Review by Frank Plowright

As the Baby-Sitters Club novels continued, Ann M. Martin needed to find ways to feature the characters while avoiding the repetition of stories centred around unruly children, and she was extremely creative in doing so. Claudia and the Bad Joke was almost an anomaly in featuring extended babysitting sequences, but this story avoids the traditional housebound understanding of the term, concentrating instead on softball.

Kristy is the sportiest of the club members, and gradually evolves the idea of founding her own softball team as there aren’t enough opportunities for young children to play in Stoneybrook. The teams already existing have enough players, although Kristy’s research causes her to meet Bart, who runs the Bashers, and she sure seems to like him.

This is Ellen T. Crenshaw’s second Baby-Sitters Club adaptation, and her art matches the established style of friendly children, easy to follow storytelling and the occasional expansive spread. Comedy antics also feature, in this instance well composed panels of children struggling to hit or catch a softball. When it comes to the actual games, though, Crenshaw varies her usual grid layouts to transmit the dynamism of the game action.

An impressive aspect of the series is Martin never forgetting a character, and taking care to use them again whenever possible. The deaf Matt was introduced in Jessi’s Secret Language, and returns here as one of the more effective team members, his presence enabling a point to be made about cruel insults. Kristy’s response is aggressive and threatening, which is the way it would be in reality, but it’s unusually honest for children’s books, which generally supply a less confrontational solution.

Kristy and the Walking Disaster’s title is arbitrary for referring to one child among a team, and it differs from most books in the series for requiring considerable explanation about the rules of softball. Technicalities about strikes and balls are explained, although kids will have to look up the meaning of ‘bunt’ themselves, and a lot of pages are devoted to practice and the game against the Bashers. It means readers with no interest in softball may find this book less appealing than others in the series, but it has the same dose of fun, charm and common sense. Next is Mallory and the Trouble With Twins.