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California Diaries #1
Dawn: Diary One
Can Dawn find a life in California to match the one she left behind in Connecticut--or has too much changed between her friends?
At Vista, eighth graders are required to write personal journals about their experiences. Meet thirteen-year-old Dawn Schafer, the crunchy and health conscious member of the Baby-Sitters Club, who has returned to California to live with her father, stepmother, and brother. Dawn is thrilled to be reunited with her old friends Sunny, Maggie, and Jill.
It's not always easy to keep the group together, though--things are changing fast since they moved the eighth-grade classes into the high school. With new social demands and decisions to make, Dawn sees just how much her old friends have changed since she moved away. Or is she the one who is different now? It's time for this independent girl to let go of the life she had across the country and figure out just where she belongs now.
This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Ann M. Martin, including rare images from the author's collection.
Dawn: Diary One is the 1st book in the California Diaries, which also includes Sunny: Diary One and Maggie: Diary One.
At Vista, eighth graders are required to write personal journals about their experiences. Meet thirteen-year-old Dawn Schafer, the crunchy and health conscious member of the Baby-Sitters Club, who has returned to California to live with her father, stepmother, and brother. Dawn is thrilled to be reunited with her old friends Sunny, Maggie, and Jill.
It's not always easy to keep the group together, though--things are changing fast since they moved the eighth-grade classes into the high school. With new social demands and decisions to make, Dawn sees just how much her old friends have changed since she moved away. Or is she the one who is different now? It's time for this independent girl to let go of the life she had across the country and figure out just where she belongs now.
This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Ann M. Martin, including rare images from the author's collection.
Dawn: Diary One is the 1st book in the California Diaries, which also includes Sunny: Diary One and Maggie: Diary One.
176 pages, ebook
First published August 1, 1997
55 people are currently reading
563 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,120 books3,073 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 64 reviews
February 6, 2024
Scintillating novel!
Dawn: Diary 1 is a great book, as confirmed on The Babysitters' Club Club long ago. I am revisiting this series to see if it would be good for S. in light of the recent tragedy, and I'm thinking not so far, even though this book is fantastic. S. is eleven and she's read the Heartstopper book where the girl gets drunk and pukes on Mr. Farouk's bed, but she doesn't need to be told how to drown her sorrows like Sunny Winslow yet, or at least I don't want to be the person to do it. So, I won't buy these for her, but this book was still great! The girls should have been aged up a year or two, but just pretend that they're fourteen instead of thirteen and moving school buildings mid-year in response to overenrollment; that's nonsense.
Dawn is puzzled that she doesn't miss things like Connecticut and babysitting more, but she's got other things in her life like her California friends, except Jill, who's acting really babyish. Sunny is maturing hard. She's going wild. It's all a reaction to her mom's cancer, but her friends are eighth graders so they can't understand, just look on in confusion. Maggie is fine, right? And there's a new girl named Amalia and a boy named Ducky who Dawn meets at the party. The party is the story. The cool eighth graders get mysterious invitations to a party and the party starts at 10:00pm. That's so high school. Our friends want to go but they know it's impossible. Jill invites them to an alternate party, a slumber party, but then she makes it weird by decorating her room with pink streamers and trying to force them to watch Disney movies and play Charades. Jill's parents go out and suddenly going to the cool party is a possibility. The girls walk two miles and find that the party is fun but in an off way. The house is shut up, and there's a bowl of alcohol but no food. A lot of eighth graders are there and upperclassmen, but the older kids aren't interacting with the eighth graders. Sunny starts drinking her feelings and disappears, but Dawn and Maggie are having an okay time until older kids start throwing eighth graders into the pool. Turns out, the plan was to have the party in a teacher who was out of town's backyard, get the eighth graders drunk, throw them in the pool, and warn all the upperclassmen to run away, while one older kid called the cops, leaving a backyard full of drunk, wet eighth graders to get in trouble. Hazing. Our heroes end up running from the cops into some woods and get a ride home with Ducky, who's a delight to be around. The school administration is never able to catch exactly which older kids are responsible for the prank, and the whole school is punished collectively. Jill is angry about this. Her immature brain can't understand why the punishment wasn't worse, why kids who get drunk don't go to jail or get expelled, and Dawn comes to understand that she can't be friends with Jill anymore. They're in two different phases of life.
Amazing book! I might start reading the series properly. Not appropriate for a grieving eleven-year-old, but I would not hesitate to give these to a thirteen-year-old without, of course, telling them that this is a Babysitters Club spin-off.
Dawn: Diary 1 is a great book, as confirmed on The Babysitters' Club Club long ago. I am revisiting this series to see if it would be good for S. in light of the recent tragedy, and I'm thinking not so far, even though this book is fantastic. S. is eleven and she's read the Heartstopper book where the girl gets drunk and pukes on Mr. Farouk's bed, but she doesn't need to be told how to drown her sorrows like Sunny Winslow yet, or at least I don't want to be the person to do it. So, I won't buy these for her, but this book was still great! The girls should have been aged up a year or two, but just pretend that they're fourteen instead of thirteen and moving school buildings mid-year in response to overenrollment; that's nonsense.
