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Sweet Valley Twins Graphic Novels #8
First Place
When the snobbiest girl at Sweet Valley Middle School gets a new horse, Elizabeth is suddenly interested in being her friend and Jessica isn't buying it. The fun and drama continues in this New York Times bestselling graphic novel series!
Lila Fowler, the snobbiest girl in Sweet Valley Middle School, has gotten her own beautiful horse but she doesn’t even seem to care! Elizabeth thinks it's not fair—she absolutely adores horses and would do anything to get to ride one—even pretending to be friends with Lila!
Jessica can’t stand that Elizabeth is acting so fake just to buddy up with her friend. Just how far will Elizabeth go before she loses everything—all for the love of a horse?
Lila Fowler, the snobbiest girl in Sweet Valley Middle School, has gotten her own beautiful horse but she doesn’t even seem to care! Elizabeth thinks it's not fair—she absolutely adores horses and would do anything to get to ride one—even pretending to be friends with Lila!
Jessica can’t stand that Elizabeth is acting so fake just to buddy up with her friend. Just how far will Elizabeth go before she loses everything—all for the love of a horse?
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 8, 2026
I usually enjoy Sweet Valley Twins, but I did not like this one. I found it unrealistic and I disliked all the characters. I disliked Jessica (obviously.) I disliked Lila (obviously.) Even Elizabeth, who I usually like and is usually a sweet friend and person, was not an enjoyable character.
Amy seemed to forgive Elizabeth super fast. I mean, yes, I understand that they’re good friends. But Elizabeth didn’t even really apologize to her, and Amy said it was fine, even though it clearly wasn’t. She stood up to Lila, but that is not the same as an apology. If I were Amy, I’d be impressed, but still need to rebuild my trust and relationship with her. It just felt like there was a pivotal turn in their relationship and then they made up and everything went back to normal. That’s not like real life.
Oh yeah, I’m also not a horse girl.
Amy seemed to forgive Elizabeth super fast. I mean, yes, I understand that they’re good friends. But Elizabeth didn’t even really apologize to her, and Amy said it was fine, even though it clearly wasn’t. She stood up to Lila, but that is not the same as an apology. If I were Amy, I’d be impressed, but still need to rebuild my trust and relationship with her. It just felt like there was a pivotal turn in their relationship and then they made up and everything went back to normal. That’s not like real life.
Oh yeah, I’m also not a horse girl.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2026
This was so much fun! And the artwork for Thunder is adorable! 😍🐴
June 2, 2026
Love horses. I'm right there with her. Elizabeth can't stand the arrogant, snobby Lila, her sister's bestie but Lila has the most wonderful horse and she doesn't want to take care of him, just wants attention. Elizabeth hides her opinion and pride so she can get closer to Thunder and take care of him instead of Lila and one lie gets into another, a snowball that ends up hurting friends and her sister. Time to fix it all, make it all right, with new friends, secondary characters with a queer love interest making this volume fun for June.
May 21, 2026
I really enjoyed this installment!
August 18, 2026
Or, the one during which Liz becomes a horse girlie.
This was a fairly faithful rendition of the original novel. Liz has horse mad, and she is jealous when Lila starts bragging about her father actually buying her a horse. So jealous that she doesn't even want to see the horse until Jessica, of all people, blubbers about how beautiful he is. So Liz gives in, meets Thunder, and falls absolutely in love with him. She's willing to cozy up to Lila in order to have access to Thunder, and even agrees to write a feature article about them for the Sixers. She also lets Lila copy her homework. Any time she's not hanging around Lila, she's hanging around the stables - which makes her family, her twin, and her best friend, Amy, very upset. Liz is even encouraged to enter the stable's annual owner's competition in the beginner category, and she starts to feel guilty because everything thinks she owns Thunder, when really she doesn't. Lila has lost interest in the matter, other than what she can glean from smartypants Liz - at least until she hears that Liz is indeed entering the competition behind her back!
First of all, nothing can compare to the original cover of this book: First Place. Every expression is flawless LOL. There isn't much that was updated from the original story, although giving Ted the stableboy an (unrequited?) crush on Steven instead of reciprocating Jessica's feelings was an interesting choice. Everything else is rather spot on (the prize for winning the competition has, of course, been updated from $75 to $500), and I really like graphic novel!Amy and wish we could've seen her kiss with Ken on-screen. They weren't hanging out on page like in the original, but the interest is obviously still there.
All in all, a fun read, even with the lesser of the two artists on lead here.
