Jessi's Wish

The Baby-Sitters Club #48

by Ann M. Martin

When Jessi volunteers to help supervise the Kids Can Do Anything Club, she meets nine-year-old Danielle. Danielle has a beautiful smile and a great sense of humor. And she has cancer.

Jessi has never met anyone like Danielle before. Even though she's very sick, Danielle is courageous and hopeful. She even has two wishes. The first is to go to Disney World. The second is to graduate from elementary school. Jessi knows she has to be strong for Danielle, and so she makes a very special wish of her own.

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary, Juvenile, Ebooks

146 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Ann 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...

Reviews

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book!

in this installment of abc afterschool special, jessi suggests to the bsc that they take a month off from babysitting to volunteer. don't ask me how kristy lets that happen, but she does, so they do. jessi's volunteer work is to help out with the kids can do anything club, an afterschool club that becca belongs to devoted to doing small acts of kindness (sending care packages to the elderly, yadda yadda yadda). one of the kids in that club is danielle roberts, a walking cancer-patient-in-fiction archetype (never gives up on herself, inspires everyone, just wants to run around like the other kids, etc). jessi connects her with the "your wish is my command foundation" who send her and her family to disneyworld. f'real.

highlights:
-a kid at the day care where she volunteers asks kristy how to spell leonardo and donatello. when she asks if he's writing about his favorite artists, he says, "I'm writing about my heroes, the teenage mutant ninja turtles."
-danielle's parents are named faye and ray:

-claudia, in her volunteer work as an art teacher, outsmarts karen brewer. karen has tried to convince all the kids that her sculpture is coming alive, and claudia says they won't be able to stick it in the oven because it would be inhumane. BOOM. out-karen'd.
-I kept thinking about how much augustus makes fun of hazel for having spent her wish on the disneyworld trip in The Fault in Our Stars. seriously, I don't want to insult terminally ill kids, but is there really nothing more exciting you can think of than a trip to DISNEYWORLD? come, now.
-dawn volunteers at a center for kids with developmental disabilities. one of them, kendra (who has cerebral palsy) writes en essay called "why I hate tomatoes" because her mom ate her eat a tomato the previous night. I chuckled. such a perfect little kid snippet.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-in general, it's kind of implausible that they could take a month off from baby-sitting (they still sit some, but shannon and logan do the bulk of it). this is seven kids' worth of sitting jobs, many of which happen simultaneously. do shannon and logan quit school for the month and baby-sit 24-hours a day?
-jessi's narration of "the pikes won't even let mallory get a nose job." as though getting a nose job is a totally routine, reasonable thing for an 11-year-old to get.
-danielle never stops wearing the bald is beautiful shirt. it's like, we get it. you're SO inspirational.
-danielle, becca, and charlotte wear war paint at some point. enough! does there have to be a racist playing cowboys and indians scene in every book? on the bright side, they put the war paint on all of their barbies too, which is almost cute.
-they say charlotte and becca are both in third grade. char should be in fourth grade, since she skipped a grade. she is in the same grade as vanessa pike, which they say is not true in this book. inconsistency! agh!
-as danielle's hair starts to grow back in one of the kids in the kids can do anything club asks to style it. based on the fact that she had zero hair the previous month, there is no way she has anything beyond a buzz cut, which can't be styled. I don't buy it.

volunteer roles:
-jessi: kids can do anything club, is emotionally moved by danielle
-kristy: day care, prefers babies to older kids
-stacey: emotional support to recently diagnosed kids with diabetes, models the struggle she had for a kid who refuses to stick to her diet
-mary anne: cares for a brain damaged kid
-claudia: art class (karen brewer's sculpture comes alive)
-mallory: playground -- no details at all
-dawn: center kids with physical disabilities (the examples we see are cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy)

jackie disaster:
-squeezes the clay in art class and it shoots out of his hands

no outfits. no snacks in claudia's room.

