Day 1 - Favourite Sitter
If you'd asked me this question ten years ago, when I first read these books, I would definitely have said Mallory Pike. As a preteen I had chunky glasses, braces, awkward clothes and an obsession with reading and writing. I didn't have a huge family (although we spent a lot of time with my mum's best friend, who had five red-haired children...seeing the similarity here?) and I'm afraid I've never been into horses in any way, but other than that we could have been twins. Mallory Hates Boys (and Gym) still resonates with me even as a twenty-year-old, and I cringe alongside Mallory as she's chosen last for the volleyball team and can't hit the ball to save her life.
But now that I'm older, I'm definitely more like Mary Anne Spier. I'm not quite as super-sensitive as she is, but I do cry at a lot of things, and last week I bawled at a climatic scene in a Firefly, which surprised even myself. Like Mary Anne, I love classic children's books - Little Women and Anne of Green Gables are my favourites - and my family owns two cats, who are currently shunning me as I only come home from university every two months and they're unimpressed with this. My dad wasn't quite as strict as Mary Anne's, but my family were definitely stricter than my school-friends'. I never really underwent a dramatic makeover as such in high school, but when I was fourteen I had my waist-length hair cut to my shoulders and everyone made a big deal out of it. I've always been seen as the responsible one in my group of friends (or the "Mummy" of the group, but let's not go into that...) and I was voted "Most Responsible" in my high school yearbook. While I never had a boyfriend at all in high school, I'm the only one of my friends to be engaged at university, much like Mary Anne was the only one of her friends to have a steady boyfriend. Enough comparisons? I think so. I definitely relate a lot more to Mary Anne so she has to be my favourite character as an adult.
Did you read the Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin? Who was your favourite character? Has this changed over time?
I used to love these when I was a kid but don't remember any of the characters. Did one of them have a directors chair and a stash of chocolate?
ReplyDeleteLainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
Yes! Kristy, the club president, sat in a directors chair and always wore a visor. Claudia, the VP, had a stash of junk food in her room where they held the meetings. Good memory :)
ReplyDeleteI don't remember reading the books growing up but I do remember the TV show.
ReplyDeleteCarissa, I've managed to find some episodes of the TV series on the internet, it's pretty funny. Pity I never got the chance to see it as a kid but I think it premièred in 1991? In which case, I would have been a baby!
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