This isn't your big sister's goody-goody baby-sitters club. This is REAL. This is RAW. This is CALIFORNIA.I was so confused when I learned, at age 24 or so, that California Diaries existed--confused and delighted. You mean there is a BSC spinoff series where they are in high school? And they're dealing with SERIOUS TEEN ISSUES? And there is a boy recurring narrator? And he's not not gay? It's exactly what I always wanted (except it's about Dawn)! It is almost everything I ever hoped it would be. The series follows Dawn and her friends in Palo City, California, after she moves back for good. The idea certainly seems to have been to attract a more YA, less middle-grades audience by opening up the series to more mature topics, like drinking and running away. And teen angst. LOTS of teen angst. (The BSC girls never seem to have angst, do they? Except maybe Mallory.) In this book, for example, Dawn writes that she's glad she has a diary as an outlet because sometimes the feelings just CONSUME her. Can you imagine mainline-series Dawn being CONSUMED by feelings?Other differences: the books are less episodic, more freeform. Things happen in each book, but they're not tied up in a neat package at the end of the story; instead, the threads continue in that narrator's next book, and maybe in the background of the other books. (The downside of this is that the books' titles--"Dawn, Diary 1," "Dawn, Diary 2", etc.--are completely useless.)One caveat: the characters are still thirteen. I KNOW. They are interacting with older classmates (and the new characters are older), but only because Dawn's school--a K-12 private school with three buildings--decides to move the eighth grade from the smaller fifth-through-seventh building to the ninth-through-twelfth building. So now they are in high school. It's such a lame technicality. And it's frustrating, because why not just &*#@)*$ age them? I've always wanted to see the characters age (as is evident from my "Revised Timeline" project), and it seems like that is the whole concept of this spinoff: "it's like BSC, but in high school!" It really seems like Ann M. et. al. wanted to move on, attract an older audience, and explore older-kid issues, but the executive decision was made (by her or who knows who else) to keep the California storylines simultaneous with the Connecticut ones, so most of the characters are still thirteen. It's really just ludicrous at this point. Anyway, all that is about the spin-off as a whole. Here's the deal about this book. (Spoilers ahead.) This volume does the bookkeeping of explaining the school class shuffle and introducing the characters. Dawn is still friends with her old We Love Kids Club pals: longtime best friend Sunny; movie mogul daughter Maggie; and sensitive Mary Anne type, Jill. But Jill is not long for this series. Jill's interests are too babyish, the rest of the friend group is moving on without her. After Dawn finds out that stepmother Carol is pregnant, she confides in Jill. Jill accidentally lets this slip in front of Carol, Carol is upset at Dawn for revealing the secret, and Dawn yells at Jill, effectively ending the friendship. Dawn, Sunny, and Maggie go to a high school party where there is drinking! And smoking! And making out! And people getting thrown in the pool! It's all very shocking. Sunny, who has hitherto been shown to be somewhat bland but sweet kid, is making a play to become the series' Rayanne Graff, and gets insta-drunk. Dawn, more reticent/nerdy (but still fundamentally unable to empathize with Jill), hangs back, and bonds with Amalia, another girl who seems out of place. Later, they get a ride home from 16-year-old Ducky, who, he explains, earned his nickname by being just like Ducky from Pretty in Pink. So I guess just literally picture a character from a different fictional work right here in this series, unless you, like every reader who was a minor when it was released in 1997, have never seen this film and have no idea what that means. I actually still have never seen the movie, but from context, I guess Ducky is a character from Western canon who is a wisecracking teen boy of ambiguous sexuality with parental-neglect issues and a vaguely John Waters aesthetic, who has nothing better to do than drive around thirteen-year-old girls at all hours of the day and night. This book does a good job of setting the tone for the spin-off. Dawn, as usual, is a hard-to-sympathetize with, barely tolerable narrator. So, in character.Dawn is a Horrible Person: Dawn's honest first reaction when she finds out all of her friends have been invited to the party: Wait, if it's for cool kids, why was Jill invited? THEY ARE OSTENSIBLY FRIENDS AT THIS POINT.Author Gratefully Acknowledges: Like all BSC-universe books, the California Diaries are attributed to Ann M. Martin, but this one, like most of them, gratefully acknowledges (the ghostwriting of) Peter Lerangis. Lerganis is a good choice for this series; he seemed to gravitate toward juicier, more YA-type BSC storylines, like romance, parental insubordination, and car accidents. He can be completely off the wall when it comes to plotting, but that doesn't matter so much here. This series makes use of his best skills, which are enjoyable line-by-line writing packed with melodrama and, occasionally, legitimately