#2 Starring Stephanie

The book begins with the four girls - Lauren, Kate, Stephanie and Patti - having a sleepover at Kate's house. Lauren is the narrator of the books, and she tells us the story of how the Sleepover Friends came to be. Kate and Lauren live 2 houses down from each other on Pine Street and have been friends since they were babies. They've had sleepovers since kindergarten. Then, the summer before fourth grade, Stephanie moved to their town, Riverhurst, from the city. I always thought the city was New York, but they never said. Anyway, Lauren invited Stephanie to join their sleepovers, and even though she & Kate didn't hit it off at first, she became part of the group. Then Patti ended up in their class and joined them as well. Patti also lived in the city, but she's quiet and shy, while Stephanie is outgoing and trendy.

One of the things these girls do best is eat. While watching a movie (Kate loves movies and wants to be a director someday) they decide to go downstairs for some snacks. This is after they already ate fudge, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Lauren's special dip, and taco chips. They find some fancy mousse in the fridge that Kate's mom made for a dinner party and they each take a little taste. They grab some lemonade and make popcorn, and then head back upstairs. However, during the night, the girls each sneak back down and eat more mousse, and before long it's almost gone. They decide to make some more and end up melting Hershey's Kisses because they run out of chocolate. Apparently the mousse turns out ok, but Kate's mom doesn't seem too thrilled.

A new band called Boodles has decided to film their new music video in Riverhurst. They hold a contest to see if anyone can guess the location where they are shooting the video. The winner gets to appear in the video.

The fifth grade is putting on a play. Stephanie decides that this is how she will get the guy she has a crush on to notice her. She convinces Patti to audition with her, even though Patti is really shy and has no interest.

It's time for another sleepover already. This time it's at Patti's house. When the girls arrive, they find out Patti's troublemaker cousin is visiting for the weekend. He & Patti's brother play pranks on the girls all night. When they go out for dinner, the boys put pepper on their pizza and olive oil in their drinks. Later on, the girls go up to the attic to practice for the play. Patti sucks. She's too quiet and misses her lines. On the other hand, Stephanie is great. When the girls decide to take a break and get some food, they find out Patti's cousin and brother locked them in. Patti ends up crawling out the window and climbing down a tree, but when she crawls through the kitchen window to get back inside, she sets off the burglar alarm and the police show up. After all the excitement is over, it's time for some more food. Patti's mom got them a carton of fudge ripple ice cream and a bag of chocolate chunk cookies. They polish it all off.

Auditions for the play are held the next week at school. Stephanie thinks she is a shoo-in for the lead role, but she chokes at the audition when she gets paired up with her crush. Patti ends up doing a great job, and lands the lead role! Stephanie gets all upset about it, even though Patti didn't even want to try out and only did it because Stephanie pressured her to. The play is never mentioned again in the book, so I guess it doesn't even matter.

It's sleepover time again! That's 3 in just one book. This time it's at Lauren's house. Stephanie doesn't go, because she's still too mad. The girls eat Chinese food for dinner, but that's it. They are too bummed out to eat any more. The girls are sitting around feeling bored and sad, when they hear a strange noise. They decide to go check it out. They notice a light coming from the old creepy abandoned house and head over to investigate. It's the Boodles! The band's secret video location is the old abandoned house, and the loud noise they heard was the guitarist. Since they found out the secret location, they get to be in the video! They call Stephanie to tell her the news, and all is well.

The video is shot in a black & white polka dot room. Here's the stylish outfits the girls wore to the video shoot:

Kate was wearing black jeans and a red-and-white sweatshirt, Patti had on a red-and-black T-shirt with white sweatpants, and [Lauren] was wearing red sweatpants and a black-and-white sweatshirt. Stephanie was wearing her black-and-white jumpsuit and dangly red earrings.

Sweatpants and sweatshirts for a music video?! Actually, the girls wear sweatpants and sweatshirts pretty often. Well, they are in 5th grade, after all. I never really liked the outfits in the Baby-Sitters Club books. I thought they were either too wild & out there (Claudia) or too boring (Mary Anne and Kristy). I loved the outfits the Sleepover Friends wore, though (except for the sweatpants). Stephanie always wore black, white and red, which was her trademark. However, she never seemed to wear black, white and red on the covers of the books, which always kinda annoyed me. The girls often go shopping at Just Juniors, their favorite store in the mall, and I will be sure to always include outfit descriptions in my recaps!

Anyway, the girls make it through the video (the song is called "I've Gone Dotty Over You") and get autographed pictures from the band. Even though the girls think the band's music isn't all that great, Stephanie decides she's over her crush and has moved on to the lead singer of Boodles.