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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
I loved the babysitters club when I was younger. This book felt out of place in a way. Maybe because it was released so much later. If I was younger I would have found it interesting. Was it necessary? Idk
It's been a long time since I've read a Baby Sitters Club book so this was definitely a walk down memory lane! I thought the prequel concept was a great idea, it was cool to read about the girls before the BSC became a reality and before some of them had even met!
After a decade off, Martin returns to her wildly successful series about middle school-aged baby-sitters, but this time to tell the story about what happened before they formed their now famous club. At the end of sixth grade, childhood friends Kristy Thomas, Claudia Kishi, and Mary Anne Spier find their friendship drifting apart, while New Yorker Stacey McGill is about to leave the big city for small-town Connecticut. The only thing these four girls have in common is their love of baby-sitting. Will that be enough to keep them together?
As a once avid reader of this series I just had to check this one out and I was mostly pleased. I stopped reading the series once I finally realized that chapter 2 really could be skipped and the serialization as an insult to my intelligence, so I was surprised just how quickly I was drawn to the characters and the situations they were put in. Sure, there was a lot of ridiculousness about the series since the girls spent over a decade in middle school and a new book came out roughly once a month, but the characters were the reason Martin could get away with the blatant commercialization of the series. Girls around the country could identify with the members of the Baby-Sitters Club, whether it was bossy Kristy, shy Mary Anne, creative Claudia, or boy-crazy Stacey.
This title is part of an effort to relaunch the series with some of the most anachronistic references removed, yet I was a little annoyed at how old-fashioned these books sometimes seemed. Nobody has a cell phone, let alone a personal computer, so the girls still communicate primarily via land line phone or written notes. There's also the assumption that all the best shopping can be done downtown in department stores, which I know was part of the original series, but how many kids today shop downtown at all, let alone at department stores? My small city doesn't even have any department stores located downtown anymore. Maybe I'm just being overly picky about details. I remember loving Beverly Cleary's Fifteen even though it was obviously written decades before I read it.
If you've read through all of this, you most likely read a few BSC novels, so you're wondering if it's worth your time to spend a few hours back in the world of Stoneybrook, Connecticut and four of its eleven-year-old inhabitants. Absolutely. All of the series' strengths were on display. The main caveat I have is wondering how much it appeals to today's tweens.
As a once avid reader of this series I just had to check this one out and I was mostly pleased. I stopped reading the series once I finally realized that chapter 2 really could be skipped and the serialization as an insult to my intelligence, so I was surprised just how quickly I was drawn to the characters and the situations they were put in. Sure, there was a lot of ridiculousness about the series since the girls spent over a decade in middle school and a new book came out roughly once a month, but the characters were the reason Martin could get away with the blatant commercialization of the series. Girls around the country could identify with the members of the Baby-Sitters Club, whether it was bossy Kristy, shy Mary Anne, creative Claudia, or boy-crazy Stacey.
This title is part of an effort to relaunch the series with some of the most anachronistic references removed, yet I was a little annoyed at how old-fashioned these books sometimes seemed. Nobody has a cell phone, let alone a personal computer, so the girls still communicate primarily via land line phone or written notes. There's also the assumption that all the best shopping can be done downtown in department stores, which I know was part of the original series, but how many kids today shop downtown at all, let alone at department stores? My small city doesn't even have any department stores located downtown anymore. Maybe I'm just being overly picky about details. I remember loving Beverly Cleary's Fifteen even though it was obviously written decades before I read it.
If you've read through all of this, you most likely read a few BSC novels, so you're wondering if it's worth your time to spend a few hours back in the world of Stoneybrook, Connecticut and four of its eleven-year-old inhabitants. Absolutely. All of the series' strengths were on display. The main caveat I have is wondering how much it appeals to today's tweens.
Maybe it's been too long since I read a real Baby-Sitters Club book... but I'm pretty sure this one was boring. Super-boring. Basically, it needed more babysitting.
