Sweet Valley High: Redux
NS November 14th, 2007
This is cracking me up. If you read the Sweet Valley High books as a kid, you will love it. From the blog’s author:
My goal is to reread the entire series to relive my tween years, and also to get really angry at how SVH gave me a false and misguided view of high school life. And life in general. In fact, I blame all my insecurities, problems and worries on these books.
Right now I am focusing on the Sweet Valley High series only, because these were the ones I read most as a child. Reading the Twins, Jr. High, Senior Year and University opens a whole can of worms that I am not ready for.
Rereading these books have made me nostalgic for other books and series from my childhood, so lately I have been inlcuding reviews/summaries. The Baby-Sitters Club was HUGE for me, but there are so many other great blogs out there that recap these, so I couldn’t do it justice.
This site is intended for entertainment. Please don’t take anything personally or seriously.
What a great idea! Why didn’t I think of this? It’s making me all nostalgic. Determined not to be a total copycat, I think I might find a book I read as a child or teenager (just one, not a whole series) and re-read it for fun. It will undoubtedly have different meaning now but I think it will be an interesting experiment.
To anyone tempted to make fun of me, I say only this: Shut up, Harry Potter fan. I never got into the Hogwart’s heroin but damn it if I don’t partake in a little Babysitters Club boozing.
- Banal Breakdown
- Comments(12)
Go on…do it!! Can you imagine being seen in public with those books!? Just sitting there, reading them as if they were the latest best sellers.
I’ve thought often of doing this with a Judy Blume book, or two. Probably either “Deenie” or “Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself”.
Growing up, those two were my faves. It would be interesting as an adult to see what attracted me to them. A lesson in self-psychology?
Oh, I’d love to hear all about such an experiment! I’ve been rereading some old childhood favorites too, and it’s a very strange experience
I, too, read SVH and BSC and anything else I could get my hands on – I’d go through one of those a day.
Oh my gosh – what a great blog. I had people come into my office asking why I was luaghing so hard! Okay, as I’m typing this very weird things are happening – hopefully this message will make sense. Anyway – to the poster above – Deenie! Yes! And Tiger Eyes is another one that truly effected me. I might join in, too, with Tiger Eyes!g why I was
i love this post. reading the link about SVH #86 just made me realize (not that i didn’t know this on some level before) just how ridiculous that series of books was. no wonder mom always rolled her eyes when i would scour the shelves at waldenbooks looking feverishly for the next and newest book in the series.
i think my re-read would be “just as long as we’re together” by judy blume. i read that damn thing until the cover was worn and soft and all the pages were curling. and what was the cute boy’s name? jeremy dragon?? definitely going to have to revisit this one!
Hey, speaking of boozing — I know, that’s a bit of a stretch — I tagged you for a meme! (Your answers don’t have to involve boozing, but mine did.)
I can still remember the description of them: “perfect size 8s” and something like “blonde, beautiful, sea-green eyes” I think the word ‘perfect’ was in there about a MILLION times.
Suggestion: Flowers in the Attic series. They were ‘perfect’ but oh-so-twisted. So much so that I remember my mom having a ‘talk’ with me about the incest.
i loved me some babysitters club! (are you really surprised?!) i think i read everyone of them. then they had to come out with the damn tv show. ugh!
Cheers to that! I think it would be mighty interesting to delve back into the teenage mindset like that. I never read sweet valley high or any babysitters club type books, though. I thought myself much too mature for them haha!
Are you There God, It’s Me Margaret. Was that by Judy Blume? I devoured that book.
The only series I got into were Nancy Drew books and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.
BTW, you asked about a feed to my blog and I think I added one correctly. It’s all yours, baby.
heheh i did this with Judy Blume recently, i made my DH read Forever, he didnt enjoy it as much as i remember enjoying it, weird huh, OMG i read that book so many times, i was on my second copy, i remember they had me at the first paragraph, i was just lining up to go into Physics, i was 15, i was totally hooked.
I read a few Babysitters Club books but i was a bit (ok a lot) too old when they came out over here.
I did recently read Goodnight Stories out (appropriate ones) to year 8 and 9 for assembly stories, ye know, WRITE THANK YOU LETTERS YOU IGNORANT LITTLE SHITS stuff like that, couldnt find my book so i had to order it off the internet, you can prolly buy whole series of books on ebay.
hope youre feeling better!!!! *hugs*
I’m seriously loving this idea. I wish I didn’t throw out my SVH books so I can read them again and laugh at myself.
Tabitha, I hadn’t thought of the fun factor of reading a book such as SVH in public. Can you imagine me wearing my “This is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt while sitting in a highbrow, intellectual cafe and whipping out “Slam Book Fever?” OMG, slam books!!! I almost forgot about those. This trip down memory lane is fun!
Chloe, are you telling me that you didn’t worship at the altar of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield? Your childhood must’ve been a barren wasteland.
Adam, there was a Babysitters Club tv show??! I had no idea.
Andrea, I think “Just As Long As We’re Together” was my most read book as well. I’ll fight ya for it!