It's time for Mary Anne to take the lead once more. And so far she's remained the most consistent in terms of quality books, going three for three on good ones. Granted, I didn't expect much from her last book, and it still surprised me. So this book has her looking for her cat Tigger, who is lost. If this were an R.L. Stine book, this would take a very dark turn. Thankfully it's Ann M. Martin, but this series has killed a dog already. Thankfully it won't come to that, but let's set off on a cat hunt as we talk about Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger.
The book opens with Mary Anne and Dawn noting how Mary Anne's cat Tigger continues to push his cat toys under the fridge. And instead of constantly moving the heavy fridge to get the toys, the girls decide to get him a new toy instead and think that if all of the cat toys underneath already are lined up, then there won't me much more room to lose more. A bit frivolous, but again, it beats moving a fridge. The girls head to the pet store to get new cat toy while also updating the reader that their parents are indeed still dating. I guess things with Mrs. Shafer and the Trip Man aren't going well? Mary Anne notes that she wishes they would get married, and whenever the books bring up something like that, you know it's on the horizon, so we're getting close. This leads to the preambles about the characters and the club, so an easy few pages to gloss is always appreciated.
The club meeting goes through, with Mary Anne having a baby-sitting job from Logan to watch his siblings Kerry and Hunter. She then returns home and talks with Logan, while playing with Tigger. Some other kids show up including Jamie Newton, Gabbie and Myriah Perkins and Charlotte Johannsen, all wanting to play with Tigger which is the most believable thing in these books so far. Get a kitten and damn near everyone wants to pet it. After the kids leave, Mary Anne tries to get Tigger to come inside, but the cat refuses. So Mary Anne, who has a bit of a complex when it comes to worrying that she's babying Tigger like her father used to do to her, just leaves him in the yard and heads to Claudia's. When she comes back, she can't find Tigger. She at first chalks it up to the kitten taking a nap and hiding, instead of immediately putting two and two together. Mary Anne and her dad mostly spend the day assuming he'll just show up, but no luck. So yeah, real "dropping the ball" action from Mary Anne as a pet owner.
Mary Anne baby-sits for Logan's siblings, to which we learn his brother Hunter is allergic to damn near everything, and is particularly stuffed up and sneezing. All while his sister Kerry seems to be more eager to help, especially when it comes to getting his mind off the allergies. It all goes well and Mary Anne returns home, still not finding Tigger. With it now being 24 hours, she tells the girls and they decide to make missing posters for Tigger, offering a 30 dollar reward to whoever finds him. We get a chapter with Jessi baby-sitting Becca and Squirt, which Becca and Jessi mostly talk about Tigger being missing, noting that Charlotte Johannsen really loves Tigger, almost as much as Mary Anne. The girls put up posters around the neighborhood, but still have no luck finding Tigger. Though at this point, Mary Anne is concerned that there's a possibility that Tigger might have been run over and killed, so that's bleak.
While baby-sitting for the Newtons, Mary Anne takes Jamie and Lucy, along with Gabbie and Myriah Perkins, to continue the search for Tigger, but still no luck. She gets the mail and finds a ransom note saying that if she wants to see Tigger again, she has to leave 100 bucks at the big rock in Brenner Field. So this is now two books in the row where Mary Anne is being blackmailed. If I had a nickel... At first she thinks of telling her dad, but thinks that might make things worse, so she tells Logan and Kristy in advance as the club now have to find a way to handle this. At the club meeting, the girls begin to suspect that something is off about this whole ransom note thing. #1, there's no proof that the catnappers even have Tigger. No photos or evidence to the fact. #2, this popping up so soon after the posters were put up seems a bit suspect. And #3, it's clearly a kid who wrote it, so there's no need to involve adults in this. Logan suggests they go to Brenner Field the next day and find out who it is. Mary Anne leaves an envelope with fake money while the rest of the club hides and waits for whoever comes for the envelope. Pretty fool-proof plan, now to see how easily they're fooled.
