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I don't think my last recap was very snarkable & also i really stupidly could not figure out how to put it behind an LJ cut, even with several people's help (permission to delete! If this one doesn't work, feel free to delete as well & I'll try to sort it out), but i was at an awesome charity shop down the road the other day & found this one: Lois & the Sleepover. I never had this one as a kid & was a bit dissapointed that there were none I have read, to bring back the memories but oh well!
The twins look incredibly weird on the cover & remind me a lot of Kira from The Dark Crystal. They are also smiling happily at something completely behind Lois. Probably a mirror. Lois looks adorable & sad. And not at all like the 'chubby' Lois we always hear about. (It just occured to me, whenever there is a storyline in SVT or especially SVH regarding an overweight person, that person is NEVER on the cover of the book. God forbid we taint our eyes with the imperfect size 8's!)
Anyway, with the amount of detail, it looks like Lois was drawn by one person & the twins by another.
The book starts with the twins having a contest to see who can ride their bike to the park the slowest. I'm pretty sure I tried that back in the day, it's really hard. It's an extremely hot day, so they don't want to hurry. Not a magically sunny day with a gentle breeze & the smell of the Pacific Ocean in the air? Huh.
Twins the same, blah blah. Liz wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up? Liz wins the 'race' & the twins go sit in the shade with Lois, who is described as chubby & someone who cries a lot. Elizabeth thinks she had grown up a lot in the past few months. Who thinks that about their friends when they are seven? I don't think I even knew what it meant to grow up when i was 7 & I definitely didn't have the frame of mind to notice a person changing over a matter of months. Amy comes over to the twins & Lois. She is eating a popsicle, which she offer to the twins & Lois.
'Amy held out the popsicle. Elizabeth took a big lick. Jessic took a big bite'.
Hehe. Notice the difference.
And ew! I may not have been the brightest seven year old, but I knew enough not to share 'icypoles', (as we say in Perth). Lois then says her mum won't let her share food (the one good parent in all of SV!). Amy says it's ok, she's not sick or anything (wait about 9 years Amy, you'll be contracting all sorts of things then), but it turns out that Lois's mum thinks red food colouring is bad for you. Um, ok. Can anyone confirm this? I get the no artificial colours, flavours thing, but it seems odd.
Amy invites Lois & the twins to the movies that evening. The twins say yes but Lois says her mum won't let her because they are meant to be seeing it together that weekend. Elizabeth says Lois' mum has gotten really strict over the Summer & Lois says it's just because she loves her. Lois is kind of a pushover, but really sweet.
"My parents love Elizabeth and me," Jessica blurted out. "But they still let us do stuff".
Oh Jess. No they don't. Also, I don't think it's a matter of them 'letting you' as it is so much them not giving a crap what you do.
The girls then discuss a show called "Everybody Owns a Camcorder". I don't need to tell you what that's an incredibly lame rip off of.
Amy & the twins love the show, but Lois has never seen it, because she's not allowed.
Todd runs up to the girls & yells "Hi!" Smooth. He asks if they want to play softball & Liz says "All four of us want to play", even though Jess was the only one who said yes. Well Lois & Amy, looks like you're playing softball.
Todd is iffy about Lois playing because she's crap, but says ok because they have uneven numbers. Lois is all freaked out & scared of the ball until she tags Winston (hee!) out in a double play & then suddenly everyone likes her. What is it with these kids & Lois, everyone is all mean to her & ignore her till she does something cool & then they're all her best friends until it wears off & she does her next cool thing. It happens in SVT as well.
Lois then has to leave because she's going out with her mother. All the kids think it's weird that Lois watched a video with her mother the night before, then is going out for dinner with her that night, then is going to the movies with her the next night. Jessica mutters that 'only babies spend that much time with their mother'.
Um, Jess, Lois is seven years old, as are you. What do you want her to be doing instead? Not to mention that Lois & her mum are the only two people living in their house, if Lois wasn't with her mum all these times, she'd be with a baby-sitter anyway. I think Lois' mum sounds fun!
Anyway, while the others are busy making plans to go off to the Beach Disco on their own later & then to a rave at Lila's & trying to figure out where they can get cheap pills, Lois explains that her mum is sad lately because her Lois' grandmother just died. Jessica & Liz exchange sad looks. And then comes the best part of the book:
"Elizabeth thought about her own grandparents. All four of them were still alive and she liked it that way".
