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Sweet Valley Kids #72
The Macaroni Mess
In the words of 7-year-old Elizabeth Wakefield...
Our class is having an art show. My painting was the best! It had lots of macaroni pasted on it. But now my macaroni is missing! Who ruined my painting? Time to use my noodle...and find out!
Our class is having an art show. My painting was the best! It had lots of macaroni pasted on it. But now my macaroni is missing! Who ruined my painting? Time to use my noodle...and find out!
96 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 1997
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,149 books1,886 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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July 11, 2026The Macaroni Mess (Sweet Valley Kids)
Mr. Crane’s class returns from a field trip that included viewing paintings and watching artists at an arts-and-crafts fair. Jessica liked watching the artist create things. Elizabeth liked the paintings. Lila says her father owns a Picasso like the one they saw. Charlie and Jerry make fun of the toilet paper painting. Charlie teases the twins and compares them to a monkey reflected in a mirror.When they get back to school, Mr. Crane says he has two surprisises for them.
The first surprise is a bright yellow and green parrot named Petey. Then Mr. Crane asks the class what they liked best about the trip. Jessica says she liked watching a lady make doll clothes. Andy says he liked a painting of a knight on a horse. Ken says he liked a glass blower demonstration. Winston liked a “paomt splotch” anstract painting that looked like Mr. Crane’s shirt.
Mr. Crane is pleased and says that they’ll be having their own art show and inviting their parents. The students can create any kind of art they want (paintings, clay, paper mache, or mixed material). They all start to talk about ideas. Amy and Eva want to do clay projects. Charlie wants to make a paper marche snake (which grosses out the girls). Lila complains about having nicer, newer, art stuff. Jerry teases Lila and says maybe he’ll paint a dragon that will eat her.
Mr. Crane gives them paints, easels, and crayons and lets them work on art the rest of the day. Liz wants to make something truly special. The only problem is she has no idea what. Winston comments that he feels like a “real artist”. Elizabeth starts to paint green swirls that look like jungle vines. Petey seems to like it and whistles.
Jessica trips over Todd’s foot, and his sketch book pad goes flying. Winston grabs it and starts to flip through the pages. He calls everyone over and starts to show them Todd’s drawings. Todd has drawn caricatures of Mr.Crane with Petey nibbling his hair, Lila with a long, stuck-up nose. (She’s not amused), Loise as a bunch of purple grapes, Andy with giant-like glasses (this makes him blush), Caroline with a long tail (as in she’s a tattletale), and Liz with extremely big feet. Liz is clearly hurt. Todd says it was meant to be funny. Liz snaps back it isn’t. Charlie starts to tease Liz and call her “Big Foot”.
Caroline tells on Todd to Mr. Crame. He explains what caricatures are. Lila says she wants to punch Todd in the nose and Liz, for once, agrees. She worries that everyone at the show will see her looking like Bigfoot. Later when the twins are in bed, Jessica tells Liz she wants to make a princess crown for her project. Liz is happy for her. She thinks about how one of the best things about being a twin is having someone defend you (like Jessica did with Charlie).
Jessica goes right to sleep, but Liz stays up thinking what kind of art project she should do (watercolor, sculpture, sewing, stencils, sticker art, balloon art, sand art, paper mache, collage, puppets, basket weaving). Nothing feels right. When she finally falls asleep, she dreams of toothpicks holding up eyelids open.
Lila comes to class with a fancy, expensive art kit that her mom sent her from Paris. It has calligraphy pens, charcoal sticks, and fancy brushes. She says that only she and Jessica can use it. Liz is annoyed with Lila’s bragging. Even tho it doesn’t seem to bother Jessica-which isn’t true- it gets on her nerves. We find out some of the others' ideas. Jerry wants to use bird feathers to paint (but not Petey’s). Jim will use hiw rock collection. Caroline claims she has the best idea.
