While the seven 12-to-14-year-old girls in the Baby-Sitters Club seem nice, it's hard to imagine any of them being able to stay still long enough to take care of a child. Their breakneck pace in The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy and the Great Campaign, the latest spin-off from the popular book series is almost matched by the tempo of the catchy theme music by Glen Roven and the near-breathless speed at which the scenes change in this production.
The ''great campaign'' of the subtitle is the brainchild of baby-sitter Kristy Thomas (Avriel Hillman). She persuades a shy third-grader, Courtney Weston (Kate Bernsohn), to run for class representative, in large part because her opponent is a boy whose older brother once defeated Kristy in a science fair. As Courtney's campaign manager, Kristy tries to mold the candidate into someone she's not: a slick-talking, sharply dressed budding politician. By the end of the story, they've both come to realize it's more important to be yourself — certainly not a new message but one that kids sub-ject to intense peer pressure ought to hear.
Hillman (the voice of Penny on Pee-wee's Playhouse) and Bernsohn, the centers of attention, are capable actors. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for some of the supporting players, who suffer from an unnaturally large dose of awkwardness — even for teens. B
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