Penny Parker Mystery Stories No. 1 - Tale of the Witch Doll

I have had all but one of the Penny Parker Mystery Stories for quite some time (still trying to get a copy of that last book in dust jacket at a reasonable price!), but I've never sat down to read any of them.  Published from 1939 to 1947, the series was written by Mildred A. Wirt (the ghostwriter for many of the original Nancy Drew Books, as well as some of the Dana Girls, Kay Traceys, Doris Forces, among others).  There were seventeen books in the series, and it is rumored that a manuscript or outline and notes for an eighteenth book exists, but as the saying goes, "seeing is believing."  I've heard mixed reviews from other collectors - some love it, some hate it, and very few fall in-between.  Recently, the group of friends that I meet with on a regular basis to read and discuss children's series books decided to start reading the Penny Parker books, beginning with book one and then alternating with Nancy Drew books until we finish the 17-book series (so I guess I'd better get looking to find that last book, eh?).

Tale of the Witch Doll is the first Penny Parker mystery, and in it, Mildred Wirt introduces readers to Penny and her best friend Louise Sidell, who are sophomores at Riverview High.  Readers also meet Penny's father, Anthony Parker, who is the editor of the Riverview Star, one of the town's newspapers, as well as Mrs. Weems, the Parker family's housekeeper, who has helped care for the Parker household ever since Mrs. Parker died.  There are a number of similarities between Penny Parker and Nancy Drew, particularly the Nancy Drew of the late 1930s and early '40s.  Penny and Nancy both have blond hair, they both have widower fathers who are highly respected professionals with a more-than-comfortable income; they both have a live-in housekeeper that has helped the family since the missus died and always worries about the young detective; they both have a penchant for stumbling across mysteries and a determination to help those in need; and they both are unafraid to put themselves in danger to get to the bottom of a mystery!  By 1939, Wirt had already written 12 of the first 15 Nancy Drew books, so perhaps Penny Parker was a way for Wirt to write the character without any of the restrictions placed upon her by the Stratemeyer Syndicate (since this was a self-created, non-Stratemeyer character).

In any event, I found this story to be just as, if not more, enjoyable than many of those early Nancy Drew books.  As with the Nancy Drew books, the action starts pretty much from the get-go.  Penny and her friend, Louise, are at the community pool practicing their dives (and, since Wirt herself was an expert diver, Penny's dive is described in great detail), following which they had to a local doll store so that Louise can pick up a doll her mother has asked her to purchase for a local family that is destitute.  But upon arrival at the doll store, they discover it is in a disarray, with a broken glass counter and numerous destroyed dolls!  Nellie Marble owns the business, and she is devastated by what has happened - more than $100 worth of damage (by 1939 standards, which would equate to approximately $2,000 in today's money).  It is interesting to note that Penny says she looks forward to speaking with Nellie again, as se hadn't seen her since the other girl graduated; however, Nellie is said to be 22 years old, meaning she would have graduated four years prior - and if Penny and Louise were currently sophomores, then they would have been only sixth graders when Nellie graduated!  Hard to imagine sixth graders running in the same circles as seniors back then!  Anyway, Nellie reveals to the girls that she is considering selling the business to an elderly woman who has been making offers to buy the store - but Penny convinces her to hold off.  Conveniently enough, the old woman (Mrs. Farmer) shows up while Penny and Louise are there, making another overture at buying the store.  Penny gets an odd feeling about the woman, and she thinks there is more going on that what appears!

Wirt doesn't stop there when it comes to this mystery.  No, after leaving the doll shop, Penny and Louise find themselves helping another person in need when they witness a car being run off the road!  They stop to assist, and end up helping an actress get to the theater in time for her show to start - she can't be late, as she is the star dancer for the show!  Penny gets her to the show, where she meets the dancer's new maid, Felice, who is anything but friendly and helpful.  And that's when Helene Harmon gets a gift - an ugly witch doll with a cryptic note that she will never be able to give it away!  Felice thinks it is a bad omen, but Miss Harmon is instead inspired to create a new dance based on the horrid doll.  Penny, meanwhile, has some suspicions about the doll, as the box it came in is identical to the boxes used by Nellie Marble at her doll shop.  Thus, as the reader can see, the mystery in this book is going to be a lot more complex than just a simple breaking and entering at a doll shop!

