In these new graphic novel editions of ‘The Baby-Sitters Club,’ books, Raina Telgemeier and Gale Galligan capture all the drama of the original books in illustrations.

Witness Kristy’s eureka moment when she gets the idea for a babysitter’s club and enlists her best friends, shy Mary Anne, artistic Claudia, and new friend Stacey, in an exciting new adventure. Join the girls as they confront common problems such as divorce, remarriage, diabetes, overprotective parents, fights between friends, sibling rivalry, and new club members.

I’ll be honest. I’ve never been interested in the original ‘Baby-Sitters Club’ book series. But since the first four books were drawn by one of my favorite graphic novel artists, I decided to give them a shot.

I’ve never read the original Baby-Sitters Club series (and I don’t really plan to), but I think I would still like this version better. While reading the first book, I researched the whole series (by research, I mean I went on Wikipedia). I learned that Kristy, Stacey, Mary Anne, and Claudia are the first members of the Baby-Sitters Club in the graphic novel spin-off and the original series.

I also learned that graphic novel titles are the same as those from the original series. See below:

I was a pretty easy kid to babysit. The babysitter pretty much got paid to watch me watch TV. Except for this one time when I was five, and my sister was babysitting me. After watching an episode of ‘Dragon Tales,’ I got the ‘brilliant’ idea of putting a glop of play goo in my hair, and I thought it would slide right out. It did not. In my defense, I was five, and I didn’t know any better. My sister freaked out and didn’t know what to do. In the end, she cut the goo out of my hair, and I had short hair on the top of my head. I’m kind of upset that she didn’t take any before and after pictures.

For the fans who read the original series as kids and for future readers, I highly recommend these books.

This week’s Weird but True Fact about Ann M. Martin

When author Ann M. Martin first started writing the Baby-Sitters Club series, she wrote one book a month – in longhand.