The Babysitters’ Club

I am just assuming that we all read – or were at least aware of – The Babysitters’ Club.  So really the only question is ‘who was your favourite?’.

It was a funny thing, I read all of the books avidly when I was about 11 and wracked my brains for a club that I could start, which would follow a similar format (fun meetings with my friends, a dedicated phone line like Kristy’s, making money, distributing flyers around the local area and being known as an interesting young entrepreneur) – despite having little to zero interest in actual babysitting.  The babysitting bit I could totally live without.  I don’t think I ever came up with a viable alternative.  Yet still I was totally obsessed with the books, buying them by the batch with my pocket money and then reading them in one sitting.

I wonder if you can guess who my favourite babysitter was?  Spoiler: it was Claudia Kishi.  I mean, she was awesome!  She had multiple ear piercings (which I was desperate to have).  There were itemised descriptions of her ‘crazy’ fashion sense and homemade outfits – much like mine, only mine were far less successful.  She was Japanese-American (exotic) and apparently had ‘long black hair and perfect skin’.  She was clearly the best one.

The first book I read in the series was actually the second – Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls.  I have no recollection of the plot, beyond the fact I thought it was totally rad.  My favourites were all Claudia stories – Claudia and the New Girl was particularly good, in which she became best friends with Ashley, an arty chick who was way cooler than the other babysitters (drama ensued); and Claudia and The Sad Goodbye, in which her lovely grandmother Mimi died, had me verging on hysteria.

I must admit that I found Kristy and Mary-Anne pretty boring.  (It was a bit like the ‘who’s your favourite Spice Girl?’ thing – it would always be the one most like you [ahem, Geri].)  I didn’t have much in common with Kristy (bossy tomboy) or Mary-Anne (shy good girl).  My second favourite was Stacey McGill – Claudia’s best friend, a cool blonde maths genius originally from New York.  I suppose that makes Dawn my third-favourite, which sounds about right.  Some of the Stacey books were also among my favourites – Boy Crazy Stacey, set on holiday in New Jersey, was one of the best, if memory serves; and the one where they go and visit her in New York was amazing.

The New York one may have been a ‘super bumper special’ or whatever they were called.  They were great – epic-length adventures featuring all the gang in improbable situations or on holidays.  These definitely involved such scenarios as: going on a cruise, going to Disneyland, getting stranded on a remote island, winning the lottery, getting snowed in.  You know the kinda thing.

There were definitely elements that would be different today.  I seem to remember that Stacey’s diabetes was treated as a massive drama, as if she might go into a hyperglycaemic coma at any moment – not a brilliant message.  Plus, there’s the fact that they were… a bit rubbish.

Anyway, even better – when Googling the BSC for reminders, I found this brilliant, brilliant article:

http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/the-baby-sitters-club-where-are-they-now

Now I’m off to see if you can get the BSC books on Kindle…