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Troves & Tales

Getting high on Sweet Valley

A couple California girls attract fans for 40+ years.

In my pre-teen youth, I collected a few books series. Between The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins, you could hardly find me not reading. I think I also read a few Sweet Valley High books, although my enthusiasm for that kind of fiction waned as I got older.

Sweet Valley was the brainchild of creator Francine Pascal, who recently passed away at age 92. An author writing for soap operas in the 1960s and with a few books under her belt, Pascal leveraged a team of ghostwriters to bring the various Sweet Valley stories to life.

I can remember feeling completely wrapped up in the lives of identical twins, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, and their junior high adventures. I rooted for Elizabeth more often than Jessica, relating to Elizabeth’s love of books and her more down-to-earthiness. But I also loved living “wildly” through Jessica, jealously rolling my eyes at her shenanigans.

Sweet Valley High alone had close to 200 books, and it lived longer through spin-off series and television shows that captured the twins from second grade to age thirty-something.

Thousands of fans, old and new, actively discuss all things Sweet Valley in Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and other forums. Topics range from the casual “does anyone remember this book?” to the more serious debate of how controversial the stories are. Some even wonder if Jessica is a sociopath. Yikes!

A few folks have channeled their Sweet Valley fandom into regular podcasts:

• Sweet Valley Diaries is a “blogging obsession” turned weekly podcast that revisits the Sweet Valley series through lively interviews with new readers. It covers 60+ books and include links to other SVH fanfare.

• Sweet Valley Hive similarly brings together a series newbie with a self-proclaimed superfan to analyze plots, characters, and even the fashion! “From school dances to amnesia to hysterical paralysis, we’ll cover the trials and tribulations of America’s most troubled and triumphant twins.”

• In Double Love, podcast hosts discuss both the books and the television shows. The creators even share a link to the spreadsheet version of their SVH collection, in case you want to contribute any missing book.

I’m now curious what my mom did with my Sweet Valley and Babysitters’ Club collections. I suspect she passed them on to a family member or friend who had kids getting into those kinds of books. And it was likely back when I was adamant about not having kiddos of my own and didn’t see a need to keep them.

Bummer. It’d be cool to reread them with my daughter, and see which Wakefield character she prefers. Sounds like a good reason to rebuild that collection anew to find out!

Polling Place

Which vintage fictional character are you?

Tell us who you relate to in this select field.

In 2014, Buzzfeed asked “Which Sweet Valley High character are you?” Their poll is no longer live, so we created our own!

Cast your vote. You can leave additional feedback after you make a selection..

The Bookstore

Drawing a win of a find.

Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book makes my day, if not my world.

Today on a whim, my husband and I stopped in to a Half Price Books. No agenda, no need — just a desire to end our day doing what we love to do: be together, around books.

I wondered into the Collectibles section, where a small little hardcover sat humbly on a shelf. I passed it by, but then paused, turned, and picked it up. Something told me something interesting was in there. And it was right!

The cover itself was enough to attract me — simple, authentic drawings in just a handful of solid colors. A few page flips and I was in awe.

Here was Ed Emberley’s hand-drawn instructions on how to draw just about anything. Shape by shape. Stroke by stroke. Put them together on a page and “make a world”.

No paragraphs of pretext. No rationale. No embellishment.

It was so simple. And so beautiful.

Below are photos I took of this little drawing book from 1972, that I, of course, came home with.

Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: Make a World

Ed Emberley has published over 100 titles across his 60+ year career and his work has been featured in museums. You can get your copy of his books here and learn more about Emberley here.

The Library

High five for #5.

5 vintage titles worthy of a hand-raise.

As we noted, this issue is our 5th since launching Curio Road earlier this summer. Woo-hoo!!!!! So we wondered, what vintage books might be out there with some version of “high five” in their titles?

We found several reads that cover a range of topics. In full transparency, we haven’t read any of these selections. But like any diehard booklover, we have added them to our wish lists. From kids books to textbooks to fiction, we present our “high five” collection:

1. City High Five

William Heuman | Dodd, Mead & Company, 1964

City High Five seems to be a hidden literary gem. It has just two ratings on Amazon, one on Goodreads. But the comments on each shed light to the impact of Heuman’s writing, crediting City High Five as a “solid juvenile sports story” and “the first book I ever read on my own 50 years ago”.

The story follows new friends and basketball teammates, Mike Harrigan and Pedro Martinez, as they navigate high school, and was followed by City High Champions in 1969.

Heuman wrote on a strict schedule, five hours a day, in addition to his office clerk job. Passionate about sports, he was also a collector of antique weapons.

2. Hi-Fives: A Trip to Semiotics

Roberta Kevelson | Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 1998

Before discovering this book, at least one of us Roadies had never heard of the term “semiotics” — the systematic study of sign processes that make and communicate meaning. It’s akin to linguistics but also includes non-linguistic conveyors of meaning such as indication, designation, and signification.

