Ode to the BSC
As a child, Friday was always my favorite day of the week. It wasn’t because of the weekend; I liked school and didn’t really look forward to breaks. No, Fridays were payday for my parents and that meant that I would spend the evening hanging out with my best friends: Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey. When I discovered the books in second grade, The Baby-Sitters Club turned me into an absolutely insatiable reader. Every single Friday my mom knew that I would be expecting a trip to the bookstore in the next county over to purchase the next in the series of babysitting adventures. So deep was my obsession that I automatically loved all things babysitting-related. ‘Adventures in Babysitting?’ That was my favorite movie. Plans for earning money to buy a car? Why, babysitting of course, just as soon as I became as old and worldly as the girls in the BSC. These girls had done it all; they had boyfriends, they solved Super Mysteries, and they earned pretty decent money. This was all certainly impressive to the eight-year-old me.
These books transported me every week to Stonybrook, Connecticut, and I felt so much a part of the picturesque town that New England became, and remains, the place where I would most like to live. These girls became my friends, the people I lived vicariously through, and consumed so much of my thought that I tried my hardest to get my friends to create a Junior Babysitting Club with me, but they weren’t interested. Eventually, though I love these books dearly to this day, I grew older and they didn’t resonate with me quite as much. I moved on to Sweet Valley High, and though I was older, the obsession I would develop with books and their characters and their worlds didn’t lessen. One of my most vivid tweenage memories is of a character-based role playing game that my best friend and I would do each afternoon after school, one that was so involved in character exploration that any teacher would have been proud. One of us would call the other and assume the character of either Elizabeth or Jessica Wakefield. We would then have truly ridiculous and long conversations, all while still in character. Much like The Baby-Sitters Club from just a few years before, Sweet Valley High completely consumed my thoughts and I could never read enough.
I always call this my reading lineage, and it all started with The Baby-Sitters Club. Much like the sometimes more embarrassing branches of a biological family tree, there are many current “experts” on YA and children’s literature who would view the beginnings of my reading heritage as less than exemplary. In fact, they might call what I was reading “fluff,” something that may find its modern day equivalency in the Twilight series. I was never really exposed to classic children’s literature except for sometimes at school and a tattered copy of Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes that I had at home. In the eyes of the experts who find no value in anything that isn’t a critic’s darling, I would be doomed to read nothing but Teen Beat and dime store romance novels forever. My literary taste was stunted, and I, as a reader (much like the many young girls who are devouring Twilight and The Hunger Games) was a failure.
However, I would have never known this as a child. My mother referred to me as “her little bookworm,” and I was proud of that. I always won prizes for summer reading from my library, and my friends had happily labeled me, “our book freak.” They didn’t care what I was reading; they just knew that I was. My family has always reveled in storytelling and that same fascination manifested itself in me through reading. What these critics and experts couldn’t have known is that the deeper my love for stories grew, so did my need for richer storylines, more complex characters, and a connection with them that was deeper than simply being the same age or the same gender. I’m proud of my reading lineage, because what started out as an obsession with the BSC led to my seeking out Dickens, Austen, Steinbeck, and Shakespeare on my own. By my sophomore year of high school, I was reading Tolstoy of my own accord, simply because I craved the depth and complexity. Much like any addiction, I had almost built up a tolerance and seemed to always require something more.
These days, as a teacher and a parent, I try to spread my still-growing obsession. I try to help my son and my students to not fixate on AR points, but to find stories they’re passionate about. And while a good review is likely to cause me to pick up a book I may not have noticed on my own, I am still a staunch believer that you should enjoy what you read and you should read what you enjoy, regardless of how many stars it received. Because the simplicity of finding yourself immersed in a world you find in a book is enough to make you want to keep coming back for more. And isn’t that what it’s all about? So, here’s to you, Baby-Sitters Club, the matriarch of my reading lineage; thank you for making me a reader.
Sasha Reinhardt is an 8th grade Language Arts teacher, Academic Team co-sponsor, and lifelong nerd. She lives in Eastern Kentucky with her husband, two sons, and completely spastic dog Molly. Sasha enjoys reading (duh), all kinds of music, the smell of old books, going to movies, playing video games, and Chinese food. You can find her at http://middlegrdreads.blogspot.com and on Twitter as @MiddleGrdReads.
Nerdy Book Club 
I started with BSC when it came out in the late 80’s. I was hooked on these books. I read them so quickly and couldn’t wait for the next one to be released. While my reading lineage started with Judy Blume’s Fudge series, the BSC was a big part of making me into the kind of reader who tears up books once she’s interested.
I’m so glad to hear it! The BSC was definitely a special series, and it’s so nice to meet others that loved it, too 🙂
You explained this obsession so well & I believe that the reading obsessions kids have will carry them well all through their reading times. My son read comic books all the time & even family members said things like ‘when is he ever going to read books?’ but he is now an avid reader, was introduced to a variety of books by his teachers (and me) yet the comic books were treasures to him, just as the BSC books were to you. Thanks for another look at good reading!
