The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale

The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale was fun to read. It's a series book from 1913 meant for girls, so it's not exactly heavy reading or anything, but I didn't find it tedious, either, the way some popcorn books can be.

It has many of the tropes of other series novels from the time, such as the exotic friend with the sharp temper (in this case Mollie Billette) and the friend who is "overweight" and eats a lot of sweets (Grace). The four girls also manage to avoid utter catastrophe by the skin of their teeth at just about every turn.

One of the things that had me in stitches is more of a meta thing than anything storywise, but the descriptions of Mollie Billette are hilarious. Apparently, she can be riled into a temper in no time, and then will show more calm down again with the slightest word, which is from her "French blood." Thus, she is called "the French girl" quite often - though she doesn't seem to actually be French, as the ancestor who came from France was a few generations previous. Also, the narrator says that Mollie is called "Billy" by her friends, but in most cases, the only time I saw that name used was when it was the narrator doing it. So odd, but it had me laughing.

The girls do stumble upon a bit of a mystery in the book to do with a thousand dollar bill, but the majority of the story is more of an adventure one than a mystery. show less

lunchtime ebook. "tramps." ha!

"Hike?" queried Betty.
"Suffragist lingo for walk," explained Mollie.

lunchtime ebook. "tramps." ha!