Jessi and the Superbrat

  I gave Derek a big hug good-bye and hurried out of the house. I aleady felt kind of choked up and I didn’t want to start crying.

  When I got halfway down the street I stopped and pulled the photo out to look at it again.

  “Your friend forever,” it said.

  Well, who could tell? Maybe that would end up being true. Anyway, it had sure been fun being friends with Derek so far. I slipped the photo back into its envelope and started to run home. After all, I had a lot of index cards to throw out….

  And, hey, I thought as I leaped over the curb, I had Swan Lake to learn, too!

  * * *

  Dear Reader:

  Jessi and the Superbrat is the first book in which child star Derek Masters appears. I didn’t model Derek after anyone, but I have met a number of young actors. While the Baby-sitters Club movie was being filmed, I went to Los Angeles to visit the set. As soon as I arrived, I met Sky Fisk, Larisa Oleynik, Bre Blair, Zelda Harris, Stacey Lynn Ramsower, Tricia Joe, and Rachel Leigh Cook.

  The kids in the movie look like they were having lots of fun — and they were. They also worked very hard. It’s a long day on the set, and lots of scenes have to be shot over and over again. Also, each actor must spend several hours in school on the set. It was great fun meeting the actors and seeing my characters come to life. I was happy to find out that the girls were fans of the books, too!

  Happy reading,

  * * *

  About the Author

  ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane.

  There are currently over 176 million copies of The Baby-sitters Club in print. (If you stacked all of these books up, the pile would be 21,245 miles high.) In addition to The Baby-sitters Club, Ann is the author of two other series, Main Street and Family Tree. Her novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, On Christmas Eve, Everything for a Dog, Ten Rules for Living with My Sister, and Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far). She is also the coauthor, with Laura Godwin, of the Doll People series.

  Ann lives in upstate New York with her dog and her cats.

  Copyright © 1989 by Ann M. Martin.

  Cover art by Hodges Soileau

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First edition, July 1997

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-63079-5