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We Are the Baby-Sitters Club: Essays and Artwork from Grown-Up Readers
A nostalgia-packed, star-studded anthology featuring contributors such as Kristen Arnett, Yumi Sakugawa, Gabrielle Moss, and others exploring the lasting impact of the beloved Baby-Sitters Club series.
In 1986, the first-ever meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club was called to order in a messy bedroom strewn with Ring-Dings, scrunchies, and a landline phone. Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne launched the club that birthed an entire generation of loyal readers. The Baby-Sitters Club series featured a diverse, complex cast of characters and touched on an impressive range of issues that were underrepresented at the time: divorce, adoption, childhood illness, class division, and racism, to name a few.
In We Are the Baby-sitters Club, writers and a few visual artists from Generation BSC will reflect on the enduring legacy of Ann M. Martin's beloved series, thirty-five years later—celebrating the BSC's profound cultural influence. Contributors include author Gabrielle Moss, illustrator Siobhán Gallagher, and filmmaker Sue Ding, as well as New York Times bestselling author Kristen Arnett, Lambda Award–finalist Myriam Gurba, Black Girl Nerds founder Jamie Broadnax, and Paris Review contributor Frankie Thomas. The first anthology of its kind from editors Marisa Crawford and Megan Milks, We Are the Baby-Sitters Club will look closely at how Ann M. Martin's series shaped our ideas about gender politics, friendship, fashion and beyond—and what makes the series still a core part of many readers' identities so many years later.
In 1986, the first-ever meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club was called to order in a messy bedroom strewn with Ring-Dings, scrunchies, and a landline phone. Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne launched the club that birthed an entire generation of loyal readers. The Baby-Sitters Club series featured a diverse, complex cast of characters and touched on an impressive range of issues that were underrepresented at the time: divorce, adoption, childhood illness, class division, and racism, to name a few.
In We Are the Baby-sitters Club, writers and a few visual artists from Generation BSC will reflect on the enduring legacy of Ann M. Martin's beloved series, thirty-five years later—celebrating the BSC's profound cultural influence. Contributors include author Gabrielle Moss, illustrator Siobhán Gallagher, and filmmaker Sue Ding, as well as New York Times bestselling author Kristen Arnett, Lambda Award–finalist Myriam Gurba, Black Girl Nerds founder Jamie Broadnax, and Paris Review contributor Frankie Thomas. The first anthology of its kind from editors Marisa Crawford and Megan Milks, We Are the Baby-Sitters Club will look closely at how Ann M. Martin's series shaped our ideas about gender politics, friendship, fashion and beyond—and what makes the series still a core part of many readers' identities so many years later.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 6, 2021
37 people are currently reading
2214 people want to read
About the author
Marisa Crawford
8 books14 followersMarisa Crawford is the author of the poetry collections The Haunted House, Reversible, and, most recently, DIARY (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023). She is the editor of The Weird Sister Collection (Feminist Press, forthcoming 2024), and co-editor, with Megan Milks, of We Are The Baby-Sitters Club: Essays & Artwork from Grown-Up Readers. Marisa is co-host of the 90s rock podcast All Our Pretty Songs. She lives in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
May 31, 2024
Calling all #BSC fans! This is a great anthology that runs the gamut from nostalgic to critical, silly to serious, academic prose to comics. My personal
favourite pieces include the ones by Kristen Arnett (queer childhood role-playing with Barbies as BSC members), Myriam Gurba (economics and the BSC memebrs as girl entrepreneurs), Logan Hughes (BCS fanfic), Kelly Blewett (handwriting in the BSC books), Jeanne Thornton (a comic about being a not-out trans girl who wanted to read the books), Megan Milks (girl groups, the BSC, and how they fit in as a trans masc person), Yumi Sakugawa (comic about Claudia and Asian American identity), Caolan Madden (gender, labour, caregiving), and more!
favourite pieces include the ones by Kristen Arnett (queer childhood role-playing with Barbies as BSC members), Myriam Gurba (economics and the BSC memebrs as girl entrepreneurs), Logan Hughes (BCS fanfic), Kelly Blewett (handwriting in the BSC books), Jeanne Thornton (a comic about being a not-out trans girl who wanted to read the books), Megan Milks (girl groups, the BSC, and how they fit in as a trans masc person), Yumi Sakugawa (comic about Claudia and Asian American identity), Caolan Madden (gender, labour, caregiving), and more!
April 8, 2021
This was Marisa’s Great Idea... I jumped at the chance to team up with her on it and I’m so proud of the work we, and all our contributors, have done here. Baby-Sitters Club fans, we have so much tremendously good writing and art in store for you—from Kristen Arnett’s essay on role playing as BSC characters to Yumi Sakugawa’s homage to Claudia as an Asian American girl role model, from Kim Hutt Mayhew on BSC fashion to Kristen Felicetti on the series’s exploration of adoption—plus Logan Hughes on BSC fan fiction, Jamie Broadnax on the cover images’ colorism, Myriam Gurba on BSC economics and entrepreneurship, and SO MUCH MORE. Enjoy!
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November 14, 2023
Admittedly, I was not the biggest BSC fan in the world.
I read them, sure, but I aged out fairly quickly. I was into MG series that were spawned due to the success of long-running, formulaic series like BSC and SVH: The Thoroughbred series and The Ballet School series, two of my main interests in 2nd-4th grade.
