Ann M. Martin

"Karen loves to spell words. She is very good at it, too. First she wins the spelling bee in her class. Then Karen wins another spelling contest. And another . . . and another! Soon Karen might be the best junior speller in the state of Connecticut. She's even going to be on TV! Karen thinks that is so great. But her friends don't. They think Karen is a show-off!"-

Eleven-year-old Jessi copes with pet sitting for the Mancusi family and serious dissension among the members of the Baby-sitters Club.

"This summer, the Baby-sitters and a whole bunch of the kids they sit for are going to Camp Mohawk! With the girls as Counselors-in-Training, and the kids as campers, it'll be just like baby-sitting--in the woods! The Baby-sitters soon discover that camp isn't just nature walks and making lanyards. Dawn gets lost in the wilderness overnight. Kristy learns how to use mascara, and Mary Anne gets caught sneaking over to the boys' side of the camp. Stacey...

When Jack Frost arrives, the members of the Baby-Sitters Club head for the snow-covered mountains with their skis, skates, snowsuits, and boots in tow, on the lookout for winter fun and male skiers.

During the summer before their seventh-grade year, Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey tackle difficulties, including family problems, crushes, moving, and making new friends.

In 1930 Abby Nichols is an eight-year-old girl growing up in Maine, but as the Depression deepens, and her mother dies, the responsibility of taking care of her family falls to her, and she has to put her dreams of going to college and becoming a writer on hold.

In 1977 in Princeton, Dana's daughter seven-year-old Francie is struggling to keep her dyslexia a secret from her teachers and family, and even the thought of high school and college is part of the remote and unattainable future.

Deciding a new haircut will give her the boost she needs, Karen is devastated when the hairstylist cuts her hair all wrong and wonders if she will ever get back to feeling like her usual confident self.

When a fight breaks out among the members of the Baby-sitters Club, timid Mary Anne finds herself becoming more assertive as a babysitter and in her relationships with her father and friends.

Dawn, the newest member of the Baby-sitters Club, gets more than she bargained for when her first job turns into a disaster and she has problems with Kristy.