The Unseen Enemy

    Polly and Margot have decided to spend their summer volunteering at Neighborhood House, a large old house where the local youths can take classes, participate in clubs, and play. The house is run by Miss Brian who tells the girls that the community might soon be losing Neighborhood House. The residence had been donated 20 years ago by wealthy Dr. Brighton with the conditions being that if the community house was not a success in 20 years then it would be handed over to his next of kin, whose identity is currently unknown. The place is currently struggling to make ends meet, partially due to the great depression but also by the lack of funding from the community chest.

    A young girl, Juanita, runs into Miss Brian's office then to tell her that little Lois Ames has gone missing. After a thorough search does not find the girl Polly goes home to fetch her dog who then traces the little girl up in the attic behind a wall paneling. The girl says she fell asleep in a room and doesn't know how she came to be hidden in the attic. Not wanting Neighborhood House to get any bad publicity that could cause it to struggle more financially Polly asks everyone involved to keep the incident quiet.

    On their first day of volunteering Polly and Margot are visited at the house by their wealthy and snobbish friend Catherine Peasley.  Catherine's father is the chairman for Neighborhood House and after hearing about Polly and Margot volunteering he makes Catherine volunteer as well. Miss Brian is very excited about this because she hopes it it will influence Mr. Peasley into giving the house more funding.

    The following day Polly is to run a gym class at the house however before the class starts a young boy named Jimmy falls from the gymnastic bars and breaks his arm. Polly runs him to the doctor's office and as she sits in the waiting room she replays the incident in her mind. The way in which Jimmy fell makes her believe the gymnastic bar had been loose. After Jimmy is patched up she goes back to the gym to examine the bars but they're gone. After questioning around the janitor tells Polly he had sold the bars to a junk man. This seems very strange and suspicious.

    The following morning Polly arrives at the house to find Miss Brian crying over a newspaper. An article has been written about Lois and Jimmy's incidents and calls for a full investigation of Neighborhood House and Miss Brian.

    After Polly sees another article in the paper talking about the recent birthday party for 90-year-old resident, Mrs. Heiserling, she decides to pay her a visit and see if she can give any information on who Dr. Brighton's next of kin is. The elderly women tells Polly that Dr. Brighton had a large collection of valuables including jade, gold, and crystal objects. He left them to his wife in his will but she was never able to find them. Polly excitedly returns to Neighborhood House to tell Margot about this missing treasure.

    The girls are overheard by a little boy named Amity and Polly covers up by saying the treasure refers to a treasure hunt Neighborhood House is going to throw for the kids. This is overheard by Catherine who takes control of the idea. She plans out an elaborate night time treasure hunt with rhyming clues and sets the locations as the old quarry, the filling station, the shot tower, and the loading dock of her father's factory. 

    Polly is concerned that these locations are not safe for children, that the children shouldn't be running around town at night, and that the rhymes will be too hard for the younger children to figure out. But Catherine uses her father's position as director of the board to intimidate Polly into accepting her plans.

    However Polly secretly works with Miss Brian to protect the 80 children who sign up for the hunt; the children will work in assigned groups of five, Polly and Margot will check into each location to make sure the children are safe, and the police chief will have the busy road in front of the filling station temporarily blocked off. Catherine is angered over these decisions but as they're announced last minute she can not have them changed.

    The treasure hunt is going well until Amity's group is somehow given the wrong clue and heads to later location before all the other groups, this being the shot tower. Polly arrives just in time as Amity falls from the tower into some water. He is fine but Polly worries about this being more bad publicity. She has the children in Amity's group agree not to tell anyone of the incident.

    After the hunt is over Polly heads to the newspaper office to ask the editor about the articles he's been writing about Neighborhood House. He informs her he's already received a tip off call about what happened to Amity and is writing another article. Polly explains the whole situation to him and he agrees to change his exposé on the suspected mismanagement of the house into a feature story about the treasure hunt.

    The next morning Margot proposes an idea to get good publicity for the house; throw an operetta staring the children to raise money for a sick young boy named Joe. Miss Brian calls in her friend Grace Ellis who will work as the director of the show.

    Polly submits an article to the newspaper about the show which is how Catherine finds out about it. She is livid that she wasn't included and storms over to Neighborhood House and screams at Grace, saying that if she, Catherine, is not made director and given control of the show then she will have her father interfere with the house. Grace doesn't pay Catherine's threats any mind however.

    The night of the show runs smoothly except for the disappearance of Nina, the shows lead. She's no where to be found and Amity has to take her part which turns out to be a huge hit with the audience. After the show Polly, Margot, Grace, and Miss Brian are headed to the police station to report Nina missing when they see the doctor's car parked at Catherine's house. Once inside they find out Catherine had struck Nina with her car and brought the girl to her house to recuperate. Catherine becomes quite angry when she finds out the show went on without Nina.

    The next day Polly is summoned by the newspaper editor to meet him at Neighborhood House. There she meets his friend, Mr. Lemly who is a movie producer. He saw the show last night and is interested in taking a screen test of Amity. The boy is called and they film him performing his numbers from the show. Both men head to Chicago to have the film developed and viewed.

