#3 The Truth About Stacey

First of all, I must apologize for taking such a long break between books. September was a bit bananas for me. But I'm back at it. 

Plot

Stacey is a diabetic. There, I said it, that's the truth. She is an only child, and her parents can't have more kids, so when their only child gets diagnosed with this dangerous disease they go off the rails with their over protection. They have found a new doctor in New York who practices holistically, and they book a five day appointment with him. Stacey doesn't want to go; finds a better doctor and when they are in New York she confronts her parents and they end up working everything out. 

Also subplot A: There is a new rival club in town, The Baby-sitters Agency. They are older than the girls and their clients start to hire them. It sucks. The girls come up with all these plans to save their business, but the agency pretty much implodes on itself bc they suck at babysitting. The kids tell the BSC what sucky sitters they are, and they encourage them to tell their parents. The agency ends up shutting down. 

Subplot B: Stacey's ex New York best friend Laine quit speaking to her when Stacey got sick, and Stacey didn't ever tell her what was wrong with her before she moved to Stoneybrook. Stacey's parents told Laine's parents who told Laine, and Laine and Stacey end up making up. 

Takeaways

This book took place in mid-November through early December. 

Mrs. Newton is ready to pop the baby out, and the girls come up with several different plans for how they are going to help out when she goes into labor. This just seems so ridiculous to me. Why did the BSC think that they were going to have to save the day? Didn't they think that the Newtons had family? Or would take care of it themselves? The Newtons never asked for their help, and ended up using Kristy's mom anyway. 

Also on that topic - after the baby is born, the girls all go over with gifts and Stacey comments that Mrs. Newton still looks fat. What the actual fuck, Stacey! What a horrible thing to say. Well I mean, she doesn't say it to Mrs. Newton but still. What a bitch. 

When the rival agency opens up, the girls come up with all these plans to make themselves the better baby sitting service. One of their ideas is to do housework while they are sitting. Isn't this a thing anyway? When I was a kid, I always tried to make sure the house looked better when the parents got home than when they left. Maybe that was just something I came up with on my own? But I swear I read it in a BSC book, because basically my entire childhood was based off these books. Maybe it will come up later - I am only on book three, after all. 

Laine and Stacey become tight again at the end of this book, and Stacey says if she ever comes to Connecticut she will make her an honorary member of the club. Oh Stacey, you innocent flower. I hate to be the one to tell you that Laine becomes a giant b word soon. 

Best character 

I don't even know who to pick in this book. I'm leaning to towards Claudia because she is just kinda cool and not really worried about the rival agency throughout the book. 

Worst character

There are some shit characters in this book. Stacey's parents obviously suck, and they are so stupid about Stacey's disease. I still can't get over Stacey calling Mrs. Newton fat, so there's that. Plus Mrs. Newton and Mrs. Johansson just, like, ditch the BSC and start hiring the Agency sitters, which is a dick thing to do. Plus the agency itself, of course, are aholes. 

 

#2 Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

The second book in this series can really only be described as a real life thriller. I was happy, then mad, then scared, then frustrated, then happy. I went through a rainbow of emotions. So let's just dive into it.

Plot
The basics of this book are this: It's around Halloween time, and the girls are gearing up for the Halloween Hop, which is a dance for Stoneybrook Middle School that will take place from 4p-6p on a Friday afternoon. This reminded me of dances at Glenwood Middle School, and how, when slow dancing with my first boyfriend I told him that he couldn't dance very well and he got mad and stormed off the dance floor (gym floor). I broke up with him the next day.

Anyway -Claudia is obsessed with this quiet poet, Trevor Sandbourne. Meanwhile, Kristy is still getting super annoyed daily with Alan Gray, Stacey is still uber-obsessed with Kristy's brother Sam and MaryAnne doesn't seem to have any feelings whatsoever for the opposite sex. The girls are sitting around one day talking about boys and MaryAnne sees in the paper that a thief has been breaking into homes in the towns surrounding Stoneybrook. He (I assume it's a he, and so did they) would call the house and not respond if someone answers. I guess he would just kinda scope out the house after that, and then he would rob them while they were gone. The girls drop fucking everything right that second and have an emergency meeting of the BSC, where they come up with a battle plan in case something Phantom Phone Caller-y happens when they are babysitting. Claudia's neighbor ends up getting robbed a few weeks later, and everyone loses their fucking minds. Mary Anne even has to quit babysitting for awhile because her dad freaks out.

