Dawn on the Coast

 Book #23, Graphix #19

Original Book - Writer: Jan Carr (ghost writer)/Ann M. Martin

Graphix Book - Illustrator: Arley Nopra

Basic plot

Dawn visits her Dad and brother in California and feels she fits right in there, which gets her thinking she might want to move back there.

Things that are kept the same

• All the chapters begin with a postcard. 
• Dawn is preparing for a trip to California to visit her Dad and brother, Jeff. She is organised with a list of things she needs in contrast to her mom who comes in the door scattering her things everywhere.
• Before she leaves she has a slumber party with the BSC. 
• Her dad, Jeff, and her best friend, Sunny, meet her at the airport. 
• The next day Dawn, her dad and Jeff go to a local theme park, they have a great time and Jeff takes loads of photos of Dawn. 
• Afterwards Dawn goes to Sunny's house. Sunny surprises her that she has started her own babysitting club the We ❤︎ Kids Club, with school friends Maggie and Jill.
• The club is run more casually than the BSC, with no officers or notebooks, the girls chat and have healthy snacks. Dawn books a babysitting job with an old client Clover and Daffodil Austin.
• Meanwhile in Stoneybrook, Mary Anne and Claudia have a big sitting job for the Newtons, Perkinses and Feldmans together. 
• Dawn spends day at the beach with her family and We ❤︎ Kids Club. She chats with her dad, and has some mixed feelings about Jeff being able to live in California and not her, she calls her mom that evening which makes her miss her.
• She babysits Clover and Daffodil, they have a fun day at a carnival. 
• Back home Jessi has babysitting job at the Brewers, Karen is convinced the third floor ghost Ben Brewer is warning her away, though Jessi suspects the "ghost" is Sam playing tricks.
• At another meeting of the  We ❤︎ Kids Club, Dawn begins to picture herself with a life in California again, after the meeting she runs home to talk to her Dad. He tells her if it is something she wants they could work it out.
• Dawn writes a pro/con list for California vs Connecticut, she tries to call Mary Anne as she thinks she would help advise her, but she is not in. She also realises she really wants to talk to her mom. 
• Kristy and Mallory babysit the Pikes, Nicky is having a hard time feeling left out by the Pikes, so he goes to his hideout, Dawn's secret passageway. Kristy goes to talk to him later and he says how he misses Dawn.
• Dawn talks to Sunny, who thinks it's obvious that she should stay. That evening Dawn wishes she could have all her favourite people nearby.
• Dawn makes her decision that she has to go back, Connecticut is her home now. Her Dad understands, but Jeff is upset at first, he does eventually comes around, her.
• She babysits the Austins one more time and has a goodbye party with the  We ❤︎ Kids Club
• Dawn flies back and the whole BSC and her mom greet her at airport. 

 

Things from other books/ Other things to note

• This is only Dawn's 2nd graphic novel, but in the original series she had two other books that were not adapted and so we see things in this book that were established in others, such as Nicky using the secret passage (original book #9)  and Jeff moving back to California (original book #15, and which was barely referenced in the Graphix).  
• While at this stage Dawn ultimately decides Stoneybrook is her home, later on in the book series she does move back to California

Things that are changed

• At the sleepover at Kristy's house there is less of the Brewer family interaction, like Karen doesn't join them watching the movie. 
• On the plane ride over, Dawn has a rude Flight Attendant who ignores her requests and gives her vegetarian meal to another passenger and doesn't even apologise and gives her standard meal instead. She does at least have a nice seat mate, Tom, who gives her a list of plays to check out.
• The biggest most obvious change is that the theme park Disneyland now becomes Wander Land. In the book there is big list of all the famous rides they want to go on, and they watch old Mickey Mouse cartoons at the end of the day. While that is presumably okay to list in books, in a visual medium they had to change it, so Wander Land has areas such as Space Land and Sea Land, there are also some people with souvenir bear ear headbands, clearly a nod to Mickey Mouse ears.
• When they all go to beach, Dawn comments how the group are all blonde, her dad jokingly calls them the 'Blond Convention', in the Graphix they have more varied hair colour so this is left out of the graphix.
• After Jessi babysitting at the Brewers, Mrs Brewer wonders out loud how another child would fit in, Kristy questions what she means, but Mrs Brewer dismisses it and moves on. This is foreshadowing the next book "Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise" it's not referenced in the graphix but it is confirmed that book will  adapted into graphic novel.
• The original book was published before airport security was tighter so Mr Schafer and Jeff  go all the way to boarding and they get delayed at metal detectors because Jeff has a jack knife on him (doesn't delay them too much though!).
• On the plane Dawn sees the bad flight attendant again and as plane isn't full switches seat as soon as she can.

Final Thoughts

I really like the cover of this graphic novel it's really pretty. I also like the postcard designs, and having a different location than other BSC books makes some fun things for visual medium. One downside of the visual medium is not being able to reference Disney Land, it feels odd and while I am excited that the 1st Summer Special "Babysitters on Board" is being adapted to graphic novel, it will also feel strange for that not be able to go to actual Disney World as that was big part of the book.