May 2010
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The Baby-Sitters Club's New Cult →
For a children’s series that’s been out of print for a decade, The Baby-Sitters Club has an enormous, wildly devoted fan base. It just happens to consist of 20- and 30-year-olds.
So in December, when Scholastic, the publisher, announced that the author Ann Martin had signed on to re-launch the series—which primarily follow the baby-sitting adventures of seven 13-year-old girls—these diehards,...
April 2010
7 posts
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You Know Your Friends are Always There: Comixology →
It’s difficult to estimate how large a role Raina Telgemeier’s graphic-novel adaptations of four books in the series (2006-2009) played in this decision. They were well-received critically, and according to a librarian quoted in the aforementioned article, popular with beginner readers. Telgemeier’s b&w, 9” X 6” gns, at the very least, tested the waters. In a...
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'The Baby-sitter's Club' Grows Up. Do Tweens... →
I always wanted to be Stacey from the Baby-sitters Club. Kristy was too bossy. I knew I wasn’t cool enough to be artistic, funky, junk-food loving, pre-hipster Claudia. But Stacey I could aspire to. Stylish and sophisticated, the treasurer of the Baby-sitters Club dated high school boys, was good at math, grew up in New York City, AND had the fabulous luck of being an only sibling. Stacey...
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Say Hello to Your Friends -- The Baby-Sitters Club... →
There’s really only one thing that gets ladies of our generation more nostalgic than Jesse Spano’s caffeine pill addiction: the Baby-Sitters Club. Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey guided us through adolescence. They taught us that it’s OK to have diabetes. Or a deadbeat dad who ran out on your family. Or a single father who’swaaay overprotective. Or even to wear two...
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Baby-Sitters Club returns with a prequel and... →
Kristy may have had the “Great Idea,” but she was kind of bossy, right? And Stacey was all “sophisticated,” but sometimes her popularity was scary, like she was going to abandon the club again for her cool friends in New York, which Mary Anne or Mallory — say what you will about them — never, ever would have done.
We are speaking, of course, of “The...
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Ann M. Martin on the ‘Baby-Sitter’s Club’ Prequel... →
In 1986, author Ann M. Martin introduced readers to a girl named Kristy Thomas and her Great Idea. Originally meant as finite series, The Baby-Sitter’s Club became a middle-grade publishing phenomenon, running from 1986 to 2000, and inspired several spin-offs, a movie and a short-lived television series–not to mention numerous real-life counterparts.
Women who grew up reading the books can still...
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A night with the creator of the Baby-Sitters Club,... →
It’s not often that you get to encounter someone famous that you admired growing up, which is why it was such an honor for me to meet Ann M. Martin, author of the Baby-Sitters Club series, last night.
The Baby-Sitters Club was created 25 years ago, and spawned several spin-offs and sold millions of copies worldwide. The books were about friendship, growing up, and – of course – baby-sitting....
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An Open Letter to Ann M. Martin: Jezebel →
Dear Ms. Martin,
It has come to my attention that you recently admitted that you have no “strong feelings” about my future. Well thank effing Christmas crackers, because you didn’t do me any favors in the past!
For years I’ve waited for the opportunity to give you a piece of my mind, but I had to go through a decade of intensive therapy before I could even get my mind...