The Slime That Ate Sweet Valley

Sweet Valley Twins #53

by Francine Pascal

Best actress ... Jessica Wakefield?

It's green. it's gooey. It gobbles up humans. It's The Slime that Ate Sweet Valley—coming soon to a cinema near you—and starring Jessica Wakefield!

At first, Jessica is thrilled to win the leading role in the Sweet Valley Middle School's sixth-grade movie. But soon she learns that being an actress is hard work. When she discovers that she'll actually have to kiss Winston Egbert and Randy Mason on camera, she begs her twin sister, Elizabeth, to rewrite the script. But it's too late. The show must go on.

To Jessica, the only thing worse than getting gobbled up by The Slime is having to kiss two boys in front of all her friends!

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

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

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay- but someone needs to run a diagnosis on both Lila and Jessica. Those two are…. Not okay.

[kylajaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Synopsis: Jessica is bored (of course, you knew that). So when Mr. Bowman, the sixth-grade English teacher (apparently the only one), asks for suggestions as to what their next project should be, shy Leslie Forsythe volunteers that they should do a movie. Lila wonders why she wasn't smart enough to come up with that (I wondered the same thing). You can bet that Jessica is excited, natural born talent that she is and all. She and Lila are both determined to get the lead role. If you guessed that Liz wants to be scriptwriter, you have been reading too many of these books and need to get a life (also, I feel your pain). Leslie wants to be an actress, but she's too shy to try out. Spoiler alert: she also has a crush on Randy Mason. The kids know the hardest thing will be agreeing on a plot, because the Unicorns want love and the boys want a horror movie. Scriptwriters Maria, Liz, Amy, and Leslie turn the movie into a romantic-horror-comedy spoof called "The Slime That Ate Sweet Valley." If you're also super-bummed it has nothing to do with the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and getting slimed, raise your hand. Unsurprisingly, Amy came up with the title for the movie. Mr. Bowman and the boys love it, and the Unicorns acquiesce once they learn a love story will be involved.

The kids audition and Lila is terrible. Jessica thinks Brooke is okay, but she knows she can be better. She is mortified, however, when she has to audition with Randy. She is even more shocked to find that he doesn't suck, but Jessica attributes that to her flawless performance skills. Mariah Carey would be proud. Leslie wants to audition, but when it is her turn she chickens out. It doesn't help that she overhears some Unicorns making fun of her. So, as mentioned, she gets put on scriptwriting duty even though she is positively in love with acting (she is also sure never to be seen again after this book). Leslie acts weird around the other scriptwriters because she doesn't want them to know about her secret crush on Randy or how she chickened out at auditions.

Meanwhile, Jessica and Lila are a pain to each other and everyone else. Jessica wins the lead, but Lila isn't so bummed once she finds out that Winston and Randy are playing the two main male characters. Lila gets stuck on clean-up duty but instead inserts herself into director mode. Her dad has a spanking new camcorder (the times! how they've changed!) and Lila says only SHE can use it, so she has to be part of the camera crew. She starts working off-duty though, and begins filming her friends' most embarrassing moments.

The scriptwriters polish off their first draft, giving main character Sherri/Amanda a kiss with both the Slime (Winston) and the main boy (Randy). Liz lets Jess read the script early, and she is completely tickled pink about making Jessica kiss both Winston and Randy. I would be, too, if I knew Jessica wasn't going to find a way out of it. First, she demands Liz change the script, but Liz just says the show must go on, and Jessica buys it. Then Jessica confides in Mandy something shocking: she's never been kissed! She doesn't want her first kiss to be with two nerds. She's worried because she doesn't have experience. In relation to this and Sweet Valley's funniest home videos, Lila sets out to embarrass Jessica big time for winning the lead role over her. Lila doesn't know about Jessica's unfortunate lack of tongue action, but she does invite her over to practice kissing for her scenes. Jessica, master manipulator, sees nothing amiss with Lila's fake niceness. Lila films Jess fake-kissing a pillow. She later holds a party for almost the whole sixth-grade class (you know, the kids who matter) and shows all the embarrassing footage she has captured of Jessica, Ellen, Mandy, and Aaron. Jessica, of course, vows to get her back.

