The cover, obviously, was the best thing about this. Great cover.
Where to start... I think reading this reminded me why despite an entirely unnatural childhood urge to read children's books published a good 25 years before I was born, I never rocked the Bobbsey Twins.
Sacharine, trite, twee, and painful.
Disgusting little scenes and lines like this (I can hardly type it without retching)
"Queer," remarked Nan as they hurried on. "The two girls I thought the most of in Meadow Brook were poor: Nettie Prentice and Nellie the little cash girl at the fresh air camp. Somehow, poor girls seem so real and they talk to you so close - I mean they seem to just speak right out of their eyes and hearts."
BLECH! If you read the mother's reply to this, you might have the kind of swearing fit I did (scared the heck out of my cats!) so I will not trouble you so, but the book was just chock full of such loathsomeness.
I know it was published in 1952, but there is no excuse for this kind of dreck.
Of course, too, Nettie Prentice's missing father returns with a shipload of mahogany and a fortune- I wonder if Nettie stops being "so real" now that she's Bobbsey-rich?
The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore Out of print, yay.
Quality: 2 Popularity: 2 Overall: 4
(Popularity score obviously weighted to be era-appropriate- I know this was huge back in the day)
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