[✨Jordan✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Becca comes home from school upset that her “Kids Club” is going to have to end for a while because one of the volunteer teachers is away for over a month, Jessi gets the idea to help out so the club can keep going!
She talks it over with the other BSC members and they LOVE the idea and also choose to volunteer for a month at other organizations and for other causes.
While helping out with the Kids Club, Jessi finds out about a girl named Danielle who used to be in the club before she got really sick...with leukemia. Now she is stuck in the hospital and has lost all her hair.
This book was so sweet. It talks of sickness, how to help others when you can, how to treat everyone the same no matter what differences or sicknesses they have.

[kb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still a heartbreaking read even after all this time. While it would be ideal if we could discover the cure to cancer already, my prayer is that everybody just gets to lead the happy, well-lived life we all deserve. (This book, by the way, is open-ended, and I hope Danielle is okay wherever she is :) )

I loved the BSC growing up, and have decided to re-read (or read for the first time) some of the books in the series. Which of the members are you most like? :)

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

i like jessi, but her books are such a yawn. this is the one where jessi introduces the kids can do anything club, the after-school volunteer club that her little sister becca joined. the kids do things like stage toy drives for kids in the hospital, make up food baskets for the old folks' home, etc etc. becca is really into the club, but the second teacher assistant that runs it has decided to go away on a long trip with her husband (during the school year? huh?) & the first teacher assistant can't find a replacement & doesn't think he can handle running the club on his own.

so jessi decides to volunteer her services while the teacher is away. this inspires the other members of the babysitters club to put sitting on hold for a month & explore volunteer opportunities. stacey volunteers to counsel kids who have been given a diabetes diagnosis at a new clinic in town. kristy volunteers at the day care program that david michael used to attend. dawn volunteers at a special needs school for disabled kids in stamford. claudia volunteers with an after-school art program for seven-year-olds. apparently mary anne & mallory's volunteer choices were too boring for me to remember. the whole book is really boring, honestly.

also, question about david michael & child care: as the series progresses, the babysitters club's genesis story keeps changing. the claim now is that one of the older kids was responsible for looking after david michael after school before mrs. thomas got home from work, but sometimes they were all busy & mrs. thomas would have to spend a lot of time calling around to find another sitter. but in book #1, mrs. thomas actually has a regular sitter for david michael everyday--an adult. one day, something comes up for this sitter & mrs. thomas asks the older kids if they can take over, just once, but they're all busy. so mrs. thomas starts making calls, & kristy thinks up the babysitters club. somehow this adult sitter has been written out of the story. & this is the first time that we ever hear about david michael being in day care at any point. i guess that was less a question than an observation.

anyway, when jessi starts working with the kids can do anything club, the kids have just finished up their toy drive & have received a stack of thankful letters from child patients. including their classmate, danielle, who has been in the hospital for a long time, in treatment for leukemia. the good news is that she's healthy enough to come back to school & re-join the club. but becca is still freaked out by the idea of a kid getting that sick. jessi is kind of freaked out by it too.

when danielle rejoins the club, she tires easily & is bald from chemo treatments. at first, the other kids are kind of scared of her. she handles it amazingly gracefully for a child...or even an adult. she lets them ask questions & calms them down. kind of fucked up that it's the cancer patient making everyone else feel better, but...lets roll with it. becca & charlotte become fast friends with danielle & everyone is happy she's out of the hospital. danielle tells jessi that she harbors a dream of going to disneyworld & graduating from the fifth grade.

jessi tells the other sitters about danielle's wishes, & mary anne tells her about an organization called your wish is my command, which grants the wishes of sick children. this is clearly patterned on the make-a-wish foundation, & i think it's weird that they maybe didn't let scholastic just use their real name. anyway, jessi puts your wish is my command in touch with danielle's mom, & danielle's wish of going to disneyworld is granted. jessi is pleased for the whole family, because it seems like they could really use a vacation. because it's such a vacation to escort two little kids to disneyworld, amirite? i guess it'll be fun for the kids.

but shortly after danielle gets home from disneyworld, she gets sick again & has to go back to the hospital. becca & charlotte are really worried, & jessi is sad. she hopes danielle will get better soon. & that's how the book ends. which is kind of refreshing. it's nice that ann didn't try to sugarcoat that shit for her child readers & have danielle get all better. but it was still...a little anti-climactic, i guess?