Then we have Jess vigorously avoiding the kissing scenes. Jessica knows she can't just faint when they are about to happen, so she goes to plan B: be a diva. She exhausts everyone on the cast and crew with her outrageous demands, but she manages to delay rehearsing the kisses for two days. On the third day she has a coughing fit right before the first kissing scene. From then on she fakes a cold. Leslie is off in the corner with Liz and the gang sulking at every turn about her missed opportunity to play the lead in "The Slime that Ate Sweet Valley." Jessica, though she is a Wakefield, hasn't yet grown into her powers of manipulating the entire universe, and therefore she knows the kisses will happen eventually. This is when she quits, allowing Leslie to take over. By this point Leslie has confided in the other scriptwriters about her deep crush on Randy, but they reassure her that as an actress she can put her feelings for him aside. They are right, and she gets the part.

But we can't close without Jessica getting revenge on Lila! That's the only true "finis." Truth be told, everyone in the original embarrassing video is fed up with Lila, so Jessica doesn't really have to convince too many people to help her get revenge. While holding a Unicorn sleepover, they get Lila to recite the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet with a dust mop, wearing an oatmeal face mask. Jessica gets the class prankster, Pete, to rig Lila's embarrassing moment before the class movie. Lila is humiliated, and Jessica got out of having to kiss Dweeb 1 and Dweeb 2. Bow down, bitches.

Alternate Title
: "Not As Much Fun as Nickelodeon"

Tagline: "Will Jessica get slimed?" (see alternate title)

On a Scale of 1-10, How Annoying is Elizabeth?
 0, she's okay in this one.

On a Scale of 1-10, How Sociopathic is Jessica? 4, she humiliates Lila, but, to be fair, Lila deserves it. Also, Jessica acts like a diva while shooting the movie, but what else is new?

The Big Deal: Shooting the sixth-grade movie, "The Slime that Ate Sweet Valley"

Lingering Questions: In auditions, the main girl character is called Amanda, and yet the scriptwriters say her name is Sherri. Hmmm. Also, who actually grows cucumbers in their basement? I mean, is this really a thing?

Cover: Good or Bad?: Good, though I have the British version without Elizabeth in the frame. Jessica's actually not screaming because she's being attacked by slime, she's screaming because she has to kiss Winston Egbert. Naturally.

Quotes from the Book: "Her dark hair was very long, a little TOO long, Jessica thought." (Because Leslie has to have a flaw.)

"'Deirdre is really super,' Elizabeth said to Leslie as they were leaving the store." (And Liz is really lame.)

"Ellen spoke excitedly. 'Well, there's this very pretty girl, see, and she gets really sick, and her boyfriend swears that he'll never leave her, and the doctors say--'" (Let it be known Nicholas Sparks ripped all the plots to his novels from the pages of Sweet Valley Twins.)

"'Maybe the story could involve a vampire who falls in love with a human girl,' Elizabeth suggested." (Ditto Stephenie Meyer).

"'Sure, I ACT cool because I AM cool,' Jessica said quickly." (Just in case you missed that crucial plot point.)

"Jessica sighed. 'Yeah. Unfortunately, I'm probably the healthiest person in the whole grade.'" (Ditto).

And here's a bit of feminism in Sweet Valley:

"'You're the vacuum that ate Sweet Valley!'
'Yeah, but I'm a guy,' Steven protested.
'And I can't eat what I like because I'm a girl?' Jessica demanded.
'I can't believe you, Steven! You are SO sexist,' Elizabeth said angrily."

Moral of the Story: That girl you know with hair that's too long and eyes that are too big is actually a terrific actress - she's just shy.

Final Rating: Two stars. So bummed this had no supernatural elements whatsoever, not to mention no real Nickelodeon-type slime.

[Tiffany Spencer]

The Slime That Ate Sweet Valley
Jessica is complaining about needing a break. She’s tired of teachers and sick of classes. She’s ready to have some fun. When the twins get to class, Mr. Bowman announces someone’s put a rubber snake on his chair. He’s not happy about that or the fact that their essays last week were terrible. Not only this class but with all the sixth grade English classes. He wonders what’s going on. Jessica suggests maybe it’s because they’ve been doing too much school work and they need to do something fun. Interestingly, Mr. Bowman agrees and asks for suggestions on how to liven up his classes.

