tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81761343734380824912024-03-13T11:12:47.722-04:00Young Adult RevisitedI'm probably too old to be re-reading all these books, but I'm too old to do a lot of the things I do...Age has never stopped me before.Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.comBlogger845125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-14810766604533977412023-07-05T17:20:00.005-04:002023-07-05T17:20:27.493-04:00Contrary to Rumors, I am Still Alive<p> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Well,
I didn't realize so much time passed between my last post and today.
Things were pretty bad there for a while. I got through COVID and then
my world just fell apart.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I'm hoping I
can start posting again at least semi-regularly. If anyone is still
out there, expect to see a new post a month.</span></p>Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-18942753593762431392021-03-29T15:04:00.005-04:002021-03-29T15:04:02.590-04:00Sweet Valley Twins #78: Steven the Zombie<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBAYySGq6Mm55hb08RkF7qNPvomYL41OsbkY52wJsqkikYYhN_LdrRw4Ki_JmfTAMNIYXqlQSodPnpQhhvuvxLSMvwhZRCP_yVa2OxzKZaoQufPydyIyADjtJqvwo_Tu7BEp_aeL471D8/s475/steven+the+zombie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBAYySGq6Mm55hb08RkF7qNPvomYL41OsbkY52wJsqkikYYhN_LdrRw4Ki_JmfTAMNIYXqlQSodPnpQhhvuvxLSMvwhZRCP_yVa2OxzKZaoQufPydyIyADjtJqvwo_Tu7BEp_aeL471D8/s320/steven+the+zombie.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In social studies class,
they're working on a unit on the Civil War and the antebellum period.
For some reason, this makes all the kids obsessed with <i>Gone with
the Wind</i>. They need to do a final project, so Lila decides to
throw a GWTW themed party. She naturally plans on dressing up as
Scarlet and plans on holding a contest to see who can pull off the
best Scarlet costume.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica finds the
section on voodoo fascinating and makes a voodoo doll of Steven. This
happens after he ruins her favorite poster of Johnny Buck. She even
cuts up his favorite shirt for the doll. Though Liz sees her, she
makes her promise that she won't tell anyone. Before long, everything
she does to the doll happens to him. Everything from spilling honey
on his shirt to phantom pains in his leg. Jess plans on using her
voodoo work for her project.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, Liz is
volunteering at a shelter and gets along really well with this kid
Benjamin. He has leg pain and can't find a reason for his pain.
Benjamin gets to come over to Casa Wakefield for dinner one night and
tells Jess all about his pain and how it keeps him from sleeping. She
makes a voodoo doll of him that she coats with rosewater, Vitamin C,
and a mixture of other ingredients as she recites a spell. Benjamin
actually starts getting better and has so little pain that he doesn't
even need his cane.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Todd volunteers he and
Liz to do an antebellum cooking project and make a huge dinner for
the whole class. Liz worries that neither of them have enough
experience and picks out a “simple menu” of like six things to
make. They make cornbread three different times that ends up being as
hard as a brick, burnt to the bottom of the pain, and then somehow
both salty and with the consistency of chewing gum. No matter how
hard they work, Todd keeps messing things up with his cooking
experiments. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Liz refuses to say
anything bad to him because this happens not long after his dad came
down hard on him for writing and he tried to run away. Jess convinces
her to plan for all his mistakes and experiments and try to stop him.
She changes the labels on ingredients and mixes up all the measuring
spoons and cups. They make this huge meal that looks great. When they
serve it in class though, it makes the teaches so sick that she has
to leave school earlier and five other kids get really ill. Worried
that he feels crappy about himself, Liz confesses what she did. Todd
just laughs and asks her to be honest from now on.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cut to the night of
Lila's party. Since Lila had her dress flown in from some fancy
museum in New York, Jessica thinks she'll lose until Liz reminds her
of the curtain dress. Luckily, Alice has heavy green velvet curtains
in the living room. Jess uses a temporary rinse to dye her hair brown
and gives herself a perm. The chemicals react and turn her hair
orange though. Liz steps up again and finds the perfect hat to cover
her hair. They then pin the curtains together to make the perfect
dress.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the party, Jess wins
as the best looking Scarlet against Lila, Ellen, and most of the
girls in school. Aaron wins as the best Rhett and gets to dance with
her. Liz makes Jess leave the party early to make sure they get back
to the house before their parents get home. Not only do they get the
curtains back up, but the orange color somehow washes out of her hair
the next morning.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica starts getting a
little worried about Steven to the point where she walks him home
from school. He seems really pale and tired all the time. She starts
doing a healing ritual on him like she did with Benjamin. Nothing
seems to work though. He even misses a few days of school and goes to
the doctor. Jess finally sneaks into his room one night to watch him
sleep and finds him laying in bed, not moving, with saliva all over
his chin. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As all of us would, she
runs screaming to her parents and says she thinks she killed him. The
next morning, they try to figure out what the heck happened. As it
turns out, Liz told Steven everything right away because she can't
keep her mouth shut and her nose out of other people's business. He
then played along the whole time and even had Joe lie to Jess to say
he was acting like a zombie in class. Steven really did get sick
though and had a minor case of the flu.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ned and Alice make the
whole family agree to never mention the word zombie again. Jess is
super worried though because this was her final project. She
convinces Steven to come to her social studies class and convinces
Liz to help her send him secret signals. They blindfold him and do
things like stab him in the leg, which causes him to grab his leg and
scream. The teacher stops Jess in the middle of the demonstration.
Though she says she doesn't believe in voodoo and never wants to hear
the word again, she gives Jess a C- on her project.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I hate Liz in this book
at the end. Okay, so she tattles on Jess to Steven because she thinks
voodoo is stupid, but then she admits that she didn't realize how
seriously Jess took things. Except she totally did! She was there
when Jessica was almost crying because she thought their brother was
dying and did nothing.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Also, Liz in the end
was all “jeez, I didn't think about your project at all” when she
knew the whole time that Jess's project was on voodoo.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The “simple menu”
she plans is fish gumbo, black eyed peas, cornbread, hush puppies,
and peach cobbler. Yup, totally simple!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Since when does
Elizabeth not have cooking experience? I thought there were multiple
books before this where the twins cooked?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*While I can see all the
girls becoming obsessed with GWTW, I can't see guys in the sixth
grade being that into the movie too. I've literally never seen it
though. That movie is hella long!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Janet dresses up as
Melanie because she likes her better than Scarlet. I can't imagine
Janet not wanting to be the center of attention.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Steven replaces the
poster he ruined in the end, and Jessica replaces his shirt that she
destroyed.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*While I get that the
voodoo didn't work, what's up with Benjamin? He has intense leg pain,
goes to multiple doctors who find nothing, and can barely function.
Jess does a “healing ritual” a few times, and he's up and moving
around like nothing is wrong. They never explain it!</span></span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-38310944588198734432021-03-24T15:01:00.005-04:002021-03-24T15:01:01.779-04:00Nancy Drew Case Files #69: Running Scared (1992)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-QBLuOOte5DD-niJTdAmqS-EyGWF6zc6PCGn9ZAtiLMZ3YA4PBIxkpPCO3zWYYpdLDsMVrDZZXvLf48M1fk96yM7ZkSPP1H3rq6tkvw6PKkxnep6l_8SmAsr5FBqyQ2LRWQ_-DipKGHw/s411/running+scared.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-QBLuOOte5DD-niJTdAmqS-EyGWF6zc6PCGn9ZAtiLMZ3YA4PBIxkpPCO3zWYYpdLDsMVrDZZXvLf48M1fk96yM7ZkSPP1H3rq6tkvw6PKkxnep6l_8SmAsr5FBqyQ2LRWQ_-DipKGHw/s320/running+scared.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since George is the
absolute best athlete of all time, the girls are off to Chicago to
watch her compete in the Heartland Marathon. On their first day in
the city, they see Annette, the top women's marathon runner in the
country. She nearly gets hit by a car, but Nancy steps in and saves
her. Kevin, her trainer, feels an instant connection with George and
makes plans to see her at dinner.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Derek, her agent, gets
Nancy alone and reveals that someone started sending her threatening
notes. They make plans to get together later and talk. Bess also
randomly runs into this hot guy named Jake. They spend a few hours
together before he gets super busy and leaves. He starts to talk to
her at dinner that night but gets distracted by Gina, another runner.
After a bad encounter with “ace reporter” Brenda Carlton, Nancy
catches Annette and Gina fighting, with Gina vowing to get her
revenge.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">During her meeting with
Derek, she realizes that Gina didn't write the notes. Gina is Italian
and doesn't speak very good English, and the notes all feature lots
of American slang. Derek calls her to Annette's room later to show
her that someone left her a threatening note with a knife through it.
Annette tells them about how Gina blames her for getting disqualified
from a race and how Gina then stuck metal in her friend's shoe to
force her out of another race.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The other main suspect
is Irene, the owner of a big name shoe company. Rumor says that she
wanted Annette but was turned down and went to this girl Renee. Since
Renee hasn't won many races, the company is about to drop her. Brenda
shows up at a press conference and taunts Irene about Annette being a
winner and Renee being a loser. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bess and Nancy head to a
hot club and meet up with Jake. Jake leaves early but dances with
Bess a few times. The next morning, they find that George already
left with Kevin. She left a note though about how he shot footage of
Annette almost getting run over and solid to a big company. Nancy
starts suspecting him of hurting Annette to further his career.
Before she can do much though, she and Bess almost get hit by a
planter falling from the sky.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy moves them in time
but sees someone looking down at them from the eighth floor. They run
upstairs and see Gina coming from that floor. It turns out that the
planter actually came from Irene's window. Bess points out that they
now know it wasn't Kevin because he was with George the whole time.
When they go to the gym to meet them though, George reveals that he
left early. They then find Annette trapped and passed out in the
sauna.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Annette wakes up quickly
and claims that she's fine. She also refuses to let Nancy call the
cops. That all changes when they head out to do some shopping.
Someone grabs Nancy in the dressing room and tries to choke her
before running away. The only person who knew where they went was
Irene. Nancy then sneaks into Irene's office and finds that her
company did make an offer to Annette who turned them down. Irene also
has a memo that says if Renee doesn't start winning, the company will
drop her endorsement deal.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our three main gals and
Annette go out again and get shot at. The sniper used a gun with a
silencer on it. Nancy gives chase and sees him get in a car with the
logo of Kevin's company on it. When she tells George her suspicions,
George says it can't be him. Annette finally agrees to call the cops.
After hearing all the evidence, they confront Kevin. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It turns out that it
wasn't him though. He checked the car out from the head office after
the shooting. Kevin tells Nancy that he was out shopping for a good
luck charm for George, which is a silver running shoe on a necklace.
George finally admits that she can see why the evidence would point
to him. That doesn't stop her from letting Kevin take them all out
for dinner though.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Two other things happen.
Gina confronts Bess in her hotel room and tries to attack her before
Nancy shows up. Bess then tells Nancy that Jake is super boring and
obsessed with running so she doesn't plan on seeing him again. Brenda
loudly goes off in the lobby about an exclusive interview she has
with Gina and how she'll bust Nancy's investigation open first. When
Nancy tells her to chill the eff out before she puts someone in
danger, Brenda says she's just jealous because she's such as a better
detective.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Brenda then shows up all
confused because Gina missed their meeting. They all head upstairs,
and Nancy uses her lock picking kit to break into the room where they
find Gina passed out with a massive bruises on her head. The cops get
all the suspects together and in a great move, the head detective
throws Brenda out. No one really breaks down or confesses anything,
but Renee does go off about how she can't wait to beat Annette in the
race.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy then sees someone
try to drag Annette into a waiting car. She gets there in time to
save her but not in time to stop Brenda from taking a bunch of
photos. Brenda claims she got an anonymous tip from someone who told
her to be out there with her camera at that time. After some thought,
Nancy sits down and tells Derek that she has some big news: the
person behind everything is Annette.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the end, the person
helping her the entire time was Charles, a random dude only mentioned
once who is also Renee's trainer. It turns out that his real name is
Calvin and that he's on Interpol's most wanted list for poisoning
racers in Europe. They figure out that he knows they know the truth
and wants to kill Annette to save himself. Nancy even realizes he'll
hide at one of the water stations during the actual marathon.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The cops come to the
race and catch Calvin/Charles at the 26 mile mark. Renee comes in
first in the race with Annette 100 yards behind her. The cops arrest
Annette and tell her that her accomplice already talked. George then
finishes the marathon with her best time ever. Kevin makes plans to
come to River Heights for a week and suggests he bring along a racing
friend for Bess, but she cuts him off and tells him she's done with
racers forever.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*George wants to check
out the race route and claims it's not a good idea to run it before
the marathon. BUT, she's totally fine with cycling the whole route on
a bicycle. What the heck?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Since Bess hates any
physical activity – their emphasis, not mine – she decides to go
shopping instead of bike riding.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Kevin is an Olympic
athlete who retired to become a sportscaster and personal trainer. Of
course he would fall for some random girl from Illinois.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The club they go to is
called Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, which seems really poor taste.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Gina hates Annette
because she was in a race and threw an elbow pretty hard into another
runner and hurt her. That runner submitted an anonymous complaint
that got Gina tossed from a race. Despite no evidence, she thinks
Annette turned her in.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The detective actually
tells Brenda that he won't let his investigation turn up in her
gossip column, which is a sick burn for someone who thinks she's a
star reporter. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Annette started the
whole thing because she realized there were better racers coming up
behind her and she wanted to stay on top.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I have no knowledge
about marathons at all, but are there really huge marathons like this
just for women? I always assumed marathons were for all ages and
genders.</span></span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-76535385519401516842021-03-22T14:58:00.006-04:002021-03-22T14:58:08.512-04:00Ghosts of Fear Street #35: Horror Hotel Part 2: Ghost in the Guest Room (R.L. Stine)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGcWuAs6rykXqwaZZFAqXSXgrxRZW4AZvf7BJSS4JaqjAEtH7cITUMRlAIr3A2YVNYveU3ORwgPD_zUq67TMSubJfg3SI-suscqkCkEUneKxx6M0ZmbiBDOTqHLR3vlNftxO9D9sXLHs/s458/ghost+in+the.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGcWuAs6rykXqwaZZFAqXSXgrxRZW4AZvf7BJSS4JaqjAEtH7cITUMRlAIr3A2YVNYveU3ORwgPD_zUq67TMSubJfg3SI-suscqkCkEUneKxx6M0ZmbiBDOTqHLR3vlNftxO9D9sXLHs/s320/ghost+in+the.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joe and
grandpa switched bodies at the end of the last book. As they attempt
to do a spell to switch back, grandpa disappears. Joe hears strange
noises in the wall and thinks he might be in there. When he touches
it though, weird good appears on his hands. His mom then wanders in
and reminds him to put on his costume for the night. She tells him
that if things don't go well, they might lose the hotel.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When he
finally gets ready, she asks him to go out and get some ice for the
opening night party. Joe has no idea how to drive and almost causes a
massive accident. He survives and does well at the party, only to
wake in the middle of the night with the feeling that someone is
trying to suffocate him. It's the goo again, which covers his face
and slides down his throat. Joe tries to run away and runs into the
wall. It becomes soft and lets him go through it.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There he
finds a bunch of webs covering every square inch as well as grandpa.
Joe gets to him and fights off the webs. They then run through the
webs and dig under them to find a way to escape. The wall opens again
and lets them fall through. Grandpa digs out a bunch of old books
owned by the Fears and searches for one to help them change bodies
again. When he finds one and reads it, Joe feels as if his skin is on
fire.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He runs
to the bathroom and hopes in the shower. When he gets out, he's
covered in blisters. Once he pops them though, he sees his old body.
Joe then drags grandpa into the shower and helps him pop his blisters
to become his older self. Everything is fine until Joe plays
basketball with Nick and notices that he's now shorter. When they
check the growth chart, he lost several inches. Joe worries to his
grandpa that the spell went wrong and that now he'll keep shrinking
until he disappears.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joe goes
to Nick who takes him to the comic book store and Stan, the one
person who might help. Stan uses the internet to research the key and
learns about Mr. Withers. He used the key to perform spells and ended
up in an asylum for 50 years before dying. It turns out that grandpa
knows all about the guy and that his grandmother used to tell him to
give Mr. Withers some water and ask him any questions.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Grandpa
tells Joe where to go. He digs up the grave and hands the corpse a
glass of water. Withers then comes to life and tries to choke him but
just wants more water. He explains that he did four spells with the
key and knows how to use it. While he'll tell Joe the secret, he'll
only do it if he can see Shadyside first. To do so, he needs Joe to
take his spot in his grave. Joe agrees and even shakes on it.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joe is
fine up until his flashlight goes out. He then does math problems in
his head to calm down. Mr. Withers finally comes back but tries to
bury Joe alive. Now that he's seen the modern world, he refuses to go
back. He wants to eat microwave burritos and drink cherry slushies.
Joe fights him and ends up breaking off his finger bones to make him
stay in the coffin. Withers finally gives up and tells him that he
enchanted the key so that only his apprentice could use it. If anyone
else used the key, it would make their spells go wrong. They could
call the apprentice in a séance, but the apprentice is Martin, the
same ghost who possessed Joe.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He goes
home to find Nick and grandpa waiting for them. They call the monster
hunting club over and have another séance. Martin once again attacks
him and calls him Colin. The club members show him stuff to try and
make him realize how much time passed, but he chases Joe outside who
leads him to the cemetery. Joe then shows him Colin's grave and makes
him realize that his rival is dead. Martin kicks the headstone and
feels much better. He then reverses the spell and says that he needs
to leave because he hears his mom calling.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At the
end, Joe stops by the mirror on his way to school. He notices that
he's the right height and age but that his reflection wears
old-fashioned clothing. His reflection then tells him that he's Colin
and asks why he gave Martin back the key after all the work it took
to steal it from him...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*I guess
Stine didn't expect fans of Fear Street to read any of these books.
While Simon Fear died in the fire, some of his old spellbooks somehow
survived.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*The
things they show Martin include a sneaker and a calculator.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*I still
maintain that I would love to stay in Hotel Howie.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Withers
was Simon's assistant and learned all about magic at his hands.
