I would have called it Patton's War, but...
Original cover, where Jessi looks more 17 than 11...
Updated cover, where they tame down the very early '90's fashion with some later '90's fashion....
We join Jessi as she’s sweating her way through ballet
class. She’s dreaming of someday dancing
professionally even though it’s really hard work. She’s already en pointe people! Time to
prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix! …And I just spent 30 minutes looking
up dancers from First Position. You know, because it’s way more interesting
than this book. FYI - it's on Netflix.
She finishes class and waits and waits and finally her dad
picks her up. Jessi spies cake in the
backseat, they arrive home and have a celebration dinner. Mama got a new job! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand Aunt Cecilia is moving in
with them to help since Mama will be working full time.. The Jessi and Becca are not excited and plan
to play nasty tricks on her to get her to leave. This really is what an eight-year-old and
eleven-year-old would do to get rid of someone.
Congratulations Ann, you win a prize for writing realistically…
Jessi calls Mal and we get the ten pages of who we are. The next chapter rolls right into the club
description and Jessi bemoaning the fact that she has a sitter. Maybe I didn’t read this right, but I think
Jessi’s parents also added that she’s helping with housework as well and is
primarily there to take care of Squirt.
Jessi sits for Jackie Rodowsky and finds out that he wants
to make a volcano and could enter it in the school’s science fair. Jessi takes over his project for him, forcing
him to agree to enter a volcano, dragging him to the library to get books and
studying the material for him. Mrs. R is
pretty stoked Jackie’s entering a project and asks Jessi to be the sole
babysitter from now until the science fair.
Mal and Dawn sit for the younger Pikes. They’re getting excited about the science
fair as well and the older kids even set up a miniature lending library for the
neighborhood.
Finally the dreaded day arrives. Aunt Cecelia has rented a U-Haul and Daddy is
driving her stuff back to the Ramsey house.
Of course, when the first thing your aunt says to you is, “Tidy up your
hair, Jessica,” it’s hard to be a good sport about things. They lug things inside and soon Aunty CC is
out of room so soon the house has little touches of her. Jessi’s a little resentful.
Aunty CC gets started right away running the household. She sends the girls to get ready for bed at
8:30, which they are not used to. Jessi
goes to tell her parents, but Mama just tells them they don’t have to go to
bed. Jessi decides not to worry her
about it. I think this first “incident”
sets the tone for the whole debacle.
Now, as a parent, I have a certain set of rules I like followed and I
have a set schedule. My kids are used to
it. As I see it, there are three
failures that happen here in this section. 1. Jessi decides against talking to
her parents because she doesn’t want to worry them. 2. Mama and Daddy Ramsey don’t tell Aunty CC
how the household is used to running. As
far as I can tell, there’s no rundown. 3. Aunty CC doesn’t bother asking if
there’s a schedule the family follows, house rules, nothing along those
lines. Seems pretty presumptuous to barge
in and start running the house without asking…
The next morning Aunty CC (now Aunt Dictator) sends the
parents out to brunch and stays with the kids.
She seems a little overprotective, not letting the kids go outside
because it’s cloudy, not letting Jessi bike to Mal’s house because it’s cloudy,
but I can see her reasoning. She has no idea what these kids are used to
doing, because nobody told her and she
didn’t ask. So of course she’s going
to overprotect; she doesn’t want to risk something happening and having to take
the blame for being negligent. But an
eleven-year-old can’t see that, so Jessi and Becca decide to put their prank
plan into action.
Jessi sits at the Rodowsky’s again, although Aunty CC almost
doesn’t let her go (again, talking people!!) because she doesn’t know the
people Jessi’s sitting for or the club members.
Jessi basically builds his volcano for him and studies information that
he’s supposed to be learning.
Kristy sits for her family (why are Kristy sitting chapters
only about her sitting for her sibs??) and DM decides to enter the science
fair. He works on ideas while Kristy
teaches EM “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”
Stacey sits for Charlotte, who’s testing plants to see if
music affects their growth patterns. Not
gonna lie; I stole this idea when I was in grade school for a science fair
project. I got an A. Stacey suggests charting growth and Charlotte agrees. Becca comes over and tells Charlotte about the jokes they’re playing on
Aunty CC.
Jessi lets loose about Aunty CC at the next BSC meeting and
all her friends think she should talk to her parents about it. Jessi still isn’t convinced. They also talk about the science fair and
Jessi starts to wonder if she’s doing too much of Jackie’s project.
Jessi sits for Jackie and they test the chemicals they’re
going to use to make the exploding volcano.
Jackie can’t touch them and Jessi’s not supposed to either, but then
they wash them off the driveway into the sewer system?? Then they start talking about what Jackie’s
supposed to say, but it doesn’t go well.
Jessi’s trying to take 6th grade information and make a 2nd
grader learn it. Seriously, I would not
expect a 2nd grader to know igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary
rocks.
Jessi’s late getting home, fights with Aunty CC about the
time and is grounded from attending the BSC meeting. She calls her parents, but they’re both busy,
so she ends up having to stay home. She
calls Kristy to tell her and has the club call her as many times as they can to
annoy Aunty CC – and it works. Jessi
casually mentions it at dinner, but Mama and Daddy don’t really notice. Then Aunty CC comes in to do Jessi’s hair so
that it’s something she can be proud of.
Oh, boy. They’re really in it
now!
Finally! The night of
the science fair. Jackie’s volcano is
awesome, his speech goes well, but then the judges ask questions….and he has no
idea what he’s talking about then. It’s
not like the questions were hard; they were questions my kids had when they
were in second grade. Jackie is (rightfully)
ticked off at Jessi and she apologizes for doing his project for him.
The science fair shows Jessi that she (finally!) needs to
talk to her parents. She explains what’s
been going on with Aunty CC and her parents have a family conference. They (finally!) explain how things run and
the responsibility they let the girls have.
Aunty CC says she’s tough because things are harder for black people and
Jessi can understand that. Then Aunty CC
tells Mama and Daddy about the girls’ practical jokes and they say there will
be punishment for that.
Jessi goes to her next BSC meeting and they commiserate
about the science fair. Mal gives a
little foreshadowing about her dad’s job being in danger and Dawn talks about
heading to Cali
to visit her fam. When she gets home,
she’s greeted by Becca, who has some nasty bugs in her slippers. Jessi discovers a mouse in her bed, shaving
cream in her slippers and a short-sheeted bed.
Looks like Aunty CC got them back!
Becca and Jessi apologize as does Aunty CC and finally it
looks like things are settling down.
Which would have happened earlier if there had been some
communication. But if there was
communication, we wouldn’t have this insipid book.
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