[Alantie · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know what? For all that people like to joke about these books, they really do cover important topics for kids and help them learn more about scary things like having cancer and kids being in the hospital.

This one in particular hit me really hard with Danielle and her struggle with leukemia and trying to be an ordinary kid.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Jessi’s Wish
Jessica tells us how special Becca is. She’s joined the Kids Can Do Club or just the Kid’s Club. They’d done things like cleaned up trash in an empty lot and collected food. Now they’re doing a toy drive. Becca cp,es jp,e i[set because they might have to stop the club because Mrs. Simon’s husband is going on a long trip and she’s going with him. Mr. Katz doesn’t think he can run the lub by himself. Then Vanessa told her about a girl named Danielle who use to be in the club is now in the hospital because she has leukemia. She’s only a year older than her (nine). Jessi tries to tell her there are cures now, but Becca wants to know why she’s still there. Jessi says she’s busy getting better. Becca wants to know if she’ll get cancer. Jessi says she hopes not but you just can’t predict these things. She says she probably won’t tho. Then she puts a positive spin on it. She says isn’t it nice to know she’ll get berr. Becca says yes and also that she’ll get some toys. (Bellairs has donated 100.00 worth of toys)-which today really doesn’t seem like that much-. Jessi wonders what she can do about the problem.

Jessi brings up the problem at the meeting and she says maybe they can do some volunteer work. She also says she can take over the Kid’s Club meetings. Everyone loves the idea! Stacey’s mom says her mom says a diabetic clinic will be opening up and she wants to do that. Claudia says maybe she can teach art. Dawn says they can’t sit and help out. Kristy says they can think of something. Kristy wants to work with autistic kids or tutor. Kristy calls an emergency meeting for Saturday and says by then they should be thinking of ways they can help.

Mr. Katz agrees to put Jessi on (on) a trial basis. She’ll assist for four meetings. At the emergency BSC meeting, Kristy will be working at a day care, Dawn will be working with kids at a disability center, Stacey will be working at a diabetic clinic, Claud will be teaching art classes (with Karen and Margo in the class), Mal will be at a recreational center, Maryanne will be working with a disabled kid named Frankie, and Jessi will be working with the Kid’s Club. On Jessi’s first meeting, there’s pandemonium at first. Mr. Katz lets them run around for a few to let off steam. He gets the kids calm, tells them what happened to Mrs. Simon, and introduces them to Jessi. Then they introduce themselves. Next, he tells them he got some mail. He reads the letters from the kids at the hospital who got the torys.

Mr. Katz tells them they need to think of a new project. Becca suggests they make them their pen pals. So, they work on the letters and some take pictures. When Kristy goes to the center, she’s made a “Floater” since they’re short staffed. First she helps a boy named Oliver in study hall. He’s writing about his heroes the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles. Then she helps settle to girls arguing over an eraser. Then she helps the teacher assist the three and four year olds finger paint. She reads to five year olds. She helps ten year olds make jewelry. She surpervises some boys playing football and then helps feed some of the toddlers. She’s then called on to help with the infants. So, she helps feed them. Kristy puts a baby to sleep (Joy) with ease and holds her the rest of the day. This makes up her mind who she’ll work with (the infants).

On Jessi’s third day, Jessi knows Mr. Katz will let her stay on. She’s having a great time! Danielle pays the class a visit. She’s wearing a scarf and a shirt that says BALD IS BEAUTIFUL! She’s excited to see Mr. Katz. Jessi notices tho that she doesn’t look the best. She’s pale, thin, and had dark circles under her eyes. Also, despite the scarf, you can tell she’s bald. The third graders ignore her. The fourth and fifth graders avoid her. Danielle is cool about it tho. She speaks to them but they don’t respond. She tells them she’s not contagious. They relax. Still don’t speak. She asks if they have questions. Charlotte asks does she still have cancer. She says better but she still takes a lot of medicine.

