Peggy Lane Theater Stories No. 1 - Peggy Finds the Theater

What better way to start a new month than with a new series (well, new to me at least ... well, new for reading purposes ... anyway ...).  With my love of theater, my love of vintage series books, and my love of stories with female protagonists, it should come as no surprise that I have all eight books in the Peggy Lane Theater Stories series.  Published from 1962 to 1965, the series follows the adventures of a nearly twenty-year old Peggy Lane, whose desire to become an actress leads her to forego a college education and head off for New York City to fulfill her dreams.  The author is given as "Virginia Hughes," which is actually a house pseudonym.  According to Jennifer White's website, the only known author is Geraldine Wallis, who wrote the third volume in the series; the other four books were likely written by four different men.  It would be interesting to learn just who those men were that authored the books (although judging from the information provided on Jennifer White's website, John Ott may have been one, based on his own background as an actor and director).

 

Peggy Finds the Theater is the first book in the series, introducing readers to the dark-haired protagonist and her rather large supporting cast.   Peggy Lane and her best friend, Jean Wilson, live in the fictional town of Rockport, Wisconsin (p. 6).  While there is a Rockport Park in the State of Wisconsin, and there is a city called Rock in Wisconsin, there is no actual Rockport.  The book indicates the travel time by plane from Rockport to New York City is approximately three hours (p. 22), which would place the town somewhere along the western portion of the state (since standard flight time from Wisconsin to New York City is only about two-and-a-half hours).  The story opens with Peggy working hard to convince her parents to allow her to step back from Rockport Community College, where she has finished her first year, and move to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.  In the end, she makes a bargain with them that will allow her a year to pursue her dream, and if she has not achieved any level of acting goals in that time, she will return home and finish college before attempting it again.  

 

This was very reminiscent of the Carol Page theater series written by Helen Dore Boylson, who makes a very similar deal with her parents in order to get permission to pursue an acting career.  The Carol Page series was released a decade prior to this series, so it seems the attitudes of parents towards their daughters who want to pursue theater as a career did not change much over that time.

 

This first book deals very little with the theater itself and more with Peggy making the move to the big city, starting a very prestigious acting school, making new friends, and joining an off-Broadway theater group who are working to put together their first play.  While there is mention of Peggy's previous experience on the stage while she was in high school, we never actually get to see Peggy perform (other than a couple of scenes where she is rehearsing the monologues she plans to use when she auditions to be admitted into the acting school).  The author does reference real plays, however, including the classic Twelfth Night (p. 23), a play by Shakespeare; the satire Skin of Our Teeth (p. 24), a play by Thornton Wilder; and the drama, Winterset (p. 24), a play by Maxwell Anderson.  The author also makes reference to Variety magazine, with which anyone in the acting community is well acquainted.  However, in the book, one of Peggy's new housemates indicates the magazine has casting call pages for the theater (p. 70); yet, some quick research online reveals Variety never really had theater casting calls, but focused more on the entertainment industry, i.e. television and film.  Backstage or Broadway World are the magazines more easily recognized for theater casting call notices.  Perhaps the author just felt readers might more easily recognize the Variety name than the others.

 

The rather expanded cast of characters are introduced in chapter six, which is aptly titled "Cast of Characters."  It is here we learn all about the girls with whom Peggy will be sharing a house while in New York.  First, there is Gaby (Gabrielle), whose father works for the UN, is French and learning English so she can hopefully break into the acting world; then there is Dot, a native of California who is a comedienne and eccentric dancer; next is Greta, who is from Boston and is working as a script editor while waiting for her big break;  following her is Irene (not her real name!), who previously acted in some television shows and is currently supporting herself as a model; also in the house is Maggie, a dancer from Ireland, who has been dancing since she was three years old; and then comes Amy, a small town girl from North Carolina who, like Peggy, has just arrived in New York hoping to find success on the stage.  May Berriman is the house mother, who takes care of the girls.  (This set up is also similar to the Carol Page series, where Carol lives in a boarding house with a number of other actresses.)

