Ainslee’s Reviews > Stacey's Movie > Status Update

--So it seems like they knew at this point that this series would be ending the BSC would be starting up. Wish I knew more about how far in advance they knew, though.
--Meanwhile, is there ANY foreshadowing about the next book, given Mary Anne's a large part of this one? Nope!

FRIENDS FOREVER FORESHADOWING:
--Abby's exhausted and only perks up when Emily suggests she's allotted activities into every moment of the day. While she doesn't really mention babysitting, she drops it pretty soon into the first FF book.
--Jessi mentions she doesn't fit in around the BSC now that Mallory's gone and feels she has to be perfect; she drops out of the BSC in the 1st FF book too.

There's a whole thing where Mary Anne hates what she said in her interview and wants it taken out, and it's of course resolved tidily and neatly.

Meanwhile, Kristy's working with Alan Gray (and Logan and Anna), and they end up doing a movie about how hilarious kids are (gag me). The movie goes really badly (the kids aren't funny unless they're hurting themselves) until Kristy learns to listen to Alan (allegedly).

Hilariously, when she ends up interviewing Stacey, she harps on Stacey's divorced parents and why Stacey's dating Ethan (his living in New York means Stacey doesn't have to get attached-- or, I don't know, that she's 13?), and Stacey ends up mentally labeling it as "armchair psychology." (Ethan, by the way, is mentioned as 16--I thought he was 15?)

I buy that the kids are saying this stuff, just not when they're happening to say it in the interviews. But I get that it'd be hard to get to that point otherwise in a book like this. Anyway, some of the interviews are better than others (both in- and out-of-universe), and Emily ends up taking over most of the interviews and then making sure not to give much up in hers.

Stacey has to make a movie with Pete Black, Emily, and Erica, and they eventually decide to do personal interviews with their fellow students to hit at the issues that middle schoolers face. It's actually kind of a cool concept-- very timely for May '99 when this book was published. The interviews make good points too-- unfortunately it all feels very manufactured.

This book involves the LAST Short Takes class (unless there's more in the Friends Forever series). This time, SMS has mysteriously put up the money to hire actual professionals to come teach classes. Stacey's super excited to take a movie-making class with a renowned documentary filmmaker, who's poised to be a large presence in the book and then disappears entirely until a chapter near the end.