“I don’t tell you who to date! Don’t tell me!":…………….BSC # 124: Stacey McGill…Matchmaker?

Memory Reaction

I didn’t read this as a kid.  I did read it a few years back, before I started this blog, but then I moved and lost access to the library that had BSC books.  I finally re-found it on ebay a few weeks ago. However, I really don’t remember what I thought of it then…just that Stacey seemed a bit too happy about seeing her mom date a client’s father.  My parents split up when I was about Stacey’s age, and while I was never upset about it and wanted them to both be happy, I didn’t really want to think about either of them dating. 

Revisited Reaction

The BSC has a new client, the Brookes.  Stacey has the first job for them and thinks the kids (Joni and Ewan) are adorable.  Her mom comes to pick her up at the end of the job, and meets the recently divorced father, John.  They kind of hit it off, and end up going out. 

Stacey's thrilled because she thinks the guy’s nice, cute, etc, and that her mom deserves to meet someone like that.  The problem's that Joni (age 9) and Ewan (age 5) are younger and are not thrilled with the idea, especially Joni.  They both want their mother to return - apparently she moved to Georgia to be a news anchor person because she thought her kids were holding her back career-wise.  But the kids don't know that part, so they think Mrs. McGill’s trying to replace her or something.

Anyway, Joni acts like a bratty 9-year-old and tries to wreck the relationship.  John's a writer who works from home, but uses a sitter so the kids don't bug him while he's writing.  She plays loud music, hides her father's computer mouse, and locks him outside so he can't meet his deadline, hoping that will get him to cancel his date.  It doesn't really work very well, and John just grounds her instead of talking to her about why she's upset (at least not that we see), and that makes her act out more.  Eventually, Claudia sits for the kids and manages to get Joni feeling better about the whole thing.  The Brookes spend Thanksgiving with Stacey and her mom, and it gets a bit rocky, but Stacey talks to Joni and makes her feel a little better about the whole situation.  And then Mrs. McGill dumps the guy.  Seriously.

Subplot:  Mallory hates school because kids ages 11-13 are assholes.  She wants to go to Stoneybrook Day, but it's too expensive, so she does some research and finds a boarding school where she thinks she can get a scholarship.  We know how all this turns out.

High/Lowlights

• Stacey and her mom are having a book club and are reading Pride and Prejudice.  They end up talking about women marrying rich guys, and Stacey’s amazed when her mom tells her that there are women who think like that today.  Which….seriously? I'm glad the idea never occurred to Stacey, but I'm surprised that she was so surprised by it.  Isn't she the sophisticated worldly one.

• When Stacey and her mom are talking about the book, they get into a discussion about the McGill's divorce.  Mrs. McGill admits that she started to resent Mr. McGill's long hours after he quit being a public defender and became a corporate lawyer.  The work “didn't seem as important.”  And Stacey's all, "wasn't that judgmental of you?" which seems a bit harsh to me.  She probably said it nicer than how I'm envisioning it though.

• Do people (who aren't on TV shows) easily switch from criminal to corporate law like that?

• Also, (and this is kind of a low blow), Mrs. McGill never seemed to have a problem spending the money her husband made at that “less important” job.

• Claudia outfit: “A pair of long shinny earrings dotted with small clay beads…a long beaded necklace…which had fallen beneath the bib of her tie-dyed overalls. (She’d dyed them herself)?”  Well, of course she dyed them herself.  Who the hell sells tie-dyed overalls?

• I’m trying to remember…have we ever seen Mrs. McGill, or any other BSC parent picking their daughter up after a sitting job?  And actually coming to the house and ringing the doorbell?  There have been some times where the parent of the kids drives them home because it’s nighttime, but I don’t remember the sitters’ parents picking them up. It’s probably realistic, but it just seemed a bit contrived.

• The Brookes want to watch a movie of Indian in the Cupboard, and Stacey tells us how it's a great book, but she hasn't seen the movie yet. This makes me feel old, because I read that book as a kid, and when the movie came out I couldn't remember the book because I'd read it so long ago.  And that was apparently forever ago too.

• Just once, I'd like to see someone in the BSC reference a book that totally sucked.  And to tell us that.  Saying the Kishis don't like Nancy Drew doesn't count. Something like, "Vanessa was reading Twilight again. If you've never read it, you're lucky, it's really ridiculous and poorly written."  I get that Ann M. Martin was trying to encourage reading, but it gets a little annoying.  And I was a total book worm as a kid.

• Although, it would be funny if one of the books with a positive reference was another one by Ann M. Martin.

• At one of the first jobs, Stacey hears John using a typewriter, and is all shocked that he's using such an old fashioned device. She thought everyone used much more modern devices like electric typewriters and word processors.  For the record, he uses the typewriter when fleshing out ideas, he does the actual writing part on a computer. Which seems weird to me, but whatever.

• Kristy gets upset that John calls for sitter outside of meeting hours.  He calls at 5:27 and 6:10.  Such a non-conformist.  The reason he has to do this is because his lateness is one of the things Mrs. McGill gets annoyed at later on.

• Interestingly, when he calls at 6:10 everyone’is still there hanging out.  Convenient for the story, since I don't think they ever talk about staying at the meeting past 6:00.  Especially Kristy, who gets a ride. 

• I appreciate the fact that they went to the trouble of setting up Mal's boarding school good-bye for a full three books.  She was around before even Dawn showed up, so her character deserved that.  I just feel bad that they had to make things so miserable for her.  She always hated her looks and a lot of the boys in her school, but she seemed pretty happy generally.

