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. 

Barbara Ann: The Mystery at Mountain View

    Barbara Ann is on a 3 week class trip through Colorado. The group is spending one week staying at Mountain View Resort, where Barbara's friend Bob Allen is working for the summer. Strange things begin to happen to drive all the guest out of the resort. Together Bob and Barbara decide to get to the bottom of thing.

- One night at Yellowstone everyone is heading to their cabins for the night and the boys offer to open the cabin door for the girls because they assume the girls will be scared since it's dark inside. The girls are offended that the boys would think them so timid and frighten and the boys promptly mock them for being so "independent". The girls then head to their cabin very peeved at the boys. When they open the door a giant bear is in their cabin and they have to run screaming to the boys to protect them. The boys then rub this in their faces. Let this be a lesson to all you women out there; if you try to be independent you will be accosted by a wild bear in your home.

- The answer to the strange occurrences at Mountain View are almost all attributed to a radio broadcast. The lights going on and off, the telephones ringing, etc are all done with a radio broadcast which just isn't accurate. I don't know if Ruth Grosby knew this or not but I found it a little annoying.

- Similar to the last book Barbara, and Bob in this case, reveal all their evidence to the culprit while they are alone in an isolated area with them. Barbara learned nothing from her last kidnapping.

- When the forest fire is first spotted it is look upon as a nice, exciting thing. One of the boys calls it a "swell forest fire".

- The group of students and the teacher go to the forest fire to look for Bob and Barbara. They don't even call authorities first. Once at the site the fire is already out and they see Bob's scout pin and a charm from Barbara's bracelet and decide they're dead and all head back to the resort. Why would they not keep looking for the two in the hopes they are either alive or injured while one person goes back for the authorities. It's weird behavior.

- The three criminals get away and no ones cares. They don't complain about it or even mention it again. This bothers me so much because the bad guys are always suppose to be punished for their criminal actions. Even in books such as The Missing Formula the bad guy goes free but that's after he's been caught and the good guys have decided to let him go.

    The mystery is crowded in at the end and the majority of the book is more about Barbara Ann's fun school trip which was extremely boring. The only scenes I really enjoyed were the ones where Barbara was out in the woods. Everything taking place inside the resort and before they got to the resort was terribly boring.

    I didn't end up writing a full summary for this book due to a combination of feeling burnt out on writing summaries and because I kept setting this book down for long periods of time. 

Joyce of the Secret Squadron

    Captain Midnight is the chief of the Secret Squadron, a secret military force consisting of the best aviators and agents. Their base is located on a small camouflaged island in the pacific. One day he is visited by a man who gives his name as Mr. X. He says a new experimental and highly secretive plane called the Flying Wing has gone missing on it's first test flight. Capt Midnight is being tasked with searching for the plane around it's last known location out in the pacific.

    Meanwhile on another island not too far away is the base for The Barracuda and his "swarm" of cutthroats. The Barracuda is a sadistic outlaw whose allegiance lies with the highest bidder which happens to be Japan. He is aware of the Flying Wing's disappearance because it was him who made it disappear. His men managed to capture the pilot but the plane went missing when one of his swarm was flying it back to their base. It's current whereabouts are unknown to him. The Barracuda has hired Carla Rotan, a beautiful spy, to make contact with the squadron and discover the planes whereabouts so the Barracuda can swoop in and steal it after it's discovery.

    While young Joyce Ryan and Chuck Ramsay, both members of the squadron, are out for a pleasure flight, Carla and her pilot Jack Carson make contact with the two. Carla claims to be out searching the pacific for her lost brother but is in need of supplies. Joyce and Chuck reluctantly take the two back to the secret base where Capt. Midnight gives them supplies then orders them to be escorted to the mainland.

    The next day just as the group of searchers finishes loading their plane the noise of the Barracuda and his swarm flying into the vicinity can be heard. Midnight, Joyce, Chuck, and Ichabod Mudd, a mechanic and code maker, jump in the sky ship and take off along with Carla and Carson, and several other Squadron planes. A fight ensues in the air with the squadron losing one plane and the Barracuda many.