Liz finally decides she’ll make a picture of a pony and she’ll use macaroni noodles. She gets her inspiration from her mom leaving some macaroni noodles on the counter.
Liz keeps her project a secret from everyone. At lunch, she even giggles because no one has guessed and they have macaroni and cheese for lunch. After lunch, they work on art. Some of the class brings things from home. Amy says she’s going to make a blanket for her teddy bear. Andy has brought some dead bugs to make a collage. Kisho starts to fold origami animals. Charlie rolls paint-covered marbles in a box to make designs. Eva makes clay refrigerator magnets. Lois makes purple painted footprints.
Liz works on her project. She gives it a brown body and a yellow mane and tail. When the paint dries, she glues on the macaroni noodles. Caroline’s project is to make a potato head doll, but it turns out lumpy and messy. Charlie teases her and makes her upset. Everyone then notices Liz’s project, and she gets lots of admiration. Winston names it “The Macaroni Pony”. Everyone agrees it’s the best one in the class and Liz is proud.
Winston displays his paintings, and since no one guesses correctly, he has to explain what they are. There’s one of yellow, orange, and purple blobs that he says is a rainstorm. Another is squares with colors that he says is a dog carrying a cage. The last one is of white smudges on green that he says is a bunny hopping in grass. Mr. Crane has to explain to the class that Winston’s paintinigs are abstract art. Ricky says it looks like a monkey made them.
Because Caroline’s doll is such a mess, Liz offers to help, but Caroline snaps at her. She cries and runs out of the room. Mr. Crane sends Amy to go check on her. Jessica tells Liz that Caroline was just jealous because her project really was the best. But Liz still feels bad for Caroline looking at her messed up doll on the floor. Mr. Crane gives everyone construction paper and tells the class
Mr. Crane puts up the displays. Winston has five abstract paintings. Caroline brings a beautiful white cloth doll that’s well made-surprising everyone-. Elizabeth knows Caroline’s sewing was never this good. Lila, when asked by Mr. Crane, says she might not enter anything in the show. Jessica tells Liz it’s because she doesn’t know how to use half the things in the fancy art kit and is embarrassed. Liz puts her picture next to Amy’s blanket. Charlie teases her and says it’s making him hungry. Liz sees Todd looking at her but he looks away.
Liz slips on a banana thanks to Winston fooling around at lunch. She goes to the room to clean up and then notices her project is destroyed. Most of the pieces have been ripped off, there are broken noodles scattered on the floor, and the paper is torn in half. It looks like someone also stomped on it. :Liz cries. The class returns. Jessica rushes to her side. Mr. Crane tells her to comfort her, but all she can think is the art show is tomorrow and her parents are taking time off to come.
Jessica tries to cheer Liz up by suggesting they make twin projects, but she wants her project to be her own. Lila saw Caroline leave the lunchroom, and she says she was probably the one who ruined Elizabeth’s project. Liz doesn’t want to jump to conclusions, but then she catches Caroline in the room alone. She accuses Caroline and an argument escalates. The kids join them. Some take Elizabeth’s side and say she wouldn’t lie. Others defend Caroline with the same argument. (And I just shake my head because Caroline lies all the time).
Mr. Crane comes in, and everyone gets quiet. Liz decides not to tell on Caroline. Todd then gives Liz an explanation of his drawing. He says the big feet were a compliment because she’s fast and great at soccer. Even tho things are good again with Todd, her project is still ruined.
Liz tells her mom about the project and how it was so good she doesn’t think she’ll be able to recreate it. Her mom says she’ll give her the other box of macaroni she bought even though she was planning to make it for dinner. Jessica helps her color the macaroni and suggests she add some glitter. When they’re done, it comes out even better than the first one. Liz sneaks her picture in so Caroline won’t ruin it. She encourages Lois to see the humor in Todd’s drawings. She puts her picture next to Todd’s cartoon of her. Todd says its even better than the first one.
