May 3, 2012
BSC #99, Stacey’s Broken Heart: When One Door Closes, Another (Hotter) One Opens
Like Stacey would date a guy who wore those pants
Summary: The Walkers, Stacey’s favorite clients in New York, ask her to come visit for the week and look after their kids while they put together an art show. Stacey agrees but is sad to leave Robert, who’s been acting kind of funny. For example, he’ll say he’s playing basketball with his friends, then wind up doing something else. Andi, one of the bad girls, is hanging around him a lot, too. Someone sees him out with another girl and lets Stacey know, so Stacey and Claudia stalk him but don’t see anything particularly incriminating.
While Stacey’s in New York, Claudia calls to let her know that Robert’s been hanging out with Andi. Well, not just hanging out. Making out. Stacey’s surprised to find herself less upset than she’d expected. It may have something to do with Ethan, a guy who’s been working with the Walkers and hanging out with her and the kids while she babysits. Ethan and Stacey have more in common than Stacey and Robert did anyway. (Sounds like he’s hotter, too.)
When Stacey gets back to Stoneybrook, Andi’s waiting for her, wanting to tell her about the cheating. Stacey tell her she already knows, adding that Robert isn’t hers to control, so if they want to be together, they can. She then tells Robert that they’re done, obviously. He pulls that “I hope we can still be friends” crap, but fortunately, Stacey isn’t ready for that. She’s totally ready for some Ethan lovin’, though.
In other storylines, Kristy’s off to Hawaii with her family, and Abby’s the acting president. She wants to throw a big Mexican festival to benefit an orphanage, but she’s not as organized as Kristy and doesn’t do well with the budgeting aspects of the event. The other BSC girls try valiantly to help out, but things barely come together. Because, you know, Kristy is the best at everything, so don’t even pretend you’re better than her.
Thoughts: Someone majorly screwed up – in Dawn Schafer, Undercover Baby-sitter, Kristy had just left for Hawaii. At the beginning of this book, she’s about to leave. But Dawn isn’t in this book, and in the previous one, there was no mention of Stacey and Kristy being gone at the same time. So it’s like the two books are set in the same time period, but none of the events are the same.
Freaking A, this summer just WILL NOT END.
I guess unicorns, like sheep, are in, because that’s what Claudia has on her shirt.
I love this exchange:
Henry (five years old): “The Rice Krispies fell on the floor and I spilled the milk.”
Stacey: “Bummer. What did your mom do?”
Henry: “She looked up at the ceiling and said, ‘Give me strength!’ How could the ceiling give her strength?”
Grace (three years old): “Cereal is not heavy.”
Ghostwriter, it’s 1996. It’s time for Stacey to stop getting perms.
January 16, 2012
BSC #94, Stacey McGill, Super Sitter: Show Me the Money
Stacey's sweater is cute, but those shoes...ick
Summary: Stacey wants to take Robert to a Broadway play for his birthday, which means she needs to babysit as much as possible so she can buy tickets. A job comes up for a family named the Cheplins; they need a sitter every afternoon right after school until 5:30. Even though it leaves her little time for homework, her friends, her mom, Robert, and other sitting jobs, Stacey takes it.
Mrs. Cheplin is hesitant at first since Stacey’s only 13. But Stacey wins her over with the fact that she has diabetes, which Dana Cheplin has just been diagnosed with. Mrs. Cheplin gives Stacey a bunch of household work to do along with watching the kids and helping them with their homework. Though she claims she still isn’t comfortable with the arrangement, only extending the deal two weeks at a time, Mrs. Cheplin keeps giving Stacey more and more responsibilities and paying her more for them.
Stacey’s happy with the money, but soon realizes how much time and energy the job is taking. She has to miss out on plans she’s made with Robert, her friends, and her mom so she can complete homework and do other things she isn’t able to do during the week. Dana has a diabetes-related emergency one day, and though Stacey handles it very responsibly and maturely, Mrs. Cheplin is still clearly not impressed with her.
