so not into this book. the plot: stacey gets a call from her mom right after a babysitters club meeting, requesting that she hurry home right away. she does, thinking that someone died or something. but in fact, mr. mcgill is being transferred back to new york. the whole family has to pack up & get ready to re-locate in a month.stacey doesn't know how to feel. she's excited to go back to new york & hang out with laine again & be in the city, close to shopping, museums, & broadway shows. but she'll miss the babysitters club & claudia & all the kids she sits for. not that it matters--the decision has been made. which makes for a really anti-climactic book. it's all just packing & letting people know she's leaving. they try to wring some dramatic tension out of the club's desire to throw stacey a really cool going away party, but it was pretty obvious from the get-go that they'd pull off something that stacey really enjoyed. in fact, this is arguably the first instance of the sitters being way over-involved with the neighborhood kids. dawn has the bright idea to invite all the kids they sit to the going away party, instead of kids from school. stacey is a better person than i, because i'd hate having to watch a bunch of children when i'm expecting to hang out with people my own age. the kids are all adorable & make her a whole pile of poorly-spelled bon voyage cards, & they draw a big mural of stoneybrook, & it's all very sickly sweet. i'm surprised stacey didn't go into a diabetic coma from all the treacle. & then mcgills leave.there's also this whole yard sale plot. even though the mcgills' original NYC apartment apparently had four bedrooms (for a family of three), & mr. & mrs. mcgill have promised stacey an even BIGGER apartment this time (how much space do these people need? are they descended from the rothschilds or what? because i did a google search & apparently stacey's new apartment is mere steps away from central park & the museum of natural history on the upper west side, & a search of real estate in the area with four or more bedrooms brings up properties that cost literally several million dollars; hilariously, one of stacey's neighbors would have been patrick bateman, from american psycho, who also lives in w. 81st.), they don't think they can fit their whole house into a new york apartment (how freaking enormous is the house?!?). so stacey convinces her mom to let the club host a yard sale to get rid of some of their junk. & claudia sells brownies, dawn sells spider plant babies, mary anne sells eyeglass cases & pot holders, the barrett kids sell some of their old toys, etc. it's a big success, & stacey's parents let the club keep the money (stacey is seriously spoiled), & they use it for stacey's party.there's also a ton of foreshadowing about inviting mallory pike to become a member of the club. mallory was my favorite when i was a kid (the refrain of many a book-ish child). i wonder if her books will hold up under the harsh light of me being thirty now.
My first BSC book ever. I received it when I was 7. I've read this book so much I've had to tape and retape the cover so many times. I love this story. I've moved a lot so I understand what Stacey is going through having to leave her best friends behind, friends she's only had a little more than a year with. She's in the middle, happy she gets to go back to NYC and be with Laine, sad she has to leave Stoneybrook and the BSC. Ann M. Martin does a great job of depicting the mixed emotions of Stacey as well as the emotions of her friends. Stacey comes up with a "solution" of living with Claudia, but with Stacey's diabetes, Mimi's stroke, and Stacey's parents missing her, it's not a good idea. I love the party the BSC give her and I wish I had a friend like Claudia who would write me a huge letter of jokes, gossip, and whatnot for a car ride, even if she can't spell correctly. I want the BSC to come host a yard sale at my house! The BSC show that friends are not just the people who are your age, but the people who love you.
What do You think about Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye (1990)?
A so-so book about an important transition point in the Babysitters Club series. Stacey McGill's father gets transferred back to New York City so she has to move. The Babysitters Club are in a quandary about how to fill her place, personally and professionally. As they put together a yard sale to help the McGills move and a farewell party for Stacey, they notice Mallory Pike, a former club charge, who could be a future babysitter. This is neither a great nor a terrible book. I suppose I might have had a stronger reaction had I liked the Stacey character better, but I don't.
—Idea Smith
It was nice to have a book that was about a realistic life issue and not really a contrived "mystery" or plot about boys or miscommunication. I like that Stacey had decidedly mixed feelings about her situation: she loves her friends from Stoneybrook, being in the Baby-Sitters Club, and a lot of the kids she sits for, but she also has always been a New York City girl at heart and misses her best friend from NYC, Laine. So it was cool to see her conflicted feelings. I didn't really get how Stacey's family had so much crap that they'd collected in a year to have to have a yard sale in order to cram back into an apartment, though I guess it could happen. I guess this also shows how close the sitters are to the kids they sit for. On the one hand I thought it was kind of weird that Stacey's goodbye party had a bunch of little children at it, but on the other hand, these books are about their babysitting and I guess it makes sense for them to be super involved with it to the point that they have more than just a sitter/charge relationship with those kids.
—Swankivy
