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Post by merrymelody on Jun 10, 2020 17:04:30 GMT -5
Tbh, I was surprised more of the sitters weren't chicken of the city. They came from a pretty posh place (everyone in their town's a lawyer and all, lol) and even if they were only visiting Stacey's favourite fancy parts, there's gonna be scuzziness to most huge cities. I mean, I like New York (although I've only visited once) but the first thing I saw when I was there was some dude spitting out teeth in Central Park. (I work with young people, and we took some to London last year. Had a great time, but literally, we step off the coach and theres a giant pile of human crap on the pavement. Glamorous!) That, and Dawn's place in LA seemed super tame (to the point where everyone's blonde like Village of the Damned!) She was from California, but I never got the idea she'd seen much of L.A., they seemed to have an almost gated community in her neighbourhood.
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Post by wistfuldreamer86 on Jun 28, 2020 9:49:11 GMT -5
New York would scare me. I've always lived in pretty rural areas and places like Tampa are huge to me. So I can't imagine going to NYC, it's hard to wrap my mind around the size of it. And New York had a lot more crime back when these books were being written, didn't it? Dawn's fears aren't unrealistic but kind of weird considering she's from a huge area in California. I'd expect the other girls to be more timid than they actually are.
This was a fun book but not as fun as the first NYC book. Jessi's first kiss with Quint was super cute!
I liked that Mallory ended up being content with her own type of drawing. It really fits her character. And I'm glad that Claudia was depicted as being a jerk to Mal for no reason and that she realized she was wrong. Mallory was really cool about it.
Kristy's plot was kind of just there for me. Same with Stacey and Mary Anne's. They really didn't do anything that out of the ordinary. And the "mystery" was pretty obvious. I would've liked to see more bonding with MA and Stacey since they don't share a lot of scenes in the regular series.
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swizzles
New To Stoneybrook
Claudia Kishi ruels ok
Posts: 83
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Post by swizzles on Sept 23, 2020 8:57:31 GMT -5
Always fun to stumble upon your own post from 12 years ago on this thread! I had noted then how rude it was of Kristy to not even apologise to Mrs Cummings about the foiled hiding Sonny attempt. But on my re-read this time, what annoyed me infinitely more was Dawn wasting a whole three days cooped up in Stacey’s dad’s apartment. And Kristy spending her first two days babysitting her! Kristy is clearly a better friend than I will ever be. Did she even get to see a game like she wanted?!! It may well just be a function of my type A personality, but I would have such a huge list of places to visit in NY, I can’t imagine wasting all that time. Don’t get me wrong, a conscious decision to take it slow and eg while away a whole day sitting and reading in Central Park or something makes perfect sense. But to feel unable to do anything seems like a colossal waste. I am now going to contradict myself - the last time I visited NYC I was so overwhelmed by how much I wanted to do that I did briefly contemplate forgetting the whole thing and staying in my hotel. Ok I contemplated it for 5 minutes. Maybe this wouldn’t have worked in the time period, but if this was a modern book, this would have been a great opportunity to discuss mental health issues and therapeutic help that can alleviate anxiety! Poor Dawn. Ultimately however the description of her NYC exploration with Richie ended up being my favourite!
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Sept 23, 2020 14:11:17 GMT -5
I don’t know if this point has been made in this thread yet, but why are the girls making a big deal out of going to New York? I get it’s a vacation and all but they live about an hour from the city. Whatever they don’t do now they can do later. Later in the series Mary Anne, Dawn, and Sunny go off by themselves to the city and so does Abby. Heck the entire BSC visits Stacey at the hospital in book 43.
Maybe it’s just a novelty thing I don’t get but someone enlighten me please.
