Stacey's Choice is the 58th book in The Baby-Sitters Club series. Stacey is forced to choose between her parents again when her mother is sick and her father has an important event.
Back Cover Summary
Since Stacey's parents got divorced it hasn't been easy. Stacey hates being put in the middle of them. And even though she gets to see her dad often, Stacey misses him. Sometimes she wishes she were just a regular kid with a regular family.
But now both of her parents are depending on Stacey. They each need her — badly. And she can't be in Stoneybrook and New York at the same time.
How will Stacey ever choose between her mom and her dad...again?
Summary
Subplot
The kids of Stoneybrook start buying mail order items with their money since they like getting mail. However, since it's not stuff what they like or want, they go door to door trying to sell it to the neighbors.
Characters
Stacey's Family
BSC Members
Kids
- Jordan, Adam, Byron, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire Pike
- Buddy, Suzi, and Marnie Barrett
- Haley and Matt Braddock
- Laurel, Patsy, and Jake Kuhn
- David Michael Thomas (mentioned)
- Myriah and Gabbie Perkins
- Johnny, James, and Mathew Hobart
- Jamie Newton
Pre-teens
Teenagers
Adults
- Dee Pike
- Natalie Barrett
- Linda Arnold
- Carolyn Braddock
- Madeleine Prezzioso
- Sharon Schafer
- Richard Spier
- Rioko Kishi
- Mr. Zizmore
- Dr. Becker's receptionist
- Mr. Davis - the president of Mr. McGill's company
- Mrs. Barnes - the executive vice-president of Mr. McGill's company
- Miss Koppelman - in home nurse Mr. McGill hired
Locations
- Kishi House
- McGill House
- Edward's apartment
- Bellair's
- Zingy's
- Merry-Go-Round
- Rosebud Café
- Stoneybrook Middle School
- Stoneybrook General Hospital
- New York City
Pop Culture and Real-Life References
- the Drifters, Buddy Holly, the Chiffons, and Gladys Knight and the Pips (music artists)
- Sports Illustrated, Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal (magazines)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- The Dick Van Dyke Show
- Our Miss Brooks
- The Runaway Bunny, Babar’s Little Girl, Good Dog, Carl,
Continuity and Inconsistencies
Continuity
- This is the first appearance of the Rosebud Café, when it just opens in town.
- Stacey remembers Judy the homeless women from Stacey's Mistake.
Inconsistencies
- Stacey says that Kristy came up with the idea for associate members, however, it was actually Mary Anne's idea.
- Mrs. McGill no longer has a job despite having one in Stacey's Emergency, but it was mentioned she had temporary work.
- Stacey says Mal has red hair and blue eyes, but in other books, Mal has reddish brown hair.
- On page 73, Suzi is spelt as Suzy.
Ann M. Martin's Dear Reader Letter
Dear Reader,
In Stacey’s Choice, Stacey once again has to make some tough decisions as a result of her parents’ divorce. Many people have asked me why so many of the members of the Baby-sitters Club have parents who are divorced. When I began writing the series, I wanted to create characters readers could relate to. I remembered that when I was teaching, nearly half the kids in my class came from families in which the parents were divorced. And so Kristy, Dawn, and now Stacey are “divorced kids.”
I frequently hear from both parents and kids who appreciate finding characters like Stacey in the books. Reading about kids who face the same challenges they do makes those challenges easier to face.
Trivia
- Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, Dawn are members that lost a parent.
- Stacey has call waiting on the phone line in her room.
- Mr. McGill is promoted to vice president of the company he works for.
- Dawn won't touch red meat as of this book, before becoming a vegetarian later.
- Mallory visits her grandparents, however it's unclear where they live.
- Mrs. McGill and Mrs. Pike have became best friends.
- The Pike kids visit their grandparents at one point and Jessi has special dance classes and this prevents them to go shopping with everyone; this makes sense because Mal and Jessi don't appear on the front cover.
- Dawn once found this offer in a magazine, for a dollar forty-nine she got twelve cassettes. But didn’t realize that by doing that, she’d joined a cassette club. Every month another cassette arrived in the mail and she was supposed to pay almost full price for each one. She never had enough money and finally had to ask her dad to get her out of the club.
- Kristy saw this ad on TV where the announcer said you could order this great collection of fifties and sixties rock ‘n’ roll songs by the original artists. The cassette eventually arrived, but it turned out to be a collection of the old songs performed by a new group called the Original Artists.
- Kristy and Mary Anne said that they want to use Vanessa's bust developer.
- Maureen is friendly with most of the parents of the kids Stacey sits for when they come over to help her.
- Mr. McGill keeps a picture of Stacey on his desk at work.
- All the kids wanting yo-yos is similar to the plot of Karen's Yo-Yo.
- The cover is from chapter three.
- In chapter 7, the BSC members vote on whether Stacey should go to New York or stay with her mom. It’s never said which club members are on which side, but in chapter 9 when Stacey tells Dawn that she’ll have to take over as treasurer at Friday’s meeting, Dawn seems surprised. So Dawn likely voted against Stacey going to New York.