Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy

In Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy, Billie and her friends worry about whether they will be able to win the school trophy. The trouble is that Billie is barred from participating in athletic events since she has been blamed for one of Amanda Peabody's pranks. Billie refuses to rat out Amanda. Surely Billie and her friends have no hope of winning the trophy, but wait... the book is titled Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy. Oh, so Billie does win the trophy. How suspenseful!

A title like Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy gives away the ending of the book. Why couldn't they be more creative? How about Billie Bradley at Camp Red Wing? That is where the girls go, and the title does not spoil the ending. Oh, well.

It little matters since the book is interesting aside from the matter about the trophy, which is the one part that does not interest me, probably because the title spoils the ending. The school is freezing cold since the temporary janitor is lazy and uninterested in keeping the furnace lit. Billie confronts the man about the furnace, and he defiantly announces that he will get a huge fire going for Billie. The furnace explodes the next day, and school is canceled. The entire student body is relocated to Camp Red Wing where the girls resume their studies while waiting for the furnace to be fixed.

Edina Tooker, the girl from Oklahoma, is one of Billie's friends in this book, and she has been completely assimilated into the Three Towers Hall culture, so much so that she has completely lost her strong Oklahoma accent. How odd...

I read this final volume in the Billie Bradley series in approximately one day, which shows how much I enjoyed it. If only volume 7 had not bored me, I would have had this series finished late last year.

Many months passed in between reading volumes 1-7 and volumes 8-9, so I may not be remembering well, but I feel that the final two volumes have a different tone, at least with respect to the girls' relationships with the boys. In the early volumes, Billie and Teddy have a disgustingly sappy pseudo father-daughter relationship, rather than a normal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.

In these last two books, Billie and Teddy do not interact that much, and more is mentioned of Paul Martinson's interest in Billie than in Teddy's interest in Billie. This is fine with me, since I never liked Teddy in the first place. He can go jump into Lake Molata as far as I am concerned.

For the most part, I enjoyed the Billie Bradley series. I perused my blog posts on this series to remind myself of my thoughts as I read the books. At several points, I was bored, and this usually happened during books that are not set at Three Towers Hall. In my opinion, the Billie Bradley books that are set at the school are written the best and are the most interesting.

I had forgotten that I began reading the Billie Bradley series in the spring of 2009. It took me an entire year to make it through all nine books. As a result, I have to rate the series as overall so-so but with some outstanding parts. The Billie Bradley series is worth reading, but it is not anywhere near the level of Betty Gordon and of my other favorite pre-Nancy Drew Stratemeyer series.

Billie Bradley and the School Mystery

Goodness! Was it in October that I last read a Billie Bradley book? I took a detour into the Twilight Saga, Percy Jackson, and the Secrets of Nicholas Flamel books, so that is why it took me so long to pick up the next Billie Bradley book. Not only that, but I was thoroughly bored with the last Billie Bradley book that I read.

I just read Billie Bradley and the School Mystery and completed it in just over 24 hours. I liked it a lot and enjoyed it much more than the previous title. In this book, Billie befriends a new girl from Oklahoma, Edina Tooker, whose rough and tumble ways hardly endear her to the sophisticated girls at Three Towers Hall. The girls openly laugh at Edina's clothes. Billie vows to make over Edina, with or without her friends' help. Since Billie's friends proclaim their reluctance, it appears that Billie will perform her task without their help.

As is typical of Syndicate books that feature characters from the Wild West, Edina speaks with an exaggerated dialect. I noticed an inconsistency in it that I have also noticed in other Syndicate books.

On page 19, Edina yells, "Hold fast! Never give up the ship. I'll git up to that there shelf if it takes a leg!" On page 21, just moments later, Edina states, "I can't get you down there all by myself." First, Edina says git and then she says get. Consistency, people! A character speaking in an authentic dialect does not randomly switch between two pronunciations of the same word!

On a side note, we don't all speak like that in Oklahoma. I have no doubt that I have a strong accent, but I say get. Generally speaking, those of us who live in the greater Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas are less likely to say git, warsh, and squarsh than people who live in the rest of the state. The accents tend to be stronger in the more rural areas.

