Trudy Phillips father has been relocated for work and Trudy will be starting at a new school. Although she's worried about fitting in she quickly makes friends with a whole group of kids, with her closest friends being Spooky, Stephen, and Mike.
Over the next few months Trudy works as prompter for the school play, is elected class secretary, does a bunch of babysitting to purchase a puppy, throws a scavenger hunt party, and most importantly helps the principle discover who has been stealing money from the school and students.
All the while Trudy tries to build a friendship with Gloria, the wealthy and glamorous queen bee of Tylertown High School who, for some reason, turns a cold shoulder to Trudy.
There is only 2 books in the Trudy Phillips series. The second, Headline Year, was one of the first Whitman books I had. While piecing together a Donna Parker collection I ended up with about 6 other books that were included in "lots". I ended up really liking the book and wanted to read the first book as the second talked about the first book but didn't explain much, however it was hard to find and I didn't get it until much later when I found it in a book store. I only read it once so let's see if it's as good as I remember.
- Mike seems cool. To be honest I'm not completely sure what "DP" means. I believe it means Displaced Person because this book falls into the time frame of the Displaced Persons Acts following WW2 but it's a little strange that he's referred to as "Mike the DP".
- In Trudy's English class she has to partake in a debate on the voting age being lowered from 21 to 18. I didn't know the voting age had once been 21. Also funnily enough one of the arguments made for changing it made me think changing it back would be a good idea.
- I like that Mike is shown as just a normal student and that him and Trudy bond over being the new kids in school. Other Whitman books with foreign born people usually have them be mysterious exchange students or really eccentric, wealthy adults.
- Trudy saves her allowance so she can go to Sunday School. Why would she have to pay for Sunday School?
- I really don't understand how Trudy could want Gloria to move in with her after Gloria just tried framing her for theft. What was Gloria's end goal, to have Trudy expelled? That's very serious and could have altered Trudy's whole future.
- The illustrations in this book are lovely and I personally think Trudy is the most beautiful of the Whitman girls. Most of them seem to be drawn quite frumpy (Polly French, Donna Parker, Ginny Gordon, etc.) but Trudy is actually strikingly pretty and competes with Gloria who is the school beauty. The illustrations were done by Dorothy Grider and I think she did a wonderful job.
I really didn't have many notes for this book. It's just a nice, enjoyable, little book. The mystery is a light high school mystery and doesn't involve any adult criminals which makes it feel a lot more laid back and less stressful than say a Ginny Gordon book or something.
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