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May 30, 2010

Rachel rated it:

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 man More...

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Aug 20, 2010

Larissa rated it:

When I found out that there was a new Babysitter's Club coming out, I actually pre-ordered the book from my local bookstore. I was--although I probably shouldn't have been--kind of amazed at the instantaneous nostalgia that this publication inspired for me. Suddenly, I was remembering the family driving trip through the Four Corners where I pretty much missed all of Utah because I was reading the first Super Special (Babysitters on Board!) and literally could not pull my eyes away from the pages More...

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Aug 06, 2011

Jesse added it

Before sexy vampires and werewolves with six-pack abs, before angsty adolescent wizards, there was The Baby-Sitters Club (the BSC, natch). As a former Club devotee, turned card-carrying almost 30-something, I rushed out to purchase “The Summer Before,” Ann M. Martin’s new BSC prequel. As I presented the hardback to my almost 30-something salesclerk, she exclaimed, “I’ve been meaning to buy this! Which girl was your favorite?” With less hesitation than I approach 99% of life’s questions, I repli More...

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Jul 05, 2011

Jodi rated it:

OK, I was someone who grew up with the Baby-Sitters Club. I was obsessed with the series through elementary school and even now, many years later, I can't bear to donate the books that are stored in bins. I was so excited when I found out Ann M. Martin was going to be revisiting these characters to give a little insight as to what they were like before the BSC. (Yes, I did just use that abbreviation). Sadly, I knew from the first few pages, that this book was just not going to do it for me. More...

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Jun 29, 2011

Jodi rated it:

OK, I was someone who grew up with the Baby-Sitters Club. I was obsessed with the series through elementary school and even now, many years later, I can't bear to donate the books that are stored in bins. I was so excited when I found out Ann M. Martin was going to be revisiting these characters to give a little insight as to what they were like before the BSC. (Yes, I did just use that abbreviation). Sadly, I knew from the first few pages, that this book was just not going to do it for More...

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Apr 30, 2011

Amy rated it:

I grew up with the BSC back in the late 1980s. I was thrilled to see this new book as I was sad when Martin decided to retire the series about 10 years ago, even though I had sorta outgrown the series. I really love early BSC about the first books in the series. I feel like the first few books were the best. So good to see a new book. My fave character is Stacey, I have always felt like she was my alter-ego! However I feel her story in the book was ended too abruptly. I wish she had beat the liv More...

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Dec 01, 2010

Mundie Moms & Mundie Kids rated it:

Being a huge fan of the original Baby Sitters Club, I gave this book 5 stars, as Ann did a wonderful job at keeping the integrity of the characters and being true to their voices. I feel that author sometimes tend to forget their true characters when they add a book to their popular series, but this wasn't the case at all. Ann did an excellent job with this upcoming release. I think this book is a must have addition to the ever popular series. It brought back some feelings I had when I first rea More...

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Oct 08, 2010

Arianna rated it:

My sister gave me this to read, because we were huge BSC fans when we were little. It was...cute. Very nostalgiac, and very much like every other Baby-Sitters Club book ever, but I enjoyed being transported back to my youth & revisiting some "old friends". And I noted often how timeless these books are, because while the girls don't ever mention cell phones or computers or any sort of technology (which I guess was a good - if not conscious, in 1980-whatever - move by Ann M. Martin, More...

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Sep 16, 2010

Jay rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 08, 2010

Laura rated it:

This book is a never-before released prequel to The Baby-Sitters Club. My daughter was really excited about this. The book is written from the first-person POV of all four girls. It does this by dedicating alternating chapters to each girl, allowing the reader to get to know each character’s story as related by them. My daughter pointed out that she liked this.

The book gives the reader more background information about each of the four girls, building up to when they all start school More...

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Jun 03, 2010

Debbie rated it:

If you were a fan of the original Baby-Sitters Club then you definitely want to pick this book up. If you are not familiar with this series it’s a perfect read for the tween set. The Baby-Sitters Club starts off with four friends who love to babysit and follows their adventures in babysitting, friendships and more. I was a huge fan of this series growing up and eagerly awaited every new book in the series.

