Our Soggy Camping Trip and 2014 Summer Reading Assignment #2: Ginnie and the Mystery Doll by Catherine Woolley

    Well, we're back from our mini vacation. We got the van fixed just in time to have a couple of days before Ivy goes back to school in about a week.Unfortunately, it rained...sorry: POURED...most of the time we were there. Ken looks forward to cooking out more than just about anything else, so he was literally not a 'happy camper'. Here's what the view looked like from inside our snugly warm camper van: (Just a bit too warm for Ken. But then, everything is.)

The view out of the back door. I got yelled at: Close the door you're getting the bed wet!

 It had rained the night we got there, and the next day Ken spent ages drying out the wood by burning lighter fuel on it. (I'm not sure that works, but that's his idea.) He finally got it fairly dry and thought it would light and make a fire big enough to cook on. And then it REALLY began to rain.

Just to let you see just how submerged it became:

 He did finally get to cook out though. To prove it he had to take a picture of his fire.

We went through a small town we've stopped at a few times, but I never noticed this before:

Oh. A park. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But here's the whole picture...

 Nothing out of the ordinary there, and no park there either! That's the whole park?! But it wasn't...there is a picnic bench behind that tree. A fun day out for the whole family at the Paul and Ruth Bird Memorial Park.

It's nice to travel, and nice to spend concentrated time with Ken and Ivy, but I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed. The bed in the camper is not the most comfortable thing in the world by any stretch of the imagination. I'll be back to Doll-A-Day tomorrow with a review. But for today I'm going to share another book for you to enjoy with your kids.
   This summer's theme seems to be doll books, (That's fitting for a doll collecting blog anyway, right?) For our second 'summer reading assignment' of this year I'm suggesting "Ginnie and the Mystery Doll" by Catherine Woolley.

She's not holding a ball of light. I couldn't stop the glare from the flash.

  

This is another of the books I read as a kid that I checked out more than once from the school library. I never managed to get a copy as a kid though, and when I found this one at the library book sale here in town  I jumped on it so I could read it to the kids. (Ok, and so I could read it again myself!) It's a Scholastic paperback just like the one I got from the school library.

  The book is set in the summer, of course, and Ginnie and her best friend Geneva, and both their families, have rented a house on Cape Cod for the summer. The book was written in 1960, which accounts for how an average family, (or even a couple of them),could afford to rent a house on Cape Cod for a whole summer! Ginnie and Geneva are looking forward to swimming and having fun, but when they go next door to meet their summer neighbor they become involved in a mystery. The neighbor, Miss Wade, lets the girls play dress up in her attic on a rainy day and the girls discover an old diary. The diary belonged to Miss Wade's mother when she was a child, and mentions Lady Vanderbilt, a beautiful doll brought to the little girl from Paris by a sea captain uncle, and the 'valuable jewel' she wore.

The illustrations are nothing to write home about though.

 

  Miss Wade explains that the doll disappeared one summer when she rented the house to a family from California. The girls despair over the long lost doll. One day, at an auction in the village the girls find what they are sure is the missing Lady Vanderbilt, but they haven't enough money to win her, and the doll disappears once again, in the red sports car of her new owner.
  The girls try to track Lady Vanderbilt down, while also enjoying Cape Cod. I always loved the descriptions of the beach, and the girl's experiences picking 'beach plums' to make jelly, and digging for clams. My kids always tease me that so many of my favourite books from my childhood involve somebody needing to save a house. In this book the house doesn't quite need saved, but Miss Wade needs to make some house repairs she just doesn't have the money for, and the return of Lady Vanderbilt and her 'valuable jewel' are just what she needs.

  The book is full of near misses and mystery. (Just where has Lady V been all these years, and where did she come from all of a sudden?) The descriptions of the girls' summer make you smell the sea air and feel the sand beneath your feet. This is the book that made me want to spend a summer in a cottage on Cape Cod, and I still want to do that someday!
  Catherine Woolley wrote 87 books, including a whole series of Ginnie Fellows books, (not all of which were mysteries.). In fact, she wrote so many books that her publisher suggested she use a pen name for some of them. She used her grandmother's name, Jane Thayer, on her books for younger children. She wrote well into her 90's. She died in 2005, at the age of 100.
  The age recommendation for the Ginnie books is 7 to 12+, but judge for yourself if your slightly younger child would be interested. There are  a few copies of Ginnie and the Mystery Doll on Ebay right now and the prices vary greatly. It still seems the book can be had for only $5 though, which is pretty good. The Ginnie books are available in a 10 book set that includes: Ginnie and Geneva; Ginnie Joins In; Ginnie and the New Girl; Ginnie and the Mystery House; Ginnie and the Mystery Doll; Ginnie and Her Juniors; Ginnie and the Cooking Contest; Ginnie and the Wedding Bells; Ginnie and the Mystery Cat; Ginnie and the Mystery Light.You could check Amazon.I'm not sure if it's currently in print, but you could check an actual book store. They're always happy to order books for you.

2014 Summer Reading Assignment No. 1: Merry, Rose, and Christmas Tree June by Doris Orgel

  If any of you have been reading the blog long enough you will remember that last summer I reviewed some books to read with your kids. I have been very remiss so far this summer, as it is JULY already and I haven't suggested a single book. For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath, (or is it baited breath? And just how do you bait breath anyway?) , I am finally getting  around to my Summer Reading Assignments.
  In summer I like to review books that are set during summer. It's not a rule, but I think it works pretty well. Today I'm suggesting a book that is set during summer, the month of June in fact. I was going to post a review in June so it would all fit, but, as frequently happens, things got away from me. The book is Merry, Rose, and Christmas Tree June, by Doris Orgel. The illustrations are by Edward Gorey, who some of you may remember as the artist behind the creepy animation at the beginning of PBS's "Mystery" series.

This one is in worse condition than just about any of my childhood books. I was pretty anal as a kid, and most of my books look like they were never read. I don't know how this one got this way, except that it's 44 years old. (Of course, I have older books that don't look like this...)

  The story concerns a little girl named Jane. Jane has two dolls named Merry and Rose,whom she loves to care for. She feeds them, takes them on outings, and cares for them as any good doll mother should. One day Jane's Great Aunt Beulah shows up suddenly. She wants to take Jane home with her and show her off at a dinner party. Jane is swept out the door so fast that Jane hasn't a chance to grab Merry and Rose, and so she must face a long, lonely weekend without them. She's so upset that Great Aunt Beulah finally consents to take Jane shopping for a new doll just to get her to stop crying. Jane is still sad, but brightened by the possibility of a new doll. (This book was written in 1969, back in the days when a kid only had a few dolls. Not like now when kids have so many dolls they don't 'bond' with them.) Unfortunately for Jane, Great Aunt Beulah has nothing on her mind but her dinner party, and she has no intention of taking Jane shopping until it's all over.
  Running parallel to Jane's story is the story of a lonely, forgotten doll sitting on a back shelf of the doll shop in the town where Aunt Beulah lives: a plain doll who can do nothing fancy and doesn't use batteries or have a pull string like the currant occupants of the store that the owner is so proud of. Obviously Jane and the doll are destined to get together, but the story is written with those near misses that make those kinds of stories so tortuously good.
  Some of the best parts of the book are the descriptions of what really goes on in a toy store at night. (The dolls all come out of their boxes and play 'home': "...this time of night when they could move around and talk and play and do anything they wanted".

The dolls visit 'the zoo', otherwise known as the toy animal department.

 "One doll was feeding another doll midnight breakfast: bits of air from a little plate and sips of air from a little cup. For air is food and drink to dolls, and they live on it very well.")

  When Great Aunt Beulah finally does take Jane to the toy shop Jane meets several dolls that amaze her at first, but then inevitably leave her disappointed.

Every doll in the store seems to have a special talent, like growing hair, crying,dancing, or walking.

