Do wishes really come true?

The Baby-sitters Club #48: Jessi's Wish

Okay, here it is. Another one of those "Sweet baby James, I was a weird child." confessions. I loved reading books about sick kids/teenagers. I thought Lurlene McDaniel books were amazing. Not that I ever wanted to be sick or anything (I'm not that twisted), but I did go through a brief phase of wanting to be a pediatric oncologist and cure cancer. Then I realized how much I hate a) bodily fluids and b) dead things (not like people- I don't have much experience with that! but like all the dead animals that I was supposed to dissect in 10th grade biology that I never, ever touched. My partner and I just handed our little dead creature to the guys who sat behind us and let them go to town... Not like our teacher ever even noticed-he was very rarely actually in the classroom, despite (or perhaps because of?) all the scalpels being wielded by hormonal 15 year olds.)

So I remember reading this book when I was 8 or 9 and liking it as much as I liked any BSC book. And I thought that like would carry over to my re-reading, but sadly not. As much as I truly don't mean to be a heinous bitch, this book was BORING.

Ok, so Becca is a member of the Kids-Can-Do-Anything Club at SES, composed of kids ages 8, 9, and 10 who volunteer and do service projects for the community. Ok, I can get behind that, that sounds nice. But when one of their teacher moderators decides to accompany her husband on sabbatical for a month (Who the hell goes on sabbatical for a month? Isn't it normally a year? I mean, I work at a university and as far as I know, you can't get sabbatical for less than a semester.) the other one doesn't think he can handle it by himself and they're going to have to shut the club down. But Jessi to the rescue! She volunteers to take Ms. Simon's place, and Mr. Katz thinks that would be great. Um, excuse me, but seriously, Mr. Katz? You can't handle 20 kids (aren't you a freakin' school teacher?) after school by yourself, but you can with the help of an 11 year old? Am I the only one to notice that Jessi is exactly one year older than several of the club members? Does he really think they're going to accept her as an authority figure? PUH-LEEZE.

And if I may digress for a moment, why doens't this ever come up with the kids they baby-sit for? I mean, these girls (at least, Mal and Jessi) are only 1-2 years older than most of the kids they baby-sit for. I would think that the Pike triplets, at the very least, would not stand for this bullshit. I mean, I have a brother who is only one year older than me, and never, at any point in my childhood, would I have accepted his authority over me. Was I just ridiculously independent and stubborn? Possibly (to this day my parents have an entire shelf full of books on "Parenting the strong-willed child" in our basement) but seriously. This is just such utter baloney.

Whatever. Mr. Katz decides that Jessi's help is just what he needs to be able to carry on the Kids Club. Jessi announces her plans to the BSC, and suddenly it turns into BSC service month. They decide to suspend their meetings (oh, right, like Kristy would ever agree to that) so that they can spend their time volunteering (well, they do agree to always have someone covering the phones at meeting times, but they don't all have to be there.) Let us look at all of their volunteer projects, shall we?

Kristy: volunteers at a day-care center. Are these really places that need volunteers? I mean, aren't most of them businesses? I suppose it could be like a state or city-run center for low-income parents, but that is never specified, and it really doesn't seem like one. Anyway, Kristy's volunteer work is basically just baby-sitting. She works with lots of different age groups and then then bonds with some baby named Joy. Yee-hah.

Claud: Helps teach an art class at the community center, attended by Margo Pike, Jackie Rodowsky, and the ever-insufferable Karen Brewer. Karen's imagination runs away with her, just like always. That's pretty much all you need to know about Claud's chapter. Next!

Mary Anne: Helps out some friends of her dad's by caring for and working with their brain-damaged son. I have nothing to snark on because MA doesn't even get a chapter. And also because even a super-bitch like me can't make brain damage funny.

Stacey: Works as a mentor/friend for kids who've recently been diagnosed with diabetes. She ends up with a girl, Charmaine, who wants to pretend she doesn't have a disease and messes up her diet and insulin and is rude and obnoxious about it. Hmmm... does that sound like anyone else I know? Anyway, Stacey at first tries to pretend she's a model diabetes patient, but when she finally opens up and tells Charmaine that she understands her anger and frustration, and she's been through it all before, they bond. Boy, everyone bonds in this book.

Dawn: Volunteers at the Baker Institute for physically disabled kids, which is basically just an after-school program for them. She bonds with a nine-year-old named Kendra who has cerebral palsy and wants to be a writer.

Mal: Decides to help out at a free recreation program sponsored by a local park, where counselors offer sports and arts & crafts and things like that. That actually sounds nice- my local Parks and Rec department back in the midwest offered that type of thing during the summer. Of course, we never get any sort of update on that, so I'm not even convinced that Mal really did it. It's entirely possible that she just spent the free time slacking off (since she hates baby-sitting so much.)

And back to Jessi and the Kids Club. A former member of the Kids Club, Danielle, was diagnosed with cancer and was in the hospital for a long time. The Kids Club plans several projects for kids in the hospital, like a toy drive and letter-writing project. When Danielle is released from the hospital and returns to SES and the club, it takes a while for the kids to treat her normally again (except of course for the angelic (and annoying) Becca and Charlotte.) Jessi bonds with Danielle (I think we should all take a drink everytime some bonds in a BSC book. I'd be wasted right now.) and learns that Danielle has two wishes. 1) to go to Disney World and 2) to graduate from fifth-grade and go to middle school. Oh barf (YES. I am aware that I am hell-bound.)

So Jessi calls up this organization called "Your Wish is my Command" which is really just a poor-man's Make a Wish foundation. I wonder why they didn't use the real name. Do you think maybe the real Make a Wish just didn't want to be associated with such a boring book? I wouldn't blame them. After talking with Danielle's parents, YWIMC sends the family to Disney World for four days. Well, that's nice. I'm glad for them.

Especially since not long after, Danielle relapses and has to be re-hospitalized. For some reason, I had thought that she died at the end, but this is not true. No one ever dies in BSC land except Mimi and Mary Anne's sainted mother. However, the book does end with her in the hospital, sending Jessi a Pollyanna letter about how she has hope because one of her wishes already came true. Aww, fine. I hope her other wish comes true too. In fact, I choose to believe that she lived a long and happy life, because I'm not that terrible of a person after all.