The Sleepyside Zone

Page 3

Trixie, in contrast, is younger and not quite put together - either in wardrobe or personality. Like most adolescents, she's a welter of possibilities. She loves and readily sacrifices to help her family and friends. But she also jumps to conclusions about people. Early in The Secret of the Mansion she bluntly dismisses the crotchety neighbor, Mr. Frayne, as a "greedy old miser" and wonders how he could have panicked so completely when his wife was bitten by a copperhead.

A few chapters later, Trixie faces the identical challenge when kid brother, Bobby, is bitten by a copperhead while her parents are away. Trixie administers first aid and, with Honey's help, gets a doctor out to Crabapple Farm. During the emergency she demonstrates a courage and level-headedness that had eluded old Mr. Frayne. But she also comes to empathize with his plight: "…every minute of the long wait Trixie lived in her imagination with Old Mr. Frayne and his wife on a lonely road in a car that wouldn't start. 'I guess I'd go crazy too if that happened to me,' she admitted…"

It's a classic Trixie developmental moment: her strengths are confirmed and she begins to recognize and outgrow her weaknesses. "People are lovable and admirable when they're working to become what they can be," observes Swanson. "That's what we see in Trixie throughout the books. She's working to become a better person and she always acknowledges when she makes a mistake."

This psychological realism extends to other aspects of the books. While in some ways Crabapple Farm represents an idyllic slice of Americana, the books can throw some big challenges at Trixie and her friends. "People look at the books and say, 'how sweet,' but some issues, such as Jim Frayne's troubled home life, are the precursors for the young adult fiction of the 1970's," Fowler notes. "I don't think Campbell is given enough credit for being ahead of her time."

This article and the accompanying images were originally published in Mystery Scene magazine, Winter, 2004. Trixie Belden® is a registered trademark of Random House. This page and its author are not affiliated with Random House in any way. I am not receiving any payment for reproducing this article on my site, which is intended as a fan’s homage.

Trixie Belden® is a registered trademark of Random House. This page and its author are not affiliated with Western Publishing/Golden Books or Random House in any way. I'm not making any money or profiting in any way from this site, which is intended as a fan's homage. All original text and graphics are copyright © 2003 by js@sleepysidezone.com.