Jessi's first book in the series was really good. A solid little story about her sitting for a deaf boy and how his sister deals with all of it. Great character stuff. Well, this book chooses to give us animals. A whole lot of animals. And that already sounds like a good time to me. Hope to not be disappointed. It's Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter.
Three covers to talk about again and all three are pretty good. The first one mixes the baby-sitting element the the pet sitting element for reasons I can only assume being that the covers need to have little kids on it to sell the baby-sitting aspect to new and interested readers. The new cover does away with the kids but keeps all of the animals, and it's a nice little cover. The word "cuddly" keeps entering my head when I see it. Also that turtle on the bottom left, i love it. But it's the graphic novel cover that I prefer. Mainly because it sells the chaos that would come from being a pet-sitter. And Jessi's shocked reaction really sells the situation. All good stuff, but this time the winner is the graphic novel.
It's a first chapter, which means we got ourselves the preamble. But while that's going down, Jessi is doing her homework while her sister Becca is pretending to be a cat and later a snake. YouTube wasn't a thing yet so you had to kill time somehow. Jessi also notes that she has a week off as her usual charge, Matt Braddock and his sister Haley, is going on a week's long vacation. So she has no clue what she plans to do that week. But given this book's title I think we know what that answer will be. That comes a chapter later as during the club meeting, the girls get a call from the Mancusis. They don't have any children to sit, but they do have animals. Lots of animals. The girls got roped into a pet sitting job before and swore off of doing any more, but given the Mancusi's original pet sitter cancelled on them, they are in a bind and need of help, or their vacation will have to be cancelled. Since Jessi has a week off, she takes the job, which entails watching five cats, three dogs, two guinea pigs, a snake, turtles, hamsters, birds. At this rate I'm expecting one of them to be a partridge in a pear tree.
Jessi meets with Mr. and Mrs. Mancusi and sees all of their pets. Three dogs, a Great Dane named Cheryl, a poodle named Pooh Bear, a golden retriever named Jacques, cats named Powder, Ling Ling, Crosby, Tom and Rosie, birds including a parrot named Frank that quotes "Where's the Beef" in case you needed reminding that this book was released in the 80s. Guinea pigs named Lucy and Ricky, a bunch of fish and turtles, a snake named Barney which makes Jessi panic and rabbits named Fluffer-Nut, Robert, Cindy and Toto. I can just imagine this house having the most fecal smell imaginable. Jessi walks the dogs and feeds the animals, so her first day is a success. Claudia babysits for Jamie Newton and his friend Nina, so she takes them to see Jessi and the animals. To which Jamie panics over the Guinea Pigs thinking they're evil and from space. Okay then. They go with Jessi to walk the dogs instead, which also involves them walking the Perkins' dog Chewbacca as well because why not I guess?
At the next meeting, Kristy is acting more bossy and more president-y than usual, to which the girls rightly ask what the hell she actually does as president. Instead of really any concrete answer, she tries to get the girls to commit to signing a checklist every week to confirm they've read the journals. The girls aren't for this and are also tired of certain other issues involving the club. The scheduling, the phone calls, the collecting of dues. So, yet again, they're at each other's throats. Been a while. Mary Anne baby-sits for the Perkins kids and takes them to see Jessi and the animals, to which Barney the snake escapes his cage. They all panic, namely Mary Anne in particular (which hey, I also have a slight phobia of snakes so she just became more relatable), but find the snake outside and manage to get him back in the cage. At the next meeting, Kristy puts her checklist over some pictures of Claudia and Stacey, not realizing said pictures are important. Yeah, how could photos of Claudia's best friend who MOVED AWAY have any significant value to her? This is the last straw for Claudia who decides that there should be an election for the spot of club president. They choose to hold a special meeting and adjourn this meeting, all while Mallory and Jessi already seeing this being a complete disaster.
The next day, Jessi invites her sister Becca and Mallory over to watch the pets. The dogs see a cat outside and drag Jessi outside in cartoonish fashion. After everything calms down Jessi and Mallory begin to realize that this whole election thing is a disaster waiting to happen. First off, if Kristy loses her presidency, she might become resentful. And even if the votes are secret, the entire thing could spell the end of the club in general due to how everyone reacts. It's funny that the girls gave Mallory a hard time in joining when she and Jessi are the only ones with any common sense. Kristy watches Jackie Rodowsky who, wouldn't you know it, his class is holding an election as well. What a coinkydink. He wants the job of taking care of the class rabbit, but doesn't think he stands a chance. Given his track record, I could see why even he'd think nobody would trust him around a live animal. She tries to give him a lot of advice in how to campaign and do things, but seems more intent on not letting him do things. But given when he goes to get a bag of dog food and it spills on him, I see her point. But Jackie even notes that she's a bossy baby-sitter that seems to be more focused on doing things her way over others. So even the kids are clowning on Kristy.
The pre-election day meeting goes on, and Kristy realizes that there could be a tie in the votes so she makes Mallory and Jessi eligible, and whoever's office is being elected on can't vote in the interest of fairness. But when Mary Anne tries to tell her about how this should be democratic and that Kristy is too quick to take full control and barge in, Kristy snaps at her and makes her cry. So yeah, not exactly giving good reasons to keep her in charge, huh? The day of the election arrives and Jessi heads to the Mancusis to watch the animals. However, she notices one of the hamsters is injured and seems to be sick. So she calls her mother and they head to the vet, all while Jessi realizes that this might jeopardize her chance to vote. But she calls Kristy who is cool with it and they choose to postpone it. The vet reveals that the hamster is fine, just pregnant and about to give birth. Jessi gives the hamster the name of Misty since she also realized it's female. The election arrives and, to really no shock, everyone votes to keep themselves in their original spots, even Kristy, who realizes she has been bossy and has decided to let the others vote on a new idea instead of enforcing it.
The girls visit the Mancusis as Misty gives birth to ten hamsters. The Mancusis show up, a bit shocked they didn't even notice a pregnant hamster, and thank Jessi for all of her hard work, even offering her a baby hamster. The girls have their meeting, to which Kristy brings a new checklist to destroy, proving she's serious about not being so bossy. Jessi gets a hamster, as does Mallory. Jackie Rodowsky calls, saying that he didn't win the election to take care of the rabbit, so he's given a hamster to take care of. Oh dear god no!
This book is good. And thankfully unlike last book, I have things to talk about. What is interesting about this book is that, despite the title, the focus of the story really isn't Jessi taking care of the pets. It's still a major factor, and the story's climax involves the hamsters, but I think that even Ann M. Martin had a bit of trouble extending an entire book about pet sitting. So instead we have the girls get mad at each other for the upteenth time. This time resulting in an election. Which could make the reader think that maybe this is a major shake-up, maybe some fresh spots for the club members, but nah. Everyone stays in the same spot. For a book series that so far has shown its willingness to change things around, to get an ending that is all like "all hail the status quo" does feel a bit weird. I will say though that this is the first time the baby-sitting jobs conveniently connecting to the plot of the book did annoy me. I get why they're done, but I do wish for a bit more variety. It makes the baby-sitting feel like requirements that need to be tacked on and not something with a lot of meat to them.
Even though Jessi is the focus of the story, this book pivots to being about Kristy. And for the first time in a while, it's a look at how she really is a bit too bossy and unwilling to accept the opinions of the other club members. They mention that it involves her frustrations over Charlie acting like the cool "going to be in college soon" guy, but it's not like this hasn't been her character in the past. The entire series debuted on her lack of decorum after all. And the book focuses in on how she is very bossy, even if she's not intentionally trying to be like how she handles Jackie. But the book also makes it clear that she's still the best choice for the position. That when push comes to shove she can be the one with the right ideas and the ability to bring everything back to a state of normalcy. It's probably the best character development Kristy's had since the first book in the series, which is neat and all, but this is supposed to be a book about Jessi. And Jessi does get some stuff, with the book focusing on how she and Mallory are more level headed than the rest of the club. But if you came into this one hoping for more development, you aren't really getting it here.
So overall, this one is a solid book. It has enough animal moments for the reader to enjoy, and involves a deeper conflict for the girls to resolve. It's not much for character development or worldbuilding, aside from some of the characters getting hamsters, and definitely feels like the first book that tries not to change the status quo in any meaningful manner, but not every book needs to be this big world changing event. And given a few of the books coming up, I think Ann M. Martin can be excused for giving us a few fun filler books. So this one's an easy recommend. Jessi may not have been the key focus, but as a narrator, she's 2-0 for good books. Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter gets an A-.
Dawn book next. Will this California adventure finally give us the first Dawn book I actually like? Well, it's ghostwritten so uh-oh.
M&Ms
Pooh Bear
"Where's the Beef?"
Lucy and Ricky
I Love Lucy
Miss Mary Mack
Chewbacca
The Clue of the Velvet Mask
Nancy Drew
Bounty
Tetley
Eeyore
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