Welcome Back Stacey!

The Baby-Sitters Club #28

by Ann M. Martin

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Contemporary, Friendship

Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

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.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[Claudia Lomelí · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book!

stacey's parents announce that they are getting a divorce. stacey's dad decides to move on up to the east side while stacey's mother decides to return to stoneybrook. though they will have joint custody of stacey, they ask stacey to choose which parent she would like to live with primarily. unsurprisingly (based on the spoiler title) she chooses stoneybrook and moves into the house behind the pikes where the weird french people that the pikes thought were spies in Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye used to live.

highlights:
-stacey makes a star trek reference (saying that she wishes she could beam herself to school). I love imagining that stacey is a trekkie!
-dawn is almost tolerable in this book with her divorce advice.
-there's a chapter where stacey concocts a lot of parent trap-style schemes to get her parents back together. it's cute and naive.
-stacey's dad calls his new apartment his "new pad" -- seriously, is he kirk van houten? does he have a racecar bed?

lowlights/nitpicks:
-stacey's quote about race: "when I'm with the walkers I don't think of them as black, just as people...I have never understood the big deal about black or white, Jewish or Christian, Irish or Polish or Chinese or Mexican or Italian or who knows what." stacey, a white gentile who is presumably of scottish or irish descent based on the last name mcgill, IS ABOVE RACE. she is so enlightened that SHE DOESN'T SEE RACE. oh my goddddddd.
-nobody in the bsc would call it a hoagie. they would prob either call it a grinder, a hero, or just a sub. (stacey narrates the word hoagie, then claudia says it out loud)
-call it something like "changes for stacey" (or something similar that doesn't sound like an american girl book) and make the picture be her looking sad while her parents fight. as it is, this book title is a huge spoiler, and the cover is both a spoiler AND dumb. see the bottom of this review for a picture of this book and Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye together.

claudia outfit:
-"Her hair was flowing down her back, pulled away from her face by a headband with a huge pink rose attached to it. She was wearing a long, oversized black-and-white sweater, skin-tight black leggings, pink-and-black socks, and black ballet slippers. Her jewelry was new, and I could tell she'd made it herself...Her necklace was a string of glazed beads that she'd probably made in her pottery class. And from her ears dangled an alarming number of plastic charms attached to gold hoops."

other outfits:
-laine: "Like, right now, she was wearing this amazing black pants suit. It was made from stretchy cotton. The bottoms of the legs were cuffed, and the top was short-cropped. She was wearing a leopard-skin leotard under the top...From her ears dangled teardrop-shaped blue and green stones, and on one wrist were about twenty silver bangle bracelets.
-stacey: "I put on one of my better outfits--short red pants with purple suspenders over a bright yellow and black sweatshirt. On my feet I put my purple push-down socks and a pair of red hightop sneakers. I added jewelry--a big necklace with wooden bananas and oranges strung on it, and dangly earrings shaped like sunglasses...Then I rolled up a red scarf and tied it in my hair like a headband."

jackie disasters:
-rode his bike into the garage wall
-skinned his knees
-broke a flowerpot
-dropped a pizza on the floor
-bit into his hot dog and the hot dog squirted across the kitchen
-fell over a packing carton and cut his lip

snacks in claudia's room:
-oreos in her closet
-lifesavers (n.s.)
-fruit-and-cream twinkies (n.s.) -- discontinued 80s twinkie flavors!
-taco chips (n.s.)

--PREVIOUS REVIEW--

are you kidding me with these freakin' identical book covers?

