Alice's Books for Sale
OUR LATEST REVISED LIST -- JULY 2008
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OTHER PEOPLE'S BOOK SALE LIST
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BILLHEIMERS' BOOKSALE LIST FOR JULY, 2008 Here's a new sale list for this month, with some exceptionally interesting books for you to examine and perhaps want to buy. They're predominantly vintage books for teens and young adults, but there are some for younger readers and a few that were originally meant for adults. We think you'll find this list fascinating and nostalgic, as well as reasonably priced! We have a lot of fun collecting books and compiling this collection! SOME OF THE CONTENTS!! (Not necessarily in this order) 1. MANY JUDY BOLTON, NANCY DREW, AND TRIXIE BELDEN BOOKS! 2. SEVERAL SPECIAL SALES HERE AND THERE! 3. A BIG SECTION OF YOUNG ADULT MYSTERIES THAT COULD ALSO BE "MALTSHOPS ROMANCES," OR TEEN NOVELS 4. Some CAREER-ROMANCES, a very popular category! 5. FOR HOME-SCHOOLERS, some NEWBERY award winners, the non-fiction books, as well as other wonderful books to read. 6. FOR SERIES book collectors: you'll find many new additions of popular as well as unusual series to check out! This month's series book additions are especially great! 7. Lots of additions to the "MALTSHOP" novels from "the nostalgia years." Many used book shops don't bother to stock these categories, so this is an unusual chance to stock up up on these teen-girls' novels from the 40s through 60s. 8. BOOKS BY WONDERFUL AUTHORS!! Mildred Wirt Elizabeth Hamilton Friermood Marjory Hall Betty Cavanna Maud Hart Lovelace Janet Lambert Catherine Woolley hundreds more!! 9. GREAT SERIES BOOKS (NOT ALL OF THEM EVERY TIME, BUT WE TRY!) Judy Bolton Maida Trixie Belden Nancy Drew Linda Craig and some interesting ones you may never have seen before! 10. MAINE books from our home state. 11. ALICE'S PICKS -- books that I love best 12. Alice's Wish List 13. Animal stories 14. Books written mainly for boys Contents won't be in the same order as this list, but everything is there, somewhere ******************************************************************** PRICES OF THE BOOKS REFLECT Condition Popularity Scarcity My opinion of them! *************************************************************************** We only use a few abbreviations, including these: HB -- hardcover book PB -- paperback book XL -- library discard book DJ -- dust jacket PC -- picture printed on the cover YA -- young adult (teen) book cond == condition If you don't understand something in our sale list, Email and ask us. ******We recommend asking your browser to reload or refresh to make sure you have the latest version of our web page.******* OUR POSTAGE POLICY We weigh all orders, and charge the actual postage that we figure out from a chart. If we feel that we will be using a lot of padding, and packaging, that's figured into the price. . All will be sent Media mail unless you want to pay more for 1st class or whatever. If you want insurance, we'll figure out how much extra that will be FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED!!!!!!!!! WE ACCEPT PAYPAL!!! ******************************************************************************************* ALICE'S WISH LIST!!!! WE'LL BE HAPPY TO TALK ABOUT TRADING FOR BOOKS ON OUR WISH LIST Condition isn't important unless I specify that I'm looking for an upgrade. MY WISH LIST! I'd like hardcover copies of the following Janet Lambert books: Forever and Ever For Each Other Welcome home, Mrs. Jordan Jean Nielsen -- Walk Under the Trees good hardcover with DJ of Fair Exchange MORE OF MY WISH LIST -- Jack and Jill magazines from the 30's through 50's. I'm missing a lot from the late 50's. Condition does not have to be perfect, but will affect how much I'm willing to pay! Usually, I've paid $1 or $2 per magazine. Also, American Girl Magazines (not the ones related to the dolls, but the Girl Scout Magazines from the '40s and '50s!) I have some, but would like to have more. Calling All Girls magazines from the 40s and 50s The Fabulous Year (Elizabeth Ogilvie) in HB with a DJ. Or if you have a copy with a DJ, maybe you could make a copy of the DJ to cover my "naked" book! MORE OF MY WISH LIST! Triumph Clear by Lorraine Beim Books by Fjeril Hess, including Toplofty, Castle Camp, and others. Books by Margaret Sutton Haunted Apartment Gail Gardner, Jr Cadet Nurse REMEMBER, THESE BOOKS ARE NOT FOR SALE, THEY ARE ON MY WISH LIST!!!!! Dust jackets for Emery's Bright Horizons One of the Crowd "Best Friends in Summer" by Mary Bard Books by Virginia Fairfax -- Camp Pioneer, Secret of the Halliday House. REMEMBER, THESE ARE MY WISH-LIST BOOKS! (Sorry, but they aren't for sale.) --------End of Alice's Wish List ----------- ********************************************************* TO START THIS MONTH'S LIST ********HERE IS A VERY SPECIAL OFFERING! ******** ALICE'S "CHARMING SISTER SARAH" HAS MADE SOME BEAUTIFUL SERIES BOOK GIFTS! FOR YOURSELF OR FOR GIFTS!!!-- CHARM BRACELETS FOR BOOK LOVERS!!! MANY STYLES OF SERIES-BOOK BRACELETS (SHE'LL ALSO WORK WITH YOU TO MAKE A CUSTOM-MADE BRACELET ! MY OWN SERIES BOOK BRACELET HAS CHARMS TO REPRESENT JUDY BOLTON, NANCY DREW, CHERRY AMES, VICKI BARR, AND MALTSHOP BOOKS! sARAH ALSO MADE ME A MUSIC BRACELET FOR MY "DAY JOB" AND A SPECIAL "ALICE BRACELET" WITH ALL KINDS OF CHARMS THAT JUST SAY MY NAME! YOU CAN CHOOSE CHARMS TO REMIND YOU OF YOUR FAVORITES BOOKS, OR FILL A BRACELET TO MAKE AN AMAZING GIFT FOR A SPECIAL PERSON. INCLUDING ++++NEW +++ CHRISTMAS BRACELETS IN MANY STYLES! Alice's sister Sarah has made some special charm bracelets for people who love series books and Maltshops! There are many styles, each one with a theme. There are Judy Bolton bracelets, Nancy Drew bracelets, Teens-of-the-50's bracelets, general Series Book bracelets. They were first seen at the Phantom Friends' Reunion in Mount Dora Florida, where we sold out almost immediately. You will LOVE this fine jewelry: I can assure you. I should know, I wear my three "Sarah Bracelets" everywhere! The CHRISTMAS charm bracelets are more beautiful than you could believe, without seeing them! Colorful, varied, imaginative, you will wear yours for the rest of your life! If you would like to see some sample bracelets you can click here: http://www.midcoast.com/maltshopbooks/charms.htm ################################################################# NOW FOR THE BOOKS! BEGINNING WITH A BIG SALE! Each of the following books will cost $2 Very good values!! Nancy Drew Hardcovers, all in great condition! New edition shiny yellowbacks in fine cond -- #5 Secret of Shadow Ranch $2.00 #10 Password to Larkspur Lane, $2.00 #33 Witch Tree Symbol, $2.00 #38 Mystery of the Fire Dragon $2.00 (formerly a library book, good cond.) Nancy Drew Paperbacks $2 each. These are mainly in very good condition! #132 The Fox Hunt Mystery $2 #133 The Mystery at the Crystal Palace #135 Riddle of the Ruby Gazelle $2 #136 The Wedding Day Mystery #139 Secret of Candlelight Inn $2 NANCY DREW FILES SERIES $2 EACH Nancy Drew Files #12 -- Fatal Ransom $2.00 Nancy Drew Files #24, Till Death do us Part PB, $2.00 Nancy Drew Files #41 Something to Hide (interesting cover, lots of jack-o-lanterns in back of a dressed-up Nancy) $2 Nancy Drew Files #68 Crosscurrents (XL reading copy!) This one only $1.00 Nancy Drew Files #76 The Perfect Plot. Nancy and George go to a conference for mystery lovers -- something like a PF reunion? $2.00 Nancy Drew Ghost Stories -- "Six Bone-chilling tales of Mystery and Terror!" $2 River Heights #1 - 1989. I'm not sure whether this series is still in existence, It featured Nancy's neighbor, Nikki. Small size, cute kids on cover. $2.00 Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mysteries. FUN!!! These are all PBs A Crime For Christmas (very good cond) $2 Buried in Time $2 Dangerous Games $2 The Paris Connection $2 Double Crossing (this one will be only $1, fair condition.) Hardy Boys #24, The Short-wave Mystery. Small hardcover made by binding a PB with library binding. Free with another purchase of at least $2.00 The Mystery Hunters at Lakeside Camp (Capwell Wyckoff) 1934. HB fairly good condition, $2.00 The preceding books are all $2 each +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SPECIAL SECTION OF MAINE BOOKS AND A FEW BOOKS FROM OTHER NEW ENGLAND LOCATIONS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS, TOO. We think that some of the greatest authors in the world live or summer in Maine! Try one or 2, and you may decide to come to Maine yourself. I can hardly believe how much some of these books are getting on Ebay and other places! I knew they were good, but didn't realize that other people knew it, too. My prices are no more than 1/2 of what they are getting other places. Most of my copies are x-lib, but some are very good! Back-to-school Murder (Leslie Meier) 1997. A Lucy Stone Mystery (for adults) Big trouble at the kids' school. Nice paperback. $2.00 Turkey Day Murder (Leslie Meier) 2000. A Lucy Stone Mystery (for adults.) People who buy from my sale list, have really enjoyed reading about this Maine family and small-town life, of course salted with good mysteries. The first book, Mail-Order Murder, puts Lucy to work during the Christmas rush at an LLBean clone. As the series advances, she gets a more interesting job, her children grow up, and you get to know a lot of the characters who live in the town. Most of the books surround a holiday, and this one deals with (you could have guessed!) Thanksgiving. PB, cute cover, $2.00 Wedding Day Murder (Leslie Meier) 2001. A beautiful wedding, Maine in the summer, what could be more nearly perfect? Lucy is helping a friend plan her daughter's wedding to a millionaire -- can it get any better? You'll enjoy reading about invitations, showers, refreshments, as well as all the usual family life details that are in all of Meier's books. Until the murder, of course! PB in very good condition. $2.00 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Down East Detective (Karen Lemke) Shocking Crimes From the 20s through the 60s! From the Annals of the Maine State Police! As you may guess, this little book is almost a spoof of the tabloids, but it does tell stories about real crimes (names changed to protect the guilty) about many unique crimes that could only happen in Maine, according to the author. Cover shows a really racy picture, don't buy this for your little kid, but it's also really strange -- a girl in torn dress, flagging down a stern-looking copy on a motorcycle with a sidecar. In the sidecar sits a big black bear! Well, have fun. PB, good cond, $1.50 Island in the Bay (Dorothy Simpson) 1956. I think this may be Simpson's first book. About a boy, living on an island with an unsympathetic grandfather, and wanting to become a lobsterman. The author really knew about the life of lobstering, and about living on an island, and it shows in this book by the author of the really wonderful Janie Marshall series. It's a former library copy, but clean and firm. I've made a copy of the original dust jacket, which was in very fine condition, so this copy looks very good. Shore scene. HB, LDJ, $4.50 Maine Beautiful (Wallace Nutting) reprint of a classic book, 1924? Packed with black/white photos of Maine as you wish it still looked. Old houses, nature, Wonderful text, too, history, descriptions, poems. This copy is from a library, but you'd hardly know it, it's so clean and fresh. I think the pictures are very romantic and beautiful! I wonder how many of the buildings and wild sites are still there? HB, DJ, $5.00 Books by Maine writer, Lew Dietz. These have a great appeal to people who really love the back-country forests. He wrote about boys, but anyone would enjoy reading them for the authentic (but very entertaining) stories of life in the wilds. Wilderness River (Lew Dietz) 1961. How's this for a begining sentence? "It was a warm Indian Summer day in late October that my friend Nick Fales and I found the body in the woods." Deitz wrote "boys' books," but anyone who enjoys reading about adventure in the Maine woods, would love them. Most of them are about Jeff White, but this one stands alone. It's a former library HB, but in almost pristine condition. Someone put a clear plastic cover over the library picture cover, and it would leave marks inside the book if you removed the plastic, so I didn't try. Enjoy it! $4.50 Pines for the King's Army (Lew Dietz) 1955 (first edition if this means anything to you.) Historical 1721. Maine woods when they were the true wilderness, complete with "savages." Several dramatic full-page illustrations. XL, HB, Somewhat worn, but tight binding and clean pages. $3.00 Mystery of The Pilgrim Trading Post (Anne Molloy) 1964. Three young cousins are extremely reluctant to spend the summer with their elderly cousin, at the very tip of Maine, almost into Canada. But life in this very small town gets pretty exciting! By the end of summer, well, Maine has cast its spell once again -- and a mystery is solved! HB, XL, PC, good condition. $3.00 (2) Lost on a Mountain in Maine (Donn Fendler) 1939. This story is very famous in Maine. All the school kids read it, and the author has often visited schools to talk about his ordeal on Mt Katahdin when he was 12. He wandered around the wilderness for 2 weeks, after losing the rest of his party in the fog. PB in very good cond. $2.50 Another copy, good cond, $1.75 Donn Fendler, fair condition -- READ IT, I'M QUITE SURE YOU WILL LIKE THIS BOOK! PB, fair, $1.00 There Is a Tide (Elspeth Bragdon) 1964. Boy and his father spend the summer on a Maine island after the prep-school headmaster suggested it might help the boy's attitude if he and pop got better acquainted. Experiment isn't working too well until the boy starts to know the islanders, and particularly a girl. Another case of Maine working its magic on difficult people (Dad changes a bit, too.) Nice DJ picture of a boy on a rock, girl with her dog on a little point of land under the pine trees. Looks like a lot of places not far from where we live. Illus by Lilian Obligado. HB, DJ, XL, all in good condition. $4.50 That Jud! (Elspeth Bragdon) 1957. Jud is an orphan, and feels unloved and lonely even in the close-knit community of Spruce Point, Maine. He spends a lot of his time getting into trouble, and escaping to his "secret" island hidout. Things go badly wrong, unless he can redeem himself. It's a really nice book, a Maine book -- so don't worry too much about this appealing kid. HB, with DJ, over a library PC, very nice condition. $3.50 Three Children's books by E. B. White -- this is a large PB and includes his classic books (and when I call something Classic, I really mean it!!) IN very good condition! INclueds Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan, and Charlotte's Web. 2 have the wonderful Garth Williams illustrations, Swan has interesting Edward Frascino illustrations. These are are the original art. Pictures of all 3 covers are pictured