On Valentine’s Day, things really start to come apart. Stacey forgot to buy Robert anything and finally tells him why she’s been working so hard. Then, after she has a particularly hectic day at the Cheplins’ but still only gets a two-week extension of the job, Stacey tells the BSC girls about all the chaos. They note that the money she’s been making isn’t as important as everything else in her life. Stacey realizes that she’s turning into her workaholic father and tells Mrs. Cheplin she can’t keep working for her every day. Robert may not get to go to Broadway, but Stacey’s still happy.
In the B-plot, Logan wants to buy Mary Anne a ring for Valentine’s Day. He asks Stacey for help picking it out, but she’s busy (of course), so she suggests that he ask Kristy instead. Charlotte and Becca spot Logan and Kristy ring-shopping together, and when they see him put the ring on her finger, they think Logan’s a two-timer and Kristy’s a home-wrecker. They spread the news to a bunch of other kids, and suddenly Kristy starts getting hate mail from eight-year-olds. She has no idea why kids are mad at her; her only idea is that some of the Bashers are mad at the Krushers.
When the news comes out and Logan tells the kids what was really going on, his sister Kerry admits that she canceled his and Mary Anne’s Valentine’s Day reservations (thinking he was going to take Kristy out instead). To make things up to them, the kids make them dinner, which is actually really sweet.
Thoughts: Kristy actually wants Stacey to turn down the job at the Cheplins’ because she won’t be free for other jobs. So she wants Stacey to say she can’t sit so she can…sit. Kristy, you’re a horrible businesswoman. I get her not wanting Stacey to sit every day, but can’t the girls split up the job? Turning it down completely would be a huge loss.
…Although Mrs. Cheplin is a huge bitca. I would never be able to handle working for her. She leaves Stacey two- and three-page-long lists of chores, such as doing laundry and starting dinner, which she’s expected to do in just over two hours, while helping the kids with their homework. She questions Stacey every time she can’t complete some task, like she’s testing Stacey to make sure she can handle everything. But they’re the sorts of things that a stay-at-home mom or housewife would complete over the course of a whole day, not in just a couple of hours. Then when Stacey finally tells her she has to quit, Mrs. Cheplin says it’s because she’s not mature enough for the job. Girl, please! She was more mature than any 13-year-old should be expected to be!
Mary Anne and Logan bring their own pencils to the bowling alley to keep score. Cough nerds cough.
December 10, 2011
BSC Mystery #22, Stacey and the Haunted Masquerade: Will You Still Love Cary Retlin Tomorrow?
Stacey actually looks kind of cool
Summary: SMS is holding a Halloween Masquerade on Mischief Night, the night before Halloween. It’s the first masquerade in 28 years because the last one held there ended with a stampede, and a teacher died of a heart attack. Stacey’s really excited about the dance, so she joins the planning committee, which is headed by a teacher named Mr. Rothman. Cokie and Grace are also on the committee, and Grace hates everything the others come up with, while Grace is at least brave enough to have her own opinion.
Someone has been pulling off pranks at school, and the pranks lead to vandalism against the dance decorations and posters, plus graffiti that reads, “Will you still love me tomorrow?” The BSC girls suspect that someone doesn’t want the dance to go forward. They really only have two suspects: Mr. Wetzler, a school board member who was very vocal about his anti-dance stance (say that five times fast), and a group of students called the Mischief Knights, who were responsible for the original pranks. For some reason, no one suspects new student Cary Retlin, though his attitude indicates that pranks would be right up his alley.
The BSC girls decide to look into the last masquerade and learn that a girl was somehow involved. They also discover that Mr. Wetzler and Mr. Rothman were both students at the time. Stacey talks to Mr. Wetzler, pretending to be writing about the budget for the school paper, and he tells her there was a girl involved somehow. More research, this time in the off-limits school basement, leads the girls to the name Elizabeth Connor. It turns out she lived in the Johanssens’ house, so Stacey and Mary Anne make sure they’re looking after kids there together, then search the house. The only thing interesting they find is a heart drawn in the cement that says LC + MR – Liz Connor + Michael Rothman.
