Summary
With the overhaul ofSweet Valley Highauthor Francine Pascal , I ’m cerebrate about how much I learned about life from her books . The serial publication was pioneered by Pascal , who passed today at the long time of 92 . While she indite quite a few of thebetter YA booksin the serial publication , which officially began in 1983 , at 181 record , Pascal also enlisted the help of a team of ghostwriters to pen subsequent sequels . I was 3 at the time the first book was published , but you better think I found them in my preteen years and began devouring them , a rite of passage for so many girls my age in the early ' 90s .
The book , for those of you who never had the exquisite pleasance of reading the delightful drama - fest that wasSweet Valley High , follow identical Twin Elizabeth ( who is older by 4 instant - this is very important , for some reason ) and Jessica Wakefield . Elizabeth and Jessica were good friends , often competitor , sometimes enemies , and always wildly unlike in a way that often move much of the conflict . As they pilot the halls of their sunny Los Angeles suburban area gamey schoolhouse and navigate the problem of their copious , moneyed life style , they became icons for an entire swath of unseasoned Gen X and elder millennials .
It ’s not rare for pulpy book series to be handled by multiple writers , but one 1980s YA series remove the idea to the extreme point & found success doing it .
Why The Sweet Valley High Books Were So Important To Elder Millennials
They Shaped A Generation Of Us
It is unacceptable to overstate the hold theSweet Valley Highbooks ( and subsequently the idiot box adaptation)had on us girls of a certain years – namely , elder millennials and the Oregon Trail microgeneration . I read them , my friends read them , everyone I knew in school study them . It ’s impossible to overstate how strongly Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield influenced us – mostly because we all care to think we were vivacious Jessicas when we were really ( if we ’re being honest ) steady Elizabeths . Though , in hindsight , Jessica was a fiend , so it was in all probability better most of us did n’t arise up to be like her , because we ’d be sociopaths . But she sure made it attend fun .
It ’s impossible to overstate how strongly Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield influence us – mostly because we all like to think we were vibrant Jessicas when we were really ( if we ’re being honest ) unfluctuating Elizabeths .
While the series started in the other ' fourscore , it really hit its stride in the ' 90s , and it in full hug and shaped girl culture of the decade . One of the reasons for that is thatit was a serial that mature with its reader . When the serial publication began , Elizabeth and Jessica were 12 year old , but they get on through in high spirits schoolhouse and into college – even past college with the accompany - up book , Sweet Valley Confidential . In that way , it was a fleck likeHarry Potterfans arise up with the books , exceptSweet Valley Highdid it far earlier . TheSweet Valley Highseries was just part of my life , since it had been around for so much of it .
The ripening and growth of the charactersalso give up for plot line that other lightweight series miss . Don’t get me incorrect , I lovedThe Baby - Sitters ClubandThe Fabulous Five , for illustration , but they were n’t precisely heavy hitters when it came to specific adult subject . That ’s not to say the characters did n’t grapple with tangible - world issues , but they were n’t run at the story ofSweet Valley High . I was first introduced to unmanageable matter in these silly books I loved , and they give my eye to challenge and literal issue I had n’t consider about before , being a preteen girl in rural westerly Pennsylvania .
Sweet Valley High Taught Me About Serious Subjects
Leukemia, Drug Overdoses, Drunk Driving, And More Were All Touched Upon
For a fun series about two pretty twins who chased boy and fight with each other , Sweet Valley Highwasn’t afraid to duck into some really serious material . The story of Steven ( their buddy ) alone was a whole galaxy of poignant , genuine - world plotlines . For example , his first girlfriend , Tricia , died of cancer of the blood . At a meter when puerility leukemia , HIV , and AIDS were publication really blowing up in the public consciousness , that was an eye - opener to read as a kid . That was n’t the only storyline that rocked my cosmos with a difficult truth or baffling realness .
And sure , some of those real - world storylines were handled in the most spectacular direction possible , butthat did n’t make them any less compelling or in force – preteen and adolescent girl are , by our nature , dramatic . It ’s something we cover . They still bear on us , sometimes deeply . Like Tricia , other character died , sometimes in sudden , shocking ways . For those used to Quran where nothing truly bad ever bechance to the lineament and everyone got a felicitous ending , theSweet Valley Highseries was a splash of cold , adult weewee .
An testis frying in a cooking pan mean nothing compared to sweet , fictional Regina give-up the ghost on us .
Most of us who take the books , for example , remember the atrocious storyline of when Elizabeth ’s acquaintance Regina fell in with the wrong bunch and overdosed and died after doing cocain once . As writer Lizz Adam reminisce in herMediumpost , " This book achieved something no PSA could have at my age . " She was n’t the only one . That was a storyline I remember hit me and my friendshard . An egg frying in a pan mean nothing compare to sweet , fancied Regina dying on us .
Sweet Valley Was Soapy, But It Wasn’t Just A Soap Opera
It Was Fun And Frothy, Just Like We Wanted
I also dwell for the shocking drama ofSweet Valley High , which was well as insane as anything you might see on daytime grievous bodily harm operas or Spanish telenovelas . In particular , Jessica and Elizabeth apply the identical duplicate identity replacement numerous time in the book , a commodious gimmick that made me desperately foiled I myself did not have a twin to switch with . And it used other scoop opera tropes with glee : kidnapping : check ! Comas : check ! One of the girls being pursued by a stalker who assumes her identity operator and almost accept her life : check ! Francine Pascal ’s soap opera writing screen background really come in clasp , what can I say ?
That said , it was n’t just a liquid ecstasy opera ; it was n’t all dramatic destruction and destruction in the pages . TheSweet Valley Highbooks were fun and frothy at their core , stories about boys and sibling bickering and friend and gamey school drama . playscript were bribe and passed around among my girlfriends like social currentness , share freely with one another ( because , again , we were in spades Elizabeth II and not Jessicas ) as a bonding ritual . In the end , it create a shared language shared between not just me and my friend , but among so many of us of a certain era . With a little bit of a refresher , I ’m certain we can all still speakSweet Valley High .
