The Adventure and Mystery Series for Girls by A.L. Burt

    Several years ago I came across a listing for the book The Black Box by Thelma Lientz and wanted to look it up before purchasing it. At the time there wasn't any information I could find on it and no other copies for sale. After doing some intense googling I found a link that led me to some information about the series this book was a part of. The link didn't take me to an actual site, but something like the data remains of an old site. The text was all jumbled together amid a giant wall of other text and html.

    I copied the text, pasted it into a notepad .txt file, and sorted it out right. This .txt file has been an invaluable guide for this series as well as the series' it was divided into. I'm sure without it I could have figured it out myself through purchasing books in the series' and monitoring eBay listings but that would have taken time and money (also who knows if I would have ever figured out that The Phantom Town and Phantom Town Mystery, both by Carol Norton, are two separate books). This file also made it possible for me to create a series listing on goodreads which has helped others. 

    As I said I found this years ago and I'm not surprised that the data remains of the site seem to be gone now, at least I couldn't find it. It seems to only exist in my file now so I thought I would post it since I found it so helpful.

    I want to be very clear, everything below this is not mine. I did not write it and I am not trying to take credit for it. If the original creator is brought to my attention I will, of course, credit them properly.

Judy Bolton: Seven Strange Clues

    In preparation for a upcoming poster contest Judy is having a work bench built in the Bolton's cellar. Not only will she and Horace have use for it but Judy also wants to have it for her friends; Honey who does not have the space to paint in her grandparents apartments, and Irene who can not afford her own paints.

    The work bench is to be built by Stephen and Lon, two young men who are boarding at Irene's house and renting half of the Bolton's garage for their car. Stephen particularly seems to have taken a liking to Judy.

    Now that Judy is spending more time in the cellar she is noticing some strange things. First she hears the sound of glass breaking and later she hears whistling. Things also begin to go missing such as an apple she is using as a reference for her poster and a stack of papers places by the furnace for burning.

    One night Judy goes out to the movies with Peter while Honey uses Judy's work bench. The couple arrive back at the Bolton house at midnight to find Honey nervous and in a rush to leave. Although she insists she is fine Judy thinks Honey must have experienced something spooky in the cellar.

    Irene doesn't end up using the work bench as Kay Vincent has suddenly decided to make friends with Irene and lend her own paints to the mill girl. Kay's snobbery surpasses that of even Lorraine and she has a long history of refusing to associate with any of the girls who work at the mill so her sudden interest in befriending Irene is a surprise to all who know her.

    It is the last day to hand in posters for the competition and as Judy and Honey are walking to school they see people rushing despite the early hour. A fire truck ends up passing and soon the girls see their school building up in flames. The school is completely destroyed as well as the students posters which were inside. Judy feels no great personal loss over the latter as her poster turned out embarrassingly bad.

    The contest participants are now made up of students from other schools with the exception of Kay who was waiting to turn her poster in alongside Irene who attends Industrial high, a special night school for the mill workers. Judy is certain that Irene's beautiful poster will win the competition so it is a surprise when she opens the announcement letter and sees that she, Judy, has won first place.

    Knowing that this is impossible due to her poster being destroyed in the fire Judy heads to the department store where the posters are being displayed. The winning poster is unfamiliar to Judy but after some investigating, and misunderstandings, it is revealed that the poster was created by Honey. However more questions arise when Honey announces her poster disappeared in the Bolton's cellar.

    On the night Judy and Peter went to the movies Honey was working in the cellar alone when she began hearing muffled voices. In her nervous haste to leave the house she forgot her poster in the cellar but it was not there when she went to retrieve it later.

    With so much happening in the cellar Judy, Horace, Honey, Peter, and Irene all head down there and begin searching for a hidden entrance. They find a trap door in the floor which leads to a sub-cellar which contains another trap door leading to the Bolton's garage. Inside the sub-cellar they find shelves which are empty except for a broken bottle of whiskey. The group is now able to piece the mystery together: the house's former tenant, gangster Vine Thompson, had been bootlegging liquor. Stephen and Lon had rented the garage with the intention of accessing the sub-cellar and sneaking out the liquor. Judy is able to deduce that the boys were hired by Kay Vincent's father, who owned the house when Vine rented it. Kay's sudden interest in Irene's friendship was an excuse to be around the two boarders and supervise the smuggling job. The papers were stolen from the Bolton's cellar to wrap up the liquor bottles with. When Honey's poster got mixed up with them the boys, assuming it was Judy's and being fond of her, had put her name onto it and turned it in for her.

