Cherry Ames: Jungle Nurse

    "When Cherry Ames is offered a temporary assignment to help establish a health clinic in a small native African village, she sees it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not only will she be visiting a strange and exciting part of the world-but, more importantly, she will have a chance to help the underprivileged people of a semi-primitive country.

    But no sooner has the clinic been built than Cherry finds herself caught up in the midst of a mysterious chain of event. Rough diamonds are being smuggled out of Africa and Cherry's acute observations lead her to believe that the clinic itself is the base of the smugglers' operation!

    By carefully putting together obscure bits and pieces of evidence, and at great personal danger to herself, Cherry sets a trap for the criminals.

    How the alert young nurse from the United States manages to put an end to an international smuggling ring provides a whirlwind finish to a fascinating story of mystery and intrigue."

    "For a fleeting moment she wondered if she might run into another mystery when she got back home. But she quickly dismissed the thought. Hilton, Illinois was such a quiet, typical Midwest town that it hardly seemed likely." (Cherry, you've already solved several mysteries at home.)

- Bob brags to Cherry about an African hunting trip his rich daddy took him on 5 years ago and how they killed so many animals. Cherry's pretty disgusted by this so Bob back peddles saying it was a different time then. You know, a whole 5 years ago. However Bob keeps bragging through out the book about hunting; "The shotgun I'll use to bag us a few sand grouse every now and then. There are millions of them down in this part of Kenya, and when they're broiled over an open fire they'll taste ten times better than the partridge or pheasants your twin brother probably hunts every fall back in Illinois." Why's he gotta come for Charlie like that.

- When Bob goes into town Cherry asks him to pick up some flower seeds because she wants to plant flowers around the village. He asks her what kind of flowers and she says "the pretty flowers your mother use to plant in her garden at home." Flowers are so fickle about weather, temperature, and everything that I don't think just any flower that grows in the US will be guaranteed to grow in Kenya.

- The village is aerial sprayed several times with pesticide to get rid of the fly that is making the villagers so ill. The stuff causes Cherry's eyes to burn and her to cough but Bob says its safe. Pesticides in the 60's, safe? Hmm I'm skeptical. Also I don't understand why everyone wouldn't be instructed to remain in their homes while the airplane is spraying.

- Sometimes in the evening Cherry sits with the children of the village and tells them stories such as Mother Goose and American folklore. And sometimes an adult from the village joins her and tells African stories. I thought that was quite neat, the cultures mixing to entertain children. There's very something sweet about it.

    Overall this story is really nice. There's something satisfying about seeing the steps of building a little hospital to bringing in the patients and healing them. The setting is fun, all the characters are interesting, and the mystery is believable.

    I find that most Cherry Ames books are either hit or miss. Out of the 11 books in the series that I've read there's only been two I've liked enough to want to re-read and those two books are not just good but great in my opinion. This is one of them.