I like to search the web for links that lead to my site because I get to read other people's comments about various series books. By finding sites that link to mine, I can read comments from people with whom I would never normally connect. In one such search a few days ago, I found a blog in which someone wrote about Sweet Valley High. The blog is called Idiom Syncrasies, and here are the writer's comments about Sweet Valley High:
We young fans of SVH were in puberty, way over-emotional, and totally unsure of ourselves. We were really starting to be immersed in the flashy, gluttonous, mercenary vibe of 1980s America. All of our parents were getting divorced. Compound that with the trials of being chubby and awkward in middle school or junior high school and the usual young girls' whim of yearning to be someone you weren't, and there you have a target demographic...and there I was, raising my hand and begging for more, more, more!I found a review of the series from a UK website, and a reader made this comment in regards to my Sweet Valley High remarks on my website:I do not expect people who weren't pre-teen girls in the flashy 1980s to understand the obsession with the Sweet Valley High series. But any girl who was born in America in the early-to-mid 70s would understand the sugar-sweet "coolness" that these books provided from 1983 to 1990. God, but I loved them, and collected them long after the obsession had cooled.
Here, a devotee explains why she loves these books - reasons I wouldn't like them - however, she is honest in her portrayal of the appeal . . .What I think others are failing to understand is that my interest in Sweet Valley High is only because of the nostalgia factor. I normally would not like a series like Sweet Valley, either. It is just that the series came at the perfect time in my life; people think differently when they are young preteens. I never read the Girls of Canby High series, which was a rival series to Sweet Valley High. I have picked up a few of the Canby High books here and there, and I read one of them a few years ago. It was okay, but I didn't get much out of it. They are not the type of books that I really like. Sweet Valley High is also not really my type. I am certain that if I had never read Sweet Valley High in the first place that I would never have ever read one of them. I only own the ones that I have because I read them at that certain time in my life.
Those books gave me something that I needed so desperately. Since the books were so important to me, I have never gotten rid of them. I am only interested in the titles from within the range of books that I read in the mid-1980s, up to about volume 35. I dearly love those books, and I have no interest in what came later, as those books do not represent my Sweet Valley. Does that sound familiar, perhaps, to those of you who read Nancy Drew in the original text books? Isn't that the way you feel about Nancy Drew? Since the later Sweet Valley High books are not like the ones I read, I do not own them and have no interest in them.
I am sure that many Sweet Valley High enthusiasts have trouble understanding what I mean, just like I used to have trouble understanding why many Nancy Drew fans only like the original text books. I now understand completely, since I find myself in the same position with respect to another series.
The nostalgia factor is very important, and it plays an important role in which books we like the best. It is no accident that Nancy Drew #21 and #23 are my two least favorite books from the original 56 Nancy Drew books, and #56 is a close third on that list. #21 and #23 were the only two titles which I did not own as a child. I read #23 one time when I checked it out from the library. I never read #21 as a child. The other titles, #1-20, 22, and 24-55 were all read multiple times when I was a child. No wonder I love them so much! I only read partway through #56 as a child. It was about the last one purchased for me, and I was losing interest at that stage. As a result, #56 is also not one that I like as well as the others.
Around the time that I began to quit reading the Sweet Valley High books, Christopher Pike was just becoming a popular author of young adult thrillers. There were just a few of his books published at the time that I read Last Act, and for several years, I eagerly awaited each of his new novels. Those early Christopher Pike books also hold a special place in my heart.
Are there any other series book enthusiasts reading this blog who are my age or younger who read Sweet Valley High or Christopher Pike?
6 comments:
I did read some Sweet Valley and Fear Street books, but my primary series was The Babysitters Club, which is probably even more reprehensible. I still have all ten million stuffed in a closet. They're extremely nostalgic to me, and I'll admit to still reading them on occasion, especially the mysteries.
The more classic series I read as a child were Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. My favorite Nancy Drews were Larkspur Lane and Red Gate Farm, which were some of the first I received (although I'm still not particularly fond of Twisted Candles, which was the very first). I clearly remember curling up with both during thunderstorms, as my idea of the perfect mysterious/scary afternoon.
I have to admit that I care little about the Trixie Belden series beyond the first 15. I had my mother's deluxe editions and didn't read beyond them until fairly recently. The mix of ghostwriters makes them seem inconsistent to me, and I don't like the stagnation of age and relationships that occurs (the inverse of why Judy Bolton is my favorite series that I've discovered as an adult).
