Young Adult Revisited

Ah, the book that started the Sweet Valley Twins franchise. Jessica and Elizabeth are starting sixth grade and realizing that they are two really different people. Elizabeth wants to start a school newspaper and is shocked that Jess wants nothing to do with it. Jessica wants to join the Unicorn Club and doesn’t give a damn if Liz wants in the club or not. Janet Howell decides that Jess must complete three tasks before joining. Apparently the club is really selective about bringing in sixth graders, but they are interested in her and one other girl. She is a little surprised that they don’t want Liz, but gets over it pretty fast. Her first task involves hiding Mrs. Arnett’s lesson plan book and putting it in her bag. Then she has to stand outside the girl’s room and convince three girls to use the boy’s room. The last task is to come to school looking completely different from Liz. She waits until Liz gets dressed, wears a different outfit, curls her hair and puts on makeup. Liz can...

Stacey’s parents want her to see a specialist in New York. She hates the idea, but doesn’t get a choice given that she is basically a kid. They promise that it will only take a few days, but later announce that they actually have to spend five days in New York City. In what is our first Thanksgiving in the series, they skip a trip to NYC because of going back in a few weeks. Kristy wants the club to keep afternoons free because Mrs. Newton is pregnant and she will need help when the baby comes. Of course everyone in town needs help from the BSC! The big storyline really revolves around a new club that pops up: The Baby-Sitters Agency. Janine rushes in during a meeting and gives them a flyer. The club promises sitters at least 13 and can sit later at night. They all worry about it a little and Kristy decides to call the club, just to see how things work. The girl on the phone takes the information, calls around and finds a sitter. She gets a cut of everyone’s pay. Things get worse...

Elizabeth and her friends Delia and Val are obsessed with the new guy Ken. He not only looks great, but he seems interesting too. For some reason a rumor spreads that he might be a real life vampire and they love him even more. He starts dating a cute cheerleader, but a few days later she comes to school with a scarf wrapped around her neck and won’t tell anyone what happened. Ken makes his way through a few different girls at school all with the same results. Then Delia stakes her claim on him, they date a few times and she comes to school with a turtleneck and refuses to discuss what happened. Val goes after him next, but things are different. She looks better than ever, while Ken constantly looks drained and out of sorts. Finally they break up and both she and Delia downplay the whole thing, saying that the stories are just rumors. Elizabeth decides to confront him and he asks her out. She wears a low cut dress and throws herself at him. She brings up the vampire rumors while th...

Dennis Cookman is a huge bully. He steals money from Lila, beats up on a kid named Jimmy Underwood and generally hates everyone. Elizabeth, Amy, Aaron, Jimmy and Ken meet up to figure out a way to get him to stop. Steven wanders by and tells them flat up to tell a teacher and get some adult help. They disagree, but eventually tell Mr. Bowman. He promises to talk to Dennis and put an end to things. Of course Dennis gets even more pissed off. The Unicorn Club apparently stopped doing initiation tasks at some point, but now Jessica wants to bring them back. Grace Oliver wants to join the club, so Jessica sets up her tasks. She has to stand up in the middle of class and recite a poem and later borrow homework from six kids. When she completes both tasks, Jessica demands that she get Dennis to sit with her for an entire lunch period. Every time Grace goes to Dennis, he shoots her down. She finds his baseball mitt and takes it back to him and he finally starts acting nice. Jessica lets h...

Apparently SMS is having a two-week vacation and Claudia discovered some famous art school that’s open to anyone. Take classes when you want, drop out when you want and you can be any age, as long as you pay. Stacey offers to let her stay with her dad when she goes and then Mallory wants to take classes there too. Before long, the whole club is going and staying with either Mr. McGill or Laine. Claudia takes classes and her teacher is this famous artist she calls Mac. He keeps telling her to slow down or spend more time on her artwork, so she constantly pouts. She even makes comments about how he’s the only teacher who never complimented her art. He does like Mallory’s work, so she gets pissed at her, makes rude comments and ignores her. On the last day of class, Mac tells her that she’s a talented artist and he pushed her to make her better. Of course. Mallory is a total brown noser who spends the whole book sucking up to Mac, talking to him about his daughter and being the perfe...

Steven met a girl named Andrea that is apparently the 700 th doppelganger of Tricia Martin, his long ago dead girlfriend. Liz warns him that just because she looks like Tricia that doesn’t mean she is exactly like her. He agrees, but secretly thinks that Andrea will be exactly like Tricia. On their first date, he takes her to a restaurant where he went with Tricia, suggests she order the chef’s salad, which was Tricia’s favorite dish and marvels at how alike they are. Andrea interrupts him, saying that he called her Tricia multiple times. He apologizes, breaks down, tells her the whole story and she agrees to keep seeing him. Liz asks what he plans on doing about Cara (you know, his actually girlfriend). He feels kind of guilty, but then blows his sister off. He does call Cara, but only so he can take his mind off Andrea. During their phone conversation, he thinks about how she acts way too immature for him. Apparently cheating on your long-term girlfriend is mature behavior. St...

Ah, the book that started it all…I guess it’s the fact that I’m reading this one after reading some of the others, but I couldn’t help noticing some continuity errors, or at least things that are never mentioned again. Kristy Thomas comes up with the idea of the BSC after her mom struggles in finding a sitter for her brother David Michael. She tells the idea to Mary Anne and Claudia, who comes up with the idea of a club where parents call and are almost always guaranteed a sitter. They advertise in the newspaper, pass out fliers and meet in Claudia’s room. The first meeting ends with everyone getting a sitting job. Kristy gets a job sitting for three-year-olds and she assumes that they are twins. When she gets there, she finds that she’s sitting for dogs. Stacey sits at Kristy’s house and meets Sam, who she naturally falls “in luv” with. Claudia sits for Jamie Newton and his cousins. The cousins are kind of wild, but she manages to tame them. Mary Anne sits for Karen and Andrew. Sh...