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The Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries #11
Claudia and the Mystery at the Museum
While visiting Stoneybrook's new museum, Claudia is horrified to learn that someone has stolen some priceless coins and replaced them with forgeries.
146 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1993
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,127 books3,097 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
January 6, 2011
this one opens with janine being shocked--SHOCKED!--to discover claudia immersed in the sunday "new york times". apparently they are featuring a story on a new art museum opening in stoneybrook. i call bullshit. i read the "new york times" every single day & i've never once seen a story about stoneybrook. what's that? it's not a real town? look, i'm not an idiot, okay?
claudia is excited because her favorite sculptor, don newman, is doing a show at the new stoneybrook museum. she's excited to bring a few babysitting charges with her to see what there is to see. she decides to ask corrie addison, who was claudia's star pupil in book #26 when mimi died & claudia ran that weird basement art class for children, as well as the arnold twins.
turns out the museum is certainly like no museum i have ever seen. it's a bizarre hodgepodge of a legitimate, traditional art museum--one of the big ones that features an antiquities room, egyptian artifacts, contemporary galleries, etc--as well as a children's museum, a science museum, & every other museum you could possibly think of. it sounds...awful, in my opinion. but the kids have fun, touching all the exhibits they are allowed to touch. they linger forever in each new room while claudia tries to hurry them along to the room displaying newman's sculptures. they are almost there when the fire alarm goes off. claudia decides to take the kids into the courtyard, because i know the place i want to be when a building catches fire is in the small enclosed grassy area surrounded on all sides by the flaming building. but it turns out to be a non-issue, because the building isn't really on fire. apparently someone pulled the fire alarm as cover before smashing a glass case & stealing some ancient coins. all the visitors & staff currently on premises have to be searched before they can leave. claudia takes this opportunity to eyeball her fellow visitors & make note of possible suspects. she observes a brownie troop, a well-dressed man with one blue eye & one green eye, & a custodian with a mop & bucket.
of course all the babysitters are excited about the robbery, & they decide that they are definitely the ones to solve the mystery. mallory actually makes an incredibly astute observation after reading the coverage of the theft in the newspaper (not the "times," i assume). the article says that security was immediately stepped up & every room is being guarded 24 hours a day. so mallory says that the stolen coins must still be in the museum somewhere. whoever stole them couldn't have removed them from the premises. nice one, mallory!
of course, the girls are back to their usual dullard selves when they try to guess where the coins may have been hidden. claudia says that maybe they were stashed in the donation box. because it's going to be so easy to retrieve them from that hiding spot without being detected, right? jessi says that maybe they were thrown into the fountain inside the museum. *sigh* & kristy says maybe they were scattered among the fake antique replica coins for sale in the gift shop. because what thief wouldn't want to take the chance that their stolen goods would be sold for pocket change?
the babysitters go to the museum the next day to check things out. they notice the man with two different colored eyes right away & try to tail him, but he leaves & it's pretty anti-climactic. claudia asks an employee about the donation box & learns that it is emptied & counted every night, so the coins couldn't be there. they ask the gift shop clerk about the replica coins & discover that the replicas are chocolate. they examine each coin (which is ridiculous--so there are like ten chocolate coins under glass & none of them are overlapping each other in such a way as to obscure their foil joins? has this ghostwriter never eaten a decent bag of chocolate gelt in her life?) & ascertain that they are all chocolate. then they fish around in the fountain, somehow avoiding the gaze of the numerous guards milling around (again, ridiculous--art museum guards practically stand on your shoes & let you carry them around the museum personally), & determine that all the change in the fountain is just regular everyday non-antiquity change.
claudia wanders off to see the newman sculptures. she likes them because guests of the museum can touch them & some of them move or rock back & forth when they are touched. she finds her favorite sculpture, "daphne," which she had previously seen at an exhibit in new york city. she touches it & it swings back & forth, but claudia thinks it feels different. she decides it's a forgery.
she goes straight to the museum curator, mr. snipes, & tells him her suspicions. he is really impatient with her & shows her that the serial number in the museum records matches the serial number on the sculpture. his weasel eyes & hitler mustache apparently arouse claudia's suspicions, so she sneaks a copy of his resume off his desk (why was it there?) & gets the hell out of there. when the babysitters research mr. snipes's previous places of employ, they discover that most of them were robbed when he was the curator. claudia decides that mr. snipes is the thief.
