The Baby-Sitters Club: The Summer Before

First, you must understand that the Babysitters Club is a MAJOR blast from my past - of all the crappy YA series in the world, this is the one I collected and read the most from oh, maybe 1989-1992ish. I still have my old books (and then some) and once in a while break one out when I need a security blanket.

But this. I have never felt any need to go beyond the BSC of my youth, whether the later series like California Diaries and Friends Forever or new additions like this. Once I got past the "AW, MY CHILDHOOD!" reaction, the revival of an 80s/90s artifact like this just seems *weird*. Really, aren't we all just fans of Claudia's outfits now? Is babysitting still a draw for YA readers? Can't we remember the 10 years of perspective that show more have created the BSC-snark movement that I so loooooooooooove? Why did ANM seem to forget that Mary Anne doesn't know Jenny Prezzioso four books later?

Anyway, kudos to ANM (yes. ANM in my brain) and Scholastic for resuscitating the BSC and reminding me (again) of how funny my old fictional BFFs are.

(As for this book in particular: it's a little weird to read a BSC book written in retrospective voice - and sometimes using overly adult phraseology, but that was always a delightful feature of the series, I guess - and I'm disappointed they didn't put the girls' names in their own handwriting as headers, but it was a good revisit to Stoneybrook. And I didn't remember what a huge bitch Laine was! show less

A nice trip down memory lane, this book tells the story of the original four BSC members before Kristy's Great Idea. Mary Anne is struggling with her strict father, Kristy is dealing with her absentee father and her mother's relationship with Watson, Claudia is becoming more interested in boys and makeup and less interested in her childish friends, and Stacey is leaving her ex-best friend Laine and NYC for small town Stoneybrook.

The book was typical BSC yet it somehow tugged at my heartstrings a bit and even brought a tear to my eye. The characters seemed a little more real to me as they navigated through the tricky years of becoming teenagers, growing out of old friendship, and discovering new ones. I felt like all four characters had show more more genuine and realistic emotions than I remembered in the BSC.

A few things that confused me...in this book Claudia had a high school boyfriend! Did they mention Claudia's high school boyfriend in the series and I am just forgetting it? Even though it ended poorly, it seems like it would have been big news we should have known about. Also, it was strange that Stacey was eating organic eggs and tofu sausage for breakfast. Wasn't Dawn the only one that ate crazy things like that? Mrs. Newton seems to have gotten a cell phone, which is strange. And I think that Mr. Spier making Mary Anne wear her hair in braids with ribbons every day is beyond strict. That is a little creepy. show less

I would never have known this prequel was written 10 years after the last book in the series, the writing is exactly the same. What's comforting in the BSC series is that nothing really changes from book to book - the characters stay the same and react to different events around them, as was the case here where each girl has a very definite personality and acts accordingly but the love and the friendship and the baby-sitting jobs are all excellent. I especially liked to see Mary-Anne's interactions with her father and what her life looks like outside of the Club, she's my favourite. The books deals with the gap between childhood and teenage years and while raising questions, it doesn't provide easy answers, which I thought was show more interesting. Realy good book and an excellent comfort series. show less

The Summer Before is a good, solid book. There are things I probably would have changed if given the chance and there are things I love more than I would have imagined was possible.

Each chapter is devoted to a different character, which is helpful when certain storylines start to bring you down.

Kristy's dealing with the old standby issue she's always given: Her father. After her mother starts dating Watson (and they seem to get awfully serious awfully fast) and he's invited to more and more 'family' functions, Kristy begins to feel like she's the only member of the Thomas family who misses her father. Despite this being a retread of things to come, I really felt bad for Kristy. I liked that she knew she was wishing for the almost show more impossible and could not help herself. I think most people, especially kids, find this happening at least once in their life. I just wish more had been done with her attitude towards Watson and the way she seemed to feel he was overstepping his boundaries. (Seriously, Watson, less than four months of dating does not entitle you to EVERY family get together that comes up.)

Mary Anne also gets a bit of a rehash of stories. She has to find a way to assert her independence. As far as stories go, this one kind of bored me. That said, MA also was working on a secret project for Kristy, and this happened to be my favorite bit of the whole book. I also liked the peek behind the often mentioned dolls that are used to initially showcase how mature Claudia and Stacey are compared to MA and Kristy.

Claudia has her first boyfriend, or at least the first guy she considers her boyfriend. It's complicated by how much older she feels compared to her old friends, Kristy and Mary Anne, and how much she misses them.

Sadly, Claudia's actions in the book tend to come off as really... selfish, I guess. In a way, you need someone to act up, and also she's turning 12 and that's not an easy age, but at the same time, there are things she does that make it harder to love her as much as normal.

Stacey's is the least connected to everyone else's (which makes sense since most of it deals with her life in NYC) and the past 20-something years of history the BSC has established. The infamous breakup of Laine/Stacey is retconned beyond all belief. For someone without the history of the series, it works really well. But with the knowledge of how things 'actually' were, it bugged me a little too much to fully enjoy. show less

Jen's Review: Usually my 8 yr old boy, Jake, and I do a review of all the books that we recieve from Scholastic Canada. In this case Jake took one look at this title and said -- no way mom -- so not going to happen. I was a good mom and agreed that he didn't have to read this one. Although, seriously don't you think it would be good for his future dating days to know how young girls think ; )

After reading this I felt like I was 12 again and going through all those wonderful and hell filled days of being a preteen. It is a nice sweet read reminiscent of Sisterhood of the Traveling pants for the younger set. Each chapter is told from the voice of one of the characters and is done in a nice smooth fashion so the story isn't broken up too show more much from one chapter to the next. The themes that were present in the original series are introduced very effectively in this story. Also a nice introduction to the original characters for the next generation of BSC readers. This prequel to the babysitter series really adds some nice back story to the characters I loved and read about back when I was a preteen. I think it would be a great read for any little girl from about 7 and up and also for those women like myself who enjoyed the original series. A little nostalgia is good for the soul : )

My only real complaint about the book is that the 4 main characters speak far too maturely for their age - a little unrealistically in my opinion. Unfortunately, I also think it might be a hard sell to the 9 - 11 year old readers who are reading much more mature stuff like the Twilight and Hunger Games series. But the younger 7 - 10 year old girls will enjoy it
Rating: 7/10 show less

If you were a fan of the original Baby-Sitters Club then you definitely want to pick this book up. If you are not familiar with this series it’s a perfect read for the tween set. The Baby-Sitters Club starts off with four friends who love to babysit and follows their adventures in babysitting, friendships and more. I was a huge fan of this series growing up and eagerly awaited every new book in the series.

This prequel follows Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey the summer before the start of the club. I was nervous about Martin revisiting the series so many years later but was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to slip back into the Baby-Sitters Club’s world. Claudia worries she may be growing up faster than her best friends, show more Kristy and Mary Anne, and possibly out growing their friendship. Kristy is having to deal with her mother’s new boyfriend, Mary Anne takes her first sitting job and Stacey prepares for the move from New York City to Stonybrook. What finally brings these four widely different girls together? Read this prequel to find out.

The style of writing flowed with my memories of the series and was a refreshing departure from all of the paranormal books that seem to have emerged lately. It was wonderful watching as each girl slowly realizes the changes in their lives as they have to grow up and face the changes life throws at them. show less

Very enjoyable for childhood (and continuing...) fans of the series. I found it to be very much in the spirit of the early "classic" books I loved so much, and it was fun for me to see how Ann imagined the girls pre-BSC. Some funny and very touching moments about friendship and growing up. Thanks, Ann!