However, as an adult who reintroduced herself to BSC through Raina Telgemeier's fantastic graphic novel adaptations, I fell in love all over again and appreciated them at a greater level than before.
The girls' resourcefulness, the (relative) variety in backgrounds, and, most of all, Kristy. I did not like Kristy as a child, perhaps seeing too much of myself reflected in her (I wanted to be a blond and effortlessly stylish Stacy [didn't we all] or a quirky and artistic Claudia), but as an adult...Kristy is my fave.
Reading these essays was like falling back into childhood, and seeing how these books touched and sparked so many lives reminds me that reading might be a (somewhat) solitary endeavor, but you are never alone.
Books unite us.
I read them, sure, but I aged out fairly quickly. I was into MG series that were spawned due to the success of long-running, formulaic series like BSC and SVH: The Thoroughbred series and The Ballet School series, two of my main interests in 2nd-4th grade.
However, as an adult who reintroduced herself to BSC through Raina Telgemeier's fantastic graphic novel adaptations, I fell in love all over again and appreciated them at a greater level than before.
The girls' resourcefulness, the (relative) variety in backgrounds, and, most of all, Kristy. I did not like Kristy as a child, perhaps seeing too much of myself reflected in her (I wanted to be a blond and effortlessly stylish Stacy [didn't we all] or a quirky and artistic Claudia), but as an adult...Kristy is my fave.
Reading these essays was like falling back into childhood, and seeing how these books touched and sparked so many lives reminds me that reading might be a (somewhat) solitary endeavor, but you are never alone.
Books unite us.
July 8, 2021
For anyone who loved the BSC in their childhood (or adulthood, whatever), this is a collection of essays and other forms reflecting on the impact of this series. I was a 90s kid who had a babysitting kit and modified my handwriting after seeing some of theirs, which I hadn’t remembered until reading this!
There are essays on sexuality, race, being a child of divorce, diabetes, fashion, social status, and more.
I had a copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss, and it came out July 6, 2021.
There are essays on sexuality, race, being a child of divorce, diabetes, fashion, social status, and more.
I had a copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss, and it came out July 6, 2021.
December 30, 2021
I feel like if you grew up during the 80's and 90's in America this is probably the book for you. I was never a giant fan of the BSC, I know some girls who read THEM ALL and that was not me (I just read a lot as a kid in general) but I did read a bunch of the books and watched the 1995 movie. I loved the Super Mysteries the best, they were much longer than the regular novels and jammed packed with activity and shenanigans. Also does anyone remember the California Diaries spinoff (when Dawn moves back to California)? I owned a few of those books that I picked up from the Scholastic Book Fair and thought they were so cool because they dealt with "mature topics" that were not found in Stoneybrook.
Anyways, I digress because the point of this review is to talk about this collection of essays from grownup BSC fans which is GREAT. I like how each person covers a different topic or opinion and quite a few deal with gender, friendship, ethnicity, ableism and the rise of BSC fanfiction (I saw some fics I had already read mentioned in here which was cool but also weird. I'm still not used to see Ao3 talked about in published literature haha). It was really interesting and engaging and made me think about how far ahead of its time BSC was in certain areas (strong friendship bonds and the culture of entrepreneurship) and yet how it was a product of its time in other (how it talked (or didn't talk) about race). There was a section devoted to the handwriting of the BSC girls which instantly made me recall a long dormant memory in which I changed my handwriting during third or fourth grade to be more loopy with hearts instead of dots over my I's because I wanted to write like Stacey. Oh the memories!
Anyways this book is definitely worth the read if you were ever a BSC fan (or current day fan because the Netflix series is amazing!). It made me smile and think about this universe and why myself (and thousands of other children) got addicted at such a formative age.
Anyways, I digress because the point of this review is to talk about this collection of essays from grownup BSC fans which is GREAT. I like how each person covers a different topic or opinion and quite a few deal with gender, friendship, ethnicity, ableism and the rise of BSC fanfiction (I saw some fics I had already read mentioned in here which was cool but also weird. I'm still not used to see Ao3 talked about in published literature haha). It was really interesting and engaging and made me think about how far ahead of its time BSC was in certain areas (strong friendship bonds and the culture of entrepreneurship) and yet how it was a product of its time in other (how it talked (or didn't talk) about race). There was a section devoted to the handwriting of the BSC girls which instantly made me recall a long dormant memory in which I changed my handwriting during third or fourth grade to be more loopy with hearts instead of dots over my I's because I wanted to write like Stacey. Oh the memories!
Anyways this book is definitely worth the read if you were ever a BSC fan (or current day fan because the Netflix series is amazing!). It made me smile and think about this universe and why myself (and thousands of other children) got addicted at such a formative age.
