Review: Baby Sitter Summer by Ann M Martin et al

Forty years after Kristy's Great Idea first hit the shelves, The Baby-Sitters Club is back! The first fully original BSC book to be released in a number of years, Baby-Sitter Summer is a collaborative effort between beloved BSC author Ann M Martin and six other authors--Becky Albertalli, Coe Booth, Sarah Kuhn, Peter Lerangis, Jahnna N Malcolm and Emma Staub. And the result is a delight from start to finish.

Told in a similar format to the original super specials, with chapters alternating between the seven club members, the novel opens with what else, but summer vacation. As is typical with a BSC novel, things are a little non linear (after all, how many summer vacations did they have, only to mysterious be back in the same grade at school again,) but for anyone looking closely for details, the timeline in this one mostly fits anywhere between books 32 and 59. Stacey is back from New York, Mary Anne's dad and Dawn's mom have married, but some of the changes that occurred in the series--Mary Anne's haircut, Dawn moving to California, Abby joining the BSC and Mallory leaving for boarding school has yet to happen. (Though Dawn does mention having a stepmother, a development that did not occur until a bit later in the series.) 

It is summer vaccation and nearly all of the members of the BSC are going away on separate vacations. Kristy is baby-sitting the Papdakis kids on Rhode Island where she has her first crush ... on a girl called Rowan. Dawn is working at a drama camp and Claudia art camp. Mallory is off to Ireland. Jessi is going with her mother to her college reunion. And Stacey and Mary Anne are home in Stoneybrook, where Stacey soon develops a crush on a carnie who is also in a boy band and Mary Anne finds a way to overcome her shyness. 

This was a lovely, nostalgic read that brought back some great memories of reading the BSC. There were a few plot points in there that I felt were done to please fans. However, the thing I found most interesting about this one is that there is a big fat number 1 on the spine, suggesting that it may be the first in a new series ... or is the publisher just having a bit of fun with us? Time will tell.

Recommended. 

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