I think you’re right! I still have such a soft spot for these books and their characters. Even as an adult, I completely geeked out when I saw they were turning them into graphic novels 🙂
I just missed the Baby Sitters Club (until my daughter collected them), but I do remember passing copies of Sweet Valley High around with all my friends. At the same time I was devouring stories of Jessica and Elizabeth, I was methodically reading everything by Dickens on the library shelves and then browsing the teen room for SE Hinton. I still read a little bit of everything, and encourage my students to do the same.
I love that 🙂 Reading definitely begets reading. I became obsessed with Dickens in high school, too.
I was also an insatiable reader, but my tastes leaned toward animal stories (Black Beauty), Nancy Drew, and choose your own adventure books. I was the only girl cousin and if I had to keep up with the boys I couldn’t be found reading girly books. Now as a reading specialist for secondary students, I desperately hope that my struggling readers find a genre, any genre, that inspires them to read. My split personality professional life has me with Honors students (reading classics) and struggling readers (graphic novels). I sort of poo-pooed Twilight as fluff, but it has inspired many non-reading girls to become readers. I disagree that Hunger Games is fluff. This is a book that I have had great success with, both male and female readers, and at all reading levels. Anytime a student asks for a suggestion, my first question is “Have you read The Hunger Games?”
I completely agree! The Hunger Games is wonderful, and most definitely a series that has hooked its fair share of readers 🙂
Love this post. You got me a little teary eyed. Every book their reader:) My friends and I have recently discussed how we wish there was a babysitters club now, so we could take them with us on vacation to watch our kids:) Those girls were just so responsible.
I am going to share this with some teachers in my school that have trouble with “fluff.”
Thank you so much, Anna 🙂 And yes, having a responsible babysitters club around would be wonderful!
I am the third of four girls, and there is a twelve-year age difference between my oldest sister and me and an eight-year difference between the second born. As you can imagine, I inherited many hand-me-downs including books. Don’t get me wrong, I eagerly read Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and the Hardy Boys, but when I found the Baby-Sitters Club #4 Mary Anne Saves the Day during a fourth grade class trip to the library, I fell in love. That day began my love affair with the BSC. To meet my BSC craving, I checked-out books from the public and school library, swapped books with friends, and my mother or oldest sister would buy me books from the used bookstore. I rememer wanting to be like Claudia so badly that I tried to hide sweets in my room. In my mind, the BSC belonged to me and no one else. This mentality caused me to proclaim that my youngest sister could read only Baby-sitters Little Sister. After all, she was two years younger than me. During a trip to Wal-Mart, I saw a Baby-Sitters Club VHS which I convinced my mother to buy. I watched it over and over and over again. Like you Sasha, I tried to start a baby-sitters club and failed. The other potential member lived over an hour away. I eventually moved on to other books: Sweet Valley High, Fear Street, and Cheerleaders. When my mother decided to downsize her home she asked me to come get all of my books. At that time, the trunk of my car was full of books because I was living with a relative and my huge tub of books took up much of her storage space. Having no place to keep them, I decided to split my cherished BSC and other books between my two nieces. As it turns out, neither one of them read any of the books. My beloved books were either donated to thrift stores or sold in yard sales. Over the course of my love affair, I owned over forty books in the series including the Super Specials and BSLS. I will never forget my time spent Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey. BSC will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Thank you Sasha for this post. It brought back many memories.
Thank you, Stephanie! Those books hold a ton of great memories for me, too 🙂 I loved the Super Specials. Since you read SVH, too, did you ever read The Wakefields of Sweet Valley? I think that began my love for historical fiction – that was one of my favorite books when I was young.
No, I wasn’t aware of them. Interestingly, my love for historical fiction began in high school when I was perusing our family bookshelf looking for a good read and picked up one my mother’s historical romance novels. She loved Johanna Lindsay.
When I was in school Scholastic had a BSC Book Club that you could enter, and got all sorts of extras along with the books – I remember being so disappointed when my Mom said it was too expensive, and that I couldn’t join! How about the Little Sister’s Series that followed? 🙂 Good Memories!
Confession, Nicole: I never read the Little Sisters series and don’t really remember them
I think I had maybe moved on to SVH by then? I do remember the awesome Super Specials and Super Mysteries 😀
I was the exact same, I loved The Babysitter’s Club and then I moved on to Sweet Valley High. A few years ago, I let my mother sell all of those books I’d collected in the series to a second hand shop though. Pity, be nice to flick through them again!R
Thanks so much for this post. I, too, loved, the BSC. But I especially love what you say about how “fluff” reading can create voracious readers: “By my sophomore year of high school, I was reading Tolstoy of my own accord, simply because I craved the depth and complexity. Much like any addiction, I had almost built up a tolerance and seemed to always require something more.”
When I was a kid, I would read anything I could get my hands on. Now, I know myself so well as a reader that I know when I need a challenge and when I need an easy book to escape and take a break. This should be our goal as teachers–get them hooked and THEN keep nudging toward different texts. Thanks for putting it so eloquently.
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