Designed By Suzanne (1968)

Designed By Suzanne
Kathleen Robinson, il. Evaline Ness (jacket)
1968, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Inc.

Personality clothes. Would you like to have some especially designed for YOU? Expertly made to fit YOU? Satisfaction guaranteed.

St. Louis high school senior Suzanne Bishop dreams of attending fashion school in New York City and, in a moment of boldness, decides to place the above ad, hoping to start her chosen career and earn money toward school at the same time. She's disappointed when the local matrons hire her only to design clothes for their children, but finds she has a knack for handling kids. As she struggles to cope with the extra work and her sister's wedding plans, her comfortable long-time relationship with Barry Castleton suffers, and she's attracted to the wealthy New Yorker who's acting as best man to her maid of honor.

Well-written and engrossing. Suzanne's an appealing heroine, and although her decisions at the book's end seem surprising, it's consistent with her character. Other characters are less well-defined; Barry feels like a generic steady boyfriend, rich boy Ralph seems to exist mostly as a plot device, rival Desiree is a series of flirtatious tics, and only Suzanne's elder sister, Louise comes across as a real person.

There are several unusual features. First, although the action apparently begins only halfway through Suzanne's final year of high school, and ends before the fall, there are no actual school scenes. Friends, outings, etc., yes, but no mention made of Suzanne attending classes. Barry is apparently a graduate working at an architectural firm, and mention is made of Suzanne being rather mature and sophisticated for her age due to her chic grandmother, but it seems strange. As does the chic grandmother's current whereabouts - it's never made clear if she's deceased or simply living in another state.

Vanished Worlds
The Bishop home and furnishings are described by some characters, including Suzanne sometimes, as old-fashioned and antique - and undesirable.

Other Books
When Debbie Dared
When Sara Smiled
Manon's Daughter: The Love Story Of An Outcast In Early St. Louis

About the Illustrator
(1911-1986) Ness won a Caldecott Medal in 1967 for Sam, Bangs And Moonshine. She was married to Elliot Ness, the Treasury agent made famous as the head of Chicago's 'Untouchables,' from 1938-1946.

Julie With Wings (Laura Kerr, 1960)

Laura Kerr, il. Stan Campbell (cover)
1960, Funk & Wagnalls Company

"I love flying," she began, "and looking down on the world below all spread out like a beautiful, animated map. Somehow up there I have such a feeling of strength - strength and humility all in one. It's unbelievably thrilling to me that men can fly like birds."

Julie Jordan graduates from State University and enters stewardess school for Nationwide Airlines. Her parents aren't thrilled, particularly after she turns down a marriage proposal from lifelong boyfriend, Tug Simpson.

"Tug - Tug-" Julie chose her words carefully, stringing them together slowly. "You don't understand. I'm not ready to be a wife and mother. I've only begun to live! When I was a child, Tug, I used to sit on the porch of our cottage on Lake Michigan, watching the full moon rise over the water. Even then I wished I might follow its silver path on and on beyond the horizon. What was there, far from the city in which I was born? Were there mountains and valleys, mansions or hovels? What sort of people lived in them? What did they think about? Tug, there's a whole world for me to discover before I marry..."

Tug throws a fit and stalks out, but Julie's grief over the end of their relationship is tempered by excitement when she begins to travel. First to Arizona for 'stew school,' then to Los Angeles for her first posting and her exciting first year working as a stewardess. She and fellow stewardess Jane Ferris room together and spend their spare time exploring the western United States, from San Diego to Hawaii. In Waikiki, she's romanced by handsome U.S. Marine Brad Minton, but when he proposes to her in the romantic beauty of the islands, she hesitates and realizes she's still not over Tug.

A very well-written book with interesting characters and enjoyable action, far above the standard of many young adult series and career romances. Julie's an appealing heroine, and quite strong, even in decisions the reader may dislike.

Vanished Worlds - and not so much, sadly

When Julie tells her parents that she and Tug have quarreled, she says it was her fault. This is less likely today, given that his attitude that she owes him a marriage at 21 is completely out of date. Her father's reaction, however, still unfortunately rings true:

"Your fault? In what way, Julie?" asked her father impatiently. "Tug isn't a child anymore, you know. It isn't kind to play games with his affections."