Dawn is puzzled that she doesn't miss things like Connecticut and babysitting more, but she's got other things in her life like her California friends, except Jill, who's acting really babyish. Sunny is maturing hard. She's going wild. It's all a reaction to her mom's cancer, but her friends are eighth graders so they can't understand, just look on in confusion. Maggie is fine, right? And there's a new girl named Amalia and a boy named Ducky who Dawn meets at the party. The party is the story. The cool eighth graders get mysterious invitations to a party and the party starts at 10:00pm. That's so high school. Our friends want to go but they know it's impossible. Jill invites them to an alternate party, a slumber party, but then she makes it weird by decorating her room with pink streamers and trying to force them to watch Disney movies and play Charades. Jill's parents go out and suddenly going to the cool party is a possibility. The girls walk two miles and find that the party is fun but in an off way. The house is shut up, and there's a bowl of alcohol but no food. A lot of eighth graders are there and upperclassmen, but the older kids aren't interacting with the eighth graders. Sunny starts drinking her feelings and disappears, but Dawn and Maggie are having an okay time until older kids start throwing eighth graders into the pool. Turns out, the plan was to have the party in a teacher who was out of town's backyard, get the eighth graders drunk, throw them in the pool, and warn all the upperclassmen to run away, while one older kid called the cops, leaving a backyard full of drunk, wet eighth graders to get in trouble. Hazing. Our heroes end up running from the cops into some woods and get a ride home with Ducky, who's a delight to be around. The school administration is never able to catch exactly which older kids are responsible for the prank, and the whole school is punished collectively. Jill is angry about this. Her immature brain can't understand why the punishment wasn't worse, why kids who get drunk don't go to jail or get expelled, and Dawn comes to understand that she can't be friends with Jill anymore. They're in two different phases of life.
Amazing book! I might start reading the series properly. Not appropriate for a grieving eleven-year-old, but I would not hesitate to give these to a thirteen-year-old without, of course, telling them that this is a Babysitters Club spin-off.
March 19, 2020
I started rereading this when I was freaking out about current affairs and it took my mind off things.
April 17, 2014
Initial reaction: "Dawn: Dairy One" was a nice start to the California Diaries series, as it showcases Dawn having moved back to California to live with her father and stepmother. She reunites with her old friends, but realizes - through a bunch of changes that happen both in her life and personal preferences, that nothing ever stays the same and you just have to roll with the changes.
Very nice read for pre-teens/young teens.
Full review:
Ann M. Martin's "California Diaries" series is a spin-off of the long running Babysitters Club series, featuring Dawn after she moves back to California to live with her father, stepmother, and little brother Jeff. I first read this series when it was published many years ago, but in recent years, it's been given a reboot. I'm excited for the chance to be able to re-read it from the very beginning.
This book has definitely some of the pros and cons of being a beginning book of a series because it sets up all the respective personalities that are going to carry through the series - including Sunny, Amalia, Maggie, and Ducky/Chris. While Dawn wasn't my favorite personality from the original BSC cast (or even in the CD series), I did like this eye into her respective experience as a lot of changes get handed to her in her eighth grade class as well as within her circle of family and friends. It felt like an authentic teen diary chronicling Dawn's process of growing up within a certain window of time and the consequences of actions and changes that she undergoes in that span. Some of which include, but aren't limited to: falling out with former activities and friends, family changes, internal and external clashes, school shifts, and growing pains.
It shows its age for some pop culture references (i.e. the reference of the young Jeff going to see an Arnold Schwarzenegger flick), but that's rather minimal. The narrative itself feels relevant for its emotional eye to the changes that Dawn and her friends go through. This book felt like the stepping stone which provides the jumping point for the ongoing narrative, and you can understand that the series is going to chronicle Dawn having to adjust with her family, Sunny dealing with her mother's cancer, Maggie overcoming perfectionism issues which lend to other problems, among others. I won't spoil it for any who haven't read the series, but I can vouch from personal experience how this series impacted me as a teen for voice and challenge. I would recommend it certainly for its target audience (pre-teens/young teens), but its definitely a more coming of age/slice of life/tough subject read, and in some ways, I saw that as a good thing as it shows the trials of the teens having to "grow up" and learn from the mistakes they make.
On another note, this edition shows a preview of the next book in the series as well as a brief history of Ann M. Martin's life that I really appreciated, from her own words and images.
Overall score: 3/5 stars
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Open Road Media.
Very nice read for pre-teens/young teens.
Full review:
Ann M. Martin's "California Diaries" series is a spin-off of the long running Babysitters Club series, featuring Dawn after she moves back to California to live with her father, stepmother, and little brother Jeff. I first read this series when it was published many years ago, but in recent years, it's been given a reboot. I'm excited for the chance to be able to re-read it from the very beginning.
This book has definitely some of the pros and cons of being a beginning book of a series because it sets up all the respective personalities that are going to carry through the series - including Sunny, Amalia, Maggie, and Ducky/Chris. While Dawn wasn't my favorite personality from the original BSC cast (or even in the CD series), I did like this eye into her respective experience as a lot of changes get handed to her in her eighth grade class as well as within her circle of family and friends. It felt like an authentic teen diary chronicling Dawn's process of growing up within a certain window of time and the consequences of actions and changes that she undergoes in that span. Some of which include, but aren't limited to: falling out with former activities and friends, family changes, internal and external clashes, school shifts, and growing pains.
