As it is some time until the next Baby-sitters Club Graphix is released in the meantime I thought I'd look at the spin-off series for younger readers the Baby-sitters Little Sister Books, which also has been turned into graphic novel form.
Book #1, Graphix #1
Original Book - Writer: Ann M.Martin
Graphix Book - Illustrator: Katy Farina
Basic plot
Karen is convinced her neighbour Mrs Porter is actually a witch named Morbidda Destiny.
Things that are kept the same
- Karen introduces the reader to her family and explains that she is a two-two.
- Karen is convinced the Brewer's neighbour Mrs Porter is a witch, Morbidda Destiny and she finds her dad's rule of no spying hard to follow.
- At the Brewers while Kristy is babysitting, Karen is startled when Midnight (Mrs Porter's cat) is on their doorstep.
- Karen is in bed looking out the window feeling sleepy when she sees Morbidda Destiny fly out of window on broomstick. She screams and Kristy comes, she lets Karen sleep in her bed.
- The next day, Karen’s best friend Hannie comes over, they play witches and spy on Morbidda. They hear her muttering about a 12 o’clock meeting and saying midnight, but not sure if she means her cat.
- She tries to set an alarm clock that night so she can see the witches’ meeting but it doesn’t go off so she thinks Morbidda put a spell on it.
- But during the day she sees people going to Morbidda’s house, she runs to tell Hannie the witch’s meeting is happening now.
- They go over to Morbidda’s house to confront the witches but are surprised when Karen’s grandmother interrupts their speech. It is a gardening meeting and grandmother is angry at Karen calling them witches, she tells them to apologise and then marches them home.
- The Brewers have a talk with Karen and make her write and apology note and promise no more spying.
- Karen then packs up and to head back to her mother’s house but she still thinks Mrs Porter is a witch, a clever one.
Things from other books
- Nothing stood out as an addition from other books.
Things that are changed
- As these are targeted for a younger age group, there is less plot to divert from. One of the more obvious change is the original book has 20 short chapters, the graphix has 1/2 the numbers of chapters as they have two chapters condensed into one.
- There is a few inconsequential thoughts that are left out of the graphix, but one that did stick out to me in reference to Seth’s cat and dog Karen says Rocky and Midgie are stupid names, she would have called them Jones and Vance. I have no problem with the pet names though I have always thought that the names would work better switched (i.e. dog should be called Rocky rather than Midgie)
- Hannie actually is not physically described in the book, but we do see a picture of her and Karen and she is portrayed as white, whereas in the graphix she is black.
- The ending has Karen looking knowingly at Mrs Porter’s house thinking that she is a clever witch, in the graphix we see Mrs Porter look out with a smile before closing the curtains. This is a small but fun addition, for young readers it may leave some ambiguity, and she may really be a witch, as an older person, I may read too much into it but feel that Mrs Porter is sometimes lonely and actually has fun with Karen’s imagination.
Final Thoughts
I did read these original books when I was younger, when I outgrew them, I found it hard to re-read as I felt Karen was annoying, but the Graphix I actually find fine to read. I think the drawings are cute, and I have more empathy for her as she is just a young kid still needing to figure things out, which reminds me of my daughter who is the same age. I am reading the graphix with my daughter who really likes them so that probably gives a new light on them too.
So far there are 6 of these graphic novels released, this is probably my least favourite of them, but it is still a cute book and I really like Katy Farina’s drawings, really brings characters to life.
