Month: December 2020

The Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels #1: Kristy’s Great Idea – Raina Telgemeier

Text – Ann M. Martin

I stand by everything I said in my review of Ann M. Martin’s Kristy’s Great Idea so, rather than rehash that, I’m going to mention some of the differences I noticed between the book and graphic novel instead.

In the book Kristy wears a dress on the original front cover and it’s mentioned she wears a blouse and skirt to school. That’s not Kristy at all. In the graphic novel Kristy consistently wears what we come to know as her uniform. Much better.

In the book Kristy has a purse. Again, this is definitely not something I would ever picture her with. In the graphic novel her purse has transformed into a backpack. Definitely more Kristy-like.

While I absolutely love that Claudia has a section of her hair dyed in the graphic novel, I don’t think her parents would have allowed her to get away with that. She has to hide her earrings, junk food and Nancy Drew novels from them so hair dye would have to be forbidden as well, right?

The BSC logo that Claudia draws in the graphic novel is different than the one we all grew up with. Similar but different.

The amount the girls have earned by the time of the sleepover and how much they each need to contribute to buy pizza has increased. These aren’t 1986 prices anymore.

Class at Stoneybrook Middle School appears to finish at 3pm now, not 2:42pm like in the book. That makes much more sense.

The sheep barrettes in Claudia’s hair in the book are now a rainbow on her shirt. I’m good with either. It’s Claudia, after all. She can get away with whatever fashion choices she makes.

In my version of the first book, Kristy’s mother’s name is Edie and in the graphic novel it’s Elizabeth. Although I haven’t checked later books to confirm this, Elizabeth sounds right to me.

This isn’t a change, but I was really happy to discover that the landline in Claudia’s bedroom hasn’t succumbed to technology. The BSC meetings would look a lot different if everyone was sitting around with a mobile phone.

I’d forgotten I’d already read this graphic novel so I can’t tell you what I thought last time I read it but this time I was really impressed. The story and important details remain true to the original.

I read the black and white version of the graphic novel. I would be interested to check out the colour version at some point. For comparison, here are the black and white and colour versions of the first page.

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As usual, Raina’s artwork is brilliant and the personalities of each character shine through. I’m really glad I read this straight after finishing the book so, where possible, I think I’ll keep doing this.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In this new graphic novel edition of the very first Baby-Sitters Club book, Raina Telgemeier captures all the drama of the original in warm, spunky illustrations. Witness Kristy’s eureka moment, when she gets the idea for a “baby-sitters club” and enlists her best friends, shy Mary Anne and artistic Claudia, in an exciting new venture. But the baby-sitting business isn’t the only thing absorbing their attention: Kristy is having a hard time accepting her stepdad-to-be, and the newest member of the gang, Stacey, seems to be hiding a secret.

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The Baby-Sitters Club #1: Kristy’s Great Idea – Ann M. Martin

The year was 1986. I was in the second grade. My childhood dog was still a puppy. It was my first year playing netball. It was also the year Kristy Thomas had a great idea.

It was an idea that meant that every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5.30pm to 6pm, I’d be thinking about Kristy, Claudia, Stacey and Mary Anne (and later in the series, new BSC members). I knew they would be hanging out in Claudia’s bedroom waiting for the phone to ring. She’d have junk food for those who partook and healthy options for those who didn’t. They’d talk Kid Kits (another of Kristy’s great ideas but she hasn’t thought of them yet), collect dues (ugh!) and run a thriving business (at 12!).

I never babysat when I was a kid so I’m not entirely sure what kept me coming back for more. It was probably a combination of the friendships and the introduction to the fun and mischief of little kids. I was an only child who desperately wanted a sibling so this was my window into a world of what if.

As an adult I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t be leaving young kids with a 12 year old babysitter. I wondered how long these girls have been babysitting if they are as experienced as they claim. I’m also slightly disturbed, realising it’s extremely likely I’m now older than the babysitters’ parents are in the series.

