Thoughts before reading:
I definitely read this one as a kid, but I never owned it back then and I don't really remember my impressions of it. Kristy was one of my least favorite babysitters, so I never spent my hard earned allowance money on her books. I did own a few I got as gifts later on, but that was it. I remembered a lot of the plot of this going in though, since this is the basic background book that is recounted in chapter two of EVERY SINGLE book going forward.
I also read the graphic novel adaptation of this not too long ago, and I really enjoyed it! The graphic novels cover all the story points but without some of the clunky unnecessary text, and the illustrations are spot on. It's fun to see things I had to picture as a kid laid out, like Claudia's room, Watson's mansion, etc.
I do like this appropriately 80s cover a lot. Other than Kristy, everyone looks how I would picture them. I can't even tell which one she is supposed to be.
The Basics:
This covers the club's formation and everyone's very first sitting jobs. I think we all know the story behind Kristy's idea: she gets in trouble in class, has to write an essay on decorum, overhears her mom trying to find a sitter for her little brother, and suddenly realizes how much better it would be to call one number and reach a bunch of sitters at once, etc. She tells Mary Anne and Claudia, who then invites Stacey. They make fliers, call clients, and put an ad in the paper. At the first meeting, each girl gets a job. Stacey sits for David Michael and meets Sam, who joins them for a candy land tournament. Kristy sits for a new client and has a misunderstanding when they turn out to have dogs instead of kids. Claudia sits for Jamie, but his poorly behaved cousins are unexpectedly included in the job. Mary Anne sits for Watson's kids, the first to meet them. These misadventures give Kristy the idea for the infamous club notebook (those handwritten entries we will be seeing for the rest of the series).
One of the other main plots in this book is Kristy's mom dating Watson, who Kristy hates. She's jealous because he's a good father to his kids, and she never hears from hers. She does stuff like refusing to watch his kids, and refusing to eat dinners he brings over. Then Watson's ex-wife breaks her ankle and he has to go to the hospital to help with the insurance, so Kristy finally has to sit for Karen and Andrew. They bond a bit over having divorced parents, and she ends up liking them and warming up a bit to Watson. Just in time, because shortly after he becomes engaged to her mom.
Towards the end of the book the BSC gets into their first fight because Stacey lies about being in New York to avoid the pizza party (because of her diabetes, of course). She finally admits the truth, everyone is very supportive, and the book ends with the slumber party.
Timeline:
Kristy has the idea for the club the first Tuesday of 7th grade, so September?
My Thoughts:
This book didn't cover anything I didn't already remember really well, but it's a nice introduction to the characters and story. Also nice not to have the chapter 2 background. I think we all skipped those as kids?
I've heard a lot of hate about how Kristy acts towards Watson in this book, but I didn't really find it surprising... she's jealous because she never even hears from her dad, and Watson sees his kids all the time, not to mention he's taking up her mom's time. Plus, she's 12, and in this book the girls actually act 12. Kids are brats at that age... I know I was.
I thought it was cute how all the girls showed up so early to the first BSC meeting because they were so excited. They even hung a sign outside Claudia's bedroom door and were jumpy when someone knocked on the door, thinking it was a client at first. I would definitely have been the same way at that age.
I also remember, even when I was really young, thinking how unrealistic it was that so many people would trust 12 year old kids to babysit for them. Obviously I can still see that and later on in the series it will probably be way worse, but so far I was pleasantly surprised. Their clients are mainly their own families, family friends, and neighbors that live very close and have known them their whole lives. Even as the series stretches on, I know they sit for the same people a lot, and the jobs are usually very short, like 2 hours while a parent goes to a doctor's appointment.
This book did have a little continuity problem already, with the Summer Before. At the beginning when Kristy is talking about Claudia, she makes it sound like they were never very close. In later BSC books I'm pretty sure it says they were, and in the Summer Before they definitely were. A big part of the plot was all three girls being sad over growing apart.
Misc:
*Sam's in the math club; he's perfect for Stacey, haha! I loved them as a kid, might have been my very first ship ever.
*Don't Claudia's parents ever look around her room? They don't seem that trusting to me...
*The first BSC client ever was Kristy's mom. Very fitting, I know whenever I tried to start a business as a kid my parents/friend's parents were the main or only clients. And yes, I did constantly try to start businesses as a child, thanks to my obsession with these books!
*Claudia's spelling seems better here than it does later on.
*First BSC wage: $3.50
*I always thought Karen's Morbidda Destiny thing (her neighbor being a witch with a secret name) was her overactive imagination, but in this book it says the older kids in the neighborhood told her about it?
*The phone numbers on the fliers use the KL format for the fictional 555 phone numbers. I had to look it up, I'd never heard of those before.
My rating:
4 stars, an enjoyable nostalgic read
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