Today Marshmallow reviews Kristy’s Great Idea, the first book in Ann M. Martin’s classic series, The Baby-Sitters Club, reimagined and rewritten as a graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier.
Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books or graphic novels about friendship, then this might be the book for you.
Marshmallow’s Summary: When her mother is unable to find a babysitter for her younger brother, Kristy Thomas comes up with a great idea: The Baby-Sitters Club. She decides that she will start a babysitting business together with her best friends Mary Ann Spier and Claudia Kishi.
The girls decide to meet at Claudia’s house and they talk about what they will do. They decide that they will meet regularly in Claudia’s room because she has a phone that they can use for clients’ calls. Claudia tells Kristy and Mary Ann that she knows whom they should invite to be in the club. They should ask Stacey McGill to join them. Claudia tells them that Stacey just moved from New York and that she used to babysit there. The rest of the girls meet Stacey in their next meeting and they decide that she can be in the club.
In the rest of the book the girls babysit multiple children and Kristy becomes closer to the children that might become her step-siblings.
Marshmallow’s Review: This is a book about friendship. It is the first book of a very successful book series that was originally written in 1986 by Ann M. Martin, but was in 2006 made into a graphic novel, by Raina Telgemeier.
Kristy’s Great Idea is a good book for people who enjoyed Raina Telgemeier’s other books (see my review of her book Ghosts here). The book is one hundred eighty pages, so younger readers might take a longer time reading it and might find it a little hard to read. I think that this book is probably best for ages seven and up.
I think that my favorite character is Karen, one of the kids that might become Kristy’s stepsiblings. I think that she is funny because she thinks that her neighbor is a witch, and put a spell on their cat Boo Boo.
The characters are all well developed. They are also very different from each other. For example, Mary Anne is quiet and shy, while her best friend is a bit bossy and opinionated. Meanwhile, Claudia and Stacey are interested in fashion, but Claudia is a great artist (she is the one who draws the Baby-Sitters Club symbol), and Stacey is more into the styles that are popular. But they still are all great friends.
The book bunnies got into the Baby-Sitters Clubs series because of the new Netflix show The Baby-Sitters Club. Here is a trailer:
There are a lot of differences between the Netflix show and the graphic novels. And I am guessing there are some differences between the original books and the graphic novels. But so far I have not yet read any of the originals. Maybe some day…
Marshmallow’s Rating: 95%.
BookBunnies 
It’s nice to have friends for a lifetime, but they are hard to find. Also necessity is a business opportunity as Kristy finds out.
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What a nice idea! A club of young girls, united in purpose. I hope they make long lasting friendships. I lost all the friends I made at an early age, as we had to pull our roots and move to another country. Through the years, I’ve often wondered what became of them.
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