To go back to the book, this one is set entirely at Three Towers Hall. The storyline centers around Edina's makeover, mean girls, and suspicion of Edina for theft. Billie's friends turn against Billie for a time, and I felt like I was reading of the conflict between Nancy, Bess, and George from the Nancy Drew book The Sign of the Twisted Candles.

The antics of Billie and her friends constantly remind me of the Beverly Gray series. The mean schoolgirl theme reminds me of the Dana Girls' conflict with Lettie Briggs and Ina Mason. Ina Mason is called Lettie's toady in the Dana Girls series just as Eliza Dilks is called Amanda Peabody's toady in the Billie Bradley series.

I felt like I was revisiting several familiar series as I read this book, and that is a good thing. The Stratemeyer Syndicate books that preceded the Nancy Drew and Dana Girls series paved the way for those series and are well worth reading.

More on Billie Bradley Sun Dial Lodge

Boring! That is how I feel about the first half of the book. It is not until page 115 that the girls finally arrive at Sun Dial Lodge. The first half of the book should be called Billie Bradley Worries about Someone Else's Lost Treasure Chest for No Reason. The treasure was found in the previous volume and belongs to someone else. While Billie is supposed to receive a small share, it little matters if the treasure is lost.

In volume 1, Billie's treasure was important since it was the means for Billie to pay for her tuition to Three Towers Hall. When that treasure was stolen (naturally all treasure chests get stolen in Syndicate books), it was vitally important that Billie recover it.

Back to the current treasure chest: Why couldn't the treasure have disappeared near the end of the last volume and then been recovered? Why waste space in this volume with the lost treasure chest? I don't care about the dang treasure chest! It belongs to a man who barely appears in this volume. I mean, really?

The first 115 pages also covers the story of Mrs. Westlock, who is the old lady who was given money near the beginning of the story (see this post) I am just not feeling the story of Mrs. Westlock. She is a pitiful old woman, and she certainly needs help. Why don't I care? Maybe if she actually interacted with the young people, I would care. She is just there, kind of like the missing treasure chest that means nothing to me.

Ah yes, once the young people arrive at Sun Dial Lodge, the book redeems itself. Vi sees a shadow lurking behind a tree and thinks it might be a ghost. The others doubt her, but we readers know that the shadow must have been a very bad person. If I were reading Nancy Drew, I'd know the person must be swarthy.

The house is completely surrounded by trees, to the point that no sunlight shines through the open windows. This is spooky. The description of the herb garden reminds me so much of the description of the grounds of Heath Castle in the Nancy Drew book, The Clue in the Crumbling Wall. I'm liking this portion of the book very much. I like descriptions of overgrown gardens with winding paths. Why couldn't the whole book have been like this?

Billie Bradley Page Now Up

I just placed the link to the Billie Bradley section on the main page of my site. Here is a link:

Billie Bradley section

I almost put it up a week ago, but I was feeling ill enough that I never followed through. I still have to finish the summary for #7, which I am currently reading, and do the summaries for #8 and #9, which I have yet to read. At the rate I am going, it might be a number of weeks. #7 has been difficult to get through, but it is getting better. I am on page 124, which is where I found the quote that I used on the main page of the Billie Bradley section. Finally, the book is getting interesting. I will expand upon my thoughts regarding #7 in another post.

Last weekend before I felt too ill to do anything, I placed my extra Billie Bradley books up for sale on Bonanzle.

Billie Bradley books for sale

These books are from some lots that I purchased relatively recently on eBay. In each lot, I was able to get at least a couple of dust jackets that I did not already have.

In just the last week, I acquired one of the Sully dust jackets. I like the Sully dust jacket because it actually has summaries of the first three titles in the series. The Cupples and Leon dust jackets do not have summaries.

