Whenever anybody asks me what my favourite books were to read as a kid, I never even hesitate: Little Women, Heidi, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden ... but maybe I remember these so strongly as my favourites because I enjoy them still. They're favourites that have endured. However there was also a whole stack of books that I read over and over that rarely get a mention, and I can only assume that it's because they're not books that I read today. These are, of course, Ann M. Martin's The Babysitter's Club and Babysitter's Little Sister series.
Yesterday my mother saw me updating my book records and, after a brief round of light teasing, asked if I had included all the Babysitter books I had read when I was younger. The fact is, I had never even considered adding them. Little Women was there, for sure, as was Heidi and a whole range of childhood favourites. I don't even hesitate to add any child or young adult books that I read today, so why ignore all those books that I had read then?
My day today (never let it be said that I don't use my holidays productively) was spent reading through the complete lists of books in the Babysitter's Club and Little Sister series, to see just how many I remembered and which ones I felt secure in adding to my list ... who would have thought I would remember so many of them?
Reading these lists, I was flooded with memories of reading these books: feeling so lucky when I was allowed to order new ones through the school book club; taking my little clipboard to the public library and ticking off the numbers I was borrowing (yes, I was a list freak even then); sitting propped up in bed reading through a pile of them and running out to my mother at the start of every chapter because I couldn't read the cursive journal entries.
One of my favourite memories however is sitting down in the corner of of my older cousin's room (who I remember as being just so cool! and she had so many books!) and running my fingers along the bottom rows of her bookshelf where she kept her own collection of these books. I remember so vividly the day she bequeathed her collection to me. I can actually see the piles of books sitting in stacks under my bed - it was so exciting!What surprised me most about today's activities is just how much of the details I remembered from all those years ago. Character's names, families, the tiniest details just hit me. I remembered Mary Ann (who was always my favourite) receiving a mustard seed necklace, I remember Claudia's oh-so-cool high top sneakers and Kristy's ever present jeans. I spared a laugh for Mallory's notebook carrying (what can I say, I'm more impressionable than I realise), and one for myself when I remembered how grown-up and important these thirteen-year-old girls seemed to me when I was young.
I've ended my day with a real desire to reread these books, to see how I would view them now. I may just have to head off to the library tomorrow ... I wonder if I can find my old shiny green clipboard?