she starts to feel concerned about the safety of mr. newman's sculptures, so she calls him up & tells him everything. he is really nice & invites her to come to his big formal gallery party so they can check out the "daphne" sculpture together. he explains that he built hidden compartments into a lot of his sculptures & maybe left something inside "daphne". but claudia is skeptical because she had seen "daphne" within the last year, more recently than newman has worked on it.
anyway, mr. kishi agrees to accompany claudia to the party. (she tells him she had called mr. newman for a class assignment.) she wears one of mimi's elegant kimonos. she notices the man with two different-colored eyes at the party. she meets up with mr. newman & they go to his gallery to check out "daphne". but the door is locked. because apparently his sculptures have already been moved into storage so they can be shipped off to their next museum date. seriously? why the fuck would they schedule newman's big party for the very same night they box up his art? anyway...claudia & newman are in the hallway when they see a custodian unlock a storage room & go inside. they follow him & see him open the secret compartment on "daphne" & dump the stolen ancient coins hidden inside into his bucket. then the dude with two different-colored eyes runs in & tackles him. then newman tackles both of them. then mr. snipes runs in & freaks out. eventually someone calls the cops or something & we discover that...
the custodian is actually an art thief. he used his key to open the case with the coins in it & then smashed the case the cover up the fact that he used a key. which seems a little dumb, actually. if he'd just used his key, he could have smuggled the coins out of the museum & sold them the same day he stole them. setting off the alarm is what caused mr. snipes to ramp up security. i mean, everyone figured out that it was an inside job anyway, so....mr. snipes has worked at a lot of different museums because he specializes in theft prevention & is regularly hired by museums at risk for theft. sounds like he really sucks at his specialty, considering all the museums that have been robbed under his supervision. he was short with claudia not because he was a thief, but because he was stressed that day. the weasel eyes & hitler 'stache were just unfortunate red herrings. the dude with two different-colored eyes is a federal agent who specializes in art theft. he was assigned to the stoneybrook museum (another dude who sucks at his job) & has been trying to figure out who stole the coins. the babysitters really annoyed him when they were tailing him the day after the theft.
claudia is hailed as a hero & mr. snipes appoints her "honorary trustee" of the museum & tells her he'd like her help arranging a show of student work for the museum. because that won't suck at all. can't you just imagine? we'll have ashley wyeth's fire hydrant sculptures, mallory's drawings of mice wearing clothes, & claudia's paintings of bazooka joe gum wrappers. can't wait to see what the "new york times" has to say about that show!
the B-plot is all about how claire pike wants to be a star. she pays margo in extra helpings of dessert to watch her tap dance in the garage. she whines & begs until her parents agree to pay for a very expensive video in which claire dresses up as dorothy from "the wizard of oz" & sings "somewhere over the rainbow" (think of those embarrassing karaoke recording booths they have at amusement parks). claudia puts claire in touch with rose wilder from claudia & the genius of elm street, who watches claire's video & advises her on snagging an agent. but claire decides fame & stardom aren't for her after jessi clues her in on how much she'll have to rehearse & practice, most likely without actually becoming a superstar that is ferried around in a limo all day long. luckily, the first agent claire sent her tape to rejected her, so...no harm, no foul to anyone except the reader who had to sit through yet another tedious "those darn kids--they think they want one thing & then they want another" sub-plot. also, where was claire's natural talent when she totally blew it at the little miss stoneybrook pageant?
claudia is excited because her favorite sculptor, don newman, is doing a show at the new stoneybrook museum. she's excited to bring a few babysitting charges with her to see what there is to see. she decides to ask corrie addison, who was claudia's star pupil in book #26 when mimi died & claudia ran that weird basement art class for children, as well as the arnold twins.
turns out the museum is certainly like no museum i have ever seen. it's a bizarre hodgepodge of a legitimate, traditional art museum--one of the big ones that features an antiquities room, egyptian artifacts, contemporary galleries, etc--as well as a children's museum, a science museum, & every other museum you could possibly think of. it sounds...awful, in my opinion. but the kids have fun, touching all the exhibits they are allowed to touch. they linger forever in each new room while claudia tries to hurry them along to the room displaying newman's sculptures. they are almost there when the fire alarm goes off. claudia decides to take the kids into the courtyard, because i know the place i want to be when a building catches fire is in the small enclosed grassy area surrounded on all sides by the flaming building. but it turns out to be a non-issue, because the building isn't really on fire. apparently someone pulled the fire alarm as cover before smashing a glass case & stealing some ancient coins. all the visitors & staff currently on premises have to be searched before they can leave. claudia takes this opportunity to eyeball her fellow visitors & make note of possible suspects. she observes a brownie troop, a well-dressed man with one blue eye & one green eye, & a custodian with a mop & bucket.