on the cover of the book. Very nice one-book set. $2.50 One Man's Meat (E.B. White) "A personal record of Life on a Maine Coast Salt Water Farm" is the subtitle. I believe that these essarys were mostly printed in Harper's and The New Yorker in the late '30s and early '40s, so there's a lot about WWII, both the time leading up to it, and its effects on the home front. But mostly they're humorous and/or very pointed pieces about farm living, camping in Florida, and my favorite -- the woes of having hay fever. There's a letter to Henry Thoreau about the state of Walden pond all those years and automobiles later! And a wonderful piece about evaluating the new children's books of 1938 (Not too complimentary!) I love White's humor and vision. PB, $2.00 Secret of Saturday Cove (Barbee Oliver Carleton) 1961 illustrations by Charles Geer Dedicated to the boys and girls of Friendship, which is the town adjacent to the one where we live. About a girl and boy who try lobstering to help the family. Here's a copy in very good condition, HB with PC, $4.00 Another copy of Saturday Cove, in fair (reading) condition -- read a good Maine mystery for a good Maine bargain price! HB, XL, $1.50 Secret of the Missiong Grave IDavid A. Crossman) 1999. Newer than most of my books, but this is a juvenile mystery by another author from Friendship, Maine. Large HB published by Down East Books (Rockland, ME) "A Bean and Ab Mystery." Ab is a girl, Bean is a boy. Book is in very good condition, DJ has a tear at the top of the front. There are others in this series, so keep your eyes out for them! HB, XL, DJ, $3 Abbie Burgess, Lighthouse Heroine, Jones and Sargent. Paperback in fair condition but signed by one of the authors (Ruth Sargent) true story of a role model for girls! PB $2.00 Another copy of Abbie Burgess, paperback in good condition $2.50 BOOKS BY LOUISE DICKINSON RICH If there aren't very many, then I hope to have more books by this popular and very fine author on my next sale list. The Coast of Maine (Louise Dickinson Rich) 1975 revision, this is a brand new Down East edition in a beautiful large PB. You may think that a non-fiction book about a portion of a state, would be dry and scholarly. If so, you've never read any of Rich's books! She writes about the land, its history, geography and people, in an extremely readable way, and the book is filled with anecdotes, pictures, maps, and plenty of humor. Yes, it's partly a tourist and visitor's guide, but much more -- you read it for pleasure as much as you would read any novel. I just opened a page at random, and read about a monument to a very young soldier who died in what must have been the War of 1812. "Maybe it's because I'm the mother of an 18-year-old boy myself, that I find myself so deeply touched by that worn old stone." That's guidebook and history writing with heart in it! VERY large PB, in like-new condition, $3.50 We Took to the Woods (Louise Dickinson Rich) 1942. This is a beautiful copy of one of the best books ever written. Quite a boast, isn't that! My husband Dave read it long before we met, and pretty much decided to move to Maine when he grew up. I read it about the same time, and both of us have read it maybe 5 times since then. My kids and my siblings love it! OK, it was written by a cousin of my parents, but that's really not why we love it so much! Louise was taking a summer vacation canoe trip into the wilderness of Northern Mane, when she met Ralph, who lived there all year around. They married and lived there together for many years, including after they had 2 children. It sounds romantic, doesn't it? Well, Louise didn't depict it that way, but somehow you feel that there's something absolutely wonderful about their life in the deepest of forests, where at some times of the year, they couldn't go anywhere for months (remember, this is way before snowmobiles!) Plenty of dry humor, interesting descriptions of the logging industry (which has changed forever since then, so you only CAN read about it now.) Each chapter answers a frequently asked question, like "What do you do with all your spare time?" (Oh yeah!) and "But how do you make a living?" And what she can do with these innocent questions! HB, DJ, lovely in every way -- I didn't say perfect, I said lovely! The book itself is like new, the DJ is good-plus. $6.50. We Took to the Woods, a copy in quite good condtion. This book was very sturdy and well-made, so its almost always found in good cond, but this one unfortunately has a few spots on the cover. That cover is something special, by the way. You can always spot this book by the burlap-looking cloth covering, and the brown phine trees on the spine. The front cover has a tree dscign in brown, too, and the title looks sort of like a rustic sign. I think the publishers knew it would be a very special book with a long life (could they have believed that it would still be in print, though in a high-quality PB, more than 65 years later???) Interior very clean. $4.50 Only Parent (Rich) 1953. I can't remember whether I've ever had this book on my list before. Mrs. Rich tells about being a widowed mother of 2 children, from the time they lived in the wilderness of the North Woods, through their days in a small town where they moved when the kids were of school age, up to their move back home to Bridgewater, Mass. This book is funny! And instructive, since Louise couldn't resist inserting a bit of history, geography or nature lore in her books. Mainly, it's about being an only parent and doing everything that both a mother and a father would do in a 2-parent family. If you loved We Took to The Woods, you will like this one, though it doesn't include the wonder of living totally away from civilization. Battered-up old library book, but it's all there, and the binding is holding up with the help of a bit of tape! $3.00 Star Island (original title: Star Island Boy) Rich, 1968. Boy is put in a foster home on a Maine island. He starts to feel secure for the first time, but then he thinks her finds out the real reason he's been placed there. I can't imagine how Louise Dickinson Rich writes about boys so very well. I do know that she writes very beautifully about living on a Maine island, and lobstering! The picture cover on this nice small hardcover, shows a very typical and realistic scene of lobster boats, islands, and seagulls over the water. $3.50 Sally (Original Title, Three of a Kind) Rich. 1970. Very much loved story about a girl who finds a happy foster home on a Maine island, only to feel rejected when the family's grandson arrives for a long visit. He's a strange one, and no one thinks he can be helped -- except Sally. PB, a bit of water staining, but still has a very colorful and attractive cover, and sturdy binding. $2.50 --------------------------------- The White Mountains of New Hampshire (Alan Nyiri) A Beautiful PB, brand new, with information, but mostly unbelievably stunning color pictures of the White Mt region. Some taken from the top of Mt Washington, some from the forests, lakes, waterfalls, and woods of this area of great natural beauty. Snow. Fall Color without equal anywhere! $2.00 Coastal Ghosts and Lighthouse Lore (William O. THompson) 2001. Very nice PB , romantic lighthouse picture on cover, and inside -- true (?) stories of the ghosts and other interesting inhabitants of dozens of New England lighthouses and other ghosts from all along the New England coast. They're really good reading -- the author never tries to say that any of them are exactly true, but I can attest to the existence of one of them, and so will you, if you ever drive through Bucksport ME! Right there on Main street you can see the gravestone with the boot or foot mark from the woman whose murderer cut off her foot. It's his gravestone where the foot appeared, and it just can't be removed no matter how hard the stonecutters try to do it! You'll see it when you are driving up to the Big Chicken Barn, a huge used bookstore in the next town. Large PB, like-new condition. $2.50 Moving To Maine: The Essential Guide to Get You There (Victoria Doudera) 2000 She moved to Maine about 15 years before writing this book, and decided to answer all the questions she kept hearing from other people who wanted to do the same. A practical but very entertaining book, with profiles of people who live here, charts, statistics to help you decide if you really do want to "Take to the Woods," ideas for making a living after you get here, sports, quotes from famous residents like Stephen King, politics, religion, entertainment. You'll love reading it even if you have no notion of moving to The Pine Tree State. Large (brand new?) PB originally $15, my price $4 Books by Elizabeth Coatsworth --- One of my all-time favorite authors since I was a little girl! Most of these book could be listed as Alice's Picks. She lived only a few miles from where we now live, but I never met her. I have heard her daughter speak about her mother's works, at several seminars or meetings. She concentrates on her mother's poetry, as the daughter is a poet herself, but I'm convinced that her stories are even better! Here I Stay (Coatsworth) 1938. This is one of my all-time favorite books, even though it's a historical novel, usually not my top category. Takes place in Maine, in 1817. Everyone else in the settlement leaves for the Western Reserve in Ohio, but Margaret stays all alone on the home that she and her beloved father had built up before he died. Wonderful details of the long, long winter with hardly a human contact, but plenty of interaction with animals, the land, nature of all kinds. Believe it or not, she even finds romance! I'd like to guarantee that you will love this book, but I can't afford to give you your money back if you don't love it as much as I have, each of the 5 times I've read it! HB, XL, fair condition, with a lovely copy of the original DJ, picturing a sweet girl with all her animals (and actually a man driving a hay wagon in the background. One of the few times when someone visited her, I guess!) HB, LDJ, $5.00 The Enchanted: An Incredible Tale (Coatsworth) 1951. She wrote several of these "Incredible tales" that combine myth, local legend, and imagination, in a story that uses mundane details to make you believe the supernatural elements. Maine setting, of course. HB, XL, PC, good condition. $3.00 Personal Geography (Coatsworth) "Almost an Autobiography" In her 83rd year, Coatsworth put together this compilation of many selections from her private journals, public writings, poetry, and reflections. The date on the title page is 1968, but there are entries that date from later than that, so this must be a 2nd edition. Nice HB book in good DJ with a picture that covers both back and front of the book. Imposing woman stands in a meadow, overlooking Chimney Pond. $5.00 Alice-all-by-Herself (Elizabeth Coatsworth) 1937. This is one of her wonderful, "contemporary" (to that year) stories for girls, which I treasure more than her historical or biographical stories for young people, though they are good, too (especially "Here I stay" which is about my favorite Coatsworth, but that's another story, literally.) This tells about Alice, who lives in Damariscotta, Maine, a few miles south of where this Alice lives. She has all kinds of small adventures, which are charming to read about, and give you a good picture of what Maine was like just before WWII, when things started to homogenize all over the country. Illustrations by another powerful name in young people's books of the 20th century, Marguerite de Angeli. Tall book, 180 pages, including quite a few of Coatsworth's poems, which are as famous as her stories. Very nice laser copy of the original dust jacket, (which has a blank back cover but very attractive front cover.) This is a personal copy, not a former library book. HB, LDJ, good condition, $7.00 Sword of the Wilderness (Coatsworth) 1936. Takes place in 1689.Captured by Indians! Trekked through the wilderness, starving, freezing, eventually learning to live together. Much more than just an adventure story, of course, as Coatsworth was a fine author and observer of humanity. HB, PC, good condition, $3.00 Jock's Island (Coatsworth) Sheep dog trying to keep guarding his sheep when the island's inhabitants are evacuated before a volcano eruption. PB, nicely illustrated. $1 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ BOOKS BY ELIZABETH LADD, one of the best authors of authentic Maine YA books from all of the 20th century. She lived just about all her life on a rather remote island, enjoying animals and children, all of which contribute to her wonderful books! Most of them were illustrated by Mary Stevens, another favorite of ours, and another Maine native. Some of Ladd's books form series, but any can be read separately with great pleasure. Meg of Heron's Neck (Ladd, with Mary Stevens illustrations!)1961. The first book about Meg, explaining how she happened to live in several unusual places and how she ended up with her black cat and crow. Beautiful story, even more beautiful pictures by our very favorite artist. Cover of this XL PB is only in fair condition, but the interior is clean and neat, pages are like new. I don't know how that happened, but it did! So if your interest is in reading a lovely story, not in owning a lovely book, this will be just fine! PB, $1.75 Meg's Mysterious Island (Elizabeth Ladd) illustrated by Mary Stevens. 