Kristy and the Missing Child (Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries, #4)

by Ann M Martin

[Stephanie]

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter



This book was a quick read and I read it during the pop up Bout of Books in April. Kristy is the last person to see Jake before he goes missing. If you are a child of the 80s or early 90s you'll remember the Stranger Danger campaign. This book had some aspects of that because missing child. A lot was happening in Kristy and the Missing Child. In the past big situations were overhyped but in this one I felt Martin struck the right tone. I didn't really get bored during this one and enjoyed the storyline.




I really enjoyed Jessi's Gold Medal. Jessi is so graceful and I liked that she was able to show that in different areas other than ballet. I read this book fairly quickly but it did drag in places a bit. There was a lot of focus on Jessi's competition and not a lot on anything else going on in a normal BSC book. There wasn't a lot of baby-sitting/meetings/or other members in this book.

One of the things that I enjoy the most is getting to read Jessi's books for the first time. I had limited access to the library as a kid. I didn't get to read many of her books or many of the BSC books past the 20s and certainly not the spin off series.




This is the first Readers' Request that I've ever read. Yes it took me to the age of 35 to get to it. Lol. This one surprised me a bit and I enjoyed it because of that. I never really stopped to think about what life must be like for Logan, the only male baby-sitter I have ever known.

Also whichever ghost writer wrote this book got a little bold. Logan says that Claudia dresses "sexy" and in one of the chapters one of the little boys talks about killing, skinning, chopping off the head of, and cooking a bear. I am not faint of heart nor think this is a huge moral issue. I just thought it was funny and the tone was decidedly different from the girl members of the BSC.




I really liked this Super Special! I thought the girls all had fun. I could relate 100% to Mallory. Poor girl! Even though she did go way over the top. Eventually you just embrace that its part of you and learn to carry anti itch cream. Dawn was a bit annoying with the whole Lake Monster schtick. I do think it was pretty interesting that she helped a little bit with the island mystery. 

It was a pretty enjoyable read and I'm glad I'm continuing with the series!




Oof. This one dealt with a pretty heavy topic. I never would have guessed from the title or cover that the book would cover overt racism. It was not a real feel good book and it shouldn't have been. I imagine if I had read it when I was younger I would have been sickened. I didn't have experience with racism at all. My entire childhood was spent in a small 99% Caucasian MidWest town. But I knew that you didn't judge people by the color of their skin. Even reading it as an adult was icky.

I'm glad that they used a popular platform to cover this subject. I just wished that I had read it when I was younger.