Welcome to the worst bestsellers, where we read about Kate's childhood so you don't have to.

I'm Kate.

And I'm not Renata.

And for this episode, we read a selection of Babysitters Club books by Anne M. Martin.

Joining us to discuss the world's most capable 13-year-olds is Jennifer, grad student, comic book

editor, and Marianne slash Mallory Hybrid. Hi, Jen. So you may have noticed back there that

Renata's not here.

As we discussed a little bit at the end of our last episode, Renato's often a sadness cave for the summer.

She was supposed to go hiking. Her hiking companion canceled on her.

So she just retreated Wolverine style into the woods.

We might check in with her a little bit later, but until then, our editor, Becca, is here

to cover Renata's little sojourn into the woods, starting with this episode where we're

talking about the babysitters club.

Right.

I'm super qualified to talk about books.

I read them sometimes.

So I figure we'll start off by talking a little bit about what the babysitters club

books were to girls growing up in the 90s and kind of how much of a touchstone they were

for basically everyone I knew. Why don't we start with you, Jennifer?

Sure. So I picked up my first Babysitters Club book when I was halfway through first grade.

I'd always been a pretty strong reader. And at that point, I couldn't even read cursive. And so the

diary entries from babysitters my mom had to

...