I've started a club or two in my lifetime. They started with lofty goals and a generic name. Best Friends Club. Sparks Friends Club. The No Homers Club. We made Membership Cards, usually out of tin foil. We had club bylaws, things like "be kind to each other" and "no one who likes Kimberly can join." We had a few club meetings, which divulged into the depths of Kimberly's cruelty. The clubs never lasted more than a week and they certainly never generated income. Unlike Kristy Thomas's club.
In the inaugural book of The Baby-Sitters Club, Kristy comes up with the idea of the titular club that went on to generate income and adventure for many girls (and maybe some boys) both in Stoneybrook and around the world, both fictional and real. Kristy demonstrates maturity while running and creating the club. She considers feedback from each member and delegates in a professional way. The book also showcases Kristy's immaturity, particularly when dealing with Stacey, the new girl, and how she deals with her mother's love interest, Watson, and his family. Kristy has depth, as well as this book. This is a promising start to the greatest book series ever created (come at me, J. K. Rowling).
SPOILERS AFTER THE COVER!!!
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It starts on a hot day at the end of class. The clock ticks and Kristy loudly and audibly expresses her excitement for the end of class and she can go home to her air-conditioned home. Her teacher punishes her with an essay assignment on the word "decorum." The first time we see Kristy, she's shouting before thinking, talking before her brain analyzes what she wants to say. This can bite Kristy in the butt, like almost breaking up the babysitters club just as the club starts or with her teacher, forcing her into a punishment in the form of homework.
Kristy finds her best-friend Mary Anne. The first time we see her, she's biting her fingernails and talking about her ridiculously strict father. Even for that time, he's incredibly strict. If the book were written today, I bet he'd be one of those parents who stand outside their kids' classroom staring at them through the little window in the door. He'd probably give her a cell phone preprogrammed with his phone number (and his phone number only) so he can reach her at any moment. Thank God she stands up to him later in the series – I'm always rooting for Mary Anne.
Kristy and Mary Anne rush home so Kristy can get there before her little brother, David Michael. Kristy watches her little brother while her mother is at work. Ms. Thomas is a single mom/divorcee, which is progressive for an eighties book targeted at children. I remember all the dead mothers on television when I was a kid. Every single parent (usually the father) had to have a dead spouse (usually the wife). They couldn't utter the word "divorce." And the television producers certainly wouldn't have a woman divorcee. To have a working mother in an Apple Paperbacks is revolutionary, at least to childhood me. Ms. Thomas tries, both career-wise and domestically. She isn't perfect but she still succeeds in giving her children the attention they deserve while (seemingly) conquering the business world in Stanford. All this while providing a secondary influence on Mary Anne next door. I like Ms. Thomas and I think she's a great mother. I would credit her with the spark that gives Kristy her great idea.
