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Sweet Valley Twins #86
It Can't Happen Here #86
The most dangerous game...
Social studies class gets a lot more exciting when a visiting teacher, Mr. Levin, comes to Sweet Valley Middle School to teach the students a game. The rules are Mr. Levin tells the students what to wear the next day, and they get points for obedience and demerits for disobedience. They get extra points for ratting on anyone who disobeys.
Everyone loves the game, especially Aaron Dallas, who is determined to be the best player of all. But Elizabeth Wakefield thinks something is fishy. Why is it so important that everyone dress the exact same way? And if it's just a game, why is everyone taking it so seriously?
Social studies class gets a lot more exciting when a visiting teacher, Mr. Levin, comes to Sweet Valley Middle School to teach the students a game. The rules are Mr. Levin tells the students what to wear the next day, and they get points for obedience and demerits for disobedience. They get extra points for ratting on anyone who disobeys.
Everyone loves the game, especially Aaron Dallas, who is determined to be the best player of all. But Elizabeth Wakefield thinks something is fishy. Why is it so important that everyone dress the exact same way? And if it's just a game, why is everyone taking it so seriously?
Library Binding
First published April 1, 1995
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,149 books1,854 followersFrancine 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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 9, 2017
So when I was researching books to read to prepare for Trump's presidency (I still can't believe it, y'all), I saw that It Can't Happen Here is also the name of a Sweet Valley Twins book and gleefully ordered it from Amazon right away (here's the other one I read). Oh, Sweet Valley.
Well let me tell you what happened since nobody else is going to read this obviously. Aaron Dallas's super cool grandpa is visiting, his grandpa that survived the Holocaust, and he wants to teach his grandson about it but Aaron is being a young and selfish asshole. Sigh. It's not his fault, kids are just like that sometimes. In Aaron's case it's because he's trying to impress the new kid Brian Boyd. At the same time, everybody's learning about WWII and the Holocaust and a new teacher, Mr. Levin, comes to class. Not many kids know much about the Holocaust (God, it's so weird sometimes reading kids' books), and as a way to teach them more about it, Mr. Levin sets them up to play a game. There are two leaders, one (Brian Boyd) who chooses all of the members of his team, the other leader gets all the leftovers, and the leaders are then allowed to make up any rules for their club as they want. Since Brian Boyd is a jerk who only cares about being cool, he basically makes everybody feel horrible when they're excluded, and everybody that's "in" still feels on edge because they might cross him. Aaron Dallas is his second-in-command so he gets to see just how ugly Brian Boyd acts. Jessica (oh, Jessica) spend the whole book worrying about being in with Brian and gets angry with Elizabeth for not caring enough about being cool. Elizabeth spends the whole book disliking Brian and telling everybody that how he's playing the game shows what a nasty person he is, but people are still in a frenzy over him.
Then, good grief, Brian and Aaron attack Elizabeth for being such a troublemaker, Aaron has a heart-to-heart with his grandfather, Jessica apologizes to Elizabeth, Aaron apologizes too, and Aaron's grandpa talks to the entire class about his Holocaust experience. Their teacher explains how Hitler was able to lead the Nazis using power and fear.
That whole first paragraph, by the way, was 118 pages. Pages 119 to 132 for that second paragraph. My point being that the conclusion really could have been fleshed out some more. I know it's a kids' book but we can have some more learning time, right? Then the book hilariously goes from Aaron and Mr. Kramer (his grandfather) hugging to Jessica and Mandy talking about a party, a Mother's Day brunch they're organizing, what will happen?, check out Book #87, The Mother-Daughter Switch! Even as a kid, I was always amazed at how party-crazy Jessica was (and, no, a Mother's Day brunch was not her typical party scene), like, You are in the sixth grade, what kind of wild parties are you getting to, girl?! And in some books, Elizabeth would make me roll my eyes with her Little Miss Perfect act (the Sixers, omg), but in this book at least, she was right on. I'm hoping my kids don't care so much about peer pressure, like Elizabeth.
