Read from your Youth

[Denise]

Just a suggestion but maybe we could read some of the series from our youth (and I understand that is going to be different for different ages) but I would like to have a reason to go back and read some Bobbsey Twins or Trixie Belden books. I never did read Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys but wouldn't mind. When I was visiting my daughter and grandson last year I ran out of reading material that I had taken with me and picked up one of Jason's Goosebumps books and it had a pretty good story (much to my surprise). I would also like to see what people younger than me and older than me read when they were younger and try some of those books. (I just had my 58th birthday June 5th.)

Would anyone else be interested in this idea? I don't know that it needs to be a challenge. Maybe it could go under Books and Series Discussions. I would actually like to see us discuss the books rather than just "I'm reading __________" or "I just finished __________" or "I'm going to read ___________".

I don't feel that we really discuss books here in our cozy group, it feels like we are just "reporting" what we read and maybe say it was good or bad. I would like to see a true discussion topic/topics, if not this one then something else.

Any thoughts on this?

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I'm hoping to get book discussions going on the featured author each month.

I think the return to your youth reading could be a buddy read rather than an actual challenge. I know I've debated rereading the Trixie Belden books I still have from my childhood. Curious to see what I think of them now as an adult 30 years later.

I will set up a folder for buddy reads (and move this thread there) and anyone wanting to read a particular series or book, can post what they're going to read and when. Anyone can then agree to join them and you can discuss the books. Might just be two of you or you could get quite a handful. Anyone whose read the books in the past could join in the discussion as well as those just reading it for the first time.

[Sherrie]

I think this a great idea, I've wanted to go back and read a Fear Street book.

[Denise]

Sherrie wrote: "I think this a great idea, I've wanted to go back and read a Fear Street book."

Sherrie: I've never heard of Fear Street books. I'm assuming that is a series? Do you know the author?

Briansgirl: I don't have any of my Trixie Belden books from when I was a kid (which for me is almost 50 years ago that I read them). When I was 15 my mom & dad divorced and I moved with my mom into a small mobile home (10 ft X 50 ft). My room was tiny (a single bed took up almost the total floor space and there was a built in 3 drawer dresser and the closet). So I gave all my books to my aunt and uncle's 5 kids. (My Barbie dolls too) I occasionally buy a children's book, I'll have to go see if I have any Trixie B's on my shelf. I mostly pick up Louisa May Alcott's books which of course aren't mysteries but I love Louisa May and reread Little Women every couple of years. It is time for me to break out some old children's books.

[Shay]

Does anyone remember Alfred Hitchcock presents the Three Investigators? I loved that series almost as much as Nancy Drew.

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I kept all my Trixie Belden's over the years. I have about half of the series. The other half I checked out from the library. Between the two of us, I think I read them all.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

I still have all of my Trixie Belden books, which is complete minus about 5 books I missed near the end, around the time they stopped printing them. I keep scouring used bookstores, etc for the missing ones, to no avail. Apparently, it's a series most readers felt worth holding on to. I too have thought about re-reading them, especially as I am thinking of passing them on to one niece who will be old enough to enjoy them in a few years.

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I don't remember alot about them, just vague details. So figured I better start with book 1. After that it might not matter if I skip around the reading order.

[Sherrie]

Denise wrote: "Sherrie wrote: "I think this a great idea, I've wanted to go back and read a Fear Street book."

Sherrie: I've never heard of Fear Street books. I'm assuming that is a series? Do you know the au..."

The Author is R.L. Stine, he wrote this series of books before Goosebumps. Here is one of them.

[Caroline]

Actually, they began reprinting some of the Trixie Belden books not too long ago so I was able to replace a couple of my earlier ones that had gotten lost along the way! I still love them although they seem fairly innocent now. I do miss the original book covers of the ones I had. There were several different versions printed. And there's a whole Trixie Belden website that goes into all that. : )

[Shay]

I've never heard of the Trixie Belden series. Can someone tell me about them? I'm intrigued and considering adding them to the books I'm buying for my daughter. I started buying books for her from before she was born. (Like all my kids.) I have a lot of the Boxcar Children series that I started for my oldest son, who hated them.

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

Trixie Belden was a smart girl, had several brothers, and basically was poor to middle class. Her best friend was a girl who lived across the road and up the hill (they lived in the country). Her best friend lived in a mansion and had an older brother. Trixie might have been the youngest of her siblings too. They formed a little group called the Bob-Whites (named after a bird) and did some community service and solved mysteries. Trixie had a crush on her best friends older brother Jim.