And that is one of the things I loved about this mystery - it is not a simple mystery about someone trying to sabotage poor Nellie's doll shop; nor is it simply a strange admirer of the famous dancer sending her strange gifts.  There is so much more to the story, and Wirt holds nothing back.  The prophecy about not being able to give the doll away comes true, instilling a sense of fear and dread in the actress, to the point where she considers giving up her "witch" dance.  Nellie disappears and the rude old Mrs. Farmer takes over the doll shop.  And just how does the mysterious medium, Melvin Osandra, and his hunchback assistant fit into all of this?  One would think with so many elements to the story, a reader could get lost in it - but Wirt seamlessly ties everything together, and by the end of the book, it all makes sense!  She even places some foreshadowing in the book with a seemingly throw-away remark from Penny that "Slavery went out of vogue directly after the Civil War" (p. 120) - which comes into play near the end, when Penny and Louise discover an underground tunnel that was used by abolitionists back in the day to help get runaway slaves to freedom!  Of course, the tunnel is now being used by the villainous ne'er-do-wells in this story, who leave Penny and some others in the tunnel to face a bleak fate!

One thing that I think Wirt did right with Penny Parker is that, despite all of the similarities to Nancy Drew, Wirt kept Penny grounded with a limitation on her money and freedom.  Penny does not have an unlimited supply of funds and must carefully watch her every penny, and she is dependent on the allowance she receives from her father every Thursday (p. 33).  She is not above washing her own car (p. 41) or evening siphoning gas out of her father's car when she has no money to fill her own tank (p. 122)!  And when Penny and Louise discover a blue silk purse with $5 in it in the back seat of Penny's car with, Penny comments about what a large sum of money that is (p. 42-43).  Thus, Penny Parker is a character that readers can more readily identify with, since those of us in the real world at her age would have faced the same limitations.

In 1958, this book (along with books 2, 3, and 4) were re-published with new cover art, new frontis piece art, and slightly revised text (to update monetary amounts and such).  Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the revised cover art.  Penny and Louise look so much younger in these new covers, and the scenes depicted are nowhere near as "spooky" or "mysterious" as the original covers.  The revised frontis piece art, however, is definitely a step up from the originals, which have more of a cartoon or caricature feel to them.  A very dear friend of mine*** who had contact with Mildred Wirt over the years, shared a letter that Wirt wrote to Platt & Munk Co. in October 1979 after they apparently reached out to her about updating the books for re-publication.  Wirt indicated if the revisions were to be simple changes for the better (such as revising stiffness in conversation, wordiness and elaborate sentence structure, and updating transportation, inflation, and technology, it would be possible; but to recopy each story and change basic plot or subject matter would be "most difficult" and "quite an undertaking" (giving the idea that she wasn't interested in putting that kind of effort into it).  However, her letter references the fact that she did re-read Tale of the Witch Doll the night before she wrote the letter, and thought "kids still may like it.  Definitely it's melodramatic in the old Edward Stratemeyer style, but it does have strong suspense and that was what kept them reading."  I would certainly agree with her statement about this first Penny Parker book - it kept me reading!  (Sadly, though, the updating and reprinting of the Penny Parker series in 1979 or the early 1980s never happened.)

While I have heard others say that this book was not the best one to start the Penny Parker series, I would have to disagree.  I think Wirt did a superb job of introducing her main character and supporting cast with a suspenseful, well-plotted mystery that keeps the reader's attention, and it definitely left me wanting to read more of Penny's adventures!

RATING:  10 missing necklaces out of 10 for a fantastic start to a children's mystery series and the fabulous introduction of a new young amateur sleuth!

***SPECIAL THANKS to Geoffrey Lapin for sharing the letter that Mildred Wirt gave him, preserving such a wonderful piece of history regarding children's series books and the things that could have been!