In the main plot, Elizabeth's friend Sarah Thomas is dealing with problems at home. Her mother died at some point (I forget when they said it was) and she lives with her father. She hates her father's fiancee, who's a total selfish, childish brat. Well, her father has to leave for a week on a business trip and he asks his fiancee to stay with Sarah. Except he leaves on Monday and shortly after, the fiancee takes off, too, claiming she has to care for her sick younger sister. Sarah is left home alone for a terrifying week. She's twelve. She's too scared to say anything because once again, we've got a kid who doesn't know when to speak up about an unsafe situation. She ends up falling down the stairs, getting a concussion and breaking two toes. Thankfully, it's not long before Elizabeth, her father, and Amy arrive to pick Sarah up for a sleepover and they're able to get her to the hospital. Mr. Wakefield was able to locate Mr. Thomas and he arrives, talks to Sarah briefly when she finally regains consciousness, and then calls his fiancee's family's house, only to learn that everything she told him is a lie. She claimed she spent years raising her younger siblings. Well, she has none. A grown adult chose to leave a 12-year-old alone for a week. She doesn't get nearly enough punishment, just kicked out of their lives. But with her gone, Sarah can finally be happy again.
In the B-plot, Jess is busy impressing Janet Howell, only to realize Janet is only hanging out with her to try to see Steven. Jess and Lila fight. Jess and Janet fight once Jess realizes she's being used. Everything ends up okay in the end.
The science teacher's niece from a small town in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee comes to Sweet Valley, because her mother and aunt want her to have better educational opportunities than they did. However, she's almost instantly mocked for her clothes and accent. Lila but especially Ellen are the worst ones, completely ruining any goodness they'd shown in #19.
Ginny Lu is a whiz with Appalachian folk art though and Elizabeth persuades her to enter the school's art and craft fair. She ends up winning but doesn't know it right away, as the crowd singing along with her poem made her flee the show. She plans to return home, but stops in at the stables. She loves horses and befriended the white mare Ellen just got at the end of #21. In her pregnant state, Snow White only really lets Ginny get close to her, although Ellen forbade her from it.
When she goes to say her goodbyes, Ginny Lu discovers Ted the stablehand trying to help the mare, who's given birth prematurely. It's up to Ginny to get close enough to help the foal stand so it can nurse. Ellen comes running in and struggles far too long with her prejudices before she finally relents and lets Ginny help. This is pretty ridiculous because they make fun of Ginny for being a hillbilly, but if she really is, that should make her animal knowledge quite excellent. Ginny saves the foal's life and Ellen apologizes for her behavior and even allows Ginny to name the foal (she dubs him "Sooner").
Ginny has won the craft fair and hopefully won't have to endure more ridicule, so she decides to stay in Sweet Valley.
The B-plot has Jessica loaning her father's prized tennis racket to Janet, who somehow leaves it on her lawn for her brother to run over with the mower. Classy, Janet. Jessica is terrified to tell him, so there are a bunch of money-making schemes from her. She sees her mother's interest in Ginny's whittled dolls and finds stores that want to sell them. With Jessica making a 10% agent fee, she soon has all the money she needs.
I like Ginny Lu as a character, but the bullying was so childish and I wish she'd had opportunities to stick up for herself better. Nora had a brief scene. She's definitely in the series more than stuck with me on my past reads.
This is a good cover for Jessica but...Elizabeth, WTF is with your hair?
Oh, they're going to a 60s theme dance. I get it.
So the plot of this one is that it's the school's 25th anniversary and they're having a contest for a time capsule. Teams of four look for important items from the 60s and the best team will get their photos put into the time capsule. Of course Jessica is with three Unicorns and Elizabeth is with Amy and Julie. Their fourth member was suggested by Mrs. Arnette. He's a quiet boy named George Henkel, who Elizabeth learns is the son of the reclusive man in the wheelchair that she helps out sometimes.
