Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter: A Graphic Novel

The Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels #18

by Ellen T. Crenshaw (Adapter), Ann M. Martin

A Baby-sitters Club graphic novel adapted by National Book Award longlister and Eisner-nominated cartoonist Ellen T. Crenshaw!The Mancusis don't have any kids... but they sure do have a lot of pets! So when they're desperate for a sitter, who do they call? The Baby-sitters Club! Kristy feels pretty sure that the BSC does not pet-sit. But Jessi has always liked animals, and she talks Kristy into being okay with her taking the job.With snakes on the loose and sick hamsters, Jessi's got plenty of pet-sitting troubles, and things don't get any easier when she and her friends get into a big fight. Will Jessi be able to handle her pet-sitting job when things are going wrong with the baby-sitters, too?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Animals, Comics, Realistic Fiction

147 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 7, 2025

Reviews

[౨ৎ˖ ࣪⊹ hanah ౨ৎ˖ ࣪⊹ · Rating 4 out of 5]

₊⊹⁀➴ 4 stars
i think my fave character is tie between claudia, mary-anna, & jessi. finally caught up w this series!

[Rebecca ☆Just be yourself, there is no one better☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the baby Sitters Club, but this one is not my favorite, I feel like most of this book they were fighting and Complaining about there jobs and then they even had a vote for who should have each job.

[Mackenzie Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very cute book, with adorable illustrations!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really excited about this one because I couldn't wait to see all of the Mancusi animals. However, the illustrations in this one left something to be desired, and as such it ended up being one of my least favorites in the series, which is a bummer.

Also, what year is this supposed to take place in? The parrot quotes "Where's the beef" just like in the original book, but then immediately quotes a commercial about texting and data. Um, what? You can't have it both ways.

One nice little bit of continuity, though: Jessi and Mal are both shown wearing their open-book earrings, which made me smile.

[Gabrielle S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please don’t keep hamsters in the same cage. They fight to the death.

[Sakura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally, after re-reading the entire series for like a YEAR so my sister could catch up, I was able to read a new one. Sadly-

This was a complete letdown.

I’m convinced, that (with the exception of ‘Kristy and the Walking Disaster’), Ms. Crenshaw ruins everything she touches.

Her art style isn’t too great, and she snuck in a trans flag sign outside the Mancusis’ house. So is one of the two adults TRANS now?? They never mention it and I can’t tell for sure, but it was very, very upsetting. It surely wasn’t in the original. This is a kid’s book!?! Why in the world did you need to add it!?! It’s like Ms. Crenshaw doesn’t know how to make a proper book without sneaking something in.

‘Jessi’s Secret Language’ is amazing, but this- just was not. The plot is ok at best. Jessi sits for pets, gets overwhelmed, the BSC girl’s fight, Kristy is overly bossy, a hamster is sick, everything comes to a head… it was- whatever.

I miss it when these books had so much heart and effort in them. This one- is just empty.

(This book contains a hamster giving birth, not shown. A trans flag is also seen. I would give it an age rating of 12+! )

[Jmay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Jessi and this novel job.
Getting weird vibes off of the 2025 Mallory friendship subtext. The club hits rock bottom in a vitriolic blowout that was not relaxing- then an absurdist conflict resolution also giving weird vibes. There’s kind of a loss of innocence shift happening and I’m not down with it.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in one sitting. I love the expressions on the character's faces when dealing with the snake. I felt like there was something missing-the baby sitting with the other kids. I get they wanted to focus on Jessi and the animals for the main plot. Love the way the characters are drawn and getting to see all the animals.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pets were such a fun story line for my 9 year old and me.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for the book, one star for Stonybrook’s lax pet ownership bylaws

[Liesl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent adaptation of a BSC novel

[Eden Leinen · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was kind of predictable, kind of

[trijnewijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drie sterren voor het verhaal, vijf voor de dieren en de tekeningen 🤩

[AllyP Reads Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fine. Kristy's bossiness was over the top ridiculous though. Like to the point of why would anyone be friends or stay in a club with someone like this. Acting like she can dictate whether or not Jessie takes the pet sitting job is nonsense. A job's a job and if the pet owners are willing to pay, then what difference does it make? Shut the fuck up, Kristy.

