BSC #48: Jessi's Wish

Tagline: Do wishes really come true?

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. But Danielle is no ordinary little girl. She has cancer.

Jessi never met anyone like Danielle before. Even though she is 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.

Jessi's chilling at home, watching her brother Squirt, when Becca comes home from school. She's super sad because one of the teachers who helps to run the Kids Can Do Anything Club (Kids Club) at school is going away for a bit, and the other teacher doesn't think he can run the club alone. That means that the club will have to disband until further notice. Jessi knows how much the club means to Becca, as well as a few other kids, and decides that she wants to help out. She decides to propose to the Club that they should spend the month volunteering on various projects. The girls agree, and with their blessing, Jessi goes and talks to Mr Katz (the remaining teacher) about helping out with the Kids Club.

At her first meeting, Jessi learns that the kids have just finished up organizing a toy drive for the local hospital. That day, Mr Katz shows them all the letters the kids from the hospital have written to them, thanking them for the donations. One of the letters turns out to be a from a girl named Danielle Roberts, who used to be in the club, but has been spending that school year in the hospital fighting cancer. Danielle writes that she's coming back soon, and although she's bald and looks different, she's excited to see everyone again. The kids are excited, and reasonably subdued, and decide to spend the afternoon writing back to the kids in the hospital.

Danielle comes back for the next Kids Club meeting. Everyone's excited, but something seems a little off. As Danielle stars talking to them, and telling them what she's been up to, Jessi realizes that it's mostly the third graders hanging around Danielle. Eventually Jessi comes to the conclusion that the older kids, who knew and remember Danielle before the cancer, are frightened of her and for her, seeing her look so radically different from before. But Danielle is just happy to be out of the hospital and keeps her hopes up. As the kids continue to write letters to the hospital, Jessi gets to know Danielle, and wants nothing more than to help her and for her to get better.

The girls have an informal Club meeting, to catch up with each other on their volunteer work. There, Jessi tells everyone about Danielle, and how Danielle wishes she could go to Disney World. Mary Anne tells Jessi of an organization called Your Wish Is My Command, that works to grant wishes of sick children. Jessi thinks it's a great idea, and looks into it for the Roberts' and lets them know about it.

Over the next little while, Jessi gets to know Danielle better, especially through Becca, who has quickly become one of Danielle's closest friends. The other 4th and 5th graders are still being weird about Danielle, so she mostly hangs out with Becca and Charlotte (who are 3rd graders). Danielle comes over to play and the girls have all sorts of fun, although Danielle does tire easily and has to take things slow. Jessi and the girls also go to Danielle's place for a BBQ, where Jessi meets Danielle's little brother Greg, who is clearly having a hard time dealing with his sister's illness. It makes Jessi want to send their family to Disney World even more.

Finally one day, at Kids Club, Danielle gets the news that her wish has been granted, and that her family will be going to Disney World! She'll be missing 3 days of school, and they'll take a plane, and everything will be covered. The kids are so excited that they stop being weird and careful around Danielle. That's when they notice that Danielle's hair is starting to grow back! Everyone is so happy and excited that they neglect the popcorn machine, and a big mess is made. But Jessi and Mr Katz don't care, because again, HAPPY!!!

We're then treated to a chapter of Becca and Jessi helping Danielle pack, followed by several postcards from Disney World. It seems like everything is working out for the best. The other teacher is due back any day, and Jessi, although excited to get back to baby-sitting, will miss working with the Kids Club.

However, things take a turn for the worse: one day, Danielle's not in school. She's had a relapse in her recovery, and is in the hospital again. The kids are all upset, and decide to write Danielle letters. Jessi writes her one too, and soon gets a reply. Danielle isn't sure when she can leave the hospital again, but she's hopeful: after all, she got to go to Disney World, so wishes really do come true.

The subplot in this one is that the girls decide to spend the month doing volunteer work, inspired by Jessi's work. They decide that whoever is free will go to meetings, and they'll just have to be extra careful of scheduling jobs and rely on Logan and Shannon more. For some of the girls, their volunteer work is only mentioned in passing, but others have entire chapters (instead of baby-sitting ones):

Claudia volunteers to help out with an after-school art class at a community centre. As luck would have it, several of their baby-sitting charges are in the class, including Jackie Rodowsky, Margo Pike and Karen Brewer. The chapter we're treated to is them in the middle of a ceramics lesson. The kids are making sculpture out of clay, which will then be glazed and fired. Karen is making a forest with animals and stuff, and somehow she manages to convince everyone that her sculpture is alive, getting the kids all riled up and stuff. Claudia manages to get her to stop by "expressing sadness" that Karen's sculpture will never be finished, since obviously you can't glaze and fire something that's alive. So Karen quickly retracts her comments and insists that her sculpture is just a sculpture.

Kristy decides to volunteer at a daycare centre that David Michael used to go to. It runs all day, with an after-school program for older kids. Her chapter is her first day there, where she wanders from room to room, helping out where needed. She helps some of the older kids with their homework, she helps the little kids with some finger painting and snacks, but eventually she ends up with the wee little babies. They're short-staffed, and Kristy finds herself saddled with one baby in particular, Joy. Apparently Joy is very fussy and never settles or likes anyone, so obviously she's in love with Kristy and everyone is in awe of Kristy's baby-powers. Kristy then decides that she'll spend the remainder of the month volunteering in that room, and we hear more about how much she loves Joy.

Dawn volunteers at the Baker Institute, which is in Stamford. They provide after-school activities, as well as physical therapy, for children with physical disabilities. Dawn rides on the van with other Stoneybrook kids after school. There, she meets a girl named Kendra, who is wheelchair bound because of cerebral palsy. Kendra wants to be a writer, and we're treated to an afternoon of her writing, along with other kids. When Dawn tells Jessi about Kendra, Jessi reflects on how Kendra is completely wheelchair bound and will never get better, but she thinks about what she wants to be when she grows up and long-term goals; whereas Danielle has a chance to make a full recovery and be completely healthy again, but only thinks about making it through elementary school.

Mary Anne volunteers to help out with some friends of her father's. They have a little boy named Frankie, who has brain damage. Mary Anne helps his parents and his therapists do exercises with him, as well as just generally helping out around the house and with his two siblings.

Stacey volunteers to mentor kids who are recently diagnosed with diabetes. She's paired up with two kids, an 8-year-old boy named Gordon and a 10-year-old girl named Charmaine. Gordon asks all sorts of questions and is handling things really well, but Charmaine is in total denial. At first, Stacey tries to be a perfect role model for her, but eventually decides to come clean and admit how hard it is for her to follow her diet as well. That changes everything with Charmaine, and she starts taking things more seriously.

Mallory volunteers with an after-school park program, where the counselors hang out in the park and organize games and activities for the kids.

Random Thoughts:

• I love how this is another example of Jessi just doing something because she wants to, and having her own ideas. Yeah, she wants to run it by Kristy and the girls to see what they think, but I get the feeling she would have done something even without their approval. I mean, really, the only thing she's running by them is the idea that they all do some volunteer work. I think if they had said no, she still would have done her own thing.
• Kristy in the later books would never suggest that the girls take an entire month to do some volunteering! haha
• Fun fact: sometimes I end up covering for the visual arts teacher at school, and for some reason, I've ended up covering several lessons during the ceramics unit over the years, so I've actually become decently versed in how to do ceramics. The school even has a small kiln, so the students' work gets glazed and fired too! My first year there, I made a small sculpture from some leftover clay. I then missed the end of the unit, but the students glazed my sculpture for me. Sadly, it never got in the kiln. Probably for better: I didn't crosshatch one section when attaching it to the main part, so it didn't end up sticking so well, so it kinda fell apart after some time =( haha
• Even with getting to skip the line, there is no way they were able to do Disney World in just 2 days. Then again, it's better than nothing. I wonder what they saw. They probably just went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and had like, a special meet-and-greet dinner. Fuck, now I want to go back to Disney and eat their food. They've got awesome food. (Mostly because I don't have to prepare it haha)
• I know Danielle is the focus of another book later in the series, but between this one and that one, do we ever hear about her again? Is she mentioned in passing in any of the other Jessi books? I really want to re-read the other Danielle book now, just to see what Jessi has to say. You'd think with Danielle being such great friends with Becca, we'd hear about her more.
• The volunteering thing was only supposed to be a month, with Jessi herself doing Kids Club for like... 6 weeks? AMM keeps starting chapters with "one day" or "later that week" and other vague things, so it makes it feel like so much time passes!