The next time Stacey sees Mr. Rothman, she decides to throw her cards on the table and tells him she needs information about Liz. He tells her everything: He was popular and Liz wasn’t, and his friends paid him $10 to take her to the masquerade as a joke. He felt bad about it but didn’t want to compromise his popularity. The last dance of the evening was to “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” and afterward Liz found out what was really going on. She ran off, and moments later the fire alarm went off and the lights went out, causing the stampede. After that, Liz left school and no one heard from her again. Mr. Rothman thinks Liz could be back in Stoneybrook.
Fast-forward to the masquerade (which isn’t really a masquerade since everyone knows who everyone else is). In the bathroom, Stacey runs into a teacher who was dancing with Mr. Rothman and has had her cloak stolen. Stacey figures out that Liz took the cloak and is now wearing it while dancing with Mr. Rothman. She reveals herself, and…we cut to the BSC girls telling Shannon what happened. (LAME!) Though nothing really happened, as Mr. Rothman just took Liz out of the gym and I guess got her help. Apparently Liz had some mental problems that accelerated after the original masquerade, and she’s spent 28 years obsessing over what happened. And that’s pretty much how the book ends.
The B plots involve Grace telling people she’s coming to the dance with a guy no one thinks exists, but who actually does, and the kids the club sits for all being obsessed with Ghostbusters.
Thoughts: The Mischief Knights are kind of lame, but I’m mainly impressed a bunch of middle schoolers can spell “mischief.”
There’s a big deal made about this being the first Halloween masquerade at SMS in almost 30 years, but there were Halloween dances in Mary Anne’s Bad-Luck Mystery and Kristy’s Mystery Admirer. So is there some difference here between a masquerade and a regular dance? A masquerade usually involves a mask, but at least some of the students don’t wear them.
I think I had a little crush on Cary when I was younger. Good girls do like bad boys after all. And I’m with Kristy: He makes things interesting.
The structure of this plot doesn’t really work for me. No one knows who Liz is until the last third of the book, so there’s no way for the reader to figure out what’s going on. They should have made the culprit the son or daughter of the teacher who died at the original masquerade.
October 14, 2011
BSC #87, Stacey and the Bad Girls: Getting the Band Back Together
Steve Holt!
Summary: Stacey’s been spending a lot of time with Robert’s friends, since she and the BSC girls are still on the outs. They’re all bored during the summer, and Stacey’s home alone most of the time, so her new friends (Sheila, Jacqui, Heather, and Mia) come hang out with her. Stacey’s mom is clearly not thrilled about this, and after letting Stacey laze around for a little while, she tells her to get a job.
Stacey winds up working in Bellair’s childcare center, and her friends wait around for her every day so they can all hang out. They keep going shopping but act weird, not letting Stacey see the things they’ve gotten and asking her to buy weird stuff with her employee discount. Eventually they tell her that they buy the stuff at a 10% discount and return it for full price. Stacey doesn’t like this, but she’s too chicken to say anything, so she puts up with it. She also doesn’t want Robert to think she doesn’t like his friends, or put him in the position of having to choose between them and her.
The girls are all obsessed with a group called U4Me, and they get tickets to a concert. Well, they make Stacey wait in line to buy all their tickets while they go off and do other stuff. At the concert, the girls start drinking and smoking, which is how we know they’re bad. Stacey still doesn’t want to say anything, and she declines to drink, because she’s a good girl (and also because alcohol would screw up her blood sugar). The girls start getting rowdy (the Devil’s drink, you know) and get pulled out by security. Their parents are called and they’re all in major trouble, including Stacey, even though she didn’t actually do anything.
While this is all going on, Dawn’s mom’s cousin is in London for three weeks with his wife. They send their six-year-old daughter Amy to stay with the Schafer/Spiers, even though she’s never been away from her parents, she’s never met the Schafer/Spiers, and IT’S FOR THREE FREAKING WEEKS. Amy hates almost every second of her stay, and Mary Anne and Dawn aren’t too thrilled with her either.