Before lunch, Liz hides behind a closet door to see if Caroline will try to destroy her new project. Caroline enters the room, approaches Liz’s project, and reaches out to touch it. Liz confronts Caroline, but she says she was just admiring the picture. It turns into a paint fight between Liz and Caroline. Winston tries to get in the middle of it, but ends up getting in the paint war. Mr. Crane makes them stop and warns them not to do it again.
Jessica discovers Petey is loose. Petey lands on the art display table and starts to peck at Liz’s macaroni pony. This proves Petey was the culprit all along. Liz apologizes to Caroline for blaming her. Caroline admits she was jealous. But she slipped out at lunch to fix her potatoe doll-not to sabotage Liz-.S
My Thoughts:
I would have liked to have Mr. Crane for a teacher. So far he’s thought of some pretty fun things. I remember some things that my second grade did, but I don’t think we ever had an art show. For that matter, I don’t even remember us having art time. I really would have loved it tho! What I connected to with this one was having done something that you felt like you did a really good job on and then for whatever reason having to do it over. Just the other day I was working on a chapter and I gave it to my best friend to read. He complimented the chapter, and as always I felt like I was really doing something. But then I went back and asked him did he felt like I did a good job capturing the chaos in the chapter, and I went on to go into detail about what all was happening; he switched it up and said, go back and rewrite it just like that. (Record scratch) I was thinking, umm. Cause I thought I already had captured what I just said. I haven’t rewritten it yet, but just like Liz I might surprise myself and it come out even better on the second time. So, you just never know.
Rating: 6 I kind of wanted to see what some of these projects looked like, and I wish they’d included them in the illustrations. Tho admittedly the illustrations for these books aren’t *the* greatest.
Mr. Crane’s class returns from a field trip that included viewing paintings and watching artists at an arts-and-crafts fair. Jessica liked watching the artist create things. Elizabeth liked the paintings. Lila says her father owns a Picasso like the one they saw. Charlie and Jerry make fun of the toilet paper painting. Charlie teases the twins and compares them to a monkey reflected in a mirror.When they get back to school, Mr. Crane says he has two surprisises for them.
The first surprise is a bright yellow and green parrot named Petey. Then Mr. Crane asks the class what they liked best about the trip. Jessica says she liked watching a lady make doll clothes. Andy says he liked a painting of a knight on a horse. Ken says he liked a glass blower demonstration. Winston liked a “paomt splotch” anstract painting that looked like Mr. Crane’s shirt.
Mr. Crane is pleased and says that they’ll be having their own art show and inviting their parents. The students can create any kind of art they want (paintings, clay, paper mache, or mixed material). They all start to talk about ideas. Amy and Eva want to do clay projects. Charlie wants to make a paper marche snake (which grosses out the girls). Lila complains about having nicer, newer, art stuff. Jerry teases Lila and says maybe he’ll paint a dragon that will eat her.
Mr. Crane gives them paints, easels, and crayons and lets them work on art the rest of the day. Liz wants to make something truly special. The only problem is she has no idea what. Winston comments that he feels like a “real artist”. Elizabeth starts to paint green swirls that look like jungle vines. Petey seems to like it and whistles.
Jessica trips over Todd’s foot, and his sketch book pad goes flying. Winston grabs it and starts to flip through the pages. He calls everyone over and starts to show them Todd’s drawings. Todd has drawn caricatures of Mr.Crane with Petey nibbling his hair, Lila with a long, stuck-up nose. (She’s not amused), Loise as a bunch of purple grapes, Andy with giant-like glasses (this makes him blush), Caroline with a long tail (as in she’s a tattletale), and Liz with extremely big feet. Liz is clearly hurt. Todd says it was meant to be funny. Liz snaps back it isn’t. Charlie starts to tease Liz and call her “Big Foot”.
