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situationnormal's review
2.0
Normally I'm *so* down for a Claudia book, but this one was a let-down. There was a double whammy for me--too much intense focus on the main mystery, and the side story was a lot of "we miss Dawn" nonsense again. Ick. This one was on the boring side.
bibliotequeish's review
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
chloereadsforpleasure's review
5.0
Finished this really quickly since it’s 117 pages long and there was so much happening that i didn’t really get bored of it.
My thoughts and predictions on what was going to happen were constantly changing but the mystery wasn’t actually very predictable in quite a lot of parts which is amazing considering i am SICK of reading predictable mysteries.
I love how in these books there are SO many likeable characters, I love every single person in the BSC and even a lot of their clients.
NOTES ABOUT WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT:
Claudia had just recently got into Photography and has learnt a lot about it thanks to her teacher, Mr. Geist who Claudia looks up to throughout the entire book. She was learning about how to show a lot about someone just by a single photo of them. So when her friends were coming over for a meeting, she shot a photo of each of them while they were walking through the door to show how they react visiting her. She also notes how she couldn’t take Dawns picture ( another one of her friends and Mary Anne’s stepsister ) because she was visiting her dad and younger brother Jeff in California. Mary Anne talks about how much she and the kids that they babysit miss Dawn and they want to do something to make her miss Stoney brook and maybe decide to come back soon. It takes them quite a while to think of something to do for her, but eventually they think of making sort of a remake of the book “A Day In The Life Of America”
My thoughts and predictions on what was going to happen were constantly changing but the mystery wasn’t actually very predictable in quite a lot of parts which is amazing considering i am SICK of reading predictable mysteries.
I love how in these books there are SO many likeable characters, I love every single person in the BSC and even a lot of their clients.
NOTES ABOUT WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT:
Claudia had just recently got into Photography and has learnt a lot about it thanks to her teacher, Mr. Geist who Claudia looks up to throughout the entire book. She was learning about how to show a lot about someone just by a single photo of them. So when her friends were coming over for a meeting, she shot a photo of each of them while they were walking through the door to show how they react visiting her. She also notes how she couldn’t take Dawns picture ( another one of her friends and Mary Anne’s stepsister ) because she was visiting her dad and younger brother Jeff in California. Mary Anne talks about how much she and the kids that they babysit miss Dawn and they want to do something to make her miss Stoney brook and maybe decide to come back soon. It takes them quite a while to think of something to do for her, but eventually they think of making sort of a remake of the book “A Day In The Life Of America”
finesilkflower's review
4.0
Claudia captures a vital clue in a bank heist on film.
Claudia is taking two summer school classes - remedial math (for her parents) and photography (for herself). She adores photography and gets really into it, creating a small darkroom in her closet, and seeing everyday moments as photo ops, to the irritation of her family. Inspired by her, the club decides to make a "Day in the Life of Stonybrook" photo book to send to Dawn in California. Later, they learn that the bank was robbed at the time time they were taking pictures, and when Claudia specifically was taking a ton of pictures of the bank because she became enraptured with the architecture. The club pores over their photos trying to find some clue to the bank heist.
The ending of this one is weak - typical BSC mystery nonsense involving the police detective who says "now now these girls have helped us before" and letting them run roughshod over the law - and the stakes are spectacularly low, since who cares about the bank really.
But I love everything about the rest: the neat construction of the plot, the highly specific details about how photography works (including artistic decisions and the technical aspects of film development), and overall Claudia's highly in-character, infectious enthusiasm about photography which feels really real and relatable to me as an amateur photographer.
Read as a kid? Yes. While I typically skipped mysteries, especially higher-numbered ones, somehow I happened on this one (probably the cover intrigued me; I loved Claudia and I loved Read Window). This was one of my later acquisitions but quickly became a favorite that I read over and over.