One day while they’re playing hide-and-seek, Amy runs off and winds up at Bellair’s, somehow. Stacey knows who she is since, unlikely as it sounds, Claudia’s been reading her stories from the club notebook. She calls Dawn and Mary Anne, who come get Amy. From everything that’s happened, Stacey realizes that she doesn’t really like her new friends and she wants to hang out with the BSC girls again. Claudia goes to bat for her and gets her back in the club, though she’s on probation.
There’s also a very brief mention of Sunny’s mom having lung cancer and Dawn wanting to go back to California to be with her, but there will be more on that later.
Thoughts: Mia: “Stacey, you are sooo middle class.” First of all, that’s not an insult. Second, you can get your rich white butt out of my house.
Stacey’s really a doormat in this book. I usually think of her as pretty confident, so it’s interesting to see her act differently around a different group of people.
Stacey’s mom tells her to watch out for pickpockets. In Stamford. Stamford, Connecticut. It’s even more pathetic when you remember that they’re from New York.
July 27, 2011
BSC #83, Stacey vs. the BSC: You’re Fired
Geez, Kristy, were you born in a barn?
Summary: Stacey has been spending a lot of time with Robert and his friends (which is why she kept missing meetings and jobs in Jessi and the Troublemaker), and the BSC girls don’t like it. Stacey’s started to feel more mature than the other girls and wonders if she’s outgrowing them and the club. She gets so caught up with her new friends that she misses more jobs, keeps showing up late to meetings, and complains (to herself) about the BSC girls’ perceived immaturity.
Admittedly, the girls are being a bit childish, especially Dawn and Mary Anne, who are basically spying on Stacey. They show up at her house while she’s throwing a party for a bunch of her new friends; the only BSC girl she invited was Claudia, who felt strange not telling the other girls about the party. The girls are helping their charges put on a talent show, and Stacey skips out on it so she doesn’t have to see them, which upsets Charlotte, who was nervous about playing the piano there.
This is the last straw for the BSC girls, who lay out everything Stacey’s been doing lately. They’re especially mad at her for hurting Charlotte (which I agree was a pretty rotten move for her to make). Stacey announces that she’s tired of Kristy being bossy, of having to come to meetings three times a week, and of the BSC girls’ immaturity. She quits, and Kristy tries to save face by firing her, but either way, Stacey’s out of the club. The final scene is her going to Charlotte’s piano recital at 5:30 on a Friday.
Thoughts: I remember being so shocked by this book when I first read it. People don’t leave the BSC! It’s like the mob – the only way you get out is when you die!
“Kristy reported that Melody did not live up to her name.” Ha!
Why would Dawn agree to go to a place called Burger Town? And why would Kristy and Mary Anne take her there? They’re just asking for a night full of whining.
Charlotte knows how to correctly use an apostrophe. Charlotte is smarter than most American adults.
Stacey calls Mallory meek, but I wouldn’t say that’s true at all. Dorky, yes; meek, no. Mary Anne’s the meek one.
Kristy, I don’t think you can fire someone from a club. Nice try, though.
June 18, 2011
BSC Mystery #18, Stacey and the Mystery at the Empty House: The Dog Ate My Plotline
Dang, the Johanssens have a nice house
Summary: Stacey takes care of the Johanssens’ dog, Carrot, while they’re out of the country, and quickly begins to notice weird things around the house. Carrot chews up some paper, empty garbage cans are no longer empty, and a vase is broken. First Stacey thinks she’s just being forgetful, but after she hears about an escaped prisoner who may be in the area, she starts freaking out. She also finds a hairbrush with red hairs in it (none of the Johanssens has red hair), which is a good indication that she’s not just imagining things.
The BSC girls decide that one of them needs to go over to the Johanssens’ every time Stacey’s there. But they don’t call the police to tell them someone may have broken into the house, because that would just be foolish. Jessi remembers that you can see the Johanssens’ house from her place, so the BSC girls have a sleepover there to keep an eye on the house. They also use some special feature on the answering machine to listen to what’s going on in the house. Their semi-stakeout doesn’t turn anything up, though.