 

In addition to their housemates, Peggy (and by default her new best friend, Amy) become involved with a group of students at New York Academy who are putting together a play that they hope to have produced off-Broadway.  These students include Peter Piper (yes, they acknowledge the source of the name in the story), known to his friends as "Pip," and Connie Barnes, another comedienne; also a part of the group is Mallory Seton, the director, and Randy Brewster, the producer.  Rounding out the group are Mona Downs and Thomas Galen, both of whom are older actors (neither of whom are students, but both of whom are seasoned actors who do not mind doing off-Broadway shows [p. 91]).  They have the script, the actors, and the financing - all they need to do is find an available theater, which is next to impossible in New York City.  This is where Peggy comes in!  Peggy volunteers to find a theater.  "I used to help out as a reporter on my father's newspaper, and I'm used to digging up facts," she tells the group (p. 99).  Thus, not only is Peggy an actress, but she is a reporter as well!  Talk about your well-rounded career girl! All she needs to do is add amateur sleuth to that resume ... oh, wait, she does!

 

Yes, Peggy stumbles across a very minor mystery while searching for a theater.  She and Amy find the perfect location in a building that houses a theater on the top floor; but the janitor gives them the brush off, which makes Peggy automatically suspect something criminal is going on at the building (because no one would ever be rude in NYC, right?).  She convinces the theater troupe, and before you know it, they are staking out the back alley to see if anything criminal takes place.  Soon enough, Peggy and Amy witness a truck delivering boxes into the building late at night, with an armed guard.  Convinced there is something criminal about the whole affair, they tell the police, who not only give credence to her story, but manage to catch the crooks in the middle of delivering their next shipment of stolen goods into the building!  Not only does the insurance company provide the girls with a rather substantial reward for recovering thousands of dollars worth of furs and silverware and liquor (as well as $20,000 worth of nylon stockings - as the book says, that "is an awful law of nylon stockings" [p. 172]), but the owner of the building, who lives in Florida (of all places!), is only too happy to rent the troupe not just the top floor for a theater, but the whole building (p. 173)!  So, Peggy's three-chapter mystery ends up solving all of the acting troupe's problems - way to go, Peggy!

 

The title of the book has a double meaning:  Peggy does "find" the theater, inasmuch as she takes off to New York City to pursue her dream of being an actress on the stays; at the same time, she literally "finds" the theater that the other students have been so desperately seeking for their play.  The art for the book is provided by Sergio Leone - and no, that is not the Italian film director of the same name.  I could find no information whatsoever about Mr. Leone, other than the apparently provided art not only for children's books in the 1960s and '70s, but he also apparently provided some painted covers to paperback Gothic novels from that same time period.  The painted cover for this book is rather simple, with a headshot of Peggy, and the lights of New York City in the background.  The internal black-and-white illustrations are not overly exciting scenes, but instead pictures of Peggy and Randy dancing, Peggy with her parents at the airport, Peggy and Amy with their dates eating a late dinner.  About the only illustration that could be said to contain any "suspense" at all is the final image of Peggy and Amy on their stakeout, as a cat jumps out beside them, startling them (p. 163).  Oddly, the frontis piece and the first internal (p. 25) are the only two that are full page with captions; the remaining illustrations are half to three-fourth page with no caption.  The end page are by far my favorite, as it depicts Peggy and her friends in a theater and on the stage, in what appears to be a moment from a rehearsal (this scene, however, appears nowhere in this book).

 

While I would not say this was an exciting story, and the mystery was so limited as to barely be there, I did thoroughly enjoy the story. This series might not appeal to mystery enthusiasts, but for those who enjoy career girl stories, or those who love good theater tales, this book will definitely satisfy those tastes!

 

RATING:   10 servings of pheasant under glass out of 10 for providing readers with a somewhat true-to-life look at what life is like for a theater actor trying to break into the field in New York City!

