Stacey has been hired for a week-long baby-sitting job in New York City! Everything would be perfect if only her boyfriend Robert weren't acting so strangely. He's never at the places he says he'll be. Plus, he's been doing a lot of things without her. Stacey is becoming suspicious. Could Robert be seeing another girl?
Stacey leaves for NYC feeling uneasy about her relationship with Robert. And while baby-sitting in the city is a blast, Stacey has a lot of thinking to do. Is this the end of Stacey + Robert?
Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
in this book by ghostwriter Suzanne Weyn, stacey accepts a week-long babysitting job for the walker kids in nyc (who I believe we first met in Stacey's Mistake and have seen once or twice since) while kristy is on a family trip to hawaii. the bsc is shorthanded but abby fills in as both president and treasurer. the club sort of goes to crap at first but then everyone helps out last-minute at an abby-planned event and makes it work out in spite of abby being an arrogant jerk and a terrible leader. it’s a really infuriating subplot. meanwhile in nyc, stacey starts to develop a crush on the cute teenage boy who the walkers have hired to help them get ready for their combined art show (the reason they needed stacey to babysit), exactly as robert has been seen all over stoneybrook dating andi gentile (stacey’s favorite person in robert’s group -- see Stacey vs. the BSC and Stacey and the Bad Girls for more info). at first stacey is upset because she thinks that she and robert are meant to be, but then she realizes that she has a wandering eye too and 13-year-olds shouldn’t be marrying their boyfriends.
highlights: -robert sees a romantic comedy with pete black. it’s implied that there were probably girls there too, but it’s never clarified completely. I like the idea of robert and pete just going to the movies to see a romantic comedy together. -when the bsc and bsc kids are making pinatas for the mexican festival, marnie barrett disappears. it turns out some of the kids PUT MARNIE IN A PINATA. it’s kind of hilarious but also how could she breathe? -when the cereal and milk fall on the floor and mrs. walker looks up and says "give me strength" henry and grace think she's asking the ceiling for strength to pick up the cereal -stacey realizes that she kind of feels relieved that robert is dating andi because she wants to be free to date other people (like ethan) too. YUP. that mixed bag of devastation from a relationship ending alongside the relief of not having to be tied down anymore is definitely real, and I’m glad they handled it well in this book.
lowlights/nitpicks: -while stepping in as president abby basically tries to change everything. she doesn't make them write in the notebook and doesn't make them pay dues. instead, she buys things for her mexican festival without consulting with the other bsc members and expects them to reimburse her for things. it’s sort of like bananas or something -- a huge revolution intended to oust a dictator, merely to replace that dictator with a NEW dictator who is even worse than the old one. -another problem with abby guilting the other bsc members into reimbursing her for purchases she made without consulting with anyone: aside from kristy (who is currently in hawaii), abby is the only bsc member who lives in a mansion on the mansion-y side of town. all the bsc members are at least middle class if not upper middle class, but for instance mallory’s family has struggled with finances in the past. I like abby and think she’s pretty self-aware and conscious of identity politics and the like, so it really upsets me that she would pull such a crappy rich kid move like this and force her less rich friends to reimburse her for things they didn’t consent to buying in the first place. -pete black obviously helps robert lie about evening plans (presumably a date with andi). pete, doesn't it bother you that your friend is cheating on his girlfriend? -abby's explanation for making executive decisions to buy stuff without asking and still expecting everyone to pay her back is that she's acting president AND treasurer. ugh. -basically abby doesn't plan anything and just expects it to all work. when people show up for the festival but it's not ready, claudia does free face painting for everyone while everyone else sets up. it ends up working only because everyone else helps abby fix her dumb mess. I HATE ABBY IN THIS BOOK SO MUCH. -the mexican festival is sort of sketchy, as would be expected from a festival hosted by a bunch of white kids and non-latinx kids of color who live in connecticut and think that a mexican festival means doing speedy gonzalez’s voice. they put up decorations of people exploding from eating hot peppers and wearing sombreros and playing maracas and stuff. -POGS ARE THE PRIZES FOR THE FESTIVAL. OMG WHY ARE THERE POGS IN EVERY BOOK? there were no pogs referenced, and then suddenly it turned to 1996 and all the books had pogs in them (even though no one was playing with pogs anymore by that point). -nagging question at resolution: why does stacey forgive robert so easily when he was legit cheating on her and waiting to break up with her until he knew he wanted to date andi? it’s really sketchy to line up your new girlfriend before you dump an old one.
