Review: Choosing Sides (Sweet Valley Twins Graphic Novel 3) by Nicole Andelfinger and Claudia Aguirre

The Sweet Valley Twins graphic novel adaptions have been so popular with fans--new and old--that the series is back for a third instalment. This time around Choosing Sides, the fourth novel in the original series, is up for adaption. Old fans will be familiar with the plot. Tryouts are being held for the school's cheer squad, and Amy Sutton desperately wants to join. The only problem is that the cheer squad auditions are being run by the school's cliquey mean girl group the unicorns. They don't want any non unicorns on their squad, regardless of how talented they may be. And they especially don't want Amy. (Sweet Valley devotees may notice something here. The plot is eerily similar to that of Power Play, the fourth novel in the Sweet Valley High series.) In a concurrent plot, Ken Matthews is keen to join the school basketball team but some of the other boys don't want him. Anyway, with the help of Elizabeth, Amy and Ken join forces to encourage one another--and to defeat the unicorns and other bullies who keep putting obstacles in their way.

This was an entertaining enough read, with all of the benchmark Sweet Valley flaws. Elizabeth is bossy and a little too perfect, Jessica is too much of a brat. Amy is the perfect cheerleader, but even that requires some suspension of disbelief given that she was described as being fairly uncoordinated in the previous book. And there is the one thing that really bamboozles me as an adult--just how rife the bullying is in these books. The Unicorns may be eventually won over by Amy's skill, but there are no apologies, no moral lessons learned. The reader knows that they're going to return to being jerks in the next book--in fact that's the whole plot of the next volume in the series The Haunted House where new girl Nora is believed to be a witch. Ultimately though, the Sweet Valley books have always been the literary  equivalent of junk food. They're not necessarily well made or good for you, but they can be fun in small, bite size doses. The illustrations are, as always, fun and give the series a much needed comical edge. 

The perfect gift for an old Sweet Valley fan.

As of August 2025 there are five books announced for the series, Sneaking Out will following The Haunted House. Past that, I'm not sure of the future of the series. Creator Francine Pascal recently passed away and the fate of her series and its legacy now lies in the hands of her estate. Many attempts to revive the series have been short lived or have never gotten off the ground (such as the movie and a proposed television series). Of all of the revivals, this series has been by far the most successful and captured the hearts of fans. It has the potential to continue for a long time (after all, there are 118 books in the original series, plus multiple special editions and two spin offs,) but who knows?

Comments

Lorrs said…
I hadn't realised Francine Pascal had died, would have thought that would have been bigger news! Though I did have a very busy August so may have missed it.
5 September 2024 at 22:12
Kathryn White said…
I found out on social media. There were a few newspaper stories though, mostly from New York.
6 September 2024 at 21:16
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