The next morning, Stacey and Claudia go to the house to walk Carrot and see a phone number written on a notepad. Stacey calls the number, which is for the train station. The girls go to the station and spot a guy with red hair. Moments later, the Johanssens get off the train and greet the man. It turns out he’s a friend of theirs who has an open invitation to stay at their house whenever he’s in town, even if the Johanssens aren’t there. He left Stacey a note to let her know he was around, but she figures out that it was the paper Carrot chewed up. The guy was also out until late every day and up early every morning, which is why Stacey never saw him. Mystery solved!
Meanwhile, it’s almost Christmas, and Kristy wants to do something cool for all the BSC’s charges. The girls are supposed to go on a sleigh ride, and Kristy decides to take all the kids. But she makes the mistake of telling a couple of the kids about it, even though it can only happen if it snows. So all the BSC’s charges are really excited about something that might not happen, and Kristy’s freaking out about the possibility of no snow. Fortunately for her, it snows. The kids also give the BSC girls presents perfectly suited to their personalities and interests.
Thoughts: Once the mystery is explained, it’s a pretty big letdown. Also, Stacey’s dumb for not telling an adult that there could be an escaped criminal hiding out in the house she keeps going to.
I’m surprised the Johanssens don’t call home at all to check on Carrot or the house. But, of course, that would mean they would mention the houseguest to Stacey and ruin the mystery.
Robert keeps making fun of Carrot’s name, calling him Celery and Rutabaga, which is pretty funny, because really, who names a dog after a vegetable? Also, the word “rutabaga” is just funny in and of itself.
I love that Stacey thinks a schnauzer will protect her from an escaped prisoner.
Stacey wears a silk teddy. The ghostwriter must not know what a teddy is. And she wears it under a bunch of other clothes, for the sleigh ride, which makes no sense. How would that help keep her warm? Maybe the writer meant she was wearing it as a camisole under an itchy shirt?
The kids give Claudia a big basket of junk food, Mallory a sketchbook, and Logan…a painted rock (which they call a paperweight). Do they hate him?
April 19, 2011
BSC #76, Stacey’s Lie: Apparently Stacey’s Dad Has Got It Going On, Too
There is a surprising lack of fire on Fire Island
Summary: Stacey’s dad wants to take her on vacation, and she asks to go to Fire Island, where her boyfriend Robert is working for the summer. She decides not to tell her dad or Claudia, who’s also coming. Claudia finds out about Robert’s presence on the island soon after they arrive, and Stacey tells her she didn’t say anything because she didn’t think Claudia would want to come if she knew she’d wind up as a fifth wheel. Stacey’s dad is, unsurprisingly, never around, so Claudia’s the only person Stacey has to tell where she’s going. Claudia keeps her mouth shut but is obviously not happy to have her vacation with her best friend interrupted.
Stacey rushes a girls’ night with Claudia so she can be with Robert, and Claudia decides that’s the last straw. They stop talking, and when Kristy, Mary Anne, and Shannon come visit for a weekend, Claudia turns them against Stacey. She also leaves early because she can’t stand to be in the same house with Stacey.
Robert and Stacey run into Stacey’s dad and a woman named Samantha, and he reveals that he arranged for Samantha to stay on the island so they could see each other during their vacation. He’s upset with Stacey for lying about her reasons for wanting to come to Fire Island, and they stop talking as well. Even though he brought his girlfriend along and lied about it. Jerk.
Robert doesn’t like how Stacey acted toward her father and best friend, so he dumps her. She finds out that Claudia was selling some photos in a shop on the island, and she’s upset that Claudia didn’t feel she could tell her about it. She realizes that she made a huge mistake and makes up with her dad. She also realizes that she needs to work through her issues about her dad dating someone. And then, almost as an afterthought, Stacey also patches things up with Claudia and Robert.
In the B-plot, Mallory and Jessi are working at a day camp, which Haley and Vanessa are attending. They wear the same bathing suit one day and for some reason it leads to a huge fight. They spend the whole book terrorizing each other until Jessi and Mallory make them work together. Snore.
Thoughts: Stacey wears black jean shorts over blue tights. Shudder.
