Monday afternoon, I was as giddy as my 10-year-old self as I ran to my car, drove to the mall and practically skipped to the bookstore to pick up the latest object of my affection.
It all started when I read an article on Entertainment Weekly‘s website about the reboot of the Baby-Sitters Club series, a special interview with author Ann M. Martin and the news of a prequel.
Oh. My. God.
(And I thought last year’s news about Diablo Cody writing a Sweet Valley High movie was enough to send my head spinning.)
I knew I had to read this prequel. I put it on hold at the library, but the book hadn’t even arrived there yet so it was going to be a long wait. I wanted it now. So I decided to go buy it and the first two re-released copies of the series. (If you want to see someone really reliving the series, visit The Baby-Sitters Club Revisited, a great blog, by “BSC Snarker” as she revists each and every book of the series.)
And, like my 10-year-old self again, I stayed up until all-hours of the night devouring my latest purchase: Revelling in these girls I still know so well, and chuckling at the changes to “update” the story from 25 years ago.
As a kid, I didn’t do much else but read. I always seemed to have a book in my hand. The Baby-Sitters Club was my first series, and I loved every moment of it. In my heart, I wanted to be Stacey — or even hippie Dawn — but deep-down I knew I was more Mary Ann than anyone else. Serious, quiet and shy.
Growing up without a whole lot of friends, these girls were my friends. I even tried to write my own version of the series, called Kids Incorporated — using the girls in my class as prototypes. Every time a new book came out, I raced to get it. Nearly all my baby-sitting money went to these books. (Although when I was a kid, I think they were $4.99 Canadian each, I paid $7.99 for the re-released ones. Times, they are a-changing).
I loved the TV shows that were made from the characters (I even used to braid may hair like Dawn, and still have the theme song memorized). I hated the movie version. Have never watched it since I saw it in theatres and almost walked out.
Of course, you don’t stay a kid forever. Eventually, I grew tired of the BSC, deciding they were just too immature for me, and I moved on to Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and their trials and tribulations at Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley University (as much as I wanted to be Elizabeth, I know I really was Enid).
But I never forgot the girls at the BSC.
The prequel was wonderful. I couldn’t believe how much I remembered, and how found I still am of these characters nearly 20 years after picking up my first book. Reading their stories was a zap back to being a kid again.
The Summer Before 
Thanks Ann M. Martin, for taking me on another journey with the girls that I feel like I went to school with. Even if I didn’t go to SMS or live in Stoneybrook.
Anyone else a fan of the Baby-Sitters Club and going to pick up the prequel to read? Which character did you identify with the most?
The Month that was: March
The Month That Was is a new feature on Through the Looking Glass. On the last day of each month, it will take a look back at the month that was and the highlights (and lowlights) from it.