The Mystery of the Castaway Children

I just reread today the Mystery of the Castaway Children, and I wrote my review on it for Zap's Clubhouse. For anyone who doesn't frequent the Clubhouse, I'll post my review here for y'all!

Wow. This is quite a book. I just reread this one today (I'm back on my Trixie kick!), and it almost made me cry. To me, Davy reminded me of 8 year old Jim. Not necessarily with that situation, but I felt that Jim would feel a sense of responsibility to protect his little brother, no matter what.
Poor, poor Dodgy. I just feel so horrible for that baby, and for Davy too.
I LOVED the part when Trixie realizes that Davy, not Bobby was bending over the baby at the end. It was a great, terrifying moment, and it's fun to be able to put these things together for yourself. If you've been reading carefully, you see "Trixie yelled to the red shirt bending over Dodgy's crib", and then "Bobby's white t shirt was a blur beside her". (I'm paraphrasing; not sure of the actual words). Then you get to think to yourself "Wait...go back." and have a little detective moment. This KK did a nice job of setting up the mystery.

Dan with Dodgy holding his finger is SO CUTE. I think Dan would be a great father someday (in my mind, he and Trixie wind up married), and be the cool dad, yet always around when his kids need him.

Di. I love Di in this book. She's fairly intelligent, and even has a sense of humor with the whole "see if he sizzles" thing. Di's actually an integral part of this book, and this KK portrayed her well.

One more thing: Davy is said to be slightly younger than Bobby. If Bobby is still 6, that makes Davy around 5 or 6. I don't see a 5 or 6 year old having the courage or the skills to keep themselves and a baby safe in the woods. I picture Davy being around 8, which means he is OLDER than Bobby, not younger. But then again, Bobby acts older in this book as well. If this KK had continued, I can see Bobby actually acting his age, or potentially even aging along with the rest of the characters!

So there's my review! I hope you enjoyed it. Next up is Mead's Mountain!

Secretariat reminiscent of Mystery in Saratoga?

Recently, I went to see the movie "Secretariat" in the movie theater with my dad and sister. When I was in the movie, I was reminded many times of Trixie and Honey in Saratoga, in Trixie #24. This had to do with the location of the movie, as well as all the talk of horse racing and explanations of the various tracks that were brought up in Trixie. Not only that, but the man selected to play Ronnie, the jockey, reminded me quite a bit of Regan in his mannerisms, humor, and facial expressions. (Yes, I know we haven't really seen Regan. Just bear with me, alrighty?) So, call me a Trixie freak if you will, but I enjoyed thinking to myself, "Yup, they mentioned that in Trixie" or "Oh yeah! I remember that!"

BTW, if you have not seen Secretariat, DO SO. Do whatever it takes, just go. It was amazing, I loved it, and it was definitely worth seeing. A 5 toes up movie!

Rachel

My Trixie Movie cast!

Wow, it's been a while since I've written! I promise I'll write more frequently in the future.

Today I thought I'd share with you my Trixie Belden movie cast! I made this a while ago, and posted it on the Clubhouse message board. I'm now going to repost it here for ya'll. This cast would never, ever work, since about half of them died a long time ago. I love old movies, and I got a lot of ideas from them.

Ooh, okay. That's not working. I was going to post all of my pictures here, but that's not working too well. I'm still figuring out blogger, since I use Iweb for my other blog. So, since I can't post the pictures themselves, I will post the link to my Trixie cast instead. I think some of ya'll have seen this, but... Here you go anyways!

Enjoy!

My Trixie Movie Cast

Wow, it's been a while since I've written. I promise I will write more frequently in the future.

Today I thought I'd share with you my Trixie Belden movie cast! I made this a while ago, and posted it on the Clubhouse message board. I'm now going to repost it here for ya'll. This cast would never, ever work, since about half of them died a long time ago. I love old movies, and I got a lot of ideas from them.

Ooh, okay. That's not working. I was going to post all of my pictures here, but that's not working too well. I'm still figuring out blogger, since I use Iweb for my other blog. So, since I can't post the pictures themselves, I will post the link to my Trixie cast instead. I think some of ya'll have seen this, but... Here you go anyways!

