Nicole AndelfingerCritiques
Auteur de Sweet Valley Twins: Best Friends: (A Graphic Novel)
Critiques
I love Amy’s spunk! And little Ken is drawn so cutely.
I enjoy Aguirre’s artwork. The style works wonderfully here! I love every panel.
Trigger warnings: Bullying
Score: Six points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.
Best Friends by Nicole Andelfinger was circling my recommendations for a while and when I saw that a library has this one, I seized the opportunity to get it. Eventually, I picked it up and read it, but when I finished it, I was underwhelmed. There were so many flaws I had to lower Best Friends to three stars.
It starts with the first two characters I see, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield who both go to the same school, Sweet Valley. They are identical but their passions are nowhere near that as Elizabeth wants to write the school newspaper and Jessica wants to join the Unicorn Club. The novel's strengths lie in its immersion because I could never stop reading Best Friends and the setting looks contemporary. However, it has flaws that are most prominent in the characters. Jessica was insufferable to read since she irritated her sister and she got worse when she bullied people when she was in the Unicorn Club. The portrayal of Black and Asian characters rubbed me the wrong way for two reasons: it felt like tokenism and the depiction wasn't outstanding. Why are the white people the protagonists and the Black and Asian people bullies and antagonists? At least Jessica had character development, but that left a sour taste. I might read the second instalment in the series when the library gets it.
I'm pro the decision to racially diversify the characters a little more, but some appearance choices felt a bit random, like giving Bruce blond hair and brown eyes and making Amy a redhead instead of a blonde.
SN: I wished the story said their names more. because even after the wardrobe change, i would forget which twin was who until they referenced something specifically involving the other twin.
Plot Summary: Jessica and Elizabeth are twins who have been best friends and dressing identically for their whole lives. When they are in middle school, one twin wants to join the popular crowd and the other wants to start a newspaper club. To get into the popular group, she must complete a series of challenges: dress differently than her sister (which she does without warning, ouch!), move her teachers notebook from the desk to the teachers bag, and switch the coffee in the the teacher's lounge to soda. She gets in to the Unicorns, much to the dismay of her twin. Trying to be nice and keep the twins together, the new Unicorn convinces the group to let her sister in, which they agree to if she completes a challenge: switch the whipped cream for shaving cream for a classmate. There's no way that's happening, right?
Setting:
Characters:
Recurring Themes: popularity, bullying, twins, family, friendship, being who you are, confidence, differences, ballet
Controversial Issues:
bullying without consequences
Personal Thoughts: I was not happy to see this representation of bullying without the characters every facing the consequences of their horrible actions or without it being labeled as bullying. I also didn't like that the only character that was not slender was the girl being bullied. I think this story is outdated and has not held the test of time. To get into the popular group, a kid needs to be invited and they have to complete challenges that hurt and/or confuse others.
Genre: realistic fiction, graphic novel
Pacing:
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Activity:
To be honest, there was a lot of gaslighting with Jessica because kids know when they're being overlooked. I thought the story may have delved into when teachers have animosity against you. But regardless, I thought this was good and the artwork elevates it.
About Madam André...
New Gelflings are introduced, familiar creatures make an appearance, and we see a world that existed before the destruction that led to The Dark Crystal. Skeksis are portrayed as protectors, although I suspect they have ulterior motives based on what I already know about them. Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was a solid first issue that has me looking forward to the next one!
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Trigger warnings: N/A
Score: Five out of ten.
This one wasn't any better.
It's been a few months since I last read from this series, but I picked up another instalment, Teacher's Pet, written by Francine Pascal, adapted by Nicole Andelfinger and illustrated by Claudia Aguirre. That's a lot of authors. I headed in with low expectations, but it felt underwhelming when I closed the final page.
It starts (more like continues) with Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, this time focusing on their ballet class, which turns out to be a dominant theme throughout the novel. Other than that there's not much plot or literary value to this creation. The pacing is enough to keep the plot going, with a length of exactly 200 pages, and the art stayed the same with no improvements or downgrades. The character development from Best Friends seems to have disappeared, as Jessica must develop her character (again) from a sister distancing herself from Elizabeth to a more caring person.
Why is this? I'm unsure. There are only a few pages dedicated to the side characters, like the twins' mother. Adding more pages showing them would've improved the reading experience. The plot here is during a ballet class, there is an upcoming play called Coppélia, and of course both protagonists would do anything to become the lead actor. The author fumbled the diversity since there was only one Asian character and two Black characters (all of whom are girls) in a PWI, and I would've liked to see more, but they are mostly out of the spotlight. It feels tokenistic. It was easier to find women characters than those of other genders. A person in the target audience (meaning younger readers,) wouldn't mind, and perhaps I'm not the type of person who would enjoy Teacher's Pet. The concluding pages are heartwarming as I see one of the sisters perform well in the play.
At this rate, it would take a few more months for the continuation of the series, Choosing Sides, to arrive, which isn't anytime soon, but I'll stop reading this series for now if the quality doesn't increase.