It shows its age for some pop culture references (i.e. the reference of the young Jeff going to see an Arnold Schwarzenegger flick), but that's rather minimal. The narrative itself feels relevant for its emotional eye to the changes that Dawn and her friends go through. This book felt like the stepping stone which provides the jumping point for the ongoing narrative, and you can understand that the series is going to chronicle Dawn having to adjust with her family, Sunny dealing with her mother's cancer, Maggie overcoming perfectionism issues which lend to other problems, among others. I won't spoil it for any who haven't read the series, but I can vouch from personal experience how this series impacted me as a teen for voice and challenge. I would recommend it certainly for its target audience (pre-teens/young teens), but its definitely a more coming of age/slice of life/tough subject read, and in some ways, I saw that as a good thing as it shows the trials of the teens having to "grow up" and learn from the mistakes they make.
On another note, this edition shows a preview of the next book in the series as well as a brief history of Ann M. Martin's life that I really appreciated, from her own words and images.
Overall score: 3/5 stars
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Open Road Media.
March 3, 2016
From the original BSC series (which I love!), Dawn was my favorite member (even though she moved away). She was funny, sweet, smart, and just someone I wanted to be friends with. So when I heard about the spin-0ff series taking place in my home state, I knew I had to read it. I was excited! I was thrilled! Then...I read it and I don't know how to feel.
Look, I know the BSC books are pretty squeaky clean but at least they felt real. The people, the dialogue, the problems. I felt a connection to those girls and that city. I felt for Mary-Anne's shyness and how hard it was for her to stand up to herself, I felt for Stacey and how she had to move back and fourth between NYC and Stoneybrook, I felt for Mallory for feeling like the ugly duckling of the group, ect. Yet, in this book I couldn't feel anything for Dawn. It was like I was reading about a completely different character. If this was her maybe when she was 16 or 17, then yeah I can see it but this is her a few months later...still 13...and acting like the biggest brat in the world.
Also, the events that occurred in this diary wasn't even all that dramatic. The tagline and synopsis made it seem like it would be something deep and exciting, and it just came out pretty dull. This makes me pretty sad because I was so excited for this book, but I don't know...I feel like this is making me like Dawn less but at the same time I don't even see this Dawn and the Dawn from the BSC series as the same character. I know this book is ghost written, so it could be that, but I'm hoping the next books will be more interesting.
Look, I know the BSC books are pretty squeaky clean but at least they felt real. The people, the dialogue, the problems. I felt a connection to those girls and that city. I felt for Mary-Anne's shyness and how hard it was for her to stand up to herself, I felt for Stacey and how she had to move back and fourth between NYC and Stoneybrook, I felt for Mallory for feeling like the ugly duckling of the group, ect. Yet, in this book I couldn't feel anything for Dawn. It was like I was reading about a completely different character. If this was her maybe when she was 16 or 17, then yeah I can see it but this is her a few months later...still 13...and acting like the biggest brat in the world.
Also, the events that occurred in this diary wasn't even all that dramatic. The tagline and synopsis made it seem like it would be something deep and exciting, and it just came out pretty dull. This makes me pretty sad because I was so excited for this book, but I don't know...I feel like this is making me like Dawn less but at the same time I don't even see this Dawn and the Dawn from the BSC series as the same character. I know this book is ghost written, so it could be that, but I'm hoping the next books will be more interesting.
May 6, 2023
Dawn is back in California living with her dad and attending Vista, a private school where they make the students keep diaries every day of every school year. While Dawn doesn't miss her friends in Connecticut as much as she expected, being back in California doesn't quite feel right either. Her friends are growing apart, her dad is away a lot, her stepmother is hiding big news. On top of that, her school is overcrowded and the 8th graders are forced into the high school with the big kids and Dawn isn't quite sure where she fits in. Can she figure it out before disaster strikes?
I was eager to catch up with my favorite babysitters but this book series is a spinoff about Dawn and her new friends. The story is full of tween angst and things an adult can see coming a mile away. I cringed as I read about Dawn and her friends. The story was published originally in the 1990s and it shows. The details haven't changed so it reads like historical fiction with landline phones and fax machines! Will kids know what those are?
I remember Dawn as the environmentalist and hippie chick but here she's a normal 8th grader. She wants to babysit but her friends don't seem into it anymore and she's just not sure it's the right thing for her right now. She's so insecure, unlike the Dawn I remember. I prefer the modern Dawn from the Netflix series. She's unique and knows who she is while the original Dawn is still figuring it out.
I relate a lot better to some of her friends. Jill is the "babyish" one of the group. She's clinging to their traditions like sleepovers with Disney movies and her childhood love of teddy bears. You go Jill! You be you and don't let anyone pressure you into growing up too soon. Yet I feel sorry for her because there are a lot of changes going on at school and with her friends. They're growing up and growing apart. I would think Dawn would understand Jill better because she's used to Mary Anne. I hope Jill finds some new friends who like unicorns, puppies, Disney movies and teddy bears. If not, maybe Dawn can help Jill the way she helped Mary Anne.
I also relate to Maggie who wants to be a vet. Maggie's dad is a movie producer and she's embarrassed by his fame and wealth. I admire Maggie for being determined to do her own thing and be "normal." Sunny is the complicated one. Her mom is dying of lung cancer and Sunny seems to have the 1990s version of YOLO and FOMO. She's become reckless and somewhat moody. I don't blame her for wanting to escape. It doesn't sound like her family talks about their feelings and her dad sounds pretty awful. Cancer treatment was a lot different back in the 90s and it's heartbreaking to remember how terrible it was and still is.
