More Thoughts on Ruth Fielding

I am now about halfway through volume 30. I have finished all of my Ruth Fielding summaries for my website. I normally write the summary for a book before I finish the book. I try to be vague about the ending, and it helps when I don't even know for sure how a book will end. Actually, I do know how #30 ends simply because I have read the summary of it that appears in the Girls' Series Companion. But even so, I don't know the entire story.

My favorite groups of books in the Ruth Fielding series are the World War I books, #13-15; all of the books written by Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward, #20-22; and all of the books written by Mildred A. Wirt Benson, #23-30. In these groupings of books, my very favorite two volumes are #20 Ruth Fielding in the Far North and #29 Ruth Fielding and Her Greatest Triumph. I like #20 because of the Blythe Girls phenomenon (see my post from December 29), and I like #29 because it reads so much like a Beverly Gray book.

Even though many of the earlier books are not quite as interesting as the later books, I feel like it is very necessary to have read all of the earlier books in order to fully appreciate the later books. The past history of the characters is important. The Ruth Fielding series tells a story, and that story begins with volume 1. It is a series that is best read in order and without skipping a volume. Sometimes, the events of one book lead into the next book, so in a few cases, the books would be hard to follow if the previous volume had been skipped.