Dana Girls #14 The Curious Coronation

The Curious Coronation was the first new Dana Girls book after the second hiatus in the publication of the series.  17 books were dropped from the series, and 13 titles were reprinted in the new edition during the 1970s.  The previous title, #30 The Phantom Surfer, was first published eight years before this new book, which became #14 in the new set.

In Dana Girls #14, The Curious Coronation, Jean and Louise receive eight invitations to a teen beauty competition in Newport Beach.  The girls figure out that the duplicate invitations contain a hidden message.  Meanwhile, the crown disappears as well as one of the contestants.  In a seemingly unrelated case, Evelyn Starr gets into a wreck in Newport Beach and is accused of causing it.

With this story, the Dana Girls series enters a bizarre new world in which Aunt Harriet takes a very active role in solving the mysteries.  At times, Aunt Harriet's role is more prominent than the girls'.  In this book, Aunt Harriet makes phone calls to obtain needed information.  She gives suggestions on what the girls should do next.  She finds Franklin Starr for Evelyn.  Aunt Harriet finds the owner of a plane, and she solves the coded message in the invitations.  We might as well begin calling the series the "Aunt Harriet Mystery Stories."

Harriet Adams was well into her eighties when this book was written, and she apparently enjoyed making her namesake the center of the stories.

On page 74, the girls' hands turn green and swell up from a supposed poison that was on the fake crown.  A doctor is called on the telephone, and he says for the girls to douse their hands in gasoline.  This is odd advice in the first place, and even worse, the doctor has no idea what kind of poison is involved since the consultation is by telephone.  Gasoline is then brought inside the house and is poured into a basin.  Gasoline should never be brought inside a house!

Professor Ching has a book with a photograph of a phoenix.  The girls think that they can get some information from the photographer.  They track him down, and he just happens to be staying at their hotel in Newport Beach.  What are the odds?

On pages 93 and 94, the girls decide to take a nap face down on the beach in a shallow pit that somebody had dug.  This is a bit... strange.  Anyway, someone comes along and dumps a load of wet sand on them!  Since this book is not the last book in the Dana Girls series, you can figure out whether the girls survive.  However, this would have been a good opportunity to get rid of the girls and rename the series the "Aunt Harriet Mystery Stories."

From page 131: "The remark gave Aunt Harriet's spine a tingling sensation from top to bottom."  Reading that statement gives me a weird sensation.

The beauty pageant has an Asian ("Asiatic" in the book) theme.  A girl from South Korea is competing, and she is clearly the best contestant after Sally.  Since the theme is Asian, the girl from South Korea ought to win.  However, this would somehow be a disaster.  Sally is missing, and Sally must be located so that she can win instead of the Asian girl.  This seems a bit racist, especially considering the pageant's theme.

This book is of the type that is so bad that it is good.  The book is bizarre but entertaining.  I enjoyed it.