Jessi’s Secret Language

Jessi's Secret Language by Ann M. Martin is a warm friendship story for 9 year olds about a ballet-mad girl whose new babysitting job comes with a whole new language.

What happens

Jessi Ramsey is eleven and has only lived in Stoneybrook for a few weeks. She's up at 5.29 every morning to practise at the barre in the basement. Her family is black, and she's the only black kid in the whole of sixth grade. Things have been a bit rough (they're getting better, slowly).

Then the Baby-Sitters Club gets a call. Seven-year-old Matt Braddock was born profoundly deaf and talks in sign language, and his mum wants a regular sitter who'll learn it. Everyone else's timetable gets in the way, so the job goes to Jessi (who happens to be very good at languages).

The same week, Madame gives her the starring part in the ballet school's Coppélia. Jessi's the youngest in the class and was hoping for a tiny role at best! Two older girls are NOT pleased, and the teacher's pet whispers start straight away.

The signing lessons are the loveliest bit. Matt's name sign is an M thrown like a baseball, because he loves sport. His sister Haley's is an H soaring like Halley's Comet. Jessi learns the finger-spelling alphabet in one night and decides signing is almost like dancing. Don't be surprised if your reader starts trying out signs at the dinner table.

Haley is nine, funny and fed up. When a little girl yells right into Matt's ear and calls him weird, she's had enough. Jessi knows what it's like to stand out in a new neighbourhood, and you can feel her working out what's going on in that family.

It's worth knowing that being the only black family in the neighbourhood is part of Jessi's story. People weren't very nice at first, she says. She even wonders whether a black girl could be cast in a ballet set in an old European town. Some of the wording around deafness has dated too (early on Jessi calls Matt a handicapped child). It's all seen through Jessi's eyes and it's a good one to chat about together. Has your reader ever felt like the odd one out? They'll find a friend in Jessi.

This is the sixteenth book in the series, and the opening catches you up on the club, including how a few earlier books turn out.

What to read next

So if you'd rather start at the very beginning, Kristy's Great Idea is where Kristy gets the idea halfway through a pizza, watching her mum make call after call to find someone to mind her little brother.