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The Baby-sitters Club Fan Edition: Baby-sitter Summer
An all-star lineup, including Ann M. Martin, creates the first new Baby-sitters Club novel in over a decade!It's a summer to remember for The Baby-sitters Club, with Mary Anne and Stacey staying in Stoneybrook while Kristy, Claudia, Dawn, Jessi, and Mallory head on adventures all across the map.
284 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 7, 2026
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,144 books3,149 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
July 9, 2026
This is still such a nostalgia read for me, but like the Netflix series, I like how they’ve updated it with the times while still making the book timeless. I love that they send postcards to each other and no one is glued to a cellphone. This one was fun because each girl had her own story and equal time.
July 17, 2026
Called a fan edition but really just fan fiction published around the 40th (lord I'm old) anniversary of Kristy's Great Idea. Granted Ann M Martin wrote one of the stories. I'm guessing Mary Anne but who knows?
While a decent read the girls are all separated which was sad I missed them hanging out and interacting, also disappointed the timeline is off. Pretty sure Kristy and Bart were still dating, and Dawn is still here. Happily that means Sunny still has her mom though. This book should've taken place after Graduation Day, a nice way to wrap things up like The Summer Before launched the story. Also the handwriting at the start of each chapter was off. Jessi prints Claudia, Kristy and Mary Anne all look about the same as each other, though Dawn, Mallory and Stacey are the same as in the OG series at least.
In this book Kristy questions her sexuality, Stacey learns musicians make terrible boyfriends, Mary Anne loves cats and books and stand up to bullies, Jessi learns there's more to life than dancing, Dawn is a great composer apparently, Mallory faces her fears and Claudia finds Mimi again. Also Karen is still the worst and Charlotte is my spirit animal.
Kristy is babysitting the Papadakis kids on an island and meets a girl who's into photography and this one was obviously fan written since there's so many people pushing Kristy as gay. Kind of stereotyping girls who are big into sports, even though Rowan the girl is the opposite of her. If anyone in this club is gay it's not Kristy it's Dawn. Just read how she describes other female characters. But her story was kind of cute even if it made little sense given the timeline of the actual series. Her story would've made more sense if it took place after Graduation Day.
Claudia travels to San Francisco Tokyo town to teach art to kids and stays with a family who were close to Mimi. She is working on an art project as a tribute to her grandmother and having trouble with it. She also has trouble with Betty, the daughter of the family she's staying with, as Betty never leaves her room. They bond over a tea ceremony.
Dawn wrote a whole ass musical on her own despite never showing any musical talent in the series which was weird. She's a counselor at a kids acting camp and codirecting her show which is about saving the environment, very Dawn, and she isn't as awful and obnoxious as usual, plus Jeff hates her. Brothers are weird I say as someone who also has a brother who hated me when we were kids, we grew out of it, but Jeff is as obnoxious as Dawn so they might not. Dawn also fights with her co director who stars in various commercials and stuff.
Mallory goes to visit family in Ireland and fits right in feeling like she's finally found family she fits into. This is why adult me loves Mallory because I can relate to both her and Claudia about not fitting in even with your family especially when the one family member you connected with is no longer there. She also faces her fear of horses which I don't remember her having, even in the dream horse book. She fell off and was afraid but she did get on again by the end. But since she needed a plot here we are.
Jessi goes with her mom to a college reunion and babysits some kids with another girl Imani who keeps disappearing leaving Jessi alone with the kids. Jessi finally finds out why and a friendship is born. Jessi is also unable to dance due to stress fractures in her right foot and is afraid she'll never dance again and as someone who had to have foot surgery due to tremendous pain boy could I relate to that part. I remember thinking before surgery I'd just have to live with the pain and now over a year later I can walk and exercise again. But also like Kristy Jessi's story made no sense because she would've mentioned it in the original series. Seriously guys just base the story after Graduation Day.
Stacey is babysitting Charlotte for the summer. Charlotte is attending library camp which I probably would've loved doing. She even nerds out when Mary Anne wants to make library cards for all her books which again is me. My books were once organized by genre, author, and subject, biographies in alphabetical order until I got a rabbit who thinks books are tasty and now it's a mess and the little guy is lucky that I love him. Anyway back to Stacey, while attending a State Fair she meets a musician playing there who's in some boy band and begins to ditch Charlotte to spend time with him. This is basically the plot of the books where Mary Anne and Stacey ho with the Pikes to Sea City. Eventually Mary Anne, Charlotte and Karen stage an intervention which was kind of funny and she learns the guy is a jerk.
Mary Anne's dad tells her she has to go out and socialize this summer and not stay home reading and knitting which seems cruel to introverts like us. I could probably stay in my house for weeks or months on end without talking to a soul as long as I had enough food (I have the books to keep me occupied.) So she volunteers at an animal shelter and fosters a mama cat and her kittens again this book needed to happen at a different time and also Sharon hated cats except Tigger didn't she? Mary Anne also babysits Karen as she's driving everyone nuts, as Karen does. Seriously never wanted a smack fictional character more than I do Karen Brewer. But she's upset Hannie has gone away and made a new friend to boot. Doesn't she have Nancy? Or is Nancy only a friend while at her mom's house? Together Karen and Mary Anne open a library in Mary Anne's house and Charlotte joins in when Stacey ditches her for a boy another tired trope.
Overall this wasn't bad, but it made no sense especially since I only finished rereading the entire series about a year ago. Also I miss Abby. I know she's not everyone's cup of tea but Abby was fun and the perfect foil for Kristy especially in the Friends Forever series. It's what I would call fan fiction and just average fan fiction at that, but still engaging and a nice catch up. Based on the book one on the cover I'm guessing it's going to be a series, not sure if I'll carry on reading them, but this was cute and fun. I just hope the next book ages them up to fourteen and about to enter high school and maybe it ends the forever 13/11 curse on these poor girls. Maybe have them open that time capsule as adults since we're wading into fan fiction territory anyway.
While a decent read the girls are all separated which was sad I missed them hanging out and interacting, also disappointed the timeline is off. Pretty sure Kristy and Bart were still dating, and Dawn is still here. Happily that means Sunny still has her mom though. This book should've taken place after Graduation Day, a nice way to wrap things up like The Summer Before launched the story. Also the handwriting at the start of each chapter was off. Jessi prints Claudia, Kristy and Mary Anne all look about the same as each other, though Dawn, Mallory and Stacey are the same as in the OG series at least.
In this book Kristy questions her sexuality, Stacey learns musicians make terrible boyfriends, Mary Anne loves cats and books and stand up to bullies, Jessi learns there's more to life than dancing, Dawn is a great composer apparently, Mallory faces her fears and Claudia finds Mimi again. Also Karen is still the worst and Charlotte is my spirit animal.
Kristy is babysitting the Papadakis kids on an island and meets a girl who's into photography and this one was obviously fan written since there's so many people pushing Kristy as gay. Kind of stereotyping girls who are big into sports, even though Rowan the girl is the opposite of her. If anyone in this club is gay it's not Kristy it's Dawn. Just read how she describes other female characters. But her story was kind of cute even if it made little sense given the timeline of the actual series. Her story would've made more sense if it took place after Graduation Day.
Claudia travels to San Francisco Tokyo town to teach art to kids and stays with a family who were close to Mimi. She is working on an art project as a tribute to her grandmother and having trouble with it. She also has trouble with Betty, the daughter of the family she's staying with, as Betty never leaves her room. They bond over a tea ceremony.
Dawn wrote a whole ass musical on her own despite never showing any musical talent in the series which was weird. She's a counselor at a kids acting camp and codirecting her show which is about saving the environment, very Dawn, and she isn't as awful and obnoxious as usual, plus Jeff hates her. Brothers are weird I say as someone who also has a brother who hated me when we were kids, we grew out of it, but Jeff is as obnoxious as Dawn so they might not. Dawn also fights with her co director who stars in various commercials and stuff.
Mallory goes to visit family in Ireland and fits right in feeling like she's finally found family she fits into. This is why adult me loves Mallory because I can relate to both her and Claudia about not fitting in even with your family especially when the one family member you connected with is no longer there. She also faces her fear of horses which I don't remember her having, even in the dream horse book. She fell off and was afraid but she did get on again by the end. But since she needed a plot here we are.
