Sweet Valley Twins Graphic Novel #1

Several years behind the BSC, the Sweet Valley Twins finally get their own graphic novel! The second book, Teacher's Pet, is coming, too, so I hope the series continues. And Nora Mercandy better look gothy in book three or else...

The art style is interesting. I'm used to seeing the beautiful cover art from the books so the girls look a lot younger here and it takes some getting used to. 

The story has been updated, but only minorly. The Hairnet has a tablet Jessica has to swipe and the girls have to share one cell phone. I don't think anything else has changed much. 

Best Friends is the one where the girls still dress alike at the beginning and the main plot is Elizabeth struggling with Jessica having different interests. Liz starts the paper and Jess joins the Unicorns. Liz tries to join, too, but refuses to do the pledge task of putting shaving cream on Lois's sundae, so Jess pretends to be her and does the task. Liz gets pissed and Lois gets revenge later. Both girls realize they can look different and have different friends and different interests and still be each other's best friend. 

I mostly enjoyed this, but I do have some criticisms. 

First, people aren't named. In a new graphic adaptation, you have to expect there will be a lot of race changes, because back in the mid-80s, most of these characters were white. Updating them is great, but if the character no longer looks like the book description, it doesn't hurt to actually put names in the dialogue to identify them. I'll list a few of the differences.

Bruce Patman is now a tan blond. At least he was named right away. 

Amy has a red bob and glasses. This works for her. She's also named right away so there was no confusion.

Julie Porter is black. She wasn't named in conversation, but a few pages before the lunch scene, Elizabeth tells Amy she'll talk to her and Julie at lunch, so you know that's Julie. She seems to have a bigger personality than in the books, which is nice. 

Caroline Pearce went from preppy redhead to a curvy, tall, brown girl with big curly hair, a lot of jewelry and sass. I really like the new Caroline. She isn't named right away, but her name is mentioned later so you know it's her, but if you know SVT at all, you know the gossip is Caroline. 

Lila is identifiable not because she's named right away, but because she looks classier than the others and has more jewelry. There was a mention of her when Jess was talking early on and she's shown in a sketch, but the colors were off so she looked more like a paler redhead there. She's tan with dark brown hair. She's always got her hair in a ponytail though, which doesn't seem very Lila. 

Janet is now black. She's taller than the other Unicorns shown, and she tends to do some of the authoritative talking, but those are the only clues that she's Janet. Also, I'm pretty sure she never once wears purple, despite having a line that says, "Like this year, we decided purple was our thing, so we all went shopping." And she is not wearing a lick of purple as she says it. Janet and Lila looked alike in the books and now they don't look alike at all, which is totally fine because cousins can certainly be very different, but they really should have name-dropped Janet to make it clear that was her. 

There are two other Unicorns shown a lot. One has a white-blonde bob with very pale blue eyes. She always wears overalls, which I think is a Choice on the part of the artist. These girls are supposed to be the most fashionable in the school, so why is this one constantly in overalls? Have overalls ever once been fashionable? I'm pretty sure this is Ellen, because she shows up quite a bit and is in class with Lila and Jessica, but she is never IDed. The second girl is Asian and I have zero idea who she is. She gets a few throwaway lines.

For a club which Janet explicity stated has 12 members, you only ever see 5 of them and that includes Jessica. 

Tamara Chase is never "on screen" but she's mentioned by Janet with a little sketch of her by the speech bubble so we know what she looks like. 

There is a band-aid on "Ellen's" knee on page 50. How is that Unicorn-esque? Did this artist even read the series? 

Winston is now black but clearly called Winston, so no confusion there.

Near the end when Lois gets her revenge, there is a sixth Unicorn: a brown girl with very short hair. No idea who she is. 

The fashion is my first major problem with this artist. The Unicorns are FASHIONABLE. Ellen would not wear overalls every single day. And they barely wear purple. That's such a huge thing in the books. Why even have Janet say anything about purple if they're not going to do that? 

My second major problem involves the Wakefields. The girls look a little too young, in my opinion. Ned looks pretty hot. Good job there. And Steven is really cute, too. He makes some great faces. But Alice. Oh, Alice, they did you dirty. Her hair is a constant mess. She wears frumpy clothes. She has glasses now, which would be fine if she was fashionable at all, but she isn't. She looks like the eccentric scientist mom or maybe the quirky teacher. She does not look like Alice Wakefield, young-looking enough to be called the girls' older sister and interior designer to the stars. Yeah, my biggest issue with this adaptation is the de-glamorizing of Alice. 

Nitpicks aside, I enjoyed this. I always love me some SVT and plan to get back to my reread after I finish plowing through my dark Disney stuff. 

SWEET VALLEY TWINS 41-50 (Including Super Chiller 3)

 
The girls' grandparents are in town and at first Elizabeth thinks they'll be too old to do the fun things they did on their last visit, but their grandparents quickly prove her wrong. 

