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Claudia Kishi
Information
Full name

Claudia Lynn Kishi

Joined

#1,Kristy's Great Idea

Left

Graduation Day

Title
Biographical
Nickname

Claud

Born

July 11

Hometown

Stoneybrook, CT

Age

12 (1-9)
13 (10- Graduation Day)

Family

John Kishi (father)
Rioko Kishi (mother)
Janine Kishi (sister)
Kishi Family

Romances
School

Stoneybrook Middle School

Grade

7th - 8th

Affiliations

The Baby Sitters Club

Miscellaneous
First Appearance

#1, Kristy's Great Idea

Final Appearance

Graduation Day

Portrayed by

Jeni F. Winslow (TV)
Tricia Joe (film)
Momona Tamada (Netflix)

Claudia "Claud" Lynn Kishi is one of the main characters in The Baby-Sitters Club books by Ann M. Martin. She is vice president of the Baby-Sitters Club, as meetings are held in her bedroom due to her personal phone line. She made her first appearance in Kristy's Great Idea. Claudia starts out the series in seventh grade until Logan Likes Mary Anne! when she joins eighth grade at Stoneybrook Middle School. She is is in eighth grade for the remainder of the series except from Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout until Claudia Makes Up Her Mind, during which she is demoted to seventh grade temporarily.


Narrated Books

Claudia narrates the following books in the series:

The Baby-Sitters Club Main Series:

The Baby-Sitters Club: Mysteries Series:

Friends Forever Series: (individual books)

Additional Books

BSC Graphic Novels:

Personal Information

Physical Description

Claudia Kishi is a second-generation Japanese American who is five feet and four inches tall. She has long silky, jet-black hair, dark eyes, and creamy skin. She has never had pimples. She looks like Mimi Yamamoto she was twelve and mentioned she's a seven in shoe sizes in Stacey and the Missing Ring.

Clothing/Style

Claudia styles her hair different almost every day, depending on what she's wearing and has pierced ears with two piercings in her right ear. She likes to wear makeup and likes to wear exotic outfits, in which she can throw together in a minute. She once went to school with glitter in her hair and is dedicated to never wearing the same exact outfit twice (even if it means only wearing different earrings). Her favorite art outfit is: black jeans, a giant bright blue t-shirt, and a snake bracelet worn about her elbow. Claudia wears a lot of jewelry that she made and loves to shop at consignment shops and mix and match outfits.

Personality Traits

Claudia is outgoing with lots of friends, as well as being fashion-conscious and dresses in the latest trendy clothes and high fashions. Claudia loves junk food and munches it more when she's stressed, though she isn't really supposed to be eating any. She is not a morning person and likes to sleep late. Claudia is generally grumpy at the beginning of the week and must buy her own clothes. To her, the most ordinary thing can be an object of art.

She thinks that school is competitive and that nobody really cares about art in Stacey's Movie.

In Baby-sitters' Island Adventure Claudia is shown to react well in an emergency. She figures out a way to collect rainwater and how to attract attention so they could get off Nine O'Clock Island.

Abilities

Claudia can't spell to save her life. She is also not very talented at singing. She's not a fast reader unless she's rereading a Nancy Drew book. She can understand some Japanese but can't really speak it. Claudia is practically a champion skier, she has her own equipment in Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation. She is also a good sailor in Baby-sitters' Island Adventure.

