The Babysitters Club: Kristy's Great Idea -- Raina Telgemeier/Ann M. Martin

Baby-sitters-club-rainaOkay.

I'm a little afraid to say this*, but here I go:

Raina Telgemeier's graphic adaptation of Kristy's Great Idea is a huge improvement on the original. Huge.

It's all in here—Kristy's bossiness and her issues with her parent's divorce; Stacey's secret diabetes and boy-craziness; Mary-Anne's sensitivity and her very protective father; Claudia's solid relationship with Mimi and her difficulties with Janine—without the slog through (admittedly unintentionally hilarious) three paragraph descriptions of Claudia's fashion choices, etc. 

The illustrations are especially fab—simple and clean and extremely expressive.

I liked it so much that I actually want to read The Truth about Stacey. You go, Raina Telgemeier!

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*I keep picturing a van-load of baseball bat-toting BSC traditionalists screeching into the library parking lot. Yikes.

[Later: Oh, hell. I'm Kristy.]