Claudia is taking two summer school classes - remedial math (for her parents) and photography (for herself). She adores photography and gets really into it, creating a small darkroom in her closet, and seeing everyday moments as photo ops, to the irritation of her family. Inspired by her, the club decides to make a "Day in the Life of Stonybrook" photo book to send to Dawn in California. Later, they learn that the bank was robbed at the time time they were taking pictures, and when Claudia specifically was taking a ton of pictures of the bank because she became enraptured with the architecture. The club pores over their photos trying to find some clue to the bank heist.
The ending of this one is weak - typical BSC mystery nonsense involving the police detective who says "now now these girls have helped us before" and letting them run roughshod over the law - and the stakes are spectacularly low, since who cares about the bank really.
But I love everything about the rest: the neat construction of the plot, the highly specific details about how photography works (including artistic decisions and the technical aspects of film development), and overall Claudia's highly in-character, infectious enthusiasm about photography which feels really real and relatable to me as an amateur photographer.
Read as a kid? Yes. While I typically skipped mysteries, especially higher-numbered ones, somehow I happened on this one (probably the cover intrigued me; I loved Claudia and I loved Read Window). This was one of my later acquisitions but quickly became a favorite that I read over and over.
sammah's review
2.0
I really do not remember reading this one as a kid. So it's possible that I didn't. The mysteries were definitely not my favorites, because even back then I thought they were more ridiculous than even the basic BSC plots were. This one was especially bad, so either I totally shut it out of my mind or just avoided it all together.
I could probably go into the plot and talk about how insane this was, but I will spare you. And myself. Mostly myself. I can't rehash this, I just can't.
I could probably go into the plot and talk about how insane this was, but I will spare you. And myself. Mostly myself. I can't rehash this, I just can't.
xtinamorse's review
Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/claudia-and-the-clue-in-the-photograph
ssshira's review
2.0
this is my first time reading this book!
in yet another dumb mystery by dumb mystery aficionado/ghostwriter [a:Ellen Miles|286072|Ellen Miles|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], claud is taking a photography summer school class and is somewhat obsessed. the bsc and bsc kids decide to make a present for dawn, a book inspired by [b:A Day in the Life of America|1736703|A Day in the Life of America|Rick Smolan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1200640527s/1736703.jpg|1734253], in which a group of people photograph things/happenings all around stoneybrook on a single day and compile the best ones. when claud hears about a bank robbery that happened on the same day that she was photographing that bank, she tries to find evidence in her photos.
highlights:
-claud's photography teacher is named mr. geist. I'm just picturing this:
-a classic case of teaching the reader the basics of photography, developing, darkrooms, etc. claudia is so excited about it that she makes it interesting.
-the barretts have gotten a veritable menagerie of nonallergic pets in the wake of having to get rid of pow (see [b:Claudia and the Perfect Boy|1383130|Claudia and the Perfect Boy (The Baby-Sitters Club, #71)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387703624s/1383130.jpg|511517]), which is very cute
lowlights/nitpicks:
-janine ruins claudia's prints by going into the bathroom that's being used as a darkroom. this immediately after claudia says she is going to the darkroom. janine may be a total doogie howser, but she's an idiot.
-there are references to the barretts and dewitts that indicate that cynthia and franklin haven't gotten engaged yet. this means that in spite of the fact that this came out the same month as [b:Dawn and Whitney, Friends Forever|558334|Dawn and Whitney, Friends Forever (The Baby-Sitters Club, #77)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447461136s/558334.jpg|545511], this one MUST take place first. oops, read 'em out of order!
-how convenient that claud happened to find the facade of the bank so fascinating that she took many photos of it on the exact day that the robbery occurred!
-finally claud discovers that one of the bank managers is carrying a pocketwatch in the photos, and she sees that the time on it never changes so she realizes it's a fake. how did she accomplish this feat? thanks to the magical phenomenon of ZOOM AND ENHANCE! no joke. ellen, how in all your photography research for this book did you not discover that zoom and enhance is not grounded in reality?
claudia outfits:
-"Staring back at me was a medium-height Japanese-American girl with almond-shaped eyes and long, black hair held back by a pink, star-shaped barrette. She wore a silky pink tank top with a man's white shirt tied casually over it, white jeans, and flip-flops decorated with more pink stars."