Agatha, Girl of Mystery #5 - The Eiffel Tower Incident

Well, I didn't wait quite as long between reading the installments of Agatha, Girl of Mystery this time (last time, there was a year gap between books!).  This time, I managed to only let five months pass before picking up the next book in the series.  I cannot say enough just how much FUN this series is!  Yes, it is aimed at young readers, and yes, each book is relatively short (only 120 or so pages, with large font and plenty of illustrations); but the stories and characters are unique and whimsical, and the mysteries are so wonderfully plotted, with clues to their solution placed right there for the reader to pick up on, you can't help but enjoy yourself reading them!  I am thankful that Grosset & Dunlap picked up the series and translated it from its original Italian into the English language for us to read.

 

The Eiffel Tower Incident takes Agatha and her crime-solving cohorts into new territory - solving a murder! Agatha and her cousin, Dash, are off to Paris to visit with Dash's older brother, Gaston, who is a painter - and, of course, Chandler (the butler) and Watson (the cat) are along for the ride.  Dash gets delayed, though, due to one of his detective classes, and he inadvertently causes a severe injury to his teacher who is headed to Paris as well to solve the mystery of a murdered Russian diplomat - so with no other choice, he sends Dash in his place.  Poor Dash doesn't know what to do, so he immediately seeks Agatha's help, and she is more the ready to step in and save the day.

 

Author Sir Steve Stevenson does create  rather crafty little mystery here.  Boris Renko, a 60-year old Russian diplomat was having dinner at the famous Jules Verne restaurant, located more than 400 feet above the ground on the second level of the Eiffel Tower (which, as it turns out, is an actual restaurant located exactly where the book says), when he suddenly choked and fell to the floor in a faint.  By the time he reached the hospital, he was pronounced dead.  The police discovered traces of poison in his wine and arrested the sommelier (otherwise known as a wine steward) who had been serving him.  But Agatha finds this too convenient and sets about solving the crime and uncovering the identity of the real killer.  But the only clue she has is the phrase, "red rose," which were the dying man's last words.  This leads them to three possible suspects.

 

Gerard Clouseau is a boxer with a red rose tattooed on his neck.  He had a sour confrontation with the diplomat in the elevator riding up to the restaurant the night of the murder.  John Radcliffe was a brilliant New York attorney having dinner with his girlfriend that night; but when he proposed, she left in tears, leaving behind the engagement ring and the red rose he had given her.  Madame Roxanne Pigafette is a  food critic whose brother owns a restaurant in competition with Le Jules Verne.  Any one of the three had a motive, yet, Agatha has to figure out which of them had the means and opportunity.  As it turns out, the real killer set up an entire faux scenario, and as revealed through the interviews with the suspects, stumbled out of the restaurant just before the diplomat was poisoned - knocking into some patrons, as well as a waiter, and stopping for a moment at the bar where the wine glasses were waiting for the steward to deliver.  With the means and opportunity cleared up, Agatha, Dash, Chandler, and Watson (that cat goes everywhere!) had across the street from the Russian embassy in Paris to confront the killer!

 

Readers are treated to an exciting roof-top chase, as well as an unexpected rescue from the most unlikely source.  And, once again, the case is wrapped up nicely, the criminal is brought to justice, and Dash is pulled out of the frying pan and not kicked out of school - all thinks to the quick-thinking and analytical skills of Agatha, Girl of Mystery! 

 

Artist Stefano Turconi provides plenty of illustrations throughout the book, and his stylized art provides readers with a fun romp through the streets of Paris and the Eiffel Tower at twilight (with a gorgeous two-page spread in the middle of the book).  Turconi captures the character descriptions provided by Stevenson so nicely, and while they are a bit cartoony in nature, it fits the feel of the book. I would so love to see this done as an animated series, with Turconi's art as the basis and style for the animation!

 

From Egypt to Bengal, from Scotland to Niagara Falls ... Agatha Mistery travels the world to solve what appear to be impossible crimes!  Sure, the stories are short, easy reads (an hour at most to read one book), but they are well worth it for the entertainment value alone!

 

RATING:  9 bottles of cockroach poison out of 10 for giving young readers a chance to enjoy a carefully crafted murder mystery that even they can solve! 

