REVIEW: Trixie Belden and the Marshland Mystery

Trixie Belden and the Marshland Mystery
Author: Kathryn Kenny

I have been happily re-reading the Trixie Belden series over the past few weeks. When I was in middle school in the 80's, this was my favorite book series. I received new books for nearly every holiday, and babysat my ill-behaved nephew to earn money to buy more of the books. Those trips to Walden Books at the mall to get another Trixie book are what started my love of bookshops! I had the entire series, and I remember being so excited when two new books came out in the late 80s. Then the series came to an end.....and I went off to college. I sold my full set of books to a middle school aged girl at a garage sale for 25 cents apiece. I hope she got as much enjoyment from them as I did!

I didn't think about Trixie Belden for years and years. Then, I found a couple old Nancy Drew books at a local thriftshop. That got me to thinking about books I enjoyed as a kid.....and the first one that popped into my head was Trixie! I decided I needed to re-visit my old pals from Sleepyside, NY. I still enjoy this series, even though I look at things with an adult mindset now and notice things I didin't see when I was a young girl reading them for the first time.

Trixie Belden and the Marshland Mystery is the 10th book in the series. Trixie and her bestie, Honey Wheeler, venture out to a nearby swamp to gather plants. They are going to give them to a teacher, Miss Bennett, whose book of pressed herbs was damaged by a careless student. The plants will allow her to restore her book. Little do they realize they are going to uncover a mystery of sorts in the swamp as well!  Soon their club, The Bob-Whites of the Glen, are hunting for a missing child, looking for lost pirate treasure, and helping an elderly woman.

I'm not sure this story was really a mystery....more of an adventure for the teens and gathering clues to find out what exactly happened to a little girl while she was missing. Trixie learned a few lessons about jealousy, jumping to conclusions and forgiveness. All in all, despite there not really being any "mystery'', this was a fun, relaxing read and a great visit to Sleepyside!

And poor Dan Marsdon appears to have disappeared out of the books entirely. He was introduced as a new Bob-Whites member a couple books back. Then in the book after that he was mentioned only twice. And in this book.....no Dan at all. I guess Dan is a bit like Richie Cunningham's older brother on Happy Days....there one day, went upstairs.....never seen again. He never even got his picture added to the cute illustration of all the Bob-Whites on the pastedown pages at the front of the book. I wonder if he will be back? I have a theory for what happened to Dan.....     The first six books of the Trixie Belden series were written by Julie Campbell. The rest of the series was written by various authors all using the pen-name Kathryn Kenny. So perhaps one author added the Dan character, but the next book was written by someone else....and they didn't like the character? Or the books were written concurrently, and the two mentions of Dan added to the story at the beginning and end of the book were added for continuity. Then...next book, no Dan at all, with no explanation. Poor, unloved Dan. :)

There are 39 books in the Trixie Belden series, written from 1948-1986. The stories, although a bit dated, are fun, quick reads.

On to book #11! Maybe Dan will be back! ha ha :)