Jessi Ramsey, Pet Sitter

 

Book #22, Graphix #18

Original Book - Writer: Ann M.Martin

Graphix Book - Illustrator: Ellen T. Crenshaw

Basic plot

Jessi takes a pet sitting job at the Mancusis' they have a lot of pets and it's more of a handful than she expected! Meanwhile the BSC have problems when the girls decide they don't want to do their officer roles anymore.

Things that are kept the same

•  Jessi is looking forward to quiet week because her ballet classes are on a break and her regular sitting charges, the Braddocks, are away.
• At the BSC meeting, Kristy is being particularly bossy annoying the other girls.When the Mrs Mancusis rings to ask about pet-sitting job (because their pet-sitter pulled out last minute), Kristy tells the rest of the girls they don't do pet-sitting jobs but relents when the other girls push back and Jessi says she will take the job.
• Jessi meets the Mancusis' and their many, many pets! Including 3 dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, birds, fish, turtle and a snake. They will be on holiday for a week, they leave instructions and Jessi will come over twice a day to look after the pets.
• Some of the other BSC bring clients over to Mancusis' house while on sitting jobs, Claudia brings over Jamie Newton and Nina Marshall while Jessi is pet-sitting, Jessi notices one hamster seems to be isolated from the others.
• Mary Anne brings over the Marshall's on her sitting job, while there Mary Anne accidentally lets Barney the snake loose, they are freaked out but luckily together they are able to capture him. 
• Kristy doesn't visit but has a pet related job, as she tries to help Jackie Rodowsky with his campaign for class pet carer, but she ends up taking over things and makes her realise she was  being too bossy.   
• At the BSC meetings, things have gotten tense because of Kristy's bossiness, when she tries to introduce a checklist for reading the club notebook, the girls start to argue and upset they don't trust them to read it, and say they no longer want to do their club positions. This continues into next meeting and re-elections are called for. Jessi and Mal want to stay as neutral as possible.
• On the day they are meant to have special meeting to vote, Jessi is worried about the hamster on it's own, she asks her mom to take her to the vet. It turns out the hamster is pregnant. 
• At the rescheduled BSC meeting, the girls end up voting everyone back into same roles realising those were best suited to job, Kristy apologies for being bossy and the girls make up.
• They all visit the Mancusis' and the hamster has started to have the babies. Jessi is excited to tell the Mancusis' on their return and she is more excited when her parents agree she and Becca can have one as their first pet, when they are ready for new homes.
• At the BSC meeting she checks about homes for the other hamsters on the Mancusis' behalf and Mal and Jackie will each get one too. 

 

Things from other books/ Other things to note

• Kristy has the rule about no pet-sitting job, since her disastrous first job with dogs, Buffy and Pinky, in book 1 (Kristy's Great Idea). Nice reference here to that.
• It's odd in both the book and graphix, they say how Dawn is perfect treasurer and never reference the fact that Stacy, the maths whiz, was the original treasurer and Dawn originally was alternate officer and only took on the role due to Stacy moving away.  If I am remembering right, Dawn was very happy to give back her duties when Stacy moved back.

Things that are changed

• In the first chapter some of Jessi's internal monologue is redone to conversations with her family. Becca plays at being a cat which comes up later again when she visits the Mancusis' house. 
• Some of the animal descriptions are bit different to the visuals in the graphix, like no Siamese cat, and Chewy is a black labrador in the book but brown in the graphix.
• The Mancusis' specifically say that Jessi can have friends over to help in the graphix, probably to address the fact in the book that random people keep coming to the house, without the Mancusis' knowledge!
• The way Barney the snake gets loose is changed a bit in the graphix. Mary Anne takes lid off to take a closer look and gets startled by a sudden movement and Barney escapes, rather than in the book where she wanders off to see Frank the bird and forgets to put lid back on. (Either way a bit strange Mary Anne decided to take a closer look in the first place!)
• Kristy's babysitting chapter with Jackie, doesn't get it's own chapter in the graphix, instead at one of the meetings Kristy is struggling to update the notebook and it is later at the election meeting that Kristy talks about the job and realization she was too bossy. This was a good move as it means Kristy learning her lesson was closer to the end and something she had to think about, also it ties in about the notebook issue as the girls are pointedly saying they are ready to read the notebook when Kristy hasn't updated it yet.
• In the book, Jessi calls Kristy to say she won't make the meeting, while the hamster is being examined and her mom tells her the revelation that it's a girl and pregnant. In the graphix, she calls Kristy before and is there for the actual examination.
• Jessi calls the hamster Misty after finding out it's a girl, in the Graphix she gets the idea from Becca. 
• The last chapter leaves out Jackie calling to say he didn't get class carer and Kristy talking to his mom about letting him have a hamster (instead it's just mentioned that she would talk to Mrs. Rodowsky about getting a hamster) 

Final Thoughts

The premise is ridiculous one, an 11 year old looking after that many animals and only going twice a day, but it is still fun book one of my earliest that I owned. Again the graphix doesn't change much, but I appreciate the little changes they do make, like tying the Kristy notebook and her job with Jackie more into the problems the girls are having.