A-Z Challenge: B is for Baby-Sitter

The Baby-Sitters Club.  My favorite series growing up.  I read them all the time.  I re-read them.  I saw the movie.  I was in love with the series--the regular series,  Super Specials, Mysteries, Super Mysteries, Portrait Collection, Special Edition, Friends Forever, and the spin-offs: Little Sister and Kids in Ms. Coleman's Class.  Now, I have not read California Diaries, but I am hoping to find some used copies as I am looking for used copies of the books in the BSC that I am missing.  Yeah, unfortunately, my series is incomplete.  I have not read the final book where they graduate.  They graduate the 8th grade.  I need to get on the ball and search those used bookstores.  They have re-released the books in new editions, but I want the old ones not the new ones.  I have not checked out the graphic novels based on the series, but maybe I will.  I don't know.

I read my first BSC book when I was in second grade (1989).  It was #13 Goodbye, Stacey, Goodbye which is about Stacey's dad getting transferred back to New York City.  I was hooked after reading that book.  It didn't just get me into the BSC. It got me into reading. I was a reader before, but now I was reading chapter books.

I don't think I have a favorite baby-sitter.  Depending upon my mood, I will choose a different girl--Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, Mary-Anne, Jessi, or Mal.  Shannon, Logan, and Abby have never really been a favorite of mine, not to say I dislike them, because I don't!  I do find I relate to both Mallory (especially when I had braces) and Mary-Anne the most.  I don't have a favorite sitting charge.

Ten Facts About the Baby-Sitters Club:

• First book, Kristy's Great Idea, was published in 1986. 
• Last book, Friends Forever Super Special #2: Graduation Day was published in 2000. 
• Including BiTs (Baby-Sitters in Training) and failed BSC members there have been 17 babysitters.  This does not include Abby's sister, Anna, who declined to join.  It does include the two Baby-Sitter Agency sitters who pranked the girls by pretending to be members.
• Stoneybrook is a fictitious town in Connecticut created by Ann M. Martin.  The nearest city, Stamford, is real.
• 1990, TV show was filmed.  It has aired on Disney, Nickelodeon (according to Wikipedia, but this I do not remember), and HBO.  Danny Tamborelli of Pete and Pete and All That fame starred as The Walking Disaster, Jackie Rodowsky.
• 1995, The Baby-Sitters Club movie was released with Schuyler Fisk as Kristy Thomas; Rachel Leigh Cook as Mary-Anne Spier; Bre Blair as Stacey McGill, Larisa Oleynik as Dawn Schafer; Christian Oliver as Luca, a 17-year-old boy 13-year-old Stacey has a crush on; Ellen Burstyn as Mrs. Habersham, Mary-Anne and Dawn's next door neighbor; Austin O'Brien as Logan Bruno; Marla Sokoloff as Cokie Mason; Bruce Davison as Watson Brewer; Kyla Pratt as Becca Ramsey; and Scarlett Pomers as Suzi Barrett.
• Not including the spinoffs there are 218 titles in the complete series.
• Three spin-offs: Little Sister about Kristy's stepsister, Karen Brewer; Kids in Ms. Coleman's Class actually a spin-off of Little Sister about the kids in Karen's second grade class; and California Diaries stories about Dawn's friends in California.
• Prequel: The Summer Before was published in 2010.  This is one month before the series was re-released with a new cover for a new audience. 
• All the handwriting in the novels was created by one person in Scholastic's art department!

For a complete list of books (which I could post here, but it would be way too long) check out Wikipedia: List of the Baby-Sitters Club novels or Scholastic: The Baby-Sitters Club.

For more information on the series check out:

Wikipedia: The Baby-Sitters Club

Scholastic: Ann M. Martin: FAQ: BSC

Scholastic: Ann M. Martin: The Baby-Sitters Club

Scholastic: The Baby-Sitters Club

Facebook: The Baby-Sitters Club