Kristy and Claudia start getting the phone calls when they are babysitting, and then one night everything comes crashing down when they are both babysitting at the Newtons (those bitch cousins were in town today, and this time Claudia was not letting Mrs. Newton get away with only hiring one babysitter). The culprit however, is not a Phantom Phone Caller/thief - it is ALAN GRAY, who wants to ask Kristy to the Halloween Hop. Kristy accepts, and then the next day Trevor calls Claudia and admits he was also stalking her and asks her to the dance. Stacey goes to the dance with another boy, Pete Black, and MaryAnne stays home and plays dolls. The Phantom Phone Caller gets caught, but he says he never robbed any houses in Stoneybrook so that thief is still at large. The end.

Takeaways

• Claudia sucks at school, so every single night one of her family members has to sit with her to make sure she does her homework. Claudia is 13. She seriously can't be trusted to do her homework by herself? Also, at one point Mimi is going multiplication flash cards with her, and they are, like, really elementary problems like 8X7. Don't kids learn their multiplication tables in like second grade? WTF, Claudia?
• When the girls are sitting around talking about boys, they are sitting on a blanket in Kristy's front yard. Then MaryAnne reads about the thief and Kristy calls an emergency meeting of the club. So they all get up together and move to Claudia's bedroom. Why couldn't they just hold the meeting right there? 
• Kristy baby-sits for Karen and Andrew, and that dang cat Boo-Boo gets out and ends up in Morbidda Destiny's yard again. Morbidda knocks on the door later, bitching that the cat had killed a mouse and left the remains on her porch. She actually hands Kristy a bag with the mouse's remains. Are you kidding me? I know that MD isn't actually a witch, but she is definitely a bitch. 
• When it comes out that Alan and Trevor are the culprits, both Kristy and Claudia agree to go to the dance with them anyway. Kristy spends a great majority of this book bitching about Alan, and then agrees to go to a dance with him? Hmmm. 
• MaryAnne babysits for David Michael one night, and she gets so scared that she sets up booby traps at each other the doors, Home Alone style. I LOVED this as a kid, and as an adult I admit I have set up some booby traps myself when I get scared at home alone. 
• Janine and Claudia have a bonding moment at the end of the book, where Janine admits to Claud that she hides junk food in her bedroom too. I love this. I wish Claudia and Janine had gotten along better in this series; they were both geniuses in their own special ways. 

Best character
I'm going to go with MaryAnne this time. She is badass as hell, setting up all her booby traps in the Thomas house. Also, she don't give a fuck that all her friends are going to the dance and getting all hot and bothered for seventh grade boys. She does what she wants.

Worst character
Stacey really annoyed me twice in this book. First, she calls Claudia whining that she doesn't know a lot of people yet. Um...you moved to town like two months ago and you are already in a club, have three best friends, have a date to the Halloween Hop and you have a crush on a high schooler. STOP WHINING STACEY. Second, she gets all butt hurt when Kristy is talking about Sam going on a date with some other high school freshman chick. Like, sitting there pouting butt hurt. Then Kristy like backtracks her words and is all apologetic. GIVE ME A BREAK, STACEY. He's not your boyfriend.

#1 Kristy's Great Idea

Spoiler alert: Kristy's great idea was to start The Baby-sitter's Club.

Okay, so I think the format of these book reviews will go as follows:

• A plot synopsis. I will also take note of what time of year the book takes place, because any BSC fan can attest to the fact that the typical calendar year was not followed well in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. 
• Takeaways from the book
• Best character 
• Worst character

If you have any suggestions or ideas for a different way to do this, please let me know. This blog is for you, BSC fans, so any and all ideas are welcome! 

This book was (obviously) the beginning of the series. From researching the BSC, Ann M. Martin (#legend) was given a job to write a four-book series on a group of girls who baby-sit. Thank God this thing took off, and gave us the gift that is the BSC and its many spin-offs.

                                    

Plot

The girls are just finishing seventh grade. Kristy lives with her mom and three brothers, Charlie, Sam and David-Michael. Charlie and Sam are in high school, and David Michael is only six so he needs babysitters every afternoon because Kristy's mom is some business lady with a very important job. Kristy and her older brothers take one afternoon each, and then there is a babysitter for the two other afternoons, but she seems shady as shit because during this book alone she cancels twice and Kristy's mom is searching for a sitter. 

