Before there was the Babysitters Club, there were four girls: Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey. As they start the summer before seventh grade, each of them is on the cusp of a big change. Kristy is still hung up on hoping that her father will return. Mary Anne has to prove to her dad that she's no longer a little girl Claudia is navigating her first major crush. Stacey is leavinger entire New York City life behind. Discover how the four become friends and that friendship grows into a very special club...
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Rachel
Amazon Verified Purchase
I must have read at least fifty of these books as a child and after coming across them in a charity shop at the age of sixteen and rediscovering the joy of the adventures of these preteen babysitters, I started to recollect the books. I now have half a shelf full of these colourful little novels sitting on my bookcase that I revisit when I'm in need of some light relief to destress myself. So when I heard that a prequel was being written I was naturally excited at the premise of it. Although many BSC fans would like to hear about the lives of the characters as adults, writing about children is what Ann M. Martin does best. The Summer Before did not disappoint.
Martin seemed to slip back into the voices of the characters very easily. I particularly liked Stacey's story as it showed her as a normal girl, dealing with the problems of broken friendships and moving house. A lot of the BSC books focused on Stacey's diabetes or her boyfriends or how "sophisticated" she was. In The Summer Before she was just a regular preteen girl and I felt that she was very realistically portrayed. I also enjoyed Claudia's story and the excitement yet disappointment of having your "first love." This was also very natural, although it would have been nice to see more of Claud's relationship with her sister Janine. Mary Anne has to cope with convincing her dad that she's old enough to babysit, and although she came across as less mature than the other girls this was in fitting with her character in the regular series. It was nice to watch Mary Anne grow and become more confident with babysitting and talking to her dad. Kristy's story was my least favourite as it seemed a bit out of the blue for her to suddenly expect her dad to visit, but it did kind of tug at heart strings. I could never imagine what it would be like to be missing one parent and have no way of contacting them, but her emotions seemed believable to me.
All in all, this was a fantastic book and was definitely worth waiting for. I only wish Ann M. Martin was creating more new Babysitters Club books as she definitely hasn't lost her touch.
Martin seemed to slip back into the voices of the characters very easily. I particularly liked Stacey's story as it showed her as a normal girl, dealing with the problems of broken friendships and moving house. A lot of the BSC books focused on Stacey's diabetes or her boyfriends or how "sophisticated" she was. In The Summer Before she was just a regular preteen girl and I felt that she was very realistically portrayed. I also enjoyed Claudia's story and the excitement yet disappointment of having your "first love." This was also very natural, although it would have been nice to see more of Claud's relationship with her sister Janine. Mary Anne has to cope with convincing her dad that she's old enough to babysit, and although she came across as less mature than the other girls this was in fitting with her character in the regular series. It was nice to watch Mary Anne grow and become more confident with babysitting and talking to her dad. Kristy's story was my least favourite as it seemed a bit out of the blue for her to suddenly expect her dad to visit, but it did kind of tug at heart strings. I could never imagine what it would be like to be missing one parent and have no way of contacting them, but her emotions seemed believable to me.
All in all, this was a fantastic book and was definitely worth waiting for. I only wish Ann M. Martin was creating more new Babysitters Club books as she definitely hasn't lost her touch.
By Kirsten123
Amazon Verified Purchase
Love it, a really good story and great! Not in great condition but lovely story!!! I love reading it!!!! Cant wait to read it again!
By Lesley Watt
Amazon Verified Purchase
Having read the Babysitters Club books from a young age, I was interested to see what the prequel would be. At nearly 26, I was under no illusions about the age level of this book. Anyone who goes in expecting an adult-written story will be disappointed, however I went in expecting the story, like the original series, to be a story written for 9-12 year olds. Bearing that in mind, the story was well written and the characters were believable. What's more the issues were real - divorce, new stepparents, strict parents, illness, not fitting in... all things we experience in our early teens. It was nice to see the history, even though we knew what was to come over the next 2 years.
I would love to see a future story about the Babysitters Club girls as adults as the series ended when they were 14.
I would love to see a future story about the Babysitters Club girls as adults as the series ended when they were 14.
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