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October 6, 2021If you love essays and art about The Baby-Sitters Club, this is your catnip. I loved it, and I found myself thinking about so many of the characters and stories in new ways. I was especially taken by "Let's Talk About Jessi" by Yodassa Williams and how Jessi experiences racism in not-subtle ways in Stoneybrook -- as well as how Mallory served as an ally in a way that wasn't seen in books for young readers, even though she's certainly imperfect and stumbles in that role. "Skin the Color of Cocoa" by Jamie Broadeauz was a fascinating look at the inconsistent and incorrect skin tones of Jessi across the book covers of the series. Caolan Madden's "I Am My Own Mom" was a gutpunch to me in a number of unexpected ways: the exploration of deadbeat fatherhood with Kristy's dad and also the ways and means in which the books take caregiving as a series, important job and how that contrasts to today's world of caregiving seen as simply a thing someone else does to free up time for another person's "more important" work. The essays digging into queerness, both as it relates to the characters and to the writers themselves, were so powerful and thought-provoking.
A couple of pieces didn't resonate for me, but this is what an anthology does. Those pieces WILL resonate with other readers and that's why they're there.
It's nostalgic, sure, but it's also critical and thoughtful. The range of authors, queer and of color, is broad and introduced me to tons of new voices I'd not yet experienced. Again: a sign of a great anthology.
My only criticism is in the design. The art is rendered in less-than-ideal ways to FEEL scrapbook-y, but the text itself takes up a lot of space on the page, taking away any intentionality in that design feel. I wish it'd been one or the other: clearer as a book that's meant to be taken like a traditional anthology OR one that let the art take the lead in developing a fun, scrapbook-style (think Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction).
A couple of pieces didn't resonate for me, but this is what an anthology does. Those pieces WILL resonate with other readers and that's why they're there.
It's nostalgic, sure, but it's also critical and thoughtful. The range of authors, queer and of color, is broad and introduced me to tons of new voices I'd not yet experienced. Again: a sign of a great anthology.
My only criticism is in the design. The art is rendered in less-than-ideal ways to FEEL scrapbook-y, but the text itself takes up a lot of space on the page, taking away any intentionality in that design feel. I wish it'd been one or the other: clearer as a book that's meant to be taken like a traditional anthology OR one that let the art take the lead in developing a fun, scrapbook-style (think Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction).
March 29, 2021
This was such a great collection of essays and art looking back at The Baby-Sitters Club and the impact that series had on different people’s lives. I think this struck the perfect balance between nostalgic celebration and critical analysis of aspects of the series that didn’t age so well. Contributors to the collection cover a wide range of topics from the girls’ handwriting and outfits, race, disability, family structures, fanfiction, and the perceived queerness of Kristy.
As with any collection there were a couple essays that I didn’t find quite as interesting as the others. But overall I think this was a strong book that provides a wide variety of viewpoints and different ways of looking back at the series as an adult.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
As with any collection there were a couple essays that I didn’t find quite as interesting as the others. But overall I think this was a strong book that provides a wide variety of viewpoints and different ways of looking back at the series as an adult.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 6, 2025
We Are the Baby-Sitters Club is a series of essays edited by Marisa Crawford and Megan Milks about adults reflecting back on their experiences with the Baby-Sitters Club media empire, including the original series of books by Ann M. Martin, the various spinoff books, the '90s made-for-TV adaption, the '90s movie, the 2020-2022 Netflix remake, the graphic novels, and, apparently, fanfiction. As with any eclectic essay collection, there were hits and misses. The standout essay for me was writer Gabrielle Moss' contribution about how the Baby-Sitters books fit into and reshaped the YA and young reader genres in the late '80s and '90s, as I recognized a lot of the book series mentioned (having dabbled in many of those series in as a '90s kid). Many essays talked about the way people of color have been represented in the series, exploring Jessi Ramsay (the only canonically Black main character) and Claudia Kishi (the only canonically Japanese main character) in depth, often with conflicting viewpoints between essayists. Several also talked about LGBTQ representation in the series, mostly exploring how the character of Kristy Thomas is queer-coded but never openly stated to be queer, and how this upset several essayists. And several essays dive into the deep end of Baby-Sitters club fan fiction, where it's clear the authors are using the characters as vehicles to channel their own fixations, which is...frankly much of fanfiction regardless of the fandom.
Personally, though I read several dozen Baby-Sitters Club books between roughly the ages of 8-11, they were never my favorites, as I found the topic of baby-sitting kids utterly unappealing, and the interpersonal dynamics of bunch of adolescents similarly non-gripping. I never had a character I identified strongly with (as many of the essayists here do), and it's not a series I've thought about in several decades. To this series' credit, I did find it more compelling than the vapidity of Sweet Valley High. I was a voracious reader as a kid, but my favorites from ages 8-11 were more along the lines of the action-packed mysteries (Hardy Boys, the Three Investigators), often with sci-fi or fantasy elements (The Dark Is Rising sequence, various Anne McCaffrey and Bruce Coville books) that focused less on relationship.
That being said, for those who enjoyed this series or its spin-offs, this'll probably be a nice nostalgia read as well as provide connections to various social media sites where these interests can be revisited.
My statistics:
Book 103 for 2025
Book 2029 cumulatively
Personally, though I read several dozen Baby-Sitters Club books between roughly the ages of 8-11, they were never my favorites, as I found the topic of baby-sitting kids utterly unappealing, and the interpersonal dynamics of bunch of adolescents similarly non-gripping. I never had a character I identified strongly with (as many of the essayists here do), and it's not a series I've thought about in several decades. To this series' credit, I did find it more compelling than the vapidity of Sweet Valley High. I was a voracious reader as a kid, but my favorites from ages 8-11 were more along the lines of the action-packed mysteries (Hardy Boys, the Three Investigators), often with sci-fi or fantasy elements (The Dark Is Rising sequence, various Anne McCaffrey and Bruce Coville books) that focused less on relationship.