There's no explanation for why he was an okay guy when Simon was so
evil.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Does
anyone else love that Withers is most excited about slushies and
burritos out of everything in the modern world? He also loves the
steel carriages that don't need horses.</span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-27495073096377039002021-03-19T14:56:00.005-04:002021-03-19T14:56:00.499-04:00Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #154: The Legend of the Emerald Lady (2000)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOsE88kE7k0c79G7P8lE2w5qNLbvOlYIxl7JvrdhnQlxYgVg7lgiVM27j-55hSQONn5hzZl3Y12uXnBc81vWNOijlRbR2L6gmFO2hnYuQ12X2Evn8m5ImUgJ5mcilga7VAUUkOhRN0-ig/s630/emerald+lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="437" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOsE88kE7k0c79G7P8lE2w5qNLbvOlYIxl7JvrdhnQlxYgVg7lgiVM27j-55hSQONn5hzZl3Y12uXnBc81vWNOijlRbR2L6gmFO2hnYuQ12X2Evn8m5ImUgJ5mcilga7VAUUkOhRN0-ig/s320/emerald+lady.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jack and
Emma Isaac are friends of Carson who bought the Sugar Moon Plantation
in the Caribbean and fixed it up. Nancy heads down with Bess and Ned
to be their first visitors. Not long after getting there, a man
dressed as a pirate pops up. The parrot on his shoulder warns them of
the full moon in two nights before the man laughs and they wander
away. Jack explains that it's Old Ironbones, a fisherman who had an
accident and kind of lost his mind. He now wanders around the island,
teaching his parrots new phrases and feeding stray animals. While
Jack doesn't like him, Emma keeps defending him.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">They
also learn that the couple bought the plantation from the former
owner's estate and met with Duncan, the owner of a local antique
shop. Duncan estimated the value of some of the things they wanted to
sell and seemed especially interested in silverware with the old
owners initials. Emma locked them away. They head into town to rent
snorkeling equipment and meet Pierre, a French neighbor who instantly
falls for Bess. After a short walk, they come back and hear Emma
screaming.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It turns
out that someone spilled a cup of lemonade across her dresser, which
attracted thousands of red ants. While they help her clean up, Nancy
finds a feather by the dresser. She then sees a woman with feather
earrings running away from the scene. The woman is Rafaella, their
cook. She seems super distracted when Nancy tries to talk to her but
makes it clear that she would do nothing to hurt the couple. Nancy
also notices that her earrings aren't missing any feathers and learns
that she bought them from a popular shop downtown.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While
Bess wants to just relax after dinner, Nancy and Ned want to take a
romantic walk. Emma says that she's heading upstairs, but they later
see her on the beach with Old Ironbones. Nancy sees her hand him an
envelope and him take her arm. When she sees her later, Emma has this
smug look on her face that quickly disappears. She then denies that
she went anywhere and claims that Nancy must have gotten her confused
with someone else in the dark.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Nancy
decides to sneak up to the attic and take a look at the antiques. She
hears a weird noise and then sees the shadow of a person. Before she
can do anything, someone hits her from behind. No worries though.
It's Nancy, so she's fine except upset that she missed the intruder.
She tells Jack and Emma the next day, and they explore the attic.
Nancy manages to find a letter a woman wrote to her true love in
prison with clues as to where she hid her necklace. Whoever broke in
likely took the rest of the letter.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Pierre
comes by to pick them up for a day of snorkeling. While they're in
the water, Nancy and Ned go further out. They hear a scream and find
Bess surrounded by barracudas with Pierre nowhere around. Noticing
that they're attracted to her jewelry, Nancy has Ned drop some coins
in the ocean, which distracts the fish long enough for them to get
away. Pierre returns, claiming that he went to a different area and
got caught in the current. He seems to feel really bad for what
happened to Bess.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When
they get back, they learn that Jack dug around for the necklace. He
then tells them that Duncan, the antique shop owner, invited them to
a huge party at his mansion. They have the option of salad or fried
plantains. Nancy is the only one who chooses plantains, and Emma
saves her when she sees poisonous nuts on the top. While talking to
the chef, she learns that the waitress left her order sitting out
where anyone could find it and then hears Duncan shouting about the
jewel.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Sneaky
Nancy snoops around and gets caught by Duncan. He seems super
suspicious of her and tells her to mind her own business. Duncan also
says that he was just talking about a missing pirate map that would
be the jewel of his collection. He asks her to dance and seems super
dark, which is why she's happy when Ned cuts in to dance with her.
Later that night, Nancy finds a page from the letter tucked inside
Ned's coat pocket.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As it
turns out, the missing necklace had a beautiful emerald in it that is
worth a fortune. It seems as though everyone hopes to find it. Jack
mentions that he saw Duncan sneaking around Ned's jacket. The page
that she found was a replica of the real thing and has a skull and
crossbones on it, with a warning to Nancy in the middle.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">She then
snoops around some of the buildings on the property and hears a weird
noise. The noise is Rafaella. Someone kidnapped her and tied her to a
post in the building. They sprinkled sugar all over her legs and
covered her with red ants. Nancy saves her and learns that Rafaella
saw someone sneaking around. When she went to tell Jack, the person
grabbed her. Near the spot where the guy grabbed her, Nancy finds a
matchbook from a French restaurant.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Nancy
talks to Emma and learns that she's been giving Old Ironbones money
to care for animals without telling Jack. He's allergic to most
animals and hates them, too. They find the chest of drawers
originally owned by Miranda, the writer of the letter. Nancy finds a
wishing well bank inside, which was one of the clues to the necklace.
Since she suspects Pierre, she asks Bess and Ned for help. Bess
refuses because he's too handsome to do anything wrong.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While on
his boat, Pierre messes with the engine and sends it out to sea.
Nancy gets it under control and comes back to shore to find that Ned
knocked Pierre out. They pull him back to the house and learn that
the chest just went to Duncan's auction. Nancy gets there just in
time to see it go up for auction and has to bid on it, but Pierre
shows up and bids, too. She gets a message to Jack who calls the
sheriff.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
sheriff stops the auction and grabs Pierre. Nancy goes through the
drawers again and finds a hidden latch that reveals a secret spot
with the necklace. Duncan is in shock that all the stories were true.
Miranda loved a man named Giles who gave her the necklace before he
was sent to prison. She got sick and wrote to him to help him find it
after she died. Giles escaped from prison but was killed on his way
back to her.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It turns
out that Pierre was an ancestor of the woman and only came to the
island to search for the necklace. He admits to breaking into the
house and committing other crimes as well as pretending that Ned
knocked him out on the beach so he could hear everything they knew.
The sheriff then takes him away as Bess says that she hopes they lock
him up. The crew then gets to relax on the beach until it's time to
head home.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*In case
you wonder why George missed the trip, she had a marathon that week
that she refused to miss.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Ned
carries Bess's lipstick in her pocket when she doesn't have pockets.
Is he not the perfect guy?</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*So once
again, Bess becomes obsessed with the bad guy and refuses to believe
that he could do anything wrong since he's so cute. Sigh. </span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*When
Bess refuses to help them, Nancy cheerfully tells her to call the
cops if they don't make it back. Bess just waves because she's so
sure that Pierre is innocent.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Is
anyone else curious why they arrested Pierre? I'm guessing the whole
breaking and entering thing, even though he didn't steal anything.
When you consider that he was the last descendant of the necklace's
owner though, would he do any time? I'm assuming that even he does,
he'll get the necklace when he gets out!</span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-64703274478886521742021-03-17T14:55:00.005-04:002021-03-17T14:55:04.397-04:00Ghosts of Fear Street #34: Horror Hotel 1: The Vampire Checks In (R.L. Stine)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgImQ0n4Um2o_kLEYBn9W1j7kCMjXm2a2oo1pT9RjG-__e4U-Ibthq4GurVFpyYcMkD2007ATdyA10oMffN2NvtLR4o2kmc7CajDtxJatukKtSLgszlC-1daXCW1wQgAfK6xWA5hNQcb0A/s446/vampire+checks+in.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgImQ0n4Um2o_kLEYBn9W1j7kCMjXm2a2oo1pT9RjG-__e4U-Ibthq4GurVFpyYcMkD2007ATdyA10oMffN2NvtLR4o2kmc7CajDtxJatukKtSLgszlC-1daXCW1wQgAfK6xWA5hNQcb0A/s320/vampire+checks+in.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joe just
moved to Shadyside with his parents and brother Neddy to open a hotel
with their grandfather. Grandpa claims that they're related to the
Fears and wants to open a hotel on Fear Street called Hotel Howie
named after him. Joe quickly makes a new friend named Nick and
invites him over for dinner. Grandpa delights them with family
stories, but it's Nick who notices a portrait of a boy who died in
the 1800s who looks exactly like Joe.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He then
joins his friend's new club where they hunt monsters. They all claim
that they believe in monsters and hunted them before. Robin, one of
the girls, goes missing at the end of the meeting and seems a little
strange when she comes back. The next day, she comes up to Joe in
school and tries to bite him. No one really believes him since she
seems normal, but they do notice that she has a drop of blood on her
shirt.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joe then
heads home and finds his brother acting weird. Neddy's hair is
sticking straight up, and he's super pale. When Joe asks if he's
okay, his brother growls and lunges at him. By the time he finds
their mom, Neddy is back to normal. To protect himself, Joe starts
sprinkling himself with garlic powder and carrying it around with
him. Nick says that it will repel vampires along with anyone else who
catches a whiff.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While
checking out the attic, Joe stumbles onto a coffin, which he
remembers that vampires use. A bat comes out of nowhere and attacks
him, causing him to hop in the coffin. He then gets stuck and can
hear the bat outside. His dad saves him and laughs about how it's a
prop coffin that opens on his own. He bought it to add to the spooky
design of the hotel. Joe later sees a vampire in the hotel and runs,
but it's once again his dad who claims it was all part of his opening
night show for the hotel.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When Joe
finds a note in his locker to meet the monster club in the boiler
room, he goes there and finds Robin. She attacks him and shows him
her fangs, pushing him against the wall and trying to bite him. Joe
sprinkles her with garlic powder, which causes her to start laughing
as the other members come out of the shadows. Nick explains that it
was a trick to make sure that he believed in monsters.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joe then
heads home and finds the hotel empty. He sees a stuffed rabbit that
he never saw before on his desk. The rabbit starts breathing and then
attacks him. As Joe knows that vampires can take other forms, he
starts freaking out. It becomes a suit or armor and then transforms
into a bear skin rug. The bear takes form and attacks him again. He
manages to scare it away with a vacuum cleaner. Yes, a vacuum.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
members of the monster hunting club come over with a tool made from a
coffin. It supposedly detects monsters but doesn't go off anywhere in
the hotel. When it finally does, they can't find any monsters, so
they decide to spend the night and hold a séance. This causes Nick
to transform into a hairy monster. The monster says his name is
Martin and that Colin Fear killed him, the kid from the portrait who
looks just like Joe.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joe runs
into the kitchen with the monster behind him. His grandpa sees it
happens and mutters something that makes the monster become Nick
again. The other kids tell him that they've never seen such a
powerful being before and they don't know what to do. Things get even
worse when Martin takes over Joe's body and tries to stab him with a
knife.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">His
friends tell him to talk to his grandpa. He then learns that his
grandpa knows some spells, one of which he used on the monster. That
night, Joe hears Martin's voice in his head. Martin says that he
isn't going anywhere until he gets his revenge and tries to force Joe
to kill himself. He then forces the kid onto the roof and tells him
to jump, but his dad shows up at the last minute to save him.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Martin
then reveals that he has control over his body from midnight to 12:15
every night. The ghost tries to kill Joe's dad but runs out of time
before he can do it. Joe's dad is pretty surprised by everything but
realizes that grandpa's stories were true. Grandpa says that Martin
will keep getting stronger every night until he gains complete
control over Joe but that they can do a spell that night and get rid
of him. It turns out that they need a key though, which they don't
have.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Grandpa
still does the spell. Martin pretends that it worked and then forces
Joe to put his head in a guillotine. Grandpa saves the day and leads
Martin on a chase through the house. When Martin tries to stab him,
grandpa reaches for the portrait of Colin, which a key falls out of
when Martin slashes it. Martin grabs it and the spellbook, which he
throws in the fire. Since grandpa can't remember the spell, Martin
thinks that he won.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At the
last second, grandpa suddenly remembers the spell and banishes Martin
forever. They both feel a little weird and head to bed in the hopes
that things will be different in the morning. Things definitely are
different as grandpa messed up the spell and caused them to switch
bodies...</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Hotel
Howie will use the Fear Street legacy to draw in visitors. They plan
on having different theme nights like vampires and werewolves. I
totally want to stay there.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Joe's
mom really hates the whole Fear Street thing. She rolls her eyes when
her dad brings it up, which makes it weird that she would move to a
town where she can't escape it.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*The
monster club trick was pretty cruel. I get that they only want
members who believe in monsters, but Joe literally couldn't sleep for
days because of it.</span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-65657063713871934712021-03-15T14:54:00.005-04:002021-03-15T14:54:01.045-04:00The Nancy Drew Notebooks #4: Bad Day for Ballet<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkzV5wROToYzBPpHQtJ8aaL-kd93NXgLtfV0iL1nXNZfcojz5pm1mUvkotw2DJcmNRN12mToK27rq8dmeM6f3_ldf0pFRXXyZ8L1j63hmfNPHKuB6qz1evXu60I7F59P-imOA0Vkj70A/s700/bad+day+for+ballet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkzV5wROToYzBPpHQtJ8aaL-kd93NXgLtfV0iL1nXNZfcojz5pm1mUvkotw2DJcmNRN12mToK27rq8dmeM6f3_ldf0pFRXXyZ8L1j63hmfNPHKuB6qz1evXu60I7F59P-imOA0Vkj70A/s320/bad+day+for+ballet.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Most of
the small girls in River Heights are in Madame Durgrand's ballet
class. Bess was sick and missed a few classes, which explains why she
keeps messing up her steps. She needs to figure it out because they
have a big recital coming up. Their teacher picked some kids to have
solo dances from Peter Pan and arranged group dances for everyone
else. Nancy and her friends get to be mermaids.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Brenda
is unhappy that the teacher gave the Wendy solo to her friend Alison
and stops talking to her. When they get ready for a rehearsal,
Dugrand finds that someone stole the only tape of their music. Brenda
immediately blames Bess because she was the last person backstage.
Jerry, the janitor, is also a suspect. He has to keep putting off his
personal life because of rehearsals and has to give up concert
tickets he bought for his girlfriend's birthday for the big show.
Nancy sees Paul, their teacher's young son playing around, too.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The only
clue she has is an Eiffel Tower charm, which the teacher gives to her
top students. She instantly suspects Brenda because only she and
Alison have that same charm. When she finds that they both have their
charms, she turns her attention to Jerry. Nancy finds a tape hidden
with his stuff, but it's only a tape of his girlfriend's favorite
band.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While
waiting for their teacher, Nancy notices that Paul has a whole play
area set up to look like Paris. He says that he made it from the
pictures his mom has of the city. When she tells him that he needs an
Eiffel Tower, he says he has one. She reaches in his secret box to
look for it, and he slaps her hand away. Nancy then finds a bunch of
cinnamon candies near where the tape was and puts it all together.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">She
grabs the madame and takes her to Paul. As soon as she asks him, he
bursts into tears about how much he hates ballet and wants more time
with his mom. The madame apologizes for not realizes how much he
missed his sitter, which is the reason he's always around. Paul hands
over the tape. Alison and Brenda make up, Nancy gets all the acclaim
for solving the mystery, and their big recital goes off without a
hitch.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Saturday
morning is when Hannah goes out and leaves them alone. Nancy loves it
because Carson always gets up early to make her breakfast, which is
super cute.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*They
practice at Bess's house and then go out for ice cream. Her mom will
only let them leave if they wash off their makeup first, which is so
realistic.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*To no
one's surprise, George hates makeup and hides when it's time to put
it on for the recital. She also hates wearing tights.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Uh, has
the teacher never heard of a music store before? You can literally
buy a copy of that tape for like 10 bucks.</span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-81970756447209563492021-03-12T14:46:00.018-05:002021-03-12T14:46:00.336-05:00Sweet Valley High #110: Death Threat<p> Let's recap again, just in case you missed any parts of this absolutely insane story!</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8176134373438082491/8197075644720956349" target="_blank">Sweet Valley High #107: Jessica's Secret Love </a><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8176134373438082491/8197075644720956349" target="_blank">Sweet Valley High #108: Left at the Altar</a><br /></p><p> </p><p><a href="https://yarevisited.blogspot.com/2021/03/sweet-valley-high-109-double-crossed.html" target="_blank">Sweet Valley High #109: Double-Crossed</a></p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU47EwNvmiejf9pxDeT-nq4HyYETTWXpFP7yl3aiqUG0ONm2KiC3yvWgQVGYj4ngBXaAmvyn3kuYADJ3F5uhE4qjW3wH_VQ6qOXYV8Q__d6OdpwR9ejfj_P-f0VAkbqM8pao6ypeJ81HM/s500/double+crossed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="294" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU47EwNvmiejf9pxDeT-nq4HyYETTWXpFP7yl3aiqUG0ONm2KiC3yvWgQVGYj4ngBXaAmvyn3kuYADJ3F5uhE4qjW3wH_VQ6qOXYV8Q__d6OdpwR9ejfj_P-f0VAkbqM8pao6ypeJ81HM/s320/double+crossed.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jessica
throws herself at Jeremy because even though he literally just got
caught making out with Sue, he came back for her! He has no time to
celebrate though because, you know, Sue went missing. Jeremy shows
them Sue's necklace as proof that someone took her. Jessica thinks
the whole thing is ridiculous and that Sue probably made the whole
thing up just to trap him. Come on, Jess, it's not like she took a
page from your playbook.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jeremy
and the twins head out to the woods to look for her. He makes Jessica
go by herself and sends Elizabeth in a different way. While they're
out looking, he sneaks inside the cabin and pulls down a trap door to
get into the attic where Sue is waiting. Jeremy then gives her a
recorder and makes her promise that she'll call the Wakefield house
at exactly 7:15 the next morning. It should surprise no one that this
is all just a ploy to get her inheritance.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He shows
up the next morning to inform Ned and Alice what happened. They all
lie about the twins leaving in the middle of the night because they
don't want to upset them. Sue then calls and plays the tape over the
phone, which says that the kidnapper wants $500,000, conveniently the
same amount that she got in her mom's will and will kill Sue if he
doesn't get it. The voice also tells them not go to to the cops.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">While
Ned and Alice agree not to go to the cops, Ned calls his friend Sam,
a detective. Jeremy obviously isn't happy with this development. The
Wakefield parents also decide that the twins shouldn't go to school
until everything is settled. Alice acts super weird when Lila stops
to pick up Jessica, which sets off her Lila tingle. When she calls,
Jessica keeps whispering to her. She can't hear everything but thinks
that someone is holding the family hostage.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">To get
Robbie back for his nude modeling class, Lila lies and says that an
artist wants her to model for him nude. Robbie gets pissed and storms
off. When she hears from Jessica, she rushes to his side and then
gets Todd to help. They go over to the Wakefield house and see a dark
shadowy figure inside and assume that it's the kidnapper and not
Jeremy. Robbie luckily has a cousin who works for the power company
who can get them everything they need for a scheme to save their
friends.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
cousin takes them to the power company and pretends that they're
workers. Lila sneaks in to steal uniforms and almost gets caught,
which causes her to hide under a bunch of clothes. They then borrow a
power company van and get all dressed up. The best part is that Todd
doesn't put his coveralls on right and trips getting out of the van,
revealing to everyone his boxers. At one point, Robbie tells Lila to
keep her eyes forward while he changes in the back, and Todd jokes
that she needs to keep her eyes off him, too.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jessica
really hates that Jeremy is so involved in Sue's disappearance. She
keeps trying to get his attention, but he keeps ignoring him. When
she wears her new swimsuit and does a perfect dive, she finds that he
fell asleep. He doesn't seem interested in taking her out on dates or
spending any time with her either. To get his attention, she gives
him a wedding band, <i>the same wedding band that Steven bought when
he was going to marry Cara</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. It
doesn't fit his ring finger but does fit his pinkie. He agrees to
always wear it and think of her.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">At
the same time, he decides that anyone could catch Sue, especially
when he finds that she left the attic to get warm. Jeremy ties her to
a chair with just enough free space to call the house again and puts
a bandanna over her face. This message says that since they called
for help, the kidnapper now wants $600,000 and he wants the twins to
deliver the cash. Ned agrees to take the money out of their bank
account and pay it.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Sam
turns out to a super hot detective named Samantha. She seems shocked
and let's be honest, a little disgusted, when she hears the story of
what happened to Sue, especially with Jessica's part. Jeremy keeps
bringing up Stu, Sue's stepdad, as the likely kidnapper and claims
that he was upset at losing the money. Sam then points out that Stu
has lots of money on his own. Jeremy also gives his whoa is me story
about randomly falling in love with Jessica and how Sue was only like
a sister to him, despite the whole making out with her multiple
times.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Ned
comes home with the money. The twins will take it to a gas station
and drop it off, after which they can pick up Sue. Liz notices that
Jeremy is infatuated with the money and literally </span><i>keeps
smelling it</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> as they count it.
