#38, Kristy's Mystery Admirer

I wanted to do some Halloween books, because I love Halloween, and I knew this one was a Halloween book, because the only thing I remembered about it besides who sent the love notes was that Kristy and Bart wore lobster costumes to a dance.

Kristy is wearing her "uniform" of jeans, a turtleneck, and a sweater. I think this is one of the few covers where she's actually depicted wearing that combination. She's rolled her jeans up at the bottom almost past the tops of her socks, a fashion that David Michael has apparently felt compelled to copy. And I thought David Michael was supposed to have curly hair. At least Shannon is looking super cute in her school uniform.

The blurb on the back tells me "Of all the Baby-sitters, Kristy's the last one anyone would expect to have a secret admirer."  Harsh, back cover blurb. Harsh.

The book starts out at the end of a Krushers game. Kristy tells us it's the bottom of the ninth, the score is tied, the bases are loaded, and there are two outs. I thought the Krushers and Bashers only played 7 inning games, so I guess this is an extra-innings situation. Anyway, Jackie Rodowsky gets the game-winning hit, and the Krushers go apeshit, because apparently they've never beaten the Bashers before. Kristy does make sure to point out that the Bashers are missing several of their best players. Charlie shows up to help Kristy and David Michael get the equipment home. Kristy says they could have walked but it was nice of him to come. Just as they are loading the last of the gear into Charlie's car, Bart comes and asks Kristy if she wants to walk home with him.

Okay, I am going to derail here and obsess over random details. Remember early in the series, when Kristy's mom was getting married and Kristy found out she'd have to move across town, weren't they all freaking out because it was so far? Because Kristy wouldn't be able to come to meetings if she didn't have anyone to drive her, because it would take her about half an hour each way to ride her bike, and in the winter it would be dark by 6:30 and not very safe. And Kristy rides the bus to school, but the other baby-sitters walk. And a lot of the kids they sit for walk to school too, like the Pikes. So the elementary and middle schools must be closer to Kristy's old house than her new house. But in this book, Kristy has time to get home from school, get her shit together, walk to the elementary school with David Michael, and hold a Krushers practice. So how far away can the school be from Watson's house? It sounds like it's a longish walk but not so long that a 7-year old can't manage it.  Oh! I know what will help! I'll look at the map in my trusty Complete Guide!

I put it extra large so you all can look with me. Oh, we'll need the key, too, or the map won't help at all.

Huh. So apparently the rich neighborhood is only a little further from the elementary school than Claudia's neighborhood is, and is actually closer to the middle school if you cut across instead of going around. And the middle school is right by the horse stables where Mallory took riding lessons. Oh and Stoneybrook University (wth, I thought it was a community college) is smaller than the old folks' home. And there's the train station, but there are no train tracks drawn in. I especially like how the big rock in Brenner field is easily the size of the baseball diamond. So I guess the map was really no help at all. :sadface: Also I notice that the Stone farm is not located on the map, so I think I'll start reading the books as though the farm and Elvira the goat are figments of their imagination.

Kristy and Bart chat as they walk home, and instead of just chatting about softball and sports like they usually do, they talk about their friends and Bart tells Kristy a funny story about something that happened at school. He also tells her that he's in a band, which she didn't know. Emily Michelle and Nannie are waiting outside to greet Kristy, and Emily is cute and runs to give Kristy a hug. Kristy tells us that Nannie is her special grandmother who doesn't act like a grandmother because she goes bowling, wears pants, and has tons of friends. I would find Nannie a lot more strange if she only wore dresses and skirts and had no friends, honestly. Why is wearing pants ungrandmotherly? I mean maybe if this was 1955, but the book was published in 1990.

Chapter 2 is boring except for this bit about fashion.

That's another thing. Claudia's clothes. She's a real fashion plate. Talk about distant. Her clothes are so distant. Claudia is the most interesting dresser I know. She is always wearing things like Day-Glo high-top sneakers, cut-up jeans, off-the-shoulder sweat shirts (sometimes torn), and friendship bracelets. (Her best friend is Stacey McGill, the club treasurer, and Claud braided friendship bracelets for both of them.)

I am not going to pretend that I never made a friendship bracelet, but I would never have listed them as being the height of cool clothing in the eighth grade. Maybe it's another of those things where anyone else would have looked like a 3rd grader, but Claudia looked cool. Sorry, I mean distant. Sorry, I mean so distant.

Kristy gets home from the BSC meeting to find that Shannon has called four times while she was out. Apparently Shannon was unaware that Kristy would be at a BSC meeting on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday between five thirty and six. Kristy calls Shannon back, using the cordless phone and hiding inside a closet for privacy. Ah, 1990. Shannon comes over with an envelope with heart and flower stickers on it addressed to Kristy. It was accidentally put in the wrong mailbox. The book tells us that Shannon and her sisters are in charge of getting the mail and sometimes no one remembers until after dinner. Yes, it's in italics in the book. I am not too scandalized by this failure to get the mail in a timely fashion because if we're not expecting anything important (by which I mean Netflix), my roommate and I get the mail about once a week, and sometimes much less often than that. Shannon and Kristy run up to Kristy's room where they open the envelope and find a note to Kristy from a secret admirer. It is "typewritten (or maybe word processed.)" Fancy. Shannon thinks it must be Bart, but Kristy assumes it's a joke, probably from Sam. She also says that the envelope looks like a girl wrote it because the I in her name is dotted with a little heart sticker. Shannon says, "A girl who wants to go steady with you? Kristy, grow up." I really doubt that line would be included today. Kristy calls Bart and chats with him, but she doesn't mention the note and neither does he.