    The next morning Polly finds an article in the newspaper recounting how the police were not contacted when Nina disappeared. The newspaper editor calls from Chicago to tell Polly that the article was unknowingly published by one of his men and he fully supports Neighborhood House's success. He also lets her know that Amity's screentest was a huge success.

    Polly and Margot discuss the House's sudden unlucky streak and decide someone must be trying to sabotage it. Polly believes it might be Dr. Brighton unknown next of kin who wants the house to search for the missing treasure. The girls then decide to search it themselves. The begin on the lowest floor which is the gymnasium. While tapping on the walls they discover a hollow spot and begin chiseling the stone out when Catherine walks in and yells that she's going to tell her father what they're doing and runs out. Not wanting the Peaslys to find the treasure Polly moves a rack of exercise equipment in front of the area than chisels the wall six feet away to create a red herring.

    The girls immediately leave and come back the next day to find Miss Brian has been instructed to ban the two girls from entering the house. She says she going to put in her resignation but Polly tells her to wait for three days and she will have everything fixed. 

    Polly then visits Mrs. Heiserling who tells her Dr. Brighton next of kin was a troublesome nephew named Peter Brighton who took off to Florida after a falling out with his uncle. Polly and Margot sneak into the house that night to search for the treasure but have to flee almost immediately when they hear the janitor messing around in Miss Brian's office.

    The next day Miss Brian calls the girls back to the house and asks them to help her. The board has asked her for a report of every expenditure over the last 20 years and it's too large a job for Miss Brian to handle alone, especially since someone has messed with her files. They get to work but suddenly Polly runs off to make a long distance call. When she returns Catherine and Mr. Peasly arrive baring hammers and chiseled and go straight to the gym and start working on removing the stone. 

    Polly calls the newspaper editor, the mayor, and all the members of the city council and the house board and summons them there as witnesses to the discovery of the treasure. She then confronts Mr. Peasly, addressing him by his birth name of Peter Brighton, and reminds him that the treasure is currently the property of Neighborhood House. The Peaslys are helpless to steal the valuables with so many men of power present so they slip out as Polly, the editor, and the mayor discover the cache of jewels, gold, and jade.

    After a celebratory dinner Polly, Margot, Miss Brian, and the editor go to Mrs. Heiserling to share the story and she says her talks with Polly have inspired her to donate her house as a Neighborhood House for her part of the town.

- This book is a rarity in that it has a large cast of minorities and a black supporting character. Amity is an African American boy and he is described as the most talented of all the children, as having a "brilliant grin which makes him one of the favorites of everyone at the community house", and he gets the screen test and becomes a movie actor. 

    It's also interesting to see bigotry is used as one of Catherine's evil characteristics. She is introduced as berating her "colored" servants, something she does often, and when she first appears at Neighborhood House she pulls her skirt away so it won't touch the Mexican children.

- When Nina goes missing they wait an extra hour and a half before considering reporting it to the police because they don't want it to ruin the show. They then decide to search for another hour before mentioning the police again. Miss Brian says they should keep looking themselves cause it'll look careless that they took so long to report it. Maybe Miss Brian does need to be investigated.

- Catherine is similar to Victoria from Betty Baxter's other book, Becky Bryan's Secret, in that she could very possibly be a sociopath. She seems to have no kindness for anyone besides herself and even goes so far as to hit a child with her car to get her way. I'm very curious what would have become of her after the story ends.

- I like the fact that Polly and Margot want to be social workers and that's why they volunteer at the house. I think that's an interesting career goal. A lot of these books have girls wanting to have more glamorous careers.

    Overall I think this is quite good. I really like Betty Baxter's writing because she knew how to keep things moving and there's never any boring spots or places it drags. I think the premise, location, and characters are fun and unique. Baxter wrote a number of books which I look forward to reading some day.

The Dormitory Mystery

    This is the third and last book I've read by Betty Baxter. She wrote this one under the pen name Alice Anson. I recall really enjoying this one and I'm excited to read it again.

    Martha is a high school girl who decides to try out for a school play just to spite Angela, the local stuck-up, rich girl who believes she'll get the lead. Martha's audition goes well, the drama teacher, Miss Meardon, only has her read for the lead which makes her think she's secured it. As the casting is about to be announced smoke starts filling into the auditorium from the dressing room which connects to the cafeteria. Miss Meardon instructs the students to stack chairs under the windows and climb out.

    As this is going on Martha runs to the dressing room, gets a wet towel to cover her face, then runs to the phone in the cafeteria where she reports the fire to the switch board operator. As she arrives back in the auditorium Miss Meardon and fellow student Jock are arguing; Jock is telling Miss Meardon to escape through the window but she insists she can't leave without Martha. Once the girl is back they all escape with Jock assisting both of them out.

    Thanks to Martha's call the janitor is already there with a fire extinguisher but it turns out the smoke was from a pot of olive oil that was left on a low burner and not any fire.

    Miss Meardon takes the students to a classroom where she announces the cast list. Martha is surprised to find she did not get the lead, losing out to Angela. After class Jock drives Martha home and tells her he saw the cast list when he helped Miss Meardon out the window and Martha's name had been written down for the lead. Evidently Miss Meardon wanted to punish Martha for going to call in the fire.