    Once it is over the four head to their destination area and after night has fallen they find an island they believe the Flying Wing might have landed on.

    The next day Carla and Jack show up at the same island and Carla attempts to get on friendly terms with the group who remain suspicious of her. They also discover a schooner with rough sailors anchored by the island. They assume they're pearl fishers and decide to stay away and try to stay unknown to the sea men.

    The next several days focus on a new code being made as it's clear the Barracuda has gotten hold of the squadron's old codebook. A new code had been locked away at the squadron base for just such an incident but Ichabod must remember how he created the code and recreate it or else the group will be left on the island with no means of safe communication back to their base.

    While he does this Joyce and Chuck venture around the island a little bit and find the area of a very old crash landing. They discover a 1920's airplane that has been destroyed and turned into a makeshift home, presumably by the surviving pilot. As they head back to their camp to inform the Midnight of this they hear their plane starting up and upon reaching their camp they see the castaway pilot attempting to steal their plane. He crashes it and is pulled out of the cockpit unconscious by Midnight and Ichabod. In his pockets they find a pilots license for Bill Madison, a famous flyer who went missing during a 1927 flight.

    Upon regaining consciousness Bill is terrified and speaks of a Capt. Burley who is trying to kill him to gain possession of a bag of pearls, a gift Bill had received from the native people of the island.
Capt. Burley soon arrives with armed men demands Bill be handed over to him. As the group is out dealing with these sailors Bill slips away.

    He returns the next night and the squadron promises Bill they will protect him and get him home. The sailors show up again and the squadron barricades themselves in the plane which the sailors then surround and are just about to unload their ammunition into when Bill uses a special call to bring his native friends to his rescue.

    The next day Carla is visited by the Barracuda who is losing patience with her. She is then visited by a desperate Capt. Burley who asked for her partnership in getting the pearls. She agrees to do this after the Flying Wing is discovered but Burley doesn't trust her so he goes to the Barracuda with the offer instead. Like Carla, the Barracuda agrees with the intent of double crossing him and keeping the pearls. All these events are being observed by Bill, Joyce, and Chuck who have climbed up an overlooking rock formation.

    Borrowing Bill's gun Joyce runs down to the beach where the schooner is anchored. She lights a small fire in the jungle to bring the Capt. on land then holds a gun on him while discussing a deal. She'll get Bill to give him half the pearls in exchange for use of the schooner. With Bills help the group has deduced that the Flying Wing crash landed on a nearby island but with their plane damaged by Bill they have no means of getting there. The Capt. enthusiastically agrees to this once Joyce informs these men, who have been at sea for a year, that the world is at war and the Barracuda and Carla are working against the United States.

    The group plans to sail out under cover of darkness which is quickly approaching. Capt. Midnight radios for more squadron members to meet him at the nearby island and just as he finishes sending the message the Barracuda flies over, dropping a bomb on the recently evacuated plane and spitting machine gun fire at the fleeing men and woman.

    They trek through the jungle and come to the anchored lagoon. A boat comes to the shore to meet them and on it is Carla and Jack. They order the group to give up the bag of pearls and location of the Flying Wing while pointing a sub machine gun at them. 

    After refusing Carla pulls Joyce out of the group to be executed first. Joyce, preying on Carla's womanly vanity, asks to powder her nose first. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out Bill's gun which she shoots at Jack. 

    The sight of the gun sets everyone in motion: Jack begins shooting, Midnight tackles Jack, and Chuck tackles Joyce. Midnight manages to beat Jack unconscious while Carla is restrained by Ichabod and Bill. The schooner is boarded and heads to the nearby island.

    They reach it as dawn approaches and as they are dropping boat for land the Barracuda approaches from air in a full out attack. Midnight is able to carefully aim and fires at the ammunition on the plane causing it to explode in air. The Barracuda's swarm arrive just as the requested Squadron members show up and an air battle ensues while Capt. Midnight finds the crashed plane in the jungle and sets it on fire, destroying it and keeping it's secrets safe from enemy hands. The battle is, of course, won by the squadron and all can head back to the secret base and the USA.