Trixie might be the name sake and the leader of the group, but the group solved the mysteries. She didn't do it alone like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys who were a pair of brothers. Trixie was definetly the main character but the group did alot. There is so much I don't remember, lol, but Trixie was very down to earth and easy for me to identify with as a teenage girl from the midwest.

[Tammy]

I've never heard of this series either, but sounds cute!

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Trixie and her family lived on a farm in Sleepyside-on-Hudson, NY. She was the third child - two older brothers and a younger one. Her best friend, Honey Wheeler, came from a rich family up the hill who adopted Jim. Diana and Dan (not related to any other characters) rounded out the group.

Caroline - I did see that they had reprinted the first dozen or so in the series, but they have not (as yet) gone past number 15. I keep hoping! The books in the 30s are especially difficult to find.

For anyone who wants to know more about the Trixie Belden series, click here.

[Caroline]

Thanks, Heather! I'm sorry my mom had gotten rid of my old copies. I'm going to try and get them again and keep them.

[Diane ~Firefly~]

Shay wrote: "Does anyone remember Alfred Hitchcock presents the Three Investigators? I loved that series almost as much as Nancy Drew."

Yes. I loved it more than The Hardy Boys (never was much of a Nancy fan). In fact, I just put one of them on a challenge list for July as I needed a book popular the year I was born. We'll see how it holds up to a re-read. Thank goodness my library has it as I'd hate to have to track it down.

[Melodie]

I don't have any of my books from when I was a kid anymore. I left them at my mom & dad's when I got married as we were travelling with my husband being in the military and then when Mom & Dad retired and moved they sold them in a garage sale. I came across a couple of the Betsy books by Maud Hart Lovelace a few years ago and bought them. One was BETSY'S WEDDING and I reread it. It actually held up well! And I was back home in OH some years back and it was the 75th anniversary of a horrendous flood in 1913. I read a fictionalized story about it called PROMISES IN THE ATTIC by Elisabeth Hamilton Friermood when I was a kid. I found a reprint of it in a bookstore while I was there and bought a copy. It also held up well. I'm not too sure how well I'd like Trixie Belden now. Donna Parker was a favorite series of mine. They were put out by Whitman books and were mysteries. I remember trying to read one of them some years back and I couldn't stay interested.

[Denise]

Melodie wrote: "....Donna Parker was a favorite series of mine. They were put out by Whitman books and were mysteries.."

Oh, I had forgotten about Donna Parker books. I read those too.

[Denise]

Shay wrote: "I have a lot of the Boxcar Children series that I started for my oldest son, who hated them. ..."

I have never read the Boxcar Children books but have heard of them. I looked them up and found that there were 123 books in the main Boxcar Children series. These early books were written in the early 1940s. The name would make me think that the stories were set during the Depression when many were "hopping into boxcars" to travel to find jobs. That's what I get for thinking! (I know that is not the premise of the storyline.)

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

It's been 30 years or so since I read Trixie Belden, that's why I knew my details were a little "off". lol My recollections are vague other than remembering I liked them. I still have 1 thru 16, 19 thru 22, 28, 30 thru 34, 35, 37, 39 and a Trixie Belden Mystery Quiz Book (#1) and another with same cover except it's marked as Trixie Belden Mystery-Quiz Mini-Book. The last three have different covers/spines but the rest all have the beige covers. Oh, and all mine are trade paperback size. According to the official Trixie Belden Website my beige covers with an oval vinette on the front cover are from the last 1970s, which would put it about right since I was born in 1967 and I read these as a teenager.

[Melodie]

There was a series I remember reading and I can't remember the name of it. There weren't a whole lot of books in the series. The main character had a palomino horse and she had a friend who was rich. I can picture a couple of the book covers in my head...minus the titles, of course! Does this ring a bell with anyone else? Also, anyone read the Cherry Ames or Sue Barton nurse books? And there was a series where the heroine was a stewardess, too, that I can't remember the name of. I read a couple of them.

I FOUND IT!! The books were Robin Kane mysteries. There were only about 5 or 6 of them!

[Erin L]

Shay wrote: "Does anyone remember Alfred Hitchcock presents the Three Investigators? I loved that series almost as much as Nancy Drew."

