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I wanted to include a little about the series books in my collection, but I won't go deeply into the history of each series here--much information about each can be found on the Links page. Series books don't represent a huge portion of my collection, probably because their popularity has made them expensive, and children's book collecting has always been a cheap hobby for me--many of my books were purchased by the pound at library sales.
By far my personal favorite series is Trixie Belden. Nancy Drew always bored me to tears (probably because I was reading the dumbed down 1970s versions), but when I received two Trixie Belden paperbacks for Christmas one year, I fell in love with this spunky heroine. Because she was younger than Nancy, far less glamorous and more prone to problems like bad grades and sibling quarrels, I could relate to her easily.
I still have lots of my beige paperbacks, but the only older edition I have is a 1958 Secret of the Old Mansion.
I didn't read Whitman's Donna Parker series as a child, so I don't know how I would have reacted to it. I must admit that when I recently acquired and read Donna Parker at Cherrydale, I found it pretty dull and the "mystery" pretty lame--at least Trixie would always get herself into some predicament that was truly scary. I also have Donna Parker Takes a Giant Step, which sounds a lot more interesting than it is.
Speaking of lame, I have one Kay Tracey mystery, The Strange Echo. It's not terribly well executed, but I'd have to say the plot outdoes Donna.
I have several of Whitman's Bobbsey Twins books: a 1924 edition of The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May, two colorful 1950s editions of The Bobbsey Twins in the Country and The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore and the same two books in their lavendar-bound 1970s edition, which I read as a child. I was already a bit too old for them when I read them, so they didn't fully engage me, but I didn't hate them either.
Over the years, Whitman produced many series, including some short-lived ones like Trudy Phillips (I have Headline Year) and Ginny Gordon (I have Lending Library). I also have a book from Whitman's Meg series, which I remember as being ubiquitous in my youth but which I have never read nor seen any outpourings of nostalgia for.
When possible careers for girls were few in number, the life of a nurse held a special appeal, and nurse series were very popular for a long time. In the 1930s, there was Sue Barton; I have two of her adventures, Student Nurse and Senior Nurse. Though never lacking for romance, Sue is refreshingly serious about her career. From Senior Nurse:
"Bill," she said, "I have to explain something. Please, please understand, and don't be hurt. I--I'm terribly--in love with you. But--could I--please--not get married just yet? I've hardly--begun--to do things. I've wanted so much to be a nurse, and I've worked so hard. I know, as your wife, I can still be a nurse if I want to--but not on my own! That's terribly important to me, Bill."
To his credit, Bill replies, "You wouldn't be you if you didn't want to be independent. I--it's one of the reasons I love you."
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More widely remembered is the long-running Cherry Ames series by Helen Wells. I have two of the earlier books, 1943's Student Nurse and 1944's Army Nurse. The latter is a particularly enjoyable portrait of a young woman putting her training to work for the war effort.
An utterly charming girls' series I've found in recent years is the Barbie series from the late 1950s and early 1960s. For Barbie, pretty clothes and dreamy dates have always gone hand in hand with attempts at various careers, and that's true in these well written books. I have nice copies of Barbie's Fashion Success and Here's Barbie and a beat-up version of Barbie in Television.
I also have a book from a very popular boys series from the past that is now being revived in an updated form. Basketball Coach Clair Bee wrote the Chip Hilton Sports Series Books, which aimed to teach boys about sportsmanship and teamwork.
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