That being said, for those who enjoyed this series or its spin-offs, this'll probably be a nice nostalgia read as well as provide connections to various social media sites where these interests can be revisited.
My statistics:
Book 103 for 2025
Book 2029 cumulatively
February 3, 2023
I loved The Baby-sitters Club growing up. I had so many books from the series, and considered it my favorite series. This set of essays was written by a bunch of adults who grew up with the series just as I did, and it talked about the impact The Baby-sitters Club series had on them and on society. Some of the essays were really interesting, like how minority characters were seen as great representation for people of those races at the time but how they would be written differently if the series was written today. Others fell flat or read way too much into characters or plotlines that Ann M. Martin probably never intended to be read into so deeply. It also seemed like many of the essays centered around the same theme (how many essays do we really need exploring the possibility that Kristy was written as a queer character or talking about how awesome Claudia was or the exploration of race as an issue in the series? ) It seriously felt like I was reading several versions of the same essay written by different people at times. I feel like the book could have been a lot better if it had more diverse essays, focusing on different aspects of how the Babysitter's Club impacted its readers rather than the same 2-3 topics. Many of the essays left me wanting to know more about how the series impacted individuals, and I felt frustrated that the essay author did not go into more detail. All in all, a nice trip down memory lane, but not a very well written collection of essays.
January 9, 2023
I did not expect to read an entire book of essays about the BSC and walk away wanting more, but I've already downloaded an article from JSTOR and started looking through the notes at the back of the book for references. Essayists write about relating to queer-coded Kristy and Stacey's challenges managing diabetes. They also express frustration with the series' limited representations of disability and racism, and discuss the possibilities explored by the newer Netflix series and fanfiction.
One of my favorite chapters examines the BSC members' handwriting and ohmygod I want my whole job to be creating handwriting styles for fictional characters.
Having grown up reading the books, part of the appeal of these essays is reminiscence, but it's also interesting (if unsurprising) as a librarian to see the lasting impact that books have on young people. In the Data-Sitters chapter, Maria Sachiko Cecire writes
"studying a partially ghostwritten adolescent girls' series [...] may seem to some like a fun nostalgia trip at best and a waste of time at worst. But analyzing children's and young adult literature can lay bare the structures that silently shape our everyday interactions and most sacred beliefs."
Also I'm a Mary Anne/Claudia with Kristy-like big ideas, in case you wondered.
One of my favorite chapters examines the BSC members' handwriting and ohmygod I want my whole job to be creating handwriting styles for fictional characters.
Having grown up reading the books, part of the appeal of these essays is reminiscence, but it's also interesting (if unsurprising) as a librarian to see the lasting impact that books have on young people. In the Data-Sitters chapter, Maria Sachiko Cecire writes
"studying a partially ghostwritten adolescent girls' series [...] may seem to some like a fun nostalgia trip at best and a waste of time at worst. But analyzing children's and young adult literature can lay bare the structures that silently shape our everyday interactions and most sacred beliefs."
Also I'm a Mary Anne/Claudia with Kristy-like big ideas, in case you wondered.
May 30, 2022
Ranking non-fiction and essay collections is so hard! I really loved a lot of these pieces and quite a few of them really resonated with me. I'm really glad that so many of the authors here had the similar experience of longing for closeness and friendship as young, closeted gay girls. I read the BSC series obsessively from fourth grade to the summer before sixth grade. They were a special treat-- way below my assigned reading level but perfect for a little black girl who was denied socialization by her restrictive religion.
For as much as many of these essays appealed to me, just as many of them made me roll my eyes. (Some) Gen X and millennials are so annoying. The worst offenders for me were Can Mary-Anne Save the Soul? and I Am My Own Mr. Mom-- they felt like self-righteous thinkpieces on gender, the former of which had little to do with BSC. I was also a little annoyed that the only black women and WOC brought in for essays wrote about either Jessi or Claudia-- like. Of course there's interesting stuff to be said about BSC handles race but it felt slightly token-y to restrict non-white writers to solely their takes on race. Don't get me wrong, all the WOC-written pieces were amazing, but it was a little frustrating. The two exceptions, Getting Over Claudia and Calories and Kristy's Invisible Hand... were truly excellent and some of best pieces of the collection, to me. Creators of color are allowed to have feelings about things other than racism and racial identity!
Anyways. This is a (mostly) great collection that has something to offer for anyone who loves middle grade novels.
For as much as many of these essays appealed to me, just as many of them made me roll my eyes. (Some) Gen X and millennials are so annoying. The worst offenders for me were Can Mary-Anne Save the Soul? and I Am My Own Mr. Mom-- they felt like self-righteous thinkpieces on gender, the former of which had little to do with BSC. I was also a little annoyed that the only black women and WOC brought in for essays wrote about either Jessi or Claudia-- like. Of course there's interesting stuff to be said about BSC handles race but it felt slightly token-y to restrict non-white writers to solely their takes on race. Don't get me wrong, all the WOC-written pieces were amazing, but it was a little frustrating. The two exceptions, Getting Over Claudia and Calories and Kristy's Invisible Hand... were truly excellent and some of best pieces of the collection, to me. Creators of color are allowed to have feelings about things other than racism and racial identity!
