Sweet Valley High is back

26 Jul 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, book club, girl stuff, hilarious, 5 Comments

I remember my Sweet Valley High days as if they were yesterday. I was about 10 years old. Prime SVH-hooking age. I’d go to my school library, beg the librarian to let me check out 10 books at once (it took about 30 minutes to read one Sweet Valley volume), she wouldn’t let me. I would offer her my lunch, she would say ‘that’s unethical’, then we’d come to an agreement where I could check out as many Sweet Valley High books as I liked provided I read a ‘real’ book in between. So I would end up with 20 books – 10 Sweet Valley High, and 10 others. Think Suskind, Nietzsche and Dante. Ja, I reeeeeeally had to overcompensate (via fear of ‘becoming stupid’, which is what my mom said would happen if I read SVH at the same time as the wind changed direction). But this, my friends, is how I got an education. Via Sweet Valley High alternate-bribery.

Just read Pride & Prejudice so I could read this. Wish Pride & Prejudice was set in LA and all the characters drove Jeeps and were blonde, too.

Of course, it was a WHOLE OTHER STORY when it came to getting gold stars for my reading chart. My teacher was simply having none of SVH, and she would actually DEDUCT 5 points from my reading chart for every Sweet Valley High book I read. I did work out a system whereby I could double my points for reading a book published before 1950 (think F Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, Jane Freaking Austen …etc). Sheesh. When I look back things seemed awfully complicated for the simple benefit of reading a series of such simple books. Sing with me now…

“Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield were identical blonde twins who lived in a split-level  house…”

Soooooooo bad. Not sure I’ll be reading SVC again. I think ‘life might be too short’. But it was nice to take this little trip down memory lane.