A Billie Bradley Observation

I have been proofreading the Billie Bradley section of my website, since I am thinking of putting it up before I finish the summaries to the last three books. I am having some trouble getting through the 7th title, Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge, as the story is boring me. I just feel like part of it is a retread of some earlier events in the series, and I find that I really don't care. It also isn't helping that I now have a wicked cold, no doubt because my immune system took a hit from the virus I had a week ago. Anyway...

I was looking at my summary page in which I have pictures of the frontispiece illustrations. Since my head is stuffy right now, I am having trouble thinking, but also, I am seeing things differently. Having a cold can have its benefits. I glanced at one of the frontispiece illustrations, and then I really stared at it.


This is the frontispiece illustration for Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes. As I stared at it, I thought of the Outdoor Girl series and how much it reminded me of a couple of Outdoor Girls dust jackets.



Walter S. Rogers drew the Billie Bradley frontispiece, and he drew most of the Outdoor Girls duotone dust jackets. I can't remember at this moment if Rogers drew the duotone dust jackets for The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale or The Outdoor Girls Around the Campfire, but he did draw the color dust jackets of those titles. Regardless, the illustrations are similar.

Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge

A scene in the opening chapters of Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge really caught my attention. The girls have befriended an old woman who was held captive by a giantess (Does this not also remind you of Beverly Gray?). The girls have helped the woman to escape, and Billie has paid for the woman's ticket on the train to New York City. The woman has told Billie her sad story and how she hopes to make a living in the city. Billie writes her address on a slip of paper and tells the woman to come to her home if she ever needs any help.

The woman tried to smile as she accepted the slip of paper, but her lips trembled and she turned sharply away to the window.

Billie was suddenly startled by something that fell into her lap. It was a dollar bill!

"For the old lady !" some one said.

Now the girls saw for the first time that a group of passengers had gathered about them, evidently attracted by the plight of the miserable woman. That they had listened to her story with sympathy and interest was practically demonstrated a moment later.

The dollar bill became only one in a small snowstorm of bills. The passengers were betraying their sympathy in a very practicable and pleasant way!

Laughing excitedly, Billie gathered up the bills and thrust them into the trembling hands of the little old woman.

"There!" she said. "That will get you started nicely, anyway."

"But she has no pocketbook," Vi protested.

A young girl in the group of passengers hurriedly emptied the effects out of her own bag and thrust it toward the old woman.

"Here," she said. "Take mine! I haven't much money to offer, but at least I can contribute something to hold it in!"

"You see, people do care !" cried Billie gayly. "Every one wants to help. I'm sure you will find it the same in New York. But if you don't, there's still North Bend and our house with a welcome sign always hanging out for you! Don't forget!"

Usually only our heroes go out of their way to help those in need, and the other people who are in the vicinity are mainly bystanders who take no significant role in aiding the needy person. It was interesting for the other passengers to be the ones to give the woman money and a pocketbook in which to keep the money.

Billie Bradley at Treasure Cove

Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes ends rather strangely for a volume that is not the final title in the series.

And so, with a glorious summer gloriously ended and countless others just as glorious opening up before them, we must reluctantly bid good-bye to Billie and her chums, hoping that some day we shall meet them all again.

Aside from the awkwardness of the overuse of "glorious," this ending is odd for volume 5 in a 9 volume series. I noticed that the copyright for volume 5 is 1922, and the copyright for volume 6 is 1928. The series must have been over at volume 5, and then six years later, the series was resurrected for some unknown reason. It is odd.

........................................................
I have mentioned before that Clair Blank must have read some of these earlier series books and was influenced by them. Since Clair Blank died decades before series book fans became organized, we will never know which series she read in her childhood. I have noticed similarities to the Beverly Gray series in the later Ruth Fielding titles, the Betty Gordon books, and the Outdoor Girls series. I pointed out that the banter between Billie and her friends in Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island reminds me of the banter between Beverly Gray and her friends.

Billie Bradley at Treasure Cove reads like a Beverly Gray book and is probably my favorite book in the Billie Bradley series so far. The entire book feels like a Beverly Gray book. The treasure hunt that occurs in this book is the primary reason. A group of young people, following a map given to an acquaintance by a man now dead, digging in the sand on a beach by a cliff, fearful that others might notice what they are doing... doesn't that remind you of something?