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

a cute above the average BSC book, probably because there's not much babysitting involved. in the first chapter, stacey is sitting for henry & grace walker, two little kids that live in her NYC apartment building. she's a little distracted, thinking about how her parents haven't been getting along lately. sure enough, when she goes back to her floor, she can hear her parents screaming at each other from the elevator. they are mostly arguing about money. apparently mrs. mcgill dropped over $11,000 on jewelry at tiffany (NOT "tiffany's," like it says in the book--you'd think stacey would know this). & that seriously is fucking insane. that is like 60% of my annual income. mrs. mcgill says she shops because she's bored because mr. mcgill is working all the time. then...get a job? or go be a museum docent or something? jesus eff.

stacey runs off crying to laine's building (the dakota). laine doesn't know what to say & suggests stacey call the BSC. as soon as she does it, she kind of regrets letting the BSC in on her personal problems, even though dawn tries to be helpful. stacey just asks everyone about their own lives & goes home, & that's when her parents drop the bomb: they're getting divorced.

stacey is pissed. she calls their marriage counselor a "divorce counselor" (zing!) & wants to hide in her room, but she has to eat because of her diabetes. she ignores her parents as much as she can though. when she gets home from the school the next day, they make her sit down & talk to them. they've both decided to leave their current apartment, & stacey will be able to choose who to live with. mrs. mcgill says she might want to move back to stoneybrook. this leaves stacey with a difficult decision: she loves new york, but stoneybrook would mean re-joining the babysitters club. & no matter who she chooses, one of her parents will be hurt. too bad the big reveal is given away in the book title.

mr. mcgill finds a place for himself on the upper east side, & mrs. mcgill finds a cute house near the pikes in stoneybrook. stacey writes up a pros & cons list, & it clearly favors moving back to stoneybrook. so she does, even though it's hard. i heard that this book happened because stacey was the fan favorite babysitter & people were outraged when she was written out of the series in book #13. her return to stoneybrook does seem kind of abrupt.

as an adult, i appreciate stacey books so much more than i did as a child. when i was younger, i found stacey kind of vapid & snobby, but now i think she's smart & funny (in the books she narrates--the other babysitters don't always do her justice). also, as an adult, i have adopted mrs. mcgill's catchphrase. whenever my boyfriend leaves for school, i always say, "have fun & be careful!" sometimes i add, "learn a lot!" from my own mom.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i knew that doing a bsc re-read was going to be problematic at some point. i love that this book deals with divorce because so many of us at that age were dealing with the same. reading it back, stacey’s anger and sadness still resonate and i appreciate that her perspective seems true to an eighth grader. HOWEVER one of stacey’s nyc babysitting clients is a black family and the description of her feelings toward them is very in line with 90s “i don’t see color” rhetoric and wow was it jarring. yikes.

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scholastic bends to peer pressure from the readers, and brings Stacey back to Stoneybrook in this book. This is the first time any of the baby sitters have dealt with the divorce of a parent in real time, so to speak. Instead of hearing about it second hand, as Kristy or Dawn tells you their memories about it, we are along for the ride as Stacey processes and deals with her parent's divorce.

Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
Stacey calls the marriage counselor a "divorce counselor" making me think that there were both kinds. I know now that there really is no such thing as a divorce counselor expect in the eyes of kids who are resentful that marriage counseling didn't work for their parents.

Stacey wishing she could beam herself to school, like the characters on Star Trek. Whenever I wish I could beam myself anywhere I think of the BSC, not Star Trek.

Stacey being reluctant to discuss with Claudia and Laine her decision about which parent she wants to live with. It struck me as a very mature conclusion to come to, to realize that you need to make important decisions that will affect the rest of your life on your own, instead of being influenced by friends.

Stacey deciding to go back to Stoneybrook in part because there she is considered "one of the coolest kids around". Even as a kid this struck me as incredibly pathetic.


Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
Stacey says she doesn't think of the Walkers, her neighbors and baby sitting charges as black, just as people. What a stupidly earnest, and ignorant white girl thought.

