Jessica Gets Spooked

Sweet Valley Kids #43

by Francine Pascal (Creator), Molly Mia Stewart, Ying-Hwa Hu (Illustrator)

Stories about a goblin who haunts the local amusement park don't scare Jessica Wakefield! She can't wait to go. It will sure prove to Charlie Cashman that she's no chicken. Will the goblin get Jessica? Or will she get the goblin first?

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens

75 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

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

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlie harasses Jessica during a field trip to an amusement park, but she gets him back in the end. It's a SVK, it's all very juvenile.

The most surprising part of this book is that Elizabeth dresses up as *The Penguin* from Batman for Halloween.

[Tara Calaby]

Not one of the better Kids books. As happens far to often in these, bullying isn't dealt with at all well, made even worse in this one by the inclusion of the terrible concept of boys harassing and assaulting girls because they "like" them. Telling kids that this is a thing—and an acceptable thing, what's more—sets them up for a lifetime of toxic gendered behaviour. Uncool.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watching a 7-year old Todd being mean to Elizabeth because he’s crushing on her just cracks me up.

Also, Charlie Cashman apparently has a crush on Jessica here, which I kind of wish was explored in SVH. He was such a one-note character once they got to high school, and it’s nice to see more of his personality in these books. (Yes, he’s annoying here, but at least it’s a personality!)

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, this title is very misleading. But I’ll get to that. The whole class is going to Enchanted Forest in the lead up to (ANOTHER) Halloween. Everyone is talking about the Halloween Goblin who haunts the haunted house. He has hair that grows out of his eyes… 🤔 Anyway, Charlie Cashman has been picking on Jess a lot lately, and I’m immediately thinking crush. The other girls don’t want to hang with the twins at the amusement park because Charlie is just always doing horrible things to Jess. The other boys are acting mysterious. Anyway the twins get followed by Charlie and Jerry all day who keep ruining their fun - soaking them on rides, Charlie traps Jess on the dodgem cars and pushes her over so she drops her ice cream. When they met up for lunch (oh I forgot to mention, the kids are off on their own in pairs 🤦🏼‍♀️), Liz forces Todd and Kisho to tell her their secret. We don’t know what it is but suddenly Liz doesn’t want to go to the haunted house… but Jess insists. Surprise, surprise, the Halloween goblin is inside, and he tries to scare Jess, only she is not having it. She knows it’s Charlie and calls him out for having a crush on her and I’m like YES 👏🏻👏🏻 This is the Jessica Wakefield I know and love. He’s humiliated because all the boys are hiding go laugh at Jess, and we’re led to believe he never bothers her again.
My rating - 5/10 - Charlie was awful, but Jess was fantastic 🙌🏻

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I barely remember this story, but I think we find out Charlie has a crush on Jessica, which is why he's trying to scare her.

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover but just not the story.