this one starts low, because it starts a softball game between kristy's krushers & bart's bashers. i wonder if there's anyone who has ever read a babysitters club books that actually found the softball plots remotely compelling. it's a gray, rainy day, & kristy lets jake kuhn (whom she has been training up as a new relief pitcher, & whose parents recently divorced) walk home alone after he explains that his mom already gave him permission. but mrs. kuhn calls later that evening to ask if jake is with kristy. & then she starts calling his friends all over the neighborhood, trying to find him. she finally concludes that her ex-husband showed up & took him away. he'd wanted to take jake with him on a european business trip, but mrs. kuhn wouldn't let jake miss that much school. she figures mr. kuhn is upset & snatched jake up anyway.but she still calls the cops, who initiate a neighborhood search, just in case something else happened to jake.this turns out to be a pretty smart move, because no one can find mr. kuhn. the cops think he may be in mexico. kristy feels really guilty & responsible for jake going missing, since she was the last one to see him after the softball game. she keeps thinking that if she just would have insisted on walking him home, he'd be okay. to make herself feel better, & to help, she organizes students from her school, as well as many babysitting charges, to look for jake. tons of people pitch in to scour neighborhoods. kristy is on a team with mary anne, bart, david michael, karen, andrew, & matt & haley braddock. matt is one of jake's best friends, so he has some pretty good ideas on where to look for him...but they don't find him.by the time jake has been missing for two days, kristy is becoming extremely concerned. matt suggests taking a look around a formerly vacant lot where some houses are being built. all the boys like to hang around there & watch the construction. it's after-hours, so there are no workers around, so they creep around the lot, calling for jake. & kristy hears him calling back, very faintly, from an unfinished house's basement.apparently he had taken shelter in the lot on his way home from the softball game, & gone inside the unfinished house to get out of the rain. it was dark in the house, & he fell into a hole in the floor, landing in the basement. but the basement's stairs hadn't been installed yet, & jake hurt his leg in the fall, so he couldn't get out. he tried to call for help from the workers the day before, but they didn't hear him over the sound of their equipment. bart calls the cops, & jake is safely extracted from the basement & returned home. mr. kuhn never had anything to do with his disappearance. he was indeed in mexico--on business. & the business did not involve illegal child smuggling.the sub-plot involves something about mary anne doing really poorly in home ec & finally bringing up her grade by inventing jello jigglers. in the last chapter, all the babysitters attend the stoneybrook middle school awards night, where mary anne wins "most improved home ec student". i'm sure she is very proud. kirsty wins some special recognition for helping organize the search parties that finally located jake. she gives a cheesy little acceptance speech that knocked at least half a star off my rating.this book is pretty boring, because you know they're not actually going to feature a kidnapped or murdered child in the babysitters club series (not that that sort of thing is "exciting"--but you just always knew that jake would be found & he'd be fine, so it was kind of anti-climactic). but compare this against books about ghost cats, &...it is a step up.
Do You like book Kristy And The Missing Child (1992)?
