BSC #42: Jessi and the Dance School Phantom

Tagline: Someone - or something - is out to get Jessi!

Naturally, Jessi is thrilled when she earns the lead in her dance school's latest ballet. But someone in Jessi's class wants her out of the show.

First Jessi's toe shoes are stolen. Then she gets all kinds of threatening messages!

What kind of ballerina would want to scare Jessi? The Baby-sitters don't know, but they're not going to let anyone get away with it for long!

The book opens with the dance auditions. Jessi's school is putting on Sleeping Beauty, and of course everyone wants a good part in the show. The first chapter quickly sets up the dance class and the other girls and how things typically go. That's so we can know when things are wrong when shit goes down.

The main girls in Jessi's class are Mary Bramstedt, who has perfect form, but is too perfect to the point of being robotic; Carrie Steinfeld, who is one of the oldest girls in the class and really needs a good part in order to get accepted into another school for older dancers; Katie Beth Parsons, who readers may remember as being the next youngest in the class and having a deaf sister; Hilary Morgan, whose mother gave up a budding ballet career to have a family and is now living vicariously through Hilary; and finally Lisa Jones, who is nice, but always critical of herself.

The parts are quickly given out, with Carrie getting the Bluebird of Happiness, Lisa being the Lilac Fairy and of course, Jessi as Aurora. Everyone else in the class is relegated to the ensemble. Jessi is thrilled, but tries not to let it show. She's too nice and humble to rub it in everyone's faces. Even so, Jessi soon realizes that maybe not everyone is happy. At her first rehearsal, her toes shoes go missing while she changes. As the lead, there is no way she can rehearse at all without them. So the whole rehearsal is halted and the entire class is brought back into the change room to search. They can't find them, and eventually Mme Noelle decides to cancel class. Lisa asks if there's any way they can rehearse still, and Hilary insists that they search one more time. It's Katie Beth who finds them, in Jessi's bag. Jessi finds it weird, and is quite shaken and off her game for the rest of rehearsal. When it finally ends and she goes back to get changed, Jessi finds a note in her shoes telling her: BEWARE.

For her next rehearsal, Jessi doesn't take any chances: she brings her entire second spare outfit. She's determined not to let anything get in the way this time. However, she's in a sour mood still, after being reminded of the last rehearsal by Katie Beth. Then all throughout rehearsal, Carrie keeps purposely bumping into Jessi, making Jessi look like an uncoordinated lout! It's a pretty lousy rehearsal, and Jessi can't wait for it to end. When she gets back in the changeroom, she discovers that her entire second outfit is missing! Furthermore, there's another note, this time one written in red ink that looks like blood! It says: WATCH YOUR STEP.

For their next rehearsal, Jessi shows up with all new gear, including a new gym bag that can lock. While out on the dance floor however, Jessi's chain with the key comes loose and while she's able to pick it up, she misses a set of instructions. Carrie quickly tells Jessi what they were, but as Jessi dances, she slips on some water and hurts her ankle. While Mme Noelle attends to her, the teacher asks her why she was doing the wrong dance move. Carrie had lied to Jessi! Mme Noelle determines that Jessi better get her ankle looked at, just in case, and that in the meantime, Katie Beth will take over in rehearsals. Jessi is understandably upset, even more so when she returns to get her stuff and discovers another note: I TOLD YOU SO. FROM NOW ON WATCH OUT.

At the doctor's office, Jessi is told she simply has a bad strain, and that as long as she doesn't use her ankle in any way for a few days, she'll be ready to dance in no time. So Jessi attends the next rehearsal, but just watches on the sidelines. There, she's all suspicious of her classmates and second-guesses everything everyone says. She checks her locker, in case she forgot something the previous day in her rush, and discovers yet another note: IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE. TOO BAD IT WASN'T.

Jessi finally decides to bring all the drama to the attention of the Club. She'd been keeping it in because she didn't want to burden the girls, plus she still couldn't believe it was actually happening. The girls look at the notes, and then determine that they really need to see all the suspects for themselves. Jessi points out that their next rehearsal is on a Saturday, and in the public theatre that the performance will actually be on, so anyone who can come can sneak into the audience and watch. Jessi is actually disappointed when it's such a great rehearsal with no incidents - had she imagined it all? But no, her friends are convinced that something is going on, based on what they observe of Jessi's classmates and how they all interact with each other. With everyone's help, Jessi narrows her suspects down to three classmates: Carrie, Katie Beth and Hilary.

