Elizabeth's Super-Selling Lemonade

Sweet Valley Kids #9

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

Who Spent the Money?

Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield's teacher is getting married, and the whole class is invited to the wedding. The twins and all their friends pick the perfect present for Mrs Becker, and everyone decides to help pay for it.

Elizabeth and Jessica set up a lemonade stall to make money. First, Elizabeth does all the work. Then Jessica spends all the money! Will they be able to replace the money in time to buy the wedding present?

Genres: Fiction, Childrens

74 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1990

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]

This is such a great cover but pretty misleading since the "super-selling lemonade" in question is only about 3 pages of the entire book.

It's mostly about how Mrs. Becker is getting married, and the kids are excited to buy her a present so they try to earn some cash, but Jessica (OF COURSE) steals the lemonade money to buy something for herself.

Also, I really wanted this to be a summer book, but alas, it takes place during the school year.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wakefields are literally the worst parents ever.
3.5 stars

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The classic lemonade stand! Makes me thirsty!

[Tiffany Spencer]

Elizabeth’s Super Selling Lemonade
The twins teacher Mrs. Becker is getting married to the Public Librian Mr. Owens and she’s invited her students. Not sure this is a good idea but. The twins wonder if they should get her a present. Lila suggests china or a microwave. Silverware will also work. She says. Jessia says she thinks colored pencils for marking homework would be a good gift. They decide to ask the principal. Winston says he’s coming too. So, they ask Mrs. Armstrong. She says maybe the whole class should give her a gift and two dollars would be a good amount to chip in. Lila says she can get more. Todd and Winston says they can get their own money. Liz thinks it’s a good idea but how can she get her own money and she’s spent all the money she had.

Liz wants to earn the money. Jessica thinks they should just ask their parents. She only has seven cents and four dollars sounds like a lot. -REALLY? But they tell their mom. She thinks it’s a great idea. She suggests they sell lemonade. Liz calculates and if they sell a cup for 10 cent they’ll have to sell 40 coups. They set up signs and the stand. Jessica would rather be watching tv, but she is interested in taking pictures for their father. Jessica is impatient but Liz is confident.

They make their first sales to two teenage girls. Now they have twenty cents. Lila and Ellen come up to them and ask what their doing. Lila says she got the two dollars from her dad. Lila and Ellen are going to the park and Liz lets Jessica talk her into staying there and selling the lemonade by herself. She’s a little lonely without Jess, but then Todd comes along. He says he’s helping his dad clean his car and straighten the garage. Liz makes another sale with the help of Todd. He then offers to help and things get busy. By the end of the day she has 3.00. She can’t wait to tell Jessica they only need 1 more dollar.

All the students decide to give the money to Andy Franklin Jessica notices Lila has a new bracelet that glows in the dark. She says she got it at the mall. Jessica doesn’t tell her she likes it but she wishes she had a pink one. Lila asks if she’d like to go to the mall with her after school. She’s tired of Lila always being the one to have new things and really wants one of the bracelets. She thinks about taking the trhree dollars.

Lous shows Liz a glass paper weight in the shape of an apple in a catalog. They’ll have just enough money for it. She wants Liz to take the credit for the idea because people don’t like her as much. Jessica loves it and so does everyone else. They pass the catalog around trying not to let their teacher see it. Mrs. Becker just thinks they’re in on a joke they won’t tell her. The twins agree she’s going to love the gift.

Mrs. Wakefield gives Jessica permission to go to the mall with Lila. She picks up all the money and puts it in her purse. She tells herself she won’t spend it just show it to Lila. Lila asks how much she has and she tells her. Mrs. Fowler asks where they want to go first and Lila says “Heavenly Dolls” to get new stuff for her Babries. Then she shows off how her bracelet glows. Lila says she should get one. It only costs a dollar and fourty cents. Jess says she doesn’t know. Lila picks the tennis dress, rock star outfit, and the evening gown for her doll. Lila then convinces her to look at the bracelets. There were pink ones, blue ones, and every other color in the rainbow. Jessica tries on a pink and blue one.

