CBR15Bingo: Nostalgia (a nostalgic series updated for the modern day)
I was excited to see this pop up in the bookstore as I’d missed there was a new one in the series coming out. I am a big fan of these graphic novel adaptations of the Baby-Sitters Club series, so it’s always a treat when they release another one. Stacey’s Mistake follows the group going to visit Stacey in New York City, as she moved back to the city for her dad’s job in a previous volume. Her neighborhood community theater is doing a fundraiser to keep from having to close, and Stacey comes up with a plan to have her friends come down and babysit a bunch of the kids in the building so their parents can go to the auction. This is a bit of a retread of the idea from Kristy’s Big Day, but it’s acknowledged in the narrative. When the girls come down, they have differing reactions to being in the big city — Mary Ann spouts facts nonstop, Dawn is terrified of being mugged, and Claudia is instantly jealous of Stacey’s New York best friend Laine. Stacey has to figure out how to manage coordinating babysitting ten little kids and her friends.
Overall, this was a sweet addition to the series. I liked seeing how the different personalities interacted with each other and Crenshaw did a good job of balancing the variety of story threads here. Her art is expressive and she does a great job with exaggerated cartooning to get emotions across while maintaining realism. I also liked seeing New York City through the eyes of a work aimed at children, with the broad strokes of the city coming across clearly and with affection. I still think Chan Chau and Gale Galligan have done the best work on this series, but this one was very solid overall and it’s getting added to the shelf.
No real warnings beyond age-appropriate friendship conflict.