Authors: Barbara Dee and Julie Murphy
LGBTQ+ Representation: In both books, the main character has a good friend who is implied to be gay. In Dear Sweet Pea, the main character's father comes out of the closet after divorce, and a female teacher is married to another woman.
Content Warning: Sexual harassment, bullying, and gas lighting in Maybe He Just Likes You.
What they're about (in 75 words each or fewer):
Maybe He Just Likes You--The updated "Bully plot" from my childhood favorite 1980's books. Mila isn't sure how it started, but she knows that she is very uncomfortable with how the boys keep touching her without her consent. Are they flirting? Why won't they stop? Mila gains some self-confidence through her karate classes, but will she ever get an adult to take her concerns about the boys' behavior seriously?
Dear Sweet Pea--The updated "Advice column plot" from my childhood favorite 1980's books. Patricia "Sweet Pea's" parents are divorcing, and her dad only moved one house away. In between the two houses lives Miss Flora Mae, the newspaper advice columnist. When Flora goes on a trip, she asks Sweet Pea to forward her mail to her, but then, Sweet Pea recognizes the handwriting on an advice letter, and thinks, hey, I could write a reply! Hijinks ensue.
Why I'm writing about these books: Ladies and gentlemen: these are the updated Bully and Advice Column plots found in so many of my childhood faves and after-school specials! Neither are *technically* LGBTQ+-enough for me to immediately want to write about them. Even combining them both in one post--that would be cheating and still not *quite* enough LGBTQ+ content.
So why am I reviewing them? Because in spite of the nostalgia-factor of the plots, neither of these books would have been the same if they had been written thirty years ago.
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| A selection of my childhood books, with the covers I had. Ah. memories. |
If Maybe He Just Likes You and Dear Sweet Pea had been written when I was a kid, neither would have an LGBTQ+ character in them. In fact, NO BOOKS that I read for ages 9-12 would have had LGBTQ+ anything as an even minor subplot. Gay didn't exist in books then, not in standard, everyday kids' books in the 1980's and early 90's.
Believe me, I read a lot of books then. I devoured books, and all the characters in them were mostly white and 100% straight. Disabled characters were looked upon with pity or used as a side plot for drama; even characters who wore glasses (like I did) were unusual, and if they did wear glasses, this was a terrible thing and only when the characters got contacts and received a magical makeover did their lives turn out well.
I read 74 Sweet Valley High books and easily twice that amount if you include all of the special editions and spin-off series (yes, I read them all except the Kids ones) until a not-straight character was even mentioned in Sweet Valley, and of course, it was a visiting cousin from, where else? San Francisco.
Anyway, it's Tom McKay in #75, Amy's True Love and poor Tom, upset and horrified that he might be gay, immediately contacts a support group for "troubled youth" (run by gossipy, unqualified teenage volunteers, but whatever) to discuss his might-be-gay "choice." My copy of this book is someplace on my best friend's bookshelf (loaned to her daughters), so I couldn't get my own quotes from it, but my memory of the word "choice" being used was validated when I read an excerpt from this blog post:
What is problematic about this one, though, is the pervasive and nearly constant use of the word “choice” when talking about Jake’s sexuality. The word “gay” is used maybe 2-3 times, but the word “choice” keeps coming up:It’s who he is that matters for our relationships, not the kinds of choices he makes about his other relationships. (90)It shouldn’t be so hard for Jake and other people who are gay to make the choice they have to make. (91)Tom was not a bigot. He didn’t have any fixed, narrow ideas about the kinds of private choices people should make. (91)
From A Critical Analysis of Sweet Valley's Most Famous Twins.
I remember reading this book back when it came out and feeling so sorry for those poor kids in that troubled youth group and also very, very, very scared for me. Did I belong in a "troubled youth" group? I desperately did not want to be a troubled youth.
I just looked up the copyright date; this one was written in 1991; I was 13 when I read it. Yikes. Maybe, for the time, it was handled okay, but since I still remember the other characters (Liz and Enid especially) treating it as something so sad and scandalous. Granted, the world isn't all sunshine and roses today, but at least it's not a call a psychological group immediately for your devastating gay choice! world, I guess?
(Also, it should be mentioned that in Sweet Valley Confidential, Francine Pascal retcons some characters and makes Steven Wakefield and Aaron Dallas gay, which makes zero sense for their characters based on all their previous storylines, especially Steven's, and yes, I realize you can come out as bisexual later in life, but . . . yeah no. That's some JK Rowling-level retconning).