of course all the babysitters are excited about the robbery, & they decide that they are definitely the ones to solve the mystery. mallory actually makes an incredibly astute observation after reading the coverage of the theft in the newspaper (not the "times," i assume). the article says that security was immediately stepped up & every room is being guarded 24 hours a day. so mallory says that the stolen coins must still be in the museum somewhere. whoever stole them couldn't have removed them from the premises. nice one, mallory!
of course, the girls are back to their usual dullard selves when they try to guess where the coins may have been hidden. claudia says that maybe they were stashed in the donation box. because it's going to be so easy to retrieve them from that hiding spot without being detected, right? jessi says that maybe they were thrown into the fountain inside the museum. *sigh* & kristy says maybe they were scattered among the fake antique replica coins for sale in the gift shop. because what thief wouldn't want to take the chance that their stolen goods would be sold for pocket change?
the babysitters go to the museum the next day to check things out. they notice the man with two different colored eyes right away & try to tail him, but he leaves & it's pretty anti-climactic. claudia asks an employee about the donation box & learns that it is emptied & counted every night, so the coins couldn't be there. they ask the gift shop clerk about the replica coins & discover that the replicas are chocolate. they examine each coin (which is ridiculous--so there are like ten chocolate coins under glass & none of them are overlapping each other in such a way as to obscure their foil joins? has this ghostwriter never eaten a decent bag of chocolate gelt in her life?) & ascertain that they are all chocolate. then they fish around in the fountain, somehow avoiding the gaze of the numerous guards milling around (again, ridiculous--art museum guards practically stand on your shoes & let you carry them around the museum personally), & determine that all the change in the fountain is just regular everyday non-antiquity change.
claudia wanders off to see the newman sculptures. she likes them because guests of the museum can touch them & some of them move or rock back & forth when they are touched. she finds her favorite sculpture, "daphne," which she had previously seen at an exhibit in new york city. she touches it & it swings back & forth, but claudia thinks it feels different. she decides it's a forgery.
she goes straight to the museum curator, mr. snipes, & tells him her suspicions. he is really impatient with her & shows her that the serial number in the museum records matches the serial number on the sculpture. his weasel eyes & hitler mustache apparently arouse claudia's suspicions, so she sneaks a copy of his resume off his desk (why was it there?) & gets the hell out of there. when the babysitters research mr. snipes's previous places of employ, they discover that most of them were robbed when he was the curator. claudia decides that mr. snipes is the thief.
she starts to feel concerned about the safety of mr. newman's sculptures, so she calls him up & tells him everything. he is really nice & invites her to come to his big formal gallery party so they can check out the "daphne" sculpture together. he explains that he built hidden compartments into a lot of his sculptures & maybe left something inside "daphne". but claudia is skeptical because she had seen "daphne" within the last year, more recently than newman has worked on it.
anyway, mr. kishi agrees to accompany claudia to the party. (she tells him she had called mr. newman for a class assignment.) she wears one of mimi's elegant kimonos. she notices the man with two different-colored eyes at the party. she meets up with mr. newman & they go to his gallery to check out "daphne". but the door is locked. because apparently his sculptures have already been moved into storage so they can be shipped off to their next museum date. seriously? why the fuck would they schedule newman's big party for the very same night they box up his art? anyway...claudia & newman are in the hallway when they see a custodian unlock a storage room & go inside. they follow him & see him open the secret compartment on "daphne" & dump the stolen ancient coins hidden inside into his bucket. then the dude with two different-colored eyes runs in & tackles him. then newman tackles both of them. then mr. snipes runs in & freaks out. eventually someone calls the cops or something & we discover that...