Jessi goes with her mom to a college reunion and babysits some kids with another girl Imani who keeps disappearing leaving Jessi alone with the kids. Jessi finally finds out why and a friendship is born. Jessi is also unable to dance due to stress fractures in her right foot and is afraid she'll never dance again and as someone who had to have foot surgery due to tremendous pain boy could I relate to that part. I remember thinking before surgery I'd just have to live with the pain and now over a year later I can walk and exercise again. But also like Kristy Jessi's story made no sense because she would've mentioned it in the original series. Seriously guys just base the story after Graduation Day.
Stacey is babysitting Charlotte for the summer. Charlotte is attending library camp which I probably would've loved doing. She even nerds out when Mary Anne wants to make library cards for all her books which again is me. My books were once organized by genre, author, and subject, biographies in alphabetical order until I got a rabbit who thinks books are tasty and now it's a mess and the little guy is lucky that I love him. Anyway back to Stacey, while attending a State Fair she meets a musician playing there who's in some boy band and begins to ditch Charlotte to spend time with him. This is basically the plot of the books where Mary Anne and Stacey ho with the Pikes to Sea City. Eventually Mary Anne, Charlotte and Karen stage an intervention which was kind of funny and she learns the guy is a jerk.
Mary Anne's dad tells her she has to go out and socialize this summer and not stay home reading and knitting which seems cruel to introverts like us. I could probably stay in my house for weeks or months on end without talking to a soul as long as I had enough food (I have the books to keep me occupied.) So she volunteers at an animal shelter and fosters a mama cat and her kittens again this book needed to happen at a different time and also Sharon hated cats except Tigger didn't she? Mary Anne also babysits Karen as she's driving everyone nuts, as Karen does. Seriously never wanted a smack fictional character more than I do Karen Brewer. But she's upset Hannie has gone away and made a new friend to boot. Doesn't she have Nancy? Or is Nancy only a friend while at her mom's house? Together Karen and Mary Anne open a library in Mary Anne's house and Charlotte joins in when Stacey ditches her for a boy another tired trope.
Overall this wasn't bad, but it made no sense especially since I only finished rereading the entire series about a year ago. Also I miss Abby. I know she's not everyone's cup of tea but Abby was fun and the perfect foil for Kristy especially in the Friends Forever series. It's what I would call fan fiction and just average fan fiction at that, but still engaging and a nice catch up. Based on the book one on the cover I'm guessing it's going to be a series, not sure if I'll carry on reading them, but this was cute and fun. I just hope the next book ages them up to fourteen and about to enter high school and maybe it ends the forever 13/11 curse on these poor girls. Maybe have them open that time capsule as adults since we're wading into fan fiction territory anyway.
July 12, 2026
I am so glad to be alive in the year of 2026 where Ann M. Martin (and others) have brought the Baby-Sitters Club back together. I absolutely gobbled the girls’ stories up and laughed and cried and I shall be mopey until the next edition (hopefully) is created and released.
Kristy’s story was absolutely perfect. No notes. This is the story we all needed. Mary Anne’s story was so sweet and relatable. Stacey’s and Claudia’s stories fit them so well; they each felt like natural extensions of the series. I sincerely enjoyed Mallory’s and Jessi’s stories, and these were the two stories I felt most nervous about. I felt like Jessi’s story left the door open for additional story lines in the future, in particular. I really enjoyed Dawn’s story, and honestly, I felt like, for whatever reason, we just didn’t get enough time with Dawn. I think her story could segue into more stories that I would be delighted to read.
As a lifelong stan of the BSC, I cannot even believe that we’re getting new BSC stories. This is what dreams are made of.
Kristy’s story was absolutely perfect. No notes. This is the story we all needed. Mary Anne’s story was so sweet and relatable. Stacey’s and Claudia’s stories fit them so well; they each felt like natural extensions of the series. I sincerely enjoyed Mallory’s and Jessi’s stories, and these were the two stories I felt most nervous about. I felt like Jessi’s story left the door open for additional story lines in the future, in particular. I really enjoyed Dawn’s story, and honestly, I felt like, for whatever reason, we just didn’t get enough time with Dawn. I think her story could segue into more stories that I would be delighted to read.
As a lifelong stan of the BSC, I cannot even believe that we’re getting new BSC stories. This is what dreams are made of.
July 13, 2026
I see why some people gave this a low star rating. This book had the opportunity to do many things that we Xenial women were dying to see. Instead it was another classic BSC story with classic (been done) character story arcs (minus an A+ all new look at Kristy - a highlight.). Yes there were timeline gaffes and even editing errors (I’m looking at you, “Mrs. Thomas.”) None of that will lead me to give it less than 5 stars though. This 47 year old will wrap myself in the comforting blanket of the world of Stoneybrook any chance I get. And I will love it.
August 7, 2026
This was really disappointing. I grew up as a HUGE fan of the BSC series, and read the books as they came out in real time (I was a kid in the 80s & 90s). I credit the series for a lot in terms of who I am as a reader, writer, and person. I saved all my books and my daughter read and loved them as well. We both are big fans of the Netflix series and the graphic novel versions, so I’m by no means tied only to the original versions. I got so excited when this “for the fans” book came out to commemorate the 40th anniversary of ‘Kristy’s Great Idea’ and immediately put it on hold at the library.
But this book felt really off. First of all, the handwriting for the characters was wrong. Some characters’ writing was just slightly off and some was just straight up not the right handwriting. And, since this was supposed to be for “the fans of all ages”, you can bet that we are going to notice. Second, on the back of the book it says Claudia goes to San Francisco, but then in the book she goes to Los Angeles (which, somehow, is the kind of city where she can just run out the front door and be in Little Tokyo?? Has the writer been to LA?). That whole story line was so flat. Actually, all of the story lines were flat. Dawn, Stacey, and Mallory’s were the worst, but they were all varying degrees of blah. The conflicts and resolutions mostly felt very forced. Like, even though Cokie & Grace are evil wenches, in no universe would even they bully someone for fostering kittens. It just didn’t add up. Nothing did.
Having very minimal interaction between the core characters took the heart out of what the BSC books really are, and I kind of just wish I hadn’t read this. If reading this gave someone happy nostalgia for the original series, then I feel like you haven’t read the original series in way too long, because this ain’t it.
But this book felt really off. First of all, the handwriting for the characters was wrong. Some characters’ writing was just slightly off and some was just straight up not the right handwriting. And, since this was supposed to be for “the fans of all ages”, you can bet that we are going to notice. Second, on the back of the book it says Claudia goes to San Francisco, but then in the book she goes to Los Angeles (which, somehow, is the kind of city where she can just run out the front door and be in Little Tokyo?? Has the writer been to LA?). That whole story line was so flat. Actually, all of the story lines were flat. Dawn, Stacey, and Mallory’s were the worst, but they were all varying degrees of blah. The conflicts and resolutions mostly felt very forced. Like, even though Cokie & Grace are evil wenches, in no universe would even they bully someone for fostering kittens. It just didn’t add up. Nothing did.
Having very minimal interaction between the core characters took the heart out of what the BSC books really are, and I kind of just wish I hadn’t read this. If reading this gave someone happy nostalgia for the original series, then I feel like you haven’t read the original series in way too long, because this ain’t it.
July 10, 2026
And just like that, I'm about 10 years old again, spending my summer reading BSC! Let me just say the fore-edge art is delightful and makes this such a pretty book! It went from being something I was originally going to borrow from the library to buying it from the bookstore instead because I needed to have the pretty book for my keeper shelf as soon as I saw it! Is every story perfect in this? No. Some characters had better stories than others, but for the most part this felt very in the spirit of the original series.
July 23, 2026
This book is such a disappointment
July 8, 2026
This was such a dissapointment. I've read better Fan Fiction. The Kristy storyline, with her realizing she might be gay, was really sweet. Everyone else's was a snooze. Mary-Anne started a library at her house- I feel like other characters have done that and it really doesn't make sense when you think too hard about it. Dawn and Mallory's chapters were so dull I found myself skimming. Jessi was at a week (or two-week) long reunion at an HBCU for some reason, and found herself baby-sitting (of course) while nursing a foot injury (which really disturbed me- her parents don't understand the meaning of rest). Claudia was also watching children in Little Tokyo and she had some cool stuff happen (mostly thrifting and becoming friends with a girl whose grandmother was besties with Mimi). Stacey met a boy and ditched people she cares about- wow, that's never happened before.
In some ways they made this modern, by not mentioning Jessi's race (instead saying she has box braids) and aknowledging that Hamilton is a musical, yet there are still no cell phones or email....