During their adventures, for which they absolutely should be punished, Dawn and her friends meet some new friends. Amalia seems cool. She's unflappable (so far) and doesn't stress or worry too much. Then there's Ducky, an older boy who seems nice. He befriends the girls and helps them out but he hid the truth and didn't try to stop it from happening. He doesn't have a lot of adult supervision at home and at 16, he isn't mature enough yet to make important, responsible decisions.
Dawn's stepmother, Carol, seems immature. Is she young? She has a big secret she doesn't want to share. That's her right, Dawn, and her decision to make about what she wants to do/say about it, if anything. Carol isn't very likable in a motherly way and maybe she's trying too hard to be youthful or connect with the kids in a friendship way. I think she made a mistake marrying a man with two children if she wasn't ready to be a parent.
This was a Hoopla freebie for May but I don't think I'm going to waste borrows on the rest of the series. I'll stick with the classic BSC books, thanks.
The highlight of this book was the autobiographical section, written around 2000 by Ann M. Martin with photos. That was interesting, however, she left out her relationship with Laura Godwin, keeping that a secret for a long time.
I was eager to catch up with my favorite babysitters but this book series is a spinoff about Dawn and her new friends. The story is full of tween angst and things an adult can see coming a mile away. I cringed as I read about Dawn and her friends. The story was published originally in the 1990s and it shows. The details haven't changed so it reads like historical fiction with landline phones and fax machines! Will kids know what those are?
I remember Dawn as the environmentalist and hippie chick but here she's a normal 8th grader. She wants to babysit but her friends don't seem into it anymore and she's just not sure it's the right thing for her right now. She's so insecure, unlike the Dawn I remember. I prefer the modern Dawn from the Netflix series. She's unique and knows who she is while the original Dawn is still figuring it out.
I relate a lot better to some of her friends. Jill is the "babyish" one of the group. She's clinging to their traditions like sleepovers with Disney movies and her childhood love of teddy bears. You go Jill! You be you and don't let anyone pressure you into growing up too soon. Yet I feel sorry for her because there are a lot of changes going on at school and with her friends. They're growing up and growing apart. I would think Dawn would understand Jill better because she's used to Mary Anne. I hope Jill finds some new friends who like unicorns, puppies, Disney movies and teddy bears. If not, maybe Dawn can help Jill the way she helped Mary Anne.
I also relate to Maggie who wants to be a vet. Maggie's dad is a movie producer and she's embarrassed by his fame and wealth. I admire Maggie for being determined to do her own thing and be "normal." Sunny is the complicated one. Her mom is dying of lung cancer and Sunny seems to have the 1990s version of YOLO and FOMO. She's become reckless and somewhat moody. I don't blame her for wanting to escape. It doesn't sound like her family talks about their feelings and her dad sounds pretty awful. Cancer treatment was a lot different back in the 90s and it's heartbreaking to remember how terrible it was and still is.
During their adventures, for which they absolutely should be punished, Dawn and her friends meet some new friends. Amalia seems cool. She's unflappable (so far) and doesn't stress or worry too much. Then there's Ducky, an older boy who seems nice. He befriends the girls and helps them out but he hid the truth and didn't try to stop it from happening. He doesn't have a lot of adult supervision at home and at 16, he isn't mature enough yet to make important, responsible decisions.
Dawn's stepmother, Carol, seems immature. Is she young? She has a big secret she doesn't want to share. That's her right, Dawn, and her decision to make about what she wants to do/say about it, if anything. Carol isn't very likable in a motherly way and maybe she's trying too hard to be youthful or connect with the kids in a friendship way. I think she made a mistake marrying a man with two children if she wasn't ready to be a parent.
This was a Hoopla freebie for May but I don't think I'm going to waste borrows on the rest of the series. I'll stick with the classic BSC books, thanks.
The highlight of this book was the autobiographical section, written around 2000 by Ann M. Martin with photos. That was interesting, however, she left out her relationship with Laura Godwin, keeping that a secret for a long time.
May 14, 2021
Read this as a sort of nostalgia trip since I loved this series as a kid. Very quick read now, obviously, and the book is a lot thinner than I remember it being.
It's average now as an adult. I think Dawn's pov is way too mature for her age of apparently 13/14. A lot of it is her repeating herself over and over with a sort of faux deep brooding about the concept of friends.
I also don't understand the conflict of her dad's new wife wanting to wait 6 days to tell Dawn's dad she's pregnant when he gets home from a business trip. The book makes it seems as if this is very weird or something to be upset about when in reality it's like....okay she just wants to do it in person?
The conflict with Jill is also a little stilted. I know Jill is supposed to come off young but she comes off like she's seven years old while Dawn comes off as if she's nineteen.
As a whole the book was fine but Dawn was always basically my least favourite POV in this series to begin with.
It's average now as an adult. I think Dawn's pov is way too mature for her age of apparently 13/14. A lot of it is her repeating herself over and over with a sort of faux deep brooding about the concept of friends.
I also don't understand the conflict of her dad's new wife wanting to wait 6 days to tell Dawn's dad she's pregnant when he gets home from a business trip. The book makes it seems as if this is very weird or something to be upset about when in reality it's like....okay she just wants to do it in person?
The conflict with Jill is also a little stilted. I know Jill is supposed to come off young but she comes off like she's seven years old while Dawn comes off as if she's nineteen.