Relationship With Family

  • Janine Kishi - Janine and Claudia are so different that it can be hard to believe they're sisters. While they love each other, they often argue. However they have had some nice, heartfelt moments, such as in Claudia and Mean Janine where Janine revealed that she was jealous of Claudia because she was social and had friends, and in Claudia and the Middle School Mystery when Janine has a nice chat with Claudia and offers to help. Claudia is sometimes jealous of Janine because she was always receiving awards and bringing home awesome report cards. Claudia wishes she could make her parents proud like that. Author Ann M. Martin revealed that she based Janine and Claudia's relationship on the relationship that Ann had with her own sister, Jane, growing up, with Ann in Janine's role and Jane in Claudia's role.
  • Mimi Yamamoto - Mimi and Claudia were close. Claudia painted several portraits of Mimi because she loved her grandmother. She felt that Mimi was the only one who understood her in her family and that she even understood her better than her friends in The Baby-Sitters Club. Claudia went to Mimi for advice and knew that Mimi would comfort her when she was upset. Claudia and Mimi shared 'special tea' together, and Mimi helped Claudia with her homework. Mimi calls Claudia "my Claudia." She is very close to Mimi throughout the series, until her death in Book #26 Claudia and the Sad Goodbye. Claudia often mentions Mimi in the books she narrates, and so do the other club members in the books they narrate. To see more of the relationship between Mimi and Claudia, she allows her self to do anything she wants until Mimi her grandmother died in book 26 Claudia and the Sad Good-bye. Mimi always told Claudia that she gets to do anything as long as she does it correctly. Claudia and Mimi were very close, as seen in Claudia and Mean Janine. Mimi always had a nice way of explaining things, being Claudia and Janine's grandmother. Claudia liked when Mimi called her 'My Claudia' because she was the only one in the family being called by that name.

Mimi liked Claudia's style, as seen in Kristy's Great Idea.

Childhood Experiences

Claudia was born on July 11th in Stoneybrook, Connecticut at 4:36 A.M. It is not known which hospital she was born. At birth, Claudia was 7 lbs, 7 oz. Her birth announcement was in the Stoneybrook Gazette. Mimi Yamamoto mentioned that Claudia's hair stood straight up when she was a baby.

Cokie Mason, Alan Gray, Pete Black, Mary Anne Spier, and Kristy Thomas were in her kindergarten class. Only Kristy and Mary Anne came to her sixth birthday party. Russ and Peaches Benedict used to live in Stoneybrook and would take her to the park. On Claudia's eighth birthday Mimi dressed up in a kimono to take her family to a Japanese restaurant but it was closed so they ended up at a sleazy pizza joint.

She stopped dressing up her stuffed animals in third grade and started wearing makeup in the beginning of seventh grade. She still has a rag doll named Lennie with yarn braids. Claudia is sent to the Stamford Alternative Academy for part of the fourth grade but is allowed to return to SES after her parents see she's miserable.

In Mind Your Own Business, Kristy!, Kristy mentions that one time when they were little Claudia took a stack of twenty-dollar bills from her dad's night table and flushed them down the toilet one by one. Her dad caught her and he blew up at her.

In the fifth grade she had class with Kristy Thomas and Mary Anne Spier.

When she was around four her nickname was Dodee-a in Claudia and the Lighthouse Ghost.

Room

Claudia hangs a single-framed picture of her and Mimi at about the same age over her desk. The walls of her room are covered with her art. She stashes snacks in her bedroom, which is always messy. A hollow book is her best hiding place. She jokes if her room ever caught fire, it would turn into one huge s'more because of all her snacks. Claudia painted little stars and moons on her ceiling, as well as a purple polka dot cow jumping over a silver moon. A clock is on her desk. She is the only member with her own phone with a private line. She has a dressing table mirror.

In Claudia and the Terrible Truth, Claudia notes that her room has an overstuffed bookshelf, art on the walls, and a collection of sea glass found on the beach.

Likes

  • Art classes
  • Boys
  • Bach
  • Chocolate chips
  • Tacos
  • Stringing beads (M#6)
  • Spaghetti (SS#5)
  • Fashion
  • Shopping
  • Concerts
  • Skiing (SS#3)
  • Star Wars
  • Junk Food
  • Reading:
    • Nancy Drew novels
    • Mystery Books
    • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (#49)
    • Oliver Twist (#49)
  • Secret Passageways
  • I Love Lucy
  • Blade, a rock band
  • Corny, thoughtful, gestures
  • Animated films (FF#12)
  • Pop and R&B music (in #89)
  • Horror movies (in #71)
  • Lobster (in Everything Changes)
  • Circuses
  • Surprises
  • Teriyaki
  • Singing when she's alone at the top of her lungs (#40)
  • Max Morrison (tv star #12)
  • Billy Blue (singer M#16)
  • Everything on her pizza (M#21)
  • Actress Donna Brinkman and the show Which Way's Up (SS#6)
  • Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday (#91)
  • peanut butter, mayonnaise, and banana sandwiches (#78)
  • Tofutti (CB)

