Penny Allen and the Mystery of the Haunted House

The Penny Allen series is about the adventures of the Allen family: Philip, Penny, Jimmy, and Marjorie. Sound familiar? The Adventurous Allens are Philip, Nancy, Jimmy, and Marjorie Allen.

The Adventurous Allens Find Mystery, which was written by Harriet Pyne Grove and published in 1932 begins as follows:

Almost too greatly surprised to believe in their good fortune, the four Adventurous Allens stood at the door of what had long been denominated by their uncle as his "Michigan Shack," while Philip, now the actual legal proprietor, tried to fit a key in the lock. It was well, perhaps, that none of them knew all which would attend their present adventure; but their anticipation was as keen as their surprise was pleasing.

Penny Allen and the Mystery of the Haunted House written (more like "edited") by Jean McKetchnie and published in 1950 begins like this:

It was almost unbelievable to the four Allens to be standing on the doorstep before Uncle John's "Michigan Shack." For, in spite of its name, the shack in the Michigan woods appeared to be quite a large house. It was built of logs, but it was such a cabin as money builds, with all the beauty that can be given to it, primitive only in the sense of unfinished timbers, a product of skill, artistic in its fitness to the surroundings. Large, strong, with a wide, hospitable porch in front, it welcomed them, a home for the adventurous Allens! Nineteen-year-old Philip, who had inherited the property from their uncle, stood fumbling to fit the key in the lock.

We have a clear case of plagiarism here, even though the wording has been changed. In this case, the plagiarism much improved upon the mess that Harriet Pyne Grove wrote. It is helpful that McKetchnie placed the proper explanatory information in the first paragraph. She then placed all of the information needed to understand the Allens' past history in next few pages of text.

Some of the explanatory information is copied from Grove's first Adventurous Allens book. Page 18 of The Adventurous Allens states:

Philip Allen was a well set up young collegian of nineteen years. Dark brown hair curved back in the latest college style from a good broad brow. This was equipped with very nearly straight black eyebrows, which separated at a proper distance from a very respectable nose, neither too large nor too small. That with clear, dark, blue-grey eyes and a pleasant mouth which could be quite firm when occasion demanded, gave character to Philip's young face. His height was above medium, probably five feet ten, and possibly he might yet reach the six feet he found desirable. He was brown from the summer's exposure and the usual hatless idiocy of fall days about college. At his uncle's, and about the little city, which numbered about fifty thousand inhabitants, he was accustomed to wear a hat. His face beneath it was rather long than round.

Pages 13 and 14 of Penny Allen and the Mystery of the Haunted House describe Philip as follows:

Philip Allen was a well set up young man. Dark brown hair curved back from a broad brow. This was equipped with very nearly straight black eyebrows, which separated at a proper distance from a rather respectable nose, neither too large nor too small. That, with clear, dark, blue-gray eyes and a pleasant mouth which could be quite firm when occasion demanded, gave character to Philip's young face. His height was above medium, probably five feet ten, and possibly he might yet reach the six feet he found desirable. He was brown from the summer's exposure. His face was rather long than round.

The content is remarkably similar. Even though the content is not original, it greatly improves upon the original form. I can understand the text without getting confused! When I wrote about The Adventurous Allens Find Mystery, I mentioned my confusion when the Allens decided to go for a ride in their uncle's boat. In this book, the conversation and events flowed nicely, and I knew exactly what was happening and when! It was so nice!

Some minor details are different, and the text has been greatly condensed. One detail that stands out is when Patrick Ryan has to leave unexpectedly. In Grove's original story, he leaves to look after a drunk relative who has gotten into trouble. In this revised story, Pat has to guide four men on a fishing expedition.

At around page 135, the story begins to deviate from Grove's original story, and the change matches up with around five pages before the end of the original story. The Allens plan to stay in Michigan for the winter, whereas in Grove's book, they decide to take a cruise. The final five pages of the original story concern getting ready for the cruise.

