The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea

I guess I never remembered that at the start of the series, the girls were 12 and in 7th grade. I swear that they go from 7th to 8th grade pretty fast, especially consider that they are in 8th grade for fucking ever!

My first impression, if anyone wondered, is that the BSC books are better written than the SVT. I think this is why I liked the BSC better overall. And aren’t you loving Claudia’s side ponytail? One of her signature styles!

For the record, I always had a hard time telling Dawn and Stacey apart on the covers. Obviously since Dawn is not around yet, the blond is Stacey, but in later covers I can promise it can be hard. Stacey’s style is supposed to be so unique and it just isn’t. I mean, a red shirt and then burgundy bottoms? That’s not fashion, Stacey dear, it’s called getting dressed in the dark. But enough with the cover analysis, let’s get into some awesome outfit descriptions…

Stacey had on a pink sweat shirt with sequins and a large purple parrot on the front; short, tight-fitting jeans with zippers on the outsides of the legs, and pink plastic shoes.

God kill me if I ever find any evidence, in my brain or otherwise, that I wore jeans with zippers on the outsides of the legs. Gym attire, sure, no problem. Jeans? That’s a totally other story. Also, pink, purple parrot, and sequins? Oy. I am not entirely sure what the pink plastic shoes thing is either. Are we talking jelly shoes? I know what those are, wore some myself, but they weren’t exactly plastic, more rubbery.

The plot of this book is that Kristy gets the idea to form the BSC and wow, it is such a great idea! Also her mom is dating some dude called Watson who Kristy hates, until the end when she accepts him. I don’t think it’s ever described how much money Watson has, but he’s rich. He buys Kristy’s family chinese food all the time! Kristy LOOOOOOOVES chinese food! At the end of the book, Kristy’s mom and Watson get engaged.

Reading this book also recalled to me how much I hated that the entries in the BSC notebook were always in actual handwriting of the individual girls. Also, I think this book was before they really established how bad Claudia was with spelling, because in reading her notebook entry, I only spotted one spelling error. Granted I was skimming, but I think they made her more of an idiot as time went on. Must have been the fumes from all her outfit creations.

I’m embarrassed to say this, but this description launched an obsession with nightshirts for me - Stacey had a really spectacular nightshirt with gold glitter and the skyline of New York City across the front. Now I think of it and gold glitter on your shirt means gold glitter in your bed, which doesn’t sound like fun. But back then, I totally wanted that night shirt.

We also learned in the last chapter that Stacey has diabetes. For some reason, I thought we didn’t learn this until book 3, The Truth About Stacey, but I guess I was wrong. Anyway, I remember that shortly after starting this series when I was in elementary school, one of my friends was diagnosed with diabetes. We all felt bad for her, but the silver lining was that at least she was a little like Stacey McGill!