• On Thanksgiving, Joni doesn't like the classical music that’s playing.  Mrs. McGill asks what she likes, and Joni asks for Hansen.  Wow, I'd forgotten about that band.  Stacey doesn't have any, if you care.  I guess she has some taste.

• So, here are some of Mrs. McGill's reasons for ending things with John: She reread some of his books and thinks she disagrees with some of his world views, he's too hard on his kids, he's always either late or early, and he didn’t offer to help with the dishes after Thanksgiving dinner.  She also thinks he’s self-centered and is annoyed that the day before Thanksgiving (when she's cooking), he shows up with a draft of his manuscript and asks her to read it (she says she doesn't need another thing to do).

• I think it’s kind of weak that they had to paint Mrs. Brookes as a bad mother, who left her kids to further her career.

• Stacey tries to convince her mom not to break up with the guy right away (this is the day after Thanksgiving, but Mrs. McGill says she's supposed to go out with him the next day and can't do that knowing she's going to dump the guy.  They get into a bit of a fight about it.

• After the break up, Stacey goes to visit the Brookes, because she had gotten them gifts when visiting her dad in the city.  John’s all surprised to see her, but lets her in.  The kids are upset because they feel like Mrs. McGill dumped him because they were acting up.  Stacey convinces them this isn't the case and says she's still be there for him.  She adds that they can be "honorary siblings."  Which is nice, I guess, but it seems a bit disloyal to her "almost-sister" Charlotte Johanssen.

• So, do you think the Brookes kept the BSC as their sitter?

Final note:  So, the only book from the original series I have left to recap is the final book in the series, The Fire at Mary Anne's house.  That will be posted next.  But I have decided to also write up the Friends Forever books, and even managed to order all of them from Amazon.  So, expect to see that shortly.

“Sometimes Christmas wishes take awhile to come true”…….BSC Secret Santa

I didn't read this one as a kid, but it’s pretty much the same idea as that chain letter book. In this one, it’s Christmastime and the BSC’s doing a Secret Santa instead of regularly exchanging gifts.  They each wrote down their Christmas wish and then picked them out of a hat to see who’d grant each one.   We find out who wished for what and who grants it (and how) through a series of letters between the girls (and Logan).

The club also decided they don’t do enough volunteer work, and arranged to work with an organization where they respond to a kids’ letters to Santa, and give a gift to a child who’s family’s having trouble.

Wishes

• Mallory wishes to be remembered forever and Logan grants it by planting a tree in her name by the middle school, with a plaque in her name.  I think it’s a pretty appropriate gift for such a wish. 

• Jessi wishes to dance in the NYC Ballet and Shannon has a fake program printed with her picture on it.  And she says Jessi probably really will do it someday.  Again, a nice way to respond to a wish she can’t really do anything about.

• Logan wishes for three more wishes (smart ass), and Stacey gives him a 4 leaf clover, a penny, and a wishbone.  That’s probably the best way to grant that wish if you’re not actually some kind of genie.  But this one made me laugh because when I was six I wished for three more wishes when I blew out the candles on my birthday cake.  Then I forgot about them for months.  I can’t remember if I actually made other wishes when I did remember though.

• Mary Anne wishes that Cam Geary would write her a “real” note, not a form letter.  Dawn writes to him a couple of times with a blank card and pre-addressed envelope and he actually signs it and sends it back. Along with a personal note. I assume I don’t have to say how ridiculous this is.  Cam’s supposed to be super-famous right? You’d have to write a lot more than two letters to get a handwritten response like that.  And it would probably require a lot more lead time than what’s implied in this book.  Or else end with a restraining order.

• Shannon wishes for a better sense of humor and Jessi gives her a joke book and some tricks/prank stuff. 

• Stacey wishes she could be in NYC at Christmas time, so Claud arranges to paint a mural of it in her bedroom.  I hope she’s painting this on paper and not actually on the wall, because seeing a Christmas-y NYC in July would probably get annoying.

• Dawn wishes her CA friends and her CT friends could be better friends (this is during her first stay in CA), so Kristy makes her a scrapbook that includes stuff from Sunny (she and Kristy worked together).  What would actually work better would be if her CA friends made a book for the BSC and vice versa.  That way they would get to know each other.  But it’s still a nice gesture.

• Kristy wishes she didn't have such a big mouth.  Mary Anne thinks she can’t really do anything about this, so she decides to do something else.  She writes a letter to Kristy’s father telling him how much it would mean to Kristy to get a card from him. Kristy apparently sends one to him every year.  And her dad does, and includes a note that he loves her.  It probably wouldn’t mean as much to Kristy if she knew he had to be prompted to do it.  But whatever.

• Claudia wishes she could do something meaningful for someone, and Mallory writes her a letter saying Claud granted it for herself, because of the whole charity subplot.  Which brings me to……

Subplot

The letter from Eliza, the girl who’s letter they’re answering, says she wants a book and a doll, but also says how she wishes she could see her sister who ran away last year.  The BSC write to the girl’s parents because they want to return a friendship necklace Eliza included in the note, and get a reply that says the sister is actually living with a relative.

Claudia tracks them down and the family ends up reuniting for Christmas.  Just for Christmas dinner, the sister doesn't move back home.  It’s pretty sweet I think, but definitely pretty tame.  In most cases a story about a teenage runaway would be darker story with a less happy ending.  Also, we never find out why she ran away, which is really annoying.

Other Occurrences

• Mary Anne seems to kind of miss the point of the whole wish granting thing.  Everyone else managed to find some way of symbolically granting wishes if they couldn't literally be done.  But she just totally ignored it.  At least be funny and buy her a muzzle or something.