This prequel follows Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey the summer before More...

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May 26, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

Is there any way to objectively evaluate this book? I spent my childhood reading literally HUNDREDS of Baby-Sitters Club books, so reading this newly-released prequel was like watching a home movie -- full of so much nostalgia and warmth that it doesn't matter how awkward it is in retrospect.

I really love how easily Ann M. Martin was able to slip back into these characters, and each girl in the story has a very clear narrative arc. It's not great art, and the writing style is as weir More...

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May 09, 2010

Shea rated it:

I was very excited to here that a new Babysitters Club book was coming out and I checked it out from the library right away. I will admit this isn't the greatest book you'll ever read, but if you were a fan of the series growing up you should definitely check it out. It was really cool to see the girls before the BSC was formed; it's interesting the dynamics between the girls this summer, and the fact that no one even knew Stacey yet! I didn't think the writing was too childish, it was an easy r More...

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May 03, 2010

Sara rated it:

4.5 stars. Apparently the old Babysitters Club books are beginning to be rereleased. In anticipation, the author wrote this book about the four original characters the summer before the club started. Kristy's mom is dating Watson, who will eventually become her stepdad, and Kristy is hoping that her dad will return to their family; Mary Anne is learning more about her mom and trying to gain some independence; Claudia has a crush on an older guy and blows off her friends to hang out with him; More...

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Apr 09, 2010

Marian rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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May 07, 2010

Dawn rated it:

I loved the BSC books when I was a kid, and actually continued reading the series even when I was far too old to be doing so. They're obviously not great literature, problems are generally mild and solved by then end of each book (like a sitcom), but I still sort of love them, mostly for the nostalgia factor. It's kind of weird that AMM decided to write a prequel now, but I've read that they are going to start republishing the old BSC books again and try to market them to kids today...

More...

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May 06, 2010

Jamie rated it:

I can't bring myself to utter one negative word about a novel by the author who inspired me to become a writer and move to New York City. I bought this prequel both out of nostalgia and and a desire to support Ann M. Martin no matter what she does. I was a little disappointed by the lack of desciption of fashionable outfits (no matter how horribly '80s); the book seemed to have a serious (maybe even depressing?) psychological undercurrent that ran deeper than the books in the original series. Th More...

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Jun 01, 2010

Jane rated it:

First, you must understand that the Babysitters Club is a MAJOR blast from my past - of all the crappy YA series in the world, this is the one I collected and read the most from oh, maybe 1989-1992ish. I still have my old books (and then some) and once in a while break one out when I need a security blanket.

But this. I have never felt any need to go beyond the BSC of my youth, whether the later series like California Diaries and Friends Forever or new additions like this. Once I got More...

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Mar 24, 2010

Katieb (MundieMoms) rated it:

Being a huge fan of the original Baby Sitters Club, I gave this book 5 stars, as Ann did a wonderful job at keeping the integrity of the characters and being true to their voices. I feel that author sometimes tend to forget their true characters when they add a book to their popular series, but this wasn't the case at all. Ann did an excellent job with this upcoming release. I think this book is a must have addition to the ever popular series. It brought back some feelings I had when I first rea More...

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Mar 21, 2011

Gretchen rated it:

I didn't even know this book existed until 2 weeks ago. My older brother loves to make fun of the Baby-Sitters Club, although I would like to point out that he read some of them too! Anyway, he is the one who gave me this book for my birthday. I just finished a pretty heavy, mind-bending book, so I needed something a little less intense. The Summer Before was the perfect fit.

I was skeptical about this book. For one thing, I haven't read a BSC book in probably about 17 years. An More...

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Apr 27, 2010

NCPL rated it:

Back in the late 1980s through the 90s, the Baby-Sitters Club was a hugely popular series about a group of friends from Stoneybrook, CT who babysit. It all started with four girls: Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, and Stacy McGill. This book looks back at the summer between 6th & 7th grade, right before the Baby-Sitters Club was born. It's about being a girl, the bonds of friendship, and how life changes.

Why I picked the book up: As a preteen my friends and I LOVED t More...

