Slam Book Fever

Sweet Valley High #48

by Francine Pascal

Predictions ...Slam books are the newest craze at Sweet Valley High. They're do-it-yourself books of lists and predictions about everyone in school. They start out as fun but soon stir up big trouble.First, Jeffrey French, Elizabeth Wakefield's boyfriend, gets paired up with another girl under the category, "Couple of the Future." Then Elizabeth gets matched with the new boy at school, A.J. Morgan--and her twin, Jessica, is furious, because she's the one who's fallen hard for A.J.Will the mysterious slam-book entries spell the end of happiness for both Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Romance, Teen, Contemporary, Chick Lit

85 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 1988

About the author

Francine 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.

Reviews

[Sara]

Not going to rate these; they are a complete guilty pleasure.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Massive spoilers ahead, consider yourself warned.

It’s burn book…oops, I mean slam book time at SVH!



Lila figures out a way to use the slam books in order to try to steal Jeffrey from Liz. We the readers are stunned to see the books put to such scandalous ends. Unless we’ve seen Mean Girls, that is.



Or seen Lila in action before, ever.



Anyway, definitely one of the most fun and adorable SVHs ever. Love what Jessica was getting up to in this one as well, can’t wait to see how long her little Elizabeth act lasts in number 49.

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 1 out of 5]

I definitely feel like I've outgrown the Sweet Valley High books. It was fun while it lasted...

But, let's be honest. They worked at the time they were written and if I was a 13 year old girl again, I'd eat these up. But, I need all of the books and in the right order. I've been picking these books up at random so I don't fully appreciate them as someone who follows the series would.

Regardless, I'm glad to pick these up and take a nostalgic trip with them, but I'm not loving them all that much. They are clearly made for the middle grade or younger YA audience, not geared towards adult. And they just didn't age that well, which is expected.

One out of five stars.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of course this book was awesome! My actual YA years were empty because Slam Books never caught on at my school. :( But, now I feel like I actually experienced them! Plus, it turns out the internet is just a slam book inside your computer!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have clear memories if this book making the rounds in my 4th/5th split classroom in 1987, and then the inevitable composition notebooks with lists of names. The story is decidedly mediocre, but Lila trying to steal Elizabeth's boyfriend, and Jessica realizing she doesn't like to be known as a flirt AND that she is rendered a sputtering-blushing fool whenever around a new tall redheaded transfer student, this was a big book for the SVH series. 3 stars.

[Felicia Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites!

[Cristela T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sweet Valley High is my guilty pleasure. This one was okay. I couldn’t understand why people would get so upset over innocent superlatives like biggest flirt or class clown. Anyway, the whole miss communication thing was kinda annoying.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Source: Kindle Unlimited
Title: Slam Book Fever
Series: Sweet Valley High #48
Author: Francine Pascal // Kate William

I remember owning this one, and I actually really enjoyed it, this is such a relatable thing to me because I am a lowkey petty person. So, Amy Sutton introduces Slam Books to SVH and everyone goes mad for it. Everyone thinks Bruce Patman will be the first millionaire, and Jessica will have six kids. It's all fun and games until someone suggests that Jeffery French, Elizabeth's boyfriend, would be better suited with his close friend Olivia Davidson, and this starts to get to Liz as Liv has recently broke up with her boyfriend Roger and is spending more time with good old Jeff. To get back at them, Liz starts flirting with the new AJ Morgan, much to Jessica's dismay as she fancies AJ to the moon and back.

Oddly enough, despite this being one of the books I remember having a physical copy of, I didn't remember the ending, so I enjoyed finding out who starts the Jeff//Liv rumours and why Lila was acting as the voice of reason in this book. It was Lila starting the rumours, don't be drawn in.

[PurplyCookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that it was my first time to have read about slam books when I first read this back in my grade school days. We tried getting people into this craze and we were fortunately (or unfortunately) partly successful with the endeavor.

One thing that teaches you about this book story line is that slam books are nothing but trouble. Lila uses the slam books to try and steal Liz's boyfriend (building on the fact that Olivia and Jeffrey got paired up since they were, at the time, spending a lot of time together) and Jessica tries being Saint Liz since she wanted to impress the new guy, A.J. Morgan (a plot line which is continued in the subsequent book).

