Bailey Twins #3 Summer Camp, #4 Philippines, and #5 Secret Code

In the Bailey Twins #3, The Bailey Twins at Summer Camp, the Farnham Hall cadets attend summer camp on an island in the middle of a lake.  The Bailey Twins pull a man out of quicksand, and he gives them a password, "Potomac."  The boys are never to help anyone unless given the password.  Later, the boys learn about a group of men who are hiding out nearby.  Seeley and his cronies continue to cause trouble for the Baileys, and when the boys learn more about the plot of the men hiding nearby, Seeley thwarts their plans.

I skimmed the swimming competition since I never find lengthy descriptions of sporting events to be interesting.

Page 50 has an appalling scene where Ted greets an Indian with "How?" and the Indian replies, "Ugh."  The two continue to speak to each other in guttural tones as Ted takes the Indian to Captain Brooks' tent.  The author redeems himself later when the Indian comes out of the tent and states, "Ah, Captain, indubitably these young gentlemen have assiduously perused numerous paperbound volumes purporting to describe Indian life and customs in the old wild and woolly west.  Their greeting was quite in the best tradition of Young Bill, the Terror of the Western Plains."

Ouch.  During the rest of the book, the Indian continues to greet Ted with "Ugh" in order to make fun of him.  Ted is said to be embarrassed each time this happens, so Ted ends up getting what he deserves.

This is a very good book.

In the Bailey Twins #4, The Bailey Twins in the Philippines, Fred's uncle in Manila has passed away.  Fred needs a guardian, so Mr. Bailey and the lawyer agree to share the duty.  The Bailey family travels to Manila with Fred.  Tom Fernald joins the Baileys during their trip.  Fernald plans to dive for a ship that was wrecked in the Philippines.

The Bailey Twins made an enemy of Ah Quon during their adventure at summer camp, and Ah Quon follows them to the Philippines.  The boys must use all of their wits to avoid being captured by Ah Quon.

This book is very interesting at first, but gradually the travelogue aspect takes over too much of the story.  By two-thirds of the way through the book, I felt that the book consisted almost entirely of explanation and information.  I felt the story had slowed almost to a stop, and I was quite bored.  I skimmed and skipped over the last one-third of the story.

In the Bailey Twins #5, The Bailey Twins and the Secret Code, the Bailey Twins prepare to sail home from the Philippines.  They plan to tour Japan, but they soon find trouble.

This book starts out okay, then I encountered a lengthy legend.  I was already bored from the slow pace of the previous volume, so I had little patience.  This book contains a very detailed description of shooting the rapids in a canoe and a detailed explanation of jiu jitsu in addition to detailed explanations of other topics.  I ended up skimming or skipping over a large portion of the story.

This is a good book for people who love travelogues and lengthy explanations, but it did not do much for me.

The first three books in the Bailey Twins series are quite good and stand up well against most other series books.  I do not care for the last two books in the set, although some series book enthusiasts might find the travelogues to be quite interesting.