This April, Scholastic plans to reissue the first two volumes of its once-ubiquitous tween fiction series, The Baby-Sitters Club, according to the New York Times. The publisher is repackaging and updating the books (e.g., a “cassette player” will become “headphones”), and also releasing a prequel, The Summer Before, written by the series’ original author, Ann M. Martin. The original Baby-Sitters Club books, published from 1986-2000, grew to 217 titles and became a huge tween phenom, with 176 million copies in print. Now, Scholastic hopes to reignite fervor for 12- to 13-year-old heroines Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey — while pitching the books to a slightly younger audience than it did originally. (As the Times notes, the publisher has had significant success with its 2008 relaunch of another dormant franchise for young readers, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series.)
Dec 31
2009
01:14 PM ET
'The Baby-Sitters Club' returns this spring
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So, this is for the girls whose older sisters read Sisters of the Traveling Pants? I think I read like fifteen of them before I aged out of them, but that was when they were first out (I was eight in 1986)
i am 1 year older than you and I read these way longer! Now my 8 year old neice is reading them.
I loved these books when I was younger, I may have to check out the prequel for nostalgia’s sake.
OMG! I read all the books when I was a kid and I still have the entire series shelved at home! This just makes me smile!!
Sweet Valley Twins/High is right around the corner with Diablo Cody’s movie….
It’ll be nice for the daughters of the women who originally read these books. They were the reason I loved reading when I was a kid!
You nostalgia readers should check out the graphic novels before they dissapear – my daughter loves them.
They recently did this with the Sweet Valley High books too.
Wow the BSC is comming back huh? lmao I feel so old right now, I LOVED BSC and SVH…devoured those books when I was young, but I was reading these around the age of 8, not 10-12. I dunno if simply updating a cassette to headphones (why not iPod?) is enough to make this generation read them considering how sophisticated HP and Twilight, even GG look by comparison (but now that I think about it, BSC is actually written better than the Twilight series IMO). Either way, I’m glad that decent, fun, and classic teen book series are comming back. I was JUST thinking about the Ramona tv show the other day after seeing a pic of Sarah Polley…and why there was never a movie for Blubber lol
Loved the books and even loved the movie. Glad to see that this is coming back for all of the teeny boppers
Oh? I loved BSC. I even loved the movie! Brings back memories!
I feel like I’m in elementary school again, waiting to check out the lastest book from the library. My favorite was Mary Anne because her boyfriend was Logan. Anyone remember the movie?
And the straight to video series, which had different actresses.
I TOTALLY had one of the videos with the random actresses. I watched it constantly. I don’t think I ever even saw the real movie…
OMG I just turned 10 again, lol. I devoured these books when I was little!
WIN!!! I loved the BSC books back in the day. Personal fave has to be the one in which Mary Anne gets a makeover.
By the way, EW, how could you for get Dawn, Mallory, and Jessie? (And Logan, of course!)
Thank you! I was thinking the same thing!
I think its because Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey were the four founding members in the first book. Dawn hadn’t moved to town yet and Mallory and Jessi were still being babysat.
and Shannon!
And Abby! Abby was a much later addition but I loved her, too.
I absolutely loved these books when i was younger. I started reading them was I was 8…I think i collected something like 150 of them! Hopefully the relaunch is successful because the books are awesome for young girls.
Sweet Valley High fan for life right here! I still have my books and I’m 25. I’m saving them for my daughter or neice one day.