Ann M. Martin wrote The Summer Before as a prequel to The Baby-Sitters Club when, in 2011, Scholastic, Inc. decided to re-release the first four books to a new generation. The Summer Before revolves around the four original BSC members (Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey) during the summer between sixth and seventh grade (when Kristy has her idea for the club). The book alternates between each character and each chapter is told from a different character's first person point of view.
Back Cover Summary[]
Before there was The Baby-sitters Club, there were four girls named Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, and Stacey McGill. As they start the summer before seventh grade, each of them is getting ready for big changes.
Kristy is still hoping that her father will return to her family. Mary Anne has to prove that she's no longer a little girl. Claudia is navigating her first major crush. And Stacey is leaving her entire New York City life behind in order to find new friends in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.
Separately, it's a lot to deal with. But together, these friends will find a way to make it through — with plenty of laughter, tears, and surprises along the way.
Plot[]
Kristy[]
Starts off the first chapter describing 11-year old Kristy's last day of 6th grade at Stoneybrook Middle School. She has to babysit for 5-year old David Michael that afternoon/evening because her mother is going on her sixth date with wealthy Watson Brewer, whom she met barely a month before. Kristy reveals her dislike for Watson and her hope that her father will want to reconnect with her and her family. After David Michael goes to bed, she sits down and writes him a letter describing the recent happenings in her life. Once she has written her letter, she receives a phone call from Mrs. Pike, asking her and another sitter to babysit. Kristy decides to ask Mary Anne, who has never held a sitting job before because her father won't allow it. In the next Kristy-devoted chapter, her letter to her father has come back undelivered and she hides the evidence from David Michael. Her greatest wish for the whole summer is that her father would be the surprise at her twelfth birthday party.
Mary Anne[]
Mary Anne does not like her pink decorated bedroom. She is intrigued and excited by the change to sit for the Pikes. In April of her 6th grade year, she was home sick from school and went up to the attic to look for a blanket. She found a box of her mother's things and snuck it down to her room. Her favorite thing in the box is her mother's old dolls, which she would like to create clothes for. Mary Anne notes that her father does not speak much about her mother other than to bless her during grace every night before dinner. In order to gain her father's favor, she makes dinner and asks to start baby-sitting with Kristy. She and her father have a small argument, but she ends up winning and is allowed to go sit with Kristy, provided she is home by nine and calls her father every half hour. After she baby-sits the Pikes her father agrees to let her baby-sit as long as she's back by 9:00 and someone goes with her.
Stacey[]
Stacey has to move away from New York, and she has a goodbye-party with all her babysitting charges and Laine. Laine is extremely rude to Stacey, including spilling Coke by "accident" on her new white blouse. When Stacey finally moves from New York to Stoneybrook, she is led around by one of Claudia's friends and meets Claudia at lunch. Then she talks to Claudia about how she moved and what happened.
Claudia[]
Claudia feels she is growing apart from Kristy and Mary Anne, finding friends like Dorianne Wallingford and Emily Bernstein more mature. She has a boy-girl pool party at the Goldmans' for her twelfth birthday, where she meets Frankie, a classmate of Janine's. Janine is then mad at Claudia for liking Frankie. Then on the phone, Claudia breaks up with Frankie, only to be friends.
Characters[]
Kids
- David Michael Thomas
- Pike Family: Mallory Pike, Jordan Pike, Adam Pike, Byron Pike, Vanessa Pike, Nicky Pike, Margo Pike and Claire Pike
- Jamie Newton
- Sean and Sara Beckett - Kids Stacey would baby-sit in her old building
- Twila and Jeremy Rosenfeld - Kids Stacey would baby-sit in her old building
- Caroline Barkan - Kids Stacey would baby-sit in her old building
- Sami, Eloise, and Nathan Goldsmith - Kids Stacey would baby-sit in her old building
- Jenny Prezzioso (mentioned)
Pre-Teens
- Kristy Thomas
- Claudia Kishi
- Mary Anne Spier
- Stacey McGill
- Dorianne Wallingford (mentioned)
- Howie Johnson (mentioned)
- Pete Black (mentioned)
- Laine Cummings
- Emily Bernstein
- Rick Chow
- Darnell Harris, Polly Hanson - students in Claudia's class
- Allison Ritz
- Naomi and Caitlin - girls in Stacey's class
- Shillaber Twins
- Lauren Hoffman
Teenagers
- Kristy's Family: Charlie Thomas, Sam Thomas
- Marlene - Janine's friend from statistics class
- Frankie Evans - Janine's friend/crush from statistics class and Claudia's first crush
- Lindy, Anna, Tracy, Alexa, Morgan, and Val - Frankie's friends
Adults
- Kristy's Family: Elizabeth Brewer
- Claudia's Family: John Kishi, Rioko Kishi
- Stacey's Family: Maureen McGill, Edward McGill
- Mary Anne's Family: Richard Spier
- Watson Brewer
- Mr. and Mrs. Goldman
- Will - doorman of Stacey's apartment building
- Mrs. Cummings
- Mrs. Newton
- Mr. Benjamin Taylor
Locations[]
- Thomas House
- Stoneybrook Middle School (briefly)
- Local playground
- Spier House
- Kishi House
- McGill House
- McGill apartment
- Goldman House - just the pool area
- Renwick's
- Sal's and The Half Moon - places Stacey's eats dinner with her parents
- Newton House
Pop Culture and Real Life References[]
- Charlie Brown (Chapter 5, Kristy mentions Watson has "an enormous Charlie Brown-type bald head".