claudia outfits: -"Today Claudia had on an oversized purple top over turquoise leggings. With fabric paints she'd painted a beautiful unicorn on the top and then decorated the leggings with designs in the same colors. From her ears dangled earrings she'd made of papier-mache in the shape of unicorn heads."
stacey's mom: -"She was dressed in beige pants with a matching sleeveless tunic top, and had draped a long scarf around her neck."
stacey outfit: -"I changed from my white cotton nightgown into a pair of khaki-green Bermuda shorts and a yellow cotton shirt with purple violets on it. -"I decided to wear the black dress [described earlier as a straight, black sleeveless dress] and a pair of black sandals. I fixed my hair in a French braid and put on a pair of gold hoop earrings." -"I dressed in black skinny pants and a light pink cardigan...After picking through my perm, I put on some tannish-pink lipstick and a pair of bead earrings."
mrs. walker outfit: -"She looked gorgeous in a flowing gold, purple, and orange African print gown. Her dangling earrings glistened with metallic pieces."
ethan outfit: -"I spotted Ethan wearing jeans, a white T-shirt, and a lightweight gray sports jacket."
i guess the hawaii super special was supposed to foreshadow that stacey & robert aren't getting along that well. there was a lot in that book about other girls flirting with robert & stacey getting pissy about it. this book opens with stacey & robert playing a few rounds of tennis. &...really? tennis? they're 13. though i guess they are 13-year-olds that live in connecticut. well-played, ghostwriter. stacey & robert are relaxing after their tennis game when a few of the "bad girls" that stacey was once friends with sunater up. they ask if stacey & robert would like to play doubles with them, but stacey says she is tired. she knows robert won't play without her, even though he obviously wants to play. true to form, robert declines the invite. he says something to stacey about knowing she must be worn out because of her diabetes, but she honestly admits that she just didn't want to hang out with those girls.
a few other things happen which i guess are supposed to illustrate that stacey & robert are not 100% happy together. he likes spending time with the friends that got stacey in trouble with both her mother & the babysitters club, while stacey "thinks their values are the pits". i LOLed. i totally remember being like nine years old & sincerely believing that teenagers talked that way. sorry to break it to you, tween readers. that's not how teenagers talk.
one morning stacey is bored & gives robert a call. his sister reports that robert is "playing basketball with some of the guys". stacey bikes over to the courts where robert & his friends usually play. his friends are there, but robert is not. they ask stacey where robert is. they invited him to play basketball but he declined, saying that he had plans. they assumed his plans were with stacey. stacey doesn't know what to think. it appears that robert lied to her, but there is a chance he is playing basketball elsewhere in stoneybrook with a different group of guys.
when she has a chance to ask robert about it, he explains he was playing one-on-one on some different courts against a different friend. but emily bernstein calls stacey at the babysitters club meeting that afternoon & says she saw robert at the mall food court with a girl. she didn't see who the girl was, but it was a brunette--definitely not stacey. stacey doesn't know what to think. was robert on a date with another girl? did he just bump into a friend? is there a good reason why he didn't tell stacey he had been to the mall?
meanwhile, stacey has been asked to babysit for a week for the walker family in new york city while the walker parents prepare a joint art gallery show. stacey is confused because she is not that disappointed about not seeing robert for a week. & it doesn't seem like robert is that bummed about it either. but stacey would like to get to the bottom of the weird shit that is going on between them before she leaves. she recruits claudia to help her spy on robert (always the foundation of a healthy relationship) but she doesn't really turn anything up. there's a great scene in which claudia & stacey go to the mall because they heard robert is going to be there. they stake out the movie theatre because stacey thinks maybe robert will be meeting a date there. sure enough, robert turns up...with pete black. stacey assumes they're going to see a shoot 'em up alien movie that stacey wouldn't see with robert, so she forces claudia to buy tickets to it so they can sit in the theatre & see is robert & pete meet girls inside. stacey sees two gorgeous teenage girls meeting dudes that she thinks are robert & pete & she is totally distraught...until claudia points out that pete has grown his hair longer & neither of the dudes in question has long hair. stacey is relieved & wants to leave the theatre, but by this point, claudia is invested in the movie & wants to see how it ends. god, i love claudia. she's so easily distracted. when stacey & claudia finally do leave the theatre, they bump right into pete & robert...coming out of a romantic comedy in the next theatre over. awwwww. so THAT'S why robert's been acting weird!