    Judy takes this information to police chief Kelly who conducts a raid on Kay's father. It is also soon learned that Kay had copied her poster from a magazine advertisement. Having forgotten the magazine on her desk at school she sent her little brother, Dick, to go retrieve it and while using a match to light the empty classroom he accidentally started the school fire.

    Irene ends up being hired by Judy's father as an office girl which pays her more than the mill and gives her an opportunity to learn more about her father's illness as Dr. Bolton is his physician. Irene's father's illness is due to paint poisoning he got while working in unsafe conditions in a factory owned by Mr. Vincent. Irene tells Judy that they will be suing Mr. Vincent over it.

- I found Irene very unlikeable. She gets mad at Judy and wants to end their friendship because she is jealous she didn't win the poster contest.

- I like how Sutton just exnihilated the Vincent family. Kay had been awful to Judy since book two so she certainly had it coming.

- I love how Honey clearly is interested in Horace in this book. They are an adorable couple in my opinion which means I didn't much like how Irene was placed into the role that Lorraine takes when it comes to Judy and Arthur.

- I found the mystery in this book to move a little bit too fast for my liking. It seemed like Judy was making wild assumptions and they turned out to be true. I can overlook it though since it's not the norm for this series.

- I like how we continue to find mysteries in the familiar setting of the Bolton home. I enjoy the mysterious history of the house and like it being used beyond The Haunted Attic.

- I also was a fan of Blackberry helping solve the mystery. I think Sutton did a good job of including him but also keeping him as a realistic cat. He helps them solve the mystery simply by wanting to be let outside.

- I like Stephen and Lon and would have enjoyed if they became semi-reoccurring characters in the series.

Night Bus

     After her father forbids her from dating King Westley, rich and spoiled Elspeth Andrews sneaks out of the house and boards a bus headed from Miami to New York to marry him. On the bus she meets Peter Warne, a friendly and kind man who, seeing she is out of her element, decides to help Elspeth on her journey despite her arrogance towards him.

    At their first stop on the journey Elspeth runs to a fancy hotel to take a bath and misses the bus' departure. She then spends the majority of her money on large meals and two movies while she waits for the next bus that evening. This prompts Peter to take control of her funds. One way he rations the money is by signing them into motels as Mr and Mrs which allows them to pay for one room instead of two.

    A storm has hung over the trip, causing flooding and washing out roads. The bus gets delayed several days during which time fellow passenger Oscar Shapely hears a radio broadcast announcing the disappearance of Elspeth Andrews as well as a hefty reward for information leading to her return. Recognizing the outfit she is reported to be wearing Oscar confronts Peter and offers to split the reward. Peter tells him he is mistaken but knows Oscar is not fooled.

    Not wanting to upset Elspeth, Peter tells her that Shapely, suspecting the two aren't really married, is trying to blackmail him with the Mann Act and therefore they must continue their journey immediately. Peter steals and repairs a broken boat to get past the flood waters and the two continue on foot. At first opportunity Peter writes to Mr. Andrews saying he is traveling to New York with Elspeth and not to give the reward money to anyone who tries to claim it. He also pawns Elspeth's clothing for something unrecognizable much to her distress.

    Good fortune seems to shine on them when they are picked up by a friendly driver named Thaddeus Banker but he turns out to be a highway bandit who picks up hitchhikers just to drop them somewhere and take off with their luggage. When he tries doing this to the couple Peter jumps onto the car and after being driven out to an isolated area he beats up Thaddeus and drives back to Elspeth. Multiple license plates and drivers licenses inside the vehicle lead Peter to believe the car is stolen and that no harm will be done if he uses it for a few more days to finish their journey.

    Soon the two are driving into New York and Peter is depositing Elspeth in front of her house where her father is waiting. She tells her father she is in love with Peter but when she learns he had written to Mr. Andrews she wrongfully believes he was after the reward money the whole time.

    The following day Peter is brought into the man's office where he presents him with an itemized bill totaling $18.56 and refuses anything more than this. Realizing Peter was not using her, Elspeth goes to his home to find him packing to leave for South America. She insists on going with him and travelling legitimately as husband and wife this time.

