The Girl Scouts at Camp

I have finished reading the second Girl Scouts book by Edith Lavell, The Girl Scouts at Camp. As the title indicates, this book tells the story of the two weeks that the Girl Scout Pansy Troop spends at camp in the country. The main plot involves the contest that Captain Phillips has created for the girls. The winner of the contest will earn a brand-new canoe. Both Ruth and Marjorie are keenly interested in the contest, and Ruth fears that Marjorie will win instead of her. Ruth is still jealous of Marjorie and even tells on Marjorie when Marjorie breaks a rule so that Marjorie will lose points in the contest.

This book has a slower pace than the previous book, and much time is spent around the campfire telling stories, such as ones about Hercules and other mythical heroes. These stories can go on for many pages. For instance, the Hercules story begins on page 177 and ends on page 185. While the stories are interesting, they do not suit my particular preference while reading series books. I skipped the Hercules story in order to get on with the story. As Lenora Whitehill would say, "I crave excitement!"

There is also a large amount of time given to describing various topics that relate to the Girl Scouts, such as passing the test to become either a first-class scout or a second-class scout. All of the Scout competitions are very important to the story. Of the different Girl Scouts series books that I have read so far, this series contains the most Girl Scout lore, which is not surprising since Edith Lavell was a Girl Scouts troop leader.

It is books such as these that Mildred Wirt Benson meant when she stated that she was tired of "namby-pamby" girls' series books. These books spend much time on unnecessary events such as storytelling and minute descriptions of ordinary activities. There is very little mystery, and any mystery is minor and resolved fairly easily.

Aside from the slow pace, I have greatly enjoyed this second Girl Scouts book. I skipped the Hercules story, which solved that problem, and even though the Girl Scout lore slows the book down, I do not mind reading about it. The main draw for this series, at least for the titles that I have read to this point, is the great rivalry between Marjorie and Ruth. Marjorie is obviously the main character, but the books switch to Ruth's point of view repeatedly so that we can eavesdrop on her jealous thoughts. Ruth has played one serious trick on Marjorie, but other than that, her actions have not been criminal.

This rivalry is like the one between the Dana Girls and Lettie Briggs, except that Lettie's tricks were often criminal, like resorting to poisoning the Dana Girls. In return, the Dana Girls were not very nice, either, and it is surprising that the Danas were not reprimanded for their actions.

In the Lavell books, Marjorie makes mistakes, but her mistakes are human mistakes and nothing that affects Ruth. So far Marjorie has been held to a very high standard. Ruth is petty, but not in the evil way of Lettie Briggs. The underlying theme of these first few (I am now on volume 3) Girl Scouts books is the rivalry between the girls and how jealousy causes problems.