Sweet Valley Twins #7: Three’s A Crowd

Oh dear lord, do you guys have any idea how long it’s been since I picked up a Sweet Valley Twins book? I stopped reading these way before I gave up the BSC. For some reason, when I hit 12 or so, I became obsessed with SVH and BSC. I *may* have even stopped reading these by the time I was the same age as the twins. This was a total trip for me!

So Jessica has this friend Mary, who’s in the Unicorn club, but doesn’t seem nearly as snotty/bitchy as the girls in that group. OMG, the Unicorn club, I love it! Sorry LOL. The club all meets because they want to throw a dance (this is Sweet Valley after all), but the club treasury is way low.

They decide to write celebrities and ask for their favorite recipe, then make a book and sell it. Really? Does the ghost writer think celebrities write back in a few days? I’m still waiting for Christian Slater to respond to the letter I wrote him when I was 12. Do you think it’s time to give up on that dream?

Jessica volunteers to type everything up because Liz has an electric typewriter (I’m dying here), though of course she doesn’t know how to use it. Liz meanwhile is busy with the Sweet Valley Sixers, the sixth grade newspaper. She’s doing a big story on the upcoming career day and can’t be bothered with Jessica’s crap.

Mary is a foster child who lives down the street and Jess starts noticing that Mary is always around. Plus when she’s there, she’s always helping Mrs. Wakefield and basically ignoring her. Jess decides to stop inviting her over, but then Mary pops up with Liz. She even asks her friend Ellen if Mary hangs out with her mom and Ellen acts like she’s crazy.

Jess pretends that she’s sick, but then Mary comes home with Liz. She finally talks to Liz about her suspicions, but Liz acts like she’s crazy. Then she starts watching Mary and realizes that Jessica was right. Ha! Jessica was right, that pained me to say. Eventually Liz agrees to stop inviting her over too.

Jess wants to write to Vanessa Britain from her favorite soap, but finds out that Janet (club president) is writing her, so she writes to Parker something from the same show. Liz tells her that the two stars just got married, so she asks him about being married to a celeb. He writes back and sends her a recipe for sweet and sour ribs.

Mr. Bowman, the newspaper advisor, tells the kids that some massive group is hosting a competition for the best middle school newspaper and he thinks they have a shot. Liz goes out of her way to write the best damn article she can and then Jess screws it up. She does some work for her twin and Jess has to get all the details about Career Day, but messes up all the names and dates.

Career Day finally comes and all the Unicorns go to see Gretchen Tyler, a local fashion designer, talk. Janet demands that Jessica get to work on the cookbook because everyone heard back from their celebrities. Since Liz has no time and Mary is the only one she knows who types, they make up. Mary gives her this gold and silver bracelet she always wears and invites her over to dinner with her foster parents.

While working on the book, they knock over grape juice and ruin Liz’s article on Tyler. Jess rewrites it and when she doesn’t have enough words, she includes the rib recipe. It’s got some mistakes, but Mr. Bowman loves it. Jessica also includes a note in the gossip column because she hears her dad say the Altman family wants to adopt Mary.

Mary reveals to Liz that she doesn’t want to get adopted. She has a mother and she knows that she’s looking for her. Apparently her mom was friends with this woman Annie and Annie volunteered to watch her, while her mom took care of her grandpa. Annie took her to California, but got sick of having a kid and just turned her over to child services, but not before changing her name back to her maiden name.

Mary tells the Altmans that she doesn’t want to be adopted because of her mom. They try pointing out that it’s been years since she heard from her, but she refuses. The CPS decides to put her into a new home and give them a chance to adopt another child. She only has a few months until it’s time to move on.

Liz runs into a woman, who kind of looks like Alice and is looking for Mary. At first she thinks it’s Annie, but it turns out to be Mary’s mom. They have a happy reunion and she reveals that they only reason she found her was because Annie was arrested for shoplifting. She asks if she still has her bracelet and Jessica gives it back. Later her mom decides to transfer to Sweet Valley, so Mary can stay with her friends. I guess at some point in the next four years, they move away anyway.

The cookbook is a huge hit and Liz decides to buy a copy for their mom and one for Mr. Bowman. Mary decides to buy the copy for their mom, as a thank you gift. Liz then reveals that she combined her article and Jessica’s article into one and put it in the paper. Yeah.

*Jessica makes mention of Bruce Patman being the cutest boy in seventh grade. Just wait a few years….

*I just realized that given the age we have for Alice in SVH (early 40s), she’s actually like 38-ish here. Suddenly that seems pretty young to me!

*They mention one of the girls writing to Jeremy Franks. I thought he was like early 20s in the SVH series, so that would make him late teens here.

*Caroline Pierce writes in her gossip column that the school is getting vending machines. Of course it’s a rumor, but Lois Waller shows up and gets disappointed that she can’t buy a candy bar. I hate when they include her like this. Apparently if you’re overweight, you can only care about food, nothing else.

*Lila is all about buying a horse in this book and Jess suggests she talk to Liz. Remember when Liz was obsessed with horses? Yeah and I totally remember that book too.

*I have to say that I’m kind of loving the Sweet Valley Twins series, not quite as horribly great as the high school years. Hopefully I can track down more of these.