Comments on: Sweet Valley, Fresh Hell

By: Jayne Mendius

Jayne Mendius — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:15:40 +0000

Great SVH post. You are right on as usual, and shame on those that should know better but are pandering to the worst parts of adolescent female reality. I’m over getting worked up about this shit, and grateful I have a cool nine year old daughter who I can talk about these issues with. You are a jewel, Wendy McClure. Thanks again for your awesome blog.

By: Dana

Dana — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:00:47 +0000

I hated just seeing the updated illustrations in Beverly Cleary’s books. That made me really sad. I grew up with those books, even though they were already outdated by the time I read them, and the illustrations were just as much a part of the books as the text was.

I read AYTG?IMM before I ever got my period and only had a vague understanding of how pads worked so it wasn’t a big deal. Actually, my stepmom had an old sanitary napkin belt she’d kept for God knows how many years (yes, clean) and had given it to me as part of my stash, so I even knew what one looked like. (For reference’s sake, I was born in 1974.) But she hadn’t had a period since 1978 so she was a little behind the times and probably wasn’t completely sure what was available either.

Truth be told, given the current trend of using cloth pads, I think there’s room to bring back the belt too, at least for women who don’t mind pads but hate underwear, or women who have bad luck with the pad moving around due to a lack of adhesive strips on one side.

End digression. Whoa. I never got much into the SVM books anyway, really couldn’t relate to them, but thanks for giving me another reason to never introduce them to my daughter. I think I’ll go for the American Girl books instead.

By: Elizabeth W

Elizabeth W — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:02:07 +0000

Wow- I am disturbed by the re-sizing of Sweet Valley High, and, as you see, catching up to this post late in the game. Your post is both thought-provoking and frankly hilarious. I’ll be linking to it on my blog, if you don’t mind.

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:29:50 +0000

I read every one of those books when I was a kid and I still have a twinge of recognition when I hear someone say they are a size 6…. Changing the “perfect” size to 4 from 6 is ridiculous. Way to implore pre-teens to reach out and embrace their future bulimia, Random house!

By: Lass

Lass — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:07:10 +0000

At that rate, the 2033 version will feature the microscopic Wakefield twins and their excellent adventures in someone’s digestive tract. Gag.

By: Elizabette

Elizabette — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:08:02 +0000

Rock on, girl.

I never liked the Sweet Valley High books– the characters felt about as real as the lost city of Atlantis. I thought they were superficial back in 1990… I’m sure they’ll continue to be superficial in their new and improved 2008 size 4 asses.

Sweet Valley High = Lame

Going from a size 6 to a size 4 = Lamer

Altering literature for the sake of vanity = Lamest

By: Propagatrix

Propagatrix — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:34:27 +0000

A wonderfully sick and twisted NaNoWriMo SVH knockoff can be found here: http://fourminutesolder.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/

Tragically, the first chapter is at the back, and one must read forward from there. But the content is WELL worth the navigation problems.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:19:56 +0000

Wow, Chris always threatens to have a Tarvovsky Fest! How much did your heart rate slow down while watching those films?!!!

By: Fatadelic

Fatadelic — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:59:09 +0000

I just got through the first weekend of Kurosawa Fest, which is the latest installment of this thing my boyfriend does wherein he collects a director’s complete works and then watches them all according to a rigid schedule in a multi-weekend endurance event.

Are you living my life or something? We just had a Tarkovsky Fest. Again.

By: victoria

victoria — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:01:22 +0000

“Of course, it’s a stunningly barfy notion that perfection should be a size at all.” Right on, sister.