Madonna! Leggings! Big hair! Like these ’80s icons, The Baby-Sitters Club is gearing up for comeback. The juggernaut book series for preteen girls had a run of 213 titles and 176 million books sold from 1986 to 2000. The revamped series will skew slightly younger than its original audience of 8-12 year old girls. The New York Times reports Scholastic is bringing out a new “prequel” by Ann M. Martin, the original author of the series, titled “The Summer Before.” One bookseller quoted by the Times thinks the retooled series will sell “really well to the girls who aren’t quite ready for vampires and particularly to the parents of the girls who aren’t quite ready.”
The re-released books will be getting a minor facelift to bring references to technology and fashions up to date. A“cassette player” has become “headphones” and a “perm” has become “an expensive hairstyle,” the Times notes. That’s already led to some grumbling. “If the series really is a classic then wouldn’t changing the text so Claudia can receive phantom texts rather than phantom phone calls be considered sacrilegious?” wonders Margaret Hartmann at the blog Jezebel. ”As a child I appreciated The Secret Garden without Mary taking a jet to Mr. Craven’s ’80s bachelor pad.”
If Scholastic is looking for ideas to update the series, former teacher Maureen Miller has some suggestions at her new blog, McReeney’s Thing on the Internet, rendered in pitch-perfect Baby-Sitters Club jacket copy blurbs:
#1: Kristy’s Great Idea
Kristy thinks the Baby-Sitters Club is a great idea. She and her friends Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne all love taking care of kids. A club will give them the chance to have lots of laughs–and get them into an academically competitive preparatory school of their choice. But nobody counted on alerts, questions about vaccinations, wild sexts, and parents who don’t always E-mail back. Having a baby-sitters club is hard work, but Kristy and her friends aren’t giving up until they get into Choate!
#8: Boy-Crazy Stacey
Things are great in the Jersey Shore: There’s a housing bust knocking down the rent on the beach house, erosion, plenty of mid-priced chains and lot parking… and the hottest guy Stacey has ever seen! Mary Anne knows that The Sitch is way too old for Stacey, but Stacey’s in luv. She fends off guidettes, fetches him brewskis, and spends all her time with him… instead of the kids. Suddenly, Mary Anne’s doing the work of the day and night nannies working off their undergraduate debt while they pursue master’s degrees, and she doesn’t like it one bit. But how can she tell Stacey that The Sitch isn’t interested–without breaking Stacey’s pride?
#11 “Daddy’s Home…Early”
Claudia’s new regulars are the nicest couple with a darling newborn! Mrs. Woods is back to work after two weeks and keeps asking Claudia if her Fed-Exed Super Spanx have arrived. And Mr. Woods! He treats Claudia like a grownup. Really–he treats her like she was over 21 and totally hot. He doesn’t seem to have a steady job either, although he used to work in what he calls Mergers and Acquisitions. He does know a lot about acquiring what he wants! How much should Claudia tell the other babysitters? It’s a great job and she doesn’t want to be unemployed, too!
Sigh. Next thing you know, Nancy Drew won’t have chums and a roadster.
Comment by Nancy Flanagan — January 4, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Nancy– actually, in the new Nancy Drew graphic novels (which are goofy fun, btw) she drives a Prius and has a cell phone……
I have no problem with the Babysitter’s updates (is sweet valley next?)–they were basically popcorn books, not great classics. It’s clearly a cynical marketing ploy to appeal to moms my age….
BUT if they update, are they going to take into account the new state laws? In many places, they’ve upped the minimum babysitting age– so any parent who left their children with the original girls would be negligent. Kinda makes it tough to skew the books YOUNGER, doesn’t it?
Comment by Deirdre Mundy — January 4, 2010 @ 11:53 am
I think they idea of skewing the books younger is that a 7 year old may think that reading about a grown-up 13 year old who’s babysitting is cool, but a 12 year old wants to read about a 16 year old dating vampires…
Also, I think one of the marks of a classic is that they manage to avoid too much dependence on the transient. No one feels the need to update the Ramona books, even though letting first graders walk to school by themselves isn’t much done these days.
Comment by Rachel — January 4, 2010 @ 6:44 pm
Rachel — On the other hand, the Ramona books were about RAMONA. You read them because you wanted to know more about Ramona.
The babysitters club books were about “girls just like you!” or at least the girls you wished your parents would let you be. Much more rooted in the setting (suburban girls who babysit!) than in the rather forgettable characters.
Ramona felt real. Laura Ingalls feels real. The Babysitters Club girls were almost place-holders so that the reader could plug herself and her friends into the adventures…..
Comment by Deirdre Mundy — January 4, 2010 @ 8:31 pm
Say it ain’t so–Nancy Drew updated? Nancy felt very real to me, although none of the books resembled literature. I wish second graders could just read about the fun adventures of 7- and 8-year olds, and not have to depend on how much fun it will be to be older.
Children have always looked ahead to the next level (hence the EZ Bake oven), but constantly pegging their literature and play items toward activities they’re too immature to participate in feels manipulative. Unless, of course, they’re playing missionary doctor or famous author. I blame Barbie.
Comment by Nancy Flanagan — January 4, 2010 @ 9:06 pm
There was a previous Nancy Drew update in the late ’80′s. I can remember bringing home one of them from the library when I was maybe 9 or 10 and my mom totally cringing.
I read BSC and Sweet Valley Twins as a kid even though I thought they were pretty dumb because my friends did. We used to each buy every 4th or 5th title and then swap them around. Then when we got to jr. high we started swapping trashy Harlequin novels.
Comment by Crimson Wife — January 8, 2010 @ 1:27 pm