Nickey asks what’s under her scarf. She tells him not much and everyone laughs. Mr. Katz let them work it out. Jessi realizes the older kids are afraid for her since they saw her last year and she looks so different. She says she knows she looks thin. It’s the chemo. It also made her hair fall out. She says it might come back curlier or thicker. A third grader asks why she’s back. She says she’s not as sick. She can take pills and is no longer on shots. Another boy asks if she can still do everything she use to. She says yes but she gets tired. Someone wants to know how she gets sick. She says sore throats, fevers, and she was tired all the time. Becca asks if she’s afraid. She says sometimes but she’ll try to go on as normal when she’s at home. She tells herself she’s stronger than the lukemia and will get better. Then the kids run out of questions and Mr. Katz suggests they write to their pen pals.

Jessi introduces herself. She asks if Danielle wants to work with a partner and she says no. She says she wants to write to a boy her age she meet when she was leaing who had lukemia like her. Danielle tells Jessi she always makes two wishes on the North Star. One is to go to Disney World. The other is to graduate from the fifth grade. Jessi makes a wish that Danielle will recover. The next meeting is held in Dawn and Maryanne’s barn. Stacey talks about how cool her job is. The boy (Gordon) listens to her. The girl (Charmaine) is trying to act like she doesn’t have diabetes. Maryanne tells her to relate to her. Claudia says it’s the wrong move to try to make herself someone she should imitate. Maryanne says she’s in love with Frankie (tho she can’t understand him). Kristy says she’s in love with infants. Jessi says Danielle is a person but people seem to have forgotten that. Then she tells them her wishes.

Maryanne starts to cry. The others get emotional too. They all say Danielle sounds great. Jessi tells them a little bit about her. Maryanne asks if she thinks her first wish can come true. Jessi says she doesn’t know. They might not have enough extra money because of medical expenses. Maryanne tells them about “Your Wish Is My Command”. It’s a organization that grants wishes. They grant as many as they can and get the money from donations. The talk about how it would be nice if Danielle got the trip. For once she could be more than just “the girl with cancer” and her parents could think of something more than medical expenses. After the meeting adjourns, Kristy says whoever’s free to go to the next meeting to answer the phones do so. Jessi calls the organization as soon as she gets home. They tell her to tell the Roberts to call them. Jessi then calls Danielle’s parents.

Claudia’s art class goes like this. Jackie’s in the class and he immediately squirts out wet clay everywhere. Margo is making something that Claudia doesn’t know what it is that turns out to be a hamburger person. Jackiet is making a snake. Karen is making a snake, an elephant, and a tree. She’s going to make the tree and the elephant purple. They’re all making “real” pottery sculputres. Karen gets carried away and says she saw her elephant move and then the tree. All the kids get carried away and say they saw it move. Claudia fixes this by saying if her pieces are moving they can’t go in the kiln to be glazed.

Becca talks to Jessi about how the other kids talk about Danielle. Becca says at least they don’t say mean things to her. She wonders why. Jessi says maybe they don’t want to hurt her feelings. Becca asks her parents if Danielle and Charlotte can come over to play. They decide to play Barbies. Danielle forgets hers so Becca lends her some. Jessi hears shrieking after a while. When Jessi looks they all have red thread on their faces and so do the dolls. They say they’re Indian warriros. Then they play “Squirt tag” Danielle gets tired while playing. She takes it easy the rest of her time there. Mr. Roberts says when he comes to get her Danielle has been placed on the wish list. Danielle calls one day and says theier going to have a cookout and she (Jessi), Becca, and Charlotte are invited on Saturday.

Danielle introduces them to her kitten at the cookout “Mr Toes”. Danielle has a brother named Greg. They play with “Mr. Toes” for a while. Then they eat and after that they have a treasure hunt. The prize is a book of jokes. Greg (who sounds like a brat) keeps saying I want and it’s usually what he thinks Danielle has. He throws himself on the ground and even has a tantrum. Jessi realizes “he doesn’t understand”. NO! He’s just a BRAT!

The BSC holds a meeting in Jessi’s room. She goes out of the way to clean it up. Kristy talks about Joy. Maryanne talks about Frankie’s progress. Stacey talks about her talk with Charmaine and says she asked a million questions. Mal talks about a sweet boy at the playground (that sounds like he’s crushing on her). Jessi says she tries not to play favorites but she really likes Danielle. Dawn says she feels the same about a girl named Kendra. (She has cerebal palsy). Then it talks about how Kendra wants to write when she grows up and wrote a story about why she hates tomatoes and how Dawn volunteered to work at a writing class for mobile students that Kendra’s in. Jessi attends another meeting of the Kids Club. Today they’re filling bags of popcorn for the elderly. Jessi hears a hreiek and Danielle comes into the room. Danielle then tells Jessi that was her friend Susana. She tells Jei that her wish got graned. She’ll be going to Disney World for three whole days (during school).

