NYT article

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa. I'm going out tonight to a party at my best guy friend's apartment... just looking forward to actually getting out and putting some of my new clothes to use.

This morning my father sent me an article from the New York Times (which he reads online) on the release of the first two books and hte prequel to the BSC. I'll just copy and paste here. There's also the book cover of the prequel which is kind of disappointing (I think) but I'm not all that surprised.


Taking a page from Broadway and George Lucas, Scholastic Inc., the children’s book publisher, is trying for a revival — with a prequel attached.


In April the company plans to reissue repackaged and slightly revised versions of the first two volumes in one of its most successful series, “The Baby-Sitters Club,” in the hopes of igniting enthusiasm in a new generation of readers. And just as Mr. Lucas brought “Star Wars” back with a whole new arc of stories that began before the original series, Scholastic is publishing a newly written prequel, “The Summer Before,” by Ann M. Martin, the original author of “The Baby-Sitters Club” books.

The move follows Scholastic’s 2008 resuscitation of “Goosebumps,” another of its most popular series. For now Scholastic and Ms. Martin only have plans for the one prequel, although the publisher will release three more reissues of the original series later next year.

“The Baby-Sitters Club,” which ran from 1986 through 2000, garnered an ardent following among preteenage girls throughout its run of 213 titles, with the publisher ultimately printing 176 million copies. The series, which followed the baby-sitting adventures and friendships of four 12-to-13-year-old girls — Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey (the cast expanded to eight main characters later in the series) — spawned several spinoffs, including a mystery series and a collection of books about Kristy’s little sister. All of the books are now out of print.

David Levithan, the editorial director at Scholastic and an editor of “The Baby-Sitters Club,” said the publisher decided to bring back the old series because of requests from fans who wanted a comeback.

“This whole generation of girls who had grown up reading ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’ were now teachers, librarians or mothers,” Mr. Levithan said. “And at any opportunity they had, they let us know they wanted them back. We couldn’t go to a convention without having women come up to us and say, ‘You’ve got to bring these books back.’ ”

The publisher had also seen how well the formula had worked with a new “Goosebumps” series, “HorrorLand”: there are now 3.5 million copies in print of the 12 books it has published since April 2008.

Ms. Martin, who wrote more than 60 of the books in the original “Baby-Sitters Club” series, has written several stand-alone novels and started another series for young girls called “Main Street” (also published by Scholastic) since “The Baby-Sitters Club” ended.

Recently, though, she started to miss the books that propelled her writing career for so many years. “When I started to think about the books with a certain amount of nostalgia, I was happy to revisit them,” Ms. Martin said.

She proposed the idea of a prequel to Scholastic, tracing the original characters through the summer that precedes the school year covered by the earlier series. “I have had many suggestions from fans over the years for reunion books that take place far in the future,” Ms. Martin said. “I was more interested in exploring the characters and what led them up to the beginning of the series.”

Mr. Levithan said the publisher was aiming the series at a slightly younger age group than it was originally pitched — at girls ages 7 to 10 rather than 8 to 12. But some likely readers are older fans, many of them now in their 20s and 30s, who recall the series fondly if not with rabid passion.

Amy Riley, an adult literacy coach in Corona, Calif. who blogs at myfriendamysblog.com, recalled reading the books when she was in fourth and fifth grade. “I was completely obsessed when I was young,” said Ms. Riley, now 29. In November she proposed to fellow book bloggers that they celebrate “The Baby-Sitters Club” series for a week, each writing about their favorite volume and characters.

Despite the current craze for novels about vampires and other characters in the fantasy realm, Ms. Riley said she figured new young readers would be attracted to “The Baby-Sitters Club.”

“The characters are so different that every girl can find somebody she can relate to,” Ms. Riley said. “I think that same basic appeal will still be there.”



Editors at Scholastic updated some of the references to technology and outdated fashions in the reissued books. So a “cassette player” has become “headphones” and a “perm” has become “an expensive hairstyle.”

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Heather Hebert, a bookseller at Children’s Book World in Haverford, Pa., said she planned to order the prequel and reissued books in large quantities.

Back in the 1990s, she said, “we sold them like crazy.” She said that the books helped turn reading into “a group sport” by getting readers to talk about them among their friends.