As a whole the book was fine but Dawn was always basically my least favourite POV in this series to begin with.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2017
Dawn: Diary 1 by Ann M. Martin is a book about a girl named Dawn with 3 best friends that because their middle school was small they went to high school. Dawn and her friends Sunny and Maggie go to a party while they are supposed to be with her other friend in a sleepover and they find a friend from school Amalia but the party was a trick from the upper graders. I like this book because it gets intense in some parts and it is so realistic and funny. I recommend this book to Gisell because she will like this book because she likes life/diary books.
October 18, 2024
This was different. I wish they had aged Dawn up a year or so, because it made no sense. This Dawn was nothing like BSC Dawn. It begins when her school becomes over crowded and 8th grade joins the high school. How the school managed this is beyond me but okay. Dawn is acting like she's so much older and mature than everyone. Her friend Sunny who is watching her mom die from cancer randomly gets her navel pierced which I didn't think you could do without adult permission if you're under 18. Poor Jill gets bullied by her friends in this. I would be pissed too if I got in trouble because of the actions of other people, but Dawn is all self righteous about it and frankly I really hated her in this book. This series feels like it's trying to be Sweet Valley High with slightly younger people and while it was engaging it was a disappointment. If Dawn had been 14-16 it would've worked better but I can't believe she would've change so much in such a short time. But I will push on, I'm interested to see Sunny's story as a person who lost her mom I want to see how it's handled through the eyes of a teenager.
October 6, 2021
This scintillating novel wasn't good but it was somehow also amazing. Dawn still sucks but I sure enjoyed the melodrama (a navel piercing! Sneaking out to a party!! Underage smoking and drinking!!! Getting in a car with a strange boy!!!!). It's ghost written by Peter Lerangis so there are genuinely funny bits.
What else can I say, it's a delightful chaotic mess. It's so California casual it doesn't have page numbers. Friendships are forged by puking in bushes. Lessons are not actually learned. Just read it already
What else can I say, it's a delightful chaotic mess. It's so California casual it doesn't have page numbers. Friendships are forged by puking in bushes. Lessons are not actually learned. Just read it already
February 26, 2014
I loved this book as a pre-teen and found myself wanting to read to the end of the series as an adult.
I'm not disappointed! Although the character of Dawn is a little naive, her personality and longing of wanting things to never change is relatable to many!
Ann M Martin is the author who inspired me to read so much as a child reading the babysitters club books and that alone brings me back to her books on a regular basis.
I'm not disappointed! Although the character of Dawn is a little naive, her personality and longing of wanting things to never change is relatable to many!
Ann M Martin is the author who inspired me to read so much as a child reading the babysitters club books and that alone brings me back to her books on a regular basis.
July 3, 2014
3 STARS
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).
"Having moved away from California, Dawn Shafer experiences a number of unsettling changes at once, including new relationships with friends, family, and her stepfamily, and she finds herself redefining her identity." (From Amazon)
California Diaries is a spin-off of The Baby-Sitters Club but lacks the friendship and fun of the original series.
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).
"Having moved away from California, Dawn Shafer experiences a number of unsettling changes at once, including new relationships with friends, family, and her stepfamily, and she finds herself redefining her identity." (From Amazon)
California Diaries is a spin-off of The Baby-Sitters Club but lacks the friendship and fun of the original series.
June 21, 2017
I loved these books when they originally came out, and I still do. They were just so good, and so much better than the original BSC series. I think because they dealt with more "adult" type scenarios, and things that realistically a lot of us did as stupid teens. I appreciated that this book just really got into the grittier stuff, and I liked those subtle digs about not missing Mary Anne and her friends in Connecticut haha. For once, Dawn was tolerable!
February 21, 2020
I loved the BSC books as a kid, and now that the Baby-Sitters Club Club Podcast is reading the California Diaries, I am finally reading the California Diaries. I probably would have loved these at about age 12. I'm enjoying the nostalgia factor.
April 10, 2023
It's hard for me to pinpoint when I outgrew the BSC. I saw the movie, which came out in August 1995, in theatres, but I hadn't really followed the books since earlier that year. I had friends a couple years younger than me, so through their collection I knew that Dawn moved away, and I even bought
Kristy and the Dirty Diapers
and
Welcome to the BSC, Abby
to meet the new girl. But after that, and especially when I started high school in September of 1996, I left the world of the Baby-sitters Club behind.
Until I was looking at the shelves of my high school's library for something to read, and saw a series by Ann M Martin with a familiar character, and my curiosity was immediately piqued. My school only had the first five books of the California Diaries series, but oh my lord, I read those books (as secretly as I could - it was still BSC-adjacent, after all) so many times until I graduated. The diary format with the handwritten font, the more mature storylines, even just the familiarity of Dawn and her friends - I was obsessed.
To be honest, I think Dawn's books in this series are the weakest. Maybe because at this point, we've known Dawn for a decade, and she's never been one of my favourite BSC members (though there are a few of her books that are some of my faves in the series), so there's nothing new or fresh about the character. That said, I think this book, Dawn's first diary, is the perfect start to the California Diaries series: a familiar character, setting the scene and introducing the main characters (both her old friends and the new ones), with a slightly spicy story that draws the reader in. Kind of starting high school? The party? The drinking? "Tigger, I've a feeling we're not in Stoneybrook anymore."
Until I was looking at the shelves of my high school's library for something to read, and saw a series by Ann M Martin with a familiar character, and my curiosity was immediately piqued. My school only had the first five books of the California Diaries series, but oh my lord, I read those books (as secretly as I could - it was still BSC-adjacent, after all) so many times until I graduated. The diary format with the handwritten font, the more mature storylines, even just the familiarity of Dawn and her friends - I was obsessed.