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Apr 11, 2010

Nikki rated it:

I'm probably too big a BSC fangirl to fairly review this. I mean, I'm a member of the fandom. Yes, that means I dissect BSC books on the internet. *shrugs* Whatever. There's more of us than you'd think. In fact, the book is probably actually shit. But God! A new BSC book!

Called The Summer Before, the book follows (duh) the summer before Kristy Thomas thunk up the idea for the Baby-sitters club. (I know, Janine... that elusive apostrophe!) Told from four different points of v More...

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Jul 25, 2010

Angela rated it:

This made me feel like a kid again.

BSC was my book series in elementary school. In middle school a friend and I even tried to form our own baby-sitting club (it last about twelve seconds). These girls were definitely part of my life - I even dressed like Claudia on "favorite book character" day in elementary school.

But after 6th grade or so, I don't think I ever picked the books up again. I'd moved on to bigger and better things. So I was surprised when I picked More...

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Apr 09, 2010

Carla Jean rated it:

Surely this book will attract as much (or more!) attention from women my age as from its target audience, which is 9- to 12-year-old girls. For us, this is a throwback to that time in our lives. It was a time when I had an unquenchable thirst for my favorite series, The Baby-sitters Club. I admired those characters and aspired to emulate them. Plus, they got to go to Disney World in the first Super Special. I thought that was really cool.

This book was a faithful prequel to that serie More...

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Jun 26, 2010

Katyh rated it:

Total nostalgia for the fall of 1987 when I read Kristy's Great Idea. (Did I get the first four books from Scholastic Book Club? I think I did.) I owned every single BSC book up until book 50 or so, at which point I was a freshman in high school and completely ashamed that I was so totally lame. Anyway, even though the books became totally formulaic and boring, I always thought the first six or so stood out as being heads and tails above the rest. Not surprisingly, those are the ones Ann M. Ma More...

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Mar 23, 2011

Dawn rated it:

OMG! I feel like a middle-schooler again! Not that that was a great time, but I loved reading the Baby-Sitter's Club books. I read them voraciously. And, I'm not embarrassed to admit, I kinda wanna read them all again after reading this one!

The Summer Before is a prequel book to all of the other Baby-Sitter's Club books. The girls are in the summer before 7th grade and are just beginning to babysit. At the very end of the book, Kristy gets the idea for the club. Which is where the firs More...

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Aug 02, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

This was a quick, easy read, as it's really aimed at the 9-11 year old set, even though it seems most of the readers snatching it up are of the late 20s/early 30s crowd who grew up with Kristy, Claudia, et al.

Not much happens plot-wise; this is just about the events leading up to "Kristy's Great Idea." Stacy leaves NYC, Kristy misses her father, Mary Ann... is there, and Claudia hangs out with an older boy who doesn't do right by her (though thankfully he's not as creepy a More...

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May 06, 2010

Kelly rated it:

I loved the Baby-Sitters Club growing up, so I was beyond overjoyed to see that there was going to be a prequel coming out.

And this book was so much better than I was expecting. It is, as the title would have you believe, the summer before the BSC was formed.

Kristy's sad because she misses her dad. Mary Anne's starting to chafe under her dad's overprotectiveness and mega rules and regulations. Claudia feels like she's way more grown up than Kristy and Mary Anne are (uh More...

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Apr 30, 2010

Cary rated it:

Considering I was 4th in line to get Ann M. Martin to autograph my copy of this book, you could say I am a bit of a BSC fan. In fact, what I giddily said to Ann as she signed my book was that the Baby-Sitters Club was the series that made me love reading as a kid. With the exception of the reference to American Girl Dolls, which felt a bit anachronistic, this "prequel" to the series brought childhood memories flooding back.

I don't feel that I'm in a position to fairly revi More...

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Jun 06, 2010

Katie rated it:

From 3rd grade through 8th grade, practically the only books I read were those from the Babysitter's Club series. So, I was delighted to find this prequel by the original author, which details the summer before the girls started the babysitter's club. This book gets 2 stars for nostalgic reasons only. Wow, the writing is pretty terrible, though, and I do still love children's books. It makes me wonder how I would feel if I were to go back and read any of the old books from the series. I don More...

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