Melis

The Baby-Sitters Club Appreciation Thread



Synopsis
The Baby-sitters Club (BSC) is a series of children's books, written by Ann M. Martin and published by Scholastic between 1986–2000, that sold 176 million copies.

The series is about a group of middle school students living in the fictional town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut. They run a business called the Baby-sitters Club that helps parents find babysitters from the club available for jobs by calling during their club meetings. Meetings take place Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The club runs financially on dues and fundraising, and the babysitters write diaries of their jobs to help each other. The members of the club are also best friends, although they go through many conflicts throughout the series.

The club starts out with four members (Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, and Stacey McGill), eventually expanding to ten. All of the main characters are thirteen, with the exception of junior members Mallory Pike and Jessica Ramsey, who are two years younger. When the club was founded (in 1986), the four members were in the seventh grade, but ten books later (1988), they are promoted to the eighth grade. From there, they are frozen in time until the very end of the series (2000), in which they graduate from middle school.

THEY'RE BACK!

Now, ten years after the final BSC book, they’re back. Martin has written a prequel, The Summer Before, delving into the lives of the original four baby-sitters before the club started. It was released yesterday, and to celebrate, Women in Children’s Media and Scholastic sponsored a special event, “The Baby Sitters are Back.” Attendees were treated to an intimate conversation between Martin and David Levithan, editorial director at Scholastic. He first started working on the BSC with Martin as a 19-year-old intern, and knew stuff about the series that even the most die-hard super fans in attendance didn’t. Levithan told the audience that introducing Martin was “like introducing Sarah Palin at a tea party event,” and it was true. She laughed as he said this, and took her seat to hearty applause. - link to text

Melis

I can't believe the first book was published 25 years ago!! I feel so old. I'm really excited about the prequel. Has anyone read it yet? I envy those who got to meet Ann M. Martin.

Barrybgb

This wasn't reading material for me, Lol, but I certainly remember these books. Wasn't there a tv series too?.

Melis

There was a movie. There were also some eps, but I don't think it was a tv series. I tried to get them once.

funky_chick

I loved these books when I was younger!

Melis

Yeah, I wanted to have my own baby-sitting club. It would have been hard since there were no kids in our neighborhood.

funky_chick

The only kids in my neighborhood were too close to my age to need baby-sitting when I was old enough to baby-sit and now that there are some young enough kids, I lack the interest

Melis

Lol! It would have been a fun idea. I just didn't have anyone to babysit.

Melis

I haven't had a chance to read the prequel.

Giana

Omg these were my favorites when I was little!

I don't remember the prequel?

Melis

The prequel just came out last year. Ann Martin wrote it for the anniversary.

Wind Ann Wise

I haven't read the prequel. I used to love these books. My favorite character was Dawn.

Melis

Dawn was cool. I'm not sure if I had a favorite. They were all fun.