She added that she suspected the series would sell “really well to the girls who aren’t quite ready for vampires and particularly to the parents of the girls who aren’t quite ready.”

Jamie Tan, a children’s bookseller at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., said that when Scholastic published graphic-novel editions of the first four “Baby-Sitters Club” books in 2006, they had been very popular with new readers. “A lot of ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’ fans are getting older and passing it on to their children,” Ms. Tan said. “It’s becoming a classic.”

Julie Peterson, a mother of two in Mechanicsburg, Pa., who blogs at bookingmama.blogspot.com, said that her 10-year-old daughter, Hayley, had discovered the books through her fourth-grade teacher, who kept many of the original volumes in her classroom.

Ms. Peterson, 40, missed the series the first go-around because she was too old. But when she saw Ms. Riley’s invitation to blog about the series, Ms. Peterson asked her daughter to recommend one.

After reading “Baby-Sitters on Board!” Ms. Peterson posted a review. “I enjoyed that the girls and their actions seemed realistic; and I even liked that the girls had issues that they had to work out — like disagreeing with each other,” she wrote. “As a mom, I am thrilled that my daughter wants to read all of The Babysitter Club books because I don’t have to worry about anything inappropriate happening in the stories.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/books/31babysitters.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

New Poll, new fanvid

Self Explanatory. I hadn't posted a new poll in awhile... and the last one had been up so long it was only showing two votes


To keep you entertained, fanvid of the week.

Discussing the BSC...

IS anyone else like me and are excited when someone you know in real life who isn't a part of the BSC online community (that you know of at least) just randomly starts talking about the BSC or you find out that they were big fans of the books? I know a lot of people read them, but then there are those who were more than just the average reader who read one every once in awhile.

A friend of mine from Texas, whom I don't know from any BSC communities, randomly posted on facebook that she was discussing the Baby-Sitters club with another friend of hers, and I of course absolutely pounced on it.

I dropped a not so subtle hint that she and the others that posted to that comment about the BSC (One still has over 100 bsc books) should join the BSC proboards community that I've been a part of for 2 1/2 years. (That was how i got reintroduced to the fandom.)

Any similar experiences?

The BSC, Thanksgiving and Adoption

First off, I hope everyone in the US has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We're actually not having Thanksgiving dinner until Sunday because my stepmother works tomorrow (well, today actually I'm still up and haven't gone to bed even though it's almost 4:30 in the morning.) Why we're waiting an extra three days I'll get back to in a bit.

The BSC Thanksgiving books have to be some of my favorite "holiday" books in the series, mainly for the mention of the food. I know I'm not the only one in the BSC fandom that loves the description of the food and whose mouth waters at the very mention of some of them. (I can't as well be the only one who wonders how two pizzas can be split up between 7 or 8 11 and 13 year old girls). Since I'm not actually going to be eating Thanksgiving dinner tonight (unless my dad does something), I think I might have to read some of my favorite BSC Thanksgiving books... Get Well Soon, Mallory (I also like the illness books!), Claudia and the First Thanksgiving and Karen's Turkey Day. (I'm sure there are more but at 4:30 those are the only ones that come to mind at the moment.) Thanksgiving is just about the only day out of the year that I eat turkey. I know i'm going to be longing for my mother's homemade pumpkin cheesecake tomorrow, but oh well. (I had a ton of it last year, though!)

What are (or were depending on when you read this) everyone's Thanksgiving plans? My sister Jessica is flying in tomorrow evening from Austin. My other sister Tonja is coming back from Chicago Saturday night with her boyfriend, and we're having a special guest come flying in on Saturday as well... my 18 year old niece that Jessica gave up for adoption when she was born. (It was an open adoption and I was there when she was handed over to her adoptive parents. We'd gotten a few pictures as time went on, but it had been several years since we last received any.)

It's going to be an emotional reunion for sure. My niece Naomi is bringing her boyfriend with her for emotional support. I'm nervous but excited.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving again to all in the US. I hope it's wonderful! :)

Stoneybrook... small town?

