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The Baby-Sitters Club #55
Jessi's Gold Medal
When Jessi is asked to participate in the synchronized swimming competition, she is honored and surprised, but as she and her partner practice, she begins to doubt her abi- lity to pull it off.
160 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1992
50 people are currently reading
793 people want to read
About the author
Ann M. Martin
1,101 books3,045 followersAnn Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.
Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.
Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.
After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
October 18, 2012
As an eleven year old I loved this book!! I have a positive reaction to all the BSC books, and like to reflect this in my reviews. Everyone seems to be reviewing these books as adults, and they keep missing the point. They are written for kids my age and they're great. They encourage me to read everyday and they were my mum's books from when she was my age so it's really nice that we have something in common. Ms Martin rocks. So there!!!!
May 27, 2021
When Jessie gets asked to join a synchronized swimming team she jumps at the idea! With summer here it’s always so hot, so why not have some fun while staying cool.
Problem is...this isn’t as easy as she thought it was. Ballet comes natural to her, but no matter how much she practices her swimming, she can’t seem to keep up with the other girls.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I enjoyed seeing Jessi do and be something other than ballet. Sometimes the author makes it seem like that’s all she can do, so I love to see her trying something else.
Problem is...this isn’t as easy as she thought it was. Ballet comes natural to her, but no matter how much she practices her swimming, she can’t seem to keep up with the other girls.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I enjoyed seeing Jessi do and be something other than ballet. Sometimes the author makes it seem like that’s all she can do, so I love to see her trying something else.
May 28, 2016
this is my first time reading this book!
in this (not-so-) inspirational sports book by ghostwriter peter lerangis, jessi wins a gold medal at something that isn't even something she really cares about. because she is annoyingly perfect. basically, she gets solicited for sms's synchronized swimming team because she's so graceful (barf) and competes at the school's sports festival (which is like a field day of competitive sports). meanwhile, the baby-sitters host a mini-olympics for their charges. this is basically just an annoying tie-in with the fact that the 1992 summer olympics (the ones in barcelona -- you know, with that weird freddie mercury theme song?) were happening around the same time. I hate sports but would probably have been bored by this book even if I didn't hate sports because I am tired of little miss perfect jessi.
highlights:
-I guess that it's nice that jessi has to try really hard at synchro. it's nice that there's something that doesn't come naturally or easily to her. but still, I wanted her to not win. why does she always get the part she wants in every ballet? why does she win a synchronized swimming competition when she just started doing it a few weeks ago?
-kristy wins the obstacle course race against alan gray. they had made a bet that whomever lost would be the other's butler for a week (you know, like in seinfeld). kristy wins and is horrible to alan, but it's really enjoyable because he deserves to be emasculated after being such a showy aggro man-type earlier in the book (posing like charles atlas and then acting really effeminate to make fun of kristy).
-it's kind of painful but sweet how andrew brewer tries to compete in EVERY SINGLE SPORT in the entire mini-olympics and fails miserably at all of them. the baby-sitters give him an award for being the most determined. awwwwww.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-did emily junior die? this is the second book in a row where they mention all the other brewer-thomas pets but not emily junior.
-the opening ceremony for the summer olympics in 1992 was in july, but they're still in school. so why does kristy say to the kids, "have you guys been watching the olympics?" and they all say that they have. no, you haven't -- the olympics wouldn't have started yet.
-it's really annoying how jessi thinks that she and elise (her synchro partner) are terrible but they end up winning the gold medal. barf. I hate you guys.
-jordan pike tries to drink brewer's yeast with water as a nutritional supplement. gross. mix it into a smoothie or something, dude! he thinks it's so yucky, but he is not eating it in the right way!
-mal semi-intentionally sprains her ankle so she has an excuse for not being in the sports festival. this is dumb. I like to think mal isn't this dumb, but maybe I should start lowering my standards for her.
-jessi introduces elise to the bsc members for the first time at the sms sports festival competition. really, they never ran into each other in school while the bsc members were around? it's been WEEKS!
-the baby-sitters run out of reasonable awards to give the kids for the mini-olympics but are devoted to giving one to everyone so they give one that is "most summery outfit" (undoubtedly to a girl). UGHHHH. it's better to instill competition in these kids by not giving all of them awards than it is to train girls to believe that their cuteness is their worth. BOO THESE BABY-SITTERS.
claudia outfits:
-"She was wearing these sharply creased, pastel-green, cuffed shorts; a wild Hawaiian shirt tied at her waist, with vibrant colors that perfectly picked up the green; and sandals with crisscrossing ankle straps to her knees. Her hair was swept to one side and held in place with a long, fake-flowered barrette that looked like a Hawaiian lei."
-"She was wearing electric-pink track shorts with a turquoise racing stripe, a matching top with cut-off sleeves, brand-new high top track shoes with no socks, and floral-print suspenders! Her hair was pulled up on top of her head and held in place with a silver barrette in the shape of the Olympic symbol."
competitions the bsc members participate in at the sports festival (no mal, no mary anne):
dawn: javelin throw
kristy: obstacle race with alan & hundred yard dash
stacey: swimming (breast stroke)
claudia: backwards running
jessi: synchronized swimming
jackie disaster:
-while running towards the archery target, he trips and lands in the kiddie pool that is designated for "sailboat" races, spilling the water everwhere.
snacks in claudia's room:
-malted milk balls under her pillow
-oreos (n.s.)
-potato chips in a drawer in her night table
-pretzels (n.s.)
in this (not-so-) inspirational sports book by ghostwriter peter lerangis, jessi wins a gold medal at something that isn't even something she really cares about. because she is annoyingly perfect. basically, she gets solicited for sms's synchronized swimming team because she's so graceful (barf) and competes at the school's sports festival (which is like a field day of competitive sports). meanwhile, the baby-sitters host a mini-olympics for their charges. this is basically just an annoying tie-in with the fact that the 1992 summer olympics (the ones in barcelona -- you know, with that weird freddie mercury theme song?) were happening around the same time. I hate sports but would probably have been bored by this book even if I didn't hate sports because I am tired of little miss perfect jessi.
highlights:
-I guess that it's nice that jessi has to try really hard at synchro. it's nice that there's something that doesn't come naturally or easily to her. but still, I wanted her to not win. why does she always get the part she wants in every ballet? why does she win a synchronized swimming competition when she just started doing it a few weeks ago?
-kristy wins the obstacle course race against alan gray. they had made a bet that whomever lost would be the other's butler for a week (you know, like in seinfeld). kristy wins and is horrible to alan, but it's really enjoyable because he deserves to be emasculated after being such a showy aggro man-type earlier in the book (posing like charles atlas and then acting really effeminate to make fun of kristy).
-it's kind of painful but sweet how andrew brewer tries to compete in EVERY SINGLE SPORT in the entire mini-olympics and fails miserably at all of them. the baby-sitters give him an award for being the most determined. awwwwww.
lowlights/nitpicks:
-did emily junior die? this is the second book in a row where they mention all the other brewer-thomas pets but not emily junior.
-the opening ceremony for the summer olympics in 1992 was in july, but they're still in school. so why does kristy say to the kids, "have you guys been watching the olympics?" and they all say that they have. no, you haven't -- the olympics wouldn't have started yet.
-it's really annoying how jessi thinks that she and elise (her synchro partner) are terrible but they end up winning the gold medal. barf. I hate you guys.