Lila and the gang put their plan into motion. Jeremy rushes out of
the house after the twins. They see him and think he's the kidnapper.
Todd and Robbie jump on him from opposite directions until they see
it's him. He then takes off in his car, while Alice wonders what the
hell is going on and why the teens are dressed as power company
workers.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jeremy
deliberately stopped Sam's car from working to keep her from chasing
the kidnapper. He gets to the cabin and drags Sue to the gas station
with plans to meet later. While Liz drops off the money, Jess uses a
camera to film the whole thing. They see the kidnapper grab the money
from a phone booth and then pick up Sue, who seems both tired and
sad. When they get back, she eats everything in sight but claims that
she can't remember anything about the kidnapper.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">They
then sit down to watch the video. Sam reveals that Ned arranged to
get fake money, which causes Sue to smile for the first time. Despite
watching the video multiple times, no one sees anything that will
help them catch the guy. Well, except for Jess. See, she can't help
but notice that the kidnapper has a very familiar gold ring on his
pinkie finger...</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*In the
last book, Jessica saw Jeremy <i>holding Sue's face in his hands
while basically grinding on her as they made out against a tree.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
In this one, she totally believes him when he says that Sue asked him
to go for a walk and then threw herself at him.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Jessica
wears a purple string bikini while hanging out in the backyard with
him. This, Ned and Alice, this is why your daughter needs
professional help and shouldn't date anyone ever.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Lila
kind of apologizes to Robbie about the whole nude modeling thing but
tells him they have more important things to deal with since someone
has the Wakefield family held hostage.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Sue
only realizes that Jeremy played her when she wakes up in the middle
of the night at the Wakefield house and he never came for her.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Is it
just me or if this a lot of crap to go through for $500,000? That
wasn't even a super ton of money back then.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Jessica
imagines herself getting the inheritance when she turns 22 and using
it to buy a huge mansion in Beverley Hills. If you ever needed proof
that she has no concept of money, here you go.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Liz
tries telling her multiple times that Jeremy is no good. She points
out all the times he lied to her, but Jessica just claims that he
would never treat her the way he treats Sue. Jessica literally says
this right after he claims he's going back to his hotel for a
conference call and never answers the phone when she calls.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*I find
it really weird that a ring designed to fit Steven's ring finger
would only fit on Jeremy's pinkie. I guess it was a way of explaining
how big and massive he is or something.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Sue
confessed in the last book that she lied about her rare blood
condition to trap Jeremy. She only tells Liz though who never tells
anyone else. When talking to Sam, Jessica is the one who reveals the
secret to Alice.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Robbie
says that he only knew Jeremy for a week or so before they met Lila
and Jessica on the beach. That answers one of the questions I had
when reading the last book.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Jessica
is a major bitch in this book. The whole time Sue is missing, she
keeps making snide comments about how she probably set the whole
thing up. Even where there are hints that Jeremy was in on it, she
puts the blame on Sue.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Ned and
Alice let Jeremy hang out at the house all of the time and leave him
and Jess alone for hours. That will teach your teen daughter not to
get engaged to a grown man!</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And, just in case you want to know how this crap show ends: <a href="https://yarevisited.blogspot.com/2014/03/sweet-valley-high-111-deadly-christmas.html">Sweet Valley High #111: A Deadly Christmas</a>. <br /></span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-85201179365784702272021-03-10T14:44:00.004-05:002021-03-10T14:44:02.231-05:00Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #51: Mystery of the Glowing Eye (1974)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlzNmgizFZfDIFuXkGYXH4372LWX_Bghvm1_mGrklD3J4vYRRuRLX1VzrCmSUMnjV_iKRCRaWsOf_lqCi5oeloLULmf9kpvGgtNZwK98umvCglV9snexTnXJUk0VuHMrf_6fBnBjDKbVQ/s450/glowing+eye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="275" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlzNmgizFZfDIFuXkGYXH4372LWX_Bghvm1_mGrklD3J4vYRRuRLX1VzrCmSUMnjV_iKRCRaWsOf_lqCi5oeloLULmf9kpvGgtNZwK98umvCglV9snexTnXJUk0VuHMrf_6fBnBjDKbVQ/s320/glowing+eye.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Nancy is
less than enthused about a recent mystery involving her father.
Carson is working on a case about a glowing eye and initially asked
for her help but then turned to Marty, a new and pretty associate
working for the firm. Nancy calls her friends and asks for help. Not
long after they get there, a helicopter comes out of nowhere and
lands on the front lawn.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">By the
time they get outside, no one is there. They do find a note inside
from Ned that warns Nancy about the cyclops. The cops and neighbors
then show up along with Carson. They realize that it was a robot
copter, as in one controlled by someone else with no pilot. George
calls Burt at Emerson College and learns that not only did Ned go
missing, but there are rumors that someone kidnapped him!</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">They
then get heavy ropes and tie down the copter, but it somehow still
gets away the next morning. Nancy and her friends decide to go to
Emerson and look for Ned. They run into Carson and Marty at a
restaurant on the way. Marty tells her not to worry about the glowing
eye as she has it all under control. They then take a trip to the
local museum and learn that Marty was there earlier. When they ask to
see what she saw, they go to an exhibit where a glowing eye appears
when the lights go down.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ms.
Wilkin, who runs the museum, explains that the engineering department
brings students to the museum and asks them to find the source but no
one has yet. Nancy then learns that Ned came there with his class and
went missing at the same time as this guy Zapp, who conveniently is a
pilot. They find another pilot who takes them on a ride. He says that
an executive named Crossley recently hired him to fly over River
Heights. Crossley is actually Zapp.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Bess and
her guy Dave stay behind and explore an abandoned farmhouse. After
finding a penny from 1923, they stumble on a weird room where the
floor collapses and drops them to the bottom story. Nancy finds a
matching penny when she gets off her flight and then meet Jerry, the
only pilot in town with a robot copter. His copter is clearly not the
one that landed at her house. They also go to a party at the college
where a suspicious man calls and asks for Burt or Dave and refuses to
give his name.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Professor
Titus of the engineering department agrees to let Nancy and her
friends look around. She finds some files that interest her, but when
she opens the next drawer, it explodes and catches a bunch of papers
on fire. The fire department has to come along with the bomb squad
because it turns out that there was a bomb in the drawer. Nancy then
finds a weird gadget that emits a warning that it is cyclops and no
one should touch it. The professor takes it as evidence.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Nancy
goes over some of the papers that she took and finds a bunch of
drawings. The Latin words on them stand for cyclops. She then calls
Ned's house and learns from his mom that he recently sent home some
papers from school. All she can remember is that they showed a lot of
technical drawings. When Nancy calls to talk to Hannah, she's shocked
when Marty answers the phone.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It turns
out that Hannah had a family emergency and had to leave town at the
last minute. Marty stuck around to let Carson know. Since Hannah
couldn't make him dinner, Marty was there cooking. She hints around
about her insider who went missing and how she's interested in
someone special. Even Bess and George know not to tease Nancy about
this new development.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">After
meeting his parents and finding nothing of use, the whole gang sees a
copter and follow it. They lose it but find a note from Ned in the
road and then a cabin in the woods where they find a full laboratory.
Nancy then discovers a notebook that Ned left behind where he
documented his kidnapping, including how he dropped the note for
Nancy out of the copter in the hopes that someone might find it. When
they get back to the college, Nancy comes up with a plan to save Ned
and catch the kidnapper.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Nancy
calls Bess and George's parents to tell them that they'll be away
from home for a bit longer. George's dad reveals that he stopped by
the museum to see the eye and that it was missing. Ms. Wilkin first
denied that it was ever there and then admitted that someone from
Emerson took it back. She also learns that Zapp was Marty's insider
and that she thinks he's a red-haired nutso, the same term Ned used
in one of his letters to describe the guy.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When
Nancy goes back to the museum to investigate, something pins her arm
to the wall where they eye was. George has to get the janitor and
have him turn off the power to the museum. Both Titus and Wilkin then
show up. While Wilkin apologizes for what happened, Titus makes sure
that she's okay and then discovers that someone hid an electric
current in the museum. It's what trapped her in place.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Everyone
splits up, and Titus finds a notebook from Cyclops. He talks about
all of his experiments and how his aunt, Wilkin, allowed him to sleep
on the second floor. A repairman shows up to interrupt them with the
claim that people complained about the phone not working. He finds
that someone cut the line. After he leaves, a glowing eye appears
that stops them from moving. Titus claims that the voice sounded like
Zapp and that doctors did similar experiments with hypnotism.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
whole group along with the professor head to an abandoned house and
split up. Nancy hears a scream and realizes that her friends are
paralyzed by the glowing eye. She then finds Zapp locked in the attic
and gets the professor to identify him. Zapp says he'll only tell
them about Ned if they help him first. When they release him, he just
laughs and says he'll never tell them what he knows.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Just as
she's about to fall asleep, she hears the robot copter and runs
outside to see Ned climbing out of it. He reveals that Zapp held him
on an abandoned military base and used the glowing eye to experiment
on him. Apparently, Zapp was the one who made it. The dude also
planned on using his invention to hypnotize people and planned on
selling it. Ned then tells her that he'll explain everything else
later. </span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Apparently,
Ned and Zapp worked close to each other in the lab. When Ned got
close to figuring out the glowing eye, Zapp kidnapped him and stole
all of his work. He also stole some ideas that Ned had for other
experiments. After Zapp left one last time and didn't come back, Ned
stole the robot copter and headed home.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Nancy
then calls home to tell Carson that she solved the mystery. It turns
out that he had a client who visited the museum and hired the firm to
find out more about the glowing eye. She asks to talk to Marty and
learns that she got fired. Carson says that while her legal work was
excellent, she kept changing his schedule to be alone with her. The
last straw was when she proposed to him. Nancy takes a deep breathe
and asks him to promise that if he ever gets married again, it won't
be to someone who tries to solve her mysteries.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Both
Ned and Burt are referred to as Nancy and George's “special
friends.” I love that this book came out in the 70s and still used
outdated terms!</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Marty
refers to Bess and George as Nancy's “little friends” who help
her solve crimes. I knew I wouldn't like her after that. And
seriously, hasn't Nancy solved like 50+ crimes at this point while
Marty has absolutely no experience?</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Professor
Titus tells the bomb squad that Nancy is an amateur detective with
professional skills, which is kind of sweet.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*I think
this might be the first Nancy Drew book I read where Ned's parents
pop up.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">*Even
though Ned often drives back and forth from River Heights to Emerson,
it's now so far away that they have to fly there. It must be like
Sweet Valley University.</span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-26559008200275414972021-03-07T14:44:00.002-05:002021-06-01T03:25:02.227-04:00Sweet Valley High #109: Double-Crossed<p> I have <b><i>no clue </i></b>how I read these books so far out of order, but to recap:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://yarevisited.blogspot.com/2011/11/sweet-valley-high-107-jessicas-secret.html" target="_blank">Sweet Valley High #107: Jessica's Secret Love</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://yarevisited.blogspot.com/2012/05/sweet-valley-high-108-left-at-altar.html" target="_blank">Sweet Valley High #108: Left at the Altar</a></p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWz9frziIEG9hX5azF5cr2Nw2f2_JsepY6nA4uwOyCR9X5CUurZ4125Mi8DK7IbMt2yYvl3q2-kb5bW38vT9IZSW5MSDZS79uBMWDOCtKl-29W3TqNQRkFiYrxQn8V-mGekwliMhEQmnI/s500/double+crossed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="294" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWz9frziIEG9hX5azF5cr2Nw2f2_JsepY6nA4uwOyCR9X5CUurZ4125Mi8DK7IbMt2yYvl3q2-kb5bW38vT9IZSW5MSDZS79uBMWDOCtKl-29W3TqNQRkFiYrxQn8V-mGekwliMhEQmnI/s320/double+crossed.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This book takes place
after Jess interrupted Jeremy and Sue's wedding, so she's now
temporarily living at Fowler Crest. Lila kind of thinks that the
whole thing is romantic but wonders if her friend made the right
decision. Liz calls to tell her twin that Ned and Alice are seriously
talking about sending her to boarding school. Jess blows the whole
thing off because as soon as they see that she and Jeremy are truly
in love, they'll understand everything.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The new lovebirds go out
like twice before Jeremy tells her that he has to leave town on a
Project Nature assignment in Costa Rica. He promises that he'll only
be gone a few weeks and when he comes back, he can transfer to their
office in California. Before he leaves, he gives her an engagement
ring, the same on that she picked out when shopping with Sue. He
makes her promise that she won't tell anyone until he gets back.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Instead, she tells Lila
who promises to keep it a secret. Lila then tells Caroline who
spreads it around school. Liz is one of the last people to hear and
has a breakdown because the twins are growing apart. Jess calms her
down and says that no matter what happens, they'll always be sisters.
Liz and Todd can even live next door to her and Jeremy.</span></span></p><p> </p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The only problem is
Jeremy, big surprise. She demands that he let her go to the airport
with him, but then he makes her leave before she can see him get on
the plane. Whenever she calls him, he's never there but conveniently
calls back later. Lila brings up how Jess would go out late with Sam
and pretend she was at Fowler Crest. When Alice called, Lila would
make up an excuse and call Jess who would then call home from his
house. Jess has no idea how this relates to her and Jeremy. We also
get a scene of a dude calling Jeremy and telling him that she called
again while he smokes a cigarette.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Todd and Winston both go
to the same place to get their hair cut. While Todd gets a new guy,
Winston gets the old guy who keeps calling him the wrong name and
ruining his hair. Todd gets a hot new look and decides to grow a
mustache at the same time. While all of the guys love it, Liz hates
it. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It gets to the point
where she cringes when he touches her. They have a romantic moment
and start making out. As soon as his mustache touches her face, she
runs away from him. They have a huge fight, with her telling him that
it's gross and no one likes it. The fight gets so bad that they end
up breaking up.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sue has her ups and
downs, not surprisingly. She spends the first few days crying in bed
and wishing that she could change things. Liz worries because Sue
goes off by herself all the time and rarely eats, plus she works out
a lot. Things get much worse when Jess moves back home. </span></span>
</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After one dinner where
Jess makes snide comments about boarding school and then drops the
news that he proposed, all hell breaks loose. The next morning, they
find Sue passed out in bed with a suicide note and an empty bottle of
pills next to her. Doctors pump her stomach and let her return to the
Wakefield house but tell them to keep an eye on her.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jess briefly wonders if
anyone would blame her for everything and then decides that no one
can stand in the way of her true love. She keeps moping around until
Jeremy calls to say that it will be at least another couple of weeks.
No worries though because Project Nature is having a huge Halloween
party in the woods. He tells her to invite all of her friends and
that he'll bring her the perfect costume.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lila and Robby are
having some problems too. He gets an invite to a big show for new
artists, but she thinks that the gallery will take advantage of him.
