Baby-Sitters Club Joy, with some Sadness

     Oh. My. Goodness.

     I remember when I was a school age girl myself, saving up my allowance to buy books at the Waldenbooks in the mall.  I would beg my mom to take me there as soon as I heard a new title in my series were released.  The first book series I collected?  The Baby-Sitters Club.  I then moved on to the The Sweet Valley Twins, and Christopher Pike mystery books, and I'm sure many other titles in between.  Somewhere in my garage is the box of all those books, so treasured in my memories that I won't even bring them to school.  If my sister and I were lucky, my mom would get us a slice of Sbarro after we were finished picking out books.

     The other day, while scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, I found a post by Ann M. Martin talking about the new graphic novel version of Kristy's Great Idea.  I immediately went to Amazon and put it into my shopping cart.   Last year, I had made a beeline to conference with a 4th grader who was reading one of the original books during workshop.   This year, the number of students reading the graphic novels by Raina Telgemeier skyrocketed in our 4th grade.  The idea that a whole new generation of girls is going to read the graphic novel version of Baby-Sitters Club series is beyond exciting to me!  All good things come back around, right?  

     A few days later, though, I was suddenly sad about something.   In order to buy this book, I just went online and put it in an online shopping cart.  In a few days, a box will magically appear with it.  Done.  No more begging my mom to go there.  No more anticipation.  No more handing over my money from my piggy bank.  Just a box and another book on the credit card.

     I am suddenly sad for the generation of kids who won't have the memories, as I do, of going to a bookstore to browse the shelves and spend their hard earned allowance money on paper books.  Those memories are so treasured for me.  My own children have only been to an actual book store a handful of times, since the ones around us have mostly closed.  While we do spend a lot of time at the library, and our house is filled with books, most were ordered through Amazon and Scholastic book clubs.  And, while I LOVE my Amazon shopping cart, I am suddenly craving a walk through the aisles of Waldenbooks and a slice of overly greasy pizza from Sbarro.  

     I quickly did some research, to see if bookstores are really a thing of the past, or if I am just being a bit sentimental and sappy.  I found this interesting post that made me feel better about the state of bookstores in the US.  While they are not on every corner, like McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts, they are still on the map.

http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/12-stats-on-the-state-of-bookstores-in-america-today/

     I think it's time to take my kids to the bookstore to make some new memories.  Perhaps Anderson's in Naperville!  A bit of a drive, but worth the trip.  Besides, I need to buy the new Baby-Sitters Club book, stat.  My own kids (5 and 6) have enjoyed "reading" Roller Girl and El Deafo in their graphic novel format.  It's time we throw Kristy and her friends into the mix!

***If you live in the greater Chicago area, and you know of a great bookstore, tell me about it in the comments!  Thanks!