‘Baby-Sitters Club’ Young Girls From Around The World ‘Find Themselves’ In Ann M. Martin’s Stories

Skinny girls. Chubby girls. Giggling girls. Crying girls. At first it just looks like a pre-adolescent mob scene, but then you realize they’re all clutching books.

Baby-Sitters Club books.

At the center of all the attention - and too shy to speak to the crowd - is the author, Ann M. Martin.

“If you asked me to speak to a group, I would probably melt right to the floor,” she says, smiling nervously into a large, foamy cup of cappuccino.

It’s hard to believe this mild woman who describes herself as “kind of boring” and who sews in her free time has become a hero among a certain segment of the population.

But with 150 million of her books in print in 19 languages, Martin and her publishers at Scholastic Inc. are undoubtedly a phenomenon, albeit a reluctant one. Huge numbers of 8- to 12-year-old girls in this country, and many more elsewhere in the world, follow the stories of Martin’s baby sitters.

Martin, 41, started writing Baby-Sitters Club books 11 years ago after working as a children’s book editor. The series follows seven girls, ages 11 and 13, who work together as baby sitters in the imaginary town of Stoneybrook, Conn.

The books also constitute one of the most successful series for children ever, according to Publishers Weekly.

“Are these high-quality children’s literature? No. But these are reading materials that a lot of girls are picking up at an age when kids are easily turned off of reading,” says Herb Steven, president of the children’s division of the American Library Association.

Even Martin, who reads avidly, hopes girls read beyond her series.

In her stories, her characters have classic books assigned in their English classes and keep good reading material on their bedside tables.

“I usually mention a really good book that I like and I know that the kids will go and buy those and read them, so I can kind of steer them in the direction of other books that I enjoy,” says Martin.

And while girls are reading her books, Martin makes sure to give them something worth spending time with.

The characters deal with divorcing parents, the death of a classmate, bullies and unfair teachers as well as light romances, jealousies and silly adventures.

“Girls can enjoy these books for the same reason young women read glamour magazines, which is they can find themselves in the problems,” says Dr. Karen Zager, a co-chair of the American Psychologists Association’s Presidential Task Force on Adolescent Girls.

Zager says girls find relief in the fast answers to familiar problems.

“That quick fix is very appealing,” she says.

Similarly popular series these days include R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps and Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley University, echoing the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys adventures of past generations.

Martin says she never intended her books to be fast reads, but Tina Adams-Lyons, 12, of Albuquerque says she gets through one in “an hour or two.”

“Some girls whip through these, but I’m a pretty slow reader,” Martin says.

On what was a typical book-signing day for the author, Ashton Hawker, 10, stood with her nose in a book, oblivious to the lively crowd around her at Page One bookstore in Albuquerque.

A thin girl with a big white ribbon in her hair, Ashton was one of about 600 girls who showed up for the “Best Friends Tour” stop. The tour, which aims to hit all 50 states within two years, takes Martin out on the road twice a month.

“These books have a lot of good details,” Ashton says. “I like the way the girls all have really different personalities.”

Across the room, Martin is surrounded by a fence of books; assistants keep the crowd back, and allow the girls up one at a time.

On average, about 500 girls show up at each book signing.

More than 700 lined up in Clayton, Mo., last May. There were 600 in Orlando, Fla., in October. Mall visits have brought out several thousand at a time.

“Sometimes there’s a pretty serious mob scene,” says Martin’s publicist, Betsy Howie.

During a recent sweep of New Mexico and Colorado, Martin hit four bookstores in two days.

Rebekah Garcia, 10, persuaded her parents to drive her 3-1/2 hours to Albuquerque from Durango, Colo., for a signing. Rebekah has all 109 Baby-Sitters Club books, as well as the series’ mysteries and special editions.

“The girls in these books really do seem like they’re talking to me,” she says. “They don’t seem to be as far-fetched as other girl’s books.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Author’s staff helps write books, oversee fan club The Associated Press Here’s a look at Ann M. Martin and her Baby-Sitters Club book series. Martin lives in New York with her cats, Gussie and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing and needlework. Her favorite foods are ice cream and doughnuts. The baby sitters are: Claudia, who is slightly insecure and artistic; Kristy, the bossy club president; Mary Anne, a shy and responsible girl patterned after Martin; Mallory, an excellent student from a big family who plans to write children’s books; Jessi, an outgoing ballet dancer; Abby, an athletic asthmatic with an identical twin; and Stacy, a sophisticated clotheshorse with diabetes. The baby sitters in Martin’s books are frozen in time at the ages of 11 and 13. They start and finish school again and again but remain in sixth and eighth grades. (“Otherwise they’d all be out of college by now,” says Martin.) In addition to the Baby-Sitters Club series of 109 books, there are offshoots including Baby-Sitters Club mysteries, a Little Sister series of 85 books and The Kids In Ms. Colman’s Class series with seven books. Martin has also written 12 novels and two picture books. Two writers now help Martin write some of the Baby-Sitters Club books, which are published once a month. Martin still writes some herself and also writes the outlines and edits all the books. Martin receives 17,000 letters a year, which are answered by a staff of five and a psychological consultant. The Baby-Sitters Club fan club has 30,000 members. It costs $10.95 to join, and members get a small camera, a miniphoto album, diary (with lock!), stationery note cards and stickers, “eight cool pencils” and more. A typical book, No. 109, “Mary Anne to the Rescue,” begins: “Everyone in class stood up and started gabbing at once. I quickly made my way across the room toward Logan. “‘Hi!’ I said. ‘Are you all right?’ “‘Yeah,’ Logan replied. ‘Fine.’ “He sure didn’t sound fine. His voice was soft and clipped. And he wasn’t looking me in the eye. He just walked out into the hallway. “‘Are you sure?’ I persisted, following behind him. “‘Um, let’s go outside,’ Logan said. ‘I need to tell you something.’ “Now I was really worried. I did not like the sound of this.” Martin has used some of the proceeds from her popular books to establish two foundations - The Ann M. Martin Foundation Inc. grants funding to small programs that benefit children, education, literacy, homeless people and animals; Lisa Libraries establishes small reading-rooms at shelters, foster care centers and prisons with new books donated from publishers and authors.