Aimed at a niche audience, Hi-Fives introduces newcomers to both the theory and practice of semiotics’ with topics that cover areas like psychology, media, religion, anthropology, architecture, and history.

Kevelson was an admired semiotician, academic, and pioneer. She received her PhD from Brown University in her late 40s, she taught at Yale, Penn State, and William & Mary, and she invented the concept of “legal semiotics” still applied today.

3. High Five: A Stephanie Plum Novel

Janet Evanovich | St. Martin's Press, 1999

My favorite part about newsletter (or any) research is the unexpected discoveries that come with unraveling a thread. And did I find a good one in learning about High Five, Evanovich’s fifth book in her Stephanie Plum series.

In High Five, we get to know more of Stephanie’s influential, crime-connected family and her growing entanglement with Ranger the bounty hunter.

Notable for me were the many Goodreads comments mentioning “Grandma Mazur”, as early as 2007, most recently in 2024. Gina shares, “I can't imagine what my life would be like if I had someone like Grandma Mazur as part of my family.” Well, I DID have a “Grandma Mazur” in my family, and my mom is a “Grandma Mazur” now! Who knew?!?!

Readers find the series funny, full of “LOL moments.” Like a nostalgic “blast from my past,” some describe it as “completely out of date, …more endearing because of that fact.” Sounds up my alley. Grandma Mazur, here I come!

4. Five Miles High: The Story of an Attack on the Second Highest Mountain in the World by the Members of the First American Karakoram Expedition

Bates, Burdsall, House, Houston, M.D., Petzoldt, Streatfeild
Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939

In the late 1930s, experienced mountain climbers respected the Himalayan K2 peak from a distance. More remote than Mount Everest and more than 28,000 feet high, K2 was deemed “impregnable” by fellow expeditionist, Italy’s Duke of Abruzzi. But that didn’t stop a few brave American adventure-seekers to sail for India and ascend the majestic giant.

Five Miles High is the mountaineers’ first-hand account of the unbelievable climb, and includes vivid, enthusiastic detail. According to the American Alpine Club, it’s “the first account ever published of an expedition which has encountered difficult rock climbing at excessive altitudes.” These climbers lived “for twenty- three days above 16,000 ft. on the face of K2, sleeping in the tiny tents secured in place by pitons and rickety foundations of loose rock”. Holy rock-a-moly.

We don’t know how many copies were printed, but several online booksellers offer vintage editions of Five Miles High for $85 to near $600 a copy. Seems to be highly collectible!

5. High Five & High Hopes: Favorite Talks Especially for Youth

Ron Hills, Various Authors | Shadow Mountain, 1990

Considered the largest church-oriented summer camp, Especially For Youth (EFY) brings together teenagers for a week to focus on fellowship and learning the Latter-day Saints principles. It launched in 1976 with 172 attendees, and now hosts over 50,000 youth annually, all over the world.

High Five & High Hopes is a collection of talks presented by EFY speakers who offered teens ways to “enjoy life and live the gospel, even amid the problems and pressure of today's world.” Storytellers included Scott Anderson, Vivian Cline, Kim M. Peterson, John Bytheway, and others.

Don’t know if this Ebay seller attended the camp, but she’s fondly offering up her personal copy for a mere $5.

Honorable Mention

High 5ive: An Anthology of Short Stories from Ten Years of Five Points

Megan Sexton | Avalon Publishing, 2006

While this High 5ive anthology is not technically old enough to be considered vintage, it is a collection of short stories first published in the literary journal, Five Points. Launched in 1998 by Georgia State University's Department of English and Creative Writing Program, the award-winning Five Points journal has featured Ha Jin, Alice Hoffman, Robert Olen Butler, Madison Smartt Bell, and others. High 5ive commemorates the journal’s 10th anniversary.

Off Road

This week’s finds:

• Opened in 2024, Vintage & Modern Books in Racine, Wisconsin offers a variety of old and new reads in a charming atmosphere with all the vintage feels. Visit their downtown location or shop online.

  

• Learn about the history and evolution of the Guinness Book of World Records with this timeline we found on their official site. The book was first published in 1955 and sold a million copies by 1964. Ten years later it was the “biggest-selling copyright book in history with sales to date” near 24 million. Guinness World Records 2000 would break records again at the turn of the millennium.

  

• Meet Ken Sanders — rare book afficionado, Antiques Roadshow appraiser, and stolen book sleuth. In this 2009 interview, Sanders discusses his lifelong passion for rare books, why he began collecting the work of Western writers, and how he tracked down legendary book thief, John Gilkey. Check out his website and Utah storefront for all things rare and vintage books.

  

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