Review: Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far) by Ann M. Martin

Pearl Littlefield’s first assignment in fifth grade is complicated: She has to write an essay about her summer. Where does she begin? Her dad lost his job, she had to go to a different camp—one where her older sister Lexie was a counselor-in-training (ugh!)—and she and her good friend James Brubaker III had a huge fight, which made them both wonder if the other kids were right that girls and boys can’t be good friends and which landed one of them in the hospital. 

And there’s much, much more on the list of good and bad things, as Ann Martin takes this appealing character into new adventures through which young readers will see that good or bad, life is what happens when you’re making other plans. (Feiwel & Friends, October 2012)

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars (Very Good)

My only major complaint about this book would have to be that the title really doesn't relate to the book. Although Pearl does discuss good and bad things about her life, the book focuses on a single summer - not her entire life - and the phrase in the title never comes up in the novel, as the title of the first book did. Other than that, this book was a wonderful sequel to Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, with a slightly more mature Pearl who has a better understanding of the world and the dynamics in her own family. 

I think a lot of preteens will be able to relate to Pearl's struggles with being old enough to see the problems her family is facing, but not being old enough to help out, as her teenage sister can. I could see how Pearl had matured from the last book, but she still had some little quirks and mannerisms that made me realise how young Pearl still is. I think Ann M. Martin accurately captured the way that ten year olds speak and think, and there were many phrases that made me want to laugh out loud. Others weren't so funny, but were still touching, like when Pearl's father loses his job and the first thing Pearl wonders is whether this means he'll have more time to play Boggle with her. She understands what losing his job will mean for the family and their finances, but as a child she's still happy that her dad will be around more to play games. This section of the book, and many others, felt so honest and realistic. 

As in the first book, I loved the dynamics between Pearl and Lexie, and although they weren't quite as amusing as in the prequel, it was touching to see Pearl comforting Lexie when her boyfriend broke up with her and Lexie protecting Pearl from bullies at camp. I don't have a sister, but the presentation of their relationship seemed fairly realistic. 

I loved the way that Pearl's love of art was continued from the first book, but developed out of making posters for her door into designing her own notecards and stationary. I often wonder how many kids can really relate to all the sewing and knitting in Ann M. Martin's Main Street series, but general art is something that I imagine more kids enjoy doing. 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. When I finished Ten Rules for Living with My Sister I had immediately wished that Ann would write a sequel, but I didn't imagine it would happen. I stumbled across this book on Amazon purely by accident about a week before the novel was due to release and it was a lovely surprise to learn that I could read more about Pearl and Lexie. Obviously these books have been a big success. Publishers Weekly described Pearl and Lexie as a modern-day version of Ramona and Beezus, and perhaps that is part of the reason why I like these books so much. I'm so glad that Ann M. Martin is continuing to write children's books. Having grown up with the Baby-Sitters Club books, I hope that Pearl and Lexie and the Main Street books will appeal to my daughters, if I have any. But who knows, maybe Ann will have another series by the time my kids are old enough to read chapter books? Highly recommended to girls aged 8 - 10. And I'm sure plenty of adults will enjoy Pearl's antics as much as I did. 

Remembering the Babysitters Club

Although I was a nineties kid and a noughties teen, I, like hundreds of thousands of girls across the globe, was affected by the work of Ann M. Martin. Her Babysitters Club series was first published in 1986 and sold over 176 million copies worldwide. Although I also gobbled up Sweet Valley and Nancy Drew stories, it was the world of preteen babysitters that truly enchanted me. My dad used to moan at me for reading books that weren’t particularly educational or enlightening, but I’d have to say that I’d encourage my own daughters to read this series. 

While so many young teens read about gossiping, stealing boyfriends, buying clothes and joining the popular crowd, the adventures of Kristy, Mary Anne and their fellow sitters focused on having slumber parties, looking after younger siblings, making friends and discovering new talents. Even though the girls did have crushes on boys and go shopping at the mall, there is more to life for the BSC. Kristy coaches a softball team, Mary Anne loves to read and knit, Claudia takes art classes, Stacey is a Mathlete, Dawn cares about environmental issues, Mallory writes stories, Jessi is a ballerina and Abby plays soccer. And of course, they all love to babysit! 

The focus on babysitting, I believe, shows how much the girls care about their families. Kristy always jumps at the chance to babysit for her stepsiblings, Karen and Andrew. Sure, Claudia always moans about her oldest sister, Janine, and Mary Anne resents her father’s over protectiveness of her, but they love them really. The girls have fights with their parents and siblings and friends but ultimately they always work things out. Even when Stacey makes friends with the popular crowd and leaves the club for several books, she returns because she does care about her old friends. Friendship is the basis of the club – there is no bitching, back-stabbing or gossiping here. Sure, the girls argue, but only as much as a normal group of a friends; a group that has foundations in more than just fashion and boys. 

As a teenager, I was definitely a Mallory. I had glasses and braces at the age of 11 and always felt rather dorky. I wore rather outrageous outfits that I'm sure looked hideous on me, just because I was trying to be "cool" like my older friends. But I also loved to read and write tons of stories. Now I think I'm more of a Mary Anne - I'm a bit conservative, sometimes shy, have a steady boyfriend and love both books and cats! This was the wonderful thing about the BSC - there was always a girl that you could relate to. There was even a boy babysitter, Logan Bruno, to appeal to the male audience (as well as Shannon, another extra sitter who wasn't mentioned quite as often). I actually knew one boy who liked to read these books!