As rehearsals continue, more things happen again. Jessi's stolen dance outfit is returned - only shredded to death. Someone pushes her into some wet scenery, ruining her clothes and causing rehearsal to end early. Jessi gets another creepy note, this time with a red rose, saying: WATCH OUT FOR THE THORNS. Jessi continues to watch her classmates, becoming more suspicious and confused than ever. The notes continue with GIVE UP THE ROLE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE and YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. It gets to a point where Jessi stops being scared, and is now just plain annoyed and more determined than ever to do this. One day, she gets a note that says TAKE A REST, SLEEPING BEAUTY, which just makes Jessi roll her eyes, until she realizes that Carrie's home sick that day. Another day, Katie Beth saves Jessi from some falling scenery. That leaves Jessi with only one person: Hilary.

The girls look over the notes again, and determine that Hilary must have written using a calligraphy pen. They decide that all Jessi really needs to do is get Hilary to write something in front of her using that pen, and then it'll be all over! So with that in mind, Jessi goes to her next rehearsal with a plan. She tells Hilary that Mme Noelle needs a sign to be made. Lo and behold, Hilary is caught in the act! Hilary is super apologetic, citing stress from her extremely pushy stage mom, and vows to pay Jessi back for all the ruined outfits and things. Jessi agrees not to tell anyone, and they part on good terms.

The night of the ballet, everything goes perfectly. Jessi dances magnificently and gets a standing ovation, plus some flowers from her sister. Hilary apologizes yet again for all the horrible things she did, and then confesses something to Jessi: she's quitting ballet. She knows her mom will be furious, but Hilary also knows that nothing she does will please her, so she might as well please herself.

The subplot in this one is that the Club decides to put on a Pet Show for their clients. At first it seems like a good idea, with all the kids getting excited. Soon though, the kids start getting very competitive over who will win first prize. Those with smaller pets get very upset over not being able to compete against cats and dogs, Becca, being one of these kids, because of their hamster. After many dramas and troubles, the girls decide to award each pet their own individual prize, like Nicest or Best Behaved. The Pike triplets end up entering themselves as a two-man horse.

Random Thoughts:

• This one is ghostwritten by Ellen Miles
• What kind of ballerina would want to scare Jessi? If I've learned anything from the bits of reality TV I've gleamed from living with my mom for so long: ANY BALLERINA??? Haha from what I gather, ballerinas are only next to beauty pageants in how crazy and vicious some girls can be when competing.
• Man, I had no idea how many mysteries we had gotten in the regular series before they officially introduced the Mystery series. I'm especially surprised, since this one comes so soon after the last one.
• This one mentions that Hannie is pretend-married to Scott Hsu! I honestly do not remember this detail at all, despite having read pretty much the entire Little Sister series as a child, and almost the entire Baby-sitters Club series as well!
• Oh the early '90s, where you could cram way more people than seatbelts into a car, and it not be an issue at all. I remember when I was younger, like age 4-6, my parents didn't make me wear a seatbelt cuz I didn't like it because it would choke me. I should have had a booster seat, but they weren't overly common at the time.
• Okay, this one actually made me look up on YouTube videos of 11-13 year olds dancing en pointe and Sleeping Beauty and what not. God damn, they must have ankles of steel. My own ankles hurt just watching! But yeah. I wanted to look it up, because this is the one-millionth book where Jessi has had the lead in a ballet production, and I was starting to feel jaded. No, 11 year olds really can be performing these things at ballet school. I guess now I need to know how common this is. Like, yes, it's possible for 11 year olds to perform at this level... BUT ONLY IF THEY STARTED AT AGE 3, DO NOTHING BUT BALLET, AND ARE TRAINING FOR LIKE, THE BALLET OLYMPICS AND BEING TOTES PRO BALLET IS THEIR LIFE? Or is it more like, yes, it's possible for an average 11 year old to perform at this level, as long as they're dedicated and really love ballet and practice a lot, but not to a crazy extent? I mean, for all I know, it could be like, uhhh... this is totes normal, if you've taken regular ballet lessons, you should be able to achieve this easily in like 4 years.
• I also wonder what it means to be dancing at this age, versus being an adult professional dancer. Jessi mentions that playing Aurora is the role of a lifetime. Obviously, being the lead in any production is a big deal, but I wonder if they simplify the choreography at this age. Or if this is it: now that Jessi's played Aurora, there's no reason for her to ever play her again as an adult. She can just go in to auditions and be like, "Pfft... I was dancing this part when I was 11 years old!" haha As a musician, I've played the theme song to Harry Potter a bajillion times, but each time has been different orchestrations, getting progressively harder and more intricate and complex. The version I played in grade 8 is completely different than the version I played in my final year of university. It was never just "Harry Potter again".
• Although having an individual award for each pet makes the most sense, I'm surprised the girls didn't briefly discuss or contemplate having different categories. Like, cats compete against each other, dogs in another category, rodents such as guinea pigs and hamsters in another, reptiles, etc etc
• Maybe it's because I already know French, but I would love this book (and any of the other Jessi-does-ballet books) more if they didn't add phonetic pronunciations of all the ballet terms.
• Actually, I feel this way about anytime a language is in a book. Except if it's an Asian language: obviously I need it to be written in English characters, not kanji or katakana or other Asian characters.
• Spoiler alert: I didn't realize that Mary Bramstedt was mentioned in this book. She's the one who eventually develops an eating disorder in another book. This actually makes sense, based on what we hear of her this time around.
• There are like, 6 roles in this ballet. The fact that Carrie got a named role at all is a big deal. Same with Lisa, especially after hearing that she's good, but overly critical of herself.
• Continuity with the Ramsey's and the Pike's hamsters having come from Jessi's crazy pet-sitting adventure.
• I had never realized how many times Dr Dellenkamp is referenced in the series. Here, she's Jessi's doctor as well.
• Man, Jessi could have been seriously hurt. She was lucky it was just a strain. What if she had broken her ankle, and had to give up dancing for a month or two? And that would just be the best case scenario in that one. She really should have told Mme Noelle what was going on.
• Charlie is a saint of a brother for always driving Kristy and her friends around.

