In April, Scholastic, Inc. will "reissue repackaged and slightly revised versions of the first two volumes" in The Baby-Sitters Club series, more than 20 years after their original publication, The New York Times reported on Dec. 30. Scholastic also plans to release "The Summer Before," a new prequel by original BSC author Ann M. Martin, The Times also reported.
To be sure, BSC was never one of my favorite childhood franchises. But having grown up during its glory days (when phrases such as "oh my God Claudia and Stacey aren't speaking, and Mary Anne has a date to the spring fling!" constituted pre-teen jargon), I was somewhat aghast when I heard the news. The announcement gave me an opportunity to reflect on my own relationship with the series.
On first glance, the covers of the more than 100 installments of The Baby-Sitters Club series appear similar to other mainstream children's literature excepting the club members' super-hip '90s getups and unfortunate hairstyles, of course. While ostensibly trivial, it is these era-specific elements that set club members Kristy, Claudia, Stacey and Mary Anne (and later Mallory, Jessi, Abby and Dawn) apart from the timeless Boxcar Children or Narnia gang, and allowed the books to attract a cult-like albeit short-lived following.
In elementary school, I was always disturbed by the eerie power the series seemed to exert over my friends. Eyes wide and glazed, voice hushed in respect, my best childhood friend first offered me one of the novels like an addict recommending a drug. I can still recall her trance-like demeanor as she reverently removed her favorite novel of the series from its cherished position on her bookshelf: "These books are really good," she said. "You should try them."
Quite frankly, I was frightened at that moment. Even though I never became a die-hard fan, my enamored friend was far from alone. Throughout the '90s, preteen girls devoured the BSC series with an enthusiasm bordering on obsession. Martin had crafted the perfect combination of snappy dialogue, relationship drama, fashion know-how and utterly cheesy narrative, and girls everywhere were hooked. The original series which itself includes an impressive 131 titles spawned a TV show, movie, three spinoff collections (also penned by Martin) and even a series of graphic novels, for a grand total of 213 titles.
With so many titles already in existence, I wondered what further light another novel could possibly shed on the hackneyed subjects of junior high drama and teenage crushes. Really, Ann Martin really? The most controversial issue broached in the series and its spinoffs was diabetes, a disease that Stacey struggled to hide from her classmates because it made her wet the bed once. Judging from "Mallory Hates Boys (and Gym)" (1992) to "Stacey and the Bad Girls" (1995), it seemed to me as if Martin had fully mined the caverns of superficial middle school angst.
That, however, was before I tried to find a copy of a BSC book. If this article has inspired you to rekindle your relationship with the series, don't get too excited if you're not an official resident of Lebanon, N.H., then you're probably out of luck.
The books are out of print, and both the Dartmouth College Bookstore and Left Bank Books are out of stock. Nor does the Howe Library carry any BSC titles. The Lebanon Public Library has been hoarding several copies (and even one of the highly entertaining graphic novels), but I'll be darned if their frosty librarians will let you get your hands on one. If you want to check one out, you'll have to follow proper procedure and wait several days for the book to be delivered to the Howe Library hardly a timely way to satisfy your BSC fix.
So it was while sitting in an awkwardly tiny chair in the children's section of the Lebanon Public Library attempting to get through "The Truth about Stacey" in the twenty minutes before closing time, when the librarians would toss me to the shifty, below-freezing Lebanon streets that I decided a BSC revival is indeed in order.
Despite its obvious flaws, "The Truth about Stacey" is fun; I may have looked utterly ridiculous doing it, but reading that book was honestly the highlight of my week. Don't judge.
A guilty pleasure this satisfying and innocent simply should not be so elusive. The new edition of the first two BSC books will update their anachronistic elements (such as references to cassette players and perms), according to the Times. Many mothers, the Times reported, are excited for the new, more relevant series because it will provide more appropriate reading material for their daughters than is currently available.
As a recent BSC convert, I can only hope that these changes will indeed win over some tween Twi-hards and "Gossip Girl" followers. In an age where these sordid tales are standard fifth grade reading material (which I have learned on authority from my 10-year-old sister), perhaps a revival of the BSC fad will provide healthier, though admittedly trivial, literary enjoyment for the modern pre-teen girl.