I either had forgotten, or hadn't realized that Stacey's mother spends thousands of dollars on jewelry because she's bored. Stacey's father is furious when the credit card bills start coming in, and tells Stacey's mother that she's a spoiled brat, and to do something useful with her life which makes me want to stand up and cheer. Why doesn't Stacey's mother work until after her divorce? Now that I think about it, she is the only mother of a BSC member who doesn't work, and doesn't really have anything else to do. Mallory's mother seems to work inconsistently (she does temp work, especially when Mallory's father is out of work) but she does volunteer work, and she has eight kids to supervise. Jessi's mother isn't working at the time of this book (although she goes back to work later in the series) but she has a baby to look after, and a daughter who takes intensive ballet lessons in another city. Stacey's mother has no children other than Stacey to look after, and Stacey is old enough to be pretty independent. As far as I can tell she doesn't do anything extra except shop for expensive stuff.

Stacey is frustrated that her parents can't tell her what their problems are. I can sympathize with Stacey, but I do like that her parents stick to their instincts to keep the problems in their marriage vague. Eventually Stacey will mature enough to figure them out for herself, but it's better that she doesn't have memories of her parents bad-mouthing each other. The book is told from Stacey's point of view so there is no way to know exactly what happened with her parents, since the reader only knows what Stacey knows. However, an adult reading between the lines, and knowing something about adult relationships, can tell that Stacey's parents have probably had marital problems for years. The resentment Stacey's mother has of Mr McGill's long work hours did not just happen over a few months, nor did Mr McGill's frustration with Mrs McGill's shopping sprees. Stacey's unexpected diabetes diagnoses was probably a distraction for a few years, but it's impossible to keep those kinds of issues a secret for long. I imagine Stacey's mother being something of a trophy wife -- pretty, fashionable, charming. Stacey's father was a young, ambitious corporate Wall Street type, a stockbroker that made a massive salary, and year end bonuses. Their marriage fell apart when Mrs McGill realized that someone who makes that much money has to work long hours to continue doing so (possibly working with a pretty, young assistant), and Mr McGill realized that a trophy wife is really only good for. . . shopping and sitting around the house. Later in the book Stacey is angry that parents don't stay together anymore like "in olden times". In "olden times" couples who should have gotten divorced often stayed together for years due to religious or legal taboos. They were unhappy, and their kids were unhappy. I think divorce is a necessary evil, something sad, but true, although I think Stacey's right about rewriting marriage vows. No one should have to feel pressure to be with someone til death. Stacey then says she feels embarrassed by the divorce, even though she knows it wasn't her fault. It hadn't occurred to me that a kid whose parents were getting divorced would be embarrassed, especially since divorce is so common now, but I can see how it would happen.

Judy, the homeless woman makes an appearance in this book. I thought it was brilliant of Ann M Martin to write the exchange Stacey has with her. When Stacey tells Judy that her parents are getting divorced the only thing Judy says is "Crying shame" and Stacey can't figure out what she means by that. Is she being sincere? Sarcastic? Seeing this news as a sign of the end times? So much of this series focuses on how hard Stacey's life has been, with her diabetes, stays in the hospital, her parent's divorce, and having to move around so much. While none of this is easy to deal with I don't really think Stacey has much to complain about, and I was always sort of mad that the BSC thought Stacey had such huge problems. I guess those are huge things when you live in a town as happy and wealthy as Stoneybrook. I liked that Judy's answer is cryptic enough to make spoiled, self-pitying Stacey realize that her life isn't that bad.

I think it's interesting that no one in the BSC series ever has a separation, just as no one ever lives together without being married. They are always married, then divorced, but no one ever has a trial separation and no one ever moves out until the divorce is final. It seems completely stupid and arbitrary to go to so much hassle and unnecessary conflict.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently this was written because Stacey was a fan favourite so it made sense to move her back to Stoneybrook? Raar, ugh, is all I say. ;)

[Kristi Clemow · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my favorite bsc book. personal summary/spoilers in comments

[aarya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read via audio (narrated by Erin Moon).

[Alison Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing screams 1980s more in a book than a girl's coolest outfit being a viciously clashing array of like 14 colors. What a time to be alive, that was.

