Thoughts before reading:
I was excited to get to this one, because so far it's the first one that was a childhood favorite. I owned this one and read it countless times, so going in I already remember the basics of the plot. I've always loved spooky stuff, and the BSC mysteries got me going in the direction of goosebumps and fear street later on. If this book was later in the series it definitely would have been a mystery book instead, because I remember them being kind of like this, very G rated spooky.
This is a good cover too, a little Nancy Drew-esque. Dawn looks way better here than she does on her last book (actually like a kid). Jeff is looking a little creepy though.
I'm very disappointed that the graphic novel series skipped over this one! It would have been so much fun. There's a lot of good scenes they could have shown, and it would be fun to see the passage. Plus like I said, this was just a favorite, so I would have gotten a kick out of it.
The basics:
Dawn's mom has started a new job, so she and Jeff are home alone and fixing themselves dinner. The house is making Dawn jumpy. They live in an old farmhouse, and she loves it, but it makes weird noises. Sometimes she can't help but be creeped out by it, and she's also convinced there is a secret passage somewhere.
Being creeped out leads to Dawn being in a spooky mood, and she starts reading a book of ghost stories. This, combined with a summer thunderstorm, give her inspiration to try looking for a secret passage again. She calls the BSC girls over to help her search. They have fun scaring each other, but don't find anything.
A few days later Dawn is sitting for the Pikes, with Mallory as her second sitter. Nicky's sulking because the triplets won't play with him and he feels left out of the family. His parents have given him a two block radius he can roam around the neighborhood alone in, so he goes off by himself for awhile. Dawn can't find him or figure out where he goes, so she suspects he's breaking the rule.
This same afternoon, Dawn goes into her barn to find a cool place to read, and ends up falling through a trapdoor. She accidently has discovered the secret passage she's been longing for. It leads from the barn to her bedroom wall, which swings partway open on a hinge. She also finds an old looking key, metal button, and a buckle. These items immediately convince her that the passage is haunted. This must be the source of the house's weird noises- a ghost.
Later that night, Jeff and Dawn are home alone again because their mom is on a date. (She's now dating other men besides Mary Anne's dad, and Dawn is not happy about it.) The power goes out, so the kids get bored. Dawn decides to show Jeff the passage, and when she does she discovers there's now a nickel and piece of an ice cream cone that weren't there before. They get spooked and call their mom to come home. She returns with her date, Trip, and looks over the passage. They decide to lock it from the side of Dawn's bedroom, for peace of mind.
After the rest of her family has gone to bed, Dawn notices a book her mom brought home called The History of Stoneybrooke. She starts reading about town legends, and comes across the story of Jared Mullray. He lived in town back in the 1800s, when his family fell on hard times. They had to sell their farm, and decided to start over somewhere new. Jared refused to leave, or even say goodbye to his family. Instead he just hid in his "secret place" between the house and the barn. He was never seen again. Reading this, Dawn is instantly sure that he is haunting her secret passage.
Dawn is now more scared than ever, and decides to share all of her discoveries with Mary Anne. They hear noises in the passage again, and find peanut shells inside, plus a book. The nickel from before is also gone now.
Stacey is sitting for the Pikes when Nicky goes missing again. She's had her hands too full to notice at first, because Vanessa and Margo put concentrated shampoo in Claire's hair. She calls Dawn for help since she's still rinsing Claire. Dawn starts searching the neighborhood, eventually finding Nicky all dusty and out of breath. There's a familiarity to the way he smells that makes her suspicious.
Not long after, Dawn gets another job at the Pikes. It's not long before the triplets tease Nicky and he runs off. Dawn decides to test her new theory, and goes home to look in the passage. She finds Nicky there of course, and they talk. Nicky's disappointed to have his hideout discovered, and explains that he found the place while prowling around her barn. He's been using it to have time alone when he's upset. They explain to his mom together, and it's agreed he can use the place sometimes.
Timeline:
The last two weeks of August, after 7th grade (this summer has so far lasted almost as many books as the entirety of 7th grade!)
My thoughts:
I still enjoyed this book, but mostly for the nostalgia. It's much slower than I remember, and way more contrived. There are SO many sitting jobs at the Pike's in this book, just to be convenient for the plot. Not to mention, there's just a lot of babysitting chapters in general. It got tedious and felt like padding to fill the required number of pages. Dawn's family has lived in their house almost a year at this point too, so you just can't help but wonder why all of this is happening now. Didn't her and Jeff play in the barn quite a bit, and with friends too sometimes? Yet Nicky goes in one time and immediately finds something.
There was a nice little babysitting chapter in here where Mary Anne sits for the Perkins family. They are the ones who moved into Kristy's old house, and so she's feeling iffy about doing the job. It doesn't take long before the two little Perkins girls win her over though. They also let slip that their mom is pregnant. Seeing a nice family in the house gives Mary Anne some peace and closure over her best friend having moved away. I thought it was a sweet addition to this book.
Kristy also sits for Karen and Andrew in here, and there's a nice break from the Morbidda Destiny and Boo Boo stuff. This time, keeping with our theme, Karen is obsessed with Ben Brewer, the ghost of her great-grandfather that she thinks haunts her house. I actually enjoyed this too, because it reminded me of how I used to find the Ben Brewer stuff in the Little Sister books scary when I was really little. Then when I got a little older I was fixated on ghosts and scary stories like Dawn is. I went so far as to invent a ghost that haunted my house, because of this book. Again, I was that obsessed, really.
Misc.
*Dawn notices Stacey and Mary Anne's new bond (see my book #8 review), and is a little jealous! More continuity!
*Jeff and Dawn making fun of Trip, their mom's date, was one of my favorite bits of this book. It was nice to see them being silly and just enjoying being kids.
*I loved old books as a kid, and The History of Stoneybrooke in here had me looking around my house for old creepy books too, way back when.
*Mary Anne tells Dawn that being afraid makes things worse than they really are, which is really just good advice.
*In yet another babysitting chapter, Claudia sits for Jamie, and he's naughty, refusing to go to bed. This was also a nice change. The BSC charges rarely misbehave in common kid ways like this, at least so far.
*Mary Anne is obsessing over Cam Geary, the movie star she thinks Logan looks like in the next book.
*It never says where Dawn's mom got a job at. I guess when you're a kid you don't care, but I was really curious!
Books mentioned:
*Claudia lends Dawn the Nancy Drew book called The Hidden Staircase
* The spooky book Dawn is reading is called Ghosts and Spooks, Thrills and Chills; Stories NOT to be Read After Dark. I looked into it and this is not a real book, sadly.
*Dawn mentions The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter
*The book Nicky leaves in the passage is called Great Dog Tales. Sadly, also fictional.
*Karen wants to read Ramona and her Father, and David Michael wants to read Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl, respectively.
My rating:
3.5 stars, mostly for the memories.
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