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A review by ssshira
Abby and the Mystery Baby by Ann M. Martin, Hodges Soileau
2.0
in this mystery by ghostwriter [a:Ellen Miles|286072|Ellen Miles|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], abby comes home to discover a baby has been left on her doorstep. the baby seems to have been taken care of (he has clean clothes and blankets and ample supplies). abby and her mom and sister tell the cops, and the cops + cps agree the baby should stay with the stevensons until they track down his parents (which is clue #1 -- why would they let the baby stay with strangers?). they get a nanny who seems really shifty. the agency said no one could come yet, but then the nanny just shows up out of nowhere unannounced. and she seems nervous and keeps calling the baby (who the stevensons have been calling eli temporarily) “e.j.” -- she’s suspect #1. suspect #2 is a woman from mal and jessi’s writing class who wrote a story about abandoning a baby. abby finds clue #2, a receipt from a drugstore in nyc on the doorstep near where the baby was left. abby’s mom keeps seeming to know more than she’s letting on (clue #3), and finally when she leaves the house in a rush, abby goes into her office to investigate. she finds a post-it with the name miriam written on it (clue #4) and remembers that miriam is her mom’s sister that she had a falling-out with years ago. abby finds a photo of miriam from when she was a baby and she has the same blanket eli showed up with (clue #5). it really takes abby getting hit over the head with clues to figure out that this baby is her cousin, but then she goes to nyc to try to find her mom (by hitting redial on the phone and discovering she had recently called a hospital). turns out miriam has out-of-control diabetes and doesn’t talk to eli’s (/daniel is the baby’s real name) father anymore. she planned to drop daniel with her sister when she was feeling particularly sick, but then she was too sick to stick around and had to be hospitalized. at the end, they reconcile and miriam and daniel plan to move to florida to be closer to miriam’s parents. the subplot is that there’s a bsc writing month ending in a poetry slam, and all the kids get interested in poetry/write lots of stories about a magical baby who shows up on someone’s porch because everyone thinks eli/daniel is cute.
highlights:
-abby says "you are the bestest, sweetest, oogiest little booger I ever saw." I’m definitely gonna call my cats boogers from now on.
-I love the description of the weird nanny: "a slightly built, mousy-looking woman with limp dark blonde hair and tiny hands, which she wrung nervously. she wore a tweed overcoat that looked about three sizes too big and carried a large brown leather bag, too big to be a pocketbook but too small to be a suitcase." she sounds exactly like roxanne in the john landis movie oscar.
-vanessa is bummed out that the other pikes are now poets because she’s the poet, so she feels like she’s losing her identity. to quote lisa simpson, "ever since that self-help guy came to town, you’ve lost your identity. you’ve fallen through the cracks of our quick-fix, one-hour photo, instant-oatmeal society."
-vanessa is also bummed that her siblings have near-rhymes in their poems because she thinks all poems have to rhyme. mal and jessi teach her about different types of poems. maybe she’ll be able to speak without the cadence of a roses are red, violets are blue poem from here on out!
-mal and jessi follow the lady from their class around and find that she has no baby and assume that means she gave up her baby, but actually it means she just doesn't have a baby. occam's razor, kids.
-abby can't figure out how to hail a cab in nyc and a little old impeccably dressed rich lady whistles really loudly to get her one
-some of the kids can’t think of anything to write for the poetry slam so they collaborate on writing and acting in a play and becca sings a song about chlorophyll.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-it’s really annoying how abby doesn’t figure out what’s going on almost immediately. I spent almost the whole book yelling at her in my mind.
-at one point abby's grandparents seem evasive when abby tries to talk about eli, but it turns out that it's just because abby's mom had made them think the baby showing up at their house is no big deal. but why would they keep being evasive and changing the subject? loose end alert!
-abby realizes the receipt is for a prescription so to see if it belongs to her mom she calls the pharmacy asking to refill a prescription for her mom's name (including trying her maiden name, rachel goldberg) and they say they have an m. goldberg but no rachel. first off, why would they tell someone else the first initial of a prescription they have that doesn’t belong to the person asking? isn't that privacy invasion? second, it's a pharmacy in nyc and they only have ONE goldberg? nyc is the land of many goldbergs. goldberg is one of the most common jewish last names and nyc is the city with the biggest jewish population in the entire world (and second biggest jewish population by metropolitan area, after tel aviv).
