Today I had on navy blue pants with wide legs, red suspenders decorated with big sunbursts, a white T-shirt, and over it all, a huge red-and-white-checked shirt. My earrings were also bright yellow sunbursts that I made to match the suspenders. My hair was in one long braid hanging down my back, tied with a red-and-white-checked bow.The only middle school I could see that going over well at would be Clown Middle School.
Claudia's mother is surprised to see her, and we find out that Claudia is visiting the library to learn more about the works of a local artist named Grandmother Madden who made primitive style paintings. The wikipedia link for primitive art led me to the entry for naïve art. I think that is the preferred term now but the book uses the former. Anyway as Claudia photocopies articles because the books she wanted were checked out, we find out that Grandmother Madden passed away several years prior but her old house is just now going to be cleaned out and all the stuff sold off, and for whatever reason none of the adults in this town can do anything without a bunch of eighth graders hanging around. The client is one Ms. Rebecca Madden, granddaughter of the famed painter. She inherited the house and the contents thereof, and then there was some fighting with some of her cousins over the will, but after the cousins found out that Grandmother Madden had destroyed all of her paintings after getting a bad review in her one New York show, they stopped contesting the will and that is why Rebecca needs Claudia's help to baby-sit her 7 year old son Jimmy and also help sort some of the shit for the estate sale. Oh but despite the bad review of her one show, FYI Grandmother Madden's work is extremely valuable now. All of her grandkids have one painting by her and there are a few in museums and private collections. I realize this is very convoluted but pretty much all of that is just given in an information dump in the book, too.
Claudia immediately decides that there is no way that Grandmother Madden (is this supposed to make me think of Grandma Moses? It's a pain in the ass to keep typing out, too.) would have destroyed all of her paintings. Because Claudia is an artist, and she personally would never destroy all of her paintings, so obviously all other artists think the exact same way and Claudia will find the paintings and be a HERO you guys. I read on the internet that Bill Watterson (the creator of Calvin and Hobbes) now spends his time painting and then destroying the paintings. Nobody tell Claudia, she might have a breakdown.
Someone did not peel the price tag off very carefully.
Claudia has a sitting job on Saturday. "I dressed in overalls and a long-sleeved green-and-blue-striped shirt, then put on a green-and-blue-checked cap, pulling my ponytail through the back." At the house she meets Rebecca, who tells her that people have been trying to see the estate early, and 7-year old Jimmy, who misses his dad and is bored helping his mom get the house ready. Jimmy gives Claudia a tour of the house and while they are in Grandmother Madden's studio which has a lot of canvases painted by her students because apparently bad reviews didn't stop her from giving art lessons even though she destroyed all her own work, Claudia notices a painting of a Japanese woman that she likes quite a bit, but then the doorbell rings and she goes and answers it and it's a guy who says he's working for a company that is helping Rebecca appraise and sort things for the estate sale. Thank goodness she's not having 13-year olds do the appraisals is all I can say. He leaves before Claudia can get Rebecca downstairs to greet him but Rebecca thinks it's probably Mr. Ogura and tells Claudia it's OK to let him in if he comes by again. You know, because it's probably the right guy, most likely. Anyway when Claudia goes upstairs again later the painting of the Japanese woman is gone. She angsts about it off and on for like another hundred pages, but I'll save you the trouble and tell you that Jimmy knocked it over and the paint chipped and he was scared his mom would yell at him so he hid it.
I feel like I am whacking you with a huge wall of text, and this is only like the first three chapters. This mystery is really complicated.
Later a woman who looks kinda like Rebecca comes by and wants to see the sale early but Claudia doesn't let her in, and then Jimmy and Rebecca go to visit Jimmy's dad, who is named James Cook, and he comes back to Stoneybrook with them. He is not always very nice to the BSC members and he kind of snaps at Claudia when she knocks over a painting and tells her that she should stick to sorting books and shit like she was asked and stay away from the potentially valuable things. We are supposed to think that he is an asshole but really he just seems like the most sensible person in the book.
Jimmy finds a cat and his mom like freaks out because the cat looks just like her grandma's string of identical cats who were all named Goldie. Because apparently when one Goldie died she'd just get another cat who looked the same. This seems a little off to me but whatever. The cat Jimmy found is wearing a collar and it has her name on it: Goldie. It does not, however, have an address or phone number of an owner, so James Cook says Jimmy can keep the cat while they try to find the owner. I don't think the owner really wants the cat back if they went to all the trouble to put a collar on her but couldn't be arsed to add any contact info.
Claudia goes to the museum to look at the Grandmother Madden painting they have on display. She finds out that all of G.M.'s paintings were 10 inches square and four of them would fit together to make a scene or they could be displayed on their own. The four that Rebecca and her cousins have are a set, but due to the feud will probably never be displayed together again. Claudia also learns that Grandmother Madden added a little painting of Goldie to all of her pictures. She sees Mr. Ogura at the museum talking to the lady who had come to the house and wanted to see the stuff and she is really suspicious.
The day before the sale is when Claudia finds out that Jimmy had chipped and hidden the painting. He'd stuck it in a closet with a bunch of other paintings that were on 10 inch square canvases. On the day of the sale Claudia wakes up with the realization that Grandmother Madden had let her students paint over her own work. Wait, didn't we already use this in Mallory and the Mystery Diary? Can nobody in Stoneybrook afford blank canvases? Claudia goes to the house to set aside the paintings so she can talk to Rebecca and James, but then the mystery woman who turns out to be Rebecca's cousin Suzanne shows up to take all the paintings and then Mr. Ogura comes to accuse Suzanne of trying to double cross him, and then they lock Claudia in a closet and take off with the super valuable paintings. Jimmy and his dad arrive and Claudia bangs on the closet door, and after she explains, they call the cops and then eventally Mr. Ogura and Suzanne are apprehended and Claudia is a HERO just like she knew she would be cause Grandmother Madden would totally never destroy her paintings and Claudia knew that because she is psychic I guess. Oh also it turns out the cat was Suzanne's cat and she couldn't come banging on the door asking for it back because then Rebecca would know something was up and she couldn't put her name on the collar because that would shorten the book considerably.
The subplot in this is that the museum is adding a kiddie art room and since Claudia is an honorary museum trustee (no, really) they want her to help with it, although it actually ends up being Mary Anne and Abby that do most of the helping. The museum has chosen their most comically inept employee to be in charge of the kids' room. She tries to make the kids all do one art project that she has set out but they don't want to just fill in a picture of someone else's bear and they kind of trash the art room but don't worry guys! The next time, Mary Anne and Abby just let the kids do whatever the hell projects they want because getting out clay and paints and scissors and glue and cotton balls all at the same time is so much more free spirited and then because they are not being stifled by The Man the kids make incredible art which is perfect to line the hallway outside of the Kaleidoscope Room for its grand opening. And the museum employee is totally impressed that the kids made such great art. But of course none of you are surprised, because you knew the BSC would totally be smarter and better with kids than Rigid Art Lady.
tl;dr
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in about 6th grade, I had these elaborate plans involving my sister and my cousins. I was convinced that we could set up a camp entirely without adults and survive just fine. I spent hours poring through the Sears catalog, picking out camp cots, tents, and everything else we would need. So it makes sense that if you are writing for kids this age, you would make the characters seem as smart as if not smarter than the adults. I mean, it is perfectly believable to a kid that 8th graders can do anything!
ReplyDeleteThat said, this was a long, involved story which is how mysteries should be I guess. I enjoyed the recap and getting descriptions of TWO Claudia outfits was a bonus.