Kristy’s Big Day

Ann M. Martin's Kristy's Big Day is a friendship story for 9 year olds about a girl whose mum's wedding is suddenly happening in two and a half weeks.

What happens

It's book six of The Baby-Sitters Club, so for anyone meeting the sitters for the first time, Kristy's Great Idea is where it all begins. Kristy is twelve and the club's president. Her mum is marrying Watson, a millionaire with a mansion on the other side of town.

At first it's all good news. Kristy is going to be a bridesmaid, in a long dress and her very first pair of heels! Her brothers have jobs in the wedding too, and Watson's little girl Karen will be the flower girl.

Four days later, it all falls apart. Mum's work wants her in Europe on the wedding day. And the house sells to a buyer who wants to move in by the middle of July.

So the wedding jumps to the end of the month and the move comes two weeks after it. Kristy is NOT happy. She's lived next door to her best friend Mary Anne her whole life (they used to signal to each other across their bedroom windows with torches). How do you run a club from across town?

Then Mum hears who's coming to help. Relatives and old friends are on their way for the wedding, and they're bringing fourteen children, from a ten-year-old right down to a baby. Kristy has the answer straight away. The whole club can look after them all week!

Reading it feels like sitting in on a club meeting. The phone rings, Mary Anne checks the record book and Claudia hunts for the sweets she's hidden around her room. Kristy tells you everything, and she's bossy and funny and honest about the stuff she won't say out loud.

Deep down, Kristy isn't sure she wants her mum to marry Watson at all. Her friends think he's lovely (and the mansion is a dream), so she keeps quiet.

It's very American (Mom, eighth grade, and a club phone in Claudia's bedroom). If your reader enjoys a group of friends who each have their own thing, it's an easy one to sink into. And if your family has been through a move or a new step-family, Kristy's mixed feelings will probably ring very true.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, try Once Upon a Family. Winnie's mum is getting married too, and Winnie has to leave her best friends behind and move into the new man's house. And Winnie knows her fairy tales well enough to expect the worst of a stepdad.