• We get to see Karen’s Christmas list.  Because you can’t have a book without a reference to Karen. We hear about her inviting her friend Nancy (who’s Jewish) over for Xmas dinner.  I know there was one Little Sister book where this happened, but I couldn't figure out if it came out the same year as this one.  At least not easily.

• Jessi thinks Stacey’s awesome.  Seriously, she sends her a letter/Christmas card where we hear that Becca’s on the verge of not believing in Santa Claus.  It’s kind of boring.  But at the end she adds this whole paragraph about how she thinks Stacey’s smart and terrific, and that she’s proud of how responsible Stacey is about her diabetes. It’s really random.

• Claire writes to Santa asking if he stops at McDonalds during his Christmas Eve run and to ask where the reindeer go to the bathroom.  I guess this was supposed to be comic relief?

• In the Chain Letter book, it made sense that the girls wrote letters to each other because they were all out-of-town.  But in this one everyone except Dawn is in Stoneybrook.  So it seems weird that they’re communicating via letters.  I guess some of them are Christmas cards with long notes, but it still seems odd.

• I want to say Mallory was sort of lame for not doing anything except telling Claudia she made her wish come true on her own, but she’s kind of right.

• One of the cards had all this green and red confetti in it, and now it’s all over my couch.

• When I was a teenager, my friends and I did Secret Santa gifts as well, but we didn't write down wishes or anything. We just gave gifts we thought the person would like.  The wish thing’s a lot more challenging, especially considering the type of wishes they all made.  I mean, wishing to dance in the NY Ballet and personal letters from Cam Geary?  It makes a more interesting story though.

“The BSC members had done a lot of detective work, but that didn’t make us real detectives”…BSC Mystery # 36: Kristy and the Cat Burglar

Memory Reaction

Didn't read this as a kid.

Revisited Reaction

I actually really enjoyed this one, because it ended up being about how the BSC isn’t an actually detective agency and probably shouldn’t be chasing criminals around.  This is the last mystery book to come out, so I guess that’s a fitting end. 

It starts out with Kristy, David Michael, and Karen exploring the woods behind their house that leads to some big mansion on a private road.  While doing this they see the BSC’s cop friend Sergeant Johnson driving by (but he doesn’t see them), then hear a gun shot and an alarm going off.  Kristy and the kids run away, but then a cop tells them to stop.  It is, of course, Sergeant Johnson.  After he sees who it is, he has them wait in his car while a bunch of other cops show up and do their cop thing.

It turns out some rich loner guy, Reinhart Golem, owns the house but is currently out of the country.  Someone lured his security guard away and then stole a bunch of diamonds from the safe.  This person also left a picture of a cat, which is the calling card of some notorious “Cat Burglar” that’s wanted all over the place. We also find out that there’s some tension between Sergeant Johnson and a couple other cops.  According to him it’s because a new guy wants to take the current Chief’s job when he retires, and Johnson (I’m going to stop typing Sergeant every time I say his name, because it’s really annoying) is his biggest competition. Oh, and Cary Retlin apparently lives in the area, so he keeps showing up.

The BSC decides to investigate, because that’s what they do.  They show up at the mansion and find a bullet casing and a red marker (that was supposedly used for drawing the cat picture).  They get caught snooping by the owner, who just got back into town.  He encourages the girls and Cary to solve the crime and even offers up an award.  He keeps encouraging and complimenting them every time he sees them.

We also find out that these other cops are acting like Sergeant Johnson’s a suspect and the BSC has to admit they think he’s one too.  He was at the crime scene right before the alarm went off and has been acting “odd.”  Then Kristy sees a set of markers in his office that’s missing a red one, and look just like the one found at the crime scene.  We also hear that Johnson had investigated Golem about something before, and it didn’t go anywhere.  I guess we’re supposed to think he’s got something against the guy. More importantly, the cops finally find some diamonds in his desk, so they arrest him (in front of the BSC).  But he tells the girls he’s being framed

Kristy starts to believe him, and thinks the evidence is off somehow.  So they do some more investigating and come to the conclusion that the other cop’s framing Johnson.  It’s dinner time so half the girls go to Chez Maurice (the restaurant where Golem eats most of his meals) and Kristy, Abby, Mary Anne, and Cary go to Golem’s house.  It turns out he’s at home, so Kristy’s group starts telling him their theory about a frame up.  But then Cary and Kristy realize that Golem has a lamp that was stolen by the Cat Burglar previously, and figure out Golem is the real thief and was trying to get the insurance money for the diamonds. He was framing Johnson because he held a grudge from the previous investigation.  Golem tries to lock the girls in his house before they can stop him from getting on a plane to Europe, but Abby and Mary Anne manage to get out of the house. 

At the same time the rest of the BSC was looking for Golem at Chez Maurice and happen to see his name in the guest book on the day of the crime.  They realize he was lying about being out of town that day, so they go to the cops, who were already getting suspicious.  They all go to Golem’s and manage to save Kristy, Abby, Mary Anne, and Cary.  Anyway, Kristy feels really stupid for letting Golem manipulate her and the other girls agree, so they decide to stop looking into mysteries for a while.

The subplot’s all about how Charlotte Johanssen read Harriet the Spy and decided to spy on everyone she knows.  It turns out her friends are also spying on her, but they end up doing it together.  At one point Becca and Vanessa hear some negative things Charlotte said about them during one of her solo spy trips.  They fight, then they make up. It’s really thrilling stuff. And we get a little plug about how we should all read that great book.