The inevitable competition and Jessica's underhanded tactics arise. Both teams have decent items for their first two things, but neither can find a third. Elizabeth learns that Mr. Henkel caught the game-winning pass in the school's first championship football game. He was awarded the ball and both Elizabeth and a reluctant George try to get it. George's mother died when he was young and he was raised by his aunt and uncle, because Vietnam really messed up his father both physically and emotionally. Elizabeth really hopes the football can bring the two together and after some hurdles, it ends up doing just that and Elizabeth's team wins the contest.
My favorite moment was George having a crush on Nora and Nora seeming to be into it.
At the end of #23, both twins note that their mother has been working late a lot. She and their father haven't spent much time together. Jessica notes she saw their mother and an unknown man going to lunch at the mall not long ago. So of course this one is going to have the twins spying on their mom, thinking she's having an affair. Ughhhhh. Just gotta get through it fast so I can crack open Super Edition #2.
Yup, most of the book was the twins and even Steven truly convinced their mother was having an affair with her new client, who's a famous rich guy. All because both their parents had been so busy that they accidentally forgot their 16th anniversary.
Elizabeth, Amy and Pamela are working on a living history project and decide to make theirs about romance and how their parents met. It takes Elizabeth a long time before she's able to finally get the story, but all three couples have these unrealistic meet cute stories.
The highlight is definitely when the twins, Steven, Amy, Pamela, and six guys from Steven's basketball team all try to convince the rich client that they're ALL Mrs. Wakefield's ill-behaved children from her multiple marriages.
The entire thing is quite ridiculous. Let's move on.
Yay, Super Edition #2!
Now that I've finally finished it, less yay. This one took me ages to read.
I don't know why but I remembered this one a lot better than it was. It's fun but it's also seriously far-fetched.
So the twins' friend Anna is adopted and she knows she has a sister named Leslie living in Australia. I guess she was adopted by the ambassador and his family and now they're moving to DC. What's going to be in DC? A big holiday choral competition. What can't Anna do? Sing a damn note.
It's up to the twins to help Anna fake her way into the chorus group. There are auditions and everything. There's no way this would ever have worked.
Then they get to DC and there's a rivalry with this other school and their mean girl star singer.
Then Anna and Jessica sneak out of the hotel and go to this big party at the Australian Embassy. They pretend to be kids of this couple and no one checks up on this. It's done very quickly with little detail.
So we've got them able to get tone-deaf Anna into the chorus, sneak out of the hotel and into the embassy.
THEN THEY HELP CATCH A SPY.
Yep, I'm serious. Anna and Jessica hide in a room and then a man comes in and steals some papers. There's a teenage boy hiding, too, and he leads them out of the room and now they're running from the spy. They make it back to the party and then help ID the spy, who's disguised as the cook. Jessica's eye for fashion saves the day. She recognizes the diamond ring he wears.
Who's the teenage boy? Well, his name is Leslie. Yeah, he's Anna's older brother that she assumed was female.
So Anna meets her brother and his adoptive family and then her parents come there and they have the singing competition. Sweet Valley wins and Jess ties the bitchy girl from the other school.
It is A LOT. I do remember liking this one, so it's possible it's just because they traveled. When I was younger, a lot of my favorite series books involved travelling. It certainly doesn't stand out as anything but just plain wacky upon this reread.
Ah, the one about tomboy Billie. She's the one in the middle there. Looks a bit like Jonathan Brandis, doesn't she? Man, I'm old. And my gods, Ladybugs never would be made today. Yikes. I remember watching it several times and enjoying it but yikes. Ah, the early 90s and the things that weren't a big deal to us.
Okay, so this one was pretty fun but a bit problematic. Billie has a lot of changes going on. She's getting a new baby brother, so she's somewhat worried her dad won't be as close to her once he's got a boy. This is never addressed with a conversation. She just got her first period and she's worried about changes that can come with that and how it might affect her playing sports in the future. I don't remember this being really addressed or clarified by an adult either. Or even a friend saying "Look at all the female athletes out there. You're fine." She's dealing with new feelings for her best friend Jim Sturbridge, though again this is never really handled. He's hanging out with a flirty girl and that's what sparks Billie's feelings but are they jealousy or crush? Never clarified. They do seem to hint at a mutual crush at the end but nothing is really discussed or admitted.