- Carla is said to be in her thirties and also called young throughout the book. I found this extremely refreshing.

- The secrecy of the location of the Secret Squadrons headquarters is stated very clearly right at the beginning of the book but then Joyce and Chuck bring two strangers to it without a second thought.

- I had written down a note about how I wished Joyce was written as less of a stereotyped woman of the time period but then I realize Joyce was not written as a stereotyped woman, she is simply illustrated as one. 

    Through out the book Joyce is described as wearing pants yet she is illustrated as wearing a dress. Even in the scene where Joyce is worried she will be mistaken as a man from a distance and accidentally shot because of her pants, she is still drawn as wearing a dress. In almost all the images of her she is wide eyed with her mouth open in shock or her brows furrowed in worry. Worst of all is the illustration of Chuck helping her climb a rock while she is on her hands and knees looking weak and fragile without the help of a man. This is not how she was written at all so it's quite annoying.

- Speaking of illustrations Ichabod is not illustrated at all, even in pictures of scene he is in and when the rest of the group are pictured he is still not illustrated, why?

- The more I read the more it became clear that Chuck has no business being in the secret squadron. He doesn't believe Carla is a spy cause she's pretty and flirty, he doesn't believe Joyce found a part of an airplane in the jungle because he doesn't want her to be right, and when Joyce sees Bill for the first time he accuses her of seeing things. If he were in charge the whole squadron would have already been captured or dead.

- Bill states that he has seen Capt. Burley kill a ton of natives on the island but once Burley agrees to work with them the squadron decides that he's actually a good guy. They ignore that he's a murderer who's been trying to kill Bill over pearls. And no, the pearls didn't belong to Burley. They belong to the island natives who gave them as gifts to Bill.

- Chuck gets so excited when a sub machine gun bullet goes through his trouser leg but misses his flesh because he can "tell this story for the rest of his life". I thought that was pretty cute.

- Capt. Midnight sets the flying wing on fire to destroy it, ignoring the fact that that's going to cause a huge gasoline fueled fire in the jungle and kill wildlife and possibly native inhabitants.

    Overall this book is so good! I loved it the first time I read it and I loved it this time. There's no boring parts and it moves along really smoothly. It appears this was the only Whitman book written by this author, Russ Winterbotham, and that makes me quite sad. This was excellently written and I would have loved to read more.

Nancy Craig and the Mystery of the Fire Opal

    This book is somewhat of a mystery itself. Years ago when I was looking to buy Whitman editions of the Polly Brewster set I purchased a book lot on Ebay, this was one of the books included. I had never heard of this book before which was surprising because I am fairly familiar with Whitman titles. This book also seems to have three different titles; Nancy Craig and the Mystery of the Fire Opal is printed on the cover, Nancy Craig and the Fire Opal is printed on the spine, and Nancy Craig and the Fire Opal of Guatemala is featured through out the book. "Authorized Edition" is printed on the spine, indicating that Nancy Craig is a pre-existing character outside of books but, try as I might, I can not find out who she is. She does not appear to have been a celebrity, a character in a radio show, or a comic strip. Who is Nancy Craig?

    When reading this book previously I recall finding it wonderfully adventurous but at the end I realized there was one problem with it; the main character did not have to be present for the actions of this story to happen. With or without Nancy Craig present the results of the story would have happened the way they did. I will talk more about this later.

    Fifteen-year-old Nancy Craig is on a plane piloted by her father heading for Guatemala. On the plane is her friend, sixteen-year-old Dannie Marston, who is heading to Guatemala with his father, archaeologist Dr. Marston, and a group of other research men. 

    Nancy is jealous because, unlike Dannie, she does not get to participate in the archaeology expedition into the Guatemalan jungle. She is going to visit her cousin, Kathy Wilson, who moved to the south American country a year ago when her father, uncle Ronnie, went into Foreign Service and was assigned there.