Caroline tells on Todd to Mr. Crame. He explains what caricatures are. Lila says she wants to punch Todd in the nose and Liz, for once, agrees. She worries that everyone at the show will see her looking like Bigfoot. Later when the twins are in bed, Jessica tells Liz she wants to make a princess crown for her project. Liz is happy for her. She thinks about how one of the best things about being a twin is having someone defend you (like Jessica did with Charlie).
Jessica goes right to sleep, but Liz stays up thinking what kind of art project she should do (watercolor, sculpture, sewing, stencils, sticker art, balloon art, sand art, paper mache, collage, puppets, basket weaving). Nothing feels right. When she finally falls asleep, she dreams of toothpicks holding up eyelids open.
Lila comes to class with a fancy, expensive art kit that her mom sent her from Paris. It has calligraphy pens, charcoal sticks, and fancy brushes. She says that only she and Jessica can use it. Liz is annoyed with Lila’s bragging. Even tho it doesn’t seem to bother Jessica-which isn’t true- it gets on her nerves. We find out some of the others' ideas. Jerry wants to use bird feathers to paint (but not Petey’s). Jim will use hiw rock collection. Caroline claims she has the best idea.
Liz finally decides she’ll make a picture of a pony and she’ll use macaroni noodles. She gets her inspiration from her mom leaving some macaroni noodles on the counter.
Liz keeps her project a secret from everyone. At lunch, she even giggles because no one has guessed and they have macaroni and cheese for lunch. After lunch, they work on art. Some of the class brings things from home. Amy says she’s going to make a blanket for her teddy bear. Andy has brought some dead bugs to make a collage. Kisho starts to fold origami animals. Charlie rolls paint-covered marbles in a box to make designs. Eva makes clay refrigerator magnets. Lois makes purple painted footprints.
Liz works on her project. She gives it a brown body and a yellow mane and tail. When the paint dries, she glues on the macaroni noodles. Caroline’s project is to make a potato head doll, but it turns out lumpy and messy. Charlie teases her and makes her upset. Everyone then notices Liz’s project, and she gets lots of admiration. Winston names it “The Macaroni Pony”. Everyone agrees it’s the best one in the class and Liz is proud.
Winston displays his paintings, and since no one guesses correctly, he has to explain what they are. There’s one of yellow, orange, and purple blobs that he says is a rainstorm. Another is squares with colors that he says is a dog carrying a cage. The last one is of white smudges on green that he says is a bunny hopping in grass. Mr. Crane has to explain to the class that Winston’s paintinigs are abstract art. Ricky says it looks like a monkey made them.
Because Caroline’s doll is such a mess, Liz offers to help, but Caroline snaps at her. She cries and runs out of the room. Mr. Crane sends Amy to go check on her. Jessica tells Liz that Caroline was just jealous because her project really was the best. But Liz still feels bad for Caroline looking at her messed up doll on the floor. Mr. Crane gives everyone construction paper and tells the class
Mr. Crane puts up the displays. Winston has five abstract paintings. Caroline brings a beautiful white cloth doll that’s well made-surprising everyone-. Elizabeth knows Caroline’s sewing was never this good. Lila, when asked by Mr. Crane, says she might not enter anything in the show. Jessica tells Liz it’s because she doesn’t know how to use half the things in the fancy art kit and is embarrassed. Liz puts her picture next to Amy’s blanket. Charlie teases her and says it’s making him hungry. Liz sees Todd looking at her but he looks away.
Liz slips on a banana thanks to Winston fooling around at lunch. She goes to the room to clean up and then notices her project is destroyed. Most of the pieces have been ripped off, there are broken noodles scattered on the floor, and the paper is torn in half. It looks like someone also stomped on it. :Liz cries. The class returns. Jessica rushes to her side. Mr. Crane tells her to comfort her, but all she can think is the art show is tomorrow and her parents are taking time off to come.