1963. This is one of those books that has everything I like, and I have to read it at least every other year! Meg and her much older brother spend the winter in a log cabin, on an island, entirely self-sufficiently. Details of cooking, housekeeping, nature, pets, blizzards, and ... terrible crooks! Feisty Meg saves the day, and has to be one of the most endearing kids you'll ever read about. This is sort of a prequel (is that the word?) to the other Meg books, taking place before she has to become "civilized." The Mary Stevens illustrations are at least as wonderful as the story. It's in very good condition, with a good DJ, what a beautiful all-Maine book! paperback Down East quality reprint. $3.50 Trouble on Heron's Neck (Elizabeth Ladd) 1966. Another Meg Mystery, this one set during a Maine summer. A tame crow plays a big part in this story -- Ladd wrote beautifully about animals and birds. PIcture cover on a former library copy HB. $4.00 Meg and Melissa (Ladd) 1964. Meg gets a job "babysitting" for a girl just a little younger than she is, on a lonely island with rather unsympathetic adults. Meg attracts adventure, but she's responsible and ends up in some pretty sticky situations. Absolutely lovely Mary Stevens illustrations. XL book is in rather shabby condition, has a taped spine, and has been read by quite a few children who probably loved it as much as we do! HB, faint picture cover (recognizable, though). $2.50 The Indians on the Bonnet (Ladd) 1971. The Bonnet is a point of land on the Maine seacoast. As with most of Ladd's books, the characters are true Mainers, working and living under the harsh but beautiful conditions of the Maine coast, the life that summer visitors don't see. In this book, the plot goes beyond "bad guys" and fun, to touch on the subject of prejudice against Native Americans. I love reading anything by Ladd, always the nicest of girls as her heroines, as well as a setting that can't miss. But this one, while worth reading for sure, also makes you think, and isn't quite as cozy as her other books. HB, XL, in very good condition inside and out, $4.00 A Fisherman's Daughter (Elizabeth McKey Hulbert) "A Charming fictional story of young Jan Stanley's growing up, influenced by the real-life character of Andrew M. Longley, Jr, DO. I think this is a sort of advertisement for Osteopathic medicine, but it's also a cute Maine story with some good sketches of various Maine fish, lobstering gear, etc. PB, in very good condition, $1.00 Seven Steeples (Margaret K. Henrichsen) 1953. After she's widowed, this pastor decides to accept the job of ministering to seven small churches in rural Maine! Reading this book, you'll move back in time to the Maine of our dreams, before TV and Walmart had pasteurized the whole State O' Maine. I've loved this book for most of my life, since being introduced to it by friends who knew the author and attended one of her churches when they were in Maine. Oh by the way, it's non-fiction, and almost as good as Louise Dickinson Rich's stories (same general area as her later books, too.) HB, with a DJ that seems a little large for the book, but it's the right one. (I don't know how that happened!) $4.00 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ BOOKS BY MARY C. JANE. Her books are great for middle-school readers, each one having a different Maine setting. NOthing fancy, just children enjoying their lives and some mysterious happenings. They feature girls and boys equally. Maine kids love them, I love them, and so will you. You really need to have all of them! All have pleasant Raymond Abel illustrations. Mystery at Dead End Farm (Jane) 1961. Beautiful Down East PB reprint in fine condition. If you've ever seen the potato country of northeastern Maine, you'd wonder where these kids could find a mystery there. However, they certainly did! PB, $2.50 Mystery of the Red Carnations (Jane) 1968. Who puts the red carnations on the grave of the unknown person? And what on earth would the kids write about when the teacher asked them to tell about an adventure? Nothing ever happens in this dull old town -- or does it? PB in good condition, $2 (2) Mystery Behind Dark Windows (Jane) 1962. Kids live near an old, supposedly deserted, factory building, owned by their aunt, who refuses to sell or use it. What's happening in that old building when they see lights and activity at night? HB, Picture Cover, XL, worn condition, but holding together, and the pages are pretty clean! $4.00 Mystery by Moonlight (Jane) 1963. Girl has to walk by "the haunted house" on her way home from school. It's deserted, so why are there sounds coming from it? Strange things keep on happening -- as all of her books, there are both boys and girls. Scholastic PB, in fairly good condition. $2.00 Mystery by Moonlight (Jane) 1963. Hardcover. former library copy with a DJ. Book itself is sturdy but well-worn. DJ is in nice condition. $4 Mystery at Shadow Pond (Jane) 1958. Strange cover picture of 2 kids looking out a door at what looks like a robot! The story is about a brother and sister, a cat and a horse, and some missing very important papers! PB, $1.50 Mystery on Nine-Mile Marsh (Mary C. Jane) 1967. Mrs. Jane knew what kids wanted to read about -- a really mysterious house across a creepy marsh, a neglected donkey, and you know the rest -- crime! Mystery! XL HB book in rather poor condition, with taped spine, rough edges, but a nice atmospheric cover picture still bright and fresh as these library picture covers remain. Interior pages aren't bad at all. HB, XL, PC, $2.50 Better copy of Nine-Mile Marsh. XL with DJ over a PC. $4.50 Paperback copy of Nine-Mile Marsh -- eerie cover picture of trees and a lurid sunset! Good condition, $2.00 Mystery on Echo Ridge (Jane) PB, nice condition! $3.00 Mystery on Echo Ridge (Jane) 1959. Hardback with picture cover. Former library copy shows quite a bit of wear, but it's tight and clean inside. Strange deserted house is reputed to be haunted, but what will happen when someone moves into the house? Family fun, jewels, etc. HB, XL, PC, $4.00 Mystery at Shadow Pond (Mary C. Jane) PB $2 (2) This book has an arresting cover picture -- children looking out a door at a robot, which is shining in the night! Includes a horse and a dog, too. END OF BOOKS BY MARY C JANE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ BOOKS BY ELISABETH OGILVIE -- some are YA but some are for adults, too. First, some wonderful teen romances by my Maine neighbor, Elisabeth Ogilvie. I should include all of these in the Maltshop section of this list, but they are such true depictions of Maine life in the area where we live, near the coast and on the islands. Oglivie, who recently died, lived near here, and was a very nice lady as well as a very talented writer for both adults and teens. I wish there were more available -- will list them when I get any! Adult novels by Elisabeth Ogilvie. High Tide at Noon #1 in the Tide Trilogy (originally published in 1944) The first page of this book says "Although the characters represented in this book are entirely fictitious, Bennett's Island actually exists -- under another name." And if it didn't before Ogilvie wrote, it would have existed after she wrote quite a few books about it. This is the first. Large Down East Books reprint, in good condition, with a few marks and slight bumps. $2.25 Storm Tide, #2 from the Tide Trilogy. Originally published in 1945. Of course you don't have to read these in order! The Bennetts of Bennett Island appear in a lot of Obilvie's books, even some of her YA's. beautiful large new PB with very attractive cover art. Excellent condition. $3.00 The Ebbing Tide, III in the Tide Trilogy. Originally from 1947. Beautiful, new, large PB with interesting cover art (working waterfront scene) Bennett Island, lobstering, a stunning love story. $3.00 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ALICE'S PICKS -- A SPECIAL CATEGORY OF BOOKS I LOVE! I'VE LOVED SOME OF THEM ALMOST ALL MY LIFE! SOME ARE NEW DISCOVERIES THAT I WANT TO SHARE Dear Enemy (Jean Webster) 1915. Author of Daddy-Long-legs wrote this sequel to her most popular book. Somehow, the heroine takes charge of an orphan asylum! She writes letters to her "enemy" who persists in making various suggestions for making the venture successful. AS in the previous book, the ending is almost predictable, but still very satisfying, and the story is full of so much fun that you wish you'd never get to that inevitable ending! Lots of humorous little sketches by the author. HB, Vintage-looking and lovely DJ, $3.00 The Christmas Nightingale (Eric P. Kelly) 1932. Illustrated by Marguerite Di Angeli. Sub-titled Three Christmas Stories from Poland. This is one of those really unusual and beautiful books, quite a work of art. And in very good condition. There are only 3 illustrations, but they are lovely little b/w vignettes. And there are decorations at the beginning of each chapter. Author wrote the famous (Newbery winning) Trumpeter of Krakow, but this is a much smaller book, telling about life in the old country at Christmas time. HB, very good condition, $2.50 Books by Eleanor Frances Lattimore. She wrote and illustrated a great many books for young readers, all of them very darling! I've read quite a few of them, and all are quite lovely little stories about children who act a lot like real children, not oddities in strange situations. If you see any of them, read it! Beachcomber Boy (Lattimore)1960. Boy and his family move to a beach house, and he decides to be a beachcomber so he can find things to sell in a shop next summer when the vacationers arrive. THEN -- a couple of other boys move into the area, and they like beachcombing, too. War! Or maybe not. HB, XL, fair cond. $2.00 The Prize-Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My mother Raised 10 kids on 25 Words or Less. (Terry Ryan) 2001. This is one recent book that fascinated our whole family! The author, one of the 10 children in the title, tells about her extremely hard childhood, with a drunk and usually unemployed father, hardly any funds to keep the family fed. The mother entered every contest that she ever encountered, and won a lot of them. The furniture, appliances, Christmas presents, some of the food, well, nearly anything that ever came into the house, were things she won in various contests. Occasionally she even won money, which of course was incredibly badly needed. The contests and winnings are a big part of the story, but it's more than that -- it's the story of a family growing up in desperate circumstances and a mother who managed to turn out some very good citizens in the end. NOT A GRIM STORY! I may have made it sound that way, but it isn't. The contests and jingles are so much fun, and the family dynamics are entertaining. By the way, most of this book takes place in the prime of the Maltshop era. Large PB, very good condition, $3.00 Angel Unaware (Dale Evans Rogers) 1953. The reason I've included this book in my picks, is that it was read and cried over by all the teen girls when I was that age. The little tiny, sick girl who was the baby daughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, only lived a couple of years, but apparently had a big impact on her family and others. It's written as if the baby were talking to God, and mostly deals with her wish to return to Heaven. I don't know if I could read something this sweet any more, but as a little girl, it really wiped me out. Cute little book with a picture of the baby in one corner of the DJ, and Roy and Dale looking up at her from the lower corner. HB, DJ, $3.00 Mr and Mrs Bo Jo Jones (Ann Head) 1967. I've read this quite a few times, and I will probably read it again very soon. Teenagers in trouble, run away and get married. That's far from being the whole story, but it's the start of a compelling story about growing up and trying to make a life together. I think it was written as a book for adults, but there's nothing to make it unsuitable for teens. If you, like me, find a fascination in these "teen marriage" books, this will intrigue you. Someone asked me if we were married as teens, since I like this sort of story so much. Well, no we didn't! Don't ask me why I like them so much, but I think it's because there are always so many details of finding an apartment, furnishing it, cooking, finances, etc. PB, good condition, $2.00 another PB in mediocre condition, perfectly readable. $1.50 The Middle Sister (Miriam E. Mason)1947. Mason's books are so good! I don't remember reading them as a child, although I was the right age. I just MAY have forgotten some of the books I read back then, hard to imagine! Anyway, this one is wonderful! Family moves from Ohio to Minnesota (when it was the frontier) and each child can take one special thing. Sarah Samantha chooses her young apple tree. The trials that poor tree had to go through! Will it survive to allow SS to make an apple dumpling for Uncle Romeo? I suspect this story is a metaphor for the troubles our forefathers went through during the Westward expansion, but don't let that stop you! Dave and I loved it. HB, XL, some pages are warped, but no odor. $2.00 The Middle Sister (Miriam Mason) 1947. Historical setting, book for middle-grade readers. Family moves from Ohio to Minnesota, the girl takes her apple tree along with her! It's a wonderful story of all the things she did to protect the tree, and finally harvest its first apples. Dave and I just read this story together, and were tickled by the dear story, the nice family, the funny situations, and the really, really unexpected ending! PB, $1.50 I capture the Castle (Dodie Smith) 1948. This edition of a sort of classic (in an underground kind of way)has a recommendation from J. K. Rowling right on the front cover. This book is nothing at all like Harry Potter, except for being British. A girl's diary of her life in a run-down castle, and grows up through her teen years. I can't explain it better than that, but you will probably like it very much! Large PB, fine condition, $2.00 Ghost Town Adventure (Rutherford Montgomery) 1942. I like this one for several reasons. The wilderness setting, the hard-working kids having the time of their lives setting up housekeeping in a deserted town and working out ways to make a living, the tame and unusual animals, a hint, just a hint, of romance, the family life. I've read it 3 times, including once out loud to Dave, who liked it very much, too. PB, good condition, nice cover picture of a girl and a forest ranger smiling into each other's eyes! $2.00 Ida Early Comes over the Mountain (Robert Burch) 1980. There's no denying it, Ida Early is quite peculiar in her clothing, appearance, and actions. She entrances the motherless family she takes care of, but no one in that tiny, depression-era Georgia town, knows how to treat this kind but strange person. PB, $2.00 Christmas with Ida Early (Burch) 1983. Sequel to Ida Early Comes over the Mountain. If you read the first one, you'll wish you had the 2nd, so might as well order them both. What nice stories! What a wonderful character! PB, very good cond, $2.00 Love From your Friend, Hannah (Mindy Warshaw Skolsky) 1998. OK, relatively recent, but just a glimpse of the cover of this PB will make you want to read it. Hannah, in 1937, in her red school dress, sitting on a stool at the counter of a -- yes, it's true -- Maltshop! There are the pies on little shelves in a showcase, a big menu, and an American flag, stuck in a picture of FDR! That's your hint of one of Hannah's many correspondents, the president of the US, his wife, and other people in the administration. It's fiction, but full of real events and things that happen in the year covered by this incredible and adorable book.