    Once they arrive Kathy tells Nancy about Maria Paso, a Guatemalan girl who boards with Kathy's family during the school year. She has invited the girls to visit her at her family's home during the current summer holiday. Kathy tells Nancy that Maria's family owns a vast amount of land, part of which is called the Forbidden Valley. Superstition says it's a dangerous place that no one must step foot onto. Nancy is instantly eager to visit it, brushing off superstitions as nonsense.

    After Nancy's father leaves Nancy, Kathy, Uncle Ronnie, Dannie, and Dr. Marston all head to Kathy's family's home where they meet Maria. As everyone is getting settled in their rooms Nancy and Kathy hear Maria talking rudely to two men who have come delivering produce from her family's farm. After the men leave Maria explains to the girls that the men are North Americans who are renting a hut on her family's land, right outside of the Forbidden Valley. They claim to be there to catch butterflies and locate flowers but Maria is suspicious of them because they've offered her father such a large sum of money to rent the hut.

    Ted, Kathy's younger brother, has been collecting rocks while living in Guatemala and is eager to show them to Dannie. One in particular catches Dannie's eye; he believes it to be an opal, possibly a fire opal which Dannie is very interested in and eager to find one for himself. Ted is excited by this possibility and agrees to have the stone taken to a member of the archaeology group who can cut it open to verify.

    Nancy and Kathy later join Uncle Ronnie when he goes into town to run errands. While the girls wait in the car they see the two North American men and feel they are up to something suspicious.

    Soon the archaeology groups heads out on their expedition. Dannie will be tasked with coming into town occasionally to get mail and supplies. His first trip is set for Wednesday but when the day arrives Dannie does not. Nor does he the next day. Uncle Ronnie insists there's nothing to worry about because, he says, Dannie is smart enough to take care of himself.

    Nancy and Kathy then head to the Paso's house where they will be guests for a week. During supper Maria talks about Dannie stopping by their house on his way to town Wednesday. Nancy and Kathy becomes instantly worried, Dannie had evidently started on his journey but never reached his destination. Mr. Paso follows the route Dannie had planned to take and asks everyone along it if they've seen him; no one has.

    That night an earthquake shakes the house. The Paso's and Kathy are use to them but Nancy has never experienced one and has been living in fear of them since arriving in South America. The experience leaves her quite shaken.

    As a distraction from worrying about Dannie the three girls and Tomás, Maria's brother, go for a picnic at some old ruins. The trail there leads past the rented hut and Maria once again voices her dislike of the renters. Tomás remarks that the men and their horses are gone every single day but he doesn't know where. 

    The ruins are close to Forbidden Valley and Nancy is eager to catch even a glimpse of it. Maria and Tomás vocalize their fear of the valley and share the legend that anyone who goes into the valley will never come out alive. Nancy brushes off this superstition and persuades the hesitant Kathy to walk up a bluff that over looks the valley. They notice hoof-prints and upon investigation find more prints going both toward and away from the valley. Evidently someone has been going into the valley and coming out alive, could it be the men renting the nearby hut?

    On top of the bluff they admire the beauty of the valley and persuade Maria and Tomás to join them. The two are shocked at seeing how beautiful the place is, they had believed it to be a barren wasteland. Trying to take advantage of the opportunity to rid the family of their superstitions Nancy says she's going to walk down the bluff into the valley to gather a flower. But as she descends down the rough slope an earthquake begins and she is tossed down and covered with debris. 

    On the whole she is fine but her leg has gotten cut and she's bleeding badly. She manages to climb back up the bluff and the Guatemalans, believing the evil spirits attacked her for entering the valley, are shocked she is alive. By this time Nancy has become woozy from blood loss and the two girls are having to carry her. 

    Tomás never stopped running after the earthquake began and has told the renters what happened as he ran past their hut. The men, Pearson and Conners, come find the girls and begin berating them for being so near the valley. They don't lighten up until Maria threatens to have them removed from her father's land. After this they lend the girls a first aid kit to bandage Nancy's leg, then lend a horse for her to ride back to the Peso's.

