okay, so i have never babysat a day in my life. is it surprising that no one would entrust their little precious dumplings to my care??however - i loved these books. and lately, i have found my mind drifting back to this series, and i kind of want to read them again, is that bad?? they were such a huge part of my early reading life - i read them ever so many times, and took my favorite ones on vacation with me year after year when my mom told me i could bring a friend.(is that super sad?) i still remember tons of tiny details about the series:i remember that kristy burned her mouth on pizza in book one.i remember that mary-anne's father told her she could buy a bikini as long as the bottom was decent (guess he didn't mind seeing her boobs hanging all over the place)i remember that claudia's sister's iq was 196.just stupid little facts, but i remember more about this series than i do about actual people i know (i recently got back in touch with one of my favorite people from high school and she mentioned that her brother just got engaged, and i was like - "dude, you have a brother?" however, i know that kristy had three (charlie, sam, and david michael))bsc was my introduction to camus (and you had better believe i mispronounced that shit. also "janine" for some reason i rhymed it with "canine" in my head.) see how cute i was??but what is the appeal of a series like this to a girl like me, who never wanted children, and preferred stuffed animals to dolls and never wanted even to be around other children?? was it just because i was a voracious reader, and these books came out so quickly that there was always something new? was it just for me to learn how to socialize with more normal girls with more traditional goals and mindsets? was it just because i had a mad crush on claudia and wanted to find all her hidden candy stashes? was it just because of the depth of characterization and high-lit postmodern flourishes of ann m martin?it's anyone's guess really, but i feel like these stories, read so long ago, are nonetheless deeply ingrained on my brain. and lo!i found a baby sitters club chronology,and i realize i only ever got up to number 24! so many more to read! plus super specials and bsc mysteries and baby sitter's little sister and super specials and bsc friends forever, whatever those are. i might just toss proust in the corner and regress and only read this series for the rest of my life.but i looked at some silly timeline this on the internet, and now i have spoiled it - i know all the future events!! there is trauma and death and fire and leaving and returning and getting kicked out (!) of bsc!! (what did she do???) also, in researching to figure out where i stopped reading them, i found this woman whose bsc reviews own my heart now.i thank you for indulging me in what is in no way a book review, but a little squee of nostalgia from me to you.p.s. - i hate hate hate the new covers.
I read this in 6th grade, it wasn't the first BSC book or by fave; but I just read it to get more of a foundational feel of the series. Parts were a little dull and I thought Kristy was a big mouth biotch especially to her big hearted future step father. She should have been slapped!Ann M. Martin is really ingenious!! I grew up with the BSC, I read them in 5th thru 7th grade and this was the late 80's. The first 10 books in the series are the best. I have learned soo much about myself and other things by reading her books. One of the many things I learned was to keep a journal. Also, her description of the neighborhoods in Stoneybrook where the Baby sitters live reminds me of my hometown where I lived from birth to 11 years, Lynnwood, Washington (a suburb north of Seattle). Whenever I'd read about the club meetings, I'd think of it being at my old house in Lynnwood!! Anyways I remember when I bought this book at Walden Books or maybe it was B. Dalton, I also bought the little How to Start Your Own Baby Sitters Club booklet. It had neat tips and recipes in it but really, sit around all summer waiting for phonecalls? Actually I don't think it said that but the BSC make it sound so dang easy. Just print out fliers and stick them in people's mailboxes. Well okay, so I printed out fliers and stuck them in mailboxes all over my rural neighborhood, and one of them returned to me in my mail box with a "nasty" note crawled on it from my mail carrier telling me that I couldn't just stick them in mailboxes--postage must be paid on anything you put in mailboxes, otherwise what you are doing is illegal!! I wound up using my own allowance to put stamps on fliers and mail them off!! I did not get a booming business like the BSC and I didn't make enough to buy a stunning wardrobe like Claud and Stacey (my parents supplied the wardrobe though). However, not so in BSC world, where everything is just dandy!! You won't end up in your local pokey for touching other people's mailboxes, either. Their local policeman is probably Officer Friendly who doesn't even carry a gun. Heck, it's the next Mayberry, USA! Those BSC kids are spoiled. Kristy's mom put an ad in the paper advertising their club. Do you know what that costs? Not cheap. Kristy is a spoiled brat.
What do You think about Kristy's Great Idea (1995)?
Ok, I have no deep thoughts on this series. I will however say that when I was about ten, I told my mom that if I was to die, my wish was to be buried with my babysitter’s club books. All 10 million of them. That’s how important they were to me as a kid. I would wait anxiously for that month’s book order to deliver my new BSC book, upon which I would devour it voraciously with in three hours holed away in my bedroom. I would then be disappointed of course that I had to wait another month for the next one to come out. Damn you Ann M. Martin, write faster! (Stacy was my favorite by the way. You sophisticated little New York City girl you!)
—Kristen
Rating: 5 StarsDate Read: The first book came out in August 1986 and I’m pretty sure I read it when it was new or newish. Re-read in May 2014.When I saw that Ann M. Martin was going to be appearing at Book Expo America/Book Con this week the little girl in me let out a shout of excitement. When I was in elementary school these were my absolute favorite books. I read them all over and over, even when I was really just a bit to old for them. Maybe this explains my adult love for YA novels?As a kid I was lucky enough to have a best friend who loved to read as much as I did and a public library within walking distance. It seems like we spent every weekend and summer vacation either in that library or camped outside reading until the sun went down (and even after that by porch light). The Baby-Sitters Club series was a favorite of both of ours and we often raced up the stairs to the children’s room (much to the dismay of the librarian) to snatch the newest release from the shelf. Since our library usually didn’t have multiple copies, more often than not, we’d end up reading the book together adjusting our reading speeds so we one didn’t have to wait too long for the other. I don’t think there was one book in the series we didn’t love. We compared ourselves to Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, Stacey, Dawn and the others, we used their ideas when babysitting in real life, and felt that these girls could have been our friends. A book obsession of the highest order.Needless to say that after seeing that Ms. Martin was signing books I went on a frantic search for my yellowed and well loved copy of Kristy’s Great Idea. Not finding it (I think it may be stored in my mom’s attic) I frantically searched the internet for a used copy with the “right” cover. Not the new, flashy, reissued cover but the classic yellow cover of my childhood. I found one and happily it arrived the other day. Even though I’m about 30 years older than it’s target audience, I just had to read it again–and still loved it. I’ll be taking it to Book Expo on Thursday and hope that Ms. Martin will make the little girl in me very happy by signing it. But even if she doesn’t, this trip down memory lane was well worth the money spent. It’s memories like this that make me hope my future children love to read as much as I do.http://wp.me/p4kTLQ-1o
—Jessica
I'm not going to attempt to list all of the Babysitter's Club books I read when I was in about 4th and 5th grade, but I certainly loved them at the time. They appealed to so much about who I was then. The girls seemed so grown up and wonderful to me as I was about 9 years old reading them. And this one in particular, the first one, evokes such a specific memory for me of sitting curled up on the end of the couch in the living room of my old house, reading by the light of the lamp on the end table. Just that wonderfully safe and secure time in childhood when I hadn't entered the angst of adolescence yet but was slightly enthralled by it, and the hustle and bustle of the house after school, after work, could be going on all around me, possibly the tv was on with the evening news or something, but I had discovered a new series of books so I didn't notice any of it. What a great time in life.
—Beth
