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The Baby-Sitters Club #36
Jessi's Babysitter
Jessi can't believe it. Her dreaded Aunt Cecilia is moving in to take care of Jessi and her brother and sister. How humiliating--Jessi's going to have a baby-sitter!
Plus, Aunt Cecelia is a drill sergeant. She tells Jessi when to go to bed and how to wear her hair--and she even forbids Jessi to go to a Baby-sitters Club meeting.
Jessi knows she's old enough to take care of herself--but how can she tell Aunt Cecelia that?
Plus, Aunt Cecelia is a drill sergeant. She tells Jessi when to go to bed and how to wear her hair--and she even forbids Jessi to go to a Baby-sitters Club meeting.
Jessi knows she's old enough to take care of herself--but how can she tell Aunt Cecelia that?
Paperback
First published August 1, 1990
84 people are currently reading
1012 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,120 books3,074 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 31, 2010
this is the one where mr. & mrs. ramsey invite aunt cecelia to come live with them & help out now that mrs. ramsey is going back to work (at an advertising firm, like 92% of all working mothers in stoneybrook). cecelia is mr. ramsey's older sister--much older, as far as i can tell, if jessi's parents are close in age. cecelia has children of her own, but they are grown & she was recently widowed, while mr. ramsey has an infant son. so there's like a twenty year age difference between cecelia & mr. ramsey? hmmmm.
anyway, jessi & becca are not psyched about this development. jessi is still upset because cecelia acted like it was jessi's fault when becca got stranded on that desert island off the coast of connecticut. jessi & becca are used to have a certain degree of independence & autonomy, & cecelia treats them like babies. & even with squirt, who is a baby, jessi is upset because cecelia doesn't spend much time playing with him or engaging with him. she leaves him in his high chair while she cleans & plunks him down in front of "sesame street," she won't let jessi & becca take him for walks, & she lets him nap too late in the day. she also forces jessi & becca to snack on cookies, rather than the sandwiches to which they are accustomed (& jessi is quick to specify that they aren't even good cookies, but some kind of healthy grain bar situation), & once when jessi is ten minutes late coming from from a babysitting job, cecelia won't let her attend a babysitters club meeting. which is pretty fucking out of line. you'd think mr. & mrs. ramsey would have had a detailed chat with cecelia before she moved in, detailing the kids' after-school responsibilities & privileges. cecelia won't even let jessi ride her bike to mallory's house because cecelia hasn't met mallory, & she almost doesn't let jessi leave for a scheduled sitting job.
not that jessi & becca handle things all that well. they leave fake spiders in cecelia's bed & fill her shoes with sahving cream, hoping to drive her out of the house. it doesn't work.
subplot: the stoneybrook elementary school science fair is coming up, & various babysitters are helping out various kids with their entries. jessi is helping jackie rowdowsky build a real exploding volcano. but mostly she is just doing the project for him. all jackie wants to do is make a mess, & jessi forces him to memorize a speech about igenous rocks & shit. when jackie bombs in front of the judges because he failed to actually learn anything & can only repeat that facts jessi made him memorize verbatim, jessi realizes that she was babying & bossing jackie the same way cecelia has been doing to her. this motivates her to have a talk with her parents, who proceed to talk to cecelia, & everything gets better. although i had to roll my eyes at the part where cecelia claimed that she came down like a ton of bricks on the girls because she feared she wouldn't be as good a babysitter as jessi is. really? a grown woman who has raised children of her own feared she wouldn't measure up against an 11-year-old? unless cecelia's kids are ritual murderers/cannibals or never learned how to use their own thumbs or something, i think cecelia has little to fear.
this one was kind of boring.
anyway, jessi & becca are not psyched about this development. jessi is still upset because cecelia acted like it was jessi's fault when becca got stranded on that desert island off the coast of connecticut. jessi & becca are used to have a certain degree of independence & autonomy, & cecelia treats them like babies. & even with squirt, who is a baby, jessi is upset because cecelia doesn't spend much time playing with him or engaging with him. she leaves him in his high chair while she cleans & plunks him down in front of "sesame street," she won't let jessi & becca take him for walks, & she lets him nap too late in the day. she also forces jessi & becca to snack on cookies, rather than the sandwiches to which they are accustomed (& jessi is quick to specify that they aren't even good cookies, but some kind of healthy grain bar situation), & once when jessi is ten minutes late coming from from a babysitting job, cecelia won't let her attend a babysitters club meeting. which is pretty fucking out of line. you'd think mr. & mrs. ramsey would have had a detailed chat with cecelia before she moved in, detailing the kids' after-school responsibilities & privileges. cecelia won't even let jessi ride her bike to mallory's house because cecelia hasn't met mallory, & she almost doesn't let jessi leave for a scheduled sitting job.
not that jessi & becca handle things all that well. they leave fake spiders in cecelia's bed & fill her shoes with sahving cream, hoping to drive her out of the house. it doesn't work.
subplot: the stoneybrook elementary school science fair is coming up, & various babysitters are helping out various kids with their entries. jessi is helping jackie rowdowsky build a real exploding volcano. but mostly she is just doing the project for him. all jackie wants to do is make a mess, & jessi forces him to memorize a speech about igenous rocks & shit. when jackie bombs in front of the judges because he failed to actually learn anything & can only repeat that facts jessi made him memorize verbatim, jessi realizes that she was babying & bossing jackie the same way cecelia has been doing to her. this motivates her to have a talk with her parents, who proceed to talk to cecelia, & everything gets better. although i had to roll my eyes at the part where cecelia claimed that she came down like a ton of bricks on the girls because she feared she wouldn't be as good a babysitter as jessi is. really? a grown woman who has raised children of her own feared she wouldn't measure up against an 11-year-old? unless cecelia's kids are ritual murderers/cannibals or never learned how to use their own thumbs or something, i think cecelia has little to fear.
this one was kind of boring.
March 10, 2016
this is my first time reading this book!
as was foreshadowed in the previous book, Baby-sitters' Island Adventure, jessi's aunt cecelia comes to live with them. she throws the whole ramsey routine out of whack, treating jessi and becca like they're stupid babies and not playing with squirt at all while not letting jessi and becca play with him either. meanwhile, jessi decides to help jackie rodowsky with his science fair project and treats him like a stupid baby herself (doing all the work for him) and straight up cannot see the parallelism happening in her life.
highlights:
-the pikes make a lending library. IT IS SO CUTE. their process is to divide the books by animal stories, mystery series, science books, sports books, etc. then there are index cards in each book that have the book title, and they keep the index card and write the kid's name and check out date on it. they write the due date on a post-it and put it on the book for the kid. the library is open to the neighborhood kids after school and weekends! enterprising pikelets.
-some of the mean things jessi and becca do to aunt cecelia to try to make her feel unwelcome, namely SHORT SHEETING HER BED. I love any time short-sheeting happens in the bsc series, because short-sheeting is the most innocuous and hilarious prank for these 1950s-style tweens to pull.
-speaking of which, once jessi and becca talk to their parents about the problems with aunt cecelia (FINALLY.) cecelia tells them (mr and mrs ramsey) about the short-sheeting and other pranks. they say they are going to ground jessi and becca, but cecelia asks them to let her deal with jessi and becca instead. so she pulls the exact same pranks on them: puts shaving cream in their slippers, short-sheets jessi's bed, puts fake animals on their pillows. I love this grumpy old woman acting like a little kid prankster.
-more foreshadowing for stacey feeling ill and for mallory's dad losing his job.
-the baby-sitters all are helping kids with their science fair projects (a la the pageant in Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn) but aside from jessi they mostly don't get too involved/don't pressure the kids/don't do the work for them. they just point out spots where the project is lacking in science and point the kids in the right direction to find better project ideas, and then they don't get super competitive about it and mostly don't care when the kids lose (except charlotte who ends up winning 3rd place -- see the next highlight for more info).
-the two really good science fair projects. margo pike makes a shadow box depicting what life would be like if we lived on the moon (and it has barbies in jetsons-style outfits drinking tang). charlotte johannsen tries to grow three plants, with the only different condition for each of the plants being that for one, she doesn't play any music; for one, she plays it 30 minutes of classical music per day; and for one, she plays it 30 minutes of duran duran per day. the duran duran one grows way better than the others, and she ends up getting third place in the science fair.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-why do we see a notebook entry for a time that jessi baby-sits? it seems like this tends to happen more when the narrator is either jessi or mallory. it's like ann doesn't count them as real narrators because they're junior members.
-jessi is such a jerk with jackie. it's really frustrating to read.
-when talking about frogs, mallory says, "don't we have a book on reptiles?" mallory is way too nerdy to not know that frogs are amphibians.
-I hate when they say that emily michelle is having trouble with language acquisition because up until recently she was hearing "a foreign language" i.e. vietnamese. no, vietnamese was her first language, and ENGLISH is still a foreign language to her, you idiots.
