#11: BURIED TREASURE
The brunette on this cover is Ellen Riteman. She makes a few cover appearances and is usually pretty cute.
At the end of #10, Ellen and Jessica were helping Ellen's little brother Mark dig a grave for his parakeet, which was killed by their cat. Nice family pet drama. Mark gets over it really fast when they dig up an old metal box. He accidentally knocks into Jessica, who pretends that he hurt her bad ankle and he has to go to her house for her crutches. It's all a typical Jessica ruse designed to buy her and Ellen some time alone with the box. They open it and find two old photographs, some love letters...and two hundred dollars. Guess what Ellen and Jessica decide to do. Split the money and go spend it.
The main issue with this is that the money is from the 1920s and cash looked different then. I think it was even bigger. So two girls running around with historical cash would not have worked.
Anyway, Jessica and Ellen show Mark the box with only the letters and photos, but he senses that they're hiding something. Then they march into school with new earrings (Ellen) and a new Walkman (Jessica). Not long after this, the class trip money goes missing. You can see where this is going.
To add to the drama, Elizabeth is running for class treasurer. Amy is her campaign manager and Amy is also the student in charge of the trip money, which is kept in teacher Ms. Wyler's locker in the teacher lounge. This is stupid on many levels. One, don't put a kid in charge of that kind of money. If the entire class is going to Disneyland on this, then it's not a small amount. Two, don't keep money in a place that isn't secure. It's mentioned during the course of the story that everyone knows where Ms. Wyler keeps her key. Keep it in the damn office. Three...we'll get to later.
So while Elizabeth is running for a position that manages money, her sister is now one of the rumored trip money thieves. And who started that rumor? Amy. Elizabeth confided her theory to her best friend, who immediately told Caroline Pearce the school gossip. You see, people were starting to look upon Amy with suspicion. So I kinda get why she did it but then she's cold to Elizabeth almost right after and that's ridiculous.
Now we've got Ellen and Jessica swearing they're not thieves, while Amy sees Ken comforting Elizabeth and is convinced he likes her now, so that makes their fight even worse. Amy quits managing for Elizabeth and helps her opponent, Peter DeHaven, who's a nerd trying to get a new, cooler image.
Finally, Ellen and Jessica confess what they did. At the same time, the granddaughter of the woman in the photo arrives at Ellen's house and she says it's okay for the girls to keep the money, because the letters mean more to her and helped her figure out her own dilemma. The girls give their remaining $50 to Mark so he's happy. Meanwhile, Elizabeth (who won treasurer) and Amy get locked in a supply cabinet and end up both talking things out AND finding the "stolen" money. It wasn't stolen at all because Ms. Wyler put it in there when dropping off some posters. So my "three" from above is make sure the teacher in charge of the cash isn't a fucking idiot. It's not written but she really owed Ellen and Jess an apology, as well as Amy and the entire sixth grade class.
All's well that ends well. Also, there was a brief Nora Mercandy scene! She and Brooke are gossiping about the theft, so it looks like Nora is part of Elizabeth's extended friends group.
#12: KEEPING SECRETS
Oh, gods, I'm only a couple chapters into this one and I'm already way bored. The twins' dad teaches them his childhood secret language called Ithig and expects JESSICA WAKEFIELD TO KEEP A SECRET. Ned Wakefield, have you lost your damn mind? That's gossip queen Caroline on the cover there behind the twins, by the way.
Now that I've read the entire thing, this was the stupidest one yet. So the twins learn a secret language that means a lot to their dad and swear to keep it a secret. Too bad Caroline already heard and told everyone. Amy and Lila both get completely unrealistically mad at the twins and freeze them out. They're at bully level. You expect it from spoiled Lila but Amy? You disappoint me, Sutton. Lila is having a big party and some celeb tennis guy will be there. So aside from bullying Jessica, she's also rubbing a party in her face. You know Jessica's gonna crack and she does. Soon everyone knows Ithig. Elizabeth is pissed. Their father is unhappy. It was really a stupid idea though. It's a pretty basic language and super easy to figure out, so the fact that it could stay a secret for more than a couple hours is totally unrealistic.
The music teacher has a new baby, so he goes on leave, and the class decides to punish the substitute by using only Ithig. Elizabeth decides to be generous and teach it to her, only to have her learn that the teacher figured it out already. That's how basic this thing is. So the class prank fails, Lila looks stupid and makes a fool of herself in front of the supervisor she was trying to get the teacher in trouble with, everyone is friends again, the end. It was a total yawn.
