When you are reading the California Diaries series, it is easy to forget that Stoneybrook exists. I happen to really like the CA diaries, but they have a very different “feel” than the BSC series. First of all, there’s the diary format, and secondly, no baby-sitting. I don’t like Other People’s Kids very much, so that aspect suits me just fine. The second is that characters who also appear in the BSC series seem very different from their BSC incarnations.

First up is Dawn Schafer. Dawn in the BSC books is the eco-baby-sitter whose ~individuality~ is talked about often but rarely seen. In CA, “California Casual” turns into hippie-granola occasionally punctuated by WILD EARRINGS and SEXY BLACK PLATFORM SHOES. Dawn no longer seems to care about Mary Anne crying back in Stoneybrook. She has bigger issues to worry about, like drinking! and sunny dating everyone in Palo! Also, who doesn’t love the scene where she and Maggie go to this store called “The Tea Shop” where they sell “more than just tea”?! OMG Dawn smokes pot in 3…2…1.

Second is Sunny Winslow. Sunny’s character change is actually the most subtle and realistic. She was always a little unpredictable and boy-crazy, and her “turn it up to 11″ personality change in CA Diaries can easily be justified by her mother’s impending death. Depressing!

Third is Maggie Blume. Maggie’s was just… shocking. In BSC, she was “LA Futuristic Cyberpunk.” In CA Diaries, she’s a preppy straight-a student who really just wants to sing. It makes sense to me that they did that though, as Sunny really had the “wild girl” position locked up and to have another would be kind of useless. Let’s put Maggie’s changes down to her trying to “find herself” or whatever.

Jill Hendrickson (is that her last name?). Oh, poor Jill. Carelessly written out in the first Diary. She used to be serious and boring, now she just really likes unicorns. Again, like having two wild girls, Jill’s seriousness was too dull for a series.

I really like Amalia and Ducky, although they don’t appear in BSC except in passing mentions. The Gay BFF was missing in the BSC series, and Amalia is just really likeable and down-to-earth, and her problems are interesting while still being realistic. I would have totally dated Brendan in 8th grade. (Or now, you know if he were about fifteen years older).

Where things get interesting is where the Stoneybrook and Palo City worlds collide, like in Welcome Home, Mary Anne!. Mary Anne and the BSC just can’t seem to handle the New Dawn. Even though the girls grow up and away from baby-sitting a little bit in the FF series, they still are in the Middle School building, after all.