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Sept 23, 2020 15:41:16 GMT -5
I don’t know if this point has been made in this thread yet, but why are the girls making a big deal out of going to New York? I get it’s a vacation and all but they live about an hour from the city. Whatever they don’t do now they can do later. Later in the series Mary Anne, Dawn, and Sunny go off by themselves to the city and so does Abby. Heck the entire BSC visits Stacey at the hospital in book 43. Maybe it’s just a novelty thing I don’t get but someone enlighten me please. I grew up about an hour outside of NYC. It was super easy to get there, all I had to do was hop on a train. But at the same time, it was still a fun novelty for me because I always spent my whole time there doing fun things. Even now when I visit home, I try to visit the city at least once. So while Stoneybrook is relatively close by, I can see why it would be a huge deal to the girls. I haven't read this one in awhile but I'm going to echo my first comment on this from years ago. Like we established, Stoneybrook is part of metro NYC. Which is why it felt really ridiculous to me that Stacey and her mom had to reassure everyone else's relatives that they'd be fine. I remember Elizabeth and Watson and Nannie acting terrified. Rats! Cockroaches! Have they never seen any of those in Stoneybrook? I also know that NYC was a grittier, less family-friendly place in the early 90s than it is now. But I thought the overreacting from the families and Dawn was still ridiculous. Stacey was taking them to the most touristy spots and those places aren't terrifying. I miss FAO Schwarz. I went there for the first time as a child and it really was mind-blowing. So many extravagant toys and gigantic stuffed animals! My favorite was the Barbie department because it was HUGE and pink and had fountains filled with Barbie shoes, it was amazing. Alistair and Rowena were stereotypically posh British children, weren't they? Also why were they dressed like Edwardian children, circa 1900? Is that a thing that rich British families do?
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Sept 23, 2020 16:39:54 GMT -5
I don’t know if this point has been made in this thread yet, but why are the girls making a big deal out of going to New York? I get it’s a vacation and all but they live about an hour from the city. Whatever they don’t do now they can do later. Later in the series Mary Anne, Dawn, and Sunny go off by themselves to the city and so does Abby. Heck the entire BSC visits Stacey at the hospital in book 43. Maybe it’s just a novelty thing I don’t get but someone enlighten me please. I grew up about an hour outside of NYC. It was super easy to get there, all I had to do was hop on a train. But at the same time, it was still a fun novelty for me because I always spent my whole time there doing fun things. Even now when I visit home, I try to visit the city at least once. So while Stoneybrook is relatively close by, I can see why it would be a huge deal to the girls. I haven't read this one in awhile but I'm going to echo my first comment on this from years ago. Like we established, Stoneybrook is part of metro NYC. Which is why it felt really ridiculous to me that Stacey and her mom had to reassure everyone else's relatives that they'd be fine. I remember Elizabeth and Watson and Nannie acting terrified. Rats! Cockroaches! Have they never seen any of those in Stoneybrook? I also know that NYC was a grittier, less family-friendly place in the early 90s than it is now. But I thought the overreacting from the families and Dawn was still ridiculous. Stacey was taking them to the most touristy spots and those places aren't terrifying. I miss FAO Schwarz. I went there for the first time as a child and it really was mind-blowing. So many extravagant toys and gigantic stuffed animals! My favorite was the Barbie department because it was HUGE and pink and had fountains filled with Barbie shoes, it was amazing. Alistair and Rowena were stereotypically posh British children, weren't they? Also why were they dressed like Edwardian children, circa 1900? Is that a thing that rich British families do? Ah That makes sense, at least we know that they'll go to new york again. That sounds crazy, I was only in New York once but I don't think they had to worry about something happening to the girls, they were with a native to the area and pretty smart. I wish I got to see FAO Schwarz before it was gone, but that never happened. As for Alistair and Rowena, it sounds like they dress a little like Kate Middleton and Prince Williams kids but the 90s version lol
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Post by m0drnmoonlight on Sept 23, 2020 16:57:15 GMT -5
