Sweet Valley High #19 Showdown, #20 Crash Landing!, and #21 Runaway

In Sweet Valley High #19, Showdown, Lila falls in love with Jack, who is a construction worker.  When Jessica meets Jack at Lila's party, she immediately falls in love with him as well.  Jack secretly dates Jessica, and Jessica is furious when she realizes that Jack is continuing to date Lila.

Meanwhile, Liz learns that Enid's boyfriend, George Warren, has fallen in love with Robin Wilson.  Liz is greatly distressed since Enid's heart will be broken when she learns the truth.

I enjoyed this book.

In Sweet Valley High #20, Crash Landing!, George Warren earns his pilot's license and keeps his promise to take Enid on a flight.  Disaster strikes when George's plane crashes.  Enid is paralyzed, but George will fully recover.

Enid has surgery and is expected to walk again.  However, Enid is listless and refuses to complete her physical therapy.  George never told Enid about Robin, and he pledges to stay with her, despite his unhappiness.

I don't like this story very much.  It's unrealistic, and for some reason, I don't care for Enid.  She annoys me.

In Sweet Valley High #21, Runaway, Jessica feels like everyone likes Liz more.  Liz is so perfect, always doing the right thing.  Jessica becomes friendly with Nicky Shepard, who plans to run away from home.  Jessica decides to go with him.

This story would have been much better if Jessica hadn't waited until the end to run away.  And of course, her family catches up with her before she gets very far.  I would have liked to have seen Jessica living away from home for at least half of the book with everyone worried about her.  Instead, nearly all of the story takes place in Sweet Valley.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the story.

The Motor Girls and The Motor Boys on the Atlantic

This post consists of brief comments about two of the books I read this summer.

I read the first Motor Girls book, The Motor Girls, by Margaret Penrose.  The book was published in 1910.  Cora Kimball gets her very own automobile and solves a minor mystery.

The text is sexist with the boys getting to drive Cora's car.  The boys race Cora's car with a car that belongs to another boy.  The behavior is very irresponsible and results in a wreck.  I felt that the scene belonged in a boys' series book, not a girls' book.  It's so off.

The story has a masquerade near the end that is so boring!  The characters are named by their costumes, and the reader has no idea who is who.  How confusing!

I wasn't very impressed with the book, but I might someday read the other books in the series.  I own most all of them.  This series won't be high on my list.

The Motor Girls series was launched because of the success of the Motor Boys series.  I read The Motor Boys on the Atlantic, which is the only Motor Boys book that I own.  The book was published in 1908.

The boys do a lot of things that they should not do.  I'm sure that the story was perfect for boys of the early 1900s, but this modern female reader couldn't appreciate much of it.  I like many boys' series books, but this one is too strongly a boys' book for my liking.

A ship wrecks, and the boys salvage the cargo that is floating around on the water.  There's no concern about returning the cargo to the owner.  Whoever gets to the cargo first can claim it.

The boys help kill a whale and a shark just to charge admission for people to see them.  They keep the whale on the beach until it decays too much and then they dispose of it.  How disgusting and what a waste!

When the boys are adrift for the second time during the book, the reader learns that they don't have oars since they have seldom needed them.  The reader also learns that the boys' boat has no signal lights.  What a bunch of idiots!

On page 159, the boys use the last of their water while adrift.  They are in the middle of a storm, and since they run out of water, I assume that they have no containers with which to capture any of the rainwater.  These boys have poor planning skills.

I was not very impressed, since I need to like the characters in order to like the story.  I did not like the boys very much.  The Motor Boys series will be very low on my list of books to read, and I'm not sure I will ever read the other titles.

Another book that I read during the same time period was the first Don Sturdy book, which also featured hunting.  I do not enjoy reading about series book characters killing animals for sport.  I had one Boy Hunters book by Ralph Bonehill, which was on my list of books to try.  Instead, I decided that I had no reason to keep it.  I very much doubt that I would enjoy reading it. 