I have the British version of this book, and when Stacey wonders if Claudia will feel like a fifth wheel to her and Robert, it says, “She might think she’d be a gooseberry.” I’m totally saying that from now on. Other Britishisms: “holiday” for vacation, “subs” for dues, and “vice chairman” for vice president.
There’s a house on Fire Island that a doctor rents called Bedside Manor. That’s awesome.
Another Stacey outfit: She wears a sleeveless denim shirt and green leggings. The horror.
March 20, 2011
BSC Mystery #14, Stacey and the Mystery At the Mall: Let’s Go to the Mall! TODAY!
Amazingly, Stacey's outfit is insane, but Claudia looks normal
Summary: The students at SMS take a class called Project Work, where they have actual jobs a few days a week. (Just go with it.) Many of them work at the mall, and Stacey winds up working in a toy store. There’s been a rash of shoplifting, so the students are all taught to look out for shifty people, but apparently they’re not very good at it, since the shoplifting continues. And this is even with Kristy “working” security.
The BSC girls notice three kids hanging around the mall a lot and realize that their parents are never around. Some of the mall employees are suspicious that someone is actually living in the mall. There’s more shoplifting shenanigans, and Stacey even catches a masked guy in a storeroom. Some teenagers are arrested for the thefts, but stuff keeps disappearing, and it still seems like someone’s living there. The BSC girls are at the mall way too much, partly because they’re helping to start a daycare center, and they manage to get a lot of information they probably shouldn’t have.
Stacey finally puts together that the three kids have been living in the mall. But now the kids seem to have vanished, and the girls are suspicious of the mall manager, because he’s too nice. Yes, really. The BSC girls find the kids and learn that they’ve been living in the mall because their mom is in the hospital and they ran out of money. The mall manager knew they were there and let them stay because they knew he was stealing stuff and he wanted them to keep quiet. In conclusion, this book was dumb, unrealistic, and dumb some more.
Thoughts: The Project Work class is part of a series called Short Takes, where students learn actual applicable things, like how to make a budget. This should totally exist in real life.
Kristy suggests reducing BSC meetings to one a week during Project Work. Someone should check to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion.
Stacey’s boss says that parents often leave their kids in the toy store while they go somewhere else, and she doesn’t know what to do about it. Uh, tell them to stop?
I’m so sure mall security let Kristy work back-up for a sting operation. They probably told her that and then tried really hard not to laugh in her face.
The mall has a store called the Cheese Outlet. Sophisticated.
So the kids wound up living in the mall because their aunt never showed up to take care of them. Yeah, I hope their mom cut her sister out of her life after that. That’s pretty much unforgivable.
February 18, 2011
BSC #70, Stacey and the Cheerleaders: Mean Girls
This living room needs the Style network ASAP
Summary: Stacey goes on a date with a basketball player named RJ, and though they don’t really hit it off, she gets the chance to hang out with “the Group,” the popular kids at SMS. They’re all jocks and cheerleaders, and they look down on her because she’s always hanging out with the BSC girls (two of whom are sixth-graders). Stacey starts dating Robert Brewster, who’s on the basketball team and is in “the Group,” but who doesn’t like how the popular kids at school are treated differently from the other kids.
The cheerleaders invite Stacey to try out for the squad, so she works with Jessi to develop a routine. She rocks the tryouts and thinks she’s a shoo-in. Later, she overhears a couple of the cheerleaders giving her backhanded compliments – she’s pretty and talented and blah blah blah, but her friends are losers and she’s dating a guy one of the cheerleaders likes. Stacey tries to brush off the comments and focus on becoming a cheerleader, but when the announcement comes, she’s shocked to learn that the cheerleaders have gone with a different girl. They explain to Stacey that she was so good, they felt threatened by her.
Since Stacey now knows how awful the cheerleaders really are, not making the squad isn’t a huge loss, especially when the BSC girls were so supportive and helpful. Robert, however, is disgusted and announces that he’s quitting the basketball team in protest. Someone writes a nasty editorial for the school paper about Stacey and Robert’s lack of school spirit, like, what did Stacey do? Then the girl who won the spot on the squad also quits, which is kind of awesome, and the cheerleaders ask Stacey to join after all, so this time she rejects them. Also awesome. And then she and Robert write a really cheesy response to the editorial, which isn’t awesome, but you can’t win ‘em all.