In the BSC we're always reminded (particularly by city girl Stacey) how small Stoneybrook is. But really, just how small is it?
It has two middle schools...both of which seem to be of adequate size, private schools, at least one public elementary school,(It seems that Kelsey Middle School is a public school in the area where Kristy lives...but everyone on her street goes to private schools. Where do the kids going into Kelsey come from? Karen goes to a private school.) and Stoneybrook High School, which is stated in the final book of the series, Graduation Day, as having over 1000 students. (I believe it also states that kids from other towns go there.)

It also seems that it has a nice sized downtown. Bellair's sounds awfully big. Come on... it has different departments and has an ESCALATOR, not to mention numerous restaurants, a movie theater, parks, etc.

I would also mention that they have a university, but then again i live in and go to school in a very small town with a private university (less than 2000 undergrads but still), so I know it's possible.

When I think of a small town, I basically think of the town where I'm living at. It has 4000 people (It seems so much fewer though.) Charles Dickens himself visted here twice in the 1800's and mentioned it in one of his books, American Notes.http://charlesdickenspage.com/minor_works.html#american_notes (chapter 8). The town doesn't even have a regular stop light... it has a blinking stoplight. There are a couple of main roads that come through, but that's about it. The mainstreet is two blocks long (or so), and is lined with antique shops, a small coffee house, a couple of small restaurants (including a place that serves up the best ice cream i've ever had), a tiny community theatre, (named after the Looking Glass Prairie, which Dickens mentions), an even tinier library, and ... well you get the picture.
Tehre are a couple of fast food places and a dollar general and a hardware store on the main road coming in, but that's about it.
I live a block north of the high school. The elementary/middle/high school is basically all in one building, with the high school wing on the very end. (I think the high school has a 100 students...tops) It has everything I think a small town should have... a fireman's picnic and parade in the summer, a fall festival with crafts where they shut down the entire two blocks of the "main street" (actually called st. Louis street). Everyone lines up for hte homecoming parade on the sidewalk to get candy. (I'm assuming they do for the high school, they did for McKendree's.) Plus various other activites, including a haunted tour of the town, and a Witches Night Out in October.


Does anyone else think Stoneybrook isn't as small as they think it is?

1461 views???????

I was looking at the little thing on the left hand side where it says all the visitors to this age come from. Now, I realize some of those numbers are not all different people...
But a few countries jumped out at me.
Bahrain? Iran? Lebanon? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Hong Kong ?(I didn't know Hong Kong qualified as a separate country. Shows how much world geography I know.) Plus other countries that I didn't catch.

How the heck are these people coming across my little corner of the internets?



I hope to post something more substantial within the next week. What, I haven't figured out yet. To keep you occupied, here's my BSC fanvid for the week

Yet another youtube vid...

You guys know I love Stacey...
but this one made me laugh :)

Ah, Fall (Good old random Off topicness)

I seriously love this time of year. Living in Texas for six years, I really missed the simple things like trees changing color and them falling to the ground. A friend of mine that lives in Texas went to Pennsylvania this pass week to check out a school (I think, Lol) and it was the first time she had seen fall.

Anyway, with fall means Halloween, my birthday (this Tuesday...gifts are accepted, as well as cash), Thanksgiving, my sister's birthday, and then of course Christmas.

I don't really have any big plans for Halloween. My college is 7-1 and if we win Saturday's game we're absolutely going to Playoffs (although we're pretty much a shoo in anyway). I think I'm going to go to the first half of the game (good thing about going to a really small school is students get in for free unlike at the bigger universities...well... at least Texas A&M I know they have to pay), and then leaving to go to my dad's house. This will be the first time in 7 years that I will have a chance to pass out candy. I live in a very small apartment that's in a basement with a door code. No trick or treaters are coming HERE, so I'm going to dad's house which is four blocks away. That's it... but we did get a LOT of candy, so there should be plenty left over!