She signs him up for a business class, he freaks out, and they stop
talking. They get back together when he admits that he started taking
the class and likes it so much that he signed up for another class.
When she finds out he draws nudes, she freaks out again and they
break up yet again before getting back together.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We then learn that Sue
has a dark side. She starts sneaking around the house to get the mail
and taking letters from somewhere in California up to her room before
anyone can see them. When a mysterious stranger calls her, she laughs
about how the “suicide attempt” wasn't as bad as she thought but
not something she would want to do again.</span></span></p><p> </p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alice gets a certified
letter in the mail about Sue's mom's will. Sue's mom was the heiress
to a frozen food fortune but wrote Sue out of her will when she kept
seeing Jeremy who she hated. She added an amendment that if Sue and
Jeremy broke up and stayed apart for two months, then she would get
the money. If she failed, Alice would inherit everything. Since
Jeremy left town and they stayed apart, she gets the fortune.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Amy and some other kids
started a video club at SVH and get together to show their movies.
She asks Jess for help with her film, which really just sets up a
reason for her to come to their meeting. They watch the video that
Winston made about the best places to kiss in Sweet Valley. She's
shocked to see Jeremy and Sue kissing just weeks ago but convinces
herself that it's not them.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cut to the big Halloween
party. Jeremy sends over a Jasmine dress and plans to go as Aladdin.
Liz wears her same cat costume from last year (which last year?), and
Sue goes as a witch. In the middle of the party, Jeremy goes missing.
Jess can't find him anywhere and sneaks outside to cry about how he
ditched her. She then finds him and Sue making out. He has her
pressed against a tree with his tongue down her throat and hands all
over her. Though he runs after her, she tells Liz what happened who
then drives her home.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica can't stop
crying and sobbing about how it was all a lie and they never stopped
seeing each other. When Jeremy shows up, Liz tells him off and slams
the door in his face. Jess then rushes out and gives her that look
because she just knows that he's there to explain. Instead, Jeremy
wants to tell them that Sue disappeared...</span></span></p><p> </p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*There's a great moment
where Bruce calls Jessica a homewrecker and says that he never should
have let her get caught up in her crazy schemes. When he tells her to
keep her hands to himself, she reminds him that he liked it when she
didn't keep her hands to herself. He gets all embarrassed and makes a
rude comment to Liz, who then reminds him that the sisters have <i>some
things</i> in common.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Liz points out that
Sue's stepdad decided not to come to town after her suicide attempt
because it didn't sound serious. She thinks it's weird because he
married her mom when Sue was eight. That really does make him sound
bad.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*In case you're worried
about poor Winston's hair, don't fret! He winds up getting it all
shaved out and dresses up as Captain Picard for the party, with Maria
going as a Vulcan.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jess is shocked to
learn that her stopping the wedding prevented Alice for becoming a
millionaire. Liz asks if she would trade Jeremy for the money, and
she has to <i>think about it for a second</i> before saying no. Yup,
true love.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Both twins think it's
weird that Sue wants to go the party. Why though? She works for
Project Nature and knows most of the adults who will be there. Jess
is just a random add on from Jeremy who invited all of her friends.
By the way, I would be pissed if my employer threw a massive party
and a bunch of teenagers showed up.</span></span></p><p> </p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Let me point out that
Jeremy is <i><b>23 years old.</b></i><b> </b>I was a dumb shit
teenager girl who dated a guy the same age and now realize how
disturbing it was. At least my way too old boyfriend didn't have a
fiancee!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jess dream engagement
ring is a huge sapphire with a diamond on either side. First of all,
how does a dude working at a nonprofit have the money for that type
of ring? Second, you know Jess wouldn't marry a man without a huge
diamond on her finger!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Lila goes to the party
as the Mona Lisa. I only point this out because it's super cute when
Robby calls her his Mona Lila.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*According to Jess,
she's been infatuated with other guys before but other than Jeremy,
the only one she loved was Sam.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*She's literally at the
beach and points out that one of her boyfriends died when he fell
over the pier a few feet away <i>but that she can't even remember his
name.</i> That means you date too much kid, too much.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Even as a 12/13 year
old or however old I was, I thought this book and the whole series
was ridiculous. What teenage girl wants to marry a guy who literally
broke off his engagement in front of friends days earlier?</span></span></p>
<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-86588826850575473192021-02-23T00:46:00.006-05:002021-02-23T00:46:00.524-05:00Sweet Valley Twins #108: Cammi's Crush<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlExm6BsxrEhqUPqE-T0nyaUs18ZQXcCzccSPbLxg9MOR93lvu5vGVRSEbbgZnCOgsVjag8NrH2Y14AL4SnFz-njx5EfOCBRnTWYG-Ps0g2GGOMt-IxegcXChFTJ-O0XBF_4c883USaV8/s474/cammi+crush.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="322" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlExm6BsxrEhqUPqE-T0nyaUs18ZQXcCzccSPbLxg9MOR93lvu5vGVRSEbbgZnCOgsVjag8NrH2Y14AL4SnFz-njx5EfOCBRnTWYG-Ps0g2GGOMt-IxegcXChFTJ-O0XBF_4c883USaV8/s320/cammi+crush.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">In case you didn't know,
Cammi Adams and Randy Mason are the two smartest kids in Sweet Valley
Middle School. Mr. Clark, the principal, announces a new contest
called Scholar of the Semester. All the local schools will
participate with one top student named at the end of the semester.
Both Cammi and Randy are in the running. If either win, the whole
sixth grade will get a day off school.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica decides that one
of the two must absolutely win because she's totally sick of school.
She goes to them both and offers to help, but they blow her off.
Jessica gives them advice such as stealing the other's homework and
sucking up to their teachers. Cammi worries that Randy listened to
Jessica and puts a bike lock on her locker. Randy sees her and thinks
she listened to Jessica, so he takes all his books home with him.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">When they come to school
the next day, they learn that they have a new substitute named Ms.
Sherman. Cammi stayed up to late working on her latest assignment
that she overslept and came to school late. Ms. Sherman agrees not to
mark her absent but to fail her on a quiz she missed. She also fails
her on her homework because the paper is wrinkled. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Randy's luck is no
better. He went overboard on a timeline project that winds up falling
apart. They end up with another substitute named Mr. Jules. Though
Randy thinks he seems cool and easy going, Mr. Jules fails him on his
timeline because it's not neat. The two teachers keep giving them
both failing grades for stupid reasons. Seriously, Cammi gets a
failing grade because Ms. Sherman says her penmanship isn't good
enough.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">The two go back to
Jessica and beg her for help. She decides that since both teachers
are single, they should fall in love. After all, what makes people
happier then being in love? Jessica uses her purple notebook to
create a list of questions. Cammi hits up Ms. Sherman and asks about
her favorite color, flower, and type of food. Randy then does the
same thing to Mr. Jules.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Cammi sneaks in some
fresh cut lilacs for her teacher. Though Ms. Sherman first accuses
Cammi of sucking up for a better grade, she then gets a little misty
eyed at the idea of a secret admirer. Since Mr. Jules loves Mexican
food, Randy shows him an article in the paper about a new restaurant
and gives him the coupon inside. They then arrange for both teachers
to be in the cafeteria line at the same time. When they bring up the
new restaurant, the teachers wind up making plans to go out together
that night.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Our crazy little trio
then sneaks out to the restaurant and sees the couple together. They
think it's strange but awesome that they fell in love so quickly.
Jessica then tells everyone about how she set them up and takes all
the credit, even bragging about how their day off is now in the bag.
The teachers not only let Randy and Cammi make up some of their work,
but they also seem way more relaxed in class, even tearing up quizzes
and letting them talk instead of writing papers.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">This lasts up until they
find the notebook. The two teachers get into a fight and both blame
each other. They then pile on even more homework and act like real
jackasses in class. Jessica randomly finds a file with the teachers'
names on it in Ned's desk. He then breaks client confidentiality to
tell her all about how the two were married but filed for divorce.
They keep fighting all the time and over every little thing, but he
really thinks they still love each other.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica then pulls Randy
and Cammi into a classroom to tell them what she found out. They're
in the middle of coming up with a brand new plan when the two
teachers surprise them. Jules and Sherman admit that they were a
“little” too hard on their students. They both wanted to be the
best teacher and win some random Teacher of the Semester award, so
they started piling on homework. When they heard the other was doing
the same thing, they amped things up. They apologize but point out
that the kids should mind their own business and assign them a
10-page paper on staying out of other people's business.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">While all this is going
on, Cammi realizes that she has a crush on Randy. She has Jessica
give her a makeover, but he doesn't really notice anything different
about her. When she asks him questions and tries to get to know him,
he thinks she's trying to throw him off his game. At the end though,
they both realize they like each other and that it would be nice if
the other person won the award.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">To no one's surprise,
the kid who wins is from a completely different school. Mr. Clark
decides that since Randy and Cammi came in second and third that they
should still get a day off and tells everyone to meet at the park the
next day. He gives them a special award for doing so good. Jessica
gets ticked off because they didn't give her any credit and whines to
everyone. Randy and Cammi then give her a special certificate they
made just for her in honor of her help, so she gets her way once
again.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*The Scholar of the Year
contest makes absolutely no sense. Are you seriously telling me that
no two kids would ever tie? It's based solely on GPA! There is no way
that one kid would somehow have a higher GPA than someone else.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jessica assumes that
Liz is in the running until she hears the names. It turns out that
Elizabeth got a B in food class because she and the teacher fought
over whether brownies should be cakey or fudgey.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*Liz only shows up one
other time, which is to laugh at Jess about her essay.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*Sherman and Jules
should definitely not be substitute teachers or at least not working
in the same school. There's also no way that the principal or other
teachers wouldn't pick up on their relationship issues.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*Cammi wears a miniskirt
that she borrowed from Jessica and a fuzzy green sweater after
getting her makeover. According to Jess, she looks so good that two
of the popular guys talked to her.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*Sherman literally
recoils when Cammi hands in an assignment on a wrinkled piece of
paper and tells her she absolutely won't accept it. Is this her first
teaching job?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*She's also the one who
lectures Cammi on her penmanship. When she hands back quizzes later,
she marks kids down and outright fails them because she claims their
handwriting is too bad. If I were a parent, I'd definitely be talking
to the principal!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*Also, at one point she
gives them an assignment that requires they read 40 pages in a single
night. When they complain, she increases it to 50 pages. She then
tells them to answer the questions at the end of each chapter, which
she'll grade the next day and count as a test. I had college classes
where we didn't read that much!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">*The Unicorns apparently
now take turns working as secretary and writing down the minutes of
their meetings. That's how the teachers find out who owned the
notebook because of the notes in the back. Does anyone else really
want to read those minutes??</span></span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-62036458365641994102021-02-16T00:42:00.007-05:002021-02-16T00:42:02.495-05:00Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective #6: Action! (2004)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKNxLg3QQDLstlLpVg-h5IdDnfUZgimqKbfWo-GmwzqA8pIZ50xJkaLX3vk1QTKVD5gK3xkw4vs1lNr5tJtXeZvyPl8iUnsaJkLbCKhaJo449bGO5CR81sVXWgSH0tF0XDcvVx_C-Wq4/s406/action.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="274" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKNxLg3QQDLstlLpVg-h5IdDnfUZgimqKbfWo-GmwzqA8pIZ50xJkaLX3vk1QTKVD5gK3xkw4vs1lNr5tJtXeZvyPl8iUnsaJkLbCKhaJo449bGO5CR81sVXWgSH0tF0XDcvVx_C-Wq4/s320/action.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, I never read the
book that came before this one, which sucks because this one picks up
where that one left off. Apparently, Nancy helped solve a mystery on
a film set and wound up getting a role in the flick. Harold, the
cheese shop owner, also got a job in the movie. It's all about the
big Rackham robbery that happened during the 19<sup>th</sup> century.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">See, the Rackham Gang
stole money from Ethan Mahoney, who owned the blacksmith shop in
town. They took the money he got from the railroad to build parts for
them. He would up bankrupt, but his heirs later made a ton of money
and became the richest people in town. The two Rackham boys had a
sister, Esther, who tried to stop them before leaving town. Ethan
confronted the guys and was then attacked by a wild cat. Esther found
him and after nursing him back to health, they married and never
talked about what happened. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When the book picks up,
Nancy is all super nervous about the job and worried about acting in
front of other people. She's so nervous that she shows up hours early
and has to just sit around the set. While they're in the middle of
filming a scene, she hears a fire truck and decides to head back into
town to see what happened. She finds the new CEO of Rackham
Industries freaking out because his house is on fire.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jeff, the CEO, keeps
screaming about the antique furniture inside and how it will be
destroyed and he'll be ruined. Nancy convinces the firefighters to
try to save some pieces. All they can get out of the house is an
armoire and a laptop. Jeff throws the laptop back into the fire and
runs off, but not before he attempts to pull something off the
armoire. When Nancy examines it later, she realizes that it's
actually a cheap piece made by a company in town and not a real
antique.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">George both loves and
obsesses over computers, so she can't believe someone would throw
away a laptop. She and Bess make Nancy take them to the house in the
hopes of finding it and getting info off of it for him. They find the
computer, but Nancy decides not to tell anyone what they did. She
learns from Carson that someone was stealing money from the company,
that they recently fired Jeff, and that he (Carson) knew Jeff for
years and didn't know he collected antique furniture.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The biggest chunk of the
book deals with Nancy freaking out over acting in front of the
camera. Every time she tries to talk to someone about it, they just
blow her off. Bess and George both keep telling her that all the
professionals think she's amazing. She winds up shouting at George at
one point. George was supposed to print off new pages for her but got
distracted by her work on the laptop. They wind up fighting but then
make up literally two pages later.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Esther kept a diary from
the time she was 14. Nancy thinks that she can read through the diary
and find out what was going through her head. As it turns out though,
the pages from the days around the robbery are all gone. Esther also
stopped writing in her diary after that day.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the end, they get to
filming one of the last scenes in the flick. Harold is supposed to
pretend to fall down, but actually falls down and knocks a hole in
the real cave they used for the movie. Nancy has the grips strap her
into some electrical cables and drop her down into the hole he fell
through. They find the skeletons of the Rackham boys and the missing
diary pages. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It turns out that Esther
knew her brothers were up to no good and was kind of in on the
robbery with them. She arranged to meet them in the cave after the
robbery and bring them food and supplies. Ethan followed the boys to
the cave and fought with Esther. She attacked him when she learned he
killed her brothers, but they then came to an agreement. They took
all the money and got married after coming up with the story of a
wild cat attack. </span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">George finds evidence on
the laptop that indicates Jeff was stealing from his employer. He
spent the money on expensive antiques, then bought cheap copies, sold
the originals, and pocketed all the cash. Nancy takes the proof to
her dad who takes it to the owner of the company. The owner is so
happy that he gives George a $1,000 reward.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though the movie nearly
shuts down because of delays and extra costs, the last remaining
Mahoney family member steps up. She married into the family and
thinks it's hysterical that her husband's family's money came from
thieves. The woman makes a massive donation that will help the
director finish the film.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Hannah gets upset that
Nancy came home from the set, ate dinner, and then left her plate on
the counter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't cleaning her job?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I can understand the
film hiring locals for help, but some of the jobs they get are just
ridiculous. Bess gets hired on as a set dresser, while George gets a
job that puts her in control of ALL the computers used on the film,
including the editing bays.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Nancy rolls her eyes
when Hannah tells her she can get over her stage fright by picturing
all the crew in their underwear. When she actually tries it though,
it works.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Hannah also helps her
realize that she isn't scared of acting but scared of disappointing
everyone. I think it's BS though. She's a teenage girl who never
acted before and gets a major role in a Hollywood movie. Of course
she's going to be scared and nervous!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*There's this guy Luther
who is the town historian. He's also the father of Nancy's childhood
best friend Melissa who died in a car accident. Luther pops up in a
scene so Nancy can talk about how he has a crush on someone working
for the movie. He then turns up at the end to be there when she finds
the missing diary pages.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Nancy is all shocked
when the police chief comes into the hole to take a look at the crime
scene, which is his job. She then thinks about how he doesn't really
like her. Given that he's an adult doing his job and she's a teenage
girl who thinks she knows better than him, I understand his point of
view.</span></span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-16870167502763032652021-02-09T00:39:00.006-05:002021-02-09T00:39:02.701-05:00Sweet Valley High #38: Leaving Home <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_T3hyCoeyq4OHuRuimFhG0H9TkdquTkJB1LPyEGrJ0AjyKjvRbN1jLTyOrEE0NxUzfWXkpgLRz9Q4V6nJqAFbVMqZ3XJARq_hrY4HL5YrqLep3okwHbj0kYjpBEbtBHwEEtJoovY_xc/s475/leaving+home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="291" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_T3hyCoeyq4OHuRuimFhG0H9TkdquTkJB1LPyEGrJ0AjyKjvRbN1jLTyOrEE0NxUzfWXkpgLRz9Q4V6nJqAFbVMqZ3XJARq_hrY4HL5YrqLep3okwHbj0kYjpBEbtBHwEEtJoovY_xc/s320/leaving+home.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So this is one of the
earlier books where Regina was still alive. Since coming back from
Switzerland, all she can talk about is how much she loved it and how
gorgeous everything was. When Liz hears about her experiences, she
starts thinking that it would be the perfect place to study writing.
Lucky for her, there's some fancy boarding school with a creating
writing program. And even more luckily, they have a scholarship for
girls exactly like her.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In a poor attempt at
being good parents, Ned and Alice decide not to tell her hell no
right off the bat and instead wait for her to get more information.
The packet comes in the mail with the news that she still has time to
apply, not a ton of time but enough if she's willing to ignore
everything else in her life. Can you see where this is going?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This makes Liz decide
that she should focus on nothing but herself in the coming weeks for
once in her life (ha!). She constantly blows off Jeffrey, remember
that poor guy? Though she conveniently has time to babysit for Mr.
