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A review by finesilkflower
Stacey's Book by Ann M. Martin
5.0
The Portrait Collection is a series of the Baby-sitters Club girls' school-assigned "autobiographies," which take the form of 2- to 3-chapter short stories about their childhoods. I'll summarize and review each story individually.
Age 5: Stacey’s parents give her a magical birthday at the Plaza Hotel, home of her heroine, Eloise. Brief and fine.
Age 7: Stacey’s mother, working at Macy’s, gets her a spot on the Thanksgiving Parade float with her new heroine, Cinderella. Stacey tells everyone she will be televised, but when the video of the Cinderella float airs, Stacey is missing, and everyone thinks she was lying. Actually, she was ducking over the side at the time, rescuing Cinderella’s crown, which had blown off. Stacey is disappointed, but I think there's some sort of lesson here about genuine experiences vs. appearances? Except not really, because Cinderella gives her the crown to keep and she brings it for show-and-tell. Still, it's a sweet story and very "New York," which is what you want from a Stacey story.
Age 9: Stacey and Laine blow off ballroom dancing classes and walk around the city instead, feeling powerful and independent. They eventually get caught and get in trouble. One of the better memories, this one has an overall feeling of mischief and fun and features some cute moments of Stacey and Laine planning a nine-year-old’s dream apartment, with a gumball machine and a giant crayon.
Age 10: Stacey’s parents drag her on a "back to nature" trip to a small island off the coast of Maine. Stacey hates it at first and is mean to the island girl, Mara, but Mara earns her respect by being cool in an emergency (Stacey’s father breaks his ankle) and knowing how to drive. The girls become close friends by the end of the vacation, although they never contact each other afterward. I know this is a pretty tired city-mouse-country-mouse formula, but it works well, and it fits Stacey's personality that her basic snobbery and rural-phobia is overcome by shows of responsibility and competency. All Stacey wants is to be grown-up.
Overall, Stacey’s memories are all fun and in-character, and highlight her luxurious wealthy-New Yorker upbringing without making her seem unsympathetic or snooty. Notably absent are some milestones which you would think she would have included in an actual autobiography assignment, such as her diabetes diagnosis, her parents’ divorce, and all her moves, but those have been described in the series already so maybe they were just omitted for our convenience. Although it’s kind of funny if Stacey didn’t include them at all.
Grade: Stacey's autobiography assignment earns her an A for "good organization, keen descriptions, and a good analysis of what each event meant to you." This seems like the rubric for writing and editing these manuscripts, and it's funny to see that reflected in grades. Obviously each girl has to get a good grade, right? I mean, an adult wrote them. A real pre-teen would write an autobiography in a very simplistic way--here's what happened in each year. A child who actually organized their autobiography in the form of a few specific, small-but-meaningful incidents, including descriptions and dialogue, would stand way out.
Read as a kid: Yes. Although the Portrait Collections started quite late in my original BSC phase--I remember when this one was new; I basically held on until the Claudia one came out, and none of the others had been released by the time I stopped reading--I got to this one soon enough to read it several times. I enjoyed it a lot.
Age 5: Stacey’s parents give her a magical birthday at the Plaza Hotel, home of her heroine, Eloise. Brief and fine.
Age 7: Stacey’s mother, working at Macy’s, gets her a spot on the Thanksgiving Parade float with her new heroine, Cinderella. Stacey tells everyone she will be televised, but when the video of the Cinderella float airs, Stacey is missing, and everyone thinks she was lying. Actually, she was ducking over the side at the time, rescuing Cinderella’s crown, which had blown off. Stacey is disappointed, but I think there's some sort of lesson here about genuine experiences vs. appearances? Except not really, because Cinderella gives her the crown to keep and she brings it for show-and-tell. Still, it's a sweet story and very "New York," which is what you want from a Stacey story.
Age 9: Stacey and Laine blow off ballroom dancing classes and walk around the city instead, feeling powerful and independent. They eventually get caught and get in trouble. One of the better memories, this one has an overall feeling of mischief and fun and features some cute moments of Stacey and Laine planning a nine-year-old’s dream apartment, with a gumball machine and a giant crayon.
Age 10: Stacey’s parents drag her on a "back to nature" trip to a small island off the coast of Maine. Stacey hates it at first and is mean to the island girl, Mara, but Mara earns her respect by being cool in an emergency (Stacey’s father breaks his ankle) and knowing how to drive. The girls become close friends by the end of the vacation, although they never contact each other afterward. I know this is a pretty tired city-mouse-country-mouse formula, but it works well, and it fits Stacey's personality that her basic snobbery and rural-phobia is overcome by shows of responsibility and competency. All Stacey wants is to be grown-up.
Overall, Stacey’s memories are all fun and in-character, and highlight her luxurious wealthy-New Yorker upbringing without making her seem unsympathetic or snooty. Notably absent are some milestones which you would think she would have included in an actual autobiography assignment, such as her diabetes diagnosis, her parents’ divorce, and all her moves, but those have been described in the series already so maybe they were just omitted for our convenience. Although it’s kind of funny if Stacey didn’t include them at all.
Grade: Stacey's autobiography assignment earns her an A for "good organization, keen descriptions, and a good analysis of what each event meant to you." This seems like the rubric for writing and editing these manuscripts, and it's funny to see that reflected in grades. Obviously each girl has to get a good grade, right? I mean, an adult wrote them. A real pre-teen would write an autobiography in a very simplistic way--here's what happened in each year. A child who actually organized their autobiography in the form of a few specific, small-but-meaningful incidents, including descriptions and dialogue, would stand way out.
Read as a kid: Yes. Although the Portrait Collections started quite late in my original BSC phase--I remember when this one was new; I basically held on until the Claudia one came out, and none of the others had been released by the time I stopped reading--I got to this one soon enough to read it several times. I enjoyed it a lot.