In the Penny Allen book, Philip gets a job, and Jimmy and Marjorie attend school. None of the young people attend school during the five Adventurous Allens books. Around page 147, the winter comes to a close, and the Allens decide to take a cruise on their boat during the summer to check out their Florida property. Once again the plot begins to converge with the original story, except the text appears to have been completely rewritten during this part.

At page 151, the Penny Allen book resumes copying Grove's narrative, this time from the beginning of The Adventurous Allens Afloat. The book diverges from the plot of the Grove book at page 183, and the mystery about Adra is solved through a slightly different means, although with the same result. After a few pages of different text, the book resumes copying the text of the Grove book.

Most of the last 150 pages of The Adventurous Allens Afloat is not used in the Penny Allen book. The book concludes with the Allens preparing to cruise the Caribbean in their boat.

Nancy Drew Shadow at the Water's Edge

This post is spoiler-free. I know how important it is to Nancy Drew game enthusiasts that details about the games not be spoiled.

The Nancy Drew game which was released this summer, Trail of the Twister, disappointed me. I found it to be a bit bland. There was not much interesting dialogue with the characters, and about all that happened was that the characters kept giving Nancy chores to do.

The farmhouse setting was boring, and so was the general store. There was nowhere to explore, so the game was lacking.

I live in Oklahoma, and I found some of the characters' accents to be annoying They don't sound like people from around here, at least not in central Oklahoma. I detected what sounded like an accent from the Deep South. Most people in Oklahoma do not have that type of accent. A Texas accent would have been much more appropriate, especially since the game is set in western Oklahoma, rather than in eastern Oklahoma.

It also didn't help that I felt like the characters were portrayed as kind of stupid, so it seemed like another slam at my home state. I rank Trail of the Twister and Haunted Carousel as my two least favorite Nancy Drew games.

That said, I had high hopes for the newest Nancy Drew game, Shadow at the Water's Edge, which was released this month. Shadow at the Water's Edge is set in Japan at a riokan, which is a traditional Japanese family inn. By the time I was around one-third of the way through the game, I already knew that this game would rank as one of my very favorite games.

The game is very spooky, and Nancy gets to do a lot of exploring. The recent games have lacked the exploring that Nancy does in the early games, and I have really missed that. Nancy gets to interact with four characters in person and with two characters by phone, in addition to Bess and George.

The character interactions are well-done and natural, and the dialogue exchange is extensive and possibly the most of any Nancy Drew game to date. I absolutely loved talking to the characters. This game truly told a story, and I was kept on edge wondering which character was the culprit. It is not obvious like it is in some of the games.

I read reviews of Trail of the Twister after I completed that game. The reviews were lukewarm at best, and people complained about the endless chores. I just read the early reviews of Shadow at the Water's Edge by people who have just finished the game, and quite a few people are referring to it as the very best Nancy Drew game.

Shadow at the Water's Edge is a good game to try if you have never played a Nancy Drew game and wish to try one out. You can always go to Her Interactive's website to get hints, and you can also find a walkthrough online to help you out.

One last note: The game has a glitch that may not affect everyone. Some of us have run into a problem with needing to delete EVP recordings, and the game does not allow the recording to be deleted, even though the player has listened to it. You need to take any available second chance. That was how I was able to overcome my problem and continue with the game. It caused me to have to do a few things over again, but it was better than the alternative of starting the entire game over.

November 4 Update: Her Interactive has now released a patch for the glitch with the EVP recordings. Go here to get the patch.

Adventurous Allens Final Thoughts

After I finished the fifth Adventurous Allens book, I felt traumatized and like I had dementia. It was agony forcing myself to read the final book. All five books are poorly written, but the first three are still pretty good stories in spite of that fact. The fourth and fifth books are very weak and difficult to get through. I skimmed parts of both books, especially the fifth book, since all I wanted by that point was to put an end to reading a series that I no longer enjoyed.