Collins and go with Enid to the Beach Disco, she can't even meet him
for dinner. He buys her a pearl pin to make sure that she never
forgets him.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While feeling super
lonely, Jeffrey runs into Enid who is also down in the dumps. They
decide to make Liz a scrapbook of all their favorite memories that
she can take to Switzerland. Liz keeps calling and learning that
they're together or seeing them sneaking off, which makes her worry.
It gets even worse when Lila mentions that people are noticing them
spending a lot of time together.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">She finally tells Alice
about all her worries. Alice does the right thing and points out that
Liz never gave Jeffrey a say in anything. She just assumed that he
would be fine with her taking off for a year. Alice also says that
nothing could ever happen between them, even if Enid was obsessed
with Jeffrey when he first moved to town.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mr. Sterne is the dude
in charge of narrowing down candidates for the scholarship and has
Liz meet him in his office. After their first meeting goes well, he
arranges to meet her family. Jess and Steve scheme to make him think
Liz's family is crazy, or crazier than they are. They have a
motorcycle outside, Jess shows up in a leather mini, and Steve goes
on and on about how their family is super close and never can be
apart. Plus, her parents both show up late.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While Liz thinks they
ruined her chances, she hasn't seen nothing yet. Jessica dresses up
just like her to meet Mr. Sterne the next day at school. She enlists
random guys to make it seem like Liz is obsessed with guys and even
claims that she has the hots for Mr. Collins. Mr. Sterne is super
upset and says that he needs to think about her application more
before making a final decision.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It all comes to a head
when Steve and Jess fess up. They feel bad enough that they call Mr.
Sterne and tell him everything. When he shows up to offer Liz the
scholarship, Jeffrey and Enid show up with their scrapbook. Liz gets
him alone for a few minutes before crying and deciding to turn down
the offer. Everyone is all shocked because no one – in 20 years –
has turned it down before. No worries though because Liz says that
she can get all the inspiration that she needs in Sweet Valley.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the B-plot, Winston
has his dad buy him a lottery ticket and invites the gang over to
watch him win. Liz notices that his ticket starts with the same three
numbers as Jeffrey's birthday. When shopping for the party with
Maria, Winston puts his coat down. An older man is there with his
granddaughter and has to tell her that she can't get cookies because
they don't have enough money.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Winston picks up his
coat and later realizes that he has the old man's jacket. But luckily
for him, there's a lottery ticket in the pocket. That ticket turns
out to be a $25,000 winner. Winston meets the old man to exchange
jackets and finds out that his family is pretty poor. They can't
afford to send the little girl to horse camp, which is the only thing
she wants in the world. Winston uses some of his money to buy her a
fancy doll but still feels super bad. It takes some time, but he
eventually confesses and gives the guy the winning ticket.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Ned says that he'll
call Mr. Sterne first thing in the morning and catch him by dinner,
except that the dude is literally in the same state. If Ned calls him
at 9 am, I'm pretty sure he's not sitting down to dinner.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Winston's parents agree
to put his money in a bank account and let him use the interest as
fun money every week. How much interest would that be in a week in
the 80s? Also, they completely overlook the fact that his dad has to
sign the ticket for him because he's a minor. He's the one who would
pay taxes on it.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*This is the book that
introduces us to Kirk “The Jerk” Anderson. He pops up to watch
the tennis team at the same time that the cheerleaders practices.
Jess pretty much instantly dislikes him.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The older I get, the
more I hate Liz. She completely blows off Jeffrey's concerns because
she thinks her life is more important than his and ignores him until
she thinks he's seeing someone behind her back.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jeffrey literally
points out that <i>Todd moved to the other side of the country and
they couldn't make it work.</i> Liz blows him off because she thinks
they're somehow different, even though she admits to herself that
they can't talk on the phone due to the time difference and that
letters will take a long time to reach each other.</span></span></p>
<p><br /><br /></p>Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-72393814371157266872021-02-02T00:39:00.001-05:002021-02-02T00:39:30.113-05:00Nancy Drew Case Files #36: Over the Edge (1989)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifTZzKc8i75q44w1KFNjrfC3rXqJiVThbm2IEdRNLFFCMw6jylvgiIYh_RibpNc79GCCrJoBd_N-kHPcZzvXNynnGIU77oHL4Uf1UMcyWtVIzRYKxiWFI_pPX6L-rs878EBbohvwXNVl8/s283/over+the+edge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifTZzKc8i75q44w1KFNjrfC3rXqJiVThbm2IEdRNLFFCMw6jylvgiIYh_RibpNc79GCCrJoBd_N-kHPcZzvXNynnGIU77oHL4Uf1UMcyWtVIzRYKxiWFI_pPX6L-rs878EBbohvwXNVl8/s0/over+the+edge.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy, Bess, and George
are once again heading off on vacation. This time, it's Club High
Adventure, some random ranch type place where they have a bunch of
random activities. Marva, the woman who owns the place, asked Nancy
for help when she began getting a series of suspicious letters and
things start going wrong.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Literally the day they
get there, they witness a hang-gliding accident. Lisa, the guest,
comes down hard and smacks her head on the ground. Gil, her
instructor, checks her out and claims that she's fine but still calls
for an ambulance, though he does take a few minutes to flirt with
her. Nancy finds that especially weird when she discovers that he's
engaged to Marva.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gil reveals that the
hang-glider had a bent rod that looks like someone did it
deliberately. Nancy starts her usual investigating and runs into
“Uncle Al” who works for the club. He is super gruff like a
Scooby Doo villain and tells her to basically mind her own business.
She also overhears Gil and Marva fighting. As it turns out, he wants
her to sell the club and she has no interest in selling.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thinking that Lisa was
possibly behind her own “accident,” Nancy sneaks into her room
and looks around. She learns that Lisa has a hot boyfriend who her
parents hate and that they sent her there to get her away from him.
Lisa wrote the guy a letter where she claimed that she found a way to
get back at her parents so they could be together soon. There's also
a photo that shows the two getting arrested at a protest. This –
for some reason – makes Lisa Nancy's number one suspect.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy then runs into
Sara, one of Lisa's roommates. She wears as little as possible and
demands to be the center of attention. Sara also has the hots for Gil
who doesn't seem to mind. Their other roommate is totally not
memorable so I'll just call her K. She also has an accident and gets
a threatening letter but just laughs it off like nothing happened.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cut to Roger Coleman
entering the picture. Roger is a super rich guy who wants to buy the
club. Gil knew he was coming and thought it would make Marva sell.
Marva is less than pleased at his arrival, which causes the two to
fight again. Nancy overhears him threatening her and basically saying
that he'd rather she die then not sell the club. Marva blows it off
like he's a great guy with a slight temper.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The oddest thing is that
someone breaks into her office. Nothing is missing except for a photo
of her dad when he ran the club and some guests. Marva conveniently
can't remember who else was in the photo. She claims that she was a
kid and that it was just other adults.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Seeing Uncle Al acting
all gruff again has Nancy wondering about him and eventually deciding
to sneak into his cabin. The only thing that happens is that he
almost catches her, but she gets away at the last second and steals
one of the glasses from his kitchen. Nancy also finds the remains of
the missing photo burned in his fireplace. She then announces that
she wants to take it to the biggest city the next day and have the
police check for prints.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The cops somehow know
all about Nancy and agree to run the prints. She then meets Bess and
George at the library and research the club. They find out that when
Marva was seven, a guest pushed another guest off the cliff to his
death. He was only caught because Marva saw it happen and told the
police. Guess what? It was totally Uncle Al! After serving years in
prison, he came back under a different name to get back at <i>a
freaking child for sending him to prison for </i><i><b> murdering a
man</b></i>. The cops then reveal that the prints on the glass match
the convict.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So everyone hops in the
car and rushes back to the club, but they run into heavy fog that
delays them. By the time they get there, Marva is off on a hike
conveniently to the same one where Al murdered a dude and he's the
leader. Nancy tells Gil everything and then asks him to wait for the
police to get there. I guess a teenage girl and her friends can drive
faster than the cops?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They get to the cliff
just in time to see Al pushing Marva. Nancy throws herself in front
of him, but he pushes Marva anyway in front of a large group of
witnesses. They wind up on a tiny ledge where he keeps trying to push
her over. Gil then shows up on his hang-glider to save the day, but
Al shoots him. Two random teenagers who were in the hiking group grab
his glider and pull him down.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy steals the glider
because she's obviously a natural and uses it to fly down to the
ledge. When she gets close, she karate chops Al in the head and
knocks him out before jumping onto the ledge and letting the glider
crash. The cops show up to arrest him as he claims that he'll be back
and his plan would have worked if it weren't for those darn meddling
kids. Gil apologizes for being an ass and promises not to make her
sell, and Marva invites them to stay for another week as their
guests.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I just watched the
Supernatural/Scooby Doo crossover, so I couldn't stop thinking about
it when reading this book!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*At one point, Nancy
gets locked in the onsite restaurant's freezer. She tries to break
down the door with a frozen leg of lamb and then uses it to break the
thermostat. There's something about how the door will automatically
open if the thermostat breaks? I have no idea because I worked in
restaurants and never heard that before?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Despite multiple
comments about her weight, Bess has a sausage and egg biscuit for
breakfast. That's my girl!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Sara comes out wearing
a purple string bikini with a matching flimsy robe over it to hang
around the resort. She's also described as being Nancy's age, so I
fight that incredibly creepy.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Gil is an ass. He
literally shouts at Marva multiple times and threatens to kill her if
she won't sell the club. Plus, he flirts with everything that moves
and isn't secretive about it...at all. Their research at the library
reveals that he was once a big shot real estate guy who gave it all
up to teach hang-gliding after he met her. It makes Nancy think that
he wants Marva to sell so he can have access to her money and get
back into real estate. No worries though, because one apology is all
it takes for her to forgive him and start planning their wedding
again.</span></span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-60653086230092263412021-01-28T17:15:00.000-05:002021-01-28T17:15:00.647-05:00I'm Baaacccckkkk (Update)<p>
</p><p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don't know if there's
anyone still out there. I like to think that there's at least one
person breathlessly checking the blog daily and waiting for any sign
of an update, but that's probably just me.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, how crazy has this
last year been? COVID pretty much knocked me and millions of other
people on our collective asses. I went from making jokes about
Captain Trips that no one understood to realizing that this was
pretty damn serious. As much as I wish I could blame the pandemic for
my lack of posting, it's been more of a combination of things.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1 – My boyfriend went
from a factory job with a good paycheck to landing on unemployment
that took months to pay. At some point, they decided that he made too
much and dropped his payments to $54/week. You try living on that!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2 – I became the
breadwinner of the house just in time for my clients to start
dropping like flies. It turns out that when there's a global
pandemic, you don't really want to pay someone to write content for
your websites.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">3 – We lost several
loved ones. One of my cousins and absolute favorite people in the
world passed away from COVID last year. His mother, my great aunt,
just passed away last week. This woman was amazing. She took my mom
in when she was a toddler and my grandma needed help and then took
her in again as a teenager. My mom even lived with her when she dated
my dad back in the 60s!</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">4 – My state started
the PUA program to pay people (like me) who usually don't qualify for
unemployment. It took over two months to get a single payment.
Despite the extension from December and my drastic loss of income, it
will be sometime next month before I get another payment.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">5 – We lost a few of
our cats. Someone who will remain nameless brought fleas into our
home that would up killing several of our babies. We went through at
least seven different types of flea products, none of which worked,
along with pills, daily baths, flea dips, vacuuming, etc. I never
knew fleas could be bad until last summer. The only thing that saved
the rest of our four-legged crew was Revolution from the vet.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">6 – I got COVID in
November, probably. It started with symptoms that made me think that
I was allergic to everything in the world. I went from having a cough
and some congestion to waking up in the middle of the night unable to
breathe and eye pain that made me cry. A trip to the ER led to a
diagnosis of allergies and eye pain. Real helpful, right? After
another week of worrying that I was going to die in the middle of the
night because I couldn't breathe, my boyfriend made me go to another
ER. That's where they tested me for COVID and sent my results a few
days later. Even now, I still have lots of congestion and problems
breathing.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How has everyone else
been? Are you ready for a break from the horrors outside as you read
bad recaps of even worse books? I'm hoping to post at least once a
week, even if no one reads them :)</span></span></p>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-65703521122202853962019-10-30T00:48:00.000-04:002019-10-30T00:48:03.775-04:00Sweet Valley University: Secret Love Diaries: Elizabeth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWWXNu1xS8AFir1wuMCrwyXDoAKU33iBrz2n3NagfjEyEpRgMnEF1QwBZqmas-pIRkPjiiM35mGkeCNdZnL3rqhRrkgUapPdVunwMBHnDF1uQFvCz6aufGl2cAGzHyWXGJ-03DCfdhTk4/s1600/sld+elizabeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="285" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWWXNu1xS8AFir1wuMCrwyXDoAKU33iBrz2n3NagfjEyEpRgMnEF1QwBZqmas-pIRkPjiiM35mGkeCNdZnL3rqhRrkgUapPdVunwMBHnDF1uQFvCz6aufGl2cAGzHyWXGJ-03DCfdhTk4/s320/sld+elizabeth.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to the official
book list, this is number 60 in the SVU series. I found it super
confusing though because it mentions stuff that happened in the
earlier books but not what happened later, as in Liz and Jess
fighting over Sam and then her taking off to England.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, the book picks up
with Liz moping over this guy Ben. He's supposedly a journalism major
who was super into her until they actually went out on a date. She
keeps waiting by the phone for him to call and feeling super pathetic
about herself. That makes it all the worse when the twins' cousin
Diane calls to talk to them about her upcoming wedding. Not only are
they bridesmaids, but they're all staying at the same hotel together
for the weekend. Jessica considers bringing some rando with her for
the weekend, which makes Liz feel even worse.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cut to Liz whining over
whether she should invite Ben or wait for him to call her. Guess
which one she chooses? When he still doesn't call, she resigns
herself to spending the weekend all by her lonesome. Once we finally
get to the weekend, Diana introduces her fiance David and the guys
they'll walk down the aisle with on the big day. Jessica gets this
hot guy Tucker, while Liz gets...Todd.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yes, Todd as in Todd
Wilkins. Alice thinks it's absolutely adorable and instantly pictures
them dating again. Even Ned thinks they're super cute together. Liz
turns into a mega bitch and talks down to Todd. She mentions him
moving off campus with Dana and how he dropped out of college to work
in a townie bar. Todd puts her in her place though by saying that
it's just a bar and a good one and that he's actually back in school
now.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When Todd reveals that
Dana cheated on him, they get even closer. This leads to the almighty
Liz agreeing to go skinny dipping with the wedding party. When Todd
bows out early, she leaves with him, though they change separately.
They then talk some more, which leads to them kissing out. Todd asks
if she wants to rent a boat the next day and spend more time
together. Liz rushes back to her room to gush about Todd and whether
it's possible that she might have feelings for him again.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That changes when Todd
randomly shows up at her door. She keeps pushing him and acting like
she's teasing him when she's really being a bitch. Like, she blames
him for them breaking up at the beginning of their freshmen year and
gets pissed when he sees things differently. She also pushes him
about how she's in college and doing so well while he's stuck in a
crappy job. When Todd storms off, she can't figure out why he's so
mad.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately, they make
up again the next day. He leaves a message for her about the boat,
which causes her to freak out again. If he really wanted to see her,
why wouldn't he come by her room first? Why didn't he walk her down
to the freaking boat like she's a fairy tale princess? She does meet
him though, which leads to a few romantic moments and them kissing
again. Sadly, when they were angry at each other, Todd called and
asked someone else to the wedding. He asks Liz what he should do, and
she literally <i>tells him to sneak around behind his date's back
with her. Grr.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The wedding finally
happens, and Liz keeps moping over Todd. There he is dancing with
Lisa and posing for pictures with Lisa. It's really annoying. When
they dance together, she asks him to just tell Lisa the truth: he
reconnected with his ex-girlfriend and now wants to get back together
with her. Todd asks if they're going to go through with it this time
and asks if she's ready to go the distance. Liz pretends that she's
stupid and rushes to Jessica. They then try to figure out if Todd
actually means sex sex. No, he wants to go scuba diving.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After whining even more,
Liz finally makes her decision: she's ready to go all the way with
Todd. She gets him alone, tells him, and asks him to get rid of Lisa.
Before anything happens though, she has yet another talk with
Jessica. Jessica now thinks that Liz is just lonely and willing to do
anything if it means not being alone. Anything, I guess meaning Todd.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Todd shows up at her door
with champagne and two glasses. They start kissing, get in bed,
clothes start coming off, and then good old Liz comes back full
force. She suddenly realizes that she's just not ready for sex yet
and that while she loves what they once shared, they're two different
people now. No worries though because it turns out Todd feels the
same way! He's not sure if he wants to get back together or even
sleep with her. With her permission, he takes the champagne to Lisa's
room.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica then comes in to
mope some too. She'd been macking on Tucker all weekend but found out
that he was about to join the Peace Corps. They spent Friday night
making out, and she planned on going the distance after the wedding.
Instead, Tucker left with his parents to spend time with them before
heading overseas. The twins bond, Liz borrows Jessica's six-inch
heels, and they go dancing the night away.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*This book comes after
the twins meet Sam. He and Liz already kissed, and he's living in the
house with them. But, it's before they got together or kind of got
together in that really annoying storyline.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Liz keeps having
“visions” of her perfect man who is some random guy with sandy
brown hair. When she and Todd are in bed together, she sees him
again. After Todd leaves, Liz begs herself not to even look at Sam in
that way and wonders if he's her dream guy. Gag me, just gag me.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Near the beginning of
the book, Liz says that it's been four years and makes other comments
that makes it seem like this should be a much later book. I actually
thought this would kind of set up SVC in that she and Todd would get
back together but nope, this is like 17 stories behind her leaving
town.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*However, Todd says that
he's back in school. I remember him and Dana breaking up, though not
her cheating on him. I swore that he didn't return to SVU until one
of the last books. I remember him running into Lila and telling her
first for some reason.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*According to Jessica,
the sorority sisters are all talk. Most of them are even virgins. The
only sorority girls I remember are her, Lila, Alex, that chick that
got amnesia, and they were all definitely not virgins!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*She also says that some
frat had a contest about who could sleep with the most sorority
sisters. Her sorority got together with a few others and staged a big
protest. They wouldn't even date the guys. While that sound realistic
now, it doesn't really fit with the times back then.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Liz is oh so lonely in
the beginning and hasn't really dated anyone since Todd and then Tom.
