The Return of Childhood

by Rachel Sokol

I love visiting my parents in the NY suburbs for a long weekend because they cook for me, let me sleep late, adore me while I am home, and just as I can't take being back in my childhood bedroom anymore, it's time for me to jump back on the LIRR and head back to NYC. This weekend, when I came back to Strong Island for a family affair, I work up early on Sunday morning and happily poured myself a big bowl of Cheerios (I love 'em soggy!) and sat down in the kitchen for a leisure read of the paper. I always like to read when I'm eating alone, but I couldn't seem to find where my mom stashed the latest copies of People, The Post and Newsday.

Feeling like I was grabbing for straws, I noticed my sister's magazine sitting on a kitchen chair. It was called J-14 and it was one of those teenybopper magazines that I used to read back in the days when YM and Sassy ruled my life. I have no idea who the Jonas Brothers or anyone else in the magazine are, but out of desperation and boredom, I flipped through the glossy. An advertisement caught me eye—It was an ad for Sweet Valley High books. Apparently, after being out of print for years, the books are being updated (from the 80s when they were first published) and reissued.

I stopped chewing my soggy cereal in shock. And dare I confess—a ripple of excitement raced through me. Here I am, in my late 20s, a writer myself, an avid reader of adult books and short stories, and I'm actually kind of excited "Sweet Valley High" is being reissued. I do feel old hearing this new, but to 80s kids such as myself, this is EXCITING.

When I was about 10 or 11, I was obsessed with Sweet Valley High. I was a shy, quiet kid so these books were my escape and my parlay into high school in California. Before Beverly Hills 90210, before Melrose Place, before Sex and the City and the Traveling Pants, there was Sweet Valley High, the book series about two twin sister who navigate through high school together, wrapped up in drama and of course, boys, boys, boys, along the way. It was the book series I jumped to after I outgrew Baby-Sitters Club and books about girls who loved gymnastics. I would inter-splice reading "Sweet Valley" books with RL Stine and Christopher Pike novels. An old babysitter of mine, this super-cool teenager from down the street (Well, when I was 10 and had a babysitter, I think she's super cool because she liked NKOTB and wears hot-pink socks!!!) gave me tons of copies of her Sweet Valley High books. She had outgrown them and thought I'd like them. What she didn't know what that she created a monster. I read those books everywhere, stashing them under my bedroom pillow, inside my mom's glove compartment, and even had the long-discontinued "Sweet Valley High" board game. (If you still have yours somewhere, I will be quite impressed) 

I had the original book copies—the pocket-sized paperbacks with yellowed pages and a small round picture of either Jessica or Elizabeth Wakefield on the front. I had every single copy in the series, up until the main character 'went to college.' I wanted to BE Francine Pascal, the creator of 'Sweet Valley.' I was convinced she had the coolest job on the planet—writing teen soap opera books that pre-pubescent girls like me read constantly.  Kiddie, there was life before the Internet—before Google, Facebook and YouTube. In a life without the Internet, I had two choices in fifth grade---Play the original "Legend of Zelda" on my Nintendo, or read "Sweet Valley High." Naturally, I found greater amusement from Choice B. (I never loved video games)

I'm convinced that in a small way, those books contributed to my love of writing, of characterization in a novel, and of words. Aren't we all products of our childhood?

Eventually, I moved on. Sadly, just as fast as I read through the "Sweet Valley," book series, I abandoned them. I moved on to middle school. I started getting more homework. I didn't feel like sitting in my beanbag chair anymore reading about two twin sisters and their adventures. Basically—I grew up. I redid my bedroom, begged my mom to get rid of my oh-so-80's wallpaper, and put away my Sweet Valley books, replacing them with books I had to read to school, and glossy magazines. Some copies of SVH donated to the local public library. Others I actually passed on to girls I babysat for. I wish I saved some of them for my youngest sister to read. To me, they were an 80's classic. I even vaguely recall the TV show they created based on the book series. SVH was a complete and total fad, and it ended fast. (However, if the TV series is out on DVD, I'll buy it.You think I'm kidding?)

Every once in a while, I will be cleaning out the basement closet in my childhood home or looking for something in a box stashed in a closet no one uses, and I'll come across an old tattered, yellowed copy of a "Sweet Valley" book. I had so many, it doesn't surprise me that they'll still creep up in my life, years later, a lingering memory of a time when I had a cassette tape collection, wore white KEDS, and read "Sweet Valley" high books on a lazy weekend.

So here I am, not far away (at all) from my 30's, and actually happy to hear the books will be reissued and updated—cell phone, perhaps?--for a whole new generation to enjoy. It reminds me of the musical RENT in a way. I was one of the first people, ever, to see that Broadway phenomenon. I knew about the show when it was being workshopped off-Broadway. I was one of the original RENT heads who rushed tickets, memorized every single song, and knew what 'OBC" meant. So when the movie came out, when I looked around the theatre and saw so many teenagers, I almost started crying because I was so happy a younger generation would get to enjoy what I did—even if they couldn't see the actual show, live.

That's how the new "Sweet Valley" feels to me—like an old friend from the 80s resurfacing with a big smile on her face, welcoming you to adulthood, but letting you know she still has pictures from her 7th birthday party, with you in them.