It always confused me why Jessi and Mallory only had one mystery each. After some lengthy discussion on the top at the BSC boards, I finally found the answer. Jessi and Mallory, at eleven years old, were simply too young to participate in any of the dangerous crime-solving that the much older thirteen-years-old sitters were doing. Even in the Super Mysteries where Mal and Jessi have chapters, i can’t recall them doing any real stakeouts or anything–just keeping the mystery notebook up to date or doing some library research. Despite the total disregard for safety throughout this spinoff, such as the fact that even when someone tries to burn someone’s house down Claudia doesn’t bother to tell her parents about the scary stuff that’s happening to the BSC, at least they left the young’uns out of it.

Everyone rolls their eyes when they recognize that the last name of the Australian Hobart family is a city in Tasmania. But did you know that Kent (last name of Victoria, the British Princess), is a county in England? And that Ramsey is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey?

Are there any other examples of this phenomenon?

No, the title does not refer to the fact that Jessi has probably yet to reach puberty. The title instead refers to the fact that while Jessi Ramsey started out with such promise, she was soon turned into a mere Token Character, with no real characterizations beyond dancing and being black. Remember when Jessi wondered, “Who ever heard of a black robot?” (For that matter, young Jessica, who ever heard of white robot? Aren’t all robots made out of metal, or at least silicone-covered metal?) Well, there is one black dancing robot, and its name is Jessi Ramsey.

When we first meet Jessi, she’s funny, and super good at languages. She seems to be a long-lost member of the Glass family, what with her going to Mexico for a week and becoming “practically fluent” in Spanish and all. (For the record, I hate romance languages. That, however, is a story for another blog.)

She also tells corny jokes about penguins. This is an aspect of Jessi’s character that when it disappeared, I did not really miss about Jessi. Then Abby came and reclaimed the corny joke role for the BSC.

Jessi is also introduced as a dancer, but it is not her whole life and she does not want to be a professional. Jessi is also a nice counterbalance to neurotic Mallory. She can always calm Mal down. This, at least, she retains, until Mal decides she wants to go to boarding school and Jessi turns into a megabitch. And that time she thought Mal, her BEST FRIEND, was racist because she was shy when visiting Jessi’s grandparents house.

After Jessi Ramsey, Pet Sitter, Jessi pretty much lost most of her characterizations. Her sitting job with Matt Braddock basically faded away with no explanation, and the other girls become pretty good at sign language as well. So what were we left with? Basically Jessi dances and is black, and everything else she has common with Mallory: she thinks her parents treat her like a baby because she can’t sit at night unless for her own family and can’t wear sophisticated (read: ugly) clothes like Claudia and Stacey. Not much else can be said about her.

Ergo, Black Dancing Robot.

I think the loss of Jessi’s more subtle characterizations is even worse than Dawn’s assassination by the ghostwriters. At least Dawn redeemed herself in the CA Diaries, of which I am a huge fan. But Jessi just dropped out of the Club to dance more, and did not narrate a book after Jessi’s Big Break. It’s saddening, because if you go back to Hello, Mallory!/Jessi’s Secret Language, it’s obvious that so much more could have been done with her. I would like to see some high-quality Jessi fanfic, to give her the chance to succeed that Scholastic didn’t.