#13: STRETCHING THE TRUTH
Jess, who is that with you on the cover? Guess we'll find out. It's certainly not Mary, who this book is about.
Ah, okay, it's Bruce Patman.
Anyway, Mary's mom just got married and Mary is having trouble sharing her with her new stepfather. She feels left out of the family. It wasn't long ago that Mary and her mom found each other again, so I get it. She ends up telling some white lies about her stepfather and then worries the Unicorns will find out. It's not a horrible book, but not much goes on aside from that family drama, which is solved in the end. I was disappointed there wasn't more about the jewelry-making classes most of the kids took. We didn't even get a single scene set during a class.
#14: TUG OF WAR
Oh, gods, the twins are running against each other for president. How fast can I read this thing and get it over with?
Pretty fast. The plot moves quickly and it's no surprise. Elizabeth has the better platform and actually wants to be president. Jessica's platform is just using the book fair money to throw a party and she has no clue what the president even does. The third candidate, Randy Mason, I don't think has been mentioned before. He's a quieter, nerdy kid but he takes his joke nomination seriously and comes up with even better ideas than Elizabeth.
Jessica plays dirty tricks to ruin Elizabeth's campaign. Elizabeth plays one right back at her and gets in trouble. They both do, but Mrs. Wakefield seems more mad at Elizabeth, which is really unfair. You raised Jessica, ma'am. That mess is partially your doing. Everyone just lets Jessica get away with way too much shit.
Elizabeth one ups her in the end though. During the campaign speeches, she drops out of the race and backs Randy, encouraging people who were going to vote for her to do the same. Randy wins. Jessica pouts. Then later, she's relieved because she had no idea what a time commitment being president would be. Randy makes Elizabeth an advisor and asks Jessica to help plan the party. He really was te best choice.
#15: THE OLDER BOY
As if this guy wouldn't know this is a twelve-year-old.
Okay, this one took me a while to get through. I let myself read it in spurts, like while I was eating. It's pretty painful.
So Jessica is obsessed with the idea of a older guy. At the roller rink (oh, 80s), she meets Josh Angler, a 16-year-old junior at Sweet Valley High. She manages to not only convince him that she's a 14-year-old freshman that he's just never seen before, but also gets a date with him.
Thanks to help from Lila, Jess is able to go on her first date, which is somewhat painful because apparently teens in the 80s went on double dates ALL THE TIME, so she was stuck there with another guy and his date, a girl who was also a freshman. So Jessica not only had to be believable to Josh but to two other people, one of whom was in her supposed class. She was also spotted by Caroline Pearce, the town gossip. The most unbelievable part of this book is that Josh didn't notice that Jessica was 12. The second most unbelievable part is that Caroline did not immediately call the Wakefield house later that night and ask about this date. Especially because, as we will see, she had a personal stake in it.
Josh plans a second date for the next Saturday, though he won't tell Jessica what they're doing. So she tells her family she's invited to Kerry Glenn's cabin by the lake, even going so far as to have Lila call Mrs. Wakefield pretending to be Mrs. Glenn.
Josh picks up Jessica, then his cousin. Turns out it's another double date and they're going to the circus. The circus that Jess was so upset about missing out on that she almost cancelled this date. The circus that the entire Wakefield family will also be attending. Jess begins to feel her imminent doom. And then...they drive up to her house! Josh's cousin Megan's date...is Steven Wakefield. Steven, instead of immediately outing Jess, goes along with her being a freshman and their having the same last name but not being related. I think he's partially in shock at her audacity but also wants to maximize the chaos of this whole incident.
They arrive at the circus and Jess has a moment to talk to Steven alone. he agrees to go along with her but points out that their family is sitting right across the ring from them. Jessica also manages to matchmake. Josh's ex is Anita PEARCE, Caroline's older sister. This is why, if I were Caroline, I would have called the twins to find out what was going on. Caroline knows Anita isn't over Josh and they broke up over some stupid fight. So Jess runs into Anita in the bathroom and convinces her to go talk to Josh, saying that Josh isn't over her (which he did basically tell her). This works and the two of them get back together. Jess tries to escape early, but Josh talks her into staying, saying what great friends they'll still be. She shouldn't have been swayed so easily, because right at the end, boom, they run into the Wakefields, who have been searching nosily for Steven to check out his new girlfriend.