- A big difference between the book and the movie is that in the movie Peter is a newspaper reporter desperate for a story. In the movie Peter helps Elspeth (or "Ellie" as she is named) because it also helps himself. However in the book he does it just because he is caring and sees how bad Elspeth is struggling on her own.

- There is a large age gap between Peter and Elspeth although an exact number is not given. At first Peter believes Elspeth is underage until she tells him she is 21. This makes the romance between them a little disturbing. Peter is even uncomfortable having romantic interest in someone so much younger than himself but that doesn't end up stopping him. 

- Elspeth is not very likeable. She is a complete brat, selfish, and demanding. At one point she throws herself onto Peter while he is asleep and kisses him. Before he wakes up and realizes what is happening he kisses her back. Once he is conscious he immediately stops and clarifies boundaries between the two. Elspeth is upset by this but she is also upset that Peter kissed her back at first, which is absolutely ridiculous considering he was unconscious and as he had not shown any romantic interest in her this was kind of sexual assault on her part.

    Overall this was a good read. Before seeing this book for sale I had no idea the movie was based on anything. Because I have seen the movie several times it is hard to judge the source material on it's own. I don't think I would have read this and thought "this would make a great movie" but I guess it was a pretty unique concept for it's time. Also it's fun reading this knowing it basically caused the creation of Bugs Bunny.

Judy Bolton: The Invisible Chimes

 

    The book starts out with Judy and her friends visiting an antique store/tea room. In the shop Judy sees a vase in the shape of a tree and decides she must have it. She plans on inquiring about the price on the way out but first the group wants to eat. 

    They go into the attached tearoom and enjoy eating and dancing to the player piano. Before long another boy and girl arrive but only the girl stays. She continues to keep the piano playing constantly and after dancing with her, Horace says the girl seemed scared. Soon her companion reappears and rushes her out.

    After not long the group begins to head back to the car but as they re-enter the antique shop they find many of the items have been removed, including Judy's vase. Although Judy suspects a robbery the others believe someone must have come in and made a large purchase. However they soon find that Arthur's car has also disappeared.

    They quickly call the police and Judy's father who arrive one after the other. Seeing the tire tracks of Arthur's car lead down a road that has a broken bridge, Judy's group heads down this road in Dr. Bolton's car, while the police go searching down a road that leads out of town.

    The road is dark, narrow, and winding but after awhile headlights begin approaching them and they quickly recognize Arthur's car. It is occupied by four men as well as the boy and girl from the tearoom. When the car tries to force it's way past them, Judy and her friends get out of Dr. Bolton's car and form a human chain blocking the road. Unfazed, the driver of the stolen car attempts to run them over but the girl occupant turns the wheel, sending them down a ledge into a gully where they crash into a tree.

    The occupants of the car are fine except for the girl who is unconscious and bleeding profusely from her hand and head. While Dr. Bolton attends to her the other criminals take off in his car leaving them to walk back with the unconscious girl in their arms.

    After a long night they manage to get home and make the girl comfortable in the Bolton's guest room. Judy and the Doctor try to inquire about the girl's identity but she claims to not know it or recall anything that has happened before the accident.  She is given the nickname Honey due to her honey-colored hair and father and daughter try to help discover her identity while she continues to live with them.

    After Peter's grandmother suffers a stroke Dr. Bolton is called to the Dobb's home and brings his wife and Judy to help. This leaves Honey home alone but she insists she will be fine. When the Bolton's arrive home an hour later they find Honey missing. Worried, Judy decides to wait up on the porch for her to return. The hour is late and Judy dozes off but awakes to Honey's voice speaking to a boy named Mike. Mike has handed Honey a package which she brings inside.

    Once inside Judy is settling for bed when the mysterious sound of chimes ring out. No one knows where the sound has come from. In the next few days the chimes are heard again; while Judy is in the living room and several times in Honey's room.

    A brain specialist is in town from New York and Dr. Bolton invites him to dinner so that he can secretly study Honey to see if she genuinely has amnesia, which Dr. Bolton doubts. The specialist happens to notice that Honey has a heart shaped thumbprint similar to a baby he had seen 16 years ago. Judy manages to have all the dinner guest take impressions of their thumbprints under the ruse of a fun party activity but really so the specialist can compare it with the print in his files of the baby.

    During dinner Police Chief Kelly shows up to inform Dr. Bolton that his stolen car was located in New York outside of a boarding house. Judy tasks the specialist's daughter, Pauline, with finding out the names of the people in the boarding house.

    While Mrs. Dobbs is still bedridden Judy and Honey pay her a visit. She takes a liking to Honey and suggests she visit her while Judy is at school, which she begins doing everyday. When Mrs. Dobb's condition worsens she begins to think Honey is her deceased daughter Grace and wants her by her side constantly.

    In the last book we learned that Grace, Peter's mother, ran away from home to marry Vine Thompson's step-son, James. They had two children; Peter and a daughter also named Grace. While away from home James was killed in an automobile accident. Grace, unaware of his death, wrote continuously to him asking for him to come home or send money as the family was starving and about to be kicked out of their New York boarding house. These letters unanswered, Grace eventually passed away. Vine Thompson was then notified by the boarding house landlord, Mrs. Vincenzo, of her death and that baby Grace was dying and Peter had been taken to an orphanage. Vine told the Dobbs about Grace's passing and Peter being in the orphanage but made no mention of baby Grace. Believing Peter to be the only child the Dobbs went to New York and brought him home.

    While Honey stays at the Dobbs Judy cleans her room and discovers floor nails in the waste paper basket. After inspecting the floor she finds where the nails were removed and upon lifting the floorboards discovers the tree vase from the antique store hidden underneath. Upon lifting it the mysterious chimes ring forth from it.

    Judy feels angry and hurt. She now believes Honey is a liar and thief and has been using the Bolton's as a way to hide from the police. She tells all this to her family and Peter who all insist Judy wait until Honey has a chance to explain herself.

    While Judy waits a letter from Pauline arrives. Pauline had gone to the boarding house and managed to get the names of the people there. Turns out it is Mrs. Vincenzo and she has two missing children; Rose and Michael. When Honey arrives soon after this discovery Judy shows her the letter. The Bolton's and Peter all gather and give Honey the chance to explain herself.

    Honey confesses that she is Rose Vincenzo and she participated in robbing the antique store with her brothers. She explains how she had no choice but to participate in this and many other crimes as she, and her little brother Mike, were victims of severe abuse at the hands of the other Vincenzos. Honey explains how she grew up uncared for in a criminal home with only the love of her little brother that she raised while still a child herself. She explains that crashing Arthur's car was not only an attempt to save Judy and her friends lives but also to kill herself and Mike as a way to free them from the abuse. To her the Bolton's taking her in was a rebirth, a chance for a new and honest life surrounded by people who cared about her. She also knew she had to keep her identity secret to protect Mike.

    On the night Honey had gone missing she had been meeting up with Mike. Worried about her Mike had tracked her down with only the knowledge that a doctor had been at the scene of the crash. Mike himself had escaped from the Vincenzo's and now had a job and home on a farm. He gave Honey the vase, which he had escaped his brothers with, as a get well soon present.

    With this information the Bolton's promise not to send Honey back to New York and to keep her and Mike's names quiet when they report the Vincenzo's to the police. Honey is given the choice to live with the Bolton's or the Dobbs and she chooses both so that she can help out both households.

    Peter and Honey go over Grace's old letters, the ones discovered in the last book, and are able to confirm that Honey's mother, Mrs. Vincenzo, was Grace's landlord. Honey offers to contact her to try and find out the whereabouts of Peter's sister's resting place as they believe she had passed away as a baby. But this is unnecessary as a message soon arrives from New York. Honey's thumbprint has been compared with the heart shaped thumbprint of the baby and it was a match, reveling that Honey is actually Grace Thompson, Peter's lost sister. With this new information Honey moves in with the Dobbs.

    The only loose end is the tree vase which needs to be returned to the antique store. As Dr. Bolton drives the girls there they spot Mike herding cows on a farm. They stop and Honey tells him of her discovered identity but says that Mike will always be her brother. He insists he also has a happy new life and will never go back to the Vincenzo's. After returning the vase, the store owner offers it as a reward to Judy who happily accepts it and that is end of the mystery.

- At the beginning of the book it mentions that Peter, Horace, and Donald all attend the same college and that Arthur has already graduated college for architecture. I was surprised by this as I always imagined Arthur to be the youngest of the boys and Peter to be the oldest, with Horace falling in-between the two. I don't know their ages except that they're all over 18. Judy, Lois, and Lorraine are all 15 and if Arthur and Horace were not brothers to two of the girls I would find the age differences uncomfortable for their friend group.

- I always find antique stores in old media fascinating. I've been in my fair share of antique stores and the items usually there did not even exist when this book was written. It makes me wonder what items you saw in these stores back then. I also love how the boys look at the antique weapons while the girls look at the pretty things. Very realistic to my experiences.

- Margaret Sutton had said that if the series had continued Horace and Honey's marriage to each other would have been in one of the books therefore I consider their marriage canon. With that it mind I found their meeting really cute. While in the tearoom everyone is dancing except Horace who is gazing over at Honey. He asks Judy if she thinks it would be appropriate for him to go ask her to dance. He's clearly interested in her from the first time he sees her and I think that is cute.

- The Vincenzo's are one of the many, many, many examples of anti-Italianism that was rampant in the U.S. at the time. Italians, specifically Sicilians, faced a lot of discrimination whether they were immigrants or Italian Americans. They were considered criminals by nature, something shown in this book by the repeated insistence that Honey does not have physical features of a criminal. The last book also focuses on Vine Thompson not being a blood relative of Peters as ignorant people believed criminality was passed through blood. It's unfortunate that many people in modern times are unaware of this bigotry and some even deny it ever happen. But books with stereotypes like these, which are a dime a dozen, are loud proof that it not only existed but was being taught to children.

- When I had originally read this book I was annoyed by Honey's coincidental relation to Peter, especially after Peter's coincidental relation to Vine in the last book. It still annoys me if I think too much about it but now I see it as setting up the foundation for the series. The first three books really lay the groundwork for everything. We meet and have time to get familiar with all the characters, from Judy and her friends to her grandparents and the Dobbs, as well as get familiar with Farringdon and the Bolton house. We also learn how all the characters interact with each other such as the Arthur-Lorraine-Judy love triangle. With these books done it feel like now we actually start the series in the next book.

    Overall it was good. It moves well and like I've said before, Sutton books have detailed plots that twist around each other but are still very easy to understand. My only complaint is that the cats could have been in it more.

(Click here for a surprise)

Judy Bolton: The Haunted Attic

(Click on image to view it larger and clearly)

    After losing her home in the Rouslville flood Judy Bolton is excited to be moving into her new home in Farringdon. The home was offered to the Bolton family for free due to the fact that the house is considered haunted. A former tenant, gangster Vine Thompson, had been shot and killed in the house and people claim her spirit now haunts it. Aspiring renters and local thrill seeking teenagers all claim they have seen a ghost waving it's arms in the attic window as well as heard Vine Thompson's voice calling out. Vine's son also was allegedly seen going into the house but never exiting. Judy, along with her reporter brother are excited to solve this mystery. 

    Judy hopes that acclaim from solving the mystery will help her earn the friendship of Lorraine Lee. Lorraine is one of Lois Farringdon's best friends and as Judy and Lois have become close, and sealed their friendship with a ruby friendship ring, Judy thinks it only right that her and Lorraine have a friendship too. Problem is Lorraine is extremely snobby and takes a disliking to almost everyone, Judy included. Judy hopes that her upcoming Halloween birthday party and finding the Lee family's stolen jewels, which includes a friendship ring exactly like Judy's, will guarantee her that friendship.

    Judy's life soon splits into two, her unhappy life at school where the other girls question her morals and soon accuse her of having acquired Lorraine's stolen friendship ring. And her happier life at home where she spends evenings exploring the haunted attic with her brother, Horace, and her friends Peter and Irene. 

    As Halloween arrives Judy and Horace have solved the mystery of the alleged hauntings and host a successful Halloween party where all is reveled, including the parentage of Peter which had remained a mystery to him all his life.

    I planned on doing a long summary of this book but I forgot how involved Sutton plots are. I will have to remember to take notes as I read next time.

- I do not understand why everyone tolerates Lorraine's behavior. I think Lois' pledge to remain best friends with Lorraine, simply because the girls' mothers were best friends, is silly. If Lois and Lorraine really were best friends than Lois should be able to tell Lorraine how disgusting her behavior is and to stop it.

- I like Irene in this book (something that I can not say for later books) and I enjoy the concept of the mill girls who are all down-to-earth and friendly. Irene is such a fascinating character, especially when being compared to the wealthy characters. She's a teenager girl who seems to be the sole financial supporter of her household which includes just her disabled father and, in this book, a no-good boarder. She works at the silk mill during the day and attends the mill's night school with her co-workers. 

- I enjoyed Judy and Horace's relationship in this book. Horace is a really nice brother, always helping Judy and wanting to protect her but not in an overbearing way. I liked the scene where Judy screams out in the night and Horace runs over to check on her. She says she's fine but he waits in her room for 10 more minutes to make sure everything is ok before going back to bed. I thought that was really sweet. I like that they don't always get along perfectly either. I think their relationship is very realistic for siblings. 

- I didn't like the way Judy treated The Ghost, which is a cat Horace finds. He essentially gives it to Judy but Judy does not want it because it is half starved, dirty, and doesn't go with her room's color scheme. I also did not like how Judy waits to feed the starving cat until after it is bathed. 

- I also did not like how Judy seemed to take a casual attitude towards the mystery. At one point the attic door, which is located in her bedroom ceiling, begins to open in the night but even that doesn't light a fire under her to take things seriously. At the end of the book we find out someone has been coming and going from the attic but none of the family seem to find this disturbing. Even after hearing mournful cries in the attic, which Judy finds pitiful instead of frightening, she does not rush to investigate. I find this off-putting, especially considering the sounds were the cries of a starving cat who was trapped in an attic with a dead pet bird. This greatly upset me too, the fact that no one really seems to care that a poor pet bird was trapped in it's cage in an attic and starved to death. The mysterious voice was suppose to be intriguing but I just found it terribly sad that so many people had heard this voice and ran from it while it was essentially the bird calling out to the people for help, and their lack of help resulted in it's death. Even more I am disgusted that Horace carries around and handles the corpse of the bird which had been dead for months, it's body parts literally fall off while he displays the bird to the party-goers. 

- I think the mystery involving Peter's parents is a little unnecessary and at times it felt forced. Maybe it was forced as Sutton needed to get that into the story to set up for the next book's plot. I also dislike how Peter's father just happens to be Vine's step-son and therefore Peter's blood is not tainted by criminal blood. It seems so outdated and old fashioned. Like who cares if Peter's grandmother was a criminal, that doesn't mean he is and the belief that it should effect his social standing is ridiculous. I wish he was truly Vine's grandson as I find Vine Thompson to be such a fascinating character which is saying something since she never actually appears in any of these books since she has already passed. 

- One thing I love about this series is the way it progresses the same as real life. Some scenes can feel a little sentimental because I know the changes that happen in the future. For example the scene of Judy watching Irene play piano for her father in the living room while I know in the future he passes and Irene moves away and becomes a famous radio singer. Or the scene at the beginning where Judy is packing to move out of her grandparent's house and waving goodbye to them from the car while I know in the future they both pass and Judy and Peter make their home there. As silly as it may sound it really makes me appreciate these scenes the same way you appreciate moments in your life because you know they wont last forever.

    Overall I enjoyed this book. In my opinion the Judy Bolton series is above and beyond any other girls series ever written. The plots are always so detailed and can take you down a twisting road but always remain so easy to keep up with and never get confusing. 

    I've been in a reading slump for a long time thanks to the Barbara Ann series or as I like the call it, the four most boring books ever written. But thankfully this book really helped me with that and I got it read in two days. I'm very excited to continue the series and I will be re-reading the third book, The Invisible Chimes, next. Honey is one of my favorite characters and so I'm excited for her to come into the series. 

(Click here for a surprise)

Jane Stewardess of the Airlines

 

    Jane, along with her best friend Sue, have just completed their nurses training and are spending their graduation night worried about their lack of employment. Lucky for them the dean of their nursing school has received a request from Federated Airlines for two trained nurses. The company plans on hiring them as stewardess which was a newly created job field at this time. 

    The girls have to catch a flight to Federated's headquarters for their interviews. This is their first time on an airplane and to their misfortune the plane crashes. Jane helps the injured pilot escape from the cockpit right before the plane goes up in a fiery explosion. Due to her leadership behavior during the incident Jane is immediately given a job. 

    Jane's first assignment is to accompany the wealthy Mrs. Van Verity Vanness on a last minute dash across the country to reach her ill sons bedside. The flight takes place at the same time air bandits have been active and there is a close call with the bandits almost overtaking Jane's plane before the U.S. military comes in with aerial guns blazing. 

