The Jessi: I remember being absolutely scared out of my mind reading this as a child. Honestly this and Beware, Dawn! are two of the scariest things of my childhood besides that episode of Boy Meets World where Shawn kills everyone. The first time I watched When a Stranger Calls, I totally thought of this book, except that ended a lot differently than this.
The Mal: There's the Halloween Hop coming up at SMS and Claudia spends her time daydreaming about who she'll go with while she's supposed to be doing her homework. After her homework is done, Stacey calls and they talk about boys and the dance. They decide the club should hang out together on Saturday. Saturday rolls around and the club finds themselves together with nothing to do. The newspaper comes and they read about a robber that calls the houses he's going to rob before he robs them. If nobody answers if he figures that nobody is home and he goes ahead and robs it but he has also been known to rob the house while people are in it. This freaks the girls out and they hold an emergency meeting right away to discuss what they can do if the robber calls them while they're babysitting. They work out this code they could use on the phone in case they have to call somebody for help but don't want to say that there's a burglar in the house. In the end, that doesn't work out because nobody can keep the code straight and remember what they're supposed to say. Then they figure out burglar alarms, such as stacking cans in front of the doors so that when the burglar comes in the house, they will hear him. While at school, Claudia is staring at her crush, Trevor Sandbourne, when somebody runs into her from behind, it's Alan Gray. He teases her about Trevor. Claudia is awestruck and can't figure out how Alan knew that's who she was looking at. At lunchtime that day, Claudia's friend tells her about her grandmother getting robbed in a nearby town called New Hope. This relieves Claudia because at least he's not robbing houses in Stoneybrook. Claudia babysits for Jamie Newton and suggests that they play outside, that way if the Phantom Phone Caller calls, they won't hear the phone ring. While they're outside, a light turns on inside the house but it's too early to be Jamie's parents. Then they hear the phone ring and footsteps coming up the driveway toward them. Turns out to be Kristy who was just dropping off a casserole. Except for the phone call remains a mystery. The next day, Claudia hears an announcement that the Phantom Phone Caller has been captured. She's very excited and feels safe for the first time in weeks. While babysitting the next night, she hears another announcement that the man thought to be the Phantom Phone Caller was not the real criminal. After the announcement is over, the phone rings. Nobody says anything when Claudia answers. Claudia spends the rest of the sitting job in fear. Kristy sits for Karen and Andrew and gets a mysterious phone call as well. Stacey sits for Charlotte. They watch scary movies, the power goes out, and they hear weird noises that end up just being the Johanssens' dog. Mary Anne babysits for David Michael while the rest of the family goes to dinner. She rigs up a bunch of burglar alarms that end up being worthless except to scare the Thomases when they get home. At their next meeting, the girls discuss boy drama, and Claudia taking jobs without offering them to the rest of the girls first. Claudia's neighbors get robbed, freaking everyone out. Kristy and Claudia take a joint babysitting job at the Newtons. While they are there, they get several creepy phone calls and then they hear someone outside. They call the police and the cops find the prowler to be none other than... Alan Gray! Turns out he was just trying to find a way to ask Kristy to the Halloween Hop. All the creepy phone calls were from him and Trevor Sandbourne. Alan would copy the babysitters' schedules everyday and give a copy to Trevor so he could call Claudia. In the end, everything works out and Kristy goes to the dance with Alan, Claudia goes with Trevor. They all have a wonderful time.
The Stacey: Number of hot lobster earrings- 2, number of traps Mary Anne set up for the burglar- 3, number of times Claudia talks about her obsession with Trevor- infinity times nausea
The Dawn: Claudia gets mad at Kristy one time for thinking she told everyone about her crush on Trevor. Let's not forget all the suspense of when Alan is creeping around outside the house.
The Claudia:
*Note that the things in the parentheses are my own personal thoughts, not Claudia's
The Mary Anne: Back to the whole When a Stranger Calls thing. When they first talk about the burglar, they talk about how he's been known to break into the houses when the people are still home. It totally made me think of the part where the cops are like "We traced the call, it's coming from inside the house." I get chills just thinking about how creepy that would be. In this book, Claudia talks about how she has to have somebody sit with her until she finishes her homework. This seemed a little extreme to me at first but then I thought more about Claudia and it made sense. I'm so glad I never had to do that. Something that made me laugh in this book was all their talk about burglar alarms and phone calls with secret messages. Really? How is setting up cans in front of a door going to save you from a robber? Or calling another 12 year old girl? Not saying I wouldn't have thought of those ideas and tried them when I was that age, but still. Another not so bright idea, Claudia decides when she's sitting for Jamie Newton that if they play outside she won't be able to hear the phone ring. While this is true, it doesn't really solve the problem, if anything it creates one. If the robber were to call, he would for sure think they weren't home and be more likely to come over. Oh Claud, you should just stick with your stellar outfit ideas. Can I just say that I am totally shipping Kristy and Alan. Ok maybe not Kristy with Alan so much as just Alan with anyone. I love Alan. Honestly, I'm thinking of moving to Stoneybrook just to meet him.
Kristy: I love this book because it always puts me in the mood for Halloween and since Halloween is only a few weeks away, it was a perfect time to read it. I really like reading from Claudia's perspective because I feel like she's one of the more real characters and I can relate with her more. I was alot like her when I was 13 and it makes me think of the good old days. Overall, I give it a 4.3 out of 5
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