They’re so excited they’re touching her. She has a guide book about Disney World. They then notice her hair’s growing back and it’s a different color (reddish). They tell her to leave the scarf off. Then the girls all want to brush her hair. Other kids are bombarding her about questions about Disney World. She says she’ll write them a post card. Mr. Katz breaks it up and says they should get back to the popcorn (after she checks out the style a girl named Wendy gave her). They decide some choices for the baskets are crossword puzzles, books, pens, etc.

Becca and Jessi go to see Danielle before she leaves for Orlando. When Danielle comes back, she has presents. The kids get Mickey Mouse stickers. Becca gets a Donald Duck Shirt. Charlotte gets a Disney book. Mr. Katz gets Mouse Ears and Jessi gets a wishing star necklace (because she made her wish come true). The next meeting, the other teacher is back but not active yet. Jessi shows them how to make wreaths out of coat hangers. Mr. Katz compliments her on a good well done! Danielle isn’t there and Wendy says she heard she’s in the hospital again. Becca starts crying. Charlotte starts crying. Jessi takes them out into the hallway. Mr. Katz asks the class what they’d like to do the wreaths or letters for Danielle. Jessi takes the girls into the bathroom and by now they’re all crying. Becca says it’s not fair. Jessi says a lot of things aren’t fair but that’s life. Charlotte says they don’t really know why she’s there. They say they don’t want her to be sick and die. Jessi says they have to concentrate on her betting the cancer and they can write to her.

So, they return to the classroom. Jessi asks her mom later if she can call Danielle. Her mom says not yet. She suggest Jessi also write a letter. Jessi gets permission to call the Roberts and Greg says she wasn’t feeling well and the doctor’s wanted to run test. Jessi gets a letter from Danielle and makes a wish that again that she’ll get better.


My Thoughts
I could relate to this one as well. I have an illness that there’s no cure for. It’s caused a lot of other issues and sometimes I’ll think why couldn’t I have just been “normal”. So, I know what it’s like to feel “different”. I also know what it’s like to have the “tired spells” Danielle has But I admired Danielle in this. She really did have the most AMAZING attitude! I don’t think she complained about anything not once. It was such a good ending to see her get her wish to go to Disney World. For a minute, I actually thought the book was going to end with her death and I wondered would it go there. Lately I’ve been watching the Olympics on and off (surprisingly because I’m not really all that into sports) and it’s been amazing to hear about some of their storie. It just goes to show if your determined NOTHING can stop you. So, I definitely know that like she got to go to Disney World, Danielle *did* pass fifth grade and graduate from Stoney Brook Elementary.
Rating: 7

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. This was so lovely. Jessi is an amazing character and I thought the way she wanted to help Danielle and their friendship was so precious. This was definitely one of the more emotional books in the series and I absolutely loved it. It was a great story with a wonderful message.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another Very Special Episode wherein Jessi baby-sits for a little girl with cancer and helps her deal with being bald.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you donate to the Make A Wish Fountain you help kids get there wishes who. Are sick

[Rylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book. I like it but it is not one of my favorites.

[Stella Battenberg]

Why are the Jessi books always very special episodes? Can Jessi not have a plot?