That means this book comes before she hooks up with the doctor! This
book is even further behind than I thought!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Todd makes it out like
he and Dana were never really that serious, which is why he got over
her so fast. Um, say what? He and Dana were an it couple for awhile!
They lived together, and he dropped out of college to support her!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jessica apparently
noticed Todd looking all hot when they went skinny dipping. Liz tells
her that now is her chance to make a move, and Jess gets grossed out
at going after her sisters rejects.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Does anyone else wish
Todd was Liz's first? I feel like her running off to England and
losing it to some random prince or whatever doesn't make sense. I
have not read that serious though, so maybe she doesn't sleep with
him?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I fell really bad for
Lisa! Todd asks her to a wedding at the last minute and spends most
of the night with her. He then ditches her for his ex to the point
where Ned even comments on how much time they're spent together. Todd
then goes back to her for awhile, only to tell her he's getting back
together with his ex. When that falls through, he shows up at her
door with champagne.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jessica actually wore
six-inch heels down the aisle as a bridesmaid. Liz then borrowed the
same shoes for a night of dancing. It makes my feet hurt.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Diana's family most have
a whole lot of money! They're getting married at a huge resort with
hundreds of guests. Her parents even rented multiple rooms for their
family and friend, and they're totally cool with Todd inviting a
guest at the last minute.</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-14768991615702970252019-10-28T00:47:00.000-04:002019-10-28T00:47:00.290-04:00Sweet Valley Kids #75: Little Drummer Girls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RQZmQf4i7I61PjtA4EF2cekQWYfHwjYCUbZYnvbJjfCYGEZjNWdW0yUkxfyXQUwawvzkVmZs-WzUstji4mx9OMN0rc5ODDvTCEAeaVVmhck2nZOxhMznmRJs4dj7D6w1yAE7tME8umY/s1600/little+drummer+girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="323" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RQZmQf4i7I61PjtA4EF2cekQWYfHwjYCUbZYnvbJjfCYGEZjNWdW0yUkxfyXQUwawvzkVmZs-WzUstji4mx9OMN0rc5ODDvTCEAeaVVmhck2nZOxhMznmRJs4dj7D6w1yAE7tME8umY/s320/little+drummer+girls.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mr. Crane, who is I guess
their new teacher, brings in a bunch of musical instruments for the
kids to play. After they try them all out, he announces that he's
holding auditions to see who will play what in the St. Patrick's Day
parade. Jessica becomes obsessed with the drum and think she's the
best, but so does everyone else. Even Liz wants to play the drum.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">During auditions, Liz
goes on the drum first and does great. Jess goes next and does
horribly. She was so focused on the first song they played that she
couldn't focus on the one in the audition. Their teacher asks her to
try the flutophone, which she does a good job playing. Jess gets it,
and Liz gets to be the little drummer girl. Since this is Jess
though, she convinces Liz to switch parts with her. She really wants
to lead the whole parade, which the drummer does.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The twins dress as each
other and even switch their name bracelets for class. Jessica does a
really bad job with the drum, to the point where the teacher decides
she should take it home for more practice. Liz does such a good job
with the flute that he asks her to do a solo in the parade. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Things go even worse at
home. Ned actually sneaks out of the room while she's playing, Steven
stuffs his ears with socks, and Alice claims she suddenly needs to
run errands away from home. At school, Jessica is constantly off the
tempo. When she leads the class, they run into walls and stuff. While
practicing at home the night before the parade, she discovers Liz
wearing earplugs to avoid listening to her. Liz then gets so sick
that she has to miss the parade and asks Jess to take her place with
the flute solo.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica steps up and
tells Mr. Crane about the twin switch. She then asks if he'll play
the drum and let her have the flute solo. He tells her no because she
was the one who wanted to make the switch and she needs to live with
her decisions. While he does tell her that, Liz then shows up. She
faked being sick to make Jess realize that she was good with the
flute. Liz takes over the drumming, and Jess gets her solo after all.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Why would you have a
solo in the middle of a parade? Mr. Crane says that everyone will
stop to listen to her play. What kind of messed up parade is this?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jessica literally says
she wants the drum because she wants to lead the class through the
streets and then gets rewarded with a solo on a completely different
instrument.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Flutophone is the word
used every time it's mentioned in the book. I have no clue if it's
the same as a flute but I'm guessing so.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I'm not sure when the
books started the first person point of view, but this one is all
from Jessica's perspective and I'm not a fan.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The illustrations
changed too! Now we get these random little drawings that are only a
couple of inches long and wide instead of a full page.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*In the back is an idea
for making “magic” pudding where you put food coloring in the
bottom of a bowl and then fill it with pudding. According to the
author, it will wow your friends when they mix it and the color
changes. If I was eating pudding and it suddenly developed these
weird streaks, I'm pretty sure I would freak out! </span></span>
</div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-1264604235694711042019-10-25T00:46:00.000-04:002019-10-25T00:46:13.195-04:00The Nancy Drew Notebooks #48: The Crazy Carnival Case (2002)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1ZY3NoFt2fWbezzHqZUhThTi2RfKTJlvOGAaGMLyj5bnzf5OOIXuClohkhb4gSkoTL4A4HZOaSRZqSpvG4tChqSGdR09dBhPxCV8c4XAQ9w209p7rz8ojfmvyGIAvVY_aYsQh8pjMsA/s1600/the+crazy+carnival+case.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="336" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1ZY3NoFt2fWbezzHqZUhThTi2RfKTJlvOGAaGMLyj5bnzf5OOIXuClohkhb4gSkoTL4A4HZOaSRZqSpvG4tChqSGdR09dBhPxCV8c4XAQ9w209p7rz8ojfmvyGIAvVY_aYsQh8pjMsA/s320/the+crazy+carnival+case.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's time for the annual
River Heights Carnival. The big event this year is that Isabelle is
performing. She's a big deal start from the town who is only 15 but
already has a song on the radio. Nancy and her friends decide to
enter all the contests because first prize gets a giant stuffed
panda. Isabelle loves pandas, and if any of them win, they'll give
the toy to her.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They enter a pie eating
contest and lose, but there's a sack race the next day. Everyone who
enters gets in a sack and finds the bottom filled with raw eggs.
Annoying little Brenda wants to do a story on the awful things
happening, but Nancy begs her not to because it might keep people
from coming to the carnival. Brenda gives her until Wednesday, which
is the next day, to find out who did it.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their only suspects are
Cruncher, this girl who eats all the time, and Orson, a kid who
entered a frog in a jumping competition and got disqualified because
the judge thought he pushed the animal. They see Henrietta, this
chicken who does a bunch of stuff like play the piano, and wonder if
he owner is the troublemaker because of the eggs. The chicken lays
brown eggs and not white ones though.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Brenda calls them over to
show them that a cardboard cut out of Isabelle shows her with black
eyes and a mustache. They see Orson walking around and whining and
candy bar wrappers around the cut out, which leads them back to the
same suspects. Jason, David, and Mike are friends who are suspects in
other cases. They never come to the carnival but show up at Nancy's
later. The boys claim they hate the carnival because they wanted to
be the singer's opening act and were turned down. Even though they
say they never went to the carnival, all three have fake tattoos that
you can only get there.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other weird things happen
too. Someone steals a gold star from the chicken's tent, which her
owner claims is her gold star and that she won't play without it.
Someone also covers the game controls with molasses. Brenda claims
that she wants to write her story but learns that Nancy suspects
Cruncher and wants to go through her bag. She begs to be the one to
do it, but the other girl catches her and shoves a pie in her face.
Cruncher claims that she no longer hates the carnival because she won
the chocolate pudding eating contest. Nancy shows her the candy bar
wrappers they found, but Cruncher laughs because they're for coconut
candy bars.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The girls also go to
Orson's house and confront him, but it turns out that he wasn't even
at the carnival on some of the days when weird stuff happens. People
keep seeing three kids dressed up as the Three Little Pigs around the
carnival. Simon the Pieman provided the pies for the contests and has
his kids dress up in the costumes to promote his booth. Nancy stops
by for a snack and notices a postcard on his booth. He says his kids
sent it from camp and that they're not there this year.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy confronts the pigs,
tears off their masks, and finds Jason, David, and Mike. They confess
that Simon hired them because he felt bad they couldn't be in the
show. She makes them confess to the carnival organizer, and they get
banned from coming back. Since Brenda already went to deliver her
paper, the girls chase after her. Bess brings along a giant panda she
just won.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They manage to get to
Brenda right when she shows up at Isabelle's house. The singer opens
the door, sees the panda, and falls in love. She asks them to come to
her concert the next day and be part of her act. Brenda tears up the
newspaper and agrees to write a nice story. Nancy says in the end
that when people seek revenge, no one ends, which is quite profound
for a little kid.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Nancy suggests that
Brenda write about the ferris wheel, but she scoffs because it's just
another ride and people will want to hear about the bad things
happening. I think she has a future in journalism.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Cruncher is the nickname
given to a girl from another school who always wins the pie eating
competition. She drops out because they switched from banana cream
pies to coconut cream pies, and she hates everything coconut.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Brenda already has her
own newspaper and customers. She literally delivers the paper to
people on multiple streets.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I think this is the same
Brenda who pops up occasionally in The Nancy Drew Files books who is
a reporter. I like the continuity, but I'm not sure why they didn't
bring in some of the other characters from the other series.</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-35544370293751670142019-10-23T00:45:00.000-04:002019-10-23T00:45:05.728-04:00Sweet Valley Kids Super Special #1: Trapped in Toyland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNganWWN2P4GBYk6tbx1ZJ0Md4sGOhyTvVSUyLAd1dpkZvVD2_LEI6AWoSjk416PdMFB9otm7it3Dm44IlCToCQM48T7NtOhgdl8o7cM-2xasbXegdi7Xf_gdVVsMn6bilR9ottK3Vl0/s1600/trapped+in+toyland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="299" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNganWWN2P4GBYk6tbx1ZJ0Md4sGOhyTvVSUyLAd1dpkZvVD2_LEI6AWoSjk416PdMFB9otm7it3Dm44IlCToCQM48T7NtOhgdl8o7cM-2xasbXegdi7Xf_gdVVsMn6bilR9ottK3Vl0/s320/trapped+in+toyland.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ned and Alice somehow
think that the perfect Christmas Even activity is taking the kids to
Evelyn's, some new department store. Once they get there, the parents
decide to let the kids have some time alone as long as they stick
together. They immediately head to the toy department and go crazy
over these little cars. When they try to sit in them though, a man
comes over and screams at them. He's Mr. Fegato, the manager of the
whole store.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fegato tells them that
unless they have money, they need to sod off but in nicer words. The
twins want to explore and look for the perfect gift for Alice. They
find a jewelry box they love but is too expensive and head to the
sleepwear department. Steven gets so bored that he decides to go off
on his own, though he does remind them that they have just a little
bit before they need to meet up with their parents.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While wandering through
the store, some random guy rushes by. He grabs Jessica's purse and
takes off with all their spending money. Though they give chase, he
disappears in the crowd. Feeling like crap, the twins climb into a
bed display and wind up falling asleep. When they wake up, the store
is closed and everyone is gone. Instead of completely freaking out
like I would, they think it's cool and explore some more.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The twins go to the snack
area and make huge ice cream sundaes. They then fight some more over
what to give Alice. Jess wants these ugly slippers, while Liz prefers
an ugly scarf. After returning to the toy department, they ride the
cars all around the store and play a bunch of video games. The fun
ends when the power goes out and they come across the guy who stole
Jessica's purse.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Random dude is actually
wearing the purse like a necklace and chases them all around the
store. He catches Liz while Jessica is hiding in a play house, puts
them both inside, and then stacks boxes in front of the door. Liz
helps Jessica climb out the <i>chimney that literally has a working
hole in the top</i> who then moves the boxes to let her out. He
chases them some more until they get the upper hand when Liz squirts
chocolate sauce in his eyes and they tie him up with licorice whips.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though Jessica calls 911,
the operator thinks that she's playing a prank and hangs up on her,
so Liz sets off the fire alarm. Fegato rushes in with the police in
tow and flips out until they lead him to the thief. The cops then
find that he has a whole van out back filled with merchandise. While
they were exploring, the twins found a gift to Fegator from his
daughter with a letter about how she misses him and it doesn't feel
like Christmas without him. They show him the letter, and he melts
because that was all he wanted or some other schmaltzy crap. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Not only does he let the
twins have the jewelry box for free, but he wraps it for them and
tells them they don't need to pay for the ice cream. Right before
they arrived, the bad guy almost got away but they heard a bell
jingling that caused him to freeze. The twins find a Santa decoration
that jingles when you press his stomach. They try to come up with
rational ideas for why it would come on but finally decide that maybe
it was just a Christmas miracle.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The twins made a book
for Steven with original drawings and a picture frame for Ned. Alice
is the only one lucky enough to get a gift from the store.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*They managed to save up
a little more than $15 for her gift, which I thought was super cute.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Seriously though, who
lets their third grade kid watch over two second grade kids in a busy
department store? And who the fuck thinks it's a good idea to take
kids to a department store on Christmas Eve??</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*When the twins first
woke up in the bed, I thought this would be one of those dream books
where they were both asleep. Nah, just a totally unbelievable story.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*According to Ned and
Alice, they couldn't find the twins and then the store closed so they
just had to leave. The manager wouldn't let them look around so they
went to the cops. It somehow took enough time for the cops to come
back that the entire store emptied out, everyone went home for the
night, and the twins had time to roam free. Having worked retail
before, that would never happen.</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-47296116503564620382019-10-21T00:44:00.000-04:002019-10-21T00:44:10.563-04:00The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #163: The Clues Challenge (2001)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVgUMGT-1sGWslzKvPAiXlL-LKA4jYLk93A0WVz0HHbvnturtZAth7nMaQ9zga1yyEaxXI_3pPE282oPIA0UAAIY0wZWXbViEBAZWjRUeb9gH6nfmSTR-O-37zRUNM3t0PjTu7NsYTjs/s1600/the+clues+challenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="337" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVgUMGT-1sGWslzKvPAiXlL-LKA4jYLk93A0WVz0HHbvnturtZAth7nMaQ9zga1yyEaxXI_3pPE282oPIA0UAAIY0wZWXbViEBAZWjRUeb9gH6nfmSTR-O-37zRUNM3t0PjTu7NsYTjs/s320/the+clues+challenge.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ned invited both Nancy
and George to the Emerson College campus to take part in something
called the Big Chill Clues Challenge. It takes place every winter
over five days and requires that teams compete to find hidden clues.
After Nancy makes out with Ned for a bit, they get into a massive
snowball fight and then meet some of the people on their team.
There's CJ, who is some big deal athlete, and his girlfriend Dede.
Dennis dated Dede until she dumped him for the other guy. They also
meet Joy, the president of a sorority that won the challenge last
year.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When the group heads over
to Sport Mania, the store sponsoring the event, they get to meet Mr.
Lorenzo, the owner. He freaks out at some dude following CJ around
with a camera until CJ reveals that the guy works for <i>Sports World</i>
and is doing a story on him. That's another reason why Dennis doesn't
like him. He was the big man on campus the year before but then hurt
his shoulder and lost his status. Mr. Lorenzo also gets a message on
his computer demanding the clues.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Everyone meets at a local
restaurant for a big party before the challenge starts. Nancy notices
that their tiramisu has weird white flakes on it and doesn't see the
same thing on other desserts. She finds a bunch of crushed up pills
near the phone booth and asks the waiters if they saw anything, but
everyone just looks confused. Dennis says they weren't his, even
though he takes painkillers, and says he doesn't need help to beat
CJ. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy and George take the
pills to a 24-hour pharmacy to get some help but get distracted by
Joy along the way. They follow her across campus and see her doing
some suspicious things. Joy then disappears and pops up behind them.
She basically warns them to leave her alone and stop following her or
else, which doesn't seem that threatening coming from a sorority
girl. Ned finds out that the pills were a prescription muscle
relaxant, which makes them all suspect Dennis again.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We finally get to the
first day of the competition. Nancy tells Mr. Lorenzo what happened,
but he doesn't seem too concerned and just says he'll keep an eye
out. The first event has people running up a set of stairs. CJ
immediately falls down and hurts his ankle because someone put oil on
the stairs. Joy comes down with the first clue and gives everyone the
eye, so Nancy runs up and gets the clue too. It leads them to a barn
out in the woods, but because of his injury, CJ has to sit out.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To get to the barns, they
need to navigate around a frozen stream. George is the lightest and
fastest, so she gets the job, but her boot comes out of her ski and
sends her tumbling towards the water. She manages to grab a bush and
stop herself. When they get to her, Nancy finds that someone sawed
through her ski. Dede instantly tells them not to blame her, which I
find a little odd. They get the clue and go back to headquarters. Mr.
Lorenzo doesn't seem to think the accident was that bad and doesn't
believe someone sawed her ski either. Okay, he's at the top of my
suspect list now.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While hunting for the
next clue, they wind up at the bell tower. Someone knocks an icicle
off the roof that almost crashes into Grant's head, another teammate.
Nancy tosses her bag at his back to make him move, which confuses him
and probably makes him wet his pants. She and Ned head to the roof
and find a green glove and a file like the one used to wreck George's
ski. Conveniently, Mr. Lorenzo had one that went missing. Nancy then
hears Joy talking to someone on the phone about their next meeting.