PB, $2.00 Strangers in the Desert (alice Dyar Russell) "A Ghost Town's dusty mines hid the only Clue to the fate of a boy who was front-page news" says the front cover of this Comet/Books edition. These are the PBs that have 9 squares on the back cover, with a synopsis of the story under the pictures, and a lovely interior format. Lots of pictures and an amazing front cover picture! Originally published in HB in 1938, this edition came out in 1949. Just holding it in my hands makes me happy, it's such a wonderful edition. Fairly good condition, really good mystery, interesting characters, desert setting, plenty of good reading. $3.00 Books written and/or illustrated by Kate Seredy. I'm listing these in this section because I've just finished writing about Seredy's life (the article appeared in the May, 2007 issue of Whispered Watchword.) If you are intered in reading bookswritten and illustrated by her, or other people's books that she illustrated, here are a few of them. If there aren't many here, I'll try to find more very soon. A Brand-New Uncle (written and illustrated by Seredy)1961. A loving grandfather, but he does get tired of being at the beck and call of all those children and grands, as well as all their pets. So he decides to have his fling, before it's too late. At the same time, a boy is running away from an intolerable situation. I just re-read the book, and I can hardly type, over the tears in my eyes. Seredy is like that, never sentimental, but she knows how to touch your emotions. If you've read A Tree for Peter or The Chestry Oak, you know what I mean. HB, XL, wonderful illustrations $3.50 The Good Master 1935 A Newbery award winning book The Singing Tree 1939 sequel to Good Master. Both by Kate Seredy. These 2 PBs are in fairly good condition. Together, they tell the story of Kate and Jancsi, cousins who live with his father, "the good master." Starting in pre-war Hungary, with carefree fun on horseback and around the countryside, they gradually tell about the changes that come to their country. These beautiful books have been appreciated by kids, including myself, for more than 70 years, so if you haven't read them, here's your chance to read both at the same time. The illustrations are by the author, except the cover of Singing Tree, which is a revised picture -- I guess you know I can never figure out why they do that to reprints! 2 XL PBs, $3.75 The White Stag (Kate Seredy) 1937. Newbery Award Book. Written for ages 8-12, this is historic and legendary story of the Huns, and their leader, Atilla, as they follow an elusive stag across the land. PB, $1.00 The White Stag (with incredibly fine full-page illustrations by the author.) Hardcover, XL, good condition, with a very good DJ. $3.50 LOIS LENSKI books -- we really like these books about children from all over the country, mostly living in poverty but usually joyful and adventurous. She wrote and also illustrated all of her books. Judy's Journey (written and illustrated by Lenski) 1947. Award-winning book that got high praises from people who worked with migrant workers and child labor foes, but it's also an entertaining and dramatic story about a girl who doesn't let a rough life get her down. Full of wonderful Lenski illustrations and humor with a very satisfying ending. PB, good condition, $2 Policeman Small (written and illus by Lenski) It's all here except for the title page and pages before the text starts. Probably torn out when book was taken out of the library. Song is there at the beginning, and all of the text. Funny, cute, instructive, for beginning readers or lovers of Lenski's art. HB, XL, PC, $2.50 Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (Newbery Honor book) 1941. Written and illustrated by Lenski except for the cover on this reprint. good condition PB, $1.50 Alice, Or The Mysteries (Edward Bulwar-Lytton) No date on this little gem, but it looks very elderly. You probably won't want to read this, but who knows, maybe you will love it! Very small print. I couldn't resist it, as there aren't too many books with Alice as a character. The cover is quite decorative, red with a silhouette of Alice, stylized flowers and designs. $1.00 Mr. Twig's Mistake (Robert Lawson) 1947. I guess this could be called sci-fi, or maybe it's just fantasy, but when I was a little girl, it tickled me no end! A very unusual premise -- a boy takes on a mole as a pet, and the darn thing starts growing much larger than any other mole in history. Could anyone figure out why? That's the unusual part, and I won't spoil it for you. The illustrations by Lawson are just as much fun as the story. It's pretty easy to see why they enchanted me so much as a kid! Very nice large PB, $2.00 ---------------------------------- Adult book -- not YA. Ghost Girl (Torey Hayden) 1991. Have you read any of Hayden's books? She's a special education teacher, who specializes in the most difficult children in the world, abused, mute, destructive, extremely sad. She writes about her children in a downright, but absolutely riviting manner. This is one of the most amazing of all, and I've read many of her books. PB, $1.50 Because of Winn-Dixie (Kate DiCamillo) 2000. A cute little book that we first picked up because of the trailer-camp picture on the cover, then loved it for the very nice story inside. Girl lives with her loving but inattentive father, and is adopted by a rather nondescript dog that follows her from the grocery store. Newbery Honor book, and this is one of the times that I fully agree with their committee! PB, rather square (an unusual size and shape,) Good condition $2.00 (2) Good Morning, Miss Dove (Frances Gray Patton) 1954. One of my young-teen favorites, a sentimental or nostalgic look back at the teaching life of a strict but fair teacher. A kind of female "Goodbye, Mr Chips." PB, $2.00 Here's a cute little hardcover book (DJ, too!) about Bears -- The Teddy variety. The Little Book of Celebrity Bears -- featuring Paddington on the front. $1 Miracles on Maple Hill (Virginia Sorensen) Newbery medal winner 1957. Family moves to a farm to help Father get well after his return from being a POW. They need a miracle, and they're helped by the turn of the seasons, especially the maple sap rising in the spring, and the making of maple syrup. Fine condition paperback, $2.00 Plain Girl (Virginia Sorensen) 1955. About a Pennsylvania Dutch girl who goes to school with other kinds of children, and wishes she could wear a pretty dress. Nice Scholastic PB, $1.00 Blue Willow (Doris Gates) 1940. About the MOST satisfying books you can ever read. Absolutely sweet story about a very poor migrant farmer girl who wants a home. Newbery Honor book and one of the most deserving! Everyone I know who has read it, loves it very much. The ending will probably make you cry, but with joy. PB in good condition, with the clever original Paul Lantz art. $2.25 PB in fair condition -- I get lots of requests for the book, so I'll offer these as reading copies for $1.25 The Year of the Dream (Jane collier) 1962. Nice family wants a boat, so they all work together for a whole year to earn the money for it. Lots of interesting money-making schemes! PB, $1.50 Baby Island (Carol Ryrie Brink) 1937. A dream come true for a girl who loves babies! 2 sisters are shipwrecked on a desert island with 4 assorted babies. All the details of providing for their charges plus a bit of mystery -- of course! This is the perfect book for a long read in front of the fire on a freezing winter day. Treats a very serious subject with the lightest of touches, and such happiness! PB $1.50 Books by Lenora Mattingly Weber. These have recently been reissued in beautiful PB editions Image Cascade publishing, but die-hard fans like to own the "actual" HB book that we read as teens. Now it's a lot cheaper to do just that, since the reprints have come out and the market for the originals has dropped! If there are no Weber books available now, I hope to have more at another time. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Maida books are So Beautiful! By the way, the Maida series is just about my favorite series, along with Judy, Trixie, and Beany. Maida is entirely different from any of the other series, and entirely loveable to me! I'll be listing more Maida books in the future, but in the meantime, maybe you'll spot some, and I recommend that you read them for sure! MORE OF ALICE'S PICKS! Books by Frieda Friedman. She wrote the most beautiful books for middle-grade girls! Since I was a girl myself, I've loved her books, and re-read them when I need something to counteract the complexities of adult life in the 21st century. Wonderful families in every-day situations, realistic stories, and believable happy endings. New York City settings. I'll be sure to list any Friedman books that come my way. The Janitor's Girl (Friedman) 1956. Such a good story! Her father is actually "The Super," but a snobby girl in the building calls him the janitor, and makes life miserable for her. Still, she finds wonderful friends, and eventually the snob almost wishes -- well, I won't tell you more! PB, Mary Stevens illustrations! $2.00 The Nanny Diaries (McLaughlin and Kraus) 2002. I don't try to sell adult books very often, and to tell the truth, I don't read them very often. But I came across this one, took a look, and didn't surface until I finished it. It's fiction, but there is a note that it is based on truth and the experience of the authors. College student becomes a nanny to a very, very rich but disfunctional family. It's pretty appalling to read about what she encounters (though she just loves the little boy, probably much more than his mother does.) Not appropriate for a child, I imagine it would be rated for over 16 years of age. HB, DJ, good condition, $2.00 Books written and illustrated by Carolyn Haywood. I really enjoy her realistic but humorous stories about Eddie, Betsy, and the rest of the group. By the way, the first Haywood was published before I was born, so I grew up with these darling books. The children remind me of myself and my friends in grade school! These are mostly "chapter books" of 150-200 pages Here Comes the Bus (Carolyn Haywood) 1968. This is one of 2 books that Haywood wrote about a boy who lives in MAINE! The bus driver was based on a real school bus driver -- we talked with him after we discovered this book, and he remembered Haywood's riding with him several times and interviewing him to get all the necessary background for the stories. An absolutely lovely story of the bus rides, and family life with Haywood's sweet illustrations throughout. HB, XL, with good DJ. $4.00 Back to School with Betsy (Haywood) PB reissue of a 1943 original. Has the chubby-cheeked NOT original cover illustration. Internal illustrations are the original Haywood ones. Taped spine. $1.25 =================================== Books by Catherine Woolley, one of my very favorite authors. She turned 100 years old last summer! One whole issue of Whispered Watchword was dedicated to her, with many very loving reviews of her books (some written by me.) You can read some Woolleys to honor her along with people on Cape Cod, who are all celebrating her birthday!!!) Note: Sadly, Catherine Woolley died a couple of years ago, just after her 100th birthday. All the Ginnie and all the Cathy series go on my best-loved lists! I'll try to have more Ginnie and Cathy books, as well as other Woolley books, pretty soon. Ginnie and the mystery Doll (Woolley) 1960. it's an antique doll, which appears and disappears in this wonderful Cape Cod setting. PB, fair cond, $1.25 END OF "ALICE'S PICKS" SECTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SERIES BOOKS -- HARDCOVER UNLESS NOTED +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ BEGINNING OF TRIXIE BELDEN COLLECTION (see more Trixies under "Suzanne's books") *** NOTE!! *** I've been surprised -- or might I say "Shocked?" that some people who visit our web page have NOT read Trixie Belden books!!!! They are the Gold Standard of girls' series books from the mid-to-later 20th century! To meet Trixie is to love her! Here's a chance to start your collection with the first few reasonably priced)books in the series. And you may nearly complete your collection with the extremely scarce, much more expensive, later volumes that I'm offering. By the way, my prices were set after looking at the "Completed auctions" on Ebay, but I used the lowest prices for each volume as my guide! You're welcome to ask me about condition before you spring for the more expensive books! Trixie #2, Red Trailer -- Cameo edition, with darling Mary Stevens illustrations. Good condition, one of my favorite stories, since it includes a trailer trip, and life in a trailer campground. This is a fairly scarce format, and the most beautiful of the Trixie formats. Slight separation of front cover from rest of the pages. $4.00 Trixie Belden #3 Gatehouse Mystery (1951.) In this book, Trixie's brothers, who play such a large part in future books, come home. The Bob-White club is formed, and they fix up their clubhouse. One copy is the beautiful, unusual "cameo" style, with a small picture of Trixie in the upper corner, bigger picture fills the whole front cover. Mary Stevens illustrations. Fair cond. $4 Trixie Belden and the Gatehouse Mystery, I think this is the first format, regular size hardcover, originally with a DJ, here without it, but with a very romantic-looking cottage under the moon, on the printed picture cover. Nice Mary Stevens ilustrations, including a nice border all around the front and back endpapers, showing the Bob-Whites in various amusing or exciting situations. Fairly nice condition. $3.00 Another copy is a library edition, hardcover made from PB. Paperback size. Very sturdy. $3 Trixie #3, paperback with oval cover picture, pretty nice copy, $2.00 Trixie Belden #4, mysterious Visitor. A new member of the BobWhites, another appearance of the well-known trailer! Mysterious Visitor in a small Whitman HB, good cond, $3.00 Mysterious visitor PB -- fairly good cond $2.00 reading copy $1.00 Trixie Belden #5 Mystery off Glen Road -- a wedding at Honey's home, a hurricane, lots more. Paul Frame illustrations (some in full color) Whitman Deluxe edition in good condition, $5.00 Trixie #5 Glen Road -- small Whitman format, with Trixie and Honey with their horses, on the cover. Good condition, $3.00 Trixie Belden and Mystery in Arizona #6(1958.) "cellophane" edition, illus by Mary Stevens. Bob-whites' first trip away from Sleepside, to a dude ranch in Tucson. These cello editions are not usually in great condition, but this one is as good as you will find any of them. They are beautiful and collectable HB, PC $4.00 Trixie Belden and the Mysterious Code #7 School rules are against secret clubs, so The Bob-Whites have to prove that they're doing worthwhile things. They have an antique show to benefit Unicef -- and all those antiques attract some shady elements! HB, Small Whitman format with picture cover. $3.00 Trixie #9, Happy Valley Mystery Small Whitman picture cover ed, good condition, $3 Trixie #11, Bob-White Cave Small Whitman HB PC edition (this is one of my favorite Trixies, as they spend a vacation in the Ozark Mountains, and go spelunking) Good condition, $3.00 Trixie #12, Mystery of the Blinking Eye -- CAmeo edition, illustrated by Paul Frame. Very nice condition of this collectable and rather scarce edition, combined with such a good story! Oh well, I love all the Trixie stories, don't I? You will, too! Trixie Cameo #12, $4.50 Trixie #15, Mystery on the Mississippi. Bob Whites take a trip on a river barge, and of course the criminals follow them, or is it the other way around? Side trip to Mark Twain sites, which were the reason for a PF trip a few years back. PB, a bit of