By the end of the story though everything went back to normal. High rating for the introduction of the slam books in my life and that of others in my generation.


More of Purplycookie’s Reviews @: http://www.goodreads.com/purplycookie


Book Details:

Title: Slam Book Fever (Sweet Valley High, #48)
Author: Francine Pascal
Reviewed By: Purplycookie

[Ryan Quan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I totally remember buying a Sweet Valley High slam book in elementary school and trying to convince other people to participate. It didn't work :(

[Felicia Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

rereading the series read this one a second time. :D

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slam Book Fever
Plot: A new craze has hit Sweet Valley High inspired by Amy Sutton. These little marble black and white compositions books are the must-have item of the year with categories such as Biggest Flirt, Most Likely to Be a Millionaire, and Best Couple. A new category is started called Crystal Ball and Elizabeth’s name shows up with the new guy at school AJ Morgan. While Jeffrey’s shows up with Olivia’s. It’s a big mess because Jeffrey is now spending more time with Olivia working on her new literary magazine and asks her to model for one of the photo shots. And Jessica is hurt because she’s fallen hard for AJ and just can’t seem to say much of anything around him. Making her come off as shy. Because Elizabeth herself is hurt she starts being aggressive and coming on to AJ -similar to the way Jessica would- and it turns him off and makes him more attractive to Jessica. Who thinks she can never really be herself around him and comically gets offended when her name keeps popping up under the Biggest Flirt. Lila offers to help Jeffrey out and get Elizabeth back and starts spending time with him privately. Elizabeth flips out when Cara tells she spotted Olivia and Jeffrey in the car with their arms around each other and again when he cancels plans with her to again work with Olivia on the magazine. Olivia goes to Jessica so they can both figure out who starts the rumor and they both deduce that whoever started the category wouldn’t have had time to put in their own slam book. So, they collect all the slam books and discover just as they suspected it’s Lila who tried to get back with Jeffrey and never got over him. Elizabeth starts her own category in the book Biggest Sneak and she and Jeffry make up. He apologies to her. She apologies to him and next we’ll get to see Jessica make a fool of herself trying to be something someone’s she’s not in Playing for Keeps

My Thoughts: This is one of the ones I owned and remembered. We never had slam books when I was in high school. We did have yearbooks that had these categories in them but that was the closest we had. I just found it amusing that Jessica got offended by being called the biggest flirt. REALLY JESSICA! You’ve run through every junior male in your class. I don’t know how well this would carry over as a school craze but I see it more as a slumber party kinda thing. It could be fun if it was just between a few people. Lila was kind of the obvious choice when you really thought about it. Even though I’m surprised she still holds a torch for Jeffry. He’s actually really kind of bland as a boyfriend but I guess you want what you want.

Rating: 7

[James Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is abou a fad in which people would make slam books. These were things you mad or just used things like composition books. On each page you would write a thing people were to answer like Who's The Smartest Girl in School. Later these are exchanged and people read other people's answers.

This is what is going on here but the problem arises when things people read that involve them don't meet with there satisfaction. Jessica, for example, is under the title Biggest Flirt. (If the shoe fits, wear it.)

There's other various romance problems that arrive, not all due to the slam books.

The slam book theme doesn't seem strong enough on its own to carry an entire book, though, so other typical filler is used to flesh out the book.

It's an all right book but not one of the best.

[gem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slam Book Fever and everyone has lost their minds!

The three stars all go to Queen Lila, manipulator extraordinaire! From sitting on a white beach towel emblazoned with The Ritz whilst wearing a gold bathing suit from Milan, to using Slam Books to her own advantage, she’s the highlight of this story.
Elizabeth is a jerk. She’s vile to Jeffery and Olivia, and uses AJ.
Jess is upset at being calling a flirt, uh Jess, you are the flirting legend! I know it’s a set up for Playing for Keeps but I hate it when Jess isn’t full force Hurricane Jessica. (Who needs two Elizabeth’s. No one. No one needs two Elizabeth’s.)

