Customer Reviews

The Baby-Sitters Club: The Summer Before

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was beyond thrilled to hear that Ann M. Martin was writing a prequel to the BSC. I've been a fan of the books since I was 7 years old - more than 20 years now. The book is set the summer before the BSC begins (if that isn't obvious from the title) and stars Mary Anne, Claudia, Kristy, and Stacy, with a cameo from Mallory. We see a lot of our favorite baby-sitting charges too.

Although this book is written for tweens, I think adults will relate to it best - especially those of us who have "known" the BSC girls for years. All four of the girls are struggling. It really is a difficult summer - that awkward time when you're no longer a little child, but you're not even a full teenager yet. Mary Anne is feeling tied down by her strict father and trying to learn everything she can about her deceased mother. Kristy is devastated that her father is completely absent and resents Watson's intrusion. Claudia is ready to grow-up and clashes with her still childish friends - she gets her first boyfriend and learns that's not always as great as it seems. Stacy is about to move away from NYC, has no friends, and still getting used to being diabetic. I felt sad throughout a lot of the book - relating to the girls now more as a parent than as a friend - you just want to give them a hug and try to ease the growing-up process. This interesting but difficult summer makes the Baby-Sitter's Club seem even more important than before - it gave 4 girls a place of friendship, happiness, and stability.

Ann M. Martin's writing has definitely improved over the years. She'll never be one of the more skilled writers in children's literature, but I can see clear growth between this book and her early books. The sentence structure and language are more varied, although the formulaic nature of the series was somewhat unavoidable in such a large product. She still does have a thing for parentheses, which always amused me.

I wish we could see the BSC girls all grown up, but this is a fabulous addition to the BSC canon.

I was so excited when I heard that a prequel was being written. I read every single BSC book growing up and have gotten my nieces hooked on them too. Ann M. Martin has written a wonderful beginning to this wonderful series. I was instantly transformed back to Stonybrook and into the lives of its residents. I noticed a few continuity issues but that was just because I am a somewhat obsessed fan of this series. I doubt most normal readers would even notice.
This book had a lot of very emotional chapters which I'm thinking may be lost on the age of the readers the book was designed for. Overall, this is a wonderful book for all of us old friends as well as a great introduction for new fans.

I've been reading the Baby-Sitter's Club series since I was 7 (going on 17 years now) and am still a HUGE fan of the series. I feel like the girls of the BSC are my best friends. I pre-ordered this book and could not put it down. It's about the summer before seventh grade for Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi and Stacey McGill. Kristy secretly wishes for her father to come back, hoping he will surprise her for her 12th birthday. Mary Anne, still in pigtails and little girls clothes, must deal with her super strict father and convince him that she's old enough to baby-sit, Claudia falls for her sister Claudia's friend Frank at her 12th birthday party (and her first boy/girl party), and Stacey is dealing with the losing her best friend Laine whom she grew up with but got into a fight with when she found out she got diabetes and now Stacey's family is moving to Stoneybrooke for a fresh start. Kristy, Mary Anne and Claudia grew up on Bradford Court but started growing apart in 6th grade and are coming to terms with the friendship this summer, but all things turn out great at the end, as they form a club, and Stacey is invited into this club and gets her fresh start. It's a summer of learning and growing and friendship....and watching for those shooting stars.

Gosh I love this series. This book is a prequel, it takes place before the first book. Kristy misses her dad who is absentee, Claudia falls for an older boy, Mary Anne's dad is just too darn strict, and Stacey is about to move from NY. This book was very well written and serves as the perfect prequel. Now, all we need is a BSC Flashfoward! LOVE IT

I was a huge BSC/Ann M. Martin fan back in the day - and OK, I admit it, I still read the books today, when I just want to read something fun and lighthearted. There was something "magical" about the characters - obviously, as an almost-30-year-old (me) still reads them and I know I'm not alone!
This was a great tribute to the series, and a nice way to remember my childhood.
That being said - and I enjoyed this book, believe me - it's not my favorite book of the series. I don't think I could read it over and over as I can with, say, #91 or #77. (I can picture the titles and the book covers of those, mind you.) Yes the BSC spirit was captured and preserved in this book, but the story wasn't up to par with the others. I know a lot of those were ghost written, perhaps that's why.
Overall it's a great book for those of us who grew up with these girls. But if you're new to the series, I'd stick with the originals first.

I first discovered this series in the late 80's, when I was a kid.
When I ended junior high, I quit reading this series. In my late 20's, I found a copy of a BSC book (the Truth about Stacey) at Goodwill, bought it, reread it, and fell in love with the series all over again. I then bought every single book in the series, including the mysteries, specials, and super specials. Even the board games! When I found out that she had written another book, I ordered it right away. It's like coming home! I love this series.
Ms. Martin, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE write another book. I want to know what happened to Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey in the future!!!! If you can do a prequel you can do a sequel!

Obviously we're not talking literary classic here, but I'm 32 and read the first 60 or so BSC books when I was in 5th and 6th grade. It was really fun to revisit the series and remember those times. The characters are like old friends. There are no big surprises here; it's loyal to the characters and the tone of the series. I remember when I was an adolescent thinking that Ann M. Martin was very tuned in to my frame of mind, and I think kids that age benefit from reading her books, because the characters are all at once role models of responsible and well adjusted kids, but they're also fallible and relatable. It's also nice to hear from an adult author who understands your adolescent struggles.

