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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
I read all the Babysitters Club Books when I was younger (I actually think they are still in a box in my basement somewhere!) and it was fun to read this and "meet up" with the girls again. Having said that, I didn't feel like there was really any new back information in the book. There were two storylines of new information that were interesting.
I've also heard that they are rereleasing the original books with updates to make them relevant to today's tweens. I'm tempted to read them to see if I can spot the differences - will the notebook be replaced with a laptop??
I've also heard that they are rereleasing the original books with updates to make them relevant to today's tweens. I'm tempted to read them to see if I can spot the differences - will the notebook be replaced with a laptop??
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
My sister gave me this to read, because we were huge BSC fans when we were little. It was...cute. Very nostalgiac, and very much like every other Baby-Sitters Club book ever, but I enjoyed being transported back to my youth & revisiting some "old friends". And I noted often how timeless these books are, because while the girls don't ever mention cell phones or computers or any sort of technology (which I guess was a good - if not conscious, in 1980-whatever - move by Ann M. Martin, because it keeps things ambiguous; could you imagine if Janine worked on a Commodore64 or something?!), it really still worked. I really liked that the books could still seem relevant and applicable to today, for the most part. Granted, there were probably some parts where the YA reader of 2010 might be all, "Why didn't she just Google him??" or something, but...for the most part, it works. I would've been disappointed if Martin had tried to "update" the prequel to her books. And it's always fascinating how timeless teenage problems always remain, no matter what the era. Girls will forever be consumed with figuring out how to grow up, while still being told what to do by their parents. They seek their own identities and try to understand others' while dealing with hormones, bullies, boys, homework, independence & dependence, etc. Despite technological and other advances and changes in the past 15 years, I don't think much has really changed from my YA-hood to today's.
This book was like finding out I had forgotten to read the very first Baby-Sitters Club book. The writing style and stories were pretty much the exact same that I remembered from all the other books in the series. If I didn't already know what happened next (or mostly remember what happens next...) I would probably grab the next book and keep going. (Well, if I were about 15 years younger again...)
A little unnecessary but…
It’s still a fun throwback to the start of the series. I like that we get a bit more insight into Stacey’s situation with her ex best friend and how Claudia pulls away from Kristy & MaryAnne. It’s totally a book for nostalgia but a nice heartwarming tale nonetheless.
It’s still a fun throwback to the start of the series. I like that we get a bit more insight into Stacey’s situation with her ex best friend and how Claudia pulls away from Kristy & MaryAnne. It’s totally a book for nostalgia but a nice heartwarming tale nonetheless.
I love the background of the BSC characters.
lighthearted
fast-paced
Fun, quick read. Took me right back to my BSC days!
Honestly, there wasn't even time for me to put this on "to read" and/or to list progress on it. I was walking through the new children's library when I went to renew my card yesterday, saw that somehow, I missed the release of an actual honest-to-goodness BSC book, and not just one of the re-releases.
So I read it one sitting. Just like I used to. Except, as I pointed out to a friend, this time I did not lock myself in the bathroom the way I used to have to in order to keep out my older brothers while I read. I'm a grownup with a whole apartment to myself nowadays, so I read it sprawled on the couch.
And what is there to say other than that it was fun. I appreciated how true it stayed to the originals--I think it's easy, after so long (and so many ghostwriters!) to lose sight of the characters as they were, and doubly hard to evoke them again in a reader who is now more than three times as old as she was the first time she met them. The only character who struck me as a little off was Claudia, and while she had a fabulous little lesson-learning story arc that was exactly the kind of arc that made this series fun back in the day, she was less compassionately portrayed than I think she often came off in the books.
But as for the other three, it was spot-on. The same sort of sappy sweet friendship and heartache over growing up too slowly, over friendships changing. Even the writing style was exactly the same--as silly as some of the narration strikes me as a writer these days, the explanation of who all the characters are and where they came from and why they are where they are, which got so repetitive after fifty books, felt like putting on a comfortable pair of favorite shoes here.
One thing I noticed and stopped to marvel at was how the lack of technology didn't take a thing away from this story. Of course, if the story were truly set in 2010, the girls would have access to computers, and chat, and probably even their own cellphones for texting and phone calls. Back in 1988, that Claudia had her own phone line was really, REALLY cool. Yet, the amazing thing was that 12 years later, with all that's come in-between, the book didn't feel that it was missing anything for the lack of those gadgets. Makes you think, a bit.
Honestly, this is probably a 4, maybe even 3.5-star book. There definitely were places where the plots fell short or felt a little on the preachy side, and of course, BSC books by their very nature are very "tell"-y. But somehow as I read this, I was transported back to being the second grader reading it in a locked bathroom to escape her big brothers. So I'm giving it an extra star for sheer magic.
So I read it one sitting. Just like I used to. Except, as I pointed out to a friend, this time I did not lock myself in the bathroom the way I used to have to in order to keep out my older brothers while I read. I'm a grownup with a whole apartment to myself nowadays, so I read it sprawled on the couch.
And what is there to say other than that it was fun. I appreciated how true it stayed to the originals--I think it's easy, after so long (and so many ghostwriters!) to lose sight of the characters as they were, and doubly hard to evoke them again in a reader who is now more than three times as old as she was the first time she met them. The only character who struck me as a little off was Claudia, and while she had a fabulous little lesson-learning story arc that was exactly the kind of arc that made this series fun back in the day, she was less compassionately portrayed than I think she often came off in the books.
But as for the other three, it was spot-on. The same sort of sappy sweet friendship and heartache over growing up too slowly, over friendships changing. Even the writing style was exactly the same--as silly as some of the narration strikes me as a writer these days, the explanation of who all the characters are and where they came from and why they are where they are, which got so repetitive after fifty books, felt like putting on a comfortable pair of favorite shoes here.
One thing I noticed and stopped to marvel at was how the lack of technology didn't take a thing away from this story. Of course, if the story were truly set in 2010, the girls would have access to computers, and chat, and probably even their own cellphones for texting and phone calls. Back in 1988, that Claudia had her own phone line was really, REALLY cool. Yet, the amazing thing was that 12 years later, with all that's come in-between, the book didn't feel that it was missing anything for the lack of those gadgets. Makes you think, a bit.
Honestly, this is probably a 4, maybe even 3.5-star book. There definitely were places where the plots fell short or felt a little on the preachy side, and of course, BSC books by their very nature are very "tell"-y. But somehow as I read this, I was transported back to being the second grader reading it in a locked bathroom to escape her big brothers. So I'm giving it an extra star for sheer magic.