Books I've Loved: Sweet Valley Twins & Sweet Valley High
Today, I go back to where it all began. The first ‘proper’ chapter books I ever read, discovered of course in the St. Damian’s library, were the Sweet Valley Twins books, created by Francine Pascal and written by Jamie Suzanne (along with ghostwriters over the years).
I was in grade two from memory, and I still remember the bottom two shelves where the books were stacked. I had always enjoyed reading as a kid but these were the books that got me hooked, and were my first taste of book series addiction (which has since peaked, and never quite been matched, at the Harry Potter series).
The Sweet Valley books were such a cliché of American culture. The protagonists were two identical twin girls in middle-school, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, who had blonde hair, blue-green eyes, tans and a dimple on one cheek (this was mentioned at the start of every book). Jessica was popular, a gossip, part of the cheerleading team, while Elizabeth was more serious, reliable, and wrote for the school paper. They lived in a split-level home in sunny California with their middle-class parents and older brother. I mean, come on right?
BUT IT WORKED. I loved reading about Jessica and Elizabeth’s adventures and those of their schoolmates. I particularly enjoyed the special editions, where magic entered the mix. Memorable stories include ‘Evil Elizabeth’, where Elizabeth wears an evil mask on Halloween that changes her personality, and ‘The Magic Christmas’, where a pair of dolls the twins were given for Christmas come to life. I didn’t realise it at the time but this was probably where my love of fantasy began.
Left to right: A selection of some old favourites; a close-up of my bookshelf.
Of course after reading my way through Sweet Valley Twins (I didn’t read all of them but made it through quite a few!), I moved on to Sweet Valley High (which, fun fact, was written first, and Sweet Valley Twins was a spinoff).
…Sweet Valley High was even better! So much gossip, scandals, boys, drama, and adventures. Sweet Valley High tended to have mini-series within the series, usually three consecutive books focused on the one storyline. One of my favourites was the mini-series where the twins interned in London and got involved in a series of murder investigations, where the clues pointed to a werewolf as the culprit. One of the more fantasy genre storylines that I absolutely loved. Other stories were typical high-school dramas, but there were also some serious moments, with one of Jessica’s love interests and her boyfriend dying in the series.
Looking back I’m a little surprised I always liked Jessica’s character better, when I’m so much more like Elizabeth. But Jessica was just so much more exciting to read about – she was always getting herself or her sister into mischief, whereas Elizabeth was usually the one smoothing things over. Something to remember for when I write my protagonists!
There were other Sweet Valley Spinoffs – Junior Year, Senior Year, and Sweet Valley University – and while I didn’t mind the university series, I never considered any of them part of the original series, and found the storylines and characters less engaging.
I still have about twenty or so of the books at home – a mix of Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High mostly. I keep them stacked in one of the cubes of my bookshelf (the same cube as my Harry Potter books), as a reminder of my first book addiction, and of how pivotal children’s books can be in a reader’s life.
