Netflix has ordered a 10-part reboot of The Baby-Sitters Club, Deadline reports.
Based the beloved ‘80s and ‘90s novels written by Ann M. Martin, the live-action series will feature half-hour episodes of “five best friends in Stoneybrook, Connecticut” and “focus on the entrepreneurial girls’ ventures and friendships, maneuvering the launch and success of their business while staving off competition and overcoming various growing pains along the way.” The show will cover “racism, divorce and belonging while continuing to push the bar and explore relevant issues facing modern day teens.” That’s all fine and dandy, but you know what else covers those topics and would be a better use of your time? Actually reading the damn books. They’re teen classics for a reason.
As a child, I adored the original television adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club that aired on Nickelodeon and HBO in the early ‘90s, but the books were always better. Not only did they arrive at a time when babysitting appeared to have real cultural resonance thanks to movies like Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead, but they allowed young, female protagonists authority, autonomy and entrepreneurship when the only other real book heroines were Nancy Drew and Ramona Quimby. The BSC books showed readers the importance of female friendship. Plus, it inspired kids to read! They’re dope as hell.
All that said, Martin seems to be on board with the Netflix revival of her series. She shared the following statement:
“I’m amazed that there are so many passionate fans of The Baby-Sitters Club after all these years and I’m honored to continue to hear from readers—now grown, who have become writers, editors, teachers, librarians, filmmakers—who say that they see a reflection of themselves in the characters of Kristy and her friends. So I’m very excited about the forthcoming series on Netflix, which I hope will inspire a new generation of readers and leaders everywhere.”
If she’s jazzed, I guess I can learn to be jazzed, too—there’s no doubt that when The Baby-Sitters Club books first appeared on the Scholastic scene, it turned a generation into voracious readers, myself included.
Similarly, there’s no doubt I won’t binge the show out of blatant curiosity and nostalgia? I’ll probably order some heavily dog-eared, used copies of the bright pink and yellow YA books on Ebay, too. If you’ve never read them, you should consider getting a head start: the Netflix series has yet to announced a release date.