I know this picture is terrible, but it's the best one I could find of the original cover.
Thoughts before reading:
I've read this one before and definitely liked it. I always liked the books where Stacey was living in New York because they were so few and therefore very different. After reading the back of the book though, I'm not expecting to like it this time around. It seems like Stacey is going to be her worst self in here: really snobby about NYC and how sophisticated she is. That either never bothered me growing up or I never noticed, but now I'm already so sick of hearing about how much more mature she is than everyone else.
The basics:
The adults in Stacey's apartment building are having a big meeting to discuss the homeless problem in the city. Several of them want Stacey to sit during the meeting, which gives her the idea to invite the BSC up to help. There will be ten kids, so it's similar to the job they did before Kristy's mom got married, plus it's a long weekend from school. Her parents agree to host everyone, and Stacey eagerly starts counting down.
Unfortunately the trip gets off to a bad start when the BSC girls get lost at the station. Stacey's even embarrassed to be seen with them because they are acting like tourists (even though that's exactly what they are...). Claudia brought a huge suitcase with her, Mary Anne keeps quoting guide books, Dawn's terrified of everything, and Kristy is just loud.
Stacey takes the girls to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, where she gets embarrassed by how excited they are, and Kristy ordering wrong. Afterwards they head to Bloomingdale's, and Mary Anne pockets what she thought was a makeup sample. Security comes up to reprimand them, so Stacey is now mortified.
That night Stacey throws a party for her Stoneybrook friends to meet her New York friends. Of course, it's a complete disaster. Claudia and Laine are jealous of each other for each being her best friend. Mary Anne tries to impress the NYC kids by making fun of Dawn (really out of character). Kristy dances with a boy, and Claudia cuts in, leading them to bickering all night. Everyone else just hides in the corner. By the end of the night, everyone is fighting and ends up going to bed early.
The big babysitting job is the next day, and once the BSC gets down to business, things start to improve. They take the kids to the Museum of Natural History. A child is briefly lost inside, but Mary Anne takes charge and organizes a search, quickly finding him. After the museum, they take the kids to Central Park. Everyone is in awe but Stacey, and Claudia comments about how she acts like she's already seen everything in the city, so nothing impresses her anymore.
Claudia's remark gets Stacey thinking, and she realizes she's become a snob about New York: she's lived in the city almost her whole life, so she takes everything for granted. This helps her realize her friends probably find her as frustrating as she finds them, and she relaxes. Everyone starts exploring, playing, and actually having fun.
The sitting job ends on a good note, and everyone's spirits are lifted. Shortly after they get back to Stacey's apartment, Laine calls and offers them tickets for a Broadway show that night. Her dad's a producer and gets them for free, and they even have a limo. Everyone is ecstatic, and the night ends up being a lot of fun. Claudia and Laine even make up and agree to start over. There's apologies all around, and the girls stay up late talking and catching up.
Timeline:
The whole book is only a few days over a long weekend, with no indication of the time of year. I'm guessing it's still supposed to be fall, because Central Park is green and free of snow.
My thoughts:
I had really mixed feelings about this one. I guess since everyone learns something in the end, especially Stacey, it's a good lesson in empathy and tolerance for kids. It's annoying to read about though, because I'm getting really tired of the contrived dramas for the girls to fight about.
To start with, Stacey hasn't seen her friends in months, but immediately after their happy reunion she's annoyed with them for getting lost in the station? Then she's deathly embarrassed because they are acting like tourists. Yet they ARE tourists, and most of them have never been to New York before. It would be weird if they weren't excited...they are just kids. Stacey was excited when she went to somewhere new, Sea City. All of her reactions to her friends come across as so harsh. Did she miss them or not? She's the one who invited them, and she didn't seem like such a snob before this book either (at least not nearly this bad).
Maybe without being aware of it, Stacey wanted the visit to go poorly. That way she wouldn't miss her Stoneybrook friends as much. It's a common defense mechanism, like telling yourself everything bad you can think of about a person you can't have in your life anymore. At least this explanation makes her come across less awful in here.
All that being said though, Stacey does make a huge turn around in here and learn a lot, which is where my mixed feelings come in. After the failed party, she starts to feel bad for her friends, which leads her to start trying to make things better instead of being so hard on everyone. After Claudia calls her out for being too jaded the next day, she realizes how she's been acting and gets a big lesson in empathy. It's good character growth, for sure.
This book also has one of the most misleading titles so far. Stacey didn't make a mistake at all. This was actually about her learning why she definitely did NOT make a mistake by inviting her friends to New York. She missed them, and she's not different from them just because she grew up elsewhere. There's no reason for them not to try and stay close.
I was also baffled by Dawn being the one who was terrified of the city. Maybe it was supposed to be funny, since she's the calm one usually, but I didn't buy it. She's actually the most worldly one, besides Stacey. As we well know, she grew up in California, which is also crowded and busy. Even though she says she lived outside Anaheim in a small suburb, surely she went there plenty of times. I know this is still a lot different than NYC, but it was still a weird plot choice that fell pretty flat. Dawn's also really judgmental about the homeless population for such a do-gooder.
Claudia is also being a huge brat, starting a big drama by making rude comments to Laine. I get that she's jealous, but she just came out swinging. Then when Kristy finally starts dancing and having fun at the party, Claudia cuts in on the guy she's been hanging out with. This was literally the first time Kristy even enjoyed talking with a guy, so it's pretty messed up of Claudia. There's literally no one to root for in this book.
Misc:
*Stacey acknowledges her privileged life in here with regard to the homeless people she encounters everyday, which was nice to see mentioned.
*At the Hard Rock, Kristy orders fill-it mig-nun, LOL
*The letters from home are another nice break from babysitting chapters
*Laine apparently reads French poetry? She's in middle school, how insanely pretentious...
*The Broadway play is Starlight Express.
*There's no scene in the book that matches the cover art. If it's supposed to be when a child was lost at the museum, the missing kid was a boy. It also wasn't his fault and no one was angry.
*I always wanted to eat lox when I was a kid because of Stacey. I thought everything she did was really cool back then.
*Stacey's parents let her basically run all around the city without any adults. They don't even go with her to pick up or drop off her friends from the station. She's still years away from the independence teenagers usually get when they learn to drive, so this is wildly unrealistic.
Books mentioned:
*Stuart Little, by E. B. White
*Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating:
3 stars, I'm still tired of the pointless conflicts.
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