By Ann M. Martin. Published June 1991.
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| I HIGHLY doubt Stacey and Claudia would wear Hard Rock Cafe shirts |
I have such a love/hate relationship with this book. Almost
everyone bothers me, Dawn being scared-annoying, Claudia being
jealous-annoying, Mary Anne and Stacey with a most ridiculous sitting plotline,
and Kristy with a boring, throwaway plotline. Just, ugh. And yet…I love the New
York aspect. I know, so Mary Anne of me. I lived in Connecticut for four damn
years and never got to go. I know, right?! *Side-eyes
parents* Obviously, I was neglected. Anyway, I enjoy reading about it.
Oh my god, the prologue is four handwritten pages of Claudia’s, full of her trademark spelling
mistakes. Shoot me now. Anyway, she gets it all set up for us. They have YET ANOTHER
two-week vacation coming up. What the hell, Stoneybrook schools? They had two
weeks off a mere six books ago! Maybe this is the real root of Claudia’s school
troubles. She’s never fucking there!
Right. The setup. Vacation. There’s an open art school in
the city, and Claudia wants to go, and she can stay with Stacey at her dad’s.
And then Mr. McGill says any of her other friends are welcome, too. Of course.
So everybody gets permission to go, even Mallory and Jessi, when TWO books ago
they weren’t even allowed into the city to visit Stacey in the hospital. Whatever.
Mallory will be joining Claud at the art school, to work on her illustrations.
They make a spectacle of themselves at the train station in
Stoneybrook. Everyone’s entire families come to see them off, and Kristy’s
brings Shannon (the dog), and Mary Anne brings Tigger. What the fuck? Do you
people know how to behave in public? The parents all start talking together,
and the girls worry they’re going to change their minds about letting them go.
But they don’t, and the girls get safely on the train. Where Mary Anne pulls
out her guidebooks. Sigh.
So the girls aren’t all staying at Mr. Gill’s; half of them
are staying at Laine’s. Nice of you to invite everyone when you couldn’t
actually accommodate them, Ed. Stacey (obviously), Claudia, and Dawn will be
staying with Stacey’s dad, and the others will be at Laine’s. Everyone goes
over to Laine’s to get them settled in, and while they’re there, the doorbell
rings. It’s the Harringtons, who have switched apartments with Laine’s
neighbors upstairs, while they go stay at their place in England. And what do
you know; they’re staying for two weeks, just like the BSC. And they have two
stereotypically perfect British children, Alistaire and Rowena. But oh noes!
The Harringtons do something with the government, and will be working the whole
time. So they wonder if Laine’s parents know of a good nanny service. Laine’s
all, I do! So they discuss it, and say they’d like to hire two of the girls to
show the kids around the city. The girls decide on Stacey and Mary Anne.
So Dawn has turned into a huge, irritating scaredy-cat, for
some fucking reason. She wasn’t frightened any of the other times she’s been to
New York. I guess they just didn’t have anything else for her to do? She
completely freaks out over every little noise, and thinks she sees criminals
everywhere. Then she doesn’t want to leave the apartment, or later the
restaurant they go to for dinner. And the next day, she decides to not leave
the apartment at all. Kristy takes pity and comes over to baby-sit her.
Stacey and Mary Anne have their first day with Alistaire and
Rowena, and the kids want to go to Central Park. They read about it in a book.
First they go to the children’s zoo. Stacey says the cost is ten cents a
person, and always will be. I don’t know where you pulled that from, Stacey
(Ann). It may have been at the time, but Google tells me now you can only get
into the children’s zoo with admission to the main zoo. And the cost is
currently $12 for adults and $7 for kids, if you’re wondering. I also learned
all about the history of the zoo. It’s interesting. Anyway. Then they go to the
main zoo. They buy some toys (the Harringtons gave them a whole wad of cash).
They have lunch, and climb all over the Alice in Wonderland statue. Good day.
Claudia and Mal go to their first day at Falny (or Fine Arts
League of New York, but Falny is what the cool kids call it). Claudia is ready
to pee her pants, because their teacher is going to be McKenzie Clarke, some
famous artist. She calls him Mac in her head. When they arrive, there’s a
circle of drawing tables around about thirty boxes all thrown together. Mac
comes in, and tells them their assignment for the day is to draw the boxes.
Claudia’s all, wtf? How boring. But she does it, and does it quickly, while Mal
struggles. By the time Mac gets to Claud, she’s done and ready for the next
task. But Mac just tells her she went too fast, and to do it again. This goes
on pretty much all day, while he just keeps telling Mal “fine”. Claudia is
crushed, and wonders if she came all the way to New York to find out she sucks.
Jessi wants to go to the ballet, of course. But I certainly
don’t blame her. The only problem is, she’s not allowed to walk around New York
by herself. So she catches up with Stacey, Mary Anne, the kids, and Laine
(who’s tagging along for the day), and begs them to take her to Lincoln Center.
