Young Adult Revisited

Jessica and Elizabeth are both on the middle school basketball team, though Jessica is a much better player, and the team has a championship game coming up. Kent Kellerman, star of everyone’s favorite TV show is also coming to town, to film scenes for his show. Elizabeth learns from Brooke Dennis that her dad wrote a few episodes of the show and got to be friends with him. The problem is that she tells Jessica the news, which sets her off. Jess tells Lila and they decide to be super nice to Brooke. Brooke is supposed to write an article for the school newspaper, but the Booster Club needs a new member. They convince Brooke that she’s perfect for the squad and Lila even offers to help train her, provided she get them tickets to the set that day. Brooke does get them the tickets, but then they discover that filming is during a school day and finishes early in the afternoon. Luckily Caroline Pierce informs them that the gym teacher is out for the week on jury duty. Jess and Lila sne...

Shelly Novak is incredibly tall, has incredibly legs and is really pretty, but she thinks that she’s a freak. She’s long had a crush on her best friend Greg, who taught her how to play basketball and helped make her a huge star on the team. He recently broke up with his girlfriend and she thinks she might have a shot. She keeps talking to her best friend Cathy, who encourages her to try it. Randomly, a new ballroom dance class is being offered and a ton of SVH students are taking part. Both Jessica and Amy fall in love with Patrick McLean, who teaches the classes and plans on opening a real school when he graduates college in a few months. They naturally become obsessed with him and compete over him, even though he doesn’t really express an interest in either one. Shelly attends the first lesson and sees Greg with his ex-girlfriend. She winds up dancing with Jim Roberts, a great photographer who is the same height as her and seems to like her. On the walk home with Greg, she gets...

Kristin Thompson is an ace (hee-hee) tennis player at Sweet Valley High. Her mom was a semi-famous pro player, but settled down a little when she was born. Her parents opened a chain of tennis clubs and then her mom got back into the swing of things (I seriously can’t help myself) and was flying to Wimbledon, when her plane crashed and she died. Kristin kind of keeps this from everyone and keeps to herself. Liz Wakefield though isn’t deterred by anyone. She and Enid are starting a chapter of Big Sisters in Sweet Valley and one of the girls seems perfect for Kristin, mainly because she loves tennis. Liz suggests Kristin join the group and she isn’t sure because she doesn’t have a lot of time. See, she practices tennis from the moment she gets out of school, until dinner and in the early mornings too. After a three-minute long talk with Liz though, she’s sold on the idea. When her tennis coach Dorrie has a dentist appointment, she has a whole afternoon to herself. She ends up watchi...

Mallory Pike wants an old-fashioned Christmas this year. After deciding on it, while taking a walk with Jessi, she rushes home and tells her parents her idea. Luckily, everyone in the family agrees. This year, they’ll make cookies, have holiday dinners at home, make gifts for each other and even make their own Christmas decorations. Vanessa hears on television that the news wants to film an old-fashioned family Christmas and submits her own family. They love the idea so much that they offer the Pike family $10,000 if they open their home to the film cameras. After some careful thought, they decide to do it. Apparently the Pike family has never seen a reality show before because they hate it almost as soon as it starts. The cameras follow their every move during the holidays and make a huge mess in the process. The film crew wants to add more lights to the house, the director accidentally steps on Pow and they generally make a nuisance of themselves. At the same time, the local n...

It’s time for the oldest living middle school students in the world to finally graduation from eighth grade. Even Dawn, Abby, Jessi and Mallory make appearances in this one. I found it a little hard to read because it kept shifting between each member, former members and even the kids they sit for. It didn’t blend as well together, as it does with the BSC super specials. So Kristy is feeling all out of sorts. She keeps noticing that the other club members are changing and she doesn’t like it one bit. Kristy decides that they need a ton of projects to keep busy with the kids during the summer, before everyone goes off to high school. She’s shocked to learn that Stacey and Claudia both want to cut back on their jobs because Stacey plans on being in NYC a lot and Claudia wants to work on her art. Even Mary Anne wants to stop sitting for the summer and spend some time with Dawn. The school has a tradition, where students have the option to write a letter to their future self. The ...