The main plot is that there's going to be a big party at the Hangout for Aaron Dallas's birthday. Steven just went there and got into a fight, started by some guys from Big Mesa High, so the Wakefields crack down and refuse to let the twins go to Aaron's party. Even Elizabeth thinks this is extremely unfair and both girls keep trying to change their parents' minds. Jessica, who's been wanting pierced ears since last book and was told she had to wait til she was 14, defies Alice and gets them pierced, knowing her parents can't punish her worse than not letting her go to the party, which is already can't go to. They're about to ground her for two months when Grandma speaks up and claims responsibility, since she told Jess she got her ears pierced at 12 and doesn't see anything wrong with it. 

Quick note, but once again, I severely question the Wakefields' parenting. Getting your ears pierced is no huge deal and considering the level of chores the girls are always doing, I think they're more than responsible enough. If you routinely assist in laundry and dinner prep, you can get your ears pierced and take care of them. 

Anyway, Lila gives Jessica the idea to sneak out but their grandparents overhear them plotting. Even though it comes to nothing, they're dragged before their parents to tell the whole story. Then their grandparents speak up and say they think the Wakefields are being too strict. After some discussion, the girls are allowed to go to the party and nothing bad happens. Seriously, one fight doesn't mean a place is bad. There have already been multiple fights at the junior high but you don't see the twins being homeschooled. 

Side plot: All of a sudden, Todd Wilkins is a character. Apparently, he's been there all along but it took over 40 books to mention him. And Jessica is interested in him because he seems interested in her...or is it her he's really interested in? Hmm.

Ah, yes, this one! I grew up with books like SVT and Just As Long As We're Together and likely others I'm forgetting that spotlighted girls getting their periods and it being some awesome rite of passage. You're a woman now! Woo! Except no woo because welcome to years of cramps, headaches and assorted other symptoms. No woo. That's why I tend to shake my head at the modern period stigma, like with Turning Red. so unnecessary. It's a natural thing. Deal with it. 

Anyway, poor Jess is the one who can't deal with it. One morning, Elizabeth acts like something major has happened. Elizabeth for some crazy reason thinks that just because she started her period that Jess started, too. 

Well, she did not and oh, boy, you are not allowed to forget it.

Jessica spends most of the book in a long run of PMS, being totally bitchy to Elizabeth because she feels like Liz is supposed to be more mature now and Jessica is clearly the more mature of the pair. 

The twins are off on a trip to see their cousin, who's a few months younger than they are. She and her family just got back from living in France. So Robin is now basically Jessica and she's getting initiated into the Jaguars, who are her school's Unicorns. Elizabeth feels constantly left out. Then comes the slumber party with the Jaguars and Becky, who is Robin's pre-Jaguars friend. Elizabeth and Becky hit it off, which is great because otherwise both would have been miserable at this shitty party. Robin's initiation task is to sneak into the house of a cute 16-year-old boy and get him to drive her to the park, where the Jags will be waiting. Jessica thinks this will be easy for her, because the boy in question is Robin's boyfriend, but Robin is a nervous wreck. Elizabeth and Becky stay behind as everyone else leaves the house at 11:30. Why are parents in bed so early in these books? Jessica manages to go along with Robin, while the Jags will wait in the park. Then it comes out that Robin lied about the boy. He's not her boyfriend. Meanwhile, so much time has passed that Liz and Becky are worried, and then Robin's little sister Stacey comes in and it's she who tells her parents. They go get the others, drop Robin, her mom and Jess back at the house, then Robin's dad drives the Jags home. Jess and Robin are pissed, though not at Stacey. Everyone's in trouble except Elizabeth and Becky and now Jess isn't speaking to Liz. Then on the bus ride home, Jess has a stomachache (riiiiiiiight) and gets off to buy a ginger ale. And the bus leaves without her. Thankfully, Liz got off, too, so while they're stuck at the bus station, they make up and yep, Jessica got her period, too. 

Not one of the best but definitely also not one of the worst. I was glad to see Robin drop the Jags after refusing to do their backup initiation. She was supposed to cut off Becky's hair in her sleep. WTF?! I'm irritated that a character had my name (Lori Ann even) and she was one of these bitchy Jags. Ugh. No, thank you. I was also glad when Jess got her period so she could shut the fuck up about it. 

Oh, hey, Todd Wilkins. You've totally been a student this whole time and it took over 40 books to mention you. It's love triangle time! 

Amusingly, the book even explains Todd's lack of visibility. Elizabeth says they've gone to school together since kindergarten but she stopped seeing him around as often or just plain stopped noticing him. Until, that is, she realizes she has a crush on him. 

So the whole book is Liz handling her first crush. She can't tell Jess because Jess thinks she and Todd are a thing. Jessica gives her a little makeover, which you see on the cover there. Bumbling Todd actually likes Elizabeth, though how he ended up talking to Jessica more I'll never know. He said he got them confused but that's pretty weak. At a big bowling party, Jessica ends up with Aaron Dallas and Liz and Todd finally talk more and he's liked her all along. She even gets her first kiss, though it's on the cheek so does that really deserve all the hubbub? 

Side plot: Steven has two girlfriends. The thing that annoyed me about this was at the end where Elizabeth was mentally telling Steven not to let Candice push him around. Candice is the one he thought he liked but ended up just wanting to be friends with, while Lindsey is the one he actually likes. I didn't like Elizabeth almost putting the blame on Candice. It's not her fault she thinks Steven likes her. He acts like he does! And seeing him show up bowling with anothe girl after lying to her, well, she had a right to be mad. But he finally tells her the truth and then Lindsey is perfectly happy to have him to herself. Not sure there was a good lesson here anywhere. Everyone ends up happy except the poor girl that was led on, though it doesn't take her long to find someone else. 

