Thoughts before reading:
I've never read a Jessi book before, so this and all of her books will be completely new. I don't remember why exactly, other than I just didn't find her interesting as a kid. She just seemed like Mal's sidekick back then. All I remember was that her personality consisted basically of being a dancer and being black. I didn't relate, and knew nothing about ballet. (I also never read any Abby books, because I was mad that she replaced Dawn.)
Now I'm sort of glad about this though, because it will be fun having an entirely new POV, and I don't know much of anything else about her character.
Also: I hate this cover. Jessi is only supposed to be 11! She looks about 30 here, mom jeans and all.
The basics:
Right off the bat, Jessi gets offered a steady babysitting job for new clients, the Braddocks. They have two kids: Haley, 9, and Matt, 7, who is also deaf. Their mom wants a regular sitter who will be willing to learn sign language. Jessi loves languages and is eager to prove herself, so she readily agrees. She's excited about the new challenge, despite being very busy in her new ballet class. They have a show, Coppelia, coming up. Jessi also lands the lead in the show, dancing the part of Swanilda. This is a big deal because she's the youngest student in her advanced pointe class.
Jessi meets the Braddocks and starts learning sign language (ASL). She picks it up very quickly, and gets along well with the kids. Haley is struggling to fit in and resents Matt for making that harder. Jessi relates well to her because of her struggles fitting into racist Stoneybrook. To help Haley, she introduces her and Matt to the Pike kids. They are all interested in ASL too, learning quickly and making up insulting signs. It begins to spread to other clients through the BSC girls, who turn it into a secret language game.
There's also a girl in Jessi's ballet class, Katie Beth, who has a deaf sister. Her and Jessi haven't gotten along before, because Katie Beth was jealous of her lead role and young age, calling her the teacher's pet. The girls make up and become friends though, after Jessi is able to talk to her sister. The poor kid's own family has never learned to sign and can't communicate with her.
Lots of rehearsing and sitting for the Braddocks follows. As Jessi grows closer to Haley and Matt, she's sad to find out he's never been able to attend the theater. (He's only 7 though, so is this unusual?) She arranges for his entire class at a special school for the deaf to come to her opening night. Matt's mom and sister will also narrate the show with ASL.
Opening night is a huge success, and Matt declares it the best night of his life. Even Katie Beth's little sister comes, and Jessi's cousin/best friend from her old town shows up as a surprise. Katie Beth is now taking ASL classes because she was inspired by Jessi. The BSC is also all going to learn.
Timeline:
Still the first time through 8th and 6th grades, respectively, but no idea what time of year.
My thoughts:
This book did a great job of explaining deafness, sign language, being different, and even various options for handling deafness to children. However, this wasn't very interesting to read about now. It got really old being constantly told the signs for every little thing. Really pointless too, since it's not like we could see the signs. If it gets kids interested in learning ASL, that's great, and I definitely wish I'd read this as a child. I would probably have loved it then. Now though, it was just overkill.
The main thing I did enjoy was reading a new POV and learning about Jessi's life and family. She's a crazy busy kid too, between school, club meetings, dance class, being lead in a show, and a regular sitting job. I really don't think I could have handled her schedule in the 6th grade. Instead of trying to make her the "funny one", they should have played her up as the perfectionist/over-achieving one. It would have been such a better character arc, and worked so well with this first intro to her character. Picture the Spencer Hastings of Stoneybrook, and you'll see the vibe I got here. Not to mention I think they've ALREADY dropped her funny gig.
Even for a BSC book, the stories in here were wrapped up way too neatly for my taste. I was left feeling like the whole book was just a boring moral lesson. Jessi absolutely slays at everything she tries in this book, juggling the lead in a ballet of girls much older than her, learning a whole new language, helping Matt and Haley, and doing tons of good deeds. It was all just overdone. She learns the signs so quickly, then just as fast she makes tons of friends for the kids, changes their lives, gets the BSC learning ASL, which in turn gets all their clients learning.... Every other kid other than Jenny P is super interested in learning, as well as super accepting. Then there is a big, mushy, happy ending concluding in Matt signing how happy he is. Ugh. I know this whole paragraph is a mess of lists, but that gives you an idea of how this was to read. Now who wants to bet we never hear about most of this stuff again?
Misc.
*Jessi has a practice ballet studio in her basement: she's a lucky girl. Maybe she has a perfectionist family too?
*Haley's hair is described as "cut short with a little tail in the back, very in"? I can't picture this at all.
*Kristy says her mom is 37?! I can't get over how young all the adults are now! Not only this, but the BSC girls think she's too old to have a baby, lol. Ouch, girls. You all just wait...
*On that note, this is the book where they start mentioning Mrs. Brewer and Watson wanting a baby.
*Jessi says of her ballet class rival's jealousy: "The only way for me to feel bad about it was to let them make me feel bad". Good life advice, kid.
*It always annoyed me when BSC reviewers made fun of how Jessi was "the black one" and how we're constantly told this. I'm sorry for that now though, because they are 100% correct. It's brought up sooo much!
Books mentioned:
*The Secret Language, by Ursula Nordstrom
*Jessi's little sister Becca apparently collects cat books, including The Christmas Day Kitten, Pinky Pye, and Millions of Cats.
My rating:
3 stars. Slow and over the top, but valuable to the targeted reader age range.
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