-once again, a missing-the-point racism moment. cecelia says that sometimes black people have to work harder to prove themselves, and jessi compares it to jackie rodowsky (a white boy) having to work hard because everyone thinks he's a klutz. that's not a systemic thing, you idiot! even if she said, "he has to work hard because everyone thinks he's a klutz because he's a ginger kid," that STILL wouldn't be the same. UGH.
claudia outfit:
-"Claud was wearing a fake leopard-skin vest, a fairly tame blouse, and blue leggings. She had made her jewelry herself--five papier-mache bracelets that were painted in soft desert colors."
stacey outfit:
-"Stacey was wearing tight black pants that reached just above her ankles, and sported a column of four silvery buttons at the bottoms. (The buttons were just for show, I think.) Over the pants she was wearing a long (past her knees) blue jacket made of soft material. Under that she was wearing a sleeveless blouse."
jackie disasters (only two! amazing considering how present he is in this book):
-slips on the rug and falls on his bottom
-gets his foot stuck in one of his old rain boots
-not sure if this counts...when making papier mache he scratches his cheek and gets papier mache goop on it.
dawn's kid-kit:
-skipper doll with sleepover stuff
-jigsaw puzzle with a poem on it
snacks in claudia's room:
-planters peanut bar under her armchair
-necco wafers (n.s.)
as was foreshadowed in the previous book, Baby-sitters' Island Adventure, jessi's aunt cecelia comes to live with them. she throws the whole ramsey routine out of whack, treating jessi and becca like they're stupid babies and not playing with squirt at all while not letting jessi and becca play with him either. meanwhile, jessi decides to help jackie rodowsky with his science fair project and treats him like a stupid baby herself (doing all the work for him) and straight up cannot see the parallelism happening in her life.
highlights:
-the pikes make a lending library. IT IS SO CUTE. their process is to divide the books by animal stories, mystery series, science books, sports books, etc. then there are index cards in each book that have the book title, and they keep the index card and write the kid's name and check out date on it. they write the due date on a post-it and put it on the book for the kid. the library is open to the neighborhood kids after school and weekends! enterprising pikelets.
-some of the mean things jessi and becca do to aunt cecelia to try to make her feel unwelcome, namely SHORT SHEETING HER BED. I love any time short-sheeting happens in the bsc series, because short-sheeting is the most innocuous and hilarious prank for these 1950s-style tweens to pull.
-speaking of which, once jessi and becca talk to their parents about the problems with aunt cecelia (FINALLY.) cecelia tells them (mr and mrs ramsey) about the short-sheeting and other pranks. they say they are going to ground jessi and becca, but cecelia asks them to let her deal with jessi and becca instead. so she pulls the exact same pranks on them: puts shaving cream in their slippers, short-sheets jessi's bed, puts fake animals on their pillows. I love this grumpy old woman acting like a little kid prankster.
-more foreshadowing for stacey feeling ill and for mallory's dad losing his job.
-the baby-sitters all are helping kids with their science fair projects (a la the pageant in Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn) but aside from jessi they mostly don't get too involved/don't pressure the kids/don't do the work for them. they just point out spots where the project is lacking in science and point the kids in the right direction to find better project ideas, and then they don't get super competitive about it and mostly don't care when the kids lose (except charlotte who ends up winning 3rd place -- see the next highlight for more info).
-the two really good science fair projects. margo pike makes a shadow box depicting what life would be like if we lived on the moon (and it has barbies in jetsons-style outfits drinking tang). charlotte johannsen tries to grow three plants, with the only different condition for each of the plants being that for one, she doesn't play any music; for one, she plays it 30 minutes of classical music per day; and for one, she plays it 30 minutes of duran duran per day. the duran duran one grows way better than the others, and she ends up getting third place in the science fair.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-why do we see a notebook entry for a time that jessi baby-sits? it seems like this tends to happen more when the narrator is either jessi or mallory. it's like ann doesn't count them as real narrators because they're junior members.
-jessi is such a jerk with jackie. it's really frustrating to read.
-when talking about frogs, mallory says, "don't we have a book on reptiles?" mallory is way too nerdy to not know that frogs are amphibians.
-I hate when they say that emily michelle is having trouble with language acquisition because up until recently she was hearing "a foreign language" i.e. vietnamese. no, vietnamese was her first language, and ENGLISH is still a foreign language to her, you idiots.
-once again, a missing-the-point racism moment. cecelia says that sometimes black people have to work harder to prove themselves, and jessi compares it to jackie rodowsky (a white boy) having to work hard because everyone thinks he's a klutz. that's not a systemic thing, you idiot! even if she said, "he has to work hard because everyone thinks he's a klutz because he's a ginger kid," that STILL wouldn't be the same. UGH.
claudia outfit:
-"Claud was wearing a fake leopard-skin vest, a fairly tame blouse, and blue leggings. She had made her jewelry herself--five papier-mache bracelets that were painted in soft desert colors."
stacey outfit:
-"Stacey was wearing tight black pants that reached just above her ankles, and sported a column of four silvery buttons at the bottoms. (The buttons were just for show, I think.) Over the pants she was wearing a long (past her knees) blue jacket made of soft material. Under that she was wearing a sleeveless blouse."
jackie disasters (only two! amazing considering how present he is in this book):
-slips on the rug and falls on his bottom
-gets his foot stuck in one of his old rain boots
-not sure if this counts...when making papier mache he scratches his cheek and gets papier mache goop on it.
dawn's kid-kit:
-skipper doll with sleepover stuff
-jigsaw puzzle with a poem on it
snacks in claudia's room:
-planters peanut bar under her armchair
-necco wafers (n.s.)
July 7, 2020
While I actually started reading around age 3 (thank you, my Granny's Dick and Jane books!), this series is what I remember most about loving to read during my childhood. My sister and I drank these books up like they were oxygen. I truly think we owned just about every single one from every one of the series. We even got the privilege of meeting Ann M. Martin at a book signing, but of course little starstruck me froze and could not speak a word to my biggest hero at that time. Once in awhile if I come across these at a yard sale, I will pick them up for a couple hour trip down memory lane, and I declare nearly nothing centers and relaxes me more!
September 23, 2025
The girls directly reference the fact that this has the same plot as Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn, just with a science fair instead of a beauty pageant.
June 3, 2018
This is so funny and weird. I can’t see why Aunt Cecilia gets really mad about simple things easily. I mean, for the least to let Jessi go to a BSC meeting, right? Find out more in this book!
July 25, 2025
Back on my shit again. Haha
#BabysittersClubClub
#BabysittersClubClub
November 16, 2019
Oh no. With Jessi’s mom going back to work Aunt Cecelia is moving in as their babysitter. Seems fine right? Ain’t Cecelia will watch baby Squirt and Becca during the day...wrong! Aunt Cecelia comes in and she comes in hard. She rules over the household, undermining Jessi’s parents rules. She is strict. She has unfair punishments. Or that’s what Jessi thinks anyways. After all Jessi is a babysitter so why does she even need one? She makes it her goal to get rid of her mean aunt. I enjoyed this one. A lot of life lessons towards the end. A lot of growing up and forgiveness on all parts.
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June 6, 2024Jessi's Baby-sitter
Jesso’s dad comes to pick her up. Usually it’s her mom and she asks her dad worriedly if somethings happened to her siblings. He tells her everythings fine. He just left work early. He says they have something to celebrate and then Jessi notices the chocolate smell and the bag. Jessi tries to guess what they’re celebrating but he just says it’s a surprise. It’s not a promotion. It’s not a new baby. They aren’t moving. Even though he says it’s not a new baby, Jessi thinks that’s what it’ll be. Jessi tells Becca this. Jessi hopes it’s a boy so it’ll be even. (Two boys. Two girls). But at dinner they find out Mrs. Ramsey is going back to work. She works in advertising. Jessi says she’ll watch her siblings as much as possibly but who’ll watch Squirt while she’s at school. And who’ll watch Beeca while she’s at dance class. Her parents tell her Aunt Ceceila will be moving in. Aunt Cecelia is HORRIBLE!
She’s bossy, strict, and mean and hasn’t trusted Jessi seen Beeca got lost at sea. Jessi and Becca are NOT happy and talk about it later. Jessi says they could prank Aunt Cecelia so she’ll want to leave. So they write down some ideas and Jessi puts them in her desk drawer. After this she calls Mal, but she isn’t there. After this, Jessi heads to a BSC meeting. On the way there, jessi thinks about how nice it’s been having her mother around. Now that will be coming to an end. They get a call from Mr. Rodowsky and Jessi gets it. Then they start to talk about when Aunt Cecelia coming. It’s undetermined yet when. Jessi vents there has to be another solution. The others don’t think it’ll be so bad. Kristy says having Nannie move in has been great and Claudia says Jessi knows how she felt about Mimi but Jessi knows it won’t be good at all and they won’t understand until they meet her aunt.
Jessi’s job starts off with Jackie running to answer the door and slipping on the rug. He then gets his foot stuck in a rain boat. After everything is straightened out, Mrs. Rodowsky leaves to take Archie and Shea to their soccor and piano lessons. Jessi gets the boot off. Jackie says they’re supposed to think of if they want to enter the science project. Jackie says he wants to make a volcano. Jessi encourages him but he says he has bad luck. Jessi says he has to have confidence in hisself. Then she says they’ll go to the library and do some research. Claudia’s mom helps them find three books. Jackie says it doesn’t look easy. They have to make a frame and there are a lot of words he can’t pronounce (sedimentary, isnious). Definitely not how they did it on the Brad y Bunch, but Jessi says they’re going to make the best project at the science fair. Jessi then starts to read about volcanoes because you’ll have to tell the judges what they are. So, they check the books out and go to the Rodowsky’s. Jackie looks at the books while Jackie makes list. His mother is pleased when she gets back and tells him she doesn’t think it’ll be too expensive. She asks Jessi if she’ll help him and then suggests Jessi be his only sitter. Jessi says she’ll talk to them and feels confident she can get Jackie a win.