Additionally, Billie Bradley at Treasure Cove has some of the same over-the-top excitement that appears in the Beverly Gray series. The book opens with a harrowing scene that is on par with any of the wildly improbable situations that Beverly Gray and her friends experience. Here are some excerpts from what happens on pages 7 through 14:

Boom!

"Goodness! What's that?"

A deafening explosion had shattered the silence. The girls felt the ground quake beneath their feet.

Billie Bradley looked wildly around her.

"It's an earthquake!" she cried. "Oh dear! what next!"

Next was a series of harsh explosions that frightened the girls badly and sent them scurrying to the trees for shelter.

.......................
Another detonation shook the earth.

Something whizzed through the air so close above Billie Bradley's head that she gasped and flung herself flat upon the ground.

They heard an object strike in the woods not far from them. There was a rending, tearing sound and the limb of a tree struck the ground.

.......................
Instantly the place was bombarded by flying missiles. Whether these were bullets or bits of hurtling rock the girls did not know—and did not stop to find out.

They dashed madly into the woods, driven by an appalling dread, to find refuge, somewhere, anywhere from the rain of death.

.......................
Explosion followed explosion. The noise was deafening, terrifying. With hands pressed close over their ears, the girls crowded close to the rock, hoping that it would prove a real protection.

That has to be one of the most potent scenes that I have ever read in a series book outside of the Beverly Gray series.

Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes

After not reading any Billie Bradley books since May, I resumed reading the fifth book, Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes. On page two, Billie's age is given as fifteen. I always appreciate it when specific ages are given.

In this book, Billie and her friends spend their summer vacation in a cabin at Twin Lakes, accompanied by their old grammar school teacher, Miss Martha Beggs, as chaperone. Miss Beggs is quite a good sport to agree to spend several months away from her home with the girls on short notice. The boys also journey to Twin Lakes and share a second cabin.

Near the beginning of the story, the young people meet an eccentric artist, Myra Bossenet, who has red hair and is missing some of her work. The boys find the pictures for her and receive a reward of two hundred dollars. Billie feels sorry for Myra Bossenet and wishes she could help her.

The young people reach Twin Lakes where they meet a girl named Huldah who is abused by her guardian, a man named Jerry. What kind of a name is Huldah? Anyway, Huldah is very unhappy, likes to draw, and has red hair. Hmm... I'm not anywhere near finished with the book yet, but I have this idea that there just might be a connection between Myra Bossenet and Huldah.

The book has this interesting description on page 57:

One immense big living room with a great open fireplace, rough-hewed, picturesque and almost comfortable furniture, consisting of a settee, three low, broad-seating chairs, and one quaint little table, whose three legs sprawled out in such a comfortable manner that one was reminded of a sleek well-fed Persian kitten.

A table described as being like a Persian kitten? Interesting.

The food in the kitchen is described as follows on page 59:

And there was milk too, two big delicious quarts of it, fresh dairy butter, eggs, and, wonder of wonders, a fresh-killed chicken all plucked and ready for roasting!

I am by no means a vegetarian, but descriptions like that make me want to become one. Seriously, the author could have described the chicken as "fresh-plucked" rather than as "fresh-killed" and plucked. Let's leave killing out of it. We don't need to be graphic about how the food was obtained. Thanks.

On page 63, we get another graphic description of the chicken:

Dinner was over—the bones of the poor fowl had been stripped till not a shred of meat clung to them.

Thanks for reminding me.

Fortunately, Teddy has not been called "Uncle Teddy" in a while, so I am liking him just a tiny bit more. Billie does call him "Granddad" on page 115, unfortunately, but she can be forgiven since she is mocking him for giving out too much advice. However, I wish both she and Teddy would refrain from making Teddy sound like he is Billie's daddy. Both Billie and Teddy might need some therapy.

So far this book has been an enjoyable read.

