Sweet Valley High

Sweet Valley High is a young adult book series created by Francine Pascal and written by several ghostwriters, revolving around the lives of Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, beautiful blond twins who live in fictitious Sweet Valley, California. The series began with the book Double Love, which was published in 1984, and finished with the book Aftershock in 1998. The Sweet Valley High series contained over 150 books and spawned several spin-off series.

Structure of the books

Originally, the books centred solely on the lives of the Wakefield twins. At the series progressed, there was more focus on other characters in the Sweet Valley universe, although every book contained at least a subplot relating to Elizabeth or Jessica.

As well as the regular books, the series also contained several Mystery and Super Editions. Most of these occurred outside the Sweet Valley High mainframe, with the events contained within bearing little significance to the main books.

After the magna edition A Night to Remember the series was reformatted to contain a succession of story arcs which usually took place over three books, eg the Cheerleading Miniseries contained Jessica Quits the Squad, The Pom Pom Wars and V For Victory.

Main characters

Elizabeth Wakefield is the eldest twin, having been born four mintues before her "little sister" Jessica. Elizabeth enjoys reading and writing, and hopes to become a journalist someday. She writes the weekly gossip column, "Eyes and Ears," for the Sweet Valley High newspaper, "The Oracle." Elizabeth is popluar and well-liked. Her best friend is Enid Rollins.

Jessica Wakefield, on the other hand, is superficial, self-absorbed and flirty. Her interests change from minute to minute and she loves being up to date on the latest fashions and music. She often gets herself into sticky situations, relying on Elizabeth to bail her out.

Recurring Characters

*Ned and Alice Wakefield, the twins' parents
*Steven Wakefield, the twins' older brother
*Todd Wilkins, Elizabeth's on/off boyfriend. A star of the basketball team, Todd is tall with dark hair and eyes.
*Enid Rollins, Elizabeth's best friend. Shy and soft-spoken, Enid has curly brown hair and soft brown eyes.
*Lila Fowler, Jessica's best friend. Lila is spoiled, selfish, and very rich. She has long light brown hair and brown eyes. Her father does not spend enough time with Lila as she would like.
*Winston Egbert, the class clown
*Ken Matthews, the quarterback
*Roger Barrett Patman, originally a poor student who is revealled to be Bruce Patmans cousin
*Annie Whitman, a sophomore cheerleader
*Olivia Davidson, a friend of Liz's
*Caroline Pierce, the school gossip
*Penny Ayala, editor in chief of the school newspaper
*Tom McKay,
*Lois Waller, daughter of the school dietician, Lois is overweight and shy
*Jeannie West, a cheerleader and Tom's ex girlfriend, dates Scott later
*Sandra Bacon, Jeannie's best friend
*Bruce Patman, a rich, handsome senior
*Robin Wilson, cheerleading co-captain
*Aaron Dallas, a soccer player
*Roger Collins, school newspaper staff advisor and popular English teacher
*Nora Dalton, a popular French teacher
*Maria Santelli, a cheerleader and girlfriend of Winston
*Dana Larson, lead singer for The Droids
*Guy Chesney, played keyboards for The Droids
*Emily Mayer, drummer for The Droids
*Max Dellon, lead guitarist for The Droids
*Dan Scott, bass guitarist for The Droids
*Bill Chase, a surfer
*DeeDee Gordon, Bill's girlfriend
*Rick Andover, resident bad boy

Other Characters

*Cara Walker, one of Jessica's closest friends
*Amy Sutton, another close friend of Jessica's
*Jeffrey French, Elizabeth's ex-boyfriend
*Regina Morrow, a friend of Elizabeth's
*Nicholas Morrow, Regina's older brother
*John Pfeifer, Jennifer's boyfriend and sports editor for The Oracle
*Suzanne Devlin, Todd's only serious girlfriend while he lives in Vermont
*Abbie Richardson, works on The Oracle with Liz
*AJ Morgan, Jessica's first serious boyfriend
*Sam Woodruff, Jessica's boyfriend who is killed in a car crash
*Heather Malone, Jessica's biggest rival
*Shelley Novak, a basketball player who dates Jim
*Christian Gorman, Jessica's boyfriend
*Devon Whitelaw, dates Elizabeth briefly towards the end of the series
*Jennifer Mitchell, John's ex-girlfriend

Spin-off Series

Sweet Valley Kids

The twins as seven year old second-graders at Sweet Valley Elementary School. The series included several Special Editions and "Super Snooper" mysery books.

Sweet Valley Twins

(aka Sweet Valley Twins and Friends)
The twins as twelve year old sixth-graders at Sweet Valley Middle School. This was the first spin-off to originate from SVH, and was written entirely by Jamie Suzzane.

Team Sweet Valley

A two part deviation from the Sweet Valley Twins series, which sees SVMS compete in the California games, Jessica as a gymnast and Elizabeth as part of the beach volley ball team.

The Unicorn Club

The twins as seventh-graders at Sweet Valley Middle School. The series centers around the exclusive Unicorn Club from Sweet Valley Twins and Friends.

Sweet Valley Junior High

The twins as eighth-graders. This series saw Jessica and Elizabeth attend a new school after the rezoning of the Sweet Valley school area.

Sweet Valley Senior Year

* See Sweet Valley Senior Year

Sweet Valley University

* See Sweet Valley University

Elizabeth

Chronological, the final chapter in the series and the only spin-off that did not feature Jessica directly. Continues from the plot that occurred at the end of Sweet Valley University; Elizabeth flees to London, intending to continue her university studies, but ends up working as a scullery maid. The series contained six books.

TV Show

See Sweet Valley High (TV Series)

A TV series based on Sweet Valley High ran for 88 episodes between 1994 and 1997. It starred real-life twins Brittany and Cynthia Daniel as Jessica and Elizabeth respectively.

Criticisms

The Sweet Valley series has often been criticized for its unrealistic portrayal of teenagers (although this was somewhat rectified in the Senior Year series), and its outlandish plots, especially within the original Sweet Valley High series. Some exotic examples include:
*The twins battling a werewolf in London,
*Margo, a psychotic young woman, and later, her own twin sister Nora, attempting to murder Elizabeth and Jessica in a diabolical scheme to 'replace' them,
*A former classmate of Alice Wakefield's luring them to a beauty spa with the intention of stealing Alice's face via a "face transplant",
*Elizabeth and a Parisian prince falling in love.

Pop Culture References

* The Simpsons episode, "Homer the Moe,": After Homer tells his friends a bizarre story, Moe replies, "That is the stupidest story I ever heard, and I read the entire 'Sweet Valley High' series".
* Veronica Mars episode 1.14 "Mars vs. Mars": After a student tells Veronica that their teacher seduced her, Veronica replies by saying, "Yeah, I have that same Sweet Valley High Book." (see Suzanne Devlin)

External links

*Sweet Valley site
*Sweet Valley LiveJournal
*Sweet Valley Slam Book - a humourous overview of the parent series
* Sweet Valley Unlimited - Your Source to Everything Sweet Valley