Cherry Ames at Spencer

    (While cleaning out some old notebooks I found this review I had written years ago.)

    Cherry is back at her old nurse training school to work in the new children's wing. She has to take care of a little girl named Dot 'Mouse" Jepson. Dot's father, Jep Jepson, was convicted of robbing a pawnshop, sent to prison, and recently broke out. Cherry thinks that not only is he innocent of the robbery but that he's secretly working at the hospital. She sets out to prove both these theories.

- It was nice reading a book taking place at Spencer again. At first old teachers/nurses and incidents are mentioned but Spencer related things quickly stop being mentioned.

- A small side story is that two new doctors are competing for a position. Rumor has it that one of them is dating the chief doctor's granddaughter to get an advantage. After Cherry meets him for the first time and exchanges two sentences of conversation she says "He's just about the nicest doctor I've ever worked with and easily the best looking. I don't care what anyone says, he's not a backslapper." She's judging his content of character by attractiveness.

- The word flibbertigibbet is used twice, such an awkward word.

- On page 121 the chief doctor complains that Cherry and Dr. Lane don't hang out at the hospital after work. Toxic boss alert?

- Page 207 has a strange paragraph: "Cherry touched her lips to Midges wide, shapely mouth, whispering, "Of course not, darling. But don't you think you should great my feminine guest now?" What is going on? Why would she whisper into Midge's mouth and not her ear?

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Vicki Barr: The Hidden Valley Mystery

    When it comes to the Vicki Barr series I have read 8 out of the 16 books. Out of those 8 there was only 3 that I liked enough to keep: Silver Wings for Vicki, Behind the White Veil, and The Hidden Valley Mystery.

    I've already re-read Silver Wings for Vicki and was surprised to find I enjoyed it. I had recalled finding it long and boring upon my first reading years ago, only enjoying the mystery at the end. However when I re-read it I loved the whole thing and didn't find any of it boring.

    That makes me very curious to see how I receive this book. I also found this one long and boring in some places, I was eager to finish it and had planned on getting rid of it when I finished but, after placing it in my donation pile, I had second thoughts and put it back on my bookshelf.

Now a few years have passed and I can not recall if this book is good or not, I just remember wanting it to end yet giving it 4 stars on GoodReads. So lets find out.

- Vicki's figure is described as "small and frail" which seems a little odd to me. Frail gives the impression that she is old or ill. You would think a better choice of word would be dainty or something similar.

- One thing I have to say is that whether I find a Vicki Barr book good or bad I always find them wonderfully atmospheric no matter what the location, whether it's The Castle, on a plane, in New York, Hawaii, Mexico, etc.

- I always tend to like scenes set at the New York Airport. Vicki is so comfortable and confident in place that is considered hectic and strange to the average person.

- I think it was pretty messed up of Mr. Barr to keep Vicki in suspense of whether she was going to be allowed to go on the Mexico crew or not. He kept her in suspense until there was only half a day left. If he had said no, she couldn't go then that would have cause a ton of trouble for the whole airline.

He didn't seem to care how much trouble and embarrassment he was causing his daughter. Not to mention jeopardizing her whole career.

- I don't understand why Vicki and the crew are going to Mexico if their new route is solely traveling within Mexico. None of them seem to speak Spanish fluently and they all are having to relocate. Since the airline employs Mexican crews why are they bringing in Vicki and the gang? It just doesn't make sense to me. Now maybe if the airline was just opening in Mexico and the crew was going down there temporarily to train a permanent crew it would make more sense.

- This book is attempting to be social aware by talking about how Mexico has gone through oppression yet at the same time it uses offensive stereotypes. At one point Vicki wonders what her life would be like is she was Mexican and thus how it would feel to be "uneducated and ignorant".

- After arriving in Mexico Vicki, Dean, and Capt. Jordan eat a meal at their hotel. The bill is $16.50 in pesos. Vicki learns that 5 pesos is equal to 1 USD...so their whole 3 person meal only cost $3? That's crazy. The trio also waits until after their meal to have their currency exchanged which seems odd to me.

- Vicki goes to the floating gardens of Xochimilco and honestly, I'm so sick of this place. So many of the old series has a book located in Mexico and they always go to the floating gardens.

- I like how a bullfighter gets on Vicki plane with a case of swords and it's just like yeah, no big deal. Talk about a different time.

- Helen Wells claims that in Spain and Spanish speaking countries no one ever steals, ever...because they have too much pride (nevermind the fact that when giving a brief history of Mexico she focuses on how the Spanish stole Mexico and all its resources). What a stupid blanket statement. This reminds me of how in Clue of the Broken Blossom Vicki talks a business man into taxing his native Hawaiian workers because "making them pay taxes will give them a sense of pride and make them happy". It's things like this that annoy me about these books.

- The plane being shot at is an exciting event but I feel like it's irresponsible of them to continue with the flight after the airplane tail is tied on with rope. Shouldn't the passengers be given the option of unboarding the plane and waiting at the emergency field for other transportation. They could have crashed and killed all those people.

- Vicki, Dean, and Capt. Jordan have their rear tires shot out on a lonely road and make a hasty, although clumsy, getaway. Vicki calls Cissy to ask if she should report the incident to the American Embassy. Although Cissy says yes, she then makes a big effort to convince Vicki that it's not normal for Mexico to have "bandit gangs" and that can happen in any country. It's as though she's desperately trying to make sure that Vicki doesn't get a bad opinion of Mexico even though Vicki never said or thought anything of the sort. 

    Honestly Helen Wells put so much of this kind of thing into the book. It feels like she was desperate to convince the reader that Mexico is a perfect place and the crime in the book is just for story value and there's actually no crime in Mexico and blah blah blah. I dunno, it just seems weird to me. I understand that a lot of people associate crime and gangs with modern Mexico, I'm not sure if the same can be said for when this was written, but Wells could have simple had a character say "people have the wrong impression of Mexico" instead of having this weird, awkward, preachy dialogue every time a crime occurs. It just comes across like Wells was suffering from some serious white guilt.

- I started to get bored with this book around page 160. At that point Vicki stops being suspicious of Perez and starts firmly believe he is mixed up with the bandit gang. From there forward she continues to needle and make it known to him they she knows exactly what's up which seems very stupid and dangerous. Like the whole thing with the mantilla and holding the double rabbit sculpture, that's just letting him know that she knows which is stupid considering his gang has shot at her multiple times. Does she not realize he could end up murdering her in a foreign country?

- The escape from the village by plane is really great. There's so much excitement. I feel like this book has enough excitement that it would really make a good movie.

    I still can't tell if I like this book, I guess I do even though it gets dull at one point. One of my favorite things was Cissy, she was a really fun character and even tho she's in the book a good amount I still could have used much more of her.

Cherry Ames: Jungle Nurse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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