Sad to see snakes continue to be vilified especially one that couldn't harm any of the kids if it tried. It's a snake; get over it.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Babysitters Club graphic novels are fun and easy to read. The series is a definite crowd-pleaser whether for young readers new to the BSC or old readers soaking in the nostalgia of an illustrated revisit. This book showcases Jessi as a pet sitter and the club having conflict over their officer roles. As usual I loved the art and color. The plot left a bit to be desired as the officer conflict was drawn out, frustrating and only mildly satisfying in its resolution. The pet sitting was interesting (though maybe not too surprising). I missed some of the usual babysitting hijinks with the kids. Overall this was solid and worth a read but not the best of the collection.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t remember this one at all! Jessi’s underrated so I’m glad to have another book from her perspective.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two very different storylines, which is normal for this series. There's also a personal issue and a babysitting one. I felt very differently about each storyline, which is less usual. I actually really enjoyed the petsitting arc! The cover makes it look like it's going to be a lot more chaotic than it really is. In real life, it would probably be difficult for a couple like the Mancusis to take good care of this many animals. They have three dog, five cats, two parrots, two cockatiels, at least half a dozen birds that look like budgies, two guinea pigs, four rabbits, a bunch of hamsters, turtles, fish, and a snake. Not only is it a lot of animals, they're very different kinds of animals with different care requirements. I can give that a pass in fiction, especially because both the art and the narrative support that the Mancusis are very organized, their pets are happy, and the environment is clean. The sort of mishaps that Jessi gets into with the animals are pretty low drama and none of them involve humans doing anything wrong with animals care. I just thought it was a nice change of pace in the series.

But then there's the other story. It's another babysitters fighting storyline, which pretty reliably popped up every dozen books or so. This one just feels so much like other fights they have, and the resolution is so simple that it feels kind of pointless that they were fighting so hard for so long over this. It's not pleasant to read, and I was always grateful to get back to the Mancusi house and Barney the snake or the parrot who yells advertising slogans.

[J. Dorner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was good, though not as much as others in the series, in my opinion. I did enjoy the vast number of pets the Mancusis have. I had a feeling I knew what was going to happen with the hamster, and I was right. The book is interesting because it has a second plot where the four club officers realise they are best-suited to their positions, but needed to explore the options as a reminder to appreciate one another.
I'd recommend this book if someone wanted to teach how fun, but also how much responsibility, caring for pets can be. It would also be good for someone struggling to understand why some people are best suited to certain roles and how each person is valuable in their own way. This is the sort of book I enjoy reading when I'm reminiscing about some of my younger days, as I had a group of female friends who were big fans of the series.
Snicklefritz was the best character in this book, ha ha ha.
It's a short, easy read, and I would read more of these books.
There's a bit of comedy, it's fairly realistic fiction, the ending is happy, and it's a fun and entertaining read.
One of the pets is a snake, but it doesn't do anything harmful or scary. The girls in the book are afraid of it, though.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute illustrations, but not quite as cute as some of the earlier illustrators. The graphic adaptation stayed very true to the original with 2 noteable exceptions - changing some of the animals’ names, and making the book set in modern day. Claudia still has the 1980s phone, but Jessi’s mom has a modern cell phone. The other baby sitters don’t have cell phones either, and the story didn’t need modernization to make sense or be enjoyed by today’s audience. I found it more random and jarring, such as when the parrot said “unlimited texting with no data cap”, than inviting and better understood to read this story in a modern context. It also changes the canon from the earlier graphic novels very clearly set in the original time period. The character art has always been consistent throughout the changing illustrators, but modernization has depended on the author. However, kids today especially ones who haven’t read the original series probably will not care and still be able to fully enjoy the story.

