The Cutoff Point

[greer]

haha yep, sorry! i'm a bit tired and saw the avatar and thought dawnomite

[aln1982]

^ I do that all of the time too. ;D
I still can't really come up with how I categorize them. Maybe it's because I have trouble keeping them straight chronologically and never have read them in order. I read according to "mood". ;D I know approximately where on my shelf they are but not the particular #.

[Penny Lane]

You should try and read them in order. It's "fun". I swear. (I never read them in order until recently, and it's becoming WAY more trouble then I think it's worth)

[Amalia]

I have a personal cut-off point, but it is more due to me than anything else I think - 60. After Mary Anne's Makeover, and the whole bitchiness towards her for her haircut.

[aln1982]

I started to reread 100 today and it made me feel so down and had such a different "feel" to it that I guess I might consider that the cutoff point. I am kind of surprised (found this out by making a list of the books I liked and disliked ;D) but I really don't like many of the later ones.

[luckymojo]

I know the diffent feel you are talking about.That how I felt too!I think the book where they introduced Abby is the late cutoff for me.

[otempora541]

My cut off point is a little more vague.

The beginning- when the refrences to previous books and foreshadowing for later books was subtle and not just "I did my homework!" I'm looking at you Nola.

The middle- 50s to 89: the BSC was going through changes and there was discord (Dawn's leaving, a replacement that doesn't work out, Stacey quits, etc.)

The later- 90 on. Abby was a breathe of fresh air and did give a dying series some blood, but after her novelty wore off, the series died.

[lilafowler]

^I don't think the series was dying when Abby was introduced. I remember being in the third or fourth grade then, and that was just about the time the BSC movie came out in theaters. I always kind of assumed the movie was the peak of the popularity of the series.

Like others, I divide early/later by pre-Abby and post-Abby. The new covers also started with the book in which she was introduced, so I think a change in tone in the series at that time was completely intentional.

[sparklymouse]

For me the cutoff point is right in the middle. Coincidence or not, the last book I originally read was #65. If I don't have a childhood memory of the book then that means it's a later one.

[Kylie90210]

I think of the early as up to Hello Mallory! The middle up to Welcome to the BSC Abby, when the later starts.

[anzuhana]

I never gave this any thought but for me, the later books probably start at Kristy and the Dirty Diapers, where Abby first appears.

[wanderingfrog]

I think I might divide them into something like really early (to about #26), early (to about #44), middle (to #88), and late (obviously everything after that).

[celaeno]

The cutoff point to me is around when Abby joins, for several reasons: There's a new BSC member, the new cover designs were introduced, and mostly because this was around when I stopped reading the BSC. By the time Abby came, I was kinda embarassed to be reading BSC, and thus I was only giving into temptation and getting BSC books that were really special (so I had only read three books with Abby in them: Super Special #13 Aloha, Baby-sitters!, Super Mystery #2 Baby-sitters Beware, and Super Mystery #3 Baby-sitters' Fright Night).

[zoar3]

My cutoff point is also a little vague. I think I have a "few." This probably sounds very dramatic but the first one (to me) starts with "The Truth About Stacey." As all of you know the first two BSC books in order, are my favorites of the entire series. While #3, is still a far cry from say "Mary Anne and the Silent Witness," the last book I re-read, it's already slowly beginning to break-up Kristy and Mary Anne and K, MA, and Claud. Simultaneously, the more genuine, carefree, feeling about the books is changing into something much more serious (not saying that's bad just a change). Then there's the sad fact that MA's character never really develops. Dawn comes immediately in #4. (Just to clarify, I am still not blaming Dawn, it was mostly MA) just how I saw it.

I just posted in the "Baby-sitters' Beware" thread. I think that is the point of no return for the Series. From then on (overall) the books head farther into the world of crazy/unbelievable and plain creepy events. The girls themselves are sadly not the crew we came to bond with and care for early on either. This was another reason I always hoped either Shannon and/or the Shillabers would have been asked to join the BSC instead of new members Abby and Anna. I had hoped bringing some older characters or even like Shannon ones we already knew, just not well, might have helped bring back some of the older book feel.

[supprazz]

I started reading at Keep Out Claudia and quickly worked hard to buy all the previous books, spin off series like Mysteries and the last one I recall buying was Welcome to the BSC Abby and stopping there, only reading what I already had. Later on I bought the Mary Anne & Music Box Secret book and then my sister bought The Fire At Mary Anne's and all of the Friends Forever series books, so I read those, and then I bought the Kristy's Great Idea Manga when I saw it.