BSC #16, Jessi's New...And She's Black, OMG

(Image stolen from Amazon, because I'm having computer issues and my copy is all faded and looks like crap anyway.)

I picked up this book last night because it's been awhile (somewhere around 15 years, give or take a few) since I last read it. It wasn't as bad as her later books, that's for sure.

It starts off with Jessi waking up at 5:29, one minute before her alarm goes off. She explains her family history to us, and announces that she's black.

I know it sounds funny to announce it like that. If we were white, I wouldn't have to, because you would probably assume we were white. But when you're a minority, things are different.

You know, Jessi, I think your picture on the cover kinda tipped me off that you're black.

Moving on, Jessi is having breakfast with her family and her mother reminds her that today's the day for auditions for the ballet her school is putting on, Coppelia. Jessi is somewhat nervous, but explains to Becca the story behind the ballet, which I don't care to type out, but it boils down to a jealous girlfriend and a whole lotta miscommunication, and everything is resolved at the end of course.

After the auditions, which Jessi doesn't bother to tell us about (thank you) she has a BSC meeting. She arrives late, but Kristy is OK with it. And here comes Jessi's thoughts of the other members, which is pretty routine, except that Kristy's new stepdad is "a millionaire or something." This is also the book where the girls are trying to touch their noses with their tongues because if you can, you'll need a very big bra eventually, "like, when you're eighteen." I always thought that being able to do that meant that you'd make a great lesbian, but whatever. Surprise! Kristy is the only one who can do it.

The phone rings, interrupting their nose hair tasting, and it's a new client who has a deaf child. Hello, Braddocks! But their new sitter has to learn sign language. And since Jessi's so great at languages (and is the only one whose schedule permits sitting every Monday and Wednesday for the next month), she gets the gig.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Jessi gets the role of Swanilda, the lead in the ballet. Of course. She worries about being a black Swanilda, but if the teacher doesn't "seem to mind" she won't either. Get over yourself, Jessi. And through some bitchy girls in her class, she assumes incorrectly that her teacher favors new students, not the ones who are actually good dancers or anything.

So, Jessi goes to the Braddocks' house and starts learning American Sign Language. Mrs. B teaches her the most basic signs, and gives her a dictionary to take home and study.

Between learning ASL and practicing for the ballet, Jessi doesn't sit much for any other kids. Which is fine with me. But she's getting to know the Braddock kids, Haley and Matt, better, and there's some sibling rivalry going on. Haley sometimes resents Matt for being different, even while she's sticking up for him. Jessi tells Haley that it's OK to be different, and that she goes through some of the same stuff Haley does, because she's black. OMG.

And now for the sub-subplot. Jessi had an epiphany about even though the kids at Matt's School for the Deaf can't hear it, they can feel the music that's played. It's simple physics, Jessi. She decides that it would be a wonderful experience for the kids in Matt's class to see the ballet. She goes through this whole rigmarole of talking to the authorities at Matt's school and the head at her ballet school and Mrs. B to see if it's a good idea. Why don't you just invite them?

I guess I missed a part of a page, because the reason she did all that is because before each act, Haley narrated what was going to happen, and Mrs. B translated it into sign language.

The ballet performance is fabulous, naturally, and when Jessi takes her curtain call, Matt comes up and gives her a bouquet of roses. The deaf sister of a classmate gives her sister flowers, and the classmate confesses that she's started to take a sign language class. Her family didn't know how to sign, because the deaf one lived at her school, and was rarely home, so they didn't bother to learn.

WTF Moments:
*Kristy not going crazy when someone was late.

*Jessi says her brother Squirt knows four "real" words: mama, dada, ba, and ackaminnie. Um, the spellchecker tells me that only "mama" is not misspelled, so that means dada, ba, and ackaminnie are not real words. "Ackaminnie," FYI, supposedly means ice cream.

Continuity Issues:
*Jessi says she doesn't want to dance professionally.

Don't forget, Jessi's black.

I've been kinda burnin' to do Mallory Gets the Kissing Disease, so I'm pretty sure that'll be the next BSC book. I hadn't planned on doing this book (or a Jessi book, for that matter), but I haven't done a book in a really long time and it was due. Since I read it last night and I'm trying to get out of cleaning out my storage room, I decided why not.