The Babysitter’s Club BSC Forever : Everything Changes by Ann Martin

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I’m obsessed with The Babysitter’s Club series. When I was a little girl, I thought they were the coolest books ever. I always look for the old books when I’m in a thrift shop. The series has been republished but I like the old books from my childhood. I have a big collection of Babysitters Club books and I hope to collect them all. I haven’t read all of them yet.

The BSC Forever series is a spinoff of The Babysitter’s Club which focuses more on the girls rather than babysitting. This series also concludes The Babysitter’s Club story, with the girls moving on to high school having other interests. This book is a special edition where there are several story lines, told in letter, email and diary format by different characters.

The book is set during summer vacation and the girls don’t babysit in this book. Kristy is at summer camp, Maryanne is at home, Claudia goes to Monhegan island with her family and Stacey goes to New York to spend time with her dad. The other babysitter club members are mentioned but don’t feature much in this book.

I don’t think this special was as good as others in the series. The characters usually are more connected and communicate with each other more. In this book, the characters mostly interact with their closest friends rather than as a whole group.

Kristy

Kristy’s story was mostly told through diary format and letters. I didn’t like the diary format because of the abbreviations. In a diary, Kristy abbreviates her friends names and as A. for Abby, MA for Maryanne. I understand that it makes the diary entries more authentic because diaries entries are meant to be a stream of thoughts. You might shorten things to save time or use code words for secrecy.

Kristy’s storyline was about her dismay about The Babysitters Club falling apart. In the book, several characters want to pull out of The Babysitter’s Club to focus on other interests.

Claudia

The story I did enjoy was Claudia visiting Monhegan island with her family. Monhegan Island is located near Maine. It’s a small little island know for its artists colonies and fishing. I liked reading the descriptions of the island and how Claudia was enjoying hiking, painting, and drawing.

Stacey

Stacey is New York to spend time with her father as her parents are divorced. She’s 13 and dating someone who is 15. The dad doesn’t like the age difference and her father doesn’t want her to spend too much time with him. I thought there would be more fighting about this but Stacey handles it maturely.

Maryanne

Maryanne is living with her family in a temporary place since their house burnt down. Her grandmother comes to stay with the family. Maryanne is also feeling smothered by her boyfriend Logan for trying to support her.  It was a little tedious reading Maryanne’s storyline. Maryanne is a very timid character, and she doesn’t resolve anything by the end of the book.