Some may call it coincidence or perhaps fate, but what happened to Evie Perrin is simply described by the seven-year-old as “weird”.
It’s a curious plot worthy of a novel, perhaps. Evie loves to read, but the Baby-Sitters Club series is one of her favourites, something she recently found out was a common interest of her mother’s when she was young.
Nikki Perrin says the books are quite hard to come by these days and keeps a regular eye on Trademe on behalf of her daughter Evie, who she says is an avid reader.
Evie was browsing the Birchwood School library recently when she was surprised to come across a few books from the series on the shelf. After flicking through the options, many of which she hadn’t read yet, she settled on one and scanned it out for the holidays.
She thought the book looked quite old so, as she hopped into bed for some evening reading, she flicked to the back where she found a list of names of people who had also borrowed the book.
These dated back as far back as 1994, a system long since replaced by digital scanning.
Second from the top of the list, Evie noticed the name ‘Nikki’ and thought it might be her mum, or perhaps her friend’s mum, who shares the same name.
Nikki confirmed it was in fact her name and handwriting.
In a curious twist of fate, she had once read the same book her daughter was now preparing to dive into. But then it got even stranger. Next to Nikki’s name was a stamped date - 29 June 1994; the exact day Evie had borrowed the book, just 27 years earlier.
“I remember reading lots of Baby-Sitters Club books but not that particular one. It’s in really good condition considering how many kids must’ve read it,” says Nikki.
“It’s amazing that it was exactly the same date next to my name, a bit of fate or serendipity maybe.”