We're introduced to the Kids Can Do Anything Club, a club at SES that Becca, Charlotte, and some of the Pike kids belong to that does volunteer work. One of the teachers who helps with the club is going on a trip with her husband so the club is at risk of being shut down until Jessi intervenes. (OK, what teacher takes a month+ off in the middle of the school year? Not to mention that they act as though the club would be shut down permanently as opposed to resume when the teacher returns. This inspires Kristy to shut the BSC down (!) for an unspecified length of time so the girls can pursue various random volunteer activities. This is all essentially in service of Jessi meeting Danielle, a girl with leukemia who has recently returned to school after several months in the hospital. The friendship that develops between Becca and Charlotte and Danielle is sweet, though I am sure she'll never be mentioned again. (Prove me wrong, ghostwriters!) Danielle's main function is for Jessi to learn a nebulous lesson, of course, and to be generically inspiring. Jessi hooks Danielle's parents up with (essentially) the Make-a-Wish Foundation so they can go to Disney World, though Danielle is back in the hospital again after she comes home. It's all a bit pat, which of course it is. This book's basic function is to expose kids to these topics - Becca and the other kids have realistic concerns and questions and it's definitely scary the first time as a kid you find out that other kids can get seriously ill or die. It's a blandly inoffensive exploration of these topics.
This book has no real baby-sitting - Kristy works at a day care center (which David Michael once inexplicably attended), Dawn works at an after school center for physically disabled kids, and Claudia teaches an art class which contains Margo, Karen, and Jackie. This chapter is reasonably entertaining and does feature Claudia getting the upper hand on Karen. 

Also I think Mr. Katz just wanted out of the club, since he says he can't do it himself but there's really nothing to it.

[Alison Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those BSC books where the execution isn't perfect but the aim is still worthwhile.

This falls into the "message" subgenre of BSC, where the author (/ghostwriter) clearly wanted to get a particular lesson across to the young readers in the target age range, and I think it's a laudable one -- that even little kids can get really sick, that being really sick might seem fun in some ways (missing school, extra treats, etc) but it's also painful and scary and difficult, but also that with love and support around them they can learn to cope with it and continue to live their lives. I also appreciated that we see that Danielle still wants to have fun with her friends and play games and such, but that she gets tired much quicker than the other kids, and she's open and honest about that. It was also good to see the kids work through their initial uncertainty about how to talk to her and relate to her, because that felt very realistic to how kids in elementary school might react.

It was a little too pat at times, with Danielle's wish being granted so quickly and easily and everything coming together. And whoever in the passel of ghostwriters the series used was on duty here didn't seem to have read many of the previous books, because there were a few moments of just odd commentary that felt a bit out of place. As well as the usual cringey stuff (kids putting on "war paint", Kristy's stepsister Karen being annoying beyond belief, etc). But a decent entry overall.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel terrible giving this book such a low rating, but it’s just… so boring and doesn’t work in a lot of basic ways. This probably should have been (an extremely boring) super special, because I don't think we even get a notebook entry/perspetive on Mary Anne and Mallory's volunteer work.

I’m not really sure what Jessi adds to the “Kids Club.” The kids are self-motivated, and 90% of what they do is just working on crafts or letters in the classroom. Jessi also can’t drive or realistically chaperone any field trips they do, so… why did this teacher need her?

This book also does nothing to educate young readers on childhood cancer, anti-bullying, or the grief and fear that Jessi, her sister, and Charlotte all have over Danielle’s prognosis. It also seems REALLY improbable that Danielle’s parents wouldn’t already know about the Make-a-Wish knockoff—am I wrong for assuming that would be a big deal in pediatric cancer?

Jessi can barely find time to be in the BSC because of her rigorous ballet classes, but she has two months free to supervise this club???

This book also clocks in at 19.12% backstory, which is the highest one so far. YIKES.

[Joey Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the others, maybe it was the storyline, the pace or maybe even Jessi herself I’m not certain but it just wasn’t as fun or enjoyable as the others have been.

Jessi gets all the BSC into volunteering instead of babysitting as her sisters after school club was going to be shut down and she didn’t want to let that happen so she volunteers there herself, while there she finds out and eventually meets a girl with Leukaemia and feels sorry for her and decides to focus on her and making wishes for her come true.

To me the way the authors wrote the illnesses within this book were so generic and didn’t feel like they researched enough, such as the leukaemia and with dawns kids with cerebral palsy I just think they could have given better information and not just done what the generic versions of these conditions are.