Dawn is sitting at the Pikes. The girls are going through her Kid Kid. The boys (triplets) are playing the “The Wandering Frog People”. Vanessa decides to do the puzzle with the poem by Robert Frost. Claire goes for a new Skipper doll. Margo wants to enter the sceience fair. She asks Mal to help her and she says she will “help” but not do it for her. Margo doesn’t know what she wants to do so they go to help her pick out a good one. The triplets are looking at encyclopedia’s for information on frogs. The triplets come up with the idea that they could open a library with all the books they have. They’ll make Vanessa the librian. They tell Margo she can be the first customer.
They first group all the same kinds of books and put them in the same bookcase. Vanessa sets up her desk. Byron makes signs that organize the books into topics. Jordan and Margo make pockets for the books. Adam and Nicky make index cards. By the afternoon the library is ready to open. They make a sign and put it in the yard PIKE LIBRARY. Then they go around telling their friends. They get Matt and Haley and Buddy and Susie to come by and check out books. Margo decides to make a shadow box to show what life is like on the moon.
Jessi finds out on the day her aunt is moving in she’s rented a U-HAUL. She’ll be putting all her things in the guest room. Dad will be picking up. She’ll be driving her own car. When she gets there, she tells Jessica to tidy her hair and Becca not to slouch. They make her a banner but have spelled her name wrong. Aunt Cecelia has a ton of stuff and it doesn’t all fit in her room. Mrs. Ramsey says they’ll find a space for it. Before long her stuff is all over the house. Mama tells her its part of her past. She misses her husband (Steven). Jessi’s room (and the house) doesn’t feel like hers (there) anymore. But Aunt Cecelia gets to work and tidys up the house (tho it’s still cluttered). She makes Jesi and Becca go to bed way to early (eight thirty). Her mom says they don’t have to go to bed tho.
The next day Mr. Ramsey suggests they all go to brunch to celebrate his wife’s new job and his sisters arrival, but Aunt Cecelia says they should go alone and she’ll watch the kids. She’s controlling. She tells Becca to use her napkin and Jessi to clean her plate, Jessi tries to take Squirt to clean him up and Aunt Cecelia says she’ll do it. Jessi comes up with the name “Aunt Dictator”. She doesn’t play with Squirt and she doesn’t clean him up she’s so busy making dinner. Jessi tells her aunt she’s going to take Squirt for a walk but she says it’s too cloudy. So she tells her she’s going over to Mallory’s house. Aunt Dictator says no she doesn’t think so. The roads look to slippery for bikes. Jessi stomps out and she tells her to walk like a lady. By the time, the Ramsey’s get back Jessi and Becca have short sheeted her bed, filled one of her slippers with shaving cream, and put a realistic spider in her bed. Surprisingly nothing happens. Mr and Mrs. Ramsey don’t say anything and neither does Aunt Cecelia (who they know saw noticed the pranks). Mrs. Ramsey just tahnks her for coming.
The Ramsey’s all leave the next morning. Mr and mrs. Ramsey for work. Jessi and Becca for school. Jessi starts to rattle off instructions to Aunt Cecelia for watching Squirt but she copes an attitude and tells her she’s raised kids. Jessi’s day does get better. She gets an A on a math test, scores three baskets in gym, and a story she wrote gets compliments. She sits at the Rodowsky’s and has a BSC meeting. Before Jessi goes on her job, she comes home Squirt is sleep. Jessi usually gets a sandwich for a snack. She and Becca gets two oat cookies. Aunt Cecelia gives Jessi a hard time about going to Jackie’s to sit and to her meeting. Jessi tells Aunt Cecelia she can call her parents and they’ll tell her it’s ok. She finally says ok.
Jessi sits that afternoon for Jackie and Archie (whose getting over an ear infection). Mr. Rodowsky and Jackie have already made the box over the weekend. So they work on make the layers of the rocks. When this is done Jackie makes the paper marche. While Jessi reads, the boys fool around with the paper marche. Jessi makes them clean up and Jackie says it was the best afternoon of his life. Kristy has a sitting job for her brothers and sisters. David Micheal tells Kristy about the science fair and that he’s thinking of entering it, but he’s not that good at science. He says he’s interested in space and aliens. He likes Saturn best. He says he can do the solar system. He says he can make Saturn out of a beach ball and ut a hula hoop around it. David Micheal asks Kristy to help him and she says she’ll help him but she can’t do it for him David Micheal suggests some ideas to Kristy while Kristy plays with Emily. He finally comes up with building a mobile. Kristy approves of this.
When Stacey sits for Charlotte, she finds she’s doing an experiment to see if music helps plants grow better She has three plants. She gives them water and sun but for one she plays classical music. For the other she plays rock and roll. For the last one she doesn’t play any music. The ones in jar number one are the tallest. Stacey suggests she charts them. Charlotte jumps on the idea and starts immediately. Charlotte then invites Stacey to the science fair. She tells her of course, she’s like her sister. This makes Charlotte happy and she hugs her. Becca comes by clearly upset. Then she starts to vent to Charlotte about “Aunt Dictator”. Stacey lets Charlotte and Becca plot things to do to Aunt Cecelia like tie her to a chair and say robbers did it, hiding her hair combs, dressing up like Avon ladies and selling her water, and curling Squirts curls green.
At the next meeting, the Perkins need someone to sit for them while they go to a big party. Shannon winds up with the job so none of them can do it. Mallory talks about Margo’s shadow box with Barbie and Ken inhabiting the moon and dressing in sparkly outfits. She’s put Tang and pastries in it. Kristy says she should give her some books to read and make her do it right (no Jessi does) but Mal says that’s not what she’s there for. Kristy also says she’s not going to help David Micheal whose planents aren’t spaced right. Stacey says she just suggested some data and Charlotte did the rest. Jessi says she thinks Jackie’s will be the best one at the fair. She tells them about the rocks. Jessi admits she helped with the research and she’s helped with the project. There’s silence and then Maryanne says it sound like Jessi is doing Jackie’s project for him. She says she’s not she just wants him to win for once. She’s not taking over which leads her to venting about Aunt Cecelia.
She doesn’t trust them to cook or choose there own clothes. The others say they should talk to her parents. Stacey says it would be nicer than playing tricks. Aunt Cecilia hasn’t mentioned the tricks and if they do she’ll tell on them. Jackie wants to test the volcano. At first Jessi says no but then she agrees to it. Jessi tells him a judge will have to light the match at the fair. It looks great! Jessi then makes him work on presentation. He wants to call it “My Volcano” but she tells him “Welcome to the World of Volcanic Activity” sounds better. Then she makes him make a sign but he spells the words wrong. So she makes the sign. Jessi says the have to go to the school to stake out the best spot for thiere project. Jessi thinks it should be last. Jackie says he doesn’t carry what the prize is. He just wants his project to be the best so he can prove he can do something good to the mean kids in his class that tease him.
Jessi tells him he has two days to memorize what he’s going to say to the judges, He has to explain how it works. She makes Jackie memorize a speech. She also teaches him hand gestures. She also suggests a pointer. Jackie takes it all in with enthusiasm and even shows his presentation to his parents. Jessi is late coming home and Aunt Cecelia chews her out. Jessi argues it’s just 10 minutes. They start to argue and Aunt Cecelia throws up the sailing incident. Because of this, Aunt Cecelia says she can’t go to the BSC meeting. They start to argue back and forth. Jessi says she’s not over there house and she calls her dad. Only he’s out, So, she calls her mother but then thinks about what her mother told her about not calling her unless there’s an emergency. So, she calls Kristy and tells her she can’t come to the meeting. She tells her to call her a lot during the meeting to make it seem like they can’t live without her. They call 14 times.
Jessi down plays there problems that night so as to not upset her parents. That night, Aunt Cecelia comes in Jessi’s room and gives her a god awful hair style and tells her now she’s someone she can be proud of. She goes to tell her parents but they’re talking about a problem her mother had at work. They look at jessi and ask did she do something different to her hair. Jackie gives an impressive presentation but can’t answer any of the questions. Charlotte wins third place. Jackie gets honorable mention, but everyone else gets one of those. Jessi apologizes for doing most of the work and says she just wantedhim to see he’s a winner. His parents are understanding. His father even admits he built the box. He gets the approval tho of some boys in his class who think his volcano was cool and want him to make it explode again.
After the meeting, Jessi tells her parents about Jakie and what’s been going on with Aunt Cecelia, The Ramsey’s call a family conference. Aunt Ceclia says she only did it because she cares and sometimes black people have to work harder to prove themselves. Aunt Cecelia says she was also worried she wouldn’t be as good a sitter as Jessi. She also tells them about the pranks. The parents say the girls will tell them their plans and they’ll approve or disapprove their schedules. And the girls can do whatever they want with their hair and clothes. After the meeting, Becca finds shaving cream in her slippers anda spider in her bed. Jessi finds her bed short sheeted, a mouse in her bed, and having cream in her slippsers. Aunt Cecelia says now they’re even. Becca tells Aunt Cecelia a joke as she makes dinner and they all laugh. This is how Mr and Mrs. Ramsey find them when they come home. Jessi tears up her lists of mean things to do oto her aunt.
