Sweet Valley Kids - Elizabeth the Tattletale
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Sorry if this doesn’t post properly, I’ve never done this & maybe I’m stupid but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to post :P The picture, if it works, is tiny, sorry about that. I hope you guys enjoy this, everyone who writes on here is really funny & I'm really not, but I'll see how I go :P
I am writing this while at work, which is naughty of me & I wish I had more discipline, but I don’t. So here we go! This book involves one of the first ever conflicts, I believe, between Lizzy & Toddles. Although I’m pretty sure there was another book before this in the SVK series where they went skiing together & Liz was cut because Todd ignored her?? I love these SVK books, they remind me of my childhood, which is quite sad, but anyway.
The cover shows Elizabeth looking shocked & scared at something, which I assume is meant to be Ken passing Todd a note behind her. However she’s actually not looking behind her, it looks like she’s looking at something across the room. Maybe someone needs a shoulder pat… Todd is kinda cute for a 7 year old & Ken has an awful haircut. Also, Liz is wearing an ugly shirt.
The book starts with Elizabeth complaining about fractions & saying they stink, which seems a little unlike her, but the twins seem to have a lot of different character traits than we would have thought, like Jessica laughing at Liz’s complaining & saying ‘But we don’t stink at figuring them out’.
If this were an SVT or SVH book, each twin would have said the opposite sentence. But as we find out, as well as them looking alike etc, Liz has no problem playing soccer in the mud & Jess keeps her clothes clean. Lies… but then I have an ex-boyfriend who was apparently obsessed with keeping his clothes neat & ironed as a kid & then at 19 had no problem throwing them all over my room/bathroom/laundry when he came over. So I guess we’ll allow that kids can change.
This first chapter is really boring, they all do some fractions & Liz finishes 20 minutes before everyone else. She gets to read “Bunnies at the Beach”, which sounds like something I would have enjoyed reading at that age. On a completely different subject, I used to have a dark green book with stories about a bunny & her friends, involving Queen Anne’s Lace & other strange things. Has anyone heard of that?
Anyway… Mrs. Otis asks Elizabeth to help Todd with his fractions. She says she would have asked Ken to help him, but he was absent.
“Ken Matthews sat next to Todd & understood fractions well. But Todd wasn’t having an easy time of it. Especially on his own”.
Todd never has an easy time with anything on his own. Todd complains that he hates fractions. Why don’t you just punch them, Todd?
Liz helps him & all is well with the world.
Chapter 2, Lila asks Jess & Ellen to meet her by the big wall in their playground, which is creepy but where you go to tell secrets. Lila is all mysterious & tells them she got something & to guess what it is. Jessica suggests bad breath which Ellen finds pretty funny but of course Lila doesn’t. It turns out they sent away for a couple of jokes a few months back & they have arrived. Caroline Pearce shows up & wants to know what they’re talking about. I never liked Caroline for obvious reasons, but she’s extra annoying in this book. Lila & Jessica tell Caroline she can’t keep a secret & they’re not telling her. Jessica tell her to go away, she refuses, they run away from her. Mean, but I can’t really say I blame them. They get into a footy-style huddle & decide they’re going to play their first joke on Andy Franklin, because they wanted someone who would get angry & embarrassed by their joke & turn purple. Who turns purple? I know you can turn blue, red & green, has anyone ever seen anyone turn purple? Come to think of it, I’ve never seen anyone turn green either.
Anyone they end their huddle & turn around to find Caroline standing right next to them. “Told you this was a free playground. And now I know you’re going to do something to Andy,” Caroline said, wagging a finger at them. “You’d better tell me what it is”. Is this Caroline’s way of trying to get in on things & make friends? No wonder I don’t like her. They end up telling her what they’re planning & hope she won’t tell.
The next chapter is pretty boring, they have their fractions test & Liz sees Ken passing notes to Todd & realizes he is cheating. She gets all up on her high horse, which isn’t surprising, because although we all know Elizabeth Wakefield cheats on her boyfriends every chance she gets, anyone else cheating in any way is wrong. I find it funny that this whole book is about Elizabeth getting angry at Todd for cheating, even though it’s only on a math test. Liz tells Jess what she saw, they do the we’re-so-close-and-best-friends-forever heart crossing finger snap thing & then see Caroline a few feet away. The chapter ends, “She was tying her shoe…”. Oooh this next chapter will be good!
Or not. The next chapter begins with Lila, Ellen & Jessica planning their trick with Caroline giving them evil looks from the table in front. I’m guessing after they told her the trick they were planning she told them not to do it. In probably the first time in SV history, Jessica gets an A on a test & Liz gets a B. But of course Liz only got a B because she was so worried about Todd that she made mistakes on the last questions. Not because she might not know something. The twins spy on Ken & Todd & see that their tests are identical.