The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of Cabin Island (Hardy Boys Mystery Stories # 8 - Revised Text)

Okay, if the title to this book looks familiar, it should.  Just a couple of months ago, at the urging of some friends, I read the original version of this book, which was published nearly 100 years ago in 1929.  Approximately forty years after its initial publication, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, during the course of its revisions project, revised this particular book.  Andrew Svenson, best known for his own series, The Happy Hollisters, was given the task of writing the revised version of this title, reducing the story from 25 chapters down to 20 and the page count from 214 down to 178.   In some cases, the Syndicate merely cut out dialogue or certain scenes to reduce the length; however, in this instance, instead of simply shortening the story, Svenson gives readers what I would call a "re-imagining" of the story.

 

In both the original and the revised texts of The Mystery of Cabin Island,  Frank and Joe Hardy, along with their friends, Chet and Biff, investigate some mysterious goings-on at a cabin owned by Elroy Jefferson, a wealthy man whose automobile the boys had recovered when they solved a previous mystery involving car thieves. But, other than that basic premise, the remaining adventures are changed, sometimes in rather drastic ways.  The opening of the revised edition removes a rather large chunk of story from the original text, where the boys visit Cabin Island long before they get permission from Mr. Jefferson to stay there with their friends over the Christmas holidays.  In the revised, the first page reveals the boys have received permission to stay on the island as a "reward" for recovering the older man's car, and not only that, but Mr. Jefferson also has a mystery he wishes the boys to solve.  Thus, while the original had a somewhat slow build-up, the revised jumps right into the heart of the story, letting readers know from the very first page that Frank and Joe were going to be solving a mystery at Cabin Island!

 

Chapter after chapter, page after page, more and more of the story is changed in ways that seem to emphasize action more than anything else.  In the original, the boys did not face a run-in with another ice boat until the end of the second chapter; however, in this version, the ice boat handled by Tad Carson and Ike Nash runs them down in the first chapter (with a nice, two-page spread line illustration that seems to be a redux of the frontis piece from the original text).  And for those who remember the second ice boat incident in the original, where poor Chet could not gain control of his boat, it might surprise you to discover that in this revised version, it is the vile Mr. Hanleigh and Tad Carson who purposely attack the Hardys' boat, knocking them out onto the ice along with old Mr. Jefferson!  Poor Mr. Jefferson is injured, and the Hardys end up taking him back to the cabin, where he spends the night - a scene that never took place in the original.

 

There are quite a few other differences that deviate from the original tale.  One major difference is the fact that Mr. Jefferson has a grandson in this revised text, who disappeared and is the center of the mystery that Mr. Jefferson asks the boys to solve.  And in the original story, the boys learn about Mr. Jefferson's stolen stamps from the general store owner, Amos Grice, while in this version, Mr. Jefferson himself relates the story of the stolen medals to Frank and Joe - and yes, that's another revision. Perhaps by the late 1960s, stolen stamps would not seem as valuable to stolen medals, so the Syndicate changed the object of the theft - which creates another big change, as a "ghost" that is scene on the island (mostly by Chet) turns out to be the representative of the great Shah Ali, who has come to seek out Mr. Jefferson in the hopes of buying back one of the medals in his possession (or, rather, in his former possession, since the medals are missing).

 

One incident in the original text that I am actually glad they removed was the fox hunting chapter, where the boys hunt down and kill some foxes that Mr. Grice believes stole some of his chickens.  In the original, the Hardys use the rifles given them as Christmas presents by their parents; in the revised, the boys receive much needed snowshoes instead and there is no mention of stolen chickens or fox hunting.  And speaking of Christmas, that is yet one more revision in the text - in the original story, the boys spend Christmas day together in the cabin; in the revised tale, the boys spend Christmas morning with their families, and they do not head out to Cabin Island until after Christmas.  And the climactic scene where the tree comes crashing down on the cabin in the original?  Nope, it is removed from the revised, and the boys instead merely face a fierce snow storm that breaks through the windows, sending snow and cold into the cabin.

