Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #29: Mallory and the Mystery Diary

So like I said in the last BSC blog, I've definitely noticed a pattern when it comes to the majority of the twenties. A book that expands the universe, followed by a filler book. Given we're coming off a big book where Stacey's parents get divorced and she returns to Stoneybrook, this definitely feels like we're entering a massive comedown book. And given it's a Mallory book, that fills me with less optimism. I like Mallory, but she's in a position similar to Dawn in that the quality of her books can be shaky at best. It also doesn't help that this book's premise feels very much in line with The Ghost at Dawn's House, which wasn't a very interesting book. Hope to be wrong on these concerns though. Let's talk about Mallory and the Mystery Diary.

Covers are decent, but neither exactly excite me that much. Both have Mallory on a bed looking through the diary. Though the latter adds Jessi instead of Buddy Barrett. Of the two, I prefer the one with Jessi as their dynamic is always really good, so I like the idea of them tackling the diary together. But neither exactly hit me with this energy of "I have to read this one RIGHT NOW". 

Mallory opens the book writing in her journal, which is mostly just complaining about being eleven and not thirteen. Also wanting a nose job because eleven or thirteen, image issues suck. Mrs. Pike then asks Mallory to take a casserole over to Stacey and her mom as a welcome gift since they just moved back to Stoneybrook. This of course gives us the preamble. Mallory arrives as Stacey, Mrs. McGill and Claudia are there as they're still moving things around. Mrs. McGill mentions that there's an attic in the house, which somehow Stacey didn't even realize. Inside, the attic is dusty with old stuff from previous owners. But what catches Mallory's eye is an old trunk. Unfortunately for her, the thing is locked, but Mallory can't pass up the opportunity to take a forbidden trunk of mystery, so she brings it home. She tries to unlock it with various objects, but the lock is stuck tight by reason of plot convenience. We gotta pad these pages somehow, right?

Dawn gets the first baby-sitting job of the book which sees her watching the Barrett kids. Thankfully no almost-kidnapping this time, but things are still chaotic. Namely with Buddy who is upset that his teacher wants his mom to do flash cards with him to help his reading, but she's also way too busy to devote that much time to helping her son read. After Mrs. Barrett leaves, Dawn starts sitting and decides to help Buddy out with his reading. She reads with him and he is indeed slow at reading, to which his sister Suzi mostly dunks on him because she's a great reader. Back to Mallory. She finally decides to break open the trunk and inside is some old clothes from the 1800s. Her sister Vanessa wears the clothes, but Mallory is more interested in a diary inside the trunk belonging to a girl named Sophie, who chronicled her life in 1894. Mallory is next to babysit for the Barretts and offers to help Buddy with his reading. After that chapter it's back to the diary, so if you haven't gotten the gimmick of this book yet, looks like we're juggling two plots here. 

Mallory reads Sophie's diary, learning she and a boy named Paul Hancock were in love. But more pressing is that her mother was pregnant. The boy, Edgar, would be born, but this being the 1800s AKA what republicans want to turn America into, Sophie's mother died two days after pregnancy. So yeah, that's a fun little gut punch there, thanks Ann. So that's bad, but things get worse. A portrait of Sophie's mother then disappears and her grandfather, Mr. Hickman, a very wealthy man, blamed her father Jared for killing his daughter, which given Jared had a history of shady dealings, isn't too unfounded. Regardless, Mr. Hickman removed Sophie and her family out of his will. And because he was a powerful man, it meant that Jared couldn't get a job anywhere and the family lived in poverty. Screw the painting, this is an old asshole in desperate need of three ghosts. But Sophie vowed to one day clear her father's name. And if she doesn't manage to do that, she vows to be a very angry ghost. So now Mallory is convinced that Stacey and her mom bought a haunted house. I'm sure this will go just like when there was a ghost... ... ...at Dawn's house! 

Kristy babysits for Karen, Andrew, David Michael and Emily Michelle, who I could forgive some readers for forgetting her since we really had next to no development on that since she debuted. And because she's an idiot, Kristy decides to take the kids up to the attic, which seems kind of wild to do given Karen's whole concern about the ghost of Old Ben Brewer. It goes mostly uneventful save for David Michael jumpscaring them. The next meeting goes on, Mallory noting her I ❤ Kids shirt which, I mean she's 11 so it wouldn't be an issue but I wouldn't be shouting that at the top of your lungs. They talk about the diary and if there's any possible ghosts haunting Stacey's house. Kristy instead turns things around to put the focus back on the mystery of the missing painting. They also surmise that Mr. Hickman is Old Man Hickory, who was mentioned in Mary Anne's Bad Luck Mystery. Hey, continuity, dap me up with more of that please. But for the uninitiated, Old Man Hickory was the richest man in Stoneybrook who was so stingy that he didn't want a proper funeral or a fancy headstone. His nephew gave him one out of guilt, so the belief is he decided to forgo going to Hell angry and haunts the cemetery of Stoneybrook. Dawn thinks maybe Sophie's father was Jared Mullray AKA the ghost... at Dawn's house, but everyone thinks that might be a bit too coincidental.

Back around to the other subplot as Mallory again sits for the Barretts and helps Buddy with his reading. This time involving some Archie comics and having him draw his own comic strip which, honestly a pretty based way to tutor. At the next meeting, Mallory suggests a seance at Stacey's house to contact the possible ghosts at Stacey's house who may or may not be connected to the possible ghost... at Dawn's house. And that's all well and good until Kristy goes and racists it up by dressing as the G-word complete with makeup, a lot of jewelry and a turban, calling herself Madame Kristine. They do it and nothing happens, mainly Kristy just clowning on the whole thing. Stacey sits for Charlotte Johannsen and talks about the mystery. Charlotte, being the genius, thinks that maybe someone might know about the whereabouts of the missing portrait. Stacey doesn't fully think so, but Charlotte schools her by reading a book to Stacey, then showing her the pictures to reveal the book is set in Christmas, meaning that sometimes you have to look past what you assume. 