wear around the bottom and corners of the cover, but not at all bad. Clean and tight. $2.50 Trixie #15, Mystery on the Mississippi -- small hardcover, which is the way the PBs were bound when they were sold to libraries. The front has a paste-down picture from the original PB with oval picture, but the interior has a very sturdy small hardcover binding. In very nice condition. $2.50 Trixie #34, Mystery of the Missing Millionaire -- one of the scarce titles! I absolutely love the plot of this one, but I won't give it away at all. PB in very good condition, $8.00 ********************************************************************************** JUDY BOLTON ! Start your Judy library at reasonable prices, or get started on an extra set of the very best of series for your niece or daughter! We have made laser copies of the DJs for many of these books, to make them look much nicer than the "undressed" copies. Most of us have a very hard time telling the difference between an original DJ and the copy, the LDJs look so beautiful. The later numbered Judy Bolton books are unfortunately much harder to find than the early ones, and are therefore much more expensive. I looked at Ebay and ABEbooks for guidelines, and tried to be more reasonable than either one. I love to get these wonderful books out to people who really want them! If you love Judy, take a look at My Sister Sarah's Charm Bracelets, near the beginning of this web page. One of the bracelets features Judy Bolton charms! I've recently realized that some of my customers/friends don't read Judy Bolton books. So I'm going to try to explain why so many people are in love with this series, which is really different from other series! What I came up with is this -- each book is, of course, a complete story that can be read and vastly enjoyed by itself, the entire series is also a very long, continuing story about a girl, her friends, her romance, and in a way, the history of a town. Judy grows in age and experience, and (in contrast to most of the other series of that era) never forgets what has happened to her in the past. You will get to know what happens to Judy, but also you can follow her friends and acquaintances, as well as her own family. The mysteries are really interesting, and the side stories are full of the kinds of things that most of us love to read about -- summer camp, parties, friendships, marriages, pets. Many people read all the Judy's in order every few years, as if we are reading one long, long continuing story. Here are quite a few Judy Bolton stories -- these are old books, some in fairly good condition, some kind of worn out, but all wrapped up in nice laser copies of the original dust jackets. The pictures are vintage Pelagie Doane art, and in some ways, as collectible as the books themselves. Remember, if you take a laser copy of anything, it will have pictures of the same flaws that appear in the original item, so these LDJs have pictures of holes or tape or creases, wherever the original had any of those things. These were all taken from my own personal copies of the DJs, so my beloved books have these same holes, tapes, or creases! In many cases, what you are paying for is actually just above the cost of making the copies of the dust jackets -- the book comes along for the same price! Dates from the early 30s through the mid-60s. The classic series book era! #2 The Haunted Attic -- After the big flood, Judy and Horace and their parents move to a house that will be the scene of several mysterious happenings over the years! In this book, we begin to see Judy's role as defender of people who are victims of prejudice, as well as victims of crime. Very dear story! Laser copy of the DJ, by Pelagie Doane, shows Judy and Horace in the messy attic, trying to figure out what's causing the menacing noises and sightings. HB, LDJ, $5.00 #3 The Invisible Chimes -- Judy and her brother Horace meet lifelong friend Honey, and they start to unravel the story of her background. Book in fair condition, outer covering of spine is missing. Looks good in especially attractive dust jacket (a laser copy of it.) $4.00 #4 Seven Strange Clues -- The high school burns down, and Judy wants to know what caused this disaster. A poster contest provides some clues. Laser repro DJ by Pelagie Doane shows Judy and several of her friends, gazing down a mysterious trap door. HB, LDJ, $5.00 Another copy of Seven STrange Clues in laser DJ, but the book itself isn't in very good condition. Covering of outer spine has been glued on. Looks good with LDJ. Pages of text are just fine! $4.00 #5 The Ghost Parade -- A wonderful camp story! After the HS burns down, the students have an extra-long vacation, so Judy and her friends take a trip to the Thousand Island Camp. Blackberry the cat goes along with them, and it's a good thing he did! What he did for them, is the basis for his future reputation as a very smart kitty. You'll love the picture on the laser copy of the original DJ which I put on this book. A bunch of really scary masks on a deep red background, stunning! Dark green cover on the book, fairly good condition, with a small light stain on the front cover and age-darkened pages. The LDJ really makes this book look good. HB, LDJ, $5.50 #6 -- The Yellow Phantom -- most of the action is in NY city. One friend gets a job, another meets her hero and gets engaged while Judy solves several mysteries! It has the newer DJ picture of the laser copy of the newer DJ picture. Red tweed book in fair condition, but looks good with the laser copy of the DJ! $5.00 #11 The Unfinished House. This is one of my own personal favorites. AFter the flood, the town is being rebuilt. Judy and Peter help a defrauded woman get back at the con artists by designing and overseeing the building of a small house. Mysterious illnesses, strange noises, and a cute little boy. Nice intricate picture on the laser copy of the original DJ. Thick green covered book, Moderately good condition, pages nice and clean. $7.50 #13 The Name on the Bracelet -- Now Judy really IS engaged, but what problems! Her friend has a brand new baby, but there's a mix-up here, too. A strange story, with sinister characters and great suspense. Nice cover picture with a cute bassinet to indicate the inclusion of a little one. Judy and her friends are growing up! Thick green book is firm and complete, with clean pages, but it has a stained cover. Looks very good with its laser copy of the original DJ. $8.00 #15. The Mark on the Mirror -- Friends giving Judy a wedding shower! Does anything like this ever happen in a Nancy Drew or Cherry Ames? Definitely not! But you know that something mysterious will happen before very long. Nice cover picture of Judy and Blackberry (cat) looking in a mirror, while a beautiful old grandfather clock looks on. Possible child abuse, long-lost family members, all kinds of interesting subjects. Thick green book, exterior in fair condition, pages clean except for a bit of edge discoloration. Book plus LDJ, $9.00 Now here are MORE Judy Boltons!!! #1 Vanishing Shadow -- orange cover -- fair-to-good cond $3 #1 Vanishing Shadow -- paperback (very unusual!) This book has a cute picture on the cover -- artist's idea of what Judy looks like may not agree with ours, but she's not bad! And Blackberry as a kitten, in her arms. Tempo Books PB from 1987 $3 #2 Haunted Attic -- thick green book in good condition, with original DJ, in fair cond. DJ is all there except part of the spine. The front and back covers are all there, and there's a plastic dj cover to protect everything. $4.00 #2 Haunted Attic, thick green book in very nice condition except for slightly brown (uniformly colored) pages. $3.00 #2 Haunted Attic, red tweed thin edition, with original DJ -- book in really nice condition, DJ has a big piece out of the lower right front cover, but Judy's picture is all there, and the rest of the cover is complete. $4.00 #4 Seven Strange Clues. Judy and her friends find more of the secrets that lurk in the house that the Boltons moved into after the flood. Old green-covered book, nice laser copy of the original dust jacket. Pages uniformly brown with age. Book plus LDJ, $10.00 #5 Ghost Parade, red tweed cover, corners of spine rubbed and bumped, interior very nice. $5.00 #7 Mystic Ball -- thick green covers, spine is sunned, pages are age-darkened, but the book is in overall pretty good condition. Judy and Peter try to expose a phony fortune-teller who has frightened their superstitious friends, especially Irene. Great story! $4.50 #11 Unfinished House. I love this one! Maybe because it takes you through the entire process of building a house, from designing to moving in. Also, there's a wonderful and especially interesting mystery, even a medical mystery. Maybe I love it because I remember it so well from my girlhood. Anyway, enjoy it! Thick green cover, slightly loose interior binding, rough spot at top of exterior spine. $5.00 ____________________________________________________________________________ OTHER SERIES BOOKS INCLUDING GIRLS' AND LITTLE CHILDREN'S SERIES!! First -- books by our wonderful Mildred Wirt! As you can see, I can't keep them long enough to let very many people see them. I'll keep trying! Penny Parker Mystery Series by Mildred Wirt -- (I'll try to have more Penny Parkers in the near future!) Penny Nichols series by "Joan Clark" are actually by Mildred Wirt, and many people consider these to be pretty much clones of the later Penny Parker series. Penny N. is also a lively girl with a slightly less lively sidekick girlfriend, and a widowed father who is in this case, a detective. She zooooooms around town in her little car, and helps her father with his cases. To me, every bit as good as the Penny Parker series! Motor Maids in Fair Japan (Katherine Stokes) 1913. #5 in a series of 6 books that take these intrepid girls all over the map in a car! The picture on the cover of this book obviously is for no other volume in the series, as it shows a Japanese lady bowing down to one of the Motor Maids and what looks like a beautiful tea house in the background. There is also a frontispiece and a few internal illustrations. The book is holding together, but there is a rough spot along the back edge of the spine, so it won't look beautiful in your bookcase. Otherwise, in pretty good shape for a book of such venerable age. $2.50 Dan Carter, Cub Scout (Mildred Wirt) 1949. HB Book is nice and firm, with just a few marks on the red cover. $3.00 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Recent Whispered Watchword reviews rate the Marjorie Dean series highly! Loyal friends, high morals (except for the girls who have low morals!) parties, schooldays, clothes, and a tad of romance. Life of upper-middle class girls in the 2nd decade of the 20th century. Here are some books from this series, so you can enjoy them for yourselves! I'll try to include more Marjorie Dean books in the next list! Marjorie Dean, High-School Junior (1917) You guessed it, she's a junior! Rather worn book, but still holding together. Basketball team picture on the cover. This book involves an interesting mystery that causes far-reaching results for Marjorie and her friends. $2.50 Christie and Company Down East (Katherine Hall Page) 1997. Second (I think) in this really good series about 3 girls who met at a boarding school. They all happen to be fans of Agatha Christie, so they aren't sad when mysteries keep turning up! In this one, they spend a vacation in Maine original home of one of the girls. PB, very good condition, $2.00 Joy and Gypsy Joe (Dorothy Whitehill) 1927. From a short series about Joy Payton. She's a little girl who ran away from an unhappy home, and joined the gypsies! This is the first book in the series, which in an unusual one, you can imagine, but also has a lot of the earmarks of other series of the times -- parties, boarding school, trips, etc. HB book in fair condition. Nothing loose or broken, but the cover is discolored from age, and the edges of the pages are getting brown. $2.00 The Phantom Stallion (A Penny of Paintrock Story) 1961. there are only 2 in this cute little series about a girl and her horse. Very attractive, wholesome picture cover of a black horse, blonde girl in Western clothes, with a cowboy on a horse coming up in the background. I'm sure there were originally more books planned for the Trixie-like series, but these two are worth reading, anyway. This one has everything -- mystery, horses, rodeo, troubles and good times. Book is sturdy and very firm, but someone did a bit of "artwork" on the back cover and there are names along the page edges and endpapers. Text is clean. HB, PC, $2.50 Dana Girls mysteries were the equal of the Nancy Drews for many years. Too bad they are now discontinued! I guess you have to put 2 sisters together to make one Nancy Drew, but of course, they sometimes have to go to school, while Nancy is fancy-free. By the Light of the Study Lamp (Dana Girls #1) tweed book, in a DJ, dated 1934, but I think this is a later picure, the girls in little tailored suits, watching a man who is contemplating entering a French window. The DJ is in fair condition, but luckily the front cover is the best part of it, about 95% present, just the corners are gone. Book cover in fair condition, pages nice and clean. $3.00 Secret of the Swiss Chalet (Dana Girls revised picture cover edition, #7) HB in good condition, $2.50 The Haunted Lagoon (Dana Girls revised picture cover edition, #8) HB in good cond, $2.50 Mystery of the Bamboo Bird (Dana Girls revised picture cover edition, #9) this is a former library book in pretty good condition but with a library sticker on the back. and a sticker on the back cover. Interior pages are very nice. HB, $2.00 Winking Ruby Mystery (Dana Girls revised picture cover edition, #12) good condition HB, $2.50 The Curious Coronation (newer PC, #14.) The book is in rather poor condition, but the cover picture is pretty good. Clear tape along spine, inside and out. Everything's there -- you'll be able to read and enjoy it. $2.00 Each of the JEAN CRAIG books has a colorful picture cover. Jean Craig Grows Up (Kay Lyttleton) 1948. Cute plot for this, the first in the Craig family series. She doesn't grow up TOO much, since there are 4 more books to come before everyone in the family finds a place in the world. Book is in typical condition for the "cellophane" edition of this series. Inside, it's very nice, front and back covers are good, but the spine is showing its age. Binding good and tight. $3.00 Jean Craig in New York (Lyttleton) 2nd in Craig family series. Each of the Craig children faces decisions, especially Jean. She doesn't know whether to marry her suitor or try for a career. HB, book in the typical condition of this series, tight binding, good pages, but a few cracks in the exterior spine. Cover is OK. $2.50 Jean Craig Finds Romance (Kay Lyttleton) 1948. 3rd book in the series about a whole family, not just Jean. In this one, she does have a couple of suitors, but she still has her career ahead of her! And the are all kinds of other things going on in her large family! I always sell out of this series -- I guess people like it. HB, PC, very good condition. $3.50 Jean Craig, Graduate Nurse (Lyttleton) 1950. It's wonderful to read about the Craig family as they actually do grow up by this time, romances flower, careers take off, and you feel that you've followed friends from childhood to adulthood. HB, very nice condition. $4.00 Patty and Jo, Detectives. There are 2 books in this short series, very enjoyable! In the first book, twin sisters, orphans, are invited to spend Christmas with their unknown guardian, at his woodsy lodge. But when they get there, he's nowhere to be found! Nan Sherwood is a nice old series (there are 7 in all) about a girl who starts out facing poverty but like most of these old series, eventually can go to boarding school and chase around the world. Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall: Or, the Mystery of the Haunted Boathouse (Carr) 1916. 2nd book in series, no DJ, but the book is neat, firm, and clean. $3.00 Books by Grace May North -- She wrote at least 2 series in the '20s. Here are a couple of her non-series books that would be fine additions to any series! Well constructed, coherent plots, with interesting characters and attractive settings. Meg of Mystery Mountain (Grace May North) 1924. Stunning story! You've probably read the plot many times, but never so well-done, and in such a wonderful setting. Selfish, snobby, rich girl's father loses all his money (by being the only honest person in his company!) She's still pround and disdanful, thinks she's better than almost anyone else. Hurts her family terribly, almost causes total disaster for her father, brothers and sister, to say nothing of Meg, a worthy and noble girl for whom the book is named! Setting is a log home high in the Rocky Mountains. HB, fair condition, $2.00 Nan of the Gypsies (Grace May North) 1926. Nan is happy being a gypsy, but a good lady decides to "civilize" her. It's very interesting to read about whether and/or how this succeeds. This book must have been very popular, as I've run across several editions of it. This one is one of those attractive, large Saalfield YA editions, brown cover with nice no-nonsense black letters in the title. The pages have turned brown with age, but they aren't brittle, and are firmly set in the binding. $3.00 Little City by the Lake (Celia Wilkins) from a series related to the Little House Books. It takes place in 1833, and tells about Caroline, Laura's mother. Nice quality paperback, with lots of pictures, and a very attractive cover. $1.50 Janet Hardy in Radio City (Ruthe S. Wheeler) 1935. Wheeler wrote several good stories all with a bit of mystery in them, and I always sell them fast (because I can honestly recommend them?) This is second of a 2-book series about Janet, who goes to work in Hollywood and then to radio city, though she's only a teen. These are sort of career romances, as she develops a great interest in the inner workings of acting and the what goes on behind the shows. In the end, she has a big decision to make, about her future career. A frightening mystery among other things! HB, old but good cond. $3.50 Theatre Shoes (Noel Streatfeild) Front cover says "A companion to Ballet Shoes")Nice Dell Yearling Paperback, $2.00 Grace Harlowe series -- one of the longest of the old, old series. Takes Grace through high school, college, helping out during the Great War, and into the world. It's unusual to find any of these books in good condition, as they were not made to last through the ages. However, they hold together, and are complete and readable. Starting around the year of 1911. I hope to have more Grace Harlowe books soon. Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College (Jessie Graham Flower: A.M.) 1914. Well, you guessed it -- she's a junior at college. Still having fun and just the tiniest touch of romance. Fair condition, has a few flaws, mainly a piece missing from the very top of the spine. $2.50 Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the Kentucky Mountaineers (1921.) Self-explanatory title! Book in fair condition, holding together, but you wouldn't want to drop it from a high place. HB with picture cover. $2.00 Grace harlowe's Overland Riders in the Yellowstone National Park (1923) In those days, I guess you didn't just drive around the park and gawk at the sights, you really had to be an overland rider! Book is in fair condition, has been mended with transparent tape and it's going to last through a few more readings. $2.00 Polly Brewster Series -- Big Lot! 1922-1925. Polly lived at Pebbly Pit in the Southwest, where her family owned a mine. Soon enough, she branched out, and lived the life that seemed to be so dear to the hearts of rich series book girls in the early '20s -- traveling, dabbling in business, giving and attending grand parties, going everywhere with a group of loyal friends. She still loved The Southwest (Colorado in this case) and returned there from time to time. Here are 7 of the first 8 books. I'm not trying to say that the books are in good condition! They are between fairly good and fairly poor, but all there, and not falling apart or anything like that! For the price, I'm not going to go into more detail than that, but suffice it to say that they are somewhere above just "reading copies." Titles: Polly of Pebbly Pit Polly and eleanor Polly in New York Polly and her Friends Abroad Polly's Business Venture Polly in South America Polly in the Southwest Seven Polly Brewster books (no Djs) $18.00 Polly Brewster series #2 -- Polly and Eleanor. Pages are brown with age, and cover has a few stains, but it's firm and tight, a good reading copy. HB, $2 Little Sunshine's Holiday (Miss Mulock) I don't know whether this is part of a series or not, it has all the earmarks, but I didn't locate it in the Girls' Series Companion. There's no date listed, though all the pages are present, so this is something of a mystery to me. The pictures date it somewhere around the turn of the last century. It tells about a very young girl who travels to Scotland with her mother and father, and has a few unusual adventures (you'll love the picture of her confusion when confronted by a kilt-clad man!) The cover picture is another mystery, showing a very fashionable young woman in maybe her early 20s, I don't know who that may be. The parasol and gigantic hat might help you date the book, if you know your fashion history. All in all, it's fun and in very good condition for a book of probably 100 years of age. $3.00 Merriweather Girls! Here's an unusual series, including 4 books, all about a group of girls who help people and have a whale of a good time while doing it. I'll try to have more Merriweather Girls in the future! Merriweather Girls on Campers' Trail (Lizzette Edholm) 1932. 2nd book in series. Very nice camping story, and lots of fun doing good deeds. Book is in fairly neat cond, but has age-browned pages. $2.50 Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Sidney) this is the first in a very old series. The wonderful thing about this hardcover reprint is that it has Barbara Cooney illustrations! There's a nice full-color frontispiece, and b/w drawings all the way through. Book in very good condition. $3.00 The "Melody Lane" series by Lillian Garis is quite unusual. I guess it's one of those series that you either love or hate. I happen to like it VERY much! It's atmospheric and creepy in some ways, but very down-to-earth and realistic on others. Like Judy Bolton, the girls of Melody Lane lived during the Depression. Carol, the main character has to work at least part time, but has many chances to solve mysteries and expose the same type of evil-doers that Judy does -- scam artists, fortune-tellers, fake ghosts, and people who prey on innocent children. I highly recommend the books, but be aware that some people find them less snappy and concise than the Nancy Drews. 1933 and 1934. I'll try to have more Melody Lane books in the near future! In the meantime, good luck finding some yourself -- I think you will really enjoy them! While you're looking, try some of Garis' other books, which are similar but present other characters. The Tower Secret (Melody Lane #3 by Lilian Garis) Pelagie Doane illustrations. I won't try to summarize the story. Towers are always sinister, aren't they? Fairly good condition book, covered by a laser copy of the original DJ, showing 2 girls in PJs, sitting on a bed looking out at the night, illuminated by rays of light from the tower. HB, LDJ, $6.00 Betsy-Tacy Books by Maud Hart Lovelace, just about the best of all series books in the whole world! Shame on you if you haven't discovered them, but I can't say much, since I didn't read them until I was an adult. The first book is just right for early readers, and each book gets just a little bit more advanced, until the last book, which is about Betsy's first year of marriage. My daughters loved these books tremendously, and so do Dave and I! My oldest grandson had them read to him when he was a pre-schooler, and I like to think that it's part of the reason he's turned out to be such a wonderful kid. If you haven't read every single one of the Betsy-Tacy books, you have missed one of series-bookdom's greatest treats! I resisted reading them for years, though my daughters told me they were wonderful. Then, when we were going to our first PF reunion, in Mankato, MN, the actual town where the Betsy-Tacy books were set (called Deep Valley)I started to read the series. Well --- I want to tell you, I'll always listen to my daughters' recommendations after this! These books are indescribably good. It's best to read them in order, as I fortunately did, and they have all been reissued in the past few years, so you can do just that. By the way, don't judge the series by the first book (Betsy-Tacy) because the books "grow up" with the girls, sort of like the Little House books. In the first, the girls are just turning 5, and a 5-year-old would enjoy that book. Eventually, the girls grow up, go to high school, and even marry. The content and reading level of the books grow along with them, and become ever more gripping! (If I don't have any Betsy-Tacy books for sale, watch for some in the future!) Betsy-Tacy (Lovelace) 1940. This is a nice pb (Harper Trophy) with the original Lenski art on the cover as well as interior. Sweet little story for sweet little girls, about sweet little girls. Very good condition. $2.00 (4) Another copy of Betsy-Tacy in fair but perfectly readable condition, $1.00 Betsy-Tacy and Tib (B and T meet the 3rd girl in the trio that sticks together pretty much for life.) PB with Lenski cover pic and internals. $2.00 (2) Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (Lovelace) 1942. Lenski illustrations except for the cover, which has the "grotesque" newer ilustration. Harper Trophy PB. $1.50 Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill with the Lenski cover $2.00 (3) Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. 1943. Amusing Lenski cover and illustrations. 4th book in series. PB $2.00 Cherry Ames, the most popular nurse series ever printed, a nurse with a thousand specialties, all of them interesting and romantic -- and connected with fascinating myseries! You will love these attractive copies, as well as the stories inside them. Cherry Ames, Senior Nurse, 1944, red tweed cover, fair-to-average condition. $2.00 Cherry Ames, Army Nurse -- 1944. red tweed cover in fairly good condition, covered with a beautiful laser copy of the original DJ, which shows Cherry in the foreground, while a line of graduate nurses in uniform, files out of the school building, obviously on their way to serve in WWII. Their whole graduating class had signed up, and this book tells about their training, and their first assignments. Besides the LDJ, someone has glued the front and back flaps of the original DJ inside the covers. $4.00 Cherry Ames, Chief Nurse -- red tweed book covered by a beautiful copy of the original dust jacket, showing pretty Cherry and several other nurses and a patient. The cover doesn't even hint at the very exciting story inside -- WWII nursing in jungle and on islands, with a very puzzling mystery thrown in (of course!) HB, moderately good condition, with good laser copy of the DJ. $4.50 Cherry Ames, Chief Nurse, tweed cover, pretty good condition except for separation at front, 3rd page from the rest of the pages. Still very tight binding. $2.50 Cherry Ames, Veterans' Nurse (1946) This is a red tweed-covered book in fairly good cond, with a very nice laser copy of the original (old version) dust jacket, which shows Cherry in a striped uniform and cap, serving cookies and milk to a handsome man who is in a wheelchair, in the yard outside a brick veterans' hospital. The war is over, and Cherry can go home to Hilton. But she and the other nurses can still serve Uncle Sam. HB plus LDJ, $4.50 Cherry Ames, Night Supervisor, 1950. Solid red book with laser copy of the original dust jacket. Book is in fair condition, firm, solid and complete, just not very nice-looking! With the LDJ, it looks just great. Of course a laser DJ shows everything that was on the original DJ, and that one had a price sticker spot, very faint, on the front. Looks like a couple of white spots, that's all. Book with LDJ, $6.00 BOOKS BY HARRIET PYNE GROVE -- unlikely name, was it a pen name? -- but very good stories. S. P. Mystery, no DJ, but with a bright yellow cover, pretty good condition with the the usual darkened pages and slight age-spots on the cover. These books can be as much as 75 years old! $3.50 The Amy And Laura series by Marilyn Sachs is aimed at a younger reader than the Maltshop books, but they appeal to the same audience of adults. 2 sisters move to a new apartment in NY, and deal with a number of problems, including a mother who has to spend a long period in a hospital, being the new kid on the block, and a bad bully. But there are wonderful, nostalgic scenes of jumprope rhymes, school adventures, pets, lots of family scenes. Laura's Luck is a camp story -- always popular! If you like the same books that I do, I can almost guarantee that you will like these books very much. Amy Moves In (Marilyn Sachs) 1964. She hates their new home! And no wonder, terrible things happen. First book in the series, you will be engrossed! PB, $1.25 (2?) Amy and Laura (Marilyn Sachs) 1966. Introducing Veronica Ganz, the toughest girl in school. Laura, as hall monitor, tries to get Veronica to behave! Also, the girls' mother comes home from being in the hospital for a very long time, and things aren't the way they used to be. The sisters are feuding, among many other things. Another wonderful Amy and Laura story.. PB, $1.50 (2?) Watch for a Tall White Sail (Margaret E. Bell) 1948. First in the series about a girl who moves to Alaska in 1887. PB, Tempo Books edition. $2.00 HB copy of Watch for a Tall White Sail, with a beautiful picture cover! Xlibrary copy. $2.50 The Meadow-Brook girls series is an early outdoors-adventure series, based in New Hampshire (I think it's the only relatively major series that is mainly set in New England.) Enjoyable in the mold of the first few Ruth Fieldings or the Outdoors Girls. Six Star Ranch (Eleanor Porter) 1913. This book doesn't really have anything to do with Pollyanna, but later in the series this book is linked with the Glad Books, so it might be fun to read it along with the others. By the way, did I mention that I really like the Pollyanna books? HB, good cond, $2.00 Pollyanna Grows UP (Eleanor H. Porter) 1914. Hardcover, very old edition, says it's the 13th impression, Sept 1919. Firm and strong, but a bit stained. Not too badly. Quite a few full-page internal ilustrations. HB, $2.50 Pollyanna Grows Up ( Porter) 1914. Puffin Paperback. The back of this book says it was first published in 1927, though my hardcover edition says 1914. Take your choice, it's an old classic, anyway. Nice copy, very good condition. $2.00 Pollyanna's Jewels (Harriet Lummis Smith) 1925. Book 5 (?) in the series. Her "jewels" are, of course, her children! You will find that the Pollyanna in these stories is a very interesting, and not at all silly, person. I've enjoyed reading this series, and never hear someone described as a pollyanna, without laughing at the misunderstanding. HB, fair condition, $2.00 Pollyanna's Debt of Honor (Smith) 1927. As always, she is trying to help people, while her own family is having one adventure after another. Fun! HB, fairly good cond, $2.50 Every Boys Mystery and Adventure Stories, 1935. This isn't a girls' series book, but I have most of the boys' books on sale, so I had to list this one elsewhere. It contains 3 complete books, Brothers of the Senecas by Walter E. Butts, Detectives, Inc by William Heyliger, and Vanishing LIner by George Morse. It's a gigantic volume, as each of these books is about 250 pages long! There is a DJ, pretty nice looking but missing the back flap. DJ has a picture from each of the books that are included in the volume. Book itself in good condition, though I think the great weight has caused a little strain on the spine. But it's an interesting oddity, and very attractive. $4.00 Return to Gone-away IElizabeth Enright) 1961. PB with original Beth and Jo Krush interior illustrations, but a new cover picture. If you've read Gone-away Lake, you'll love to follow the 2 families through an incredible treasure hunt in their new house. $1.50 Ruth Fielding series. Ruth starts out as a motherless girl, just like Patti Fairfield and a lot of other old series heroines! But she goes in a different direction, after the first few books full of rollicking adventures in boarding school, in the north woods, and at the shore. In later books of this very long series, she becomes a career girl, role model for feminists, and pre- courser of Nancy Drew and other series females. Yet, she keeps her femininity, and eventually even marries (take notice, Nancy!) I've enjoyed all the Ruths that I've read, from beginning to end. I'll add books about Ruth when I find them for you! Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill (Emerson) #1 in series. As in most of the series, this one provides the basis for the rest of the books, and introduces most of the characters that you'll read about in future books. Fairly nice condition, though the pages are brown from age. $3.00 Ruth Fielding at lighthouse point -- #4 in series. 1913. This book has a loose binding, but is holding together. Frontipiece is loose, but not lost! Otherwise, Cover and spine look good. HB, $2.50 Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch (Alice Emerson) #5 in the series. Has a nice Merry Christmas inscription to Mother from her Son Frank, Dec 25, 1920. I guess we aren't the first generation of adults to read these teen series. Pages are age-browned, but binding is tight. Old style picture on cover (Ruth in front of a full moon or sun.) $3.00 Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm, Or, What became of the Raby Orphans. #7 in series. All the kids spend time at the fabulous farm owned by father of one of them. They help some sad little kids. Book is worn but the pages are tight and fairly clean. $2.50 Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, or The Missing Pearl Necklace. #8 in series. Pretty good condition, with the "red moon behind Ruth" cover picture. $3.50 Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures, #9 in the series. Subtitle: Helping the Dormatory Fund. In the typical condition of these old series (this one has an inscription dating it to Christmas of 1928.) Solid and firm, anyway. $3.00 (2) Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie, or Great Times in the Land of Cotton #10 in series. Good condition for these books! $3.50 Ruth Fielding at College, or The Missing Examination Papers. 1917. #11 in series. Fairly good condition, quite firm, more modern picture on the PC. $3.50 Ruth Fielding in the Saddle, or College Girls in the Land of Gold (Emerson) #12 in the series, 1917. A rather ugly cover on the book, but interior is in good condition. Good for a reading copy. $2.00 RUTH FIELDING books with higher numbers, are not easy to find! They're interesting, since Ruth marries and eventually has a little girl. But all that isn't enough to stop her movie career, or keep her from being involved in mysteries. An early Judy Bolton type and quite a good role model for 20th century women. Ruth Fielding Treasure Hunting: subtitled A Moving Picture that Became Real(#19, 1923) Good condition except for discoloration (sun?) along the spine. $4.50 Ruth Fielding in the Far North: Subtitled The Lost Motion PIcture Company (#20, 1924) They go WAY up north, near the pole, to make a movie! Good condition for one of these oldies. $4.50 Ruth Fielding and her Great Scenario: subtitled Striving for the Motion Picture Prize (#23, 1927) This one takes place in Maine! Good condition! $4.50 Ruth Fielding at Cameron Hall, Subtitled A mysterious Disappearance (#24, 1928) You'll love this one if you like to see your series book lovers married after all these years! Fairly good condition, however someone colored the picture on the front cover (I think it looks better that way!) and there's a worn place on the spine. The binding is firm and the pages are clean. $3.50 Ruth Fielding Clearing Her Name: Subtitled The Rivals of Hollywood (#25, 1929) As happens to Nancy Drew, people are jealous and try to smear Ruth's reputation. Very good condition except for a very tiny hole from a long-defunct bug. This only affects the very top of a few pages. A rather scarce book! $4.00 Patty Fairfield series. Patty starts out as a motherless girl who stays with various relatives, and is a simple, sweet young thing. She soon becomes acquanited with life in the lap of luxury, and you can visit her there in the many books in this series. Descriptions of parties, costumes, mansions, travels, decorations -- I've never read of more opulant settings! Of course there are adventures and mysteries, friendships, and romances. Patty ends up married in the end of the series. Due to their original good quality, they are usually found in fairly good condition, considering their extreme age! Interesting series. I'll add more Patti books as soon as I can, in the meantime, try to find them yourself, I'm sure you'll enjoy reading these extravagant stories! Author -- Carolyn Wells Also by Carolyn Wells (a very prolific author, if that's her real name) is the Marjorie Maynard series. This is aimed at younger readers than Patty Fairfield, and is about family with 4 kids who love to do things together. No twins -- this isn't about the Bobbseys, though the time is just about right for the beginning of that series. They're a lively bunch "The fundamental principle of Mr. and Mrs. Maynard's training was common-sense, and this, added to deep parental love, made their discipline both wise and kind." But they get into all kinds of scrapes, while having a great old time together. I believe these books are written for kids between the Bobbsey Twins' age, and the Patty Fairfield teens. They are 240 to 280 pages long. Frontispiece, but no internal illustrations. Marjorie in Command (Wells) #4 in the series. 1910 Mother isn't feeling quite up to par, so she and Father take a 6-week trip to the South, leaving the children with a lady with 'delicate nerves." Probably not a good choice! Marjorie ends up in charge most of the time, and things get out of hand before they get much better. Pretty good condition except for a little piece out of the very top of the exterior spine. $3.00 Marjorie's Maytime (Wells) 1911. May Party and a few other wonderful parties, trips, and of course exciting adventures. HB, firm condition, some wear (these are OLD books!) # 5 in the series. $3.00 Marjorie At Seacote (Wells) 1912. Each year, one of the kids gets to spend the summer with their grandparents. It was Kitty's turn. Meantime, the other kids don't just sit around and gaze at the scenery, no, not them! They have adventures at Seacote, on the shore. Worn cover, firm interior and nice pages. $2.50 Ginny Gordon Mysteries (by Julie Campbell, hooray, a Trixie author!) Ginny is another of the Schoolgirl Sleuths, and has a group like Trixie's Bob-whites, called The Hustlers. They are always looking for ways to make money, and run into plenty of mysteries while doing so. I'll add more Ginny Gordons as soon as I find them! Ginny Gordon and the Disappearing Candlesticks, 1948. They open a Swap Shop (I'd call it a thrift shop, I guess.) Valubale things disappear. HB, small picture on cover, fairly good cond, $3.00 Ginny Gordon and the Missing Heirloom, 1950. There must be a jinx! Another valuable item disappears, after it was mistakenly donated to the Swap Shop. A completely different mystery ensues. HB, fairly good condition, $2.50 "The Mexican Mysteries" series is about 3 American girls (main character is Jo Anne) who spend their summers in Mexico, helping people and having rather wild adventures. A really great series, I only discovered it a few years ago, but loved it immediately. These are beautiful books, in the thick Saalfield formats, with rather brittle pages, but good sturdy bindings. I'll try to have more Mexican Mysteries (by Randolph) soon. Peggy Lane Theater Series By Virginia Hughes. These books are to a theater career what the Vicki Barrs are to stewardess career, or the Connie Blairs are to an advertising career. The books even look the same as those series, with similar attractive picture covers. The books all look good, they are almost always in very good condition, standing up well over the years. They're the story of a young girl who starts out in her career, and has many experiences as she advances in the theater world. There are even simple mysteries in most of the books All series book collectors ought to have them! They're especially fun to read if you're interested in the theater. But entertaining if you aren't a theater fan! I'll add Peggy Lane books when I have more of them. The Beverly Gray series is fabulous! It's a long series that was popular from the 30s through the 50s, and is still very much read, especially by subscribers to Susabella Passengers and Friends magazine. We will try to list more Beverly Gray books soon -- they were very popular last time! Beverly Gray, Sophomore. 1934. The title says it all! I've covered the blue tweed book with a laser copy of the original, old version, of the dust jacket. Shows 2 girls in sort of flapper attire, running across the campus. Nice misty colors, romantic look to the college. I think perhaps the DJ and the book are a mismatch, but they look very good together, so maybe they belong together. Both book and DJ in good condition. $5.00 Beverly Gray's Adventure (1944) Bev gets a job as secretary to a man who's suspected of being a spy! Danger! Adventure, as the title promises. HB, not beautiful, but firm, complete, and perfectly readable. $2.50 Beverly Gray's Assignment (1947) Starts out with an assignment that leads to New Orleans, but that's just the beginning. Would you believe that pirates are part of this story? Yep! HB, worn along the edges, but pretty good otherwise. $3.00 Beverly Gray's Mystery -- 1948. Lost circus horse leads Bev and friends into some amazing adventures and a happy surprise ending. Clover edition with a nice picture cover. HB, $3.00 Beverly Gray's Island Mystery -- 1952. For once, here's a "Clover" picture cover copy in good condition. Beautiful cover picture of Bev, all dressed up in blazer and pearls, at the entrance of a cave that's being blocked by 2 sinister men in black. $5.00 The Far Journey (Loula Grace Erdman) 1955. Attractive edition, with color endpapers, and a dust jacket that's in good condition, but somewhat scratched. Story tells about a young man and woman's courtship, wedding, home life, and later, a trip to move from Southern Missouri to the Texas Panhandle in the 1880's. I think this was probably originally written for adulst, but this author wrote a lot of really good YA books, and this one is perfectly enjoyable and appropriate for a teen. HB, DJ, $2.50 Kim Aldrich series -- for older teens, as Kim starts out as a secretary to an insurance company, then becomes an investigator, which of course is a great way to run into mysteries, even dangerous ones. The first book in the series, from 1972, is Miscalculated Risk (Kim Aldrich) by Jinny McDonnell. Cover shows K$3.00 The Deep Six, A Kim Aldrich Mystery (McDonnell) 1974. HB, PC, $3.00 Dorothy Dixon Series is about a very adventurous 16-year-old who gets her pilot's license and flies around solving mysteries and rescuing people, things like that! There are 4 books in the series (and a phantom title) all from 1933. They were cheap books to start with, and pretty much always have brown, slightly brittle, pages. I will try to have more Dorothy Dixon books very soon! Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings (Dorothy Wayne) 1933. First in this very exciting and entertaining series. This copy has relatively clean pages compared with most Dixon books, and the binding is still firm. But the hard cover is quite ugly, with some of the blue coloring worn off. It must have been painted on very thinly to start with! However, there is a DJ, in at least fair condition, all there, but with a well mended rip and a few creases. In its mylar DJ cover, it looks good. Book plus DJ, $3.50 Nurses Three is a short (7 books) but very good hardcover nurse series. There are 3 sisters, all nurses, all daughters of a famous doctor that they seem to want to live up to. The 3 girls have different personalities and interests, and each one has a couple of books all to herself. A unique idea for a series, and quite wonderful! The books have attractive picture covers, in a different color for each of the girls. If there aren't any Nurses Three books here, I will hope to have some to offer soon! Nurses Three -- First Assignment, a Penny Scott Story (Jean Kirby) 1963. In fairly good condition, though I've mended the inside of the binding. HB, PC, great story! $4.00 Nurses Three -- A Very Special Girl, A Tracy Scott Story (Kirby) 1963. In fairly good condition, though I have mended the inside binding. Very interesting setting on a Native American reservation, complete with romance, mystery, and some puzzling problems for this very special girl to figure out. HB, PC, $3.50 Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight (Edith Lavell) 1931.Linda Carlton was a girl flyer in the days when that was quite a daring occupation. In her case, I guess it WAS pretty daring, since she has more adventures than you can shake a stick at! HB, in fair condition, $2.50 Polly series by Lillian E. Roy. Mostly with light blue covers. The Polly series tells about a girl who started out on a ranch in the southwest, and really loves her life there. The first 2 books are set on the ranch. Many adventures, and a bit of romance. After that, Polly goes out into the big world, and is very successful in every way, but of course it never changes her sweet nature! In a later book that I don't have for sale, she goes back to the ranch for a while, and then sets off for fantastic trips and adventures. Romance intrudes, but as in all of these very old series, it's very mild and treated a bit humorously. Eventually, she marries. This is a fairly long series, and worth collecting and reading. I'll try to list more Polly books very soon! Kathy Martin nurse series. Kathy Martin books are like slightly more modern Sue Barton or Cherry Ames. A long and very interesting nurse-mystery series.) They were written by Josephine James, starting in 1959. Kathy has a very interesting family, who live on an apple farm in California, she has a nice boyfriend (but just can't make up her mind to marry him!) and she is just as good as Cherry Ames at nursing and finding mysteries to solve. All the books have attractive picture covers, and are Golden Press HB editions to match several other popular series that you probably already have in your collection. I certainly hope to have more Kathy Martin books in the future. A Cap for Kathy (Josephine James) Kathy Martin #1, 1959. Kathy graduates from HS, and almost immediately mysterious things start happening. Her family is involved, so she has to help figure out what the trouble might be. Then things go from bad to worse. Kathy is more 3-dimensional than Cherry, and her family is not at all typical of the families of many series book heroines. Several of us read this book last year for a review in Whispered Watchword, and we were in agreement that it was a very exceptional story. Beautiful cover picture of Kathy in her cap, in front of an apple orchard. Good condition, $4.00 A Cap for Kathy, XL picture cover edition. (See description above) A really good series, you should try it! One of the good things about it is that there are 13 books in the series, so you won't run out of them in a hurry. HB, XL, PC, $2.75 Susan Sand series, from the early 1980s, is popular with Nancy Drew fans who love this feisty, brave teen girl detective and mystery writer. The titles are enough to catch anyone's attention! Too bad this is such a short series (8 books.) The first few are fairly easy to locate and reasonably priced. The next 4 or 5 are not too hard to find, while the last couple of them are quite rare. Good luck finishing your Susan Sand series! I'll try to include more Susan's on my list, very soon. Sue Barton Nurse stories! In my opinion, this is the best of all the nurse series. Yes, they are outdated as far as the nursing techniques and information, but the human interest is exceptional, and the writing is beautiful. If you read them in order, there's never another series that keeps your interest as compellingly as this one, unless it's Beany Malone. Timber Trail Riders. Timber Trail is a horse farm, and there are both boys and girls in the riding club. I only started collecting this series recently, but I do enjoy them and want to share them with my friends. They were cheaply made and cheaply bound, so they're never in very good condition, but they have very attractive picture covers, and well-illustrated interiors. Whitman cellophane style I'll try to include some more Timber Trail Riders books as soon as I can. The Luck of Black Diamond (Timber Trail Riders, a Sunny Saunders Story) 1963. Cover picture of a girl in proper riding habit, on a prancing black horse. Other horses and riders in the ring, trees in the background. Cellophane-covered edition in no worse condition than these 1960s Whitman picture cover books usually are. $2.00 BOOKS BY L.M. MONTGOMERY -- The author of "Anne" was a very prolific writer! Here are some interesting and unusual books -- all paperbacks, most with very attractive covers. Anne of Avonlea (L.M. Montgomery) Very nice hardcover, from the Grosset and Dunlap Anne of Green Gables Series. Light green cover, oval picture of Anne (doesn't look like my vision of Anne, but she does have lovely red hair.) Very nice condition HB, $2.00 Anne of Windy Poplars (Montgomery) Grosset and Dunlap edition, orange cover with slight white stain. no DJ. Spine separation at front interior, but otherwise nice cond. $2.00 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Outdoor Girls is a very long series, 23 books in all, about adventurous group of girls -- if you like the older series about girls who seem to be paving the way for today's active women, you ought to start collecting these books. They can be read out of order with no problem. By the way, both this series and Moving picture Girls are for much older girls than "Hope's" Bobbsey twins. None at this time, but I'll try to add books from these series very soon. The Moving Picture Girls books by Laura Lee Hope. The author's name is fictional, here and in the Bobbsey Twins series, but this series is very interesting. Moving Picture girls are way before their time, and very modern in their day. I'll add Moving Picture Girls books when I come across any. Good luck finding them yourself, in the meantime! Blythe Girls are supposed to be written by Laura Lee Hope, but if you're thinking "Bobbsey Twins," forget it! This long series appealed to teens of yesterday and appeals to PFs of today. The girls are in their late teens, no slapstick situations like those the Bobbseys were always involved in. Mystery, yes, but much more "mature" sleuthing. The girls are orphaned, and actually have to work hard for a living. Each has a totally different type of job, so there are lots of opportunities for interesting mysteries. I'll add more Blythe girls books as soon as I can! Donna Parker series. All are Whitmans eds with picture covers. You will never see any books from this series in perfect condition. They have deteriorated with age, and weren't too sturdy to start with. But they're colorful looking and very good stories! Donna Parker Special Agent 1957 Donna wants to solve a mystery! vintage cover (old kitchen scene) $2 Donna Parker, A Sprng to Remember. 1960. Donna and her friend Paul on the cover, though you can't think that it's going to be a romance! They're good friends, and Donna is a huge help to Paul at a critical time in his life. PC HB, fairly good condition, $3.00 Donna Parker Takes a Giant Step (1964) Nice Mary Stevens illustrations on picture cover and interior. $2.50 Donna Parker at Arawak -- 1962. Donna worked at a camp once before, but it wasn't anything like this one. Now she has charge of a cabin along with one other counselor, who is not very nice or helpful. In fact, her roommate is quite a mystery -- which is just up Donna's alley! Mary Stevens illustrations make this a very special book! HB, PC, the usual loose binding that all of these Whitman books seem to end up with, but not bad!! $3.00 DONNA PARKER STARTER SET This set includes 4 books, which leaves only 4 others for you to locate! They are in fair condition, readable and all complete, but the covers getting worn. This isn't the fault of any readers or storage problems, it's just because these were not made to last through the ages, and they are getting along in years. Starter set includes: A Spring to Remember (with incredibly nice Maltshop cover!) Special Agent (with Donna getting onto the train in her red coat) At Cherryfield (Nice dance scene on cover) Mystery at Arawak (campfire scene on cover!)I think this is my favorite Donna, as I love the camp setting, and the mystery is lots of fun. STARTER SET OF 4 BOOKS -- $8.50 If you like to read about the outdoors, camping, jolly fun and dangerous adventures, then the Campfire Girls stories will please you as they please me! There are several Campfire series, from various years and by various authors, and this can be confusing, but just dig in and enjoy them when you find them, don't worry about reading them in order or anything. Usually, they're episodic and unrelated to one another, and also, there's always plenty of explanation and descriptions of personalities, so you can catch right up on the previous books if necessary. The Campfire Girls Do Their Part: or, Over the Top with the Winebagos #8 in series by Hildegard G. Frey. 1919. Picture cover shows the girls swimming off the side of a boat, with canoes and tents along the shore. The bathing suits are worth the price of this book! You'll find out a lot about Campfire girls, including the fact that they use supposed Indian names, which is a little confusing, but after a while, it seems normal or even charming. Book in vintage condition, with frayed edges and corners, but the binding is pretty good! $3.00 Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World (Margaret Vandercook) 1914. #6 in this series, This book is in rather good condition, and has 4 illustrations, of a very romantic nature. Front cover picture of girls in Indian costumes (but I think they are not really Native Americans) paddling a canoe. $3.00 A Campfire Girl's Chum (Jane L. Stewart) #2 in the Stewart series. 1914. This is my favorite of the many Campfire Girls series, being 6 books that form one very long story. You can read each one by itself, or all of them in a row, and I predict that you'll find them quite exciting and entertaining. No silly, girlish, pranks or shrinking violets allowed! Really dangerous situations, good camping practices, long hikes, delicious food cooked around the fire. HB, good condition (these old editions were made with cheap paper, so now the pages are brown, but these are still in good shape.) It has a very attractive dust jacket, 2 happy girls (more modern than the original date of the book) cooking over a campfire. DJ has a few chips out of it, but front is just fine. $3.75 A Campfire Girl's Chum in fair condition. Nice solid forest green cover, but interior pages are light brown, and the binding is somewhat loose (pages solidly attached) $2.50 A Campfire Girl in Summer Camp (or A Camp Fire Girl... depending on where in the book you are looking.) by Jane L. Stewart, 1914. #3 in this series. Subtitled: Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake. Large book in good cond, with a lovely DJ, showing campfire girls in Native American costumes, around a camp fire (dreamy, misty art but no artist is acknowledged.) HB, DJ $6.00 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Kay Tracey mysteries ("Frances K. Judd") If you haven't read the Kay Tracey mysteries yet, you have a treat in store for yourself. They are among the long series from what I think of as the Golden Age of "classic" girls series books, the 30s through 50's. Actually, I love all of the series from that era, but Kay is one of the really good ones -- possibly that's because there are quite a few of them, so you don't get interested and then only find 3 or 4 of them to read. I never want to get to the end of a series! I'll try to include Kay Tracey books in future lists. The Girls of Central High in Camp, or The Old Professor's Secret (Gertrude W. Morrison) 1915. The girls in the printed cover picture, don't look as if they would be able to go camping, in their hobble skirts and fancy hairdos. But they are hardier than they look! The change into sailor skirts (just barely below the knee!) and stay on a deserted island (at least they think it is!) for the summer. Very enjoyable story. Book in fair condition, loose binding, but all pages attached and holding on for dear life. Several nice full-page pictures. $2.50 Donna Rockford Mystery Set (Dorothy Woolfolk) 1979-1982. The first 4 books in this 6-book PB series, in a somewhat worn slipcase. The titles are Mother, where are you? Who Killed Daddy? Death of a Dancer Murder in washington/Body on the Beach Donna, a college girl, and her younger sister, Abby, solve rather serious mysteries. and have interesting personalities, themselves. Nice series! 4-book set, $5.50. Linda Craig -- get acquainted with this good series!!! It's gone through several incarnations, including a beautiful hardcover edition (which is pretty hard to find,) a beautiful PB printing of the original edition, and a new, slightly smaller PB set, with mostly new titles and quite a few changes. I've read all of them, and I will admit that I liked the older ones better, but even for a non-horsey gal like me, the new ones were good reading, too. If there aren't any Linda Craigs listed here, look for them when you have a chance, and I'll try to list some of them next time! Linda Craig and the Mystery in Mexico (Ann Sheldon) #5 in series. This copy is the deluxe hardcover, but it's had a few bumps along the way. Cover picture is misty, but totally correct (looks just like mine.) Binding tight and pages clean. HB, PC, $3.00 Linda Craig #2 (old numbering PB) The Clue on the Desert Trail. Nice cover picture of Linda on Chica d'Oro, riding past red desert cliffs, with horses and riders looking down from the cliff tops. Poisoning, theft, and kidnapping all figure in this one! PB, from 1962. $2.00 Linda Craig #6 (old numbering PB ) The Ghost Town Treasure. Well, that's a wonderful title! Ghost Towns are really enticing. Cover picture of Linda on Chico d'Oro, in the bushes, looking out at the ghost town -- signs saying Hotel, Sheriff, etc. Linda, her brother and their friend fill in as riding counselors at a camp, but the nearby ghost town beckons them, too. PB from 1964, $2.00 Linda Craig #7 (new numbering, new 1989 edition) A Horse for Jackie. The new editions have Linda riding a newly-named horse, Amber. Who is Jackie, why does she want so badly to learn to ride, and other questions about this obviously super-rich girl? PB, excellent condition, $2.00 Linda Craig #8 (new numbering) A Star in the Saddle. A soap opera is filming an episode at the next ranch, so Linda and her friends and their horses want to sign on as extras! PB, excellent condition, $2.00 Linda Craig #10 (New numbering PB) Anything for Kelly. This one is a