 

There is one difference that I found made the story a bit more challenging for the boys, and that involves the cryptogram.  In the original, the code to solve the cryptic message was simply reversing the alphabet:  to wit, A = Z, B = Y, C = X, and so on.  In this revised version, however, Svenson gives Frank and Joe (and the reader) and much more challenging solution, as the code actually makes use of the thief's name - John Paul Sparewell, Houseman (i.e., A = J, B = O, C = H, D = N, and so on).  I found that to be a much more creative solution, which would explain why the boys had such difficulty in solving the puzzle.  In the original, the solution proved way too easy and basically made the Hardys look inept, in that they could not have deciphered such a simple code.

 

Something I found both books to have in common is the illustrations of the ice boats.  In the original text, the plain frontis piece (by artist Ausott) shows Frank, Joe, and Chet in their iceboat, which has very little room for anything other than the three of them.  In the revised text, the frontis piece, as well as the two-page spread on pages 8 and 9 show ice boats with barely room for the riders - the frontis has only Frank and Joe with room for no one or nothing else; and the two page spread shows all four boys in the boat (and it is supposed to be the same boat, so how did they manage that?) with no extra room.  So this begs the question - how did these four boys fit into the ice boat, along with all of their gear, clothes, and the boxes of food that Chet brought, when those illustrations make the boat appear to have very little free space, if any at all?!  Artistic license, I suppose...

 

While I cannot say that either of the Cabin Island texts were overly enjoyable (remember, I am not much of a Hardy Boys fan to begin with), I can say that the original text offers up a richer tale with stronger characterization.  The revised text seems to focus more on fast-paced action, with constant accidents, danger, scares, and such, relying on the action to move the story rather than the mystery itself.  I think I prefer Svenson's Happy Hollisters' series far more than I did this Hardy Boys tale.

 

RATING:  5 handsome, gleaming medals out of 10 for the attempt at re-imagining a 1920s mystery for the 1960s (leaving one to wonder what a re-imagining of this tale for the 2000s would look like?)

The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of Cabin Island (Hardy Boys Mystery Stories # 8 - Original Text)

Yes, believe it or not, I can now say I have actually read a vintage Hardy Boys book.  Growing up, I did not like the Hardy Boys, because to me, they were more adventure stories than they were mystery stories.  I was more interested in haunted houses, spooky staircases, dark attics, hidden rooms, and the like.  These were the type of mysteries I could find in the Nancy Drew books.  In recent years, yes, I've been reading the recently published Hardy Boys Adventures series, and they have not been half-bad.  Yet, I just have not been able to bring myself to go back and read those original adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, as I simply did not have the interest.  But with the Christmas holidays, I have been urged (I would say "bullied," but in today's climate, people would jump on that and take it completely the wrong way!) to read one particular Hardy Boys book that is set during that time, and I had no other choice ... so I did!

The Mystery of Cabin Island is the eighth book in the Hardy Boys series, published back in 1929 (the year before Nancy Drew made her debut).  It was written by Leslie McFarlane based on an outline provided by Edward Stratemeyer, and it could have been more aptly subtitled, "The Hardy Boys and their Ice Boat Adventures."  The boys spend an inordinate amount of time in this book traveling in their ice boats, nearly getting run down twice by other ice boats (one from some rivals, one from their friends), and it seems the ice boats are their only means of travel between "Cabin Island" and the mainland of Bayport.  The frontis piece of the edition I have of this book is even an illustration (by someone named "Auscott") of their rivals' ice boat "booming down on the smaller craft at terrific speed" (p. 16).  It is interesting to note that this scene takes place so early in the book - normally the frontis piece of series books depicts a scene from much later in the story.  I also have to wonder at McFarlane's choice of words, since just a few paragraphs before on the previous page, he describes the boat as "hurtling forward at terrific speed" (p. 15), then reiterates the same phrase when ending the chapter with "booming down ... at terrific speed" (p. 16).  Perhaps he forgot his thesaurus when he was writing that day (sorry Pam!).