Anyway, tonight I went up to the school and they were having a haunted tour of the campus. I go to McKendree University, which is the oldest school in the state of Illinois having been founded in 1828. There are a ton of ghost stories that float around, some I don't know if they're legit or not, but with a school that's over 180 years old some are bound to pop up. (It was named the most haunted place in the Metro East)

For instance: Bothwell Chapel was built in 1858. I was looking around on the internet to see if there's any ghost stories, and I stumbled upon an article that said that the bell in the bell tower is from 8th century Spain. (FOR REAL?) There's a story that's actually in the McKendree Archives, that when black students first attended here, one went up to the Bell Tower (I'm not sure why) and he was struck by lightning and died. There's also the crazy stories from Eisenmayer which used to be the old theatre and music building. It still has practice rooms, and music majors like myself go there late at night to practice, and there have been crazy stories about music coming from practice rooms where there's noone in there, ghostly apparitions and footsteps in the hallway. I haven't been there late at night yet, but you can bet I'm going to do so soon!

I guess I have a bit of Dawn Schafer in me.


Has anyone had any ghostly encounters? Any big plans for Halloween?

It's Shannon!! (The puppy not the human)

Someone posted this picture of a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy on baaaaabyanimals on livejournal.

I just went d'awwwwww. :)

Did you know...

That AMM is on the list of best selling authors of all time with between 172-180 million books sold? Right behind Charles Dickens.

Who does she outsell?
Beatrix Potter, Michael Crichton, James Patterson, Anne Rice, and Robin Cook just to name a few.

AND...
The Baby-sitters club is #10 on the Best Selling Book Series of all time.

Was watching Twilight Sucks videos on youtube out of boredom and was amused when it was stated that the BSC outsold Twilight. (of course it's been around longer but you get the idea. ;) )

It's Official!

Wanderingfrog wrote an email to scholastic inquiring about "The Summer Before" and they replied back, saying that it was a hardcover set to be released March 12, 2010...earlier than what Amazon said!

Fantastic BSC Sims Fanvid

I stumbled upon this on youtube, and thought I'd share it.

AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought the BSC like exclamation would be appropriate from what I just found out on the BSC LJ community thanks to wanderingfrog. For those of you that aren't on LJ, here's the big news:


AMM is in the process of writing a Prequel to the Baby-Sitters Club entitled The Summer Before.
http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Before-Babysitters-Club/dp/0545160936/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251990038&sr=1-2

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.


*Way too excited*


ETA: I really hope it's not some mean prank... the April 1st date did stop me for a moment...but the BSC seems like an odd choice for a prank...and if it were, I'd think it would be a sequel not a prequel... and then there's the fact that it's available for pre-order..
Let's just hope someone's not pulling a fast one over our eyes. I THIRST FOR THIS BOOK.

OT: Another Fandom of mine

I, like many others, am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I've read all the books, seen all the movies, etc etc etc. I got introduced by my mother's friend Stuart who loved Harry Potter back in 2003 after the 5th book came out. I borrowed his books and devoured them, and watched the first two movies.

Unfortunately, Stuart died of lung cancer in August of 2004, and he never got to read the 6th and 7th books, and he was too sick to see the PoA movie, so I've carried on the tradition, by buying the last two books, and even going to a Deathly Hallows release party two years ago, and of course seeing the movies. I have to wonder what he would have thought of how the series turned out.


Anyway, I'm sure some of you have to be HP fans as well, and I felt I HAD to share this absolutely brilliant thing on youtube. A group of Harry Potter fans went and wrote a Musical based on the Harry Potter books. It's complete parody, and absolutely hilarious. (I think the only way it could have worked was if it was parody.)

And best part? IT's completely legal... since they didn't make a profit off of it. I think it was posted by the people who made it, (they're in charge of the facebook group that has linked the videos as well) so i HOPE it won't be taken down.

Here's the first video along with a link to the playlist




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwM_AKeMCk&feature=PlayList&p=C76BE906C9D83A3A&index=0&playnext=1

Yay!

I'm happy because I just got two BSC books that I've never read in the mail today. I got Abby's Twin and Mallory's Christmas Wish, which haven't been made into e-books, so I'm ecstatic. (It was the main reason I had chosen those two.)

Woohoo. Off to read them now.

Bridesmaid dresses

So I was looking at my friends wedding pictures and was absolutely astounded at how ugly their bridesmaid dresses were. (I'm not even kidding. The brides looked beautiful at least, but when hell freezes over and I get married, I kinda want my bridesmaids to you know... like me.). I know marriages aren't for everyone, but I want my fairytale gosh darn it!

Anyway, I was looking up ugly bridesmaid dresses out of sheer boredom and came across this one.


The picture on the left is the front, the one on the right is the back of the dress.

Look familiar?




What was Dawn thinking???


ETA:
For mine I was thinking somewhere more along the lines of this:
http://www.lightinthebox.com/A-line-Spaghetti-Straps-Tea-length-Satin-Chiffon-Bridesmaid-Dress--HSX863-_p29812.html (For some reason it wouldn't let me save the whole picture)

Another Update + Kristy's Great Idea New WTF???

In the past almost two months I've moved from Texas to the little town east of St. Louis...moved into my apartment...got settled in...registered for classes... and had my computer die.
Classes start the 24th of next month, anxious and nervous to get started... all music plus one math class... (math for liberal arts, thank god not college algebra)... including theory/lab III, some music culture thing, advanced keyboarding, choir, applied voice, and some other stuff I really can't remember at the moment because i need to get a new schedule... since I got mine a month and a half ago and of course I lost it.

Anyway, because i"ve had a dead computer, I've been doing a lot of reading of my baby-sitters club/little sister books (even though I should really be reading the million library books I checked out.), and today I started reading the first one... Kristy's Great Idea... and it struck me.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION OF THEM HAVING MORE THAN ONE TEACHER IN THE SEVENTH GRADE.

I don't think I've ever seen this mentioned before in various posts on the book, or discussions. (I might be wrong.) Claudia states Stacey being in her class... not one of her classes. (and they're all in the seventh grade, so that doesn't make any sense.) Kristy turns in her paper to Mr. Redmond at the beginning of school... and then goes to take her seat... when she was in his room at the end of the day the day before with the whole decorum thing.

Kristy also mentions that Claudia's TeacheR (no s) wouldn't let her wear her hat inside.

Now, I thought it was a little odd that they called it recess after lunch, but when I was in middle school, we were able to go outside after lunch, and I just assumed they had a wider area to hang out in.

Seriously, wtf Ann? What middle school (at least in the United STates, I can't speak for other countries) that's ONLY grades 6-8 (or 7-9 for that matter... and not K-8) do the kids only have one teacher throughout the day and don't change classes?

Has anyone else noticed this? Is it apparent in any other books when they're in seventh grade? i know when they're in eighth grade they definitely change rooms... yet another inconsistency. The only other seventh grade book I have in book form is Mary Anne Saves the Day, I'll have to go through that next to see if there are any clues to this bewildering mystery. (For me anyway.)

I must admit.. I laughed.

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick/6791-bclub

"Dawn" appearance on LJ.

A post came up on the Stupid_Free community on livejournal today that just SCREAMED "Dawn" to me. (at least later, Vegetarian psycho crazy Dawn.)

The girl goes to a Mexican place, orders a Vegetarian Burrito, gets one with meat in it instead, (she finds out after she got home) the place gives her another one, and she wants to know if there's something she can do to BRING JUSTICE TO THIS INCIDENT.


On one of the comments she states: "I am moving on with my life, but now my life has this memory of chewing dead cow against my will."

http://community.livejournal.com/vegetarian/4357267.html


I'll give you one guess as to where she's from.
Starts with a C and ends with a nia

Just an update.

I know my postings are sporadic at best though I try and get at least 2 or 3 posts a month.

I've been really busy this semester. I went to St. Louis/Illinois (St. Louis area, but was on both sides of the river)at the beginning of Februray for an audition at McKendree University, a tiny private liberal arts uni that's the oldest school in the state of Illinois. It went well and I got an $8000 a year scholarship for four years. The following week I had all state choir in san antonio, and then last month over spring break I went BACK to st. louis and visited friends and fam.

I also had to get the rest of the financial aid going, and just got it in last week, the entire year is covered except for room and board, and that's just a huge relief off my shoulders, because it basically means I'm really going, I just have to figure out the living situation... either come up with the rest of the money to live on campus or find an apartment off campus but in the town (which is really tiny. Stoneybrook sounds like Manhattan in comparison. Small town my foot.)