BSC #27: Jessi and the Superbrat

Tagline:There's trouble for everyone what a TV star comes to town!

Stoneybrook has gone star-crazy! Derek Masters, an eight-year-old regular on a hit TV sitcom, has moved to town. Everyone's wondering what a real-live TV star will be like - will he drive to school in a limo?

Jessi can't believe it, but even stars need baby-sitters, and she's the lucky club member to watch Derek Masters. Even though a lot of kids at school call Derek a spoiled brat, Jessi likes him immediately. He rides bikes and eats junk food like a normal kid, but he has exciting stories about Hollywood, too!

Pretty soon baby-sitting and ballet start looking kind of boring next to TV scripts and cameras. Maybe Jessi would like to be a star, too!

As the synopsis indicates, Jessi (and subsequently the readers), are made aware of Derek Masters. He's apparently the breakout character in an ensemble sitcom called P.S. 162. He plays a nerdy kid who gets all the laughs. Coincidentally, just as Jessi is discovering his existence and that he in fact used to live in Stoneybrook before he left to be a star, his show goes on hiatus and his family comes back. Of course, they need a sitter, so Jessi gets to be the lucky one!

When Jessi first meets Derek, she gets all star-struck and is surprised to learn that Derek in fact is nothing like the character he plays on TV. Derek has normal hair, doesn't wear glasses, and hates science. Eventually Jessi gets over it, and starts to get to know Derek. As she does, she realizes that while he loves acting, when he's at home, he just wants to be treated like a normal every day kid.

Of course, everyone else is super star-struck, and acts like an idiot around him. Becca has a huge crush on his co-star and grills Derek about him. Mallory acts like she's meeting the queen, and the triplets expect him to be super snobby. Things don't get better as Derek goes back to school, and everyone treats him weirdly, from either worshipping him (the girls), to hating him (the boys), to making him talk all about Hollywood (the teachers). Eventually, Jessi discovers that a boy is bullying Derek far worse than everyone else. Jessi calls him the superbrat, and is determined to figure things out.

Eventually Derek starts connecting to his classmates, and the boys realize he's cool and normal, and Derek starts making friends. Soon all the stories about the superbrat go away, but Jessi still wants to know who the kid is. Just as things start looking up for everyone, Derek decides to head by to L.A. to do a TV movie. The girls decide to throw him a going away party, and invite everyone and their mom to it. It's there that the girls find out that the superbrat was really Derek, who couldn't cope with how his classmates were treating him and was retaliating.