I searched the archives of the Girls' Series Group on Yahoo! Groups, and I was a bit horrified that years ago someone stated that Harriet Pyne Grove was a pseudonym of Mildred Wirt Benson. The writing of Harriet Pyne Grove is nowhere near the level of that of Mildred Wirt Benson. In fact, I suspect that Mildred Wirt Benson's practice writing from back when she was very young would have been much better than the books of Harriet Pyne Grove.

To make clear to anyone who is not aware of who wrote what in series fiction, Harriet Pyne Grove had no connection to Mildred Wirt Benson. All of the books written by Mildred Wirt Benson are listed on this page. Benson was one of the very best writers of juvenile series fiction, and all of her books are very good.

On a funny note, someone read one of Grove's books years ago (The S.P. Mystery, I believe) and thought it was so awful that he suggested an annual Harriet Pyne Grove Award for Mediocre Writing. Ha. That's actually a good idea. I nominate Roy J. Snell for the award since I have read just one of his books, Jane Withers and the Phantom Violin, which is an awful story.

I will probably never read another one of Harriet Pyne Grove's books after this experience. I have this idea that the Adventurous Allens series might be Grove's best work. The reason I think this is because someone took the Adventurous Allens series and edited the books into a two book series called Penny Allen, which I will review shortly. Wouldn't some of Grove's better books be chosen rather than some of her worst?

If the Adventurous Allens books are Grove's best, I cannot stomach the thought of reading her other books. Fortunately, I have held back from buying any other books by Grove due to a suspicion that the books might not be good. Some of the dust jackets are pretty, but I like to collect books that are good, not just books that have pretty artwork. As always, if anyone has read any of Grove's other books, I would love to read your opinion.

Does anyone wish to mention a series book that is so bad that it messes with your mind?

The Adventurous Allens' Treasure Hunt

The Adventurous Allens' Treasure Hunt begins with the Allens' return to their Michigan lodge after spending many months marooned on an uncharted island. The Allens plan to take in many guests this summer as a means for raising money so that they can keep the lodge, the ship, and many other possessions which they inherited from their uncle.

The Allens take out advertisements in newspapers to let people know about the lodge.

The reply to their advertisement had been surprising. "Exclusive, references, families, no young children, rates reasonable but not low, cruiser and boats," and some other catch-words had been prominent in the notice which they had sent to several papers on their way to New York from Miami.

The Allens advertise in multiple newspapers around the country, and they think the response is "surprising." What did they expect? Of course they are going to get people if they advertise everywhere!

Not only do the Allens get guests from their advertisements, they invite everybody they know. What I cannot figure out is whether all of their friends are also paying guests like the people who responded to the advertisements.

The Allens have so many people staying at their lodge that it is impossible to keep track of them. I have to wonder exactly how big this lodge is. Grove never describes the size other than stating that it has two stories. How large is it? Grove also never states how many people are at the lodge, but I gather that they have at least two dozen guests. The lodge must be some kind of mansion if the Allens can entertain so many guests comfortably.

Like the last book, this book was also excessively boring for large portions of the text. I did not find it that interesting to follow Nancy around as she performs mundane chores and makes plans for her guests.

Not too long into the story, a prowler is chased off soon after he begins digging a hole in the Allens' garage. The Allens wonder whether he might have been digging for something valuable. They park their vehicle over the hole so that the prowler cannot come back to dig. The Allens fail to think about the hole again and seem to have no curiosity about it. Hey, if someone were to come dig a hole in my yard in the middle of the night for no reason and then run off when spotted, I'd be a bit concerned about it. Wouldn't you?

The last 50 or so pages of the book was the most interesting part of the story. A treasure is finally found, but with no effort on the part of the Allens. It is kind of like the Allens' rescue from the island in the previous book. By no means can the content of this book be described as a "treasure hunt" as the title states. The title of this book should have been The Adventurous Allens' Vacation Resort.

The Adventurous Allens Marooned

In The Adventurous Allens Marooned, the Allens travel around in the ocean in the vicinity of Florida. During one of their jaunts, a storm blows up unexpectedly. The Allens are pushed ahead of the storm, and the Nancy Allen is at the storm's mercy.

