Review: "Stacey's Mistake: The Baby-Sitters Club #18"

Stacey's Mistake: The Baby-Sitters Club #18 by Ann M Martin
2 out of 5 stars

This is the first "Stacey in New York" book...and hopefully the last, according to my younger self, since I was already counting down to when she came back to Stoneybrook (10 more books). Stacey turns into a mega-snob when she's in New York; even more than normal. And when the other BSC members come visit her (minus Mallory & Jessi, cause they're not important) she turns into this uber-snob-o-maniac. Yeah.

The whole reason the girls are coming to visit is because there's a schizophrenic homeless lady named Judy living outside Stacey's building and her parents and all the other rich parents want to do something about this little problem. No really. That's the reason. After the first few pages, Judy's story kind of disappears (probably ranting on some other street corner now) and the partying and baby-sitting kick in. Stacey was asked to baby-sit 10 kids for an afternoon so the parents can discuss "the problem", and since she's not a super-sitter like Kristy with her 50bajillion brothers and sisters, she asks the BSC-ers to come stay the weekend and help her out. This would all be hunky dory dairy (one of my favorite books btw!) if the other BSC-ers weren't such embarrassing small town hicks.

Mary Anne is a walking guidebook...I'd love to see Central Park. It's eight hundred and forty-three acres of fun. Or maybe we could go to South Street Seaport, located in the Wall Street area of lower Manhattan and featuring nineteenth-century buildings, three piers, and a maritime museum. She looked quite proud of herself. She shouldn't be.

Kristy is almost as bad with her big mouth and the "fill-it mig-nun" incident at the Hard Rock. I've been to the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. It's super awesome. :)

Then there's Dawn...Miss Super Cool, Laid Back, Nothing Bothers Me Because I'm Probably Smoking Pot...who turns into a scared, freaked out mess in New York. She's scared of rats. (who isn't? But just trap them under a bucket with the laundry soap on top til your dad gets home and you're good to go. Not that I would know.) She's scared of the homeless lady digging the burger out of the trash and the cockroaches and possibly getting mugged and...oh, I don't even know what else.

Claudia brings a huge trunk of clothes with her, of course, which makes Stacey go "Oh Em Gee Claudia! How embarrassing!" And she gets in a little tiff with Laine, Stacey's tres cool NY BFF. Laine was beyond chic. She had chosen a short black dress, black stockings, and simple black flats. On one wrist was a single silver bangle bracelet. On her dress was one of those silver squiggle pins. Her fluffy brown hair was newly permed and perfectly cut. She looked wonderful-at least nineteen. All the better to pick up creep-o older guys at the bar.

In the end, the BSC-ers are still BFF-ers, Stacey gets over her prejudices against hicks and "the problem" is "taken care of". Whatever that means. Laine learns to tolerate the goody-goodies and they in turn worship her, mostly because she takes them to a play in a limo (that's short for limousine you know).