    The play is actually three small individual plays. Along with her small role in the second play Martha has been asked to handle props. Her best friend, Lucia, is in the third play and also handling press. While working with Miss Meardon one day Angela comes in and asked Meardon to excuse her for a day so she can go to Chicago to shop for her costume. The drama teacher reminds Angela that her role is of a simple country girl so her wardrobe will consist of one, simple gingham dress. Angela throws a tantrum, screaming at the woman. Both Martha and Lucia back up the teacher and Angela vows to get even with them for this.

    Her revenge is discovered moments before showtime on opening night when it's learned that Martha and Lucia's names have been removed from both the newspaper cast list and the programs. 

    The plays go on and the first play, Angela's one, is chosen as the one that will go to the Capital City performance competition. Martha is disappointed her play wasn't chosen but agrees that Angela's performance was wonderful.

    While the winning play heads to the competition that weekend Martha and Lucia are headed to the May Festival at the college of Lucia's sister. After their train arrives they're surprised to see Jock who said he's there to bring Martha to the competition. One of the actors broke her arm backstage and Miss Meardon needs Martha to replace her. 

    The three race the 50 miles there and Martha arrives at the last minute. When she walks on stage Angela is so shocked that she forgets her lines and Martha has to guide her to them through improv. This makes Angela furious.

    Later on they learn another school, who has driven 600 miles to be there, is going to be disqualified because they too have lost an actor. The play is the same one Martha recently performed so she is called in as a substitute. Her double performance causes her to get mentioned in the newspaper as the stand-out of the competition.

    The college where the competition was held is starting a six week long summer school for 25 talented high school actors and Martha has been given a spot. Unfortunately ,Angela has too.

    Martha arrives at the Cantwell dorm house where she will be living for those six weeks and is almost immediately told by the sour-faced Dean Jones that if anything of value is found it must be immediately turned over to her. She's then taken to her room where she meets her roommate Roberta, or "Chubs" as she's nicknamed. 

    Chubs is an avid collector of pitchers and has filled every surface of the room with her collection. Martha and she quickly become the best of friends so when Martha spots an antique pitcher in a pawnshop window she buys it as gift for Chubs. Upon leaving the shop she knocks into an old lady whose purse drops and spills pawn tickets. Martha gathers her purse and apologies but the old lady runs off frightened.

    The antique pitcher is embossed with three oak leaves which exactly match the fireplace in the girls room so they set it atop the mantel. When they return to their room after class the next day Chubs finds the pitcher has been moved and the girls suspect Dean Jones has been snooping.

    As the weekend arrives the girls drive to Chubs' house where they go for a swim at the quarry. Martha saves the family's youngest child when he falls into the water and is crowned Junior Queen at the Rose Queen dance that night as a reward.

    The girls begin their drive back the next day but the car has a coolant leak and they have to stop several times to ask for pails of water from nearby houses. The last one they stop at is a small shack occupied by the same frightened old woman Martha had knocked into. Sitting atop her table is a pitcher exactly like the one Martha gifted Chubs.

    Upon arriving at the dorm the girls are greeted by Angela who coaxes them into setting down their bags and going for a soda with her. Once they return and go to unpack they find the bags have been riffled through and the gifted pitcher is missing from the mantel.

    Chubs is furious about the missing pitcher and Martha is upset over Angela's special treatment is class so the two go for a canoe ride to cool their minds. Once they row to the other side of the river Martha is surprised to see the old lady from the shack collecting sticks. She then realizes the pitcher on her table in the shack may actually be Chubs missing one. They go to her house which is nearby but no one answers the door.

    That night the two girls hear voices coming from the fireplace and when they get closer to listen they find it's Angela and Dean Jones. They are mention the missing pitcher and talk of searching for hidden jewels in the dorm.

    The next day Martha walks into town and sees the missing pitcher back in the pawnshop window. She storms in and the shop keeper tells her the pitcher was pawned by the old woman and he agrees to sell it back to her at a significantly lower price if she agrees not to call the police. 

    Upon bringing the pitcher back to Chubs, Dean Jones sees it and immediately runs up to Angela's room. Martha tries to follow and eavesdrop but is interrupted by another girl in the dorm. Once back in their room Chubs tells Martha she heard everything through the chimney; Angela and Dean Jones are scheming to get the pitcher because they think it's related to the missing jewels. The pitcher evidently is not the missing one but a nearly identical one. Angela comes in and tries asking to borrow it for a prop in the upcoming play but Chubs declines. 

    The girls realize they need to hide it so they cleanly break open one of Chubs large pitchers and reassemble it with the silver pitcher inside. Angela and Dean Jones continuously search the girls' room for the pitcher and threaten Chubs with explosion if she doesn't hand it over but neither phases them.

    They go to visit the old lady who turns out to be Ms. Cantwell and she admits to pawning two separate pitchers which were family heirlooms but she quickly shoos the girls away when they ask if she had snooped in their room.

    That night the girls decide to examine the pitcher for a clue. They remove it from its hiding place and discover a blank piece of parchment under one of the leaf designs. They decide to keep it out and figure out it's importance later.

    The following day Martha is tripped down the stairs by Angela and sprains her ankle leaving her bedridden. While alone in the dorm house during class she gets the idea to view the parchment under a microscope belonging to one of the girls in the dorm. While doing this she gets the idea to heat up the paper which causes it's invisible ink to show faintly, then under the microscope she can read the words "under oak antique peels upon brook bawls this" which she presses into the desk blotter with her nail. 

    

    Dean Jones catches her then and takes the parchment away. She's able to retrieve the blotter later but the message makes no sense. The girls believe there is a message in the other pitcher that will make it decipherable.

    The girls also realize that the oak leaf design on the mantel is similar to the one on the pitcher that has a secret compartment. They begin to carve out the cement around the oak leaf on the mantel but Dean Jones catches them. She locks them in their room then runs up to Angela's room and begins carving out the oak leaf on her mantel. Eventually the dean comes back downstairs and bargains with the girls; all agree not to mess with the mantels. However that night Martha continues to carve at it and finds an empty secret compartment. 

    Chubs then heads over to Ms. Cantwell's home early that morning to try and get an clues from her. She says that her father had a collection of extremely valuable jewels that were left to her in his will but they were never found and she has spent the decades since his death in poverty. The only clue he had left her was the pitchers which she stored for safety until having to sell them recently. Chubs, at Martha request, acquired some old and worthless documents from Ms. Cantwell which they hide in the mantels secret compartment for Dean Jones to find.

    The next few days the girls focus on the upcoming play and don't think about the mystery until one morning when Martha switches out the stolen pitcher in Dean Jones office for the one the girls had already examined. Inside the leaf's compartment they find another piece of parchment and with a candle and toy magnifying glass they reveal it's message: "and whose root out the that along wood".

    They recognize these two messages as being words from a Shakespeare play. Realizing they only have one more day of summer school they rush to Ms. Cantwell's home at midnight and share the clues and Shakespeare verse with her. She realizes this refers to a stone statue down by the river on the Cantwell house property. The three go there and dig out the statue. In a secret compartment in the base is a leather bag filled with an assortment of expensive, and some historical, jewels.

    The next day, the last day of school, the play is to be performed and Martha is told last minute that she has won the leading role over Angela. After the successful play has ended a very much transformed Ms. Cantwell approaches the girls while they stand with there families and gifts each of them a diamond ring. 

    Dean Jones and Angela then show up and accuse the girls of stealing the jewels from school property. Ms. Cantwell dominantly replies that her lawyer will be contacting Dean Jones, who it turns out is Angela's aunt, and charging her with intent to defraud. Dean Jones meekly shys away while the rest celebrate the successful play and Ms. Cantwell's happy future.

- This book takes place in Iowa. I believe The Unseen Enemy also mentioned being in Iowa. Both books mention trips to Chicago as does Becky Bryan's Secret which most likely is also set in Iowa. It's my guess that Betty Baxter was an Iowa resident.

- Whenever Baxter's characters are dealing with a situation that they don't like but can't change they focus on a physically or mentally heavy activity so they don't dwell on the bad. I really like that.

- I love Chubs' infatuation with pitchers. It's a unique interest and her unapologetic love and affection for her collection is great.

- Angela is a typical Baxter villain; evil almost to a sociopath level but also, for some reason, friends with her enemies.

- The missing jewels hidden in a former residence which is now used for semi-public purpose is very similar to The Unseen Enemy.

    Overall I enjoyed this book. It's plot is very coincidence heavy and the whole pitcher theme is a bit silly but I enjoyed it none the less. It felt very similar to the last two Betty Baxter books I read but since I'm a fan of her writing style I consider that a good thing. Like the other two books this one lacked any dull or boring bits and was easy to get through.

Becky Bryan's Secret

    Becky Bryan is starting her junior year as a new student at Kent High School. The first day of school starts a week long contest to sell the most amount of subscriptions for the school newspaper. Whoever wins has a better chance of getting whichever role they want working for the paper. Becky wants to be editor but knows she's hindered by being a new student so she takes her subscription sales seriously. 

    By the end of the day she's already made 30 sales which provokes Victoria Heath who sees herself as the leader of her peers. Victoria waits for Becky in the girls lounge and informs her that outshining Victoria in any field will result in Becky being outcasted. Becky pays no mind to Victoria who decides to try and destroy Becky's reputation before she even has a chance to acquire one.

    The night before the last day of the competition Victoria sneaks into the school and rearranged the public score board to make it look as though Becky is in the lead then spreads the rumor that Becky changed the score board herself to cheat. Little does Victoria know that Becky has acquired significantly more sales and once she's announced as the winner her name is cleared.

    Hilary, Becky's new best friend, brings her four year old sister to school one day. This so happens to be a day when her and Becky are playing tennis before school. Victoria offers to watch the sister but soon runs to the tennis courts to say the little girl has ran away onto the roof. 

    The three then look and watch as the little girl falls off the roof onto a ledge. Hilary promptly faints and Becky orders Victoria to call the fire department while she climbs a telephone poll and walks the wire like a tightrope over to the ledge. There she sits with the child until the fire department gets them down. During this time the girl informs Becky that Victoria had taken her to the roof herself. Becky believes this was Victoria's revenge on Hilary for befriending Becky.