The truth comes out quickly. Josh is angry at first, but then seems to think everything is funny, because he'd once gone on a joyride at thirteen and insisted to a cop that he was sixteen. Steven is amused. Jessica is humiliated because now Josh is treating her like a kid sister. And once they get home and the family learns everything, Elizabeth is amazed at her sister's ability to spin a situation, the parents express parental "we can't trust you" disappointment and ground Jess for two weeks, and...that's it. She gets off pretty light. There's also the bonus of her turning into a minor celebrity at school, because she went on a date with a 16-year-old in his car AND he kissed her. Everything, once again, is turning up Jessica.
This one is about two brothers: Tom and Dylan McKay. Tom is in sixth grade, while Dylan is in seventh. Tom is popular, smart, funny and good at sports. Dylan is awkward and feels he has no special skills, though he does enjoy writing. The main plot of the book is how Dylan feels constantly overshadowed by Tom, even though Tom is super nice all the time, even when Dylan punches him in the cafeteria. Dylan plans to run away, but he's stopped by Tom and Elizabeth. Elizabeth tells him that some people prefer Jessica to her and that she's fine with it. They each have different friends and different talents. She also entered his essay in a statewide contest and he won, so when she drops that bombshell on him, he's happy. So Dylan begins to find his way to a happier life.
The side plot is that the school's sixth and seventh graders have been split into mixed groups to each create a business and sell their products. Jessica's group is doing a boutique. Elizabeth's is making a book. Each idea being the appropriate twin's. Elizabeth's goes well. Jessica's ends up making no money because all the group members wanted to trade clothes instead of sell them. So Elizabeth finds out what went on and gets Jessica to unload the giant bag of "traded" items and they end up selling out. One of those times where you can't help but like Elizabeth, because she's truly nice in this book, but on the other hand, Jessica isn't THAT stupid. I would have liked her to succeed without Elizabeth's help.
I did like this one for the introduction to Tom. I remember him as being one of my favorite Sweet Valley boys, along with Aaron Dallas. Although maybe, like Nora Mercandy, it was based on this single strong appearance? I'm not sure yet. Nora has been popping up here and there in a few books, though not as any sort of real character.
Ah, the sexist teacher one. Yeah, this was just as painful as I figured.
So the twins have a new homeroom teacher. Homeroom in Sweet Valley apparently is:
a) way longer than any homeroom I've ever seen
b) a way to group students for activities, like performing arts and sports (Again, not like anything I've ever known.)
The new teacher is named Mr. Davis and Mr. Davis is a raging fucking sexist. His excuse is that he taught at an all-boys school so he doesn't know much about girls. DUDE. Were you BORN a teacher? Even if he himself went to an all-boys school, there's no way he's never been around a female his entire life. He's not a fucking monk. And there's no way he hid away from seeing the accomplishments of women. The very idea that there's a guy this ignorant is unbelievable. He gives them cleaning jobs, insults their intelligence, has them make sandwiches for the field trip to the zoo when they'd already contributed money for lunch at the zoo, totally ignores their existence, and allows the boys to take over the follies skit performance, completely leaving the girls out of it. Even worse, the boys start to mimic his attitude.
The girls are rightly pissed off and band together to get back at this guy on their own. I have two issues with this. First, the twins won't tell their parents because they said they didn't want to hear any complaints about teachers. Apparently, there was a lot of bitching about the homeroom subs they had. It is homeroom. What's there to bitch about? You're not learning anything! Not the best parenting there either because they have the twins feeling like they can't say anything even though this is a real problem that should be talked about with parents. Also, the twins should be smart enough to realize this is an Actual Problem and that overrides any "no bitching about subs" crap. They did hint at the sexism but it was quickly shut down with more bad parenting in the form of "teachers aren't like that." If the twins hadn't felt too afraid to use actual examples, they could have shown their parents that they were right. Second, while the Wakefield twins couldn't talk to their parents, there was literally zero reason every single other girl couldn't have talked to theirs. This issue needed parental involvement.
So they start acting like the prissy weaklings the teacher expects, but that gets them kicked off the homeroom softball team, which several of them excel at. They are able to make the teacher look bad in front of the principal twice, by showing how much he ignores the girls. They come in uniform to the championship softball game and it's clear the boys need help. Jessica uses her Unicorn Power to spread the word through the crowd, which begins to chant "We want the girls." The girls lobby not only their way back on the team, but also for equal treatment in class. The teacher finally might just see that he's been a fucking asshat this whole time and the girls win the game. Jessica of all people is a fantastic fielder, Amy is a great hitter, and Nora is a really fast runner.