. Lesley Forsythe suggests making a movie. Jessica is surprised because Leslie hardly ever speaks out, but she and Lila approve of the idea instantly. Everyone gets excited and starts to shout out the jobs that will need to be done in order to make the movie, but Mr. Bowman brings them back down to reality and says it cost a lot of money to make a movie. Liz suggests they can use a video recorder. Pete Stone says the library has a camcorder they can use. Mr. Bowman says they’ve convinced him and they’ll start tomorrow.

Jessica sits back and thinks of how she knows she’s going to get picked for the lead role. She has more acting experience than anyone other than Maria-who’s in the Drama Club so hopefully she won’t audition-. After class, Lila tells Jessica that she’s not the only one with acting talent (when she points out she’s worked with Dolores Dufay). Jessica thinks Poor Lila. She’ll be so disappointed when she doesn’t get the role. Doesn’t she know whose name is on this series by now?

At lunch, Liz, Amy, and Leslie talk about ideas. Liz suggest the plot of an Amanda Howard mystery. Leslie says since this is their first film they should keep it simple. Amy suggests a movie about a baton twirler. Sophie suggests Winston as the co-star. Brooke suggests a rockumentary but agrees with Leslie that they should be the stars. Liz suggests making a list of all their favorite movies and then coming up with a theme. Leslie offers the help of her cousin that’s the manager of SV Video. They agree to meet with her after school and Deirdre is happy to finally be able to talk to some of the other kids.

Surprisingly Leslie knows a lot about Maria’s movies. Deirdre asks if Leslie going to audition but she says she wouldn’t stand a chance against girls like Maria, and Jessica. Leslie tells her there’s a first time for everyone and don’t miss out on the opportunity. The movie *was* her idea. Even tho she says she didn’t think of it so she could star in it.

After they leave, they talk about how all the kids might not like their ideas. The Unicorns want a love story. The guys want a horror picture. Liz says why don’t they make it a comic spoof of a horror story plot with a love story ending. That way it’ll have something for everybody. Mr. Bowman says the auditions will be (two days away). First, they have to think of the *kind* of movie. In class after some discussion, they decide to do with Liz’s idea of a spoof of a horror love story. He gives the assignment that night for everyone to decide what they want to do. They decide to make it an open showing for the seventh and eighth graders. They’ll also invite their families, sell popcorn and candy, and invite a reviewer from the SV Tribune

That night at dinner, the twins and Steven find out that their parents are going to Mexico. The twins and their brother ask can they stay by themselves. Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield says there’s time to think about it but they’ll definitely make it to their movie. In class, Mr. Bowman tells them list their first, second, and third choices for roles in making the movies. Lila has written (actress, actress, actress). Jessica writes the same thing.

An easel falls over near Pete’s desk and Mr. Bowman teases the ghost of the English classroom strikes again. Some of the boys this would be a good title for the movie. They call it The Ghost of SVMS and it’ll be about a ghost that comes back to haunt the school that turns out to be a boy that died from the school’s lunch. Jessica sees its Pete pranking again. Before there were cricket noises in the class and his hand was in his pocket.

Liz asks Leslie which roles she wrote down. She wrote (actress, scriptwriter, and costume designer. She tells Liz, scriptwriter, costume designer, and actress. Liz says maybe they’ll be working together. She agrees with Liz that scriptwriting is the most important but deep down she thinks acting is. She tells herself it’ll be fine. Acting really isn’t for her anyway. Amy and Liz are on the phone that night and come up with the idea that there’s a boy that grows something that turns into “The Slime”. They’ll call it “The Slime That Ate Sweet Valley.”

Steven thinks it’s a cool title. Jessica thinks it’s gross. She’s a *serious* actress. How can she perform in something with that name. This makes it a definite for Amy. Jessica tells them the good news that she thinks their parents will let them stay by themselves so they have to act more responsible. In class, Mr. Bowman shows them a camcorder and tells them how to use it. But he says it’s old and the sound isn’t sharp. Lila says her father will be buying a brand new one with top-notch sound that can shot in the dark. He says they can use the Wakefields and the Fowlers. He then shows them a horror film and tells them to pay attention to the camera techniques.

