems that the caller is getting closer to Stoneybrook, which concerns Mary Anne, though the others don't worry just yet given he's not there yet. That is, until Claudia realizes that at  her baby-sitting job for the Marshall family, someone rang and hung up twice, so now it's time to get at least a little concerned. 

So now the club is concerned about baby-sitting given the real possibility of a jewel thief in town, but Stacey thinks that they're all overreacting. But just in case, the girls decide to have a certain code in place just in case any of them do find themselves targeted by the Phantom Caller. They also plan to keep their record book handy for any info on who babysits, and then we go full pre-Home Alone with talks of setting up a burglar alarm, like stacking cans by a door so if they make noise, the babysitter will be alerted. A very eighties concept. The girls also decide to keep this a secret from their parents, lest the concern costs them the club.

At school, it's a bit more apparent of Claudia's inability to focus, usually making rather easy mistakes. At lunch, she learns that one of the girls from school, Dorianne Wallingford (whopper name), was robbed the other night. Well, actually it was her grandparents, but the calling cards of the Phantom Caller remain the same. But it happened in New Hope, so the burglar hasn't made it to Stoneybrook just yet. Claudia then learns that someone knows about her crush on Trevor, which bothers her, but Kristy and Mary Anne say they weren't the ones to blurt. And it's not in character for Stacey to spill either, so there's another mystery for this book. But given the Halloween Hop dance is coming up, Claudia is more concerned about asking Trevor to go. 

Claudia arrives at her baby-sitting job for the Newton family, watching their son Jamie. As they play outside, Claudia notices the light downstairs going on and off. And then the phone starts to ring, which begins to trigger her worries. Then there's sounds out front. However, that one turns out to be Kristy, who also turned on the lights as she was bringing over a casserole and, you know, timing's a silly mistress. At home, Claudia watches the news and learns that the Phantom Caller was spotted in New Jersey with cops tailing him. So that at least relieves her for the moment.

Except the next night during her job watching Nina and Elanor Marshall when it turns out that this actually wasn't the Phantom Caller, so those fears are right back where they were before. And, sure enough, the phone rings at the Marshall house. When Claudia picks up the phone, it hangs up on her. She calls Stacey then hears noises outside. She panics, but it's just the Marshalls coming home. That eases her, but when the phone rings again, that's enough to make her shiver. 

Turns out the rest of the girls are also having these worries about the phone. Case in point with Kristy watching Watson's kids, her soon-to-be stepbrother and stepsister. And of course, while she's scared of the phone, Karen and Andrew are more worried about Morbidda Destiny, the neighbor they believe is an evil witch. After reading to the kids, Kristy gets the calls as well. Stacey doesn't get the calls during her job, but when the power goes out, it still becomes a concern. Mary Anne went full bore on the noise makers just in case.

Some time later, the Kishi family are visited by their neighbors, the Goldmans, who say that they were robbed. Similar M.O. of the Phantom Caller. Leaving the weird calls, then just stealing jewelry. Although, given the Caller's pattern of stealing from rich people, this seems to be more of a copycat. Regardless, Mary Anne can't baby-sit now due to her paranoid father, so the others have to take her jobs. As for Claudia, she accidentally spills her food on Trevor, which now makes it seem like her hopes are dashed. But that can be an aside for now as they have to still do these baby-sitting jobs while worrying about the robberies.

Claudia and Kristy take the job for the Newtons again, now watching Jamie and his more hyper cousins. It doesn't take long, but as if on cue, the calls begin. They then hear noises outside and call the cops. The cop arrives at the door with, who else, but Alan Gray. Turns out that Alan's been the one calling them this whole time. Since Kristy kept their record book with her, Alan managed to get all of the info needed to call during their baby-sitting jobs. But not to prank them, but because he wanted to ask Kristy to the Halloween Hop, which she ultimately accepts. Why? Because she ultimately realized what others have told her. That if someone likes to bother you to the level that Alan did with Kristy, it means they must actually like you. I'm not so sure about that. Though, even with the history, Kristy does like him. So this all resolved itself better than expected.

Later, at home, Claudia learns that Janine found out about the incident, but didn't tell their parents. They have a conversation about it and it goes well. A first sign of breaking the barrier between them. At school, Claudia's grades are improving as well, so things are all starting to go her way. And, later, we learn Trevor was the one calling and hanging up on Claudia, as he wanted to ask her to the dance but was nervous at the time. But he does this time, so that's a hat trick of big wins as we get our mega happy ending. 

Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls is a solid second book and a strong way to give us our first focus on Claudia. While her concerns may not be dealing with a future stepfather or dealing with diabetes or dealing with a super strict father, she still has her own issues to deal with. Mainly a feeling of inadequacy with her sister Janine, which the book really only mildly touches on. But is enough of a pin that we can really build on that in a later book. Much like the Kristy-Watson situation last book. And Claudia is a very likable protagonist, which helps this book flow well. It also follows on a similar formula to the previous. Build for the story and the main conflict, baby-sitting stuff throughout the middle, and a super positive ending. All works fine yet again, though a bit of wheel spinning in some parts.

I do like the mystery about the Phantom Caller. Although once Alan Gray is mentioned and we learn of his past, it becomes a bit obvious who at least one of the callers was. The Trevor one is also a bit obvious, given it made less sense for Alan to call Claudia. And I wasn't expecting a story about a foursome of seventh graders having to face off with a burglar, so what we get still works fine. Although, there isn't much of a tie to that bow either as the caller, as well as the likely copycat caller, is still at large. So, in the end, this was a solid second book. Fun mystery, strong conflicts, some decent character stuff as expected. Still slow going as I get into this series, but what I've read so far, I've enjoyed. Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls gets an A-.

RELATABLE REFERENCES

Nancy Drew

The Phantom of Pine Hill

The Pond

Peter Rabbit

Superman

Tarzan

The Witch Next Door

Ramona Quimby

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

MTV

I Love Lucy

The Secret Garden

Jell-O

M&Ms