stacey is still confused & feeling like robert isn't telling her the whole truth. robert agrees to see her off on the train to new york the next morning, but he's late. stacey is almost in tears by the time her mom says they have to leave right now so as to not miss the train. that's when robert shows up with a big bouquet of flowers. stacey is relieved, but still feels a weird sense of loss that she doesn't understand as her train leaves for new york.
she kind of forgets about it though once she's back in new york. her father takes her out for a nice dinner & they go to the met. she kind of tells him a little about her confusion about robert & he suggests that stacey may be too young to go steady with one guy anyway, & that maybe she & robert should cool things off. stacey flips & screams at him in the egyptian wing. she feels embarrassed pretty quickly, but...still. uncool, stacey. she throws herself into the job with the walkers, playing with the kids, taking them to central park & the museum of natural history. she thinks it's really exciting to be around while two great artists are preparing for a show. she gets to see all the backstage preparations, with folks from the gallery coming by all the time to take measurements & get stuff done. one emissary from the gallery is a foxy teenage boy named ethan. he has long black hair, blue eyes, & an earring. stacey thinks he is C-U-T-E, robert or no robert. ethan spends some time playing freeze tag with stacey & the walker kids & stacey also appreciates the fact that she is so good with the kids--fun & un-self-conscious. she asks mrs. walker if ethan is going to be around a lot this week & mrs. walker is all, "interested, huh?" but stacey is all, "no! i have a boyfriend! i just think ethan is...nice." her father & claudia both also notice that stacey seems to have a lot to say about how...nice...ethan is.
unfortunately, claudia is also calling with some bad news. she saw robert downtown a few days after stacey left...kissing andi gentile (a girl from his friend group). stacey thanks her for calling & hangs up. she cries a lot, but realizes that she is crying more because she is hurt & embarrassed that robert kissed another girl, & less because she really minds that he kissed another girl. she realizes that she & robert were kind of spinning their wheels & she's not that sad about ending the relationship.
at the end of the week, ethan asks if he can call her & stacey says yes. ethan clarifies that he is interested & stacey says she is too. she explains that she was in a relationship but "that's over now." andi is waiting for stacey when she gets back to stoneybrook. she admits that she & robert are seeing each other & hopes stacey won't hate her. stacey says it's fine, but she wants andi to leave. andi leaves. robert calls shortly thereafter & asks to come see stacey. when he shows up, he's all, "um, uh, so...uh, i don't know how to say this," until stacey is like, "you kissed andi. i know." robert is shocked that stacey knows, & seems to expect her to scream or cry. stacey doesn't do that & just says she is disappointed that robert felt the need to sneak around & lie, but she accepts that their relationship is over. robert leaves & claudia comes over. stacey gushes about ethan. the end.
so, not so much "stacey's broken heart" as "stacey gets another dude on the hook before her previous relationship is even cold". stacey is totally going to be one of those women in like twenty years whose therapist makes her keep a journal of all the experiences she has leaving the house alone, to try to break her dependency on men.
This one reminded me of the Friends Forever series in a way. Babysitting took a back seat Stacey and her boy troubles. The only positive was that Claudia and Stacey are still best friends. In this book in a plot we all saw coming Robert and Stacey are drifting apart. First they're 13 years old, second the two very different friend groups doesn't help. I'm no fan of Logan but he is friendly with the girls in the club. Robert and his friends drove Stacey away from them. So when Stacey accepts a job at the Walkers in New York, her favourite old charges she is worried about leaving him for a week. The Walkers are artists and setting up a big exhibition of their combined works and need the kids out of the way. This is the book we first meet Ethan who will become Stacey's older boyfriend which at that age is a bit disturbing but I've seen worse. Ethan works for the Walkers helping them with their art show and to conveniently help Stacey mend her soon to be broken heart. Anyway while in New York Claudia calls to say she caught Robert kissing another girl. Stacey mopes over it for the rest of her time in New York and slowly moves on with Ethan. I'm not a big fan of these kind of stories, except when Mary Anne dumps Logan's ass. That was great and she didn't immediately move on to someone else. The better story is the b plot where Kristy heads to Hawaii with her family and with Stacey gone there's two vacancies to fill for Abby. Kristy wants Claudia to be president and Abby treasurer but Abby swears she can do both. In a not so secret vote Abby wins, the only no vote was Kristy of course. Abby is horrible at being president and even worse as treasurer. She takes on a big charity event goes over budget sucks at planning and getting things done on time and it's a literal last minute dash to pull it off and comes close to a near disaster. Abby learns a lesson but still thinks she's better than Kristy and I think this is the set up for the next book which I believe has a Mary Anne Saves the Day type plot. This was one of those that had a stronger side plot than main plot and it was too soap opera like with Stacey immediately finding love again.
