SVT #116: Jessica Takes Charge
I didn't want to evoke the curse by breaking the chain of SVT books, so here's my third offering from the series.
I don't really have any snarky comments to make about the cover. This scene actually does happen in the book, and compared to the last couple of SVT covers I've gone over, it's positively appealing. (Okay, that doesn't say much, but still...) I guess we'll just have to mock the actual story this time. I think I can manage.
All the sixth-grade students are being forced to volunteer as part of the Outreach program, which has all sorts of different places to work. I'm not sure it still counts as volunteer work if it's being forced, but I guess that sounds better than "we're gonna make you work and not pay you." Lila and Jessica think volunteer work sounds glamourous; after all, celebrities do volunteer stuff, don't they? But when words like soup kitchen and homeless shelter start coming up, suddenly the girls aren't so sure. That doesn't sound like selling off fancy dresses or hosting expensive parties! Fortunately, there is a stint assisting in the mayor's office, which sounds suitable to Lila and Jessica. Because after all, mayors are always on tv, so that sort of volunteer work has a bit of style. But the students don't get to pick which assignment they'll be doing for the next week... instead, they pick the jobs out of a hat. Seriously. I'm thinking this is not the best way to introduce kids to volunteer work. Could they possibly come up with more ways to foster resentment?
Elizabeth, of course, is hoping to work in the soup kitchen. You know, some place she can help people and really feel like she's making a difference. Not shuffling boring papers at the mayor's office. One by one, the kids all pick their volunteer spots. Jessica picks the Health Trailer, where they teach kids about health. Lila gets the Soup Kitchen. And Elizabeth gets the Mayor's Office. Of course immediately, both Jessica and Lila try to convince Liz to trade with them, each offering to do extra favours on top of the swap. Lila wins, offering a ride in her limo and 200 dollars... which Liz can then donate to the soup kitchen. Jessica is outraged that Lila once again gets what she wants, as she always does, and that Liz is picking someone other than her twin. There's an awesome side bit here about how Winston keeps selling his job to kids who aren't happy with what they got, but he won't tell them what his assignment is until they pay. Winston makes me giggle.
Liz goes to work at the soup kitchen, 200 dollars in her pocket. She's excited to be there and learning about soup kitchen stuff. Or something. Apparently the soup kitchen has about 275 people come through every day. I want to know where all these poor people are coming from. I thought there were only about 5 of them in Sweet Valley. The woman in charge of the soup kitchen has her young grandson there, and Elizabeth suggests he go to the daycare during the day so he has something to do. His grandmother thinks this is a great idea. I want to know why it took a twelve-year-old to come up with that idea. At any rate, Liz loves working at the soup kitchen, and goes home to rave about it until her family is sick of hearing about how everyone should volunteer for a soup kitchen once in awhile.
Lila heads to the mayor's office, expecting cameras to flash and the office manager to fall all over her. She's rather annoyed when this doesn't happen, and she's instead shoved into a corner to staple pamphlets together. Things start looking up when a really cute high school guy comes in to work, too. His name is Paul Kindon, and he's actually pretty nice to Lila. She figures he's too old for her now, but in a few years he might not be. What? I'm pretty sure the age difference will be the same, but she seems convinced. She tells Jessica all about it later, mostly just to make Jess jealous.
Jessica gets to work with Winston in the health trailer. Winston is totally the best part of this section, with his asides and jokes. The woman they work under, Nurse Jennings, is insane. She forces Jess to throw out the candy bar she brought for a snack and seems to be yelling at both Jessica and Winston every other line for something else they should supposedly already know, despite it being their first day on the job. I guess they could find more ways to make volunteer work less palatable to these kids.
The next day, Liz gives her 200 dollars to the soup kitchen people, having forgotten about it earlier due to all the excitment and thrills of volunteer work. They start setting up and pricing things for a junk sale, all profits going to buy food and yadda yadda. They price an old cookie jar, and the woman in charge of the soup kitchen and the grandson goes into some story about how her grandmother used to keep all her money in a cookie jar just like that. Yeah, despite Elizabeth's enthusiasm, it's actually pretty boring to read about. Young grandson goes to the daycare, and all is blooming roses.
Meanwhile, Jessica is still struggling with the heart and lungs model when a camera crew shows up from city hall. Apparently they're checking out the Outreach program, trying to judge if it's a waste of time or something worthwhile. What Jessica finds far more interesting, though, is the gossip the crew starts chatting about. Apparently the volunteer program has been most useful for the delinquents... people like that young Paul Kindon, caught shoplifting and tagging graffiti, but now after six months of volunteer work at the mayor's office, he's turned his life around. Duhn-duh-duhn! Jessica can't wait to tell Lila what she's overheard.
