Sweet Valley High #50 Out of Reach, No Place to Hide, and #51 Against the Odds

In Sweet Valley High #50, Out of Reach, Jade Wu wants to try out for the school musical.  Her father has traditional Chinese beliefs and forbids Jade from participating.  Jade auditions and wins the starring role.  She struggles to keep her role a secret until her mother can change her father's mind.

Meanwhile, Jade becomes friendly with David Prentiss.  Jade confides in him how embarrassed she is that her grandparents run a laundry.  When everyone finds out Jade's secret, she is certain that David betrayed her.

Mr. Wakefield is having a mid-life crisis where he wants to be young again.  This subplot is so stupid.



David doesn't get what the big deal is about Jade's grandparents running a laundry.  I wouldn't have understood back then, either.  I never knew most of the main racial stereotypes when I was young, and I never knew about the stereotype about Chinese running laundries until I read the original text Nancy Drew books in the 1990s.  If I had been David, I would have also given Jade a blank stare.

This is a good book.

In Sweet Valley High Super Thriller, No Place to Hide, Liz and Jess continue to work as interns at the newspaper.  The twins invite Nicholas Morrow on a company picnic, and he goes for a hike with Liz.  While hiking, they meet Barbara, a mysterious young woman who lives in an isolated house with a relative.  Liz and Nicholas soon learn that Barbara is in some kind of danger, and they are determined to help her.

I enjoyed this story better than the previous thriller edition, which I did not like.  This story is still not that great.

In Sweet Valley High #51, Against the Odds, Ronnie Edwards has started betting on school sports events, and he has made a lot of money.  Ronnie makes the mistake of not keeping up with payments to his bookie, and Ronnie finds himself in serious trouble.  He wants Jeffrey to fix the results of the soccer championship in order to get himself out of trouble.  A college scout will be watching the soccer game.  Will Jeffrey risk his future in order to help Ronnie?

I enjoyed this book.