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Sweet Valley Kids #36
Elizabeth's Video Fever
After Elizabeth Wakefield buys a video game called Goin' Wild, her whole personality seems to change. She starts falling behind on her homework, and she practically ignores her twin sister, Jessica. All Elizabeth cares about is getting the highest score on her game. Will Elizabeth ever be her old self again?
- GenresChildrens
74 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1993
1 person is currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,139 books1,851 followersFrancine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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November 4, 2022This is another strongly moral SVK book, with video game addiction getting the Sweet Valley treatment. The game itself isn't exactly the sort of thing that makes people WoW widows in this day and age—it reminded me more of Frogger!—but this was 1993 after all and we're talking about second graders. I think it's well done, on the whole, but that Elizabeth
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December 21, 2024Elizabeth's Video Fever
Elizabeth got a game for Christmas called “Going Wild” (Todd and Andy have it too) and ever since she’s been playing it non-stop. Jessica thinks the game is boring and doesn’t get why she likes it so much. The game is about getting a camper to his tent. On the way there are obstacles like rivers, bears, and mosquitos. So, far Todd has the highest score. He tells her to sit with him and he’ll share a tip with her. So, they play their games on the bus. At school, Mrs. Otis tells her don’t get to caught up in the game. She doesn’t want to stop reading or spending time with her friends. Liz tells her she won’t before putting her name in the games scores.
Mrs. Otis announces a contest. They have to write either a Valentine’s story, poem, or essay. Jessica knows she can’t write a better story than Liz so she decides not to even try. Lila and Ellen tease her about Liz writing a love story to her video game and then ask if she’s becoming a nerd. Jessica goes over to Liz to ask her to play but she says maybe later. Andy so far has the highest score and she’s trying to beat LV 3.
Liz starts to work on her story but the call of the game is too much for her and she becomes so distracted that she forgets not only her story but to do her chores. Her mother’s been calling her for 5 minutes. At dinner, Steven tells them about the Valentine contest and Ned says he bets Liz will come up with something with no problems. They ask Jessica if she’s going to enter and she says she doesn’t think so. Liz says she’ll help her come up with an idea.
Amy comes over to the Wakefield’s to play. Liz asks if she wants to play her game, but the whole bus ride she shows her how to play it. Amy quickly gets bored saying it’s just like any other game. After she leaves, Jessica notices Liz hasn’t taken out the trash and is too busy still playing the game. She takes out out for her and her dad sees her. She covers by saying she was just trying to help.
The class takes a spelling test and Liz gets an eighty. Jessica gets an eighty-five. Liz also misses a vocabulary word (quantity) and Jessica gets it. Mrs. Otis tells Liz she’s worried about her grades and she’ll have to call her parents. She also keeps her inside for recess and makes her start her homework. Outside, Jessica screams at Todd and Andy accusing them for Liz getting in trouble. Then she runs off. When Eva finds her (and Jessica tells her why she’s upset), she suggests writing about it for the Valentine contest. Her parents told her it’s always good to talk about it.
At home, Mrs. Wakefield tells Liz she can’t play the game for a week and sends her to her room to do her homework. Liz tries to write her story but has writer’s block. She keeps thinking about the game and how she’ll get behind and might not be able to pick back up where she left off. So, she takes the game out and gets to LV 4. Then she gets to LV 5. It’s her highest score yet and she’s putting in her intials but her mom and Jessica walk in the room.
Alice takes the game from her and tells her she and her father will decide what to do. Jessica came upstairs to ask aout her story which is about twin sisters of which one got obsessed with a video game and started not to pay the other any attention. Now she doesn’t know if Liz will be too upset to read it. She puts it on her desk. She’s not sure if it’s any good but before she can take it back, Liz picks it up.
Liz reads the story, apologizes to Jessica, and tells her she’s done with the game. She didn’t realize how dumb it was until she read the story. Inspired by the story, she writes her story about the camper (Emily) who ran ahead of her family trying to get to the camp site. She got lost in the woods and ran into a grizzly bear. Her parents and sister are up in a tree but she can’t reach them. They pull her up just in time and she apologizes for going wild. They all have a Valentine cook out after that. She hopes her story will tell everyone in her family how she feels.
Liz reads her story to her family at dinner. At first, Jessica is disappointed that it’s about “Going Wild” but then she realizes it’s about Liz. She says the best punishment will be for Liz to help her with her story like she promised. The next day, Todd and Andy come up to Liz and ask her about what score she got, but she says she left her game at home and doesn’t show any interest in anything about the game.
My Thoughts:
What I liked about this one was that Elizabeth really seemed to hold her own with this game. Whatever score Andy got she was quickly right behind him. I admired that. I was never a quick game player. It seemed like it would take me forever to get off a level where my male cousins would quickly beat that level and be done with the whole game. And then back then I didn’t hear about too many girl gamers. I’m not even sure why that is. I’m sure there were some. But this gave a great message that a girl can do anything just as good or better than a boy!
Rating: 5 and a half
Elizabeth got a game for Christmas called “Going Wild” (Todd and Andy have it too) and ever since she’s been playing it non-stop. Jessica thinks the game is boring and doesn’t get why she likes it so much. The game is about getting a camper to his tent. On the way there are obstacles like rivers, bears, and mosquitos. So, far Todd has the highest score. He tells her to sit with him and he’ll share a tip with her. So, they play their games on the bus. At school, Mrs. Otis tells her don’t get to caught up in the game. She doesn’t want to stop reading or spending time with her friends. Liz tells her she won’t before putting her name in the games scores.