Liz notices her sister is holding her arm in a weird way. Liz then notices the bracelets and asks when she got them. She then notices the money is gone. Liz asks if she bought the bracelets with THEIR money. Jessica starts to cry and say she didn’t mean too. Mrs. Wakefield comes in and asks what’s wrong. Liz doesn’t want to tell on Jessica but .. Jessica then tries to explain what was happened, but Liz can’t believe her sister. Half of the money was *heres*. Her mother says she’ll give Liz two dollars since she earned it, but Jessica will have to earn hers. Jessica tries to protest but her mother says no buts.

Jessica has to clean her half of the closet, empty the trash, and wash the pots and pans. Jessica tries to get Liz’s sympathy while she’s working but Liz ignores her and keeps reading her book. Liz gives her a tiny bit of help and shows her how to organize the pots. Liz also helps her with the trash. Jessica asks why she’s helping. Liz says Todd helped her. While cleaning out the closet, Jessica gives Liz the blue bracelet and tells her she’s the best sister in the world. They make up and now are best friends again.

On Tuesday, they each give Andy their two dollars. They tell Mrs. Armstrong and she says they’ll need a few dolalrs to pay the tax but she’ll pay it and she’ll take the catalog to the gift shop. The twins decide to wear their red, velvet, birthday dresses to the wedding. The wedding is at the back of Mrs. Becker’s house. After the ceremony they all head to the tent. The kids push their teacher to open their present first. She’s speechless and for a moment the kids don’t know what to think, but she says she loves it. Lila says it’s exactly what she would have picked. Then they all have cake. The twins ask but Mrs. Otis says she’ll still be there teacher. On the way home, Mr. Wakefield says Grandma and Grandpa are coming and want to take them on a a trip. Only he says it’s a surprise.

My Thoughts:
All I have to say is Mrs. Otis is a BRAVE woman letting her whole class to her wedding. I really liked their close of present. The glass apple paperweight was perfect. I think I saw something similar to this in a catalog once because my mother was a teacher and we use to get teacher supply catalogs all the time in the mail. The lemonade stand was a good idea but leaving money laying around for Jessica to find in was a BAD idea. Liz should have IMMEDIATELY given the money to Andy or hidden it in that mess of a closet of there. Jessica would NEVER have found it.
Rating: 5

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've not read any of the Kids series before and I just found this one so cute. It was great to read about younger versions of the characters I know from SVH.

It's a short read but it was so fun and it made me smile more than once.

Can't wait to build up more of this series.

[Ruvi Perera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the book, however like many reviews mentioned already, the title is misleading. The story is about raising money to buy a wedding gift for their class teacher and how Jessica ends up spending that money to buy her bracelets.

[Tara Calaby]

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.

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.

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Mrs Becker is getting married, and the kids all want to buy her a gift because all 20 of them are invited to the wedding?! (I feel like all teachers irl would hate this idea). So they pitch in $2 each for a class gift. Jess wants her parents to just give them the money (like Lila’s parents), but Liz wants to earn it and Alice thinks that’s a super idea. So they sell lemonade. Or more, Liz does and Jess goes to the park. But Jess is super jealous of some cool bracelets Lila got, and when she goes shopping with Lila and her Mother (?!), she buys two with - you guessed it - the lemonade money. Liz is pisssssed and tells on her 👏🏻 Alice gives Liz her $2 but makes Jess do chores for hers, which of course Liz helps her do 🙄 oh and Mrs Becket is Mrs Otis now?! My rating - 4/10 - very predictable plot but still a fun little read.

[Jessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first "big girl" book I ever owned - I still remember my dad bringing it home to me, 23 years ago :) - and I adored it! I remember being so intrigued, because the girl's names were Jessica and Elizabeth, which also happens to be my first and middle name and I thought that was so cute and cool. My love of reading began when my dad got me this and I devoured the entire series and then the entire boxcar children series and became an avid reader from that day forward. Thanks Dad <3

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I collected the sweet valley kids 1st than I had quite a few of them. from what I remember I had quite a bit like 90 or so. Than I started collecting the Sweet Valley Twins and I had like 50 of them. Than I started collecting the Sweet Valley University but only had like 20 of them.

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I specifically remember reading this book. It was one of the first Sweet Valley books I ever read and led to a longtime love affair with the twins, who I wanted to be like and constantly compared myself to.