Thoughts before reading:
I did read this back in the day, probably just because there wasn't any other BSC books available that I hadn't read. I don't recall ever having an interest in Logan back then...pretty sure I was just indifferent. This time around, I actively dislike him, as I may have mentioned a few times, haha. No idea why they gave Logan two books, since there was barely any plot to the first one. Yet Shannon only gets one, even though she's a full fledged club member for awhile later on? Doesn't make much sense.
Not a bad cover, although I have no idea who the kids are supposed to be.
The basics:
Logan's upset because he fell down during his last track meet, during the 100 yard dash, which is usually his best event. Clarence King and some other guys have been teasing him about it ever since. (Same situation as Logan's last book, basically. Yawn.)
There's also apparently a gang at SMS that we've never heard about before, called the Badd Boys. They wear leather jackets with their symbol: two angry, bloodshot eyes, a dagger, and a BB. Their leader, T-Jam, comes over one morning to talk to Logan before school. He explains that he needs some homework help and noticed that Logan was good in English. Logan's tired of his so-called friends teasing him, which leads him to decide to help by letting T-Jam borrow his English homework. (I don't really get the logic here either, but that's all the explanation we get.)
The next day at school, T-Jam tells Logan he's the only smart kid at SMS who's also cool, and thanks him for the homework paper. Shortly after, he hears King teasing Logan and stands up for him. To Logan's surprise, King quickly backs off. T-Jam also invites Logan to eat lunch with his gang. Since Mary Anne is busy during lunch period that day, he decides to go for it. It's definitely a different experience for Logan. The BB's ditch the cafeteria to smoke cigarettes outside. One's offered to Logan, but he says no. Then two older members, Damon and Remo, bring pizza by for all the guys. Mary Anne later finds out about the lunch and gets upset with Logan, who assures her it's no big deal.
All the BSC girls are currently obsessed with a teen pop star, Nicky Cash. Logan knows the owner of the local record store, Bob, and decides to swing by there to pick up the latest Nicky Cash CD for Mary Anne. Right after arriving at the mall, he runs into some of the Badd Boys, who go with him to the record store. Inside, they act oddly (clearly shoplifting), but it goes right over Logan's head until T-Jam steals sunglasses out of an unlocked car in the parking lot. Logan calls him on it, and he does end up putting them back. He still doesn't connect any of the dots though, despite the fact that there's been rumors going around about thefts at school. Logan instead decides he likes the way the guys look out for each other and don't care what people think about them.
Mary Anne tells Logan how worried she is about him hanging around the BB's. Logan brushes off her concern, but does finally get a clue on his own when the guys ask him to go with them to the locker area at SMS after hours, since he's trusted by the administration and they aren't. He then catches a BB named Skin prying open a locker to get a cassette recorder. Skin lies and says it's his locker, but Logan clearly saw a girl's sweater inside. He calls the BB's out on it, but immediately backs down when T-Jam makes a feeble excuse about Skin being a kleptomaniac. Logan does still want to turn Skin in, but T-Jam convinces him that they'll all be blamed.
A group of BB's show up at Logan's house on Saturday to take him to the mall...coincidently at the same time Bob had mentioned to them that he was getting a big Nicky Cash shipment. The boys head right to the back of the store to chat with him, blatantly casing the place. Somehow Logan fails to catch on, even though he had been suspicious that they stole from the store last time. It's only as they leave the mall and he sees a big box of Nicky Cash CDs in their car that he realizes what happened.
Logan spends the rest of the weekend in a panic that he's now a criminal. On Monday the BB's leave one of their custom jackets in his locker, which he angrily declines to accept. They then leave a creepy note in his locker, threatening Mary Anne. Logan wants to tell on them, but is too scared.
The night of the big concert, Mary Anne and Logan go out to a special dinner together before the show. While there, she tells Logan about a girl at school who had two Nicky Cash tickets stolen out of her locker, and how she was crying. Mortified, he finally tells her the truth. Mary Anne immediately calls the girl, who comes to get her tickets. She and Logan go home to tell his parents everything. Mr. Bruno takes them to the police, who listen to Logan's story and agree to set up a sting at the record store. They'll also have an officer look out for Mary Anne.
When the Badd Boys attempt their next heist at the record store, the police are there to bust them. The guys involved end up getting sent to juvie. The thefts at school stop. King tells Logan that the BB's did this same thing to him before (no idea why he waited until now to say something about it that could have helped...). Logan even scores tickets for Mary Anne to see Nicky Cash in NYC.
Meanwhile, a bunch of the BSC charges are being bullied by a kid named EJ, who they are all terrified of. The BSC members try to help, without much success. To their surprise, EJ turns out to be a girl. She's eventually overcome when the kids band together and stick up to her.
Timeline:
It's early Autumn, yet again. Everyone's already back in school when this book begins.
Misc. thoughts:
*Logan's not a morning person.
*Logan's English class is studying Julius Caesar. That seems pretty tough for 8th graders to me. I was always in advanced English, and we didn't do any Shakespeare until 9th grade.
*What exactly did Logan think T-Jam was going to do with his homework paper? Why not just offer to tutor him, if he actually wanted to help?
*Logan says if Kristy were marooned on a South Sea island without a watch, she'd still know when it was Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:30 and call "order!" to the seagulls. This is funny because it's so true...
*Mrs. Bruno slept with a picture of Paul McCartney under her pillow in the 60s.
*Ready for the names of some of the Badd Boys? Skin, Ice Box, Butcher Boy, Jackhammer, G-Man....
*I believe this book contains the first mention of cigarettes and kids smoking? I was surprised that the BSC series went there at all.
*Speaking of, this book was so bizarre. I didn't even feel like I was reading a BSC book. This was like a strange After School Special from the 80s, the kind they'd make you watch in a Life Skills class in school.
*I was surprised to find that I liked Logan's narration in here. He has a distinct voice from the girls, and he was actually funny.
*Logan was so pathetic in here though, plot wise. He was insanely gullible and clueless, and despite being very self-righteous, he doesn't accomplish actually standing up for anything. It was painfully obvious that these guys were using him, but he thinks they just suddenly want to be buddies.
*Didn't the Badd Boys have a trunk in their car to put the big box of stolen CDs in? Even Logan's not dense enough that he wouldn't notice a LABELED box just sitting there in the back seat.
*Why were there BSC notebook entries in here? Are we supposed to believe that Logan reads the club notebook?
*This was such a weird kid's book. I'm surprised I didn't remember anything about it, just due to how bizarre this must have seemed to me at 8 years old...
*The Badd Boys call Logan "Ken Doll", hahaha!
*Mary Anne gets so excited about the concert, she makes her first ever record book mistake! It's noticed right away by Jessi and fixed though.
*Richard pays for Mary Anne and Logan to go out to dinner before the concert! He really is a big softie these days.
*Mary Anne called the girl who rightfully owned the Nicky Cash tickets from the restaurant...so, did she really have this random girl's phone number memorized?
*I highly doubt the police would set up a sting to catch teenagers stealing records, and offer police protection to a kid they threatened via a note in school. The Stoneybrook police must have a lot of extra man power...
*Nicky Cash's real name is Reginald Fenster, which Logan finds hilarious.
*Ghostwritten by Peter Lerangis.
Books mentioned:
None besides Julius Caesar, noted above.
My rating:
2 stars. WTF did I just read? This was the first really bonkers book, in my opinion. I now officially deem the series to be off the rails!
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