#18 - Stacey's Mistake

Timeline: After Halloween, but before Thanksgiving during their 8th grade year.

Plot: Stacey has been living in New York for awhile now and hasn't seen her friends yet. Her parents, along with all the parents in the building, are having a big meeting to solve the problem of homelessness in their neighborhood, and all those parents need baby-sitters. Stacey invites all her friends up for the weekend so they can take care of all the kids.

However, her friends are disasters. MaryAnne is an expert on New York and can't stop quoting facts and figures to everyone she sees. Dawn is terrified of the city and acts like a moron. Claudia is jealous of Stacey's New York best friend, Laine, and picks fights with her. Kristy isn't really any different than she normally is, but she gets on Stacey's nerves too. Everything comes to a head after a party that Stacey throws at her apartment so that her New York friends can get to know her Connecticut friends, and it's a fucking nightmare.

After that, Stacey calls a truce because they all have to babysit the next day. They take ten kids to a museum and to Central Park, and by the end of the day they are all best friends again. Then Laine calls and wants to make up, so she takes them all to dinner and a broadway play in a limo.

Then the next day the girls leave.

Takeaways: 
Claudia takes a huge suitcase with her and everyone is all annoyed. But Stacey takes it a step further and freaks out because it has wheels. What the fuck, Stacey, Most suitcases have wheels, you mutt.

Stacey is a pretty huge bitch to her friends during the beginning of this book. She just gets super annoyed with them and thinks they are so immature. I wish this didn't make me hate Stacey this much. Like - when Laine comes to her apartment, she gets rammy and weird because Laine is dressed so grown up and looks at least 19. Claudia looks cool, but not grown up and could only pass for 15. Seriously. They are 13. They should look 13.

During the morning, Stacey is laying in bed thinking about how all of her friends are annoying and have problems, but none of them are HER problems so they all need to just deal with it. Why did AMM write her to be such a bitch?

Then, during the day, Stacey acts excited about seeing something and Claudia is like "wow, it's nice to see you actually get excited about something" and that's the first inkling Stacey has that maybe her friends are annoyed with her, too.

Best character:
I am going to give this award to the McGill's because they let four girls take over their apartment, allow Stacey to throw a party, and deal with their squabbling all weekend long. They just keep disappearing together (to go out to breakfast, to go on a walk), which is weird since (spoiler alert) they are divorced in ten books.

Worst character:
You probably think I'm going to give this one to Stacey....and you are right.

#17 - MaryAnne's Bad Luck Mystery

Timeline: 
Finally, folks, we have a timeline! This book takes place at Halloween time of their 8th grade year.

Plot:
MaryAnne's life is going along pretty awesomely. She is the only one of her friends with a boyfriend, and he's, like, the hottest guy in 8th grade (these two mean girls, Cokie and Grace especially think he's the hottest guy in 8th grade and they spend a lot of time staring at him and giving MA dirty looks). She has awesome friends, She has a kitten and her dad is pretty cool lately. But then she gets a chain letter in the mail, which she ignores. And then all hell breaks loose.

She soon gets a package in the mail with a "bad luck charm" in it and a note telling her she has to wear it or else. So she does and bad luck is bestowed upon all the sitters. Kids start getting hurt during babysitting jobs, they lose stuff, they fall out of their beds. I mean, we are talking about really bad stuff here.

MaryAnne and Logan go to the Halloween Hop dressed as cats, and while they are there Mean Girl Grace notices the bad luck charm and comments on it. When MA gets home there is another, more deadly, note. It tells her to go to the cemetery at midnight on Halloween and go to Old Hickory's grave with the BSC club. MaryAnne freaks out, calls everyone and they develop a plan to have Charlie pick everyone up, they will go to the cemetery, and then they will have a slumber party at Kristy's.

However, the next morning MA's dad tells her that the charm on her necklace does not mean bad luck, but a symbol of faith. So MA is all "how did Grace know it was bad luck when no one told her that's what we thought it meant?" and then she pieces it all together and the BSC put together a plan to scare the crap out of the mean girls in the cemetery at midnight. Which they do, and then they have a slumber party.

Takeaways:
I guess in middle school some of the things that happen to the girls would seem detrimental, but wow, as an adult they seem stupid. MA falls out of bed, Kristy loses her watch, Mallory has to get braces (which she already knew....), Jessi fell during ballet, Claudia fails a spelling test (which she always does....)....they seem pretty fucking stupid.

Grace and Cokie (side note, what the hell kind of name is Cokie?) set all this up and then invite Logan to the cemetery too. Their reasoning? So Logan can see the girls all being made to look like fools so he will dump MaryAnne. Come on.

Charlie drives the girls to the cemetery and then is their get away car. I am just a little surprised he didn't have better things to do on Halloween night.