To be honest, I think Dawn's books in this series are the weakest. Maybe because at this point, we've known Dawn for a decade, and she's never been one of my favourite BSC members (though there are a few of her books that are some of my faves in the series), so there's nothing new or fresh about the character. That said, I think this book, Dawn's first diary, is the perfect start to the California Diaries series: a familiar character, setting the scene and introducing the main characters (both her old friends and the new ones), with a slightly spicy story that draws the reader in. Kind of starting high school? The party? The drinking? "Tigger, I've a feeling we're not in Stoneybrook anymore."
August 4, 2020
Dawn Schaefer, former alternate officer of the Baby-Sitters Club, moved back to Palo City, California permanently to live with her father, stepmother Carol, and younger brother Jeff. Jeff and Dawn attended Vista, a K-12 private school that required all students to keep journals. (Thus, the book series about Dawn and her Vista friends was called California Diaries.) Vista had a surge of eighth grade enrollment, so the school decided to move eighth graders to the high school building. I assume that they did not even consider capping eighth grade enrollment because they wanted more money. Dawn was in high school and wanted to make high school decisions, such as sneaking out to attend a party with underage drinking. She even insinuated that she was too mature for babysitting by claiming that it was something her babyish friend Jill enjoyed. Dawn said she preferred to spend time at the mall checking out cute guys.
Dawn was not yet ready to question her sexuality, but her interactions with Mandy made it clear that she had a crush on the older girl. The first time she saw Mandy, Dawn notes that her dress was "so tight you could almost see her pores through it. You could certainly see her D-cup breasts." At the party, she accidentally pushed Mandy into the pool. Later on, Dawn said she "saw Mandy standing next to us in her wet dress, which was now as tantalizingly clingy as Maggie’s T-shirt" (emphasis mine). Tantalizing means exciting one's senses or desires, or teasing with the sight of something unattainable. I wondered if Dawn also had feelings for Maggie since she also described the sight of Maggie in her wet T-shirt as tantalizing. It was not the appropriate word choice for Dawn to use if she were referring to platonic friends.
Speaking of platonic friends, Dawn did not feel as close to her childhood best friends as she did before leaving for Connecticut nine months early, particularly Jill. Dawn was upset because she felt like Jill was not changing and was still acting like a young seventh grader instead of an eighth grader. Dawn was upset that Jill also was invited to the high school party because Jill was decidedly not cool. At the end of the book, Dawn called Jill a b___, and I do not think the 'B' stood for baby. Jill reminded me a lot of Mary Anne who was Dawn's best friend in Connecticut, so I was confused why Dawn had such a negative reaction to Jill. However, maybe Dawn did not actually like Mary Anne as much as it seemed in the Baby-Sitters Club series. "I miss my stepsister [Mary Anne], but you know what? This is a terrible thing to write ... I don’t miss Mary Anne or my other Connecticut friends as much as I thought I would."
Dawn was not yet ready to question her sexuality, but her interactions with Mandy made it clear that she had a crush on the older girl. The first time she saw Mandy, Dawn notes that her dress was "so tight you could almost see her pores through it. You could certainly see her D-cup breasts." At the party, she accidentally pushed Mandy into the pool. Later on, Dawn said she "saw Mandy standing next to us in her wet dress, which was now as tantalizingly clingy as Maggie’s T-shirt" (emphasis mine). Tantalizing means exciting one's senses or desires, or teasing with the sight of something unattainable. I wondered if Dawn also had feelings for Maggie since she also described the sight of Maggie in her wet T-shirt as tantalizing. It was not the appropriate word choice for Dawn to use if she were referring to platonic friends.
Speaking of platonic friends, Dawn did not feel as close to her childhood best friends as she did before leaving for Connecticut nine months early, particularly Jill. Dawn was upset because she felt like Jill was not changing and was still acting like a young seventh grader instead of an eighth grader. Dawn was upset that Jill also was invited to the high school party because Jill was decidedly not cool. At the end of the book, Dawn called Jill a b___, and I do not think the 'B' stood for baby. Jill reminded me a lot of Mary Anne who was Dawn's best friend in Connecticut, so I was confused why Dawn had such a negative reaction to Jill. However, maybe Dawn did not actually like Mary Anne as much as it seemed in the Baby-Sitters Club series. "I miss my stepsister [Mary Anne], but you know what? This is a terrible thing to write ... I don’t miss Mary Anne or my other Connecticut friends as much as I thought I would."
December 3, 2022
The reading of this book was filmed in front of a live studio audience:
Dawn #1 is a pretty solid spin off to the Babysitter's Club. As the host through this book I will say that Dawn is one of the meanest characters I have personally experienced. She is way too mean to Jill especially, Sunny is too, and I feel so bad. I relate to Jill and I feel like many others can too. One viewer puts it best by saying, "Dawn is a bunch of expletives" because she's horrible to most everyone around her.
From chat:
It's too bad Jill wasn't a main character in the book series. It would've been cool if her character was used to explore topics of outgrowing childhood and struggles of conformity.
The other characters were all very interesting and I'm excited to read their books. The group meets very organically in this one and the story as a whole is relatable, if not sad in the places where they deal with topics such as death.