Young Adult books did exist about LGBTQ+ people when I was growing up, such as Trying Hard to Hear You and Happy Endings are All Alike by Sandra Scoppettone and Ruby by Rosa Guy, in the 1970's and Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden in the 1980's. I have not read any of these, but I should hunt them down to review for this blog.
Read Paperback Crush: the Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss for more fun 1980's book facts. I just ordered the paperback copy of it because I enjoyed the e-book so much; plus it just seemed WRONG to read a book about paperbacks in electronic form.
What I think of Maybe He Just Likes You: I've been buying a lot of stuff off Wish since the quarantine, including 2000 kitten sticky notes (as you do. No judging my Wish impulse buys 😇).
During my quick-skimming-reread, I stuck a kitten on the sides of each page Mila is harassed and/or given an excuse for why she's "overreacting." I stuck kittens on the bottom for when Mila tries to get the boys to stop and/or seeks help from someone else:
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| Many, many helpful kittens |
Some of my favorite childhood reads deal with bullying in some way: The Outsiders and The Against Taffy Sinclair Club (bullies are misunderstood and also have problems!) and Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade and Blubber (bullies are mean kids with clueless teachers and unhelpful parents--also, don't be fat). Even though the bullies in those books don't really get punished or "learn the error of their ways," there's no doubt in anyone's minds that bullying is occurring. No one argues that Linda secretly enjoys being tormented for being fat, or the the Socs actually really liked Johnny but just didn't know how to tell him.
How many of us (especially those of us who identify as female) have been told that we should be "flattered" by unwanted attention? Or, like one of Mila's friends, been jealous because we are not getting attention? How about how many times you have heard (or even said) a variation of:
- "Boys will be boys!"
- "They're so obsessed with you they can't stop touching you?? Oh you poor thing; I wish I had that PROBLEM *insert eye roll.* Boys don't like me. Do you think I'm too ugly?"
- "Why don't you ignore them or just tell them to stop?"
- "What are you doing to make them continue? You have to be leading them on. It takes two to tango, you know."
And yet there are still people who wonder why the #MeToo movement is necessary.
The bullying in Maybe He Just Likes You might not have even been recognized by pre-teen me. Maybe I would have reacted with jealously like one of Mila's friends--after all, no one was paying attention to me. I probably would have told her to ignore it and secretly wondered if she was encouraging it somehow. I'm sure that I was the clueless teacher at some points during my teaching career or just told someone to "ignore it and they'll leave you alone!" These are not easy things to admit. We need to do better when it comes to bullying.
Maybe He Just Likes You is such an important book for upper elementary school students and middle schoolers to read. If I were still teaching middle school, especially grades 5, 6, or 7, I would fight hard to have my students read it for a literature circle, even though I'm sure someone's parents would complain. I think it would also be a good book for a teachers' book club because it could inspire discussion among teachers about bullying, how to recognize it, and what to do to stop it.
I appreciate Max, Omi, the ill-fated band concert antics, and how the teachers finally deal with the situation at the end. I really wanted Mila to confide in her mom earlier, but I understand why she doesn't.
Also, I had this exchange with Barbara Dee (the author) on Twitter. The conversation topic was "What controversial topics would you like to see covered in middle grades novels?"
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| Me: I agree with this. Maybe microaggressions? I think when I was a middle grades student I thought racism was only if you blatantly said "I hate black people!" or something--I didn't know that racism is often "subtle" and systematic Barbara Dee: Much of my upcoming #MeToo, MAYBE HE JUST LIKES YOU, is about sexually harassing microaggressions. Because in middle school, that's what girls are dealing with, for the most part. |
Memorable quotes/passages:
- "A big part of me was furious for not talking. When something happens and it's weird or embarrassing, you're supposed to tell your best friends, aren't you? Or at least feel like you can tell them" (pg. 29).
- "I really don't know why you think all these boys are so obsessed with you. It's a little weird, to be honest. Because you're not the only girl in our grade with boobs" (pg. 120).
- "What happened to me wasn't 'just bullying' either. And you think it was easy telling Mr. McCabe I was being called gay? Like it was an insult?" (pg. 219).
- "You know, teachers see a lot, more than kids sometimes realize. But every once in a while something slips under our radar. And if I'd known any of this before today, I promise you I would have put an end to it" (pg. 251).
Other reviews: Kirkus and Grounded Parents
Also: "Maybe He Just Likes You: #MeToo Comes to Middle Grade, a guest post by Barbara Dee" and Reading Group Guide
What I think of Dear Sweet Pea: Again, another popular book plot of the 1980s! I loved newspaper and advice column plots. Of course, there's a Sweet Valley High book the love advice column--there's a SVH high book for everything. When Jessica and Cara write as Miss Lovelorn for the Oracle, of course their schemes backfire.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: I just discovered that the blogger Red Lemonade is also one of the hosts of my new favorite SVH podcast. Listen to the episode about Bitter Rivals for more Miss Lovelorn!]