-chapter 11 has mallory's handwriting for stacey's notebook entry. using the wrong handwriting is always one of my biggest pet peeves in these books, because it’s just so damned careless.
-so I love the chlorophyll song and all, but becca wouldn’t be in the play because of her stage fright.
claudia outfit:
-"She was wearing a typical Claudia outfit: a funky red-flannel minidress layered with a black-and-white-checked thrift-shop man's vest, black tights, and red high-tops. Her hair was in this sort of sideways ponytail...held by a red scrunchie."
stacey outfit:
-"Next to her on the bed was Stacey, who was polishing a green Granny Smith apple on her jeans...They were stonewashed to a perfect degree of faded blue, and torn at the knee in this casual-yet-not-sloppy way. She wore them with a crisp white shirt, a green V-neck sweater, and brown Hush Puppies."
snacks in claudia’s room:
-hershey's miniatures (n.s.)
highlights:
-abby says "you are the bestest, sweetest, oogiest little booger I ever saw." I’m definitely gonna call my cats boogers from now on.
-I love the description of the weird nanny: "a slightly built, mousy-looking woman with limp dark blonde hair and tiny hands, which she wrung nervously. she wore a tweed overcoat that looked about three sizes too big and carried a large brown leather bag, too big to be a pocketbook but too small to be a suitcase." she sounds exactly like roxanne in the john landis movie oscar.
-vanessa is bummed out that the other pikes are now poets because she’s the poet, so she feels like she’s losing her identity. to quote lisa simpson, "ever since that self-help guy came to town, you’ve lost your identity. you’ve fallen through the cracks of our quick-fix, one-hour photo, instant-oatmeal society."
-vanessa is also bummed that her siblings have near-rhymes in their poems because she thinks all poems have to rhyme. mal and jessi teach her about different types of poems. maybe she’ll be able to speak without the cadence of a roses are red, violets are blue poem from here on out!
-mal and jessi follow the lady from their class around and find that she has no baby and assume that means she gave up her baby, but actually it means she just doesn't have a baby. occam's razor, kids.
-abby can't figure out how to hail a cab in nyc and a little old impeccably dressed rich lady whistles really loudly to get her one
-some of the kids can’t think of anything to write for the poetry slam so they collaborate on writing and acting in a play and becca sings a song about chlorophyll.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-it’s really annoying how abby doesn’t figure out what’s going on almost immediately. I spent almost the whole book yelling at her in my mind.
-at one point abby's grandparents seem evasive when abby tries to talk about eli, but it turns out that it's just because abby's mom had made them think the baby showing up at their house is no big deal. but why would they keep being evasive and changing the subject? loose end alert!
-abby realizes the receipt is for a prescription so to see if it belongs to her mom she calls the pharmacy asking to refill a prescription for her mom's name (including trying her maiden name, rachel goldberg) and they say they have an m. goldberg but no rachel. first off, why would they tell someone else the first initial of a prescription they have that doesn’t belong to the person asking? isn't that privacy invasion? second, it's a pharmacy in nyc and they only have ONE goldberg? nyc is the land of many goldbergs. goldberg is one of the most common jewish last names and nyc is the city with the biggest jewish population in the entire world (and second biggest jewish population by metropolitan area, after tel aviv).
-chapter 11 has mallory's handwriting for stacey's notebook entry. using the wrong handwriting is always one of my biggest pet peeves in these books, because it’s just so damned careless.
-so I love the chlorophyll song and all, but becca wouldn’t be in the play because of her stage fright.
claudia outfit:
-"She was wearing a typical Claudia outfit: a funky red-flannel minidress layered with a black-and-white-checked thrift-shop man's vest, black tights, and red high-tops. Her hair was in this sort of sideways ponytail...held by a red scrunchie."
stacey outfit:
-"Next to her on the bed was Stacey, who was polishing a green Granny Smith apple on her jeans...They were stonewashed to a perfect degree of faded blue, and torn at the knee in this casual-yet-not-sloppy way. She wore them with a crisp white shirt, a green V-neck sweater, and brown Hush Puppies."
snacks in claudia’s room:
-hershey's miniatures (n.s.)