Side note (from all of us in chat): 13 year old should not under any circumstances date upperclassmen. Anyone above a freshman is too old for you, Maggie!
Sincerely Yours,
The Scooby Drew Crew, 2022
Dawn #1 is a pretty solid spin off to the Babysitter's Club. As the host through this book I will say that Dawn is one of the meanest characters I have personally experienced. She is way too mean to Jill especially, Sunny is too, and I feel so bad. I relate to Jill and I feel like many others can too. One viewer puts it best by saying, "Dawn is a bunch of expletives" because she's horrible to most everyone around her.
From chat:
It's too bad Jill wasn't a main character in the book series. It would've been cool if her character was used to explore topics of outgrowing childhood and struggles of conformity.
The other characters were all very interesting and I'm excited to read their books. The group meets very organically in this one and the story as a whole is relatable, if not sad in the places where they deal with topics such as death.
Side note (from all of us in chat): 13 year old should not under any circumstances date upperclassmen. Anyone above a freshman is too old for you, Maggie!
Sincerely Yours,
The Scooby Drew Crew, 2022
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2024
My only meh about this series is that my library had the bundles per main character, not in chronological order. So chronologically, I'll be skipping back and forth in the events, unless I borrow all of them at once and try to read them all within the lending period.
This one was good, first in the series. Dawn's dilemma about wanting to stay young and comfy vs wanting to grow up fast is relatable, even for 13 year olds not suddenly added to high school.
This is the intro to the series, so it does a lot of the heavy lifting of setting up the scenario (8th graders now part of high school) and the new characters (Ducky and Amelia). I do kinda wish Ducky were younger, or maybe Ann M Martin just made Dawn and her friends 14 years old and actual freshman. Coz however nice he is, a 16 year old having 13 year old BFFs is SUPER unlikely.
I do kinda feel for Carol, who likely wanted to tell Dawn's dad about the baby on his way to the airport but couldn't coz Dawn and Jeff insisted on riding along. And now Dawn and Jill knew before the dad did.
This one was good, first in the series. Dawn's dilemma about wanting to stay young and comfy vs wanting to grow up fast is relatable, even for 13 year olds not suddenly added to high school.
This is the intro to the series, so it does a lot of the heavy lifting of setting up the scenario (8th graders now part of high school) and the new characters (Ducky and Amelia). I do kinda wish Ducky were younger, or maybe Ann M Martin just made Dawn and her friends 14 years old and actual freshman. Coz however nice he is, a 16 year old having 13 year old BFFs is SUPER unlikely.
I do kinda feel for Carol, who likely wanted to tell Dawn's dad about the baby on his way to the airport but couldn't coz Dawn and Jeff insisted on riding along. And now Dawn and Jill knew before the dad did.
September 27, 2021
I decided to reread this since I've been on a BSC reread binge. I did read this series around the same time I was finishing up the last of the BSC series. I thought this was nothing like the BSC, but I couldn't turn away.
As an adult, I think this series' portrayal of what 13-year-olds care about (fitting in, dealing with change as you're drifting apart from old friends) is more realistic than the one in BSC (learning how to be excellent caregivers). (Let me just point out that Dawn's first entries are made in September, so the beginning of the school year, and she's in eighth grade. So if she lived in the real world and was never stuck in that BSC world where the eighth grade lasted forever, she was in Connecticut for less than a year at most. No wonder she doesn't miss everyone all that much.) But I also think whoever thought it was a good idea to place the eight graders with the high school students clearly was an idiot who never took child psychology.
I also find it unrealistic that a middle schooler would dutifully write down a large chunk of her life/school experience even though the journal isn't even graded. This is also inconsistent with the BSC's description of Dawn as someone who's "laid back" and presumably would rather live her life than write about it (her love of ghost stories also hasn't come up so far). In fact, Dawn seems to be a different person here, just someone who happens to share the same backstory as the BSC alternate officer.
I don't know if the series will resonate with modern kids. I don't think most 13-year-olds today are out there trying to attend house parties (we are in an age when being a nerd is cool after all, and their whereabouts will probably be monitored by their parents at all times). If adapted to TV, this series could probably work if the ages were upgraded to 15 and of course with some sex thrown in (the book does have a scene where a high school guy stares at an eighth grade's breasts after she falls into the pool, which is all kinda of wrong) but as it is it just seems to be that awkward kid who doesn't belong anywhere.
As an adult, I think this series' portrayal of what 13-year-olds care about (fitting in, dealing with change as you're drifting apart from old friends) is more realistic than the one in BSC (learning how to be excellent caregivers). (Let me just point out that Dawn's first entries are made in September, so the beginning of the school year, and she's in eighth grade. So if she lived in the real world and was never stuck in that BSC world where the eighth grade lasted forever, she was in Connecticut for less than a year at most. No wonder she doesn't miss everyone all that much.) But I also think whoever thought it was a good idea to place the eight graders with the high school students clearly was an idiot who never took child psychology.
I also find it unrealistic that a middle schooler would dutifully write down a large chunk of her life/school experience even though the journal isn't even graded. This is also inconsistent with the BSC's description of Dawn as someone who's "laid back" and presumably would rather live her life than write about it (her love of ghost stories also hasn't come up so far). In fact, Dawn seems to be a different person here, just someone who happens to share the same backstory as the BSC alternate officer.