What is it with men that so many of them will automatically feel the brotherly love even when the female side of the equation is their daughter, sister, wife or mother? I've had the same 'don't hurt the boy' stuff from male relatives, and I find it creepy.

Other Books by Author
Doctor Elizabeth (1946)
The Girl Who Ran For President (1947)
Lady In The Pulpit (1951) (bio of Antoinette Brown Blackwell)
Scarf Dance: The Story of Cecile Chaminade (1953)
Footlights To Fame: The Life Of Fanny Kemble (1962)
Louisa: The Life of Mrs. John Quincy Adams (1964)
Wonder Of His World: Charles Wilson Peale (1968)

About the Author
1904-
Laura Nowak Kerr was from Chicago, and the author of several biographies and books for teens.

Young And Fair

Rosamund du Jardin
1963, J.B. Lippincott Company

Chicago, 1883: 16-year-old Lissa Powell, newly orphaned when her adoptive mother dies, finds a job at high-end department store Colby's. She finds new friends at her boarding house and at work, particulary the vivacious Effie Cunningham. But her biggest conquest is the handsome heir to the store, Greg.

Lissa's an appealing heroine, the setting interesting, the plot is predictable but agreeable. But somehow, there's something missing. There's an abruptness to the conclusion which could be due to the author's death - it was published posthumously, so perhaps there was a missing connection. She makes a good effort to bring a sense of late 19th century America to the book, and succeeds. And there is clothing talk.

Lissa lost no time in changing from her best dress into a white shirtwaist and blue cotton skirt.

But I think the writing is just about adequate. There's no spark, no sparkle to the lines, and no quickness or depth to the action. It moves dully.

She was looking for a room to rent and this familiar neighborhood was as good a place to start as any. In such a shabby, run-down area she should be able to find something cheap.

And there are such hackneyed character descriptions:

... tears filled her greenish-hazel eyes despite her effort to stop them, and the elfin triangular face beneath the curly brown fringe of bangs grew sad.

Websites
Fan website
The Malt Shop - du Jardin page
Image Cascade Books (publishers)
About the Author
7/22/1902-3/27/1963
Rosamond Neal was born in Fairland, Illinois. An early job was in a Chicago department store, Charles A. Stevens & Company. As a freelance writer, she published many stories in major women's magazines, including Red Book, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping. She also wrote radio scripts, and cowrote one book with her daughter, Judith Carol. There is a school, the Dujardin Elementary School, named after her in Bloomingdale, Illinois.

An old postcard of Charles A. Stevens & Company, which was clearly a model for Colby's in all its old-fashioned retail palace glory.

Other Books

Practically Seventeen
Class Ring
Boy Trouble
The Real Thing
Wait For Marcy
Marcy Catches Up
A Man For Marcy
Senior Prom
Double Date
Double Feature
Showboat Summer
Double Wedding
Wedding In The Family
One Of The Crowd

The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle
L.M. Montgomery
1926, McClelland and Stewart Limited

Valancy wakened early, in the lifeless, hopeless hour just preceding dawn. She had not slept very well. One does not sleep very well, sometimes, when one is twenty-nine on the morrow, and unmarried, in a community and connection where the unmarried are simply those who have failed to get a man.

Bullied and neglected by her extended family, Valancy Jane Stirling has grown to a miserable, shrinking womanhood, trapped between the conflicting demands of those around her. She listened to their admonitions to be proper, to be quiet, to be well-behaved and somehow all it's done is make her the family disappointment and old maid, ignored unles someone has a slighting remark to make, afraid of everything. Afraid of the one boy who tried to kiss her when she was sixteen. Afraid of being cut out of the will of a wealthy uncle. Afraid of her mother's endless icy silences. But in the privacy of Valancy's own thoughts, where her humor and soul have been hiding since childhood, she inhabits a wonderful fantasy world.

Valancy had two home - the ugly red brick box of a home on Elm Street, and the Blue Castle in Spain. Valancy had lived spiritually in the Blue Castle ever since she could remember... Always, when she shut her eyes, she could see it plainly, with its turrets and banners on the pine-clad mountain height, wrapped in its faint, blue loveliness, against the sunset skies of a fair and unknown land.

Back in cold, proper Deerwood, Valancy has always been plagued by ill health. But when Valancy, dullest and vaguest of old-before-her-time maids, goes to the doctor in secret about her sharpening chest pains, the results electrify her clan and her town.

For Valancy has been handed a death sentence. One year to live. And meek, frightened Valancy suddenly has nothing to lose, and nothing to fear. But her family does. Valancy doesn't tell her smothering, unloving family, who would make her final months as mindlessly painful as her previous 29 years, and they're confused when their humble victim suddenly becomes outspoken and fearless. And they're horrified when Valancy, so dull and proper, first moves into a disreputable household to care for a dying girl who'd been the subject of much gossip after bearing an illegitimate baby, and then marries local scoundrel Barney Snaith.

In that year, Valancy, for the first time in her life, is happy. She adores Barney's snug little cabin in the woods, the beauty of nature all around her a feast for her eyes after living in a cramped and ugly house. Barney makes a good companion, undemanding and comfortable to live with, asking only that Valancy respect his locked study. She agrees wholeheartedly, finding more than enough to do in simply being her own person for once - free to eat when she likes, swim all day in the summer, sleep late or go to bed late, etc.

Holmes speaks of grief 'staining backward' through the pages of life; but Valancy found her happiness had stained backward likewise and flooded with rose-colour her whole previous drab existence.

And then - disaster. Will Valancy and Barney's idyllic existence survive an utterly unexpected piece of news?

About the Author
1874-1942

Books by L.M. Montgomery
Anne Of Green Gables (1908)
Anne Of Avonlea (1909)
Anne Of The Island (1915)
Anne Of Windy Poplars
Anne's House Of Dreams (1917)
Anne Of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley (1919)
Rilla Of Ingleside (1921)
Chronicles Of Avonlea (1912)
Further Chronicles Of Avonlea (1920)
Emily Of New Moon (1923)
Emily Climbs (1925)
Emily's Quest (1927)
The Story Girl (1911)
The Golden Road (1913)
Pat Of Silver Bush (1932)
Mistress Pat (1935)
Kilmeny Of The Orchard (1910)
Magic For Marigold (1929)
A Tangled Web (1931)
Jane Of Lantern Hill (1937)

Anne of Green Gables websites
There are many websites and forums devoted to Anne and her creator. One clearinghouse of them is Tickled Orange

Montgomery's books star Prince Edward Island, which has responded gratefully to the tourism results. Prince Edward Island tourism site

Ann Porter, Nurse

Betty Baxter Anderson, il. Roberta Paflin
1942, Cupples & Leon Company

"Miss Porter, why are you entering nursing?"
Ann was prepared for the question, but it had come abruptly. She was determined not to falter. "At this time particularly," she said slowly and thoughtfully, "I think women should be of some value to the world. I don't want to be worthless. Trite as it sounds, I want to do my bit."

The time is 1942, during the Second World War, but Ann's comment has a more personal side. Yes, there is a desperate need for nurses both overseas and at home, but she has a more personal, secret reason for wanting to be of value. The chic, beautiful brunette startles her new friends at the nursing Training School with her wardrobe, her awkwardness with household chores, and her secrecy, but she's friendly and quickly forms good relations with sporty Texan Marge Nelson, shy Carol Kane, and handsome intern Robert Coran. She also forms a nasty enmity with scheming redhead Lita Wilson, who also wants Robert, and who quickly realizes Ann has something to hide.

Ann and Marge find an abandoned baby on the hospital doorstep, and take an interest in his fate as he's taken in and operated on for a clubbed foot. Junior, as the infant is dubbed, provides a link between Ann and Dr. Coran, a link encouraged by everyone but Lita and the strict no nurse/intern fraternization rules.

An interesting story with good pace and appealing characters. The writing is better than many series books, without being exceptional. Most notable lacks are very little sense of place, and some stilted dialogue. The mystery of who Ann is, and why she is hiding her identity, is fairly engrossing, but while the revelation is satisfactory, the wrap-up is not. One unique item is the mention of the Amana colonies near the nursing school, and the girls' visit there. And Anderson has a very nice talent for making domestic scenes warm and desirable. For example:

The thoughtful Winchesters had lit a fire in the little iron stove in the warming shack and left a plate of sandwiches and a thermos of hot coffee. "There's enough food for a half dozen," Ann thought. "It was certainly sweet of them."

