It's time for another trip to Stoneybrook. We've covered Kristy, then Claudia, so it's Stacey's turn now. We know some stuff about her with the two books. She has diabetes which is something that she's worried about, especially with people knowing. She recently moved to Stoneybrook with her family, but has gone back to New York on a few occasions for health concerns. So, we know some truths about Stacey. But this book promises some more, so let's see what else we can learn with The Truth About Stacey.
We open with the club trying to prepare for when Mrs. Newton has her new baby in three months. As in what to do when Mrs. Newton goes into labor and if any of them will be available to watch her kids. This is followed by the general preamble to bring new readers up to speed, though with more focus on Stacey as she's our narrator. As the girls talk over this situation, Claudia's sister Janine hands them something. A flyer for The Baby-Sitters Agency. It appears there's a rival baby-sitting organization in Stoneybrook. Run by Liz Lewis and Michelle Patterson, two eighth graders who also outclass the girls by being able to stay later then they can.
So now with competition on their hands, the girls need to find out how Liz and Michelle can offer a better experience than they can. And that plan is making a phony phone call for a baby-sitting job. Should be easy, right? Kristy calls as "Candy Kane" and that she's going out with a high schooler named Winston Churchill and need a sitter. It's a hokey attempt, but it's enough for them to realize how this agency works. Liz and Michelle get the calls, then hire the baby-sitters afterward. All high schoolers, some even boys and again, they can stay out later. While the girls try to be optimistic, it's also the first time they realize their club is in real danger.
Stacey heads home and is still bothered by the issue with the Baby-Sitting Agency. We learn a bit about her. How she's had her diabetes fist manifest itself a year prior. From how she could eat a lot and not gain weight, to other issues like being weak and tired more than usual. This is also our moment to teach just what diabetes is to the reader and again it's handled well. We learn more about Stacey. How she used to live in an apartment in New York with her parents. She's an only child and everything seemed fine. Then the diabetes news came followed by learning that her parents were unable to have another child.
So the fear of what could happen to Stacey became enough that they sort of became helicopter parents, constantly checking in to make sure she's safe and taking her to the doctor at any moment's notice, which in turn lost Stacey a lot of her friends. Particularly one with her then best friend Laine Cummings over an issue involving Stacey wetting the bed, yet not talking about the diabetes. That she kept from pretty much everyone. Once when Stacey fainted in school due to diabetic shock, she had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. And neither Laine, nor any of her old friends visited. This happened a few more times to which Laine referred to Stacey as being a hypochondriac, making all of this up. And that was the final straw with Stacey to move on from her. And move the family did as well as they soon ended up in Stoneybrook.
We move from this to Stacey obsessing over boys. Kristy's brother Sam and Pete Black, who she's currently with since the Halloween Hop of our last book. This is interrupted by her mother checking up on her and saying that Stacey has to go to New York to undergo some tests from a doctor that her uncle Eric saw on a TV, so while I know this book is pre-Simpsons, I just think of Dr. Nick. Stacey's not happy since she already has two doctors, and a third that neither doctor recommended, which, yeah, I see her point on this. But we put a pin on that for now as Kristy calls for a meeting to get us back on track to the issue with the Agency.
So the meeting goes underway and the suggestions from Kristy include doing housework, having discounts and a "Kid-Kit" which is essentially bringing new things with them for the kid to play with. Sort of by the old mindset of how your friend would always seem to have way cooler stuff than you did. Claudia isn't too fond of a lot of these ideas, particularly when Kristy is about to suggest Janine should babysit and we've established early on Claudia's issues with her super genius sister haven't been fully settled yet. That pin from last book's not ready to be pulled just yet. To the point of saying if this is what they have to go through, then the club may as well be a lost cause, which puts Stacey in a panic. Could she be about to lose her social circle yet again? But that's quickly quelled by going with just the kid kits and last resorts like Janine.
Stacey babysits a girl named Charlotte Johannsen and shows her the kid-kit, which includes a game called Spill and Spell which I never heard of before this. Seems like a Boggle/Yahtzee hybrid? But despite that, they head out for a walk downtown instead, where they end up in a candy store, not unlike several of the covers depict. The store has its Christmas stuff up five weeks early, which seems slow in comparison to modern times. You see Santa and Frosty hanging around while they still have the Halloween stuff out for sale. They then head to the playground where Charlotte gets picked on and called "teacher's pet". She won't elaborate on why she's being so ostracized by her classmates, at least not yet. But as they head back home, they get stopped by Liz Lewis who gives Charlotte a balloon with the Baby-Sitters Agency information written on it. Balloon advertising. My god. The sweetest plum.