Dislikes

  • School
  • Homework
  • Reading most books other than Nancy Drew
  • Playing trivia games
  • People dying
  • Cokie Mason
  • Alan Gray
  • Science
  • Prejudice
  • Foreign languages
  • Corny jokes
  • Movie theater butter
  • Spiders
  • Janine (Sometimes)
  • Spelling class
  • Heavy metal music
  • Sushi (#70)
  • The Trivia Game (#7)
  • Anchovies on her pizza (M#21)
  • Video Games (#70)
  • Being called chick (#70)

Medical

Claudia had the chickenpox when she was seven. She couldn't go to the circus because of it. She breaks her leg in Claudia and the Bad Joke. The cast was decorated without a white patch on it. She has pain in it now and again, especially if rain is on the way. Claudia has type O blood type mentioned in Logan's Story.

Jobs

In Mary Anne and the Playground Fight she interviews for the Stoneybrook Elementary School Summer Playground. She works as a counselor at the camp in Baby-sitters' European Vacation with her friends and Janine.

By Claudia and the Disaster Date, Claudia works at the library during the summer with Erica Blumberg in the children's department.

Baby-Sitting and Club Experience

General

Claudia can sit until 9:30 on school nights. Money from her sitting jobs goes to art supplies first, then jewelry, and accessories. She hasn't saved much. Her parents have threatened to make her quit the BSC if it takes too much time from her studies.

Clients

She wears jeans whenever she sits for the Rodowsky Family. She likes babysitting for them because Mrs. Rodowsky always has something not considered healthy to eat. Jamie Newton calls her "Claudee." She sat for a three-year-old named Skip in New Hampshire. Is Rosie Wilder's favorite sitter. Claudia decides to stay in the club if she never has to sit for Betsy Sobak. She sits for the Hill Family and likes Sarah because she's artistic. She helps Shea Rodowsky with homework and he helps her.

While Claudia isn't nearly as close to Charlotte Johanssen as Stacey is, Claudia and Charlotte formed a bond in book #15 Little Miss Stoneybrook...and Dawn, when Stacey temporarily moved back to New York City two books before, and Charlotte knew that Claudia and Stacey were best friends and therefore felt a connection to Claudia. She became Charlotte's new favorite baby sitter until Stacey returned in Book #28 Welcome Back, Stacey!. Claudia helped Charlotte prepare for the Little Miss Stoneybrook beauty pageant in Little Miss Stoneybrook...and Dawn. Since Charlotte is shy, she ended up leaving the stage in tears and went home. Later, Charlotte and Claudia went to Claudia's house to call Stacey in New York.

The Baby-Sitters Club

Claudia is the vice president of The Baby-Sitters Club because she's the only member with a private phone line and an unlimited amount of snacks. The meetings are held in Claudia's messy bedroom in the Kishi household. Claudia provides the snacks. Since some clients forget when the meeting times are and call during times when they're not meeting, Claudia has to handle those calls. She has to write down the information, like how many kids, where the parents will be, and other important information, call all the BSC members to find out who's free to take the job, and then call the person back to tell them who the baby sitter or sitters (if there are more than four kids) will be. Claudia usually arrives at meetings on time, since they're in her own house.