Anyways. This is a (mostly) great collection that has something to offer for anyone who loves middle grade novels.
June 22, 2024
Fun book for BSC fans and the essays were really thought-provoking!
March 25, 2021
As a child, The Baby-Sitters Club was everything for me! I read every single book Ann M. Martin wrote, owned just about every Baby-Sitters Club, little sister and California book that was written, I had the board game, the dolls...anything and everything we could find! I would read it anywhere and until I was embarrassingly too old to be reading it...and then I did a reread when I was 30. I’m so thrilled to read this book with essays that linked me to so many others that feel the same way about the BSC as I did/do. The book was full of moments from the books that will transport you back in time to when you read them and at the same time, connect you and show how others felt about the BSC and those pivotal moments. This is a must read for any other obsessed fan!
February 1, 2022
With a foreword by Mara Wilson (follow her on Twitter, she's great) this is a collection of essays and artwork from grown-up former readers of the beloved children's book series written by Ann M. Martin (and many, many, MANY others).
The writers discuss what The Baby-Sitters Club meant to them growing up, and how parts of it still stay with them today. Things like Kristy's assumed queerness, Dawn's food restriction, Stacey's diabetes, Mary-Anne's overprotective Dad are discussed alongside things like negative and positive representation, ableism, racism, feminism and chronic illness.
I expected this collection to be much more lighthearted than it turned out to be, and I was pleasantly surprised by that. While there are some lighter things in here (the chapter on handwriting analysis was really fun, didn't we all go through that "hearts over the letter i" phase?!), I really enjoyed the more serious essays and the discussions on representation and what that meant for each reader who saw a little bit of themselves in a BSC member.
If you are or were a fan of the BSC, I would recommend this collection.
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley.
The writers discuss what The Baby-Sitters Club meant to them growing up, and how parts of it still stay with them today. Things like Kristy's assumed queerness, Dawn's food restriction, Stacey's diabetes, Mary-Anne's overprotective Dad are discussed alongside things like negative and positive representation, ableism, racism, feminism and chronic illness.
I expected this collection to be much more lighthearted than it turned out to be, and I was pleasantly surprised by that. While there are some lighter things in here (the chapter on handwriting analysis was really fun, didn't we all go through that "hearts over the letter i" phase?!), I really enjoyed the more serious essays and the discussions on representation and what that meant for each reader who saw a little bit of themselves in a BSC member.
If you are or were a fan of the BSC, I would recommend this collection.
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley.
April 7, 2021
I wasn't fully sold on this book when I first heard of it. Yes, The Baby-sitters Club is my life, but I didn't think I cared to read about how it affected other people; I like to discuss BSC with other fans, but I want it to be a conversation, not somebody's essay. And I already have SO MUCH Baby-sitters Club junk, do I really need more? (FYI Future Ashley: the answer is always yes!!!) In short, despite the subject matter, I didn't really think that I cared about this book.
As you can tell from the four-star rating, and that I'm writing about my apprehension in the past tense, I ended up really enjoying this book. Right off the bat, the foreword is by Mara Wilson, so it really revs up the nostalgia factor. But not in a gimmicky way; you can tell that Ms Wilson was (and still is) as passionate about the girls from Stoneybrook as the other contributors to this book and all of us fans, both old and new. I liked the way the book was sectioned off: about friendship, about fashion, about representation, about entrepreneurship. For the most part, I found the essays were very enjoyable; some were informative, some made me think. Truthfully, I skipped the Data-sitters Club entry, as it was a little too technical and jargon-y for my liking, but that was the only one that I didn't read in its entirety. And some of the artwork was hard to read on my phone, but I'll definitely go back and reread them when I buy the book. Yes, this is definitely a to-buy. (But then again, it's BSC. It was always going to be something I'd have to have in my collection.)
But what really sold me was seeing my longtime BSC friend mentioned multiple times in the essay about fanfic. I literally gasped out loud and started geeking out: "I know her! I know her!!" ;)
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
As you can tell from the four-star rating, and that I'm writing about my apprehension in the past tense, I ended up really enjoying this book. Right off the bat, the foreword is by Mara Wilson, so it really revs up the nostalgia factor. But not in a gimmicky way; you can tell that Ms Wilson was (and still is) as passionate about the girls from Stoneybrook as the other contributors to this book and all of us fans, both old and new. I liked the way the book was sectioned off: about friendship, about fashion, about representation, about entrepreneurship. For the most part, I found the essays were very enjoyable; some were informative, some made me think. Truthfully, I skipped the Data-sitters Club entry, as it was a little too technical and jargon-y for my liking, but that was the only one that I didn't read in its entirety. And some of the artwork was hard to read on my phone, but I'll definitely go back and reread them when I buy the book. Yes, this is definitely a to-buy. (But then again, it's BSC. It was always going to be something I'd have to have in my collection.)
But what really sold me was seeing my longtime BSC friend mentioned multiple times in the essay about fanfic. I literally gasped out loud and started geeking out: "I know her! I know her!!" ;)
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
June 4, 2021
This collection of tributes to the Baby-sitters Club comes at the iconic 1980s series from all directions. There are essays about the characters' clothing, their sexual orientations, the books' feminist triumphs and failings, and the books' treatment of race, as well as reflections on lessons learned, expertise acquired, and ideas inspired by Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey, Dawn, Jessi, and Mallory. Much of the content read more into these books than I would typically want, but there were some highlights for me, including an essay by Jack Shepherd from The Baby-sitters Club Club podcast and one about Stacey's diabetes. For readers who grew up with these books, these essays are a fun walk down memory lane even if some of them may read into the stories things that aren't really there.
February 25, 2024
I love nostalgic essays! As an OG BSC fan (I started reading the books upon their publication when I was fifth grade), this book was so fun to read. It’s truly a trip down memory lane, but looked at with a more modern critical eye, and includes examinations of race and queer identities.
My essay would start with the story I told Ann M. Martin while she autographed my first edition paperback of book #1: Kristy’s Great Idea in the Scholastic booth in 2019 at what ended up being the final year of BookCon (and BookExpo). The BSC books inspired me to become a baby-sitter when I was 11 (I even made a kid kit!). After years of baby-sitting, I became a nanny, and now I’m a youth librarian. The BSC chapter books and graphic novels (Raina Telgemeier and Gale Galligan were also there at BookCon) are so popular at my library. I was happy to bring back a poster autographed by all three BSC creators to hang up for the kids of OTPL to enjoy.
My essay would start with the story I told Ann M. Martin while she autographed my first edition paperback of book #1: Kristy’s Great Idea in the Scholastic booth in 2019 at what ended up being the final year of BookCon (and BookExpo). The BSC books inspired me to become a baby-sitter when I was 11 (I even made a kid kit!). After years of baby-sitting, I became a nanny, and now I’m a youth librarian. The BSC chapter books and graphic novels (Raina Telgemeier and Gale Galligan were also there at BookCon) are so popular at my library. I was happy to bring back a poster autographed by all three BSC creators to hang up for the kids of OTPL to enjoy.
May 23, 2022
I really, really loved this book. I totally grew up on the Babysitters Club, although I was the leading end of it so outgrew them sooner than the Millennials most associated with this series. There were some passages referred to that vividly came right back to me.
The authors in this collection are probably about my age and represented a good cross section of race, gender and age exploring the same theories. I loved how they also incorporated things as small as the characters' handwriting. While BSC did some things right for the era in which it was published, especially in addressing blended families, there are definitely some areas where it could have been better: Queer representation, ableism, colorism in terms of Jessi's skin color and more. I was surprised to discover there's a thriving fan fic community for the series as well. Because I had wandered away from the series, I had missed Ann M. Martin's subsequent coming out, which in hindsight was not surprising.
A good read.
The authors in this collection are probably about my age and represented a good cross section of race, gender and age exploring the same theories. I loved how they also incorporated things as small as the characters' handwriting. While BSC did some things right for the era in which it was published, especially in addressing blended families, there are definitely some areas where it could have been better: Queer representation, ableism, colorism in terms of Jessi's skin color and more. I was surprised to discover there's a thriving fan fic community for the series as well. Because I had wandered away from the series, I had missed Ann M. Martin's subsequent coming out, which in hindsight was not surprising.
A good read.
April 11, 2021
I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I loved the BSC growing up, and Stacey was my favourite sitter. As I grew up and aged out, I never finished the series. As an adult, over the last few years, I reread the entire series in reading order and fell in love with it all over again, this time loving Claudia and Mary Anne. I enjoyed this book for what it was worth, the nostalgia and feels of years gone by. It is nice to see that BSC is still alive and well in 2021 and that doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
July 11, 2021
This collection of essays (and artwork!) about the BSC made my heart explode with delight. If your childhood was transformed and immeasurably enriched by a bunch of entrepreneurial weirdo girls in Stoneybrook, CT, your heart may also explode!
April 14, 2021
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Chicago Review Press.
This book is chockful of essays and art about the Baby-sitters Club and I am over the moon about it.
Its a funny,and sad, bold and intimate look at how this bestselling series affected so many.
There's also a fair amount of criticism to be found, too.
I'd definitely recommend this one to any Baby-sitters Club fan.
This book is chockful of essays and art about the Baby-sitters Club and I am over the moon about it.
Its a funny,and sad, bold and intimate look at how this bestselling series affected so many.
There's also a fair amount of criticism to be found, too.
I'd definitely recommend this one to any Baby-sitters Club fan.
April 20, 2021
For a whole generation of readers, the Baby-Sitters Club is something more than nostalgia. It’s a series that expanded our understanding of life and ourselves.
The Baby-Sitters Club will always be special to me because it's why I'm such an avid reader now. It was one of the defining things from childhood. And with the world of fandom today, we are getting to experience that love all over again. We now are finding each other in the nostalgia of things that got us, the ones who were different, the ones who sometimes 'just didn't fit in', through all of our different childhoods. And you get to see various accounts of that throughout the essays in this collection. I truly enjoyed reading it and will be adding it to my collection when it's officially published.
You wish you were a Stacey, but you know you’re a Kristy. And there is something so embarrassing about that fact—something you won’t recognize until you’re much older and realize it’s because Kristy is a little queer and so are you.