The Abby-as-president subplot sucks (I love Abby, but she's so over the top in this book. Like she's president for a week, why is she trying to re-invent the BSC?!) but I really like the main story. It sucks that Robert is a jerk, but I like Stacey how Stacey seems to ~mature in this book.
I really do love these books as an adult. There's so many life lessons, and though it still shocks me to read about 13 year-olds dating, I love how Ann M. Martin draws in so much wisdom to young readers. I loved this one!
Stacey is excited for an upcoming week-long babysitting job in New York City for the artistic Walker family...but her boyfriend Robert is upset that they won't be able to spend the last week of summer together. While in New York, Stacey's friends tell her that Robert has been seen kissing another girl. At first Stacey is devastated, but she realizes that maybe they weren't a perfect match anyway. Abby steps up as alternate officer (Kristy is also away for a week), but makes quite a few mistakes. She learns important lessons and appreciates Kristy a little more.
I love Stacey and I love when she has an excuse to go to New York but...there's never enough of the other babysitters. also, as an adult...Robert is kind of a jerk and Stacey must have really been over him to react so well.
(LL) This was a better book than I was expecting. Stacey and Robert were probably going to break up anyway...you know since his friends got Stacey in serious trouble and took advantage of her and he still hung out with them. I liked that everyone was trying to give Robert the benefit to the doubt and Stacey’s friends kept telling her to talk to him before assuming the worst. It is realistic that you can get cheated on, so they way they approached it in this book was pretty spot on. Not one got super angry and yelled at each other, in fact they acted way more mature than some other adults I know would handle it. The BSC handled it well too, telling Stacey what they saw but didn’t do anything to Robert or Andi. Solid storyline with a healthy reaction to someone cheating and a couple breaking up.
I love all of the BSC books, but this was one of my favorites by far. I can really relate to Stacey's situation; I've been through some similar things in my life and it's hard to work through. The main reason I didn't give this book 5 stars was because it made me like Abby a lot less, which is disappointing because I really liked her when she was first introduced into the series. Overall though, I think this is one of my favorite Bsc books of all time.
Stacey is not one of my favorite characters. I’ve never liked female characters whose primary description is about their looks and glamour. It seems like everything about Stacey is shallow and narcissistic, right from NY city condescension to the boy-crazy/wannabe behaviour that frequently gets in the way of being a good friend or even a good person. It seems like the juvenile diabetes was only written in to give her some redemption and unfortunately, it doesn’t. Illness does not excuse treating other people badly. But I understand that there was a need for character like that in an ensemble cast of teenager girls.
Since so much of Stacey’s trajectory is about her romantic relationships and how she sees herself based on them, this was an important book. And it didn’t really hold up. I find it implausible that someone as dependent on male validation as Stacey would be so calm about being cheated on. Especially with a girl that got her into trouble with the law and nearly lost her her old friends. It doesn’t seem like Stacey ever really learns. She’s destined to be permanantly chasing the glamorous life, even if the people treat her really badly.
I didn’t enjoy this book. Giving it a 2 stars because Ann Martin’s writing is always good. And this book had an entertaining contender to President Kristy (my favorite character). Who could miss that?
Boo, Robert! Cheating is so not cool. I do kinda wish the writers just let Stacey actually heal a bit from the broken heart before meeting her next boyfriend. Like meeting cute artist Ethan the same week she's getting bad vibes about Robert is just a bit too convenient. And while Stacey's attitude toward the breakup is nice and mature, it's not much of a heartbreak at all. And any tween who reads this after dealing with a heartbreak of their own may not find much comfort in how easily this was resolved.
