Synopsis: A funny new middle grade series about three 12-year-old best friends who start a babysitting club in their small California town. No parents. Unlimited snacks. And, okay, occasionally watching other people’s children. What could possibly go wrong? Perfect for fans of series like Whatever After and the Dork Diaries.
Review: Bad Babysitters follows three characters, Malia, Bree, and Dot as they try their hands at babysitting jobs. The story alternates between all three girls, but Malia is clearly the "main" character. I liked all three girls fairly well, and they all felt distinct. I just wish that we had a bit more time with Bree and Dot because they didn't feel as integral to the story. In most books this wouldn't be a big deal, but this story focuses on all three girls and their relationships with each other. Malia was the only one that felt really fleshed out.
The story was cute. At first, I thought it was supposed to be a kind of spin-off of The Babysitters Club, but it isn't. Malia just sees a copy of the first book and suggests that her friends start a babysitting club with her. That's the only connection to the original series. I didn't read The Babysitters Club a lot as a kid, but I still appreciated little references that were made. While this book was a cute, fast read, there wasn't really a lot of babysitting in it. Pretty early into the story, Malia's sister snipes the babysitting idea and makes it her own. This leaves Malia and her friends to work on a revenge plot of some kind, and that really takes up most of the story. I think the book would have benefited from being longer, with a bit more babysitting at the end. Throughout the story, one of the girls takes care of cats for someone, and another girl hangs out with an older woman and helps with her plants. At the end, it would have been nice if the girls got together to talk about these differing experiences, and decide if babysitting is really something they want to pursue.
Cute, quick story that kids will have fun with.
3 howls
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