High/Lowlights

• According to this book Kristy’s house ends with a wooded area that goes past Cary’s house.  I was going to say this didn't match the map, but I guess it could, depending on what else is off the edge on that side.

• At a meeting a job comes in for a Thursday.  Mary Anne looks at the book and says, “Stacey, Mal, or Abby.”  Then Mallory says how she has an eye doctor’s appointment and Abby says she has a special soccer practice.  But, shouldn't Mary Anne already know this? Isn't that the point of the appointment book? Unless maybe both of those things just came up.  But do they not tell Mary Anne about appointments until she asks who’s free that day? 

• During one of Charlotte’s spy missions, they look at the Ramsey’s house and she says that Aunt Cecilia always spends all afternoon cooking dinner for the family. That makes her sound like a maid or something. 

• Johnson brings Kristy in for questioning and takes her into his office where no one could overhear them to talk.  I’m not surprised his colleagues were suspicious of him.

• Cary gets called down to the police station for questioning (as a witness, not a suspect), because Kristy told the cops was in the area during the break in.  They make a point of showing that his father was with him for the questioning, which makes it look even weirder when Kristy goes in alone. Johnson said they don’t need her parents because it isn't an “official” questioning, just a “consultation.” Sure.  That sounds totally legit.

• Stacey warns Charlotte that spying on her friends could make them mad at her, like in the book.  But Charlotte says she’s recording everything instead of writing it down, so no one will ever know.  But of course, when she starts spying with Becca and Vanessa, she accidentally plays the wrong tape and they hear (and get pissed off).

• Charlotte’s bitchy comments about her friends – Becca’s a baby that’s spoiled by Aunt Cecelia, and Vanessa’s embarrassed that her father can’t afford to buy her a nicer bike.  Vanessa defends them both saying Cecelia’s actually strict and her dad offered her a new bike and she refused.  Becca doesn't defend herself, but I guess it’s kind of hard to say you’re not spoiled without sounding like you are.

• You can tell this is a later book, because when the girls are doing research on the Cat Burglar they talk about using the internet instead of just microfilm in the library. 

• After the girls found the marker and bullet casings, I was already to complain about how the hell the cops missed that stuff.  But, they actually reference how weird it’s that the cops didn’t find it.  AND it turns out that it was planted after the fact, so it’s not that ridiculous.  Other than the fact that they didn't know immediately it was a frame up.

• For anyone who cares, Sergeant Johnson’s first name’s James.

• I can’t believe this Golem guy was dumb enough to sign his real name to a guest book in a restaurant when he was pretending to be out of town.  He planned out an elaborate crime that involved tricking his security people and using kids to frame a police officer.  And he has been breaking into houses for years.  But he didn’t think to sign a fake name?  Or maybe eat in that once? He deserves to get caught for that.

• I find it funny that they’re giving the kids a plot that was Mallory’s storyline in TWO super specials.  Okay, Mal didn't get the fight part of the story.  But she did reference Harriet.

• Claudia outfit: “Purple painter’s pants with lots of loops and pockets for carrying tools, red high-tops with purple laces, and a red sweatshirt customized with purple embroidery.” It’s inspired by Harriet.

• Stacey outfit: “She [had] on khaki pants and a white button-down blouse. She [had] a dark blue ribbon in her hair…her shoes [were] brown lace-up boots.”  Pretty tame…I feel like Stacey’s clothes were more interesting in the early books.

• Cary keeps saying he was bird watching when the BSC bumps into him around the mansion.  They think he’s making that up, but apparently he’s actually a serious bird watcher.

• Kristy thinks about how rich Golem must be because he eats most of his meals at Chez Maurice, and she would need to save up for months to eat one meal there.  She does realize even non-rich adults make more than baby-sitters, right?

• Also, haven’t Logan and Mary Anne eaten at Chez Maurice?  They never mentioned up saving for months for that.

• They don’t really explain why the cops went from being convinced of Johnson’s guilt to thinking Golem was manipulating things, even before talking to the BSC.  But whatever.

• Sergeant Johnson shows up at Claudia’s house during a BSC meeting.  Janine comes and knocks on Claud’s door and tells them there’s a cop there to see them, and “if she didn't know better” she’d think they were in trouble.  Do they expect me to believe that the “genius” didn't think there was anything weird about a cop wanting to talk to teenage girls alone?

• While I do love the book ending with them deciding not to play detective anymore, it’s kind of silly that THIS case makes them think it’s too dangerous.  Having a criminal stalk you and try to kill you or having physical fights with thieves doesn't bother them. But almost getting trapped in a room does the job. Makes total sense.

“We’ve all done a lot of sharing and confessing lately”……..BSC Chain Letter

I never read this as a kid. I think the bookstore in my town must not have carried it, because if I had seen it I would have gotten it.  Anyway, it’s not really a book, so I can’t do my normal format.  It’s more like a collection of letters that are supposed to tell a story.  The set-up’s that Kristy’s appendix bursts and she’s in the hospital, at the same time that the rest of the club’s on vacation.  Stacey and Claudia are in NYC, Jessi and Mallory are with the Pikes in Sea City, and Dawn and Mary Anne are in California.  Kristy was supposed to be in California as well, so she’s obviously not happy in the hospital.

Kristy’s cousin Robin (who has been mentioned before, so yay continuity) sends her this chain letter where you are supposed to send a letter to one person telling them a secret you’ve never told anyone.  Then that person does the same thing to someone else.  So, Kristy starts the chain by writing to Stacey, and we hear a bunch of (mostly lame) secrets.