Next chapter, Stacey is sitting for the Perkins girls, and takes them to Krushers practice. Shannon is there, too, and she and Stacey chat. They don't know each other very well, because Shannon doesn't come to meetings and goes to private school, but they get to know each other a bit while watching practice. Kristy and Bart decide to have a World Series for the stupid Krushers and Bashers. Kristy wants a three game series, but Bart talks her into just one game. Apparently Bart is not too familiar with the meaning of the word "series". Kristy invites Bart to the Halloween Hop, and gets some more love notes. She shows them to her friends at lunch, and they talk about the events of last Halloween, when Stacey was living in NYC again for a while. Which was in eighth grade. And Halloween is coming up again. And they're in eighth grade. I'm just sayin'. Kristy gets another note, but this one is kind of creepy.

Mal and Jessi baby-sit for the Pike kids, who are choosing Halloween costumes. Vanessa shoots down Claire's idea of being a clown. Being a clown is so pedestrian. They decide to have a haunted house in their basement on Halloween and charge kids a quarter to go through it.  Clearly they have not thought this through in terms of time spent to candy gained ratio. Vanessa is allowed to invite the other two Krushers cheerleaders over to decide on matching Halloween costumes, and they decide to dress as the Three Stooges. They check the TV guide to see if any Three Stooges shows will be airing soon, so they can copy the costumes. Don't worry, kids, you live in Stoneybrook, where black-and-white is the only kind of television!

At the BSC meeting, Kristy reveals that she's gotten four creepy and vaguely threatening notes. She's worried that someone might want to kidnap her because she is Watson Brewer the Genuine Millionaire's stepdaughter. She's also worried that Bart might be a psycho or might be trying to psych her out so the Krushers will lose the World Series. Her friends think maybe Sam is sending the notes, and Kristy points out that she totally said that several chapters ago, and maybe they should listen to her once in a while.

There's a game between the Krushers and Bashers, and the accounts and descriptions thereof prove that the ghostwriters don't know a ton about baseball. Sorry, softball. Shannon gets hit in the head with a foul ball hit by Buddy Barrett. The Krushers lose by 9 runs. Kristy is not speaking to Bart because he might be the creepy note writer, and Shannon had refused to speak to him at school.

Mary Anne babysits for the Barrett kids, and amazingly, they are going to Krushers practice. Suzi reveals that Buddy has developed a giant crush on Shannon, and Buddy threatens to tattle on her about some unspecified crime if she doesn't shut up.  Kristy has gotten another creepy note, this one with fingernail clippings in the envelope. She is really pissed at Bart now, so she's not entirely pleased when he shows up on her doorstep wondering why he's getting the silent treatment. He admits to writing her the Mystery Admirer notes, but only the first ones, not the creepy ones. He really likes Kristy. Aww. Kristy invites Shannon over, too, and the three of them try to figure out who could be sending the creepy letters, but come up with nothing. Kristy remains convinced that it's a random lunatic.

It's World Championship Game day! Kristy's a bit intimidated as usual because the Bashers have matching shirts and hats, and their cheerleaders have actual uniforms. Who funds this shit? Why aren't these kids playing Little League? Kristy always says her team is made up of kids who are "too young or not good enough" but the Bashers are older and better. Also I don't know if it was a regional thing or what, but when I was little, 4 year olds could play tee ball in Little League. A quick Google search for little league minimum age brings up a lot of places with four or five as the cutoff. So really of the kids on Kristy's team, only Gabbie Perkins the amazing two and a half year old who has enough attention span to play organized sports would be too young for tee ball.

Kristy spies Cokie and her friends in the stands and wonders what the hell they're doing there but doesn't have time to go attempt to kick them out of public bleachers. She and Bart go over the rules and she does say that it'll be a seven inning game, so I was correct at the beginning of this post, which was really a long time ago, and I'm sorry this got so long.  Cokie comes up to talk to Kristy, probably just to rub it in Kristy's face that she's there, and accidentally uses a phrase from one of the creepy letters, which clues Kristy in that Cokie was the writer. Cokie has a lot of damn free time apparently. Kristy yells out that Cokie wrote the letters and Cokie admits to it. She saw the original notes when Kristy showed them to her friends in the cafeteria, and decided to try and scare Kristy. In later books (think Mary Anne Misses Logan) Cokie is portrayed as basically illiterate, but these letters took some doing. There was creepy poetry and everything.

Cokie and her friends leave, there's a ball game, The Krushers win. Kristy is afraid Bart won't want to be her boyfriend now that her team of lovable imps beat his, but he still does. Shannon comes over to help Kristy with her makeup for the dance, but as they are doing so, Bart calls and announces he has matching lobster costumes they can wear. They go with that option and have a great time at the dance, and Bart kisses her on the cheek. Kristy has a sleepover at her house, and there's a mention made when they're taking off their costume bits about Mal's clown shoes. Apparently Vanessa's derision of Claire's costume idea didn't stop Mallory from being a clown. Kristy announces that she is taking her siblings trick-or-treating the next day, which is actually Halloween, and they are dressing as characters from the Wizard of Oz. Just as they are about to go to sleep, Kristy finds another scary note with cut out letters from the newspaper, but Shannon's laughter gives away that she did it as a prank. Kristy laughs and gets the idea to write a fake note to Cokie and put it in her locker, and then they finally really do go to bed, and the book is over.

So, yeah. That ended up being really long, which I am sorry about. Next up I have more Halloween themed books: a Little Sister, a mystery, and a Super Mystery.