Billie Bradley and Her Classmates

This book has Billie and her friends back at Three Towers Hall for another year of school. I have found this story to be more interesting than the last one, Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island, which bored me tremendously.

Billie has already had quite a few assorted adventures in this book. Billie and her friends rescue three young children who fall through the ice into the lake, and as a result, meet the children's mother and learn that the family is extremely poor and in need of food. Billie receives permission from Miss Walters to put together a basket of food for the family.

Billie and her friends go sledding with Teddy and the other boys from Boxton Military Academy. Billie and Teddy sled down an unexplored trail which results in an accident when the sled goes over a cliff. The two young people seek refuge in a cave which is inhabited by a simpleton.

Billie and Teddy's relationship grates on my nerves. Here is an example from page 79 when Billie is frightened:

Teddy looked down at her with a grin.

"Why worry?" he asked. "Haven't you got your Uncle Ted?"

I do not know why it bothers me, but I cannot stand it when Teddy refers to himself as Billie's "Uncle Ted." I want to gag. Part of the problem is that the relationship is over-the-top for a series book, so the "Uncle Ted" business just makes it worse. Also, the romance between Billie and Teddy is not compelling to me, so I find nothing endearing about "Uncle Ted."

The teasing that occurs after Billie and Ted's accident is a bit suggestive for an early series book from 1921. From page 90:

"Perhaps they got lost on purpose," said a nasal voice, and Billie's chums turned indignantly to face the speaker.

From page 94:

"Did you and Teddy Jordon have a good time when you ran away to-day?"

From page 96:

"She and Teddy Jordan ran off together to-day and were gone for about three hours," she said triumphantly. "Billie just came in."

Billie's eyes, black in her white, set face, looked up at Miss Arbuckle steadily.

"I didn't do it, Miss Arbuckle," she said, her lip quivering. "I—I couldn't."

From page 98:

"Didn't Teddy keep you warm?" asked Rose Belser, wickedly, but just then the door opened and Amanda came into the room. Needless to say, Billie did not answer the question.

All of the teasing added to my gag factor. Maybe the real problem is that I do not like Teddy. I am not really sure what it is aside from the "Uncle Ted" business, so I am going to pay close attention in future scenes. Perhaps I can pinpoint it better. I usually like the girls' beaus in series books, so this is a different experience for me.

Final Thoughts on Billie Bradley Lighthouse Island

I had to slog through the last half of this book. It is not that the book is bad exactly; it is just that the book is not very compelling. I lost interest around the time the girls arrive at Lighthouse Island. From the girls' arrival at Lighthouse Island, the main topic of interest is the girls' complete admiration of Connie's mother, who is known in the book simply as "Connie's mother." From page 116:

How could a woman who was old enough to be Connie's mother look so absolutely and entirely like a girl of twenty? She was not even dignified like most of the mothers Billie knew—she did not even try to be . Connie treated her as she would an older and much loved sister. One only needed to be with them three minutes to see that mother and daughter adored each other and were the very best chums in the world. And right then and there Billie began adoring too.

Blech. This is one of the cases in which an author describes something that I am not able to feel at all. Instead of the excessive mushy descriptions, show me through dialogue and experience how adorable Connie's mother is. I don't see it, and quite frankly, it bores me.

The relationship between Billie and Teddy is also overdescribed and mushy at times, and I feel detached from it as well.

The book bored me from around page 102 through page 152. My interest only lasted for a few pages, and then I was bored again. Finally, on page 174, the book gets to the shipwreck that was mentioned by the publisher—the shipwreck that results in three children getting washed ashore. The children come ashore on page 179. The book is 204 pages long, so the publisher spoiled an event that does not occur until 25 pages before the end of the story. Why would they do that? I know why...the book is so stupid boring that nothing else worthwhile happened from the time the girls meet Hugo Billings in the woods until the time of the shipwreck.

I was even kind of bored with the aftermath of the rescue of the three children. I already knew that Miss Arbuckle and Hugo Billings would be summoned and would recognize the children. Miss Arbuckle and Hugo Billings were not the parents as I originally expected, but that little matters. It was still all very predictable and rather boring. I hope I like the next book better.

Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island

I finished Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall. Near the end of the book, Billie's friends have the boys send a telegram to Miss Walters, the head of the school, asking her to return. Later that day, Miss Walters does return. She states that she was going to stay longer, "but something told me that I might be needed, and that something was right." Nothing is mentioned about the boys' telegram. It sounds to me like Miss Walters never read it. Miss Walters acts like she knows nothing about the girls' problems, and the telegram gave a few details. Why did the author have the boys send a telegram if Miss Walters decides to conveniently return on her own?

Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island begins in a properly spooky fashion with Billie, Vi, and Laura lost in the woods near Three Towers Hall. As luck would have it, rain begins to fall, so the girls try to find shelter. They find a strange cabin with a low door. Not unexpectedly, the owner comes along while the girls are in the cabin. The man looks kind of crazy and acts strange, thus making for a frightening experience. Of course the girls are not assaulted and come out of the experience uninjured.

This book has one of those predictable mysteries that are the staple of many Stratemeyer series books. The publisher's brief summary of the book reads:

One of Billie's friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island, near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the Island. There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were washed ashore.

In the book, the strange man in the woods, Hugo Billings, seems lonely and unhappy. Meanwhile, a new teacher at Three Towers Hall, Miss Arbuckle, loses her photo album, and Billie finds it in the woods. When Billie returns the album to Miss Arbuckle, the woman grabs the album and finds a picture of three children, crying, "My darlings, my darlings...I couldn't lose your pictures after losing you. They were all I had left of you, and I couldn't lose them, I couldn't..."

This must be another one of those stories in which the parent(s) and children are reunited at the end of the story. See? I already know how it ends. All that I do not know for certain is whether Hugo Billings is the children's father or some other relative to Miss Arbuckle. Regardless, I know that he is connected to them.

The banter between Billie and her friends reminds me of Beverly Gray and her friends, with the result that I really like Billie and her friends. From pages 100-101:

"Are we going to form our Detective Club?" asked Connie suddenly out of the silence.

The girls stared at her a minute as if she had roused them out of sleep.

"For goodness sake, what made you think of that now?" asked Laura a little peevishly. "I'm so tired I don't want to form clubs or anything else. All I want is to get out somewhere where I can stretch my legs, get some supper, and go to bed. I'm dead."

"You're making lots of noise for a dead one," chuckled Billie, and Laura made a face at her.

"But no one's answered my question," broke in Connie plaintively. "I thought you girls loved mysteries and things."

"Well, who says we don't?" cried Laura. "Just show me a good live mystery and I'll forget I'm all tied up in knots and everything."

"Just listen to her!" exclaimed Connie indignantly. "Do you mean to say you've forgotten that we have a mystery already?"

"Oh—that," said Laura slowly, while a light began to dawn. "Yes, I did forget about it; we've been so busy getting ready and everything."

The banter is similar enough to that which occurs in the Beverly Gray series that I almost forget which series I am reading. It also does not help that one of the girls is named Connie, which is a name used for one of Beverly's friends. Additionally, Billie and Laura's names start with the same letters as Beverly and Lenora's names.

Last year, I speculated about which series were Clair Blank's inspirations for the Beverly Gray series. In one post, I concluded that Ruth Fielding was a likely candidate and gave further evidence in another post. At a later date, I mentioned that the Beverly Gray series was a lot like many of the earlier series books that have large casts of characters, such as the Outdoor Girls. I am only on my third Billie Bradley book, but I feel that Billie Bradley can also be added to the list of likely sources for Clair Blank's creativity.

More on Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall

I am loving this book! Bits of this book remind me of Betty Gordon at Boarding School and Betty Gordon and Her School Chums. Both series were produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, so the similarities are not surprising.

Billie and her friends have met the usual group of new acquaintances. Their first new friend is Rose Belser. Rose latches onto the girls as soon as they arrive. Rose is very friendly at first, but Billie soon realizes that Rose is the type who is friendly as long as she gets what she wants in return.