• Kristy tells Stacey she hates her father and sometimes wishes he was dead.  She thinks this may make her a bad person, but Stacey responds that it doesn’t.

• Stacey tells Mallory that when she first moved to Stoneybrook she dyed red, but thought it looked terrible and dyed it back before anyone saw.

• Mallory tells Jessi that once in school she totally blanked out on a test and she ended up copying Jessi’s answers, so they both got As.  Jessi responds that she already knew and was mad at first but got over it. 

• Jessi tells Mary Anne that once when she was baby-sitting for her siblings, she suggested playing pirates with Becca.  They were trying to make a treasure map and have it look old by burning the edges. But they dropped the match and burned a hole in the carpet.  They moved a chair to cover it, so when her parents eventually saw it they thought it was friends of theirs that smoked.

• Mary Anne tells Claudia that she was seeing a therapist for a while.  Which is probably the most interesting secret, only I already knew about it from later books.  Where I was annoyed I missed hearing it directly.

• Claudia tells Dawn she once stole a dollar from Mimi’s purse so she could buy Twinkies.

• Dawn tells Shannon that on their flight to California she told Mary Anne that she saw Cam Geary on the plane, in first class.  The flight attendant closed the curtain, so Mary Anne spent the whole time trying to get a look up there and missing him.   But Dawn made the whole thing up.

• We don’t see who Shannon sends it too.  But her secret would probably be about flunking a test on purpose.

Thoughts

• Claud steals the money from Mimi when she was 12.  Wasn’t she baby-sitting by then?  Wouldn’t she be able to buy a freaking Twinkie?

• Jessi’s parents don’t think very highly of their friends do they?  Did they let the friends in their house alone?  Cause if it was dinner party or something, wouldn’t the Ramseys have noticed a fire in their living room.

• I don’t believe Mallory would cheat on a test.

• I REALLY don’t believe Jessi would be lighting matches in the middle of her living room while baby-sitting.

• I don’t know when this was released chronologically, but Kristy tells Stacey that Sam cried when their dad didn’t call on his last birthday.  If Sam and Stacey were still dating at that point that seems it seems a bit too personal for Kristy to tell Stacey.  But maybe that’s why you don’t want to date your friends’ siblings.

• I like that Mary Anne sent her secret to Claud, because it’s a Claudia book where this is referenced later on.

• Stacey’s note back to Kristy about not being a bad person’s pretty nice.  Only she sends this on a postcard.  Which anyone could read.  Nice way to respond about a SECRET Stacey.  She doesn’t spell out what Kristy said, but you can get the idea.

• Stacey tells Mallory that her hair dying incident was why she stayed so calm when Mallory needed to dye her hair back to red in California.  I don’t remember Stacey being especially calm, but whatever.

A few other random letters go around:

• Mary Anne writes to Cam Geary about how she was on his plane and gets a signed picture.

• Karen sends Kristy a get-well card because we have to insert her into every book.

• Logan writers to Mary Anne and Dawn from his trip in Kentucky and his cousin Lewis jumps in with a bunch of random comments.

• Dawn’s writes a random postcard to Claudia about going to Disney Land with Mary Anne.  She has a PS asking “if you kissed a boy while you were riding around in [the teacups] would your braces lock together”?  I guess it’s supposed to be a joke, but it seems weird.

• Her postcard is a picture of the Hollywood sign, not a picture of Disney Land.  Maybe it would have cost more money for Scholastic to use a Disney pic?

• Also, Dawn has to point out that she practically “grew up” in Disney Land but was willing to go back for Mary Anne’s sake. How big of her.  And do people in California really go to Disney Land all the time?

• Margo writes to Stacey to say she saw Toby in Sea City with some girl who was ugly.  She also calls Toby ugly.  Mallory says it isn’t nice for Margo to do this, but I think Margo’s actually being nice to Stacey.  She didn’t call Toby ugly to his face.

• Jessi and Mal send a bunch of letters trying to organize a surprise reunion party for when they all get home and Kristy’s out of the hospital.

• Claudia’s answering machine’s broken and we get a bunch of random notes where she asks Janine to check it, where Mrs. Kishi says people are calling her line, and where Claudia asks Kristy if she knows where it can get fixed, etc.

• It’s implied that the girls all tell each other the secrets, and that Jessi even tells her parents.  But we don’t get any discussion on them, which would be the most interesting part of the whole thing.

“As long as she’s no longer the Worst Kid Ever”…..BSC # 116: Abby and the Best Kid Ever

Memory Reaction

I didn’t read this one as a kid, but I do remember Lou and like that they did a follow up book.

Revisited Reaction

So, Lou McNally, the Papadakis’s old foster child’s back in town.  Her aunt and uncle have now adopted her and her brother and bought a house in Stoneybrook.  Abby gets a job sitting for them, and she’s worried about whether Lou’s still “the worst kid ever.” But as it turns out, Lou’s very polite and well behaved this time around.  In fact, she’s so well-behaved she starts driving Abby crazy.

Abby’s also working on a project for Black History Month because she needs extra credit at school.  She decides she wants to involve little kids in her project, because she’s kind of crazy.  And because it’s the BSC and that’s what they do.   She ends up asking Lou and her brother to help out, along with some other kids in town.  They’re making a mock news show about escaped slaves using the Underground Railroad to get to freedom (using Dawn’s secret passage). 

