To be honest, there are two main reasons why I picked up this book. The first is the title character, Peggy Parker, sounds so very similar to a series written by Mildred Wirt called the Penny Parker mystery stories. The second is that recently I read Escaping Dreamland by Charlie Lovett, in which one of the fictional series mentioned in that book was "Alice Gold, Girl Inventor." With these two similarities, I had to give it a shot and see exactly what it was about. I knew nothing about it when I bought it (I didn't even know who the author was, since nowhere on the dust jacket is the author's name displayed!), so when I finally opened it up and began to read it, I wasn't sure what to expect.
It turns out that Peggy Parker, Girl Inventor was most definitely a product of its time! The story was written by Ruby Lorraine Radford, who wrote a number of other stories for Whitman, including Nancy Dale, Army Nurse and Kitty Carter, Canteen Girl, among others. Radford (1891-1971), accordingly to what I could find about her online, wrote more than 50 books for young adults, as well as some magazine serials and even some plays. Most of her books had female protagonists, and it should come as no surprise that Peggy Parker, Girl Inventor was set in Georgia, since she appears to have taught in the public schools in Georgia for eight years and even co-founded the Augusta Authors Club in 1928, becoming the group's first secretary. She was named Author of the Year by the Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists in 1969, just two years prior to her death.
Peggy Parker, Girl Inventor was published in 1946, and thus, it was not long after the end of World War II. Thus, the idea of a young woman working in an airplane parts plant would not be so surprising at the time, and the fact that this fictional young woman was an inventor of many time-saving inventions for her employer is probably not so far-fetched either. Radford does not waste any time with any backstory as to how Peggy gained all of her skill and knowledge, other than to say that right after high school, Peggy got the kind of job she wanted with an airplane parts factory. It is here that her inventing skills are put to good use, and she creates several time-saving inventions that help save the company money (and earn her not only the accolades of her employers, but monetary bonuses as well!). Unfortunately, her younger brother is in poor health, so her family's finances are stretched thin supporting his recovery in a "sanatorium" in New Mexico. (NOTE: at the time this was written, sanatoriums were long-term care facilities for patients with tuberculosis - and while it never comes out and says it, there are hints that the Parker family has always been worried that Joe suffered from this disease). With their father deceased, it is up to Peggy and her mother (who is a secretary) to handle the burden of the finances.
The story quickly moves away from the cold northern city of Eastman (in an unnamed State - however, an internet search reveals that Eastman is located in Georgia, and (a) it is well below Atlanta and Macon, so (b) it would not be as cold and detrimental to Joe's health as is described). Thus, the reader must assume Radford used Eastman as a city name since it was familiar to her as a Georgian, but she intended the reader to believe the city was somewhere in a Northern state with cold and snow. Regardless, once Joe is determined to be healthy enough to return home, Peggy and her mother realize they have to move to warmer climates - and, as luck would have it, Peggy and Joe's great-uncle has passed away, leaving him his island plantation just off the coast of Georgia. "Pine Island" is the name of the small plantation, and there does exist such an island in Chatham County, Georgia. And it is the family's move to Pine Island that begins the mystery...
Great-Uncle Joe Parker was a farmer, mostly of cotton, but of vegetables as well. The only thing is, in recent years, he has not had the finances to properly run the farm, so the plantation has fallen into disrepair. When Peggy and her family arrive, they are greeted by Ben and Teneh Grubbs, their Great-Uncle's handyman and housekeeper. BE WARNED - this story was written back in the mid-1940s, so there are terms used to describe Ben and Teneh, as well as other farm workers in the area, that are most definitely not acceptable in today's vernacular, such as the following examples:
"You mean old Ben? Why, that' nigger's got one foot in the grave already." (p. 68)
"People who aren't accustomed to lots of Negroes have difficulty in distinguishing one from another." (p. 140)
"These Negroes round here wouldn't realize the value of an invention - or know how to cash in on it if it was stolen." (p. 164)
Looking at it from today's perspective, it is sad that people ever thought in these terms. However, the story is a product of its time, so when read with that in mind, the dialect used by Radford and the derogatory terms and descriptions should be viewed as coming from a different time when people did not know better, and that we have risen way beyond that now! Ben and Teneh turn out to be actually very helpful to the Parkers, and the family grows very dependent on the couple and view them almost as family more than just employees.
But something is not right on Pine Island. A ghostly figure is said to haunt the island. A man disappears right in front of the other workers. An invention Peggy is building to save their family's new home is stolen. Someone is scaring the local men from coming to work on the island. And a mechanical cotton picker Peggy and her brother invest in mysteriously breaks down so it can't be used. Both Peggy and her brother suspect sabotage by a local man who has his eyes set on purchasing Pine Island, but they can't prove it. Thus, the book delves into these unfortunate events and follows Peggy and Joe as they try to uncover the truth behind everything. Along the way, Peggy discovers that she can create a time-saving improvement to the mechanical cotton picker, but she must work fast, because the deadline to repay the loan they took out to buy the machine comes due in just a few days!
Overlooking Radford's view of non-white people in the book, the story itself was actually pretty enjoyable. I found myself rooting for Peggy to get that invention done so that she could save the family's plantation and farming business, and so the villainous man behind all of their troubles could be brought to justice. I even was able to overlook the fact that nowhere in the story does Radford actually describe any of the details regarding Peggy's invention - Radford is careful to always speak about Peggy's inventions in the most general terms, with no details as to how she builds them, or how she installs them into the existing machines. I think this likely stems from the fact that Radford herself had no idea, so she was just making it up as she went along - she may have known the geography and lay of the land (the description of the hurricane that whips through the island near the end was pretty intense), but she clearly had no intricate knowledge of the inner workings of the machines she used in the story.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the numerous illustrations throughout the book by Dorothy Colburn (notice that the book has a female protagonist, written by a female author, and illustrated by a female artist - talk about ahead of its time!). I couldn't find much about her online, except that it appears this is the only Whitman book that she illustrated. I did find an obituary for a Dorothy Colburn, 1926 - 2021, which, if this is the correct woman, means that she would have only been 20 years old when this book was published! That being said, I enjoyed the internal illustrations (20 in all, one for each chapter). The style was very much like what you would typically see in a newspaper comic strip, and while not all are necessarily action oriented (one of them was simply Peggy and the lawyer driving to his house), they do enhance the reading of the story very nicely. I think that is one thing sorely lacking in today's books for young readers and young adults - internal illustrations add a certain level of enjoyment to the story!
This book was a one-off wonder in the series of Whitman Mystery & Adventure Stories for Boys and Girls, and Peggy Parker did not have any further printed adventures, which is rather a shame. I think it would have been nice to see a female rival to Tom Swift!
RATING: 7 dirt-stained coveralls out of 10 for showing the young readers of the 1940s that a girl really could do anything a boy could do and encouraging an entire generation of woman!
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