The Baby-Sitters Club Volume 7 Boy-Crazy Stacey

Bought from the book sale shelf at the Wilbraham Public Library, Wilbraham MA USA.

Title: The Baby-Sitters Club
Issue: Volume 7: Boy-Crazy Stacey
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2019
Writer: Gale Galligan, Ann M. Martin
Artist: Gale Galligan
Colorist: Braden Lamb
Editor: Cassandra Pelham Fulton, David Levithan

Mallory Pike, one of the members of the Baby-Sitters Club, has seven younger siblings. So when her parents plan a vacation on the Jersey Shore, they decide to hire Mallory's friends Stacey and Mary Anne to come along and handle some of the kid-wrangling so that Mallory gets to have an actual vacation. Which she does. The focus of this story is Stacey, who is soon distracted from her duties when she develops a crush on a cute lifeguard.

The crush plotline is pretty straightforward, but once that runs its course, the story turns very sweet. It was also nice to see that Stacey's medical situation (she has type I diabetes) was acknowledged but not used as a main plot point. And I loved the depiction on the Jersey Shore, especially in Gale Galligan's montage scenes. Galligan has done a great job of picking up where Raina Telgemeier left off, and her work on the setting, and on the characters' facial expressions and body language is great.

The postcards that introduce each chapter are also a nice touch. This was a fun feel-good story.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Baby-Sitters Club Volume 3: Mary Anne Saves the Day

Found in a Little Free Library in Amherst MA USA.

Title: The Baby-Sitters Club
Issue: Volume 3: Mary Anne Saves the Day
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2015
Writer: Raina Telgemeier, Ann M. Martin
Artist: Raina Telgemeier
Letterer: John Green
Editor: Cassandra Pelham Fulton, David Levithan, Sheila Keenan

The main plot in this story, told from Mary Anne's point of view, is that a big fight breaks out between the four members of the Baby-Sitters Club, and none of them are on speaking terms with each other. A few attempts to work it out go wrong for various reasons, and the quality of their work begins to suffer as they close in on an upcoming birthday party that they are all expected to work together.

The main plot here, is a bit generic, and it's the least interesting thing going on in the book. Mary Anne makes a new friend, Dawn, who's new in town and discovers a connection between Dawn's mom and her dad. She also confronts her dad about his overprotective side, handles a genuine emergency on a babysitting job, and even changes her hairstyle.

The character development for Dawn is great, and so are a bunch of the small moments involving interactions with supporting characters. Raina Telgemeier has done a great job bringing Ann M. Martin's setting to life, and all of the small details really give the story some extra sparkle.

The series continues with #4, which I read previously and reviewed here.

Rating: 7/10

The Baby-Sitters Club Volume 4: Claudia and Mean Janine

Bought at my school's spring book fair.

Title: The Baby-Sitters Club
Issue: Volume 4: Claudia and Mean Janine
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2016
Writer: Raina Telgemeier, Ann M. Martin
Artist: Raina Telgemeier
Colorist: Braden Lamb
Letterer: John Green
Editor: Cassandra Pelham Fulton, David Levithan, Sheila Keenan

This is Raina Telgemeier's adaptation of one of the original Baby-Sitters Club novels by Ann M. Martin. I haven't red any of the original prose series, but this was a good solid bit of family drama with humor and heart. It doesn't quite hit at the personal level that Telgemeier's autobiographical works do, but it was still quite engaging. Although this is the fourth volume in the series, it stands alone quite well and tells a complete story.

That story focuses on the sibling rivalry between younger sister Claudia, who is into art, fashion, and Nancy Drew novels, and older sister Janine, who excels at school and loves coding and web design. Their lives are thrown into disarray when their grandmother suffers a near-fatal stroke, and the events that follow bring them apart, and then eventually together. Meanwhile, the Baby-Sitters club launches into summer with a new playgroup project that gives the other club members a chance to shine, and provides some comic relief.

Telgemeier's artwork is always wonderfully expressive, and it really shines in a lovely scene with Dawn and Kristy playing in the barn on Kristy's family's property, as well as in some nice quiet moments between Claudia, Janine, and their grandmother, Mimi.

Rating: 7.5/10