The Katherine Applegate/Michael Grant Books of Sweet Valley Twins

Posted on by

You’re going to have to bear with me on this, because I’m still a bit gushy. Michael Grant followed me on Twitter, and I thought that was a big deal. Then he tweeted at me. (@SweetValley_ if you want to follow me, by the way.)

And this was news to me. I knew that Katherine Applegate was a ghostie, but I never knew that Michael Grant was involved, so this generated a lot of squee from me.  I had been a fan of Katherine Applegate since the Making Out years, then found Michael Grant’s Gone series independently. Wing and I nearly exploded with joy when we realized they were married. I think many of our squees were about how much talent was contained within their house!

I have been telling Raven and Wing that SV gets so much better once we hit a point. And that point pretty much encompasses the books that Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate wrote.

Then Katherine Applegate gave us this little gem.

I had to ask about the Super/Special/Chiller editions and Michael kindly gave more information.

I’m amazed that these lovely people took the time to answer my questions about some old books. I’m also delighted that Michael actually started this conversation.  This has just been a lovely conversation, with some great snippets of information that we’ve wondered about for quite awhile.

And – feel free to skip this part – here’s one of the reasons why it’s so lovely. I grew up reading these two without even knowing about it. I then fell in love with the writing they published under their own names. I was quite a lonely teen, and reading the Making Out series in particular, knowing that Nina was so odd but loved gave me a bit of hope.

tl;dr, Katherine Applegate’s writing impacted my life, and later the same was true of her husband. And for 20 minutes this evening, I existed to them too.

Edit: It gets better. Michael Grant answered some questions about the Sweet Valley Twins ghostwriting experience.

I am Dove. I am: Team Jessica (Sweet Valley); Team Bad Guy (Point Horror);  Team Geiger (Making Out); Team Nina/Lucas (Making Out); and I am the voice of a claymation cow named Daisy, and I was in an advert for Fairy Liquid in the 80s.