The BSC earned this lasting legacy, in part, by making inclusive values and progressive beliefs part of the series’ core— values like honoring diverse voices and experiences, promoting empathy, and suggesting that girls make great leaders. These values were far from standard in young adult lit in 1986, when Kristy’s Great Idea first popped up on the scene. But today, they form the backbone of modern YA.
And now I'm off to Ao3 to look up Byron Pike (Mallory’s younger brother) and Jeff Schafer (Dawn's younger brother) fics because I. NEVER. KNEW. IT. WAS. A. THING. while I impatiently wait for BSB season 2 on Netflix.
***Thank you to Netgalley and Chicago Review Press for providing me with a review copy.
August 3, 2021
This was a nostalgic impulse read for me. While I have always loved reading, The Baby-sitter's Club was the first series I remember really falling in love with reading. I got really into the series apparently after its conclusion and peak, having discovered one of the books at my local Goodwill in what had to be around 2009. Anywhere that sold second hand books- goodwill, yard sales- then was somehow an ample source for finding BSC books then. I fell in love with the series through the remnants of it, with the last book being published a few months before I was born. Having not had any internet access or the care to look into these books beyond my reading of them as a kid (other than a biography of Ann M. Martin that fourth grade me decided to write for a school project), I had no concept up until a few years ago how prolific these books actually were for so many people, and how many other people too, had formative experiences with them.
Most of the writers of this essay collection seemed to have the experience of getting into the series when it was the most popular, and in this case, it gave me such a disconnect from them considering the wildly different contexts we read these books in. Reading is such a personal and subjective experience anyways, so pop culture essays like this run the risk of only being enjoyable if you had a shared experience and that's kind of what happened here. Some of these essays were unnecessary and repetitive, and I think that the ones speaking to the gay lenses that these books could have been looked at with were the ones that resonated the most with me.
Most of the writers of this essay collection seemed to have the experience of getting into the series when it was the most popular, and in this case, it gave me such a disconnect from them considering the wildly different contexts we read these books in. Reading is such a personal and subjective experience anyways, so pop culture essays like this run the risk of only being enjoyable if you had a shared experience and that's kind of what happened here. Some of these essays were unnecessary and repetitive, and I think that the ones speaking to the gay lenses that these books could have been looked at with were the ones that resonated the most with me.
July 13, 2021
My enduring affection for the Baby-Sitters Club is a little-kept secret, but sometimes I end up identifying too closely to the series; to see it thoughtlessly criticized or mischaracterized can feel personal (as the title says, I AM the Baby-Sitters Club, in that regard).
So I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the essays and comics in this book. Critiques were by and large thoughtful and necessary—I was particularly intrigued by chapters on series ableism, the treatment of adoption, sizeism, and of course, the depiction of Jessi from the point of view of several Black readers. Lighter fare include looks at BSC online fandom, the fashion of the series, and the creation of the sitters' handwriting, all of which were absolute highlights.
You don't need encyclopedic knowledge of a topic to have feelings about it and an important perspective to share, but there are a handful of factual errors that potentially undercut the arguments of some essays in a small way, or might have enriched them had the author known. The BSC series is huge, though, so it'd be unfair to dock stars for that.
So I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the essays and comics in this book. Critiques were by and large thoughtful and necessary—I was particularly intrigued by chapters on series ableism, the treatment of adoption, sizeism, and of course, the depiction of Jessi from the point of view of several Black readers. Lighter fare include looks at BSC online fandom, the fashion of the series, and the creation of the sitters' handwriting, all of which were absolute highlights.
You don't need encyclopedic knowledge of a topic to have feelings about it and an important perspective to share, but there are a handful of factual errors that potentially undercut the arguments of some essays in a small way, or might have enriched them had the author known. The BSC series is huge, though, so it'd be unfair to dock stars for that.
September 7, 2021
This book was interesting, but very repetitive. The same ideas are presented over & over again by different authors. I’m sure within a series as vast as the BSC there could’ve been a lot more variety in this essay collection. I also wasn’t wild that so much criticism was thrown at a 30-year-old series just because it would’ve been written differently today. You have to evaluate the series with a 1990s eye, not a 2020s eye. The artwork, on the other hand, was all great!
February 12, 2022
This was wonderfully nerdy and profound for a book of essays and art on the lasting legacy of the BSC, written by people from all walks of life ranging from mid-40s to mid-20 year olds. They write on things the BSC books got right and wrong regarding race and colorism, ableism, families, deadbeat dads, adoption, body image, LGBTQ issues (Ann M. Martin is a lesbian?!?) and more… I was so glad to see a full segment covering “Kristy and Mr. Mom” because it put to words all the weird feelings I had when I saw my daughter reading that title in the 21st century. Oooh there was also an article on the handwriting of the BSC and the history of American handwriting that was so so nerdy and soul-soothing.
A couple segments I highlighted:
Maria, a professor of children’s literature (my fave college course!) was recounting her interview for the Rhodes scholarship and was made to feel like being a scholar of children’s literature is insignificant in “fighting the world’s fight”. “Eventually I lost my temper and lashed back against the bias implicit in the idea that something associated with childhood, women’s work, the humanities, and care is necessarily trivial—when in fact these are often the bedrocks on which lives and societies are built.”