the custodian is actually an art thief. he used his key to open the case with the coins in it & then smashed the case the cover up the fact that he used a key. which seems a little dumb, actually. if he'd just used his key, he could have smuggled the coins out of the museum & sold them the same day he stole them. setting off the alarm is what caused mr. snipes to ramp up security. i mean, everyone figured out that it was an inside job anyway, so....mr. snipes has worked at a lot of different museums because he specializes in theft prevention & is regularly hired by museums at risk for theft. sounds like he really sucks at his specialty, considering all the museums that have been robbed under his supervision. he was short with claudia not because he was a thief, but because he was stressed that day. the weasel eyes & hitler 'stache were just unfortunate red herrings. the dude with two different-colored eyes is a federal agent who specializes in art theft. he was assigned to the stoneybrook museum (another dude who sucks at his job) & has been trying to figure out who stole the coins. the babysitters really annoyed him when they were tailing him the day after the theft.
claudia is hailed as a hero & mr. snipes appoints her "honorary trustee" of the museum & tells her he'd like her help arranging a show of student work for the museum. because that won't suck at all. can't you just imagine? we'll have ashley wyeth's fire hydrant sculptures, mallory's drawings of mice wearing clothes, & claudia's paintings of bazooka joe gum wrappers. can't wait to see what the "new york times" has to say about that show!
the B-plot is all about how claire pike wants to be a star. she pays margo in extra helpings of dessert to watch her tap dance in the garage. she whines & begs until her parents agree to pay for a very expensive video in which claire dresses up as dorothy from "the wizard of oz" & sings "somewhere over the rainbow" (think of those embarrassing karaoke recording booths they have at amusement parks). claudia puts claire in touch with rose wilder from claudia & the genius of elm street, who watches claire's video & advises her on snagging an agent. but claire decides fame & stardom aren't for her after jessi clues her in on how much she'll have to rehearse & practice, most likely without actually becoming a superstar that is ferried around in a limo all day long. luckily, the first agent claire sent her tape to rejected her, so...no harm, no foul to anyone except the reader who had to sit through yet another tedious "those darn kids--they think they want one thing & then they want another" sub-plot. also, where was claire's natural talent when she totally blew it at the little miss stoneybrook pageant?
May 14, 2023
Fun, Nancy Drew-ish museum mystery! I love how Claudia's instincts around art led to the pivotal clue ().
As someone who works at a museum, I have a lot of questions about how this museum actually works. One curator for such a broad range of galleries? Free admission (PWYC donation) for a museum that, again, has Egyptian mummies, contemporary art, and a whole bunch of interactive displays? (The woman at the admissions desk said they pulled in a generous $600 in visitor donations within the past week, which is a lot, but doesn't seem a sustainable source of funding.) Or later, the artist not even knowing Also, the artist inviting all the museum staff, including security guards, to the gala, which is a nice gesture, but who is then running the event? Did they outsource all of the event staff?
All admittedly rather churlish of me to even ask, but I did have to suspend my disbelief on a lot of the museum operations pieces.
That being said, it was nice to see the contemporary artist whom Claudia idolizes actually being nice and down-to-earth. That's not always the case. :) And the detail about him is really charming.
As someone who works at a museum, I have a lot of questions about how this museum actually works. One curator for such a broad range of galleries? Free admission (PWYC donation) for a museum that, again, has Egyptian mummies, contemporary art, and a whole bunch of interactive displays? (The woman at the admissions desk said they pulled in a generous $600 in visitor donations within the past week, which is a lot, but doesn't seem a sustainable source of funding.) Or later, the artist not even knowing Also, the artist inviting all the museum staff, including security guards, to the gala, which is a nice gesture, but who is then running the event? Did they outsource all of the event staff?
All admittedly rather churlish of me to even ask, but I did have to suspend my disbelief on a lot of the museum operations pieces.
That being said, it was nice to see the contemporary artist whom Claudia idolizes actually being nice and down-to-earth. That's not always the case. :) And the detail about him is really charming.
December 4, 2023
Another incredibly dull mystery. These are really hit and miss it seems. Anyway Claudia is excited because there's a new museum opening in Stoneybrook and it features the work on Don Newman one if her favourite sculptors. She takes the Arnold twins and Corrie who featured in book 26 to see the museum. It's a cool interactive place and they all love it but then a fire alarm goes off and everyone goes to the courtyard which is stupid but okay. Then they hear a burglar alarm and find some coins missing and Claudia sets out to find the burglar and meet the famous artist she admires. The b plot has Claire Pike starring in a VHS movie she made at the mall and dreaming of stardom until she realizes it's really not that great. Not much of a book. Hopefully the next one will be better.
