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Power Play: Sweet Valley High

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BfK No. 27 - July 1984

Cover Story
The illustration on our cover for this issue is by Gary Chalk and is taken from the cover of Flight from the Dark the first book in the new Lone Wolf fantasy role-playing adventure by Joe Dever. (Sparrow, 0 09 935890 5, £l.50). We are most grateful to Sparrow Books for help in using this illustration.

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Power Play: Sweet Valley High

Kate Williams
 Francine Pascal
(Bantam Children)
978-0553178685, RRP £2.99, Paperback
10-14 Middle/Secondary
Buy "Power Play (Sweet Valley High)" on Amazon

Trivial as this book is, it has an unpleasant flavour, which is characteristic of the series. 'A game of double love, with Todd as first prize', 'vicious gossip', 'sink her hooks into rich, handsome Bruce' --- these are blurb come-ons for the previous titles. Each book features twin sisters, equals in beauty, opposites in character. In Power Play, Jessica uses and humiliates a fat girl who is desperate to join Pi Beta Alpha, 'the snobbiest sorority at Sweet Valley High', while her twin, Elizabeth, champions the victim. We are intended to feel that social and sexual glamour, designer clothes and model figures are worth less than sincerity and loyalty. But the heroine, Elizabeth, has all those attributes and the ugly duckling loses weight, acquires stylish outfits and beats Jessica in the Miss Sweet Valley contest. Clearly, being a nice person is not enough: you much be nice and the 'right' shape Perhaps the Americanisms --- sorority pledging. Calvin Kleins --- will put teenage girls off. Certainly the shallowness --- of style as well as theme --- suggest that we steer well clear.

Reviewer: 
Terry Downie
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