YES! I remember them and I loved them.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Kate: Sounds like we have the same series of books. I remember hating that they changed the covers for the last few because they did not match the rest of the series, LOL. I'm missing 25, 35, 37, 38 and 39. I used to buy one or two at a time with allowance or babysitting money. They seemed to disappear rather abruptly, as I never even saw the last few in the store I usually shopped.

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I was lucky Heather in that whatever I was missing, the library seemed to have. In fact, for only the second time in 23 years I found myself in my hometown and just happened to be at the library (as my mother's art exhibition was held in the basement art gallery). Out of nostalgia, I walked around the outer wall shelves of the children's library and sure enough, came across several Trixie Belden books. They don't have very many anymore, I only saw 4 or 5, but at least they still had some. Out of curiousity, just used my local library's online catalog and the library where I live now has 36 titles matching "Trixie Belden." That's pretty good, they're only missing 3. If I try to reread the entire series again, perhaps I can get lucky and they'll have whatever I'm missing, instead of us both missing the same 3 books! argh! lol

[Denise]

Melodie wrote: "Also, anyone read the Cherry Ames or Sue Barton nurse books?..."

Yes, I read both of these although Cherry Ames sticks in my head better. Until I saw your question I had forgotten about Sue Barton.

[Denise]

Okay, Ladies (and any gents that might be interested):

I have put The Secret of the Mansion and The Red Trailer Mystery on reserve at the library. Is anyone else ready to step up and do a "buddy read" with me and discuss the books as we are reading them or after we have read one?

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Kate: At the time (pre-teen), the library was too far to go to on my own, and the bookmobile never had them, so I think after a while I just forgot about them and moved on to other books. Seems to about the time I was discovering YA romance.

[Denise]

Oh, and one more thing I found on the Trixie Belden website--they have yearly Trixie Belden conventions. We oldsters just never let anything from our youth die do we?

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I'll join you Denise in reading the first one although not sure when I'll get to it. I'll go ahead and make a seperate Trixie Belden buddy read thread for anyone wanting to join us.

[Caroline]

Denise - I think that comes with the expression "Everything old is new again." Have you seen KIDS wearing peace symbols?! LOL There's a fortune to be made in Baby Boomer collectabilia.

[Caroline]

Sure, Denise. I have those two at home. I'll read them (again) with you.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Denise wrote: "Oh, and one more thing I found on the Trixie Belden website--they have yearly Trixie Belden conventions. We oldsters just never let anything from our youth die do we?"

Amazing, isn't it? Just checked Google and of course there are Nnacy Drew conventions as well. I think it's not only older women reliving their childhoods, but sharing beloved books and characters with younger generations as well. My mom read every one of my TB books after I did. Some she had read before, but many were new to her as well.

While I was never a big ND fan, I did attend a talk on the book Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her with Melanie Rehak at the Wisconsin Book Festival a few years ago. They grossly underestimated the interest such a talk would generate! It was held at a small indy bookstore in downtown Madison, and was so overcrowded they easily could have held it at a larger venue. Attendees ranged from middle grade girls to grandmothers - with a few token males sprinkled in. One woman sitting near me had brought articles on Nancy Drew and her creators that she had saved for decades. It was interesting talking with and listening to different generations of readers sharing their memories.

Some books truly do make lasting impressions and connect the generations.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Kari: How'd you guess? *grin* Yes, it was at A Room of One's Own. They host a LOT of authors during the Wis Book Festival. That was by far one of the most popular events ever held there. I've been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her for a while now (occasionally kick myself for not getting it then!), but somehow always forget to check the UBS or library book sales for it.

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I have the first ten Hardy Boys books that I got on the cheap from a garage sale. My eldest son is 13. A couple years back I tried to get him to read the first book in the series and he hated it so badly he asked me if he could read something else instead. They might just be really dated now. (I only read a couple of Hardy Boys books, never really liking the series but loved it on TV! lol)

[Carol]

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "It's been 30 years or so since I read Trixie Belden, that's why I knew my details were a little "off". lol My recollections are vague other than remembering I liked them. I still have 1 thru 16, 19..."


I read the Cherry Ames books and the stewardess books (can't remember the protagonist's name). Those are old, old books though. I inherited them from my paternal aunt and I'm 61 now! But I remember really liking them.

[Denise]

Caroline wrote: "Denise - I think that comes with the expression "Everything old is new again." Have you seen KIDS wearing peace symbols?! LOL There's a fortune to be made in Baby Boomer collectabilia."

My favorite was when my granddaughter asked her mom and her aunt (my oldest) if they had ever heard this great "new" band called AC/DC. That was one of my girls favorites back "in the day" when they were teens. I thought it was a hoot when Ashley thought this was a new band and she was telling her mom and aunt Jen about something "new". These kids today are playing all the oldies (Pink Floyd, Kiss, etc) and think this is newly discovered stuff. Obviously they don't look at how old the band members are! :-)

[Denise]

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "(I only read a couple of Hardy Boys books, never really liking the series but loved it on TV! lol)..."

On "The Mickey Mouse Club" right? (where you watched the Hardy Boys). Yes, they were cuties.

[Denise]

Well, Briansgirl and Caroline I will see you over in the Trixie Belden folder. I'm not sure how long it will take me to get these from the library and I hope they both come in at the same time because I have to read stuff in order so The Secret of the Mansion has to be read first.

[Heather L , Cozy Mysteries Moderator]

Denise: Your story about AC/DC reminds me of a similar experience my sister had with Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," when it was used in the movie Wayne's World. One (really young) coworker of hers tried arguing that Queen was a new group. She refused to believe that, not only had they been around a while, but that the lead singer was dead. *Shakes head laughing*

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

Denise wrote: "Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "(I only read a couple of Hardy Boys books, never really liking the series but loved it on TV! lol)..."

On "The Mickey Mouse Club" right? (where you..."

I don't remember it being on the Mickey Mouse Club. In the late 70's Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson played the Hardy Boys in a one-hour tv show on ABC. Nancy Drew showed up in some episodes.

[Heidi]

Wow. Shaun Cassidy is a theme for me this week. We were talking about him in my YA for adults group! I even had him as my profile picture for a few days :)

[Melodie]

Denise wrote: "Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "(I only read a couple of Hardy Boys books, never really liking the series but loved it on TV! lol)..."

On "The Mickey Mouse Club" right? (where you..."

I don't remember The Hardy Boys being part of the Mickey Mouse Club. All I remember were the Adventures of Annette, The Adventures of Spin & Marty and another with a girl who lived on a ranch and she was played by a Mouseketeer named Darlene.

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

When I checked out Hardy Boys TV on wikipedia they did say back in the 50s there was some Hardy Boys on The Mickey Mouse Club but that was before my time! lol

[Denise]

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "When I checked out Hardy Boys TV on wikipedia they did say back in the 50s there was some Hardy Boys on The Mickey Mouse Club but that was before my time! lol"

Thank goodness, when I read your earlier post I thought maybe senility was setting in. I thought sure they were on Mickey Mouse Club which was not before my time. I loved M-I-C..K-E-Y M.O.U.S.E (I tried to make that sound like the song.)

[Martha]

Denise, I will read & discuss with you. Have finished 2 chapters in the 1st book.

Shaun Cassidy. I vaguely remember the Hardy Boys tv series, but am currently rewatching his American Gothic series while at the lake (when my husband's not watching the Cardinals play :-). We "rough it" at the lake ... only 1 tv!

[So]

has anyone seen/read the donna parker mysteries i dont remember who wrote them but i really enjoyed them

[Sharold]

So wrote: "has anyone seen/read the donna parker mysteries i dont remember who wrote them but i really enjoyed them"

Donna Parker is the lead character of a seven-volume book series for girls that was written by Marcia Levin under the pseudonym Marcia Martin from the 1950s through the 1960s.

I never read them but they sound interesting

[Melodie]

So wrote: "has anyone seen/read the donna parker mysteries i dont remember who wrote them but i really enjoyed them"

The Donna Parker books were my favorites when I was a kid.

[Donna]

So wrote: "has anyone seen/read the donna parker mysteries i dont remember who wrote them but i really enjoyed them"

I loved Donna Parker! I found several volumes at K-Mart when I was in junior high (mid-1970s). I was frustrated because they didn't carry the entire series, and I never saw them anywhere else. I think I still have them packed away somewhere.

[ஐ Briansgirl (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

These aren't from my youth. It predates that. lol But I recently found 5 Bobbsey Twins mysteries. (I supposidly have a 6th somewhere in my house but can't find it. lol). Eventually, one of these days... I have to read a couple of these to see what they're all about.