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The Babysitters club is a book series from the late 80s-2000
about a group of girls who babysit. The books focus on the point of view of one
of the girls per book. There are seven girls in the babysitters club. Kristy is
the leader who is bossy and outgoing, Mary Anne is the shy quiet one, Claudia
is the artist of the group, Stacey is sophisticated and fashionable, Dawn is
the flower child, Jessi is the graceful one and Mallory is an aspiring writer.
Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey and Dawn are thirteen years old while Jessi
and Mallory are eleven. Maybe back in those days, it was fine to have kids
babysit other kids. I imagine children their age would actually have their own
babysitter nowadays.
I have loved this
series since I was a little girl. I am trying to get the whole collection which
will take me some time as there are 131 regular books as well as special
editions and spinoffs. It’s easy to find babysitter books as many of them are
in second hand shops. The books are all numbered but you can start from any book as the first chapter always explains the series. The book that I am reviewing is 73. Currently I have 32 regular books and 18 special edition ones.
I haven’t even read all the ones in my collection either but I am working on
it. There are new editions of this series but I like to get the old ones from
when I was growing up.
In this book, Mary Anne is asked to babysit four year old
Jenny Prezzioso on a regular basis. Jenny is a finicky child who is afraid of getting
dirty. She alienates herself from other kids, after refusing to play with them in
fear of staining her nice clothes. Mary Anne worries about Jenny but doesn’t
want to pry into Jenny’s family life.
There is also a subplot involving Mallory who feels
frustrated in having to babysit her siblings all the time. Her ten year old
triplet brothers feel too old for a babysitter. They form a kickball team with
the other kids in the neighbourhood. It doesn’t work out well for them but they
are too proud to ask for help.
I thought this Babysitters book was alright. It isn’t one of
my favourites from the series. I thought the issue with Jenny wasn’t really
resolved, she just suddenly snapped out of it at the end. The reason for Jenny’s behaviour was to get
attention from her parents. She tried to be the perfect child for them. Her
behaviour is discussed by Mary Anne and Jenny’s parents but they say that are
too busy to give the attention.
As for the subplot, I can sympathize with the triplets as
they are only a year younger than Mallory. Reading about the kickball team reminded
me of my own childhood. While I didn’t play kickball at home, I use to play
cricket with the other kids in the neighborhood. I remember some of the arguments
over getting out or fetching a ball which was featured in this book as well.
Have you read The Babysitters Club before? Who is your favourite
babysitter?
The worst thing about playing baseball with my twin brother Clifford when we were kids was when one of us would lose the ball over the neighbors fence. It was generally thought that the person who lost it was responsible to go get it. A problem arose was when no one was home next door and we had to make the decision to sneak into the yard without permission or just leave the ball there. >.<
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I would argue over who had to get the ball too. Most of the time, my brother Paul would climb over the fence to get it. Other times, he did the sensible thing and asked the neighbour to have permission to enter their yard. Sometimes, we played with other neighbourhood kids and whenever the ball went over the fence someone would jump the fence to get it. There were times when Paul was chased by dogs and he once got a huge splinter in his arm pit from climbing a fence.
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