[ThymeOperator · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of my favourites, as a kid. I read it so many times. Today, though...why?? Jessica's instalove for AJ...his patronising gross way of asking her out and her changing who she is for him...the whole idea of slam books (I actually made one and got it popular at school!), Amy wanting credit for gifting this awful thing to them all...Liz, as usual, jumping to conclusions that her boyfriend is cheating on her, refusing to talk to him about it, deciding it would be better to throw herself at a random guy and act like a moron...and Lila...!

Why do they all say Liz is so level-headed and smart? She is INFINITELY stupid. I shook my head the whole way through.

[K.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fond memories
Amy starts off slam books - each person writes down a category (ie: most poular/biggest flirt) and everyone else fills in their ideas of who fits the nominations. Jess is fit to be tied when she is voted biggest flirt - especially as she's trying to impress quiet new boy AJ.
Schemes are afoot though, with the slam books linking Liz and AJ, leading to her and Jeffery breaking up...could our favourite rich bitch be behind all this????

[Kortney Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the good ones. I've inadvertently started a re-read of the SVH books. I keep reading them and somehow am reading them order. Oh well, this was a great story and no one was super annoying. Not too campy, just enough for the SVH series. I look forward to reading book #49

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this where Mean Girls got the idea?

[Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this book because the sweet valley high is a good series. what I learned in this book is a slam book seems like a very harmless thing. When really it can hurt people.

[Carolyn M L · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ This was a fun read! It’s been decades since I last read any of Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High books. Reading this brought back lots of feel good memories.

[n]

I read this in fourth grade and decided to make a slam book, but we only wrote good things about each other in it so we wouldn’t get in trouble. I was super cool.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished it for the nostalgia factor.

[Katrin Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

feels harsh to rate this lower since a) I am not a teenage girl in the 80s and therefore absolutely not the intended audience and b) it was useful novel research

[Reading with Cats · Rating 3 out of 5]

The slam book stuff was beyond tedious but Jess’ personality transplant was hilarious. Cannot wait for poor, dumb A.J. to figure out what he’s *really* dating 😂

[Kodie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want to say something mean but honestly this one feels exactly like something I would have done in high school and I don’t want to look too deeply at that fact.

[Christie Maliyackel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A total walk down memory lane!

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok I actually kinda liked this one.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is still one of my favorite of the "under 100" books!

[Ashley Snarr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slam Book Fever by Francine Pascal is about two teenage twin girls, Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. The girls are beautiful,fun,smart,and talented, and in high school.In their high school there is a new craze going around, it is called the Slam Book! In the Slam Book you come up with categories like Most Popular, Best Looking, Biggest Flirt, and some other things similar to that. After the category is made you put people that you believe fit into that category. Well when Elizabeth and the new guy A.J. are put under the category of Cutest couple along with Elizabeth's boyfriend and friend Olivia things start to become chaotic. Jessica is upset because she likes A.J. and Elizabeth is worried about her boyfriend. Many rumors start along with many troubles for the twins. In the end they learn that you need to trust those around you and quit listening to the rumors and gossip.

This book was fun. It is interesting to see that even back then they went through similar issues we go through in High School. In my high school we did not have a certain book but we had locker doors, bathroom stalls, and text messaging but it is the same thing as a slam book only modernized. The novel had a fun and lighthearted plot that opened up the characters and the issues all teenagers have with insecurity and jealousy. It could help any young adult understand that everyone is insecure at times but that we need to trust those we love and remember that gossiping does not help anything.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

For this month's middle-school book club, we each picked a different Sweet Valley High book and will give a book report on it (how truly middle school!) at our meeting. Not being as well-versed in SVH as I am in, say, the Baby-sitters Club, I couldn't begin to decide what to pick. Then I saw "Slam Book Fever" and thought, "What could be more '80s than a slam book?!" The plot is pretty standard for SVH--Lila uses the slam books to try to steal Elizabeth's boyfriend, Elizabeth goes all Jessica to get back at said boyfriend, and Jessica tries on Elizabeth's personality to impress the new guy in school (a plotline which is continued in the subsequent book). All in all, I felt the slam-book ruse was not nearly as dramatic as it could have been, and I was pretty disappointed that Jessica spent the whole book being "shy" and/or grumpy. But it was fun to revisit Sweet Valley High for a couple of hours nonetheless.