The first sixteen Trixie Belden books were the ones I read as a child, and those are the ones that I like the best. I like the first six the best of all. There is something special about the Julie Campbell titles.
I never read the Babysitter's Club books since I was already too old by the time that series began. The series has to be good, since it ran for so long and for so many titles.
It seems like all series books get criticized by people who do not read them, regardless of the generation. Back 100 years ago, series books were said to be ruining children's minds. Libraries avoided shelving the books since they were not considered real literature. The books were hardly bad like adults thought. People always have trouble understanding whatever it is that young people like, so the older generations always criticize the modern books.
"the older generations always criticize the modern books"
Coincidently I actually did my udergraduate senior thesis on teen chick lit novels (think Gossip Girl, The A-List, etc.) and my argument was that while the books are controversial they are not seriously damaging to teens of today, rather a reflection of trends in society at large (a focus on sex and consumerism) which teens would be exposed to anyway through other media outlets.
I grew up reading The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High, etc. As a child, I was also turned onto the revised versions of, first, The Bobbsey Twins and, then, Nancy Drew by my mother who used to read to me outloud from the books she had enjoyed in her own youth. Today I collect vintage girls series books (currently Nancy Drew, Beverly Gray, and Judy Bolton) and I try to stick primarily with the ones published b/t 1930 and 1941 because I enjoy these the most.
Perhaps enjoying a certain series is truly generational. I have never gone back and reread any of my Babysitters Club books or SVH books in recent years but I have definitely hung onto all of them on account of the memories that I associate with them. However I do also enjoy the modern teen books as well for the same sense of voyeurism that all teen series books allow their readers to experience. Even if you didn't actually lead a life similar to that of the serie's protagonist you can still imagine yourself to have done so through the reading of such books.
I loved Sweet Valley High and also Sweet Dreams. I was between the ages 11 and 14 when I read them in the mid 80s. My collection was enormous and I took really good care of them. I really regretted losing them because of the sentimental value but did the right thing in giving them away. When I was 16 my older sister worked in a library in a sort of impoverished part of Sydney. She came up to visit on holidays one time and told me that the library had no teen romance books like Sweet Valley High or Sweet Dreams. Young girls were always going in and asking if there were any Sweet Valley High books and looked really disappointed to be told that there weren't any. Needless to say she returned to Sydney with my entire collection! Thankfully I still have Trixie elden!!
Okay, this post is so old, but I love it!
I was a very, very young reader of SVH books, I started reading them in first grade because my older sisters had them. They definitely screwed me up as far as the image of high school went. Actual high school was SUCH a letdown compared to the glamour of SVH.
I only occasionally revisit the SVH books, but my perspective is so different that it's only nostalgia that allows me to enjoy them because they are just so over the top.
I did read Christopher Pike books too, I turned my whole grade school class onto those after again finding them through my older sister. I can still enjoy most of them, but some of them have such dark plots that I'm amazed I read them at such a young age (thinking specifically of a plot with an abortion and like a doomsday sort of plot where they can't escape the city they're in?? Can't recall the name, but that book would scare me NOW, so not a kid's book!)
Oh, the real thing that compelled me to reply to this...The Girls of Canby Hall!! THAT was the series that I wanted to inhabit as a kid. I only owned 3 of them, I read a few from the library, but I was dying to read more.
I finally got the whole series on ebay in my 20's and I still love them (the original girls, not the crappy "Saved By the Bell New Class" kind of thing they pulled halfway thru where the original girls graduated and a totally inferior set moved in.
Anyway, I don't know how this blog works so no one may even see this comment, but I just loved the original post too much not to put my two cents in too!
Hi, I'm a 11-years-old Chinese passerby-girl & I just LOOOOOOVE Sweet Valley High! I read your other website http://www.series-books.com/svh/svh.html which helped me a lot with my searching (it's hard to find one here in Hong Kong, China) since this series is quite a history.
I brought my first book at a book fair, Sweet Valley High: Crush Landing! It was the most romantic book I ever read, or even will be. I like it more then I remember myself loving pink when I was six.
I'm grad I grad to know these wonderful girls. I shares these books with my friends and hope to read them to my children, grandchildren and other little kids in the future.
Beside SVH, I also read the Baby-Sitters Club, Nancy Drew mysteries etc.
Anyway, thanks!
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