An okay book. Not a great one. 

I have been eagerly awaiting this one! I remember loving this. 

Yeah, I still love this quite a bit.

A carnival comes to Sweet Valley and the twins are some of the first to go. Jessica loves the fortune teller there but when she takes Lila and some Unicorns the next day, Lila scoffs and the fortune teller gives her a bad prediction, which comes true. Elizabeth meets a young girl named Claire there. She says she's the daughter of the owner and that she has no friends and all the employees treat her like she's invisible. But she appeals to Elizabeth's sense of wanting a good article for the Sixers by offering to take her behind the scenes where regular people can't go. 

As the story moves forward, it becomes clear that Claire has powers that she uses for scaring people and for controlling their minds. Based on her old-fashioned clothes...and you know, the book title...she's a ghost who's been doing this a long time. Seeing Claire with Elizabeth, the fortune teller puts a fake curse on Jessica, telling her to stay away from the carnival. She also sends her fiancee to do things like tap on Jess's window and tell her to stay away. Turns out she thought Elizabeth was Jess and doesn't realize until the end that the girls are twins. However, this is one thing that doesn't make sense. The fiancee has been kinda staking out the house. He should have noticed there are two girls! 

Elizabeth becomes obsessed with spending time with Claire and any misgivings she has Claire deals with by using her mind control, making Elizabeth forget her questions or obligations. Claire is actually a pretty frightening character for this target market. She's a ghost AND she can control people's minds? That's pretty serious. Amy also uncovers weird happenings at the carnival, so she's killing people or getting them to do bad things. 

It's up to Jessica to go save Elizabeth, who goes to the carnival one last time to say goodbye to Claire. Jessica has now learned that Claire is the ghost of the previous owner's daughter. He was an abusive man to both her and her mother, but when her mother died from illness, he became even worse. She ended up sneaking out to ride the Ferris wheel on her tenth birthday but as she tried to exit the car, her dress got caught and she was taken to the top where she fell to her death. She's haunted the carnival ever since, trying to create new ghost playmates for herself. Jessica gets help from the fortune teller and her fiancee and manages to get herself into the Ferris wheel car alongside Elizabeth. Claire angrily shows her true self after a bit, though Elizabeth is still under her spell. But then Claire makes the mistake of hurting Jessica and Elizabeth won't have that. Claire's spell is broken and she disappears. 

The book winds up unsatisfactorily though. The fortune teller sends the girls a nice message, but I'm not sure Claire can ever be vanquished so she'll just keep causing trouble. Still, this was a great one and as I said, Claire is a pretty frightening character for this reading level. 

Poor Lila. They hardly ever make her pretty. She's supposed to be pretty!

Okay, so there's a fire that completely destroys Amy's house. She and her family get out safely, but she trips on her shoelace and breaks her arm. She's staying with the Wakefields so she can keep up with school while her parents look for a new house.

Amy is driven by guilt because she's convinced she started the fire, so she starts craving the Unicorns' attention and her fire story spins wildly out of control. She also pushes Elizabeth away, despite the two needing to work together on their science project, which was destroyed by the fire. 

Side note: I think the stupid teacher gives them a single week extension. Losing everything in a fire is very traumatic and I feel like this was completely unreasonable. 

So Amy gets in a fight with Elizabeth, but the impending spectacle of Brooke Dennis' party pushes Amy out of the Unicorns' spotlight. She finally makes up with Elizabeth, confiding with her about everything, including her fear that she started the fire. Elizabeth works with her to both fix her Sixers story about the fire and complete their science project. Even after Elizabeth has done a new one without her because Elizabeth is incredibly nice. Too nice really. 

This is just a lot of senseless drama. Not my fave.

Who the fuck is Lucy? 

A plot: Ted is behind on his payments to the stables, so he may be at risk of losing Thunder. (Remember Thunder, who he bought from Lila eons ago?) He needs to win the junior jumping championship to get the prize money. Elizabeth is going to help.

B plot: There's been an oil spill and Jessica rescues a baby seal. She's now going to volunteer with the clean up effort and I feel it's only partially because of the cute boy involved. 

C plot: Aha, Lucy is a newer seventh grader. She's super into horses and knows a lot, says she's won ribbons, but doesn't talk about herself much and is very mysterious. She seems afraid to ride. Elizabeth is determined to figure her out, but so is Ellen. 

So Ted falls while practicing and Lucy ends up taking his place in the competition, which makes Ellen determined to find out her secret. She's able to learn that Lucy's parents don't want her riding and plans to tell them so they make Lucy drop out of the show. Ellen is a bitch. 

Elizabeth meanwhile discovers Lucy's secret through an old newspaper article. In her last competition, she fell off her horse. When Elizabeth mentions this, Lucy says it's because she had a seizure and that's when she learned she has epilepsy. Her parents are now terrified of her riding and sold her beloved horse. 

Lucy still plans on riding in Ted's place. Her parents make it there after she's made it past the first round. After a rather brief talk, they consent to let her ride.

