FIFTY-ONE.

Now, it's time to talk about the greatest thing ever. Usually when one hears any sort of news about remakes and revivals and Kevin Costner making another sports movie, there's that moment of cringing - not even cringing, it's this deep and unabated sense of oh my god, really.

But, but, but every once in awhile, that one thing comes along and you're struck with a wide-eyed sense of amazement and pure glee.

I kid you not. The Baby-Sitters Club is coming back.

“The Baby-Sitters Club,” ran from 1986 to 2000, and had quite the following from preteen girls - think Twilight without the sparkly, brooding vampire love interest (another topic for another time) - and had a run of 213 titles, with the publisher ultimately printing 176 million copies. The series followed four girls, Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey and the cast grew to eight main characters later in the series. There were several spinoffs, including a mystery series and a collection of books about Kristy’s little sister. All of the books are now out of print.

So why the sudden interest? The editorial director at Scholastic and an editor of “The Baby-Sitters Club,” David Levithan said the publisher made the decision to bring back the old series because of requests from fans who wanted a comeback. “This whole generation of girls who had grown up reading ‘The Baby-Sitters Club’ were now teachers, librarians or mothers,” Mr. Levithan said. “And at any opportunity they had, they let us know they wanted them back. We couldn’t go to a convention without having women come up to us and say, ‘You’ve got to bring these books back.’ ”

Ann Martin wrote more than 60 of the books in the original “Baby-Sitters Club” series, has written several stand-alone novels and started another series for young girls called “Main Street” since “The Baby-Sitters Club” ended. She says though that she's started to miss the books were such a part of her writing career for so many years.

So this is why you should look out for a coming prequel to the series, as well as a full revival to the books that opened a door into the lives of Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey.

(Credit for quotes go to the NYTimes.)