The Basics
Title: Elizabeth’s Super-Selling Lemonade
Series: Sweet Valley Kids #9
Published: July 1990
The Plot
Mrs. Becker is getting married! Everyone in her second grade class is invited and the kids all decide to chip in together to get her a present. If each child contributes $2, they’ll have plenty for the perfect glass paperweight Lois spotted in a catalogue.
Elizabeth and Jessica—well, mostly Elizabeth—decide that the present will be more special if they earn the money themselves. Their mom suggests they set up a lemonade stand. Unsurprisingly, Jessica gets sick of it about two minutes in and, when Lila and Ellen ask her to join her at the park, she readily leaves Liz to do all the work. Luckily for Liz (and unluckily for those of us who find the pushing of the Liz/Todd pairing when they are SEVEN really kind of gross) Todd turns up and helps her until the rest of the lemonade is sold. All up, the twins earn $3 of their $4 from the stand.
In class on Monday, Lila is boasting as usual about her latest acquisition: this time, a glow-in-the-dark bracelet. She invites Jessica to go shopping with her after school; Jessica decides that she will take the $3 with her—not to spend, but just to show Lila that she has money too. Of course, this goes about as well as you can imagine. Lila pressures Jessica into buying her own glow-in-the-dark bracelets, and Jessica spends all of the money that Liz had earned.
When Liz spots the bracelet and Jess is forced to confess, Liz actually tells on her for a change. Their mother says that she will contribute Liz’s $2, because she had already earned it, while Jessica is to re-earn her share. Before long, she has charmed Elizabeth into helping her with the chores that Alice sets her.
The second-graders buy Mrs. Becker’s present and watch her get married to Mr. Otis, a town librarian. She appears to like their present… or perhaps has just grown very good at pretending to like children’s gifts during a long career as a teacher.
The Verdict
This one feels the most like the high school Sweet Valley out of all the Kids books so far. Jessica is so very Jessica, while Elizabeth is dull and reliable and hanging out with Todd. I thought that the shopping trip with Jess and Lila was particularly well done. Jessica’s dilemma was very believable—peer pressure when you’re a kid is difficult to resist.
Major Characters
Minor Characters
Bit Parts
- Mrs. Armstrong
- Charlie Cashman
- Winston Egbert
- Sandra Ferris
- Mrs. Fowler
- Andy Franklin
- Jerry McAllister
- Ken Matthews
- Mr. Otis
- Caroline Pearce
- Ellen Riteman
- Eva Simpson
- Ned Wakefield
- Lois Waller
The Places
Sweet Valley Mall: Contains a shop called “Heavenly Dolls”, where Lila purchases Barbie doll clothes.
The Fashion
- Mrs. Becker’s wedding outfit: A lavender silk dress and a bouquet of pink flowers
The Pairings
- Elizabeth/Todd – implied mutual crush
The Themes
- Peer pressure, weddings, money, jobs
Sweet Valley Spy 