All's well that ends well, but this should never have been handled by kids alone. Never.
On the plus side, it was great to see all the girls work together for once, instead of it being the Unicorns vs. Elizabeth and her gang. This was also the most we've seen of Nora Mercandy since #3. She had a pretty strong showing. Go, Nora.
Mrs. Wakefield isn't feeling well and it turns out she's likely got a random unknown virus, but she also has a lump on her neck that needs a biopsy. Jessica freaks out and blows everything out of proportion. Mr. Wakefield is in New York working on a case, so Jessica takes over running the house, which basically means having fun waiting on her mom while she gives Steven and Elizabeth the actual chores. Steven and Elizabeth are mad, but stupidly go along with it. Seriously, their mom isn't that sick. They should have told her what Jess was doing or simply teamed up against her and taken turns doing the harder stuff. I'd expect this pushoverness from Elizabeth but Steven?
Anyway, Jess lets it slip to big mouth Caroline that her mom is sick and that turns into Mrs. Wakefield is DYING, which gets Jessica some special treatment at school. She's even handed the lead in the musical that she wants. Thankfully, Mrs. Wakefield is fine and everyone is thrilled. Jessica lets that stay secret for a day or so longer than she should have, but eventually she gives her part to Dana Larson, who's a better singer, and takes a smaller role. Elizabeth and Steven also finally stand up for themselves and make Jessica do all their chores as well as her own while they take care of their mom for the weekend.
Not a great one, but not horrible. One of the highlights for me was an appearance by Winston Eggbert, who's maybe finally going to become more of a character.
We're taking a break from the regular series for our first super edition! BSC called their bigger books super specials, so of course Sweet Valley had to be different and it's super editions.
This cover is questionable. Ellen on the left looks adorable and Jess is next to her, but Elizabeth is third and...why is she in purple? She hates purple. It was well-documented in the earlier books that purple is her least favorite color. Then there's random guy. We'll assume it's Tom, because he's blond and cute like Tom on the cover of #16. He's also next to Liz and they're friends.
This one is...not my favorite. Caroline Pearce asked Elizabeth to sit with her on the bus ride to the amusement park the class is going to. Elizabeth told her she'd already promised to sit with Jessica. She tells Jess this and she agrees, but in true Jessica fashion, forgets and tells Lila she'll sit with her. Elizabeth, now stuck with Caroline, is mad.
At the park, Elizabeth obsesses over the broken promise. Lila abandons Jessica to go off with a boy she ran into and knows from camp, so Jessica ends up trying to find Elizabeth. Elizabeth snubs her, then feels guilty. On a castle-themed ride, she and Amy bump heads really hard.
Then things get weird. Elizabeth is determined to make up with Jessica, so she goes off to find her, and soon realizes she's in a fairy tale land. There's a bit with a medieval castle, kings and knights, then Tom Sawyer and a talking mouse show up. Then there an evil queen and a witch, a friendly sea serpent, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Thumbelina, and Peter Pan. Elizabeth goes on a bunch of adventures in her efforts to save Jessica, who just keeps getting kidnapped by the villainous characters. They finally beat the witch and restore magic to the kingdom, then head back to their world.
Predictably, what actually happened was that Elizabeth blacked out when she smacked heads with Amy and dreamed the entire thing. Though there's a moment at the very end where a costumed mouse character says goodbye to her and uses her name so it's left ambiguous.
Definitely not a fan of the fantastical side of Sweet Valley unless it's one of the chiller books. This one just did not do it for me.
Seventh-grader Dennis Cookman is the school bully, mostly picking on younger, smaller kids. He's huge, standing a foot taller than the biggest sixth-grader, Aaron Dallas.
That is Lila Fowler on the cover there, cowering behind Jessica, who did manage to stand up to Dennis for about ten seconds. It's nice to see Lila look pretty for once. They definitely did not factor in for Dennis's size though. That is not someone that's a foot taller than Aaron Dallas. He's at best only a head taller than Jess there.
Aaron, Ken, little Jimmy Underwood, Amy and Elizabeth for a little team that plots to change Dennis's ways. After a couple frustrating chapters of them not telling adults (and a missed opportunity for the writer to teach kids the difference between "tattling" and when you should talk to an adult), they go to Mr. Bowman, but his interference doesn't help anything. They take matters into their own hands and spend the book with the good guys each faking spending a night in a supposedly haunted cave. Aaron knows a back way out, so all they each do is spend an hour there, go home, and come back a half hour before they're supposed to come out.