Nurse Jennings bustles in to announce that the kids from the daycare will be there for the presentation in about fifteen minutes. Oh, and Jessica gets to be the one to give the presentation. I want to know why she doesn't do the presentation herself, or at the very least say something to Jess the day before so she has a chance to prepare or something. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid adults are in Sweet Valley. Instead of following a logical course of action, Nurse Jennings hands over a pamphlet about the digestive system which turns out to be in Spanish and expects Jessica to do the rest of the work. Oh, and since the camera crew are still there, they'll stick around for the show. And since Lila is working for the mayor, she gets to be there too, as does Paul. And all the department heads from the volunteer programs. Jessica is less than thrilled.
Needless to say, the presentation doesn't go smoothly. Jess is flustered, the kids ask off-the-wall questions, and without proper time to prepare, some of her information gets muddled. To cap it off, Jess knocks over a box of some five hundred pamphlets, which scatter across the floor. It's replayed on the news that night and pictures are put in the paper the next morning with scathing reviews. Jessica seems to be the only one at school who doesn't think the whole thing is hysterical.
The next day, it's discovered the 200 dollars Liz gave to the soup kitchen is missing! It was last seen at Jessica's health presentation, which the guy in charge of the soup kitchen attended. They figure it got mixed up in with all the pamphlets, but have searched through them all and haven't found anything. Jessica remembers seeing Paul pick one up off the floor, a delighted look on his face... and he's an ex-delinquent! Of course he must have taken the money! A bunch of people (who are never actually specified) watch the tapes for Paul's reaction, and everyone is in agreement with Jessica. Paul is dismissed from his work at the mayor's office.
At school, Lila is still burbling happily about Paul this and Paul that... when Jessica breaks the news about his former delinquency. Lila refuses to believe, thinking Jessica is just jealous. Which actually is true. Then Jessica tells Lila about Paul being dismissed, and Lila is devastated! No way could someone as attractive as Paul steal money from a soup kitchen! Someone's been watching a few too many Disney movies, I'm thinking. So Lila runs off to Paul's house to find the truth. Paul's grandfather opens the door, and the moment is awkward, since he only speaks Spanish and has no idea what Lila is going on about. Finally Paul himself comes to the door, angry about the injustice of it all. Lila offers to give him the money to replace what he didn't steal so he can go back, but he refuses. It's the principle of the thing, he says, and his good name being sullied. Yeah. A teenage boy is concerned about his good name. Okay then. Lila doesn't really get it, she's just upset because he's upset. She goes to call Jessica, furious because it's all Jess's fault. They fight and swear never to talk again, but we all know Jess will come crawling back sooner or later, deprived from Lila's awesomeness.
Elizabeth feels guilty over the missing money, too, because I guess with Sainthood comes piles of guilt. She thinks if only she had remembered to give the money up on the first day, the whole incident could have been avoided. Yeah, this bears no relevance to the story, but it made me roll my eyes. Young grandson, who is inexplicably back at the soup kitchen, talks about all the money he has. At first they brush it off, but then he talks about how he put it in the cookie jar, and things click into place for Elizabeth. He was at the daycare presentation Jessica gave, when the money disappeared into all the loose pamphlets! Now all she has to do is find the cookie jar... but someone's already bought it! The drama just escalates! (Well, not really.)
Meanwhile, Lila has figured out why Paul did such a dramatic double take when he saw the pamphlets: they were in Spanish, the only language his sickly grandfather speaks! He'd been looking for good sources to teach his grandfather about his health. Then she runs into Elizabeth, who shares the cookie jar story. Now there are two of them searching for the gentleman who bought the cookie jar. Lila finds him on his way home, but decides it's a silly idea to just ask him for the money hidden inside. So she offers to buy it from him. People start gathering around as Lila's money bids grow more and more desperate, and soon she's shouting that she'll pay six hundred dollars for the cookie jar. She's willing to pay 600 to get back 200? Must be nice to have that sort of money. Among the crowd is the mayor and her camera crew, to whom Lila explains the whole thing. Why it's ok now and not two minutes ago, I'm not quite sure.
Anyway, the money is found, Paul's good name is restored, and the mayor offers him his job back... this time with pay. The mayor also gives Paul money to take Lila out for ice cream, with three of her friends. Yeah, I'm sure Paul can't think of anything he'd like to do more than hang out with a bunch of twelve-year-old girls. Lila picks Elizabeth, Mandy (who volunteered at the daycare with young grandson), and... Jessica. The two girls make up, and everyone lives happily ever after, at least until the next book.