funny sardonic humor.Timing: Handily, the diary entries are dated, so we know this takes place from September 23 to October 9. Of... sigh... eighth grade. Revised Timeline: With an August 1997 release date, this coincides with the release of #110 Abby the Bad Sport, which I placed in the summer after college graduation. However, Dawn actually moved back to California permanently in #88 Farewell, Dawn, which was actually released two years earlier. Arguably, this could have taken place then. So our options are September of junior year of college (right after she transfers to Vista U), senior year of college (because why not), or first academic year postgrad (coinciding with the release date).My inclination is to keep the series close to the release date to avoid unintentional continuity errors. In particular, Carol's pregnancy is something that would progress at a certain rate, and I'm sure we'd know about it if Dawn had a two-year-old sibling when we hear from her late in the series. The only time Ducky is mentioned in the mainline series is #110 The Secret Life of Mary Anne Spier, and at the point Dawn and Ducky are close enough that Dawn is getting him a Christmas present, but not close enough that it's particularly meaningful (she gets him a picture of some ducks. Because of the name. Get it?)This means we have to place it after college graduation, which on reflection, is not as much of a problem as I initially thought. Although the storyline is school-y in its details, I'd argue that it's mainly about transition, about suddenly and unceremoniously going from "rulers of the school" to the bottom of the heap, and mixing with people much older and more experienced. That's what happens when you graduate and enter the "real world." Let's say that Dawn is starting a new job in a no-rules, party-all-the-time atmosphere, maybe a Silicon Valley startup of some sort (hey, it is SoCal in 1997). Underage drinking as a plot point is problematic since Dawn is easily 21 by now, but then, let's face it, it's also somewhat problematic as a plot point for 13-year-olds (it's like the book just expects you to see 13 and read 15-17). But surely we can imagine adult-world equivalents of parties with shocking levels of illegal and/or decadent behavior. Ecstasy? Was ecstasy big then?
Initial reaction: "Dawn: Dairy One" was a nice start to the California Diaries series, as it showcases Dawn having moved back to California to live with her father and stepmother. She reunites with her old friends, but realizes - through a bunch of changes that happen both in her life and personal preferences, that nothing ever stays the same and you just have to roll with the changes.Very nice read for pre-teens/young teens.Full review:Ann M. Martin's "California Diaries" series is a spin-off of the long running Babysitters Club series, featuring Dawn after she moves back to California to live with her father, stepmother, and little brother Jeff. I first read this series when it was published many years ago, but in recent years, it's been given a reboot. I'm excited for the chance to be able to re-read it from the very beginning.This book has definitely some of the pros and cons of being a beginning book of a series because it sets up all the respective personalities that are going to carry through the series - including Sunny, Amalia, Maggie, and Ducky/Chris. While Dawn wasn't my favorite personality from the original BSC cast (or even in the CD series), I did like this eye into her respective experience as a lot of changes get handed to her in her eighth grade class as well as within her circle of family and friends. It felt like an authentic teen diary chronicling Dawn's process of growing up within a certain window of time and the consequences of actions and changes that she undergoes in that span. Some of which include, but aren't limited to: falling out with former activities and friends, family changes, internal and external clashes, school shifts, and growing pains. It shows its age for some pop culture references (i.e. the reference of the young Jeff going to see an Arnold Schwarzenegger flick), but that's rather minimal. The narrative itself feels relevant for its emotional eye to the changes that Dawn and her friends go through. This book felt like the stepping stone which provides the jumping point for the ongoing narrative, and you can understand that the series is going to chronicle Dawn having to adjust with her family, Sunny dealing with her mother's cancer, Maggie overcoming perfectionism issues which lend to other problems, among others. I won't spoil it for any who haven't read the series, but I can vouch from personal experience how this series impacted me as a teen for voice and challenge. I would recommend it certainly for its target audience (pre-teens/young teens), but its definitely a more coming of age/slice of life/tough subject read, and in some ways, I saw that as a good thing as it shows the trials of the teens having to "grow up" and learn from the mistakes they make.On another note, this edition shows a preview of the next book in the series as well as a brief history of Ann M. Martin's life that I really appreciated, from her own words and images.Overall score: 3/5 starsNote: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Open Road Media.
