Young Adult Revisited

Stacey is back in New York City for New Year’s Eve and she wants to hit the town. Her dad reluctantly agrees to go downtown with her and his girlfriend Samantha, but bundles himself up. Stacey wonders if she might run into Ethan, who she hasn’t seen in awhile. She doesn’t see him, but she does end up on TV. Luckily everyone back home saw her and Mary Anne’s dad even taped it. She decides to be a better friend and while you might think she’s talking about Claudia, she actually means Ethan. The two get together for a quick meeting before she goes home. She still likes him, but she knows breaking up was a good choice. She tells him all about the fight with Claudia and he tells her about an art showing back in Connecticut. They talk some more and then she has to run. There must be something in the water because she comes home to find a letter from Toby. Stacey remembers what happened the last time she saw him and isn’t sure if she should write him, but she finally sends him an email.

Claudia gets a job sitting for Haley and Matt Braddock. Their mom warns her that the kids can’t watch television until they get their homework done. It’s a new rule that the kids know, but Haley doesn’t want to follow it. Claudia makes her do her homework anyway, but then catches her on the phone with Vanessa Pike. Haley finally does her work and shows her a book report. It turns out that it’s one she did last month and when Claudia accidentally reveals it, her mom grounds her for lying. That’s pretty much the whole basis of the book: Haley lying about everything. Claudia keeps sitting for her, but she keeps lying. She says that Matt needs paint to make a poster for school, so she has Stacey bring over some. Matt actually needed a book from Nicky Pike and by the time Claudia calls, it’s too late to get the book. Of course Haley lies and says she told her he needed a book and she just didn’t listen. As if Kristy doesn’t have enough on her plate, she’s now coaching a girls basketball

I’m pretty sure the Mancusi family has been mentioned before. They own a ton of pets, including hamsters, dogs, cats and snakes. They’re also going away for a week and their pet-sitter cancelled at the last minute. Jessi usually sits for the Braddock family, but they’re going on vacation. Originally she planned on enjoying her free time, but she takes the pet-sitting job when no one else can do it. Jessi does a good job watching over the pets (natch), though she does have a habit of inviting other people over to check out the animals. Mary Anne stops by with the Perkins girls and flips out when she realizes the lid to Barney the snake’s cage is missing. She keeps freaking out, but then Myriah remembers that snakes are cold blooded and helps them find him. One thing that does bother her is that one of the hamsters sits by itself. None of the other reindeer will let it play in their games…oops, I mean it’s lonely. It’s also really fat too, but she keeps an eye on it. It starts acti

Okay, I have to admit that the majority of this book pisses me off, but I’ll get to all that after the re-cap. So Kristy and Bart have been hanging out a whole lot and spending time together. They get a bunch of kids together for a practice session, but it’s not an official one because it’s still winter and too cold out for a full/real practice. They make plans to hang out together and go to the movies. When Kristy meets him at his house, he’s standing around with some of his buddies. He introduces her as his girlfriend and it shocks her, but kind of makes her feel good at the same time. At the movies, he keeps leaning over and kissing her, he holds her hand and he puts his arm around her. She thinks kissing him is fun, but she wishes he didn’t kiss her during the good parts. Then he asks her to a big dance at his school. Cut to a few days later and she’s sitting for Karen, Andrew and David Michael. Bart shows up after she puts him to bed and they start watching a game together.

This is one of those books that take place when Dawn moves back to California, but before she decided to move back permanently. You know, how she moved there and back like six times in the course of a year. Anyway, Dawn is now taking surfing lessons, even though I swear she already knew how to surf. Sunny keeps flirting with random guys, but apparently draws the line at this guy named Thrash. Dawn thinks he’s about 20, which is way too old for her. He has long blond hair, wears a snake shaped ring and has surfed all around the world. She makes up an excuse to talk to him and learns that he’s ready for the big surf competition and plans to win. He shows her a jar of specially made wax and kalls her Kaela, some hawaiian princess name. A few days later Dawn learns that Thrash is dead. His surfboard washed up on shore and no one has seen him since. She tries talking to the cops, but they tell her that he was just a drifter, no one filed a missing person’s report and basically they do