 

The story centers around the isolated cabin that stands on Cabin Island, owned by one Elroy Jefferson.  The boys visit the island with their friend Chet Morton, only to be warned away by a man they later learn is Mr. Hanleigh - a rather pushy man intent on buying the island from Mr. Jefferson.  The boys befriend Mr. Jefferson, who it turns out was one of the people that they helped save his valuable car in a previous book (The Shore Road Mystery), and he graciously allows the boys and their friends to camp out at the cabin over the Christmas break from school.  Something odd about the planning of his trip is that Chet first mentions the idea of camping out over the Christmas holidays at the beginning of the story (p 3); yet, a few chapters later, Biff Hooper makes the suggestion of a camping trip over the holidays, and the Hardys say they will think about it and discuss it with Chet (pp. 30-31) - why would they need to discuss something with Chet who already approached them with the idea?  Had they already forgotten Chet's suggestion?  Or had McFarlane forgotten already that he wrote that earlier scene?

The mystery, such as it is, comes into play after Frank, Joe, Chet and Biff take up residence in the cabin and all of their food supply is stolen!  They do eventually locate the food hidden behind some rocks on the shore beneath the cabin, along with a small notebook that contains a message written in code.  Personally, I found the code rather simple to crack, but the boys spend a number of chapters trying to figure it out (I suppose if they solved it too early, it would not make for an exciting story).  It is obvious the notebook belonged to Mr. Hanleigh, who keeps returning to the island, looking for something in the cabin.  The cover even depicts one of those instances when the boys spy the man sneaking into the cabin (pp. 113-14).  It ultimately turns out that a valuable stamp collection stolen from Mr. Jefferson many years ago was hidden in the cabin by the thief, and Mr. Hanleigh is determined to get his hands on it.  As the coded message reveals, the box containing the stamps is located somewhere near or in the chimney (which seems to be a common thing in children's series books - check out The Wooden Shoe Mystery and The Missing Formula to see what I mean).  McFarlane does provide a rather dramatic climax to the story, when a tree collapses on the cabin during a horrific snow storm, destroying the chimney and revealing the hidden location of the box (pp. 195-99).

While the mystery itself was not overly thrilling and seemed to be a smaller portion of the story, I do have to say the book contains quite a few dated references in it (and considering it was published in 1929, one would have to expect it to!).  The most obvious one was when the Hardys discover the notebook, and Frank find written on one of the pages "October, 1917") - to which he exclaims, "Why, that's eleven years ago" (p. 101).  This is the first actual date reference I've seen in any of these series books, where a character specifically sets the date (since that eleven years would place the story in 1928, the year prior to the publication date).  It was my understanding that the Syndicate specifically avoided these type of references, so as to not fully date the books; but, perhaps, since this was still while Edward Stratemeyer was in charge, he was not as stringent about these type of things as his daughters became.  There is also the reference to Frank and Joe receiving "two small caliber rifles, each with a box of ammunition" for Christmas presents from their father (p. 46).  You would DEFINITELY not see rifles given to teenagers as gifts in today's books, that's for sure!

There's also the overuse of the word "queer" in the book (which, back in the time when this book was written, would have meant "strange" or "odd" - it did not have the same connotation that it does today).  In just a few paragraphs, one of the characters refers to Elroy Jefferson as "very queer" and "a queer old chap," even saying he had "a heart of gold, specially where boys is concerned.  But queer - mighty queer in some ways..." (p. 86).  People reading those lines today would probably have an entirely different take on what was meant!  And speaking of word use, McFarlane used a rather interesting term to describe poor Biff - he was described as "pugilistically inclined" (p. 79), which refers to someone fighting with his fists, specifically used when talking about boxers.  I have to wonder how many young people would have known what that word meant - heck, I did not even know what it meant until I looked it up!  Then there's the reference to the two foxes killed by Frank and Biff in the story - McFarlane writes that "the boys cut the brushes from the two foxes ... and placed the prizes in a place of honor above the fireplace" (p. 132).  I honestly cannot figure out exactly what the author is referring to here.  I was unable to find a definition for the phrase "cut the brushes" in this context (most of what I found referred to cutting paint brushes); speaking with my friend Pam, who is a McFarlane expert, it seems "cut the brushes" refers to the fact that the boys cut off the fox tails and kept them as trophies of their catch.  I had never heard this before, so perhaps it is a Canadian turn of phrase.