This is ridiculous. I'm sure she talked this over with them a million times, but now after one paragraph of her defending her needs, they change their minds? Ah, only in Sweet Valley. 

Lucy beats Ellen, helped hilariously by the Unicorns doing a loud cheer DURING A JUMPING COMPETITION. Horses are notoriously easily spooked. Ted gets the money to keep boarding Thunder, although there is zero mention of this not solving his problem in the long run. Does $1000 cover being behind 3 months for boarding a horse? It feels like too little. What's he going to do to not get behind in the future? Who cares? No one in Sweet Valley apparently! And Lucy's old competitor from her riding days happens to mention that her old horse might just be up for sale soon. It was nice to see the competitor not being an asshole. She was nice. 

Meanwhile, Jessica has been very concerned over the baby seal she rescued. It's several chapters before it's clear he's going to survive and she really genuinely CARES. Lila and the others look like assholes but that's not surprising. At the end, he's big enough to rejoin the other seals in the wild. 

This book earned Jess a lot of points. She really had a good heart and never put the cute boy first. She was way more down to earth with him than she has been in the past and even though it was a pain in the ass and she ruined a ton of clothes, she kept going back to help clean the beach. Way to go, Jess.

This one is hilarious. Tired of Lila's bragging about all the things she gets from her dad, Jessica sees a contest in a teen mag. It's looking for the perfect French-oriented family to win a week-long trip to Paris. So she blows off steam by writing this ridiculous essay full of lies. Mrs. Wakefield is a gourmet French chef/prima ballerina, Mr. Wakefield is a lawyer but also a talented painter, Steven is playing trombone in a jazz band, and Elizabeth just gets to be perfect Elizabeth...only everyone speaks French at home. for funsies. 

Jess just did it for fun and had no intention of mailing it, but she accidentally leaves it out in the kitchen and Elizabeth mails it. Whoopsies. Jessica worries about it for a while, but her annoyance with Lila keeps growing and when she's called by a magazine rep, she actually schedules the interview with her family and then tries to talk them all into this charade. They agree...but make their own plans to teach her a lesson. 

In the B plot, the Unicorns want new members. (There is brief mention of Mandy Miller, who will become a key character in the future. We've never heard of her before, but she's apparently funny.) Lila decides on Brooke Dennis and the others mostly agree. Mary doesn't think Brooke wants to and Jessica isn't convinced either. Brooke herself? Nope. Not interested. But she's curious enough to go along with it to the point of Jessica giving her her pledge task: play a French maid at the magazine interview. Brooke lived in Paris for a year and speaks French. 

So Brooke gives the Wakefields ridiculous outfits to wear and they put on this insane, over the top performance to teach Jessica a lesson about exaggeration. It's really funny and they did tell the magazine rep ahead of time. She plays along nicely. I'm not honestly sure the lesson was fully deserved though. Jessica really didn't intend to mail the entry and it was Lila's bragging that drove her to even ask her family to try. She never expected them to. So at least it was a light lesson because it's not as if she did anything on purpose and she full well knew how much she was exaggerating. 

Uh oh, Jessica needs glasses. The entire last book there were hints that she was having trouble seeing. 

OMG, Aaron asked Jessica out. The Unicorns are just as tired of hearing about it as I am. And I even like Aaron.

Thanks to the help of Mr. Bowman, the Wakefields learn Jessica is having trouble seeing. After an eye appointment, she gets new glasses (violet, of course), but she spends way too much of the book refusing to wear them and somehow getting away with it, even though she's at school where Mr. Bowman can see her. 

The B plot is the Unicorns' determination to be the group Elizabeth writes about for her Junior Journalist article for the Sweet Valley newspaper. The real paper, not the Sixers. Her topic is kids who make a difference, so the Unicorns come up with the idea to hold a skate-a-thon to raise money for a new encyclopedia for the library. And they actually pull it off. But Jessica gets caught skating without her glasses on and then she's in trouble.

Determined to stay in her room forever, it takes some conniving and a twin switch by Elizabeth to get Jessica to realize she actually looks good in her glasses. Aaron thinks so. He and Jess go on their date to a Lakers game and have such a great time that he asks her to another game. I love that Jessica plays basketball and knows a lot about it. It's something not focused on a lot, but she's not afraid to broadcast her knowledge in front of the boys and even correct Bruce. 

This one wasn't bad. Jessica doesn't have to wear glasses long so you can bet they'll be magically forgotten in the next book. She does look cute in them, as cute as one can get in 80s frames. Her awesome confidence in her basketball knowledge and willingness to share it with the boys instead of hiding it to play to their egos earned her a lot of points from me.

Wow, Lila actually looks halfway decent on this cover. I remember liking Mandy so I'm glad we're finally getting to her. She's had a mention and made a brief appearance and now it's time for her focus.

Oh, Jessica's glasses actually get a mention, but she's absent them on the cover.