Claudia almost quit The Baby-Sitters Club in Claudia and the New Girl when her new friend, Ashley Wyeth, encouraged her to drop babysitting to make time for her art because she was very talented and shouldn't waste time on anything else. She almost quit The Baby-Sitters Club again in Claudia and the Bad Joke when she babysat for a practical joker who played a joke that went too far and resulted in Claudia breaking her leg. She is sometimes forgetful, as she sometimes took jobs for herself, without even checking if anyone else was available for the job. In fact, that led to a fight in Mary Anne Saves the Day, between Stacey, Kristy, Mary Anne, and Claudia that lasted for months.

School Related Experiences

General

Claudia is in the eighth grade at Stoneybrook Middle School. She takes remedial math and a help session in the resource room. Mrs. Hall is Claudia's English teacher. She gets bored at school but gets to bored at home after she breaks her leg she wants to go to school. She takes two summer school courses, math with Mr. Davies and photography with Mr. Geist in Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph. English and spelling are her least favorite subjects. Claudia can not stand science. Ms. Bernhardt is her social studies teacher.

It was revealed in Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls that just like Janine, Claudia also has an above-average IQ, which Claudia's family and teachers find surprising. If she gets all of her homework done every night, she can continue to take her art classes and stay in The Baby-Sitters Club. Claudia's parents receive approximately two letters in the mail each year about how she should be working harder in school. She doesn't want to compete with Janine because she thinks she'll never live up to her. Claudia finds her schoolwork boring and can barely concentrate on it. Claudia's parents and teachers come down so hard on her because they know she can do better in school, what with her above-average IQ. Janine has a genius IQ, and Claudia's parents and teachers expect her to get the same high grades, which she can't do, often telling them she's an artist, not a scholar.

Her second-period class is math with Mr. Schubert and her third-period class is science with Ms. Griswold in Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout. Her art teacher is Mr. Wong in the same book.

She was temporarily moved down to the seventh grade.

Extracurricular Activities

Claudia wants to work on the scenery for the class play Mary Poppins in Kristy for President. She is Kristy's campaign manager when she runs for class president. She becomes the Personals columnist for SMS Express; she gets her own old-looking beat-up desk in the Express Office. She continues to do it mentioned in Claudia and Crazy Peaches.

In Mary Anne's Big Breakup, Claudia was mentioned to be in Mural Club.

In Claudia Gets Her Guy, she works with a group of students where kids work with people who just moved to Stoneybrook from other countries and help them adjust to the United States. She works with Mrs. Yashimoto and her family who are originally from Japan. Her English as a second language teacher is Mary Buckley.

She ran the backwards race in Jessi's Gold Medal for SMS's sports festival.

Grades

Claudia is a C- student, who struggles in school. She was tested for learning disabilities, but the tests came back negative. This didn't make Claudia or her parents happy. She once earned a 94 on a math test. Mrs. Hall tells Claudia that she's in danger of failing unless she improves her spelling. Stacey McGill and Shea Rodowsky tutors her. She says she doesn't mind the resource room. Her handwriting is easily the messiest of the BSC. It has many loops and squiggles.

She mentions that she doesn't mind classes where she could draw, like the digestive system in science as mentioned in Claudia and Crazy Peaches.

Homework

It is sort of a family rule that someone has to help her with homework every night.

Lunch

She never brings lunch to school. Claudia also refuses to buy the "revolt-o" hot lunch and usually eats a sandwich.

Skills and Abilities

She learns how to use a computer in Claudia and the Perfect Boy. Janine showed her how to do more with a computer at the end of Claudia's Big Party.

In Baby-sitters' Island Adventure she takes a sailing course with Dawn Schafer and is certified.

In Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation it's mentioned that she is a great skiier and owns her own set.

Social Activities

Dances

She goes with Austin Bentley to the Halloween Hop, Remember September, Final Fling, and the Spring Dance at the community center dances.

Claudia goes to another Halloween Hop with Woody Jefferson in Kristy's Mystery Admirer. She goes to Valentine Dances with friends. She goes to the Winter Wonderland Dance with Iri Mitsuhashi as friends. She dresses as a twinkie for the Mischief Night Masquerade.

