Lately I have been obsessed with reading the wikipedia pages on assorted young adult/children’s series I used to love. (Yes, I know wiki sucks information-wise, but I figure reading about the lore of Sweet Valley doesn’t require accuracy.) I love following the links, too, and I love sweetvalleydiaries.com. I am a Collector and a Re-Reader. My husband desperately wants me to pare down my book collection, which is (mostly) adult fiction now. Part of me wants to go to used book stores and library sales in an effort to rebuild my childhood library, which disappeared over time. (Ahem, mom.) I feel the need to make a huge list of books I used to love. Some of these will be recognizable to most of us who were born circa 1980; others, I only remember basic plot points or even just one scene. If you remember any of these, drop me a line and we can reminisce. Hopefully by taking a prolonged trip down memory lane I can resist the urge to go buy any of these. =)
1. Club. The first one I read was The Ghost at Dawn’s House (#9, if I recall?). My mom just picked it up for me; I was maybe seven or eight. I know I was reading the BSC regularly by the fall of third grade. I think I read up to about #60, and I bought #100 just to have it. I never read the Friends Forever or the series that followed Dawn in CA, but part of me feels like hunting them down. I hear Stacey and Claud had a huge blow up and stopped being friends. Is it sad I wanna know the details? I did have/read The Baby-Sitters Little Sister, which sucked. Karen sucked. I still have BSC#1 and #28, both autographed by Ann herself! I had an autographed BSC-LS, but I think I put it in the Goodwill box one year without thinking. Oh Well.
2. Sweet Valley High and its various incarnations. I started with the Twins when I was maybe 8? I think I read Kids in there too, but like BSC-LS it was too trite for me to keep up with. I started reading SVH in fifth grade. My fave is #60, where Ken Matthews goes blind and the slightly unpopular chick takes care of him, and they have a big blow up where she says “you’re blind if you can’t see I love you!” or something to that effect. Big drama, and oh-so-romantic to 10 year old me. I also looovvveeeddd the drama of the Prom/drunk driving/evil twin 6 book arc. I think it was around the time of my junior prom and even though we knew it was juvenile as hell, my best friend and I LIVED for each new installment to come out. I should also mention I had both the SVH and BSC board games, but my husband convinced me to sell ‘em on Ebay last year.
3. The Sleepover Friends! Lauren, Stephanie, Patty and Kate. I probably remember this so well because I still have the Super Sleepover Guide, which has Kate’s Super Marshmallow Fudge recipe. I think Bullwinkle got out of Lauren’s yard in every book, and in every book they bothered Kate’s doctor father who needed his rest. I can’t really say now why I loved them so much. I know I had a ton of them, though.
4. Peanut Butter and Jilly. Polly “Peanut” was new to town, and she and Jilly do NOT get along at first. They become friends at the end of the first book. I remember basic plots- they baby-sit twins who dump “toilet water” into the toilet. They have a haunted house. I remember PB had an older sister who was a singer, and when PB once said “SO, a long long way to run!” she said “no, that kind is ’sol’”. I still don’t know what that means, but I ponder it sometimes.
5. There was a series about the kids in the second grade. I remember one where there was a purse someone found and they had to figure out whose it was- it ended up belonging to a girl who had fish, there was fish food crumbled in the purse and a note that said “food for angel”. The word Polk comes to mind- Polk Street Kids, maybe? I should google that.
Alas, I have to walk the dogs. I’ll aim to list another five series or books next time!!
We found a great deal at Childrens Book Club and got 5 childrens books for only $2.