-jordan pike tries to drink brewer's yeast with water as a nutritional supplement. gross. mix it into a smoothie or something, dude! he thinks it's so yucky, but he is not eating it in the right way!
-mal semi-intentionally sprains her ankle so she has an excuse for not being in the sports festival. this is dumb. I like to think mal isn't this dumb, but maybe I should start lowering my standards for her.
-jessi introduces elise to the bsc members for the first time at the sms sports festival competition. really, they never ran into each other in school while the bsc members were around? it's been WEEKS!
-the baby-sitters run out of reasonable awards to give the kids for the mini-olympics but are devoted to giving one to everyone so they give one that is "most summery outfit" (undoubtedly to a girl). UGHHHH. it's better to instill competition in these kids by not giving all of them awards than it is to train girls to believe that their cuteness is their worth. BOO THESE BABY-SITTERS.
claudia outfits:
-"She was wearing these sharply creased, pastel-green, cuffed shorts; a wild Hawaiian shirt tied at her waist, with vibrant colors that perfectly picked up the green; and sandals with crisscrossing ankle straps to her knees. Her hair was swept to one side and held in place with a long, fake-flowered barrette that looked like a Hawaiian lei."
-"She was wearing electric-pink track shorts with a turquoise racing stripe, a matching top with cut-off sleeves, brand-new high top track shoes with no socks, and floral-print suspenders! Her hair was pulled up on top of her head and held in place with a silver barrette in the shape of the Olympic symbol."
competitions the bsc members participate in at the sports festival (no mal, no mary anne):
dawn: javelin throw
kristy: obstacle race with alan & hundred yard dash
stacey: swimming (breast stroke)
claudia: backwards running
jessi: synchronized swimming
jackie disaster:
-while running towards the archery target, he trips and lands in the kiddie pool that is designated for "sailboat" races, spilling the water everwhere.
snacks in claudia's room:
-malted milk balls under her pillow
-oreos (n.s.)
-potato chips in a drawer in her night table
-pretzels (n.s.)
November 16, 2010
sweet jeebus. the tyranny of painfully dull jessi books continues. & to top it off, this one gives away the ending right in the title.
so, it's once again summertime in stoneybrook. for like the sixth time, at least. & it's time for the summer olympics. & stoneybrook middle school has organized a sports spectacular at some point. so basically this book takes everything that is boring about jessi & combines it with everything that is boring about kristy (but with less karen, thank goodness). shoot me now.
the sixth grade gym class is switching gears now that the stoneybrook pool complex is open for the season. the students will now be swimming. mallory is horrified & humilated because her bathing suit is a babyish one-piece with a frilly skirt. i am embarrassed to admit how old i was before i realize that one-piece swimsuits with skirts are actually not cool or flattering on me. hint: approximately 28 years old. so good on mallory for catching on at the tender age of 11.
jessi, on the other hand, is excited about swimming. she's not a very good swimmer, but she really wants to learn. she is pulled aside after her individual swim test though, & she worries that she's being condemned to remedial swim classes. instead, she is introduced to the pool complex's synchronized swim coach. the coach has been looking for another girl to round out the team, & she likes jessi's ballet-honed form. jessi agrees to substitute her regular gym classes for synchronized swim classes, & is paired with a strong but graceless swimmer named elise.
meanwhile, the babysitters are all deciding what contests to enter in the sports spectacular. dawn decides to try the javelin throw. kristy is interested in a track event, & challenges alan gray to a one-on-one obstacle course race, with a week of "personal service" (gross) hanging in the balance. mary anne & mallory are both uninterested in entering the contest at all--but mallory in particular is very defensive about it. jessi wonders what's going on with her, but between ballet, school, & synchronized swim practice, she doesn't feel she has time to investigate. jessi will be choreographing a routine for the spectacular with elise, & competing against the other pairs from their class for a medal. read the title again & guess how jessi does.
jessi also notices that becca is riveted by the olympic trials on TV. this gives jessi an idea...what if the babysitters club hosted a mini-olympics for their charges? the kids could compete in potato sack races, three-legged races, such forth & so on. the babysitters think it's a great idea, & as word spreads to the kids around town, there's a lot of enthusiasm. everyone wants to enter...but andrew is sad because he can't seem to do anything, & what little he can do, older kids do better. & charlotte completely melts down after stacey encourages her to enter an event. she thinks stacey is angry with her for not wanting to participate. i seriously hate charlotte. she's exactly the kind of person i'd hate to be friends with as an adult. no one is mad at you because you don't want to join a potato sack race, okay? just get over yourself.
while the pike kids are practicing for the mini-olympics, mallory tries the potato sack race...& promptly sprains her ankle. she's even on crutches. she makes a big fuss about how bad the timing is because now she definitely will not be able to participate in the sports spectacular. jessi finds mallory's dismay very questionable...but she doesn't really have time to look into it because she is preparing for her synchronized swimming routine every spare moment...& dreading it, because she & elise seem to be the worst in the class.
finally, the day of the spectacular rolls around. kristy does well in her track event, winning a silver medal. dawn throws the javelin well but doesn't win. claudia gets all dolled up & runs a backwards race. mary anne surprises everyone by showing up to man the refreshments table. jessi considers running away before her synchronized swim event...but she grits her teeth & does her program. & i am sure that you will be SHOCKED to learn that she & elise take the gold. kristy bests alan gray in the obstacle course, & kristy forces alan to work the next day at the mini-olympics.
the mini-olympics is basically just a bunch of boring stories about how adorable the children of stoneybrook are. charlotte contributes by making signs for the event, & andrew surprises everyone by making an attempt at like every single event. in the end, every child wins a prize. charlotte wins "most creative" & andrew wins "most dedicated".
jessi & elise decide not to continue with synchronized swimming because it takes too much time & energy away from their real passions (ballet for jessi obviously, & swim races for elise). & despite the fact that jessi & elise got along swimmingly (you see what i did there?), we never hear of her again. because we all know that in the babysitters club, outside friendships are frowned upon.
oh yeah, & mallory admits that she was trying to fake-sprain her ankle to get out of the sports spectacular (which was in no way mandatory or anything), but she sprained it for real & then she regretted her negative attitude. isn't it great how we're all better people now?
so, it's once again summertime in stoneybrook. for like the sixth time, at least. & it's time for the summer olympics. & stoneybrook middle school has organized a sports spectacular at some point. so basically this book takes everything that is boring about jessi & combines it with everything that is boring about kristy (but with less karen, thank goodness). shoot me now.
the sixth grade gym class is switching gears now that the stoneybrook pool complex is open for the season. the students will now be swimming. mallory is horrified & humilated because her bathing suit is a babyish one-piece with a frilly skirt. i am embarrassed to admit how old i was before i realize that one-piece swimsuits with skirts are actually not cool or flattering on me. hint: approximately 28 years old. so good on mallory for catching on at the tender age of 11.
jessi, on the other hand, is excited about swimming. she's not a very good swimmer, but she really wants to learn. she is pulled aside after her individual swim test though, & she worries that she's being condemned to remedial swim classes. instead, she is introduced to the pool complex's synchronized swim coach. the coach has been looking for another girl to round out the team, & she likes jessi's ballet-honed form. jessi agrees to substitute her regular gym classes for synchronized swim classes, & is paired with a strong but graceless swimmer named elise.