I grew up with the BSC back in the late 1980s. I was thrilled to see this new book as I was sad when Martin decided to retire the series about 10 years ago, even though I had sorta outgrown the series. I really love early BSC about the first books in the series. I feel like the first few books were the best. So good to see a new book. My fave character is Stacey, I have always felt like she was my alter-ego! However I feel her story in the book was ended too abruptly. I wish she had beat the living daylights out of mean, cruel Laine and Allison! I could not believe they treated her like that in her own house or that her parents didn't believe Stacey was telling the truth when she tried to tell them Laine spilt Coke on her on purpose. My mom always believed me. This really riled me that she didn't get back at those jerks.
Also I wish she had included Dawn in the story. It would have been interesting to read about Dawn's summer before she moves to Connecticut from California. Otherwise I say this book rocks--one of the best.

When I found out that this prequel had recently been published, I got really excited to find it and read it, even though it had been at least 15 years since I'd read a BSC book (I think I stopped reading somewhere in the 30s, maybe early 40s). It had been so long that I'd totally forgotten the names of a lot of the characters, bur reading the prequel really started jogging my memory (though I still didn't remember the names of any of the sitting charges except the Pikes!), and it was a fun, if fluffy, stroll down memory lane.

Set during the summer before the four original baby-sitters began junior high, the book takes the form of a super-special, where each girl narrates her own chapter, though unlike a super-special, their storylines don't always intersect. Stacey's storyline in particular is separate from the others,' since she's in New York City for most of the book and doesn't even meet them till near the end. Each girl is dealing with growing up, entering a new phase of life, and having old friendships tested. Kristy, far from the bossy, controlling, overbearing character she would become as the series wore on, is just a typical twelve year old kid here, a girl who misses her father, who hopes he'll change his mind and come back to the family. She holds out hope that he'll call or visit, or at least send a present or letter, for her birthday, and resents her mother's relationship with Watson Brewer. Yes, she is a real brat to him in this book and the original first book of the series, but can you really blame her given how her dad walked out on the family, Watson is a much better dad to his own kids, and her mother's relationship with him is proceeding at lightning speed? Most kids that age aren't thrilled that a parent is dating again and that a new man is trying to take the place of their father, and Mrs. Thomas apparently introduced him to her kids almost immediately instead of waiting until things were more long-term.

Mary Anne has to deal with her overprotective and strict father, who won't even let her babysit by herself and who still makes her wear her hair in braids, dress like a little girl, and keep her room decorated like that of a three year old's. She's also trying to find out things about her late mother by going through a box of her belongings in the attic, and she can't ask her dad for help because he never talks about Mary Anne's mother. Claudia feels she's growing up a lot faster than her two best friends (the relationship in this book contradicts the one established in the original series, where Claudia was never that close to them until after the club started), as she's started discovering makeup, boys, and the cool girls at school. At her twelfth birthday party, her first boy-girl party at a neighbors' house (nice neighbors that they'd clear out of their own house to let a bunch of preteens have a party there!), she gets a crush on Frankie, an incoming high school freshman who was actually a guest of her sister Janine. The two of them have a relationship of sorts over the summer, though it only consists of hanging out together, without a physical component. Stacey meanwhile is preparing to move from NYC to Stoneybrook, and part of her is glad to leave, because it means leaving behind her horrible ex-best friend Laine. She's also still getting used to having juvenile diabetes.

The book concludes with an abridged version of the beginning of 'Kristy's Great Idea,' and there's some sappy stuff about how the three original friends are going to always be close even though they might not all be at exactly the same place in terms of interests and maturity. It was overall a cute book and a very quick read, and it got me inspired to reread the entire original series (not the rewritten versions with generic cover art and all references to Eighties technology and fads replaced with modern lingo). Hopefully it will get a new generation of readers interested in the series, as well as appealing to the original generation of fans who are now at the age where we can look back on the books with sentimentality instead of only embarrassment.

Like many others, I was a huge fan of all the Baby-Sitters Club books when I was younger. I read them from the time I was about 7 or 8 years old through my middle school years. I always wished the author would have let them "grow up" so fans would be able to follow them through their high school years - but they never managed to make their way out of Stoneybrook Middle School.

I was really excited when I found out Ann M. Martin had written a new book - a prequel to the original series - and found myself running to the library to get my hands on it. In all seriousness - I literally read the whole book in an hour, and I will admit in the beginning, it was hard to get back into. Eventually I was able to tap into my 12-year-old mentality and was rewarded with a very nostalgic trip down memory lane!

Long time fans (adults now surely) will enjoy taking this trip back as I did. The book isn't perfect - there are several inconsistancies with the series that may stick out to you; but regardless, it was a welcome reprieve to be able to think back to my youth and just enjoy the story. It's hard to pinpoint the time frame in which the girls grew up since the series spanned through the 80s and 90s and seldom had any pop culture references (although I remember a mention of a Jason Priestly poster in one of the later books in the series). This one is no exception - it's hard to place the time period - and judging their clothing descriptions doesn't seem to help either, so I guess that will just have to remain a mystery.

The one thing noticeably missing from this book were the hand-written entries that started many of the chapters throughout the series. There is only one small hand-written section where Kristy makes a list. I was looking forward to seeing that again, but it was left out.

All in all - a short, quick, fluffy read that should satisfy long-time fans of the series who are now grown up, or younger readers who are now discovering this great series that went out of print a decade ago.