At the beginning, Jessica is still as annoyed with Mandy as the rest of the Unicorns are. She's been hanging around them, doing things for them, but now she's become almost a nuisance about it. Janet tasks Jessica with telling Mandy she'll never be a Unicorn. The only problem is when Jessica was late to social studies, Mandy offered to be her partner for a big project on the 1920s they're all doing. And Mandy turns out to be an excellent partner. She's a natural comedian and Jessica's never been a bad actress, so the two team up to do a Vaudeville sketch, using Mandy's grandparents' old costumes. Jessica realizes she really does like Mandy but the Unicorns pressure her into telling her the bad news and it isn't received well. The girls have a fight but make up enough to get through their presentation. Their skit and Elizabeth and Amy's project both are the ones sent on to a competition held by a museum for their 1920s festival. 

Then disaster strikes. Mandy feels worse and worse, and then Jessica learns the truth. She has a cancerous lump under one arm. There's plenty of hope but the book still tackles some tough questions for kids that age and I imagine it would have helped readers dealing with their own health issues. Thankfully, Mandy makes it through her surgery just fine, though she still does have radiation treatment and ends up losing her beautiful long. 

The Unicorns end up all realizing Mandy is special and they pool their money to buy her a fabulous wig after learning her mother could only afford one that wasn't a bit flattering. Janet also offers Mandy membership to the club, which she accepts the next day. 

Mandy is a sweet character and one I remember liking a lot. Like Mary and Belinda, she's one of the "nice" Unicorns. I honestly don't remember this book at all, so it was good to read it again and relearn Mandy's origin story, so to speak. 

Mandy may be the star, but Jessica also fucking owns this book. She sees how shallow and horrible the Unicorns are, though she's not bold enough to really let them have it. She gains some awareness of how the group really is, but I'm sure it will be short-lived. There were some great moments in there where she shut down Lila and Ellen though. 

My one nitpick is that Mandy and Jessica's performance wins first place AND Elizabeth and Amy come in second. Did no one else enter? Did Sweet Valley really have to win both prizes? No. Let Jess and Mandy's hard work get the accolades. Liz has had enough. I didn't go into detail, but Elizabeth stood in for Mandy because she was too sick to participate in having the performance filmed to be sent off to the contest. So it's Elizabeth who performs with Jess at this museum festival. Mandy is still recovering from surgery. But she is there and Jess gets her on stage to take some bows.

Ah, the new cover style debuts! SVT #49 is the first book that switches to the new style cover. I made a list earlier today of the older books I have with the new cover. I'd like to have all the older ones with the original covers, so I'll get around to replacing them all someday. And I have 2 or 3 that could use an upgrade. #48 was pretty rough. 

Like #48, I do not remember a damn thing about this book, but if I wanted to read about babysitting, there's a whole different series I could read. I do not like babysitting mixed with my SVT. 

So the girls get the idea that they want a new sibling and decide to convince Alice and Ned to go for it by babysitting their family friends' 5-year-old daughter. Chrissy is quite the handful and her big mouth reveals secrets about Todd, Aaron and one of Steven's friends named Chad. Steven decides to use this as teasing ammunition, but the girls are really upset, particularly Jessica. 

Everything wraps up decently with the girls definitely no longer wanting a baby in the family and the boy troubles all worked out. Sort of. 

The B plot has Amy doing odd jobs to earn money to buy her parents soccer tickets. A nice idea but next time plan way more in advance, Amy. Still, it was nice to see a B plot with a different character. 

The best thing about this book is the cover. Best Jess ever.

OH, HOORAY. I love Maria. At least, I remember loving Maria. It's pretty sad that it's taken SVT over 50 books to add a black character though. 

Okay, yep, I still love Maria.

There's a new girl at school and Jess thinks she looks familiar. While home sick, she watches a movie and realizes Maria was a child actor. Then she starts paying more attention to her and when Maria accidentally leaves her backpack at the Wakefields', Jessica finds a short story she's written while searching for Maria's phone number. Not realizing it's a fictional story, Jessica is convinced Maria is under cover, trying to learn what it's like to be an average 12-year-old. 

Being that it's Jessica, it's not long before the Unicorns know and then they start all paying attention to Maria. Maria slips into acting mode and spins a story that elaborates on her undercover role. She regrets not telling the truth, because all she really wants is to be herself and make friends who like her, not the star they think she is. When Lila convinces her father to throw a party for the entire cast of Maria's movie, Maria knows it's time to come clean. But she doesn't do it until the night of the party! I thought it was pretty ballsy to bring her entire family to the party and then tell everyone the truth. Thankfully, everyone accepts Maria for who she really is, an ex-child actor who can no longer find work. 

Maria is actually a lot like Elizabeth, except she loves acting as well as reading and writing. She and Mandy audition for the drama club and make it in. I loved Maria and Mandy's scenes. They're adorable. Modern day readers would totally ship them. 

The only thing I didn't like was that I think Amy is the only one who didn't want something from Maria. Mandy asks for acting tips, though that's not too horrible. I mean, they agreed to audition for the drama club together before Mandy knew who Maria was. So while it's a little self-serving, it's still doing what they planned on doing anyway. And Elizabeth, who's usually picture perfect, totally gets that Maria wants real friends, but that doesn't stop her for asking for an interview. Not cool, Liz. 

I'm glad to see Maria added to the cast. Definitely looking forward to more of her.

And that gets us through book #50! I'm going to take a break from these to reread/review the Junior High series, which were a bit longer books, more like Sweet Valley High. 