McFarlane also makes reference in the story to Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Gold-Bug" (p. 105).  That particular story involves the deciphering of a secret message (written as a cryptogram) that is supposed to lead the characters to a buried treasure. He clearly used this as a comparison to the Hardys attempting to figure out the cryptogram written in the notebook they discovered.  Frank even tries to follow the character's suggestion in the story of looking for the most frequently appearing letter in the message and substituting it with the letter "e," which is said to be the most frequently used letter in the English language (p. 105) - sadly, though, that substitution method did not work for the Hardys.  At least McFarlane did not make it too easy on them (although, in reality, the solution to the code is fairly simple - reversing the alphabet, i.e. A=Z, B=Y, C=X, and so on).

The only other thing I thought was note-worthy was the fact that Chapter XX in the book has an entire change in the point of view.  That particular chapter is told completely through the eyes of Mr. Hanleigh, as he faces difficulties with his henchmen, Carson and Nash, who have been ferrying him back and forth to Cabin Island aboard their own ice boat.  It is rather fun to read part of the story from the villain's point of view, as you see how easily he gets riled up and how he intends to double-cross his own men!

While I understand that a number of Hardy Boys fans like this particular volume, I have to admit that I did not find it all that great.  Sure, it has plenty of adventure in it, but I like mystery, and the book fell rather short on that (in my opinion).  I tried to go into it with an open mind, and not let my distaste for the Hardy Boys series to color my reading of the story; but, I suppose, I'm just not a Hardy Boys fan, and for me, this story is a reminder why I prefer Nancy Drew and the other female sleuths to boys' series such as this.

RATING:  6 precious rosewood boxes out of 10 for giving me a cryptogram to solve (I love those type of puzzles!) and showing how dangerous ice boating can be!

The Outdoor Girls in Florida (Book Five of The Outdoor GIrls Series)

My journey through series books set in Florida continues, this time with another series that I have yet to read before - The Outdoor Girls!  Another Stratemeyer Syndicate series which used the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope as the author (the same pen name was used for The Bobbsey Twins, the Bunny Brown series, the Moving Picture Girls series, the Blythe Girls series, the Six Little Bunkers series, and the Make-Believe Stories series), The Outdoor Girls is a 23-volume series.  According to Jennifer White's website (The Outdoor Girls), the first six books (which would include this one) were written by Howard Garis, while the remaining seventeen books in the series were written by Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward, both of whom were prolific authors of children's series back in the day.  I was not really sure what to expect with this book, having never read any of this series, but I definitely was expecting more than what I ended up getting.

The Outdoor Girls in Florida is the fifth book in the series, and it features the four main girls - Betty Nelson (sometimes referred to by her friends and the narrator as "The Little Captain"), Mollie Bilette, Grace Ford, and Amy Stonington (a/k/a Blackford - as she apparently discovered in an earlier book that she was adopted when her real brother finds her).  The mystery begins with Grace and her family receiving the news that Grace's older brother, Will, has gone missing from their Uncle Isaac's home in Georgia.  The story plays with the emotions of the Ford family, as well as the readers, as the roller coaster has everyone worried for the missing boy; then they receive a delayed letter from Will that indicates he went to Florida to strike out on his own; then they receive notification that is a cry for help, as the men he signed on to work for turned out to be contractor with a bad reputation and he has been kidnapped!  And while all of these exchanges are taking place, the girls are planning a trip to Florida with Amy's family, who are considering buying an orange grove in the Sunshine State.

Thus, readers anticipate the mystery will find the girls searching the Everglades of Florida in the hopes of finding Grace's missing brother.  Well, as it turns out, the girls do very little in terms of searching for Will; rather, it seems they get caught up in a number of escapades that eventually lead them to make contact with a young scamp who happens to be trying to help someone he refers to as "the other one" - who, of course, turns out to be Will Ford.  But the girls take no active role in actually seeking out Grace's brother, which surprised me.  I was expecting them to find clues, follow up on them, and eventually locate the evil contractor and save the day; instead, they are merely a conduit by which the young boy (referred to cruelly by the contractor and his men as "the Loon" because he has some mental disabilities!) is able to obtain help from Amy's father (or rather, her "uncle") to rescue not only Will, but also another young man who goes missing when he takes the girls on a trip along the river.  The only "danger" that the girls faced in the book is when they see an alligator in the river (it does not attack them, though); when their boat is nearly stolen by a manatee; when they find themselves stuck between two sleeping alligators and a stream filled with snakes (none of which make any attempt to approach the girls); and when they get lost trying to make their way home from the island where Tom disappears.  Otherwise, the girls have no real difficulties during the course of the story.

