Sunday, June 13, 2010

Linda Carlton's Hollywood Flight

Linda is watching a newsreel in the theater with her friends when she is electrified by the announcement that the famous aviatrix, Linda Carlton, has signed on with a film company to appear in a Hollywood film. Linda's friends believe the story, and it is with great difficulty that Linda convinces both her Aunt Emily and Dot Crowley that the Linda Carlton in the newsreel is an impostor.

Linda and Dot leave quickly in the Ladybug for Hollywood. During their journey, the girls are forced to land on an office building because of a storm. As luck would have it, the office building houses a newspaper, and their photos are taken. Quick-thinking Dot gives the reporter false names, since Linda hates publicity.

The emergency landing of "Sallie Slocum" and "May Manton" appears in newspapers across the country, so when Linda arrives at the film studio, the secretary thinks that Linda is Sallie Slocum, an impostor! Linda finds it impossible to prove that she is the real Linda Carlton and faces arrest as the impostor!

This summary covers just the first 60 pages of the book. This final Linda Carlton book is action-packed, just like the other books in the series. Linda and Dot are even chloroformed! I couldn't help thinking of Nancy Drew.

I anticipated reading the Linda Carlton series for several years. I usually have a pretty good idea of whether a series will be below average, average, or above average. I expected the Billie Bradley series to be no more than average, and I was correct. I expected the Linda Carlton series to be above average, and I was not disappointed.

In all five books, Linda goes from one thrilling adventure to another. If I were to pick just one series to which to compare Linda Carlton, I would have to select the Beverly Gray series. Linda is in multiple plane crashes, stranded on a desert island, and arrested more than once for crimes she did not correct. Linda ends up in Cuba and in Hawaii at different times, just like Beverly Gray. Linda has multiple admirers who vie for her attention.

I read this series in approximately one week, because I had to know what would happen next. I found all five books to be excellent, and I liked volumes 3 and 5 the best, since they have the wildest adventures. Edith Lavell wrote three series: the Girls Scouts series, the Mary Louise Gay series, and the Linda Carlton series. I greatly enjoyed all three series, but I like the Linda Carlton books the best. It is a shame that the series is so brutally hard to collect.

4 comments:

Susan in Boston said...

Given your enjoyment of the Linda Carlton series, I'd definitely suggest you try the Worrals series by W.E. Johns.

It's a British series, sadly not published in the US, about an 18 year old girl, Jean Worralston (aka Worrals) who has enlisted in the W.A.A.C (Women's Army Air Corps)during WWII. The only series that I know of which has a girl/young woman actively involved in a war. While Betty Baxter Anderson had a few girls in Women's Corps in the US, they never saw any action; Cherry Ames of course served as a nurse, but Worrals is truely in the war...flights over, and into France, undercover work, rescue missions in enemy territory, etc. And forget about people being killed in a YA novel...she's killed them herself. As she points out to her copilot "what do you think we're doing here, playing kindergarten?"

I wonder if in any other time and place than WWII Britian, with the bombs of the Blitz falling, such a series would ever have seen the light of day?

Here's a link to a site on Johns, and the Worrals page.

http://www.wejohns.com/Worrals

Jennifer White said...

It sounds interesting. Thanks for mentioning it. I'll check into it.

evesbookgarden said...

Hi Jennifer,
Since I have a copy of Hollywood Flight that I am selling, a relative of Edith Lavell's contacted me to tell me the story about the hard-to-find last two titles. A little research brought up your interesting site on Series Books for Girls.
The book came through as part of an estate donation to our library Friends' group (I'm selling it for the Friends). It's not in perfect shape and doesn't have a dustjacket. We are selling it on Amazon if you'd like to have a look. I have posted more photos on Abebooks.com.
I enjoyed reading your synopsis of the book! You have a lovely book blog.
Eve Nilson
Eve's Book Garden
evesbookgarden@mindspring.com

Jenn Fisher said...

Eve,

What's the story about the last 2 titles?

Jenn:)