this one opens with laine calling stacey from new york & gusuing about how much she's looking forward to her winter vacation. she gets a whole week off school & she doesn't know if she should go to florida or europe or hang around new york city or what. she is being really fucking obnoxious, calling stacey "anastasia" because she thinks it sounds more sophisticated, bragging about how she's allowed to fly alone, & describing her lame-sounding 15-year-old boyfriend king. first of all, his name is king. second of all, his hair is kind of long & he dyes the tips purple & then mousses it into a bedhead kind of look. i bet he also reads the "dragonlance" novels & dresses up like dr. who every halloween. what a nerd. but laine thinks he's cool because he's in high school. laine's staring down the barrel of a teen pregnancy, that's for sure.for some reason, stacey thinks it would be "totally distant" if laine used her vacation to visit stoneybrook. stacey will have school that week, but she imagines that laine would just LOVE to go to school with her, go to babysitters club meetings, maybe even come on sitting jobs! because laine has showed so much enthusiasm in the past for visiting stoneybrook & hanging out with members of the babysitters club? the club & laine have interacted several times before, & it seems to always result in either huge fights or cold, indifferent tolerance. laine is clearly not pumped about this idea, but she caves to stacey's excitement & everything is arranged.prior to laine's visit, stacey races around the house, organizing everything & hiding anything that laine might find childish. such as the china clown that stacey bought off a home shopping show. or the rag doll claudia left behind the last time she spent the night. or stacey's extensive collection of stuffed pigs. but no attempts at sophistication prevent stacey from wearing one of those tacky hair ornaments made out of shoelaces. i know they were popular in the early 90s, but surely laine wouldn't approve?stacey gives laine a guided tour through stoneybrook on the way back to the house. laine asks where the town is & what people do for fun. stacey's feelings are hurt. but seriously. stoneybrook...new york city. they are kind of two completely different worlds. i am reminded of the vague depression i felt when i moved to kansas from boston. it's just kind of a letdown, you know?anyway, laine continues to act snooty & superior. she doesn't seem to have too much fun at the BSC sleepover stacey arranges, asking what the girls are going to do for fun when they are clearly already having fun. she scoffs when claudia says she thinks a seventh grader is cute. when stacey brings laine to school, laine wants to leave campus & walk into town during lunch, which is against the rules. she asks why only one kid at a time is allowed to go to the bathroom. like these are completely crazy rules that just do not exist in new york city. at lunch, stacey arranges to sit with boys, thinking that will be more laine's speed, but the boys are playing with their food & laine is surely thinking about how king would never do this because he spends his lunchbreaks reapplying his nail polish & reading "the sandman" series. it makes him more mysterious. pete black inexplicably falls in love with laine & tells her that she has hair like gossamer. she laughs at him.there's a valentine's day dance coming up at the end of the week, & all the babysitters have dates. stacey encourages laine to go to the dance with pete. laine says she can't, because pete is a dweeb, & what will all the other people at the dance think if they see her with him? plus, king might think she is being unfaithful. just then, king calls, probably to let laine know how his debut as dr. frankenfurter at the nightly live-action stage version of "the rocky horror picture show" went. laine shoos stacey out of the room & stacey goes. she overhears laine say something something about someone being "childish" & assumes that laine must be telling king about some of the BSC's charges. she smiles & is glad laine is there. because she's a fucking dumbass.then pete black calls to ask laine to the dance. she accepts, without a lot of enthusiasm.also, B plot: the babysitters are arranging a "valentine's day masquerade" for some of their charges. it's basically a big party in dawn's barn, & the kids are all making homemade valentines & signing them with code. the babysitters are all excited because nicky pike has a crush on a second grade girl, & carolyn arnold has a crush on an "older" (third grade) boy. the sitters realize they must like each other & they think it's really cute. these girls really do need to find lives. maybe king can introduce them to a local dungeonmaster or set them up with a vampire: the masquerade league.laine is still being snooty & snobby. she makes fun of stacey for wanting to wear red to the dance. she mocks stacey when stacey admits that she bought her nail polish from a home shopping show. such forth & so on. also, some of the babysitters have been having issues with their dates (bart almost bailed on kristy to stay home & watch a game on TV, mallory & ben had their infamous argument over how to most efficiently utilize the library card catalogue, & mary anne's feelings were hurt by logan when he dared suggest that it might be fun to actually dance at the dance). stacey hopes everyone can pull it together & not embarrass her in front of laine.the dance happens. pete is nervous around laine & drops the corsage he bought for her. it is trampled by other students. laine says the decorations are babyish & the refreshments (heart-shaped cookies, punch) seem more appropriate to a kindergarten snack time. pete steps on laine's feet while they dance, & then she blows him off to dance with a cuter boy. stacey loses her temper & pulls laine aside to confront her about her rudeness. laine is oblivious. stacey yells at her. laine says she wants to go home--to new york, tonight. stacey calls her mom to come pick them up. stacey & laine yell at each other, stacey's mom & laine's mom yell at each other, & laine is packed on to a train back to new york. stacey is sad but relieved.she talks to claudia the next day, & claudia suggests that stacey might feel better if she writes laine a letter. so stacey does, letting laine know the friendship is over. she includes her half of their best friend necklace in the envelope. then she invites claudia, her REAL best friend, over to hang out. good riddance, laine!oh, also, the babysitters discover at the party that nicky got mixed up & actually liked MARILYN arnold. & she likes him too. carolyn had a crush on one of the hobart boys, which is reciprocated. nicky & marilyn even hold hands for a minute, which does seem bold for eight-year-olds. what about cooties?
