Ready, Set, Babysit! Best Babysitters Ever by Caroline Cala

The epiphany came during the worst week ever.

It was only October and so far, seventh grade was turning out to be all kinds of meh.

Malia's malaise was distracted by a box outside the public library with a sign that said FREE STUFF.

Malia noticed a little yellow corner peeking out of the jumble. She pulled it loose to reveal an ancient paperback. Its cover was wrinkled and worn. The Babysitters' Club was spelled out in red-lettered alphabet blocks, followed by the title Kristy's Great Idea.

Four Friends and baby-sitting--what could be more fun? read the tagline.

Malia mentally yawned, wondering if middle-schoolers back in the '90s really thought minding gross little preschoolers was fun. She and her best friends, Bree and Dot, had their minds on their upcoming joint birthday party, which just had to be something special to compete with their peers turning-teen birthday shindigs--with posh bat mitzvahs and real elephant rides. But as she speed-read the first chapter, Malia had an idea. Could she and her friends make use of Kristy's idea and make enough cash to throw a memorable bash--one exciting enough to impress her snooty big sister Chelsea and the most perfect boy in seventh grade, Connor Kelly? Oh, and maybe then Malia can get everyone to remember to call her Alia (the M is silent).

Her two friends jump on her idea for their own reasons. Dot's hippy-ish nature-advocate mother bans anything with sugar, glutin or "chemicals," and Dot needs junk food and real deodorant that works instead of dried twig snacks and mineral rocks to apply to her underarms. Bree's needs are more simple; she wants clothes like her older stepsister Ariana and a cat of her own, and she absolutely must meet Taylor Swift. A quick survey of their little beach town reveals a desperate market for occasional babysitters. All three friends agree--it's time they join the gig economy and fund their own wishes.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, everything. The first sitting jobs go well, with all three girls reporting for duty. Their e-mail blasts keep them busy for the first week. And when they learn that trendy blue-haired singer VERONICA herself is doing a concert in their little beach town of Playa del Mar, the three think big, planning their joint birthday party at Marvelous Ray's arcade, after which they and guests would all go to the concert. Perfect!

But then Malia posts a lame website for their services, with their initials in a giant font across the top, using her favored name Alia:

B ree  A lia D ot

Babysitters!

Dot blinked three times. "This is may be the worst business acronym ever."

And then Malia/Alia's older sister Chelsea takes over their idea, calling her babysitting agency the Seaside Sitters, and stealing their best clients by under-bidding their prices. Bree and Malia and Dot try to undercut Chelsea's clique's pricing and foolishly book themselves to oversee thirty-three kids at a swanky do at an immaculate and lavishly furnished mansion on a bluff scarily overlooking the Pacific Ocean. What can happen? Anything that can go wrong goes wrong!

Is their money-making Babysitters Club II a bust? Will the three Best Friends Forever suffer a big breakup?

Never! In the best tradition of best friends books, they make up instead of break up, and a triple birthday bash comes off after all, in Caroline Cala's hilarious take-off on Ann M. Martin's smash Babysitters Club series, Best Babysitters Ever (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) With the same lighthearted look at middle-school angst and diverse characters that made Martin's venerable series memorable, Cala's treatment of early adolescence, spot-on with all the sudden self-consciousness and the usual sibling friction, parental foibles, first crushes, and classmate rivalries, is refreshingly upbeat and humorously hopeful, a novel which will even make middle readers laugh a little at themselves. Says the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, "Even readers who have never had the pleasure of hanging out with the BC girls of yore will find Malia, Bree, and Dot all likable in their distinct ways, and they’ll appreciate the book’s mix of snark and heart."