It's April Fool's Day, and the Wakefield twins are about to play their biggest and best trick ever. Usually Elizabeth and Jessica pretend to be each other. But this year they won't switch identities—everybody will just think they did. When April 1 comes, the twins' trick works perfectly—too perfectly for Elizabeth. Everyone believes she is Jessica pretending to be Elizabeth. And being Jessica always means getting into trouble. By the end of the day, Elizabeth is beginning to wonder whether she is the biggest April Fool of all for agreeing to be part of this charade.
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.
After reading this book, I'm convinced now that April Fools' was a day invented for sociopaths.
So Liz and Jess normally dress as each other on April Fools'. But on this particular April Fools' Day, Liz agrees with Jess to just PRETEND to dress like each other. So Liz dresses as herself, only more exaggerated. Same for Jess. But as the day begins, Liz sees there is much more profit in Jess being her than in her being Jess. No one will believe they haven't really switched. So Liz misses out on a magazine of her choice for the essay contest she won. Jess chooses Teen Rock instead. Liz manages to get two detentions for stuff Jess has done. When she cooks an amazing soufflé in home ec, Jessica gets the A and Liz gets a C, because no one will still believe that Jess would never cook anything that perfectly. Then Pamela won't let Liz help decorate the gym for the party that night, because she says "Jess" isn't supposed to help. She's shut out of the gym and approached by the Unicorns and told they are hosting a car wash and that she must help. Liz is dubious. The Unicorns don't do any actual work! Like, ever! And they don't, of course, because they tell Liz they've already washed one car each (yeah, right), and now it's her turn. Liz does a thorough job but is thoroughly miserable afterwards. It doesn't stop once she gets home, either. Her mom tells her something about Oberman plans that she's supposed to mail. If she can't find them, she'll have to go with her parents to a town hall meeting that night and miss the party. Jess comes upstairs and Liz begs her to come clean, but she refuses. Instead she trudges off to go swimming with Amy. Then Liz misses a chance to work at the stables. She can't find the plans (because she doesn't know about them), so she reluctantly goes with her parents... who end up at SVMS. Liz is mortified she will have to see her friends, but they have to give Jess a shirt because she spilled punch on hers. Liz delivers Jess the shirt... and everyone shouts APRIL FOOL at Liz. Yes, her sociopathic sister used the whole day as one long con against Liz. She even calls Liz a good sport and doesn't give her time to be upset. Then Liz muses that at least she got her history homework done while she was stuck in Jessica's room.
April Fool! (Updated) Liz is at her “thinking spot” and has a lot on her mind. Tomorrow Mr. Davis (her homeroom teacher) was announce the winner of the class essay contest. She wrote hers on saving the whales and feels like she has a good chance of winning. The prize is a years free subscription to a magazine of the winner’s choosing. It’ll either be “Horse Lovers Journal” or “Mysteries From Around the World.” She picks “Mysteries”. She can ask for “Horse Lovers” for her birthday.
It’s also April Fool’s Day; the day she and Jessica play their annual prank of switching places. It’s gotten old and everyone knows but they haven’t let it go. But this year, Jessica has a better idea. Instead of switching places they’ll just *pretend* like they did. They’ll emphasize their differences. She’ll wear her wildest outfit and wear even more makeup than usual and put onlots of perfume. Everyone will think she’s Liz pretending to be Jessica. And she can wear her most conservative clothes, her plainest hairstyle, (etc) and everyone will think it’s her (Jessica) pretending to be Liz. At the party after school, they can tell them they didn’t switch. Liz says she’ll do it!
Jessica plans to wear a denim skirt with hearts on the pocket, a hot pink tee shirt, and lots of jewelry. Liz decides to wear her red and white gingham blouse, a jeweled horse pin, pressed jeans, and sneakers. In her back pocket she has an Amanda Howard mystery book. The next morning, the Wakefield’s play pranks on each other. Steven pretends to have a heart attack. Alice says she died her hair (red) but really it’s a wig and Ned wears his tie backwards. But the best part is neither Steven, Alice, or Ned realize the twins haven’t switched.