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Total nostalgia for the fall of 1987 when I read Kristy's Great Idea. (Did I get the first four books from Scholastic Book Club? I think I did.) I owned every single BSC book up until book 50 or so, at which point I was a freshman in high school and completely ashamed that I was so totally lame. Anyway, even though the books became totally formulaic and boring, I always thought the first six or so stood out as being heads and tails above the rest. Not surprisingly, those are the ones Ann M. Martin actually wrote herself, and this prequel published over years later than the first one, recalls those early books' best qualities. 12 is an awkward age where everyone is straddled between childhood and adolescence, and I thought the strongest parts of the book dealt with the gap this can create between friends who are growing up at different rates.
The BSC changed my life in the 5th and 6th grade. My friends and I would coordinate so that we could read all of the books. I remember writing to Ann M. Martin to get her autograph. I thought it was amazing that she actually responded to me! I read this one a few years ago and it was fun to be taken back to that place that forever will remain special to me.
It's so awesome that Ann M. Martin decided to release this prequel, even if it is in a way both a money-spinning idea and a way to get interest into the re-released books. I was admittedly a bit pumped when I heard this was going to be released. I gobbled down the BSC series when I was young.
This prequel isn't bad. It isn't the best book, but it's not bad. I found Kristy's story perhaps the saddest, then Stacey's, Mary Anne's, and finally Claudia's being the least. Really, I just found Claudia to be a bit selfish the entire time. Dude, dating your sister's fancy? Not on. And hell, he's entering high school while you're only twelve. Did you think he was going to keep you hanging along? Not really.
I wouldn't recommend starting with this book, though. There's a lot of pre-assumed knowledge, even if that's not what Martin intended. Furthermore, I can't help but feel that this is more of a gift to Martin's now-adult readers.
If you love the BSC, then you will probably enjoy this.
This prequel isn't bad. It isn't the best book, but it's not bad. I found Kristy's story perhaps the saddest, then Stacey's, Mary Anne's, and finally Claudia's being the least. Really, I just found Claudia to be a bit selfish the entire time. Dude, dating your sister's fancy? Not on. And hell, he's entering high school while you're only twelve. Did you think he was going to keep you hanging along? Not really.
I wouldn't recommend starting with this book, though. There's a lot of pre-assumed knowledge, even if that's not what Martin intended. Furthermore, I can't help but feel that this is more of a gift to Martin's now-adult readers.
If you love the BSC, then you will probably enjoy this.
The Baby-Sitters Club was my favorite series during late elementary and middle school. I read and owned every book! It is what helped me become the reader I am today.
On April 1st, Ann M. Martin released this prequel to the series which introduces the characters before the baby-sitters club began.
Now, I am biased, but I loved this book! It switches points of view between the 4 original members of the club (Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacy), introduces us to each of them, shares their personality and is a perfect lead in to the series. Although throughout the series you learn about each girl's past, I loved how this prequel gave you the background knowledge before the Club even began. I wish it'd been around when I started reading them.
Any middle school student who is interested in the subject matter and hasn't read the Baby-Sitters Club series should try this prequel out to see if it sucks them in like it did to me.
*I also just realized while looking over it again for #BSC #bookaday that the last chapter of the prequel is the first chapter of the 1st book.
On April 1st, Ann M. Martin released this prequel to the series which introduces the characters before the baby-sitters club began.
Now, I am biased, but I loved this book! It switches points of view between the 4 original members of the club (Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacy), introduces us to each of them, shares their personality and is a perfect lead in to the series. Although throughout the series you learn about each girl's past, I loved how this prequel gave you the background knowledge before the Club even began. I wish it'd been around when I started reading them.
Any middle school student who is interested in the subject matter and hasn't read the Baby-Sitters Club series should try this prequel out to see if it sucks them in like it did to me.
*I also just realized while looking over it again for #BSC #bookaday that the last chapter of the prequel is the first chapter of the 1st book.
So true to everyone, including parents, siblings, and the kids they babysat. These books were such a huge part of my childhood and this did not disappoint! Made me want to read the entire series again.