Ann M. Martin (1) (1955–)

This little novel is one of the best reading experiences I've had in a long time. The narrative voice of Rose Howard is direct, compelling and sometimes heart-breaking.

Rose is the author of the novel. She sets out to tell her story with structured straight forward honesty, setting out the events and providing the background we need to understand them. She even gives us permission to skip the chapters that experience has taught her we might find boring, like when she explains her rules for show more listing homonyms (which are really homophones but she knows that homonym is an accepted colloquialism and which are even more fascinating that prime numbers).

She tells us about her life , her father's life, why she isn't allowed to ride the school bus any more, her teacher, her classmates, her uncle and the damage that Super Storm, Hurricane Susan did and her dog, Rain (whose name is a homonym: R A I N and R E I G N), who she loves even more than homonyms and who loves her back.

Rose is a high-functioning autistic, so she sees the world differently from most people. As she tells her story, I began to understand the clarity and honesty of Rose's vision and to share her ability to take joy in things that most people don't value (what can I say: I really do enjoy homonyms) and to admire the effort she puts in to communicate with the people around her despite their tendency to break rules and to be mean to each other.

Some of Rose's behaviours are distressing to her and to the people around her. Her ability to experience and express empathy is very limited. She has to work hard to make her behaviour "appropriate" and she does not like to be touched. It does not occur to Rose to feel sorry for herself. This is not to say that she doesn't feel sorrow. She feels it deeply. When she asks what she is supposed to do with the blank spaces in her day that used to be filled by things she loved, I wanted to hold her. I wouldn't have, of course. Rose doesn't like to be touched.

The book is written with a gratifying lack of sentimentality and a complete absence of self-pity which I found made the emotional impact of the book even stronger.

Rose is not a victim. She doesn't need to be rescued. She is a little girl. She needs to love and to be loved back. For everything else, she will make a plan and find a way through.

Years ago, when it was fashionable, I tried to read "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time" and gave up because I felt the autistic child was being used as a clever plot device. "Rain Reign" grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go because it is a book in which a little girl tells her story with complete honesty. The fact that she is a high functioning autistic is no more or less important that that she's a girl, or an American, or that she lives alone with her father.

I strongly recommend the audio version of this book. Laura Hamilton performs Rose perfectly. show less

Headstrong Karen sets all her friendships on fire and is set up to fail in her new cat-sitting venture by family members who want to sidestep a tantrum now in favor of a lesson learned later.

I'm getting tired of dealing with Karen too and have been thinking about dropping this series. I think the nail in the coffin is the horribly drawn creature the artist somehow thinks looks like a Bernese Mountain Dog.

I was a little embarrassed reading this book because parts of it that were supposed to be spooky actually spooked me a little bit, which made me feel silly because it's a children's book.

But the thing that really made me not like this book very much was the ending. I think "oh that boy is doing terrible things to you *because he likes you*" is actually a really unhealthy message to send to girls. In the case of Kristy going out with Alan Gray particularly I thought it was deeply problematic. show more When she told Claudia that even though he'd been making her miserable she was going to go out with him because "*a boy likes me*," it reminded me far too much of why I went out with my first boyfriend, which turned out to be a really terrible situation for me. show less

We wrap up this year's nostalgia re-readathon with another BSC Super Mystery, but unlike last year's book, I have no real recollection of this one. I'm sure I've read it before, even though it's post-#100 in the regular series and thus, after I stopped reading the series originally. I still have a hard time with considering the Abby years as real BSC canon, because so much is different, 10 years and 100 books in. We're fast approaching the one-note personality trait stage, for one thing. show more And, well, it just isn't the same without Dawn.

This novel is bookended by chapters narrated by Abby, but since it wasn't written by Peter Lerangis, she's not completely annoying. She sets up the story for us: part of the BSC is going on a four-day-weekend school trip to Salem, where they will complete special history projects about a subject of their choosing. We don't really hear much about this, or really why the whole club isn't going, but alas, it doesn't matter. Claudia, Jessi, Shannon, and Logan are holding the fort in Stoneybrook over the Halloween weekend while the others are off taking various tours around Salem and scrounging up ideas for their projects.

