Jessi’s aunt Cecelia moves in, primarily to help care for Squirt, when Jessi’s mother gets a full-time job. Jessi resents having to answer to Cecelia, who is more strict than her parents; dictates what Jessi eats and how she dresses; and always seems suspicious that Jessi trying to pull a fast one, undermining the life of baby-sitting responsibility and ballet achievement Jessi is trying to live. A subplot in which Jessi tries to help Jackie Rodowsky enter a model volcano in the science fair and ends up doing all the work herself so that it will be done right teaches Jessi that Aunt Cecelia micromanages because she loves.

Jessi is at probably her most immature in this book, particularly when she and Becca play practical jokes on Cecelia as revenge, but it’s not unrealistic considered her age (even her revised age) and the situation; it should come as no surprise that children who are treated like immature little monsters meet expectations. Jessi’s frustration with Cecelia’s overbearing nature, and with having to answer to someone more strict than her parents, is realistic and sympathetic; Cecelia is both a formidable adult villain (I can’t believe she wouldn’t let Jessi go to the BSC MEETING!) and a multidimensional person trying her best to establish a place of authority in an existing household, and to find a place for herself in a complete family after the death of her husband and the dispersal of a neighborhood where she once undoubtedly ruled the roost. I’d probably rate this book higher except that the subplot with Jackie is so painfully anvilicious, I can hardly bear to read it (you do learn about volcanoes, though).

Revised Timeline: Early tenth grade (eighth grade for Jessi)

Jessi always had the makings of being an interesting character, but her books were always some of the most boring. This one was very meh too, especially the B-plot about the science fair. I never cared for Aunt Cecelia when she started showing up, and I don't know how Jessi dealt with her for so long. I'd have gone squealing to my mom asap.

Anyway the whole thing was kind of a snooze fest. A lot of build up, for not much payoff.

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/jessis-baby-sitter

this is my first time reading this book!

as was foreshadowed in the previous book, [b:Baby-sitters' Island Adventure|290512|Baby-sitters' Island Adventure (The Baby-Sitters Club Super Special, #4)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387733875s/290512.jpg|281853], jessi's aunt cecelia comes to live with them. she throws the whole ramsey routine out of whack, treating jessi and becca like they're stupid babies and not playing with squirt at all while not letting jessi and becca play with him either. meanwhile, jessi decides to help jackie rodowsky with his science fair project and treats him like a stupid baby herself (doing all the work for him) and straight up cannot see the parallelism happening in her life.

highlights:
-the pikes make a lending library. IT IS SO CUTE. their process is to divide the books by animal stories, mystery series, science books, sports books, etc. then there are index cards in each book that have the book title, and they keep the index card and write the kid's name and check out date on it. they write the due date on a post-it and put it on the book for the kid. the library is open to the neighborhood kids after school and weekends! enterprising pikelets.
-some of the mean things jessi and becca do to aunt cecelia to try to make her feel unwelcome, namely SHORT SHEETING HER BED. I love any time short-sheeting happens in the bsc series, because short-sheeting is the most innocuous and hilarious prank for these 1950s-style tweens to pull.
-speaking of which, once jessi and becca talk to their parents about the problems with aunt cecelia (FINALLY.) cecelia tells them (mr and mrs ramsey) about the short-sheeting and other pranks. they say they are going to ground jessi and becca, but cecelia asks them to let her deal with jessi and becca instead. so she pulls the exact same pranks on them: puts shaving cream in their slippers, short-sheets jessi's bed, puts fake animals on their pillows. I love this grumpy old woman acting like a little kid prankster.
-more foreshadowing for stacey feeling ill and for mallory's dad losing his job.
-the baby-sitters all are helping kids with their science fair projects (a la the pageant in [b:Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn|48919|Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn (The Baby-Sitters Club, #15)|Ann M. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344203940s/48919.jpg|910848]) but aside from jessi they mostly don't get too involved/don't pressure the kids/don't do the work for them. they just point out spots where the project is lacking in science and point the kids in the right direction to find better project ideas, and then they don't get super competitive about it and mostly don't care when the kids lose (except charlotte who ends up winning 3rd place -- see the next highlight for more info).
-the two really good science fair projects. margo pike makes a shadow box depicting what life would be like if we lived on the moon (and it has barbies in jetsons-style outfits drinking tang). charlotte johannsen tries to grow three plants, with the only different condition for each of the plants being that for one, she doesn't play any music; for one, she plays it 30 minutes of classical music per day; and for one, she plays it 30 minutes of duran duran per day. the duran duran one grows way better than the others, and she ends up getting third place in the science fair.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-why do we see a notebook entry for a time that jessi baby-sits? it seems like this tends to happen more when the narrator is either jessi or mallory. it's like ann doesn't count them as real narrators because they're junior members.
-jessi is such a jerk with jackie. it's really frustrating to read.
-when talking about frogs, mallory says, "don't we have a book on reptiles?" mallory is way too nerdy to not know that frogs are amphibians.
-I hate when they say that emily michelle is having trouble with language acquisition because up until recently she was hearing "a foreign language" i.e. vietnamese. no, vietnamese was her first language, and ENGLISH is still a foreign language to her, you idiots.
-once again, a missing-the-point racism moment. cecelia says that sometimes black people have to work harder to prove themselves, and jessi compares it to jackie rodowsky (a white boy) having to work hard because everyone thinks he's a klutz. that's not a systemic thing, you idiot! even if she said, "he has to work hard because everyone thinks he's a klutz because he's a ginger kid," that STILL wouldn't be the same. UGH.

claudia outfit:
-"Claud was wearing a fake leopard-skin vest, a fairly tame blouse, and blue leggings. She had made her jewelry herself--five papier-mache bracelets that were painted in soft desert colors."

stacey outfit:
-"Stacey was wearing tight black pants that reached just above her ankles, and sported a column of four silvery buttons at the bottoms. (The buttons were just for show, I think.) Over the pants she was wearing a long (past her knees) blue jacket made of soft material. Under that she was wearing a sleeveless blouse."

jackie disasters (only two! amazing considering how present he is in this book):
-slips on the rug and falls on his bottom
-gets his foot stuck in one of his old rain boots
-not sure if this counts...when making papier mache he scratches his cheek and gets papier mache goop on it.

dawn's kid-kit:
-skipper doll with sleepover stuff
-jigsaw puzzle with a poem on it

snacks in claudia's room:
-planters peanut bar under her armchair
-necco wafers (n.s.)

(LL)
This one is the biggest sinner of adding hyperbolic situations. There is no way 90% of the interactions with Aunt Cecelia would ever happen. The science fair stuff is for sure what happens most of the time, but it’s both predictable and boring, so it’s just a lazy attempt at foreshadowing.