And now that I'm an adult thinking through these books, did anybody like Jessica? I mean, was she that ridiculous about her snooty friends and purple clothes and "parties" so we'd all as young girls think, Well duh I don't want to be like that, I want to be more like Elizabeth. Did anybody aspire to be like Jessica?? Is somebody reading this thinking, Yeah, me, you jerk, I am totally like Jessica?!
Well let me tell you what happened since nobody else is going to read this obviously. Aaron Dallas's super cool grandpa is visiting, his grandpa that survived the Holocaust, and he wants to teach his grandson about it but Aaron is being a young and selfish asshole. Sigh. It's not his fault, kids are just like that sometimes. In Aaron's case it's because he's trying to impress the new kid Brian Boyd. At the same time, everybody's learning about WWII and the Holocaust and a new teacher, Mr. Levin, comes to class. Not many kids know much about the Holocaust (God, it's so weird sometimes reading kids' books), and as a way to teach them more about it, Mr. Levin sets them up to play a game. There are two leaders, one (Brian Boyd) who chooses all of the members of his team, the other leader gets all the leftovers, and the leaders are then allowed to make up any rules for their club as they want. Since Brian Boyd is a jerk who only cares about being cool, he basically makes everybody feel horrible when they're excluded, and everybody that's "in" still feels on edge because they might cross him. Aaron Dallas is his second-in-command so he gets to see just how ugly Brian Boyd acts. Jessica (oh, Jessica) spend the whole book worrying about being in with Brian and gets angry with Elizabeth for not caring enough about being cool. Elizabeth spends the whole book disliking Brian and telling everybody that how he's playing the game shows what a nasty person he is, but people are still in a frenzy over him.
Then, good grief, Brian and Aaron attack Elizabeth for being such a troublemaker, Aaron has a heart-to-heart with his grandfather, Jessica apologizes to Elizabeth, Aaron apologizes too, and Aaron's grandpa talks to the entire class about his Holocaust experience. Their teacher explains how Hitler was able to lead the Nazis using power and fear.
That whole first paragraph, by the way, was 118 pages. Pages 119 to 132 for that second paragraph. My point being that the conclusion really could have been fleshed out some more. I know it's a kids' book but we can have some more learning time, right? Then the book hilariously goes from Aaron and Mr. Kramer (his grandfather) hugging to Jessica and Mandy talking about a party, a Mother's Day brunch they're organizing, what will happen?, check out Book #87, The Mother-Daughter Switch! Even as a kid, I was always amazed at how party-crazy Jessica was (and, no, a Mother's Day brunch was not her typical party scene), like, You are in the sixth grade, what kind of wild parties are you getting to, girl?! And in some books, Elizabeth would make me roll my eyes with her Little Miss Perfect act (the Sixers, omg), but in this book at least, she was right on. I'm hoping my kids don't care so much about peer pressure, like Elizabeth.
And now that I'm an adult thinking through these books, did anybody like Jessica? I mean, was she that ridiculous about her snooty friends and purple clothes and "parties" so we'd all as young girls think, Well duh I don't want to be like that, I want to be more like Elizabeth. Did anybody aspire to be like Jessica?? Is somebody reading this thinking, Yeah, me, you jerk, I am totally like Jessica?!
July 20, 2013
i had read this book i want to say to readers that its nice book for 10 - 13 year old children it is fucking good
Read
March 30, 2007review page 1:[http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/33...]
review page 2: [http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/36...]
review page 2: [http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/36...]
April 29, 2009
It was seriously like a creepy cult! Trippy stuff, fascinating to read.
June 22, 2013
I remember the cover just not the story.
October 1, 2017
If I chose my favorite historical event, it would be the Holocaust. The more I read this book, the more I feel in love. Brian's scarier than I imagined!
June 16, 2022
This one was a little heavy-handed, but I thought it was really well done overall.
Read
March 7, 2023I like reading really short books for fun right before I go to bed and I found that this was perfect for that it is also really good for kids to learn a little more about the Holocaust
May 13, 2025
Important, age appropriate book about WWII.
May 10, 2015
21/25
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March 22, 2015
This was the first Sweet Valley Twins book I read. After reading it, I got hooked.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews