Jon Merrill's Baby-sitters Club Collectors' Companion

MERRILL’S COMPANION

THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB

by Jonathan A. Merrill

4th Printing July 2001

THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB® is a registered trademark of Scholastic, Inc.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to the following for finding BSC collectibles and/or help in compiling material for this Companion:

Amy Allison

Larissa Auble

Alice Billheimer

Rosemarie DiCristo

Kate Emburg

Katie Geoghegan

Meredith Jaffe

Katarina Larsson

Maggie McManus

Cynthia Moser

Larry Post

Lorraine Rogers

Kelly Stielper

John Tonner

Tricia Trozzi

Katarina Zackariassen

AND…

eBay

MERRILL’S COMPANION TO THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB

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About the Author (2001)

JONATHAN A. MERRILL, 56, is a finance manager at AT&T in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, having been a former elementary school music teacher. He is a member of the Society of Phantom Friends, a group of children’s series book enthusiasts and collectors, and has written several articles for the club newsletter, The Whispered Watchword. In addition to the Baby-sitters Club, he also collects numerous other series, old and new, such as Judy Bolton, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Kay Tracey, the Dana Girls, Trixie Belden, Patty Fairfield, and the Saddle Club. He was the president of the national fan club for the Annie Broadway musical for 15 years (1983-98) and published over 80 issues of its newsletter Annie People. For ten years (1982-92) he was the editor and publisher of 60 issues of the Little Lulu fanzine, The Stanley Steamer. He has also written an unpublished volume, Sittin’ On A Fence (We Can’t Go On This Way), an autobiographical novel-length account of the beginnings of his work with youth. He now lives in Pennsylvania, where his quantity of Baby-sitters Club collectibles is beginning to rival his Little Orphan Annie memorabilia.

**UPDATE – April 2011

I wrote Merrill’s Companion To The Baby-sitters Club in 1996 and revised it most recently in 2001 after the series ended. Later that same year I retired from AT&T and am now a senior citizen (turning 66 in May) living in North Carolina. Due to moving to a smaller place in 2006, I downsized my Baby-sitters Club memorabilia (and my Little Orphan Annie memorabilia) considerably, but I still have every single BSC book that is described in the Companion. I am glad to know that Scholastic is reviving the series with new issues of the earliest books plus a brand-new “prequel” by Ann M. Martin called The Summer Before.

Update to the Companion: Between 2006 and 2008 there were 4 graphic novels by Ann M. Martin (text) and Raina Telgemeier (art). These were of book 1 (Kristy’s Great Idea), book 3 (The Truth About Stacey), book 4 (Mary Anne Saves The Day), and book 7 (Claudia And Mean Janine).

In an attempt to introduce a new generation to the Baby-sitters Club, reissues of the earliest BSC books have been coming out with new covers and slight revisions to bring them more up to date (getting rid of references to VCRs, for example). Paperbacks of books 1-6 plus the prequel The Summer Before are available so far. The prequel is also available in hardback.

Further BSC updates will be on this page as they happen.

– Jonathan A. Merrill

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Feedback, additions, and corrections welcome:

E-mail: jonmerrill@aol.com

Web site: http://www.hingepepper.com/frontpage.htm (scroll down to the BSC section)

**For further information on joining the Society of Phantom Friends, please contact:**

Kate Emburg, 40 S. Vine St., Mount Carmel, PA 17851, or e-mail: dolladopt@aol.com

THE COVER: The photo was taken by me at a BSC book signing event in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania in May 1994. Larissa Auble, 9, is getting an autograph from Ann M. Martin. Larissa and I attended the event together, having met when she was in the Off-Broadway show of Annie Warbucks. She had acted in BSC Videocassette 3, Stacey's Big Break, when she was 6 years old and had Jessica Prunell and all the principal actresses sign a 1991 BSC calendar for her at the time of filming. This item is what Ann is signing for Larissa.