The first five Sweet Valley Twins books make for a lot of difficult reading, and not because of the vocabulary in them. We're already had to deal with orphan bullying, gross injustice and tomboy teasing, and now the series throws in lying to sweet old ladies and disliking sweet old dogs.

Jessica desperately wants to go to the Johnny Buck concert. Unfortunately her parents won't let her and, while that wouldn't stop her, she's also broke. She needs to come up with $25—fast. The trouble is, the only job that's on offer involves dog-sitting for a dear old lady—and Jessica's terrified of dogs.

Of course, this is Jessica, so she lies to Mrs Bracken and says that she absolutely adores dogs, gets the job, and proceeds to make her parents, Liz and Steven do most of the work. Meanwhile, she's telling the Unicorns and Bruce that she and Johnny Buck are tight, which is just a slight exaggeration on “he threw his cap to Liz and me last time he was in town”.

The night of the concert arrives and Jessica is all set to head to Lila's so she can sneak off to the show. But then Mrs Bracken calls and says she's going to be late to pick up Sally the dog. Anxious to leave, Jess ties Sally outside for Liz to deal with and disappears off to the concert.

By the time Elizabeth gets home, Sally's gone. Liz and Amy search everywhere for her, but she's nowhere to be found. Mrs Bracken arrives and is traumatised because Sally's all she has now that her husband's dead. The Wakefields head back out to search some more, and finally Sally is found—safely in her own home, having taken herself back there and in through her doggy door.

In the meantime, Jess has had a thoroughly unsatisfying concert experience. Instead of making Johnny an honorary Unicorn, she realises that half of the girls at the concert are wearing caps just like hers and that she's nothing special to him after all. She doesn't even get a chance to lick her wounds at Lila's before her mother and Liz turn up to tell her off.

Alice wants Jess to pay back the $25 she earned for dog-sitting but, of course, she can't do that because she spent it all on a concert ticket. Actually seeming to be genuinely remorseful for a change, she admits everything to Mrs Bracken, who was apparently a wild child in her own youth, henna hair and all. Her punishment is to walk Sally morning and night for a whole month—and this time Elizabeth has no intention of helping out.

As I said earlier, it's hard to watch Jessica manipulating an elderly lady for a quick buck, but at the same time I understand the mentality, because when I was around her age I would've probably done much worse if it meant I could've gone to the Guns n' Roses concert my parents banned me from seeing. And this time around, there really is a consequence to Jess's actions. Not just a punishment, but also a genuine realisation that her behaviour's been pretty shoddy.

I also find Elizabeth more likeable than usual in this book. She's not a complete goody-two-shoes for a change. She covers up for her sister and helps her out, but grows a spine by the end and refuses to take on any more of Jess's dirty work.


Moral of the Story? Don't make commitments you can't or won't keep.

[re-read]

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