I'm finally back to blabbing incoherently about authors I've read/who've influenced me. And frankly, it's about time I mentioned Ann M Martin.
If you don't know, Ann wrote The Babysitters Club books. I hadn't even heard of them, but when I was 9, I was given The Truth About Stacey (book3) and Boy Crazy Stacey (book8), and I loved them to pieces. I wish now I didn't have such a sweet tooth, and had saved all my pocket money to negociate more books out my parents (I was creating loan structures with them from the age of 7, when I wanted a set of quints cousins for £3. So pricey for my 75p a week pocket money ...) but I still had a fair collection by the time I was 13/14. I know I should have grown out of them by then, but I was amazed that she'd written so much about this one group of girls - there's almost 200 of the original series, another 20 of the restyled series, 15 specials, 30-odd mysteries, plus the Little Sister and California Diaries spin offs. And since getting more disposable income, I've slowly tried to get the complete series - there's a lot of my room dedicated to those little brick spines. And even more of my storage.
I have reread some in recent years. I kind of wish I hadn't. The writing is so poor, I mean, it was a revelation when I was 9. But I don't think little kids could follow the writing properly these days. Well, maybe they can with the later books, but the first books are so vague in descriptions and the storylines are rushed through a couple of weeks, and she doesn't let things gestate. I worry I'm the same with my writing tbh.
Anyway, I remember reading someone's opinion on amazon about the series, saying they liked Stacey best because she was the only one with any flaws ... but I disagree. Stacey was the best character in the series because she was more like a typical teenager. She had fleeting crushes, she felt betrayed by some people she loved the most (her parents, her boyfriend), she went through phases of hating her friends (we've all been there ...) but she always rationalised everything she did, even if it was just that that was where she needed to be, to grow, or if it were just that she was young and allowed to make mistakes. The other characters, Mary Anne and Kristy especially, were so wound up on their stereotype that it was hard to see if they acknowledged what they actually needed for growth. Stacey changed the most in the books, which considering they had so many birthdays/Christmases/Halloweens etc, would make the most sense (and despite the amount of aforementioned celebrations, they remained 13 after book 10. Before, they were all 12).
California Diaries was good in the sense that Dawn's world got unsettled, the edges became blurred and she couldn't be a stereotype anymore. But still - one of her friends was anorexic, another had an abusive boyfriend, another had a suicidal friend ... it sounded like she was putting speech marks around a text book and using the books as a point to preach from. No subtlety ... no real art.
I loved her growing up, and The Babysitters Club will always be a big part of my reading history, but now I'm a little analyst ... not so much.
Sorry Ann. I'm sorry I grew up.
If you don't know, Ann wrote The Babysitters Club books. I hadn't even heard of them, but when I was 9, I was given The Truth About Stacey (book3) and Boy Crazy Stacey (book8), and I loved them to pieces. I wish now I didn't have such a sweet tooth, and had saved all my pocket money to negociate more books out my parents (I was creating loan structures with them from the age of 7, when I wanted a set of quints cousins for £3. So pricey for my 75p a week pocket money ...) but I still had a fair collection by the time I was 13/14. I know I should have grown out of them by then, but I was amazed that she'd written so much about this one group of girls - there's almost 200 of the original series, another 20 of the restyled series, 15 specials, 30-odd mysteries, plus the Little Sister and California Diaries spin offs. And since getting more disposable income, I've slowly tried to get the complete series - there's a lot of my room dedicated to those little brick spines. And even more of my storage.
I have reread some in recent years. I kind of wish I hadn't. The writing is so poor, I mean, it was a revelation when I was 9. But I don't think little kids could follow the writing properly these days. Well, maybe they can with the later books, but the first books are so vague in descriptions and the storylines are rushed through a couple of weeks, and she doesn't let things gestate. I worry I'm the same with my writing tbh.
Anyway, I remember reading someone's opinion on amazon about the series, saying they liked Stacey best because she was the only one with any flaws ... but I disagree. Stacey was the best character in the series because she was more like a typical teenager. She had fleeting crushes, she felt betrayed by some people she loved the most (her parents, her boyfriend), she went through phases of hating her friends (we've all been there ...) but she always rationalised everything she did, even if it was just that that was where she needed to be, to grow, or if it were just that she was young and allowed to make mistakes. The other characters, Mary Anne and Kristy especially, were so wound up on their stereotype that it was hard to see if they acknowledged what they actually needed for growth. Stacey changed the most in the books, which considering they had so many birthdays/Christmases/Halloweens etc, would make the most sense (and despite the amount of aforementioned celebrations, they remained 13 after book 10. Before, they were all 12).
California Diaries was good in the sense that Dawn's world got unsettled, the edges became blurred and she couldn't be a stereotype anymore. But still - one of her friends was anorexic, another had an abusive boyfriend, another had a suicidal friend ... it sounded like she was putting speech marks around a text book and using the books as a point to preach from. No subtlety ... no real art.
I loved her growing up, and The Babysitters Club will always be a big part of my reading history, but now I'm a little analyst ... not so much.
Sorry Ann. I'm sorry I grew up.
Haha You know I loved those books too! I had a few but probably read most of them from the library!
ReplyDeleteMe too. Once, I was reading a Mallory book, I think the one where she got Glandular Fever? Someone ripped out like, 5 pages. I was so mad, but so scared to give it back in case they thought I did it. I told them ... think they believed me ...
ReplyDelete