Best character:
I have to give this one to Charlie.

Worst character:
I mean, obviously Cokie and Grace are fucking bitches in this book.

#16 Jessi's Secret Language

Timeline:
Again, no mention of holidays or seasons. Maybe this segment of the blog won't be as interesting as I thought it would be.

Plot:
There are two main parts to this book - 1. Jessi gets the lead in her ballet school's show, and at first two girls are mean to her, but then they get over it because she's good and deserves it, and 2. Jessi gets a semi-permanent babysitting gig for this new family, the Braddock's, and one of the kids is profoundly deaf. Jessi learns sign language (sorry, spoiler alert, that's the "secret language") to communicate with him, and she teaches a bunch of kids in the neighborhood, so that way Matt (deaf kid) and Haley (sister) can make some friends. At the end of the book, Jessi arranges it so the other deaf kids in Matt's class can come to her ballet, and Matt's mom and Haley interpret for them. And Jessi of course is amazing in the performance.

Takeaways:
Jessi is obviously very talented, but she certainly knows it and is not shy about it. I don't know how many times in this book she mentions her long dancers legs, or how she was the youngest and most talented in her class, or how she has this natural talent and her sister has none.

This book really really really makes me want to learn sign language.

Matt says (signs) that the Patriots were going to win the Super Bowl. I realize this book was written in the early 90's, but I'm pretending it was this year and little Matt Braddock called it.

I had one moment in the book where I seriously almost started crying. Jessi goes to Matt's class to tell them they are going to the ballet. After everyone else leaves, Matt hugs her and signs to her that he loves her and she's his best grown up friend. I seriously like had to swallow hard and hold back tears.


Best character:
Well clearly I have to give this one to Jessi. Besides the fact that she does a pretty nice thing in this book, she also really doesn't mention the other sitters very much, anyway. This book was very much about Jessi.

Worst character:
I don't think there was really a worst character in this book, but I'll give this to Jenny Prezzioso (spelling, I know that's wrong) because she screams in Matt's face when she first meets him and then declares she doesn't like him because he is weird.

#15 - Little Miss Stoneybrook....and Dawn

Timeline:
Again, no real timeline. No holidays mentioned; no themed dances at school. Maybe this is how Ann kept these girls in 8th grade for over 100 books? There has to be a holiday working it's way in here sometime soon.

Plot:
Stoneybrook is hosting a Little Miss pageant, and it causes some ruffles in the BSC universe. Mrs. Pike asks Dawn to work with Margo and Claire, because she doesn't have the time I guess (? she's a stay at home mom for christssake). Dawn agrees, and then the other babysitters start to get all weird and want to prove how great they are too. Kristy basically manipulated Karen (her step-sister) to enter, MaryAnne convinces Mariah Perkins to enter, and Claudia flat our forces Charlotte Johannsen to enter even though she is so shy and timid and it's literally the worst idea in the world.

Mallory and Jessi do not participate because they feel pageants are stupid and pointless. And they think the girls are going to lose their minds, which they were pretty much spot on.

The babysitters work with their girls, and then on pageant day the only one who wins anything is Mariah, who wins a shopping spree at a toy store. The first place winner is a snotty little bitch named Sabrina.

Takeaways:
First runner up (Mariah) wins a toy store shopping spree. First place (Sabrina bitch) wins like a savings bond or some bullshit. What prize is better for a girl, ages 5-8?

It's so weird that this pageant was like, just for girls 5-8. It seems to me they would do a bigger event with actual age brackets to include more girls.

The baby-sitters get all weird and competitive while helping their girls, like Claudia and Charlotte sneak over to the Pike's to watch Dawn with Claire and Margo. It was rude and weird. And Dawn called her out on it, which was weird. The way these girls talk to each other sometimes is so bizarre. It's like they are best friends, but really they hate each other.

Best character:
I'm going to go with Dawn in this book. She is the only one who gets asked to help get girls ready for the pageant, the other three manipulate someone into participating. Also, Margo and Claire's talents are fucking ridiculous. Margo peels a banana with her feet, then recites a poem while eating it. Claire sings "I'm Popeye the sailor man" and dances. But Dawn is just like hey, whatever, it's your show, and just helps them be the best they can be.

Worst character:
Claudia is definitely the worst in this book. Charlotte really misses Stacey, so she has been asking for Claudia to baby-sit for her, I guess to feel closer to Stacey since they were best friends. So Charlotte, like, trust Claudia and wants her to be the new favorite baby-sitter, and Claudia completely takes the new relationship and destroys it by making Charlotte participate in the pageant. Like, during the talent part, Charlotte just walks on stage, looks at the crowd, freezes and fucking bolts. Not cool, Claudia. You should feel bad about yourself.