Jane Allen #5: Jane Allen, Senior

Someone has added the above annotation to the scanned copy on Google. And luckily, it's quite true--this book is compulsively readable and the best of the series. This year, Jane has decided that she and Judy must go in for that specialization in social work, complete with 200 hours of field work. Judy hauls in truant boys, while Jane takes on the Jennings/Castbolt family. Mrs. Jennings is a young widow with two baby children, living with her also-widowed mother, Mrs. Castbolt. They're eeking out a living while Mrs. Jennings's brother/Mrs. Castbolt's son, Renny, finishes his final year of an engineering degree. Unfortunately, Mrs. Jennings has given their pittance of savings to Carol Dare, an "agent" of sorts, hoping to get on the stage and get more money for the family. Of course, this fails, and unless Renny drops out of school, they'll lose the house. Their only other hope is a wealthy uncle, who just HAPPENS to be Henry Allen's old friend.

While Jane manages to solve everyone's problems per usual, this book is much more fun as to what happens along the way. The girls take in the two babies to Madison Hall for a night, and Judy also has hilarious adventures with her "hooky boys." In another side plot, Judy has the school "adopt" an elderly man, who just happens to be the grandfather of Carol Dare. Honestly, it's not too far from the usual series book do-gooding, but doing it through the lens of social work makes it less cloying. Finally, this book has boys and romance! There's a prom, and Renny is a great romantic interest. He reminds me of Bill from the Patty Fairfield series, so far as the humbler origins/self-made bit. I really hate that the story ends with this title.

This book does raise interesting issues as far as the then relatively new idea of girls being in school at all, let alone actually pursuing a career. In one scene, the girls bemoan how being away at school hurts their chances with boys back home. They also give Jane a hard time as far as taking time away from sports and school fun to do her field work. Jane's father, especially, really is not into her taking on ANY job, let alone social work--he doesn't "want Jane to devote a promising young life to a restricted career." In the end, it turns out that he's asked their supervisor to restrict her to this case, since he's friends with the uncle. Jane, oddly enough, is okay with this. It's one of the many mixed messages this book gives. I wonder how the romance and career would have both been incorporated had the series continued--ideally in the vein of Beverly Gray, I think.

• Social work "had only been recognized as a profession since college graduates were required by the Social Service promoters." The book is really interesting as far as info about the establishment and workings of Social Services. Very unique in a series book, to the best of my knowledge.
• "But we have had the games all through our three years," is the only real mention of basketball in this book (refereeing is the only one in the last one, for the record), and it's offered as a weak protest to the girls field work. I will also point out that it's actually been four years--memory slip, or futher proof that Josephine Chase did not author the later titles?
• Dozia tells a long, hilarious story based around wearing (and not wearing) stockings with a bathing suit and a misunderstanding with her fiance, Phil. It's worth reading, I promise! I can't condense it any better than that.
• Mrs. Castbolt and her sister were both seminary grads, and they (and Jane) bemoan Mrs. Jennings decision to marry immediately after college, "Married the year she graduated! The clause repeated itself. Just imagine!"
• "The fact that gentlemen were now permitted to come to Wellington and take part in the big social affairs, gave the zest that goes to make any affair interesting." Finally! An explanation of all the girls-only dances of the first three books.
• It's too bad that there weren't boys until this book, because the writing about it completely captures schoolgirl crushes. "When he was gone, a few minutes later, Jane and Judith fell into each other's arms like two high school girls." None of Nancy Drew's nonchalance/disinterest here.
• "Then he smiled down at her, and she felt so small--he was so tall and so protective. The two old friends were talking eagerly over near the window, and the young folks--well, they were not saying much just then. The air was tingling with interest, and Jane must have been very happy; for again 'youth will be served.'"Clearly, Renny was to be the romantic lead for the rest of the series.
• "Was there anything else to be settled? If so it will have to be told in the next volume of this series to be entitled: Jane Allen: Graduate." :-(
• Final count for things that were restricted to the first three books: basketball, no boys, and Marian Seaton. Carol Dare is the only real enemy of this volume, and she's not much of one. I hate enemies, so even more points for this book.

Judy Bolton #9, The Mysterious Half Cat

This might have to be my favorite Judy Bolton book of the moment.

The book opens with Judy dreaming a strange dream in the hammock--Blackberry splits in half, with the tail end following Peter and the head end following Arthur. Judy buys a dream book from a beggar, trying to figure it out, while the boys are just concerned with which half of the cat contained the heart. *eye roll*

The Boltons are getting ready to welcome Dora "Scottie" Scott and her little sister Carol for a visit. She was friends with Judy in Roulsville and is now coming back from Alaska to look for relatives. Judy's excited to have her back at first, but Scottie is now moody and honestly pretty unpleasant most of the time. Carol has a bizarre brain malformation that makes her "language deaf" and needs expensive experimental surgery to fix it. Where, oh, where, can their old miserly grandfather be?


