6/26/10

Jessi and the Superbrat (RS#27)

Original Publication Date: 1989

Ghostwriter? Yes, Jan Carr

Synopsis:

Jessi is starstruck: she's just found out that Derek Masters, an actor on a popular TV show, is from Stoneybrook (one of many celebrities...). Not only that, his family (Mom, Dad, and brother Todd) is moving back to Stoneybrook while the show's on break, she gets to sit for him! She's still a bit dazed when she meets him, but quickly realizes he's a regular kid. Unfortunately, his classmates at Stoneybrook Elementary (where he re-enrolls) don't quite get this: the girls fawn over him and the boys are jealous. One boy in particular is giving him problems. John, the Superbrat as Jessi calls him, does things like tossing Derek's lunch out the window, throwing him baseballs coated in chewed gum, tying his shoelaces together, and so on. Of course, once Derek settles in, the Superbrat problem evaporates, because Derek was actually doing some of those things, and telling people someone else did was his was talking about it.

Also predictably, Derek gets a part in a TV movie and the family must move back to Los Angeles. Derek suggests Jessi try out for parts, too, so she can move to California with them. Jessi's been involved in a series of tryouts for a production of Swan Lake at the prestigious (?) Stoneybrook Civic Center, and thinks maybe ballet isn't her thing. She goes pretty far with the idea of becoming an actor, but ultimately decides to stay with ballet. Of course, she gets a part in the corps as a swan maiden for the production.


Established or continued in this book:


The Girls (and Logan):

Claudia candy: M&Ms under her bed

While waiting to start a BSC meeting, Kristy chews on the TIP of a pencil. Not the eraser, which would be bad enough, but the graphite tip. Ew.

I think it would make sense for Mallory to get a little starstruck, as she does. In Super Special #11, she gets all flustered meeting her favorite author, and in other books she gets weird around famous people (Henrietta Hayes, her ideas about becoming a California girl, and so on).

Kristy's handwriting is messy in this book. I wonder why...did the person who wrote her notebook entries get hurt or something?

Jessi didn't have shoes for her first ballet class; her mom hadn't had the time to take her to buy any.

Hooray for Claudia the Peacekeeper! (She helps Derek make some friends when a group of boys shows up at a playground and things start out a little tense)

I really like the (tiny) bit about Claudia realizing that Todd Masters could use some one-on-one time since his brother's so famous. Given the Claudia-Janine dynamic, she would be the right person to notice that.


Their Families:

Becca still has a rock collection (not gemstones or anything; ones she thinks are interesting).

Karen's bossiness is showing more.


The Club:

New clients: the Masters family.

Mary Anne forgot to write down a baby-sitting job!


SMS: Nothing new


PSA time: Nothing new


Misc:

Hannah Crawford was this book's original owner.

The BSC talks about "winning over" the Superbrat. Why would you want to be friends with such a jerk? I'd want him to leave me alone, but I wouldn't want to be all buddy-buddy with him.


The numbers:

Starting 8th grade: 2

Halloweens in 8th grade: 1

Summers after 8th grade: 1

BSC Fights: 5

SMS Staff: 13 (2 6th grade, 3 7th grade, 4 8th grade, 2 elective, 1 vice-principal, 1 secretary)

Students: 32 8th graders, six sixth-graders

Clients: 22

Types of candy in Claudia’s room: 35 (bubble gum, Butterfingers, butterscotch candy, Cheese Doodles, a chocolate bar, cookies, Cracker Jacks, crackers, cupcakes, Ding-Dongs, Doritos, gumdrops, Fritos, Gummi Bears, Heath bars, Hershey's kisses, Ho Hos, jawbreakers, licorice, licorice whips, Lifesavers, M&Ms (regular and peanut), Mallomars, marshmallows, mini candy bars, Oreos (Double Stuf), popcorn, pretzels, Ring Dings, root beer barrels, salt water taffy, Snickers, Tootsie Roll Pops, Tootsie Rolls, Twinkies)

Crushes: Claudia-4 (Austin Bentley, Timothy Carmody, Trevor Sandbourne, Will Yamakawa), Dawn-1 (Parker Harris), Mary Anne-2 (Alex, Logan Bruno), Stacey-4 (Toby, Pete Black, Scott Foley, Sam Thomas), Kristy-1 (Bart Taylor)

6 comments:

Sadako said...

"Kristy's handwriting is messy in this book. I wonder why...did the person who write her notebook entries get hurt or something?"

I thought that they used a computer font to do their entries? Since all the letters look the same even though they're meant to be handwritten...

SJSiff said...

I thought I read that someone did actually write the notebook entries and that a font existed that you could use for your computer. But I could be wrong. Maybe it was a printing error.

Sadako said...

Ooops, did some googling and apparently Scholastic did have one person who wrote all the different entries, in the art department.

LauraTheWonderTart said...

Thank God Jessi got a corps part and not the lead. It kills me a little that she even got that, but I'll allow it since it has happened before, and because it's a civic center and not a company. If she had gotten Odette/Odile as AMM was prone to do, I would be obligated to rant.

Donica said...

I gotta say, I am kind of like Mallory when it comes to being starstruck. I tend to turn into a blubbering idiot...and then apologize for doing so. The Cardinals baseball manager is a regular at my OLD gas station, and the one time I looked up and realized it was him, I ended up sputtering. The exact words out of my mouth were, "Oh my god, Mike," He had been in and out of there before, but I had never waited on him. (Another time I THINK he snuck in around the lunch time rush to go quickly to the bathroom. As he was making an escape out the front of the store, I looked up and our eyes met, and he was gone. It took me a few moments to realize that it had been him. Sure enough, his huge ass truck went through the carwash behind me a few minutes later). Also waited on a former Blues player, but I wasn't alerted to who it was until after the fact. (I knew who the player was... I just didn't know what he looked like!!). One of my coworkers at my parttime job...her son was on this season of Masterchef Junior. Good thing I met him BEFORE I watched the couple of episode he was in. Haha. (Juelz). But, seriously.
List of other celebrities? Dick Clark (Dont remember going gaga, though), Alison Arngrim (Little house on the prairie), Charmian Carr (Sound of Music), Craig Bierko (been in a few movies, and Broadway). It's a damn good thing i don't watch Vanderpump Rules, because Tom Sandoval has come into the gas station I currently work at. (My coworker went NUTS though, along with a couple of teenage girls the second time around... and he offered to send a video to a friend of mine whom I had found out the first time he had come in was a huge fan).
Ahem. Where had I started? Oh, right. Mallory and being starstruck.

SJSiff said...

That's so fun that you've met so many celebrities!