after several well-received "mysteries" speckled the regular series babysitters club books, apparently scholastic decided to really capitalize on their cash cow & launch a new babysitters club mystery series. they are exactly like regular series books in every way, except that each one involves some kind of mystery plotline & the covers are a dark color as opposed to a pastel. there are references to mystery plotlines mixed in with the regular series books, characters are introduced in the mystery lines that pop up again in the regular series...if you want to keep up with the stoneybrook/BSC world, you unfortunately have to read the mysteries.not that it's all bad. i do believe my young adult serial novel character boyfriend, cary retlin, is introduced in the mystery series. but not this one.this is the first of the bunch, & it opens with stacey asking her mother for a birthstone ring. the only catch is that stacey's birthstone is a diamond. so she's asking her mom for a diamond ring. she even has one all picked out at the jewelry shop in town. of course mrs. mcgill balks & tells stacey that a diamond ring is not appropriate for a 13-year-old. bratty stacey pouts & huffs, "dad would get it for me." then ask your dad, dude. mrs. mcgill is all, "remember how you didn't want to put in the middle of my marital issues with your father? then don't cry over how i won't buy you a diamond ring but he would because he's a workaholic who doesn't understand parental boundaries." zing!stacey is grumpy, so she calls the other members of the babysitters club to invite them to the mall. weirdly, they are all available to hang out. no sitting jobs? it's a saturday morning! & kristy's older brother charlie is even available to drive them to the mall.the girls have a great time at the mall. my favorite part is when claudia buys a pair of pink sequinned sneakers. i would totally wear pink sequinned sneakers, & i am 31. stacey sees a lovely diamond ring in the window of a jewlery store & tells her friends she wants one. they are all kind of taken aback. apparently they all find diamond rings really appropriate on 13-year-olds. she is upset that no one is in her corner, saying that she deserves a diamond ring & mrs. mcgill is a big meanie for not buying her one.just as an aside...now that i am an adult, i definitely find diamonds on children (& 13-year-olds are children, regardless of what these books may suggest) extremely inappropriate. i associate diamond rings with marriage, & i don't think people should get married until they are...maybe 32 years old or so. give or take. definitely not when they are thirteen. but when i was a 13-year-old, i was totally indifferent to the concept of a girl my age wearing a diamond. all it indicated to me then was that her family was wealthy, & i didn't really have any feelings about that, besides maybe a touch of jealousy, or maybe a little superiority in thinking that if i had that kind of money, i wouldn't waste it on jewelry. therefore, the reaction of the other members of the BSC to stacey's desire for a ring does strike a false note. it's like an adult's conception of how a 13-year-old feels instead of what a 13-year-old would really feel.moving on. at the next time babysitters club meeting, the girls get a new client. the gardellas have a baby daughter, & they usually employ a full-time nanny (ie, they're rich). but the nanny is having some family issues & needs some time off. the gardellas, rather than shelling out for a temporary full-time adult caretaker because they are rich, call the BSC because they have heard so many good things about the club. they need a regular sitter for a few weeks, & stacey gets the gig.on stacey's first job, she is surprised by the understated fanciness of the gardellas' house, which is large, brick, & decorated with columns along the porch & an elegant doorknocker instead of a bell. ie, my dream house, in case i ever end up rich too. mrs. gardella answers the door wearing a very fancy black sheath dress & about nineteen pounds of diamonds. she & mr. gardella are going to a posh fundraising event or something. mrs. gardella mostly gives stacey ludicrously detailed instructions on caring for the pets, a very spoiled cat & a very spoiled dog. the cat eats chicken livers for dinner out of a crystal dish in the middle of the table. i gave my cat a chicken liver once. she tore it to pieces & then threw the pieces at the walls (she throws by hooking her claws into things & whipping them like a baseball pitcher). it was like "saw 4" up in my joint. finally, mrs. gardella introduced stacey to tara, the baby. she is a very sweet, quiet, well-behaved baby. ie, my dream baby. these gardellas have got it going on, aside from the chicken liver situation. i want this baby for myself. they cuddle the animals & leave.the job is a cinch. the baby is a sweetheart & the animals are easy to deal with, although they do like attention. mr. gardella gives stacey a nice tip when he drives her home (not in a pervert way). but the next morning, stacey gets a call from mrs. gardella at 8am. mrs. gardella can't find a diamond ring she had left on her bureau & she asks stacey is perhaps