SWEET VALLEY TWINS 31-40 (Including Super Chiller 1 & 2)

 
Jessica does a good deed by giving ugly ducking Sandra Ferris a makeover. Elizabeth throws her hand in as well, but most of it is Jessica, being nice for a change. 

However, it blows up in her face when Sandra skyrockets to popularity, eclipsing Jessica (in Jessica's mind). 

Sandra wins the honor of introducing the mayor at a school assembly so Jessica, who had wanted that, focuses more on being named Sixth Grade Citizen of the Year. 

Unfortunately, Sandra overhears Jessica telling Elizabeth about her great idea to make money for the library. Sandra only hears a bit but it's enough that she coincidentally comes up with the exact idea Jessica had...and she rushes to tell Ms. Arnette before Jessica can. Jessica and Elizabeth are both upset about this and confront Sandra, though she says she did nothing wrong and ends up winning Citizen of the Year.

Yeah, she conveniently forgot she did hear Jess say "sell ads," which is what sparked the idea in her brain, as both girls have older siblings who told them about the same commemorative booklet with ad space they used to fund the prom. She didn't do it on purpose, but she absolutely did get inspiration from Jessica and basically use her idea. Thankfully, Sandra thinks about it harder and she realizes she was indeed inspired by Jess, although she didn't get the entire idea from her. That was just coincidence. 

So Sandra, being an actual nice person, plays sick so Jessica can ride on the parade float in the Sweet Valley Days parade. Everyone makes up. 

One little criticism though: Ned Wakefield, STFU. Don't demand your daughters go to the parade with smiles on their faces. This was an actual injustice, no matter how minor stuff from junior high seems to you. Bad parenting. Again. 

Jess spent the last book with dreams of being a fashion designer. Then she realized she hates sewing. So now she wants to be an actress.

After a minor fender bender caused the girls to meet Mrs. Harrington, they're surprised when they learn the rather grumpy, melodramatic old woman is actually Dolores Dufay, an actress from the old movies Jessica had been obsessed with. Mrs. Harrington has given up acting and lived alone since the death of her husband. After her home is robbed, the girls help her clean up and even eventually track down the burglar himself! Jessica is more determined to be an actress and, at Mrs. Harrington's suggestion, signs up for a month-long acting workshop. She does well in her performance and Mrs. Harrington decides to go back to acting, after helping Jessica and even ending up performing the short play with her in the final performance. Elizabeth even gives Mrs. Harrington the kitten Amy and Belinda rescued but couldn't keep. 

This is a cute, quick read where Jessica is actually the genuine star of the book and really enjoys the time she spends with Mrs. Harrington. She's not just using her for her own reasons, which is more typical of Jess. I wish she was like this a little more often!

This next book was referred to as "The Wakefields' Visitor" in the back of the previous book. This one definitely shows its age. Why? Because it features a team of EAST German male gymnasts visiting Sweet Valley. 

One of the gymnasts, Christoph, ends up staying with the Wakefields. He loves America and after some trouble with an envious teammate, he becomes disgruntled about being under so much pressure, both from the coach and from his father, who refuses to accept anything but the best. He fakes sick on the day he's supposed to return home and then announces he's defecting. The family comes up with a plan to give him a German-themed birthday surprise party that makes him homesick enough to change his mind and return to Germany, though he had a talk with his father and is going to decide whether he actually wants to pursue gymnastics or not. 

This one is good and fun, but I think such a serious issue wasn't right for such a short book. It's resolved in too short a time. 

And now Jessica wants to be a rock star. She sure is whipping through career choices.

After seeing Melody Power in concert, Jessica is more obsessed with her than ever. When she finds out four boys in school are starting a band, she auditions to be their singer and they do choose her but for the wrong reason. Bruce Patman is in the band and his mother isn't allowing them to practice at their home for three months. When Jessica volunteers her basement, the band picks her, even though they hate her Melody Power imitation singing, which is trying to force her voice to be hoarse. During practices, the boys rarely let her sing, instead having her run errands, make posters and fetch them snacks and drinks. Jess is so caught up in her dreams and she does have that crush on Bruce, that she doesn't see how she's being used. 

Thankfully, Elizabeth is more savvy. She knows her twin's new way of singing is horrible but can't come right out and say it. She also hates the way the boys order her around. (I thought better of you, Aaron Dallas.) The final straw comes when Elizabeth sees the boys at the mall and overhears them saying Jessica can't sing and plotting to keep her away from their first paying gig so she won't embarrass them. Elizabeth is torn on what to do, though she does buy a sweater that will match the shirts the boys picked out for their band outfits. 

Later, Elizabeth learns Jessica has been practicing in her normal singing voice. She taped the band, including a couple songs where she sang in her forced voice, and she finally realized how terrible she sounded. So she began practicing using her regular voice, which if you remember, is quite good. She has been in musicals and is in the choir after all. Elizabeth tells her to be at her party at 2 instead of 3:30, which is when the boys told her, trying to make her deliberately late. She arrives only slightly late. She is Jess, after all. The band has been failing miserably because they're not good and only Jess's singing saves their asses. Then they all suck up to her after bringing their instruments back to the basement only to have Jess tell them she's no longer singing with the band. She's missed too much Unicorn stuff and two parties and we all know that will not do for Jessica Wakefield. 