And there's the late, great Ellen Conford! In addition to my favorite of her books (A Royal Pain, the 80's version of The Princess Diaries), Conford wrote Dear Lovey Hart, I am Desperate, which is the ultimate teenage-advice-column-writer-drama book. It was even made into an after-school special that you can watch in its entirety on Youtube (how did I even live without the Internet??).
Conford also wrote a Magical Makeover Plot book, another common tropey plot of my childhood books.
I'd like to think that Miss Flora Mae in Dear Sweet Pea is not quite as old as Sweet Pea thinks she is (after all, someone who was fifty was old when I was thirteen; she could be in her 60's), read Ellen Conford books as a teenager, thought she could do better at writing Lovey Hart than Carrie Wasserman, proved it by submitting a an advice column to the local newspaper, and has written it ever since. Miss Flora, living in her creepy old house like Morbidda Destiny, even types on a manual typewriter and plays Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding to her plants. I think my life goal might be to be that type of lady in my neighborhood, except I would have pets and the Internet, since it is no longer actually the 80's.
Poor Sweet Pea has awkward times with friends, especially with her ex-BFF Kiera; they have grown apart, and a friendship breakup is devastating at any age, and all emotions seem to be multiplied when you're thirteen. The friendship breakup that cannot be mended by a cool 80's makeover is something that should be written about more often, because let's face it: we outgrow our friends or at the very least, friendships change as we grow.
Yes, Sweet Pea creates a few uncomfortable situations with her advice column but nothing too terrible, and the end of her story is much more optimistic than the end of other Advice Column plot books: I can't think of any in which the writers continue their columns, in fact, Sweet Pea [spoiler deleted].
I love that Oscar and Sweet Pea watch America's Most Haunted together--there's not one exactly with that title that I could find, but in my mind it is either Most Haunted (where they scream a lot) or Scariest Places on Earth (with Zelda Rubenstein from Poltergeist as the narrator!) both of which are "older" haunted house shows (I love them ALL).
Sweet Pea's dad coming out as gay is not necessarily what is stressful to Sweet Pea so much as her parents getting a divorce, and the town is more interested by the fact that Sweet Pea's mother is a marriage therapist getting divorced than the reason why. Which is how it should be, but if a character's father had come out in a 1980's book, it likely would have been 1) marketed as an adult book due to "mature content," 2) a big huge emotional and moral deal for the characters, and 3) an AIDS-hysteria story (he couldn't have just been gay without consequences!).
Also, I was almost finished with the book before I realized that it takes place in the same universe as Dumplin' and Puddin.' Duh.
Memorable quotes/passages:
- "There's nothing worse than being shocked awake by the realization that you forgot your homework or to clean your cat's litter box (to be honest, I don't know which of those is worse)" (pg. 73).
- "Maybe teachers aren't an alien species after all. I take that back. Teachers are total aliens from another galaxy, but at least most of them come in peace" (pg. 251).
- "My intention was for Oscar to be so moved by my willingness to embarrass myself in front of his whole block that he would be forced to forgive me, but if it takes holding his whole family hostage with my horrific vocals, then I'm okay with that too" (pg. 267).
- "Sometimes seeing something from a distance or from a different point of view is all it takes to figure out what you should have seen all along" (pg. 268).
Other reviews: Just Kids' Lit and Abby the Librarian
My final takeaway: If these books would have been written in the 1980's, all of the characters would have been white (instead of Mexican-American, African-American, and biracial), the girls wouldn't have had extra body fat or (gasp!) boobs, their best friends would not have been gay, and the girls all would have BOYFRIENDS at the end of their books, the only happily-ever-after scenario worth reading!
Mila would have fallen in love with one of her harassers, probably Callum, because he "is so misunderstood--he only teases because he likes me!" and Sweet Pea would have humbly learned her lesson, perhaps by being put in the dunking booth at the carnival! (Hey, this worked for Nancy Oleson--skip to 43:00). And Sweet Pea would have gotten a boyfriend--maybe Oscar would have proclaimed his un-dying romantic love for her, or something.
I'm glad that writers can still take plots that I find familiar and update them to make them better. You should read these books if for no other reason than as a reminder of how children's literature has changed for the better.
If you liked these books, you should read Girl Made of Stars, One True Way, and It's Our Prom (So Deal With It).
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| These books are available here: https://library.greensboro-nc.gov/ |
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| Learn more about the Rainbow Book List here: http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt |
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