I remembered liking this one a lot as a kid, and I still did now. My parents are together so I've never been through divorce, but it felt like Martin did a good job of showing what that experience might be like for a teen girl. Stacey is really thrown for a loop, and alternates between being angry with her parents, trying to trick them into wanting to stay together, being scared but also a little anticipatory about the changes in her life. I thought her mom and dad handled it all mostly well, and the conflicts between them felt believable. I especially liked when they said some of their issues were personal and not things they would share with their daughter, because that's a lot more realistic than total honesty in that kind of situation.

I also liked seeing how Stacey worked through all of her feelings about either staying in New York with her dad or moving back to Stoneybrook with her mom. Again, it felt very genuine, and probably how a 13-year-old would respond to such a situation. It was interesting too to see her have a bit of a lightbulb moment when she realizes that other than Laine, her friends in New York are really just…Laine's friends, who she ends up hanging out with by proximity. But they aren't HER friends, not really, whereas in Connecticut, she's got a group of girls, all of whom are truly her friends.

There were a couple moments where you have to be a little generous and realize this was written in the late 80s. At the very beginning of the book, Stacey is babysitting for two kids in her building, and we find out quickly the family is Black. But Stacey says she doesn't think of them as Black, just as people, which…oy. "I don't even see color!!!" I bet you don't, white girl. But again, that kind of statement was probably considered fairly forward-thinking at the tme, at least among white people. Also, the way Stacey talks about Judy, the homeless woman who is usually near her building, it's as though this is the only homeless person she's ever seen and it's some kind of novelty. In New York City. Like, what.

But overall this is one of my favorites just for how well it portrayed things, even if it's all done very quickly because of the length of these books. Plus I liked the reminder that there were people with even worse fashion sense than I had in the 80s.

[Julie Decker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stacey's life is a mess; her parents are getting divorced and she has to decide whether to move back to Stoneybrook with her mom--when she's only just gotten settled in New York again!

The good things about this book include Stacey getting to have a book that doesn't focus on her having diabetes and having the hard choices really blow her world apart. Sadly, the book tries to say what the parents fight about and it sounds so simplistic and superficial that I had trouble believing the parents were something other than tools. (Of course they are! They're background characters!) What also seemed incredibly repetitive is that Stacey couldn't decide whether to stay or go and she decided to make a list to help her decide. This is EXACTLY what Dawn did for the SAME reason (trying to decide whether to go back to Stoneybrook or stay in California). It'd be nice if different girls handled the same issue differently.

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I actually started reading around age 3 (thank you, my Granny's Dick and Jane books!), this series is what I remember most about loving to read during my childhood. My sister and I drank these books up like they were oxygen. I truly think we owned just about every single one from every one of the series. We even got the privilege of meeting Ann M. Martin at a book signing, but of course little starstruck me froze and could not speak a word to my biggest hero at that time. Once in awhile if I come across these at a yard sale, I will pick them up for a couple hour trip down memory lane, and I declare nearly nothing centers and relaxes me more!

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure this one was one of my favorites when I was a kid.
At the time, I didn't realize how horrible poor Stacey's "sophisticated" outfits really were! Ouch!
I'd totally forgotten about Laine! How did that happen?!
I still think Stacey is my favorite! Wish I still had book 3 around!

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, well done handling a heavy subject. Ann M. Martin does get a tad tacky at times, but this she did well.

[Nicolette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels like a neat and clean version of what an adult thinks a kid going through divorce needs to read about.

[ThatBookish_deviant · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Dr. Aditi Kapoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stacey is coming back to Stoneybrook when her parents get divorced. It aptly depicts the yoyo situation of a child in such situations

[Em's Adventures · Rating 5 out of 5]

Divorce must be one of the saddest things ever. 😢 This was a harder book to read especially because I enjoyed the stories of Stacy in New York but I guess it's fun to have her back too.

[are we there yet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stacey has never been my favorite character, bit this book gets points for deviating from the usual formula (given that it starts with Stacey being in New York).