At school, everyone is getting into the spirit. Jim Sturbridge is wearing a Groucho Marx nose and moustrache. Ricky slimes Elizabeth. Jerry takes a picture of Jessica with a camera that squirts her with water. And everyone thinks Liz is Jess and Jess is Liz. Lila comes up Liz and asks her why she’s not wearing purple. Liz tries to tell her she’s not Jessica. Lila tho tells her some of the girls in the Unicorns are complaining because she’s been neglecting the club lately and not doing her part on projects. So, they have a project that they have a special job for her. There will be a meeting after school by the front entrance. Liz tries to tell her they need to tell *Jessica*. She has to help decorate the gym for the party. Lila says don’t try it,
When Mr. Davis comes in there’s an apple on his desk that says it’s from Winston. It comes apart in his hands and there’s a plastic green and yellow worm in the middle. He gets them back by giving them a pop quiz. The first question is how far can a bear walk in the woods. Liz is about to answer half-way when she realizes her pencil doesn’t work. Then someone else says there pencil doesn’t work either. Then another person says their paper isn’t real. Mr. Davis says APRIL FOOLS! Then he announces the winner of the contest is Liz. Only he gives the subscription to Jessica and says he knows about the prank. Jessica just shrugs and when asked which magazine she wans she says Teen Rock. Liz thinks maybe this prank wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Mr. Davis makes Liz stay after and produces a note he found (written on Jessica’s lilac colored and scented paper). The note is talking about Mr. Davis’s shirt (green) and purple tie and saying he has no taste. Liz can’t give up the joke so she apologizes and says she’ll never do anything like it again. But he says that’s what she said about the note he caught her with talking about Lois’s weight. He says an apology won’t get it this time. He says she has to learn to respect people’s feelings and he wants her to come to his classroom and write it. Liz protest that she has to decorate for the dance, but he says he knows Liz is the one that will be decorating the gym not her. Then he says he will then clean the gerbils.
In the hall she starts to giggle. The plan is working beautifully. But then she realizes she’s late for class and starts to run. She runs into Mr. Edwards the vice-principal. He asks Liz what she’s doing running in the hall, but then he looks at her and says she must be JESSICA and that would make sense. He reminds her of the talk they had last week they had about running in the hall and says he’ll expect her in the office today to help with his secretary. He writes her a pass and sends her to class. In cooking class, Jessica has gotten a mark for being late. Liz tells her she got a pass so she’ll have to take the mark off but then she explains to her what happened. Jessica says maybe they should call things off. She says she’ll go take Mr. Davis’s detention. But Liz says they should stick with the joke. Besides people might not believe them if they told them the truth. However, she tells Jessica to stay out of trouble the rest of the day. Today in class they’re making a souffle. Mrs. Gerhart tells the twins she’ll play along because if she had a twin she’d probably switch too on April Fools. She gives Liz (Jess) instructions on how to make the souffle.
Liz’s comes out perfectly and Jessica’s comes out bad. Liz gets the C because the teacher thinks the badly made one was done by her. Amy tells Liz to remind Liz that they’re going swimming and she’s invited over to dinner. Then she sees Jessica talking to Mr. Davis and says she sees Liz talking to Mr. Davis. Amy says nice try. Liz says whatever she’ll straighten it out later. They see Caroline wearing a Johnny Buck tee-shirt and can’t believe it because she’s so prissy. Ken replaces Amy’s hot dog with a plastic one. Amy says Caroline’s not wearing a Johnny Buck shirt. It’s a plain blouse. Amy tries to bite the hotdog and can’t. Ken then yells APRIL FOOLS! Mr. Clark then makes an announcement that those who ride the school buses will have to walk home. The bus drivers have gone on strike. Then he says the fair coming up has to be post-phoned. The third announcement is all the ice cream is all melted and it’ll be a week before the freezer’s fixed. Then he says APRIL FOOLS!
Luckily after school when Liz goes to Mr. Davis’s room for detention, he’s “developed a tooth ache and had to go see the dentist”. He says they’ll have to reschedule their detention and he’s feed the gerbils. Mrs. Peters also says she has to hurry to pick up her little boy so she doesn’t have to help her in the office. She tries to go help decorate for the party but Pamela tells her she’s not on the committee thus she can’t help out. But Lila catches up with her and “reminds” her about the project, It turns out to be a car wash, but it turns out to be a Unicorn’s APRIL FOOLS joke. They all decide to go to Casey’s but Liz tells them she has to go home and change clothes for the party. She thinks about the day she’s had and hopes she’ll never have another like it. By the time she gets home tho, she just has to laugh at it all.
When she gets home, Steven tells Liz her mom is looking for and she’s HEATED! Jessica was supposed to mail some plans for a client and they never arrived. Her mother comes in and asks where the plans are. Liz tries to tell her she’s not Jessica but what’s the use (she thinks). Now it starts to make sense why Jessica suggested this prank. Her mother tells her if she can’t find the plans she can’t go to the party. She’ll have to go with her parents to a town hall meeting instead. Jessica thinks it’s the best day ever. Liz not so much. She tells them about the Unicorns prank. Jessica thinks it’s a riot. Liz asked what she did what the plans. Jessica SWEARS she mailed them. Liz says they should come clean about the prank. Jessica says no. They agreed, Liz says it’s not fair. Jessica just says that’s too bad but they’ll laugh (the family) when it’s all over.
Amy comes to get Liz and Jessica goes off with her. Carson Stables calls because the girl who rides Thunder can’t do it but Mr. Wakefield tells them Liz is gone over to Amy’s. To make things worse, Alice tells Liz the counsil is meeting in the library at the middle school. On the way in, Julie says she’s looking for Liz but Liz says it is her. She tells her that if she sees Liz to tell her there’s an emergency with the paper. Liz asks what it is. Maybe she can help. Julie just laughs and says she can’t even type.