    Jane is paid by a newspaper to tell her story about the incident and Mrs. Van Verity Vanness gives Jane a check as a thank you. Jane uses this money to take flying lessons and get her pilot license. 

    When a film company comes to town to use the airport as a filming location Jane is giving the job of stunt pilot. The special effects equipment on her plane malfunctions causing a fire and Jane has to parachute out of the plane as it dives into an explosive crash landing, all while film cameras roll.

    Jane is soon given a promotion to assist in training new flight stewardess which comes with a substantial raise.

    As winter comes along many flights get cancelled due to snow. As Jane is checking in at the airport one day to learn her flight has been cancelled she overhears that an isolated village is having a flu outbreak and no medicine has been able to be transported to them due to the snow. Veteran pilot Slim Bollei decides to make the dangerous trip to the village and Jane accompanies him. The plane gets lost in the snow then makes a minor crash landing but still gets the medicine safely to the villagers. 

    As the one year anniversary of Jane and Sue becoming stewardess rolls around Jane happens to be a passenger on Sue's plane. Aboard the flight is child film star Jackie Condon as well as two shady looking men; Bardo and Mellotti. The two men end up hijacking the plane and kidnapping the boy. The passengers and pilot are dropped off at an isolated area in Canada but Sue and Jane are kept on to take care of the child. The men take the plane to an isolated shoreline bare of anything except two cabins and a seaplane. After night arrives the three kidnapped victims escape the cabin to the sea plane in which Jane flies them to freedom at dawn. The criminals pursue in the commercial plane but the U.S. coast guard is spotted just in time to make a rescue of the three.  

- Out of the first four plane trips in this book two of them end in crashes and one is attacked by air bandits. Not the best publicity for the newly emerging commercial flight business.

- This book had a lot in common with Vicki Barr and I read them as existing in the same world. So when Jane is walking through the Chicago Airport I got a little sentimental thinking that this is the same airport Vicki would be walking through 13 years later. 

- The movie stars names were based off of real movie stars and I found that really amusing. For example child actor Jackie Condon would have been fictionalized Jackie Coogan, leading lady Claudette Bennett would have been Constance Bennett, etc. 

- The kidnappers/hijackers are an example of anti-Italianism that was common at the time. I always find these offensive depictions of Italians very interesting as it seems to be a forgotten part of America's history.

- Jane is a bit of a boring character because she is perfect. She is top of her class at nurse school and she instantly becomes the top stewardess and pilot when she ventures into those fields. She's so perfect that she is constantly offered fabulous job opportunities; besides being given one of the two open stewardess positions she is also offered to accompany Mrs. Van Verity Vanness on an around the world trip, and offered a job in Hollywood as an actress. If the book didn't end when Jane, Sue, and Jackie are rescued by the coast guard Jane would have probably been offered a job with them. 

- One part I really liked was when Sue was on a flight that had almost crashed. After they land safety and Sue gets all the passengers off and on their way she sits down in the empty plane and has a cry. I wish Jane had done something like this as it would make her seem more human. Instead Jane goes through multiple plane crashes and air chases but never seems to have much if any negative emotions due to it. 

    Overall it's a fun easy read with amazing cover art. If you enjoy Vicki Barr than I would recommend this book.

Mystery of the Jade Idol

    While on vacation at their aunt and uncle's Mexico plantation, cousins Judy and Susanne find themselves entrusted with a key to a valuable ancient artifact. The plantation soon becomes a hotbed of crime as the key is stolen, all of Susanne's jewelry is stolen, the Jade idol is stolen, Rosetta the maid is shot, and strange ghosts even begin to appear. Suspicion lays mainly on Phil, a young man who befriends the girls and disappears as soon as the Jade idol is gone. However there is no short supply of suspicious person around the plantation.

- Judy and Susanne are 17 but they act like 12-year-olds. They're just plain stupid. They talk so openly about having the key and where they're going to hide it that it would have been more surprising if it wasn't stolen. They also act very carelessly and put themselves in dangerous situations, then when Colonel Thompson scolds them for it they have hissy fits saying "he's not the boss of us!".

- Rosetta is dying of a bullet wound and they don't get a doctor because the closest one is fifty miles away. Why do they not consider a doctor just cause of that? There's plenty of horses to ride to a doctor on.    