Here are my notes:

1. I never realized that Stacey's parents were filthy rich to the point where her mom would buy jewelry out of boredom--and yet somehow, she was never described in the same way the girls would describe Mrs. Prezzioso). All the BSC girls' parents are well off (Kristy probably doesn't come off as rich because her executive mother is still a single mother with 4 kids), but holy shit. I always knew Stacey was sophisticated, but I didn't know that was code word for future socialite (the way Stacey describes her sophisticated New York best friend made me think of Ivanka Trump, and how teen girls used to be "discovered" in malls by predators).

2. Is it possible Stacey's dad died on 9/11? Since aging is an awkward thing in BSC world, he could be be in his 40s or 50s in 2001, but definitely still young enough to have not retired by that point,

3. Why did AMM want to so badly make Stacey someone who claim not to care about anyone being Black? Is it because Stacey would later hope her mom would move to one of those "nice neighborhoods in the Bronx" where the non-white people were few and between? There was also an odd scene between her and an unhoused woman, which I think is supposed to make Stacey look like someone who had some compassion for the unfortunate... but not enough to examine the root causes and to get the hell away when someone who literally had to live on the street could not hide her mental health issues (and really she was basically railing against capitalism, which WAS the reason she was in her situation)?

4. Why would someone as sophisticated as Stacey know anything about Star Trek?

5. I never realized before that Stacey McGill is Irish. Why didn't anyone ever go into detail about how she's Catholic, even if she only goes to church twice a year?

6. While making the pros/cons list on where she should live, guess which one of her BSC friends she lists last? Mal. Stacey, you met Jessi twice.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was in fourth grade my best friends parents split up. When we were in fifth grade her mom met a new man, and they decided to get married. I knew that she would be moving, though the day of the move felt very abrupt. There was seriously very little time between her mother meeting this man and them deciding to shove his giant family and my friend and her mom into a house together. I was devastated because she was in school for like a half day on Valentine's Day. I had gotten her a present, but before I could give it to her she was picked up from school and just...gone. Forever. Moved to another county, to another school. I saw her maybe once after that, but that was it.

So I really felt for Stacey in the books where she had to make major moves. Losing a best friend is rough. I can't imagine being the one moved to a new city, new state, new school. My family moved once when I was a very small baby, and came back home after barely three months or so. So I don't remember it. I spent my life on the same country road, next door to my grandparents, and I went to school with the same kids from kindergarten to graduation from high school. It just resonates with me how bad Stacey really did have it a lot of the time, and how underrated she is as a character. She's not shallow or self-centered. She's smart, she's funny, she has a lot going on, and she acts a lot like a normal thirteen year old. So kudos to this one!

[Swankivy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is again one of the books that tells you what's going to happen in the title. It's not much of a surprise when one of the big plot points is Stacey struggling to decide whether she's going to move to Stoneybrook with her mom or stay in New York with her dad when her parents get divorced. If they're welcoming her back, it's no fun to wonder what she's going to decide.

This is the first time in the series that one of the sitters actually has to deal with parents divorcing (though they've had parents who were divorced before the story started, or parents who were dead). The fights Stacey's parents have are really vapid. Oh no, mom spends too much money and it's daddy's fault for not entertaining her, or something. I kinda wish they didn't even bother to elucidate the adults' fights because it really makes them sound like a child's overly simplistic understanding of why they're fighting. Nice to have her "issue book" not be about her diabetes though.

So Stacey does a Dawn (i.e., she makes a pros and cons list just like Dawn did when trying to decide which parent to live with) and she ends up rejoining the club. I guess if your world is going to be in an upheaval, you might as well have your best friends nearby. And some babysitting cash.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Welcome Back Stacey
PLOT: Stacey's parent's decide to get a divorce, and she has to decide with parent she wants to live with.

