mallorypike
Sitting For The Papadakis's
If I were thirteen instead of eleven, life would be a picnic...
Posts: 1,636
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Post by mallorypike on Jan 30, 2014 22:13:03 GMT -5
^ I always assumed that they were just random people. After all, there are always random people in the background on BSC book covers. I suppose they're friends of Sheila and everybody's or something?
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supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on Feb 3, 2014 10:16:29 GMT -5
New York diaries would have been really cool, but there are so many plots that take place in New York and with her dad anyways cause it's closer to Stoneybrook than California. I thought of a Cali series as early as the Dawn & Whitney days, but the thought of NYC didn't cross my mind at all though I love the NY books.
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Post by greer on Feb 3, 2014 10:26:32 GMT -5
I don't think they would have let Stacey leave--they had to bring her back the first time because she was the most popular. But maybe a "Gossip Girl"-style series about Laine and her friends would have been interesting. When we see Laine in FF, it seems like she's into some hard living.
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Post by sparklymouse on Feb 3, 2014 16:03:05 GMT -5
But if she was getting her own series then she would still be around for her fans to read about. When she left the first time she was removed from the scene for multiple books at a time. If she was really that popular then I could see kids ditching the BSC books and following Stacey to her own series. I'm talking about her like she was a real person.
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mallorypike
Sitting For The Papadakis's
If I were thirteen instead of eleven, life would be a picnic...
Posts: 1,636
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Post by mallorypike on Feb 3, 2014 16:24:07 GMT -5
The New York diaries do sound interesting. I can do without Dawn in the club (heck, I didn't mind it at all when she moved to California permanently) but I don't know about Stacey- the club just doesn't "feel" complete without her. But I would love to read the New York diaries about Stacey and her friends. Or even about Laine and her friends.
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supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on Feb 10, 2014 8:45:06 GMT -5
Okay if there were a New York city series, they could have been exclusively about her weekend adventures there, or fun projects or events she was involved with. Also, her relationships with her friends over there appeared very toxic, though a new set would have been good for her with occasional appearances from the Parker Academy clique in The Baby Sitters Remember. It would also get redundant very fast though cause of constantly choosing between her dad and mom, with her dad being self-centered most of the time, not always seeing Stacey's best interests.
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Post by candykane on Feb 10, 2014 11:09:53 GMT -5
I finished a reread of this one last night. I thought the "bad girls" wouldn't have been friends with each other in real life. There's one who's a blonde, athletic cheerleader, one with green hair and a nose ring, one who dresses all in black like a goth, one who's grunge with spiky hair, and Andi who's just described as "normal-looking." In most small-town middle schools you wouldn't see kids mixing like that. And even though they're supposed to look and dress so differently, they're all in flannel and jeans on the cover, except for Stacey.
I could have done without the Amy subplot. I read through this thread and I'll join those in the minority who didn't like Amy. I kept reminding myself that she's only six, but I just couldn't relate to her feelings...I was a pretty independent kid who didn't mind being away from my parents at all, so it was hard for me to see things from her POV. It's too bad she never seemed to come around at all and cop to at least having a little bit of fun while she was in Stoneybrook.
Stacey was so shocked about the liquor, but didn't seem to care that much when Sheila started passing around a cigarette. Maybe she just kept quiet so they wouldn't think she was an even bigger dork.
To me, Stacey's decision to rejoin the BSC had a very "she came crawling back" feel to it. It seemed much more about her not wanting to be a friendless loser and less about actually missing them.
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Post by booboobrewer on Feb 10, 2014 16:32:26 GMT -5
Yeah, the bad girls all being friends was strange. But I never thought of Sheila as a perky blonde like Stacey, due to her pic on the cover. I thought of her as a grunge girl...who just happened to cheer.
Andi seemed like the type Stacey would befriend for sure...didn't she bring Stacey into the group?
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celaeno
Sitting For The Papadakis's
I have to share a room with Vanessa
Posts: 1,514
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Post by celaeno on Feb 10, 2014 17:32:05 GMT -5
The mix of girls who made up the Bad Girls was actually something I really liked and found surprisingly refreshing. IMO, children's books and YA books greatly exaggerate the extent to which cliques stick together (like "But I'm a cheerleader; I wouldn't deign to speak to a geek/goth/anyone else!"). When I got to middle school and high school, I was surprised that cliques weren't as demarcated as I had been led to believe in books. The cheerleaders cheered together, but it's not like they were one group of friends that did everything together. Cheerleaders could be a smart, dumb, preppy, popular, bad, or whatever, and the same went for most of the other cliques.
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mallorypike
Sitting For The Papadakis's
If I were thirteen instead of eleven, life would be a picnic...
Posts: 1,636
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Post by mallorypike on Feb 10, 2014 17:36:34 GMT -5
^ When I went to middle school, I was so scared that I would struggle making friends because all of the cliques. While there are a few cliques, there are mostly groups of different people. I think TV and books exaggerate middle school/high school cliques.
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scrounge
Sitter-In-Training
Boo and bullfrogs!
Posts: 414
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Post by scrounge on Feb 10, 2014 20:27:08 GMT -5
Not only could I have done without the Amy subplot, I get annoyed at the whole bit with Stacey working at the kid center at the department store. She's thirteen. I always start to overthink that and figure out if there could be loopholes making it legal and it takes me out of the story. I get more annoyed with Amy's parents than with Amy herself though. It seems really thoughtless to dump her on relatives in a strange town.
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Amalia
Sitting For The Braddocks
Her Original Point of View
Posts: 3,664
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Post by Amalia on Feb 10, 2014 21:21:24 GMT -5
^ The loophole could be that she gets paid "under the table (cash)" or her payments could be in merchandise like clothes & jewelry.
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supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on Feb 11, 2014 8:23:19 GMT -5
Or they pay her mother, who did pull strings after all, and she gives Stacey the money after.
I thought it was dumb bringing Amy to a strange town with strange people to her too, if they were going to leave her behind, at least leaving her with someone she already knows would have helped. It really does sound like Mary Anne and Dawn were trying so hard to plan a good stay for her.
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Post by greer on Feb 11, 2014 8:41:36 GMT -5
Considering that Laine worked as a cashier at a boutique and specifically mentioned receiving a paycheck, and Logan was gainfully employed as a busboy at a popular restaurant with nary a objection being raised, I think we can assume the BSC universe has an entirely different attitude toward child labor, or we can chalk it up to the oft-used tag in BSC Snark: "Things Ann Knows Nothing About."
It is interesting to note that in CA Diaries, it is specifically mentioned that Sunny can work at her dad's store only because her dad is the owner, and Ducky can work there because he is sixteen and old enough to work.
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supprazz
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,106
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Post by supprazz on Feb 11, 2014 11:49:41 GMT -5
CA Diaries are totally different from BSC it seems, would like to read them at some point if I come across them.
For years I've been realizing more and more (let's say junior high was the onset) how little Ann knew though she still does know a lot...I can see why her teaching career didn't work out. Sorry guys. BSC is about her time of growing up put into a contemporary world, and what she imagined her ideal world to be like.
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