October 7, 2016
this is my first time reading this book!
in this forgettable/plothole-filled mystery by ghostwriter Ellen Miles (seriously, I'm having trouble distinguishing between the mysteries' stories at this point) someone steals some old coins from the new museum in stoneybrook. claud takes it personally because she loves museums (who woulda thunk?) and sets out to solve the mystery. turns out it was some guy who worked there. meanwhile, claire pike makes a video at one of those mall video places singing somewhere over the rainbow and is convinced she wants to be/should be a superstar.
highlights:
-claud says she doesn't remember anyone at the museum who looked really suspicious. "I mean, there weren't any guys with trenchcoats and briefcases or anything." haha I think all the nancy drews have fried your brain!
-rosie wilder helps claire try to find an agent. eventually claire realizes showbiz is too much work when jessi tells her some of the stuff derek masters has had to deal with. I like this, but it's also kind of unrealistic -- when I was a kid, I knew that being a celebrity would be a ton of work and be a pain but I still felt some weird need to be famous when I grew up.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-the curator is a jerk to her when she talks about investigating the robbery (and bringing up the prospect that another piece may have been stolen) so claud steals his resume from his desk as punishment. huh? why would you steal his resume? plot-wise it's the way they find out more about the curator, but it still doesn't make sense that she did it in the first place.
-it turns out he's worked at a lot of museums that have had burglaries. they think this means he's the perp but really he's an expert in preventing/solving them. ughhhh this book is so DUMB!
-don newman (the artist claudia admires, whose sculpture she thinks may have been stolen and replaced with a forgery) invites claudia and her dad to the fancy museum party claud had been wanting to go to. why? doesn't he have friends, or a family, that he'd rather hang out with than some 13 year old?
-the robber ends up being a custodian who is described as an older man, who was hoping to retire on it the money he made from stealing the coins. now, the bsc member joke, he's gonna retire in prison. ugh. how can they be so heartless? poor guy.
claudia outfits:
-"I had dressed up a little, in pink lace leggings and a long black sweater. My hair was tied back with a pink ribbon, and I was wearing pink ballet-type flats."
-"That Sunday, my hair was in a long braid hanging down one side of my head, with red ribbons threaded into it. I was wearing a red-and-white striped shirt that hung down almost to my knees, red leggings, and black high-top sneakers."
-"I was wearing a pair of bright red leggings topped by a white man-tailored shirt and a vest that used to belong to my father."
claire agent-meeting outfits:
-"She wore a spangled tutu which Mal had worn in a first grade play (it's a little ratty by now, since all the Pike girls have used it for dressing up), white high heels swiped from her mother's closet, and a pair of red sunglasses pushed up on her head."
-"She came back down in a few minutes, dressed in her best pink dress with lace trim. She was still wearing the high heels, and the sunglasses were still perched on her head."
snacks in claudia's room:
-popcorn (n.s.)
-doritos (n.s.)
-twizzlers (n.s.)
-ruffles (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)
in this forgettable/plothole-filled mystery by ghostwriter Ellen Miles (seriously, I'm having trouble distinguishing between the mysteries' stories at this point) someone steals some old coins from the new museum in stoneybrook. claud takes it personally because she loves museums (who woulda thunk?) and sets out to solve the mystery. turns out it was some guy who worked there. meanwhile, claire pike makes a video at one of those mall video places singing somewhere over the rainbow and is convinced she wants to be/should be a superstar.
highlights:
-claud says she doesn't remember anyone at the museum who looked really suspicious. "I mean, there weren't any guys with trenchcoats and briefcases or anything." haha I think all the nancy drews have fried your brain!
-rosie wilder helps claire try to find an agent. eventually claire realizes showbiz is too much work when jessi tells her some of the stuff derek masters has had to deal with. I like this, but it's also kind of unrealistic -- when I was a kid, I knew that being a celebrity would be a ton of work and be a pain but I still felt some weird need to be famous when I grew up.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-the curator is a jerk to her when she talks about investigating the robbery (and bringing up the prospect that another piece may have been stolen) so claud steals his resume from his desk as punishment. huh? why would you steal his resume? plot-wise it's the way they find out more about the curator, but it still doesn't make sense that she did it in the first place.