This one was kind of boring. Laine visits Stacey and is a total snob about everything. That's pretty much it, but since that doesn't make much of a review, let's dive a little deeper. Here we go.It's snowing in Stoneybrook and Stacey is reminiscing about how much her life has changed in the last year, when Laine (her NYC BFF) calls. She calls Stacey "Anastasia" because it sounds more sophisticated and is all excited about her winter break coming up. Laine doesn't have any plans yet, except maybe go to a bunch of parties with her 15 year old boyfriend, King. I'm sure his real name is Walter or Herbert or something like that. He has long black hair with purple tips that he wears in a ponytail. Totally distant. (Oh wait, Laine didn't know what "distant" meant. Guess the BSC slang hasn't gotten to the big city yet.) Stacey suggests that Laine come to Stoneybrook and stay with her instead. Because that's what a teenager wants to do on their vacation: spend time at another school.When Stacey tells the other BSCers about Laine coming, they're all excited and Mary Anne conveniently mentions that she'll be there for the Valentine's Dance. Which is being held on Friday the thirteenth, oh noze!! That's like total bad luck! (This would have been a prime time for another Cokie Mason mystery, but alas, the ghost writers didn't think of that.) All the girls have dates and then Kristy has a Great Idea, suggesting they throw a party for the kids they sit for. They decide to have all the kids make cards to trade, but using riddles instead of their real names. Throughout the book, we find out that nearly all the kids have crushes on each other. The sitters think that's adorable and encourage it. Because these second graders need encouragement to express their love. Yeah.Laine is not impressed with little, boring Stoneybrook or Stacey's lame sleepover. And she doesn't really want to go to the Valentine dance with some geeky 8th grader, especially after she meets them at school. Which she didn't want to go to in the first place. But Stacey gives her this heart-warming speech that changes her mind."...we used to be part of each other's lives. When I was living in New York and we went to the same school, we were practically sharing one life. Now our lives are so different. We talk a lot, but we hardly see each other. I feel as if I'm losing half of ME, and I'm trying to figure out how to get myself back. I miss you, Laine, I really do." aw....So at school, Laine is horrified to find that they can't leave campus or go to the bathroom in groups and that the boys at SMS are huge geeks. Even though Stacey got the cream of the crop: Logan, Pete Black, Rick Chow, and Austin Bentley. Pete is completely enamored with Laine and tells her "[she has] hair like gossamer." Hah! Pete asks Laine to the dance and she agrees, after talking to King first. Oh, she calls King "Heart" and he calls her "Babe". Gross.Over in baby-sitting news, the Hobart boys are disappointed when they find out that American kids don't wear suits and carnations to Valentine's parties. Poor kids. At the next BSC meeting, half the girls are mad at their dates and Kristy says boys are trouble. (Well yeah, you would think that.) Laine asks them if they're still going to be baby-sitting in the summer and Stacey is like, yeah duh. Laine suggests she get a "real job" like her, cashiering at a boutique. (What business owner in their right mind would hire a 13 year old?? I'm pretty sure that wasn't even legal back then.) Stacey gets peeved and is starting to wonder why she even invited Laine.It's finally the night of the dance, which means the book is almost over yay! Laine is horrified, yet again, when she finds out they are meeting the boys at the dance. And when Pete gives her a corsage. And when she says the pink heart decorations. And when she sees Pete's sneakers with his suit. (He'd be totally in style now.) And so on and so on.Stacey finally has enough and yanks Laine off the dance floor and they have a big argument. Laine wants to go home (to New York) and Stacey agrees. She is over it. The whole friendship. A week later, she writes Laine a long letter basically about all the things she (Laine) did wrong and why their friendship is over. You know, typical junior high stuff. She even returns her half of her friendship necklace, so you know it's really over. I wonder if we'll see Laine again. I can't remember, but I'm guessing yes.And that's it, except for the kids' Valentine party, which is a huge success of course. And Stacey dresses like a red elf: red leggings, red ankle boots, a bulky red sweater, and red barrettes. What's the deal with the city girls and their leggings and ankle boots???Read my full review (including all the outfits!!) at Give a Hoot Read a Book!
