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OMG--The Baby-Sitters Club is Back!

When I was, um, slightly younger, I devoured every Baby-Sitters Club book (or BSC to those of us in the know) I could get my mitts on. And not to totally geek out on ya, but my BFF would bring HER books to my house and we’d swap the ones we hadn’t read. In a word? Obsessed.
 
Fast-forward a few years and writer Ann M. Martin just wrote a brand-new prequel to the series. Plus, she’s re-releasing some of the classics so you girlies can get in on the sitting action. Squeal!
 
The Summer Before opens up on the last day of sixth grade, just a few weeks before Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey become the first members of the BSC. Vacay’s supposed to be laid-back, but change is in the air for these girlies—big time.
 
On one side of Bradford Court, Kristy’s dealing with the fact that her mom is dating and her real dad is MIA. Her neighbor and BFF Mary Anne is trying to convince an overprotective father to let her babysit for the first time.

Across the street, Claudia’s feeling like she’s outgrown her besties and is trying to plan her first boy-girl bday party (but, OMG, will Kristy and Mary Anne fit in or freak out?).

Up in NYC, Stacey’s helping her fam fit their belongings into boxes and getting ready to move to Stoneybrook (where, yep, she’ll meet the whole crew).
 
Even though The Summer Before is an easy-breezy read, the characters are totally relatable and the action is way believable. Who hasn’t felt a friendship ice over slightly or—eek!—wished more than anything that a sitch would turn out one way, only to be slapped by reality. Ugh, been there. The book is a li’l slow but by the end, the girls are back to being biffles and are on the brink of becoming the best-ever bunch of sitters Connecticut has ever seen.

And as for me? I was grinning ear-to-ear at the thought of cracking the first book in the series for the millionth time. Excuse me while I thunder up the stairs and flop on my bed—Kristy’s Great Idea is waiting for me!

Are you a Baby-Sitters Club follower? Which character do you relate to most? Blog about it, bookworms.

By: Katie Abbondanza (who was totally a Kristy, BTW)
4/13/2010 12:52:00 PM
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