Cherry Ames Mountaineer Nurse and Clinic Nurse

In Cherry Ames #12, Cherry Ames, Mountaineer Nurse, Cherry goes to help Bertha in the mountains of Kentucky.  Bertha has injured her foot, so Cherry has to assist her with nursing the locals.  Soon, Cherry learns that the people are superstitious and that two families are engaged in a bitter feud.

I was interested as I read the first few pages of the story, but I should have known it was too good to last.  The first 7 1/2 pages tell the reader the necessary information as Cherry begins her stay in Kentucky.  Next, the book goes into a flashback where a lengthy letter from Bertha to Cherry requests Cherry's help in Kentucky.  Bertha's letter lasts for close to four pages.  The letter explains what we already know from the first 7 1/2 pages, but with greater detail.  Back to the present, Cherry and Bertha discuss the situation for 2 1/2 pages.  Next, Cherry writes a letter home to her mother, telling her mother what we already know with even more detail.  The letter to Cherry's mother lasts for five pages!

I was strongly reminded of Harriet Pyne Grove's book, The Adventurous Allens Marooned, in which events from the book are retold in a very lengthy and boring diary entry.  It's never good when I am reminded of Harriet Pyne Grove.

This book contains a lot of dialect, where the words are spelled phonetically the way the characters speak.  This always makes reading harder.  Often, I have to pause and think about how the word would be pronounced in order to figure out what the word is supposed to be.  Sometimes, I have trouble figuring it out.  In one case, "biled" was used.  I was puzzled and kept reading.  The next statement mentioned cooking, so I read the previous statement again and concluded that "biled" meant "boiled."

In this book, I found that I often skimmed or skipped the dialect since I didn't want to take the time to sound out the words.  Dialogue written phonetically almost always annoys me, and this time was no exception.  This is a good story, but many conversations are in dialect, which makes reading this book very tedious.  Not only that, but a very large portion of the book is dialogue, consisting of lengthy discussions between Cherry and Bertha about what to do and how to proceed.  The plot crawls at a snail's pace. 

What I am finding as I read the Cherry Ames books is that most of the books annoy me for some reason or another.  With Cherry Ames, Mountaineer Nurse, it is the dialect and the excessive amount of discussion.  Otherwise, this is an enjoyable book.  With less discussion and more action, this book could have been outstanding.

In Cherry Ames #13, Cherry Ames, Clinic Nurse, Cherry is back home in Hilton.  Dr. Joe has opened a clinic, and Cherry has taken a position at his clinic.  One afternoon, Cherry is leaving the clinic when a man abducts her, blindfolds her, and takes her to a location deep in the woods.  Cherry is forced to assist in a surgery, and then is released.  Cherry later tries to remember enough details of the journey so that she can figure out where she was taken.

This book has fewer expository details than the other books, which made it easier to get into the book.  Cherry is abducted on page 34, and I was thrilled, since Cherry had never been abducted.  I knew that I would end up greatly liking this book.  The book is solely a mystery from the abduction through the rest of the book.

This is the first book in quite a few titles that a Cherry Ames book has not annoyed me.  As I read the previous book, Cherry Ames, Mountaineer Nurse, I reflected that I was not liking the Cherry Ames books enough to want to ever read them again.  I decided that if the trend were to continue that I would sell my set after finishing reading the books.  I enjoyed this book enough that I may have to reconsider selling all of the books.  I'll have to see what happens with the rest of the series, but right now, I'm thinking that I will sell some books and keep ones that I really like.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book.