Judy tries to distract Scottie with a mystery. Wing Lee, the Chinese laundry man (almost as good as a Chinese cook!), has been hearing strange ghostly noises in his cellar every week. Judy lies in wait and hears them talking about splitting the cat in half. They decide that the beggar has something to do with the mystery and follow him to his house on upper Grove Street. Scottie's been excessively interested in the guy--I'm sure you can guess who he is. He gets beaten up by boys looking for his hidden riches. Judy's figured it all out by now, but the grandfather says he can't claim his family now that he's not got any money--he's not claimed them all along, because he's afraid they'll take his money, and now that he trusts them, he needs it back, to give them a show of faith. Yeah, weird/not much sense.

Of course, Judy scares the boys into giving the money back, she puts it in a bank, so that he won't be tempted back into his miserly ways, and Carol successfully has the surgery. The Scotts move into a house across the line on upper Grove Street, which furthers the Judy Bolton Gentrification Project, and everyone lives happily ever after.

• I don't see how Lorraine ever agrees to marry Arthur a few books down the line. I mean, she's supposed to be so jealous, and Arthur only decides to marry her after Judy turns him down. He seems so clearly to prefer Judy in these early books.
  
• Blackberry ex machina: he stays in the house with the beggar when he's injured. Judy et al. only discover the now seriously ill beggar in searching for Blackberry.
• Peter doesn't show the night they sneak into the miser's basement.. Judy's so upset about him not coming (and possibly scaring them with his flashlight) that she CRIES. When they straighten things out, she apologizes and wants to know how she can make it up to him. He responds by kissing her in the middle of the road. *sigh*
• When Judy asks Honey about where Peter was, she says, "You know yourself, Honey, that any kind of an adventure is lots more exciting to share with Peter than with Arthur." Was there ever any doubt about who she ends up with?
• Everyone in these old books stays out as late as I ever did--parties end at two and three in the morning, they go breaking into houses at midnight. People in the thirties didn't have the eight o'clock curfews, only go with chaperones, etc. that you might expect.
• It's a little odd to me that Horace, Peter, and Arthur, who are grown men with jobs/in law school, gallivant around with these high school girls. However, this happens all the time in pretty much any pre-1960 book, so I guess I should take it as gospel.

It's odd that I like this book so much when I think the main mystery (beggar/grandfather) is so stupid and the guest secondary characters (Scottie/Carol) are SO annoying. But to me, this is the last classic Judy mystery--she graduates from high school at the end of the book, and the next volume ushers in the whole engagement scenarios, and the next has her working for Peter, which starts off the whole pre-Roberta arc. This the last one with them all running around in a group, before a new crowd of secondary characters are ushered in. And, honestly, the kiss. It's almost as good as when Peter kisses her after she's nearly strangled to death in The Yellow Phantom. I love that she totally almost died, and all she can think about is how she can't wait to tell Pauline that Peter kissed her.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for romance. Nancy Drew would NOT approve. Anyway, next up, randomly enough, is a few volumes from a Canadian series, the Brad Forrest Adventure Series.

Judy Bolton #4, Seven Strange Clues

Seven Strange Clues is the first Judy Bolton book with all the key players and struggles in place. Honey made her first appearance in the previous book, the Arthur/Peter thing is nicely set up, and Judy realizes definitely that Honey likes Horace--and that he likes both Honey and Irene.

A poster contest is being set up by the local department store for the schoolchildren, with health as the theme. I picture WPA-type posters from the same time period. Judy is persuaded to enter by Honey, so that Honey's won't be the worst. Way to be a kind friend, Honey. Judy has the two young men renting part of the family's garage make a work bench in the cellar and invites Honey and Irene to share the space and her paints. Kay Vincent, an unpleasant classmate, unexpectedly shifts from insulting Irene to befriending her, but Judy is unable to discover her motives.

Soon, mysterious things start happening in the cellar. Judy hears whistling, she and Horace hear glass breaking, and Honey hears voices. Blackberry makes the cellar his new haunt and sometimes turns up there unexpectedly. An apple from Judy's still life gets eaten, and she accuses Horace of stealing it. Judy goes to the Dobbs' house early one morning to talk with Honey about the events, and meets up with her as Honey returns from a walk. As they head towards school, they, along with all their classmates, realize that the building has gone up in flames. Kay awkwardly yells the school fight song--fiddling while Rome burns, no? Once the fire is out, Judy joins a committee of the boys to investigate. It's found that a window was forced before the fire was started. Uh-oh.



The girls' posters were almost all in the school building when it burned--everyone but Irene and Kay's. A little suspect? Judy is shocked when she is announced as the winner, since her poster was (a.) pretty terrible and (b.) destroyed in the fire. They discover that somehow Honey's poster, which she never turned in, was submitted as Judy's. So now both Honey and Irene are upset with Judy, Honey because she thinks Judy did it and Irene because she wanted to win the wristwatch and thinks Judy lied about her poster.