    The weekend brings the first outing of the junior girls' horse club. Becky has been invited on the horseback ride by Hilary. Victoria arranges it so that everyone else comes early causing Becky to be stuck with the only horse left; the ill tempered Diablo. Becky is a skillful horsewoman and handles the horse magnificently, to Victoria's disappointment. The girls stop for lunch and Victoria suggests Becky stay behind and clean up their picnic area. She then places burs under Diablo's saddle blanket.

    Ten minutes after the other girls have left Becky mounts the horse and is tossed off, with the fall spraining her back. She decides to remain still as to not damage her back more and assumes someone will come back for her when she does not appear. However no one comes back as Victoria insists Becky has not caught up with them because she must have had a hissy fit over having to clean the picnic area and stormed off home. Hilary doesn't believe this and spends the rest of the ride furious over Victoria's continuous insults of Becky.

    After the ride is over Hilary learns that Diablo arrived back at the stable rider-less and that Becky's car is still parked in the stable garage. She quickly heads out looking for her friend and finds Becky struggling to walk back to the stables. 

    Hilary wants to take her straight to a doctor but Becky insists she has to get to the football game to cover it for the school paper. In dirty riding habits the girls arrive to the game on horseback and catch the attention of everyone which infuriates Victoria.

    As Halloween arrives Becky plans a party for the group at an old barn. The party starts out with a scavenger hunt that everyone is thrilled over but the game ends with Tad, the star of the football team, spraining his ankle. Victoria jumps at the chance to blame this on Becky and starts spreading the rumor that Tad is furious at Becky and blames her for his accident. 

    As everyone starts blaming Becky, Hilary decides to clear her friends name by inviting Tad to go to the football game with her and Becky, who he certainly does not blame for his injury. Victoria is yet again furious when she sees Becky and Tad arrive together and sit next to each other, showing everyone that there is no bad blood between them.

    The next football game will be against Kent High School's biggest rival and the town is abuzz with anticipation. The local radio station decides to give some time to a program dedicated to the game and asks the principal to arrange the show. He asks a teacher to get it together and the teacher then asks Victoria to write out a ten minute skit for it. She refuses saying she's too busy with a dress fitting to do it so it gets offered to Becky. Becky writes a two person script with the intention of her and Tad performing it but gets quite a shock when the roles are given to Tad and Victoria and Victoria takes credit for writing it.

    During the winter vacation Becky and Hilary go for a snowshoe hike, get caught in a blizzard, and lost. They try to dig a hole into a snowdrift for protection from the blizzard but end up finding a door in a stone cliff behind the snow. They manage to break the lock and inside they find an up-to-date home complete with electricity and telephone. The phone connects to a ranger station so they are able to get word to their families while they hunker down until the storm is over which ends up being the next day. A ranger comes for them and tells the unique house belongs to the daughter-in-law of the town's founder who uses it as a summer home.

    Back at school after the holidays Victoria announces she will be taking a one month vacation to Florida. The school's newspaper editor comes down with scarlet fever and must quarantine for a month. This leaves Becky in charge of the paper and she decides to make changes. 

    After witnessing a freshman get bullied in the halls and the school monitors not bothering to help she writes a scathing editorial. Later the same bully physically assaults a freshman causing him injury. Becky has to attend the student council disciplinary hearing as a witness. She then writes an article about proceedings with the perpetrator's name clearly stated. 

    The school is shocked to see someone being publicly called out and shamed for their misbehavior. When Victoria returns she runs wild with this and successfully starts turning the student body against Becky, including Hilary.

    As the school year comes to an end Becky throws a giant circus themed party for her to reveal her real identity to her peers. Before the announcement she finds out she has been elected editor for the following school year and senior class president. 

    She then tells everyone that she is in fact Rebecca Bryan Royal, daughter of the famous Royal Circus owner, famed tightrope walker, and famed radio performer. She explains that she wanted to keep her identity secret because she wanted to make friends for who she is and not because of her fame or wealth. Everyone declares that they like Becky for herself, everyone except Victoria. Overtaken with jealousy Victoria tries to one-up Becky's announcement by announcing she will be going to an exclusive Italian school next year but no one cares.

- Victoria is called Virginia on page 29.

- The girls, including Hilary, leave Becky alone to clean up after breakfast and tell her to catch up with them when she's done even though this is her first time in this area. This is so strange and unlikely. It only took Becky 10 minutes to clean up, they could have waited and helped.

- Victoria is a sociopath. She's gonna let a child die to get revenge on Hilary and could have paralyzed or killed Becky with the horse stunt.

- This book is unique in that Becky's rival never sees the err of her ways and never makes peace with Becky nor apologizes. Victoria is bad from start to finish and has no redemption.

    Overall this was an entertaining read. The chapters are short and non-repetitive. I did skim a few pages of the football games cause I really can't stand to read sports scenes but they weren't as bad as other books.