They agree, and that’s how she ends up watching the New York City Ballet
perform Swan Lake. Hell yeah. When
she sighs happily at intermission, her neighbor asks if she liked it. She turns
and sees a total hottie, about her age, with a dancer’s body. His name is
Quint, and this is the fifth time he’s seen this ballet. Jessi asks if he’s a
dancer, and he hesitates, but then admits he is, and is good enough to go to
Juilliard, but he’s not going to audition, because he gets picked on enough as
it is. He asks for her number, but she can’t remember Laine’s, so he gives her
his instead. Oh yeah, get you some, Jessi.
Ok, ballet nit-pick time. There is no youth dance program at
Juilliard. There is one for music, and there’s a short summer program for dance,
but only for high school students. Now, maybe
it was different back in the day, but I doubt it. The program he’s describing,
though, sounds just like the School of American Ballet, which is just as
prestigious in it’s own right. It feeds directly into the New York City Ballet.
Did she just pick Juilliard because of name recognition? Just a little bit of
research would have gotten you the right school. Like I said, nit-picky I know,
but it’s always really bothered me.
We pick up with Mal and Claud for their afternoon class, and
Claudia just turns mean on Mallory, calling her teacher’s pet. That night they
all go to Chinatown, and Claudia either ignores Mal, or calls her a dweeb when
she gets excited about stuff. They go souvenir shopping, and eat dinner, then,
as a relief to Mal, take separate cabs home.
Kristy can’t stand another day of baby-sitting Dawn. All she
does is clean. Fun. So Kristy and Jessi spend the day in Central Park, and have
a good time. As they’re leaving, they hear a whimpering in the bushes, and find
a dog with no tags. So Kristy decides to take him home, first to Laine’s, then
to Stoneybrook. They figure that Laine’s building doesn’t allow pets, so Jessi
distracts the doorman while Kristy sneaks the dog in. Only Laine is home, and
says he’s not allowed, but Kristy doesn’t really give a shit. She uses all her
souvenir money on supplies for the dog. Then she calls home to ask about
keeping him, and Watson flat-out says no. Well, shit.
Mary Anne and Stacey have all sorts of plans for the
Harrington kids. And on their way to the museum, they come across a street
fair, so they stop there first. The kids get balloons. At the museum, they tie
the balloons up outside, but Mary Anne warns them they may not be there later. But
when they come out, they’re there, but one one balloon is a different color.
They then head to the library, and let the kids pick out books and listen to
story hour. Now, all day, Mary Anne has been seeing men wearing rainhats and
sunglasses. She thinks it’s a new weird fad. But at the end of the day, she
realizes they’re all the same man, and he’s been following them. She figures
it’s more like he’s following the kids, because the Harringtons are pretty important.
She tells Stacey, who says they shouldn’t say anything, or they could lose
their jobs. Mary Anne says she’d rather lose the job than the children, but
Stacey just shakes her head. Well. Nice to see where your priorities lie,
Stacey.
Dawn’s throwing a major pity party for herself, saying
Kristy and Jessi have “abandoned” her. Get over yourself, Dawn. Then she freaks
the hell out when someone’s at the door. She actually answers, though. It’s a
boy, her age. He says his name is Richie, and he lives downstairs. He was going
to introduce himself to Stacey, he knows her father. Then he asks if he can
come in; he has a broken ankle and needs to get off of it. Dawn actually lets
him in, but only after she sees his I.D. He asks her why she’s holed up in the
apartment, and she tells him the city makes her nervous. Understatement. So he
goes on a whole spiel about how great New York is, and all about these hidden
gems. Dawn thinks she may even leave the apartment the next day. Doesn’t hurt
that he’s cute, of course.
Claudia and Mal have been drawing boxes for two whole days.
Woo-hoo. So they’re relieved when the class takes a field trip to Rockefeller
Center. Claudia even starts to talk to Mal, but she’s talking to Mac, about
horses and books his daughter’s read. So Claud gets all pissy again. And she’s
not really paying attention to instructions when they get there. She does hear
about how there’s a skating rink in the winter. She can see it in her mind, so
that’s what she decides to draw. But Mac comes up, and is like, that’s not the
fucking assignment! So she draws what she sees, which is the actual assignment,
but she does it too quickly for Mac’s liking. And then when she does slow down,
he doesn’t say anything, She thinks she just can’t win. And then Mal goes off
with Mac to a bookstore, just to rub salt in the wound. Although Mal did ask Claud to come, and she blew her
off. I don’t like bitchy Claudia.
Alright, part two tomorrow!
o
Mary Anne sings “New York, New York, a wonderful
town” instead of “a hell of a town”. But Stacey tells her it’s actually “a he_
_”, written just like that. That was more than enough for me to figure it out
when I was eight. How risqué!
o
My copy has a “win a Baby-sitters Club party
with Ann M. Martin” graphic on the cover. Can you imagine what a riot that must
have been?
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