The Baby-Sitters Club is the insanely popular series of novels written by Ann M. Martin. I never read the series as it was aimed at girls primarily but I was aware of the books as my sister was a fan of this and Sweet Valley High back in the 90s. However, when I saw that Raina Telgemeier, one of my favourite comic artists, had adapted the books I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to jump in and read the series with my daughter during this lockdown. So, how is it?

The Baby-Sitters Club is about a group of friends who decide to create a babysitting service in their town. The stories follow the creation, teething problems and evolution of the club as it grows and new members join. It’s all very wholesome stuff but does deal with some real world issues like divorce, fitting in and friendships.

The stories are simple and engaging enough but the real draw is Raina’s illustrations which just pop off the page. The look and characterisation of each of the girls is strong and seeing how they interact is great as it sounds very real and lifelike.

There are 8 graphic novels in the series but only the first 4 are illustrated by Raina. If you have a young child in your life who likes gentle tween drama then this is the series for you.

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I introduced comics and graphic novels into my classroom at the beginning of the calendar year to promote reading. I am a huge fan of the medium and believe that it promotes reading, especially among the more reluctant readers. I had several pupils in my class who I believed would benefit from immersing themselves in the comics and now, as we approach the end of the year, I decided to have a chat with my children to find their opinions on the media.

All Star Superman- not a comic I had in my classroom but I feel that he is a good role-model and shows that heroes can be pure and good (ignore the killing of Zod in the awful 'Man of Steel)

I purchased a wide variety of graphic novels including The Lumberjanes, The Babysitters Club, Adventure Time and a range of Silver Age Spiderman, Ironman and Hulk collections.

The Lumberjanes graphic novels were extremely popular with the boys and girls, even though the protagonists are all female. My pupils said that they liked the characters and that they were really appealing. They loved the 3 trade paperbacks and were eagerly awaiting the 4th.

The Baby Sitters Club was popular with the girls. I found that the quieter girls liked this as the story took more time to develop and it was a much longer graphic novel to read.

The smattering of Silver Age Spiderman, Ironman and Hulk were popular with the children, most of who have watched the films and enjoyed learning more about the Marvel universe. A lot of the boys especially stated that they were surprised that some of the stories in the comics, which were over 40 years ago, had stories which they recognised from the movies.
Overall I think that the comics and graphic novels have converted quite a few of my pupils to reading and introduced comics to a wider group, some of who assumed that comics were 'geeky' or 'nerdy'. I hope to introduce more comics with my next class and will look at what books the children liked.