she "borrowed" it. stacey insists that she did not take the ring. mrs. gardella is disappointed & tells stacey that she can't sit for the family anymore, & that she (mrs. gardella) will be informing other BSC clients of the theft. stacey's mom sticks up for her, but mrs. gardella can't imagine where the ring went if stacey didn't pocket it.stacey is crushed. she calls kristy, who calls an emergency meeting of the babysitters club. the other sitters are shocked that anyone would accuse one of their own of stealing...all except for mary anne, who really does have a black spiteful heart underneath all those waterworks. i think mary anne spier is the reason i am so incredibly distrustful of people who cry at the drop of a hat. i just know they're trying to manipulate me. anyway, mary anne is all, "stacey, you can tell us if you took the ring, it's okay." stacey & all the other sitters are like, "dude, WTF!" & mary anne cries like SHE was the one who was just accused of stealing by one of her best friends. sometimes i really fucking hate mary anne. remember when she encouraged claudia to come clean about cheating on her math test? mary anne is just straight up stank.anyway. the sitters decide there's not much they can do. they hope their regular clients won't listen to the gardellas, & they all promise not to take jobs with the gardellas, in the event that they call again.which they don't. & neither does anyone else. the jobs are coming in at barely a trickle. stacey refuses all of them because she feels so bad about getting the club into this fix. jobs are so scarce that claudia has to return her pink sequinned sneakers (sell them to me!). the club doesn't actually have proof that the decline in jobs is due to the gardellas spreading the word about stacey's alleged thievery...but they can't imagine what else is going on.there's a B plot involving the prezziosos. i don't really remember the details. maybe something about how jenny has a bratty new friend or something. there's also some boring crap about babysitting jobs & a red herring about phantom caller-style jewel thief loose in stoneybrook. the club wonders if perhaps the jewel thief broke into the gardellas' house while stacey was there & absconded with the ring. but obviously they can't prove this either.basically, the prezziosos' story is only there so there can be a scene where the prezziosos come home early to relieve claudia of sitting duties, & say that it happened because the gardellas told them the BSC are thieves at a fancy dinner party. claudia starts to explain, but mrs. prezzioso clarifies that the accusation ruined her night & she trusts the club. after this foreshortened job, claudia goes to stacey's & starts casually ransacking her room, looking for the ring. stacey realizes what she's doing & is very hurt, & they fight.anyway, FINALLY, after doing literally nothing but moping & complaining for the entire book, stacey calls mrs. gardella & offers to sit for free until the cost of the ring is paid off. which is ridiculous. because 1) if mrs. gardella thinks stacey stole the ring, why would she invite her back into her home & within access of other stealables? & b) a diamond ring has gotta be at least a few thousand bucks, right? when i was a teenage babysitter in the early 90s, i got paid $5 an hour. i'd have to babysit for 200 hours to make just $1000. even at the generous pace of maybe 10 hours a week...that's five months. surely the full-time nanny will be back before then?anyway, mrs. gardella accepts this suggestion so long as stacey brings a friend to keep an eye, make sure those sticky fingers stay off the ice. stacey brings kristy. kristy loves tara & is really amused by the way the gardellas treat their pets. after tara goes to bed, stacey & kristy amuse themselves by playing fetch with the cat. they notice that after a few throws, the cat picks up the object they've been tossing & leaves with it, only to return shortly thereafter without it. they decide to follow the cat. they discover that he has hiding places all over the house, full of twist ties, catnip mice, foil balls, &...a diamond ring! apparently the cat stole the ring off the dresser & hid it under a fancy carpet.stacey & kristy triumphantly show the gardellas their cat's hiding spot when they get home, complete with ring. the gardellas are very embarrassed & apologetic. stacey says, "thanks, now can you call of the dogs & tell our clients we're not thieves?" mrs. gardella says she only got around to spreading the word to the prezziosos. apparently it was just a coincidence that jobs fell off during this time period. the girls realize that clients have been sick, on vacation, etc, & that no one ever thought they were thieves. what a relief!but...if i were mrs. gardella, & i honestly thought my teenage babysitter stole my diamond ring, & then she offered to sit for me again & the ring mysteriously re-appeared while she was alone in the house...i would still think she stole it. & that she got freaked out & "returned" it by making it seem like it had been lost. this thought does not appear to cross mrs. gardella's mind.
Do You like book Stacey And The Missing Ring (1991)?
