Thursday, March 27, 2008

Sweeeeeet Valley Hiiiiiiigh

Everyone who's ever read a Sweet Valley High book is talking about the return of the perfect size-six teens -- now downsized to size FOURS, since apparently size six is now gargantuan. The books are being reissued with some tweaks to "modernize" them.

I don't know about the new covers, either. I already miss the somewhat creepy, already too quaint even when they were released oil painting-style covers.

Related: My book club recently read "Forever" by Judy Blume (no, we are not 12, it was a retro nod to our shared womanly sex-book-stealing-from-big-sis pasts) and I was so disappointed to see that the elegant cover with Katherine's face in the locket had been replaced by a goony cover shot of two pairs of legs on a bed. This article investigates YA book covers throughout the ages. (Via FSHK and other friends.)

2 comments:

Caroline said...

I know! Like there aren't enough books of this sort with Gossip Girls and company we now have the return of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield. I mean, not that I didn't read the first 106 SVH books when I was in my 20s, because I did, but it started with curiousity--I was a bookseller, I wanted to know what it was all about--then it was one of those awful addictions. I just couldn't stop until I got to 105 (106?) when I cut myself off cold turkey. I'm not happy to see them back . .

Talia Felix said...

Also do remember, that women's sizes are screwy and don't have an industry standard... I am told that these days, they like to lie about dress sizes and claim they are smaller than they are to trick women into buying more stuff from their brand, because then the women supposedly think "that's the only brand that makes my size properly!" (or something.)

I think it was actually here on PCJM I learned abut the fiasco of women's dress sizes. When did the Sweet Valley books come out initially? I heard it was the 70s when they dumped the original industry standard developed in the 20s, because by then the average size of women had changed too much.