I have finals coming up in a few weeks, but before that I have a recital I have to give for piano, plus two juries for piano and voice, and a paper due for Music Lit, a choir concert, a huge thing the club I'm in is hosting for Hispanic high school students, and then (maybe) performing at graduation with the choir... and then get to pack up and get back up to STL asap...cause the all star game is there this summer! Yay!! :D

Next month is going to be hectic. But I just wanted to pop in. :)

Happy Birthday, Stacey!

Today would be the most popular Baby-sitter's (or so it seems) birthday.

According to my calculations (ooh, a Stacey word), if she was 12 in Fall of 86...

Today she would be 35.

Ouch.

Any ideas of where she'd be at? :)



BTW, when I was ten, I was in Atlanta on Easter, and I TOTALLY remember how cool it was that Stacey's birthday was on EASTER. (April 3, 1994, Easter Sunday.)

Mmmm... Hummus.

Okay so I went 25+ years without having tasted hummus... The most I knew about it was that it was made from chickpeas (garbonzo beans) and Dawn Schafer Loved it... which since i"m not a health food nut, didn't exactly appeal to me.

When I was in St. Louis I went to my good friend Paul's surprise birthday party. His partner Audis (I really have no idea how to spell his name...sounds like Ottis) works in a health food store, and of course was stocked up on all the healthy crap I usually stay away from. They lay out all the food on the coffee table, and I take a bite of hummus and...

heaven.


Dawn was really onto something there.

Fabulous (or maybe not so Fab) Picture I found

So right now I'm visiting my hometown of st. louis over spring break, and am currently at my father's house (tomorrow I"m going back to my sister's to spend time with her). Anyway, I was down in the basement doing laundry, and i was wondering if there were any old pictures down there that I could possibly scan.

I got to rummaging around, and I find a few that are scan worthy (I really was a damn cute kid. I have no idea what happened.) including this one, which was closely enough related to the BSC that I felt like posting




That is My mother, me (in the middle), and my cousin related by marriage Sera on the Jet Stream at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California.

In case that doesn't quite ring a bell, that was the ride that the baby-sitters club went on that Mary Anne and Mr. Schafer chicked out of in SS #5 California Girls.

After riding it, I had no idea what all the fuss was about.


By the way, that picture was taken in the summer of 94. I was ten. It's aged a bit.

Yay for ebay

Okay so I got my pell grant check and paycheck last week totally up to around $1060, and since the only thing substantial that currently comes out of my bank account stash is my phone bill every month, I decided to spoil myself a little bit and headed over to ebay, and got a few fantabulous BSC items if I do say so myself.

First off, I got six of the mysteries... I can't remember which ones, other than I didn't have them, and some of them I haven't read. I had lost a bid on a lot of 9, but the six will do.

Secondly, got 16 Little Sister books, ranging from #2- #96.

Thirdly, the one I'm MOST pleased with because I could still get those books on ebook form, I got BOTH BSC board games for 99 cents, plus S&H coming to a total of about $6. I only had the mystery game years ago, and the seller has excellent references, and the games look in great condition, I can't wait!

I also got a Wendy Corsi Staub book. I love her mysteries/thrillers, but I can't remember which one I got... I THINK it's The Last to Know, but I'm not sure... I just know it's one I haven't read yet.

Lastly, I got a book that I had loved when I was younger. It's called "What's the Opposite of a Best Friend?" A few months ago I couldn't remember for the life of me what the name of the book was... all I knew was that it had a character named Stacy (without an E) in it, and she wasn't even the main character... I couldn't remember the name of the narrator... all I could remember was the plot line, and the cover. I started searching through a thread on the BSC proboard site about our favorite books when we were younger, wondering if there was a chance that someone would mention it and it would ring a bell... and voila, someone did, I did a quick search on amazon to see if it was the book, and there it was.






On another note, I've become obsessed with watching Survivor on youtube, and as I was watching Survivor 7: Pearl Islands (Where Rupert made his debut! He's awesome), I couldn't help but think Christa reminded me of Dawn... in looks... and both from California.



Yay? Nay? She and a bunch of other "survivors" are kind enough to add fans to their facebook friend pages... so far I have her Rupert and Stephenie from Palau and Guatemala on there.