Jessica tries to cheer Liz up by suggesting they make twin projects, but she wants her project to be her own. Lila saw Caroline leave the lunchroom, and she says she was probably the one who ruined Elizabeth’s project. Liz doesn’t want to jump to conclusions, but then she catches Caroline in the room alone. She accuses Caroline and an argument escalates. The kids join them. Some take Elizabeth’s side and say she wouldn’t lie. Others defend Caroline with the same argument. (And I just shake my head because Caroline lies all the time).
Mr. Crane comes in, and everyone gets quiet. Liz decides not to tell on Caroline. Todd then gives Liz an explanation of his drawing. He says the big feet were a compliment because she’s fast and great at soccer. Even tho things are good again with Todd, her project is still ruined.
Liz tells her mom about the project and how it was so good she doesn’t think she’ll be able to recreate it. Her mom says she’ll give her the other box of macaroni she bought even though she was planning to make it for dinner. Jessica helps her color the macaroni and suggests she add some glitter. When they’re done, it comes out even better than the first one. Liz sneaks her picture in so Caroline won’t ruin it. She encourages Lois to see the humor in Todd’s drawings. She puts her picture next to Todd’s cartoon of her. Todd says its even better than the first one.
Before lunch, Liz hides behind a closet door to see if Caroline will try to destroy her new project. Caroline enters the room, approaches Liz’s project, and reaches out to touch it. Liz confronts Caroline, but she says she was just admiring the picture. It turns into a paint fight between Liz and Caroline. Winston tries to get in the middle of it, but ends up getting in the paint war. Mr. Crane makes them stop and warns them not to do it again.
Jessica discovers Petey is loose. Petey lands on the art display table and starts to peck at Liz’s macaroni pony. This proves Petey was the culprit all along. Liz apologizes to Caroline for blaming her. Caroline admits she was jealous. But she slipped out at lunch to fix her potatoe doll-not to sabotage Liz-.S
My Thoughts:
I would have liked to have Mr. Crane for a teacher. So far he’s thought of some pretty fun things. I remember some things that my second grade did, but I don’t think we ever had an art show. For that matter, I don’t even remember us having art time. I really would have loved it tho! What I connected to with this one was having done something that you felt like you did a really good job on and then for whatever reason having to do it over. Just the other day I was working on a chapter and I gave it to my best friend to read. He complimented the chapter, and as always I felt like I was really doing something. But then I went back and asked him did he felt like I did a good job capturing the chaos in the chapter, and I went on to go into detail about what all was happening; he switched it up and said, go back and rewrite it just like that. (Record scratch) I was thinking, umm. Cause I thought I already had captured what I just said. I haven’t rewritten it yet, but just like Liz I might surprise myself and it come out even better on the second time. So, you just never know.
Rating: 6 I kind of wanted to see what some of these projects looked like, and I wish they’d included them in the illustrations. Tho admittedly the illustrations for these books aren’t *the* greatest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 25, 2020
How to read?
January 27, 2024
In this, kids make exhibits for a school exhibition and Elizabeth makes a pony out of Macaroni, but it gets destroyed mysteriously.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2013
sweetvalleyrecaps
Sweet Valley Kids 72 - The macaroni mess
It’s art project time! All the kids have to create their own art - whatever they want. Jess makes a crown, Todd draws caricatures (which causes some issues), and Liz makes a macaroni pony. It’s the star project, especially compared to Caroline’s potato doll (imagined and real versions as seen). But when Liz comes back to class, all the macaroni has been pecked off! Caroline is blamed, for being jealous. Liz is very un-Liz like in this book (actually all of the last few). Liz makes another macaroni pony, and hides at lunch to make sure Caroline doesn’t touch it - and yells at her when she does. Then they have a paint fight (🤷🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️) and finally realise that their new class pet parrot was the one who destroyed it! I must admit, I didn’t catch on to that as quickly as normal 😬
My rating - 2/10 - eh. I just don’t love the way so many random things happen in these newer class focused books. The twins are very different too.
June 22, 2013
I remember the cover just not the story.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews