It started out like any ordinary day. Ate oatmeal with sliced almonds. Went for a run. Spent some time with my work in progress. Went to the mailbox to get the mail. Flipped through the latest issue of one of my favorite magazines.
And that’s when I saw it: The most wonderful, jaw-dropping, month-changing news. On March 29, 2011, a modern-day spin-off of Sweet Valley High called Sweet Valley Confidential will hit bookshelves.
I may have attempted a cheerleader-style celebratory jump. (Attempted being the operative word.)
But really, hearing the news was like reading that a long lost friend was coming back to town. Or that my favorite discontinued nail polish color was back by popular demand. I immediately marked the release date on my calendar, looked up the books on Amazon, and took a walk down memory lane that brought a smile to my face.
My relationship with Sweet Valley High started in fourth grade. A girl in love with books, I politely obliged when my teacher assigned Island of the Blue Dolphins, but ran to the library during recess and stuffed my backpack with as many installments of the Sweet Valley High series as the librarian would let me take. Elizabeth and Jessica were my friends—girls I looked forward to spending time with, girls I learned from.
They were some of the first influences on me as a reader, and in a lot of ways, some of the first influences on me as a writer. After all, I’m still the girl who politely reads Kafka and then fills her Amazon cart with stories described as “fun,” “frothy,” and “funny.”
I guess I’m not too far from that fourth grade girl. And I guess I kind of like it.
So tell me: What books filled your backpack way back when? I’d love to know.
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3 comments:
I also loved the Sweet Valley High series as a girl. That's probably why I read a lot of the books I do. I love the sweet LDS romances that are out right now. I've enjoyed Josi Kilpacks culinary mysteries. I just recently read Tale of Two Cities and while I did enjoy it when I finally got into it, it took a long time for me to get into it and a lot longer to read the book than a lot of others have taken me!
This is super exciting. I wonder who they will be aged toward. I loved Sweet Valley Twins too, and I always wish they would come out with a new version of these ones for my daughter.
I remember liking the Nancy Drew mysteries. :)
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