The Barbara Ann Series #3 and #4

I have continued reading the Barbara Ann series by Ruth Grosby, and I have liked each book better than the last. The third book is Mystery across the Border. In this book, the young people travel down into Mexico. What floored me is that the boys named their car Susabella, which is the name of the boat in the Beverly Gray series. It makes me wonder whether the name was chosen on purpose. In fact, some of the things that happen to the young people in Mexico, like discovering ancient ruins, are rather like some of the things that happen in the Beverly Gray series.

I also noticed that the brand name, Coca-Cola, is used repeatedly in the third book. In most series books, there are no brand names mentioned. If a soft drink is mentioned, it is normally called "soda" or "pop" rather than given a specific name, like Coca-Cola. By what is said about the soft drink, it is definitely not used as a generic name; the author specifically means the brand, Coca-Cola. This reminds me of the remarks I made in a recent post about the book, Junior Miss. That book has quite a few pop culture references. Reader's Digest is also mentioned by name in one of the Barbara Ann books.

The front flap synopsis of Mystery across the Border is an example of a synopsis giving away too much information. The synopsis mentions a girl who has been missing for 13 years and how Barbara Ann spots her in a small Mexican town and eventually reunites her with her uncle. Why don't they just give away the entire plot? It isn't a big deal since we already know that in every single series book that a missing person is always reunited with his or her family thanks to the hero or heroine. It still irks me, however. It reminds me of one of the Nancy Drew Files (there is no way I can remember which one since they all run together in my mind) in which the back cover synopsis mentions a murder that does not happen until 100 pages into the story! The Nancy Drew Files are around 160 pages, so 100 pages is not that far from the end.

To go back to Barbara Ann, they don't even see the missing girl until halfway through the book and not until later do they draw any connection. A book's synopsis should not mention specifics that are that far into the book. Rather, it should have mentioned the suspicious behavior of certain characters and perhaps some of the young people's harrowing adventures that occur in the first part of the story. For instance, one of the boys is arrested and accusing of being a revolutionary! Doesn't that sound exciting enough for a synopsis?

Aside from my problems with the synopsis, which is the publisher's fault, the book is great.

I am nearly finished with the fourth and final Barbara Ann mystery, The Clue in the Camera. In this book, Barbara Ann is now a college student at Midwestern. Barbara Ann joins the photography club, and photos are used to solve two different mysteries in this book. It is all very interesting, especially since infrared light was used for one of the photos. Additionally, there are some rather technical descriptions of photography techniques.

In summary, I highly recommend the Barbara Ann series. I saw bits and pieces of Nancy Drew, Beverly Gray, Judy Bolton, and Trixie Belden in these books. The kidding around between Barbara Ann and her friends made me think of the Bob-Whites of the Trixie Belden series. One of the boys is named Mort, which I wanted to read as Mart. The dust jacket art makes Barbara Ann look like Judy Bolton, and Barbara Ann has gray eyes like Judy Bolton. I have already mentioned some of the similarities to Beverly Gray. The books are also similar to Nancy Drew, especially as there are a couple of friends who love to eat, one boy and one girl.

More on the Barbara Ann Series

I finished reading the second Barbara Ann book yesterday (Frank, you are right about this series being a hidden gem!). I thoroughly enjoyed the second book, The Mystery at Mountain View. In The Mystery at Mountain View, the inn appears to be haunted because the villains are trying to get the owner to sell at a cheap price. Each time I read a series book with a theme like this, I think of how that type of scheme would backfire nowadays. If someone made an inn appear to be haunted, the media would descend upon it and give us live reports, and all of the thrill-seekers would decide to stay there in hopes of seeing a ghost. I would think that it would help business, rather than hurt it!

Barbara Ann is a plucky young lady, and she is quite daring in her methods of uncovering the villains' schemes. In The Mystery at Mountain View, Barbara Ann and her boyfriend, Bob, get into quite a dangerous situation after they are captured by the villains. I am not going to provide any specific description as I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but their situation is about as bad as any that Beverly and her friends face in the Beverly Gray series. I don't see situations quite like the one in this book very often in the different juvenile series.

Along the same lines, when Barbara Ann and Bob are first confronted by the villains, Barbara Ann worries about what will happen to them on pages 215 and 216:

There was dead silence for a moment. In that moment Barbara Ann had a vivid picture of Bob and herself lying on the floor of the deserted cabin, a bullet wound through each of their hearts.

This is a bit graphic for a series book, don't you think? I felt like I was in a murder mystery there for a moment.

Something I have noticed about the four books is that the text is much larger in the first two books, so those two stories are shorter than the last two books. I don't know what to make of that.

The series is just four volumes long with one volume published each year from 1939 through 1942. Even though I have only read two of the four books, I can tell that the series is very good. I'm sure it didn't sell very well since the books are not very easy to find, and it was published for such a short duration. I feel like this series is good enough that it could have lasted longer. I suspect that this series died with all of the others that Grosset and Dunlap discontinued due to poor sales and paper rationing during World War II.

The illustration of Barbara Ann on the dust jacket of The Mystery at Mountain View reminded me of other cover art, and it took me a few minutes to figure out what. She reminds me of Judy Bolton on some of the dust jackets from the 1950s, like The Clue in the Ruined Castle, among others.

I have begun to read the third Barbara Ann book, Mystery across the Border. In this book, Barbara Ann and her family travel by car down to Mexico. I love books that have car trips down into Mexico, so I already know that I will love this book. Barbara Ann has recently learned how to drive, and she drives during part of the trip. What is unusual is that Barbara Ann is not depicted as an expert driver like Nancy Drew. She ends up in an accident on the first day that she drives due to dodging a calf that was standing in the middle of the road. It is refreshing to have a series book heroine who can drive but is not an expert at it.

The Barbara Ann Series

The Barbara Ann series is a four volume series by Ruth Grosby that was published by Grosset and Dunlap in hardcover with dust jacket. I had started reading the first Barbara Ann book, The Stolen Blueprints, a few months ago, then was sidetracked, and I finally finished reading it yesterday. I enjoyed it. It was particularly good during the last one-third of the book from the time that Barbara Ann gets herself into a jam as she investigates the rival company's office.

I have just began the second book, The Mystery at Mountain View. This passage on page 6 makes me think of Trixie Belden (gee, I wonder why?):

"Here come the two 'B.W.'s' now," called out a boy as the girls walked, or rather staggered, into the doorway of the Pullman. The lurching of the train made walking difficult, and Barbara and Beverly, often referred to as the "B.W.'s" by their friends, giggled delightedly at the zigzag path they made down the aisle.

I'm going to try to read the remaining three books in this series as I continue rereading the Beverly Gray books.