Jessica and Elizabeth take Billie under their wing and help her buy a dress and get ready for a party. She ends up wowing all the boys there, including Jim, although she thinks he doesn't care when instead he simply didn't recognize her until Jessica said something. But by then, Commander Layton has come to get Billie and take her to the hospital because her mom is having the baby.
All of her fears about the baby are completed thrown out when she holds him and loves him immediately. This is all well and good, but one of her problems was that her parents want to name him William after the paternal grandfather. So Billie for some reason will lose her nickname? I don't see why they can't be Billie and Will or Willie, but whatever. This was the plot point that bothered me the most. The parents NEVER talk to her about this. EVER. That is a conversation that needed to happen. In the end, she just gives up her nickname and goes to being Belinda but COME ON. That was completely unnecessary.
She also was in a pitching slump but that ends after she pitches a shut out at the end.
So this is one of those books where there are a lot of problems that need discussions, none of those ever happen, yet everything is neatly resolved anyway. Oh, and she joins the Unicorns at the end. I really do not remember that so let's see how long it lasts.
A bit of a crossover mention: One of the boys on Billie's baseball team is named Pete Stone. He puts in a pretty decent appearance. He dances with her at the party and even asks her out. I don't remember a Pete Stone being mentioned in the background boy cast before. Does the name sound familiar to you? It should if you read Sleepover Friends. Pete Stone was one of the popular boys in Riverhurst. Lauren was interested in him off and on. I am so rereading Sleepover Friends after this and finally making this blog live up to its name. And finishing Pen Pals. And rereading Junior High.
Ugh. It's another one where talking would have solved all the problems. Were adults this stupid in all the kids' chapter book series around this time? Am I just not remembering it right?
This one is about the twins' friend Patrick Morris.
Who?
You know. Patrick. Patrick Morris. He's been the twins' male BFF like FOREVER.
No, really, I'm pretty sure we never saw him before the end of the last book. WTF.
Anyway, Patrick is having some strict parent troubles because they've gotten worse lately. He kills it in his band audition but they won't let him join. Blah blah blah. He runs away. He gets found because Elizabeth knows when not to keep a secret. Everything is fine.
Patrick's dad lost his job, so they had to cut his allowance and make him focus on his schoolwork so he could do something better for himself than his dad did for himself. Instead of explaining this to him, they just made him feel like they hated him and wouldn't let him do anything. Excellent, completely first rate parenting. Fucking idiots. So his dad gets a new job and Patrick can join the band. Which he totally could have in the first place if his parents had bothered to ASK HIM QUESTIONS about their monetary concerns, like buying an instrument (he got a sax on loan from the school) or paying for lessons (none required).
The Wakefield parents, the cops and the fire department all do some stupid shit in here, too. Like not searching until daylight. He's fucking twelve. Go look for him.
The B plot is the science projects going on in Jessica's class. She's stuck doing a report on mold with Winston Eggbert. This is the most we've seen of Winston so far and he was the most kickass character in this book. Although I have to admit, I was firmly on Team Jessica this time. Elizabeth said some really dumb shit.
Oh, this scene on the cover? Never happened. That's the condemned church Patrick hides in but he's already in there when everyone comes to the rescue. And why does it look like Elizabeth is trying to force him into it? Weird.
Anyway, another book where good parenting and talking would have solved the problems before they happened. I wonder if we'll ever see Patrick again?
Oh, man, I moved right on to #28 and never wrote this one up.
