I've been sick with the Pike Plague...did you miss me?!
Sadly, this little doozy
is not part of my collection. I haven't been able to find any Stacey (or Abby)
books at thrift stores, except the two I've already blogged. I went to the
library and told myself I'd read the first Stacey book I saw. I've read this probably
only twice before, so I'm looking forward to rereading and blogging it.
Next week's book is also
sitting on my shelf: #121 Abby in Wonderland. It's the only Abby my local
branch stocked. I hope to be able to blog the "original" seven BSC
members pretty evenly and not play favorites, but there's only a few Abby books
so I'm going to spread them out a lot farther. You'll get to hear my opinion of
Abby next week though.
The plot of this book is
fairly obvious from the title, and it removes ANY dramatic tension the story
might have had. Stacey's parents announce their divorce, and tell Stacey to
choose where to live. Obviously, she chooses to come back to Stoneybrook, or
this very imaginative title would make no sense.
There's no B-plot in
this one. Stacey's the only one really doing any babysitting, too.
Interesting Tidbits
The cover. It's one of
the ones that they re-did when they put the pictures down the side. I seem to
remember there being a banner on the house though. Maybe I'm confusing it with
#13? But I do know that if they updated it, they didn't change Stacey's clothes
or the awesome 80s station wagon. Stacey is also quite possibly the only one on
the cover who doesn't have permed hair. At least, MA and Kristy look mighty
permed (and you can only tell them apart because Kristy is wearing a turtleneck
and jeans and MA is wearing leggings.)
Off topic, sorta. I
dropped the book down the back of the couch while typing the last bit and spent
30 minutes getting it back, before I even got to start the book.
The book is dedicated to
Courtenay Robinson Martin. Isn't Courtenay the name of the little sister who
gets kidnapped in Missing Since Monday? I used to have a copy of that one and
remember two things about it. 1. Gabbie and Myriah Perkins are also it in it
and 2. Even at age 10 I thought the spelling Courtenay looked silly.
Tidbit #4 and I still
haven't started the book.
Stacey keeps saying how
much she "hearts" things. As in, there's a little heart in every
sentence. She <3 New York, shopping, museums, and even tourists.
Stacey has to point out
that the Walkers (a family she babysits for) and Jessi are black, but she just
thinks of them as people, not black people. If that's the case, then why even
bring it up?
I love when the books
try to bring up real amounts of money, and real stores. Stacey's dad is home
early from work and before she even goes inside, Stacey can hear them arguing.
Seems mom spent $490 at Altmans (is that, or was that, a real jewelry store?)
and $1568 at Tiffany's. Yikes. Even these days, the latter is a lot of money.
Isn't it nice of Laine's
parents to let Stacey dial long distance from their house? (Laine never asks
for permission or anything.) Although, Stacey does later promise to pay her
back.
I was at American Girl
Place this week for my niece's birthday, and Tessie and I started laughing at
the Bitty Baby dolls. In order to have one for everyone, they have an African
American baby, a Latina baby, an Asian baby, etc. I pointed out that one of
them had "exotic, almond shaped eyes" so we started calling it
Claudia. (The black baby was Jessi; the redhead Mallory, etc.) I get that they
want to point out what Claudia looks like, just like the other girls. But if
they point out she's Asian, or Japanese, do they really need to point out that
her eyes are almond shaped? Even an 8 year old knows that with it being pounded
into her head.
When Stacey is talking
about Jessi in chapter two, it's strange. I *think* they've only met maybe
twice. Once was definitely during #24, when Stacey comes back to town for the
Mother's Day event. They also show all the BSC members (except Logan) together
on the cover of SS #2, but I don't remember that actually happening. All the 13
year olds got to go to the CIT dance and stuff, but Mal and Jessi weren't invited
to that. They also didn't come to NYC during #18 as the older girls did.
Claudia misspellings:
exited (excited, twice), babysiting, expuryence, bisness (I still don't know
why business isn't spelled that way), waht, frist (first), barnch (branch), probelms,
tryed. She also says no instead of know and hop instead of hope. And, here's
the kicker: she spells both Stacey (Stacy) and Kristy (Krity) wrong.
When Stacey's parents
tell her they're getting divorced, they tell her not to be difficult about
things. But I honestly think she took it pretty well. She asked what the
troubles were and when she didn't like the answers, she slammed her door and
turned her music up loud. It's not like she started cursing and telling her
parents she hated them or anything.
After about 24 hours of
being ignored, Stacey's parents shut her bedroom door and tape a note to it
saying, "Do not enter. Go back to the living room and talk to your
parents." And it works!