-it turns out he's worked at a lot of museums that have had burglaries. they think this means he's the perp but really he's an expert in preventing/solving them. ughhhh this book is so DUMB!
-don newman (the artist claudia admires, whose sculpture she thinks may have been stolen and replaced with a forgery) invites claudia and her dad to the fancy museum party claud had been wanting to go to. why? doesn't he have friends, or a family, that he'd rather hang out with than some 13 year old?
-the robber ends up being a custodian who is described as an older man, who was hoping to retire on it the money he made from stealing the coins. now, the bsc member joke, he's gonna retire in prison. ugh. how can they be so heartless? poor guy.
claudia outfits:
-"I had dressed up a little, in pink lace leggings and a long black sweater. My hair was tied back with a pink ribbon, and I was wearing pink ballet-type flats."
-"That Sunday, my hair was in a long braid hanging down one side of my head, with red ribbons threaded into it. I was wearing a red-and-white striped shirt that hung down almost to my knees, red leggings, and black high-top sneakers."
-"I was wearing a pair of bright red leggings topped by a white man-tailored shirt and a vest that used to belong to my father."
claire agent-meeting outfits:
-"She wore a spangled tutu which Mal had worn in a first grade play (it's a little ratty by now, since all the Pike girls have used it for dressing up), white high heels swiped from her mother's closet, and a pair of red sunglasses pushed up on her head."
-"She came back down in a few minutes, dressed in her best pink dress with lace trim. She was still wearing the high heels, and the sunglasses were still perched on her head."
snacks in claudia's room:
-popcorn (n.s.)
-doritos (n.s.)
-twizzlers (n.s.)
-ruffles (n.s.)
-pretzels (n.s.)
March 2, 2013
I don't believe I read this book as a child, but it seems to be one of the more realistic mysteries. Claudia happens to be visiting a museum when there's a robbery, and notices a few suspicious things that cause her to investigate further. There are a lot of interesting details about Claudia's interest in art and the artist who is having a show at the museum. Whoever ghostwrote this book definitely did their homework, as they name-checked a sculptor I studied in my second year of university!
The new museum in Stoneybrook sounded pretty cool, but I didn't totally buy the comment at the end about the curator being chosen because he had prior experience with robberies in museums and they were worried that the museum might be robbed. Why would a small museum in Stoneybrook be under such a threat of robbery? Did they have some truly irreplaceable relics? If so, why in Stoneybrook and not another museum? You kind of have to ignore these aspects of the story in order to enjoy it.
There's a cute but totally unrelated sub-plot about Claire Pike wanting to become an actress, which included several references to Mallory feeling under the weather. I guess this book must have been written not long before the one about Mal's glandular fever?
All in all, a cute addition to the mystery series, and not so over-the-top and unbelievable as some of the later ones. These books are always good books to fall back on when I'm feeling stressed. 4*
The new museum in Stoneybrook sounded pretty cool, but I didn't totally buy the comment at the end about the curator being chosen because he had prior experience with robberies in museums and they were worried that the museum might be robbed. Why would a small museum in Stoneybrook be under such a threat of robbery? Did they have some truly irreplaceable relics? If so, why in Stoneybrook and not another museum? You kind of have to ignore these aspects of the story in order to enjoy it.
There's a cute but totally unrelated sub-plot about Claire Pike wanting to become an actress, which included several references to Mallory feeling under the weather. I guess this book must have been written not long before the one about Mal's glandular fever?
All in all, a cute addition to the mystery series, and not so over-the-top and unbelievable as some of the later ones. These books are always good books to fall back on when I'm feeling stressed. 4*
October 5, 2010
I actually exclaimed "Yeah right!" out loud a couple of times while reading this book. Sounds like a museum I'd LOVE to visit though!
September 21, 2020
I feel like the Mystery was kind of the subplot in this one - I mean, the girls spent a LOT of time at the museum, and discussing the happenings, but this wasn't as "let's have a stake-out" as
Stacey and the Mystery Money
. That's not to say it wasn't without it's flaws, though.
It took me four days to write up this review, and truthfully I can't even remember what the actual B-story was. I've read too much BSC lately, they're all blurring together.
It took me four days to write up this review, and truthfully I can't even remember what the actual B-story was. I've read too much BSC lately, they're all blurring together.
