The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin,
adapted & illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
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The Baby-Sitters Club all started with Kristy's
great idea. She wanted to pool talents with her three best friends – quiet Mary Ann, artsy Claudia, and new girl Stacey – to get more clients, make more money, and have more fun by all working together. Things took off from there, and over two decades, author Ann M. Martin has added dozens of books to the series, chronicling the girls' adventures in baby-sitting, family changes, and friendship. The Baby-Sitters Club series, which became a favorite for a generation of young girls, is now getting a new look courtesy of Raina Telgemeier, a young cartoonist who herself grew up reading the books. She's turned the first volume, Kristy's Great Idea, into a winning graphic novel for young readers, one of the first in a new line from Scholastic. This book-length comic pairs Martin's original words with Telgemeier's energetic black-and-white drawings to tell how Kristy and her friends first came together. Telgemeier's cartooning is an excellent match for the story: she conveys the characters' excitement and frustrations with perfect expressions, and her varied designs make each girl an individual both in looks and personality. Best of all, the club members' appearances reinforce the idea that girls – even best friends – can grow up at different paces: while Claudia and Stacey's hip hairstyles and outfits reflect their talk about boys and other cool stuff, Kristy's tomboy overalls and Mary Anne's braided pigtails remind us that they are taking things more slowly. The book is a fun day-to-day adventure that touches easily on serious subjects: Kristy is getting a new step-family, and she's not thrilled about it; Claudia needs to get her grades up if she's going to stay in the club; and Stacey is scared of talking with her friends about her diabetes – a point that will be a big focus in the next book of the series. The baby-sitters handle difficult jobs, solve problems, and having an angry falling out that eventually ends in their making amends. Through it all, they model some good behavior and act like realistic and responsible tweens. A young reader doesn't need to have
baby-sitting experience – or even be a fan |