MY THOUGHTS: This one didn't require too much thought or opinion. I tried to remember back to so long ago when my parent's got divorced. I was much younger than Stacey. Books like this tend to go into the kid's anger. I'm sure I felt that, but for some reason I don't remember feeling it as intensely. Maybe that's because my parents have always stayed minutes away from each other. So not that much adjusting to be done or friend's to leave. Though sometimes I wish one of them would have moved ANY WHERE other than here. It probably would have been just as hard to choose though. As much as Stacey hearts New York, I was a little surprised that she choose to move to "unsophisticated Stoneybrooke". I've always thought Grace and Henry were adorable! They sound like the ideal charges, and if I ever wanted to be a sitter I'd wish for real live versions of them. Though my two little cousins Kyle and London are similarly as easy to watch.

RATING: 5

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The baby-sitting in this book is nearly non-existent, replaced by Stacey's teenage angst. (I mean, I guess it's allowed - her parents are splitting up, after all. I'm just glad my parents divorced when I was six or seven, so I don't remember it and couldn't be an angsty teen about it lol.) And I think it's an important BSC book, because it shows divorce as it's happening, and it shows kids that their feelings are allowed. But reading this as an adult, it's like "bring on the Rodowskys already" lol.

But on the plus side: Stacey is back in Stoneybrook! (And every BSC book gets a five star rating, heh.)

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must have read this as a kid, but my only memories are of silly details, and I remembered NOTHING of the actual plot! This book actually does a really good job showing what divorce can be like for a kid. But the portrayal of Stacey's mom as a frivolous, emotionally needy, spoiled brat felt pretty sexist, and really grated. But i did appreciate that, while Stacey's parents do discuss and come to agreements about how to make things fairer for her, the breakup is not particularly amicable, and they're not all friends in the end. Ann M Martin doesn't try to tie it all up in a nice bow, which I think is important.

[✨Jordan✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh no...Stacey’s parents are arguing and fighting constantly now. They have finally decided to just get a divorce. Stacey can’t believe it! What will happen when they break up. Who will she live with? Where will the move to? How does she decide who to live with without hurting the other parent? Life just isn’t fair. I thought this book did a great job on explaining divorce to young children while also explaining to kids that it doesn’t matter where you move or who you live with in the end, both parents will love you the same no matter what.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow... I don’t think I ever realized that Stacey was back in New York for 15 entire books! She’s gone for much less time after she quits later on, but that seemed to go on forever. Maybe because there were mysteries in between that made it seem longer? I don’t know, but I seriously didn’t remember the New York move being this long.

I always thought it was so funny that the premise of this book is wondering where Stacey will decide to live. Um, considering it’s called “Welcome Back, Stacey!” and the tagline is “She’s home for good!”, I can’t imagine anyone was too surprised by the ending.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s very clear that Stacey’s parents divorcing is plot device to get her back to Stoneybrook.
Their reasons were kind of weak. If her mother shops because she’s bored then she should get a job. And her dad shouldn’t work so late to be home for dinner.
And the marriage counselor said to divorce after 3 months? Not a very good therapist.

Besides the weak plot, Stacey’s reaction and the way she dealt with it was well done. It’s relatable for kids with divorced parents.

3 out of 5 NYC Bagels.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stacey moved to Stoneybrook, Connecticut, returned to New York City, and is now back in Stoneybrook. Sounds like a television star who returns to aide a failing sitcom. The reason for her return is the impending divorce of her parents. Martin follows the typical line when it comes to dealing with the subject of divorce, Stacey's experience reads like a "helpful" pamphlet.

[Tonia Christle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I've read this one. I actually don't remember reading it the first time. But it was a pretty solid book. I thought the story was well-told and I REALLY wanted to cheer when Claudia says at the end: "Just because they're adults doesn't mean they get to treat you however they want."

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite BSC books because I love Stacey and also I went through something (relatively) similar at 14. I also love the Stacey-Claudia closeness and how adorable Stacey's mom is with both her and Claud. Plus, it's the beginning of the haunted (?) house shenanigans.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title describes book as Martin continues her obsession with divorced parents.
A spinoff series in NY might have worked better than the unrealistic return.
Apparently a lot happens in a life where you don't age at all!!