‘Baby-Sitters Club’ author reflects on series.
They started with a title: “The Baby-Sitters Club.”
Ann M. Martin, the author of those pastel paperbacks that were so ubiquitous in the 1980s and 1990s, laughs about it now. But when the BSC was first pitched to her by an editor at Scholastic in 1985, it was a tall order.
“An editor approached me and said, ‘I have a great idea for a series called “The Baby-Sitters Club.” ’ But she didn’t really have more than that,” Martin said.
“It was up to me to figure out what the ‘Baby-Sitters Club’ might be. She wanted books about a group of girls who have a business together, but beyond that, it really wasn’t fleshed out.” She took up the challenge. “I developed four original characters: Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey,” said Martin, who will be in Houston on Sunday for a reading and discussion of her latest book, “Rain Reign,” as part of the InPrint Cool Brains lecture series.
She wrote four books at first, one for each of the girls to have a turn as the center of attention. That’s where the series was supposed to end. But they were met with more success than Scholastic had anticipated. So two more books were ordered.
“And the sixth book appeared on the B. Dalton best-seller list, which doesn’t even exist anymore but was a very big deal back then,” Martin said. “So they ordered another two more books. Then everything exploded, and they started signing up for 12 books at a time. I was writing one a month! It was insane. But so much fun, and so exciting.”
During her Sunday event in Houston, Martin will discuss “everything from my writing process, to how the idea of ‘Rain Reign’ came about, to other books that I’ve written,” she said.
“I was glad to hear Houston was one of the six cities on the tour,” Martin said during an interview before she embarked on the 10-day tour, pegged to the paperback release of “Rain, Reign,” which may have particular meaning to Houstonians in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Martin’s bestseller tells the story of Rose, a girl on the autism spectrum, and her dog, Rain, who goes missing when a hurricane pummels their small town in rural upstate New York. Here in Houston, more than 1,800 misplaced dogs and cats were saved by Houston Pets Alive, which opened a shelter in Harvey’s wake. Following Martin’s preliminary discussion, at 3 p.m., the organization will share local pet stories that bear a resemblance to Rose’s plight in the book.
Rose, who is endearingly stringent about following rules, is the latest in a long series of strong female leads from Martin.
Martin wrote about three dozen “Baby-Sitters Club” books on her own and worked with a steady stable of others to push out more than 130 books.
They sold more than 180 million copies, and the four girls, along with some new friends who joined over time, became worldwide role models for the millennial generation as they came of age.
The strength of her following and the importance readers placed on her books isn’t lost on her.
“I think there are a lot of poor role models in the world right now — mostly adults,” Martin said. “And I hope kids that are reading those books are learning more from the appropriate role models: about kindness, compassion and working together. And I don’t think I had to think in those terms so much when I started the ‘Baby-Sitters Club,’ but still I wanted readers to have a sense for a good, strong group of friends.”
When the books’ popularity skyrocketed, so did Martin’s hopes and expectations.
“Eventually, I felt like I had a responsibility — not in the beginning. But the responsibility became particularly clear when the letters from kids began to come in. At first, there were just a few. And then I got at least 1,000 a month.”
They came from readers — mostly little girls — sharing their experiences with the books. They’d write her about which character was their favorite and a little bit about themselves.
“But there were also some standouts, and many of those were writing with very real problems,” Martin said. “Kids’ abuses. Parents going through divorces. Kids contemplating suicide. And at that point, I began to feel the weight.”
She saw that the books meant big things to her little readers.
And they continued to do so even as her readers grew.
“I get many, many requests — mostly from adults who read the books when they were kids — for a reunion story. And I just, I don’t know,” Martin said. “It would only appeal to adults because 9-year-olds aren’t going to read about their favorite characters when they’re in their 30s. And I’ve never written for adults.”
For the most part, the books have aged well: They pass the Bechdel test, and offer an inclusive and diverse cast of characters, negotiating strong friendships and tough choices.
Though when Scholastic decided to re-release the books a few years ago, it had to do a little updating.
“When we reissued the first eight titles with new covers, we decided we would update them a little bit but ultimately realized we couldn’t include technology because there would be too many changes,” Martin said. “We took out references to things kids honestly wouldn’t know about these days, like VCRs.”
They added in some developments in the treatment of diabetes, for Stacey’s storyline. If Martin were to write the series today, she’d have to find a way around the fact that the club congregated at Claudia’s house simply because of the access to a landline phone. But much of the series’ identity would stay intact. Though there might be one change:
“Possibly the books would have been even more overtly feminist,” Martin said. “I think there are subjects I might touch on today that I wouldn’t have written about 30 years ago. Things that are more out in the open, which is very nice.”
For now, Martin is happy to continue the legacy of the kind of characters she created in the series, by adding new heroes to society in the form of Rose from “Rain Reign” and others she’s currently fleshing out.
“I want people to understand Rose’s character,” she said. “There are so many kids now who know someone who’s on the spectrum — whether it’s a family member or a classmate, and I think that is one of the most important aspects of the story. For Rose to be seen and heard. And understood.”