The B-plot was funny. Abby steps in as interim president, overshoots her mark with a huge Mexican festival to raise funds for an orphanage, and then screws it up tremendously until the other BSC members save the day by thinking through what Kristy would do in that situation. Poor Abby. I do kinda wish she'd been a little more successful with it though. It will be nice to see a different, more relaxed kind of leadership from Kristy's iron fist actually succeed with the BSC.
In this one we see her drifting apart from boyfriend Robert, who is all into the "bad girls" that were part of their group. You know that schtick. Stacey got into trouble, ditched her BSC friends, all that business. Like a really bad episode of Saved By The Bell (were there any good ones?).
She spends a week in New York baby-sitting, and meets a cute guy named Ethan who works for the Walkers. He's artsy, he has black hair, he dresses very chilly. Are we sure she might not be into Claudia?
I digress.
In the end we get it confirmed that Robert is cheating with a bad girl, and Stacey is cool with it cause she's already got her a new man before she even gets back to town to break up with the cheating pos.
Stacey's luv streak continues, with no wait time. You go, girl!
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it. And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up. And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club. The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day. Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
The BSC members are really going through all of life's experiences at this point. Divorce, solving a cold case murder, and now getting cheated on! I really enjoyed Stacey's storyline in this book, but the subplot was half baked at best.
I thought this book was very well written. I liked reading about the artists in New York City, the BSC planning the Mexican festival, and Ethan. It’s too bad Robert chose his flaky friends over Stacey and cheated on her
I wish the sub plot had been the main plot. I’m sick of Stacey’s boy troubles. And, if a sub plot is going to make an impact on a future book isn’t that a sign that maybe it should be the main plot?
Ya sabía yo que los hombres deben alejarse desde un inicio, que me importa que ella no lo odie, sé que son nenes pero YA SABÍA malditos hombres los odio todos iguales sin ninguna exención
When I was thirteen I dated a boy called Ryan for two weeks. I think we may have held hands, and we texted each other about twenty times every day. Then he dumped me because I wanted to actually talk to him rather than just pointing at him and saying "That's my boyfriend." It was at this point that I realised that the BSC lied about what teenage relationships were like. I did have a couple of male friends who I could actually hang out with and talk to - the Logans and Bens of my world - but this was a pretty rare occurrence in my teenage years. In fact, I didn't have another boyfriend until I was eighteen and in my first year of university. We've been together for almost six months now and I'm really glad that I didn't have many fickle teenage relationships as the real thing is definitely worth waiting for. However, this didn't make me any less sympathetic to Stacey's situation. I too thought that my first boyfriend would stay with me forever and it's difficult realising that your parents might be right about you being too young to date. Although I find it hard to imagine having met a guy like Robert when I was thirteen, I did enjoy reading this book, and it was nice to see Stacey making friends with a new boy but not necessarily "falling in love" immediately. All in all, a fun book which I realised I had read as a child with the sentence about Andie not thinking that phones existed in Manhattan! 8/10
I heard about this book from one of my friends that recommend it to me. My first impression of this book was a mystery, because based on the summary of the book Stacy's boyfriend was acting strange to her. I think the author's style of writing is clever because how I thought the book was going to end was a whole different perspective. I would recommend this book to any body that loves the Baby Sitter Club Series, and hasn't read this book out of the series. This book reminds me of The Nancy Drew Series because it's full of mysterys like how this book was. What I learned from this book is that Stacey's boyfriend was acting strange because he didn't like her no more. I also learned that Stacey was very sad but she had to do what was best for her. If I were to describe this book in one setence it would be that this book is a great mystery that ends in a clever unexpected way.
Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.
I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.
The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.
Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
I read this recently, and I don't know about this book. I overall like the Baby Sitters Club books, but I have to say this one was not the best. The characters are way to young to have "broken heart"s. I have to say that if you have something better to read, read it. Although I must say that the point of view of Abby and the gang back at Stoneybrook was entertaining. So I guess I would have to say that this book is not one of the books that is an absolute must read, but it was all right.
Come on, Stacey, don't be such a sap! As I'm going through all the BSC books, I see Stacey came full circle like Kristy did (from her Best idea to her Worst idea) -- her first book was about her boy dealings too. Gah.
In which Robert cheats on Stacey, which is really bad, but Stacey was already talking to Ethan, which is totally not cheating cuz she's only lusting after him and stringing him along. Stacey's heart does not seem to be actually broken.