Allowance Busters: Sweet Valley High, Babysitters Club, and other YA serials

[starri 18.7k]

On 4/23/2020 at 11:24 PM, Sarahsmile416 said:

My oldest daughter has ASD and unfortunately her portrayal of Susan relied mostly on stereotypes as I recall...and Kristy wanting to “fix” her kind of bothers me in retrospect.  However, I do admire her for touching on the subject and having the characters try to include Susan in things - in that respect, I think it was excellent.  So, maybe a mixed bag all in all lol.  

One of the later Super Specials had Dawn working as a counselor at a day camp Susan attended.  From my memory, they did a much better job.  They had very good description of stimming and even reference Temple Grandin when Susan uses a hug machine when she gets overwhelmed.

[starri 18.7k]

The team behind The Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor will be adapting Midnight Club for Netflix.  No indication that it's going to be part of that series, but they do say that they'll bring in elements of Pike's stories beyond just that one.

The Haunting of Rotterdam Home is a good title, though...

[wallflower75 5.2k]

9 hours ago, starri said:

The team behind The Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor will be adapting Midnight Club for Netflix.  No indication that it's going to be part of that series, but they do say that they'll bring in elements of Pike's stories beyond just that one.

The Haunting of Rotterdam Home is a good title, though...

*happy Snoopy dance*

I don't have a lot of paper books anymore since I started reading ebooks, but I still have my copies of the early Pike books.

[Starleigh 159]

So, I had ordered one of The Fabulous Five super editions (by Betsy Haynes) out of nostalgia and am currently rereading it after a gap of, like, 25 years+.

I must admit, it does not hold up well, especially when compared to a series such as the BSC or even SVT, which are still quite readable, with relatable and interesting characters. This one (the one where they have a sleepover and switch bodies) is just annoying to read now, with equally unlikable characters! It almost makes me wonder if it was written by a ghostwriter possibly, because I recently re-read an oldie but goodie by Betsy Haynes--The Great Mom Swap-- and I really enjoyed the nostalgic read.

Edited May 7 by Starleigh

[atomic 653]

A July 3rd release date was just announced for the Netflix BSC series:

 

[Starleigh 159]

I've been waiting!

ETA: my sister totally had that phone!!

Edited May 12 by Starleigh

[Listeria Bangs 7]

That was the phone every pre-teen wanted (if they didn't have it already) back in the day! A nice shoutout to the original BSC generation.

[SnarkySheep 1.6k]

On 5/6/2020 at 10:31 PM, Starleigh said:

So, I had ordered one of The Fabulous Five super editions (by Betsy Haynes) out of nostalgia and am currently rereading it after a gap of, like, 25 years+.

I must admit, it does not hold up well, especially when compared to a series such as the BSC or even SVT, which are still quite readable, with relatable and interesting characters.

Not to mention, Fab Five takes place in Bridgeport, CT - a real city. It's got a population of about 150,000, yet the books are written as though the girls live in a tiny town where everyone knows everyone and can easily get around on foot or with a short ride. Also, it's like 50% African-American or Hispanic, yet all the kids at school were white...

I'm not saying they couldn't set the books in whatever town or city they wanted, since I'm sure that most kids reading them would have no idea Bridgeport is a real place. But if they were going to turn the real place into total fantasy, you'd think they would just make up a fictitious location, like Stoneybrook for the BSC.

[Minneapple 10.1k]

The new trailer for the Baby-sitters Club series!

 

 

[SnarkySheep 1.6k]

Oh Lord, it's the classic "we must be having tons of fun because we've all got our arms around each other" pose!

[Minneapple 10.1k]

I do like how they have specific moments from the books -- like the "arms around each other" pose appears to be from the special when they went to camp? And Kristy's mom getting married, and Logan and Mary Anne getting together, and it appears as though Stacey and Mary Anne are in Sea City.

[Minneapple 10.1k]

Watching Baby-Sitters Club with my daughter and niece and it is truly cute and wholesome. There are some interesting changes from the books, but it's close enough that it will keep us old-school fans smiling!

