My Favourite Baby-sitters Club Books

Last Sunday, I posted a list of my favourite Sweet Valley books, so this week I thought I would make a list of my favourite Baby-sitters Club books. My grandma bought me a box full of Baby-sitters Club books (it had at least 25 in it) and it got me hooked. I read pretty much all of the Baby-sitters Club books, including the Little Sister series featuring Kristy's younger step-sister, Karen and the California Diaries series about Dawn and her friends in California. This list is longer than the Sweet Valley one because I read more Baby-sitters Club books than Sweet Valley books.

Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation

This is a Baby-sitters Super Special. The Super Specials were my favourite BSC books. They're twice as long, have a more exciting plot and are told from the point of view of all the baby-sitters instead of focusing on one, as the regular BSC books do. I'm a sucker for summer camp stories - even though I've never been to one - so I loved this book. Also, it reminded me a lot of the BSC movie (they open a summer camp in the film), which made me love it even more. 

Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation

This is another Super Special. I remember liking it even more than the Summer Vacation book, but I can't remember why. All I remember is that it was basically just a winter version of that book. Oh, and I remember I read it during Christmas break one year...I usually try to read a seasonally appropriate book.

The Baby-sitters Remember 

Just one more Super Special for this list. In this one the sitters each share their most vivid memory. I liked how each girl got to tell her own story and the readers got some insight into their past.

 Dawn's Book

Dawn was always my favourite BSC character. This book is part of the Portrait Collection series, which are books which focus on a particular member of the club and basically tell their life story from birth until now. Since I loved Dawn I was very interested to learn more about her life. Living in California sounded like so much fun.

 Stacey's Book

Stacey was my second favourite BSC character, so I enjoyed this glimpse into her past. She talks about her life in New York, her diabetes diagnosis and her parents divorce, all of which I found fascinating.

Beware, Dawn!

I mentioned in my list of favourite Sweet Valley books that I've always loved scary books, so naturally I loved the BSC Mysteries. Since this one featured Dawn and creepy prank phone calls (a BSC version of When a Stranger Calls?!) of course it's one of my favourites.

 Kristy and the Vampires

I enjoyed this BSC Mystery a lot because they're filming a horror movie in Stoneybrook! And I love horror movies.

Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies

I forgot how much I loved this book until last week when I flipped through an old daily planner and at the back there was a list of my favourites and under "Books" I listed this one. In this book their health class does a unit called "Modern Living" where everyone splits into couples and have to pretend they're married, take care of a baby egg and pretend to manage their finances on things like rent, groceries and such.

 I liked this book because I wanted to have a class like this - it's like playing make-believe with your dolls. I always daydreamed about being adult as a kid. I wish I could tell my younger self how overrated being an adult is. I actually got to take care of a baby egg for my parenting class in high school, but it wasn't fun - I basically just put it on a shelf so it wouldn't get broken and forgot about it.

 Dawn and the We Love Kids Club

This one is about Dawn's BSC rip-off in California that she calls the We Love Kids Club. I basically just liked it because it's about Dawn living in California.

 Sunny: Diary 1

This book is part of the California Diaries series, which is a spin-off of the BSC series that focuses on Dawn's life in California. I expected it like the other BSC books, only with no baby-sitting, but it's much darker. I remember buying it at Zellers and my dad seeing the back of the book which says "I hate my life. Despise it. That's all I have to say. Good night." and he asked me why I would want to read a book like that. I ended up enjoying it a lot because I thought Sunny was such a cool character. She skips school to hang out at the beach with cute boys.

Guide to Baby-sitting

I always wanted to start my own Baby-sitters Club, so I got this book to help me. I never did, but I did end up baby-sitting sans club and this book had some helpful tips to keep kids entertained.

  Karen's in Love

This Little Sister book prompted me to have a wedding with my crush, but sadly he declined. Honestly, what little boy would allow another little girl to "marry" him and kiss her in front of all of his friends? Can you say whipped?

 Karen's Prize

I liked this book so much I read it twice in one day. Since I'm a fairly good speller (even without spell check!) I always wanted to enter a spelling bee to see if I could win, but we never had them at my school.

Karen's Doll

I just loved this one because I had an obsession with dolls.

 Jump Rope Rhymes

I played jump rope many recesses during my childhood and used many of these rhymes with my friends. 