- Mary Anne says her room has pictures of Alice in Wonderland characters.
- Alma's dolls are bigger then a Barbie but smaller then an American Girl doll.
- Stacey's knowledge about camp is limited to what she knew from The Parent Trap.
- Mary Anne asks for a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for her birthday.
- When Stacey walked up to her new house she felt like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.
- Claudia compares the girls flanking Frankie at the pool to Tinker Bell to Peter Pan.
- Mary Anne played with Troll dolls when she went to SMS.
Continuity and Inconsistencies[]
Continuity
- The slumber party from The Baby-sitters Remember where Stacey wet the bed is recapped on page 47.
- Stacey's love of pigs are mentioned on page 94.
- Chapter 17 has dialogue and scènes from Kristy's Great Idea.
- The Berks are the first family to visit the McGills after their move. They were mentioned once before in Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye, Charlotte mentions getting her dresser at the Berks' garage sale.
Inconsistencies
- Kristy looks at Mary Anne like she's crazy for playing with dolls at first, but Claudia says that Kristy was playing with dolls in Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls.
- Claudia's Nancy Drew collection is bigger than the library’s. But in other books, Claudia says that the public library doesn’t have Nancy Drew books. But that still is correct because however many books Claudia has are more than zero.
Trivia[]
- On the dedication page it says: "For Jean Feiwel, David Levithan, Brenda Bowen, and Bethany Buck - from the beginning to the end and back to the beginning."
- There is also a special thanks: "Special thanks to my nephew Henry for introducing me to the Tail Trail and the naked mole rat, and to Haedyn and Holden Riley for inventing the game of Sticky."
- Kristy, Stacey, Mary Anne, and Claudia discussed the summer the book is set in "when we were older."
- Claudia barely passed math.
- This is one of the few mentions of Patrick's mom in series. Kristy said that her grandmother used to shout "school's out, school's out, teacher wore her bloomers out."
- Claudia stopped sitting with Kristy and Mary Anne sometime between winter break and spring break.
- Charlie mentions having a friend name Hank that he played baseball with.
- Elizabeth and Watson met in May and went out twice; in June they saw each other four more times.
- David Michael's summer bedtime is nine.
- It's been about five months since Kristy wrote to her dad.
- Mary Anne has her first sitting job with the Pike family in this book.
- Mary Anne has been in the attic looking for information about her mother.
- Some kids Claudia wanted to invite to her party is Polly, Kurt, and Darnell Harris. These kids are never seen within the main series.
- Claudia's Nancy Drew collection is bigger than the library’s.
- The previous summer Laine went to a summer camp in Maine for the month of August.
- Karen is on the honor roll.
- Sam baby-sits Andrew and Karen.
- Mallory is made deputy baby-sitter at Mary Anne's first sitting job.
- Mary Anne became friends with Lauren Hoffman and the Shillaber twins through Kristy.
- Claudia and Kristy celebrate a birthday in this book.
- Stephanie and Tim Berk along with their daughter, Lana, are the first people to welcome the McGills to Stoneybrook.
- The Hanson family gives the McGills takeout menus from restaurants in the area.
- Presents that Kristy's family sends is: a necklace, a sixteen month softball calendar, 20 dollars, bracelet, baseball cap, and two books.
- Kristy's godmother is mentioned and sends money; others mentioned include Elizabeth's co-workers and her college roommate.
- A woman named Nancy is the letter carrier on Bradford Court.
- Kristy almost cried when she got Mary Anne's present.
- Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne are responsible for the dent in the Spier's garage door due to an incident taking training wheels off too early. Nobody knows that it was them.
- A blonde girl saw the parade on Kristy Day. Although not confirmed, this was likely Stacey.
Gallery[]
