Helen in the Editor's Chair - a Goldsmith Book for Boys and Girls

I supposed I never really paid much attention to "career girl" books over the years, because most of them were published by companies I thought to publish "inferior" books - often, the art was not the beautiful paintings you would find on Grosset & Dunlap and Cupples & Leon covers, and the paper quality was nowhere near as strong as those in the G&D and C&L series.  Even when I got into heavy collecting of various series books as an adult, I paid little attention to those career girl books.  But recently, I've become more aware of them, particularly as I have discovered that some of those so-called inferior companies - such as Whitman, Goldsmith, Saalfield, etc. - actually published some really great stories.  This happens to be one book that I picked up at an estate sale last year - and having been enjoying the Penny Parker series by Mildred Wirt, in which the stories all involve the newspaper that Penny's father runs, the newspaper-related title caught my attention.

Helen in the Editor's Chair was written by Ruthe S. Wheeler, who wrote several other girls' books for Goldsmith (including the two Janet Hardy books).  This is the first of her books I've read, and I must say, it was rather enjoyable.  While it was not heavy on mystery, it certainly had some suspenseful moments thrown in there.  In fact, while the first chapter does a good job of introducing readers to Helen and her older brother Tom, it also sets up the drama to unfold, as the siblings discover that there is something wrong with their father (Hugh Blair, the publisher of their small town weekly newspaper).  A visit from the town doctor (back when doctors still did house calls!) reveals that Mr. Blair suffers from "lung trouble" (p. 30).  I find it interesting that a number of children's books I have read from back in the first half of the 20th Century give characters vague illnesses, for which the cure is always a prescribed rest in "some southwestern state" (p. 29).  The illness is rarely given a name, and in this book, that ambiguous lung trouble is more of a diagnosis than I've seen any other book provide.  With Mr. Blair sent out of the picture, this paves the way for Helen and her brother to take over their father's newspaper - with Helen as editor (gee, bet you'd have never guessed that one from the title of the book, eh?) and Tom as the printer.

The story is a bit of a roller coaster of events ... first, Helen and Tom have to figure out how they will get the news they need to publish each week's edition of the paper, and then, wouldn't you know, a major storm hits the small town of Rolfe, resulting in a tornado that ravages across the area.  Helen throws herself into danger in order to rescue a lone boater caught out on the lake as the storm hits, and she and Tom manage to get him to safety just in the nick of time.  And while Helen assists Doctor Stevens, as he travels the community to treat those who were injured in the storm, she also gains an all-important story that not only provides headlines for her father's paper, but opens the door for her to become a correspondent for the associated press!  Her on-location reporting of the storm impresses the big city press, and they offer her the opportunity to provide them more stories from her area (which, conveniently, provides her and Tom with the necessary additional funds to keep the newspaper and their own household going while their father is away).

From here, the story alternates between the daily struggles of putting together a weekly newspaper and the various catastrophes that provide more stories for the paper - including the disappearance of a girl on a school trip, a plane accident on the water, the near sinking of an old ferry boat, and the attempts to sabotage Helen and Tom's attempt to secure more subscribers for the newspaper.  Along the way, Helen even manages to obtain a major scoop that has eluded reporters across the country - and secures her position as a correspondent with the Associated Press as soon as she finishes high school!

The writing is smooth and easy to read, with believable dialogue and engaging characters.  The events that take place are not overly dramatized, but at the same time, they do build sufficient suspense to keep the reader turning page after page.  I was easily caught up in the siblings' efforts to not only keep the newspaper running, but to improve its content and subscriber base so as to make a greater profit for the family and provide more news for the community.  I found myself cheering for them at each success, and by the time I finished the book, I was left wanting more.  Wheeler definitely knows how to breathe life into her characters, and I hope her other books are as enjoyable as this one.  (There is one scenario that is a bit over the top, wherein Helen is asked at the last minute to step into a major role in the school play, which she pulls off like a pro despite no rehearsals and no time to actually learn the lines - but this is a children's book, after all, so Wheeler can be forgiven for the impossibility of the situation.)

The cover art is provided by Marie Schubert (based on the author's signature on the cover), depicting Helen hard at work behind her father's desk.  Schubert appears to have been a somewhat prolific artist for children's books published by Whitman, Goldsmith, and even Grosset & Dunlap (having provided art for a number of the Honey Bunch and Bobbsey Twins books).  Oddly enough, the lists of her book covers I found did not identify this book as one of her works - but, based on the signature and even the art style itself (extremely similar to those Honey Bunch covers), there's no doubt Schubert painted the cover.

One final thing I do want to mention is Goldsmith's tendency to start the first chapter of their books on page 11 or page 13 (this book starts on page 13).  I have yet to figure out why their pages are numbered such, because if you count backwards all of the pages leading up to that first page of the first chapter, it never matches the number given.  In this particular book, there are only five sheets (10 pages) prior to the first page of the first chapter, meaning that should be page 11 and not page 13.  It begs the question of whether there were frontis piece illustrations originally intended for these books, but they got omitted for some reason before publication, and they simply did not change the page numbers.  OR, does Goldsmith count the cover itself as the first two pages, and the go from there.  I've seen this issue with every Goldsmith book I've read, and it would be interesting to find out exactly why the publisher did this.

Overall, this was a great book, an enjoyable read, and book I'd definitely recommend for those who enjoy series books and the like.

RATING:  10 sandwiches with a glass of milk out of 10 for showing that even in 1932, a teenage girl could do a man's job even better then he could do it himself!