Kristy and Stacey head to her house, Kristy not happy about being outshined by balloons. They see that not only is Kristy's mom home, but Jamie Newton, Mrs. Newton's son as Mrs. Newton is having the baby at that very moment. Which given everything dropped on the reader the last four chapters you could be forgiven for forgetting about in the grand scheme. With Mrs. Newton in labor and Mrs. Thomas having to leave, that leaves Kristy baby-sitting Jamie until everything's settled. So their plan? Hold Jamie a Big Brother party and invite several kids over. Say what you will about the agency and their balloon based advertising, but what other club's going to give your three year old a raging party?
They soon get the news that Mrs. Newton gave birth to a girl named Lucy Jane and all is good. Or at least it seemed to be until Jamie leaves in a panic, upset because he got the news that Kristy won't be his baby-sitter anymore as his parents are considering the Baby-Sitters Agency given the need for an older sitter. So once again, everything is tying into the Agency throwing a spanner into the girls' plans. Despite knowing the reasoning for why the Newtons would go with the older baby-sitters, Stacey still sees this as a bit of a betrayal of trust. Like, yeah, these girls throw their son a fun shindig to boost his spirits and they twist the knife like that? The Agency is messing with them now and Stacey is ready for war.
Turns out the Agency has been going hard on the advertising. And not just in the balloon variety, but flyers offering jobs for baby-sitters, provided part of the money they earn goes to the Agency themselves. But it's still a tempting offer. Though Mary Anne mentions that this doesn't mean quality as the job could go to someone who is more careless or less qualified, but it wouldn't matter to Liz or Michelle as long as the money comes. Quantity over quality. Capitol over care. Stacey tries optimism, but that fails once the girls literally see a recruitment table for the agency in the school hallway. Good lord, they seemed to have covered all the bases at this point. The girls feel deflated, but Kristy isn't ready to be defeated. If the agency is recruiting, so too shall the Baby-Sitters Club.
Thanksgiving rolls by and we get a scene with Stacey at the Washington Mall. And I know I bring it up every time with these books, but my god do I miss 80s/90s malls. Yes, a capitalist nightmare that was always going to crumble sooner or later, but the stores, the splendor. A loiterer's dream made manifest. There's an arcade AND a petting zoo. A petting zoo, you guys! During this trip, Stacey's parents mention that now her doctor's stay will be for five days, but they can enjoy the nights in New York and go to see a musical called Paris Magic, which is enough for Stacey to be a little more fine with all of this. Well, that is until she learns this doctor, Dr. Barnes, is a holistic doctor, making her worry a bit. Note that they discuss this during lunch at the mall where Mrs. McGill is straight up drinking a glass of wine like it's nobody's business.
While babysitting Charlotte, Stacey asks Mrs. Johannsen, a doctor herself, about Dr. Barnes, to which we learn dude is a faith healer. Oh. Oh is Stacey essentially about to be treated by a would-be Peter Popoff? Stacey's now more worried, especially if her parents buy into whatever Barnes offers, even if that means changing schools. Back to the advertising front, Kristy has the girls wear sandwich boards advertising hires for the club. While interviewing they get what they expected. A lot of baby-sitters who admit to not really interacting with the kid that much and not spending that time like the club does. But at least Kristy managed to get two to join. Janet Gates and Leslie Howard. These two defected from the agency and want to join the Baby-Sitters Club. This is sure to go great. It's not like the girls are walking into a setup right?... r-Right?
After visiting the Newtons and getting the full confirmation of the agency taking up most of the jobs there, they have their meeting with Janet and Leslie. They sound like they barely have done much baby-sitting, but the girls seem to fall for it. And sure enough, when they need the two for jobs, they don't show up. They didn't even show up for the jobs they were given. So, as expected. The girls fell for a trap. Leslie and Janet were planted to ensure the club looks bad and unreliable. Got to admit, they really have their bases covered in doing everything possible to mess with these girls. This already seemed a losing war back at the balloon ads, but here we are.
And that poor quality from the agency is affecting the kids being babysat as Jamie mentions how they just ignore him as well. He makes mention that they smoke and do a lot of less favorable things as well. So at least the girls are getting some ammunition in this fight. While baby-sitting Charlotte again, she gets more info about the agency and how her sitters only do it for the money. Mrs. Johannsen even offers to help Stacey with the Dr. Barnes issue. Later, Stacey finds Jamie playing out in the street by himself even while being babysat which, like, I don't care how laissez-faire your baby-sitting approach is. That kid gets hit by a car or kidnapped and you're done like dinner.
So now the club at least knows just how poor a job this agency is doing. They worry that by telling what's going on they'll look petty or fabricating the situation due to competition. But after talking with their families, they choose to talk to Mrs. Newton upfront about everything going on. And she thanks them for that info. She'll still get an older sitter for those jobs but she'll avoid the agency and tell the other parents the same before talking with the agency's parents. Though Stacey suggests the club talk to Liz and Michelle.