My Thoughts.
I did this one out of order because weirdly it wasn’t in my collection. I had to refind it. But I remembered it slightly. This was one of the ones I bought. I will say that I do know someone that’s slightly like this. Bossy a little on the controlling side. Always seems like they think they know best and don’t want to listen to anything other than what they think they know. Sometimes wants to tell you what *they* think you should wear and telling you your hair is messed up. And it is A LOT to take! As you can see in this story *talking* to them doesn’t always help and trying to get them to see your way sometimes feels like your wasting your breath. At least in this story Aunt Cecelia kind of relented some of her way (I take it) after the family meeting. We’ll see if she does. I really don’t remember her in any of the other books, so I’ll have to keep reading. But sometimes older people are just stuck in there ways and you just have to grit your teeth and live with people like “Aunt Cecelia”, Espeically if you really don’t have any other choice. So, I understood VERY WELL what it was like for Becca and Jessi. This one I could easily relate to.
Rating: 6
Jesso’s dad comes to pick her up. Usually it’s her mom and she asks her dad worriedly if somethings happened to her siblings. He tells her everythings fine. He just left work early. He says they have something to celebrate and then Jessi notices the chocolate smell and the bag. Jessi tries to guess what they’re celebrating but he just says it’s a surprise. It’s not a promotion. It’s not a new baby. They aren’t moving. Even though he says it’s not a new baby, Jessi thinks that’s what it’ll be. Jessi tells Becca this. Jessi hopes it’s a boy so it’ll be even. (Two boys. Two girls). But at dinner they find out Mrs. Ramsey is going back to work. She works in advertising. Jessi says she’ll watch her siblings as much as possibly but who’ll watch Squirt while she’s at school. And who’ll watch Beeca while she’s at dance class. Her parents tell her Aunt Ceceila will be moving in. Aunt Cecelia is HORRIBLE!
She’s bossy, strict, and mean and hasn’t trusted Jessi seen Beeca got lost at sea. Jessi and Becca are NOT happy and talk about it later. Jessi says they could prank Aunt Cecelia so she’ll want to leave. So they write down some ideas and Jessi puts them in her desk drawer. After this she calls Mal, but she isn’t there. After this, Jessi heads to a BSC meeting. On the way there, jessi thinks about how nice it’s been having her mother around. Now that will be coming to an end. They get a call from Mr. Rodowsky and Jessi gets it. Then they start to talk about when Aunt Cecelia coming. It’s undetermined yet when. Jessi vents there has to be another solution. The others don’t think it’ll be so bad. Kristy says having Nannie move in has been great and Claudia says Jessi knows how she felt about Mimi but Jessi knows it won’t be good at all and they won’t understand until they meet her aunt.
Jessi’s job starts off with Jackie running to answer the door and slipping on the rug. He then gets his foot stuck in a rain boat. After everything is straightened out, Mrs. Rodowsky leaves to take Archie and Shea to their soccor and piano lessons. Jessi gets the boot off. Jackie says they’re supposed to think of if they want to enter the science project. Jackie says he wants to make a volcano. Jessi encourages him but he says he has bad luck. Jessi says he has to have confidence in hisself. Then she says they’ll go to the library and do some research. Claudia’s mom helps them find three books. Jackie says it doesn’t look easy. They have to make a frame and there are a lot of words he can’t pronounce (sedimentary, isnious). Definitely not how they did it on the Brad y Bunch, but Jessi says they’re going to make the best project at the science fair. Jessi then starts to read about volcanoes because you’ll have to tell the judges what they are. So, they check the books out and go to the Rodowsky’s. Jackie looks at the books while Jackie makes list. His mother is pleased when she gets back and tells him she doesn’t think it’ll be too expensive. She asks Jessi if she’ll help him and then suggests Jessi be his only sitter. Jessi says she’ll talk to them and feels confident she can get Jackie a win.
Dawn is sitting at the Pikes. The girls are going through her Kid Kid. The boys (triplets) are playing the “The Wandering Frog People”. Vanessa decides to do the puzzle with the poem by Robert Frost. Claire goes for a new Skipper doll. Margo wants to enter the sceience fair. She asks Mal to help her and she says she will “help” but not do it for her. Margo doesn’t know what she wants to do so they go to help her pick out a good one. The triplets are looking at encyclopedia’s for information on frogs. The triplets come up with the idea that they could open a library with all the books they have. They’ll make Vanessa the librian. They tell Margo she can be the first customer.
They first group all the same kinds of books and put them in the same bookcase. Vanessa sets up her desk. Byron makes signs that organize the books into topics. Jordan and Margo make pockets for the books. Adam and Nicky make index cards. By the afternoon the library is ready to open. They make a sign and put it in the yard PIKE LIBRARY. Then they go around telling their friends. They get Matt and Haley and Buddy and Susie to come by and check out books. Margo decides to make a shadow box to show what life is like on the moon.
Jessi finds out on the day her aunt is moving in she’s rented a U-HAUL. She’ll be putting all her things in the guest room. Dad will be picking up. She’ll be driving her own car. When she gets there, she tells Jessica to tidy her hair and Becca not to slouch. They make her a banner but have spelled her name wrong. Aunt Cecelia has a ton of stuff and it doesn’t all fit in her room. Mrs. Ramsey says they’ll find a space for it. Before long her stuff is all over the house. Mama tells her its part of her past. She misses her husband (Steven). Jessi’s room (and the house) doesn’t feel like hers (there) anymore. But Aunt Cecelia gets to work and tidys up the house (tho it’s still cluttered). She makes Jesi and Becca go to bed way to early (eight thirty). Her mom says they don’t have to go to bed tho.
The next day Mr. Ramsey suggests they all go to brunch to celebrate his wife’s new job and his sisters arrival, but Aunt Cecelia says they should go alone and she’ll watch the kids. She’s controlling. She tells Becca to use her napkin and Jessi to clean her plate, Jessi tries to take Squirt to clean him up and Aunt Cecelia says she’ll do it. Jessi comes up with the name “Aunt Dictator”. She doesn’t play with Squirt and she doesn’t clean him up she’s so busy making dinner. Jessi tells her aunt she’s going to take Squirt for a walk but she says it’s too cloudy. So she tells her she’s going over to Mallory’s house. Aunt Dictator says no she doesn’t think so. The roads look to slippery for bikes. Jessi stomps out and she tells her to walk like a lady. By the time, the Ramsey’s get back Jessi and Becca have short sheeted her bed, filled one of her slippers with shaving cream, and put a realistic spider in her bed. Surprisingly nothing happens. Mr and Mrs. Ramsey don’t say anything and neither does Aunt Cecelia (who they know saw noticed the pranks). Mrs. Ramsey just tahnks her for coming.
The Ramsey’s all leave the next morning. Mr and mrs. Ramsey for work. Jessi and Becca for school. Jessi starts to rattle off instructions to Aunt Cecelia for watching Squirt but she copes an attitude and tells her she’s raised kids. Jessi’s day does get better. She gets an A on a math test, scores three baskets in gym, and a story she wrote gets compliments. She sits at the Rodowsky’s and has a BSC meeting. Before Jessi goes on her job, she comes home Squirt is sleep. Jessi usually gets a sandwich for a snack. She and Becca gets two oat cookies. Aunt Cecelia gives Jessi a hard time about going to Jackie’s to sit and to her meeting. Jessi tells Aunt Cecelia she can call her parents and they’ll tell her it’s ok. She finally says ok.
Jessi sits that afternoon for Jackie and Archie (whose getting over an ear infection). Mr. Rodowsky and Jackie have already made the box over the weekend. So they work on make the layers of the rocks. When this is done Jackie makes the paper marche. While Jessi reads, the boys fool around with the paper marche. Jessi makes them clean up and Jackie says it was the best afternoon of his life. Kristy has a sitting job for her brothers and sisters. David Micheal tells Kristy about the science fair and that he’s thinking of entering it, but he’s not that good at science. He says he’s interested in space and aliens. He likes Saturn best. He says he can do the solar system. He says he can make Saturn out of a beach ball and ut a hula hoop around it. David Micheal asks Kristy to help him and she says she’ll help him but she can’t do it for him David Micheal suggests some ideas to Kristy while Kristy plays with Emily. He finally comes up with building a mobile. Kristy approves of this.
When Stacey sits for Charlotte, she finds she’s doing an experiment to see if music helps plants grow better She has three plants. She gives them water and sun but for one she plays classical music. For the other she plays rock and roll. For the last one she doesn’t play any music. The ones in jar number one are the tallest. Stacey suggests she charts them. Charlotte jumps on the idea and starts immediately. Charlotte then invites Stacey to the science fair. She tells her of course, she’s like her sister. This makes Charlotte happy and she hugs her. Becca comes by clearly upset. Then she starts to vent to Charlotte about “Aunt Dictator”. Stacey lets Charlotte and Becca plot things to do to Aunt Cecelia like tie her to a chair and say robbers did it, hiding her hair combs, dressing up like Avon ladies and selling her water, and curling Squirts curls green.