Rose considers herself the prettiest, most popular girl at Three Towers Hall. Soon, Rose notices that Billie has become very popular, so Rose decides that something must be done. Billie already had two jealous rivals in Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks, and Rose Belser becomes the third.

Eliza Dilks is considered Amanda Peabody's shadow, so the girls refer to Eliza as "The Shadow" rather than by her real name. Amanda and Eliza remind me of Lettie Briggs and Ina Mason from the Dana Girls series.

From pages 97-98:

She was just about to tell Rose the plans and invite her to the party when the door opened again and Amanda entered with Eliza Dilks. Amanda was never seen without Eliza trailing along in the background, and for this reason the girls had nicknamed the latter, "The Shadow."

By this time the girls at Three Towers Hall had learned to dislike the two sneaks as much as the girls of North Bend disliked Amanda.

Wherever anything was going on, especially of a secret nature, Amanda and "The Shadow" were sure to be prying about, saying mean little things, forcing the girls to move over to some other place where they could be private for a little while.

Presently, Rose decides that she personally cannot do anything to hurt Billie, "but she might make use of Amanda—." So Rose is going to have Amanda do something to Billie. This should be interesting.

The first book in the series was so-so, but this second book is outstanding. I love boarding school settings and jealous rivals. How fun!

Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall

I finished reading Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance. While I enjoyed the book, it was a little bland. There were two mysteries: a piano that played by itself during the night and two unfriendly men with an airplane. The two mysteries turned out to be lame. The piano was about what I expected, but the mystery with the two men and the airplane was far more lame than I anticipated, and there was no follow-up after the airplane mystery was revealed. Usually unfriendly men means that the men are hardened criminals, so I was expecting much more than how it played out.

It also didn't help that the entire time that Billie worried about whether she could go to Three Towers Hall, I knew that the next book is titled Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall. I already knew what would happen, so I was not able to get into that aspect of the book. Perhaps the second book should have been called Billie Bradley and Her Adventures at School so that the title would not have spoiled the entire plot of the first book.

I have now commenced reading Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall. Guess where Billie is going away to school? I am so surprised! So far I am really enjoying this second book. Since Billie's jealous rival, Amanda Peabody, and her mean friend, Eliza Dilks, are also going to Three Towers Hall, this story should be quite interesting. Jealous rivals are always fun!

It gets even better. Not only are Amanda and Eliza attending Three Towers Hall, they have been assigned to the same dormitory room as Billie and her close friends, Laura and Violet. This is going be very interesting! Many girls' series books have jealous rivals who attend the same school, but I have yet to read a book in which the jealous rivals stay in the same room!

I love the description of the dormitory room. This is the first Stratemeyer girls' series book that I have read in which the girls stay in a large room that holds ten girls. From pages 59-60:

The girls sank down upon their beds and looked about them curiously. There was a little wash basin and a towel rack beside each snowy white bed and on the towel rack hung several small towels with blue and white borders.

The beds were set at regular intervals down the long room, and the spaces in between them were fitted out in such a manner as almost to make a separate little room for each girl.

Beside the wash basins, there was a dresser set at the foot of each white bed and under each bed was a hamper for soiled clothes. Each girl had a little table with a chair to match.

The woodwork had been painted white and the walls were a grayish blue color with several pretty pictures scattered about them to break the bareness.

"Why, the room's all blue and white," Billie suddenly discovered delightedly. "Isn't that a lovely blue they've painted the wall? And the snowy white woodwork! Oh, it's delicious!"

"And just look at the view from this window!"cried Vi, beckoning to them eagerly. As the girls looked over her shoulder they fairly gasped with delight.

Below them stretched the velvety lawn dotted with the darker green of shrubbery, while away through the trees glimmered and gleamed the water of Lake Molata. The day was warm for autumn, and a gentle breeze played among the leaves of the great trees bordering the lake, coming to the girls in a soft, rustling whisper. The picture was almost too perfect to be true.

More on Billie Bradley as I continue my reading.

Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance

I began reading the first Billie Bradley book, Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance. Billie's full name is Beatrice Bradley, and she is described as having brown eyes and hair. She is a mischievous girl, and in the very first chapter of the book, she accidentally breaks a statue that is worth $100.00. In 1920, $100.00 was a lot of money.

Billie has to find a way to pay for the statue, and her family has no extra money. Billie's hopes of attending Three Towers Hall, a boarding school, with her best friends is now impossible. Billie's family cannot possibly help her pay for the broken statue and also pay for her boarding school tuition.

The Billie Bradley series is a Stratemeyer Syndicate series and was written by Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward, according to this post by James Keeline in the Nancy Drew Sleuths group. The feel is very similar to other Syndicate series of the time, such as Betty Gordon and the Girls of Central High. I have greatly enjoyed the books that I have so far read by Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward from the Blythe Girls, Outdoor Girls, and Ruth Fielding series. This series ought to be a treat.

Since the Billie Bradley series is a Syndicate series, the plots will be predictable. I am only in the first couple of chapters of the book, yet I already have a very good idea of how Billie will ultimately pay for the statue, since the title of the book is Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance. I also am certain that I already know whether Billie will be able to afford the tuition to Three Towers Hall, since the second book is titled Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall.

The titles of the early Statemeyer books tend to reveal what happens to the protagonist as the series progresses. However, we already know that all Stratemeyer protagonists are ultimately successful in all of their endeavors, so the revealing titles are of little significance. The fun is in the journey.

The Billie Bradley Series

I decided sometime recently, probably in November, to build a set of the Billie Bradley books. The Billie Bradley series was published first by Sully and then by Cupples and Leon from 1920 through 1932. The series was written under the pseudonym of Janet D. Wheeler.

Since I prefer to buy books with dust jackets, I knew that it would be very difficult to acquire a complete set. I have found in the past that when I buy books without dust jackets that I always eventually upgrade to books with dust jackets. It usually saves money to hold out for dust-jacketed copies.

All early series books from the early 1930s and before are very hard to find with intact dust jackets. The books are even a bit scarce without dust jackets. It is because I seek early, very hard to find books that I am so scornful of sellers who describe relatively common Nancy Drew books from the 1960s as rare. All Nancy Drew books from the 1960s, even the scarce printings, are much easier to find than most of the titles in obscure series.

Prior to the last week, I had successfully purchased three Billie Bradley books with dust jackets. I believe that I did begin searching online for Billie Bradley books in November. I found no examples with jackets during November and December—at least with dust jackets in acceptable condition. I do hold out for very good or better condition dust jackets unless the book is one of the last few in a series. I thought that it would take me at least a year or longer to build the complete set in dust jacket. It can be very frustrating to search for the early 20th century series books.

I bought my first Billie Bradley book in mid-January. I bought the next two Billie Bradley books in mid-February. A couple of weeks ago, a seller placed the entire Billie Bradley series on eBay. All nine books had their dust jackets. I was fortunate to win the auctions for the six books that I needed. I now have the entire Billie Bradley series in hardcover books with dust jackets. This has to be the record for the shortest amount of time it has taken me to build the complete set of an early, obscure series.

The series consists of the following titles:

1. Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance, 1920
2. Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall, 1920
3. Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island, 1920
4. Billie Bradley and Her Classmates, 1921
5. Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes, 1922
6. Billie Bradley at Treasure Cove, 1928
7. Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge, 1929
8. Billie Bradley and the School Mystery, 1930
9. Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy, 1932

Since I was able to purchase the complete set so quickly, I have no idea for certain which titles are the hardest to find; to me, the volumes are equal in scarcity. It is only by following the listings for months that the relative scarcity of the volumes in a series can be determined. If this series follows the same pattern as other series that ended during the early 1930s, volumes 7 and 8 are probably harder to find than volume 9.

The Cupples and Leon dust jackets have two styles. The earlier style shows Billie Bradley with a book in her hand.


The later style shows Billie Bradley standing on a porch that has a checkered floor.