Shit happens fast when, on the second day the SMS group arrives in Salem, the massive yellow diamond nicknamed the Witch's Eye is stolen from a museum near the inn where the school is staying. Mary Anne and Stacey were actually at the museum when the theft occurred, and are quickly hurried off the premises. The girls quickly switch into detective mode when Abby finds a discarded custodian uniform in the bushes, and Mary Anne has a frightening encounter with a long black wig. Mallory, who has met one of her favorite authors at the inn, is frantic that they must have the BSC Mystery Notebook in order to record all of their clues in order to solve the mystery of the theft. I never could figure out why they couldn't just use loose-leaf notebook paper or scratch pads or whatever they had on hand, but no, Mal actually called her house and spoke to Jessi, who was baby-sitting at the time, and asked her to send the BSC Mystery Notebook with one of the spouses of the chaperones who was coming up for the weekend. Mal was just obsessed with having this notebook, and the group spends a lot of time discussing their ideas during their meals in the dining room, which of course attracts attention.

Anyway - on the day of the theft, Abby, Mary Anne, and Stacey are stopped for questioning by the police. Abby wanders into the inn's gift shop and finds herself enchanted with Chekov's gun a tiny ceramic pumpkin, which she buys on impulse and proclaims to be her pet. She carries it with her everywhere, and it soon becomes obvious that she is being followed around town. Her waist pack is stolen during the Salem Halloween parade, and the room she shares with Stacey is ransacked by the time they return to the inn. The pet pumpkin was safe, however, as Mallory had incorporated it into her costume.

Kristy is inexplicably brooding the entire trip, and she falls prey to some of Alan Gray's more immature practical jokes. It's not until she follows a false clue back to the now-closed museum that she realizes there's more to Alan's jokes than him just being a dumb idiot: no, Cary Retlin has been egging Alan on and has apparently set a trap for her and Alan at the museum. Cary is one of my least favorite characters, so I hate it when he pops up in any major role in the later BSC books. But, Kristy gets her revenge on Cary by teaming up with Alan to turn the tables and scare the shit out of him, so at least he got his comeuppance.

While Kristy is missing after trailing this clue, the other girls are caught at the inn in a massive thunderstorm that knocks the power out, and the thief makes one last desperate grab for the diamond. Abby saves the day with some especially vicious soccer fouls after they all realize that the diamond had been hidden in the pumpkin Abby bought way back at the beginning of the story. The diamond has a weird green glow to it when its discovered, and its enough of a distraction for the authorities to rush in after the BSC and grab the criminals. Turns out its Mal's favorite author, who had become obsessed with the diamond and its perceived curse, and wanted it bad enough to steal it when the owner wouldn't sell. Why she wanted a cursed diamond is beyond me, but there you go.

The SMS group is also experiencing some bullying, led by Cary and Cokie, who seem to be influenced by the whole Salem witchcraft hysteria. The chaperones are apparently oblivious, but the BSCers stand up not only for Kristy, but also for a sixth-grader named Eileen, who is Mal's roommate and apparently "a social klutz," whatever that means. Reading this bit of storyline makes the foreshadowing of Mal's own eventual decision to leave Stoneybook due to bullying seem eerily prescient.

Meanwhile, back in Stoneybook, the BSC decides to put together a Halloween parade for their sitting charges, which the adults think is a fantastic idea! Also, Jordan Pike is acting like he has magical powers and taking credit for both the good and the bad things that befall his siblings. His head gets too big for his body at the parade and he's humiliated into confessing that he was just playing pretend to his siblings. This was a bizarre little subplot, but the Halloween parade was a cute idea, and we have a whole chapter of Rodowsky shenanigans to enjoy on top of that. Yay!

The main mystery was pretty dumb, but the subplot was cute and I'm always here for Cary Retlin getting a taste of his own medicine. Last series BSC books will never be my favorites, but I think this was a great way to end our re-readathon this year. I'm already looking forward to next year! :) show less