The B-plot is Grace Oliver's journey to become a Unicorn. Jessica has decided to bring back the initiations, though Ellen and Lila both have reservations. Janet doesn't have nearly enough say in this. She's the president, but she's barely in this book and Jess is making all the big calls. It was nice to see both Ellen and Lila being on the side of right for once. Jessica's final initiation is for Grace to get Dennis to have lunch with her. She tries and eventually Jessica sees the errors of her ways and makes up an easier final task, but then Grace's efforts pay off and she spends a couple lunch periods getting to know Dennis. There's never any backstory behind Dennis's behavior. He says once that people call him names for being so big, but that's it and that's not enough to provoke the bullying level he was at.
The book ends with Dennis himself forced to do the dare, but the drainpipe the other kids escaped through also helps let rainwater into the cave, flooding it. So of course a huge storm breaks out and the kids have to work together to save Dennis. He's grateful and learns how to get along with people, even eating lunch with little Jimmy.
This one is nice because it introduces some newer characters. Grace is sweet. Olivia Davidson, the artist, makes a brief appearance. Aaron is my favorite of the boys and he's pretty awesome in this. Add that to good showings for Elizabeth, Amy, Ellen and Lila and it makes for a solid book. The biggest flaw is that it doesn't teach kids a damn thing about dealing with bullying and what is "tattling" and what isn't. There's a huge missed opportunity there but it was 1988. That was a different time. I was 10 then, so almost the twins' age, and I remember what school was like then.
Okay, so a teen soap star is filming a scene in Sweet Valley on a Monday afternoon. The Unicorns all want to go but obviously it's during school.
Brooke Davis is down because her father is working on the show and is ignoring her again. Elizabeth suggests she write for the paper with her and offers her an interview with a ballet dancer.
Then Jessica finds out Brooke's dad knows the soap star, so she and Lila scheme to have Brooke try out for the Boosters instead and then grateful Brooke will get them passes to go on the show set.
Sadly, all of this works. Brooke is enticed by Jess and Lila and gets them the passes, though she does still want to work on the paper, just not that particular interview.
Jess and Lila decide to skip lunch and gym class (thanks to learning from Caroline that the gym teacher will be out that day) and go to the set. Then Elizabeth learns Caroline was wrong, the gym teacher is there. She races after Jess and Lila but doesn't get to them until it's too late and they're all playing hooky. They're spotted by the principal's secretary, but when they return to class, it's only Jess and Lila who are summoned to the office. Elizabeth escaped notice.
Now it's also the girls' basketball championship on Friday and Jessica is their star player. Her punishment is to wash blackboards after school but also to miss all extracurriculars. No basketball for her and everyone in school is pissed at her. She gets Elizabeth wrapped up in this ridiculous swapping scheme, including poor Liz unknowingly having to clean the blackboards and miss her interview with the ballet dancer while Jess is "Elizabeth" at basketball practice. That one is almost saved but then Jess fucks up again by giving Brooke, who was subbing for Elizabeth on the interview, the wrong location for it.
Things work in Liz's favor though when Brooke's dad brings the soap star teen to dinner. The girls interview him and get the best article their paper has ever seen. Jessica as Elizabeth helps lead the team to victory, though it's Elizabeth's name on the MVP trophy, not Jess's.
A guilty Elizabeth ends up confessing the entire thing to her parents, in true Elizabeth fashion. She ends up with the same punishment as Jessica, though she does get Jess to swap with her at least once for a much-owed bout of blackboard-washing.
This one was pretty decent, in typical Jessica scheme fashion. Lila had a pretty good showing, being snobby but not downright horrid. Brooke was a little too gullible but I can excuse that as not being quite on top of her game due to being upset over her dad.
We met two new characters. Sarah Thomas was briefly in the last book, painting a mural alongside Olivia Davidson. She's a friend of Elizabeth and Amy and she's having some sort of trouble that makes her hate weekends. She's the focus of the next book, so we'll find out why. Then there's Belinda "Billie" Layton, who is a tomboy that's about to play basketball, softball and run cross-country. Ken seems to be a big fan of her already. Watch out, Amy. Not that their little romance has had any mention in ages. Billie will get her chance to shine in #25.
That wraps up another batch of SVT. I'm already itching to start the next one!
No comments:
Post a Comment