For some reason I had it in my head that this book took place when the girls are adults, and I was so excited. That was incorrect. I am so tired of them having the same summer after 8th grade over and over again. There is nothing more to say or happen until they get a little older. I love these characters and would love to see them as adults (hey, if Sweet Valley could do it in Confidential).
Don't waste your time.
In some ways they made this modern, by not mentioning Jessi's race (instead saying she has box braids) and aknowledging that Hamilton is a musical, yet there are still no cell phones or email....
For some reason I had it in my head that this book took place when the girls are adults, and I was so excited. That was incorrect. I am so tired of them having the same summer after 8th grade over and over again. There is nothing more to say or happen until they get a little older. I love these characters and would love to see them as adults (hey, if Sweet Valley could do it in Confidential).
Don't waste your time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2026
Couldn't finish. Who are these characters, and where did their characteristics go?
July 7, 2026
Not sure how I feel. I love that the BSC is finding a new generation, but something about this just didn't feel like a Baby-Sitter's Club series. Maybe because there were too many new characters and next to no interactions with the girls together.
July 9, 2026
I was ridiculously excited for this book and it mostly did deliver. I read another review that said when it was supposed to take place which explains why there was no Abby.
Kristy - 5/5 this was probably my favorite storyline because I do think it’s very believable that she’s gay but also I like a more introspective Kristy. Some of later books make her sports obsessed. It did also remind me of how much progress has been made in the 40 years since these books were first published. That wouldn’t have been a plot line in a middle grade book then.
Mary Anne - 3/5 Mary Anne felt the most true if you will but that’s because Ann M Martin wrote her. Her storyline has been done for her several times. Cokie and Grace are mean and Mary Anne stands up to her. Also this kind of felt like a way to shoehorn Karen Brewer in.
Stacey - 3/5 Like Mary Anne we have definitely had this exact storyline for Stacey. Dumping babysitting charges on Mary Anne while she gets her heart broken by a boy. I would have liked something new for her.
Claudia - 5/5 This was a good storyline. It was nice to see that Claudia got to reconnect with Mimi and learn more about herself as an artist and a person.
Jessi - 4/5 I really liked that Jessi was taken out of a familiar setting and not focused on dancing. Have we done the Jessi is paired with a less than ideal babysitter before? Yes. But Jessi having fears about her dancing and being able to develop a closer relationship with her mother was great.
Mallory - 3/5 I like Mallory but this storyline was kind of wild. Why did it take place in Ireland? Why did Mallory get to go alone? Somewhat baffling.
Dawn - 2/5 I didn’t hate this storyline I was just baffled by it. Why does Dawn go to theater camp? What?
I have no idea if these individual ratings add up to 4 stars. I will say I understand why the girls all went different places because then you’re not constrained by familiar characters and you can be creative. Although Betty’s parents never making an appearance was odd.
Kristy - 5/5 this was probably my favorite storyline because I do think it’s very believable that she’s gay but also I like a more introspective Kristy. Some of later books make her sports obsessed. It did also remind me of how much progress has been made in the 40 years since these books were first published. That wouldn’t have been a plot line in a middle grade book then.
Mary Anne - 3/5 Mary Anne felt the most true if you will but that’s because Ann M Martin wrote her. Her storyline has been done for her several times. Cokie and Grace are mean and Mary Anne stands up to her. Also this kind of felt like a way to shoehorn Karen Brewer in.
Stacey - 3/5 Like Mary Anne we have definitely had this exact storyline for Stacey. Dumping babysitting charges on Mary Anne while she gets her heart broken by a boy. I would have liked something new for her.
Claudia - 5/5 This was a good storyline. It was nice to see that Claudia got to reconnect with Mimi and learn more about herself as an artist and a person.
Jessi - 4/5 I really liked that Jessi was taken out of a familiar setting and not focused on dancing. Have we done the Jessi is paired with a less than ideal babysitter before? Yes. But Jessi having fears about her dancing and being able to develop a closer relationship with her mother was great.
Mallory - 3/5 I like Mallory but this storyline was kind of wild. Why did it take place in Ireland? Why did Mallory get to go alone? Somewhat baffling.
Dawn - 2/5 I didn’t hate this storyline I was just baffled by it. Why does Dawn go to theater camp? What?
I have no idea if these individual ratings add up to 4 stars. I will say I understand why the girls all went different places because then you’re not constrained by familiar characters and you can be creative. Although Betty’s parents never making an appearance was odd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2026
This was PERFECT.
I am a HUGE BSC fan, and this delivered! All the authors did a great job making their characters sound authentic — it felt like I was picking up a new BSC book! The audio readers were fantastic. I loved this so much. This is SO the same vibe as my own book, so it’s not surprising that I loved it! I am trying to be more frugal with buying books and it is already rare that I buy a book I’ve already read, but I am 100% getting a copy of this for my library!
If you loved the BSC growing up (and/or you still do), pick this up ASAP! You won’t be disappointed!
I am a HUGE BSC fan, and this delivered! All the authors did a great job making their characters sound authentic — it felt like I was picking up a new BSC book! The audio readers were fantastic. I loved this so much. This is SO the same vibe as my own book, so it’s not surprising that I loved it! I am trying to be more frugal with buying books and it is already rare that I buy a book I’ve already read, but I am 100% getting a copy of this for my library!
If you loved the BSC growing up (and/or you still do), pick this up ASAP! You won’t be disappointed!
July 10, 2026
I really really loved this book! I am so beyond thrilled to have a new BSC adventure to read after all these years. I hope there are more to come!
July 13, 2026
Either I’ve outgrown the BSC or this book was terrible. It was incredibly boring.
It’s summertime and the girls are going their own way for a couple of weeks. Since they can’t function without one another this is the worst thing in the world to them.
Mary Anne: She is still wimpy and annoying. She stays in town and her dad says she needs to do something to socialize. So she starts volunteering at the animal shelter and fosters some kittens. She also turns the family den into a library for little kids. Very odd that her parents approved of this.
Kristy: She’s the only one that had character development. She goes with her neighbors to some island to babysit the family’s kids. While there she meets a girl and starts to wonder about her feelings for her. Guess Bart just wasn’t doing it for her.
Claudia: Goes to California to a place called Little Tokyo where she’s a teacher for a Summer Arts Program where it seemed like very little art was going on. I wish the writers gave her a break and improved her spelling. My 8 year old niece could probably spell better than her.
Stacey: Remember the book Boy Crazy Stacey? This is basically it except she’s in Stoneybrook and meets a guy at the fair who ends up being in a boy band. She ditches Charlotte a few times to go hang out with him. That is bad babysitter behavior.
Mallory: Goes to Ireland to hang out with some relatives. She’s scared to go horseback riding so she makes up a lie about twisting her ankle. I feel like you could still ride a horse with a hurt ankle since you are sitting the whole time.
Dawn: She goes to some sort of theatre camp. I don’t remember her liking theater enough to go to camp and direct little kids.
Jessi: She fractured her foot so she has to spend the summer resting it which means no dancing. But apparently it’s ok for her mom to take her to her college reunion and have her walk around campus all day and babysit her friend’s unruly kids.
Overall the book was nothing special. Kind of wish it had been modernized. Let them have cell phones and they could just have a big group chat going on.
It’s summertime and the girls are going their own way for a couple of weeks. Since they can’t function without one another this is the worst thing in the world to them.
Mary Anne: She is still wimpy and annoying. She stays in town and her dad says she needs to do something to socialize. So she starts volunteering at the animal shelter and fosters some kittens. She also turns the family den into a library for little kids. Very odd that her parents approved of this.
Kristy: She’s the only one that had character development. She goes with her neighbors to some island to babysit the family’s kids. While there she meets a girl and starts to wonder about her feelings for her. Guess Bart just wasn’t doing it for her.
Claudia: Goes to California to a place called Little Tokyo where she’s a teacher for a Summer Arts Program where it seemed like very little art was going on. I wish the writers gave her a break and improved her spelling. My 8 year old niece could probably spell better than her.
Stacey: Remember the book Boy Crazy Stacey? This is basically it except she’s in Stoneybrook and meets a guy at the fair who ends up being in a boy band. She ditches Charlotte a few times to go hang out with him. That is bad babysitter behavior.
Mallory: Goes to Ireland to hang out with some relatives. She’s scared to go horseback riding so she makes up a lie about twisting her ankle. I feel like you could still ride a horse with a hurt ankle since you are sitting the whole time.
Dawn: She goes to some sort of theatre camp. I don’t remember her liking theater enough to go to camp and direct little kids.