The subplot in this one is that Jessi has some super hardcore auditions for the Stoneybrook Civic Centre's production of Swan Lake. She gets super nervous, and tries to downplay it. The more nervous she gets, the more she tries to convince herself that it doesn't really matter, and that maybe she should become a model and be on TV like Derek. Of course, she totally aces the auditions, gets one of the best roles a girl her age can get (one of the swan corps), and totally forgets all the modeling and TV shenanigans.

Random Thoughts:

• This is our second book with a ghostwriter! It's Jan Carr again
• Jessi's steady gig with the Braddocks is slowly being phased out. She mentions that others are starting to sit for them to give her more free time. Which of course she immediately fills with another regular job.
• I doubt that the Swan Lake production is anywhere near as big as Jessi makes it sound ("it's practically off-off-Broadway!"), but it's definitely a big deal, especially for someone Jessi's age. We have an arts centre/theatre here, where touring productions happen and our city's professional orchestra and theatre groups and dance groups perform. It's a big deal. The performers are often people from other cities, who came specifically to spend a season here to get experience. It's nowhere near as prestigious as any of the theatres in say, Toronto or Montreal, but it's a pretty big deal. Anyways, every year, they do a production of The Nutcracker, where they have open auditions for the younger/smaller roles. My best friend's sister got to be one of the mice when she was like, 12, and that was a huge deal for her. I'm imagining the same for Jessi.
• lolz when I was younger, I had no idea why the Derek's sitcom was called P.S. 162. As far as I knew, "P.S." was something you added to the end of letters. It was only near the end of high school that I learned that in the US, standard public schools are often just named "P.S." and then a number. Here, all the schools have names. Anyways, re-reading this now, everything makes a lot more sense haha
• I really like the triplets on the cover. Although they have ginger hair, and so far, I've yet to see a description of any of the Pikes with ginger hair. Usually no hair colour is mentioned (so the only thing we have is "dark brown, or chestnut" from Mallory's first book), and then it's either "curly" or "straight".
• A chapter with Kristy baby-sitting Karen. I don't remember being this annoyed by her in the past, but this time around, I just want to fucking kill Karen whenever she's around. And she's around a lot in this book, considering she does not go to school with Derek or anything.
• The title and description of this book is weird. They make it sound like Derek is the superbrat. Of course, by the end, you realize that he was, but until the last chapter or so, Jessi and everyone are under the impression that the superbrat was a kid in Derek's class who is bullying him.
• I didn't particularly like this book. There really wasn't much to it.

BSC #16: Jessi's Secret Language

Tagline: Jessi's learning a secret language for a very special child

Jessi knows a secret language! She learned it from Matt Braddock, the Baby-sitters' newest charge. Matt's been deaf since birth, and he uses sign language, too.

Soon all the kids in Stoneybrook want to learn to sign... which keeps the Baby-sitters busy. Jessi's the busiest of all: she's working on another super secret, just for Matt. Will Jessi be able to keep the secret and pull off her special event? Of course she will - she's a member of the Baby-sitters Club!

Our first Jessi book! It's really hard to tell the "main plot" from the "B-plot" in this one, because both are given pretty equal weight and eventually become intertwined, but I'll start with the plot as described on the back of the book: the Braddocks. They've just moved to Stoneybrook and are looking for a regular sitter two afternoons a week. Various members can't do it, so it falls on Jessi to take the job. There's just one catch: Matt Braddock is deaf and speaks in Ameslan, or American Sign Language.

Luckily, Jessi is great at picking up languages. She goes to the Braddocks where she meets Mrs Braddock, Matt and his older sister Haley. Over the course of the book, Jessi learns more about ASL, and what it's like for Matt to be deaf. For instance, it's hard for the kids to make friends, when Matt can really only communicate with Haley. At first, the other neighbourhood kids are frightened of Matt, because he can't talk, and whatever sounds he does make are jarring (since he's never heard them before). Haley has to go everywhere and translate for Matt constantly. With Mallory's help though, Jessi explains to the other kids that Matt knows a secret, silent language. That gets them all interested, and soon everyone is learning bits of sign language. Matt makes friends, and Haley realizes that she doesn't have to worry about him quite so much.

