Stacey's Mistake (RS#18)

Original Publication Date: 1988

Ghostwriter? No

Synopsis:

The adults in Stacey's apartment building are meeting to discuss how to help the homeless in their neighborhood. That means the BSC is coming to New York to help Stacey watch ten kids (Mallory, Jessi, Logan, and Shannon stay behind). Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn succeed in embarrassing Stacey by talking too much, being jealous of Laine, acting like a guidebook, and being terrified of everything that moves plus some stuff that doesn't respectively. Stacey plans a party with her New York friends, which doesn't go well at all. The BSC manages to pull together to have a good time with the kids at the American History Museum and Central Park. That evening, Laine scores the BSC and her tickets to a Broadway show. All is well.


Established or continued in this book:


The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: Sadly, none.

How on Earth can this be Dawn's first trip ever, if it's supposed to be her first without her parents (the sentence is unclear)? Are we to believe her mom or dad accompanied her and Jeff when they visited him last summer?

Stacey has stopped getting her hair permed.

Kristy is hilarious in this one. "Then, someone fell down an open manhole and was attacked by alligators..." "There ARE alligators in the sewers. And pickpockets--" "In the sewers?"

While most of Dawn's fears are overreactions, her having a problem with elevators makes sense: her mom got trapped in one with Sunny's mom (but we don't know that until reading her Portrait Collection book).

Stacey's parents went to church. I'm surprised to see religion mentioned. Though, it is Easter (as I write this).


Their Families:

Stacey claims to not know about Jeff's moving back to CA, but in the Chapter 2 rundown she mentioned it.


The Club:

I kind of like that Stacey doesn't tell the BSC origin story exactly right, because she would have heard it second- or third-hand.


SMS: In New York!


PSA time:

You had to, didn't you, Stacey? Not only did you fail to capitalize the dinosaur names (they're the proper Latin names), you had to call it Brontosaurus. It was a Camarasaurus skull on an Apatosaurus body, and it's been fixed for decades. If you really like the name "Brontosaurus" go look up Eobrontosaurus. I also submit that the most interesting fossil in that museum is the REAL skeleton of a Deinonychus, the 1954 discovery of which started people thinking that dinosaurs could have active creatures and possibly warm-blooded. Think Jurassic Park's raptors. While I love that movie and book (watched it today, in fact), if you really want to hear me go off on dinosaur stuff, ask me about the accuracy there.


Misc:

Ugh, cockroaches. Here's another reason to live in the Pacific Northwest: cockroaches stick to forests here. Annoying invertebrates are basically limited to mosquitoes, slugs, bees if you're allergic, and (if you like to go in basements), yes, the occasional brown recluse. There is also a toxic octopus, but people don't come into contact with it that often.

Wow, Stacey. Having allergies (especially something as pervasive as wheat) is not the same as being picky. I know because I AM picky; no allergies for me!

Stacey spells the plural of "hero" (sandwich) two different ways: heros on page 57 and heroes on page 63. Spellcheck says the latter is correct.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 1

Halloweens in 8th grade: 1

BSC Fights: 4

SMS Staff: 13 (2 6th grade, 3 7th grade, 4 8th grade, 2 elective, 1 vice-principal, 1 secretary)

Students: thirty 8th graders, six sixth-graders

Clients: 17

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 28 (bubble gum, butterscotch candy, a chocolate bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers, cupcakes, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, gumdrops, Gummi Bears, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, peanut M&Ms, regular M&Ms, marshmallows, Oreos (Double Stuf), pretzels, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, Tootsie Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Twinkies)

Crushes: Claudia-3 (Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Trevor Sandbourne), Dawn-1 (Parker Harris), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-4 (Toby, Pete Black, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas)