The Relaunch of Sweet Valley High

Bantam Books just released the revised 25th Anniversary editions of the first two Sweet Valley High books, Double Love and Secrets. The stories follow the same plots as the original Sweet Valley High books, but the texts have been completely rewritten and modernized. Sound familiar? These "new" books are to the original Sweet Valley books what the revised Nancy Drew books are to the original versions. There are excerpts of the books available on Amazon.com. Click here and here to view the Amazon listings and read the excerpts of the first two books. Volumes 3 and 4 will be released later this year, and excerpts from those books are also available. There is an interesting review of the rewrites in New York Magazine. The reviewer, Sarah Weinman, makes the following statement:

But by bogging the stories down in endless brand names and pop-culture references, Pascal's new-generation ghostwriter team misses the point: Liz & Jess were never meant to be contemporary, never mind middle-class West Coast Gossip Girls. They were bitchier Bobbsey Twins, more glamorous Donna Parkers, Nancy Drews who (usually) didn't solve crimes. By staying quaint they stayed timeless, palatable to legions of fans wanting teenage kitsch with a dollop of earnestness.

I agree totally. The early Sweet Valley High books have a timeless quality about them. On my website, I mention that the Nancy Drew series and the Sweet Valley series have the same target audience—only separated by 50 years. There are many similarities between the original Nancy Drew books and what we must now refer to as the original Sweet Valley High books. Nancy Drew is perfect and so are the Wakefields of Sweet Valley. Nancy Drew and the Wakefields live in a world that revolves around them and are held up as superior to everyone else. Nancy Drew's father is an attorney and so is Mr. Wakefield. Mr. Wakefield is even named Ned.....hmmm. And now we have one more important similarity: the Sweet Valley series must endure the same revisions as did Nancy Drew.

Since I read Sweet Valley High in the mid-1980s, I, of course, do not approve of these new-fangled stories. I read the Amazon.com excerpts with great interest, but it is not my Sweet Valley. It is because of how I feel about Sweet Valley post-volume 35 or so that I recently came to understand how older fans of Nancy Drew feel. I could always accept that they like the original text Nancy Drew books better because those are the ones that they read as children, but I didn't completely understand their feelings. I couldn't understand how the revised Nancy Drew was not at all Nancy Drew. I read the revised text Nancy Drew books, so I like all of them.

Since I can't stand reading the high-numbered Sweet Valley High books simply because it isn't the same as the ones I read (insert temper-tantrum here), I now understand exactly how original text Nancy Drew fans feel. Boy, do I ever understand.