I don't know if the series will resonate with modern kids. I don't think most 13-year-olds today are out there trying to attend house parties (we are in an age when being a nerd is cool after all, and their whereabouts will probably be monitored by their parents at all times). If adapted to TV, this series could probably work if the ages were upgraded to 15 and of course with some sex thrown in (the book does have a scene where a high school guy stares at an eighth grade's breasts after she falls into the pool, which is all kinda of wrong) but as it is it just seems to be that awkward kid who doesn't belong anywhere.
February 24, 2024
3.25 stars. An interesting departure from the main BSC series. Am I excited about a series about Dawn and her California friends? No, not really. Is Dawn a bit more bearable in this book than she usually is in BSC books? Absolutely.
All of that aside, I know these are middle school kids and Dawn's book started the series because she's the tie back to the original series, but what an uncompelling start. While Dawn's friends (particularly Sunny) are actually going through some horrific things, Dawn's diary filled with her deepest thoughts is mostly concerned with...being a freshman (essentially) instead of top of the school? Maybe I'm too far removed from middle school now but I had a difficult time feeling for any of these characters, and while I'm sure they'll be fleshed out in their own books, I'm not sure I learned anything about any of them or even much about Dawn.
But, hey, it's the first book. And I liked it better than most Dawn books, so that's a win!
All of that aside, I know these are middle school kids and Dawn's book started the series because she's the tie back to the original series, but what an uncompelling start. While Dawn's friends (particularly Sunny) are actually going through some horrific things, Dawn's diary filled with her deepest thoughts is mostly concerned with...being a freshman (essentially) instead of top of the school? Maybe I'm too far removed from middle school now but I had a difficult time feeling for any of these characters, and while I'm sure they'll be fleshed out in their own books, I'm not sure I learned anything about any of them or even much about Dawn.
But, hey, it's the first book. And I liked it better than most Dawn books, so that's a win!
March 22, 2025
Man, I could not find a single redeeming quality about Dawn in this entire book. And bullcrap on her “hand not agreeing with her brain” on hanging up the phone for Carol’s call. Everyone is unnecessarily mean to Jill (who deserved her own book!)
Like. Dawn is the epitome of entitled and seems to know it. And really, such a mean girl. She used to be the oWo quirky one and now she’s just mean spirited. And accountability really isn’t her jam.
I appreciate the darker undertones that will continue over the next few books. And I am not so sure it is the most beneficial to continue to read the series, but I don’t always make the right choices for my life agenda. It’s been years since I read the series so rereading it as an adult has been interesting.
Side note - my head canon is that Jill meets Mary Anne in a chat room. And they realize they both know Dawn. They both realize she treats them like crap. I so wish we got a Jill diary.
Like. Dawn is the epitome of entitled and seems to know it. And really, such a mean girl. She used to be the oWo quirky one and now she’s just mean spirited. And accountability really isn’t her jam.
I appreciate the darker undertones that will continue over the next few books. And I am not so sure it is the most beneficial to continue to read the series, but I don’t always make the right choices for my life agenda. It’s been years since I read the series so rereading it as an adult has been interesting.
Side note - my head canon is that Jill meets Mary Anne in a chat room. And they realize they both know Dawn. They both realize she treats them like crap. I so wish we got a Jill diary.
May 3, 2020
I'm torn because while I liked the nostalgia trip, these books have such a different feel, that either all the girls from the babysitters club books are just "big babies" that need to grow up, or else Dawn has grown up a little too fast while still being 13. I realize that these books cater to a slightly older audience, but the difference is jarring. If they had even made Dawn a year older, I would have been a bit more accepting! Age 13 is a strange year, because some kids are 13 but seem 10, and some are 13 but seem 17. I just couldn't shake the feeling that all the kids in this book would have thought all the girls from the babysitters club were a bunch of dorks, when that series actually did a great job of showing how smart and capable 13 year old girls can be!
August 22, 2024
This book was a rather poor diary-for-story format. She has one long story of something that happened over a single night, but tells it in bits and pieces over like 5 days. Each new entry starts with a blurb about how worried she is, which makes the narrative hard to follow. (Although that's exactly how my journal looks when I read it back.) As a fake diary that was written to tell a story, the author should have streamlined the format some. (I never had this problem with the Dear America series.)
September 23, 2021
Recently rediscovered this series in my parents' attic. I remember loving this off-shoot of the Baby Sitter's Club when I was younger and it's been fun to re-read the YA fiction of my youth. My ratings for each dairy set hasn't changed since reading these back in the late 90's:
#1: Ducky - duh.
#2/3: Amalia/Sunny
#4: Maggie
#5: Dawn - but seriously I'd rate Dawn lower if I could. I get she's the bridge to this new group of characters, but damn, she's such a drip.
#1: Ducky - duh.
#2/3: Amalia/Sunny
#4: Maggie
#5: Dawn - but seriously I'd rate Dawn lower if I could. I get she's the bridge to this new group of characters, but damn, she's such a drip.
February 19, 2019
Not as good as I remembered it, but it was age appropriate last time I read it.
April 10, 2019
Enjoyed as a kid
September 23, 2019
This has aged surprisingly well. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series again.
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March 5, 2021Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/califo...
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February 2, 2022FS:
LS:
LS:
February 20, 2023
I kinda remember reading this in middle school.
April 26, 2023
Omg. So many feelings. I read this book when I was 14, and I loved it. Now, as a 36-year-old woman, it's all nostalgia and good vibes. I may re-read the entire series. Don't judge me.
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