Jessi: She fractured her foot so she has to spend the summer resting it which means no dancing. But apparently it’s ok for her mom to take her to her college reunion and have her walk around campus all day and babysit her friend’s unruly kids.
Overall the book was nothing special. Kind of wish it had been modernized. Let them have cell phones and they could just have a big group chat going on.
July 13, 2026
There's something missing when the characters barely interact with each other. Starting this in one of the odd time loop summers is a choice. Some of the handwriting is definitely different.
Kristy - 4/5 definitely a storyline they couldn't do in the 90s for this series.
Mary-Anne - 3/5 unoriginal storyline but had a lot of heart. Ann clearly still feels the character deeply.
Claudia - 3/5 camp storyline was mediocre but the Mimi part was good.
Stacey - 2/5 How many times have we had this same exact storyline for Stacey?
Dawn - 0/5 this was Peter Lerangis right? How did one of the most iconic ghostwriters of the series have this dud of a storyline? The modern references feel so out of place. I think he confused Dawn with Maggie from California Diaries because this plot makes absolutely no sense for her or her brother or the Pike triplets. Bad bad bad.
Jessi - 5/5 a great new take on Jessi and dance and a well constructed story.
Mallory 1/5 skimable. Poor Mallory indeed. Also from previous ghost writers?
I can't see this book bringing in new readers.
Kristy - 4/5 definitely a storyline they couldn't do in the 90s for this series.
Mary-Anne - 3/5 unoriginal storyline but had a lot of heart. Ann clearly still feels the character deeply.
Claudia - 3/5 camp storyline was mediocre but the Mimi part was good.
Stacey - 2/5 How many times have we had this same exact storyline for Stacey?
Dawn - 0/5 this was Peter Lerangis right? How did one of the most iconic ghostwriters of the series have this dud of a storyline? The modern references feel so out of place. I think he confused Dawn with Maggie from California Diaries because this plot makes absolutely no sense for her or her brother or the Pike triplets. Bad bad bad.
Jessi - 5/5 a great new take on Jessi and dance and a well constructed story.
Mallory 1/5 skimable. Poor Mallory indeed. Also from previous ghost writers?
I can't see this book bringing in new readers.
July 22, 2026
Ugh. This isn't the same Babysitter's Club we grew up with, it's so much worse. I'm so sad to say it because Ann M. Martin was one of my favorite authors growing up, but she has SOLD OUT.
July 27, 2026
Some parts of this are stronger than others but this is still a five star read for me. It's actually an eleven billion star read for me but alas, the Goodreads rating system does not go beyond five. Jessi, Claudia, Mallory, and Kristy's storylines were the strongest, but I still enjoyed Mary-Anne, Dawn, and Stacey's! I did not miss that there's a one on the spine of this so Scholastic, when you do future books, I implore you: include Abby!!
Want to Read
April 5, 2026What is this?!?!
August 4, 2026
If you're an OG BSC fan from 40 years ago and you're only here for the nostalgia, give this one a pass.
I had some trepidation about reading this book. I am an original fan from the 80s/90s, and the BSC was an extremely important part of my childhood. Books #1-99 are my canon, because I couldn't bear the idea of the BSC breaking up in Book #100. I did eventually read the later books in the series, as an adult, mostly for curiosity's sake. But beyond the first few graphic novels, I have had no interest in the newest versions of the BSC. The graphic novels changed too much canon for me, and I had no interest in the Netflix series. I'm sad that the newly-reissued books don't have the illustrations in the Super Specials, or the original handwriting. It's not that I actively dislike this new version of BSC, I'm just not interested in it. When I saw that this book was being released, I wasn't sure what to think. Its says its for fans of all ages, but if you're like me - middle-aged and nostalgia-tinged - be prepared to be lost.
Dawn is a composer and theatrical kid now? Mary Anne is too afraid to ride her bike downtown? Claudia is winging off to be a student teach at an art program in Little Tokyo with no adult supervision? Mal's afraid of horses? What?! I don't know if these are updates from the new versions of the series, or if these are new additions just for this book. Either way, it all felt a bit off. (I'm not even going to touch Kristy's girl-crush storyline. I'm sure there is a lot of anger about having blatant LBGTQ representation from the usual suspects who bleat about such things. That's not me. It's been fanon for so long that I'm not surprised that it's now Kristy's signature personality trait.)
I also struggled to figure out where this falls into the original canon. Mary Anne is dating Logan, and Dawn is apparently still living full-time in Stoneybrook, Mal is still attending SMS with everyone. There's no sign of Abby. This should be a sweet spot of mid-canon. Maybe it's canon for the updated/graphic novels/Netflix version? IDK.
My favorite storylines were probably Claudia's (though I still cannot get over the fact that she's basically in San Francisco by herself teaching a summer arts program at frickin' 13 years old) and Jessi's. I'm a big softie for anything Mimi-related, and Claudia's realizations about Mimi and her quest to honor her were really well done. Jessi's fractured her foot and can't dance, but gets to spend some one-on-one time with her mother while attending her mother's 20-year college reunion (an idea which makes me feel especially old LOL).
Mary Anne's storyline, of coming out of her shell, felt too young for her; Stacey, Claudia, Jessi, and Kristy's storylines felt too old for them - more YA than middle grade. Dawn's was just downright bizarre to me, and Mal's was kinda dumb.
This promises to be the first in a new series. I think I will give the rest of them a pass. I checked this out of the library because - and this would've been an alien concept to tween me - I could not justify spending $15 on BSC media.
I had some trepidation about reading this book. I am an original fan from the 80s/90s, and the BSC was an extremely important part of my childhood. Books #1-99 are my canon, because I couldn't bear the idea of the BSC breaking up in Book #100. I did eventually read the later books in the series, as an adult, mostly for curiosity's sake. But beyond the first few graphic novels, I have had no interest in the newest versions of the BSC. The graphic novels changed too much canon for me, and I had no interest in the Netflix series. I'm sad that the newly-reissued books don't have the illustrations in the Super Specials, or the original handwriting. It's not that I actively dislike this new version of BSC, I'm just not interested in it. When I saw that this book was being released, I wasn't sure what to think. Its says its for fans of all ages, but if you're like me - middle-aged and nostalgia-tinged - be prepared to be lost.
Dawn is a composer and theatrical kid now? Mary Anne is too afraid to ride her bike downtown? Claudia is winging off to be a student teach at an art program in Little Tokyo with no adult supervision? Mal's afraid of horses? What?! I don't know if these are updates from the new versions of the series, or if these are new additions just for this book. Either way, it all felt a bit off. (I'm not even going to touch Kristy's girl-crush storyline. I'm sure there is a lot of anger about having blatant LBGTQ representation from the usual suspects who bleat about such things. That's not me. It's been fanon for so long that I'm not surprised that it's now Kristy's signature personality trait.)
I also struggled to figure out where this falls into the original canon. Mary Anne is dating Logan, and Dawn is apparently still living full-time in Stoneybrook, Mal is still attending SMS with everyone. There's no sign of Abby. This should be a sweet spot of mid-canon. Maybe it's canon for the updated/graphic novels/Netflix version? IDK.
My favorite storylines were probably Claudia's (though I still cannot get over the fact that she's basically in San Francisco by herself teaching a summer arts program at frickin' 13 years old) and Jessi's. I'm a big softie for anything Mimi-related, and Claudia's realizations about Mimi and her quest to honor her were really well done. Jessi's fractured her foot and can't dance, but gets to spend some one-on-one time with her mother while attending her mother's 20-year college reunion (an idea which makes me feel especially old LOL).
Mary Anne's storyline, of coming out of her shell, felt too young for her; Stacey, Claudia, Jessi, and Kristy's storylines felt too old for them - more YA than middle grade. Dawn's was just downright bizarre to me, and Mal's was kinda dumb.
This promises to be the first in a new series. I think I will give the rest of them a pass. I checked this out of the library because - and this would've been an alien concept to tween me - I could not justify spending $15 on BSC media.
July 16, 2026
NOSTALGIA FOR DAYS!
I’m pretty sure I read every Babysitters Club book I could get my hands on as a pre teen. So how fun is it to revisit one of my favorite series for its first new instalment in several years? I was curious to see how it would navigate a modern age with technology playing so heavily in our world. I imagine it would be hard to navigate so many changes with the original structure. And so in this iteration the times are modern…. But the technology is not 😂.
Obviously I’m a nearly 50 yr old woman so the simplicity and structure of the story is not for me- but it was fun to see the characters and revisit them again.
