Trixie Belden #2 The Red Trailer Mystery

Trixie Belden: 

Overall Rating: 85.5

Plot: okay

Characters: Uh… characters

Why: The overall book is okay, but when you look closely it kinda drags after the second half of the book. It seemed slightly unrealistic. There were a lot of characters and personality.

Trixie and Honey are trying to find Jim Frayne II, who ran away in #1. This book begins just moments from when the previous book in the series ends. It starts out fast and interesting. This book was published in 1950, so I can see why Trixie felt strange in a trailer, and the fact that Miss Trask only drives 20 miles an hour.

The book basically has a huge space between Chapters 8-12 and 15-17. Very little happens besides discussions about what they’ve already done to find Jim and what their going to do about a poor little girl named Joeanne. In fact, they seem more concerned about finding Joeanne faster than Jim! I know Jim is much older and can take care of himself, but he talked about leaving the country! Joeanne was too young to go far.

I don’t think they tried too hard to find Jim, either. He knows Jonesy thinks he is dead, but he wouldn’t risk walking along the highway were he could be spotted. Why would Honey and Trixie just stay next to the highway and on the trails?

I do like that Honey and Trixie developed as characters. Honey seems like she is less nervous and Trixie seems a little less pushy.

This book was okay. I really cannot say that I liked it, but it had a lot of great things and plot ideas. The characters were interesting and unique, the scenes were mysterious, and the bad guys were… surprising!

Trixie Belden #1 The Secret of the Mansion

Trixie Belden:

Overall Rating: 93.5 – Read it!

Plot: Great Plot!

Characters: Real

Why: Overall, I thought that the book was great. It was very real and exciting. The plot did not have any apparent gaps and it was realistic. The characters had separate personalities and were not too ‘perfect’.

Trixie is trying to save money to buy a horse in this book. I liked that. How her parents consented to $5 a week (saying as this book was originally written/published in 1948) I don’t know. Today, it would seem very realistic, but back in the 1940’s, and when you live in a big family with only one parent working, it seems a little odd. She seemed a little pushy at the beginning of the book, I’m surprised Honey didn’t run away crying.

Honey was sweet and she wasn’t written as fake-nervous, she progressed naturally out of it. I feel bad when she thinks she has to tell Miss Trask everything. I did think she was a little sudden about adopting Jim as her brother. Trixie didn’t know what was going to happen to Jim in later books, why didn’t she suggest more than once that her parents might adopt him? Maybe she realized she already had enough [of] brothers.

The whole book was pretty good. I’m not impressed with the ’superstious’ references near the end of the books, but other than that, the book flowed and seemed like a story about summer with suspense and a treasure hunt; including a few things about horse, what to do when someone gets bit by a copperhead 101, how to be a good kid, and what not to do when your running away from a bad person.