Babysitter's Club Graphic Novel: Kristy's Great Idea

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.

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 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: 4^th 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

Joey Pigza Loses Control

Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Loses Control. Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2000. Tr. $16.00 ISBN 0-374-39989-1

What’s it about?

Joey Pigza meets his father, who abandoned him when he was in kindergarten, and stays with him for the summer. Joey is eager to please his father, but has Carter really changed?

Find out more: Joey Pigza, who we met in Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, is still wired, but faring much better with his new medication. He and his beloved Chihuahua mix, Pablo, go visit his father for six weeks during the summer. Joey’s dad, Carter, abandoned him several years ago. He struggles with A.D.D., much like Joey, and alcoholism. Carter is bright-eyed with excitement, though, because he has turned his life around. He has a new girlfriend, is coaching a boy’s baseball team, and has a steady job.  Joey, however, notices that his dad talks and talks and talks without allowing response. He drinks one beer, then two (because the first one got lonely), then sneaks the rest of his girlfriend’s beer. This is not a big deal, though; beer is “soda pop for grown-ups.” Joey’s grandmother (the one that raised him, berated him and locked him in a fridge once upon a time) warns Joey that Carter really hasn’t changed.  In fact, Carter goads Joey into throwing out his medication patches, telling him that it is a crutch to take medication.

Joey Pigza Loses Control is bleaker than Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. The alcoholism of Joey’s mother in the first book seemed much more under control than that of Carter.  There are some scarily observant moments from Joey, such as the time that he felt that he was a different Joey with different adults. He feels like taking risks when with this father, whose edgy energy makes Joey feel more wired. There are a lot less laughs in this sequel than in the first book.  Not only is Joey on the edge, but his father is trying to push him over it, insisting that controlling Joey’s ADD is mind over matter. In Joey Pigza Loses Control, Joey is out of control, but the adults in his life help him to stay safe. With the exception of Joey’s grandmother, all the adults had his best interests in mind. In Joey Pigza Loses Control, the real out of control person is Carter, who destabilizes Joey and makes his approval conditional on Joey’s winning pitching record. The chaos Joey experiences is frightening, but more frightening is the knowledge of what his ex-con alcoholic father might be capable of. Recommend this book to fans of gritty realistic fiction. This book is not a stand-alone. Reading the first book is necessary to understand why Joey needs his patches, and the back-story of Joey’s grandmother, mother and father.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Problem Novels

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-9

Subjects: Attention-Deficit Disorder, Parents, Relationships, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Baseball, Father-son relationships

Awards:

Newbery Honor, 2001

ALA Notable Children’s Book, 2001

Read-alikes:

Crawford’s Carter Finally Gets It

Van Draanen’s Swear to Howdy

Characters:

Joey Pigza—the protagonist, who wants to give his father a second chance

Carter—Joey’s father, who makes a re-appearance in Joey’s life, and claims to have turned his life around

Fran—Joey’s mother, who is nervous about leaving Joey with his father

Leezy—Carter’s new girlfriend

Grandma—Joey’s Grandmother, now ill with emphysema, although she persists to smoke.

Series information:

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (1998)

What Would Joey Do? (2002)

I am Not Joey Pigza (2007)

So Totally Emily Ebers

Yee, Lisa. So Totally Emily Ebers. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. Tr. $16.99 ISBN 978-0-439-83847-4

What’s it about?

Emily Ebers has just moved to Rancho Rosetta because of her parent’s divorce and meets a girl named Millicent Min on her volleyball team and a handsome basketball player named Stanford Wong.  These three lives intersect in hilarious and unexpected ways.  

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Emily Ebers’ parents recently divorced, and now Emily’s mom has moved her all the way to Rancho Rosetta California. Emily begins writing letters to her father, who is on tour with his band, the Talky Boys, updating him on her new life without him. She is having an interesting summer, including joining a volleyball team and making a new friend, meeting a cute boy that she develops a crush on, and seeing her controlled mom try on a new identity as a free-spirited hippie.  When Emily discovers that many people in her life are not what they appear to be, she is disillusioned. She learns to weather the tough times and to repair the relationships that matter.

This is largely a humorous tale, although there are plenty of more serious moments that occur when Emily realizes some people, including her father, are not being honest with her.  Emily’s disillusionment with her father, Millicent, and her frenemies is something a lot of tweens can relate to. Although this is painful for Emily, she comes out of these struggles stronger. She learns to discern between quality people and people that don’t genuinely care about her. Although she is initially flattered by the attention Julie, the queen bee in volleyball, is giving her, she realizes she is being used and ridiculed and stands up for herself. Emily is such a good-natured character that her anger (though justified!) is surprising. This book can be read as a stand-alone, although readers of Millicent Min, Girl Genius and/or Stanford Wong Flunks Out will gobble up this book, and readers who have started off with So Totally Emily Ebers will be eager to read about these events from the perspectives of Millicent and Stanford.  

Genre: Contemporary Realistic fiction, Humor, Friendship Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 5-7

Awards: Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Awards Nominee, 2010

Read-alikes:

Danziger & Martin’s P.S. Longer Letter Later

Blume’s Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself

Cabot’s Ally Finkle’s Rules for Girl series

Subject: Friendship, family relationships, divorce, popularity

Characters:

Emily: Effervescent protagonist, struggling to accept her parent’s divorce and adjusting to her new life in Rancho Rosetta, CA

Millicent: Emily’ new best friend, a funny girl being tutored by the brilliant Stanford Wong (or is she?)

Stanford: A handsome basketball player, the object of Emily’s affections, Millicent’s tutor (or is he?)

Alice Ebers: Emily’s mother, a journalist, hit hard by the divorce

Julie: A mean girl clique leader who wants to make-over Emily in her image 

David Ebers: Emily’s absentee father, on tour with the Talky Boys (or is he?)

Series information:

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

Stanford Wong Flunks Out