Lou tries to be really helpful with the project, but she keeps accidentally screwing things up.  She almost drops the camera, she walks into the middle of scenes, and she’s constantly popping up asking what she can do to help and annoying Abby.  She also keeps apologizing for every little thing. Finally, Abby reaches her breaking point and tells her to lighten up.   Lou takes this advice to heart and starts acting up again.  Not nearly as badly as in her original book, but she keeps trying to scare people by jumping out at them.  Then, she accidentally drops a plate and it breaks.  Not because she was doing anything wrong, she just dropped it while setting the table.  She’s all panicked that her aunt and uncle will “send her back” because she’s bad.  Her brother and Abby try to tell her this won’t happen.  Then when the aunt and uncle get home, the brother tells them what Lou’s worried about.  Of course the aunt and uncle are very reassuring, and I guess that settles things.  And I know you’ll be surprised to hear this, but Abby’s project’s a huge success.

The subplot’s that the Addisons are moving out of Stoneybrook. The BSC wants to help them out with move stuff and to say good-bye. Corrie’s all sweet about it, however, Sean doesn’t believe the BSC will miss him because he’s caused so much trouble for them.  They spend way too much time trying to convince him otherwise, and eventually they succeed.  It’s a very nice goodbye, considering the Addisons aren’t one of the series most prominent clients.  And Abby tells us how Stoneybrook now really feels like her home.

High/Lowlights

• In the first chapter, Abby’s thinking about Kristy and how she has a soft spot for “bad kids,” then randomly mentions Lou as an example.  It made me laugh because Abby didn’t even know Lou, so the statement comes out of nowhere.  It’s like on a TV show when they have a “previously on…” and show something from two seasons ago, so you know it’s going to be brought up again.  Of course with this book we knew that anyway since it’s on the cover. 

• At a BSC meeting, Claud’s has a bag of M&Ms and is separating out the green ones to eat.  Interesting.

• Outfit 1: “Stacey was wearing a cropped sweater in dark green-blue that looked good with her blue eyes. She also had on a short skirt (black faux suede), pale blue tights, and very cool-looking black suede boots that came to just above her knees.  Tiny gold knot earrings completed her ensemble.”

•  Outfit 2: “Claudia had decided to wear red.  That meant she had on a red tunic with an orange-red braided belt (that she had made herself, naturally).  Her leggings were a rose-pink color, and she had on black shiny flats with tiny rosettes on the toe.  She’d pulled her hair back with a large red silk scarf that matched the tunic.  Her earrings were silver snowflakes, also homemade.”

• Abby hears that the McNally’s are moving in at the same time as the Addisons are moving out and assumes the McNally’s are moving into their house.  Which actually seems like a weird assumption, but whatever.  This isn’t actually the case, as the child abuser from the next book’s moving into the Addisons.  We get introduced to him and his kids here.

• Nicky Pike’s the one who suggests doing a project on the Underground Railroad, using Dawn/Mary Anne’s house.  I don’t know if this was intentional, but I thought it made sense he would think of this because he found the passage before anyone else.

• Abby references Jenny Prezzioso, saying she was once nicknamed “Miss Priss” because she went through a phase where she had to wear very dressy clothes.  This, again, is something that happened before Abby was in town.  Which may be why it’s inaccurate – the reference is that Lou’s dressing in the same style as Jenny, when Lou’s wearing corduroys and a sweater.  Maybe she just meant that’s Lou’s version of dressing up?  The way extra lacey dresses were Jenny’s? 

• The girls offer to do anything Sean wants for an hour to convince him they don’t hate him.  He makes the girls take him sledding and actually pull him back up the hill while he’s sitting on the sled.  After they finish, Stacey says “Wow, that was hard work, I’m glad we’re done,” (meaning physically pulling him on the sled), but it erases all the good will they just got. 

• Honestly, I don’t know why they care so much about Sean. Just let the kid think you don’t like him.  Who cares?  He’s leaving town so it isn’t like he’s causing you any trouble now.  He’s not going to be scarred for life because he thinks his old baby-sitters weren’t big fans.  He’s got way too many issues with his parents for that.

• Also, it’s not great precedent to tell someone you’ll do anything they want to get them to like you.

• In the club notebook, Claudia comments that it’s “strange” that spending time with Corrie made her think of Mimi.  But that’s not strange at all, considering Corrie was a pretty big part of her life at the time Mimi died.

• Mary Anne’s sitting for the Addisons and the parents suggest ordering pizza for dinner.  Mary Anne asks if they can make it instead, which they say is fine.  Then she looks around the kitchen and finds pizza dough and sauce all ready to use.  Who keeps stuff like that in their house, especially when they are packing up to move? 

• Why didn’t the Papadakises ever get another foster child?

• Abby refers to something as “Easy as pie,” and Stacey’s all “Pi r squared,” while Claudia’s all, “what flavor?”  For some reason that made me laugh.  I know, I am a nerd.

• When they’re at the library, Stacey picks up a book called “Finance for Dummies” then reads it and keeps laughing. I don’t remember Stacey being such a math dork in the earlier books, just that she was good at it/liked the subject.  But I really like that they’ve raised the bar with it, just because it shows you the popular/sophisticated/fashionable one can still be smart.

• What is it with Abby and February?  She starts this book by complaining that you can’t really play sports in winter and talking about the number of holidays in February.  There’s at least two other books where she talks about disliking the month and/or needing something to do to get through it.

• Claudia helps Corrie make this huge map of Stoneybrook, with pictures of key events/places on it as a memento.  It’s very elaborate with all kind of things glued on.  I feel like I’ve seen them do a big map like that as a goodbye for someone else too.  Maybe one of the times Dawn left?

