bubbleprincess Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 Has anyone ever read the Sweet Valley Kids, Twins, High, etc. series? They were really big in the 90s when I was a little kid, and they revolved around these twins called Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, and their batch of friends and family. Was a really great series. They were written by Francine Pascal by the way. Another good series for teens and kids is the Baby Sitters Club by Anne Martin. The novels revolve around 10 friends who put up a club for baby sitters and operate it as a business. really good and an inspiring series. The club consisted of Claudia, Stacey, Kristy, Mary Anne, Dawn, Jessi, Mallory,Logan, Shannon and Abby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I do remember reading the Sweet Valley High books when they first came out in the 1980's. I probably read the first 20 or so, but grew out of them. OMG! I've just looked them up on fantasticfiction.co.uk to see when they were first published and realised there are 144 books in the main series alone!!! How on earth can anyone write that many books? Some of them must have been ghostwritten, surely? In fact, if you look at the covers, they actually say "Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High", so I'm guessing she came up with the idea and other people have written them. She has 695 books listed on her page in total. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Princess Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I used to love reading the baby sitters club books when i was younger. I think they made TV shows out of both series of books if i remember rightly, well i seem to have a distant memory of them anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimmy619 Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I loooooooved Sweet Valley High - I even watched the tv series Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceinwenn Posted May 2, 2009 Share Posted May 2, 2009 I read a few of the Sweet Valley High, but never really got into them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie Dana Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 Francine Pascal came up with the concept and probably wrote the first handful of SVH books, but the rest were written by a team of writers-for-hire and the whole series was packaged by an outfit called Cloverdale Press. In the 1980s when I was writing for children, I worked with Jane Stine of Parachute Press, a book packager in New York. The only input she gave me was that she wanted the series to be called "Best Friends," and that it should appeal to mid-grade (ages 8-12) girls, but after that, it was to be my concept and I would write the first 4 books. Then, if the series took off, she would hire other writers to pitch in, and I was free to write more books if I wanted, or sit back and enjoy a nice little royalty income from the work of others. Well, I got the series written and Jane sold it to a US publisher, and while it did OK and was translated into several languages, they never came back for more books. Jane then turned her attention to packaging and promoting her husband's new series ... R.L. Stine's GOOSEBUMPS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bemii Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 I've read a few of them! I think I started on the third book and just read a mixture in no particular order, as I found them in a charity shop one time. They were okay, but not the best! I did read the one when the stalker/murderer person was introduced (can't remember her name ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted May 9, 2009 Share Posted May 9, 2009 I do know the Sweetvalley High books but I never read them - instead I occasionally watched the TV show (although I wasn't that into it). I used to read a couple of Beverly Hills 90120 books and they are actually some of the first books I read in English The books that I feel would fall into the same category and that I myself really loved are Katherine Applegate's Making Waves -books which I just reread. Has anyone else read them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I LOVED both of these book series when I was younger.. I stopped reading BSC before Logan, Shannon, and Abby were in there.. I think I stopped reading RIGHT as Logan was introduced. I only remember because he was the first boy in the BSC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echo Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I was obsessed with The Baby-Sitters Club books for a few years when I was a kid. I think I collected maybe 60 of the books, plus 7 or 8 of the Super Specials. My favorite character was Mary Anne because I was shy like her. My best friend was really into the Sweet Valley High books so I read a few, but after reading one in which a character died after doing drugs, I stopped. I think that was just too heavy for my 10 year-old brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Oh, wow! I never read that Sweet Valley Twins one.. I must have stopped reading before that happened! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I LOVED both of these book series when I was younger.. I stopped reading BSC before Logan, Shannon, and Abby were in there.. I think I stopped reading RIGHT as Logan was introduced. I only remember because he was the first boy in the BSC. I was a huge BSC fan. My childhood reading memories are all about BSC, although I'm sure I read other stuff occasionally. I stopped reading shortly after Abby was introduced. I didn't like her much, and besides, I had far outgrown the series. I still have all my books though! I was obsessed with The Baby-Sitters Club books for a few years when I was a kid. I think I collected maybe 60 of the books, plus 7 or 8 of the Super Specials. My favorite character was Mary Anne because I was shy like her. I'm not sure that I ever had a favourite character, but I was also most like Mary Anne. I just checked on LibraryThing and I have 135 BSC books. 90 regular books, 22 mysteries, 13 super specials, and several miscellaneous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I still have all my books though! I'm not sure that I ever had a favourite character, but I was also most like Mary Anne. I just checked on LibraryThing and I have 135 BSC books. 90 regular books, 22 mysteries, 13 super specials, and several miscellaneous. I wish I still had all those books..I have no idea where they are now. Probably packed up in a box at my parent's house or somewhere. I hope she hasn't thrown them out! I always related most to Stacey, but I loved Mary Ann.. She would cry at the drop of a hat, bless her heart. She was so sweet!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Shouldn't these really be in two seperate threads? Anyway, I loved the Babysitters Club, but didn't like the other series. I didn't really like Mary Anne to be honest, she annoyed me a bit. I liked the more mature ones, including Stacey. I don't remember most of them to be honest... I remember hating the younger girls when they appeared, and I remember loving the description of Claudia's complexion... while hating her for having her own phone line in her room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I used to try to be like Claudia and hide chocolate and candy in my room.. except no one in my family cared that I was eating chocolate or candy so it was fairly useless. My mom offered me chocolate all the time.. hahha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbleprincess Posted May 11, 2009 Author Share Posted May 11, 2009 Yeah sorry about that Roxi. I was writing these and the ideas just popped into my head so I kind of didn't think of where they should be. I liked Claudia, since I could relate to her we're both Asian (except I'm not Korean) but same diff. I like Kristy's attitude though and Dawn was awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I don't remember Dawn very well actually, I'm going to have to go wiki the characters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Dawn was the girl from California that liked tofu.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I just looked them all up. Claudia was always my favourite, and I liked Stacey as I said coz she was 'sophisticated'. I can't believe they were only 13! Who in their right minds would hire 13 year olds to babysit?? 13 year olds NEED babysitting! They should have been about 16!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Yep.. 13 definitely seems like a young age to be taking care of children! I wonder how in the world she picked the ages.. Maybe she thought if they were much older, they wouldn't appeal to the target audience or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I must have been very young, coz 13 seemed really grown up to me then! I don't know really. I still think 16 would have been okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echo Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 (edited) I started babysitting when I was 12, so it didn't seem too young to me. Claudia was also one of my favorites, and I loved her grandmother, Mimi. I was so excited when my parents gave my brother and me our own phone lines when I was about 9...I felt like I was more like Claudia! She was sort of my hero. Kristy annoyed me with her bossiness and Mallory annoyed me with her whining. I thought Stacey and Dawn were cool and I loved that Jessie was a ballerina (I had wanted to be a ballerina when I was young). I ended up giving all my books to BF's little sister (she's 14 years younger than he is), but I kind of miss them. This thread is making me all nostalgic! Edited May 11, 2009 by Echo bad grammar....bad Echo! Bad Echo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I used to try to be like Claudia and hide chocolate and candy in my room.. except no one in my family cared that I was eating chocolate or candy so it was fairly useless. My mom offered me chocolate all the time.. hahha. *snorts with laughter* I seem to recall trying the same thing once! 13 does seem young now, but back then it seemed more of a reasonable age. There were aspects of each character that I liked and that I found annoying. Dawn was pretty cool though. I liked her attitude to things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethany725 Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 *snorts with laughter* I seem to recall trying the same thing once! 13 does seem young now, but back then it seemed more of a reasonable age. There were aspects of each character that I liked and that I found annoying. Dawn was pretty cool though. I liked her attitude to things. 13 did seem so reasonable back then! But I guess, just like any other books, it doesn't really have to match up to real life to be good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catwoman Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I randomly got into Sweet Valley High as there was a book in the series when the girls go to London and elizabeth thinks that Jessica's boyfriend is a Werewolf or soemthing like that, haha. I read a few more after that but I was not a huge fan even though I do remember the show being on during the holidays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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