When I reached the last pages, my eyes brimmed with tears. Nothing sad had happened. I was just touched by how Alice's brothers saved all their money to buy her a train ticket to Hollywood. And then Alice cashed it in so their youngest brother, Evan, could have an emergency operation. (He'd fallen through a weak spot in the ice while ice fishing to earn money for Alice's ticket.) In the end, Evan was all right, and the family sat around the big dinner table laughing and having a good time.

Maybe tears filled my eyes because the book was over. I hate when a good book ends.

One way I judge whether or not a book is great is if I feel I know the author when I'm done reading. If I do, then it was a great book! I definitely felt that I knew Henrietta Hayes. It was as if we were friends. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her book, just the way you'd tell a friend who'd written something great.

I wiped my eyes and took a sheet of my good stationery from my top dresser drawer. In my best handwriting, I began a letter to Henrietta Hayes.

I opened to the title page of the book, and turned it over. The address of the publishing company was printed there. (It's there in any book.) Publishing companies pass people's letters on to authors. I knew this because I'd once written to Amelia Moody.

After copying the address onto an envelope, I put the letter inside and sealed it. Mom usually has stamps, so I'd borrow one from her and drop the letter in the mailbox on the way to my BSC meeting.

Oh! I can't believe I haven't mentioned the BSC to you yet. It stands for Baby-sitters Club. Along with writing and books, it's one of the most important parts of my life. And at that very moment, I was dangerously close to being late for a meeting! Chapter 2.

Even though I'm no athlete, I slid into my BSC meeting like a baseball player sliding into home base. "Made it!" I cried, watching the digital clock in Claudia Kishi's bedroom change from5:29 to5:30 .