So, they watch Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but the spooky thing is the VCR keeps turning itself on and off. Jessica knows it’s Pete and when she looks at him, he winks. They talk about the title Amy came up with. The boys like it. Lila and Ellen think it’s bad. They talk about the plot. Characters get added (a sister that’s a nag, the grandmother that wants the plant to grow pickles. a English teacher and a principal (Mr. Bowmans suggestion). Mr. Bowman says if they want to audition to be a slime victim come to the auditions after school. Jessica and Lila both try to convince each other to drop out because the movie will be bad for their careers.

Liz asks Amy if she’s going to try out to be a victim. Amy says maybe. Then they ask Lesley. She says she doesn’t think so and then admits she’s scared to audition. She thinks everyone will laugh at her but Liz tells her they’re supposed to. She tells them maybe and walks off. Sure they’re thinking she’s a jerk. At lunch, Jessica tells Mandy she just told Lila that she wasn’t interested in auditioning to try to get her not to audition.

Lila auditions with Winston. She’s as flat as cardboard. Jessica auditions with Randy. She’s good but he’s AMAZING! The scene they do almost brings the rest of the room to tears. Leaslie is supposed to go next but she’s not there. We find out that 1) she heard everyone’s reaction to Lila and thought I’ll pass on that 2) she heard Ellen and Lila talking about her and saying she’d be best to play the slime and 3) she’s secretly in love with Randy (who she’d have to audition). So, she wnuck out the back. Jessica gets the female lead. Randy gets the male lead. The slime is given to Lila Fowler. Lila says nope. So, the second choice is Winston. He happily accepts. Carolne is given the role of the grandmother and their principal will be the principal. Mr. Bowman will be the director. The scriptwriters are Elizabeth, Amy's, Leslie's, and Maria's. Lila is in charge of the clean-up crew.

Lila says nope! She’s running the camera. Her father just got a new expensive camera and she’ll let them use it only if she can operate it.. Leslie happy for Randy and Jessica (well sort of) but she can’t help thinking what it would be like if she would have gotten the part. When Liz and Amy ask why Leslie didn’t show up. She says she “had something important to do” and she really didn’t want to audition. She just wrote actress because she couldn’t think of anything else. Then she rushes off to “get something out of her locker”.

Amy says they should get to know her better and she’ll try to find out what’s going on when they walk home from school. At lunch, Lila and Jessica argue over whose more important the actors or the camera person. Lila says she’s inviting some friends over after school to try out her new camera. She invites Janet and says she *would* invite Jessica but she knows she has a dentist appointment and it’s a shame she’ll have to miss out.

On Saturday, at Valley Mall, Lila is still arguing that the camera person is more important. Lila starts to drive her friends crazy by shooting them at their worst moments. She says she needs the practice to be an expert by Monday. Lila promises they’ll be kept between them. They see the boys outside and Lila starts to shoot them showing off. Aaron falls into a ditch. Lila tho tells him to do it again. Aaron gets mad and tells her to turn the camera off or he’ll turn it off. Lila says it would have been great if there was no blood. He says he’ll give her more blood and storms off. Lila doesn’t understand why he’s so mad.

Liz, Amy, and Maria go to Leslie’s and see his has quite the movie poster collection. Again, they ask why she didn’t try out. She changes the subject and says they need to get to work on the script. They agree to shoot in Leslie’s basement. They discuss how it should end and decide that after the slime eats the girl, he stops eating people and shrivels up and dies.

They say they need to pick more victims and ask Leslie but again she says she’s not into acting. Just movies. Lila keeps filming Jessica at embarrassing moments. Later that night, Jessica convinces Liz to let her read the script before she shows the class. At first, she thinks its funny but then she gets to the part where she has to kiss the slime (Winston). Then she finds out she also has to kiss “Brian” Randy. Jessica the next day confesses to Mandy that she’s never kissed anyone before. She’s just had second hand experiences and she has to have her first kiss in front of the camera.