Claudia’s storyline was the one I liked best, and she’s likely the one character who is most true to the original character development.
Kristy explores a new relationship and honestly- kind of glad they took it in that direction… it fits her. Also I missed her little sister Karen- who always had “gumption” (👵🏻🚨) and was a cute comic relief.
Maryanne annoyed me. Was she always this meek? I didn’t like her character was the one I liked least, and that wasn’t always the case. (Weird b/c technically I have the most in common with her, with my knitting hobby and cat obsession.)
Dawn and Stacey continue to be effortlessly cool and sophisticated - I always wanted to be them, even though I was a total Kristy with a side of Maryanne 😂.
Mallory and Jessi were always the weakest stories to read and that is the case again.
I could write an entire essay on this - but just enjoyed the return to Stoneybrook and the memories I share with the girls who not only shaped ME as a babysitter but also who I grew up with.
I’m pretty sure I read every Babysitters Club book I could get my hands on as a pre teen. So how fun is it to revisit one of my favorite series for its first new instalment in several years? I was curious to see how it would navigate a modern age with technology playing so heavily in our world. I imagine it would be hard to navigate so many changes with the original structure. And so in this iteration the times are modern…. But the technology is not 😂.
Obviously I’m a nearly 50 yr old woman so the simplicity and structure of the story is not for me- but it was fun to see the characters and revisit them again.
Claudia’s storyline was the one I liked best, and she’s likely the one character who is most true to the original character development.
Kristy explores a new relationship and honestly- kind of glad they took it in that direction… it fits her. Also I missed her little sister Karen- who always had “gumption” (👵🏻🚨) and was a cute comic relief.
Maryanne annoyed me. Was she always this meek? I didn’t like her character was the one I liked least, and that wasn’t always the case. (Weird b/c technically I have the most in common with her, with my knitting hobby and cat obsession.)
Dawn and Stacey continue to be effortlessly cool and sophisticated - I always wanted to be them, even though I was a total Kristy with a side of Maryanne 😂.
Mallory and Jessi were always the weakest stories to read and that is the case again.
I could write an entire essay on this - but just enjoyed the return to Stoneybrook and the memories I share with the girls who not only shaped ME as a babysitter but also who I grew up with.
July 17, 2026
This was so fun and nostalgic for me to read. 🥹
July 17, 2026
A delightful trip down memory lane 🩷
July 23, 2026
This hit me right in the nostalgia. Having grown up reading the BSC books it was wonderful to be back in the world of Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey, Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi.
Part of me wishes it had been longer but it was right on track with what I expect a BSC book to be.
Part of me wishes it had been longer but it was right on track with what I expect a BSC book to be.
Read
August 2, 2026So disappointed that they changed the handwriting at the start of each chapter. I know those girls' writing like my own! It was one of the many things that annoyed me about this. It lacked the spark of the original series, I don't know why they split them up because the best bits are always when they are together. I didn't much like the weird "we're modern but also in the 90s" thing - reference Hamilton but then no mobile phones? The best one was Claudia's story because she talked about Mimi. But even it was not great. Dawn was my least favourite when I was young and she was even more annoying here. Mallory's story was somewhat more exciting than others? Poor Mary Anne always gets the lame storyline. And haven't we moved in from boy-crazy Stacey? Jessi is always sweet. I should have known when they changed the handwriting it was going to be terrible. Yes I'm about 35 years out of the target demographic but if this was meant to be a sweet nostalgic homage for original readers like me, I am either too old and fussy now or the ghostwriters have lost their skills. There's better updates and fan fiction online, in written or visual form. If you're a diehard fan like I am (was?) is recommend avoiding this one and just cling to the memories of your childhood because this was just bleh. Kristy Thomas for President!!
August 24, 2026
5 stars for nostalgia reasons. I was a BSC girl, had about 56 books and 5 super specials and when I saw this on the new books shelf at the library I grabbed it for my daughter. Of course I read it first. Now I want to source and own the whole collection!
Not a literary masterpiece by any means but sometimes its just great to read a kids book and feel cosy. The BSC was revolutionary for me, the real beginnings for a life long reader.
Not a literary masterpiece by any means but sometimes its just great to read a kids book and feel cosy. The BSC was revolutionary for me, the real beginnings for a life long reader.
July 17, 2026
The babysitter’s club are back! In this new book which takes place during a random summer, we are reunited with our beloved seven main characters. I felt that some of the stories perform more interesting than others. I really enjoyed Christie story as well as Mary Anne, Stacey and Mallory but without the other characters, chapters didn’t measure up in particular Dawn. Still, it was really great to get some new content about my favorite old friends.
July 23, 2026
I'm so happy.
I'm also curious which author wrote which girl!
I'm also curious which author wrote which girl!
Read
August 10, 2026written as we went:
okay, the Dawn chapters are gonna kill me. First of all, Dawn doesn't write songs and after checking with other people to make sure I hadn't somehow just forgotten this (thanks!), I'm even more miffed because why the hell are we mixing up Maggie and Dawn in something professionally published, allegedly for fans who are gonna know whether Dawn suddenly having musical talent is a new thing or not?
Also, I realize little kids are gonna do what kids are gonna do, but I could've lived my entire life quite happily never having read that kids were twerking to a song Dawn wrote. Also also, the idea that Dawn Mother-fucking-Schafer would put up with anything Alpha at all outside the greek goddamn alphabet is so insulting that it's physically hurting me. ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME.
annnnnnnnnd the actual songs are going to make me cringe into non-existence. Which... *pinches bridge of nose* I realize that typing that exact thing made someone else cringe into ball of "why god, why" but of all the things to bring over from the past, why are we still having Dawn get the short end of the stick? WHY. The Netflix show actually helped fix some of that and we're back to the dark days of ghosties?
I'm also going to be a little fussy about the new handwriting. I'm unsure why they changed. At first I thought it was because over the years (decades), people have pointed out that Jessi's in particular is gorgeous but a PITA to read, and especially with kids not learning cursive, I get it. But her new one isn't any easier to read and in fact has given me a low-grade headache each time I've looked at it. Mal's is worse in some ways and I'm pissed about that because I was always partial to hers.
Tangent fully engaged: I went ahead and pulled up my BSC fonts and did a test sentence on each and I don't really understand why some changed. Was it that they didn't have access to the original fonts? I find that hard to believe considering Scholastic has had the rights forever and the BSC's been in print for eons in some form or another. I don't like it, but I do understand tweaking or even flat out changing the characters who had more cursive heavy fonts (MA, Jessi, Kristy, Claudia) because of the aforementioned not teaching cursive in schools thing. Kids are already gonna struggle a bit with Claudia because of the crossing out and errors, so sure. But why the fuck are we changing Dawn's and Mal's?
Ahem. I digress. I also finished the book last night.
Let's just turn this into a proper review, shall we? Ha, that'd be a first.
Overall, I mostly enjoyed my trip back to visit my BSC friends. I was going to say "back to Stoneybrook" but there's absolutely no Stoneybrook of old to be found here. Even the bookending chapters at Claudia's don't really feel like Stoneybrook and the rest of the time we're out and about, it's at places we've either never been before, or weren't essential to the series. (Don't give me shit about a lot of MA's chapters being at her place or even in her neighborhood because there's nary a bit of Stoneybrook specificity to be found to ground things or even give it the magic.) I'm assuming we're at the farmhouse prior to the fire since Abby doesn't exist in this book at all?
Eh. It's a little thing, but it was worth mentioning to me. Everyone who isn't MA or Stacey is flung across the USA and Ireland for their adventures. To keep my sanity, we're going to go character by character and not chronologically or anything. You're welcome.
Dawn. I'm gonna go ahead and hit you with my complaints first. I'm assuming Lerangis wrote Dawn's chapters? It doesn't really matter who wrote them, just assuming based on how they're written and the fact that I think he wrote more of Dawn's stuff previously. Thing is... his Dawn stuff has always been really hit or miss. Like, in general, the California Diaries are the superior spinoff of the original series by far. But his Dawn specific books, and his treatment of her in that series? Yeah, no, fuck off with that nonsense. (sidenote: If memory serves, he was also responsible for a lot of her ghostwritten books in the main series and you know adult fandom (to whom this book is partially dedicated) does not look back on Dawn in general, but specifically ghosty!Dawn all that positively, right? I will white knight for Dawn a fair amount but it's because of the solid foundation set earlier in the series, not the later stuff that happened.)