Friends

Claudia is best friends with Stacey McGill, and the two generally consider themselves cooler than the rest of The Baby-Sitters Club. They met at school sometime before Kristy's Great Idea when Stacey dropped her notebook in the hallway, and Claudia accidentally stepped on it. They became best friends instantly. She often calls Stacey "Stace." Claudia grew up with Mary Anne Spier and Kristy Thomas because Kristy and Mary Anne lived next door to each other, and they lived across the street from Claudia on Bradford Court until Kristy moved to McLelland Road in Kristy's Big Day, and Mary Anne moved to Burnt Hill Road in Dawn's Wicked Stepsister. They knew each other since they were in diapers, and their families were friends. Claudia was growing up, wearing makeup, a training bra and becoming interested in boys which made Mary Anne and Kristy feel left out. Both of them noticed that Claudia was growing apart from them. Even Claudia herself realized this.

When Claudia moves back to seventh grade she befriends Joanna Fried, Jeannie Kim, and Shira Epstein.

Boys/Boyfriends

Claudia had a major crush on Trevor Sandbourne in Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls. She even daydreamed about him.

She wants to impress Terry in California Girls!. She tries to impress him until she learns she can just be herself. Geography tears them apart by the end of the book.

Timothy Carmody is her cruise secret crush and he kisses her. She thinks Arthur Feingold has gorgeous hair and Ron Belkis is cute. She goes on bad dates with Brian Hall, Richard Brompton, and Kurt in Claudia and the Perfect Boy.

When Claudia was briefly moved back to seventh grade she dated Mark until they broke up. Then she started to date Josh Rocker.

She had a crush on Roger Casey in the sixth grade and devastated when he moved to Kansas in Stacey and the Haunted Masquerade.

In Stacey vs. Claudia, she develops a crush on Jeremy Rudolph but he ends up dating Stacey.

In Claudia Gets Her Guy, through a series of misunderstandings, Claudia ends up going to the Cupid's Arrow Dance with Alan Gray, and develops feelings for him. The two continue to go out for the rest of the series.

Claudia's idea of a perfect boy is that he must be funny, handsome, taller than her, athletic, sensitive easy to talk to, a good listener, artistic, a good dresser, and must have muscles (not too many and not too few). He must be a good speller, uncritical, and crazy about her. She doesn't care if he's Japanese-American like her but should not have tattoos.

Non-BSC Travel

She and Janine have never been to Japan. She goes to Vermont in the mountains at the beginning of seventh grade in Boy-Crazy Stacey. She owns her own skis and has mentioned that she went to Lake Placid on the intermediate trails in Baby-sitters Beware.

Art

In Claudia and the Mystery at the Museum Claudia is knowledgeable about art history and art appreciation. She's able to talk about different forms of art, lesser know artists, and different techniques. She even surprises Janine with her knowledge. In Baby-sitters' Christmas Chiller, she and Ethan Caroll talk about art as well, and Stacey couldn't follow their conversation.

Ms. Baehr is Claudia's pottery teacher in Stacey's Emergency.

Claudia has studied in school at the Stoneybrook Arts Center and in NYC where her art teacher was McKenzie Clarke in Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street.

Claudia helps Kristy make her mom and Watson Brewer's wedding present in Kristy's Big Day.

She makes a pot on vacation and begins a pottery class in Boy-Crazy Stacey. Mrs. Baehr is her pottery teacher. She takes two art classes, one on Wednesday afternoons. Mrs. Baehr enters her piece as a work-in-progress in a show sponsored by the new gallery. She wins an honorable mention, she would have won if she finished it on time in Claudia and the New Girl.

Claudia begins giving art classes with Mary Anne on Saturday morning in Claudia and the Sad Good-bye to BSC clients. She hosts it in her parents basement. Corrie Addison, Myriah Perkins, Gabbie Perkins, Jamie Newton, the Arnold Twins, and Matt Braddock signed up for the class.

