The Baby-Sitters Club #25: Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger

Mary Anne loves her adorable little kitten Tigger, as if we didn’t know. At the beginning of the book, Dawn goes with her to pick out some new toys for him, since he keeps rolling them behind the refrigerator. A few days later, Logan comes over and they sit outside playing with Tigger. A few neighborhood kids stop by and she thinks it’s super cute, but Logan acts kind of put off by everyone interrupting their date.

When it comes time to leave for her BSC meeting, Tigger doesn’t want to go inside. Instead of making him, she lets him stay outside, thinking she’ll let him in when she gets back. But when she shows up after the meeting, Tigger is missing. Richard isn’t too concerned because he thinks he’s napping and will come back later. When he isn’t back at bedtime or the next morning, he gets a little worried too.

Mary Anne calls Kristy, who declares an emergency meeting. The girls pool their money and take money out of the treasury to create a reward. They make flyers, Kristy’s mom copies them at work and everyone, including Logan, hangs the flyers around town. One kid stops her and tries to get the reward money, by just reading her the facts.

Mary Anne ends up sitting for Kerry and Hunter, Logan’s siblings. Hunter has really bad allergies and they keep kicking up, but no one can figure out why. Mary Anne keeps moping around, wondering what happened to her poor cat. It doesn’t help that the smaller kids cry over him and miss him too. Logan also starts acting weird, ignoring her for the most part and acting rude when they are around each other.

Then she gets a letter in the mail, demanding $100 for the safe return of Tigger. Logan comes up with a plan to have her drop off an envelope full of fake money at the spot, while everyone else hides and watches. All they manage to do is catch the same punk kid as before, trying to get the money for finding Tigger.

Mary Anne finally sits for Hunter again and she keeps trying to find ways to lessen his allergies. He reveals that he knows why his allergies are so bad. He takes her to Kerry’s room, opens the closet and she finds Tigger. She confronts their mom with the truth and takes Tigger home. She won’t look at Logan or talk to him because she thinks he knew the truth all along.

After a few days, she decides that she’s ready to make up with him. She invites Logan over to her house, makes him his favorite cookies and they have a long talk. He tells her that he is about to get kicked off the basketball team and that’s why he was so rude. She cries, they make up and agree not to fight anymore.

*Logan is kind of a douche in this book. I know, right? He blows her off frequently and acts like Tigger disappearing isn’t that big of a deal, when he knows how sad she is. And yet he gives her one tiny excuse and apology and she completely forgives him.

*I kind of get Logan’s side of things though. Mary Anne wants to just sit on the porch and watch Jamie and Charlotte playing with Tigger. That sounds like the perfect afternoon…when you’re 60.

*Kerry gets off really easy for hiding the cat in her house for a week and making Hunter sick. She has to do a few random chores around the house, like washing the cars.

*The fact that Mary Anne would leave Tigger outside, especially for 30+ minutes alone kind of just blows my mind. She mentions several times at the beginning that he’s just a kitten, so why would she let him wander around outside? Did she actually think he would just stay in one place that whole time?

*This book made me stop and think about that poor cat. Poor Tigger was stuck as a kitten for what, 20 years?