A Favorite Series Gets a New Treatment

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on Apr. 27, 2006 Sign up now!

by Joy Bean, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 4/27/2006

When Raina Telgemeier was growing up, the Baby-Sitters Club books were among her favorites.Kristy's Great Idea, the first in the series by Ann Martin, was published by Scholastic back in 1986; now, 20 years later, Telgemeier is retelling the tales in graphic novel format. The first title was published earlier this month in both hardcover and paperback from the Graphix imprint of Scholastic.

"I was so familiar with the first book, it was almost like my own memories being written down," Telgemeier says. "It was very natural for me to bring the book into comic book format because I relate so much to these characters and I knew what they looked like."

Turning the popular tween titles into graphic novels may seem like a stretch to some, but not to Telgemeier or her publishing team at Scholastic. "It sounds strange," says David Levithan, Telgemeier's editor. "But because the books are so reader-friendly and the readers identify with the characters so well, adapting it to a more graphic medium made sense."

Telgemeier joined the project through "pure serendipity," according to Levithan. Editor-at-large Janna Morishima was at a comix party where Telgemeier's art was on display. "Janna told me that she was helping to put together a comix line and she liked my work so I started pitching original ideas to [Scholastic]," says Telgemeier. "They would say, 'This is good, but it needs a little work,' and finally one day they asked me what I read as a kid."

The answer, of course, was The Baby-Sitters Club. "They asked me to do the first book as a comic just to see how it would work," she says. After showing some character sketches to the editors and author Martin, Kristy's Great Ideawas soon off the ground.

The project worked in a fluid way, with Telgemeier retelling Martin's story first by writing up scripts with sketches and then having Martin look them over. "She was pretty much involved every step of the way," Telgemeier says. Levithan, who was the last editor of the prose series, says, "I know Ann's voice inside and out, and Raina does as well because she grew up on the books. I think she captures Ann's voice perfectly. Every single person who has been a fan of the original books and has looked at this new graphic format has said that the illustrations are just right." Martin agrees. "I very much like what she's done with the books," she says. "She's been very true to the original books."

Martin, Levithan and Telgemeier all believe that the graphic novels will reach a broader audience than the original series did. "Not only will it pull in young readers who aren't familiar with the books," Martin says, "but [it will also draw] older people, in their 20's, who might enjoy the graphics as adults now." Levithan says, "It seems that so many of the comics out there now are manga and Japanese-influenced, but a lot of girls don't see themselves as big-eyed waifs. With the Baby-Sitters Club, we want it to feel like your best friends are on the page."

While the story remains the same, a few things were changed to update the books. Telgemeier said she was asked to change items like clothes and earrings, so that they didn't have an 80's look to them and to make them seem timeless.

So far two books in the series are under contract, with more under discussion.