After the storm, the yacht comes to rest near an uncharted island. The ship is not damaged, but is nearly out of gas. The Allens have no choice but to anchor and explore the island.

The Allens soon discover that the island was once the site of a plantation. The plantation house has burned down, and there appears to be no sign of human life on the island, at least at first. The Allens have a couple of narrow escapes from snakes and mongooses as they explore the island.

I greatly enjoyed the first half of the book, but in the middle of the book, it began to lose me. The Allens explore the island on several excursions, and they cut through the brush, look through the sugar house, see a few snakes, see some of the old crops, explore again, look through the sugar house, see a few snakes, see some of the old crops, repeat, repeat. Boring!

We even get an entire chapter where Marjorie writes a long entry in her diary telling of their adventures up to that point in a rambling fashion. Meaning, Marjorie tells the story of the book over again in a chapter but in a rambling disjointed conversational fashion. I confess that I began skimming the book at that point. Boring!

We then get another chapter later where Marjorie tells of one day's events in her journal in the same fashion as above, then the next chapter gives the events from the perspective of the other characters. The trouble is that none of it is that interesting. I skimmed a lot of that part of the book as well.

The book was true to life as far as how events would actually transpire if one were to land on an island in the ocean and then explore it. Except this is a book, and the events need to be a little more exciting than in real life. Cutting through the brush over and over again did not do much for me.

Ah, but the book had so much potential. There was mention of cannibals, but nothing came of that. The Allens were never in any real danger, aside from the snakes.

I was annoyed that it takes months for the Allens to get around to making sails out of sheets so they can sail back to Florida. Seriously... the Allens are stranded for months, and all they do is cut through the brush over and over again and explore the sugar house, and so on and so forth. So little happens that it feels like no more than a week or so, but it is actually supposed to be months. (!)

The next paragraph spoils how the Allens get rescued from the island, so skip it if you don't want to know. I hardly think it matters, since the frontispiece and the title of a chapter give it away.

And then, in the end, the Allens do not need to make sails because an airplane crashes into the ocean right by the Allens' boat. The Allens rescue the pilot, tie his plane to the boat, and transfer his fuel to their boat. They then take off for Florida. I expected for the Allens to have to work to be rescued. It is not acceptable for them to miraculously obtain fuel without any effort. Lame!

I got confused during some of the excursions because the events were poorly described. There is an earthquake, and then Pat tells the others, "We can look for the sea, folks. We'll have to risk the hills!" I did not realize at first what the statement meant. After reading a bit further, I finally realized that that they were going to higher ground in case of a tsunami as a result of the earthquake. It was awful trying to interpret the poor writing at times. I'd quote a bunch of it so you can see, but it is not worth my time. Ugh.

I really enjoyed the first three Adventurous Allens books, but this one was a bit mediocre. This is why I'm afraid to buy any additional books by Harriet Pyne Grove.

Nancy Drew 1st Printing Auctions Part 5 (More Thoughts)

Some insightful comments were made about the auctions in this unrelated post in this blog. One person commented that it would be hard for most collectors to come up with thousands of dollars in one week, so it might have been better for the seller to have staggered the auctions. Another person made the point that it was unfortunate that Hidden Staircase closed first, because someone might not be willing to bid the full amount on it in hopes of having a chance to get Old Clock. I want to add my thoughts.

I had the money in my savings account, and this is the first time that I have had a large enough amount of money on hand in order to be able to have a chance at this level of purchase. I was pleased that two sellers offered the books and close together. This could have worked in my favor.

As far as ending times, I prefer it when a seller uses a software program such as Turbo Lister to list auctions, because what happens is that the auctions end simultaneously. When multiple auctions end at the same time, then no one can be tipped off about my level of interest. Unfortunately, that was not the case with these auctions.

