Thoughts before reading:
It'll be interesting to see Maureen start dating again, since her ex long since has. There actually haven't been many plots with divorced parents dating. Most of them just met someone else pretty quickly, behind the scenes.
The basics:
Stacey's concerned that her mom must be lonely, because she hasn't made any new friends or gone on a single date since the divorce. So when a new client calls the BSC on Mrs. Pike's recommendation, Mr. Brooke, and Stacey gets the job, it seems meant to be to her. Mr. Brooke is divorced, and his ex-wife is a tv talk show host who lives in Atlanta. Their two kids live with him: nine year old Joni, and five year old Ewan. He's home during the sitting jobs working, because he writes detective novels for a living.
Her first job sitting for the Brookes, Maureen comes to pick Stacey up (parenting!) and she gets to chatting with Mr. B. It turns out that she's read his books and is a big fan. Stacey watches them talk, definitely getting the vibe that her mom is interested. She's right: on her next job there, Maureen insists on driving her over. She then sticks around and talks to Mr. B outside for awhile. Stacey's thrilled, but Joni and Ewan are not happy. After witnessing this, Joni's more aloof with Stacey as well.
When Maureen comes back to pick Stacey up, she ends up having tea with Mr. B. Stacey makes herself scarce, but she does hear him ask her mom out to the theater.
Once Joni and Ewan find out about the date, they're seriously upset. Joni doesn't even like Kristy when she babysits, just because she's friends with Stacey. Stacey's sympathetic though, recalling how she felt when her dad started seeing Samantha. (A pretty mature reaction for 13.)
The night of the big date, Stacey waits up for her mom, who doesn't get home until 12;20 AM. She reports that she had a great time, and they're going out again in a few days, this time to a movie. During that date, Stacey sits for the kids, but they ice her out and won't even speak to her. The adults have a good time at least, and plan another date. Mal also tells Stacey that their moms discussed him, and Mrs. Pike said his wife left him because she thought being a mother and wife stood in the way of her career.
Stacey finally tells Mr. B how upset his kids have been with her, and why. He tells her that he got custody of them because their mom didn't want the responsibility of it, and maybe it's time for him to gently explain some of this to Joni. In the meantime, Stacey keeps taking all the Brookes jobs to try and work things out with the kids, but they keep giving her the cold shoulder.
Maureen and Mr. B keep dating, however. Stacey asks her mom about how things are going, and is disappointed when she's not as enthusiastic as he's been. After some prodding, Maureen explains that she's been disturbed by his worldview that people are basically selfish and always motivated by what's best for them. (It's a pretty big overreaction to be disturbed by this and find it distasteful... it's just his opinion. I for one think it's 100% true. I never knew Maureen was such an idealist.)
The adults decide everyone should go out to dinner together to get to know each other better. Joni's not thrilled, of course, and acts up the whole time. She's really rude, and ends up leaving the table. Her dad doesn't go after her, which Maureen clearly disapproves of.
Next. Mr. B invites Stacey and Maureen over for thanksgiving. Maureen's hesitant, but agrees after a push from Stacey. The event starts off well, with Stacey working hard to keep the kids occupied. At dinnertime though, Joni starts complaining about the music and the food. Her dad yells at her, and she runs out. Stacey goes after her and calms her down.
After the Brookes leave, Maureen complains that he's too impatient and tough on Joni. (Wtf? He's actually really not tough enough on her at all.) She also tells Stacey she won't be seeing him again, because there's too many things about him that bother her. Stacey's upset and doesn't understand, until Ethan tells her she has to back her mom up.
Maureen does end up breaking things off with Mr. B. Joni blames herself, but Stacey assures her that it's not her fault.
Side plot: Dawn has started a movie club in CA (watch a movie together, then discuss it), and now Mary Anne wants to start one too. Kristy wants to do a book club instead, like Stacey and her mom have started doing. Kristy wins, of course, and at Abby's suggestion they start with Jacob I Have Loved.
Timeline:
It's November.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Suzanne Weyn.
*Stacey and her mom are reading Pride and Prejudice together, which I found really cute. I love the mother-daughter reading group idea, and the relationship between these two.
*Stacey's mom mentions that she's spent her whole life in NYC, so she must have grown up there too.
*When Ed and Maureen met, he was a public defender. It was only when he became a corporate lawyer that she started to resent all the time he was spending at work.
*Andrew's 4 again in this book.
*Kristy didn't want Claudia to answer the phone because someone called a few minutes before the meeting? That doesn't sound like her at all... she's all about the business side of things, and that's a potential job lost.
*Mallory's teachers are concerned that she's developed a negative attitude towards school. Isn't that a fitting description for most kids this age?
*I think this book, almost 200 books in, marks the first time a BSC member has gotten rides to and from a job from a parent!
*Since when can Kristy babysit until twelve thirty at night?! I remember back when the BSC members had rules from their parents that they had to follow, and it was a big deal to be able to sit until ten o'clock at night...
*Alan Gray knocks Mal's books out of her arms, then yells that "spaz girl's on the warpath". Stacey runs over and chews him out. Mal tells Stacey that something like this happens to her every day, and she's already talked to her parents about switching schools. Later she announces to the rest of the BSC that she and her parents are going to Massachusetts to look at a boarding school. Everyone's upset, especially Jessi.
*Mr. Brooke says Maureen is luminous at one point, haha.
*I like Maureen, but I think she's awfully judgmental in here about things she doesn't know a whole lot about. You don't have to agree with someone's views and opinions to care about them, and his parenting techniques are his choice. How would she feel if he came along and started questioning the way she's raising Stacey?
*Joni might be the biggest brat in the whole series. During a single sitting job, she blares music, locks her dad out of his office, steals his computer mouse, throws it up a tree, runs away down the street, locks Abby and Ewan out of the house, and deletes a chapter of the book her dad's writing. For all this, she gets... grounded. I would've gotten my ass kicked... this little brat has no idea what a real hard life is. Also, this makes it comical when Maureen later says Mr. Brooke is too hard on Joni. Even Stacey (rightly!) says he would be a bad father if he let her get away with acting that way.
*Mallory's always wanted to take riding lessons again? That's news to me.
*After visiting the boarding school, Mal thinks it and the area are beautiful, and is excited that there are stables on the grounds.
*OK, so I get why Mal's so upset, and I don't even think she's overreacting. Being bullied is horrible, especially at her age. But in reality, no bullied kids are going to be able to run away and start over at a fancy boarding school, so this does nothing to help readers who may feel the way Mal does. It would probably just make them feel worse. I wish instead they had done something to show kids there's hope, or how they can cope.
*Joni likes Hanson, haha. Anyone else remember them?
Books mentioned:
*Jacob I Have Loved, by Katherine Paterson
*The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
*Bride to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
*The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynn Reid Banks
*The Wrong-Way Rabbit, by Teddy Slater
My rating:
2.5 stars. The story got old pretty quickly, and Joni was so annoying to read about that it was hard to enjoy this book.
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