• Lou seems to really believe her aunt and uncle will “give her back.”  Probably a realistic fear for someone in her situation. My only issue with this is how much time are we supposed to think has passed since her original book and now?  Wouldn’t someone have picked up that she was having an issue and talked to her by now?  Wouldn’t a kid like that probably need/get some kind of counseling anyway?

“It was the way he was smiling that bothered me”…….BSC # 99: Stacey’s Broken Heart

Memory Reaction

This is the last BSC book I read as a kid, so it’s kind of a sad-ish memory for me.  Which is weird, because at the time I wasn’t upset about giving them up.  I just remember reading the excerpt from the next book, where Kristy suggests they disband the club, and deciding I didn’t want to read it.  I was way too old to be reading them at that point anyway.

But for this book itself, I remember a scene where some girl they go to school with called Stacey at Claudia’s house (during a club meeting) to tell her she saw Robert with another girl.  I thought it was unrealistic/dumb that someone would know to call Stacey there at the right time.  I was also not happy with the fact that Andi was the girl Robert cheated with, because I really liked her in earlier books, and wanted her and Stacey to stay friendly, even though Andi’s other friends were bitches.

Revisited Reaction

It's the end of summer and Stacey’s enjoying hanging out with Robert.  They run into Andi Gentile, a girl Stacey used to be friends with.  But Stacey doesn't like hanging out with Robert's “popular” friends so they leave. The next day, Stacey tries to call Robert but his sister tells her she went to play basketball with the guys.  She goes to watch, because Claudia’s working on an art project, and Stacey apparently can't spend an afternoon alone.  The problem is Robert’s not there and his friends haven’t heard from him.  Robert later explains he was playing with a different guy, at a different place.  Stacey sort of believes him.....then Emily Bernstein calls and tells her she saw Robert at the mall with another girl.  Stacey ends up following Robert to the mall to see if he's meeting another girl, but he's only there with Pete Black.  She's still a little worried about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Stacey gets an offer to take a week long baby-sitting job in NYC, for the Walkers, a family that she used to sit for. She's worried about leaving Robert, but excited to go to the city, so she takes it.  She of course loves being in the city and loves the kids she sitting for, so she has a great time.  She also hangs out some with this guy Ethan, who’s working for the couple she's sitting for (they’re setting up an art show).   About mid-week, Claudia calls her to say she saw Robert kissing Andi.  Stacey's heartbroken of course, and doesn't know what to do, but gradually starts to feel better.  When she gets home, Andi’s waiting to tell her she and Robert just kept running into each other and ended up hooking up. Then Robert comes over and they break up officially.  

The subplot’s focused on Abby filling in for Kristy as BSC President, while Kristy's in Hawaii.  Abby decides to not care if people are late to meetings, to only collect dues every other week, and has all sorts of wild ideas.  She also wants to prove she can't handle the job, so she organizes a Mexican Festival to have for the kids they sit for.  It ends up almost being a disaster, because Abby's not so great at the planning phase, and I think it’s supposed to teach them all how valuable Kristy is.  Or something.  And they do pull things together at the last minute so the festival’s fairly successful.

High/Lowlights 

• Stacey says Robert's friends almost get her in trouble for shoplifting, but that's not really the case.  They got her in trouble for drinking at a concert.  They did shoplift, but she was never in danger of getting in trouble for it.

• Stacey's mom has a rule that Robert can only be in the house when she's not home if they stay in the kitchen.  But they want to play a computer game, which they need to do in the living room.   Stacey's all, what's the difference between the living room and the kitchen?  I'm thinking it's the existence of the couch and how it can be used. But if Stacey doesn't think of that they probably won't be doing anything inappropriate.

• Stacey does call her mom who says it’s cool for them to go in the living room.

• In the backstory chapter, Stacey says that a difference between Claudia and Janine’s that Claud’s gorgeous and Janine isn’t.  It seems a bit mean to say it like that. 

• Regarding the festival...Abby does sort of suck at planning it.  She spends money on art supplies when Claudia had stuff they could have used, she doesn't think about where to have it until they are in the middle of making posters for it, she hangs crappy looking signs that the kids made, etc.  However. No one else really tries to help her.  They've all planned tons of fairs/festivals/whatever, and know what problems they've had in the past, things they've learned, etc.  Abby joined the club 10 books ago.  Of course she might make mistakes or not realize how much time things will really take. 

• Stacey says that she thinks Mary Anne has the most important job in the BSC - after Kristy.  I think Mary Anne's job’s more important. Kristy's good at planning the big events, but without Mary Anne scheduling, they couldn't book jobs.  The club could live without the events, but not about the appointment/record book.

• Outfit: “Claudia had on an oversized purple top over turquoise leggings. With fabric paints she’d painted a beautiful unicorn on the top and then decorated the leggings with designs in the same colors.”  I actually don’t think it sounds so bad, even though I’d never wear it myself.

• Stacey tells us how clothing’s much more important to her in Manhattan because you see such great fashions all over.  And obviously everyone in NYC cares about fashion.  It’s not a diverse city or anything.

• Aw, Stacey says she thinks her mom’s pretty and she likes when people say they look alike.

• Stacey goes shopping for back to school clothes, and talks about how she always wears them right away, even though it's still too hot for the warm fall clothes.  I can totally understand this.  I got a spring jacket in January and was dying to wear it for weeks.  I didn't though, because I didn't want to freeze.  That probably makes me less of a fashionista than Stacey.

