Help out Tiny Pants!

Kate is writing a column for The Oracle, er, doing sociology research. Please help her out by volunteering to share your experiences. Please contact Kate directly.

My name is Kate (I’ve commented on this site before under the name tiny pants) and I’m a graduate student in the sociology department at the University of California, San Diego. I am currently working on a project about young adult series novels for girls, and I would love to interview users from this site about their experiences and thoughts about reading these books. I can interview you via email, Gmail IM, phone, or (if you’re in Southern California) in person — whatever is easiest for you! For more info, please email me at tinypantswood [at] gmail [dot] com.

vomtastic

Thanks to all of you that asked, I decided to name my cat Regina Morrow. Because of the heart murmur, and get this…I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection before…she has a gray face with a little bit of a white spot under her nose…like she has just snorted cocaine! It was just too perfect!

I started reading Rosa’s Lie, but I had to share this reader of the month. I think she thought that she was writing a Sweet Valley Saga. You ready?

As I curl up in front of the blue-gray woodstove on a chilly winter night or lie on my bed under the ceiling fan on a hot, lazy day, I drift over to another place. [Does it matter what the color of the woodstove is? Seriously.]
Francine Pascal can take an ordinary situation and elaborate it into an introguing novel. The printed lines in her books provide a perfect mental picture of Sweet Valley and its inhabitants. I am transported into the California dream. [The California WASP dream, that is.]

I escape from my worries and pressures to Jessica’s exciting schemes [sociopathy] and Elizabeth’s continuous rescues of her sister [doormattopathy] and her drive to do better.

Francine’s books furnish me with dreams and an attitude to do my best [i.e., be really thin and blond]. After finishing a book I feel relaxed and ready to tackle the obstacles in my life [if those obstacles include winning a cheerleading competition and/or escaping a deranged kidnapper].

I feel Francine’s books not only provide pleasurable liesure time but also give me insights on how to live my life.

That was from Becky, and when I googled her full name, got nothing. If you are not googable, you are nothing.

need your help

I just got a cat- I’ve actually already had her for a couple of months, but I was fostering her, but now I am officially adopting her. I need a name for her, because the name she was given in the shelter is fucking stupid. I really want to name her after a YA book character. Any thoughts? I was thinking Lila Fowler or Bruce Patman. Her name doesn’t have to be female. She’s really vocal and an attention whore. And one of her eyes permanently faces outward, like Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys. Thoughts?

For those of you into (mostly indie) music, here are my top albums of 2007. Feel free to disagree. For those of you that like the Magnetic Fields, there is a song on ther fantastic new album called “California Girls” and it totally could have been written about Sweet Valley. Check it out. I think it will be released in February.

Radar Magazine (if you don’t already read it, you should, it’s fantastic) has a quiz to determine what current young adult novel is for you.

And finally, a question: Was Winston ever on any SVH cover?