I don't really have any snarky comments to make about the cover. This scene actually does happen in the book, and compared to the last couple of SVT covers I've gone over, it's positively appealing. (Okay, that doesn't say much, but still...) I guess we'll just have to mock the actual story this time. I think I can manage.
All the sixth-grade students are being forced to volunteer as part of the Outreach program, which has all sorts of different places to work. I'm not sure it still counts as volunteer work if it's being forced, but I guess that sounds better than "we're gonna make you work and not pay you." Lila and Jessica think volunteer work sounds glamourous; after all, celebrities do volunteer stuff, don't they? But when words like soup kitchen and homeless shelter start coming up, suddenly the girls aren't so sure. That doesn't sound like selling off fancy dresses or hosting expensive parties! Fortunately, there is a stint assisting in the mayor's office, which sounds suitable to Lila and Jessica. Because after all, mayors are always on tv, so that sort of volunteer work has a bit of style. But the students don't get to pick which assignment they'll be doing for the next week... instead, they pick the jobs out of a hat. Seriously. I'm thinking this is not the best way to introduce kids to volunteer work. Could they possibly come up with more ways to foster resentment?
Elizabeth, of course, is hoping to work in the soup kitchen. You know, some place she can help people and really feel like she's making a difference. Not shuffling boring papers at the mayor's office. One by one, the kids all pick their volunteer spots. Jessica picks the Health Trailer, where they teach kids about health. Lila gets the Soup Kitchen. And Elizabeth gets the Mayor's Office. Of course immediately, both Jessica and Lila try to convince Liz to trade with them, each offering to do extra favours on top of the swap. Lila wins, offering a ride in her limo and 200 dollars... which Liz can then donate to the soup kitchen. Jessica is outraged that Lila once again gets what she wants, as she always does, and that Liz is picking someone other than her twin. There's an awesome side bit here about how Winston keeps selling his job to kids who aren't happy with what they got, but he won't tell them what his assignment is until they pay. Winston makes me giggle.
Liz goes to work at the soup kitchen, 200 dollars in her pocket. She's excited to be there and learning about soup kitchen stuff. Or something. Apparently the soup kitchen has about 275 people come through every day. I want to know where all these poor people are coming from. I thought there were only about 5 of them in Sweet Valley. The woman in charge of the soup kitchen has her young grandson there, and Elizabeth suggests he go to the daycare during the day so he has something to do. His grandmother thinks this is a great idea. I want to know why it took a twelve-year-old to come up with that idea. At any rate, Liz loves working at the soup kitchen, and goes home to rave about it until her family is sick of hearing about how everyone should volunteer for a soup kitchen once in awhile.
Lila heads to the mayor's office, expecting cameras to flash and the office manager to fall all over her. She's rather annoyed when this doesn't happen, and she's instead shoved into a corner to staple pamphlets together. Things start looking up when a really cute high school guy comes in to work, too. His name is Paul Kindon, and he's actually pretty nice to Lila. She figures he's too old for her now, but in a few years he might not be. What? I'm pretty sure the age difference will be the same, but she seems convinced. She tells Jessica all about it later, mostly just to make Jess jealous.
Jessica gets to work with Winston in the health trailer. Winston is totally the best part of this section, with his asides and jokes. The woman they work under, Nurse Jennings, is insane. She forces Jess to throw out the candy bar she brought for a snack and seems to be yelling at both Jessica and Winston every other line for something else they should supposedly already know, despite it being their first day on the job. I guess they could find more ways to make volunteer work less palatable to these kids.
The next day, Liz gives her 200 dollars to the soup kitchen people, having forgotten about it earlier due to all the excitment and thrills of volunteer work. They start setting up and pricing things for a junk sale, all profits going to buy food and yadda yadda. They price an old cookie jar, and the woman in charge of the soup kitchen and the grandson goes into some story about how her grandmother used to keep all her money in a cookie jar just like that. Yeah, despite Elizabeth's enthusiasm, it's actually pretty boring to read about. Young grandson goes to the daycare, and all is blooming roses.
Meanwhile, Jessica is still struggling with the heart and lungs model when a camera crew shows up from city hall. Apparently they're checking out the Outreach program, trying to judge if it's a waste of time or something worthwhile. What Jessica finds far more interesting, though, is the gossip the crew starts chatting about. Apparently the volunteer program has been most useful for the delinquents... people like that young Paul Kindon, caught shoplifting and tagging graffiti, but now after six months of volunteer work at the mayor's office, he's turned his life around. Duhn-duh-duhn! Jessica can't wait to tell Lila what she's overheard.
