“We’ll be back in New York in four or five weeks….”BSC # 13: Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye

Memory Reaction

I only remember the very end of this book. The BSC is trying to figure out a replacement for Stacey, and eventually decide to call Mallory Pike. So, it ends with Stacey calling her and asking Mal to come to the next meeting. Which, of course we see in “Hello, Mallory.”

Revisited Reaction

The company Mr. McGill works for in closing their Connecticut office, so he is transferred back to New York. Stacey is sort of excited about moving back to the city for about two seconds. Then she talks to Laine and remembers that most kids at her old school made fun of her because of all the diabetes drama. So, Stacey remembers this and realizes how much she’ll miss Claudia and the rest of the BSC – then she decides it is a horrible idea.

All the girls are upset because they’ll miss Stacey and because they will need to replace her in the BSC and don’t know anyone good enough. They decide to throw her a party, but try to think of something “special” for it. Their big idea? To invite all the kids they sit for instead of their other friends. I know baby-sitting is what I would want to do at a going away party. Anyway, the BSC also helps Stacey have a yard sale to condense their stuff into a pile that will fit in the apartment. But that goes well, they have the party, and then Stacey leaves.

Oh, and she does call Mallory but I was wrong about it being the last chapter of the book – there is actually another chapter covering the actual move.

High/Lowlights

• Ha, Stacey is upset earlier in the book, because Howie Johnson (this guy she went to some dances with) asks Dorianne Wallingford to go to the library. It is nice to see them still acting like kids about dating, you know?

• For a minute, Stacey thinks her father is going to say he lost his job. So she thinks about how to stretch her baby-sitting money will go. I am sure that will pay the mortgage.

• Stacey hopes her parents will get her charge cards for all the stores she will be close to in NYC. Keep dreaming Stacey…you’re 13!

• Oh, Stacey. She asks her parents if they can stay in Stoneybrook until the end of the year so she can graduate with Claudia. How sweet that she thinks she’ll ever finish 8^th grade. And that she thinks Claudia won’t flunk out.

• Stacey is surprised to learn Claudia didn’t have a best friend before her. Did she just not think about it?

• Stacey and Claudia think their parents will let Stacey live at Claud’s for the rest of the school year. Aren’t they a little old to think anyone would go for that?

• Ooh, Stacey and Claud reminisce about the time they first met and bumped into each other with similar “cool” outfits. I knew I had seen that scene somewhere.

• The outfit they were jealous of each other for, “off-the-shoulder sweatshirts and sneakers.” Okay, it was the 80s. I’ll give that to them.

• Mary Anne sits for Jeff, who apparently only needs a sitter at night. I think that is actually reasonable for a ten-year-old, but why do other 10-year-olds get sitters all the time?

• Dawn has pierced ears in this one, but doesn’t she get her ears pierced in that book when Mal and Jessi do? Then she gets two in each ear. Or…was that just when she got a second hole?

• So, the other girls are all worried about how they can have a cool party when they are broke. Stacey tells them that if they help out with her parents yard sale, the five of them can keep the money, but it doesn’t dawn on them until pages later that they can use that money for the party.

• The Pike kids spy on the couple that lives in the house behind them. It is lame and annoying, but I just mention it because that must be the house Stacey eventually moves back to. So, it is kind of funny to have it mentioned here.

• Mal helps out at a sitting job at the Pikes, but Claudia still thinks she is too young to join the BSC.

• Stacey wants to sell a sweater at her yard sale for $40, because she thinks her mom bought it for her for a lot more. This was published in 1988, so spending that much on a kid’s sweater seems like a lot. They end up marking it for $3.50.

• Morbidda Destiny (I can’t call her anything else) just walks into Kristy’s yard and invites the crowd of kids hanging out there to come to her house for lemonade. She practically begs them because she is lonely. I am going to believe she knows Karen claims she is a witch and is trying to scare her. Cause that is a better image then Karen making fun of a sad old lady.

• Charlotte DOES say she is in fourth grade in this one.

• Mrs. Barrett kind of sucks in this one. Buddy and Suzi want to have thier own yard sale, to make money off their toys. Mrs. Barrett just drops the whole job in Dawn’s lap, with no advance warning.

• Suzi asks if she can come to Stacey’s good-bye party, and Dawn is just all, “hey, great idea!” Then she calls Kristy and they decide inviting kids is a great way to have a party. I guess this was the first time they did – but it became a standard thing.

• Someone tries to buy the shutters on the McGill’s house and their car at the yard sale. The car? Who goes to a yard sale and makes an offer on the car? Also, did they really only have one car? I can see that working in Manhattan, but in suburban Connecticut?

• Claudia outfit: “Purple-and-white striped body suit under a gray jumper-thing. The legs of the body suit stretched all the way to her ankles, but she was wearing purple push down socks anyway. Around her middle was a wide purple belt with a buckle in the shape of a telephone. And on her feet were black ballet slippers.”

• Dawn was wearing, “a very short kilt, an oversized red sweater, and yellow socks over red tights. On her head was a red beret with a sparkly initial pin attached to the side.” That doesn’t seem like a very-Dawn outfit.

• Mary Anne: “A navy mini-dress with a pink sash, blue tights, and black slippers like Claudia’s.” Stacey helped her pick it out.

• Stacey reveals her real name is “Anastasia Elizabeth.” And Dawn’s is “Dawn Read.”

• Mary Anne points out that when they started the club, they were only a year older than Mallory is now. But apparently that is still a big enough difference to everyone else.

• Stacey’s parents get her cards with her address on it that say, “The New York Branch of the Baby-sitters club.” I remember Dawn calling herself the “California Branch” in later books, but I thought it was something she made up herself. I guess it came from Stacey.