A&E

Life

Comics

Photos

Opinion

Blogs

Buy Ads

Jobs

Autos

Homes

Rentals

NWsource

GIRLS IN THE CLUB
`BABY-SITTERS' SERIES FINDS BIG AUDIENCE WITH STORIES OF RESPONSIBLE YOUNGSTERS

By Cecelia Goodnow P-I Reporter

Tuesday, May 11, 1993

Section: Living, Page: C1

``The Baby-sitters Club. I'm proud to say it was totally my idea, even though the four of us worked it out together. `Us' is Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill, and me - Kristy Thomas."

- From ``Kristy's Great Idea."

``I think I can see her," said a wistful, disembodied voice.

In truth, there was no way to spot Ann M. Martin through the giggling, whispering, peripatetic young girls pressing through the aisles of University Book Store Saturday morning. An estimated 600 people, including parents and tag-along siblings, showed up to meet the best-selling author.

``When the door opened," said children's book buyer Kate DeRosier, ``it sounded like thunder."

So it goes whenever Martin ventures, like a shy woodland creature, into her adoring public. A virtual stranger to anyone over 12, Martin is a pop heroine to prepubescent readers, who have bought 88 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club series and its spinoffs.

``We wanted to get her autograph badly," said Morgan Bridges, who showed up promptly at 9 a.m. with her friend Jayme Stocker. The 8-year-old girls had come from Redmond to see their favorite author. ``We love her books!"

The focus of this adoration is an admittedly shy woman who sleeps with a night light, writes her manuscripts in longhand and maintains a workhorse pace in the face of recurrent illness.

At 37 ((age)), Martin looks like a bashful school girl, her limp blond hair parted in the middle and hooked behind her ears. Her low-waisted jumper hangs loose on her thin frame, her shoulder blades prominent through the fabric.

``She looks like a teen-ager that wants to interview Ann Martin herself," whispered one 10-year-old.

No one is more surprised by the series' success than Martin, who was a former book editor and fledgling writer in 1986 when Scholastic approached her about doing the series. The idea was to chronicle the everyday lives of a group of girls who form a babysitting business. For a struggling freelancer, the deal promised long-term stability - a contract for four books!

Eighty-eight million copies later, The Baby-sitters Club shows no sign of slowing down. The books have spawned dolls, videos, computer software, stationery, T-shirts and a board game, with more tie-ins still to come. ``It's the top-selling series we have in the store for that age group," DeRosier said.

Overwhelmed by readers' curiosity about their favorite author, Scholastic recently issued a biography of Martin, complete with family photos. The book, written by Margot Becker R. and edited by Martin, promises girls that ``reading this book ... you'll feel like Ann's friend."

``Kids want to know everything from, `What do you put on your pizza?' to `Where do you get your ideas?"' said Scholastic publicity manager Lenora Todaro.

Friendship is a strong theme in The Baby-sitters Club, which draws together such divergent characters as bossy Kristy, boy-crazy Stacey and artistic Claudia. Their middle-class lives are wholesome but not without flaw: Kristy's parents are divorced, Stacey has diabetes and Claudia mourns the loss of her grandmother. Martin said one 11-year-old girl actually diagnosed her own diabetes by reading about Stacey.

Martin has a surprisingly fine ear for the social byplay of preteen girls, considering she was a youthful wallflower. Shy Mary Anne, in fact, is modeled on Martin herself.

``I was introverted," she said, ``but I was watching what was going on. I was part of it, if just a passive part of it."

Judging from the 15,000 fan letters Martin receives each year, girls see a bit of themselves in Dawn, or Jessi, or the other baby sitters.

``I like Claudia because she's funny, and she's a good artist, and I like to draw," said 10-year-old Caitie Arnold of Seattle.

Martin attributes the books' success to the realism and independence of the characters.

``I think kids in general like the idea of babysitting," she said, ``because they see another kid who's in charge and responsible. So often, they see people being responsible for them."

It's a plus that the series presents a multi-ethnic cast of characters, all of whom play a starring role, said Jill Jean, coordinator of children's services for the Seattle Public Libraries.

``We can't keep the books on our shelves," Jean said. ``They're a real vital part of our collection. I think they're fairly good, actually, if you're comparing them to other series."

``I don't think it would be considered literature-literature," said Hamida Bosmajian, a Seattle University professor who specializes in children's literature. But she said The Baby-sitters Club series does a good job of connecting with young readers.