My Favourite Sweet Valley Books

I loved Sweet Valley books when I was a kid. When I got into The Baby-sitter's Club, I started reading Sweet Valley Twins too. I read a lot of them, but by the time I worked my way through them and moved onto Sweet Valley High I was a bit sick of Jessica and Elizabeth, so I read fewer SVH books than SVT books. When the Sweet Valley Jr. High series came out in 1999 I was enthralled with them for awhile but eventually abandoned them for Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine. Anyway, here’s a list of my favourite Sweet Valley books.

Slam Book Fever

I loved this book so much that I started my own slam book when I was in Grade 7…it didn’t catch on like I had hoped. Ann M. Martin wrote a much more depressing book about slam books simply titled Slam Book. In that book a teenage girl commits suicide because of something a person wrote in a slam book.

Double Jeopardy

Since I’ve always been a horror fiend, I usually preferred reading something dark instead of the light and fluffy Sweet Valley books, so I loved the Sweet Valley Super Thrillers. This one was about the twins’ summer internships at Sweet Valley News and a murder mystery.

A Stranger in the House

Sweet Valley does Cape Fear! When a man the twins’ father sent to jail is released, he comes after them. Another Super Thriller.

The Wakefields of Sweet Valley

A book about five generations of Wakefields. One of the Sweet Valley Sagas.

The Class Trip

I loved this Sweet Valley Twins book because it was so out there. There’s a talking mouse and sea serpent, among other crazy fairy tale creatures. Very interesting and different from other Sweet Valley books.

 The Ghost in the Graveyard

Just as I loved SV Super Thrillers, I loved SV Super Chillers. They always had more of a supernatural element than the latter, so I found them even more appealing.

Get Real

This was the first book in the Sweet Valley Jr. High series. I saw it on a shopping trip with my grandma and it was only 99 cents, so I figured why not try it? When am I ever going to see a BRAND NEW book for 99 cents again? Most USED books aren’t even 99 cents! Anyway, I loved it. I liked how the book was written from several characters’ point of view instead of just the twins’ perspective.

 Jessica’s First Kiss

I don’t remember that much about this book except that I enjoyed it a lot.

10 TV Shows I Want to Watch in 2012

This year, instead of vowing to watch less television as I did last year, I decided to embrace the TV whore I am. But instead of vegging on the couch watching repeats of The Simpsons and That 70's Show, I'm going to try to watch some quality television. Those shows I've been meaning to start watching for years but just never got around to it. And since almost half of these shows are available on Netflix Canada for me to stream RIGHT NOW I have no excuses - no worries about maxing out my bandwidth by downloading four seasons of Mad Men or having enough cash to buy all four seasons of Breaking Bad on DVD. So here is my new years resolution: 10 TV Shows I Want to Watch in 2012.

1. Mad Men

This show has won so many awards, I just have to watch it to see what all the fuss is about. I'm also in love with Christina Hendricks and Jon Hamm so I don't really know why I haven't watched it yet.

2. Breaking Bad

My boyfriend and his friends won't shut up about this show and keep nagging me to watch it. I watched pretty much the whole first season and wasn't too impressed with it, but I'm willing to give it another chance - even if it's just to get them off my back.

3. Californication

I've watched the first season and half of season two, but I really need to finish it.

4. Shameless 

I watched one episode of this when it came on after something else and I was too lazy to change the channel. It was very interesting and I'm going to try to find some time to watch it this year. 

5. The Walking Dead

I've seen a couple episodes of this and it didn't really grab me, but I keep hearing such good things about it I want to give it another chance, and since I love zombies this should be right up my alley.

6. Sons of Anarchy 

I haven't really heard much about this show, I just think that a show about a biker gang sounds interesting.

7. Nurse Jackie

I didn't hear anything about this show until Edie Falco won an Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series and that piqued my interest. 

8. Boardwalk Empire

I'm constantly hearing how amazing this show is and I love Steve Buscemi so I'm going to give it a try.

9. Louie

I watched the first couple of episodes of this show and thought it was hilarious but my boyfriend didn't like it and wasn't interested in watching any more of it, so I guess I'll just watch it by myself.

10. Wilfred

Also watched the first couple of episodes of this with my boyfriend and we both thought it was hilarious but I sort of forgot about it. We'll have to watch it the next time we're bored.