Virtually Hanging With the Cast of the Babysitter's Club

 I grew up reading The Babysitter's Club by Ann M. Martin. I still have all my books tucked away in a box in the garage. When I saw that they were coming out with Babysitters Club series on Netflix, I was excited. Not that I have Netflix anymore....

Scrolling through Facebook, I saw that Barnes and Nobles was hosting a virtual chat session with the cast of the Babysitter's Club and Gale Galligan, illustrator of the Babysitter's Club Graphic Novels. It was during the middle of the day on a Saturday afternoon. I had nothing else going on. I made sure I was online for this. 

Gale Galligan hosted an Zoom event and Facebook Live to chat with the 5 characters of the Babysitters Club TV show on Netflix. This was the fist time I saw the actresses that were playing the beloved Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacy, and Dawn. 

Some of the characters were similar to what I pictured them to be. Sophie Grac was just how I pictured Kristy to be. The same with Claudia.. Momona Tamada was perfect. Shay Rudolph was kind of how I pictured Stacy. Malia Baker did fit Mary Anne just not as I pictured her. 

Then there was Dawn. I knew they made her character from the blond California girl to a Latina. When I read this, I was like other readers "How dare you mess with the books?". Dawn is blond. However, within the first couple of minutes of watching I totally loved Xochitl Gomez, who plays Dawn. Switching from a blond California girl to a Latina made sense and Xochitl is a goof fit. I'm glad they have that diverse cast. Probably back in the late 80s, early 90s when these books first came out, a blond Dawn made sense (stereotypes, I know) but now a Latina Dawn fits just as well.  

Gale and the cast talked about the show, how they started reading the books, their characters. They talked about their favorite episodes to shoot. Everyone said the camp episode or the wedding one.

Watching this Facebook Live event was probably the highlight of my day. It brought me back to my childhood where I couldn't wait to order the next book in the Scholastic book order or book fair. Now I need to think about getting Netflix again so I can watch the episodes.