meanwhile, the babysitters are all deciding what contests to enter in the sports spectacular. dawn decides to try the javelin throw. kristy is interested in a track event, & challenges alan gray to a one-on-one obstacle course race, with a week of "personal service" (gross) hanging in the balance. mary anne & mallory are both uninterested in entering the contest at all--but mallory in particular is very defensive about it. jessi wonders what's going on with her, but between ballet, school, & synchronized swim practice, she doesn't feel she has time to investigate. jessi will be choreographing a routine for the spectacular with elise, & competing against the other pairs from their class for a medal. read the title again & guess how jessi does.
jessi also notices that becca is riveted by the olympic trials on TV. this gives jessi an idea...what if the babysitters club hosted a mini-olympics for their charges? the kids could compete in potato sack races, three-legged races, such forth & so on. the babysitters think it's a great idea, & as word spreads to the kids around town, there's a lot of enthusiasm. everyone wants to enter...but andrew is sad because he can't seem to do anything, & what little he can do, older kids do better. & charlotte completely melts down after stacey encourages her to enter an event. she thinks stacey is angry with her for not wanting to participate. i seriously hate charlotte. she's exactly the kind of person i'd hate to be friends with as an adult. no one is mad at you because you don't want to join a potato sack race, okay? just get over yourself.
while the pike kids are practicing for the mini-olympics, mallory tries the potato sack race...& promptly sprains her ankle. she's even on crutches. she makes a big fuss about how bad the timing is because now she definitely will not be able to participate in the sports spectacular. jessi finds mallory's dismay very questionable...but she doesn't really have time to look into it because she is preparing for her synchronized swimming routine every spare moment...& dreading it, because she & elise seem to be the worst in the class.
finally, the day of the spectacular rolls around. kristy does well in her track event, winning a silver medal. dawn throws the javelin well but doesn't win. claudia gets all dolled up & runs a backwards race. mary anne surprises everyone by showing up to man the refreshments table. jessi considers running away before her synchronized swim event...but she grits her teeth & does her program. & i am sure that you will be SHOCKED to learn that she & elise take the gold. kristy bests alan gray in the obstacle course, & kristy forces alan to work the next day at the mini-olympics.
the mini-olympics is basically just a bunch of boring stories about how adorable the children of stoneybrook are. charlotte contributes by making signs for the event, & andrew surprises everyone by making an attempt at like every single event. in the end, every child wins a prize. charlotte wins "most creative" & andrew wins "most dedicated".
jessi & elise decide not to continue with synchronized swimming because it takes too much time & energy away from their real passions (ballet for jessi obviously, & swim races for elise). & despite the fact that jessi & elise got along swimmingly (you see what i did there?), we never hear of her again. because we all know that in the babysitters club, outside friendships are frowned upon.
oh yeah, & mallory admits that she was trying to fake-sprain her ankle to get out of the sports spectacular (which was in no way mandatory or anything), but she sprained it for real & then she regretted her negative attitude. isn't it great how we're all better people now?
March 3, 2019
Honestly, what even was this? It was like the ghost writer got lazy and used almost the exact same plot as the last book. Except it’s with Jessi. Basically, in this book, Jessi wants to buy a pool, because it’s hot outside (get over it I live in Texas) so she uses the appeal that Mallory used on her parents about the horse riding lessons in the last book. What do the day? No, no surprise there. They claim a pool is too expensive but they’ll buy memebships to the nearby community pool or whatever. But then, in gym class, the coach announces that they’ll be doing swimming at the community pool instead of gym for awhile. Well, they get there and swim, and they tell Jessi that she would be a natural at synchro. (Synchronized Swimming) well, just like in the last book, Jessi goes to her first lesson and finds that Synchro is not what she hoped for. She’s also not as good as she thought she would be, and ends up hating Synchro. It ends like the last book, with a happy(ish) ending, and this book was terrible written because the plot was the exact same.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 8, 2024
This was... boring. I can't believe a BSC book was boring, but it really was. Maybe because the topic was sports and I am not into them but I just didn't love or really even like it. Also, there were so no true babysitting hijinks, and the involvement of all the babysitters was minimal. I missed reading about my teenage sisterhood.
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February 6, 2025Jessi’s Gold Medal
On the way home from ballet class, Jessi sees a billboard advertising some soda as the “official” drink of the Summer Olympics. There’s a picture of a swimmer in the middle of a stroke in the water. Jessi wonders for a minute why she choose ballet. Why pound your body into wood when you can submerge it into water? Since it’s a hot day, she agrees that they can turn on the air. Even tho this is supposed to be bad for dancers because it tightens the muscles.
When Jessi gets home, Squirt and Becca beg to turn on the sprinklers. While they’re having fun, Jessi thinks about the summer and how this is only the beginning of how hot it will be. Then she thinks about the billboard and gets an idea. She’ll ask her parents to put a pool in the backyard. She even thinks of a technique. It goes. Step One-compliment her mother on dinner to put her in a good mood-. Step Two-subtly hint at the weather by adding the seafood casserole is perfect for such a hot day-. But her dad isn’t fooled and asks if she wouldn’t just happen to want something. So, Jessi comes out with it. Jessi’s mom says they’ve talked about it but its too expensive. Jessi says she can chip in baby-sitting money. They say it still wouldn’t be enough. Becca even suggest asking for more money. Instead, they suggest there’s a pool complex at the Stoneybrooke Center and the lessons are free. Jessi asks can they join and Mr. Ramsey says he’ll give them a call to set up a family membership.
At the BSC, Claudia is drawing rings and trying to come up for a logo for the upcoming sports competition (at the request of her gym teacher). Claudia, Kristy, Dawn, Stacey says they’ll enter. Maryanne and Mal aren’t that into sports. Stacey says she might enter for swimming. Dawn says she’s going to enter for something different (maybe pole vaulting). Kristy says she’s going to go out for track.
Jessi and Mal’s teacher (Ms. Walden) announces it’s there last regular gym class. Starting next week, the community pool complex will be open during school days and she’ll be taking them there for swim lessons during their gym period. Jessi’s excited about this because she’ll be able to sign up for intermediate classes on her family membership. Mal not so much. The only good thing she can find is that from the walk there and back there will be 10 less minutes of gym. Jessi says it’ll be great. They’ll get out of school for a whole period and learn how to swim. Mal says she can already swim. Jessi says then maybe she can get some coaching for the Sports Festival or maybe they’ll have advanced lessons. After finding out everyone else in the BSC will be in it and particularly Jessi, Mal says she’ll be in it too.
On Tuesday, they find out that there will be boys in the class. Mal is embarrassed because her bathing suit is baby-ish. Jessi agrees to shield her from the boys view. The girls are on one side. The boys on the other. Jessi Is still trying to hide behind Jessi and she says she’s making it worse. The boys start clowning around. The teacher makes them take a simple test to see what she’s working with. Mal does good with the breaststroke, the backstroke, the crawl, and the dog paddle. When it’s Jessi’s turn she does hers slowly and carefully. Ms. Waldon says she wants to talk to her after class. Jessi thinks she’ll be put in a remedial class. Ms. Waldon introduces her to Mrs. Cox who tells Jessi she thinks she’d be perfect to take synchronized swimming lessons. The great thing is she can take the classes 4rth period and substitute her lunch for fifth instead of fourth.