The joke turns out to be fake vomit ( I know they’re only seven, but really, I expected better from Lila at least), which Jess drops next to Andy’s chair. Winston (I love him) notices before Andy & starts yelling at the teacher that the room will smell in a few seconds. Everyone else is yelling “Gross!” & “Yuck!”
I know these kids are in second grade, but you’d think even they’d have cottoned on to the fact that they probably would have noticed if Andy was really throwing up. Andy says he didn’t do it & then stands on his chair for some reason. Caroline pushes through everyone & tells them it’s a joke. She tells Andy he can come down from his chair & he tells her to grow up & says it was a good joke. Even Mrs. Otis laughs & Jessica is relieved they don’t get in trouble.
Elizabeth accosts Todd at lunch & tells him she saw him cheating. He denies it, then admits it, saying cheating is easy & he wishes he’d done it before. Don’t worry Todd, you’ll be able to do it plenty in the future. So will Liz, Jessica & Winston. Not Ken though. I wonder why Ken is cool in these books, then a short loser in SVT, then a hot football player in SVH?
Anyway, Todd tells Elizabeth how he is planning to cheat in the spelling bee, by writing the words on a tiny piece of paper. I don’t know what good that will do him, but we’ll see. He says if Mrs. Otis comes by he will eat the paper. Yum. Elizabeth gets angry & Todd tells her he & Ken aren’t goody-two shoes, like some people. “I am not a goody two-shoes and you know it,” Elizabeth says. We do?
Elizabeth stomps away. Later they have a spelling quiz & Todd brags to her that he got 100% while she only got 85%. There’s really no point in bragging about it to someone who knows you cheated, Todd.
Mrs. Otis announces that whoever wins the spelling bee will win 3 tickets to a soccer game. Liz is all excited & so is her friend Eva. They talk about how they will all study, except Jessica, who is a champion speller & doesn’t need to. Right. All the rest is boring, on to the spelling bee. Elizabeth spells sentence wrong, only of course, because she was distracted by Todd’s cheating. It comes down to Jessica & Todd, Jessica spells professor wrong, Todd spells it right & wins. Elizabeth puts her hand up to tell Mrs. Otis, but chickens out. She then writes a note to Todd saying ‘YOU BETTER STOP - BEFORE YOU GET CAUGHT’.
“Todd read the note. Then he stared hard at Elizabeth & ripped the note into tiny pieces.” I’m surprised he didn’t eat it. Seven year old Todd is a little creepy.
The 3 pranksters put a rubber frog into Caroline’s cubby hole. I love frogs, I’d be happy if I was her. But no, she screams & stomps her feet & tells the teacher to make them stop. Stop what, the frog was already there.
Lila & Jessica start to pass notes & Mrs. Otis heads towards them. Jessica hides the note but it turns out she is headed to Todd. He is copying Ken’s homework. She takes the homework & tells Todd that copying someone else is no way to learn. Todd protests that he got a B on his last test. Jessica can’t believe he’s bragging about a grade he got by cheating. I can’t either, the kid has some nerve.
Mrs. Otis tells Todd it was a big improvement & that she noticed he & Ken had identical papers. Why didn’t she bring this up after the test? Todd admits he did cheat & he has to take the test the next day. He & Ken get sent to the principals office. Todd comes back crying. The only times Todd ever cries involve cheating. Except when his girlfriend passes away in SVU, that is quite sad. Of course, he cheated on her with Liz before she passed away.
Mrs. Otis leaves the room & Todd yells at Elizabeth for telling the teacher he cheated. She swears she didn’t tell. Todd says from now on he doesn’t want to talk to her. Elizabeth then yells at Jessica for telling. Jessica swears she didn’t. Now Elizabeth isn’t talking to Jessica & I can’t believe all the work I didn’t do today for this.
Jessica passes a note to Lila & Ellen, saying it was Caroline who told. They all go over to her desk & yell at her. She says she didn’t tell either. Ellen tells her they’re never talking to her again. I’d be happy about that, they’re always mean to her. So no-on e is talking to anyone & Caroline cries. Mrs. Otis comes back & asks why Caroline is crying. She then asks Ken why he is frowning. I don’t know about anyone else, but who frowns when they’re angry? It takes an effort to frown & to hold it enough for someone to notice. Hehe I was just making frowning faces & a guy walked past the office & saw me. Anyway…
Mrs. Otis tells them no-one told on anyone & that you don’t become a teacher by being stupid. Everyone is happy again & Jessica gets the soccer tickets because Todd cheated & she came second. Everybody laughs. The end. Then we get a set-up for the next book, “Lila’s April Fool”. I used to love that one. If anybody has it, please re-cap :)
Sorry if this was lame, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Good on you to everyone who does these & makes my work days so much more interesting :)