Great Pop Culture Debate

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Best Baby-Sitters Club Book

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The Baby-Sitters Club books, by Ann M Martin, were first published in 1986. With the help of Scholastic Book Fairs and order forms, they became one of the most popular YA series of the 80s and 90s. Over the initial run of the series, there were 131 primary books published, along with dozens of specials, super specials, mysteries — and that’s not even counting the whole Little Sister series. There was even a TV show and a movie in the 90s. Two generations later, these books have been repackaged and transformed into graphic novels, and adapted into a hit 2-season Netflix series. Now the Great Pop Culture Debate wants to pour over all of the books and decide which entry is the Best Baby-Sitters Club book of all time.

Join host Eric Rezsnyak and GPCD panelists Amma Marfo, Jennifer Chen, Joelle Boedecker, and Karissa Kloss as they share their mutual love of this iconic book series.

Play along at home by finding the listener bracket here. Make a copy for yourself, fill it out, and see if your picks match up with ours!

For more exclusive content, including warm-up in which we discuss the BSC books that didn’t make the bracket, become a Patreon supporter of the podcast today.

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Round 1 Match-Ups:

Not a Patreon subscriber? Here’s a primer on how we came up with the bracket.

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Match-Up 1: “Claudia and the Sad Goodbye” (1) vs. “New York, New York!” (4)

Match-Up 2: “Dawn’s Wicked Stepsister” (3) vs. “Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye” (2)

Match-Up 3: “Abby’s Lucky Thirteen” (1) vs. “Stacey’s Emergency” (4)

Match-Up 4: “Claudia, Queen of the Seventh Grade” (3) vs. “Jessi’s Secret Language” (2)

Match-Up 5: “Kristy’s Great Idea” (1) vs. “Logan Likes Mary Anne!” (4)

Match-Up 6: “Dawn and the Big Sleepover” (3) vs. “Mary Anne Saves the Day” (2)

Match-Up 7: “Keep Out, Claudia!” (1) vs. “Dawn and the Impossible Three” (4)

Match-Up 8: “Mary Anne’s Makeover” (3) vs. “Boy-Crazy Stacey” (2)


Want to play along at home?

Download the Listener Bracket and see if your picks match up with ours!

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Episode Credits

Host: Eric Rezsnyak

Panel: Amma Marfo, Jennifer Chen, Joelle Boedecker, Karissa Kloss

Producer: Bob Erlenback

Editor: Eric Rezsnyak