``The reader is able to fantasize herself in that place," she said. ``It leaves space for the young reader's imagination."

Bosmajian said scholars have even written papers about the series' sociological impact, from its support of American-style capitalism to its healthy depiction of female teamwork.

The capitalistic system has certainly paid off for Martin, who lives in a Manhattan co-op furnished with books, antique furniture and framed family portraits. A descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims, she cherishes tangible links to the family's past.

She and her two cats, Mouse and Rosie, also trot off occasionally to Martin's country home for one of her infrequent vacations.

``I'm sitting up in my sewing room sewing and I'm perfectly happy, listening to jazz tunes," Martin said in a recent phone conversation. ``I'm also hiding."

Somewhat fearful as a child, Martin admits to a continuing aversion to snakes, spiders and the dark.

``It's taken me a long time to feel comfortable in the house, with this elaborate security system," she said. ``Maybe that's more a function of the '90s and having a friend murdered at her country home."

Fame has heightened Martin's innate reluctance to leap into new relationships. ``If I was cautious about it when I was younger, because I was shy," Martin said, ``I'm even more cautious about it now.

``I think I've lost a couple of friends who couldn't deal with what my life had inadvertently become," she added. ``The money came between us. I can't help it; I have a lot of money. That was hard for some people, but clearly not the people I'm closest to."

Martin works hard for her money, producing 30 manuscripts a year for the original series and its spinoffs, ``Baby-sitters Little Sister" and The Baby-sitters Club mysteries. Martin outlines and edits all the books and does about three-fourths of the writing.

She works in longhand on yellow legal tablets, sequestering herself from her two part-time assistants.

``I can't have anybody in the same room with me, or any noise," she said. ``I can't compose at the keyboard. I couldn't compose at the typewriter, either, years ago."

To know the fictional Stoneybrook, Conn., is to know Martin's own girlhood in placid, tree-lined Princeton, N.J. Her mother, Edie, was a teacher; her father, Hank, was a cartoonist whose work frequently appeared in The New Yorker. Martin's younger sister, Jane, now an associate producer for the Joan Rivers Show, was the family tomboy. (Her first children's book, ``Now Everybody Hates Me," is due out this fall.)

``It was a much easier time to grow up," Martin said. ``Parents didn't worry so much then, at least in the suburbs, about letting their kids ride off on a bike or wear clothing that has their name on it. I can remember my sister and me bicycling downtown and to the shopping center - my parents trusting we'd show up at dinnertime."

When Martin was 11, her picture-perfect childhood was marred by a horrendous fall from the ladder of a treehouse. Martin landed face-down on a tree stump, leading to the loss of her spleen. Doctors believe the accident contributed to auto-immune problems that cause her to get sick easily.

She is still battling what appears to be chronic fatigue syndrome, although doctors have hedged on the diagnosis. To bolster her health, she follows a vegetarian diet, exercises five times a week and has a weekly massage.

``I do all of these things rather strictly," she said, ``because I know they make me feel better. I've reached the point where I actually feel pretty well. I thought it was a very good sign the other day when I bypassed the chronic fatigue section of the bookstore."

Martin said that, while she tired of the series for awhile, she sees no end to it.

``I'm sure it will happen someday," she said. ``I have a feeling that all of the sales figures are being watched."

Meanwhile, she is carving out time for the Ann M. Martin Foundation, which raises money for children, literacy projects and the homeless. As a condition of her visit, she asked bookstores to design projects benefiting local charities. As a result of her Seattle appearance, over $700 will go to First Place, a nonprofit organization that helps educate homeless children. The donation includes $500 from the foundation, $25 in cookie money from Girl Scout Troop 1178 of Bellevue, and read-athon money raised by local children.

Martin, a perfectionist who rises at 5:30 each morning, talks wistfully about making time for gardening or other kinds of writing. For now, deadlines press. But who knows about tomorrow?

``Being in this position is exciting," Martin said, ``because I never know what's around the corner. I've already done so many things I never thought I would do."

jg/pb

This article contained at least one photo or illustration as described below:

Type: Photos

Description: (1) ELLEN M. BANNER/P-I -- Christina Cantu hands a book to Ann M. Martin as Treesa Elliott and Jennifer Khoshnood wait in line. Martin signed books Saturday at University Book Store in Seattle.
(2) Ann M. Martin began writing ``The Baby-sitters Club" books in 1986. The series has sold 88 million copies.

INSIDE SEATTLEPI.COM