Thinking of boys and the BSC reminds me of the time that my friends and I tried to start a Babysitters Club Fan Club. There were four of us who loved the books - three ten-year-old girls and one boy in the year above us. We made badges out of cardboard and safety-pins and wore them on our school uniforms, probably causing everyone to make fun of us. We tried to have club meetings at school and I vaguely recall being allowed to meet in the library at break time, so I suppose our teachers must have been happy that we were appreciating some form of literature. We even had three newsletters - two of them word-processed on our dad's computers and one laboriously hand-written and copied several times. Alas, the club failed after a while. But the amazing thing was that at least five kids who had never read the books wanted to be part of our club just because it sounded like fun. Clubs have always had some sort of appeal, which explains the popularity of the Babysitters Club. From the Sleepover Club to the Unicorn Club, children have adored uniting because of a common interest. And while me and my friends weren't old enough to babysit (we may have been almost the same age as Mal and Jessi but this was 2001!) we formed a fan club for the books that we loved the most.

The Babysitters Club still unites people all over the world - there are websites where fans blog, snark and generally chat about their favourite children's book series.  Just check out the list of book blogs that I follow and you'll find a few there. The love of the Babysitters Club series did not end when the final book was published in 2000. In fact, ten years later, Ann M. Martin released a prequel to the series, The Summer Before, which I read earlier this year and was incredibly satisfied with. The girls were exactly as I remembered them and Ann hasn't lost her touch after all these years. Although the books were ghostwritten as the series picked up popularity and thus slightly lost their Ann-touch, I still enjoy them as they contain the typical BSC values of friendship and families first, and also the general craziness of thirteen-year-olds who are allowed to babysit! 

I'd never allow a preteen to babysit my kids - nor would I allow my kids to babysit until they're at least sixteen! But this doesn't dampen my love for these wonderful books. Yes, they can be unrealistic, and yes, caricatures appear with more frequency as the novels became ghostwritten. But these books inspired me and made me happy when I was a dorky, Mallory-like child. And today, while I'm balancing John Milton's Paradise Lost and Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed, I may find myself turning to Mallory's Mystery Diary or Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street to cheer myself up!

Check out Babysitters Club Week at Bri Meets Books.

Rachel's Top Ten Holiday Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. 

Each week they post a new Top Ten list that one of their bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers. Don't worry if you don't have ten or if you have more than ten! Post what you can!

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott This was one of my favourite books as a child and I try to reread it at least once a year. I don't always manage this, but I always make sure that I watch the film over the Christmas holidays! Although the book doesn't focus primarily on Christmas there are several Christmas scenes throughout and it just has a lovely, family-orientated, wholesome feel that is perfect for the Christmas season.

2. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery This is another book that doesn't focus on Christmas but has wonderful values in it that I always associate with the season. Another childhood favourite!

3. Christmas with Anne: and Other Holiday Stories by L. M. Montgomery This is a wonderful little collection of stories that I read last Christmas and adored. Two of the stories come from the "Anne" novels but he rest are taken from newspapers and magazines that Montgomery wrote for. The stories focus on events surrounding Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year. The themes can be rather same-y but I'd recommend reading one every few days for the month of December and it'll definitely get you in the mood for Christmas and cheer you up! 

4. A Simple Amish Christmas by Vannetta Chapman I read this a few months ago as a review book for Abingdon Press and loved it! I'm a fan of Amish fiction, romances and Christmas stories so this was perfect for me. Check out this review to find out more.

5. Grace by Shelley Shepard Gray This is another recent read with a wonderful message and Christmassy setting. Check out the review for more information if you're a fan of Amish romances and happily ever afters.

6. Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans by L. M. Montgomery You may have guessed who one of my favourite comfort-read authors is! I just think that Montgomery suits the holiday season perfectly with her sweet stories and wholesome values. This is a collection of stories about orphans who either get reunited with family members or make their own new families. Plenty of happy endings and will definitely put a smile on your face. Click here for more information. 

7. The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows I read this around Christmas 2009 so for that reason will always associate this book with Christmas. I do think it suits the season as it's an easy read and made me smile a lot. Juliet, the main character, reminded me a lot of Jo March so perhaps that's why this book reminds me of Christmas.

8. White Boots by Noel Streatfeild One of my favourite children's authors, although I didn't read this book until 2008. As I read this over Christmas I, again, associate it with that season but I'm fairly certain that it was also set in winter. Anything by Streatfeild is perfect for the holidays, much like Alcott and Montgomery.

9. Forever Rose by Hilary McKay McKay is a severely underrated kids author who I absolutely adore. This is the fifth book in her Casson Family series but you could easily pick it up and read it as a standalone novel. This book is partly set over Christmas and I loved the angst that Rose had because her class teacher hated the holiday season.

10. Mallory's Christmas Wish by Ann M. Martin Indeed, I was a massive Babysitters Club fanatic as a child and this book has always stuck with me because it was one of the first I ever read. Incidentally, I will be blogging about the BSC later today - check back sometime this evening!

The Summer Before - Ann M. Martin

Before there was the Baby-Sitters Club, there were four girls named Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, and Stacey McGill. As they start the summer before seventh grade (also before they start the BSC), each of them is on the cusp of a big change. Kristy is still hung up on hoping that her father will return to her family. Mary Anne has to prove to her father that she's no longer a little girl who needs hundreds of rules. Claudia is navigating her first major crush on a boy. And Stacey is leaving her entire New York City life behind... 

...in order to find new friends in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

The Summer Before . . . is a sweet, moving novel about four girls on the edge of something big - not just the Club that will change their lives, but also all the joys and tribulations of being twelve and thirteen.

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. 10/10