Aww, why? There's nothing like a masochistic seven year old who wishes for her grandparents' deaths!
Liz says that's too bad (Yeah, sure is. Tough break, Lois) & that Lois must be sad. Lois leaves & the kids speak about how Lois' father died when she was four.
Jessica shivered. "I wish nobody ever had to die". Sorry Jess. There will come a time when every guy you look at dies. Sorry, no. Only the gorgeous ones, who you fall in love with & who fall in love with you & who you are destined to be with forever. Ok yeah, so all of them.
Later, the twins are at their house, sleeping in the den with the air con, because of the heat. They talk about how sleeping outside would be cooler & then decide to have a campout & invite all their girlfriends. Jessica doesn't want to invite Lois, but Liz convinces her & Jessica decides it will be ok since Lila & Ellen are both on holiday & won't be there. So they won't make fun of her? It doesn't specify why them not being there will make it ok.
Also, there's a weird subplot about Amy having found a random bird in her backyard the week before. She & her parents stuffed it in a cage & have been trying to feed it seeds & now the she seems sick. GEE, I WONDER WHAT COULD BE WRONG WITH THE WILD BIRD WHO WAS REMOVED FROM HER NATURAL HABITAT.
The next day, Lois invites the twins to the beach. Mrs Waller drives them & then won't let the girls go in the water without her & when they just start to have fun by having a splashing fight, she makes them get out of the water. Ok, I admit she's kind of a downer. They then play frisbee & the frisbee smacks Lois in the face (no picture, sorry) & Mrs. Waller makes them stop playing. She won't let them climb on rocks because they could slip & fall (fair enough) & then when the twins take out their money to buy the hotdogs & icecream their mother told them to (yes), Mrs. Waller makes them put it away & eat the raw vegies, sandwiches & fruit that she brought. Ok, I get that the vegies are no fun when you're seven, but the twins eat tuna sandwiches for lunch pretty much every day in these books with no complaints. Lois feels bad that the twins are having no fun & keeps saying sorry to them.
The next day, Lois says she can't come to the sleepover because her mother is having a cookout that night & Lois has to stay home & help. Then some guy called Marvin the Magnificent comes along to do his street performing act & he gets Lois to stand still while he jumps over her head. Ok, stuff like that is cool, but no matter how good you are, you should not do that without asking the parent's permission. All the kids think Lois is awesome again & then her mum comes & yells at Lois & makes her go home.
In the next chapter, it is raining so Mrs. Wakefield helps the twins set up their tent in the den for their guests. Amy comes along & brings Abby the bird. Abby says she's feeling fine, so I guess she is a parrot.
All the girls arrive & they eat tacos. YUM! I had mexican for dinner tonight. They then start telling ghost stories & a ghostly figure appears at the sliding glass door & Elizabeth screams. It turns out to be Lois, who ran away from her house in the rain to join the sleepover. She says her mother has no idea where she is & right then, Mrs. Waller calls so the girls hide Lois in the tent. Mrs. Wakefield comes to say Lois is missing & the girls say they don't know where she is. Lois cries a lot & is scared she's going to get in trouble, so the girls say they will hide her better. Mrs. Wakefield tells the girls Mrs. Waller is talking to the police & Lois decides to run home & try to convince her mother she has been there all along. The girls are having a debate about whether Lois should turn herself in when Abby squawkes, "Honesty is the best policy!" & pulls Amy's hair. Good girl. Since it's Sweet Valley, the talking bird is clearly the smartest one there & the girls all know it, so they decide Lois will tell the truth. She tells Mrs. Wakefield who calls Mrs. Waller, who comes over & explains about her mother dying & how she wants to protect Lois. Suprisingly, it is Alice & not Elizabeth who tells Mrs. Waller she should give Lois more freedom, paired with a shoulder pat. All is well!
The books ends with the girls waking up & Julie talking about how she loves karate, a lead in to the next book.
So there we are. Lois is a normal, cute kid, if a little whiny, the twins were actually more just strange in this one instead of being brats & we never find out if Abby the bird gets released from her tiny cage prison