What happens when the end times are a few minutes apart is that I have to throw everything at the first book and hope for the best. I know that in most cases I won't have a chance at the second book because the other bidder will raise the final bid amount for the second book in reaction to my bid on the first book.

In the case of the first set of auctions, I was lucky that the book I wanted was the last one to close. I was not willing to pay much for Shadow Ranch, so my final bid did not register. No one knew that the book I really wanted was Bungalow Mystery or how much I intended to bid. I strongly suspect that my high bid took the runner-up, a reseller, aback greatly, and if he would have known about my bid ahead of time, I would not have won the auction. I have been in communication with him, and he has asked me if I have an extra of the Bungalow Mystery dust jacket. Therefore, it is apparent that he regrets not winning the auction.

In the second set of auctions, a Nancy Drew collector was able to win both auctions for Old Clock and Hidden Staircase. I have a limit as to what I will bid, so I had to let those auctions go. I also knew both books were available in the third set of auctions. Since I knew I had another chance, I was not willing to go all-out.

The third-highest bidder for Old Clock in the second set of auctions bid $6,788.00. That person is the same person who bought the $11,700 copy of Old Clock a couple of years ago and is presumably buying these books to resell. He was the runner-up bidder for the Bungalow Mystery book that I bought. I am assuming that he did not realize that the bidding would go higher on Old Clock than what he bid. I think he would have bid higher if he had known.

In the third set of auctions, I wanted both Old Clock and Hidden Staircase. I was only able to successfully win the first one to close, Hidden Staircase. Once again, I took the same bidder, the reseller, by surprise. I am sure if he had known of my great interest beforehand, I would not have won Hidden Staircase. I also believe that my bid for Hidden Staircase caused his bid for Old Clock to be higher than what it otherwise would have been. So if the auctions had closed simultaneously, I would have had a better chance at Old Clock.

I also was thrilled that the books were in such bad shape, since I knew many people would refuse to bid on them for that reason. I do not understand that reasoning, since the books can be found with a little searching, and the dust jackets are about impossible to find. People who have large sums of money on hand would certainly not bid on damaged books, but people like me try to piece together the first printings however we can. We are willing to buy the damaged books and trade them with other books.

If some of you have never understood why some of us snipe auctions, perhaps now you might understand. We do it to have a better chance of winning the auctions. We do it in order to have a chance against the people with deep pockets. It is the only way to go with high-profile auctions.

Nancy Drew First Printing Auctions Part 4 (#2 1st Printing Dust Jacket)

I was the buyer of the first printing Hidden Staircase mentioned in my previous post. First off, I want to make clear that the book is as disgusting as I knew it would be from the seller's pictures. This is why I am appalled that someone told that seller that his Old Clock book was worth $1,000.

These people quote huge values and gush to no end about how wonderful the books are even when the books are in horrible shape. If a book is trashed, then it is only worth a small fraction of the Farah's Guide value. I have to sell the Hidden Staircase book, and while I want to get as much as possible to offset my cost, I know I cannot get that much for it. I have quite a dilemma on how to price it.

The Farah's Guide value for the first printing Hidden Staircase book is $600. I figure mine is worth no more than 25% so maybe $150. However, that might be too high. My plan is to try to sell it and see what happens. Poor condition books that would otherwise be valuable are very difficult to price. This is the Hidden Staircase jacket that I just purchased.


 I am pairing this dust jacket with a Hidden Staircase first printing book that I've had for probably around eight or nine years. This is the book.

The book has spine slant and a scuff along the top edge, but it is in fantastic condition compared to the book that came with the dust jacket I just purchased. This is the Hidden Staircase first printing dust jacket that I've had for 11 years.


Pretty horrific, right? However, it has been my pride and joy for 11 years, and I will actually regret to see it go. The stain on it is not a water stain but some type of chemical, and it came from a seller who sold old television parts. I have always wondered if this jacket and its book were in with old television parts. It came with a book that had the same chemical stain, and I sold the book many years ago.

