The Baby-Sitters Club is run by four girls, The President is Kristy Thomas, The Vice President is Claudia Kishi, Mary-Ann Speier is the Secretary and Stacy McGill is the Treasurer. They are not only the officers, but work together to ensure that the parents who need someone to baby-sit their children have someone to come over when needed.
Together, they have been pretty successful, but now rough waters are ahead for the club. First, Stacey has Diabetes, and her parents aren't satisfied with the job her doctor is doing for her, so they are making an appointment with a Doctor from New York City over the Christmas Holiday. But Stacey doesn't want to go. She's been to so many Doctors from so many different places that she feels pulled in a thousand different directions. In fact, going to another Doctor brings back bad memories of how she found out about her Diabetes, and how her best friend wouldn't talk to her any longer after she got sick.
But the club has other problems, too. All the members of the club are only thirteen, so they are restricted in the hours they can watch kids they baby-sit for. But when a group of older girls at school decide to set up a baby-sitting club of their own, and advertise with baloons and flyers, the BSC finds the number of jobs they are getting falling off, and they have to decide what to do about it.
But when they recruit two older girls to cover later hours, it seems they have been set up by their rivals, who want to see them fail. But how can they show the families of the neighborhood that *they* are the better babysitters? Will it take a near tragedy before anyone is willing to listen to them?
This was a cute, short graphic novel for younger readers, with a cool vibe and instantly likeable characters, from the girls in the club to the kids and parents they deal with on a regular basis. The story is engagingly told, and even though we don't get the full book that Ann M. Martin wrote, there is enough detail and the story is pieced together so well that you would never realize anything is missing.
The personalities of the girls really come through, although the two who get the most exposure in this book are Claudia and Stacey. Kristy gets in some licks, but Mary-Ann seems to get shortchanged in remaining something of a cipher when the rest of the girls get more exposure.
As graphic novels go, it isn't bad, and even for older readers, it will hold their interest as the story unfolds. While the story involves girls who are only 13 years old, it's not one boys will enjoy very much. But the characters are warm and engaging, and girls would probably want someone like them as friends. If your young reader enjoys the BabySitter's Club books, this is something to expand that world for them.
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