Before that though, Dawn baby-sits for the Barrett kids. And since the books love to tie the baby-sitting bits with the plot, this has Buddy Barrett guarding his Bassett Hound Pow from being kidnapped like Tigger is. She talks with Dawn on the phone about things and how Logan seems to be more brash and less sympathetic about things, to which Dawn chalks it up to him having trouble with his baseball practice lately. The next day comes and all of the club ready themselves to catch whoever put out the ransom note. The kid shows up to take the envelope. Logan and the girls catch him, to which he reveals that this was all a setup. He doesn't have Tigger, he was just trying to extort them. So while that was a good way to pad the story, it doesn't solve the issue at hand. Claudia baby-sits for Gabbie and Myriah who play detectives looking for their own cat. Claudia then starts to also think about if Tigger might be dead, and Mary Anne notes that nobody close in Claudia's family had died, even if Mimi has gotten sick after the stroke. Jeez book, you want to hammer the point in as to what Claudia's next book is about any harder?
Mary Anne once again sits for Logan's siblings, to which she soon discovers that Tigger is in Kerry's room in a box. Turns out that Kerry found Tigger not long after Mary Anne had left him in the yard and has kept the kitten in her room ever since. Only Hunter and Kerry knew, Logan didn't. So, not knowing Tigger was Mary Anne's initially, she kept him in the room and even got him stuff. And after hearing about Tigger being missing, she assumed maybe it was Mary Anne's kitten and she was being neglectful, which, technically, yeah she was. She had hoped it could prove she could have a cat in the house despite Hunter's allergies, but no dice. Mary Anne leaves with Tigger and yells at Logan, saying that clearly he must have known about this. That he knew about Kerry having Tigger and went along with getting rid of the phony kidnapper, all while being more dismissive about things. Also, we're really doing this? We're really going to have Mary Anne blame Logan for all of this? Even after it was made clear about his issues with baseball practice?
The next day, the two talk and sure enough, Logan's issues involve him possibly being kicked off the baseball team. And that's been what's bothering him lately and why he's been more prickly. It had absolutely nothing to do with knowing about Tigger being at his place, since he didn't. He apologizes for his actions and she apologizes. At the next meeting we learn that Kerry got in trouble for hiding a cat, but her parents do think she might be responsible enough for a pet, but it needs to be hairless given Hunter's allergies. And we end with Mary Anne happy to have her cat back.
What I do like about the book is the middle act with the ransom note. Granted, like I said, this isn't the first time that Mary Anne has been blackmailed. And I like that in the end it wasn't anyone who actually kidnapped Tigger, but someone trying to cash in on a missing kitten. A rare occasion of a bait and switch working out. I also like that the book brings up that we're back on track with Mr. Spier and Mrs. Schafer's relationship. Though it feels weirdly tacked on as well. Because the books drop it like a rock in the ocean for a while, having Mrs. Schafer dating a different man named Trip for several books. Then suddenly we're back to Dawn and Mary Anne's parents returning to dating one another? Given what goes down in the next Mary Anne book, it makes more sense. It just feels like a case where Ann M. Martin remembered that plot point and finally decided to progress with it. She also made it clear in this book about another important plot that we're going to progress with next book, so at least we seem to be moving in a lot of directions.
This is a filler book overall. It seems Mary Anne's been the victim of that lately. But she has been luckier with the filler books, and this book does a good job in continuing certain important plots, so is it truly fair to call this filler? I think so, given the book is ultimately about her missing kitten, which yeah, she dropped the ball on completely. And the book resolves the conflict well enough, even after the book starts to try to hammer in the idea of "Tigger could be dead". So ultimately I think this one is just okay. Mary Anne's last book was better, and there are things that annoyed me about this one, but it's a cute and easy to get through book that I can't fully be mad at it, just ultimately left with a feeling of wanting more from it. Ah well. Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger gets a B.
Next time, technically in terms of the main series timeline we're officially at THAT book. The one I've been dreading. But before we do that book, let's go to summer camp instead.
Nancy Drew
Fritos
Doritos
M&Ms
Double Stuf Oreos
The House at Pooh Corner
Tigger
Baby Island
Sounder
Superman
Chewbacca
Monopoly Money
Bert and Ernie
Big Bird
White Christmas
I'll Be Home for Christmas
Jingle Bells
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Blue Suede Shoes
Elvis Presley
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