I also have a great dilemma on how to price the partial first printing dust jacket. My gut feeling is that it should be priced at somewhere between $500 and $1,000. $500 is probably how I should go, but I am torn. These jackets rarely show up even in trashed condition.

I will most likely pair the horrible condition book I just purchased with this partial dust jacket and then put the combination up for sale. I may go with eBay in order to reach the greatest audience. My first attempt might be to try for around $1,000 just to see what happens. It can't hurt since my listing will be free. I can then lower the price gradually. I am very mindful of people buying to resell, and I would prefer for a book like this to go to someone who actually wants it.

I tend to think the value is roughly $500, but like I said, I will probably start at $1,000 and work my way down. I want as much as possible for the extra book and jacket to offset my high cost for the two books just purchased. People who are willing to settle for a poor condition dust jacket would never pay thousands for a nice condition dust jacket, so $500 may be the actual value. I'm okay if a few of you want to give your opinion.

The 8th 1930A-1 Old Clock Dust Jacket (Nancy Drew 1st Printing Auctions Part 3)

The seller of the Nancy Drew books from round one then listed his 1930A-1 Old Clock book with dust jacket and his 1930A-1 Hidden Staircase book with dust jacket. These auctions overlapped with the auctions mentioned in my previous post. This is the first time that two copies of the 1930A-1 Old Clock and 1930A-1 Hidden Staircase dust jackets have ever been sold on eBay at the same time. Normally, years pass with neither surfacing, yet we saw two of each simultaneously.

1930A-1 Old Clock with dust jacket

Old Clock sold for $7,633.88, once again, far short of $11,700.

1930A-1 Hidden Staircase with dust jacket

This book sold for $4,361.00.

We have two differing opinions about the overall value of the books and jackets in cases like this where the books are in rough shape. Some people feel that the books are worth less than the Farah's Guide values while others seem to think the books are worth more than the Farah's Guide values.

I have been in communication with the other bidder on these two lots. Neither one of us wanted the books and only wanted the dust jackets. A lot of people assumed that the horrible condition of the books made these particular auctions to be undesirable. I saw this as an opportunity. Those of us who are actively bidding on these first printing books and jackets already have the books and only desire the dust jackets.

The dust jackets that list to Bungalow Mystery are so extremely scarce that collectors have to settle for whatever condition dust jacket comes up for sale. There are only eight known examples of the Old Clock first printing dust jacket in existence, and two of them are the ones that just sold on eBay.

The dust jackets are very scarce and desirable, but these particular examples are not in excellent condition. They are valuable but worth somewhat less than the Farah's Guide values. The books are in horrible shape and are not worth much at all.

Someone told the seller regarding Old Clock, "Do you know yet that this book is valued at $10,000 for the dj and $1,000 for the book?? It is noted in Farah's Guide that 'the first edition dust jacket is extremly rare with, probably, less than ten existing copies in any condition.' Your dj is perfect! I hope you will get what you should for this unbelievable find!!"

The book is trashed. How can it possibly be worth $1,000? The Farah's Guide values are for books and jackets in great shape. The seller was told that the jacket is "perfect." As I told Jenn Fisher, the jacket has a "huge freaking water stain! It's not perfect!" The jacket is not worth as much as Farah's Guide states since it is not perfect!

By telling the sellers the very highest values, the sellers are guaranteed to be disappointed when the books fail to reach those values. It happens every single time one of these books goes up for sale. It happened with the Bungalow Mystery first printing book and jacket I purchased recently.

In the Bungalow Mystery auction, someone told the seller, "Wow! Awesome book! This is the true first print for this book and worth around $5000! May go higher, its in such great shape." Most people who commented publicly about that auction and who are the same people who desire these early first printings pointed out the mildew problem and felt that the book was worth somewhat less than the Farah's Guide value. Why do other people who are not interested in bidding tell the sellers that the books are worth more than the Farah's Guide values?

Jackets aside, the water-damaged Old Clock and Hidden Staircase books are of low value, which makes the comment about the Old Clock book having a value of $1,000 to be completely ridiculous.