On her first lesson, Jessi is introduced to the 15 other girls in her class and paired up with a girl named Elise (who up until this point has been passed around because she was an uneven number). Elise starts Jessi off with two rounds of side strokes and crawls matching her stroke for stroke. Jessi is good with style (naturally) and Elise is good at speed (because she’s on the swim team). In reverse Jessi isn’t good with speed and Elise isn’t good with style. After this they practice sculling and tubbing. Mrs. Cox is impressed with Jessi and says she’ll be entering competitions in no time. Jessi isn’t so sure. She’s having fun but.. And wouldn’t you know it a competition is announced.
They will be doing a demonstration in two eight member groups in the Sports Festival. Then pairs will compete with each other for medals. Later, Jessi tells Becca about the competition and she’s excited. She says she’ll be sitting in the front row cheering Jessi on. Then when she’s in the sixth grade Jessi will have to come cheer for her because she’ll be in the Festival too. Maybe. Jessi and Becca just so happen to be watching the Olympic trials. Becca asks if they’ll ever have them in Stoneybrooke. Jessi says she doubts it. She says they’re usually held in bigger places than Stoneybrook. This makes Becca disappointed. But then when Jessi thinks about it later, she thinks maybe it’s not so far-fetched and maybe she can do something about it.
We find out at the BSC, Claudia is going to do something “track oriented”, Stacey is going to enter in the breast stroke competition. (Kristy is teaching her how to on the floor when Jessi walks in). Dawn is going to enter for javalin throwing and Kristy is going to challenge Alan Gray publicly to the obstacle course. Jessi tells them her idea to throw a mini-Olympics for the kids and of course, they all love the idea.
Kristy is sitting for 10 kids (Karen, Andrew, David Micheal, Linny, Hannie, Bill, Melody, Scott and Timmy Hsu). She asks for ideas for events. This is what she gets: horse-racing, three-legged racing, basketball shooting contest, potato-sack races, roller-skating races, long jump, volley ball, magic show, and weight lifting. They immediately start training. David Micheal and Linny do chin-ups on tree branches. Tinny does push ups. Melody does jumping jacks. Hannie and Karen have set up an obstacle course. Scott and Bill race each other. Andrew starts to drag out one of Watson’s dumbbells.
We find out that Kristy challenged Alan and because he was embarrassed when his friends teased him, he accepted. But one of the teachers turned it into “The Great SMS Coed Obstacle Challenge” Andrew tho gets upset because he’s slower and not as strong as the other kids who are older. Kristy tries to coach him through each of the things the kids suggested but he can’t really do any of them because he’s younger. Then it goes downhill from there. By the time her parents get home, Andrew is crying, Bill and Linny are racing around and accusing each other of cheating. Timmy and David Micael are fighting over how far each landed in the long jump. Melodys injured her ankle and has to hold an ice pack on it. Kristy thinks maybe she should have suggested they train.
Jessi learns quickly that synchronized swimming is NOT easy. Not only do you have to perform a choreographed routine (and stay in sync with everyone’s movements, you also have to do this staying aflot and keeping a constant distance from everyone else. You can’t stop moving and sometimes you’re doing one stroke per beat. Elise and Jessi are the only ones behind. Ms. Cox is complimenting everyone else.
Jessi will be choreographing their pairs routine. Jessi was glad to do it but choose something too complicated. It’s a routine with Egyptian-style head and hand movements but she and Elise are having trouble doing it. Elise’s moves are all jerky. Jessi can’t stay above the water. They tell each other walking back to class they’re frustrated because the other day Elise had a swim meet and won first place in the butterfly and Jessi did a combination in ballet class that ended with a triple pirouette and an entrechat. Then Jessi has an idea they can practice outside of class time (after school and weekends). Besides the Olympic athletes work day and night to get where they are and if that’s what they have to do then that’s what they’ll do.
Stacy sits for Charlotte and puts to much pressure on her to be apart of the mini-Olympics and realizes it when Charlotte thinks she’s mad at her. She vows never to bring it up again. The BSC decide that the mini-Olympics will be held the Saturday after the Sports Festival in Dawn’s backyard. Here’s some of the events the kids want to do: James (three-legged race), Matthew (regular race), Johnny (weight-lifting), Archie Rodowsky (weight-lifting), Jaime Newton (weight-lifting), Hailey (funny-face race), Matthew (Waffle ball). Then they just decide to let the kids do whatever event they want. Mal stands up to Kristy because she thinks they should talk Charlotte into the games. Mal tells her that not everyone likes sports. (Some of us don’t even like reading these books about sports events). They ask Jessi about swim class and she just says it’s fine. They have it in their heads she’s better at it than she is and she just lets them and doesn’t correct them.
Jessi then has an idea and tells Maryanne maybe she can call Charlotte and tell her she’s not going to the Mini-Olympics either. Maryanne says she will. Claudia and Mal are sitting for the Pikes. Jordan is acting like a fitness trainer named Spuds Diamond he saw on tv. Mal decides she wants to try a potatoe sack race and falls and sprains her ankle. She says she guesses she can’t be in the sports festival. Jessi notices she doesn’t sound to upset about it.
Kristy is in the 100-yard race and places 2nd. Claudia is in a backwards race. Dawn throws her javlin in a perfect arc. I guess this is bad. She’s disappointed. Jessi is wishing Maryanne would have come. She goes to get her and Mal some lemonade and there she is behind the stands. Charlotte talked her into participating without participating and feeling angry that she couldn’t. Kristy wins the race and Alan has to be her servant for a week. Jessi and Elise win first place in the swimming competition. They wein two gold medals. After the Olympics, all the kids get a ribbon. Andrew is praised because he hung in there and won a ribbon for the most determined. Alan gets fed up with being Kristy’s servant and at the end of the book challenges her to another race and this time the loser has to be the winner’s servant for two weeks. Kristy says he’s on.
My Thoughts:
I thought the message of this was gonna be that you don’t have to be perfect in every single thing you do. Not have Jessi try something for a few weeks and get a medal over everyone in the class that’s probably been synchro swimming for no telling how long. Still, I’m kinda glad to see Jessi get something else (that she’s good at) other baby-sitting and ballet. When I saw this was another sports related book my interest dropped slightly. I really wasn’t all that interested in reading about a Sports Festival and was kinda glad to see it added that not all people care about that. (Someone must have had a talk with the ghost writer or maybe the ghost writer didn’t care about sports). I had even less of an interest in another kid sports event. I don’t even watch the real Olympics most of the time. I did however watch last years Olympics and some of it I did actually find interesting. Synchronized swimming was actually one of the events I *did* watch. There are some pretty cool movements going on. They moon walked! I also watched some of the gymnastics (there’s also some dance in that) and I watched a little track and a tiny bit of basketball. But what I liked the most was the Opening Ceremony. I was wondering how Jessi was gonna get the Olympics to come to Stoneybrooke and then I thought “Oh.” (She just wants to have one for the kids). I did feel a little bad for Andrew. There were a few ways they could have done this. They could have just thrown events for the ones his age. Or if it was basketball, there are probably smaller basketball goals designed for kids his age. All they had to do was use their imaginations to make him feel more included instead of letting him try where the odds weren’t in his favor. And they call themselves *good* sitters?
Rating: 5
On the way home from ballet class, Jessi sees a billboard advertising some soda as the “official” drink of the Summer Olympics. There’s a picture of a swimmer in the middle of a stroke in the water. Jessi wonders for a minute why she choose ballet. Why pound your body into wood when you can submerge it into water? Since it’s a hot day, she agrees that they can turn on the air. Even tho this is supposed to be bad for dancers because it tightens the muscles.
When Jessi gets home, Squirt and Becca beg to turn on the sprinklers. While they’re having fun, Jessi thinks about the summer and how this is only the beginning of how hot it will be. Then she thinks about the billboard and gets an idea. She’ll ask her parents to put a pool in the backyard. She even thinks of a technique. It goes. Step One-compliment her mother on dinner to put her in a good mood-. Step Two-subtly hint at the weather by adding the seafood casserole is perfect for such a hot day-. But her dad isn’t fooled and asks if she wouldn’t just happen to want something. So, Jessi comes out with it. Jessi’s mom says they’ve talked about it but its too expensive. Jessi says she can chip in baby-sitting money. They say it still wouldn’t be enough. Becca even suggest asking for more money. Instead, they suggest there’s a pool complex at the Stoneybrooke Center and the lessons are free. Jessi asks can they join and Mr. Ramsey says he’ll give them a call to set up a family membership.
At the BSC, Claudia is drawing rings and trying to come up for a logo for the upcoming sports competition (at the request of her gym teacher). Claudia, Kristy, Dawn, Stacey says they’ll enter. Maryanne and Mal aren’t that into sports. Stacey says she might enter for swimming. Dawn says she’s going to enter for something different (maybe pole vaulting). Kristy says she’s going to go out for track.
Jessi and Mal’s teacher (Ms. Walden) announces it’s there last regular gym class. Starting next week, the community pool complex will be open during school days and she’ll be taking them there for swim lessons during their gym period. Jessi’s excited about this because she’ll be able to sign up for intermediate classes on her family membership. Mal not so much. The only good thing she can find is that from the walk there and back there will be 10 less minutes of gym. Jessi says it’ll be great. They’ll get out of school for a whole period and learn how to swim. Mal says she can already swim. Jessi says then maybe she can get some coaching for the Sports Festival or maybe they’ll have advanced lessons. After finding out everyone else in the BSC will be in it and particularly Jessi, Mal says she’ll be in it too.
On Tuesday, they find out that there will be boys in the class. Mal is embarrassed because her bathing suit is baby-ish. Jessi agrees to shield her from the boys view. The girls are on one side. The boys on the other. Jessi Is still trying to hide behind Jessi and she says she’s making it worse. The boys start clowning around. The teacher makes them take a simple test to see what she’s working with. Mal does good with the breaststroke, the backstroke, the crawl, and the dog paddle. When it’s Jessi’s turn she does hers slowly and carefully. Ms. Waldon says she wants to talk to her after class. Jessi thinks she’ll be put in a remedial class. Ms. Waldon introduces her to Mrs. Cox who tells Jessi she thinks she’d be perfect to take synchronized swimming lessons. The great thing is she can take the classes 4rth period and substitute her lunch for fifth instead of fourth.
On her first lesson, Jessi is introduced to the 15 other girls in her class and paired up with a girl named Elise (who up until this point has been passed around because she was an uneven number). Elise starts Jessi off with two rounds of side strokes and crawls matching her stroke for stroke. Jessi is good with style (naturally) and Elise is good at speed (because she’s on the swim team). In reverse Jessi isn’t good with speed and Elise isn’t good with style. After this they practice sculling and tubbing. Mrs. Cox is impressed with Jessi and says she’ll be entering competitions in no time. Jessi isn’t so sure. She’s having fun but.. And wouldn’t you know it a competition is announced.
They will be doing a demonstration in two eight member groups in the Sports Festival. Then pairs will compete with each other for medals. Later, Jessi tells Becca about the competition and she’s excited. She says she’ll be sitting in the front row cheering Jessi on. Then when she’s in the sixth grade Jessi will have to come cheer for her because she’ll be in the Festival too. Maybe. Jessi and Becca just so happen to be watching the Olympic trials. Becca asks if they’ll ever have them in Stoneybrooke. Jessi says she doubts it. She says they’re usually held in bigger places than Stoneybrook. This makes Becca disappointed. But then when Jessi thinks about it later, she thinks maybe it’s not so far-fetched and maybe she can do something about it.
We find out at the BSC, Claudia is going to do something “track oriented”, Stacey is going to enter in the breast stroke competition. (Kristy is teaching her how to on the floor when Jessi walks in). Dawn is going to enter for javalin throwing and Kristy is going to challenge Alan Gray publicly to the obstacle course. Jessi tells them her idea to throw a mini-Olympics for the kids and of course, they all love the idea.
Kristy is sitting for 10 kids (Karen, Andrew, David Micheal, Linny, Hannie, Bill, Melody, Scott and Timmy Hsu). She asks for ideas for events. This is what she gets: horse-racing, three-legged racing, basketball shooting contest, potato-sack races, roller-skating races, long jump, volley ball, magic show, and weight lifting. They immediately start training. David Micheal and Linny do chin-ups on tree branches. Tinny does push ups. Melody does jumping jacks. Hannie and Karen have set up an obstacle course. Scott and Bill race each other. Andrew starts to drag out one of Watson’s dumbbells.
We find out that Kristy challenged Alan and because he was embarrassed when his friends teased him, he accepted. But one of the teachers turned it into “The Great SMS Coed Obstacle Challenge” Andrew tho gets upset because he’s slower and not as strong as the other kids who are older. Kristy tries to coach him through each of the things the kids suggested but he can’t really do any of them because he’s younger. Then it goes downhill from there. By the time her parents get home, Andrew is crying, Bill and Linny are racing around and accusing each other of cheating. Timmy and David Micael are fighting over how far each landed in the long jump. Melodys injured her ankle and has to hold an ice pack on it. Kristy thinks maybe she should have suggested they train.
Jessi learns quickly that synchronized swimming is NOT easy. Not only do you have to perform a choreographed routine (and stay in sync with everyone’s movements, you also have to do this staying aflot and keeping a constant distance from everyone else. You can’t stop moving and sometimes you’re doing one stroke per beat. Elise and Jessi are the only ones behind. Ms. Cox is complimenting everyone else.
Jessi will be choreographing their pairs routine. Jessi was glad to do it but choose something too complicated. It’s a routine with Egyptian-style head and hand movements but she and Elise are having trouble doing it. Elise’s moves are all jerky. Jessi can’t stay above the water. They tell each other walking back to class they’re frustrated because the other day Elise had a swim meet and won first place in the butterfly and Jessi did a combination in ballet class that ended with a triple pirouette and an entrechat. Then Jessi has an idea they can practice outside of class time (after school and weekends). Besides the Olympic athletes work day and night to get where they are and if that’s what they have to do then that’s what they’ll do.
Stacy sits for Charlotte and puts to much pressure on her to be apart of the mini-Olympics and realizes it when Charlotte thinks she’s mad at her. She vows never to bring it up again. The BSC decide that the mini-Olympics will be held the Saturday after the Sports Festival in Dawn’s backyard. Here’s some of the events the kids want to do: James (three-legged race), Matthew (regular race), Johnny (weight-lifting), Archie Rodowsky (weight-lifting), Jaime Newton (weight-lifting), Hailey (funny-face race), Matthew (Waffle ball). Then they just decide to let the kids do whatever event they want. Mal stands up to Kristy because she thinks they should talk Charlotte into the games. Mal tells her that not everyone likes sports. (Some of us don’t even like reading these books about sports events). They ask Jessi about swim class and she just says it’s fine. They have it in their heads she’s better at it than she is and she just lets them and doesn’t correct them.
Jessi then has an idea and tells Maryanne maybe she can call Charlotte and tell her she’s not going to the Mini-Olympics either. Maryanne says she will. Claudia and Mal are sitting for the Pikes. Jordan is acting like a fitness trainer named Spuds Diamond he saw on tv. Mal decides she wants to try a potatoe sack race and falls and sprains her ankle. She says she guesses she can’t be in the sports festival. Jessi notices she doesn’t sound to upset about it.
Kristy is in the 100-yard race and places 2nd. Claudia is in a backwards race. Dawn throws her javlin in a perfect arc. I guess this is bad. She’s disappointed. Jessi is wishing Maryanne would have come. She goes to get her and Mal some lemonade and there she is behind the stands. Charlotte talked her into participating without participating and feeling angry that she couldn’t. Kristy wins the race and Alan has to be her servant for a week. Jessi and Elise win first place in the swimming competition. They wein two gold medals. After the Olympics, all the kids get a ribbon. Andrew is praised because he hung in there and won a ribbon for the most determined. Alan gets fed up with being Kristy’s servant and at the end of the book challenges her to another race and this time the loser has to be the winner’s servant for two weeks. Kristy says he’s on.
My Thoughts:
I thought the message of this was gonna be that you don’t have to be perfect in every single thing you do. Not have Jessi try something for a few weeks and get a medal over everyone in the class that’s probably been synchro swimming for no telling how long. Still, I’m kinda glad to see Jessi get something else (that she’s good at) other baby-sitting and ballet. When I saw this was another sports related book my interest dropped slightly. I really wasn’t all that interested in reading about a Sports Festival and was kinda glad to see it added that not all people care about that. (Someone must have had a talk with the ghost writer or maybe the ghost writer didn’t care about sports). I had even less of an interest in another kid sports event. I don’t even watch the real Olympics most of the time. I did however watch last years Olympics and some of it I did actually find interesting. Synchronized swimming was actually one of the events I *did* watch. There are some pretty cool movements going on. They moon walked! I also watched some of the gymnastics (there’s also some dance in that) and I watched a little track and a tiny bit of basketball. But what I liked the most was the Opening Ceremony. I was wondering how Jessi was gonna get the Olympics to come to Stoneybrooke and then I thought “Oh.” (She just wants to have one for the kids). I did feel a little bad for Andrew. There were a few ways they could have done this. They could have just thrown events for the ones his age. Or if it was basketball, there are probably smaller basketball goals designed for kids his age. All they had to do was use their imaginations to make him feel more included instead of letting him try where the odds weren’t in his favor. And they call themselves *good* sitters?
Rating: 5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 29, 2024
Great installment, although I have to wonder how everyone involved signed off on such a blatantly spoiler-y title lol.
September 14, 2013
I think this book was fab! everything was great, and it was nice seeing jessi learn something else other than ballet. of course, she knows ASL too, but that's sort of not an issue cause it was for her sitting charge, etc, etc. I loved everything except for the title. I mean, come on, how much of a spoiler can u get? I know winning the gold wasn't the main thing, but we would've loved a surprise, ms. Martin! seriously, this title takes spoilers to a whole new level! but other wise, I think this was a super great book!
January 15, 2020
Jessi's so versatile—she just seems to go for anything, puts her mind and heart into it and SUCCEEDS. You're a beast, Jessi! When I grow up, I want to be just like you~
I loved the BSC growing up, and have decided to re-read (or read for the first time) some of the books in the series. Which of the members are you most like? :)
I loved the BSC growing up, and have decided to re-read (or read for the first time) some of the books in the series. Which of the members are you most like? :)
May 15, 2015
I am fairly certain that this was the first book that my mom ordered from Scholastic that began my obsession with this awesome series.
December 23, 2019
I'm sad that we never see Elise again, because I really liked her.
July 27, 2024
This is more or less a retread of Mallory and the Dream Horse and it’s sloppy that it follows it so closely. It hews to the same formula of “baby-sitter picks up a new activity, is good at and enjoys it, but ultimately drops it because the plot says so.”
This time, Jessi gets noticed by the coach of the SMS synchronized swimming team (what?? How big is this school that it can support fifteen girls doing synchronized swimming??) and turns out to be a natural. She trains for the SMS sports festival and lacks confidence but ultimately wins the gold medal with her previously unseen and surely never to be seen again partner, Elise. That’s it. There’s a subplot about a BSC activity (the mini Olympics) and some small subplots about the various BSC members at the sports festival (Mary Anne doesn’t want to participate and ends up selling concessions, Mallory doesn’t want to participate and ends up injuring herself on purpose). The distance between Jessi and Mal follows exactly the one in Mallory and the Dream Horse, making it particularly irritating. The one bright spot is probably Kristy, who hands Alan Gray’s ass to him and makes him her servant. It is very funny to see Alan helping out the BSC especially because he is probably enjoying himself.
There is very little actually going on here and it’s very sloppily put together in places. Was this rushed out in anticipation of the 1992 Summer Olympics, which are referenced several times, a very rare case of the BSC acknowledging the wider world? Jessi begins the book by asking her parents for a pool with the conclusion being that they can use the community pool but then Jessi’s swimming lessons are through SMS. Why not just start with the gym class?
This time, Jessi gets noticed by the coach of the SMS synchronized swimming team (what?? How big is this school that it can support fifteen girls doing synchronized swimming??) and turns out to be a natural. She trains for the SMS sports festival and lacks confidence but ultimately wins the gold medal with her previously unseen and surely never to be seen again partner, Elise. That’s it. There’s a subplot about a BSC activity (the mini Olympics) and some small subplots about the various BSC members at the sports festival (Mary Anne doesn’t want to participate and ends up selling concessions, Mallory doesn’t want to participate and ends up injuring herself on purpose). The distance between Jessi and Mal follows exactly the one in Mallory and the Dream Horse, making it particularly irritating. The one bright spot is probably Kristy, who hands Alan Gray’s ass to him and makes him her servant. It is very funny to see Alan helping out the BSC especially because he is probably enjoying himself.
There is very little actually going on here and it’s very sloppily put together in places. Was this rushed out in anticipation of the 1992 Summer Olympics, which are referenced several times, a very rare case of the BSC acknowledging the wider world? Jessi begins the book by asking her parents for a pool with the conclusion being that they can use the community pool but then Jessi’s swimming lessons are through SMS. Why not just start with the gym class?
December 5, 2021
First of all, the title. Hmmmm, I wonder how Jessi will do in synchronized swimming??????
This is a textbook example of why I don't really like Jessi books. To me, Jessi is the most boring character because she always does the right thing, she always excels, and she always gets the part (or in this case, the gold medal). There's a LOT of things I don't like about the other sitters, but up until this book, there's was nothing I disliked about Jessi because she's just really boring.
This book also contradicts everything we know about Jessi. She barely makes it to BSC meetings on time because of her grueling ballet schedule. She couldn't take riding lessons because she's too busy with ballet and babysitting. All her free time is spent dieting, stretching, and training for ballet. But she can drop all that to take on a whole new sport? And it's never once discussed what will happen to Jessi's ballet career if she gets injured doing synchronized swimming.
So what made me dislike Jessi in this book was how she was a complete troll towards Mallory. WHY do you care if Mallory doesn't want to be in the stupid sports festival??? (I mean, I think I know why. Jessi is totally embarrassed to be friends with Mallory and drops her the minute she meets someone who is a better fit for her.) She turns a sprained ankle into a referendum on how Mallory wasn't honest with her, but wasn't that the same thing she did in the dream horse book??? Why wasn't she on Mary Anne's case about it too? Ugh.
This is a textbook example of why I don't really like Jessi books. To me, Jessi is the most boring character because she always does the right thing, she always excels, and she always gets the part (or in this case, the gold medal). There's a LOT of things I don't like about the other sitters, but up until this book, there's was nothing I disliked about Jessi because she's just really boring.
This book also contradicts everything we know about Jessi. She barely makes it to BSC meetings on time because of her grueling ballet schedule. She couldn't take riding lessons because she's too busy with ballet and babysitting. All her free time is spent dieting, stretching, and training for ballet. But she can drop all that to take on a whole new sport? And it's never once discussed what will happen to Jessi's ballet career if she gets injured doing synchronized swimming.
So what made me dislike Jessi in this book was how she was a complete troll towards Mallory. WHY do you care if Mallory doesn't want to be in the stupid sports festival??? (I mean, I think I know why. Jessi is totally embarrassed to be friends with Mallory and drops her the minute she meets someone who is a better fit for her.) She turns a sprained ankle into a referendum on how Mallory wasn't honest with her, but wasn't that the same thing she did in the dream horse book??? Why wasn't she on Mary Anne's case about it too? Ugh.
June 21, 2023
This was fine. It was nice to see Jessi not be a complete natural at something;
The subplot about Alan and Kristy was funny.
The Andrew subplot was sweet. I was really cheering on him to win something.
And oh dear, Mallory.
The subplot about Alan and Kristy was funny.
The Andrew subplot was sweet. I was really cheering on him to win something.
And oh dear, Mallory.
December 14, 2020
(LL)
This book could have given a better overall message than it did.
Jessi contradicts herself in this book from the book before (#54 Mallory and the Dream Horse), since Jessi didn’t take horse riding lessons because she didn’t have the time for it...but she has all this extra time for synchronized swimming? Eh. Also, for her and her partner, Elise, to come in first place after everything was boring and unrealistic. Second or third place could had told kids if you work hard you might do well, but don’t expect to be perfect in everything you try. They then quit the team after coming in first because it was too time consuming. Eh. Sort of a recycled storyline from book #54. I hate recycling storylines in series, as it really grinds my gears.
With that said: it was a decent story with some fun subplots along the way.
This book could have given a better overall message than it did.
Jessi contradicts herself in this book from the book before (#54 Mallory and the Dream Horse), since Jessi didn’t take horse riding lessons because she didn’t have the time for it...but she has all this extra time for synchronized swimming? Eh. Also, for her and her partner, Elise, to come in first place after everything was boring and unrealistic. Second or third place could had told kids if you work hard you might do well, but don’t expect to be perfect in everything you try. They then quit the team after coming in first because it was too time consuming. Eh. Sort of a recycled storyline from book #54. I hate recycling storylines in series, as it really grinds my gears.
With that said: it was a decent story with some fun subplots along the way.
February 18, 2024
Do you think Jessi wins a gold medal in a book titled "Jessi's Gold Medal"? I don't know, man. The suspense is killing me...
Obviously written to coincide with the 1992 Summer Olympics, this book tackles the underappreciated world of synchronized swimming. In the 80's and 90's, there were an abundance of YA books for horse girls and ballet girls, and girls who loved summer camp and sleepovers...but this is the only book I know of for synchronized swim team girls. Naturally Jessi excels at it because the baby-sitters never suck at anything (unless they're Mallory).
One of the subplots is that the BSC puts on a mini-Olympics for the neighborhood kids, and Dawn thinks it's a great idea to give everyone a participation award so that no kid feels bad. Oh, shut up, Dawn. Every 90's kid knew participation trophies were bullshit. Go choke on a alfalfa sprout.
Obviously written to coincide with the 1992 Summer Olympics, this book tackles the underappreciated world of synchronized swimming. In the 80's and 90's, there were an abundance of YA books for horse girls and ballet girls, and girls who loved summer camp and sleepovers...but this is the only book I know of for synchronized swim team girls. Naturally Jessi excels at it because the baby-sitters never suck at anything (unless they're Mallory).
One of the subplots is that the BSC puts on a mini-Olympics for the neighborhood kids, and Dawn thinks it's a great idea to give everyone a participation award so that no kid feels bad. Oh, shut up, Dawn. Every 90's kid knew participation trophies were bullshit. Go choke on a alfalfa sprout.
Read
July 29, 2020I took ballet, so I assumed this meant I could be a synchronized swimmer, and I would try (alone) in my pool.
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important.
February 16, 2022
This was a very sweet story of The Baby-Sitters Club. Reading it during the Olympics (albeit, Winter ones and totally by chance) made it a real good fit to my mood.
As I'm not reading TBSC books in order and have never read them as a kid, it was my first encounter with Jessi, and I must say she soon became one of my faves. She's adorable and I liked her voice throughout the story. Also, synchronized swimming, of course.
As I'm not reading TBSC books in order and have never read them as a kid, it was my first encounter with Jessi, and I must say she soon became one of my faves. She's adorable and I liked her voice throughout the story. Also, synchronized swimming, of course.
March 5, 2023
When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.
July 26, 2020
Some more nostalgia reading - I never got this far in the main series, since I wasn't really allowed to read BSC books (not for content! Just because I was told they were too easy for me!). I honestly don't know if I've ever read a Jessi book before, which is a shame - I really like her!
July 10, 2023
4 stars. Love Jessi centered stories and this one was so much fun. I loved all of the swimming stuff and training that Jessi went through. Also, the side story wasn't bad either. A very entertaining read.
August 29, 2017
Jessi books are so boring I barely made it through this. WHYYYYYYY????
October 2, 2019
Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book.
Read
August 14, 2020Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...
February 9, 2021
Very meh.🤷♀️
June 22, 2021
Other than the actual synchronized swimming this one felt like a copy and paste of previous books which is sad because usually Jessi's are some of my favorites.
October 20, 2025
Weirdly repetitive of the previous book’s themes, but I liked this one more. It really hit the vibe of a perfectionist kid not being the best at something for the first time.
February 2, 2017
Jessi decides to join her school's synchronized swimming team, which we have never heard about before, and will most likely never hear about again. In an incredibly boring subplot, the BSC holds an Olympics game for their charges. Clearly, Scholastic gave money to the Olympics and forced the writers of their series to write a book featuring the Olympics.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
Nothing. I doubt I ever read this book because I did not remember any of it. The thing about Andrew trying so hard to win his Olympic events is sort of familiar, but I may have heard references to it in later books.
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
I feel like this is the first time that Jessi lists the ways her life will always be different from other eleven year olds because she is serious about being a professional ballerina someday. (She will always have to watch her weight, take grueling classes constantly, and always make sure she is very limber.) Her father likens it to being in the army, and having to go through boot camp -- which is very true. I see a lot of snark on the internet about Jessi being so worried about her weight, even though she is only eleven, but if you want to be a ballerina, you have to be very careful about what you eat. I think Jessi is perfectly sensible. She is very careful about the sweets, and the junk food she eats, but she doesn't starve herself. She eats small portions of ice cream, or she splits Claudia's treats with Mary Anne, which is not a bad thing to do. She eats a big, huge breakfast every once in a while, but for the most part she eats pretty well. I wish I had had her eating habits at a young age.