Her parents says they’ll swing by the gym because Jessica spilled punch on her shirt and needs a new one. Liz tries to get them to take it in but they tell her they don’t want to crash. So, Liz takes the bag inside. She finds Jessica and hands her the bag. Everyone is looking at her. Liz starts to leave, but then her parents are in the gym and they tell her she doesn’t have to come. She should stay for HER party. Then everyone yells APRIL FOOL ELIZABETH! Then everyone gives her the “Good Sport of the Year” award. There was no call from the stables, but they do need someone the next day. Liz gets an A on her souffle. Jessica gets a do-over. Mr. Davis has already changed the subscription and Jessica will serve the attention. Mrs. Edwards decides to overlook Liz’s detention. In the bag is Jessica’s purple scarf. Lila puts it on her and declares Liz an honorary Unicorn every year on April Fool’s day. And in Home Ec there’s a cake made for Liz.
Liz tells her Bruce called and asked her to go to a concert but she told him he was a conceited jerk. Jessica looks horrified and Liz says APRIL FOOLS!
My Thoughts This is the last SVT book I remember reading before I gave up on this series years ago. (Not knowing that in the future SO MANY YEARS LATER, I’d return to it). I just outgrew it. I didn’t really think when I originally read this that it was all that great of a prank to pretend, they didn’t switch. I’m pretty sure that after a while Liz didn’t either. We really could call it “Make A Fool Of Elizabeth Day”. The whole messed up thing was this was a set up tho to throw Elizabeth a party. For what I’m not exactly sure.
What did surprise me how seriously these people took April Fools. On April Fool’s Day someone might call you on the phone and tell you something that wasn’t true, get you to believe it (for a hot second), until you thought about what day it was. That was really the extent of it. None of the teachers EVER got in on and a PARTY? RIIIGHT! Then I remembered thinking isn’t a souffle a little advanced for 6th graders to make? I do remember making quiche but that wasn’t until college. I think in high school we stuck with cookies and in middle school we didn’t make anything at all.
Rating: 5 I think this one went by quicker than any of the other one’s in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Every year, the twins swap places on April fools day, but this year they decide to only pretend they have swapped! Everyone thinks they are the other and poor Liz cops Jessica's punishments that are meant for her (detention for writing a note picking on poor Lois, an April fools joke where the unicorns make her wash Ellen's mums car... lol). Turns out the joke was on Liz, as everyone was pulling the pranks on her, including her parents, all Jessica's idea of course. It was pretty cruel lol as Liz did cry a few times as she was so miserable, but she didn't want to ruin the original joke and be the usual doormat to Jessica. Hopefully one day Liz will grow a backbone haha.
As an adult, I am having a blast rereading my way through my childhood. The most recent book I read from my childhood is April Fool! (Sweet Valley Twins, #28) created by Francine Pascal. When I read the synopsis of the book before reading it, I vaguely remembered the premise. Was I ever surprised because I ended up not remembering any of the details.
The synopsis of April Fool! (Sweet Valley Twins, #28) is that twin sisters Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield typically switch places on April Fools Day, and the twins switching places has become legendary with their classmates. This year, Elizabeth and Jessica decide not to switch places but pretend that they actually had. It all goes down hill for Elizabeth when she keeps getting in trouble for things that Jessica had done.
I felt extremely bad for Elizabeth because it seemed like she couldn't catch a break, but at a certain point, I realized that an elaborate scheme had to have been concocted to prank Elizabeth. It was a little far fetched in my opinion that teachers and the principal got involved, but I know that I likely ate it up as a kid. The one thing that struck me as a bit strange is during the twins home economics class, they were learning how to make a souffle. It seems like that would be a little advanced for a middle schooler, especially ones that are eleven. Yes, I know that there are some kids that can make intricate meals, but that is the exception, not the norm. When I was in middle school, my home economics class had fully functioning kitchens, but we never learned to cook anything. Instead, we learned how to cross stitch some hand towels.
All in all, the story was engaging and well written. I gave it five out of five stars and would recommend it to kids who are between the ages eight and twelve.
In this one, it's April Fool's Day at Sweet Valley. Every year, Jessica and Elizabeth traditionally switch places on this day, but this year they decide to do a variation: pretending to be each other pretending to be each other! Groundbreaking! However, while Jessica gets her life living as the beloved Elizabeth, Elizabeth gets stuck with all of Jessica's punishments and all-around shitty way of living.
This book ends with a twist of M. Night Shyamalan proportions. wow amaze~*~*
This book made me wish I had a twin I could play tricks on people with. The Sweet Valley girls were my absolute favorites and I wished I could be just like them.