Sweet Valley High #16 Rags to Riches, #17 Love Letters, and #18 Head Over Heels

In Sweet Valley High #16, Rags to Riches, Roger Barrett has learned that he is Bruce Patman's cousin.  Roger moves into the Patman mansion, where he struggles to fit in.  Jessica seizes another chance to have a Patman as a boyfriend, so she chases after Roger.  Jessica launches a plot to get Roger to decide that his girlfriend, Olivia, is jealous and unworthy of dating a Patman.

Meanwhile, Regina Morrow is seen with an older man at lunch, and rumors fly.  Liz and Todd worry about Regina and try to find out what is going on.

I enjoyed this book.

In Sweet Valley High #17, Love Letters, Caroline Pierce is lonely.  She has always used gossip to fit in with the other students.  She has never had a boyfriend, so she creates one.  "Adam" sends Caroline wonderful love letters, and Caroline reads them to all the girls at school.

Jessica and Lila become suspicious that Adam never visits, so they put pressure on Caroline in order to discover the truth.  Liz soon learns about Adam.  Can she help Caroline save face?

I enjoyed this book.

In Sweet Valley High #18, Head Over Heels, Bruce Patman has fallen in love with Regina Morrow.  For once, Bruce has quit acting selfish and arrogant.  He seems to be truly in love. Jessica doesn't think that the romance will last, so she and Lila make a bet.  Since Jessica can't afford to lose, she does everything she can to force Bruce and Regina apart.  Will Jessica succeed in ruining the relationship?

I feel like by around #15 that the series really hit its stride. The early titles were a bit hard to take.

This is another good book.

Dorothy Dale: A Girl of To-Day and the Tom Stetson Series

This post consists of some brief thoughts on four books that I read this summer.

I read the first Dorothy Dale book, Dorothy Dale:  A Girl of To-Day.  The book was published in 1908 and was written by Lilian Garis under the pseudonym of Margaret Penrose.

Dorothy cries three times and passes out three times.  She goes into hysterics over practically nothing.  This story qualifies as one of the "namby-pamby" old girls' series books.

Language changes over the span of 100 years.  On page 163, Dorothy and Tavia leave on a trip.  The girls feel homesick and miss their friends and family.  Tavia remarks that "it's creepy to leave them all."  "Creepy" doesn't seem right to me in this context, at least not by how most people use it now.  I had to look up the meaning of the word to figure out how I should interpret the passage.  In this context, Tavia means that she feels uneasy about leaving her friends and family.  That makes sense.

The text contains much unnecessary use of quotation marks, a practice that is representative of several authors of old series books.  It's extremely obnoxious and takes me out of the story.  I hate it.

I found this story rather uninteresting.  I own the complete set of Dorothy Dale books.  I might read them someday, but the series is not a priority.

I read the three Tom Stetson books.  The series was published by Whitman and was written by John Henry Cutler.

1.  Tom Stetson and the Giant Jungle Ants, 1948
2.  Tom Stetson on the Trail of the Lost Tribe, 1948
3.  Tom Stetson and the Blue Devil, 1951

The books are set in the jungles of South America near the Amazon river.  Tom, his uncle, and a native boy, Manolo, are the primary characters.

The first book is a little slow at times and has too much detail.  The ending is a cliffhanger, since Manolo has been abducted by a native tribe.

The second book is paced much better.  I enjoyed it a lot more, but I kept confusing the two tribes.  Interestingly, in the third book, the author confuses the two tribes, mentioning one when he means the other.

On page 35 in the third book, the text states that they do not know which tribe was Manolo's.  How strange.  That was figured out in the first book.  Apparently, the author forgot.

I enjoyed most of the descriptive information from early in the third book, but by page 120, it becomes too much.  Finally, the plot gets started, and the book is pretty interesting.  The story ends rather abruptly, and this is the end of the series.

Whitman books can be rather uneven in quality, and I have always been wary of them ever since I read the female movie star authorized editions of the 1940s.  The Trixie Belden series is the shining star of Whitman since it is an outstanding series.  Whitman also published some other books that are rather good, like Brains Benton.  Many other Whitman books are quite mediocre.

The Tom Stetson series is slightly above average as far as Whitman books go.  They are much better than the Whitman authorized editions but are nowhere near as good as Trixie Belden.

For detailed Tom Stetson reviews, please visit this blog.

Sweet Valley High #13 Kidnapped!, #14 Deceptions, and #15 Promises

In Sweet Valley High #13, Kidnapped!, Jessica looks forward to Regina Morrow's big party.  The wealthy Morrow family has just moved to Sweet Valley, and Jessica hopes to make a good impression on Regina's brother, Nicholas. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has to finish her volunteer work at the hospital and then tutor Max Dellon before she can head to the party.

Jessica has a fantastic time at the party, and it is not until late in the evening that she finally realizes that Liz never arrived.  Liz vanished after leaving the hospital.  Fearing for Liz's life, the Wakefields and their friends frantically search for her.

I always loved this book.  For some reason, it didn't interest me that much this time.  It might be that I read it so many times years ago that I remembered the plot too vividly.

In Sweet Valley High #14, Deceptions, Jessica continues to chase after Nicholas Morrow. Unknown to her, Nicholas has decided that Liz is his perfect match, and he won't even let Liz's boyfriend, Todd, stand in his way.  Liz knows that she will never love Nicholas, but she feels compelled to go out on a date with him, just to give him the chance he wants.

Meanwhile, Jessica befriends computer whiz, Randy, in hopes that she can learn enough about computers to impress Nicholas.  Jessica's plan has unintended consequences, getting her in big trouble.

I didn't much care about Liz's dilemma with Nicholas.  It's just stupid for her to go out with him when she is 100% certain that she will stay with Todd.  She should have told Nicholas the truth, but of course if she had, then we would have had no story.

The Jessica subplot is the entertaining part of the book, and I greatly enjoyed it.

In Sweet Valley High #15, Promises, Steven's girlfriend, Tricia, dies of leukemia.  Steven promises Tricia that he will take care of her sister, Betsy.  Betsy stays with the Wakefields after the funeral, much to Jessica's horror.  Jessica is determined to find a way to get Betsy out of the Wakefield home and away from Steven.

Meanwhile, Roger Barrett's mother is seriously ill, and Bruce Patman's father pays for her medical care.  The students of Sweet Valley High wonder why Mr. Patman is being so generous.

I enjoyed the subplot with Roger Barrett more than I did the main plot.

This is a good book.

Nancy Drew Diaries #15 The Professor and the Puzzle

In Nancy Drew Diaries #15, The Professor and the Puzzle, Nancy, Bess, and George attend Oracle College's Greek Gala.  During the party, a student falls from the balcony and is injured.  Nancy suspects sabotage and begins an investigation.

Pages 3, 9, 58, 97, and 116 feature a character smirking.  Nancy smirks on three of those pages.  I hate that word and its use in the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  Nancy Drew should not smirk.

On page 30, Nancy reflects, "Events like this could be overwhelming for some—the noise, the crush of the crowd, the forced small talk.  Even I was starting to crave a little solitude and fresh air right about now."  This is not Nancy Drew!  The characterization is so wrong in this book!

On page 36, Nancy "commanded [her] mind to be calm."  Even worse, Nancy's voice is shaky on page 37.

On page 39, Nancy's problems worsen.  (Personally, I think the poor girl needs to be placed in a mental institution; either that, or I do for reading this book.)  "I realized that I had a pounding headache.  It almost felt like something was inside my brain, trying to punch its way out."  Nancy then has to go sit down.  Yep, she needs to be committed.  This is not how Nancy Drew is supposed to behave during a case.

When the pounding headache came on, I momentarily misunderstood.  I thought that the drinks had been poisoned, which is why Nancy suddenly had a pounding headache.  I then quickly realized that the author was showing Nancy as weak, since apparently girls must want to read about weak girl detectives.  It made no sense.  In all previous Nancy Drew series, a pounding headache would have meant that Nancy had been poisoned or had become ill.  This series is so bizarre.

On page 75, the reader learns that Dr. Stone takes insulin injections for her low blood glucose.  I was so confused.

Most of page 76 describes Nancy's queasiness over seeing an insulin injection.  There isn't any blood visible!  I cannot stand how Nancy Drew is portrayed in this series.  It is truly pathetic.

Bess and George seem to be making up excuses when Nancy wants them to help solve the mystery.  By a comment that George makes at the end of the story, I figured out that George's excuse must have been real.  However, it came across as totally fake as I read the story.  This might have been an attempt at humor, but it fell flat for me.

On page 84, Nancy "glanced over at Iris, who was rolling her eyes in that familiar oh Nancy sort of way."  This is more disparagement, and it adds nothing to the story.

On page 87, Nancy's "heart was racing," and the text implies that she felt terror.  On page 88, Nancy is called a "high schooler."  How many times do they need to put Nancy in her place?  Is this series written by authors who hate Nancy Drew?

The next paragraph contains a strong hint about the culprit, so skip it if you don't want to read a possible spoiler.

The bottom part of page 91 makes it extremely obvious what the motive is, and the reader can easily guess the culprit.  Nancy, of course, has no idea.  To her credit, Nancy does suggest on page 93 that a faculty member could be the culprit.  You think?

On page 102, Nancy thinks two students in Dr. Stone's class are behaving suspiciously because she sees one boy showing the other something on his phone.  How shocking!  News flash, Nancy.  Most students do that nowadays.  They can't go more than a few minutes without looking at their phones!  There's nothing suspicious about it.

On page 103, Stone confiscates the cell phones from the two students since they had been warned not to use them in class, telling them that she will keep the phones until class on Wednesday.  Huh?  How would she get away with keeping their phones for multiple days?

On page 108, the reader learns that Nancy is prone to getting into trouble.  Iris warns her that she will have Bess and George call and yell at her.  This is so off.

On page 113, Nancy contemplates a 20-foot fall.  She concludes that she has a 50% chance of surviving serious injury.  I'm not so sure about that.  If Nancy has been trained on how to fall, then she might have a good chance of surviving serious injury.  However, this series has made it clear that Nancy is stupid and inept, so she would almost certainly be killed.

On page 129, George suggests that Nancy check the footage on the security cameras from during the gala.  That way, she might see what happened.  How brilliant!  Why does Nancy need her friends to tell her logical things to check while solving the mystery?  This is eerily similar to the Nancy Drew games.  In the book, George is on the phone giving Nancy advice, just like what happens in the Nancy Drew games.  The problem is that this story is not a Nancy Drew game!  Argh!

On page 149, Nancy runs out of gas.  How do you run out of gas in a modern car?  Don't they have a low fuel warning?  This is especially odd since Nancy has been at the college the entire time.  Did she actually arrive at the gala in a vehicle that was almost completely out of gas?

Two characters should have had less similar names.  I kept confusing Dr. Brown and Dr. Stone.  The names have shared letters and are the same length.  I couldn't keep them straight.

I do have two positive statements.  Nancy takes no bathroom breaks.  The cast of characters is kept to a minimum.

I did enjoy the book, but the plot is too simple and obvious.  Nancy's characterization is off for the entire story.  However, the book is quick, easy, and pleasant to read, so long as one doesn't think of it as a Nancy Drew book.  That's the problem.  The book would be just fine as anything other than a Nancy Drew book.

The Nancy Drew Diaries series was supposed to correct the problems of the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series.  Nancy was supposed to return to how she once was in the older Nancy Drew books.  Instead, Nancy has been made even less perfect than in the Girl Detective series.  The Girl Detective books do not portray Nancy as scared and weak all the time.

I no longer like the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  This series is an epic fail.  And this is coming from just about the only Nancy Drew fan who will admit to actually liking the Girl Detective series.  Everyone else dislikes or hates that series.  This means that I am more open-minded than anyone, but I no longer like the Nancy Drew Diaries series.

It's time for another relaunch.  I previously stated that I wanted both the Nancy Drew Diaries and Hardy Boys Adventures series to continue, simply because I really enjoyed the Hardy Boys Adventures books.  The Hardy Boys Adventures series started out strong, but it has now deteriorated in quality, so it's time to pull the plug.  How about we just go back to the premise of the Nancy Drew Digest series?  Those books are rather good.

Sweet Valley High #10 Wrong Kind of Girl, #11 Too Good to Be True, and #12 When Love Dies

In Sweet Valley High #10, Wrong Kind of Girl, Annie Whitman wants to become a cheerleader. Annie is certain that she is good enough, but she has no idea how bad her reputation is.  Annie has a different date each night, and the other students call her "Easy Annie."  Jessica is on the cheerleading squad, and there's no way that she will let Annie ever become a cheerleader. Elizabeth feels that Annie deserves a second chance, especially after Annie tells her how hard she is trying to change her life.  Can Liz change Jessica's mind?

This was the second Sweet Valley  High book that I read when I was a teen.

I enjoyed this book.

In Sweet Valley High #11, Too Good to Be True, wealthy Suzanne Devlin comes to Sweet Valley for a two-week vacation.  She and Jessica are switching places.  Jessica gets to spend two glamorous weeks in New York City!

Suzanne has the perfect personality, and everyone falls in love with her.  Too late, Elizabeth begins to suspect that Suzanne is not what she seems.  Unfortunately, the damage has been done, and Sweet Valley may never be the same.

I overall enjoyed this book.  I enjoyed the last half of the book more than the first half.

In Sweet Valley High #12, When Love Dies, Steven's girlfriend, Tricia Martin, has broken up with him.  Jessica is thrilled, since the Martin family is trashy.  Mr. Martin is drunk all the time, and Tricia's sister, Betsy, has a terrible reputation.  Jessica decides to set Steven up with her friend, Cara Walker.  Steven isn't ready to forget about Tricia, and Jessica's manipulation has terrible results.  Meanwhile, Elizabeth discovers the grim truth about Tricia's health.

Jessica also spends her time plotting how she can get television personality Jeremy Frank to invite her on his show.  Jessica's plot blows up in her face.

Here, the series begins to evolve into including a fun Jessica subplot in most books.  The Jessica subplots are my favorite part of the Sweet Valley High series.

I like this story, but I don't like how the Martin family is depicted.  It's typical of Sweet Valley High to use harsh terms to describe characters who fall outside of the Wakefields' perfect world, but "trashy" seems a bit much.  My perception of life is quite different now than when I was young, so I consider the Martins to be underprivileged and troubled, not trashy.

Hardy Boys Adventures #15 A Con Artist in Paris

In Hardy Boys Adventures #15, A Con Artist in Paris, Frank and Joe stay in Paris while Fenton Hardy attends the International Professional Association of Detectives (IPAD) convention.  The world's most expensive pen is stolen from the boys' hotel, and famous graffiti artist Le Stylo is suspected of being the culprit.  Frank and Joe aren't so sure, and they begin an investigation.

IPAD?  Seriously?  I knew as soon as I saw the abbreviation for the detective organization that I would not like this book very much.  It did not bode well, and my assumption about the story was correct.

This book is chock full of gimmicks just like the Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers series.  I strongly suspect that this story came from an unused manuscript for the Undercover Brothers series.

I did not like this book.  This book definitely ranks in the bottom two or three Hardy Boys Adventures books.  It's an okay story, but it reads like the Undercover Brothers series.

I now have reservations about the Hardy Boys Adventures series.  Previously, I stated that it is much better than the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  I now fear that the Hardy Boys Adventures series is going down in quality and will soon be a lost cause.  If Simon and Schuster can stay away from unused Undercover Brothers stories, there might be hope.  If not, then the series is doomed.