Other than passing references to Palm Beach (p. 26), Indian River (p. 26), and Jacksonville (p. 36), all of the locales the girls visit in Florida are fictional (they never actually visit the real cities/counties named).  The orange grove where they stay is located near the town of "Bentonville" (p. 45) on the "Mayfair River" that empties into "Lake Chad" (p. 45).  A contractor tells the girls he lives upriver about ten miles in a place called "Penbrook" (p. 97).  None of these fictional places are given a clear pinpoint in the state, other than the reference to the fact that the Everglades can be reached by taking the river further on.  This was disappointing, after reading several mysteries recently which were set in actual cities and referred to real sites within the stories.  Alas, perhaps Garis told when he was writing the story to stay away from using real locations in order to give the story more creative freedom with the descriptions and the events that take place.  The only indication of where the story might take place is the fact that the girls do get tangled up with a manatee (depicted on the cover and the frontis piece, taken from page 126 of the story) - and since this takes place during the girls' winter holiday, it gives readers a time frame within which to gauge.  According to the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission, the manatee head for warmer waters, usually found near springs throughout Florida - such as Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River, and even Lee County Manatee Park in Fort Myers (Manatee in Florida). So, it can be guessed perhaps the girls are somewhere in Central Florida.

And since we are on the topic of the cover and internal - the illustration is the same.  My copy of the book has the duo-tone cover rather than the full color art.  The scene shows the young man in ragged clothes rescuing the girls' boat from a manatee that got tangled up in the anchor rope and was slowly pulling the boat away.  In the book, he takes a shot at the manatee with his gun (p. 127), something that would probably shock a lot of readers today, since manatee are considered to be an endangered species.  What I found surprising about the internal illustration is that the fronti piece is on glossy paper; however, the two internal illustrations are just plain paper illustrations (p. 76 and p. 153).  I don't believe I've ever come across a book that has mixed internals like that - usually they are all glossy or all plain.

A couple of final things to note: there is a moment early in the book,when it is discovered that Will Ford is missing, and the girls feel discouraged.  Mollie makes the comment, "Yes, girls always seem so - so helplessly at a time like this ... Oh, I wish I were a - man!" (p. 60).  This kind of statement is definitely a product of its time (this book was published in 1913), when girls were not thought to be of the same caliber or strength as men, and in fact, were thought to be more delicate and of lesser capabilities.  So, for Mollie to wish she were a man so she would go out and help search for Grace's brother would have been natural back then.  In today's world, of course, the Outdoor Girls would traipse off on their own without a second thought to search for the missing boy!  Another element of the story that dates the book is the "comfortable-looking" colored "mammy" who is named "Aunt Hannah" (p. 72).  Such a racial stereotype is highly offensive by today's standards; but back in 1913, readers would have read this line without even a second thought.  

Last, but not least, I must mention a comment made by Amy's brother, who makes a brief visit to Florida to see the girls.  He reports everything is fine back home in Deepdale, but also reports that "those old friends of yours, Alice Jallow and Kittie Rossmore, have started a sort of automobile club. I guess they're trying to rival you" (p. 115).  I find this line amusing, since there was a six-book published by Altemus from 1910-1913 (ending the same year this book was published) called "The Automobile Girls," written by Laura Dent Crane (likely a pseudonym, although I have no clue who the real author was).  In that particular series, there were four girls (just like the Outdoor Girls), and two of those girls happened to be named Mollie and Grace (just like the Outdoor Girls).  One has to wonder if the line was thrown into the book as a little jab at the then-cancelled series by Crane.

RATING:  6 orange blossoms and brides out of 10 for a somewhat fun adventure in Florida, albeit a very fictional one.