This was a fairly faithful rendition of the original novel. Liz has horse mad, and she is jealous when Lila starts bragging about her father actually buying her a horse. So jealous that she doesn't even want to see the horse until Jessica, of all people, blubbers about how beautiful he is. So Liz gives in, meets Thunder, and falls absolutely in love with him. She's willing to cozy up to Lila in order to have access to Thunder, and even agrees to write a feature article about them for the Sixers. She also lets Lila copy her homework. Any time she's not hanging around Lila, she's hanging around the stables - which makes her family, her twin, and her best friend, Amy, very upset. Liz is even encouraged to enter the stable's annual owner's competition in the beginner category, and she starts to feel guilty because everything thinks she owns Thunder, when really she doesn't. Lila has lost interest in the matter, other than what she can glean from smartypants Liz - at least until she hears that Liz is indeed entering the competition behind her back!
First of all, nothing can compare to the original cover of this book: First Place. Every expression is flawless LOL. There isn't much that was updated from the original story, although giving Ted the stableboy an (unrequited?) crush on Steven instead of reciprocating Jessica's feelings was an interesting choice. Everything else is rather spot on (the prize for winning the competition has, of course, been updated from $75 to $500), and I really like graphic novel!Amy and wish we could've seen her kiss with Ken on-screen. They weren't hanging out on page like in the original, but the interest is obviously still there.
All in all, a fun read, even with the lesser of the two artists on lead here.
June 26, 2026
Jessica is a self absorbed brat as usual. Lila Fowler continues to be a selfish, lazy, entitled, awful princess. Elizabeth didn't even get to ride Thunder in the horse show.
I did like the addition of an LGBT and disabled character in the new stablehand.
Elizabeth continues to be a doormat for everyone to walk all over.
Mrs. Wakefield continues to be useless by not calling out Jessica for being a whiny, boy crazy loser. Mr. Wakefield continues to be rather uninvolved with his daughters.
The horse illustrations were lovely.
The plot was irritatingly unrealistic - who is paying for Elizabeth's competition riding clothes or entry fees? Why was her Mom so unsupportive of Elizabeth's new passion?
The only accurate plot point was a rich, bratty girl getting to own a horse while having no knowledge or interest in horses.
I did like the addition of an LGBT and disabled character in the new stablehand.
Elizabeth continues to be a doormat for everyone to walk all over.
Mrs. Wakefield continues to be useless by not calling out Jessica for being a whiny, boy crazy loser. Mr. Wakefield continues to be rather uninvolved with his daughters.
The horse illustrations were lovely.
The plot was irritatingly unrealistic - who is paying for Elizabeth's competition riding clothes or entry fees? Why was her Mom so unsupportive of Elizabeth's new passion?
The only accurate plot point was a rich, bratty girl getting to own a horse while having no knowledge or interest in horses.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2026
And yet another book with a gay person. They should start writing this kind of stuff in the book description. Especially in children's books.
May 8, 2026
Copy provided by the publisher
Elizabeth and Jessica are always at odds, and in this new book, are fighting over Lila. Lila is Jessica's friend, and part of the Unicorns group, so Jessica is angry when Liz starts to take an interest in the popular rich girl because she has a horse. Thunder is appealing to all of the girls at school who are interested in horses, and the girls are offering to do Lila's homework to get near the stables. Lila isn't really interested in horses at all, because they are a lot of work, as well as being smelly, but she's enjoying the surge in popularity. Liz, who writes for the school newspaper, offers to do an article on Thunder, so has to hang out at the stables. She's thrilled to groom the horse and practice riding, and spends so much time at the stables that the staff, including Ted, think she should enter the upcoming competition. The only problem? It's for owners. Jessica is sad and angry that Lila isn't spending time with her, but pleased when she gets invited to a slumber party. Of course, Lila has invited Liz (who has a horrible time) as well as other hangers on, so no one but Lila is happy. When Liz spills a secret about her friend Amy, Amy is not happy, and eventually ends up ratting out Liz's desire to compete. Jessica embarasses herself a bit by flirting with the older Ted, who is more interested in her older brother Steven, but in the end, everything works out.
The Sweet Valley Twins books, based on 1980s paperbacks, are an interesting look at what middle grade literature used to be: lots of realistic friend and family drama, short books with simple plots, and books that were just fun to read. Mothers were reading Harlequin Romances, and tween girls got massive series like Martin's The Baby-Sitters Club and Haynes' The Fabulous Five. These weren't necessarily great literature, but they were addictive, and they lead children to read a lot and to wait for the next book to come out. Modern publishing should take note.
