Sleepover Friends #3: Kate's Surprise

By Susan Saunders. Published 1987.

Kate’s birthday is coming up, and Patti, Stephanie, and Lauren are planning on giving her a surprise party.  Even though at the beginning of the book Kate says she doesn’t like surprise parties, and they’re never really a surprise, Stephanie says they should continue with their plans.

They also plan on going in together to buy her one big present, rather than a few little ones. They each make separate excuses as to why they can’t hang out with Kate, and go to the mall to figure out their present. There’s a new pet store, and in the window there’s an adorable calico kitten. Stephanie says Kate used to have one back in the city, but it died. She’s sure she’d love it. They check on the price, and it’s $40, more than they have. They’ll have to come up with the rest of the money. On the way out of the mall, they run into Kate. Oops.

The girls pick up a couple of jobs around the neighborhood, like washing cars and weeding gardens. Unfortunately, they also keep running into Kate, and she starts acting funny around them. Oops again.

When they raise enough money, they go to buy the kitten, only to find out it has just been sold. Well, shit.

There’s a party the girls are all invited to on a Friday night, so they go to that before their sleepover. When Kate shows up to Lauren’s house before the party, she’s not dressed like the other girls. And when they do get to the party, they find Kate is dressed like Jenny and Tracy, two other girls in their class. Then after the party, Kate goes home instead of spending the night, after yelling at them all that Jenny has been acting more like a friend than they have been.

So the other girls have finally freaking figured out something is wrong. They decide to fix it by going ahead and having the surprise early, the next day. When they wake up, Lauren’s mom is gone. When she gets back, she has a box of four kittens, including a calico. She couldn’t let the other three go to the pound.

Now that they have their present, for free, they start planning the rest of the surprise, and they have money to make it good. They figure Kate won’t let them in, but she will let in a deliveryman. They decide to start with a singing telegram, then a little while later an ice cream cake, then a heart shaped pizza. After those are delivered, they figure they can slip in themselves with balloons and the kitten.

Of course, their plan goes off without a hitch, aside from the singing telegram being terrible, but it makes Kate laugh, so it’s all good. It sounds like a pretty kickass birthday to me. The girls make up, and Kate admits she was definitely surprised.

o   The girls think about watching a movie called Beach Party Bongos. That sounds dirty to me.

o   I appreciate the girls’ relationships with the parents. They actually get in trouble for sneaking outside, and it’s remembered the next day. The girls thank the parents for breakfast and for having them over. They asked Kate’s mom’s permission first about the kitten. It’s a far cry from some other series, and I just think it’s nice.

o   It’s never said what happens to the other three kittens, but I have to assume each of the girls gets one. Maybe it will say in the next book.

BSC #3: The Truth About Stacey

Written by Ann M. Martin. Published December 1986.

Stacey is looking awesomely 80's here.

The BSC has some competition. Two eighth-grade girls have started The Baby-Sitters Agency. They recruit even older kids, who can stay out later than the BSC girls. This is also a problem because Jamie Newton’s sister, Lucy, was just born, and Mrs. Newton thinks the BSC is too young to take care of her. How often are parents of newborns running off on their kids, anyway?

The girls try to do their best to compete with the new agency, but in the end The Baby-Sitters Agency take care of their downfall on their own. They turn out to just watch tv, smoke cigarettes, invite their boyfriends over, and let a three-year-old play out next to the street. The girls encourage the kids to tell their parents about how unhappy they are with the new sitters, and they tell Mrs. Newton themselves when they find Jamie out by the street. Mrs. Newton calls around to the other parents and badmouths The Baby-Sitters Agency, and all is well again.

Away from the club, Stacey’s parents are unnecessarily freaking out over Stacey’s diabetes. She really seems to have a pretty good handle on it. But they insist on taking her to a new doctor in New York, even though she already has a doctor in Stoneybrook and another in the city. But they want to take her to this new one, making her miss out on school. This doctor is a holistic doctor, who’s been on tv and had interviews in magazines, which impresses Stacey’s parents.

Stacey is wary of this new guy, and thinks it should be discussed with her current doctors first, but her parents don’t agree. What Stacey does do is talk to Dr. Johanssen when she’s there to sit for Charlotte. Dr. Johanssen has heard of him, and pretty much calls him a quack.

Stacey comes up with a plan, with a little help from Dr. Johanssen. She goes to her first day at the new doctor’s as planned, but then has a surprise appointment at yet another doctor’s, that Dr. Johanssen set up for her. This guy has a lot of degrees, and Stacey’s mom has heard of him, so that goes a long way with her parents. Dr. Graham seems like a nice guy, and just asks Stacey a lot of questions. He figures out that Stacey’s only true problem is that she doesn’t feel like she has enough control over taking care of her diabetes, and he says the other doctor is a “load of bunk.” Which turns out to be ok with her parents, they were starting to feel a little uneasy with what they had seen earlier that day.

While in the city, The McGills are staying with their old friends, the Cummings. Which means Stacey has to share a room with Her Royal Meanness, Laine. At least Stacey’s parents have FINALLY told their closest friends about Stacey’s diabetes. Took you long enough. Things are frosty between Laine and Stacey at first, but eventually they do make up. But don’t worry, that won’t last all that long.

o   At the beginning of the book: “The author would like to thank Dr. Claudia Werner for her sensitive evaluation of the manuscript.” I think that’s a bit much. Dr. Werner is also the name of Stacey’s legit New York doctor.

o   Kristy starts to come into her own in this book. While she’s not in director’s chair quite yet, she does start rocking the visor and clipboard during one of their many emergency meetings.

o   Stacey forgets how much more expensive things are in New York. A small Tab and popcorn cost $1.75 compared to $0.95 in Stoneybrook. Oh, 1986. You’re adorable.