    After doing some research I've learned that with one horse they could have covered about 40 miles in one day meaning they could have had a doctor there in tree days max and that's if the doctor did not have a car. However if they took multiple horses, which the plantation had, and switch between them on the ride then they could have rode the 100 mile round trip in one day.

- I felt like the ending was a little strange and not well thought out. There's a culprit who was a totally surprise which is always nice and then one who was really obvious from the first sentence they're mentioned in.

- Why doesn't the uncle come back in the end?

    I wrote this book review in 2017 but after a recent re-reading I found that my thoughts were more or less the same. I enjoyed the book less this time around and found it a bit boring and drawn out. 

Mystery of the Laughing Mask

    Gail works as a secretary for an old friend of the family, Mr. Allen. While at a trading post in the Florida Everglades Gail finds a pin in the shape of a theater laughing mask. Unable to find the owner, she keeps it for herself. Later she meets Sara Breckenridge, the daughter of Doctor Breckenridge, a colleague of Mr. Allen. Sara is worried that her father has been kidnapped while delivering a valuable piece of jade jewelry. Before he left he had received an anonymous note warning him against delivering the Jade pendant and strangely enough it was signed with a laughing mask. Throw into the mix an abandoned mill, a damaged yacht, and two wealthy women both trying to acquire the pin and Gail's got quite a mystery.

- I loved that Gail is staying at a boarding house. I thought it was a great way of giving a 16-year-old girl all the freedom she needed to solve a mystery.

- I also loved that the main cast had Mr. Allen instead of a parent, brother, or boy friend. A girl solving a mystery with her employer, especially one she is not dating/romantically interested in, is very unique.

- The locations are wonderful. A trading post in the Florida Everglades with a long, rough road leading to it, the Surf Club on the beach where Mr. Allen lives, the abandoned warehouse with the sky light chain that Gail slides down. The gave a great atmosphere. 

- So much of the dialogue is written so strangely that it's hard to believe a talented writer like Mildred Wirt wrote it. "I am" and "do not" are constantly used instead of "I'm" and "don't" giving me flashbacks to True Grit. Also Sara and Mr. Allen are constantly saying Gail's name at the end of dialogue:

Glancing up, he asked: "What do you have in mind, Gail? I know you've concocted some scheme."

"Not a very good one. However, I hesitate to meet Mrs. Deva tomorrow because she'll recognize me at first glance. Now I thought if you would be willing to take my place—" 

"What good would that do, Gail?" 

"You're very clever at judging character," she said flatteringly. "After talking with her you could tell what sort of person she really is." 

"You over-estimate my powers, Gail."

Another example:

"Then you believe Doctor Breckenridge's disappearance is truly serious?" 

"I do, Gail." Henry Allan arose, and walking to the window, gazed down on the rooftops of the Commodore Hotel. "Aside from the fact that the doctor possessed a valuable jewel, he had many bitter enemies." 

"Persons who might wish to harm him?"

"I am afraid so, Gail. The nature of Doctor Breckenridge's work in China was such that he stirred up antagonism. On the other hand, I know of no man more highly respected and loved by the people he served."

"He never would have cheated Madam Alexandre as she claims?" 

"Such an accusation seems ridiculous, Gail. Utterly so."

- Sara is worried about her father yet she's hesitant to go to the police. If she was truly worried she would have gone immediately.

- This is yet another book by Mildred Wirt that has villains with stereotyped ethnic features. One of the villains is described as having a large hooked nose.

- Gail litters a lot. She throws a linen handkerchief into water while in the everglades and 4 rolls of exposed film from her car window.

- One thing I didn't understand is why did the Laughing Mask organization sent Doctor Breckenridge an anonymous letter telling him not to deliver the jade pendant. Didn't they want him to deliver the pendant so they could capture him and steal it? I'm not sure if there is an explanation to this or if the letter was simply included to tie Gail's pin in with the mystery.

- The end of the book contains the first chapter to The Runaway Caravan, the first book in the Trailer Girls Series. This was a good marketing move at the time but now it's a terrible tease as the Trailer Girls Series is hard to acquire. Will I ever find out what happened to Uncle Nathan and the automobile accident?

    Overall I enjoyed this books. I think it has unique elements not often seen and the story moves along well so you don't lose interest. However I can't stop thinking about the strange overuse of Gail's name. That writing decision is the true mystery of this book.

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.