For the first (and possibly only?) time in the series Jessi points out that it's weird that people in Stoneybrook had to "get used to" her family.
As a kid, I can tell I would have sympathized with Mallory when she was so upset about having to take swimming classes with the boys in her class, and when she pretended to hurt her ankle to get out of participating in the school's Sports Festival. I hated gym class throughout school, and I truly hated ninth grade gym class in the spring when we had to take swimming with the boys. I almost got suspended when a girl in my class told me my bathing suit made my stomach look like it had a double chin, and I threw her clothes in the toilet. So the teenager in me completely gets Mallory's angst, but the adult in me wants her to get over it already. Just suck it up, loser. As Jessi tries to tell her, the bigger deal she makes about it, the more attention she calls to herself.
The whole swimming set-up was the most ridiculously contrived plotting that's happened yet in this series. I'm amazed at how the administration of SMS is willing to let Jessi shift her schedule around just to accommodate an extra-circular. Also, in the last book Jessi's parents wouldn't let her take horseback riding lessons because they thought she was busy enough. In this book they don't seem to have a problem with Jessi spending "every spare minute" working on her synchronized swimming. And how can Jessi become so good at synchronized swimming in just a few weeks? She can barely swim when she first starts. I asked my husband, who was on his high school's swim team, and who still swims on a regular basis about this, and he says there was no way Jessi could have developed the strength and coordination to win a gold medal in just two weeks. Even taking her dance training into factor, at the most she would have been passable. I guess we're supposed to believe that Jessi is such a perfectionist that she pulls it off in the end, and that she's too hard on herself, which is the reason why she thought she was so bad. Jessi's a swimming prodigy, but she decides it's too exhausting to do both ballet, and swimming, so she quits swimming. She's the one hit wonder of synchronized swimming. In the last pages of the book Jessi sprouts some nonsense about how if you try hard, you can't help but be a winner, a lesson she supposedly learned during her stint as a synchronized swimmer. She says this about Andrew Brewer, who despite the fact that he tried all day, was not able to win a single race. Jessi's inane platitudes would mean more if she hadn't won a medal.
I can't even get into how stupid and boring the Mini-Olympics plot was. I skimmed over the endless talk about it (so basically, what with Jessi's newly-learned swimming techniques, and the kids running around being athletic, I skimmed the whole book). It was just. . . yeah. Stupid. The kid I was would have thought so too, which may be why I skipped reading this.
Things I remember from reading this as a kid:
Nothing. I doubt I ever read this book because I did not remember any of it. The thing about Andrew trying so hard to win his Olympic events is sort of familiar, but I may have heard references to it in later books.
Things I've considered since reading this as an adult:
I feel like this is the first time that Jessi lists the ways her life will always be different from other eleven year olds because she is serious about being a professional ballerina someday. (She will always have to watch her weight, take grueling classes constantly, and always make sure she is very limber.) Her father likens it to being in the army, and having to go through boot camp -- which is very true. I see a lot of snark on the internet about Jessi being so worried about her weight, even though she is only eleven, but if you want to be a ballerina, you have to be very careful about what you eat. I think Jessi is perfectly sensible. She is very careful about the sweets, and the junk food she eats, but she doesn't starve herself. She eats small portions of ice cream, or she splits Claudia's treats with Mary Anne, which is not a bad thing to do. She eats a big, huge breakfast every once in a while, but for the most part she eats pretty well. I wish I had had her eating habits at a young age.
For the first (and possibly only?) time in the series Jessi points out that it's weird that people in Stoneybrook had to "get used to" her family.
As a kid, I can tell I would have sympathized with Mallory when she was so upset about having to take swimming classes with the boys in her class, and when she pretended to hurt her ankle to get out of participating in the school's Sports Festival. I hated gym class throughout school, and I truly hated ninth grade gym class in the spring when we had to take swimming with the boys. I almost got suspended when a girl in my class told me my bathing suit made my stomach look like it had a double chin, and I threw her clothes in the toilet. So the teenager in me completely gets Mallory's angst, but the adult in me wants her to get over it already. Just suck it up, loser. As Jessi tries to tell her, the bigger deal she makes about it, the more attention she calls to herself.
The whole swimming set-up was the most ridiculously contrived plotting that's happened yet in this series. I'm amazed at how the administration of SMS is willing to let Jessi shift her schedule around just to accommodate an extra-circular. Also, in the last book Jessi's parents wouldn't let her take horseback riding lessons because they thought she was busy enough. In this book they don't seem to have a problem with Jessi spending "every spare minute" working on her synchronized swimming. And how can Jessi become so good at synchronized swimming in just a few weeks? She can barely swim when she first starts. I asked my husband, who was on his high school's swim team, and who still swims on a regular basis about this, and he says there was no way Jessi could have developed the strength and coordination to win a gold medal in just two weeks. Even taking her dance training into factor, at the most she would have been passable. I guess we're supposed to believe that Jessi is such a perfectionist that she pulls it off in the end, and that she's too hard on herself, which is the reason why she thought she was so bad. Jessi's a swimming prodigy, but she decides it's too exhausting to do both ballet, and swimming, so she quits swimming. She's the one hit wonder of synchronized swimming. In the last pages of the book Jessi sprouts some nonsense about how if you try hard, you can't help but be a winner, a lesson she supposedly learned during her stint as a synchronized swimmer. She says this about Andrew Brewer, who despite the fact that he tried all day, was not able to win a single race. Jessi's inane platitudes would mean more if she hadn't won a medal.
I can't even get into how stupid and boring the Mini-Olympics plot was. I skimmed over the endless talk about it (so basically, what with Jessi's newly-learned swimming techniques, and the kids running around being athletic, I skimmed the whole book). It was just. . . yeah. Stupid. The kid I was would have thought so too, which may be why I skipped reading this.
August 16, 2023
This is one of the last books I clearly remember reading. I am getting close to the 60's which is about where I stopped reading. This is the one where the title is a spoiler. Could've called it Jessi Goes for Gold but whatever. So this book is pretty much the same as the last. Mallory got riding lessons, now Jessi wants a pool because it's hot out. This book is a tie in to the 1992 summer Olympics which fun fact 1992 was the last time both the summer and the winter games were held in the same year. Everyone is excited about the upcoming games although they mention watching them which is odd since its spring time. Anyway SMS takes gym class to the community pool and Jessi ends upbin synchronized swimming. One of my resident's granddaughters were actual synchro swimmers so I'm kind of tempted to ask them to read this to show how inaccurate it is. But because Jessi is perfect at all she does she somehow succeeds in her newest venture. She does have difficulties to start and much like Mallory before her she decides not to carry on with her classes after. She does form a nice bond and friendship with her swimming partner Elise so at least it's an improvement on Mallory who basically alienated her classmates by being cringey. The other plot has the sitting charges having a mini Olympics where everyone gets a prize. That's why society is the way it is now. The everyone gets a trophy generation has grown up but that's all I'll say on that. But Andrew Brewer did make me smile. He tried his hardest and reminded me of those true spirit of the Olympics videos they show when the games are on so that one was kind of sweet. But yeah this was only a slight improvement over the previous book mostly because Jessi isn't as cringey as Mallory and is able to pick up on social cues which Mallory was lacking, though she's usually smarter than that. Oh well not a bad book, but like most BSC plots it's pretty unrealistic.
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