    Nancy spends the next day keeping off her leg and the Paso's prepare to take their produce and wares to market the following day. Around dinnertime Dr. Marston, Uncle Ronnie, and another man from the expedition show up to inquire if any information about Dannie has been found. Uncle Ronnie confides to Nancy that he fears Dannie has been robbed and murdered while on his way to town. 

    After the men leave the family discusses Dannie's visit and it is revealed he asked the Paso's endless questions about the forbidden valley. Nancy and Kathy come to believe this is where he had gone.

    The next day the Paso's are headed for the market when Nancy claims her leg isn't well enough to join in and Kathy insists on staying with Nancy. Once the family leaves for the day the American girls pack a lunch, water, and a field kit. They saddle the Paso's old burro and head to the forbidden valley in search of Dannie. The burro is slow and balks constantly which costs them time. As they get closer to the rented hut the girls hear horse steps and hide in the bushes. They see Conners and Pearson ride by heading to the market which releases them of the anxiety of running into the men in the valley. 

    Once in the valley they rein the burro by a stream then continue on foot. The valley is filled with lush fruit trees, mahogany trees, and what the girls believe to be opal stones. It's not long before they find a blazed trail which they assume the two men have made. They follow the trail calling for Dannie at intervals. 

    By the time they sit down to lunch Nancy's leg wound has opened and is bleeding. She's determine to carry on tho. Not long after they continue their trek through the jungle an earthquakes erupts causing a tree to fall and their packs become trapped under it. Kathy has a brief moment of weakness where she wants to run back to the mule but upon realizing Dannie has been in the jungle for multiple earthquakes and could have met the same fate as their packs, they continue on. 

    The farther they go the more lost in the wilderness they become and Nancy's leg gets worse and worse and she's soon struggling to walk. The girls discuss finding a sturdy tree to sleep in for the night, once they find one Kathy climbs it and from her viewpoint she sees an ancient pyramid and temple in the near distance. Finding this a safer place to sleep they head to it and climb to the top of the pyramid. They call for Dannie from this height and get a response; he's under the temple. 

    Once in the temple Dannie instructs the girls on how to unbar and lift a stone from the floor that works as the dungeon's entrance. Dannie is freed from his prison and reveals he was put there by Conners and Pearson. He tells his story of being curious of the forbidden valley and venturing in on Wednesday. He begins finding opal stones when Conners and Pearson appear. Enraged that the boy has found the natural treasure they have been stealing, they keep him prisoner so he can tell no one of it.

    By now Nancy is not able to continue on the journey and it's too dark to safely navigate the jungle so they spend the night in the temple. In the morning Nan's leg is worse and showing serious signs of infection. They decide that Dannie will go back through the valley for the burro so Nancy can ride out. The girls are placed into a caved-in nook on the side of the pyramid where they are to hide for several hours until Dannie's return. They figure here they will be safe if Conners and Pearson arrive. 

    The men do arrive and it's clear by their packed horses and attire that they are about to flee the country, they are just setting Dannie free first. The girls sneak down the pyramid and into the temple. One man goes into the dungeon after receiving no reply from their calls to Dannie, Kathy then sneaks up on the other and shoves him backwards into the dungeon opening. They secure the entrance then soon hear horses. A rescue party including law officials, Dr. Marston, Uncle Ronnie, and Ted appear with Dannie who they met in the jungle. The rescue party had been formed the previous night after the Paso's returned home to find a note from Kathy telling of their plans.

    The two men are arrested, Nancy's is given medical treatment, Dr. Marston has a new archaeological find with the pyramid and temple, and the Paso's are free of their superstitions and will now find great wealth with all the natural resources the valley contains.

- The way Guatemalans are looked down upon for their cultures religious beliefs is kind of annoying. I try to be extremely open-minded with old books, I know it was a different time when reliable information was not as easily available and so stereotypes, myths, and misinformation were taken as fact but this book was so rude. 

