Jessi's Horrible Prank is the 75th book in The Baby-Sitters Club series.
Back Cover Summary[]
Jessi's new teacher Mr. Trout is...different. All the kids at SMS laugh at him because he's shy and wears odd clothes. Jessi knows it isn't right. But the jokes the kids play on Mr. Trout are funny.
So when Jessi is asked to play a prank — a big one — on Mr. Trout, she goes along with it. After all, no one else thinks it's mean.
Except Mr. Trout. And now Jessi has to live with the horrible thing she's done.
Summary[]
Mr. Trout leaves SMS.
Subplot[]
Several of the BSC sitting charges put on the BSC Follies.
Characters[]
Jessi's Family
BSC Members
Kids
- Charlotte Johanssen
- Jordan, Adam, Byron, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire Pike
- Arnold Twins
- Matt and Haley Braddock
- Marnie, Buddy and Suzi Barrett
Pre-teens
- Sanjita Batts, John Rosen, Mark O'Connell, Sandra Hart, Renee Johnson, Craig Avazian, George Weiss, Maria Fazio, Janet O'Neal, Justine Moss, Jimmy Bouloukos, Randy Rademacher, Jamie Sperling, Ben Abbott, Lauren Aronson, Jeff Atkinson, Liz Cohen, Sarah Green, Ashley Bedell, Tom Block, Lisa Mannheim - classmates of Jessi's
Teenagers
- Alan Gray (mentioned)
Adults
- Mr. Trout
- Ms. Bernhardt
- Ms. Vandela
- Bill Rademacher
- Mr. Williams, Mr. Jazak, Mrs. Pinelli, Ms. Flood - sixth grade teachers (mentioned)
- Dee Pike
- Dr. and Mr. Johanssen
- Madame Noelle
- Mr. Bellafatto
- Mr. and Mrs. Arnold
Locations[]
- Stoneybrook Middle School
- Kishi House
- Ramsey House
Pop Culture and Real-Life References[]
- Dolly Parton, Elvis (singers)
- Elmer Fudd
- The Saddle Club, Maniac Magee, and Marguerite Henry books
- Peter Pan, Annie (musicals)
- Elsie the Cow
- Wayne's World
- The Seven Dwarfs
- Jerry Lewis
- Coneheads
- The Little Mermaid
- Shining Time Station, I Love Lucy, Star Trek, Sesame Street, The Flintstones, Saturday Night Live (tv shows)
- Mad Libs
- Vogue, Journal of the American Medical Association, New York, and Ranger Rick (magazine)
Continuity and Inconsistencies[]
Continuity
- The BSC is taking Short Takes class which is first mentioned in Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies.
- Jessi recalls parts of Peter Pan from Starring the Baby-sitters Club! and her horrible singing is also brought up
- Jessi picking up sign language from Jessi's Secret Language
- Jessi says that Karen and Andrew are now living at Watson’s every other month. So this book takes place after Karen's Two Families.
Inconsistencies
- Charlotte and Becca decides to perform on stage despite their stage fright.
- Sanjita's name was misspelled on page 107
Ann M. Martin's Dear Reader Letter[]
Dear Reader,
The pranks that Jessi and her classmates pull on Mr. Trout are truly mean and horrible. However, practical jokes can be funny — as long as nobody gets hurt or embarrassed. Sometimes I like to play practical jokes myself, a trait I got from my father. My father loves to play jokes and to give people funny presents. One of the best practical jokes he ever played was when he was an adult, but before he had married my mother, and he went to his parents’ house for Christmas. On Christmas Eve after the stockings had been hung, Dad snuck downstairs late at night and replaced his stocking with an enormous one that he had made himself — the size of a bed sheet. However, the joke was on him when he woke up the next morning and found that Santa had managed to fill the entire stocking. It was full of furniture, large presents, and anything else that Santa could find quickly.
A number of years later, when I was about five years old, my parents woke my sister and me up late one night so that we could drive to the house of friends who lived in the country, and set a tacky pink flamingo on the front lawn for them to find in the morning. Maybe this is why my sister Jane and I loved April Fools’ Day when we were growing up. We always tried to find ways to trick our parents. I remember waiting until nighttime one April Fools’ Day and rearranging the living room furniture while our parents were at a party. It was a lot of fun, and boy, were our parents surprised when they returned. Practical jokes should never be cruel. They should always be fun and funny. Just ask my dad!
Trivia[]
- Mr. Steinmetz is an SMS custodian who was missing a front tooth and whistled when he talked. Alan Gray imitated him at the Follies.
- A Follies committee meeting is held at Jessi's house.
- Claudia thinks nose rings are cool
- Mara Semple's family doesn't like Jessi's
- Jessi thinks Becca would be a good sitter.
- Proceeds from the Follies went to the Stamford Theater for the Hearing-Impaired
- Logan goes to a BSC meeting
- There's a town meeting held that the Johanssen parents go to
- Stoneybrook High School loans out props for the follies.
- The working title for this book was Jessi and Mr. Trout [1]