Jessi and the Superbrat
A first look at the second book in the AMM Archives
Book #27 is the second book to be covered in the Archives: box 1, folders 5-7. This set of archives included the book cover and another “Scholastic order form” according to the finding aid - really, the “please notify me” page again. All of my photos and what I want to discuss can be found from folder 7, though: the typed, 13 page book “outline.” This will be done in two parts; part one here discusses some random excerpts from the outline. My next post will have just one photo but, I hope, a larger and thoughtful discussion.
This paragraph, early on in the synopsis, shows the complex art of BSC job-scheduling with continuity taken into account. It shows how much care AMM put into make sure everything made sense and that readers wouldn’t be confused or find errors. Again, she had such respect for her readers!
A few things from this page stood out to me - first, referring directly to the ghostwriter (Jan). Referring to “donce closs” and even keeping it just as “closs” later. I know there’s some level of annoyance at AMM’s phonetic writing of accents, but I always enjoyed Mme. Noelle. It was the stuffed noses (Hunter Bruno and sometimes Abby) that got a little irritating after awhile…although you couldn’t help but say some of the words out loud to see how they really sounded, and it was always super accurate!
I also loved the exact references to Princeton and McCarter Theatre on this page. As I said before in my Substack introduction, I am a lifelong Jersey girl - specifically I’ve spent almost my entire life in central NJ - and even more specifically, I’ve lived one town over from Princeton for the past eight years. I’ve driven down AMM’s childhood street and think of her every time I drive through downtown, which is usually once or twice a week. There are specific roads and schools and places I just know she used as either direct or subconscious inspiration. Technically, I could walk to Princeton - the border is about two miles from my house - but I’m really about a fifteen minute drive from downtown and the university. Finally, the Princeton Packet still exists. It all makes me feel so personally connected to AMM.
Fun fact: I met AMM at BookCon (RIP) in 2019. I went to her question and answer session and visited the BSC retro setup and Graphix area way too often. I’ll make a whole Substack entry about that with more pictures, but what I want to say now is: I tried and tried to think of a good question to ask, something that couldn’t be found elsewhere and would show AMM how big a fan I was. I ended up telling her that I lived right near Princeton and asked about the actual Burnt Hill Road that I linked above. I asked if it was the real-life inspiration for Burnt Hill Road where Mary Anne and Dawn live, and she said yes! It was a very cool moment I will remember forever.
I think I just took this picture because I was in awe of the “Plant:” part. Once again, AMM trusts her writers and readers so much. She plants ideas and gives them clues about what is going to happen later on. Here, it’s just for this book; later in the Archives, it’s sometimes setting up entire books in advance. I also love the “don’t be specific as this will date the book” instruction. It’s very interesting how some aspects of the Stoneybrook universe include real people, movies, books, music…and others just don’t. Sometimes, the same BSC book will have both real celebrities and fake ones. I’d love to know how that was all decided - and who had the final say! After six sessions at the Archives, I don’t have any clear answers on that one.
Finally, I will say that the TV series does a great job adapting this book for the small screen. Jessi is delightful, Derek is a perfect blend of influencer/kid, the dad toes the “dadager” line wonderfully, Jessi’s mom lives up to her role in the books as one of the best BSC members’ moms, and Mary Anne plays her part perfectly. Obviously, I am going to do some more extensive breakdowns of the TV shows in the future, maybe after I run out of things to say about the Archives. But for now, let me just share one of my absolute favorite scenes from it.
Watch just two minutes, starting at 18:00 minutes in. It’s season 2, episode 4 - I could not find the clip on YouTube or anywhere else. Apologies for the Dailymotion link; I’m sure it won’t be around forever so watch while you can.
In the words of the indelible Kristin Amanda Thomas, “Don’t get short with my baby-sitters.”