At the next meeting, the Perkins need someone to sit for them while they go to a big party. Shannon winds up with the job so none of them can do it. Mallory talks about Margo’s shadow box with Barbie and Ken inhabiting the moon and dressing in sparkly outfits. She’s put Tang and pastries in it. Kristy says she should give her some books to read and make her do it right (no Jessi does) but Mal says that’s not what she’s there for. Kristy also says she’s not going to help David Micheal whose planents aren’t spaced right. Stacey says she just suggested some data and Charlotte did the rest. Jessi says she thinks Jackie’s will be the best one at the fair. She tells them about the rocks. Jessi admits she helped with the research and she’s helped with the project. There’s silence and then Maryanne says it sound like Jessi is doing Jackie’s project for him. She says she’s not she just wants him to win for once. She’s not taking over which leads her to venting about Aunt Cecelia.
She doesn’t trust them to cook or choose there own clothes. The others say they should talk to her parents. Stacey says it would be nicer than playing tricks. Aunt Cecilia hasn’t mentioned the tricks and if they do she’ll tell on them. Jackie wants to test the volcano. At first Jessi says no but then she agrees to it. Jessi tells him a judge will have to light the match at the fair. It looks great! Jessi then makes him work on presentation. He wants to call it “My Volcano” but she tells him “Welcome to the World of Volcanic Activity” sounds better. Then she makes him make a sign but he spells the words wrong. So she makes the sign. Jessi says the have to go to the school to stake out the best spot for thiere project. Jessi thinks it should be last. Jackie says he doesn’t carry what the prize is. He just wants his project to be the best so he can prove he can do something good to the mean kids in his class that tease him.
Jessi tells him he has two days to memorize what he’s going to say to the judges, He has to explain how it works. She makes Jackie memorize a speech. She also teaches him hand gestures. She also suggests a pointer. Jackie takes it all in with enthusiasm and even shows his presentation to his parents. Jessi is late coming home and Aunt Cecelia chews her out. Jessi argues it’s just 10 minutes. They start to argue and Aunt Cecelia throws up the sailing incident. Because of this, Aunt Cecelia says she can’t go to the BSC meeting. They start to argue back and forth. Jessi says she’s not over there house and she calls her dad. Only he’s out, So, she calls her mother but then thinks about what her mother told her about not calling her unless there’s an emergency. So, she calls Kristy and tells her she can’t come to the meeting. She tells her to call her a lot during the meeting to make it seem like they can’t live without her. They call 14 times.
Jessi down plays there problems that night so as to not upset her parents. That night, Aunt Cecelia comes in Jessi’s room and gives her a god awful hair style and tells her now she’s someone she can be proud of. She goes to tell her parents but they’re talking about a problem her mother had at work. They look at jessi and ask did she do something different to her hair. Jackie gives an impressive presentation but can’t answer any of the questions. Charlotte wins third place. Jackie gets honorable mention, but everyone else gets one of those. Jessi apologizes for doing most of the work and says she just wantedhim to see he’s a winner. His parents are understanding. His father even admits he built the box. He gets the approval tho of some boys in his class who think his volcano was cool and want him to make it explode again.
After the meeting, Jessi tells her parents about Jakie and what’s been going on with Aunt Cecelia, The Ramsey’s call a family conference. Aunt Ceclia says she only did it because she cares and sometimes black people have to work harder to prove themselves. Aunt Cecelia says she was also worried she wouldn’t be as good a sitter as Jessi. She also tells them about the pranks. The parents say the girls will tell them their plans and they’ll approve or disapprove their schedules. And the girls can do whatever they want with their hair and clothes. After the meeting, Becca finds shaving cream in her slippers anda spider in her bed. Jessi finds her bed short sheeted, a mouse in her bed, and having cream in her slippsers. Aunt Cecelia says now they’re even. Becca tells Aunt Cecelia a joke as she makes dinner and they all laugh. This is how Mr and Mrs. Ramsey find them when they come home. Jessi tears up her lists of mean things to do oto her aunt.
My Thoughts.
I did this one out of order because weirdly it wasn’t in my collection. I had to refind it. But I remembered it slightly. This was one of the ones I bought. I will say that I do know someone that’s slightly like this. Bossy a little on the controlling side. Always seems like they think they know best and don’t want to listen to anything other than what they think they know. Sometimes wants to tell you what *they* think you should wear and telling you your hair is messed up. And it is A LOT to take! As you can see in this story *talking* to them doesn’t always help and trying to get them to see your way sometimes feels like your wasting your breath. At least in this story Aunt Cecelia kind of relented some of her way (I take it) after the family meeting. We’ll see if she does. I really don’t remember her in any of the other books, so I’ll have to keep reading. But sometimes older people are just stuck in there ways and you just have to grit your teeth and live with people like “Aunt Cecelia”, Espeically if you really don’t have any other choice. So, I understood VERY WELL what it was like for Becca and Jessi. This one I could easily relate to.
Rating: 6
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2023
It gets three stars cause the whole main plot makes no sense at all. Unless I'm crazy and missed something? It begins when Jessi's mom gets a job and the Ramsey family needs someone to take care of Squirt while the girls are at school. The solution is for Aunt Cecilia her father's sister to move in and care for the children. Jessi hates the idea since Cecilia blames her for Becca being lost at sea a reference to a super special. This makes little sense since if anyone is to blame it would be their parents, but that's a different book I'll be rereading soon. So the reason this makes no sense to me is that it was written as if Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey had left town for a week or two, or just dropped dead suddenly. Ceclia takes over their lives and runs the house. Apparently the Ramseys said nothing about the girls clubs, dancing or anything else they do. And except for the last two chapters they don't even exist. Why didn't they tell Ceclia this stuff before she moved in? Why didn't they catch on when there was so much tension in the house. I get being tired from work but you'd think they'd notice their daughters being unhappy. This is why it would've made more sense if they had to leave town suddenly or something. I get there would've been tension anyway but there are better ways to do it, like maybe have the whole family affected? Jessi did try to call her dad but couldn't reach him which I get but what was with these parents? This plot runs parallel to the b plot involving Jackie Rodowsky and a school science fair. He wants to build a volcano for fun Jessi convinces him to do it for the fair and does the entire project for him. I'm not sure if it was the way it was worded but was this fair voluntary? In my school we had to do a sciencefair project, maybe American schools are different, or maybe Jackie wants to something else I don't know. The BSC helps the kids with their projects. Margo Pike wants Barbie on the moon, David Michael Thomas builds a solar system and Charlotte Johannsen grows plants to music and discovers the one listening to Duran Duran grew best which is one of the most 80's early 90's things ever. Also was fresh a thing? I grew up in the 80's and 90's and I do not remember anyone saying that. Another American thing maybe? They say it quite a bit throughout the books. Anyway Charlotte is the only one who wins a prize coming in third and Jessi sees the similarities between her and Jackie and her Becca and Cecilia and they all talk it out and make friends again, but not before one more whopper came out. Cecilia a grown woman who has raised kids of her own worried she wouldn't be as good as taking care of kids as well as Jessi her eleven year old niece. Sigh. Part of me Hope's she said that just to make Jessi feel better because otherwise that's bonkers. As we are getting up in the numbers of this series I'm trying to see if anything stands out and I remembered the science fair especially Jackie blowing up the volcano. Maybe because it was the first time Jackie wasn't a complete klutz. The book itself wasn't too bad meaning it wasn't boring but it really made little to no sense to me.
September 22, 2015
I'll admit that this isn't one of my favorite books, but it's one of the more likeable Jessi books, so...yeah.
OH NO! Jessi's Aunt Cecelia is moving in to take care of Jessi, Becca, and Squirt! *GASP* Seriously, it's so wrong babysitting an ELEVEN-year-old.
That being said, though, despite Jessi's age (eleven) is young enough to be babysat for, A.C. is being over controlling and strict. A.C. forbids Jessi going to a BSC meeting for being ten minutes late. She chooses Jessi and Becca's clothes and decides how they style their hair, eat, etc., and she makes them go to bed early, and crap like that. Now THAT really is a bit too much.
So Jessi and Becca intervenes by pulling pranks on A.C. by putting fake spiders on her pillow and shaving cream in her slippers. Annoying, passive aggressive, yeah, but normal and realistic for kids their age.
Meanwhile, Jessi and the BSC help their charges with their projects for the science fair. Jessi is A.C.'s clone when she "helps" Jackie with his volcano.
Predictable and eye-roll-worthy, I agree, but it's better than the ghostwritten books (Ann actually wrote this one), and it's funny...both good and bad.
3 out of 3.
OH NO! Jessi's Aunt Cecelia is moving in to take care of Jessi, Becca, and Squirt! *GASP* Seriously, it's so wrong babysitting an ELEVEN-year-old.
That being said, though, despite Jessi's age (eleven) is young enough to be babysat for, A.C. is being over controlling and strict. A.C. forbids Jessi going to a BSC meeting for being ten minutes late. She chooses Jessi and Becca's clothes and decides how they style their hair, eat, etc., and she makes them go to bed early, and crap like that. Now THAT really is a bit too much.