Whittle's illustrations are fairly similar to the ones in other volumes of this series, and are brightly colored with a variety of pastels. There are lots of expressive eyes, and an interesting array of fashions that give a nod to the book's 1980s origin; there are few girls at my school who ever where dresses or skirts, but they are quite the fashion in Sweet Valley.
The graphic novel adaptation does seem somewhat updated, although I have not been able to compare this to the original. The cast seems a little more diverse; I'm not sure Ted, with his prosthetic leg and LGBTQIA+ identity, was portrayed exactly this way in the original. The mother is good about talking to the girls and trying to help them with their problems. Lila is still very 1980s; it never occurs to her that having other people doing her school work might make it hard for her to understand the material in the long run. Her family situation is over the top; fancy house, billing daddy for transporting the horse to her back yard, and a seeming disregard for everyone but herself.
Did I personally enjoy this? Not really. The sisters constantly bickering over everything wore on me, and Elizabeth's interest in horses seemed to come out of nowhere. But will my students like this? Absolutely. It's a bright and breezy storyline, with juicy details about girls gossiping, jockeying for social position, and people embarrassing themselves right and left. It's not a philosophical, introspective book about deep life lessons, and that's a little bit of a relief. Graphic novels are popular in my library, and Pascal's series is quite popular with fans of Libenson, Scrivan, and Russell.
Elizabeth and Jessica are always at odds, and in this new book, are fighting over Lila. Lila is Jessica's friend, and part of the Unicorns group, so Jessica is angry when Liz starts to take an interest in the popular rich girl because she has a horse. Thunder is appealing to all of the girls at school who are interested in horses, and the girls are offering to do Lila's homework to get near the stables. Lila isn't really interested in horses at all, because they are a lot of work, as well as being smelly, but she's enjoying the surge in popularity. Liz, who writes for the school newspaper, offers to do an article on Thunder, so has to hang out at the stables. She's thrilled to groom the horse and practice riding, and spends so much time at the stables that the staff, including Ted, think she should enter the upcoming competition. The only problem? It's for owners. Jessica is sad and angry that Lila isn't spending time with her, but pleased when she gets invited to a slumber party. Of course, Lila has invited Liz (who has a horrible time) as well as other hangers on, so no one but Lila is happy. When Liz spills a secret about her friend Amy, Amy is not happy, and eventually ends up ratting out Liz's desire to compete. Jessica embarasses herself a bit by flirting with the older Ted, who is more interested in her older brother Steven, but in the end, everything works out.
The Sweet Valley Twins books, based on 1980s paperbacks, are an interesting look at what middle grade literature used to be: lots of realistic friend and family drama, short books with simple plots, and books that were just fun to read. Mothers were reading Harlequin Romances, and tween girls got massive series like Martin's The Baby-Sitters Club and Haynes' The Fabulous Five. These weren't necessarily great literature, but they were addictive, and they lead children to read a lot and to wait for the next book to come out. Modern publishing should take note.
Whittle's illustrations are fairly similar to the ones in other volumes of this series, and are brightly colored with a variety of pastels. There are lots of expressive eyes, and an interesting array of fashions that give a nod to the book's 1980s origin; there are few girls at my school who ever where dresses or skirts, but they are quite the fashion in Sweet Valley.
The graphic novel adaptation does seem somewhat updated, although I have not been able to compare this to the original. The cast seems a little more diverse; I'm not sure Ted, with his prosthetic leg and LGBTQIA+ identity, was portrayed exactly this way in the original. The mother is good about talking to the girls and trying to help them with their problems. Lila is still very 1980s; it never occurs to her that having other people doing her school work might make it hard for her to understand the material in the long run. Her family situation is over the top; fancy house, billing daddy for transporting the horse to her back yard, and a seeming disregard for everyone but herself.
Did I personally enjoy this? Not really. The sisters constantly bickering over everything wore on me, and Elizabeth's interest in horses seemed to come out of nowhere. But will my students like this? Absolutely. It's a bright and breezy storyline, with juicy details about girls gossiping, jockeying for social position, and people embarrassing themselves right and left. It's not a philosophical, introspective book about deep life lessons, and that's a little bit of a relief. Graphic novels are popular in my library, and Pascal's series is quite popular with fans of Libenson, Scrivan, and Russell.