Kristy’s Great Idea was my second BSC book. It was Mary Anne who introduced me to the other babysitters when she saved the day and given I was a Mary Anne at the time (shy, quiet and serious), she was the perfect one to accompany me to Stoneybrook. But it was this book that made me wish my best friend lived next door so we could talk at night using a secret flashlight code.

I was never especially keen on Kristy but the bossiness that annoyed me when I was growing up seemed largely absent in this book. She’s organised and entrepreneurial. Sure, she’s a real little snot to Watson for a good portion of this book but she’s 12 and her own father is MIA, so you can kinda see where she’s coming from.

There’s a nice symmetry in this book: David Michael is both the reason Kristy thought of the Baby-Sitters Club in the first place and his mother is the first parent to call at the inaugural BSC meeting to request a babysitter for him.

Because of the time spent setting up the story, it’s not until the eighth chapter that we first see one of the famous handwritten notebook entries. It’s written by Claudia, who babysat for Jamie (“Hi-hi!”) Newton and his three cousins. I used to love being able to identify each babysitter by their handwriting (and seeing if I could find Claudia’s spelling mistakes).

When I read my original copy of Kristy’s Great Idea, the final few pages were out of order and the last page was missing entirely. I remember borrowing a copy from my library and the satisfaction I felt when I finally got to read that final page. I also remember dutifully transcribing every word on it and putting my folded handwritten page inside my own copy so I’d always have the entire story at my fingertips.

About the cover: The original covers are always going to be superior to any of the later ones. That’s a given. But why is this the very first time in 34 years that I’ve paid attention to the fact that Kristy is wearing a dress on this cover? That’s sacrilege!

Weird bits (besides Kristy wearing a dress):

  • Classes finish at Stoneybrook Middle School at 2.42pm. Why not 2.40 or 2.45?
  • Kristy has a purse. That’s almost as anti-Kristy as her wearing a dress.
  • I have trouble imagining Kristy voluntarily playing with dolls as a kid. Wasn’t she always a tomboy?
  • Kristy wears a blouse and skirt to school. Who is this imposter?!

A word this book introduced to me when I was a kid: decorum.

My current favourite quote:

You really haven’t lived until a dog has stepped on your face.

I’ve been planning a BSC binge for a long time. All of my childhood books were thrown away (not by me!) and I mourned their loss. I’ve repurchased many of them since and I finally finished my BSC collection almost ten years ago. This was before I started reviewing and at the time I made it up to #54. I’m now hoping to gradually work my way through the entire series.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Kristy thinks the Baby-Sitters Club is a great idea. She and her friends Claudia, Stacey and Mary Anne all love taking care of kids. A club will give them the chance to have lots of fun-and make tons of money.

But nobody counted on crank calls, uncontrollable two-year-olds, wild pets, and parents who don’t always tell the truth. And then there’s Stacey, who’s acting more and more mysterious. Having a baby-sitters club isn’t easy, but Kristy and her friends aren’t giving up until they get it right!

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The Secret Life of Stars – Lisa Harvey-Smith

Astronomers are curious creatures always on the lookout for new evidence of weird and unusual objects in the universe.

Astronomy has interested me since I was a kid. I remember wanting to be an astronaut and being traumatised alongside Punky Brewster as she sat in class and watched the Challenger disaster. I’d read anything I could about stars, planets and all of the other cool things in our universal backyard. I Google images of nebulas. When I got sick of the job I fell into shortly after university, I started researching (that’s book nerd code for reading textbooks) other areas I might retrain in; one of the ideas on my shortlist was astrophysics.

This astrophysics book is accessible whether you have a background in science or not. There are no complicated mathematical equations and all you need to bring with you is your interest. It’s written in a down to earth way (😜) and uses all manner of earthly things to help explain things that are out of this world.

I wasn’t always a huge fan of giving the stars names and talking about them as though they were people but it did help to get the author’s point across. Especially when a star with a name like 2MASS J18082002−5104378 B can be called Ethel instead.

There are plenty of extraordinary facts for you to enjoy in this book. A few that stood out to me were:

  • The Huge – 1.3 million Earths would fit inside the Sun. VY Canis Majoris, a red hypergiant star, is so big that 300 million Suns would fit inside it.
  • The Speedy – S5-HVS1, the fastest star in the universe, travels at over 6 million kilometres per hour (1755 kilometres every second!). No wonder HVS means “hyper-velocity star”.
  • The Awesome – There is a star classification, Ap, where the p stands for “peculiar”. Peculiar is a legitimate astrophysics word! I love it!

While we now know so much about the universe, it’s also clear just how much we don’t know. Yet. There were plenty of instances of ‘might be’, ‘we don’t know’, and ‘maybe when telescopes are more powerful’.

It’s tantalising thinking that at any time someone could discover something entirely unheard of. There’s also something strangely satisfying about imagining the team meetings where astrophysicists bounce theories around, especially the one about Przybylski’s star.

It might have gone something like this (my astrophysicists are Australian):

Astrophysicist 1: So, what do we all reckon is causing the composition of Przybylski’s star to be so weird?

Astrophysicist 2: Hmm … Could be some heavy radioactive elements we haven’t discovered yet.

Astrophysicist 3: Yeah, or it could be aliens.

Astrophysicist 1: …

Astrophysicist 2: … How do you figure?

Astrophysicist 3: The way I see it, mate, aliens could be pouring strontium and curium into the star.

Astrophysicist 1: Yeah, nah.

Astrophysicist 2: Seriously? But why would they be doing that?

Astrophysicist 3: To get our attention.

Astrophysicist 1: … You know what? You could be onto something!

Astrophysicist 2: Well, I suppose we can’t prove that it’s not aliens. Let’s add that to our list of theories.

Astrophysicist 3: Science for the win!

Now, that’s science I can get behind.

I would recommend you Google images of each star as you learn about it so you can put a stellar face to the name. Lest you read about the Stingray nebula and imagine this

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when you really should be imagining this.

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So, having read this book, do I think I can now talk confidently about astrophysics? Not a chance, but I can point you in the direction of a book that will entertain you while teaching you some fascinating things about the universe. And like any good non fiction book, I’m leaving this one satisfied with what I’ve learned but eager to investigate further.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

We all know the Sun, the powerhouse of our solar system, but what about Luyten’s Flare, the Rosino-Zwicky Object or Chanal’s variable star? For those whose curiosity takes them far beyond Earth’s atmosphere, The Secret Life of Stars offers a personal and readily understood introduction to some of the Galaxy’s most remarkable stars.

Each chapter connects us to the various different and unusual stars and their amazing characteristics and attributes, from pulsars, blue stragglers and white dwarfs to cannibal stars and explosive supernovae. With chapter illustrations by Eirian Chapman, this book brings to life the remarkable personalities of these stars, reminding readers what a diverse and unpredictable universe we live in and how fortunate we are to live around a stable star, our Sun.

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Book Haul – 29 November to 5 December 2020

Hey book nerds! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week!

My TBR pile has been spending the better part of this week silently judging me. I live with cervical headaches and occipital neuralgia as a result of a car accident ten years ago. This week they both showed up together and they were doozies. So rather than finishing all of the books I wanted to, most of my time was spent keeping my head as still as possible and not thinking because it hurt too much. Hopefully next week I’ll have more reading days.

Also related to the car accident and newly relevant this week is my love of concerts. I used to attend concerts all the time and even followed Tori Amos’ tour around Australia one time. The last concert I managed to attend was in Sydney over five years ago. I remember laying in the grass near the train station opposite the Opera House bawling my eyes out because I was in too much pain to move and I’d been looking forward to the concert so much. I did eventually make it but I had to take so many painkillers to be able to sit upright that the entire concert is a blur.

So, on to why this is relevant now. I never thought I’d be able to attend another concert but thanks to 2020 (I found one good thing about this year for me) there are now online concerts. I got an email this morning telling me about Vienna Teng’s upcoming concert and I can’t wait! While I was signing up for that one I also found out there’s a Patty Griffin one. So I’ll be able to attend two concerts, both for women I never thought I’d have the opportunity to see live, in the next week! If you’re interested in attending either concert with me, you can buy tickets here.