So Jessi and Becca intervenes by pulling pranks on A.C. by putting fake spiders on her pillow and shaving cream in her slippers. Annoying, passive aggressive, yeah, but normal and realistic for kids their age.
Meanwhile, Jessi and the BSC help their charges with their projects for the science fair. Jessi is A.C.'s clone when she "helps" Jackie with his volcano.
Predictable and eye-roll-worthy, I agree, but it's better than the ghostwritten books (Ann actually wrote this one), and it's funny...both good and bad.
3 out of 3.
April 29, 2009
On the one hand, Aunt Cecilia is a terror who treats Jessi like she's a little kid. On the other hand, Jessi is ELEVEN! Funny how you read this being all grr at the Aunt until you consider that in the real world, an eleven-year-old does need a sitter. ;)
July 21, 2018
My daughters review: This book was a pretty good book. My favorite parts are: - when the pikes make a lending library. They are organizing the house to make it like a library with all the books, but I just have to wonder HOW THE PIKE KIDS CAN GET THE BOOKS SO ORGANIZED IN SUCH LITTLE TIME WITH JUST 1 PERSON LEADING IT?? I think it’s cute that they organize it, but why does only one chapter cover it? - Jessi and Becca’s aunt Cecelia comes to stay with them and she’s all like “ Jessica fix your hair” “no Rebecca, you can’t” and I think that she is one of those prim and proper ladies who have, like, no respect for 11 and 8 year olds opinions. But the pranks they play on her are SO WEIRD because if aunt Cecelia is all like “I am in charge blah blah”, you probably shouldn’t be messing with her. - aunt Cecelia doesn’t let Jessi babysit with out her knowing where she’s going. Ugh. I think you can trust an eleven year old to go to another house for a little over an hour, lady!! - aunt Cecelia forbade Jessi to go to a babysitter club meeting, but they call her 14 times to make Cecelia think that the bsc needs Jessi a lot. So the bsc may not be smart enough to get their charges under control in kristy and the snobs but they can figure out how to set up a decent plan with jessi’s aunt. - Charlotte johanssen wins third place in the science fair!! I always thought that shyness means nothing compared to smarts. But you are reading a review by a very shy and smart girl, so whatevs. My least favorite parts: - the entire science fair plot. If Jessi realizes she’s being treated unfairly by aunt Cecelia then she should know that she’s treating Jackie rodowsky like a baby by doing his project for him. Jessica Ramsey, you are the craziest babysitter ever by not realizing any connections between the two parts!!! - from the way Ann m Martin puts it, it sounds like Jessi goes to school but Becca doesn’t at some points. Literally, there is SO MANY WRONG THINGS with the books . Inconsistency and typos and see above. - Jackie can’t answer the judges questions!! Literally, Jessi, if you did this for him you should have just went ahead and practically made everything from him. I hope this doesn’t affect Jessi later on if Jackie is accepted into a good job and he’s gotta answer some questions and Jessi will prepare him. That’s all!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 27, 2023
How is it that 30+ years after reading this book the first time, I still remembered nearly verbatim the line where Jessi complains that the cookies her aunt gives them weren't "anything fun, like chocolate chip" but rather oat-bran bars.
Like, I have to set reminders in my phone to pay my rent, take my vitamins, and put the trash out, but my stupid brain holds on to something like that. Okay.
Sadly, on reread this one fared pretty poorly. I usually like Jessi's books but this was both really thin and very heavy-handed. The parallel of Aunt Cecelia being overbearing with Jessi and Becca to Jessi taking over Jackie's science fair project was like the least subtle thing this series has ever done. I also was very frustrated with the fact that Jessi's parents had apparently not had even two minutes of discussion with Cecelia before she moved in, explaining the girls' activities and rules and such. And then they just disappear into the ether and don't pick up on anything going on in their own house. While I appreciated that Jessi didn't want to add to her parents' stress, it would have been completely fine for her to tell them about, for example, the aunt not allowing her to go to the BSC meeting because she was a few minutes late getting home. Jessi spends a lot of time in this book talking about how grown-up she is, and yet she refused to use her words.
Plus, Cecelia was just so overwritten and absurd, again with the abject lack of subtlety. I know these books are written for a young audience, but jeez, give the kids a little credit. And I say that as someone who generally thinks kids are dumb and annoying. Also, boy howdy, 42-year-old me feels just a bit different than 10-year-old me did about Jessi and Becca calling her "Aunt Dictator". Like, girls. Please. Read a history book.
There was also way too much sideplot with other babysitting jobs and the science fair. I wish the fair had been a much smaller aspect of the book and we'd had a bit more complex look at the issues in Jessi's family. At a certain point in this series, you can start to tell that there is absolutely not one single author behind the books, and this one along with a few others were obviously written by the worst one they had in the stable.
I mean, I know this came out in 1990, but having Charlotte's answer to why the plant in her project that listened to Duran Duran grew the most was because "they were just really fresh seeds" made me want to crawl in a hole and cover my eyes with rubber cement. Of course, in another 30 years, I'm sure people will feel the same way about "yeet" and such.
Like, I have to set reminders in my phone to pay my rent, take my vitamins, and put the trash out, but my stupid brain holds on to something like that. Okay.
Sadly, on reread this one fared pretty poorly. I usually like Jessi's books but this was both really thin and very heavy-handed. The parallel of Aunt Cecelia being overbearing with Jessi and Becca to Jessi taking over Jackie's science fair project was like the least subtle thing this series has ever done. I also was very frustrated with the fact that Jessi's parents had apparently not had even two minutes of discussion with Cecelia before she moved in, explaining the girls' activities and rules and such. And then they just disappear into the ether and don't pick up on anything going on in their own house. While I appreciated that Jessi didn't want to add to her parents' stress, it would have been completely fine for her to tell them about, for example, the aunt not allowing her to go to the BSC meeting because she was a few minutes late getting home. Jessi spends a lot of time in this book talking about how grown-up she is, and yet she refused to use her words.
Plus, Cecelia was just so overwritten and absurd, again with the abject lack of subtlety. I know these books are written for a young audience, but jeez, give the kids a little credit. And I say that as someone who generally thinks kids are dumb and annoying. Also, boy howdy, 42-year-old me feels just a bit different than 10-year-old me did about Jessi and Becca calling her "Aunt Dictator". Like, girls. Please. Read a history book.
There was also way too much sideplot with other babysitting jobs and the science fair. I wish the fair had been a much smaller aspect of the book and we'd had a bit more complex look at the issues in Jessi's family. At a certain point in this series, you can start to tell that there is absolutely not one single author behind the books, and this one along with a few others were obviously written by the worst one they had in the stable.
I mean, I know this came out in 1990, but having Charlotte's answer to why the plant in her project that listened to Duran Duran grew the most was because "they were just really fresh seeds" made me want to crawl in a hole and cover my eyes with rubber cement. Of course, in another 30 years, I'm sure people will feel the same way about "yeet" and such.
November 2, 2016
Jessi's mother returns to work, and her aunt Cecelia moves in to take care of Squirt. And Jessi and Becca. Neither of them are happy with this, and commence to childish pranks. This book was released for the first time very shortly after I discovered this series, and I remember seeing a big display of it in the bookstore. I didn't get around to reading it for awhile though.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
Aunt Cecelia seeming like exactly the kind of person who would make living in your own home so uncomfortable. Later in the series she seems to blend in with Jessi's family a lot better, and reading about the family dynamic isn't quite so bad, but I remember being so relieved that I didn't have a bossy, shrill aunt who I had to live with everyday.
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
Jessi says that she's always wanted to see Texas, and she hopes her family wins a trip there. The New Mexican in me died a little.
Kristy and Claudia try to reassure Jessi's fears about Aunt Cecelia moving in by reminding her about their great relationships with their live-in grandmothers. This is exactly the kind of smug thing people say when they think they are making people feel better. Jessi handles this much better than I would have at that age (or even this age). Instead of saying something lame like "You guys don't understand," or "You guys have no idea what she's like," she just smiles and nods, knowing that they won't know that her situation is not the same until they meet Aunt Cecelia. Aunt Cecelia is not a fun-loving, outgoing retiree like Nannie, or a gentle, kind, tea serving grandmother like Mimi. She's a lonely woman who misses her late husband, and is having trouble letting go of who she used to be, which makes her rigid and cold. Something that jumped out at me in this book was that she told Jessi that she had raised kids of her own. Where are these kids, and are they that much older than Jessi? How much older than Mr. Ramsey is Aunt Cecelia? Why do we never hear about Aunt Cecelia's children again?
Jessi tells Jackie that he should definitely enter a volcano project in the science fair because "Everyone else would probably just have, you know, things like leaf collections, or bugs in jars. . ." I would say that implies that no one was doing volcano projects in the 1990s, but Jackie gets the idea of building a volcano from The Brady Bunch, meaning kids have been doing volcanoes since the 1970s, and probably way before that, so it can't be that special or innovative. This whole exchange reminds me of my very favorite Bob's Burger's episode "Topsy", where Mr Dinkler puts the kibosh on Louise's recycled science fair volcano project by telling her, "Kids have been using these paper mache monstrosities to avoid real work for years, and I'll have none of it." Someone's got to take a stand, even if it is a deranged Edison impersonator.