Lisa Libraries Charity

As many of you know, one of our dear friends from the Baby-Sitters Club boards passed away last month. Greer from Stoneybrookite has been in contact with the Lisa Libraries which is AMM's charity and is trying to get books to donate in Afton's (Aln) name. Since I suck at html, if you are interested in doing helping out please visit Greer's blog (www.stoneybrookite.org). She has posted all the information needed.

If anyone is able to help out, it would be great. Once I get some extra cash myself I plan on donating some books through the amazon wishlist

I had way too much time on my hands today

On the BSC community on Livejournal there was a post about what happened to the cast members of the movie, and of the TV show which was similar to this one I did.
( http://stoneybrookmscafe.blogspot.com/2008/06/bsc-tv-show-where-are-they-now.html) With a couple of main differences, a few pictures were different, Zach Braff was added and there was an update on Gina Gallagher who played Charlotte...she's now a Special Ed Teacher on Long Island and is a mother.

I have a hard time thinking of Charlotte as being married and having kids. I took this information and did a facebook search, and found a picture of someone I'm about 95% sure she's her. But like many facebook profiles, hers is private, and the picture is small.

I seriously need a life. I messaged her and asked her if it was her... saying I knew it sounded incredibly crazy... haven't heard back from her. I just hope she doesn't think I"m some weird stalker person. I'm not... I just had way too much time on my hands, and that's a dangerous thing. (and what's sad is that this was taking place during Music Lit class, and I was killing time by pretending to take notes on the subect that we went over last semester...which I did do... but that's another story.)


AFter that I decided to facebook search some others. Jessica Prunell (TV Stacey) turned up one match. Looks like she's married... and ...
her curly hair is back.

Why didn't she just keep it straight?


Avriel Hillman (TV Kristy) Is having some kind of acting workshop in Seattle
(http://www.facebook.com/event.php?sid=2898600999f3e2d73c325fa8dbd5c7e4&eid=43966746817)

Now APPARENTLY there's a rumor going around that movie Mallory is now a porn star... I really don't think so. She's now in Houston (thanks to her myspace page saying that).. and a couple of sources on the web indicate she's into health and fitness, especially yoga.
She's assistant manager at Lulumon athletica in Houston.
(http://www.lululemon.com/texas/houstonstores.php)


I have no idea whether that picture is of her or not, I saw her myspace page before she made it private, and she had short blonde hair... her facebook pic shows her with short dark hair... and that picture is no good.


Seriously one of these days? I need to find Shane McDermott (Jamie Anderson from Dawn and the Dream Boy) and go to this athletica store... just to check things out.


I"m not a stalker I swear... like I said, I have way too much time and boredom on my hands.

Afton Lisette Newton (Aln1982)

To anyone who posts on the Baby-Sitters Club Boards (www.babysittersclub.proboards36.com) or has posted in the past, I have some sad news.

Aln1982 passed away last night night in her sleep. She suffered from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (schleroderma) had been sick for quite some time. She was the most prolific poster on the boards with a grand total of 7736 total, but she always added something to the conversation. She was kind to everyone, and never judged someone if they thought or believed something different than her.

She was 26 years old and loved horses, history, American Girl books,Historical fiction American Indian culture, writing among other things that include the baby-sitters club. She was a published author of children's books.

Her illness left her room to write more, and the baby-sitters club board members became like a second family to her. She had given her mom her myspace password a few days ago just so that we could be made aware if something happened to her, which is how we got the news today. She loved the BSC right to her last day, her mom read to her from Winter Vacation yesterday.

We are thinking of doing something in her honor, and greer from stoneybrookite will be contacting the Lisa Libraries to find out if there's anything we can do and to get information. I will pass it along as I get it.


her first horse


Joining Jessi and Mal on her first day of sixth grade


High School grad


on Fausteana


With a National POA award


For more information her website is: http://www.actnewbooks.com/

ETA: Her obituary (listed under her name)http://www.filbrandtffh.com/

Just call me Mary Anne

So I'm watching the History Channel, and it's apocalypse week...

And...

I START FEELING BAD FOR THE DINOSAURS

I almost want to CRY.



I don't think anything else needs to be said.