With that being said, that's not the issue with Dawn here. No, the issue is that unless I and my fellow fandom friends are all just missing the collective braincell on this issue, Dawn doesn't write songs. Maggie from the CD series does, but Dawn doesn't. And I could've maaaaaaaaybe allowed this if they'd treated it like it was a new thing but the newness is her introduction to theater (and thus theater kids) and Dawn mostly does not feel like Dawn at all. Jeff feels even less like Jeff and since one of Jeff's best qualities has always been his interactions with Dawn, having his entire thing being him avoiding/ignoring his sister, it's... weird. Like yeah, it would've likely happened eventually if they grew up, but I didn't need it in my "welcome back to the BSC!" book, y'know?
Seriously, the Dawn I know and love would not have stood there, waiting for some dude to alpha dog his way back to saving the day. She'd have rolled her eyes so hard they fell outta her skull at all the alpha stuff being thrown around.
Mostly, her chapters just felt like a generic babysitter whose brother has decided he doesn't want anyone to know they're related and she's out of her depth because she's never done theater before. Which isn't necessarily a bad storyline, but it doesn't feel like Dawn. As a Dawn fan, that sucks extra hard. :/
Mal! Mal goes to Ireland. That's cool. I'm not sure if it was ever confirmed that she's Irish at all (beyond the red hair and the "lol, must be Catholic because of all the kids" fandom side) but sure. Let's let Mal get a break, dammit. I like the touch of them remembering that Mal stands out due to her hair (I think later Nicky also gets the red hair, but maybe that's in the graphic novels and less so the actual books.) and her complicated history with horses. Nothing nefarious. Mal gets a moment to shine and redeem herself on horseback but also all of this just feels very... fluffy? It feels weird to complain about that, but part of the issue is we're never told what was actually wrong with Midnight (one of the family horses), though I'm assuming based on a horse's sense of dramatic timing that it was probably meant to be colic. It's still kind of important to follow up on telling us what was going on instead of "wow, Mallory rode the other horse in time to get the vet and less than 24 hours later everything is peachy again!" We could've still had the bonding between Sean and Mal over each feeling like an outcast in their loving families simply because of how they look after confirming what Mal saved Midnight from, dammit.
This one felt the most like fanfic, possibly because normally when Mal pulls the short end of the stick (trip of a lifetime but there will be horseback riding and you're gonna fake an injury to get out of it and it's gonna cost you doing things you want to do!), it lasts the whole trip and this time she got to save the day and still have some fun.
I am docking serious points though for Mal saying, "It's good to be back in America!" at this particular point in time. Had she said home, yeah, sure, fine, and I get that it was meant to illustrate that she was the only one to get to leave the country and have a slight dig at her vacation accent but uh, *gestures to the hellscape*. She's 11, not stupid.
Stacey continues the tradition of being on her summer vacation with Mary-Anne and still expecting MA to do all the work while she's off gallivanting with a cute boy. That's... something. I enjoyed this more than that summary would indicate though because Stacey does seem to realize that she's got a bit of a boy-crazy problem and had intentionally not wanted to get on that particular rollercoaster of emotions this summer. And yet, here she is, falling for a cute boy in a local boyband named Nick, whose eyes are the same blue as her own and combined with him also having blonde hair, I just spent all her chapters with Nick imagining her making out or eying some dude who was her but in dude form.
This one also feels a bit fanfic-y with the boyband aspect (since when does Stoneybrook or thetri-state surrounding area have a boyband or thriving band scene that Charlotte of all people would be aware of?), but it also has Mary-Anne helping stage an intervention and also pointing out that Stacey might've overlooked the better brother in the scenario so she tries to set that straight annnnnnnnnnd Karen Brewer telling Stacey she deserves better than Nick was hilarious and totally in line with Karen.
Also, it's a little weird having her miss Claudia so much, but it's more how it's written than her missing Claudia being weird. I do love that Claudia and Stacey are definitely somehow more codependent than Kristy and MA at this point.
Jessi heads off to college with her mother after a stress fracture sidelines her dancing plans for the summer. I loved the little bit at the start where Jessi's more than a little thrilled at the prospect of getting to do something with just her mom, none of the rest of her family included. Alas, it doesn't really come to anything major on page, but there are moments that I think were meant to hint at more. (I also felt like crud during the reading of this so I might've missed some things.) Mostly I spent her chapters wondering what the deal with Imani was (I definitely was not crying at the end and you can't prove it!) and stressing over Jessi not resting her foot and thus risking permanently fucking herself up even as she knew better. I was also a little ticked at her mother for saddling her with sitting (even if it was meant to be co-sitting) for twin terrors (I say this with love, but one kid literally runs off to the point that this is his entire personality) and Jessi isn't supposed to be putting stress like that on her foot!
This is one of the stories I'd have loved to have been an actual full length book. You still can, guys, I promise to read it.
Claudia heads to Little Tokyo in an effort to find traces of Mimi's past. Instead she winds up with a host family whose adults are literally never seen on page, a girl her own age who wants nothing to do with her, and a dumpster fire of a summer job. Oh, and the airline loses her luggage.
Luckily, this is Claudia Kishi, so she rises to the occasion and makes quick work of befriending the owner of a local clothing thrift store. There are plenty of Claudia outfits to be had (don't lie, you know you worried just a little) and some Claudia art as well. I do think the chapters leaned a little too hard on Claudia's thoughts on the colors representing herself and Mimi, but since the rest of her summer was going so badly and she was denying herself the one artistic thing she wanted because she didn't think it fit into the project she was supposed to do about honoring one of her ancestors, I'll look the other way for now.
I do love that since time in the BSC-verse is very fluid, it's possible for Mimi to have died not that long ago but still long enough ago that Claudia is at the stage where she can talk about her and actively wants to, while Betty, the girl her age whose grandmother also died not that long ago is still very much stuck in the "hurts too much to even THINK of talking about" stage, and while it's pretty obvious to the reader that this is what's going on, it's still believable that Claudia wouldn't put it together right away.
I loved her looking for bits of Mimi around Little Tokyo and being disappointed not to find more, or at least not in the ways she expected, and then later the realization that Mimi had been with her the whole time and maybe this was less about seeing things through Mimi's eyes, but her own. Again, you cannot prove I'm crying over a character who died in the 80's.
Kristy heads off to an island with the Papadakis family and finds out more about herself than she imagined. Fandom collectively shouts, "WE KNEW IT!"
The glaring lack of Abby is most apparent in Kristy's chapters, btw. Kristy meets and is immediately flustered by a girl named Rowan who is probably not meant to keep reminding me of Abby physically, but absolutely does. Rowan is a photographer and while she's initially a little standoffish towards Kristy because Kristy ruined her lighthouse shot, she immediately warms to Hannie and Linnie (and Sari) because she's not a monster and also has her own little sister, Maggie. In the ways of kids, Hannie and Maggie immediately become best summer friends (and yes, Karen hears about this and yes, she handles it about as well as you'd imagine, which is that Hannie's lucky that Karen couldn't convince her parents to send her to the island to burn Maggie's place to the ground) which means Rowan and Kristy are thrown together quite a bit. Kristy finds out that Rowan's into girls and has a lightbulb moment of "wait, that's a possibility?" and is immediately thrown for a loop and yet can't admit to herself WHY.
If you ignore the fact that Kristy spacing out this much while sitting is wildly out of character for her (outside of the movie), her obsessing over what her feelings for Rowan mean? Love it. I'm still not sure if this counts as fanon or canon and I imagine that'll be debated for ages to come, but Kristy's heart going all atwitter when Rowan takes her hand and she realizes how different it is to holding hands with anyone else? And her not knowing how to tell her friends and then just being unexpectedly nonchalant about it? Yeah, I lowkey loved most of this.
That being said, I hadn't read the back cover bit, so reading someone lose their shit in a review elsewhere over a girl kissing another girl, I immediately thought they'd ported that over from the Netflix show and it was gonna be Dawn and someone. I am a little disappointed that's not so, but her being so supportive of Kristy finding someone she was actually into was cute, too.
Also, vindication that Kristy is the one to go in for the actual kiss.
And finally, Mary Anne finds herself home alone for the summer. Sure, Sharon and her dad are still there, and so is Stacey, but everyone else, including Logan, has flown the coop. Also, everyone who read that Stacey was also going to be left behind in Stoneybrook with MA knew damn well she was going to find luv and MA might've well have been alone so, yeah.
