The latest graphic novel adaptation, The Baby-sitters Club: Jessi’s Secret Language released earlier this month. We are super excited to have the wonderful adapter, Chan Chau, and editor of The Baby-sitters Club and Baby-sitters Little Sister graphic novel adaptations, Cassandra Pelham Fulton on the blog to talk about the new book, Chan’s process, favorite panels, and more! Check it out below! 

Cassandra: This is your second BSC graphic novel adaptation! What was your favorite aspect of working on Jessi’s Secret Language?

Chan: One of my favorite aspects of working on the book was learning little bits of ASL and ballet! I’ve always been enamored by both, and to have the chance to combine them into one book was a fun challenge.

Cassandra: What is your favorite panel from the book?

Chan: My favorite panel is the one where Jessi reflects on her friends and family. There are a lot of little details that I loved putting in! I also have an intense fondness for Polaroids.

Cassandra: In Jessi’s Secret Language, the boy Jessi is baby-sitting is Deaf. What kind of research did you do to create the panels where the characters are using American Sign Language?

Chan: Oh gosh. I spent a lot of time watching videos and gifs made by the incredible Dr. Bill Vicars for the vocabulary in the book, along with watching YouTubers like Jessica Kellgren-Fozard to learn how to sensitively adapt the material for a modern audience. I am grateful for Lynne Kelly, an ASL educator and interpreter who Scholastic hired to look over my work during the process of making this book. Her feedback was invaluable and I couldn't have done this without her help.

Cassandra: When you were growing up, did you have a hobby or extracurricular activity that you were passionate about?

Chan: I didn't have any substantial extracurricular activities growing up, I was very much a “go to school then go home to do homework” kind of kid. However, I made time to draw comics and play video games whenever I had the chance. I later discovered that drawing was something I wanted to make into a career!

Cassandra: And, finally, I have to ask—do you have a favorite baby-sitter?

Chan: This is such a difficult question! I think my favorite is Claudia. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was a teen, except she was so much more fashionable and charismatic than I could ever imagine myself being! Even today!

For more about The Baby-sitters Club, click here and follow The Baby-sitters Club Facebook page for updates on the latest books! 

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! 

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We’re excited to have bestselling artist Gale Galligan back with us this week to talk more behind the scenes about the recently released THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB: LOGAN LIKES MARY ANNE! One of the many exciting things about this new graphic novel adaptation is that it introduces a fan-favorite character, Jessi Ramsey! Gale gives us an exclusive scoop below:

Fan favorite Jessi Ramsey appears in this latest book, Logan Likes Mary Anne! Can you tell us about your inspiration behind designing her character? 

First, I looked to the original source material! In Jessi’s first prose appearance, Mallory is amazed by how beautiful and graceful Jessi is and how she carries herself like a dancer. So I definitely wanted to try and bring across that impression with Jessi’s character design. 

Then I put together a mood board. One thing that I like to do when I’m designing characters is to find images of people, like actors, singers, and even friends, who have features that give me the impression I’m looking for—just so I can get outside of my own head a little bit and make sure I’m not only working with the images that happen to already be inside my mental library. For Jessi, my mood board included dancers and performers like Shahadi Wright Joseph, Amaya Joseph, and Nardia Boodoo. I also added outfits, accessories, and patterns that I thought Jessi might enjoy.

After that, I drew lots and lots of sketches, playing with different ideas and thinking about what felt most “Jessi”-like to me, until I found something that I really liked! 

Check out a sketch of Jessi below!

BONUS: A sweet scene between Jessi and Mallory from LOGAN LIKES MARY ANNE!

For more scenes with Jessi, check out LOGAN LIKES MARY ANNE! 

The Baby-sitters Club is back! We are so excited about the release of the newest book in the graphic novel series this week, LOGAN LIKES MARY ANNE! We had the pleasure of sitting down with the bestselling artist of the book, Gale Galligan. 

How did you first discover The Baby-sitters Club books and what has the journey in the BSC world looked like for you? 

When I was younger, I absolutely loved to read. I’d go to the library before school, after school, even during lunch sometimes, and pick up all sorts of books. Fantasy and adventure, stories where kids turn into animals and have to fight aliens, you know, the good stuff. I loved to read so much that there was one week where my mom grounded me from reading at home, because I kept trying to read when I was supposed to be doing other things!

