Did any of you spend your teen years obsessing about the Wakefield twins? Because I did! I was a massive fan of the Sweet Valley series - Sweet Valley Kids, Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley University - I loved them all!
The first book I read was Power Play and I was addicted from that moment on. I was thrilled when my library got the latest Sweet Valley book in, and was always borrowing them from my friends. Oh, and at school we used to discuss the characters as though they were real people. We were obsessed all right! Over the years, I've built up a small collection of books which I still have at home. Sweet Valley High was definitely a big part of my teen years.
Although I now know it's not necessarily true for every American teenager, but I'd read Sweet Valley High books and think "what a wonderful life these American school kids have!" Weekends at the mall, hanging out at the beach, partying with the popular kids, having your own wheels at sixteen... I felt as though I was born in the wrong country!
Let us know your thoughts about the series? Were you a fan of the books? Which series did you prefer? And the all-important one - were you Team Liz or Team Jess? (I was Team Liz!)
I did read the Sweet Valley High books. I thought they were great. But I get the feeling that I was probably the only one who preferred Elizabeth with Jeffrey and not Todd! But there were a few things about the books I never got:
*Why would Steven Wakefield date Cara Walker one of Jessica's selfish, self-centered friends who wasn't a patch on Tricia?
*Why would Mr. Wakefield approve of Jessica dating Bruce Patman - the son of his wife's ex-husband???
* Did anyone else think the pairing of George and Robin was a bit odd? Furthermore they cheated on partners who they had been through a lot with. That didn't make sense.
*Why could the Wakefield family not see that a lot of the time, they were enabling Jessica's bad behaviour?
*The books were set in Southern California but there is a distinct lack of diversity.
*In spin off books, we're led to believe that the twins mother was something of a feminist and a radical in her youth. Yet she didn't seem to have passed on any of these ideals to her daughters - especially Jessica.
When you're a teenager, you read for fun and enjoyment. But it's only when your (much) older that you see things that don't make sense. I enjoyed the Sweet Valley books when I was a teen but I can't see my kids reading them when they become teenagers themselves.