I like that she got back at the boys in the end, though I do think Elizabeth should have told her about the boys' plot. After she upstaged them, of course. 

Super Chiller! I have been so eagerly awaiting these. These were some of my favorites. 

This one was basically Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" but with Jessica in the Scrooge role. She and Elizabeth both see a porcelain carousel horse they fall for at the mall and Jessica asks for it while lying and saying Elizabeth didn't like it. Elizabeth is working on fundraising for the children's hospital and Jess shirks her duties. Then Elizabeth gets a teen actor to help with fundraising. He misses their meeting because his limo broke down but when he gets there, Jessica is there and she doesn't tell Elizabeth about how he said they'd meet on the 27th to discuss the fundraiser. She plans to keep the lunch date herself. 

All this selfishness leads to Jessica having the Christmas Carol series of dreams with three spirits. The first is her younger self, taking her back to the past and showing her how generous young Jessica was. The second is the fierce purple unicorn from the poster Lila got her for Christmas and he shows her being nasty in the soon-to-be-present but from inside Elizabeth, so Jess can hear Liz's thoughts about how disappointed she is about missing Beau Dillon, the actor. The third is a white-robed figure that shows her the future where Jessica is as well-dressed and lovely as ever, but a complete social pariah because of her selfishness. 

Jessica wakes up and there are hints the dreams weren't just dreams. Her right slipper is missing and she has scratches on her ankles. Naturally, she begins being extra generous. She tells Elizabeth about Beau Dillon and then gives her the carousel horse, even though Mrs. Wakefield bought it for her. She offers to let Elizabeth borrow her new sweater. So future popularity crisis averted.

This one had a moment where Jess recognized Todd Wilkins even though he hasn't been in the Twins series yet. And they were mentioned as being twelve. I don't think they've turned twelve yet. I need to go double check but it's possible I have this one out of order in the series and I read it too soon. 

Amy is shocked when her pen pal, who hasn't written her in ages, shows up unannounced on her doorstep. She's even more shocked when Sam takes a liking to the Unicorns, ignores Amy for them, and weaves a bunch of too good to be true tales to keep their attention. Jessica shows them Sam is lying and they plot to embarrass her, but are foiled by Amy and Elizabeth after they find out the truth. Sam actually ran away from home because her parents have been ignoring her to spend all their time with her sick younger sister in the hospital. Her parents arrive, she works things out with everyone, the end. 

This is the first book where the series jumps in length. #34 was only 102 pages but #35 is 137. And those extra pages do drag when the story isn't that engaging.

What? Another one about running away after they just had one? Well, maybe it isn't. After all, the girls did tell Mary NOT to run away at the end of the last one. 

I swear, poor Mary has the wildest life. Poor girl lived in foster care, then found her mom, then her mom got remarried. What could it be now? 

This one is so out there. Mary has disappeared and left a lot of loose ends. She was supposed to type an article for Amy and doesn't and she has the only copy. She was supposed to report on the Unicorns' treasury and doesn't. So the twins, Amy, Lila and Ellen all go on this crazy mission because they're convinced Mary has been kidnapped. But no, it gets weirder. What they actually foil is ANOTHER girl's kidnapping. It turns out Mary was in Mexico with the Altmans, her former foster family. 

This was handled so poorly. Mary did call and talk to Steven, leaving a message about the treasury. But she never did anything about Amy's article. Even with only having a couple hours' notice to pack for her trip, she should have left it where her mom could get it to Amy and apologized for not being able to type it. That part wasn't like Mary at all. And then her mom was totally bitchy when her friends called and were obviously getting worried about her. Why not just tell them Mary went on a surprise trip with the Altmans? It was so stupid. Definitely forced a lot of unrealistic details to make the ridiculous plot work. 

Ugh, this one was also so stupid. 

So the Unicorns aren't happy that The Sixers never publishes news about them. Their idea of news is Ellen's trip to Santa Monica and some fan club letter Lila got. Not actual news. But Elizabeth makes the giant mistake of letting Jessica write an article of Unicorn news to go into the next edition of the paper. Why she did that, I'll never understand because she doesn't run the entire paper and everything is not her call. 

Anyway, there's a lot of news this week and the Unicorn article gets bumped. Jess is furious and the twins fight in homeroom with Jessica saying the Unicorns will have to start their own paper. 

That goes how you'd imagine with a bunch of lazy snobs (and Mary). Janet takes over and assigns work but no one really listens, no one can even write, and Lila is an idiot because she buys dark purple paper to print it on...on a ditto machine. Dunno if anyone remembers dittos but they print...in purple. So the first edition is a complete flop. 

The Unicorns decide to give it one more go with Jess at the helm because Janet is too busy organizing the school dance. This time they make their paper a hit but do it by printing a fake interview with Donny Diamond, a rock singer. This spirals into the school thinking the Unicorns personally know the singer and that he will be the special mystery guest at the dance. 

Outed by their gym teacher, Jess and Lila admit they faked the entire thing. Ms. Langberg agrees to provide Lila with her missing mystery guest (her uncle's connections fell through) but the Unicorns have to get up on stage and admit they lied. Once onstage, the girls do so and then Ms. Langberg's cousin reveals himself to be...Donny Diamond! Which is how she knew everything they printed was fake. Despite their lies, the Unicorns still come out on top, though they give up the paper and they have at least temporarily learned a lesson. 