The Wakefield twins aren't allowed to do anything. They want to host a dinner party with their friends and try out a new recipe. Their parents shoot it down. Now on the scale Jess was planning, this is reasonable, but Alice could easily have said they could each have 2 friends over and try the recipe. The girls cook ALL THE TIME. And a lot of it is when Alice is napping because apparently a part-time job is oh, so exhausting. That would have been the actual proper solution. Then they want to visit their...I think it was great aunt? And that requires bus tickets. The Wakefields say they can go but only if they earn the money. So the twins begin to plot money-making schemes and eventually end up walking dogs. As you can imagine, Jessica is not a fan of this. She's scared of a lot of dogs, which was established a long time ago. But she tries for a bit, then predictably ends up dumping the work on Elizabeth. Elizabeth though is helped by Ken Matthews, as you can see on the cover there. He loves dogs, his parents won't let him have one because "he's too young" and he offers to help for free. This turns into a bit of dog-sitting and in my opinion, they get paid way too little for this particular service.
So eventually, they get the dog on the cover left with them and they can tell he's been abused. Ken works with him and is able to calm him down and even teach him some tricks. Then they're all afraid the owner will abuse him again so...they DYE THE DOG BLACK AND JESS GIVES HIM A HAIRCUT. And they hide him at Ken's uncle's ranch. I can't remember all the details of this elaborate scheme anymore but they refuse to let the owner have him back and Ned has to step in to back them up. The owner leaves and says to keep the dog and Ken gets to. It's a rather outlandish story.
Oh, and once again we have the issue of lack of communication. The kids should have learned by now when they need help from adults, even if the adults said something like "you have to earn the money on your own." When things get into the criminal realm, GET A FUCKING ADULT. Elizabeth, you are smarter than this. I think this time Ned at least says something along the lines of they should have known when to get help from adults.
Oh, hooray, a fluff book. It's April 1st. Elizabeth and Jessica usually trade places but this year, Jess says they'll stay themselves but make it look like they swapped. Liz is down with this but as the day goes on, she keeps getting in trouble because people think she's Jess. Even when she repeatedly protests. She gets 2 detentions (one as herself but the other is Jess's, neither of which she ends up serving right away), a C in cooking class (that Jessica earned), and has to wash Mrs. Reitman's car when the Unicorns play an April Fools' joke on "Jessica." The bad things keep coming when her own mother punishes her for something Jessica did and she's forced to come to a meeting at the school instead of the party in the school gym she was supposed to go to. Only on the way to the meeting, the Wakefields have her take a "clean shirt" in to Jess, only for everyone there to reveal that this whole scheme was one huge, extremely elaborate prank played by Jessica with help from Steven, their parents, friends, and even teachers.
It was a total fluff piece and it's crazy to think the entire damn class loves Elizabeth so much that they'd all work together just to get her on April Fools' Day but it was also a pretty fun read, especially after the more dramatic plots of the past few books.
Man, the covers to #28 and #29 are classic Jessica. What a face. And this whole book is classic Jessica.
So the sixth grade is holding a fair to raise money for something. I've forgotten what already. There will be game booths and the students who volunteered are randomly picked to see who will run what. Jessica wants a particular booth but Caroline gets it. And Jess ends up with the water balloon toss! I don't think this is something that would be allowed today, letting a kid stand there and be pelted with water balloons all day, but it was the 80s.
Elizabeth isn't running a booth, just making posters with Olivia Davidson. So when Amy is sad that she can't go to the fair or help run a booth because she has to babysit, Elizabeth offers to take the job.
You can see where this is going. Jessica ends up taking the babysitting job, playing it off as a favor for Liz to help her be able to go to the fair, and then she sticks Elizabeth with the water balloon booth. But the two little kids are pretty much terrors. Even though Jess had the wrong idea of babysitting being a bunch of easy free time, these two brats really are out of control. It would have taken Kristy or Stacey to wrangle them. When the older two kids, who each had activities that were supposed to keep them gone all day, end up coming home, Elizabeth finally comes to the rescue. Lila has a cordless phone at the fair so Jess keeps calling for Elizabeth but only when all four kids are there does Liz go help. They make it look like Jessica is magic and can be in two places at once so the kids finally will behave for her in fear of her magical powers.
Once home, Jessica at first accepts all the praise for her babysitting skill and all the $80 she made, but an angry Elizabeth finally makes her realize she owes her twin some credit and some money. She offers to split it but Liz says to keep the tip and only takes $30.
