I remember when my mom brought home my first Sweet Valley Twins book. It made me think of strawberry ice cream, with its pink pastel cover and "sweet" series title. My mom gave it to me when she arrived home from work, knowing how much I loved to read. I dove right in, and by the time I'd finished the last page two days later, I was hooked. I begged my mother for another book, and another, until I was saving up my allowance to buy the next novel in the series.My introduction to Francine Pascal, and Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield happened in second grade. It was also the year that I wrote my first fictional short story. I've long-since considered that year to be the beginning of my love affair with writing. I'd already loved to read, but after reading the Sweet Valley series, I knew that I wanted to write stories just like that. Or write anything, really. 20 years later, and I still feel the same way. All thanks to Francine Pascal's SV series.
I graduated to SVH in junior high, which was when my mom finally allowed me to read this series about high schoolers. I imagined myself as practically part of the Wakefield clan, with parents Ned and Alice, and big brother Steven. I related much more to Elizabeth, the quiet, "good" twin. Wasn't she on the school newspaper staff? In junior high, you have no idea what clique you'll be absorbed into when you hit high school, and since Liz's personality wasn't much of a stretch from my own, maybe I secretly hoped I could be like Jess, too. Yeah, Jessica was the cheerleader, and the "bad" girl. Maybe I envied her and wanted to be like her just a little bit.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed living vicariously through these fictional twins. I loved weaving in and out of their respective circles. I loved reading about spoiled Lila Fowler, obnoxious Bruce and the rest of Jessica's friends as much as I liked Liz' best friend Enid and goody-goody boyfriend Todd. Though many of the books revolve around trivial plots like cheerleading wars and stolen diaries, over time the characters and the stories evolved into really complex and sometimes even risque plots. To name a few, "When Love Dies" is about Steven's girlfriend dying of leukemia. Date rape is the subject of "Don't Go Home with John." I know that compared to what teens are reading and watching these days (See Gossip Girl), these story lines don't sound very scandalous, but I think that they were very cutting edge for their time.
In the series, I truly loved all of the books. But I absolutely adored the Magna editions. The recounting of the Wakefield family line was awesome. And you know I was almost in shock when I read that Alice Wakefield had almost married Bruce's dad in the 60's. Oh, what fun reads those were. The Fowler and Patman legacies were just as engrossing.
Okay, as my brother would say, I am "nerding out" right now. But I swear, thinking back to my love affair with the world of Sweet Valley is like a...I don't even know. I just haven't thought about those stories in so long, really.
I never did get into the Sweet Valley University series. I think that's when they stopped using the drawings for the book cover, and switched to real models. The girls they chose just didn't resemble the picture of the Jess and Liz that I'd formulated in my head over the years, and totally killed the fantasy. I tried to get into the television series that debuted in '94, but again, the show just didn't stick closely enough to the books.
And ten years later, what became of my beloved collection of SVH books? I traded one passion for another. Desperate to get out of the 909 (before it was 951) and start living, I sold them to a used book store for a mountain of pennies in order to buy a train ticket up north. It was a one way ticket, and I've been in SF for nearly ten years. So I lovingly credit Francine Pascal's little series with helping me realize that I was going to be a writer, and for helping me get to the amazing city I now call home.
