The Mancusis don’t have any kids…but they sure have a lot of pets! So when they’re desperate for a sitter, whom do they call? The Baby-sitters Club!

Kristy’s insulted. BSC members don’t pet-sit. But Jessi’s always liked animals, and she talks Kristy into letting her have the job.

With snakes on the loose and sick hamsters, Jessi has plenty of pet-sitting troubles. And the Baby-sitters aren’t making life any easier for her when they 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?

I have to admit that this is one of the books I didn’t necessarily recall right away. I know I read it as a child, because I had the first 70-ish books growing up. But it wasn’t until I dived in that things really started coming back to me.

One of the things I enjoy about Jessi’s stories is that she actually has more variety in her stories than most of the other girls in the club. Sure, she’s the ballerina, but a lot of her books don’t even feature ballet as a side story. As a pet lover, I’m sure I probably enjoyed this story as a child. Though we didn’t have nearly as many pets (at one time) when I was growing up, we did have a lot of cats and dogs over the years. As I was reading everything, I remembered everything about Jessi’s pet-sitting job, including what was wrong with the little fat hamster in the corner.

However, I did not remember this book featuring the big fight between all of the older members. I did recall the fight and knew how the near elections would turn out, but I didn’t remember which book it was in. Though I liked seeing the girls have a real problem among themselves and several people call out Kristy for her behavior (FINALLY!), it just didn’t work as well because Dawn truly wasn’t the best choice for Treasurer. I actually wish as much effort had been put into Jessi’s fairly uneventful pet-sitting job. There were one or two fairly realistic issues, but honestly expected one real emergency. Then again, I suppose the hamster was meant to fit that bill and probably did for my younger self.

Regardless, this was an enjoyable trip down memory lane for me. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find more of these moments as I continue re-reading the series.

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