Telgemeier, Raina. The Baby Sitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea. Graphix, 2006. Paperback $8.99 ISBN-10 0-439-73933-0
What’s it about?
Kristy Thomas and her friends are baby-sitting pros. Kristy gets an idea that will increase their business—forming a Baby-Sitters Club, where parents need to place just one call to find a group of experienced babysitters.
Find out more:
This graphic novel adaptation of the first Baby-sitter’s Club book (BSC) in the popular, long-lived series which began in the late eighties, is not just about babysitting. Babysitting is the backdrop of the lives of four girls, Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey, each with their own private dramas, like divorce, the death of a parent, diabetes, crushes, sibling rivalry and family pressure. This story centers around Kristy’s experiences, with the central drama being her parent’s divorce. Kristy is vehemently opposed to her mother remarrying, and initially refuses to have anything to do with her mother’s fiancé, Watson, and his children Karen and Andrew. When Mary Ann babysits for them (because Kristy won’t), she writes in a Baby-sitter’s Club log that the kids are cute, and that Kristy would like them if she gave them a chance. Eventually, Kristy warms up to the idea of her mother remarrying. Another sub-plot in this graphic novel is the friendship between the four girls, which becomes strained when some girls feel that the jobs aren’t being evenly distributed.
All told, this is a very tween-friendly graphic novel that portrays a group of pre-teen friends starting their own business. The story-telling is light-hearted and humorous, and the darker elements aren’t heavy-handed. The girls’ response to Stacey’s diabetes is relief that she is not anorexic, a somewhat puzzling reaction, since both are serious and potentially life-threatening conditions. What carries these girls through their struggles, including jealousy and resentment, is the high value place on their friendship. Friendship is a central theme of this graphic novel, as well as the series it is based upon. This is a positive, upbeat book, and while some of the heavier elements are wrapped up a little too neatly in an after-school special sort of manner, the deft, appealing artwork and the fast-paced, readable dialog makes this an enjoyable read for tween girls.
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Friendship Fiction, Humor
Reading level: 4th grade
Interest level: Grades 3-6
Read-alikes:
McDonald’s The Sisters Club
Myracle’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen
Naylor’s Alice series
Subjects: Friendship, Family, Divorce, Baby-sitting, Tween girls, Entrepreners
Series information:
The Baby-Sitters Club: The Truth About Stacy (BSC Graphix, 2006)
The Baby-Sitters Club: Mary Anne Saves The Day (BSC Graphix, 2007)
The Baby-Sitters Club: Claudia and Mean Janine (BSC Graphix, 2008)
Characters:
Kristy—tomboyish, impulsive mastermind of the Baby-Sitter’s Club
Claudia—creative and fun-loving, with a phone in her room and a Grammar-Nazi sister
Mary Anne—shy and studious, and being raised by her strict single father
Stacey—new to Stonybrook, a friendly girl recently diagnosed with diabetes
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