    It constantly talked about how Guatemalans who believed in their countries traditional religion were ignorant and uneducated. It mentions how Christian leaders were working to educate the country so they will adopt Christianity. I found it especially laughable when Nancy observes how the "ignorant and uneducated" people light incense on the church steps to their gods while the "educated modern" ones light candles in the church. Matilda Bailey clearly did not see how laughable this comparison was.

    Not only that but the savior theme of this book got on my last nerves, I've never come across a more intense version if it. For example there's a scene when Uncle Ronnie stops at a villagers house on the side of the road to purchase melons from the owner. Inside the home a young woman has sprained her ankle. A medicine man is there waving herbs over the ankle and all the natives are confused as to why this has not instantly cured the ankle. Our savior Nancy then comes in and mystified these ignorant and uneducated people by teaching them that hot water can ease pain.

    And it's not just that Nancy happens to help these people with basic knowledge but she actually sees it as her duty. When Dannie first goes missing Mrs. Paso tries to comfort Nancy and Kathy by saying she'll burn an offering to protect Dannie from evil spirits. Instead of being thankful for this act of kindness and empathy, Nancy feels guilty for not immediately trying to convince Mrs. Paso that offerings and evil spirits are not real.

- To make things even worse Nancy's cut leg is later treated with a poultice of herbs by Mrs. Paso to ease the pain. Even though they work and do ease Nancy's pain she does not change her opinions of people using them in the traditional healing practices.

- There a definite plot hole with how much destruction happens with each earth quake. For example when the earthquake happens when Nancy is descending the bluff to pick a flower. Rocks, dirt, trees, etc. all fall down around and on top of her. But if there was a large earthquake the night before and regular earthquakes every few days how was all that not dislodged previously. The same happens when the girls go into the jungle; there's no note of fallen trees from previous earthquakes but after one happens while they are there suddenly trees have fallen blocking the paths.

- The same meal is mentioned over and over; albondigas, tortillas, and boiled corn. I think this is the only South American meal Matilda Bailey knew of.

    Overall I feel conflicted about this book. I really enjoy the part that takes place in the valley and, to a slightly lesser extent, at the Paso's. I think the premise is good and it makes a wonderfully adventurous story but the judgmental overtones of the whole book really ruin the majority of it. I also found the parts taking place at Kathy's house and that surrounding area quite boring. 

    I'm not sure if their are any other girls books from this time period set in the Guatemalan jungle as it seems like a unique setting but if so then I would really love to find them and see if they got it right where Matilda Bailey got it wrong.

    Now as for what I mentioned at the start of this review about Nancy and Kathy not needing to be present for the actions of this book to turn out the same. I am going to copy and paste what I wrote about that from my previous review years ago:

    "Dannie had been kidnapped by 2 men and hidden in the dungeon of a temple in the jungle. The girls find and release him but it's then too dark to venture back so they sleep there. The next morning Nancy's leg wound is too painful/infected for her to walk back so Dannie goes to get the burro the girls left yesterday to carry her back. While they wait they hide and then the 2 men show up. The men were going to release Dannie that morning and then immediately leave the country, saying that by the time he walks out of the jungle they would already be gone. It's stated that it would only take a couple hours to get out of the jungle on foot. Well starting that morning the police had started looking for men who they had been suspicious of for sometime. So if the men had then left the jungle after releasing Dannie they would have been apprehended and Dannie would have walked back to the city or been found on his way back. Not only that but Ted had already told the authorities he had found the opal Dannie was interested in, in that jungle so the authorities were already on their way there looking for Dannie and thus would have ran into the 2 men. Regardless of if the girls had come the day before to find him, Dannie would have been on his was home and the 2 men would have been arrested on that same day around the exact same time."

    So as you can see the girls did not need to go into the jungle to save Dannie. The whole point of them going alone was that they claimed it would take too long to contact Dr. Martson or Uncle Ronnie to have authorities go but this is proven false. Therefore the girls endangered their lives and Nancy may have gotten blood poisoning for nothing.