Sitting for the Barretts again, Mallory takes Buddy to her place to look at the diary, giving us the original cover. They don't find any answers, but Buddy suggests to look in the trunk. And sure enough, in a pocket of one of the clothing items is a confession from James Hickman, AKA Old Man Hickory. He was the one who took the portrait. Or to be more precise, had a painter paint over the portrait of his daughter due to being so distraught over her death. He kept it to himself before others started asking where the portrait was. So, to not just admit he had it painted over, he chose to blame Jared for it. He eventually decided to write a confession before he died, hoping someone would find it. Granted it took a century but I guess it worked. Buddy then notes that it's odd to have found the confession in a trunk full of Sophie's clothes, so the pair realize that maybe something might still be in Stacey's attic. Like an old painting perhaps? They head to Stacey's attic and sure enough there's a painting there which looks to have been painted over something else. Mrs. McGill sends it to an art expert while Mallory and Buddy head back to the Barrett home, Buddy happy to have solved a mystery and improved on his reading. So double win.

Some time passes and Stacey gets the results back from the painting, but Mallory opts to have the reveal at the club meeting. At the meeting, Dawn and Mary Anne note that their parents are going on a date, holding what they call an anniversary for their 25th date together. Which, again, you'd probably forget about since it's so little focused on and we've had more Mrs. Schafer with the Trip-Man instead. Anyway, not a bad way to drum up interest for the next book. Stacey reveals that the portrait was indeed the one in the attic, and she and her mother decided to keep it, you know, to appease any ghosts. As for how the trunk and portrait were in Stacey's house, Mallory and Buddy figured that Stacey's house was home to his daughter and that maybe the nephew who inherited Old Man Hickory's wealth chose to live in his mansion while keeping valuables in the smaller house. Mallory then gets a call from Buddy who excitedly tells her that he has actually improved in reading and is really enjoying it. So there's the super happy ending right on time.

I really liked this one. Going into this, I at least figured we'd get a good book out of it since the books that do usually focus on a mystery of some kind have usually panned out quite well. But this more than any of the others really feels like a mystery story and feels like the real impetus for what would eventually be the Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries books. We're not quite there yet, those started in 1991 and we're not quite out of 1989 just yet, but I can definitely see the wheels spinning in terms of making this a regular series. This book also does something that I feel most books don't do well and that's actually tie the baby-sitting plot with the bigger overall story. This one involving Buddy Barrett and his poor literacy skills. I like his dynamic with Mallory, how Mallory helps get him more jazzed to read and how it's ultimately him who solves the mystery. The books can be a bit wonky when it comes to developing the kids the girls sit for, but I'm genuinely impressed with how well the book did with building Buddy up. Great stuff.

And most importantly, Mallory finally gets her good book. Not a book filled with annoyances from the club, not a more generic plot of twins hating looking alike. But an actual mystery that she gets fully invested in, while also being involved with helping Buddy read, which gives her a lot of focus this time around. We only get a couple other babysitting bits, once again they end up centered around the plot of the book, with the stuff with Kristy and her family being more Superfluous Clay. But I like the Charlotte bit. It's probably the best example of the books writing her as a genius as she manages to figure out a key element to the mystery before the conclusion. I roll my eyes with how often the babysitting stuff has to stay on topic to the book's plot, but this was a rare occasion where everything actually benefited the book. I really hope for more of that in the future.

The mystery itself is actually decent. It adds continuity to Old Man Hickory, something that was mentioned in a past book that you really never considered would have more of a backstory to. I like that they try to tie it to all of the past mysteries, even if Dawn's suggestion feels more like a "remember when". Granted, some of the answers could be easily guessed, it isn't really until the confession that the final piece of the puzzle actually presents itself. It's an example of building the mystery so that the reader can follow along and guess for themselves instead of dropping the big answer super early so that the reader doesn't really get a chance to have fun. In other words, Ann M. Martin is much better at writing mystery stories than R.L. Stine ever has. These books continuing to be surprisingly great remains a welcome surprise.

So overall, this one's an easy recommend. The mystery is solid, Mallory is a great lead, the stuff with Buddy Barrett is fun. The book is never too slow and moves at just the right pace. I'd say the biggest fault to it is the Madame Kristine stuff which, I know this is 1989 and nobody for a second considered the G-word stereotypes might actually be a bad thing, but it's still one of those awkward collar tug moments. So now everyone's accounted for at least one good book. I say good, not great, as Dawn still hasn't had that one amazing book yet, but did get at least one good enough book. It's a filler book overall, but a solid case of how a filler book can still be utilized in the right way to make for a great book to read. Given some of the stuff on the way, this feels like a rare unicorn. Hope to be wrong. Mallory and the Mystery Diary gets an A-. 

Next time, before the wedding bells ring for Dawn and Mary Anne's parents, it's time for a winter vacation as the Baby-Sitters Club make their exit from the 80s. 

Nancy Drew

Miss Marple

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Sesame Street
Green Eggs and Ham

Mary Poppins

Pee-Wee's Playhouse

Candy Land

Chutes and Ladders

Play-Doh

Archie Comics

George Washington

The Bobbsey Twins

Roald Dahl

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Katie and the Sad Noise

Ruth Stiles Gannett

The BFG

Encyclopedia Brown

Ring-Dings

GOOPS and How to Be Them