Our rgz NYC Host, Micol Ostow, recently attended an exclusive event for the forthcoming Francine Pascal book Sweet Valley Confidential. In this novel, the famous Wakefield twins are all grown up. What has happened to Jessica and Elizabeth in the ten years since they graduated from Sweet Valley High? You'll have to read the book - which comes out in March 2011 - to find out.
In the meantime, Micol picked up something to tide you over: a Team Elizabeth T-shirt! She has this picture of the Team Jessica shirt. Both shirts have the same colors and fonts.
Want to win a Team Elizabeth T-shirt? Leave a comment below and tell us why you're on Team Elizabeth!
Those pennants. Those painted covers. That Peach Pit prototype, the Dairi Burger. When visions of sun-kissed, "perfect size six," FIAT-sharing, identical twin beach babes dance in your head, you know you've stumbled upon Sweet Valley.
Today I was invited to attend a "Sweet Valley Summit" of big-time, fangirl bloggers (of which I am proud to name myself). I approached with little idea of what to expect, and was, upon arrival, instantly ushered into the conference room of my wildest YA fantasies.
It's no exaggeration to say that the Sweet Valley series was enormously influential on me. I stumbled on Sweet Valley High as a pre-teen and immediately sank into that fictionalized paradise of adolescent wish-fulfillment. At sleepaway camp, my friends and I composed back cover copy of Sweet Valley storylines we wanted to see. Little did I know I was essentially self-training for my first job out of college, editorial assistant at Simon Pulse. Discovering on my first day at work that I'd have a hand in launching the great Francine Pascal's newest series, Fearless, I realized my life as a reader and writer had come full circle, and I could die happy.
(Though it's better that I'm still here, and still writing.)
I'm not the only one to over-identify with the whitewashed world of SVH. Not by a long shot. Say what you will about anti-feminist messages or ethnic homogeneity (and yes, it's been said, and yes, it's worth repeating), the series aimed to reach readers of "realistic" fiction, and certainly inspired many reluctant readers to libraries and bookshops. It revived -- maybe even reinvented? -- the genre, made it contemporary, and became a cottage industry unto itself. Without Sweet Valley, there'd surely be no Gossip Girl.
*And for all those who decry high-concept, mass-market publishing, I'll repeat my (semi-defensive, I'll admit it) refrain:
These are the books kids buy themselves. These are the books kids want to read.
As for what I want to read, it's simple: I can't wait to get my hands on Sweet Valley Confidential, a sequel, standalone novel coming from St. Martin's in March 2011. Today I sat down with bloggers and pub peeps and talked about how to get the buzz going for this novel, which picks up with the Wakefield twins a full ten years since last we left them.
Jessica and Elizabeth are proper Young Adults.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
How is this my job?
The bloggers I met with were uniformly brilliant, hilarious, and amazingly informed on all things Sweet Valley. Sarah at Smart Bitches, Marissa at Sweet Valley Diaries, Lilit at The Gloss, and Emily at 1Bruce1 are going to knock your Sweet Valley socks off as we count down toward publication. St. Martin's is planning all sorts of online goodness, eventually to be highlighted and linked to at their umbrella site for the book.
And -- oh! -- there will be swag.
Your eyes aren't deceiving you; that's a "Team Jessica" tee in the photo above, and along with it, a swank, bedazzled SVH compact that will keep me as party-perfect as Jessica herself
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