Barbara Ann: The Stolen Blueprints

    Here we go! I've been looking forward to getting to this series! Barbara Ann is one of the harder to find series and I was very excited 5 years ago to build a collection of all four books. Unfortunately I ended up not liking them. The books have good premises but the execution is terrible in my opinion. Barbara is a very one dimensional character and she lacks a personality.

    I don't know who Ruth Grosby was but upon my previous reading I felt she must not have been an experienced writer and that based on her writing she might have been an older woman.

    The last (and first) time I read this book was five years ago so lets see I'm my opinion has changed at all.

    Fifteen year old Barbara Ann Wilson is excited for the upcoming school trip to Colorado. She announces it to her parents and asks them for the $250 fee. Her parents inform her that they're struggling financially as her fathers architecture firm has been losing business to a new firm, Howard and Johnson. The rival company has been winning over clients with designs that are almost complete rip-offs of Mr. Wilson's designs. As he's begun to believe someone is stealing his work he hires a detective to investigate it.

    Meanwhile Barbara happily takes a day trip with nine of her friends to a cabin owned by the family of her best friend Beverly. After an afternoon of eating and playing horseshoes Barbara, her boyfriend Bob, and a girl named Jane all go for a walk. After they've gone quite a ways from the cabin Jane sprains her ankle and Barbara walks to the only nearby home to ask for assistance. 

    It is a run down farm house who's occupant will barely open the door for her and refuses to give help. Barbara has a rather strange belief that this house and her father's copied architecture designs are somehow related.

    The detective hasn't been making much progress, mainly because Mr. Wilson will not let him suspect or investigate any of the employees. One night as Bob and Barbara are driving to a dance she sees a light on in her father's office from the street view. Rushing up to try and catch a culprit in the act she just finds Tony, the janitor. Barbara is disappointed this mystery has not been solved yet as she's desperate to go on the school trip so she decides to take things into her own hands.

    On a Saturday she sneaks into the office of Howard and Johnson to look for any evidence she can find. In the wastepaper basket she finds a scrap of blueprints with her fathers business stamp on it but before she can flee with this evidence the two men appear. Barbara reveals all she knows so the men decide to take her to the farmhouse and hold her until they can secure $25,000 from an upcoming building contract and then flee.

    While she is in the men's car being driven to the farm house she manages to drop three identifying items out the window; a compact Bob got her, a monogrammed fountain pen, and a handkerchief with her initials on it. At the house she is treated fine but securely locked in. This is when she finally realizes Johnson is Tony the janitor.

    Meanwhile Mrs. Wilson has been frantic over Barbara's continuous absence. After calling all her friends and the hospitals her and her husband still cannot find even a trace of their daughter. However Beverly's family has gone to their cabin for the weekend so the worried parents hold out hope that Barbara had made a last minute decision to go with them. Bob offers to make the two hour drive there to find out.

    When he's almost there he notices an object in the road; Barbara's compact. He then finds her pen and further on her handkerchief. Then he notices a flashing light in the distance. It's Barbara flashing S.O.S in Morse code with the light in the bedroom that she's been locked in for the night. Bob uses his flashlight to signal back to her than races back to the closes town to call Mr. Wilson who rushes out with three police officers. 

    At the farmhouse Bob climbs a tree that extends close to Barbara's window and throws her a rope which she secures to the bed frame and climbs across to Bob. Then the police offers burst in the house and take the culprits by surprise. Barbara goes home and falls asleep excited for her school trip

- The small bits of sexism in this book are minimal and I wouldn't even point them out if it wasn't for it being more prominent in the books that follow in this series. Barbara and her mother are bad at math while Mr. Wilson and Bob are good at it. While at Beverly's cabin the 5 girls are told to wash the dishes by Beverly's mother, when the five boys want to help she tells them no, they need to go relax while the girls do the cleaning. After Barbara has been kidnapped she is expected to help the other woman wash the dishes which I found strange in general.

- I found the baseball game to be really boring but I can't stand the inclusion of sports games in any books.

- I can't help but feel that Ruth Grosby wrote herself into the part of Barbara's mother, Mrs. Wilson. Granted, I don't know anything about Ruth Grosby but I find that a lot of authors from this time and genre were in their 40s/50s so it's not too much of a reach to think Grosby might have been and therefore related to the character her age.

    Anyways the reason I think Grosby wrote herself as the mother is because Mrs. Wilson is written strangely. Her descriptions are very complimentary, way more so than Barbara's descriptions and Barbara is the main character. She's also included in the book in places that, in my opinion, she shouldn't be. Whenever Barbara's with her friends Mrs. Wilson is constantly butting in and then the book gives a whole description about how much everyone likes Mrs. Wilson, about how she's so popular among the young crowd, and about how young people like hanging out with her more than with peers of their own age.

- The chapter sizes are rather wonky. It went from A 30+ page chapter to a 7 page chapter. Since I like to sit down and read a chapter in a few moments of free time this made it difficult.

- Barbara instantly believing the farm house was somehow tied to her fathers copied blueprints was absolutely ridiculous. She had no reason to think this what-so-ever.