The dolls, Hairiette,Willie Walkie,Bella Ballerina,Lotta Tears,Tillie Talkie,and Mehittable, are all pretty horrible, and what happens, or what Jane fears will happen, to some of them, (accidentally of course.), may leave some very small kids a bit upset, or at least creeped out. (The illustrations by Gorey may add a little to the 'creeped out' aspect of things!) But of course everything turns out happily for Jane in the end. It's a very sweet story and has a warm cozy feel to it. It was one of my favourite books as a kid, and my kids liked it too.

 

Be forewarned: This next picture is the last page of the book, and as such is a spoiler!

  It's a fairly short book, with only 78 pages. It's written in an easy to read style with a few larger words and uncommon names, (like Great Aunt Beulah!), but should be ok for kids 7 or 8 and up. If you are reading it to your child, judge for yourself how they might react to the story, but if you think they'll be ok with the scene I mentioned, younger than 7 would enjoy it. My book's copy write is 1970, which means I was 8 years old when I got it, and I survived quite well.
  The author, Doris Orgel, is still around, and is now 85 years old. Born in Austria in 1929, Orgel and her family, being Jewish, had to leave Nazi controlled Austria in a story that would make quite a book in itself. After leaving Austria her family lived in Yugoslavia, London, the English countryside, and New York. Orgel has written 65 books, including books for readers somewhat older than those of "Merry, Rose, and Christmas Tree June". She has also translated quite a few books written by others. She is still considered a children's author, and she lives in New York. Illustrator Edward Gorey illustrated his own books as well as others, and designed the sets for the very successful 1970's Broadway production of "Dracula".

"Dracula", featuring the set design of Edward Gorey.

There was even a Toy Theatre version sold in book form. He died in 2000.
  I'm not sure if Merry, Rose, and Christmas Tree June is still in print. It can, of course, be obtained online from Amazon, or auction sites. The average low price seems to be between 15 and 20 dollars. For those who love doll stories it's highly recommended...by me anyway!

Summer Reading Assignment #4 : Miss Osborne the Mop

  Ivy and I recently finished Sea View Secret, which was 'Reading Assignment #3'. So on to #4. My next recommendation is Miss Osborne the Mop by Wilson Gage.

The 1970's cover for Miss Osborne

 Wilson Gage was actually a woman named Mary Q. Steele, and I believe she did write some books under that name too. Miss Osborne was another book suggested by my older sister, who had also read it when she had been the age I was at the time.I only read one other book by Wilson Gage, "Dan and the Miranda", which I read when I was home in bed sick for several days as a kid. I remember that I enjoyed the story about a boy and a spider, but it didn't leave the impression on me that Miss Osborne did. I searched for a copy of Miss Osborne for years, before copying a library book out of desperation! (Yes, I know that's not legal, but I wasn't selling it, and this was the time before the internet. Now you can find and buy just about anything you want. But in those days finding scarce things was much more difficult.) I have since bought at least 2 copies of the book, including the library one I copied when they discarded it, and it ended up in the annual library book sale!

The original Miss Osborne. This is the library edition we bought, and also the same edition I read as a kid.

  Miss Osborne the Mop was originally published in 1963 and is most certainly out of print now. It still shows up online and, as I said, at second hand book sales! Another book set during the summer,the story concerns a girl named Jody who is sent to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle and cousin Dill. Jody and Dill don't get along very well, so Jody is expecting a miserable summer.Add to that situation the fact that Jody finds out she has to wear glasses for the summer. When strange things start happening it becomes apparent (to the reader at least!) that Jody's new glasses have the magical power to grant her wishes. Things really start to hop when Jody brings a mop to life. And what life! Miss Osborne is named after a teacher and she takes charge of Jody and Dill the way a teacher would. The three embark on a series of adventures over the summer, not least of which is keeping bossy Miss Osborne a secret.

The story is full of magic (gone wrong alot of the time!) and humour, as Jody and Dill--and the mop!-- become friends. The descriptions of the beautiful mountain setting are wonderful. My kids all loved the book. My 18 year old son only recently talked about the chocolate cake with orange icing that Jody wishes up for Dill! It sounded delicious and was something I always remembered too, and in fact I make such a cake every now and then.
  Expect a few tears at the end of the book, but the ending is a happy one really. Good reading!