I feel so bad for Jackie in this book. Jessi high pressures him into entering the science fair, when he knows he is terrible at science. She does all the work, learns all the stuff, and he's just tagging along for the ride, unable to say no because he's a kid. This is pretty terrible to read about, even if it's just a science project, and Jessi sees the error of her ways in the end. In fact, as an adult I could sort of understand why she gets so controlling. If she's lost control of her life in her own home due to her aunt's being in charge, then she goes looking for something that she can control. Pushing Jackie into entering the science fair, and then doing the work for him when he doesn't rise to her expectations makes sense when you hear about how frustrated she is with Aunt Cecelia's rules.
Reading this book was pretty interesting, especially since I expected it to be boring. Up until this point in the series Jessi's books have always stressed how close she is to her family. They always eat meals together, they look out for each other, and they help each other with their problems. In other words, they share everything. But during the events of Super Special Baby Sitter's Island Adventure Aunt Cecelia seemed to lose respect for Jessi's parents parenting style, and she was upset with Jessi also (probably because she was worried about her too, as well as Becca). And when Jessi's mother goes back to work, and Aunt Cecelia comes to live with the Ramseys Jessi very suddenly loses the closeness her family previously had. For the first time in the series she is uncomfortable in her family, and since they are the source of her discomfort she doesn't know how to talk to them about it. She probably hasn't dealt with much conflict within her family before, so she doesn't quite know what to do. Since the adults are probably having power struggles, and a major adjustment period of their own, they don't notice the struggles Jessi and Becca are facing. It might be odd that Aunt Cecelia doesn't go to Jessi's parents when Jessi and Becca play pranks on her, or that she gets back at Jessi for getting too many phone calls by passive aggressively "fixing" her hair, then telling her "Now you're someone I can be proud of." However, when you look at Jessi's whole extended family who have all lived in the same neighborhood, probably for generations, you can see how these sorts of spats probably always play out. They don't really know how to fight publicly with each other, so they fight quietly.
Toward the end of the book Aunt Cecelia tells Jessi and Becca that she insists they always be polished and well-behaved because black people have to work harder to prove themselves. This is thrown out there like a lit match that fizzles and dies, and it feels like a white person sentiment, something a white person would say because THEY believe it to be true. People of color do not go around saying "I must be neat, polite, well-behaved, nicely dressed, always smiling and cheerful so that white people will know I'm a good person." They are aware of it, especially when it comes to dealing with the police, and the vigilantes, but I certainly do not go out in the world every day thinking, "I have to be perfect, or white people will think I'm a drunken savage like all the other Native people in the world."
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
Aunt Cecelia seeming like exactly the kind of person who would make living in your own home so uncomfortable. Later in the series she seems to blend in with Jessi's family a lot better, and reading about the family dynamic isn't quite so bad, but I remember being so relieved that I didn't have a bossy, shrill aunt who I had to live with everyday.
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
Jessi says that she's always wanted to see Texas, and she hopes her family wins a trip there. The New Mexican in me died a little.
Kristy and Claudia try to reassure Jessi's fears about Aunt Cecelia moving in by reminding her about their great relationships with their live-in grandmothers. This is exactly the kind of smug thing people say when they think they are making people feel better. Jessi handles this much better than I would have at that age (or even this age). Instead of saying something lame like "You guys don't understand," or "You guys have no idea what she's like," she just smiles and nods, knowing that they won't know that her situation is not the same until they meet Aunt Cecelia. Aunt Cecelia is not a fun-loving, outgoing retiree like Nannie, or a gentle, kind, tea serving grandmother like Mimi. She's a lonely woman who misses her late husband, and is having trouble letting go of who she used to be, which makes her rigid and cold. Something that jumped out at me in this book was that she told Jessi that she had raised kids of her own. Where are these kids, and are they that much older than Jessi? How much older than Mr. Ramsey is Aunt Cecelia? Why do we never hear about Aunt Cecelia's children again?
Jessi tells Jackie that he should definitely enter a volcano project in the science fair because "Everyone else would probably just have, you know, things like leaf collections, or bugs in jars. . ." I would say that implies that no one was doing volcano projects in the 1990s, but Jackie gets the idea of building a volcano from The Brady Bunch, meaning kids have been doing volcanoes since the 1970s, and probably way before that, so it can't be that special or innovative. This whole exchange reminds me of my very favorite Bob's Burger's episode "Topsy", where Mr Dinkler puts the kibosh on Louise's recycled science fair volcano project by telling her, "Kids have been using these paper mache monstrosities to avoid real work for years, and I'll have none of it." Someone's got to take a stand, even if it is a deranged Edison impersonator.
I feel so bad for Jackie in this book. Jessi high pressures him into entering the science fair, when he knows he is terrible at science. She does all the work, learns all the stuff, and he's just tagging along for the ride, unable to say no because he's a kid. This is pretty terrible to read about, even if it's just a science project, and Jessi sees the error of her ways in the end. In fact, as an adult I could sort of understand why she gets so controlling. If she's lost control of her life in her own home due to her aunt's being in charge, then she goes looking for something that she can control. Pushing Jackie into entering the science fair, and then doing the work for him when he doesn't rise to her expectations makes sense when you hear about how frustrated she is with Aunt Cecelia's rules.
Reading this book was pretty interesting, especially since I expected it to be boring. Up until this point in the series Jessi's books have always stressed how close she is to her family. They always eat meals together, they look out for each other, and they help each other with their problems. In other words, they share everything. But during the events of Super Special Baby Sitter's Island Adventure Aunt Cecelia seemed to lose respect for Jessi's parents parenting style, and she was upset with Jessi also (probably because she was worried about her too, as well as Becca). And when Jessi's mother goes back to work, and Aunt Cecelia comes to live with the Ramseys Jessi very suddenly loses the closeness her family previously had. For the first time in the series she is uncomfortable in her family, and since they are the source of her discomfort she doesn't know how to talk to them about it. She probably hasn't dealt with much conflict within her family before, so she doesn't quite know what to do. Since the adults are probably having power struggles, and a major adjustment period of their own, they don't notice the struggles Jessi and Becca are facing. It might be odd that Aunt Cecelia doesn't go to Jessi's parents when Jessi and Becca play pranks on her, or that she gets back at Jessi for getting too many phone calls by passive aggressively "fixing" her hair, then telling her "Now you're someone I can be proud of." However, when you look at Jessi's whole extended family who have all lived in the same neighborhood, probably for generations, you can see how these sorts of spats probably always play out. They don't really know how to fight publicly with each other, so they fight quietly.
Toward the end of the book Aunt Cecelia tells Jessi and Becca that she insists they always be polished and well-behaved because black people have to work harder to prove themselves. This is thrown out there like a lit match that fizzles and dies, and it feels like a white person sentiment, something a white person would say because THEY believe it to be true. People of color do not go around saying "I must be neat, polite, well-behaved, nicely dressed, always smiling and cheerful so that white people will know I'm a good person." They are aware of it, especially when it comes to dealing with the police, and the vigilantes, but I certainly do not go out in the world every day thinking, "I have to be perfect, or white people will think I'm a drunken savage like all the other Native people in the world."
August 19, 2019
This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter
I felt for Jessi in this one! I don't know that I would have had the guts to go full on Parent Trap on a family member but I respect the urge to do so! I have to say that I'm surprised that rules weren't explained or clarified before someone took over caring for children but then again it was family and free of charge so maybe that's why everything happened the way that it did. Either way I really did like this book! I love the homey-ness of Jessi and her family!
I have never wanted to punch a guy (fictional even) more so than Travis. Poor Dawn didn't even see that boy coming! I would 100% be a Richard in this situation! This tells me more about how my parenting skills would be derived from my father than I want to admit. But there you go. I just wonder if Dawn hadn't seen Travis with another girl if she would have continued down that path. I'm really hoping Dawn remembers Travis and his creepy ass in the future!
This book sort of returns us to the sweet storylines of the BSC! This book had a bit of a mystery side to it. Kristy has a sweet admirer that has started leaving notes for her. And then it gets creepy and not so sweet. I'm kind of surprised but Kristy kept quite a bit of the whole ordeal to herself, especially as it escalated. It wasn't until her friends called her out that she confided in them entirely. It wasn't terribly hard to figure out when the switch in the notes occurred but man did it remind me hardcore of the days when everything was so extreme! I am glad to see Shannon making more and more of an appearance in the BSC storyline!
I saw quite a bit of sarcasm on this subject on GoodReads. Clearly these reviews were written by people who have never had a caregiver who has suddenly lost a job. I think Martin did a good job covering the subject. Mallory didn't over-react for a child her age. I would have been in the exact same spot. I think Mallory did a great job communicating with her family. Anytime a family goes from a comfortable income to no income it is scary. The more I read Mallory's books the more I like them.