“Studying a partially ghostwritten adolescent girls’ series like the Baby-Sitters Club may seem to some like a fun nostalgia trip at best and a waste of time at worst. But analyzing children’s and young adult literature can lay bare the structures that silently shape our everyday interactions and most sacred beliefs.”
“Growing up means a lot of things for the BSC members. It means learning how to stand up for yourself and be independent (a frequent Mary Anne arc). It means being accountable to your responsibilities when you’d rather be painting or reading Nancy Drew novels (Claudia). It means honoring your body’s needs (Stacey). Cultivating sensitivity and patience (Kristy). Facing loss and uncertainty, and learning how to seek support from—and provide support for—family and friends (all of the BSC members).”
While reading this, I had the thought that every BSC reader should write their own story on how it affected our growing years!
A couple segments I highlighted:
Maria, a professor of children’s literature (my fave college course!) was recounting her interview for the Rhodes scholarship and was made to feel like being a scholar of children’s literature is insignificant in “fighting the world’s fight”. “Eventually I lost my temper and lashed back against the bias implicit in the idea that something associated with childhood, women’s work, the humanities, and care is necessarily trivial—when in fact these are often the bedrocks on which lives and societies are built.”
“Studying a partially ghostwritten adolescent girls’ series like the Baby-Sitters Club may seem to some like a fun nostalgia trip at best and a waste of time at worst. But analyzing children’s and young adult literature can lay bare the structures that silently shape our everyday interactions and most sacred beliefs.”
“Growing up means a lot of things for the BSC members. It means learning how to stand up for yourself and be independent (a frequent Mary Anne arc). It means being accountable to your responsibilities when you’d rather be painting or reading Nancy Drew novels (Claudia). It means honoring your body’s needs (Stacey). Cultivating sensitivity and patience (Kristy). Facing loss and uncertainty, and learning how to seek support from—and provide support for—family and friends (all of the BSC members).”
While reading this, I had the thought that every BSC reader should write their own story on how it affected our growing years!
March 15, 2022
I loved these essays, especially the ones about the ways that BSC was ahead of its time while also being a product of it, and the way that they tackle depictions of race, disability, queerness, and feminism in the series. Probably the essays I enjoyed the most were the ones about what Jessi meant to Black readers, and what her story did well and could have done better.
I only realized after the essay I would have loved to see: Abby isn't in this book at all. I know she wasn't a member of the Baby-Sitters Club for long, but when she came along, I got to have Jewish representation -- here was a BSC member who had hair like mine and came from my culture. In a book of essays examining issues of identity for so many of the babysitters, it was a pretty glaring omission for me to not see Abby and the presentation of Jewish identity in this collection at all.
I only realized after the essay I would have loved to see: Abby isn't in this book at all. I know she wasn't a member of the Baby-Sitters Club for long, but when she came along, I got to have Jewish representation -- here was a BSC member who had hair like mine and came from my culture. In a book of essays examining issues of identity for so many of the babysitters, it was a pretty glaring omission for me to not see Abby and the presentation of Jewish identity in this collection at all.
July 19, 2021
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
As a big fan of BSC growing up, I was so excited to get approved for this book! I loved that Mara Wilson (aka Matilda) wrote the intro- that hooked me right away. I enjoyed the mix of in-depth analysis of the series and characters and the essays that reminisced on different characters, as well as the original artwork. There were a couple essays that I ended up skimming through more than others because they just were not super interesting to me, but I still think they had a place in this collection. To me, this was a wonderful melange of nostalgia and literary study. If you were ever a BSC fan, this book is for you!
As a big fan of BSC growing up, I was so excited to get approved for this book! I loved that Mara Wilson (aka Matilda) wrote the intro- that hooked me right away. I enjoyed the mix of in-depth analysis of the series and characters and the essays that reminisced on different characters, as well as the original artwork. There were a couple essays that I ended up skimming through more than others because they just were not super interesting to me, but I still think they had a place in this collection. To me, this was a wonderful melange of nostalgia and literary study. If you were ever a BSC fan, this book is for you!
November 22, 2021
Oh, this was so good! Like a balm to my soul! The Baby-Sitters Club was so extremely important to me, and it's fascinating how many people had the same experience. Many of these essays call out problematic issues with the original series, while still acknowledging their positive impact. For example, issues around race and disability were handled in less-than-ideal ways, but these books were published during a time when people were thrilled to see representation in a fully-fledged character at all. Basically, the BSC books took kids/YA literature seriously, and kids appreciated that. I certainly did!
(It's amazing how many details I remember from the books--because I read them so many times. Tights with clocks on them? Zipper earrings? "Sheep are in." Allllll the Pike kids' names? Oh my GOSH, good times!)
(It's amazing how many details I remember from the books--because I read them so many times. Tights with clocks on them? Zipper earrings? "Sheep are in." Allllll the Pike kids' names? Oh my GOSH, good times!)
May 12, 2021
3.5 stars. A fun and thought-provoking walk down memory lane, with many of the essays proving that there is a niche for everything anymore (two grown men reading BSC on a podcast, for example, or the women who make up "The Data Sitters Club" and use machine learning and data science to break down the books). I do wish there would've been more images included - the various writers describe some of the covers of the books and it would've been nice to see those images for more context.
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