The Baby-Sitters Club

Get a Sneak Peek of Good-bye, Stacey, Good-bye: A Graphic Novel (BSC #11)

The beloved Baby-sitters Club is back in a brand-new graphic novel adapted by Gabriela Epstein!

Stacey McGill is moving back to New York! That means no more Stoneybrook Middle School, no more Charlotte Johanseen, and worst of all...no more Baby-sitters Club. Stacey's friends are crushed when they hear that Stacey's moving, especially Claudia. Stacey is her best friend. 

What kind of going-away present is good enough for someone so special? And how will hte BSC go on without Stacey?

Start reading Good-bye, Stacey, Goodbye: A Graphic Novel by Ann M. Martin and adapted by Gabriela Epstein below!

Pre-order your copy of Good-bye, Stacey, Goodbye: A Graphic Novel (BSC #11) today! 

Get a Sneak Peek of Karen's School Picture: A Graphic Novel (Baby-sitters Little Sister #5)!

The fun continues in the newest graphic novel in the series spin-off of The Baby-sitters Club, featuring Kristy's little stepsister!

Karen has to get glasses! She doesn't want them, especially because school pictures are going to be taken soon. But she picks out some pretty pink ones and thinks she looks very grown-up.

Then Yicky Ricky at school starts calling her names, like Owl Girl and Googly Eyes. If Karen wears her glasses for the school picture, Ricky will make fun of her. If she doesn't wear them, she'll feel like she's afraid to be herself. Glasses or no glasses, that Ricky is going to get it!

Start reading Karen's School Picture by Ann M. Martin and adapted by Katy Farina below!

 

Preorder your copy of Baby-sitters Little Sister #5: Karen's School Picture today!

Throwback Thursday: National Pet Day

Today is National Pet Day! That means it’s time to shower your pets with extra love and spoil them with treats. It’s also a chance for us to cherish their company, as they certainly make a great addition to our lives.

As an animal lover and cat owner (hi Roma!), I was thrilled at the idea of looking for pet-related throwbacks.  My search in the Archive led me to discover a surprise Clifford appearance in a book, and an entire series about different pets, among other cool finds. Give your furry (or scaly) buddy a hug and check out the books below.

Of course, we have to start off with our favorite big red dog:

Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell, 1963

I’m Elizabeth and I have a dog.

My dog is a big red dog.

How to Care for Your Dog by Jean Bethell, illustrated by Norman Bridwell, 1964

Do you know what to do when I catch cold and sneeze?

When I bark too much or have too many fleas?

Read this book and take care of me—please!

Does the red dog on the cover look familiar? It’s because Norman Bridwell, the author of the Clifford the Big Red Dog series illustrated this book!

101 Pet Jokes by Phil Hirsch with Hope Hirsch, 1980

This harebrained litter of laughs will make you want to break out in giggles—and you’ll keep grr-inning right from the beginning, all the way to the furry end!

Living With Pets: Getting the Best Out of You Dog, Cat, Bird, or Boa by Barbara Hazen and David Gantz, 1981

Is your dog a babbler? Does he wear an apron?

Is your cat a rag doll or a rex?

This may sound like nonsense, but it isn’t if you’re a dog or cat owner!

Animal Inn #5: Adopt-a-Pet by Virginia Vail, 1987

Pets for sale.

Val is horrified when the Essex Humane Society Animal Shelter burns down. Not only are a lot of animals injured, but they’re truly homeless.

The Baby-sitters Club #22: Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter by Ann M. Martin, 1989

The Mancusis don’t have any kids…but they sure have a lot of pets! So when they’re desperate for a sitter, whom do they call? The Baby-sitters Club!

 

Animal Inn #8: Petnapped! by Virginia Vail, 1990

There’s a petnapper on the loose!

Is Essex safe anymore? First it was Ludwig, Miss Maggie’s German shepherd, then it was Puffin, Mrs. Van Fleet’s Himalayan cat. Pets are disappearing one by one.

Animal Inn #9: One Dog Too Many by Virginia Vail, 1990

There’s always room for one more!

Val didn’t expect the other pets to get upset when she brought home another stray.

Special thanks to Gina Asprocolas, and Scholastic Librarians Deimosa Webber-Bey and Chelsea Fritz for their help with this series!

