The cultural climate for teens has changed since August '86

books:


	• Kristy's Great Idea (The Baby-Sitter's Club #1) Ann M. Martin Scholastic, 1995 - 153 pages average customer review:based on 79 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great opening to a fantastic series

In 'Kristy's Great Idea', 13-year-olds Kristy, Stacey, Claudia and Mary Anne form a baby-sitting agency. They have challenges, but they support each other. The characters are real, Kristy's a tomboy who can be a bit bossy, Claudia finds school difficult but is good at art, Stacey is cool, confident and collected, and manages her diabetes well, and Mary Anne is shy and gentle, and a good listener. I really like how the Baby-sitters series portray teenage girls doing something productive other than smoking, drinking and swearing. This series paints a vivid picture of teenage girls facing big and small issues in their lives. I would reccomend this book for girls aged 9-14.
Highly reccomended.

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The best book in the series.

I first read a BSC book when I was seven - in first grade - and the reading was too challenging for me, since I had just started reading chapter books. Well, when I was eight or nine, I picked this up and read the whole thing without a problem.

Now I'm fourteen and I still love the books. They contain nothing inappropriate - no language, sexual content, violence, and only minor drug usage. And when the rare BSC situation with drinking or smoking involved comes up, the character narrating the book clearly explains that it's a bad thing to do. There's also a bit of racism, but no bad language or anything - just stuff like people avoiding blacks. But this stuff is explained in the books to be wrong, too.

So, there's nothing that will turn kids into bad people or make them know bad things. The books are written in a great, flowing style, and each one is unique. Sometimes big tragedies occur, but the girls support each other and pull through in the end.

This book was definitely the best one in the series. Though I only own about ten of the books, I've picked up most of the other ones from the library, so I can tell how good this is compared to the others. Sure, they're great, but this one beats them out.

It's narrated by character Kristy, who gets a great idea. She and her friends Mary Anne and Claudia, plus Claudia's new friend Stacey, are going to start a baby-sitting club! They encounter lots of trouble in this book, like pesky kids, people who want them to sit for dogs, and Kristy's worst nightmare...

...Watson Brewer, whom her mother is dating - and might even marry. Kristy hates Watson and thinks his kids, Karen and Andrew, are probably brats, though she's never met them. Plus, Claudia's friend Stacey is acting strange, especially about eating junk food.

You'll have to read the book to find out what happens!

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THE BSC IS BORN!

Kristy's mom needs a baby sitter for David Michael so she starts the BSC and asks 3 girls from her neighborhood named Stacey, Mary Anne and Claudia if they want to join and said yes. They make a club notebook to what's happening in the baby sitting jobs. But the BSC was not this easy. Some other things were difficult to solve. Maybe Kristy's idea has never been great.

The cultural climate for teens has changed since August '86

I understand the bad and good reviews. Here's why:

When these books came out in the mid-eighties, teenagers weren't the same as they are today. Today's teenagers, as exemplified in some reviews here, are growing up faster and earlier than before. This book was geared for pre-teen girls in the mid '80s. Pre-teen girls today, as well as 13-14 year olds, are bored with these books because their worlds are much harsher in 2005 than in 1985. Even some 9-year-olds today might think the books are good enough for Keep in mind these books were written before the media-saturating culture of the 1990s and Columbine and problems like drug use, teen pregnancy and suicide came into being. Even some of the reviewers from 1998, who were 13 at the time, were bored with the book because it was unrealistic to a degree. Girls today at age 11 look 14, girls at 14 look 17, and so on. Back in the '80s most girls at 11 looked 11 or 12 at the oldest.

I enjoyed reading these books in 1994 as an 11 year old, but now they are outdated, like books about the Cold War at the end of the '80s (Red Storm Rising) and (Flight of the Old Dog).

They have ok to good plots. Claudia Kishi is my favorite character. I think it was a good concept, but it could've been improved. Here are some reasons:
1) In '86 they were 12, in '87 they were 13 and stayed that way until '00 or '01 when they graduated from 8th grade. Keep in mind the original 12-year-olds in the '86 book were born in '74; they'd be 30 or 31 today. The 13- and 14-year-olds in the last 2001 book would be 17 or close to 18 today. They should've gone to 14 year old high schoolers by '93 (book 51) and 15,16 year old kids by '97-98.
2) More social issues were needed in the later ones. The shootings at schools from '96 to '99 could've been worked into the plot without much violence. Also it would've been interesting to see how the series deals with 8th grade girls, partying, alcohol, marijuana use and the court system for these girls.
3) it would've been neat to see cultural references to the time periods in which the books were written (in the first one it could talk about kristy's father, mother, etc. talking about president reagan or the bsc watching mtv, kristy watching the then-new espn, or seeeing "16 candles" with Molly Ringwald)
As it is, the first cover has a picture of a nancy drew book.
4) One or more of the characters should've died at the end of the series. That way teens can learn how to deal with death as well. Stalker and rape issues should be covered in the later ones to give it a sense of gritty truth and hard-hitting punch, while maintaining some of its original innocence.

I am writing a novel right now and know the greatest strength of the series is the character development. The artist who does the cover art for the books has a good framework to work with based on Martin's description of the characters. The characters have flaws (McGill is beautiful, but diabetic; Jessie is a dancer, but faces prejudice in conservative Stoneybrook) which makes them realistic.

Overall, a good book with some realism.

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These make me nostalgic

I remember first reading these books way back in my elementary school days, probably starting around '93 or '94. The stories do seem a little out dated to me now, but I love them none the less. I was sad to not see them on the shelves of the bookstore anymore, especially since I never managed to buy them all. I have fond memories of sharing these books with friends all the way through middle school, even after we were way too old for them. They are great, innocent, fun reading for elementary and middle schoolers.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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