Joy asks where she found her glove, denies being on the roof, and
storms off.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy has a run in with
Dennis because she sees him with a computer. The graphics look
exactly like those on Lorenzo's computer when he got the threatening
message. One of his friends says he's a computer wiz, but Dennis
tells her to back off. Lorenzo listens to what happened but refuses
to do anything. He says that since Joy denied it was her, he has to
take her at his word. All this despite telling the teams that anyone
caught cheating would be disqualified.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The trio head over to
Sports Mania to investigate, and George pretends to try on some
clothes to keep the sales rep busy. Nancy finds a blackmail note that
asks for $1,500 and proof that Lorenzo paid someone that same amount.
The whole group then heads to a big party, but Lorenzo shows up and
announces that he has to disqualify them. He says he saw one of their
members in the woods looking for clues after the deadline. They get
other people to say they were there the whole time, and he seems
disappointed that they're still in the competition. The whole crew
wears the same hats, but Nancy discovers that someone stole her hat.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy and Ned decide to
check out Dennis's room to see if he had anything to do with it.
Though he comes back early and almost catches them, George plays the
ditzy girl and distracts him long enough for them to get away. The
next clue leads them to this big ass oak tree that has another clue
hidden on the top. Nancy goes after it but almost falls to her death
when the top branch breaks. Someone sawed almost all the way through
it.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Joy's group shows up, but
when Nancy warns her about the branch, she just laughs it off and
asks it they want to blame that one her too. While she's in the tree,
Nancy goes through her bag and finds the same muscle relaxants used
on their desserts. Joy denies it was her and admits that she was
meeting someone in secret but that it was a friend who needed help
with her chemistry midterm. The chick is a braniac and didn't want
anyone to know. Joy also admits to stealing Nancy's hat but just to
be a bitch.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">George and Nancy see
Randy, the reporter, acting really weird and decide to follow him.
They see him sneaking into Lorenzo's office in the store. He tells
them that he's looking for a guy he wrote about in the past. The guy
was at the center of a college sports points fixing scandal and
skipped town before police could catch him. Randy believes that the
guy is Lorenzo. Nancy then remembers seeing a photo of two of the
athletes from the article in Dennis's room.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The final clue leads them
to the drama club building. They think it's the new theater, but it's
actually the old one, and when they get there, they find Dennis.
Nancy asks when he found out who Lorenzo really was, but Ned flat out
tells him that he's going to jail. He says they'll have to catch him
first and jumps off the roof. It turns out that he went for the old
fire escape, but the metal is really weak and starts breaking. Nancy
has to climb down and after him to bring him back to the safety of
the top of the fire escape and to wait for the cops.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dennis tells her that his
half-brother was one of the athletes caught up in the scandal. He
threatened to turn Lorenzo into the police, but Lorenzo paid him off
instead. Dennis got all the clues from him in advance and set
everything up for the other teams to fail. He even made it look like
Joy did everything. Unfortunately, Lorenzo then shows up and says
that he has to end them all. He can't afford to keep paying off
Dennis and can't have the girls tell on him, so he plans to break the
fire escape off and let them all fall to their deaths.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Joy shows up and seems
really confused about what's going on, but she's enough of a
distraction that it lets Ned jump off the fire escape and tackle
Lorenzo. Nancy then grabs the last clue and wins the challenge for
Ned's fraternity. In the end, Joy tells them that her team will be
back and win next year. Everyone fights over who really won until
Nancy points out that because they put away a criminal, they're all
winners.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The last contest had
teams cross-country skiing for five miles to find a clue hidden at
the bottom of a well. That does not sound like fun at all. One team
actually got stuck and needed rescuing, which makes it sound even
worse.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Ned brings the gals tea
and muffins the first day of the challenge to get them in the right
mood.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The challenge only takes
place during certain hours of the day, and all teams need to check in
at headquarters at the end of the day. Lorenzo says this will keep
teams from cheating, but I don't know how. They could check in and
then go right back out.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Ned's fraternity throws
a luau and asks everyone to wear Hawaiian clothing. Nancy and George
wear shorts and tank tops...in the middle of winter.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I love Dennis's
fraternity brothers in the end. They point out that they knew he
didn't have the money to buy the new fancy computer he had but never
guessed he was blackmailing someone. Well duh.</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-73505600699811124032019-10-18T00:42:00.000-04:002019-10-18T00:42:03.352-04:00Sweet Valley Twins #106: Breakfast of Enemies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcR4327c9Oaw3TGL0qlsE4xS6kk0rlU5fsbm-uNTLtfV1Nx5InpKIQX65mtE_b04mEZ-np-fPht4uriBCTcth44dK1s3U99_73Fxrsf37I0GM5pCBfmALBq2oRERu1FmIr_3zEhgobHU/s1600/breakfast+of+enemies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="325" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcR4327c9Oaw3TGL0qlsE4xS6kk0rlU5fsbm-uNTLtfV1Nx5InpKIQX65mtE_b04mEZ-np-fPht4uriBCTcth44dK1s3U99_73Fxrsf37I0GM5pCBfmALBq2oRERu1FmIr_3zEhgobHU/s320/breakfast+of+enemies.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica and Lila love
this magazine called <i>California Girl</i>, which does an article
called “Real Girl” each month about a normal reader. They both
entered for the next month's issue and used Lila's address so they
could find out together. Though letters come, Jessica gets a generic
form rejection letter and Lila gets picked. They'll come to her house
for a photo shoot and to learn all about her.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This naturally makes Lila
the center of attention. Jessica tries to make it seem like she was
the runner up, but Lila busts her and tells them she got a form
letter. They all want to hear everything about the shoot. Janet even
brags about how they're cousins. When Jessica finds out that Corny O
wants to shoot a new commercial with twins, she decides that she and
Liz should go for it. Liz agrees after realizing that she could use
they money to buy software for the newspaper.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After practicing for a
few days, they finally tell Ned and Alice about the commercial. They
think it's a terrible idea because the way the twins fought during
the whole Romeo and Juliet think. The only way they agree to let them
try out is if they can be nice and get along until the audition. This
leads to them going overboard with the compliments and even getting
Steven involved so they can look better when compared to him.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the audition, they get
lines and a new jingle. They have to sing and say the lines together.
Jessica gets called in first, and Stan, the director, just wants to
hear her. He then calls in Liz. After hours of waiting, they get the
news that he picked them. Stan gives them a contract and asks them to
take it home and have their parents sign it. He also tells them that
they're using twins to get around child labor laws. They'll basically
share the commercial and each shoot half.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The problem arises when
Jessica gets sick of hearing Lila brag constantly about her photo
shoot. Jess tells them all about the commercial, but people just make
fun or her and say that she's lying. To prove them wrong, she sings
the new jingle. It's so ridiculous that they laugh at her even more.
Janet says it would be embarrassing to go on national television and
sing that. People start teasing Liz too, which makes her furious and
sends her home after her twin.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After they fight again,
Ned reminds them that they have a contract and that they have to work
together. If he hears one more argument before the commercial is
done, they're both grounded for a month. Jessica then watches her
favorite actress on television talk about how actors are more
important than directors and sometimes need to change things on their
own, which gives her a new idea.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">She first suggests to
Stan that they change the jingle. When he rejects that idea, she
shows up in way too much makeup. She then tries to change her outfit.
Stan finally says that if she can't get it together, he'll fire them
both. Knowing that she has plans for the money, Liz comes up with an
idea of her own. She locks Jess in the makeup room and does her part.
Liz then leaves and comes back to do Jessica's part.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It works well until
Jessica rushes the set. Stan ignores her complaints and gives them
one more scene. They both need to run around on an obstacle course
and do different tasks that they'll them impose on a different
background. The twins end up swings that crash into each other and
fight, knocking over a giant box of the cereal and throwing it at
each other. Stan then fires them both.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the middle of all
this, Steven decides that he wants to act too and gets Jess to call
Stan and suggest him for a different commercial. Stan says he needs
male twins for another cereal commercial and has auditions the
following week. Steven tries to get Joe to pretend to be his twin and
approaches a random guy in the mall named Manny who already has a
twin, Danny. He finally finds a guy who kind of looks like him and
goes to the audition. Stan throws them out because of his last name
and also because he looks too much like the twins.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Liz and Jess feel bad
about messing things up, especially Jess. Lila's magazine comes out,
everyone makes a big deal out of it, and then they notice an ad for
the twins' new commercial. They don't want to tell anyone that they
were fired and turn down anyone who wants to watch it together with
them. It turns out that Stan used their fighting with words about how
twins share everything and love each other until it comes to the last
serving of Corny O. Everyone loves the commercial, so the twins agree
to stop fighting and enjoy a temporary truce.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Lila has a lock on her
mailbox and seems shocked that the Wakefields don't lock up their
mail. As she says, you never know what's in there.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Since when would Janet
be upset about any Unicorn appearing in a national television
commercial? She says that Jess singing the jingle will make them all
look bad.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*This reminds me of the
SVH book with the television show that I just recapped. In no way
would Lila represent a typical California girl! Seriously, who thinks
that a spoiled rich girl with numerous credit cards and a car phone
(in the 80s) is typical?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*In case you were
wondering, Manny and Danny get the other commercial LOL.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The twins beat out more
than 200 other twins for the parts despite the fact that other girls
could sing and move completely in unison.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Why would the director
make such a big deal out of them doing everything together if he
didn't plan on shooting them together? He says it's because he needed
their shots to work together but it doesn't really make sense.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*It's nice to see Ned and
Alice occasionally acting like real concerned parents of two kids.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Bruce actually suggests
buying enough copies of <i>California Girl</i> that every kid in
school would get a copy, just to see Lila.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*When Steven hears who
won the commercial he wanted, he runs upstairs and screams.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Ned and Alice let the
twins have a small amount of money for now and put the rest in their
college accounts. He says that they'll pick up a lot from interest. I
can totally see Jess spending it all in her first semester!</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-8336972352081330592019-10-15T00:41:00.004-04:002019-10-15T00:42:48.058-04:00Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective #14: Bad Times, Big Crimes (2005)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Di_znFjtcRGI2wWQmYGoOrDr3slVof9ZVlRapgkkcxb1v25QwIpU1MTJQuFqt_z6mj4LeT0dNwiToYlOUmcTa3LlU-heopZ0gncRcm6ETrbLgTEkitSI94gpxksJxbOAWBzmaIwiDhw/s1600/bad+times.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1070" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Di_znFjtcRGI2wWQmYGoOrDr3slVof9ZVlRapgkkcxb1v25QwIpU1MTJQuFqt_z6mj4LeT0dNwiToYlOUmcTa3LlU-heopZ0gncRcm6ETrbLgTEkitSI94gpxksJxbOAWBzmaIwiDhw/s320/bad+times.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy just finished up a
case and spent the last 30 hours on her feet, but she promised Ned
that she'd go to a lecture with him at his college. Bess and George
meet them there. Tracey Gaines, the granddaughter of two famous
gangsters, just finished up a big project and wants to share what she
learned. Nancy keeps falling asleep, and at one point, Ned wakes her
up. She notices him wearing a suit exactly like every other man in
the crowd, and all the women are in dresses. A newspaper she finds
lists the date as 1930, the same year the woman researched.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bess and George find a
very confused Nancy outside and start talking about taking bread to
Hooverville. It seems as though Nancy really did go back in time and
landed smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression. After seeing
Hooverville, they stumble across the Smith family. Clay Gaines and
his partner, Edward Parker, are in the midst of evicting the family
from their home. Bob lost the house while gambling. Nancy offers to
let them stay with her.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
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</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After dropping Bess and
George off at home, she gets lost because nothing looks familiar.
Charlie, the same guy who saves her all the time in the modern era,
finds her and helps her get home before telling her that his family
is moving on to greener pastures. She gets home in time to see the
chief with her dad. The chief tells her to leave them alone, but she
does overhear them talking about some big bank robberies. That's when
the Smith family shows up.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Carson is nice enough to
let them stay for awhile, and Hannah makes a big dinner for the whole
group. It's the parents, Bob and Sylvia, their four kids, a pet
mouse, cat, rat, and two dogs. Nancy keeps pumping Bob for
information on the casino where he lost his house. He keeps pointing
out that she's a girl and can't do all the things she wants to do.
She just knows that she can figure out what happened and get them
their house back.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When Nancy learns that
the only school in town shut down because the town couldn't afford to
may the teacher anymore, she heads to Hooverville to speak to the
teacher. The woman refuses to be a charity case, but Nancy comes up
with a barter idea. All the parents will trade different things to
get the teacher back. The idea comes to her after running into Ned.
He works for the grocer in exchange for food for his family and
didn't tell her because he didn't want her to look down at him. Nancy
assures him that he's still her guy and gives him a kiss on the
cheek.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">She goes back to
Hooverville the next morning though and finds the police tearing
through. Deirdre shows up in a fancy party dress to help the cops
find the person who stole an apple pie she made. They arrest a 10
year old boy and take in his whole family on suspicion of being bank
robbers. Apparently stealing a pie because you're hungry is the same
as robbing a bank.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Carson agrees to go over
to the jail and see what he can do, but Nancy gets there first. Chief
McGinnis already let the kid and his family go but warned them about
stealing. Since Nancy knows Clay Gaines is a bad guy from the future,
she brings him up to the chief. The chief thinks Clay is a good guy
and actually has plans to meet him later. She drops a bunch of hints
about setting up a roadblock to stop the real thief from leaving
town. When he finally picks up on her hints, she gushes about how
he's so smart and handsome before leaving as she rolls her eyes.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With some help from Ned
in the form of suits that belong to him and his dad, Nancy and the
gals dress up like gangsters. Since Bess still looks way too
feminine, she literally takes them to a farm down the street, cuts
some hair off a horse, and makes a fake mustache that she glues on
Bess. Edward lets them into the casino after she claims that they
know Clay but then slams the door on the them and locks it. He comes
back with two other guys and sits everyone down to play some poker.
George keeps winning, and Nancy makes an excuse to use the bathroom
and take a look around. She finds Clay's ledger with all the proof
that he's a thief. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though the girls want to
leave and stop playing, Clay won't let them leave because George is
up by so much. Bess sneezes, which causes her fake mustache to fly
across the table, and the guys realize all three are gals. After a
short fight, they manage to get away. Nancy sends the other two to
the police and leads the guys away from them. Chief McGinnis then
shows up and stops Clay and his wife. Nancy shows him the ledger, but
before he can do anything, they take off.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They don't even get a
mile up the road before they run into a slew of cops. It turns out
that George called the police departments in every nearby city for
help. Chief McGinnis then takes all the credit, but Nancy gets the
Smith's house deed from the ledger and takes it to them. Bob is so
grateful that he gives Nancy a brand new dress he just made. She then
heads to town hall for a special speech, feels tired, rubs her eyes,
and wakes to find herself back in the present.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tracey Gaines finishes up
the speech with information on how the official word said that cops
from other towns came in to help. Word on the street was that a
female dogooder that no one ever named came forward and actually
brought them down. Ned thinks that's funny and points out that it
sounds like someone he knows. Nancy just smiles.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the very end, Bess and
George take Nancy to meet their Aunt Eliza who lived through the
Great Depression. She has a frog that Nancy correctly guesses the
name of based on the frog Eliza Smith had in the past but says it was
just a guess. Eliza then gives her that look and tells her to stick
to that story and that she'll never say a word.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*This book literally
takes place less than a week after the last one, which I only know
because Ned and Nancy talk about it at the beginning.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*My favorite part of this
book is that Nancy has a blue convertible coupe just like she had in
the original books when she went back in time.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Deirdre's family is
somehow still super wealthy and has no problems. She even says that
anyone who wants to work can find a job, which made me roll my eyes.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Carson worries about
Nancy going out in the middle of the night when it's actually 8:30,
but that's still way too late for a girl to be out alone.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*George has two hours to
teach Bess and Nancy how to play poker and everything they know to
beat the bad guys. That sounds a little impossible to me.</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-68694039332861399172019-10-15T00:41:00.002-04:002019-10-15T00:41:17.230-04:00Sweet Valley High #71: Starring Jessica!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhJRxBl6QDFvgjxqwKW_l0c7KKZRry78SqvZRlmWDXB81w5miJCidB8aH_IjJ3_p4jNKqHjaDXSUpacYEYshH1kJ7myMXre0Qa8jrdKpRGn_e1KyYyQtIYD0HhthCpU37SgVSDylTLJk/s1600/starring+jessica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="303" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhJRxBl6QDFvgjxqwKW_l0c7KKZRry78SqvZRlmWDXB81w5miJCidB8aH_IjJ3_p4jNKqHjaDXSUpacYEYshH1kJ7myMXre0Qa8jrdKpRGn_e1KyYyQtIYD0HhthCpU37SgVSDylTLJk/s320/starring+jessica.jpg" width="193" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eric Parker is some dude
who graduated from Sweet Valley High and now hosts a national talk
show. He announced plans to have a real high school student on to
talk about what life is like for the typical American teenager. The
teenager he picks will be someone from Sweet Valley. Everyone goes
overboard to fill out their applications and get picked.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica assumes that her
only real competition is Lila. She asks for Liz's help with her
application, especially the section on her hobbies and interests.
It's lots of boys, shopping, and hanging out with not much else. Liz
reminds her that she was a babysitter before and that she worked as a
hospital volunteer, which is not something I would personally want to
remember. Jessica gets annoyed when she sees that Lila left out all
the information about her rich dad though.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Liz also suggests that
Jessica write an article for the paper. She comes up with an idea
about bad dates, which Penny loves. Liz convinces her to change some
of the names though to protect the innocent. When the article comes
out, people go nuts. They can't stop talking about it, and Penny even
says that the first draft was perfect. The only person not happy is
Bruce but mainly because Jess claims he kisses like a dead jellyfish.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
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</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since Penny never ever
said anything like that about Liz's work before, she starts thinking
that maybe she isn't cut out to be a writer. Luckily, Enid heard that
Secca Lake just started a new junior ranger program and needs
volunteers. They both go to the first meeting and learn that they
need to take a test and get a 100% to join the program. Both pass and
become junior rangers, but then Don, the head of the program, asks
Liz to be his senior junior ranger. It's way more work, but she
agrees.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eric can't settle on who
to pick for his show, so he picks six candidates and asks them to
come in for an interview. Lila finds out that they changed rooms,
goes to her interview, sneaks back, and takes down the sign so
Jessica will miss it. Jessica does nearly miss it but finds out the
truth and gets there right in time. Eric takes time out to announce
that he picked Jessica and that Lila is the alternate.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jessica and Lila almost
immediately start fighting about who really deserves to be on his
show. Lila thinks that Jessica lied on her application, and Jessica
thinks that Lila wasn't completely honest. They stop talking. Bruce
is so upset about the article that he storms into the girls' locker
room and goes off on her. Lila decides to work with him on a plan to
show up Jessica.</span></span></div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lila calls Jess on the
day of the show to make up and ask her to go shopping. She takes her
to a town about an hour away and promises that they'll be back in
plenty of time. The workers keep eyeing Jessica, and when she goes
into the dressing room, Lila takes off with her purse. She runs
outside, and the woman grab her and call the cops to have her
arrested for shoplifting. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When the cops show up,
the women say that a Detective Tapman called in with a tip that a
shoplifter matching her description hit a bunch of stores in town.