Throwback Thursday: Happy Spring

As of last week, it's officially spring! Although the weather in New York is playing mind games with us, I am ready to switch out my wardrobe, and my books. 

So, for this week’s throwback, I went to the Scholastic Archives to look for the things that remind me of this season: flowers, greenery, and what I miss most about being a student—Spring Break! Check out the books and posters I found, especially the titles with amazing 80s and 90s-style covers:

Map of the State Flowers, Scholastic Book Services, 1975

Spring Love by Jennifer Sarasin, 1983

Becca’s senior year is hardly what she expected. Her mother has left home, and Becca is stuck in New York with her overprotective, critical father. She feels abandoned and alone—until she meets Mark.

The Exploring Series from Scholastic: Spring, 1986

Cheerleaders: Spring Fever by Diane Hoh, 1987

The cheerleaders win a trip to Mardi Gras, to stay with Tara’s rich great-aunt in her mansion in the posh Garden District of New Orleans.

How Do You Know It’s Spring? by Allan Fowler, 1991

When leaves begin to grow on the trees..when the grass turns green again…

When the first flowers bloom in your garden or in the park, then you know it’s springtime!

My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell, 1993

Spring is here again. Will my robin come back to me?

Wake Me in Spring by James Preller, illustrated by Jeffrey Scherer, 1994

Mouse’s best friend, Bear, is getting ready to sleep all winter. 

“I’ll see you in spring,” Bear says to Mouse.

Spring Fever! by Peter Lerangis, 1995

It’s spring and the geeks are in bloom! As soon as the dorky Gheik kids set foot on school grounds, they were objects of everyone’s ridicule. But that was before they offered to grant wishes to their classmates at Hopnoodle Junior High.

Greetings from…Spring Break by Peter Lerangis, 1996

When it comes to being weird, Adam’s family takes the cake. The thought of spending Spring Break with them makes school sound like a vacation!

Clifford’s Spring Clean Up/ Clifford y la limpieza de primavera by Norman Bridwell, 1997

Happy spring! I’m Emily Elizabeth.

At our house, it’s time for spring cleaning again.

Last year, the whole family worked hard—even my big red dog, Clifford.

The Baby-sitters Club #129: Kristy at Bat by Ann M. Martin, 1999

Kristy’s on deck for the most exciting spring break ever: a father-daughter week at Bill Bain’s Dream Camp, a baseball program run by famous major leaguers.

Special thanks to Gina Asprocolas and Scholastic Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for their help with this series!

A very big Baby-Sitters Club Twitter takeover

In honor of the recent release of The Baby-sitters Club: Kristy's Big Day by author Ann M. Martin and illustrator Gale Galligan, Graphix hosted a #KristysBigDayTakeover on Twitter last week!

Did you miss the takeover? No worries! We've got all the tweets below, so you can check out the exclusive excerpt right now!

Books make the best birthday gifts

On my 8th birthday my grandmother got me something I'll never forget: my first Sweet Valley Twins book.

As a twin myself, it was the perfect choice. That single gift started as long love affair with the series, and with reading in general. In the local bookstore where I bought the rest of my Sweet Valley books I also discovered The Baby-sitters Club (they were displayed next to each other, naturally) and other series that would go on to leave indelible marks on my childhood.

Books, I've found, make the best birthday gifts. Other books I've been gifted over the years include large, heavy hardcovers I was hesitant to splurge on myself (like The Selected Letters of Willa Cather), beautiful first editions of Edith Wharton titles (my favorite author!), and new releases I hadn't realized were in stores yet. Books can be such a surprise! The gift of a book, in many ways, tell us as much about the gifter as it does the gifted.

These days I give books as gifts as often as I can, particularly to the children in my life. My niece loves Branches books, my nephew loves Clifford. My daughter is into scary tales and my son likes anything with rounded corners that he can stick in his mouth. (He's a baby.)

What books have you been gifted over the years?

Throwback Thursday: Winter and snow

It's December! When I think of December, I think of the holidays and snowy winter scenes... even though it usually starts to snow here at Scholastic HQ in New York City in January. In fact, the weather has been pretty mild here... no hats or scarves needed!  