Judy invites Honey and Peter over to ponder the (seven strange) clues with her and Horace. Everyone but Judy thinks they're meaningless. Irene joins them and says that Kay has ended their friendship abruptly. However, she's able to provide Kay an alibi for both the fire and the night Honey's poster disappeared. They explore the cellar again and find a secret tunnel, with the remnants of whiskey bottles, leading to the garage. Oops. Guess those nice boarders/garage renters weren't so nice.

Judy's suspicions are aroused and then confirmed when she questions Dickie, Kay's brother. Kay copied the poster from a magazine ad, and she sent Dickie to get the magazine from her desk that morning, so she wouldn't get caught. He accidentally dropped a match in the desk and then dropped the poster in his panic--burning the edge that's missing and causing him to step on it, leaving the footprint. One of the boarders is the son of a man who worked with Kay and Dickie's father in running a speakeasy, and they returned to town to recover the whiskey, of which Mr. Vincent then cheated them.

So Mr. Vincent can no longer run for Mayor, Irene wins a prize, and Honey is acknowledged as the first place winner. Dr. Bolton hires Irene to work in his office, so she can quit at the silk mill. Irene and Honey reconcile with Judy, and the closing of the school sets up the events for the next book, The Ghost Parade. I'm honestly not that fond of that book, because everyone kind of hates Judy in it.

• I appreciate that Judy is allowed to be a bad artist. You know that Nancy Drew would have modestly painted the best poster ever. It's so bad that Horace thinks the bananas are strange leaves and says, "It takes all tastes to make up a world," when she wins. It's so bad that when Irene thinks Judy won, she says, "Perhaps you can understand how that awful poster of yours won first prize. I can't."
  
• This is the book that establishes Honey as an artist, which she later makes her career. It characterizes her to the very end of the series.
• When Irene tells Judy that Kay lent her paints, Judy exclaims, "Irene, the sky is falling! We must go and tell the king."
  
• Kay's picture is copied from a Cream of Wheat ad, showing two Dutch children bowing thier heads over their breakfast. Lorraine's immediate opinion? "'Imagine Kay drawing a picture of children saying grace,' . . . She voiced the very thing that Judy was thinking." Love it.
  
• This is totally golden age Judy Bolton: she still "bet[s] something precious that . . ."
• Peter is the only one of the group that is able to identify the smell of whiskey in the cellar. Interesting.
• Judy realizes that Honey likes Horace when she hides that her poster was lost. Honey thinks Horace burned it accidentally and will feel bad about it.

So, one of my favorite Judy's. I had forgotten that Dickie was technically the culprit, so I actually got a bit of a surprise at the end. I have to say, going back and getting the first ten with all the internal illustrations was one of the best things I've done as a collector. I love them to death, and I've never paid more than $30 for one (note: my copy of The Riddle of the Double Ring has a dust jacket from a later printing). Next up: The Mysterious Half-Cat.

My Favorite Things

I've been considering re-reading some of my favorites and posting reviews, rather than sticking to new-to-me books. Which, naturally, got me thinking about just what books for a series are the best. For me, the ones I enjoy/re-read the most don't always match up to the ones that I think are the best written. For example, I think The Vanishing Shadow is probably the best written Judy Bolton book. However, there are several others that I reread more because they showcase her romance with Peter--to me, that's more enjoyable/easy to read about than her kidnapping in Vanishing Shadow. Of course, sometimes best/favorite coincides, as in The Adventure Girls in the Air. It can also get complicated with a series like Beverly Gray, where my favorite story arc is (surprise!) the travels on board the Susabella, but my favorite stand alone titles are Beverly Gray, Sophomore and Beverly Gray's Romance. I like those particular books on their own more than any of the individual titles within the Susabella arc.

Favorites:

Nancy's Mysterious Letter, 1932 edition.
The Vanishing Shadow
Beverly Gray, Sophomore
The Adventure Girls in the Air
Behind the White Veil (Vicki Barr)
The Ghost Wore White (Connie Blair)
The Missing Formula (Madge Sterling)
Kristie at College/Quarry Ghost (not series, but excellent)
Peggy Plays Off-Broadway (Peggy Lane)

I tried to narrow down a Trixie Belden, but I think of that series differently than others. They were the first series I ever read, my mother's old deluxe editions (1-15), and I've never attempted to replace them or expand on my collection. I reread all of them at least once a year. The most memorable scenes for me are Trixie finding the white dress with the Peter Pan collar and the flared skirt--and getting her first orchid from Jim; when Brian finds out that she's been acting like a mooning nincompoop over Honey's ridiculous cousin so that she can use her diamond ring to save Brian's car; and two scenes in The Happy Valley Mystery: Jim reassuring her after the dance and giving her an id bracelet on the plane back to New York.