The subplot in this one is that Jessi's ballet school is putting on a performance of Coppélia. It's the first production they've done since Jessi moved, and she's quite nervous. She's the youngest in one of the advance classes, and the next two youngest girls haven't been treating her so well. Despite all this, she gets the lead role! She's very excited. One day after rehearsal while waiting for her dad to pick her up, she starts talking to one of the girls, Katie Beth. Katie Beth is there with her sister, and Jessi is surprised when she sees the girl ask for the bathroom using ASL. Even more shocking, when the girl is gone, Jessi learns that Katie Beth doesn't know any sign language at all! Neither do their parents. They send Adele away to live at a boarding school for most of the year. Jessi then realizes how lucky Matt is that his whole family learned ASL and that they try to include him as much as possible.

Eventually Jessi realizes that Matt's never been to a live theatre performance. With some help from Mrs Braddock and Mme Noelle (her ballet teacher), Jessi organizes a special performance on opening night for Matt and his 7 classmates. Instead of just simply performing the ballet and letting the music and dance speak for itself, Haley and Mrs Braddock briefly summarize each act before its performance, speaking and signing for the entire audience. Katie Beth's sister also attends, and Katie Beth tells Jessi that she's going to make an effort to learn some ASL and connect with her sister. Jessi performs well, and earns the respect of her classmates.

Random Thoughts:

• We have our first ghostwriter. I think. Or maybe because of all the sign language involved, AMM just had extra special help with the book. Either way, she would like to thank Patsy Jensen.
• My copy still says that "Jessica Ramsey" is one of six experienced baby-sitters
• This back when Jessi was more three dimensional. She doesn't want to be a professional ballerina (she just really enjoys ballet and dance), she loves jokes and she's great at learning languages. Let's just see how long these traits last haha
• Mallory's hair colour isn't described in this book. It's just mentioned as being curly. So is she brunette? Ginger? Time will tell!
• I love the fact that when Dawn tells the girls that she read that anyone who can touch their tongue to their nose would eventually be very well-endowed, Kristy was the only one who could do it, and she was THRILLED haha
• I also love that Haley is portrayed realistically. She's not this selfless saint who is more than happy to be her brother's keeper: she's a 9 year old girl. While she loves her brother, she can't help but wish he were "normal" at times.
• I find it interesting that Jessi planned her special ballet performance all in secret. It makes me like her more, because she's independent. While she obviously doesn't want to step on the toes of the older girls, she's not actively seeking their approval or permission either. She has an opportunity to do something outside of the club, and she goes for it.
• I know siblings don't necessarily have to look alike, or even remotely similar at all, but I was always confused as a child by Matt and Haley Braddock. Matt always looks vaguely Hispanic on the covers to me, while Haley is always described/drawn as being epically white, to the point where people often confuse her and Jeff Schafer on the covers.
• There is no reason at all to have Claudia baby-sit for Karen (and Andrew, and David Michael), other than to torture readers with more Karen crap. Seriously. She could have baby-sat for anyone else.
• We never find out what exactly Becca and Charlotte are planning when Kristy baby-sits for them. They go down to Jessi's dance room, giggle, and tell Kristy it's a secret. But then nothing happens.
• Adele, Katie Beth's sister, goes to a boarding school in Massachusetts. Eventually Mallory goes to a boarding school in Massachusetts as well. It's probably not the same school. Is Massachusetts just full of boarding schools? And Connecticut has none??
• I am really surprised that Katie Beth never bothered to learn ASL. Or her parents. Like, how rude and callous can they be? I can understand them not being fluent in it, because Adele isn't often at home, but not to learn it at all?? What do they do when she is at home?? I don't know why they sent her to a boarding school. Maybe they're giant jerks and want her out of the way and don't want to have to deal with someone "special". Or maybe they thought the school could provide for Adele's needs so much more than they could, and they sent her away to give her her best chance. But not learning at all? Yeah, that's pretty jerky of them.
• I think I would enjoy ballet more if it was done the way they did it for the special performance. Even though I always read up on the story ahead of time, and there's always a description in the programme, I would love for someone to summarize each act right before it was performed, just to refresh my memory.
• I always wonder what happens to these "regular jobs". I mean, sometimes they write in the book that it's ended, or that it was only for a short period of time. But others, nothing gets mentioned. We just know that Jessi is regularly sitting for the Braddocks now. And then at some point (probably by the next book), she won't be. I'd be interested in seeing some sort of continuity, where (in the next book at least), it's all, "Sorry, I'm unavailable at that time because of [regular sitting job set up last book]."
• Fun fact: I learned some basic ASL for fun when I was in grade 5. I still remember most of the words I learned, but especially the alphabet. I love it. I hope to one day take a formal class and learn even more.