Monday, April 6, 2009

Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall

I finished reading Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance. While I enjoyed the book, it was a little bland. There were two mysteries: a piano that played by itself during the night and two unfriendly men with an airplane. The two mysteries turned out to be lame. The piano was about what I expected, but the mystery with the two men and the airplane was far more lame than I anticipated, and there was no follow-up after the airplane mystery was revealed. Usually unfriendly men means that the men are hardened criminals, so I was expecting much more than how it played out.

It also didn't help that the entire time that Billie worried about whether she could go to Three Towers Hall, I knew that the next book is titled Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall. I already knew what would happen, so I was not able to get into that aspect of the book. Perhaps the second book should have been called Billie Bradley and Her Adventures at School so that the title would not have spoiled the entire plot of the first book.

I have now commenced reading Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall. Guess where Billie is going away to school? I am so surprised! So far I am really enjoying this second book. Since Billie's jealous rival, Amanda Peabody, and her mean friend, Eliza Dilks, are also going to Three Towers Hall, this story should be quite interesting. Jealous rivals are always fun!

It gets even better. Not only are Amanda and Eliza attending Three Towers Hall, they have been assigned to the same dormitory room as Billie and her close friends, Laura and Violet. This is going be very interesting! Many girls' series books have jealous rivals who attend the same school, but I have yet to read a book in which the jealous rivals stay in the same room!

I love the description of the dormitory room. This is the first Stratemeyer girls' series book that I have read in which the girls stay in a large room that holds ten girls. From pages 59-60:
The girls sank down upon their beds and looked about them curiously. There was a little wash basin and a towel rack beside each snowy white bed and on the towel rack hung several small towels with blue and white borders.

The beds were set at regular intervals down the long room, and the spaces in between them were fitted out in such a manner as almost to make a separate little room for each girl.

Beside the wash basins, there was a dresser set at the foot of each white bed and under each bed was a hamper for soiled clothes. Each girl had a little table with a chair to match.

The woodwork had been painted white and the walls were a grayish blue color with several pretty pictures scattered about them to break the bareness.

"Why, the room's all blue and white," Billie suddenly discovered delightedly. "Isn't that a lovely blue they've painted the wall? And the snowy white woodwork! Oh, it's delicious!"

"And just look at the view from this window!"cried Vi, beckoning to them eagerly. As the girls looked over her shoulder they fairly gasped with delight.

Below them stretched the velvety lawn dotted with the darker green of shrubbery, while away through the trees glimmered and gleamed the water of Lake Molata. The day was warm for autumn, and a gentle breeze played among the leaves of the great trees bordering the lake, coming to the girls in a soft, rustling whisper. The picture was almost too perfect to be true.
More on Billie Bradley as I continue my reading.

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