So this is one of the later books in the series, meaning I had never read this one before. It's also one that features Abby instead of Dawn, so that was an adjustment as well. On to the fun...
Plot-tastic in the house: Stoneybrook Middle School, SMS to those in the know, offers special classes called Short Takes, 3 week courses in specialized, elective-style topics. Stacey, as well as Kristy and Logan (Mary Anne's true love, of course), enroll in a film making class, taught by an Academy Award winning documentary director. Umm...what kind of budget does SMS have, exactly? How realistic is it for an Academy Award winning director to teach a 3 week course to middle schoolers? College, maybe, but middle school? Way to make me feel disappointed in my own TMS experience, AMM.
Anyway, Stacey and her group decide to do a documentary of what it's like to be a middle school student, interviewing friends and foes alike. Cue the drama...
Mary Anne - she admits to being mad at her mother for dying, then tries to get the interview cut from the movie.
Kristy - tries to take over all aspects of her group, finally realizes that she is stubborn and wrong.
Jessie - she admits that it's hard to be a minority in Stoneybrook, especially since Mallory is away at boarding school (what!! This is what I get when I read books out of order...)
Claudia - thinks creative kids aren't given as much of a shot at success as the smart kids. Unfortunately, she's pretty much right, especially when it comes to the workforce.
Abby - well, we discover she has asthma, but she uses an inhaler, not inhalator (you need to work on the continuity, AMM)
Stacey - she admits on camera to being upset about being a child of divorce, but more importantly, we find out she has a 16 year old boyfriend in New York named Ethan. Hold. The. Phone. No way my parents would have let me, as a 13 year old, date a 16 year old boy. Now, she only sees him when she visits her dad, but still, he's sixteen. You're toeing that line, AMM, might want to rethink that one...
Cokie Mason - our favorite resident SMS mean girl totally pulls a Gretchen Weiners in her interview, is all "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me, but I can't help it that I'm so popular," then she proceeds to tell Cady, I mean Stacey, that she's, like, really pretty. I'm thinking Tina Fey read some BSC before she wrote "Mean Girls."
Today in Claudia fashion:
"Today for instance, she wore a tie-dyed T-shirt (which she dyed herself) under a pair of white overall shorts. But these weren't ordinary overalls. She'd painted a rain forest scene over the entire fabric. It made her look like a walking mural. The forest canopy was up by the straps, and mushrooms, rocks, and little lizards sat at the hems." I don't know if I have words for this look. By the way, if you do a search for images of tie-dye/overalls, your eyes may explode. You have been warned.
Unfortunately, no Stacey outfits in this one, which considering this is a Stacey book, was pretty disappointing.
Yeah, out of order, I'm like WTF?
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that boggled my mind at the young age I read these (glad I was smart then): they never aged...They celebrated summers, birthdays, etc...but never aged...
Yeah, I know - they celebrated multiple Halloweens, Christmases, and summer vacations, sometimes Stacey was living in New York, sometimes Dawn was in California, but they were always 13 and in eighth grade...it was the BSC time warp in Stoneybrook.
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