Jessica says she’s thought of faking sick. Mandy says that won’t work. Maybe she can faint before she has to kiss Winston. Jessica says she’d have to faint twice. She thinks about skipping rehearsals but knows this won’t fly with Mr. Bowman. During rehearsals she keeps coming up with distractions.. When it’s time to do the kissing scene, Jessica says she’s coming down with a cold. Mr. Bowman suggest they just read through the play (and not do the kiss) until Jessica feels better. Lila starts to be nicer to Jessica. She stops one of the rehearsals and says she wants to make sure Jessica has the best angle and she compliments her on the job she’s doing. On the way home, she offers to teach Jessica how to do a fake kiss and film her so she’ll see how it looks.

At her house she tells her the trick is to aim for a spot just beside the mouth. And actually, your lips never even touch the other person. You turn your head at an angle. That hides what you're actually doing. She gives her a pillow to practice on. When Jessica wants to watch the tape, she says their dad lent someone their VCR. Jessica says she can take it home, but Lila says Steven might see it and she’d never hear the end of it. So, Jessica decides to keep the tape at Lila’s. Amy, Maria, and Liz go to Leslie’s to watch videos. She has to go to SV Video and confess to Deirdre that she didn’t try out. When she gets back, the other girls discover when the video is corrupted, Leslie can say the last scenes of the movie line for line. She eventually admits to them she was at the audition but the reason she didn’t was because she likes Randy. Maria tells her this isn’t uncommon and tells her about the time she had to do a ice-cream commercial and had a huge crush on the guy. Leslie says she wishes she would have but now it’s too late. Maria even says she thinks she’s better than Jessica. Lesley says maybe next time and it means a lot to her that they even just think she’s good.

At a informal party, Lila invites some people over and plays the embarrassing videos. Then acts like she didn’t know Jessica would be embarrassed by it. She tells her if she’s embarrassed by some people seeing her kiss a pillow then how will she feel if people watch her kiss two of the biggest nerds in class. So, she quits. Auditions are held again and Lesley auditions with Randy and gets the part. Jessica has to sew costumes. The Unicorns have a slumber party. They get Lila to do a scene from Romeo and Juliet with a dust mop with a face mask. Jessica gets Pete to help play the video of Lila before the movie or she’ll tell about the practical jokes. Deirdre decides to go back to film school.

My Thoughts:
I think this book just proves that Jessica shouldn’t be an actress. She might have gotten out of doing this part but I can imagine that if you’ve signed a contract to do a movie, you can’t just quit the production because you don’t wanna kiss the male lead. Then was it really appropriate to have a middle school play where the students have to kiss on the mouth. Not that I don’t doubt for a second some of em don’t do this outside of SVMS but it looks like Mr. Bowman would know better.

Rating: 5

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

First paperback I bought (well, asked my Uncle to buy), read, and loved~!
I remember cherishing it like it was the only book in the entire world. ^^
I have since lost my copy of it. But it still holds a very special place in my heart. ♥

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute story. Nancy's elementary school class is going to do a movie. The teacher has the students decide the title and what the movie will be about. A list of what type of individuals will be needed to make and perform in the movie and, of course, Lila and Jessica are competing for the lead position.

This is a problem, though, when someone else would like to play the lead but is too shy to come forward. Another problem arises when Jessica and Lila realize they will have to kiss the monster, and neither one is overly fond of that idea. The whole thing turns out to be a nice story with an interesting ending.

[Lydia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book!

I love the thought of making a movie, and I loved reading about how they did it. It takes a lot of people and a lot of work to make one, though!

Another thing I liked about this book is how the popular girls got so excited over the movie, but when they actually read the script and had to act it out for the first time, they hated it. After all, no one wants to get eaten by a slime monster, right? (Raises hand)

But yeah, I really, really liked this book!

[Melenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover but just not the story.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

How can anyone forget this cover?

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

21/25

I remember the cover of this book!

4 original
4 good topic
5 fast read
4 plot
3 opinion

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so good

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really good!

[Kiting Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

i will never pass up the opportunity to read these books again!