It's Truly a Mystery

In these old children's books I've been reading, the mystery angle is often very thin: The Outdoor Girls, in particular, have such transparent plots one can almost see through the pages. However, I'm in the midst of a real corker right now: The Campfire Girls Go Motoring : or, Along The Road That Leads The Way (a secondary title was almost de rigeur in those days) by Hildegarde Frey. The girls of the title are not pre-pubescent, but in their very late teens, of driving age, and accompanied by a "den mother" (or whatever the elder member of a Campfire Girl troop is called) who doesn't seem much older than they are. Not only does the book lack the obligatory introductory scene so common in these books where each of the girls is introduced and described according to looks and interests (i.e. the plump blond one, the bookish redhead, etc.), but, save for Gladys, none of the girls is known by her real name, only by her "Indian" moniker (although we find out later "Nyoda" is their leader, Miss Elizabeth Kent). Not only that, but the mystery itself, involving the two motoring groups (four girls in each car) getting separated right from the beginning, car breakdowns, fires, mysterious pursuers, not one but two runaway young women, torrential rainstorms, lodging problems and heaven knows what else, is actually complicated and keeping me guessing even halfway into the narrative. Plus, having been written circa 1920, it's a great portrait of car travel in those days: bad roads, unusual lodging, tentative communication, weather difficulties. Altogether a good read.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:10:00 AM

Comments:

Camp Fire Girls is three separate words with an uppercase "F" for Fire. Camp Fire Girls are not in troops, they are in groups and their adult, or slightly older leader is called a "Guardian."

# posted by  Mary Alice : 5:22:00 PM

 

Yes, I found that out after reading the books for a while.

# posted by  Linda : 11:04:00 AM

 

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