Now I will say in this book I had several eye rolling moments. The girls are now making up words and it just sounds so dumb. I'm trying desperately to remember if we did the same thing at that age. Instead of saying "far out" they call things "distant" to notate how cool something is. I can handle that....sort of. The one that got me was "dibbly" instead of "incredibly". It just sounded so dumb. It was dibbly nice that she did that for me. *eye roll*
I felt for Jessi in this one! I don't know that I would have had the guts to go full on Parent Trap on a family member but I respect the urge to do so! I have to say that I'm surprised that rules weren't explained or clarified before someone took over caring for children but then again it was family and free of charge so maybe that's why everything happened the way that it did. Either way I really did like this book! I love the homey-ness of Jessi and her family!
I have never wanted to punch a guy (fictional even) more so than Travis. Poor Dawn didn't even see that boy coming! I would 100% be a Richard in this situation! This tells me more about how my parenting skills would be derived from my father than I want to admit. But there you go. I just wonder if Dawn hadn't seen Travis with another girl if she would have continued down that path. I'm really hoping Dawn remembers Travis and his creepy ass in the future!
This book sort of returns us to the sweet storylines of the BSC! This book had a bit of a mystery side to it. Kristy has a sweet admirer that has started leaving notes for her. And then it gets creepy and not so sweet. I'm kind of surprised but Kristy kept quite a bit of the whole ordeal to herself, especially as it escalated. It wasn't until her friends called her out that she confided in them entirely. It wasn't terribly hard to figure out when the switch in the notes occurred but man did it remind me hardcore of the days when everything was so extreme! I am glad to see Shannon making more and more of an appearance in the BSC storyline!
I saw quite a bit of sarcasm on this subject on GoodReads. Clearly these reviews were written by people who have never had a caregiver who has suddenly lost a job. I think Martin did a good job covering the subject. Mallory didn't over-react for a child her age. I would have been in the exact same spot. I think Mallory did a great job communicating with her family. Anytime a family goes from a comfortable income to no income it is scary. The more I read Mallory's books the more I like them.
Now I will say in this book I had several eye rolling moments. The girls are now making up words and it just sounds so dumb. I'm trying desperately to remember if we did the same thing at that age. Instead of saying "far out" they call things "distant" to notate how cool something is. I can handle that....sort of. The one that got me was "dibbly" instead of "incredibly". It just sounded so dumb. It was dibbly nice that she did that for me. *eye roll*
November 6, 2019
I had to go slightly out of order because the person who has the previous book out is apparently going to keep it for the rest of their lives--and, naturally, this book is one of the ones that refers to the previous book constantly. That said, I'm honestly still surprised by how much I love the younger girls' narration. Jessi and Mal can be slightly less bratty than the other girls (Jessi was pretty bratty in this one, but it seemed at least mostly justified.)
I love Jessi's family too--maybe because Becca reminds me of myself as a kid. Not as reclusive as Charlotte, but still shy and terrified of confrontation (I love the line about going to the guillotine when she had to spend time with her aunt). Plus, I can certainly still relate, even as an adult, to having new people move into your home and change up your routines. It sucks, but it can be improved upon.
Bonus points for lots of Jackie!
I love Jessi's family too--maybe because Becca reminds me of myself as a kid. Not as reclusive as Charlotte, but still shy and terrified of confrontation (I love the line about going to the guillotine when she had to spend time with her aunt). Plus, I can certainly still relate, even as an adult, to having new people move into your home and change up your routines. It sucks, but it can be improved upon.
Bonus points for lots of Jackie!
April 17, 2023
Cute story - I like the Jessi books. She thinks way older than an 11 year though - I mean who leaves an 11 year old home for an entire weekend with an 8 year old and a toddler - not in this book but from the one before and mentioned in this one - ridiculous and probably get CPS called on you. Anyway - in this one Jessi's mom goes back to work so their Aunt Cecelia comes to live with them - she's bossy and unreasonable - and all the BSC girls help someone with the science fair. Jessi does all the work for Jackie's volcano and then realizes she is treating Jackie the same way - but at least nicely - as her aunt is treating them. They work it out - of course. Sets up several other books I am guessing - Dawn going to California, Shannon going to Hawaii, Mallory's dad losing his job.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2019
Didn't love the Jackie subplot (which is probably why it took me so long to read this one lol), the girls even pointed out that it was the Little Miss Stoneybrook pageant all over again. (And, rereading my review for that book, I didn't love the main plot in that one either.) But I did love the Aunt Cecelia plot, it was realistic, and I like reading about Stoneybrook family drama.
June 3, 2020
I remember thinking as a kid that Aunt Cecilia was awful (and she is), but after reading this an adult I’m putting a lot of the blame for what happened on Jessi’s parents. Why didn’t they sit Aunt Cecilia down the minute she moved in and explain how things are supposed to run in their household? Or at least explain the after-school activities the girls are involved in, so they can still attend those? I think her parents definitely dropped the ball there.
Also, the subplot with Jessi and the volcano makes me cringe. I just wanted to reach through the book and hug Jackie!
Also, the subplot with Jessi and the volcano makes me cringe. I just wanted to reach through the book and hug Jackie!
June 13, 2024
Martin's Cases #65
BSC#36
BSCU#45
Jessi who is eleven and will be for eternity I suppose as the biddy who wrote these books decided the aging process was not a good idea for fictional people, which in my opinion is an idea that has no merit, anyway Jessi's mother gets a job so they bring in an aunt, or we could say some old bat who acts like an old battle axe and causes angst, meanwhile Jessi causes angst to one of her young charges and so everyone learns a lesson.
Very readable, but the lack of aging is a big minus for this series.
BSC#36
BSCU#45
Jessi who is eleven and will be for eternity I suppose as the biddy who wrote these books decided the aging process was not a good idea for fictional people, which in my opinion is an idea that has no merit, anyway Jessi's mother gets a job so they bring in an aunt, or we could say some old bat who acts like an old battle axe and causes angst, meanwhile Jessi causes angst to one of her young charges and so everyone learns a lesson.
Very readable, but the lack of aging is a big minus for this series.
August 7, 2017
Jessi always had the makings of being an interesting character, but her books were always some of the most boring. This one was very meh too, especially the B-plot about the science fair. I never cared for Aunt Cecelia when she started showing up, and I don't know how Jessi dealt with her for so long. I'd have gone squealing to my mom asap.
Anyway the whole thing was kind of a snooze fest. A lot of build up, for not much payoff.
Anyway the whole thing was kind of a snooze fest. A lot of build up, for not much payoff.
Read
July 29, 2020As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
February 11, 2025
This story makes me appreciate never needing a sitter while growing up. My Mum doesn't work so she was always home to look after us and I knew I was lucky to have homemade baking, good meals and a listening ear when I came home from school but I don't think I ever really appreciated it as much as I should have. It's funny, I just realized that I never had a sitter at all!
I like how each BBSC story is different, whatever you like- mystery, romance, drama, even pets, it's all there.
I like how each BBSC story is different, whatever you like- mystery, romance, drama, even pets, it's all there.
March 5, 2023
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
August 21, 2019
Jessi really knows how to make a person laugh and reminisce other BSC books (namely Claudia and the New Girl and Little Miss Stoneybrook and Dawn). I didn’t love or hate this book, but I think I might read more Jessi books soon.
November 10, 2020
(LL)
This one is the biggest sinner of adding hyperbolic situations. There is no way 90% of the interactions with Aunt Cecelia would ever happen. The science fair stuff is for sure what happens most of the time, but it’s both predictable and boring, so it’s just a lazy attempt at foreshadowing.
This one is the biggest sinner of adding hyperbolic situations. There is no way 90% of the interactions with Aunt Cecelia would ever happen. The science fair stuff is for sure what happens most of the time, but it’s both predictable and boring, so it’s just a lazy attempt at foreshadowing.
February 2, 2022
4 stars. I always love Jessi books. She’s such a great character one of my favorites in the group. This one was a lot of fun and I liked the little battle she had going on with her Aunt Cecilia (aka Aunt Dictator. LOL) and the science fair side story was cute as well. Loved it.
June 4, 2024
This one was pretty cute, although I’d probably call it Jessi and the Science Fair, since that was most of the story. 😂
I think I’ve read this one before but I didn’t really remember it. I also can’t remember if Aunt Cecelia sticks around. I guess we’ll find out!
I think I’ve read this one before but I didn’t really remember it. I also can’t remember if Aunt Cecelia sticks around. I guess we’ll find out!
June 11, 2025
For a book that was supposed to be about the relationship between Jessi and Aunt Cecelia, I feel like we really didn’t get to see much of Aunt Cecelia, and I wish we had—she was a really interesting character with a lot of depth!
January 18, 2026
The lesson here is don't be a helicopter baby-sitter. Jessi learns she helped Jackie too much with the science fair volcano and he suffered for it.
The parallel was Jessi's Aunt Cecilia. Which all could have been avoided if there was a conversation at the beginning, as soon as she moved in, with her parents about how Jessi has a job, and club meetings and responsibilities.
But it was really good how the two stories paralleled each other and it was a good lesson to teach.
5 out of 5 Volcanoes.
The parallel was Jessi's Aunt Cecilia. Which all could have been avoided if there was a conversation at the beginning, as soon as she moved in, with her parents about how Jessi has a job, and club meetings and responsibilities.
But it was really good how the two stories paralleled each other and it was a good lesson to teach.
5 out of 5 Volcanoes.
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