Complicating matters further is her father 'suggests' that instead of giving in to her homebody tendencies completely this summer, she should go out and socialize more. MA and I both have the same reaction of panic at this thought, but she eventually comes up with a couple of ideas that will get her out and about enough to get her dad off her back about it and also maybe even be good for her. She decides to set up a little library in her own home and will let kids come and borrow books, just like a real library (insert Karen also insisting that MA collect late fines even though a lot of libraries don't do this anymore), and in addition to that, she'll be volunteering at the local animal society and fostering kittens.
The underlying current here is that MA is tap dancing around the anxiety she's pretty obviously dealing with, and I'm not sure why we stop just shy of actually calling a spade a spade here, but we do. There's a fair amount of MA ruminating on how different she is from her friends, particularly in her happiness at doing solitary hobbies and being pretty content to just exist away from a lot of people a lot of the time. Again, this felt for awhile like we were heading towards an anxiety diagnosis or acknowledgement, but it doesn't come. I was taken out by MA worrying about where she'd park her bike when she went to see about volunteering in person. As someone who definitely spent no less than two weeks before middle and high school (moreso on high school but still) freaking out about getting lost on campus, I think I get what they were going for, but MA's been biking around town this entire series and it makes no sense to have that be her hangup now.
We do get a moment of Sharon being a pretty great mom to MA without overstepping, and this leads to MA having an even better (and believable) moment with Cokie and Grace where she stands up for herself.
I'm guessing MA's chapters were written by Ann herself, and it makes sense since they do feel the most like the old BSC but with it being written now. It might also explain the hesitation on the anxiety thing, but that could also be because she does eventually go to therapy later in the series and even with a sliding timeline, you gotta be careful in how things line up. Also, it would further explain why we just had to rope Karen in, since Ann's been pretty vocal over the years about loving Karen. (But also it makes sense since the kid did have a whole spinoff and a half.)
Once more, I remain very much a Mary Anne, though if you call me that, I will throat punch you or inform you that that person is dead. Literally, actually. But I also have serious social anxiety so... anyway.
In general, I mostly enjoyed this one even if I'm a grown adult nitpicking things. I did cave and buy the actual book because it's very pretty and very cute and my collection required me to add sprayed BSC edges to it. I wish it had been longer because some of the storylines felt very, very short though I do wonder how much of that is age. Would kid!me have felt the same way, or would most of these have been just the right length? We'll never know.
I clearly have a lot of thoughts and so I'm both sorry and also you're welcome.
okay, the Dawn chapters are gonna kill me. First of all, Dawn doesn't write songs and after checking with other people to make sure I hadn't somehow just forgotten this (thanks!), I'm even more miffed because why the hell are we mixing up Maggie and Dawn in something professionally published, allegedly for fans who are gonna know whether Dawn suddenly having musical talent is a new thing or not?
Also, I realize little kids are gonna do what kids are gonna do, but I could've lived my entire life quite happily never having read that kids were twerking to a song Dawn wrote. Also also, the idea that Dawn Mother-fucking-Schafer would put up with anything Alpha at all outside the greek goddamn alphabet is so insulting that it's physically hurting me. ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME.
annnnnnnnnd the actual songs are going to make me cringe into non-existence. Which... *pinches bridge of nose* I realize that typing that exact thing made someone else cringe into ball of "why god, why" but of all the things to bring over from the past, why are we still having Dawn get the short end of the stick? WHY. The Netflix show actually helped fix some of that and we're back to the dark days of ghosties?
I'm also going to be a little fussy about the new handwriting. I'm unsure why they changed. At first I thought it was because over the years (decades), people have pointed out that Jessi's in particular is gorgeous but a PITA to read, and especially with kids not learning cursive, I get it. But her new one isn't any easier to read and in fact has given me a low-grade headache each time I've looked at it. Mal's is worse in some ways and I'm pissed about that because I was always partial to hers.
Tangent fully engaged: I went ahead and pulled up my BSC fonts and did a test sentence on each and I don't really understand why some changed. Was it that they didn't have access to the original fonts? I find that hard to believe considering Scholastic has had the rights forever and the BSC's been in print for eons in some form or another. I don't like it, but I do understand tweaking or even flat out changing the characters who had more cursive heavy fonts (MA, Jessi, Kristy, Claudia) because of the aforementioned not teaching cursive in schools thing. Kids are already gonna struggle a bit with Claudia because of the crossing out and errors, so sure. But why the fuck are we changing Dawn's and Mal's?
Ahem. I digress. I also finished the book last night.
Let's just turn this into a proper review, shall we? Ha, that'd be a first.
Overall, I mostly enjoyed my trip back to visit my BSC friends. I was going to say "back to Stoneybrook" but there's absolutely no Stoneybrook of old to be found here. Even the bookending chapters at Claudia's don't really feel like Stoneybrook and the rest of the time we're out and about, it's at places we've either never been before, or weren't essential to the series. (Don't give me shit about a lot of MA's chapters being at her place or even in her neighborhood because there's nary a bit of Stoneybrook specificity to be found to ground things or even give it the magic.) I'm assuming we're at the farmhouse prior to the fire since Abby doesn't exist in this book at all?
Eh. It's a little thing, but it was worth mentioning to me. Everyone who isn't MA or Stacey is flung across the USA and Ireland for their adventures. To keep my sanity, we're going to go character by character and not chronologically or anything. You're welcome.
Dawn. I'm gonna go ahead and hit you with my complaints first. I'm assuming Lerangis wrote Dawn's chapters? It doesn't really matter who wrote them, just assuming based on how they're written and the fact that I think he wrote more of Dawn's stuff previously. Thing is... his Dawn stuff has always been really hit or miss. Like, in general, the California Diaries are the superior spinoff of the original series by far. But his Dawn specific books, and his treatment of her in that series? Yeah, no, fuck off with that nonsense. (sidenote: If memory serves, he was also responsible for a lot of her ghostwritten books in the main series and you know adult fandom (to whom this book is partially dedicated) does not look back on Dawn in general, but specifically ghosty!Dawn all that positively, right? I will white knight for Dawn a fair amount but it's because of the solid foundation set earlier in the series, not the later stuff that happened.)
With that being said, that's not the issue with Dawn here. No, the issue is that unless I and my fellow fandom friends are all just missing the collective braincell on this issue, Dawn doesn't write songs. Maggie from the CD series does, but Dawn doesn't. And I could've maaaaaaaaybe allowed this if they'd treated it like it was a new thing but the newness is her introduction to theater (and thus theater kids) and Dawn mostly does not feel like Dawn at all. Jeff feels even less like Jeff and since one of Jeff's best qualities has always been his interactions with Dawn, having his entire thing being him avoiding/ignoring his sister, it's... weird. Like yeah, it would've likely happened eventually if they grew up, but I didn't need it in my "welcome back to the BSC!" book, y'know?
Seriously, the Dawn I know and love would not have stood there, waiting for some dude to alpha dog his way back to saving the day. She'd have rolled her eyes so hard they fell outta her skull at all the alpha stuff being thrown around.
Mostly, her chapters just felt like a generic babysitter whose brother has decided he doesn't want anyone to know they're related and she's out of her depth because she's never done theater before. Which isn't necessarily a bad storyline, but it doesn't feel like Dawn. As a Dawn fan, that sucks extra hard. :/
Mal! Mal goes to Ireland. That's cool. I'm not sure if it was ever confirmed that she's Irish at all (beyond the red hair and the "lol, must be Catholic because of all the kids" fandom side) but sure. Let's let Mal get a break, dammit. I like the touch of them remembering that Mal stands out due to her hair (I think later Nicky also gets the red hair, but maybe that's in the graphic novels and less so the actual books.) and her complicated history with horses. Nothing nefarious. Mal gets a moment to shine and redeem herself on horseback but also all of this just feels very... fluffy? It feels weird to complain about that, but part of the issue is we're never told what was actually wrong with Midnight (one of the family horses), though I'm assuming based on a horse's sense of dramatic timing that it was probably meant to be colic. It's still kind of important to follow up on telling us what was going on instead of "wow, Mallory rode the other horse in time to get the vet and less than 24 hours later everything is peachy again!" We could've still had the bonding between Sean and Mal over each feeling like an outcast in their loving families simply because of how they look after confirming what Mal saved Midnight from, dammit.
This one felt the most like fanfic, possibly because normally when Mal pulls the short end of the stick (trip of a lifetime but there will be horseback riding and you're gonna fake an injury to get out of it and it's gonna cost you doing things you want to do!), it lasts the whole trip and this time she got to save the day and still have some fun.