So when I walked into the school library one morning and the librarian stopped me, I thought, Oh no, this is it. I’ve finally read too much. There’s nothing left. I will be banished from this place.

But what they said was: “Congratulations!” As it turned out, the library was doing a special giveaway, and since I was the fifth person in that morning, they handed me a package wrapped in brown paper. A surprise book.

Can you guess what that book was?

An installment of The Baby-sitters Club! My very first: Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic. I went home and devoured it all, and then had to go right back and check out all of the other volumes I could find. I was hooked from then on.

What were some of your most memorable or favorite moments about working on Logan Likes Mary Anne in particular?

Oh my gosh, I have so many favorite moments—I really got to go all-out for this book!

Aside from being able to introduce Jessi and Logan to readers of the graphic novel series, one of the things I most enjoyed working on for this book was drawing the scenes where Mary Anne has to confront her own fears. Those were really fun to visualize, especially as someone who grew up shy (and still is, just a little, although I’ve now had a lot more practice talking to groups!). There’s one double-page spread later in the book where I got to use lots and lots of dry, inky brush rendering to amp up the drama… it took a while, but I think it was worth the time. Since this was my last book in the series, I really wanted to give each page 200% and go out with a bang. 

You started the graphic novels with Dawn and the Impossible Three. Four books later, with Logan Likes Mary Anne, what are some things that have grown or evolved for you as you’ve worked on each book of the series? 

On the most visible level: my drawings have gotten better! Graphic novels involve a lot of drawing, and when you draw a lot, you start to see improvement. If you’d asked Gale from Dawn and the Impossible Three to draw a big dance scene in a gym, it would have taken much, much longer. I’ve been figuring out what tools work best to streamline my process and having a ton of fun as I go, and I hope that continues as I keep making books! Comics are great!

Less visible, but just as important (if not more so): I’ve gained confidence in my choices. When I first came on to the BSC, I was understandably intimidated—I was stepping into some big, talented shoes, and didn’t want to let anybody down! But as I started to suggest changes and assert my own voice more, I realized that the BSC team was excited to listen to me and have conversations about how we could make these adaptations the best versions of themselves. Knowing that you have the trust of your collaborators is a great way to help you build your own trust in your creative vision, and I’m really grateful for the relationship we’ve built over the years. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this behind the scene look at Logan Likes Mary Anne. Check back next week for more from Gale!

Say hello to your friends! The Baby-sitters Club comes to life on Netflix on July 3. Get ready to head back to Stoneybrook, CT, and check out our member in training guide below.

If you're interested in being a future member of the BSC, get started here:

Read The Books

When Kristy Thomas has the great idea to form a baby-sitters club — a chance to earn money and spend time with her friends, all while doing something they each love to do — she has no idea how much the club will change everything.

Jump into the story of Kristy, Stacey, Claudia, Dawn, and Mary Anne from Ann M. Martin. There's a Baby-sitters Club book for every reader including the original novels, the graphic novels, and the Little Sisters novels!

Watch The Trailer 

Check out the trailer for The Baby-sitters Club below!

Call The Phone Line

Find out which member of The Baby-sitters Club you are, get business tips, and download your membership card by calling the BSC phone line.

Listen to Ann M. Martin and the Netflix Cast on the Scholastic Reads Podcast

Congratulations! You're officially ready to be a member of The Baby-sitters Club. Stream on Netflix starting July 3! For more Baby-sitters Club fun like our Facebook page, and follow Netflix Family on Instagram.

Galentine’s Day is all about celebrating female friendships, and what better way to celebrate that than with some of the best literary friendships. Here are some books that are filled with love between friends!

Eva and Lucy from Owl Diaries by Rebecca Elliot

Eva Wingdale gets in over her head when she offers to organize a spring festival at school. Even with her best friend Lucy's help, there is NO way she will get everything done in time. Will Eva have to ask Sue (a.k.a. Meanie McMeanerson) for help? Or will the festival have to be cancelled?

Raina and Amara from Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

Raina can't wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren't quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she's also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn't improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture and later, something doesn't seem right between their parents, they realize they must figure out how to get along. They are sisters, after all.Raina uses her signature humor and charm in both present-day narrative and perfectly placed flashbacks to tell the story of her relationship with her sister, which unfolds during the course of a road trip from their home in San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado.

Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey from Kristy’s Great Idea by Ann Martin; Illustrated by Raina Telgemeier

When Kristy Thomas has the great idea to form a baby-sitters club — a chance to earn money and spend time with her friends, all while doing something they each love to do — she has no idea how much the club will change everything.

Karen and Hadie from Karen’s Witch by Ann Martin; Illustrated by Katy Farina

Karen Brewer lives next door to Mrs. Porter, who wears long black robes and has wild gray hair. Mrs. Porter has a black cat named Midnight and always seems to be working in her garden. Karen isn't supposed to spy on her neighbor, but with Hadie’s help, Karen's determined to prove that Mrs. Porter is a witch named Morbidda Destiny!

Hope and Sam from Project Middle School by Alyssa Milano with Debbie Rigaud; Illustrated by Eric S. Keyes

Hope's BFF Sam made some new friends over the summer and Hope doesn't know how to handle it. She and Sam have always been inseparable! Then Hope meets her new lab partner, Camila, and they get off on the wrong foot. And even though Camila is great at science, she doesn't want to join the science club. The club is all boys, and she doesn't feel welcome.

When Hope hears that, she's determined to recruit more girls into the science club, including Camila. Hope knows that sometimes changing the world starts small. So now Hope has a mission! Can she turn the science club into a place that's welcoming for everyone and make some new friends along the way?

Lina and Claudia from Diary of an Ice Princess by Christina Soontornvat

It's Winter Break at Hilltop Academy and Lina couldn't be more excited. With time off from school, Lina's parents say it's all right for her best friend, Claudia, to come up to their cloud palace for a sleepover (as long as she double pinkie-swears never to tell the royal family secret!). Claudia can't wait to see what it's like to actually be a real princess!

But she soon learns that all the stuffy palace protocol isn't nearly as fun as it sounds. The girls just have to get out and play! Claudia suggests they go down to the ground and have some fun with Lina's winter magic. They have a blast sledding and skating in the snow until an actual winter blizzard moves in. The girls are stuck on the ground, lost in the storm. They will have to get resourceful, be brave, work together — and use Lina's magic in a creative way — if they are going to find their way out.

Valentine’s Day is the day to celebrate love, and here on OOM we regularly celebrate different forms of literary love, whether it is the book that made us fall in love with reading, or fictional characters that we fell in love with. This Valentine’s Day, we’re taking the opportunity to celebrate the love between our favourite characters. I asked the team about their favourite fictional couples, and here are the responses I got:

Julia: My latest favorite YA couple is Sierra and Robbie from Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper. There’s nothing that I love more than two artsy kids finding each other!

Brittany: Mine is Ifemelu and Obinze from Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Ifemelu’s journey to find love, from America to Nigeria, is refreshingly real and shows the struggle many people go through when relationships from their past connect with their future.

Emily: Here are some of mine!

• Mary Anne Spier and Logan Bruno from The Baby-sitters Club by Ann M Martin - Mary Anne and Logan were my OG favorite literary couple. I definitely related most to Mary Anne when I was growing up, so I LOVED reading about her relationship with Logan, the southern heartthrob.
• Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe - As soon as Anne broke her slate over Gilbert’s head in Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery, I was done for. Gilbert is smart and funny and wildly in love with her, even when she does crazy things like almost drown pretending she’s the Lady of Shalott. What was she even thinking considering Roy Gardener?! Gilbert is the ultimate book boyfriend. 
• Peter Pan and Tiger Lily from Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson - If you haven’t read this book yet, seriously stop whatever you’re doing and read it. Oh, and prepare to weep buckets of tears because it’s the best, most bittersweet read and will forever change how you think about Peter Pan. Seriously, forget Wendy, it’s Peter + Tiger Lily forever for me.

Me: I’m a total sucker for love/hate romances. Give me two characters with an antagonistic relationship that slowly fall in love as the series goes on, and I’m completely sold. I’m pretty sure this inclination of mine is due to the first fictional couple I ever ‘shipped,’ i.e. Ron and Hermione from The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. Their bickering, subsequent friendship and eventual falling in love was so incredibly satisfying to me. My adoration of the love/hate relationship trope has been long-lasting, as evidenced by the fact that my latest favourite fictional couple is Adam and Ronan from The Raven Cycle books by Maggie Stiefvater, who have a similar relationship arc across their series.

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!

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!