[Stacey Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's unease at the baby-sitters club meetings as Kristy, the president rules with an iron fist, not letting anyone else have a say in what the club does. The others are not happy with her. A last minute job comes up to sit for a lot of pets and Jessi, who's always wanted a pet decides she can do it. The job is big. The Mancusis have dogs, cats, hamsters, bunnies, birds and a snake....luckily Jessie has the week off from everything else and can devote her time to their care. A sick hamster has her running to the vet, a careless act has them running around trying ti find a loose snake...but all in all she does a great job with a ton of responsibility. If only the tension from the club meetings would stop, Jessie hopes they can all get along and remain a cohesive group.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded up. This is just average, and it annoys me that the creators won't commit to a time period. The girls gather in Claudia's room for their meetings so that they can take calls on her corded landline phone, since the rest of them don't have personal phones. This is plot-relevant to this particular story as well, and is not just a background detail. But then a parrot who keeps quoting things from commercials says, "Unlimited texting with no data cap!" SERIOUSLY? That kind of anachronism makes no sense, and is completely unnecessary.

[Layla Dlugiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It didn’t have all the story details about the book and all the speech bubbles were to the MAX FILLED!
With words so TINY you can’t read any.



STOP THE REST IS SPOILERS





The animals in the house were to simply drawed
AGAIN THE ART SUCKS when we first see Jesse wakes up MOST OF HER FACE IS BLANK I never look at the author name but ever since Reina made the books well technically at 6 all the art after was so bad well at 16 it was even worse then this one but the rest is good I like the stop telling.

[Mely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another adorable installment of the BSC. I think Jessi is one of my favorite BSC members. She's just so cute and I love the way she's illustrated. Reading this book gave me great idea. We had a regular check-up for our newly adopted family dog and I put my tween daughter in charge of taking the lead. I had her read Jessi's scene at the vet clinic and how well she handled talking with the vet. My daughter did the same thing and felt so proud of herself afterwards. I love that these stories teach such great morals. I also love the strong bond of friendship these girls have.

[Hope Burmeister · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel in the Babysitters Club series. It was a nice change to see animals instead of children in the babysitting world. The owners of a gazillion pets with no children were the most relatable, quirky couple ever. The graphics with all the animals was great and I loved seeing the variety of animals represented. So cute that Jessi got to keep one of the baby hamsters too. We don’t have hamsters here in New Zealand, so it would be fun to see one in real life one day!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea that the Baby-Sitters Club now included a “Pet-Sitter”. I know lots of young readers who are going to adore this new twist in the “Baby-Sitters Club”, the graphic novel series! Jessi is dealing with dogs, cats, a parrot, cockatiels, guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, and even a snake. Of course, all does not go smoothly at the Mancusi household while they are gone! Lots of laughter as well as great tips for pet-sitting . . . All kids will enjoy!

[Ellon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars (It was okay)

I didn't love this one. I will likely still get it for my library because I don't think there was anything objectionable but just not my favorite.

1) I don't like how the snake is vilified. They won't even pick him up when he gets out.
2) I didn't love the illustration style. Many faces lacked details
3) Kristy being bossy is way over the top.

so yea, not my fav.

[Andrew Dittmar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessi Ramsey, Pet-Sitter by Ellen T. Crenshaw & Ann M. Martin


Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!

Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a piece of paper that was kept with the book.


Started January 14th, 2026.
Finished January 14th, 2026.


January 14th, 2026: read entire book in physical copy.

[Molly]

This will always be one of my favorite series to return to. As I've mentioned before, the books where the BSC aren't getting along are always my least favorite, so I was grateful to spend this book in the perspective of Jessi who was mostly removed from the drama. I'm very impressed by Jessi's pet sitter skills, not so much with the Mancusis pet ownership.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, easy read.

I'll preface this by saying I know that, as someone on the older end of being a young adult, I'm far from being the intended audience for this book--decided to read it as I've read all the previous graphic novels in this series--but some parts of the book seemed too easy and too juvenile. That said, I'm giving it four of five stars because I think there were some good lessons throughout the book, especially about delegating tasks and voting (and the importance of fair elections!).

I also enjoyed the interspersed nuggets of wisdom some of the kiddos shared with their babysitters!

[Laila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Jessi Ramsey’s character so much! She and Mallory are both such sweethearts! Which makes sense because I loved them just as much in Ann M. Martin’s original Babysitter’s Club chapter books. Jessi is such an awe inspiring character for young girls, the way she handles so many things in her daily life with a smile and a courageous heart. I also liked the addition of the pet sitting in this book.