What do You think about Dawn: Diary 1 (1997)?
I was just going to get rid of this book when I found out that I had already gotten rid of all the other ones in the series (without ever reading them, that's weird of me...). Anyways, this was a #1 in the series, and it was so short, I thought I'd give it a shot before I put it on paperbackswap. It read extremely quick and easy, and was a little...goody/cheesy (it made sense after I found out that it was written by the same woman as the Babysitters Club books-they are marketed very differently, though), but, I suppose it's not too bad for teens to get some "Full House" type values once in a while. They are good examples to follow. It was enjoyable enough, I wouldn't be opposed to reading a few others, they're so short they don't need much time to invest in them!
—Krystl Louwagie
My copy was provided by Netgalley.Dawn is at the top of the world as she's been reunited with her old friends after moving back to California and she's finally an eighth grader. She's finally growing up and learning to make her own decisions. But when her school's too crowded and the eighth graders are moved to the high school, everything Dawn has ever known is changed. Now she doesn't know how to act without others ridiculing her. She has to deal with mean girls and she has to learn who her real friends are. She has to learn if she wants to move on from the "kid stuff" or if she wants to stay with her old friends even if they might be considered not "cool" enough.This book felt like a good start to a series as it introduced all the characters and lightly touched on everyone's backstories and problems like Sunny's mom having cancer. It makes you want to know what happens with the other characters which the other books in the series help you experience.This book is a good book from pre-teens or early teens. It helps you realize what it means to be a young adult and how you're still a child. It teaches you to appreciate what you have instead of striving for something better, something more adult. The lesson this book brings is to never abandon your friends even if they might be considered a loser. While also dealing with romance, the book focuses on some hard issues like what it really means to grow up as well as family and friends problems. It shows the trails of growing up quite nicely and the lessons all teens learn.The book shows the consequences of your actions. While there is some underage drinking in the book, the book expresses explicitly the consequences of these illegal actions and stresses the point that no teenager should drink.While this book can be considered a little silly at times, this silliness really made this book enjoyable. The seriousness and the silliness contrasted nicely. It shows that teenagers aren't just all about boys and clothes. This is a very cute and sweet book. I would definitely recommend it to middle school girls who are just learning what it's like to be an adult.
—Nikki
Dawn is in the eight grade, but the middle school building is so overcrowded that by October, the eight graders are forced to move into the high school building where they are no longer the rulers, but instead they are faced with new challenges, and decisions that could change their life, they are faced with peer pressure unlike anything they have ever faced before, and some of them end up making poor decisions.Dawn's diary is full of adolescent angst as well as the trials that they face, most unlike anything they have ever faced before, but somehow they must learn to fit into a world they are not sure they are ready for, but sometimes they must wonder if fitting in is really worth it? Sometimes just sticking with your old friends may be better.Dawn's diary speaks of friendships lost and gained, it tells of the trials of teenagers, and the things they face, sometimes serious, sometimes seemingly silly it never feels that way at the moment though. I'd recommend Dawn's diary for middle grade readers, five stars for a well written Middle grade, early YA novel....
—Michelle Kidwell
