The Baby Sitters' Club Series

[pomegranate]

Dec 31, 2009 18:55:00 GMT -4 angelaudie said:

Scholastic announces a Baby Sitters' Club prequel and plans to update books. So, I guess this means clients will be calling Claudia's cell phone instead?

But more importantly...are they going to update her outfits?! With this news, I'd say 2010 has gotten off to a pretty rad start!

[angelaudie]

But more importantly...are they going to update her outfits?!

Hee. My guess is they will. Claudia had a serious obsession with denim and bedazzling things and well no kid would be caught dead wearing that now!

Scholastic really has its hands full when it comes to updating the books. I predict lots of references to the internet (maybe Claudia will get weird emails instead of notes?), Stacy putting highlights in her hair instead of perming it, and spicing up Mary Ann's relationship with Logan!

ETA: Jezebel also has some revamp suggestions! I'm so with them on this one:

Drop The Repetitive Intro: Didn't read the first book of the series? No big deal! The entire book is recapped in every bloody title, with the first chapter solely dedicated to catching newbies up to speed. Look: if you're going to push a numbered series, don't insult your devoted readers by forcing them to flip through the same chapter over and over again. Also? It's not really a big deal if you come in at book #43 without the knowledge that Kristy Thomas started the group. Lord knows she'll let you know, eventually.

I too found giving a recap in every single book annoying and yes Kristy in practically every novel reminds us all she was the one with the brilliant idea to start the club.

[GoldenFleece]

The prequel has been published and some tidbits from a Q&A with Ann M. Martin:

*The sitters seemed a lot younger to Martin in the beginning of the series than later.

*The biggest mistake she made was to write Stacey out of the series in #13, Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye. She had her move back to New York City because many readers had asked her to write about a friend moving away. This caused an avalanche of reader mail, and Stacey was brought back as soon as possible, in #28, Welcome Back, Stacey!

*Some of the changes in the re-releases include updates to Stacey’s diabetes treatment. Also, the pay scale for babysitting has been increased, and “thongs” have become “flip flops.”

*The reason why the girls stayed in eighth grade for most of the series is because logistically, for the series to go on for as long as it did there was no way they could age. “It did become challenging by the end of the series,” Martin said.

*Dawn was harder for her to write about. “I didn’t feel like I knew her as well, and didn’t spend a lot of time in California,” she said. (No offense, but as a Californian, I could tell. We don’t all shun red meat or have long blonde hair and perma-tans!)

*Claudia’s crazy outfits came about after poring over catalogues and magazines and seeing what kids were wearing on television.

*Her views on the girls today: Kristy is “probably the head of something, maybe a business”; Claudia’s an artist; Stacey’s doing “something in fashion, not necessarily design, but maybe the business end”; Mary Anne’s a teacher; Jessi is still “passionate about dance, but not a professional”; Dawn is “permanently in California.” Other than that, she doesn’t have any “strong feelings” about Dawn and Mallory.

Poor Mallory, indeed! Even the writer who created the character doesn't care enough to think up a future for her.

[spinsterliz]

Holy crap. Poor old Mallory. It would have taken Ann M. Martin about ten seconds to just throw in a note about Mallory's future ("She'd be a journalist" "She'd work with horses" etc). And she couldn't even be bothered to do that.

I do agree with Ann that Dawn was a sucky, one-note character.

[Deleted]

I haven't read the books in forever, but Dawn was always my favorite. This was probably based on residual love for books 4 and 5, in which Dawn was a fully realized character. I guess I just picked my favorite babysitter at age 9 and never looked back.

[spinsterliz]

I liked Mallory best, which is horribly embarrassing now.

[Deleted]

Mallory wasn't my favorite, but I did identify with her in many ways (I also had a large family, wore glasses, had curly hair, was dying to get my ears pierced at the time, etc). I'm not sure how I would picture her as an adult, though, so I can see why Ann didn't really have anything to say about her. Somehow I don't see her as an author or journalist (maybe because all her journal entries in the BSC books seemed to be trying too hard to be amusing), maybe she'd have become a school librarian--where she'd be surrounded by books and kids.

Next time I am at the bookstore (which seems to be at least once a week for some reason) I will take a look at the prequel--if it looks good, I will buy it. Otherwise, I will wait till it is available at the library). I wouldn't buy the reprints, though.

[susyhomewrecker]

Apr 3, 2010 21:57:55 GMT -4 @newt said:

I haven't read the books in forever, but Dawn was always my favorite. This was probably based on residual love for books 4 and 5, in which Dawn was a fully realized character. I guess I just picked my favorite babysitter at age 9 and never looked back.

Me too! I'm from California, my parents are divorced, and I used to have long, blonde hair so I related to Dawn the most. I liked the books where she had a hard time adjusting to Connecticut and having a stepfamily, but I guess later in the series she was just a one-note hippie chick who wanted to save the environment and whined about wanting to go home to California. Then again, they were all kind of one-note at times, but Mary Anne did get the makeover/boyfriend storylines and Stacey hung out with the "bad girls," so those books were better than, like, all of the Mallory books combined.

[spinsterliz]

Apr 5, 2010 0:08:28 GMT -4 @susyhomewrecker said:

Mary Anne did get the makeover/boyfriend storylines and Stacey hung out with the "bad girls," so those books were better than, like, all of the Mallory books combined.

Mallory's books are the best in hindsight because it's hilarious to see how many bad things Ann M. Martin and her ghostwriters could pile on one lone character. They should have called every book about Mallory POOR MALLORY!, not just the book where her dad loses his job.

[incognito]

I liked Dawn in the movie, but that may have been because Larisa Oleynik was playing her.