the baby-sitters club. ann m. martin (174-176)

when packing up to move to my mom's apartment, i came across my claudia doll.  she was my favorite baby-sitter so my grandma bea bought her for me.

seriously she was the coolest! also i would totally wear that outfit nowadays!  (granted the 90's are back in style.

finding claudia inspired me to reread the first of the baby-sitters club series, kristy's great idea.  i had heard that the books underwent an update (ie they got cellphones) so i decided to pick up a newer version of it too.  i also decided to read the new graphic novel version.  one day while subbing, one of the students checked out claudia and the mean janine, and i made a mental note to try to check it out.  since they are short novels, i decided to read all three in one day so i could compare and contrast.

the original

what can i say, i fell in love all over again!! i want to reread the entire series now!  it really is great for tweens because it covers so many issues that tweens encounter:  overprotective parents, diabetes, having a smarter sibling, dealing with divorced parents (and having them date of remarrying), having friends that mature faster, having to deal with boy-crazy friends, having a parent pass away at a young age, having an absent father (and this is all in the first book!).  i also appreciated how the ending, demonstrated the importance of apologizing and that a good friend knows when to admit they are wrong. 

girls can also identify with at least one of the sitters: the outspoken, althetic girls can relate to kristy; the pony-tailed shy ones with mary ann, the artsy bad-spelling non-mathematicians with claudia, and the diabetic boy-crazy ex-new yorkers with stacey.  i loved (and still do) claudia as mentioned before, and i rereading infell in love with her fashion!  i really want to recreate her outfits!  i think i might dress up in her checkered yellow and black top with black pants, red jazz shoes, a bracelet made from a phone chord and skeleton earrings outfit!!! (so cute right!)

also the whole idea of a baby-sitters club is pretty brilliant.  one call and how many sitters! that sitter notebook was pretty clever as an actual tool for the baby-sitters and as a device for martin to introduce their baby-sitting adventures. 

if you loved the baby-sitter's club as a kid, you should really reread them.  for me, it was a fun little trip back in time.  

(oh i have to add, oddly enough when i read the book, i totally imagined it as the tv show, even kristy's narration was heard in that actress' voice.)

the updated version

okay so the this book wasn't updated, though it had a new cover.  i was super disappointed.  maybe the cellphones come later? i was glad that they kept the sitter's (read: claudia's) fashion the same.  the only thing i noticed was that the flyer was updated:

original-

updated-

it is safer that they don't have their numbers on flyers.  too many scary, creepy pedophiles in the world to list numbers.  i am happy for this safety update.

and quick digression about the logo.  i am glad they changed the logo, cause lets be honest, did claudia really have enough time to make that letter block logo during lunch?!?!  to be completely honest (and realistic) the graphic novel had the best logo in terms of believability:

(love that the girls got crafty with the pull offs!)

and before i move onto the graphic novel, one last thing, i thought they would have changed kristy giving watson that kiss on fondue night.  that was just awkward and creepy.  i knew my mom's boyfriend (later husband) for most of my life and never ever kissed his cheek.

the graphic novel

the graphic novel was done by raina telgemeier and her illustrations were great!!!

my favorite had to be this one of claudia baby-sitting jamie and his cousins:

quick note in the og, jaime's cousin, rob, pretends to shoot claudia dead with a gun.  since the graphic novel is post columbine, rob ninja chops her instead.  (and i forgot to mention in the original section that i loved that claudia read them where the wild things are.)

i will say that the graphic novel did disappoint me in three ways.  one, it did not capture all of claudia's great outfits for example the earrings were dangling skeletons not skulls and her red hat from the day of the flyer was not depicted.  second, i wish that kristy had on a snowman sweater that claudia made fun off, oh and that claudia said sheep were in when kristy made fun of her hairclips.  and third, in my head, watson was not so dorky, but a handsome divorcé.  

however, still a great work and a great way to attract a younger generation to a great series.  also a great way for an older generation to relieve their youth.

i had a great sunday reading these books and will definitely start reading a baby-sitters club book once a month!