I grew up about an hour outside of NYC. It was super easy to get there, all I had to do was hop on a train. But at the same time, it was still a fun novelty for me because I always spent my whole time there doing fun things. Even now when I visit home, I try to visit the city at least once. So while Stoneybrook is relatively close by, I can see why it would be a huge deal to the girls. I haven't read this one in awhile but I'm going to echo my first comment on this from years ago. Like we established, Stoneybrook is part of metro NYC. Which is why it felt really ridiculous to me that Stacey and her mom had to reassure everyone else's relatives that they'd be fine. I remember Elizabeth and Watson and Nannie acting terrified. Rats! Cockroaches! Have they never seen any of those in Stoneybrook? I also know that NYC was a grittier, less family-friendly place in the early 90s than it is now. But I thought the overreacting from the families and Dawn was still ridiculous. Stacey was taking them to the most touristy spots and those places aren't terrifying. I miss FAO Schwarz. I went there for the first time as a child and it really was mind-blowing. So many extravagant toys and gigantic stuffed animals! My favorite was the Barbie department because it was HUGE and pink and had fountains filled with Barbie shoes, it was amazing. Alistair and Rowena were stereotypically posh British children, weren't they? Also why were they dressed like Edwardian children, circa 1900? Is that a thing that rich British families do? Ah That makes sense, at least we know that they'll go to new york again. That sounds crazy, I was only in New York once but I don't think they had to worry about something happening to the girls, they were with a native to the area and pretty smart. I wish I got to see FAO Schwarz before it was gone, but that never happened. As for Alistair and Rowena, it sounds like they dress a little like Kate Middleton and Prince Williams kids but the 90s version lol They really didn't have anything to worry about. Like you said, Stacey was their guide and they were sticking to touristy spots. I still would have loved for them to go off the beaten path and have Stacey take them somewhere different but I guess that wouldn't be as fun to read about. Ok, mentioning they dress like William and Kate's kids make sense. I was picturing like Jane and Michael from Mary Poppins with sailor suits and straw hats XD
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cnj
Sitting For The Papadakis's
Posts: 1,708
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Post by cnj on Jun 22, 2021 23:35:22 GMT -5
I'm glad that later books had NYC seem like less of a novelty and more of a routine, fun trip.
And I think their future visits to NYC were less touristy.
I think in Mary Anne and the Little Princess, they eat at restaurants that are off the tourist route.
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Post by CharlotteTJohanssen on Jun 29, 2021 15:17:10 GMT -5
I’ve been trying to read this one, but I think they glamorize nyc way too much. It’s also very overrated. Glad Richie showed dawn other parts of the city that Stacey never did.
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Post by anzuhana on Jun 29, 2021 15:25:20 GMT -5
^ People forget that NYC is more than just Manhattan. It's just like Aunt Cecelia telling Jessi that Brooklyn is part of NYC when she asked if it's near the city.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jun 29, 2021 16:12:40 GMT -5
I have family in Brooklyn. The hustle and bustle of Manhattan is fun but can certainly feel claustrophobic at times.
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Post by anzuhana on Jun 29, 2021 18:02:04 GMT -5
Most people live in the outer boroughs, with the most populated being Brooklyn. I've seen some really small apartments in Manhattan on YouTube and it's like "Why?"
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cnj
Sitting For The Papadakis's
Posts: 1,708
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Post by cnj on Jul 1, 2021 3:41:04 GMT -5
Most people live in the outer boroughs, with the most populated being Brooklyn. I've seen some really small apartments in Manhattan on YouTube and it's like "Why?" So true...I live close to one of the outer boroughs, not in the middle of Manhattan. I actually imagine Mary Anne as an adult living in a duplex close to an outer borough also, perhaps near SoHo. There are millions of small apartments all over New York City. I live in one of them and so do most of my neighbors. I think the later books cooled down on NYC and didn't overglamourize it too much. I still think New York City is great...you can walk almost everywhere, you don't need a car, even in many of the surrounding outskirts. DC is very similar...lots of people mistake DC as being nothing but a wad of government building mixed with a few ghettos, but it's far more than that. And in DC, you don't need a car either...I have several friends who live there, including a lady who went to high school with me. In the later books, I did gather that Stacey had introduced the rest of the BSC to the less glamourous, more everyday life of New York, but it wasn't directly mentioned in the books. Even her dad's apartment is not any fancy condominium, but a simple, down-to-Earth apartment. By the later BSC books, visiting the Big Apple had become routine for the BSC. I imagine that by high school, they spent some weekends exploring the SoHo area, Chinatown, Brooklyn, Queens and the Harlem areas. Who knows, I can imagine the BSC exploring Spanish Harlem and getting lunch from an international market there. My grandmum and aunt lived in Spanish Harlem for many years. A couple of my cousins still lives there...almost everyone speaks Spanish there. Perhaps the BSC befriended a few girls their age in high school in NYC and visited a few surrounding suburbs. That I can completely imagine...Mary Anne especially would love NYC even more.