May 29, 2026
Ok, so this book was good until I realized on of the characters are gay so if anyone wants to ever read this book just know there is a gay guy that is the main -ish character. Overall if u didn't count the gay stuff in it then it was pretty good. Well, if u don't like gay in ur books I wouldn't recommend reading it even if u like graphic novels. The thing that bugs me the most is that all the other books had not even a little bit of gay or anything weird. I was so happy cus now a days you can't really find books that don't have some sort of bad thing that wasn't even needed in the book, but in this book, it is making me not want to read any of her new ones if she makes new ones. Also, the other books before this one are really good and I would recommend those other Sweet Valley Twins Books just not book 8.
Bye
Bye
August 3, 2026
Sweet Valley Twins graphic novels, #8: First Place by Francine Pascal, Nicole Andelfinger, & Knack Whittle
Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a small piece of paper with the book.
Started July 28th, 2026.
Finished July 31st, 2026.
July 28th, 2026: read pp. 1-89 in physical copy.
July 31st, 2026: read pp. 90-end in physical copy, + sneak peek of book #9.
Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a small piece of paper with the book.
Started July 28th, 2026.
Finished July 31st, 2026.
July 28th, 2026: read pp. 1-89 in physical copy.
July 31st, 2026: read pp. 90-end in physical copy, + sneak peek of book #9.
September 10, 2026
Could there be more to Lila Fowler than meets the eye? Has Elizabeth (Liz) Wakefield underestimated her? As Liz's twin, Jessica watches a friendship form between her best friend and her sister, she's jealous but also suspicious. And Elizabeth seems willing to let bygones be bygones in order to have access to Lila's new horse. She even inadvertently betrays a friend's confidences. YIKES! This graphic novel version of the beloved classic series will have readers guessing what will happen all the way to the finish line.
June 24, 2026
Loved this book!! Would've gave it 5 stars, but I gave it 4 because of a completely unnecessary 'crush' about half way through. The boy who teaches Lizzie how to ride Thunder has a crush on the twins' brother. Not great for a kids' book in my opinion, but it would be a good book for kids/tweens/teens that love horses!
July 3, 2026
Another installment that I enjoyed. There is a semi-major plot point that I don’t remember from the original series, but after I got over my initial “Wait… what?” I moved on.
I know I would have loved the chance to spend that much time with a horse—honestly, I still would today. But for now, I’ll just have to live vicariously through a graphic novel adaptation of a 1980s YA novel.
I know I would have loved the chance to spend that much time with a horse—honestly, I still would today. But for now, I’ll just have to live vicariously through a graphic novel adaptation of a 1980s YA novel.
October 10, 2026
I remember loving sweet valley twins when I was younger but my goodness I do not remember how mean the characters were to each other. The lying, gossiping, breaking of trust and manipulation rampant throughout this one specifically left little to engage the reader. I was very disappointed and won’t be adding this one (specifically) to my classroom.
July 2, 2026
This was a cute one, and I loved that they allude to Steven being gay, which is established as canon much later in the series. I really liked the character of Ted, and Elizabeth and Jessica were...Elizabeth and Jessica. They are not exactly known to change and grow throughout the series.
September 27, 2026
I was really disappointed in this CHILDREN'S graphic novel. Although I liked it,it swore and had a gay character. The story was great other than that but I don't think it was very kid friendly with those aspects.
May 6, 2026
A short and sweet read.
May 12, 2026
Better than the last installment. Great illustrations, especially all the horse ones! 🐴❤️
Could have done without the blatant Netflixification of a canon character, tho. 🙄
Could have done without the blatant Netflixification of a canon character, tho. 🙄
May 16, 2026
3.5 stars
May 22, 2026
I love all the drama but yet everything works out in the end.
June 4, 2026
it was good, not amazing but good 🤷🏼♀️ I just like reading graphic novels cause they go by quickly
Read
June 5, 20262.5 stars
I did not really like it. I was expecting it to be better. Elizabeth was bing really annoying
I did not really like it. I was expecting it to be better. Elizabeth was bing really annoying
July 14, 2026
LOVE I too would lie and scheme and cozy up to a narcissist to have access to a beautiful horse!
Read
July 18, 2026LBG
August 11, 2026
Lila is the worst, but the horse was cute as heck.
September 19, 2026
This one was super cute!
Who is the blue-haired Unicorn supposed to be? And, did Steven reciprocate the crush or not?!
Who is the blue-haired Unicorn supposed to be? And, did Steven reciprocate the crush or not?!
June 9, 2026
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews