Jessi and the Superbrat, #27

This was another large print library book.  What really makes me feel old is that I kept thinking how much easier this was to read.  Sigh...

This book opens with Jessi thinking how much she misses her family in Oakley, NJ, especially her cousin and BFF, Keisha.  I totally didn't remember that she was from NJ, and I don't remember Keisha being mentioned in other books.  I didn't read that many Jessi books as a kid, so that's probably why.  I guess I'm allowed to forget some details over the past 20 years, too.  And why does Jessi look about 30 on the cover?  She's supposed to be 11, one year older than the Pike triplets, also on the cover, and she looks older than I do.  

Let's get some plot in here:  Jessi finds out that her favorite character on the TV show P.S. 162 is actually from the 'Brook, and used to attend SES.  His name is Derek Masters, and now that his show is on hiatus, his family is returning to Stoneybrook.  Mayhem ensues.  Anyway, next BSC meeting, Mrs. Masters calls for a sitter for Derek and his brother, Todd, and Jessi gets the job.  She is super excited, but the more she asks Derek about the show, the more he changes the subject.  Jessi invites some of the other BSC charges over to play with Derek, the same things happen - the kids want to talk about Hollywood, Derek just wants to be a normal kid.  When Derek returns to school, he talks about being bullied by this kid named John, who the BSC promptly dubs "the Superbrat."

Meanwhile, in ballet land, Madame Noelle, Jessi's dance teacher, announces that the Stoneybrook Civic Center is holding auditions for Swan Lake, and encourages Jessi to audition.  Jessi needs a resume and photo for the audition, and after talking with Derek about headshots, she decides that she may need to get into modeling around Stoneybrook.  Plus, after she gets to the first round of auditions for the ballet, where there are professional dancers from New York also auditioning (umm...is the 'Brook that big of a cultural mecca, that professional dancers would come audition for a production here?), she thinks that she may drop ballet altogether and do acting as well.  However, Jessi gets called back for a second audition, and then a third...and then gets a part as a swan maiden.  And promptly decides that ballet is her true calling.

And things settle down for Derek Masters at school, he even makes several friends again. However, he gets cast in a TV movie (I really hope it's a Lifetime movie.  Or maybe Syfy.) and the Masters family must return to LA.  The BSC decides to through a going-away breakfast party for Derek (cause apparently 9am on a Saturday was the only time they were all free...), and they decide to invite the Superbrat so that they can help Derek confront him.  However, no one named John shows up to the party, and all the kids at the party were nice to Derek.  Then, Derek pulls Jessi aside and confesses that he was actually the Superbrat, because he didn't know how to be a normal kid at school at first and wanted the other kids to like him.  Yeah, cause dumping someone's lunch over their heads is a great way to make friends.  Well, if you are a child actor, maybe.  True Hollywood Story:  How Derek Masters Spiraled Out of Control in his Hometown.

What Claudia wore:  "That Monday, for instance, she had two french braids pulled back and wound into one.  She's also a wild dresser.  At that meeting, she was wearing a bright pink T-shirt, a short red flouncy skirt, and underneath the skirt she had on black footless tights that she had rolled up to mid-calf."

I think Emma Stone is a fan of BSC fashion, too...