Aunt Claire Presents (Book Four): Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School

I put off reading this book for a bit, as I knew it would be the last "Aunt Claire Presents..." book, and I hated the idea of reading this final bit of history.  It seems the children's series of yesteryear just do not receive the credit they are due, and "Aunt Claire Presents..." provided the perfect avenue to give today's readers a window into the past - to see, yes, some of the prejudices and stereotypes that were present in that time, but to also see the camaraderie, as well as the innocence of a different era.  But, alas, apparently today's readers just aren't ready for that, or they simply aren't interested - as I can only guess that sales just did not warrant any more books in this series.

In any event, the final book presented by Aunt's Claire is actually the second book in the Grace Harlowe series - Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School (or "The Record of the Girl Chums in Work and Athletics"), by Jessie Graham Flower, A.M.  Grace and her friends Anne, Nora, and Jessica all return for new adventures and a new mystery, once again centered around poor Anne. In the first novel, there was the competition for the highest grade point average in the Freshman class, and someone was sabotaging Anne's chance.  In this second novel, the girls are excited about their basketball team, but it seems someone has given the junior team all of the sophomore's signals, leading them to lose their first game.  The blame is placed on Anne, and even she is uncertain as to whether it was her fault, since she lost the paper Grace had given her with all of the signals on there.

While the mystery is subtle and not at all difficult to figure out (who really did give the juniors the signals and put the blame on Anne?), the book focuses more on friendship, loyalty, betrayal, forgiveness, and standing firm in your beliefs.  While Grace sticks by Anne, the rest of the basketball team (except Nora) all fall in line with Miriam, who accuses Anne of leaking their secret signals and bans her from watching their practices.  A division begins to form within the sophomore class, and Grace finds herself a target of distrust for standing by Anne, despite all the accusations against her.

As the introduction by "Aunt Claire" points out, the book was written during a period when distinct prejudices existed toward people of a lower class and of certain professions (such as Anne's father, who was an actor).  While many of those prejudices have gone by the wayside, what is a shame is that some of the better attitudes displayed in the book - such as fierce loyalty to friends and a continued belief that even the worst people have some good in them - also seem to have disappeared in today's society.  Despite the other girls' vicious antics in the book and the last, when Julia  falls through the ice in an unexpected accident while ice skating, Grace doesn't hesitate to put herself in jeopardy to help rescue the girl (and in the process, learns to overcome one of her own prejudices when she meets a deaf-mute man who she immediately writes-off as slow and dim-witted, only to discover that he has more sense than her when it comes to lending aid to Julia!).

One thing I did find a bit odd about this book was that the mystery of the spilled secret was resolved by the end of chapter 22 - yet, for reasons unexplained, the author felt the need to throw in a couple more chapters and send Grace on yet a wholly unrelated adventure involving an escaped mental patient (who was mentioned nowhere earlier in the book, and whose appearance serves absolutely no purpose in the story other than to put Grace in a dangerous situation).  Perhaps the author was contracted to provide a certain amount of pages or chapters, and so this added plot element was thrown in at the last minute to meet the page/chapter count - whatever the reason, it was certainly out of place and unnecessary.

Nevertheless, I'm now considering hunting down the vintage books in this series to see where it goes next - after reading Grace Harlowe's freshman and sophomore years, I have actually found myself interested in these characters and curious to see what their junior and senior years bring, and how things extend beyond that.  I just wish the young adults and children of today's generations could appreciate the writing and stories of the early 20th century, so that more books along these lines could be reprinted.  But, alas, it's not meant to be - so it's out to the used book stores, antique malls, and online to eBay to begin my search for the next Grace Harlowe adventure...

RATING:  8 sprained ankles out of 10 for attempting to remind today's readers of the joys of the last century's reading material for children and young adults.