September 29, 2023
This story is actually pretty fun. There are a lot of really silly moments, such as Claudia and this artist running off to uninhabited parts of the museum together-- what will happen to this poor guy if someone stumbles upon him with this middle school girl that he left the party with to go explore hallways and rooms with no one else in them? Also, a federal agent is not "a P.I." But I thought it was cool that Claudia's dad went to the party with her, and I loved the way all the adults praised Claudia and took her really seriously at the end.
July 22, 2017
Let's be real here, none of us read these for the fascinatingly wonderful plot lines. They were all stupid as hell, and that has become more apparent as adults. The mysteries were all pretty awful, not even them were especially mysterious. This one was more a cop thriller...or would be if the cops doing the thrilling were 13 year old babysitters.
That's all you need to know, honestly. Just trust me.
That's all you need to know, honestly. Just trust me.
September 20, 2018
There are very few things that are more comforting to me than curling up with BSC books when I'm sick. =)
This one was always a favorite, and I still enjoyed it a lot now. The fact that Claudia and Claudia alone prevented a major robbery is hilarious, and I actually like the subplot with Claire. Plus, this sounds like the coolest museum in the world, and I really wish it was real so I could visit it.
All in all, this is a fun one.
This one was always a favorite, and I still enjoyed it a lot now. The fact that Claudia and Claudia alone prevented a major robbery is hilarious, and I actually like the subplot with Claire. Plus, this sounds like the coolest museum in the world, and I really wish it was real so I could visit it.
All in all, this is a fun one.
Read
July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
September 18, 2021
This one was so forgettable I forgot to write a review. Oops. This book was weird. While a couple of or maybe even a few weeks passed the book skipped over most of it and the mystery made zero progress then was solved instantly at the end.
Although is that a surprise? At this point these girls should be old enough to join the police force.
Although is that a surprise? At this point these girls should be old enough to join the police force.
October 28, 2023
3 stars. Cute but not my favorite. Too much time spent on Claire’s story line of wanting to be a star and I just didn’t care. It really dragged my enjoyment of this down even though everything going on with Claudia and the museum was really interesting and fun. I wanted more emphasis on that and less on the side plot.
January 25, 2021
(LL)
At least this was actually a mystery! The subplots with the Pike kids was annoying though.
As an aside: The Pike kids are kind of annoying for the most part. The girls (Vanessa and Claire) are always complaining about wanting to do things for themselves and make everyone else help.
At least this was actually a mystery! The subplots with the Pike kids was annoying though.
As an aside: The Pike kids are kind of annoying for the most part. The girls (Vanessa and Claire) are always complaining about wanting to do things for themselves and make everyone else help.
April 15, 2021
Oh man, what a delightful stroll down memory lane! I devoured The Babysitters Club books as a kid- I loved the series. I found an old box of books from my childhood bedroom & this was in it. Perfect mystery when I was in between “adult” books! I’d say The Babysitters Club aged very well!!
Read
September 25, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
January 2, 2022
GOD this was boring. Just dreadfully boring.
April 7, 2022
Quite possibly the worst BSC book I’ve ever read.
Read
September 10, 2022Such a fun mystery to read! It was nice, fun, short, easy book to read.
Read
January 10, 2024I was more interested in the B plot about Claire and her show-business phase than I was about the mystery. Also, Claudia needs Hooked on Phonics.
December 31, 2024
I loved the air of mystery and the detective-style setup in this book.
January 29, 2025
I love Claudia 'tenacious' Kishi so much.
I'd also like her wardrobe.
I'd also like her wardrobe.
November 17, 2022
This one was ok. While I liked Claudia’s POV, it seemed kind of dull that every single chapter someone was back at this museum. And the museum had expensive coins, art, and science stuff? In little old Stoneybrook, Connecticut? Ok.
November 1, 2023
I like the pink and black outfit on the cover. And also liked that this book touched on Claudia's interest in art museums, but I don't understand how she got in touch with her favourite artist towards the end of the book by telephone, even though it was for solving the mystery of why his sculpture at the museum felt different to Claudia. Turns out the stolen coins at the museum were hidden in it and they figure out who did it
May 10, 2015
21/25
I vaguely even remember this book!
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I vaguely even remember this book!
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5
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4
May 10, 2016
sitip
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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