Stacey's Lie is the 76th book in The Baby-Sitters Club series.
Back Cover[]
When Stacey's dad asks her to come on a holiday with him, she's thrilled. And when he tells her that she gets to choose the destination and take Claudia along, Stacey thinks things are just too good to be true.
But when Stacey picks a place where Robert is spending his summer holiday without telling her father about it, things start to get a little tough. And when Stacey starts to tell one lie after the other to her father and Claudia everything starts to go totally wrong!
Will Stacey pick Robert over her dad and Claudia? Or will Claudia and Stacey's dad find out that she's been lying to them? Can Stacey lie her way out of all this or will she tell the truth and face the consequences?
Summary[]
Stacey's father calls Stacey and tells her that they have to cancel her plans to New York City the following weekend because of a work conference. He says that they would have to reschedule plans for the upcoming weekend. Stacey was supposed to see a movie with her boyfriend, Robert, but Stacey thinks that they can go see the movie next weekend and decides to go to New York that weekend.
When Stacey gets to school the next day, Robert tells Stacey that they can't see each other all summer because Robert has a summer-long job at the ferry in Fire Island. He tells Stacey that this would be the last weekend that they could see each other. Stacey tells him they can't see each other this weekend because she already made plans to go see her Father. Stacey, bummed, starts to consider cancelling on her father so that she could go have a weekend with Robert.
When Stacey gets to New York, her father lets her go dress shopping for dinner later that night. During dinner, Stacey's father tells her that he didn't have to go the conference at all, making Stacey mad because she could have had a weekend with Robert. However, her father tells her that he will be taking a 2 week vacation from work, and that he wants to take Stacey with him - and she gets to pick the destination.
That Saturday night, Stacey is thinking about all the places she could go with her father during the 2 weeks. She thought that she go could go to Europe, but saw her and Robert there and thought it would be a romantic trip. She thought that she could visit Dawn in California, but the more she dreamed about it, she was dreaming less of Dawn but more of Robert during her dream. She immediately tells her father that she wants to go Fire Island, but not exactly for him but because Robert was going to be there.
When Stacey came back to Stoneybrook that following day, Stacey asked Claudia if she would like to come to Fire Island with her. She left out the parts about Robert because she knew that Claudia would probably decline. She convinces Kristy, Mary Anne, and Shannon to take a 4-day break from babysitting and come to Fire Island with them during the fourth of July weekend.
When it's time to go to Fire Island, Stacey begins to make excuses to Claudia to not explore the boat because there might be a good chance that Robert was on the boat. Her excuses work, but when Claudia and Stacey were exploring the boardwalk, Stacey's cover is blown when they both see Robert walking out the door. Claudia is mad at Stacey for not telling her that Robert, but Stacey says that she knew Claudia wouldn't come if she knew that Robert was there. Claudia decides to keep Stacey's secret from her dad after Stacey said that Claudia keeps things like junk food and Nancy Drew books away from her parents.
During the week, Stacey goes to Robert leaving Claudia to take pictures of sand castles or to explore on her own. Stacey's visits with Robert soon make Claudia bored, lonely, and left out. Stacey decides to go have pizza with Claudia, but see Robert there and invites him over, making Claudia even more upset. Stacey decides to go out with Claudia for a dinner date at a fancy place called The Casino. However, Robert comes to Stacey and says that they can go on a romantic boat ride. So Stacey rushes Claudia to get ready and eat so that she would have enough time to be with Robert.
But Stacey's cover is blown when Robert comes up to them so that he could pick Stacey up. This causes Claudia to not talk to Stacey for the entire rest of the trip. Stacey and Robert missed the boat ride, but decided to go on a moonlight walk instead. That's when Stacey and Robert see Stacey's father with a lady named Samantha and they see Stacey and Robert. At home, Stacey and her father fight and argue. Stacey's father even said that this trip was originally supposed to only be for him and Samantha! When Kristy, Mary Anne, and Shannon come, there is even more tension between Stacey and Claudia. During the Fourth of July parade, Claudia storms off after her stand castle fell off the wagon. After spending a gloomy, full of tension weekend at Fire Island, Kristy, Mary Anne, Shannon, AND Claudia left for Stoneybrook leaving only Stacey and her father on the trip.
