As a 30-something woman who grew up in middle class America, it should come as no surprise that my favorite books growing up were The Baby-sitters Club books. I read them in elementary school and I made it until the point when Abby was introduced and I was like “I just don’t know you anymore, Baby-sitters Club” and I happily moved on to California Diaries. Plus, in California Diaries, there were super dramatic issues like eating disorders and abusive relationships, and since I loved drama as a tween, I was all about it.
Anyway, like many sane people, I listen to and love the podcast The Babysitters-Club Club, and it inspired me to dig up some of my old BSC books and re-read them along with the show. I didn’t have them all in sequential order anymore (I think my mom donated them to the library, which has instilled a bitterness in me that will never dissipate), but still had a few essentials and I may have secretly ordered a few (original covers only!) on Amazon to fill in some gaps. And, after re-reading about ten last year and a few more in 2017, I was so happy that they held up! Sure, there are some cringe-worthy descriptions that would hopefully not fly in contemporary YA and middle grade, like describing the only Asian character as “exotic”. Also the casual racism in Stoneybrook, CT that Jessi Ramsay and her family encounter is horrifying, and Mallory's little sister Claire has apparently only seen African-American people when they come to clean her house which is...unsettling, to say the least.
Although, the Ann M. Martin-penned books were written during a time when pop culture representation of African-Americans and Asian-Americans was really terrible (Long Duk Dong, anyone?), so I think the goal was to expose kids to some more positive representations of POC that were their age. Maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part because I hold these books in such high regard, so despite those missteps and the horrifying outfits that the girls wear and describe in minute detail, the BSC books are still extremely entertaining, well-written, and memorable. I was surprised when I remembered the names of random pets that the girls or their charges own, or that I distinctly remembered specific passages and was transported to being in fourth grade and reading those same lines and connecting with them. So far, I’ve re-read books between book #4 Mary Anne Saves the Day and book #14 Hello, Mallory, then jumped ahead to book #29 Mallory and the Missing Diary because my other childhood books in between were missing. Below, a few impressions of the BSC members 20 years later in no particular order. Note: if you’ve never read these books, I’m sorry because I don’t explain who any of these characters are because how dare you.