- Mr. Wilson hires a detective to investigate the copied blueprints but then gets upset when the detective does detective work. He gets upset when the detective even suggests it being any of the employees and refuses they be questioned or even informed an investigation is happening. Why not have everyone questioned including himself and his business partner, Mr. Radcliff. Also if word gets out there's an investigation and everything with the office is being watched then that might deter the thief. 

    The detective also tells him to start locking the blueprints up at night and keeping them within the office. Why were they not doing this after the second time they were stolen let alone the third or fourth time. Barbara father is an idiot.

- When Barbara is caught by Howard and Johnson in their office she tells them why she's there and that she's found evidence against them. She should have lied. Since they know who she is she should have pretended to be there to ask them to let her father get the building contract so she could go on her school trip or something like that, just appear kind of childlike and harmless. By this point she knew the men were mixed up with the shady farm house and working criminally but she still decided to antagonize them while alone with them in a private office in an empty building.

- When the men kidnap Barbara they tie a handkerchief around her mouth so she can't yell while they're in traffic yet she's sitting upright so people would still be able to see a gagged and bound girl in the car. Makes no sense.

- When Bob traces Barbara to the farm house the men hear him when he is just standing in the yard but when Bob throws pebbles at a window, climbs a tree right outside the house, tosses a rope twice, talks to Barbara, has Barbara climb across the rope, and both run away through the yard none of it is heard.

    Overall this book isn't as bad as I remember it but it also wasn't great. Even though I literally just finished it minutes ago there's nothing that strongly pops up in my mind when I think of it, no stand out scene or event. Just all feels rather blah and blends together.

When Sara Smiled

    Sara is driving down a country rode scouting areas for her junior class picnic when she spots a beautiful horse in a nearby pasture and stops to pet it. Seeing no one around she decides to hop on and go for a ride. Suddenly a dog runs up and Sara soon hears a man yelling at her from an approaching distance. Startled, the horse knocks Sara off and she falls into the soft grass unharmed.

    As she lays there the man approaches, still bellowing at her, and she sees that he's not a man but a boy of her age. She closes her eyes because she is nervous about getting into trouble but also because she knows she won't be able to talk to him. Sara is shy but to such an extent that she becomes physically unable to speak to those she's not comfortable around.

    The boy continues to yell and accuses her of pretending to be unconscious to make him carry her. He then threatens to take her car the way she took his horse. When he acts on this threat Sara jumps up in shock and indignation. She tries to get the horse to chase after him but Marmalade, her name for the horse, refuses to move. 

    The boy then comes back with a basket and tells her to come over and have some cookies and soda with him. Confused, Sara joins him and they sit in the car to eat. He introduces himself as Bart Hoffman and attempts to make conversation. Sara is able to say her name is Sara Thorne but not much else. Bart begins speaking in a soft voice which makes Sara assume he thinks her to be mentally disabled. This causes her to laugh and, thinking she's laughing at him, Bart tells her off before storming away.

    On Monday morning Sara is having breakfast with Donna, her youthful sixty-something grandmother. Donna lives with Sara and Sara's mother in a third floor apartment. Sara's father is no longer living and the small family struggles financially.

    Angie, Sara's best friend, arrives to walk to school together and she tells Sara she was at a party on Saturday night and Bart Hoffman, who is friends with Angie's boyfriend Hank, was there. He said he had met Sara and called her "odd". When her friend Liz hears about the incident with the horse and boy she suggests Sara should practice talking to the horse, pretending it's a person.

    Sara and Angie drive over to the pasture together. Sara wants to ride Marmalade again and Angie wants to meet the attractive Bart Hoffman. The boy and girl are instantly flirtatious and take Sara's car for a ride while Sara rides the horse. After awhile she remembers the plan of practicing talking with Marmalade. She sits down against a fence and drowsily closes her eyes while talking.

    Mr. Hoffman comes along and thinks Sara must have a head injury so picks her up. When she starts struggling he's sure she's looney and forceably carries her into his car. Bart and Angie show back up then and explain the situation thus saving Sara from being rushed to the hospital by Bart's dad.

    Sara arrives home that night to a tense atmosphere among her mother and grandmother. Donna sits her down and tells her she is getting married and will be moving back to Kentucky. Sara is heartsick at the thought of her grandmother leaving but also completely mortified about the marriage, claiming Donna is too old to get married. Her departure will mean that Sara will have to take over household responsibilities which will ruin her plans to get a summer job and earn money for college.

    The junior picnic arrives and takes place at the river on the Hoffman's land. Angie goes off with Bart but when Liz snags him away Angie gets into a terrible attitude and takes it out on Hank. When Sara sneaks off to ride Marmalade Hank follows and quickly spreads the story around school of Sara talking to a horse. This causes the boys to tease her and the girls to bully her.

    The wedding day arrives for Donna and Mr. Hugh Jones. Don, as he asks Sara to call him, is a wealthy man and long time friend to Donna who Mrs. Thorne grew up around. Sara likes him immensely after meeting him and once Angie insists getting married in your 60s is romantic Sara no longer feels so embarrassed about it.

    One afternoon while Sara walks home from the grocery store she stops at the drugstore for a drink. Bart's there and he asks her to sit down and have a bite to eat with him. He's understanding of Sara's shyness and offers to do the talking. Sara enjoys this impromptu date but feels sadden by the fact that Angie or Liz would be in her place if it was them who happened to walk into the drug store.

