... this blog also remains unchanged forever, or so it seems. I wish I had more time, but a few weeks after I posted the "upcoming reviews" I graduated and immediately got a job. So then working-from-9-to-5 kicked in and everything else was basically put on hold. Sigh. Well, that's life, or so they say.

But I made a promise to myself: I will dedicate more time to my personal blog (which feels horribly neglected, I'm sure) and I will also keep this one up to date. It will be a nice way to end my day, and it will take my mind off work.

Let me see, I promised some reviews in my last post. I think it got to the point where I now actually have to re-read the books... so that will have to wait a bit. Instead I can tell you all about the books I an currently reading, just to keep this thing flowing.

Last week I went to Amsterdam to my favourite bookstore: ABC, The American Book Centre. I have a discount card, maybe that's why I like it so much. Anyway, they have a large selection of books and I always go home with 10-something books. This time I bought 4 parts of Meg Cabot's 1800-WHERE-R-YOU series, I remember borrowing the first book from a friend of mine a few years ago and really enjoying it. I still do. I already ordered part 1 and 5 already. I also FINALLY bought Wizards at War by Diane Duane. Last but not least I now have all 4 installments of the Sally Lockhart Mysteries by the wonderful Philip Pullman. Now if only I had time to read them, and write a review...

I recently bought a lot of BSC books, mainly mysteries, which I will review shortly. Here they are (in no particular order):

BSC #100: Kristy's worst idea

BSC Mystery #13: Mary-Anne and the library mystery
BSC Mystery #21: Claudia and the recipe for danger
BSC Mystery #22: Stacey and the haunted masquerade
BSC Mystery #23: Abby and the secret society

BSC Super Mystery #1: Baby-sitters' haunted house
BSC Super Special #6: New York, New York
BSC Super Special #9: Starring the Baby-sitters club!

Other BSC books I read recently (yes, I've been busy, these books are the perfect reading material while writing your main thesis!)

BSC Super Special #1: Baby-sitters on board
BSC Mystery #11: Claudia and the mystery at the museum

Reviews and general thoughts follow soon!

The Baby-sittersclub, these books sure bring back lots of memories! I remember the first one I ever read was #15: Little Miss Stoneybrook...and Dawn, after that one I was hooked. I was 8 or 9 years old at the time, and I believe they just started publishing the series over here in The Netherlands. Only books #1 - #66: Maid Mary Anne, 4 Super Specials (not even in order -- they published: SS 1: Baby-sitters on Board, SS 2: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation , SS 4: Baby-sitters' Island Adventure and SS 5: California Girls) and about 12 mysteries were published, so naturally I have always been curious about the later ones. #94: Stacey McGill - Super Sitter was the first one I managed to get my hands on.


I always really liked the books about Stacey. Somehow she seemed more grown up and responsible than the others -- at least in my view at the time. Perhaps because it was constantly mentioned how 'sophisticated' and 'responsible' she was. It's fun to see how fast I read these books now, and now I realize how thin the storylines are and how less actually happens. Take this book for example, Stacey has a boyfriend, Robert, she wants to give him a super special Valentine's gift and actually REALLY wants him to love New York as much as she does, so she decides she will take him to a Broadway musical. Which, of course, is EXTREMELY expensive (especially for a 13-year old, and even more so for a Valentine's gift one 13-year old gives to another 13-year old...) so Stacey decides she will take on as much baby-sitting jobs as she possibly can.

Luckily a new client, Mrs. Cheplin, contacts the BSC who wants to have a sitter every single day to take her two kids, Dana and Adam, out of school and keep them busy until she herself comes home from work. Stacey happily takes the job. As it turns out the new client actually needs a housekeeper and seems unsure if Stacey is mature enough to take this job (no, really?) especially when it becomes clear that Dana has diabetes. As we all know, Stacey also has diabetes, so nothing to worry about, really. Mrs. Cheplin decides to give it all a try for a week and if Stacey succeeds, she will get offered the job for a longer period of time. Stacey manages fine, but Mrs. Cheplin's lists of housekeeping chores get longer and longer every single day and Stacey struggles to get everything done on time. Dana also proves to be quite a handful as she is using her illness to get things her way. Eventually Stacey's mother points out to her that she starts to resemble her workaholic dad, and slowly Stacey realizes she has been greedy and blinded by the prospect of money, as this job is taking up all her time, messing up her time with her mother, father, Robery and Claudia. She simply is unable to go on like this and quits the job. There's a small subplot where Becca and Vanessa spot Logan and Kristy looking at rings. They conclude that Logan is two-timing Marry Anne. As it turns out Logan just wants to make sure he buys Mary Anne a ring she will actually like, so he is just asking Kristy for advice.

Of course one of Claudia's winning outfits is mentioned:

For instance, today she wore a long-sleeved tie-dyed shirt that she'd dyed herself. Under it she had on black leggings onto which she'd sewn patches of the tie-dyed material. Her silky, long black hair was tied back with a matching tie-dyed scrunchy.

I'm sure it looked absolutely stunning on her. Nothing at all like a patchwork quilt.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I have to admit Stacey was pretty greedy, as she was already calculating how long it would take before she could buy herself a car, and she did not seem to realize that she was letting her friends and family down. In the end she -- of course -- learned a valuable lesson and everything turns out fine.

The cover from this book is a typical "I am a strong baby-sitter" cover. A lot better than some of the "I am a highly desperate baby-sitter and OMG I don't know what to do" cover such as these: 

Recently I've started re-reading my Baby-sittersclub books, and I bought the first issue of the BSC graphic novel adaptation. I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really like the way Raina illustrated it and the way the story is retold.

I have very fond memories of the Baby-sittersclub and I want to find out how my opinions changed when I now -- 22 years old -- re-read the books. Will I still think Stacey and Claudia are amazingly cool and that their outfits are exceptional? How childish are Kristy and Mary Anne? And are their clothes really that bad? Is Dawn the health freak she is said to be? Do I still like Mallory as much as I did when I was younger -- because she is a 'writer'?