At my childhood beach house, on a shelf below flip flops encrusted with sand, the entire series of Sweet Valley High novels stood carefully catalogued between two pelican book ends. Even more so than our reprimand for forgoing doormats, tracking sand and shells across newly polished floors, my sister and I were routinely scolded for our choice in fiction. These teenage dramas, frivolous accounts of the lives of two painfully ordinary high school twins, (affectionately coined “valley girls”) were ghostwritten and therefore so full in their abundance that our guilty pleasure could flourish into a substantial full time hobby.
Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, the sisters around which the entire series is based, traveled with us to swim team, music lessons, ballet class and theater rehearsal, sometimes smuggled in the bottom of book bags and others, blatantly displayed open and an inch from eyesight.
I was fortunate, as an infant, to have an older sister adamant in teaching me how to read. Later in my development, she cared very little if I could whistle or tie my shoes, perhaps at the time too focused on my proper use of my newly acquired verbal repertoire. Erin instilled an appetite for language so severe that today, she as a linguist and I as a writer and bibliophile, surely give credence to her early instruction. Regardless of her conviction and eloquence in her dialogue, even at such a young age, Erin was nonetheless guilty of one impenetrable vice: Sweet Valley High. From cover to cover, they provided a glimpse into a world so far from academia that, according to my father, they might actually lower our IQs. We thought of these books as a vacation and a guilty pleasure. Today, I think of the titles with an overwhelming remembrance of youth.
I recall these books with the same nostalgia and affection that I am sure many associate with Christopher Pike’s young adult series of thriller novels. With titles such as Bury Me Deep, Road to Nowhere, and Fall into Darkness, these books demand covers with nothing short than the embossed and dripping, neon fonts and kitchy illustrations that they have come to earn as their most defining characteristic.
Enter Body Holographic CHRISTOPHER PIKE BOOK CLUB. Enter the most talented group of artists and filmmakers I know.
Above are stills from the most recent short, based on an interpretation to the cover of Pike’s “The Witch” by director Terry Duthu, with musical collaboration by Colin Alexander and Kevin Phillips. (Click here to view)
I strongly suggest following the link and taking the time to view all of the films. Whether it be Goosebumps or Sweet Valley High, Hardy Boys or Christopher Pike, I urge you to recall your childhood right of passage by way of sub par literature. Recall the covers, the characters, the priceless dialogue and memories of an era that today, at best, we can only aspire to replicate.