Mrs. Otis announces a contest. They have to write either a Valentine’s story, poem, or essay. Jessica knows she can’t write a better story than Liz so she decides not to even try. Lila and Ellen tease her about Liz writing a love story to her video game and then ask if she’s becoming a nerd. Jessica goes over to Liz to ask her to play but she says maybe later. Andy so far has the highest score and she’s trying to beat LV 3.
Liz starts to work on her story but the call of the game is too much for her and she becomes so distracted that she forgets not only her story but to do her chores. Her mother’s been calling her for 5 minutes. At dinner, Steven tells them about the Valentine contest and Ned says he bets Liz will come up with something with no problems. They ask Jessica if she’s going to enter and she says she doesn’t think so. Liz says she’ll help her come up with an idea.
Amy comes over to the Wakefield’s to play. Liz asks if she wants to play her game, but the whole bus ride she shows her how to play it. Amy quickly gets bored saying it’s just like any other game. After she leaves, Jessica notices Liz hasn’t taken out the trash and is too busy still playing the game. She takes out out for her and her dad sees her. She covers by saying she was just trying to help.
The class takes a spelling test and Liz gets an eighty. Jessica gets an eighty-five. Liz also misses a vocabulary word (quantity) and Jessica gets it. Mrs. Otis tells Liz she’s worried about her grades and she’ll have to call her parents. She also keeps her inside for recess and makes her start her homework. Outside, Jessica screams at Todd and Andy accusing them for Liz getting in trouble. Then she runs off. When Eva finds her (and Jessica tells her why she’s upset), she suggests writing about it for the Valentine contest. Her parents told her it’s always good to talk about it.
At home, Mrs. Wakefield tells Liz she can’t play the game for a week and sends her to her room to do her homework. Liz tries to write her story but has writer’s block. She keeps thinking about the game and how she’ll get behind and might not be able to pick back up where she left off. So, she takes the game out and gets to LV 4. Then she gets to LV 5. It’s her highest score yet and she’s putting in her intials but her mom and Jessica walk in the room.
Alice takes the game from her and tells her she and her father will decide what to do. Jessica came upstairs to ask aout her story which is about twin sisters of which one got obsessed with a video game and started not to pay the other any attention. Now she doesn’t know if Liz will be too upset to read it. She puts it on her desk. She’s not sure if it’s any good but before she can take it back, Liz picks it up.
Liz reads the story, apologizes to Jessica, and tells her she’s done with the game. She didn’t realize how dumb it was until she read the story. Inspired by the story, she writes her story about the camper (Emily) who ran ahead of her family trying to get to the camp site. She got lost in the woods and ran into a grizzly bear. Her parents and sister are up in a tree but she can’t reach them. They pull her up just in time and she apologizes for going wild. They all have a Valentine cook out after that. She hopes her story will tell everyone in her family how she feels.
Liz reads her story to her family at dinner. At first, Jessica is disappointed that it’s about “Going Wild” but then she realizes it’s about Liz. She says the best punishment will be for Liz to help her with her story like she promised. The next day, Todd and Andy come up to Liz and ask her about what score she got, but she says she left her game at home and doesn’t show any interest in anything about the game.
My Thoughts:
What I liked about this one was that Elizabeth really seemed to hold her own with this game. Whatever score Andy got she was quickly right behind him. I admired that. I was never a quick game player. It seemed like it would take me forever to get off a level where my male cousins would quickly beat that level and be done with the whole game. And then back then I didn’t hear about too many girl gamers. I’m not even sure why that is. I’m sure there were some. But this gave a great message that a girl can do anything just as good or better than a boy!
Rating: 5 and a half
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2024
One of the books I can recommend to a kid. This book is basically about what happens when you get addicted to video games.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 25, 2024
I just can’t picture Elizabeth getting addicted to a video game, so this one was weird.
December 5, 2021
sweetvalleyrecaps
Sweet Valley Kids 36 - Elizabeth’s Video Fever
Liz has saved up all her money to buy a game called Goin’ Wild! so she can beat Andy and Todd. And she’s obsessed 😳 She plays it every spare minute, trying to beat the boys, and Jess starts to feel neglected, and even does Liz’s chores for her (weird). She starts falling behind in school work, and hasn’t even started her story for the Valentines Day contest. Mrs Otis calls Alice and Liz is banned from playing for a week. But she was so close to level 4! So she decides to sneakily play just to get there. And gets busted by Alice (who takes the game) and Jess, who wrote a story about a neglected twin 🤔 Liz reads it and finally gets it - and she’s cured of her video fever forever. She writes her own story about a girl who is Goin’ Wild! and gets lost camping, chased by a bear and is saved by her family. Both girls hand in their story and the winner is... we never find out 🤷🏼♀️
My rating - 3/10 - I’m not a big gamer but I don’t think the message needed to be so extreme. Teaching Liz a little moderation would have been nice 🤔
July 26, 2012
Video & computer games are pretty addicting, which is one of the reasons I could relate to this story.
July 2, 2021
Read this in the library in the 6th grade, I remember I liked it very much.
June 22, 2013
I remember the cover just not the story.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews