A Little Bit of Love for The Babysitter's Club

These book series, with many volumes, probably did more for literacy than people give them credit for. Getting teenagers to read and keep reading is a common topic, but these volumes were one in which teenagers could pick up voluntarily and read for themselves. My series of choice for this was The Babysitter's Club, facilitated by easy access to a large rotating shelf of them in my local library. I begged Mum if we could go into other libraries, just so I could see if they had any ones I hadn't read. I do remember reading at least one Sweet Valley book, and loving Nancy Drew when I could get my hands on them.

The Babysitter's Club showed a group of distinct, different girls being close friends, leaving aside a few books showing the sort of arguments you would expect from early-teens. Plus, they also ran a business requiring a huge amount of responsibility, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think these had some influence on my work ethic now. Put aside whether this is realistic for 13-year-olds, and see them more as role models.

Each of the girls were so different that you could distinguish between them in writing. A Claudia book sounded nothing like a Dawn book sounded nothing like a Mary-Anne book. My favourite, the character I reached for primarily, was Stacey. I loved the descriptions of her clothes, and I also loved how they showed someone can be both fashion conscious and smart. I can also credit these books with teaching me that diabetes wasn't just "something fat people have."

Another big thing this series showed was different types of families. From divorces, remarriages and one of the earliest good portrayals of step-families that I can remember, all were represented. This was true for the Babysitters, and their charges, too. It also had it's fair share of issue books, some of them dealing with family issues like these.

The diversity in these books can be considered tokenist, but I wouldn't like to comment on it, personally. I have read comments from Asian-Americans who really identified with Claudia as a Japanese-American who wasn't a nerdy stereotype, and I wouldn't like to invalidate anyone's experiences there. I will say that it was more so than other series within the same time period, but 'better than the rest' doesn't necessarily mean good.

If you haven't read them for a while, pick up a few and spend a nice afternoon getting reacquainted with old friends. Most libraries still have several copies! If you have someone in your family at just the right age, why not introduce her?