The beach has been amazing this week. I got to watching a storm out at sea and another day I investigated one of the tracks I’ve never been on before. I assumed that once you had made it through the sand dunes you would come to a car park but it was so much more interesting than that. It was like being in another world, one that led to a swamp. I was so impressed!

There were even a few places along the trail where people have left accommodations for faeries. My photos of those didn’t turn out that well so I will make sure to take a better camera with me next time I visit.

Word of the Week: Pyrrhic victory, “a victory or goal achieved at too great a cost” (from Dictionary.com). Okay, so this week’s word is actually two but I learned this phrase this week and it applies to a decision I need to make in the very near future. I really liked this article that explains where this term comes from.

Bookish Highlight of the Week: My signed bookplate for Alix Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches arrived in the mail! I was one of only 100 people worldwide that managed to snag one. On par with my excitement about actually receiving one was the realisation that Alix personally addressed the envelope it came in. There’s something slightly surreal and entirely wonderful about gettIng mail from one of your favourite authors.

Recent Reads:

Book Mail

Wolf Girl and her trusty dogs are back for another hackle-raising adventure.

On the run from sinister forces, Gwen rushes head-long into danger. With giant snakes, komodo dragons and a whole new wolf pack to contend with, Wolf Girl will need all her cunning … and all her friends.

Kindle Black Hole of Good Intentions

Tim and Abi have always been different from their peers. Precociously bright, they spend their evenings in their parents’ attic discussing the macabre and unexplained, zealously rereading books on folklore, hauntings and the supernatural. In particular, they are obsessed with photographs of ghostly apparitions and the mix of terror and delight they provoke in their otherwise boring and safe childhoods.

But when Tim and Abi decide to fake a photo of a ghost to frighten an unpopular school friend, they set in motion a deadly and terrifying chain of events that neither of them could have predicted, and are forced to confront the possibility that what began as a callous prank might well have taken on a malevolent life of its own.

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Breaking & Mending – Joanna Cannon

I learned that returning a life to someone very often has nothing to do with restoring a heartbeat.

In this memoir, Joanna Cannon invites readers to experience key moments of her time in medical school and as a junior doctor. This quick read has short chapters but they provide insights on her highs and lows, as well as the patients that have stayed with her. I found her writing style engaging and I could easily picture what Joanna was describing.

Burnout is an unlikely phrase, because it implies that the effects are loud and obvious, raging like a fire for everyone to see.

Most burnout, however, is quiet and remains unseen. It exists behind a still and mirrored surface, deep, out of reach, unnoticed by everyone – even, sometimes, by the one who is burning.

While some of the factors that contributed to her ‘breaking’ are fairly clear in my mind, the details of the ‘mending’ remain fairly vague to me. Sure, I know that being able to work in psychiatry, which was the reason Joanna was in medical school in the first place, was integral to her recovery. However, unlike the lead up to her burnout, the recovery process didn’t really come alive on the page for me.

I was impressed by Joanna’s ability to hold on to her compassion, even as her work as a junior doctor was taking a physical and psychological toll on her. What I will take away from this read, though, is the kindness and courage of so many of her patients, despite their circumstances.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

“A few years ago, I found myself in A&E. 

I had never felt so ill. I was mentally and physically broken. So fractured, I hadn’t eaten properly or slept well, or even changed my expression for months. I sat in a cubicle, behind paper-thin curtains and I shook with the effort of not crying. I was an inch away from defeat … but I knew I had to carry on. 

Because I wasn’t the patient. I was the doctor.”

In this powerful memoir, Joanna Cannon tells her story as a junior doctor in visceral, heart-rending snapshots. 

We walk with her through the wards, facing extraordinary and daunting moments: from attending her first post-mortem, sitting with a patient through their final moments, to learning the power of a well or badly chosen word. These moments, and the small sustaining acts of kindness and connection that punctuate hospital life, teach her that emotional care and mental health can be just as critical as restoring a heartbeat.

In a profession where weakness remains a taboo, this moving, beautifully written book brings to life the vivid, human stories of doctors and patients – and shows us why we need to take better care of those who care for us.

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