So yeah I didn’t overly enjoy this one it was okay but the others have all certainly been an awful lot better than this one.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m re-reading all of my old “BSC” books, and this one’s my favorite by far. I don’t remember it from the first time around...
This is the second book EVER that I can recall where a severely disabled and developmentally delayed kid like my son has been mentioned. The kid in this book was just mentioned in a few paragraphs-Mary Anne was working with him, but I LOVED how she loved his smile and could tell he was working so hard, despite minuscule gains in his PT and his inability to speak.
I’m so glad that this book gives a glimpse of a kid like mine to other young readers. I love the inclusively in this story, from the kids with CP that Dawn is working with, to Danielle schooling the kids in the “Kids Can Do Anything Club” that not all older adults in a nursing home are the exact same or totally incapacitated.
Danielle’s trip was so happy to read about and I also REALLY appreciate the realistic ending with her back in the hospital with a somewhat uncertain future.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels kinda grinchy to rate this only 3 stars, but I think I've had my fill of BSC super-inspirational books. In this case, Jessi's wish involves a kid with cancer and a Make A Wish-like foundation who can maybe fulfill the kid's wish to go to Disneyland. All sweet and all, and the kid, Danielle, is pretty cool.

But then all the other BSC members also volunteer for other kids with needs, like Stacey counsels kids who just got diagnosed with diabetes, Dawn volunteers with kids with physical disabilities, and Kristy volunteers with babies at a daycare. None of those storylines ever really get fleshed out, which I think is what made me feel like this was more about putting in inspirational kids with disabilities or chronic conditions, and less about actually putting a story together.

It was ok. Just a bit boring. I floated between 2 and 3 stars and eventually figured I felt bad enough about the 3.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgot that each of the girls in the Baby-sitters Club volunteered in this book, I would have liked to read more about the stuff the other gals were doing (mostly because when they were all together and talking about their volunteering, I couldn't remember anything. Like, any time Mary Anne talked about her work, that the kid started crawling or something, it meant nothing to me because I couldn't recall what she was doing. How old is the kid? Why is it a big deal that he's crawling?) Also, I want to know more about how the BSC was during these times. How were meetings? How many jobs did Logan and Shannon have to take?

All that said, this is a pretty good book, I liked Jessi helping out with the Kids Club and meeting Danielle. And I especially like that everything wasn't wrapped up with a neat little bow at the end.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually don't remember this book from when I was a kid. It's possible I forgot about it, or maybe I didn't read it. Jessi books used to bore me, so it's very possible I skipped this. Not LIKELY, but still a possibility just the same.

This one was actually sort of sad, but also a little bit refreshing. At no point did they attempt to sugarcoat Danielle's cancer diagnosis, and the ending was not the usual happy ever after BSC crap we tend to get. It was nice to see that they were perhaps trying to help kids understand that cancer is a serious thing, and that sometime people don't just get well and stay that way. So, kudos for that at least.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

As 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.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot for a moment why I never liked to re-read this one, but I was quickly reminded as soon as I started. I'M NOT CRYING, YOU'RE CRYING!

Also, the brief mention of the kid with CF in the hospital always, ALWAYS, gets to me, as well as another kid wondering, "I wonder if you can get well from cystic fibrosis?"

Ugh, sorry, I have something in my eye again.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars for me. It was a great book but seemed to lack a lot of the strong BSC book traits. It is also open ended so you don’t have a satisfying ending that ties up all loose ends. Overall I really enjoyed this book, just wish there was a little more to it to really make it feel like a complete read.

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 4 out of 5]

(LL)
This book was amazing at tackling: cancer and other diseases, volunteering, and to not take any life for granted.
This was such a good and wholesome book, despite some obvious unrealistic plot points, as I think it’s a great book for kids to read. It’s in the top three books of the series easily.

[Cassandra Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit of a downer to be my first BSC book after a long break, but I do really love Jessi's voice, although this one didn't seem to have as many glimpses into the lives of the other babysitters (there was a surprising lack of Mallory mentions for a Jessi book, too).

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story wasn’t exactly my favorite, but it was still sweet though.

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...

[Claude · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfect way to end nostalgiathon august 2020 xx

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...I am glad it didn't end the way I though it was going to.
The letter format near the end was very interesting.

[Sharon W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Return to youth

Blast from the Past
Grew up on these books. Takes me back to a time before responsibility. Nice to escape for awhile.