• I actually don’t get why they let Abby make so many changes as President.  She was in charge for barely two weeks.  And don’t they normally vote on rule changes?

• Emily calls Stacey at Claud’s during a BSC meeting to tell her about Robert.  She apologizes for interrupting the meeting but says she didn't have her home number.  First of all, Emily knows what time BSC meetings are?  Why would she care enough to learn that? Second, if she knows Claud’s number, why not call and ask her for Stacey’s number?  It’s kind of mean to tell a girl her boyfriend may be cheating on her in front of six other people.  And last, Emily’s supposed to be smart/studious and she can’t use a phone book?  Good luck with that journalism career, Em. 

• When Kristy leaves for Hawaii, she gives Abby the number of her hotel in case anything happens. She should lighten up a little....leaving Abby in charge can't be worse than all the times the entire club goes on vacation for two weeks.

• When Robert and Pete Black are at the mall they go to the movies and see some romantic comedy.  Stacey and Claudia try and follow them but end up seeing some   random action film, because they think that’s what the boys would see.  They all run into each other leaving, and Claudia has to pretend she’s into that kind of thing to explain why they were there.  It’s very sitcom-y.

• When Stacey reminds Robert they talked about seeing the rom-com together, he tells her that it will be out of theaters by the time she’s back from NY.  Now, not to stereotype, but wouldn’t most teenage boys just skip that kind of movie if his girlfriend wasn’t around?

• One thing I didn’t remember about this book was how Stacey spent a ton of time in NY with Ethan, her future boyfriend.  I knew she met him in this one from later books, but they spend hours hanging out.  Mostly with the kids she’s sitting for also present, but still. And as soon as she knows for sure Robert’s cheating, a small part of her is hopeful about Ethan.

• Robert comes to see Stacey before she leaves for New York, and he brings her flowers.  Which, is sweet, but she ends up taking them with her.  Carrying a big bouquet of flowers on a train has got to be a pain.  And if she left them, she wouldn’t have gotten a chance to enjoy them.

• Stacey says her mom’s cool, because she pretends she has to go make a phone call so that Robert and Stacey have a minute to say good bye alone.  Which means she let them kiss.

• Mr. McGill takes Stacey out to brunch on her last day, and Stacey says they should go to somewhere near the Natural History Museum.  This is because she wants to say goodbye to the Walkers and they live near the museum.  But why not just say somewhere near the Walkers?  Does she have to name drop a NYC landmark every time she talks?

• Wasn't Quint's (Jessi’ssorta boyfriend) last name also Walker?  I guess it’s a pretty common name, but I just noticed because the kids Stacey’s sitting for are also African American.

• Andi’s waiting for Stacey at her house when she gets back from the city.  I can’t figure out how she knew when Stacey was getting home.  I guess Robert could have told her, but he seemed surprised that Stacey had already talked to her.  He’s a 13-year-old boy though, he may just not have known why Andi would ask about that.

• Stacey’s angsting about the break up, and says how she can’t believe they’re splitting up when she was just writing "Robert and Stacey 2-gether 4-ever" in her notebook.  Did she really think that?  I think a good rule is that if you’re young enough to write “2-gether 4-ever” on something, you’re probably too young to pick your mate for life.

• Mr. McGill says he got tickets to some Broadway show because he made an intern stand on line for half price tickets.  He said she had nothing else to do.  Now, I don’t have a problem with him having an intern do this, but since when is Mr. McGill into discounts?

• When Stacey’s talking to her mom about the breakup, Mrs. McGill’s all, “you may reunite someday…look at Mary Anne and Dawn’s parents.”  Which I thought was weird at first, but I guess it could be reassuring without giving false hope.

A closeup look at Stoneybrook

I got a hold of a copy of The Ultimate Guide to the Baby-Sitters Club, and it included a one page map of Stoneybrook, so I thought I would share.  It's really small, but you should be able to download and then zoom in on it.  The quality's not great, but that's from the original image, not my scanner, so it's the best I could do.

When I was a kid I had a Stoneybrook map that I got from one of the fan clubs.  This one is different...there are things on here that didn't exist at that point.  It's pretty similar though, in terms of general layout, at least from what I can remember.

• I don't know if this is supposed to be to scale, but Kristy's house doesn't look that much farther from the middle school that the rest of the girls' houses are.  
• The map includes the Stoneybrook Lighthouse, which I thought first showed up in a late Claudia mystery.  But the guide was published around when Kristy's Worst Idea came out, which was much earlier than that.  So, I guess the lighthouse showed up earlier?
• It's actually a surprisingly thorough map.  I kept looking for people or locations they missed, but everyone/thing I thought of shows up. They even have that racist family and the place where Karen got her hair cut in a little sister book.  
• From what I can tell, the only person who's house isn't shown is Robert.  Since the guide also lists him as Stacey's current boyfriend, that seems like a pretty big oversight.
• There's also no doctor's office listed.  I know they reference going to the doctor in the book, but I can't remember a specific name.  It's possible they were in different towns, but since the hospital is right in downtown Stoneybrook, I would think a doctor's office would be.
• Zingy's shows up, but that was always a store they talked about at the mall, not downtown Stoneybrook.  However, the part of the guide that talks about Washington Mall is missing Zingy's, so it it's a mistake, at least they're consistent.
• I wish they showed where the Barretts lived before Mrs. Barrett got remarried.
• If this was a better map they'd have the key arranged in alphabetical order.
• There's a Stoneybrook Community Center listed as well as a Stoneybrook Civics Center.  Aren't those usually the same thing?
• The guide itself is actually surprisingly inclusive and thorough.