Luckily, for this edition of Throwback Thursday, I found a bunch of winter-themed titles where the characters need their snowboots! Let's take a look.

The Iceburg Hermit, by Arthur Roth, 1974. Fun fact: This was published by the Scholastic imprint Four Winds Press, which no longer exists.

Snowball Express, by Joe Claro, 1980. Fun fact: This book by Claro is a novelization of the film with the same name ... and the film was based on the book Chateau Bon Vivant by Frankie and John O'Rear. (Phew!)

The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #7: Snowbound, by Ann M. Martin, 1991. Fun fact (and this fact isn't so much about the The Baby-sitters Club series rather than the former administrative procedures of the Scholastic Library): A good number of our books have these larger stickers place prominently over the cover art to ensure that they would get returned to the Library! For my Throwback Thursday purposes it evokes a little, "foiled again!" reaction. (In case you're curious, here's what Snowbound's cover looks like.)

The Winter Hero, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, 1978. Fun fact: Another Four Winds Press title, these authors also wrote My Brother Sam is Dead, a 1975 National Book Award winner. Here's a quick book summary: 

It’s 1787 and 14-year-old Justin Conkey is about to make up for the fact that he was too young to fight in the Revolution of 1776. Shay’s Rebellion is the new war, and he is determined to be part of it, even if he only has his father’s old sword for protection. He longs to be a hero, like his unpredictable, heroic brother-in-law, Peter McColloch, but Peter feels Justin isn’t old enough to fight. Finally, in a dramatic scene involving Justin’s sister, Molly, Peter allows Justin to join the regiment, although once Justin is actually on the battlefield fighting against Lincoln’s army, war is not at all what he expected. Everywhere he turns he faces danger and confusion, and his own growing fear.

Ski Racer, by Curtis W. Casewit, 1968. Fun fact: Another Four Winds Press title, the author bio on the back of this book negelected to mention that Casewit also wrote science fiction stories! Here's a quick book summary:

When his skis are stole just before the big race Bob almost panics, because the race may lead to the Olympics. Then his friend Sally comes to the rescue.

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

What happened when our college intern read a Baby-sitters Club book for the first time?

This year, we're celebrating 30 years of The Baby-sitters Club! We tasked our summer intern, Emily Bowman, with reading her very first BSC book and answering some questions about it. Thanks, Emily! 

Since the height of Baby-sitters Club mania was a bit before my time, I was not an avid BSC fan growing up. I recall being familiar with the books here and there, but I never reached the status of true fandom. But now with all the hype surrounding the 30th anniversary of the BSC series, I have some catching up to do! So without that same sense of reminiscence for the BSC, I was interested to see what my impression of the series would be. Here is my fresh-eyes take of The Babysitters Club #9: The Ghost at Dawn’s House. 

 

I could not put this book down! 

I finished the ninth book of the BSC series in a single day, spending my entire commute to and from work completely absorbed in the story. The Ghost at Dawn’s House has a fun mystery element to it – after discovering a secret passage behind her bedroom wall, Dawn is convinced her house is haunted. With all the rainstorms and creepy noises, I was sure there was a ghost involved too…until the big reveal at the end that tied together the mystery passageway with, of course, babysitting! 

I liked that the story was told exclusively from Dawn’s perspective, so I got a good sense of her character. Each of the girls is obviously so unique, and I loved learning new bits of information about them throughout the story – it made me feel more connected to the characters. For example, I now know that Claudia is a total junk foodie (same!), Dawn craves sunny California weather, and Kristy has lots of younger siblings. The mesh of different personalities allowed me to find something in each of the girls that I connected with, which made the story all the more engaging. I can definitely see how the series gets addicting! 

I have to admit, I did some outside research into the Baby-sitters Club members. After exploring the BSC wiki page, I discovered that Kristy shares my birthday (August 20th!). With that knowledge, I feel a bit obliged to say she’s my favorite baby-sitter! I admire Kristy’s gung-ho spirit for the club and her pride in being its founding member. Although I don’t share her athletic abilities, I think they make her a fun, spunky character and heighten the “team-player” tendencies that make her such a good leader.    