She volunteers for a month to help teach art classes with Mr. Renfrew at the Stoneybrook Community Center for seven-year-olds.

Andy Warhol's paintings of Campbell's soup cans and Del Monte peaches inspire her to paint a series of pop art pieces featuring junk food. She has her first art show of junk food painting (Claudia Lynn Kishi's Disposable Comestibles, A Pop-Art Multi-Media Extravaganza) in the Kishis' garage in Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street.

In Keep Out, Claudia! she is making mobiles, a still-life painting, a charcoal sketch, jewelry with beads, sequins, and lace.

She makes clip on earrings for Mary Anne in Stacey's Choice.

In Mary Anne and Miss Priss she always makes her own Valentines' and Christmas cards.

In Stacey's Lie Claudia has her photos of sandcastles shown at the beach, where they receive a wonderful response. Three of them are sold at twenty dollars apiece.

She uses her father's old Minolta to shoot photographs. She knows how to develop her own film in Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph.

Claudia becomes interested in folk art in Claudia and the Mystery in the Painting. In the same book, she helps set up a room for children's art activities called the Kaleidoscope Room. Mr. Snipes had recommended her. The members of the BSC helped bring clients to try out the room.

When Claudia is deep in the throes of creativity, she's not great company - she's more or less in her own world as Stacey mentions in Stacey's Broken Heart.

In Claudia Kishi, Middle School Dropout, she won first prize in a show hosted by Stoneybrook University after class sessions were over.

Claudia painted the new mural at the Stoneybrook Public Library in the children's section.

In Claudia and Crazy Peaches, Mary Anne Spier teaches her how to knit so she could make her aunt Peaches Benedict a baby blanket for her cousin Lynn Benedict.

In New York, New York!, she took a class under McKenzie Clarke, an artist, along with Mallory. He complimented her work, but criticized her for working too fast and suggested she slow down.

Trivia

In the graphic novels

Claudia also appears in all of the BSC Graphic Novels. She appears similar to how she is described in the books, except that in the graphic novels, she has pink bangs instead of black and already has all her piercings.

Media Portrayals

TV Series (1990)

She is is portrayed by actress Jeni F. Winslow. Keeping in touch with her book counterpart, she's still not great at school, by going to a neighbor for tutoring sessions.

Movie

Claudia is portrayed by actress Tricia Joe. The actress was the oldest of the cast at 17 at the time of filming. Keeping in touch with her book counterpart, she's still not great at school and tries to keep from failing science so she didn't have to go to summer school.

The Baby-Sitters Club (web series)

In this series she is portrayed by actress Momona Tamada. Keeping in touch with her book counterpart, she's still not great at school showing Stacey an F on a paper in math. Her room is also cluttered like described but not messy.

The Claudia Kishi Club

The Claudia Kishi Club is a 2020 short documentary directed by Sue Ding. It explores the legacy of the character Claudia Kishi. Among the interviewed are Yumi Sakugawa, creator of the fanzine Claudia Kishi, My Asian-American Female Role Model of the 90's , Naia Cucukov, executive producer of the BSC Netflix show, and Gale Galligan, author and illustrator of five BSC graphic novels.

The film was funded through Kickstarter in 2018. It was supposed to be part of the SXSW 2020 line-up. After that festival edition was canceled, its shorts became available for free streaming.

Claudia Kishi (Song)

The song was written by the all-female punk band the Linda Lindas for the short documentary The Claudia Kishi Club.

Gallery

The Baby-Sitters Club

Mystery

Super Special

Other Photos

Interior Illustrations

Netflix TV Show

BSC Members

Kristy Thomas - President · Claudia Kishi - Vice President · Mary Anne Spier - Secretary · Stacey McGill - Treasurer
Dawn Schafer - Alt. Officer · Abby Stevenson - Alt. Officer · Mallory Pike - Junior Officer · Jessi Ramsey - Junior Officer
Logan Bruno - Associate Member · Shannon Kilbourne - Associate Member


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