Sleepover Friends is like food and outfit porn for kids. I mean that in a really not sexual way. That’s really the basis for most of them.
The fifth grade is putting together a newspaper for their class. They act like it will be the Wall Street Journal, and not some dinky two-sided xerox that you know it really will be. They all conveniently get jobs that fit their one -dimensional personalties. Lauren will be the restaurant reviewer. Kate will write the advice column (although her identity is a secret), Patti is the editor in chief, and Stephanie will right the “society column. BWAH! Like she will be on the fifth grade party circuit. Well, I eat my words because apparently this school has lots of parties.
Everywhere Steph shows up, Karla Stamos is there, and you know she is a drip because she wears brown and doesn’t have a super-exclusive annoying clique that names themselves. Steph is mad that Karla always has the inside scoop because her aunt and uncle own the party supply store where everyone in Riverhurst goes to get their supplies.
We also get a gastro-sickening account of everything that Lauren has to eat for her review: pizza, pasta, Chinese food, burgers, fries…all in one day.
Barf.
There is a big fight among them for some reason too stupid to get into and they plot to get Stephanie talking to them again while fake-inviting her to a party to cover that they cooked up pretending that their lines got crossed on Stephanie’s wireless phone (this is 1990, cordless phones were like iphones back then).
The girls are spending their first sleepover in Stephanie’s “apartment” that her whipped parents built for her. Then again, they may be smarter than you think because they don’t have to hear her screeching once a month at the sleepovers. I wish I had a place like that. I sometimes think about how my teen life would be different if my parent’s house had a finished basement. When I was at my friends’ houses, all the good stuff happened down there.
The artist on the cover is a genius, because she has captured all of them in poses that totally describe exactly what their roles are.
My parents converted the downstairs of our house into a bed and breakfast/small apartment.
They say it was to earn extra money in the summer, but really it was so my mom would get a full night sleep without having to deal with annoying pre-teen slumber parties.
*sigh* I miss that house.
Kate
Damnit, my library system has book 14 and book 16 but not this one. I blame it for me taking over the newspaper editor’s job in junior high.
It’s a shame that I didn’t read this one because I know I would have loved it. I always loved the covers for the Sleepover Friends..
P.S. – It’s rare for me to find typos in your entries – you said Stephanie will right the society column. It’s kind of a funny little typo that changes the meaning
Is Stephanie the one on the phone in the hat? She totally looks like Michael Hutchence, the late singer from INXS.
Also weirdly, hopefully because of the way it’s scanned in and not ’cause that’s the way the artist painted it, the blackboard behind them appears to read “newspaper melting.”
I didn’t think I read that many of these books, but I guess I must have, ’cause I know I read a few where Stephanie was living outside in her apartment thingy (the fact that it had a kitchenette always blew my mind — I don’t think I would have been trusted with an E-Z Bake Oven in fifth grade!).
I totally saw this book at a thrift store the other day (that’s been happening a lot lately). I probably could have read it standing there.
I actually remember reading this one and wondering why Lauren’s mom let her eat at all of those restaurants in one day. I think I was kind of jealous. Don’t ask me why.
I totally love Steph’s gangster hat!! And over sized suit!!
I lived in my parent’s finished basement. With a walk out door…
When I wasn’t sneaking out, lots of fun did happen there.
I loved Sleepover Friends! Anybody actually remember how the series ended?
I love this blog. Sleepover Friends were the coolest. In hindsight, I totally agree about the food issues.
I think this is the first Sleepover Friends cover I’ve seen that actually has Stephanie wearing red, black, and white.