Stacey and her father haven't been talking much, and Robert has been acting strangely toward Stacey. Robert finally reveals that he and Stacey should "break up," after the events of the first week at Fire Island. Stacey and her father have a talk and they realize that they both hide stuff from other people to not hurt their feelings. Stacey is invited to dinner with her father and Samantha, and she and Robert make-up and invites him to the dinner too. The dinner turned out smoothly and Stacey's father and Robert seemed to have gotten along.
When Stacey comes home, she and Claudia make up. Stacey gives Claudia pictures of her sand castles that were shown being displayed in a Gallery back at Fire Island, and Claudia gives Stacey a picture of them together. Stacey decides not to lie to her mother when she asks what Claudia was hiding from her when she and Claudia bumped into each other at the mall. Stacey believes that it's no lie that she and Claudia would be best friends forever.
Subplot[]
Vanessa Pike and Haley Braddock get into a fight when they wear the same swim suit to the Community Centers day camp. They later make up with the help of the BSC.
Characters[]
Stacey's Family
BSC Members
Kids
- Matt and Haley Braddock
- Jordan, Adam, Byron, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire Pike
- Amy, Raj, Alexis - kids at the day camp
Teenagers
- Robert Brewster
- Laura Sanchez - counselors
Adults
- Stu Majors - friend of Mr. McGill
- Mrs. Braddock (mentioned)
- Ms. Lebeque - Mallory and Jessi's supervisor
- Samantha Young
- Mitch - Robert's co-worker
Locations[]
- Fire Island
- Grand Central Station
- McGill House
- McGill Apartment
- Kishi House
- Stoneybrook Community Center
Pop Culture and Real-Life References[]
- Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Matt Braddock is watching it with closed captions on.
- Jason Priestly
- Johnny Depp
- The New York Times
- Seventeen Magazine
- Clue Jr.
Continuity and Inconsistencies[]
Continuity
- Mallory's hair is described as brown red rather then outright red
- There's a narration about how Marnie is allergic to dogs from Claudia and the Perfect Boy.
- Stacey having a crush on Wes from Stacey's Big Crush
Inconsistencies
Ann M. Martin's Dear Reader Letter[]
Dear Reader,
In Stacey’s Lie, Stacey visits Davis Park, a community on Fire Island. Davis Park is a real place, and I chose it because as an adult, I used to go there in the summertime. Every summer for about five years, my friends and I would rent a house and spend the weekends there. We had a great time, and we did a lot of the things that Stacey does in the book. We took walks on the beach, we ate dinner at the Casino, and we shopped at the one small store in town. Since I lived in New York City at the time, I loved the fact that there are no cars allowed in Davis Park. There are no streets. People walk everywhere, the houses are connected by boardwalks, and we would pull luggage or groceries around in little red wagons.
I liked Fire Island so much that I set two other books, Just a Summer Romance and Eleven Kids, One Summer, in Davis Park. I haven’t been there in many years, but I’ll always have fond memories of it.
Trivia[]
- This is the only book in the main series that mentions Father's Day.
- This is the first time Samantha Young appears.
- Ed has a hard time talking about his emotions, a trait that he passes on to Stacey
- Although Stacey wants to be independent, she also likes being cared for.
- Robert and his family spend vacations at their house in David Park on Fire Island.
- Ed likes to extend his workday.
- Stacey was given the opportunity to go anywhere she wanted and picked Fire Island.
- This is one of the few books where chapter 3 describes the BSC
- Mary Anne mentions needing money for a new club notebook and filler paper for the record book.
- New York scares Claudia a little bit
- Robert tried to break up with Stacey.
- Maureen also learns about Samantha
- Logan comes to a meeting
- The working title for this book was originally Stacey's Bad Idea [1]