    On Friday Sara and Angie are walking to school when a senior boy named Roge Spencer approaches them. He's interested in Sara and is trying to get an introduction but Sara wants nothing to do with him because he had teased her about the horse incident. The girls shake him and Hank pulls up. Angie accepts his offer for a ride to school but Sara, still mad at him, declines. Roge then catches up with her and the two walk to school together. Roge knows she's shy and doesn't pressure her to make conversation which Sara appreciates.

    During the school day Hank approaches Sara in the hall and apologizes. He claims he didn't know people would tease her about the horse incident and says he took some great photos of her riding Marmalade. He says he'll give her some copies but when he asks her to show them around to people Sara feels he's up to something and tries to walk away. He grabs her by the hands and this is when Angie shows up and accuses them of being romantically involved behind her back and she breaks off her friendship with Sara.

    On the weekend Sara goes to Bart's to visit Marmalade but finds Bart and a beautiful girl already riding him. The girl is Lottie, Bart's cousin, and Sara instantly feels inferior to her. She drives off in the car and pulls off to the side of the rode to cry over her loss of Donna, Angie, and now Marmalade.

    When she tries to continue home the car won't start. A sinister man in a shiny black car stops and offers her a ride which she hesitantly accepts. The man believes Sara is a mute and claims he's only offering her a ride because his beloved little sister is a mute too.

    At her direction he drops her off on a street in town just before a traffic light. When he stops at the red light he is immediately bombarded by policeman; the sinister stranger robbed a bank earlier that day and only stopped in town during his getaway because of Sara.

    Sara goes to Angie's after school and begs to be friends again. Angie finally relents and informs Sara that Hank had submitted the pictures of her to the schools magazine along with an article about her talking to a horse to overcome her shyness. Sara is horrified and fears the bullying she will receive once the magazine comes out.

    To try and turn the situation around Hank throws a party in Sara's honor and reads his article out loud. The article talks about Sara kindly and affectionately and both it and she are raved about. She is happy and enjoying her time until Liz pulls her aside. 

    Liz is furious that Sara is getting so much attention and tells her she is through being her friend unless Sara turns the attention over to her. Sara stresses about this until the next morning when a young man calls asking to interview her. She has Liz come over and lets her handle the interview thus putting Liz in the spotlight.

    Summer vacation arrives and with the advice of Angie and Liz Sara decides to earn money by working as a sort of caterer helping women host luncheons. She makes a good amount of money doing this which she saves for college. When Donna invites her to visit her in Kentucky Sara declines saying she needs to keep working to earn money. This prompts Donna and Don to offer to pay for Sara's college. Once she gets news of this she runs over to Bart's to tell him and he asks her to date him.

- When Donna breaks the news that she's getting married Mrs. Thorne is standing in the living room and takes off her skirt and blouse...in the living room...for some reason. I found it really strange. Maybe if she took off her belt and untucked her shirt it would show exhaustion from the news but to undress like that is weird.

- Everyone makes fun of Sara for talking to the horse during the picnic but she didn't even say anything weird, just called to him and said like "hello beautiful boy, lets go for a ride". Like the kind of stuff you would say to a pet.

- Sara's mother is described as "plump" then "slim" a few chapters later.

- I have a hard time believing Angie would get so mad seeing Hank grabbing, not holding but grabbing, Sara's hands. Also Angie is constantly dating other guys, so what if Hank sees another girl. Not to mention Angie solely gets mad at Sara and not Hank.

- Liz is a TERRIBLE friend.

- It doesn't make sense that Sara can't have a job. If she can go to school and take care of the household then why can't she have a job once school is out?

- Once Donna leaves and Sara has to take over the cooking she learns to love it. She learns how to make Haap to Ghuy, a supposed Chinese dish but then that becomes all she makes. Once she starts catering her first client is Mrs. Hoffman and she wants to make a cheese soufflé for a luncheon but Sara says no, lets make Haap to Ghuy instead. It's a little hard to believe she can have a catering service with only one recipe.
    Anyways I looked up Haap to Ghuy and found a surprising lack of search results. Only four results came up; three old newspapers and one book which simple says "Haap to Ghuy: fried chicken with pork and walnuts". Two of the newspapers were locked behind a paywall but the third was free and had a recipe so if anyone wishes to make Haap to Ghuy like Sara then here you go. Also this newspaper is from the 1970's and the other two were from the 1960's so I'm guessing this is simply an old trendy recipe and not a Chinese classic as the book makes out.

Source: The Sentinel

Overall this book is alright. I couldn't help but compare it to Kathleen Robinsons other book When Debbie Dared and I'm afraid it doesn't live up to that marvelous book. I thought I would feel a connection to Sara since I've struggled with similar shyness/selective mutism but I didn't at all. I think the premise of Sara and her mother living in an apartment and struggling financially is interesting and different. I also liked that Sara did not feel any shame about it.

    I do have to say that I don't think the writing was all that great and since I've read other books by this author I can't help but feel Kathleen was not using her full potential.