Jess points out that she was in school all day, and the cops say
there is no detective with that name on the force. Since it's a
prank, they let her go. It's too late for her to make it back in time
for the show, so she calls Liz.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lila heads home all
excited that she'll get to be on the show. She meets up with Bruce
and can't help noticing how good he looks coming out of the pool.
After they congratulate each other on a good job, they actually kiss.
It must be good because he almost falls back in the water. </span></span>
</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Liz has been working like
crazy at the lake. She's the one always called in to help when
someone calls off or they need an extra person. It's taking time away
from her writing and making her worry if she can do both. Don calls
that night for help, and though she worries about turning him down,
he just laughs it off because it's not a big deal. Liz then dresses
like Jess, goes to the show, and locks Lila in the dressing room.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the cops offers to
take Jessica to the interview, but she gets there just in time to see
her twin playing as her. After the show, Liz switches clothes with
her so she can go out and get all the attention. Lila demands to know
how she pulled it off before storming off. She also stops to scream
at Bruce and tell him that Jessica was right and that he does kiss
like a jellyfish.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Liz decides that she just
can't do both things anymore and decides to quit the junior rangers.
It's not really that big of a deal since it's just one more thing the
twins only do in one book. Cara and Amy then make Lila and Jessica
make up. They kind of agree that they were both in the wrong. Lila
then wants to talk about Andrea Slade, the new girl in town who is oh
so cool.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jess's article had her
shipwrecked trip with Winston on it. How was that a bad date? She
basically sat around, moped, and acted like a huge bitch while he
took care of everything!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Amy agrees that Bruce
kisses like a dead jellyfish. It's ironic then that she went after
him so hard core while he was dating someone else...</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Some guy dated Jess
before and was going to ask her out again but changed his mind after
reading the article because he didn't want to wind up in the next
one. People say that Jess is too pretty and popular for guys to care,
but really? I can imagine some guys not being too thrilled at the
idea of dating her.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Amy is one of the only
people who doesn't care about getting on the show and says something
about how her mom doesn't really like Eric. Jessica thinks she's just
jealous because her mom is only on the local news.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*How is Lila or Jessica
the typical American teenager? Lila has everything handed to her on a
silver platter, and Jessica has the perfect California life. I
wouldn't want to see either one of them on television.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I know I say this a lot,
but Jessica is such a bitch in this book! She just automatically
assumes that she should get the interview and keeps going off on
people about how Lila isn't honest with her application. She then
puts shit on hers that isn't real either. During her interview, she
even makes a big deal out of the hospital having the Fowler name and
outright lies about how Lila travels all the time and spends more
time traveling than she does in school.</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-35525047380342892472019-10-02T05:22:00.000-04:002019-10-02T05:22:02.740-04:00Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #164: The Mystery of the Mother Wolf (2002)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3OCmBDNmzGG4a2sDJERLQYJ9ejjm59dzcokuCPvGPn4ArY9Rmmxm3Rlf6e8mP5iUaYwblUzMrtqxmosrN0mjPDfsMOQr1U5zIWxQ2I1yEngJovSwd_2luE-IWtf751dVj-BHezMAKEVY/s1600/mystery+of+the+mother+wolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1069" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3OCmBDNmzGG4a2sDJERLQYJ9ejjm59dzcokuCPvGPn4ArY9Rmmxm3Rlf6e8mP5iUaYwblUzMrtqxmosrN0mjPDfsMOQr1U5zIWxQ2I1yEngJovSwd_2luE-IWtf751dVj-BHezMAKEVY/s320/mystery+of+the+mother+wolf.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy and the girls are
off to Elk River Ranch in Wyoming. Alice, the best friend of her aunt
Eloise, invited them to spend some time with her and her husband,
John. They'll also meet Jenny, her daughter, and Jenny's fiancee,
Paul. Paul is a zoology student and helping build a wolf sanctuary on
their land. Bess is less then pleased with the news, especially after
hearing that they also have a pet wolf.</span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While on the way to the
ranch, they have a run in with Rusty. He's their closest neighbor and
has a yard absolutely filled to the brim with junk. Rusty fires a
slingshot at the car windshield and makes a big deal out of how he
doesn't like people around his property. They finally get to the
ranch and meet Dody, a guest, and his son, Dexter, who Bess instantly
develops a crush on.</span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy almost instantly
finds an old pocket knife in the room she shares with George. Since
it has RM on it, she thinks it might belong to Rusty. That freaks
Alice out because she can't imagine him sneaking around the ranch.
She tells her that it must belong to Ross, one of their ranch hands.
They then meet Jenny and Paul, who just wants to talk about how
awesome wolves are.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The two take the girls
out to see Rainbow, the wolf pet. Her parents died, her pack
abandoned her, and Alice found her just in the nick of time. Rainbow
recently had puppies with their sled dog, Grover, and the girls want
to check things out. Before they can get there though, they almost
get run over by a truck.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stella, the driver, is
Paul's grandmother, and she has this guy Bill with her. Bill owns a
ranch nearby and is worried about having a wolf sanctuary so close.
He wants assurances that the wolves won't escape and kill his
livestock. This gives Paul an excuse to talk about how they would
never do that because it's not like wolves do this every single day.
As they look at the puppies, Alice casually mentions that there was
an intruder the night before.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nancy wakes up in the
middle of the night to noises outside and instantly wakes up George.
They head downstairs and eventually find most of the ranch out in the
barn. Someone broke in, shot Grover with a tranquilizer dart, and
then ran off with Rainbow. John calls the vet to learn what to do
about the puppies and how to care for Grover. Nancy goes outside to
look for clues and actually becomes disoriented in the blizzard that
suddenly hit. This is not my Nancy.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paul luckily comes by as
he returns back from working outside and helps her find her way back
to the barn. Nancy thinks that Rusty must be behind everything and
wants to check him out. John comes in and tells everyone that someone
stole the puppies. They waited until he took Grover out for a walk,
sneaked into the house where they took them to keep them warm, and
stole them.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The girls go to Rusty's
house and sneak around. The find that he has a bunch of cats,
apparently never cleans his house, and has a pig skull on display.
When they start sneaking around outside, he catches them and locks
the girls in a pen with a big hog that charges. Rusty steps in at the
last second and warns them about snooping around. When Nancy shows
him the pocket watch, he says it isn't his but takes it anyway.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They decide to take a
break from the case and do a little skiing with Dexter. While on the
chair lift, their chair stops in the middle of the trail. Nancy
throws her ski pole like a javelin to tell ski patrol they're up
there. Ski patrol finds them and helps them down. One guy tells her
it's really weird. Someone told him the last chair on the lift was
the one before them and all their phones stopped working.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All they want to do is go
back to the ranch and relax. Alice tells them all about this program
designed to introduce Canadian wolves into the region. These
defenders group pushed for the program, but local ranchers aren't
happy because the wolves attack and kill livestock. When they finally
get back, they find a note from someone that warns them to ban wild
wolves or they'll never see their tame ones again.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paul thinks the note was
left for him and feels bad but not bad enough to suggest that they
take the sled dogs out for a run. Though he assures them that he does
this trail all the time and that it's perfectly safe, they go off the
trail, one of the dogs goes over a ravine, and they almost go in too.
He manages to move the dogs and save the last one. Nancy finds that
someone cut the reins.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The girls then go with
Jenny to check out the neighboring ranch and decide to use snowshoes.
Though they have fun, the snow starts again and the wind picks up.
Jenny then notices a pack of wild wolves on the trail with them. Ross
luckily shows up with his snowmobile and helps them get back before
deciding to visit a friend. Bess stays behind, while Nancy and George
to to the other ranch.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
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</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">They stop when they see a
snowmobile just like the one Ross drives sitting in front of the
town's general store. When they get closer, they find him buying five
radio collars, the exact size for wolf hybrid puppies. Ross takes off
on a trail they can't drive on with their car, but Nancy convinces an
old guy to let her borrow one of his snowmobiles. They follow his
tracks and find that he went to Coyote Corners, which is the name of
the ranch that Paul's grandmother owns. It doesn't take long before
they hear someone asking her about the wolf puppy she sold him.</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ross sees Nancy and waves
his stun gun around in the air. George sneaks over to the guy who
bought one of the puppies, whispers something to him, and he heads
for the hills. Nancy then karate chops the stun gun out of Ross's
hand, but Stella then grabs a lamp and goes after her. Stella gets
the stun gun and holds it to Nancy's neck as Ross grabs George. They
start taking them to something called the bear cave, which does not
sound at all safe.</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the way, Stella
explains that her husband recently passed away and left more of his
money than she expected to his kids from her first marriage. She had
enough to live comfortably but not enough to go on a safari like she
always wanted. So she and Ross worked together to steal and sell the
puppies. Ross accidentally left behind his pocket watch while
checking on Rainbow. When it's all done though, she totally plans on
giving Rainbow back.</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As they step outside
though, they find the cops waiting. They arrest the two, and George
reveals that she told the buyer the puppies were stolen and asked him
to call the cops. Ross was the one who messed up the chair lift and
did all the other stuff, but Dody was responsible for the note. The
guy from the other ranch asked him to leave it there to try and scare
them into being on his side. Rainbow is so happy to be home that she
not only lets Nancy pet her, but also lets her hold one of her
puppies.</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Alice says the town
can't do anything about all the junk in Rusty's yard, which is kind
of ridiculous. My dad lived in a kind of rural area and had a
neighbor who constantly called the township on him over stuff in his
yard. They came out 4-6 times last year to tell him he had to take
stuff off his driveway, burn tree limbs, and random stuff like that.
They also came out at least three times since he passed away while we
were going through the house!</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I love that even though
Jenny and Paul are engaged, they have separate rooms. This book came
out in 2002, not 1802.</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Paul talks about how
people just don't understand wolves and how they're actually gentle
creatures. He goes on and on about how he worked with them in college
and never felt scared or worried. That's great but not very
realistic. There's a reason we don't walk up to wild wolves and try
to pet them.</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*When Nancy and George
can't find Jenny in her room after hearing noises outside, they
immediately think that she's in trouble. I'd probably assume she
sneaked off for some late night fun with her future husband!</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Nancy thinks it's
suspicious that Paul slept through all the commotion and didn't come
out, but there's no mention of Bess either, so she apparently slept
through it too.</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Jenny explains that
introducing wild wolves isn't such a bad thing because as long as
they have enough wild animals to prey on, they won't attack
livestock. Oh, so it's okay for the wolves to eat all the local
animals then?</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*According to Paul, he
has a stun gun that he uses when working with wild wolves. He
basically knocks them out and then puts a radio collar on them. Yeah,
that sounds way safer than using a tranquilizer gun.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*The guy they borrow the
snowmobile from literally has to tell them how to operate it but lets
them go after getting 20 bucks. Will $20 cover all the repairs if
they crash or break it?</span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*I honestly have no idea
how much wolf hybrid puppies sell for, but would selling five dogs
really pay for an African safari vacation?</span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8176134373438082491.post-20470082260812057232019-09-30T05:21:00.000-04:002019-09-30T05:21:04.847-04:00The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special #9: Starring the Baby-Sitters Club!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3OuQNXcwRA33DN5TeyJfPmH0Ib02ItSPz3Os9jmCFaGSXWqfAomEY_GeNRuaXjfqf2hulz2WxhGY3KKzpD6ueTAFHV0aI8TqpEUi6sFLzFtFlvTjF7nlHi5crRHX4H4LT9B7CeTrmI7g/s1600/starring+the+bsc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="312" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3OuQNXcwRA33DN5TeyJfPmH0Ib02ItSPz3Os9jmCFaGSXWqfAomEY_GeNRuaXjfqf2hulz2WxhGY3KKzpD6ueTAFHV0aI8TqpEUi6sFLzFtFlvTjF7nlHi5crRHX4H4LT9B7CeTrmI7g/s320/starring+the+bsc.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have no idea how I
never did this book for my blog given how many times I read it over
the years!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SMS announces plans to
put on a musical extravaganza, and if they use that term one more
time, I may hit someone. They'll hold open auditions for both the
elementary and high schools as well as the middle school. Jessi just
recently became the sixth grade correspondent for the paper and
thinks that she'll be the star in the musical version of Peter Pan.
Now, let's get on with it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Jessi: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Despite
assuming that she'll be Peter Pan, Jessi isn't as good at singing and
acting as she is with dancing. When she gets cast as a pirate, she
throws a hissy fit and drops out. The director then asks her to
choreograph dance numbers for the little kids. She then crosses her
name off the program listing because she thinks she should get credit
for so much more. In the end, Pete, who was cast as Nana and the
crocodile, breaks his nose. Jessi takes his place as both characters.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Mary Anne:</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Mary Anne hates the idea of being on stage so much that she almost
wets herself walking into the auditorium. While sitting for Matt and
Haley though, the director notices and asks her to be the backstage
babysitter. She winds up taking care of everyone but fights with
Mallory when the other girl acts like a sitter too.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Kristy: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Kristy
wants to be Nana and the crocodile but does such a good job at the
auditions that she wins the part of Peter Pan. She keeps forgetting
all of her lines and lets Cokie psych her out a few times. Since this
is Kristy though, she gets over all that and does a great job. She
wishes that her dad was there after the show and has her mom send him
a copy of the program. Bart shows up and gives her flowers as does
Charlie, but Bart gives her a kiss too.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Dawn: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dawn
tries out for the part of Tiger Lily and gets the Wendy role. Since
she's such a free thinker (picture me rolling my eyes here), she
tries to change the words and make Wendy teach Peter things rather
than do them for him. The director keeps yelling at her until she
finally does the play the right way. She feels bad for not telling
her dad about the musical. Richard brings her flowers and a copy of
the musical that he filmed for her dad. Jack is super proud of her
and asks that she not keep secrets from him again.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Stacey and Sam</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">:
These two birdbrains are kind of dating, but Sam is worried because
his friends keep making fun of him for dating a kid in junior high.
Charlie suggests that he show his friends how much fun they have
together, but he goes overboard and calls Stacey darling and dear all
the time after they're cast as Mr. and Mrs. Darling. After Charlie
tells him that he's an idiot, he apologizes to Stacey who forgives
him and asks him to be normal from now on.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Claudia: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Claudia
really doesn't get a story. She wants to work on sets and gets the
role of set designer.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Mallory: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mallory
wants to work on costumes and gets to work with an older girl. She
gets all nervous about measuring guys, so the other girl does it for
her. Mallory also tries to take over backstage and keeps getting in
the way, which causes Mary Anne to yell at her. Since this is a BSC
book, they quickly make up.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
also get random chapters from people like Logan who almost gets
thrown out of the play because he won't stop goofing off and Cokie
who doesn't want Mallory to make her look bad. Jackie gets a few
chapters too because he doesn't want to wear a nightshirt in front of
everyone as his costume. He is also scared of the animal costumes but
gets over it after he sees Jessi in the costumes.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*Karen
auditions for the role of Tinker Bell and throws a hissy fit after
she learns that it isn't a role. She keeps acting out until the
director finally lets her be Tinker Bell, proving that she'll grow up
to become a “can I talk to your manager?” chicks who throws fits
as an adult.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*I
bought a new copy because I lost mine, and the new copy came with the
BSC Christmas card in the middle with the replica Ann M. Martin
signature on the back!</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*These
books try way too hard to make Stacey seem super mature. When Sam
tells her why he's been acting weird, she literally closes her eyes
and takes a deep breath as if he's a kid and not her boyfriend.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*Dawn
brings bean salad, sugar free juice, raisins, and other “healthy”
foods for lunch. As if fruit juice is oh so healthy! She also flips
out later because she didn't eat all day and Mary Anne makes her eat
peanut butter crackers from the vending machine. Dawn can literally
taste the chemicals.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*Cokie
wants a dressing room. Kristy says she knows of the perfect place and
takes her to the mop closet. Cokie wins in the end though because
they actually let her use it as a dressing room.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*Mallory
and one other person are the only ones mentioned as working on
costumes. You're telling me that those two girls made every single
costume for everyone in the musical?</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*My
bad, they don't make the animal costumes. Despite measuring Pete, she
later says that they sent them back to the costume shop. I'd also
like to point out that since Jessi fits in them, she's the same size
as Pete.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*Squirt
becomes obsessed with the Mary Martin Peter Pan video after Jessi
watches it and makes them play it for him all the time. That
seems...like not something a two year old would like?</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*When
Jessi broaches Emily with the idea of doing a set of articles from
the inside of the musical, she seems confused at first and then says
something along the lines of, “oh that's right, you're the dancer,
so of course you'll be involved.” All of her friends though think
that she's getting her hopes up. That don't actually say anything to
her though.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*Mary
Anne comes with the Braddock kids originally because their mom hired
her to sit. She then becomes the backstage babysitter. First of all,
why did they need a sitter when there were other kids there on their
own? Second of all, did she get paid for any of this?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*Speaking
of which, Kristy lets them shut down the club for the entirety of the
musical. There's a scene where someone calls and Claudia says that
they'll be back the next week. Having done school musicals before,
that's a hell of a long time to shut down shop!</span></span></span></div>
Jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17595133453137216110noreply@blogger.com4