-"I dressed quickly, in jeans and my Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt."
-"That day I'd worn one of my favorite outfits to school: a lacy white shirt with big ruffled sleeves over a deep green leotard, with a short blue-jeans skirt and my favorite shoes (at least my favorite shoes that summer): big black chunky boots."
-"Since I knew I was going to be in the darkroom, I threw off all my good clothes and pulled on an old pair of shorts and my ancient green Sea City T-shirt."
snacks in claudia's room:
-milky way beneath the pillow on her bed
-fritos (n.s.)
-three musketeers (n.s.)
-hershey's kisses in a box of pastels
-mallomars (n.s.)
-popcorn (n.s.)
in yet another dumb mystery by dumb mystery aficionado/ghostwriter [a:Ellen Miles|286072|Ellen Miles|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], claud is taking a photography summer school class and is somewhat obsessed. the bsc and bsc kids decide to make a present for dawn, a book inspired by [b:A Day in the Life of America|1736703|A Day in the Life of America|Rick Smolan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1200640527s/1736703.jpg|1734253], in which a group of people photograph things/happenings all around stoneybrook on a single day and compile the best ones. when claud hears about a bank robbery that happened on the same day that she was photographing that bank, she tries to find evidence in her photos.
highlights:
-claud's photography teacher is named mr. geist. I'm just picturing this:
-a classic case of teaching the reader the basics of photography, developing, darkrooms, etc. claudia is so excited about it that she makes it interesting.
-the barretts have gotten a veritable menagerie of nonallergic pets in the wake of having to get rid of pow (see [b:Claudia and the Perfect Boy|1383130|Claudia and the Perfect Boy (The Baby-Sitters Club, #71)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387703624s/1383130.jpg|511517]), which is very cute
lowlights/nitpicks:
-janine ruins claudia's prints by going into the bathroom that's being used as a darkroom. this immediately after claudia says she is going to the darkroom. janine may be a total doogie howser, but she's an idiot.
-there are references to the barretts and dewitts that indicate that cynthia and franklin haven't gotten engaged yet. this means that in spite of the fact that this came out the same month as [b:Dawn and Whitney, Friends Forever|558334|Dawn and Whitney, Friends Forever (The Baby-Sitters Club, #77)|Ann M. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447461136s/558334.jpg|545511], this one MUST take place first. oops, read 'em out of order!
-how convenient that claud happened to find the facade of the bank so fascinating that she took many photos of it on the exact day that the robbery occurred!
-finally claud discovers that one of the bank managers is carrying a pocketwatch in the photos, and she sees that the time on it never changes so she realizes it's a fake. how did she accomplish this feat? thanks to the magical phenomenon of ZOOM AND ENHANCE! no joke. ellen, how in all your photography research for this book did you not discover that zoom and enhance is not grounded in reality?
claudia outfits:
-"Staring back at me was a medium-height Japanese-American girl with almond-shaped eyes and long, black hair held back by a pink, star-shaped barrette. She wore a silky pink tank top with a man's white shirt tied casually over it, white jeans, and flip-flops decorated with more pink stars."
-"I dressed quickly, in jeans and my Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt."
-"That day I'd worn one of my favorite outfits to school: a lacy white shirt with big ruffled sleeves over a deep green leotard, with a short blue-jeans skirt and my favorite shoes (at least my favorite shoes that summer): big black chunky boots."
-"Since I knew I was going to be in the darkroom, I threw off all my good clothes and pulled on an old pair of shorts and my ancient green Sea City T-shirt."
snacks in claudia's room:
-milky way beneath the pillow on her bed
-fritos (n.s.)
-three musketeers (n.s.)
-hershey's kisses in a box of pastels
-mallomars (n.s.)
-popcorn (n.s.)
liannakiwi's review
3.0
(LL)
This was a fun story even if the premise was a little ridiculous and the ending was a little too much. Lots of good information about developing film and photography.
This was a fun story even if the premise was a little ridiculous and the ending was a little too much. Lots of good information about developing film and photography.
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