#16 Jessi's Secret Language

Timeline:
Again, no mention of holidays or seasons. Maybe this segment of the blog won't be as interesting as I thought it would be.

Plot:
There are two main parts to this book - 1. Jessi gets the lead in her ballet school's show, and at first two girls are mean to her, but then they get over it because she's good and deserves it, and 2. Jessi gets a semi-permanent babysitting gig for this new family, the Braddock's, and one of the kids is profoundly deaf. Jessi learns sign language (sorry, spoiler alert, that's the "secret language") to communicate with him, and she teaches a bunch of kids in the neighborhood, so that way Matt (deaf kid) and Haley (sister) can make some friends. At the end of the book, Jessi arranges it so the other deaf kids in Matt's class can come to her ballet, and Matt's mom and Haley interpret for them. And Jessi of course is amazing in the performance.

Takeaways:
Jessi is obviously very talented, but she certainly knows it and is not shy about it. I don't know how many times in this book she mentions her long dancers legs, or how she was the youngest and most talented in her class, or how she has this natural talent and her sister has none.

This book really really really makes me want to learn sign language.

Matt says (signs) that the Patriots were going to win the Super Bowl. I realize this book was written in the early 90's, but I'm pretending it was this year and little Matt Braddock called it.

I had one moment in the book where I seriously almost started crying. Jessi goes to Matt's class to tell them they are going to the ballet. After everyone else leaves, Matt hugs her and signs to her that he loves her and she's his best grown up friend. I seriously like had to swallow hard and hold back tears.


Best character:
Well clearly I have to give this one to Jessi. Besides the fact that she does a pretty nice thing in this book, she also really doesn't mention the other sitters very much, anyway. This book was very much about Jessi.

Worst character:
I don't think there was really a worst character in this book, but I'll give this to Jenny Prezzioso (spelling, I know that's wrong) because she screams in Matt's face when she first meets him and then declares she doesn't like him because he is weird.