Young Adult Revisited

Nancy is on a plane to Venice to meet her dad and investigate a kidnapping case while thinking about Ned. At some point prior to this book, they decided to take a break and see other people. While she had fun with other guys, she talked to him before leaving and thinks that she's still in love with him. She then meets Tara, another girl on the plane also traveling to Venice. Tara explains that she lives in the United States with her mom and stepdad while her dad lived in Italy and worked as an artist. He recently died, and she's on her way to go through his things. Once there, they drop off their bags in Tara's hotel room before going to visit her father's “lady friend,” Angela. They also meet Angela's younger brother Gianni. He's so gorgeous that he literally makes Nancy's heart stop. Angela tells them that Rolf Elgan, Tara's father, worked as an artist and was on the canal with a friend late one night. A shot rang out, and when the frie...

Drew is incredibly short for her age, which is why her dad calls her Elf. She and her friends Walker, Shane, and Shana are looking forward to Halloween because they want to get back at these bullies Lee and Tabby. One year, the two had a Halloween party where two guys in ski masks burst in and threatened the guests. The figures made them get down on the floor and do push ups before they learned it was all a set up and the guys were the kids' next door neighbors. They come up with a whole bunch of gags, including a recording that mentions the two evil brats by name. They plan on turning the lights on and then turning on the recording. Other pranks include throwing fake slime at them and making a giant fake monster pop out of the closet. A few hours before the party, Tabby calls and says they're going trick or treating with some other kids instead and won't be at the party, meaning they get screwed for a second year in a row. After meeting up, the whole group ...

Evan still has a completely rational fear of Monster Blood given what happened in the last books. He hates the stuff so much that he can't even eat green Jell-O anymore. He also has a new job: baby-sitting for his cousin Kermit. His mom points out that his aunt can't afford to hire anyone else. Given that she only pays him $3 an hour, I can understand why no one else will do it. It also turns out that Kermit is the type of kid I would totally punch in the face. Conan, his next door neighbor, goes to school with Evan and picks a fight with him. Kermit shows up, threatens to cover him with an invisibility potion he made, and then throws it on him anyway. All it does it make his favorite shirt disappear, which leads Conan to punch Evan in the face. At school the next day, Andy teases him because she got a canister of Monster Blood from her parents and says she put it in his sandwich. He then makes her go to his cousin's house with him. Kermit asks Andy if he c...

Apparently, all the kids at Sweet Valley Middle School are tired of homework because they had multiple big projects due over the last few weeks. Mr. Bowman asks them to come up with a fun project that they can do in class. Leslie, a quiet and mousy girl who never talks, pipes up and suggests they make a movie. All the other kids agree but argue over what type of movie to make. Amy and Elizabeth' decide to actually talk to Leslie and find out that she's a huge movie buff. She even has a friend named Deidre who is the manager at Sweet Valley Video. Deidre also studied acting at UCLA. She suggests they think about the type of movies they like and base their film off their own preferences. The Unicorns all want to make a romance movie, but the guys want to make a horror movie. Liz comes up with an idea to do a spoof. They decide to do a horror movie combined with an action movie that has a love story ending. Everyone agrees it's the best thing ever. Amy then su...

Carly Beth and Sabrina are best friends, but Carly Beth looks much younger and gets picked on by everyone, including her friend. While at lunch, two guys named Chuck and Steve sit with them. Since CB isn't in the mood for rubbery noodles, she accepts Chuck's offer of a sandwich, only to find out he hid a real worm inside. She runs off crying while everyone laughs at her. Steven then convinces her that his pet tarantula escaped and is climbing up her leg. When she goes crazy and starts screaming in the middle of school, he reveals it was all a prank. She then goes home and discovers that her mom made a realistic mask of her in art class. Though she swears it blinked at her, CB tries to blow it off. Her mom also made her a duck costume, which shes seems breathing and moving right before it attacks her. No worries though. It was just her little brother fooling around. All Carly Beth really wants is to find a costume so scary that it will send Chuck and Steve runni...

Ginny and Denise are best friends, even though Ginny is a total plain Jane and Denise is supermodel hot. You might remember Denise from that book where Jessica convinced her she was too old for her boyfriend Jay, so that Jess could swoop in and steal him away, but I'm pretty sure Ginny never appeared in any other books, though I could be wrong. Ginny is incredibly shy and super nervous, but Denise convinces her that she should volunteer at the whole Project Youth thing, which she eventually does. On her very first day, she gets a call from this guy Mike. His dad died two years ago, and his mom recently announced that she was getting married again to some man he didn't even know she was dating. The day is now over at their house all the time, trying to act like Mike's dad and just generally being a huge pain. Ginny gives him the advice that anyone else would give, which is to talk to his mom. He does, it goes well, and he calls back to tell her and ask her out. ...

Logan and Kristy are outside playing football with some of their charges while Mary Anne reads a book when they see a moving van. Kristy immediately thinks of new clients and takes over a flyer. They later learn that she dropped off a new flyer every day until she actually met the parents. Watson then invited them over for dinner with his family. All they really know is that they are very posh and British. During the next BSC meeting, they get a call from someone Mary Anne thinks is the mom but is really the nanny Mrs. Rutherford. The family wants someone to spend time with their daughter Victoria and help her acclimate with her new surroundings. The woman instantly assumes that Mary Anne will be the one to work with Victoria and plans to send a car for her before she can say much, though she does inform her that Victoria is a princess. Mary Anne is obviously a little freaked out and worries over what to wear but eventually settles on a white blouse, plaid skirt, knee s...