If you were as nutty as me as a kid , I loooooved the cover art of Sweet Valley High , you probably did insane stuff like I did - such as spread all the books out on your bed and line them up in order from favorite covers to least favorite or made mental useless lists like only four books other than some of the super editions and thrillers featured art work making up an actual picture: Most of the covers had the girls posing , making various faces of alarm , worry or triumph , prop objects like Jessica’s pink phone on the cover of Secrets , the mirror on the cover of Too Good Too be True or an ominous arm reaching for Liz on the cover of Kidnaped! Helped to allude to the plot-of-the-month. The books with actual pictures are ( out of books 1-100) , 38 - Leaving Home , in which Liz gazes wistfully at a poster of Switzerland in her room while Jessica watches in the hall , her face showing concern. 39- Secret Admirer. Penny standing in front of a bookstore checking her watch as she faces the fact she’s been stood up. 40- On the Edge - Regina with tears in her eyes gazes at the photo of Bruce on her side table. 56 - Jessica bedraggled looking like a drowned rat on an exotic beach for the cover of Lost at Sea. I also wondered if Jessica and Liz had been inspired by an actual model or a real live set of twins , the cover artist James Mathewuse couldn’t have just pulled the image out of his hat they were too consistent. Then years ago , on one of my scavenger hunts for used books I came across a Wildfire book called The Impossible Years and the puzzle was solved - for there he was Bruce Patman! I did a double take and snatched up the book which had a photo cover of both a male and female model perhaps I was seeing things but no, I bought it , took it home and couldn’t believe it , it really was Bruce Patman! I looked on the inside cover of the Wildfire book and it said photo by Owen Brown. He also did photo’s for Wishing Star books and Windswept I gathered up all my copies of Wildfire , Windswept and Wishing Star and began seeing if I could spot other Sweet Valley High characters. They may not be accurate but you be the judge some of the faces despite hair styles or expression are uncanny! The books - Bruce Patman on Wildfire’s The Impossible Love , Lila Fowler on Wildfire’s Christy’s Love , DeeDee Gordon on Wishing Star’s What About Me , Bill Chase on Wildfire’s Too Young to Know , Susan Stewart on Wishing Star’s Far From Home , Lynne Henry on Just You and Me , Enid Rollins on Wildfire’s Just a Summer Girl , Regina on Wildfire’s Saturday Night Date , and Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield on Wildfire’s Beautiful Girl.