Overall, I’m hooked! As a veteran neighborhood babysitter myself, the BSC hits home in a lot of ways. I remember the first time I earned money babysitting and experienced that thrill of feeling so grown up. The girls’ stories definitely had me reminiscing on my middle school days, which is what I think makes the series so timeless. It turns out, The Baby-sitters Club will have you feeling nostalgic whether you read the books when you were younger or not!      

The Ghost at Dawn's House 5-word book review: Dawn, don’t go in there! 

*Related listening* Check out our podcast episode with Ann M. Martin, creator of the BSC, and Scholastic editorial director David Levithan for more behind-the-scenes looks at the making of The Baby-sitters Club! 

Throwback Thursday: The Baby-sitters Club extras

For my last Throwback Thursday post, I went down to the Scholastic Archive and found a bunch of the #1s of the Baby-sitters Club series. As Scholastic librarian Deimosa and I walked up and down the aisles, I noticed lots of other BSC tie-in books that weren't included in the numbered series, but that still pinged my sense of nostalgia. Do you remember any of these books?

The Baby-sitters Club Notebook

A handy guide for anyone looking to start their own BSC. It includes tips for dealing with parents, babies, healthy recipes, jokes, and a place to log clients and how much money you've earned.

The Baby-sitters Club Postcard Book

This book contains tearaway postcards featuring the beautiful artwork from all the BSC covers! Deimosa told me she has this book, and thinks it's too much pressure to actually mail the postcards out, so she only sends them to her sister so she can always get them back. A quality tactic!

(A postcard featuring the cover art from Baby-sitters Club Super Special #2: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation)

The Baby-sitters Club Chain Letter and The Baby-sitters Club Secret Santa

These are the two books that I definitely remember owning in elementary and middle school. These books include letters, cards, and other "handwritten" notes from the atual members of the BSC (and some letters from Karen Brewer, star of the Little Sister spin-off series). In some cases, you have to open the envelopes to take out the note! (And some are filled with confetti, which I recently just learned. What a mess; thanks Mary Anne!) Sometimes you'd find a photo strip, necklace, or even a friendship bracelet but honestly, what I was most interested in was obsessing over everyone's handwriting!

A letter from Claudia to Dawn (complete with friendship bracelet!)

Logan's Secret Santa gift to Mallory

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

Throwback Thursday: The Baby-sitters Club #1

With the 30th anniversary of The Baby-sitters Club this week, was there ever any doubt that this week's Throwback Thursday would be dedicated to Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne and Stacey? Specifically, we're looking back at some of the #1s in Ann M. Martin's popular series, from Super Specials to Little Sister spin-offs.

First, let's look back at the #1 that started it all ... Kristy's Great Idea!

This book, published in 1986, would go on to inspire four related series, approximately 250 individual titles, a TV show, a movie ... and millions of fans! 

Each BSC story was told from the point-of-view of one of the club members. As the series took off, more members were added to the core four (including Dawn, Mallory, and Jessica), and more related series were created. Check out Mystery #1: Stacey and the Missing Ring, Super Special #1: Baby-sitters On Board!, and Super Mystery #1: Baby-sitters' Haunted House!

The Mystery books are pretty self-explanatory; each book was from the POV of one of the girls (just like in the original series), and featured a creepy or mysterious story that needed to be solved. The Super Specials had larger plots than the ones featured in the regular series, and tied in POVs from multiple characters. Combine those two structures and you got the Super Mysteries!

(BTW, that big sticker covering the artwork of Mystery #1? It says that this book is property of Scholastic. When Scholastic librarian Deimosa and I were looking for all these #1 books in the catalogue, so many copies were already checked out by employees. The BSC series is just as popular as ever, and these stickers help ensure that our copies make it back to the Library! [This one has unfortunately been stuck to the front, a rare occurance.] But I won't leave you hanging; here's what the cover artwork looks like!)

Now, let's talk spin-offs! Here we have California Girls #1: Dawn, and The Baby-sitters Little Sister #1: Karen's Witch! The California Girls series featured BSC member Dawn Schafer and her life in California. The themes and plots in this series were a bit more adult than those in the BSC series. And on the other end of the spectrum, we had a series focused on the adventures of Karen Brewer, BSC President Kristy's seven-year-old stepsister! (Fun fact: That series also had Super Specials!)

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - The Baby-Sitters Club