One afternoon Kristy's mom makes a ton of phone calls to find a sitter and never does. Kristy ends up having to take DM on a sitting job with her. During all her phone calls, Kristy is sitting there feeling sorry for her mom, and for DM who was feeling like a giant pain in the ass. With a little bit of brainstorming by Kristy, the Baby-Sitters Club is born. 

Kristy asks her best friend and neighbor, MaryAnne, to be in the club with her, and then they recruit their other neighbor, Claudia. Even though Claudia is kind of outgrowing Kristy and MaryAnne (They are still young and short and immature looking, while Claudia is exotic and beautiful and likes boys now and is starting to wear a bra), she is super fucking pumped about the club and suggests they ask the new girl, Stacey, to join too. They do, and Stacey accepts, and the girls are off and running with their idea. They elect officers (Kristy as president, Claud as VP, MaryAnne as secretary and Stacey as treasurer) and start advertising. 

They all get their first sitting jobs and things are going well for what seems like about a month. Then Stacey starts acting super shady, not eating and sneaking off to New York (where she came from) all the time. Kristy confronts her and they all get into a fight, but then they make up and have a slumber party and everyone feels very warm and fuzzy.

Takeaways

The book starts off with Kristy jumping up and screaming "Yeah!" when the bell rings at the end of the school day. This pisses her teacher off, and he makes her write a 100 word essay on the meaning of having decorum. When I was younger, I thought this word was one I was going to have to remember since adults clearly used it. I have never heard it used again.

Right off the bat, I got super annoyed that Kristy was in a skirt and was carrying a purse. No, she wasn't. My girl Kristy does not wear skirts unless forced, and it is very uncharacteristic for her to be carrying a purse. Are there a lot of seventh grade girls who carry purses, anyway.

So Kristy's dad took off before the book started, and her mom has been dating a very rich man named Watson Brewer for about four months. Watson seems like a cool cat, but Kristy is having none of it. Watson brings the entire family dinner (chinese) one night, and Kristy refuses to eat it. She basically acts like a snotty little bitch, and then gets sent to her room. When she marches up the stairs, before she slams her bedroom door, she screams to Watson, "I'm sorry you're such a terrible father!"

Woah, woah, woah Kristy. There is a line, and you crossed it. As a step-daughter myself, I have never delivered a blow that low. And Watson has illustrated no qualities of a terrible father. In fact, he is dating and presumably falling in love with a woman who has the baggage of FOUR children. One of which is kind of a little bitch, and I ain't talking about David Michael.  

Kristy's first job is sitting for two giant dogs. I feel like this experience scarred her far more than it should have. 

Stacey acts incredibly weird and shady throughout the whole book, and then it turns out she has diabetes and was worried they would think she was weird. Kristy assumed she was anorexic. This book caused me to believe I was both diabetic and anorexic for some time.

Going back to Watson and Kristy's mom - so at the beginning of this book, it says they have been dating four months. I think the book takes place over the course of a month. And by the end of the book, they are engaged. Seems fast to me, but I guess when you know, you know. Also, they combine the families for dinner one night, where they have fondue. I want to have a fucking fondue party!

This book was the first mention of Mrs. Porter, aka Morbidda Destiny, who is Watson's next door neighbor and his daughter, Karen, is convinced she is a witch who put a spell on their cat BooBoo. Her younger brother Andrew just goes along with it; he seems pretty easy going. But I'm not going to lie, I agree with Karen - MD seems pretty goddamn witchy to me. 

Best character

I gotta give this one to Kristy's mom. She is a badass single mom taking care of four kids, then she nabs a millionaire. But when he proposes, she makes him wait before she will accept. Kristy acts like a little snot bag during a lot of this book, and her mom just deals with it but still lets Kristy know that she is loved (even though Kristy was acting like a giant douche).

Worst character 

Claudia's first BSC job is for Jamie Newton, but Mrs. Newton failed to tell Claudia that THREE of Jamie's cousins would be there, too. Bullshit, Mrs. Newton. You didn't want to share that information beforehand, because the kids were fucking jerks. Epic fail, Mrs. Newton.