Jessi And The Dance School Phantom (1991) - Plot & Excerpts
jessi lands the lead role of princess aurora in her dance school's production of "sleeping beauty". of course she does. because she's just that good. even though she's eleven years old. at the first rehearsal (which seems to be just jessi's regular dance class, with all her regular classmates, but they're studying the steps to the dance instead of general form & practice--i don't understand), jessi's toe shoes go missing. she has to slink into the studio barefoot, but she can't even really practice without the shoes. madam noelle makes the whole class go back into the locker room to look for the shoes. they turn up in jessi's bag, even though she had turned the whole thing inside out & they definitely weren't there before. she is distracted throughout class & doesn't dance as well as she usually does. after class, a note has been shoved into the laces of her sneakers. it says, "beware" in somewhat creepy red lettering.stuff keeps happening. jessi brings a whole spare outfit to her next rehearsal, & when she goes to the locker room to change back into her street clothes after class, her spare outfit is missing. there's another menacing note. in another class, jessi slips in some spilled water & hurts her ankle. in another class, a piece of scenery almost falls on her. after another class, her missing leotard is returned, but cut to shreds. in another class, someone leaves a rose in her bag, & jessi cuts herself on a thorn. such forth & so on. jessi doesn't want to complain about any of it to madame noelle (even though she really SHOULD) because madame hates whiners & complainers. she wants to figure out who the guilty party is & then take them to madame. she also doesn't tell her parents or discuss it with anyone in her class.she does tell the other babysitters though, & they sneak into a rehearsal to take notes on how the other girls treat jessi. this helps jessi narrow down the suspects to three: katie beth, with whom jessi has always struggled to get along; hilary, whose mother pushes her to take ballet; & carrie, who is aging out of their class & needs good credits on her dance resume in order to find a place at another ballet school. jessi tries to keep an eye on each suspect in the classes that follow.one day katie beth is absent when jessi gets a note. that eliminates her as a suspect. then carrie does something to eliminate herself as a suspect (i can't remember what it is, even though i just read this book--not even fir the first time--yesterday). that leaves hilary. after a lot of brainstorming & crummy ideas, jessi decides to ask hilary to write a sign, supposedly for madame noelle. hilary gets out a red calligraphy pen, & her lettering matches the lettering on the threatening notes. because hilary is a fucking idiot. jessi busts her & hilary confesses. she says her mother pushes her to do ballet & it was hard for hilary to see jessi get the awesome princess aurora part. she was trying to scare jessi into relinquishing the part so she could have another shot at auditioning for it. jessi agrees not to turn hilary in as long as hilary stops her tricks. dress rehearsal & the big performance go off without a hitch, & hilary decides to give up ballet.the B-plot was some awful nightmare-ishness with a pet show. kids were arguing with their siblings over who got to enter their pets, kids without pets were sulking, kids with kind of crappy pets were convinced they couldn't compete with awesome pets...but eventually the babysitters decide to create awards so every pet won a prize, & the kids worked it out amongst themselves to make sure that everyone who wanted to enter a pet had a pet to enter. it was really tedious...though it was nice to see the children of stoneybrook acting like real children for once.
Jessi gets the best part in the upcoming dance recital, but her elation turns to trepidation when someone starts harassing her. With threatening notes being left in blood-red pen and her dance clothes being stolen and cut to pieces, Jessi wonders if excelling is really worth all this risk, and worries that she may be in real danger. Can she and the babysitters figure out who's behind it?This mystery plot was utterly unbelievable for me, for two main reasons: One, if someone is receiving "beware" notes and having their items stolen and vandalized, it is NOT whiny to tell an adult, for instance your ballet teacher, because this place has either a terribly unbalanced student or an intruder who's a danger to the kids. Two, the culprit made a really, really ridiculous mistake that proved she was behind the threatening notes, and seemed oblivious that someone might connect her with this. Not to mention this has to be the third or fourth time some mysterious person doesn't like one of the babysitters and expresses it with threatening anonymous notes. Maybe someone could find a new way to scare them?
What do You think about Jessi And The Dance School Phantom (1991)?
So goofy and so fun. Jessi gets the lead role in the Sleeping Beauty ballet (surprise!) And someone starts sending her threatening notes and destroying her stuff.. which she chooses NOT to report, lest she look like a whiner.In top of this startling mystery, the BSC run a pet show. But the kids if Stoneybrooke start fighting about which pets they will enter, and who will win the prize.How can the babysitters handle this??Seriously - I spent my day writing a report about the importance of layout and colour schemes in public libraries. I need some mush.
—Lisa
Didn't we already have this storyline? Jessi gets the lead in the ballet and someone is threatened by her talent? Are we already out of fresh plots and starting to repeat? I hope not! At the end of class, Jessi finds out she will be playing Princess Aurora and all the other girls are jealous. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "My god, these are awful things, someone could get (even more) seriously hurt. I hope Jessi calls on her baby-sitting friends to help her solve this mystery and absolutely does NOT involve any grownups." Read my full review here, plus see what Stacey & Claudia wear to the ballet!
—Jenn
Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!
—April
