aka YA Literature

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Sweet Valley High

I must admit that I read Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High books when I was in middle school. I'm pretty sure if I read them now I would not appreciate them. However, from what little I can remember about them, I think I liked imagining that their lives were what high school would be like. I guess. I actually don't remember too much about Elizabeth and Whatever Her Sister's Name Was, except that they had a little convertible sports car. And they were tan. I think they called it "sun kissed." I do remember that. Well, SVH is back to become vague memories to a whole new generation of middle schoolers! But they will be updated with things like cell phones and instant messaging. I wonder how they will fare against contemporary series like Gossip Girls. Ahh, memories . . .

4 comments:

Texasholly said...

My little sister was reading Sweet Valley University back in the day and I read a couple of them thinking it would be like SVH and SVT. Um, no, they were much more grown up and having sex and stuff!

Stephanie said...

Wow - that brings back memories . . . I read the SVH series also. The other sister was Jessica, I think. And the detail that stands out to me is that they had a flagstone path leading up to their house. That always came up in the first 10 pages of every book. What a stupid thing to remember!

Anonymous said...

My first reaction--okay, second, after a loud "Oh. My. God!"--was, are the people buying the books going to be nostalgiac adults or actual teens? At first, I was leaning towards adults, but the more I started thinking about it and freaking myself out by how much I remembered, well... Maybe they do know what they're doing.

Sheryl said...

Oooh, good point, Trisha! I didn't even realize until recently that Pascal didn't even write most of them. I wish I could write a "bible" of settings and characters as other writers do the work of actual writing while I sit back and make million$.

Ever get the feeling that some of our really prolific YA writers are not writing their own stuff now? I know Holly is hoping MC isn't responsible for some of her latest.