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)