[Starleigh 159]

Halfway through the Netflix series, and I have to say, it's pretty charming! They did a great job of bringing in enough nostalgic references from the original time setting and weaving it in pretty seamlessly to present times, imo.

There are some minor changes to some of the characters that work pretty well. Only thing that seems a bit odd to me is turning Dawn's mom into a New Agey type-- that bit didn't really work for me. The other thing that seems pretty jarring is the way the girls casually address all of the parent clients by their first names. Do 12 year olds really do that nowadays? Not just for close family friends?

Some of the best bits for me: Karen and her witch obsession, how they updated Stacey's diabetic situation, Janine's lording her intellect over Claudia. 

I'm currently in the middle of the Sea City episode and am loving Vanessa and her poetry dialogue:)

[SnarkySheep 1.6k]

Also, Mary Anne is now an African-American girl...which would take the wind out of Jessi' sails, except there is no Jessi. 

Claudia looks like she's 10 years old, and Charlie and Sam, who I always felt were SO old when I initially read these books, look like the children they actually still are.

Dawn has dark brown hair.

And, Lord have mercy, Alicia Silverstone is Kristy's mom. I will forever think of her as a teenager.

Edited July 10 by SnarkySheep

[Jenniferbug 3.7k]

I brought home all my Babysitters Club books from my parents' house this weekend. I read the first one this afternoon! Nice to read something fun and light. 

Karen says Kristy's mom is named Edie and not Elizabeth! 

[andromeda331 23.4k]

3 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

I brought home all my Babysitters Club books from my parents' house this weekend. I read the first one this afternoon! Nice to read something fun and light. 

That's great! 

Quote

Karen says Kristy's mom is named Edie and not Elizabeth! 

Yeah it was weird because it only came up in the first book and the never mentioned it again. Then again there were a few mistakes like forgetting they already gave Mary Anne's mother a name in Mary Anne Saves the Day, Abigail and changing the names of Watson's ex-wife and her husband from Sheila and Kendall to Lisa and Seth. Although I remember reading that and assumed Kendall was a woman and thought the marriage ended because Sheila realized she was a lesbian. I was disappointed when I later realized Kendall later Seth was a guy. 

[PRgal 4.5k]

OMG!  As I said over on the BSC (Netflix) thread, I recently bought a tin box collection of the original six books on Amazon!  Out of the three series I read:  BSC, SVT (not allowed to read SVH) and Fab Five, BSC was definitely my favourite.  There was also a short-lived series based on the game, Girl Talk.  That one sucked...one of the book's main characters was Indigenous/Native American and was very tall for a middle schooler (5'7" at 12/13).  That's all I remember about the series.

[andromeda331 23.4k]

5 minutes ago, PRgal said:

OMG!  As I said over on the BSC (Netflix) thread, I recently bought a tin box collection of the original six books on Amazon!  Out of the three series I read:  BSC, SVT (not allowed to read SVH) and Fab Five, BSC was definitely my favourite.  There was also a short-lived series based on the game, Girl Talk.  That one sucked...one of the book's main characters was Indigenous/Native American and was very tall for a middle schooler (5'7" at 12/13).  That's all I remember about the series.

I read mostly BSC and each of the Sweet Valley series. I was only able to find one Fab Five and Girl Talk for some reason the book stores and libraries around me never had them. That's one good thing about Amazon and Ebay you can usually find most books your looking for instead of having to depend on whatever shows up at the book stores.

[Minneapple 10.1k]

So one neat twist to the Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels and the Netflix series: they've apparently revived interest in the original books, which are being reprinted (with new covers) and are in stores now! We were at Target the other day and my daughter got The Ghost at Dawn's House. They also had a bunch of other books. It's so much fun that I can bond with my daughter over this!

[Annber03 26.0k]

Ooh, awesome! I'll have to keep an eye out for those. 

[andromeda331 23.4k]

That's cool!