The Easter Bunny Battle

Sweet Valley Kids Super Specials #2

by Francine Pascal

Jessica Wakefield can't wait! Sweet Valley Elementary is having an Easter egg hunt -- and the prize is a bunny! Best of all, Jessica's twin sister, Elizabeth, is in charge of hiding the eggs. Jessica's positive she can trick her sister into telling her where the eggs are. But when Jessica wins the egg hunt, everyone knows she cheated. Now they're mad at Elizabeth for playing favorites. Can Jessica help her sister and still keep the Easter bunny?

Genres: Childrens, Juvenile

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

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]

Jessica is a big cheater and is anyone surprised?

There's a contest to win an actual baby bunny in their elementary class easter egg hunt, yet their teacher rewards the person who gets the highest score on that week's test with being the person who hides the eggs? I'm sorry? What? A terrible trade-off, it's no surprise that half the class does badly on purpose.

Of course, Liz scores the highest and is disappointed because she really wanted to win the bunny, but now she's not allowed to take part in the contest. She gets the *privilege* of hiding eggs instead (seriously, I'll never get over what a terrible take this was by the teacher.)

Jessica, who also really wants to win the bunny, takes Liz's egg hunting map and memorizes all the spots, and then cheats to win the contest. All the kids are mad because they assume they planned to cheat, which again, what a terrible idea, and no wonder everyone is pissed.

In the end, Jessica fesses up that she was the cheater and not Liz, everyone thinks she's brave for admitting the truth and the baby bunny becomes a class pet. Happy Easter indeed.

[Tara Calaby]

This was a nice story about cheating. I particularly liked Jess's complicated feelings about it—not as much guilty for what she did as upset that the other kids were unfairly accusing Liz of having cheated too. Both twins felt very in character and it was more nuanced than a lot of the SVK books.

[Lara El-Alfy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the book it is interesting and very nice anyone who would a kid friendly book I would definitely recommend it it also gives a valuable life lesson but I don't want to spoil it go read it now and discover the rest of them

[Ruvi Perera · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the story is about Jessica cheating and Elizabeth also getting blamed for that.

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yay, it’s Easter! Mrs Otis is putting on an egg hunt, and the child who finds the most eggs wins a real bunny! Jess really wants to win, and Liz really wants the bunny. They agree to team up and hunt together. Then Mrs Otis throws in a curve ball - there’s a big test and the person who does the best gets to hide the eggs… it’s actually a disincentive, because everyone wants the bunny. But Jess is worried, because Liz normally does the best. And she does this time too, and Jess is angry. Now she has to search alone! Liz carries her notebook with a list of hiding places around, planning constantly. Of course Jess snoops, and copies the list. I loved Jessica’s thought process here, justifying her actions. It was soo Jess. Anyway, she of course finds the most eggs and wins. EVERYONE thinks she cheated (except Liz) but they also think Liz cheated too and no one will talk to either of them. Jess let’s the truth slip when trying to cheer Liz up and she is maaaaaad. But the bunny escapes while they’re fighting, they hunt to find him, and on Monday Jess comes clean and the bunny becomes the class bunny. Oh and Mrs Otis decides next time she’ll hide the eggs 🤦🏼‍♀️
My rating - 4/10 - this was so cute! And it wasn’t Halloween for once!

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read so many of these books I can't remember all of them.