The Baby-Sitters Club Mystery #6: The Mystery at Claudia’s House

Claudia comes home one day to find her room completely ransacked! Okay, that’s kind of an overstatement because things are just moved around. Things get even weirder when Jeanine suddenly starts taking an interest in girl stuff, like hair, clothing and makeup. She even gets grounded, after coming home late and not telling anyone.

Claudia decides to follow her sister and sees her meet a really handsome guy at the park near the school. They shake hands and then walk off together. Claudia starts watching her sister carefully and trying to figure out what could possibly make her sister change so much. Jeanine even borrows her favorite sweater multiple times and asks for advice about putting on makeup.

At the same time, Derek Masters has come back to town since his show is on hiatus. Word gets out that in the next season his character has to kiss a girl in his class. Derek plays things up, making it seem like he’s kissed lots of girls and is an expert on kissing. The Pike boys keep bringing Vanessa around and trying to make him kiss her, just to prove that he really is an expert.

Since he was on a detective show for kids, Claudia decides that he’s the perfect one to help her spy on her sister. They call Jeanine one day, asking her for help on a civics project. Derek pretends like he has to hold a mock court and they swear her in, so Claudia can ask her questions “under oath.” Unfortunately Derek breaks down and cries over how he’s never kissed a girl and they both end up comforting him.

Mrs. Braddock stops by with some freshly baked bread and lets it slip that she saw Jeanine at the pizza restaurant one night, when she said she was studying at the library. Claudia tells her mom about seeing Jeanine driving off in a car with a boy and all the other stuff. Their parents confront her that night and she finally admits that she has a boyfriend Jerry. She was afraid to tell her parents because she was worried they wouldn’t approve, given her past history of just studying. They ask him to come over for dinner, but Jeanine isn’t happy that Claudia told on her.

Jerry turns out to be a super nice guy and everyone likes him. Jeanine doesn’t speak to Claudia for a few days, but then stops in her room to talk. She thanks her for being nice to him and says he liked her and even thought she was cute. Claudia finally gets to dish with her sister about her new boyfriend, in the way sisters do.

*I love how the cover makes it look like a burglar or robber trashed her room. Then the book explains that someone moved around her clothes, jewelry and makeup.

*This was a lame, lame, lame mystery. Who didn’t see it coming? I told my roommate about a girl suddenly picking out new clothes, fixing her hair and wearing makeup and his first response was, “she got a new boyfriend.”

*Derek finally admits to his friends that he hasn’t kissed a girl and they’re fine with it. Then they announce that the kiss was canceled because the characters are “too young.”

*What is up with Vanessa? She lets the triplets bribe her into kissing Derek for around $2 and then when he doesn’t want to do it, she runs off in relief.

*Claudia asks why Jeanine shook Jerry’s hand that day and she says they hadn’t worked their way up to kissing yet. Still, shaking your boyfriend’s hand? No worries though because they’ve kissed by the end of the book.

Comments

  1. I'm pretty sure I read this book when I was like 9 and figured this "mystery" out...I remember t being super lame!

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  2. I wonder how Claudia even knew her room was trashed...doesn't it always look like a tornado hit it?

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  3. I think it was one of those things where she always knows where everything in her room is. She sees a few things that she knew she couldn't find anywhere else, so she figured someone moved stuff. Maybe her sis was stealing her candy :-)

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