Enjoy!

Rachel

Food in Trixie

Am I the only one who's ever noticed how much they EAT in Trixie? It starts in book 1, when Honey has cook pack a large lunch with chicken and pie and all sorts of goodies. (Also, while I'm thinking about it, imagine how disgusting it would be to eat lunch on that filthy old mattress!) But it's true: they're always eating, especially that certain blonde Belden boy. There's always some kind of good meal going on. Some of the memorable ones I can think of are Mrs. Smith's cake and grape juice, the meal made in Blinking Eye, the Cobbett's Island Clambake and don't forget Mrs. Vanderpoel's windmill cookies! Also, what ARE windmill cookies? Was that just the name of the recipe, or were they windmill shaped or something? I never quite got that. Oh, and I can't not mention (is that the right grammar?) Mart's infamous "bulimia" misuse!

Even though sometimes I think the use of food goes a bit over the top in some of the books, I still love it. It's very homey feeling in most of the books and there's such nice description. It's like that old saying: don't grocery shop on an empty stomach, but for Trixie fans: don't read a Trixie on a empty stomach!

Rachel

Mystery of the Vanishing Victim

I've been a bad fan lately. (BTW, you know you've been too obsessed with Narnia when you start to type "bad faun" instead!) I haven't fully read a Trixie in a while. Well, I read one, Mystery of the Vanishing Victim, #33, but before that, I hadn't read one in months. Sad. I like VV (That's my abbreviation, in case you didn't know.) It has a pretty realistic plot. Hit and Run? It's something that sadly happens all the time, and it made this book feel more real. I liked a lot of things about this book, including the contest and the antique show. The contest was fun, and unlike a certain other book (spoilers! Mystery of the Memorial Day Fire!) we actually find out who wins. It was nice to see the Lucy Radcliffe books again, and it brought continuity into the story. However, if you hadn't read Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon, it would totally ruin that book for you. And who likes that? So if you haven't read GG, or if you are just odd and don't mind mysteries being ruined for you, read this one later.

The main things I didn't like about this book were 1.) Bobby is regressing in his speech. Again. And 2.), the mystery in this one seems to be put on the back burner. For 1.), Bobby seems to be going back to more of the way he was in the earlier books. Upon opening a Trixie, I never seem to know what Bobby is going to be like. In some like Phantom Grasshopper or Uninvited Guest, he is surprisingly mature for his age. In this book though, he seemed to be back to his 4 or 5 year old self. One example is when he repeats himself and says things like "Trixie doesn't always do her best, and Mart doesn't always do his best, and Brian doesn't always do his best..." etc. My sister is around Bobby's age (7) and she never did anything like that that I can remember.

For 2.), I think that the mystery is not really the primary focus in this book. We don't get into the mystery until near the middle of the book. Up until then, we've learned some boring things about old cars, and spent some time talking to a mysterious stranger. But there's no real mystery. Then, even after the man has been hit, Trixie's on the case, but not as curious or persistent as she is in most of the books. There is a lot of time taken out of the book with the girls collecting donations, but it takes a lot of unnecessary time out of the book that could have been used on more things related to the mystery.

Overall, this is a good book. I liked the ending, and the Bobwhites are pretty in character. No major slipups like Regan being the Wheeler's chauffeur as far as I can remember. It's not in my top 10, but I still enjoy it.

Rachel

My first post on my new blog!

I have decided to start a blog all about my favorite book series, Trixie Belden. They're really good books written in the 1940s-1980s and they're a lot of fun overall. The series focuses on 13-14 year old Trixie Belden, a wannabe detective from Sleepyside, NY. She and her brothers, Brian and Mart, and her best friends Honey, Jim, Diana, and Dan have formed a club called the Bobwhites of the Glen, in which they solve mysteries and help people along the way.

This will be a blog devoted to Trixie and my thoughts on the series. I will talk about the books and fanfic I read, characters in Trixie's world, and things like that. Check back in often, because I will be updating frequently.

Enjoy!

Rachel