In the B-plot, Shannon’s sister Tiffany is feeling all Jan Brady, so Mary Anne suggests she look for a hobby. The story is so boring that the book only devotes, like, three chapters to it. Skipping all the dullness, I’ll just say that Tiffany wants to grow a garden. Yay, Tiffany!
Thoughts: Stacey wears plum courderoys. I don’t know about that, Stace….
Were teenagers still saying “go steady” in 1993? I was 11 but I don’t remember. I’m going to guess no.
Didn’t Shannon say in Kristy and the Snobs that Tiffany sometimes babysits in the neighborhood? She’s ten, so that’s ridiculous, but if she’s able to babysit, why does she need a babysitter herself?
“Mal said she’s having a fantastic time. She spends all day reading.” Quick, someone give me mono!
Stacey’s outfit for her date with RJ: “A black-and-white plaid unitard with a tankstyle top, covered with a black, oversized cotton knit jersey.” I’m scared to even think about what that would look like.
Apparently the cheerleading squad has no coach and the girls are allowed to pick the new members. Yes, letting 13-year-olds make those kinds of decisions is a terrific idea.
January 22, 2011
BSC Mystery #10, Stacey and the Mystery Money: Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems
This actually happened! Yay, cover artist!
Summary: Stacey goes shopping with Charlotte and accidentally spends a counterfeit bill. Oh, yeah, there are counterfeiters in Stoneybrook. She gets questioned by the police, which kind of traumatizes Charlotte, and the BSC girls decide that they want to crack the case. (Charlotte and Becca help out.) They research counterfeit money and how it’s made, then stake out various places in town that have color copiers that could produce counterfeit bills.
At the same time, Stacey has a crush on a new guy at school, Terry Hoyt. His family has moved around a lot, he won’t tell anyone what his dad does, and when Kristy sits for his little brother, Georgie, she’s told not to open a certain closet in the house. The BSC girls suspect that the Hoyts have something to do with the counterfeit bills, giving Stacey another reason to try to solve the case, since she wants to prove their innocence.
Stacey suspects her English teacher is involved, since he was in Bellair’s when she used the counterfeit bill and keeps showing up at places with copiers, but the BSC girls aren’t able to prove anything. Stacey tells Terry about what she and her friends are investigating and is surprised when he seems to know a lot about counterfeit money. Out with Charlotte one day, Stacey sees a guy stashing a bag, and when she opens it, she finds a ton of counterfeit money. Instead of calling the police like a normal person, she calls the BSC girls and Terry. Claudia brings a camera, which Stacey uses to take pictures of the man, who turns out to be someone Claudia saw in an office-supply store.
Instead of taking the pictures to the police, Terry tells Stacey they can take them to his father. It turns out his father is with the Secret Service and was sent to Stoneybrook to investigate the counterfeiters. Stacey gives Mr. Hoyt the pictures she took, and later learns that they were instrumental in breaking up the counterfeit ring. So Stacey’s a crimefighter, but the Hoyts leave town, never to be mentioned again. And then Stacey gets back together with Sam. Wow, sucks to be Terry.
Thoughts: Trivia: Kids in Stoneybrook love the escalators at Bellair’s. Kids in Stoneybrook need to get out more.
Charlotte gets stick-on earrings. Remember those? They were awesome.
“Charlie had been staring at Tasha [Terry's twin sister]. Obviously he thought she was something special.” Ew, Charlie, she’s 13!
“I, personally, am so excited to know that there are counterfeiters in Stoneybrook.” Yep, Mallory is just as lame as I thought.
What kind of guy introduces himself using his full name? Terry is weird.
Shannon is randomly in a bunch of scenes in this book. What’s up with that?
Terry knows how dangerous counterfeiters can be, and yet he lets Stacey stake one out and doesn’t call the police. Wow, nice guy.
How mad must those counterfeiters be that they got busted by a bunch of 8-, 11-, and 13-year-olds?