The fun part is the other students set up a mini fair for Jessica...that turns out to be them pelting her with water balloons but sadly no one has great aim and only Liz hits her with one. Then everyone agrees to go to the beach instead. In typical Jessica fashion, she gets off way too easily, especially because Lila had to stand in for her and got an outfit ruined.
Teaser for the next book is a boy exchange student from the tiny principality of Santa Dora.
So the exchange student from Santa Dora is named Arthur Castle. Elizabeth befriends him and learns he wants to do a lot of American things. Then it comes out that he's a prince and he accidentally references this to Jessica, thinking she's Elizabeth, so Jessica tells the Unicorns and soon everyone knows and starts treating him differently, which is exactly why he had asked Elizabeth to keep it a secret. He's mad at Elizabeth and dragged along to all these boring events by the Unicorns, but Jessica eventually tells him it was her that spilled the secret and he makes up with Elizabeth, and even takes them both to a big event in LA being held for the royal family.
It's a pretty fun book but there are definite issues. First, the sixth grade is heavily researching Santa Dora and doing projects on it for the entire two weeks Arthur is there. HE IS ON THE MONEY. You can't tell me in all that research someone wouldn't have found his picture on one of the Santa Doran bills photographed in a book or something. That's how Elizabeth learns, by picking up a bill he dropped. Second, Arthur buys a bunch of American stuff...including a replica Confederate hat. Where the hell in the Sweet Valley mall do they sell Confederate hats and why wouldn't Elizabeth explain about the Civil War enough that he'd pick a Union hat instead? The Sixers staff is putting together a scrapbook for him with American stuff and someone heard about the hat and contributed a Confederate flag sticker. Again, why was this not handled better? The Confederacy and Civil War were important parts of American history but there needed to be a few lines in there explaining what the Confederacy was fighting for and why that's not a losing side you want to show support for. It was the eighties but still. I grew up then and it was clear the Confederates were not a side you wanted to back. Nowhere in any history class were we taught that was the right side in any way. Third, there's a Santa Doran consulate in LA. Seriously? The place is a tiny principality barely bigger than Sweet Valley and there's a consulate? Doubtful.
#31 is about Sandra Ferris, the class ugly duckling. We'll be getting to that one in the next post. This particular batch of reviews I'm ending with the third Super Edition.
The Big Camp Secret is Grace Oliver. Grace's parents keep fighting and for some reason, that means she has to go stay with her aunt (or some other female relative I've already forgotten about) instead of going to camp for two weeks with a bunch of the other girls. This makes zero sense but Grace doesn't push it because she's afraid she'll make her parents fight again. What she does is sneak onto one of the buses going to camp, which happen to leave from the same bus station around the same time as the bus to her aunt's. She finds an old cabin up on the hill next to camp and stays there a lot of the time, while the girls sneak her into meals and activities. The whole camp thinks hiding Grace in plain sight is pretty fun because they all like her. Who they don't like is Barbara, an unhappy camper that starts to get her way by blackmailing the other girls, threatening to tell about Grace. Things come to a head during some storms when problems with Barbara have led Grace to head to her aunt's. Except she's not at the bus station so the whole story comes out, search parties happen, and it's Barbara who finds Grace at the little cabin. She sprained her ankle trying to get to the bus station and it was easier to return to the cabin. Barbara's parents are getting a divorce and she disappeared to the cabin to read their bitchy letters and cry. She ends up saving Grace's life after a lightning strike lights the cabin on fire. A bit dramatic. They could have removed this part entirely. Grace's parents arrive and promise to stop fighting. Grace is allowed to stay at the camp and all's well that ends well. It was a decent book, though the bit of life-threatening drama at the end was totally unnecessary.
ETA: Coming back in because I forgot to bitch about the cover. While that is a really great image of Amy, why she and Elizabeth are on the cover and not Grace is beyond me. Oh, and Ellen had a decent showing in this book. I should give her credit and mention that.
So that wraps up another batch of SVT! We've still got a long way to go. The next chunk includes the first two Super Chillers. Yes! Love those. I think. I remember loving them anyway. We'll see how they hold up.
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