What do You think about Stacey's Ex-Best Friend (1992)?
Stacey begs Laine to visit Stoneybrook on her February break, but when she gets there, things don’t work out. Laine mocks the BSC girls for being too suburban and immature. Attempting to manufacture fun for Laine, Stacey convinces her to accept Pete Black’s invitation to the Valentine’s Day dance, but at the dance, Laine is mean to Pete. Stacey and Laine get into a huge fight, and Laine goes home early. Stacey reflects sadly that despite years of friendship, Laine has become "a person she no longer wants to be friends with," and sends her a letter to say so.Meanwhile, the BSC plans a Valentine’s party for local kids and there’s a dumb subplot involving Nicky Pike and James Hobart having crushes on the Arnold twins.While the book does a pretty good job of painting Laine as an unpleasant person--while remaining true to both the good and bad sides of her we’ve seen in past books--it’s off-putting that Stacey sees herself as a hero/victim when she’s not. She’s quick to anger, and to see this as an issue of "Laine has changed" and not "I have changed" or even "Laine is in a bad mood." While it is certainly believable that Stacey takes her own side in the argument, it feels like the Book is agreeing with Stacey (I mean, she’s the narrator, but you know how you can sometimes tell when the Book disagrees with the narration character). The letter at the end is supposed to provide satisfying closure on the Stacey/Laine friendship, but I don’t buy that the friendship was already over; Laine is pretty clearly just going through a pretentious phase. No, what ended the friendship is that terrible letter.Weirdest Moment: One shining moment of Laine’s underlying "good" personality is when, at the end of an otherwise unsatisfactory sleepover, Claudia picks up the TV Guide and says, "Hey, you know what? To Kill a Mockingbird is on!" "All right!" says Laine. I mean, To Kill a Mockingbird is a deeply emotional and thought-provoking movie and all, but: "All right!"?Read as a kid: Yes, many times.Timing: Late January through just after Valentine’s Day. They are getting really sloppy. It’s only been ten books since the last Valentine’s Day of eighth grade. Revised Timeline: February of eleventh grade. A lot in this book has to do with ages and maturity, and in general it does seem to work better if you go ahead and add the 3 to everyone’s age and grade. Stacey is scandalized that Laine has a 15 (18) year old boyfriend in high school (college). Nicky and Carolyn are starting to develop crushes at eight (eleven). Laine thinks baby-sitting is a kids’ job and they should be thinking about getting real work, such as the cashiering job she’s signed up for. (Most places can’t legally hire teens under sixteen.) There are a couple of places where it pointedly doesn’t work--specifically, when Laine thinks it’s lame that their dates can’t drive them to the dance; if they were all sixteen, somebody would probably be able to. But this is understandable; as fast and loose as the writers often are with the level of independence these kids have at thirteen, the driving age is one place where they really can’t abandon the pretense.As a general feel, I do think the story works much better if you (a) assume a lot more time has passed since the last time Stacey spent a lot of time with Laine than the few months or weeks that would be required if this were all in the same year as Stacey’s Emergency, Stacey’s Mistake and New York, New York; and (2) see Laine as the kind of high-school girl who’s yearning for it to be over so she can move on and move out and grow up, while the BSC girls are the kind of high-school girls who love high school.
—Laura Hughes
Well, this is one of the better ones, I think. I admire that Martin didn't slap a tidy resolution on this in which everyone makes up. Also, it contains some doozies: "I tried to say good-bye to eight years of friendship with Laine Cummings without actually talking to her."Who hasn't been there? At least Stacey still has Claud!
—Allison Floyd
