Stacey's Emergency (RS#43)

Original Publication Date: 1991

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

Finally, all the foreshadowing (since book 30) about Stacey's not feeling well comes to fruition. Stacey's been intensely hungry and thirsty, and sneaking candy. It all comes to a head when she's visiting her father in New York and she ends up admitted to the hospital for two weeks. Of course, everyone's worried: Charlotte Johanssen becomes a hypochondriac, Laine visits almost every day, Stacey's mom comes to stay with Laine's family for the duration of Stacey's hospital stay, the older BSC members make a trip to New York to visit, the people back in Stoneybrook send cards, and so on.

To make matters worse, her parents have been using her as a go-between, rather than talking to each other like civilized human beings. Yes, they're divorced, but they should try harder to be polite to each other for their daughter's sake. They can't even hide their anger for each other while she's in the hospital. Stacey eventually has enough of this, and yells at them for their behavior. After she apologizes for the way she talked to them but not for what she needed to tell them, they agree to try to not put her in the middle. We'll see how well that goes.


Established or continued in this book:


The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: root beer barrels and M&Ms in her desk, Ring Dings in her dresser

Okay, I don't usually read too much into these books as far as sexuality goes, but even I had to raise my eyebrow at Stacey's description of her and Claudia: "[We] are pretty interested in boys (I've even been described as "boy-crazy"), and we like action!"

According to Stacey, Claudia has low self-esteem. It's nice of Stacey to be concerned about her friend.

Logan has continued to be an alternate sitter despite Mary Anne breaking it off with him.

Stacey's still taking French (though not doing well in it).

Stacey and Laine get along so well here. It's too bad that won't last.

Mary Anne still does catch-and-release with spiders.

Jessi mailed Stacey a letter. She's a self-described terrible letter-writer, so she must be working to change that.


Their Families:

Stacey's parents must have had a really bad divorce. Not only can they hardly stand to be in the same room as each other, they check up on each other through Stacey and can't talk civilly on the phone.


The Club: nothing new


SMS:

SMS has either a student store or a vending machine; Stacey was able to buy a chocolate bar there. It also has at least two stories.

Cokie Mason got a nose job. The BSC has a good laugh about that, but when the Pikes won't let Mallory get one, they're too strict.

8th grade student: Ross Brown


PSA time: nothing new


Misc:

Stacey briefly wonders about people dealing with more severe cases of diabetes before insulin injection was possible. Laura, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls all died due to complications from diabetes. Probably a good thing they only got candy at Christmas.

Stacey's right about not having privacy in the hospital. Even though I was healthy after my daughter was born, every time I fell asleep someone would come in to check my temperature or her hearing or to tell me I had a visitor. (By the way, please check with a nurse or someone before visiting a patient in the hospital, regardless of the reason for being admitted. It's just polite, like calling before visiting someone at home.)


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 3

Halloweens in 8th grade: 2 (plus one in seventh)

Valentine's Days in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 2

BSC Fights: 5

SMS Staff: 17

Students (other than the BSC): 58; 35 8th graders, nine sixth-graders, nine unspecified

Clients: 24

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 47 (bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, candy hearts, Cheese Doodles, Cheetos, a chocolate bar, chocolate-covered cherries, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers (unspecified and whole wheat), cupcakes, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, Fig Newtons, Fritos, gumdrops, Gummi Bears, Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, marshmallows, Mentos, mini candy bars, Necco wafers, Oreos (Double Stuf), Planter's Peanut bar, popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, pretzel sticks, red hots, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, taco chips, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Twinkies)

Crushes: Claudia-7 (Guy, Terry, Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Woody Jefferson, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-3 (Travis, Lewis Bruno, Parker Harris), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-7 (Toby, Kelsey Bauman, Pete Black, Ross Brown, Pierre D'Amboise, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor), Mallory-1 (Ben Hobart)