Who thinks it's a good
idea to leave custody of a thirteen year old entirely up to the child? I still
think it's nutty that Dawn's parents let Jeff and Dawn break their custody
arrangement and move back to California. That's just opening the kid up to all
kinds of issues, especially given the kind of games Stacey's parents play with
her later in the series.
I just love when the BSC
throws in sitting or safety tips. Stacey has the Walker kids do a table setting
race, but she says you can only do that with plastic utensils and paper plates
so you don't break anything.
Stacey reads The
Snowy Day, The Owl and the Pussycat, and Angus and the Ducks
with the Walkers.
When Stacey starts
weighing Stoneybrook v. New York, she compares how "cool" she is in
each place. Then she weighs her friends in Stoneybrook against the shopping in
New York.
Stacey hopes to get her
parents back together, so among other things, she steals official school paper
and writes notes to each of her parents, signing them from her school
counselor. Her goal is to have the two of them "meet the counselor"
at a romantic restaurant and have dinner together. She's surprised when her
parents don't fall for it.
The first house Stacey
and her mom look at is dated and tiny, with a crumbling front walk and three
rooms painted purple inside, including the ceiling. Stacey's mom says they're
on a budget, which makes sense. But the house on the cover does not look like
something her mom could afford; it looks more like Watson's mansion.
The house Stacey's mom
eventually buys is behind the Pikes and used to house the neighbors on whom the
Pikes liked to spy. It's bigger than the other houses but has a few problems
and "1000 year old" appliances. It's also old, which I guess is
supposed to set up the next book, with Mallory and the trunk from Stacey's
attic.
Heh. Claudia and the
other girls can recognize Kristy by the way she "thunders" up the
stairs.
Double heh. Kristy's
telling the story of dinner at the Rodowskys'. Dawn keeps interrupting her to
correct her grammar. I can't tell if it's Dawn messing with Kristy or making a
joke. Kristy says Jackie "squirted his hot dog across the kitchen the
second he bit into it." and Dawn says, "He bit into the
kitchen?"
There's something wrong
with this phrase: "He'd like her for his girlfriend." It
sounds...dirty.
When has Claudia ever
heard of Nepal?
Ahhh. When Stacey's dad
finds an apartment on the East Side, she says she's never lived on the East
Side before. And all the stuff I mentioned before happens. Mom gets upsets
because she thinks Stacey decided to live with Dad; Dad starts trying to bribe
Stacey to live with him. And then Stacey tells her parents she hates them.
Ummm. The Walkers told
their children, Henry and Grace, that Stacey was moving away and couldn't
babysit for them anymore. When Henry asks WHY, Stacey takes it upon herself to
explain divorce to him. It doesn't seem quite appropriate.
I love the picture books
mentioned in these books, because they're all ones I remember from my
childhood. Stacey reads Millions of Cats and Outside Over There
with the Walkers.
Correction to my first
tidbit. When the McGills arrived at their new home, there was a banner, held up
by some of the random kids who showed up to welcome Stacey back to town. But
I'm pretty sure they didn't redo the cover picture after all. After all, why
would they take out a banner and still leave Claudia looking like ass? I mean,
she looks like an eight year old Latina girl wearing leg warmers. Although, her
outfit is almost exactly as it is described in the book (see below).
Mrs. McGill kisses
Claudia. I find it a little disturbing, even though it was on the top of her
head, and it was to thank Claudia for saying something sweet. She also calls
Claud "sensible" which Claudia thinks is nice. This is obviously
before the island super special, where she reveals she actually is quite
sensible and smart.
I think it's funny that
Stacey's room is done up in blue and white. Later on, they make such a big deal
about how Stacey is always wearing black and that's part of what makes her
"sophisticated." Blue and white just doesn't seem to jibe with that.
When they redid the
covers, they added malarkey "letters to the reader" in the back of
the books, explaining where the plot idea came from. This one says that AMM
decided that Stacey was just too important a character to have floating off in
NYC.
Outfits
Laine: stretchy black
cotton pants suit, with cuffed legs and a cropped top, leopard skin leotard,
blue and green dangly earrings and bangles
Stacey: short red pants,
purple suspenders, black and yellow sweatshirt, purple pushdown docks, red high
tops, fruit necklace, sun glass earrings, red headband (she calls this one of
her better outfits. You could be arrested for wearing those clothes together in
most states.)
Claudia: black and white
sweater, black leggings, black and pink socks, headband with rose on it, beaded
necklace, earrings with tons of charms on them
Kristy: jeans, sneakers,
turtleneck
Mary Anne: flared green
dress
Dawn: jeans with zippers
(I guess she's not wearing a top.)
Mallory: pink leggings,
short skirt, sequined sweatshirt
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