Nurse Jennings bustles in to announce that the kids from the daycare will be there for the presentation in about fifteen minutes. Oh, and Jessica gets to be the one to give the presentation. I want to know why she doesn't do the presentation herself, or at the very least say something to Jess the day before so she has a chance to prepare or something. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid adults are in Sweet Valley. Instead of following a logical course of action, Nurse Jennings hands over a pamphlet about the digestive system which turns out to be in Spanish and expects Jessica to do the rest of the work. Oh, and since the camera crew are still there, they'll stick around for the show. And since Lila is working for the mayor, she gets to be there too, as does Paul. And all the department heads from the volunteer programs. Jessica is less than thrilled.
Needless to say, the presentation doesn't go smoothly. Jess is flustered, the kids ask off-the-wall questions, and without proper time to prepare, some of her information gets muddled. To cap it off, Jess knocks over a box of some five hundred pamphlets, which scatter across the floor. It's replayed on the news that night and pictures are put in the paper the next morning with scathing reviews. Jessica seems to be the only one at school who doesn't think the whole thing is hysterical.
The next day, it's discovered the 200 dollars Liz gave to the soup kitchen is missing! It was last seen at Jessica's health presentation, which the guy in charge of the soup kitchen attended. They figure it got mixed up in with all the pamphlets, but have searched through them all and haven't found anything. Jessica remembers seeing Paul pick one up off the floor, a delighted look on his face... and he's an ex-delinquent! Of course he must have taken the money! A bunch of people (who are never actually specified) watch the tapes for Paul's reaction, and everyone is in agreement with Jessica. Paul is dismissed from his work at the mayor's office.
At school, Lila is still burbling happily about Paul this and Paul that... when Jessica breaks the news about his former delinquency. Lila refuses to believe, thinking Jessica is just jealous. Which actually is true. Then Jessica tells Lila about Paul being dismissed, and Lila is devastated! No way could someone as attractive as Paul steal money from a soup kitchen! Someone's been watching a few too many Disney movies, I'm thinking. So Lila runs off to Paul's house to find the truth. Paul's grandfather opens the door, and the moment is awkward, since he only speaks Spanish and has no idea what Lila is going on about. Finally Paul himself comes to the door, angry about the injustice of it all. Lila offers to give him the money to replace what he didn't steal so he can go back, but he refuses. It's the principle of the thing, he says, and his good name being sullied. Yeah. A teenage boy is concerned about his good name. Okay then. Lila doesn't really get it, she's just upset because he's upset. She goes to call Jessica, furious because it's all Jess's fault. They fight and swear never to talk again, but we all know Jess will come crawling back sooner or later, deprived from Lila's awesomeness.
Elizabeth feels guilty over the missing money, too, because I guess with Sainthood comes piles of guilt. She thinks if only she had remembered to give the money up on the first day, the whole incident could have been avoided. Yeah, this bears no relevance to the story, but it made me roll my eyes. Young grandson, who is inexplicably back at the soup kitchen, talks about all the money he has. At first they brush it off, but then he talks about how he put it in the cookie jar, and things click into place for Elizabeth. He was at the daycare presentation Jessica gave, when the money disappeared into all the loose pamphlets! Now all she has to do is find the cookie jar... but someone's already bought it! The drama just escalates! (Well, not really.)
Meanwhile, Lila has figured out why Paul did such a dramatic double take when he saw the pamphlets: they were in Spanish, the only language his sickly grandfather speaks! He'd been looking for good sources to teach his grandfather about his health. Then she runs into Elizabeth, who shares the cookie jar story. Now there are two of them searching for the gentleman who bought the cookie jar. Lila finds him on his way home, but decides it's a silly idea to just ask him for the money hidden inside. So she offers to buy it from him. People start gathering around as Lila's money bids grow more and more desperate, and soon she's shouting that she'll pay six hundred dollars for the cookie jar. She's willing to pay 600 to get back 200? Must be nice to have that sort of money. Among the crowd is the mayor and her camera crew, to whom Lila explains the whole thing. Why it's ok now and not two minutes ago, I'm not quite sure.
Anyway, the money is found, Paul's good name is restored, and the mayor offers him his job back... this time with pay. The mayor also gives Paul money to take Lila out for ice cream, with three of her friends. Yeah, I'm sure Paul can't think of anything he'd like to do more than hang out with a bunch of twelve-year-old girls. Lila picks Elizabeth, Mandy (who volunteered at the daycare with young grandson), and... Jessica. The two girls make up, and everyone lives happily ever after, at least until the next book.