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Post by oldmeanie on Sept 21, 2022 14:17:09 GMT -5
I thought I commented on this one. They actually played the song "New York, New York" at my work yesterday and it made me think of this book. BTW, in this version, the lyric goes: "New York, New York, it's a wonderful town," not "helluva town."
I loved this one when I was younger (at least enough that I kept the physical copy), but as an adult, it's just... all right. The only plots that stood out to me were Claudiq's and Mallory's. I thought that was kind of a unique pairing and a cool idea for them to take a professional art class. We don't get to see the artsy side of Mal much (aside from writing, but you know what I mean). Claud WAS very bitchy to Mal, but I sort of get it. I actually think that Mac was unfair to Mallory by leading her to belive she was a great artist. Not cool, plus she's only 11! I didn't like that he basically told her she didn't have Claud's talent and implied that she wasn't good enough to illustrate books. Again, she's only 11. Plenty of time to improve.
The other plots were just okay. Not terrible, not great, just okay. I actually liked Dawn's friendship with Ritchie, but it is TOTALLY WEIRD to me that she invited him into Ed's apartment. Also totally weird that she cleaned and rearranged it. Wtf Dawn. I'm wondering why she went tbh.
She tries chocolate and admits it's "fabulous." I wonder why she's against chocolate; dark chocolate is actually pretty healthy.
Kristy's plot bored other people, but I didn't mind it. It was VERY rude for her to sneak Sonny in, though. The parts with Jessi creating a diversion were pretty funny, though.
Jessi actually had an interesting plot for once! I'm not sure if I like Quint or not. He's nice enough yes, but I'm not sure he's a realistic 11 year old boy. I liked his family, though, and thought it was cool that they hung out and watched movies. That IS something 11 year olds would do together.
I hate to admit it, but I just didn't care for Stacey and Mary Anne's plot. It just bored me and I have no idea why either the parents didn't tell them about the undercover bodyguard or why Mary Anne didn't bring up that someone was (supposedly) stalking the children. It's just beyond ridiculous to me that their sitters weren't told about him.
Even though I liked this book, I always hated that in the end, when they go to the show, they all eat the same dinner and wear pretty much the same outfit. Boringgggg. I thought the point of the BSC was that the girls were so different but were close friends anyway. Also, this is the most glaring example of inconsistencies with Dawn's diet. She tells Ritchie that she doesn't eat meat when they go to the taco truck, but eats chicken at the dinner. It's just BAD when that's in the same book!
So yeah, this one's a mid-tier Super Special for me.
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Post by fernmariposa919 on Feb 26, 2023 17:03:20 GMT -5
I don’t know if this point has been made in this thread yet, but why are the girls making a big deal out of going to New York? I get it’s a vacation and all but they live about an hour from the city. Whatever they don’t do now they can do later. Later in the series Mary Anne, Dawn, and Sunny go off by themselves to the city and so does Abby. Heck the entire BSC visits Stacey at the hospital in book 43. Maybe it’s just a novelty thing I don’t get but someone enlighten me please. This is something I don't understand either and point out in my review. Look, I get it's NYC and I'm sure it's fun and exciting to visit (I've only been there once and I loved it!), but it makes no sense that these girls are going there for two weeks when the literally live an hour away by train. I really wanted to like this Super Special. After I visited NYC back in 2004, I bought this book off e-bay because I hadn't read it since it was first published in the early '90s, but after being to New York and reading it, meh, I thought it was boring. Here is my review of it: thebookshelfofsara.blogspot.com/2021/03/welcome-to-new-york-its-been-waiting.html
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