The girls finally confront Liz and Michelle and bring up how they almost got Jamie killed. They also learn these girls know squat about the kids they babysit, so it's kind of a victory, but too early to tell. Stacey meanwhile has to get ready to go to New York, but learns they'll be staying with Laine's family, and given their past, this is another not ideal thing for her in a book filled with not ideal things for her. The next day she heads to the doctor. After which she gives her parents a note from Mrs. Johannsen about a better doctor, Dr. Graham, who actually does study in treating diabetes. He says that she's doing fine and assures her that she's in good hands with the system she currently has, and that Dr. Barnes does seem to be bilking them, even if it won't hurt Stacey. So that conflict's resolved.
Next up is resolving things with Laine and the two seem to rekindle. Given Stacey tried to hide her info, word got spread that she was contagious and Laine fell for that. So they at least rekindle their friendship as both realize they weren't handling things the ideal way. Stacey returns to Stoneybrook and when meeting with the club sees they have jobs again. Turns out the agency is out of business so they're the only game in town again. Heck, Charlotte, who was having problems getting along with her second grade class due to her smarts, got brought up to third grade and is doing better. So mega happy ending for everybody!
The club actually wants to involve themselves with the kids they watch. The agency is about the money, kid be damned. So the book presents this conflict like the mom and pop shop versus the mega mart. Which given my gushing over the mall, does sadly work in their favor. But when that low quality can be disastrous, that's when it becomes an issue. Again, you got a three year old kid out in the front yard on his own with no supervision playing in a street. Like, even in the 80s that's messed up. It speaks to the laziness of the corporate product to offer cheap quality with no regard to safety. It's the profit. Which contrasts to the club who treat the kids like their own family. I mean, you might save a few bucks to hire someone else, but how many baby-sitters are going to throw a child a party to raise their spirits? No amount of balloon ads are going to top that.
I love the idea of the Baby-Sitters Agency, although I will admit it gets a bit too silly. And I don't just mean the balloon ads. I mean, when we finally meet Liz and Michelle I half expected them to pull out prop mustaches just to twirl them. I kind of wish we had a bit more with them, to at least understand their reasons for trying to bump off the club like they did, right down to literally having two girls act as saboteurs to give the club a bad name. But given what we know of how the agency handles things, we get enough that we know they aren't the best people. And like the balloons for example, they have money to throw around. So do they even need that extra money in the first place if they're that well off in providing advertising?
On to the other topic of Stacey's diabetes, the Truth that the title posits, it's again handled really well. I like how they set up Stacey's past, her concerns over people knowing, which again feel like the issues a kid would have. That feeling of being ostracized. But how that not being open didn't help her either. How it seemed to cost her in the end with how her friendship with Laine ended. It's good to see them back on good terms. Granted, the outcome is a bit hokey, a bit "resolved really easily", but that's how Baby-Sitters Club seems to roll. Leaving the reader with optimism instead of things to really worry about. You aren't getting what you'd get in Animorphs for example and end a book with our heroes suffering more mental trauma.
The side plot with Dr. Barnes is also interesting. While the book doesn't fully condemn faith healing, they point out that there seems to be something rather scandalous about how Dr. Barnes does it. Which makes me wonder if a lot of this was based off of the Peter Popoff scandal that would have been prominent around the time this book was released. For those unaware, Peter Popoff was once a TV televangelist and faith healer who was ultimately found out to be a fraud and a massive scumbag. But of course, like they all seem to, he came back into prominence hocking "miracle water" and proclaiming himself a prophet. I don't know if this was exactly Martin's intention to base Dr. Barnes off of, given he isn't a televangelist despite the ads, but it also still adds up.
Overall, this was a strong book. It has to deal with a sensitive topic and does its best to handle it with enough respect and grace while still appealing to the young audience. It gives you respect for Stacey in how she handles things and wants that control in handling her diabetes including who she thinks should treat her. And the book includes a fun villain for the book in the agency. One that does end up ultimately defeated, so you don't have to worry about any phantom caller like in our last book. Save for a bit too much of a super wholesome wrap-up, this may be my favorite book so far. You're winning me over Baby-Sitters Club. The Truth About Stacey gets an A.
RELATABLE REFERENCES
Milky Way Bars
Chutes and Ladders
Spill and Spell
The Cricket in New York
Tucker's Countryside
Harry Cat's Pet Puppy
The Little Engine That Could
Sesame Street
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Where the Wild Things Are
Candyland
Scrabble
M&Ms
Diet Coke
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