About the author
1908-1966

An Iowa native who later moved to California. Anderson wrote twenty books for children and teens.

Other books by Author
Peggy Wayne: Sky Girl 1941
Connie Benton, Reporter 1941
Nancy Blake, Copywriter 1942
Julie Brent Of The WAAC 1943
Four Girls And A Radio 1944
Holly Saunders, Designer 1947

Children's Books
Secret Of The Old Books 1952
Curtain Call For Connie 1953
Adventures In 4H 1938
Alabama Raider 1957
Powder Monkey 1962

Links
University of Iowa Library, special collection
Amana Colonies

Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse

Helen Dore Boylston, il. Major Felten (jacket)
1938, Little, Brown

Not many of the houses looked prosperous and most of them were grimy; yet the street had charm, for traces of another era lingered in the crookedness of windows and doors, in the casual little yards, in old-fashioned wooden porches elaborate with scrollwork. New York roared around the street and above it. An icy wind from the harbor swept through it, blowing paper into the faces of pedestrians and tearing at the "For Rent" sign swinging over the door of the smallest house on the street - a tiny red brick house with green shutters and a white door.

Sue Barton and her friend Kit Craig have graduated from school and come to New York City (all 3 boroughs) to work for the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service, a branch founded by Lillian Wald to improve slum conditions. In distinctive blue uniforms and toting large medical bags, they learn on the job about the challenges facing poor immigrants in neighborhoods all over New York. Their good friend Constance Halliday is not there because she's going to get married, but Sue has postponed her marriage to Dr. William Barry to work for a few years. Sue loves her work with Henry Street, and the excitement and novelty of New York, but as the year wears on and Bill gets impatient for their wedding, she feels torn between the job she loves and the man who loves her.

For a heroine in 1938, Sue's pretty gutsy about her own career ambitions. She does, finally, find a compromise to giving up her work and giving up her boy, but she gives him some pretty tough arguments first. The slums and streets of the city are given the same sort of colorful/crowded/exciting treatment that they usually get, and remind you irresistably of a Cagney movie. Descriptions of the poor immigrants and blacks Sue works with feel dated, particularly some dialogue, but the author clearly wants to communicate the both the wide range of peoples in New York and their essential decency, which are both very modern and pleasing attributes. Sue helps a depressed young Polish girl, an Irish child, a Polish woman, and assorted people of no distinct ethnicity, as well as several African-Americans (not so called in the book, of course); more importantly, she is helped by a bustling Italian woman, an Irish cop, a rabbi, and others. One oddity is the utter lack of any Catholic priests, considering the many Poles, Irish and Italians.

The style is plain and not particularly evocative or involving. The character of Sue is strong and vibrant, and the engine for the whole book. Her delight in the streets of New York, the people she meets, etc., lend the rather prosaic descriptions their power. The imagination fills in quite a lot from other books and from movies. There is a mystery, a romance, and a wedding, but the main story is the hard work of the nurses in a big city teeming with poor and working people.

Other Books

Sue Barton
Sue Barton: Student Nurse
Sue Barton: Senior Nurse
Sue Barton: Visiting Nurse
Sue Barton: Rural Nurse
Sue Barton: Superintendent Of Nurses
Sue Barton: Neighborhood Nurse
Sue Barton: Staff Nurse

Carol Page
Carol Goes Backstage
Carol Plays Summer Stock
Carol On Tour

Other information
The Tiny Pineapples website contains a frighteningly complete list of nursing-themed books.

Other Editions

 

Along The Shore

Along The Shore: Tales Of The Sea
L.M. Montgomery, edited by Rhea Wilmshurst
1989, Bantam

... something broke loose in her soul and overwhelmed her, like a wave of the sea. She must go at once - at once - at once. Not a moment could she wait.

Rhea Wilmshurst, a professional editor and Anne fan discovered that Montgomery had produced a very large volume of short stories that had been uncollected. She pulled the best and grouped them by theme. In this collection, all the stories are linked by the ocean, a central Montgomery locale providing romance and drama.

There are sixteen stories in this collection, so I will comment only on a few.

In The Magical Bond Of The Sea, a fisherman's teenaged daughter, restless and longing to see the world, is tempted away from her home village by a wealthy couple who want to adopt her. Typical Mongtomery themes - a poor child of unusual spirit rouses a wealthy person's familial interest; a sensual young woman misunderstood as proud is as elemental as the natural world around her, and can only marry a man of similar background; wealth and culture pall as nature and simplicity do not.

A young minister falls deeply in love with a mysterious young woman who lives in isolated, churchless freedom with her old heathen of a father in Four Winds. A mystery, romance and classic moralistic ending, it's by far the most Montgomery story in the collection, and very enjoyable.

In A Sandshore Wooing, a flibbertygibbit becomes entangled in high romance when an ardent suitor and a grimly determined aunt collide. Montgomery's capable of light humor, but this is an unusual heroine for her, and it's a nice change of pace.

In A Strayed Allegiance, a beautiful, dignified woman faces the agony of having her lover fall instantly out of love with her and madly in love with another of Montgomery's untamed beauties, all while maintaining her civilized manners and nobility. A rare portrait of a woman too decent to fight back, and too hurt to recognize that the cause of the pain isn't worth debasing herself.

In The Waking Of Helen, a thoughtless young artist arouses the passions of a neglected young woman, then panics and 'drops' that he's got a fiance.

And one comment on A House Divided Against Itself, the final story in the book. In it, two ornery brothers share a house until one brings home a statuette he's won at a raffle. A statuette of a naked woman. The story is quaintly amusing, but the final declarationhas one brother furious that the other one has painted the statuette bronze. It was bad enough to have a nude female figure in their house, it went against decency, but...

"Think I'm going to have an unclothed nigger sitting up there?"

Okay, the story was published in 1930. In Canada. And the characters were cranky old white men living in an isolated rural area. And hugely sexist, weird old white man, to boot. But, still...

Stories
The Magical Bond Of The Sea
The Life-Book Of Uncle Jesse
Mackering Out In The Gulf
Fair Exchange And No Robbery
Natty Of Blue Point
The Light On The Big Dipper
An Adventure On Island Rock
How Don Was Saved
A Soul That Was Not At Home
Four Winds
A Sandshore Wooing
The Unhappiness Of Miss Farquhar
A Strayed Allegiance
The Waking Of Helen
Young Si
A House Divided Against Itself

About the Author
1874-1942

About the Editor
1941-1996
As a professional editor myself,I appreciate the comment about her editorial skills at this memorial from her alma mater, the University of Toronto

Books by L.M. Montgomery
Anne Of Green Gables (1908)
Anne Of Avonlea (1909)
Anne Of The Island (1915)
Anne Of Windy Poplars
Anne's House Of Dreams (1917)
Anne Of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley (1919)
Rilla Of Ingleside (1921)
Chronicles Of Avonlea (1912)
Further Chronicles Of Avonlea (1920)
Emily Of New Moon (1923)
Emily Climbs (1925)
Emily's Quest (1927)
The Story Girl (1911)
The Golden Road (1913)
Pat Of Silver Bush (1932)
Mistress Pat (1935)
Kilmeny Of The Orchard (1910)
The Blue Castle (1926)
Magic For Marigold (1929)
A Tangled Web (1931)
Jane Of Lantern Hill (1937)
The Road To Yesterday (1974)
The Doctor's Sweetheart (1979)

Short Story collections edited by Rhea Wilmshurst
Akin To Anne: Tales Of Other Orphans (1988)
Among The Shadows: Tales From The Darker Side (1990)
After Many Days: Tales Of Time Passed (1991)
Against The Odds: Tales Of Achievement (1993)
At The Altar: Matrimonial Tales (1994)
Across The Miles: Tales Of Correspondence (1995)
Christmas With Anne, And Other Holiday Stories (1995)

Anne of Green Gables websites

There are many websites and forums devoted to Anne and her creator. One clearinghouse of them is Tickled Orange

Montgomery's books star Prince Edward Island, which has responded gratefully to the tourism results.

Prince Edward Island tourism site