I am docking serious points though for Mal saying, "It's good to be back in America!" at this particular point in time. Had she said home, yeah, sure, fine, and I get that it was meant to illustrate that she was the only one to get to leave the country and have a slight dig at her vacation accent but uh, *gestures to the hellscape*. She's 11, not stupid.
Stacey continues the tradition of being on her summer vacation with Mary-Anne and still expecting MA to do all the work while she's off gallivanting with a cute boy. That's... something. I enjoyed this more than that summary would indicate though because Stacey does seem to realize that she's got a bit of a boy-crazy problem and had intentionally not wanted to get on that particular rollercoaster of emotions this summer. And yet, here she is, falling for a cute boy in a local boyband named Nick, whose eyes are the same blue as her own and combined with him also having blonde hair, I just spent all her chapters with Nick imagining her making out or eying some dude who was her but in dude form.
This one also feels a bit fanfic-y with the boyband aspect (since when does Stoneybrook or the
Also, it's a little weird having her miss Claudia so much, but it's more how it's written than her missing Claudia being weird. I do love that Claudia and Stacey are definitely somehow more codependent than Kristy and MA at this point.
Jessi heads off to college with her mother after a stress fracture sidelines her dancing plans for the summer. I loved the little bit at the start where Jessi's more than a little thrilled at the prospect of getting to do something with just her mom, none of the rest of her family included. Alas, it doesn't really come to anything major on page, but there are moments that I think were meant to hint at more. (I also felt like crud during the reading of this so I might've missed some things.) Mostly I spent her chapters wondering what the deal with Imani was (I definitely was not crying at the end and you can't prove it!) and stressing over Jessi not resting her foot and thus risking permanently fucking herself up even as she knew better. I was also a little ticked at her mother for saddling her with sitting (even if it was meant to be co-sitting) for twin terrors (I say this with love, but one kid literally runs off to the point that this is his entire personality) and Jessi isn't supposed to be putting stress like that on her foot!
This is one of the stories I'd have loved to have been an actual full length book. You still can, guys, I promise to read it.
Claudia heads to Little Tokyo in an effort to find traces of Mimi's past. Instead she winds up with a host family whose adults are literally never seen on page, a girl her own age who wants nothing to do with her, and a dumpster fire of a summer job. Oh, and the airline loses her luggage.
Luckily, this is Claudia Kishi, so she rises to the occasion and makes quick work of befriending the owner of a local clothing thrift store. There are plenty of Claudia outfits to be had (don't lie, you know you worried just a little) and some Claudia art as well. I do think the chapters leaned a little too hard on Claudia's thoughts on the colors representing herself and Mimi, but since the rest of her summer was going so badly and she was denying herself the one artistic thing she wanted because she didn't think it fit into the project she was supposed to do about honoring one of her ancestors, I'll look the other way for now.
I do love that since time in the BSC-verse is very fluid, it's possible for Mimi to have died not that long ago but still long enough ago that Claudia is at the stage where she can talk about her and actively wants to, while Betty, the girl her age whose grandmother also died not that long ago is still very much stuck in the "hurts too much to even THINK of talking about" stage, and while it's pretty obvious to the reader that this is what's going on, it's still believable that Claudia wouldn't put it together right away.
I loved her looking for bits of Mimi around Little Tokyo and being disappointed not to find more, or at least not in the ways she expected, and then later the realization that Mimi had been with her the whole time and maybe this was less about seeing things through Mimi's eyes, but her own. Again, you cannot prove I'm crying over a character who died in the 80's.
Kristy heads off to an island with the Papadakis family and finds out more about herself than she imagined. Fandom collectively shouts, "WE KNEW IT!"
The glaring lack of Abby is most apparent in Kristy's chapters, btw. Kristy meets and is immediately flustered by a girl named Rowan who is probably not meant to keep reminding me of Abby physically, but absolutely does. Rowan is a photographer and while she's initially a little standoffish towards Kristy because Kristy ruined her lighthouse shot, she immediately warms to Hannie and Linnie (and Sari) because she's not a monster and also has her own little sister, Maggie. In the ways of kids, Hannie and Maggie immediately become best summer friends (and yes, Karen hears about this and yes, she handles it about as well as you'd imagine, which is that Hannie's lucky that Karen couldn't convince her parents to send her to the island to burn Maggie's place to the ground) which means Rowan and Kristy are thrown together quite a bit. Kristy finds out that Rowan's into girls and has a lightbulb moment of "wait, that's a possibility?" and is immediately thrown for a loop and yet can't admit to herself WHY.
If you ignore the fact that Kristy spacing out this much while sitting is wildly out of character for her (outside of the movie), her obsessing over what her feelings for Rowan mean? Love it. I'm still not sure if this counts as fanon or canon and I imagine that'll be debated for ages to come, but Kristy's heart going all atwitter when Rowan takes her hand and she realizes how different it is to holding hands with anyone else? And her not knowing how to tell her friends and then just being unexpectedly nonchalant about it? Yeah, I lowkey loved most of this.
That being said, I hadn't read the back cover bit, so reading someone lose their shit in a review elsewhere over a girl kissing another girl, I immediately thought they'd ported that over from the Netflix show and it was gonna be Dawn and someone. I am a little disappointed that's not so, but her being so supportive of Kristy finding someone she was actually into was cute, too.
Also, vindication that Kristy is the one to go in for the actual kiss.
And finally, Mary Anne finds herself home alone for the summer. Sure, Sharon and her dad are still there, and so is Stacey, but everyone else, including Logan, has flown the coop. Also, everyone who read that Stacey was also going to be left behind in Stoneybrook with MA knew damn well she was going to find luv and MA might've well have been alone so, yeah.
Complicating matters further is her father 'suggests' that instead of giving in to her homebody tendencies completely this summer, she should go out and socialize more. MA and I both have the same reaction of panic at this thought, but she eventually comes up with a couple of ideas that will get her out and about enough to get her dad off her back about it and also maybe even be good for her. She decides to set up a little library in her own home and will let kids come and borrow books, just like a real library (insert Karen also insisting that MA collect late fines even though a lot of libraries don't do this anymore), and in addition to that, she'll be volunteering at the local animal society and fostering kittens.
The underlying current here is that MA is tap dancing around the anxiety she's pretty obviously dealing with, and I'm not sure why we stop just shy of actually calling a spade a spade here, but we do. There's a fair amount of MA ruminating on how different she is from her friends, particularly in her happiness at doing solitary hobbies and being pretty content to just exist away from a lot of people a lot of the time. Again, this felt for awhile like we were heading towards an anxiety diagnosis or acknowledgement, but it doesn't come. I was taken out by MA worrying about where she'd park her bike when she went to see about volunteering in person. As someone who definitely spent no less than two weeks before middle and high school (moreso on high school but still) freaking out about getting lost on campus, I think I get what they were going for, but MA's been biking around town this entire series and it makes no sense to have that be her hangup now.
We do get a moment of Sharon being a pretty great mom to MA without overstepping, and this leads to MA having an even better (and believable) moment with Cokie and Grace where she stands up for herself.
I'm guessing MA's chapters were written by Ann herself, and it makes sense since they do feel the most like the old BSC but with it being written now. It might also explain the hesitation on the anxiety thing, but that could also be because she does eventually go to therapy later in the series and even with a sliding timeline, you gotta be careful in how things line up. Also, it would further explain why we just had to rope Karen in, since Ann's been pretty vocal over the years about loving Karen. (But also it makes sense since the kid did have a whole spinoff and a half.)
Once more, I remain very much a Mary Anne, though if you call me that, I will throat punch you or inform you that that person is dead. Literally, actually. But I also have serious social anxiety so... anyway.
In general, I mostly enjoyed this one even if I'm a grown adult nitpicking things. I did cave and buy the actual book because it's very pretty and very cute and my collection required me to add sprayed BSC edges to it. I wish it had been longer because some of the storylines felt very, very short though I do wonder how much of that is age. Would kid!me have felt the same way, or would most of these have been just the right length? We'll never know.
I clearly have a lot of thoughts and so I'm both sorry and also you're welcome.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 12, 2026
What a fun read to celebrate the BSC 40th anniversary! I loved how this story easily fit into the books I read as a kid and stayed timeless, but also featured storylines suited for 2026 (loved Kristi’s story). Such nostalgia, and now I want to watch the show, movie, and build a BSC library again!
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