This whole book was typical Unicorn silliness. It was enjoyable but also pretty stupid. Not that I should be looking for great plots from SVT or anything, I know. 

Lois vs. Bruce Patman! Fuck you, Patman! Go, Lois!

There's going to be a bike-a-thon to raise money for the library. This library always seems to need money, doesn't it? 

Lois Waller wants to win because she'd love the prize: a new mountain bike. She wants a paper route and getting a new bike would help. But Bruce Patman's endless bullying of her leads him to enter against her. They manage to get about the same amount in pledges per mile but that means Lois has to go the entire 30 miles to beat him. Everyone is sure Bruce will make it because he has an Italian racing bike. 

Lois manages 22 miles, which is great for the girl that gets made fun of for being overweight. Bruce insists he made it the full way but his story has holes. Elizabeth puts her mind to it and eventually gets Bruce to confess that he cheated. He crashed his bike and made it only eight miles, then faked the punches on his mile card to get his parents to pay their $600 in pledges. 

Lois wins the bike and one-ups Bruce, as well as getting a start on being more healthy herself. She's already losing weight from the exercise at the end of the book. It's nice to see a very often forgotten side character like Lois get some time to shine. She needs friends. Elizabeth helps her here but you get the feeling she isn't ever fully included, which is odd because Elizabeth always seems to befriend the less popular people at school and turn them into actual friends. 

I was on track to have this batch of books done in less than two days, but this one derailed me because I just did not care.

With Mrs. Wakefield out of town, Mr. Wakefield is taking care of the house and working on something big for his job. He's a bit grumpy and after being annoyed with Jess for being on the phone, he asks her to deliver an envelope of money to a man who lives three blocks away. She gets sidetracked by Caroline with gossip about Bruce and misses the guy, so she stashes the money in the ball pocket on the cover of a tennis racket Steven borrowed from his friend. Why not in your own room, Jess? Idiot. 

Mr. Wakefield goes on a cleaning binge after said racket bops him on the head and it gets returned to Steven's friend. Jess has to tell Elizabeth what happened and the two embark on a mission to the friend's house and then the country club to retrieve the money. But it's missing! Then they start an odd jobs business with Elizabeth doing the grunt work but they soon realize they can't earn that much money that fast. After losing a radio contest, Jess is forced to tell her dad what happened...which of course she should have done right away...only before she does, he rushes out of the house and an envelope falls out of his pocket. HE had the money all along. After Jess messes with him a bit when he gets home by making him check the jacket pocket and briefly panic because the envelope was gone, he says the money fell out of the racket cover when he was cleaning and he put it in his jacket to discuss it with Jess later. Then he got so busy he forgot. Forgot $500? Come on, Ned. 

This whole thing was a ridiculous mess. 

Oh, hooray, another Chiller! That brings us one closer to Chiller #3, which I think was my favorite. 

Sam Sloane has just moved to Sweet Valley but he's familiar with a lot of places and especially drawn to one old house. He initially believes it's a sign of reincarnation but while investigating the cemetery, he sees a ghost with his face. Accompanied by the twins, he returns to the cemetery and again, the ghost appears...only it's not a ghost at all. Sam has a twin brother! Sam and David's parents died when they were less than a year old and they were adopted separately. Sam's parents didn't know David existed but David's parents did know. 

Still drawn to the old house, Sam and the others meet the caretaker, an old man named PJ, who tells them the old house used to belong to Sam and David's family but they lost it to their great-grandfather's underhanded business partner. Sam and David both have the same dream of someone in a storm and Sam keeps investigating his family history. He learns his great-grandfather and his son both drowned during a storm while out sailing the day before the boy's twelfth birthday. Which happens to be that very day for Sam and David. Worse, Sam learns David is out for a sail with his father. Sam and the twins run to the rescue but it's too late. David's father is rescued but he isn't. Then Sam uses his twintuition and is able to direct the Coast Guard to where David is. David says he was rescued by PJ, the ghost returning to save his descendant when he failed to save his own son. And now his spirit is at rest but he manages to lead the boys to the legal papers proving the old house is theirs. 

This was a good one with a side plot involving Jessica playing a reincarnation-based prank on Lila. A lot of the SVT books are unbelievable on their own, so these Chillers work even better for me. If I'm reading something unbelievable, just make it supernatural. 

Sweet Valley's most talented track star is newer student Danny Jackson. However, Danny also acts out in class a lot, to the point that he eventually gets removed from the track team. 

Elizabeth being Elizabeth manages to figure out what's wrong. Danny has trouble reading. After Jessica finds a magazine with an article about a track star that couldn't read until he was 19, Elizabeth writes to the man, who happens to be somewhat nearby. He comes to pay Danny a visit and Danny finally has the courage to ask for the help he needs. 

A little unrealistic because Sweet Valley sure does turn to star power to solve their problems a lot, but a definitely an important message so I'll give it a pass.

SWEET VALLEY TWINS: 21-30 (Including Super Editions #2 & 3)

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.