Boy-Crazy Stacey

Ann M. Martin's Boy-Crazy Stacey is a seaside friendship story for 9 year olds about two babysitters, eight children and one VERY good-looking lifeguard.

What happens

It's the eighth Baby-Sitters Club book, and the club is splitting up for the summer. Stacey and Mary Anne are off to Sea City, New Jersey, as mother's helpers for the Pike family. That's two whole weeks at the beach with eight kids to look after.

Stacey tells it herself. She grew up in New York and she's quite sure she's the sophisticated one. Mary Anne is shy and has no interest in boys at all. Stacey's a bit nervous about a fortnight together (they're SO different).

The drive down is brilliant chaos. There's a red bucket labelled PIKE BARF BUCKET, cheeky signs held up between the two family cars and a little sister who adds "silly-billy-goo-goo" to everybody's name. Vanessa rhymes everything. Byron won't go near the water and nobody knows why.

Then Stacey spots Scott. He's a lifeguard, he looks about seventeen, and he winks at her. That's it. She's in love.

From then on she watches the lifeguard stand much more than she watches the Pikes. Mary Anne isn't impressed. She calls Stacey boy crazy and says he's far too old for her, and the two of them hardly say a word to each other until lunch.

It's a lot of fun to be in. Stacey's postcards to the club pop up between the chapters, swinging from sensible notes for the club notebook to breathless news about the hunk. Who hasn't been certain they were in love by the end of the first day of a holiday?

A quick heads-up before you hand it over. Stacey is thirteen and the crush is front and centre. Scott calls her "cutie", there's a skimpy new bikini, and Stacey makes a cheeky remark about how well she fills out the top. She also hides a bottle of hair lightener from her mum. It's played light and giggly, but a younger reader may find it more teenage than they expect.

It's very American too (Popsicles, seventh grade, the Jersey Shore). And if this is your reader's first visit to the club, the very first book is Kristy's Great Idea.

What to read next

If they'd like another gang of girls told by one of them, Alice in the Spotlight could be next. Her old friends have all gone to the comprehensive down the road, so she walks into Riverside Academy for Girls alone. And she's sworn that nobody there will hear a word about her sister Nikki.